Часть вторая. Морально-аскетические воззрения святителя Игнатия

Introduction. General overview of the literary works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov Having set our task in the second part of our book to present and clarify the moral and ascetic views of the Right Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov in their basic, fundamental principles, since they were expressed mainly in his literary creations, we consider it necessary to first make a general overview of the literary works of Saint Ignatius in order to determine the spiritual heritage he left in our dispensation and its general value. Currently, the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov in six volumes, published in 1905 in the third edition of Ign. L. Tuzova. These works individually bear the following names: t.t. I–III – “Ascetic Experiences”, a total of 1297 pages in three volumes; vol. IV – “Ascetic preaching” and letters to the laity” – 587 pp., vol. V – “Offering to modern monasticism” – 404 pp.; Vol. VI - “Fatherland”. Selected sayings of holy monks and stories from their lives, collected by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, with a photograph from his manuscript attached: “Preface to the first volume of ascetic experiences,” ed. 4th St. Petersburg 1903 – 549 pages; in just six volumes – 2787 pages. In addition to the six volumes of the works of the Right Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov in print, the following works are known in special editions: 1) “The Sermon on Death and the Addendum to It,” compiled, corrected and supplemented by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, ed. 6th, St. Petersburg 1906 – 249 pp. This word is a reprint from volume III of the complete works of Bishop Ignatius, pp. 69–311. 2) “Rules of external behavior for new monks.” Compiled by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, ed. 7th, St. Petersburg 1907. These rules are taken from volume V of the Complete Works of Bishop Ignatius, pp. 7–28. 3) “On the patience of sorrows,” the teaching of the Holy Fathers, collected by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, ed. 4th 1904 by the Scientific Committee of the Min. People. Education approved for student libraries of secondary and lower educational institutions 2 Sep. 1884, 175 pp. This book is a reprint from volume V of the Complete Works, pp. 151–261; only excerpts without instructions from the author. 4) “About the end of the world.” Three teachings from the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, Scientists Comit. Minister Nar. Enlightenment approved for student libraries" of secondary and lower educational institutions; ed. 4th 1899. This book is a reprint of excerpts from Volume IV, pp. 209–225, 266–273, and 89–44. 5) “The Destinies of God.” The dying creation of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, St. Petersburg. 1867, g.; It contains a very valuable preface by Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov. This article is placed in volume II Complete. Collection Works, pp. 77–109. 6) “On the Jesus Prayer.” (In the Complete Collection, works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. I, pp. 205–298; vol. V, pp. 107–118; vol. II, pp. 233–314). 7) “The Chalice of Christ”, St. Petersburg. 1863. This article was published in volume I, – pp. 544–552.; 8) “The lament of a monk for his brother who fell into sinful temptation” St. Petersburg. 1867, Article published in Complete. Collection works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. V, pp. 38–464. 9) “Preparation for the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion”, ed., 3rd, St. Petersburg. 1900 (In Complete Collected Works, vol. IV, – pp. 45–68). 10) Letters of the Most Reverend Ignatius; attached to the “Biography of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov”, ed. in 1881 – pp. 1–144. 11) Letters from Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov to various persons, published in the magazine “Theological Bulletin” for 1913 and 1914. Hieromonk Ignatius (Sadkovsky) 12) Sayings of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, extracted from his letters to the monks. (Reported by Hieromonk Ignatius Sadkovsky; published in the Theological Bulletin for 1913). All of the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius, according to the time of their writing, date back to the period of his church and public service, but the beginning of his literary activity dates back to the days of his youth: Among the papers remaining from the Most Reverend Ignatius, now belonging to Senator N.S. Brianchaninov, there are ancient notebooks of the first literary works of Bishop Ignatius, namely: 1) “Some Advice for Preserving the Commandments of the Lord,” with the notation in the afterword that “this was written in St. Petersburg from the words of Dmitry Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov, that now Archimandrite Ignatius in the first-class Trinity Sergius Hermitage, when he traveled with his father Leonid, his elder, from the Svirsky Monastery to the Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage in the first year of his admission to monastic life. 1827." 2) “Biography of schema-monk Theodore.” 1829 Ploshchanskaya hermitage, Oryol province. Op. YES. Brianchaninov. (About schemamonk Theodore, see “Biography of the Fatherland’s active piety in the 18th and 19th centuries.” April, pp. 77–80). 3) “The monk weeps for his dear brother, who has fallen into some sinful temptation. Written by a friend for a friend and for a brother by a brother. To the mutual benefit of both the writer and the reader.” “I have received sorrow from sinners who forsake Thy Law.” Semigorodnaya desert of the Vologda province. Composed by D. A. Brianchaninov 1830;”: This manuscript is available in two copies. One of the notebooks contains an unknown to us “Appeal to my cell, that is, to the world and to my body,” followed by an arrangement of this appeal in verse by I. I. Mordvinov. Of the works of Bishop Ignatius listed here, “The Lamentation of the Monk” was included in the Complete Collected Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov and placed in vol., V, pp. 387–464. “Some Advice for Preserving the Commandments of the Lord”, “The Lamentation of a Monk” and “The Biography of Schema-Monk Theodore” are of particular importance as the early works of Saint Ignatius, testifying to the stability of his spiritual-ascetic mood in his youth, before monasticism, his understanding of the foundations of ascetic life and deep observation in relation to the deceased and living ascetics of piety, which often pass without a trace for the worldly gaze. “Some tips for keeping the Commandments of the Lord”; written by Ignatius Brianchaninov at the age of 20, testify to his reading of the patristic works and his understanding of the course of spiritual life. “The spiritual life of the inner man, according to the legend of the Holy Fathers,” says the young man Brianchaninov, “is divided into two parts: active and speculative. The first part is the sowing of virtues into the field of the heart by fulfilling the commandments of Christ, and the second is the spiritual harvest, the marriage of the soul, cleansed of passions by the commandments, with the Bridegroom Christ, performed in the secret chambers of the heart. Whoever enters this marriage not in wedding clothes, but in rags, that is, who foolishly and impudently, before the first part, dares to enter into the second, which is the spiritual union of man with God, and straight from the fornication of passions seeks to touch the purest Lord, such, according to the words of the Gospel, both his hands and feet are tied, i.e., his course along the path of piety stops, he perishes all his labors and he is plunged into pitch darkness, that is, into ignorance, bitterer than any other ignorance, born of pride, in which a person dreams that he knows everything, while he knows nothing.” Thus, while still a youth, Ignatius Brianchaninov already has a definite view on the relationship between virtues and Christian mood; Above the feats of fasting and prayer, he places meekness and humility, a selfless readiness to serve others with good deeds: lovingly caring for the sick, dressing the naked, accepting the strange, visiting prisoners in prison. “Fulfilling the commandments gives birth to love, and whoever wants to acquire it acquires it by fulfilling the commandments.” The pious young man provides for the possibility of objections from devotees of personal piety and prudently gives an answer to the question of the place and meaning of ascetic feat and the ages of spiritual life. “The Lament of a Monk,” especially in relation to the age of the author, amazes with the power of lyricism and the depth of the repentant mood. “The Biography of Schema-Monk Theodore” testifies to the young Brianchaninov’s deep understanding of the ascetic life, and amazes with the beauty of the style and the religious content of the author himself. The works of the Right Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov, collected personally by him in the composition noted above, in the first four volumes, were published for the first time, during the life of St. Ignatius in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery in 1867; two months before his blessed death, and by himself, with handwritten letters, they were sent to persons close to him. The efforts of the publication were taken over by the brother of the late P.A. Brianchaninov, and the publisher was the bookseller Glazunov, since the unmercenary brothers did not have sufficient funds to cover the costs of publication. 596 “The Word on Death”, in addition to being published in “Ascetic Experiences”, was published in V. I. Askochensky’s journal “Home Conversation” and then published separately in 1869. Further posthumous editions of the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius passed to I.L. Tuzov by agreement with the heirs of the Lord. 597 The spiritual personality of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov in his literary creations stands out from a number of contemporary spiritual figures by his particular integrity and adequacy from the beginning to the end of his earthly wanderings. A special side of his life, according to the testimony of his contemporaries and admirers, is complete selflessness for the sake of the exact fulfillment of the Gospel commandments in a secret monastic spiritual feat, which served as the subject of a new, ascetic-theological teaching in our spiritual literature - the teaching about the internal perfection of man in the monastic life and his relationship to other spiritual beings influencing him; both from the internal person and from the external or physical. This is the feature that distinguishes His Eminence Ignatius from other spiritual writers of his time - a sharp feature, but not clearly seen or correctly distinguished by everyone.” 598 Analysis of spiritual activity, clarification of its foundations and the process of spiritual rebirth of a person on the path to God-likeness - this, in our opinion, is the main position of the view of Bishop Ignatius. What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it? - this is the main question for the reflection of Bishop Ignatius, as a writer-theologian. And the significance of Saint Ignatius in this regard is determined all the more so by the fact that in the formulation of this question, in its literary solution, and even in the feat of personal assimilation of the principles of salvation and especially preaching them to the sinful world, His Grace Ignatius precedes His Grace Theophan the Recluse and other spiritual writers of the same type. In the person of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, we have before us a writer-ascetic in the spirit and direction of his literary creations and an ascetic ascetic in the spirit and direction of his life, who, both in his activities and, even more so, in his writings, is a glorious forerunner of the original host of our Russian ascetic writers, theologians, who concentrated their attention primarily on issues of spiritual salvation and who strive, like Eminence Theophan, Fr. John of Kronstadt, Fr. Ambrose and the other Optina elders, embody the covenants of spiritual salvation in your life and, moreover, win the mood of your brothers suffering from the sinful ulcer and thereby serve the desired revival of the world. The general content of the listed works of Bishop Ignatius and the motives for their publication, according to the thoughts of the Most Reverend author himself, are presented in the following form. In the first three volumes of the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, under the title “Ascetic Experiences”, according to the thought of the Most Reverend author himself, the teaching of the Holy Fathers is set out “about the science of sciences - about monasticism - a teaching applied to the requirements of our time.” 599 The very application to the demands of modernity is caused by the special conditions of Russian monastic life in the 19th century and is expressed in the desire to compile a complete and thorough guide for the spiritual achievement of those seeking a perfect life and in need of a living leader. “The main feature that distinguishes the activities of ancient monasticism from the activities of the newest is that the monastics of the first centuries of Christianity were led by divinely inspired mentors, and now, notes the teacher. Nil Sorsky, in agreement with other later fathers, monastics should be most guided by the Holy Scriptures and the Scriptures of the Fathers, due to the extreme impoverishment of living vessels of Divine grace. The explanation of this direction and the need for it constitutes the main idea of ​​“Ascetic Experiences” throughout their entire space,” according to the intention of the Most Reverend author himself. 600 The time of writing, “Ascetic Experiences,” i.e., the first three volumes, is not precisely indicated by the author, and he himself testifies that the articles that make up this book were written at different times, for different reasons, mainly regarding ascetic issues that arose in the society of monks and God-loving laity who were in spiritual communion with him. The articles included in “Ascetic Experiences” were written by Ignatius Brianchaninov in the rank of Archimandrite, that is, before 1857, except for articles about the various states of human nature in relation to good and evil and about the vision of spirits, which, according to the famous compiler of the biography of the Right Reverend Ignatius, were written by him in the Caucasus. 601 The motives for publishing the first three volumes, i.e., “Ascetic Experiences,” are precisely explained by the Most Reverend Ignatius himself in the “Preface” to them and to the “Fatherland” in the following form. “Ending my earthly journey, I considered it my duty to review, correct, complete the collection, and publish in print all the articles written by me in the rank of Archimandrite. I considered it my duty to do this for two reasons: firstly, because many articles were circulated in manuscripts with greater or lesser errors; secondly, by the fact that I recognize myself as obliged to present to Christian society a report on my contemplation of the promised land, sharpening spiritual gifts and blessings, on the contemplation of monastic life as it appears in the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Eastern Church and what Providence of God led to the contemplation of it in some of its living representatives. Then it remains for me to ask the readers for mercy for my feeble-mindedness and prayers for my wretched soul.” 602 Thus, the motives for the printed edition of “Ascetic Experiences” for the Right Reverend Ignatius were 1) the wide dissemination of his edifying articles in manuscripts, with inevitable errors that called for correction and elimination in the future, and 2) the consciousness of the obligation to give the Christian Society an account of the author’s experience of “spears of the Promised Land,” i.e., true Christian life. The fourth volume of “Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov” in the edition of I.L. Tuzov, contains “Ascetic Sermon and Letters to the Laity.” In the preface to the first edition of this volume, published shortly before the death of the Right Reverend author, written by Bishop Ignatius himself in 1866, the author testifies that this volume “offers a revised and enlarged collection of teachings, conversations and words, spoken and unspoken, written for reading in church and for reading in cells. At the same time, their character became even more defined, and the name “Ascetic Sermon” turned out to be a name quite appropriate for them. Those who have become acquainted with the “Ascetic Experiences”, written by me in the rank of Archimandrite, says the Right Reverend, the author; “they will clearly see that the way of thinking set forth in the “Ascetic Sermon” naturally follows from monastic life and is inextricably linked with it. The sermon serves as a supplement to the description of the spiritual Christian achievement; explains it significantly. From this,” according to the author, “it does not at all follow that reading it is appropriate for monastics alone; it befits all Orthodox Christians who wish to become acquainted with the ascetic life according to the mind of the Holy Fathers, according to the mind of the Church.” 603 The fifth volume, under the general title: “An Offering to Modern Monasticism,” contains: 1) “Rules of outward behavior for novice monks”; 2) “Advice regarding spiritual monastic work” in fifty chapters, and 3) “The lament of a monk for his brother who has fallen into the temptation of sin.” In the preface to this volume, His Eminence Ignatius calls its contents a spiritual testament for the spiritual blessings with which the right hand of God has granted him. He draws up this will, approaching the end of his earthly wanderings. “A will,” he says, “I call a soul-saving word: the executors of this word come into possession of spiritual blessings. I present my testament as a gift to my beloved fathers and brothers, to modern monks. I call monasticism a spiritual good that embraces and combines all other blessings, to which I have been called since childhood by a wonderful calling and ineffable grace. It was not possible for me to sacrifice my life to vanity and decay! I was taken and carried away from the broad path leading to eternal death, and placed on the narrow and sorrowful path; – leading to the stomach. The narrow path has the deepest meaning: it lifts you up from the earth, leads you out of the darkness of vanity, takes you to heaven, takes you to paradise, takes you to God, “places you before His Face in an unfathomable light for eternal bliss. To make the will as satisfactory as possible, it was necessary to put it in a book. The book contains rules for the outward behavior of monks and advice to them about spiritual feats or activities. In all fairness, I can call this essay my mysterious confession. I ask you to accept confession with attention and Christian condescension: it is worthy of both. The teaching I propose is completely borrowed from the holy teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, and those who have become theoretically and experimentally familiar with the teaching of the Gospel have internalized this teaching.” In this preface, full of subjective lyricism, the Right Reverend author testifies that the saving and edifying spiritual testament of his literary creations represents the multi-useful fruit of his personal spiritual life: not only his rapturous “view of the promised land, filled with all spiritual abundance and joy, but also the temptations and sorrows he experienced - from the shortcomings of the life around him and from the disorganizations of his personal life that he humbly recognized. “My omissions and hobbies, insufficiently firm and unswerving adherence to the instructions of the Fathers, the lack of a gracious leader, frequent, almost constant meetings with leaders who were suffering from blindness and self-delusion, voluntary and involuntary dependence on them, the environment everywhere with objects of temptation, and not edification, attention to teaching, to which the world, hostile to God, gave shine and importance to the highest wisdom and holiness, which, being darkness and filth, deserved only contempt and rejection, was the cause of many shocks for me. The shocks that I experienced were bitter, and heavy, and cruel, and stubbornly, painfully long. Shocks in the external situation, in the judgment of my conscience, do not mean anything with the shocks to which the soul was subjected. The waves of the sea of ​​life are fierce; it is dominated by darkness and darkness; storms are constantly raised on it by fierce winds-rejected spirits; the ships are deprived of pilots; safe harbors have turned into whirlpools, into disastrous abysses, drowning seems inevitable. My soul has wandered many times, finding no true refuge either outside or within itself.” Having depicted the difficult external conditions of salvation and the internal discord inevitable when fighting sin, the author, in his writings, from this state gives a voice to the fathers and brothers, a voice of caring warning. “This is what a traveler does who has suffered terrible disasters on a difficult and long journey. He passes on his notes, a precious treasure, to those who intend to undertake such a journey, or have already embarked on the journey without knowing it, or having become familiar with it only superficially, according to outdated descriptions.” But the author is completely alien to the intention of introducing any new teaching into the consciousness of those seeking salvation and, according to his hypotheses, changing the direction of ascetic and general Christian life. He seeks to indicate some changes, “changes not in the essence, but in the environment that has a significant impact on the essence”; he wants to indicate “how one should use the writings of the ancients and apply them to modern times, avoiding that false position with its consequences in which anyone who does not understand and does not notice the need for application is placed.” 604 The sixth volume of the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, called “Fatherland,” contains selected sayings of holy monks and stories from their lives, collected by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. This voluminous 549-page volume of the works of Bishop Ignatius contains the sayings of the venerable ascetics - the Fathers, mainly Egyptian, and stories from the lives of these Fathers, of which 80 ascetics are named and their sayings and stories about them are located in the Fatherland in alphabetical order of their names. Moreover, the Fatherland contains edifying sayings of the elders, whose names have not been preserved. The sayings and stories of the Ascetic Fathers given in the book are accompanied by notes by the compiler of “Fatherland”. The main subject of the ascetic sayings collected by the Most Reverend Ignatius is the sinfulness of the human soul, the need to fight it and indicate the means and ways for this. In the chapter on the real state of the soul, according to the observation of Bishop Ignatius, we will partly focus the reader’s attention on the content of the “Fatherland”, but, in the opinion of His Eminence Ignatius, and in our personal impression, the scientific analysis of these sayings, clarifying their ideological and psychological content, does not fully exhaust their meaning for the warriors of the fight against evil: they are strong, in addition, by their direct impression on the reader, the impression of “holy simplicity and true service to God, overshadowed abundantly by Divine grace.” The works of Bishop Ignatius are written in completely literary language, at the same time confirming the idea that ordinary correct literary speech is capable of expressing lofty ideas related to the revival and God-likeness of man. Regarding the sources of spiritual and mental erudition, evidenced by the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius, we are, first of all, inclined and have reason to note in them a strictly ecclesiastical and Orthodox school of spiritual and theological knowledge. Having turned out of deep spiritual need, even in the days of his adolescence in the shady alleys of the Pokrovsky Garden, in the extensive library of the Bryanchaninovsky House, to reading the Holy Scriptures and the Patristic and ascetic works, His Grace Ignatius in his literary activity appears to us as a remarkable expert in this area, and the correlation of the sources of knowledge he absorbed with the experience of his spiritual life and the life of the heart in God, gave to his theological knowledge, spiritual-organic unity and amazing vitality, expressed in his inspired and full of lyricism hymns-reflections, in those, especially, cases where he speaks about these writings, which are especially instructive for him, about the sinfulness of the human soul, about repentance, about the creation of the inner man, about the mysterious help of God, about nature speaking of God, about the irrefutable preaching of solitude, etc. His presentation of parables, explanation of the Lord's prayer, explanation of psalms, etc. etc., give us many reasons for useful reflection on the edifying and educational direction of teaching the Law of God in our schools and in church preaching. But, in addition to the books of Holy Scripture, patristic writings and ascetic works, Saint Ignatius amazes us with the vastness of his theological erudition, revealed in endless quotations from his works, testifying to the deep curiosity of the ascetic Archpastor and his desire for a comprehensive elucidation of the subject. In the first five volumes of his works we see the quoted Chetei-Menaion, Patericon of Scete, Philokalia, church liturgical books, the works of St. Tikhon of Voronezh, Seraphim of Sarov and literary works about them, St. Demetrius of Rostov, Blagovestnik of Theophylact of Bulgaria, Psalter with interpretations on the Brez (ed. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra), handwritten lives of saints (for example, St. Abraham of Rostov, Ven. Hilarion of Suzdal), manuscripts of monastic libraries (for example, the Valaam Monastery), an accurate exposition of the Orthodox Faith by John of Damascus, the writings of Metropolitan Philaret, the Dogmatic Theology of the Most Reverend Macarius, encyclopedic dictionaries and theological journals; we see his acquaintance with foreign literature related to the subjects of his spiritual interests: we see in his books an analysis of the works of Thomas a à Kempis “The Imitation of Christ”, the opinions of Descartes, quotes and excerpts from books and scientific publications, for example, Vie des Peres, des deserts, d’Orient par le R. P. Michel-Ange-Manin, Histoire du Christianisme par Fleury, S. Hieronimi. Liber de nominibus hebraicis, Cassiani collatio, Patrologiae Graecae T.t. XXXIV, XXXVI, XL, LXXIII, XXXIV, XXVI, XXIII, XXIX; Dictionnaire Theologique par Bergier and others over fifty books and publications cited by him, in addition to ascetic and patristic literature. Moreover, Saint Ignatius extracts everything necessary from secular, worldly science, useful for the disclosure and substantiation of ideas and concepts close to his spirit, supporting in his readers his deep conviction in the inevitable agreement of true science with the teachings of the holy faith. Thus, the sources and means of substantiating religious and theological knowledge for the Most Reverend Ignatius are: the books of Holy Scripture, the works of St. Fathers and ascetic ascetics of the ancient and new Church, church-historical and theological works of contemporary theological science - Russian and foreign evidence and arguments of worldly science on related issues, a rich store of personal observations and internal experience of personal ascetic life. His thinking is consistent and methodical: it moves towards the intended goal primarily inductively and analytically and, analyzing the evidence of the Word of God, Church Tradition, ascetic and ascetic literature, he naturally leads the reader to a precisely defined conclusion, strengthening it, where possible, with the data of his experience and giving his considerations a clear formulation and presenting them in the form of impeccably literary, in many cases artistic speech. In those cases when the religious-Christian hopes he professes on one side or another meet with negative or contradictory judgments - Russian or, more often and more often, Western European literature, His Eminence Ignatius successfully uses the critical method, revealing remarkable consistency and consistency of thought, as can be seen especially in the second part, volume III, where Bishop Ignatius examines the opinion of Western writers-theologians about spirits, hell and heaven. The works of Saint Ignatius were very clearly reflected in the thorough and long-term school of his ecclesiastical and theological knowledge. The Holy Fathers and ascetic ascetics of the ancient Church, who nurtured his spirit and guided him in the harsh years of novitiate, accompany him and remain his leaders in his literary works, and he in no way strives to free himself from this influence, but on the contrary, he always puts forward his agreement with the Fathers of the Church and the Word of God as the best assurance of the correctness of his views. In the nature of the questions of church-theological thought he puts forward and the direction of his theological thinking, a patristic and ascetic school is constantly visible, but the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, at the same time, even in their least independent departments, such as for example. “Fatherland” are for us a reflection of the author’s personality, being the fruit of both thoughtful book learning and, even more so, his meaningful many years of personal spiritual experience. The writings of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov are a clear reflection of both the secular education he received and the cultural conditions of the public during the preparatory and independent periods of his life. An ascetic ascetic, a true novice of the patristic school, appears before us in the life conditions of the 19th century and, in the person of Ignatius Brianchaninov, poses to us the question of the meaning of internal and external asceticism, whether it should be considered a relic of pious and inspired by the Spirit of God of antiquity, and the enthusiastic, contemplative, saving mood associated with it is the subject of pleasant memories of the irrevocable childhood of a spiritual person, who has now completely lost the ability to experiencing sincerely repentant movements of a sinful heart, or, conversely, asceticism, as a centuries-tested school for educating the spirit in obedience to the Law of Christ, is as simple and eternal as the Christianity itself that gave birth to it. And the Most Reverend Ignatius, in his works and life, we believe, convinces us that not only the remote deserts of Syria and Egypt could show the world the power of the human spirit in the fight against passions and the sinful direction of life, but that the deserts named after him - Semigorodnaya and Trinity-Sergius, the Caucasus and the Nikolo-Babaevskaya monastery in the late 19th century were witnesses of that long-term and arduous spiritual work, in which the noble descendant of the ancient Russian noble family and his true spiritual relatives and disciples “plowed their spiritual field” and we, who study the works of the mentor and his life, have a saving example in the image of the ascetic, let us follow in his footsteps. His main point of view on life is that it is a school of spiritual salvation and a person cannot give any worldly ransom for his soul: the salvation of the soul is the most important and the first need of life and the urgent duty of a person. His awareness of the shortcomings of life and the opposing principles in personal and social life encourage him even more to diligently follow the voice of the Holy Church - hence the main idea of ​​​​the works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov is the creation of spiritual salvation according to the mind of the Holy Orthodox Church. Further, a noticeable feature of the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov is the deep conviction expressed in them in the truth of Orthodoxy in comparison with heterodoxy-Catholicism and, of course, even more so - Lutheranism. Of course, every Orthodox theologian in his judgments on church-religious issues proceeds from the same conviction inherent in him, but Ignatius Brianchaninov is more confronted with the views of Western theologians and, due to his ascetic direction, especially keenly feels their wrongness, and therefore especially decisively and convincingly testifies to the truth of Orthodox church teaching. Hence the special importance of the works of Bishop Ignatius, as an expression of the experienced Orthodox Christian teaching on salvation, as the Orthodox Christian psychology of spiritual salvation. Considering the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov as psychological and spiritual salvation, we, in accordance with the generally accepted Orthodox Christian view, naturally outline the teaching of the fight against sin, spiritual revival and human improvement as the predominant content of the works of Bishop Ignatius. From here, we outline the plan for analyzing the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov in the following order. – In the three chapters of the second part of our work, we will consider in the first chapter – the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world and the general conditions of spiritual salvation, as necessary prerequisites for the Orthodox Christian feat; in the second chapter - his understanding of the sinful state of man or the real side of spiritual life and, finally, the content of the third chapter will be the teaching about the Orthodox Christian feat in its order and gradualism, about spiritual salvation, or about the ideal side of spiritual life. In concluding a general overview of the literary activity of the Right Reverend Ignatius, we consider it appropriate to focus our attention on the assessment that accompanied the first appearance in print of his works, mainly “Ascetic Experiments”. Looking at his literary activity as a debt bequeathed by God, as an obligation to give an account to his contemporaries and descendants for the “sight of the promised land,” i.e., eternal spiritual salvation, and completely not interested in the material side of his creations, Saint Ignatius personally, and, on his instructions, P.A. Brianchaninov - sent out a considerable number of volumes of the first edition to those close and known to Bishop Ignatius for familiarization and distribution. Those who received this gift responded to His Eminence Ignatius with letters, expressing gratitude for the delivery of the books, or, even more often, assessing their significance for the reader, sometimes making detailed reviews of the works of Bishop Ignatius. Some of these feedback letters catch our attention. 605 His Eminence Metropolitan Isidore of St. Petersburg, in a letter dated April 7. 1867, received by Eminence Ignatius six days before his death, he writes: “Having received today the 3rd and 4th volumes of the works of Your Eminence, I hasten to offer you sincere gratitude for your useful works, testifying to your deep study of the soul-saving teaching of the God-wise ascetics of piety and true leaders in monastic life. I cannot help but express my sincere regret that your weakening forces refuse to serve your strong spirit in continuing your exploits in that spiritual and scientific field, in which we have not seen such zealous workers for a long time. The grace of God, who in human weaknesses perfect their strength, may they add to you days upon days and years upon years for the benefit of the Holy Church, Rejoice in the Lord and remember in your prayers your respectful and sincerely devoted humble servant Isidore, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg.” 606 A remarkable review of the “Ascetic Experiences” and their author is given by the Most Reverend Plato, Bishop of Kostroma, in a letter dated May 12, 1865, in which he writes: “Rarely, due to the multitude of my affairs, can I supply my soul with the Patristic writings. Yesterday, having found a few free minutes, I picked up the Philokalia and, in the midst of reading, St. Peter of Damascus gave me your ascetic writings. I immediately take them in my hands and hear in them the sounds of Patristic harmony, enjoying the spirit of the ancient Fathers. Some of your writings were known to me before. First of all, I opened “My Cry.” This is how St. feels. Ephraim. Accept, Holy Master, my deepest gratitude for delivering your works to me. May they serve for the good of the Church, like the works of St. Tikhon, and may the Lord grant you a part of St. Tikhon and the Reverend and God-Bearing Fathers. In the Church you left a monument to your spiritual work. Now I recommend your writings to the entire diocese. May the thirst for acquisitions and zeal for reading your ascetic writings be reborn among all the clergy.” These are the judgments. some contemporary Archpastors of the Russian Church to Vladyka Ignatius about the significance of his “Ascetic Experiences”. A particularly noticeable phenomenon was the literary works of the Most Reverend Ignatius for the monastic world. From this side we hear especially heartfelt reviews about them. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra hospital doctor Hieromonk Philaret, a nobleman, a physician by training, remarkable in his time for his outstanding worldly activities, testifying to a friendly and close person about his severe sorrows, told him: “I suffered a lot, I lamented a lot, but the Lord sent me a great book - the works of Bishop Ignatius - as a consolation, which resolves my doubts, teaches in misunderstandings, comforts in sorrows. Blessed is the man who wrote it. He bore a lot of sorrow, he suffered a lot, in order to experience everything, to bring benefit to humanity and, in particular, to monasticism. I used to believe that this was a secular man, an aristocrat, an ambitious man. Reading his books, I realized how much slander and malice he suffered: no, you can’t write like that if you don’t check everything for yourself, if you yourself haven’t walked the path of sorrow and persecution. This book is “Ascetic Experiences” by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, here it is, always at hand, he told the visitor, pointing to the book lying with him; he said that he could not read without tears: “My cry,” the tears flow, the soul cries”... Interesting are the reviews of the censor, who first read the first two volumes of “Ascetic Experiences”, and then, two years later, the third volume and the fourth volume - “Ascetic Sermon” and “Letters to the Laity.” In his letter dated March 3, 1864, Censor Archimandrite Photius writes to the author of “Ascetic Experiences”: “I consider myself happy that I received the gracious handwriting of Your Eminence, I am extremely happy that it fell to me—and, most likely, it fell from the hand of God—to read your works. For me it was not work, but a most pleasant activity and pleasure. I consider it a sin to flatter, especially before the hierarchical person of Your Eminence; I don’t dare to fully praise your works, according to my conviction, but I can’t sincerely help but express my impression that reading them made in me. I devoured them, they were so gratifying and nutritious: that’s why I kept them with me more than I should have, as His Excellency Pyotr Alexandrovich can tell Your Eminence. I learned from these edifying manuscripts. I dare to report to Your Eminence, - I paid tribute to the school for twenty-five years, having at that time been a mentor for thirteen years in two academies - Kyiv and Kazan - but in these subjects I am a complete ignoramus: this is already our teaching. The area of ​​ascetic objects for us is an unknown land. The works of Your Eminence are the first in this field, especially in modern times; You have undertaken great and important work and are offering multi-useful, saving fruits to those who seek salvation.” On November 3 of the same year, the same censor, Archimandrite Photius, having familiarized himself with the following volumes of the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, writes to the author: “I have been imbued with spiritual joy from your works. I will truly tell Your Eminence, - may I not flatter the saintly person, - after reading the “Ascetic Sermon” and “Offering to Monasticism”, there was no desire to read, except official, any other works, even good spiritual literature: so these works seemed too small and unpalatable for tasting spiritually sweet fruits”; 607 From the reviews of the white clergy, the impressions from reading the works of Bishop Ignatius, expressed by the remarkable preacher, Vologda Cathedral Archpriest Vasily Ivanovich Nordov, who was once famous in Vologda for his intelligence and straightforwardness of character, seem especially interesting. In a letter dated June 22, 1862, presenting his book of sermons to Bishop Ignatius, Nordov testifies to his deep respect for Bishop Ignatius and sympathy for his solitude in Babayki. In a short letter dated November 27, 1864, Archpriest Nordov writes: “Please accept with kindness the still small and wretched work of an senile pen. Bring this, called Master, to the Doctor of Theology, not by name, but by thing, and ask for your Archpastoral blessing and prayers.” In a letter dated June 26, 1865, Archpriest Nordov makes a more detailed assessment of the writings of Bishop Ignatius and his personality. “Your works,” writes Nordov to Bishop Ignatius: “a priceless treasure. You have contributed such precious and enormous two spiritual and edifying contributions to the treasury of the Orthodox Church of Christ. You represent in our time one of the ancient Shepherd-Teachers, who themselves studied practically and communicated to others the high science of Christian life. Your works vividly remind us of the works of great men, who shone in the desert field and on the thrones of the saints with their teaching and intellect. This is how every bishop should be. Without the Word, without life (as we often sadly see), with only paperwork, characteristic of the clerkly people, what kind of Saint is this? It’s scary to think - “and with our school education, the Church of God has not only descended, but has also been forgotten by the highest clergy. And if it was before, how much more natural now is it necessary to flee and settle in the desert. Your Eminence understood this just and saving need better and faster than anyone else.” In a letter dated August 30, 1869, addressed to Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov, the same archpriest; Nordov, Himself awaiting the hour of death, once again enters the scene of the writings of St. Ignatius: “I received your precious gift (probably the 5th volume and “Fatherland”) to my invaluable consolation, kissed it, accepted it, read it and will keep it as a treasured monument of your affection and as the work of the great experienced mind of the blessed writer, with reverence. Your brother was a wonderful man, a great, inimitable shepherd. What high spiritual wisdom he acquired with his natural intelligence and long-term experience of spiritual work. His creations, namely the patristic ones, are the treasure of true Christians, the glory of our Russian Church. I cannot help but name the blessed womb that carried and gave birth to such a wondrous Christian shepherd, such a great Saint and Teacher. May the Lord and Master of all, to whom they departed from this temporary life of misfortune, rest in peace and glorify them both in the kingdom of heaven. May the Lord, through the prayers of our great Saint and Teacher, grant us and ourselves, a Christian end to our voyage in the sea of ​​life, and to land at the quiet haven of the next century without wreck.” 608 The appearance in print of “Ascetic Experiences” and other literary works of Bishop Ignatius was welcomed by many enlightened secular persons, from whose reviews one can see the wide popularity and spiritual authority of Bishop Ignatius. In a letter dated March 4, 1867, No. 60, His Grace Ignatius asked Count Boris Alekseevich Perovsky to present four volumes of his works to the Sovereign Heir Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich. The response to this letter was followed by a message from Count Perovsky to Bishop Ignatius dated April 7. 1867, in which Count Perovsky, among other things, writes: “I presented four books of your works to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Tsarevich, who instructed me to thank you very much and tell you that he always remembers with pleasure his visit to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery and the minutes spent in conversation with you.” 609 In the papers of Bishop Ignatius, two letters from Abraham Sergeevich Norov, who was the Minister of Public Education, were preserved. Having familiarized himself with the writings of Bishop Ignatius, A.S. Norov, dated April 20, 1865, by the way, writes to Bishop Ignatius: “Your “Ascetic Experiences” are a valuable pearl in our spiritual literature; I say valuable for a reason, for this work is completely new for us, and despite the severity of its asceticism, it is sweet and gratifying for the soul and heart, especially for those who, living among the world, have already known all its futility, your books will be reference books, guiding and strengthening in the fight against the vain world. I consider them to be such for myself, although I grumble somewhat about my friend Thomas of Kemn. The success of your book is also comforting; glory to the Lord! Love has not dried up in our hearts. I am writing to you on the eve of the most sorrowful day in my life, when I was separated on earth from the blessed soul of my wife, who was protecting me here. Tomorrow early in the morning I am going for two days to the Sergius Hermitage, full of memories of you, where your books now constitute my favorite reading.” In a letter dated April 9. 1867, upon receipt of volumes III and IV of the works of Bishop Ignatius, A.S. Norov writes to Vladyka Ignatius: “Deeply comforted by the precious gift of the 3rd and 4th parts of your highly inspiring works, which I received just before Holy Week, on the day of the resurrection of St. Lazarus, I hasten to offer my warm, heartfelt gratitude. Thank you, Holy Father, for bringing me closer to those for whom this world no longer offers any consolation. I have become close to your books, they delight me both in the city and in the Sergius Desert, full of your memories; there they always lie prepared on the table of the room I have adopted.” 610 His Eminence Leonid, Bishop of Dmitrov, in a letter dated August 12, 1867, expressing his deep Christian sympathy to Pyotr Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov on the occasion of the death of Bishop Ignatius and defining the latter as an all-church loss, advises him a new edition of the works of Bishop Ignatius in extracts to meet the spiritual needs of monks and pious laity. And His Eminence Platon, Archbishop of Kostroma, in a letter dated November 22, 1870, reminds Peter Alexandrovich of his request “for the collection of all available information about the Most Reverend Ignatius. If time and circumstances do not allow everything to come to light now, then everything will be useful at another time.” Archbishop Plato considers the collection, publication and dissemination of information about Bishop Ignatius and his writings to be the responsibility of P.A. Brianchaninov not only as the brother of the deceased, but as an Orthodox Christian who desires the good of the Church. Sharing the opinions and reviews of admirers and acquaintances of Bishop Ignatius, all his life he himself was a reverent follower of his ascetic brother, P.A. Brianchaninova spent a lot of work collecting material to illuminate his personality, carefully learning about the location of his letters and carefully grouping them. But he did not fully accomplish his task, because after the publication of Fatherland in 1873, the printing of Bishop Ignatius’s works ceased for a long time. By doing, with the permission of Senator N.S. Brianchaninov, an appendix to our book of some letters of the Most Reverend Ignatius to those close to him and his articles-treatises on church and social issues, we believe that by this, in part, we will fulfill the behests of the deceased Saints, contemporaries of Bishop Ignatius and P.A. Brianchaninov and through this we hope to join the great work of our reverently revered Saint Ignatius and his companion, Brother P.A. Brianchaninova. Chapter one. Spiritual world and conditions of spiritual salvation (Necessary prerequisites for Orthodox Christian feat) “May the Lord grant us, on the wings of faith, to fly across the sea of life and fly into the blessed haven of Heaven.” (Bishop Ignatius, vol. IV, p. 450). In the content, spirit and strength, purpose and conditions of the Orthodox Christian feat of soul salvation, a deep, sincere and living, experienced and clearly conscious conviction in the existence of the spiritual world and our closeness to it, in the possibility of constant communication with this world, in the impossibility of organizing even our temporary life without any correlation of this dispensation with eternity, is of exceptional importance. This feat of soul salvation makes sense only if the heavenly Jerusalem is constantly visible before the spiritual gaze of a Christian man, who is working out his salvation with fear and trembling in the conditions of temporary earthly wandering, if a Christian in the conditions of earthly life can think of himself, with all sincerity, as not having an abiding city, but seeking the future, and this latter is as certain to him as is known to him for its shrines and abundant in places and objects of spiritual and religious consolation, the ancient city of his native country, as undoubtedly for us, for example, Kyiv, Moscow, Sergius and Pochaev Lavra and other places central to our attention of our vast fatherland. This feat is possible and constitutes for a Christian the only correct resolution of all the issues of life that trouble his consciousness, provided that there is no end or interruption in human existence, that the human spirit is immortal, eternal in the sense of not only indestructibility, but also the continuity of life, and that the death of the body is only the beginning of a new life period, more conscious, just as, having lived through the carefree games and carefree laughter of childhood, the fun and hobbies of often crazy years youth, we enter the period of adulthood with a clear vision of life, its fluctuations and foundations, without, however, losing the remembrance of the past. Faith in God, in the existence of the spiritual world - good and evil, in the immortality of the soul, in the spirituality and rational freedom of man, in the afterlife and posthumous reward to each according to his deeds - constitute the necessary prerequisites for the Orthodox Christian feat of salvation of the soul, to the greater extent, the clearer the Orthodox Christian consciousness of a person, the clearer for him the advantage of belonging to the Holy Orthodox Church. And the essential feature, the main advantage of this affiliation is, in the understanding of Orthodox theologians, the personal participation of a Christian person in the high feat of spiritual salvation and inheritance of the Kingdom of God. The Orthodox Christian understanding of the issue of salvation from a moral and theological point of view has been clarified in our theological science with sufficient detail in the works of His Grace Theophan the Recluse, Protopresbyter I.L. Yanyshev, 611 His Eminence Archbishops: Anthony of Kharkov, 612 Innocent of Kherson 613 and especially, in a specially dedicated to clarifying the issue of salvation of the books of Archbishop Sergius of Finland: “Orthodox teaching on salvation”, 614 as well as in the works on moral theology of professors and theologians: Kyiv Theological Academy, - M.A. Olesnitsky 615 and Petrogradskaya - A.A. Bronzova, 616 I.P. Arkhangelsky, 617 in the works of Archbishop Stephen 618 and others 619 But the most complete and thorough disclosure of the foundations and process of Orthodox Christian spiritual achievement, from the point of view of the principle of spiritual salvation, are the moral and ascetic works of the Right Reverend Theophan the Recluse: “The Path to Salvation” and “The Outline of Orthodox Christian Moral Teaching” 620 and – His Eminence Ignatius Brianchaninov. In the question of spiritual salvation, each Christian faith is brought face to face with reality, with real being, and the comparative possession of the truth of one or another faith is most clearly revealed, 621 and in connection with this, of course, the important question is resolved about where the true Universal Church of Christ is located. And so, in contrast to the Catholic understanding of life with regard to the issue of salvation in a legal, juridical spirit - the unification of the self-loves of mutually agreeing parties 622 and the same understanding of life in Lutheranism, which understood spiritual life, despite criticism of Catholicism, also from a legal point of view and wanting to bring peace of conscience, understood this world in a legal sense, in the sense of a sense of impunity for committed sins, the Orthodox doctrine of salvation. A person is afraid of punishment, and so in heterodoxy the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is pointed out to him as such a great, excessive satisfaction with the truth of God that this truth can no longer, has no right, demand anything else from a person, any other satisfactions. A person, since he believes in the Gospel, must calm down about himself. 623 But with this understanding of justifying faith, Protestants did not grasp the greatest and most comforting mystery of our salvation in all its depth and vitality. The Orthodox Church, pointing out to the sinner this side of the mystery of salvation that is most understandable to him, does not think because of it to forget other, more encouraging, sides of the mystery of salvation, seeing in Christ not a passive instrument of propitiation, but the Restorer of our fallen nature, the Firstborn of the dead, whom he delivered from death. 624 In view of this, Orthodox Christianity does not ask why a person receives salvation, but asks how a person works out his salvation, and at the same time, faith and works receive the significance not of external foundations, the strength of which is only in the fact that they attract to a person the mercy of God hitherto closed to him, but become the reasons that produce that disposition of the soul that makes a person capable of receiving the mercy of God, of communicating with the All-Holy God. 625 This understanding of salvation, mainly in the internal and subjective psychological sense, is clearly expressed in the system of the Most Reverend Innocent (Borisov), according to whom salvation is the cleansing of our nature from the evil nesting in it and filling it with the grace of God, and with it all the virtues. 626 Spiritual salvation or “a matter of the soul” 627 can be considered from various sides, as eternal salvation, 628 or as a feat performed by a Christian man during his earthly wandering; on the other hand, it can be considered from an internal-subjective perspective, as the revival and creation of the inner man, the transformation of our sinful “I” into a perfect husband according to Christ, or, conversely, from an objective-external perspective, as the transformation of the empirical reality of a person’s life affairs, according to the inner mood of a Christian. Salvation can be understood, finally, in relation to the conditions for its accomplishment: man’s self-activity and the assistance of Divine grace. From the point of view of the tasks of our work, we further understand spiritual salvation primarily from its internal-subjective psychological side and from the side of the conditions for its accomplishment. From this particular point of view, the opinions of those Orthodox theologians who with particular certainty turn their attention to the procedural-psychological side of salvation and its conditions seem to us to have guiding significance. It is clear to us that the salvation of a person on earth is not the same as the creation in him without his participation of virtue or subjective moral goods, and not the same as the creation of objective goods or external well-being corresponding to the moral dignity of a person, depending not only on his initiative, but also on other people, in general, on the external world. 629 The creation of virtue or subjective moral goods, or what is the same, the acquisition of holiness, is, of course, included in the concept of salvation and constitutes the most important element in it, but it is possible only under the condition of self-activity due to the restored freedom, with the assistance of Divine grace, as the possibility of virtue. On the other hand, the creation of objective goods or external well-being corresponding to the moral dignity of a person, depending on external life conditions, in other words, the creation of fraternal relations between people in the spirit of primitive Christianity, of course, is also included in our religious-Christian hopes, but it is carried out, in earthly relativity, not on legal principles and not through the sophistication of mutual class struggle, but to the extent possible deep and capturing the more and more expanding area of ​​human relations of consciousness that the only thing needed for all aspects of human life is the feat of spiritual salvation, the highest science is the knowledge of what a person needs to live for, and the only justification and basis for our actions is the subordination of the temporal to the eternal, life for eternity. And then, truly human and Christian consciousness, which resolves issues of temporality not from the point of view of the pressing demands of the present, but in contemplation of the otherworldly eternal meaning of human existence, inevitably comes to the conclusion that spiritual salvation is the only reliable and self-sufficient goal of human life, and that the implementation of this goal is a feat of all human life, possible for a limited and weak person, only under the condition of the assistance of Divine grace, and in view of the certainty of this latter, true spiritual life is possible only for a Christian, only in the depths of the Holy Orthodox Church, only under the condition of a lively religious consciousness, only under the condition of life in God and following Christ, only with the constant penetration of human moral activity with the saving principles of the holy Christian faith, with a close connection between morality and religion, in which for a Christian ascetic life makes sense only as life in God, and in this latter case, the dogmas of faith and position, and, the main thing is that moral experiences become inseparable and not in the sense of moral application, dogmatic teaching, but in the sense of the moral idea belonging to the very essence of Christian dogmas. 630 In this sense, understood as a morally good grace-filled life of a person, as a continuous feat of active improvement, preparing a person for eternal salvation and bliss in the afterlife, spiritual salvation, accomplished within the limits of temporary existence, constitutes the starting point of Christian self-determination and the basis of the entire life dispensation, and therefore the center of moral and theological teaching. 631 But the very possibility of realizing this feat and its ideological meaning are conditioned by the complete certainty for our consciousness of its necessary prerequisites, which we spoke about above. So, the question of spiritual salvation, closely related to the main content of Christian beliefs, has, along with them, exceptional importance, both from a theoretical point of view and even more from a practical point of view. From the theoretical side, the question of spiritual salvation, inevitably associated with the renunciation of selfishness in relation to cognition, emotions, and even more so in the area of life-volition, which requires continuity of careful observation of oneself and the eradication of sinful thoughts and inclinations in oneself, would be an incomprehensible struggle - with our nature, an unreasonable limitation of the so-called natural needs, if in our soul, along with it, the consciousness of the heavenly spiritual did not manifest itself at every step existence, eternity and immortality of the spirit, depending on the content of our spiritual life in the conditions of temporary existence. We believe that there is God and the spiritual world, not only this - we believe, we know, we see with our mental, and sometimes bodily eyes, the existence of the spiritual world, we are tangibly aware of it, we recognize the impossibility of death for us simultaneously with the disintegration of our bodily shell, we look at life with the eyes of faith and unconstrained by the materiality of spiritual vision - if all this is for our spiritual experience, undoubtedly, we cannot but admit that “a matter of the soul” is It is a matter of primary importance that spiritual salvation and everything connected with it is not a matter of pious and soothing tradition, but a genuine feat, most necessary for us, and in our life practice we cannot forget about it without fear of eternal death. A completely different situation arises when our attitude to the spiritual world and to all related issues of eternity is determined by a lukewarm and lifeless tradition. Without becoming deniers of spiritual existence through this, but also shunning the vital confession of our faith, in our living conditions we differ little from non-believers, and the flavor of the eternal in the experiences of temporality manifests itself only in rare moments of our spiritual enlightenment. Even more bleak, of course, is the picture of life in the case of positive oblivion about the eternal or mortally sinful denial by people of spiritual existence and alienation of everything supersensible. Extending his strength in the arrangement of temporary existence and finding satisfaction in it for a while, a person develops a terrifying egoism in himself, complicates the struggle in life and in the mirage of cultural and social progress, vainly thinks to find peace for the supramundane demands suppressed and hidden in him, and when these latter urgently begin to assert themselves in the most sensitive, albeit sinful souls, these souls experience an unbearable melancholy of dissatisfaction; they lose the sweetness of being and strive for an arbitrary reckoning with life, in the false idea of ​​liberation from their faithless torment by the destruction of the body, which has become a disastrous prison for their soul. Of course, this unauthorized liquidation of earthly affairs is not the exceptional and usual outcome of an unfaithful state. With less demands on oneself, with a weaker consciousness of ideal aspirations, such a widespread pathetic crawling from day to day as a “miserable existence,” in the words of “a repentantly-minded Gogol,” is possible, and people, according to even the extreme self-lover - Nietzsche, are perplexed what the sun is, what joy is, what laughter is, because they have lost the eternal meaning of existence that gives meaning to the sun, joy and stars. And, on the contrary, by renouncing, at least temporarily, everyday worries, giving scope to the ideal aspirations of his spirit, focusing his attention on understanding the purpose of life and contemplating spiritual existence, a person finds for himself a high source of true bliss, and a clear vision of spiritual existence to a relative extent leads to the recognition of the illusory and transient nature of the sensory. Moving on from these general considerations to presenting the data of the spiritual experience and ascetic life of the Most Reverend Ignatius (Brianchaninov), we, in order to understand the power and persuasiveness of his writings on issues of a person’s accomplishment of the spiritual Christian feat of salvation, both for himself and in relation to the spiritual flock he led, must focus our considerable attention on the views of the Most Reverend Ignatius on the spiritual world and related provisions spiritual Christian disposition. All questions regarding the Christian feat of spiritual salvation - both the fight against the sin of human nature and improvement in virtue - are resolved by His Grace Ignatius from the point of view of the certainty of the existence of the spiritual world and hence - the special meaning of all earthly life and the understanding of its tasks and the advantages mistakenly valued by people. When a person is deafened by the noise of the world and, disturbed and outraged by worldly thoughts, the mind, deprived of its pristine dignity, is occupied with worldly concerns, the human spirit does not hear the sounds of heaven, and the broadcasts of the Divine Scripture seem to be ordinary earthly narratives. But in the silence of solitude, in a mood of spiritual composure, a new ability to pay attention to the spiritual and understand it opens up in the human soul. And so, in these moments of spiritual mood, for human consciousness all objects of ordinary egoistic life interests are devalued, and the mystery of salvation and the bliss of the knowledge of God and a virtuous life fills the human mood, displacing ordinary everyday attachments. From the point of view of the mystery of salvation, from the height of immortality and infinity beyond the grave, a person then sees the futility of the everyday pursuit of pleasures and pleasures, the burden of the high throne of the king, the fragility of the glory of the victorious and conqueror, the meaninglessness of wealth, the insufficient completeness of even a high social feat, the incompleteness of the exploits of desert solitude and even moments of inspiration. The highest of all earthly things, the only thing akin to the human soul and fully satisfying the sublime demands of the human spirit seems to a person in these saving moments - alienation from sin, its reflection, in whatever form it appears to a person - whether in a lawless act, in a tempting thought, or in a feeling that brings pleasure and sinful intoxication. Blessed then appears to man the will that is given over to the guidance of the Law of God; blessed is the heart that burns with Divine jealousy, flaming with an insatiable desire for God’s will, sweetly and unbearably suffering with love for God. 632 In these moments of spiritual soaring and Christian-philosophical contemplation, the two paths of life become so clear and the reasons for preferring one or the other of them, one direction or another and filling the day of life are obvious. The sun rises: people hurry to their work. Everyone has their own goal, their own intention. One cares and works to acquire perishable treasures; another - to bring yourself abundant pleasures, another - to acquire earthly vain glory; finally, another says, thinks that his actions are aimed at state and public benefit. At this time, the confidant of the Law of God in all exercises, in all his affairs, has the goal of pleasing God. The world turns for him into the book of the Lord’s commandments. He reads this book through deeds, behavior, life. The more his heart reads this book, the more it is enlightened by spiritual intelligence, the more it warms up to flow along the path of piety and virtue. It acquires the fiery wings of faith, begins to trample on every hostile fear, is carried across every abyss, and dares to undertake every good undertaking. 633 Such a contrast represents not only externally, not only from the factual side, but, mainly, in spirit and mood, Christian-spiritual life and worldly life. In terms of the actual activities of people, the mood of both may be almost exactly the same, but the spirit and motives are different, and, of course, it is clear that neither good nor evil in world life disappears without a trace, that both are valuable not only for the satisfaction that they give to the person-doer and the bearer of them, but also for their social results, and that as the living area expands towards spiritual Christian influences, the atmosphere of life also improves, with the triumph of the opposite principles, life becomes for unbearable for everyone, and for the ascetic Christian - eternal suffering, continuous ascent to Golgotha. But, despite this, the path of goodness, without comparison and immeasurably, has an advantage for the Christian consciousness over the scattered and sinful ways of the world, both in its significance for world life and, especially, in the spiritual consolation that is associated with its passage. That is why the feat of soul creation and salvation, hidden from the world, gives a person irreplaceably meaningful and valuable joys, as opposed to the unstable and low-value joys of the worldly path. Not only the day, but also the night of the careless about salvation and the zealous for it are different in their content. Night comes with its shadows, with the pale light that the night lamps of the sky emit, gathering people from the surface of the earth into their tents, into their shelters. In these shelters there is boredom, emptiness of the soul; people try to drown out their torment with crazy entertainment; idleness, depravity of morals are given over to noisy amusements, and the vessels of the church of God - mind, heart, body - are used by Belshazzar for criminal use. The slave of the earth, the slave of the temporary cares of life, having barely escaped from the worries in which he was drowned during the day, prepares in the silence of the night new worries for the next day; both his days and his nights, his whole life is a victim of vanity and corruption. 634 But even at the very time when the collective Belshazzar boldly and blasphemously betrays the sacred vessels of the eternal spiritual church for unworthy use, as if testing the long-suffering of God, and calling the Divine right hand to inscribe fatal words for him, predicting his eternal death - full of care for his soul and defining the temporal in the eyes of the Eternal, the Christian and the hours of his rest from He devotes his daily activities to the creation of a spiritual church, collecting the treasures necessary for it and, in connection with this, experiencing the highest consolation. A humble lamp glows before the holy icons, pouring languid light into the righteous man’s bed. And he with his care, with his incessant, consuming care. He brings into the lie the memories of his daily activities; compares it with the tablets on which the will of God revealed to man is inscribed - with Scripture; shortcomings in one’s actions, thoughts, and movements of the heart are healed by repentance, washed away by tears; to renew and strengthen his exploits, he asks Heaven for new strength, new light. A gracious light, a supernatural power descends from God into the soul that brings prayers with a painful feeling of poverty, weakness, and human convenience. Such a life is unceasing success, continuous gains, eternal gains. 635 And in connection with this indisputable superiority of the saving path over the paths of destruction, eternal goals over temporary ones, the spirit over the flesh - of course, everything that helps to understand the true life goal, conditions and means of achieving it is of exceptional importance for the Christian consciousness. This is precisely the importance for a Christian of knowing the spiritual world, of possible penetration into the realm of the mysterious, but akin to the human spirit, spiritual existence, in order to, having understood for himself this world hidden in ordinary vision, in accordance with this knowledge, the most valuable for a person, to arrange his life feat. The spiritual world in human terms can be considered in three respects; a) as Divine existence, b) as the world of Angels and c) as the human world - in its predominantly spiritual side. Naturally close to the interests and mood of a person who is zealous for his salvation and takes seriously his true, worldly task in life, this spiritual world represents an eternal problem, boring and of little interest to the mood of people who are indifferent to the task of salvation. It is not surprising that the judgments of people, true believers and religiously indifferent, and even more so non-believers, on issues of spiritual existence differ sharply from each other, and the very depth of people’s faith in the knowledge of God and other issues of spiritual existence seems to the people of the world to be the greatest foolishness. It is clear that Thought of God and, even more so, judgments about the world of Angels, about the spirituality of the human soul, about the mystery of death and salvation, causes misunderstanding, indifference, and sometimes outright hostility in people, creating an arena of confession out of life for ascetics of the faith. And all this happens not in the distant times of the primary spread of Christianity, but in ours and in all subsequent times. It is noted as a feature of the worldly mood even in the time of the asceticism of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, not far from us. We often find in his works an enthusiastic confession in defense of the existence of the spiritual, and bitter complaints about the spiritual inertia of his contemporaries, and a conviction in the certainty of the existence of the spiritual, and, in connection with this, the paramount importance of the tasks of spiritual salvation, For the spiritual gaze of the ascetic Bishop, with the whole structure of his life and upbringing independent of him, introduced into the circle of earthly and secular sciences, there is only one knowledge of God - true and authentic science, the science of sciences, heavenly science communicated to man by God. Its paths are completely separated from those ordinary paths followed by earthly sciences, human sciences, sciences born by our fallen mind from its own light, for our state in the fall. Human sciences boast and inflate the mind, they realize and grow the human “I”. Divine science is revealed to a soul that has been prepared, erased, angled by self-sacrifice, and has become a mirror capable of receiving and reflecting Divine outlines. This is Divine Science. Such is the wisdom of God. She is a revelation of God. There is God in her. But the mind, heart, and body of fallen man are hostile to the Law of God. The fallen mind does not accept the mind of God; a fallen heart resists the will of God; The body itself, having undergone corruption, acquired its own separate will, given to it by the Fall, which richly imparted to man the deadly knowledge of good and evil. 636 These are the conditions for the knowledge of God and, in general, the knowledge of spiritual existence in the human soul. It is obvious that, reflected in human life, these conditions make it difficult for a person to perceive the verbs of eternal life. And turning his pastoral observation to contemporary life, His Grace Ignatius gives a picture of life that is quite common for our time, but also bleak in relation to eternal tasks. People are indifferent to the church of God and prayer; in the prayer atmosphere of the church, instead of spiritual nourishment, they experience boredom and do not feel the effect of prayer, and therefore do not rush to the church of God, but try to come to it when a significant part of the Divine service has already been performed. 637 Inert in relation to the spiritual, a person experiences the ability only to sinful sensations. 638 Formally performing church rites and even daring to approach the Holy. The Mystery of Communion, people are plunged into sin immediately after receiving the Mysteries and, not seeing immediate punishment for themselves, they believe that no punishment will ever follow. 639 They have lost their living, immediate faith, that holy, childlike faith by which the simplest person, who has no development in the elements of the world, is saved equally with the scientist and the sage, that faith which, from the sincerity of the heart, replaces understanding for the child and the simpleton, and in which the sage finds inexhaustible depth, the unattainable height of wisdom, in which a Christian can acquire correct knowledge about man, about spirits saints and outcasts, about the world invisible with bodily eyes. The hearts of modern people have become carnal, white from carnal life; it became blind, deaf, dead to everything spiritual, to the eternal and Divine. 640 With the weakness of faith, spiritual insensibility or mortification of spiritual sensations occurred, the invisible death of the human spirit in relation to spiritual objects with the full development of life in relation to material objects. A long-term careless life among constant entertainment, among constant arbitrary sins, with forgetfulness about God, about eternity, with inattention or with the most superficial attention to the commandments and teachings of the Gospel, deprives our spirit of sympathy for spiritual objects, mortifies it in relation to them. Existing, they cease to exist for him, because his life has ceased for them: all his forces are directed towards one material, vain, sinful thing. Looking closely at the state of our soul, we ourselves can see the development in it of insensibility to the spiritual, a deadening of the spirit. Confirming facts of our spiritual insensitivity are boredom when reading the Word of God and the dryness of our prayer. When we want to start reading the Word of God, boredom attacks us; everything we read seems to us obscure, unworthy of attention, strange. We have no sympathy with the Word of God. When we get up to pray, we feel dry and cold, we rush to finish our superficial, entertainment-filled prayer, because we are alien to God: we believe in the existence of God with dead faith, He does not exist for our sensation. Eternity is forgotten by us, but we arrange our temporary life as if it were eternal. 641 Serving God was replaced by serving mammon of sinfulness. 642 A self-invented understanding of life, with the loss of a living religious faith, gives human life a worldly, earthly character, leaves an imprint on people’s relationships to body and soul, to neighbors, to property, to spiritual objects, to death, which is inevitable for all. Darkened by sin, ignorance, the example of others, accepted customs in human society, a person considers only the life of the body to be life, ignoring the life of the soul: he wanted to develop exclusively the life of the body, giving it all kinds of pleasures, using all the abilities of the soul in serving the body. This is what a person does with his own soul, and this is what he did with his neighbors - he neglected them. A person does not neglect only those of them whom he uses as instruments of his will, who can be accomplices of this will. He recognizes his property in all respects as property, and himself as having the right to use this property at will. He uses both property and earthly life to please the flesh. 643 People easily forget God, eternity, bliss and suffering, to such an extent that they imagine them to be completely non-existent. Rejecting the existence of God, the invisible world, the soul itself, people are ready to reject even the most visible death, if it were possible to reject it. They reject the meaning of death, calling it the destruction of man. Such a concept makes peace with carnal life, approves of carnal life, 644 delays the turn of death and completely eliminates the thought of it, and people live their lives as if they had never seen dying people, had never heard of the existence of death, as if they, unlike others, were destined to remain on earth forever. Man is bound by countless passions; human love is wasted on many objects, but there is no place or time left for love of God. 645 But the loss of love for God is closely connected with the loss of love for one’s neighbors, and if enmity towards God is expressed by neglecting God’s commandments, living according to one’s own will and reason, then the loss of love for one’s neighbors is filled with enmity that arises in its place in the mutual relations of people. Gratitude has become a rare virtue among people. Unfortunately, a solemn exclamation is often heard, accompanied by solemn laughter; “I plucked such and such from such and such.” This cry characterizes the terrible emptiness and depravity of the soul. This exclamation signifies that a good deed has been obtained through flattery, pretense and other similar means, and that a person who has submitted to deception and proven a good deed is subject to reproach for his very good deed. Often, beneficence sows in the beneficiary a feeling of irreconcilable, frenzied hatred towards the benefactor. This unnatural strangeness occurs so often that the popular proverb has become more fully formed: “Without feeding, without singing, you will not make an enemy.” People poisoned by sin hate their benefactors - people, but they hate God even more. 646 Mutual relationships between people are poisoned by hypocrisy. When people come together for a friendly conversation, often, if not always, most of this conversation consists of gossip about their neighbor, ridicule of him, slander, humiliation, and denigration of him. Sharp words flow like a river, laughter and laughter are heard as signs of approval: in this unfortunate time of self-forgetfulness and self-delusion, our souls become familiar with demonic properties and are imbued with the poison of hypocrisy. 647 But self-deluded people, guided only by egoism and pride in their own goals, people devoid of faith, do not love themselves, because true love for oneself is impossible without love for God and neighbor. The entire law of God is concentrated in love for God and love for neighbor, because love is that virtue which, as a union of perfection, is made up of the fullness of all other virtues. And to love one’s neighbor, a person needs to love himself correctly. Despite the strangeness of the question: do we love ourselves, it must be said that very rare people love themselves. Most people hate themselves and try to do as much harm to themselves as possible. If you measure the evil done to a person in his life, it turns out that the fiercest enemy did not do as much evil to him as the person did to himself. Constantly and insatiably desiring good for ourselves, we almost constantly do evil to ourselves. 648 Selfish people are not able to hear the call to the supper of love, and if they hear, they are not able to follow this call for various reasons, but having a connection with our earthly relationships, which seem especially important. Another attributed such importance to academic, official, whimsical occupations that he considered it permissible to neglect God; another indulged in family concerns and forgot God; another, finally, became carried away by passions, mired in crude carnal pleasures and became completely alien to God. Spiritual treasure is taken away from us by all sorts of earthly pursuits, all sorts of earthly positions, when the soul is completely attracted and chained to them. 649 Among Christianity, the glorious, rich, learned, prosperous in this world should be recognized as those called to Christ’s supper: the advantages granted to them by God over others, the convenience associated with these advantages for the knowledge of God and Divine service express, without a doubt, a calling to salvation and highest bliss, but those called remain like stones, not attentive to the Caller. 650 And people who are uninvited, but are subsequently called, also often resist the call, as if not trusting the call, or even more because they have become accustomed to their condition. 651 And the spiritual supper of the Lord remains unfilled due to the refusal of those called, due to the inertia of those called, due to dullness in relation to the spiritual, due to doubt about eternity and salvation. The benefits of culture and material progress have displaced from the consciousness of modern people the “one thing that is needed” - eternal salvation, the material has eclipsed the spiritual, the visible and the invisible, and in the enchantment of the successes of the genius of progress, people do not see life in its entirety, nor do they see its underside and weak sides, so obvious to the clairvoyance of a believer, looking at temporality with the gaze of otherworldliness. And the reason for the close to hellish state of earthly human life, with the exception of the general conditions of fundamental human sinfulness after the Fall, which will be discussed later, is, in the fair opinion of His Eminence Ignatius, the decline of faith and the extreme development of rationalism and freethinking, the beginning of which was firmly laid by the French freethinking enlightenment of the 18th century. One can expect the most disastrous consequences of an unfaithful state, just as one can expect a sad outcome for a person who has long, long ago suffered and been exhausted by an incurable illness, killed alive by this illness, before being killed by death. Educated Europe and the so-called enlightened world seem to be such a spiritually sick person to His Grace Ignatius. Rationalism with its decrees cannot stop in its movement, as it is based on the constantly changing human mind. We must expect more and more development of the disease. It began to shake the peace of peoples from the end of the 18th century; the further it goes, the more extensive and destructive its effect. In connection with the development of unbelief and the weakening of spiritual life, the ascetic Bishop raises the coming appearance of the Antichrist. 652 But what strikes His Eminence Ignatius most of all in the course of human life is the general desire of everyone exclusively for one material thing, as if it were eternal, - the oblivion of the eternal, as if non-existent, - ridicule and abuse of Christianity, - a subtle and fierce persecution of the Church, persecution of her life, of the Holy Spirit, the replacement of the Spirit and His statutes with false reason and statutes emanating from the ruler of the world - a general worldwide rumor, as if during pandemonium. The widespread installation of railways is work similar to pandemonium. Modern life, aimed at evil, and the acquisition of culture, makes it a tool for the rapid development of sinfulness. For this purpose, God mixed languages ​​and divided the people into nations in order to deprive people of the opportunity to carry out all sinful enterprises with the common forces of all united humanity: steam locomotives return this opportunity to people. 653 An extreme decrease in sensitivity to spiritual existence, almost loss of spiritual sensation, indifference to the supersensible, sometimes even denial of otherworldly existence, earthing of the spirit, the predominance of worldly and carnal interests, selfish faith in the power of human genius and material progress and, along with this, a state of spiritual discord in personality and enmity in mutual human relationships - this is, in general terms, the atmosphere in which the spiritually experienced for the ascetic to talk about what “spiritually strives for” - about God, about the spiritual world, about eternity, about the salvation of the soul. But the more significant the illness of the time, the more necessary its healing; the more darkness there is in a person’s spiritual concepts, the more a spiritual leader is needed; The weaker the spiritual experience of people, the greater the need they have for the treasures of the immediate spiritual life of the man of salvation. For these reasons, a humble ascetic, alien to any conceit, the Bishop conveys to the troubled and dark modern world and for spiritual consolation to future generations his spiritual experience, those joyful visions and long-term reflections that, in our opinion, are capable of awakening spiritual life, or at least the desire for it, even in a deadened soul. When someone who has experienced the joy of spiritual life, who has known the sorrow of sin, who has directly contemplated spiritual existence, offers us a word about salvation out of love for us, offers spiritual guidance to us who live in the world and bear flesh, at a time when he himself is ready to free himself from the corruptible bodily shell, ending his earthly wanderings and recognizing himself as obliged to present to Christian society a report on his sighting of the promised land, sharpening spiritual gifts and good, 654 one must be too insensitive and spiritually dead to refuse the calling voice, to indifferently listen to the lessons of salvation, without any trace of correction in our life, like that crowd which, in a poetic depiction, condescendingly invites a spiritually illuminated person to give her bold lessons, counting on only passive attention: “You can, loving your neighbor, give us bold lessons, and we will listen to you.” But if a spark of desire for spiritual life and true faith remains in our souls, we cannot remain indifferent to the word of salvation, and our soul may be visited by the desire to taste the spiritual delights and visions of the ascetic. And the voice of the latter is all the more valuable for us because it is not only the result of book study or mental knowledge in general, but the fruit of personally experienced spiritual experience. And when the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov tells us about God, about the spiritual world of Angels and demons, about the mystery of bodily death and the afterlife of man, about heaven and hell, about the salvation of the soul, we are not hearing a learned theologian, not a well-read pious person, although all this belongs to him, in our opinion, to a high degree: for from childhood he studied the Holy Scripture, which can make one wise for salvation, he He went through a long and many-year school of thoughtful study of fatherly traditions, he traced the lives of the God-bearing ascetics of the past and contemporary centuries, he secretly learned the high aesthetics and deep teaching of Christian worship, and carried out his worldview for half a century of spiritual feat. And we cannot help but listen to him and believe him, our soul is inclined to the truth of Ignatiev’s words, and we, together with him, would like not to be deprived of the eternal inheritance of the Promised Land, which he glimpsed during his lifetime. Of course, a person is great in his spiritual impulses, but spiritual inertia reaches the point that people, having Moses, and the prophets, and the Gospel of the self-witnesses of the Word, do not listen to them, but for such, even if someone rose from the dead, they would not listen... And, of course, the treasures of the spiritual experience of Ignatius Brianchaninov are not for them. Moving on to presenting the wealth of the ascetic experience of the Right Reverend Ignatius on issues of spiritual existence, we conveniently distribute the material of his works related to this area into three very uneven sections - about God, about created spirits and about man. Of these three departments, the exceptional validity, completeness and comprehensiveness of the investigation, along with the originality of judgments, belong to the second department, on which we, therefore, will focus our continued attention. On the question of God, we will not find in the works of Bishop Ignatius the proofs of the existence of God that are usual for the theologian and intellectual philosopher, because it is likely that, relying on the preliminary sensation of the Divine in the human soul and making sense provided that a religious idea is innate in the soul, these proofs satisfy the rational-logical, mainly, needs of the human spirit; in the spiritual experiences of an ascetic ascetic, usually standing on a very distant plane, while the entire spiritual life of such a God-seeker is filled with a vision of the Divine, life in God. We will not find here even a complete disclosure of the idea of ​​​​God and the Being of God on the foundations of the Holy Scriptures and the holy works, because it is likely that familiarization with these primary sources of Christian knowledge, in relation to Bishop Ignatius is absolutely certain, does not in the least obscure or diminish the sensation of God, but only strengthens it, and, as a source of knowledge of God, life in God excludes all other foundations of theological knowledge. Finally, of even more significance, in our opinion, as a motive limiting a detailed consideration in ascetic literature, with which we are currently dealing, the concept of God or the Being of God is the extraordinary reverence of the ascetic living in God, before the thought of Him, his fear of touching the Incomprehensible Being with his limited human cognitive means and introducing Him into the limited logical norms of our thought, which, as we we know, it took place even for philosophers constructing proofs of the existence of God. And therefore, not striving for a logical disclosure of the concept of God, ascetic literature, in most cases, is limited to the figurative expression of its visions, paying its main attention not to the revelation of the Being of God, but to the conditions for man’s approach to God and the assimilation of God’s mercy, to the indication of His properties accessible to man through nature and spirit, which, penetrating into human consciousness, have an ascetic and educational effect on the spirit of man, calling him to repentance and assimilation of grace God, instead of falsely proud confidence in the infinity of human knowledge. 655 We will find the same teaching about God in the works of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov, who deeply studied the ascetic ascetics and assimilated their spirit through the experience of many years of ascetic life. And so, for the deeply believing ascetic spirit of Bishop Ignatius, logical proof of the existence of God does not seem necessary: ​​in the brilliance of a sunny day there is no need to prove the existence of light and the sun; overwhelmed by the grandeur and spontaneity of the approaching thunderstorm, there is no need for proof of the presence of this natural phenomenon - direct sensation and its self-evidence exclude the meaning of logical reasoning on this issue, leaving behind a person in full force the need to understand these phenomena and their influence on a person, those experiences that are associated with their perception. One who seeks salvation must and can constantly look to God, to see Him with the eyes of faith and hope, in order to maintain constancy and patience. 656 Only in this vision of God, in union with Him, is the true life of the soul and the strengthening of its ability to communicate with God. 657 By renouncing sin and offering its natural properties as a burnt offering, the rational spirit of man becomes capable of communicating with God, for our God is a Spirit incomparable with any created spirit, as in all respects infinitely different from all creatures. 658 Our God is fire, the Scripture teaches, says Bishop Ignatius in another place. Under the influence of this fire, the sinful fire, the fire of the flesh and the soul, is gradually extinguished, and finally the fire of sin is completely extinguished. The divine fire is pure, subtle, bright - it imparts truth to the mind, and wonderful calmness to the heart, wonderful coolness towards everything earthly, an abundance of meekness, humility, and goodness. 659 But neither this nor all other similarities clarify the nature of the Being of God, and there is no need to strive for this. Through a whole series of sayings of the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers, His Grace Ignatius affirms the idea of ​​the all-perfection of God and His incomprehensibility; God is an all-perfect being, having nothing in common with created beings. The existence of rational creatures and their life differ from the Life of God, just as the light that comes from objects illuminated by the sun differs from the light that pours out from the sun itself, from the source of light. The existence and life of creatures is the weakest reflection of the existence and life that constitute God’s proper property. 660 In His Being, God is unapproachable not only for man, but also for higher powers. None of the people could see the Being of God as it is: but God, adapting Himself to human weakness, took on an image corresponding to this weakness, and often He, incorporeal, appeared to them in the form of a man clothed with flesh. 661 The most important thing for the spiritual matter on the question of God for the ascetic is not the completeness of the logical disclosure of the Divine nature and properties of the Divine, not their deep justification, but a living and active sense of God in His relation to the world and man. Distinguishing between dogmatic and active faith, 662 Bishop Ignatius gives preference to the latter, considering its essential property the confidence that God controls the fate of the world and every person and, as a consequence of this confidence, humble submission to God, retreat from confusion, peace of soul and strength of courage, reverence for the destinies of God, incomprehensible to us, in all God’s permissions - private and public, civil, moral and spiritual. 663 Both this and that - self-evident confidence in the existence of God, in the feeling of God, and deeply humble devotion to the Divine will, resulting from intense and long-term ascetic labor, 664 - Bishop Ignatius expresses in a confession of his faith full of inspired lyricism in an appeal to the Divine Wanderer who transcends human understanding and visits the church of the human soul. 665 To the extent possible, accompanying the inspired confession of the ascetic-clairvoyant, rising to the height of his mysterious contemplation, recalling our personal, similar to those described, ecstatic spiritual experiences in the days of our youthful religious outbursts, in particularly holy moments of our lives, in hours free from the worries of everyday life, in front of the Holy Chalice of Salvation, or in contemplation of the Holy Shroud At the sounds of funeral and Sunday chants, in the joy of the resurrection Christ's; recalling all the best moments of our spiritual life, when our life’s “monotonous song of slaves,” as the poet put it, received in its content elements of the joy of the sensation of God, the joy of seeing Him Whom the eye does not see, but Who is close to the soul, like sadness and dreams, the One who gave laws to the diamond stars and freedom to our soul, Who is felt by us as a living source of holy and secret thoughts, Who breathes on the growth of the seeds of faith in the spiritual field reproducing these and similar experiences of ours, we will understand, I think, and this wonderful interview of the ascetic ascetic with the Divine Wanderer, we will understand the possibility and meaning of the sensation of God, which lifts a person above the earth, carries him on the wings of faith even to the third heaven, makes him capable of hearing the verbs of eternal life, which a person is not old enough to speak, which are not conveyed in the words of human language, but even without these words are understandable to a believing and illuminated soul; we will bring this state closer to our understanding in the spirit of those great and unforgettable pictures when a man-God-seer on the top of a mountain receives God’s covenant to man and, then seeing what is happening at the foot of the holy mountain, breaks the tablets, not tolerating betrayal of God the Leader, or when another prophet-clairvoyant expresses his readiness to selflessly preach salvation according to the Word of God, despite his humbly acknowledged weakness; or when another still great prophet, seeing the Lord on a high and exalted throne, comes into sacred horror from the consciousness of his sinfulness and unworthiness. We will understand, of course, then that in order to accomplish the mystery of spiritual salvation, we do not need the presumptuous words of human wisdom, but, namely, this ability of God-sensing, constantly carried out in the writings of the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov, which completely changes the human attitude towards the world and its blessings. And with this reverent sensation of God, the spiritual uplift of a person and the delight of immediate confession does not find words to express it, and at the same time, the Divine Wanderer, the Wonderful Guest, the Light and Enlightening Mentor, This “Irrigating Fire” is so immediately clear in the soul of the person visited by Him, His will is so open that human words are not needed: Divine verbs in a special, immaterial way sound in the soul of a person and draw him on the path salvation, clarify their view of the environment. And although the Divine Wanderer leaves man, i.e. the ability of God-sensation, like the ability of poetic insight, does not constitute a constant, at one level, state of a person, but once he has experienced the mysterious joy of God-sensation with all the feats of his life, he strives to attract the Heavenly Guest and the Divine Wanderer into his soul, and he looks at all objects of nature and the phenomena of existence with the eyes of faith, he sees in everything the possibility of visiting the Divine Wanderer, for it is unknown where and under what conditions He will reveal himself to the seeking person - Whether in the phenomena of the nature he has created, or in people - our neighbors, or in the states of our spirit, or in the circumstances of our everyday life, a person is already full of experienced impressions, existence for him is full of mystery, and he looks at this mystery with new eyes, the eyes of clairvoyant faith. And the essential features of this faith and the new meaning of existence for man are the revelation in the existence of God. The Divine Wanderer for the spiritual gaze of man is understood as the Creator and Provider of the world, Almighty, Good and Mercifully philanthropic; but the impartial judge of the world. For a believing Christian, the destinies of God are revealed in the destinies of the world. There is no blind chance! God rules the world, and everything that happens in heaven and under heaven is done according to the judgment of the All-Wise and Almighty God, Incomprehensible in His wisdom in His omnipotence, incomprehensible in His governance. God rules the world, and only blind sinners do not see this control. The sacrament of the Gospel truth and the sacrament of God's destinies are revealed to only the chosen ones, who are honored to see with a pure mind God in His providence and management. 666 God rules the universe; He controls the life of every person in all its details. Such control, which is included in the most petty, seemingly insignificant conditions of existence of creatures, corresponds to the infinite perfection of the properties of God. The law of such management is read in nature, read in the public and private lives of people, and read in the Holy Scriptures. I believe the all-holy words! I cannot help but believe them: they accurately depict the perfection of my God. 667 And in this comprehensiveness of Divine Providence, the mood of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov is not at all shaken by the manifestations of sin in man, disorder and disorder in the moral world and in the worldly-spiritual world, but, on the other hand, he is not alien to the awareness of world and personal shortcomings. Bringing everything that happens in the universe under the realm of God's destinies, Bishop Ignatius distinguishes between what happens according to the will of God and by God's permission and, as an example, indicates the manifestation of the Divine will and Divine permission. By the action of God’s will the visible and invisible worlds were created, man was created and redeemed, all events, public and private, were accomplished and are being accomplished, from which God’s goodness, God’s omnipotence, and God’s wisdom shine like the sun from heaven. By God's permission, by the will of creatures, evil appeared with all its consequences: by God's permission, by their own will, the angels fell; man fell, people, redeemed by God incarnate, did not accept God and retreated from God; by God's permission and by the evil will of the rejected angels and fallen men, the earth was corrupted by the crimes and wickedness of these angels and these men. By the permission and judgment of God, various sorrows and disasters, public and private, are and will be punished by the universe. By the permission and judgment of God, apostates from God, the enemies of God, will suffer eternal torment in the fiery abyss of hell, for which they prepared themselves arbitrarily. 668 In the thought of the infinity of God and His infinite perfection, His Grace Ignatius finds the answer to the usual misunderstanding, whether Divine perfection can be preserved in the presence of evil in the world, the Infinite, by its nature, does not decrease with all kinds of numerical subtractions from it and does not increase with all such applications to it. Neither evil nor good in creatures has, and cannot have any influence either on God or on His actions. The destinies of God stand at a height inaccessible and inviolable; they stand at a height that does not depend on the actions of both demonic and human. 669 In the works of Bishop Ignatius, the concept of Divine predestination, which is identical in content, is also compared with the concept of God’s destinies. Recognizing the concept of Divine predestination as precisely established in Holy Scripture and accepting it as unshakable, His Grace Ignatius clarifies it from the property of Divine eternity and absoluteness. Time does not exist for God, and God is not subject to eternity. Time and its measurements were formed among people from the impression made on them by changes in phenomena in nature. There is no time for God: there is no future time for Him. What is to be accomplished is before the already accomplished Face of God, and the afterlife of every person, which must expire as a natural consequence of earthly voluntary activity, is already known to God, has already been decided by God. 670 But, being a completely undoubted fact for the believing consciousness, Divine predestination should be the deepest basis for strengthening our reverent feeling for God in the presentation of His immensity and all-perfection, but in no way weaken a person’s attention to his salvation. And only indifference to one’s “spiritual affairs” and inertia towards spiritual life, due to the oblivion of its very foundations, give an imaginary incentive to people prone to carnal life to choose the path of life’s pleasures and temporary charms in an unfounded reference to Divine predestination, which man cannot change. 671 From the ascetic point of view, predestination, showing man the greatness of God and being a mystery known to the One God, does not in the least hinder the free activity of man in the entire field of earthly life, has no influence on this activity of man, God’s predestination does not and cannot have any influence on the consequences of this activity, on the salvation and destruction of man. The guides of our behavior are given, on the one hand, reason and free will, and on the other, the revealed teaching of God. The revealed teaching of God proclaims with the most satisfactory detail the will of God as a means of salvation, proclaims the good pleasure of God so that all men may be saved, and proclaims eternal torment for trampling on the will of God. From here there is a clear consequence: the salvation and destruction of a person depend solely on his will, and not on the determination of God unknown to him. 672 Thus, from a point of view close to Bishop Ignatius, Divine predestination embraces the entire world-human activity and every person; but a person in his activity must be guided by his desire for salvation and the instructions of the Word of God and the Holy Church and accordingly arrange his life’s feat towards the saving goal, not assuming a disastrous and tempting for himself, but a completely, essentially unknown predestination to destruction. Of course, in connection with the question of the Divine providence of predestination in ordinary curious everyday knowledge there is a whole series of other, private questions about various untruths of life, which primarily attract the attention of a practical person, arousing in him not only the sinful denial of the Divine world-ruling providence; but also the desire to arrange life’s destinies personally, on one’s own, in the erroneous idea that “this world is original, and everything in it happens without the providence of God.” Tempting for the proud human spirit, confident in the comprehensibility of the plans of the Divine world government, the facts of world, mainly human life, such as, for example, innocent suffering, uneven distribution of earthly goods, the tears with which the earth is soaked, transfer a person’s attention to world disorders, instead of attention to spiritual disorder, and to the external struggle, instead of the fight against sin, and force him, like Ivan Karamazov, to Dostoevsky, deny the meaning of existence and blasphemously return the ticket to life to God. Out of fear of such an outcome disastrous for the salvation of the soul, a person, in the opinion of Bishop Ignatius, should not engage in the search for the disorders of life, but in the fight against the sin of his nature, especially since the elimination of the disorders of life and the implantation of world harmony is not in his power, and for the feat of salvation he has been given all the strength for life and piety. Why is one born into wealth and nobility, the other into poverty, among people who are despised and oppressed, doomed to lifelong bodily labor by the sweat of their brow, deprived of the means for mental development? Why does one die as a decrepit old man, another in the prime of adolescence or manhood, another as a child, and even as a short-day-old infant? Why does one constantly enjoy health and prosperity, while the other languishes in illness, passing sorrows to sorrows, disasters to disasters, as if from hand to hand? These, and similar questions, once occupied the great desert dweller of Egypt, Anthony, and the desert dweller sought in vain for a solution to them, in his own mind, overshadowed by Divine grace, capable of delving deeper into the consideration of the mysteries of God. When the holy elder was tired of fruitless thinking, a voice came to him from heaven: Anthony! These are God's destinies. Researching them is mentally harmful. Pay attention to yourself! 673 In view of this, in the foreground for a Christian there should be a question about spiritual salvation, about the conditions and tasks of a person’s own activity in the guidance of the Word of God and the teachings of the Holy Orthodox Church, and he himself should not experience the fate of God, but glorify the incomprehensible goodness of God, 674 His special mercy towards the repentant sinner, whom the firstborn sons of the Heavenly Father cannot comprehend, readiness for forgiveness and healing and a call to it, without any partiality and discrimination of people by anything other than their desire for salvation, due to which he is awarded the special gifts of God in a special abundance and spiritual grace, who will rush to God with great selflessness. 675 These are the judgments of the Most Reverend Ignatius about God and His properties. We see. that their power lies not in the theoretical and mental comprehension of the Incomprehensible, but in God’s sensation and communication with God, which should, as we will see below, transform our lives, for for one who sincerely and truly senses God, for whom faith in Divine providence is not a matter of tradition, but a genuine conviction that God rules the world and provides, and that without this faith the world and man cannot stand and be, for such a believing person, who has been granted joy Communion with God, it is no longer possible to live according to the elements of the world, but certainly according to the will of God, according to the image of Christ, according to the word of Holy Scripture and the Church. And this faith in the omnipresence of God, in the providential activity of the world 676 stands with His Grace Ignatius in close correlation with his equally deep faith in the existence of the spiritual world, in the posthumous existence of man. We move on to the depiction of this faith of the ascetic Bishop. In presenting the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world, we must first of all focus our deep attention, if possible, on his depiction of the life of spirits and the conditions of their knowledge and their relationship to man from the point of view of the fundamental question for man of eternal salvation. The teaching of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov on this subject requires special attention in view of: a) the special completeness and thoroughness of this teaching, b) its exceptional importance; in the opinion of the ascetic Bishop, this teaching is in the system of Christian moral teaching and in the accomplishment of the spiritual Christian feat of salvation and c) in view of the special originality of this teaching in the general structure of views, Ignatius Brianchaninov and the exceptional attention that the author pays to it. Of all the questions of Christian moral teaching related to the feat of spiritual salvation, there are no other questions to which Ignatius Brianchaninov would pay greater or even equal attention, like the question of spirits, prayers and the afterlife of man. Both quantitatively, in terms of the size of the pages of Bishop Ignatius’s works occupied with these questions, and qualitatively, in terms of the breadth of review, thoroughness of study, comprehensiveness of justification for the conclusions drawn and the picturesqueness of the coverage, these questions in the works of the ascetic ascetic involuntarily attract the special attention of the researcher. In the system of Christian moral teaching, these questions occupy, according to Ignatius Brianchaninov, an essential place and are of such significant importance that a frivolous judgment or, especially, disbelief on this issue, according to Bishop Ignatius, is tantamount to a rejection of Christianity. Bishop Ignatius’s judgments on these issues are distinguished by particularly deep conviction and special originality to such an extent that they involuntarily capture the reader’s attention, and he is not willing to part with these sections, is ready to turn to them many times, and a sufficiently careful study of his views in this area involuntarily provokes the reader into deep thoughts about the meaning of life and the self-evident reality and infinity of posthumous human existence. Around these questions, as presented and understood by Ignatius Brianchaninov, an interesting controversy arose between him and another ascetic Bishop, Theophan the Recluse; In connection with this issue, Ignatius Brianchaninov examines the teachings of heterodoxy about the spiritual world and clarifies the unshakable truth of Orthodoxy. All this, taken together, makes the question of the spiritual world and the posthumous existence of man especially interesting for a researcher of the works of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov. The question of the existence of spirits and the spiritual world, according to the views of Bishop Ignatius, seems to be an essential and important question to such an extent that those who reject the existence of spirits certainly reject Christianity at the same time. “For this reason the Son of God has appeared, that he may destroy the works of the devil, that by death he may abolish him who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (John 3:8; Heb. 2:14). If there are no fallen spirits, then the incarnation of God has neither reason nor purpose. 677 Meanwhile, due to the special spiritual blindness that appeared after the sinful fall, not recognized by the blinded people themselves, most people are alien to any concept of spirits, or have only one theoretical, the most superficial, most unclear and indefinite concept about them, almost equivalent to complete ignorance. Contemporary to Ignatius Brianchaninov and not far from our time, human society, predominantly educated society, most of its members doubt the existence of spirits, many reject it. 678 Even those who recognize the existence of their soul, recognize its immortality or its existence after death, recognize it as a spirit, doubt the existence of spirits and reject it. 679 But if we shift our attention from contemporary judgments about the spiritual world to Ignatius Brianchaninov to the present day, then we will, without a doubt, see that the question of the existence of spirits not only does not have the best basis for its solution, but also stands positively in unfavorable conditions, all the more so as the great weakness of Christian conviction and disposition is experienced. Try in a modern educated society to have a serious conversation about the spirituality of the soul, its immortality, the afterlife of a person, about heaven, hell, and the Last Judgment, you will very often, at best, encounter condescendingly offensive attention, sometimes a skeptical smile, sometimes an objection, and sometimes malicious ridicule and accusations of obscurantism and backwardness. And this situation is all the sadder because we can find judgments of this kind among people who are not alien to Christian concepts, who consider themselves Christians, but never seriously think about Christianity and do not attach vital importance to it. But even with the higher moral level of your interlocutors, who recognize immortality and questions of salvation, such questions as the existence of spirits and afterlife reward in the form of heaven and hell seem frivolous, not of any importance, at best, figurative expressions of concepts of a completely different kind than what they essentially belong to. Among the people you know, how many seriously think and believe in the existence of spirits - good and evil, the tempter demon and the Guardian Angel. In very many cases, don’t people see the teaching of Holy Scripture and the Church about the Guardian Angel as only a vivid image of the innate souls of man with ideal aspirations, in the sense that the angel with his song about the bliss of spirits under the bliss of the gardens of Eden appears in Lermontov’s famous poem, and isn’t the spirit of malice and evil in the human imagination only a generalizing image of world evil in the form of Lermontov’s demon, and eternity hellish torment is often depicted in the same blasphemously impudent form as Fyodor Karamazov does in Dostoevsky. The talk about the temptations of the demon, the temptations of the spirit of evil seems to the modern educated person to be a relic of the mythological period. One of the beliefs of the dark masses of the common people, and the darkest kingdom of crafty demons - spirits who have rejected their Superiors and left their home, seems at best a metaphysical designation of the internal discord observed in a person. And if to all of the above we add talk about the hour of death and the posthumous existence of man, about the struggle of angels with the powers of the air, about the ordeals that the human soul goes through, then we will see that there is a great gap between the modern mood of intelligent society and the faith of the simple-minded children of the Church. But this abyss must be eliminated, there must be a transition through it, and the question of the spiritual world must be clarified before the onset of our hour of death; its clarification is essential for our salvation. And in this case, certain answers of the ascetics, who came to precise conclusions on questions of spiritual existence based on a careful study of the Word of God and Church Tradition, confirmed in their views by the personal experience of their ascetic-contemplative life, have significant significance, as the voice of a person who saw the land of eternal promise face to face, and not in the mirror of fortune-telling. And from this point of view, the teaching of the Most Reverend Ignatius about the spiritual world, in its completeness and thoroughness, scientific validity, experimental and ascetic revelation, certainty and clarity, seems to us to be very important for the moral life of modern humanity. That is why, and out of special personal interest in the issue being resolved by Bishop Ignatius, we pay special attention to the presentation of this teaching. According to the judgment of the Most Reverend Ignatius, knowledge of spirits, their existence, properties, laws and conditions of their activity, relationship to God and people is so important that the ambiguity of opinions on this issue borders on an unsteady understanding of Christianity, and an even less firm Christian mood and activity. If people are convinced of the existence of their soul after its separation from the body, then they must also be convinced of the existence of spirits. If the souls of villains do not die along with the souls of virtuous people, then it means that there are also spirits, good and evil. They exist. Their existence becomes quite clear and obvious to those who have engaged in a correct and detailed study of Christianity. The existence of spirits remains a dark subject for those who have not studied Christianity or have studied it superficially, to the letter, while the Lord Jesus Christ commanded and established the teaching of Christianity and its preaching, and the observance of the Gospel commandments (Matt. 28:19-20). 680 According to the judgments of Bishop Ignatius, the fullness of Christian knowledge can be achieved only by those Christians who combine practical asceticism with the theoretical and scientific study of Christianity. Just as in ordinary human sciences their results and the conditions for achieving these results can be understandable to people who studied these sciences in the high Christian science, a science that came down from heaven, given to humanity by God, completely changing a person, transforming him from the carnal and spiritual into the spiritual, the results and the method of achieving them remain inaccessible to those who did not study it legally, according to the method established by God. The Lord commanded us to study Christianity, both theoretical and practical, connected these two studies with an inextricable link, and commanded that theoretical knowledge should certainly be followed by practical knowledge. Without the second, the first has no value before God. Without the second, the first cannot benefit us at all (Matt. 7:21-23). Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for thorough preaching and study of Christianity. But theoretical study requires that it must be accompanied and followed by active teaching. A Christian scribe must learn the Kingdom of Heaven not only by hearing preaching about It, but also by experience (Matt. 13:52). Teaching according to the letter, when left to its own devices, immediately gives rise to conceit and pride, and alienates a person from God. While appearing outwardly to be knowledge of God, in essence it can be complete ignorance, a rejection of Him. While preaching faith, you can drown in unbelief. Mysteries that are open to unlearned Christians very often remain closed to the most learned men, who are satisfied with the school study of theology as one of the human sciences. 681 therefore, His Grace Ignatius explains modern doubts about the existence of spirits and the complete denial of their existence in modern society by the weakness of the spiritual life of Christians, the darkness of their spiritual eyes. Skeptics and deniers would like clear and convincing evidence of the existence of the spiritual world, they would like to see the results of the spiritual science of Christianity, to reveal its secrets, to which knowledge of the spiritual world belongs, but this is only possible in connection with the active study of Christianity, in connection with the passage of the spiritual Christian feat. Do you want to know the secrets of Christianity? Study it. 682 And since, with the modern decline of spiritual life, there are fewer and fewer people actively studying Christianity, the sources of knowledge of the spiritual world are also being reduced. Due to the lack of experienced knowledge of Christianity, in our time it is very difficult to hear the correct, thorough teaching about the vision of spirits, which is so necessary for everyone who wants to engage in spiritual feats. 683 And, wanting to make up for the perceived lack, Ignatius Brianchaninov offers a teaching about the vision of spirits and their essence. It is not conceit that guides him in this case, but the perceived need of life and the duty of a person who, due to the conditions of his spiritual life, has stood close to the question being treated and, in the humble consciousness of his unworthiness, feels, however, forced to speak and write for edification, so as not to leave his neighbors without any edification. 684 The necessary conditions for clarifying the essence and character of both the prerequisites for the Christian feat of salvation and the very accomplishment of the work of salvation, His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov believes the personal spiritual experience of a Christian, his experience of the process of salvation and, of course, an active and conscious affiliation with the Holy Orthodox Church. For Bishop Ignatius, there is no Christian morality in general, there is no morality that is indifferent and independent of the forms of Christian confession, and there is no indifferentism, lukewarmness in relation to the truth of moral teaching, and the very truth of Christian salvation is only one, and this truth lies in the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church. In heterodoxy - one-sidedness, incompleteness, inaccuracy and delusion; in Orthodoxy - the light and truth of the knowledge of God, an indication of the true paths of eternal life, the giving of saving mysteries and gifts of Divine grace, a clear indication of the conditions of spiritual salvation. Orthodoxy, according to the consciousness of the ascetic Bishop, is the true knowledge of God and worship of God; Orthodoxy is the worship of God in spirit and truth; Orthodoxy is the glorification of God by true knowledge of Him and worship of Him; Orthodoxy is God’s glorification of man, a true servant of God, by bestowing upon him the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the glory of Christians (John 7:39). Where there is no Spirit, there is no Orthodoxy. 685 The universal meaning of Christianity is immeasurable and inexpressible in human words in its entirety, but only Orthodoxy serves as the true expression of genuine universal Christianity. Christianity is comprehended in its truth and depth, from the human side, in two ways: a) by acquiring faith from hearing, which provides a clear theoretical knowledge of Christianity, and b) by acquiring faith from works, which provides active knowledge of Christianity. From these two knowledges, the one who has acquired them is elevated, elevated by God Himself, as having attested to the sincerity of the desire to know God through the evidence that depended on him and possible to him, and is elevated to a mysterious, essential spiritual knowledge, always combined with living faith. 686 The universal character of Christianity is depicted by the Most Reverend Ignatius under the image of a vast, excellent harbor. Christianity, he says, can be likened to an excellent, vast harbor, in which ships of all sizes and all types of construction can moor with equal convenience. The humble fisherman's boat, the merchant's huge ship loaded with various goods, and the armored giant find shelter in this harbor; armed with countless means of destruction and death, and the decorated yacht of the king and nobleman, intended for ceremonial and pleasure trips. Christianity accepts into its bosom a person at any age, in any condition and position, with any abilities, with any degree of education: it accepts and saves. The simplest person, who has no development in the elements of the world, is saved through Christianity in the same way as the most learned and sage. Christianity, as a gift from the all-perfect God, satisfies everyone abundantly: faith from the sincerity of the heart replaces understanding for the infant and simpleton, and the wise man who approaches Christianity in a legalized manner (1 Cor. 3:18) will find in it inexhaustible depth, the unattainable height of wisdom. Christianity contains both true theology and genuine psychology and metaphysics. Only a Christian can acquire correct knowledge accessible to man - about man, about the rejected spirits of saints, about the world invisible with bodily eyes. 687 Thus, a person’s active affiliation with Christianity elevates him to the height of the only knowledge a person needs - about the spiritual world, invisible with natural eyes, and its comprehensiveness and accessibility make those who reject it unrequited and, as a result; wandering through the elements of the world and rejecting the spiritual world and premium existence. Christianity is taught with such certainty that there is no excuse for those who do not know it. The reason for ignorance is pure will. As the sun shines from the sky, so does Christianity shine. He who closes his eyes arbitrarily, let him attribute his lack of vision and ignorance to his own will, and not to the absence of light. 688 Strange is the current disbelief of many in Christianity, shining with the rays of the clearest truth. The study of Christianity proves with all certainty and decisiveness its truth. The conviction brought by the correct study of Christianity, the conviction of the existence of everything invisible, taught by Christianity, is much stronger than the conviction of the existence of the visible, delivered by the senses. So true is this conviction that thousands of thousands of people left the visible in order to acquire the invisible, did not stop to imprint their conviction with blood, did not fear the cruel executions with which madness and frenzy tried to extort from them the renunciation of their conviction. 689 Thus, with the very essence of Christian beliefs, with the spirit of Christianity, is connected the conviction in the existence of a heavenly spiritual world, and the true Christian state of a person makes for him the existence of the invisible spiritual world and other principles, conditions and prerequisites of spiritual Christian achievement, their meaning and closest relationship to the essence of the spiritual life of a Christian person more undoubted and obvious than the existence of the visible-sensory world attested by experience and the time we are experiencing. The question of spiritual existence, the existence of spirits and, in connection with them, the question of death, eternity and eternal life, about heaven and hell and the conditions of salvation are resolved by His Grace Ignatius in the light of Christian teaching - hearing faith, and with the assistance and light of experimentally active spiritual life - clairvoyant faith from works. In other words, in the future we will present, based on the works of Bishop Ignatius, an accurate and definite teaching on the issues outlined. But this is not enough. Having carefully studied the truth of Christian knowledge from the hearing of faith, the ascetic Bishop, and in this sensitive and attentive hearing of faith and, even more, in the active experience of spiritual Christian achievement, came to an absolutely undeniable conviction in the truth of Orthodoxy, to the conviction that questions of spiritual eternal life, faith and salvation can have a correct resolution only in the bosom of the Orthodox Church and only for the mind captive in obedience of faith. Only the Orthodox Church is capable of praising God with God-pleasing praise; Only her true sons, faithful to her depth, to her dogmatic and moral tradition, are capable of inheriting the blessing. God reveals the teaching of salvation to all members of the Orthodox Church; but the mystery of the Gospel truth and the mystery of His destinies reveals how much it can be comprehended by only the chosen ones, who are honored to see with a pure mind God in His providence and management. 690 The Holy Church is the child-loving mother of believers, who gave birth to them for salvation and takes upon herself all the concerns so that her children do not lose their inheritance - Heaven. 691 The cornerstone on which is erected a living spiritual building - the Kingdom of God, the New Testament Church, the people of God, sanctified, holy, new Israel. This cornerstone is our Lord Jesus Christ. 692 In view of this and for an accurate understanding of the spirit of Christ, for an accurate and faithful resolution of issues of salvation and eternal life, for the acquisition of a living and saving faith, it is necessary to belong to the holy Orthodox Church. The spiritual palace, in which the spiritual treasure - the true faith - is stored and from which is abundantly taught, is the one holy Orthodox Church. For this reason, it is necessary for salvation to belong to the Orthodox Church. 693 The Holy Church keeps the holy truth in its bosom. By belonging to it and obeying it, one can have the correct way of thinking about God, about man, about good, about evil, and therefore about salvation. Without the right way of thinking about salvation, it is impossible to have salvation itself. The beginning of salvation is truth. The beginning of salvation is the right thought. The key to destruction is deviation from the truth with a false thought. Any deviation from the teaching of holy truth and the adoption of false thoughts, contrary to this teaching, is associated with the terrible sin of blasphemy and renunciation of God. 694 We note here the deep conviction of the ascetic Bishop that belonging to the holy Orthodox Church is not only a necessary condition for spiritual salvation, but also an equally necessary condition for spiritual understanding, more important than personal ascetic experience, and this latter acquires its guiding significance only under the condition of the ascetic’s continuous communication with the spirit of the holy Church. Outside of unwavering obedience to the Church there is neither true humility nor true spiritual intelligence; there is a vast area, a dark kingdom of lies and the self-delusion it produces. 695 On the contrary, an indispensable sign of the true elect of God is exact obedience to the holy Church, fidelity to the Holy Truth and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Most Holy, Most Pure, resting in only the pure and holy; love the humble who prove their humility not by anything outward, but by obedience to the mind of the Gospel and the Church. He turns away from the self-righteous, who separate themselves from the unity of the Church for some thought that flatters the mind and heart. 696 Below we will meet with the attitude of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov to heterodoxy - Latinism and Lutheranism, we will become familiar with his views on the conditions for the emergence of various religious forms in a united Christianity, and, in his deep conviction, only Orthodoxy is the bearer of the universal truth of Christ. In this case, starting to present the original original teaching of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov about the spiritual world, we want to note only his special sensitivity to the truth of Orthodoxy, his special zeal for maintaining his fidelity to Orthodoxy, his deep conviction in the possibility of true theological views only in strict obedience to the voice of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, by virtue of which of his views, setting out his teaching about the world spiritually, His Grace Ignatius does not want to deviate one iota from the truth of Ecumenical Orthodoxy, and is sensitive to ensuring that his teaching is consistent with the voice of the Orthodox Church and the Word of God. And with this consideration, the teaching of Ignatius Brianchaninov on this issue acquires a special meaning for us, and the higher becomes the practical value of this teaching, which touches on the least clear issue of the Christian worldview, the one that most worries a believer and which, as we will see, has exceptional practical significance in the field of Christian morality. In presenting the teaching of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov about the Spiritual World, we propose to follow this order: I. Let us present judgments about spirits and their nature according to the teachings of Orthodoxy as understood by Ignatius Brianchaninov, and we will present the opinions of heterodox writers about the spiritual world, which attracted the critical attention of Bishop Ignatius, and we will note their inconsistency, according to the understanding of His Grace Ignatius, with the Patristic teaching on this subject. II. Let us note the conditions and methods of knowing the spiritual world - sensory and spiritual. III. Let's try to understand the difference of opinion on the issue of the spiritual world between Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov and His Grace Theophan the Recluse. I. Regarding the first intended question about the nature of spirits, to characterize the views of Bishop Ignatius on this subject, it seems possible to determine: 1) the conditions he establishes for resolving the issue; 2) his understanding of the nature of spirits and their relationship to the outside world, mainly to the conditions of space and time. The Reverend Ignatius considers the question of the existence and essence of the spiritual world to be very important in relation to moral activity and especially to the spiritual salvation of a person, and this explains his long-term preoccupation with this issue. “Upon my entry into the ascetic life, and then into the monastery,” he writes: “although various experiences characteristic of this path happened to me, I had an indefinite concept of the soul and spirits, recognizing and calling them, according to the general superficial understanding, disembodied and immaterial; needs, enter into further consideration. it didn't seem like it. I entered the monastery in 1827, and began to study Scripture and the Fathers much earlier, one might say, from childhood. Since 1843, independently of me, necessity has forced me to delve more deeply and accurately into the meaning of the soul and created spirits. Anthony the Great rightly said that this knowledge is extremely necessary for ascetics. Those ascetics who, in their ascetic deed, are led by the finger of God into battle with spirits, especially need it. And it has significant benefits for everyone: it is better to become acquainted with the world of spirits before death, rather than at the onset of death, as many became acquainted with to their greatest surprise and horror. Experience proves the faithfulness of the teachings of the Fathers with all decisiveness. The dark and mysterious is made very clear and simple. 697 The difficulty of our knowledge of the spiritual world and the conditions of its incomprehensible life, according to Bishop Ignatius, is explained by the carnal nature of our life and the limitations and subjectivity of our sensory knowledge. We must admit that we are too small among the vastness of the universe, our means of acquiring knowledge are comparatively insignificant, knowledge itself is limited, and therefore we need Divine revelation. 698 We do not see the spiritual world clearly. But, after all, even in the external, visible world we perceive only the smallest part of objects, nothing in comparison with the whole. Both the telescope and the microscope convict us of this, our sense of smell and touch convict us, which sense gases invisible to the eye, and thereby reveal their existence, hidden from sight; space incriminates us, limiting and obstructing our gaze with a narrow, constantly changing horizon; reveals the impenetrability of the earth and many other objects on its surface. What do we see from visible nature? - the tiniest part of it. And we consider our habit of the limitations of our vision to be complete and satisfactory vision! From the knowledge of our limitations, the knowledge of humble and faithful, let us reverently direct the gaze of our minds to those objects that are hidden from our coarse feelings, but are revealed to us by the mercy and grace of God. 699 We know in part the substance that belongs to the earth: the substance in an incomparably larger volume, outside the earth, beyond the boundaries of its atmosphere, remains unknown to us. Not only that, but it is not available for our research. But this substance exists because everything in space and everything limited by space is substance. 700 Those who begin to judge a substance without having thorough knowledge about it are led, in the opinion of Bishop Ignatius, through incorrect judgment to incorrect conclusions. Such gentlemen with the greatest confidence proclaim about the visible and invisible world, believing that such a concept is an irrefutable axiom, without understanding in any way that this division is completely relative, that, in essence, it does not exist. What do you mean by the visible world? This is the one we see. What is the invisible world? This is the one we don't see. Christianity, studied according to the will of the Savior, through lifelong asceticism, leads to the knowledge that our feelings are perverted by the fall, subject to changeability and therefore cannot serve as the norm for the mentioned division; it can't possibly be correct. Science comes to confirm this concept, expanding the range of our vision by various mechanical means and making many invisible things visible through magnifying glasses, telescopes and microscopes. With such a concept of the Worlds, visible and invisible, the concept of matter must certainly change. This has changed with modern advances in chemistry: much that seemed immaterial turned out to be material. It is obvious that matter extends beyond our senses to an immeasurable volume in countless forms unknown to us, governed by laws inaccessible to our comprehension. Science leads to this magnificent idea, to this majestic truth, in which the most extensive sacred contemplation is revealed to the mind, in which our insignificance and the greatness of the Creator God are contemplated with special clarity and correctness in the mysterious picture of the visible world. 701 Thus, our concepts of matter, of the visible and the invisible, are relative: what is dark and unclear at one time becomes clear at another time. Our concepts of life, materiality and spirituality are also relative. 702 The sciences that study matter have achieved the greatest development in recent times. Among the many services rendered to man by the sciences in their present development, not least should be the recognition of the extreme limitations of our knowledge. When science was scarcer, people considered themselves more learned. When a person believed that the sky is a vault above the earth, that the sky and the earth converge with their outskirts and touch, he was in his eyes more than what he imagines now, when it is open that there is an immense space above us, that the earth in relation to this space is a barely noticeable crumb. The life of the body is inaccessible to our comprehension. Anatomy looks at cadavers, not bodies. She does not see the life of the body: she also does not see the body itself. The body remains a body until the minute until which life has not left it. By leaving it alive, its decomposition begins. Moreover: by this abandonment, decomposition is accomplished; further decomposition is only a consequence of the main, essential decomposition. The decomposition of a substance, according to the laws of chemistry, can only be accomplished by separating one or many of its constituent parts from it. Here, in the opinion of Bishop Ignatius, science indicates the materiality of the soul: the separation of something immaterial, abstract, would not have any effect on the substance. But the soul is invisible. What about that? Invisible and caloric. He is the unweighted principle; but it is separated chemically from water by a separation imperceptible and incomprehensible to the senses; and the water turns into another substance, into ice. As soon as life has left the body, it is no longer a body, it is a corpse. Feelings and properties of the body can be described, not defined. Definitions cannot be replaced by assumptions, no matter how intricate they are. The misuse of science can satisfy the curiosity of ignorance and stop its mouth with brilliant assumptions. To deceive people in the name of science is dishonest. Science, by delivering true and accurate knowledge, is obliged to put a person in the most correct relationship to everything. Chemistry has positively indicated that everything limited has its own degree of materiality. Mathematics has equally positively proven that everything limited is subject to space. On this basis, completely immaterial, independent of space and time, infinite in all respects, not subject to any change, to any outside influence, unlimited, both in essence and in its properties, infinitely different from all creatures both in essence and in properties, God is confessed. On the same basis, created spirits, being creatures, are limited beings; they must necessarily have their own degree of materiality and must be subordinated to space. What is essentially limited must also have limited properties. Attributing an unlimited property or unlimited properties to a limited being is alien to meaning (nonsense). Chemistry rejects the infantile definition of matter based on our senses. A substance must be defined by its properties. It can and does extend far beyond the limits of our senses, the range of which is very limited. The existence of something material that does not have an effect on our feelings, or has an effect that we do not understand and do not notice, is not only not contrary to her teaching, it is clear from her teaching. The existence of spirits in the form in which it is taught by Orthodox theology is not at all contrary to the teachings of chemistry and mathematics: it completely coincides and is consistent with the positively proven theory of these sciences. Let us note: these sciences, having separated God from creatures by infinite difference, seem to open the door to faith, explaining the need for frank knowledge of God. They cannot reject it because of their recognized omnipotence of God and the independence of His actions from human judgment. These are the sources of the concept of spirits in human society. From them, humanity could not and cannot form correct knowledge due to the obscurity of some concepts, the falsity of others, and because of its own fall: fallen man is in communication only with fallen spirits; he is alien to communication with holy spirits. For this reason, a Christian who wants to acquire an infallible concept of spirits; must ignore all concepts delivered by human tradition, scholarship, magic, magnetism, spiritualism and other similar means, as they can deliver only incorrect and erroneous concepts, in which a person, not renewed by Divine grace, will in no way separate the truth from the abundant admixture of lies. 703 The principles that Bishop Ignatius himself is guided by and which he recommends to guide all those interested in the question of the spiritual world, are borrowed by him from very many and varied sources. The completeness and variety of these sources are presented by Bishop Ignatius in order of comparative importance for achieving the desired results. The most important sources for understanding the issue of spirits and the spiritual world are the Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition, ascetic literature, Orthodox Christian worship, personal spiritual and ascetic experience and Orthodox Christian theology. To obtain accurate knowledge of spirits, says Bishop Ignatius, the only means is Christianity, studied in the Holy Scriptures, in the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church and by pious ascetic life according to the moral Tradition of the Orthodox Church. For the initial theoretical knowledge of spirits, the teaching taught in Orthodox theology is quite sufficient. The invisible struggle with spirits in thoughts, dreams and sensations is the property of ascetics, monks, engaged in the correct feat in monastic hostels. They acquire, in accordance with their life, a moral concept of fallen spirits. Such knowledge of spirits in its fullness is achieved through an attentive monastic life. It is a gift from God, which crowns the ascetic’s own, feasible feat, trying to discern the immaterial faces of demons, as in a mirror, in the Holy Scriptures, in the writings of the Holy Fathers and in his own activities; It is “spiritual reasoning” (1 Cor. 12:10), a gift of the Holy Spirit. 704 But even more than Holy Scripture, in clarifying the issue of spirits, His Grace Ignatius uses the Patristic Tradition. His religious-Christian inspiration and keen interest in the raised question of spirits, with many years of careful study of the Patristic works, help him extract from the treasury of the Patristic teachings vivid pictures of the spiritual world in its relationship to the human world, which provides an inductive justification for the conclusions of the Most Reverend Ignatius himself. Such are all those pages of the “Tale on Death” and the “Addition” to it, where they talk about the external expressions of the mysterious spiritual world. 705 His Eminence Ignatius also makes extensive use of the ascetic-ascetic literature 706 and the Divine services of the Orthodox Church, well known to him. 707 His Eminence Ignatius also makes use of the systems of dogmatic theology of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church, 708 works of church history and spiritual edification, and repeatedly comes to the conclusion that the teaching of the Fathers about spirits is identical with the teaching of the Holy Scripture, and the doctrine of spirits set forth in Orthodox theology is identical with the teaching of the Holy Scripture and the Saints Fathers. 709 But according to its Orthodox Christian disposition, especially in the spiritual-ascetic direction, in investigating the question of spiritual existence and the spiritual world, becoming under the guidance of the Word, God, Sacred Tradition and the leadership of the Orthodox Church in its ever-living Divine service. The Reverend Ignatius makes extensive use of both the secular education he received and his general erudition to strengthen the substantiation of his judgments on this issue in his chosen direction. He skillfully involves auxiliary areas of human knowledge in resolving the issue that concerns him. He turns his attention to philosophy, especially in the system of Descartes, which he subjects from his point of view to careful analysis 710 of mathematics, 711 chemistry, 712 and in almost all cases he comes to the gratifying conclusion that true, unprejudiced science, with its teaching about matter, comes into wonderful harmony with Scripture. 713 Thus, regarding the conditions within which Bishop Ignatius resolves the question of the spiritual world, we have the following certain data: 1) the general limitations of human knowledge, which determines its everywhere relativity, has full significance when applied to the question of the spiritual world. 2) The resolution of this issue in the writings of Bishop Ignatius is undertaken based on the motives of spiritual salvation and for the sake of strengthening the free exploit of man in this direction. 3) The solution to the question of the spiritual world occurs on the basis of the teaching on this subject of the Word of God, Patristic and ascetic writing, liturgical rites of Orthodox theology, personal spiritual experience and rational considerations, using the arguments of natural sciences on related subjects. According to the content of the second half of the question we have outlined - about the nature of spirits, we draw our attention to Bishop Ignatius’s understanding of their essence, partly - their manifestations and their relationship to space and time. According to the reasoning of Bishop Ignatius, the concept of spirits, in terms of the degree of its reliability, does not stand above other concepts that have relative significance. The concept of the spirit, says Bishop Ignatius, appeared in man primarily from consideration of himself. A person feels within himself the presence of a being that is completely different from the body. He sees a much greater development of life in this being than in his body. When a person lives, the process of life occurs with continuous breathing. Breathing is an essential, obvious sign of life. When a person dies, the final process of dying occurs with strong breathing, or with several repeated breaths. With such intense breathing, the soul leaves the body. The soul leaves the body with intense breathing; after the soul leaves the body, breathing stops; before the soul leaves the body, breathing serves as a sign of the presence of the soul in the body; the soul after its departure from the body is invisible: based on these data, it was very natural to call the creature living inside the body spirit and soul. It was just as natural to recognize the soul or spirit as an invisible, incorporeal, immaterial being, as distinct from everything that we see in matter, subject to our senses. Again, it was just as natural to recognize in the soul its inherent materiality, indicated by the special fullness of the breath at which it emerges. Recognition of the existence of the soul, after its separation from the body, and the death of the body, naturally stems from the feeling and awareness of oneself as immortal, which is found in every person. Despite the most reliable knowledge that every person dies in body, every person feels, internally recognizes himself as immortal, lives and acts as an immortal; it is the feeling and consciousness of the soul. 714 Thus, according to this interpretation, the concept of the spirit, as an entity distinct from the body, is a result of self-awareness and introspection, in connection with the inherent belief in immortality. And, from this point of view, the soul, as a spirit, has all the signs of immateriality, distinguished by the “power of literature,” which includes not only the ability to think, but also the ability to experience spiritual sensations, such as the sensations of the high, the sense of grace, the sense of virtue. In this regard, the meanings of the words “soul” and “spirit” are very different, although in human society both words are used indifferently, one instead of the other. And all of humanity, which does not enter into a deep consideration of the nature of the soul, is content with superficial, generally accepted knowledge; indifferently calls the invisible part of our being, living in the body and constituting its essence, both soul and spirit. 715 But, on the other hand, such an origin of the concept of spirit for this same indifferent and superficial mass of humanity gave a natural reason to recognize a certain materiality in the soul. 716 But the concepts of spirituality and immateriality, according to Bishop Ignatius, are relative. Only one infinite of all that exists can be independent of space and time; therefore, the infinite is one, there cannot be two infinites, otherwise they would appear as numbers, and, therefore, limited; by the same token, only the Infinite is Spirit in the proper sense, although precise definitions in this case are impossible. God is depicted with all accuracy as infinite. Based on the laws of mathematics, God must be recognized as a being that transcends all definition, having nothing in common with beings that can and should be represented by numbers, such as spirits. If God is a being, then all creatures without exception, gifted with life, are no longer beings, but something Else. If they are beings, then God is something Other, higher than what is called a being here. The idea of ​​a point or zero arose from the gradual reduction of numbers. A point is a quantity that has no space, neither in length, nor in width, nor in height, nor in depth. It is obvious that in nature there is neither a point, nor a path or trace of a point - a line. In nature, there are only bodies, that is, objects that have three dimensions. Everything that exists in space is a body. Take away space from any object, and you, not being able to raise the limited to the infinite, must necessarily reduce it to a point or zero, that is, deny the existence of the object. Thus, in the opinion of Bishop Ignatius, the complete absurdity of the completely abstract concept of spirits, which many have formed for themselves - of course, who have not studied the subject with the thoroughness accessible to one Christian ascetic, is clearly demonstrated. The abstract concept of spirits, concludes Bishop Ignatius, is a rejection of the existence of spirits. 717 In other words, the mathematical understanding of the idea of ​​​​the Divine and the limited spirit leads him to the conclusion that, in view of the absoluteness of the Divine, no created spirit can be conceived outside the conditions of space, and since everything that exists in space is material, then spirits in the conditions of temporary existence are thought of, to some extent, as material, but this materiality itself has a special character, understandable only for a Christian - an ascetic. Bishop Ignatius bases his understanding of the nature of the spirit in the relevant places of church teaching on this subject on the teaching of chemistry about gases and the world ether. Recognizing only a hypothetical value for this teaching, 718 he recognizes, however, this teaching is very convenient for approaching our understanding of the nature of the spirit. The angel and the soul, he says, are called incorporeal, as they do not have our flesh, they are called spirit, as subtle beings, completely different from the objects that make up the material world. Their substance is incomparably finer than the substance of earthly objects visible to us. Wind, air, various gases and vapors are usually called, and even in the Holy Scriptures and the Fatherly Scriptures, spirit. Thus, the Lord likened the action of the Holy Spirit to the action of the wind; the wind in this place of the Gospel is called spirit (John 3:8). Having delved into the writings of the Fathers, we find that the word spirit, according to the contemporary concept, which has recently been lost, has always been used to refer to gases and vapors, most notably air, wind and human breath. 719 But at the same time, Bishop Ignatius notes that the understanding of the nature of spirits should be spiritual, and not in the usual sense of the concept of materiality. So, about the nature of the human soul, Bishop Ignatius teaches that it is a subtle, ethereal being, 720 that Angels and spirits, although very subtle in their essence, however, with all their subtlety, are bodies. They are subtle, ethereal bodies, while our earthly bodies are very material and gross. The gross human body serves as clothing for the subtle body - the soul. The eyes, ears, hands, and feet, which belong to the soul, are covered with similar members of the body. When the soul is separated from the body, it takes off its clothing, as it were. 721 If the human soul, Angels and spirits in general, are essentially ethereal, subtle, in the usual sense - immaterial bodies, then they must have some kind of external appearance And, indeed, The Reverend Ignatius recognizes that the spirit has an appearance accessible to the contemplation of purified and spiritualized vision; The most perfect of Christians, purified and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, see the image of the soul. And so, according to the testimony of these few chosen ones of God and the mystical seers, the soul is an ethereal, very subtle, flying body, having the whole appearance of our gross body, all its members, even hair, its facial character, in a word, complete resemblance to it. 722 Elsewhere, he comes to the conviction that created spirits and the human soul have their own materiality, have an external appearance similar to the appearance of a person in his body; like humans, spirits depend on space and time and have movement. The substance of spirits is much subtler than the substance of the human body: for this reason, spirits are much freer in their actions, much more developed in their abilities than humans. This is generally the property of matter. In its refined state, it acts incomparably stronger and more extensively than it did in its coarse state. 723 Angels are similar to the soul, they have members, a head, eyes, mouth, breasts, arms, legs, hair - in a word - a complete likeness of a visible person in his body. The beauty of virtue and God's grace shine on the faces of the holy Angels; this character is imprinted on the faces of the most virtuous Christians. Desperate malice constitutes the character of the fallen angels; their faces are like the ugly faces of villains and criminals among people. This is what those who have seen the angels of light and the angels of darkness will tell. 724 Considering the numerous places of St. Scriptures that speak of the appearance to man of an Angel or a spirit of a theme, about the human soul, His Eminence Ignatius comes to very definite and not very ordinary conclusions that created spirits are limited beings, gifted with the power of literature. They are called spirits in Scripture because in it every gaseous substance is called spirit; This name denotes the subtlety of the nature of spirits, by which they differ from the gross substance we see. However, such a difference is only relative: it was born only from the limited knowledge of a person who accepted his body in the state of its fall as the norm; The soul of man, like created spirits, is called spirit in Scripture, but it is clothed in a gross body: this is the only difference between man and created spirits. Spirits, as having no human body or flesh, are called incorporeal, disembodied: they are called invisible because we do not see them with bodily eyes. Angels are creatures of the properties of gases in combination with caloric, since Scripture calls moving gases proper spirit. 725 Based on the above excerpts from the writings of Bishop Ignatius, we have the right to establish the following understanding by His Grace Ignatius of the nature of the spirit - Angels and souls, although very subtle in their essence, however, with all their subtlety, are bodies. They are subtle, ethereal, gaseous bodies, while our earthly bodies are very material and gross. The gross human body serves as clothing for the subtle body - the soul. The soul, distinguished by the diversity of its members, is given a body; like clothes; When the soul is separated from it with the death of the body, it takes off it like clothing. Angels are also ethereal, gaseous and have the appearance of all the likeness of a visible person, accessible to the contemplation of the refined and purified human vision. This is how the Most Reverend Ignatius understands, so to speak, the external nature of the soul, assimilating to it and the spirit an external appearance that is visible, even with refined vision, and essentially belongs to it. This particular side of Bishop Ignatius’ teaching about the spiritual world seems to be the most original, interesting, and edifying, although most of all not free from fundamental, as we will see later, objections. On the question of the internal nature of spirits, the attention of the Most Reverend Ignatius is focused primarily on the essential, in this regard, features of evil or fallen spirits, in the likeness of which, however, with considerable quantitative limitations, the spiritual properties of human nature affected by sin are understood. The similarity and difference in the spiritual nature of fallen angels and people is presented in the following form. Spirits of evil are fallen angels. God created them along with the other Angels, created them immaculate, good, holy, and generously endowed them with many natural grace-filled gifts. But the spirits, clouded with pride, attributed to themselves their abundance of abilities, their graceful properties, the very abundance of gifts of grace. They excluded themselves from the category of creatures, recognized themselves as original beings, forgetting about their creation. They were led to such conceit and self-delusion by one of the most important angels. Spirits who refuse to obey God are cast out of heaven. They creep on the earth, fill the space between heaven and earth, which is why they are called aerial, and in the interior of the earth. The number of fallen spirits is very significant; Some, based on the testimony of the Apocalypse (Apocalypse 12:4), believe that a whole third of the angels fell. In place of the fallen angels, God created a new intelligent creature - humans, and placed them in paradise, located in the lower heaven and previously under the jurisdiction of the chief cherub. People under the influence of the spirits of evil, although they were deceived by them, arbitrarily rejected obedience to God, and therefore were counted among the spirits of fallen souls. The atrocity committed by the fallen angels against people finally decided the fate of the fallen angels: the mercy of God finally retreated from them, they were sealed in their fall. Through the Fall, man was numbered among the fallen angels, but his fall, in the way in which it took place, took on a completely different character than the fall of the angels. The angels fell consciously, intentionally, and created evil in themselves; For these reasons, they have completely lost good, are filled with evil, and have one evil quality. Man fell unconsciously, unintentionally, being seduced and deceived: for this reason, his natural good was not destroyed, but was mixed with the evil of the fallen angels. Fallen spirits do evil for evil, finding pleasure and glory in the creation of evil. A person most often does evil, thinking to do good, without seeing evil, clothed in the guise of good, due to the darkening of his mind and conscience. 726 Such is the similarity between evil spirits and human souls in their nature, such is the difference in their state after the Fall. The internal appearance of the sinful spirit is characterized by Bishop Ignatius with the features of carnal wisdom, complacency towards evil, pride before God, blasphemy, deceit and hypocrisy. 727 Fallen spirits descended from the heights of spiritual dignity; they fell into carnal wisdom more than people. People can move from carnal wisdom to spiritual wisdom; fallen spirits are deprived of this opportunity. People are not so strongly influenced by carnal wisdom, because in them natural goodness is not destroyed, as in spirits, by the fall. In people, good is mixed with evil, and therefore indecent; In fallen spirits, only evil dominates and operates. Carnal wisdom in the realm of spirits has received the most extensive, complete development that it can only achieve. The main sin is frantic hatred of God, expressed in terrible, incessant blasphemy. They became proud of God himself. Their fall is deep, the ulcer of eternal death with which they are struck is incurable. Containing within themselves the beginning of all sins, fallen spirits try to draw people into all sins with the goal and thirst for their destruction, 728 for which they use their inherent understanding of human nature, foresight of the future 729 and the ease of spatial movement, which is explained by the special sophistication of their being. To understand the nature of the spirit and its action in the limited conditions of human existence, it is necessary to note the view of Bishop Ignatius on the relationship of spirits to the conditions of space and time. Being ethereal-gaseous in nature, subtle-material “according to the latest understanding of materiality,” spirits, according to the understanding of Ignatius Brianchaninov, are subject to the conditions of space and time: “with the concept of materiality and limitation inextricably linked is the concept of dependence on space and time. The action of a limited being in space with a change of place is movement. A limited being acting in space and having movement must certainly have a form: every substance obeys this law.” 730 Therefore, spirits also have a certain preferential location and in their actions the spatiality and sequence of moments common to humans is observed. Angels live in heaven; descend to earth and act on it. The place of residence of evil spirits is the heavenly or air, the surface of the earth and the interior of the earth or the underworld. In all these areas they act according to the law of limited beings, to which angels are also subject. Spirits influence matter, and matter influences spirits. They can touch people - people can feel their touch. – Scripture mentions their face, chest, hands, feet, clothing; - tells that they walk, fly, sit, talk, hear what is said to them. Scripture attributes to them the senses that a person has: sight, hearing, smell, touch. 731 Angels, both holy and fallen, are subject to time and space. Having rejected the concept of the subordination of angels to space, one must either completely reject their existence, or recognize them as limitless, that is, attribute to them the Divine omnipresence. 732 The movement of spirits within space occurs in the usual manner, although accelerated, and during their stay among people they occupy a certain place in space. Eg. Archangel Gabriel appeared to the prophet Zechariah in the church, and stood at the right hand of the altar of incense (Luke I:11). The same archangel Gabriel was sent by God to the Galilean city of Nazareth to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and entered Her dwelling (Luke I: 26–28). Mary Magdalene, having arrived at the tomb cave, bent down and looked into the inside of the cave; at the same time she saw two Angels in white robes; Angels sat in a cramped tomb cave: one sat at the head, the other at the feet, in the place where the body of the Lord Jesus lay (John 10:11-12). Demons also have the same ability to move from one place to another and to wander through different places. So, for example, Satan, appearing before the Lord in a host of Angels, when asked by the Lord where he came from, answered: “having walked around the earth, and passed through the heavens, behold, I am” (Job. I: 7). In the same sense, His Eminence Ignatius points out many other passages of the Word of God. 733 Rotating in the sphere of matter, Angels and demons act on matter, and matter acts on them. To confirm this thought, His Eminence Ignatius refers to many places of Holy Scripture. 734 At the same time, the Most Reverend Ignatius is very inclined to explain the unusual actions of spirits on matter by their best knowledge of the properties of matter, unknown to people due to the whiteness of their bodies and external senses, 735 recognizing that there are some relationships between the substance, invisible to us and unknown to us, with the substance, visible and known to us. 736 The movement of spirits within space occurs in the same order that determines our own spatial movements. But, being more subtle and gaseous in their essence, according to the understanding of His Grace Ignatius, spirits have the easiest and fastest way to move in space, either expanding or contracting the limit of their spatial capacity. Demons actually do not know the future, but, just as smart and experienced people foresee and predict events that are about to happen from events that have happened or are happening, so cunning, highly experienced, crafty spirits can sometimes assume with certainty and predict the future. Sometimes they can foretell an event that is already intended in the world of spirits, but has not yet been carried out between people. 737 They, having bodies lighter than human bodies, and seeing someone setting off on a journey, come before him and announce him, as those riding on horses can warn pedestrians, or, like experienced and skillful doctors, having studied a disease on many patients, very often predict its consequences; or, as helmsmen and farmers, who constantly monitored the state of the air, predict clear and cloudy weather. 738 In the “Addition” to the “Sermon on Death”, placed in the third volume of his works on pp. 185–311, the Right Reverend Ignatius critically examines the opinion of Western theologians on the issue of spirits, heaven and hell, and most of this “Addition” (pp. 185–302) is occupied by expounding the question of the spiritual world. On this issue, His Eminence Ignatius, wishing “to acquaint the children of the Orthodox Church with the Western opinion about spirits, to expose the groundlessness and incorrectness of this opinion,” makes 23 extracts on this subject, 739 which he subjects to a consistent and then general analysis. The essence of these extracts comes down to the affirmation of the theological opinion about the complete immateriality of spirits (issues 1–3), to the denial of the written opinions of the subtle materiality of angels (issues 4–5), to the recognition of the extreme relativity of all our knowledge about the spiritual world (issues 6–11, 18–28), and the denial of the subordination of spirits to space and time (issue 12). Regarding each extract made, His Eminence Ignatius makes critical remarks and, having noted all considerations in favor of the absolute immateriality of the spirit, subjects them to general criticism from the point of view of the Holy One. Scripture, Patristic works, spiritual experience, Orthodox Christian dogma and considerations of reason. In essence, the critical comments made by Eminence Ignatius and his own considerations come down to a decisive affirmation of his opinions already known to us about the nature of the spirit and its relationship to the necessary conditions of the life manifestations of a limited created being, with the difference that here the statements of Bishop Ignatius in their polemical formulation are more definite and decisive. The Reverend Ignatius decisively asserts in this criticism that: 1) The Holy Fathers did not recognize angels only as clothed in a subtle body: they recognized their very essence as a subtle body. 740 2) The hypothesis of the complete immateriality of created spirits, not subject to either time or space; the hypothesis attributing to created spirits the same essence as God appeared in the 17th century and was borrowed by Descartes from ancient pagan philosophers. 741 3) The disembodiment of spirits is only relative and the Holy Scripture calls the spirit disembodied in comparison with people, and Descartes’s teaching about the complete immateriality of spirits and their independence from time and space, being verified by science, is equivalent to the denial of the existence of spirits, because, exposing them to be equal to God in essence, it makes their existence impossible. On the contrary, with the recognition of the subtle-material nature of spirits, in the sense of ethereality, gaseousness, the unity of the truth of faith with the truth of science is achieved. “Every mathematician and chemist must necessarily reject the absurd doctrine of spirits, which belongs to Descartes and the Westerners, which the Westerners present as a doctrine of faith. Most mathematicians and chemists doubted Christianity and became deists: they cannot be atheists, as they have discovered many wonderful laws in nature and are confident in their countless multitude, testifying to the infinite mind of the Creator and the infinity of His properties. These individuals fell into deism solely because their faith was slandered and distorted. 742 4) Spirits in their essence are subtle bodies, in contrast to our plump body. The need to think about them with subtle bodies follows logically from their limitations. “This position is very natural. If created spirits are limited, then their being and properties are limited. If their being and properties are limited, then their spirituality is limited. If their spirituality is limited, then, of necessity, they must have a certain degree of materiality inherent in their nature. On the contrary, if we attribute to them complete immateriality, that is, unlimited spirituality, then at the same time, of necessity, we must attribute to them the unlimitedness of a being, because only one unlimited being can and must have unlimited properties.” 743 And therefore “the human soul has the appearance of a man in his body, similar to other created spirits both in appearance, and, in essence, and in properties. 744 5) Being, in essence, subtle-ethereal or gaseous bodies, spirits, as a result, have less dependence in relation to space, sometimes extending into its immensity, sometimes shrinking to extremely limited limits: “demons not only live on the earth’s surface, but sometimes enter people and animals with their entire gaseous being. They enter the interior of the human body in the same way that air, attracted by the breathing mechanism, enters it - just as other gases can enter. The demon, having entered a person, does not mix with the soul, but remains in the body, violently possessing soul and body. Gases have a special development of the property of elasticity, that is, the property of taking on different volumes: it is obvious that demons also have this property, according to which many of them can be contained in one person, as the Gospel says about this” (Luke 8:29). 745 In this sense, the Most Reverend Ignatius understands the case of St., transmitted in the Cheti-Minea on September 7th. John, Archbishop of Novgorod, who, through prayer and the sign of the cross, imprisoned the tempter demon in the laver, then “in the name of the Lord, he freed him from imprisonment in the vessel and commanded him to be in the likeness of a horse at the door of the cell. The demon came out of the vessel in the form of dark air or smoke, that is, gas, and in the form of a horse stood at the entrance to the saint’s cell.” St. John of Novgorod traveled on a demon to Jerusalem and was brought back to Novgorod by him, which took about three hours. 746 In the same sense, the Most Reverend Ignatius understands the essence of St. Angels and human souls. “And now the Holy Angels appear in the form of winged beautiful youths; and now the souls of holy men appear in the form of man in his body, in heavenly glory; and now demons appear in an ugly, disgusting and terrible form of monsters, but monsters having the image of a person.” 747 But human souls and the spirits of angels and demons are in essence even more subtle than earthly gases and ether: “knowing the gases that belong to the earth, and concluding about the existence of ether or a collection of gases that do not belong to the earth, we can only say that angels belong to the ethereal or gaseous nature. 748 6) In addition to the properties of subtle materiality, the soul has the property of literature, verbal power, in which the image of God is imprinted and by which the human soul differs from the soul of animals, and the word “spirit” is often used to designate moral properties. 749 7) Such an understanding of the essence of the spiritual world, according to the judgment of His Grace Ignatius, does not in any way contradict the established concepts of the creative action of God in relation to the world of limited beings and the reflection by these latter of the properties of the Divine. “God, not only in essence, but also in properties, is completely different from created spirits and the human soul. Its properties are not limited and its being is not limited. The properties of created spirits are limited: by necessity, their being is also limited. If their being is limited, then spirituality is limited. On the contrary, the spirituality of God is limitless: it is a perfect and decisive spirituality. It is in no way required of the image that He be an identical being with his original. We see this in human images. Both a portrait and a statue can have the closest resemblance to their original: it does not follow that their very essence should be identical with the essence of the original. 750 8). Having outlined in extracts, mainly from Bergier, the understanding of the soul of people and the spirit of demons and Angels in the sense of absolute incorporeality and immateriality, noting, at the same time, the later origin of this teaching, His Grace Ignatius finds in this teaching internal contradictions: “The Westerners, who have recently accepted many teachings that are alien and contrary to the Orthodox Church, have recently accepted the opposite teaching about the perfect the immateriality of created spirits, ascribed to them spirituality to the extent that God has it. They put God, the Creator of everyone and everything, in the same category of beings with created spirits, recognize their independence from space, deny in them the ability to move like bodies, in a word, they attribute to beings their properties identical with God, without ceasing, however, to recognize them as created and limited. There is a clear contradiction in this teaching; this doctrine destroys itself.” Revealing the inconsistency of the teachings of Western theologians about spirits, the Right Reverend Ignatius, to substantiate and confirm his view on this subject, cites: 1) the testimony of the Word of God, 2) the Fathers of the Church and 3) considerations of a scientific nature, thereby seeking to attest to his understanding of the correctness and holiness of the teaching taught by the Orthodox Church. 751 At the same time, outlining his understanding of the spiritual world, and, as if anticipating possible misunderstandings and objections, His Grace Ignatius repeatedly reminds that in order to correctly understand the explanation of the Fathers, who wrote with the assistance of Divine grace and with the assistance of ascetic experiences, the assistance of both these experiences and grace is necessary. 752 He reminds that the correct concept of the vision of spirits, both sensory and spiritual, cannot be acquired otherwise than by experience. In the darkness of the concept of spirits, obtained solely from knowledge, albeit sacred, it is all the more dangerous to give free rein to the imagination and interpret according to one’s dreams that which even with experimental knowledge cannot be explained satisfactorily in the land of matter. 753 He reminds, finally, that the “Tale on Death” itself, in which his teaching about the spiritual world is most definitely and clearly stated, “was written solely for an ascetic purpose.” 754 We must especially keep in mind all these instructions from the Right Reverend, the author of the “Tale on Death” when reflecting on the subject of the original teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world. II. Having outlined the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on the nature of spirits and their relationship to the universal conditions of space and time, we, in order to fully understand this subject, must note the means and conditions of knowledge of the spiritual world, as they are presented in his creations. The existing knowledge of the spiritual world seems to His Grace Ignatius to be very insufficient in its predominantly theoretical nature. School teaching, literally, of course, is important, useful and necessary, as it provides accurate and detailed knowledge about Christianity according to the tradition of the Orthodox Church. But theoretical study requires that it must be accompanied and followed by active teaching. 755 By such a joint method it is especially necessary to study the world of spirits, to which we belong with our souls and with whom we must share both eternal bliss and eternal torment (Matt. 22:30, 25:41). 756 But this necessary knowledge is complicated by our sinfulness. The Right Reverend Ignatius recognizes and distinguishes a twofold vision of spirits: there is a sensual vision of spirits, when we see them with our sensual, bodily eyes, and there is a spiritual vision of spirits, when we see them with our spiritual eyes, mind and heart, purified by God’s grace. In the ordinary state of fall, in which all humanity finds itself, we do not see spirits either sensually or spiritually; we are struck by extreme blindness! For the blind, different colors and objects of the sensory world seem to not exist, and for those blinded by the fall, the spiritual world and spirits seem to not exist. Our failure to see something does not in any way serve as a sign of its non-existence. 757 Meanwhile, the struggle against the spirits of malice and rapprochement with the kingdom of light constitutes an indispensable condition for spiritual salvation. In view of this, knowledge of the spiritual world is essential for spiritual salvation: in order to fight the enemy, one must certainly see him. 758 The sensual vision of spirits was available to man before the Fall, when the human body was immortal, alien to ailments, and to the fatness and heaviness characteristic of it today. Then a person’s feelings were incomparably subtler, their action was incomparably more extensive, and completely free. Clothed in such a body, with such sense organs, man was capable of clearly seeing the spirits to which he belonged in soul, was capable of communicating with them, of that vision of God and communication with God, which are akin to holy spirits. The fall changed the human soul and body. In the present sinful state of a person, his bodily senses are incapable of communicating with spirits, do not see them, do not hear them, do not feel them. The holy spirits have shied away from communicating with people, as with people unworthy of such communication, the fallen spirits, who carried us into their fall, mixed with us, and in order to more conveniently keep us in captivity, they try to make themselves and their chains invisible to us. Therefore, all of us, who are in slavery to sin, need to know that communication with the holy Angels is uncharacteristic of us because of our alienation from them by fall, that it is typical for us, for the same reason, to communicate with rejected spirits, to the category of which we belong in soul, that sensually appearing to people who are in sinfulness and fall are demons, and not holy Angels. 759 In view of the difficulty of the sinful state of the body and spirit in the sensual vision of spirits, the general rule for all people is not to entrust themselves in any way to spirits when they appear in a sensual image, do not enter into conversation with them, do not pay any attention to them, recognize their appearance as the greatest and most dangerous temptation, direct your thoughts and hearts to God with a prayer for mercy and deliverance 760 from temptation. And this whiteness of the body, the insensitivity of feelings to the spiritual world, although they are a consequence of the Fall, are beneficial for man: “if we were in sensual communication with demons, then in the shortest possible time they would completely corrupt people, constantly instilling evil, clearly and constantly promoting evil, infecting with examples of their constantly criminal and hostile activities to God. In the shortest possible time, people, having succeeded in evil, would have become demons; repentance and rising from the fall would be impossible for us. The wisdom and goodness of God placed a barrier between people cast down to earth from paradise and spirits cast down to earth from heaven; - the gross materiality of the human body. Thus, earthly governments separate evildoers from human society with a prison wall, so that they do not arbitrarily harm this society and corrupt other people.” 761 Likewise, the soul, clothed in a body, closed and separated by it from the world of spirits, gradually forms itself by studying the Law of God, or, which is the same, by studying Christianity and receives the ability to distinguish good from evil. Then she is granted a spiritual vision of the spirits and, if it turns out to be consistent with the goals of the God guiding her, a sensual one, since deception and seduction are much less dangerous for her, and experience and knowledge are useful. When the soul is separated from the body, visible by death, we again enter into the rank and society of spirits. From this it is clear that for a successful entry into the world of spirits, it is necessary to educate ourselves in good time by the law of God, and that it is for this education that we are given some time, determined by God for each person to wander the earth. This wandering is called earthly life. 762 Thus, the sensory vision of spirits during a person’s earthly life, due to his sinfulness and for his own benefit, seems impossible and difficult. But sometimes people, by the special will of God’s providence, temporarily acquire the ability to sensually see spirits. These are either the righteous, confirmed in goodness and protected by their virtuous disposition from the harmful effects of spirits, or ordinary and even sinful people who are instruments of the will of God. The Holy Fathers, having achieved purity and perfection, saw spirits with their bodily eyes. 763 The ability to sensually see spirits is defined by Bishop Ignatius as a change in feelings that occurs in an inconspicuous and inexplicable way for a person. He only notices in himself that he suddenly began to see what he had not seen before and what others do not see - to hear what he had not heard before. For those who have experienced such a change in feelings, it is very simple and natural, although inexplicable for themselves and for others; for those who have not experienced it, it is strange and incomprehensible. A change in feelings, in which a person enters into sensory communication with beings of the invisible world, is called in the Holy Scriptures the opening of the senses. 764 As an example of such an opening of the senses, Bishop Ignatius points out the vision of Balaam (Num. 22:31), the vision of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 6:17–20), the opening of the eyes of the two disciples of the Lord on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus (Luke 24:16–31). The motives, conditions and motives for which a person enters into the sensory vision of spirits are not always the same. It is very rare, but it happens that a person, by the will of God, is introduced into the sensory vision of spirits, but this is allowed with saving precautions for us, for the purpose of the greatest spiritual benefit. According to God, spirits appear only in times of extreme need, for the purpose of saving and correcting people; they appear in such a way that their appearance cannot have harmful consequences. Such a vision is predominantly experienced by the most perfect Christians, mainly monastics. 765 Apart from the gaze of God, which is independent of the will of man, it is not permissible for man to open his feelings by his own means and enter into obvious communication with spirits. But this also happens. It is obvious, however, that by one’s own means one can achieve communication only with fallen spirits. It is unusual for the Holy Angels to take part in a matter that does not agree with the will of God, in a matter that is not pleasing to God. What draws people to enter into open communication with spirits? Those who are frivolous and ignorant of active Christianity are carried away by curiosity, ignorance, and unbelief, not realizing that by entering into such communication they can cause themselves the greatest harm; people who have given themselves over to sinfulness and have departed from God enter into this fellowship for the most vicious motives and for the most vicious purposes. 766 People usually think that the sensory vision of spirits is something extremely important. This opinion is very erroneous. According to the Right Reverend Ignatius, sensual vision of spirits, when it is accomplished by one’s own human will and against the will of God, testifies only to the special depravity of clairvoyants or to their very dangerous and tempting state. He says that people of the most vicious lives are most capable of sensually seeing spirits. Who sees spirits and is in sensual communication with them? The Magi, who renounced God and recognized Satan as God; people who have given themselves over to passions and, in order to satisfy them, resort to the Magi, through their mediation they enter into clear communication with fallen spirits, which is accomplished under the indispensable condition of renouncing Christ; people exhausted by drunkenness and a depraved life, ascetics who have fallen into conceit and pride. Very few are capable of it by natural constitution, very few are spirits due to some special circumstance in life. In the last two cases, a person is not subject to censure, but must make every effort to get out of this situation, which is very dangerous. The same dangerous phenomena include communication with spirits through magnetism, and fallen spirits usually appear in the form of bright Angels, seduce and deceive with various interesting tales, always causing extreme mental and even mental disorder. 767 Differing in the conditions of origin, either in the will of God, or in the self-willed will of man, the sensual vision of spirits, depending on this, differs very clearly in its reflections in the human soul: visions sent by God bring humility and tenderness to the soul, filling it with the fear of God, consciousness of its sinfulness and insignificance. On the contrary, the visions into which we arbitrarily invade, in opposition to the will of God, lead us into arrogance, into conceit, and bring joy, which is nothing other than the satisfaction of our vanity and conceit that we do not understand. Demons, most often appearing in the form of angels, try to flatter a person with praise, to amuse his curiosity and vanity; then they conveniently plunge him into self-delusion and cause him severe, more or less obvious, mental harm. 768 Such a difference in the consequences and purposes of the sensory vision of spirits, experienced by a person according to the will of God or according to human will, is confirmed by the Most Reverend Ignatius with a significant number of specific edifying examples. 769 The comparative value of the sensory and spiritual vision of spirits is determined by the Most Reverend Ignatius in favor of the latter over the former. According to his conviction, seeing spirits with the sensual eyes always brings more or less harm to those people who do not have spiritual vision. One who sees sensually in spirit can easily be deceived into his own damage and destruction. If, when seeing spirits, he puts trust in them, or gullibility, then he will certainly be deceived, will certainly be carried away, will certainly be imprinted with a seal of seduction incomprehensible to the inexperienced, a seal of terrible damage in his spirit, and the possibility of correction and salvation is often lost. 770 Therefore, the Holy Fathers preferred all spiritual vision to sensory vision. Those venerable monks who were honored with an abundant vision of the spiritual were abundant in spiritual reasoning and other sublime gifts of the Holy Spirit: those venerable Fathers who, for their simplicity and purity, were awarded only a sensual vision of the spirits were meager in them. 771 Therefore, there is no need to strive for a sensory vision of the spiritual world, because this vision, prior to and regardless of the spiritual perfection of the clairvoyant, is only disastrous for him. It must be remembered that correct, legal entry into the world of spirits is achieved only by Christian asceticism. All other means are illegal and must be rejected as obscene and harmful. The true ascetic of Christ is brought into vision by God himself. When God leads, then the ghosts of truth are separated, in which lies are clothed from the truth; then the ascetic is granted: firstly, a spiritual vision of spirits, which reveals to him in detail and with accuracy the properties of these spirits. After this, some ascetics are granted a sensual vision of spirits, which supplements the knowledge about them provided by spiritual vision. 772 In addition to spiritual achievement, intense and constant remembrance of the saving sufferings of Christ, the sensory vision of the spiritual world introduces a person into communication only with fallen spirits, and when the latter, against the will and desire of a person, appear to him, then their appearance has the goal of mastering the mood of the ascetic and seducing him from the soul-saving path. In this form, fallen spirits use the methods of sensual action on a person available to them. Spirits of evil first of all confuse a person’s mood with sinful thoughts. Having failed in this, they act on a person as sensual ghosts. Further, they draw a person away from the path of salvation with predictions of the future and, finally, with the frightening and open sensual action of their evil nature, or, as the ascetics put it, they bring their boss with them. 773 But all these and many similar sensory manifestations of spirits to man, conveyed in the lives of St. saints of God and in ascetic literature, are completely safe for the spiritual salvation of the ascetic if he treats them calmly and with hope in the mercy of God. And above all, pure life and faith in God, fasting, prayer, meekness, heartfelt silence, contempt for money and vain glory, active love for neighbors and God’s gracious help are God’s great weapon against sensually attacking spirits. A person, along with using the indicated weapons, must acquire the “gift of spiritual reasoning” and not entrust himself to “every spirit” (1 John 4:1) and, paying attention to himself, determine the quality of the active spirit by the observed states. 774 Attention to oneself and the “reasoning of spirits”, by the nature of the reasoning they induce on the human soul in connection with the means indicated above, are powerful to protect us from submission to the spirit of evil and make its very effect on us safe for spiritual salvation. “Those who did not acquire the gift of reasoning with spirits did not see their own fall in themselves, did not understand that Christ is everything for a Christian; that we must reject the very goodness of fallen nature and renounce our souls, who for this reason are capable of conceit to a greater or lesser extent - were subjected to great disasters and death itself from the sensual vision of spirits that followed due to the exhaustion of the flesh by bodily exploits and the conceit that crept into the soul. 775 The reasoning of spirits, attention to oneself and continuity of spiritual achievement protect the Christian from the sensual and soul-harming vision of spirits, and in the content of his religious faith the Christian finds sufficient grounds for his spiritual vigor. Attentive to himself and zealous for spiritual salvation, a Christian concentrates all the strength of his spirit on the knowledge of the saving path and its passage and completely refuses to see spirits and communicate with them, recognizing himself as incapable of such vision and communication. 776 The foundations of a Christian’s spiritual vigor in the fight against the enemies of salvation lie, along with our knowledge of the nature of spirits, in the saving mystery of the redemption of humanity by the God-man; This knowledge strengthens a person and at the same time limits harmful self-conceit. 777 This faith in the saving mystery of redemption is, however, the most important weapon in the fight against the spirits of evil, not only in the sensory vision of spirits, but also in the spiritual. If the sensual vision of spirits and the very possibility of it is difficult to accept in ordinary everyday pious reasoning and in relation to the objective it seems unreliable, then spiritual knowledge, the spiritual vision of spirits seems more probable, at least from the side of the sinful influence on a person and the tempting inclinations they produce towards sin, evil spirits are willingly accepted by people who are not alien to spiritual-bodily feat, as the reason for the fragility of their holy moods and friendship their thoughts are with sin. Our indifference to the cause of salvation, the short-term nature of our holy moods, an easy inclination in favor of evil, the enslavement of mental desires to evil are explained by us as the result of demonic temptation, all the more willingly because, referring to the tempting action of the spirit of evil, we involuntarily assign to the latter a considerable share of the moral imputability of our betrayal of good. However, these ordinary discussions about the temptations of the spirit of evil do not seem to be sufficiently serious and deep, nor sufficiently clear. The judgments on this subject of Bishop Ignatius bring clarity, depth and certainty to our ideas about the spiritual vision of spirits. The lack of sensory vision of spirits seems less painful than the spiritual blindness produced by sin and making it difficult for Christians to spiritually see the actions of the enemies of salvation. Of course, the sages of the world, Bishop Ignatius rightly notes, will deny the blindness of the spirit, will immediately call the announcement of the blindness of the human spirit, of its deadness, idle talk and absurdity; Such is this blindness! It can unmistakably be called death. 778 What is this blindness? – Our mind and heart are affected by blindness. Because of this blindness, the mind cannot distinguish true thoughts from false ones, and the heart cannot distinguish between spiritual sensations and spiritual and sinful sensations, especially when the latter are not very gross. Because of the blindness of the spirit, all our activities become false. 779 From here it follows that in order to communicate our activities in a truly Christian direction, it is necessary to overcome our spiritual blindness, i.e. to impart to our heart the ability of spiritual sensations, and to our mind the ease of distinguishing between true and false thoughts, in other words, to acquire, instead of spiritual blindness, the ability of spiritual vision. The return of the ability of spiritual vision is accomplished by a person with the assistance of Divine grace. Under the influence of God's grace, a person gradually begins to experience spiritual tenderness, which is the first spiritual sensation delivered to the heart by the Divine grace that has overshadowed it. This tenderness, consisting of tasting Godly sorrow, dissolved by gracious consolation, opens before the mind a spectacle hitherto unseen by it. Being the fruit of the Holy Spirit, this vision is called spiritual. This vision is characteristic of those who purify themselves through repentance; it appears not by the will of man, but by the touch of the Spirit of God on our spirit, therefore, by the all-holy will of the All-Holy Spirit. Humility leads a person to spiritual vision. Anyone who wants to constantly remain in tenderness and spiritual vision must take care to constantly remain in humility, driving out self-justification and condemnation of others, introducing humility through self-reproach and the consciousness of one’s sinfulness before God and people. Spiritual vision is the reading and acceptance in the spirit of the New Testament. 780 Having freed himself, with the help of God’s grace, from his spiritual blindness, a Christian achieves spiritual vision; What is the subject of this spiritual vision? Spiritual vision, first of all, reveals to a person his: a) his own sins, it is, first of all, a vision of his sins, hitherto hidden behind oblivion and ignorance. Having seen, through tenderness, his sins, his spiritual impurity, a Christian immediately receives experimental knowledge of the previous blindness of his spirit, in which what exists and existed seemed to him to be completely non-existent and non-existent. This existing, with the retreat of tenderness, again disappears into non-existence and again appears non-existent. When tenderness appears, it appears again. This explains the fluctuations in spiritual life. b) From the consciousness of sins, further, a Christian, who has spiritually gained insight, moves experimentally to the knowledge of his sinfulness, which affects the fallen nature, to the knowledge of passions and other ailments of the sinful nature. c) From the vision of his fall, he gradually moves to the vision of the fall that embraces all human nature. d) Consciousness of the fall of all mankind leads a Christian to the knowledge of the world cause of evil; the world of fallen spirits gradually opens up to him: he studies their manifestation in his passions, in the struggle against them, in the thoughts, dreams and sensations brought by spirits. e) Along with the spiritual vision of these conditions of spiritual life, a seductive and deceptive view of earthly life, which hitherto seemed endless to him, is taken away from the Christian: he begins to see its edge - death; he begins to admire, that is, to be transported in spirit, with a feeling to the very hour of death, and to the hour of the impartial judgment of God. f) Having thus determined himself, his position in life and the inevitable facet of life, a Christian, from his fall, sees the need for a Redeemer, and by applying the commandments of the Lord to his ailments and seeing the healing and life-giving effect of these commandments on ailments and on the suffering soul, he acquires a living faith in the Gospel and begins to profess the Gospel with his life. In the Gospel, as if in a mirror, he sees even more clearly his fallen nature, and the fall of humanity and evil spirits. g) In order to distract us from living according to the Gospel commandments, from Christ-like humility, from tenderness, from spiritual vision, from liberation from the slavery of passions, or from dispassion, from the resurrection of the soul, in order to keep us in blindness, in death, in captivity within ourselves, fallen spirits wage a fierce battle with ascetics. In this battle they exhaust all the malice inherent in them, all the deceit inherent in them from an arbitrary fall. 781 In this struggle, the ascetic of Christ exercises himself in the unceasing spiritual vision of spirits, with discrimination, at the same time, “whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1), or from the kingdom of darkness and hostility. And evil spirits in this struggle act on a person with thoughts (John 13:2:27), dreams (Luke 4:5) and touch (Job 1:2; Luke 13:10–16). Of course, all these methods of demonic aspirations on a person can be studied theoretically by reading the lives of the Saints and the writings of the Fathers. But learning from reading is very insufficient: for a satisfactory knowledge of spirits and their actions, study by experience is necessary. When the human spirit begins to be purified by Divine grace, then it gradually comes from the knowledge of spirits to their spiritual vision. This vision is accomplished by the mind and heart, bestowed by the Holy Spirit. It is natural to a renewed mind and heart: so sensual vision is natural to the sensory eye, which sees not because of learning, but according to a natural property, and does not see only in the event of an illness that prevents natural action or stops it. 782 Thus, the above brief extracts from the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on the sensory and spiritual vision of spirits, we believe, sufficiently convince us of the preference of spiritual vision over the sensory vision of spirits from the point of view of our spiritual salvation. While the sensual vision of spirits either has a tempting and self-motivated character on the part of man and submits the contemplator himself into submission to the spirits of malice to the point of hopelessness of salvation, or, what is much less common, serves as a sign of the special perfection of Christ’s ascetic or God’s mercy towards him, and special spiritual height and prudence are required from those who have been granted such a vision - spiritual vision, with its entire structure, according to the understanding of Vladika Ignatius, introduces the Christian into the best conditions for spiritual Christian achievement, appearing not as an unauthorized penetration into the realm of the sacred, but as the natural fruit of humble self-knowledge, awareness of one’s sinfulness; its individual and global causes, in connection with deep faith in the Redeemer and readiness to work out one’s salvation with fear and trembling. It is clear from this why Bishop Ignatius ends his discussion of the sensory and spiritual vision of spirits with a call to pray to God for the granting of purity and humility to us, the fruit of which is spiritual reasoning that accurately distinguishes good from evil, for the granting of us a spiritual vision of spirits, through which we could discern them in the thoughts and dreams they bring to us, and break off communication with them in the spirit ours, to throw off their yoke, to get rid of captivity. Bishop Ignatius calls on us to refrain from ignorant, harmful desires and desires for sensory visions, outside the order established by God, following with humility and reverence the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the tradition of the Orthodox Church, reverently submitting to the establishment of God, who covered our souls with thick curtains and shrouds of bodies for the duration of our earthly wanderings, separating us with them from the created spirits, obscuring and who protected them from the fallen spirits. We do not need a sensory vision of spirits to complete our earthly, arduous journey. For this we need another lamp, and it is given to us: “The lamp of my feet is Your law, and the light of my paths” (Ps. 119:105). Those who travel under the constant radiance of the lamp - the Law of God - will not be deceived either by their passions or by fallen spirits. The inaccessibility of the spiritual world to the sensory gaze does not in the least shake our faith in its existence, for the spiritual vision of the spiritual world is relatively accessible to a Christian, and the inevitable facet of life for him - death, introduces a person into the world of spirits. It is important, therefore, to spend our earthly life in such a way that even during it we break off communion with fallen spirits and enter into communion with holy spirits, so that on this basis, having laid off our bodies, we are numbered among the holy spirits, and not among the rejected spirits. According to the deep conviction of Saint Ignatius, involuntarily conveyed by his readers, after the death of the body and after the accomplishment of the Christian feat, we “will see in indescribable joy both the orders of holy Angels and the orders of holy men in their wonderful, miraculous abodes, at their eternal spiritual holiday. Then we will recognize and see the fallen cherub with his dark hordes: then the God-given vision of demons - these most unfortunate creatures - will completely satisfy our curiosity about the Lord, without any danger for us, as sealed by the finger of God in immutability and incapacity for seduction and damage by evil.” 783 This is, in its essential features, the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world and the conditions of sensory and spiritual knowledge of this world. This teaching especially highlights: 1) deep and clairvoyant faith in the existence of the spiritual world and recognition in this existence as one of the most important conditions for the spiritual Christian salvation feat; 2) recognition of the ethereal nature of human souls and supermundane spirits in essence and 3) determination of the conditions for the knowledge of supersensible existence. III. If, on the merits of the first of these provisions, closely connected with the fundamental foundations of her only Christian, but also religious faith in general, we do not encounter any objections, and we consider the merit of the Most Reverend Ignatius in communicating to the readers his deep conviction, in reviving them with specific data of faith in the spiritual world and in clarifying the close relationship of faith in the existence of the spiritual world to the feat of spiritual salvation, after which the incorrectness of the modern common misconception of people who are not strangers is already presented quite clearly religion, that one can not recognize the existence of Angels and demons and at the same time be saved by faith in God - then the second and, in part, the third position on the question of the essence of the spiritual world and the conditions of its knowledge do not seem to be free from very strong objections, and the third position meets objections only in relation to the essence of objects cognizable by us in spiritual existence, and the whole force of objections is concentrated on the second point: can it be recognized as correct from the Orthodox Christian point of view? view of the teaching of Bishop Ignatius of the subtle-ethereal essence of the souls of Angels and demons. The opinion about the gaseous subtle-ethereal essence of human souls, Angels and demons was expressed by His Eminence Ignatius in 1863 in his “Sermon on Death” and at the same time gave rise to brief but powerful notes on its content. These notes were published in the September issue of the Wanderer magazine. A critical note on “The Word on Death”, published in the “Wanderer” for September 1868, belongs to the priest Pavel Matveevsky and bears the following title: “Teachings of Ignatius Bishop of the former Caucasus and Black Sea”; ed. V. Askochensky. St. Petersburg 1863, II and 353 pp. A Word on Death, compiled by him, ed. V. Askochensky. St. Petersburg 1863, 188 pp. and the Chalice of Christ, his own work, published by V. Askochensky. St. Petersburg 1863 16 pp. 1) Considering the thirty teachings of Bishop Ignatius, delivered by him at different times and under different circumstances, the author of the review finds them worthy of attention, both in terms of the choice of content and in terms of presentation. The content of the teachings is varied. On days distinguished by special remembrance, the preacher adapts to the remembered event (Epiphany. Great Friday), at other times he speaks to his flock: about fasting, about repentance; about humility, about the fight against selfishness, about love for one's neighbor, about moving away from vanity and hypocrisy, about worshiping God in spirit and truth, about taking up the cross and following the Lord, about the second coming of Jesus Christ, explains the gospel parables. The direction of teaching is predominantly ascetic. Revealing the truths of the Gospel, he refers to the ascetic writers. 2) “A Word on Death,” according to the reviewer, is a theological dissertation written by the author with an edifying purpose. In it you can read about the incomprehensibility of death, the fate of the body and soul after death, about heaven, hell, separation of the soul from the body, the death of the righteous and sinners, spiritual death, eternal death, the remembrance of death. It is impossible not to admit, says the reviewer, that not a single eschatology has ever been included in such a detailed solution to these issues as was done by the author. Theology, as a science, did not assume the responsibility to solve these questions in the same way as the compiler of the “Tale on Death” resolved them, because referring such and similar questions to the area of ​​​​human inquisitiveness, which wants to extend even beyond the limits of human limitations, it always reported indisputable information about the soul, heaven, hell and evil spirits, based on Holy Scripture and the consistent teaching of the Universal Church. Despite the fact that the dissertation was compiled on the basis of ascetic traditions, in the reviewer’s opinion, there is a lot in it that we can only regard, from a theological point of view, as negative. The author of the review does not find it possible to agree with the teaching of Bishop Ignatius: a) about the corporeality of the soul and spirits; b) about the sensuality of heaven; c) about the location of hell in the interior of the earth, and d) about the location of evil spirits and ordeals in the air. But in the future, the author dwells in detail almost only on the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the nature of spirits. Having outlined the teaching of Bishop Ignatius known to us about the nature of spirits, about their form, about their relationship to space and time and about the relativity of their spirituality, the author makes the following comments against this teaching: a) Bishop Ignatius’s opinion about the relativity of the spirituality of the soul and angels does not seem justified. b) Doctrine of the Holy. Scripture, according to the reviewer, does not provide a basis for distinguishing between soul and spirit, because, in his opinion, the clearest evidence on this issue from Holy Scripture: distinguishes soul-spirit from body (πνευμα and σαρξ) - Matt. 26:41; Rom.8:10; Gal.5:17; 1 Corinthians 5:3–5; 5:7,34; 2 Cor.7:1; James I:26, etc.); In other places, ψυχη is used in the meaning of πνευμα (Matt. 10:28; 16:26; 1 Kings 19:4; Job 27:8; Acts 2:27; Luke 9:56; 21:19; Rom. 2:29 and some others). Both terms for designating the soul are used indifferently, for the soul, designated ψυχη, is ascribed a self-conscious personality (Wis. 16:14; Luke 25:26; Acts 7:59; 1 Cor. 2:11). If in two places the Holy Scripture distinguishes between soul, spirit and body (1 Zeph. 5:23) and soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12), then just as the soul (φυχη) -l Kings 19:5; Luke 12:19; Acts 2:43; 15:26 ; Matthew 2:20; 20:28; John 10:15; Rom.11:3; – and spirit (πνευμα) – Matt. 27:50; Luke 8:55; 23:46 and others - are used in the sense of the beginning that animates the human body, then, in the author’s opinion, this does not mean the three-part composition of man. From the cited places of St. The Scriptures, according to their exact meaning, in the opinion of the reviewer, it follows that the soul with personal consciousness is spiritual not in the sense of subtle materiality, but in the direct and real. The reviewer cannot recognize the appearance of the soul and its spatiality and, denying the opinion of Bishop Ignatius on this issue, the reviewer says: we admit that we do not know whether angels and souls occupy what place in space, just as we do not know many other secrets of the world, but we know that if we give the slightest materiality to souls and spirits, we must deny them eternal continuation of existence, and this for the spirit would be tantamount to destruction. The reviewer also sees a significant difficulty in reconciling with the materiality of the soul all its free and reasonable manifestations-actions of thoughts, feelings, desires, and is afraid of the possibility of materialistic conclusions. b) On the issue of the sensuality of heaven, the reviewer, not accepting the opinion of the author of “Tales on Death,” refuses a definite judgment, “since the Church has not expressed her thoughts on what heaven is and where it is located.” c) The reviewer comes to the same judgment on the question of the location of hell, in view of the fact that there is no definite judgment about this either in the Catechism or in other symbolic books. d) The reviewer’s judgment on the issue of the whereabouts of fallen spirits is equally evasive, because, in his opinion, “both about the ordeals and about the dwelling of evil spirits, our Church has not pronounced its judgment, and therefore we do not know what to say about it. However, we think, says the reviewer, that in a strictly theological work it is almost better to avoid such and similar questions of simple curiosity, which have no moral significance and speak only to the imagination.” Concluding his remarks on the content of “A Lay on Death,” the author admits that he would willingly go through a lot in silence, “if the very peculiarity of the author’s views did not impose the obligation to put these views on display. We do not attach any meaning to our comments other than that of a completely private opinion, differing on the indicated points from the opinion of the author himself.” 3) About the third work of the Most Reverend Ignatius: “The Chalice of Christ,” the reviewer praises that “much written in this book is deeply felt and learned from experience, which is why it is read with special edification.” 784 Thus, the strength of the reviewer’s objection is directed mainly against the doctrine of the subtle-materiality of the soul. Without exhausting all the reasons given by Bishop Ignatius for his teaching about the spiritual world, heaven and hell and the posthumous fate of man, the reviewer avoids making certain judgments on these issues, because the Church has not pronounced its judgment on these issues. It is not possible to agree with the reviewer’s conclusions that: a) the Church has not expressed its judgment on these issues when we hear a silent sermon about this in Christian worship, b) that questions about the spiritual world and the afterlife of man are questions of idle curiosity. Bishop Ignatius did not deal with such questions and these questions do not occur to a person who is curious and indifferent to questions of salvation, c) that these questions have no moral significance, and speak only to the imagination: we feel how our head is bowed in deep thought about our posthumous fate, how serious life seems to us, how moral questions intensify and how all this involuntarily influences our mood and behavior. Bishop Ignatius did not pay attention to questions of curiosity and did not give space to the imagination, recommending limiting the ability to consider: “One should not imagine in the imagination neither paradise, nor heaven, nor the throne of God, nor the radiance of the glory of God, nor an Angel, nor a Martyr, nor a Saint, nor a Venerable One, nor the Mother of God, nor Christ Himself. Fallen spirits try to arouse the imagination in us, and sometimes they themselves appear in various false and seductive ghosts: for this reason, we are forbidden not only daydreaming, no matter how plausible it may be, but also trust in any phenomenon from the invisible world. The image of bright Angels, holy departed people and Christ Himself are taken on by demons for the seduction and destruction of not only beginners, but also those who have succeeded in the feat. A live representation of the flames of hell, the theme of the eternal, underground, terrible dungeon and other pre-mortem and post-mortem horrors is allowed only when carnal sensations, thoughts and dreams arise; This use of the imagination is permitted only in times of need, after which the weapon is immediately put aside. 785 From the above words, we believe that it was clear to Bishop Ignatius whether the important issues of spiritual salvation he touched on were questions of curiosity, whether he gave scope to the imagination and whether he pursued goals other than spiritual salvation and spiritual and moral edification. Regarding the critical comments on the “Sermon on Death,” His Grace Ignatius wrote an “Addition” to the “Sermon on Death” with the goal, as a counterbalance to the criticism, to present new considerations and arguments in favor of the thoughts expressed in the “Sermon on Death.” The article by Priest Matveevsky, in addition to the “Addition” to the “Sermon on Death” published by the Most Reverend Ignatius himself, caused considerable agitation among the students and admirers of Bishop Ignatius. By the way, in the papers of Rev. Ignatius has preserved a letter from Alexander Alekseevich Karachev from Kazan dated May 12, 1864, in which the author writes: “Having read an analysis of your works in the September book “The Wanderer,” in a fit of righteous indignation I wrote a strong dogmatic objection: the first lamps of the Church are rising for you: Bless, Holy Master, to be sent to you for a preview.” The very objection, written in defense of the views of Bishop Ignatius, bears the title: “A voice from Kazan about how knowledgeable, conscientious, and Orthodox the reviewer of The Wanderer is.” The contents of this defensive note are as follows. The author of the note states that, after reading the critical article of “The Wanderer,” he initially assimilated its provisions and treated the author of “The Word on Death” with prejudice, assuming that he lacked theological awareness and, on the contrary, trusting the theological authority of the reviewer; I approached the study of the critical article and “The Word on Death” with full attention and caution, relying as if on a solid stone on the teaching of the Word of God, and trying on this basis to resolve the question of who breathes the spirit of flattery - the author or the reviewer? Consistently considering the content of a critical note; “The Wanderer,” the author of the defensive article takes the side of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of the subtle materiality of the spirit, relying on the testimony of St. John of Damascus, that the spirit “is called incorporeal and immaterial in comparison with us, for everything, in comparison with God, the only incomparable one, turns out to be gross and material. The Divinity alone is, in the strict sense, immaterial and incorporeal” (Book II, Chapter III). Based on the testimony of the same St. Damascus, the author explains that “Angel, soul and demons, although they do not have physical coarseness, but also have the appearance and limitations inherent in their nature. One Deity is an indescribable being, completely formless, unimaginable and unlimited.” He confirms the same idea with the authority of St. Basil the Great, teacher. Macarius and Cassian, in the words of Holy Scripture (Heb.I:7; Ps.103:4). The Universal Church, he further says, accepts that the resurrection of the dead will be a rising from the dust of our bodies and union with souls, so that everyone who has done something good or evil with the body will receive it, and the bodies of those who remain alive will change (1 Cor. 25:52). Just as the Savior appeared through closed doors after the resurrection, so our bodies will be subtle, spiritual (1 Cor. 25:44), like those of angels (Matt. 22:30). The author further defends the doctrine of the subtle materiality of spirits by pointing to the posthumous fate of man. Taking the reviewer's view, he says, one must see in the soul a detached being, alien to all materiality, not subject to space and time, free from any influence of matter, i.e. upon separation from the body, it must, like an imperceptible atom, disappear into the vast vastness of the universe, or scatter like a gas, or disappear like steam, not subject to material torment, eternal fire and the undying worm, eternal darkness and gnashing of teeth. Drawing attention to the critic's attitude to the teaching of the Church about the struggle of saints with the spirits of malice, to his skepticism regarding the location of hell and heaven, spirits and tollhouses, the author puts forward the indisputable authority of the Holy One against him. Synod, with whose blessing church liturgical books are published, preaching lively about the posthumous fate of man in the spirit of the views of Bishop Ignatius. The teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world is not new, as the reviewer claims, but little known, since the questions he took; often get by; His teaching is not self-inflicted, for he speaks everything on the basis of the Holy Apostles and Fathers, which is the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself. The author of the article draws attention to the correctness of the distinction between spirit and soul (Apoc.3:l,1; 1Cor.2:12–15; 25:44–46; etc.). The Apostle Paul, he says, differs not only in two places recognized by the reviewer (1 Cor. 6:23; Heb. 4:12), but the difference between spirit and soul is affirmed: the spirit of the world and the spirit from God - the cognitive ability (1 Cor. 2:12), a natural and spiritual man (1 Cor. 14:15); his spirit (and not his soul) is not constrained by the terrain (1 Cor. 5:4); unites with the Lord in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), and glorifies Him with soul (1 Cor. 6:20). There are differences between the works of the flesh (Gal.5:19–21) and the works of the spirit (Gal.22–23; Eph.5:9); life according to the spirit (Eph.5:25); sowing into the flesh and into the spirit (Eph.6:8), filling with spirits (Eph.5:18), praying in the spirit (Eph.6:18; 1Cor.14:14-16). Ap. Jacob contrasts the spiritual wisdom with heavenly wisdom, alien to passions. The spirits and souls of the righteous will praise You, Lord, the Holy Church sings. It is in vain that the reviewer mocks the proposition that the soul has a humanoid form. The Lord Himself announced torment - fire and worms. The reviewer rejects the sensuality of paradise: he suggests, the author says, articles, to read the first verses of Chapter XXII. Apocalypse and compare: John 14:2; Luke 12:33; 16:9; 18:22; 22:29–30; Matthew 1:19:28; Luke 16:23. Let’s say to this, - Jacob, the brother of God, when offering a bloodless sacrifice, prays to God: “to give rest to the departed, in the village of the living, in Thy kingdom, in the delights of paradise, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our Holy Fathers.” On the question of the location of hell, the author of the article, in support of the teachings of Bishop Ignatius, points to 1 Peter 3:49; 4:6; Eph.4:9; Rom.10:7; 2 Peter 2:14. The author says that St. Gregory Dvoeslov, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Damascene, Gregory of Nyssa, Irenaeus of Lyons, Hilary, Justin the philosopher. Having followed the review of “The Wanderer,” the author of the article concludes that the reviewer breathes a flattering spirit, that he is a freethinker, and his teaching is an evil doctrine, noted in Rev. 13:18: B-2, o-70; l-30; n-50; o-70; d-4; y-400; m-40 = 666. S-6; l-80; o-70> y-400; h-90; e-5; n-50; i-10; e-5 = 666. 786 This article was not published, because Vladyka Ignatius did not want to make spiritual edifying teaching the subject of magazine and, especially, newspaper discussion. In 1867, after the publication of “The Works of Bishop Ignatius Bryanchaninov” and after his death, a critical article by the Most Reverend Feofan Govorov appeared, devoted to the analysis of the “Word on Death” and the Addendum to the “Word on Death”. 787 In order to complete and comprehensively judge the issue of the spiritual world in the views of Bishop Ignatius, it seems necessary to us to pay sufficient attention to the article of Bishop Theophan. The content of the critical article of the Most Reverend Theophan is presented in the following form. The Most Reverend Theophan calls the “Sermon on Death” a multi-instructive word, in which, however, opinions are expressed, by the way, little known in the Christian world, such as, for example. opinion about the corporeality of the nature of the soul and angels, in weakening and against which the critical article of Bishop Theophan is directed. The author of the article calls the opinion of Bishop Ignatius about the essence of the spiritual world a new teaching, the essence of which is seen in the recognition that “Angels and souls, although very subtle in their essence, however, with all their subtlety, are the essence of bodies. They are subtle, ethereal bodies, while, on the contrary, our earthly bodies are very material and gross. The gross human body serves as clothing for the subtle body of the soul. The eyes, ears, hands, and feet, which belong to the soul, are covered with similar members of the body. When the soul is separated from the body through death, it takes off it, as if it were clothing. Angels, like the soul, have members - a head, eyes, lips, breasts, arms, legs, hair - in a word, all the likeness of a visible person in his body. One God is Spirit. There is no being one-natural to God. And therefore, besides God, there is no other being who is spiritual by nature.” Having made this extract from the “Sermon on Death,” Bishop Theophan sees in the stated teaching about the nature of the soul of angels a contradiction between the recognition of the materiality of the spirit and the belonging to it of consciousness, freedom, reasoning, fear of God, and conscience. 788 We saw above that the Most Reverend Ignatius recognizes a special ability belonging to the human soul, called the power of literature; it includes the ability to think and the ability to experience spiritual sensations, such as the sensations of the high, the sensation of grace, the sensation of virtue. His Eminence Theophan rightly sees the logical inconsistency of recognizing the materiality of the spirit in such high and especially spiritual experiences; the incongruity is that with the said teaching, in its literal understanding, “the subtle, ethereal body, that is, matter, now reasons, is conscious of itself, acts freely, displays conscience and fear of God, and generally reveals all those spiritual properties that rational people could not and cannot attribute to matter.” 789 In view of this, Bishop Theophan recognizes the opinion expressed in the “Sermon on Death” and supported in the “Addition” to it by ultramaterialism and explains the extremes of this view by the fact that the author of the pamphlets did not put himself face to face with the question: how to explain the completely spiritual actions of the soul when it is an etheric body; only in one place does he admit that thought and other highest manifestations of spirituality are the ability of the soul, as they usually say, as if forgetting about their position, that our soul is ether, nothing more; that ether from which exact sciences produce light, heat, electricity, etc. 790 The critic especially emphasizes that the new teaching bases itself not so much on the data of science, but on the principles of St. Christian faith, based on the Word of God and the Scriptures of the Fathers. Nevertheless, this teaching, in the opinion of His Grace Theophan, unconsciously goes against the teaching of the Church and against the universal Christian belief, and the understanding of the immateriality or incorporeality of spirits inherent in the latter explains the relativity of our knowledge, due to which the terms “immaterial” and “spiritual” should be accepted with limitations. Souls and angels are invisible only to our gross feelings; by themselves, in their nature, they are visible, and they are, in fact, visible when someone’s eyes are opened to see them. Likewise, when they are called spiritual, this does not mean a special quality of their nature, but expresses the same thing as the word “invisible.” 791 Subjecting a critical assessment to the teaching of Bishop Ignatius in the noted provisions, His Grace Theophan examines the teaching about the nature of the soul and Angels in three directions: 1) from the point of view of the Holy Fathers, 2) the testimony of the Holy Fathers. Scripture and 3) scientific considerations of the mind. In the first section, a critical article by Bishop Theophan examines evidence on the question of the nature of the soul and the Angels of St. John of Damascus and St. Macarius of Egypt, the great ecumenical saints and teachers Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom; then he touches on the opinions of St. Athanasius the Great, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Methodius, Cassian, blessed. Augustine, Theodoret, Maximus the Confessor and Gregory of Nyssa. The general direction of Bishop Theophan’s critical judgments boils down to the recognition that the patristic opinions quoted in the “Tale on Death” and the “Addition to it” either do not contain any thoughts about the materiality of the soul and Angels, or have a relative and applicable meaning, limited to essentially other places in the same patristic works. 792 Based on the consideration of the Patristic opinions on the issue raised, Bishop Theophan comes to the conclusion that, according to the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church, materiality is decisively denied in the nature of the soul and Angels and, it must be understood, all materiality, not only gross, but also subtle, because the refinement of a substance does not make it immaterial. No matter how subtle the ether is, says Bishop Theophan, no one will call it immaterial; therefore, by denying the materiality in the nature of the soul and Angels, the Holy Church also denies their ethereality. When Angels are called the intelligent or mental world, it is suggested that just as thought has nothing material, so the nature of the intelligent Angels, and with them the rational souls, also has nothing material. 793 Having noted the Patristic opinions on the issue of the nature of the soul, which disagree with the assertion of their subtle-material or ethereal essence, His Grace Theophan cites, further, the testimony of the Holy One. Scriptures on the same subject, as indicated in Art. “The Discourse on Death” and the “Addition” to it, which are not indicated, but are of great importance in this regard, as sedes doctrinae. In this direction, the biblical narrative is noted about the creation of the first man, about the worship of God in spirit and truth, about ministering spirits sent into service for those who want to inherit salvation; The testimony of the Word of God is noted that “there is no spirit of flesh and bone” (Luke 24:39), about the spiritual struggle with the spirits of evil (Eph.6:12) and so on. From all the noted evidence of the Word of God, Bishop Theophan finds it possible to draw a conclusion only about the pure spirituality of the nature of souls and Angels and about their manifestation in the subtle-material. shell. About the nature of Angels, he says, nothing can be directly deduced from the circumstances of their appearance. After all, it cannot be said that if the Angels appeared in bodily form, then they are the essence of the body. The only line of reasoning in this case should be this: Angels are usually invisible, but when they appear to us, they are visible in bodily form. What does it mean? This means that it must answer, or that Angels, invisible and incorporeal spirits, take on a body when they are sent to us by the command of God; or that which they wear constantly, as a natural part of their composition - a body capable of being visible and invisible, tangible and imperceptible: or that they are the body. If a fourth assumption cannot be added to this, then one should then think like this: but neither the first nor the second can be said, therefore the third remains true. Our new teaching did not do this; therefore, it did not want to submit to the yoke of the logical laws of a certain train of thought and acted arbitrarily and arbitrarily. That’s why the conclusion that makes up his main idea is an arbitrary conclusion that has no legal basis in the given facts. He should have proved in advance that it is impossible to agree not that Angels are immaterial and incorporeal spirits and take on a body, nor that they, being internally spirits, bear an external, subtle body capable of becoming visible and tangible: then, perhaps, a third opinion would have emerged. Otherwise, by directly deducing such a third opinion, it sinned against logic and left its thought unproven. 794 With this last statement, Bishop Theophan notes in the teaching about the subtle-material essence of souls and Angels the logical inconsistency and lack of validity until it turns out to be completely impossible to explain the phenomenon of the spiritual-corporeal world while recognizing the spirituality of souls and Angels by their essence. In the third part of his critical article, Bishop Theophan examines rational considerations in favor of the opinion about the subtle-material nature of souls and Angels, dividing them into two groups: some considerations, mainly about Angels, are drawn from theological concepts about the infinity of God and the limitations of Angels; the other, mainly about the soul, is taken from its relationship to the body. The first consideration can be expressed this way: God has nothing in common with creatures; He is distinguished from them by infinite difference. But He is spirit; therefore, it cannot be that there are spirits among creatures, because it is impossible to put a creature on the same line with God, who is incomparable with anything. In this speculation, Bishop Theophan notes, reverence for the greatness of God is commendable, but the conclusion drawn from this cannot be considered solid; because spirituality is not such a good that it is impossible to impart to creatures participating in other Divine blessings. 795 In favor of the opinion about the subtle-material essence of souls and spirits, Bishop Ignatius points out the greatest correspondence of this opinion to the undoubted creation and limitation of spirits. The central point of consideration in this case is the idea that if the spirituality of created spirits is limited, then they must of necessity have a certain degree of materiality inherent in their nature; But, as Bishop Theophan rightly notes, with the concept of the immateriality of creatures, their limitation can be accepted not in the sense of an extensive quantity, but in the sense of an intensive quantity, the degree of tension of spiritual forces and mental and moral qualities. 796 Likewise, with regard to the second consideration about the relationship of the soul to the body and the external world, there is no need for the soul, by nature to be spiritual, to be a body in order to be in connection and interaction with the body, because, in addition to material affinity, there is also a dynamic, intensive affinity, consisting in the unity of forms and laws of action. It is enough to assume that the soul, being a spiritual substance, received laws and forms for its activity that are identical with the laws and forms of the material world and its body in order to understand how it acts through them on the body and receives action back from the body, without being itself a body. 797 And vice versa, Bishop Theophan considers the well-known concept of the laws of chemical affinity and mathematical arguments unsuitable for understanding spiritual existence, because chemistry revolves in the environment of elements and objects that are material, not spiritual. 798 What lies beyond the boundaries of our feelings and actions, what we do not notice, neither chemistry nor all the natural sciences know, and do not want to know. It's none of their business to touch on that. Their job is to notice what can be noticed, to subsume “different feelings”, to do experiments, to compare, generalize, make suggestions, etc. But all this is in the area noticed, if not by everyone, then at least by one sense. As for chemistry, it has oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen - the thinnest, there is nothing finer - they have no color, no smell, no taste, but still they are not invisible. She extracts them, seals them in jars, weighs them, combines them, determines the shares in which they are combined with which substance, and so on. They are in her hands, under her constant notes; she watches their actions everywhere and thereby determines them. This is her area. What is beyond this, chemistry does not concern, it is neither yes nor no. And she doesn’t care about the existence of spirits. 799 The critic also speaks out against the rapprochement of theology with chemistry and mathematics. Chemistry and mathematics, he says, have pushed the idea of ​​God further away in order to completely dispense with God. He threw the thought of God behind him. Chemistry knows nothing but matter; Mathematics, too, in the applications of its calculations, everything rests only on the real. They are bad guides to faith in God. They do not open, but close this door. Especially chemistry stuck in the elements, and where can it raise its head to look at the sky? I have the elements, she says, and the law of affinity - what more could I want? I have no need for any outside force. A pious chemist and mathematician, amazed at how everything is wisely arranged by measure, weight and number, will thereby kindle a religious feeling in himself: but the sciences themselves, as sciences, in the production of their work completely do without thinking about God. 800 The final conclusions of Bishop Theophan regarding the opinion about the subtle-material, gaseous essence of the soul and Angels come down to the following, well-defined provisions: 1) Recognition of the essence of the spirit as ethereal contains an internal contradiction, defining: a) the simplicity of the soul and allowing for its polynomial nature, which requires the inclusion of other elements in its nature besides the ether, and this leads to the denial of the essential feature of simplicity; b) recognizing the ethereality, the subsequent materiality of the soul and assimilating to it the power of literature and other psychic functions. 2) Recognition of the materiality of the nature of the soul does not provide the possibility of a satisfactory explanation of all phenomena associated with the manifestations of our personality - thoughts, desires, feelings, actions of freedom, fear of God and conscience. The soul has the appearance of a man with all the variety of parts of his body and acts like him. In general, all this is a soul, thinking, freely acting, conscious of itself. If every action comes from the soul and is accepted by the soul, and the soul is the whole, then every action must come from everything and be reflected in everything. It is not just one part that must think, but the whole body, the soul must also be conscious; Equally, the action from outside must also be taken by the whole soul - the body, and not just any part of it, and this cannot be reconciled with the multi-membered nature of the soul. Likewise, the idea that the soul is an etheric body in the form of a person cannot be reconciled with the idea of ​​​​the abilities of the soul and the spiritual manifestations of its individuality. Finally, the possible recognition of the soul, in the sense of the etheric body, as a substance, with the understanding of the mental ability and other mental abilities as an expression of the power inherent in this substance, does not eliminate all possible misunderstandings on this issue, because in this case substance and power are incompatible with each other. 801 These are Bishop Theophan’s objections to Bishop Ignatius’s understanding of the nature of the spirit, which the latter expresses in the work “The Sermon on Death” and the “Addition” to it. 802 Comparing the above teaching of the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov about the spiritual world and the objections made against it by Bishop Feofan Govorov, we naturally find ourselves in a position of need to express our judgment regarding the important disagreement that has arisen between them on one of the essential issues of Christian salvation and come to the most definite conclusion possible: how to look at this disagreement between authoritative ascetics? Is it an expression of the schism that has occurred between them, or in this disagreement should we see only a serious misunderstanding, thoughtlessness, which does not prevent His Eminences Ignatius and Theophan from being like-minded and experienced leaders of spiritual Christian life, elder leaders on the path to salvation. If the critic of the views of Ignatius Brianchaninov had been a secular writer, not established in the spiritual-Christian life and not having experienced it, we, of course, could have held him entirely responsible for the thoughtlessness that arose, remembering the persistent statement of Vladyka Ignatius about the need for an experimentally ascetic study of the ways of salvation and what he expressed in the preface of the “Addition” to the “Tale on Death” an indication that the latter was written “with an ascetic purpose,” i.e., thereby, for a limited and especially sensitive circle of readers in relation to such issues. But as soon as the objection comes from an equally experienced ascetic in spiritual life, the resulting thoughtlessness takes on a more serious meaning and requires a more serious attitude. Contemporary of the Right Reverend Ignatius in the time of his life, 803 Saint Theophan the Recluse has considerable similarities with him in personality, in the structure of life, the content and subjects of spiritual and ascetic writings. Both named Saints, from the days of their youth until their death, retained the same inclination towards a spiritually contemplative life; alienating the world in its sinful aspects, both were ready to serve the good and spiritual salvation of man; Both ascetics are similar to each other in terms of love for nature, affection towards people, simplicity of living conditions, the importance of family ties, non-acquisitiveness, ascetic lifestyle and a constant tendency to be a hermit. In the life of both ascetics, the main content was the accomplishment of spiritual salvation, the understanding of Christian life and ways to tune in to it; Their external good deeds and spiritual deeds were directed towards this, their most important goal in life; both supported and nurtured their Christian spirit by constantly reading the Jesus Prayer, remembering death, the eternal torment of the sinner, awareness of the presence of God everywhere, and testing their conscience. The same close affinity is noticeable in the spiritual-ascetic character and content of the literary works of Bishops Ignatius and Theophan, and, with the exception of the question of the nature of spirits, it seems that there are no other questions and subjects of Orthodox Christian knowledge on which the ascetic saints would not agree with each other. The literary activity of Bishop Ignatius begins and ends earlier than the same activity of Bishop Theophan, 804 but, thereby freeing Bishop Ignatius from any literary dependence in relation to Bishop Theophan, we are far from affirming an inverse relationship on this issue, although we have reason to assert that the first steps of the independent literary activity of Bishop Theophan were made under the leadership of Bishop Ignatius, authority who stood very high in the minds of Bishop Theophan. “The Path to Salvation” (a brief outline of asceticism) is the most popular, judging by the number of editions of 805 and significant, according to the scientific assessment of Orthodox theologians, the work of Bishop Theophan, which, by his own admission, is the motto of all his ascetic-literary activities, was created by the author with the participation and under the guidance of the Most Reverend Ignatius. “The Path to Salvation”, as well as “Letters on Christian Life” are the result of Bishop Feofan’s scientific studies in the Department of Moral Theology at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, which the Right Reverend author himself repeatedly testifies to. In his letter dated June 16, 1888, Bishop Theophan says: “We have read the path to salvation. Good... And read it again sometime. Here everything that I have written is being written and will be written. These are my lessons for students of the St. Petersburg Academy. The abstract has been revised from Fr. Archimandrite Ignatius, after the former Apxiepe Brianchaninov and approved by him. This was in 46-7 years.” 806 From these words of Bishop Theophan, one can see how significant the authority of Bishop Ignatius, who did not go through theological school, was for this learned Orthodox theologian, if he declares this more than 40 years after the advice given to him. In another place, expressing his view on the issue of prayer and the conditions for acquiring a prayerful mood, Bishop Theophan, in support of his view, again refers to the authority of His Grace Ignatius. 807 And according to his general assessment of the personality of Saint Ignatius, His Grace Theophan expresses an opinion about the Godly life of Bishop Ignatius. 808 As can be seen, the disagreement on the issue of the spiritual world between Bishop Ignatius and Theophan did not in the least shake the latter’s high respect for the former, which in itself already prompts us to incline to the conclusion that, in this case, on the issue of the spiritual world, we are dealing not so much with a disagreement, but with a thoughtlessness or misunderstanding, which could easily be completely eliminated by personal conversation or even correspondence of the ascetic Bishops, if it did not arise after the death of Ignatius Brianchaninov. Speaking at the end of 1867 and 1868 against the thought of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov about the gaseous nature of the soul and Angels and arguing that the soul and Angel are not something corporeal, but pure spirit. His Grace Theophan 1) directs his decisive affirmation of the complete and pure spirituality of the spirit exclusively to the essence or nature of the spirit, and not to its phenomena or the phenomenal side of being; 2) in this decisive statement, most of all, he means possible harmful results, thoughtlessness and delusions of those who have little understanding in theology in guiding the views of Bishop Ignatius. Proving the idea of ​​the complete incorporeality, pure spirituality of the nature of Angels and the human soul, and in this regard, disagreeing with the conclusions of the author of the “Tale on Death” and the “Addition” to it, His Grace Theophan, in explaining the phenomena of Angels and the souls of dead and living people, which were noted in abundance by Bishop Ignatius, also assumed some kind of subtle etheric shell. At the end of 1869, sending his book “Soul and Angel - not a body, but a spirit” in Kyiv to Archpriest N.I. Florinsky, His Grace Theophan writes: “The dispute is about the soul. My entire book is aimed at proving that the nature of the soul and angel cannot be material. But nature is another matter, and the way of being is another. Who does not want to accept a soul without a shell; let him allow this shell, in addition to the nature of the soul, which should be spiritual. Having assumed a thin, ethereal shell, it will receive a form and will be satisfied.” 809 In general, on the issue of the phenomenal side of spirits, their moral essence, their relationship to man and the latter’s struggle with evil spirits, there is no disagreement between both ascetics. 810 And the strength and decisiveness of Bishop Theophan’s objections to the “Tale of Death” and the “Additions” to it, to a large extent, in our opinion, is explained by the critic’s very solid assumptions about the possible harmful conclusions and further speculations of people with little experience in theology as applied to the understanding of the essence of God. From this point of view, the statements of the author of the “Tale of Death” and “Additions” to it seem dangerous to Bishop Theophan, because if the word “spirit” is the same, and even in the same place, is applied to God and to Angels and to souls, then when in relation to these latter he is given the meaning of only invisible subtlety, an inexperienced thought can conveniently transfer such meaning to the Divine nature. In order not to fall into such a dangerous conclusion, the new teaching does not provide any guidance, does not indicate any criterion for distinguishing the meaning of the word “spirit” when used in relation to God, and in relation to souls and Angels. 811 If the essence of Angels and spirits is inferred from their appearance in material images, then, the critic rightly notes, it will be necessary to conclude that God is a body, for God also appeared bodily. 812 In addition to these naturally possible consequences, a subtle-material understanding of the nature of the spiritual world, His Grace Theophan finds it unhindered to accept the subtle-material shell of spirits. There were and are, he says, two opinions about the way of being of the soul and Angels: some thought and still think that souls and Angels are spiritual beings, clothed with a thin material shell; others believed and still believe that souls and Angels are pure spirits that do not have any shell. According to the first opinion, - in the composition of man, the spiritual being is mediated into union with this gross body, a subtle, ethereal body - and what comes out of the body after the death of a person will be a spirit clothed with an ethereal, or generally material, subtle shell; likewise, an Angel who appears or exists within himself in his own domain will also be a spirit; clothed with a similar shell. This is the most convenient way of representing the existence of the soul and Angels, completely reconciling with all the legends about the appearance of Angels and souls, and easily resolving all the issues related to this. According to the second opinion, the spirit is not some kind of mental abstraction, but a being that really exists between other realities, which, due to this reality of its existence, directly enters into a union with the body and in the Angels in a person, in influencing the external world. Of these two opinions, whoever wants to hold on to which one, stick to that one, because in both the first and the second, what is essential in an angel and in a person, thinking, freely acting, conscious of itself, is recognized as a spiritual being; and on this, in the doctrine of the nature of the soul and Angels, we should mainly insist. The opinion expressed in the “Tale on Death” and supported in the “Addition” to it cannot be tolerated. 813 In this sense, the distinction between essence and phenomena, noumenon and phenomenon is understood by Bishop Theophan and those cited in the “Tale on Death”, the passages of the Patristic works that speak of the sensory manifestation of spirits. 814 But disagreeing with His Eminence Ignatius on the issue of understanding the essence of nature, or the nature of spirits, Bishop Theophan understands, in agreement with him, their appearance, the meaning and purpose of their appearances to people and the conditions for a successful fight against the spirits of evil. In understanding the struggle of people with the spirits of evil, in a predominantly spiritual sense, as taking place in the thoughts and movements of the human heart, 815 in the natural assumption of the influence of the soul on the body, the spirit on matter and material elements, both in the conditions of man’s earthly existence and outside it, there is no disagreement between ascetics. 816 Thus, the essence and strength of all Bishop Theophan’s objections to the “Tale of Death” and the “Additions” to it on the issue of spiritual existence lies in the fair indication of the impossibility of recognizing the materiality of the soul and Angels by their essence without the inevitable, for the majority, false conclusions in the future in application to the Being of God and to the tasks of personal spiritual and moral improvement. The critic’s fears in this regard seem to us to be very justified, and to a greater extent, the more we imagine the infinitely developed and widespread anthropomorphic way of understanding the spiritual world - God and Angels - among non-theological Christians. But, on the other hand, in this same common tendency of the universal human representation of the undoubtedly existing spiritual, invisible world, in an anthropomorphic form and with its subordination to the conditions of space and time and even sensory perception, lies the best, from a practical point of view, defense for Bishop Ignatius. Of course, it is true that the concept of a body, due to its property of inertia, even if it is subtle and subtly material, excludes the possibility of movements. It must be moved by an external force, 817 i.e., on this basis, recognizing the materiality of the spirit, from the point of view of ordinary concepts of matter, seems impossible. Having the ability of sensory perception, akin to animals, man, however, surpasses them in that he has a soul that is completely immaterial and, as a result, capable of renouncing the laws by which everything material is connected, and the human mind is not the same thing with bodily feelings, and the human soul is not the same with the body and everything corporeal in general. 818 The self-movement of the soul is the most striking proof that it is not some kind of subtle, ethereal body. Inertia and immobility are an integral part of matter. Electricity will remain dormant for centuries if it is not aroused; and the ether does not shine unless it is shaken, or, as they say, into a trembling state. But both are produced by action from outside. There is no trace of self-activity in these apparently very subtle substances. Where does amateur activity come from in the soul if it is ether by nature? And if she is amateur, doesn’t that mean that she is ether? 819 Recognizing the permissibility of etheric bodies in the phenomenality of the soul, i.e. the ethereal shell in its phenomena, it is impossible to recognize ethereality as the very essence of the soul. 820 From this point of view, the repeated assertion of Bishop Ignatius that the soul and spirit are ethereal bodies is an extreme, an error, which can be a soul-harmful delusion for a mind that is not spiritual and alien to ascetic feat. But we are very inclined to think that in the mouth and writings of the Most Reverend Ignatius himself, this statement was not a delusion; and we are inclined to consider the polemics that arose in relation to the author of the “Tale of Death” on the part of Bishop Theophan not as a disagreement between ascetics, but only as a folly that is sufficiently justified and excused. Bishop Theophan is absolutely right: a) in his justifications for the thought and spirituality of the soul and created spirits in essence, b) in his fears for the possibility of harmful conclusions in relation to the Divine from the minds of the inexperienced; c) in the impossibility, as evidenced by him, of explaining purely mental phenomena while recognizing the subtle materiality of the soul. But we do not consider it possible to accept in full force the word of condemnation applied to the ascetic Bishop Ignatius, and in his defense, in the case of theological foolishness we have outlined, we are prompted to express the following considerations: 1) The question of spirits, Angels and the soul is not presented in its sources as sufficiently definite and quite clear. We have seen that the author of the “Tale of Death” and his critic, revolving in the sphere of the same data from church writing, find confirmation and illustrations for their disagreeing conclusions. If some of the Fathers and teachers of the Eastern Church recognize spirits as incorporeal (ασωματος), others admit the materiality of their nature in the same sense as wind, fire, smoke, air are material. 821 And given the discrepancies existing on this issue to some extent, it was quite natural for His Grace Ignatius to choose which of the two existing opinions was the one that seemed to him more visual, consistent with the publicly available testimonies of the Word of God and the living preaching of the hymns of Orthodox Christian worship, and therefore highly edifying. 2) To clarify and visually represent the nature of spirits and the human soul, His Grace Ignatius uses the concept of the world ether, subtle, weightless matter, which serves as an intermediary medium in transmitting the actions of world forces. But this very concept of the world ether is only a hypothesis, convenient and necessary for explaining the phenomena of the material world, but not sufficiently defined and, in its basic meaning, not free from internal contradictions, in view, for example. recognition of the subtle materiality of the ether and, at the same time, its weightlessness. Due to this incomplete materiality, the ether, we believe, was for the Right Reverend Ignatius a convenient symbol for designating the nature of the spirit, obvious in its manifestations, as a result of which, using this concept, Bishop Ignatius was far from thinking about the materialization of the spirit, 822 caring most of all about the clarity of ideas, the nature of the spirit and fearing, if his pure spirituality was permissible, to enter the sphere of inferential abstraction. 3) Recognizing the strength of the objections made by Bishop Theophan to the “Tale of Death” and agreeing with the unacceptability of the teaching about the subtle-material, gaseous nature of the spirit, with the possibility, at the same time, of this subtle-materiality in application to the phenomenal side of the spiritual world, we see in the methods of presenting and understanding the spiritual world according to the method of Bishop Ignatius of enormous practical spiritual and educational significance. The vast majority of piously-minded believers, of course, will not draw any materialistic conclusions from Bishop Ignatius, but by assimilating his teaching, they receive deep conviction in spiritual existence, clarity in their ideas about it, they will feel a strengthening motive in relation to their spiritual improvement, and this is no small defense for Bishop Ignatius, for any theological knowledge is important not so much in itself as satisfaction of the inquisitive curiosity of our spirit, as much as by the influence it has on our spirit in relation to its endless improvement and eternal salvation. From this point of view, His Eminence Theophan recognizes Ignatius’s “Tale of Death” as “much instructive.” 4) A significant internal motive for Bishop Ignatius’ teaching about the subtle-material, gaseous, ethereal nature of spirits is for him the deepest humility before the greatness of God, with the recognition, at the same time, of the impossibility of placing sinful human nature and created spirits on a level with the Divine: confessing the greatness of the Divine, Bishop Ignatius recognizes it is possible to think of the nature of all created spirits as subtle-material. 5) But both His Eminence Ignatius and Bishop Theophan completely agree that “the spiritual world is for us something mysterious, which we cannot imagine in its true reality. When someone had to figure out the state of affairs there, or the Lord was pleased to give a revelation about this, both were done under the images of our earthly life. These images represent reality, but are not reality itself. It is spiritual, mental, and has nothing carnal in it. The Apostle Paul was caught up into heaven - and what did he say about him? About what is there, he says, a person is not old enough to talk about. We have no words to express it. Our words are rough, sensual, figurative. Having taken this note into account, we must tame our inferences regarding legends about what happens in the spiritual world. Read, go deep, be edified; but do not rush to draw any decisive conclusions from this. For what is there, the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, and it has not entered the heart of man.” 823 6) Of course, it would follow from this that there is no need at all to go into reasoning about what exceeds the power of human understanding and, even more so, verbal expression. And if the Right Reverend Ignatius speaks a lot about the spiritual world, devoting an entire book to this mysterious existence, then he does not deviate from the humble awareness of the inexpressibility of the intelligible, and, going into the explanation of the inexplicable, pursues the goals of edification and reviving repentance. That is why he says very little about the Angels of light and a lot about the angels of darkness, less about heaven, more about hell, does not talk about the merits of man, but about his sins and the need for repentance. The Holy Fathers, he teaches, strictly prohibit the use of the faculty of imagination, commanding to keep the mind completely formless, unimpressed by any seal of the material. One should not imagine in one’s imagination neither paradise, nor heaven, nor the throne of God, nor the radiance of the glory of God, nor an Angel, nor a Martyr, nor a Saint, nor a Venerable One, nor the Mother of God, nor Christ Himself. Fallen spirits try to arouse the imagination in us, and sometimes they themselves appear in various false and seductive ghosts: for this reason, we are forbidden not only daydreaming, no matter how plausible it may be, but also trust in any phenomenon from the invisible world. The images of bright Angels, holy departed people and Christ Himself are taken on by demons for the seduction and destruction of not only beginners, but also those who have succeeded in the feat. A live representation of the flames of hell, the theme of the eternal, underground, terrible dungeon and other pre-mortem and post-mortem horrors is allowed only when carnal sensations, thoughts and dreams arise; This use of the imagination is permitted only in times of need, after which the weapon will immediately be put aside. If used unnecessarily, it can harm the mind, making it prone to daydreaming and self-delusion. 824 The same goals of edification in relation to those seeking spiritual salvation, especially ascetics, also explain Bishop Ignatius’ attention to the spiritual world: he did not strive to create a theological treatise on this issue, but wanted to provide material for spiritually edifying reflection, did not strive to satisfy the inquisitiveness of the mind, but had in mind the stimulation and maintenance of a repentant mood. And getting acquainted with the writings of Vladyka Ignatius, we receive a deep conviction that he successfully achieves this goal. 7) The treatise of Bishop Theophan, aimed at limiting the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on the nature of spirits, appeared in 1867 and 1868. after the death of the Most Reverend Ignatius, and we cannot say with complete certainty how the author of the “Tale on Death” and the “Additions” to it would have reacted to the criticism. But based on our acquaintance with the personality and writings of Bishop Ignatius, we confidently assume that he would not have remained indifferent to the remarks of Vladyka Theophan, and if the latter had presented to him possible, especially for a rational and lacking consciousness, conclusions from the understanding of the ethereal nature of spirits, then Vladyka Ignatius, perhaps, we assume, would have softened the categoricalness of his judgments on this issue. Freed from the extreme decisiveness of conclusions about the gaseousness of spirits and souls, with the transfer of all the force of the expressed judgments from the essence of spirits to their phenomenality or appearance, the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world, based on the testimony of the Word of God, consistent with the mind of the Holy Fathers and consonant with Orthodox Christian worship, retains a high degree of edification and very important spiritual and educational significance for those who are serious about the great task of spiritual salvation. Focusing our long and intense attention on the presentation of the teachings of Bishop Ignatius about the spiritual world, we were guided not only by the peculiar definiteness and originality of this undoubtedly interesting side in the works of the ascetic Bishop, but also by the enormous significance that the doctrine of the spiritual world has, according to the teachings of Ignatius Brianchaninov and in our conviction, for accomplishing the feat of spiritual salvation, and in general for moral life of a person. A skeptical or even indifferent attitude to this issue deprives human morality of its most important foundations - deep faith in God and the spiritual world of Angels and demons, confidence in the possibility and even inevitability of this or that attitude towards it and communication with it - impart a special, higher meaning to a person’s entire life, expand and clarify a person’s view of the world, eliminate flabbiness of feelings, apathy of mood and impart saving energy to the will. But the accomplishment of a soul-saving feat by a person, the view of life as a path to achieving eternal salvation and readiness to continuously, with fear and trembling, accomplish one’s salvation are of course assumed as necessary elements of a Christian worldview and the main prerequisites of a spiritual Christian feat, along with faith in God and the world of spirits and the spirituality of the soul, a person’s awareness of the sinfulness of his nature, an understanding of bodily death as a transition to the world of spirits, to an endless existence, the hope of an afterlife righteous reward to each according to his deeds, faith in the grace-filled means of the spiritual rebirth of a Christian, and, in connection with all this, a view of temporary life from the point of view of eternity and the fulfillment of a temporary life path before the Face of the Eternal. Having set our task in this chapter to clarify the foundations of spiritual salvation or the necessary prerequisites for spiritual Christian achievement according to the teachings of Ignatius Brianchaninov, we have the obligation in the remaining part of this chapter to note the judgments of the Most Reverend Ignatius on these issues. The thirst for spiritual salvation and the inheritance of eternal blessings presupposes a person’s awareness of dissatisfaction with his present state. If a person believed his current earthly state to be completely satisfactory and normal and limited the fulfillment of his life tasks to the narrow framework of earthly reality, then there would not be sufficient motives in his consciousness for a spiritual-ascetic soul-saving feat: indifference to questions of salvation, for the most part, is associated with such a limitation. That is why the Right Reverend Ignatius, in his writings and teachings, in order to awaken in people repentance and a thirst for soul-saving deeds, strives to revive in man the consciousness of his lost primordial purity and his present sinful state, persistently poses to man the question that humbles him: what man was before sin and what he became after the Fall. The consciousness of the latter state awakens in a person the desire to return the lost first. The state of lost primordial purity is characterized in the works of Bishop Ignatius by purity, both physically and mentally, by the purity of the entire human makeup. Designated to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the human body was taken from the earth, but was not created for the earth. It fell into corruption, but it was not created for corruption. Created, beautifully adorned by the Creator for eternity and the eternal, it, immediately after creation, is revived by an immortal and holy soul, and together with it is raptured from earth into a bright paradise for stay in it, for spiritual activity, for spiritual pleasure; it was incapable of carnal pleasures. It could not come out of the hands of the All-Holy Creator except completely pure and holy; subsequently distorted and disfigured by sin. His eye was so pure that it did not see the nakedness of the other members, which, in turn, presented nothing that needed to be covered. The soul was not overwhelmed and agitated by passions; the body was not bothered by it either. The blood did not boil from anger and it did not cool from sadness and despondency. Death was foreign to this body; illnesses were unusual for him; it had no need to protect itself from the influence of the elements; it was not a bond and a prison for the soul: it was a wonderful, eternally new garment for it. 825 Thus, the state of pristine purity in bodily terms is characterized by immortality, incapacity for carnal pleasures, purity and holiness, and immunity from disease. The human spirit was all the more distinguished by its purity and height in its primordial state, in which, by the grace of God, all-perfect goodness, that is, the Being of God, was reflected, just as the sun is reflected on the objects that it touches with its rays. Both spirits and man, and all other creatures came out of the hands of the Creator perfect, relatively limited by their nature, filled with whole goodness, without the slightest admixture of evil. Spirits and man became the closest and clearest reflection of God among creatures. In their very being the Creator inscribed His image; He decorated this image with qualities similar to those qualities that, in their infinity and totality, constitute the essence of God. God is goodness: He also made rational Creatures good. God is wisdom: He also made rational creatures wise. In a decisive shade of similarity, He gave His Holy Spirit to rational creatures - thereby uniting their spirit, their whole being with Himself. 826 In other words, in its pristine pure form, the human spirit is a clear imprint of the image of God, filled with unalloyed goodness, to the possible extent contains Divine wisdom and goodness, and is a receptacle for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Created good, man tasted real goodness and holy peace of heart, 827 possessed spiritual and royal dignity. 828 But all this primordial dignity of human nature, lost by an arbitrary fall, cannot be clear to a person in the present state of sinful obscurity. The man fell. Sin struck with death both his soul and his body. The realm of death over humanity is so universal and so powerful that not one of the numerous human family has escaped it; Every person is born with the beginning of death in himself, can be subjected to it every hour during earthly life, and will certainly be subjected to it at his certain hour. What is our life on earth like a constant struggle with death? From this state, so far from the state of primordial purity, we cannot in any way conclude about the state that was natural to man before his fall: we cannot in any way judge the body of the primordial by our body. We can contemplate the primordial blissful and immortal state only in Divine revelation. We can see experimental, complete proof of it in our Lord Jesus Christ and partly in those chosen ones of God who demonstrated not only in their souls, but also in their bodies the power of redemption given by the God-man to humanity. 829 Sweet contemplation of the pristine purity of the first Adam, his unhindered communication with God and the angelic world, the sorrowful consciousness of the loss of the pristine image by sin - are certainly necessary in the accomplishment of a soul-saving feat, for under these conditions, saving repentance and a thirst for active reunification with God are aroused in a person. The time of our earthly life, no matter how long or short it may be, a single day or a thousand years, is experienced by a believer and person who is not indifferent to spiritual salvation in a possibly living representation of infinite eternity, and this latter is as limitless in comparison with the first, as the infinite greatness of God is infinitely high in comparison with the limitations of man. In contemplation of primordial purity, in the consciousness of one’s present sinful state, life itself acquires a special meaning, as the realization of immortality, and the fact of inevitable death is considered as a transition to immortality. This is how life and immortality come together, and death is defined as the greatest mystery of the beginning of a new, immortal life. Death is a great, hidden mystery. She is the birth of a person from earthly temporary life into eternity. When performing the mortal sacrament, we put aside our rough shell - the body and as a spiritual being we move into another world, into the abode of creatures, homogeneous souls. 830 To comprehend this mystery, to determine your attitude towards it, to penetrate into its depth and beyond its limits into an even more mysterious region of otherworldly reality; to understand the conditions of our transition to it is not only a matter of the inquisitiveness of our mind, but also the urgent need of our entire being, in all people, from the commoner to the greatest sage, who carries within himself a thirst for immortality, a desire for it, confidence in it. Man cannot unravel the mystery of death and the afterlife either through our sensory knowledge or through rational conclusions due to their limitations. The being of death and the afterlife after death, under ordinary conditions of our life, are not subject to sensory perception. The afterlife, the world of spirits, is inaccessible to the gross organs of the body, through which, during our stay on earth, feelings operate that, however, belong to the soul itself. 831 The invisible soul that has left the body is inaccessible to us, like other objects of the invisible world. We see only when performing mortal mysteries - breathlessness, sudden lifelessness of the body; then it begins to decompose, and we hasten to hide it in the ground; there it becomes a victim of decay, worms, oblivion. So countless generations of people died out and were forgotten. What happened and is happening with the soul that left the body remains unknown to us, given our own means of knowledge. 832 But short-term earthly wanderers on earth need to know their possible fate in eternity. If, during a short wandering here, our concerns are focused on eliminating everything sad from ourselves and surrounding ourselves with everything pleasant, all the more should we be concerned about our fate in eternity. 833 For a believer and a person who is not indifferent to his afterlife, issues related to the posthumous state are issues of paramount importance. What does death do to us? What awaits the soul beyond the limits of materiality? Is there really no retribution for the good and evil committed by people on earth arbitrarily and involuntarily? Is there really no such reward, while evil on earth, for the most part, prospers and triumphs, and good is persecuted and suffers? It is necessary, necessary, for us to reveal the mystery of death, and to see the afterlife of man, invisible with bodily eyes. 834 And the Most Reverend Ignatius clarifies these and similar questions of an eschatological order and makes what is invisible with the bodily eyes of an ordinary person accessible to our comprehension, for contemplation with the eyes of faith. The method he uses in this case is analytical-inductive: from the analysis of facts and phenomena to generalizing definitions and conclusions. And he reverently contemplates the basis for these conclusions and definitions in relation to the invisible and indefinable, the facts for the corresponding observations in the Word of God, the Patristic and ascetic literature. Both the mystery of death and other hidden positions of posthumous existence are explained to us by the Word of God, and through the action of the Holy Spirit they are even made accessible and open to feelings purified and refined by grace. General provisions on the issue of death and the posthumous fate of a person are presented according to the writings of Bishop Ignatius in the following form: 1) Death is the separation of the soul from the body, united by the will of God and again separated by the will of God. Death is the separation of the soul from the body as a result of our fall, from which the body ceased to be incorruptible, as it was originally created by the Creator. Death is the execution of an immortal man, with which he is struck for disobedience to God. By death, a person is painfully cut and torn into two parts, his components, and after death there is no longer a person: his soul exists separately and his body exists separately. 2) And the body continues to exist, although we see that it is destroyed and turns into the earth from which it was taken: it continues to exist in its very corruption, like a seed in the earth, awaiting a secondary union with the soul, after which it will become inviolable for this visible death. The bodies of God’s special chosen ones resist corruption, being abundantly imbued with the grace of God. 3) While the body has fallen asleep in the sleep of death, what happens to the soul? The Word of God reveals to us that our souls, after being separated from their bodies, join - according to the good or evil qualities they acquired in earthly life - to the Angels of light, or to the fallen angels. 835 4) The inheritance of communication with the Angels of light or with the spirits of evil depends on faith and good deeds in earthly life. Christians, only Orthodox Christians, and, moreover, those who have spent their earthly life piously, or who have cleansed themselves of sins through sincere repentance, confession to their spiritual father and self-correction, inherit eternal bliss together with the bright Angels. On the contrary, the wicked, that is, heretics, and those Orthodox Christians who spent their lives in sins, or fell into some mortal sin and did not heal themselves by repentance, will inherit eternal torment along with the fallen angels. 836 Bishop Ignatius confirms all these provisions with the testimony of the Word of God, 837 holy ascetics and the message of the Eastern patriarchs. Having made general instructions on the issue of death and the posthumous fate of a person, Bishop Ignatius in his “Sermon on Death” further enters into a detailed discussion of the circumstances and conditions of death, the path to eternity and the most eternal posthumous states of a person according to his moral state. This is how his teaching is outlined: 1) about death, 2) about ordeals and 3) about heaven and hell, which we will focus on further. The image of the soul's departure from the body and the circumstances surrounding the sacrament of death are depicted by Bishop Ignatius in vivid images, which he borrows mainly from ascetic literature. Based on the visions of holy ascetics, one can imagine how the souls of the faithful and the unfaithful leave their bodies. At the hour of death, the soul is surrounded by both Angels and demons; the latter especially begin to become carried away by passions. Seeing Angels ready to receive a soul at the command of God, the soul becomes frightened, frightened by the presence of terrible and formidable angels. She hears and understands the tears and sobs of the people around her, but cannot utter a single word or raise a voice, because she has never experienced such a demand for an outcome. Moreover, she languishes with grief due to attachment to the body; she is sick and yearns for separation and separation from him. She becomes confused, worried, restless, and resorts to the Angels of God. 838 Although the death of the righteous and fully repentant sinners is completely, or at least in many ways, different from the death of rejected sinners and sinners who have not repented enough; but fear and anguish are characteristic of every person at his death. This is how it should be: death is execution. Although the execution is mitigated for the righteous, the execution remains an execution. The God-Man himself, preparing to accept free death for the salvation of the human race, was in labor, grieved and grieved; drops of His sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood: “My soul is sorrowful unto death” (Matthew XXVI, 38 and 39), He said to the apostles, who fell asleep from sadness and did not feel the approaching misfortune. The Most Holy Virgin Mother of God felt her dying fear before Her blessed Dormition, although She was foretold by the Archangel Gabriel of Her relocation to the mountain monasteries and the glory awaiting Her there, although the Holy Spirit, who richly dwelt in Her, carried away all Her thoughts and all Her desires to heaven. With fear and crying, all the Saints prepared themselves for the fatal hour of death: they understood the significance of this hour for man. 839 But despite the common torment of the hour of death for all people, the fear of death and yearning of the soul experienced by everyone, the same inevitability of post-mortem trials or airy ordeals, there is a significant difference in the hour of death of the righteous and the sinner. The story of the death of the righteous is comforting; the story with what contrition and humility of heart they prepared for it, with what holy fear they met it, is instructive and soul-saving. The death hour of a sinner is especially painful and terrible, painful and associated with despair; for the righteous, it is softened by his repentant feeling and an even more internally experienced gravitation towards the heavenly homeland, and mortal suffering for him is softened by heartfelt tenderness and a vision of heavenly glory. But this blessed fate of mitigation and relief of the hour of death is also granted to sinners who have brought sincere repentance of their sins. 840 All the noted signs and features characterize death in the sense of separation of the soul from the body, death in the ordinary everyday sense of the word, and, understanding the mental state of a person at the hour of death, do not exhaust the entire content of the concept of death, for in the scope of the latter, along with the concept of bodily death, the concept of mental death is conceived. Both, united in the general concept of death, are equally the natural consequences of man’s arbitrary violation of the Divine will and the spontaneous introduction of the ulcer of sin into human nature. In the proper sense, the separation of the soul from the body is not death; it is only a consequence of death. There is death, incomparably more terrible. Death is the beginning and source of all human illnesses, both mental and physical, and a severe illness, which we exclusively call death. 841 The reason for the appearance of mental death is a person’s violation of the Divine will. Despite the terrible threat of death (Gen. II, 16–17), the man transgressed the commandment, and, as a result of the crime, died immediately; death instantly appeared in all movements of the soul and in the sensations of the body. The Holy Spirit, who dwelt in man, imparted immortality to the soul and body, and was their life, retreated from them as from those who violated communion with God by arbitrarily rejecting the commandment of God and just as arbitrarily entering into like-mindedness and alliance with Satan. The separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul. This is what spiritual death actually consists of. 842 The consequences of mental death are not only indecency and degradation of the spirit, but also suffering and corruption of the body. Those people who do not pay attention to the all-holy teaching of Christ, necessary for salvation, the only requirement for the true life of man, from a spiritual point of view, are dead even while their flesh is alive on earth. The Lord called dead those living in the flesh who were truly dead, as if they had been slain in soul. 843 This spiritual death is temporary for those who are granted the saving mysteries of baptism and repentance, and eternal for those who neglect their spiritual resurrection. The first resurrection is accomplished through two sacraments: baptism and repentance. Through holy baptism, the soul is resurrected from the grave of unbelief and ungodliness, or from original sin and one’s own sins committed in wickedness, and through repentance, an already believing soul is resurrected from the death inflicted on it by mortal sins, or by a careless, lustful life, after baptism. The performer of the resurrection is the Holy Spirit. This is the first resurrection (Apoc. 20:4–5), which consists in the revival of the soul from its death by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in the washing away of sins by holy baptism, in life according to the will of Christ and in the cleansing through repentance of sins committed after baptism. For people who benefit from the holy sacraments there is no death. For them, the separation of the soul from the body is not death, but a transition from a sorrowful earthly journey to eternal joy and peace. The second death, that is, the final condemnation to eternal hellish torment and surrender to it, has no power over those resurrected by the first resurrection. When the thousand years have ended (Rev. 20:6), the times will be fulfilled, and all the verbal fruit of the earth will ripen, the second resurrection will follow, the resurrection of bodies. After it, the bliss of the righteous, who were resurrected in good time by the first resurrection, will increase; after him the death of rejected sinners who have lost the first resurrection will worsen. 844 The above judgments of Bishop Ignatius reveal for the believing soul, and explain to a relative extent, the great mystery of death: bodily death - separation of the soul from the body, as a consequence of original sin, spiritual death, the first death that follows in original sin for all humanity and affirmed for each individual person by his personal voluntary sinfulness, and the second and last death - the eternal rejection of the soul that has not known God for earthly career, from union with God and condemnation to eternal torment at the second glorious coming of Christ the Savior “to be judged by the living and the dead.” Such is the course of life of those people who have been subjected to the corrupting plague of mortal sin; such is the fate of unrepentant sinners. For those sons of the primordial Adam who live by faith in the Son of God and define earthly life as the path to heavenly Jerusalem, for those who believe in God and are sinners, but sincerely and deeply repentant people, although just like for the first, bodily death is inevitable, mental death is not terrible - neither the first, eliminated by the grace of the saving mysteries of baptism and repentance, nor the second - in trust in the saving mystery Divine redemption, by faith in “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The life of these people, zealous for spiritual salvation, is a constant bearing of the cross, gradual and constant, with the assistance of Divine grace, the first resurrection from dark deeds; they are not afraid of the death outcome, for they die with faith in the second resurrection, with the hope of a general “resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century.” But just as bodily death with all its accompanying sorrows and the sinful influence in the soul are the first-born heritage of the sinful sons of Adam and are inevitable for all people, although they differ quantitatively depending on the sinful or salvific path of life freely chosen by a person and, in accordance with this, are attracted by Divine grace into the human soul or, on the contrary, are subordinated to its spirit of evil and made friends with sinful thoughts and deeds - so exactly, for the righteous and the sinner, for the deceased, with the hope of resurrection into the kingdom of glory, and for those who end their earthly path with a hopeless transition to destruction, it is inevitable to go through the path to eternity or airy ordeals. The believing consciousness of Saint Ignatius finds in the church teaching about tollhouses a rich school of humility and repentance and, from this point of view, the author of the “Tale on Death” dwells especially carefully on the issue of tollhouses and, using the ascetic Literature well known to him, resorting to the Word of God and the sacramental and educational Divine services of the Orthodox Church, gives a living and vivid picture posthumous and lifelong ordeals. Posthumous ordeals are an undeniable fact for the believing consciousness. This is guaranteed by the visions of God’s holy people recorded in the Word of God, 845 cases of opening of eyes and perception of wonderful visions witnessed by saints and ascetics, 846 the living teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church in the call to repentance, pointing out to its children the inevitability of airy posthumous ordeals. 847 According to Bishop Ignatius’s understanding of the spiritual world, which we have already outlined above, spirits have a subtle, material, gaseous nature and, if invisible to most people, it is only due to the carnal state of their feelings and the sinfulness of their moods. People who are aware of this should listen to those to whom, by the touch of the finger of God, it was given to see and perceive the invisible and unknown to the carnal and spiritual minds. And the Word of God and the Spirit, which promotes the word, reveal to us, through the medium of their chosen vessels, that the space between heaven and earth, the entire azure abyss visible to us, the air, the heavenly regions, serves as a dwelling for the fallen angels cast out of heaven. In the book of Job (I:7) the fallen angel is represented as wandering in the immeasurable space of the heavenly places; he wanders in it, quickly flies through it, tormented by insatiable anger towards the human race. St. Apostle Paul calls the fallen angels spirits of wickedness in high places, and their head - the prince of the power of the air. 848 Fallen angels are scattered in multitudes throughout the transparent abyss that we see above us. 849 And so, when the soul of a Christian, leaving its earthly church, begins to strive through the air space to the mountainous fatherland, demons stop it, try to find in it an affinity with themselves, their sinfulness, their fall and bring it down to hell. This is how they act according to the right acquired by them. 850 This right belongs to evil spirits due to the fall of man. Our ancestors transgressed the command of God and fulfilled the advice of their all-evil enemy, a dark spirit, a blasphemous, flattering and deceitful spirit. By this act, according to a very natural order, they violated their communion with God, and not only entered into communion with the devil, but also arbitrarily subordinated themselves to him, and with them that part of creation that was created for them and over which God had given them dominion. Along with the cherub guarding the path to the tree of life, another cherub stood on man’s path to paradise, that cherub who did not spare his wondrous greatness, the leader and parent of evil and death, who fell into the abyss of destruction, dragging there many angels and the entire human race. This cherub, by the just permission of God, with a host of fallen angels, the prince of the air, the prince of the world and this age, the prince and head of the angels and men who voluntarily submitted to him, stood on the way from earth to paradise, and from that time until the saving suffering and life-giving death of Christ, he did not miss a single human soul separated from the body along the way. The gates of heaven are closed for people forever. Both the righteous and the sinners descended to hell. Eternal gates and impassable paths have opened before our Lord Jesus Christ. But even after the redemption of the human race by our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the freedom given to people in choosing life and death, in accepting the Redeemer and redemption, or in rejecting them, many wished to remain in communion with Satan. Many also, having enrolled themselves in Christ’s army and declaring themselves His servants, violate the vow of allegiance to Him by their actions, open and secret, and enter into an alliance with the spirits of evil. All who clearly rejected the Redeemer are now the property of Satan: their souls, upon separation from their bodies, descend straight to hell. But even Christians who deviate towards sin are not worthy of immediate relocation from earthly life to blissful eternity. Justice itself requires that these deviations to sin, these betrayals of the Redeemer be weighed and evaluated. Judgment and analysis are necessary to determine the degree of deviation towards sin of the Christian soul, in order to determine what prevails in it - eternal life or eternal death. And every Christian soul awaits, upon its departure from the body, the impartial judgment of God (Heb. 9:27). The justice of God executes judgment on Christian souls who have departed from their bodies; through angels, both holy and evil. The former, during a person’s earthly life, notice all his good deeds, and the latter notice all his crimes. When the soul of a Christian begins to ascend to heaven, guided by the holy Angels, dark spirits expose it with its sins unerased by repentance, as victims to Satan, as guarantees of communication and the same eternal fate with him. To torture souls passing through the airspace, the dark authorities have installed separate courts and guards in remarkable order. Along the layers of heaven, from the earth to the sky itself, there are guard regiments of fallen spirits. Each department is in charge of a special type of sin and torments the soul in it. The aerial demonic guards and judgment seats are called ordeals in the Fatherly writings. 851 The doctrine of ordeals is the teaching of the Church. We find this teaching in the most ancient church tradition and in church prayers. All sins committed after baptism are subject to torture at aerial ordeals, and for those who have dedicated themselves to God through monastic service, all sins committed after accepting monasticism. 852 Good deeds 853 and repentance make it easier for the soul to go through ordeals: all sinners who confess their sins with humility and tears will accept forgiveness by the grace of God; Those who die without repentance are judged by God. 854 His Grace Ignatius gives numerous vivid examples of posthumous ordeals that the soul goes through, borrowing these examples from the hymns of the Holy Orthodox Church and from the visions of St. ascetics; He dwells in particular detail on the story of the Monk Theodora about the 20 ordeals she saw and went through. 855 In connection with the depiction of ordeals, some issues related to them are resolved. 1) After the fourth ordeal to the bewilderment of St. Theodora that people do not seem to know the fate of the soul after death. The Holy Angels answer her that they can know this, since the Divine Word tells them about this, read daily in churches and preached by the servants of God, but people, carelessly clinging to the vanity of the world, do not pay attention to the Word of God and consider the Holy Scriptures to be a fable. 2) After the thirteenth ordeal, to the question of St. Theodora about the sources of knowledge by evil spirits of human affairs, the Angels answered her that the spirit of evil everywhere watches a person, bending him to sin, notices all his falls - both in deed and in thought. The angels also explained how important the prayers of the Church for the dead are, that only those enlightened by the holy Christian faith and washed by holy baptism are subjected to aerial ordeals. 3).After the fifteenth ordeal, the holy Angels explain to St. Theodora that ordeals are inevitable, that there is no other way for Christian souls ascending to heaven; everyone goes through them, but not everyone is tortured as much as those who have fallen into sin and did not fully confess to it, who were ashamed of their spiritual father and hid their shameful deeds before them, are tortured. Those who have repented and are pure joyfully ascend to the Throne of Grace. 856 Great saints of God go through airy demonic ordeals with their honest souls with extraordinary speed and great glory. This speed of passage of the aerial ordeals by the saints of God is explained in view of the transition they completed during their lifetime from the nature of the Old Adam to the nature of the New Adam and because they are characterized by lifelong passage of ordeals, with such great freedom the great saints of God pass through the aerial guards of the dark authorities because in earthly life they enter into irreconcilable warfare with them and, having won victory over them in the depths of their hearts They acquire complete freedom from sin, become the church and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, making their verbal abode inaccessible to the fallen angel. 857 Certain conclusions of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of ordeals can be expressed as follows: 1. After the death of the body and, before entering the realm of eternity, the human soul inevitably goes through airy ordeals that determine its eternal fate. 2. The doctrine of ordeals is church teaching, proclaimed by the Word of God, holy ascetics and Orthodox Christian worship. 3. Along with the posthumous passage of ordeals, there is a lifelong passage of them in the feat of Christian life. Just as the resurrection of the Christian soul from sinful death takes place during its earthly pilgrimage, in exactly the same way it is mysteriously accomplished here on earth, its torment by the aerial authorities, its captivity by them or its liberation from them; When walking through the air, this freedom and captivity are only revealed. 858 The main position of the moral and ascetic views of Bishop Ignatius is, therefore, the view of life as a preparation for death and the posthumous lot, and this lot itself depends on the direction and nature of earthly life, and the posthumous passage of the path to eternity depends on how much a person remembered this eternity during his earthly life; the passage of air ordeals is facilitated depending on the degree of passage of life-long ordeals in the feat of a virtuous life, in the fight against the spirits of evil acting through the passions and sinful attractions of fallen human nature. Depending on this, the posthumous fate of a person is determined as bliss or torment, as heaven or hell. On the issue of the posthumous fate of man, the views of Bishop Ignatius are quite definite, clear and deeply edifying. For Bishop Ignatius, hell and heaven are not abstract concepts about different posthumous fates or states of people, but quite definite and qualitatively different, like the spiritual moods of people, depending on the nature and direction of their earthly life. And in revealing this issue, His Eminence Ignatius follows his usual method, substantiating his concepts about heaven and hell and the posthumous state of souls not on arbitrary fabrications of reason, but on the testimony of the Word of God, 859 Sacred Tradition and ascetics of the Orthodox Church 860 and non-silent live preaching in the Divine services of the Orthodox Church. 861 At the same time, the views of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of the posthumous fate of people are in accordance with his understanding of the nature of the spiritual world. The future homes of souls, he says, correspond to their nature, that is, their etheric nature. Eden or heaven corresponds to this nature, and hell also corresponds to it. In addition to spiritual pleasure and the inner kingdom of the holy soul, which is revealed in it from here, as it is purified, it is placed in a country and monastery, which befits the abode of a soul awarded by the grace of God with eternal bliss. A sinful soul, rejected by God, is not only tormented by its conscience and its state of rejection, but is also imprisoned in a terrible underground prison called hell, tartarus, Gehenna, where it is subjected to fierce torment that can torment its ethereal nature. All this is said in the Holy Scriptures, and is revealed by the Holy Spirit, according to His election and discretion, to people worthy of such a revelation, a revelation that is most beneficial to the soul. 862 He comes to the idea that earthly nature is similar to paradise in its beauty and reminds it of fallen man. When we see the splendor of our exile of the earth, we involuntarily exclaim: this is paradise! Moses, the seer of God, depicts paradise as a most elegant and vast garden (Gen. II, 9). This is exactly how many saints of God in the New Testament Church saw heaven. This is what it really is, but its substance and nature are subtle, correspond to the nature of its inhabitants-spirits, and therefore are inaccessible to our feelings, coarsened and dulled by the fall. 863 The nature of paradise, the splendor of heaven, the abundance of gracious bliss there - exceed everything graceful and pleasant on earth. The fall of man is so deep that in a state of fall he can no longer by himself receive any concept of his lost bliss. Having established the kingdom of God in man, the Holy Spirit often raises His worthy servants to worldly lands, to abodes prepared for the righteous for their eternal holiday. 864 The place of heaven is determined by the Holy Scriptures - in the east. In this direction is heaven in relation to earth. 865 Bishop Ignatius’s opinion about hell is just as definite. Hell is located in the interior of the earth. 866 The opinion about the location of hell inside the earth is seen throughout the entire area of ​​worship of the Orthodox Church. 867 If heaven is illuminated by eternal light and filled with abundant and indescribable blessings, then hell is filled with impenetrable darkness, unquenchable fire and eternal torment. 868 The Most Reverend Ignatius has a very definite opinion about the degree, quality and duration of the heavenly or hellish state of people, according to their moral dignity. The torment awaiting sinners in hell is eternal; they are so terrible that a person living on earth cannot receive a clear understanding of them without a special revelation from God. All our severe illnesses and misadventures, all terrible earthly sufferings and sorrows are insignificant in comparison with the torments of hell. Hell's dungeons represent a strange and terrible destruction of life while preserving life. There is a complete cessation of all activity; there is only suffering; there reigns the most severe of heart ailments - despair; there are cries and groans that do not attract any consolation to the soul torn by them; there are insoluble bonds and fetters; There the darkness is impenetrable, despite the abundance of flames; there is the kingdom of eternal death. The torments of hell are so terrible that the most cruel of earthly torments - violent death - is insignificant before them. 869 On the contrary, the state of heavenly bliss of the righteous exceeds any human idea of ​​what is pleasant and graceful on earth. 870 The foretaste of eternal grace-filled life is communicated to a person who is zealous for his salvation as spiritual joy, full of humility, thanksgiving to God, accompanied by tearful prayer, confession and praise of God, and mortification to the world. In this state, the soul, having felt the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, seeing itself as a conqueror of sinful thoughts and dreams, begins to feel the inexplicable joy of salvation. 871 Having expressed his views on the issue of hell and heaven, on the nature of hellish torment and heavenly bliss, His Eminence Ignatius also touches on the related issue of the duration of these states. The posthumous state of hellish torment or heavenly bliss will be eternal. And if the doctrine of eternal heavenly bliss is easily accepted by an ordinary person, little zealous for his salvation, in trust in God’s mercy and self-pardon, in relation to the inevitable fate of the sinner, in other words, if no one has anything against the eternity of heavenly bliss from ordinary people of life who are not alien to faith, then the eternity of hellish torment raises objections regarding justice and cruelty, etc. By affirming the idea of eternity of hellish torment, His Grace Ignatius does not ignore objections to the eternity of hellish torment. Anyone who has killed his spirit during earthly life through lusts and passions will be condemned and given over to unbearable and incessant torment. The voluptuous Epicureans cry in vain, says Saint Ignatius. It cannot be, the Epicureans object, that hellish torment, if it exists, could be so cruel and eternal! This is inconsistent with either God’s mercy or common sense. Man exists on earth for pleasure; he is surrounded by objects of pleasure: why should he not use them? What is bad and sinful here? Leaving this cry to the arbitrariness of those who pronounce it and contrast it with Divine revelation and teaching, the son of the Holy Church, staying on earth for repentance, must be guided in his concepts of the eternity and cruelty of hellish torment by the Word of God. The Holy Scriptures everywhere call the torment of hell eternal: this teaching has been and is constantly preached by the Holy Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ confirmed this terrible truth several times in the Holy Gospel. Eternal torment exists. The sin of every limited creature before its Creator, who is infinitely perfect, is an infinite sin; and such a sin requires endless punishment. The punishment of a creature for sin before its Creator must completely corrupt its existence: hell, with its fierce and eternal torments, satisfies this requirement of inexorable justice. 872 Thus, understanding the duration of hellish torment in the sense of eternity seems to correspond to the requirements of justice, and the objection to them is determined by the desire of sinful thought to please the weakened will. In another case, His Grace Ignatius is even more; speaks strongly regarding the understanding of the eternity of hellish torment. In one of his letters he says, among other things, the following on this subject. – Do you doubt the existence of hell and eternal torment? You repeat the current fashionable objection: “this is inconsistent with the mercy of such a good being as God.” Ah, my friend! Can such a weak, limited being as man judge by himself about God, the infinite Being who surpasses all comprehension and judgment - draw positive conclusions about God from looking into himself? Leave your own judgment and believe with all your heart everything the Gospel teaches us. The Savior Himself said: “And these go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46); in another place he said: “he lifted up his eyes to hell” (Luke 16:28). The Savior said that there is hell, there is eternal torment; – why your objection! If you give room to this objection, then you doubt the truth of the Savior’s words and reject them. Whoever rejects even one dogma from the teachings of Christ denies Christ. 873 The question of hell and heaven, from the point of view of theoretical knowledge, should not be subject to discussion. According to the deep conviction of Saint Ignatius, the doctrine of heaven and hell, as having dogmatic value, based on the evidence of Holy Scripture, confirmed by the voice of the Church and spirit-bearing men, must be firmly and undoubtedly adopted by a Christian who is zealous for his salvation, like any dogma, must be reflected in the moral activity and mood of a Christian, especially due to the close connection of this dogma with the dogmas of the Divine Redemption. We can complete the presentation and analysis of the judgments of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of the posthumous fate of man with his beautiful sayings: “The earth is the threshold of hell with initial executions for criminals. The Savior made it the threshold of heaven. 874 There is hell and there is eternal torment; by living a pious life, make them non-existent for yourself.” 875 Accepting the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about heaven and hell, about the eternity of hellish torment and heavenly blessed bliss, in its close connection with the teaching about the exodus of the soul and posthumous ordeals, as based on Holy Scripture and the voice of St. Church and, in addition to this, and for this reason having extraordinary edifying and moral significance, we leave without restrictions his teaching on the ethereality of souls in view of the fact that the critical considerations caused by this teaching were expressed by us above, when presenting the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on the nature of spirits. The Saint's teaching about heaven and hell and eternal torment was set out by him mainly in his “Sermon on Death.” This “Word” was subjected to a detailed analysis by Bishop Theophan on the issue of the nature of spirits, however, even in this case, the understanding of hell, heaven, torment and bliss was left by His Eminence Theophan without any comments, which in our opinion is an important confirmation of the authority of Bishop Ignatius in view of the unanimity of the ascetics on this issue. 876 However, in addition to our considerations expressed above on the issue of the nature of spirits, we consider it fair to note the obvious inaccuracy in Saint Ignatius’s understanding of the nature or essence of the soul. As we saw above, all the bewilderment between Bishops Theophan and Ignatius is expressed in the fact that Bishop Ignatius considers the ethereality of the soul to be the very essence of its nature, and Bishop Theophan, rightly defending the pure spirituality of the soul in essence, allows for subtle-materiality in relation to the phenomenal side of the soul. In this case, the Right Reverend Theophan is right, especially since with the subtle-ethereal essence of the soul it is in no way possible to explain the pure spirituality of its purely mental experiences, and the Most Reverend Ignatius did not compare the essence of the soul with its manifestations, from this point of view. That in this case we are not dealing with division and disagreement, but only with thoughtlessness - this, in our opinion, is confirmed by the understanding we have just noted in the teaching of Bishop Ignatius of heaven and hell, torment and bliss. Recognizing the ethereal nature of souls and their correspondence in nature to hell and heaven, torment and bliss, His Grace Ignatius makes a great distinction: 1) For the righteous soul - a country and abode of eternal bliss, and for a sinful soul - a terrible underground prison called hell, and eternal cruel torment in it. 2) In addition - and before that, for the righteous soul, spiritual pleasure and the inner kingdom of holiness, and for the sinful soul - in addition to hellish torment and underground prison - internal, spiritual torment of its conscience and a conscious state of rejection, i.e., in other words, along with the phenomena of life related to the subtle-etheric shell, our soul experiences purely mental, absolutely spiritual, excluding all the materiality of states that affirm its spiritual substance, with the permissible materiality of the shell in its phenomenal states. In this case, the nature of the thoughtlessness that has arisen on the question of the spiritual world becomes even more clear to us. The teaching about the spiritual world, about the soul, about death, about ordeals, about hell, paradise and the posthumous fate of man, all this has the greatest, from the point of view of Bishop Ignatius, edifying significance in the sense that it clarifies and confirms for us the absolute need to look at our earthly life as a preparation for eternal life, from the point of view of eternity. This is the main thought of Bishop Ignatius, which he repeatedly expresses in this regard. We need to prepare for eternity during earthly life, in this threshold of eternity. If we fairly evaluate the short moment for which we are placed here on earth, comparing it with the immeasurable and majestic eternity, then we will find only one correct use, earthly life. It is used correctly when it is carried out in preparation for eternity, when a person’s treasure, being in heaven, attracts him to heaven, when earthly circumstances are so arranged and a person lives in such a way that he is constantly ready for death. 877 But such a mood, such a daily migration into eternity, is achieved by very few Christians, even those who spend their lives in holy monasteries; the less accessible is this spiritual state to Christians living in the middle of the world. But, if it is difficult to constantly remain in the realm of the eternal and spiritual, then it is possible to turn to it often and prepare for death in advance. One of the most excellent ways of preparing for death is remembering and thinking about death. 878 Constant remembrance of death is a wondrous grace, the lot of the saints of God, who especially surrendered to saving repentance in indestructible silence. But all people need to force themselves to remember death, to acquire in their hearts the skill of thinking about it, although such thinking is extremely disgusting to a sin-loving and peace-loving heart. For such training, according to the instructions of the Holy Fathers, it is useful to devote a certain hour every day and devote it to the saving memory of a terrible, inevitable death. No matter how true this event is for every person, but at first with the greatest difficulty, one can force oneself even to the cold memory of death, which serves as one of the countless proofs of the fall of our nature placed in it itself. The constant distraction of thoughts that we have become accustomed to, and gloomy oblivion, constantly steal the thought of death from those who begin to work in its frequent recollection. 879 It is useful to arouse in oneself the memory of death by visiting a cemetery, visiting the sick, being present at the death and burial of loved ones, frequently examining and updating the memory of various modern deaths; heard and seen by us. The memory of death, the fears that accompany it and the fears that follow it, a memory coupled with fervent prayer and weeping for oneself, can replace all deeds, embrace a person’s entire life, give him purity of heart, attract to him the grace of the Holy Spirit and thereby grant him a free ascension to heaven past the aerial authorities. 880 And concluding his famous “Sermon on Death,” His Grace Ignatius, in words full of highly religious lyricism, calls on his neighbors to know God, to know themselves, to arrange their eternal destiny, to remember that we are not on earth for fun, not for celebration, not for games, but in order to kill the death that killed us by faith, repentance and the cross and return to ourselves lost paradise. 881 Firm faith in God and the spiritual world - angels and demons, in the spirituality of the soul, a penetrating consciousness of its sinful fall, a living representation of eternity and the inevitable fate of man - hell or heaven, look at death as a transition from temporary existence to the eternal, endless - serve, according to the teachings of Bishop Ignatius, as necessary prerequisites for the Orthodox Christian, soul-saving feat in that regard, that awaken in the human soul a conscious opposition between the pre-sin and sinful states of human nature, awaken in man the consciousness of the need to restore pristine purity in the soul and, having put off the first Adam, put on the New Adam and awaken in man a fiery desire for rebirth and reunification with God. But the consciousness of the need and the desire for reunification with God for their proper implementation in a person’s mood and external behavior or, for the very act of accomplishing the feat of spiritual salvation, must be complemented by an equally deep faith in the possibility of rebirth and confidence in the availability of the means for this to a person. In other words, among the necessary prerequisites for the Orthodox Christian feat, a very important place is occupied by the conditions for the spiritual rebirth of man. Our further task is to clarify the teachings of Bishop Ignatius about the conditions for the spiritual rebirth of man. These conditions in the judgments of Bishop Ignatius on this issue are quite naturally divided, from the point of view of the person seeking spiritual salvation, into external and internal or into objective and subjective conditions of Spiritual rebirth. But since the first conditions become effective in relation to the human soul only to the extent of internal assimilation of the last saving mystery of rebirth, and the active feat of the fight against sin with the assistance of the grace of God, this division is only theoretical, for the convenience of understanding the issue, but in reality the grace-filled feat of spiritual salvation remains integral and indivisible. The necessary conditions for the spiritual rebirth of a person from the objective side are the Redemptive feat of Christ the Savior, and the Holy Church established by the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of people. The Church and the saving grace of God taught by it through the Holy Sacraments. Subjective conditions include free will, conscience, faith, and lifelong commitment to Christian deeds or lifelong crucifixion. Reverent speech about the Divine redemption of the human race through the incarnation of God the Word and through the suffering, death on the cross, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ resounds incessantly in the works of St. Ignatius. But the most complete, most thorough and especially edifying speech seems to us by Bishop Ignatius about the saving mystery of Divine Redemption in the article entitled: “Exposition of the teaching of the Orthodox Church about the Mother of God.” 882 In this article, clarifying for his Christian consciousness the greatness of the Mother of God, Bishop Ignatius is guided by precise and detailed concepts about the incomprehensible act of the omnipotent God - about the incarnation of God the Word. The saving mystery of Divine redemption is explained by Bishop Ignatius in the following expressions. The Eternal Word - the Son of God - by the power of His creativity made flesh for himself in the womb of the Virgin: the God-Man was conceived and the God-Man was born. The Son by Divine nature became a son by human nature. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin, one Person in two undivided and unfused natures, Divine and human. The Divine nature, despite Its infinity, did not destroy human nature, and human nature, despite its unified existence, did not in the least constrain the infinity of the Divine nature. Such a wonderful union, accepted by faith and the spiritual mind generated by it, incomprehensible to the carnal and spiritual mind, is produced by the omnipotence of the Divine. The Lord who became man had all the attributes of man: spirit, soul and body. The name of spirit denotes the rational part of a person: his mind, his thought, his verbal heartfelt sensations, alien to the nature of animals and cattle, common to human and angelic nature. The soul itself is expressed in life force; the soul is characterized by desire or will, and energy or natural anger that does not turn into irritability. We see these properties in animals too. The human spirit of Christ was exercised by prayer by expressing the Word of God in human words; the soul of Christ expressed joy, sorrow, anger, languor; The body of Christ was conceived, born, nourished, grew, labored, felt hunger and thirst, rested in sleep, suffered, was crucified and buried, and was resurrected. According to the inseparability of natures, in all cases when human nature appeared as if acting exclusively, the nature of God assisted it inseparably and inseparably, although unmerged, acting in accordance with Itself. Thus, although man was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, He was already God at the very conception; although man was born from the Virgin, God was also born together; grew, ate food, was weary from the journey, was bound in the garden of Gethsemane, struck on the cheeks, struck on the head with a staff, crowned with thorns, man was crucified, but at the same time God. Thus the Apostles were eyewitnesses, disciples, messengers of God (Luke I: 2); Judas Iscariot betrayed God (kontakion on Maundy Thursday, tone 2), the priests of Judea and Pilate are God-killers (Troparion on Maundy Friday); The Ever-Virgin is the Mother of God. Due to the inseparability of natures in one Person, what happened in relation to one nature inevitably applied to the other. 883 The Virgin, whose conception the Angel announced to the parents who were praying and mourning their infertility, who became the fruit of tearful prayers and fasting, who was the daughter of the righteous, who was dedicated by them from birth to God, and who, according to the mood of her spirit, devoted herself entirely to serving God - the Virgin was already in herself a very pure vessel. The purity of the Virgin was all the more inviolable for sensory sensations because Her mind, constantly directed and attached to God, did not even descend to thoughts of marriage. The Holy Spirit descended on the pure Virgin and further purified Her. The Pure Virgin became Most Pure, alien to all filth, thought and felt, and became a grace-pure, Spirit-bearing, Divine Virgin. 884 The Virgin, having conceived and given birth to God and man in one person, became the Mother of God in the exact sense, because the one born by her was God, although at the same time there was a man. 885 The Mother of God, having conceived and given birth to the God-Man, became above all holy men and holy Angels. 886 Born of Mary, the God-Man made the Virgin Mother, and kept the Mother Virgin. The God and Creator of the Virgin became Her Son, being Her God and Creator; having become Her Son, He became Her Redeemer and Savior. 887 The God-man had a human nature, completely immaculate, but limited. It was limited: limited not only by the limitation with which man was created, but also by that which appeared to a much greater extent in the nature of man after his fall. The God-man had no sin, was not at all involved in sin, even in its smallest forms: His natural properties were not changed, as in us, in passion; These properties were in Him in a natural order, in constant subordination to the spirit, in the control of the spirit, and the spirit was in the constant control of the Divinity united with humanity. The God-man had the ability to grieve and grieve, but sadness never took possession of Him, as it happens to us, but was constantly controlled by the spirit. The Lord was saddened by the death of Lazarus and shed tears at his grave (John 9:33–38). The Lord wept over Jerusalem, predicting its destruction for its rejection of the Messiah (Luke 19:41). The Lord allowed Himself such a pre-death languor in the Garden of Gethsemane that this state of His soul is called in the Gospel a feat and mortal sorrow. It was accompanied by such a painful tension of the body that the body gave out and shed sweat on the ground, the drops of which were like drops of blood (Matt. 26:38–39; Luke 22:43–44). But even with this intensified feat, severe sorrow was in submission to the spirit (Matt. 26:38). The God-man had the quality of anger; but anger acted in Him as a holy spiritual force, as character, as energy, constantly preserving the dignity of a person, never revealing any enthusiasm (Matt. 10:14; 3:5; Matt. 23:; John 5: 7: 8: 10). A majestic spiritual spectacle is presented by the human properties of Christ during His suffering for humanity: the Lord, throughout the continuation of these sufferings, remains constantly faithful to Himself; Neither fervor nor delight, which usually animate earthly heroes, appeared in Him for a moment; not for a minute did the verbosity and eloquence of these heroes appear in Him; Not for a moment did any changeability appear in Him; an unwavering, equal force constantly acted in Him, without weakening and without tension; This force constantly expressed both its power and its subordination to the holy power that guided it. If anyone delves into the character of Jesus Christ through a reasonable reading of the Gospel, he will, by this character alone, confess Jesus as God, just as the Apostle Peter confessed Him as God solely for His word of life (John 6:68). There is no such character, constantly and completely free and open, constantly the same, never carried away, not changing either from reproaches or from praise, lower in the face of murderers and death - there is no such other character among human characters. Although the properties of the flesh of the God-Man were human, together they were all united, as belonging to one Person, who is God and man. For the same reason, the human properties of the God-Man were both natural and supernatural in relation to human nature. The holiness of the flesh of God and the Lord was infinitely higher than the holiness in which the flesh of the creature, Adam, was created. 888 The God-man, as a redemptive Sacrifice, took upon himself all human infirmities - the consequences of the fall - except for sin, in order to, having redeemed humanity, deliver him from the burden of these infirmities, reveal him in a renewed state, show him without those infirmities that were drawn into our nature by the fall. The God-man accepted and bore our infirmities arbitrarily, and was by no means subordinated to them by the necessity of nature: being a perfect man, He was also a perfect God, the Creator of human nature, the unlimited Ruler of this nature. For this reason, He showed His humanity in the way that pleased Him. Sometimes He revealed His humanity in the weakness of a fallen nature: he toiled, thirsted, took rest in sleep, was captured and bound in the Garden of Gethsemane, suffered beatings and humiliation, was crucified and buried. Sometimes He showed His humanity in the rights of nature with which it was created: He walked on the waters, rode into Jerusalem on an unbroken stallion, on which no man had yet sat; this power was originally the property of Adam. Sometimes the Lord revealed His human nature in that state of glory and greatness that He bestowed on human nature, having united in Himself, in one Person, Divinity and humanity, which it did not have at all at creation, in the very state of innocence and immortality: He showed this state of greatness and glory with wondrous signs, mainly He showed it to His chosen disciples at His transfiguration, He showed it to the extent to which they were capable see, and not in the way it is. The Divinity of the God-Man is unfused, but completely united with His humanity: the Divinity of the God-Man is united with His human spirit, with His soul, with His body. When the soul of Christ was separated from the body of Christ through death, the Divinity of Christ remained inseparable, both with His soul and with His body. 889 The body of the God-man had extraordinary harmony and beauty, just as His forefather, the holy prophet David, prophesied about Him (Ps. 44:2). It abundantly bestowed Divine grace on everyone who looked at it and touched it (Luke 6:19; Matt. 6:56). During burial, the body of Christ was placed in a narrow cave, carved out of stone, that is, in a hill that was solid stone. After the body of Christ was brought into the tomb, a stone of considerable size was welded to the entrance to His tomb (Matt. 27:60). But the Divine body was resurrected, leaving both natural obstacles and human precautions intact. It penetrated through the thick, solid and solid substance of the cave: the stone remained rolled down, the seal untouched; the guards, appointed for surveillance and violence, were not honored to either feel the resurrection or see the resurrected one. Already after the resurrection of Christ, an Angel descended, broke the seal, rolled away the stone and announced the completed resurrection: the guards from one vision of the Angel fell dead to the ground (Matt. 28: 2-4). After the resurrection, the divine body penetrated through the closed door to the assembled Apostles (John 20:19). It was not recognized by the two disciples traveling to Emmaus; when they recognized Him at the breaking of bread, it suddenly became invisible (Luke 24:31). This body, in the sight of all the Apostles, separated from the earth, began to rise and penetrate the air, like a winged one, disappeared from the eyes of the Apostles at an unattainable height, and entered the sky (Acts I: 9). The first martyr Stephen saw him in heaven (Acts 7:56). With such supernatural advantages the God-Man showed, constantly showed and shows His human body after the resurrection. These advantages are an imperishable spiritual crown, with which the body of the God-man is crowned with justice by Him, as having conquered and trampled down death by death. It should not be thought that the body of Christ received such properties only after the resurrection. No, it, as the body of the all-perfect God, always had them, and after the resurrection it only constantly manifested them. 890 This is the clear teaching of Saint Ignatius about the saving mystery of the Incarnation. And although a Christian is perplexed before the greatness of God’s goodness, contemplated in the incarnation of God the Word and in the salvation of men accomplished by Him, 891 he believes, he knows that on the cross the redemption of the human race was accomplished, that the Son of God deigned to ascend to the cross and offer Himself as a reconciling sacrifice for rejected humanity, that through the incomprehensible Redemption, through Our Lord Jesus Christ has poured out countless and ineffable blessings on the human race: not only has the redemption of men been accomplished, but their adoption as sons to God has been accomplished. 892 By contemplating the saving mystery of the Incarnation and the Atonement of the Cross, a Christian is awakened to abundant praise and thanksgiving to God; This contemplation kindles a fiery zeal for living according to the commandments of the Gospel, for following Christ along the narrow and sorrowful path. When a Christian takes the narrow path, then he sees the disastrous deception that dominates the broad path. When he tastes the spiritual consolation that the Savior feeds those walking along the sorrowful path, just as He fed the Israelites with manna in the desert, then he will abhor the carnal and sinful instruction that so abounds in Egypt. 893 Such is the immediate fruit of contemplating the mystery of the Redemption of the Cross. The essence of salvation is restoration of fellowship with God. 894 The necessary means for this, from the objective side, are, as we saw above, belonging to St. the Orthodox Church, and the use of the saving Sacraments of the Church and its leadership, for the revealed teaching of God is preserved in inviolable integrity solely and exclusively in the bosom of the Orthodox Eastern Church. 895 A very definite and completely clear answer in this regard is repeatedly taught in the works of Lord Ignatius. Based on the indisputable position that receiving salvation is desired by all Christians and is available to all Christians, His Grace Ignatius indicates the necessary conditions for salvation. 1). It is necessary for those who want to be saved to believe in God, the Creator and the Redeemer. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to belong to the Orthodox Church, the one true Church, and to obey its regulations. The Lord likened the one who disobeyed the Church to a pagan, a stranger to God (Matt. 18:17). Each of us, pronouncing the Symbol of Faith, confesses that he believes in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, confesses, therefore, that, besides the One Church, there is no other Church, much less there are no other Churches, even if different human societies appropriate the name Church. 896 The most important Divine institutions contained by the Orthodox Church are the saving Sacraments, through which the renewing and creative grace of God is taught to humanity seeking spiritual rebirth. The Lord builds us up with church sacraments, builds us up with the Gospel commandments, builds us up through manifold sorrows and temptations, builds us up through His grace. 897 Having felt the overshadowing of Divine grace, the human soul experiences joy and gladness, revival on the occasion of its liberation from captivity to sin and the devil. 898 Having overshadowed God's chosen ones with its power, Divine grace makes the seductions of the seducer invalid for them, his threats unthreatening, his miracles despicable, it elevates them to scaffolds, as to royal thrones, as to a wedding feast; it gives them a feeling of love for God, the sweetest feeling of life. Torment for Christ and violent death for Him constitute the beginning of the eternal joys of heaven. We see this clearly from the action of Divine grace in relation to the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity: initially it was left to them to show their will; After they accepted their first torment, help descended from above to them, making both torment and death for Christ desirable for them. 899 Knowing this, experiencing experimentally that God’s commandments are fulfilled only with the abundant assistance of God’s grace, constantly asking himself for this assistance through prayer, a Christian cannot help but attribute all his good deeds to God’s grace. 900 A correctly understood Christian feat cannot be accomplished without the help of Divine grace. Therefore, the grace of the All-Holy Spirit is the mercy of God, and we must constantly ask God for it. 901 The grace of God was manifested in humanity even before Christianity. 902 But its highest and strengthened gifts, through which a person enters into essential communion with the Lord and remains in this communion, are communicated through the mediation of the Church Sacraments. 903 The Church of the living God is the pillar and foundation of the truth. God acts in all believers through the Sacraments, and in the elect, beyond the Sacraments, through many different obvious gifts of grace. This proves the firmness and steadfastness in the truth of the Eastern Church. 904 Repeatedly testifying to the necessity of God's grace for the salvation of man, Bishop Ignatius often draws the Christian's attention to certain Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, which teach the believing soul the special grace of God, which is absolutely necessary for salvation. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to be baptized in the bosom of the Orthodox Church in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is necessary for those who want to be saved to repent of their sins and cleanse them through confession. By the sacrament of repentance, the purity acquired at baptism is maintained and renewed, our unity with Christ, granted to us by holy baptism, is maintained and renewed. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ, the all-holy body of Christ and the all-holy Blood of Christ. So, for anyone who wants to be saved, it is necessary that he correctly believe in God; belonged to the Orthodox Church, in the bosom of it he was baptized, anointed, cleansed of sins by repentance, partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and then it was necessary to observe the commandments of God. 905 In the writings of Bishop Ignatius there are many special instructive discussions about individual Sacraments of St. Orthodox Church, indicating the essence of the Sacrament, the Divine grace given in it and the worthy preparation of a Christian to receive it. 906 The subjective conditions for a person to assimilate the saving grace of God are faith, conscience, free will and good deeds. Due to the natural internal closeness of these conditions to each other, their understanding in the works of Bishop Ignatius for the most part proceeds together, especially since in this case he does not set himself the tasks of a theological treatise, but pursues mainly edifying goals. Two properties, he says, two abilities are planted by the merciful God in human nature, with the help of which it, after its fall and alienation from God, can arise from the fall and restore communion with God. These two properties: the property of repentance and the property of faith. For repentance, God grants forgiveness of sins and access to himself, and reveals himself to faith, and grants that knowledge of God of which man is capable, which he cannot acquire by his own means. 907 Bishop Ignatius distinguishes three types of faith: natural, theoretical faith, 908 which is the gift of God to our nature; We have this gift depending on our will; we have it whenever we want. This natural faith, which we can believe in God, must be distinguished from active, practical faith, which appears in the soul from the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments and from living faith, poured out in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Everyone can believe in God and the Gospel; active faith is acquired by the ascetics of Christ; living faith is a gift of God, the property of the saints of God alone. 910 Faith in Christ brings knowledge of the Truth; faith, expressed by fulfilling the commandments of Christ, attracts the grace of the Holy Spirit into the heart of the believer. One true Christian, a Christian by faith and works, can be a true worshiper of God, worshiping and serving God as Father in spirit and in truth. 911 Faith is a tool for a person to combat fallen spirits and the delights of the world. 912 Faith in Christ is a necessary condition for spiritual salvation. Having acquired faith by his own will, a person achieves a vision of God; after this he moves on to matters of faith; works of faith lead him to living faith: only this faith is the Lord. 913 Living faith in Christ is expressed by the whole life, the whole being of a person: it embraces his thoughts, his heartfelt feelings, all his activities. Living faith-sight and knowledge of God; living faith—a life devoted entirely to piety and mortification for the world. Only through living faith can a person renounce the imaginary virtues of his fallen nature and become a disciple and follower of the Lord with the mind and activity befitting a renewed nature. 914 Such faith brings a person closer to God and assimilates a person to God; she will present man before the Face of God and place him on the last day of the life of this world, at the beginning of the eternal day, at the right hand of the throne of God for the eternal vision of God, for eternal pleasure in God, for an eternal co-kingdom with God. 915 But this saving and clairvoyant faith is the result of active faith, arising at the will of man; such living faith is faith of grace, it is the gift of God. 916 A person’s choice of the path of active faith to acquire a saving, living, grace-filled faith occurs according to the free will of a person, and the entire feat of spiritual rebirth presupposes the moral freedom that belongs to a person, as a necessary subjective condition for a soul-saving feat. Although, upon closer observation of his inner world, a person sees a decisive disorder of his own will, its disobedience to reason, which is also incapable of guiding the will. Nevertheless, a person realizes that his will is free to choose good and evil. 917 Just as man arbitrarily retreated from Communion with God, it is also arbitrarily left to man to accept or reject salvation. He was given the opportunity, given the grace-filled power to break free from the ranks of fallen spirits, to overthrow their yoke, but left to his own devices and remain in the previous state of communication with them, enslavement to them. For people, either captivity or struggle are inevitable. A pious feat is nothing more than the active acceptance of salvation, as a manifestation of our will, shown and proven by experience itself, by life itself. 918 The incomprehensible God, after creating man, having given him all the means to preserve life, left the choice of life or death to his free will. In the same way, with redemption, God, Incomprehensible both in goodness and in His mind, having completed the redemption, left it to our will to accept or reject the redemption. He previously invested in us the property of repentance, but without will, the natural ability of repentance remains inactive. Our salvation is accomplished by God, and therefore, Bishop Ignatius urges, arbitrarily reject the death you arbitrarily accepted; arbitrarily accept the blessed eternal life that you arbitrarily rejected; For this purpose, use the quality of repentance that has been well-introduced into you, which is completely dependent on your will. 919 Only the one who willingly becomes a slave of his God becomes completely and truly free. 920 This is the final judgment of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of human moral freedom. An indicator of spiritual freedom and, in general, a person’s moral state is conscience. There is no special theological treatise on the issue of conscience in the writings of Bishop Ignatius; but, clarifying the foundations and conditions of spiritual salvation, he notes the importance of conscience among them and clarifies both its manifestation in man and its significance in the spiritual life of man, as well as its nature. On the first question about the manifestation and significance of conscience in the spiritual life of a person, we find in the writings of Bishop Ignatius many deep observations and vivid concrete similarities that clarify for us the question of conscience in the understanding of the ascetic Bishop. To fight sin and improve one’s nature, to achieve, in general, spiritual salvation, a person needs accurate self-knowledge and, especially, “vision of one’s sin.” For this purpose, for impartial and correct self-knowledge, which determines a person’s spiritual achievement, it is of exceptional importance to pay attention to one’s conscience, and conscience itself is, in this case, a book of self-knowledge. The nature of this book and the conditions for its study appear to have signs typical of our sinful state, and therefore especially attract the attention of the reader of Ignatiev’s works. Under the influence of a living and strong foreboding of the terrible hour of Divine judgment, I hasten with trepidation, says Bishop Ignatius, to immerse myself in examining myself, I hasten to believe in the book of my conscience the sins marked by my deeds, words, and thoughts. Books that have not been read for a long time, stagnant in closets, become saturated with dust and moth-eaten. Anyone who takes such a book encounters great difficulty in reading it. This is my conscience. Not reviewed for a long time, it could hardly be opened. When I open it, I find no satisfaction. Only major sins are listed quite clearly; the small writings, of which there are many, have almost been erased, and it is now impossible to make out what was depicted by them. God, God alone, can restore brightness to faded writings and deliver a person from an evil conscience. God alone can give man the sight of his sins and the sight of his sin - his fall, in which is the root, seed, germ, the totality of all human sins. Having called on the mercy and power of God for help, calling on them to help with the warmest prayer, combined with prudent fasting, combined with crying and sobbing of the heart, I again open the book of conscience, again I peer into the quantity and quality of my sins; I look closely at what the sins I have committed have produced for me. 921 Thus, from the above comparison it becomes clear to us that 1) conscience is a property of the very spiritual nature of man; 2). Together with the whole nature of the soul, conscience is corrupted by sin; 3) its normal manifestation in a sinful person is possible only under the condition of grace-filled insight; 4) that sensitivity of conscience and attention to it on the part of a person are a necessary condition for saving self-knowledge. Sensations of conscience are concentrated in the human spirit; 922 purity of conscience gives a person true knowledge of God and a sense of faith, violation of the integrity of conscience by arbitrary deviation into sins deprives a person of true knowledge of God and the possibility of pure moral activity: constancy in the Orthodox confession of the dogmas of faith is nourished and preserved by deeds of faith and integrity of conscience. 923 In the difficult voyage on the sea of ​​life, conscience, according to the vision of Bishop Ignatius, is a compass needle, which the helmsman of the spiritual ship - the mind - must constantly and carefully look at: let this helmsman strive steadily towards a blissful eternity, remembering that forgetting about eternal bliss leads to eternal disaster. Let him often look closely, as if at a compass needle, at his conscience, so as not to take a direction that does not agree with the direction indicated by his conscience. 924 Setting himself the ultimate life goal of spiritual salvation and the inheritance of a blessed eternity, a Christian, in examining his conscience and in determining his spiritual state based on its testimony, must be guided by the Gospel commandments. 925 On the question of the nature of conscience and the scope of its detection, His Eminence Ignatius expresses the following certain judgments: 1) Conscience is a feeling of the human spirit, subtle, bright, distinguishing good from evil. This feeling distinguishes good from evil more clearly than the mind. And the conscience struggles for a long time with a deceived mind, supported by a sin-loving will. 2) Conscience is a natural law. Conscience guided man until the written law. Fallen humanity gradually acquired an incorrect way of thinking about God, about good and evil; the false mind communicated its wrongness to the conscience. The written law has become a necessity for guidance to true knowledge of God and to God-pleasing activities. 3) The Teaching of Christ, sealed by holy baptism, heals the conscience from the wickedness with which sin has infected it (Heb. 10:22). The correct action of conscience returned to us is supported and elevated by following the teachings of Christ. 4) A healthy state and correct action of conscience is possible only in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, because every accepted wrong thought has an impact on the conscience - it deviates it from correct action. 5) They darken, dull, muffle, lull the conscience - arbitrary sins. Every sin that is not cleansed by repentance leaves a harmful impression on the conscience. Constant and arbitrary sinful life, as it were, kills it. It is impossible to kill your conscience. She will accompany a person until the Last Judgment of Christ: there she will expose her disobedience. 6) Conscience is a person’s rival, mentioned in the Gospel (Matthew 5:25; Hosea 5:11), because it opposes our illegal undertaking. But an immaculate conscience is a faithful witness (Prov. 14:25), delivering the soul from sins before death and from eternal torment after death. 7) Conscience is enlightened by study and refined by the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. A person’s resistance and inattention to the voice of conscience deprives him of spiritual freedom. Neglect of the reminders of conscience, generating insensibility, makes a person a slave of sin. 8) The sphere of manifestation of conscience embraces all aspects of a person’s life, all his life relationships and responsibilities: a) to God: fulfill all the commandments of God, both visible to everyone and invisible to no one, visible and known only to God alone and your conscience; b) to your neighbor: do not be content with the mere plausibility of your behavior towards your neighbors; Demand from yourself that your very conscience is satisfied with this behavior, so that not only your deeds, but also your heart are placed in the relationship towards your neighbor commanded by the Gospel; c) to things: avoid excess, luxury, negligence, remembering that all the things you use are God’s creations, God’s gifts to man; d) to yourself: do not forget that you are the image and likeness of God, that you are obliged to present this image in purity and holiness to God Himself. 9) Conscience is an unceasing, impartial guardian and reminder of our soul-saving feat; Following the voice of a clear conscience, a Christian is freed from eternal torment and acquires the joy of eternal communion with God, when the Lord accepts the human soul to Himself, recognizes in it its similarity with Himself, sees in it the beauty that He, by His infinite goodness, assimilated to it at creation, restored and multiplied at redemption, which He commanded to observe in immaculate integrity by removing all sin, keeping all the Gospel commandments. 926 Conscience is so important in a person’s spiritual life and when performing a soul-saving feat in life. Reviewing our presentation in this chapter of the basic views of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of the spiritual world and the conditions of spiritual salvation, we are amazed at the depth, liveliness and clarity of his religious and moral consciousness; intensity and content of his spiritual life. His living, deep and experienced faith in God, the spiritual world, spirituality and immortality of the human soul are, first of all, essential elements of his Orthodox Christian worldview. His faith, we believe, went through all the stages of growth of theoretical faith or mental faith, active faith and living, grace-filled faith, and, opening to his spiritual gaze the great mystery of life in God, at the same time clarified his gaze on the depth of human sinful fall, the tasks and meaning of human existence and the possibility of their implementation with a humble and decisive turn to God and the assistance of God’s gracious help through man’s assimilation of the saving mystery of the Divine redemption. And having learned all this both mentally and through active ascetic experience, Saint Ignatius embarked on the path of eternity, and defined temporary earthly life as a temporary wandering on the way to the heavenly fatherland, the passage of temporary life before the Face of the Eternal, in contemplation of the inevitable and longed-for eternity. He constantly sees this eternity before him and grieves over the world’s oblivion of eternity; about the darkening of human spiritual gaze, making the vision of the eternal difficult or even inaccessible. Through the action of the enemy of salvation, by God’s permission, the human heart is chained to earthly pursuits: some busy themselves with the acquisition of expensive and rare things and, having nailed their thoughts to them, alienated them from God. Others began to study various sciences and arts that were only suitable for the earth, and lost the essential knowledge about God. Still others took up acquiring money, growing gardens, vegetable gardens, arable land, meadows, and cattle breeding, and forgot God. The fourth were distracted from God by the decoration of their home and moved away from God. Others paid special attention to fasting and other bodily deeds, attaching special importance to crackers, mushrooms, cabbage, peas, and turned holy spiritual deeds into carnal ones. Others clung exclusively to church rites, eclipsing the spiritual side in the latter. People clung to the earth, earthly cares and material development, and began to organize the earth, as if it were their eternal dwelling. 927 People must constantly have eternity before their mental eyes and, in the field of temporary life, arrange their fate in eternity, using earthly life to acquire salvation. 928 And they live as if they were dead in soul, never thinking about the unspeakable future blessings and the fate of sinners, as if they were eternal on earth. 929 Humanity does not see its plight in moral and spiritual terms; it trumpets about its success, being blinded by success in material development for time and earth, having rejected Christian development for the spirit, for eternity, for God. A short-term earthly life is taken for eternity, all the forces of the soul and body are not exhausted by a person in order to prepare himself for eternity: they are exhausted, sacrificed to an unrealizable dream, exhausted to create the highest carnal well-being and bliss in an earthly hotel, as in the most durable eternal dwelling. 930 Meanwhile, the world of eternity is open to the gaze of the Christian ascetic. Its gates opened wide before the amazed eyes of the soul, and the eyes of the soul greedily rushed into these boundless spaces, drowning in them, looking at the newly opened, hitherto unfamiliar sight, riveted to it, cannot tear themselves away. Everyone living in the world appears to him not as permanent residents, but only as travelers; he is convinced that man’s purpose is not for earth, but for heaven. 931 Having himself been granted the grace-filled vision of eternity, Saint Ignatius confesses this vision in his writings and, approaching the end of his earthly wanderings, considers it his duty to draw up a spiritual will for the spiritual benefits with which the right hand of God has granted him. 932 Living a temporary life for eternity, willingly knowing the thorniness of the soul-saving path, but also its joy and consolation, Saint Ignatius with his writings convinces and teaches us life in Christ, reveals the path of spiritual salvation in relation to the conditions of our life, he teaches his reader to “walk with God”, to live before the Face of the Eternal. Chapter two. The real side of spiritual life (The sinful condition of man) “Blessed is the soul that has seen the sin nesting within itself, blessed is the soul that has seen in itself the fall of the forefathers, the decay of the old Adam! Blessed is the soul that has recognized itself as completely unworthy of God, that has condemned itself as damned and sinful: it is: –: on the path of salvation, there is no self-delusion in it. (Ascetic experiences, vol.: II:, p. 123). It is not the tasks of a theological-psychological treatise, nor a systematic presentation of the teaching of the Orthodox Church on sin and virtue, that the Most Reverend Ignatius pursues in his works; his task is self-knowledge and calling his neighbors to it, arousing in himself and his neighbors a repentant mood, ascetic humility and a thirst for spiritual renewal for union with God. He does not place considerations of his own mind and personal observation as the basis for his soul-saving conversations - in this respect, as in others, he is full of humility - but the teaching of the Word of God, the voice of the Holy Fathers and ascetics, the call of the Holy One. The Orthodox Church in the perception of personal, arduous ascetic life. A living faith in God and yearning for a spiritual thirst for eternal salvation, having developed in the soul of Ignatius Brianchaninov even during the days of his childhood in his parents’ house, in the shady gardens of the village of Pokrovskoye, in the harsh grandeur of northern nature, became the dominant mood of his spirit, giving him the blissful fate of life in God even within the confines of his earthly wanderings and concentrating all his forces on the understanding and accomplishment of spiritual salvation, on the coordination of temporary life with the inscrutable paths of the Eternal, indicated for those seeking salvation in the sources of Divine revelation. By setting our most important task in this chapter to present the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on sin, we strive mainly to clarify and revive for us the Saint’s views on the real side of mental life, on the sinfulness of fallen human nature in its internal and external expressions. Full of living faith in God, a reverent zealot for spiritual salvation, the author of “Ascetic Experiences” and “Ascetic Sermons” constantly feels the need to know human nature in its essence and exemplary tasks, for this knowledge is of paramount importance, for the holiness desired by man and reunification with God depends on this knowledge. 933 His self-examining spiritual gaze sees in himself, predominantly, incessant sin, as an incessant violation of the most holy commandments of God the Creator and Redeemer. And God sees human sins, sees them all, sees their countlessness, and man, when looking at his spiritual humiliation in the eyes of the All-Holy and All-Perfect God, experiences horror, but at the same time, the consciousness of God’s wonderful forbearance brings him into grateful tenderness and awakens in him a repentant feeling. 934 As the highest motive for the study of spiritual nature and life, Bishop Ignatius constantly faces the hope of spiritual renewal and the consciousness, from this point of view, of the value of real life: the call of repentance and renewal is constantly heard in his soul, and knowledge of God and reconciliation with Him through the Redeemer is an essential knowledge and deed for him. 935 He warns his spiritual brothers against the danger of wasting their lives in empty pursuits, 936 and at the same time he hopes to clarify for himself the path of salvation, for, “I noticed,” he says, “that those subjects of spiritual teaching that I will set out in writing are especially explained for myself and sometimes are not useful for my beloved brothers until the present day of exposition,” and he writes words about sin and repentance - in excitement yourself and to exhort yourself and others to an ascetic life.” 937 The sources of knowledge of the moral state of the human soul for Bishop Ignatius are the Word of God, especially the Holy Gospel, the works of St. Fathers, reading Divine books in general, and personal ascetic spiritual experience, and under all these conditions, the entire vast area of ​​human life and the book of nature are also sources of self-knowledge and self-reproof. Excited by questions about the meaning and purpose of life and the conditions for their fulfillment in life, a person experiences an urgent need for someone to declare and explain to him his purpose, to show him the correct activity and thereby protect him from activity without meaning and without purpose. This urgent need, this necessity, was recognized by God Himself. He recognized it and gave people a frank teaching that leads us to knowledge that is inaccessible to our own achievement. In the revealed teaching, God revealed Himself to man, to the extent that the unlimited and inexplicable God can be explained and revealed to a limited man. In the revealed teaching, God revealed to man the meaning and purpose of man, his relationship to God and to the visible and invisible worlds. Divine revealed teaching, being compared with the knowledge gained by a person by an accurate examination of himself, is confirmed by this knowledge and confirms it. Knowledge, confirmed by one another, appears before humanity in the bright light of irrefutable truth. 938 Being the source of knowledge of God and self-knowledge for man, Sacred and Holy Scripture imparts to man the power of God. This power, this life for man is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Holy and Holy Scriptures, dwelling in the commandments of the Gospel. He who constantly delves into Scripture studies it in humility of spirit, asking God for understanding through prayer; whoever directs all his deeds, all the hidden movements of his soul according to the Gospel commandments, will certainly become a partaker of the Holy Spirit living in them. 939 The Holy and Holy Scriptures provide a person with a criterion for self-esteem and guide him in correct and impartial self-knowledge, and personal spiritual experience provides sufficient material for this self-esteem. Comparing the broadcast of the Word of God, the Holy Fathers, ascetics and the edification of St. Orthodox Church with the states of his spirit revealed through self-examination, a person who is not alien to the Christian ascetic feat receives: 1) the best knowledge of his current moral state, recognizes himself; 2) the consciousness of reflection in one’s personal sinfulness - the fall of the primordial, universal humankind; 3) defines for himself the moral obligation to fight sin in order to restore lost communication with God, as a self-sufficient and highest life task; 4) finds out for himself the conditions and means of its moral resolution. The Reverend Ignatius often and in detail draws the attention of a zealot of salvation to the points just mentioned, especially to self-knowledge through reading the Holy Gospel. The Holy Gospel, he says, can be likened to a mirror. Each of us, if he wants, will see in it the state of his soul and that omnipotent healing that is offered by the omnipotent doctor - God. In the mirror of the Gospel we see a sinner carried away by passions; condemned by men, but justified by God for his faith and true repentance. 940 When reading the Gospel, you do not need to look for pleasure, delight, brilliant thoughts, you need to look for a vision of the infallible holy Truth. Do not be content with just fruitless reading of the Gospel, St. Ignatius instructs, try to fulfill its commandments, read it with deeds. This is the book of life and one must read it with life. Do not think that without reason the most sacred of books, the Four Gospels, begins with the Gospel of Matthew and ends with the Gospel of John. Matthew teaches more how to do the will of God, and his instructions are especially appropriate for those beginning the path of God; John sets out an image of the union of God with man, renewed by the commandments, which is available to those who have succeeded on the path of God. When opening a book to read - the Holy Gospel, remember that it will decide your eternal fate. We will be judged by it, and, depending on how we were here on earth in relation to it, we will receive either eternal bliss or eternal punishment. God revealed His will to an insignificant speck of dust - man! The book in which this great and all-holy will is set forth is in your hands. You can accept or reject the will of your Creator and Savior, depending on how you please. Your eternal life and eternal death are in your hands: judge how much you need to be careful and prudent. Don't play with your eternal fate! Pray in contrition of spirit to the Lord that He would open your eyes to see the miracles hidden in His law, which is the Gospel. Eyes are opened and one sees the miraculous healing of the soul from sin, accomplished by the Word of God. The healing of bodily ailments was only proof of the healing of the soul, proof for carnal people, for minds blinded by sensuality. Read the Gospel with extreme reverence and attention. Do not consider anything in it unimportant or unworthy of consideration. Every iota of it emits a ray of life. Neglect of life is death. Reading about the lepers, the paralytic, the blind, the lame, the demoniac, whom the Lord healed, think that your soul, bearing the many different sores of sin, being held captive by demons, is like these sick people. Learn from the Gospel to believe that the Lord who healed them will also heal you if you diligently beg Him for your healing. Acquire such a disposition of soul that you will be able to receive healing. Those who have decided to leave it are able to receive it by confessing their sinfulness (John 9:39–41). A proud righteous person, that is, a sinner who does not see his sinfulness, does not need a Savior, he is useless (Matt. 9:13). The sight of sins, the sight of the fall in which the entire human race finds itself, is a special gift of God. Ask for this gift for yourself, and the book of the Heavenly Doctor – the Gospel – will become clearer to you. Try to assimilate the Gospel to your mind and heart, so that your mind, so to speak, floats in it, lives in it: then your activity will conveniently become evangelical. This can be achieved by constant reverent reading and study of the Gospel. Bishop Ignatius points to the example of people who carefully studied the Gospel. The Monk Pachomius the Great, one of the most famous ancient Fathers, knew the Holy Gospel by heart and charged his disciples, by the revelation of God, with an indispensable duty to memorize it. Thus, the Gospel accompanied them everywhere, constantly guiding them. St. Tikhon of Voronezh knew the Gospel by heart. And now, says Vladyka Ignatius, why shouldn’t Christian educators decorate the memory of an innocent child with the Gospel, rather than litter it with the study of Aesop’s fables and other insignificances! What happiness, what wealth - acquiring the Gospel by memory! It is impossible to foresee the upheavals and disasters that could happen to us during our earthly life. The Gospel, which belongs to memory, is read to the blind, accompanies the prisoner to prison, speaks to the farmer in the field irrigated by his sweat; instructs the judge during his presence, 941 guides the merchant at the auction, entertains the sick during tedious insomnia and severe loneliness. “On whom will I look but to him who is meek and silent and trembles at My words” (Is. 64:2) says the Lord. Be this way regarding the Gospel and the Lord present in it. Leave your sinful life, leave earthly passions and pleasures, renounce your soul, then the Gospel will become accessible and understandable to you. For one who loves his soul, for one who does not dare to self-sacrifice, the Gospel is closed: he reads the letter, but the word of life, like spirit, remains for him under an impenetrable veil. When the Lord was on earth in holy flesh, many saw Him and, together, did not see Him. What is the use when a person looks with the eyes of his body, which he has in common with animals, but sees nothing with the eyes of his soul - with his mind and heart. And now many read the Gospel every day, and some have never read it, don’t know it at all! The Gospel, said a certain venerable desert dweller, is read with a pure mind and understood as it is fulfilled by deeds. But the exact and perfect revelation of the Gospel cannot be acquired within oneself through one’s own efforts: this is the Gift of Christ. The Holy Spirit, having indwelled His true and faithful servant, makes him both a perfect reader and a true doer of the Gospel. The Gospel is a depiction of the properties of the new man, who is the Lord from heaven. This new man is God by nature. He makes His holy tribe of people, who believe in Him and are transformed by Him, into gods through goodness. 942 This is the meaning of the grace-filled reading of the Holy Gospel in the understanding of Bishop Ignatius. Instructions in the spirit of the above are often heard in the works of Bishop Ignatius. He considers turning to the Word of God a necessary condition for assessing a person’s moral personality. If a good thought comes to you, he says, stop; Do not rush to fulfill it recklessly or thoughtlessly. Do you feel any good attraction in your heart? stop; don’t dare to get carried away by him. Master the Gospel. Consider whether your good thought and your good desire of heart agree with the all-holy teaching of the Lord. You will soon see that there is no agreement between the good of the Gospel and the good of fallen human nature. The good of our fallen nature is mixed with evil, and therefore this good itself has become evil, just as tasty and healthy food becomes poison when it is mixed with poison. Be careful to do the good of fallen nature! By doing this good, you will develop your fall, you will develop conceit and pride, you will achieve the closest resemblance to demons. On the contrary, by doing the good of the Gospel, as a true and faithful disciple of the God-man, you will become like the God-man. 943 The study of the Gospel, according to the advice of Bishop Ignatius, should begin with the study of the commandments of the Lord in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and then move on to the study of the other Scriptures of the New Testament, which can all be called the Gospel, as containing one Gospel teaching. 944 Thus, careful study of the Word of God, accompanied by the feat of a pious life and prayerful appeal to God, is, with the assistance of the grace of God, the best means of Christian self-knowledge and understanding of the worldly goal of life and the means of its implementation. In addition to this, the works of St. Fathers and spirit-bearing men are indicated by His Grace Ignatius as a very important guide in self-knowledge and spiritual Christian deed. Natural human knowledge seems insufficient for a person to determine the essence and goals of human life. In this regard, a person receives the highest teaching from the sacred tradition of the Orthodox Church. 945 Following in his spiritual Christian life the instructions of the Word of God, an Orthodox Christian, in understanding the latter, must be guided by the interpretations of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church. Do not dare to interpret the Gospel and other books of Holy Scripture yourself, says Bishop Ignatius. Scripture spoken by St. By the Prophets and Apostles, not arbitrarily, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How could it not be crazy to interpret it arbitrarily? The Holy Spirit, who spoke the Word of God through the Prophets and Apostles, interpreted it through the Holy Fathers. Both the Word of God and its interpretation are the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the only interpretation accepted by the Holy Orthodox Church. Only this one interpretation is accepted by her true children. Whoever explains the Gospel and all Scripture arbitrarily, thereby rejects the interpretation of it by the Holy Fathers and the Holy Spirit. Whoever rejects the interpretation of Scripture by the Holy Spirit, without any doubt rejects Holy Scripture itself. And the Word of God, the word of salvation, for its daring interpreters, stinks into death, like a two-edged sword, with which they pierce themselves into eternal destruction. With them Apius, Nestorius, Eutyches and other heretics killed themselves forever, falling into blasphemy with their arbitrary and impudent interpretation of Scripture. 946 Bishop Ignatius considers reading the Holy Fathers a necessary guide to understanding the Gospel, to understanding and mastering the path of salvation, to deep self-knowledge. His numerous instructions regarding the soul-saving benefits of reading the Holy Fathers are no less touching, deep and original than the instructions regarding reading the Word of God. Reading the works of the Holy Fathers has the highest value: 1) because it introduces the reader into spiritual communication with them, making them a participant in their mood, 2) because it prepares and guides in the reading of the Holy Gospel and 3), most importantly, because it puts the reader on the true path of spiritual salvation and leads along it. Conversation and the company of neighbors have a great effect on a person, says Saint Ignatius. A conversation and acquaintance with scientists reveals a lot of information: with a poet - a lot of sublime thoughts and feelings, with a traveler - a lot of knowledge about countries, about the morals and customs of people. Obviously: conversation and acquaintance with saints communicates holiness. From now on, he instructs, get to know the saints. Do you want to belong to their society in heaven, do you want to be a participant in their bliss? From now on, enter into communication with them. When you leave the church of your body, they will accept you as their acquaintance, as their friend. There is no closer acquaintance, no closer connection than the connection by unity of thoughts, unity of feelings, unity of purpose. Where there is unanimity, there is certainly unanimity, there is certainly one goal, equal success in achieving the goal. Assimilate the thoughts and spirit of the Holy Fathers by reading their writings. The Holy Fathers achieved their goal - salvation. And you achieve this goal in the natural course of things. As one of one mind and one with the Holy Fathers, you will be saved. Heaven received the Holy Fathers into its blessed bosom. By this he testified that the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of the Holy Fathers were pleasing to him. The Holy Fathers expressed their thoughts, their hearts, their way of acting in their writings. This means: what a true guide to heaven, attested by heaven itself, the writings of the Fathers. The writings of the Holy Fathers were all compiled under the inspiration or influence of the Holy Spirit. Wonderful harmony in them, wonderful anointing! Anyone who is guided by them is, without any doubt, guided by the Holy Spirit. All the waters of the earth flow into the ocean, and perhaps the ocean serves as the beginning for all. waters of the earth. The Scriptures of the Fathers are all united in the Gospel, all tend to teach us the exact fulfillment of the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ; of all of them, both the source and the end is the Holy Gospel. The Holy Fathers teach how to approach the Gospel, how to read it, how to understand it correctly, what helps and what hinders understanding it. And therefore, first, spend more time reading the Holy Fathers. When they teach you to read the Gospel, then read the Gospel primarily. Do not consider reading the Gospel alone sufficient for yourself, without reading the Holy Fathers. This is a proud, dangerous thought. It is better to let the Holy Fathers lead you to the Gospel, like their beloved child, who has received preliminary upbringing and education through their writings. Many, all of them, who madly and arrogantly rejected the Holy Fathers, who approached the Gospel directly, with blind audacity, with an unclean mind and heart, fell into a disastrous error. The Gospel rejected them: it admits only the humble. Reading the Scriptures of the Fathers is the parent and king of all virtues. From reading the scriptures of the Fathers we learn the true understanding of the Holy Scriptures, legal faith, living according to the commandments of the Gospel, the deep respect that we should have for the commandments of the Gospel, in a word, salvation and Christian perfection. Reading the fatherly writings, in derogation of spiritual mentors, became the main guide for those wishing to be saved and even achieve Christian perfection. The books of the Holy Fathers, as one of them put it, are like a mirror: by looking at them carefully and often, the soul can see all its shortcomings. Again, these books are like a rich collection of medical remedies: in it the soul can find saving medicine for each of its ailments. Therefore, everyone choose for themselves the reading of the Fathers that corresponds to their way of life. Let the hermit read the Fathers who wrote about silence, and the monk living in a dormitory read the Fathers who wrote instructions for monastic dormitories; a Christian living in the middle of the world - the Holy Fathers, who delivered their teachings for all of Christianity in general. Everyone, no matter what your rank, draw abundant instruction from the writings of the Fathers. Reading that suits your lifestyle is a must. Otherwise, you will be filled with thoughts, although holy, but unfulfilled by deed itself, arousing fruitless activity only in the imagination and desire; works of piety that are appropriate to your way of life will slip out of your hands. Not only will you become a fruitless dreamer, but your thoughts, being in constant contradiction with the circle of actions, will certainly give rise to confusion in your heart, and uncertainty in your behavior, painful, harmful for you and for your neighbors. If you incorrectly read the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, you can easily deviate from the path of salvation into impassable jungles and deep abysses, which is what happened to many. 947 From the creations of the patrists, self-sacrifice breathes, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit breathes, deadening passions. The sons of the world flee from this fragrance, just as wasps fly away from smoking incense. Bishop Ignatius mourns the fact that the works of Western writers, who wrote from a state of self-delusion, find numerous readers, are translated more than once into Russian, published, and reprinted; Loud praises are spoken, written and published; that which is full of deadly poison is approved and approved. The writings of the Holy Fathers have been forgotten. The fact that they have long been accepted by the Holy Church, recognized as the only correct guide in ascetic life, is not accepted in the least with respect. Their works are criticized, inconsistencies and contradictions with the Holy Scriptures are found in them. The reason for all this is that the Holy Fathers were instructed by the Holy Spirit, that they rejected the wisdom of the world in order to acquire the wisdom of the Spirit. 948 Along with studying the Word of God and reading the patristic works, personal ascetic experience developed under the guidance of the Word of God and church tradition is of great importance in determining one’s moral state. Sometimes languishing for a long time in an unresolved struggle with passions and spirits, in the midst of hope and hopelessness, in the midst of private victories and defeats, in this difficult time the ascetics thoroughly learn the experimental knowledge of various passions and demonic intrigues; thoroughly learn the Gospel commandments, which become their property through prolonged and careful study. In this difficult time, ascetics thoroughly prepare to receive and preserve Divine grace. 949 The Reverend Ignatius repeatedly distinguishes between knowledge of the spiritual path - theoretical and practical. 950 Even that grace-filled knowledge of the path of salvation, which is communicated to a person in the Word of God and the tradition of the Church, will not be true knowledge and will not bring a person significant benefit that belongs to him, if it is determined only by theoretical goals and is not simultaneously combined with the personal active feat of the knower. True spiritual knowledge is distinguished by clarity and distinctness regarding the purpose of a person’s spiritual life, and on the part of the latter it is accompanied by a feeling of deep humility and repentance. Those, says the Most Reverend Ignatius in the words of the Climacus, who try to learn Christ’s teaching not for himself, but for an extraneous, earthly purpose, for the purpose of acquiring self-interest or honor, will never be able to receive true spiritual reason, because it is a gift of God, given to the humble in proportion to their faith, purification from passions and self-sacrifice. If you see that those who call themselves teachers and pretend to know Christ indulge in disputes, envy, slander, suspicion, hatred and other passions, then know that they have only dead knowledge from hearing, and their minds and hearts are in darkness and illness, as unhealed and unrefined by doing the commandments of the Gospel. Who has realized that the human race is in decline, that the earth is the place of our exile, our prison, where, after staying for a short time, we emerge to receive either eternal bliss or eternal execution. He, of course, also knew that man’s only treasure on earth is Christ, the Savior of the lost. Consequently, the only and invaluable acquisition of a person on earth is by knowing Christ and assimilation to Christ. 951 Personal spiritual experience in the matter of knowing the ways of salvation cannot be replaced by any earthly learning, for the latter, having as its origin the fall of humanity, cannot take any part in the matter of renewing Humanity by the Redeemer, and internal spiritual work is higher than the physical. 952 And offering his readers a teaching about human nature in its fallen state, about its premium tasks of renewal and reunification with God, about the conditions of soul-saving feat, His Grace Ignatius, in addition to guidance from the Word of God and Sacred Tradition, relies on the personal experience of a difficult life and with his words tries to arouse the zeal of spiritual salvation, addressing his contemporaries with the verbs of eternal life, in relation to modern times. He calls his writings a spiritual testament to his brothers for spiritual inheritance, his mysterious confession and, asking to accept the proposed teaching with attention and Christian condescension, Bishop Ignatius, however, testifies that his teaching is borrowed from the holy teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, and those who became theoretically and experimentally acquainted with the teaching of the Gospel, have internalized this teaching. As a traveler who has undergone terrible disasters on a difficult and long journey, Bishop Ignatius conveys his observations to those who intend to undertake a similar journey, or have already embarked on the journey without knowing it, or having become familiar with it only superficially from outdated descriptions. The changes made in the proposed teaching do not concern the essence, but the statement, which has a significant impact on the essence; The teaching of Bishop Ignatius on salvation is intended to indicate how one should use the writings of the ancients and apply them to modern times, avoiding the false position with its consequences into which anyone who does not understand and does not notice the need for application is placed. 953 Thus, the above judgments of Bishop Ignatius come down to the recognition of the greatest importance in a person’s study of his spiritual life, and the means of self-knowledge are gracious and humble attention to the Word of God and church tradition, along with personal continuous attention to oneself. What do these sources of self-knowledge reveal to the zealot of spiritual salvation in relation to the real side of a person’s spiritual life - the individual and society? Deepening into the feat of spiritual salvation, a critical examination of one’s inner spiritual life and outer life under the guidance of the Word of God and church tradition, with the assistance of God’s grace, reveals to a person the true presence of his own spiritual world and the true picture of outer life - personal and social. Both our internal personal life and our external one, depending on the first, give, according to the observations of Bishop Ignatius, a difficult picture of the sinful fall of mankind, clarify its cause, essence and results, as a result of which the real side of the spiritual life of mankind in a state of fall becomes clear, and in connection with this our spiritual gaze becomes clearer in relation to the definition of the external life of mankind. Then, from a spiritual Christian point of view, man’s struggle with the sin of his nature is determined in order to return the latter to a state of pristine purity. Thus, in the psychology of a sinful person, two sides are outlined - the fight against sin and the development of good. Through the action of Divine grace, the spiritual gaze of a zealot for salvation reveals the fall of humanity in general and the penetration of sin into all aspects of mental life, one’s own spiritual fall in particular; it becomes clear that we are all poisoned by sin, that our very nature is poisoned by it; we see then the effect on ourselves and on humanity of the fallen angels and the grave captivity in which we are among these enemies of God and ours. For a gaze enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, two areas of life become clear - the kingdom of sin and the kingdom of virtue, the children of God and the children of the devil become clear; the sign of their difference is clear, deception is impossible. Those who lead an arbitrary sinful life, drowning in carnal pleasures, even if they are called Christians, are the children of the devil; on the contrary, the sign of the children of God is that they lead their lives according to the will of the Gospel and the Holy Church, and the sins into which they fall due to weakness are hastily healed by repentance. 954 Having noted two kingdoms in the human environment - the kingdom of the children of God and the kingdom of the spirit of evil, His Grace Ignatius, due to the special nature of his views on the path of salvation, dwells with exceptional attention on the image of the sinful kingdom. This exclusive attention to the state of sinfulness is explained by the view of Ignatius Brianchaninov that in order to arouse in himself a thirst for soul-saving feat, a person needs not so much the contemplation of the Kingdom of God's glory as the consciousness of his sins, the arousal of repentance and humility. In view of this, his “Ascetic Sermon” is primarily a call to repentance and faith in the Gospel, and his “Ascetic experiences” are primarily an understanding of the essence of sin, its manifestations in the human soul, its external reflections and the fruitful struggle against it with the help of God. In further expounding the psychology of sin, we set ourselves the immediate task of noting: 1) the judgments of Vladyka Ignatius on the issue of the essence of sin, 2) his understanding of the manifestation of sin in the human soul and its reflection in the external life of humanity and the order of our spiritual life in a sinful state. A deep and sincere desire for spiritual salvation can be realized, first of all, provided that the correct point of view on one’s spiritual state is established. The ascetic of Christ, in order to correctly judge himself and act correctly regarding himself, has the necessary need for a correct concept of his nature. 955 By establishing this correct concept of our nature in a state of sinful damage, we thereby approach the definition of the essence and conditions of salvation. Ignatius Brianchaninov’s concepts about spiritual life, as we know, developed under unusual conditions. It was not the systematic, and therefore predominantly theoretical, study of the Word of God and church tradition that preceded the formation of the views of Saint Ignatius, but his long, many-year personal feat of spiritual life in the guidance of the Word of God, the attentive, unhurried and experienced study of the Holy Fathers and ascetics, his concepts of spiritual life were formed on the basis of spiritual experience in the grace-filled communion with God and under the guidance of St. The Orthodox Church, and therefore, in the presentation of all this, they acquire in our eyes the highest, indisputable authority, guiding significance in relation to our personal soul-saving feat. The essence of good and evil is defined by Ignatius Brianchaninov from the point of view of Communion with God, as the greatest human good. It is a great and blessed thing when we magnify Christ within ourselves. The great misfortune is the misfortune that consists in alienation from God both in time and in eternity, when we develop our fallen self. A great misfortune for man is alienation from God both in time and eternity. 956 Due to disobedience to God, violation of God’s commandments, violation of unity with God, he deprived himself of dignity and grace. 957 and entered into communication with the devil and the kingdom of evil. 958 Sin and fallen spirits rule in a person who is in a sinful state. His hands and feet are tied, that is, he has lost the ability to live a life pleasing to God and to achieve spiritual success. 959 Thus, according to the views of Ignatius Brianchaninov, the essence of sinful evil in man lies in the loss of communion with God, in moving away from God, in drawing closer to the devil in the deprivation of Divine grace and, as a result, in the perversion of the entire spiritual nature and in the weakening of the ability to do good. This is the greatest evil for man. Further, depicting the sinful state of man according to the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov, we will constantly see how far he is from the heterodox Orthodox understanding of the Fall and salvation, how isolated his purely Orthodox view of the spiritual life of man is. It is not the violation of the covenant-contract with God that constitutes evil in itself, but the loss of saving communication with God and the direction of all spiritual life along self-inflicted paths leading to destruction. In this regard, the salvation of man is not the restoration of the covenant-contract, but the return of communion with God and the approach of Divine grace to man with a corresponding further reflection on the spiritual and external activity of man. The essential influence of the sinful state on the nature and life of a person sufficiently motivates for him the need for self-knowledge in this state for the most decisive struggle against evil. The depth of the sinful fall and its nature and consequences make saving self-knowledge very difficult, and the very vision of one’s sin becomes possible only with the beneficial assistance of Divine grace at the prayerful call of the sinner. 960 In view of this and due to his special view of the course of spiritual life, His Grace Ignatius devotes especially much attention to the knowledge of the sinful nature of man - “the vision of his sin”, very often coinciding on this issue with the teaching of other Orthodox theologians, sometimes isolating himself from them - not in the essence of his views, but in his special illumination of the course of salvation and the action of sin in man from the point of view of his ascetic-active experience. In order to avoid the great misfortune of alienation from God in time and eternity, it is necessary to take the right and holy paths. In order to acquire correct Christian activity, it is necessary, says Vladyka Ignatius, to study human nature in its three states: in the state after creation - natural, in the state after the fall - subnatural, in the state after redemption - in the supernatural. Only then can the activity of a Christian be correct, soul-saving, God-pleasing, when he acts, or tries to act, according to the laws of renewed human nature. 961 To understand the sinful state of human nature, Bishop Ignatius uses a comparison with the pre-sin state. In the state after creation, human nature was not at all involved in evil. One whole goodness lived and acted in him. Humanity had no experienced concept of evil. It only knew that evil exists, that the experimental knowledge of evil is detrimental to humanity. Theoretical, superficial knowledge of evil could not have any harmful influence on human nature, as dead knowledge, balanced by ignorance in relation to the internal and external activities of man. The fall of man took place through the active, experienced knowledge of evil; The fall of man lies in the active, experimental knowledge of evil, in the assimilation of evil. Thus, the theoretical concept of poison does not cause death, on the contrary, it warns against it; practical knowledge of poison, i.e. tasting it, brings death. 962 The reason for the spiritual fall of man is the action of the spirit of evil on man, perceived by the voluntary attraction of the human spirit to evil. Evil appeared in the world from the free will of rational creatures. They conceived evil within themselves and gave birth to it into its negative existence - spirits. They communicated the poison of evil to the entire human race, infecting the root of the race - the forefather - with evil, seducing the forefather with the promise of a state equal to God. 963 Thus, the dark spirits of malice committed two grave crimes: the first was the reason for their eruption from the host of holy Angels; the second crime was the reason for their irrevocable rejection. In heaven they rebelled against God; their leader, blinded by conceit, wanted to become equal to God. For a criminal attempt, overthrown from heaven to heaven, they envied the bliss of the newly created man and committed a new crime: having seduced man, they dragged him into their fall. 964 The general state of human nature after the fall is characterized by a mixture of good and evil. In fallen human nature, good is mixed with evil. The evil that has come into man is so mixed and merged with the natural good of man that natural good can never act separately, without evil also acting together. A person is poisoned by the taste of sin, that is, by the experimental knowledge of evil. The poison has penetrated into all members of the body, into all the powers and properties of the soul: both the body, the heart, and the mind are affected by a sinful illness. The mind was sound before the fall; After the fall, among all people, without exception, it became false and must be rejected in order to be saved. The heart was kind before the fall; after the fall, his good was mixed with evil, and in order to be saved it must be rejected as defiled. Because of the sinful infection, everything in man has become disordered; everyone is acting incorrectly; everything operates under the influence of lies and self-delusion. This is how his will works; This is how all his heartfelt feelings operate; This is how all his thoughts operate. Deep is our fall! 965 No matter how difficult the picture of the spiritual state of a person infected with the poison of sin is, it is not bleak compared to the state of evil spirits and carries within itself a guarantee of revival even from a purely subjective psychological side, and precisely because the damage to people lies in the mixing of good with evil in them, while the damage to fallen spirits lies in the complete predominance of evil, in the complete absence of good. Further, the limitation of the human spirit, both in essence, in comparison with the fallen angels, and in its imprisonment in a plump and fleshy body, is a condition for the lesser sinfulness of man in comparison with that of evil spirits. Finally, the very limitations of human earthly existence and its short duration determine a person’s lower immersion in the mire of sin compared to the spirits of evil, because people must inevitably be satisfied with the experience in evil that they acquire during a short earthly life; their evil intentions are destroyed by themselves at the hour when they involuntarily leave the field of earthly life, being claimed for the judgment of God and for eternity. Demons, on the contrary, are allowed to remain on Earth from the time of their final fall until the end of the world. From here it is easy to imagine what experience in creating evil they acquired over such a long time, given their abilities and constant malicious intent, not in the least dissolved by any good aspiration or passion. 966 Thus, the very limitations of man in essence, the whiteness of his flesh, the comparative shortness of his earthly existence determine the lesser sinfulness of man in comparison with demons, the less depth of evil principles in him, and nevertheless, the sinful infection of the human spirit is so significant and essential, evil has so penetrated into the very beginning of man that the separation of incoming evil from natural good by one’s own efforts has become impossible for man, 967 evil necessarily penetrates from nature, distorts its goodness and overthrows the plans of the mind, which vainly attempts to introduce true service to God into the spiritual church. From his very birth, a person does not have a single deed, not a single word, not a single thought, not a single feeling, even for the shortest minute, in which there would be good without a greater or lesser admixture of evil. 968 But human nature was granted renewal through the redemptive feat of Christ the Savior. What is its state after renewal, what is the effect of redemptive grace in relation to human nature, how does evil relate to human nature renewed by Christ? Answering these questions, Bishop Ignatius depicts to us the spiritual state of man after redemption. Human nature is renewed through the Redemption. The God-man renewed it with Himself and in Himself. Such human nature renewed by the Lord is grafted, so to speak, onto fallen nature through baptism. Baptism, without destroying nature, destroys its fallen state, without making nature different, it changes its state by introducing human nature to the nature of God. Baptism is at the same time mortification and quickening - together both burial and birth. The sinful damage of the fallen nature is immersed in the baptismal font, the sinful damage of the fallen nature is buried and dies, and a renewed nature rises from the font; The son of the old Adam plunges into the font, and the son of the New Adam emerges from the font. The Holy Spirit, having received into the font of baptism a carnal man, as man became before the fall, removes from the font the same man, but now spiritual, killing the sinful carnal state in him and giving birth to a spiritual one. At baptism, a person is forgiven his original sin, borrowed from his forefathers, and his own sins committed before baptism. At baptism, a person is granted spiritual freedom: he is no longer raped by sin, but can choose good or evil at will. It is left to the will of a baptized person to either remain the church of God and be free from Satan, or to remove God from himself and again become the dwelling place of Satan. At baptism, the grace of the All-Holy Spirit is poured out on a person abundantly, which departed from the one who transgressed the commandment of God in paradise, from the fallen angel who followed the sinful mind and will. Grace again approaches the one redeemed by the blood of the God-man, the one who is reconciled with God, the one who renounces his mind and will, the one who buries in the baptismal font the attractions of fallen nature, his life the cause of death. A baptized person, doing good that belongs to a renewed nature, develops in himself the grace of the All-Holy Spirit received at baptism, which, being unchangeable in itself, shines brighter in a person as he does Christ's good: just as a ray of sunshine, unchangeable in itself, shines brighter as the sky is cleared of clouds. On the contrary, by doing evil after baptism, bringing activity to fallen nature, reviving it, a person loses more or less spiritual freedom: sin again gains violent power over people; the devil again enters into man and becomes his ruler and leader. Delivered from the sorrowful and difficult captivity by the almighty right hand of God, he again appears in chains, in captivity, in prison, in hell, of his own free will. 969 The action of Divine grace in man The Right Reverend Ignatius represents by the image of grafting a twig from a noble apple tree onto a wild apple tree, with preliminary cutting off the branches of the wild apple tree, but at the same time preserving the natural trunk, which draws juices from the earth through natural roots - in a word, inextricably unites one’s life with the life of the natural tree. Such a tree begins to bear excellent fruits, which belong to the natural tree, and at the same time are completely different from the fruits brought by the natural tree in its wild state. Then, during the entire existence of the tree in the garden, the gardener carefully observes that branches belonging to the natural tree do not come out of the trunk and from the root, because it will again bear its worthless fruit, and, attracting juices into itself, they will take them away from the grafted branches, take away from these branches the power to bear their beautiful fruit, dry them out, and destroy them. To maintain dignity, health and strength in an apple tree, it is necessary that all its branches grow solely from a grafted twig. A rite similar to the grafting of a noble branch onto a wild apple tree is performed in the sacrament of baptism with the person being baptized; The same behavior of a gardener in relation to a grafted apple tree should be performed in relation to a baptized person. In baptism, our existence, which begins with conception in iniquities and birth in sins, is not cut off: the body of sin is cut off, the carnal and spiritual state of nature is cut off, which can produce good only when mixed with evil; human nature renewed by the God-man is grafted into being, into life, into the essence of man. 970 The son of the primordial Adam comes to life and is resurrected through holy baptism, but no longer in the state of purity and holiness in which Adam was created: he comes to life and is resurrected in an incomparably higher state, in the state delivered to humanity by God, who accepted humanity. People renewed by baptism are clothed not in the original, immaculate image of the primordial man, but in the image of the heavenly man, the God-man. 971 This sublime change in human nature through the mysterious grace of holy baptism is quite clear, can be fully felt; however, this change remains unknown to most Christians: we are baptized in infancy, from childhood we indulge in activities that belong to the transitory world and fallen nature, we darken the spiritual gift given by holy baptism, just as the radiance of the sun is darkened by thick clouds. But the gift is not destroyed: it continues to reside in us throughout our earthly life. This way the sun, covered by clouds, is not destroyed and continues to exist. Only a baptized person will leave the activity of the fallen nature, begin to wash away his sins with tears of repentance, crucify the flesh with passions and lusts, enter the field of activity of the New Man, the gift of the Spirit again begins to reveal its presence in the baptized person, develop, and prevail. Purification by repentance is the consequence and effect of grace implanted by baptism. Repentance is a renewal, a return to the state produced by baptism. One who has been cleansed by repentance can have an experienced understanding of the change produced in a person by baptism. 972 Thus, through Christian baptism, sinful man is put off the old man and partakes of the holy grace of redemption. This instillation of the grace of redemption seems noticeably tangible and naturally understandable for an adult who has been baptized in the fullness of conscious life, but it is not entirely conscious for those who have been baptized in infancy, or an arbitrary turn to sin with the gradual growth of a person, under the influence of the tempting conditions of external life, obscures the saving gift of God’s grace in the human soul. But this gift is proclaimed to the soul, renewed in it in the saving mystery of repentance. And those of us who have been honored with sincere, deep and conscious repentance are able to understand and feel within ourselves the action of the regenerating grace of God. 973 Giving a general description of the three states of man in relation to good and evil: after creation, after the Fall and after redemption, Bishop Ignatius foresees the naturalness of the question: what relation does renewed man have to evil? He cannot fail to have an accurate knowledge of evil. We know that innocent human nature, in its state after creation, barely received such knowledge before it perished from it. It is all the more necessary to know the attitude of the renewed nature to the knowledge of evil. 974 Ignatius Brianchaninov does not recognize the benefit of theoretical, scientific and, so to speak, curious knowledge of evil, out of theoretical interest in it only - such knowledge can be the reason for increasing sinfulness in a person, introducing a new cognitive element - evil into a person’s mood and not opposing it with the beginnings of positive and, especially, opposing aspirations of the will. In only one case is knowledge of the evil of our nature useful, when we study the action of evil principles in the soul, for the sake of immediate and irreconcilable struggle against them. In view of this, he especially willingly dwells on those spiritual exercises that lead a person not to a mere theoretical knowledge of evil, for the sake of knowledge about it, but to an active struggle against it in his own nature, awaken in a person a repentant feeling and a thirst for communion with God, in which lies the spiritual salvation and eternal bliss of man. He speaks of the coveted purity of the heart, as a spiritual state of renewed human nature, and in this he understands the Gospel bliss that brings to man: the vision of God. 975 It indicates spiritual exploits that reveal to the ascetic his inner captivity, his sinfulness. He calls such exercises true obedience, reading, studying and fulfilling the Gospel commandments, which, cutting off active sin, primarily destroy sin in the mind itself, in the heart itself. Such exercises include patience with the sorrows of life and attentive prayer. These exercises are a means for spiritual salvation, which is necessary in the great work - the vision of one’s sin, the vision that evokes saving repentance and active struggle against sin in human souls. 976 The indicated exercises condition the experienced vision of the manifestations of sin in one’s nature, for the acceptance of obedience, whether to the leadership of a spiritual father, or to the Gospel commandments and the voice of the Orthodox Church, arouses the proud fallen angel to counteract and thereby reveals his presence in us; he who seeks salvation is distracted in every possible way by the spirit of evil from his chosen path, various sinful dreams, thoughts, sensations, hobbies are aroused in him, and thus he will discover the evil that was hidden in extraordinary vastness in the depths of the heart and seemed completely non-existent. In the same way, reading, studying and fulfilling the Gospel commandments, cutting off active sin, primarily destroys sin in the mind itself, in the heart itself. The fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, or, more correctly, the effort to fulfill the commandments, necessarily exposes the sin living within us and arouses a cruel internal struggle, in which the spirits of evil take a strong part. Tribulation also reveals the sin that lurks in the depths of our souls. Sorrow is called temptation for the reason that it reveals the hidden state of the heart. Naturally, in a person under the power of sin, it exposes the sin living in the depths of the soul, which is revealed by heartfelt grief, sadness, thoughts of murmuring, indignation, self-justification, vengeance, and hatred. In the same way, attentive prayer, especially prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, with an effort to unite the heart with the mind, exposes the serpent nesting in the depths of the heart and, wounding it, encourages movement; prayer gives a person vision of the sin hidden in the heart, but it also reveals the good hidden in the heart, that is, the grace of God implanted in every Orthodox Christian through holy baptism. 977 The Reverend Ignatius admits that such an experimental knowledge of human fall is difficult, even inaccessible, for a Christian living in the middle of the world, bound by cares, torn from self-vision by continuous entertainment: a Christian living in the middle of the world works out his salvation through good deeds in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, especially through almsgiving and chastity. 978 And his speech about spiritual feat primarily refers to ascetics of piety. But the paths of salvation, both for a monk estranged from the world and for those striving to be a true Christian, are the same: it is necessary to know one’s sinfulness, see sin, fight against it and create salvation according to the mind of the Orthodox Church. For a Christian believer, the question of spiritual salvation is a question of primary, exceptional importance, an inevitable question. Knowing yourself and actively fighting sin is an indispensable condition for salvation. Those who renounce the world arbitrarily are in better conditions of salvation than those who are in the world. But even those who do not dare to arbitrarily renounce themselves and the world are forcibly forced to do both. When inexorable and irresistible death comes, then they part with everything they were attached to, self-denial extends to the point that they throw off their very body, cast it down, leave it on the earth as food for worms and decay. 979 The importance of the issue of spiritual salvation and the associated self-knowledge and the fight against sin is decisively clarified in the idea of ​​the inevitability of death, and the corresponding spiritual state of eternity. Hence, mortal memory is saving for a person, arousing the thirst for eternity and emphasizing the frailty of earthly things. That is why, rousing us to repentant self-knowledge, Bishop Ignatius speaks repeatedly and in varied ways about posthumous eternity and earthly pilgrimage. We must remember, he writes to his readers, that the fate that befell my fathers and brothers will befall me too. They died: I will die too. I will leave my cell, I will leave in it my books, and my clothes, and my desk, at which I spent many hours; I will leave behind everything I needed, or thought I needed during my earthly life. They will take my body out of these cells in which I live, as if on the threshold of another life and country; They will take out my body and commit it to the earth, which served as the beginning for the human body. Exactly the same thing will happen to you, brothers, who are reading these lines. You too will die: you will leave everything earthly on earth, and with your souls alone you will enter eternity. The human soul acquires qualities corresponding to its activity. Just as a mirror depicts the objects against which it will be placed, so the soul is imprinted with impressions in accordance with its activities and deeds, in accordance with its surroundings. In an insensitive mirror, images disappear when objects are removed, but from a mirror in the verbal soul, impressions remain. They can be erased and replaced by others, but this requires both work and time. The impressions that constitute the state of the soul at the hour of its death remain its property forever, serving as a guarantee of either its eternal bliss or its eternal disaster. 980 This is the strongest common impulse to salvific self-knowledge, to the sight of sin, to fight against it and to create salvation. This impulse was constant in the soul of Saint Ignatius, it should be so for everyone, and for us. And if we ourselves are far from favorable conditions for spiritual activity, we do not find the time and strength to see our sin, and everyday affairs fill our mood in immeasurable superiority compared to the tasks of eternity, if spiritual inertia binds us, then we need all the more to represent the spiritual experience of someone who has given his entire life to the active accomplishment of the feat of spiritual salvation - from childhood to the grave. Perhaps, we hope, the revelation of the path of salvation according to the experience of the Holy Hierarch of God will warm our hearts with zeal for God, weaken our lukewarmness and give us the strength to liberate ourselves from earthly attachments in the name of eternal acquisitions. With these motivations, we follow the voice of Bishop Ignatius in understanding the real side of spiritual life, as it seemed, in the light of the Divine Scriptures and in active personal feat, the gaze of an ascetic. In further depicting the mental state of a sinful person according to the writings of Bishop Ignatius, we strive to capture its vital and moral nuance in actual experiences and in life observations. We are interested, in this case, in non-dogmatic provisions, learned by Orthodox Christians from childhood, about man’s disobedience to the will of God, the expulsion from paradise of the sweetness that has come to humanity, death and the internal hereditary manifestation of sin; we would like to grasp Saint Ignatius’s understanding of the psychology of a sinful person, as a result of which the thirst for rebirth awakens in a person and it becomes impossible for the sinner to remain indifferent in sin, a lukewarm attitude towards one’s present and proper state. We would like to clearly hear and understand what that ascetic of God will tell us about the sinful state of man, who, in the light of the Word of God and the patristic writings, in unflagging attention to the voice of the mother Church, studied the whole life of himself and his neighbors, actively served the salvation of himself and his neighbors, and was what he wanted to be - the Bishop of his heart. We would like to make extracts from this Bishop’s report on the human soul based on his review and many years of study of this spiritual diocese plundered and upset by evil, to hear his invigorating words about the conditions for the grace-filled dispensation of this diocese, on the basis of its exemplary Divine institution. In carrying out the intended task, we will 1) present the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the sinful state of man in the direction of the mind, heart and will; 2) let us depict the consequences of this sinful state in relation to the subjective-moral and objective-external, i.e. in the field of general human psychology and his external life - personal and social; 3) we will note the development and types of sinful states of man and draw general conclusions from the teaching of Bishop Ignatius about the real side of the spiritual life of a person damaged by sin. 1) All human knowledge, no matter what it concerns the external world, human life, the human body, or the soul and spiritual life, bears the stamp of limitation and therefore, in relation to its value, is relative and not absolute. Applying the usual methods of analysis and generalization throughout all human knowledge to the study of our moral and mental life, we are convinced only of the integrity, unity, and unity of our mental life, although we find it difficult to accurately determine the connection of individual aspects or abilities of the soul with its unified nature. The image of the union of the powers or abilities of the soul with its unified nature seems incomprehensible, but also undoubted. 981 Due to this unity of mental life, the general spiritual state of a person is reflected in all aspects of his psychology. Due to the unity of the psychic principle, its sinful defeat is reflected by sinful decay and weakening and deviation from its original direction of all the abilities of the soul. Due to these same conditions of the unity of mental life, the sinfulness of human nature is reflected on its mental side, its heart and will. Using a commonly used figurative expression to denote a complex life, Bishop Ignatius repeatedly depicts the course of a person’s spiritual life in the form of sailing on the sea of ​​life. In this voyage, the helmsman of the ship of human life must be the mind. There are no paths on the sea of ​​life; for a true Christian there is a path everywhere: he believes that everything that happens to him is done according to the will of God. Our mind must constantly fix its gaze on the spiritual sky - the Gospel, from which, like the sun, the teaching of Christ shines. The mind must constantly monitor the heart, conscience, internal and external activities. The mind must restrain the heart from being carried away by addiction to the vain and corruptible, from cooling for the sake of corruption to the incorruptible, for the sake of vanity - to the true and essential. The mind must often look closely, as it were, at a compass needle, at conscience, so as not to accept a direction that does not agree with the direction indicated by conscience. The mind must guide all activities pleasingly to God, so that the transcendental harbor of eternity opens its gates and lets into its depths a ship laden with spiritual treasures. 982 The mind of man should be occupied with self-examination in the light of the Gospel. 983 The mind must assimilate the way of thinking offered to us by the Lord in His Holy Gospel, must follow the Truth and inherit the Truth. Truth frees the human mind from the invisible bonds of error with which sin has bound it. This is not enough. The omnipotent Truth, having delivered spiritual freedom to the mind, renewing, reviving it with life from above - the Word of God, leads it onto the path of the commandments of Christ. 984 The mind is the guiding principle of a person’s spiritual life: the Lord commanded to preserve the mind, because it is the leader of man. If the mind goes astray from the true path, a person’s whole life becomes a delusion. It doesn’t take much to lead your mind astray from the true path: one false thought. 985 The mind must follow Christ, that is, study the Gospel, have the Gospel as its only guide, borrow its way of thinking from the Gospel, and then adjust its heartfelt feelings to the Gospel and serve as an expression of the Gospel in all actions, all movements, secret and obvious. 986 This is how the mind should be. But this is not the mind in reality, in its sinful state. He does not listen to the voice of God, but to the voice of someone else and harming his soul. This is where the primordial human fall began: the fall of our forefathers began with the foremother’s attention to someone else’s voice; 987 This is where the spiritual decline begins in succession in all subsequent times. The beginning of a person’s spiritual fall is a thought—a thought that disturbs and disturbs the peace of the heart. The mind, covered by a thick cloud of thoughts, becomes darkened during a storm of the heart. The instructions of the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers are forgotten, neither conversation with friends nor soul-edifying reading has any beneficial effect. 988 Instead of paying attention to the will of God, the human mind is hostile to the Law of God. 989 The thoughts of man, which previously soared constantly towards God, ascended to Him, abiding with Him in pure prayer and sacred meditation, now, after the Fall, creep on the earth, spinning in one heavy and vain thing. The human mind has lost its royal dignity: previously it dominated the desires of the Heart and body, but now, after the Fall, it is carried away by them, serving them servilely. 990 The best and strongest expression of sinful damage to the human spirit, and especially the mind, seems, in our opinion, to be the article of the Most Reverend Ignatius: “Conference of the soul with the mind. 991 The sinful state of a person is represented figuratively in the form of a conversation between the soul and the mind, in which two main points are clarified: a) the guiding importance of the mind in a person’s spiritual life and b) sinful damage to the mind with a corresponding reflection on the general structure of a person’s spiritual life. The sorrowful, nowhere-finding consolation, but also the sinful human soul that listens to itself, having determined by self-examination its hopelessly sorrowful state, turns to its mind with the question of the conditions for the outcome from the discord and darkness enveloping its entire being, the ascetic considers himself an abomination. We, the soul, constitute one spiritual being: I think, you feel. But we are not only damaged by sin, we are cut by it, as it were, into two separate beings, almost always acting opposite to one another. We are separated, opposed to each other, we are separated from God! By the sin that lives in us, we are opposed to the All-Holy and All-Perfect God Himself. 992 From this lyrical reflection of Bishop Ignatius we see that the mind is understood as the director of a person’s spiritual life in essence; The sinful fall of man in relation to the cognitive was reflected in the alienation of the mind from the thought of God, in the inclination to entertaining sinful influences, in the oblivion of God, eternity and sinfulness, in the self-exalting consciousness of one’s merits, in the selfishness of thought. Delving into the conditions for victory over internal discord, the human soul determines the relationships between its various sides. The soul notices that its feelings correspond to the thoughts of the mind, the content of the thought. The heart cannot fight a thought for long: it always submits to it, and when it resists, it resists only for a short time. 993 The human mind can be, from this point of view, a guide to both sin and virtue. Sinful charm acts initially on the way of thinking; Having been accepted and perverted the way of thinking, it is immediately communicated to the heart, perverting the heart’s sensations; Having mastered the essence of a person, it spills over into all his activities; the state of delusion of the mind is a state of destruction or eternal death. 994 Our mind slanderes us, this guide often itself goes astray, and carries our whole life along with it into error. 995 The human heart does not resist thought for long. But due to the disorder and damage of the mind by sin, his thoughts are extremely fickle. Often in the morning they are soul-saving, correct and thorough, by noon they are replaced by others, by the evening by even new ones, and at night a person is sometimes troubled by other thoughts that were hidden somewhere during the day, as if in ambush; to suddenly appear to a person during the silence of the night, to disturb the soul with a charming and murderous picture of sin. 996 Being the main culprit of the general spiritual fall, rejection, disaster, temporary and eternal death of the soul, 997 acting temptingly and corruptingly on the heart of a person, the mind of a person upset by sin has a harmful effect on his will, because it keeps a person in enslavement through incorrect and false concepts. 998 The clash and confrontation between the sinful and salutary principles in the cognitive side of the human spirit is depicted by Bishop Ignatius under the image of the clashes between Saul and David. He calls Saul a disturbed mind, outraged by the thoughts emanating from the ruler of the world. The human mind, says Bishop Ignatius, was installed by God at the establishment of the kingdom of Israel - at creation, and then - at the redemption of man as a king, the ruler of soul and body, but by disobedience to God, by violating solitude with God, it deprived itself of dignity and grace. On the contrary, under the name of David, Vladyka Ignatius depicts the good principle of the human mind that is opposed to sin. Saint David sings, broadcasts the words of heaven, and the sounds of his psalms are the sounds of heaven. The subject of the chant is the bliss of man. 999 But the earthly sinful mind of man does not perceive the sounds of heaven. It is not David who sings in his soul and broadcasts the words of heaven, but Saul who outrages, worries and captivates the human soul: the cognitive activity of a person in a sinful state, in its character, direction and method, is carnal wisdom; The sinful mind of a person is a false mind; significant damage to the mental-cognitive side of a person by sin is expressed in the selfhood of the mind. The selfhood of the mind lies in the proud recognition of its power of thought to the detriment of humble belief: the Holy Fathers of all times constantly expressed their attitude to the revealed teaching of God with the word “I believe”; In modern society, which calls itself predominantly educated and Christian, the expression of a heartfelt attitude, a guarantee of Divine revelation in the word: “I think,” is constantly heard. This expression arose, says Vladyka Ignatius, from ignorance of Christianity and it leads to the sad phenomenon that the son of the Eastern Church, contrary to its Divine teaching, argues willfully, ignorantly, blasphemously and is rejected from the leadership of the Holy Church. 1000 By relaxing for some time his attention to the voice of the Church or the Word of God and the Patrists, the Christian creates conditions in the cognitive field that are favorable for the self. Mental activities especially require a person’s attention to his spiritual eye. Mental activities are especially capable of distracting a person from humility and God, attracting to conceit and worship of one’s “I.” During mental activities, we must be especially careful that our work is done for the glory of God and for public benefit, and not for our vanity and self-love, 1001 i.e. selfishness of thought arises most easily during mental activities based on vanity and self-love, and not the glory of God and the good neighbors. The spiritual enlightenment provided by Christianity gives Bishop Ignatius a certain view of human learning, alienated from true knowledge of God, as riot. Natural thoughts or knowledge of a person relate to the temporary and vain, lead a person to vanity and pride, to self-delusion, to the destruction of life in worries about one thing perishable and transitory, to a sinful life, to rejection and oblivion of God and eternity. When a person, not illuminated by the light of Christ, dares to talk about spiritual subjects, then his mind wanders, as it were, in a dark, boundless desert and instead of true knowledge, which he has no opportunity to acquire, he composes opinions and dreams, clothes them in dark and intricate words, deceives himself and his neighbors with them, recognizing wisdom where, with all justice, one should recognize insanity and mental damage. 1002 Judgments in the spirit of the above are usually justified in human life by reference to the so-called common sense. But he who listens to the voice of the Church and is aware of his sinfulness cannot recognize sound reason as sufficient assurance of the truth. The basis of spiritual reasoning can only be God. What people call sound natural reason, from a Christian point of view, is a reason so sick, so darkened and lost that its healing cannot be accomplished otherwise than by cutting off all the knowledge that composes it, with the sword of faith and rejecting it. If we recognize him as sound, then he will certainly reject Christ. 1003 The insufficiency of sound reason is explained by the inevitable property of its sinfulness. The Gospel teaches us that by our fall we acquired a false, falsely named mind, that the reason of our fallen nature, no matter what its natural dignity, no matter how perverted by the learning of the world, retains the dignity given to it by the fall, remains a falsely named mind. 1004 Thus, in the concept of Bishop Ignatius, natural sound reason and false reason are identified and the degree of reliability of his assurances, especially in relation to objects of spiritual knowledge, is belittled to the last degree. Being falsely named, due to its inherent sinful selfhood, reason in its practical application is expressed as carnal wisdom. From a comparison of various cases of Bishop Ignatius using this term, we come to the conclusion that by the name of carnal wisdom he means: a) the desire of the sinful human mind for an empirical and sensory understanding of existence, its exclusive trust in the testimony of external senses and in general experiential-sensory reality; b) his selfishness in resolving issues of the higher senses and, especially, moral, eschatological and others, without the guidance of the Word of God and the voice of the Church; c) as a necessary result of such a direction in a person’s cognitive and generally spiritual life - religious errors and heresies. a) After the Fall, people fell into the darkness and darkness of carnal wisdom: their hearts and minds became blind. In such a state, a person is little able to perceive sublime spiritual ideas outside of sensory confirmations and images, which necessitates application and adaptation to the weak human condition. Carnal wisdom sees neither mental illness nor eternal death; but it sees bodily ailments and the death of the body, it recognizes them, they have a very strong effect on it, they concern it. Therefore, due to special condescension towards the painful state of people, as a method of bringing into human consciousness the need for saving repentance and the consciousness of sin as the cause of all earthly evils, the miraculous signs of God's power are significant, awakening a sinful person from his spiritual hibernation and indifference to his damaged state through sensory perceived signs, human attention was raised to the understanding of sin as the main and fundamental disaster of human life. 1005 Invisible gifts of grace, incomparably higher than the visible ones, such as, for example, the gift of leading human souls to salvation and healing them from passions, but these gifts are not understood and not noticed by the world: the world not only does not glorify the servants of God who have these gifts, but also persecutes them as acting against the principles of the world. 1006 b) Such an attitude towards questions of faith and morality, a failure to see miracles in the area of ​​moral life and a corresponding attitude towards those who serve God in spirit and truth are completely explained precisely by the selfishness of the mind, its false thoughts, and detachment from the principles of true knowledge of God. The consequence of the assimilation of selfhood to the mind is false thoughts that corrupt the mind, weaken the correctness of conscience in its testimony, infecting all spiritual sensations with sinfulness, i.e., it is no longer possible for a person corrupted by the mind to be a partaker of the true faith: for him the place of faith is occupied by a false mind. Corruption of the mind is always associated with the corruption of other spiritual properties, which is why corruption of the mind and corruption of the spirit have identical meaning in their consequences. By accepting false thoughts about God, by distorting the dogmatic and moral teaching revealed by God through false teaching, the corruption of the human spirit is accomplished. 1007 The spirit of man is corrupted by the acceptance of false teaching - teaching emanating from the world and Satan; teachings contrary to the revealed Divine teaching, the teaching of Christ, the teaching of the Ecumenical Eastern Church. 1008 The selfishness of the mind in the matter of knowledge of God and Christian moral teaching is expressed in the dissolution of the union with the Church, in trust in the power of one’s own thoughts, in the recognition of the powers of the sinful mind as a self-sufficient principle in solving all the fundamental issues of life. As a result of the false teachings that are; atheism, deism, heresies and all those teachings of our time that preach material progress without any correlation to church and social principles. 1009 c) The selfishness of the mind in the matter of knowledge of God and Christian moral teaching has as its necessary theoretical consequence heresy, and its practical result is the decline of moral life, for there is a very close and necessary relationship between faith and life, dogma and morality. A false mind and carnal wisdom naturally lead to heresy, and its consequence is eternal death. All human teachings cause eternal death, introducing their own reasoning, drawn from false reason, from carnal wisdom, this common property of fallen spirits and people, into the God-revealed teaching about God. Human reasoning, introduced into the teachings of the Christian faith, is called epecium, and adherence to this teaching is called evil faith. 1010 A clear sign of a true Christian is exact obedience to the holy Church, fidelity to holy truth and the Holy Spirit; Bishop Ignatius considers these signs to be necessary conditions for salvation; retreat from them is a sign of a fall and considers the people who allowed it to be unfortunate. Those darkened sons of this world who think that thinking about God in one way or another is a small misfortune are wrong. On the contrary, the so-called “prelest,” or self-delusion, is made up of false thoughts and sensations. 1011 The selfishness of the mind in heresy leads to overt or covert blasphemy, which is the essence of all heresy. Blasphemy is covered in heresy with magnificent names, magnificent eloquence, sublime philosophy, and with all this, heresy serves as the most important weapon of evil spirits to seduce people. Through heresy, entire nations are destroyed, true Christianity is quietly stolen from them, replaced by blasphemous teaching, which is decorated with the name Purified, True, Restored Christianity. Heresy is a sin committed primarily in the mind. 1012 But a close relationship naturally arises between faith and life. The dogmas of faith are closely related to Christian morality. Therefore, the true Christian faith is reflected in the true Christian life - spiritual and external. Likewise, selfishness of thought and heresy are also reflected in life. Having alienated the human spirit from God, uniting it with the spirit of Satan through his main sin - blasphemy, heresies subject man to enslavement as abandoned by God, as devoted to his own fallen nature. 1013 The sin of heresy, being accepted by the mind, is communicated to the spirit, spills onto the body, defiles our very body, but this sin is little noticeable and little understood, 1014 but the more destructive it is and the more difficult the fight against it, the more decisive and definite is the judgment of Bishop Ignatius on this issue. For Saint Ignatius, who theoretically, through teaching, and through life experienced the truth of the Orthodox faith, there are not and cannot be two different judgments on the issue being treated. For salvation, you need the right to profess the Christian faith, for this you need to belong to the Orthodox Church, partake of the secret grace of God, avoid selfish thoughts in every possible way and demonstrate your faith through the feat of a pious Christian life. And he decisively rejects possible judgments on this issue that are common in life and weaken our saving mood. “We need one good deed,” he says, “for salvation: faith; - but faith is a matter. By faith, by faith alone, we can enter into communion with God through the sacraments He has given. Therefore, it is a mistake to think and say that good people between Mohammedans and pagans will be saved, that is, they will enter into communion with God. The Church has always recognized that there is only one means of salvation - the Redeemer." 1015 But even in Christianity, those who, out of pride, have adopted the selfishness of the mind and fallen into heresy are alien to salvation, for they are alien to the Holy Church and Divine revelation. The last judgment, not only now, but also during the time of Ignatius Brianchaninov and among people who had a spiritual relationship with him, met strong objections from the point of view of the importance of good deeds for salvation in view of the recognition that heretics are the same Christians. Objecting to his interlocutors, Bishop Ignatius points out the impossibility of recognizing as a Christian someone who is alien to the true faith in Christ and cannot distinguish the holy Christian faith from the child of an oath - a blasphemous heresy. He points out that numerous hosts of saints accepted the crown of martyrdom, preferred the most severe and prolonged torment, prison, exile, rather than agree to participate with heretics in their blasphemous teaching, and the Universal Church has always recognized heresy as a mortal sin, has always recognized that a person infected with the terrible disease of heresy is dead in soul, alien to grace and salvation, in communion with the devil and his destruction. 1016 From the point of view of Bishop Ignatius, clear signs of the sinfulness of heresy, arising from the selfishness of the mind according to carnal wisdom, are: a) the replacement of faith in the God-Man - Redeemer with another faith and b) the decline in moral life observed in people without grace. Alienation from the Church and grace, just like the primary fall, revealed in the self of thought, deprives a person of spiritual intelligence of the ability to understand true faith. Holy faith, at which rationalists laughed and still laugh, calling it blind, is so subtle and sublime that it can be comprehended and taught only by the spiritual mind. The mind of the world is disgusted with her, rejects her. When, due to some material necessity, he finds it necessary or tolerable, then he understands it falsely and explains it falsely, because the blindness he attributes to faith is his inalienable property. Idolaters replace true faith with faith in their idols, Muslims - in the false prophet Mohammed and the Koran, heretics - in their blasphemous dogmas and in their priests, rationalists - in the fallen human mind. With such a faith, alien to Christianity, its followers will believe in the Antichrist. 1017 Another sign of carnal wisdom, false reason and deviation from the principles of true knowledge of God is, according to the teachings of Bishop Ignatius, the decline of moral life, which, unnoticed by the sinner himself, accompanies his religious delusion. Whoever, says His Eminence Ignatius, reads with attention the “Acts of the Councils” will easily be convinced that the character of the heretics is completely satanic. He will see their terrible hypocrisy, exorbitant pride - he will see behavior composed of continuous lies, he will see that they are devoted to various low passions, he will see that, when they have the opportunity, they decide to commit all the most terrible crimes and atrocities. What is especially remarkable is their irreconcilable hatred of the children of the true Church and thirst for their blood! Heresy is associated with hardening of the heart, with terrible darkness and damage to the mind - it persists in the soul infected by it and it is difficult for a person to recover from this illness. 1018 Every heresy contains blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: it either blasphemes the dogma of the Holy Spirit, or the action of the Holy Spirit, but it certainly blasphemes the Holy Spirit. The essence of all heresy is blasphemy. 1019 But pride, vanity, hypocrisy, deceit, etc., have become, with the decline of the spiritual life of Christian society, conditions so common that they do not cause special condemnation and are met with rather indifference. As if in response to such a mood, Bishop Ignatius points out the spiritual harm of heresy and the sinful states associated with it from the point of view of dissolution of the union with the Church and alienation from the grace of the Holy Spirit. Of course, says Bishop Ignatius, in heresy you see neither robbery nor theft. Maybe that’s the only reason you don’t consider it a sin? Here the Son of God is rejected, here the Holy Spirit is rejected and blasphemed - that’s all! He who accepts and contains blasphemous teachings, who utters blasphemy does not commit robbery, does not steal, and even does good deeds of a fallen nature, he is a wonderful person. The whole reason for this kind of misunderstanding, such bewilderment, just like all others, lies in a deep ignorance of Christianity. 1020 The main, essential reason: the spiritual harm of heresy lies in the direct or indirect rejection of the Incarnation. It is remarkable: all the ancient heresies, under various changing guises, strived for one goal - they rejected the Divinity of the Word and distorted the dogma of the incarnation. The newest ones are most eager to reject the actions of the Holy Spirit: with terrible blasphemies they rejected the Divine Liturgy, all the sacraments, everything, everything where the Universal Church has always recognized the action of the Holy Spirit. They called it human institutions - more boldly: superstition, delusion. With insufficient knowledge of Christianity, you can accept a false, blasphemous thought as true, internalize it, and with it internalize eternal destruction. 1021 This is the spiritual state of a sinful person in a mental and cognitive sense: it is characterized by alienation from God, ignorance of one’s sin, selfishness and carnal wisdom of thought, which inevitably results in religious errors or heresies. But such a state of a cognizing person, despite all the significance of sinful defeat, does not inspire a person seeking salvation with the thought of the hopelessness of falling, should not give rise to despair in him, for the mental-cognitive side of a person, in a sinful state, has not lost the ability to perceive the call of God. With all the weakness of the mind, with all the darkness, with all its deadness, the Word of God still acts on the mind and gives it the opportunity to distinguish between good and evil, which is the greatest difficulty. The state and content of the mind corresponds to the general content and state of the soul. Following the mind, the whole soul, feeling confusion and frustration, together feels the incorrectness of its state, feels distrust and dissatisfaction with such a state, strives to overthrow itself from a state that is unnatural and hostile to it. On the contrary, when the mind stops, even for a short time, as if in a familiar embrace, in thoughts drawn from the Word of God, the soul feels inexplicable consolation. From the depths of the soul, from the most heartfelt treasures, then the praise of God begins to be sent forth. The soul is then filled with awe before the greatness of God, who then reveals himself to it. The soul then seems to itself to be an insignificant speck of dust in the midst of a huge and diverse universe. A blessed silence, as if brought by the breath of a heavenly wind, begins to blow through the soul and cool it, exhausted by the heat and lack of rain. A sweet and healing tear, originating in the heart, ascends to the head and flows onto the heated cheek from a humble and meek eye, looking at everyone and everything so peacefully, so lovingly. The soul then begins to feel the healing of its nature, then its internal struggle is destroyed, then the spiritual forces, cut and fragmented by sin, are united. Having become one with the mind and with its other powers, having attracted the body itself to this unity, the soul feels the mercy of the Creator towards His fallen creation, actively cognizes the meaning and power of the Redeemer, healing the soul with His omnipotent and life-giving commandment. Following the mind, the soul confesses God. She then sees the action of the worshiped All-Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and sent by the Son. The soul sees the action of God - the Spirit, introduced by God the Word, revealing His Divinity with His creative power, through which the broken vessel appears as if it had never been broken, in primeval beauty and beauty. 1022 In contrast, with “the previously indicated sinful state of thought and the consequences of this state, only the given blessed mood of the soul, subsequent to the turning of the mind to God, further clarifies the state of sinfulness, arouses a thirst for communion with God and indicates the means for this in the renunciation of the false mind, in obedience to the Word of God and attention to the Divine grace-filled call. The human mind must turn to the Word of God and look there for joy for the soul. Of course, this still does not solve the issue of deliverance from a sinful state, for many of the people, having heard the Word of the Spirit and interpreting it with their carnal understanding, said about the life-giving Word of God: This Word is cruel, and who can listen to it (John 6:60). It is not such, that is, cruel, but effective for salvation only on condition of renunciation of self-love, which has become the life of a sinful soul. Self-love idolizes its fallen, falsely named mind - it tries in everything and constantly to satisfy its fallen, falsely directed will. Self-love is expressed in relation to neighbors either through hatred, or through people-pleasing, i.e., pleasing human passions, and towards the objects of the world, which he always abuses, through addiction. To destroy self-love, the mind must reject all its understandings, even if it were very rich in understandings provided by the teachings of the world and according to the elements of the world. The mind must plunge into the poverty of the spirit and, naked by this poverty, washed by weeping, mollified, softened by meekness, purity and mercy, accept the understanding that the right hand of the Redeemer has inscribed on the human mind. This right hand is the Gospel. Subject to constant abiding in the Word of God and renunciation of selfhood and carnal wisdom, and the human mind damaged by sin can be the leader of the soul in following the commands of God. 1023 The essence of a person from the heart side, according to the understanding of Ignatius Brianchaninov, is expressed in the totality of heartfelt feelings that belong to the verbal and immortal soul, alien to the souls of cattle and animals. The heart of man is different, he says, from the heart of animals in his spirit. The hearts of animals have sensations that depend on blood and nerves, they do not have a sense of the spiritual - this feature of the Divine image, the exclusive property of man. The moral strength of a person is his spirit. The spirit of a person is manifested in the secret movements of the heart, and in the way of thinking, and in all the actions of a person. 1024 Consequently, the peculiarity of a person from the heart side is his ability to experience spiritual or moral experiences. This ability or side of the human spirit, according to the unity of spiritual life, is closely related to the mental side, and this or that state of the latter is reflected in the heart and vice versa: the heart influences thought. Purity of thought gives the mind power over the heart and heart sensations obey it. Reflecting sinful excuses and staying in the teaching of the Gospel gives the mind royal power over the heart, leads to order and height in inner life, and after it - to correct action regarding humanity. Purity of mind, achieved by God-thought, gives the mind power over the heart and brings peace and joy to the heart. 1025 But when a person’s spiritual mind weakens, thinking and activity according to the Gospel weaken and activity begins according to one’s own considerations, the mind descends from the heights of a spiritual state to a carnal state, the feeling of goodness leaves the heart, passions irritated by their exile enter the heart, the world is replaced by various disturbances. 1026 The heart filled with passionate moods accordingly influences the mind. If, on the one hand, the heart does not resist the thought for long, then, on the other hand, after a moment of submission, the heart often rebels against the most correct, most God-pleasing thought, rebels with such strength and bitterness that it almost always overthrows and carries away the mind. And having overthrown the mind, the heart begins to produce in the mind the most absurd thoughts, which serve as an expression and revelation of innermost passions. 1027 Thus, despite the close relationship and mutual influence, the mind and heart of a person retain independence of action and, in a person’s sinful state, they are separated and often oppose each other. And if the mind is the leader of a person’s spiritual life and external activity, then this leadership is realized, receives reality, strength and, most importantly, moral meaning only if it receives the corresponding sanction from the heart, in the inner church of the soul. The heart is, therefore, the focus of spiritual and moral life, the subjective and intimate side of the spirit, by which a person can best, with a testing self-view, determine his moral personality. How independent and significant this area of ​​spiritual life is can be seen from the fact that the most convincing arguments of our mind often do not meet a sympathetic movement of the heart, and remain in the area of ​​our theoretical desires, without moving into corresponding activity, and the mind, occupied with the thought of God, often cannot expel the sinful Belshazzar, feasting in the heart. We see and in our modern reality we are convinced that the theoretical, only mental and incomplete, so to speak, head affiliation with Christianity not only in the individual but also in entire nations coexists with extreme earthing, paganism, cruelty and even animality of the heart, and when it comes to practical manifestations of life, mentally and outwardly only a cultured person discovers a savage in himself, superior to animals in cruelty, bloodthirstiness and greed, illustrating the Divine saying: “These people draw near to Me with their lips, with their lips they honor Me, but their heart is far from Me: they honor Me in vain.” The area of ​​the heart and moral feelings is the focus of spiritual and moral life, and one or another state of the latter depends, most of all, on the pagan or Christian state of our heart. That is why in those cases when a person immerses his mind in God-thought, the mind, first of all, seeks connection with the heart, and not always successfully. A convincing and eloquent illustration of this relationship between mind and heart in a sinful person can be the following lyrical reflection of Bishop Ignatius on this issue. The doors of the senses have closed: the tongue is silent, the eyes are closed, the ear does not listen to anything that is outside of me. The mind, clothed in prayer, laying down the burden of earthly thoughts, descends to the cell of the heart. The cage doors are closed; There is darkness everywhere, impenetrable darkness. And the mind, in bewilderment, begins to knock on the door of the heart with prayer; stands patiently at the door, knocks, waits, prays again. There is no answer, no voice is heard. Dead silence and darkness respond with deathly silence. The mind leaves the door of the heart, sad, and seeks consolation in bitter weeping. He was not allowed to appear before the King of kings in the sanctuary of the inner cage. Mind, heart and body are separated by the terrible fall of man. So in this case, like the blind man at the gates of Jericho, only man cries in vain with his mind for enlightenment and unity; the human heart - Jericho, inhabited by sin, like the mind, needs grace-filled healing. The path to healing is known, the hour is not assigned. 1028 But when a prayerfully disposed mind manages to delve deep into the heart, and the heart, by the grace of God, moves prayerfully to the mind, then the whole person, including the body, comes to a sacred spiritual state, inexpressible in words, surpassing all passions, comprehended by experience alone, man’s admiration for God becomes clear to him. 1029 This highly spiritualized state of grace imparts truth to the mind, and wonderful calmness to the heart, wonderful coolness towards everything earthly, an abundance of meekness, humility, and goodness. Because of the gracious action of the Holy Spirit, passions flee, and the mind and heart of a person move to heaven. The soul, having felt the beneficial properties within itself, begins to taste wonderful peace - the guarantee and beginning of the eternal rest of the righteous in the villages of eternal bliss. 1030 But the sinful reality of the center of spiritual and moral life is far from this ideal state. In the sad reality of our spiritual life, our heart, like a vast sea, is slandered and outraged by winds of passions alien to its ideal nature: sometimes we are overcome by sadness, sometimes we are outraged by anger, sometimes carried away by voluptuousness, sometimes delighted by vanity and pride; the winds of sinful thoughts are sometimes so strong that we do not find means to resist it, we get lost, become despondent, despair, and approach destruction. 1031 If the sinful mind does not accept the mind of God, which for it is “foolishness,” then the fallen heart of man resists the will of God. 1032 Along with the darkness and selfishness of the mind, the consequence of sin is the disorder of the heart, stubborn and hostile in its depravity against the teachings of Christ. 1033 Along with blindness of mind, the consequence of sinfulness is hardness and insensibility of the heart. If the mind of an inveterate sinner sees neither good nor evil, his heart loses the capacity for spiritual sensations. Even if, having left a sinful life, this person turns to pious deeds, then his heart, as if alien, does not sympathize with his desire for God. 1034 Having lost or greatly weakened the ability for spiritual sensations, man, through sin, acquired a new state of heart flesh, alien by nature to the soul; the fall subjected the heart to the dominion of blood and, through blood, to the dominion of the ruler of the world; The deepest expression of the heart in love for one's neighbor became carnal through the Fall. Love itself, in its natural heart expression, is damaged by the fall. 1035 Carnal wisdom is also expressed in the carnal direction of life, in connection with which the heart is burdened, coarsened, the heart becomes hardened, the whole person becomes carnal, nailed to the ground, incapable of Spiritual thoughts and sensations. As a result of the carnal direction of life, not only the preponderance of the spirit over the flesh is lost, but even their balance; on the contrary, lightness and darkness are little by little communicated by the body to the heart, and by the heart to the mind. Then these spiritual eyes - the heart and mind - become dull; eternity is hidden from them; earthly life seems endless to the painful eye. 1036 Closedness of the heart to spiritual sensations entails an abundant increase in the weeds of conceit, arrogance and vanity. 1037 The sinful state, which is expressed in the sphere of mental-cognitive, as carnal wisdom, in the moral sphere is expressed in the complacency of the human heart to sinful-carnal experiences, passionate in openness to sin and hardening of the heart and its deadness, in natural conditions, for good; A person’s self-examining mental gaze, directed into the inner, heartfelt church of the soul, finds the soul filled with sin, the stability of the created sinful mood, insensitivity and inability to spiritual, regenerating experiences without the assistance of Divine grace. The human soul, turning away from the world, condemning it, is again and again drawn to it with its heart. Turning a longing and inquisitive gaze from the external world to its inner world, the soul zealous for salvation sees in its heart an abundance of sinful passions, continuous defilement by various sins; Now the soul is tormented by anger and memory, now it feels that it is burning with the flame of fornication. The blood is agitated, the imagination is heated by some action that is alien and hostile to the soul. The heart is carried away by seductive images that lead to dreams of sin, to delight in destructive temptation. And the soul cannot escape from these seductive images: painful spiritual eyes are involuntarily, forcibly drawn to them. And there's nowhere to run. And pictures of sin follow man into the desert, and there they appear with special murderous vividness. These images do not exist, but together they are alive, and nothing, neither time itself, nor decrepit old age, can kill them. 1038 But it is not the abundance of passionate states that characterizes the sinful defeat of the human heart, but, even more, the impossibility of a regenerative struggle without the assistance of God’s mercy, because good deeds are unbearable for a sinful being and the very good of a sinful person is intertwined with evil. I know that sinful temptations are washed away from the imagination with a tear of repentance, but I have no tears of repentance. They are smoothed out of the imagination by humble prayer, combined with the cry of the heart: I have no such prayer. My heart is devoid of tenderness, devoid of saving crying: it is motionless in me, like a fragment of an insensitive stone. Despite my terrible sinfulness, I rarely see my sinfulness. Despite the fact that in me good is mixed with evil, and has become evil, just as fine food mixed with poison becomes poison, I forget the plight of the good that was given to me at the time of creation, damaged, distorted during the fall. I begin to see my goodness in myself as whole, immaculate, and to admire it: my vanity takes me from the fruitful and rich pasture of repentance to a distant country, to a rocky and barren country, to a country of thorns and tares, to a country of lies, self-deception, and destruction. I abandon the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments and begin to fulfill the suggestions of my heart, to follow its feelings, its will; I boldly call the sensations of fallen nature good, its actions virtue; - this good and this virtue are worthy of earthly and heavenly, human and Divine rewards. But after this self-delusion, sadness, despondency and some kind of terrible darkness appear in the soul. 1039 The carnal, white heart became blind and deaf, it became dead to everything spiritual, to the eternal and Divine. 1040 Hardening of the heart, like iron, tightly closed gates, does not allow the Divine gift of redemption into our hearts. 1041 On the contrary, in a heart that is not protected and sealed by the remembrance of God and the fear of God, all passions conveniently enter; Moral darkness enters into it, ignorance of God enters into it. 1042 Just as the earth, due to the curse that has struck it, does not cease to produce thistles and thorns from its damaged nature, so the heart, poisoned by sin, does not cease to give birth from itself, from its damaged nature, sinful sensations and thoughts. 1043 Meanwhile, for a truly spiritual life, what is most required is purity, simplicity and sincerity of the heart, which is most definitely confirmed by the study of Christianity. 1044 Our heart should be a church, it was the church of God before the Fall; having partaken of sin, the heart became a tomb. Christ enters into it through the Sacrament of Baptism to dwell in us and act in us. Then the heart is sanctified as a church to God. But we deprive Christ of the opportunity to act, reviving our old man, constantly acting according to the attraction of our fallen will, our mind poisoned by lies. The church of God, not made by hands, turns into a cramped and dark tomb, against which the “great stone” of our heartfelt insensibility is rolled. A heart struck by careless life, like a deadly ulcer, does not show any sign of life. In vain the mind gathers thoughts about death, about God’s judgment, about the multitude of one’s sins, about the torments of hell, about the pleasures of heaven; The mind tries in vain to hit the heart with these thoughts: it remains without sympathy for them, as if hell, and heaven, and the judgment of God, and sins, and the state of fall and destruction had nothing to do with the heart. It sleeps in a deep sleep, a dead sleep: it sleeps, drunk and intoxicated with sinful poison. 1045 But sluggish and indifferent in relation to spiritual sensations, alien to grace-filled moods, the sinful heart of man is very not indifferent in relation to feelings stemming from carnal wisdom. Bearing in mind all the places in the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov, where he talks about the human heart as the focal point of all spiritual experiences of a person, we come to the conclusion that an essential expression of the sinfulness of the human heart is peacefulness. Clarifying this, the broadest, most general and very precise concept, denoting the state and the Predominant direction of life of the human heart stricken by sin, His Grace Ignatius establishes the meaning of the concept of “world” and, in its application, friendship with the sinful world of the human heart. According to his image, the word “m and r” has two meanings in the Holy Scriptures: 1) the word “world” refers to all of humanity (John I:29, John 3:16–19); 2) the word “world” refers to those people who lead a sinful life, contrary to the will of God, who live for time and not for eternity (John 15:18–19; 1 John 2:I5–17; James 4:4, James I:9–11). Moreover, in ascetic literature, the concept of “world” is a common name for all passions, and in explanation, ascetics point out that if a person does not first know what the world is, then he will not achieve to know how many members he has removed from the world and how many are attached to it. According to the study of spiritual reason, the word “world” is used to compose a general name that embraces individual passions. When we want to call passions by a general name, we call them the world, but when we intend to distribute them by their particular names, then we call them passions. Where passion ceases to act, the world has died. 1046 Based on these concepts of peace, taught by the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, Bishop Ignatius defines the mood of sinfulness, alien to concern for the finite and eternal, as love of peace. 1047 Peacefulness and service to God and love for him do not get along. A friend of the world inevitably becomes, perhaps unbeknownst to himself, the worst enemy of God and his own salvation. Peacefulness creeps into a person’s soul like a thief, taking advantage of the darkness of the night - negligence and inattention to oneself. The history of mankind confirms that love of peace is capable of committing the greatest lawlessness, the greatest atrocities. 1048 Love of peace and fulfillment of Christ’s Law are incompatible; love of peace distorts a person’s spiritual activity, for a heart infected with an addiction to peace cannot fulfill the pure and holy will of Christ with appropriate holiness and purity. By doing our own will instead of the will of Christ, and insisting on showing that we are doing the will of Christ, we fall into hypocrisy. Peacefulness distorts all the good intentions of a person and directs all his deeds to earthly goals, depriving them of true moral meaning. 1049 The mood of peace is complex, and its significance in the spiritual and moral life of a person is enormous; Filling our spiritual life with peace is the greatest moral disaster: the main passions of a sinful person are love of money, love of glory and love of voluptuousness, and love of peace is made up of these three main passions. 1050 This is the sinful state of the human heart. Shaken during the initial fall, constantly shaken by various passions, filled with a love of peace, it itself supports the false identity of reason, influencing our thought, 1051 captivating the will with the violence of sin prevailing in the soul. 1052 But as in all similar cases, by analyzing in detail the spiritual state of a person, His Grace Ignatius tries to arouse in himself and his neighbors the desire for spiritual salvation, to clarify its paramount importance and from repentant self-knowledge to come to the saving knowledge of God, which attracts the regenerating grace of God to a person. Analyzing the sinful heart and depicting in bright colors the destructive love of peace, Bishop Ignatius convinces readers and students to be attentive to their hearts, in the study of the states of which the depth of the fall of not only our own, but also of all humanity is revealed to us. 1053 Attention to one’s heart, giving a person the vision of his sins, thereby already puts a person on the path of salvation, saving him from personal absent-mindedness and condemnation of his neighbors. “What bliss is it to look into your heart! Whoever looks into his heart will forget that there are sinners on earth except him alone. If he ever looks at his neighbors, then everyone seems to him immaculate, beautiful, like Angels. Looking into himself, examining his sinful stains, he is convinced that for his salvation the only means is the mercy of God, that he is an inexcusable slave, not only for violation, but also for insufficient fulfillment of God’s commandments, for fulfillment that is more similar to distortion than to fulfillment. Needing mercy himself, he pours it abundantly on his neighbors and has only mercy for them. It’s scary not to recognize yourself as a sinner! Jesus renounces those who do not recognize themselves as sinners: “I have not come,” He says, “to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 12:7; 9:13). What bliss it is to admit that you are a sinner! Anyone who admits to being a sinner gains access to Jesus. 1054 Submission to the will of God in itself calms the human heart, 1055 the gradually acquired ability to pray serves as a sign of victory over peacefulness, 1056 and the gracious help of God, communicated in the sacraments of the Church, pacifies the restless sinful heart and fills it with soul-helping feelings. 1057 Each side of our spirit, due to the activity of its nature, needs constant activity, and, eliminating the sinful activity that we recognize through self-examining attention, we need to give the soul saving activity in its place. From the fact that the mind constantly gives birth to thoughts, and the heart to feelings, it is obvious that the activity that must be given to one’s soul is given to the mind: the mind must be given exercise in godly thoughts, and the heart – in godly feelings. In other words: it is necessary for the mind and heart to accept and assimilate the Gospel. To help those who wish to acquire saving spiritual activity, Bishop Ignatius offers a whole series of advice borrowed from the Sacred. Scriptures and writings of the fathers. 1058 The influence of the voluntary Fall in the area of ​​the will is characterized in the works of Bishop Ignatius most of all as the loss of true free will and enslavement to sin. Since the time of the first fall, the entire nature of man, infected with the poison of evil, strives voluntarily and involuntarily towards evil, which appears to be good and pleasure to a distorted will, a perverted mind, a perverted feeling of the heart. Arbitrarily, because we still have a remnant of freedom in choosing good and evil. Involuntarily, because this remnant of freedom does not act like complete freedom; he operates under the inherent influence of the corruption of sin. We are born this way; this state necessarily belongs to every person. 1059 The human will, as an executive force, acts not independently, but under the influence of reason. 1060 But the sinful state of the mind is characterized, as we have seen, by false names and carnal wisdom, in which the mind itself loses the ability to correctly guide the will, 1061 and the sinful direction of the mind coincides with the same state of the will, which, therefore, in a state of fall, is hostile to the will of God and, due to its blindness and the state of enmity towards God, the opposition to the will of God is constantly increasing, and the weak the knowledge of the will of God by a sinful person further strengthens the inertia of the will in evil. 1062 Carnal wisdom, being the dominant direction of the mind and heart, is reflected in a corresponding way on the will of a person: and the will becomes carnal 1063 and, with an immoral life of a person, becomes stubborn and bitter, 1064 in relation to spiritual achievement - negligent, 1065 and, with a general sinful state of spirit, the will becomes in a subordinate-slavish attitude towards sin. 1066 The sinful direction of the will, in turn, is supported by a sinful and carnally wise mind, which, using arbitrary considerations regarding the conditions of real sinful life, tries to justify its structure and confirm the harmful thought of indifference for personal salvation, the will of man, with imaginary trust in the will of God and Divine predestination. Not knowing the secrets of Christian salvation, the false mind and carnal wisdom of a sinful person, in order to excuse and weaken the antimoral direction of their life, willingly refer to Divine predestination, to the impossibility of resisting it or changing its decision. “Why force yourself to inexorably strict Christian virtue? Why expose yourself to countless hardships and live constantly renouncing life? - asks our carnal wisdom. I will live as I want and like it. I will hasten to what my dream lures me to, drawing charming pictures before my eyes! I am amused to my fill by all pleasures, even sinful ones! They are scattered with luxury throughout the universe and unbearable curiosity attracts to taste and experience them! If it is predestined for me to be saved, then, despite all my depravity, God will save me. If I am destined to perish, then I will perish, despite all my efforts to achieve salvation.” This blasphemous, unfortunate, completely erroneous mentality is recognized and accepted by many as an irrefutable truth: a self-willed life, a lawless and depraved life is based on it. An eternally sorrowful existence, an everlastingly disastrous existence in the afterlife is based on an earthly vicious life. 1067 We must admit that judgments of the expressed order are not uncommon in the life around us. Insufficiently strong faith in God and immortality, with an innate, however, attraction to God and immortality, flabbiness and laziness of the will with fear, however, of afterlife responsibility before the Judgment of God with inevitable retribution, a number of sinful addictions in the heart, with the difficulty of fighting them, the generally anti-moral direction of our life, an extremely superficial understanding of Christianity, with our indifference to religious beliefs, however, very significant differences, and intrusively and deeply, under the two-century influence of heretical foreigners, the legal understanding of salvation, so convenient for our sinful nature, ingrained in us, contrary to the clear and definite teaching about this of the Orthodox Christian Church and the internal centuries-old spiritual experience of our crusader and God-bearing people, as well as the testimony of the first centuries of Christianity, dispose many modern Christians who are not alien to the idea of salvation to accept and repeat judgments of this kind, using them to excuse one’s spiritual lukewarmness. We know people who are indifferent to spiritual feat, who see neither meaning nor possibility in it, who complacently affirm general salvation, basing it on the property of Divine goodness, and formally place their hope and personal salvation on Divine predestination - not out of a humble awareness of their sinfulness, but with lukewarmness or indifferentism towards the spiritual Christian feat. Modern times, which are materially prosperous and impoverished in piety, tell us about indifference to the feat of salvation very clearly. Understanding the above reasoning, which is very destructive and weakening in relation to the sinful will, His Grace Ignatius finds that false, soul-destroying thinking about predestination and fate arose from a confusion of actions characteristic of the One God with human actions. Having placed himself as a judge of God's actions, man necessarily ascribed to God the same attitude towards good and evil that man has towards them. He recognized the properties of God as identical with human properties; He subordinated the thinking of God to the laws of human thinking: he also established some difference, but the difference is not infinite, but some kind of his own, indefinite, alien to correctness and meaning. Let us separate from ourselves, at an infinite distance, the being of God, and His properties, and His actions: then our judgment about fate and predestination will receive the due thoroughness. The predestination of man's fate is completely befitting of God due to the unlimited perfection of God's mind, due to God's independence from time. Predestination, showing man the greatness of God, and being a mystery known to the One God, does not in the least constrain the free activity of man in the entire field of earthly life, has no influence on this activity, no relation to it. Having no influence on human activity, God’s predestination does not and cannot have any influence on the consequences of this activity, on the salvation and destruction of man. To guide our behavior, we have been given, on the one hand, reason and free will, and on the other, the revealed teaching of God. The revealed teaching of God proclaims with satisfactory detail the will of God as a means of salvation, proclaims the good pleasure of God so that all men may be saved, and proclaims eternal torment for trampling on the will of God. From here there is a clear consequence: the salvation and destruction of a person depends solely on his will, and not on the determination of God unknown to him. 1068 Thus, no relaxing considerations of reason are able to excuse a person’s indifference to his spiritual salvation: the latter depends on the will or free will of a person. But the degree of this arbitrariness in relation to good is greatly weakened by the arbitrary fall of man. The will of man has passed from a state of obedience to the will of God into a state of submission to sin. Since the fall of man, the devil has constantly had free access to him: man arbitrarily subjected himself to his power, rejecting obedience to God. 1069 The Holy Fathers affirm that before redemption all people were possessed by sin, doing the will of sin and against their will. After the redemption of the human race by the God-man, those who believe in Christ and are renewed by holy baptism are no longer violated by sin, but have freedom: freedom to either resist sin or follow its suggestions. 1070 The redeemed man is given the freedom to obey either God or the devil, and in order for this freedom to be revealed freely, the devil is given access to man. It is very natural that the devil uses every effort to keep a person in the same attitude towards himself, or even to bring him into greater enslavement. To do this, he uses passions and tries to persuade a person to satisfy passions. He who is faithful to the Word of God does not allow himself this satisfaction, curbs passions, repels the attacks of the enemy; acting under the guidance of the Gospel against his own self-delusion, taming passions, thereby gradually destroying the influence of fallen spirits on himself, he little by little emerges from the state of delusion into the realm of truth and freedom. He who is unfaithful to the teachings of Christ, who follows his own will and reason, loses the remainder of his freedom and enters into complete submission to the devil. 1071 Those who voluntarily submit to sin again lose their freedom and fall under the violent dominance of sin. 1072 The ideal of human moral activity in relation to the will is the real restoration of free will and its union with the will of God. The complete union of the human will with the will of God is a state of perfection that only a rational creation of God can achieve. During the short period of earthly life, a person must strive to ensure that the will of God acts exclusively in the entire being of man, in all his component parts in spirit, soul and body, uniting with himself and in himself the will of these parts, separated by the fall. Only by the will of God can the human will, poisoned by sin, be healed: only in the will of God and through it, the wishes of the constituent parts of man, which have taken different directions opposite to each other, can move from disagreement to agreement, unite into one desire; Only the human will, animated by the will of God, can be torn away from the earth and ascend to heaven. 1073 But in the real state, evil habits bind a person’s moral freedom. 1074 And for salvation, the soul must renounce its will, perverted by sin, no matter how painful it may be for the heart, even if the feelings and desires of the heart seem to a person the most righteous and most graceful. Instead of its own will, the soul must fulfill the will of Christ our God and Savior, no matter how disgusting and cruel it may be for a self-loving heart. This is the death of our sinful self, which God requires of us, so that by voluntary death we destroy the death that lives violently in us, and receive the gift of resurrection and life flowing from the Lord Jesus. 1075 The Most Reverend Ignatius rightly believes that Orthodox monasticism is the best form of life for the implementation of spiritually regenerating feats, about which he speaks repeatedly and in detail, with love, in his wondrous creations. In particular, to combat the sinfulness of the will, monastic obedience is the best means: in the form and character in which it took place among ancient monasticism, monastic obedience is a high spiritual sacrament. And although comprehension and complete imitation of him have become impossible for us, it is possible to reverently, prudently examine him, and to assimilate his spirit. 1076 Disturbed by sin in its individual aspects, the spiritual life of man and in its general structure reveals difficult pictures of the discord of darkness and struggle, a discord that is all the more clear in its essentiality, the more a person pays attention to himself, and the more clearly, by contrast, he imagines his state in the purity of primordial existence, in the reflection of the properties of his All-Good Creator. Wanting to strengthen in man the consciousness of his sinfulness, His Grace Ignatius carefully, reverently and joyfully depicts the features of the image of God in man, believing that an essential expression of the image of God is the internal, inseparably unfused unity of the spirit in its three main aspects. He reverently remembers the sacred and mysterious council before the creation of man. 1077 Man is the image and likeness of God. God, unapproachable in His greatness, God, surpassing every image, was depicted in man, depicted with clarity and glory. This is how the sun is depicted in a humble drop of water; The essence of man, his supreme power, by which he differs from all earthly animals, by which he is equal to the Angels, his spirit, is the image of the being of God; The properties of the human spirit serve in a state of innocence as the likeness of the properties of God, Who, having inscribed His likeness on man with His omnipotent right hand, is above all likeness and comparison. 1078 Image of the Trinity of God - trinity - man. The three faces in the trinity of man are the three powers of his spirit, by which the existence of the spirit is manifested. 1079 The Merciful Lord adorned His image and His likeness. Our mind, word and spirit, by the simultaneity of their beginning and by their mutual relations, serve as the image of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, coeternal, co-originating, equal in honor, one in nature. The image of God is the very essence of the soul; similarity – mental properties. And after falling into sin, the soul remains in the image. And the sinful soul cast into the flames of hell, in the very flames of hell, remains in the image of God. The Holy Church sings in her hymns: “I am the image of Your ineffable glory, even though I bear the burden of sins.” 1080 But the greatest disaster happened: the image of God fell, this fall was accomplished by separation from the will of God, the image became obscene, the Divine likeness was distorted. Awareness of this disorder; the image and likeness of God is accompanied by terrible torment. If a person carefully, in solitude, for a considerable time, constantly looks into himself, then he will be convinced that this torment acts continuously - it opens up and buries itself, depending on how much or little his entertainment drowns out. 1081 The disaster of the Fall, expressed in relation to individual aspects of the spirit, as we have seen, by the carnal wisdom of the mind, the love of peace of the heart and the depreciation of freedom, in relation to our general spiritual state, is most of all characterized by discord, disunity, internal and external struggle. Following the area of ​​internal-spiritual sin, discord and struggle move into the area of ​​external life, perverting the latter and giving it many different signs of hellish torment assimilated by sin. As a result of sin, man became a playground of passions. Then my soul is troubled by anger and memory; in my imagination a dagger sparkles over the head of the enemy and my heart revels in the satisfied vengeance accomplished by a dream. Then I see scattered heaps of gold. Following them are drawn magnificent chambers, gardens, all the objects of luxury, voluptuousness, pride, which are delivered by gold, and for which a sin-loving person worships this idol - the means of fulfilling all corruptible desires. Either I am seduced by honors and power, I am attracted, I am occupied with dreams of ruling people and countries, of bringing them perishable acquisitions, and perishable glory for myself. It’s obvious that tables with steaming and fragrant dishes are before me; It’s funny and, at the same time, I pityingly enjoy the seductions that appear before me. Then suddenly I see myself as righteous, or, more correctly, my heart is hypocritical, trying to appropriate righteousness to itself, flattering itself, caring about human praise, as if to attract it to itself. As soon as the human mind comes to its senses, it wants to move towards goodness, the heart, accustomed to sinful pleasures, resists the mind, the human body, which has acquired bestial desires, resists the mind. The heterogeneous parts that make up the human being - the mind, heart and body are dissected - are separated, act discordantly, counteract one another; then they only act in momentary, ungodly agreement when they work against sin; This is the state of the sinner. It is the death of the soul during the life of the body. But a person is satisfied with his condition, satisfied not because of humility, but because of his blindness, because of his bitterness. The soul does not feel its mortification, just as the body, separated from the soul by death, does not feel it. 1082 The struggle and discord that characterize the sinful state of man are the natural consequences of the Fall, capturing the entire area of ​​a person’s life, reflected in the inner life of the soul by the disagreement of its sides, like a person’s struggle with himself; in the fight against the spirits of evil and the sinful temptations brought about by them, in the fight against the fatness and animality of the body, in opposition to the law of God. 1083 This general character is diversified and individualized in individual people in relation to our personality. Every Christian has and must bear his own cross. This means that every Christian must patiently endure precisely those insults and those persecutions from the world that befall him, and not any others. This means that every Christian must fight with courage and constancy precisely those passions and those sinful thoughts that arise in him. This means that every Christian must with humility, with devotion to the will of God, with confession of the justice and mercy of God, with thanksgiving to God, endure those sorrows and hardships that Divine Providence allows him, and not any others imagined and proposed by proud dreams. This means being content with precisely those bodily exploits that correspond to our bodily strengths, and not at all striving, carried away by vain zeal, to intense fasting, to intense vigil and other immensity in exploits that destroy bodily health and direct the spirit to conceit and self-delusion. 1084 For some people and in one case, this is a struggle with the spirits of evil, who frantically attack a person at especially touching moments of his life, plunder a person’s thoughts, bring coldness and bitterness to the heart, bring heavy sinful dreams and memories, try to desecrate the conscience, shake faith, and instill doubt in the soul. 1085 For others and in other cases, this is a struggle against the fatness and animality of the flesh, which gives rise to passions characteristic of its sinful state, intense attention to the abstinence of the body in food and drink, to curbing careless and curious glances, impressions of touch, hearing and other bodily senses with which sin enters the soul, defiles both body and soul. 1086 In other cases, this is the struggle and enmity of the fallen nature against the commandments of God, resistance to the very idea of ​​renewal of life. 1087 Perverting human nature, sin is the root cause of all sorrows, suffering and disasters of mankind, the source of all other human sins - public and private. 1088 In a sinful state of deprivation of grace, even those that are good in appearance, and considered good in the inner conviction of a person, natural good human deeds, flowing from our fallen nature, in which good is mixed with evil, in which good, for the most part, is barely noticeable in the multitude of evil, are unworthy of God, for in these deeds pride, self-praise or rejection of grace is always manifested. Our fallen nature glorifies its loud and great good deeds. Such self-praise is an involuntary denunciation of the quality of high-profile human affairs, excited and fueled by vanity. The pride they harbor is abominable before God: the incense of humility is acceptable to Him. 1089 Even mercy and justice and all other good deeds of fallen man, based on the fallen mind of man, on his fallen will, on his fallen spirit, bear the stamp of fall, deprivation of purity, deprivation of holiness, defilement by sin. 1090 With some attention to our spiritual life, it is not difficult to notice that all of our good endeavors, aimed at revival and spiritual salvation, are paralyzed not by positive manifestations of evil, which in this case may not exist, but by spiritual insensibility or the killing of spiritual sensations, while our external life may be in full swing. This state, which determines the overall picture of our spiritual life, is clarified by Vladyka Ignatius through similarity. “It happens,” he says, “that from a long-term bodily illness all the strength is exhausted, all the abilities of the body wither; then the disease, not finding food for itself, ceases to torment the physique; it leaves the patient, leaving him exhausted, as if mortified, incapable of activity due to exhaustion from suffering, due to terrible, silent soreness, not expressed by any special suffering. The same thing happens with the human spirit. A long-term careless life among constant entertainment, among constant arbitrary sins, with forgetting about God, about eternity, with inattention or with the most superficial attention to the commandments and teachings of the Gospel, takes away from our spirit sympathy for spiritual objects, mortifies it in relation to them. Existing, they cease to exist for him, because his life has ceased for them: all his forces are directed towards one material, temporary, vain, sinful. Anyone who wants to impartially and thoroughly inherit the state of his soul, to discern in it the illness of insensibility, to perceive the vastness of its meaning, to perceive the heaviness and importance of it, will recognize that it is a manifestation and evidence of the deadness of the spirit. When we want to start reading the Word of God, what boredom attacks us, how everything we read seems incomprehensible to us, unworthy of attention, strange! How we wish to be freed from this reading as soon as possible! Why is this? Because we do not sympathize with the Word of God. When we stand up for prayer, what dryness and coldness we feel! How we rush to end our superficial, entertainment-filled prayer! Why is this? – Because we are alien to God: we believe the existence of God with dead faith. It is not there for our sensation: We spend many hours without burden in the most empty amusements, we do not find satiety in them, we try to replace one vain activity with another, and we do not want to devote the shortest time to considering our sins. We have acquired sympathy for sin, for everything vain, for everything that introduces sin into a person and with which it is stored in a person. We have lost sympathy for all exercises that multiply and preserve God-loving virtues in a person: Insensibility is implanted in the soul by a world hostile to God and by fallen angels hostile to God with the assistance of our will. It grows and is strengthened by life according to the principles of the world; it grows and strengthens from following one’s fallen mind and will, from abandoning the service of God and from carelessly serving God. 1091 By attracting and seducing the taste of the heart, damaged by the fall, evil and sin upset only human properties. But man was created for heaven: only true goodness can serve as satisfactory, life-giving food for him. 1092 And when a person remembers this purpose, the terrible emptiness that a sinful life produces in the soul becomes clear to him. The severity of this spiritual emptiness is so unbearable that the person tormented by it, having rejected the grace of God and locked himself in sin, falls into despair, which is disastrous for temporary and eternal life. 1093 But no matter how painful this analysis of our sinful life, our moods overwhelmed by sin, it is both necessary and saving for us, if at the same time we turn to the shadow of the cross, if we turn to God’s help. For our spiritual life, for its beginning and first steps, this self-exploring analysis is absolutely necessary. It is extremely useful to see in yourself both your own fall and the fall of all humanity. It is essential to recognize and study the fall of sin in your own heart and mental experiences; in your experience you need to see the weakness of the human mind, the weakness of the human will. The vision of one's fall is a spiritual vision. Seeing your weakness is a spiritual vision. He has a spectator's mind. Vision is delivered by grace planted in us through baptism: through the action of grace, the blindness of the mind is resolved in us, and in the course of his struggle he begins to clearly see what he has not seen before, being outside this field. He learns the existence of something that he did not even suspect existed. 1094 A person then begins to see that the thought of the insignificance, the excusability or even the naturalness of our sins, belittles our spiritual energy and roots evil in our nature, and the associated particularly developed attention to the errors of other people is a cunning tool of the spirit of evil, in order to belittle and weaken our spiritual sensitivity, to fix us in the field of evil. 1095 With humble attention to oneself, it turns out for a person that self-love, so common and dominant in our life, is the greatest self-hatred, and our sinful states and actions, which subject us even more to sin, are the most obvious expression of our self-hatred, our strange self-hatred. According to the fair conviction of the Most Reverend Ignatius, from his spiritual point of view, it must be said that “it is very rare among people who love themselves. Most people hate themselves and try to do as much harm to themselves as possible. If you measure the evil done to a person in his life, you will find that the fiercest enemy did not do as much evil to him as the person did to himself.” Taking an impartial look at your conscience, everyone will find this remark fair. The reason that we almost constantly do evil to ourselves, while we constantly and insatiably wish ourselves good, is that we have replaced correct love for ourselves with pride, which inspires us to strive for the indiscriminate fulfillment of our wishes, our fallen will, guided by a false reason and an evil conscience. We are carried away by greed, and ambition, and revenge, and resentment, and all sinful desires. We flatter ourselves and deceive ourselves, thinking to satisfy self-love, while we satisfy only our unsatisfied self-love, we wrong ourselves, we destroy ourselves. 1096 The very difficulty of distinguishing between good and evil and human insensitivity in this regard is already evidence of the sinful state of the human spirit, in which good and evil are mixed, and their discernment is weakened. The human mind is not able to distinguish good from evil; disguised evil easily, almost always, deceives him. Distinguishing good from evil belongs to the heart. It's his business. But it takes a feat, it takes time, it takes hardening of the commandments of the Gospel for the heart to acquire the subtlety of taste for distinguishing whole wine from counterfeit wine. Good is distinguished from evil by many signs that are learned as we progress spiritually. 1097 And with such widespread weakness, the sinful world acts on a person through thoughts and moods, the material world - through bodily feelings. A person hears in his soul the primordially seductive: “taste, find out,” or the proud: “you will be like a god.” 1098 In addition to our own, personal sinfulness and inclination towards evil, our sinful mood, in reality, absorbs sinfully tempting elements of anti-spiritual public opinion, which ultimately has a weakening effect on the spirit that is unstable in goodness. 1099 The consequences of sin in relation to the external side of human life are mortality and debility of the body and the curse of the earth. The man fell. Sin struck with death both his soul and his body. 1100 The human body is imprinted with a seal, evidence of the fall. From its very birth it is in enmity, in struggle with everything around it and with the very soul living inside it. All the elements swear against him; finally, tired of internal and external battles, struck by illnesses, oppressed by old age, it falls on the scythe of death, although it was created immortal - it crumbles into dust. 1101 The Reverend Ignatius, establishing a very interesting parallel between the states of the spirit and the body, draws the conclusion about the need to pay attention to one’s bodily properties, so that one can always keep the body in the position of an instrument for the purposes of the spirit. His observations are interesting because they indicate the individual conditions of bodily soul-saving feats. 1102 The state of the external conditions of his earthly existence also seems to correspond to the spiritual fall of man, where the same discord, mutual struggle and enmity are observed as in human nature. The earth is cursed for the crimes of man: it, having lost its primitive state, was transformed into the state that the abode of exiles from heaven should have for trampling on the commandments of God in heaven. We meet a hostile mood towards us from all visible nature at every step, at every step we meet it, reproach, its censure, its disagreement with our behavior. Before man, who rejected submission to God, the soulless and animate creature rejected submission. She was submissive to man as long as he remained submissive to God. Now she obeys a person by force, persists, often violates obedience, often crushes her master, cruelly and unexpectedly rebelling against him. 1103 The earth then shakes and swallows up whole cities and towns; then its ferocious waters rise to the surface and destroy entire countries; then storms pass through it with a whirlwind, lightning, thunder, hail, leaving destruction in their wake. An inexorable and insatiable death walks the earth and constantly destroys generations of men. The animals inhabiting the earth have rebelled one against the other, mercilessly destroying each other. The elements themselves are in irreconcilable hostility and continuous struggle among themselves. On earth everything fights, everything suffers, everything strives for mutual destruction. 1104 The natural and inevitable consequence of our internal sinfulness, when our personality manifests itself in external life, is discord and evil in our mutual relationships. As a result of the sinfulness of man, the earth has become a vale of exile, a vale of uninterrupted disorder and confusion, a vale of urgent suffering of beings who have lost their primitive dignity and home, who have lost common sense. 1105 Humanity living on earth is in constant struggle, both private and public, presenting a vast spectacle of varied suffering; incessant labor, countless sins, terrible crimes, Babylonian pandemonium. Virtue barely finds a cramped and sorrowful shelter in it. 1106 People in the vale of life suffer in countless forms of suffering. They suffer both under the yoke of poverty and in the abundance of wealth; they suffer both in wretched huts and in magnificent royal palaces; suffer from external disasters and from that terrible disorder that affects human nature, his soul and body, which distorts and blinds his mind. 1107 From the days of his childhood and pure youth, having become firmly established in the thought of the necessity of life for God and eternity, having renounced carnal wisdom and false reason, having eradicated spiritual love of peace in himself, having surrendered to the guidance of the Word of God and the Holy Orthodox Church, the ascetic of salvation, Vladika Ignatius, with sadness and a tight heart, contemplates the triumph of sin in the human world, people’s oblivion of eternity, the prosperity of selfishness and peacefulness and, in connection with this, the greatest suffering of humanity and the triumph of Satan. In one of the particularly sad moments of confrontation with the sinfulness of human thought, contrary to the Truth Himself - Christ, Vladyka Ignatius, in one short contemplation, experienced a fully edifying vision of the sinful suffering of humanity, completely devaluing the life of the self and motivating the unshakable meaning of life for eternity and spiritual salvation. Vladyka Ignatius depicts this vision in the following words: “It was sad in my heart,” he writes. “No particular thought, however, occupied me. How could I not be left with a sad impression when I saw that the mercy of God was being rejected, which can only be accepted and preserved by the right confession of the dogmas of the Christian faith, which is given by God Himself, and the vain human speculation about the mercy of God is given as an excuse for such rejection. Suddenly a thought appeared to me suggesting a trip around the world. The thought was so bright and gave me such a pleasant feeling that I didn’t think about it at all. I wholeheartedly agree. Guided by her, I fly as if in a balloon. I see all the countries, nothing stops me on my way, I rush past the sky-high mountains, I move quickly across rivers, across lakes, across seas. In the shortest possible time I looked around the entire universe, while sitting calmly in my chairs. What I saw during my journey is the suffering of humanity. Yes! I saw suffering, both physical and moral, and I did not meet a single person who did not suffer. I have seen suffering in palaces and on thrones; I saw him among the overflowing abundance. Where the body was healthy and nourished, there the heart was smooth, painful - not enduring the severe illness, it uttered incessant groans. I saw prisoners buried for life in stuffy and gloomy dungeons; I saw those rummaging in the abysses of the earth, where the light of the sun does not reach, where, with the sound of chains and the blows of hammers and axes, gold is mined - a means to the pleasures of some through the constant misfortune of those who mine. In the most educated states I have seen entire families dying of hunger; saw most of the population in distress from poverty and lack of morality. I saw humanity humiliated by crimes! I saw humanity distorted by delusions! I saw humanity disfigured by barbarism! I saw humanity reduced to the likeness of dumb beasts and beasts of prey! People are caught there, as if they were animals; there they trade them as soulless goods, like cattle, and in this marketplace a person is a low-value commodity: his price is less; than the price of livestock. There man lives almost like a dumb animal; and there he lives like a fierce beast, finding pleasure in shedding blood, devouring his own kind with mad, ecstatic joy. Ah, it would be better not to exist than to exist so violently, so horribly. This is a picture of ordinary human life on earth. We must also remember the disasters to which humanity is subjected from time to time and place: about earthquakes, pestilences, civil strife, about the sword of conquerors, which sheds blood so abundantly when it is in the hand of Batu or Tamerlane. And for several thousand years now, one generation has been replaced on earth by another, replaced solely for suffering. 1108 The exceptional manifestations of the suffering of mankind make an impression on Bishop Ignatius with the news of the death of a man who had long suffered and wasted away by an incurable illness, killed alive by this illness before the death of death. Bishop Ignatius sees especially educated Europe, or the so-called enlightened world, as such a cruelly sick person. 1109 And the reason for all the moods, disasters and suffering of mankind is completely clear for Bishop Ignatius: it is in the self of thought, in carnal wisdom, in peace, in serving sin, in oblivion of eternity. The reason for the suffering of mankind is that now in many ways people have dared to introduce their own regulations into the institutions of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the heavenly institutions became earthly, the spiritual - carnal, the holy - sinful, the wise - absurd. People see the incongruity, they see the destruction flowing from it, but they do not see the beginning from which disasters flow, because they look in the light of their own fallen mind, and not in the light of God. The beginning of the disaster lies in the impermissible and proud contempt of the commands of the Holy Spirit, in replacing them with one’s own statutes. This is the reason for the general disorder, the reason for the fall of Christianity, the fall of morality, which always precedes the civil disorder that foreshadows this disorder. 1110 And the point here is not only about private and individual sin, but the plaintiff is more about public sin: in rejection of the union with Christ, in the mutual dissolution of our Christian union, in which we are one in Christ; the point is the weakening of our church-Christian self-awareness. There are, says Vladyka Ignatius, Christians in particular, but the common, identical knowledge of the Truth, by which everyone would be united into one spiritual body, with one way of thinking in one spirit, under one common Head - Christ, has been lost. Nowadays, everyone has more or less his own way of thinking, his own religion, his own path, adopted arbitrarily or accidentally, recognized as correct, or only justified. This countless flock, having lost connection and unity in truth and spirit, presents to the spiritual observer the appearance of the greatest disorder: each sheep wanders in its own direction, not knowing where it is going; no one stops her, no one cares about her; people no longer hear - their hearing has become so heavy - the saving voice of the true Shepherd, heard from His holy Church, who still loudly denounces their untruth, announces to them the right path, shows it. They were deafened by the noise of earthly, cruel cares, the noise of sensual amusements, the noise of earthly prosperity. 1111 Selfishness of thought and carnal wisdom increase a person’s interest in earthly, material development and, giving rise to a love of peace, exclude the possibility of a soul-saving feat, for when to think about God, when to cultivate his own salvation for that person who is constantly and exclusively occupied with earthly affairs and material development. 1112 But the idea of ​​our immortality is so closely connected with the very essence of the human spirit that even carnal wisdom and the fleshiness of our mood cannot destroy it, but according to our love of peace and carnal wisdom, the spiritual idea of ​​immortality is realized by man in the conditions of his temporary activity, and is applied by him to the structure of his earthly life - and not in the sense of spiritualizing the latter, but in the sense of recognizing temporary bodily life on earth as the only last, without end. Man forgets about the unknown hour at which we will be called to eternal life. It is as if we do not see that others, having only begun the path of earthly life, admire it into eternity; some doze off after completing a very short journey, others from the middle of the journey; another, without significantly finishing it. Rarely does one reach the fullness of days and leave his earthly hut—the body—when he becomes unable to live in it. During our earthly journey, it, due to the sense of immortality perverted in us by the fall, seems to us endless, full of the most abundant, most fruitful activity. A child, a youth, a husband, and an old man have this feeling: they are all created immortal, immortal in soul; they should be immortal in body too; they either do not know at all, or do not want to know, or do not know it enough. That is why the view of the mind and the feeling of the heart in relation to earthly life are false: and filled with self-deception; That is why earthly life deceptively appears to every age as man’s eternal heritage. And although after completing the earthly wandering, at the gates of death, the path that seemed endless in the future in the past is the shortest, and extensive activity, not committed for eternity, is the most disastrous, irretrievable loss of time and all the means given for salvation, however, in the conditions of their temporary wandering, forced by the idea of immortality, but led by carnal wisdom, people accept the temporal for the eternal and, while engaging in the material, development, they strive to turn the earth doomed to burning into their paradise, in their self-delusion rejecting and ridiculing concerns about preparing themselves for eternity, for for those whose thoughts are entirely directed towards the earth and are occupied with the earth, there is no God. This attitude towards earthly life, the anti-Christian structure of life, which reveals the anti-Christian mood of the spirit of the builders, seems very favorable for the manifestation of life of those who are obsessed with pride and guided by carnal wisdom; such an attitude towards earthly life prepares the ground for the emergence of the Antichrist. By the time the Antichrist appears, everything that relates to selfishness and pride will be concentrated in the conditions and properties of human life; carnal wisdom, sin. The depiction of the conditions and properties of the anti-Christian direction of earthly life in the writings of Vladyka Ignatius seems interesting in itself and provokes useful and not far from modern reflections. The Antichrist will come, says Vladyka Ignatius, at his predetermined time. His coming will be preceded by a general retreat among the majority of people from the Christian faith. By apostasy from Christ, humanity will prepare to accept the Antichrist. In the very mood of the human spirit there will arise a demand, an invitation to the Antichrist, sympathy for him, just as in a state of severe illness a thirst for a deadly drink arises. An invitation is pronounced, a calling voice is heard in human society, expressing the urgent need for a genius of geniuses, who would raise material development and prosperity to the highest degree, establish on earth that prosperity in which heaven and paradise become unnecessary for man. The Antichrist will be a logical, just, natural consequence of the general moral and spiritual direction of people. 1113 Deviation from the true Christian direction and deviation towards the anti-Christian structure of life, which prepares the temporary triumph of the enemy of God and makes the logical consequence of the appearance on earth, on the eve of the new heaven and new earth, of the Antichrist, is rightly put by the Most Reverend Ignatius in connection with the sinful mood of man and, especially and most of all, with the selfishness of the carnal wisdom of the sinful false mind, for which it is very difficult to stop in morally destructive work denial of the saving principles of Christ's faith. Rationalism, according to Vladyka Ignatius, cannot stop in its movement, since it has as its basis the constantly changing human mind. We must expect more and more development of the disease. 1114 Putting above all else the soul-saving feat and the definition of the tasks of man's temporary earthly existence from the point of view of the goals of eternity, rightly considering sin to be the only condition for all conflicts and collisions of life, himself serving all his life for the understanding of Christian salvation and the spiritual creation of his neighbors, Saint Ignatius looks at the materialistic and rationalistic structure of human life as the greatest disaster, as a disease. This disease, according to his observation, especially began to shake the peace of peoples from the end of the 18th century; the further you go, the more extensive and destructive the action. From the final, worldwide action of this disease, a “lawless man”, a genius of geniuses, must emerge, just as his pre-image - the colossal genius - Napoleon was born from the French Revolution. 1115 The cause of all external disturbances in life seems to Vladyka Ignatius to be the persecution of the Church of Christ and the principles of eternal salvation and moral perfection that it proclaims. He is struck by the general desire of everyone exclusively for one material thing, as if it were eternal - oblivion of the eternal; as if non-existent - ridicule and abuse of Christianity, - subtle and fierce persecution of the Church, persecution of her life, replacement of the Spirit and His statutes with false reason and statutes emanating from the ruler of the world - general worldwide rumor, as if in pandemonium. Railways, steam locomotives and the technical improvement of life, with the observed decline in moral faith, seem to him to be the proud work of the Babylonian pandemonium, leading to consequences identical to the consequences of the Babylonian proud undertaking. The only salvation from these disastrous consequences lies in protecting the human soul with the principles of holy faith. 1116 The Most Reverend Ignatius points out the most important signs of the anti-Christian direction of life: the weakening of spiritual knowledge and reasoning, the strengthening of pride and carnal wisdom, the desire for an exclusive arrangement of one’s earthly well-being. The spokesman for this sinful state of humanity is the Antichrist. The Antichrist “will trumpet himself, as his forerunners and icons trumpeted themselves, will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God: those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion, and will join him. He will sound the trumpet and call himself the promised Messiah: the children of carnal wisdom will shout at him; they will see his glory, power, genius abilities, extensive development in the elements of the world, proclaim him a god, and become his associates. 1117 The Antichrist will show himself meek, merciful, full of love, full of every virtue: those who recognize the fallen human truth as truth and have not renounced it for the truth of the Gospel will recognize him and submit to him because of his most sublime virtue. 1118 The Antichrist will offer humanity the creation of the highest earthly well-being and prosperity, will offer honors, wealth, splendor, carnal comforts and pleasures: seekers of earthly things will accept the Antichrist and call him their ruler. 1119 The Antichrist will reveal to humanity a disgrace of amazing miracles, inexplicable by modern science; he will instill fear with a thunderstorm and the wonder of his miracles, satisfy with them reckless curiosity and gross ignorance, satisfy human vanity and pride, satisfy carnal wisdom, satisfy superstition, lead to bewilderment of human learning: all people guided by the light of their fallen nature, alienated from the guidance of the light of God, will be carried away into obedience to the seducer. 1120 The signs of the Antichrist will complement the actions of his cunning behavior and will attract the majority of people to follow him. Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered troublemakers, enemies of the public good and order, and will be subject to both covert and open persecution, torture and execution. Evil spirits, scattered throughout the universe, will arouse in people a general, lofty opinion of the Antichrist, a general delight, an irresistible attraction to him. A terrible test will come for the saints of God: the wickedness, hypocrisy, and miracles of the persecutor will intensify to deceive and seduce them; refined, invented and covered by the insidious ingenuity of persecution and constraint, the unlimited power of the tormentor will put them in the most difficult position; a small number of them will seem insignificant before all humanity and their opinion will be given special weakness; general contempt, hatred, slander, oppression, violent death will be their lot. Only with the special assistance of Divine grace, under its guidance, will God’s chosen ones be able to resist the enemy of God and confess the Lord Jesus before him and before men. 1121 The anti-Christian direction of the life of society also penetrates family relationships, which makes the spiritual position of the zealot of salvation even more complicated: fighting the Antichrist in his soul, opposing him in matters of building external life according to carnal wisdom, the servant of Christ is subjected to the same influence within the family, which makes it even more difficult for him to perform a soul-saving feat, for family dependence is stronger than dependence on human society and it is more convenient to evade submission to the requirements social, rather than avoid submitting to family demands. Family demands are supported by natural law, and when these demands agree with the law of God, the Law of God itself will help them, and in case of disagreement, it is inevitable and obligatory for a Christian to fight against anti-Christian influences, no matter where they come from. 1122 The secrecy and apparent plausibility of anti-Christian influences falsely appease a person’s sinful conscience, and evasion from the feat of spiritual salvation rarely has the obvious appearance of resistance to the call of Christ, being sometimes excused by higher and, in any case, reasonable motives for a carnal person. The behavior of people in this case, according to Bishop Ignatius, is clearly illustrated in the parable of those invited to the supper. All those invited, as if by agreement, apologized and refused the supper. What kind of conspiracy is this, what is this unanimity in opposing God? This is the action of falling, common to everyone; this is proof of goodwill towards one’s state of fall, voluntary stay in it; this is a sign of the mortification of the soul by sin, which cannot and does not want to be awakened from the sleep of death, lower to the calling voice of the Son of God. Those invited put forward their earthly relationships as the reason for their reluctance to come to the supper. Another attributed such importance to academic and official occupations that he considered it permissible to neglect God; another indulged in family concerns and forgot God; another, finally, became carried away by passions, mired in crude carnal pleasures, and became completely alien to God. More than one obvious sin takes away our spiritual treasure from us: every earthly occupation, every earthly position takes it away, when the soul is completely attracted and chained to them, 1123 the wonderful Servant had to persuade and convince people to come to the supper: we have become akin to and loved our fall, it is hard to be separated from it. Our own nature has become incapable of good, and without the Savior it cannot do any true, integral good. 1124 With this only Divine help, a person has the opportunity to fight within himself against the sinful peacefulness of the temporary in the name of eternity. 1125 But a person comes to the realization of this through long-term and painful experience: sometimes it takes many upheavals for a person to see all the vanity of the world and understand that “a life and place without sorrow on earth is an impossible dream, which is sought by minds and hearts that are alien to Divine enlightenment, deceived by demons. The earth is a place of sighing, and blessed are those who sigh on it: they will be comforted in heaven. A place and life without sorrow, when the heart acquires humility, and through humility enters into patience. Guided by the ray of the Word of God, the earthly wanderer goes out into saving, spiritual pasture, and from here he begins eternal life.” 1126 With such a view of Bishop Ignatius on earthly reality, for him the signs of earthly humiliation and extreme humility are evidence of the presence of a soul-saving feat and the heavenly direction of earthly life, and when his gaze, looking at the universe from Christian piety, presents itself to the proud magnificent chambers erected by humanity for abundant earthly entertainment, for triumph and enjoyment of its fall, for In order to develop, impress, strengthen, make this fall an inalienable property, then the heart of a pious viewer of life is filled with inexplicable sorrow and fear. On the contrary, it is filled with quiet consolation when one sees the humble dwelling of the monks, their wretched cells, testifying that this is the camp of spiritual Israel wandering through the desert of earthly life, striving for the promised land - to heaven. 1127 The earth is covered with human sins, sins permeate all human activity in its natural form, even in the case of a person doing good. Sinfulness, universally and hereditarily, passes on to all descendants of Adam, 1128 and therefore the fundamental task of human life is the fight against sin and its consequences, this task is the spiritual rebirth of man, acquired by saving repentance with the assistance of the grace of God; and the earth should be a place of repentance and rebirth, this is one of the most important conclusions to which Saint Ignatius came while studying the real side of human spiritual life. The heredity of sinfulness is confirmed by the entire structure of human life - social and personal, external and internal; humanity is a category of creatures languishing in various disasters. 1129 But the sinfully resourceful human mind usually willingly dwells on pictures and discussions of the general sinfulness of mankind, as if trying, with the consciousness of universal sinfulness, to weaken the consciousness of personal sinfulness and, in general sinfully tempting conditions, to find an excuse for personal sinfulness. Delving into this property of a sinful person, Vladyka Ignatius primarily tries to shift a person’s attention from the general sinfulness of all people to our personal sinfulness and, having understood how much it is necessary to know about the sinfulness of the entire human race and the sinfulness of human societies, he pays special attention to the private sinfulness that each person has his own. This consideration is essential for us and significantly useful. It can have a saving influence on our activities, turning them away from the path of lawlessness, directing them according to the will of God. Enlightened by the law of God, we will learn that God, with unlimited mercy, is completely just and that He will certainly reward a sinful life with appropriate punishment. Such a conviction will inspire us to use every effort to free ourselves from infatuation with our own passions and the vicious customs of society, to deliver ourselves from the temporary and eternal executions of God. 1130 If the general sinfulness of those around us has a tempting effect on a weak person, on an individual, then the latter’s friendship with the kingdom of sinfulness arises only because it exists even earlier in the human soul. Carried away and blinded by his own sin, he cannot help but be carried away by the social sinful mood: he will not see it with clarity, will not understand it as he should, will not renounce it with selflessness, belonging to it in his heart. 1131 Like his great and life-long mentors - the Holy Fathers and ascetics of the ancient Eastern Church, His Grace Ignatius, understanding the soul-saving and regenerating feat, revolves most of all in the field of human psychology, deeply understanding that the cause of all world disorder lies in sin, and sin is not a material, but a psychological principle. Therefore, the fight against the evil principle of life should be directed precisely against this psychological cause, towards the revival and creation in human nature of new mental conditions under which the kingdom of good arises and strengthens in the inner man. 1132 And for the Most Reverend Ignatius, the essence of the feat against sin, the feat that every Christian is obliged to strive for, lies in the struggle against sin, in the dissolution of friendship with it, in the defeat of sin in the soul itself, in the mind and heart, with which the body cannot but sympathize. This struggle, this feat, is life-long, never ending on earth, for although sinfulness is defeated in righteous people, although eternal death is destroyed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in them, they are not given unchangeability in goodness throughout their earthly journey: freedom in choosing good and evil is not taken away from them. Immutability in goodness is a property of the future century. Earthly life until its last hour is a field of voluntary and involuntary exploits. 1133 And the essence of these feats lies for a person in self-denial, or renunciation of his sinful self, which has become so close to man that it has become his second nature and renunciation of sin becomes renunciation of himself. “Sin, through which our fall took place, has so taken hold of our nature that it has become as if natural for us: renunciation of sin has become renunciation of nature; renunciation of nature is renunciation of oneself. Eternal death, which struck our soul, turned into life for us. It demands its food - sin, its pleasure - sin: through such food and such pleasure, eternal death maintains and preserves its dominion over man. But fallen man recognizes the maintenance and development in himself of the dominion of death as the development and prosperity of life.” 1134 Self-denial, as associated with a radical spiritual revolution and therefore beyond the capabilities of man himself in his natural state, is possible only with the assistance of the saving grace of God. According to the instructions of the Holy Fathers, says Vladyka Ignatius, in order to destroy insensibility, a person needs constant, patient, continuous action against insensibility, the need for a constant, pious, attentive life. But this death of the human spirit is not killed by man’s own efforts alone: ​​insensibility is destroyed by the action of Divine grace. An angel of God, at the command of God, descends to help the toiling and weary soul, rolls away the stone of bitterness from the heart, fills the heart with tenderness, and announces to the soul resurrection, which is the usual consequence of constant tenderness. Tenderness is the first sign of revival of the heart in relation to God and eternity. 1135 The very vision of one’s sinfulness and the thought of fighting it is already the fruit of the action of grace. 1136 Thus, the accomplishment of the feat of spiritual salvation is the fruit of the interaction of limited human powers and God’s grace, and the area of ​​its implementation is primarily the human soul, the area of ​​human psychology. Having clarified for ourselves the area of ​​sin in the human soul, according to the teachings of Ignatius Brianchaninov, we strive in the future to establish the essence of sinful states and note their consistent development. The concepts in the midst of which, on the question of the origin and development of sin, the thought of the Most Reverend Ignatius revolves, essentially remind us of the concepts of ancient ascetic spiritual literature that are identical in scope and content, which is quite natural: Bishop Ignatius in the 19th century is a disciple of the spirit-bearing elders and ascetics of holy antiquity. But at the same time, the interest in studying the judgment of Bishop Ignatius does not weaken in the slightest, because, despite the dependence and influence, the ascetic and teaching concepts in the works of Bishop Ignatius are filled with contemporary, his content, are imbued with his personally experienced mood, are expressed in his literary language, are confirmed by examples of living reality, contemporary to him and not far from us, in a word - they bear undoubted traces of his individuality, and therefore have originality, freshness, novelty and educational power. In the scope of the judgments of the Most Reverend Ignatius about sin and its development, about the conditions of the struggle against it, our personal saving introspection is involuntarily aroused, our moral “I” comes out of its usual shading and corral, comes to the fore of our spiritual life, and we, even if it was not a very short time, stop, truly seriously, our attention on the task of salvation, for the first time, perhaps in life, we truly think about how spiritual Ascetics, in terms of the content of their inner life, did what was necessary, obligatory for us, and in their soul-saving speeches they tell us about what we need most, although everything is most forgotten - the only thing for the salvation of the soul. At the same time, the study of the works of Bishop Ignatius repeatedly convinces us that Δογος αςχητιχος, and this is how most of his works can be called, is an eternally modern word that does not change its meaning for a Christian when the conditions of external life fluctuate, and asceticism itself at its basis has vitality and meaning, despite the very common judgments of modern weakened Christians about it only historical significance. Sin has been studied by ascetic ascetics from its inception to its final development and transformation into passion. The primary act of the sinful mood of the soul is called by ascetics a thought. This is the seed of sin. Gradually developing and strengthening in the human soul, the thought passes into a sinful direction, and this latter, in turn, ends in an external fact. Differing in subject and content, sinful thoughts in their emergence and development follow the same order and pass, according to the teachings of St. ascetics, the same necessary steps. The primary emergence of sinful thoughts occurs without the participation of our personality: they appear regardless; whether or not the will of a person agrees with them. But in no case can the transition of thought into the personal mood of our soul take place without the participation of our will. The progress of the development of thought in our soul is noted in ascetic works in the following six moments. On the surface of a person’s consciousness is the idea of ​​some evil deed; this is a simple reminder to us from the spirit of evil about the existence of a known criminal phenomenon. This is an attempt by the spirit of malice to persuade a person to sin, to disrupt the even state of his soul by introducing a sinful idea into the realm of consciousness. In the language of ascetics, this primary act of thought is called attack, 1137 or preposition. 1138 On a clean and clear field of consciousness, through the action of the spirit of malice, a pretext, or sinful idea, appears. The pretext appears more externally, but is often also internal. 1139 The will of a person in this first moment of thought is understood by ascetics as not subject to moral imputation. Following the attack or pretext comes the second moment of thought - friendship, 1140 or combination; 1141 this is the acceptance of a thought inspired by the enemy, as if engaging with it and having a happy conversation with it, which occurs at the will of a person. 1142 Human thoughts and demonic speculations at this moment equally appear within the limits of our consciousness, but without active influence on the will. 1143 At this moment of thought, the will enters into its action, but the latter does not yet have a definite content and character. When a sinful excuse appears in consciousness, the will descends, as it were, into the recesses of the human soul for internal council. It brings two new ideas into a person’s consciousness: on the one hand, the idea of ​​the correspondence of the demonic pretext to the original evil nesting in the soul; on the other hand, the representation of the highest standards of moral life. The will, as it were, makes a statement about how much data there is in the soul for and against agreement with sin, but still does not lean either on the side of good or on the side of the sinful pretext. In this case, the spiritual state of a person cannot yet have full moral imputation due to its uncertainty, but it exposes some imperfection of the will, expressed in its oscillation between good and evil, while with the perfection of the will the soul, in view of the sinful pretext, inclines towards good, as the only reliable haven against the tricks of the evil one. Following this comes the last moment, which the teacher. Ephraim denotes the term “passion”, not in the usual sense of passions, as certain vicious states, but in the sense of “skill for thought.” 1144 Evil in the human soul is combined with a pretext by inclination of the will and is complicated by a direction towards evil. 1145 The soul already enjoys the demonic pretext and is tempted to commit an evil deed; but she has not yet given her full consent. This moment is like the beginning of a spiritual illness. The fourth moment comes - the internal struggle between the ideas of good and evil. This moment can be more or less long depending on how attached our soul is to goodness and is ready to resist this pretext. This is exactly the state about which Ap. Paul said: the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: but these are opposed to each other (Gal. 5:17) The internal struggle between good and evil ends at the fifth moment in captivity, that is, a decisive inclination of the will towards evil. Finally, when the will has determined itself in one direction or another, has made a choice between good and evil, the consent of the soul is given to bring thoughts to a certain cause. In this case, in the case of an inclination of the will towards evil, the soul gives consent to commit a sin. This is precisely the sinfulness of the thought that leads to sin, that it appears as a result of a comparison of good and evil, as a result of a conscious struggle between good and evil. “The grace of God visits our hearts at all times, and if it finds peace for itself, then, having entered, it constantly dwells in our soul, but if it does not find a pure heart, it immediately retreats. When grace comes to visit us and encounters the stench of unclean thoughts in our hearts, it immediately retreats, not finding an entrance for itself to move in and dwell in us as it pleases; and, unless it makes an impression on the heart with its luminous sweetness, so that a person feels that grace visited him, but did not find an entrance, and so that, thus, enjoying the illumination of grace, he seeks it. 1146 In view of the constant readiness on the part of Divine grace to illuminate the heart of man, to enlighten his inner eye, to revive his thoughts, he is completely irresponsible to the eternal truth and has no moral right to refer to his helplessness, to his involuntary captivity by sin. Having noted the general distinctive points in the development of sinful states, regardless of their special nature and content according to the teaching of St. Ascetic ascetics, we move on to presenting the judgments of Bishop Ignatius on the same issue, in order to clarify the individuality and modernity, and therefore the greatest closeness to our mood, of his judgments in comparison with those of the ancient ascetic writers. Raising the entire complex feat of spiritual work to the realm of human psychology, the Most Reverend Ignatius calls on the Christian to especially vigilantly monitor the entire course of his life, recommending, as a particularly necessary quality for the ascetic, sobriety or prayerful vigilance over oneself - a very meaningful and complex state. 1147 Having developed in himself the property of sobriety or spiritual attention, a Christian thereby provides the opportunity to observe the emergence of sin in the soul, and, consequently, to fight it at the very root. He who has the state and ability of sobriety under the tempting influence of sin, first of all notices the emergence of a secret word in the soul. By this biblical (Deut. 15:9) term, the Most Reverend Ignatius also means the unanimous presentation of some evil and God-hating thing, which the Fathers call a pretext, brought to the heart by the devil.” 1148 As a fleeting, accidental idea that arises independently of a person’s will, a sinful excuse, with our spiritual attention or sobriety, passes through our soul without a trace and is harmless to our spiritual state. But when the thought stops at some point on a sinful idea, the pretext lingers in our soul for some, at least a short time, becomes the content of our thought, the fleeting idea turns into a thought that is no longer harmless for our spiritual state. The emergence and development of a thought in a person’s soul sometimes occurs semi-consciously and on the part of the experiencer - unconsciously, as it happens, for example. in states of tempting dreams that inspire a person with an exaggerated idea of ​​himself, 1149 but most of all the thought arises in the conscious state of the soul. The development and expression of a sinful and soul-destructive thought is clearly expressed by the Right Reverend Ignatius in the following examples: – For a person living with peacefulness and temporary interests, it is difficult to renounce the usual lukewarm life in relation to goodness; the direction of life towards the goals of spiritual salvation seems to be a difficult matter, starting the work of salvation seems impossible at any given moment, and all this sinful oppression and relaxation of a person find corresponding justification in human thoughts. The thoughts of fallen human nature, disobeying the Word of God or acting under the influence of rejected and evil spirits, present the possibility of repentance in old age or at the end of life, and thereby keep us in sin. Tempting thoughts point a person to the multitude of sinners and the insignificant number of those abstaining from sins, and thereby diminish the significance of sin. Thoughts excuse a voluptuous life by the demands of nature, youth, the quality of the physique - this helps to alleviate the severity of sin before the conscience of the sinner. They falsely explain the mystery of God’s mercy and the mystery of repentance, thereby distracting from true repentance and do not allow a person into the paternal embrace of God’s goodness. 1150 By weakening our consciousness of sinfulness and, to a significant extent, reconciling us with our less-than-Christian mood, the sinful thought temptingly strengthens our love of peace and attraction to the world. The devil acts on us most of all with sinful thoughts and sinful dreams. Before our imagination, he picturesquely paints a transient world with charms and pleasures, and together he enters into a conversation with the soul about the fulfillment of unrealistic dreams. He offers us earthly glory, offers us wealth, satiety, pleasures of carnal impurities. He offers us all this in a dream, and together points out illegal ways to realize illegal dreams, plunging us into sadness, despondency, despair - both with obvious sin and sin covered with the guise of good, anointed with the bait of pleasure. 1151 But the actions of the harmful thoughts of a person’s near-prayer mood seem especially persistent and cunning. Bishop Ignatius' observations on the manifestation of sinful thoughts during prayer are especially detailed. As if bearing in mind the special saving power of sincere prayer and understanding that he who abandons prayer abandons his salvation, the spirit of evil especially complicates prayer experiences with sinful thoughts. In this regard, we will soon notice that at the very time when we need to engage in prayer, we have thoughts about other activities that seem to us to be of great importance and urgent. These things sometimes completely take away our prayer time. But if this is not the case, and if we perform the feat of prayer, albeit for a short time, then a sinful thought robs and defiles our prayer. Thoughts are clothed in the guise of truth in order to give them more strength and conviction, and dreams are presented in the most seductive painting. Our prayer is stolen, desecrated and destroyed when, while performing it, the mind does not heed the words of the prayer, but is occupied with empty thoughts and dreams. 1152 Some of the thoughts that affect a person during prayer are plausible and truthful, seem innocent, or even the fruit of inspiration and heavenly visions, but their acceptance equally leads to the loss of freedom of mood and to the further development of sin. This consistency and continuity in the development of sinful thoughts is explained by the affinity we observe, both between the states of sin and between the states of virtue, which, with the unity of our spiritual life, is expressed in the increase in the content of our spiritual life in accordance with the accepted direction. An example of the gradual complication of a sinful thought can be the following picture of our frequent loss of the prayerful mood. Being very close to a pure prayerful mood at the beginning of prayer, under the influence of a sinful thought we, unbeknownst to ourselves, completely lose our primary state. During a feat of prayer, we sometimes unexpectedly remember all those who have offended us; the insults and insults inflicted on us are represented in vivid painting; retribution for them and resistance to them are presented as a requirement of justice, common sense, public benefit, self-preservation, and necessity. This shakes the very foundation of the feat of prayer—kindness and meekness. This is what happens, because someone who is evil in memory and has not forgiven his neighbor for his sins cannot concentrate during his prayer and come to tenderness. Angry thoughts scatter prayer, they scatter it to the sides, like a gusty wind scatters seeds thrown by a sower into his field, and the field of the heart remains unsown, and the intense work of the ascetic remains in vain. 1153 Along with these thoughts that are obviously hostile to the mood of prayer, hidden dreams often arise that have a positive content and, apparently, lead to positive goals. Thoughts and dreams about earthly prosperity come into the soul that is tuning into prayer: either in a seductive picture human glory is presented as a fair or happy tribute to virtue, as if recognized and finally recognized by people, then in an equally seductive picture an abundance of earthly means is presented, on the basis of which Christian virtue should supposedly flourish and strengthen. 1154 Thus, with thoughts of earthly glory, earthly prosperity, earthly abundance, the joys of dreams and reflections that destroy contrition of the spirit in us, doubt and absent-mindedness are introduced into our soul, which constitute favorable soil for the development of other sinful thoughts. Our agreement with these sinful thoughts opens our Soul to thoughts of fornication and despondency. Thoughts of prodigal passion and despondency will be followed by an invasion of thoughts and feelings of sadness, unbelief, hopelessness, bitterness, darkness, blasphemy and despair. 1155 In general, it is necessary to know, says Bishop Ignatius, that all sinful thoughts, dreams, sins and passions have an affinity with each other. Because of this affinity, voluntary submission to one sinful thought entails involuntary submission to another; the acquisition of one sinful passion attracts into the soul another passion akin to it; the voluntary commission of one sin leads to an involuntary fall into another sin, born of the first. Anger does not tolerate remaining unmarried in the heart. Let's explain this with examples. – He who condemned his neighbor naturally felt contempt for him; he who felt contempt gained pride. From contempt for one's neighbor, with a high opinion of oneself - and these two states are inseparable - comes hatred of one's neighbor; Hatred and remembrance result in hardening of the heart. Due to the hardening of the heart, carnal sensations and carnal wisdom begin to predominate in a person, and from this a lustful passion is kindled, faith in God and hope in Him is killed, and a desire for greed and human glory appears, leading a person to complete oblivion of God and apostasy from Him. 1156 In view of this close connection between vicious thoughts, it is necessary to abstain from all thoughts and dreams that do not agree with the teachings of the Gospel, and to heal any infatuation with repentance. And Vladyka Ignatius begs his beloved brethren to pay attention to this continuity and integrity of spiritual life, due to which it is impossible for a person to be vicious in one respect and virtuous in another, it is impossible to lead a vicious life in the hope of the redemptive significance of some of his virtuous deeds, special ones introduced into the circle of life out of obligation, and not out of arbitrary need, it is impossible to enjoy sin in one direction only, without influencing the general course of spiritual life. Those who do not know this and do not pay attention to it suffer the greatest harm and deprive themselves of spiritual success. For example, many, guarded from prodigal thoughts and dreams, consider the pleasure of thoughts and dreams of greed and vanity to mean nothing, while according to the spiritual law, thoughts and dreams about property, about honors, about human glory are the same prodigal ones. All sinful thoughts and dreams have such a meaning in a person’s relationship with God, as distracting a person from the love of God. 1157 Attention to thoughts and struggle with them have spiritual consolation as their natural fruit. 1158 From the above judgments of Bishop Ignatius about the essence of sin in its occurrence, we believe it follows that the basis of sin is psychological, that the sinful pretext, being a fleeting idea independent of the will of a person, passes into a truly sinful state imputed to a person only to the extent that our soul participates in it. The degree of this participation of our soul in its sinful state is determined in the direction of all sides of the soul: from the side of the mind, as stopping thought on a sinful pretext, or retaining the pretext in thought; on the part of the heart, as a friendship of mood, even if fleeting, with the object of a sinful excuse and, therefore, a clouding of spiritual purity on the part of the will, as a concentration of mental energy, even if short-term and shallow, in the direction of a sinful excuse. Just one stop of our thought on the object of a sinful pretext indicates the sinfulness of our mood, for due to the affinity and unity of the various aspects of mental life, one or another fullness of our experiences in one direction cannot remain ineffective in relation to the general content of our spiritual life and to the state of all other aspects of our spiritual being. The preoccupation of our thoughts with a sinful pretext entails in most cases the emergence in our memory of other ideas, either similar in content to the sinful pretext, or opposite to it. In the first case, the sinful pretext receives the extreme development of a sinful thought, in the second case, a struggle between the thoughts of good and evil, which is important in spiritual life, arises, the outcome of which in the direction of sin or salvation depends, of course, not on theoretical arguments and beliefs, but on the degree of purity of the heart, and obedience of the will to this or that wisdom of thought. This entire complex and sometimes lengthy internal process, which arose under the influence of a sinful excuse, ends with the full and definite expression of the thought, as the mental affirmation of the soul to act in a good or evil direction. When a sinful thought has completed its natural development, sin, as a mental phenomenon, has already been determined: a choice of motives and goals has been made, the human spirit has experienced determination and is inclined toward actual expression in action. Of course, the action may not occur - either as a result of changed external conditions, or as a result of opposing motives that have arisen in the soul, nevertheless, in view of complete psychological certainty and the presence in it of an element of free will, a sinful thought in the entire volume of its content is subject to moral imputation. That is why the struggle against sin and all the saving work of spiritual rebirth is naturally concentrated in the area of ​​​​our moods with a corresponding reflection, of course, on our life feat and external deeds. That is why the Right Reverend Ignatius, from the days of his youth, focused his attention primarily on the feat of spiritual work, in this direction he sought in vain for himself a leader - an elder during the years of his novice apprenticeship, in this direction he concentrated his literary eldership, in the same direction he sought to cultivate the mood of those who, in the consciousness of the spiritual poverty of this world, turned to compensation for their spiritual poverty from its spiritual treasury. The most common name for denoting a sinful state of the soul, both in the works of the ascetics of antiquity and in Bishop Ignatius, is the term passion. Under this name in ascetic works it is often understood, firstly, the passion, imperfection or general sinfulness of human nature, which, perhaps, does not have a sharp individual expression in the mood of a given person. Secondly, the term passion means a state of a certain spiritual conversion in any direction from its primary state, for example: from the above-mentioned state of general hereditary sinfulness - towards the sinfulness of individual and voluntary formation in this direction of passion in the sense of a sinful habit. In the same sense, the term passion is sometimes used to designate saving success in the fight against sin and readiness for continuous feat in the indicated direction: In both cases, the imputability of a person’s spiritual state is determined by the degree of arbitrariness or volitional manifestation of his being. In those cases, and this is much more common and more common, when passion refers to the vicious states of a person, in them the element of arbitrariness comes to the fore. To characterize the views of Bishop Ignatius on this issue, the following judgments of the ascetic are of particular importance. Noting the conditions for a person’s separation from salvation, Bishop Ignatius puts passions in the foreground among them. Deprived, he says, of the hope of salvation are those Orthodox Christians who have acquired sinful passions and through them entered into communion with Satan, severing communion with God 1159 i.e. in this case, the turning of the soul towards sin is understood as passion. In the nature of a passionate state, the element of arbitrariness or volition is of primary importance. Passions are sinful habits of the soul, turned from a long time and frequent exercise in sin, as if into natural qualities. Each of the passions, having turned into a person’s character and, as it were, into the rule of his life, makes him incapable of spiritual pleasure on earth and in heaven, even if the person does not fall into mortal sin. 1160 In the conditions of the origin of passions, the stability or rootedness of sinful thoughts is of great importance. Passion is not always expressed in action; she can secretly live in a person’s heart, possessing his feelings and thoughts. Passion is recognized when a person does not cease to imagine sin and enjoy its dreams, when, captivated by it, he is no longer able to resist the captivating power of sinful thoughts and pictures that absorb all his wisdom and strength. A passionate person does not cease to commit sin in dreams and heartfelt feelings, through which he maintains his communication with dark spirits, and his subordination to them, and therefore his eternal destruction. 1161 Passion is made up of the thoughts of alien souls, from which it languishes and suffers, as from an unnatural state. 1162 Passions are revealed by thoughts, dreams and sinful sensations. These thoughts and dreams sometimes suddenly appear to the mind; sometimes they sneak up on him in a sneaky way. Sinful thoughts, dreams and sensations lead to committing a sin in reality, or at least to pleasure and captivity by sinful thoughts, dreams, sensations to commit a sin in the imagination and feeling. 1163 Sometimes the general term passion refers to sin in general, and the concepts sin and passion are used as synonymous passions, otherwise sin in the broad sense of the word. The Apostle, when he speaks of sin living in man (Rom. 7:14; 17:20), means by the word sin an infection, the evil of all human nature, he means passions. 1164 The term passion, therefore, also refers to the general sinfulness of man. The primordial basis of passions is original sin: in original sin lies the seed of all passions, we are born with an inclination towards all types of sin and therefore we should not be surprised at the manifestation and rebellion of any passion, as if it were something unusual and strange. 1165 This relationship of passions to original sin determines their position in human nature. Due to the heredity of original sin, passions, or sinful ailments of soul and body are characteristic of our fallen nature. But being illnesses of the soul, passions are thereby unnatural to our immaculate nature, as it was created; are unnatural to passions and renewed nature; they are natural to fallen nature. So the properties of this disease are natural to any bodily illness; So illness and death are natural to our body, which has lost immortality and the properties of immortality. Before the fall, immortality was natural to our body; illness and death are unnatural. 1166 From the stated point of view, the frequent life judgments of a person who is weakened in relation to the spiritual life about the naturalness of passions, and therefore about the uselessness and unnecessaryness of fighting them, as unnatural and supposedly violating the laws of nature, acquire for us a very definite meaning. It is clear that the struggle against sinful passions is a struggle against the sinful nature and for the restoration of an intact or renewed nature. But, being closely connected with original and hereditary sin, sinful passions are thus, in fact, connected with the properties of our sinful nature, or natural and involuntary for a sinful person, which, on the one hand, determines the lifelong duration of the influence of sinful passions on the human soul, on the other hand, their involuntary nature in a sinfully natural state and the complexity of a sinfully passionate state, depending on the human free will manifested in relation to it arbitrariness. In the first respect, the period of manifestation of passions in a person coincides with the time of a person’s earthly life. Death, says Bishop Ignatius, death alone completely frees even the saints of God from the influence of sin on them. Passions are shameless: they can arise even in someone lying on his deathbed. Even on your deathbed it is impossible to stop being vigilant over yourself. Trust the dispassion of your body when it lies in the coffin. 1167 These passions, associated with the very essence of human nature damaged by sin, act in man involuntarily, regardless of human will and, therefore, are involuntary. According to the properties of the soul and body, according to the influence of circumstances, one passion acts and develops with special force in one person, and another in another; in some cases a special inclination towards the love of money is noticeable, in others - towards gluttony; one is carried away by carnal lust, the other by the thirst for vain honors. Anyone who is not carried away by any passion should not think that this passion is not in him: only there was no opportunity to discover it. 1168 But, in addition to passionate and sinful inclinations associated with the general properties of human nature damaged by sin, passions that arise arbitrarily, according to the self-willed decision of the human will, manifest themselves in the human soul and have an even greater influence on the course of a person’s spiritual life, and therefore have greater significance in the spiritual life of a person and are subject to greater moral imputation. The passions inherent in fallen nature are distinguished by the greatest difference from passions acquired arbitrarily; every person. The power of the latter is incomparably greater than the power of the former. But both passions are healed by true repentance. 1169 A person’s awareness of his subordination to the spiritual illness of the passions, both due to general hereditary sinfulness and the will to evil arbitrarily acquired due to sinful complacency, is for a Christian a strong incentive to spiritual sobriety and, calling him to a continuous struggle against evil, thereby putting him on the path of spiritual improvement. According to Bishop Ignatius, passions, dwelling in a Christian, constantly forcing him to be on guard, constantly challenging him to fight, contribute to his spiritual success. A hard and heavy millstone grinds the grains of wheat into flour, making the wheat capable of baking bread from it. A difficult struggle with passions erases a person’s heart, crushes his arrogant spirit, forces him to admit to a state of fall, experimentally discovering this state - forces him to admit the need for redemption, destroys hope in himself, transfers all hope to the Redeemer. 1170 Thus, in the very state of sinfulness, in its consciousness, Bishop Ignatius presents spiritual benefit - the motivating motive for spiritual struggle, the condition of repentant humility and the thirst for saving redemption. The soul-saving feat is transferred by Bishop Ignatius in its predominant content to the field of human psychology; in relation to the latter, Vladyka Ignatius considers consciousness and spontaneity in a person’s repentant mood to be especially valuable elements of spiritual life. This side of his views, in our opinion, is definitely revealed by his deep reflections on the degree to which a person is imputed for his sin, on its forgivability or destructiveness for a sinful person. Bishop Ignatius distinguishes between mortal and venial sins according to their significance in a person’s spiritual life and their influence on a person’s posthumous fate. What is mortal sin? - he poses a question and answers it. – A mortal sin is one that kills with eternal death the soul of the person who committed such a sin. If a person dies in mortal sin without bringing proper repentance for it, then demons kidnap his soul and bring it down to the underground, dark and stuffy abysses of hell; to eternal torment. The mortal sins are the following: heresy, schism, apostasy from the Christian faith, blasphemy, sorcery and witchcraft, homicide and suicide, fornication, adultery, unnatural prodigal sins, drunkenness, sacrilege, robbery, theft and any cruel, inhuman offense. 1171 If a person falls even once into one of these sins, he dies in soul. 1172 But such a natural consequence of sin should not, however, plunge a person into despair, for even against mortal sin the medicine of repentance is valid. Of the mortal sins, suicide is the only one without repentance; other mortal sins, due to the great, ineffable mercy of God towards fallen humanity, are healed by repentance. Repentance for mortal sin consists of confessing the sin to the spiritual father, accepting penance from him, and not falling into this sin in the future. 1173 He who remains in mortal sins is considered dead in soul; Those who remain in these sins are not allowed by the rules of the Holy Church to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ or to participate in Divine services. If death befalls him unrepentant of these sins, then his eternal destruction is certain. The repentance of a person who is in mortal sin can only be recognized as true when he forsakes his mortal sin. Then he can only be admitted to union with Christ through the communion of the Holy Mysteries. And therefore, Bishop Ignatius concludes, after the main sin of despair and suicide, one must be especially careful to guard against mortal sins, with a firm and decisive intention in the soul not to fall into them. If you have the misfortune of falling into some mortal sin, then you must leave it immediately, be healed by repentance and be careful in every possible way so as not to fall into it again. If, by some unfortunate coincidence, we happen to fall into mortal sin again, we must not give in to despair, but must again resort to God-given spiritual healing, repentance, which retains all its power and reality until the very end of our life. 1174 Thus, the destructive essence, so to speak, the mortality of mortal sin lies in a deep and arbitrary violation of God’s will, which marks the death of the soul for good; its destructive consequence for man is the alienation of Divine grace, which predetermines the eternal death of the soul; the only condition for a person’s salvation from spiritual death is sincere and deep repentance with a voluntary and decisive condemnation of sin in a deep voluntary determination to sin no more. How far these judgments are from the purely formal and legal view of the essence of spiritual life, which is not uncommon in life! How strongly he condemns the often frivolous attitude towards salvation in life with an impudent and shallow intention of repentance at the end of life, with an even more impudent readiness to sin with the expectation of repentance: we will sin and repent; How such a mood of frivolity enhances the already painful mortality of sin. How clearly such judgments of Bishop Ignatius refute the often frivolous and ignorant accusation that Christianity has a weakening influence on human morality through a call to repentance, as if providing the opportunity for endless sinfulness, with irresponsibility for one’s spiritual fate and condition: if only the sins were told to the confessor, they are thereby forgiven! If the decline of all aspects of Christian life did not remain ineffective in people’s attitude to the conditions of saving revival, reducing attention to the feat of holy confession, if the decline of spiritual discipline and life is observed everywhere, then the Orthodox Christian teaching is not to blame for this: it, in the person of its best and God-chosen confessors, in the voice of the Holy Church, silently calls people to sincere and deep repentance, to spiritual a revolution, to the condemnation of sin, to the renunciation of it, while only consoling a person with the hope of grace-filled communion with God! A reinforcing motive for spiritual vigilance and immediate repentance is, further, according to the teaching of Bishop Ignatius, the mortality of sin and the uncertainty of life’s outcome: “how many who fell into mortal sin were not able to repent of sin! Another got drunk with wine and in this state his soul was separated from his body; another went to theft and robbery, and the wrath of God struck him at the very crime! Beware, brothers, of mortal sins! I repeat to you: “mortal sin kills the soul. If someone dies in mortal sin without having time to repent of it, his soul goes to hell. She has no hope of salvation." 1175 But non-mortal sins can have a similar spiritually disastrous outcome if a person has a frivolous and careless attitude towards them and his indifference to good deeds. What are these immortal sins? These are sins in thought, word, deed, in knowledge and ignorance, which do not kill the soul, but only more or less wound it. These sins are not alien to the saints, but the saints are vigilant over themselves, and, noticing the sin into which they were carried away by the weakness common to people, they immediately heal it with repentance. If separation of the soul from the body follows while the person has not had time to wash away his immortal sins by repentance, then the soul is not relegated to hell because of these sins; On the way to heaven, in the air, she is allowed to suffer from evil spirits, in whose complicity people commit sins, and is allowed to atone for sins with good deeds. If the soul has enough good deeds, especially if it gave a lot of alms during earthly life, then it atones for sins with this alms and other good deeds; The gates of heaven are opened to her and she enters heaven for eternal peace and joy. But it happens that a soul has so many non-mortal sins and so few virtues that it is relegated to hell for the multitude of non-mortal sins. The Holy Fathers liken mortal sin to a heavy stone, and unmortal sin to an insignificant grain of sand. If you tie one large stone around a person’s neck and plunge him into the depths, he will drown: one mortal sin is enough to drown a soul in the abysses of hell. A few grains of sand amount to almost no burden: so in the saints of God, immortal sin, greatly diminished and crushed by constant observation of oneself and constant repentance, has almost no influence on their eternal destiny. But this same immortal sin in souls devoted to earthly cares, especially earthly amusements, receives extraordinary severity and, along with mortal sin, drags the damned soul into hell. Immortal sins, in their multitude, can bring the same destruction to the soul that mortal sin brings to it. Thus, a bag filled with fine sand and tied around a person’s neck can drown him as comfortably as the heaviest stone can drown him. 1176 The immortality or forgivability of some sins is determined by their emergence from the general hereditary sinfulness of a person, with a shallow passion for the thoughts, feelings and will of a person, with immediate awareness of his guilt and repentance. A natural indicator of such forgiveness is a person’s spiritual sensitivity; with the loss of the latter and with the duration and carelessness of remaining in sins, which in themselves are forgivable. Because of our negligence, venial sins become a passion that brings us down to hell on a par with mortal sin, turning into the disastrous passion of carelessness and negligence about our salvation. 1177 The essence of passion, as the cause of a person’s spiritual death, lies not in its content in itself, but in the degree of its power over the human mind, in the degree of subordination of the soul to sin: sin that has taken possession of a person is called passion. 1178 It is clear from this that less significant, venial sins with carelessness and negligence become disastrous for a person, and mortal sins, with sincere and deep repentance, with the determination to forever refuse to repeat the sin, are forgiven by the mercy of God. It is clear, therefore, that all mortal sins, except suicide, are cured by repentance. Repentance is only recognized as true and valid when its consequence is the remission of mortal sin. Without this consequence, repentance is fruitless. If, during repentance, mortal sin is not abandoned out of attachment to it, it is not abandoned by choice; if the repentant does not remove the causes of sin from himself, or does not remove himself from them arbitrarily, then such repentance is weak, double-minded, superficial, and is ranked among the acts of hypocrisy. It is a disastrous attempt to deceive both God and oneself. 1179 The salvation of man is accomplished, thus, in the inner church of the human soul, with the independent participation of man, in a repentant impulse to the throne of God, attracting to himself the co-operating grace of God. Without retreating from sins, making friends with them, a person dooms himself to eternal destruction; but also despairing of their salvation, considering their sins an impenetrable wall between themselves and God. A person thereby blocks the path of grace-filled rebirth. The consciousness of committed sins only teaches a person to understand the mercy and all-forgiving love of God, and does not arouse in a person horror of the wrath of God. 1180 Likewise, the Most Reverend Ignatius asserts that “the most serious sin is despair. This sin degrades the all-holy blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, rejects His omnipotence, rejects the salvation He bestowed - shows that arrogance and pride previously dominated in this soul, that faith and humility were alien to it. More than all other sins, one must be guarded from despair, as from a deadly poison, as from a fierce beast. I repeat: despair is the worst sin among all sins. Mature despair is usually expressed by suicide or an action identical to suicide. Suicide is the gravest sin! Whoever committed it deprived himself of repentance and all hope of salvation.” 1181 Thus, the ascetic ascetic and the Orthodox ascetic theologian are united in their views on the essence of human spiritual life on this issue. Moving from a review of the general conditions for the manifestation of sin in human individuality and the data on its sanity to the presentation of the judgments of Bishop Ignatius on particular types of sins or passions, we believe that it is useful in this case to compare the teachings of Bishop Ignatius on the types of sin with the teachings of spiritual ascetics on the same issue, in view of the fact that these latter, in the field of knowledge of the fallen human spirit and the ways to its restoration in a state pristine purity, were the spiritual mentors of Vladyka Ignatius Brianchaninov. Based on the significant path we have already covered in the comparative review of the teachings of the ascetic ascetics and Bishop Ignatius, we a priori already assume the agreement of the ascetic we are studying with his mentors, that touching and pure unanimity of confession of the truth of God and the paths to it, which for Ignatius Brianchaninov was the subject of religious, aesthetic and moral admiration in the writings of St. Fathers. Noting this unanimity of Bishop Ignatius with his mentors on issues of spiritual life, appreciating this unanimity as an assurance of the unshakable truth of the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, we believe that Our task, in this case, is to capture the originality of the formulation of questions of spiritual knowledge in the works of Bishop Ignatius, the isolation of the examples he gives, the captivating originality of the mood and for all this grounds for special attractiveness. If in the VI volume of his works, in the “Fatherland”, Vladyka Ignatius gives a collection of patristic and ascetic sayings on issues of spiritual, mainly monastic life, then in the first five volumes, with references to the primary sources of his views and quoting them, Vladyka Ignatius expresses the fruits of his spiritual life and observations in his word, uses examples of his experience that passed through his thought, reveals his characteristic religious lyricism, attracts not only by the edification of his judgments of spiritual life, but also by the simplicity and certainty of his view of the conditions, laws and goals of it, which easily achieves a guiding influence on our personal spiritual life, attracting the attention of more and more students. Ascetic ascetics, of whom Bishop Ignatius is an attentive student and whose instructions he abundantly quotes, especially in his Fatherland, analyzing the sinful state of man in the sphere of thought, turned their attention to particular types of sin. In the classification of sinful states, Bishop Ignatius follows his mentors, in this case not revealing originality, which is confirmed by a brief comparison of his teaching on this issue with the teaching of the ancient ascetics, from which we believe it is useful to make the necessary reference in relation to the task of this chapter - depicting the spiritual life of a person in a sinful state. A sinful thought in itself always has a certain content: sin is known to us as a fact with a certain sinful state, but not as sin in general. All saints have elementary sinful thoughts. Eight ascetics are listed. In accordance with these eight sinful thoughts, passions of one kind or another are formed in the human soul. The entire eight passions are divided differently. The most natural thing, it seems to us, is to divide them into carnal and spiritual, proposed by St. John Cassian. 1182 Carnal passions are born in the body and nourish and delight the body, while spiritual passions come from spiritual inclinations and feed the soul, but often have a destructive effect on the body. These latter are healed by simple internal healing of the heart, while carnal passions are healed by a twofold medicine - both external and internal. 1183 But whatever division of passions we took from St. ascetics, in no case is it indicated by them as the last and decisive one. On the contrary, according to the sinful individuality of each person, this division can change indefinitely, depending on what passion resides in the soul and to what extent it influences his entire spiritual mood. 1184 But no matter what division we take, we will nowhere find passion as an exclusively external, physical sinful direction; everywhere the center of gravity will be in the soul. Even the most apparently bodily passions, upon closer examination, are, in the language of science, psychophysical states. Thus, the passions of gluttony and fornication, rooted in the body, are sometimes aroused without the assistance of the soul, and drag along the soul through its connection with the body. 1185 According to the observation of St. Ascetics, in the course of spiritual life, one mental state is internally closely connected with another, one is a necessary condition for the emergence of the other. One virtue gives birth to and nurtures another, just as sin inevitably entails another sin. All eight, so to speak, main passions have a close connection with each other. They present a very interesting gradation in St. John Cassian. The eight passions, he says, although they have different origins and different actions, the first six are connected to each other by a special affinity, according to which the excess of the previous one gives rise to the next one. 1186 Gluttony necessarily entails fornication, from fornication comes the love of money, from the love of money comes anger, from anger comes sadness, from sadness comes despondency. Therefore, the fight against them, according to the teachings of St. Abba, should go in the same order, moving from previous to subsequent ones. 1187 The remaining two passions, vanity and pride, are connected to each other in the same way, that is, the strengthening of the first gives rise to the second, and from excessive vanity the passion of pride is born. 1188 But even with the first six passions, the last two are not completely separated. Quite often they serve in turn as stages of spiritual decline; but the saddest thing is that they sometimes appear after the destruction of the first six. 1189 The first six passions of destruction leave in the soul, as it were, a sinful trace or a seed of much more dangerous spiritual diseases, just as a poisonous insect, being removed from the body, leaves the germ of a terrible infection. Without going into a psychological understanding of ascetic views on the unity of passions, we find it possible to bring this teaching closer to our understanding from the point of view of the unity of man’s spiritual being. Mental life represents a unity in which we cannot identify a single mental state as a manifestation of any one psychic force, while all other forces of the soul are completely indifferent to this state, as if they had gone beyond the boundaries of the soul. If we also take into account the close organic connection of the soul with the body, then it will be clear to us that one sinful state naturally and naturally passes into another, etc. Leaving a more detailed classification of passions and vicious states of the soul, we will briefly note the psychology of these eight passions, as it is expressed in ascetic creations. For the convenience of studying the psychology of passions, their entire eight can be divided into four pairs, as was done by St. Cassiana. 1190 Division is not mechanical, but psychological. Naturally, the first pair should include the passions of gluttony and fornication, which are related both in their source and because they always together overwhelm a carnal person. The strength of the passions of gluttony and fornication is explained by the fact that they arise from natural, albeit perverted, human needs. 1191 Therefore, it was very common in the time of St. Ascetics and now the opinion that gluttony and debauchery do not concern the soul, but only the body. “Vulture lovers with a shameless face speak to each other,” testifies the Rev. Ephraim the Syrian, God does not judge for this (fornication), because it concerns one body. They object in such a way as to destroy the fear of God’s justice in the heart of their neighbor, and for them to fearlessly and uncontrollably fulfill their wishes, without having an accuser. How many were misled by these words, how many were corrupted, how many were destroyed! 1192 Who does not know that this opinion is very strong even today? And now we often hear that gluttony and debauchery are completely natural and legal, because they come from the natural needs of nature and are directed towards maintaining its functions. The sinful essence of the passions of gluttony and fornication consists, according to the teachings of St. ascetics, in shifting the center of gravity of life to the flesh and preferring the carnal interests of life to the spiritual. Shifting the center of gravity to the flesh naturally weakens the soul. 1193 Naturally normal relations between body and soul should undoubtedly be recognized as those in which the psychophysical organism of a person maintains perfect harmony, that is, the functions of the soul and body occur unhindered, the body is always ready to be a service organ for the soul. This is precisely what bodily abstinence from gluttony and fornication contributes to. 1194 But if we soon give in to the passions of gluttony and fornication, we thereby decisively choose to serve the flesh and weaken our spiritual life. 1195 In any sin, and especially in such seemingly exclusively physical sins as gluttony and fornication, it is very difficult to draw a decisive line between the physical and mental elements. Some say that the body comes into passion from thoughts of the heart, others argue on the contrary that evil thoughts are born from bodily feelings. 1196 The sources and origins of these sins are both external and internal. Sometimes, out of spiritual negligence, an idea of ​​fornication arises in our souls, which acts temptingly on the will. If the will succumbs to this temptation from the internal enemy, then a sinful mood arises in us through the usual development of thoughts, which turns into externally manifested sin. Sometimes, on the contrary, temptation appears from outside, through the weakness of our will, influences the formation of a sinful idea and then leads a person to sin. 1197 Thus, the source of prodigal sin can be both physical and psychological. But in both cases, the physical fall is mainly a psychological fact. Fornication and gluttony are subject to moral imputation not as natural functions of the body, but as mental states of fall and precisely insofar as the fornicating and gluttonous thought dissolves with our spirit, since our soul is combined with a seductive imprint in it. 1198 Making remarks about the voluptuousness of the eyes, Jesus Christ, says John Cassian, does not so much denounce them as that inner feeling that makes bad use of their service, a heart that is sick and wounded by the arrow of lust. 1199 But since purity of heart cannot be the property of our soul if we do not curb the urges of gluttony, 1200 then the latter is the external cause of sin as a mental phenomenon. Sin, as something exclusively physical, is an impossible matter. The very attribution of sin to the physical side of an object is in itself a grave moral sin. Its essence, of course, is that a person is divided into himself and, justifying physical sin as if by the laws of nature, he, at the same time, contrasts it with his imaginary spiritual purity, compares his spiritual and physical nature, as if each of them is original, and as if he is not obliged to control the body with no less skill than the soul. But woe to him who remains in sin and does not know the time of repentance. Woe to the one who says: for now I will enjoy the flesh, but in old age I will repent, because like a snare death will suddenly cover him and his expectation will perish. 1201 It is in vain that he thinks that sin is something physical and does not concern the soul. The most daring intention to commit a sin, and then repent with the illusory hope of the innocence of the soul, transfers the sin entirely to the mental area. But the physical manifestation of sin greatly enhances its moral significance. There is still a great gulf between a sinful mood and its practical implementation. On the edge of this abyss, a person can, with the help of God’s grace, wage a victorious struggle against sin, and can emerge from this struggle morally pure, like, for example, Saint John the Long-Suffering. The physical commission of sin is the completion of a spiritual fall and a complete rejection of Divine grace. 1202 In the language of modern sensualists, neither gluttony nor fornication are important sins; they are more ready to speak against the love of money and pride, of course, not on Christian grounds, but they excuse gluttony and fornication with self-invented higher spiritual goals. But this is not how the ascetics of faith taught and teach. Only he is blameless who has reflected love with love and extinguished the fire with immaterial fire, 1203 i.e. has developed in himself such a spiritual nature - love for God and neighbors and the desire for spiritual blessings that it in itself is an antidote to passionate poison. The holy ascetics did not even dare to think that sin does not affect the soul, but, on the contrary, with all the determination of their ascetic authority, they asserted that fornication and gluttony completely suppress the soul. 1204 Everything that constitutes spiritual life dies in a person possessed by the poison of gluttony: He does not fear God, neglects the remembrance of torment, turns away from prayer, seems to be out of his mind, but in a frenzy, and if the days of the spirit of gluttony had not been shortened, not a single soul would have been saved. The second pair of passions are love of money and anger. In the language of holy ascetics, love of money is called a passion that comes from outside and is more vile than gluttony. 1205 Its psychological meaning, as a passion, is that it completely takes possession of a person’s soul, binds it to the earth and completely prevents the smooth course of spiritual life. 1206 Everyday experience of the present time, called practical, provides vivid illustrations of the harmful influence of the passion of the love of money on the course of spiritual life. If ever, especially in the times we are living through, one can observe a convulsive pursuit of the despised, but still beloved metal. Statistics present us with too many unfortunate and bleak cases from a moral point of view, when the spiritual being of a person, completely enslaved to the golden calf, sacrifices to him God, like Judas, and his neighbors, and even his cherished dreams and ideas. A person becomes so attached to acquisitions that he places the goal of his life in them, directs all his activities towards them and, as a result, inevitably creates out of life a dead sea of ​​the notorious struggle for existence, not that struggle against evil and the spirit of malice that was bequeathed to us by Christ, but the struggle against God and neighbors and against the forgotten, but real, own spiritual interests. In view of this, the psychological connection between the love of money and anger, which is indicated among ascetics, is completely understandable. The psychological significance of anger, as a passion, is that it blinds the human soul, and while it is in our heart, we cannot “neither acquire the correct distinction between good and evil and the sharpness of worthy contemplation, nor have the maturity of counsel, nor be partakers of life, nor adhere unswervingly to the truth, nor even perceive the true spiritual light.” 1207 Anger in its harsh form often manifests itself, but much more often it is observed in less serious, but no less sinful and spiritually harmful from the point of view of Christian perfection, forms of lies and condemnation. Anger in its harsh form is usually understood as a sinful passion, or at least as a significant defect; but lying and judging others is completely different. These forms of anger are generally recognized as the most common and natural forms of human relations, and even they are given a moral character, so that their practice is elevated to the principle of mutual relations. But Christian ascetics of the spirit reason differently. In them we will not find the slightest justification for the indicated modifications of anger; on the contrary, both lies and condemnation are equally recognized as guilty from a moral point of view. None of the sane people think, says the reverend. John Climacus, that the sin of lying is some kind of unimportant. Lies are the destruction of love. 1208 They met each other, irritable and feigned, and in their conversation it was impossible to find a single right word. Looking into the heart of the first, you will find rage; Having examined the soul of another, you will see deceit, 1209 with such amazing clarity he determines the mental state of those guided by lies. Rev. Abba Dorotheos points out three types of lies. One lies with his thoughts, another lies with his words, and another lies with his very life. 1210 The first kind of lie is simply distrust of one’s neighbors and their intentions, a painfully developed suspicion that makes one see in the people around him a dislike of one’s personality; Its mental significance as a passion is that it inevitably serves as a source of sins of slander and condemnation and gives rise to enmity between people, forcing them to see ill will in every neighbor. A lie in a word is the most common discord between the actual state of mind and its verbal expression; to lie in words means to say one thing and think another. 1211 In life practice it manifests itself as an extraordinary resourcefulness; the hidden purpose of verbal lies is to cover up your egoism and motivate your personal egoistic intentions with some higher, moral, even social goals. Lying in words is an egoistic idealization of one’s personality; The same, in essence, is the lie of life, with the only difference that here it is no longer a mental evil disposition that is hidden behind a word, but sinful life itself. “He lies by life who, being a fornicator, pretends to be abstinent, or, being avaricious, speaks of alms and praises mercy, or, being arrogant, praises humility. “The same is the lie of life for one whose outer life represents the visible realization of good, but good has not yet touched the heart. It is the lie of outward piety and inward wickedness. The influence of this passion is not only personal, but also social, because, passing into life under the cover of phrase-mongering and lies, it becomes a whole life direction in which virtue and Christianity are only in words, but in reality, in life, it completely expresses submission to the spirit of malice. “A deceitful person, either fearing shame, or wanting to seduce someone and harm someone, speaks about virtues and praises them, and is surprised by them, as if he himself had done so and knows them from experience: such a person lies with his very life, this is not a simple person, but a dual one; for there is one within and another without, and his life is dual and deceitful. 1212 Don’t we often see such duality, even today, and don’t we therefore have to study the psychology of this deceptive passion on ourselves? Try, child, to always be simple-hearted and sincere, the Rev. exhorts. Ephraim the Syrian, and do not keep one thing in your heart and another on your lips, because this is deceit. Be truthful and not deceitful, because lies come from the evil one. 1213 The passion of condemnation is in the same way an expression of the lack of love for one’s neighbors. It has become so common these days that it is almost not recognized as a sin. If they happen to talk about it, they almost always try to motivate it with a warm, ardent heart, love for others and the desire to correct their shortcomings, or, finally, even the imaginary innocence of this passion. Usually they say: what is the importance of condemnation; but from this an evil habit is formed and a person begins not to care about great things. 1214 Because a person allows himself a little contempt for his neighbor, his mind begins to ignore his own sins and notice the sins of his neighbor. From this it happens that we condemn, slander, reproach our neighbor and, finally, fall into the very thing that we condemn. Nothing angers God so much, nothing exposes a person so much and leads him to destruction as slander, condemnation and reproach of his neighbor. 1215 Slander is the offspring of hatred, says another saint. ascetic. Condemnation is the theft of God's dignity and the destruction of one's soul. 1216 “If you see someone sinning, do not disclose his sin and do not condemn him, do not harbor hatred towards him, so that you do not fall into the same sin. 1217 This is what St. ascetics about the passion of condemnation. St. Ascetics teach to equally avoid lies and condemnation. Here is a sample of their rules for correct relations with others. “When you meet your neighbor, force yourself to give him honor beyond his measure. When you are separated from him, say everything good about him, and whatever is honorable. May you always have this character - to be friendly and respectful to everyone. Even if someone slanderes you, do not be angry, but with modesty, showing a smile on your face, change your irritation to the world. 1218 But thus avoiding condemnation, they in no case fall into lies and shameful flattery, like the sons of this age. Their friendliness towards their neighbors is not the kiss of Judas, their praise and respect are alien to flattery and people-pleasing, because the outward appeal also corresponds to a good disposition of the soul. When they teach to meet the enemy with a cheerful face, they understand this cheerfulness psychologically, which is why they teach: “remember that a smile when irritated arouses great anger in another. Calm your heart first, then speak with a smile. Fire cannot be extinguished by fire, and you quench the anger of the irritated with love and complacency.” 1219 It is therefore impossible to reproach Sts. ascetics in double-mindedness and hypocrisy; their behavior is explained by their deep love for their neighbors. 1220 But they will say that such a mood is incomprehensible and difficult to achieve. We admit the latter, but deny the former. Complete non-judgment and condescension towards others is achieved through great labor and only through active love. With a humble awareness of our unworthiness, it is very clear that we cannot, with a pure heart, be condescending and at the same time truthful in relation to our neighbor. “He who talks with others should show them a cheerful face and a cheerful word, but inside himself have a sighing thought.” 1221 Love for one's neighbor, the consciousness of his inherent goodness and the randomness of the fact of the fall give the strength to be lenient towards him and avoid condemnation. And the awareness of one’s spiritual weaknesses and the experience of the fall of one’s neighbor, as well as the fall of all humanity and one’s own, creates in the soul a beneficial repentant mood, as if that world sorrow that Dostoevsky preached to us; penetration by this world sorrow is, in itself, a guarantee of virtue and non-condemnation of the fallen. But such a beneficial spiritual mood is a special gift from God to man and the only reliable outcome from conflicts of pride. This outcome is possible only if a person’s will is directed towards good. If the will is more inclined to evil than to good, then a different outcome appears from the spiritual struggle with all previous passions. Condemnation of neighbors, anger at them, deceit in relationships - all this is a serious illness that does not find an outcome in itself. In the absence or deficiency of love in a person, the crisis of this disease is resolved in the passion of sadness and despondency. Sadness and despondency are a necessary consequence of either a completely incorrect or an unsettled and shattered worldview. Setting your own good as a life goal, whether it be an egoistic-animal or spiritual good, all the same, putting your “I” above everything inevitably entails the passions of sadness and despondency, as natural pathological states of the soul when its strength is wasted and weakened. “Sorrow is born from a previous passion or anger, or lust, or covetousness, when someone experiences in the mind the loss of a preconceived hope of satisfaction either by deeds or things of their kind.” 1222 Sadness comes “either from previous anger, or from losing a profit and suffering a loss, or from an injury done to us.” 1223 In its further development, sadness appears in the form of despondency. 1224 Dejection is exhaustion of the soul, 1225 relaxation of the mind, carelessness about asceticism, hatred of the given vow; 1226 despondency is a weakening of spiritual life. 1227 Dejection varies among saints. ascetics, as despondency from the devil and natural despondency. The first is, in its own sense, a sinful and dangerous passion, revealing in us the weakening of spiritual life and the earthling of our interests. The second, natural, is simply the result of physical overwork, extreme work. 1228 Finally, the last, natural stage in the development of sadness is despair, as a state of complete spiritual oppression and hopelessness. “Despair occurs as a result of many sins, a burdened conscience and unbearable sadness that the soul is covered with many ulcers. We also experience despair as a result of pride and conceit, when someone considers himself undeserving of the fall that has befallen him. 1229 Abba Isaac indicates another new psychological cause of sadness in all its forms; sadness and despondency, he says, comes from the soaring of the mind, and the soaring of the mind from idle talk, reading and vain conversations, or from the satiety of the belly. 1230 All the causes of sadness, despondency and despair indicated by the godly ascetics can be briefly expressed as follows: the indicated pathological states of the soul arise, as a result of all passions, from the consciousness of dissatisfaction with the principles of egoism. Whether a person sets himself as the goal of his life activity, a goal for everyone around him, whether he elevates egoism to the principle of his activity, he equally comes to the realization that the beginning of egoism does not give complete satisfaction, that the good that he would like to make exclusively his own is not given to him, since there are many other creatures equal to him who also want to live. Even if the egoist achieves the goal of his aspirations, even if he achieves that everyone recognizes him as the goal of his personality, even in this case he cannot find complete satisfaction, because on the one hand there is a desire for even greater glory, honor and exaltation of his “I”, and on the other hand, the worm of conscience awakens in the depths of his soul, which testifies to him that the proud Tower of Babel, erected by egoism, is built on sand and easily destructible; he comes to the realization that there are other equal and free beings whom he has enslaved and made a means for himself. In both cases, that is, whether the consciousness of dissatisfaction arises from new exorbitant demands of egoism, or from the reproaches of an awakened conscience, the well-being of the individual is violated and the mental crisis resolves into new ailments: sadness, despondency and despair. Thus, sadness and its companions equally accompany both carnal and spiritual passions. Sometimes, during the very despair and consciousness of complete dissatisfaction with material wealth, the slave of passions receives the sinful joy that he can still be happy, that until now he has blindly surrendered to his passions and is therefore dissatisfied, that he can subordinate them and everything to his “I”, and then his good is guaranteed. Thus, out of sadness and despair, pride and vanity degenerate, 1231 on the ruins of carnal passions the tree of vanity and pride grows. Vanity and pride are not any isolated, isolated passions, such as, for example. gluttony and love of money. Each of them can enslave a person in the absence of the other. Vanity and pride, on the contrary, accompany all passions and are co-present in each of them. 1232 All other passions can be and are destroyed by virtues, for example. Gluttony - by fasting, fornication - by abstinence, love of money - by mercy towards the poor, etc.; but the passions of vanity and pride accompany the very virtues and destroy them. 1233 Psychologically, these passions are so closely related to each other that it is not possible to make an exact distinction between them. Holy ascetics, if they make any difference between vanity and pride, it is only in the sense that they recognize the former as a weakening form, or the primary source of the latter. 1234 Others want to separate vanity from pride and assign it a special place and word, but there is no difference between them, says St. Climacus, for who, having conquered vanity, has pride in himself? One is the beginning, the other is the end. 1235 Pride is vanity completely developed in the soul. St. Ascetics teach that in churches vanity is the first and most destructive of all passions. Pride and vanity give rise to all kinds of evil, which is most inherent in the human soul and difficult to eradicate. Pride is the first evil and the source of evil, because the best of the angels fell with pride, 1236 and all people first fall with pride. The God-given virtues of human nature are, in a proud thought, taken for one’s own personal virtues, and the source and the giver of them are forgotten. In its development, pride comes in two varieties. The first kind of pride consists in breaking the alliance with neighbors, impoverishment of love for them and exaltation over them, combined with the desire to turn them into a means for one’s egoism. 1237 This is the first period of pride. If a person does not monitor his spiritual development and does not fight against conceit, then the first period will soon be followed by the second period: pride in God himself. In the first period, the proud one considers himself better and morally superior to his neighbor, and humiliates the latter; in the second, he attributes his exploits and virtues to himself, and not to God; An essential feature of this period is the denial of Divine grace as an active accomplice in virtue. This spiritual illness usually begins with proud, but considered innocent by us, self-exaltation. The discovery of the merits of our neighbor either in his activities or in public opinion painfully affects our pride and prompts us to condemn our neighbor by pointing out some shortcoming in him, or by denying his obvious dignity by pointing to others who are more worthy. At the same time, the egoistic lining of our speeches is not at all that we want to correct the opinion of our neighbor, but to expose them to. view, at least only in your soul, of your own merits. The very pointing out the shortcomings of a neighbor, or doubting the authenticity of his good mood, always and certainly presupposes a selfish consciousness of the absence of these shortcomings in one’s personality and a proud exaltation over the neighbor. The brother who, in response to the elder’s admonitions not to be proud, said: “Sorry, father, I’m not proud,” was already proud, and his proud self-testimony was the clearest proof of his pride. 1238 Consciousness of one's merits, with the imaginary absence of shortcomings, is the first step in the development of vanity; a proud consciousness of one’s own merits entails a critical attitude towards one’s neighbors, noticing and condemning their shortcomings, with the goal of partly highlighting and exposing one’s merits, partly to protect oneself, one’s “I” from any claim on the part of one’s neighbors, because a proud and proud person is always suspicious and inclined to see in everyone attempts to overthrow him from the satanic pedestal of pride. A person with the inclinations of pride encounters every phenomenon in life, and especially the phenomenon of the moral world, with some internal reasoning. Due to the temptation of pride, he dulls or loses the ability to penetrate the psychological essence of a given phenomenon. In his soul, in view of the good moral deed of his neighbor, there is an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe shortcomings of his neighbor, but not about his merits. Along with this is the presentation of one’s own advantages, but not shortcomings. The interaction of these two ideas in relation to the will is resolved psychologically into proud exaltation over one's neighbor. The next similar phenomenon takes place without the above-mentioned ideas, but directly receives its assessment from the point of view of egoism. The right to evaluate the actions of one’s neighbor and one’s personal dignity are already recognized as indisputable. Here man has already encroached on Divine rights, since he recognized the indisputable right of self-esteem and supreme judgment over the moral personality of his neighbor. This is the middle stage in the development of pride. Conceit, self-esteem and judgment of others, developing intensively, pass into the last stage of pride. Conceit intensifies even more, self-esteem, although proud, disappears from spiritual life, because a person in this state considers himself to be above any court, even if it is a biased court of selfishness; The very question of his jurisdiction to anyone seems absurd and impossible to him. On the contrary, the right of judgment over one's neighbors, a higher and peremptory court, is little by little recognized as something indisputable and natural. Man here has already abandoned God and rejected His help; and if sometimes the events of life, the moral world, or communication with others remind the proud man of the existence of God, then he meets this reminder with the greatest displeasure, as an encroachment on his personality. This is already satanic pride. His appeal to God in this last period of spiritual dying is possible, we think, only theoretically in view of the goodness of God and the readiness of Divine grace to seek and save the lost sheep; but it is practically impossible, since the sinner’s will is rooted in evil, it is ready to resist the Divine truth, but not to accept it into itself. The last period in the development of pride is already mortal sin, blasphemy against God and resistance to the Holy Spirit. Thus, the spiritual life of a person, according to the teachings of St. Ascetics have only two outcomes, two paths: the path of good and the path of evil. Those who walk along the extensive path of evil are subject to various spiritual diseases, called passions in the sense of pathological states of the spirit. Passions are divided into spiritual 1239 and carnal. 1240 A person can equally be subjected to each of these passions, and can even sometimes be subjected to several at the same time. But each of the people has some kind of predominant passion, which, while strongly conquering evil, at the same time gives rise to other passions and reduces a person to the depths of spiritual decline, because all passions are psychologically akin to each other, 1241 so that whatever passion predominates in the spiritual body of a person, it can equally, under favorable conditions, be harmful to the spirit, can be a mortal sin. The latter opinion is justified by the following two considerations. Firstly, we must take into account that all passions, according to the teachings of St. ascetics, are related to each other and stem from the same source, so that no matter what passion we take into theoretical calculation, it is still practically homogeneous with others - and certainly has the character of a source common to all spiritual ailments. This source is pride, not in the sense of mortal sin, and the last stage of spiritual dying, but in the sense of passion that prevails and penetrates other spiritual illnesses, in the sense of pride. Each of the sinful states, no matter what we take, whether of a carnal or spiritual nature, bears the character and mark of self-love and is guided by it from its very sinful inception to the complete spiritual destruction of a person. We have seen that in passions of a carnal nature 1242 a person places himself as the measure of all things and his material well-being above everything, that is, he is entirely guided by the beginning of selfishness and self-love. This precisely explains the amazing circumstance that making material wealth the goal of life necessarily gives rise to a struggle for existence, that is, a clash of egos. The predominance of self-love over other passions is even clearer if we take spiritual passions. We saw above that in each of them a person certainly elevates himself to a pedestal of superiority over others of his own kind, elevates selfishness and selfishness to the principle of life; and considers his “I” to be the measure of all things. So all passions are distinguished by one character, the character of self-love and pride, and, therefore, all can be deadly in the spiritual sense, because their source, pride in itself, essentially carries spiritual death. The second consideration in favor of our thought is that all passions are predominantly and almost exclusively psychological phenomena. We have seen that this is the opinion of all the saints about the passions. Ascetics. The external fact of sin is given too little of a place 1243 in the law of moral imputation. Holy ascetics recognize sin as a psychological phenomenon and, as such, consider it subject to moral imputation. For them, an external fact is never separated from its psychological background and at the same time is never considered something completely innocent and not subject to moral evaluation. All sins are sinful in their psychological basis. So, every sin is a psychological fact and is subject to moral imputation. Every external act of a Christian, whether virtuous or sinful, must be considered according to its internal psychological basis; the external fact must be traced back to its psychological foundations. Finally, the third characteristic feature in the teaching of St. ascetics about passions and sins, this is a complete attribution of sinful phenomena to the realm of the will, but not the mind. Every sinful act of a person is subject to moral imputation and is a sin, as such, only to the extent that the free work of man participated in it. In other words, sin is subject to moral imputation as a volitional fact. We saw clear confirmation of this idea in St. ascetics in the study of movements and the development of thoughts and passions. We have seen that the most sinful thought is not subject to moral imputation and condemnation if it remains a theoretical idea, but is not perceived by the will. Therefore, St. ascetics teach that “sometimes even the one who thinks only worse than the one who did it, because he has no room for repentance. Ham, who intended to subject his father to ridicule, is rejected, and David, who committed sin with knowledge, is allowed. The Koreev accomplices were burned, although they did not say or do anything at all. Those sent to Elijah suffered in the same way. But a whole host of people who worshiped the calf, upon admonition, were freed by God from execution. And in the Gospel, Simon, who acted ungodly when he saw his error, is undoubtedly recognized as worthy of forgiveness, and Elymas, who resisted the preaching, is blinded: Sin in thought is committed by permission to do so. Judas the traitor, like Esau, was rejected, for he knew what he was doing, because he experienced the grace of God. And realizing the Divinity, he was overcome by the love of money. So there is a great difference. There are many differences in the very vision of sin, but there is also a difference in the very strength of the determination to sin. Consider the action and you will recognize the difference, pay attention to the permission, and you will see the basis of the truth.” 1244 So, in a sinful thought, it is not the idea that is counted as sin, but the consent of the thought of my will. Even a heavy blasphemous thought, which sometimes visits us in the most holy moments in order to make us unworthy of what is sacred, 1245 even this blasphemous thought, if only it remains theoretical in the form of temptation but does not attract the will to participate, is not subject to condemnation, 1246 whereas the same thought, remaining the property of the will, becomes a mortal sin. The root of spiritual phenomena, as personal human phenomena, lies not in the mind, but in the heart and will. 1247 What, however, is the significance of the mind in moral life, what influence does the idea have on the will? The mind acts on the will in the same way that sensation lets us know about the world around us, the mind is the sensation of the soul. Depending on how clear, thorough and convincing our mental ideas are, the mind influences the will and gives it direction in accordance with its ideas. The mind is the eye of the soul. Through it, both good and evil enter, and the suggestions of the Higher Mind and the temptations of the spirit of evil, and no matter how a person deviates from them, they are inevitably present in his consciousness, so that the holiest people, apparently protecting themselves from sin, were not at all free from sinful thoughts. It is not in a person’s power to avoid thoughts, and this is not necessary for the purposes of spiritual life. But it is within the power of a person to fight thoughts, to prevent them from taking over the soul, to accept good thoughts and reject evil ones. Just as there are some people who would rather watch some dirty street scene than admire the views of nature; Likewise, in spiritual life, anomalies are very common when a person prefers evil over good and, enjoying evil sinful thoughts, he does not find the strength to participate in good ones. Thus, the ideas of the mind are very important in spiritual life; in spiritual life they are like the first stroke that a student makes when writing. However, ideas themselves are neither sin nor good, but become such only to the extent that they influence the will and attract it to participate in their activity. So, sin and good are facts, firstly, psychological, and secondly, volitional. Every spiritual state is composed of these two aspects, and from the point of view of these two elements it is subject to moral imputation. Like his ascetic mentors of antiquity, the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov, when classifying passions and virtues, adheres to the accepted eight by the majority. Classifying sinful states, His Grace Ignatius indicates eight main types of passions with their divisions and branches. The main passions of the sinful soul are: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness, despondency, vanity, pride. 1248 The octal classification of passions represents a convenient means for clearly representing the structure of mental life, its content, coherence and consistency. Both the basic and derivative and secondary sinful states of man, in the judgments of Bishop Ignatius, are assessed from his main point of view - the need for spiritual work to achieve eternal salvation and the fight against carnal wisdom, as the main obstacle to spiritual salvation. Thus, speaking about the bodily feat primarily developed in monastic life, he values ​​it not by its belonging to the body, but by the benefit that it brings primarily to the mind and heart. He can see the consequences of excessive consumption of food and drink, a terrible and soul-destructive consequence, for from pleasing the belly, the heart becomes burdened, coarsens, hardens, the mind is deprived of its lightness and spirituality, a person becomes carnal, nailed to the earth, incapable of spiritual thoughts and sensations, 1249 In the same way, in relation to the passion of fornication and the sinful states associated with it, 1250 the predominant content of sinfulness is marked by removal and alienation from God, exhaustion of the strength of the mind, heart and body and the emptiness of the soul resulting from a sinful life, a person’s arbitrary desire to follow his own sinful desires. 1251 In the passion of love of money with all its types, 1252 the main subject of moral sanity is the spiritual side: over-care, which takes the mind and heart away from God, rudeness and insensibility of the soul, oblivion of mortal memory, darkening of the mind and faith in Divine Providence, dying for good. 1253 The love of money is a sin and the root of all sins due to its close connection with a number of atrocities and sinful moods. Because of the love of money, Judas committed the most terrible crime among human crimes: he betrayed the Lord. Because of the love of money, countless atrocities are committed: Divine and state laws are violated, truth is trampled upon, untruth is protected, the beggar is oppressed, the bribe-taker enriches himself to his destruction. The heart of a money lover closes to the merciful, and he deprives himself of God’s mercy, or salvation, which is given only to the merciful. 1254 Compared with gluttony, fornication and their consequences, the love of money has, according to the observation of Vladyka Ignatius, greater moral sanity and denotes a deeper sinfulness of a person, not in terms of its material side, but in terms of greater consciousness and arbitrariness. The atrocities of fornication and gluttony cannot be compared with the atrocities of a money-lover, whose atrocities are well-thought-out, hidden in the guise of truth, far-sighted, imbued with and filled with satanic cunning, and often act on the broadest scale and scale, shaking and undermining the well-being of entire nations. 1255 The fourth place, in terms of the degree of moral burden, in the series of passions is occupied by anger and memory malice with the passions derived from it. 1256 Anger is observed by us as a visible manifestation of secret hatred or memory of malice. 1257 In terms of its influence on a person, this passion is identical with others previously mentioned, but is deeper in its results. If we allow memory to act, it will devastate the soul, make all our exploits and virtues fruitless, and deprive us of God’s mercy. Therefore, a Christian must pay special attention to the mental illness of memory malice, drive it out at the first appearance, and not allow it to nest in the soul under any pretext, no matter how righteous this pretext may seem at first glance at it. 1258 Condemnation and slander occupy a prominent place among the vicious states of anger. The Right Reverend Ignatius, in his teachings, often speaks of the wide spread of life’s condemnations of the need, out of obedience to the word of the Gospel (Luke 6:37), to refrain from judging one’s neighbor. At first, people allow themselves to judge the affairs of their neighbor, and then they involuntarily fall into condemnation. Let us not sow seed, and the tares will not grow; let us forbid ourselves unnecessary judgment about our neighbors, and we will not be condemned. Condemnation is a sign of hypocrisy and is closely related to it. He who condemns and humiliates his neighbor unwittingly exposes himself as righteous, perhaps without saying it in words and without even understanding it. 1259 For our sins we seek leniency and mercy, for the sins of our neighbors - penalties and executions. 1260 Moreover, one must beware of slander, the cause of which is malice, and the condition for its spread is the gullibility of the frivolous - the malice of the evil ones depicts slander and transfers it to the frivolous and weak-minded for sowing in human society. 1261 On the issue of sadness and despondency, Bishop Ignatius limits himself to indicating these passions among others and other passions related to them, and cites the sayings of ascetics about the manifestation of these passions and the fight against them. 1262 But for this reason he dwells with special attention on the passions of vanity and pride. Among the individual manifestations of vanity, many modern vices are indicated that were unknown to the ascetics of antiquity, such as. - the search for human glory, boasting, desire and search for earthly honors, love for beautiful clothes, carriages, servants and cell things; attention to the beauty of one’s face, the pleasantness of one’s voice and other qualities of the body, disposition towards the dying sciences and arts of this age, seeking joy in them in order to acquire temporary earthly glory; people-pleasing, dishonesty, etc. 1263 Hypocrisy is close to vanity. Hypocrisy, which destroys the entire essence of virtue, is born from vanity. Vanity is a vain desire and search for temporary glory and human praise. Vanity arises from deep ignorance of God, or from deep oblivion of God, from oblivion of eternity and heavenly glory, and therefore, in its darkness, it insatiably strives to acquire earthly temporal glory. This glory appears to vanity, like earthly life, as an eternal, inalienable property. Vanity, which seeks not virtue itself, but only praise for virtue, cares and works only to present the face of virtue before human eyes. And the hypocrite stands before humanity, clothed in the robe of sheer deception: on his appearance a virtue is visible, which in essence he does not have at all; self-satisfaction and pompousness are visible in his soul, because he is, first of all, seduced and deceived in himself. He morbidly enjoys the vanity that kills him, morbidly enjoys the deception of his neighbors, morbidly enjoys the successful hypocrisy. Vanity and the hypocrisy it engenders are destructive at their very beginning: they deprive a person of every heavenly reward, giving him the vain human praise he has chosen as his only reward! Vanity and hypocrisy are terrible in their development and maturity, when they prevail over a person, when they turn into a rule of activity, into character. They form a Pharisee, striving with frantic and blind determination to commit all lawlessness and atrocities; they create a Pharisee who needs the guise of virtue only in order to drown more freely and successfully in atrocities. This is a deplorable picture of moral devastation, moral disasters caused by vanity and hypocrisy in fallen human nature. Vanity is a diverse, subtle, incomprehensible passion. All other passions, disturbing a person’s calm, are immediately denounced by conscience; the passion of vanity, on the contrary, flatters the fallen son of Adam, brings him, as it were, pleasure, and seems to be spiritual consolation for the good deed he has done. All other passions directly violate the virtues opposite to them: thus abstinence is violated by gluttony, meekness by anger, generosity by the love of money. Vanity does not seem to violate any virtue; it, having in a proper manner deprived man of the remembrance of God, of the unspeakable greatness of God, entices fallen man to look at himself with approval and pleasure, to admire himself. Alien to the spiritual Gift, it seeks to present itself as having a gift, or at least to instill suspicion of itself in people, as if for something supernatural; it seeks to console itself with this deception. It is co-present with the ascetic during his fasting, during his prayer, during his almsgiving, during his vigils, during his kneeling, trying to delight the sacrifice offered to God, and, having desecrated it with man-pleasing, make it obscene. It pursues the servant of Christ in the solitude of his cell, in his seclusion; not being able to provide the ascetic with soul-destroying praise from outside spectators, he brings him praise in thoughts, draws and seductively depicts human glory in his imagination. Often it acts without thought or dreaming; but it is known only by the absence from the heart of blessed tenderness, blessed remembrance and contrition for sins. 1264 Vanity haunts even a person’s good deeds, 1265 even the spiritual instruction of others is often preceded and accompanied by vanity. 1266 Vanity can sometimes infect the mood of an entire brotherhood, which can become proud not only because of the material advantages of its monastery, but also because of the high opinion of the laity about the special piety of its charter. 1267 Vanity almost always acts together with refined voluptuousness and gives a person the most subtle sinful pleasure. The poison of this pleasure is so subtle that many recognize the pleasure of vanity and voluptuousness as a consolation to the conscience, even to the effect of Divine grace. The ascetic, seduced by this pleasure, little by little comes into a state of self-delusion; recognizing self-delusion as a state of grace, he gradually comes into the full power of a fallen angel, constantly taking the form of a bright Angel, and becomes an instrument, an apostle of rejected spirits. Entire books have been written from this state, praised by the blind world and read with pleasure and admiration by people who have not been cleansed of passions. This imaginary spiritual pleasure is nothing more than the pleasure of refined vanity, arrogance and voluptuousness. Vanity corrupts the soul in the same way as lustful passion corrupts the soul and body. Vanity makes the soul incapable of spiritual movements, which then begin when the movements of spiritual passions become silent, being stopped by humility. Vanity leads to the unlawful participation in human glory, and, touching the heart, sets the blood into a discordant sweet movement - with this movement it changes the entire disposition of a person, introducing into him a connection with the stout and gloomy spirit of the world, and, thus, alienating him from the Spirit of God. 1268 A vain hypocrite is incapable of either faith or knowledge of God. 1269 Such a soul-harmful effect of vanity and hypocrisy on a person, as explained by Bishop Ignatius, is motivated by the fact that these passions make it difficult and impossible to experience saving repentance and deprive a person of the awareness of his sinfulness. Hypocrisy is that type of sinfulness that especially opposes the Knowledge of Christ and Christianity. The beginning of turning to Christ lies in the knowledge of one’s sinfulness, one’s fall: from such a view of oneself, a person recognizes the need for a Redeemer and approaches Christ through humility, faith and repentance. But a hypocrite, suffering from dissatisfied passions that are noticeable to people - vanity, pride, love of money, envy, deceit, malice, covering them with hypocrisy and pretense, is incapable, just as Satan is incapable, of recognizing himself as a sinner. And virtues and passions become, as it were, natural from skill, and hypocrisy from skill becomes, as it were, a natural quality. Those who possess it no longer see hypocrisy as the most destructive vice; deeds of hypocrisy are accomplished as if they were deeds of truth. Hypocrisy is a sinful leaven for human mood because it, having crept into the soul, penetrates into all thoughts, into all feelings, into all deeds of a person, becoming his character, as if his soul. 1270 Closely related to vanity is people-pleasing. The vain, in his desire for human glory, is forced to please people. Vanity feeds on human praise and advantages invented by carnal wisdom and arising from our fall. It feeds on wealth, the nobility of the family, big names with which service and servility to the world are crowned and other vain honors. The path of the seeker of human glory is constant and varied people-pleasing. Whether this man-pleasing is right or wrong, whether it is legal or illegal, seekers of human glory have nothing to do with it, as long as it achieves its goal. 1271 Taking possession of the human soul in the absence of spiritual life, vanity distances a person from salvation and, developing and intensifying, turns into the passion of pride and conceit. Hypocrisy, born from vanity, i.e. from the search for human praise and glory, he feeds vanity with his successes. When vanity reaches adulthood, then its action turns from impulses into constant striving, then from vanity an insane and blind passion is formed - pride. Pride is the death of the soul in a spiritual sense: a soul overwhelmed by pride is incapable of humility, repentance, mercy, or any spiritual thoughts and feelings that bring living knowledge of the Redeemer and assimilation to Him. 1272 The proud one looks at himself as an original being, and not as a creation of God; earthly life seems to him endless, death and eternity - non-existent. There is no providence of God for him: he recognizes human reason as the ruler of darkness. All his thoughts creep on the earth, his life was sacrificed entirely to the earth, on which he would like to establish unceasing pleasure in sin. 1273 The lot of proud people, filled with conceit and carnal wisdom, is eternal death, the death of the soul, which consists in decisive alienation from God, in the assimilation of hatred of God and humanity. 1274 The main, integral, essential character of carnal wisdom is pride, which serves as the door to all sins and vices. 1275 Carnal wisdom or the general anti-Christian direction of life has as its most obvious expression pride and conceit, with which the complete decline of spiritual Christian life is inevitably associated. The proud person is alien to the reverence of God, alien to the fear of God, respect for the law of God and civil law, alien to respect for one's neighbor, for his benefits, well-being, for life itself, alien to self-knowledge, alien to virtue, an enemy and villain to people and to himself. He is capable of all lawlessness, as if he has some special right to commit them. A proud person is a person with a petrified heart and a demonic mind. 1276 A clear expression of pride, vanity, hypocrisy and, in general, anti-Christian sentiment through carnal wisdom and false reason is the life direction of Pharisaism. Directing all his attention towards spiritual work and soul-saving feats, and in carnal wisdom and proud self-delusion, rightly seeing the main reason for the spiritual death of a person. The Reverend Ignatius repeatedly and strongly speaks about Pharisaism, characterizing it and warning his neighbors against this fundamental and unnoticeable spiritual danger in life. In the direction of Pharisaism, all human sinfulness seems to be concentrated: its subjective internal and external expression. In Pharisaism it is easy to find a place for ourselves and justification and blindness to our sins, their apology, and vigilance in relation to the sins of our neighbor, and disdain for him, and self-satisfaction and a legal view of our spiritual feat, due to which our deeds are thought of as merits before God. Accepting and assimilating false concepts about the essence of spiritual life, Pharisaism is always associated with self-delusion and spiritual delusion in relation to oneself, with a gloomy, proudly contemptuous look at humanity out of complacency. The Pharisee looks at his deeds as sacrifices, as merits before God; This view is common to all Pharisees. Along with this, neighbors - bearers of the spirit of Christ - are a subject of temptation for the Pharisee. The Pharisees demand appropriate behavior from other people, but without seeing it, they are tempted and condemned. It is common for the Pharisees, says Vladyka Ignatius, to be tempted by those in whom they do not see pharisaism; it is common for them to be tempted by those who, abhorring self-love and man-pleasing, try to please God in the simplicity and mystery of the heart; They tend to see sin and malice where they do not exist; They tend to condemn, hate, and persecute the true servants of God. They are constantly persecuted by hatred either by repentant sinners who are reconciled with God and made righteous through repentance, or by disciples and followers of the God made man, but most of all by the all-perfect God Himself made man. By studying the law of God only by letter, and not by experience, not by fulfilling the law, they do not receive the humility into which a person is brought by the true knowledge of God, but - extraordinary pomp and arrogance. They attach much greater importance to ritual decrees than they should have been given, and they ignore the commandments of God, which constitute the essence of the law. Having distorted the meaning of the law in accordance with their false mind and depraved heart, they, while they serve and please only self-love, mistakenly appear to themselves and others as serving and pleasing God. They strive to serve and please God by fulfilling their will and their understandings, recognizing them as probably good and true, which is unnatural for fallen human nature, and not by carefully researching and fulfilling the will of God. With this way of activity, a person almost constantly does evil, recognizing it as good, and when he does good, he makes it out of himself, which is why he attributes it to himself, as the Pharisee attributed it. At the same time, good itself becomes the cause of evil, introducing conceit into a person, planting, feeding and increasing in him the most destructive of passions, pride 1277. Pharisaism is characterized by the rejection of God, self-worship and external religiosity with internal alienation. 1278 The most outward behavior of the Pharisee, essentially expressing his mood of self-satisfaction and contempt for his neighbors, is motivated by the social benefit and the good of his neighbors. The Pharisee goes and stands in front to serve as an edification to the gathered people and to attract their attention to himself for the benefit of his own people. This is how vanity usually justifies and covers up its actions. The Pharisee freely raises his arrogant eye to grief, he is inspired by conceit and self-confidence, his face shines with self-satisfaction. Sometimes the Pharisee displays visible humility; they stand, for example, in the very depths of the church, especially when they are high-ranking persons, then suddenly they come out before the people in order to strike more powerfully with both the appearance of dignity and the previous appearance of humility. Their faces do not always express self-satisfaction; they take different forms, depending on need, but they are always composed. 1279 But the Right Reverend Ignatius characterizes the mood of Pharisaism in especially detailed and profound detail in a special article on this issue in volume I under the title: “Pharisee.” 1280 The essential signs and main elements of the Pharisaic mood are depicted by the Most Reverend Ignatius in the following vivid form. The reason for the Pharisaic mood is a lack of humility, which extremely impedes spiritual success. While those who have fallen into grave sins, with burning jealousy and contrition of spirit, bring repentance, forget the whole world, see their sin incessantly and mourn it before God, the Pharisee’s eyes are double. His sin, which appears insignificant before him, does not attract his full attention. He remembers, knows some of his good deeds and places hope in them. He sees the shortcomings of his neighbors, comparing them with his own, and recognizes his own as easy and excusable. The more his own truth increases in his eyes, the more the grace-filled justification bestowed upon the repentant diminishes. This weakens and destroys the feeling of repentance. With the diminishing of the feeling of repentance, the procession to spiritual success becomes difficult; with the destruction of the feeling of repentance, a person is seduced from the path of salvation to the path of conceit and self-delusion. He becomes alien to holy love for God and neighbors. Anyone infected with the disease of Pharisaism is deprived of spiritual success. The soil of his heart’s field is hard and does not bear harvest: for spiritual fruitfulness, a heart is necessary, cultivated by repentance, softened, moistened with tenderness and tears. Deprivation of prosperity is already significant damage. But the harm that comes from Pharisaism is not limited to the sterility of the soul: the deadly infection of Pharisaism, for the most part, is associated with the most disastrous consequences. Pharisaism not only makes a person’s good deeds fruitless, but directs them to evil in his soul, to his condemnation before God. 1281 The Pharisee counts the obvious sins that can be visible to everyone; but don’t say a word about spiritual passions, pride, deceit, hatred, envy, hypocrisy. And they make up the Pharisee. They then destroy love for one’s neighbor and give birth to temptation filled with coldness, pride and hatred. They darken and deaden his soul, making it incapable of repentance. When Pharisaism strengthens and matures and takes possession of the soul, its fruits are terrible. The historical Pharisees dared to call the Son of God possessed. The Pharisees allowed themselves to assert that God incarnate, the Savior who came to earth, was dangerous for the public welfare, for the civil life of the Jews. And all these intertwined inventions are needed in order, under the cover of outward justice, under the guise of protecting the nationality, laws, religion, to satiate the insatiable malice with one’s blood, to sacrifice blood to envy and vanity in order to commit Deicide. Pharisaism is a terrible poison; Pharisaism is a terrible mental illness. 1282 The Reverend Ignatius considers it necessary to have a clear image and presentation of Pharisaism in order to protect oneself “from the kvass of the Pharisaism.” Continuing this image, Bishop Ignatius characterizes the Pharisee with the following features. The Pharisee, content with the outward performance of the rites of religion and the performance of some visible good deeds, which are not alien to the pagans, slavishly serves passions that he constantly tries to cover up, which to a large extent he does not see in himself and does not understand, which produce in him complete blindness in relation to God and all Divine teaching. Although he is engaged in reading Scripture, he is incapable of repentance, incapable of seeing the light of God’s commandments; they elude his gaze, and he replaces them with his own absurd, ugly speculations. Leaving aside the fulfillment of God's commandments, which constitute the essence of the Law, he strives for the refined fulfillment of external trifles, even if this was in obvious violation of the commandments. The most secretive of all spiritual passions is vanity. This passion, more than any other, camouflages itself before the human heart, giving it pleasure, which is often mistaken for consolation of conscience, for Divine consolation. And the Pharisee is leavened with vanity! He does everything for human praise. He loves that his almsgiving, his fasting, and his prayer have witnesses. He cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus, who commands his followers to neglect human glory and to follow the path of humiliation, deprivation, and suffering. The cross of Jesus serves as a temptation for the Pharisee. He needs a Messiah, similar to Alexander the Great, or Napoleon I, with loud glory as a conqueror, with trophies, with booty. The thought of heavenly, spiritual glory, of the glory of God, eternal, of eternity itself, is inaccessible to his soul, creeping on the earth, in earthly dust and decay. The Pharisee is a lover of money. His heart is where his treasure is. There is his faith, there are his feelings, there is hope, there is love. With his lips, with the edge of his tongue, he confesses God, but with his heart he rejects Him. He never feels the presence of God, does not see the providence of God, does not know by experience what the fear of God means. For his heart there is no God, no neighbors. He is all earthly, all carnal, all in the power of spiritual passions, moved by them, controlled by them, drawn to all lawlessness, lives and acts solely for self-love. In the soul of the Pharisee, an idol of “I” is erected. Constant incense is burned to the idol, constant sacrifices are sacrificed; The soul of a Pharisee is a coffin, painted on the outside for the sensual eyes of men, but inside filled with dead bones, stench, worms, everything unclean. The Pharisee, being a stranger to God, has the need to appear before people as a servant of God; being filled with all iniquities, he has the need to appear virtuous before people; trying to satisfy his passions, he has the need to make his actions seem plausible. A Pharisee requires a disguise. Not at all wanting to be truly pious and virtuous, only wanting to be considered among people as such, the Pharisee clothed himself in hypocrisy. Everything in it is a composition, everything is fiction. His deeds, words, his whole life are a constant lie. His heart breathes on his neighbor with a feeling of temptation and condemnation. The Pharisee does not condemn evil, vice, or violation of the law in his neighbors; his arrows are aimed at virtue. But to make the blows more accurate, he slanderes virtue, attributes evil to it, is tempted by this evil and, apparently, striking it, kills the servant of Christ he hates. 1283 The Pharisees only want to appear righteous, they only care about presenting themselves as servants of God before the society of people, before the masses, who are usually unintelligible. And now one can see that the Pharisees resort to all sorts of twists so that their deeds, which have the appearance of being good, shine as brightly as possible before the eyes of people, and their atrocities are excused by political necessity, the guise of justice and wise forethought, the desire to prevent a greater evil by allowing a lesser evil, and other justifications that flow so abundantly from a heart filled with wickedness. 1284 So complex in its content and deep in its significance for the spiritual life of a person, the sinful mood of pharisaism, very widespread in life and hardly noticeable for those enslaved to it. Among the passions rooted in pride, explained by it and strengthened by it, His Eminence Ignatius notes: contempt for one’s neighbor, preference for oneself over everyone, insolence; darkness, dullness of mind and heart; nailing them to the earthly; unbelief, delusion, false intelligence; disobedience to the Law of God and the Church; following your carnal will; reading heretical, depraved and vain books; disobedience to authorities, caustic ridicule; abandonment of Christ-like humility; loss of simplicity, loss of love for God and neighbor, false philosophy, heresy, godlessness, ignorance. 1285 The passions that act on a sinful person and take away his eternal salvation are diverse, complex, strong and deep. Their effect is all the stronger and deeper because their root lies in the damage to human nature itself by arbitrary sin. Their danger for a person is all the more significant because in only a few cases it is clear, that in most cases sinful dangers act on a person covertly and little consciously for him, and the spiritual spectacle of passions belligerent against a person is not clear to an ordinary person in the fascination with the life process. Under the sign of the holy cross, Vladyka Ignatius leads his readers to a spectacle of spiritual warfare invisible to ordinary eyes. Following the example of his leader Anthony, a desert dweller in Egypt, Saint Ignatius sees and shows us for possible attention the sinful nets of the devil, spread throughout the world to ensnare people into destruction. He plunges thoughtfully into examining the networks of the devil. They are located outside and inside a person. One network is closely connected to another; in other places the nets stand in several rows; in others, wide holes are made, which, however, lead to the most numerous bends of the networks, getting rid of which seems impossible. Nets have been laid for the human mind in various books that call themselves light, but contain the teachings of darkness, written under the obvious or hidden influence of a gloomy and all-evil ruler of the world, from a mind damaged by the Fall, by writers who “are maddened by the mind of their flesh” (Col. 2:18). My neighbor, in whose love I must seek salvation, becomes for me a net that traps me in destruction, when his mind is caught in the nets of the teachings and wisdom of the deceitful and flattering. My own mind bears the seals of fall, is covered with a veil of darkness, infected with the poison of lies: it itself, deceived by the ruler of the world, sets nets for itself, with impudence it drinks in the cup of poisonous knowledge and thereby decisively destroys the taste and desire for the Divine cup of saving knowledge. There are so many nets for my heart! The spiritual gaze of an ascetic sees coarse nets and fine nets, and it is unclear which of them is more dangerous and terrible. The fisher is skillful, and whoever escapes from the coarse nets, he catches in the fine nets. There is only one end to the hunt - death. The networks are covered in every possible way, with excellent art. The fall is clothed in all kinds of triumph; people-pleasing, hypocrisy, vanity - in all types of virtue, Deception, dark charm, wear the guise of the spiritual, heavenly. Spiritual love, often vicious, is covered with the appearance of holy love; false, dreamy sweetness, passed off as spiritual sweetness. There are so many nets for the body! What a network it is! How the world ruler uses it! God, heaven, eternity, and the purpose of man are forgotten. The ruler of the world tries to keep us in constant entertainment, darkness, through bodily pleasures. Through the senses, these doors to the soul, through which it communicates with the visible world, he constantly introduces into it sensual pleasure, sin and flesh inseparable from it; Music thunders in famous earthly concerts, expressing and exciting various passions; these passions are presented in earthly theaters, excited in earthly amusements, man is led by all possible means to enjoy the evil that killed him. In his intoxication, he forgets the Divine good that saves him and the blood of the God-man by which we have been redeemed. 1286 Drawing the nets placed by the world ruler to ensnare Christians, Vladyka Ignatius, with his verbal brush, guided by the Word of God, depicts new, contemporary features of the world ruler’s networks. The networks of the devil, he says, have multiplied in comparison with the times of the primacy of the Church of Christ, multiplied to infinity. Books containing false teaching have multiplied; minds have multiplied, containing and communicating to others false teaching; the followers of the holy Truth have diminished, diminished to the extreme; respect for natural virtues available to Jews and pagans increased; respect for virtues appeared to be downright pagan, contrary to nature itself, which looked at them as evil; the concept of Christian virtues has diminished, their actual fulfillment has almost been destroyed; material life developed; spiritual life disappears; bodily pleasures and worries consume all the time, there is no time to even remember God. And all this turns into a duty, into a law. The question involuntarily arises: Who can escape these networks? 1287 This is the question that is essentially the main motive for Bishop Ignatius in his survey of the dark vale of sin. This is the question, the answer to which for himself and his neighbors was occupied by the thought of Ignatius Brianchaninov throughout his ascetic creations; we will find out this answer in the next chapter. In moments of tenderness, in which the eyes of the mind open to self-knowledge, which do not come often, Vladyka Ignatius writes a picture of human sinfulness, writes, in his own words, as a reproof for himself, as an admonition, a reminder, an instruction. 1288 Trying to understand for himself the net of the ruler of the world, stretched over human souls, humbly reflecting on his sinfulness, Vladyka Ignatius has one goal in mind - to arouse in the sinner attention to his spiritual life, to arouse a thirst for soul-saving feat, a desire to cultivate his spiritual field. An experienced ascetic who has personally experienced the thirst for repentance and salvation, he does not advise his worldly reader, in the course of his spiritual achievement, to enter into a detailed and subtle examination of his sins and sinful qualities, because the desire for a subtle analysis of his sinful qualities constitutes a trap for a person, set for us by the enemy of our salvation. Vladyka Ignatius advises his worldly reader to collect all his sins into one vessel of repentance and cast them into the abyss of God’s mercy; he calls on his worldly reader to spend his life in constant repentance, recognizing himself as a sinner in all respects and believing that the Merciful Lord accepts everyone who only admits his sinfulness into the arms of His mercy, into the bosom of salvation. 1289 Vladyka Ignatius asks his worldly reader, who with faith and love for Christ will read his call to repentance and salvation and find in it something useful for himself, to bring a heartfelt sigh and prayer for the soul that has suffered much from the waves of sin, which has often seen drowning and destruction before itself, and has found rest in one refuge, in the confession of its falls. 1290 Based on a careful and lifelong study of the Word of God and the patristic works and personal spiritual experience, Vladyka Ignatius learned the sinfulness of the human soul and adopted the feeling of humbly repentant as the constant and predominant mood of his soul. For this purpose, i.e. to arouse in himself a thirst for spiritual salvation and a repentant feeling, he advises his reader to study the sinful nature of human beings, to recognize the sinfulness of his soul and thereby lay the foundation for his salvation, for, according to his words, “the beginning of turning to Christ lies in the knowledge of one’s sinfulness, one’s fall: from such a view of oneself, a person recognizes the need for a Redeemer, and approaches Christ through humility, faith and repentance.” 1291 Chapter three. The ideal side of spiritual life (The Christian feat of spiritual salvation in its order and gradualness. Blessed is the soul that constantly studies in the Law of God: in it it can see the image and beauty of the New Man, and according to them, correct its shortcomings! Blessed is the soul who has purchased the village of repentance by mortifying itself in relation to sinful undertakings: in this village it will find the priceless treasure of salvation! (Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. II, p. 123). The question of spiritual salvation occupies the most important, central place in the content of the Christian worldview. This question is infinitely close to the Christian mood, for in reality there is nothing more important for a Christian, there is nothing more closely connected with the very essence of the Christian spirit, as eternal spiritual salvation. It is important and close to the spiritual mood, as the ultimate, otherworldly goal towards which the best aspirations of the human Spirit are directed; it is just as close as an all-life, earthly, amateur and blessed feat that constitutes a means for the indicated eternal goal. From this last point of view, the question of spiritual salvation acquires even higher special importance, as one of the fundamental foundations for understanding the absolute truth of our holy Orthodoxy, for the question of personal salvation represents in the system of our faith, precisely the point at which this latter comes face to face with reality, with real being, and wants to show in life, in practice, what the truth that it preaches is. 1292 Indicating the importance and closeness to a person’s spiritual mood of salvation, as the goal and means of human life, we consider ourselves in this statement to be free from contradiction, in the consideration that with the concept of the goal of life we combine the thought of eternal salvation, as a state realized and otherworldly, posthumous, and in the concept of a means to achieve this goal we think of a life-long soul-saving feat, which constitutes the content of Christian earthly life, in harmony with eternal salvation. Despite the closeness of the question of spiritual salvation to the Orthodox Christian mood of a person, understanding this question and expressing it in clear logical concepts, which we strive for in this chapter of our book, seems to us very difficult, and not because we have vague foundations or insufficient necessary material to resolve this issue; in this regard, we have sufficient sources of spiritual edification, in addition to the Word of God, Sacred Tradition and theological literature, and in the works of Bishop Ignatius, but mainly because a completely satisfactory and thorough resolution of the issue of spiritual salvation is possible only under the condition of not only a theoretical attitude to this issue, not only cognitive interests, but also genuine spiritual life and the practical implementation of a soul-saving feat, when with an amateur, or Through the assistance of God's grace and the accomplishment of a soul-saving feat, a Christian learns through the experience of his spiritual life the sacred mystery of salvation. That is why, humbly aware of our imperfections, our lack of firmness in the feat of a pious life, we see in this an important obstacle to a completely satisfactory depiction of the soul-saving feat in its order and gradualism. 1293. According to the indicated motive, which is quite strong for our consciousness, we limit the task of this chapter of our study to the presentation and systematization of the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on spiritual salvation in relation to the questions that interest us in this section - about the essence, conditions, expression and gradualness of the soul-saving feat. In accordance with the task we have outlined, we propose in the future, based on the works of Bishop Ignatius, to answer the following questions: I. What is salvation? II. What should be the consistent course of spiritual salvation? III. How does the desire for spiritual salvation arise in a person? IV. What serves as a necessary condition for a soul-saving feat, what are the conditions for salvation? V. How is spiritual salvation expressed? I. The question of spiritual salvation in the works of Bishop Ignatius seems to be a difficult question in essence and due to its lack of clarity for even those people who want to be saved. Of these latter, many talk about salvation, many want to be saved, but if you ask them what salvation consists of, then the answer becomes very difficult for them. Ignorance of what salvation consists of, in the opinion of Bishop Ignatius, imparts uncertainty and irregularity to our actions in the field of virtue, in which, apparently doing many good deeds, we do little for salvation, because we do not know what our salvation consists of. 1294 Careful, from the days of his youth, study of the Word of God and patristic works, and continuous lifelong personal spiritual experience make Bishop Ignatius a wise mentor and leader of salvation. And, from the point of view of the ascetic school he went through, Vladyka Ignatius gives us a definite and complete answer to the question of the essence of salvation. To know what our salvation consists of, says Bishop Ignatius, we must know in advance what our destruction consists of, because salvation is needed only for those who are perishing. He who seeks salvation, thereby, of necessity, recognizes himself as lost; otherwise why would he seek salvation? The essence of our spiritual death lies in the destruction of our communication with God and entering into communication with fallen and rejected spirits. Our salvation lies in breaking off fellowship with Satan and restoring fellowship with God. 1295 Thus, two sides can be distinguished in salvation: negative - in the severance of communion with the beginning of sin and in the fight against sin, and positive - in the restoration of communion with God. The negative side - the fight against sin prepares to achieve the positive - to restore communication with God. The positive side - the restoration of communion with God consists for a Christian in assimilating himself to the Redeemer, remaining in this assimilation throughout his entire earthly life, and after death, due to such assimilation to the Redeemer, transferring his soul to the villages of blessed spirits, enjoying holy pleasure with them in anticipation of the general resurrection of the dead, then, after the resurrection of the dead, uniting with the body, which the Lord will revive and make incorruptible, and with the body inherit pure, eternal bliss. 1296 In the quoted words of Bishop Ignatius, two states of salvation are clearly distinguished: - salvation, as a lifelong feat of a person’s struggle against sin and assimilation to the Redeemer, and - salvation, as the eternal bliss of communion with God. Understood from a negative point of view, spiritual salvation is a lifelong process of struggle against sin and the sinful beginning of our fallen nature. In this regard, spiritual salvation is the consciousness of one’s sinfulness, repentance for the sins committed and in a sinful life, the decision to renounce sins, confess them, cast out from oneself the criminal love of sin by sincerely exposing sin, 1297 not only in its external manifestations, but also in the innermost thoughts and feelings of sin. 1298 Understood in the sense of renunciation of sin, spiritual salvation is more often thought of as renunciation of the world and renunciation of oneself - self-denial. Renunciation of the world, being a sign of a Christian’s special zeal for spiritual perfection and, therefore, in its entirety constituting the lot of especially chosen souls, 1299 is essentially obligatory and natural for every zealot for salvation, as is renunciation and liberation from sinful addiction to the world, which serves as an obvious sign of a person’s sinfulness: renunciation of the world precedes following Christ, the second has no place in the soul unless the first is accomplished in it first ( Matthew 8:34–35 ; Luke 14:26–27 ). 1300 Renunciation of the world is a feasible liberation from sinful addictions and, therefore, from this point of view, it is a renunciation of the subjective, sinful mood, generated, most of all, by the impressions of the external surrounding world. Due to the deep sinful perversion of human nature, renunciation of the world and sin, which serves as a necessary condition for the beginning of a new life, is thought of by us as renunciation of oneself, self-denial, and in its implementation is endured by a sinful person as painfully as the deprivation of life. Hence, the renunciation of sin, a decisive break with sin in the soul is understood as self-denial and the destruction of one’s life - the destruction of the life of one’s sinful self. In this sense, His Grace Ignatius understands the words of Christ the Savior about the destruction and salvation of the soul (Matt. 8:34–85): with these words, according to the interpretation of Bishop Ignatius, the rejection of non-existence is required, but the rejection of fallen nature, its will, its reason, its truth. Sin and the state of fall have become so internalized to us, so merged with our existence, that renunciation of them has become renunciation of oneself, the destruction of one’s soul. To save the soul, the destruction of the soul has become an absolute necessity; In order to save oneself, it has become an absolute necessity to renounce oneself - from one’s fallen self, which does not acknowledge its fall. As long as this “I” exists, Christ cannot bring us any benefit (Luke 14:26; Matt. 10:8–39). Christ commanded the destruction of the soul not only for His sake, but also for the sake of the Gospel, explaining to the latter the first thing: The destruction of the soul for the sake of the Lord is the rejection of reason, truth, will, which belong to the fallen nature, for the fulfillment of the will and truth of God, depicted in the Gospel, for the following of the mind of God, shining from the Gospel. All who forced themselves to fulfill the Gospel teaching know from experience how opposite and hostile to the Gospel are the mind, truth and will of fallen nature. Reconciliation and agreement are impossible. Rejection of fallen nature is an inevitable, tangible necessity of salvation. This rejection is committed by the one who constantly studies the Gospel and tries to revive it in himself with all his activity. 1301 The rejection of sin, which was akin to the soul, became a rejection of the soul. He who rejects his own reason becomes capable of assimilating the mind of God; He who renounces the fulfillment of his will is made capable of fulfilling the will of God. Such rejection of the soul is necessary for the salvation of the soul. 1302 Without self-sacrifice a person is incapable of faith; his fallen mind opposes faith, boldly demanding an account from God of His actions and evidence of the truths He reveals to man; a fallen heart wants to live a life of fall, which faith strives to mortify; flesh and blood, despite the grave approaching them every hour, also want to live their life, the life of corruption and sin, which is why the rejection of the fall became a rejection of life; Without this rejection, salvation is impossible. 1303 This self-denial is a necessary condition for entering the positive path of salvation. 1304 But, being associated with a different direction of our entire life, with the renunciation of our very sinful nature, saving self-denial is for a sinful person a superhuman, unbearable feat for weak human forces, from the point of view of the sons of the world and slaves of sin, unnatural and unnecessary. It is precisely, from the point of view of self-denial, that the path of salvation is conceived as a narrow path, 1305 like a cross, painful for a sinful person. 1306 But for the disciple and follower of Christ, the cross of self-denial and sorrow becomes the cross of Christ, the arena of the highest spiritual pleasure, and this pleasure is so great that the sorrow of a sinful person is completely drowned out by pleasure, and the follower of Christ, in the midst of the most severe languor, feels only pleasure. 1307 This is salvation from a negative point of view; it is self-denial, i.e. refusal, renunciation of a sinful direction, from sinful addictions, condemnation of sin and a decisive change in life direction, expressed in the readiness and active implementation of a lifelong struggle against sin. Understood from a positive point of view, spiritual salvation is depicted in the works of Bishop Ignatius as communion with God: life in God, 1308 seeing God through the eyes of faith, 1309 feeling of eternal life. 1310 Adoption to God in the Sacrament of Baptism is expressed in the closest union with God in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The purity and renewal brought by holy Baptism are restored by Repentance, and unity with God is nourished by living according to the Gospel, and, if possible, by frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Christ is with those who believe in Him in the Holy Gospel and the Sacraments of the Church; He is not for those who do not believe in the Gospel: they do not see Him, being blinded by unbelief. Do you want to hear Christ? – He speaks to you with the Gospel. Do not neglect His saving voice: turn away from a sinful life and listen with attention to the teaching of Christ, which is eternal life. Do you want Christ to appear to you? He teaches you how to receive it: If you have My commandments and keep them, this is you who love Me: and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him (John 14:21). Bishop Ignatius recommends guarding against daydreaming, which can imagine a person seeing the Lord Jesus Christ and touching Him. This is an empty game of pompous, proud conceit. Follow the commandments of the Lord - and miraculously you will see the Lord in yourself, in your properties. This is how the holy Apostle Paul saw the Lord in himself: he demanded this vision from Christians; those who did not have it, he called those who had not reached the state due to Christians. 1311 This internally experienced communion with God is a direct consequence of reconciliation with God through repentance, 1312 this communion with God brings us spiritually closer to our neighbors 1313 and serves as an internal source of Christian virtues. 1314 The negative side of salvation, i.e. self-denial, is closely connected with the positive side, i.e., communion with God, the first leads to the second, prepares the second. Salvation consists in communion with God, in the assimilation of Christ by man; in the assimilation of man by Christ, but whoever wants to achieve this must renounce himself, that is, from his entire sinful being. He must recognize his sins as sins, and his truths as the stinking rubbish of a harlot - a soul that has entered into criminal communion with sin. Our truth, so elegant in the state of purity before the fall, was desecrated by the fall and became obscene. The one who denies himself and comes to Christ from a state of self-denial, Christ accepts: he redeems him, replaces him with Himself; saves by uniting with Himself. By maintaining your sinfulness, it is impossible to become assimilated to Christ. It is acquired only by the pure, that is, by those who from the unclean have become pure through repentance. Assimilation to Christ is impossible not only when a person does not abandon his sinfulness; It is also impossible when a person does not abandon his righteousness. Christ denies the righteous with his righteousness and rejects them. 1315 A person’s renunciation of the sinful principle of selfhood, expressed both in sin and in visible good, renunciation expressed in humility and repentance, is a necessary condition for achieving the positive side of salvation, that is, assimilation to Christ. Humility and the repentance born from it are the only condition under which Christ is accepted; humility and repentance are the only price that buys the knowledge of Christ; humility and repentance are the only moral states from which one can approach Christ and become assimilated to Him. 1316 As requiring self-denial from a person - not only from his sin, but also from his truth, grace-filled salvation, according to the conditions of emergence and creation, must necessarily be thought of as a Divine action, as a spiritual sacrament. This side of salvation is naturally achieved by the person who has actually entered the path of salvation, but it is incomprehensible to a sinful person: salvation, as a spiritual sacrament, is incomprehensible to evil, which is blind to Divine good, as completely alien to it, and understands only its own, that is, either one-sided evil, or the good of fallen nature, mixed with evil and poisoned by evil; 1317 only a pure heart is capable of ascending to saving communication with God. 1318 The Divine Teacher bequeaths to all who believe in Him renunciation of the pleasures of the world and renunciation of themselves in order to believe in Him and to assimilate Him. 1319 Viewed from the psychological side, salvation is the greatest, grace-filled harmony of the human spirit. From the psychological side, salvation is the kingdom of God within us, the kingdom of the world of Christ. In the soul in which passions have subsided through submission to God, God reigns and the peace of Christ reigns. The world of Christ is holy. The world of Christ is all in Christ. The peace of Christ is sown in the soul by the Word of God, is born from cultivating the field of the heart with the commandments of Christ, is nourished by this invisible, but not effortless feat, and grows from it. From the action of the Holy Spirit, the peace of Christ embraces the mind, heart and body of a perfect Christian, unites these parts, cut and separated by sin, into one; a person, reconciled within himself and with himself, already constituting one and the whole as he was before the fall, unites him with God. 1320 In the above understanding, spiritual salvation is conceived as a feeling in the soul of a person of the gracious kingdom of God, which arises in the soul from cultivating the field of the heart through the fight against sin and fulfilling the commandments of Christ, is nourished by this feat, grows from it, leads through the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit to the inner harmony of the spirit and unites a person with God; The inner grace-filled harmony of the Christian spirit saved by the Redeemer is depicted by His Grace Ignatius by likening the spiritual unity and inseparability of the saved Christian spirit to the unity of the Holy Trinity. The image of the Trinity - God the Trinity - man. The three faces in the trinity of man are the three powers of his spirit, by which the existence of the spirit is manifested. 1321 Just as in the Trinity-God the three Persons unfused and inseparably constitute one Divine Being, so in the Trinity-Man the three Persons constitute one being, without mixing with each other, without merging into one person, without dividing into three beings. 1322 The disorder of the image and likeness of God in man, the internal discord and disorder produced in him by the fall of sin, 1323 is destroyed, and the inner harmony of the spirit, grace-filled unity, is again restored and raised to the highest height through the mystery of Redemption, in which all the Persons of the Trinity-God participate; the Trinity-man is healed by the Trinity-God: the Word heals the thought, transfers it from the realm of lies, from the realm of self-delusion, into the realm of Truth; The spirit is enlivened by the Holy Spirit, transferred from carnal and mental sensations to spiritual sensations; The Father appears to the mind - and the mind becomes the mind of God. The beauty of the likeness is restored by the Spirit, like the image at baptism. It develops and improves by fulfilling the Gospel commandments. The example of this beauty, the fullness of this beauty is the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Trinity, in the redemption of His image - man, gave such an opportunity for success in perfecting the likeness that the likeness turns in the union of the image with the Original, the poor creature - about its all-perfect Creator. 1324 So, the concept of spiritual salvation, as necessary elements, includes: self-denial, the continuous feat of struggle against evil and improvement in good with the help of the grace of God and in connection with this, the endlessly increasing harmony of the human spirit and Communion with God or the kingdom of God in the human soul. Towards the direction of the mind towards Truth; in the abiding of the mind in the holy Truth-Christ, lies the essence of our salvation. 1325 Based on the study of the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius, we believe that the positive side of spiritual salvation is: a) in the continuous feat of improvement, b) in communion with God and c) in the resulting state of bliss or the greatest state of spiritual satisfaction characteristic of man; Because of this, all spiritual salvation in general should be conceived by a Christian as nothing other than the highest good that he seeks and desires. The state of Communion with God and God-sensation, not in a theoretical explanation, but in the spiritual-ascetic experience of Bishop Ignatius, seems visually self-evident and for the one experiencing this grace-filled sensation of God is completely undoubted, in the following features depicted by Bishop Ignatius in the spiritual-poetic vision entitled: “The Wanderer,” from which we consider it useful to note; outstanding places presenting an analysis of the spiritual-ascetic state of God-sensation. In rapture, almost close to the state of St. Apostle Paul - “whether in the body, or apart from the body” - Communion with God, not constantly uninterrupted, but fluctuating and weakening due to the sinfulness of man, - the Lord, who speaks at the door of the human heart and enters into it, “if His voice is heard” and suppers in the human soul, appears to the enlightened gaze of man as a gracious Wanderer 1326 and Guest, and worthy of a Divine visit in in the church of his soul, a Christian humbly, but also boldly turns to the Heavenly Wanderer with inquisitive, but also reverent questions-words, “Where are you coming from?” Where is your usual village? Where have you been before? Why has it hitherto left me alone, orphaned, in poverty, in a terrible death? Having known You, I realized that without You this was my condition! Don't leave me! I can't be without you! If you leave me, again I am at the doors of hell, again in the abyss, again in an unbearable and inexpressible misery. You're coming! - I do not see the image of Your procession; I see Your coming, I see not with carnal eyes - with a feeling. You give neither time nor a way to think - who are you? You suddenly appear in the soul, Invisible and Incomprehensible! You appear with indescribable quietness and subtlety, along with the power and strength of the Creator, because you change the whole person: you change, transform, recreate, renew the mind, heart, and body! You, the Strong One, enter the house, bind the strong, plunder the vessels of the house, plunder not for destruction but for salvation! Both the house and the vessels were Thine before; You arranged them, arranged them for Yourself; they themselves gave themselves up to the sad captivity of the predator. And until now they were - my mind, my soul, my body - under the power of a fierce ruler, they acted under his influence. You come: from now on they come at Your disposal, begin to act under Your holy, blessed influence. What shall I call you? How can I tell my brothers about You? How will I convey to them the name of the Wanderer, who has retreated under the roof of my soul, under a roof that has become dilapidated, has come to final destruction, open to gusty winds, to rain and snow - under a roof only fit for the camp of the dumb? What did You find in my heart, to which various sinful thoughts alternately came, entered into it unhindered, and found in it, like in a manger, like in a trough of pigs, the tasty food of various passionate feelings? It seems to me: I know the name of my Lord! But, looking at my uncleanness, I am afraid to say my name. One irreverent utterance of the great and all-holy name can lead to condemnation! How much more terrible is the very presence of the Named One! But You are present! Your immeasurable goodness led You to the vile sinner, so that the sinner, having known the dignity and purpose of man, having tasted by experience, seeing with a feeling that the Lord is good (Ps. 33.9), would leave the ways of iniquity, take care of acquiring purity through repentance, and become Your church and dwelling. How can I call the Wanderer who hovers around me, who hovers within me? What can I call the wonderful Guest who came to console me in my exile, to heal me from an incurable illness, to remove me from a dark abyss, to bring the green field to the Lord’s field, to guide me on the right and holy paths, who came to take away the impenetrable curtain that had hitherto spread before my eyes, hiding from me the majestic eternity and my God? What shall I call the Mentor who proclaims to me the teaching about God, a new teaching, and at the same time an ancient one, a Divine teaching, and not a human one? Shall I call the Mentor light? I do not see the light, but He enlightens my mind and heart above any word, above any earthly teaching, without words, with unspeakable speed, with some strange - so I will express the inexpressible - touching the mind, or an action within the mind itself. Shall I call Him fire? - but He does not burn, on the contrary, He waters pleasantly and cools. He is a kind of “subtle voice of coldness” (1 Kings 19:12), but every passion, every sinful thought flees from Him, like from fire. He does not utter any word - He does not pronounce it, and together he speaks, teaches, sings wonderfully, mysteriously, with indescribable quietness, subtlety, changing, renewing the mind and heart, listening to Him in silence, in the spiritual cage. He has no image, no form, there is nothing sensual about Him. It is completely insubstantial, invisible, extremely subtle: suddenly, unexpectedly, with indescribable quietness it appears in the mind, in the heart, gradually pours into the whole soul, into the whole body, takes possession of it, removes everything sinful from it, stops the action of flesh and blood, unites the dissected parts of a person together, reveals our whole nature, which crumbled from a terrible fall, just as a meager vessel crumbles from a fall. Who, seeing re-creation, does not recognize the hand of the Creator, who alone has the power to create and recreate? Until now I have only spoken about action, without naming who is acting. It’s scary for me to name Him! Look at me, brothers! look at what is happening in me! Will you tell me what is happening in me? You tell me who is the one doing it? – I feel, I sense the presence of the Wanderer within me. Where He came from, how He appeared to me, I don’t know. Having appeared, He remains invisible, completely incomprehensible. But He is present because He acts in me, because He possesses me, without destroying my free will, drawing it into His will with the indescribable holiness of His will. With an invisible hand He took my mind, took my heart, took my soul, took my body. As soon as they felt this hand, they came to life! A new sensation, a new movement appeared in them - a spiritual sensation and movement! I did not know these sensations and movements before, I did not even know, I did not imagine their existence. They appeared, and from their appearance the sensations and movements of the flesh and soul were hidden or shackled; they appeared as life and disappeared (as death), the previous state. From the touch of my hand on my entire being, my mind, heart, and body were united with each other as something whole, one; then they plunged into God - they remain there as long as they are held there by an invisible, incomprehensible, omnipotent hand! What feeling surrounds me there? My entire being is enveloped in deep, mysterious silence, beyond any thought, beyond any dreaming, beyond any spiritual movement produced by the blood; my whole being is sabbathed and acts together under the control of the Holy Spirit. This management is inexplicable in words. I remain as if intoxicated, I forget everything, I feed on unknown, incorruptible food, I am outside of everything sensory, in the region of the immaterial, in a region that is above not only matter, above every thought, every concept: I do not feel my body itself. My eyes look and do not look, they see and do not see; ears hear and do not hear; all my members are intoxicated - and I stagger on my feet, holding on to something with my hands so as not to fall, or I lie, defeated, on my bed, as if in a painless illness, and in relaxation resulting from an abundance of strength. The cup of the Lord, the cup of the Spirit, intoxicates with might (Ps. 22:5) This is how I spend my days, weeks, and the time is shortened! The silence is wondrous, enveloping the mind, heart, soul, rushing with all their strength towards God and lost, so to speak, in an endless movement towards the infinite; This silence is also a conversation, but without words, without any variety, without thoughts, above thoughts: The wanderer who does all this has both a voice and an unusual word, speaking without words or sound and heard mysteriously. I am looking for in the Scriptures where it is said about such actions in order to know the wonderful Wanderer, and I involuntarily stop before the words of the Savior: “Where the Spirit wills, he breathes, and you hear his voice, but do not know where he comes from and where he goes, for every man is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). How to call the action itself? – It reconciles, connects a person with himself, and then with God; It is impossible not to recognize in this action the breath of the gracious peace of God, “which surpasses all understanding, keeping the heart and mind in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7), given to those who come to man, renewing man by the Holy Spirit. With this action, the mind and heart become evangelical, Christlike: a person sees the Gospel inscribed within himself, on the tablets of the soul, by the finger of the Spirit. The Divine Wanderer departs and hides as imperceptibly as he comes and appears imperceptibly. But He leaves in my entire being the fragrance of immortality, immaterial, just as He Himself is immaterial, a spiritual, life-giving fragrance, felt by a new sensation that He planted or resurrected in me. Divine action is immaterial: not seen, not heard, not expected, inexplicable by any comparison borrowed from this century, it comes and acts mysteriously. First, it shows a person his sin, grows his sin in a person’s eyes, constantly keeps a terrible sin before his eyes, leads the soul into self-condemnation, reveals to it our fall, this terrible, dark, deep abyss of destruction into which our race fell through the sin of our forefather; then little by little he bestows intense attention and contrition of heart during prayer. Having thus prepared the vessel, it suddenly, unexpectedly, insubstantially touches the dissected parts - and they are united together. How did you touch it? I can’t explain: I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything, but I see myself changed, I suddenly felt like this from the action of an autocratic. The Creator acted during the reunion, just as He acted during the creation. Tell me: the body of Adam, molded from the earth, when it lay not yet animated by the soul before the Creator, could it have had the concept of life, the feeling of it? When the soul suddenly revived, could you have thought before whether to accept the soul or reject it? Created Adam suddenly felt alive, thinking, desiring! With the same suddenness the re-creation takes place. The Creator was and is an unlimited Lord - he acts autocratically, supernaturally, above all thought, all comprehension, infinitely subtle, completely spiritual, immaterial.” 1327 This is the state of Communion with God according to the Image of the ascetic, based on his personal spiritual experience. This state is exceptional, unusual, especially sublime, and therefore difficult to express verbally and psychologically, even in the consciousness of the person experiencing, by the grace of God, such a state: somehow there are not enough words to express this state, the words of the human language to express and understand such a state of God-perception seem somehow not entirely accurate, even in the consciousness of the person who has experienced the said state. This state is highly spiritual, and therefore the human word, which bears the inevitable sign of some fleshiness, is weak for its exact expression. Only our personal experiences, identical in content, albeit short-lived, with which the Lord calls the sinner to repentance, bring this state closer to our understanding and introduce us to the spiritual vision of the picture drawn by the Most Reverend Ignatius. Communion with God, making it possible to some extent to understand its extraordinary complexity for our spiritual edification. The spiritual picture of Communion with God that we contemplate, according to the words of Master Ignatius, is unusually complex. Here is a tangible consciousness of immediate proximity to God and horror in the imagination of the previous state of sinfulness, and apprehension, fear for the spiritual purity experienced at the moment, and the consciousness of God’s mercy in the very liberation from sin and grace-filled communion with God. What is further evident here is zeal and care for preserving the purity of one’s spirit, as having become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and a reverent awareness of the greatness of the incomprehensibility of the Divine, and a direct, through inner experience, comprehension of the will of God for man and the readiness to fulfill it. Here is pure absolute spirituality of admiration for God, this is a highly contemplative state of mind, a joyful excitement of the heart, the embrace of the whole soul with a high experience. Here is the joyfully, but also cautiously contemplated purity of one’s soul, the spirituality of the whole being, here is the desired spiritual harmony, peace of spirit, predicting world harmony, here is a felt renewal of the entire human being, a bright impulse to fulfill the will of God, complete and unwavering obedience to it with the acquisition and preservation, at the same time, of complete and highest freedom of the spirit. In a state of communion with God, a person experiences the possibility, the already realized possibility of death for sin, the spirituality of his body and everything material, the illusory and short-term nature of the material and the eternity of the spirit; he experiences a new, spiritual birth and looks at the troubled sinful world with new eyes; he feels the endless movement towards the boundless that has come for him, enters the region of the lofty and mysterious, “whom the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not sighed” and the difficulty of verbally explaining everything that happens to him. Having been granted communion with God and, according to humanity, once again experiencing the state of spiritual humiliation and sinfulness of people in the world of those who exist and bear flesh, the ascetic of God is no longer able, cannot remain stuck in sin, he zealously fights against it in himself, and in the outer world, he arouses himself and his neighbors to the saving striving upward and the supermundaneity of communion with God. Like the slave of the cave of life depicted by the ancient sage, who managed to break the chain that chained him to the gloomy cave, with only a shadow vision of life, to see the beauty and greatness of the true world outside the cave and then live, albeit in the cave, not by its shadows, but by the experienced vision - the ascetic of God, having tasted Communion with God, in the future can no longer, does not want to be a slave of sin, a slave of the world and all carnality and earthliness, which undergo a revaluation of their values in him. Like a poetically depicted soul, which, on the way to the world of sadness and tears, having listened to the above-earthly song of an Angel about the bliss of sinless spirits under the bushes of the gardens of Eden and, about the great God, languishes in the world, “is full of wonderful desires and the sounds of heaven could not be replaced by the boring songs of the earth” - a soul that has been granted the sensation of God, free from earthly attachments, desires more than anything in the world: “to glorify God with a free verb,” and take His cross on your shoulders and on the head a crown of thorns; All her hopes are directed to the Lord; in Him is her strength and protection. “He wants all the thoughts, A song of grace to him all, and thoughts of the day and vigil of the night, This is how the state of Communion with God and God-sensation appears to us after reading the report of Vladyka Ignatius on his contemplation of the promised land of the saving path to the Kingdom of God’s glory. Acquaintance with the wonderful state of God-sensation naturally raises two questions in us: 1) how is it possible to reconcile the experience of such a state with the sinfulness of fallen man and 2) how to save ourselves from possible tempting delusion and self-delusion in this regard? On both questions, the Most Reverend Ignatius gives us a very definite and clear answer. On the first question, how is it possible to reconcile the perception of God with the sinfulness of man and the action of the Holy Spirit in a sinner, His Grace Ignatius points to the mercy and goodness of God, attracted to a sinful person for the sake of his salvation. “They do not require,” said the Lord, “the doctor’s health, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:12). This is how the Savior spoke and this is how he acted. He reclined with tax collectors, sinners, and introduced them, through conversion to faith and virtue, into spiritual kinship with Abraham and other righteous people: Are you surprised, amazed by the infinite goodness of the Son of God? Know that the All-Holy Spirit is just as good - just as thirsty for human salvation, just as meek, kind, long-suffering, and much-merciful Spirit - one of the three equally honorable Persons of the All-Holy Trinity, who do not unite and inseparably form a single Divine Being, having a single nature! And sin attracts the Holy Spirit to a person! What attracts Him is sin that is not accomplished by committing it, but is visible within itself, acknowledged, and mourned! The more a person looks into his sin, the more he indulges in weeping for himself, the more pleasant he is, the more accessible he is to the Holy Spirit, Who, like a doctor, approaches only those who admit themselves to be sick; on the contrary, he turns away from those who are rich in their vain self-conceit. Surrender yourself fully to the sight of your sin, to weep for it! Then, in due time, you will see your reconstruction by the incomprehensible, much less inexplicable, action of the Holy Spirit. He will come to you when you do not expect Him - He will act in you when you recognize yourself as completely unworthy of Him! But if there is an expectation of grace hidden within you, beware of a dangerous situation! Such an expectation indicates secret self-esteem, and honor indicates hidden conceit, in which there is pride. Pride conveniently follows, charm conveniently clings to it. 1328 So, the experience of the sensation of God is possible for a sinful person in a prayerful and repentant mood, attracting the grace of God to him, and in itself it is the fruit of the action of grace in a contrite and humble heart, in a soul that loves God and is free from self-conceit. Regarding the second intended question - how to distinguish the true state of the Sensation of God from the imaginary one, from delusion, how in this case to protect oneself from tempting delusion - Vladyka Ignatius also gives a completely clear and definite answer, comparing the state of self-important delusion and the grace-filled Sensation of God. Delusion is a deviation from the truth and the Holy Spirit who promotes truth, a deviation towards lies and rejected spirits who promote lies. Prelest already exists in conceit, exists in self-esteem, in the very expectation of grace. These are its original views; so a bud, a flower, an embryo are the initial types of a mature fruit. From false concepts come false sensations. Self-delusion is made up of false concepts and sensations. The seductive action of demons is added to the action of self-delusion. This state is a state of delight. We enter into it, we are cast into it for our pride and self-love. 1329 In the content of the state of delusion, a necessary element is conceit, pride and self-indulgence, which are completely alien to the Sensation of God. Moreover, the saving sensation of God is universally different from delusion and in its effect on a person, in internal signs experienced by a person, directly recognized by him. The feeling of God has such obvious internal signs that the very doubt in it or a critical attitude towards it, simply because its bearer is a sinful person, seems to His Grace Ignatius to be a blasphemous thought. This is not the action, these are not the properties of delusion. Tell me, asks Vladyka Ignatius: is it typical for the devil, the enemy, the killer of men, to become their doctor? Is it possible for the devil to unite together the parts and strengths of a person cut by sin, to bring them out of enslavement to sin into freedom, to bring them out of a state of opposition to internecine struggle into a state of sacred peace in the Lord? Is it characteristic of the devil to extract God from the deep abyss of ignorance and deliver a living, experienced knowledge of God, no longer requiring any external evidence? Is it typical for the devil to preach and explain the Redeemer in detail, to preach and explain approaching the Redeemer through repentance? Is it characteristic of the devil to restore a fallen image in a person, to put in order a disordered likeness? Is it typical to bring the taste of spiritual poverty, but instead of resurrection, renewal, union with God? Is it typical for the devil to ascend to the heights of Theology, at which a person is like nothing, without thought, without desire, completely immersed in wonderful silence? This silence is the drying up of all the forces of the human being, rushing towards God, and - so to speak - disappearing before the infinite greatness of God. Delusion works differently, and God, the infinite Ruler of men, who was and now is their Creator, acts differently. Is not He who created and recreates the Creator? So, hear, beloved brother, hear how the action of delusion differs from the action of the Divine! When beauty approaches a person, whether with a thought, or a dream, or a subtle opinion, or some phenomenon visible with sensual eyes, or a voice from heaven, heard by sensual ears, it approaches not as an unlimited ruler, but as a seductress, seeking consent in a person, and from his consent accepting power over him. Its action, whether it is inside or outside a person, is always an action from the outside; a person may reject it. Delight is always met initially by some doubt of the heart; those whom she decisively prevailed do not doubt about her; The charm of a person cut by sin never unites, does not stop the movements of the blood, does not instruct the ascetic to repentance, does not diminish him before himself; on the contrary, it arouses dreaminess in him, sets his blood in motion, brings him some kind of tasteless, poisonous pleasure, subtly flatters him, inspires self-conceit, establishes an idol of “I” in his soul. 1330 Comparing the indicated signs of the manifestation of sinful delusion in the soul of a person with the above-mentioned elements of the grace-filled sensation of God, we come to the conclusion that the latter in the soul of the experiencer, according to the experience of the ascetic, has a self-evident certainty, mainly, with the elements of spiritual composure, inner peace, humility, closeness to God, contemplation, repentance and lack of self. Understood as the blessed victory over sin and the realized perception of God or communication with God, spiritual salvation is therefore necessarily thought of as the highest good of man, with which not only the external, but also the spiritual benefits of temporary human existence cannot have any comparison. As soon as a Christian understands, not theoretically, but experimentally, the secret of Communion with God and spiritual salvation, he will inevitably re-evaluate his former sinful, carnal and worldly values, and the value of the latter will sharply drop and, little by little, reach complete depreciation. This influence of soul-saving life on a Christian’s attitude to the interests of earthly life is noted by the Right Reverend Ignatius in his interpretation of the beginning of the Psalter, where he picturesquely depicts that for those who lead the path of God, spiritual salvation is the highest good, the highest value of life, immeasurably surpassing the honors and high position of the royal title, the glory of a commander, wealth and other earthly consolations, even desert life; - preservation from sin and the grace-filled unity of the soul with the Lord, or spiritual salvation - this is the highest bliss of a person, not only comprehending his earthly life, but also creating a blissful posthumous eternity. 1331 Through the above review of the judgments of Bishop Ignatius on the issue of salvation, we come, we believe, to a well-founded conclusion that, according to the teachings of Bishop Ignatius, spiritual salvation is communion with God, achieved through the humble accomplishment, with the assistance of the grace of God, the feat of struggle against sin and success in perfection; According to this understanding, the perception of God and communication with God is conditioned by self-denial and an independent struggle against sin. This clarification of the concept of spiritual salvation becomes even more definite for us if we focus our attention on Bishop Ignatius’s comparison of the Orthodox understanding of spiritual salvation with the heterodox understanding and on his decisive condemnation of the heterodox teaching on salvation. A comparison of Orthodox and heterodox teachings on salvation is made by Bishop Ignatius, mainly in connection with his decisive condemnation of the book of Thomas à Kempis, “On the Imitation of Christ,” which was very widespread in his time, especially in secular society. To fully understand the issue of salvation, let us note the judgments of Bishop Ignatius on this subject. Studying the “sayings of the holy desert dwellers of Egypt” in Slavic, Russian and other languages, His Grace Ignatius especially appreciates in them the expression of the Orthodox Christian mood: Christimitable humility, infantile simplicity and gentleness, angelic dispassion, reasoning and spiritual wisdom, 1332 and points out the distinctive features of the holy ascetics deepest humility, their constant reflection on the fall of man and contrition for their sins. 1333 In contrast to this, the ascetics of the Western Church and its writers about the Christian feat, “since the separation of this Church from the Eastern and its fall into the disastrous darkness of heresy,” received a different direction. Rev. Benedict, Saint Pope Gregory the Dvoeslov still agree with the ascetic mentors of the East; but Bernard already differs from them in a sharp way; the later ones deviated even more. They are immediately attracted and draw their readers to heights inaccessible to the beginner, they are carried and carried. Heated, often frenzied daydreaming replaces for them everything spiritual, about which they have no idea. This dreaminess is recognized by them as grace. The Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church do not lead their readers into the embrace of love, not to the heights of visions, but they lead them to consider their sin, their fall, to confess the Redeemer, to cry for themselves before the mercy of the Creator. They first teach us to curb the impure aspirations of our body, to make it light and capable of spiritual activity; then they turn to the mind, straighten its way of thinking, its mind, clearing it of the thoughts that we acquired after our fall, replacing them with thoughts of the renewed human nature, vividly depicted in the Gospel. With the correction of the mind, the Holy Fathers take care of the correction of the heart, of changing its skills and sensations. It is more difficult to cleanse the heart than to cleanse the mind: the mind, having become convinced of the validity of a new thought, easily discards the old one and easily assimilates a new one; but to replace a skill with a skill, a property with a property, a feeling with another feeling, an opposite feeling, this is work, this is intensive long-term work, this is an incredible struggle. This means that we must put to death all sinful desires of flesh and blood, all movements of the mind and heart that depend on flesh and blood. It is necessary to bring the body and mind and heart into the control of the spirit. Blood and nerves are set in motion by many passions: anger, love of money, lust, and vanity. Vanity strives prematurely for spiritual states for which a person is not yet capable due to his impurity, due to failure to achieve the truth - he invents dreams for himself. And voluptuousness, adding its action to the action of vanity, produces in the heart seductive, false consolations, pleasures and raptures. This state is a state of self-delusion. Everyone who works illegally is in this state. It develops in them more or less, depending on how much they enhance their exploits. Many books have been written from this state by Western writers. He greedily rushes at them, preaches them, mainly as saints and spiritual ones, worthy to stand near the Holy One. Scripture, a blind and proud world that recognizes itself as enlightened to the highest degree and therefore does not need to adhere relentlessly to the traditions of the Eastern Church. In the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church, the heated state of blood is by no means visible. They never become enthusiastic, which, being the birth of blood, has often sought the shedding of blood in the West. 1334 A soul-saving mood is characterized internally by calmness, clarity, peace, a disposition towards repentance, towards deepening into oneself, towards hopelessness; to the comforting hope of God; a harmful mood is recognized by the darkness, confusion, uncertainty, changeability, entertainment, daydreaming it produces, or by complacency and some kind of unclear, cloudy mood. 1335 In this regard, Bishop Ignatius contrasts the Orthodox Christian patristic works with the book of Thomas à à Kempis “On the Imitation of Christ,” which in his judgments is often a symbol of a non-Orthodox and spiritually harmful mood in opposition to the salvific nature of holy Orthodoxy. Among other deceptive, pernicious zephyrs, bringing a terrible silence to the heart, this disastrous, disastrous pleasure, says Vladyka Ignatius, brings to him the reading of the famous book by Thomas a à Kempis, a Western monk who was in demonic delusion, the book: “Imitation.” Seductive pleasure feeds on conceit, which is born from subtle vanity that blinds the mind and heart; it loves to express itself, it allows itself to deviate from strict obedience to the Holy Church - smarter than her, it, like all the charms, the machinations of the devil, like the devil himself and his child - sin - do not tolerate the fragrance, for them a deadly, murderous fragrance, which repentance and its fruit - humility emit. The Savior of the world said: “Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, blessed are you who hunger now, blessed are you who weep now, and woe to you for being satisfied now. 1336 The book of Thomas a à Kempis, “The Imitation of Jesus Christ,” from the point of view of the Orthodox ascetic understanding of Bishop Ignatius, appears to be an example of an ascetic book written from a state of delusion, called opinion. This book, says Vladyka Ignatius, breathes refined voluptuousness and arrogance, which in people blinded and filled with passions produce pleasure, which they recognize as tasting Divine grace. Unhappy and darkened, they do not understand that, having smelled the refined stench of passions living within themselves, they enjoy it, recognize it in their blindness as the stench of grace. They do not understand that only saints are capable of spiritual pleasure, that spiritual pleasure must be preceded by repentance and cleansing from passions, that a sinner is not capable of spiritual pleasure, that he must recognize himself as unworthy of pleasure, reject it if it begins to come to him, reject it as unusual for himself, as obvious and harmful self-delusion, as a refined movement of vanity, arrogance and voluptuousness. 1337 Of course, there are spiritual states produced by Divine grace, in which spiritual sweetness and joy are tasted, the mysteries of Christianity are revealed, the presence of the Holy Spirit is felt in the heart, in which the ascetic of Christ is granted spiritual visions, but they exist only in Christians who have achieved Christian perfection, previously purified and prepared by repentance. The gradual effect of repentance in general, expressed by all types of humility, especially prayer brought out of poverty of spirit, out of crying, gradually weakens the effect of sin in a person. This requires considerable time. And it is given to true, well-intentioned ascetics by the Providence of God, who vigilantly watches over us. The fight against passions is extremely useful: most of all, it leads to poverty of spirit. When the passions have weakened greatly - this happens most towards the end of life - then little by little spiritual states will begin to appear, distinguished by an infinite difference from the state created by “opinion”. A carnal man in no way, in any way, can even imagine spiritual states: knowledge of these states is acquired only by experience. A common sign of spiritual states is deep humility and humbleness of mind, combined with a preference for oneself over all one’s neighbors, evangelical love for all one’s neighbors with a desire for the unknown, for removal from the world. “Opinion” has little place here, because humility consists in the renunciation of all one’s own merits, in the essential confession of the Redeemer. Those obsessed with “opinion” are, for the most part, devoted to voluptuousness, despite the fact that they attribute to themselves the most sublime spiritual states, unparalleled in correct Orthodox asceticism; few of them refrain from gross enslavement to voluptuousness - they refrain solely because of the predominance of sin among sins - pride. 1338 Thus, in visible good deeds, the harmful spirit of pride can manifest itself if this good deed is not based on humble, repentant self-denial and reverent faith in the Redeemer. In relation to the question of the essence of salvation, as in all other respects, for the Right Reverend Ignatius, the truth of holy Orthodoxy, in comparison with other Christian confessions, is immeasurably high and strictly defined, and the book of Thomas a à Kempis is for him only a reason to speak out in this direction. How excellent, he says, is the character of the son of the Eastern Church! How simple, majestic and holy he is! Protestant - coldly smart; The Roman is enthusiastic, captivating, carried away. The son of the Eastern Church is imbued with holy truth and gentle peace. The first two characters are earthly; the latter descended from heaven and is before our eyes in the Gospel. This character is cultivated in an Orthodox Christian by reading the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers; a Christian, imbued with this reading, becomes a confidant of the Truth and a partaker of the Holy Spirit given by It. 1339 A particularly strong and vivid expression of Bishop Ignatius’s conviction in the immeasurable height of Orthodoxy seems to us to be his comparison of excerpts from “Imitation” with the sacred hymns of the Orthodox Church. Thus, the Most Reverend Ignatius, citing an excerpt from the book of Thomas a à Kempis, book. III. Ch. 2, where a Christian expresses his readiness to listen to the Lord: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears,” sees in these words an audacious desire for God without prior repentance and ascetic feat. 1340 The above words of the young prophet: “Speak, O Lord, that thy servant heareth,” His Grace Ignatius, in connection with the context (1 Samuel 1:20), rightly understands in the sense of the supreme obedience discovered by Samuel to the priest Eli, thereby attracting the grace of God to the young prophet: the young prophet Samuel heard the Lord calling upon him, and, not recognizing Himself as worthy conversations with the Lord, he appeared to his elderly mentor, asking him for instructions on his behavior. Samuel heard the same calling voice for the second time, and again appeared to the mentor. The mentor realized that the voice of the caller was the voice of God. The mentor commanded the young man, when he heard such a calling, to answer the speaker: “Speak, O Lord, as your servant hears.” The same thing, notes Vladyka Ignatius, is what a voluptuous, arrogant dreamer dares to say, not called upon by anyone, intoxicated by a vain opinion, composing voices and consolations within himself, with them he flatters his arrogant heart, with them he deceives himself and his gullible followers. 1341 The excerpt from “Imitation” given in the note brings horror and deep sadness to the soul of Bishop Ignatius, brought up by the teachings of the Orthodox Church. He is saddened that repentance is eliminated here, contrition of spirit is eliminated, and, on the contrary, a bold and decisive desire is revealed for the nearest and closest union with God. This, in his conclusion, is the general mood of ascetic Western writers. One of them, expressing his incorrect understanding of the dignity of the Mother of God, concludes his frenzied eloquence with the words: “So, let us rush into the arms of the Mother of God.” This mood is opposite to the mood that the holy Eastern Church teaches to her children. “Even if Thy saints were not in prayer, they had prayer books,” she says in one of her hymns, “and Thy goodness, which has mercy on us, as we dared, O Savior, sing to Thee, and the Angels praise Him incessantly.” 1342 In another hymn she says: “To the Mother of God, let us now diligently pray to sinners and humility, and let us fall in repentance, calling from the depths of our souls: Help the Lady, who have had mercy on us! Struggling: we perish from many sins! Do not turn away your slaves from vanity: for you are the only hope of the imams.” 1343 Just as this is deeply touching, so the above-mentioned state of self-delusion and demonic delusion is incomprehensible to those who have not been educated by spiritual achievement according to the tradition of the Orthodox Church: they recognize the disastrous state of self-delusion as the most correct and grace-filled state. 1344 And protecting his soul and his neighbors from the soul-harmful charm of self-delusion and pride, His Grace Ignatius points out the need to obey the voice of the one, holy and true Eastern Church, the leadership of the Holy Fathers of the Church, in many parts and in a variety of ways he explains the saving power of humility and repentance, recommends protecting yourself from every self-seductive vision, from every voice external and internal before renewal by the manifest action of the Holy Spirit. The search with the expectation of high God's gifts is rejected by the Church of God; this is not a sign of love for God; this is a disease of the soul. On the contrary, seeing one’s sin and the repentance born of it are the essence of doing; having no end on earth: the sight of sin arouses repentance; repentance brings purification; The gradually purified eye of the mind begins to see such shortcomings and damage in the entire human being that it previously, in its darkness, did not notice at all. 1345 Thus, the essential element of spiritual salvation, as a feat of earthly life arbitrarily chosen by a person, attracting the grace of God to him, is, according to the Orthodox understanding of Bishop Ignatius, the act of repentance, which cleanses the soul of a sinner, attracting the grace of God to him and destroying selfishness, introduces a person, even in the conditions of earthly wandering, into the saving communion with God, which contains another basic element of spiritual salvation, which constitutes the ultimate goal of our entire life's crusade. II. In the gradual course of spiritual salvation, as a feat of earthly life accomplished by man, the Divine and the human enter into a mysterious relationship: a person, through repentance and the work of good deeds and the fight against passions, destroying his sinful self, attracts the saving grace of God and approaches God, and the merciful God, mysteriously present at the doors of the human heart and interpreting in them, seeing faith and repentance, the opening of the doors of the cleansed from sinful heart and ear inclined to the verbs of eternal life, enters the spiritual church of a person and sups with him, and he sups with God the Savior. In the direction of man's saving repentance and communion with God, Vladyka Ignatius soulfully understands the supreme Mystery of the Divine Redemption of the human race - in its dogmatic and moral sense. 1346 Questions of theology that are not easy for theoretical knowledge - about the relationship between human freedom and the grace of God, the significance of faith and human deeds for salvation, about the Gospel commandments and the Gospel beatitudes - in the spiritual and ascetic experience of St. Ignatius receive, in connection with the personal participation of man in the feat of salvation, quite accessible and clear illumination. Decisive will, overshadowed and strengthened by the grace of Christ, can overcome the most stubborn sinful habits. A person’s personal initiative, saved by the grace of God, is given full scope. The servant of Christ must be as free as possible from bad habits, so that they do not hinder his march to Christ. He must move away from habits, not only directly sinful ones, but also from all those that lead to sin, such as from skills to luxury, to effeminacy, to absent-mindedness. Sometimes the most insignificant skill binds us and leaves us on earth, while we should be in heaven. That is why Vladyka Ignatius calls on Christians to defend their moral freedom in every possible way and in all situations. - Young man! I give you saving advice: as long as you are in moral freedom, avoid evil habits, like shackles and prison; acquire good habits, by which moral freedom is preserved, affirmed, and imprinted. But even in adulthood, victory over evil habits is not impossible with God’s help. Decisive will, overshadowed and strengthened by the grace of Christ, can overcome the most ossified habits. If during the struggle you happen, due to some unexpected circumstance, to be defeated, do not be embarrassed, do not fall into hopelessness: start the fight again. The violent struggle against vicious habits is imputed by God to man as martyrdom, and the one who wins in this struggle is crowned with the crown of confessors, as one who strives for the sake of the law of Christ. The merciful and almighty Lord accepts everyone who comes to Him, stretches out His right hand to support our weakness. And therefore, even if you were covered in evil habits, as if in heavy chains, do not despair of obtaining freedom. Enter into invisible warfare, fight courageously and constantly, endure your victories with generosity. From time to time, God leaves us to ourselves, so that we learn by experience how weak we are in our loneliness, and because of this knowledge, we relentlessly cling to God, Who alone can be the conqueror of sin in those who truly will to see sin defeated in themselves. 1347 So clear in these words of Bishop Ignatius is the relationship between freedom and grace in the soul-saving feat: a person wills to fight sin in order to decisively and completely defeat it - the grace of God strengthens this determination and assists a person in the fight against sin. A person’s will for the feat of salvation - the fight against sin and the desire for communion with God - is naturally and by the grace of God expressed in faith and good deeds, the relationship between which also attracts the attention of Vladika Ignatius to a sufficient extent. Human good deeds in the works of Bishop Ignatius are not thought of as a phenomenon coexisting or subsequent to the feat of salvation, but also as a beginning that creates salvation: faith is thought of as an expression of our readiness for a soul-saving feat, our determination to replace the selfishly sinful worldview and life self-determination with Christian ones, and good deeds are the actual expression of our efforts and work in this direction, leading a Christian to the moral state of virtue or holiness, which in themselves constitute the highest good of a Christian. “Repent and believe the Gospel” (Matthew 1:15) the Gospel exhorts us. This exhortation is simple, truly, holy: one must repent, leave a sinful life, in order to become able to begin the Gospel. To accept the Gospel, you must believe in it. And in the act of faith, determination and desire for salvation are already manifested: only that soul is capable of faith which, with decisive will, has rejected sin and has corrected itself with all its will and strength towards Divine good. 1348 Living faith is a procession into the spiritual world, into the world of God. It cannot abide in one who is nailed to the world below, where flesh and sin reign. Only by faith can one approach Christ; Only by faith can one follow Christ. Faith is the door to God. This door gradually opens to those who purify themselves by constant repentance; it is wide open to a pure heart; She is closed to the sinner. 1349 Thus, the very possibility of faith presupposes an indifferent attitude towards one’s spiritual state, the clarification and strengthening of faith already presupposes good deeds: true faith cannot be a theoretical state. According to the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, it is necessary to believe in the dogmas preached by the Gospel, to understand and confess them according to the exact teaching of the Orthodox Eastern Church, which alone contains the Gospel teaching in all its purity and correctness. It is necessary to believe in the Sacraments established in the Church by the Lord Himself, preserved by the Eastern Church in their entirety. It is necessary to believe in the holy, life-giving commandments of the Gospel, the correct fulfillment of which is possible only in the bosom of the true Church, the fulfillment of which constitutes, as the Holy Fathers call it, the active faith of a Christian. 1350 By fulfilling the Gospel commandments, the union of a Christian with Christ is maintained, achieved by grace through faith through the Holy Sacraments: otherwise a Christian cannot remain in unity with Christ, except by acting from His will, from His mind. Both the will and mind of Christ are depicted in the Gospel commandments. The leader of a Christian must be the Holy Spirit. “Orthodox faith in Christ, sealed by the Sacrament of Baptism, alone is sufficient for salvation without works, when a person does not have time to do them, because faith replaces a person with Christ, and human good deeds with the merits of Christ. But while continuing earthly life, work is certainly required. Only those deeds in a Christian are recognized as good deeds, which serve as the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, with which his faith is nourished and lives, with which his life in Christ is supported, because the only agent in a Christian must be Christ. True faith in Christ is the only means of salvation, but it is a living faith, expressed by the whole being of a person. Saint Alostol James demands this living faith from a Christian when he proclaims that faith without works is dead, that faith is made perfect by works (James 2:17:22). 1351 Those enriched by a living faith in Christ change in relation to the visible world and earthly life: the law and sentence of corruption, change and end in the corruptible objects of the visible world becomes obvious to their pure eyes; earthly advantages, being short-lived, are insignificant before these pure gazes. Enriched by a living faith in Christ, they fly like winged ones through all sorrows, through all the most difficult circumstances. Intoxicated with faith in the omnipotent God, they do not see labor in work, and do not feel illness in illness. They recognize God as the only actor in the universe; they have made Him theirs by living faith in Him. Living faith, having become the inner mood of a person, his life in God, naturally and certainly demands from a Christian the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, rewarding this fulfillment with the hope of undoubted salvation; It makes a Christian on earth a follower of Christ, a joint heir with Him in heaven. 1352 The Right Reverend Ignatius also strongly and clearly confirms the naturalness and necessity of good deeds for a Christian believer by living faith in his detailed understanding of the meaning and significance of the Gospel commandments, where, pointing out the superiority of New Testament good deeds over the Old Testament, he decisively says that for a Christian believer, the condition for remaining in the love of God and in union with God is the observance of the Gospel commandments. 1353 Voluntary, with the assistance of God's grace, fulfillment of the Gospel commandments introduces a Christian to the path of salvation and leads him continuously along this path higher and higher, upward and endless infinity, similar to the perfection of the Heavenly Father. This entry into the path of salvation and the march along it not only resolves the task of personal, eternal salvation of a person, but also provides the best, unshakable foundations for resolving various kinds of life conflicts, and there is not even a need for the accepted delimitation of the moral duties of a Christian: they so easily follow and are clarified from the soul-saving Christian mood. The grace-filled renewal of the human spirit through Christian faith and soul-saving feats reveals in the human spirit the ability for special spiritual sensations, special sublime experiences that are incomprehensible to a carnal and vain person. Having been honored, by the grace of God, to enter the path of salvation, a Christian can see with his eyes. faith: both the infinity and the extraordinary height of this path, the Christian feat in its order and gradualness is revealed to him, the mysterious ladder of virtues and spiritual consolations of a Christian is revealed. This spiritual ladder opens to the spiritual gaze of Saint Ignatius in the gradation and graduality of the beatitudes of the Gospel in understanding them in the spirit of patristic leadership. Regarding the content of the Gospel beatitudes, Vladyka Ignatius expresses the following considerations, motivating for him the continuity and gradualness of the soul-saving feat. To enter the path of salvation, good deeds in the spirit of the Gospel commandments are necessary. From the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, sensations appear in the soul that are alien to the fallen nature and spiritual sensations unfamiliar to it. The first feeling that appears in the soul from fulfilling the Gospel commandments is poverty of spirit. As soon as a Christian wants to implement the Gospel commandments in his actions, external and internal, he will see his damaged nature, rebelling against the Gospel, stubbornly opposing the Gospel. The Christian, in the light of the Gospel, sees in himself the fall of humanity. From this view a humble concept of oneself is naturally born, which is called poverty of spirit in the Gospel (Matt. 5:3). The first step in the ladder of bliss. Poverty of spirit is bliss, the first in the gospel order, the first in the order of spiritual prosperity, the first spiritual state, the first step in the ladder of bliss. Every sensation and state that belongs to a renewed nature constitutes, of necessity, bliss, as a manifestation in the soul of the heavenly Kingdom, as a guarantee of salvation, as a foretaste of eternal bliss. The sight of one's fall is already bliss for fallen man. He who sees his own fall is able to recognize the need for salvation—he is able to believe in the Gospel with living faith. This state is a gift of grace, an action of grace, its fruit, and therefore bliss. The second step in the ladder of beatitudes is the lament for sins or the pious sadness of a faithful soul, looking into the mirror of the Gospel, seeing in this mirror its countless sinful stains. Such a soul washes its stains with holy water - tears, erases the stains with holy sadness. It is common for a beggar to grieve over his poverty. Poverty of spirit gives rise to the subsequent state of repentant contrition and together with the second gospel bliss - lamentation. Unspeakable consolation, unspeakable lightness are shed in the heart after the shedding of saving tears about sins, about the fall - tears that appear due to a feeling of spiritual poverty. In connection with the awareness of our personal sinfulness and repentant contrition for it is our attitude towards our neighbors. He who is engaged in a deep examination of himself, who sees himself defiled by countless sins, who recognizes himself as worthy of eternal torment, and already mourns as one condemned to it, sees little or no shortcomings in his neighbor, and conveniently excuses those shortcomings that he sees; - willingly, from the heart forgives all insults and insults. The third step in the ladder of bliss is a state of soul in which anger, hatred, resentment and condemnation are eliminated from it; this is meekness. The natural consequence of meekness - the inheritance of the earth and its possession - is understood by His Grace Ignatius in the sense of acquiring self-control, power over oneself, hitherto taken away by sin. The fourth step in the ladder of bliss is hunger and thirst for God's truth: having mastered the earth, a person begins to desire heaven, enter into a new state established in him, and by grace into a new bliss. The search for God's truth evokes in a Christian the desire to become like God with perfect mercy, for Divine truth was revealed to humanity in Divine mercy. The fifth step of the ladder of beatitudes is mercy. Mercy does not condemn anyone, loves enemies, lays down one’s life for friends, and makes a person God-like. Having achieved a state of mercy, love for enemies and readiness to lay down one’s soul for one’s friends, a person thereby acquires purity of heart, which opens the path to the vision of God for a person. The sixth step of the ladder of bliss is purity of heart. A heart embraced by mercy cannot have any thoughts of evil; all his thoughts are goodness. That heart in which only good moves is a pure heart, capable of seeing God. The world of God descends into a pure heart, unites the hitherto separated mind, soul and body, recreates a person, makes him a descendant of the New Adam. The peace of God, as the mood and pacification of the Christian spirit, is reflected outwardly - in the pacifying effect of a Christian on his neighbors. The seventh step of the ladder of virtues is the Peace of God and tranquility. The peace of God is the lot of the saints of God: through the holy world, a Christian, having completed the race of repentance, is reconciled with God, with all circumstances, with all his neighbors, with himself; he is made the son of God by grace. The peace of God is accompanied by the clear presence of the Holy Spirit in man; he is an action, a fruit of the Holy Spirit. The eighth step of the ladder of gospel beatitudes is to acquire the peace of God within oneself, to endure exile for the sake of truth. The ninth step of the ladder of bliss is joyful patience with reproaches, slander and other misfortunes. He who has acquired the peace of God is not afraid of external waves: on the scales of his heart, the consolation of grace has destroyed all the value of earthly great and sweet things, all the burden of earthly, bitter and sorrowful things. 1354 This is the clear ladder of Christian spiritual prosperity and the accompanying blessings given to us in the Gospel, by the patristic and ascetic instructions and by the word of His Grace Ignatius. Contemplating it with your believing gaze, in obedience to spiritual guidance. God-enlightened men, we can determine the task ahead of man of endless ascent along its steps and together feel and determine whether we have begun the ascent outlined in the words of the Gospel. There is no place for daydreaming and conceit; here, humility, repentance and all-out zeal are inevitable to enter the first step of the secret spiritual ladder: look around the majestic spiritual ladder of the beatitudes of the Gospel, look at every step. It's good to be at the top of this ladder; but truly blessed is the one who is, even at the first stage of it. On this ladder, as Vladyka Ignatius explained, jumps are impossible; must certainly ascend from stage to stage. Divine grace guides them: to elevate a person to the next level not when he deigns to do so, but when she recognizes him as worthy. The humble are worthy of exaltation. Don't create your own bliss. Proud and stupid conceit can create such bliss for a person, and throughout your entire life it will deceive you, flatter you, and deprive you of true good on earth and in heaven. 1355 Therefore, avoiding conceit, one must seek spiritual poverty. The search for this bliss is permissible and praiseworthy. It is the foundation, the giver of all other bliss. When the foundation is shaken, then the one who stood at the highest level of spiritual success falls down and is often crushed to death. An essentially useful and necessary spiritual gift from God for a person is poverty of spirit. 1356 Such is the ladder of soul-saving feat! Observed by the eyes of faith, by our spiritual and reverent gaze, it is immeasurably high and beautiful; The ascent along it, which is obligatory for a Christian, is strictly continuous, gradually and for a long time; for a sinful person, not only the ascent, but also the very entry onto the ladder of achievement is extremely difficult. The impulse towards salvation, the enthusiastic dreaminess that is not uncommon in our moods, with an element of hidden selfishness, introduces into our soul the idea of ​​​​the possibility of directly entering one of the highest levels, including the last, appropriating for ourselves the tasks of peacemaking or the state of being persecuted for the truth and reviled by people. But Bishop Ignatius, together with other ascetics, exhorts and warns the seeker of perfection that the ascent along the mysterious ladder must certainly be gradual, without leaps, with the transition to the next step only after confirmation on the previous one, and not according to one’s own initiative and decision, but according to the inner and for a true Christian the grace-filled call of God. It is remarkable that in the above understanding of the ladder of spiritual-Christian perfection, the soul-saving feat leading to perfection is not considered as a purely external means for achieving a lofty goal that lies outside of it, but is understood as a goal in itself; the concept of means and ends in this case coincide. In other words, spiritual salvation is not understood as the state of a person, mastered by him after passing the entire ladder, and does not constitute an external reward for the difficult feat of ascent, but coincides with the ascent itself, i.e. he who entered the first step of the ladder, thereby not only began his salvation, but also mastered it to a corresponding extent. And there should be no external reward for the feat: it is in the feat itself, in the measure of its gradual implementation. And, despite this, judging by humankind, a zealot for salvation receives the highest conceivable reward for him - in the eradication of sin, in drawing closer to God, in accepting grace in communion with God, in a new outlook on the troubled sinful world, its joys and sorrows. Therefore, the ladder of spiritual Christian achievement is thought of as the ladder of the beatitudes of the Gospel: the concept of spiritual salvation and the concept of the highest good or bliss coincide. Of course, the intended path of saving improvement, from the point of view of human moods and life definitions, meets with judgments and attitudes that are varied to the point of opposites. People who are busy with the vanity of the world and place all their interests within the temporality of the earthly vale, among their usual considerations and aspirations, will not only not find a place for the path of salvation that we understand, but will also decisively reject it as harmful and uninteresting daydreaming for them, making it difficult for people to properly fulfill their life duties. People who are not alien to the concept of salvation, but who do not want and are afraid of all kinds of exploits due to their real difficulty, having superficially accepted the speech about spiritual salvation, will frivolously attribute the very accomplishment of the latter to the course of circumstances, boldly attribute it exclusively to the grace of God, relegating themselves, out of frivolous dissipation, to the level of passive material. Others are inclined to define the outlined path of salvation as exclusively belonging to chosen natures, people especially strong or marked with the seal of a special calling of God. Others, recognizing the obligation for themselves to follow the path of salvation, or at least the need to enter this path, but also weighing their life conditions, spiritual interests and inclinations, will not find enough strength in themselves to begin the feat of salvation, will passively surrender to the mechanical flow of life, and will drown out the calling voice of conscience with the noise and discord of earthly interests. Finally, the majority do not ask the question of salvation at all, either because of its uselessness in the opinion of some, or because of its difficulty for others, or because of lack of time to seriously think about the soul and its purpose in life. But even recognizing the complete obligation and necessity of the soul-saving feat, appreciating it as the highest and self-sufficient good of our soul, and even wanting to join in the high spiritual work of the holy ascetics of God, we very often do not find the strength in ourselves to initiate our spiritual salvation, devoting all attention to our everyday affairs and earthly interests, we cannot pay serious attention to the soul-saving feat, much less truly, irrevocably decide to him: “The desire for good is in me, but I do not find it in me to do good” (Rom. 7:18). In view of the above-mentioned attitude of people to the question and, most importantly, to the feat of salvation and the difficulty of starting a soul-saving feat, it seems very important to look for an answer to the question of the beginning of a soul-saving feat in the ascetic works of people who have not theoretically, but experienced the spiritual feat. That is why, when studying the moral and ascetic views of the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov, we wish to further obtain from the works of Saint Ignatius the answer to the question: how can a desire for salvation arise in a person, how to begin a soul-saving feat. ΙΙΙ. How does the desire for spiritual salvation arise in a person? This question is important for those who sincerely want to correctly perform the soul-saving feat, to the possible extent are no longer alien to it, but would like to: a) check their understanding, whether they correctly understand spiritual life, and b) strengthen their Christian disposition and deepen their soul-saving feat under favorable circumstances, shaking off a large share of vain everyday worries. But this question makes no sense and does not arouse interest on the part of those who see Christian asceticism as a relic of the past, and have replaced the deeds of Christian virtue with the good deeds of the world. To perform good deeds of fallen nature, you do not need to be a Christian: they belong to all fallen humanity. Where the good deeds of a fallen nature are performed amid the thunder of praise from the world, the Savior of the world is excluded, rejected. Works of faith, works of salvation or, what is the same, fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, belong to Christians alone. The proud world looks with contempt at the works of the Christian faith. The works of the Christian faith, such as the consciousness of one’s sinfulness, repentance, confession of Christ, seem insignificant to the world in comparison with the loud and picturesque deeds of the world. 1357 Bearing in mind the importance of the question of salvation, the closeness of this question to our consciousness and the close connection with the highest good of our life and our usual lack of consciousness and carelessness in life, the very frequent conscious transfer of this question to the end of our life - as if it were well known to us - we would like to hear the advice of Vladika Ignatius on this question: what needs to be done in order for the desire for salvation to arise in us, so that this question is not the last among other, less important questions of life? We saw above the view of Vladika Ignatius on self-knowledge, on the conditions under which it can be correct; We have just seen a wonderful ladder of spiritual ascent, the first step of which is poverty of spirit. There is the closest relationship between saving self-knowledge and a Christian’s entry to the first step of the ladder of improvement: true self-knowledge even before Christianity (Socrates) reveals in a person the poverty of spirit and the search for higher help. Therefore, the conditions for self-knowledge and entering the path of salvation are identical. Answering the question about self-knowledge and the beginning of salvation, Vladyka Ignatius points us to the means that are at our fingertips, accessible to us, but their use presupposes free will on our part, under the condition of which entering the path of salvation is not difficult. Poverty of spirit is acquired by studying the Gospel, fulfilling its commands, comparing one’s qualities and actions with the commands of the Gospel, forcing one’s heart to generously endure insults, self-reproach, and prayer for a contrite and humble heart. God rejects proud requests and does not fulfill unnecessary ones, but when His creation asks Him for a gift that is essentially useful and necessary, He sends it down from His inexhaustible treasures. 1358 Necessary conditions for achieving spiritual salvation are faith in God, acceptance of Christianity, preserved in all its purity and completeness in the bosom of the Orthodox Church; This faith, by its natural property, is capable of accepting and assimilating to the mind and heart that which is incomprehensible to the mind and cannot be accepted by ordinary judgment. For salvation, it is further necessary to repent of the previous arbitrarily sinful life and a firm decision to lead a life pleasing to God. Entry onto the path of salvation is accomplished through baptism and other Sacraments. Remaining in adoption to God, delivered through the Sacraments, is supported by life according to the Gospel commandments; Staying in adoption is lost by deviating from life according to the Gospel commandments. 1359 The conditions for protecting us on the path of salvation include further, mental alms, consisting in forgiving our neighbors for their sins, i.e., insults and insults inflicted on us by our neighbors, and physical, consisting in material assistance to our neighbors, as well as the generous enduring of all sorrows that will be allowed to us during our earthly wanderings. 1360 These are the general conditions that confirm a Christian on the path of salvation. And although the forgiveness of a person’s sins, liberation from the violence of sinful habits, cleansing from sinful qualities acquired by the fallen nature of man is accomplished by the action of the All-Holy and All-Powerful Spirit of God, but for the initial abandonment of sin and sinful life, one’s own will and effort are necessary, 1361 as if opening the entrance of Divine grace into the human heart. To manifest this will and effort in a person to begin an active struggle against sin, a special, gracious touch is needed on the careless and careless human spirit, as if awakening it from sinful slumber and indifference. A very common spiritual state for a worldly person is a state of carelessness, carelessness and negligence in relation to one’s salvation, in which the beginning of salvation is postponed for an indefinite time. Even if the thought of repentance and the need for a soul-saving feat flashes in the mind of such a person, he does not allow this thought to linger in the field of attention, presenting a whole series of weakening motives. The beginning of a soul-saving feat is most often postponed until old age, or for an indefinite period - until all worldly affairs and needs are completed. The soul-saving feat is often dismissed as being of little necessity from the point of view of salvation for a Christian just by belonging to Christianity. The necessity of a soul-saving feat is weakened by the seductively highlighted presentation of one’s positive aspects and perfections with a spirit-relaxing, although apparently harmless, conclusion that we are no worse than others. The beginning of the soul-saving feat is slowed down by the tempting idea of ​​the depravity of our neighbors, judgment about them, the consciousness of our height in comparison with them. The beginning of the soul-saving feat is slowed down by the presentation of the general sinfulness of people: “all people, all men,” “no one is without sin,” etc. The beginning of salvation is slowed down by the daring hope in the mercy of God with our complete indifference to the purification of our souls. How often, when approaching the Sacrament of St. confession, we feel complete spiritual flabbiness, we are not aware of any special sins, nothing that worries us or hinders our salvation. How can the above and similar motives, harmful to the cause of salvation, be eliminated? How can we overcome our lukewarmness and awaken the consciousness of the need for us to achieve a soul-saving feat and a living and sincere desire to begin it? As if in response to the questions posed, Vladyka Ignatius notes in his creations a whole series of impressions that are quite accessible and usual for us, through which, only with the stability of our attention to them, the calling grace of God enters our soul, and we begin to feel the impossibility of the former lukewarmness for us. These saving impressions are received by a believer from external nature, from thoughtful reading of St. The Gospel and patristic works, from the content of church edifications and from the sorrows of life inevitably experienced by every person. Holy ascetics have always considered the book of nature to be a source of knowledge of God and edifying impressions, and deep and comprehensive attention to it is a guarantee of the breadth and strength of Christian outlook and mood. In this case too, Vladyka Ignatius is a worthy student of his great mentors. Those passages in Ignatiev’s works in which the author touches on the impressions of nature are not only high examples of spiritual Christian poetry, but also full of deep edification instructions that nature speaks to the human soul of God and through the impressions of nature the saving calling grace of God enters the human soul, excluding the possibility of disastrous spiritual lukewarmness. Quiet weather, clear sunny days, a vast garden, the nakedness of trees covered with a blanket of snow, the deathly majestic peace of winter nature attract the pensive gaze of the ascetic and arouse in him the inquisitiveness of edifying thought. The veil falls from the eyes of his soul, falls suddenly, and before these Eyes the book of nature opens, given to the primordial Adam for reading and containing the words of the Spirit, like Divine Scripture. This book conveys to Vladyka Ignatius the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, a strong teaching depicting an action similar to the resurrection. In this page of the book of natural knowledge of God, Vladyka Ignatius reads a convincing teaching not only about the resurrection of the dead, but also about the future fate of the righteous and the sinner. Every year nature repeats before the eyes of all mankind the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, depicting it as a transformative, mysterious action. 1362 The tree standing in front of the windows of the cell, exposed by frost, like a skeleton exposed by death, is a religious consolation for a Christian: it consoles him with the hope of renewal of the human soul. 1363 The picture of the sea evokes in a Christian-minded soul a deep thought about the situation in life of a person, about the highest good of the latter through entering the path of salvation and about the need for careful attention to oneself for a safe passage through the sea of ​​everyday life to the harbor of salvation. 1364 The majestic cemetery of the village of Pokrovskoye - the birthplace of Vladyka Ignatius, the rustling of tree leaves, the graves of our forefathers, fenced by a circle of centuries-old trees, in connection with the sounds of prayer and funeral chants, evoke in the soul of a Christian the thought of the frailty and short duration of earthly life, which is almost the same as the life of a leaf on a tree, and of the future eternity. 1365 The relative grave of an early deceased friend in the twilight of a quiet summer evening evokes deep thoughtfulness in the soul of Vladika Ignatius, and the deceased from the grave broadcasts to him an afterlife speech, a mysterious conversation - a wonderful sermon about the temporality of earthly wandering, about the eternity of posthumous existence, about the need to reconcile our temporary life with the tasks of saving eternity. 1366 The blue, cloudless sky of a beautiful summer day, the bright sun, a vast meadow covered with thick, tender grass, various wild flowers, abundant dew that fell on the meadow, visible in droplets in every flower, in every stem, the reflection of the sun's shine in every drop, crowds of people moving from the big, worldly road, the crosses of a majestic church burning from the sun - all this communicates a deeply meaningful and saving mood for the soul of a monk preparing to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. This mood lives in the soul for months, years, throughout life and, as on the day of the initial sensation, edifies: it speaks of the reflection of Christ the Savior in every believing soul, in every Orthodox Christian Church. And this sacred secret vision comes to a person independently of him, gracefully and unexpectedly: all that is required from a person is to remain in repentance and contrition for sins. 1367 The picture of the North Sea evokes in the soul of Bishop Ignatius a parallel picture of the sea of ​​life and suggests the safety of sailing on it only in the ship of the Church and only in the direction of the Lord’s quiet refuge. 1368 The majestic picture of the setting sun evokes in him a repentant reflection on the obscurity of our spiritual vision of the Sun of Truth due to our sinfulness and the possibility for us of communion with God only if we belong to the Holy Church. Churches. 1369 The harsh nature of Valaam conveys the same mood to man. 1370 In general, God’s mercy picturesquely depicted the mysterious teachings of Christianity in visible nature. The revival of all plants in the spring serves as an image of the resurrection of people; the effect of some medicines, which first detect a disease and seem to strengthen it, and then heal it, serves as an image of spiritual achievement, which first exposes a person’s secret passions, sets them in motion, and then little by little destroys them. 1371 But, of course, the book of nature, which awakens in man thoughts about salvation, is accessible to everyone, and is read better and more deeply by a zealot for salvation. This book is constantly opening for those who do not cease to cleanse themselves by repentance and removal from every sinful undertaking, both gross and subtle. It opens to those who have renounced earthly pleasures and vain distraction. It opens for followers and disciples of the Gospel, for lovers of heavenly glory and eternal pleasures, for lovers of modest and quiet solitude, who love solitude in order to gain in it an abundant knowledge of God by eliminating from ourselves everything that closes and removes God from us. But the great book of nature is sealed for unclean readers, darkened by sin, enslaved to sin, immersed in carnal pleasures, dizzy, bewildered by vain entertainment. It is in vain, out of their pride, that they imagine themselves to be its readers. They read in it a dead, material letter; they don’t read God. Contents of the book of nature: God is indescribably described, sung with loud songs of the Spirit, inaudible to the carnal ear, graceful, sacred, amazing and captivating the ear of the regenerated soul. 1372 Comparing the above thoughts of Bishop Ignatius, we come to the conclusion that the impressions of nature and the phenomena of human life, most accessible from their inner side for the perception of a person who has already entered the path of salvation, have the power to awaken the thought of eternity, of immortality, of God, of the salvation of the soul, and in a person indifferent to salvation and, so to speak, put him on the path of salvation. Of course, this assignment may be short-lived and remain without significant consequences, but it may also result in the continuity of a soul-saving feat - this depends on the will of the person whose soul was touched by the grace of God through the impressions of nature and life. We must not ignore short-term and infrequent moments of our spiritual enlightenment: momentary enlightenment may disappear, but it can also develop into a regenerating mood of the soul. As soon as we feel a state of enlightenment, a breath of grace in our soul, we must immediately open the doors of our heart hospitably, without delaying our concern for spiritual salvation until some better and more favorable moment: it may not come, but the petrification of our heart may intensify. Therefore, we need to be attentive to the impressions of life and nature that enlighten us. The book of nature should also be a source of spiritual impressions for us. But there is a book even higher and more divine, more blissful and more terrible than the book of nature, this book is the Gospel. The Gospel brings the understanding and prudent reader who reads this book of life, life to God Himself, unites man with God. The Book of Nature places its reader in the ranks of the Angels and makes him a spectator and preacher of the greatness of God. The angels, when they saw the book of visible nature, sang a song of praise to the Creator; like them, man sings and praises God, looking at nature with a purified eye. The Gospel condemns the reader's lack of understanding more severely than does nature. The Christian will be judged according to the Gospel (John 12:48). In the book of nature, although God is read, omnipotent, all-wise, all-good, infinitely superior to every creature, worthy of worship from rational creatures, as the Creator and Benefactor; but God, who is essentially inaccessible to comprehension, is read about Him in order to form any definite concept about Him, as being beyond all comprehension and concept. The Gospel reveals to us God, essentially One and Trinitarian; reveals the beginning - the Father, reveals the Son born of the Father, co-eternal with the Father, reveals the adored and glorified Spirit emanating from the Father, with the Father and the Son, as equal, consubstantial with Him; reveals and preaches the Redeemer, leads a person not only to the worship of the true God, but also to adoption by God, to union with God. The book of nature is illuminated by a visible, majestic giant, huge and radiant - the sun; in the Gospel and from the Gospel the Sun of Truth shines - God, who humbled himself before his incarnation, before the manger and den, before the execution of criminals, the First-born from the dead, the Father of the next century, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. A blind person cannot be a spectator of the wonders of nature: darkened by sin, a slave of the world and the ruler of the world cannot know Christ and His Holy Gospel. 1373 A person’s saving mood is a mood in agreement with the Gospel. 1374 Reading the Gospels gives a person a saving vision of his sins and the ways of salvation. 1375 The holy ascetics taught careful study of the Gospel by their personal example: the monks, subordinate to Pahomius the Great, were obliged to memorize the Gospel in order to have the laws of the God-Man, as if in a constantly open book, in memory, in order to have them constantly before the eyes of the mind, to have them inscribed on the soul itself, for the most convenient and steady fulfillment. Blessed Elder Rev. Seraphim of Sarov said: “We must teach ourselves in such a way that the mind seems to float in the law of the Lord, by which, guided, we must govern our lives.” Saint Tikhon of Voronezh knew the Gospel and the Psalter by heart. By studying the Gospel, trying to fulfill its commands with deeds, words, and thoughts, a Christian will follow the will of the Lord and the moral tradition of the Orthodox Church. The Gospel in a short time raises a Christian from infancy to manhood in Christ. 1376 Such a great significance of the Holy Gospel in the spiritual life of a Christian also determines the need to turn to this revelation of the will of God at the beginning of spiritual life. Those who wish to approach the Lord and unite their skills with Him must begin this holy work with a thorough study of the Word of God, must begin with the study of the Gospel, in which Christ is hidden, from which Christ speaks and acts. It transforms a carnal man into a spiritual one, and revives the soul, killed by sin and worldly vanity. 1377 Thus, anyone who wants to begin a soul-saving feat has a convenient path for this in reading the Gospel. Reading this gives a person a saving knowledge of the will of God; first subordinates a person’s thought to the will of God, calls for a comparison of his mood and life with the proper mood and life according to the Gospel and evokes a repentant mood and consciousness of spiritual poverty and, thus, introduces a person to the path of salvation. But it is disastrous to approach the Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ who lives in the Gospel without due reverence, with impudence and arrogance. Those who wish to approach the Lord in order to hear His Divine teaching, to be revived and saved by Him, must do so reverently and humbly. And then the Lord will speak to them from His holy Gospel, as to His beloved disciples, and the Holy Fathers, who interpreted the Holy Gospel through the gift of the Holy Spirit, will be their guides to an accurate and infallible understanding of the Holy Gospel. 1378 To the perplexed question of why it is necessary to read the Holy Fathers and whether it is not enough to be guided by the Holy Scripture alone - the pure Word of God, Vladyka Ignatius answers: “When reading Scripture, it is absolutely necessary to read the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church. The Spirit spoke the Scriptures, and only the Spirit can interpret them. Inspired men, Prophets and Apostles wrote it; God-inspired men, the Holy Fathers, interpreted it. Therefore, anyone who wants to acquire true knowledge of the Holy Scriptures needs to read the Holy Fathers. 1379 In the works of Vladyka Ignatius we repeatedly encounter instructions about unswervingly following the patristic teaching as a guide to eternity: “The teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church is correct: it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. I beg you, stick to this teaching: it will guide you to a blissful eternity. True, legal feat in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, in the fence of the holy Eastern Church. 1380 In addition to the best guidance in understanding the Holy Scriptures, reading the patristic works seems useful in itself for awakening in us spiritual life and thirst for salvation, as communion with the saints, imparting holiness. 1381 But the writings of the Fathers, according to Bishop Ignatius, can be likened to a pharmacy in which there are many healing medicines, but the patient may find it difficult to choose what is appropriate for his illness. 1382 Therefore, it is necessary to choose for yourself the reading of the Fathers that corresponds to your way of life, and then everyone, no matter what rank he may be in, can draw abundant instruction from the Scriptures of the Fathers. 1383 A Christian, whose lot is to live and end his life among the world, should read the Holy Fathers, who wrote for all Christians in general. These are, according to the instructions of St. Ignatius: St. John Chrysostom, St. Demetrius of Rostov, St. Tikhon of Voronezh, Nikephoros of Astrakhan, George the Recluse. 1384 Thus, the reading of the patristic works, begun at least for purely theoretical, cognitive reasons, introducing a Christian into communication with spirit-bearing men, involuntarily stops his attention on issues of spiritual salvation, clarifies them, calls them to comparison with the proper system of Christian life of his personal mood, and helps to awaken the thirst for salvation, in addition to the fact that such reading in general is the best guide to spiritual life and the study of the Holy Scriptures. A careful study of the history of Christianity has the same significance for reviving the religious-Christian mood and for arousing the desire to begin a truly Christian life. The poor awareness of our Christian society on religious, church-historical and moral issues is a well-known fact. The desire to hide their poor knowledge on these issues where it seems inconvenient forces many Christians to transfer their judgments in the area of ​​general, ethical issues and reasoning about Christianity into a predominantly abstract sphere, and to a certain extent the mind is nourished, but the heart remains completely unaffected and unnourished. Hence the natural lukewarmness towards spiritual life. Meanwhile, the study of the history of the Christian Church alone leads to a more definite conviction of its Divinity, revitalizes and strengthens the soul. Of course, the strongest conviction in the Divinity of Christianity comes from living according to the Gospel commandments, but also familiarization with the Christian account and with the destinies of the Holy Church strongly awakens in a person a thirst for salvation, a desire to join the face of the true children of God. According to the mind of the world, says Vladyka Ignatius, the institution of Christianity is alien to meaning; the Founder's assumptions are a pipe dream of one carried away by imagination and love of fame; the means and instruments of execution are insignificant, strange, ridiculous; Only three years were used by the Teacher for the education of his students; no care has been taken to acquaint them with the literacy necessary to read the Holy Scriptures; their content is not ensured; on the contrary, they are commanded to be non-covetous, and instead of cash, the promise is given that by the providence of God they will be provided with everything they need for their temporary life. Such a spectacle, inexplicable by human reason, is contemplated in the very establishment of Christianity; then a new, equally wonderful spectacle is represented by the events that immediately followed the establishment. The three-century struggle of paganism against Christianity culminated in the victory of the latter and the instrument of execution - the cross became an object of greatest honor. Studying the history of Christianity convinces us of its Divinity, reveals God’s will, God’s power, God’s action operating in it, exceeding human reason and strength, and inclines our mood towards the active embodiment of the covenants of Christ in our personal lives. 1385 In all centuries of Christianity, the tablets of church history have recorded experiences that reveal in the holy actions of God, above human nature, belonging not to man, but to God, who dwelt and reigned in holy men. 1386 The impression of the holiness and Divine power of Christianity is capable of reviving our deadening spirit and arousing in it zeal for spiritual salvation. Along with the civil laws that normalize our external life, the customs of the latter, the established way of our life, are of enormous importance in our lives. By reinforcing the norms of mutual human relations developed by life, the way of life and customs give our lives a certain direction and protect us from significant deviations and fluctuations. In religious and moral life, the church-religious structure of our life is also very important, which not only ensures church discipline in our life, but also contributes to the simple and natural emergence and experience of religious moods: church services, prayer, church times, not only theoretically studied, but introduced into the structure of our life, greatly contribute to the revival of religious and moral life in us, do not give it the opportunity to freeze and, on the contrary, support the spirit in a religious mood confessions. Hence, the persistent repetitions of Vladyka Ignatius are understandable: those who wish to be saved must belong to the one, holy, Orthodox Church, be her faithful son, and submit to her institutions in everything. 1387 This ensures that he achieves spiritual salvation and is put on the right path. Who is a faithful son of the Orthodox Church, who daily, and even better, hourly, in every place of God’s dominion, remembers God and asks Him for mercy and help, who carefully visits the church of God on Sundays and holidays, and prays at home every morning and evening, who is merciful to the poor and strange, who repents of his sins and partakes of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, who endures the sorrows generously sent to him by God, who carefully studies The Word of God - he has a precious guarantee of salvation. He is faced with a feat: he must necessarily preserve his treasure - his salvation from sins. 1388 Thus, striving to revive the desire for salvation in ourselves, but realizing the insurmountable coldness of mood and indifference to the soul-saving feat, we have a means of weakening these harmful conditions in the conscious subordination of ourselves and our lives to the church-religious way of life and obedience to the Holy Church, in the hope that as we carefully, even if poorly animated, submit to church discipline, in us, by grace God, the flame of saving zeal will kindle and the fight against sin will not only be a duty for us, but also a deep need of our spirit. Among other elements of the church-religious structure of Christian life, which have a beneficial effect on the emergence and maintenance of a soul-saving mood, His Grace Ignatius often singles out church services. The Christian soul merges in its experiences with the content of the Divine service, the Christian soul is expressed in church hymns, with its entire composition the Divine service creates a soul-saving mood, strengthens and supports it, breaks the disastrous: indifference, eliminates lethargy, imparts cheerfulness and heartfelt inspiration, sanctifies the soul. To illustrate the views of Bishop Ignatius on this issue, we can note his impressions of the Divine service in the Valaam monastery. The service on Valaam is carried out according to church rules - it consists of matins or all-night vigil before the holiday, two liturgies - early and late, vespers and the rule, which is performed after dinner and consists of reading prayers for the coming sleep, a memorial service and several bows. The chant used is znamenny or so-called stolpovy – old Russian. The tones of this tune are majestic, drawn-out, mournful; They depict the groans of a soul repenting, sighing in the country of its exile for a blessed, desired land of eternal joy, pure, holy pleasure. So, these very tones, and not others, should be heard in this monastery, in which the very buildings have the image of a prison intended for sobs, for crying about one’s captivity, for deep thoughts, for thinking about eternity. These tones are in harmony with wild, austere nature, with huge masses of granite, with dark forests, with deep waters. These tones either drag on mournfully, sadly, like a desert wind, then gradually disappear, like an echo among rocks and gorges, or thunder suddenly. They then, with quiet sorrow, bring a complaint about sinfulness, express languishing and consuming grief due to the sinful burden, then, as if from the unbearable weight of this burden, from the blows of sin, they begin to cry out and call on the help of heaven: then they thunder! The majestic “Lord have mercy” is like a desert wind: it is so mournful, touching, drawn-out! The fallen man felt, with the help of solitude and self-contemplation, his fall, saw it in himself, became convinced of it, and indulged in incessant groaning in the hope of pardon. The song “We sing to you” ends with a drawn-out, shimmering sound that gradually fades away, disappearing imperceptibly under the arches of the church, just as an echo is lost in the airy space. When the brethren sing at Vespers: “Lord, I have cried to You, hear me,” then the sounds at first seem to come from a deep abyss, then with speed and thunder they burst out of it, rush to the sky, carry there a thought and desire, fiery as lightning: then they thunder! The artist will find in Valaam’s singing many rough spots and shortcomings in performance, but he also recognizes in it the complete predominance of reverence and piety, an extraordinary energy that both touches and shakes the soul. Everything here should be important, grandiose. Все веселое, легкое, игривое, показалось бы странным, уродливым. Do not be afraid of this legend, a true story. Don’t think that only misfortune can live here. No! And here there is a consolation: the consolation of those who cry, announced in the Gospel. 1389 These are the impressions of the statutory, strict Orthodox Divine Service according to the direct impressions of Bishop Ignatius, which are completely understandable to us. Serving as an expression of Christian feelings and moods, Divine services, in turn, awaken and support them in the Christian soul. From this point of view, the care of Vladyka Ignatius about the organization of Divine services in the places of his monastic feat, especially in the Sergei desert, where it is so close to Valaam and also awakens and nourishes the spirit, takes on a special meaning. From this point of view, the lifelong feat of choir-singing obedience of Schemamonk Mikhail (Chikhachov), who considered this obedience the justification of his life, takes on a particularly high meaning: “I sing to my God, until I am.” Those who seek saving sentiments have an abundant source in this regard in Orthodox Christian worship. Among the life conditions and means by which a Christian is introduced to the path of salvation, in which he remembers God the Redeemer and comes to the consciousness of spiritual poverty, according to the teachings of Bishop Ignatius, life’s trials and tribulations are very important. Along with studying and fulfilling the will of God, the path of salvation is revealed to the Christian in the uncomplaining and complacent patience of all the sorrows allowed by God’s providence, while recognizing oneself from the sincerity of the heart as worthy of these sorrows. 1390 From the point of view of Christian asceticism, sorrows are generally understood as a sign of God’s mercy: they educate, purify, and perfect a Christian. Sorrows are not allowed to sinners who live on earth for earthly pleasures and for earthly prosperity. They will not bear sorrows with thanksgiving, but only with murmuring, despondency, blasphemy against God, and multiplying their sins with despair. The Lord allows them to enjoy earthly blessings until their death, so that they may come to their senses, at least because of their prosperity. The Lord sends sorrows only to those sinners in whom He foresees conversion, who in the book of life, according to the foreknowledge of God, are already included among the righteous, justified by the truth of the Redeemer. The Lord does not recognize intentional and arbitrary sinners, in whom there is no guarantee for correction and repentance, as worthy of sorrow, as those who did not accept the teachings of Christ, who did not show any zeal to follow Christ, who entered on the path of untruth not out of passion or ignorance. 1391 The saving significance of sorrows for awakening the thirst for salvation lies in the fact that 1) they convince a person of the fragility of his earthly undertakings, 2) they reveal to him the spiritual ailments hidden in him. The sorrows of the world provide the Christian with experiential knowledge of how earthly life is perverse and deceptive, that everything sweet, longed for and great on earth ends in emptiness and sorrow; From this experimental knowledge, a Christian receives indifference to earthly life, to the earth, to everything that is recognized on it as desirable for the sons of the world, turns the gaze of his mind and heart to eternity and begins to intercede with the most fervent prayers before God about his afterlife. For a Christian, the sorrows that come from other people have the same saving meaning. 1392 In addition to showing the fragility of all earthly aspirations and attachments of a Christian, sorrows are also salutary because they reveal the hidden passions in the very heart of man, setting them in motion. Before grief, a person seems calm and peaceful to himself, but when grief comes, then unprecedented passions often arise and are revealed, especially anger, sadness, despondency, pride, and unbelief. And this is very important because for a Christian it is essential and useful to expose the sin that nests in him in secret. Moreover, sorrows, accepted and endured as they should, strengthen faith; they show a person his weakness and bring humility, overthrowing self-conceit. 1393 There is no need to arbitrarily seek out sorrows and arbitrarily fall into misfortunes, but those sorrows and misfortunes that come to us involuntarily, therefore allowed and arranged by the providence of God, must be accepted with the greatest reverence, as gifts of God, as cures for our spiritual ailments, as guarantees of election and eternal salvation. The fruit of sorrows, which consists in the purification of the soul, in its ascension to a spiritual state, must be preserved like a precious treasure. This fruit is preserved when the one who has been subjected to sorrows uses all his efforts at this time to remain in the Gospel commandments, without being carried away by the passions discovered and set in motion by temptation. 1394 Of course, the cause of all sorrows and temptations is the fundamental evil of the world, but their consequences can be beneficial to the soul or harmful to the soul, depending on a person’s attitude towards them. Temptations and sorrows have a soul-saving effect on God’s servants, giving them the opportunity to fulfill the most sublime commandments of the Gospel, follow Christ, take up their cross, and become the closest disciples of the Lord. On the contrary, sorrows and temptations act disastrously on the sons of perdition and increase their sinfulness. 1395 Therefore, according to the conviction of Vladyka Ignatius, knowing that sorrows come by God’s permission, one must endure them with patience, bringing praise and thanksgiving to God for them, knowing that he who resists sorrows and seeks to turn away from himself the sorrowful path acts against his own salvation, strives, in his blindness, to destroy the order and method of salvation established by God for all His servants. 1396 This is the significance of sorrows for awakening in the sinful human spirit the thirst for salvation. So, on the question of the beginning of spiritual life, of the awakening of a thirst for salvation in a person, we have a very definite answer in the ascetic experience of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov. A person needs to listen carefully to the call of Divine grace, to that gracious touch that is perceived by our heart from time to time. Our ordinary life, filled day after day with worries and worldly affairs necessary for our temporary and physical life, from time to time has glimpses of festive, in the spiritual sense, insights. Our everyday life, as the poet puts it, “the monotonous song of slaves,” is at times, at least for a moment, replaced by the sounds of heaven; we, although not for long, feel ourselves outside the framework of our temporary life - children of God, brothers among ourselves, we feel like people who have independent tasks of life outside and above the worries of our everyday day. Vladyka Ignatius teaches us how to strengthen the receptivity of our spiritual hearing to the sounds of heaven, how to prolong the stay of the gracious call in our soul, finally? - where, in what forms and conditions can we perceive this heavenly call to eternal salvation. Vladyka Ignatius experimentally testifies to us that the grace of God, silently calling us to a saving feat, is, as it were, poured out in the life around us, and we only need to have our spiritual eyes open, our spiritual hearing unclosed. This saving call for spiritual rebirth is heard to us in the broadcasts of nature, it is incessantly heard in the Divine verbs of the Holy Gospel, the path of salvation is revealed in the works of the Holy Fathers, in the mysterious destinies of the Church of Christ depicted in church history, it is clearly and publicly preached by the Divine services of the Orthodox Church, and is persistently introduced into our consciousness by the inevitable sorrows of our temporary life. We only need to overcome sinful absent-mindedness, strengthen spiritual sensitivity to the trends of God’s grace, and when our poor heart “feels” them, we need to keep them in our soul or, at least, prolong their stay in our soul and provide ourselves with the opportunity for new and new perceptions of the grace-filled call. And strengthening of spiritual sensitivity to God’s call and the possibility of a longer experience of a grace-filled mood in our soul is achieved through soul-saving Christian deeds and with the special assistance of God’s grace in the sacraments of the Church. Soul-saving conditions that enhance our spiritual sensitivity and contribute to our salvation are fasting, prayer and repentance. The accomplishment of these feats prepares us and is itself mediated by the special action of God's grace in the holy Sacraments of the Orthodox Church. By clarifying the intended provisions on the works of Bishop Ignatius, we will be able to obtain an answer to the question we have posed. IV. What serves as a necessary condition for a soul-saving feat, what are the conditions for salvation in a person’s life? In other words, how is the soul-saving mood expressed in a person and by what means is it maintained? – The means for the spiritual and physical education of a person in relation to the needs of spiritual salvation are, according to the teachings of Ignatius Brianchaninov, in agreement with other ascetics, the pious deeds of a Christian, or those pious exercises that enhance spirituality in a person and weaken sinfulness and carnality. The general purpose of exploits is not a sacrifice to God, but to protect ourselves from pride, selfishness and humiliation of our neighbors. If our pious exercises do not have this goal, then, with a pious appearance, they can be sources of pride, delusion and strengthen the sinful state of a person. 1397 According to human nature, pious exercises are divided into mental and physical. Both exercises are united in the unity of a soul-saving goal and are interconnected by a strict sequence: bodily labor takes first place in the ascetic life of a disciple of Christ. Physical activity precedes mental activity. One who has not acquired physical work cannot have spiritual work: the second is born from the first. 1398 Those and other feats and exercises are aimed at fulfilling the commandments of God. Bodily feat consists of fulfilling the Gospel commandments physically. These include: giving material alms, accepting strangers, participating in the various needs and sufferings of needy and suffering humanity. Bishop Ignatius includes chastity of the body, abstinence from anger, from luxury, from amusements and distraction, from ridicule and gossip, from all words that express anger and impurity of the heart. These include: fasting, vigil, psalmody, kneeling, standing in prayer in church and in cells. This includes monastic obediences and other external feats. This is the composition of bodily feats. The essence of bodily feat lies in the fact that it requires continuous activity of the body, moves from one bodily good deed to another, and sometimes combines several good deeds, performing them at the same time; The significance of physical feat lies in the fact that it gradually cleanses the soul of passions and introduces it to the spirit of the Gospel. The Gospel commandments, being fulfilled in practice, little by little convey Truth, Spirit and Life to the performer. Physical feat has its limit and end: these end and limit lie in the ascetic’s decisive transition to spiritual feat. The decisive transition crowns the gradual transition. The ministry of the Gospel Martha ended when the Lord's meal was completed. 1399 The essential features of human sinfulness, as we saw above, are carnal wisdom and selfishness. To begin a virtuous life, it is necessary to weaken these sinful principles and prepare the soul for the inculcation of virtue. This is achieved through physical feats. For cultivation, the earth needs various useful tools, plows, harrows, shovels, with which it is turned over, loosened, softened - so our heart, the focus of carnal sensations and carnal wisdom, needs to be cultivated by fasting, vigil, kneeling and other depressing of the body, so that the predominance of the carnal, passionate sensation gives way to the predominance of the spiritual sensation, and the influence of carnal passionate thoughts on the mind loses that the irresistible force it has in people who have rejected asceticism or neglected it. Whoever would decide to sow seeds on the ground without cultivating it, would only destroy the seeds, would not receive any profit, and would cause himself a certain loss, just as someone who, without curbing the carnal desires of the heart and the carnal thoughts of the mind with appropriate bodily deeds, would decide to engage in mental prayer and planting the commandments of Christ in the heart, will not only work in vain, but may also suffer spiritual damage. disaster, self-deception and demonic delusion to incur the wrath of God, as he did when he came to the wedding feast in non-wedding clothing (Matt. 22:12). Anyone who would decide to cultivate the land without using agricultural tools will work a lot, and will work in vain. Likewise, anyone who wants to acquire virtues without physical achievements will work in vain, will lose unrewarded, non-returnable time, will waste mental and physical strength, and will gain nothing. Bodily labors are necessary in order to make the physical earth capable of receiving spiritual seeds and bearing spiritual fruits; abandonment of exploits, or neglect of them, makes the land incapable of sowing and fruiting; excess in them, relying on them is as much or more harmful than leaving them. Abandonment of bodily exploits makes people similar to cattle, contributing to the disposition and strengthening of spiritual passions. Those who abandon the physical feat are exposed to gluttony, fornication, anger in its gross manifestations, those who carry out immoderate bodily feat, use it recklessly, or place all their hope in it, seeing in it their merit before God, their dignity, fall into vanity, conceit, arrogance, pride, bitterness, into contempt for their neighbors, destruction and condemnation of them, memory of malice, hatred, blasphemy, schism, heresy, self-delusion and demonic delusion. Physical feat is necessary even for saints who have become temples of the Holy Spirit, so that the body, left unbridled, does not come to life for passionate movements and does not cause the appearance in a sanctified person of bad feelings and thoughts, which are so unusual for the spiritual church of God not made by hands. 1400 Having clarified the essence and significance of bodily feats for the spiritual life of a Christian, valuing bodily feats as a tool necessary for the acquisition of virtues, as a means of spiritualizing the flesh, crucifying it with passions and lusts and subjugating the flesh to the spirit, 1401 Vladika Ignatius considers bodily feats not sufficient for spiritual life, and even in the physical feat itself, in its exclusivity, he sees shortcomings and spiritual danger. Bodily feat, he says, is often overshadowed by a very important shortcoming. This shortcoming lies in the fact that a Christian exercises himself in feat recklessly, when he gives the feat an excessive price, when he performs physical feats for himself, mistakenly concluding and limiting in them all his life, all his pleasing to God. Such an incorrect assessment is always associated with the destruction of spiritual achievement and the desire to distract those who engage in it from it. And, according to the testimony of Vladyka Ignatius, bodily feat not yet illuminated by spiritual reason always contains a lot of vain and unnecessary things. The one who works in him, although he works for the sake of God, but works in the old man, in his field the tares grow along with the wheat; he cannot be free from the influence of carnal wisdom on his way of thinking and activity. Therefore, it is necessary to do our good deeds, performed through the body, with the greatest humility, like slaves obliged to fulfill the will of their Lord, who are unable to fulfill this will as they should due to weakness and sinful damage. It is very useful for those engaged in physical feats to know that there is another feat, an incomparably higher feat, a spiritual feat, overshadowed by Divine grace. 1402 Having a fairly definite concept of physical feats and relatively willingly introducing it into the structure of their religious and moral life, a significant number of Christians who are zealous for salvation do not have a clear concept of spiritual deeds. The life of monastery residents and many pious secular Christians comes down primarily to physical exploits. Meanwhile, the latter, according to the teachings of Ignatius Brianchaninov, although important, have only a preparatory significance in the structure of our general soul-saving work, and, not accompanied by spiritual feats, the physical feats themselves are often the cause and soil for strengthening passions, especially conceit and humiliation of neighbors. Land cultivated in the most careful manner, highly fertilized, finely loosened, but left unsown, will give birth to tares with greater force; so the heart, cultivated by bodily exploits, but not having assimilated the Gospel commandments, grows out of itself the more strongly the tares of vanity, pride and fornication. The better the land is cultivated and fertilized, the more capable it is of growing thick and juicy weeds - the stronger the physical exploits of someone who neglects the Gospel commandments, the stronger and more incurable is his conceit. A farmer who has many excellent agricultural implements, admires this, and does not cultivate the land with them, only deceives and deceives himself, without receiving any profit - so the ascetic, who has fasting, vigil and other bodily exploits, but neglects to examine himself and manage himself in the light of the Gospel, only deceives himself, hoping in vain and mistakenly for exploits; he will not receive any spiritual fruit, will not accumulate spiritual wealth. Whoever decides to constantly plow his land will never sow or reap anything - so the one who constantly engages in one physical feat will lose the opportunity to engage in spiritual feat, planting in himself the Gospel commandments, from which, in due time, spiritual fruits are born. 1403 Thus, all those pious exercises that are thought of within the scope of the concept of bodily feat have no meaning as independent and self-valuable feats, they cannot be thought of as a virtue and, moreover, any merit of a person before God - the significance of bodily feat is understood only in the sense of a means for preparing for a spiritual feat, for purifying the spirit from the mainly bodily conditions that hinder its manifestation. Meanwhile, in the conditions of our actual religious and moral life, all exercises of physical feat are usually given independent significance, they are thought of as virtues and, unfortunately, are imputed to a person as a merit, both from his neighbors and, even worse, from his own spiritually unenlightened consciousness. In the conditions of religious and moral life, without any hesitation, attention to bodily fasting, kneeling, standing in prayer in church and at home, and other external feats are thought of as positive virtues. These exploits among religious people are well known and generally understood; Meanwhile, the same zealots of the soul-saving feat, both from the monks and from the pious laity, in very many cases do not have any clear concept of the spiritual feat, in which physical feats receive their justification and meaning. The state of spiritual achievement is explained by His Grace Ignatius in the following form. The position adopted by the Gospel Mapia serves as an image of the state of the soul, worthy to enter into a spiritual feat. This state is a state of both calm and humility. He who has achieved service to God in spirit abandons external activities, abandons concern for other ways of pleasing God, or uses them moderately and rarely, in cases of special need. With his spirit he is cast down at the feet of the Savior, he heeds only His word, he recognizes himself as a creation of God, and not as an original being (Ps. 99:3), he recognizes himself as being cultivated, and God as a worker (John 15:1), surrendering himself entirely to the will and leadership of the Savior. It is obvious that such a state is achieved by the soul through a more or less prolonged bodily feat. And the evangelical Mary could not have sat at the feet of the Lord and directed all her attention to His teaching if Martha had not taken charge of the reception. Serving and worshiping God in spirit and in truth is that good part, that blissful state, which, having begun during earthly life, does not cease, just as bodily exploits cease, with the end of earthly life. The good part remains an integral part of the soul in eternity, and in eternity it receives full development. The good part is not separated from the soul that acquired it, and remains forever its property. 1404 How does this good part—spiritual achievement—manifest itself in his direct experience, what is its inner content? – This state arises as one goes through physical labor and under the influence of God’s grace. When the grace of God abundantly overshadows the ascetic, then abundant spiritual achievement is revealed in him, guiding him to Christian perfection. Then its sinfulness, which was previously hidden from it, is revealed to the soul. Then the veil will be lifted from her gaze, and the soul will see an immense, majestic eternity, hitherto hidden from it. Then the hour of death, standing somewhere far, far away, approaches, and becomes before the very soul, before its eyes. Then earthly life, which hitherto seemed endless, is reduced to the briefest dimensions: the past life, like the dream of a past night, the remaining field of life merges into one dying hour. Then, from the depths of the soul, groanings hitherto unknown to her arise; crying arises, which she has not felt before; a prayer arises, such as she has never uttered before. Prayer and weeping arise in the very depths of the soul, are pronounced by the mind and heart with the silence of the lips, ascend to heaven, cast the praying Savior at the feet of the Savior: the soul, in confessing its sinfulness and the infinite greatness of God, enters into perfection, is brought into perfection by the right hand of the all-good God, Who created man and recreates him. 1405 Мысленно представляя себе изображенное Епископом Игнатием высоко-духовное состояние подвижнического духа, мы представляем себе ясно: 1) его необычайную высоту и трудно-достижимость, 2) необходимость длительного и непрерывного усердного подвига телесного, который, в силу этого, и приобретает свой душеспасительный смысл во всех своих отдельных благочестивых упражнениях и видах, как единственное, во власти человека находящееся средство достижения спасительного состояния Богообщения, которое и составляет the main content of spiritual feats and the ultimate goal of all soul-beneficial feats. Among the pious deeds, His Eminence Ignatius most often speaks about fasting, prayer and repentance, therefore we, having clarified the conditions and course of spiritual salvation from the works of the ascetic archpastor, will focus our attention on these deeds. At the same time, without setting as our task a complete presentation of Bishop Ignatius’s teachings on these issues, we will focus our attention on the feats of fasting, prayer and repentance, mainly in relation to the arousal, clarification, development and implementation in our spiritual life of the need for salvation, in other words, we will try to determine Bishop Ignatius’s view of these feats as a means of spiritual salvation. The establishment of fasting is God's institution. The first commandment given by God to humanity is the commandment of fasting. If it was absolutely necessary for us in paradise, before our fall, the more necessary it was after the fall. And this commandment is repeated in the Gospel (Luke 21:34). 1406 Fasting is constant moderation in food with prudent pickiness in it. 1407 But fasting is not just about quantitative abstinence from food, but also about discerning its quality. The newly created man, introduced into paradise, was given a single commandment, the commandment of fasting. Of course, one commandment was given because it was sufficient to preserve the primordial man in his integrity. The commandment did not speak about the quantity of food, but only forbade the quality. Let those who recognize fasting only in the quantity of food, and not in its quality, remain silent. By delving deeper into the experiential knowledge of fasting, they will see the importance of the quality of food. 1408 Discussing the essence of bodily fasting, His Grace Ignatius distinguishes between the quantitative and qualitative aspects of it, and recognizes the necessity of fasting in both respects. Quantitatively, the desire for food is corrected by a simple meal and abstaining from satiety and enjoying food. First, satiety and pleasure must be abandoned: this is how the desire for food is refined and receives correctness. When the desire becomes correct, then it is satisfied with simple food. On the contrary, the desire for food, satisfied by satiety and pleasure, is dulled. To excite him, we resort to a variety of tasty foods and drinks. The desire at first appears to be satisfied; then it becomes more whimsical, and finally turns into a painful passion, seeking constant pleasure and satiety, constantly remaining unsatisfied. 1409 But the quality of the food is very important. The forbidden fruit of paradise was beautiful to look at and tasty, but had a detrimental effect on the soul. And now food continues to have a strong effect on the soul, which is especially noticeable when drinking wine. This effect of food is based on its varied effect on flesh and blood, and on the fact that its vapors and gases from the stomach rise to the brain and have an effect on the mind. 1410 And the Most Reverend Ignatius considers, from the point of view of the purpose of fasting, various food products: intoxicating drinks, pepper, ginger and other spices, concerns meat, fish and plant foods, giving preference, in relation to the development of spiritual life, to plant nutrition of the body. Plant food, he says, is the best. It warms the blood the least, fattens the flesh the least; vapors and gases that separate from it and ascend to the brain have the least effect on it; finally, it is the healthiest, as it produces the least mucus in the stomach. For these reasons, when using it, the purity and vigor of the mind are especially conveniently preserved, and with them its power over the whole person; when using it, passions are less active and a person is more able to engage in deeds of piety. 1411 But he pays special attention to the importance of fasting for a person’s spiritual life; he values ​​fasting as the basis of virtues, 1412 as a means of liberating and strengthening the spirit. According to his persistent and repeated assertion, only with the help of fasting can we tear ourselves away from the earth, only with the help of fasting can we resist the captivating power of earthly pleasures, only with the help of fasting can we break the alliance with sin. Only through fasting can our spirit be freed from the heavy shackles of the flesh. Only with the help of fasting can our thoughts arise from the earth and look towards God. As we take upon ourselves the good yoke of fasting, our spirit acquires greater freedom: it rushes into the realm of spirits, related to it; begins to often turn to the contemplation of God. The grace-filled lightness and subtlety of the spirit is communicated to the body: the body is drawn to spiritual sensations. 1413 Fasting has a beneficial effect on the soul and body of a person. 1414 Spiritualizing a person, it imparts sovereign rights and independence to the human spirit. It is this beneficial and strengthening effect of fasting on the spirit that lies its meaning. The law of fasting, while outwardly a law for the belly, is in essence a law for the mind. The mind, this king in man, if it wants to enter into the rights of its autocracy and preserve them, must, first of all, submit to the law of fasting. Only then will he be constantly cheerful and bright; only then can he rule over the desires of the heart and body; only with constant sobriety can he study the commandments of the Gospel and follow them. The basis of virtues is fasting. Proud man, you dream so much and so highly about your mind, but it is in complete and continuous dependence on your stomach. 1415 The carnal man is completely immersed in sinful pleasures. He is voluptuous in body, heart, and mind; he is incapable not only of spiritual pleasure and the acceptance of Divine grace, but also of repentance. He is incapable of spiritual pursuits at all: he is nailed to the ground, drowned in materiality; alive - dead in soul. On the contrary, fasting puts a Christian into a spiritual state. Purified by fasting, he is humble in spirit, chaste, modest, silent, subtle in his heartfelt feelings and thoughts, light in body, capable of spiritual achievements and speculation, capable of receiving Divine grace. 1416 The feat of fasting relates primarily to physical deeds, but a correct and serious attitude towards it naturally prepares and leads a Christian onto the path of spiritual deeds and true Christian good deeds. 1417 Among the spiritual deeds, Bishop Ignatius pays special attention to prayer and repentance. The teaching about these spiritual exploits in the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius is developed with such thoroughness and completeness that it requires and deserves special study. In application to our task, we believe that we will focus the reader’s attention on only three main questions regarding the noted feats: what is their essence, vital expression and significance for our spiritual life, as known to the latter stage. The feat of fasting prepares and elevates a Christian to the feat of prayer. Being the foundation and protection of all virtue, preceding all good deeds, fasting prepares our spirit for the feat of prayer. Just as the desire for light follows the health of the eyes, so fasting done with reason will be followed by the desire for prayer. When someone begins to fast, then from fasting comes the desire to have a conversation with God in his mind. 1418 Offering a teaching on the quality of prayer characteristic of someone who begins to go to the Lord through repentance, His Eminence Ignatius gives a number of specific instructions about the essence, foundations, conditions and meaning of the feat of prayer. Prayer is the offering of our petitions to God. The basis of prayer is that man is a fallen being. He strives to receive the bliss that he had but lost, and therefore he prays. The refuge of prayer is in the great mercy of God towards the human race. The Son of God, to save us, offered Himself to His Father as a propitiatory, reconciling sacrifice: on this basis, when you want to engage in prayer, reject doubt and double-mindedness. Приготовлением к молитве служат: непресыщенное чрево, отсечение попечений мечем веры, прощение от искренности сердца всех обид, благодарение Богу за все скорбные случаи жизни, удаление от себя рассеянности и мечтательности, благоговейный страх, который так свойственно иметь созданию, когда оно будет допущено к беседе с Создателем своим по неизречённой благости Создателя к созданию. True prayer is the voice of true repentance. The Lord, teaching us about prayer, likens a praying soul to a widow, offended by a rival, sitting relentlessly before an impartial and impartial judge (Matt. 4. Do not move away in the disposition of your soul during prayer from this likeness. Let your prayer be, so to speak, a constant complaint about the sin that rapes you. 1419 The dignity of prayer lies solely in quality, and not in quantity. Then Quantity is commendable when it leads to quality. Quality always leads to quantity; quantity leads to quality when the worshiper prays carefully. The quality of true prayer is when the mind is attentive during prayer, and the heart sympathizes with the mind. During true prayer, complete unification and harmony of the human spirit is achieved, the mind is concentrated and enclosed in the words of prayer, and thereby attracts the heart to compassion for itself. This sympathy from the heart to the mind is expressed by tenderness, which is a pious feeling that combines sadness with quiet, meek consolation. 1420 There is no need to seek delight during prayer; on the contrary, according to the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, it is necessary to keep the heart in deep calm, into which it is brought by a feeling of repentance, and Spiritual and grace-filled consolation descends into the soul as the feat of prayer occurs. The spiritual benefits of prayer are taken away by absent-mindedness and daydreaming. Absent-mindedness robs prayer. The one who has prayed absent-mindedly feels a vague emptiness and dryness within himself. One who constantly prays absent-mindedly is deprived of all the spiritual fruits that are usually born from attentive prayer, and acquires a state of dryness and emptiness. From this state is born coldness towards God, despondency, clouding of the mind, weakening of faith, and from them - deadness in relation to eternal spiritual life. Yet this, taken together, serves as a clear sign that such prayer is not accepted by God. Daydreaming in prayer is even more harmful than absent-mindedness. Absent-mindedness makes prayer fruitless, and daydreaming causes false fruits: self-delusion and demonic delusion. 1421 The meaning of true prayer is that it puts a person on the path of communion with God and virtue. Attentive prayer, alien to distraction and daydreaming, is a vision of the invisible God, attracting the vision of the mind and the desires of the heart. Then the mind sees without form and is completely satisfied with non-seeing, which surpasses all vision. The reason for this blissful invisibility is the infinite subtlety and incomprehensibility of the object to which vision is directed. The invisible Sun of Truth - God also emits rays that are invisible, but cognizable by the clear sensation of the soul: they fill the heart with wonderful calmness, faith, courage, meekness, mercy, love for neighbors and God. By these actions, visible in the inner, heart cell, a person undoubtedly recognizes that his prayer is accepted by God, begins to believe with living faith and firmly trust in the Lover and the Beloved. This is the beginning of the revival of the soul for God and blissful eternity. The fruits of true prayer are: – holy peace of the soul, combined with quiet, silent joy, alien to daydreaming, conceit and heated impulses and movements; love for neighbors, which does not distinguish between good and evil, worthy from unworthy, but intercedes for everyone before God as for itself, as for its own members. From such love for others, the purest love for God shines forth. Such prayer is the highest exercise for the mind. Such prayer is the mother of all true, Divine virtues. 1422 Clarifying the meaning of true prayer for the growth of our spiritual life, His Grace Ignatius examines in detail the various types of prayer. Many of the pages of Ignatiev’s works dedicated to the feat of prayer are especially edifying, touching and leave a deep impression on the reader, often arousing in him a desire for spiritual life. These are, for example, his instructions on the cell prayer rule, in which he speaks about the solitude and concentration of home prayer, about the danger of offering to God multi-verbal and eloquent prayers, composed by the person praying himself instead of putting his mind into the words of existing Divine prayers; about the participation of the body in the feat of prayer, about observing the prayer rules taught by the Holy Fathers regarding the time and order of prayers; “beloved brother,” Vladyka Ignatius prays, “submit your freedom to the rule: it, having deprived you of your destructive freedom, will bind you only in order to give you spiritual freedom, freedom in Christ.” 1423 Particularly touching are the instructions of Bishop Ignatius on church prayer, in which the author speaks about the composition and structure of church prayers, their establishment and, especially, their significance for the spiritual life of a Christian. Every Christian can take part in these prayers, and the illiterate assimilates the knowledge, eloquence, and poetry of the spiritual, holy vitas and scribes of Christianity. With these prayers, anyone who wishes can very conveniently learn mental prayer: quantity of prayer leads to quality, the Fathers said, and therefore long monastic prayers greatly help the ascetic move from verbal prayer to mental and heartfelt prayer. Church prayers contain extensive Christian dogmatic and moral theology: one who attends the Church without neglect and carefully listens to its reading and singing can clearly learn everything necessary for an Orthodox Christian in the field of faith. 1424 The instructions of Bishop Ignatius on oral and vocal prayer and on the transition from it to mental prayer in the silence of the inner cell have the same significance. The basis of the feat of prayer should be based on attentive oral and public prayer, for which the Lord will in due time grant to the constant, patient, humble ascetic prayer of the mind, heartfelt, and grace-filled. 1425 Hearing within himself the high state of mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer, Vladyka Ignatius warns the Christian against impudent and premature striving for these types of prayer feats, recognizing that the time appropriate for mental and heartfelt prayer is a mature age, at which impulses and passions are naturally tamed in a person, although youth is not rejected from this feat when it has the quality maturity, especially when it has a leader. 1426 Attentive prayer is like beneficial rain irrigating a sown field; it strengthens our soul, heals sorrows, calms spiritual storms, prepares our soul to accept the revelation and grace of God. 1427 It is necessary to pray for repentance, for the descent of the kingdom of God into our soul. About the merging of our will with the will of God, about the bread of life, about mercy towards our neighbors, about deliverance from captivity to the devil, 1428 but especially about repentance and salvation. True prayer is always reflected in the heart with blessed sadness for sins, which is repentance commanded by God. 1429 Thus, the feat of repentance stands in close, internal connection with prayer. Saint Ignatius speaks repeatedly and in a variety of ways about the soul - the saving feat of repentance, rightly believing in it an essential and necessary condition for the beginning of spiritual life and the accomplishment of spiritual salvation. He often thinks of repentance as the all-encompassing mood of the Christian soul. Repentance is necessary to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ; to continue in this saving faith, repentance is necessary; to succeed in it, you need repentance; To inherit the kingdom of heaven, you need repentance. 1430 It is necessary not only in order to believe in Christ: it is necessary for remaining in faith, it is necessary for living faith in Christ; this is a necessary condition for spiritual salvation. 1431 Repentance consists in the awareness of one’s sins and one’s sinfulness, in regretting them, in bringing these (consciousness and condolences) through sincere confession and fervent prayer before the Face of God, with determination and a promise to leave a sinful life and accept the Gospel commandments as a rule of conduct. Such repentance will be followed by forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and assimilation to God. 1432 It is difficult, extremely difficult, to begin a feat of repentance with our spiritual lukewarmness, with our spiritual indifference. Paying attention to our personal spiritual experience, we must admit that critical thoughtfulness regarding our personal moods, so essential in the penitential feat, is a very rare phenomenon in our spiritual experience. We are more willing to focus our attention on the phenomena of social or state life, criticize the actions of our neighbors, sometimes rarely condemn their shortcomings, worry and be indignant about this or that course of external life, but we, for the most part, are almost completely calm in relation to the content of our spiritual life, as if everything in it is going well and does not cause any fears. We boldly approach St. The mysteries of confession and communion, we recognize the need for proper preparation for the reception of God’s grace, but how difficult it is for us to fulfill this latter: to such an extent everything in our spiritual life seems prosperous to us, the clothing of our soul seems decent and alien to noticeable sinful stains, and sometimes we have absolutely no will to reconsider our spiritual life in the light of the Gospel and conscience. But, once we have embarked on the path of penitential feat, we gain the opportunity for its continuous development, for, according to the teachings of Bishop Ignatius, this feat coincides with the general course of moral improvement. Both the beginning of the penitential feat and its continuity are under the influence of God’s gracious call to which, however, our hearts are sometimes deaf and indifferent. The own light of fallen nature, as damaged by sin, weakly illuminates human activity; in this light we see few of our errors, we see only the most gross and tangible ones. When our activity is illuminated by the light of Christ’s commandments, then our self-view changes; we begin to see many shortcomings in ourselves that we had not noticed at all before. Our damage by sin then appears before the mental eyes in astonishing variety. It is revealed to us both that sinfulness, which constitutes our common sad heritage with other people, and that private sinfulness, which is acquired by each person from his inattentive, reckless life that preceded a life devoted to piety. With the multiplication of incentives for repentance, repentance itself intensifies. It cleanses the eye of the soul. A cleansed eye sees more stains on the robe of the soul than it saw, being clogged and ulcerated by sin; Naturally, such a vision intensifies and deepens repentance. It operates in successful ascetics incomparably more than in those beginning the feat. Moral Christian success is success in repentance, because success in repentance comes from especially careful fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. Being overshadowed by Divine grace, repentance elevates its doer to a supernatural life. 1433 Repentance is possible only with our real desire for a truly Christian life. As a saving gift of God, repentance must be received with the greatest reverence and care. Repentance cannot be combined with an arbitrary sinful life. As a Christian achievement, it requires continuity. Those people who, being in a sinful life out of sympathy for it, out of attachment to it, at certain times resort to repentance, so that, having washed themselves for a minute, they again plunge into sinful filth, only deceive themselves and lose their sinful life. 1434 On the contrary, those who have properly entered the path of repentance experience the need for constancy in this state and realize that our whole life should consist of constant repentance, if our life corresponded to our name. 1435 Having such an important meaning in the course of our moral life, the feat of repentance, as well as all other feats, acquire an exclusive and proper meaning in the matter of our salvation, as conditions that prepare us to receive the special grace of God in the Sacraments of confession and communion. The moral significance of the Holy Sacraments in our soul-saving feat also often provokes Bishop Ignatius to reverent reflection. Тайна св. repentance is depicted in him under expressive images - the second baptism of a spiritual physician 1436 spiritual resurrection. 1437 God gave us the Sacrament of Confession to support our weakness, to heal the sinful ulcers we receive after baptism, to maintain the shrine with which we are sealed by holy baptism intact. By this Sacrament the state brought by holy baptism is renewed and restored. The Sacrament of Confession should be resorted to, if possible, often: the soul of that person who has the custom of frequently confessing his sins is kept from sinning by the memory of the upcoming confession; on the contrary, unconfessed sins are conveniently repeated, as if committed in the dark or at night. 1438 Repentance renews our spiritual nature, damaged by sin, and restores in us the purity of the spiritual image received through baptism. Those who wish to acquire an experienced knowledge of holy baptism, those who wish to discover the hidden sacrament and priceless spiritual gift invested by the ineffable goodness of God in the spiritual treasury, those who wish to see their nature in a state of renewal and rebirth, those who wish to feel and see Christ in themselves, can achieve all this through repentance. Through baptism, solely by the ineffable goodness of God, the gift of God is communicated to man - and with the repentance of a Christian, who after baptism allowed himself the activity and life of a fallen nature, who revived death in himself, who killed life in himself, the gift is returned solely by the goodness of God. At baptism we are born of water and the Spirit; in repentance we are reborn through tears and the Spirit. 1439 So essential for a Christian, the lifelong feat of repentance is assisted and strengthened by the Sacrament of repentance. As if responding to a frivolous consideration, often encountered in life, that repentance has a relaxing effect on human morality, giving the opportunity for calm sinfulness in the frivolous hope of repentance: if we sin, we will repent. The Most Reverend Ignatius says that whoever, in the hope of repentance, allows himself to sin arbitrarily and intentionally, acts treacherously in relation to God. The one who sins arbitrarily and intentionally, in the hope of repentance, is suddenly struck by death, and he is not given the time that he intended to devote to virtue. 1440 Moreover, the above-mentioned features of the penitential feat preparatory to the Sacrament of Confession indicate that a necessary condition for the worthy acceptance of God’s grace is sincere and deep repentance, along with the determination to move away from sin in every possible way and begin a new, virtuous life. This is the peculiarity of the Orthodox Christian teaching about salvation, that the soul-saving feat, impossible without the gracious assistance of God, is certainly accomplished by the person being saved, on whose free decision it depends whether to be worthy of the gifts of God’s grace, or to accept it into judgment and condemnation, without reasoning about its salvific nature. Saint Ignatius adheres to the same view in his teaching about the Sacrament of St. communion. Through the wonderful sacrament of the Eucharist, he who eats the all-holy body of Christ and drinks the all-holy blood of Christ, through such completeness of eating, comes into perfect union with the God-man: his body becomes the body of the God-man, his blood becomes the blood of the God-man. 1441 The spiritually nourishing, regenerating and restoring grace of the Holy Eucharist is felt directly by those worthy to partake of the Holy Mysteries without condemnation. “During the communion of the Holy Mysteries, the touch of the soul of Christ on the soul of the communicant is clearly felt - the union of the soul of Christ with the soul of the communicant. Without words, without instruction in words, the soul begins to feel in itself the tranquility, meekness, humility, love for everyone, coldness towards the corruptible and transitory, sympathy for the future age that are alien to the fallen nature.” 1442 Anyone who receives communion with attention and reverence, with due preparation and faith, feels a change in himself, if not immediately after communion, then after some time. A wonderful world descends on the mind and heart; the members of the body are clothed with tranquility; the stamp of grace falls on the face; thoughts and feelings are connected by sacred, spiritual bonds that prohibit reckless freedom and ease and curb them. With a constantly pious and attentive life, the effect of the Holy Mysteries becomes clearer, more tangible, and more abundant. 1443 The body and blood of Christ revive the Christian, awaken in him new, higher spiritual understandings and sensations that were hitherto completely unknown to him, reveal the Divine sacraments, fulfill the actions of the Holy Spirit, and bring humility. Having united with the Lord, a person becomes spiritual, borrowing spiritual properties from the Spirit of the Lord, and the bestial properties with which his fall infected him are separated and fall away from him, like a scab from a healed wound. 1444 But this wonderful rebirth of man, his spiritual transformation, accomplished by the grace of God, does not occur, however, mechanically, but is prepared and accompanied by the continuous activity of a Christian. Living according to the Gospel commandments, prayer in contrition of the spirit, leads to union with the Lord: this union is completed by Divine grace and the communion of the all-holy Divine body and blood of Christ. 1445 But worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries is possible only with a constantly pious life, or after decisive repentance for a sinful life and decisive abandonment of it, witnessed and sealed by the offering of repentance according to the instructions of the Holy Church. And unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries, with an arbitrary and intentional sinful life, with falling into mortal sins, with unbelief and evil faith, is, according to Bishop Ignatius, an unparalleled crime. Those who receive communion in such a state commit a crime that entails no longer correctional executions, but decisive executions that bring eternal torment. This crime is equal to the crime committed by the murderers of the God-Man, who showered Him with insults, covered His face with spittle, and tormented His body with cruel beatings, nails, and crucifixion. 1446 The perception of God's grace and saving communion with God is not acquired and experienced mechanically, but requires a careful and amateur feat of preparation. And if a person is mired in the filth of sin, let him avoid the terrible communion, so as not to commit and mark his sins with the most serious sin: desecration of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, desecration of Christ. Before boldly entering into marriage with the Son of God, let us take care of our spiritual robe: it is washed, cleansed from sinful stains, whatever these stains may be, by the ineffable mercy of the Lord during our repentance. 1447 Thus, the rebirth and renewal of the sinful human soul is mysterious, invisible to the bodily and spiritually grounded gaze; is accomplished in a touching union of a person’s free determination and God’s gracious help: the saving feat of fasting, prayer or repentance, freely begun for the revival of the soul, attracts the gracious power of God to the human soul, which, strengthening weak human undertakings, deepens and sanctifies human deeds and creating a saving mood, thereby introducing a person into the possibility of pure Christian good deeds, putting a Christian on the path of virtues. V. Preceded and accompanied by spiritually clearing feats of fasting, prayer and repentance, strengthened and sanctified by the grace of God, Christian virtues are a natural, vital expression of our soul-saving mood and the direction of our life along the paths of eternity: Living on earth, a Christian acts for God and for heaven, and not for people, that is, his activity is alien to man-pleasing. A Christian also acts for people, but not in order to extort praise from them for himself, but in order to bring them true service and benefit, although in ordinary conditions of worldly life people often tear to pieces their benefactors, like stupid and ferocious animals, and often tear to pieces those who look after them and feed them. In addition, the constant desire to fulfill the will of God is also the best means for cultivating our spiritual field: little by little it destroys self-satisfaction in us and plunges us into blissful poverty of spirit, 1448 v. That is, thereby placing us on the first, basic stage of spiritual Christian perfection. Christian virtues naturally follow from Christian deeds - fasting, prayer and repentance, in them a Christian is not only a hearer of God’s law, but also a creator or executor of it, and the virtues themselves are the fruit worthy of repentance, and therefore are our paths to the Lord and the Lord’s paths and His paths into human souls, for Christian virtues serve as an expression of the corresponding way of thinking and heartfelt feelings. The path of virtues, like the entire path of salvation in general, is unusually complex and difficult. This path includes a continuous struggle with sin - in mood and deeds, continuous replacement of sin - in mood and deeds, respectively, with opposite virtues, continuous passage of the path of virtue in spiritual and external life: In order to fully acquire a Christian saving mood, it is necessary, according to the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, to fill and smooth out all the spiritual jungle, i.e. in all low-lying, impassable places, embankments must be made for a convenient procession for the Lord: drunkenness, gluttony, fornication, carnal pleasures, so-called innocent games and amusements must be abandoned - in a word, everything that constitutes a carnal and sinful life, which reduces a person to the dignity of senseless cattle and beasts. We must replace them with the opposite virtues: abstinence, sobriety and chastity. Sinful and carnal life blocks the Lord's path into the human heart. Next, you need to humble and erase from the soul conceit and pride in all their forms - both the supposedly significant and the most petty. Finally, we must reject all incorrect and self-willed concepts of faith, completely submitting to the teachings of God, preserved in integrity by the one, Orthodox Eastern Church. Then all the crookedness will be straightened, all the unevenness will be smoothed out: the path for the Lord will become completely free; всякий человек удобно получит спасение. Salvation enters the soul together with the Lord who has entered it. 1449 From here it is absolutely clear that the path of Christian good deeds is not at all free from external and, especially, internal struggle with sin or passion. Those who, being under the power of passions, demand dispassion from themselves act very wrongly. With such an incorrect demand from themselves, which comes from an incorrect concept of themselves, they come into extraordinary confusion when the sin living in them manifests itself in some way. They become despondent and hopeless. It seems to them, due to their incorrect view of themselves, that the manifestation of sin is something unusual, something happening out of order. Meanwhile, the manifestation of sin in thoughts, feelings, words and deeds (here we are not talking about mortal sins or voluntary sins, but about hobbies) is a logical, natural, necessary manifestation. 1450 For the same reason for the sinful manifestations in our soul in connection with good deeds, human virtue, according to the moral Christian understanding of Bishop Ignatius, should be full of humility and exclusion, consciousness of spiritual poverty, and not delight and ecstasy. With all virtues, patience is needed. No virtue can take place without patience; virtue, in order to remain virtue, needs patience. Whoever wavers in virtue and does not endure in it to the end, loses his virtue. “I don’t like,” Bishop Ignatius writes to one pious man, “I don’t like earthly pilgrims to be insanely cheerful: this does not suit strangers, exiles, who face death, judgment, a double eternity, blessed or sorrowful. I love them to be calm: calm is a sign that a wanderer has blessed hope in his heart.” 1451 And this is the beneficial tranquility of a person. is generated by faith in God, trust in Him and the possibility of salvation presented to them only by the grace of God. That is why Bishop Ignatius, like other ascetic writers, as we will see below, considers humility an important virtue, the basis of virtues. As much as conceit and self-delusion are sad and destructive for a person, so, on the contrary, humility, the opposite of conceit, is salutary. Through humility, virtue, as it were, enters our life. Humility is a good and blissful state of spirit; it is, primarily, a virtue of the mind. For this reason it is very often called humility. What is humility? Humility is a person’s correct concept of humanity, therefore it is a person’s correct concept of himself. The direct effect of humility, or humbleness of mind, is that a person’s correct concept of humanity and of himself reconciles a person with himself, with human society, with its passions, shortcomings, abuses, with private and public circumstances - reconciles him with earth and heaven. The virtue of humility received its name from the inner peace of the heart it gives birth to. When we mean one calming, joyful, blissful state produced in us by virtue, we call it humility. When we intend, along with the state, to point out the source of the state, then we call it humility. Holy humility in the concepts of Bishop Ignatius is identified with spiritual freedom. 1452 Humility is a necessary condition and basis for the virtues of a Christian and gives them a truly Christian character. The humble person on the path of life is accompanied by the memory of death, instructing him to act on earth for eternity, and his very actions are inspired by special beneficence. The humble person acts for virtue, and not at the prompting of passions or to satisfy passions. The humble-wise sees himself as an insignificant speck of dust among the vast universe, among times, generations and human events, past and future. The mind and heart of a humble person are capable of accepting Divine Christian teaching and continually excelling in Christian virtues; the mind and heart of the humble man see and feel the fall of human nature, and therefore are able to recognize and accept the Redeemer. 1453 From these and many other judgments that take place in the works of Bishop Ignatius, we come to the conclusion that humility and humility constitute the main, essential feature of Christian virtue, the soul, so to speak, of the Christian soul-saving mood, the first step of the virtuous path. With this very feature, we believe, it is possible to quite clearly and definitely distinguish Orthodox Christian virtue from worldly and extra-Christian good deeds, the possibility of which is so readily referred to by opponents of the Orthodox Christian feat, who argued that for good deeds there is absolutely no need to be a Christian and, especially, an Orthodox Christian. Having before us the great appearance of witnesses of the Truth, including Saint Ignatius, we clearly see that the virtuous deeds of the sons of this age, having the image of piety and Christian virtue, have completely rejected its power and, from the Christian point of view, are even evil deeds, as stemming from pride and conceit, directly opposed to the proper mood of a Christian. The gaze of a Christian is directed to heaven and the contemplation of his sin; the gaze and mood of a non-Christian doer are fed by selfishness and pride. Humility does not see merit in the fallen nature of man: it contemplates humanity as an excellent creation of God, but at the same time it contemplates the sin that has penetrated into the entire being of man, poisoning this being; humility, recognizing the splendor of God’s creation, also recognizes the ugliness of the creation, distorted by sin; it constantly laments about this disaster. It looks at the earth as the country of its exile, and strives through repentance to regain the sky lost by conceit. But pride and conceit, having demanded the fall and destruction of humanity, do not see and do not recognize the fall in human nature: they see in it only virtues, only perfections and graces, they consider the very illnesses of the soul, the very passions to be virtues. This view of humanity makes the idea of ​​a Redeemer completely unnecessary and alien. The vision of the proud is terrible blindness, and the lack of vision of the humble is the ability to see the Truth. 1454 The introduction of an element of humility into human virtues is achieved by comparing the latter with the absolute perfection of the Divine. Sometimes countless stars shine brightly in the clear sky at night, bickering with one another in an abundance of light; but when the sun appears, the stars disappear - disappear, as if becoming completely non-existent, although in essence they all remain in their places. Likewise, human virtues, when compared one with another, have their own light: when the Divine good appears, it disappears before the light of the Divine. 1455 Thus, the first, fundamental Christian virtue and an essential element of all other Christian virtues is humility. But if the believing thought of an Orthodox Christian, in obedience to the voice of the confessors of the said virtue, accepts, although not with complete certainty, humility as a state especially necessary for salvation, then the worldly mood of selfishness, pride and vanity does not reconcile with this virtue, recognizing, as we often hear, the unnaturalness, difficulty of achieving, uselessness and even harm of humility. For a worldly sinful mood, humility that turns a blind eye to the obvious advantages of doing good, to the human dignity that is clear to others, seems completely unnatural. Humility seems to a worldly person to be a difficult state to achieve, as associated with the renunciation of pride, which appears to the worldly gaze not only as a natural mood, our dignity, but also as a positive factor in our life. Humility seems to a worldly person to be a state and even a harmful phenomenon, because when this mood is present in us, our life’s compliance knows no limits, and, thanks to this, harmful life elements and factors take over, leaving virtue in the fold and oppression. Experienced knowledge of the path and conditions of Christian good works gives Vladyka Ignatius Brianchaninov sufficient grounds for a very definite and convincing answer to all the indicated and other possible perplexities on the question of the spirit and essence of the Orthodox Christian virtue - humility. In a special article on the issue of humility, 1456, in response to the student’s questions: “What is humility,” the elder, the exponent of the thoughts of St. Ignatius, defines: “humility is an evangelical virtue, uniting the strengths of man together with the peace of Christ, exceeding human comprehension; Although it is beyond comprehension, we learn about its existence through faith, from the Gospel, and we learn about virtue itself through experience as we acquire it. But even after acquiring it, it remains incomprehensible, as Divine, as the property and action of Christ: “learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Humility is achieved by fulfilling the Gospel commandments, mainly through prayer. 1457 The path to acquiring the virtue of humility and its naturalness and action in the soul and life of a Christian who is zealous for salvation is presented in the following form: He who wishes to acquire humility must carefully study the Gospel, and with the same care fulfill all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. The doer of the Gospel commandments can come to the knowledge of his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of all mankind, and finally to the consciousness and conviction that he is the most sinful and worst of all people. 1458 From an ordinary, everyday, worldly point of view, it seems incongruous that someone who carefully fulfills the Gospel commandments comes to the realization that he is the greatest sinner. It seems that the consequence should be the opposite. He who constantly performs virtues, and does them with special zeal, cannot help but see himself as virtuous. To this usual and natural consideration of the worldly mood, Vladyka Ignatius responds that such consciousness of oneself as virtuous applies to those who make imaginary good out of themselves, out of their fallen nature. He who does such good according to his own understanding, according to the inclination and instructions of our heart, cannot help but see this good, cannot help but be satisfied and admire it; the doer of good deeds, who has not acquired humility, is vain about them, delights in human praise, seeks, demands them; He becomes angry and hostile to those who refuse praise: He counts his good deeds: by the multitude of them he forms an opinion about himself, and, according to his opinion about himself, an opinion about his neighbors. This kind of activity leads to the opinion of one’s own righteousness, creates righteous people who are rejected by the Lord and reject the Lord, or only superficially and coldly confess Him with a dead confession (Matt. 9:13). Christian virtues have the opposite character and the opposite consequences come from fulfilling the gospel commandments. As soon as the ascetic begins to fulfill them, he sees that he fulfills them very insufficiently, uncleanly, that he is hourly carried away by his passions, that is, by his damaged will, into activities prohibited by the commandments. Then he will clearly see that the fallen nature is hostile to the Gospel. Intensified activity according to the Gospel reveals to him more and more clearly the insufficiency of his good deeds, his many deviations and defeats, the unhappy state of fallen nature, alienated from God, which has acquired a hostile mood towards God. Looking at his past life, he sees that it is an unbroken chain of sins, falls, actions that anger God, and from the sincerity of his heart he recognizes himself as the greatest sinner, worthy of temporary and eternal executions, completely in need of a Redeemer, having in Him the only hope of salvation. He imperceptibly forms such an opinion about himself from doing the commandments. It can be said with certainty, Bishop Ignatius concludes, that he who is guided in his life by the Gospel will not stop from bringing full proof that he does not know a single good deed behind him. And one must not think that such a view of oneself will lead to despondency or despair; on the contrary, it will lead to Christianity. It was for such sinners that the Lord descended to earth, as He Himself declared: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). Such sinners can wholeheartedly accept and confess the Redeemer. 1459 Thus, serious and deep attention to oneself, from the point of view of the Gospel commandments, reveals in our soul elements of sinful selfhood and spiritual impurity, the presence of which, according to the consciousness of the ascetic, in ordinary everyday manifestations of good deeds excludes the possibility of self-pleasure and leads to humility. Further, in the ordinary everyday manifestations of our self-esteem, our achievement of the virtue of humility is made difficult by our very natural and tempting vision of the sins of our neighbors, our special vigilance in this regard, with our cloudiness and spiritual myopia in relation to ourselves, in which, seeing the mote in the eye of our brother, we do not feel the beam in our own eye. In a critical attitude towards the activities of our neighbor, our attention to ourselves weakens, and our personal transgressions that we notice are diminished in comparison with the sins of our neighbors that are obvious to us: unable to see our own sins, we turn out to be strong and tireless in condemning our brother. And such activity of ours seems quite natural under ordinary conditions of life, but seeing our sin while not condemning our guilty neighbor seems difficult and almost unnatural. How to achieve humility in this case and preserve the purity of virtue? Let us assume that activity according to the Gospel commandments leads to knowledge and awareness of one’s sinfulness; But how can one achieve the point of recognizing oneself as more sinful than all the people among whom there are terrible criminals, villains? This, Bishop Ignatius answers, is again a natural consequence of the feat. If there are two objects before our eyes, and we examine one of them with all possible attention and incessantly, and do not pay any attention to the other, then about the first we receive a clear, detailed, definite concept, and in relation to the second we remain with the most superficial concept. The doer of the Gospel commandments has the eyes of his mind constantly fixed on his own sinfulness; by confessing it to God and crying, he takes care of discovering new ulcers and spots in himself. Discovering them with the help of God, he strives for new discoveries, drawn by the desire for God-pleasing purity. He does not look at the sins of his neighbors. If on any occasion he has to look at the sin of his neighbor, then his glance is the most superficial and fleeting, as is usually the case with people busy with something special. From the very order of his life it follows naturally and logically that he recognizes himself as a sinner among sinners. 1460 Thus, the virtue of humility is prioritized for us by strengthening our attention to ourselves from the point of view of the Gospel commandments, preferably before studying the life and moods of our neighbor. Our way of thinking, borrowed entirely from the Gospel, from Christ, is called humility. From humility comes humility. Humility is a feeling of the heart, there are guarantees of the heart corresponding to humility. This also determines the gradual nature of their acquisition. First one must learn humility; As you practice humility, the soul acquires humility, because the state of the heart always depends on the thoughts acquired by the mind. When a person’s work is overshadowed by Divine grace, then humility and humility in abundance will begin to give birth to and strengthen each other with the help of prayer. 1461 In the scope of the concept of humility as a virtue, Bishop Ignatius thinks of, among other things: the fear of God, a deep knowledge of one’s insignificance, a change in view of one’s neighbors, and they, without any coercion, seem to the humble one to be superior to him in all respects; hatred of human praise; constant accusation and self-reproach, truthfulness and directness, impartiality, knowledge of the mystery hidden in the cross of Christ; the desire to crucify oneself to the world and passions, the desire for this crucifixion. Rejection and eclipse of flattering customs and words, modest due to compulsion, or intent or skill in dissimulation. Rejection of earthly wisdom as indecent for heaven. Contempt for everything that is high in people and an abomination before God. Leaving word justification; silence before those who offend. Putting aside all one’s own speculations and rejecting the mind of the Gospel. Humility or spiritual reasoning. conscious obedience to the Church in everything. 1462 From what has been said it is clear that spiritual reasoning is identified with humility. The last conclusion seems, from our point of view, especially noteworthy in view of the fact that in other places in the works of Bishop Ignatius, spiritual reasoning is placed at the head of all virtues, which, when identifying the latter with humility, greatly simplifies the understanding of the essence of virtue. As we will see, spiritual reasoning is characterized completely homogeneously with humility, both in relation to the content of our personal life and in relation to the moral assessment of our neighbors. Godly judgment must precede not only all our actions regarding our neighbor, in order to avoid condemnation and accusation of innocent and righteous people, or the adoption of cruel measures against sins that do not cause such measures at all: it must precede all our actions in general, both external and internal. The Holy Fathers call this judgment spiritual reasoning, that main virtue on which correctness, and therefore the entire dignity of all other virtues, depends. Virtue can be wrong, and evil can wear the guise of virtue. Our natural good is mixed with evil and damaged by it; Because of our damage, we cannot in any way trust the apparently good thoughts that appear in us, or the apparently good heart desires. Both our limitations and our state of decline require that our actions must necessarily be preceded by consideration. 1463 Reasoning, considering all the thoughts and deeds of a person, eliminates every thought and intention of evil, displeasing to God, and removes delusion from us: In reasoning, wisdom, reason, and spiritual sense are united, distinguishing good from evil (Heb. 5:14), without which our inner house is built below, spiritual wealth can be gathered below (Prov. 24:3-4). Without the gift of reasoning, not a single virtue can take place or remain firm to the end. The mother and guardian of all virtues is reasoning. 1464 Spiritual reasoning is the door to the palace of virtues, and to the treasury of spiritual goods. 1465 Elsewhere, identifying spiritual reason with humility, Bishop Ignatius sees in it the only means to understanding the virtuous path, to the fight against sin, to the vision and understanding of Christianity: the light of spiritual reason should be illuminated by the view of the spiritual eye on signs and wonders in order to avoid those disasters into which the view of carnal wisdom on them can involve. Humility is inseparable from spiritual intelligence. Living faith opens the eyes of the soul to God: the Word of God unites the soul with God. He who thus sees God sees his own insignificance, is filled with inexpressible reverence for God, for all His works, for all His commands, for all His teachings, and acquires humility. The humble person will not even dare to be curious about what is happening outside the will of God, what is condemned in good time by the Word of God. 1466 The mysterious and not entirely clear for a worldly person, the virtuous state of humility, is revealed and clarified to a relative extent under the condition of attentive, concentrated prayer, as its consequence and fruit. If someone, during his prayer, is honored with tenderness, which is born from attentive prayer, he knows from experience that it is precisely in precious moments of tenderness that thoughts of humility appear in him, imparting a feeling of humility. This especially happens when emotion is accompanied by tears. The more often times of tenderness come, the more often the worker of prayer hears the mysterious teaching of humility, the deeper this teaching penetrates into his heart. The grace-filled action of prayer and humility are one and the same action. This work appears in two forms: in Christ-like humility and in Divine love, which is the highest action of prayer. This action belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and acts through the mediation of the Holy Spirit, inexpressibly and incomprehensibly, in His chosen vessels, 1467 The outlined features and conditions for the emergence of the virtue of humility, in our opinion, not only sufficiently clarify the view of Bishop Ignatius regarding the said virtue, but also convince of its unconditional justice in the sense that humility is not only high and a truly Christian saving mood, but also an indispensable condition and basis for all other Christian virtues, which without humility lose their truly Christian character and become in the category of extra-Christian virtues, for a Christian not only not saving, but also harmful to the soul. Being an essential feature and spiritual basis of all Christian virtues, humility leads a Christian to the consciousness of spiritual poverty, or places him on the first essential level of Christian perfection. Being the fundamental Christian virtue and the soul of all other virtues, humility introduces a Christian to the understanding, assimilation and active experience of the highest Christian virtue - love. Bishop Ignatius pays special attention to the depiction and disclosure of this greatest and primarily Christian virtue. Accordingly, in an effort to understand the positive side of salvation through the works of Bishop Ignatius, in the future we intend to dwell a lot on the issue of Christian love. As for the teaching about other virtues, this question about the private manifestations of a saving soul, in our opinion, is sufficiently resolved by comparing the teachings of Bishop Ignatius with the teachings of the ascetic spiritual mentors he revered. This comparison makes clear for us, on the one hand, the deep affinity of St. Ignatius with the ascetic ascetics, not only on the issue of the types of virtues, their essence, but also on the issue of Christian love, with all this, his teaching bears the imprint of his, known to us, spiritual individuality. The task of human life on earth is to fight passions, so that, having cleansed oneself from them, one can enter into communion with God and acquire the precious fruits of this communion. Sinful passion is a psychological and volitional fact par excellence; therefore, the struggle against passions should be concentrated in the mental area and directed primarily towards the improvement of the sinful will. In all holy ascetics we find the teaching that every passion has an opposite virtue, and in order to destroy a passion, a corresponding feat or virtue is necessary. For example, against gluttony - fasting, against fornication - abstinence; against the love of money - distributing favors, etc. In a word, to destroy passion you need to do the opposite of good. But on the other hand, although all sinful states are internally connected with each other, so that each of the people falls into a variety of sins; however, each of the people has some kind of predominant passion, 1468 and in order to destroy passions in general, he must turn all his attention to this main passion, so that, having destroyed it, he will be freed from all passions, “having killed the Egyptian, see God in the bush of humility.” But such a course of spiritual struggle, i.e. when we do good instead of sin, the opposite of it, it can become completely mechanical and not bring any benefit. This kind of struggle is useful only if we have healthy mental soil for the creation of virtue, otherwise our virtues will be external, pharisaical and will be completely fruitless for our soul. After all, we constantly see that outwardly performed goodness is combined with spiritual rudeness and coldness. Such a person does both good and evil; he has in his soul both a share of good and a share of evil, but without the predominance of the former over the latter. This property of the soul is called by St. ascetics "lukewarmness". In the practice of medical doctors, a different medicine is used for each disease, but at the same time, special attention is paid to diet and the general healthy condition of the person. If the matter is healthy and has enough vitality in itself, then the medical remedies prescribed by the doctor will be beneficial, otherwise they remain useless and may even be harmful, i.e., medical remedies have a healing effect on the physical body only if they are combined and interact with the vitality of the body itself. So it is in spiritual life. Holy ascetics, as experienced spiritual doctors, absolutely and correctly point to virtues as remedies against a certain kind of passion. Psychologically this is true. But at the same time, they by no means attribute to these virtues a mechanical effect on spiritual healing. They do not look at external good deeds and recognize it as morally valuable and beneficial for spiritual life only to the extent that it is combined with the internal struggle, with the heart’s love for good and hatred for evil. Therefore, for the purposes of Christian perfection, what is important is not how many good deeds we can and should perform, but what is important is to grasp, define and acquire for ourselves the common essential basis of all Christian virtues. As you know, the ascetic fathers recognized selfishness, the selfish elevation of one’s “I” as the goal of one’s life, as the starting point of sin. The result of selfishness is the dissolution of world harmony, the breaking of union with God and people, and the constant struggle for existence. All sins and passions appear as a direct consequence of this struggle, as a direct manifestation of selfishness. This is the essence of a sinful life. It is very clear that life according to God is truly human; and the Christian life must be the opposite of sinful. If there, in sin, we place our “I” as a life principle - above everything, and our will - as a world law, the only one obligatory for us, then here, in the life of spirit and strength, we must put renunciation of our “I” and our will as a life principle; renounce both of these and accept the yoke of Christ upon yourself, accept His will as the law of your life. In a sinful life, we fought with people because of our “I”, were animated by mutual hatred: here, in the spiritual Christian life, we must strive to unite with people, guided not by hatred, but by love for them. So, here are the two principles that make up the spiritual life of renunciation of one’s “I” and one’s will - a negative beginning, love for God and one’s neighbors - a positive, creative beginning. Both of these principles, in their complete assimilation by man, represent the ultimate goal of asceticism, and the path to it is to gradually develop those rudiments of these perfections that are given in human nature and restored in him by grace. Let us note from ascetic creations the essence of both sides of the matter of salvation. Renunciation of one’s “I” and one’s will occurs through self-reproach and humility. With full and careful attention to one's spiritual life, with sobriety, as the saints call it. ascetics, 1469 a person may soon notice that self-love manifests itself in him, first of all, as love for the World. Hence the renunciation of the World, since this sinful World becomes the property of my “I,” and the renunciation of my sins and passions. Renunciation of the World is the crucifixion of the World. “A person is crucified by the World when, having freed himself from external things, he strives against the very pleasures, or against the very lust of things, and against his desires. 1470 Renunciation of the World and internal crucifixion to it is the gradual acquisition of complete impartiality towards the World, preference of the soul over the flesh. A person lives in such a way that he subordinates the external world to his highest goals and looks at everything only from the perspective of his relationship to a purely spiritual life. In the area of ​​spiritual self-love, the ascetic is crucified by the World, which is expressed in complete coldness to human praise and to the deprivations of the World. 1471 He is equally cold to human censure and human praise. 1472 This coldness, of course, must be understood not as the insensitivity of the soul and its indifference to people. On the contrary, a person who is indifferent to the praise and reproach of people is their best friend. He is cold and indifferent to praise only insofar as it relates entirely to his sinful self and can arouse vanity in him. He is cold to the reproaches of people, again in relation to his self-love, that is, since they, directed against his real shortcomings, can, however, offend his sinful self-love. Such a person can have glory greater than his work, this is a matter of peace, because it does not harm either a loving attitude towards others or his own spiritual improvement. 1473 The first step in renouncing one’s self is crucifixion to the world, that is, subordinating the world to one’s personality, placing oneself in a royal position in relation to the world. The means to such indifference to the world is self-reproach. With a sincere desire for perfection, he who has entered the Path of Christ not only does not enjoy the praise of the world and is not hurt by blasphemies, but the more he boasts of people, the more he recognizes himself as sinful and worthy of blame. He recognizes himself as such, confessing to himself his secret sins unknown to the World, and in the very praises of the World he hears himself reproached. 1474 If a person commits a thousand virtues, but does not adhere to the path of self-reproach, he will never cease to be offended and offend others, thereby losing all his labors, and what joy, what peace of mind has the one who reproaches himself. 1475 If someone carefully, with the fear of God, examines himself and strictly examines his conscience, then he will certainly find himself guilty. 1476 The difficulty of self-reproach and our internal tendency to self-praise is explained by the fact that each of us tries in every matter to place the blame on his brother and place all the burden on him; each of us is lazy and does not keep a single commandment, but demands from his neighbor that all the commandments be fulfilled. 1477 But if we consider ourselves and not others to be guilty of everything that happens to us, then this will bring us a lot of good and give us peace of mind. 1478 That we should recognize ourselves as the culprit of our truly committed deeds is still clear to us. If I have committed a sinful act and for this I am reproached by people, I can still, with sufficient attention to myself, humble myself and say with my soul: yes, I did it and I am a sinner. But how is it possible to humble our thoughts and admit that we are a sinner if we have undoubtedly done a good deed and if the reproach of our neighbor is therefore unfair? The psychological possibility of self-condemnation in this case remains only with those who have ascended to the third stage of renunciation of their “I”. If simple self-reproach is possible for us only with some limitation of our pride and attentive attitude towards ourselves, then in order to recognize ourselves as sinners, even if it is impossible to legally justify our guilt in sin, a complete renunciation of our sinful self is necessary. This kind of mood is what St. calls it. ascetics of humility. 1479 Conscious of the height and holiness of good, aware of his sinfulness, the humble person can always consider himself a sinner. Even at a time when people praise his exploits and good deeds, while they surround him with an aura of holiness and perfect moral purity, the humble one himself feels like a great sinner. “You know that you are holy,” a certain sophist told Abba Zosima. Don't you know that you have virtues? After all, you see how you fulfill the commandments: how can you, doing this, consider yourself a sinner? But Abba humbly answered: “Do not embarrass me, but I truly consider myself a sinner.” 1480 One blessed abba reasoned in exactly the same way just before his death. The brothers said to him, “Are you afraid, father?” He answered: “As much as I could, I forced myself to keep the commandments, but I am a man and why can I know whether my work is pleasing to God. For there is another judgment of God and another judgment of man.” 1481 And such self-abasement is not poured out only in words, but is primarily and deeply felt in the soul of the humble. This is not servile caressing, but, on the contrary, deep inner self-abasement, awareness of one’s spiritual weakness and dissatisfaction: as a result of which a person not only does not ascribe to himself the right to judge his neighbors, but, realizing his own errors, is ready to consider himself worse than everyone else. Such a person humbles himself, both before his neighbors and before God. Humility before one's neighbor consists in considering one's brother wiser than oneself and superior in everything, and in considering oneself lower than everyone else. 1482 The second kind of humility is to attribute all your good deeds and exploits to God. It is naturally born in the human soul from fulfilling the commandments. Spiritual self-observation gives an all too tangible concept of our powerlessness to do good. We see that we are powerless to carry out the kindest undertakings of our spirit, to carry out our dearest and purest aspirations, and not because of external impossibility, but precisely because of complete spiritual impotence, when, in contrast to every good undertaking, the persistence of the spirit of malice is opposed. Thus, renunciation of one's sinful self and one's will consists of three principles of spiritual life: crucifixion to the world, self-reproach and humility. Our ideally perceived personality, as spiritual perfection, with the full development of our best strengths and aspirations, or life in a steady direction towards the Highest Good, Truth and Beauty, is, on the contrary, the goal of all exploits. But our personality, as it really is, is too far from its ideal image and the normal purpose of its existence. There is a lot mixed into it that does not belong to it by nature. 1483 Our spiritual powers go against their purpose given to them by the Creator; our will wants to subjugate everything to itself through violence not only over the outside world, but even through violence against our own personality and, of course, achieves nothing. Realizing that in my soul life is not going as it should, realizing that my personality, diminished by little more than an angel, is far from being what it really is, I at the same time see that this discord occurred from a perversion of my will. Therefore, with the assistance of God, I acquire the determination to renounce my will, my “I”, as the true culprits of the fall of my personality. This renunciation, therefore, is a natural matter in the highest sense of the word; on the contrary, leading one’s own will is an unnatural matter, because my will has been perverted. But by renouncing his will and his sinful self for the sake of Christian perfection, a person thus does not lose his personality. On the contrary, here, in the act of self-denial, the personality appears in its true light, purified from the alien impurities of proud self-praise. The sinful will prevented a person from being worthy of his title, he cuts it off and through this regains his dignity. St. Ascetics, through their spiritual experience, have known the psychological meaning of self-denial and therefore unfeignedly testify to us that if we want to change and free ourselves from the dominion of the world, we must learn to cut off our desires and thus, little by little, achieve immortality. For they say St. Ascetics, nothing brings such benefit to people as cutting off one’s own will, and truly a person prospers from this more than from any other virtue. 1484 Renunciation of one’s will is perfection, or carrying within oneself the law of perfection. Renunciation of one's will is by no means a state of apathy, when a person positively does not care how he lives, what happens to him; the apathetic person is equally cold towards every phenomenon in life. But apathy is a pathological state, while the Christian cutting off one’s will is a normal state, the highest flowering of moral health. Self-denial is necessarily combined with a strong moral uplift of the spirit. Those moral forces that were almost inactive in man under the yoke of his sinful will, with renunciation of the latter, come out to fight the old world; the sinful cover of the soul is destroyed, the personality appears in all its moral glory. A person does not want to fulfill the command of his sinful “I” and through this he receives the moral opportunity to achieve the fulfillment of his innate spiritual aspirations. This means that at a time when a person does not want to fulfill his sinful will, it turns out that the ideal will, which by nature is in agreement with the Divine will, is fulfilled. But self-denial is only a negative element of the work of salvation; self-denial never remains lonely and lifeless in spiritual life; on the contrary, it always and necessarily manifests itself, both in mental activity and externally, as an active principle, as love. An essential sign of love is self-denial and self-sacrifice: self-denial precedes love, and self-sacrifice constitutes its very essence. Self-denial, as we have seen, is understood by ascetics as cutting off one’s sinful will and refusal to fulfill the will of one’s perverted self. Instead of a self-loving idol, God is placed, the human will is subordinated to the Divine. Through an act of self-denial, the human personality enters the best period of its development and receives a direction that is completely consistent with its ideal purpose. In the depths of the human soul lies the beginning of another life, the beginning of love, which in the sinner was suppressed by another, the opposite principle of self-love, and after the latter is killed by asceticism, it is revealed in all its strength, no longer as a negative beginning, but as constant joy in God and the Church. Those who have been worthy of the spiritual consolations of love, writes Abba Macarius, sometimes have fun, as if at some kind of royal supper, and rejoice at some inexpressible joy; then they enjoy themselves spiritually, like a bride and groom; then, like disembodied Angels, they feel such mobility and lightness in the body that they do not even consider themselves clothed in a body; sometimes they become intoxicated with the inexpressible rapture of spiritual mysteries, sometimes in weeping and lamentation they tearfully pray for the salvation of all people, because, burning with divine love for all people, they take into themselves the cry of the whole Adam; and sometimes, with a delight of the spirit, indescribable by words, they are kindled with such love that if it were possible, every person would be compassionately sheltered in their own bosom, without making any distinction between bad and good. 1485 So, this is the essence of love. This is life in God and neighbor, but not in oneself. Anyone who has experienced any kind of love can very conveniently find confirmation of these thoughts, because such a loving person undoubtedly experienced that love was revealed in him so strongly that it was as if his soul was leaving him. 1486 The essence of love is to renounce your personality for another being, transfer your personal life to another being. The isolation of personality that we can observe in modern life is a deviation from the norm and is explained solely by the sinful corruption of man. This isolation should not exist. The Lord came to earth for this purpose, so that everyone would be one. All people, cutting off pride and evil will, through grace-filled deeds, should gradually strive to unite with Christ and each other into one whole in mutual love, so that as much as one unites with one’s neighbor, one unites with God and vice versa. 1487 Love has the power to reveal to us what we have never seen or known before. If we are imbued with love for our neighbor, we discover in our spirit the ability to transfer the life center into the soul of our neighbor, and in the latter we discover inner goodness, which is not visible to selfish eyes, just as the true beauty of objects is to clogged eyes. On the other hand, the power of love, which is revealed in our spirit, and the power of love, which we find in the spirit of our neighbor, in their union, enlightens our mind and becomes a force that, transcending the limits of space and time, reveals to us the transcendental things of God and unites us with him into one common grace-filled life of love. This is exactly the kind of love that Ap had in mind. Paul, when to express your love for God to use the expression: “I live not for this, but Christ lives in me.” Love achieves great moral goals even without many sacrifices and magnificent deeds. The Lord did not say: give Me a gift of property, or bulls, or fasting, or vigil, but what is easy, convenient, short-lived, he commanded. Forgive your brother's sins, and I will forgive you your sins. When you have no enmity against anyone, when the sun does not set on your anger, when you have peace and love with everyone; then your prayer is favorable and your offering is acceptable and you yourself are blessed. 1488 Love gives true good and unites with God, while acts of mercy without love and forgiveness are an abomination before the Lord. This is because the cause of all evil is selfishness and lack of love for others. If I do deeds of mercy without love, I do nothing good, because the cause of world discord remains within myself. Sin is not abolished by external deeds, because the true cause of sin, which lies in my “I,” is always, and even at the very moment of performing a good deed, ready to break the externally concluded union with our neighbor. But as soon as I erase the head of the serpent of selfishness, destroy the internal cause of world discord, I thereby, of course, establish peace with people and unity with God; because, even in the absence of good deeds, the creative power of my love for my neighbors is ready every minute for sacrifice and good deeds, if only the good of my neighbors requires them. The idol of self-love is removed from the sanctuary of the heart and the God of peace and love is installed on the purified throne of conscience. Love, as a vital and creative principle, manifests itself in acts of spiritual and physical mercy. But these and other manifestations of love, these or other external deeds acquire moral significance only to the extent that they are entirely an expression of love and have the goal of affirming love. So, for example, the moral significance of prayer, as a Christian feat, can be considered from the point of view of love, in relation to God and neighbor. Oblivion about the surrounding worldly vanity, disgust from one’s own spiritual vanity, intense admiration of the soul brings a person closer to God and unites him with Him. The fruit of such a union is the destruction of pride and selfishness. 1489 He who constantly prays to God, even if he is worthy of doing something good, knows why he did it, and cannot be proud because of all his successes. ascribes to God, always thanks Him, always calls on Him, trembles, lest he should lose Divine help, through which his weakness and powerlessness will be revealed, He prays with humility, and through prayer he humbles himself, and the more he succeeds in virtue, the more he always humbles himself. Proceeding from the beginning of love, prayer itself is an educational means, because it itself carries spiritual power that destroys the mediastinum between earth and heaven, between man and God, between spirit and flesh, and between man and his neighbors. Prayerfully crucifying pride, a person receives the inner opportunity and even the need to reconcile with enemies and unite everything and everyone in one harmony of love. The sinful ulcer of pride and enmity is destroyed only by love and prayer. If a person prays for his brother, this is a sign of compassion and love, and where there is compassion and love, there neither irritability, nor resentment, nor any other passion can succeed. 1490 Through prayer and love, the largest and purulent ulcer in humanity is cured - the ulcer of pride, selfishness and selfishness. Man unites with man, and the heart of one responds to the soul of the other. Here, precisely at the beginning of love, lies the deepest psychological beginning of prayer for others more than for oneself. Like Christ the Savior, having seen the mystery and sweetness of prayer, he now prays not only for himself, but for the whole world. I have a prayer, says one blessed Abba, but I cannot pray for my soul more than for the soul of my neighbor, for I tremble at Him who says: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. I do according to my strength, but mercy depends on God. 1491 Through love and prayer, a person receives the moral need, forgetting about himself, to pray for every Christian soul that is grieving and embittered, demanding the help and mercy of God. He feels and experiences all the world's sorrow, all the human suffering that he encounters. So the meaning of prayer is that, 1st, it cleanses the soul from sins, 2ndly, it brings one closer to God, 3rdly, it unites one with love with one’s neighbors, and 4thly, it imparts strength for new deeds. The meaning of other virtues in relation to Christian love is also determined. Christian virtue is not an accidental and temporary phenomenon, it is a direct expression in the life of Christ’s love, and therefore it is constant. All virtues are connected to one another, like links of one spiritual chain, 1492 so that by fulfilling one Christian duty, we can fulfill another, and in the same way, violation of one has a harmful effect on the entire spiritual life of a Christian. Поэтому христианин должен приобретать от каждой добро, для какого представляется случай. 1493 Despite its diversity, true virtue is constant: “those who want to learn spiritual work must study day and night how to acquire it.” 1494 The transitions that we very often encounter from abstinence to lewdness, from meekness and humility to pride and arrogance, etc. 1495 are just as alien to true Christianity and even more so than complete paganism. All of these fluctuations in moral life are explained by a lack of understanding of true Christianity, and, mainly, by a lack of love. Love for God and neighbors is the solid foundation of all Christian virtues, this is the guarantee of the constancy of Christian moral activity and the guarantee of eternal life! In love are all the virtues, without it there is nothing, only ghosts and bare names of virtues remain. If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, then I am a ringing brass, or a sounding cymbal. If I give away all my property and give my body to be burned, but have no love, it will do me no good. Love is long-suffering, merciful, love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love covers everything, hopes everything, endures everything (I Cor. 13:1,3-7). Love carries within itself the tax of future eternal life. Love never fails, says Up. Paul (1 Cor. 13:8). It transcends all limits and conditions and leads a person to eternal unity with Eternal and All-Perfect Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27); in these two commandments is the whole law and all Christianity (Gal. 5:14). In accordance with the instructions of ascetic ascetics, Bishop Ignatius also speaks of the octogenarian virtues, opposite to the eight main sinful passions. Among these eight virtues, in accordance with the above 1496 passions, the following are indicated: 1) Temperance, the area of which includes limiting excessive consumption of food and nutrition, especially excessive consumption of wine; keeping the posts established by the Church; curbing the flesh with moderate and constantly equal consumption of food, which is why all passions in general begin to weaken, and especially self-love, expressed in the carnal direction of life. 2) Chastity, i.e. avoidance of all kinds of immoral deeds, words and thoughts. In the department of this virtue is service to the sick and disabled. The beginning of chastity is indicated by a mind unshaken by lustful thoughts and dreams; совершенством целомудрия является чистота, зрящая Бога. 3) Non-covetousness; The area of ​​this virtue includes self-satisfaction with only what is necessary, hatred of luxury and bliss, mercy towards the poor, trust in God's providence; following Christ's commandments; спокойствие и свобода духа, беспопечительность, мягкость сердца. 4) Quality; in the scope of this understanding we think: avoidance of angry thoughts and from indignation of the heart with rage; patience, following Christ, who calls His disciple to the cross; peace of heart; silence of mind; Christian firmness and courage; not feeling insulted; kindness. 5) Blessed crying - a feeling of fall, common to all people and one’s own spiritual poverty; hence - grace-filled consolation, lightness of conscience and joy, humble enduring of sorrows, desire for prayer, solitude, obedience, humility, confession of one’s sins. 6) Трезвение – усердие ко всякому доброму делу; unslothful fulfillment of church and cell rules, attention during prayer and careful observation of all deeds, words and thoughts, love in general for soul-saving feats. 7) Humility - awareness of one’s own sinfulness, a change in one’s outlook in relation to one’s neighbors, knowledge of the sacrament of the cross, conscious obedience to the Church in everything. 8) Love - the content of this supreme virtue is revealed by Bishop Ignatius with particular completeness. The experiences associated with it include: the change during prayer from the fear of God into the love of God; faithfulness to the Lord, proven by the constant rejection of every sinful thought and feeling. The indescribable, sweet attraction of the whole person with love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the worshiped Holy Trinity. Seeing the image of God and Christ in others; resulting from this spiritual vision, the preference for oneself over all neighbors and their reverent veneration for the Lord. Love for neighbors is brotherly, pure, equal to everyone, impartial, joyful, flaming equally towards friends and enemies. Admiration for prayer and love of the mind, heart and whole body. Indescribable pleasure of the body with spiritual joy. Spiritual intoxication. Relaxation of bodily members with spiritual consolation. Inactivity of the bodily senses during prayer. Resolution from the muteness of the heart's tongue. Stopping prayer from spiritual sweetness. Silence of the mind. Enlightening the mind and heart. Prayer power that overcomes sin. Peace of Christ. Retreat of all passions. The absorption of all understandings into the superior mind of Christ. Theology. Knowledge of incorporeal beings. The weakness of sinful thoughts that cannot be imagined in the mind. Sweetness and abundant consolation in times of sorrow. Vision of human structures. The depth of humility and the most humiliating opinion of oneself... The end is endless! 1497 In this general classification of Christian virtues, our attention is drawn to the correspondence of the ladder of virtues to the order of sinful fall - in the octagonal nature of their number and in the opposition of the content of sins and virtues. Further, attention is drawn primarily to the spiritual nature of all Christian virtues; Even those that arise and develop in the conditions of physical life, such as abstinence and chastity, or those that arise and develop in the conditions of external life, such as non-covetousness and meekness, are especially valuable in their spiritual nature and in their consequences for our spiritual life, in connection with the weakening of passions, especially self-love, with the achievement of spiritual purity, tranquility and freedom of spirit; carelessness and gentleness of heart, peace of heart, silence of mind, gentleness. Moreover, of course, the last four virtues have a spiritual character. The culmination of all Christian virtues is love. Outside of ascetic experience, it seems extremely difficult to carry out a detailed analysis of all those sublime spiritual experiences that are associated, according to the classification of Bishop Ignatius, with the virtue of Christian love, but some of these experiences seem more accessible and closer to our spiritual experience, and, by comparison with other places in the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov, they clarify for us relatively sufficiently the virtue of Christian love, its origins, types and properties. 1) On the question of the origin of Christian love in the works of Bishop Ignatius, it turns out that it can appear in a Christian only as a result of a long and continuous feat. The feeling of love that a sinner ascribes to himself, never ceasing to drown in sins; which he ascribes to himself unnaturally and proudly, is something other than one deceptive, forced play of feelings, an unconscious creation of daydreaming and conceit. 1498 The science of knowledge of God, taught by citizens of deserts, dens and abysses of the earth, that love for God is found in the village of the heart only after a long feat of eradicating passions, as the soul is cleansed, by repentance, through the fear of God; The love of a Christian achieved in this way is expressed in observance of the will of God, not out of fear of executions, not in order to avoid eternal torment, but because a Christian experiences the sweetness of Communion with God, and, alien to the introductory fear, is afraid, however, of falling away from the love of God, of losing Communion with God. 1499 We saw above that an indispensable condition for changing the fear of God into the love of God is prayer. 1500 Elsewhere, Saint Ignatius explains that love is born from purity of heart, immaculate conscience and unfeigned faith. It is necessary to cultivate these virtues, maintaining attention to oneself and silence, in order to achieve love, which is the height and totality of Christian perfection. The purity of the heart is violated by the acceptance of sinful thoughts, especially prodigal ones; integrity of conscience - arbitrary sins; faith is weakened by reliance on one’s own reason, insincerity and self-love. Whoever wants to talk about the truth without enlightenment from above will only indulge in empty conversations and debates, and will deviate from the path leading to love. 1501 Thus, a necessary condition for our achievement of Christian love is the continuity of the soul-saving feat, and constancy in following the path of virtues. In this case, it is not necessary, of course, to imagine the matter in such a way that Christian love, which completes the cycle of virtues, appears mechanically only after the complete implementation of the previous seven virtues. On the contrary, according to the unity and simplicity of our spiritual life, soul-saving deeds and Christian virtues, purifying our soul, raising it to perfection from strength to strength, gradually introduce it into the leading, state of Christian love, for all deeds and virtues prepare for a person the possibility of saving communion with God, which is so essential in relation to love. The stability and constancy of our soul-saving feat and success in the Christian life lead us to a state of love; the hesitation and decline of our spiritual life alienate this virtue from us and make it difficult for us to even theoretically clearly imagine the height, meaning and possibility of Christian love. According to the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, we see the degree of our love for God with particular clarity during prayer, which serves as an expression of this love and is very correctly called in the patristic writings the mirror of spiritual prosperity. When, during prayer, we are subjected to constant absent-mindedness, this serves as a sign that our heart is in captivity to earthly passions and cares, which do not allow it to strive entirely towards God and abide with Him. Attentive prayer serves as a sign that the heart has broken the threads of addictions, and therefore is freely directed to God, clings to Him, and is assimilated to Him. The transition from distracted prayer to attentive prayer, or from the love of the world to the love of God, requires a long time, many efforts, many aids. We need help from fasting, we need help from chastity and purity, we need help from non-covetousness, we need help from faith, we need help from humility, we need help from mercy, we need help from Divine grace. With the combined effect of these benefits, the heart is rejected from love for the world: a person, freed from the invisible chains of fall and sinfulness, rushes with his whole being towards God. Having known the height and bliss of this state, he tries to be in it more often. The love of God proves to him experimentally its presence in him and he proves his love for God by attentive, constant prayer, not plundered by thoughts about the objects and affairs of the transitory world. The first spiritual manifestation of love for God is revealed in the feeling of the fear of God. Naturally, the fear of God is the beginning of love and the first fruit of attentive prayer. What other feeling can be the feeling of a person burdened with countless sins and infirmities, when he feels the presence of God, and his presence with God face to face, if not a feeling of fear and deepest reverence? When we are invited by an earthly king, due to his special favor towards us, the first feeling that overcomes us upon presentation to him is a feeling of fear. It is inspired both by the greatness of the royal dignity and the splendor of its surroundings and the insignificance of our importance before the king. Gradually, with a favorable reception, fear begins to fade away, giving way to feelings of pleasure and love. The same thing happens in our relationship with God. When the blissful purity in which God is seen appears in the soul, fear initially seizes the soul. The fear of God, being an action of Divine grace, has its own spiritual delight. With our gradual assimilation to God, this delight intensifies and is finally transformed into love, which is the most abundant action of the same Divine grace. Human hard work is crowned with the gift of God. If labor is not preceded on the part of a person, and the correctness of will is not proven experimentally, the gift will not be sent down from above. If the gift is not sent down, the work is in vain: it is stolen and damaged either by the careless and double-minded execution of it, or by the admixture of vanity and man-pleasing to it. For a sincere desire for love, for a correct desire for love, a Christian is crowned with the gift of Christian love. Love for everything that the transitory world presents as objects of love must be dissolved according to the irreducible determination of God, according to which we must part with these objects in due time; on the contrary, he who has acquired love for God has acquired God, who, having become here on earth, the object of love and the property of man, remains with him forever. 1502 In love for God and neighbor, the entire law of God is concentrated, because love is that virtue that is made up of the fullness of all other virtues; 1503 Considering what has been said above about the origin, essence and meaning of love, we come to the conclusion that Christian love, as a moral state of a person, a) is acquired through the entire course of a soul-saving feat, b) gives the latter a truly Christian meaning, c) is possible only under the condition of intense self-activity of a person and the help of Divine grace, d) penetrating the entire soul-saving process and, even more, completing and leading it, Christian love coincides with spiritual salvation, the concepts of Christian love and eternal spiritual salvation coincide in scope. 2) On the question of the particular properties and types of Christian love, the teaching of Bishop Ignatius, like the above-mentioned teaching of the ascetic devotees, has, on the one hand, a particularly vital content, and on the other hand, in comparison with the usually vital and scholastic division of types, significant originality in the understanding of this subject. The noted features of Bishop Ignatius’s views on the issue of Christian love are sufficiently clear to us by comparing his judgments on this subject. Understanding the redemptive feat of Christ the Savior as the greatest and incomprehensible act of Divine Love, the act of the God of Love, Bishop Ignatius understands the entire soul-saving feat as an echo and communion of man’s love for God, for Divine Love. The salvation of the holy martyrs, saints, the salvation of many sinners oppressed by sorrows and illnesses consisted in the fact that they merged their love with Divine Love. And therefore, in general, for salvation it is necessary to respond to the love of our Lord for us with sympathy for His love, life according to His all-holy commandments. This is the sign of love He requires from us, and only this sign of love He accepts from us (John 14:23–24). If we do not respond to the Lord’s love for us with love for Him, then the blood of the God-man was not shed for us in vain? Is it not in vain that the Great Sacrifice was placed on the altar of the cross and slain? 1504 It is characteristic of love to often remember and think about the beloved, it is characteristic of love to often direct and strive with heart and soul towards the beloved. To constantly remember and think about your beloved, to constantly feel yourself attracted to your beloved is characteristic of perfect love. God wants us to love Him with such perfect love. It's natural. God is perfect, and He must be loved with a perfect love. The commandment to love God requires that we turn our heart, soul, and mind entirely to God, and, above all, leave a sinful life. 1505 We are obliged to direct all our will to God. Just as we care to fulfill the desires of those we love, and for this we try to know their desires, to study their inclinations: we should do the same with regard to God. We must become thoroughly and thoroughly familiar with the will of God. The will of God is revealed to us in the law of God, which is the Gospel. Having learned the will of God, we must fulfill it, because love requires this. She is not content with studying the will of her loved ones: she longs to fulfill it. She devotes herself to study for fulfillment; Having studied it, he indulges in execution. Studying and doing the will of God is recognized as a sure sign of love for God by God Himself (John 14:21–24). 1506 He who loves God constantly remembers Him. A living and constant remembrance of God is a vision of God. The soul changes when a spiritual sensation opens in it, through which the presence of God is felt, and the Invisible becomes Visible. A person’s life begins to flow under the gaze of the watchful eye of God, steadily looking at everything and seeing everything that we do and happens to us. Living and acting under the gaze of God, a person is protected with special care from sins and takes special care to fulfill God’s commandments. When the hour comes for the soul to separate from the body and enter into eternity, then it will appear to him filled with joy and consolation of the consciousness that earthly life is not spent in self-forgetfulness, not in self-delusion and infatuation with vanity and sins, not in forgetting God, but in unceasing remembrance, in the fulfillment of His all-holy will, under His all-holy guidance. 1507 Expressed in intense remembrance of God, in the study and fulfillment of His will; true Christian love for God is inseparable from humility of heart and contrition of spirit. 1508 Thus, love for God contains both perfect knowledge of God, and a careful study of the law of God, and the steady fulfillment of the will of God, and the sensation of God achieved, with the help of God’s grace, experienced by a person who is zealous for his salvation during earthly life and passes with it into eternity; in other words, in this understanding, the idea of ​​Christian love coincides with the idea of ​​spiritual salvation. And although the acquisition and implementation of Christian love for God constitutes a person’s lifelong endeavor, which for a sinful person often seems impossible, nevertheless it is necessary to strive with all our might to achieve holy love, but certainly in the way that God Himself showed us. 1509 Closely related to love of God is love of neighbor, and the latter is the most important means for achieving the former. The relationship between love for God and love for neighbors, indicated by St. The Gospel (Matt. 25:40), is poorly understood by a sinful person. A significant spiritual feat is needed, the assistance of Divine grace is needed in order to assimilate this concept to a heart damaged by sin, in order to keep it constantly in mind when communicating with the brethren. When this concept, by the grace of God, is assimilated to us, then it will become a source of the purest love for our neighbors, equal love for everyone. The reason for such love is one - Christ, revered and loved in every neighbor. 1510 Although the commandment to love God is so much more exalted than the commandment to love the image of God - man, as God is more exalted than His image; however, the commandment to love one's neighbor serves as the basis for the commandment to love God. He who has not laid a foundation labors in vain to build a building: it cannot possibly stand without a foundation. Through love for our neighbor we enter into love for God. The love of a Christian for God is love for Christ, (I John 2:23) and love for one’s neighbor is love for Christ in one’s neighbor: having loved one’s neighbor, having loved him in the Lord, that is, according to the commandments of the Lord, we acquire love for Christ, and love for Christ is love for God. The union of love for God with love for neighbor is excellently depicted in the epistles of St. Evangelist John the Theologian. 1511 Love for one's neighbor in ordinary reasoning often seems more accessible and easier to fulfill than love for God, especially when one talks about love for humanity, about love for one's neighbor, in general, without defining the scope of application of such love to the conditions of our everyday experience. In a moment of kindness and good disposition, with our personal well-being, it seems accessible and even easy to love our neighbor. But when confronted with reality, the natural aspirations of love for one's neighbor do not withstand the easiest test. Do not think, beloved brother, Saint Ignatius instructs, that the commandment to love one’s neighbor should be so close to our fallen heart: the commandment is spiritual, but flesh and blood have taken possession of our hearts; the commandment is new, but our heart is old. 1512 There are two types of love for one’s neighbor – natural and gracious. For the first, the properties of the second seem incomprehensible and even ugly. He who by nature is capable of loving his neighbor with ardor must make himself an extraordinary compulsion in order to love him as the Gospel commands him to love. The most ardent natural love easily turns into disgust, into irreconcilable hatred (2 Samuel 13:15). Natural love is also expressed with a dagger. In ulcers our love is natural. 1513 But evangelical love, gracious, prays for enemies, blesses those who curse, does good to those who hate, leaves everything to our neighbor, no matter what he does against us. 1514 Christian love for others is associated with self-denial; he who has felt spiritual love will look with disgust at carnal love, as an ugly distortion of love. 1515 The confidant of love for one's neighbor enters through it into love for God. But if you think that you love God, but in your heart there is an unpleasant disposition towards at least one person, then you are in woeful self-delusion. 1516 The perfection of love lies in union with God. And although success in love is associated with inexplicable spiritual consolation, pleasure and enlightenment, at the beginning of the feat the student of love must endure a fierce struggle with himself, with his deeply damaged nature: the evil innate in nature through the Fall has become a law for him, warring and indignant against the law of God, against the law of holy love. Love for God is based on love for neighbor. 1517 A true and clear sign of our familiarization with the virtue of Christian love, as explained by Ignatius Brianchaninov, can be a change in our attitude towards our neighbor: when the memory of malice is erased from you, then you are close to love. When your heart is overshadowed by holy, gracious peace for all humanity, then you are at the very door of love. But these doors are opened only by the Holy Spirit. Love for God is a gift of God in a person who has prepared himself to accept this gift with purity of heart, mind and body. Depending on the degree of preparation, there is also the degree of gift. 1518 But the eradication in the heart of remembrance of one’s neighbor and the overshadowing of peace towards all humanity, favorable for the acquisition of Christian love, is in no way conceived in the works of Ignatius Brianchaninov as abstract and general: one can talk about remembrance of malice and show it in personal relationships with people, one can have nothing against humanity in general, and, however, be envious and hostile towards one's neighbor. According to the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, Christian love for one's neighbor should permeate all our relationships with people. Love your neighbor in the following way: do not be angry and do not bear any resentment against him; do not allow yourself to say any reproachful, abusive, mocking, cutting words to your neighbor; keep peace with him as much as possible; humble yourself before him; do not take revenge on him either directly or indirectly; in everything in which you can yield to him, yield; unlearn bickering and argument, reject them as a sign of pride and self-love; speak well of those who speak evil of you; repay good for evil; pray for those who arrange for you various insults, insults, misfortunes, persecutions (Matt. 5:21-48). In no way, under any pretext, do not condemn anyone, do not even judge anyone, whether he is good or bad, having before your eyes that one bad person for whom you must answer before God - yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:1-12). By behaving this way towards your neighbor, you will show and acquire for him the love commanded by God and pleasing to God; with it you will open for yourself the entrance to the love of God. 1519 But the manifestation of peacefulness and compliance in relation to neighbors, evasion of condemning them, readiness to selflessly serve their needs and desires, shown by some Christians, is very often condemned by others and interpreted in the sense of seeking and man-pleasing. As if bearing in mind the possibility of misunderstandings on the issue of Christian love for one’s neighbor, Vladyka Ignatius clarifies two remarkable features of Christian love for one’s neighbors: a) its correspondence with the teaching of the Gospel about the purpose of man and b) the freedom of love for one’s neighbors from any personal bias. A) Natural love and Christian love. To clarify the first point we noted, Vladyka Ignatius, as we just noticed, distinguishes between natural and Christian love for one’s neighbor. Natural love for neighbors is expressed in the fact that the sons of the world, sick with pride and enslaved to it, express love for their neighbor by indiscriminately fulfilling all the wishes of their neighbor. Disciples of the Gospel express love for their neighbors by fulfilling the all-holy commandments of their Lord; They recognize satisfaction with human wishes and whims as soul-destroying human-pleasing, and they fear it as much as they fear and run away from self-love. Self-love is a distortion of love towards oneself; People-pleasing is a distortion of love towards one's neighbor. A self-lover destroys himself, and a people-pleaser destroys both himself and his neighbor. Self-love is woeful self-delusion; man-pleasing intensifies and makes one’s neighbor an accomplice of this self-delusion. 1520 Of course, from the point of view of the ordinary worldly mood, the self-sacrifice of Christian love in relation to oneself gives it an unusual severity, and from the exclusive fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, Christian love loses its warmth and becomes something cold and mechanical. But, from a Christian point of view, the Gospel commandments drive out the carnal fire from the heart, which very soon goes out with any, sometimes the slightest, opposition; but he introduces spiritual fire, which not only human atrocities, but even the very efforts of fallen angels cannot extinguish (Rom. 8:38). According to Saint Ignatius, only under the condition of a decisive struggle against pride and self-sacrifice is it possible to fulfill the all-holy commandment of the Lord about love in relation to our neighbor. 1521 From the above considerations, we come to the conclusion that Christian love for neighbors, as closely connected with self-sacrifice, is completely alien to people-pleasing and affection, and in its content it most of all manifests the elements of eternal salvation. B) According to the content of the second position - about the impartiality and dispassion of Christian love for neighbors, Bishop Ignatius notes a special lightness, well-being, blissful purity, when a person does not stop feelings of affection for his neighbors, but only serves as their guide to the holy clear sky, when he tells God about his beloved: “God, they are Your property, Your creations! What’s yours belongs to you, but what do I? - a short-term Wanderer on earth, suddenly appearing on it and suddenly disappearing from it.” : Whoever in this way purifies love from self-love and partiality finds in himself pure love, love in God. 1522 According to this instruction, Christian love for neighbors: a) is alien to any partiality and the most subtle self-interest: it is not love for oneself; b) is possible only under the condition of self-sacrifice, when a person has resolutely taken the path of salvation, and c) has as its main motive eternity and the spiritual salvation of oneself and those of others. With the presence of these elements in the Christian soul, people-pleasing and seeking become completely alien to it. Given the presence of these elements in the Christian soul; for her it becomes not only understandable, accessible to knowledge. but also feasible in spiritual and external life is Christian love for enemies, so incomprehensible and even unnatural from the point of view of the sinful world. Love for enemies is the highest degree of love for one’s neighbor legitimized by the Gospel. He who has achieved love for his enemies has achieved perfection in love for his neighbor, and the gates of love for God have automatically opened for him. All obstacles are rejected. Eternal shutters and locks are relaxed and opened. The Christian no longer condemns his neighbor; I have already forgiven him all his sins; he already prays for him as for: his joint belonging to one body; he has already recognized and confessed that all the sorrows that happen to the servant of God are tolerated only by the will of God; he has already submitted to the will of God in all circumstances, private and public, and therefore with freedom, as a confidant of the sacred world, as one who has fulfilled everything commanded by God in relation to his neighbor, he enters into the arms of Divine love. A Christian cannot achieve this unless he is subjected to various temptations from people, and because of the temptations does not throw out from himself, as if from the action of a cleansing medicine, all the malice and pride that have infected the fallen nature. 1523 Thus, love for enemies: a) is the highest manifestation of Christian love; b) it appears as the final highest stage in bearing the Christian feat of sorrows and temptations; c) it is possible under the condition of complete selflessness; d) it is expressed not only in the experienced internal mood of forgiveness and spiritual peace in relation to enemies, but also in external manifestations. According to the gospel instruction (Matt. 5:44); love for enemies should be expressed in forgiveness of the insults they have inflicted, in prayer for them, in blessing them, that is, in good words about them and in thanking God for the misfortunes they inflict, in doing good to them according to their strength and spiritual success, in doing good, which can extend to accepting bodily death to save the enemy; but this love should not be blind, reckless, but illuminated by spiritual reasoning (Matthew 10:16:22). 1524 Vladyka Ignatius, in appropriate cases, instills a view of enemies as instruments of our salvation, as a means of entering into the purity of heart, which God is and is loved, and calls the commandment of love for enemies the highest among the commandments given to us in relation to our neighbor. 1525 This kind of enlightened and comprehensive love for neighbors and even for one’s enemies is the highest manifestation of Christian love and is a gift from God. Often and diligently instructing his neighbors about love for God and neighbors, applying the commandment of love to various conditions and needs of everyday life, Vladika Ignatius very rarely and in a completely unusual sense speaks about love for himself. We are accustomed to a scholastic classification on this issue, we are accustomed to distinguishing between love for God, for neighbors, and for ourselves, and, placing the last type of love for a natural, sinful person above all, from the point of view of it we are accustomed to defining our relationship with God and our neighbors. However, according to our understanding, this is not how ascetics think about this issue, and behind them, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov thinks differently on this issue, which is unusual for us. Our own personality, natural, sinful, selfish, envious, full of selfish thoughts and soul-destructive peacefulness, from the point of view of spiritual salvation, can only evoke a negative attitude towards oneself and in no case – not love; There is absolutely no reason for us to love our sinful, perverted personality, our real, real personality in the conditions of earthly life, it cannot evoke our love, and if this love manifests itself in us “according to the man of the verb,” and is even put in the foreground, then, in relation to spiritual salvation, this is a very sad and mournful phenomenon. Self-love must be rejected in order to be saved; salvation requires self-denial and self-sacrifice, renunciation of everything that our sinful man considers wealth and gain in this adulterous and sinful age; for salvation it is necessary to reject selfishness, worldliness and selfishness; For salvation, naturally, spiritual poverty following self-denial and slow ascent up the ladder of salvation through the struggle against sin and evangelical good deeds are necessary. Love for one's neighbor and, especially, for our enemies is natural in the Gospel and is necessary for salvation; love for one's neighbors is the path to salvation: it leads us into love for God, brings us into communion with God, and thus leads us into the abode of salvation. And, if, by the grace of God, I have achieved the ability of Christian self-conception, the vision of my sin, then I am convinced that evil has been with me since my youth, that there is no good of mine that sin would not defile and degrade in me; любить свое греховное «я» ревнителю спасения: неестественно, тогда как любовь к ближнему не только естественна для ищущего спасения, но и положительно необходима, хотя бы уже по тому одному, что она помогает спасающемуся избавиться от душепагубного себялюбия. We understand, we believe from here, why Saint Ignatius nowhere speaks of self-love in the usual, accepted sense of this concept, and speaks a lot about self-sacrifice and love for one’s neighbors; if he ever talks about Christian self-love, then in a completely different, contrary to the usual, sense: he talks about love for the ways and conditions of salvation, which for the one being saved become his ways and conditions, my ways, my life; they express my escaping self. In this sense, discussions about self-love take place in the works of Bishop Ignatius. A person who will be capable of mercy towards himself and will create this mercy by saturating his smooth soul with the Word of God, feeding it with sensations emanating from the Holy Spirit, distracting it from the disastrous wandering through various types of sin, leading it into the house of piety and virtue, covering it with good deeds, healing previous sins by confessing them and the opposite activity, having extricated himself from the prison of carnal wisdom. and mental states and spiritual states - the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will be recognized as having done all this. Love is the union of Christian perfection (Col.3:14). 1526 According to the instructions of Bishop Ignatius, correct self-love lies in fulfilling the life-giving commandments of Christ. If you don’t get angry and don’t remember malice, then you love yourself. If you don’t swear and don’t lie, you love yourself. If you do not offend, do not kidnap, do not take revenge, if you are long-suffering towards your neighbor, meek and kind, you love yourself. If you bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who cause you misfortune and persecute you, then you love yourself; You are the son of the Heavenly Father, Who shines His sun on the evil and the good, Who sends His rains to both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you offer God careful and warm prayers from a contrite and humble heart, then you love yourself. If you are temperate, not vain, sober, then you love yourself. If you, by giving alms to the poor brethren, transfer your property from earth to heaven, and make your perishable property incorruptible, and your temporary property into eternal and inalienable property, then you love yourself. If you are so merciful that you sympathize with all the weaknesses and shortcomings of your neighbor and deny the condemnation and humiliation of your neighbor, then you love yourself. While you forbid yourself to judge and condemn your neighbor, as someone who does not have the right to do so, the just and merciful God removes the righteous judgment and cancels the righteous condemnation that you deserve for your many sins. Anyone who wants to love himself correctly, not to be deceived and not to be carried away by self-love, that is, by his fallen will, guided by a false mind, must carefully study the Gospel commandments, which contain spiritual reason and lead the performer to the sensations of a new person. 1527 This is Bishop Ignatius’s understanding of Christian love for oneself: love for oneself without self-love, love with self-denial and self-sacrifice, love for oneself with self-forgetfulness, with a vision of only God and one’s neighbor, with love for the latter in the same measure and strength as in ordinary vain life a person who does not think about salvation loves his sinful “I,” which is higher than everything for him. Ordinary, in the worldly sense, self-love in the above understanding is clearly denied. For a sinful person, of course, “this word is cruel.” But not feeling able to fully enter into the virtue of Christian love, we should not renounce it completely and decisively; and to strengthen attentively and with compulsion to implement this soul-saving virtue in a relative measure; equally, not being able and not having; strength to pray with true prayer, we must not deviate from the feat of prayer, but force ourselves to imperfect prayer, so that, with the duration of the feat and good deeds and the zeal we show, the Lord will vouchsafe us the gift of true prayer and self-sacrificing, truly Christian love. ; Not having the strength and skill to abundantly cultivate a spiritual field, we must patiently sow it at least little by little, even uncleanly, so as not to die of hunger. 1529 The exercise of virtue must correspond to the way of life and spiritual development; virtue must be individualized. The practice of virtues that do not correspond to the way of life makes life fruitless. And life is exhausted in vain, and virtues disappear: the soul cannot keep them with itself for long, it must soon leave them, because they are beyond its power. Exercise in sublime virtues that exceeds one's strength and ability often damages the soul beyond healing, upsets it for a long time, sometimes for life, and makes it incapable of deeds of piety. Do not think, says Vladyka Ignatius, that an exalted feat for which your soul is not yet ripe will help you. No! He will upset you more: you will have to leave him, and despondency, hopelessness, gloom, and bitterness will appear in your soul. In such a disposition, you will allow yourself to make greater mistakes, greater violations of the law of God than you fell into before. Do not put patches of a new one on an old robe. 1530 In addition to the height of virtues and deeds applied to our state, it is also necessary to apply them to the type of virtues. Life here is like a field dotted with various crops of bread and vegetables, planted with numerous, heterogeneous fruitful trees and shrubs; : people are definitely doers; one is capable of tending vines, another of vegetables, another of sowing grain, another of plowing the earth, another of only plucking up thorns: Let everyone work in that area of ​​virtues for which he is capable, to which he is called by God, who reveals His calling to a rational creature with the spiritual abilities that He has bestowed on this creature. 1531 Being distinguished and modified in relation to the spiritual individuality of a person, to the ages 1532 and positions of a person in life, Christian virtues have the goal, first of all and primarily, of course, of the spiritual salvation of a person: peering into the Gospel and recognizing our shortcomings, we must throw out from ourselves the concepts and properties of our old age, replacing them with the thoughts and properties of the Gospel, Christ. This is the task, the lesson that a Christian must solve and fulfill during his earthly life. It is necessary to depict a portrait of Christ on the soul, to convey to it the resemblance to its prototype. Portraits devoid of resemblance will be rejected at that general exhibition at which each person will be tested to what extent he has preserved and renewed in himself the image and likeness of his Creator and God. Images in which all the features and colors are so distorted that all resemblance, all similarity is lost, hear: “We don’t know you”! They will not be recognized. The Lord will refuse them! 1533 But spiritually, individually and secretly, the feat of spiritual salvation performed by a Christian is reflected for eternity by necessity and on the affairs of temporality, and to a greater extent, the higher and more influential the external earthly position of a person. Virtue is necessary in the performance of temporary affairs within the family, spiritual and civil leadership and leadership of national life. The true success or failure of any kind of social activity depends, according to Bishop Ignatius, on the degree of spiritual good deeds. The ruler is obliged to restore, firstly, the legal, God-ordained control in himself in order to gain power over himself. Otherwise, will he be able to refrain from acting to inspire addictions and passions? The consequence of such actions is the disorder of society; the consequence of such actions is private and public atrocities, often increasing to enormous proportions. Having acquired power over himself, the ruler must acquire power over the passions of secondary, subordinate stewards, so as not to be carried away by their passions, their false reason, their flattery, their slander, so that the ruler does not become a slave, so that power does not turn into a weapon. Only in the light of spiritual reason will he be able to expose guile, deceit, betrayal, malice, slander, and self-interest in his neighbors. Partial actions, even if they have the appearance of the greatest good deeds, in essence always have the appearance of evil deeds: they crown vice, trample upon virtue, trample upon private and public good. Therefore, one should not be carried away by either a sweet word, or a heavenly smile shining on the lips, or any appearance; one should not judge people from carnal wisdom; you need to bring correctness and holiness to your mind, and then judge people by their fruits. Justice flowing from spiritual reason is full of wisdom, calmness, goodness: it is alien to cruelty; it is not inflamed with anger at sinning people; it has compassion for them, has mercy on them; it firmly heals and curbs sins; it replaces senseless and inhumane executions with more effective measures, wise measures. 1534 According to the just conviction of Bishop Ignatius, the liveliness, clarity and certainty of the Christian mood in relation to the question of salvation has a beneficial effect on all external everyday and temporary affairs. In his opinion, the greatest acquisition for a statesman is to look at the earth from the heights of the Christian ideal. This is an acquisition for a Christian and man in general, as an heir to eternity. Determination in religious and moral concepts has an extraordinary price; uncertainty is a big drawback that affects all actions with instability and fragility. The study of the spirit gives a person a permanent character corresponding to eternity. The horizon for him is expanding; his gaze reaches beyond the boundaries of matter and time, from there they bring unearthly hardness. 1535 Serving as the best means of self-knowledge, 1536 Christian virtues lead to the purification of the soul and thereby strengthen a person’s religious and moral conviction and corresponding spiritual life. The ultimate goal of Christian deeds and virtues is spiritual salvation, and to achieve this goal it is necessary to carefully plow your spiritual field: to incline your proud and blind mind and perverted will into obedience to the commandments of Christ, to reconcile your corrupt, stubborn heart with the teachings of Christ, to put the most physical thing - life - on the path of salvation. 1537 The work of Christian good deeds in the general system of soul-saving feats constitutes a necessary link: the creation of the soul, based not on the fulfillment of the commandments, but on deeds alone, is fragile and vain; it cannot withstand either sorrows from people or temptations from demons; it is alien to light, full of darkness and self-delusion. The fulfillment of the commandments cannot be replaced by any deeds, not even miracles can replace them. 1538 The paths of earthly good deeds are different and varied, but they all lead to Christ and spiritual salvation. Virtue will lead all of its pets to Christ. She will bring those who performed it materially, who fed the hungry brethren; They welcomed strangers into their homes, clothed the naked, visited the sick and those imprisoned. Mercy, and Christian virtue in general, will bring before Christ those who did it secretly in their souls and had mercy on their neighbors, guarding themselves from condemning their neighbor when he stumbles, forgiving him insults and offenses, rewarding him for an oath with blessing and for crime with goodness. She will bring before Christ the shepherds of the church who taught their brethren incorruptible food - the Word of God, who clothed those naked by sin in the vestments of virtues, delivered spiritual healing to sick souls and patiently visited with their edification those imprisoned in the prisons of unbelief or dark delusion. Mercy will bring humble monks before Christ, who have acquired the mysterious and essential knowledge of Christ living within themselves, have become hungry with the blessed greed of the truth of the Gospel, have endeavored to clothe themselves in venerability and holiness, have been cleansed of the most subtle ailments of humanity - worldly addictions, and thereby achieved evangelical freedom. He will bring mercy before Christ and those who were able to show mercy only to themselves, visiting themselves by looking at themselves and freeing themselves from poverty, from illness, from the prison of sin, by repentance. Bearing in mind all the Christian virtues as guides to Christ, Bishop Ignatius especially speaks of mercy, which will be most needed at the judgment of Christ, as an active expression and experimental proof of love. 1539 И это деятельное проявление нашего христианского настроения возможно и доступно для христианина на всех ступенях жизненной лествицы, во всех жизненных положениях и состояниях, везде христианину дана возможность сообразно добродетельному жительству на земле устроять душевное спасение в вечности. 1540 The fulfillment of the Gospel commandments is crowned by the union of man with God, having been healed of anger towards his neighbor, directing all the strength of soul and body to God, the disciple of Christ is recognized as a lover of God and achieves communion with God. “He who loves Me,” says the Savior, “will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:21:23). A person becomes capable of God’s love by fulfilling love for one’s neighbor and through self-denial. 1541 Entering the path of salvation is accomplished with the compulsion of our sinful nature (Matt. 11:12), but it already conveys the joy of Communion with God, infinite, eternal, for “the end is endless.” 1542 From the abundant spiritual granary of the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, we received contented, soul-healthy food “the only thing we need”; Assuming this desired food for ourselves, we, perhaps - and this is desirable and necessary - will feel spiritual hunger, we will intensely languish with spiritual thirst, and life in a spiritual sense will seem to us a gloomy and barren desert, but nourishing us spiritually. Saint Ignatius not only does not deprive us of endlessly repeated nutrition, but also leads us to inexhaustible sources of spiritual rebirth that are accessible to us, but forgotten by us, shows us the path to them and guides our ascent. From the rich spiritual treasury of the lifelong and tireless collector of saving values, we have spent for the spiritual needs of ourselves and our like-minded neighbors the spiritual drachmas that endlessly enrich us; vessels of gold and silver, satisfied, on condition of our humble and unremitting work in the future to increase the talents received, to make us, who have nothing, richer ourselves and many; and although, as happens with the owners of the treasures of mammon of untruth, having received spiritual values, gradually assimilating them with God’s help and endlessly multiplying them, we will quite sincerely think of ourselves not as rich, but as poor in spirit, but the treasury of our spiritual benefactor is always open to us; owning its property, we open our eyes to the vision of other sources of inexhaustible spiritual wealth, inexhaustible wealth and increasing immensely as we spend it on ours and our neighbors’ spiritual creation, and, on the contrary, we are subject to punishment for concealing rich gifts, like one who buried the master’s talent in the ground and returned it without increasing it. From the report of Bishop Ignatius on his vision of the promised land, sharpening spiritual gifts and blessings, 1543 ways and means to eternal salvation, we have extracted many, in our opinion, the most valuable pages, the content of which seems with the help of God, feasible not only in the conditions of the exceptionally high feat of monastic life, but also in the structure of worldly life, of course, with the necessary coordination of it with the premium tasks of the temporal being; We have followed and to a relative extent assimilated many pages from the Bishop’s report of the human heart, 1544 of the human soul, our soul and our heart, which are the result of many years of observation and spiritual experience, and we come to the conclusion that these pages of observation involuntarily awaken our personal observation, strengthen it and do not make it possible to remain indifferent in relation to issues of spiritual salvation, to issues of eternity. The works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov revive our consciousness regarding the exceptional importance and necessity of spiritual salvation. Life seems to Bishop Ignatius to be, in some respects, a vast forest in which travelers who have lost their way wander. And sometimes he would like his calling voice, rushing from the monastic solitude into life, to be like the beneficent ringing of a church bell, which in the north on a dark foggy night or during a winter snowstorm and blizzard indicates the direction of the road for travelers in danger. 1545 Studying the works of Vladyka Ignatius, we come to the conclusion that his voice and thoughts, indeed, have the meaning of a guiding beacon or calling bell for spiritual life, for they clearly and definitely indicate the path of life, the path of spiritual salvation, persistently and silently, but also in a fatherly and compassionate manner exhorting their brothers in Christ to reconsider their spiritual life, to salvific self-examination, clearly and meaningfully indicate the essence and order of spiritual salvation, noting the latter as a huge and most important life-long issue, and not a random and insignificant task performed by a person only incidentally and incidentally. The works of Saint Ignatius force the reader to think about his spiritual salvation, to think about temporary life from the point of view of posthumous eternity; they arouse the thirst for spiritual salvation and drive away destructive lukewarmness. Being, according to the plan of the Right Reverend, the author, a spiritual testament, drawn up at the end of his earthly journey, for the spiritual benefits with which the right hand of God has provided him, 1546 his creations involuntarily make the reader akin to the blessed soul of the testator and, calling for the fulfillment of the will, thereby introducing the executors into the possession of spiritual benefits, experienced by the testator, and even if we, by inertia and lukewarmness of our spiritual, we remain only listeners and do not find the strength to be immediately and immediately Executors of the will that has been handed down to us - the holy truth of the latter and the indisputable value of the spiritual acquisitions and riches noted in it are not subject to any doubt for us, and, being listeners and readers of the will, and, refusing or slowing down to begin its execution, we cannot free ourselves from reproach, we cannot consider ourselves innocent, just like heirs of temporary wealth, heedless of the will of the testator. Due to the richness and abundance of its content, the testament of Bishop Ignatius - his six-volume works are a very valuable source of theological knowledge in the department of Orthodox Christian moral teaching and asceticism. Having as my main subject the question of spiritual salvation, the foundations, conditions and sources of its resolution - not in the interests of only cognitive ones, but primarily as a question of our spiritual life: “What is spiritual life, and how to tune in to it? “How to understand and how to realize spiritual salvation in the feat of your life”? - “Ascetic experiences.” “Ascetic Sermon”, “Offering to Modern Monasticism” and “Fatherland”, as the spiritual testament of Saint Ignatius, are assigned not to a limited, although very extensive circle of his immediate disciples and admirers of his contemporaries, but also to all zealots of salvation, thereby entering into a spiritual affinity with the ascetic testator. It seems to us that the final words of the spiritual testament of the Saint to his brother - novice and ascetic P.A. Brianchaninov is indelibly written on all the numerous pages of his soul-saving creations. “The merciful Lord, by His sole mercy, may He open the gates of His mercy for me, may He receive my orphaned and poor soul from the midst of this multi-rebellious world, may He rest it in His Kingdom. At your turn, which certainly comes for every earthly wanderer, you will also be called to appear before the Lord. With all my heart I wish that this appeal will be heard by you with joy, as a calling to eternal joy, undeniable and unstoppable by any sorrow.” The prayerful wish expressed in these words for an eternal inheritance by the grace of God is the best wish of every Orthodox Christian. The inevitability of life’s outcome indicated at the end of the will and the joyful view of it as a call “to eternal joy, undeniable and unstoppable by any sorrow,” is a definite and clear expression of the Christian hope of St. Ignatius and his fraternal and paternal wishes to all who assimilate it. A reverent disciple of the Gospel, a humble and labor-loving novice of the Holy Fathers of the Church and the ascetics of pious antiquity, a zealous and tireless worker of God’s field, who plowed his spiritual field until it became like the fruitful fields of his mentors, Saint Ignatius carefully and cautiously, but also decisively and confidently introduces us to the highest school of theological knowledge, patiently instructs and carefully guides us in the feat of spiritual salvation, being our spiritual elder and father, the father of the Russian and Orthodox Church, all its faithful sons who want to live piously in Christ. We remember the instructions of our parents according to the flesh, the advice of the mentors of our youth, with the blessing of our stepfather our houses are established (Sir. 3:9), - the memory of our spiritual fathers and spirit-bearing mentors should be sacred and indelible for us; we must study their instructions and assimilate them to ourselves, assimilate not only the teaching, but also their personality in the corresponding direction of our life. Together with other admirers of the blessed memory of the remembered ascetic, we hope that Orthodox Russian people, little by little, will assimilate Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, in his life and writings they will try and find what can be soul-saving 1547 for them, his soul-saving writings will be studied among the patristic ones, and the memory of his life and personality will be preserved for centuries and names of subsequent ones, 1548 as the father of the Russian Church, spiritual communication, with whom in the feats of fasting, prayer and repentance and Christian good deeds in obedience to St. The Orthodox Church, in our deep conviction, gives abundant hope - together with St. Ignatius, the longed-for “part of those being saved” can be improved. About the participation of P.A. Brianchaninov in the first edition of the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius can be read in the latter’s letters to his brother (see Appendices to our book, pp. 175, 207–210, 212, 214, 216–219, 221, 232, 245:248), and in the preface to the first edition of the Bishop’s dying work Ignatius “The Destiny of God” St. Petersburg. 1867. His Eminence Ignatius himself repeatedly speaks about the publication of the first four volumes at Glazunov’s expense in his letters. So, for example, forwarding to the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, Count Dmitry Andreevich Tolstoy, his published works in the department of Ascetic Theology for presentation to His Imperial Majesty, Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, His Grace Ignatius, among other things, asks the Chief Prosecutor to bring to the attention of the Sovereign Emperor the fact that the works it was printed at the expense of the St. Petersburg honorary citizen Glazunov’s printing house, since “I,” writes Vladyka Ignatius, “contrary to the disclosures of Herzen and the company, do not have any own capital, less than one hundred rubles. Abbots who build monasteries out of destruction and devastation usually do not have money and cannot have it.” (Letter dated March 4, 1867, No. 57). According to the spiritual will of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov, approved by the resolution of the Kostroma Chamber of the Civil Court on July 21. 1867, all, without exception, the works of the late Right Reverend Ignatius constitute the literary property of Pyotr Aleksandrovich Bryanchaninov, with the exclusive right to publish them in parts and as a whole, about which P.A. Brianchaninov and announced in the newspaper St. Petersburg Gazette for September 17, 1867, no. 57, p. 4, warning that “any appearance in print, without his knowledge, of any article by the Most Reverend Ignatius will be an illegal violation of literary property rights, on the basis of the regulations on literary property of the Publishers.” At the same time, P.A. Brianchaninov informs all the disciples of the Most Reverend Ignatius of his will, so that not a single one of his letters should be published, except for those which, due to the importance of their spiritual content, were reviewed, corrected and collected by him, and are to be published after putting in order all the manuscripts remaining after the death of the Right Reverend. From the rest of his letters, of which many have been collected, it is planned to make and publish a selection of spiritually edifying sayings, advice, thoughts and stories.” Until his death, Pyotr Alexandrovich was diligently engaged in collecting, putting in order and preparing for printing his brother’s papers, but he did not have time to finish his holy work. In the future, the publication of the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius, according to the documents at our disposal, is presented in the following form. 1) On January 15, 1880, Sofya Vasilievna Boborykina, by proxy of her uncle Pyotr Aleksandrovich Bryanchaninov, and the St. Petersburg merchant Ignatiy Lukyanovich Tuzov concluded a condition that S.V. Boborykina ceded to Tuzov the right to one publication and to sell the books: “Fatherland” and “The Word of Death” in the amount of two factories or 2400 copies each book for 350 rubles per book. conditions: a) Tuzov undertakes not to allow the printing of one or another book from the said works of Bishop Ignatius, unless the entire text is passed through the censorship without any corrections, abbreviations, explanations or any changes; b) upon final printing, entrust the proper proofreading and proofreading to Mrs. Sofya Ivanovna Stsessareva; c) make the most careful selection of typos and place all of them, without exception, at the end of the book; d) immediately after the printing of the said works of Bishop Ignatius, before their release for sale, in exchange for the above-mentioned sales amount - 350 rubles. deliver to P.A. Brianchaninov, at the expense of Tuzov, two hundred copies of “Fatherland” and two hundred copies of “The Word of Death”, a total of 400 books to the residence of the city of Brianchaninov - to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery of the Kostroma province, after which all scores between Tuzov and Brianchaninov end, and S. V. Boborykina, for his principal, is obliged for the five years indicated Do not print books and do not give up the rights to publish them to anyone. 2) On April 23, 1886, the actual state councilor Pyotr Alexandrovich Bryanchaninov and the St. Petersburg 2nd guild merchant Ignatius Lukyanovich Tuzov concluded a condition according to which Bryanchaninov, being the heir to the literary works in Bose of his deceased brother “Bishop Ignatius Alexandrovich Bryanchaninov,” transfers the right to publish these works to Mr. Tuzov on the following conditions: a) the font, format and value of the paper should be used as follows: which were used in the publication of the teachings of Archpriest Rodion Putyatin; b) at the beginning of the first volume, place a biography of Bishop Ignatius with a portrait of him, again taken from the last portrait of the deceased Bishop; c) under Volume IV, after the “Ascetic Sermon”, place “Letters to the Laity”; d) begin printing “Fatherland” when the edition of this book, made in 1886, is sold out; e) if Tuzov finds it convenient to publish a separate brochure (except for letters) either from the articles of Vladyka Ignatius, do not make new conditions, but publish it, informing Brianchaninov only for information, with payment for this of one hundred copies from each plant; f) Tuzov undertakes to complete the entire complete collection of “the works of Bishop Ignatius (the first five volumes) by printing by January 1, 1887; g) the publisher is obliged to ensure that the text of the book remains unchanged and all additions made are placed in the places indicated by him; h) proofreading must be very thorough and is the responsibility of the publisher, as well as selecting typographical errors to attach them to each book; i) the publisher gives the owner of the works one hundred complete copies of remuneration for the text - for the right to this publication in the amount of one plant of 1200 copies; i) the period of non-renewal of this publication lasts 12 years, and for books going on sale it ends when thousands of copies of each are consumed. (Copy of the agreement certified by the notary Elagin on April 24, 1886, according to register No. 2383). In October 1886, the complete works of Bishop Ignatius had already been published, which the bookstore of I. L. Tuzov reported to P.A. Brianchaninov dated October 7, 1886 3) In a letter dated October 3, 1890, Tuzov informed P.A. Brianchaninov about his intention to print a new edition of Fatherland in 2400 copies. and brochures: “On the End of the World” - 3600 copies, since the existing editions of these works are coming to an end. Pyotr Alexandrovich’s consent to the new edition was expressed in a letter to Tuzov dated October 15, 1890. 4) Following the death of Pyotr Aleksandrovich Bryanchaninov on June 25, 1891, the hereditary publishing rights passed to his son, nephew of the Most Reverend Ignatius Alexei Petrovich Bryanchaninov, who held the position of Assistant Manager of the Committee of Ministers with the rank of Privy Councilor. As a result of Tuzov’s letter dated October 12, 1893, A.P. Bryanchaninov dated October 22, 1893, based on clause 4 of the agreement with P.A. Brianchaninov dated April 24, 1886, expressed consent to grant Tuzov the right to publish the work of Bishop Ignatius: “Rules of external behavior for new monks, so that the said work would be printed in the amount of 3600 copies, with a reward to the owner in the form of 300 copies. books and with the continuation of the force of destruction for 12 years, counting from October 24, 1893ˆ5) As a result of the letter dated June 28, 1899, A.P. Brianchaninov, dated July 3, 1899, expressed consent to the publication of the works of Bishop Ignatius: a) “On the End of the World”; b) “Preparation for the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion”; and c) “The Word of Death”, in the amount of 3600 copies. each essay, with payment to the owner for all books 262 rubles 50 k., or 300 copies. each edition, so that for 12 years, starting from June 3, 1899, the said works will not be published, except in the complete collected works of Bishop Ignatius. 6) According to the agreement between Tuzov and A.D. Brianchaninov dated September 28, 1902, the publishing house of I.L. Tuzov published the following works of Bishop Ignatius: a) fourth edition: “Fatherland”. Selected sayings of the holy monks, stories from their lives, with the attachment of a photograph from the manuscript of Bishop Ignatius; “Preface to the first volume of ascetic experiments”, in the amount of ˆ3000 copies; b) “On the Patience of Sorrows”, fourth edition, 3000 copies; c) “Rules of external behavior for novice monks”, sixth edition, in the amount of 6000 copies; so that these works will not be published separately for ten years. For all these publications, Tuzov gave A.P. Bryanchaninov 300 rubles. This money was contributed by A.P. Brianchaninov to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery on September 30, 1902, in addition to the 600 rubles contributed earlier, for conversion into interest-bearing papers, with the income from them being used for the proper maintenance of the monuments of Peter Alexandrovich and Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov (Letter from the rector of the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, Abbot Elijah October 15, 1902; notification of the Kostroma spirit. Consistory of November 5, 1902 No. 11731). 7) According to the agreement of April 12, 1904, the Privy Councilor Senator A.P. Brianchaninov granted the hereditary honorary citizen I., L. Tuzov the right to print in the third edition, three thousand copies of each volume, the works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, in five volumes, with the appendix of a portrait and his biography, compiled by his closest students in 1881, containing volumes one, two and three, “Ascetic Experiences”, volume four – Ascetic Sermon, and Letters to the Laity” and volume fifth - “An Offering to Modern Monasticism”, which will compile a total of 15,000 books. At the same time, A.P. Brianchaninov undertakes for himself and for his heirs and assigns for thirteen years and 18 days, i.e., until April 30, 1917, not to begin a new edition of all five volumes of the above-mentioned works of the Right Reverend Ignatius. For the right of the third edition of the five volumes of works by Bishop Ignatius, a total of 15,000 books, Tuzov contributed 750 rubles to A.P. Brianchaninov. 8) Finally, on October 30, 1906, Senator A.P. Brianchaninov granted the bookseller-publisher I.L. Tuzov to print two brochures in new editions: a) “On the End of the World” - in the amount of 10,000 copies and b) “Rules of external behavior of new monks” - in the amount of 5,000 copies; for the right of publication by Tuzov paid 200 rub. In relation to the above information, the number of printed works of Bishop Ignatius is presented as follows: 1) “Collected Works” in five volumes – no less than 5000 copies, or – 25,000 books. 2) “Fatherland* in three editions by Tuzov 1880,1890 1902 – 7,800 copies. 3) “The Word about Death” in ed. 1880 and 1899 – 6,000 copies. 4) “On the end of the world” in ed. 1890, 1899 and 1906 – 17,200 copies. 5) “Rules of external behavior of new monks” in the edition of 1893, 1902, 1906 – 14600 copies. 6) “Preparation for the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion” ed. 1899 – 3,600 copies. 7) “On the Patience of Sorrows” ed. 1902 (4th) – 3,000 copies. Thus, in the publications of I. L. Tuzov listed in this certificate, no less than 69,400 books of the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov were released, but this certificate is not complete enough, which we have the right to assert, based on the printed catalog of the bookstore of I. L. Tuzov for 1914, where on page 100 the works of Bishop Ignatius available in the store are indicated Brianchaninov, and it says: “Fatherland”, 4th ed. 1903, “The Lay of Death” – 6th ed. 1901, “On the End of the World” – 5th ed. 1907, “Rules of external behavior for novice monks” – 7th ed. 1907, “Preparation for the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion” – 3rd ed. 1900; “On the Patience of Sorrows” - 4th edition of 1904, which significantly increases the amount of circulation of the out-of-print works of Bishop Ignatius. The Brianchaninovs’ income from publishing the works of Bishop Ignatius received a little more than 1000 rubles, the rest went to the profit of book publishers, leaving the disinterested relatives of Bishop Ignatius with a pleasant confidence that the high spirits of the ascetic Ignatius, their relative, is adopted by Russian people seeking salvation. Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, vol. I, Preface. Right there. The same preface in the autograph attached to “Fatherland”. The writing of the “Preface” dates back to 1863 in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. From the papers of Senator N. S. Brianchaninov. The “Preface” appended to “Fatherland” is marked with the year 1863, the time of its original writing, and for the first volume of “Ascetic Experiences,” 1865, with the time of printing of this volume. Preface to volume IV. Letters to the laity are remarkable, like a rare work by Bishop Ignatius. In these letters, he, having renounced an exclusively ascetic mood, goes into the world with a word imbued with the high spirit of Christian teaching, clear to an educated person. Letters to the laity were written by a man of conviction, familiar with theology and in relation to the concepts of a worldly person. Due to their sincere and deep conviction in the greatness of the teachings of Christ and the elegant simplicity of speech, letters to the laity stand in parallel with diary of Fr. John of Kronstadt or the works of Bishop Theophan. These three spiritual writers are similar in their works to Christian inspiration: they do not compose, but profess their sincere convictions. Preface to volume V of the works of Bishop Ignatius. In the papers of the nephew of the Most Reverend Ignatius, Senator N.S. Brianchaninov, at least 50 separate letters from various secular and clergy persons concerning the content of “Ascetic Experiences” and other books of Bishop Ignatius have been preserved. The letters to His Eminence Ignatius have a similar meaning: 1) His Eminence Eusebius, Exarch of Georgia, dated June 7, 1865; 2) His Grace Leonid, Bishop of Dmitrov, dated May 26, 1865, who calls Vladyka Ignatius his spiritual leader; 3) The Most Reverend John, Bishop of Vyborg Rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, dated May 30, 1865, who prays to God that He bless your pious works and justify them, both by the salvation of your own soul and the progress on the path of salvation, of those who, with a pure thought about the benefit of the soul and spiritual self-improvement, will delve into your works.” 4) His Grace Savva, Bishop of Mozhaisk, Vicar of Moscow, dated May 25, 1865; 5) His Grace Agafangel, Bishop of Vyatka, dated May 18, 1865; 6) His Grace Christopher, Bishop of Vologda, dated May 25, 1865, in which, in addition to the review of “Ascetic Experiences,” he gives a review of the monasteries of the Vologda diocese; 7) His Grace Vladimir, Bishop of Stavropol and Ekaterinodar, addressed to P.A. Brianchaninov, dated August 12, 1888. A number of monastics give feedback on the works of Bishop Ignatius in the sense of recognizing their extraordinary spiritual benefit and testify to their strong impression after reading them. Such are, for example, letters; Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev) from April 20, 1865; Archimandrite Dimitri from June 13, 1866 and from April 10, 1867; Archimandrite Justin—rector of the Yaroslavl Seminary—from September 29, 1865: Archimandrite Hilarion—from January 30. 1866; Kyiv Abbot of Israel dated July 10 and November 12, 1865; hieromonk Ephraim; Valaam Abbot of Damascus – dated February 17, 1866; Abbess Seraphim, nun Maria and other monastics. The letters of Archpriest Nekrasov (Arzamas), Archpriest of the Stavropol Trinity Cathedral of Alexander, Priest Elijah of the Trinity and other clergy are also filled with the same character of deep respect for the Most Reverend Ignatius and satisfaction with his works. In his letter addressed to Count Perovsky, His Eminence Ignatius writes: “Having the good fortune of being honored with a visit in my humble shelter by His Imperial Highness, Sovereign Heir Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, I allow myself to present to His Highness a copy of my works, in four books, now out of print, Your Excellency! take the trouble to present to His Highness the enclosed books, as a weak tribute from my heart, filled with devotion and good desires to the Tsar Tsarevich” (From the papers of the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery). Four volumes of Bishop Ignatius’s works were also presented to His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor Alexander II. The motives for this offering are interesting, expressed in a letter from Bishop Ignatius addressed to Count Dimitry Andreevich Tolstoy, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod dated March 4, 1867, No. 57: “Having the good fortune to be called a pupil of Their Imperial Majesties, of blessed memory the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, I recognize it as my duty to present my now finally published works in the department of Ascetic Theology to His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich. I believe by this to fulfill, firstly, my sacred duty to His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor, who, despite my complete illness and abandonment of my official career, does not cease to express the All-Merciful Royal attention to me, and secondly, my sacredness before the August Parents of His Majesty. By handing over to the Sovereign Emperor the books I have compiled, I am, as it were, handing them over to His Most August Parents. May They, in the realm of eternity, feel this memory of them in the realm of time, the memory of the heart, the memory of a person." And in a letter addressed to Count D. A. Tolstoy dated March 4, 1867, No. 58, His Grace Ignatius expresses his understanding of the purpose of the first four volumes: "Through Your Excellency it became known to me that Her Imperial Majesty, Sovereign Empress Maria Alexandrovna It was good for me to draw the most merciful attention to my wretched cell writing work. Based on this, I recognize it as my sacred duty to present to the view of Her Majesty the attached copy of my writings, now finally out of print, in the department of Ascetic Theology. Your Excellency! take the trouble to present my works to the Empress and report that they were written almost exclusively for monastics and for those ascetics living in the middle of the world who have devoted themselves entirely to serving God; this especially applies to the fourth volume” (From the papers of Senator N.S. Brianchaninov). In the same spirit, the assessment of “Ascetic Experiences” and other literary works of Bishop Ignatius, letters from the Minister of War D. V. Milyutin dated May 25, 1865, V. Dorogobuzhinov dated March 9, 1867, L. A. Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, V. I. Avchinnikov, Yu. Tolstoy, N. V. Elagin; the latter, in a letter dated April 17, 1865, testifies: “When you open the book, you don’t want to close it: there are so many wonderful thoughts, so many edifying examples; the soul is filled with reverence for the Almighty and an extreme need to correct itself is felt; reading a book makes a person a better person. She made such an impression on me, although I have not yet read both parts. I have already instructed several people to use it to save their souls. I’m sure that almost everyone will have the same opinion about her.” I. L. Yanyshev. Orthodox Christian teaching on morality, 2nd edition, St. Petersburg. 1906 Particularly valuable in this regard is the completely new explanation in our theological literature of the moral meaning of basic Christian dogmas. See the complete works of Archbishop Anthony, vol. II, Kazan, 1900. Orthodox Christian moral teaching according to the writings of Innocent, Archbishop. Kherson; in 2 volumes (vol. I: ХIII +5Зб+ХV; volume II: 468+Х1 pp.). The book of Archbishop Sergius “Orthodox teaching on salvation” is an experience in revealing the moral and subjective side of salvation on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures of the works of the Holy Fathers, now existing in the fourth edition—I. L. Tuzov’s 1910 book, in addition to the scientific validity of the provisions and the method of their disclosure, arouses special interest due to the importance of the issue raised and the clarity of its disclosure. – In relation to the tasks of our work, the book of Archbishop Sergius seems particularly interesting in the sense that it completely clarifies the issue of salvation in its moral and Christian understanding, in contrast to the legal understanding of this issue in Catholicism and Protestantism, and eliminates any possibility of an indifferent attitude to the form religion, so common in modern society, also, in accordance with the convictions of Volyn, now Kharkov Archbishop Anthony, excludes for the Orthodox Christian consciousness an autonomist understanding of morality, establishing a close relationship between dogmas and morality. The work of M. A. Olesnitsky, under the title: “From the system of Christian moral teaching,” which began publication in the “Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy” for 1888 and was published as a separate book in 1896, is related to the issue being treated. A clear expression of A. A. Bronzov’s sympathy for resolving the issue being treated in the spirit of the Orthodox Christian understanding of life can be seen from his systematic review of literature from the field of Orthodox Christian morality in the book: “Moral theology in Russia during the 19th century. St. Petersburg 1901 I. P. Arkhangelsky. “The task also contains a plan for a system of Orthodox Christian moral teaching.” Simbirsk, 1894 Of particular importance in relation to the issue under consideration are the books of the Most Reverend Stephen: “Orthodox Christian moral teaching according to the writings of Innocent, Archbishop. Khersonsky and “On the question of the system of Christian moral teaching.” Mogilev 1910. The last book provides a systematic review of outstanding works on moral theology, while determining their comparative value from the point of view of the question of salvation. A complete and thorough review of the literature on issues of Orthodox Christian moral theology, indicating particularly valuable works, can be seen in the book of Prof. A. A. Bronzov and Eminence Stefan. As well as other morally ascetic works of the Most Reverend Recluse. Having appeared in print after the works of the Most Reverend Ignatius Brianchaninov, they are akin in spirit to these latter. We talk below about the relationship between these works, as well as about the mutual relations of the Right Reverend ascetics Ignatius Brianchaninov and Feofan Govorov. The earliest works on the “question of the Orthodox Christian understanding of salvation are the works of His Grace Ignatius Brianchaninov, the high value of which is determined not by the scientific nature of theological education, in which he stands lower than many who have worked in this field, but by personal spiritual Christian experience, consciously experienced, critically verified, with the voice of the Holy Orthodox Christian Church, consistent with the feat of personal his life and those of his contemporaries attached. Archbishop Sergius, “Orthodox teaching on salvation”, 4th edition, Sbp Ibid., pp. 14–19, 58–76. Ibid., pp. 208–210, etc. Bishop Stefan. On the question of the system of Orthodox Christian moral teaching. Mogilev 1910, p. 22. In the words of the pious secular writer – N. V. Gogol. In this regard, salvation in ordinary judgments and even in theological works is mistakenly identified exclusively with a state of bliss. Protoprev. I. L. Yanyshev. Orthodox Christian teaching on morality. Ed. 2nd. St. Petersburg - 1906, p. 278. In this sense, a decisive, clear, convincing and indisputable explanation is given (Prof. Bronzov. Moral Theology in Russia for the 19th century, St. Petersburg, 1901, p. 293) of the connection between morality and religion and the definition of the moral idea contained in the most important Christian dogmas: about the Holy Trinity, about the Divinity of Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit and the Church, in treatises devoted to these issues by His Eminence. Anthony, Archbishop of Volyn, now Kharkov (see Complete Works, Kazan 1900, vol. II, pp. 5 -24,57 -74, 83 -93, as well as in the religious and philosophical library, issues X, XI and XIX. Vysshiy Volochek 1906, and in the works of Prof. V.D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov and A. 0. Gusev, in the works of Fr. John of Kronstadt). This deep subjective psychological unification of faith and morality in the spiritual life of a Christian permeates the views of the Eminence ascetic Ignatius Brianchaninov and his friendly contemporary, the Eminence Feofan Govorov, set forth below. Below, in Chapter III of our book, we present the teaching of the Most Reverend Ignatius on the issue of salvation. With the considerations expressed in this case, we are trying to note only that feature of Orthodox Christian moral theology, due to which its center is spiritual salvation in the above-mentioned understanding. But this peculiarity of such an understanding of the task of moral theology in Orthodox Christian systems has not had practical implementation to the present time, and the works of Orthodox Christian moral writers are still preparing the material for building a system in the indicated spirit. Russian theological science has a considerable history in establishing the foundations of the system of Orthodox Christian moral theology. 1) About 200 years ago, in the era of Peter the Great, when, under the pen of his famous and devoted associate Feofan Prokopovich, on scholastic soil and basis, the science of moral theology arose in Russia, during the time of the fascination of the leaders of Russia with the enlightened West, dialectically invincible scholasticism, the subject of Moral Theology was the subject of good deeds, designated in Scripture by the name love, distinguished in two directions in relation to God and neighbors. At this time, the task of moral theology was understood in the distribution of a person’s duties in two directions in the order of tens of words—duties in relation to God and neighbors, and the goal of science was considered achieved as soon as a strict system of man’s duties in relation to God and neighbors was established and each group of these two was divided into two gradations of actions—positive and negative, sins and virtues. The tablets of Moses took the place of the Gospel, and the order of life of the Old Testament Jew turned out to be the ideal of the moral life of a Christian. 2) 50 years after the appearance of Theophan’s moralizing system, theological thought in the person of Theophylact of Gorsky and a number of theologians who followed him came to realize the narrow understanding of the purpose and objectives of moral theology in the past and, instead of Theophan’s understanding of the moral theologian, as ethics in general and Old Testament ethics, established a special concept of Christian ethics, put forward a new direction, indicating the requirements of the Christian moral law and duties Christian. But the influence of Theophan’s point of view did not cease: with the expansion of the scope of science, the principle of classification of material and the conditions for its consideration, similar in nature, remained, and the goal of the science of moral theology was determined for theologians within the framework of this classification. This situation in the formulation of moral theology continued almost until the end of the 19th century, with the school system dominating primarily the system of Archpriest. Solyarsky. With all the convenience of distributing and systematizing the material of a moral course according to the above-mentioned foundations and principles, the lack of vitality and dryness of the systems of moral theology have long been recognized by Orthodox theologians and forced them to identify new foundations for building a system of this science. 3) In a very understandable desire for this, in the search and definition of the goal towards which moral theology should be directed in its research, Orthodox theologians at the end of the 19th century, in the person of the professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy M. A. Olesnitsky and his followers, came to the conclusion that the time had come to put the idea of ​​the Kingdom of God as the most comprehensive and fundamental moral idea into the foundation of Christian moral teaching. From this point of view, the task of moral theology was reduced to: a) understanding the idea of ​​the Kingdom of God and its influence on religious and moral life; b) the content and signs of the Kingdom of God and c) psychological and moral means and conditions for achieving the Kingdom of God. The establishment of this principle of building a system, of course, could contribute to the revitalization and deepening of science. But this principle was not durable and did not find practical implementation. And the reason for this lies not only in the fact that representatives of this point of view in science have not achieved complete certainty in understanding the Kingdom of God, but also in the exorbitant breadth of this guiding idea, which essentially coincides with the idea of ​​all Christianity. 4) Therefore, the theologians themselves, who set the goal of moral theology to understand the Kingdom of God, had to focus their attention on studying the process of salvation, making it the starting point of the system of Christian moral teaching. This point of view on the tasks and purpose of moral theology was first indicated by His Eminence Innocent (Smirnov). This point of view was most fully developed in lectures on moral theology given at the Kyiv Theological Academy by His Eminence. Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson, whose primary attention was focused on the great change that the Spirit of God makes in man, guiding our evil heart until the complete eradication of sin in it, the renewal of all the powers of our spirit and our entire life, until the restoration of the image of God in our spirit, until the indwelling of Christ in us and the resurrection with Him in the spirit and, finally, union with God. In the works of Russian theologians and moralists of the 19th century, attempts to achieve this goal are visible - describing the objective-subjective salvation or moral perfection of man. This goal has not been realized in a complete and complete system, especially suitable for spiritual school study. But in the spirit of this view, the system of Orthodox Christian moral theology should be developed in the future. The same view of the purpose of moral theology is carried out in the program of the Teaching Committee at the Holy Synod in 1906. You can read more about this in the above-mentioned books of the Most Reverend Stephen. Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, vol. II, pp. 4–5. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. V, pp. 32–33. Right there. Homilies on the heels of the 1st week of Lent, pp. 76–77. Right there. Homily for Maundy Thursday on the Liturgy, p. 129. Volume IV, teaching for the week of Antipascha. On Christianity, pp. 144–145. A sermon on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, the third after Easter. About the deadness of the human spirit. Vol. IV, pp. 152–153. Conversation in week thirty. About the reason for people's apostasy from God. T. IV, p. 223. Conversation in week twenty-two. T. IV, p. 231. Teaching for the twenty-fifth week, vol. IV, p. 253. Teaching for the twenty-ninth week, vol. IV, p. 285. Teaching in the twenty-seventh week, vol. IV, p. 279. Teaching for the twenty-fifth week, vol. IV, p. 259. Teaching in the twenty-eighth week; Vol. IV, Page 282. Ibid., letter 31, p. 485. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. I, p. 84. This method in revealing the doctrine of God, in our opinion, is followed by Rev. Maximus the Confessor, Simeon the New Theologian, Nile of Sinai, Anthony the Great, Macarius of Egypt and other ascetics listed in the Philokalia, for whom the foreground is not the issues of theological knowledge, but certainly the issues of human salvation and the ascetic feat of a sinful person corresponding to this high goal. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. II, p. 141. Ibid., vol. III, p. 120. In the same place, word 1 in the flower-bearing week, T. IV, p. 113. Addendum to The Word on Death, vol. III, pp. 197–199. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. V, ch. XIV, p. 84. We speak about this feat, according to the views of Bishop Ignatius, in Chapter II and, especially, Chapter III of this part of our study. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. II, pp. 315–321. We give this expression of the God-sensation of the saving soul below, in Chapter. III of this part. Destiny of God. Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, vol. II, pp. 77–78. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. IV, pp. 48–49; Ibid., pp. 38, 53, 151, 218; The main provisions on the issue of Divine providence can be read from the article of the Most Reverend Ignatius entitled: “The Destinies of God” (vol. II, pp. 77–108). This article was published for the first time immediately after the blessed death of Bishop Ignatius in 1867 under the same title by the author’s brother P.A. Brianchaninov, who in the preface to it testifies that the article “The Fates of God,” the dying work of the late Saint, is the crown of his pastoral service to Christianity, his last word, embracing the essence of all his writings; Written in 1866, this article was revised and expanded by the Right Reverend in the last days of his life. He began to rewrite it with his own hand, and on the day of his blessed death he wrote a few more lines. This article is especially valuable because it is an expression of the lifelong convictions of St. Ignatius. A word about the sensual and spiritual vision of spirits. Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, vol. III, p. 4. Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, vol. IV. Homily for the first week of Lent, p. 78. Ibid., vol. IV, p. 143. Rom. 10:17; John 2:18,14:21. Works of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, vol. IV, pp. 143–144, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. Destiny of God. St. Petersburg 1867, p. 8. The same collected works, vol. II, pp. 77–78. Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. IV, p. 34. Ep. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Conversation in week twelve; Collected Works, vol. IV, p. 207. Letter from Bishop Ignatius to a certain clergyman (Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. III, p. A word about death. (Works of Bishop Ignatius. vol. III, p. 80). “Addition to the Word of Death” (vol. III, pp. 298–300). Ibid., pp. 300–301. Example of using Holy. Scripture to clarify the concept of spirits can be seen repeatedly in the “Sermon on Death,” for example. page 28. These are, for example, in III. vol. Works of Bishop Ignatius, pp. 138–147; 187–188; 253–260; 268; 270–271, etc. Eg. in III volume, pp. 246 et seq. So, for example, on the issue of the ordeals of the Most Reverend. Ignatius quotes and analyzes the “Canon of prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Mother of God,” prayers after kathismas laid down in the cell rule, “The rite of separation of the soul from the body, when a person suffers for a long time,” “Canon to the Guardian Angel and many church prayers. See eg. in III vol., pp. 149–151. Especially the dogmatic theology of Rev. Anthony in his 7th edition of 1857. Eg. in vol. III, pp. 192–215. Descartes' teaching on matter and spirit, especially on the relationship of the latter to space, is criticized by Bishop Ignatius in his “Sermon on Death” and “Addition” to it (Works of Bishop Ignatius, vol. III, pp. 188–194, 206–211, 282–285, etc.). The Right Reverend Ignatius recognizes mathematics as especially akin to and in harmony with theology, and considers deep knowledge of mathematics and philosophy to be a necessary condition for a theologian intending to create a complete and thorough system of Christianity. An outstanding place in the writings of Bishop Ignatius in this regard seems to be his discussion of the infinite in theology and mathematics. The concept of infinity in relation to the existence of God's eternity and the infinity of hellish torment, according to the Right Reverend Ignatius, is borrowed from the mathematical theory of the infinite. In the true sense, the incomprehensible and inexplicable relationship of creatures to the Creator cannot be explained by any science except mathematics. The universe is a number and all its constituent parts are numbers. All numbers, so different from each other, are together completely equal to one another in relation to the infinite. The reason for this equality lies in the infinite, therefore constantly equal, difference between the infinite and any number. The concept of number is relative, not essential. The Infinite, embracing all numbers, at the same time remains above any impression, otherwise it would undergo changes, which is characteristic of numbers and unusual for the infinite. If number does not have an essential meaning, then it is quite natural for the world to be created from nothing by the action of the infinite, which alone has an essential meaning. It is natural for the action of the infinite to be above the comprehension of the human. These are the irrefutable truths obtained by mathematics to the human mind: its zero, representing the idea of ​​​​the non-existent, turns into a number when the infinite acts on it. Every number is a phenomenon. One infinite combines all life;