Letters to the Abbess of the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery Maria (Tuchkova) (79 letters)

This correspondence reflects the many years of communication between St. Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov) and Abbess Maria (Tuchkova), the founder of the Spaso-Borodinsky Convent. The letters (79 in total) cover the period from 1828 to 1850 and touch on key stages in the formation of the monastery, as well as spiritual instructions, administrative issues and personal experiences of the correspondents. - spiritual instructions: reflections on the monastic vocation, humility, prayer and the fight against passions, advice on spiritual life based on patristic experience (letters 1, 2, 10); consolation in sorrows and losses (letters 31, 46, 71); - creation and development of the monastery: the process of transforming the Spassky hostel into a full-time monastery (letters 16, 17, 25); issues of construction of churches, cells, bell towers (letters 13, 53, 58, 73); economic and financial difficulties (letters 48, 53, 78). - administrative and canonical issues: interaction with spiritual and secular authorities (letters 16, 20, 37); disputes about the acceptance of novices, tonsure and internal regulations (letters 54, 56, 60); criticism of excessive luxury and violations of monastic simplicity (letters 8, 13, 49); - personal relationships and pastoral care: warm, trusting intonations in communication with Mother Superior Maria, participation in her illnesses and sorrows (letters 47, 79); Tips on managing sisters and resolving conflicts (letters 64, 65, 77). The letters reflect St. Philaret's role in supporting female monasticism in 19th-century Russia. Letter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 Fearing that I will remain silent for a long time, I hasten to begin briefly with what I consider necessary to say. You can lead a monastic life without a vow. Who legitimized making a vow and remaining in the world? When you want to accept a blessing, you need to look at whether the one who promises the blessing has the right to bless, and how to say it, and to what extent he has received this right. What is done for a lifetime: it is better to do it slowly rather than hastily. He who shepherds Israel tends both the shorn and the unshorn of His flock. May He shepherd you in sweet places, may He nourish you on calm waters, guiding you on the paths of righteousness for His name. May the risen Christ be with you, and may he resurrect you spiritually, and may the resurrection in the body be blessed. Invisible, but genuine sins sometimes prevent a person from seeing visible, but imaginary virtues. Another, for example, without true need, of his own will and invention, will burden his body with chains, and will think that he has already entered the true rank of Christ's crusaders in spirit, but does not notice that on the inside of the chains it is written: in unauthorized service and unsparing of the body. ( Col. 11:23 ). However, I say this not against faiths, for which there are people, and times, and reasons. The Fathers also say: if there is no contrition and tenderness, one should suspect whether there is vanity. You need to test yourself; but do not rely on this test, but rather pray: test me, Lord, and convince my heart, and see if there is a path of iniquity in me, and guide me on the eternal path. Maybe I didn’t write these words accurately: find them in the Psalter. The old one was found in the hospital. Some say that he is definitely sick, others that he is acting like a fool. He is praying. He himself says that he is better than before, only his chest hurts: and the doctor says that he was better, but now he is worse again. Now there is ice: when there is a road across the river, we will try to find out something else. Before this, I had an extract from your letter, and I answered one part of it, and put off the other, mysterious part until careful reading. I must admit that even now I don’t quite understand it: because it’s good that I have the opportunity to postpone it until I explain something personal. Regarding your arrival in Moscow, I already told your sisters these days that it is more convenient for you to come alone to three, rather than three to one. If you need to take into account whether I am in Moscow, then let it be known to you that I am in Moscow until the 25th day of this month. It is impossible to say definitely what will happen to me next. You don’t like the liveliness of crowds; and a meeting with a dead person seems like a meeting of two dead people, what do you want? Do not stubbornly run away from people: among them there are people of God. Meet peacefully with the dead: there is no God of the dead, but God of the living. If your late aunt shed tears of compassion for you: shed tears of love over her, but light, not fiery. In another sense, everyone is dead, but for everyone there is resurrection and life. Let us remain in the hope of life: by hope we will be saved. Here is the letter that Elizaveta Mikhailovna Kologriva handed over to Archimandrite Macarius, and he to me for delivery to you. Mercy, peace and comfort from the Lord! I don’t know where this letter will find you, and therefore I will repeat to you what I wrote about you: you should not be angry at illness, but if you care about your health, I advise you to carefully consult with an experienced doctor. The world has become empty, you say. And so not a large number of kind souls made up the completeness of the world. Is this true? Why is it empty where it remains as before: He is everywhere and fills everything? I am with you all the days until the end of the age: when could it become empty? – Christ is with you, full of grace and truth! Yesterday Daria Andreevna at four o’clock in the evening opened to me your small complaint about the inactivity of the Luzhetsky treasurer; and at five o’clock I received a decree appointing Abbot Plato as archimandrite from the Tver diocese in Luzhetsky. I hope that this will serve to ease your concern for the Church of the Savior. Peace to your wilderness and to those grafted in it. May God bless you with such a blessing as He pleases, and which is appropriate for you, only a true blessing, which He does not refuse to anyone, unless he does not want the blessing, according to what is written: he does not desire the blessing and will move away from it. And you truly want a blessing when you ask; and if they had not asked, I would not have doubted what you wanted. It was in vain that you invented the idea of ​​a false desire for God; and surrounded her with various guesses that make it difficult for you, instead of praying and saying: either I want it or I don’t want it, save me! You left Moscow and are heading to Spasskaya Hermitage. Having walked a lot or a little, and not seeing the desert, you stop, and instead of going further, torment yourself with concern whether you have lost your way. It is true that the limit of the path is not visible; but it does not follow from this that we have lost our way. But doubt does not bring you closer to your goal. Find out for yourself whether this parable is similar to your condition. If that's not all; Let us add: something flashed in your eyes, and it seemed to you that this was the Church of the Savior. But then it disappeared. Is there trouble again? Not a little. Having gone down the mountain, you do not see what you saw from the mountain: but this happens not only when you return back, but also when you continue to walk the path. You ask: with physical weakness, wouldn’t spiritual strength rise? This means in other words: shouldn’t the power of grace act as the will pleases! Remember the words of the Lord: My soul is sorrowful even to death, and with this mortal sorrow heal your sorrow, which is not yet mortal. May the Lord strengthen you. Sorry I'm in a hurry. The one who waits, not your messenger, but someone else, does not give freedom. He alone is rich, not only in righteousness for the righteous, in love for the good, but also in mercy for sinners. We are all poor, and he is closer to wealth who knows and feels his poverty more. So, let it not be boring for us to recognize our poverty, let it not be hard to feel it with hope in Him who is rich for our sake, so that we may be enriched by His poverty. The book has been sent. They are now looking for another copy, and if they succeed, they will send it now. In your weakness, whether mental or physical, may the power of God be perfected, healing and saving. Rejoice in the Lord, and may the peace He brought from heaven visit your soul. Based on the complaint about my silence, before the complaint, I asked for my guilt as much as I could. I wrote to you just the other day. As for the multiplication of those living with you: this is what I think. Accepting too much and then not knowing what to do with those accepted is hardly the order. – Savva the Sanctified or Fyodor the Sanctified counted hundreds and thousands of people living in the desert, but we don’t read that they accepted anyone because they gave money or land, and thereby supported the hostel. God, work and virtue will support community life: this is what they thought in the old days. May God confirm and perfect your spiritual discretion. May God bless you and those with you, and for whatever you require forgiveness, may He forgive and give you peace and joy in Him. I also ask your forgiveness for myself, among other things, for the words with which I sometimes rebuke you, although, however, I do this, seeking peace for you. The persecution of the world against those who want to be not of the world was predicted by the Lord. Should we be embarrassed that His word is being fulfilled? Let them be driven out of the world: but where to? Look for where you can drive out of the world, and you will not find anywhere except to God. Beyond the world there is nothing but God. So, is persecution a bad thing if the persecuted one does not spoil the work of the persecutors, which they wanted to do as worse as possible, and which is controlled in secret by God better than one can imagine? He who is persecuted, or who fears persecution, and who sympathizes with persecution must pay attention to himself, so as not to give a just end to persecution, and thus not to deprive himself of the just protection of God’s providence. I doubt whether Hieromonk Macarius is doing the right thing by inviting people from afar who, perhaps, God is not calling to you. It would be a different matter if someone innocently persecuted sought refuge: then accepting it is a matter of philanthropy. But we must try and conduct good deeds with caution, so that our wisdom and our will do not go ahead of them. When you send me simple and necessary handicrafts, then I have a true gain, and I readily think that during cholera my legs were preserved from cramps with the help of stockings, worked with kind and humane hands, but a vessel with gilded edges, from the desert to a person around whom there is already a lot of luxury - is it really a reproof of luxury? In this case, the denunciation could have been written and sent with less care, so that it would not be broken on the road. The world has taught us enough about vanities and whims: let us encourage each other to remind each other of simplicity and meeting needs with the easiest, most unsophisticated means. I asked for forgiveness when I contradicted you and I will contradict you again, forgive again, and forgiveness and blessings will increase for you too. You're in trouble, you say. Which ones? At least not in one trouble, that is, in the danger of illness? If this is so: then remember that you can die every minute, even when there is no threatening illness; that danger did not come to you first, and that God, by His providence, preserved many around whom it walked. Whoever still needs to strive in earthly life, God will leave him in it, as long as he does not attract trouble to himself. Whom is it time to take from the world in peace: the blessings that you have chosen and accepted, Lord! Use the caution that you know, and what you don’t know, then entrust it to the will and providence of God and say: even if I go through the midst of the dark shadow, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. In order for God to be with us, you know what is necessary: ​​- for us to be with Him. I pray to Him to grant this to you in prayer and in peace and love. At least in the days of correction, at least to some extent, it is necessary to correct the guilt of my silence before your desire to speak. You promise not to repeat your grief when you notice that someone doesn’t like it. Are you completely correct in your observation? Does he truly love the repetition of the sad memory of the meek child taken by the Heavenly Father less than the stories about the playful children who will bear fruit, is unknown? However, be that as it may, the point here should not be man-pleasing, so as not to do what someone does not like, but for a person to try to make himself the way God likes to see a person. God says in His word: cast your sorrow on the Lord. - Do not grieve for the dead, as do others who have no hope, etc. I would listen to how you would begin to prove that these words, spoken to all Christians, do not apply to you alone? – Jesus Christ calls the Holy Spirit another Comforter, therefore at the same time He also means Himself as a Comforter: who dared to steal these names from the Divine, at his own will appropriating for himself inconsolable sorrow for all the days of his life? But I find no consolation? This happens: but we must not forget that God can give consolation to the inconsolable in a minute, and we must live in this faith and hope of consolation, if not in the very feeling of consolation. You are talking about the internal structure, but the point is about the bell tower. I earnestly wish you the first. As for the construction of the bell tower, I don’t know what to tell you. Anthony and Pachomius the Great did not have even a small bell tower; do you think that is why their deserts were extremely insufficient and imperfect? - Or rather, what I can say with the Apostle: build yourself into a spiritual church, like living stone. It was a pleasure to talk with your respectable neighbor, due to her good intentions and gentle dispositions. May the grace of the Risen One, our Resurretor, be a faithful and unobstructed source of true life, peace and joy. To recognize the insignificance of superficial splendor, which people now call enlightenment and education, is one of the degrees for ascending to sound and right wisdom; whoever is elevated to it, let him give thanks to the invisible Leader. He who has lived for a long time in love for the created, although not unlawfully, and then has learned the duty and need to live in love for the uncreated, let him patiently endure the feeling of the paucity of love. It must take place in order: when love must die in order for Divine love to be born. The Mytnikovsky priest says that Vladyka was pleased to transfer him from Cherneev. What benefit or pleasure does the Lord have in the fact that Peter Dmitriev is in Mytniki, and not in Cherneev? If transferred: either at will, or due to displeasure between him and his previous parish. If Peter wishes to go to his former place, so does the Master, as long as there is no legal obstacle. If Peter wants to expel the priest from Cherneev for no reason in order to take a place: this will not suit the law and truth; and, I think, the Bishop will not be pleased to insult the law and truth to please Peter. As for the memory of his late mother that burdens him: this requires careful consideration. Let him, when going to sleep, pray: Lord, rest the soul of Thy servant, and grant to our souls communion in Thy name in faith and grace, and in Thy heavenly abodes, more than short-term intimacy in and in the grave. I am returning a letter to my daughter after the death of her mother. She needs to be consoled by the memory that God granted her to fulfill her duties as a daughter at her death, and then by prayer and the hope of faith. I asked about your business; in the consistory they say that it has become yours. I send you the cross. Not immediately, because one was not found ready, and when he was found, he had to first be in the church. The commandment to you is not mine, but the Lord’s: take up the cross every day, that is, always with a ready heart, with obedience, with love, accept the sorrow internally or externally that comes according to the destinies of God’s providence. May the head of the crusaders create for you your cross in a comfortable way, in a saving action. Peace to the desert and to those who dwell in it. They say that the desert wants to be a full-time monastery. I don’t know how it happened, that the consistory wants this. But it's hard to guess what might happen. And it’s almost better to make your own plans as little as possible, and to allow yourself to be included as much as possible in the plans of Providence, which, of course, are better than ours. One of your hosts let it slip to me that you are looking for singers for the choir. Isn't this a desert luxury? It is not the one who sings skillfully who sings well to God, but the one who sings wisely and diligently. Last summer, in the Lavra in the hospital church, I heard an elderly man singing alone and discord with himself: but Vespers was good. In ancient affairs they kept the rule: I will not marry the future. And I haven’t heard of that being dialed. I wish that your desert would not be a beautiful ornate structure, but pleasing to God through the simplicity and purity of God, a quiet and silent life. With gratitude, using your handicraft, I am sending you a new product of a different kind - a new translation of the Orthodox confession. I call upon you peace and salvation. Yes, it is more useful to worry about preparing for the future than to guess about the time of transition. Constant attention to preparation makes it good, whether sooner or later: curiosity will not make it better. And when they remind you of the time, they excite you to prepare. May God help you to continually live in anticipation of the blessed hope of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the purifying preparation for accepting this promise faithfully and without restraint. To Him Who has many mansions in heaven, entrust also an earthly mansion. He, looking at intentions and faith, will order its preservation through one or the other. We can provide care: but He can only grant success. Don’t write anymore whether Methodius has calmed down. Advise him about this. The Archimandrite from Bethany is not. Some cases there lasted longer than expected. Rejoice in Him with awe. This immediately came to my mind when reading your letter of October 31st. It is good if we rejoice in God our helper. But when joy about God is joined to joy about His gifts to us, you will not always notice how joy about yourself is mixed in, and this mixture deprives the joy of Divine purity, which is characteristic of it. Therefore, it is very necessary to add spice to the pleasant, to joy, awe, to joy in God, awe about your unworthiness, which can disturb a pure source with excessive movement, and eclipse the light or turn it into a superficial shine and ghost. You are rightly wary of boldness. The Fathers command both in relation to people and to the place where one resides, to remain insolent. Kolya more to God and to heaven. Don’t you know that child Nicholas departed with faith, with childlike love for the Divine - that such is the kingdom of God? Isn’t this enough for you to remember it with peace and hope? Is it still necessary to bother them so that from time to time they send you a messenger from there to tell you what your child Nikolai is doing there? Stop it now at least; surrender to the will of the Heavenly Father both merciful notification and sacred obscurity. 0. Alexey wrote to me asking for a ticket to the hospital, and nothing more. I ordered to give a ticket, and it was difficult to do anything else - to break into the hearts of my neighbor when it was not opened. However, I instructed one of the spiritual ones to try to enter with Fr. Alexey into sincere intercourse. You ask, how dare the enemy touch an altar server? Just as rain comes through a thin roof into the altar and into the room, just as the wind through a well blows out the candle in the altar and in the room. The altar and the service remain holy: but he who neglects the integrity of his church is convicted of the consequences of this neglect, small or great, and is encouraged to fix the roof, block the well, in order to prevent greater harm. For this blessing, peace and joy to your desert from the manger and glorified before the shepherds. The consistory presented me with your case, unfinished, and with a solution that will not satisfy you. I have to approach you myself to see if it will be completed. I have been dealing with this intention for about a month now. Be patient, I have more than one thing to do. And for this letter, you see how long it took to find time. Having read your saying that the consistory is pressing you, I regretted the minute in which it was written, I thought that the next minute would easily correct the matter. To my greater surprise, I found that view of the matter in another letter from you. Let's see who's crowding you. Hermogenes, Archpriest Kuntsevich, Archpriest Trekhsvyatitelsky (I remember, your spiritual father), Archpriest Nikolo-Khlynovsky, an elder known for meekness? Are they? I hope you say no. But now there is a majority of the consistory votes. Who is crowding you? I am not defending consistories; Sometimes I also complain about her for inattention or inactivity: but the spirit of oppression is not at all the spirit of the Moscow consistory. Listen now. A spiritual person does not condemn anyone; but he blames the innocent and the worldly will not read it as virtue. Did you think about this when pronouncing your judgment on the Moscow Consistory? A minute of temptation shows whether we have achieved as much in spirituality as it seemed in moments of delight, or in hours of peace. You apply to yourself the apostolic saying: abandoned, but not lost. Is it humble and fair? Who abandoned you? No one has ever touched you with a finger before. Is it not only in your imagination that you imagine yourselves as persecuted and rejected? You confess to murmuring and insolence. Doesn’t this mean that you only admit to not observing patient silence, and yet you think that you grumbled and boldly spoke against people who were unjust and worthy of condemnation? If so: then truth and humility are not satisfied with your very recognition. You see how my view is different from yours. Choose who sees the truth, you or me. Perhaps some benefit for self-knowledge will be derived from this investigation. And if you find that I defend persecutors and persecute myself: bear with me without anger, and may the Lord give you peace and a crown of patience, both for all sorrow and for that which I inflict on you by contradiction. In your case, the registration of two dessiatines of land is not a decisive act, but confirmed by unforeseen accidents: therefore, it is doubtful that you decided to accept it for the approval of the highest. And the three doubtful tithes are not separated from the two doubtful tithes on the plan: therefore the plan is unlikely to be satisfactory for the higher authorities. You yourself could have foreseen and warned about this: but no one explained this to me until the consistory presented its decisively indecisive opinion. I wanted to write to you to correct the plan. But this would probably have lasted, and they would have received a written document in my relation to you to add me to the list of your persecutors. Therefore, I decided to introduce and introduced St. To the Synod, to petition for the highest permission for the life of the Spassky communal charitable institution, at the Spassky Church, which is on the batteries of the Borodino field. The performance has been heard, but what will happen is not yet visible. Pray for God’s mercy, without blaming people for their disfavor; why they could be unmerciful to you, I don’t think you can think of. Let the desert rejoice, and let it bloom like a creen. The Emperor approved the position of St. Synod on permission to triple the conditions of a women's charitable dormitory institution at the Church of the Savior on Borodino Field. In the position of St. The Synod said that this should be based on rules similar to those on which, with the permission of the blessed memory of Emperor Alexander, the Borisoglebsk Anosinsk almshouse, which is now a monastery, was established. And as these rules were the rules of the monastery community, except only for tonsure: it seems that now you have exactly what you asked for. Give thanks to God; pray for the Emperor; and be a godly community not only in name, but through sincere zeal to please God, and to promote each other in this, with unanimity, love and humility. After this, there is no need to write much about your letters of February 6 and 9. I am returning the missionary's letter. He follows the path that he himself has chosen. The path of a missionary is never easy. If he strengthens himself, he will receive reward from above. If the obstacles are insurmountable: he can tell his superiors. It is indecent for strangers to drag him back. And if someone outside, interfering in someone else’s business, distracted the missionary from his exploits, not knowing whether this was exactly necessary, and deprived those to whom he preached of benefits: what would it be, a benefit or a sin? Take care of the sisters of your hostel; and pray for the missionary. Peace be with you. Peace to all. Since the letter carrier will probably reach you no earlier than the holiday, then the first thing will fall to your share from me: Christ is Risen. Here are some thoughts on the occasion of your thoughts. It’s unpleasant when a person finds himself not the way he would like. But would it have been better if he had been pleased with himself and said: I demand nothing, as someone said in the third chapter of the Apocalypse? Let us fall with our poverty to the Rich One in mercy, and from Him let us ask for a white robe, which we cannot sew or weave for ourselves. Let him who is attached to an earthly place remember the saying of the Apostle: the earth and the works on it will be burned up. Let him who is attached to those of one accord strive even closer than they and himself to the One, who binds His own with a union of pure and free love. Let faith give you boldness. But one should not forget that rule, given by the fathers, based on the inspiration of humility: acquire insolence. Justify me before your neighbor Mrs. Voeikova. (I’m writing n’s name because I forgot my fatherland.) He writes about permission to serve in the church, without even saying the name of the church. The order required writing about this with a certificate from the dean, about the end of the renewal, and it was necessary to mention whether there was an Antimins or a new one was needed. It occurred to me that there was an idea about this: while they were taking care of business, time passed so that now it was too late to make an order at random in relation to the holiday. Let them write about this in order. Meanwhile, Vespers, Matins, hours and prayers can be served in the renovated church. God's blessing to you and the desert, every day, and therefore on the twenty-sixth of August. And for this and especially the blessing of the Mother of the Lord, who suffered from Mother’s sorrow for many years in advance, except consistently and, as she was so experienced, without a doubt, there was a lot of powerful help. Your messenger was withheld because I wanted to send you the rules, which several days ago I deliberately reminded the consistory, and then this morning I demanded and was encouraged by the presentation, but now it’s time for Vespers, and the rules have not arrived: you and I need to have patience. We do not seek a quick supply of money and do not force people to go into debt. You can come to Moscow: but when I heard about this intention, I admit, I thought about this incongruity: - they wanted and coveted the desert, having the will to be in the world; and when there is a desert, we look back at the world more often than before. Pyotr Ivanovich, it seems to me, takes advantage of grief, as a novice of Providence should. May the Lord help him. I don’t leave Moscow until the last days of this month: therefore, if I manage to make a short trip before a larger one, I will not reach your region. Enjoy the benefit of sitting quietly in the desert, and pray for those who are destined to come a lot. To the abbess of the Spassky hostel, and to those who strive with you, blessing and peace and help from the Lord. The concern you expressed on the 10th day of last January about the deprivation of what you received from the highest bounties has ceased, as you will see from the attached list in relation to me. And what do you say about the crosses of monasticism? It is good to accept them with humility and obedience from the hand of God, but there is no need to work them out for yourself. You see in the scripture that some are given a name that no one else can only accept, and it is not difficult for you to understand that it would be wrong to divulge such a name against the order of the one who gave it. Understand what you did too. You are told that the name was not given to you for the world. And you had no proof for the world that it was given to you. Why act against these instructions? After renouncing one’s will, what is one’s own will? Why should you boast before people about what you have received only for your soul and for God? It will humble your thoughts; it was not a virtue, but an error: it was not a legal profession of truth; for true Christians did not dare to confess the very name of Christ willfully and as they pleased. Moreover, having uselessly proclaimed a name that was unnecessary to the world, you took away help not only from yourself, but also from the community: what was the use of doing this without need? But let's end the competition with law. In the decree of St. The Synod of 1804, July 21, said that the ryassophore should not be mentioned in performances, and ryassophores with a change in their previous names are not written properly, that is, they should not be written like that. You are ordered not to violate this decree. Yesterday, on the same day as the above-mentioned attitude, I received your letter regarding the conversion of the hostel to the monastery, which, however, was already not unknown to me here, because according to your most humble letter, some information was taken from me. May the Lord arrange good things for you, and may a blessed covering be woven for you from unintentionally tangled threads. But how could you not have guessed that a letter about such a subject should not touch upon any extraneous or private matters, because that it should go to a public place? And a simple hostel could not always act as it would happen. But if you want to be a decorously organized monastery, please learn order. Now, you say, the monastery has not yet been born, but it’s already so strict! – We ask you not to be angry at what you have chosen for yourself. Blessing and peace from the Lord to Melania, the leader of the hostels, and to those who strive in the obedience of love. You see that they did not take away from you the name given with blessing. And that the old name has been put in the eyes of the world, what is there to cry about? Grand Duke Vladimir was named Vasily in holy baptism: did he really need to cry that they continued to call him Vladimir? Good names are not always proclaimed before everyone. There is a new name that no one knows, except take it as your own (Rev. 1:17). If only they would give this name; let them not tell others about him. And if someone were to say that he does not want to announce this name out of vanity, I would doubt whether he is right. Maybe not out of vanity: but with obedience? Is it with reasoning? If you are loved: thank God for those who love you, and for the fact that He will give you the consolation to see this: just be afraid to think that you deserve this. In the children of God, to love the love of God: and it also loves the unworthy, out of condescension and love for mankind. Therefore, a person cannot say: apparently I am worthy when they love me; no, the mercy of God is that good souls love you; feed on their kindness and love, and serve them with love in return. Does Alexander Ivanovich know that his daughter is not in perfect health? We must tell him to bring her memory more diligently to the feet of St. Mitrofan. In good moments, slowly remove the deepening thoughts of passion from her heart, then a quiet light will come to her nerves, and the attacking darkness will not embrace them. Your petition was forwarded to the consistory following the decree, which was delayed in St. Synod. Why do you want to be afraid for the hostel? Who thought of changing it? The consistory will ask you about the land and buildings. Give this information quickly so that the matter does not prolong. I am afraid that it will not have time to come to St. Petersburg with me. They will hardly agree to increase your staff to 40: however, if you want this, add this to the information that is required of you, or will be required. The rumors you hear must end on Easter Day. I wish that through the reverent memory of the Lord’s suffering you will come to the full joy of the Lord’s resurrection. Peace to you and the monastery. Someone speaks well about John the Baptist. Genuinely It’s wonderful that from his mother’s womb he strove for Christ, and spent almost his entire life separated from Him. This is submission to the destinies of God. Here is a lesson on how to position ourselves when something close to us comes from the visible to the invisible. Unable to hold on to the one who is leaving, we then hold on to the memorable images. Fate says: don’t hold on to this stubbornly. Ask where I heard him say that? I answer: she speaks not in words, but in events. She takes from you reminiscent images and thereby preaches submission and self-sacrifice. If he understands your loss or theft from you in this way, then he will not be too sad about what was lost or stolen. I was told to give my passport. I hear that the fence is being built successfully, and I am happy. Peace and blessing from the Lord to you and those who strive with you. Let it be known to you that today St. Synod on transforming your hostel into a monastery. Pray that the Lord will speak good things about you in the hearts of the Most Pious Sovereign and sacred rulers. I am not going to St. Petersburg, having asked for the highest permission to remain in Moscow, and therefore to be your personal representative before St. I cannot be a Synod. If you see anyone there who could say a word about you by the way: use it. Alexey needs to occupy and console himself by taking care of the children. Next, God will show him the way of life. The widow Gubinskaya had a hard time settling down as she wished. But the law and truth did not agree to Khlebnikov’s request for a church; and I shouldn’t argue with them. O. Anikita definitely died. A loss for the hierarchy. But even as the Holy God deliberates, who will destroy? The Holy Synod, taking Father Anikita from the Elias monastery to Athos, succumbed to the plague, which then devastated this monastery: but in Athens death came to him sooner than the Holy Synod could take him. Such cases remind us too. for our benefit, remember the latter. Meanwhile, health and strength to you, to the creation of the monastery and to the edification of your soul. The world of the desert and its inhabitants! May they hear the comforting voice of one crying in the wilderness, may they be filled, may the hills be humbled, and may they see salvation Those waiting for God's salvation. A good word: behold, Lord! I don’t know how to add to this: and it seems to me that the point is not to add, but to say it well. If: the heart speaks: well said. If you want to learn prayer from a person, then you are responsible for what we will pray for, as it should be, we do not know. If you say: Lord, teach us to pray: this is answered more than once. You want to be taught to love the Lord, but has anyone taught us to love the people we love? Haven't we loved strongly without learning to love strongly? Is it really more convenient to love something that is less worthy of love? - Her many sins are forgiven; because you love a lot: where did she learn to love like that? Instead of oil, she had tears of repentance; God's love for the repentant fell upon them like heavenly fire; and her lamp was kindled. Well, you notice that the Lord brings us closer to kind and humble souls as an example to us. Let us love Him in these instruments of His, and let us love them in Him. I am returning the reported letter. I had a wanderer. It is not he who is persecuted, but the law of the spirit we are persecuted by the law of writing; and the servants of this do not see what they are doing, or do not know how to do it in writing, what they see according to the law of the spirit. I offered him what I could. What kind of obedience did you not go to the cave: that is not a loss, but, perhaps, a gain. Prayer in a cell can have the same merit as prayer in a cave: in this case, obedience is a net gain. May God bless your obedience, whether in small or great things, and not for the sake of a person. To the prayers of the Venerable Melania, may God bless you with a new summer for the renewal of life and spirit in the image of Him who created in truth and reverence of truth. The image of St. Melania that you desired was delivered to me from the Lavra of St. Sergius, at the evening of her day after Vespers, and will now be forwarded to you. On the day of Venerable Melania St. The Synod signed a report on the transformation of the Spassky hostel into a hostel monastery. Of course, St. The Synod did not choose this day: but God arranged it that way. Now I have learned that this report has been approved by the highest order. Transfer and offer grateful prayers to God for the Most Pious Sovereign and His Spouse, and His Heir. Now, if it is true that you are still in Moscow, let me say that it is proper for monasteries to rush to the monastery. May the Lord establish your abode with His blessing and grace, and may He make it an abode of peace and salvation for those who come and stay. My path was cold and not without difficulty, so after that I had to be sick for a long time and sit in my cell, but not idle; By the new year I started going out. Christ is Risen! May the gracious joy of the resurrection strengthen your hope about our co-resurrection with Him, which begins secretly in the spirit, and which finally has the light of completion in our entire being, even in the body of our humility: may this hope be stronger than the fear of death. That's enough. The fact that there is a fear of death is not a problem. We saw it in the Fathers who labored a lot. It’s even more natural that he comes to us. And tell fear: you are right if our fate must be decided by the justice of God only; but now it’s a special situation; Christ died and was resurrected in order to destroy the fear of death, in order to wash away the handwriting of our sins with His blood; to forgive us who believe in Him, and to judge us by the court of mercy, which will take pity on us, among other things, because we are afraid of our unworthiness. So, fear, I am not afraid of you; stay, if God so desires, with me, and be my guardian from oblivion and entertainment; but don’t stop me from believing, loving and trusting. If you need treatment: don't reject it. Apparently, your affairs will need to be discussed in Moscow, where, God willing, I plan to go in mid-May. I doubt that she is the best boss, who wants to be a boss more than others. That is not what the spiritual law says. The abbess and spiritual mother in two persons, whatever you say, this is not a perfect unity, but a united duality, which can split in a way unfavorable for society. May the Lord protect us from this. I hear that Countess Anna Alekseevna has been in St. Petersburg for two days; I don’t know anything else, and I haven’t had a chance to tell her about your participation in her yet. May God bless and keep you and all those with you. The Lord bless the desert dedicated to His name and those who labor in it in His name. And from the sister abbess I ask a lot of forgiveness in silence, to tell the truth, unforgivable. Your letters demanded an answer, and reading them now, I don’t understand how I didn’t bother with this earlier. With an abundance of worries, my memory is poor. What I put off with care for another or third day: I forget at this time, and the former concern does not awaken my memory. I bless God with you, who has given you unexpected help, and I call upon His blessing to the benefactor. And now I don’t know what to say about the building, not knowing what you have done so far. Gothic taste seduces you hardly for the better. This is the architectural fashion of the present time: and fashion will soon pass. Then they will perhaps say: it’s funny that foreign, foreign, unnatural taste is taken for exemplary. But it's not that important. The more important thing is that the Gothic taste imposed on you will make the building more expensive and less durable due to small and protruding decorations. In my opinion, a good structure for the desert is one that is suitable for its purpose, cheap and durable. For this, take the taste you want. Although it is fair to punish me with silence for silence: do not refuse to let the mine know about you and your affairs, how you and your monastery are doing, and what you did this summer. Have you built at least part of the fence? Or did you do a lot? Taking on debt to build a farmstead is a very dubious matter. The hope of forgiveness is not true, and it is not good to do a debt without paying it in hope. In my opinion, it is better to have neither a farmstead nor a debt, than to have the burden and worry of debt with a farmstead. And in the Spasskaya desert there are no imams of the abiding city: but we still want to have a solid dwelling in the city! If God willing: good; blessed is He. But I don’t consider it characteristic of the desert to seek this in the proposed way. Trust in God, who will give you a host in Moscow if there is no courtyard. I sent you one or two printed sermons. Then he instructed the Archimandrite of Bethany to visit your monastery. So there is proof that I forgot the letter and the deed, and not you and the monastery. St. Petersburg, August 31, 1838 In the name of the Lord, blessing and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary, with all those who labor in the monastery. Two of your letters, from the 26th day of August, and from an unknown day, reached me; and I tasted the bitterness of complaining about futile waiting. But it was not in my power to prevent this. Last fall, they invited me to the village of Parfenyevo near Kolomna to consecrate the church so urgently that when I refused, they postponed the consecration until this spring. Since this spring they have come to me several times with the same request. But my urgent studies in Moscow, in the Lavra, at the Academy, illness in Moscow, illness in Kolomna, led to the fact that the day that I could have used for the consecration of a rural church was the day of your holiday, August 26. Meanwhile, they took advantage of the postponement of this matter to prepare two more churches for consecration, in the city itself and in another suburban village. Thus, I was continuously in church services in Kolomna for six days, and consecrated three churches. You can judge the pressure on my time because I could not make it to Moscow on the day of the name day of the Sovereign, the Heir to the Tsarevich. Now we are waiting for an order to bring thanks to God for the successfully completed marriage of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich on August 30, and the chairman for this reason I refused until the time to consecrate the church in the Berlyukovskaya Hermitage, which the rector also does not want the consecration to take place without me. Not far away is the feast of St. Sergius: and then autumn, a time for travel beyond my strength. Consider this excuse, and do not judge me harshly. Maxim came to me with a request that was not very easy to fulfill and was not signed. I don’t know yet what we will do with him. Princess Anastasia Mikhailovna looks with meek reasoning at the sad event that is close to her heart. I would like to talk with her often, but for me it is difficult and inconvenient to travel out of town, over a fairly long distance. It’s sad for me too to think about the branch of the ancient majestic tree, rejected and withered without the fruit of the branch. May the Lord find vitality in it, and may it plant it in a green place, where there is no withering and decay. Pray more deeply, but pray in peace, as the Church commands, and then peace will be sold to the troubled soul. Pray and think about Mary. It seems that her eye is quite accustomed to looking into the world, and it is necessary to turn it with art and work to the silence of the monastery. I remember I told you before that Moscow is not useful to her. In about. I suffered a great loss to Gabriel Andronievsky. The man was meek, obedient, active, faithful. Peace to his soul. Father Victor, it seems, did not even think about the Gethsemane monastery. He chose to stay somewhere in the south. Moscow, September 3, 1838 May your praises and worship be given to the Beginningless Child in faith and love with infantile simplicity, and may He accept them through the intercession of His Most Pure Mother, and may He bless you to be and remain immaculate before Him. I remember that I appointed several of you not only to be identified by decree, but also to be presented for tonsure. Not seeing anything about this, I asked the Right Reverend, and am waiting for an answer. But don’t delay reminding me of what I need. My weak memory is crushed by many burdens. Your former confessor has received permission to officiate. Pray and make good use of this. Don't envy those who cut their hair early. Maybe the more difficult it will be to manage. I rejoice that God is helping Varvara Ivanovna Kolesova to enter the path of obedience, putting aside any extraneous burden. Apostle, if we delve into the name, is a sign of those called to the Apostolic, completely consecrated life to God. Perhaps it was the veil of virgins who lived in churches, but not in monasteries, which, when the monastic image became more general, was kept by some, and abandoned by others. According to its original form, it should have been a blanket covering the head and ramen, cut in one place so that one could breathe, read and speak freely. Now, I don’t know what the full form of this veil is, seeing it only on the shoulders: but it is obvious that it is no longer in its ancient simplicity, from the fact that in some monasteries they do not wear the apostle, one cannot draw the conclusion that it can or should be worn; from the fact that nuns wear it in others, one cannot conclude that it can be worn by non-nuns. The example of non-nuns who wear the apostle and are condemned by nuns for this does not encourage imitation. And by what right will you have some in the kamilavka and others in the apostle? “From this, I think, you will see that your thought about the use of the apostle is not mature enough to be able to carry it out with reason. You say that Kamilavka is expensive. Wonderful! Does the monastic order really require velvet and edges? On the contrary, he finds it difficult to tolerate this. The simpler and cheaper the kamilavka, the more monastic it is. If your head does not tolerate heaviness: make a kamilavka as thin as a blanket. Who is stopping this? However, I am reasoning, and not necessarily demanding a change in what you allowed in case of weakness. To the two sisters, bound by friendship to the point that the grief from the separation of their lives extends to fits, it must be said that in the house of the Heavenly Father there are many abodes, that they cannot demand from Him placement in one heavenly abode, for there is given to everyone what is prepared by faith, works and predestination; what a person brings into a future life is what he has acquired in the present; that, consequently, if in heaven they were divided into different abodes, they, with their private affection and sorrow for each other, could not be blissful, and consequently would be incapable of heaven; and for all this, it is necessary to wisely moderate stubborn private affection and subordinate it to general love, meek and obedient. With this and similar admonition, it is necessary to induce those who are excessively bound by friendship to gradually accustom themselves to endure separation complacently. I don’t recommend allowing anything special from outsiders into the monastery next summer. I wouldn’t even want a hotel on monastery land, although they may be tempting you with benefits. If on your land, especially not close to the monastery, there is an elevated place where it is decent to arrange places for spectators and especially for female spectators: I do not see this as indecent for your monastery. So I think: and if another thought comes with conviction, I will try to write to you about it soon. I will order that orders be sent directly to you. O. False grief came to Methodius through illegal means. From this we must take the instruction that it is better, especially for a monk, to peacefully wait for what will come in the legal way. This example of a sorrowful thought, about which we must soon be ashamed, why we had it, and with it we condemned another in vain, can be taken into consideration for you too. – If we are humble, then it is enough for us if others are disposed towards us, although due to someone’s mercy, and not due to our dignity alone. If we have a good opinion about our neighbor, then we more readily think that he favors us for the sake of love for God, and not through any human agency. However, I say this not against you, but to help you against your thoughts. I would like to know what you think about the bell tower. The money could probably be issued by spring. Are you thinking of starting construction in the spring? If your monastery had stayed next summer, as I saw it last summer, this view would have been pleasant, and would have improved even more if God helped finish the hospital church. But if construction begins: the unfinished building and materials will damage the appearance of the place. Tell me what you think? May God bless you, and the sisters, and the monastery for the new summer, and may He cover you with His grace. May the abbess and sisters have faith and love for the Risen One by approaching the rite of the Myrrh-Bearers: and to you too may the Lord say: Rejoice, full, holy, inalienable. Rejoice, and I rejoice, that you are beginning to have nuns, and may they multiply. Who can be clothed in the ryassophore, write by name, with consideration. The Holy Synod, I think, can justify itself against your complaint for your pension. You wrote: build a monastery and pay his pension—and that’s what was done. If they had written: establish a monastery, give it a staff position, and, on top of that, give it a pension: then perhaps you would have said in response: there are already a lot of monasteries in the Moscow diocese, and it is impossible to impose new unnecessary expenses on the treasury. I hope it is impossible to take away ,000 rubles from you: this appointment has been approved by the Highest. The concern remains to use it well and give an account well. If you like, I say that I don’t get bored with your affairs, and that sometimes difficulties arise in them, so I ask you not to get bored if you can’t avoid them. But it is not unnecessary to foresee the difficulties of taking precautions. By accepting too many people, are you not making it difficult for yourself to embrace them with sufficient supervision and guidance, and to be satisfied with the content? I consider it necessary to draw your attention to this. On about. I don’t have Alexei’s anger: but what should I do with him? Having refused to serve in the spiritual government, he refused to receive awards: for awards are not given for one priestly service. I look for an opportunity to console him: but sometimes he snatches the opportunity from me. Vera Alekseevna noticed that you were preoccupied; but I didn’t complain about you. I rejoice at the good news about the new Luzhetsky treasurer. I’ll write about the position of confessor later, and if I forget, remind me. Blessing and comfort from the Lord. There is a good and beneficent order in the affairs of the Lord's destinies. Calling you to heavenly love, the Lord gradually took from you the object of earthly, although, however, immaculate love. The soul remained next to you, which shared with you the memory of this love: after giving you time to get used to the hardships, He finally took her too. Give Him this pledge too in peace, with prayer and with hope. Now your child and your friend are the Spasskaya Monastery. Accept consolation, and keep your peace, for her peace and consolation. It would be more appropriate to write this: but I am increasingly exhausted and can do and write little. I heard that you are asking for a rental amount, and also that they want to deduct interest. What will you decide on in this case? – I would like to talk about this here: but illness prevents me. The Lord does not require harsh food, a cruel bed, and the like from your weakness, but quiet prayer, love, care for your sisters, and the preservation of your health in order to fulfill your duties. Indulgence towards the obstinate is a different matter: this is good instead of a cruel bed. Don’t be angry with Varvara Ivanovna; I gave her a book to collect benefits for the monastery. Guardians for orphans have been given time. Blessings and peace from the Lord. I hear that you are in Moscow, and you are stopping Varvara Ivanovna in St. Petersburg. What does this mean? Would you like to take some rent money? In this case, I will tell you that if I find out about this enterprise of yours, I will try to stop it and give you time to think about your intention again. Deducting interest over 16 years will rob you of about half your capital. By taking the rest, you will do little to last for the monastery, and you will deprive yourself and the monastery of much. In my opinion, you should not suddenly take rental money, but receive it annually, and spend part of it, and turn part into capital for the monastery: in the event of your death, write a most loyal letter so that what was given to you will be provided to the monastery in the remaining years. How about building a bell tower? It is not the pillar of Babylon that you need to build; can be built by time; It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t take a long time to build. But there is a way to soon build a small building: for the collection for the book already extends to 20,000 rubles. In order for the monastery to better remember to pray for benefactors, from this amount, if not half, then certainly 5,000 rubles must be converted into permanent capital for the benefit of the monastery. The rest will remain at your disposal for the actual needs of the monastery, especially construction. Priest Peter Nikiforov is a modest and temperate man, and would be suitable for you to serve in Divine services. But how can you arrange it for you? Where will he live? How? What does it mean to give up a place? Church rules oblige us to elect worthy people, and not to enter into trade deals. By agreeing to accept the Tula nun, you acted out of your love for humanity: and in refusing, I acted out of a duty of justice. Your monastery is already burdened with crowds. And is it fair to allow strangers to occupy regular monastic places, and thereby block the path of some of those who have worked in your monastery? It’s good that when deciding the case, I didn’t know about those interceding, and I didn’t have the sorrowful thought that I wasn’t fulfilling the desires of many good souls. The Most Reverend Taborsky sent you joy 1, as you say; but I obviously care. Do you think it’s easy to conduct a service that is not included in the church service books? - It would be good if they made the translation at the Academy and delivered it to me with the original. When Varvara Ivanovna told me that you were angry with her and showed her your letter: I interpreted it to her and showed her that it was written not out of anger, but out of love. She calmed down. But in one of your letters, I see that you are talking somewhat impatiently about her struggle. She feels the wrongness of her not peaceful disposition, and grieves about it, but still does not find the strength to defeat temptation. Don't judge her; and help her with words of edification and love and prayer. God's blessing and peace to the abbess and sisters of the monastery. I rejoice in your peace: may it be inviolable until the joy of heaven. If it is true that the place given to the bell tower is not entirely consistent with your purpose: stop thinking about it. The best thing is for it to be built and for the worries to end. There is something more necessary to create, and so on, and higher: build yourselves in the church as clergy, as the disciple of the Great Architect advises; Build each other up with good reason, love and mutually good examples. Thank you for the berries, especially the dry ones. We need to think about medicine and bread, and not about luxury. If Sister Sophia wishes to be in Moscow: dismissal depends on the judgment of the abbess. I am sending you a church book so that you can use it to glorify God who saves you in church. Why shouldn’t the procession be the same as it was before? Let it begin from Borodino with prayer singing; in front of the Savior image of the monument, the Gospel will be read, and the prayer: God save you, your people, with the overshadowing of the cross; then, with the end of the prayer singing, they will come to the monastery for the liturgy. You can release Evdokia to St. Sergius. We talked with sister Elizabeth about electing your treasurer. She is amazed that some people desire this obedience. If they truly wish, then I am amazed too. To refuse obedience would be wrong: and to desire more is wrong. It is necessary to choose not those who want to, but those who know the matter and have the strength to bear the labors and infirmities of the weak. May the Lord guide your society with a spirit of humility and love. Moscow. August 21, 1840 Blessed be God. Blessed is the king's heart. Blessed is his beloved firstborn, and may the one he has chosen to be his companion in life be a joint heir of blessings. I am glad that I was chosen to be at the anointing of the Princess. With God's help, she will have in you a praying soul next to her, feeling the importance of faith, the purity of Orthodoxy and the holiness of the sacrament. God will help you to speak words of peace, love and comfort into her heart. It is good that you too are receiving a new awakening to pray with love for your beloved royal family. A feat is necessary: ​​and praying with love is the easiest and most pleasant of feats. To your question: what to answer? I wouldn’t like to answer, because just like you, I don’t want to be the one to blame for refusal. But I think that it is more natural for you to choose one of the houses where there is a church; and of these, one seems to resemble a monastery somewhat more than the others. May the Lord guide you and direct your ways. Peace to your monastery and to those who labor in it. My journey is almost beginning. Pray that I will be guided to return to the world. Moscow. October 21, 1840 Z6. May God the Word speak peace upon His people, and upon those who form hearts towards Him, and may the soul of His servant Mary cover them with peace. But why do we call for peace? Why does the Lord Himself command to call him? Without a doubt, either because we have a deficiency in it, or we possess it imperfectly, or we do not possess it without the danger of violation and loss of it. This happens to everyone in time: what is unchangeable, inviolable, and safe belongs to eternity. Therefore, it is not surprising that the states of the soul change, and sometimes in such a way that it is difficult to give oneself an account of the reasons for the change that has occurred. Not only do natural states pass from one form to another, but also states of grace ascend, according to the gift of God, and descend, according to God’s dispensation, so that man may humble himself. So, we should not be too alarmed by changes, but consider, firstly, whether it was due to our negligence or infidelity that the change from better to worse occurred, in order to hasten to cleanse our negligence or infidelity through repentance and correct it; secondly, how, in the state that has befallen us, we can correspond to the intentions of Providence, and turn the worst into a means for the better. In peace and consolation, let us offer a sacrifice of glorification and gratitude to God who gave them; in sorrow and deprivation, let us offer Him the sacrifice of patience, devotion to His destinies. Let us say to our despondent soul: Thou art most sorrowful to my soul! Trust in God. And let us remind the careless one of the commandment: work for the Lord with fear. Let us also point out the barren fig tree: but so that instead of being excited to bear fruit, it is not consumed by horror, let us also remember the Good Worker, who digs in and makes fat. May the Lord make you wise for salvation. Sorry for writing late. I am often ill. For Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, pray with love and hope without embarrassing worries. She, thank God, is now healthy. We are little by little taking care of Ms. Levina’s son. I don’t know if God will allow me to achieve what I want. I don’t complain that you are generous with the requests for the children of the Ruza Archpriest, but it is difficult for me to be generous in fulfilling them. If they are arguing with the archpriest’s children over the place of an orphan: what would you order to do here? Regarding those sent to you for correction, I ask the wrong question: should you correct? but about this: where will you place them? If they turn out to be unsuitable for you: write to me officially about this to apply for transfer to another place. Blessings from the Lord to you and those with you for the joy of the Feast of Feasts. Christ is Risen! Bless you in the Lord. The Right Reverend of Voronezh wrote to me about his brother, but not in his own hand, as he wrote to you, and I then wrote to Count Nikolai Alexandrovich everything that I could imagine for the desired end of the matter; and answered the Eminence in his own hand. I am returning letter 5. Books to collect now will probably not be superfluous for you. Send a petition; I hope it will not be refused. However, others should not envy the Serpukhov nuns. The Moscow diocesan authorities boast that their monasteries are not bothersome: only in Serpukhovskaya the women's monastery complains that they often ask for books to collect. I do not praise that the unsealed letters entrusted to you were given to the novice without a seal. It would not be superfluous for them to be sent along with your reports, so that it would be clear that as much as was sent, so much was received and transferred according to their ownership. I’m waiting for what you will say when you receive a decision on land, which is incomprehensible to me. Moscow. September 9, 1841 Peace to the soul of the slave Boia Maria, despite the waves of embarrassment from those who do not care about peace. Look calmly at people who do not see what they are doing, using non-peaceful words, and consequently depriving themselves of peace before violating it in others. I would say: look at them with pity, if I were not afraid that the condemnation of your neighbor would not be revealed here. It used to be that they looked for dignity in speaking softly, but now they look for it in speaking harshly, and therefore they sometimes speak worse than they think. If for a charitable deed you need to pay with the patience of unpleasant words: do not bother with a clear payment. It’s good that you have to pay in coins that don’t need to be borrowed. I wrote to you immediately about the favorable decision in your case, as it was known verbally, and then I ordered a list to be sent to you in writing. manage; and with the benefit of the monastery, console yourself in some of the difficulties of the household. Beware of feelings of annoyance. The anger of a husband does not serve the truth of God. Don't feel bad for others because they're not doing well. I don’t know what M. is accused of, and I’m not defending him. And what about O.-P. I was not at fault in your case, and I have no doubt that he would have a favorable ending, as much as possible. I wish your sick people good health, and Euphrosyne not to think about her superiors, so that either she may be at peace in obedience, or, if the Lord calls, she will rule not out of passion. Venerable Abbess Mary and with those who strive with you in a single fence; especially in the unity of spirit and heart, in the name of the Lord blessing, peace and salvation. Returning Ms. Evreinova’s letter to you, I could only say that efforts are being made about the Smirnitsky case, and there is some hope. I hope that you will help him through prayer, knowing that the king’s heart is in the hand of God. The case of the Alator nun was forwarded to the consistory. I don’t know what she will say, and I don’t know what to do with the fact that your cramped abode is increasingly filled. Where do you fit? - In this regard, perhaps it wouldn’t be bad if a swarm swarmed from you to the Polotsk monastery. But maybe honey is more needed there than bees. The establishment of a monastery there is in progress; there seems to be a deficiency in the methods; but apparently there is no shortage of people. Maybe these days I’ll write to you again, if I have something to write about. For the sake of the One who suffered and rose again, I pray that through the saving contemplation of His passion He will lead you into the full joy of His resurrection. To the Venerable Abbess Mary, grace and peace from the Lord, and to those who strive with you. About Euphrosyne, I think, has already been written to you from the consistory. She was just now with me, and she says that her health does not prevent her from going. When she told me that the Polotsk family had suggested that she refuse, then the question presented itself to me: would her service be convenient and useful, whereas even under the best circumstances it should not be without difficulties? I did not hide these thoughts from her, and gave them to her to think about. She said among other things that it was inconvenient for her to refuse because the matter had been made public: it seems to me that this is not so much a feeling of inconvenience as an inclination to accept the call. However, I consider it my duty not to stop the work begun without me, and I wish that as much as possible, the desire of... who cares about the establishment and expansion of Orthodoxy in this region will be fulfilled. You can invite Euphrosyne with you, without a doubt, only to those who wish, with your consent to their dismissal: but to take whomever he wants without asking consent would be both unfair and not useful. The arrival of Prince Alexander Nikolaevich to you is not postponed, but it is not completely decided either. There are still some expectations that the execution must resolve. I'm glad you're at peace. May the Lord preserve this treasure for you; and you guard it and do not allow those who try to steal it. Peace be upon you all, and may relief be given to the sick. Some want to go to Polotsk, others to Voskresensk. And another asks whether it is possible to look for peace closer than a few hundred miles away. In the name of the Lord, blessings to you and the monastery. The returned letter says that I wrote to Pr... V. to send money for the trip. This is not true. I did not write, and did not promise to write on my own behalf. And if she says that she has no way to go, then I will write this. The letter invites you to an initiation. This is again not true. I said that they were not asking me to initiate, and I could not initiate. The question of which carriage E. will travel in also does not belong to me. I have neither the duty nor the time to extend my curiosity to threads, an awl and a shoemaker’s belt. I only said that, probably, there are no ways to go, and they haven’t been written to me about them. If E. does this, then of course he will not bring any benefit to the place, nor will he gain the favor of the new authorities. In all likelihood, more will be required of her than she can fulfill. And her health does not call for great feats. What does it call for? “I wish that it was pure jealousy, and not lust.” According to the law, she cannot demand anything from you. And your abode is not so rich that you don’t need to be thrifty. This is what I can still say regarding E’s case. If you find it necessary, you can read this letter to her. I pray to God that He will instill in her something useful. I am writing this by fire, almost unable to see the lines. Celebrated today; and tomorrow I think I will be in Novospasskoye for the funeral of Hieromonk Philaret. That's why I don't write anymore. Blessings and peace and salvation from the Lord to you. If you want to know my opinion about the letter: know that I cannot approve of Onago. The content of the letter is as follows: “I don’t want to become one of the sisters, I want to become an abbess.” Can monastic lips speak like that? And what is the goal? If Pr... V. wanted to have the writer of this letter to the abbess, then after this letter, of course, he won’t want it. Is it possible to send this letter so that they will show it and say: this is how they write from the Borodino Monastery? Having reasoned about the letter in this way, I could not allow it to be sent before you knew my opinion, as you wished, and therefore I am forwarding it to you. If it is absolutely necessary to send: let this be done in such a way that I would not be guilty of this. And if it is truly clear from the statements that there is an abbess, then how can we demand that the Pr... destroy her and make another? It seems that things would go better if you followed the official direction, that is, you would demand from the summoned the response prescribed, without wasting time and without waiting for confirmation, which should not slow down. I know that I do not need to ask you to do what is possible to admonish or calm the tempted one: I ask that you do not complain much about temptation; and with a peaceful heart he called on the Lord for a peaceful end. Moscow. September 11, 1842 I'm on my way to some monasteries. Rev. Abbess Mary rejoice in the Lord. May the grace of the Lord cover you and your abode. It is good to seek peace in thinking about heavenly things and the insignificance of earthly things. However, earthly needs cannot be neglected by those who must care for the brethren. Let us do what is for heaven as work, and what is needed for earth as a share, and not so much for ourselves as for the brethren. I hesitated to let Euphrosyne go before asking about a travel allowance for her, fearing that she herself would be in difficulty and would make it difficult for others with her requests, but seeing from your letter that she wanted to poison herself without the allowance, I allowed it. It’s a pity that she’s trying so hard, not knowing where to go. On your instructions, I forgot to tell Ekaterina Vladimirovna: now I will try to fulfill it. I am returning the letter from the Most Reverend Evlampius. If you write to him, bow to him from me. I know that he and I, even in silence, remain in the communion of peace. I traveled safely. He consecrated two churches in the Berliukov Desert and in the Lavra. The Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated in Khotkovo. About forty people are asking for a diaconate in Novaya Sloboda. Among them are those who have neither shelter nor bread, so I don’t know what can be done for the widow, whose request is not supported by the parishioners. I have a letter from Prince Alexander Nikolaevich; does not indicate improvement in vision. I am very sad about its removal: but it does not seem to be the last. May the Lord protect him as the message Himself. May the Protection of the Lord cover you too. Moscow. October 5, 1842 I rejoice that the Lord accepted your service and brought the one who was moving away closer to Himself. I read two letters. What is written to me is better for me, because it contains less poetry and more monasticism. Maria says that she has been running from Khotkov for eleven years, and everything returns to it as if by an unknown force. Perhaps, indeed by an unknown force, perhaps in this refraction of the will there is a good that would not have been found in a spiritual flight from monastery to monastery. I’m not driving her away from your monastery for a period of time: but whether she should stay with you requires a lot of discussion. I'm returning your book. This is under the name of the history of Jerusalem, sacred history, as I remember, I already told you by guess, without seeing the book. The writer is not without faith, but the now fashionable romanticism interferes with it. Is it good to call the books: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy the Jewish Odyssey? Is it good to say about the Jewish people: “from the magnificent and gigantic epic of Jehovah he passed on to the meager comedy of mysterious liars imprisoned in dark caves?” – This is a literal translation from your book. It seems to me that better reading can be found for a monastery than this. I am sending one book, perhaps already known to you: I will try to send another soon, one that will completely replace yours, without poetic idle talk. Peace and health to you and your hosts. Venerable Abbess Mary, and rejoice in those who strive with you in the Lord. I thank God with you that you returned safely, and that your helper has relief from her illness. May the Lord’s help not forsake you all in all things necessary, and especially for the salvation of souls. I am returning letters from Polotsk. - It’s strange that they don’t receive yours there. Isn't anyone hesitant to give them away in order to act more strongly to retain Palladium, which has no support? – Or is it a sin to think so? - According to the letters, there is a lot of entertainment there with visits, perhaps to console the newcomers. May they find this good work at home. Palladia, I think, it’s better to return. To Sofya Ivanovna I have called and continue to call upon God’s blessing; and I send the image to her as a blessing, without competing with her for not being with me when she was in Moscow. Wasn’t it the story I read about her grandmother? - If so, then a good blessing and instruction from her was given to her grandson. For your guest Maria, everything points to a return to Khotkov, except for her own thoughts and desires, which the Lord wants to subjugate to His will and His inscrutable wisdom. We will see how further the path of the Lord will appear, which, most often, is not like the way of men. To Ekaterina Ivanovna, who is ill, the mercy of the Doctor of the soul and body. Peace to you all. Child of Bethlehem, Father of the next century, may he bless you with both temporal and eternal blessings, so that you may be like children in integrity, simplicity and love on earth, and finally His perfect children in heaven. Truly Christ has risen! Rejoice, sister, in the Lord, as the risen Lord Himself commanded, and let no one take your joy, and let nothing force you to act contrary to the command of the Lord. Didn’t He endure all the suffering so that none of our sorrows would be unbearable? Didn’t He die and rise again so that He could be our hope in death and life after death, so that it would be convenient for us not to fear death and not to grieve for the dead? Peace to the soul of the Virgin Catherine. She accomplished her feat with faith and patience; you have performed a service of love. Pray for her in peace and let her pray for you in peace. Physical blindness should not be considered an important disadvantage. It does not stop the invisible communication of faith and love. There is no doubt that there is benefit in the past service of love, and there will be benefit in submission to the fate of God. Sorry for being late in writing. This is my common illness. May grace and peace be with all and you. I don’t know what you could be afraid of in relations with the spiritual government, but, at your request, I will tell the consistory to write directly to you. “And that you can always write to me, whenever you want, instead of a consistory or spiritual government, I believe you have known for a long time.” From the Lord a blessing to His servant, Abbess Mary, for relief, peace, and health. You act as if you were healthy and caring for the sick. It is true that we were very concerned about the first news, but we already had others who were filled with compassion and increased the hope that the Lord, who visited you with a test of patience, would support you and restore you. There was no need to work with the right hand, so as not to increase the work of the left. Tabitha could have retold what you wrote. Seeing your handwriting is useful to me only in order to notice in the firmness of the handwriting the preservation of some strength and peace, which gives hope for complete restoration. I ask you to do your best to maintain peace of mind, this is a medicine that you can always give to yourself, and which is no less important than external medical remedies for the body, much more so for the soul. I hope that Grigory Yakovlevich will not be angry with my recipe and will not reject it. I knew a man who, having become ill, said to himself: now the Lord does not require from you efforts that, perhaps, you would not use fully, or incorrectly, or not to the point; no matters for which you should be responsible; but requires that you simply and obediently accept what He does to you. And thus he had peace in illness, rather than in health. May the Lord help you endure your illness in peace and with benefit, for He sends everything for good. They say that you need to stay in Moscow for at least four weeks, and your hand should wear its bonds for six weeks. I advise you not to rush from Moscow until your hand is freed from its bonds and medical care for it has passed. Thank Abbess Apollinaria for me because she is trying to reassure me with reliable news about you. Tell Grigory Yakovlevich my wish for God’s blessing, and my gratitude for taking care of you. And about me, inform him that I feel the fruit of the treatment he used, and in Bethany, during periods of rain, I walk around the garden, across the field, and through the forest, paying less attention to the dampness of the air than I was forced to do before. Peace be with you and those who are with you and your abode. Blessing and peace from the Lord to the Venerable Abbess Mary, the sisters and the monastery. I was told that you are asking: should I take money from the safe treasury to build a cell? - A question that is not easily resolved. You were told that with methods that exist for several years and must cease, it is necessary to create a capital that would somehow ensure the maintenance of the monastery for the future; Meanwhile, you were advised not to multiply the number of sisters beyond the means of accommodation and food. Little capital has been saved so far. The number of sisters, as I hear, reaches 130. In this course of affairs, one should be afraid that by taking capital and building cells, you will further increase the number of living, destroying the small previously saved provision for the future. It is necessary, although unpleasant, out of an abundance of caution, to think that the more people you gather with you, the more helpless people will be left behind, who will leave the monastery, looking for bread, and will not soon find another. I present to you a mental view of the gloomy future, so that it is not presented to the eye in action itself, but so that, with the help of God, you can come to your senses and prepare a bright view for the days ahead. It would not be a bad thing if you considered my doubts and wrote to me how you resolve them. Without that, I don’t know what to tell you decisively. After Euphrosyne, St. The Synod awarded you her inheritance. It’s easy to get money, but things are not so convenient. The consistory will probably ask you how to dispose of it. Meanwhile, I hear that taking care of things was made easier by the thieves, who hardly left anything behind. Write what you think you will do with it. I ask for patience for the first part of this letter. Some dispute for lasting peace is better than careless indifference and abandonment of precautions under the guise of peace. Moscow. December 10, 1843. Having read your letter again and seeing that you promise not to sew with gold, I find it unnecessary to remind you that I did not decisively demand this, but only drew your attention to the inconveniences that may arise from the predominance of luxurious work. Sew in gold if it is necessary and useful to the monastery: but maintain simple necessary works and handicrafts, and a readiness to turn from the elegant and magnificent to the simple and necessary when circumstances require it. I wish you and those with you to worship the Infant Lord Jesus with childlike simplicity of heart and devotion of faith and love. God's blessing and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary and to those who strive with you. Don't be angry with us and the consistory. I told you that you do not know the laws: the consistory showed me that I do not know or remember everything. Recently prescribed by St. Synod, so that when submitting plans for the construction of buildings, a plan of the area must also be submitted. This is now required of you. About the road, I conveyed your desire to the civil governor. He said that it could be fulfilled with time; and now there are no ways. In anticipation of this, think that our fathers lived, and even loved to live, in places where there were no roads at all. Thank God that the path to the kingdom of heaven is prepared for everyone. Truly Christ is risen! Rejoice in the risen Lord, with the Myrrh-Bearers, offering Him, instead of peace, a prayer fragrant in His name. Myrrh is poured out upon His name. May the Lord bless you and those who struggle with you with peace and joy. Earthly joy is permeated with sadness, because the soul intimately feels the unsatisfactoryness of earthly things and the need for something better. Sorrow for the Lord is permeated with joy, because the soul anticipates what the Apostle said: sorrow, which according to God... brings about salvation. Let us seek joy in which the sting of sadness is not hidden. Let us not be afraid of sorrow, which will turn into joy. Thank you for the artos. And with you I thank God for the bread sent to you. Hello spiritually and physically. Blessings and peace to the Reverend Abbot and Mary. You already know that what you did without permission is permitted. So you see that there is no harm in what is done in the spirit of brotherly love. It does not interfere with management and does not banish reasoning. Let us set aside passion and our will from the authorities: let brotherly love rule, and let reasoning be his assistant. You make such strong excuses against my letter that he may be guilty. If I heard about the debts on you, I forgot: and therefore had no thought about them. But there is no dispute that debts must be paid and that this need is stronger than many others. But you do not justify yourself in what constituted the whole strength of my argument, that you accepted too many people, and as a result there is barely enough money for the present, and the year steals everything from which something should be saved for long-term needs and to provide for future years. You built a table: and now you want to build another, probably because it has become cramped for the increased number of people. Will it be necessary to build a third one in a few years? What methods are sufficient for this? And how can you not talk about frugality, given your limited methods? - This is where it would be more necessary for you to justify yourself, and to reason with me. However, I do not judge or condemn, but I am concerned and want to achieve something soothing for me and for you. I see the plan and estimate. They are not signed by anyone. I told you before: when you were a hostel, then you could manage your home; Now you are a monastery, and must act officially. If the plan and estimate are to be submitted to the authorities: they must be signed by a recognized architect, and submitted with a detailed report. To reason about your assumption, I need to know why you throw away the old meal and kitchen, and build new ones, and what the old ones will be used for later. The long courtyard between the building and the stone wall, four arshins wide, is hardly suitable for anything. Neither the wind nor the sun will dry it; and the snow will probably drift so much that it will be difficult for you to open the doors to the yard. Wouldn't it be better to have a corridor instead of a yard; and to make room for a courtyard, cut off the end of the proposed building. A one-story building, a meal and a kitchen, will cost 20,000 rubles. What should it cost to house many of your sisters, placed, of course, very closely, in decaying wooden buildings? Wouldn’t it be more advantageous to build a small second floor above the same walls, under the same roof, to house the sisters? Perhaps more questions would arise that need to be resolved if we were to talk about the ones I have now proposed. The architect cannot answer me: but you can. Judge by this whether I can give a decisive review of your project. What do you need bells for? “Before they complained that there was no bell tower, but now, apparently, it’s boring to go to it.” Lower the rope from the bell to the ground: it’s cheaper than spending 1,200 rubles. to buy bells again. Forgive me for this objection, and do not be angry with the architect from whom I found out the enterprise to buy bells. I will expect from you to continue our peaceful dispute, or to explain what is not clear and incomprehensible to me. I mean the bell of six poods, which, it seems, can be delivered to you. Write if it will be needed and suitable. Blessings and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary and to those who strive with you, in pleasing the will of God, always good and perfect, in oblivion of your own will, not always good and always imperfect. I rejoice in your joy in contemplating the Epiphany. May the grace of God revealed to the world, saving all mankind, appear savingly to your mind and heart and life. Let us glorify Him who was glorified on the Jordan with the voice of the Father, and let us humble ourselves before Him who humbled ourselves on the Jordan under the hand of a slave. Let us love, for the sake of the Glorified One, and for the sake of the Humble One, may he show us his love. Let us turn to the matters of our humble service. If we recognize ourselves as ignorant: why extend into distant relationships? Are you asking us to address our own people rather than strangers? Isn’t it easier to admonish ignorance at home and correct an error than to publicly indicate illegality from afar? Why assume ill will in a case whose failure is simply explained by non-compliance with the legal order. The case, spoiled, among other things, by the overdue passport, was dragged out onto the road. But you have to judge whether it is worth so much effort. Removal from the Goritsky monastery to a non-existent monastery, disagreement with the nun for whom the novice left the monastery - these are not traits that would provide you with security and encouragement when accepting a novice. They told me news about you today. I ask: through whom did you receive it? – Through the novices these days. Consequently, not through the one about whom I am writing this. And it’s not uncommon that I hear about you traveling around Moscow. Shouldn't you pay attention to this? Don't you need to use more firmness, although not pleasant to everyone, instead of leniency, which exposes those entrusted to you to the danger of stumbling, and you to responsibility for failure to protect? Should we not remember the fatherly word that monks outside their cells, and especially outside the monastery, like fish out of water, soon die? I would write, I think, more, this is what worries me, but they urgently call me to do something else. Save yourself, and take care of the salvation of those entrusted to you. In the name of the Lord, blessing to the Venerable Abbess Mary with the sisters of unanimity and daughters of obedience. He who forgave us for fourty days in order to correct our intemperance, and who by a perfect feat overcame every temptation, in order to gain us the strength to induce temptations, may he strengthen you for the feat of fasting for the purification of souls and bodies, so that with purified hearts and lips you may partake of the Most Pure One, so that you may taste the sweetness of sorrow in His suffering and the enduring joy in His resurrection. At the hour of farewell, responding to your letter, now received, I ask you for forgiveness and fellowship in prayer, so that no matter what I preach to others, I myself will be inaccessible. According to the instructions that have been revealed, I do not contradict your embassy in St. Petersburg, and this is better than for you to undertake the journey. About accepting a new sister from St. Petersburg, think for yourself and decide: I only care about your crowded and crowded conditions. What you said about S-x will not harm them, and knowing this is not useless. There is no need to be annoyed by this at all. If the consistory and the vicar and I did not handle the matter well; then let him be corrected. One priest, in a request, asked me for permission to complain to the Holy Synod: I said in the decision that this request does not require my permission, but he must judge for himself whether he has legitimate reasons to complain. S.... came to me and only asked permission to look for places: I said that this permission was given to him when solving the case. Then, when an opportunity arose, I assigned him a place, not forbidding him to look for another if he wanted. I received a letter from Sofia Ivanovna, instead of what I thought I would see her in Moscow, and for that I thank her if it is more convenient for her to write than to speak. I wish that she would not be embarrassed by circumstances, as she complains, but would either be favorable or could not shake her spirit, established in calm devotion to the will of God. – That our desires are not fulfilled is sometimes not worse, but better. God's blessing to the abbess and the monastery. Give a prayer to someone who is praying, I hope it will not be taken away from you. And the experience is that after rumor it is difficult to tell the sisters to love the fence of the monastery and beware of external rumors. Do not demand much from a weak body so that it does not become weaker, but show it indulgence to preserve its strength, so that, as St. Maximus says, you may have in it a co-worker in serving something better. There is no need to worry about the form of the statements sent to me, but take care of the correct form of what should go to the highest or secular authorities. This was said by the way: but accept this, not as an accident, but as a necessary warning note. Why did you tremble on February 23 at the thought of dying on June 14, when, without any prior knowledge, you knew that you could die on the same day, February 23? If we live, we live according to the Lord; if we die, we die according to the Lord - soon, or not soon, foreseen, or unforeseen. However, if the thought of June 14 reminds you of preparation for the great path, take advantage of this reminder, preparing yourself with purification, faith, prayer, and love. A dream is not yet a prophet; The prophet Jeremiah teaches about the prophet: by the word that comes, they recognize the prophet - that is, when the time of the prediction comes, and it is fulfilled, then only, and not before, can one know that this is truly a prophet and a prediction. So, use the reminder of something useful, which is good no matter how it comes, but do not bind or confuse yourself with the thought of an unknown day and hour and after the reminder of it. I think it is prescribed for you to present some sisters for tonsure. Submit with the required information. What do you mean when you say that you want to remain at your previous title? Trustees? – This title no longer exists at the monastery. Dorm superiors? - By your will, and not mine, the Spassky hostel no longer exists, but there is the Spassky Monastery, which should have not just an abbess, but an abbess. With a secular rank? It is wonderful that when you could not officially be in a spiritual rank, then you wanted to belong to it, albeit secretly, with difficulty for you and for those who looked more at a good desire than at difficult consequences; and now, when the place you created, led by you, has become spiritual according to your desire, you stop on the path to spiritual rank, and want to remain with the tonsure known to God, which, however, you yourself have made known to everyone. You need rent for the benefit of the monastery: fair, I respect that. But for this purpose, you had to remain the head of the Spassky hostel, and not seek any other type of society and management. Now to deprive you of your leadership would be offensive to you and harmful to the place; but the only way to retain your leadership is by transforming it directly into a spiritual one. I think you heard from me how, when Princess Meshcherskaya founded the monastery, she had to become an abbess, wanting to be only a nun. You should have seen this as your story when you wanted to establish a monastery. I knew this one method for improving the Boris and Gleb Monastery: I know this one for yours too. If you know another one that is no less reliable: teach me. Your influence over the sisters must not be eliminated. If there is a different abbess, there will be two beginnings, more or less complicated by one another. However, I do not at all want my will to be done, but may the will of God be done, may it be beneficial for the creation of the monastery, and may your soul choose the hedgehog to its peace. Reason further, if you like, and write to me what you find best. I expect an answer from you to what I involuntarily wrote to you officially about your free cultivators. Countess Anna Alekseevna generously accepted the death of her spiritual father. She is in Novgorod. If you are writing to the abbess of the Passionate Monastery, say: that I never dreamed of looking for a successor for her, and especially in such a person, who, if I guess it, has not grown to the age of the abbot. This seems to be a nun in the Serpukhov monastery, whom the elderly Nazareth loves very much, but for the benefit of his and her soul. God's mercy and grace may peace be upon the soul of Abbess Mary. Having read your letter and talked with Palladium, I would like to talk to you now, so that while you are dissatisfied with yourself, I can stand up for you in front of you, and somewhat protect you from your displeasure. That there is no constancy in the state of mind, of course, this is not order and perfection. But remember what is constant and unchangeable in heaven: and we live in a world of change, and we ourselves are subject to change, which is what needs to be so that we can move to the better. So let us, as much as we can, try to apply ourselves for the better; and let us endure involuntary changes, without impatience and anxiety, which would not be useful, constantly calling on help from above. There is goodness when we can serve God with inner fervor and delight. The feat becomes not difficult because it rewards itself. But if, despite our involuntary coldness, we continue to serve God with peace and firmness: isn’t this also good? The Lord will look upon the unsatisfied feat and will not deprive him of his reward, now hidden. Are you not yourself hindering the internal order with external worries? Cast your sorrow upon the Lord. Do not compare your monastery with St. Euphrosyne Monastery, so that the thought of envy does not creep in, so that the thought of humility is not lost. Ask yourself: is it possible to demand for Abbess Mary what they do for the Venerable Euphrosyne? – The answer seems not difficult. In Polotsk they honor the memory of saints, restore the ancient glory of Orthodoxy, and console those recently reunited with Orthodoxy. You have no such rights to government largesse; They may tell you that you were not asked to build a monastery, but that they did you a favor by allowing it. You can argue that your place is important too. This is true: and if it spoke of its rights, I would listen with reverence, and would not challenge its rights. But I must tell you that you do not have full power of attorney from him to represent the rights to his government, which itself knows them. Why do you strongly desire a big church? Do you have a place to pray and receive consecration? Consequently, the need of your brotherhood has been satisfied. You don't owe anything to outsiders. The rules, ancient and new, say that the less contact a monastery, especially a monastery has with the world and people, the better. What would the enterprise of building a large church bring you? The labor of construction and then the burden of maintenance. What new things would you buy for your spiritual salvation? Whether the proposed building of the refectory will be too close to the church, I cannot judge about this, and without having a plan in mind. But if it’s close: what’s the problem? - This is not a meal of feasts, but a meal of those who eat food with prayer, reverence, thanksgiving to God, and who dissolve bodily food with the spiritual food of soul-healthy reading. External appearances deserve little care. There is no need to look at those living in splendid and magnificent dwellings: one should look more often at those living in caves and huts. Let there be, whatever happens, churches made with hands: the concern is that churches of God not made with hands will be found placed in them. I wish you complete success in this endeavor. You sent Palladium, but you didn’t say what you think. Let her bring her small sacrifice to the monastery. Take care of my business and yours, so that she does not suffer any loss from this. If you have a vacancy for a nun: consider it already filled by Palladium, only the presentation for tonsure has been postponed for a year for a special reason. It is good to desire nothing but salvation, and I wish that this state would be yours. But do you only want salvation for yourself, or for your neighbors? I hope that your neighbors will too. And the desire for salvation for ourselves will not be fulfilled if we give up the desire for salvation for our neighbors. And if we want the salvation of our neighbors, we need to take care of their peace, especially those of them who, by God’s special dispensation, are entrusted to our care. So don’t say: I don’t want to think about the matter of construction. Don't think about it out of desire, but think out of obligation. Because this matter is necessary to calm the sisters of your monastery. Write a humble letter to Count Nikolai Alexandrovich and ask for his favorable care, so that the money for the building will not be allocated over a long period of time, but all at the same time, according to the needs of the monastery, and to ensure the benefits of the non-stop completion of the work. Before you wanted to worry about a lot, but now you don’t want anything. What is this transition from one extreme to another for? We must try to walk with a firm and calm step along the royal path. Before you hoped a lot, but now you completely lose hope. Wasn't there a little arrogance in the previous disposition? Are there any neighbors in our current condemnation who do not live up to our hope? I wish—and you beware—that neither one nor the other happens. Use what happens against your will to practice patience. If everything were optional; How would we acquire the virtue of patience? I looked at the plan of the church and other buildings now. Fine. It’s enough that they built it in the imagination, if they still don’t allow it to be built on the ground. The first build is cheaper. But the second is transitory, like the first. Pray diligently in a small church, and you will have a great one, either on earth or in heaven. I am returning the letter. What they write: I already know, over the course of several months. Let them labor to seek the mysteries in the simple matter of philanthropy, if they find them necessary. When I agreed to send monks to Georgia, I told the governor that this incident could be reinterpreted. This is not the first time that I trust people, not wanting to give in to my mistrust, which would be a burden to others. The will of the Lord be done. The messenger came announcing his departure: and I barely have time to write this. Don't demand more and more clearly. May the peace of the Lord, which surpasses all understanding, guard your heart and your understanding, your heart in devotion to His will, your understanding in the obedience of faith. Perhaps there is no need to complain too much about the inactivity of the mind. Let him be silent and listen to how the heart cries out to God; the heart does not allow the mind to move towards God. If the heart does not soften before God; The Fathers order to test yourself to see if a cruel thought has crept in, for example, conceit, or improper concern for anything earthly, and to reject it in every possible way, and to cast yourself before God, forgetting yourself and your own, with the sole desire to serve Him. And with continued coldness of heart, holding yourself before the eyes of the Lord and waiting, as you say, is the correct position of the spirit, according to the teaching of the saints. Having endured the Lord’s troubles, heeded me and heard my prayer. If we translate this closer to the original, and together to our vernacular: then we must say: I waited, I waited for the Lord, and He paid attention to me and heard my prayer. Wait for the Lord, and He will listen to you and hear your prayer. Regarding the tonsure of Agnia, I cannot contradict what in the case does not agree with the law. Prove that you do not have as many novices as the consistory believes: then I will correct the consistory. But I don’t think the consistory was wrong. She considers people by the deeds that were done about them. And you can’t complain about the fact that she handles things exceptionally well: that’s her responsibility. I am sending you several copies of the bestial word, from which give from me to Prince Alexei Alexandrovich, archimandrite and archpriest. God's blessing and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary, and also to the sisters. What was started as a work of faith must be continued; if the work was started with imperfections, it is necessary to ask from the Source of perfections for another improvement, without relying on oneself, with hope in the grace of God, which favored the work to begin and grow. But whatever care and foresight is possible on our part, we must use it. Write what you imagine about two sisters with documents. I don't see this. Write that the consistory must admit that it is possible to accommodate three. But what if she doesn't confess? It would be better for you to state the matter clearly so that I can correct the consistory if it has made a mistake. You write that there is a mistake about Agnia, but don’t say what it is. How will I correct it? Either don’t rush us with the consistory that we made a mistake: or prove what the mistake is, and we will correct it. Rooting alone hurts the face, but does not bring healing to the cause. By pointing out the mistake, do good to the cause and give us consolation not to remain in the mistake if it is made. The vegetable harvest is failing and we are at a loss in the Lavra, where there are quite a few residents and guests. May He who blesses the five loaves and fills the five thousand satisfy you with the produce of the lean summer. I return the Psalter. You can use its interpretations. Some are unsatisfactory, partly due to brevity, partly for other reasons: but many are useful, sometimes for explanation, sometimes for edification, and do not present doubts regarding the attitude towards Orthodoxy, no matter how many of them I read, for I have not read all of them. I am returning the letter. May the Lord save the writer, giving him humble repentance. He confesses his suffering, not his mistakes. He already sees and preaches the first resurrection: and our fathers loved to preach cleansing from passions and sins, not daring to touch the mysteries and destinies. He teaches generously after the Church took the power to teach from him and placed him in the place of the penitents. Forgive me for these remarks. Wish him well: but leave him to go his own way; you have the royal path, the ecclesiastical and paternal way. Blessings and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary. What you wrote to me before is more accurately recounted by your sister, who was in St. Petersburg. Requires a formal presentation of the plan. If you want, I will do this: but for this we need a formal submission from you, with the attachment of a plan and a formal certificate from an actual architect about what obstacle was encountered from the ground for constructing the structure according to the previously approved plan. But I can’t guarantee you the speed they promise you. If you want to build according to an already approved plan, then talk to the architect to see if it is possible to build a basement, but in such a way as not to go deeper into the ground, but to raise it higher than the walls of the basement. My governor says that the basement in Odigitriev was built in the same way, and with success, although it was on swampy land. You know that I preferably advised building a two-story building. But that was when the matter was not complicated. Now, given the complexity of the matter, it is difficult to say which is better. And I cannot say anything that I am not convinced of. One thing I can say for sure: don’t stop thinking, so as not to make it difficult for me to imagine. My purpose serves the benefit of those entrusted to me, without difficulty, or with difficulty, only without violating law and order. God has mercy on us in the Lavra, although the summer is not light and not warm. May the Lord protect you and your abode. God's blessing and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary and to those who struggle with you. I sympathize with your sorrow for your fields. May the Lord forbid the worm to consume grain created for the service of men and to prepare bread for them. There have been frosty mornings here for several days now. It seems they should kill the worm. Meanwhile, you had to resort to the punishing and merciful Lord through common prayer. One eyewitness told me that when the village manager informed the landowner that a worm was damaging the fields, the landowner immediately invited a priest and gathered the people; They went to the fields, blessed the water, with the prayer laid down for this occasion, sprinkled the fields and their edges, where devastation meant the trace of a worm. The next day, the ruler brought the landowner a lot of dead worms from the field, as proof that the disaster was over. It was not this year: but our God and Lord Jesus Christ yesterday and today, the same and forever. Cry out to the Lord, so that He will not be completely angry, and may not repay us according to our sins, but may He look upon our humility, and may He satisfy His poor with bread. Let us fall down to Him together. Peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary, and the sisters, and the monastery. The question of girl N. is difficult to resolve reliably. She lived with you, and then she didn’t want to live: then she lived in the Odigitrievsky hostel; and again she did not want to live, although there, just like you, there was care for her. Therefore, I cannot say decisively: accept it. Moreover, your monastery is filled and overflowing. One thing that deserves attention is that you still have a cell that belonged to the girl N. Out of respect for this circumstance, here is what you can do. Ask the older sisters if they would agree to have her in the monastery for three months, as a guest sister. If they agree: accept her for this time, without committing to the future, when this time has passed, then see if she is peaceful with the sisters, and they with her, and therefore, again consult with the sisters, whether they will agree to accept her decisively. If they agree, it should be placed not too widely, without embarrassment for the sisters who took places in the monastery before her current arrival. Do not doubt the goodwill of the Odigitrievskys. They wanted to put her to rest with them: but, unable to achieve this, they will be consoled if she finds peace with you. And your communication with them has not stopped. Through our fellowship with the Lord, may our mutual fellowship in the Lord expand, so that we may all be one in Him. I wish this for you, ask me this from the Lord. If the Apostles also experienced troubles in their false brotherhood, then there is no need to be surprised if our weakness is accompanied by sorrows from the imperfection of brotherly love. You will not have a shortage of people: but I pity the soul that is worried in the pier and wants to go, not knowing where. Wish well for the departing one as for the abiding one and remain in the world. Your Guardian Angel teaches you to purely contemplate the Divine in its immeasurable height above the insignificance of the human, although called to serve the Divine, out of immeasurable condescension, so that humility is simple, and so that man-pleasing and the arrogant cunning of your own mind are not hidden under its cover. Accept the instruction and pay attention to yourself. Tell Sofya Ivanovna that the Holy Synod gave her the blessing to be Sarah, that is, a soul graciously ruling over passions, desires and feelings, or Solomiya, that is, a peaceful soul, or anything that the Spirit of the Lord calls and creates, clothing a person in an angelic image; The Lord grants her to be clothed both in the sign and in the characteristics and virtues of those being saved, and to keep the bride’s clothing until the day of the Lamb’s marriage. How long will A., with the name of the sister of your monastery, live in Moscow in a secular house? Does she want to wait for what happened to E. in Klin and give you another answer? As long as it is considered yours, you are not free from the obligation not to leave it unattended in the waves, but to direct it somewhere, only to the shore. However, you will accept this reminder calmly, and do what is due, without needlessly grieving. Peace to the Reverend Abbess Mary. You write that you are waiting for my word, but you don’t say what question. What to write at the request of the runner, she teaches you very literally. You can say that you agree to fire her so that she does not fill a vacancy in your monastery. But even if you don’t add this condition: it must be met. Self-justification is not a monastic quality: but justification for the affairs of government is necessary. Thinking of writing an excuse, you write an accusation, saying that there was nothing to pay for the forest. Why is this, when you were given money according to the estimate, and when in some materials there should have been significant savings of money. You need to think about this so that the matter does not get confused, and so that you and the authorities who trust you do not get involved in responsibility for the confusion. Don't worry, just use caution. Peace to you all; Do not turn the light wind of frivolous human words into a storm. Calm down, reverend mother. If a truly important nuisance were to occur, it would be the monastic’s job to accept it generously and, through devotion to God, who sent the temptation, to console the trembling heart. But you were afraid of fear, even without fear. The novice was taken by the authorities not for a crime, but for lack of written form. A kind person was found who testified that she was yours, and she was released, and the trouble was over. You acted simply, but the mayor acted according to the strictness of the police, and one cannot complain that it turned out to be stronger on the main road than on the country roads. It was written to me about this incident, and the consistory is therefore asking you, but this is not a problem either. Asking does not mean insulting, and giving an answer does not mean being insulted. One should not worry, but reason; and reasoning will show that you have been sent instructions to be more careful, to fire not unnecessarily, with a ticket, with the designation of places and times. There would be less pretension if it were not said that the novice without a written form was in St. Petersburg. As for E..., she also needs to accept what happened calmly, and even with gratitude to God’s dispensation. She once ran from the landowner. The reason for running away was good, but running away is a violation of the law. The civil law did not catch her to punish her, because the providence of God protected her for the good cause of flight, and now it allowed her a small civil penalty for flight, to show that any violation of the law requires purification, and it is good for us if purification is accomplished by temporary sorrow. Peace and blessing from the Lord to the Venerable Abbess Maria and the sisters of the monastery. With gratitude I received your letter and the blessed bread from your holiday. As the holiday opens the doors to prayer more expansively: I hope that your holiday prayer will be especially for my benefit. However, even on holidays, let me not be forgotten in your prayers. The thought of your inability, expressed in a letter not intended for complaints, makes me understand that you are not quite calm about some of the words that have reached you from me through the consistory. In vain. If you are told not to accept too many people into the monastery, this is not a reprimand, but a reinforcement for you, so that when necessary, you can refuse admission, not complaining about yourself, but following the direction of your superiors, and conveying his refusal, for which, of course, it will not be your fault. It was necessary to tell you a word about the statements, because the consistory, due to the inaccuracy of your statements, wanted to give difficult work to all the monasteries in a new form. So do this task with attention, without worrying about the thought of inability. It seemed immoderate to suddenly give two combined books. Think about whether the other one is really necessary and useful, and tell me. Ms. Naryshkina’s intention to build a church in your country was written to the Synodal Chief Prosecutor, so that he would respect her will, especially since she affirms it on this vow. Meanwhile, you pray calmly in a small church, without arousing in yourself the thirst for a great one, which will require considerable care. The Lord's blessing and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary. By the power of His Cross, may the Lord heal all your sorrow and grant you spiritual consolation. Without knowing exactly what kind of rumor about the novice that upset you, and from what source the slander arose, I cannot judge this definitely. I don’t think that Mother Superior A... would neglect, if she could, to counteract the slander. But slander does not ask permission from those in power, and does not accept orders from them to shut up. I told you against teaching music. If we abandoned this not very monastic occupation, there would be less need for relations with people who expose us to rumors and gossip. It is true that the Prophet, apparently, felt the burden of slander when he wrote: deliver me from human slander. But there is no need to attribute more burdens to her than there are. Some slander drives you out, leads you into poverty, throws you into prison: this is hard. Isn’t it easier when slander passes by your ears like the wind? Go into your cage and do not listen to the sound of the wind. Compare two people: one slandered and one justly blamed. Which one is more unhappy? Of course blameworthy and guilty. So, the one who is subject to rumors of slander is not the most unfortunate. And perhaps it is not unfair to say about that person: he is happy that he was slandered by rumor and not accused by his conscience. Heal your wounded heart with sound reasoning, prayer and trust in God. And if experience reveals the unpleasantness of slander: then teach your sisters not to allow yourself much freedom in the hope of your integrity, but by strict observation of yourself, like armor, to protect yourself from the arrows of the human tongue. May the Lord deliver from human slander all those entrusted to your care, and may you keep His commandments. Hello, Reverend Mother Abbess, mentally and physically, you and your sisters. We are healthy, but not all of us. The assistant inspector of the seminary wanted to go from the seminary house to the house of his father, the Moscow priest, on his mother’s name day, and when he arrived, before they sat down for the birthday dinner, he fell ill and died the next day. I feel sorry for the father: but who could have foreseen this and not allowed his son to see his mother? Don’t be embarrassed that you didn’t foresee why your treasurer was sent to Moscow. They wished her health: and the Lord, perhaps, saw that you suffered a lot at the sight of her death and burial and judged to remove this spectacle from you. She entered the hospital safely: but before treatment began, she hurried to go there, where there was no illness, no sadness, no sighing. I ask you to accept this with obedience to the will of the Heavenly Father, and obedient children, if they cry, do not cry very much and quietly. May the Lord strengthen you. With generosity and calmness, protect your health, which is especially necessary now that your assistant has been taken from you. Don’t just think about the one who passed away, but think about who will replace her and tell me. Moscow. November 27, 1847 God's blessing and peace to the Venerable Abbess Mary. You complained that you were being prevented from praying. You remembered Abba, who came to the royal house, while waiting for the king, stood in the corner and read the clock to himself. But thank God that next time it is given to you to participate in prayer, the good consequences of which are desired and precious for the Royal House and Russia. Thank God for the consolation of meeting the bright gaze of the beloved Tsar and Queen and their children, and hearing the word of mercy. I thought that, getting rid of those who were preventing me from praying, I would hurry to the post at the monastery, and therefore I did not write to you. I was already beginning to worry that you would be gone for a long time. It’s good that you informed me about the continuation of your visit. If this letter finds you among your hosts: greet them from me with peace and the desire for God’s blessing. Also Countess Anna Alekseevna, who stayed in Kiev for a long time, but did not look at Moscow, which, however, will be said with love, and not with lamentation. May the Lord control your return. To the Venerable Abbess Mary, peace and salvation, and to those who strive. That you admit guilt in the hasty undertaking to establish a church and in the hasty cancellation of the undertaking is good, firstly, because any admission of guilt leads to humility, and secondly, because this teaches caution. I do not in the least complain about the cancellation of an enterprise that I had previously seen as serving not for benefit, but for burden. But it would not be superfluous to know how you will place the icons, and how the depositor views this. While one hasty enterprise collapsed before it began, those sent by you told me about another, much more important thing - about preparing materials for a large church. If I reluctantly agreed to the first, then how much more should I not be hasty in the latter. You have churches to pray to, therefore the need of the monastery is satisfied. Building a church for a large crowd is not the need and duty of a monastery, which was not built to be immersed in extraneous crowds. If a crowd of people comes praying: glory to God! But the monastery is not to blame, and should not be embarrassed if it is crowded with outsiders. If the opportunity to create a large church opens up, God will bless those who are diligent. But to intensify and rush, and start a business with a lack of ways, would perhaps mean burdening oneself. Time, it seems, does not say: expand and be magnificent, but, it seems, says, keep your hedgehog, take care of what you have. With patience I wish that your monastery has a spacious church; But more than that, I desire that you who dwell in it may be a living church of God, and that the Spirit of God may live in you, according to the word of Scripture. It's good that you are away from noise and rumors. There are no more disturbing rumors; but also comforting. The sky is raining; but requires prayer. Rev. Abbess Mary rejoice in the Lord and be at peace. Thank God that there are those who console us with obedience, and if there are those for whom patience is needed, then we must think that we also need such people, so that we can exercise patience and, with God’s help, achieve success in it. Where would patience be if everything was optional and there was nothing to endure? To make bricks for a building for which there are no ways to build, one must be perspicacious and foresee when and what ways will open up. I have not been given this gift; and therefore I am simply afraid that the hastily made bricks will crumble before the construction begins. It’s not my business to send Sokolov to you. I told the secretary about this, who will let me go, if possible. You should use the head of the spiritual government when there is a better one than the current one. It's closer. Do you hear about the sadness of the Sovereign Tsarevich and the Empress Tsesarevna? May the Lord comfort them. It seems that it is not difficult to release an innocent child to the Angels: they will raise better than earthly mentors; but no matter how obvious these thoughts are, it’s sad to look at the lamenting Parents with them. May the Lord grant them obedience to His destiny, so that in obedience giving Him a sacrifice acceptable to Him, they may acquire the blessing to preserve what they have and to make up for the deprivation they have suffered. The blessing of the Lord is upon you and those who are with you. To the Venerable Abbess Mary, peace and salvation are from the Lord, and so are those who are with you. If there are feelings of indifference to earthly things, as long as the soul is not torn away from heaven: then let the soul preserve this feeling and let it hold on to heaven. But it does not contradict this to not be indifferent to a grieving neighbor. In this there is brotherly love: but it does not tear us away from heaven. It is only necessary to moderate the concern of brotherly love. It is not care that will help your neighbor, but a word or deed of consolation and prayer. May the Lord help Abbess Salome spiritually and physically. But it would be neither convenient nor in order for you not to go to her, nor to take her with you. Pray for her: tell her a word of consolation through a letter, and then we will hand over each other and our whole belly to Christ God, as the Church teaches daily. You say that you have no repentance: but it seems to me that it is in your letter. May the Lord grant you that you have the fruits of repentance, and not that they be seen. Your treasure has been received and, perhaps, will return to you untouched if Saint Alexy blesses it. Letter from the Sovereign Tsarevich from Princess Anastasia Mikhailovna: I hope he will return it to you. I rejoice that the high look upon the humble: let us learn humility from them, and through their kindness we are aroused to pleasant prayer for them. Have peace in the Lord and cast your sorrows on His mercy. It is impossible without them when we live, as you yourself say, in a deplorable vale. Therefore, the Lord took upon Himself the name of the Comforter: and of course He will not forsake being what He calls Himself. Rev. Abbess Mary and her sisters rejoice in the Lord. The position of the nameless sister about whom you are writing is worthy of participation: but participation must take a legal route. She has not yet been officially assigned to you: therefore, you cannot use her in obedience and give her a collection book. And I don’t see any reason to send anyone now with a collection of books. If the mother of this girl, saddened by the death of her son, demands her presence: this circumstance is respectful. Remember St. Sergius, who delayed his departure from the world, fulfilling the word of his parents and calming them down. If staying near the mother does not threaten the daughter with any special temptation, then it would be in order for the daughter to stay with her for some time, trying to console her from her sadness and gain her consent to the chosen path. We also know other examples. Alexy, the man of God, left his family, no matter what: and God justified his path. But not everyone has the same measure of strength: and not everyone has the same measure of gift. Discuss this with the one who wants to be your daughter, and choose for her a trustworthy path, protected by humility. Happy new summer, may the all-merciful Lord renew His blessing to you, and the sisters, and the monastery, may it grow in His grace, may you be built into a heavenly abode and into the dwelling of God in the spirit. Copy down the rules of your monastery for the Most Reverend Vasily and send them to him. But I don’t undertake to supplement them or apply them to the needs of another place. It's none of my business. They don't ask me to do this. I don’t know the local circumstances as they know them there. I have more than enough of my own business. That E....I is trying to lure some sisters away from you, do not mourn about that. Those who are disposed to live among you in peace and unanimity will not go; but those who do will not be like that; and therefore there is no need to consider their removal a loss, but an act of God’s providence, relieving you and purifying your society. If the well-disposed person is carried away by deception, she can repent and return with greater humility. If the girl Varvara, who passed away from you and is grieving, and whose mother complains about you, crossed over not out of your conviction, but out of her own desire, then they are complaining about you in vain. And if you convinced her to cross, then you did it in vain. It was enough not to interfere with E... and take those who themselves wished. It’s good that Palladia understood the situation and returned. She thus preserved the peace of her soul: and, perhaps, serve the peace of others whom they want to seduce and captivate. Whoever wants to correctly compare your poverty with P...his wealth: I would remind him that your fathers used to be afraid that they would be separated from poverty, and not from wealth. We still need to see if P...k will have enough money for such a large account. I thank Sofya Ivanovna for talking with me in writing. If you write to His Eminence Basil that you conveyed His kiss to me: write also that I kiss Him with the kiss of peace and love in the Lord. May the doctor of soul and body help the sick Catherine. To Ekaterina Nikolaevna, the blessing of the Lord and peace, who desires to see peace in the servants of God. I looked at Ifiku Hieropolitika and am returning it. A book by its name is: something sacred, something moral, something from common deanery, from different fabrics, some of them good, colorfully sewn. God's blessing, peace and salvation to the Venerable Abbess Mary and those who are with you. You are in a wonderful position: you are starting a big business, and you want to throw it into the hands of others. If you had not started work on building a church: then it would hardly have been permissible for me to agree to your dismissal from the leadership of the monastery, but now it is in no way permissible. You can choose an assistant, especially for household matters, if they make it difficult for you; and you can make a rule for yourself not to do anything without it. Without announcing this rule, but observing it for your peace of mind. Such an assistant, if you wish, can be approved, at your request, by order. However, it is necessary that I also have some idea of ​​​​her trustworthiness; because it is indecent to assert blindly. But, to my surprise, you are making this a secret to me: you are trying to introduce someone who is capable, but you don’t want to say her name. It is difficult for me to imagine what kind of abuse you fear from me. I don’t like to be distrustful and bind the will of others. But more than once, giving preference to trust over caution, I saw an unpleasant fruit. So it is now. I told you to put the money given for the church into a safe treasury; He said that it was too early to prepare the material: when there is no plan yet, but he gave in so that you could keep part of the money with you for materials. Moreover, I thought that 5,000 rubles. you demand for this according to the old account, and not in silver; and he only agreed to this. That you withheld 5,000 p. gray; and half of this amount was used for other purposes: this is an accident, unpleasant for the authorities, for the business and for the investor if he finds out about it. I advise you to immediately deposit the unused amount, and the remaining amount you have, into the safe treasury; try to replenish what has been spent, and also contribute it to the safe treasury. Summer is passing, there is no plan yet; Consequently, money for the material will not be needed until next spring. Let's not be hasty. Hasty haste can cause more slowness later on than acting slowly and carefully. What I am writing now, I earnestly ask you to accept without anger and without sorrow. A good thought and a desire to arrange for yourself a quiet position in order to listen to your soul, in freedom from earthly worries. But I know the commandment of the Lord: pray that the laborers may be brought forth to the harvest, that is, to care for the souls of their neighbors; but I do not know the permission to let the laborers go at their will when the work continues. Last year I began to think about praying with you on the 26th day of this month; but now it turns out that this cannot be. I don’t know if there won’t be time in September, after the Grand Dukes leave Moscow. I remember that the first two books of this year’s edition of the Works of the Holy Fathers were sent to you. Therefore a third one is sent. To the Venerable Abbess Mary, may God's blessing and peace and measure of health be sold for doing good, according to the will of Him who gives strength, and in weakness He perfects His strength. I congratulate you and your community on the holiday of your church. May the righteous and merciful Philaret ask you from the Source of mercy for the gift of mercy, as well as for others whose mercy you may need. You complain that the feeling of illness has closed off other feelings that would be desirable. Of course, it would be better not to do so: and we need to strive so that no sorrow separates us from the memory and love of God, even for a short time. But if we still retain some earthly feelings - and everything earthly must die so as not to interfere with heavenly life - and if therefore the merciful Lord wants to kill the earthly in us through suffering and deprivation, and with this His action the best feelings in us are closed: then let us not doubt His mercy, although it is not obvious, but hidden; let us prolong faith and hope: and in them there is an inextricable union with the Lord. What will happen at the hour of death? What the Lord gives is the same as we always have what He gives; for in Him alone is the source of good. That is why the Church calls; Let us betray ourselves and each other to Christ God, for all the hours of life and for the hour of death. Having read that on the day of the entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the church, you prayed in your cell, I thought: thank God for that, and it would be even better if you partook of the Holy Mysteries. And there would be a church in the cell. The Lord mercifully visits the sick. It may not be superfluous for you to know this thought of mine in case. I want to know if you have relief, and if you need peace; order me to write about this. Today I feel quiet under the roof of St. Nicholas on Pererva. Therefore, it is easier for me to find time to write to you here than in Moscow. Returning to Moscow in the evening, I find your letter, in which you decided to try the art of writing a word of praise. I give justice to your art, but it was used in vain, because I am unworthy. Thank you for wishing the Lord to keep my days, and especially my soul. An ancient book, containing the words of Gregory the Theologian, the six days of Basil the Great, and the Theology of John of Damascus, a good book: only the language is old and not everywhere intelligible. The life of Gregory the Theologian, described by another Gregory, is somewhat unnecessarily extended, according to the custom of the time: but the main events of the life of St. Gregory are in it. I gave the book to nun R. She told me a reassuring word that your health is better. May the Lord bring strength to your weakness. Rights Service Philaret. Note Ed