Гимн 33. Благодарение Богу за бывшие от Него благодеяния; и просьба научить, ради чего соделавшимся совершенными попускается (терпеть) искушения от бесов; и об отрекающихся от мира – наставление, изреченное от (лица) Божия 276 .

You, who created me, my God, know my poverty, you know orphanhood, you know loneliness, you see my weakness, and my powerlessness is not unknown (I say) to You, but You see and know everything. Look at the humble and contrite heart, look at me, approaching You in despair, my God, and grant Your grace from above, grant Your Divine Spirit, grant the Comforter, send, Savior, as You promised, send also to me now, sitting in the upper room, truly, Master, above all earthly things and beyond the whole world, seeking You and longing for Your Spirit. So, do not hesitate, O Compassionate One, do not despise (me), O Merciful One, do not forget the one who seeks You with a thirsty soul, do not deprive the life of someone unworthy of it, do not disdain and do not forsake me, O God. (As) an intercessor, I represent Your compassion, offer mercy and offer You Your love for mankind. I have not borne labor, I have not done deeds of righteousness, I have never kept one of Your commandments; but spent his entire life as a prodigal. However, You did not despise me, but You Yourself, having sought, found (me), returned the lost one from the path of error, and laying, O Christ, on Your most pure shoulders, through the light of Your grace carried me, O Merciful One, completely preventing me from feeling fatigue; but, as if he were resting on a chariot, He made it easy for me to pass along the rough paths, until He brought Your sheep back into the fold and joined them and made them with Your servants. Preaching Your mercy, I praise your compassion and marvel with thanksgiving at the riches of Your goodness. But being, as it was said, called by You, my God, and now being completely, as I believe, a servant (of Yours), (aimed towards the light and clinging to You 277, embraced by desire for You and bound by love, I am perplexed, amazed and cannot understand why grief (even now) concerns my pitiful soul, why sadness creeps in and worries me all, why sorrow for earthly things deprives me of Yours sweets, my God, and separates with joy. Why do You, O Blessed One, leave me, having fallen so (deeply) and sinned, or having angered You more, O my Christ, so that I would grieve even more than before, when my soul was obsessed with passions? Tell me and teach me now the depth of Your destinies, say, Master, and do not disdain me who speaks, (even though) I am unworthy, - You once shared a meal with sinners and harlots and shone with fornicators and tax collectors. To this my Lord answered and said: Taking you in my arms like a baby, I carried you away from the world; you know, of course, what I'm talking about. I swaddled you with all your limbs and fed you with milk that surpasses (all) food and drink, for My (deeds) are completely ineffable and inexplicable. I gave you to a teacher (you know who I’m talking about), and he diligently looked after you, like a little boy growing from hour to hour, and brought you up as you should. (Then) you became a youth, and also, of course, a youth; but you yourself do not know how I was always with you, grew with you and (from everywhere) covered you until you had safely passed through all ages. So, now that you are no longer young, but on the contrary, having become a truly perfect man and already leaning towards old age, how do you want to be held in their arms like a child? How do you ask to be swaddled and carried again? How (do you want) to eat milk and be under the guardian? Don't you blush when you say this, tell Me? As a husband, serve and educate others, taking care of everything that (serves) for their growth. Resist your enemies, and being defeated, also defeat them yourself. You understand what kind of enemies I am talking to you about – hordes of demons. Start hitting (them) mercilessly; when you fall, get up again, and respond to the arrows (of your opponents) with arrows, not sparing those who shoot and plot against you. But when they (try) to hurt you with despair, let them themselves be wounded (by your) hope, as if shot by you (an arrow). Those who strike you with anger as if with fists, and incite you to rage, being struck in the face by your meekness, let them be thrown far away from your home. After all, are you, as I said, a child or a boy? Is your soul still powerless? Is your mind still weak to resist? You know how to run away from enemies and, on the contrary, defeat them. For when you fight, you have Me as your helper and protector, and when you flee, you find in Me a strong and powerful cover. What earthly things are you sad about? which one of them, tell me? – about gold, or silver, or precious stones? but what is brighter than Me? or what shines clearer? or what stone, like Me, is absolutely invaluable? Is it not the deprivation of property, or the need for bread, or the lack of wine that completely confuses you? And what other paradise is there besides Me? or is the land of earthly and transitory things like the land of the meek? And what kind of bread or (what) wine in the world can be made (such as) My grace, like the Divine Spirit, like the bread of life, which, (that is) My body and blood, I give to those who eat Me with a pure heart, undoubted faith, with fear and trembling, and who drink intelligently and sensually? What joy, what joy, what glory on earth, tell Me, more than to see Me alone, than to contemplate Me alone, as if in a mirror and fortune-telling, and to see only the radiance of My glory and through it to learn this and more (than) to know for sure that I am God and the Creator of everything, and to understand that the person sitting in the deepest ditch is reconciled with Me 278, and having surpassed the rank of a hireling and slavish fear, directly, as with each other, talk with Me, serving Me without difficulty, lovingly pleasing and drawing closer to Me through obedience to the commandments. I am not speaking (about the deeds) of those who mercenarily serve Me and slavishly come to Me again, but about the deeds of my friends, known ones and My sons, which, write it down briefly, are the following: considering oneself more insignificant than anyone in the world, truly worse not only than the companions and worldly people, but (even) the pagans, considering an insignificant violation of one slightest commandment as a falling away from eternal life, looking at small children as perfect husbands, and (honor) and bow (to them) as (people) famous, and also to give honor to the blind, because I see the actions of all people. For My sake, do this (also) which you write down again: absolutely not to have even a slight excitement or slight suspicion in your heart against anyone, out of compassion, pray from the soul and with sorrow of heart for all those who sin against you, as well as those who dare to do the same against Me, with tears asking for their conversion, at the same time bless those who curse you and praise those who constantly slander you out of envy, consider those who offend you as benefactors, and about those who are stubborn and those who do not obey you, cry and weep incessantly, as if they are completely rejecting Me, their Master, without ceasing (however) to admonish them. For “accept you, He accepts Me,” I said (Matthew 10:40); and “listen to you, He listens to Me,” of course (Luke 10:16). Whoever does not listen with trepidation to your words and admonitions and does not fulfill them (even) to death, will not partake of My eternal glory, will not be made with Me, crucified on the cross and being obedient to the Father (even) to death, such a one will not be placed at the right hand and will not become a joint heir of those who crucified themselves. However, do not cease to exhort them, do not cease to mourn, do not cease to seek their salvation, so that if they listen (to you) and convert, you will have them as brothers, having acquired your members (in their person), and bring them (to Me, as) obedient and kindred, so that through you I may receive them and glorify them, and with you, as a gift, bring them to My Father. If they do not renounce their will and do not despise their souls, as I said, if they do not become dead to their desires, living in this life according to your will and fulfilling My will through your will; then (even then) you will not lose your reward and will not be deprived of it, but instead of one I will give you a double reward, since although they did not listen to you, you (however) did not stop speaking, but rather (agreed) to be hated, rejected and despised by them, just as I once was and now am hated by them and the like. Through such deeds I desire to be served; Through such and others like them, try to please Me, for I greatly rejoice in them. Do not wish rather to be idle and do not at all prefer anything else in the world to the benefit of your soul. For what benefit will he receive who gains the world, or instructs and teaches those in it, and saves everyone, if he himself is not saved? So, who is this, or how, while saving others, will not save, but, the unfortunate one, will destroy his soul? - He who destroys My commandment is the Lord of all and, as if trampling and bypassing it, violates My laws and transgresses my commands. Being outside the courtyard of (My) commandments and outside their fence, even if he saves the world and those who live in the world, then (even then) he will be alien to Me and far from My sheep, especially as he who destroyed the fence of the courtyard and gave the sheep an exit not through a single door, but an illegal entrance for the beasts; he will suffer unspeakable torment for all the sheep and will be cut in two, and (devoted to) fire and tartar, he will be, unfortunate, the prey of worms. For the Father spoke these things through the Son, and spoke the Spirit, who is the mouth of the Lord. The angels, having heard, praised (with incessant 279 voices, the righteous, joined) and said: Thy judgment is righteous and the decision is not shameful, for Thou hast judged impartially, O all-merciful God. Indeed, how will he wholly appear as Your co-heir and accomplice, who did not abandon his will and (the will of) the one who replaces Your face as Your Master, did not prefer and did not observe inviolably, as You Yourself, Most Gracious, observed (the will of) Your Father, especially who promised until death not to do his will in anything, not to cleave to and not to prefer flesh and blood, that is, affinities and natural ties, (innate) love, (again) binding those on earth to what they have renounced, and completely turning them around? The martyrs cried: truly righteous judgment. For when someone willingly gives himself up to martyrdom, he should not at all, even for a short time, listen to the voice of his relatives, wife and children, who, having come, (begin) to say with tears the following: Don’t you feel sorry for your children? and you, heartless one, will not regret the widowhood of your wife? Doesn’t their poverty incline you to compassion? and you will not think about their destruction and will not regret it? So, leaving (your children) orphans, strangers and beggars, and your wife a widow, do you prefer to save yourself alone? and how can you not be condemned more than a murderer, since, having left us all to perish, you seek only the salvation of your soul? - To (such) cries (I say) he should not at all (should) incline his ears and (even) run away from bonds and prison for gifts or, through renunciation of You, Christ, free himself from them; as someone who has already died, (he must) remain in trials and remain in prison, hunger and thirst, not remembering his things and possessions and not allowing his mind, if possible, even for a short (time) to withdraw from prison, but contemplating You in him, the Lord of all; and through contemplation (constantly) directing thoughts towards You, (even) to death, firmly hold on to one love for You. And he should not even look at those at all, who, evading and rejecting You, return to the first vomit, to previous actions, to worries about earthly things, about his wife and children, and under no pretext not to be bound by this, for he no longer controls his soul. Therefore, many of Your servants, when You opened their conclusions and completely resolved their bodily bonds, did not at all want to go away and run; but remained, as if bound. So now, O Savior, there are those in the world who, renouncing the world 280 and at the same time all relatives, friends and others (people) and all things in the world, and above all their own will, no longer have any power over themselves, but although they are not forbidden by the abbots (to use it), they must nevertheless keep the agreement with You, the Master. For they promised not to people, but to God, to remain obedient and submissive to the abbots and to all the brethren laboring together with them in the monastery. Therefore, they must live in a monastery, as if on a secluded island located in the middle of the sea, considering that the whole world has become completely inaccessible to them, as if a great abyss has been established around their entire monastery, so that neither those in the world (can) go to the monastery, nor those living on the island can cross over to those who are there, and, looking at them with passion, hold in their hearts or minds the memories of them; but, like the dead to the dead, they, even though they have feeling, must relate to them without sensation, becoming (thus) truly as if voluntarily slain lambs. Hearing these all-holy words of the martyrs, filled with lust and love for the Lord, the Cherubim praised (the Lord) and said in fear: glory to Thee, the King, glory to Thee, the All-Merciful One, who has shown on earth martyrs without tyrants (and persecutors), who through one love for Thee hourly give themselves up to torment. Truly, the Father said again through the Son and (added) the Spirit, (those who love God with all their hearts and) constantly abiding (in love for Him alone) 281 and hourly dying by their own will - these are both sincere friends (Mine) and co-heirs, they are martyrs by one will, without scraping, without gallows, fires and cauldrons, without burning with fire and cutting with swords. At this, the worldly ranks all exclaimed with rejoicing: Thy judgment is righteous, O All-Merciful One; may it be written and sealed now and forever. In l. paragraph 28 chapter; in P. r. this hymn has been lost, since according to the table of contents it should be 41 words. In l. n. mecum in gratiam restitutum - restored with Me into grace. These words in brackets are taken from l. p. This subordinate clause is not in l. p. All these words in brackets are taken from l. p. You might be interested in: