На безмолвие во время поста

Be silent, dear tongue; and you, my pen, write the words of silence, tell the eyes of the heart’s broadcasts! When, making a mysterious sacrifice to the human suffering of God, so that I myself might die to life, I bound my flesh for forty days, according to the laws of Christ the King, since healing is given to cleansed bodies: then, firstly, I brought the mind into steadfastness, living alone away from everyone, surrounded by a cloud of lamentation, gathered entirely within myself and undistracted by thoughts, and then, following the rules of holy men, I put the door to my lips. The reason for this is so that, while abstaining from every word, we learn to observe moderation in words. He who raises a piercing spear against many easily subdues the few. Whoever throws winged arrows faithfully at the target from afar will never have an arrow fly past the target at close range. And a seaworthy ship that has sailed across vast seas can safely be sent on a voyage not far from the pier. Whoever wins in small things, it is still doubtful whether he will succeed in great things, although he strongly desires. But whoever produces great things, there is no doubt that, if he wants, he can easily surpass others in small things. That’s why I completely tied up the power of words, for I hoped that no more unnecessary words would come out of my mouth. Language is the most destructive thing for people. - This is a horse that always runs forward, this is the most prepared weapon. Another sees everything; but his hands reach very little, namely what is under his feet, but his feet did not go around the whole earth. And the murderer has to fight hard; the adulterer trembles with his furious passion; the worst day for thieves. And wealth is burdensome; I have one, but have already lost the other; I hold as much in my hands as I can hold in a handful of liquids. A ship, a long journey, robbers, an unfed person who casts greedy gaze on other people's property - that's how many opponents every gold lover has! And the bad are not without labor, and the good are not without labor. But nothing held back a tongue that was quick to speak—neither man, nor snow, nor a stream, nor a stone cliff. The shooter is already close; the merciless arrow was already inserted into the bow, and at its forked end the bowstring bent into an arc; thought shot an arrow; she rushed and overthrew everything - heavenly and earthly, living and unborn, wary and careless, good and evil, enemies and friends, distant and close. For this arrow, the target is everywhere; and whoever throws it has first place among the wise men. The tongue of the lustful speaks many shameful things. He who is worthy of laughter, in order to arouse uncontrollable laughter in people, allows himself to be thrown at, and he himself throws words, dishonors the image of God, and spews out a lot of hidden things into the ears of others, and often scatters the swirling foam of stormy anger in all directions; Often, from a malicious heart he brings out greetings, and has one thing in his soul and another on his lips, namely lies, kind words and murder. Who can count all the grief that the tongue causes? If he wants, without any difficulty, in one minute he will force house to house, city to city, people to ruler, king to subjects to be at enmity, like a spark instantly igniting straw. Those sailing on the same ship, a son, a parent, a brother, a friend, a husband, a husband, he conveniently arms everyone against each other. He makes the evil one good, and, on the contrary, he destroys the good one, and all this will be changed again. Who will overcome the word? The tongue is small; but nothing has such power. Oh, that he would immediately become dead among evil people! Every foolish tongue has evil, but it can especially be evil in the secret places of the heavenly sacrifice. I am the organ of God, and in euphonious hymns I bring praise to the King, before Whom everything trembles. I sing not of Troy, not of the happy voyage of some ship Argo, not of a pig’s head, not of the mighty Herakles, not of the vast circle of the earth, as it is surrounded by seas, not of the brilliance of stones, not of the paths of the heavenly bodies. I sing not the fury of passions, not the beauty of youths, in whose honor the effeminate lyre of the ancients rattled. No, I glorify the great God reigning in the heavenly places, or the radiance of my most luminous, united Trinity. I sing the high, loud songs of the angelic faces, which they alternately proclaim as they stand before God. I sing of the orderliness of the world, even more perfect than the present one - the harmony that I expect, because everything is hastening towards oneness. I sing the imperishable glory of Christ’s suffering, with which Christ deified me, dissolving the human image with the heavenly one. I sing of the confusion seen in me; for I am not some easily explicable work; I am a work in which the mortal is united with the heavenly. I sing of the law of God given to men, and all the affairs of the world, as well as the intentions and end of both, so that you keep one in your heart, and run further away from the other and tremble for the coming day. For all this, my tongue must be like a harp. But beware, priests, that he does not sound anything discordant. I will keep my tongue pure and for pure sacrifices, through which I bring the great King into communication with earthly beings. And not with an alien tongue, not with a defiled mind, I will send forth a life-giving sacrifice to the Pure One. One source does not produce a sweet and bitter stream. The most indecent thing for purple clothes is dirt. An extraordinary fire destroyed the ancient sons of the priest, who touched the victim uncleanly. I hear about the sacred ark of the great God that he was once inclined to fall and killed the one who touched it. This is why I greatly tremble and am afraid that I might suffer something by uncleanly touching the pure Trinity. Oh, if only I could bring the indecent and fickle mind, which rushes here and there in many vain impulses, closer to the goal, albeit with a chain bridle, and keep it in my heart completely free from seduction! It’s better to say that if he is closer to the great-glorious Christ, he will be illuminated by the rays of the great Light. And even now, being imprisoned inside, he does less evil, even though he has begun to wander somewhat away from God. When the flame, or stream, is blocked by hard stones; although it bubbles inside, it does not destroy thick bushes or fields, and hiding in the stones, it lives half dead. But the word, as soon as it leaves the polyphonic tongue, rages uncontrollably and does not return. However, if you bend a crooked branch, gradually unbending it with your hands, in the opposite direction; then, freed from the violence of the hand, it becomes straight and does not take on the previous curvature. So I, noticing that the swiftness of a fluent word knows neither weight nor measure (then there was only life for me when there was a word), invented the best medicine, completely kept the word in my highly intelligent heart, so that my tongue learned to observe what it could say and what it could not. Having acquired perfect silence, he will acquire good speech. I have deprived him of everything, and he will not despise measures. May this become an everlasting law for the immoderate! And that is a great gain if you keep your word that is ready to burst when someone from outside strikes your heart. By taming the word, you also tame the excitement of anger; and although not without difficulty, you will nevertheless tame him. If you do not give freedom to your tongue when it is arrogant and comes into a wild rage, but you keep it in check, then you will avert offense. With the conquest of the leader, the king of passions will submit, and you will rest from painful anxiety. For all this we need the guidance of the great King Christ, but then we also need the feed of our mind. If Christ is not your ruler; then your silence and even greater patience are of no use. If we close the narrow source of the lake with our hands and open it again, it will immediately flow. On the contrary, the blessed word commands you, my good one, starting with this, to hold back the current of all evils. These, my dear friend, are the teachings of my silence; This is what my hand, expressing thoughts, tells you. This is my voyage; and you hurry to another voyage. Everyone is carried by the direction of the wind. But if anyone, either from my enemies or from well-wishers, wants to hear another reason for my silence; here she is. There was a time when I had a lot of firmness in my morals. Christ the King led me against the enemy, and in my heart I had faith stronger than adamant; I was protected from everywhere by strong walls, I edified my undefiled mind with the word of God, extracting the spirit from the sacred letter; and at the same time, I ejected from myself the salty bitterness of the books I had read before, this beauty, shining with false embellishments, while I exhausted my ebullient flesh, while it was blooming with youth, with many and frequent labors. He took away from the belly the impudence of satiety and the fury that is inseparable from it, established the eye in the eyelids with chastity, removed anger, bound the limbs, blocked laughter. Everything then submitted to the Word, everything in me died. The bare earth was my bed; pain in the sides, hard clothes served as an aid to vigil and brought tears out of me; During the day I bent my spine, and during the all-night hymns I stood upright, not knowing the human attachment to the comforts of life. That's how it was then; because the flesh was still boiling in me, which usually intensifies to stop the great light in its heavenly ascent. I also threw off the heavy burden of earthly acquisitions, so that, shaking off all heaviness, I could ascend lightly to God. And now, when a cruel illness has befallen me and old age has exhausted me, I have fallen into new suffering. I have an indomitable and kind tongue; he always betrayed me to many misfortunes at the hands of an envious person. I did not invade anyone’s thrones, I did not expel anyone from my own country, I did not plot intrigues, I did not strike with slander, I did not do anything contrary to the law of our victims (this is known to the Word), I did not insult either the Bishop or anyone else; because I am indignant at every national leader about whom there is such a rumor (and, to the contrition of my heart, the sea and the wide borders of the earth are now full of such leaders). But an unkind word hurt me. I didn’t think about this before, but it did harm; for it aroused the envy of all my friends towards me. And in order to benefit from something from me and you, envy, shut up, dear tongue, shut up for a while. I will not bind you forever; the hater of the word will not receive this from me. They say about one Samian king, who was successful in everything, that, to please his envy, he caused grief to himself and threw his father’s beloved ring into the sea. But the fish that swallowed him was caught in the net; the fisherman brought the fish to the king, the king gave it to the servant with the ring that was in its interior; and the belly received the fish, and the hand received the ring. Amazing thing! The king wanted grief, but did not find it. So it is with me. Envy always looks at my word with wild eyes; That’s why I chose the depth of silence for myself, and to this day I imitate Samos. But I don’t know clearly what will happen tomorrow, whether a good or bad end will meet me. You, Medicine of men, stop envy, and freeing me from cruel tongues, bring me into Your lordship, where I, magnifying You with ever-living lights, could proclaim a harmonious song with my lips. Accept these silent broadcasts of my hand, so that there will be a prophetic monument to my silence. 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