Symphony based on the works of St. Ambrose, Elder of Optina

A • B • C • D • E • E • F • G • I • K • L • M • N • O • P • R • S • T • U • C • H • Z Antichrist • Athos • Vigil Poverty • Silence • Impassivity • Possessed • Demons • Grace • Thanks to God • Wealth • Worship • Illness • Marriage • Future life Faith • Temperance • War • The Will of God • Raising Children • Enmity Divination • Wrath • Persecution • Pride • State • Sin Virginity • Good deeds • Virtues • Dogmas • Debts • Spiritual warfare • Spiritual life • Spiritual correspondence • Spiritual guidance Temptations • Correction • Judas Cell Rule • Cell • Slander • Oath • Theft • Cross • Sign of the Cross • Smoking Love • Curiosity • Measure Mercy • Almsgiving • Peace of mind • Suspiciousness • Prayer • Jesus Prayer • Silence • Monasticism • Monasticism and peace • Relics Bosses • Ingratitude • Morality • Need Promise • Social activity • Condemnation • Revelation of thoughts • Attitude towards neighbors • Despair Pilgrimage • Memory malice • Singing • Food • Crying • Physical exploits • Suspicion • Repentance • God's help • Help of saints • Thoughts and warfare with them • God's permission • Obedience • Fasting • Praise • Truth • Orthodoxy • Holiday • Idleness • Charity • Communion • Progress • Willfulness • Origin of souls • Providence God's • Simplicity • The Path to Salvation • Drunkenness Joy • Spiritual intelligence • Reasoning • Jealousy beyond reason • Relatives • Murmuring • Handicrafts Self-love • Conceit • Arrogance • Self-justification • Selfishness • Suicide • Self-reproach • Self-will • Sorrow • Death • Humility • Confusion • Dreams • Unction • Argumentation • Covetousness • Quarrels • Eldership • Wandering • Fear • Fear of God • Superstition • Marriage Sacraments • Theater • Patience • Longing • Trinity • Work • Vanity Solitude • Dejection • Trust in God • Consolation • Teaching and teaching Kingdom of God • Chastity • Church Humanity • Reading • Miracles List of used literature Troparion, kontakion and prayers to the Venerable Elder of Optina The “Symphony” was compiled from numerous letters and individual compositions of the great Russian elder Venerable Ambrose of Optina (1812–1891). It included the elder’s statements on the most important issues of spiritual life. The Venerable Optina Elder Ambrose (in the world Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov) was born on November 23, 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov province, into the family of sexton Mikhail Feodorovich and his wife Marfa Nikolaevna Grenkov. The whole family lived in the house of Father Mikhail Feodorovich, priest Theodore, who served in the church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa and at the same time was in the position of dean. On the eve of Alexander's birth, on the occasion of a home holiday, many guests gathered. It was inconvenient for Marfa Nikolaevna to stay in the house, and she was transferred to a bathhouse, where she gave birth to her sixth child. Recalling the circumstances of his birth, the monk said: “Just as I was born in public, so I live in public.” Every holiday, Alexander’s father took Alexander with him to church, where he and his father read and sang in the choir. When the boy was 12 years old, his parents sent him to first grade at the Tambov Theological School. He studied well and finished the course first on the list. After graduating from college, Alexander entered the Tambov Theological Seminary in 1830. The learning was easy. Most of all, he loved the Holy Scriptures, theological, historical and humanities. It was at this time that the foundations of a deep knowledge of the Word of God and patristic creations were laid, which helped the elder in his subsequent life. A year before graduating from the seminary, Alexander became very ill, so there was little hope for recovery. Everyone prepared for the worst and sent for a confessor. Then Alexander made a promise to the Lord that if he recovered, he would certainly go to a monastery. He had never thought about a monastery before and suddenly, unexpectedly for himself, he vowed to become a monk. The young man recovered, but was in no hurry to fulfill his vow. In 1836, he successfully graduated from the seminary and became a home teacher in the house of a wealthy landowner, and on March 7, 1838, he was approved as a teacher of the Greek language at the Theological School of the city of Lipetsk. As a teacher, Alexander Mikhailovich left a good memory of himself: smart, thoughtful, he was an indispensable educator of young souls. But for him it was a time of difficult experiences: reproaches of conscience about an unfulfilled vow increasingly disturbed his soul. This is how the elder himself described his condition at that time: “After recovery, I kept shrinking for four whole years, did not dare to end the world right away, but continued to visit my acquaintances and did not give up my talkativeness.” He sought consolation in prayer and prayed all night before the icon of the Queen of Heaven, called “Tambov”. In the summer of 1839, on his way to a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Alexander stopped by the Troekurov recluse Hilarion for advice, and the elder told him: “Go to Optina, you are needed there.” Returning to Lipetsk, Alexander continued to doubt until he finally made up his mind in October 1839, leaving home for Optina secretly from everyone. Arriving in Optina Pustyn, Alexander went to Elder Leo, who received Alexander with Christian love and blessed him for the first time to live in a hotel and rewrite a book about the fight against passions, “The Salvation of Sinners” (translation from Modern Greek). On April 2, 1840, he was enlisted among the brethren of the monastery and dressed in a cassock. At first, novice Alexander was a cell attendant and reader for the Venerable Elder Leo, then he worked in a bakery, brewed hops (yeast), and baked rolls. But he did not have to live in the monastery for long: in November 1840 he was transferred to the monastery as an assistant cook, where he worked for a year. Work took up most of the day, and he had little occasion to attend divine services, which taught him to internal unceasing prayer. The venerable elder Leo, before his death, handing over the novice Alexander to the venerable elder Macarius, said: “Here is a man who painfully huddles with us, the elders. I have now become very weak. So, I’m handing it over to you from the floor to the floor, own it as you know.” From the autumn of 1841 to January 2, 1846, novice Alexander was a cell attendant with the Monk Macarius. He helped the elder in extensive correspondence, which subsequently helped him in the spiritual care of his large flock. In the summer of 1841, novice Alexander was tonsured into the ryassophore, and on November 29, 1842 into the mantle with the name Ambrose in honor of St. Ambrose of Milan. On February 4, 1843, Monk Ambrose was ordained a hierodeacon, and on December 9, 1845, Bishop Nikolai of Kaluga he was ordained a hieromonk. Almost immediately after the dedication of Fr. Ambrose became seriously ill. In October 1846, he was secretly tonsured into the schema, retaining his former name, and was soon forced for health reasons to leave the monastery staff and began to be counted as a dependent of the monastery. Since then, he could not perform the Liturgy, as he was very weak. Treatment did not help, the disease dragged on. But a serious and prolonged illness was a clear action of God’s Providence: the path of spirituality and eldership was opened for him. Even during the life of the Monk Macarius, with the blessing of the elder, some of the brethren came to Father Ambrose for the revelation of their thoughts. Thus, Elder Macarius gradually prepared himself a worthy successor. After the death of St. Macarius on September 7, 1860, Father Ambrose moved to a house near the monastery fence, to the right of the bell tower. On the western side of it, an extension was built, called a “hut”, here women came to the elder for advice: they were not allowed into the monastery. The Monk Ambrose lived here for more than thirty years, selflessly serving his neighbors. The daily life of the Monk Ambrose began with the cell rule. He got up at four o'clock in the morning, the cell attendants came and read the morning prayers, twelve selected psalms and the first hour. After a short rest, the elder listened to the hours: the third, sixth with pictorial ones and, depending on the day, a canon with an akathist to the Savior or the Mother of God, which he listened to while standing. The evening prayer rule consisted of Small Compline, the canon to the Guardian Angel and evening prayers. Not only ordinary people, but also famous public figures and writers turned to the elder for advice and consolation: F.M. Dostoevsky, V.S. Soloviev, K.N. Leontyev, L.N. Tolstoy, M.N. Pogodin, N.N. Strakhov and others. The elder received everyone with the same love, goodwill and simplicity of heart. Why did St. Ambrose so attract the hearts of people? It was obvious to everyone that the grace of God rested on him. The Monk Ambrose acquired the gifts of the Holy Spirit: senile prudence, evangelical love, insight, and the gift of healing. Having learned from personal experience the saving power of humility, the elder sought to teach this to his spiritual children. Often he spoke his teachings in the simple form of sayings or sayings. So, to the question “How to live in order to be saved?” The monk gave the following answers: “We need to live unhypocritically and behave exemplarily, then our cause will be true, otherwise it will be bad” or “To live is not to bother, not to judge anyone, not to annoy anyone, and to everyone - my respect.” Despite the many visitors and his constant illness, Elder Ambrose provided all possible assistance to the Monk Macarius in book publishing. But if under the Monk Macarius only patristic ascetic literature was published, then under the Elder Ambrose, church-historical works of Optina Pustyn also began to be published. Particular attention was paid to the lives and works of the Optina elders and holy fathers. The published books were sent to the libraries of monasteries, academies, seminaries, diocesan bishops and distributed to pilgrims. Assessing the publishing activities of Optina Pustyn, Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote: “All Russian monasticism owes special gratitude to Optina Pustyn for the publication of many works of the holy fathers...” The elder took special care of the Shamordino convent, which was established in 1884 with his blessing not far from the Optina Monastery. The monastery, unlike other monasteries, accepted poor and sick women. Through the cares, labors and prayers of Elder Ambrose, the monastery constantly grew. To directly supervise the farm, the Monk Ambrose came to Shamordino every year. The elder paid a lot of attention to the community: spiritual conversations with the sisters and the abbess. It was here that the Monk Ambrose was destined to meet his death. On June 2, 1890, as usual, he went to the Shamordino monastery for the summer. The elder visited the buildings in Rudnevo, talked with the abbess about pressing matters, and received the sisters. After staying for more than two weeks, he began to prepare to return to Optina. The day of departure was also appointed, but the elder felt such weakness that he could not leave the monastery. He tried to return to Optina three times, but due to his ill health he stayed here for more than a year. By the fall of 1891, the disease had become so severe that the elder lost his hearing and voice. On October 8, the Monk Joseph administered unction to him, and the next day he gave him communion. On October 10, 1891, at half past eleven, sighing and crossing himself with difficulty, Elder Ambrose peacefully and quietly departed to the Lord. On October 15, 1891, the body of Elder Ambrose was interred on the southeastern side of the Vvedensky Cathedral next to his teacher, the Monk Macarius. Elder Ambrose's letters to his spiritual children are like precious evidence of spiritual wisdom and experience; appeared in print immediately after the death of the elder and were reprinted several times. They represent answers to a wide variety of questions: theological, moral, everyday. For everyone there were necessary and important words that strengthened one’s faith, again raised them to spiritual warfare, and restored hope for salvation. This book is based on a symphony compiled in 2002 by the Optina Pustyn Publishing House. The book was supplemented with materials from unused letters and adapted for the modern reader. Quotations from the Slavic Bible have been replaced with those from the Synodal Bible, with the exception of the Psalter, which is translated by P. Yungerov. Reverend Our Father, Ambrose, pray to God for us! You might be interested in: