Плачь о душе своей

1. Often, a young newlywed, sitting on her virgin bed, mourns the death of her beloved husband, and in her wedding attire begins her plaintive song; and the slaves and friends, standing here and there, weep alternately to relieve her sadness. And the mother mourns her dear son, who has not yet reached his youthful years, and after the pains of birth suffers new torments. And another laments about his fatherland, which is devastated by the swift Ares. Another mourns for a house that has been destroyed by heavenly fire. What kind of crying is appropriate for you, O soul, which the destructive serpent killed, sealing God’s image with a bitter death? Cry, cry, damned one, this alone is good for you. I will leave friendly and cheerful feasts; I will leave the great glory of eloquence and nobility of blood; I will leave the houses with high roofs and all earthly happiness; I will leave even the sweet light of the sun, the sky itself and the brilliant stars with which it is crowned. I will leave all this to those who will come after me; and I myself, with a bandage on my head, like a dead man and lifeless, will lie down on the bed, with my last lament I will console those who mourn, I will receive praise and unquestioning love for a short time, then a stone, and under it undying corruption. However, this is not why my heart is troubled; I tremble at the only truthful scales of God. 2. How could a demon alienate you so much from Christ, catch your tongue, and hearing, and sight, oh unfortunate soul? Where do you wander outside the gentle Light, agitated by desires and restless worries, trembling with one shadow of fear, serving seduction, drying up and melting away in gusts of boiling anger? Do not indulge, soul, in the whirlwinds of your soaring mind, but do not forget your life when you approach the flesh, the hidden and obvious shortcomings of the flesh! Let everything in the world below be outraged by the cruel storms of life; Let time here, like checkers, play with everyone: with beauty, and good fame, and wealth, and power, and unfaithful happiness! And I, holding tightly to Christ, will never abandon the hope that I will see the radiance of the united Trinity, when the property of the great God, now mixed with the flesh, and formerly the image of God, will enter into unity with the heavenly. You might be interested in: