Бесчувствие

Why does it happen that the mind seems to become depleted of good thoughts and concerns pleasing to God? And how to protect yourself from this? Since David says: my soul slumbers from despondency (Ps. 119:28) 6; it is clear from this that this happens due to mental sleep and insensibility. For in a wakeful and sober soul, care pleasing to God and a good thought do not become lacking, but on the contrary, it sees that it itself is insufficient for them, because if the bodily eye is not sufficient to consider even a few of God’s creatures, and is not satisfied, having looked at something once, but constantly looking at the same thing, does not cease to look, then much less the spiritual eye, if it wakeful and sober, not enough to contemplate God's miracles and destinies. For it is said: Your destinies are a great abyss (Ps. 35:7), - and in another place: Your knowledge is wondrous for me: powerful! I cannot comprehend it (Ps. 139:6); and much like this. If a good thought becomes impoverished in the soul, then it is clear that enlightenment also becomes impoverished in it, not because of the impoverishment of the enlightener, but because of the slumbering of that which should be enlightened (5). Why does the soul sometimes grieve, and without making any effort about it, and grief comes to it almost as if by itself, and sometimes it is so insensitive that even the forced one cannot come to contrition? Such contrition is a gift of God, given either to excite desire, so that the soul, having tasted the sweetness of such sorrow, tries to love this sorrow, or as proof that the soul, with the most careful care, can be in constant contrition, and that those who reject it through negligence are not at all excusable. And if someone who is forced cannot come to contrition, this serves as a denunciation of his negligence at some other time (because without reflection, without much and continuous exercise it is impossible to begin something suddenly and overcome it), and at the same time it shows that the soul has other passions that do not allow it to freely act in what it wants, according to the beginning set forth by the Apostle, who said: but I am carnal, sold to sin. For I do not understand what I do: because I do not do what I want, but what I hate I do, and again, therefore it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (Rom. 7:14, 15, 17); Moreover, God, for our good, allows this to happen, so that the soul, by what it endures involuntarily, is brought to the consciousness of who possesses it, and having learned about itself, in which it involuntarily serves sin, it is freed from the devil’s snares, finding God’s mercy ready to receive those who truly repent (5). Translated by P. Yungerov: my soul has weakened from negligence. You might be interested in: