Живая вода (Чему учит русский народ о. Иоанн)

“Let the living water of the Holy Spirit fill my heart and let rivers of living water flow from my heart for the glory of God and for the salvation of God’s people” (vol. II 1). The man speaks about. John, in his word does not die; he is immortal in him, and after death he will speak. I will die, but even after death I will speak. How much of this immortal word is there between people, which was left behind by the long dead and which sometimes lives in the mouths of the people (vol. 1, 3). All the works of Father John are contained in 5 volumes of his complete works and in separate annual (in recent years) of his conversations. In addition, his diaries have been published in a number of collections under various titles, which do not repeat the book “My Life in Christ”, but contain something new. All of his works (if we exclude the scientific studies “On the Cross against the Old Believers” and “The Life of St. Euphemia”) are divided into two groups: sermons and diaries or religious reflections. Sermons by Fr. John in print does not make the same impression as in oral speech. In the church, his word is strong, he subordinates the will, leads it to God. “We had the opportunity to personally hear what Fr. John's instructions, says Archpriest. T. Butkevich. What a wonderful sermon this was! In the open air, surrounded by a large crowd of listeners, straining all their attention so as not to utter a single word, Fr. John spoke of faith as a necessary condition for receiving what we ask God for in our prayers. Without rhetorical embellishment, without oratorical techniques, without any desire to produce an effect, the sermon of Fr. Joanna was distinguished by her apostolic simplicity and anointing; but what a powerful, what a strong impression she made on the listeners then!.. Truly, he spoke “as one who has power”; his heart and his faith made any preaching theory superfluous and unnecessary... We have already written about the Gospel simplicity and beauty of the living word of Fr. John. The evidence and persuasiveness of his sermons is enormous, but it is given not so much in the argumentation as in the faith of the speaker. This does not mean, however, that in print the sermon of Fr. Joanna is neither strong nor effective. No, coming from a heart full of faith, burning with love, it cannot but be victorious here: it’s only a matter of degree. Conciseness, brevity, accuracy, thoroughness, simplicity, sincerity, and modernity - these are the characteristic features of Fr. John. Faith and living by faith is the idea that permeates all his words and teachings. The language of his sermons is simple, popular and at the same time distinguished by accuracy and picturesqueness. The most sublime content of the sermon does not deter Fr. John from practical conclusion and necessary instruction for life. Having revealed the relationship of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the preacher, for example, without any artificial leap, ends his sermon with an appeal to people: “Let the children often remember the Son of God, Who knows no other will than the will of the Father; let them also learn to obey their parents in everything,” etc. (p. 16). The thought of the creation of earthly plants arouses in the preacher, and with him in his listeners, a genuine feeling of noble admiration for the beauty of the nature that surrounds us. The preacher is filled with the inspiration of a true poet! Pure, Christian love breathes everywhere in Fr.’s sermons. John. One can’t help but feel that it is not the desire for preaching glory, but the good of the listeners, their salvation, their moral success that forces the preacher to speak. With open arms he goes to meet the “sinner-brother”, “sinner-friend” (Fr. John’s favorite expressions). With true warmth and deep psychological analysis, Fr. John properties of Christian virtues; but with special love, reaching the point of high and truly noble passion, he speaks about human need, about grief, about suffering, about Christian charity and works of Christian mercy. It is clear that this subject and this virtue are especially close to the heart of the preacher. But the sermons of Fr. John's word is still pale and poor compared to his diary, inspired and fragrant. “I can’t sleep,” writes Shcheglov, fortunately I remember that I have with me several issues of “Pilgrim” with the diary of Fr. John, captured by me in case of leisure... I got up, lit a candle and, having found the Pilgrim, delved into reading... Oh, this is an amazing diary, the diary of Fr. Joanna! Only, I urge you, beware of looking through it with that sloppy and idle curiosity with which you usually skim through a newspaper or the latest book of a magazine, otherwise, perhaps, it may seem to you a jumbled collection of words, a warehouse of capital maxims and flowery phrases... Spiritually subtle works, born from the deepest recesses of the human heart, should be approached with an open soul and a sensitive mood, so that between the author and the reader immediately developed an elusive sympathetic current, without which sometimes the most sublime and fiery pages offensively fade and become vulgar. In addition, the language of the “Diary”, original and figurative, is often full of those semi-obscure hints that every believer grasps greedily on the fly, and which for an unbeliever will always remain just unnecessary riddles. What is Fr.'s diary? John? This is an endless series of passages, large and small, often just a few lines, apparently written down hastily and at different times and reflecting, like in a river mirror, the sun and shadows of John’s soul. Sometimes these are entire impromptu prayers, sometimes these are sacred thunders of indignation at human evil spirits; in one place you fall upon the inspired trail of religious ecstasy, in another you directly hear the cry of a tormented and sorrowful heart. In general, these fluent, nervous, sometimes unspoken or drawn out lines, sparkling here and there like precious pearls, soulful thoughts, sparkles of poetry and spiritual insights, make a huge and irresistible impression on you. When you read the diary about John, you feel that the one who wrote it went through a lot in the struggle with himself, with the old man, and has now become strong, because he clearly sees the Helmsman ahead of him - Christ and follows him. This is a record of gracious thoughts and feelings that were born in him as a result of that gracious illumination of the soul, which he, in his own words, received “from the all-enlightening Spirit of God in moments of deep attention to himself and self-examination, especially during prayer.” This is a genuine school of spiritual life. This is because the author speaks about the phenomena of spiritual life not only as a person to whom “through education by the sciences” the Lord revealed all the wealth of faith and nature and the human mind, abundantly revealed his truth and truth, but also, moreover, as a person who had a rich spiritual experience, drowned, but did not perish through the faith and help of Christ. The brief, but at the same time deeply edifying truths of the diary instill living faith, bright hopes and joyful consolations in the soul of the great sinner – the Christian.” The diary lines are fiery lines. Their power cannot be resisted, even if you do not want to surrender to their charm. This is an extraordinary book. It, of course, cannot be otherwise; the secret of charm is given in the secret of origin. Fr. himself John in his autobiography about writing his diary says this: “From the very first days of my high ministry, I set myself a rule: to treat my work of shepherding and priesthood as sincerely as possible, to strictly monitor myself, my inner life. To this end, I first of all began to read the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, extracting from them what was edifying for myself, as a person, a priest and a member of society. Then I began to keep a diary in which I recorded my struggle with thoughts and passions, my repentant feelings, my secret prayers to the Lord and my grateful feelings for deliverance from temptations, sorrows and misfortunes.” This, therefore, is the “holy of holies” of his soul, and we have seen what kind of soul this is and, therefore, we can easily understand how the minutes of being in this “holy of holies” should act on the soul. What is the content of the diary? At first we wanted to give only a few excerpts from this book. But after some reflection, we decided that it would be better to give the reader both the diary and the conversations a short overview of what Fr. teaches. John, in his words, but in some system. And when I start to look closely and think about people’s lives, the following gospel story always comes to mind: “One day Jesus and his disciples entered a boat and said: let us cross to the other side of the lake; and set off. While swimming, He fell asleep. A violent wind arose on the lake; those in the boat were flooded by waves and were in danger. Approaching Jesus, they woke Him up and said: Master! Mentor! we die. But He stood up and rebuked the wind and the disturbance of the water; and they stopped and there was silence. Then He said to them: Where is your faith? They said to each other in fear and surprise: “Who is this, who commands the winds and the water, and obeys Him?” The life of mankind reminds us in many ways of sailing a boat during a storm. Let's take a closer look at ourselves; Let us look impartially at our activities. What are we but the same weak, fearful, despairing group of people who were in the boat with Jesus? The waves of the sea of ​​life, the waves of passions, inexorably control the fate of people, preparing, as it were, to completely absorb and grind them into the abyss. In fact, what guides most of us in life? Isn’t it passion in its most diverse manifestations?! Some are driven by ambition and lust for power, others by vanity, a third by greed, a fourth by envy, a fifth by the lust of the flesh, and so on endlessly. Everyone is rushing somewhere, headlong, without thinking, without reasoning about how all these worldly worries and worries will end. And so every day, every hour, every minute, every second, a whirlwind of vicious passions throws tens, hundreds, thousands of human victims before the eyes of people. Each of these victims of the elemental world groans in its own way. But in everyone’s groan there is one common note. This is mental confusion, fear and horror of life, the consciousness of powerlessness to save oneself. And among this restless, horrified and cursing crowd of life and all humanity, the majestic, calm and meek voice of the Lord is heard through the church: “Why are you so fearful, you of little faith! Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest!” This same comparison always comes to my mind when I read the diaries of Fr. John. His voice in these diaries and conversations seems to me the same voice in the midst of a storm, calming, exciting, calling to courage and faith. O. John loves to paint the world as a dangerous sea of ​​sin and temptations. The vain life here, troubled by the devil’s machinations, worldly passions and misfortunes, is the sea. We all experience, to varying degrees, a storm of troubles and misfortunes in life, like swimmers in the sea... We are drowned by temptations and sins. Every day we fall into the depths of sin and drown. Our boat of life can barely hold on due to the force of the sinful storm. Where to go, where is salvation? And how easy it is to drown in this sea without divine support, and people have further increased this danger for themselves with a frivolous and false understanding of life. They consider false lights to be true beacons and follow a clearly dangerous path. “The world is a troubled sea. In this world everything flows, everything changes. The real world is like a huge kaleidoscope, rotating with amazing speed. A person has nothing to focus his attention on forever. There is fun, music, funeral prayers, singing, crying for the deceased; here is wealth, luxury, splendor - here is bare poverty, lack of everything, decent and sufficiently warm clothing, cramped conditions, disgusting dirt, dampness. Here is blooming health, excess strength - here is illness, decrepitude, exhaustion; Everything here is as fragile as waves. All for hours, days, many years.” It would seem that even the viewer should not dwell on this motley change of paintings for long. Man, however, not only looks at this fluid change of phenomena as something genuine, true, but in this fluid he even believes the essence of life. Playing with a kaleidoscope, man understood life as a child's game. “Our life is a child’s, unapologetic game; we amuse ourselves with food and drink, feasting on it instead of using it only instead of the necessary nourishment of the body and the maintenance of bodily life. We play with clothes instead of properly covering our body with them to protect it from the harmful effects of the elements. We amuse ourselves with silver and gold, admiring them in treasuries or using it for luxury items and pleasures, instead of using it for needs and dividing the surplus to those in need. We amuse ourselves with our homes and the many different utensils in them, decorating them richly and exquisitely, instead of having a strong and decent shelter that protects us from the harmful effects of the elements, and things necessary and proper for home use. We amuse ourselves with our spiritual gifts, intellect, imagination, in a word, using them only for the service of the earthly and perishable, instead of that. so that first and most of all we use them for serving God, for knowing Him, the All-Wise Creator of every creature, for prayer, supplications, petitions, thanksgiving, glorification and for showing mutual love and respect, and only partly for serving this world, which has no time to completely pass away. We amuse ourselves with our knowledge of worldly vanity and waste the most precious time given to prepare for eternity in acquiring it. We often amuse ourselves with our position, our duties, frivolously, carelessly, unrighteously, fulfilling them and using them for our own earthly selfish purposes. We amuse ourselves with good human faces or the fair and weaker sex, and often use them to play with our passions. We amuse ourselves with time, which should be used to redeem eternity, and not by using it for games and various pleasures. We finally amuse ourselves, making some kind of idols out of ourselves, before which we ourselves bow and for which we seek the worship of others.” To live like this means, during a storm, to grab onto the crest of the waves instead of something stable; of course you will die. We need to look for a strong point of support, a bright beacon and a solid pier, “it follows,” writes Fr. John, constantly remember how distorted this light is, with which a person is carried away, and how disastrous is the pursuit of the shadow of life, instead of true life.” “Man is the crown of creation and the king of the earth, created in the image and likeness of God, with a rational and immortal soul. His last goal is not here, for everything on earth is perishable and temporary, and man here is only a temporary stranger, a wanderer and a temporary warrior and warrior: he must clear his way to heaven, for which he was created, with the cross and patience.” “A person, they say, is like a candle: it burns and burns and goes out. Okay, that's a comparison. And with this comparison, this is what comes to my mind: looking at the countless number of lit candles in the church in front of the icons or in the hands of those standing and praying, I imagine a fiery, constantly existing element, distributed everywhere on the globe, in the air, on the earth, and in places due to the action of known causes, visible, but mostly invisible: this element is the source of those visible lights that are lit in the church or anywhere else. I compare people. What are people if not individual lights? (let’s just call these lights spiritual). All these lights are burning, some stronger and brighter, others weaker and dimmer. Just as fires located anywhere have a constant, inexhaustible source of fire, diffused in nature, so people, as individual lights or spiritual lights - lamps, have a single, eternal, boundless spiritual Fire or Light - the beginning of all indivisible lights on earth, visible or extinguished for this life. The Lord Savior Himself compared His Forerunner and Apostles with lamps, burning and shining. Just as ordinary fire strives upward, so spiritual fire—the soul also strives toward God—mountain.” Without God, the soul cannot live for a minute. “God is not foreign to man and, so to speak, external. He is the prototype of the human soul, is what the soul lives and breathes. God, says Fr. John is my being, my breath, my light, my strength, my water, my nourishment. He carries me like a mother carries a baby, more: carrying me, my soul and body, he abides in me and dissolves, so to speak, with me. Our body lives by the elements from which it is composed, constantly absorbs air, water, organic bodies; the soul lives by the Divine spirit, from which it has its origin and constantly absorbs into itself, to support its life, the life of the Trinitarian God.” “No soul exists without God, without His Son, without His Spirit.” Deprived of air, drink and food, the body dies. In the same way, the soul dies as soon as it breaks its connection with the Trinitarian God. But the death of the soul is different from the death of the body. The dead body decomposes and rots. The soul cannot die like that; her death has other signs. A person whose soul has frozen comes into a state of petrification, numbness, insensitivity to everything that is true, good and holy. “Everything,” says Fr. John, - you are like a stone, like a log, without faith, without the ability to pray, without hope in God’s mercy, without love. There is such a petrified insensibility in the soul that you don’t see or feel your sins; you are not afraid of death, or the Judge, or the Last Judgment; everything spiritual is, as they say, a mess.” If a person has lost God, faith, he has lost his soul. “Have you rejected everything spiritual, sacred and heavenly? So you are flesh, earth, you have no soul, you do not know heaven, hell is your eternal destiny. Where is your soul, tell me? Every soul is from God and knows Him and strives for Him, but for your soul there is no God, it does not know Him; It is easier to believe that your soul does not exist than God, the Creator of everything that exists. Oh, I see how pathetic is what you call your soul. In an unknown distance from the father of spirits and all flesh, she languishes poor, in the realm of flesh, darkness and destruction, with an irresistible longing for some loss, for something dear; she feels some kind of emptiness and darkness within herself, how bleak she finds her situation! To be a spirit, to have spiritual needs and aspirations and not find satisfaction for them - what a torment for her soul! To see how others come running to the churches of God with fervent prayers to God, how they receive from there the gifts of heavenly grace, and at the same time to feel in oneself the struggle of a proud mind that does not submit to the holy truth - with the natural aspirations of one’s soul: how deadly this is for the soul. Return home, prodigal son; where did you go? Why are you wasting the Heavenly Father’s property far from Him, living fornication? Your mind is not yours, it is a gift from God; why do you use it for evil? God gave it to you so that you would get to know Him and try to become like Him, but meanwhile you make it a destructive means to get away from Him, to forget and not know Him. Return to your Father, unfortunate one; you have come far; in this distance there is nothing but eternal death.” “Seeing everywhere in the world, in all creatures great and small, inimitable beauty, attracting and cheering our hearts, raise your mental gaze to the original, uncreated Beauty, to the first uncreated personal Mind, to the first Kindness and beauty, to the hypostatic Wisdom, infinite Goodness, which created everything according to one goodness - not driven to creation by any necessity, no need. For she is all-satisfied and all-blessed in herself; and do not be seduced by the beauty of visible creatures, as corruptible and transitory, but attach your heart to the supreme, eternal personal Goodness, to God, who can completely fill and bless your soul, as the end and end of all our desires.” But what is life in God? This is faith! God is assimilated by faith. Faith gives a person consolation and happiness. “Faith,” says Fr. John, the greatest benefit of earthly life: it unites a person with God and in him makes him strong and victorious.” She pleases, enlivens the soul; makes the soul higher than sensuality, higher than the physical, dark nature; takes him to the heavenly, spiritual world.” “This is where she feels good,” notes the Kronstadt archpriest, this is where her true life is, her peace and joy.” But faith is not given for free; it is acquired through labor; lazy and careless Christians have no faith. The means of acquiring faith is prayer. Actually, the entire diary of Fr. John and talks about prayer. Here about. John is in his own sphere, here he is inspired. What is prayer? – “Prayer is the elevation of the mind and heart to God, the contemplation of God, the bold conversation of the creature with the Creator, the reverent state of the soul before Him, as before the King and the Life-Itself, who gives life to everyone; oblivion for Him of everything around us, food for the soul, air and light, its life-giving warmth, cleansing from sins, the good yoke of Christ, His light burden.” “Prayer is a constant feeling, awareness of one’s weakness or spiritual poverty, sanctification of the soul, anticipation of future bliss, angelic bliss, heavenly rain, refreshing, watering and fertilizing the earth of the soul, strength and strength of the soul and body, refreshment and purification of the mental air, enlightenment of the face, joy of the spirit, the golden connection connecting the creature with the Creator, vigor and courage in all the sorrows and temptations of life, a lamp of life, success in business, dignity equal to the angels, affirmation of faith, hope and love.” “Prayer is a community with Angels and saints who have pleased God from all eternity. Prayer is the correction of life, the mother of heartfelt contrition and tears; a strong impulse to works of mercy, security of life, destruction of the fear of mortals, neglect of earthly treasures, desire for heavenly blessings, expectation of the universal Judge, general resurrection and life of the next century; intense efforts to get rid of eternal torment; constant seeking of mercy (pardon) from the Lord; walking before the eyes of God, blissful disappearance before the all-creating, all-fulfilling Creator; living water of the soul; prayer is the placement of love in the hearts of all people; the bringing down of heaven into the soul, the placement in the heart of the Most Holy Trinity, according to what was said: we will come to him and make an abode with him.” “If you want to pray life-giving prayer, first of all establish your heart in the Lord, lift up your horn in your God. The Lord is so close to everyone, especially to a holy Christian, that his heart and body are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit living in you? What convenience for prayer anywhere! The verb of prayer is near you, or God, to whom you pray in your mouth, in your heart.” “Prayer is living water, with which the soul quenches its thirst. When you pray, then imagine that there is only one God before you, God is threefold in persons, and besides Him there is nothing else. Imagine that God is in the world, like a soul in a body, although infinitely higher than it and not limited to it. Your body is small, and it is all penetrated by your small soul: the world is great, and God is infinitely great, and according to His creation, God fills everything - He is everywhere and fulfills everything.” “Although God sees our needs, prayer is needed to cleanse and enlighten our soul. It’s good to stand in the sun: it’s warm and light, and in prayer before God, our spiritual sun, we warm ourselves and become enlightened.” “You need to wash yourself from dirt, and prayer is a wash from spiritual dirt, that is, from sins, especially tearful ones.” “All prayers presuppose the great poverty and wretchedness of our fallen nature; they also assume that the Lord, the ever-flowing source of all perfection, all good, that He is our inexhaustible Treasure.” “We must have poverty of spirit in our prayers and at all times. Blessed are the poor in spirit." “Like every word of the prayer: God have mercy on me, the Master hears and fulfills it, if only it is spoken from the heart; so all the words of other prayers, even our own, sincere prayers are heard and fulfilled. O benevolent Master! Glory to You! Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, press and it will be opened to you. Whatever you ask is accepted... Only in the simplicity of your heart, without a doubt, pray. During prayer, be like a babbling child, merging into one spirit with the spirit of the spoken prayer. Consider yourself as nothing, accept prayers as a great gift from God. Completely abandon your carnal mind, and do not listen to it, for the carnal mind boasts, doubts, dreams, and blasphemes.” Why is prolonged prayer necessary? “In order to warm up our cold hearts, hardened by prolonged bustle, through the duration of fervent prayer. For it is scary to think, much less to demand, that a heart that has become worn out in the vanity of life could soon be imbued with the warmth of faith and love for God during prayer. No, this requires work and work, time and time. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it. The kingdom of God does not come to the heart soon when people run so diligently from it. The Lord Himself expresses His will that we should not pray briefly when He presents as an example a widow who went to the judge for a long time and bothered him with her requests. Our Heavenly Father knows before we ask, what we demand, what we need, but we do not know Him as we should; we are very devoted to the vanity of the world, and not to the Heavenly Father. So He, in His wisdom and mercy, turns our needs into a pretext for turning us to Him, that is, He demands from us prolonged prayer not for Himself, but for us.” “They say: if you don’t want to, don’t pray; carnal wisdom is deceitful; if you don’t pray, you will completely fall behind prayer; that is what the flesh wants, the kingdom of heaven demands; We cannot be saved without self-compulsion to do good.” “Learn to pray, force yourself to pray; At first it will be difficult, but then the more you force yourself, the easier it will be; but first you must always force yourself.” “Our heart dies a spiritual death every day. Warm tearful prayer is his revival, the beginning of his breathing. If you do not pray daily with spiritual warmth, then it is easy to die spiritually soon.” “Someone, during prayer, when he became sluggish, relaxed in spirit and body, and he wanted to doze, aroused himself with the following internal question: with whom are you talking, my soul? and after this, vividly imagining the Lord before him, he began to pray with great tenderness and with tears: his dull attention was sharpened, his mind and heart were enlightened, and he was completely revived. This is what it means to vividly imagine the Lord God before you and walk in His presence! If, he continued to say, my soul, you do not dare to rant sluggishly and carelessly with people above you, so as not to offend them, then how dare you rant sluggishly and carelessly with the Lord? “During prayer, there are sometimes moments of deadly darkness and heartache, arising from unbelief of the heart. Do not be faint-hearted in these moments, but remember that if the Divine light in you has faded, then it always shines in all its splendor and greatness in God, in the church of God, heavenly and earthly, and in the material world, in which His essential power and Divinity are visible. Do not think that the truth has become exhausted: it will never become exhausted, because the truth is God himself and everything that exists in Him has its foundation and cause. Only your weak, sinful, dark heart faints in the truth, which cannot always endure the tension of its light and is not always able to accommodate its purity, only when it is cleansed or cleansed from sin, as the first cause of spiritual darkness. The closest thing to proof of this is from yourself. When the light of faith or the truth of God lives in your heart, then it is calm, firm, strong, alive; and when it is stopped, then it is restless, weak, like a cane shaken by the wind, lifeless. Don't pay attention to this satanic darkness. Drive him away from your heart with the sign of the life-giving cross.” “When you are praying alone and your spirit is despondent, and you become bored and burdened by loneliness, remember then, as always, that the Trinitarian God looks at you with brighter eyes than the sun, all the holy angels, your guardian angel, and the holy people of God, truly, for they are all one in God and where God is, there they are too. Where the sun is, all its rays are directed there. Understand what is being said. Always pray with a burning heart, and to do this, never overeat or get drunk. Remember who you are talking to. People often forget with whom they talk during prayer, who are the witnesses to their prayer. They forget that all the heavenly and holy powers listen to their conversation with the All-Seeing God. God's men." “During prayer, sometimes you feel some kind of detachment from God and despair; There is no need to get carried away by this feeling, it is from the devil, but you need to say in your heart: I do not despair of my salvation, wretched one, but in response to your immeasurable compassion, I boldly come and cry: if I have the hope of salvation, if Your love for mankind overcomes the multitude of my iniquities, be me a Savior.” “When praying with people, we sometimes have to break through with our prayer, as if a hardening wall, human souls, petrified by worldly addictions, to go through the darkness of Egypt, the darkness of passions and addictions. This is why it is sometimes difficult to pray. The more often you pray with ordinary people, the easier it becomes. It’s hard - then pray, force yourself. Is it possible to pray hastily without harming your prayer? It is possible for those who have learned inner prayer with a pure heart. In prayer, it is necessary that the heart sincerely desires what it asks for; felt the truth of what he was talking about, and a pure heart has this, as it were, in its nature. Therefore, it can pray with haste and at the same time be pleasing to God, since haste does not harm the truth (sincerity) of prayer. But those who have not acquired heartfelt prayer must pray slowly, waiting for the corresponding echo in the heart of each word of prayer. And this is not always easy for a person who is not accustomed to prayerful contemplation. Therefore, the rare pronunciation of the words of prayer for such people should be made an indispensable rule. Wait until every word resonates in your heart with its own echo.” Needless to say, in this case Fr. John does not at all preach unconditionally forcible coercion of oneself to pray: coercion must have a measure and be reasonable. “Forced prayer, according to Fr. John, only develops hypocrisy, makes a person sluggish in everything, even in fulfilling his duties, and a slave to form, ritual, because this leads to Pharisaism, to a hypocritical offering to God of the established rule.” Being himself a man of ardent spirit and high religious inspiration, Fr. John wants to see in every Christian only that kind of piety that is an expression of the inner state of his faith, and most of all he values ​​religious creativity in a Christian to the extent that everyone is animated by the faith of Christ. Christian prayer, according to Fr. John, there is evidence of the presence of religious life in a Christian and an indicator of the degree of its perfection. From here Fr. John finds it necessary to demand from a Christian prudent “confidence in all religious matters,” “according to one’s strengths, circumstances of time, place, and previous labors,” warning that otherwise prayer “will no longer be a virtue.” “It is good to obey the mother church in everything, but with prudence, and if possible, let anyone who can accommodate prolonged prayer do so. But not everyone can comprehend this word; if prolonged prayer is incompatible with fervor of spirit, it is better to say a short but fervent prayer.” With the strength of conviction that only daily deep experience can give, Fr. John establishes as a “rule” in prayer that “it is better to say five words from the heart than ten thousand words with the tongue.” But these five words must be spoken “willingly, with energy,” each must “resound in the heart with its own echo,” so that, warmed by “some living idea,” for example, of one’s spiritual poverty or the great moment-to-moment blessings of God, our prayer is “all spirit, all mind.” “Prayer is often called something that is not prayer at all - going to church, standing, looking at icons or at people, at their faces or outfits; says: he prayed to God, stood at home in front of the icon, nodded his head, spoke memorized words without understanding or sympathy, says: he prayed to God, although he did not pray at all with his thoughts and heart, but was somewhere else, with other people and things, and not with God at all.” “Forced prayer makes one incapable of any activity that requires reflection in order to fulfill one’s duties. This should convince everyone praying in this way to correct their prayer. One must pray willingly, with energy, from the heart. Pray to God neither out of sorrow nor out of need—God loves a willing giver.” “We will measure the dignity of our prayer by human standards, by the quality of our relationships with people. How are we like with people? Sometimes we coldly, without the participation of the heart, out of position or out of decency, express to them our requests, praises, gratitude, or do something for them, and sometimes with warmth, with the participation of the heart, with love, or sometimes feignedly, sometimes sincerely. We are just as different from God. But it’s not necessary. We must always express praise, thanksgiving, and petition to God from the bottom of our hearts; one must always do every deed before Him with all his heart; always love Him with all your heart and hope in Him.” “Just as in life it often happens that a person has something else in his heart and something else on his lips at the same time, so in prayer before the face of God Himself, who sees the secret hearts, a person often appears two-faced: he says something else, but has something else in his thoughts and in his heart. If, as happens more often, although he understands prayer and thinks about it, he does not sympathize in his heart with what he is saying, being dead, and thus throws words into thin air, deceiving himself and thinking that with such prayer one can please God. Strange sinful duality! This is bitter fruit and evidence of our fall from grace; it is somehow common for our hearts to lie in prayer and in dealing with people. This is a pillar of lies. A Christian must use all measures to uproot every lie from his heart and plant pure truth in it. We must begin with prayer, as with such a matter in which, first of all, the truth of the heart is necessary, according to the word of the Lord: it is worthy to bow down in spirit and truth. Speak the truth in your heart." There must be a balance between the inner and outer sides of prayer. “External prayer is often performed at the expense of the internal one, and internal prayer at the expense of the external one, that is, if I pray with my lips or read, then many words do not fit my heart, I am hypocritically divided; I say one thing with my lips, and another in my heart; the mouth speaks the truth, but the disposition of the heart does not agree with the words of the prayer. And if I pray internally, with my heart, then, not paying attention to the pronunciation of the words, I focus it on the content, on their strength, gradually accustoming my heart to the truth, and I enter into the same frame of mind in which the prayer words were written. And thus, little by little, I learn to pray in spirit and in truth according to the words of eternal truth: whoever bows to God in spirit and in truth is worthy of bowing.” “When a person prays outwardly out loud, then he cannot always follow all the movements of the heart, which are too fast, so he, of necessity, needs to take care of the pronunciation, the external form of the word. Thus, many clerics who read fluently form a completely false prayer: they seem to be praying with their lips, in everything you see them as if they are pious, but the heart is asleep and does not know what the lips are saying. This happens because they are in a hurry and do not think with their hearts about what they say.” But why does God sometimes not hear prayers? Because they have no faith. We said that without prayer faith is impossible, but strong prayer pleasing to God is impossible without faith, in the sense of firm hope, confidence in God’s help and the power of God. “Living, seeing faith in the Lord is the main thing; in prayer, imagine it vividly before you and within yourself, and then if you want, ask for Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit and it will be done for you. Ask simply, without hesitation, and then your God will be everything for you, performing great and wonderful things in an instant, just as the sign of the cross accomplishes great powers. Ask not for yourself alone, but for all the faithful, for the entire body of the church, spiritual and material blessings, not separating yourself from other believers, but being in spiritual unity with them, as a member of the one great body of the Church of Christ - and loving everyone as his children in Christ, the Heavenly Father will fill you with great peace and boldness.” “Therefore, before prayer, prepare yourself for undoubted, strong faith and take in advance remedies against doubt and unbelief; it’s bad if, during your prayer itself, your heart becomes weak in faith and does not stand in it, then do not think that you will receive what you asked God for, doubting, because you have offended God, and God does not give his gifts to a scolder! “Everything,” said the Lord, “if you ask in prayer as a believer, accept it, and that means, if you ask in disbelief or with doubt, do not accept.” Hope breathes in prayer, and prayer without hope is sinful prayer. “Prayers! food is not enough for you to give labor as a person and as you give the Lord’s labor. Is it not enough for you to see powerlessness in people, just as you want to see powerlessness in God himself, do you secretly think that God will not fulfill your request? Even though many things are difficult for people, many things are impossible, but how do you consider anything difficult for God? Is there anything difficult or impossible for Him? Everything is possible and easy for him. Everything is possible with God. So, when you pray, be firmly convinced that everything is easy for the Lord, that He can do everything in an instant. Do not attribute your own inability to do anything, to help yourself or your neighbor in any way, to God. For you, as for weak, insignificant creatures, almost everything is difficult: you have experienced this on yourself and on others a thousand times; But is it not enough for you to give (attribute) labor to people, that you also give the Lord’s work - to the Lord, Who created everything with thought and word. For him, remember, nothing is difficult: ask for everything boldly, hope to receive everything. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will accept everything as a believer.” “When praying, you need to believe in the power of the words of prayer, so as not to separate the words themselves from the very deed expressed by them; one must believe that the word, like a shadow following the body, is followed by the deed, since with the Lord the word and the deed are inseparable: for “the same speech came to pass; “He commanded and was created.” And you also believe that what you said in prayer, what you asked for, will happen.” “Prayer is the breath of the soul, prayer is spiritual food and drink.” “In prayer, deliberate, extreme humility is necessary. We must remember who is speaking and what they are saying, this is especially necessary when reading the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father. Humility destroys all the machinations of the enemy. Oh! How much secret pride we have. This - we say - I know, I don’t need it; it's not for me; this is unnecessary; I am not guilty of this. How much of your wisdom!” “Prayer is the golden connection between a Christian man, a wanderer and a stranger on earth, with the spiritual world, of which he is a member, and most of all with God, the Source of life; the soul came from God, to God and may it come through prayer. Prayer has great benefits for the one praying: it calms the soul and body; it calms the soul not only of the person praying, but also often the souls of our forefathers, fathers and brothers. You see how important prayer is!” If prayer in general is light, revelation, salvation, then liturgical prayer in church is infinitely more fruitful, infinitely more grace-filled. “Truly the church is the earthly heaven, for where the throne of God is, where terrible Mysteries are performed, where angels serve with people, where the constant praise of the Almighty is, there truly is heaven and the heaven of heavens. So, let us enter the church of God, especially the Holy of Holies, with the fear of God, with a pure heart, putting aside passions and all worldly cares, and let us stand in it with faith, reverence, rational attention, with love and peace in our hearts, so that we may leave renewed, as if heavenly; let us live in the sanctity proper to heaven, not bound by worldly lusts and passions.” “In church we sober up from worldly charm and the intoxication of worldly passions and lusts, we become enlightened, sanctified, purified by our souls, we draw closer to God, we unite with God. How venerable and worthy of love the church of God should be, how the holy men of God loved it. In the church of God there are good, simple believing souls. As in the house of the Heavenly Father, they feel free and easy here, easy. Here true Christians anticipate the future kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, future freedom from all sin and death, future peace and bliss. When do they look forward to it? Sincerely turning your soul to God, fervently praying to God, taking a decisive intention to devote your life to God, and outside the church, performing acts of virtue in your very deeds. How beautiful, deeply thought out, and educational is the very environment of an Orthodox church! What compared to him are all the houses of worship that exist anywhere. Indeed, in what holy, high society does a Christian see himself in church, surrounded by the faces of holy angels and saints. I look at the icons in the church: at Your icon, Lord, at the icon of Your most pure mother, St. angels, archangels, on the faces of saints, decorated with gold and silver, and I think to myself: how You have honored and adorned our nature. By Your light Your saints shine, By Your grace they are holy, having conquered sinfulness and washed away the sinful filth of the flesh and spirit, By Your glory they are glorious, By Your incorruption they are incorruptible.” “In the church we learn fidelity, courage, patience, meekness, kindness, humility, non-covetousness, abstinence, purity, chastity, self-sacrifice, uncomplaining enduring of our sorrows, love not only for our neighbors, but also for our enemies, we learn other various virtues. And prayer, chants, these hymns are the best Christian poetry. The voice of church readings, songs, prayers and prayers is the voice of our souls, poured out from the consciousness and feeling of our spiritual needs and needs. This is the voice of all humanity, aware and feeling its poverty, its wretchedness, its sinfulness, its need for a Savior, its need for thanksgiving and glorification for the countless blessings and endless perfections of God. These prayers and songs are wonderful: they are the breath of the Holy Spirit. The only trouble is that they often reach only our ears, without penetrating our inner sanctuary. If we were more attentive in the church, no matter how wonderful all our chants would seem to us, constantly, no matter how many times we listen to them. I say it all the time. Anyone who listens carefully to church hymns will find more and more new meaning in them each time. Not only in the whole chant he will reveal new deep thoughts, but also in each individual expression of them. I have experienced this more than once. Some of our progressives consider the Church to be their enemy. But if anyone is more loving, more benevolent and wiser in his love for people, then this is the Church. Everything that is most consistent with our nature and most beneficial for it - all this is contained in the Church, as a treasury, just as the verbs of Life are contained in the Gospel. The Church is the true mother of all humanity, the right of the believer in Christ, the most faithful friend of Christians. She sympathizes and meets all the essential needs of the soul and body of a Christian with active assistance or alms of help by the power of the Lord.” “Divine services always invigorate and liven me up,” admits Fr. John: it gives me strength to endure everything that I encounter on my life’s path. I thank my all-good, all-holy, all-wise mother - the Church of God, who guides me savingly in this temporary life and educates me for heavenly citizenship; I thank her for all the orders of prayer, worship, sacraments, and rituals. I thank her for her posts, which were so beneficial for me spiritually and physically. Through them I am healthy in spirit and body, calm, cheerful, light. Without fasting, it would be extremely difficult for me, as was experienced not during fasting. I thank my immaculate mother, the Church of God, who delights me with her heavenly service, who delights me with my heavenly spirit, who enlightens my mind with heavenly truth, who shows me the path of eternal life, who delivers me from violence and the dishonor of passions, who makes my life blissful. Great is your love, Lord. You exhausted yourself for the sake of loving me. I look at the cross and marvel at Your love for me and for the world, because the cross is a clear imprint of Your love for us. “No one has greater love than he can sow, but whoever lays down his life for his friends.” Your life-giving Mysteries, Lord, also serve as an ever-present loud proof of Your love for us sinners, for this divine Body of Yours was broken for me, for all of us; this blood was shed for me, for all of us. God! I praise the miracles of St. Your mysteries over your faithful ones, to whom I taught them. I glorify the countless healings that I have witnessed.” “I praise their all-saving action in me. I glorify Your mercy towards me, in them and through them Your life-giving power is revealed to me, acting in them. God! for Your great love for me, how can I not love You with all my heart, my neighbor, as myself, love not only those who love me, but also my enemies? Oh, if everyone understood this, how few renegades we would have, how much we would all love and honor St. the church of God, how little would be said about the charm of life of people who left the bosom of Christ’s Church. If sectarians and non-believers understood the height and beauty of the Christian ideal and our worship, they would all rush back to our churches, forgetting their houses of prayer and their false shepherd leaders. God! grant that Your church may impart enlightenment of souls, cleansing of sins, sanctification, peace, health, peace of mind to all who come to it with faith, reverence and fear of God, strengthen faith, hope and love, contribute to the correction of life, success in all good endeavors and deeds, mutual love, pure Christian life, softening of hearts and the cessation of pride, hard-hearted, covetousness, greed, envy, malice, gluttony, drunkenness, debauchery - these vices are so harmful in public life and undermine its foundations. Grant this, grant, Lord, to all who love to visit Your church, and to those who do not love it, incline them to love it and correct their hearts and deeds: for the time is near and judgment is at the door for all people, of every rank and condition, of every gender and age, and everyone faces a matter of infinitely great importance - to give an answer at the terrible Judgment of Christ.” “And in the church there is nothing holier, higher, more majestic, more solemn, more life-giving than the liturgy! The church, at this particular time, becomes an earthly sky, the clergy depict Jesus Christ Himself, Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim and apostles. The Liturgy is a constantly repeating triumph of God’s love for the human race and an omnipotent intercession for the salvation of the whole world and each member individually. Lamb - marriage of the king's son; in which the bride of the Son of God is every faithful soul. The evangelist is the Holy Spirit. With what kind of prepared, pure, exalted soul one must always be present at the liturgy, so as not to be among those people who, not having the wedding garment, but having the defiled garment of passions, were bound hand and foot, and thrown out of the bridal chamber into utter darkness. Nowadays, unfortunately, many do not consider it necessary to go to the liturgy; others walk only out of habit, and as they came, they leave as they are - without lofty thoughts, without a contrite heart, with an unrepentant soul, without determination to reform. Others stand irreverently, absent-mindedly, without any concentration, without any preparation of themselves at home through reflection and abstinence, for many will have time to get drunk before mass, and sometimes eat too much. When the Lord descended on Sinai, the Jewish people were commanded to prepare and cleanse themselves; here is not less than the Sinai descent of God, but more: there is only the back of God, and here is the very face of God the Lawgiver. When the Lord appeared to Moses in a bush at Horeb, he was commanded to take off his boots; and here there is more of the Epiphany of Horeb: there is a prototype, here the Transformer Himself. Oh, how we are partial to earthly things! We don’t want to devote even one hour, as we should, exclusively to God! During the divine, heavenly liturgy, even then we allow ourselves to dream about earthly things and fill our souls with images and desires of earthly things, sometimes - alas! - even unclean images. Meanwhile, how we should pray fervently, reflect earnestly on this great mystery, repent of our sins, desire and ask for cleansing, sanctification, enlightenment, renewal and confirmation in Christian life, in fulfilling the commandments of Christ, pray for the living and the dead; for the liturgy is a sacrifice of propitiation, thanksgiving, praise and supplication. Great liturgy! It remembers the whole life not of some great person, but of God who became incarnate, suffered and died for us, rose again and ascended, and will again judge the whole world! “The Liturgy is the supper, the meal of God’s love for the human race. Everyone gathers around the Lamb of God at the paten - the living and the dead, saints and sinners. The Church is triumphant and militant." “Appreciate, Christian, the greatest miracle of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, revealed in communion with faith in His divine Mysteries. What miracle? Repose and revitalization of Your heart, deadened by sin, so obvious after the heartache and spiritual death that often precedes communion. Out of habit, never regard it as something ordinary and unimportant; such thoughts and dispositions bring the wrath of the Lord upon you, but after communion you will not taste peace and life. With the most lively, heartfelt gratitude for the gifts of life, acquire life from the Lord, and let your faith grow more and more. Fear and anxiety come from unbelief. Consider their appearance during communion as a sure sign that you are moving away through unbelief from the life presented in the Chalice, and do not pay attention to them. Oh, faith, faith! You yourself are a miracle for us! You save us, your faith will save you.” “By partaking of the life-giving Mysteries with undoubted faith, I tangibly learn from the omnipresence of Christ. How? This is how: in every particle of the body and in every drop of blood I accept the whole Christ and, thus, I see with the eyes of my heart that He is at the same time complete in all particles and drops, no matter how many there are, to infinity. In the same way, the Lord is all in every church; and since Orthodox churches are located throughout the entire earth, the Lord is present not only in Divinity, but also in His soul and body throughout the entire earth, everywhere communicating with the believers inseparably, and producing in them sweet fruits: the cleansing of sins, the sanctification of Christian souls and bodies, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, uniting everyone with Himself, with the Father and His Holy Spirit.” “When you receive the life-giving Mysteries, firmly imagine Christ Himself in the forms of bread and wine; make a mental inscription on them: Jesus Christ, and with this mental inscription (and send the sensory) mentally to the depths of the heart, and there mentally place the life-giving Guest. If so, with such faith will you accept St. Secrets, then you will see what they will produce in you: the deepest peace of spiritual forces, everything will be incredibly easy for you. To the extent of our faith, the Lord benefits us. As the heart is ready, the Body and Blood turn out to be a life-giving coal on the heart of the believer. Church is heaven; the altar is the throne of life, from which God descends to nourish and revive those who believe in St. most pure Mysteries. Wonderful are Your works, Lord! ( Rev. 15:3 ) You prepare us in advance for the contemplation of the throne and Him who sits on it, by the vision of the earthly throne in the church and by the contemplation with the eyes of faith of Him who sits on it.” “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him (John 6:56). It is tangible, and experience confirms this. Blessed is the person who, with faith, receives Holy Communion, is filled with life. Tain, with heartfelt repentance for sins. This truth is tangible, it is clear from the contrary. When, without sincere repentance for sins and with doubt, you approach St. More often than not, then Satan enters you and remains in you, killing your soul, and this can be extremely noticeable.” "Receiving St. Mysteries, be also undoubtedly sure that you accept the body and blood of Christ, just as you have no doubt that you breathe air every minute. Say to yourself: just as it is certain that I constantly breathe in the air, so it is certain that I now, together with the air, accept into myself my Lord Jesus Christ, my breath, my belly, my joy, my salvation. He is before the air, at all times of my life, he is my breath: before the word, he is my word; before thoughts - my thought; before all light is my light; Before all food, this is my food; Before any garment, my garment; Before all fragrance is my fragrance, before all sweetness is my sweetness; before my father - my Father; before my mother - my Mother; Before the earth - the solid earth that bears me, unshakable by anything forever. Since we, the earthly, forget that at all times we breathe, live, move and exist through Him, and have dug up broken treasures for ourselves, He revealed in His Mysteries - in His blood - a source of living water flowing into eternal life, and He Himself gives Himself to us as food and drink, so that we may live through Him (1 John 9:4). “Those who attend the Divine services of the Orthodox Church and study the science of Divine services must remember that service here on earth is a preparation for the most joyful service of God in heaven; that while serving God with the body, one must all the more serve God with the spirit and a pure heart; that while listening to the Divine service, we must learn to serve God as the saints served, about whose lives and deeds we hear during the Divine service, about their faith, hope and love; that one should serve God most especially with deeds and truth, and not with words and tongue alone. By our very being we are called to serve God: for this we have received a straight stance, to look unceasingly to God, to thank and glorify Him, for this we have been given the mind, the heart, the will, and all the feelings.” “Some put all their well-being and service before God in reading all the prescribed prayers, not paying attention to the readiness of the heart for God, to their internal correction. For example, many read the rule for communion this way. Meanwhile, here, first of all, we must look at the correction and readiness of the heart to receive the Holy Mysteries; if your heart became right in your womb, by the grace of God, if it is ready to meet the Bridegroom, then thank God, although you did not have time to read all the prayers. The kingdom of God is not in words, but in power. (1Kop.4:20). It is good to obey the Mother of the Church in everything, but with prudence and, if possible, be able to accommodate it - a long prayer - and accommodate it. But not everyone can comprehend this word. (Matthew 19:11); if prolonged prayer is incompatible with fervor of the spirit, it is better to say a short but fervent prayer. Remember that one word of the publican, spoken from a warm heart, justified him. God does not look at the multitude of words, but at the disposition of the heart. The main thing is the living faith of the heart and the warmth of repentance for sins. Who comes to St. More often than not, with some passion in his heart, that Judas comes to flatteringly kiss the Son of Man. In order to partake with undoubted faith of the life-giving Mysteries and defeat all the machinations of the enemy, all slander, imagine that what you receive from the chalice is the One, that is, the One Eternally Existing. When you have such a disposition of thoughts and heart, then from accepting St. In the Mysteries you will calm down, rejoice and be revived, you will know with your heart that the Lord truly and essentially abides in you, and you are in the Lord.” Unfortunately, many, many people avoid visiting the church of God on Sundays and holidays. Fr. deeply mourns this. John, and exclaims with bitterness: “How sad it is to see that on the feasts of the Lord the enemy takes his dues from Christians, an extremely great dues, and the greater the holiday, the more dues Christians pay to the enemy, for what do we see on holidays? Complete idleness, unbridledness of the flesh, drunkenness, debauchery, fights, thefts, amusements. My God! what a delight for the flesh! What zealous service to the devil! Are these people Christians, just think, redeemed by the honest blood of the Son of God? Do you live in Christian times, or in pagan ones? Are these partakers of the life-giving Mysteries? Are these the people who visit the church of God and pray to the Lord with you? If it was them, why did they come to the church? It can be seen by habit alone, and not by the attraction of a heart grateful to Christ the Savior. Apparently, they did not pray to God, did not approach Him with their hearts, but only with their lips, they approached Him. Unless, although they approached with their lips, and they did not enter into the power of the holiday, they generally do not understand the essence and purpose of Christian holidays, do not participate in them the way children participate in the family holiday of their parents. Thin children from such a loving, kind, holy mother - the Church! Mother is Holy - children are sinners; a spiritual mother is a carnal child; mother is heavenly - children are earthly; the mother wants to give her children eternal, spiritual blessings, instead of corruptible and temporary ones - the children reject them and choose earthly, sinful, transitory pleasures for themselves. However, among people who are drunk and devoted to various vices on holidays, you meet more people who have not been to church (and do not know the holiday at all, because they have never thought about it). For such there is only one holiday - the holiday of the flesh. God! when will we hallow Thy feasts, as befits a shrine? When will we console our holy mother, the Church, by obeying her statutes? When will we be drunk with her spirit? When will we begin to love and honor St. Church and its worship and statutes? When will we begin to behave as we should during worship?” “Before the elders, we always behave with great respect, respecting their gray hair and wisdom - the fruit of centuries of experience, and we highly value their every word and apply it to life. Thus, we must especially reverence the Church, revere its holiness, antiquity, unshakable firmness, its enlightened wisdom and spiritual experience, its soul-saving commandments and decrees, its Divine services, sacraments and rituals. How can one not honor her for the fact that she saved a countless number of people in her bosom, relocating them to a place of eternal peace and joy, and, not forgetting them after her death, announces them to this day on earth with eternal praise and glorification of their virtues, as her faithful children! Where will you find a more appreciative friend, a more tender mother? So, may Christians cleave their hearts entirely to the Church of Christ, may they be firmly established in it until the end of their temporary life, may they all be zealous for the fulfillment of all its commandments and statutes, and may they find in it eternal salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Prayer and worship in church give strength to believe and live. What should life itself consist of? How to live? The basic rule of life has already been outlined above. “What is time or the life of every person? There is preparation for eternity. The Lord and Master of our life daily awaits our voluntary turn to Him, with all our thoughts and with all our hearts, and the complete turning away of our hearts from worldly vanity. “Look at the clock: it goes exactly as the watchmaker wanted, or at the ship: it goes where the helmsman wants. You must direct your life as your Artist and Ruler of the world and yours wants; you must follow your helmsman, and he will support you on the water and will not let you drown, you are all of God, you are God’s vessel, you are the servant of the Lord.” “The motto of your life should be the following sayings of the Savior: “My food is, that I may do the will of Him who sent me.” Live with your heart, not your belly, constantly thinking with your heart, especially about God, about the soul, about the souls of men, about the Lord Jesus Christ, His works, about the cross, about the church, about the sacraments, about the saints of God who labored on earth. And in order to live in the heart, one must drive the devil out of it and bring Christ God into it through faith and love. Look at the end of everything: what it leads to and will lead to.” “The many different benefits of temporary life are the image, indication and guarantee of the endless benefits of the future life; their sweetness is the image of endless future bliss, their beauty is the image of future beauty. So, man, do not stop at the temporary, but move towards future benefits! “Just as we throw off worn-out clothes, boots or shoes and neglect them, so let us throw off our flesh like clothes, like shoes, and it will be trampled under foot; but after the destruction of the earthly church of the body, on the day of the universal resurrection the Lord will create for us a church not made by hands, eternal in heaven. It is not our concern to know how the Lord will raise us up and from what we will build our flesh after our death, just as it was not our concern when the Lord brought us from non-existence into being, when He created our soul and flesh in the beginning. The Lord is everything for us: we cast all our sorrow on Him.” But, of course, it is not easy to shed the flesh, it is difficult to crucify it with passions and lusts: the Holy Church indicates a whole method of educating the soul in God. The first step on this path is concentration of spirit. “A Christian person of any rank, condition, of both sexes and conscious age should often be at home in himself, and not live only in the outside world, that is, in the pursuit of worldly affairs, sciences, arts, crafts, games, shows. At home, that is, in his soul, in his inner world, there is someone who reflects on the beginning and goal or end of his existence, who prays in spirit and in truth, who reads the word of God, who struggles with his passions and sinful inclinations, and succeeds in virtue, in almsgiving, meekness, humility, kindness, truth and righteousness.” “The kingdom of God is within you.” “Learn, Christian, the inner rightness of God, which is placed by the Creator in the depths of the heart, try not to violate this Divine truth with a single thought of guile, doubt, unbelief, blasphemy, murmuring, disobedience; not a single feeling of hostility, hatred, not a single movement of your sinful will.” This composure of the soul creates strength in the fight against external enemies of salvation - temptations, evil thoughts, devils. “The enemy easily catches in his nets anyone who is addicted to carnal pleasures, or to self-interest and the love of money; one instantaneous pleasure in carnal lust, or an instantaneous addiction to money, or greed for it and pity for the poor, or another temptation, and a person is captured by the enemy, and fell behind God and became an enemy of God. “In the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” Self-observation, attention to your inner world, gives you the strength to “resist the power of the enemy.” “Every sin flatters, stings, confuses, oppresses, darkens, rapes my soul. You need constant attention to yourself, to your thoughts, feelings, desires; a constant struggle of the entire inner person is required: prayer to the Lord with repentance from the bottom of the heart, knowledge of the charm and destruction of sin, hatred of it, awareness of its absurdity and madness; and when this happens, then the soul will overcome sin. Attention to your soul is victorious, because it helps to discern sin in the bud and smash “babies against a stone.” “Take the gates of your prince, and the King of glory will come in. What are the gates through which the King of glory enters, and what princes dominate these gates and do not allow the King of glory to enter through them? This is the gate of our heart, which is controlled by our various passions: pride, self-pity, carnality, gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, laziness, pride, ambition, envy, love of money, hard-heartedness, stinginess, vanity, rancor, malice, hatred, despondency, despair, unbelief, disobedience. It is these countless passions that enslave the human soul and prevent the Lord God from entering it and dwelling in it.” We need to place a guard at the Holy Gate. The life of a Christian in the Gospel is likened to the military guards of the first, second and third, and this inspires the Christian’s constant vigilance over his thoughts, feelings, movements of the will, vigilance regarding the ethereal enemies who are constantly attacking us and seeking to devour us to the end. The holy saints were on spiritual guard day and night - they constantly prayed, fasted, worked, leading a contemplative and active life. Our whole life should truly be a guardian: it is short, the task we have to solve is great and complex, and there are very many enemies who attack viciously, insidiously and powerfully. Let us be wise like a snake and goals like doves. “Look more carefully, deeper into your inner, mental or spiritual world, full of the greatest mental and moral interest, and do not get carried away by the external, material, transitory and disappearing world - heaven and earth - for heaven and earth will pass away according to the immutable word of the Creator, and the words of His law will not pass away forever. In that inner world you have a lot of work and effort ahead of you due to our perversion of the spiritual order or creative laws, and mental and physical corruption; for it is said: “The kingdom of God is within you.” “The kingdom of heaven is acquired through effort, and intensified seekers acquire it.” Remember the barren fig tree; remember the grapes and the vinedresser; remember the slave who owed his master a thousand talents. Sinful thoughts and lusts are swift, like scorching lightning, or a sudden strong wind, shaking the soul like a reed; or like a stormy stream that drowns the soul, like a church built on sand; or like a dirty, stinking wave, filling the soul with stench and stench. May a Christian beware of all sin, voluntary or involuntary, and may he establish his spiritual feet on the stone of faith - Christ God; let him pray unceasingly and always bring repentance to God, secret or open, and let him abhor sin in all its countless manifestations, let him despise the voluptuousness of the flesh like a deadly poison, and let him regard gold and silver and all precious shiny things as nothing; let him despise human glory, this transient and harmful glory, which undermines the soul like a worm; let him seek incorruptible blessings, and let him always strive to have Christ in his heart, this treasure of life and all-sufficiency for all eternity. One unrighteous thought is an abomination to the Lord. And instantaneous carnal lust is betrayal of the Lord and the abomination of idolatry. This is because the soul is a simple being, spirit, and in an instant it inclines either towards truth or towards untruth, becomes like God or the devil, therefore the Apostle says: “Do not be like the evil, but the good. Guard your heart in every way; from this comes life.” Take care of your heart, especially in the sense of not allowing earthly, passionate lusts to reach it: for even one instant lust defiles the soul and separates it from God. Try constantly to ensure that it gravitates towards heaven, and not towards earth, towards God, and not towards Belial. So that it desires incorruption, love and virtue, meekness and humility, simplicity and gentleness, and not earthly, although sweet or brilliant, decay. We are in constant danger from earthly lusts: a sinful person clings to everything forbidden; protect your heart from malice, anger and envy, voluptuousness, pride, arrogance and exaltation of yourself over others. Guard your heart in every way, for that is where your life comes from.” Watch - is faith intact in him, look - what desires, intentions, quests, yearnings are in him, what is he attached to, strives for - to God or to the world, to heaven or earth, is there in him a thirst for salvation, a thirst for the love of God, love for all truth and hatred for all unrighteousness, for all sin? Does he have a strong desire to please God and save a soul that is perishing in sins? Read the parables, understand them, put them in your heart... fulfill them! “Guard your heart with all care, for that is where your life comes from.” Look to whom or what the desires of your heart are directed; to God or to the world, to heaven or earth, to incorruptible and eternal blessings, or to corruptible and transitory ones, to spirit or flesh? Look - the disembodied enemy, the evil one, does not sleep: he is constantly doing his work, the work of your delusion and destruction, in you and tries to turn your soul away from God with all kinds of charms: now fornication, now for selfishness, now for vainglory, now through pride or envy, or through gluttony and drunkenness, now through laziness and inaction, now through reading empty books, or only secular ones, not allowing you to read books, teaching faith and piety, and one thing that is needed. The enemy constantly tries to rob the soul with a wide variety of vanities and delights. Stay awake and do not indulge in sinful slumber. Remember that God alone is the object of the desires of our hearts. “What do I have in heaven, and what do I desire on earth from You? God, the rock of my heart and my portion, O God, forever.” “A Christian must have a heavenly heart, not an earthly one: for we are all called to heaven to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Woe is our heart. “Be wise on heaven, not on earth.” “Our fatherland is in heaven.” Away with earthly passions! Take the gates, your princes. And if passion has already penetrated the souls, what to do? If the gates of the heart were not guarded vigilantly enough and the enemy penetrated into the church and the fortress of the spirit?! Then you need to fight the enemy within the walls of the city, fight quickly, before he occupies all his strongholds. “Then you need to declare war on your multi-passionate flesh, “crucify it with passions and lusts,” stop all sinful friendship with it, and always keep it in check and in line, strictly obeying the law of God. If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and come after Me.” It has been proven by experience that every passion, admitted by a person at the beginning and not receiving the proper rebuff from the whole soul, begins to take deep and gradually its roots and increases in degree and strength, and repeating itself, again weakly, hesitantly reflected by the heart and will of the person, finally covers the whole person: thoughts, feelings, lusts, will, memory and imagination, and he becomes a miserable slave of the devil - the murderer, the evil one. “Of course, the aphid of sin has generally entered humanity very deeply, into the very depths of souls - and man needs terrible efforts on his part to alienate himself from sin, diligent and constant; but still, sin is initially weaker and more annihilable. Let us learn the art of the arts - to fight sin, our most crafty and powerful enemy. It is clear, however, that this struggle is unthinkable by human forces alone. I say in advance: no one should rely on their strength and intelligence, art or courage to defeat this enemy: no, he is stronger than all of us. Let us hope in the power of God, in the power of Christ our Savior, who defeated our enemy the devil for us and gave us His name, His cross, His grace and strength for victory over the enemy. “Fight constantly against sin with the help of God: the Lord is our helper and our Defender - always closer to us than sin, than the devil, although this one is always close because he is nestled in the depths of our thoughts. But it is absolutely necessary to drive him out of his inner nests and beat the thief, swindler, shamer, murderer mercilessly, no matter in what form he appears to violate us. So mercilessly beat your pride, vanity, pride, greed, selfishness, stinginess, hard-heartedness, anger, irritation, disobedience, superstition, despondency, murmuring and other sins - deception, all deceit, lustful thoughts, lusts... shameful speech, all kinds of shameful appearances... everything, drive away everything sinful, unclean, Hate with all your hatred, beat the thieves, thieves of all kinds mercilessly and destroy them to the end, so that they do not hide somewhere, do not secretly settle in your heart, and then you will be a friend of God Himself. “This is not what I commanded you to do, slaves, but if you do anything else, I command you.” Sin is swift as lightning and can infect a soul that is not awake in an instant with its destructive poison, but it will not harm the one who constantly listens and has the fear of God in his heart, for such a one is protected by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. Guardian angel. In whom there is a living faith in Christ, in whom Christ lives, the evil one will not touch him, seeing a soul protected by faith and the fear of God. In any case, we need a constant struggle against sin, which creeps in through all the senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch; he sneaks like a thief, breaks into all the senses, like through windows and doors. Never spare any sin in yourself and diligently, joyfully crucify it at every opportunity you encounter, and for this, deny yourself, crucify your pride, your whims, your resentment, your pride, malice, envy, stinginess, laziness, despondency, cowardice, fear, and love as benefactors those who hurt, as they say, your pride, awaken your passions unintentionally. We usually have some kind of painful love for sin: our hearts ache, our hearts ache with passion, but we still surrender to it. We must hate passion as sin, as the offspring of the devil, as death, as alienation from God. If you are carried away by any passion for a famous person, such as the passion of cowardice, fear, pride, try to talk to that person from the heart, with spiritual love. If you remain silent and doze, the enemy can conveniently overcome you and instill hostility or false fear in you. If you are attracted to someone by an adulterous passion, then either do not speak to that person, or arm yourself with the name of the Lord, constantly carrying Him in your mind and heart, and you will overcome the passion, enduring yourself with dignity. In general, do not tolerate the leaven of passions in yourself for a minute, but with all your might, drive them away from yourself.” “Try to do everything opposite to what the ethereal enemy wants. He encourages you to pride, to self-praise and condemnation of your brother - you humble yourself to the ground and ashes, and condemn yourself as harshly as possible, and praise your brother in your heart. If your brother, due to the action of the enemy, treats him proudly and viciously, you treat him humbly and with love. If the enemy encourages you to be stingy, be generous with good will. Do this in all such cases, and you will earn the great grace of God, and you yourself will see it with your own heart eyes. You don’t have the inner strength to do this - the enemy is strong, you say: ask the Almighty in prayer at all times and at every hour, and He will help you. Do not allow yourself to be overcome by the flesh and the enemy working through it in prayer - do not flatter your tongue, but speak the truth in your heart (Ps. 14:3); Feel your thoughts and thoughts yourself, as you say in prayer, and not so that there is honey on your tongue and ice on your heart; Once the enemy wins, then you will have to abandon yourself and your freedom from him, like a piece of land conquered by the enemy, and your heart will retreat from the Lord. Do not neglect anything in your spiritual life, do not consider anything small, not worth much attention: through small sins the devil leads to great ones. The main thing: try to always be true in your heart. When it is more difficult to fight the flesh, then show your strength, then do not become weaker in the fight, like a good warrior of Christ. Do not be afraid of the struggle and do not run away from it: where there is no struggle, there is no virtue; where there is no temptation of fidelity and love, it is unknown whether there is fidelity and love for the Lord. Our faith, hope and love are known in adversity, that is, in difficult and difficult circumstances, external or internal: in illness, in sorrow, in deprivation. Christian! after all, the Head of your faith, Christ, was crucified and left you the cross. How do you live in luxury, in space, in bliss, in idleness? He endured dishonor and commanded you, in his name, not to shun dishonor, but you seek honor. Look often at the Crucified One and learn your duties. They who are like Christ have crucified their flesh with passions and lusts. My foot is firmly in the right, says the king and prophet David, that is, my soul is firmly established on the right path, on virtue, on the fear of God, hating every path of unrighteousness. Why shouldn’t I also establish myself on this Divine path, avoid completely evil and do only good? Why not establish ourselves on a solid point of standing, as the saints who lived and labored before us achieved this? Don't they and we have the same nature? Did they live without temptations, without sorrows and illnesses? Didn’t sin attack them, didn’t they struggle with various passions of the flesh and spirit? We fought and won. The cause of sin is in ourselves, in our multi-passionate flesh, in our self-love, ambition, pride, lust for power, impatience, laziness, greed, hard-heartedness, stubbornness, conceit, free-thinking, duplicity, hypocrisy, deceit, ill will and gloating, in doubt and disbelief of the truth, in delicacy and gluttony, in despondency, cowardice, despair and other countless passions. Fight with yourself, with your sinful habits, inclinations, passions, conquer - after the fall, rise again and conquer again, remembering the words of the prophet: even if your enemies lay down my sins and my passions, then you will be defeated, as God is with us.” The struggle with oneself and victory over oneself should lead a person to loving unity with his brothers, his people. “He who loves God loves his brother also.” Nowadays it has become a custom to call a person a beast. This custom is so ingrained that one famous French fiction writer even wrote a novel about the “beast man.” How did such a gloomy view of man develop and become established in society and literature? There can be little doubt that this view was created solely under the influence of the new evolutionary-Nietzschean philosophy. Having torn out everything ideal and sublime from the hearts of its followers, the teaching about life as a struggle between animals deprived them of the ability to see truly human traits in people. For them, man turned into an animal, acting exclusively under the pressure of sensual movements and excitement. Under the influence of the view of man as a higher animal, a unique life developed, based solely on the principle of the struggle for existence. What kind of life this is, we now see with our own eyes. She is completely imbued with selfishness and indifference to her neighbor. Explaining the true attitude of people towards each other, in his diary Father John with particular persistence convinces his reader to adhere to a purely Christian view of man. “We often place man below our favorite thing or our favorite animal,” he says. This attitude towards man deeply outrages the Kronstadt shepherd. In his eyes, as a true Christian, “man is a wonderful, beautiful, majestic creation of God, especially a holy man, this is the star of God, this is a luxurious color, all beautiful, pure, unblemished; these are pearls of great value; it is a precious stone that has no price; this is the beautiful fruitful tree of God’s paradise.” “Look,” Father John repeatedly reminds the believer, in everything created from the earth there is contained God’s breath, a personal, independent image of God Himself. How much wisdom, how much beauty there is in the construction of man’s bodily tabernacle, how much wisdom of love - in a word, man himself shows in his life likeness to God, he is the ruler of the earth!” “Love every person, despite his fall,” instructs Father John. Sins are sins, but the basis in man is one – the image of God.” Respect in him, we read elsewhere, the majestic, priceless image of God and be patient with the mistakes and errors of fallen man.” Hence, the very first duty of a person in relation to others is love. True Christian love always manifests itself in self-denial and self-sacrifice. “Christian love,” argues the Kronstadt shepherd, prefers to endure all the external inconveniences of life, overcrowding, lack of clean air, losses, rather than, because of these and similar external inconveniences, to allow impatience, grief, irritation, anger, and murmuring at those who constrain us out of need, or out of caprice of character, or out of a desire to live at someone else’s expense, at someone else’s peace of mind. Love endures everything, endures everything to the detriment of itself, its material and bodily life.” A Christian's love for his neighbor should be manifested in charity, both spiritual and material. All more or less sufficient people without exception should provide material benefit to those in need. “Everyone should stock up on the oil of alms and good deeds, lest they appear naked before the Judge on the day of the terrible trial, lest they appear naked at that worldwide disgrace.” We often regret sacrificing the least of our possessions for the benefit of one poor person or another. Having thrown a few pennies to the unfortunate unfortunate man, we consider our duty towards him to be completely fulfilled. Sometimes we do good by pleasing and amusing ourselves more. “You taste earthly blessings in full measure, you give to those in need, but you caress yourself more, which means you do it without the slightest self-sacrifice. Your deeds of charity are not great. What else is there? What are imaginary benefits? They entertain for a charitable purpose, that is, first of all they want to intentionally serve their sinful flesh, the devil, and then their neighbor and God. Yes, gentlemen, this is not charity at all! It bears the name of charity alone. We must act in this case completely differently. God did not spare His Only Begotten Son for man - what then will we spare for our neighbor: food, drink, clothes for his apparel, money for his various needs? “Every day they ask you for alms, and give every day willingly, without bitterness, rudeness and murmuring: you give not your own, but God’s to the crusader children of God, who barely have a place to lay their heads, you are a steward of God’s property, you are a daily servant of the lesser brethren of Christ, do your work with meekness and humility, do not bore them. Money just comes to you without much effort, just without thinking much, and give it away. Your labors are generously rewarded - be generous to others yourself. They are not rewarded according to their merits - give not according to their merits and to others, but for the sake of their needs.” “What infinite insignificance food and drink represent on the one hand, and what infinite greatness the person fed by them represents on the other! Isn’t it the greatest madness, isn’t it godlessness, to feel sorry for a person, for this image of God, for this partaker of the divine nature, for whom God will do everything - to spare food, drink, clothing, housing and anything earthly! Let dust be dust - let the immortal image of the immortal God always be exalted and preferred over everything earthly, corruptible, and soon perishing! Therefore, let us spare nothing for our neighbor! Oh, what a great honor it is to nourish, clothe, and lay to rest the image of God. Most Gracious and Most Generous God, fill our hearts with goodness and generous love!” Do not look with sorrow or indignation at the poor because they persecute you. “The poor persecute you every day, which means that God’s mercy constantly pursues you. Who will run away from the mercy of God? Here is the general covenant of Fr. John is about how we should treat our neighbors. “Christian, always remember that we are all members of Christ, we are all equal before God: king and warrior, rich and poor, nobleman and commoner. We must always recognize ourselves and people as one whole in Christ Jesus.” “But let your alms be from a pure heart; the alms of that person are insignificant,” says Fr. John in his diary, who does not give it willingly, because material alms are not his, but God’s gift, and only his heart’s disposition belongs to him. Therefore, many alms will turn out to be almost vain because they were not given willingly, with regret, with disrespect for the person of one’s neighbor. Just like hosts will turn out to be vain, as a result of their hypocritical, vain treatment of their guests. With heartfelt affection, let us offer our sacrifices on the altar of love for our neighbor: God loves the giver willingly. The Lord Jesus Christ did not spare himself for our salvation: will I spare the dust of the earth for my neighbors? Is it food, sweets, drink, clothing, shelter? Finally, yourself, your peace of mind, your strength, your abilities? Listen, watch closely: first of all, respect every person from the depths of your soul, and be loving towards him - this living image of God. Without this there is no almsgiving. We should not spare anything for our neighbor.” All philanthropists must remember that all sacrifices and alms to the poor will not replace love for one’s neighbor if it is not in the heart; Therefore, when giving alms, you should always make sure that it is given with love, from a sincere heart, willingly, and not with annoyance and grief towards them. “The very word alms shows that it should be a deed and a sacrifice of the heart, and given with tenderness or regret for the poor state of the beggar and with tenderness or contrition for one’s deeds.” “He truly gives alms who gives from the heart and with a loving heart. He is truly merciful, who speaks with everyone with his heart, and not with his mind or lips, who gives everyone sincere, heartfelt respect, who preaches the word of God and serves from a true heart, not hypocritically - in a word, who embraces everyone and carries everyone with love in his heart, despising everything material that becomes an obstacle in love between him and his neighbor - he is truly merciful.” And most of all bequeaths Fr. John - do not be angry with your neighbors. “You get angry with your neighbor and say: he is such and such a miser, angry, proud, or he did this and that, and so on. What do you care about that? He sins against God, not you; God is his judge, not you; He will answer to God for himself, not you. Know yourself, how sinful you are, what a log you have in your own eye; how difficult it is to cope with your sins and overcome them; how you yourself suffer from them, like a pregnant woman, how they entangle you, how you want the indulgence of others in their infirmities. And your brother is a man just like you, have mercy on him as a sinful man, like you in everything, just as weak as you; love him as yourself, hearing the Lord say: this commandment is for you to love one another, and just as you pray for yourself, so that the Lord will help eradicate your fierce and intractable passions, so pray for your brother, so that the Lord will free his flattery and the corruption of passions from their darkness and oppression.” Even if your neighbor offends you, forgive him. “We should not be mutually embittered, angry, or proud of those who are embittered towards us or envious of us, who are proud of us, as is usual for our corrupted nature, but to feel sorry for them, as those possessed by hellish fire and spiritual death, to pray for them in the depths of the heart, that the Lord will kindle the darkness of their souls and enlighten their hearts with the light of His grace. We are darkened by our passions and do not see the absurdity, the ugliness of them and our actions, but when the Lord enlightens us with the light of His grace, then we awaken as if from a dream, we clearly see the ugliness, the madness of our thoughts, feelings, words, actions; our heart, which had been hardened until that time, softens, anger passes and in its place is kindness, tenderness, and condescension. Therefore, according to the word of our Savior, we must love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who hate us, for they too are our blind and erring brethren, but be quiet, meek, kind, respectful and loving towards those who behave unworthily before you. If you yourself become embarrassed and speak with emotion, rudely, contemptuously and, therefore, without any love, then you yourself are defeated and those who offended you have the right to say: “doctor, heal yourself.” Hatred of enemies is unreasonable. Do you hate the enemy? asks Father John. You're stupid. Why? Because when the enemy persecutes you, you are also internally persecuting yourself, for tell me, isn’t it persecution, isn’t it the most cruel persecution to torment yourself with hatred of the enemy? Love your enemy and you will be wise. Oh, if you only knew what a triumph, what a bliss it is to love an enemy and do good to him!” “If a person is so possessed by anger that he is unable to cope with himself, then in this case he should ascend with his thoughts to God and His Only Begotten Son.” "Brother! - the Kronstadt shepherd teaches, - you feel in your heart a murderous evil towards your neighbor, you are tormented by evil thoughts about the insults inflicted on you by him - here is a way for you to get rid of inner tightness: imagine the multitude of your sins, innumerable in number, and vividly imagine how the Lord of your life endures them on you, how He daily and without number releases them to you, if you sincerely pray to Him that your sins, and yet you do not want to forgive your neighbor for several outbursts of passion aroused in him by the devil. Sigh, if you can, cry about your madness, just condemn yourself without fail, not your neighbor - and now mercy from the Lord is ready for you: inner tightness will disappear like smoke, your thoughts will become clearer, your heart will calm down and you will again walk in the space of your heart.” Modern humanity is often very guided by Old Testament views, establishing the mutual relations of people to each other. The Old Testament commandment “an eye for an eye” in practical life is now often a commandment for many. Even more often now they preach half-hearted virtue. Instead of giving everything to the poor, two rubles and instead of whole-hearted love for Christ, rather mass. This is not how it should be. O. John does not recognize such virtue. Father John persistently preaches the highest teaching of Christ to the world, without softening it with any concessions or apologies. Everything is for Christ and for Christ. Through the mouth of the great Spectator, the Kronstadt shepherd says that a Christian should not be “neither cold nor hot,” but “cold or hot” (Rev. 3:15). In particular, Fr. To recognize yourself and your relationship to your neighbor, John gives the following very wise advice. “If you want to know yourself - what you are morally, what your heart is: pleasing or contrary to God, pure or overgrown with thorns and weeds, vital or dead - watch yourself, with what spirit you meet with your colleagues, especially your assistants or subordinates - or with poverty constantly stretching out its hand to you, or with persons asking for your intercession, intercession, your service, the need for spiritual, various help: Is it with meekness and love, with readiness and zeal, with sympathy, or with complete indifference and coldness, or even with anger and contempt? And now you will find out your state of heart: is it pleasing to God or is it disgusting, are you a Christian or a low self-lover, an egoist, a fan of your self - your womb, selfishness, selfishness, and what you deserve: a reward or hell, pitch darkness and tartarus, where is the eternal gnashing of teeth?..” Let's now move on to his advice regarding family and family life. Family - according to Fr. John - "little church". The children of the great church are raised here. Therefore, the family must live according to the law of the “community of Christ.” The family is the church of God and should be as holy as a church. “The marriage union of husband and wife, inspires Fr. John, depicts the most holy union of Jesus Christ with the Church, that is, with those who believe in Him: just as the husband is the head of the wife, so Christ is the head of the Church. Just as the bride and groom in marriage are crowned into one flesh, so Christ and His Church are also one body, for those who truly believe in Him are His members from His flesh and from His bones. Therefore: the cohabitation of spouses must be pure and holy, just as the union of the Lord with the Church is holy; should be reasonable, loving and peaceful and inseparable. Cohabitation must be pure and holy: for the Lord Himself, who in the beginning created man, male and female, combines husband and wife into one flesh for mutual assistance in bodily and spiritual needs and for the sake of multiplying the human race. The goal is high and holy; from now on you become animated instruments of divine grace and omnipotence, for through husband and wife the all-good Creator calls intelligent creatures, His future children and heirs of the kingdom of God, into existence and life. And you, if the Lord blesses you with them, will also have to educate them in the rules of the Orthodox faith and Christian life, serving for them first of all as an example of faith, piety and fear of God. And for each other you should be an example of meekness and kindness, abstinence, complacency, honesty and hard work, submission to God’s will, patience and hope: help each other, take care of each other, be forgiving to one another, covering each other’s infirmities with love. There are also unhappy marriages: sometimes husband and wife come together as if only for the sin and misfortune of both. Why are they unhappy? Mostly from the dissimilarity of characters, from mutual intransigence, from the obstinacy, arbitrariness and exactingness of the husband or from his impudent disposition; from the infidelity of a husband or wife, from the husband’s intemperance or passion for gambling, from the wife’s addiction to clothes, from her waywardness, anger, grumpiness, stubbornness, from the inability to tolerate shortcomings in life’s needs. To avoid such sinful cohabitation and such marital troubles, the husband and wife must always have faith and fear of God in their hearts: prudence, patience, hope; work and pray; diligently fulfill annually the Christian duty of confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In these sacraments you will find, in addition to the grace of cleansing sins and sanctifying your souls and bodies, the grace of firm unanimity, sanctification in the very loins and in the womb of the future generation, renewal of spiritual and physical strength, help, consolation and encouragement in labors, everyday circumstances, healing of illnesses. The cohabitation of husband and wife must be reasonable, for St. The Apostle Peter says: you, husbands, treat your wives wisely, as with the weakest vessel, showing them honor as joint heirs of the grace-filled life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. And spouses should always understand why the Lord united you in marriage and married you into one flesh; It is they who must continually, with their combined strength, achieve the kingdom of God. They should consider every day a great gift of God’s mercy, given to us for our turning to God, for correction, for confirmation and improvement in goodness, for the salvation of the soul. “Time redeems, for the days are evil.” Their cohabitation should be loving and peaceful. And how could it be otherwise? “No one hates his own flesh, but nourishes and warms it, just as the Lord does the Church.” The spouses are one flesh. A husband must love his wife as his own body: for he who loves his wife loves himself. If they live in mutual love, they will bring down God’s grace upon themselves and their descendants, and God will dwell in you and crown all your undertakings and deeds with blessed success, for where there is love, there is God, and where God is, there is all that is good. With love, peace and tranquility will be brought into their home: for love endures for a long time and covers everything and does not allow a person to become irritated, angry, capricious, or offend in word or deed. The cohabitation of husband and wife should be inseparable - until the grave. Christian love loves to the end, and not for a while, it is firm and constant. There will be temptations for their love from the weaknesses of one or the other of you, or from the dissimilarity of characters, habits, or from people, from the primordial enemy - overcome these temptations courageously: let them be wise like snakes, and goals like doves.” The house of the holy church, called the family, should be a small church, a small church in its structure. The Word of God must be continually heard here. This is not how modern Christians live. Reading holy books is now considered by many to be a sign of backwardness. “Where is the reading of the divinely inspired Psalter in homes now? Where is the reading of the inspired psalms, which were the favorite reading of our ancestors, not only ordinary ones, but the boyars and the princes themselves? It’s not there, it’s bad, very bad and sad. That is why in many there is no Christian faith and hope and love for God and neighbor, but there is unbelief, despair, and hatred. There is no fiery prayer, no purity of morals, no spirit of contrition for sins and tenderness, no truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. There is no church in the family. Home conversations are not currently sanctified by holy conversations. “How much people lose in home conversation by not talking about God! How inspired, fruitful and diversified their conversation would be. Believers would then have rivers flowing from the belly of their saving words. How much such conversations would bring edification, reassurance, true sweetness. Meanwhile, now, not talking about God in home circles, but talking about the vanity of the world, they soon become exhausted in conversation, get bored and then kill precious time in stupid games or dances.” Such a life interferes with the main task of the family, raising children, and brings disintegration into the family from this side; The most important thing in education is that the child grows up not in an atmosphere of empty chatter, but in an atmosphere imbued with the spirit of faith in God and love for Him, so that he sees from the very beginning that the whole life of his family and its attitude towards the world and people are based on these principles. They are the only reliable foundations of life, and their absence most likely explains such frequent cases of seducing young people from the true path. The program of proper education also includes conversations with children on religious topics. Starting from 2–3 years old, you can have detailed conversations with children about God the Creator, whom we must love and honor, doing His will and trying not to do anything bad. Let the child, as early as possible, form the idea that his parents have a Father in heaven, that they, in turn, are children of the Great, Good, Almighty Heavenly Father. Then you need to tell the child about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of people, retell passages from the sacred history of the New and Old Testaments, choosing events that are more accessible to the child’s understanding, speaking to his heart and depicting the greatness and kindness of God. Stories from the lives of saints can also greatly interest even young children and contribute to the development of their religious spirit. But most importantly, if a child constantly sees his mother praying before his eyes, is present at divine services, etc. “Nowhere can children learn sincere piety, sincere love, praise and gratitude to God and love for others so well, so graciously and successfully, as in church, where the Holy Spirit, the true Educator, especially rests and teaches them through everything; through the gaze, through the ear, through the mouth - in the communion of the Holy Mysteries, it directly and directly affects their pure, impressionable soul.” Having become accustomed from their earliest youth to the house of God, to the house of shrines, prayer and praise of God, and often resounding with the praises of God, they themselves will little by little be imbued with the Spirit of holiness and piety, will receive an aversion to sin and the temptations of the world, their soul will be tempered - let's put it simply - strengthened in a holy disposition, and now the child will become a good Christian or Christian woman, and a family man, and an honest citizen. The view that children should be given complete freedom in matters of religion and studies and that they should not be forced to study and pray deeply outrages Fr. John. “What a diabolical opinion!” he exclaims. “If you don’t force it, then what will come out of people after that? Well, what will come of you, herald of new-minded rules, if you do not force yourself to do anything good, but live the way your vicious heart, your proud, short-sighted and blind mind, your sinful flesh wants you to live? Tell me what will become of you? Aren't you forcing yourself to do anything? I’m not saying directly what is good, but what is due and useful? How can you do without forcing yourself?” “How not to force, especially boys, to study and pray? What will come of them? Aren't they sloths? Will they not learn all kinds of evil? It is especially necessary, in the opinion of the Kronstadt shepherd, to pay attention to the education of the child’s heart, which he considers to be the first engine in our lives and in almost all of our knowledge. “Seeing known truths with the heart,” says Fr. John, precedes mental knowledge. The heart sees at once, inseparably, instantly, then this single act of vision of the heart is transferred to the mind, and in the mind it is decomposed into parts, sections appear: previous, subsequent; the vision of the heart in the mind receives its analysis. The idea belongs to the heart, not to the mind, to the inner man, not to the outer.” That's why Fr. John calls the mind “the servant of the heart, which is our life, our essence, the concentration of the power of God occurs primarily in the heart. But all bad thoughts come from the heart.” That is why parents and educators must protect the child’s heart in every possible way. “Parents and educators! writes about. John, do not leave children without attention regarding the eradication from their hearts of the tares of sins, nasty, evil and blasphemous thoughts, sinful habits, inclinations and passions; The enemy and the sinful flesh do not spare even children; the seeds of all sins are in children too!” “Parents and educators! Protect your children with all care from the whims before you, otherwise the children will soon forget the value of your love, they will infect their hearts with malice... A whim is the germ of heart corruption, the rust of the heart, a moth of love, a seed of malice, an abomination to the Lord.” If the sinful seeds hiding in the souls of children are not eradicated in time, or at least not weakened, then it will be difficult for a person to go through life, this great experimental science. “Whoever is in a mother’s school or college,” writes the Kronstadt archpriest, is not accustomed to faith and the fear of God and a pious life, it will be especially difficult to study in the school of life. Even if in the school of science he was smart, knowledgeable, and held in high esteem for his abilities, in the school of life he turns out to be an ignoramus. Moreover, sometimes there is no need for anything, neither for family life, because of one’s unbridled heart, nor for social activities. He is in poverty and often wrecks in life, like a ship loaded with many goods at sea, launched during a storm without tackle or sails.” If we turn to reality, he writes, we will see that the entire modern education system is aimed at making children like a ship without a rudder, without tackle and sails. Not to mention home education, which in many families is conducted on the basis of rationalism and skepticism, even in educational institutions the development of a heartfelt religious feeling in children is relegated to the background... To many things, writes Fr. John, students of educational institutions are taught, but often they do not know the only thing they need - God and themselves, their sins, their spiritual weakness, their insignificance without God and before God. The spirit of some kind of devilish pride, conceit, and self-praise that has taken hold of modern man is largely prepared and developed by modern education. Since all the sciences that they are now trying to stuff students with are not able to replace “the one thing needed”, are not able to educate the soul and heart, then it turns out that our young men have a lot in their heads, but little in their hearts, and often - alas! there is nothing. “But if we have all the secrets and all the intelligence, but love is not imam, there is no benefit.” “Both in the present time and in the past, only those people have successfully completed their mental and moral education who have entrusted themselves to God, lived according to his commandments, who now live according to the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, submitting to its leadership. Here’s a useful note for you, modern teachers!” Not science, but Christian faith, heartfelt, inseparable from love, faith has this creation of souls. Only she moves mountains, only with her nothing is impossible for man; Therefore, only she can be addressed with praise. “Oh, faith, faith! You yourself are a miracle for us!” Build, revive, renew our family - this holy church, the holy vestibule of the church. In his diaries, Fr. John also gives an answer to the question that constantly nests in our hearts, namely, how to live a day according to God. The day of a true Christian should begin and end with prayer. Everywhere and in everything a Christian must look for lessons and edification. “To spend the entire day perfectly, holy, peacefully and sinlessly, the only means for this is the most sincere, fervent prayer in the morning after rising from sleep. She leads into the heart of Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and thus will give strength and strength to the soul against the attacks of evil; You just need to guard your heart.” “Please God in everything and at all times and think about saving your soul from sins and the devil and assimilating it to God. Get out of bed, cross yourself and say: “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” and also: Lord, grant us to remain without sin on this day and teach me to do Your will! 12. When you wash at home or in the bathhouse, say: sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I will be clean; wash me, I will be whiter than snow (Ps. 50:9). When you put on underwear, think about the purity of your heart and ask the Lord for a pure heart: create a clean heart in me, O God, sew a new one and put it on, think about the renewal of your spirit and say: the spirit is right, Lord, renew in my womb (Ps. 50:12). You put aside old clothes with disdain for them, think about putting away with great disdain the old man, sinful, passionate, carnal; eat bread, sweets, think about the true bread that gives eternal life to souls - the Body and Blood of Christ, and hunger for this bread, that is, desire to partake of it more often. When you drink water or tea, or honey, sweets, or other drinks, think about the true drink that quenches souls burned by passions - about the most pure and life-giving blood of the Savior; When you rest during the day, think about the eternal peace prepared for those who labored here in the struggle against sin, against the spirits of evil in high places, against human untruths or human ignorance and rudeness. When you go to sleep at night, think about the sleep of death, which sooner or later will certainly come for all of us, and that dark, eternal terrible night into which all unrepentant sinners will be thrown. As you greet the day, think about the non-evening, eternal, bright - more than this sunny day - the day of the kingdom of heaven, on which all those who have pleased God, or who have repented from the bottom of their hearts to God in this temporary life, will rejoice. Wherever you go, think about the rightness of your spiritual walk before the face of God and say: direct my steps according to Your word, and let not all iniquity possess me (Ps. 119:133). Whenever you do anything, try to do this with the thought of God the Creator, who created everything with His infinite wisdom, His goodness, His omnipotence, and created you in His image and likeness. Whether you receive or have money, a treasure, think that our inexhaustible treasure, from which all the treasures of the soul and body, the ever-flowing source of all good, is God, thank Him with all your soul and do not keep your treasures with yourself, so that you do not enter into your heart the priceless and living Treasure - God, but give from your fortune to the demanding, needy, poor brethren, who for this purpose left in this life so that you can prove your love and gratitude to God with them and receive a reward from God for this in eternity. Do you see the white silver shine, i.e. silver, do not be seduced by it, but think that your soul should be white and shine with the virtues of Christ; Do you see a golden shine, or gold, do not be seduced by it, but remember that your soul should be like gold purified by fire and that the Lord wants to enlighten you, like the sun, in the eternal, bright kingdom of His Father, that you will see the unsetting Sun of truth - God in three Persons, the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and all the heavenly powers and holy people, ineffable filled with light and shining with luminosity.” A Christian should begin every activity with prayer. “In any undertaking, domestic or official, do not forget that your strength, your light, your success is Christ and His cross; Therefore, do not cry out to the Lord before starting a task: Jesus, help me! Jesus, enlighten me! In this way, your living faith and hope in Christ will be kept warm in your heart.” Among the bustle of life, Fr. John advises especially to avoid empty talk and therefore recommends making acquaintances from among serious people, from whom you can learn good and good things. “Empty speech, or, as they say, pouring from empty to empty with guests takes away living faith, fear of God and love for God from the heart; guests are a plague to a pious heart. I mean precisely those guests who can only pour or pour from empty to empty. But respectable, religious guests are a different matter.” O. John is not an enemy of good entertainment. He also advises us to look for and choose those that can set us on a serious tone. “Do not be deceived by the melodic sounds of an instrument or voice, but by their impression on the soul or by their words, find out what their spirit is; if sounds evoke quiet, chaste, holy feelings in your soul - listen and feed your soul with them; if passions flow into your soul through them, stop listening, abandon both the body and the spirit of music.” Doesn't drive o. John and secular education. He is the enemy only of that which makes us frivolous, that which destroys the purity of the soul. “If you read secular magazines and newspapers, extracting from them what is useful for yourself, as a citizen, a Christian, and a family man, then most of all read the Gospel and the writings of St. fathers, for it is a sin for a Christian, when reading secular works, not to read the inspired scriptures. You follow events in the outside world, but don’t lose sight of your inner world, your soul: it is closer to you and dearer to you. To read only newspapers and magazines means to live only with one side of the soul, and not with the whole soul, or to live only according to the flesh, and not according to the spirit.” So, concludes Fr. John, “behave at home as meekly and humbly as you behave at a party, in the circle of noble and dignified people, for you are truly a guest on earth. Behave at home the way Alexey the man of God behaved in his parents’ house; behave like the last servant, like a beggar who, out of mercy, is given leftovers from the table.” We have outlined briefly the path of salvation according to Fr. John, but he has one “conclusion” with which he always likes to end his sermon, namely Fr. John strongly insists that salvation and life in God are created by the church, by faith in the church, as a union of the living and the dead and its help. It is not through personal efforts alone that, together with the help of Christ, the depressed soul of the convert is saved. No, it will be Protestantism, contrary to its very essence. Christ's teaching about the church and salvation through unity in the church. What saves is the church, the unity of all Christians among themselves and with the hosts of saints in the abodes in heaven. Without the church, that is, faith in this unity, there is no salvation. “Christian, consider how to live in the house of God, as the Church of God is alive, the pillar and affirmation of the truth. What a great, wonderful, holy house - the Holy Church! It consists of all the holy angels and faithful people - all the saints and Orthodox Christians who live on earth and died in faith and piety. What a glorious house, how solid, indestructible, eternal! This, according to the Holy Spirit, is a pillar and affirmation of the truth, indestructible by the gates of hell. The Church is a wonderful, wise, indestructible building of the heavenly Architect Jesus Christ, the hypostatic wisdom of the Father, who wisely and omnipotently created the world and the entire heavenly and earthly hierarchy. Members of the heavenly church - patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries, holy fools for Christ's sake and all the saints - are living members who have a living, close connection with the earthly church - with all the hierarchs, the entire consecrated council and with all lay Orthodox people. They help us with their intercession before God, with their prayers, with their varied help, with their miracles and often with their personal appearances. Do you, man, feel this living connection with heaven? Do you feel this living, continuous connection between the earthly church and the heavenly one, especially during worship? The saints are our rich friends - and only with their help can we poor people live and be saved. Just as in worldly life there are poor and rich, so in the spiritual world, in the spiritual order there are poor and rich. The poor ask from the rich and sufficient, and cannot live without them, so in the spiritual order the poor must resort to the assistance of the spiritually rich. We are spiritually poor, beggars, but the saints are spiritually rich, or in this life still shining with faith and piety. It is to them that we, the poor, must resort. We must ask for their prayers, so that they can help us become simple, like babies, so that they teach us spiritual wisdom, how to overcome sins, how to love God and our neighbor. So, pray for me, St. Men of God: prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs, saints, righteous and all saints, may I be like you! What a close connection between the heavenly and earthly Churches, what love the Church has! Look: she constantly remembers, calls in prayers and glorifies the heavenly Church for her deeds on earth, raised for God’s sake; prays unceasingly for the earthly Church and intercedes for the dead in the hope of resurrection, eternal life and communion with God and with the saints. Immense love, majestic, divine love! Let us enter into the spirit of this motherly love - our Orthodox Church and let us be imbued with the spirit of this love. Let us consider all our neighbors as members of ours, ourselves and them as members of one body of the Church, and actively love them as ourselves, then we ourselves will be living members of the heavenly Church, and she will be our active and quick-to-obey helper and prayer book for our souls. We must have the most living, spiritual connection with the inhabitants of heaven, all the saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs, saints, reverends and righteous ones, for they are members of one body - the Church of Christ, to which we sinners also belong, and of which the living Head is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That is why we call them in prayers, talk with them, thank them, glorify them. All Christians urgently need to be in touch with them if they desire Christian success: for the saints are friends, our guides to salvation, our prayer books and intercessors. What does it mean to call upon saints every day - different ones every day - throughout the whole year and throughout life? This means that the saints of God, like our brothers, only perfect, are alive and not far from us, hear us and are always ready to help us, by the grace of God. We live with them together, in the same house of the Heavenly Father - only on different halves: we are on the earthly, they are in the heavenly, and for us and for them there are means to penetrate each other; for us it is a prayer of faith and love, for them it is their spiritual nature, always ready for active help, out of the love with which their souls are imbued. You wonder how the saints from heaven listen to us when we pray to them. And how do the rays of the sun from heaven bow down to us and shine everywhere - all over the earth? Saints are also in the spiritual world as the rays of the sun are in the material world. God is the eternal, life-giving Sun, and the saints are the rays of the intelligent Sun. Just as the eyes of the Lord constantly look at the earth and earth-born, so the eyes of the saints cannot help but turn to where the providential gaze of the Lord is directed to the creatures and where their treasure is (their bodies, their deeds, sacred places, persons devoted to them). Wherever your treasure is, your heart will also be mine (Matthew 6:21). You know how the heart sees quickly, far and clearly (especially objects of the spiritual world); notice this in all knowledge, especially in spiritual knowledge, where very much is learned only by faith (the vision of the heart). The heart is the eye of the human being; the purer it is, the faster, further and clearer it sees. But among the saints of God, this spiritual eye, even during their lifetime, was brought to the purity possible for a person, and after their death, when they united with God, by the grace of God it became even brighter and more extensive within the limits of its vision. That is why the saints see very clearly, widely and far; see our spiritual needs; they see and hear everyone who calls them with all their hearts, that is, those whose intelligent eyes are directly directed towards them and are not clouded, do not hide during aspiration with doubt and lack of faith, when the eyes of the hearts of those praying coincide, so to speak, with the eyes of those being called. Mysterious vision here! An experienced person understands what is being said. Therefore, how easy it is to have communication with the saints! You just need to clear the vision of your heart, direct it firmly towards a well-known saint, ask for what you need - and it will happen. What does the Lord say about vision? He is all sight, all light, all knowledge. He always fills heaven and earth and sees everything in every place. In every place the eyes of the Lord behold the evil and the good (Proverbs 15:3). Lutherans say: “Why should we ask the prayers of the saints for ourselves? we ask God Himself,” and they refute themselves: for why do they ask the pastor to pray for themselves? We would pray without a pastor if everyone has the same access to God and there is no need for sacred prayer books for us. What blindness! They say: by praying to saints, we worship idols. Not true. We do not honor any saint as God, we do not pray to any saint as God, but only ask his prayers for ourselves; Is there even a shadow of idolatry here? Just as we ask the living clergy and prayer books for us before God, so that they pray for us, so we ask the heavenly prayer books, who, out of their love for God, have great boldness before Him; Moreover, very many of them here on earth were prayer books and intercessors before God for peace; there - in heaven, this activity of theirs only continues, has large dimensions and is especially strong, for it is not repressed by heavy and inert flesh. All saints, although they have finished their earthly career, are still alive: God is not dead, but alive: for to Him all live (Proverbs 15:3). Just as through an electric telegraph we quickly communicate with people distant from us, so through living faith, like through some kind of telegraph, we quickly communicate with God, with Angels and saints. Just as we fully rely on the speed of electric current and its intelligibility, so we must completely rely on the speed and intelligibility of the prayer of faith. Send your request to God or the saints via the telegraph of faith, and you will immediately receive an answer. The answering telegraph readings are simple, but experienced ones read them; The actions on the heart of God of spirits and all flesh and saints are simple, but the experienced understands them. God and the saints also hear us in prayer, just as people talking to each other hear each other, or as people standing in church hear a preacher, or soldiers hear the voice of a leader; they even hear incomparably better and more perfectly, because we hear the words of another, but we do not know what is in his heart and thoughts. And it happens that someone says one thing, but has something completely different in his heart. God and the saints are not like that: they see what is in our thoughts and hearts - God Himself with His omniscience, and the saints with the grace of the Holy Spirit, in which they eternally abide. They see whether our words correspond to our hearts, and if they completely correspond to our hearts, and the heart, in turn, is a believer, contrite and humble, burning with love and zeal (as we diligently resort to you), and the desire to receive what we ask, then they kindly bow to our prayer and give us what we want. God and the saints want us to imagine them in prayer as alive, inherent in ourselves, so that we can see them with the eyes of our hearts. God lives; There is no God of the dead, but of the living: for to him all live (Luke 20:38). And only with the help of the saints and the church can we approach Mount Zion and the church of the God of heaven. And we'll come with them... Life in God on earth gives man victory and union with God in the future. Follow Christ, and He will lead you through the waves of the sea of ​​life to the bright paradise pier. Behind the struggle is the crown, the narrow path to glory. The future glory of the righteous and the torment of sinners, according to Father John, is not only an undoubted, but also a psychologically necessary fact. Those who already have hell in their souls suffer - torment lives; those who in this life have God and the happiness of Communion with God in their souls enjoy. Hell is the torment of the inability to love, and the degree of this holy or sinful mood explains the difference in the degree of torment and glorification. This is also proven by the present state of mind in different people or in the same person at different times and in different situations. The simpler, kinder, more sociable a person is, the more blissful he is internally; the more crafty, evil, and self-loving, the more unhappy; the stronger his faith and love, the more blessed he is; the weaker the worse. So those of little faith, without faith, misanthropes are the most unfortunate people. Therefore, be aware of future torment. The joys of paradise are boundless, the sweetness of those who behold Your face and ineffable kindness is endless. The sweets of the earth are all transitory, both by themselves and by the vicissitudes of human life. And the sweetness of heavenly bliss will have no end - endless. All the present is only one shadow of the future: light is the shadow of the future, the ineffable light; earthly sweets are a faint shadow of future, ineffable, endless sweets; fire is a weak shadow of the fire of Gehenna, which will scorch sinners forever and ever; pure earthly joy is a shadow of future, unspeakable joys; The decorated royal palaces are an insignificant shadow of the bright heavenly abodes prepared for those who love God and fulfill His commandments. The glorious garments of the men and daughters of men cannot be compared with the garment of glory in which the elect will be clothed, for they will put on Christ and be illuminated like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, according to the false promise of the Savior. Now we seek lasting bliss and do not find it; the pleasures we invent are not durable, false, vain, short-lived. But if a Christian behaves worthy of his calling, he will receive as an inheritance such bliss that is true and lasting, because it is eternal and will fully satisfy the needs of our soul. What good will it be to Your chosen ones in heaven, O Lord! How all the delights of earth are painful for the heart! How harmful is an instant addiction to anything earthly to the heart? And what peace, what freedom, what space, what light, what joy! Beloved brothers! - calls on Fr. John - for the sake of this future glory, for the sake of true life, we will all rise - spiritual dead. Leave the dead to bury their dead, the Lord said to one of His disciples, who asked Him for permission to first go and bury his father and then follow the Savior, that is, leave people who are dead in soul, although alive in appearance. The name Imashi is alive, but you are dead, the Lord still says in revelation to one apparently pious person. We need to be resurrected. “Behold, I stand and understand,” the Lord calls, the Lord knocks on our heart with His grace through the word of God preached in the church, through the good advice of those close to us, through the good thought He sends into our soul darkened by sins. He will respond and rise again to enter in the glory of the resurrection. God! Seeing a widow in the city of Naina, crying heavily, as if then, you had mercy on her son, and you raised him up for burial; Have mercy on me too, O Lover of mankind, and resurrect my soul, killed by sins. My God! how the love and sincere sympathy of our neighbor for us delights our heart! Who will describe our bliss of a heart imbued with a feeling of love for me by others and my love for others? It's indescribable! If here on earth mutual love delights us so much, then with what sweetness of love will we be filled in heaven, in cohabitation with God, with the Mother of God, with the heavenly Powers, with the holy people of God? Who can imagine and describe this bliss, and what temporary, earthly things should we not sacrifice to receive such ineffable bliss of heavenly love? God, Your name is Love! Teach me true love, like strong death. So I have abundantly tasted its sweetness from communication in the spirit of faith, even in Thee, with Thy faithful servants and maidservants, and I have been abundantly pacified and enlivened by it. Confirm, O God, this which you have done in me! ABOUT! If only it were like this all the time! Grant me more often to have communion of faith and love with Your faithful servants, with Your churches, with Your church, with Your members! Let us enter into the glory of Your future kingdom." From “Glory to God in the highest” at Matins.