Letter 130, to Probe

Translation, introduction and comments by P. Pashkov This letter to St. Augustine is one of the relatively few ancient Christian texts on spiritual life addressed specifically to the laity; from a genre point of view, it cannot help but recall the well-known cycles of letters about St. Theophan the Recluse - “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it,” etc. At the same time, in the West this text is considered one of the most remarkable in the entire legacy of the Hippo saint: an outstanding specialist in the history of Late Antiquity, prof. Peter Brown characterizes it as "the most mature and most sympathetic statement of his ideal of the Christian life" 1 in the entire legacy of St. Augustine. In other words, before us is one of the pearls of patristic writing, which until now remained inaccessible to the Russian-speaking reader. The letter was written to St. Augustine in the 17th year of his bishopric, in 412, at the request of the noble Christian Anicia Fultonia Proba. The Anitian family gave Latin Christianity many outstanding representatives - in addition to Proba herself and her closest relatives (and she was “the wife, daughter and mother of the consuls” 2), Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius and St. himself belonged to the same family (albeit to a different branch). Gregory Dvoeslov (Besedovnik), Pope of Rome. Proba herself was an outstanding figure even by the standards of her family. The widow of the richest man in the Western Roman Empire, she was present in Rome during its sacking by Alaric in 410 3 . After the fall of the City, Proba, with her daughter-in-law Juliana, granddaughter Demetrias and household members, fled to North Africa, where she lived in the company of other pious women, founding a kind of semi-monastic community. Besides St. Augustine, with Proba and her closest relatives, many saints of that time were in correspondence; it is enough to recall the message of St. addressed to her. John Chrysostom, testifying to the warm relationship between her and the Constantinople saint 4. A year after the 130th letter of St. Augustine Pelagius, a heresiarch and opponent of the saint, will write a letter to the granddaughter of Proba Demetriana, in which he outlines the main provisions of his teaching 5 . Anitsii, as can be seen, were at the very center of church life at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries and were in one way or another connected with all the major events of that era, from the expulsion of St. John Chrysostom before the controversy of St. Augustine and Pelagius. However, letter 130 itself is a purely pastoral work, far from dogmatic disputes and church politics (even the problematic of freedom and grace, which would occupy St. Augustine in subsequent years, was practically not reflected in the text). Proba, confused by the words of the Apostle Paul: “We do not know what to pray for as we should” (Rom. 8:26), turned to the saint for spiritual advice and received it. Theology 130 epistle and its reception Contents of the message. 130 letter, apparently, represents almost the only work of St. Augustine, wholly devoted to questions of prayer and the practice of piety. The message can be roughly divided into two parts. First, the saint discusses the internal state necessary for prayer (chapters I–III); The most important role here is played by the idea of ​​desolatio - a state that we considered possible in translation to call “abandonment.” Some difficulty in translating this term (and within the framework of letter 130 it is precisely a term) is due to the fact that St. Augustine associates with this word not only the meaning of “solitude” (the dictionary meaning of its root, the same as in the word solus, “lonely”), but also the semantic component of “inconsolability.” The fact is that desolatio in Latin is consonant with the word consolatio, “consolation,” and solatium, “joy,” although in reality these words are not related. As a result, for the saint the most important component of the spiritual appearance of a widow, and in a broader sense, of any Christian soul “widowed” in this earthly life, turns out to be “loneliness” and “inconsolability,” i.e. e. a feeling of being abandoned by God or, in any case, longing for God 6. It is this feeling that gives rise to prayer as a search for God, as an appeal to Him by a loving soul. Chapters I–III are adjoined by Chapter XV, devoted to the topic of “scientific ignorance” (docta ignorantia). The Renaissance philosopher Nicholas of Cusa would later borrow from St. Augustine this formula; however, in his famous treatise 7 “scientific ignorance” will be called the general principle of knowledge of God and truth in general: all knowledge is always partly ignorance. For St. Augustine’s “docta ignorantia” is not so much an intellectual as a spiritual category: a person in this earthly life, according to the saint, is incapable of direct communication with God (for more on this thought in the light of Orthodox theology, see below) and therefore does not know God. At the same time, with complete ignorance, neither love nor longing is simply impossible 8. Therefore, the grace of the Holy Spirit puts into the souls of the righteous a certain premonition of God, unclear and indefinite to the mind, but arousing in the heart a thirst for communication with the Creator and Savior. Thus, the spiritual “ignorance” inherent in every person turns out to be “learned” in the righteous, “taught by the Holy Spirit.” So, the internal state, defined by the categories of “abandonment” and “learned ignorance,” gives rise to a living search for prayer in a person. But what kind, according to St. Should Augustine have this prayer? From a content point of view, it should be a prayer “for a blessed life” - about being with God; The saint finds it possible to pray for earthly blessings, but only insofar as we need them so as not to despair and so that excessive poverty and the meagerness of life on earth do not make us incapable of seeking heavenly things. The model for any prayer in terms of content for a saint is the prayer “Our Father.” From a practical point of view, St. Augustine draws attention to the fact that prayer is not actually a transition from word to word, but a transition from feeling to feeling 9. “To pray for a long time means, in a prolonged pious excitement of the heart, to knock on the One to whom we pray. After all, this work consists more in lamentations than in words, and more in tears than in speeches” 10. Accordingly, “to pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) means to constantly have your heart turned to God, and not to constantly repeat prayers 11. Verbal prayer, accordingly, serves as support for such an internal abiding in God. St. Augustine refers to the practice of Egyptian monasticism 12 in which the “brothers” often performed short prayers 13 to maintain their hearts in aspiration to God. Reception. Since St. For the Western tradition, Augustine was perhaps the most important author of the patristic era, and he has no other texts specifically about prayer other than Epistle 130, which was the key work for Latin theologians on the issue of private prayer. In Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, the section on prayer is based primarily on this epistle (STh. IIa-IIae. Q. 83 art. 6, 9, 12, 14). At the same time, in the Orthodox East, this text, like most of the heritage of St. Augustine, remained not entirely known. We could see above that, as a rule, the saint’s instructions on prayer are completely indisputable and are in perfect harmony with the texts of other teachers of spiritual life. However, several statements present in Message 130 remain not entirely unambiguous. In particular, it is difficult to agree with the radical denial of St. Augustine, the possibility of genuine and direct communication with God in real life. Of course, the Divine remains incomprehensible to the human mind, 14 but the truth of the experience of spiritual vision and communion with God already in this life is extremely important for Orthodox theology. The dogmatic significance of this teaching was attested in the era of the Palamite disputes: “I also accept with love those who hold the opinion that in the Spirit this communion with God really and truly takes place, thanks to which people become prophets, children of God and gods, just as God really and truly became man. Those who assert that [this communion occurs only] through correlation and likening, and that God is only, as it were, thought of by fortune and represented by analogy from the wisdom contemplated in creation, I anathematize” 15. Even if for most of us the question of the direct experience of contemplating God in this life is not very relevant, it is absolutely impossible not to take this truth into account. A few words about translation Since this is a detailed instruction from a shepherd to his spiritual child, and not a theological or philosophical treatise, 130 the letter required a special approach to translation. Of course, we strived for accuracy and avoided any substantive distortions. At the same time, in those cases when the saint, for greater expressiveness of his speech, resorted to a play on words (for example, “sine quo solatio quaecumque sunt terrena solatia, magis in eis desolatio, quam consolatio reperitur”), we allowed ourselves to deviate from the letter of the text in order to convey its mood and compensate for stylistic features that did not find an analogue in the literal translation. It is our conviction that a text intended for spiritual reading should, when translated, bring primarily spiritual, and not just purely intellectual, benefits. The text about prayer should be conducive to prayer. How far we were able to convey this effect, which Epistle 130 certainly has in the original, is for the reader to judge. Bishop Augustine, servant of Christ and the servants of Christ, in the Lord of Lords, greets the pious servant of God, Test. 1. And you asked me, and I promised [you] to write something about prayer to God, when the time and opportunity presented to the One to whom we pray. With this in mind, I should have finally fulfilled my duty and served, in the love of Christ, your pious aspirations. And how much your request itself pleased me, from which I understood how much you care about this so important matter, I cannot even express in words. After all, is there anything more important for your widowhood than to remain in prayer day and night, as the apostle instructs? For he says: “The true widow and the forsaken (desolata) trusts in God and continues in supplications and supplications day and night” (1 Tim. 5:5). Therefore, it may seem surprising how much concern for prayer has captured your heart and taken first place there, although you are noble in this century, rich, you are the mother of such a large family and, although a widow, you are not abandoned (desolata). How can you reasonably understand that in this world and in this life not a single soul can consider its position secure! 2. Therefore, the One who gave you this thought, obviously, did the same as with His disciples, when they were sad (not about themselves, but about the human race) and despaired of the possibility of salvation at least for someone, having heard from Him that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:24). In response, he gave them a most amazing and merciful promise: that God can easily do what is impossible for people (Matthew 19:25). This means that the One who makes it easy for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven has also breathed into you a pious anxiety, regarding which you considered it necessary to consult with me about how you should pray. After all, while he was still here in the flesh, he sent the rich man Zacchaeus to the Kingdom of Heaven, and subsequently, glorified by the Resurrection and Ascension, he gave the Holy Spirit to many rich people, so that they began to despise the world and became richer with the cessation of the passion for wealth. And how could you be so zealous in prayer to God if you did not trust in Him? How could you trust in Him if you “trusted in unfaithful riches” and despised the saving commandment about which the apostle speaks: “Admonish those who are rich in this present age not to think highly of themselves and to trust not in unfaithful riches, but in the living God, who richly gives us everything for our enjoyment; that they may do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and social, laying up for themselves treasure, a good foundation for the future, so that they may attain eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:17–19). 3. This means that out of love for that true life, you must consider yourself abandoned in this century, no matter how happy you may be surrounded by this century. After all, there is that true life, in comparison with which the present one, so beloved, should not be called life at all, no matter how pleasant and long-lasting it may be. And in the same way, there is true consolation, which the Lord promised through the prophet: “I have given him true consolation, peace upon the world” (Is. 57:18–19 LXX), and earthly consolations, whatever they may be, do not console us without this consolation, but leave us inconsolable 16. After all, wealth, and high positions, and everything else of the same kind in which mortals who are not involved in true happiness believe their happiness - what consolation do they bring if not having a need for them is better than having them in abundance, if the fear of loss torments us more after achieving them than the desire to acquire them tormented us when we strived for them? All these goods do not make people good, although [the people themselves], having become good for another reason, make these things good, using them for good. Therefore, true consolation does not lie in them, but resides where true life is. After all, what makes a person blessed is the same thing that makes him good. 4. However, as you can see, a lot of consolation comes from good people in this life. Whether poverty is oppressive, whether sorrows are depressing, whether bodily pain is troubling, whether exile is sad, or any other misfortune is tormenting, let there be good people nearby who know how not only to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to cry with those who weep (Rom. 12:15), who know how to console and have a useful conversation. [Thanks to them] often thorny things become smooth, difficult things become easy, and disasters are overcome, although all this is done in them and through them by the One who makes them good by His Spirit. On the contrary, you can swim in wealth, not know losses, have healthy flesh and spend your life safe and sound in your homeland. But if bad people live nearby, and there is no one among them who can be trusted without fear of lies, deceit, anger, disputes, intrigues, or even without actually undergoing them, does not all of the above become bitter and unpleasant, so that there is no joy or pleasure left? Therefore, no matter what a person does, nothing will be nice to him without a friend. But how often can one find such a person in whose soul and morals one can be so firmly confident in this life? For no man knows another as he knows himself; but no one knows himself enough to be sure how he will behave tomorrow. So, although many can be recognized by their fruits - some delight their neighbors with their good lives, while others sadden them with their bad ones - nevertheless, in the souls of people there is [so much] unknown and unreliable that the apostle quite rightly exhorts us “not to judge in any way before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart, and then everyone will have praise from God” ( 1 Cor. 4:5). 5. So, in the darkness of this life, in which we wander away from the Lord, as long as we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:6-7), the Christian soul must consider itself abandoned so as not to stop praying. She should also learn to turn the gaze of her faith to the word of the Divine Scriptures, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day begins to dawn and the morning star rises in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19). After all, the ineffable source for this lamp is the same Light that shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:5). To see him, our hearts must be purified by faith, since “blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8) and again: “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Then, beyond death, there will be true life; true consolation lies in abandonment. This life will deliver our soul from death; this consolation will [deliver] our eyes from tears, and since there will be no temptation there, then, as it is said later in the same psalm, “even my feet are from slipping” (Ps. 115:8). And if there is no temptation, then there is no prayer, because there will no longer be an expectation of promised benefits, but contemplation of those already given. That is why it is said: “I will please the Lord in the land of the living,” where we will be then, and not in the desert of the dead, where we are now. As the apostle says: “For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3–4). Because this is true life, which the rich are commanded to acquire through good deeds. There lies true consolation, and with this consolation the widow is now left; even if she has sons and grandsons, she piously rules her home and teaches all her loved ones to place their hopes in the Lord, - still in prayer she says: “My soul thirsted for You and how much my flesh yearned for You in a land empty, and impenetrable, and waterless! "(Ps. 62:2) [And this land] is present life, doomed to death, no matter how often mortal consolations are encountered in it, no matter what fellow travelers we meet along this path, no matter how much property we accumulate. You, of course, know how unreliable all these things are; but even if they were not so unreliable, what are they in comparison with the happiness that is promised [to us]? 6. Since you, a rich and noble widow, the mother of such a large family, asked me to tell you about prayer, I said all this - with the purpose that you, even despite the fact that your loved ones remain with you and surround you with respect, recognize yourself abandoned until you have yet reached that life in which there is true and reliable consolation and where what was said in the prophecy will be fulfilled: “In the morning we were filled with Your mercy, and we rejoiced and were glad all our days. We rejoiced as a reward for the days in which You humbled us, for the years in which we saw evil” (Ps. 89:14–15). 7. Therefore, no matter how much you are surrounded by happiness and temporary blessings, until this consolation comes, you must remember your abandonment in order to remain in prayer day and night. After all, the Apostle does not assign this duty to any widow at all, but says: “The true widow and the forsaken (desolata) trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers day and night” (1 Tim. 5:5). But what is discussed next, you must be wary of with all possible attention: “But she who spends her life in pleasure died alive” (1 Tim. 5:6). After all, a person spends his life in what he loves, what he strongly desires, and in what he hopes to find bliss. Therefore, the same thing that is said in Scripture about wealth - “If wealth flows in, do not put your heart on it” (Ps. 61:11) - I tell you the same thing about pleasures: “If pleasures flow in, do not put your heart on them.” So don’t think too much about yourself because you don’t lack them, that you have them in abundance, that they flow like an inexhaustible source of earthly happiness. In general, do not attach any importance to them for yourself, despise them; let them not be necessary for you for anything other than maintaining bodily health. After all, health should not be neglected: it is necessary for everyday needs, until this mortal has clothed itself with immortality (1 Cor. 15:54) - in true, perfect and eternal health, which does not suffer damage from earthly illness and is not replenished with corruptible joys, but remains unchanged in heavenly power and lives in eternal incorruption. Because the same apostle says: “Do not turn the cares of the flesh into lusts” (Rom. 13:14); after all, we take care of the flesh, simply as necessary for salvation. “For no one ever hated his own flesh” (Eph. 5:29), as he himself also said. For the same reason, he advised Timothy - who, apparently, was unnecessarily cruel to his body - to “drink a little wine for the sake of the stomach and frequent illnesses” (1 Tim. 5:23). 8. So, if a widow spends her life in pleasures - that is, abides in them and is attached to them with the love of her heart - she died alive. These pleasures were avoided by all means by many holy men and women, and therefore disposed of wealth itself, as if the mother of pleasures, distributing it to the poor, and thereby placing it more securely in the heavenly treasury. Suppose you are prevented from doing so by certain obligations to piety; but you know what kind of account you have to give to God about this. For “no one knows what is going on in a person except the spirit of man who lives in him” (1 Cor. 2:11). We must not judge ahead of time “in any way before the time, until the Lord comes, who will illuminate the hidden things in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart, and then everyone will have praise from God” (1 Cor. 4:5). But one of your duties as a widow is not to put your heart into pleasures if they flow, so that because of them, that which needs to be turned upwards does not rot and die. Be among those about whom it is written: “Their hearts will live forever and ever” (Ps. 21:27). 9 . So, you have heard about how you should be when praying. Now listen to what to pray for. You considered it necessary to consult with me about this first of all, since you were confused by the words of the apostle: “We do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26). You began to fear that prayer “not as it should” would turn out to be more harmful for you than the absence of prayer. Well, this can be said briefly: pray for a blessed life. After all, all people want her; even those who live the lowest and most wasted life would not live like that if they did not think that it gave them - or could give them - bliss. So what should you pray for if not for what both the good and the evil desire, but which only the good can achieve? 10. But here you probably already have a question: what is this blissful life? Many philosophers have wasted their talents on this question, wasted their leisure time, but the less they were able to find an answer, the less they honored the source of blissful life and were grateful to it. Therefore, first let us reflect on whether we should be content with the opinion of those who considered blessed to live in accordance with their own will. God forbid we consider this true! What if he wants to live a vicious life? Will he not be the more unhappy the easier it is to fulfill his bad will? It is no coincidence that this opinion was rejected with contempt even by those who philosophized without honoring God. One of them, an exceptionally eloquent husband, says: “And others, although not philosophers, but zealous debaters, say that everyone who lives is happy, as they themselves want. But this is definitely false: after all, the very desire for something unworthy already represents the greatest misfortune. It is not so unfortunate not to achieve what you want as to achieve what you should not want." 17 What do you think? Do not these words - no matter through whomever they were spoken - belong to the Truth Itself? So here we can say the same thing that the apostle said about some Cretan soothsayer, whose words he liked: “This testimony is just” (Titus 1:13) 11. Therefore, blessed is he who has everything he wants, but does not want anything unworthy. And if this is so, let us now see which of human desires will not be unworthy. One wants to get married; another is widowed and henceforth chooses a life of abstinence; the third, during the marriage itself, decided not to know the common bed. And although one here turns out to be better than the other, we cannot say that either of them desires something unworthy. The same [can be said] about the desire [to have] children (that is, the fruit of marriage), and about the desire for life and health (vitam ac salutem) for those already born. The latter is often occupied with prayers of widow's abstinence; because even if [widows] refuse a [new] marriage and do not want to give birth to more children, they still want those already born to be alive and well. Virgin chastity is free from all these worries. However, everyone generally has people of both sexes who are dear to them, and there is nothing unworthy in their desire for temporary health (temporalem salutem). But suppose people achieve this health for themselves and for those they love; can we say that they are already blessed? Yes, they had something that was not unworthy to wish for. But if they do not have something else - more important, more valuable, more full of benefit and beauty - they are still far from a blissful life. 12. So, should they not, in addition to this temporary health, also wish for positions and power for themselves and their loved ones? Quite, if only thanks to them they will take care of their subordinates. It is worthy to desire this, if only to desire it not for the sake of positions and power themselves, but for the sake of some other good that should come from them. If for the sake of empty exaltation and pride, for the sake of useless, or even harmful, pompous vanity, then it is unworthy. Let us suppose that people also wish for themselves and their loved ones prosperity in necessary things, about which the apostle says: “It is a great gain to be pious and content. For we have brought nothing into the world; It’s obvious that we can’t take anything out of it. Having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts that plunge people into disaster and destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evil, which, having given themselves over, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:6-10). Suppose someone desires such prosperity; there is nothing unworthy in his desire, unless he wants something more. If he wants, then he no longer desires just prosperity, and his desire is unworthy. This prosperity was desired and prayed for by the one who said: “Do not give me wealth and poverty, provide me with what I need and in sufficient measure. So that, having had enough, I would not become a liar and say: who sees me? or, having become poor, did not steal and swear in the name of God” (Prov. 30:8–9). You, of course, noticed that this wealth is not desirable in itself, but for the sake of bodily health and a decent lifestyle for a person, so that his lifestyle is not obscene in the eyes of those with whom a person has to live in mutual honor and respect. 13. So, in all this, friendship and one’s own life intact (incolumitas) are in themselves desirable. As for wealth in necessary things, it is usually sought (if it is sought worthily) not for its own sake, but for the sake of those two things that we mentioned above. And in order to live safe and sound, you need, firstly, to live, secondly, to be healthy, and thirdly, to keep your soul and body clean. Likewise, friendship should not be limited to narrow boundaries: it embraces everyone to whom our love and affection is due, even to some it is inclined willingly, and to others with caution. Moreover, it also extends to the enemies for whom we are commanded to pray. So in the entire human race there is no one to whom we would not owe our affection - if not because of mutual love, then at least because we share a common nature with them. 14. So, is that all? This is the essence of a blissful life - and nothing more? Or does Truth teach us that there is something else that should be preferred to all this? After all, both this wealth and this life safe and sound (whether one’s own or that of friends), insofar as they are temporary, are worthy of contempt in comparison with the acquisition of eternal life. The soul cannot - although the body, perhaps, can be considered healthy if it does not prefer the eternal to the temporary. Yes, and temporary life is not useless only if in it we prepare for ourselves a reward for eternal life. So without a doubt, everything that is worthy and useful to desire should be related to this one life, life with God and from God. After all, we thereby love ourselves if we love God. And, in accordance with the second commandment, we love our neighbors as ourselves, if, to the best of our ability, we lead them to love God. So, we love God for His own sake, and ourselves and our neighbors for His sake. But even if we live like this, we will not consider that we have already established ourselves in that very blissful life, as we no longer have anything to pray for. After all, can we already live blissfully if we do not yet have the only thing that makes life blissful? 15. So why do we throw ourselves into so many things, are we afraid that we will not pray “as we should,” and we ask what to pray for? Isn’t it better to say, as in the psalm: “I asked one thing of the Lord, and this (only) I will ask for: that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the beauty of the Lord and visit His holy church” (Ps. 26:4). For there the days do not succeed each other and the beginning of one does not become the end of another; but everything exists simultaneously and without end where there is no end to the life made up of these days. For the sake of achieving this blessed life, the true blessed Life itself has taught us to pray without verbosity (as if whether we are heard depends on how much we speak), since we pray to the One who “knows,” as the Lord Himself said, “what we need before we ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Therefore, it may seem strange that “He who knows what we need before we ask Him,” although he forbade verbosity, still so [diligently] encouraged us to pray that he even said that “we must always pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). As an example, He cited a certain widow who, wanting to receive protection from her rival, constantly pestered the unjust judge and thereby forced him to listen to her, although he was not imbued with a sense of justice or mercy, but simply could not bear this bother. Thus [the Lord] wanted to remind us how much more confident we can be that the merciful and righteous Lord will hear our unceasing prayers, if even an unjust and unpious judge could not ignore that woman because of her annoying insistence. And how willingly and favorably will He fulfill the good desires of those who, as He knows, forgive the sins of others, if a woman who sought protection of her rights in court achieved her goal! And another [example] (Luke 11:5–8). A friend came to a man from the road, and he had nothing to offer him, so he wanted to borrow three loaves of bread from [another] of his friends (they probably depict the Trinity Itself, consubstantial). He was already sleeping with his slaves, but this unbearably annoying petitioner woke him up, and he gave him as much as he needed, simply because he wanted to avoid the hassle, and not because of good intentions. [Thus, the Lord wanted] to let us understand how much He who does not know sleep will give, and even He Himself awakens us, so that we can ask, if a suppliant can wake up a sleeping person and force him to give even against his will. 16. The following is said about the same thing: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Is there a man among you who, when his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone? and when he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? So if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:7-11). So, of the three things that the apostle speaks of here, the fish signifies faith - either because of the water of Baptism, or because it remains unharmed amid the storms of this age; the opposite is the snake, since the snake, by poisonous deception, convinced [man] not to believe God. The egg signifies hope, since the chick does not yet live, but will live, it is still invisible, but is still the subject of hope; for if [the object of] hope is seen, then it is no longer hope (Rom. 8:24). The opposite of this is Scorpio, since he who hopes for eternal life forgets about what is behind and reaches forward, so that looking back is harmful for him. In a scorpion, what you need to be most afraid of is the part that is behind it - the poisonous sting. Love is signified by bread; after all, “the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13), and bread surpasses all other food in its benefits. Its opposite is stone, since cruel hearts reject love. Or maybe each of these things means something else, but one way or another, He who knows how to give good gifts to His children insists that we ask, seek and knock. 17. But why would He do this if He knows what we need before we ask Him? [This question] can confuse our soul, unless we understand this in the sense that the Lord our God is not trying to find out in this way what we desire - He cannot help but know this - but wants us to exercise in prayer that [spiritual] desire (desiderium), through which we can accept what He is preparing for us as a gift. This gift is very great, but we are small and narrow in acceptance. That is why we are told: “Expand yourself, do not be yoked with the unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:13–14). And the more fidelity in our faith, firmness in hope and ardor in desire, the more capable we will be of accepting that which is very great - which the eye has not seen, for it is not a color; the ear did not hear, for it was not sound; and what did not come to the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9), since the heart of man itself must ascend to him. 18. So, through faith, hope and love, we always pray through continuous desire. But at the same time, at certain hours and at appointed times, we must also direct our petitions to God in words, in order to exhort ourselves with these signs of things (rerum signi), in order to better understand how much we ourselves have succeeded in this desire, and in order to motivate ourselves to the strongest exercise in this desire. And the more worthy the subsequent result (effectus) will be, the more fiery the previous feeling was. And because what do the words of the Apostle “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) mean if not: “Ceaselessly desire the blessed life - and only immortal life is blessed - from Him who alone can give it”? So, let us unceasingly desire a blessed life from the Lord God - and let us unceasingly pray. But at the same time, from other worries and labors, among which this desire itself seems to grow cold, at certain hours we will distract our minds for the work of prayer, in order to remind ourselves through prayers of attention to what we desire, so that this desire does not begin to grow cold, cool down and do not fade away at all - [after all, this will be the case] if we do not inflate it more often. Therefore, the words of the same apostle “Reveal your desires to God” (Phil. 4:6) should not be understood in the sense that they are revealed to God, who, of course, already knew them even before they arose; but let them be revealed to ourselves in patience before God, and not in boasting - before people 18. Or, perhaps, they will also reveal themselves to the Angels who are before God, so that they in some way present our desires to Him, ask about them and learn what must be done according to His command, and having learned from Him how to act, communicate this to us, openly or secretly. For the Angel said to the man: “When you and Sarah prayed, I offered up your prayer in the face of the radiance of God” (Tov. 12:12). 19. Since this is so, it is not bad or useless to pray for a long time when there is an opportunity for this - that is, when it does not interfere with the performance of those good and necessary deeds that are included in the circle of our duties; however, as I already said, even among them we must pray unceasingly through [spiritual] desire. You should know that, contrary to the opinion of some, praying for a long time does not mean “while praying, saying unnecessary things” (Matthew 6:8). After all, verbosity and duration of feeling are different things. After all, it is written about the Lord Himself that He spent the nights in prayer (Luke 6:12) and prayed for a long time (Luke 22:43). And what was this if not an example for us, set by the One who is both in time an exemplary prayer book and, with the Father, an eternal listener [of our prayers]? 20. They say that the brothers in Egypt pray often, but their prayers are very short, and they seem to throw them around with some haste, so that the vigilant and intense attention that is so necessary for the one praying does not disappear or weaken due to excessive duration. Thus, they clearly show that if attention cannot be maintained for a long time, it should not be painfully prolonged, and at the same time that it should not be hastily interrupted if it is retained. So, let there be no verbosity in prayer, but if we can maintain zealous attention, let us not deprive ourselves of long prayer! To be verbose means to use unnecessary words in prayer about a necessary matter. But to pray for a long time means, in a prolonged pious excitement of the heart, to knock on the One to whom we pray. After all, this work consists more in lamentations than in words, and more in tears than in speeches. And He gathers our tears before His eyes, and our groans are not far from Him - the One who created everything with the Word, and does not seek human words. 21. This means that we need words, but to remind and show us what we can ask for, and not because we supposedly believe that God can be taught something or persuaded to do something. Therefore, when we say: “Hallowed be Thy name,” we compel ourselves to desire that His name, which is always holy, should also be holy for people, that is, not be neglected; and this is useful not to God, but to people. When we say: “Thy kingdom come,” and it will come in any case, whether we want it or not, we thereby kindle our own desire for this Kingdom: for it to come to us, and for us to be worthy of reigning in it. Saying: “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth,” we ask Him for that very obedience, so that we too can do His will in the same way as His Angels do in Heaven. When we say: “Give us this day our daily bread,” the word “today” denotes the present time, in which we either ask for that same prosperity, naming “bread” as its most important part, denoting the whole; or [we ask for] the Sacrament of the faithful, which is also needed at the present time, but not for achieving temporary happiness, but for that eternal happiness. The words: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” remind us of both what we should ask for and what we must do to receive what we ask for. When we say, “Lead us not into temptation,” we remind ourselves of the need to ask so that the lies of temptation do not force us, left without God’s help, to agree, or its onslaught to give in. The words: “But deliver us from evil” 19 encourage us to remember that we have not yet reached that good state in which we cannot tolerate any evil. And this petition, placed last in the Lord’s Prayer, is so broad that a Christian, finding himself in any sorrowful circumstances, can groan with these words, cry with them, begin the prayer with them, continue with them, and end it with them. And all this because, with the help of words [of prayer], it was necessary to confirm in our memory the very objects [denoted by these words]. 22. The fact is that no matter what other words we say - regardless of whether the feeling of the person praying precedes them and forms them in order to gain clarity, or whether it follows them and grows from attention to them - if only we pray correctly and appropriately, we will say nothing other than what is already contained in the Lord's Prayer. And everyone whose words do not find a place in this Gospel prayer is praying, if not lawlessly, then at least carnally. However, it can hardly be denied that this is also lawlessness, since it is fitting for those born again of the Spirit to pray only spiritually. So, if someone prays: “Glorify Yourself among all nations, as You have glorified Yourself among us” or “Let Your prophets show that they are faithful” (cf. Sirach 36:4, 18), what is he saying if not “Hallowed be Your name”? He who says: “God, turn us and make Thy face shine, and we will be saved” (Ps. 79:4), does not he thereby say: “Thy kingdom come”? Having said: “Order my steps according to Your word, and let not all iniquity rule over me” (Ps. 118:133), what does he say if not “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth”? When he says: “Give me not riches or poverty” (Prov. 30:8), did he say anything other than “Give us this day our daily bread”? Praying: “Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness” (Ps. 132:1) or “Lord my God!” If I have done anything, if there is injustice in my hands...”, doesn’t he thereby say: “And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors”? And having said: “Let not the desires of the belly and voluptuousness take possession of me, and do not give me over to a shameless soul” (Sir. 23:5), what does he say if not “And do not lead us into temptation”? He who says, “Deliver me from my enemies, O God, and free me from those who rise up against me” (Ps. 58:2), does not he say: “But deliver us from evil”? And if you look at all the words of the sacred prayers, I think you will not find anything that is not contained and contained in this Lord’s Prayer. Therefore, in prayer we are free to use one or another expression, as long as we talk about the same thing; We should not have the right to choose what to talk about [in prayer]. 23. This is what we should pray for without embarrassment and doubt, for ourselves, for loved ones, for strangers and even for enemies; although various feelings may arise and grow in the heart, their own in relation to each, depending on how close or distant the relationship connects the person praying with them. But suppose someone prays, for example, like this: “Lord, increase my wealth!”; or: “Give me the same amount of money as you gave to so-and-so”; or: “Put me higher, give me power and glory in this age”; or something else in the same spirit, and he will say this out of lust for these things, and not with the goal of being useful to people with their help, in accordance with the [will] of God. Such a person, it seems, will not find anything in the Lord’s Prayer with which such petitions can be reconciled. Therefore, let him be ashamed to even ask for what he is not ashamed to desire. And if he is ashamed, but lust overcomes him, how much better would it be for him to pray to the One to whom we say: “Deliver us from evil,” for deliverance from this evil lust! 24. Now, in my opinion, you know not only what you need to be like when praying, but also what to pray for; and it was not I who taught you this, but the one who honored us all by becoming our Teacher. We must seek a blessed life and ask the Lord God for it. What does it mean to be blessed? Many people argue about this; but what do we care about this multitude [of answers and respondents]? The Scripture says briefly but truly: “Blessed is the people whose Lord is their God” (Ps. 143:15). “The purpose of exhortation is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith” (1 Tim. 1:5), so that we too can become members of this people, so that we too can achieve the contemplation of God and endless life with Him. Of these three, hope [can be put] in the place of a good conscience. Consequently, faith, hope and love lead the one who prays to God - that is, the believer, the one who hopes, the one who desires, and who is taught from the Lord’s Prayer what to ask of God. Fasting and abstinence from other pleasures without harming health, and also - especially - alms greatly contribute to prayer, so that we can say: “In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands, in the night before Him, and was not deceived” (Ps. 77:3). How else can one seek with the hands of the incorporeal and intangible God, if not by works [of virtue]? 25. Perhaps you may still ask, why does the apostle say: “We do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26)? After all, it is impossible to believe that he or those to whom he wrote did not know the Lord’s Prayer. He couldn't lie or say something without thinking! So why do we think he said this, if not because hardships and sorrows are often useful - either for healing inflated pride, or for testing and exercising patience (after all, a more abundant and more glorious reward is prepared for tested and seasoned patience), or for scourging and destroying certain sins - but we, not knowing how they are useful, want to be free from all sorrows? The apostle shows that he himself is not alien to this ignorance (unless he [did not do what will be said later], even knowing what he should pray for). So that he would not be exalted by the extraordinary nature of the revelations, he was given a thorn in the flesh, the angel of Satan, to oppress him. Therefore, he prayed to the Lord three times that He would remove [this angel] from him, and, of course, he did not know what to pray for as he should. Finally, he heard an answer from God why what such a great man prayed for was not fulfilled, and why it was not beneficial for it to be fulfilled: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (see 2 Cor. 12:7–9). 26. Therefore, among those sorrows that can be both beneficial and harmful to us, “we do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26); and yet, since they are painful, painful and disgusting to our weak minds, we, in accordance with the desire common to all people (universali humana voluntate), pray for their removal. However, we owe such devotion to the Lord our God that, if these circumstances are not eliminated, we nevertheless do not consider that He does not care about us, but, on the contrary, hope for a greater good, godly enduring afflictions - and then “strength will be made perfect in weakness.” For it happened more than once that the Lord God in anger yielded to the requests of the impatient, just as He refused His mercy to the apostle. After all, we read how and what the Israelites asked for and received what they asked for; but after their whims were fulfilled, impatience was followed by severe punishment (Num. 9). He also gave a king to those who asked, but, as it is written, “according to their own hearts,” and not according to His own heart (1 Samuel 8:5,7). He also fulfilled the devil’s demand that His servant be subjected to temptations for the sake of testing (Job 1:12). He also heard the request of unclean spirits to send the demonic legion into the herd of pigs (Luke 8:32). All this is written so that no one will be arrogant if he is heard in his impatient petitions for what it would be better for him not to achieve: perhaps he would lose heart and despair of God's mercy over himself if he were not heard. [At the same time, such a person] could ask, for example, for something, the receipt of which would cause him harm, or even completely destroy him by the corruption that follows success. So, in such cases, we also “don’t know what to pray for as we should.” Therefore, if something happens contrary to our prayer, we should endure it patiently and give thanks for everything, without any doubt that it was more fitting for God’s will to be fulfilled than ours. After all, an example of this was left to us by the Mediator Himself, who, saying: “My Father! if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” immediately, transforming the human will that exists in Him because of the man perceived by Him (humanam in se voluntatem ex hominis susceptione transformans), adding: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). That is why, and not contrary to justice, many were made righteous by the obedience of One (Rom. 5:19). 27. But the one who “asked one thing from the Lord and sought it” (Ps. 26:4), he asks with confidence and without embarrassment, without fear that what he received would turn out to be harmful - [on the contrary], without this there will be no benefit from everything else that he received, “praying as he should.” For this one thing is that one true and only blessed life [which consists in] contemplating eternally the sweetness of the Lord in the immortality and incorruptibility of body and spirit. Everything else is needed for this and is requested in a fitting manner [if asked in order to promote this goal]. And the one who finds this blessed life will have everything he desires, and then he will not be able to desire anything unworthy. For there will be a source of life, which we should now thirst for in prayer, while we live in hope and do not yet see what we hope for; [as long as we live] under the roof of the wings of Him, before Whom our every desire abides - the desire to be satisfied with the abundance of His house and to drink from the streams of His sweetness, for with Him is the source of life, and in His light we will see light (Ps. 35:8-10). Then our “desire for good” will be satisfied: there will be no need to ask with groaning, but to support with joy. However, because this is the peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), asking for it in prayer, “we do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26). For since we cannot conceive of him as he is, we do not know [what to pray for]. But we reject, discard and condemn everything that comes to mind, knowing that this is not what we are looking for, although we do not yet know what it is that we are looking for. 28. So, in us there is a certain, so to speak, learned ignorance (docta ignorantia) - taught by the Spirit of God, Who strengthens us in our weaknesses. After all, the apostle, having said: “When we hope for what we do not see, then we wait with patience,” added: “The Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses; for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be expressed. But he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:25–27). This should not be understood in the sense that the Holy Spirit of God, Who in the Trinity is the unchangeable God, one God with the Father and the Son, intercedes for the saints as someone who is not God. But it is said: “he intercedes for the saints,” because He allows the saints to intercede. In the same way it is said: “The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love the Lord your God” (Deut. 13:3), that is, to let you know this. So, the Holy Spirit allows the saints to intercede with unspeakable groanings, breathing into them a desire for things not yet known, which we wait for with patience. And how to describe the desire for something that has not yet been known? After all, if it were done unknown, it could not be desired. And at the same time, if it were visible, it [also] could no longer be desired and asked for with sighs. 29. Considering all this, and also what either does not occur to me or is too long for me to talk about now, but what the Lord can reveal to you regarding this matter, strive in prayer to overcome this age. Pray in hope, pray with faith and love, pray persistently and patiently, pray like the widow of Christ. For although prayer, as He taught, is the duty of all His members, that is, all who believe in Him and are united to His body, a more diligent attitude to prayer is especially prescribed in the Holy Scriptures for widows. There two Annas are named with honor: one was married and gave birth to Saint Samuel; the other is a widow who recognized the Holy of saints when He was still a baby. The first, although she was married, prayed with spiritual sorrow and a contrite heart, because she had no sons; and she begged for Samuel himself, and having found him, she gave him to God, because she made a vow when she asked. However, it is not easy to discover how her prayer relates to the Lord’s prayer. Unless it refers to the words: “Deliver us from evil,” because it was considered a considerable evil to be married and not have offspring as the fruit of marriage, since marriage is justified only by the birth of children as a goal. And what is written about the other Anna, a widow, look: “She did not leave the church, serving day and night with fasting and prayer” (Luke 2:37). The apostle says no differently; I already remembered his words: “The true widow and the forsaken (desolata) trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers day and night” (1 Tim. 5:5). And the Lord, calling us to always pray and not lose heart, recalls the widow who, through her persistence in her appeals, persuaded the judge to listen to her, although he was unjust, alien to piety and despised both God and people. How much, then, more than others, widows should devote themselves to prayer can be fully understood from the fact that it is widows who are given to everyone as an example that should inspire them to become diligent in prayer. 30. So what is it about widows that forces them to be chosen for matters of this kind, if not their abandonment and abandonment? That is why every soul, if it recognizes itself in this age as abandoned and abandoned, while wandering away from God, of course, entrusts to God in constant and persistent prayer its, in a sense, widowhood. This means that you, too, pray like the widow of Christ, without yet seeing the one for whose help you are praying. And even if you are very rich, pray like a beggar, since you do not yet have the true wealth of the future age, in which you will no longer be afraid of loss. Even if you have children and grandchildren, there are many household members (numerosa familia), pray as if abandoned, as we talked about this above. After all, everything temporary is unreliable, even if it remains until the end of our days as a comfort to us. If you seek the highest, if you think about it, the desires of the eternal and reliable; and until you find it, you must consider yourself as if abandoned, even if all your loved ones are healthy and show you respect. And where you are, there, following your example, are your most pious daughter-in-law and other holy widows, living in complete safety under your protection. After all, the more godly you are in the way you manage your home, the more persistently you should remain in prayer, without being more occupied with the affairs of this life than the matter of godliness requires. 31. And, of course, do not forget to pray for us too, do not neglect this. We would not like you to show us such a deference which we find dangerous, as to deprive us of the help which we know is necessary. The Family of Christ 20 prayed for Peter (Acts 12:5), prayed for Paul (Acts 14:25). We are glad that you also belong to this family, and we ourselves need help with brotherly prayer incomparably more than Peter and Paul. So, compete in prayer while remaining united in brotherly competition. After all, you are not fighting against each other, but against the devil - the enemy of all saints. Fasting, vigil, any strictness regarding the body contributes to prayer as much as possible. Let each of you do what she can; What one cannot do, she does in the other, if she loves in her what she cannot do herself due to inability. Therefore, let the weak not hinder the strong, and the strong not force the weak. You owe your conscience to God, and you owe each other nothing but mutual love (see Rom. 13:8). May the Lord, who is able to do more than we ask or understand (Eph. 3:20), will hear your prayers. Brown P. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography. Berkeley (CA), L.A., 2000. P. 351 This is what a poetic inscription in Rome calls it (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. T. 6. N 1754) Moreover, there were rumors that it was she who, after a long siege, wanting to save her fellow citizens from starvation and seeing increasing cases of cannibalism, ordered her slaves to secretly open the gates and let the Goths into the city (Procopius of Caesarea. War with the Vandals, I 2.27 // War with the Persians. War with the Vandals. Secret History. M., 1993. P. 180). John Chrysostom, St. Letter 155 // Works of our holy father John Chrysostom in Russian translation. St. Petersburg, 1897. T. 3. Book. 2. P. 761. Pelagius. Epistula ad sacram Christi virginem Demetriadem // PL. 30. Col. 15–45; the tone of this letter and some other messages make it clear that Pelagius even enjoyed the patronage of the Anitsi before his heretical views became known. Here one can see direct parallels with the concept of “missing God” from the writings of St. Silouan of Athos (Writings of Elder Silouan // Sophronius (Sakharov), Archimandrite Venerable Silouan of Athos. Serg. P., 2018. P. 305 et seq.), and also, in a somewhat more distant way, with ideas about “mountain that cleanses the soul” in St. Gregory Palamas (Gregory Palamas, St. Triads in Defense of the Sacred and Silent. 1.3.52. M., 1996. pp. 96–97). Nikolai Kuzansky. About learned ignorance. M., 2020. This thought of St. Augustine is subsequently developed, in particular, by Blaise Pascal: “The greatness of man is that he is aware of his woeful insignificance. The tree is not aware of its insignificance. So, a person feels insignificant because he is aware of his insignificance; This is why he is great” (Pascal B. Thoughts, 255. M., 2018. pp. 143–144). A similar idea of ​​prayer can be found in the Russian ascetic tradition; it directly underlies the doctrine of the work of prayer by St. Theophan the Recluse: “Therefore, this is the limit of prayer education - starting to pray, moving from feeling to feeling. In this case, reading can stop, as well as thinking, and let there only be a stay in feeling, with well-known prayer signs...” (Theophan the Recluse, St. The Path to Salvation: A Brief Essay on Asceticism. M., 2013. P. 339). Compare: “Prayer is the aspiration of the mind and heart towards God” (Ibid. p. 336). This idea is also traditional and is present among many holy fathers, along with the understanding of unceasing prayer precisely as prayerful work (see: Gregory Palamas, St. Triads in Defense of the Sacredly Silent, 2.1.30–31. M., 1996. pp. 141–143), especially in relation to the laity: “And unceasing prayer is keeping the mind in great reverence, passionate devotion to God and constant trust in Him; it means trusting God in everything - in all matters and circumstances” (see: Maxim the Confessor, Venerable Sermon on Ascetic Life, 25–26 // Selected Creations. M., 2004. pp. 120–121). She was a model for Western monasticism; see St. John Cassian the Roman (John Cassian the Roman, St. Conversations, X 10 // Creations: Dogmatic-polemical and ascetic creations. M., 2020. 554–555). Wed. at St. Nicholas Kavasila: “In Him human love (ἔρως) finds peace, and thought delights in Him; and therefore, besides Him, loving at least something or thinking about anything is an obvious evasion of duty and a distortion of what was originally inherent in our nature... And so that we can always have thoughts about Him and invariably maintain zeal in this matter, He - the Subject of our thoughts - we must call upon hourly (ὅσαι ὧραι) "(see: Nicolaus Cabasilas. De Vita in Christo, VI 97–101 // SC. 361. P. 124–128). See: Gregory Palamas, St. Triads in Defense of the Sacred-Silent, I.3.42. M., 1996. pp. 104–105. La Professione do fede degli Athoniti // Gregorio Palamas e oltre: Studi e documenti sulle controversie teologiche del XIV secolo bizantino / A cura di A. Rigo. Firenze, 2004. P. 144–146 An untranslatable play on words (“sine quo solatio quaecumque sunt terrena solatia, magis in eis desolatio, quam consolatio reperitur”). In fact, the words desolatio (loneliness) and solatio / consolatio (consolation) are not the same root. Fragment from Cicero's lost dialogue "Hortensius". Sed nobis innotescant apud Deum per tolerantiam, non apud homines per iactantiam. In the Latin (as well as, to a lesser extent, in Greek) text of the Lord's Prayer, the last petition can be understood as referring not to the “evil” spirit, i.e. the devil, but to “evil” in general, including bad circumstances, troubles, sorrows, etc. Both the Latin “a malo” and the Greek “ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ" can mean either something masculine (“evil spirit”) or something neuter (“evil”). Familia Christi, i.e. Church; The Roman “familia” is not the same as “family” in the modern sense. Familia Romana is more like a “house”, including relatives, household members, dependents, etc.