Часть I. Накануне исповеди

1. Sin is the most terrible evil in the world. Flee from sin, at least so that earthly disasters weigh on you as little as possible (Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov). 2. It is better to choose to die when need requires it, rather than to sin (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk). 3. Nothing is hidden from the Judge, so it is in vain that we try to sin in secret (Venerable Neil of Sinai). 4. One elder said: “Wonderful thing! We offer prayers in such a way that we represent God as present and listening to our words, and when we sin, we act as if He does not see us” (Ancient Patericon). 5. Don’t say that this or that is an insignificant detail: little things mean a lot in life. A wound made by a needle sometimes affects more than a disease that covers the whole body. Sometimes a spark starts a fire, which is impossible to control and which mercilessly devours everything that has been collected over the years and taken care of with the greatest attention (Bishop Kirill of Melitopol). 6. Considering both to be small, do they not reach the point where they consider no sin great? (Archbishop Filaret of Chernigov). 7. Frivolity laughs at piety and leads to a godless life (He). 8. Do not do evil, even as a joke, for it happens that others first do evil in jest, and then reluctantly get carried away by it (Abba Dorotheos). 9. While the offense is small and has not yet matured, destroy it - before it sends out its branches and begins to ripen (Rev. Isaac the Syrian). 10. Sin is a burning fire. And as the substance decreases, it fades away, and as it increases, it flares up (Reverend Mark the Ascetic). 11. Quench the spark before it grows into a flame, and kill the enemy while he is small (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk). 12. It is impossible to overcome the great if you do not defeat the unimportant (Reverend Isaac the Syrian). 13. No matter how ugly and disgusting sins may be, habit makes them unimportant (St. Augustine). 14. Say once and forever to sin: “I am your enemy,” and with every temptation, say to every evil thought: “I am your enemy” (Bishop Kirill of Melitopol). 15. The soul can resist sin, but without God it cannot defeat or eradicate evil (Reverend Macarius the Great). 16. Great is the power of sin, but a hundred times greater is the power of God’s grace (St. Innocent of Kherson). Before confession, each confessor urgently needs to gain confidence that sin is the greatest evil for a person. What is sin? a) This is a violation of the holy will of the Creator. Is it a small matter to become an adversary and enemy of the Almighty Being, that Being in whose hands we and the whole world are, our life and breath, our time and our eternity? b) This is a deviation to the side of the enemy of God - the devil. Is it a small thing to be at one with this murderer, to become like him in betraying the truth, to become infected with his snake venom? c) This is blindness of the mind, corruption of the will, distortion of conscience, corruption of the body. Is it a trifle to spoil your entire godlike being in this way, to deviate it from the purpose of existence in the opposite direction and introduce into it the seed of corruption and eternal death? What awaits the sinner in the future? Even greater darkness awaits, even greater exhaustion of strength, even greater grief and destruction awaits, the final deprivation of all blessings, mental and physical, the final rejection from the face of God, condemnation to eternal torment in hell, with the devil and his angels. These simplest concepts about sin are enough to make your whole being tremble at the mere thought of sin. So, confession is necessary. For, trembling at the thought of one’s sins, how can one not rush to confession, when in it, by the power of God’s Wisdom, the way is opened to reconcile us with God and one’s conscience, and for one sincere recognition of one’s iniquities and repentance for them, complete forgiveness is granted? Truly, we should hasten to confession even when it requires even the most difficult and difficult things for us to accomplish, for it is better to endure everything and lose everything than to remain an enemy of God and a friend of the devil. But nothing of the kind is required of us, but only the most necessary is required - that we confess our sins, show disgust for them, decide to leave them forever and in the present repay what we can for the past. And move away from this? And is this considered difficult? And for this reason to remain in sins? What does our repentance mean after this? Where is the hatred of sin? Where is the love for God, for yourself? Let us also say with St. David: “It is good to confess to the Lord” (Ps. 91:2) - and let us hasten to the holy lectern, as criminals rush to the place where forgiveness and royal mercy are announced. About God's Wrath against Sin 2 God's wrath against sin is manifested through the plagues sent on sinners by God. Because He is God and He is good. “No one is good except God alone” (Matthew 19:17), according to the testimony of Christ. However, as much as God is good, he is also righteous. His truth requires that the sinner, as a transgressor of His holy and unchangeable law, be executed. The fact that a sinner is not punished immediately after committing a sin or is not executed when committing a sin must be attributed to the goodness of God, which tolerates the sinner and thus awaits his repentance, as the Apostle says to the sinner: O man! “Or do you neglect the riches of God’s goodness, meekness and long-suffering, not realizing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom.2:4). In Holy Scripture we read that God sends various executions to sinners. He cast down the angels who sinned from heaven. Christ says the same thing: “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Luke 10:18); and the Apostle Peter says: “He did not spare the angels who sinned, but, having bound them in chains of hellish darkness, he delivered them over to be kept for judgment to be punished” (2 Pet. 2:4). Our ancestors, Adam and Eve, were expelled from paradise for their crime and became subject to every calamity, and with them we. For sins, the first world, except for Noah, the preacher of righteousness, was destroyed by a terrible flood (see Gen. 7:7; 2 Pet. 2:5). Sodom and Gomorrah with the surrounding cities were burned with fire for vile uncleanness (see Gen. 19; 2 Pet. 2:6). The proud and bitter Pharaoh with all his army was drowned in the Red Sea (see Exodus 14). Dathan and Abiron, who rebelled with their like-minded people against Moses and Aaron, were swallowed up alive by the earth in the desert (see Numbers 16): “The earth opened up and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the crowd of Abiron” (Ps. 105:17). Other people of Israel were struck by the wrath of God in different ways for various iniquities: some with fire, others with poisonous snakes, others with the sword of foreigners, others in a different way, as we read about in the books of Moses, the prophets and in the tenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Those who came to the promised land were handed over into slavery to foreigners, taken into captivity and otherwise executed - the books of the Old Testament testify to this. All this was due to their sins and iniquities, as these holy books testify to. After the coming of Christ into the world, we also see the executions of God sent on sinners. We read that Ananias and his wife Sapphira were suddenly struck with death for lying, for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-10). Herod was suddenly struck by an angel of the Lord because he did not give glory to God; and he, being eaten by worms, died (Acts 12:23). The city of Jerusalem, which had killed the prophets and stoned those sent to it, and was stained with the Blood of Christ, the Son of God, was completely ruined, and its children, i.e. the inhabitants were defeated with swords, as Christ Himself prophesied with tears: “For the days will come upon you, O Jerusalem, when your enemies will surround you with trenches and surround you, and press you in on every side, and destroy you, and beat your children within you, and will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visit” (Luke 19:43–44). What we read in books is what we see in our times. We still notice the same terrible judgments of God today; His same righteous anger now strikes unrepentant sinners. We see and hear terrible battles and terrible bloodshed worthy of crying: so many thousands falling in battle, so many widows, orphans, crying fathers and mothers left behind; so many cities suffered from foreign weapons, from pestilence, from famine, earthquakes and fire; so many wicked people suddenly pick up and go to another world. These are all traces of God’s righteous judgment and wrath, which consumes unrepentant lawless people like fire. What was accomplished by this righteous judgment of God on some, other unrepentant sinners should also expect. In the gospel of St. Evangelist Luke we read that when some came to Christ and told Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices, Christ said to them: “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the Galileans, that they suffered so much? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all also perish” (Luke 13:1–3). From these words of Christ it should be concluded that other unrepentant sinners must expect the same destruction that they see in others. “Already the ax lies at the root of the trees: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). Based on the executions that were previously and currently taking place, we can draw conclusions about future and temporary ones – about eternal ones. There will be eternal punishment for bitter sinners, there will be fiery Gehenna, there will be hell, pitch darkness, gnashing of teeth; The wicked will be rejected from the face of God and His kingdom. “Do not deceive yourself: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor wicked people, nor homosexuals, nor covetous people, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God,” wrote St. apostle (1 Cor. 6:9–10; Gal. 5:19–21). Christ will say to sinners on the day of His righteous Judgment: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). “But the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death,” says Christ (Rev. 21:8). We read the same in other places of Holy Scripture. God's words and warnings, Christians, are not vain and not empty, but true and reliable: what he said will not be canceled, and what he predicted will certainly happen. He predicted to our ancestors death from the forbidden tree - and death followed to those who transgressed His commandment. The righteous Noah predicted a worldwide flood on the wicked - and there was a flood. He predicted death for the embittered pharaoh - and the pharaoh died. He predicted captivity for the Israelites - and they were captured. He predicted the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem - and it came true. Declared in His Scripture that there will be eternal torment for the wicked - there will certainly be it; they will experience the eternal wrath of God’s righteous judgment, they will drink this cup of sorrow, but they will never drink it. Let us fear, Christians, the judgment of God and His righteous wrath, and let us repent, lest we fall into the hands of the Living God! Because “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). Whoever does not believe the words of God will experience for himself the work of God’s righteous judgment, because “God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap,” says the apostle (Gal.6:7). “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety,” then destruction will suddenly come upon them, just as the pain of childbirth befalls one who is pregnant, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:2-3). How to soften a heart hardened by long-term sins? 3 To soften and tender the heart, hardened by a long stay in sins, the following prayerful reflections are useful: 1. “Lord, do not rebuke me with Your wrath” (Ps. 6:2)! I know, Lord, what horror and trembling will befall me when, before the face of the universe at Your Last Judgment, you reveal all the sins I have committed. “Thinking about the many evil things I have done, O wretched one, I tremble at the terrible day of Judgment!” I know, I tremble and do not dare, Lord, to ask for complete forgiveness of many of my sins, for I have sinned before You, I have immeasurably offended Your holy name, in the face of all people: I did not obey Your commands, I squandered Your treasures for evil, I spent the inheritance You gave me on iniquities. I have corrupted Your church - my body; I have desecrated and destroyed my soul—Your image. The time given to me I spent with Your enemies; I have not kept one of Your commandments; I have stained the robe with which You clothed me; The lamp that You gave me, I dozed off and extinguished it! I know that you, Lord, will expose everything that I have done, and I will not be able to avoid it: I will, I will be convicted. But, Lord, do not rebuke me with Your anger! I ask only one thing from You, the only Merciful One. You yourself know well all my secret sins, but do not expose me, do not reveal my sins to all Angels and people, to the entire universe, to my shame and disgrace! 2. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak” (Ps. 6:3)! The body is weak, the soul is weak, the mind is weak, the thought is weak: my strength has failed (see Ps. 70:9), my days have perished in vanity (Ps. 77:33), I see the approaching end. But, Lord, stretch out your hand to me, drowning in the depths of sweets, open to me, who knocks unworthily, and do not close the doors of Your mercy for me! For if You close, who will open? If You do not hurry, then who will help us? No one but You, the True God. Grant me time of life and time of repentance, overcome the hardening of the heart and complete my correction! For if You do not do this, then whatever I do will be weak and unsteady; no matter what I plan, everything will be powerless and fragile; no matter what I start, everything will be useless and imperfect. Do not delay, Lord, but quickly come and save Your creation! You Yourself said, Lord: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Warn the time of my life with the conversion of my soul. Thoughts, nature, evil intentions and especially evil habits are in conflict. “Have mercy on me, O God, for I am weak”: the enemy has weakened me, made me weak and contrite; but the weak and contrite cannot help himself; Therefore, have mercy on me, O God, because I am weak. 3. “Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled, and my soul is greatly troubled” (Ps. 6:3–4)! Confusion of spirit and body has overcome me, Lord! I am enslaved by mental and physical passions, I have made my soul and body their instruments. That which could give me strength is weakened in me: faith, hope, love, wisdom, moderation, temperance, meekness, humility, truth, and piety - everything is broken, just as the bones of the body are broken. I see that the strength of my soul has dried up, time has passed, the end is approaching, old age is approaching, the ears of my field are bowed and ripening for harvest, the reaper is approaching, the sickle is ready, the ax is raised, the beating is certain, and my soul is greatly troubled. I see that I remain faulty and get worse every day, and my soul is greatly troubled. I see the onset of a difficult transition from this life to the next, but I have no companion, and my soul is greatly confused. I see that the lender is approaching, demanding a debt from me, the deadline has come, and I have nothing with which to pay. The judge presents me with a sentence, and the executioners are ready - there are many accusers, there is not a single defender, and my soul is greatly confused. I'm trembling, confused and don't know what to do. Ask for continuation of life? But I’m afraid to add more sins and leave unprepared. I don’t know with what face I will appear before the Judge when the hour of the end comes. The evil one does not cease to insult me, my enemies continue to attack me, the warfare of the flesh does not cease, the evil thoughts do not subside! Therefore, heal me Yourself, Lord, for my bones are shaken, and my soul is greatly troubled! 4. “Turn, O Lord, deliver my soul, save me for the sake of Thy mercy” (Ps. 6:5)! May my wickedness not overcome Your mercy, may not my negligence overcome Your love for mankind. Be kind to me, O Lord, according to Your mercy and heal my infirmities for the sake of Your holy name. 5. “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant” (Ps. 142:2). If You want to sue us, everyone’s mouth will be shut, and no one will be justified. For how can we repay Your ineffable goodness for such great benefits? You called us out of non-existence into existence, created, multiplied, covered, spread, “put everything under our feet” (Ps. 8:7). Then He converted the lost, He sought out the lost, He took us on His shoulders, He redeemed us with His Blood, He clothed the naked with clothing, He enriched the humiliated, He made us His brothers, heirs and joint heirs. What can we object to this and say in our defense? What is not given to us? What did we not have to live holy and pleasingly?! Therefore, “do not enter into judgment with Your servant”; “Hurt Your face from my sins” (Ps. 50:11). Tip the scales to the side of mercy, so that the immeasurable weight of my sins does not serve to condemn me. Save me according to Your mercy, by which all who have achieved salvation have been saved. Moses sinned, Peter sinned, and no one is clean from sin. Therefore, as I work, I seek salvation through faith, and not through works, so that the Lover of Mankind may say to me: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:50). Of all those who have been pardoned by You, no one has heard: “Your works have saved you, go in peace.” For all our righteousness is before You like unclean linen (see Isa.64:6). Therefore, I cry again: “Save me according to Your mercy.” Let Your mercy be with me all the days of my life (see Ps. 22:6). Let Thy mercy seek me, on the woe of the fugitive who abandoned You, who always hastens to sin. Let Thy mercy seek me and be perfect; let it subdue me with bit and bridle, who does not approach You (see Ps. 31:9). You are a God who works great miracles (see Ps. 135:4), “show Your mercy wondrously, saving those who trust in You” (Ps. 16:7), showing mercy beyond hope and beyond asking! A visual representation of the three sinful tendencies that come from self-love I. The lust of the flesh (1 John 2:16), into which two instincts can lead: a) to maintain one’s life with food and b) to expand one’s being, to spread one’s race through marital union, manifests itself in two forms: 1) Voluptuousness, which includes: a) gluttony, or gluttony, passion for overeating to the point of satiety in food and drink, overeating and drunkenness; b) guttural rage, passion for delicacy. 2) Voluptuousness, which is found in different forms, which are: b) fornication and other types of carnal sins; c) jealousy as a distortion of love, a passionate desire alone to possess the love of a loved one. II. Lust of the eyes (1 John 2:16), or selfishness, which has two branches: 1) Selfishness, passion for acquiring more, beyond need. 2) Stinginess, storage of acquired goods without use. III. Pride of life (1 John 2:16), which: 1) admires himself, his perfections; 2) wants to please others, even forces others to admire their perfections and respect them; 3) turns away from others; This includes the highest manifestation of self-love. a) self-exaltation (high dreaminess about oneself), self-satisfaction, delight in one’s perfections, self-adoration; b) considering oneself better than others, and this results in contempt, humiliation of others, or arrogance, arrogance. a) ambition as a reflection of admiration for our perfections, justification of our self-worth. These include: seeking, vanity, i.e. striving for distinction, boasting or self-praise, showing off one's deeds, hypocrisy. The highest manifestation of ambition is love of fame. From seeking come: arrogance, people-pleasing, groveling; from vanity - majesty, pomp, with wealth - luxury, etc.; b) lust for power is a passion for dominance and enslavement of others. A complete denial of humanity, a desire for evil for everyone and a willingness to always do evil through violence, temptation, seduction from the path of good, passionate pleasure in the suffering of others - this is anger. From satiety, especially from drunkenness, voluptuousness increases; and from both come, in addition to various sins in thoughts, words, actions, relaxation of the spirit and body, hardening of the heart, laziness, carelessness, coldness towards God, religion and one’s salvation. Hence - sadness, melancholy, sadness, despondency, etc. Although they are more diseases of the soul, they are considered a sin to the extent that a person voluntarily indulges in them or allows their causes and does not take measures to free himself from them. On the basis of sensuality, a passion for fun, games, dancing, public spectacles, amusements, etc. also arises and increases. This occurs as a result of the wrong direction of the instinctive need for movement and the easy stimulation of mental and physical forces for their development and strengthening. From self-interest come: dissatisfaction with one’s condition, envy of the happiness of others, heartlessness, when acquiring wealth - lies, deception, violence, etc.; worry, grief over losing things, etc. However, it is difficult to find the order of origin of blind passions, the sequence of their development. Sometimes they arise from two or three main passions at once (i.e., carnal lust, self-interest and pride) and are found in a variety of sinful actions. a) self-indulgence, self-will (capriciousness), stubbornness (the desire to insist on one’s own opinion and whimsical desire, while rejecting the opinion and desire of others), grumbling against God and people, etc. b) arrogance, obstinacy, absurdity, impudence, arrogance, or, on the contrary, cowardice, despondency, despair, etc. Particular types of anger: a) hatred, i.e. disgust towards another person; b) envy, i.e. powerless anger, sorrow for the happiness and good of one’s neighbor, accompanied by the desire to destroy this good or prevent any success of one’s neighbor; c) vindictiveness, i.e. hatred combined with the desire to repay evil for evil. Vengefulness can be open and violent (anger) and hidden, pondering the means of revenge (malice, rancor). This is where hard-heartedness, malice, gloating, misanthropy, etc. come from. Chapter two. Call to repentance Christ calls the sinful soul to Himself 4. Why did you, man, leave me? Why did you turn away from the One who loved you? Why did I again stick to My enemy? Remember how I came down from heaven for you. Remember how I became Flesh for you. Remember how for your sake I was born of a Virgin. Remember how I was a Baby for your sake. Remember how I humbled myself for you. Remember how I became poor for your sake. Remember how I lived on earth for you. Remember how you suffered persecution for your sake. Remember how for your sake I accepted slander, reproach, reproach, dishonor, wounds, spitting, strangling, ridicule, and reproaches. Remember how for your sake I was numbered among the transgressors. Remember how he died a shameful death for you. Remember how I was buried for you. He came down from heaven to take you to heaven. I humbled myself to lift you up. I became poor to make you rich. I accepted dishonor in order to glorify you. Endured wounds to heal you. Died to revive you. You sinned, and I took your sin upon myself. You are to blame, and I accepted the execution. You are a debtor, and I have paid the debt. You are condemned to death, but I died for you. But My love and My mercy attracted Me to this: I could not bear for you to suffer in such misfortune. And this love you neglect? Instead of love, you repay with hatred. You love sin instead of Me. Instead of being My slave, you are enslaved to passions. But what did you find worthy of disgust in Me, why don’t you want to come to Me? Do you want good? Every good thing is with Me. Do you want bliss? All bliss is mine. Do you want beauty? What is more beautiful than Me? Are you looking for nobility? What is nobler than the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin? Do you want heights? What is greater than the King of heaven? Do you want fame? Who is more illustrious than Me? Do you want wealth? I have all kinds of wealth. Do you want wisdom? I am the Wisdom of God. Do you want friendship? Who is more tender and loving than I, Who laid down my soul for everyone? Are you looking for help? Who will help but Me? Are you looking for a doctor? Who will heal besides Me? Are you looking for fun? Who will amuse you besides Me? Are you looking for consolation in sadness? Who will console you besides Me? Are you looking for peace? With Me you will find rest for your soul. Are you looking for peace? I am peace of mind. Are you looking for life? With Me is the source of life. Are you looking for light? I am the light of the world. Are you looking for the truth? I am the truth. Are you looking for a way? I am the way. Are you looking for a guide to heaven? I am a faithful guide. Why don't you want to come to Me? Don't you dare start? Who is more convenient to access? Are you afraid to ask? Whom did I refuse who asked in faith? Sighings of a sinful soul in response to the call of the Lord 5 Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! Draw me to come to You! I am imprisoned, Lord! Bring me out of prison so that I can come to You! Bring my soul out of prison - to give praise to Your name! Darkness surrounds me, Lord! Drive away the darkness so that I can see Your light. I am bound, Lord, with many iron shackles, and there is no weakening for me. Break the chains so that I can be free! Give me ears to hear You. Give me eyes to see You! Give me the taste to taste You! Give me feet to come to You! Give me lips to speak about You! Give me a heart to fear and love You! “Teach me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth” (Ps. 85:11)! Because You are “The Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Take what is mine from me, and give me the desire to do Your good will! Take away the old and give me the new! Take away the heart of stone and give me a living, ardent one that loves You, honors You, and follows You! Give me an eye so that I can see Your love! Give me an eye so that I can see Your humility and follow it. Give me an eye so that I can see Your meekness and patience and follow them! Say the word, and it will be so, for Your word is deed! “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24)! Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! Be food and drink for my soul! Be a source for my thirsty soul! Be the light of my darkened soul! Be a sanctification against my uncleanness! Be wisdom against my madness! Be peace and quiet against my evil conscience! Be an advice against my bewilderment! Be a strength in my weakness! Be a strength against my weakness! Be the Leader on my journey! Be a joy in my sorrow! Be joyful in my sorrow! Be the deliverance from my captivity! Be a Defender against my slanderers! Be a victory against my enemies! Be a shield against my persecutors! Be a Judge against those who insult me! Be the King against the devil's reign! Be my Intercessor against the wrath of God! Be the Sacrifice for my sins! Be an excuse against my sins! Be to me, an orphan, an Eternal Father! Be an Intercessor at the hour of my death! Be life against my death! Be the Patron after my death! Be eternal life after my resurrection! Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! Give glory to Your name, but to me eternal salvation! “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory” (Ps. 113:9)! Word from Elder Ambrose of Optina about how we care for the body and the soul 6 The Gospel says: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul” (Mark 8:36). That's how precious the human soul is! She is more valuable than the whole world with all its treasures and benefits! But it’s scary to think how little we understand the dignity of our immortal soul! The body, this dwelling place of worms, this painted coffin, attracts all our attention from morning to evening; and on the immortal soul, on the most precious and beloved creation of God, on the image of His glory and greatness, hardly a single thought is drawn during a whole week! The most flourishing years of our life are devoted to serving the body, and only the last minutes of decrepit old age are devoted to the eternal salvation of the soul. The body is daily reveled, as at a rich man's feast, with full cups and sumptuous dishes; and the soul barely collects the crumbs of the Divine word on the threshold of the house of God. The insignificant body is washed, dressed, cleaned, adorned with all the treasures of nature and art, but the dear soul, the bride of Jesus Christ, the heir of heaven, wanders around exhausted, clothed in the clothes of a wretched wanderer, without alms. The body does not tolerate any stain on the face, any uncleanness on the hands, or any patch on clothing. And the soul, covered from head to toe with filth, does nothing but move from one sinful mire to another, and with its annual, but often hypocritical, insincere confession, it only multiplies the patches on its clothes, and does not renew them. The well-being of the body requires various kinds of fun and pleasure, from them entire families often fall into poverty, for it people are sometimes ready to do any work, and the poor soul has only one hour on Sundays to listen to the Divine Liturgy, only a few minutes for morning and evening prayer, forcibly collects one handful of copper coins for alms and is satisfied when it expresses the memory of death with a cold sigh. For the health and safety of the body, they ventilate and change their home, call on the most skillful doctors even from afar, abstain from food and drink, take the most bitter medicines, allow themselves to be burned and cut. But for the health of the soul, to avoid temptations, to move away from the sinful infection, they do not take a single step, but remain in the same air, in the same unkind society, in the same vicious house and do not look for any doctor for the soul, or choose an unfamiliar and inexperienced doctor and hide from him what is already known to both heaven and hell, and about which they themselves boast to everyone. When the body dies, then one hears sorrow and despair; and when a soul dies from mortal sin, then they often don’t even think about it! Thus, we do not realize the dignity of our soul and, like Adam and Eve, we give it away for a beautiful-looking fruit. Why don't we at least cry like Adam and Eve? The cry of those who have lost their souls should be more sorrowful than the cry of Jeremiah, who, mourning the misfortunes of the Fatherland, cried out: “Who will give water to my head and a source of tears to my eyes” (Jer. 9:1)! We, unfortunately, most often only care about acquiring earthly and temporary blessings, and not heavenly ones. We forget that earthly blessings are transitory and unstoppable, while heavenly blessings are eternal, infinite and inalienable. All-merciful Lord! Help us to despise everything that is fleeting and take care of the only thing that is needed - the salvation of our souls. Chapter three. Self-test The benefits of solitude for better knowledge of one's sinfulness 7. Solitude will teach us fasting, and prayer, and the fight against enemies, and ways to defeat Them, and will finally show us the direct path to salvation. “Tell me,” someone asked his friend, who was already established in piety, “why do some love solitude and seek it, while others do not tolerate it and run away from it? Why do people have such opposite attitudes towards the same thing? “When there is no noise around you,” the friend answered, “you can hear if someone is knocking on your door. Therefore, if you are waiting for a friend or benefactor, then in every possible way you want to free yourself from noise, so that in silence you can hear his first knock and rush towards him; and if you are waiting for an enemy or a formidable judge, then you would like his unbearable knock to be drowned out with noise.” But God Himself once said to all humanity: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev. 3:20). Therefore, for whom God is the God of love and who himself loves Him, he flees from the noise of the bustle of the world into solitude. There, when a holy and mysterious silence overshadows and embraces him, he hears the God of love striking his heart. And vice versa, whoever realizes in his conscience that God for him is a God of judgment and whoever does not love Him, flees from solitude in order to drown out the unbearable blows of God’s finger with the noise of light. There, when his feelings are deafened by the rapid movement of worldly things, his mind is darkened by the cup of pleasures of the world, he cannot hear the formidable Judge or the terrible Visitor knocking on the door of his heart. “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths” (Ps. 119:105). In the matter of well-being of the soul, the most important thing is to know yourself, or self-examination. How to produce it? The surest means for this is to compare your life with the requirements of God’s law and, in its light, examine your inner church. To do this, take the commandments of God of the Old and New Testaments and the commandments of the church and, in solitude, compare your deeds with them. At the same time, when approaching the ten commandments of God’s law, try to analyze each commandment, each sin in detail. You read, for example, the first commandment: I am the Lord your God; may you have no other gods besides Me (Ex. 20:3) - and think: you know no other gods except the True God, but do you really love no one and nothing as much as God, do you not honor or listen to anyone more than God, do you treat God with complete trust, have you never grumbled against Him, etc. Second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth below, or that is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them (see Ex. 20:4–5) - prohibits the worship of idols. You don't bow down to idols. But don't you serve mammon more than God? Are you not serving your belly, your pride, your pride, covetousness, gluttony, drunkenness, the powerful of this world, even to the point of forgetting God, etc.? The third commandment is: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain (Ex. 20:7). Don’t you use the name of God every now and then in joking conversations and generally without reverence? Don’t you make the sign of the cross without thinking about the Lord crucified for us, somehow or jokingly? Don't you pray to God only with your lips - coldly, absent-mindedly, and not with your heart and whole soul? The fourth commandment: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (see Ex. 20:8–11), commands to honor holidays. How do you spend them? If you don’t have the habit of working on holidays, that’s good. But not only should one simply not work on holidays, but they should also be spent in holiness: in contemplation of God, in reading the word of God and spiritual books, in prayer, in giving alms, in visiting the sick and alleviating their lot, etc. Do you observe all this? Fifth commandment: Honor your father and your mother (Ex. 20:12). Now remember your entire family life: how did you treat and treat your parents, brothers, children, servants? Then move on to social and church life: how efficient are you in fulfilling state duties, how obedient are you to your superiors, how devoted to your spiritual fathers, are you fulfilling your duties towards your godfather and mother and your godchildren? This commandment is broad. The sixth commandment: Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13), you are ready to pass without thinking. “I am not guilty against her,” you say to yourself. Yes, you didn't kill anyone. But is it really possible to kill a person by deed? Sometimes a word of slander, condemnation, hatred and contempt is worse than a knife. You can become a killer in this way: a person melts in need, suffers, strives with all his might, and even goes to work sick. You could have helped him, but you didn’t, and he died from overwork. Who is his killer? According to the law of conscience, you are guilty of his death. You should have helped him, if not yourself, then through other people, and he would still have lived. So, if you did not show compassion for the unfortunate, did not console the sad, did not help your neighbor, did not guide the erring on the path of truth and goodness, did not turn away from temptation, and perhaps you yourself destroyed someone’s soul through the sin of temptation, then you, without a doubt, to great misfortune, are also guilty of the sixth commandment of God’s law, which prohibits murder. The seventh commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery (Ex. 20:14) - generally prohibits all carnal impurity. This also includes various games and immodest jokes, obscene songs, harmful reading, passion for clothes and theatrical performances, etc. Eighth commandment: Thou shalt not steal (Ex. 20:15). You are not a thief; that's true. But any deception, forgery, concealment is also theft. Do you know this? Moreover, the category of thieves should include everyone who, in one way or another, lives at the expense of others: beggars by craft, parasites, people making all sorts of easy money, merciless moneylenders, misers of all kinds and types, wasteful householders who ruin their families in this way, etc. And who among us is not guilty of the ninth commandment? Do not bear false testimony against your friend, says the Lord (Ex. 20:16). And which of us has never said anything unnecessary about another person? What about double-mindedness? What about gossip? What about the gossip? Who is clean from these vices? And against the tenth commandment: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife; neither his field, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any of his livestock, nor anything that is your neighbor's (Ex. 20:17) - which of us is clean? Who is free from envy? Who is free from unclean, money-loving, selfish and adulterous thoughts and desires? But let’s assume that you abstained from sins prohibited by the ten commandments of the Old Testament law. Do you fulfill the gospel commandments? Are you concerned about adorning yourself with gospel virtues? 1) Are you trying to cultivate a sense of humility, an awareness of your own unworthiness? 2) Do you mourn your sins and weaknesses to the point of tears? 3) Have you always been and are you trying to be meek in your dealings with your neighbors? 4) Do you thirst for holiness and supreme righteousness? 5) Are you attentive to the needs of your neighbors? Do you consider yourself obligated to help those in need, console the sad, visit the sick, admonish the foolish, and generally be merciful to everyone? 6) Do you care about the purity of your heart? Do you harbor envy, hatred and bad desires in your heart? 7) Do you try to pacify the warring people? 8) Are you ready to endure at least slight sorrows for the truth? 9) And do you love the Lord Jesus so much that you would be ready to go even to death for Him? You can reach all these questions, brothers, by reading the sayings of the Lord about the beatitudes, or - which is the same thing - the Gospel beatitudes. It is useful for this purpose to read St. The Gospel and especially the Savior’s Talk on the Mount, set out in the Gospel of Matthew from the fifth chapter to the eighth. Now look at the church commandments, of which, like the Gospel ones, there are nine, and ask yourself, are you fulfilling them as the Holy Church, our loving mother, tirelessly concerned about our eternal salvation, expects from us? 1) Do you pray to God morning and evening with contrition and tenderness of heart, without coldness, without indifference, without distraction in thoughts, but as if standing before the Throne of God? Do you go to pray on Sundays and holidays in the church of God - a place of the special gracious presence of God? 2) Do you fast according to the rules of the Church? Do you combine physical fasting with spiritual fasting, i.e. with curbing passions, with abstinence from bad habits? 3) Do you respect the pastors of the Church as servants of Christ? Do you ask them for advice on how to direct your life towards salvation? 4) Do you often receive the Holy Sacraments of repentance and Communion? Are you approaching these saving Sacraments with worthy preparation? Do you consider the beginning of the correction of life after these Sacraments? 5) Have you read works hostile to the word of God and the teachings of the Church? Were you not of one mind with heretics on religious issues? 6) Do you pray for the Tsar - the father of our Fatherland, for the civil authorities and the army? Do you pray for all Orthodox Christians - both living and dead? 7) Do you take a heartfelt part in the prayers of the Church appointed on the occasion of famine, widespread disease, disastrous wars and other social disasters? 8) Have you sinned in thought, word or deed against the eighth commandment of the Church, which prohibits withholding, concealing or stealing anything belonging to the Church? 9) Have you visited immodest entertainment societies that awaken unchaste thoughts and feelings? Have you been to such places, especially on the eve of Sundays and holidays, when time should be spent in prayer and deeds of charity and mercy? So, my friends, each of us needs to look at our lives in order to find out what he is, what he is like; How healthy or sick is your soul? It is clear that such self-examination cannot be done right away, but you need to take a closer look at your inner man. That is why the Holy Church has appointed to spend at least a week preparing for confession 9 . Do we remember this and follow it? Is it surprising if the matter of improving the soul is so difficult for us? – Do I love God with all my heart and all my soul, most of all? – Have I often transgressed my love for God, have I violated my reverence with thoughts of unbelief or lack of faith, coldness or absent-mindedness during worship, in church or at home, standing in prayer, by omitting daily prayers in the morning and evening, or even by completely neglecting them? – Have I angered God by not paying attention to the lessons life teaches us, i.e. the ways of God's Providence? – Do I consider it my sacred duty to acquire correct and clear knowledge about God and other truths and objects of holy faith? – Do I love my neighbors as myself, according to the commandment of Christ? – Do I respect in them the dignity of people who are similar to me in everything, who have the same moral powers and rights to the same kingdom in the afterlife? – Do I value in them the high title of Christians, sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, destined for the inheritance of eternal bliss? – Didn’t you look at your neighbors as an instrument for satisfying impure passions, as a means of achieving shameful goals? – Did you offend them with unfounded suspicion or distrust, contempt, slander, hatred, condemnation, rancor, vindictiveness, gloating in their sorrows and sorrows? – Did you appropriate someone else’s property through predation or deception, covetousness or in any other way? – Did you cause harm to the property, honor, good name and health of your neighbors? IN RELATION TO YOURSELF – Do I value my human and Christian dignity? – Do I maintain the purity of my soul and body? – Do I refrain from everything that is contrary to sobriety and chastity? – Do I avoid the sins of intemperance, excess in food and drink, which ignite unclean passions in the soul and disordered movements in the body? – Am I faithful to my vows to God? – Did you not utter false, nasty and seductive words with your tongue? -Have you used your eyes, hands, feet and whole body to harm yourself and others? – Did I behave worthily in the rank in which I was placed by Providence? – Did you use your wealth, honor and other gifts and advantages with benefit and worthy of the glory of God? Finally, let us examine with all attention what state we are in in relation to our salvation? – Is the beginning of salvation laid in us through true, perfect repentance, even if we encounter stumblings and even falls in our lives? – Do we live a grace-filled Christian life or are we in a state of sin, insensibility, unrepentance and spiritual deadness, although we confess often? – Do we sincerely desire the salvation of our soul, i.e. Do we realize the severity of sin, which offends the greatness of God, angers the love and mercy of the Heavenly Father, tramples on the Holy Blood of the Son of God, dishonors the grace of the All-Holy Spirit? – Do we feel all the danger of a sinful life, which deprives us of the glory of the children of God, expels us from the bright kingdom of God, makes our soul an object of disgust for the Holy One? Angels, a playground for evil and unclean spirits and turns us from a god-like being into “foolish beasts” (see Ps. 49:13)? – Does our heart tremble at the mere thought of the loss of eternal life, of the deprivation of the kingdom of God for all eternity? – Does our whole being shudder at the thought of the endless eternity of torment awaiting the sinner after death? Such and similar reflections will lead us to the knowledge of sinfulness, produce true sorrow for God and make our repentance sincere, without which our repentance and confession are fruitless and after repentance we again remain in our sins. Chapter Four. Fighting Sin Think more often about eternity Think, Christian, more often about eternity, for this way you will more easily avoid sin. Eternity always abides and never ends. A thousand, a hundred thousand, a thousand thousand centuries will pass, and more will pass - but eternity is just beginning, and no matter how much you stretch your mind forward, eternity is just beginning, and you cannot reach its end, because it has no end. You cannot think about eternity or remember without fear. Thinking about eternity makes crying and tears sweet, makes any work easier, any temporary punishment: sadness, bonds, prisons, exile, insults, wounds, dishonor, reproach, poverty and death itself – makes you accept it with love and gratitude. But thinking about eternity does not allow one to fall into lawless snares: it will not allow one to wallow in uncleanness, lie, steal, rob, deceive, be proud, be arrogant, condemn one’s neighbor, or slander him. Whoever thinks diligently about eternity will look for opportunities to hear God's word, instruction for salvation, more than everyday food. He will not want to adorn himself with perishable beauty; Even bitter food will seem sweet to him. Banquets, dancing, games, singing will become vile for him, as obstacles to salvation. He will cry more than laugh; Poverty will be more pleasant to him than wealth, dishonor than honor, reproach, reproach and bitterness than praise. Two eternities will appear in his mind: one - blessed and desired - for the righteous, in the kingdom of heaven with Christ and His holy Angels, who will endlessly rejoice; and the other - unhappy and terrible - for poor sinners condemned to eternal fire with the devil. “And they will go into everlasting punishment; the righteous unto eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). With the help of God's grace, destroy the bonds that bind you and prevent you from pleasing God 11 This is one of the most powerful means of helping to fulfill the commandment of love for God, leading us to the eternal salvation of the soul. Allow the spirit, give it freedom, and it itself will flow back to where it was taken from - to God. Bonds on the spirit are imposed by self-indulgence, the world and the devil. The destructive actions of the spirit-stimulating grace of God are directed against them. The closest bonds of the spirit are the bonds of self-indulgence. Our self-indulgence has many supports: in our being, in the body, in the soul, in our external life, and in the whole order of our life. Here are its types: carnality, voluptuousness, luxury, lust, idleness, passion for entertainment, worldly carelessness, ambition, lust for power, desire for visible success in business, for a flattering external life, for peaceful external relations, for connections, passion for the arts, learning, and enterprises. All this in the most varied forms forms a solid support for our selfhood, which, generously nourished, grows in one form in one person, in another in another. Saving Divine grace, directing its power to destroy the support of self-indulgence, does this to awaken the sinner from sleep: he who is bound by carnal knowledge plunges him into illness and, weakening the flesh, gives the spirit freedom and strength to come to his senses and sober up. He who is seduced by his beauty and strength is deprived of his beauty and kept in constant exhaustion. He who rests in his power and strength is subjected to slavery and humiliation. Whoever relies on wealth has it taken away from him. He who is highly intelligent is disgraced as ignorant. Whoever relies on the strength of connections has them broken. Whoever relies on the eternity of the order established around him is ruined by the death of persons or the loss of necessary things. How else can one sober up those who are in the bonds of carelessness and external happiness, if not through sorrows and misfortunes? And isn’t that why our whole life is filled with disasters that contribute to God’s intention to keep us sober? All such destruction of the supports of careless self-indulgence constitute the turns of life, which always amaze and have a salutary effect, because they are always unexpected. Other bonds are imposed on the spirit by the world. The world with its concepts, principles, rules, with all its order, elevated to an unchangeable law, lays a heavy ruling hand on all its children, as a result of which none of them dares to think about rebelling against him or tearing away from his power. Everyone reveres him, adheres to his rules with some timidity, and violating them is considered almost a criminal offense. The spirit of the world holds in the light, influences us and binds us like a bond. It is obvious that his power is mental, imaginary, and not real, not physical. Consequently, we only have to dispel the imaginary power of the world - and we will have the opportunity to sober up from its spell. This is how God’s saving Providence works for us. To this end, it constantly holds two other worlds, holy and divine, in front of the world, and, drawing attention to them and even making them feel better, it constantly repeats the emptiness of worldly life and worldly hopes. These worlds of God are visible nature and the Church of God. Experience shows that often the mind, clouded by the child of the world, was sobered by the contemplation of God’s creations or by joining the Church. One winter looked at a tree standing in front of the window and woke up; another, after a noisy conversation, feeling the sweetness of peace of mind in the church, abandoned his previous customs and devoted himself to serving God. The visible nature and temple of God not only admonished and sobered up careless and sinful Christians, but turned even pagans to the true knowledge of God and pleasing God. The word “Hosanna” fell on the heart of one woman and made her a Christian. The conversion of our ancestors was finally confirmed by the influence of the church on them. The Great Martyr Barbara was converted from idols to God by the contemplation of the beauty of God's visible creations. The power and influence of nature and the church lies in the fact that they vividly and tangibly present to our tired, exhausted, exhausted, exhausted spirit, exhausted by the vanity of the world, the best, most blissful order of life. They pour their joy into our spirit and admonish us, make us understand that, indulging in the dominion of the world, we only torment and torment ourselves, that happiness is hidden in a completely different world, and that if community with the world is so painful now, then what should we expect after? The second way of grace-filled liberation from the bonds of the world is that by the grace of God the Provider, some people suddenly see another life, completely opposite to the one they are accustomed to living. This includes the conversion of those who observed the martyrs; and there are countless examples of this. Sometimes the martyrdom of one person converted entire villages and towns to the Christian faith. Here the presence of a moral force from another world, not ours, is clear. Sometimes, it seems, there should be a certain defeat, but there is none: the tormented one remains undefeated, is in good spirits, and it is not known why or how this happened. The sudden understanding of this amazes the mind and dispels the spell of the previous life. This also includes the treatment of the robber by King Mauritius, who, instead of executing him, treated him mercifully, as a deserved person. The same was the appeal of a harlot, whom one mother asked to pray for the return to life of her only dead son; and the conversion of another harlot, who repented from one glance at the monk, humbly engaged in prayer and contemplation of God, when she was indulging in luxury and debauchery in the same house 12. This also includes all appeals through examples from life. The power of their influence lies in the fact that people, on the one hand, who are content and calm, come face to face, although they have no pleasures or anything soothing in life, and on the other, those who have all the blessings of the world, but, however, find neither contentment nor peace. This leads to disappointment in former values ​​and a change in life. The third way to distract from the world is to shame its children. Julian the Apostate exalted himself above everyone, fiercely rebelled against Christians and threatened to suppress them with his strength, but then unexpectedly fell. This not only confirmed the believers, but also converted many unbelievers to the True God. On prp. Macarius the Great, based on false testimony, an entire village rebelled, he was beaten, tormented, and punishment was imposed on him. Peace has triumphed; but then the truth was revealed, put everyone to shame and returned them to reverence and fear of God. This includes all the admonitions that occurred after the falls and sudden death of the mighty and great of this world. Thus, the shame of the world humiliates it in the face of its adherents, exposes its powerlessness, and thereby turns away from it and gives courage to resist it. Finally, the world itself often displaces and expels us precisely because it does not satisfy or deceives expectations. A person seeks happiness, and in the world happiness is only fame, honor, power, wealth, joy, but nothing like that satisfies the seeker. The sensible one soon notices the deception and comes to his senses. The Prodigal Son said in the parable: “How many of my father’s hired servants have an abundance of bread, but I am dying of hunger. I will get up, go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:17–18). Using the examples of the holy saints of God, we see that many of them, seeing the vanity and rebellion of the world, moved away from it and resolutely devoted themselves to God. Another bond of the spirit comes from Satan and his angels. They are invisible and for the most part coincide with the bonds of self-indulgence and peace, which Satan strengthens with his influence and through them keeps the mind darkened. But there is also something that comes directly from Satan. A certain vague timidity and fear emanates from him, confusing the soul of a sinner at any time, and even more so when he is planning good things. This can be compared to how a master threatens a servant when he begins to do something not according to his will and plans. From Satan come various spiritual intrigues, such as: some have excessive hope in God’s mercy, which does not have solid foundations, does not sober up, but increasingly aggravates the love of sin; For others, on the contrary, there is despair; for others – doubt and unbelief; for others, self-confidence and self-justification drown out any feeling of repentance. Yes, many things come directly from Satan, although it is difficult to determine. But everything sinful must be attributed to him as to the source, for he is the prince of the sinful world. One of his cunning tricks is to hide himself, to make sinners believe that he is not there. As a result, he ferociously acts on his own in the sinful soul, transferring the sinful aspirations he inspires onto nature and causing murmurs at God, as if he forbids what is natural and commands what he does not have the strength to endure. The admonishing Divine grace often delivered sinners from the jaws of hell by shaming Satan. She brought him to shame and ridiculed, exposing his impotence and stupidity and exposing his cunning. So he was ashamed in the person of Simon the Magus, the Hieromartyr Cyprian and many others. All such cases were accompanied by the conversion and admonition of a considerable number of blinded people. During the days of the Lord's stay on earth, demons, the source of unbelief and doubt, became preachers of faith. And the holy martyrs often forced, by the power of Almighty God, both the father and the children of lies (John 8:44) to speak the truth through idols in the churches. Such revelation of the machinations of the evil one leads the sinner to the certainty that he is in evil and enemy hands, that he is being fooled to his detriment, that he is being led to destruction in a deceptive and gloomy way and wants to rejoice in it. This inevitably gives rise to a feeling of fear for one’s own good, caution, suspicion, disgust for the cunning man and his inventions - vices and passions, for his entire previous life. From here the transition is not far to the source of truth, goodness and bliss - God. These are the ways and means in which Divine grace influences the human spirit, pulls it out of the mouth of a life unusual for it and shows it face to face another, better life, one in which joy and peace await it. Forgiveness is the outer garment of Christian love 13 To the question of St. Apostle Peter: “How many times should one forgive a brother, up to seven times?” – The Lord, seeing such short human patience and applying His long-suffering to our weaknesses, determined: “Not seven times, but seventy times seven” (see Matthew 18:21–22). This is the same as saying: “Always forgive and never think about not forgiving.” Thus, forgiveness is a distinctive feature of the Christian spirit, it is the source and constant support in us of life in the Lord. This is an integral property of love, which, according to the apostle, “is long-suffering, kind, ... not easily provoked, ... covers all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-7). This is also a sure guarantee for forgiveness at the last Judgment; for if we forgive people their sins, our Heavenly Father will also forgive us (see Matthew 6:14). Thus, if you want to go to heaven, forgive everyone sincerely, from the heart, so that not even a shadow of hostility remains. When anger flares up in you against someone, then believe with all your heart that this is the work of the devil working in him (in the heart), hate him and his offspring, and it will leave you. Don't recognize her as something of your own, don't sympathize with her. It's been tested. The trouble is that the devil hides behind us, hides his head and his tail, lurks, and we, the blind, think that we are doing this ourselves, we stand for the devil’s cause, as if for something of our own, as for something just, although every thought about the justice of our passion is false, ungodly, and destructive. Be guided by the same thing when you see that someone is angry with you: do not consider his anger to be his own doing. No! He is only a tool of the all-evil enemy, he has not yet learned all his intrigues and deceit and is deceived by him. Pray that the enemy will retreat from him and that the Lord will enlighten his heart’s eyes, darkened by the poisonous, corrupting breath of the spirit of malice. We must sincerely pray to God for all people subject to passions: the enemy is active in them. The Main Means for Avoiding Sin Medical science prescribes some general rules for maintaining health and avoiding premature death. We study these rules diligently and follow them willingly. But isn't the soul more important than the body? Isn't she also in danger of some kind of illness and death? Shouldn't we take care of preserving the health of the soul, just as we take care of the health of the body? The main and only cause of illness and death of the soul is sin. All diseases of the soul come from sin, i.e. vices or sinful habits; death of the soul from sin, i.e. moving away from the Source of life - God - leads to deprivation of grace. How can you protect yourself from the plague of sin? How can we make sure that we sin as little and as rarely as possible if we cannot refrain from sin at all? Men experienced in Christian life and ascetics who have reached the highest degree of Christian perfection offer the following means or rules for this: 1. We must avoid all reasons and occasions for sin: all places, persons and things that can be tempting for us and can inspire us with sinful desires. ABOUT DEATH: “Do not boast about tomorrow, because you do not know what that day will bring forth” (Prov. 27:1); “You will return to the ground from which you were taken: you are dust, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19); ABOUT JUDGMENT: “This day is the day of wrath, the day of tribulation and distress, the day of desolation and ruin, the day of darkness and darkness, the day of clouds and darkness” (Zeph.1:15); “Depart, the wicked, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41); ABOUT THE RESURRECTION: “The hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have done good will go into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil will go into the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28); ABOUT THE FUTURE LIFE: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). 3. As often as possible, reflect on the blessings of God, especially on the life of our Lord on earth, His suffering and death, and on the main truths of the Orthodox Christian faith. 4. Put the fear of God on guard over your soul. Always imagine the presence of God everywhere, accustom your thought, your imagination, your memory, your desire to this - in a word, all the powers of your soul. Whatever you do, remember: you are doing it in the face of God; Whatever you think about, you think before the Lord; whatever you desire, you desire in the eyes of God. The bright eye of God sees you at any time of the day or night and penetrates into the very depths of your heart. Do not allow in your thoughts that any movement of your soul and body, any thought or desire can hide from the omniscience of God. Then your whole mind and heart will be filled with fear and reverence for God, all your desires will be confirmed in the will of God. “I have always seen the Lord before me,” says the prophet of God and King David, “for He is on my right hand, so that I will not be shaken” (Ps. 15:8). 5. Heartfelt and earnest prayer and frequent invocation of the Lord Jesus Christ especially help a Christian to refrain from sin. 6. You must pay attention to yourself, i.e. stay awake, observe yourself, your feelings, desires and actions. Guard your soul with sound reasoning and strict attention to yourself. Accustom your thought to look at the earth and everything earthly with the eyes of faith, i.e. to see here what it really is: vanity of vanities, decay and dust, just a ghost that sooner or later will disappear from our eyes. Love heaven and eternal life with all your heart; make them, as they should be, the first and main goal of your entire life, the focus of all your thoughts and aspirations, all your hopes and desires. Then everything that seems important and great on earth will appear insignificant; everything that seems pleasant will lose its attractiveness; everything that is considered precious will appear without any value or dignity. Everything that now seduces, captivates and draws the human heart onto the path of error and sin will turn out to be so low and insignificant that it will only arouse disgust. 7. As often as possible, one should resort to the Sacrament of repentance and confess to the spiritual father, ask him for advice and obey them, and worthily partake of the Holy Mysteries after proper fasting, fervent prayers combined with fasting. 8. Do not miss the opportunity to attend church services and read spiritual books at home. 9. Meet and talk with pious and prudent people and avoid talking with immoral people. 10. Always have some useful occupation, position, do some kind of work, so as not to be idle. 11. To occupy your mind while walking or driving, you need to sing to yourself some church hymns, or verses of psalms, or read the Jesus Prayer. 12. No guard can so vigilantly preserve the church of our soul from everything unclean and hostile to the Spirit of God, as true, perfect love for the Lord can do. He who sincerely, with all his soul and heart loves the Lord, not only will not do, but will not even think of anything contrary to the will of God, which would offend the holiness of God, which would turn away the love of God, which would arouse the righteous wrath of God. He who loves God tries to do only what is pleasing to God; he finds joy and consolation in fulfilling the commandments of God; For this, the holy word of the Lord is food and drink, and unceasing prayer to the Lord is life and breath. Such perfect love for the Lord is the vital force of the believing soul, which attracts it to everything that is good, holy, heavenly, unites it into one spirit with the Lord, infuses it with the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit. “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me,” says the Lord, “and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:15, 23) 15. A brief instruction on what every Christian should keep in mind from infancy to death 16 Everyone at Holy Baptism, through his godfather and mother, renounced Satan and all his works, and his service, and his pride; and this was confirmed by a threefold negative. Satan, as an evil spirit, always and in any way seeks the destruction of a person. His angels are also evil spirits, hostile to our family. His deeds are evil and hateful to God. This is idolatry, sorcery, sorcery, pride, arrogance, memory of malice, envy, enmity, gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, adultery and all uncleanness, love of money, robbery, theft, theft, foul language, idle talk, bad songs and everything that is contrary to sound reason. The one who serves Satan is the one who fulfills his evil will in these and similar matters. Remember, beloved, that at Baptism you renounced all sins three times and gave a damn about everything. Beware of returning to them. Having renounced Satan, you promised three times to serve Christ, the Son of God, with the Father and His Holy Spirit. So, at Baptism, you signed up for the service of Christ and swore allegiance in the same way as warriors and other people sign up for the service of the earthly King and swear allegiance to him. Therefore, one must serve Him faithfully, even to the point of death. How to serve Christ? Listen: have faith in Him and lead your life piously, with faith, in the fear of God, reverently, and, if possible, imitate Him, as the Chief and King of all. To fulfill Christian duty, it is useful to keep in mind the following: firstly, the presence of God is everywhere, since God is everywhere, He knows to the subtlety all of our deeds and words, but also our thoughts; secondly, the life and free suffering of Christ, to argue that He wandered on earth for the sake of people and deigned to endure terrible suffering. Thirdly, the following four things must be remembered: first, death, which no one escapes and which abducts people in various ways; the second is the Last Judgment, where we will give an answer for word, deed and thought; third - hell, or eternal torment, awaiting sinners and having no end; the fourth is the kingdom of heaven, prepared for the faithful and those who live holy lives. This, according to my position, I propose and exhort every brother in Christ to always support and strengthen his household in this way, and especially to instill in small children, so that they know and remember their promise and are accustomed to piety from an early age. For all life depends on education. And parents who do not raise their children in the fear of the Lord will not escape God’s punishment. I conclude all of the above with the words of Christ’s holy apostle Peter: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour; resist him with firm faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9). Why do we return to sins soon after fasting? 17 The Gospel story about the healing by the Lord in Capernaum of the soul of a paralytic from sins and his body from illness (see Mark 2:1-12), reminding us of God’s ineffable mercy towards us, brings to mind another, regrettable circumstance. We come, fulfilling our Christian duty, to the medical clinic, the Holy Church, covered with sinful sores, weakened by our whole being, having no strength either to overcome passions, or to abandon sinful habits, or to live without stumbling according to the commandments of God, and we leave from there with the assurance of the clergyman that our sins are forgiven, and therefore we are honored with the Holy Mysteries of Christ. But our sinful illness, alleviated during the fast, soon after its end returns and acts in us with the same force, and we become the same sinners as we were before the saving healing. What does this mean? What is the reason for the renewal of sins in us after our confession and Holy Communion? 1. Physical illnesses often return to the patient due to improper use of medications. And our spiritual ulcers are renewed in us after saving healing, mainly because we do not repent of our sins as we should. Therefore, we do not feel new grace-filled forces in ourselves in order to stand up and walk with firm steps according to the commandments of God. When we realize that we have harmed ourselves in some way, upset our health, life, well-being, we deeply mourn our indiscretion and express our readiness to impose the most severe punishment on ourselves, just to return what we have lost. The same should happen to us if our conscience, awakened from a sinful sleep, presented before our mental gaze all the sins with which we anger our All-Good Creator, Provider and Savior and destroy our soul and body. Yes, then we would decide on all types of self-condemnation, just to avoid the disastrous consequences of a sinful life. The holy king and prophet David, after confessing his sin, washed his bed with tears every night, got up at midnight, ate ashes like bread, and “threw away his drink with weeping” (see Ps. 6:7, 101:10). Every night, the Holy Apostle Peter, hearing the crow of a rooster, rose from his bed and threw himself to the ground, weeping bitterly over his renunciation of Christ the Savior. This is how the truly repentant acted! And although we approach the Sacraments of repentance and Communion with preparation, we confess our sins, but we do not mourn them, do not regret them, and do not lament them. That is why the same thing happens to us when fulfilling our Christian duty as to patients who take medicine in the wrong way. Our sinful illness not only does not stop, but sometimes becomes even more severe, and for the most part we remain slaves of sin. “Forgiveness,” teaches St. Ephraim the Syrian, - given to the criminal freely, but not without difficulty for him; Likewise, the remission of sins is a matter of mercy, but it is not acquired without tears. If custom alone draws you to the Doctor, then you will not receive health: only tears and contrition will heal your illness.” 2. A person being healed of a serious physical illness usually does not immediately feel completely healthy: he remains weak for some time and is in danger of falling ill again until he strengthens his strength through food, movement and other similar means. At the same time, he strictly abstains from anything that could cause a resumption of the previous illness. Likewise, our soul, healed by the gracious power of God from sinful ailments, is not completely freed from the possibility of falling into sin. An innate tendency to sin remains in her, which is constantly aroused and strengthened by countless temptations and temptations. For a more complete healing of sinful illness, we need a constant struggle with these temptations and temptations and victory over them. You cannot gain courage without seeing dangers; It is impossible to get rid of sins and acquire constancy in virtue so that it costs us nothing, so that sin itself leaves us and virtue itself comes to us. And whatever painful treatment we endure, whatever bitter medicine we take, if we truly and ardently desire to be freed from the serious physical illness that torments us! And in the matter of our spiritual salvation, nothing good happens and cannot happen without labor, donations, hardships and the struggle against passions and vices. Who has not read or heard the lives of the saints of God honored by the Holy Church? Who does not know through what difficult and painful struggle they ascended from their sinful life to holiness equal to the angels? They spent dozens of years in a continuous struggle with their passions and sinful habits, away from temptations, in continuous self-deepening, in constant remembrance of God! Not everyone, of course, is capable of such a struggle, but it is inevitable for everyone, albeit in a different form. If we are afraid to think about this struggle, as if afraid that we will exhaust our body too much with the feat of fasting, if, after the end of this saving feat, we again begin to make various indulgences to our sensuality, then it is not surprising that after receiving spiritual healing or forgiveness of sins from God, we again become the same sinners as we were before confession, and sometimes our soul comes even into a worse state, from which Christ the Savior warns the healed in these words: “Behold, you are healthy, sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). What benefit will the care of a doctor bring to the patient if the sufferer himself holds tightly to what is destructive to life? So there is no benefit from forgiving unrighteousness to someone who continues to do untruth, and from forgiving debauchery to someone who continues to live dissolutely. The all-wise Steward of our life wants those who previously lived in sins and then made a vow to rise to a healthy life to put an end to the past and find a good beginning of a new, God-pleasing life. “Repentance,” teaches St. Gregory the Great, - is known by the fruits, and not by the roots or leaves. The Lord cursed the fig tree, which had only leaves, but was barren; so He does not accept mere verbal confession of sins without the fruit of wearying the body through the labor of repentance. Pay attention to these words. The root of repentance is the good intention to confess sins, the leaves are the very confession of sins to God before the spiritual father and the promise to correct oneself, and the fruits of repentance are a virtuous life and penitential works. It is by these fruits that true repentance is recognized. Strengthen your good intention like a root, multiply the words of confession of sins like leaves on a tree. But if you do not then bear worthy fruits of repentance, if you do not correct your life, if you do not atone for your sins with virtues that are opposite to them, then you will be a tree unworthy of God’s blessing. Moreover, be afraid of the curse!” Let us be afraid, brothers, to abuse God’s forbearance, and in relying on it, let us be afraid to add lawlessness to lawlessness. To sin in hope of the Lord’s mercy means to sin doubly: to abuse God’s mercy and turn the sure means of salvation into an instrument of one’s destruction. One of the shepherds of the Church of Christ and preachers of the word of God admits that he fears God’s mercy more than His justice. “For,” he says, “if I sin against the justice of God, I have His mercy as refuge, and if I sin against mercy, I have no other refuge.” Cell rules of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov, indicating the order of holy life 1. When you get up from sleep, let your first thought be about God, let your first word be to God. 2. Bow down and give thanks to God, who awakened you from sleep, who did not destroy you with your iniquities, who is patiently awaiting your conversion. 3. Make a beginning for the better, say: “Today I have begun,” and so on. No one makes the path to heaven well except the one who starts each day well. 4. In the morning, be a Seraphim in prayer, a Cherub in deeds, and an Angel in circulation. 5. Don’t waste time in vain, but use it only for necessary things. 6. In all deeds and words and thoughts, keep your mind in God, have nothing else in your mind except Christ. 7. Encourage yourself to love God in every possible way, as much as you can, and especially by reasoning, saying: “A fire will burn in my teaching.” 8. Continually love God and try to see His presence with your inner eyes, and for His sake do everything humbly and with filial fear, think, speak. 9. Let there be meekness with praise, humility with honesty. 10. Let the word be quiet, humble, honest and useful; let silence judge the words that you must say. And let no idle and rotten words come out of your mouth at all. 11. Laughter, if it happens, let it be only until you smile, and then not often. 12. Beware of rage, ferocity and frenzy, but be moderate in anger. 13. Let temperance always be observed in eating and drinking. 14. Be lenient in everything; God will reward you and people will praise you. 16. Death is the end of everything, you should always think about it. To be saints is the duty not only of great ascetics, but also of all Christians 18 Brothers who honor holiness as the privilege of the elect! Let us think of holiness as a duty for everyone. If someone were told: do this and that, you will be close to the king, who gives you the right to this advantage and calls you to him, with what willingness, with what ardor would he take up the work required of him, even if the feat was not easy and the work was not short. But now the herald of the will of the Heavenly King says to us, unworthy of the last degree of citizenship in this kingdom: “Be holy” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). Be morally holy, and then you will be blessedly holy; live piously and virtuously, and you will be close to the King of Heaven, who allows you not only to approach Him, but also to abide in Him, and He Himself wants not only to approach you, but also to live in you. What then? How is this calling accepted? How many follow it willingly, with ardent zeal, with unflagging zeal, actively and selflessly? Don’t we think and say more often: “Where should we be saints? We are sinful people; It is enough if we are somehow saved by repentance.” “Where should we be holy?” But have we thought about who we will be and what will happen to us if we do not strive to become saints? There are the highest degrees of holiness, in which especially chosen and blessed souls shine. But in general, holiness is not only a private distinction between Christians, which is commendable for some to have and which others can easily do without. According to the apostolic teaching, everyone who is called by the Holy God to the kingdom of God, in other words, every Christian must consider it a law, duty and aspiration for himself to certainly be or become a saint. If you live without trying to be saints and without hoping for this, then you do not correspond to the dignity of those called by God and the sons of the covenant of God; you are Christians in name, and not in essence. What such a life leads to can be seen from another apostolic saying: “Strive to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14), i.e. will not achieve eternal bliss. So, if we carelessly and carelessly think that we should not be saints, then we sign a sentence for ourselves - not to see the Lord, to be alien to eternal bliss. “We are sinful people,” some say. This truth seems to be undeniable. For, on the contrary, “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But if we call ourselves sinners frivolously, frivolously, without contrition of heart, without turning away from sin, with carelessness, slyly implying that everyone else should admit the same and that, therefore, we are not ashamed to admit it, and it is not dangerous for us, having confessed, to remain the same as we were before the confession, then such recognition of sinfulness, of course, will not lead to holiness. In this case, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us, that is, there is no truth in our hearts and in our lives, although there is the sound of truth in our lips. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). But we are deceived if we think that we will be saved while remaining sinners. Christ saves sinners by giving them the means to become saints. They say: “Somehow we will be saved by repentance.” Yes, repentance is one of the means of salvation that Christ gives to sinners, preaching: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). But if we think of somehow repenting, somehow being saved, then we judge too easily a matter of extreme importance. Will a slave please his master if he does the assigned task somehow, and not as best as possible? Of course it won't please. Moreover, a person will not please God if he somehow does the work of God, which is the work of our salvation. St. John the Baptist, the perfect teacher of repentance, says that true repentance requires something else after itself: “Produce fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Repentance clears the soil of the heart from thorns, cultivates it, softens it; faith sows the seed of heaven into it. The growth of this new plant is keeping the commandments and doing good, its color is spiritual inner enlightenment, and the ripe, perfect fruit is holiness. The wheat must reach maturity, and then it will be brought into the granary. It is necessary for a person to achieve holiness, and then he will be ushered into the kingdom of heaven. Truly, brothers, if only by natural human forces we were to achieve holiness, then it would be fair to admit that this is beyond our capabilities. But when for this we have God’s grace that precedes, enlightens, strengthens, promotes, protects, no one should lose hope of achieving what God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ called us through Him before the foundation of the world. And He called us to “be holy and blameless before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4). What does true repentance consist of? 19 1. We must renounce our previous sins and abhor them as an abomination. 2. We must regret our sins and appease God and confess to our confessor. 3. Take care in every possible way from new sins. 4. Forgive our neighbor’s sins so that God can forgive us ourselves. “If you forgive people their sins,” says Christ in the Gospel, “your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their trespasses, then your Father will not forgive you your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15). 5. Show love and mercy to everyone in order to receive mercy yourself. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). 6. Humble yourself: he who humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). 7. Do not condemn or slander anyone. 8. Always pray to God so as not to fall into the snare of the enemy: “Watch and pray so as not to fall into temptation,” says Christ (Matthew 26:41). Those who sinned after St. After Baptism, there was only one hope left - true repentance. Thank God for this, thank God! We are not dead yet. Sinners! Hope still remains, God’s bounties have not yet ended, repentance is still preached to sinners, the good news is still preached to the poor, the mercy of the Heavenly King is still proclaimed everywhere, the doors of mercy are not yet closed, the grace of God is still open to everyone. Repentant sinners are still saved, and tax collectors and fornicators, cleansed by repentance, still enter the kingdom of God. The Merciful God still calls and expects all those who have turned away, and promises mercy. The child-loving Father of prodigal sons returning from a distant country still receives and opens the doors of His house to them, and dresses them in the best clothes, and gives a ring to each one’s hand, and boots to put on their feet (see Luke 15:11-33). And he commands all the inhabitants of heaven to rejoice over them: “Rejoice, Angels and all My chosen ones! Sinners turn to Me, men - My creation, created in My image and likeness - the lost are saved, the dead come to life, and the lost are found.” Glory to His goodness, glory to His love for mankind, glory to His mercy, glory to His bounty! Poor sinners! Why do we hesitate in a distant country and do not go to our Father? Why are we dying of hunger? Why do we feed on lawlessness like pork feed? In our Father's house there is everything in abundance: there even the mercenaries are abundantly satisfied. Our Father is waiting for us with great patience and desire, and those returning to Him will see them from afar and greet them with joy. He will look at us with merciful eyes, and we will be dear to Him, and will fall on our neck, and will embrace us, and kiss us with the kiss of His holy love. And he will not reprimand us; He will never remember our sins and our iniquities. And all the holy Angels and His chosen ones will begin to rejoice and rejoice over us. So, let us come to our senses and, having risen, hasten to our Father, and let everyone say to him with humility and regret: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before You and am no longer worthy to be called Your son: make me one of Your hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19). Let us hasten, sinners, before time runs out, while the Father waits, until the doors of His holy house are shut. Let us repent while God’s mercy is active, so that we do not experience God’s truth, the eternal Judgment. Conditions for true repentance and the need for sincere repentance In order for one who approaches the Sacrament of repentance to truly receive remission of sins, he is required, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church 21, to have the following conditions, which the pastor of the Church must tell those who are fasting in advance - in a separate teaching or in a few words before confession: 1. Contrition for sins. This is necessary by the very essence of repentance: whoever truly repents cannot help but realize the full gravity of his sins and their disastrous consequences, cannot help but feel his guilt before God, his unworthiness, cannot help but grieve in his heart, cannot help but be contrite. And where there is no true contrition for sins, there is no true repentance, but only external one. That is why the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church unanimously recognized contrition for sins as the most essential and necessary accessory of repentance. “You, beloved brothers,” wrote St. Cyprian, - repenting and contrite, consider your sins; Realize the gravest guilt of your conscience, open the eyes of your heart in order to comprehend your crime. The more we have sinned, the more we must mourn our sin.” 2. A firm intention to improve your life. The Holy Apostle Peter in his speech to the Jews said: “Repent and turn, that you may be cleansed from your sins” (Acts 3:19). “The wrong one confesses his sin,” says St. Basil the Great - who said: “I have sinned” - and then remains in sin, and the one who, according to the word of the psalmist, realized his sin and hated it (see Ps. 32:5). The all-wise Steward of our life wants someone who has lived in sin and then vowed to rise to a healthy life to put an end to the past, to make some kind of beginning, as if being renewed in life through repentance” 22 . “For those who repent, removal from sins alone is not enough for salvation, but they also need worthy fruits of repentance” 23. Saint Ambrose instructs: “Whoever brings repentance must not only wash away his sin with tears, but also cover up previous sins with better deeds, so that the sin is not imputed to him.” 3. Faith in Jesus Christ and hope in His mercy. Jesus Christ alone reconciled us to God by His death on the cross (see Rom. 5:1–2, 8; 2 Cor. 5:18–19; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20, 22). He alone is our Eternal High Priest, and therefore, being always alive, “is able always to save those who come to God through Him, interceding for us” (see Heb. 7:25). Consequently, without faith in Christ the Savior and hope in Him, no matter how deep our contrition for sins and firm our intention to correct our lives, we would never be worthy to receive remission of sins from God. 4. Sincere confession of sins to the priest. The need for this confession becomes obvious from the fact that the priest must resolve sins in the Sacrament of Repentance, and in order to resolve or not resolve any sins, one must first recognize them. This institution has always existed and been observed in the Church. Saint Irenaeus tells how some women, carried away into heresy and impiety by the Gnostics, upon their return to the Church confessed their sins and errors, while others, who did not want to undergo this test, fell into despair. Saint Gregory of Nyssa inspires the repentant: “Shed bitter and plentiful tears before me, so that I can unite my tears with yours; accept the priest as a father, as an accomplice and sharer of your sorrow. The priest also grieves over the sin of the one whom he has by faith instead of a son, just as Jacob grieved when he saw Joseph’s clothes. Therefore, you must rely more on him who gave birth to you in God than on those who gave birth to you in the body. Feel free to show him your secrets; reveal to him the secrets of the spirit, like secret wounds to a doctor: he will take care of your health too” 24. Unfortunately, many, from pride, from inattention to their spiritual state and from lull of conscience, when they come to confession, except for the general expressions: “I am a sinner in everything,” they do not confess their personal, often very serious, sins against all the commandments of God. In this case, the priest remains with questions to elicit confession of sins and with a brief edification to reveal to the conscience the severity of sins that offend God and explain the need to renounce them. Oral confession of sins must be, we repeat, sincere, sincere, without concealment, without self-justification. In addition to the warning offered in the rite of confession: “Behold, child, Christ is invisibly present,” the confessor can tell the repentant the following words of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: “You, child, are confessing to God, whom you have angered with your sins, and I am His unworthy servant and a witness of your repentance. Don’t hide anything, don’t be ashamed and don’t be afraid of anything, for there are only three of us here: God, before whom you have sinned, who knows perfectly well all your sins, how they were committed, because God is everywhere, in every place. And no matter where you did or what you said or thought, whether good or bad, He was here and knows it all well. И ныне Он вместе с нами и только одного твоего добровольного покаяния ожидает. You yourself also know your sins, do not be ashamed to tell about everything that you were not ashamed to do. I, the third, am like you in everything, the same person as you, so why be ashamed of me?” Biblical Examples of True Repentance 25 1. David. “And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: And the Lord has taken away your sin: you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13). 2. Manasseh. “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen. And the Lord brought against them the commanders of the king of Assyria, and they put Manasseh in shackles, and bound him with chains, and took him to Babylon. And in his sorrow he began to beg... the Lord his God and deeply humbled himself before the God of his fathers. And he prayed to Him, and God listened to him and heard his prayer, and returned him to Jerusalem for his kingdom. And Manasseh knew that the Lord is God” (2 Chronicles 33:10–13). 3. The Ninevites (see Jonah 3). The Lord said: “The Ninevites will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented from the preaching of Jonah: and behold, there is a greater Jonah here” (Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32). 4. Zacchaeus. The chief of the tax collectors, being worthy to receive the Lord, said to Him: “Lord! I will give half of my property to the poor, and if I have offended anyone, I will repay him fourfold. Jesus said to him: Now salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1-10). 5. Apostle Peter after his threefold denial. “The Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord when He said to him: Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61–62). 6. The thief on the cross (see Luke 23:40–43). 7. Let us now dwell in some detail on the marvelous example of the repentance of one sinner. In St. In the Gospels you can read the story of the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ towards a repentant sinner who received forgiveness. While the Lord was reclining in the house of the Pharisee Simon, one woman, a sinner, approached Him with a vessel of precious ointment and began to wash His feet with tears and wipe them with the hair of her head, and then anoint them with ointment. Such treatment of the sinner with the Righteous Husband aroused suspicion and doubt in His righteousness in the owner of the house, but, being a testimony of her faith and love, brought down upon her the grace of forgiveness of sins. By offering a solution to the owner of the house with the parable of two debtors whose debts were forgiven by the lender: one for 500 denarii, the other for 50, the Lord Jesus showed that the woman’s faith was as many times greater than Simon’s respect for Him, as the debt of one exceeded the debt of the other. If Simon, when He came to his house, did not wash His feet and pour no oil on Him, then he loves his Guest little; and this woman did not spare Him either tears or peace, and the more loving one will receive more mercy (see Luke 7:37-50). The example of a repentant sinner shows how we should behave during repentance in order to receive forgiveness of sins from God. The readiness with which the sinner followed the voice of calling grace is instructive and worthy of imitation. As soon as she learned that the Lord, who has mercy on sinners, had come to Simon’s house, she hastened to resort to His help. Meanwhile, how many obstacles and difficulties there were to accomplish such a feat! The time of supper might seem inappropriate for contrite repentance; There was no place for him, apparently, in the house of the Pharisee, in front of people who treated sinners with hostility. Finally, someone else in her place would not dare to come to someone else’s house without an invitation. But neither false shame in front of people, nor the possible difficulties awaiting her on the path of virtue, nor the usual tendency among many sinners to put off their conversion from day to day - nothing stopped the prudent wife in her firm intention to repent. In her soul there was one thought, one fiery desire - to fall at the feet of the Heavenly Doctor and pour out her contrite heart before Him. If a ray of heavenly light touches us during prayer or in some special cases that happen to us, illuminates our plight before us, kindles in us the desire for a better life, we will not harden our hearts, and we will immediately respond to the call of grace with a true turn to God and repentance. All who pleased God were thus worthy of His grace. So, the apostles followed the Lord at His first word. The Ninevites and Zacchaeus hastened to repent and were pardoned. Cornelius and the eunuch of the Queen of Candace did not hesitate to turn to Christ and received grace (see Acts 10:1–48, 8:27–39). Slowness, hesitation, and delays are disastrous in the matter of salvation: at first, a lively and strong disposition to repentance can easily cool over time, and old attachments can become stronger again. The sinner returns again to the paths of the world, and how soon will the bright ray of grace visit again, and will the soul wandering in earthly thoughts ever visit? The sinner is in the house of Simon, at the feet of the Savior. Her every movement is instructive, every action is filled with deep meaning and significance. Not in vain St. The evangelist depicts her repentance in such detail: bringing a vessel of peace and standing at the feet of the Lord from behind, weeping, she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed them, and anointed them with the world. What deep contrition is visible in her very condition, in her posture and in all her actions! Burdened with sins, she does not dare to appear before the face of the Lord, but stands behind and throws herself at His feet. In this position, her hair falls apart and tears flow from her eyes in such abundant streams that they are enough to wash the Savior’s feet. She does not say anything to justify her crimes, does not talk about the infatuation of her youth, the shortcomings of her upbringing, bad examples, does not refer to other wives in Judea who lived no better than her, does not justify herself by ignorance of the requirements of the law, admits herself guilty of everything, remains silent and sobs. Sympathizing with her sadness, sharing her saving cry, the great preacher of repentant contrition, St. Ephraim the Syrian puts the following touching words into her mouth: “Lord! Untruth and deceit have overwhelmed me. A purulent scab of untruths opened up within me, and a multitude of all kinds of impurities covered me. Heal me, Greatest of doctors, I beg You. Having entered my poor, painful soul, confused by fierce passions, and expelled them, free me. The world, this sea, carried me away on its waves. You, Lord, are the harbor of life, save me from drowning." 26 Oh, if the Lord would allow each of us to cry over our sins with the tears of a repentant sinner! Further: while Simon and the other Pharisees who were with him at that time wavered in their opinions about the dignity of Jesus Christ and the best of them agreed to recognize Him as nothing more than a prophet, in the soul of the harlot woman there was no doubt about His Divine greatness. In Simon’s house, she does not reason, does not inquire about the opinions of the honored guests, the teachers of the people who were sitting around Jesus Christ: is He really the Lord and Savior? She goes strong and firmly against their best-known opinion about Him and, without hesitating for a minute, throws herself at His feet. The Son of God, who came to save people, is the only one who has the power to forgive sins; and therefore she resorted to Him with a prayer for the forgiveness of her sins. Deeply aware of the vileness of her sins, she, supported by faith in the ineffable mercy of the Lord Jesus, does not fall into despair, does not lose the joyful hope that He can heal her and restore her lost spiritual beauty. The penitent is not embarrassed by the fact that the Lord did not suddenly turn His merciful gaze to her, did not immediately speak to her a meek and encouraging word. She waited for quite a long time for His sweetest voice and did not doubt, did not give in to despondency and impatience, but, boldly holding on to the Savior’s feet, did not stop kissing them and washing them with tears. Saint Ephrem is amazed at this boldness of the repentant harlot and the great mercy of the Master towards her. “She did what she wanted. She washed His feet with tears, and He did not disdain the poor. In bitter contrition, she kissed Him with tears, and He did not drive the harlot away from Him. As soon as she approached Him, she boldly began to touch His members” 27. Ardent and perfect love for the Lord, Doctor and Savior, crowned the sinner’s repentance and guided her actions. What could a woman, rejected by everyone and embarrassed by her sins, do for the Lord? But love is inventive. The Jews had the custom of washing the feet of their most respected guests with water (see Gen. 18:4), wiping them with a towel (see John 13:4) and anointing their heads with oil as a sign of joy (see Matt. 6:17). Simon, due to a lack of love and respect for Jesus Christ, did not give Him this priority honor over other guests. The woman’s heart seemed to feel this, and she hurried to abundantly make up for this lack of love and respect. On the way to Simon's house, she bought expensive ointment, perhaps with her last money, in order to anoint not the head, but the feet of the Savior. Arriving at the house, she washed them not with water, but with tears; instead of using a towel, she wiped them with her hair; with love she continually kissed them and anointed them with precious and fragrant myrrh. But, besides the desire to honor the beloved Lord in front of everyone, these actions of the penitent expressed another thought: until now, her eyes, hair, and incense had served her as a reason and tool for temptation, but now she testified that from now on she devotes all of herself: both her soul and her body, to the service of the Lord alone. As the wife’s repentance was visibly accomplished through acts of deep contrition, firm, living, and daring faith and ardent, self-sacrificing love, her reconciliation with the Lord and inner renewal were invisibly accomplished. At first the Lord did not say anything to her, but those reclining at the evening were not difficult to notice that He mercifully listened to her sorrowful sighs and was comforted by her repentance incomparably more than by Simon’s supper. “The sighs that He heard in Simon’s house, and the tears that flowed from the eyes of the harlot, became more desirable than the feast prepared for Him” 28. Not a single tear of a harlot wife was left unattended by the Lord, not a single sigh of her contrite heart was hidden from the all-seeing eyes of His love - everything was noticed, made clear, justified and glorified by the Merciful! With what consolation, with what joy should the sinner listen to the sweetest voice of the Savior, Who said to Simon: “Her sins, many, are forgiven, because she loved much” (Luke 7:47). The Lord so mercifully accepted and so highly appreciated the signs of her repentance and love for Him, while people despised and pushed her away from them! But to her even greater joy, this voice of heavenly love turns to herself and proclaims to her complete forgiveness of sins and blessed reconciliation with God: “Your sins are forgiven; Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:48, 50) 29. This, brothers, is the comforting and majestic story of a woman who repented and had mercy on the Lord! Blessed be the mercy and love of the Lord, for His benefits are endless. The sea of ​​His bounties never runs dry, His treasure is rich and abundant. So, come, you repentants, and accept the remission of your sins. The door is open to those pleading; Jesus does not refuse anyone's request. Knock on the door of the Merciful, do not depart from His threshold, approach Him with hope, and He will give you remission of sins. Examples of true repentance from Church history When Rev. Dioscorus was asked by one of his disciples: “Why are you crying, Abba?” - he answered: “I mourn my sins.” “You don’t know any sins!” - the student objected. “Ah, my son! – the old man continued with a deep sigh. “If I got to the point where I could see all my sins, then three or four helpers would not be enough for me to mourn them worthily.” 30 2. Saint Paphnutius, when asked by the sinner Taisia ​​how she should pray to cleanse herself from sins, said: “You are not worthy to mention the name of the Lord, nor to raise your hands to heaven, for your mouth is full of filth, and your hands are unclean. But, looking to the east, say: “God, who created me, have mercy on me!” After this, Taisiya went into seclusion and mourned her sins for three years, after which she was honored to receive complete forgiveness from God, as was revealed to one great ascetic 31 3. The Monk Pachomius laid down the following rule of repentance for one monk who had renounced Christ: he ordered him to shut himself up in a special cell and not speak until his death with anyone except his spiritual father; spend one day without food or drink, and the next eat a little bread and water; weave two mats every day; pray and watch as much as possible, but never stop crying. The monk lived for ten years in these labors of repentance and departed to the Lord 32 4. “When I came to one hostel, I saw,” says St. John Climacus, is the terrible judgment seat of the good judge and shepherd. During my stay there, a robber came, expressing a desire to enter monasticism. The excellent shepherd and doctor of the monastery ordered him to remain in complete peace for seven days, studying the rules of the monastery. After the seventh day, the shepherd calls him and asks him privately if he wants to stay with them to live? And, seeing that he agreed with all sincerity, he again asks him what bad thing he did while living in the world. The robber immediately and with all zeal confessed all his sins to him; then the shepherd, tempting him, said: “I want you to announce this before the whole brotherhood.” He, truly hating his sins and despising all shame, without hesitation, promised to fulfill this: “If you want, I will do it even in the middle of Alexandria.” Then the shepherd gathered all his sheep, of which there were three hundred and thirty, into the church, and during the Divine Liturgy, for it was Sunday, after reading the Gospel, he commanded that this condemned man, already blameless, be brought in. Some of the brothers dragged him and hit him lightly; his hands were tied back, he was dressed in hair rags, and his head was sprinkled with ashes. From this one sight everyone was horrified and exclaimed with tears, for no one knew what it all meant. Then, when he was near the holy doors, the sacred and philanthropic judge called to him in a loud voice: “Stop, for you are not worthy to enter here!” Struck by the voice of the shepherd coming to him from the altar - as he later assured us with an oath, it seemed to him that he heard thunder, and not a human voice - the robber fell to the ground, trembling with fear. When he, having thus thrown himself to the ground, wetted the platform with tears, then this wonderful doctor, who by all means arranged his salvation and set everyone an example of real saving humility, ordered him to declare before everyone in detail all the iniquities he had committed. This is what he did: with trepidation he confessed, one after another, all his sins, which could horrify anyone who heard. These were not only carnal sins, but also poisoning, murder, and other atrocities that should neither be heard nor written down. Immediately after this confession, the shepherd ordered him to be tonsured and numbered among the brethren. Amazed at the wisdom of this monk, I asked him privately why he used such a strange image of repentance? “For two reasons,” answered this true doctor, “firstly, in order to save the one who confessed the present shame from the future; secondly, since among my brothers there are those who have sins that are not exposed by confession, I wanted by this example to encourage them to confession, without which no one can receive forgiveness” 33. 5. At the beginning of the 2nd century, in Phenicia of Lebanon, neighboring the Judean country, in the city of Iliopolis, there lived a Samaritan woman, Eudokia, who was known not only in her city, but also in distant surroundings both for her beauty and for her dissipation. She collected great treasures through her debauchery and lived in complete contentment, adding sins to sins daily. Obviously, such a life could not lead to anything good; the great sinner was dying. But then one day, while resting in her upper room, Evdokia, in the silence of the night, suddenly heard someone’s voice behind the thin wall of her bedchamber. I listened: someone was praying and then starting to read. She listens attentively to what she is reading, and she hears some words about sinners and righteous people, about God’s judgment over both, and so on. And it was in the next room that a certain monk Herman was praying and reading, who accidentally stopped by his friend’s house for the night, on the way to his monastery. Having strengthened himself with a little sleep at night, Herman, according to his usual rule, got up early in the morning to pray and after prayer read some sacred book, which, among other things, spoke of God’s Judgment over people - sinners and righteous ones. It was these words of the monk Herman that Evdokia heard. They sank deep into her soul, awakened her conscience and caused spiritual anxiety. Evdokia could no longer fall asleep and was looking forward to the morning so she could ask in detail who was reading what in the next room. Morning came, Evdokia called a stranger to her, asked who he was and what he was reading in the next room, listened to the Gospel story from Herman about how the Lord will judge all people, both righteous and sinners, at His Second Coming, and what fate awaits both. The description of God's Judgment greatly struck the soul of the pagan sinner. She begins to think, sigh and cry. Having revealed her soul to the humble monk, she finally asks him for instructions on what to do. After a long conversation with him, she then brought the presbyter to her, with whom she also had a conversation about the faith of Christ and salvation. On their advice, she spent seven days in solitary contemplation of her sins, in fasting and prayer, and then received Baptism. Having learned from a conversation with the monk Herman about the heights of monastic desert life, she distributed all her treasures to the poor and wretched and went into the desert, to one of the monastic monasteries, where she gradually achieved equal-angelic perfection and was awarded the gift of miracles. 56 years after her Baptism, she was awarded the crown of martyrdom. So wonderfully, so unexpectedly, the great pagan sinner Evdokia was called to salvation; so wonderfully did she begin and complete her holy and ascetic life 34 . 6. Who does not know the wondrous life of St. Mary of Egypt? Who doesn’t know to what depths of evil she fell, to what heights of virtue she later ascended, and how this amazing transition took place? We will not tell what is probably known to everyone, but we will only present the main truths related to the feat of repentance, of which this instructive life reminds us. The first truth is that repentance is always possible for us. No matter how great and numerous our vices may be, no matter how long we have served lawlessness, no matter how rooted and inveterate we have become in evil, we can always come to our senses and turn to God with a prayer for mercy. For the seventeen most flourishing years of her life, Mary unrepentantly indulged in sin. And what sins! She seemed to have lost all shame. It seemed that she had completely banished the fear of God from her heart and had completely drowned out the voice of conscience within herself. Mary's name was covered in universal disgrace. However, this seemingly lost soul was able to repent. Why shouldn’t we also repent? Maybe our sins are less than the sins of St. Maria; the easier it is for us to repent. What if not less, but even more? The Venerable Mary came to her senses and began to repent when she rushed to the church to venerate the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross of the Lord. The Holy Cross, this anchor of salvation for sinners, is always with us; The blood of Jesus Christ crucified on the Cross can “cleanse us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Let us only call upon Him, like St. Mary, with living faith in His merits on the cross and hope in His mercy. The second truth that the life of St. Mary of Egypt teaches us is that it is not enough just to realize one’s sins and lament for them; It is not enough to ask for mercy from God and make a vow to change life for the better, but we must actually fulfill this vow, resolutely enter into the fight against all the passions and vices for which we have repented, and defeat them. We must try to make amends for our previous guilt and please God with opposite virtues, patience with sorrows and hardships. Deciding to improve, St. Mary immediately withdrew into the desert and there for another seventeen years she vigilantly struggled with her sinful lusts and thoughts that drew her to her previous path, she fought like fierce beasts, in her own words, until she won complete victory over them. Then she spent another thirty years in the desert among various hardships and labors, mourning her former shameful deeds, exhausting her flesh with abstinence and fasting, and being in the feat of unceasing contemplation and prayer. Flesh of St. Mary became so refined and submissive to the spirit that sometimes during the prayer of St. the ascetic rose from the ground and could walk on the waters as if on dry land. This is what true repentance should be like, and not what it most often happens to us! Now we lament our sins, and a day or a few days later we take up the same things again. Penitents must constantly remember the words of St. John the Baptist: “Produce fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8), i.e. witness the truth of your repentance by correcting your life. Finally, the third truth, instilled in us by the example of the Venerable Mary of Egypt, is that, while trying to repent of our sins and correct ourselves, we should also use the God-given means for this purpose - the Sacraments of repentance and the Eucharist - and use them properly. For decades, St. Mary mourned her sins in the desert and pleased the Lord. Through many years of exploits, she was completely transformed, ascended to the heights of spiritual perfection, became like the Angels, meanwhile she still felt the weight of her past iniquities above her and prayed to God to ease her conscience by confessing her sins to her spiritual father. And so, according to God’s dispensation, the great Abba Zosimas came to the desert where the saint labored. Oh, with what detail she confessed her sins to him: she did not spare herself, she was not ashamed to reveal to him everything, even the smallest circumstances that increased her guilt! Having received permission from the monk, she asked him to come to her with the Holy Life-Giving Mysteries in a year, wanting to prepare as worthily as possible to receive them. And when the Holy Mysteries were brought, she, after the usual prayers, partook of this Divine Food and Drink with the greatest reverence. If even such a high ascetic, who repented before God for so many years, considered it necessary for herself to thoroughly confess her sins before her spiritual father and taste the Body and Blood of Christ with the greatest reverence, then all the more necessary is this for us sinners! Didn’t the Savior Himself say to the shepherds of the Church: “Whose sins you forgive, their sins will be forgiven; On whomever you leave it, it will remain on him” (John 20:23)? How can they forgive or not forgive if we do not reveal to them what exactly we are guilty of? Who also does not know the words of the Savior addressed to all of us: “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you” (John 6:53), and the instruction of St. Apostle: “Let man examine himself, and thus eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, not considering the Body of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:28-29) 35. Let us, brothers, imprint in our hearts all three truths that our venerable mother Mary teaches us by her example, and let us take care to use them for our salvation 36. 7. “Gather together, all who have angered the Lord, and come; come and listen to what I tell you; gather yourself together and see what the Lord has shown me for the edification of my soul. I, weak, heard about the wonderful humility of the condemned, imprisoned in a special monastery called the Dungeon. Arriving at this monastery of penitents, in this truly country of mourners, I saw that some of these innocent convicts stood in the open air all night until the morning, without moving their legs and did not give themselves any rest, but reproached themselves and excited themselves with dishonor and reproach. Others looked tenderly at the sky, and with sobs and cries called for help from there. Others stood in prayer with their hands tied behind them, like criminals; their sad faces were bowed to the ground; they considered themselves unworthy to look at the sky; from unworthiness of thoughts and from remorse they did not know what to say and how to say it, what prayers to offer to God. Others continually beat their chests; others wet the ground with tears; and others wept for their souls as if they were dead. Some were speechless from intense sadness, and some sat in thought, drooping to the ground, and groaned from the depths of their hearts. I saw souls there so humiliated and contrite that they could move even stones into tenderness with their words and cries to God. “We know,” they said, bending to the ground, “we know that we are justly worthy of any torment and languor, for we cannot pay our many debts, even if we called the whole universe to cry for us. But we ask only one thing, we beseech one thing, and we seek one mercy: “Do not rebuke us with Your wrath, O Lord; do not punish us with Your wrath” (Ps. 6:2); do not hand us over to torment with Your righteous judgment, but accept us with mercy. It is enough for us, Lord, to be freed from Your terrible punishment and unknown and secret torments; We don’t dare ask for complete forgiveness.” Others tormented themselves with the heat; others tormented themselves with cold. Some, having tasted a little water, so as not to die of thirst, stopped drinking. Some, having tasted a little bread, pushed it far away from themselves with their hands, saying that they were unworthy of human food, because they were doing what was typical of cattle. Others, striking themselves on the chest, as if standing before the gates of heaven, said to God: “Open to us, O Judge, open to us!” We have closed these doors for ourselves with sins; open to us!” They all constantly had death before their eyes and said: “What will happen to us? What verdict will follow us? What will be our end? We will do everything that depends on our will; and if He opens the doors of the kingdom of heaven, then it is good and good; and if not, then blessed is the Lord God, who justly closed them for us! However, we will knock until the end of our lives; Perhaps, due to our persistence, He will open to us.” This is what these blessed condemned men did. Their knees were dead from many bows; eyes - darkened and deeply sunken; eyelids - devoid of eyelashes; cheeks - ulcerated and scorched from frequent and bitter tears; the faces were withered and pale, no different from the dead. What compared to this is the suffering of those who are raging, or crying over the dead, or condemned to death! And I pray you, brothers, do not think that what I am telling you is a fable. Often they begged their shepherd to put chains and shackles on their hands and necks, and put their feet, like the feet of criminals, in stocks and not release them until the coffin received them. But sometimes they deprived themselves of a coffin. Seeing that the end of his life was approaching, he begged and conjured the great Abba not to honor him with a human burial, but to order his body to be given over to river streams or thrown into the field like cattle to be devoured by wild beasts. And what a terrible and touching sight there was in their last hour! These convicts, seeing that one of them was approaching death, surrounded him while he was still fully conscious, and with tears asked the dying man: “What, brother and convict? How do you feel? What can you tell us? What are you hoping for? What do you think? Have you opened the door of mercy for yourself or are you still guilty of judgment? Was there a voice inside you saying: “Behold, you are healed” (John 5:14), or: “Your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:2); or: “Your faith has saved you” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34)? Or do you hear this voice: “Let sinners return to hell” (Ps. 9:18); and again: “Bind his hands and feet” (Matthew 22:13); and again: “Let the wicked be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord” (Is. 26:10). What do you tell us, our brother? Tell us briefly, we beg you, so that we too will know what state we will be in.” To this, some of the dying answered: “Blessed is the Lord, who did not reject my prayer and did not turn away His mercy from me” (Ps. 65:20). Others said: “Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us over as prey to their teeth” (Ps. 123:6). And others said with sorrow: “Woe to the soul that did not keep its vow in integrity; only at this hour will she know what is destined for her.” I, seeing and hearing all this, almost fell into despair, knowing my negligence and comparing it with their suffering. And what was the structure of that place and their dwelling! Everything is dark, everything is unclean and stinking. It was rightly called the Dungeon and the prison of the condemned. Having stayed there for thirty days, I eagerly returned to the great hostel to the great father, who, seeing the changes in me, said: “What, Father John, have you seen the exploits of the working people?” I answered: “I saw it, Father, and was surprised, and blessed those who fell and wept more than those who did not fall and did not weep for themselves; because they, through a fall, rose up with a trustworthy uprising” 37. Such was the repentance of sinners in ancient times; such was their cry about their sins! You read this wonderful story and are amazed: Lord, what ardent love for You burned in the hearts of these repentant sinners! Examples of the benefits of repentant tears 1. One monk was silent in a certain monastery and constantly prayed: “Lord! There is no fear of Thy in me; send me either a serious illness or an attack, so that at least in this way my damned soul may come into Thy fear. I know that my sins in themselves are unforgivable: I have sinned much and gravely before You, Master, but for the sake of Your mercy, according to Your holy will, forgive me my sin. If this cannot happen, then send me torment here, so that future torment may be slightly weakened by the torment here. Begin from now on to execute me, Master, to execute me not in Your anger, but in your love for mankind.” The brother spent a whole year praying in this way in contrition and humility of heart, in strict fasting. Meanwhile, he was constantly accompanied by the thought of the significance of the words of the Lord: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). One day, when the brother, overwhelmed with sadness, sat on the ground as usual and cried, a subtle dream fell on him. Christ the Savior appeared to him, looked at him mercifully and said in a quiet voice: “What is the matter with you? What are you crying about? The brother answered the Lord: “Lord! I have fallen." The one who appeared said to this: “Rise up!” The brother answered, sitting on the ground: “I cannot get up unless You extend Your hand and lift me up.” The Lord reached out and picked him up. The one who appeared again said quietly: “Why are you crying, what are you grieving about?” The brother answered: “Lord! How can I not cry and grieve if I have angered You so much?” Then the One who appeared stretched out His hand, put his palm on his brother’s heart and, stroking his heart, said to him: “Do not grieve, God will help you. I will not punish you because you punished yourself. For your sake I shed My Blood, and I will also shed My love for mankind on every soul that brings repentance.” The brother, having come to his senses after the end of the vision, felt joy in his heart and received the news that God had shown mercy to him. He spent the remaining time of his life in great humility, praising God, and departed to God in this repentant state of spirit 38 . 2. “There lived a certain Victorinus,” writes St. Grigory Dvoeslov - who was also called by another name - Emilian, a wealthy man. But since with material wealth the sinfulness of the flesh prevails, he fell into some kind of crime. Imbued with the realization of his guilt, he rebelled against himself, left everything in this world and entered a monastery. In this monastery he showed such humility and such feats of repentance that all the brothers who grew there in love for God were forced to despise their lives when they saw his repentance. For with all the zeal of his soul he tried to crucify his flesh, break his own will, pray secretly, wash himself daily with tears, desire contempt for himself and fear respect from his brothers. He was accustomed to getting up earlier than all the brothers for night vigils, and before the vigil began, he used to go out to the place where the mountain on which the monastery stood jutted out, so that the more freely he could exhaust himself daily with cries of repentance, the more hidden the place was. But one night, the awake abbot of the monastery, noticing that he was secretly leaving his cell, quietly followed him. Seeing that the brother entered the mountain cave and prostrated himself in prayer, the abba wanted to wait for him to get up in order to find out the duration of his prayer, when suddenly light fell from heaven on the one who was lying prostrate in prayer. The radiance was so bright that everything around turned white from it. Seeing this, the abbot got scared and left. When, after a long time, that brother returned to the monastery, Abba, in order to find out if he had seen an extraordinary radiance of light above him, tried to find out from him about it and asked: “Where have you been, brother?” But he, thinking that he could hide, replied that he was in the monastery. Avva was forced to say what he saw. Then, seeing that his feat had been revealed, the brother spoke about what was a secret for the Abba: “When you saw the light descending on me from heaven, then there was a voice saying: “Your sin is forgiven.” And although Almighty God could silently cleanse his sin, nevertheless, by uttering a voice and shedding light, He wanted to awaken our hearts to repentance by the example of His mercy” 39 . 3. Under the Emperor of Mauritius, a terrible robber appeared on the borders of Thrace, who with his robberies and murders brought terror to the entire surrounding area, so that no one even dared to pass where he was robbing. The government more than once sent detachments of soldiers to capture him; All precautions were taken, various tricks were used to accidentally catch him, but nothing succeeded. Finally, the Emperor decided to send his command to him through one young man, who undertook to deliver it to the robber and carried out this order. As soon as the robber saw the royal decree, he changed completely, as if struck by divine power. He immediately abandoned his vile occupation and hastened to fall at the feet of the Emperor, told him about all his crimes and surrendered himself to his mercy. The emperor forgave the robber. But remorse tormented the former criminal so much that he soon fell ill and was sent to a general hospital, where his illness intensified to the last degree. Feeling the proximity of death and remembering the sins of his life, he greatly lamented them; only his hope in God’s mercy kept him from despair. His lips involuntarily, following his heart, uttered the following prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ: “O Most Gracious Savior! Be merciful to me, as You were merciful to the thief crucified to Your right. Accept my tears, which I shed at the doors of death! You graciously accepted those who came to work even at the eleventh hour, although they could no longer do anything worthy of mercy. For the sake of this same Thy goodness, look mercifully on my tears and make them for me the second font of Baptism, so that I may be cleansed and receive forgiveness of all my sins.” This prayer was heard by many surrounding the dying man’s bed. At the same time, tears flowed so abundantly from the eyes of the penitent that his entire handkerchief was soaked with them. Finally, he died with the same feeling of heartbreak. At this time, the doctor visiting the hospital, a very gifted man and known for his knowledge and experience, in a dream, or rather, in a vision, imagined that near the bed of the sick robber there were many Ethiopians, each of whom had in his hands a sheet covered with the crimes of the dying man. There were also two Angels, shining with light, who examined whether the dying man had done any good deeds. Scales were brought, and when the Ethiopians placed all their sheets on one side, that side quickly sank, and the other rose high. The two Angels who were present said: “Don’t we really have nothing to put on the other side of the scales to lower them down? So did he have time to do any good deed if he had recently abandoned his evil deeds? They approached his bed and, finding the handkerchief with which he wiped away his tears, said: “Let’s put it on the scales, and if God applies the weight of His mercy, then our desires will be fulfilled.” They barely had time to do this when the scales tilted towards them, and the sheets that were on the other side disappeared. “The mercy of God,” exclaimed the Angels, “has overcome the unrighteousness of this sinner!” They immediately took his soul to themselves, and the Ethiopians fled in shame. The doctor woke up after this vision and immediately went to the hospital, wanting to check the truth of his vision. The patient had just died, and the handkerchief, soaked with tears, still lay over his eyes. Those present at his death testified to his repentance, and the doctor, taking the handkerchief, went with it straight to the Emperor, told him his vision and what he had learned from others. Then he added the following: “Do you know, most pious Emperor, what the Gospel says about the thief who received forgiveness of sins from Jesus Christ before his death? This is the man to whom the Savior now grants the same grace under your power” 40. 4. There is a story about one sinful man who, after many sins, came to a feeling of deep repentance, became a monk and every day cried inconsolably about his sins, remembering the Day of Judgment, and spent many years in such contrition of heart. And the Lord wanted to console His weeping servant and show how pleasing to Him were the tears of a repentant sinner. He appeared to this man in a vision, in the form of a priest carrying a Chalice full of tears. Seeing Him, the weeping sinner fell at His feet and began to kiss them with heartfelt love. He asked the Lord what was in His Holy Chalice? The one who appeared to him answered: “These are the tears of the sinner who wept at My feet in the house of Simon the leper. I have kept them to this day, because they are very pleasing to Me.” The vision ended, the crying one came to his senses and felt inexpressible joy and consolation in his heart; he glorified the ineffable mercy of the Lord, Whom he served with all zeal until the end of his life. And we will pay attention to the words of the Lord: “These are the tears of the sinner who wept at My feet; I keep them to this day.” From this it is clear how pleasing to the Lord the tears of a repentant person are. They are dear to Him, like pearls, and He always has them before His eyes: “You have laid my tears before You” (Ps. 55:9) 41. 5. The Monk Paul the Simple, one day looking at those entering the church like a seer, saw a man who had come along with others, whose face was completely darkened, he was surrounded by demons, and in the distance a Guardian Angel was walking behind him, drooping and lamenting. So what? The monk saw this man, who had been captured by demons and even resembled them in appearance, completely changed when he returned from church. Instead of blackness, there was luminous whiteness on his face; The Guardian Angel walked next to him and shone with heavenly joy, and the demons walked away from their former slave and did not dare to approach him. How did this change happen? The sinner, entering the church, was amazed by the voice of God in the prophecy of Isaiah: “Wash yourself and you will be clean, take away wickedness from your souls, stop your wickedness, learn to do good,” and so on. (Isaiah 1:16–17). He suddenly felt the danger of his sinful state, turned with tearful repentance to the merciful Savior and immediately made a decisive intention to correct his life. He himself told this to St. Paul, who revealed this miracle of God’s grace to the brothers. “This,” said the holy elder, “what love God has for repentant sinners! Thus, He teaches us not to give in to despair, no matter how sinful we are, but to resort with repentance to His philanthropy and mercy” 42. 6. Once upon a time St. Niphon saw two Angels who carried a man’s soul to heaven, not allowing it to be tortured in aerial ordeals. The demons, the air publicans, began to scream: “Why don’t you give this soul to us, because it is ours?” The angels said: “How will you prove that she is yours?” “Yes,” the demons answered, “before her death she did only one evil, and there is no sin that she did not commit. She was enslaved by passions and was separated from her body without repentance, and whoever died a slave to sin is ours.” One of the Angels answered them: “Since you always lie, we do not believe you; let an Angel be called, the Guardian of this soul, and we will believe him, for he will not tell a lie.” The Guardian Angel appeared, and the Angels asked him: “Has this soul repented or left the body in sins?” “Truly, this man was a sinner,” answered the Angel, “but when he began to get sick, then with tears he confessed his sins to God, with his hands raised to heaven, he earnestly asked Him for mercy.” Then the Angels kept the soul with themselves, and the demons were put to shame. But they did not calm down and cried out again: “If this man has been pardoned, then the whole world will be saved, and are we working in vain?” “Yes,” answered the Angels, “all sinners who confessed their sins humbly and with tears will receive forgiveness from God, and those who die without repentance will be judged by God.” And she went to the gates of heaven, and that soul was saved 43. Not only must we stop sinning, but we must also atone for our sins by doing the opposite of good deeds 44 Long before Great Lent, the time of special feat of repentance, the Holy Church begins to little by little prepare us for it. And on the thirty-second week after Pentecost, or the week of Zacchaeus, she determined to read a Gospel from which we could learn how to repent of sins. This Gospel describes the following. One day Christ passed through the city of Jericho. There was a certain rich man in Jericho named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus really wanted to look at Jesus Christ, but, being small in stature, he could not see Him because of the people, and therefore, running ahead, he climbed onto the fig tree, past which the Lord was supposed to pass. As soon as the Lord approached the fig tree, he immediately looked up and, seeing Zacchaeus, said to him: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly: today I need to be in your house” (Luke 19:5). Zacchaeus hastily got down and joyfully received the Lord into his home. The people, seeing this, began to murmur against Jesus: why did He enter the house of a sinful man. Zacchaeus, standing before Jesus, said: “Lord, I will give half of my property to the poor, and if I have offended anyone, I will repay him fourfold.” The Lord said to him: “Now salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham” (see Luke 19:2–9). This is how we must repent of sins: not only must we stop sinning, we must also atone for our sins with good deeds, otherwise our repentance will be incomplete and of little use. And in fact, how can we hope that God will forgive us our sins if we do not make amends for the evil that has come from our sins? Or that God will leave us our iniquities if we still use what we have acquired through untruth? Or that God will forget the offenses we have caused to our neighbors if those we have offended still suffer evil from us? Or that God will be merciful to us if others still suffer from our cruelty? Those who traded in false measures, incorrect weights, and excessive prices, how can they expect forgiveness from God if they still own what they have acquired in this way? No, that’s not what Zacchaeus did. He was a rich man; He obviously acquired his wealth by untruth, for he was the boss of the tax collectors. He lived, in all likelihood, viciously, for wealth gave him the means to indulge in vices. But he finally repented of his sins. So what did he do? He promised to give half of his estate to the poor and to return four times to those he had offended. This is true and complete repentance, and for this - true and complete forgiveness: “Today salvation has come to this house,” the Lord said to Zacchaeus 45. So, one of two things: either bring the kind of repentance that Zacchaeus brought, or fear the fate that is determined for unrepentant sinners. Amen. The purpose of our fasting is to prepare for the worthy acceptance of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, for the acceptance of the Lord Himself, Who says: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). Since the Lord is pure, and we are unclean, then the communion of the Holy Most Pure Mysteries of Christ is preceded by the cleansing of our conscience and the receipt of forgiveness in the Sacrament of Repentance. Whoever is pure will undoubtedly be united with Christ the Savior: He is loving, He Himself seeks communication with us, and if He does not communicate, the reason for this is our uncleanness. Therefore, our main task is to cleanse our conscience and receive forgiveness in the Sacrament of Repentance. From now on, let all our care and concern be about this. The one who repents properly will clear his conscience and receive forgiveness. Who will repent as he should? The one who knows his sins and sincerely confesses to them; and having confessed, he will grieve for them and mourn for them. Having mourned, he will make a firm intention to no longer offend God with his sins. And finally, in such a disposition of soul, he humbly confesses all his sins before his confessor in order to receive forgiveness and approach the Cup of the Lord justified and pure before the eyes of God. So, take care to know your sins and confess them. To know our sins means to say that such and such sins have been committed by us; and to confess to them means to condemn oneself for them, to say: “I’m guilty,” without allowing any justifications or apologies. “I have sinned, I am guilty,” these two words must be said first of all and said sincerely. Look, what and how have we sinned? I don't think it would be difficult. We know the commandments and have a conscience. The commandment will indicate what we should have done, and conscience will testify whether we did it or not. To do this, let’s look at the Ten Commandments of Moses and the Beatitudes and think about which commandment has been broken and which virtues are missing in the heart. Just as in a clean mirror, when one looks into it with unclosed and unpowdered eyes, small specks on the face are visible, so all our misdeeds and sins will be revealed in words, deeds and thoughts, when we force our conscience to look in the mirror of the commandments of God, indicated in the word of God. All that remains is to add to this self-condemnation and awareness of one’s guilt. This will come when we renounce all self-justification: we will not justify ourselves either by the circumstances of life, or by the type of service, or by the conventions of relationships, or by hobbies, or by ignorance - in a word, by nothing. And as soon as we notice a sin, we will sincerely say: “I’m guilty, unrequitedly guilty.” Having realized the sins, one must mourn them, lamenting that they have been committed. Whoever sincerely said: “I’m guilty” is not far from saying: “Why did I do all this?” It is not far from regretting this, being ashamed of oneself, grieving before the Lord, fearing His judgment and the misfortune that awaits the one who remains unjustified in his sins! It’s not far from this, but it requires work on oneself, self-control and self-compulsion. For there is a hardening of the heart, in which, both realizing sins and not having justification for them, they say: “What’s wrong?” Remember how many times you said: “I won’t, I won’t,” and still you sinned, and sinned even more and more persistently than before; remember that no one forced you to do this. Because of your evil disposition, you sinned and offended God, Who sees everything, and you pushed away His hand with which He stopped you. Remember death, Judgment, hell; remember everything else with which you hope to crush your stubborn heart. Disturb him in every possible way, excite him and set him in motion. To these reflections, add a prayer to the Lord, so that the Lord of all will give you control over your heart. What kind of repentance is there in which there is no sorrow and contrition! Following grief over sins will come the intention to renounce them, not to offend the Lord with them anymore and not to destroy oneself. And this will be followed by the most sincere confession of sins, and their most effective forgiveness. And truly saving repentance will be accomplished. Otherwise, what is the use of standing without feelings, with boredom or absent-mindedly at services, annoyed that they drag on for a long time; spend time free from services half asleep and inactive; then coldly say in confession: “I’m a sinner,” about the sins that they ask about, without having the thought that our main goal should be the perfect correction of life. What's the use of this? This means fulfilling the custom of fasting, and not fasting for salvation. “Take heed and tread carefully” (Eph. 5:15), especially in these days, when the enemy, without tempting us with sins, manages to make useless the means given to us by the grace of God for cleansing from sins and thus continue to rule over us. Biblical sayings about repentance Repentance is commanded by God for everyone, “Therefore, leaving the times of ignorance, God now commands people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). “The Lord is not slack in fulfilling his promise, as some count slackness; but is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Repentance is commanded by Jesus Christ. “From that time Jesus began to preach and say: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). “Remember therefore from whence you fell, and repent, and do the first works; but if not so, I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5). “Those whom I love, I rebuke and punish. Therefore, be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19). Repentance is necessary for salvation: “Unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way” (Luke 13:3). Jesus Christ came to call sinners to repentance: “Come and learn what it means: I want mercy, and not sacrifice? For I,” says Jesus Christ, “have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). Repentance is brought about by the action of the Holy Spirit: “I will pour out the Spirit of grace and supplication on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they will look at Him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only begotten son, and grieve as one mourns for the firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). “And He (i.e., the Holy Spirit), having come, will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). Repentance is called repentance for the sake of salvation: “sorrow for the sake of God produces unchanging repentance for the sake of salvation; but worldly sorrow produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). Knowledge of sin is necessary for repentance: “Above all, wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin; for I acknowledge my iniquities and take away my sin before me” (Ps. 50:4-5). “Mourn, weep and lament; Let your laughter turn to weeping, and your joy to sorrow” (James 4:9). Repentance is necessary for the remission of sins: “John appeared baptizing in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). “Peter said to them: Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Repentance must be accompanied by: 1. Humility. “And My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; And I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10). 2. Sincere sadness. “And now the Lord still says: Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy, and has compassion on the affliction” (Joel 2:12-13). “And Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken to him: Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). 3. Shame. “I hear Ephraim crying: “You punished me, and I am punished like an indomitable calf; Convert me, and I will be converted, for You are my God. When I was converted, I repented, and when I was admonished, I struck my thighs; I was ashamed, I was embarrassed; because I bore the disgrace of my youth” (Jer. 31:18–19). "God! There is shame on our faces: on our kings, on our princes, and on our fathers, because we have sinned against You” (Dan.9:8). 4. Confession of sin. “And the Lord said to Moses: Tell the children of Israel, if a man or a woman commits any sin against a person, and through this commits a crime against the Lord, and that soul is guilty, then let them confess the sin that they have committed, and return in full what they are guilty of, and add to it a fifth part and give it to the one against whom they sinned” (Num. 5:5-7). “Then they will confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, how they committed crimes against Me” (Lev. 26:40). I recognized my iniquity and I did not hide my sin, I said: “I will confess my iniquity to the Lord,” and You forgave the wickedness of my heart (see Ps. 31:5). 5. Appeal. “Let us try and examine our ways, and turn to the Lord; Let us lift up our heart and hands to God who is in heaven: we have fallen away and persisted” (Pl. 3:40-42). “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). 6. Forsaking sin. “Say therefore to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am preparing evil for you and plotting against you; Therefore, turn every one from your evil way and correct your ways and your conduct” (Jer. 18:11). “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord God; repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that wickedness will not be a stumbling block to you” (Ezek. 18:30). 7. Prayer. “Turn, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have fallen through your wickedness” (Hosea 14:2). “So, repent of this sin of yours and pray to God; Perhaps the thoughts of your heart will be forgiven you” (Acts 8:22). 8. Satisfaction of the offended. “Let them confess the sin they have committed, and return in full what they are guilty of, and add a fifth to it and give it to the one against whom they sinned” (Num. 5:7). 9. By faith. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). 10. Hatred of sin. “And remember there your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will abhor yourselves for all your evil deeds that you have done” (Ezek. 20:43). 11. Deeds worthy of repentance. “Produce therefore fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). “First, the Apostle Paul preached to the inhabitants of Damascus and Jerusalem, then to the whole land of Judea and the Gentiles, so that they would repent and turn to God, doing deeds worthy of repentance” (Acts 26:20). About God's mercy towards sinners 1. “Wash yourself, be clean, remove your evil deeds from before My eyes, stop doing evil, learn to do good, seek justice, save the oppressed, defend the orphan, stand up for the widow. Then come and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they will be as white as wool” (Isa. 1:16–18). 2. “But if this people, against whom I have spoken this, turn from their evil deeds, I will put aside the evil that I thought to do to them” (Jer. 18:8). 3. The Savior concluded the parable of the lost and found sheep with the following words: “I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” (Luke 15:1–7). 4. To the parable of the lost and found coin, Jesus Christ added: “Even so, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). 5. The parable of the Prodigal Son is an indisputable testimony to the mercy of the Heavenly Father towards repentant sinners (see Luke 15:12–32). 2. According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church 1. Saint Irenaeus writes: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; knowledge of crime produces repentance; but the Lord grants favor to those who repent” 47 . 2. Saint Basil the Great reasons: – Why did you come to us? He will answer: – I did not come to save the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13). “A lost sheep,” He says (see Luke 15:4, 5). – Whom do the inhabitants of heaven rejoice over? “Over one sinner,” he says, “the angels rejoice (see Luke 15:10). God embraces the repentant with joy. Let us more diligently resort to the Good God. As soon as you want to repent, like the prodigal son, God Himself will willingly meet you. Think about the Father’s mercy and you will not lose hope of salvation” 48. 3. Saint Ephraim the Syrian says: “God did not limit repentance, did not determine that there is repentance for some sins, but not for others. This Great Physician of our souls has granted us this great healing for any wound." 49 4. St. John Chrysostom notes: “Repentance is a heavenly gift, amazing power, grace that exceeds the power of laws. Therefore, he does not reject a fornicator, he does not turn away from a drunkard, he does not disdain an idolater, he does not drive away an adulterer, he does not persecute a curser, he does not persecute a blasphemer or a proud man, but he accepts everyone.”50 5. Saint Gregory the Theologian asks: “Do you want to hear about God’s love for mankind? If, - it is said, - having turned, you sigh to the Lord, then you will be saved (Ezek. 33:19). See how salvation is connected with groaning. Before you even have time to utter the words, He will say: “I am here,” and will turn to your soul: “I am your Salvation!” (Ps.34:3). There is no intermediary between asking and receiving: no gold, no silver, no shiny and expensive stones, nothing else that people use to incline to mercy” 51 . When and under what conditions does repentance lead to the desired goal - the healing of our spiritual ulcers and complete cleansing of the soul? 52 First of all, repentance must be completely free, and not forced by time and custom or by the confessor. Otherwise, it will not be repentance: “Repent,” it is said, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). It has approached, that is, it has come on its own, you don’t need to search for a long time, it itself is looking for you and your free disposition. Further, repentance must, of course, be sincere, without any guile or self-justification. Let us be afraid of the petrified insensibility of our sins, let us be afraid of the pride of our hearts, which says: “I do not need the forgiveness of sins, I am not guilty, I am not a sinner” or: “My sins are light, human,” - as if it were necessary for them to be demonic; or: “It’s not bad for me to live in my sins.” This is satanic pride. Let us feel deeply, with all our hearts, our countless iniquities, we will sigh for them from the depths of our souls, we will shed tears of tenderness for them and appease the angry Master. Let us not justify ourselves in the least, like the hypocrite Pharisees, “for no one living will be justified before God,” it is said, “(Ps. 143:2). Only by sincere repentance of sins can we appease God. Let us leave indifference and coldness, let us serve the Lord with a burning spirit. So, repentance must be accompanied by contrition of heart and crying for sins. Tears of repentance are necessary for everyone, and without them there is no salvation. One holy man, passing by a cemetery with his disciples and seeing a widow shedding tears with screams and sobs over her husband’s grave, said to his disciples: “As this widow is killed at the grave, so we need to worry about our soul, which we have killed with our sins and buried in a land alien to it, the world and the lusts of the flesh.” Lamenting his sins with all his heart and shedding tears of repentance, the penitent must make a sincere vow to God to break the ties that bind him to sin and correct his life. The repentant must hate sin with all his soul, burn with an inner desire to resist its temptations, destroy in himself resistance to God and kindle the desire to fulfill His commandments, in a word, make an internal revolution, break his will. “For it is not just abstinence from evil,” says St. Macarius, is a cleansing, but its destruction from the conscience is a complete cleansing. Enter, whoever you are, through your thoughts into your soul, a prisoner of war and a slave of sin, and look to the bottom of your thoughts, and explore the depth of your thoughts, and you will see in the depths of your soul a crawling and nesting serpent, killing you, poisoning your soul piece by piece. For the immeasurable abyss is the heart; but if you kill this serpent, boast before God of your purity.” The feat of repentance must also be accompanied by prayer with hope in Jesus Christ, and prayer will support us. When, due to your depravity and the power of sin over your soul, you are overcome by despondency and, God forbid, despair in God’s mercy, say from the depths of your soul together with Metaphrastus: “I know, my Lord, that my iniquities have surpassed my head, but the multitude of Your mercies is immeasurable and the mercy of Your gentle grace is inexpressible, and there is no sin that overcomes Your grace.” philanthropy. Surprise, O Most Wonderful King, kindly Lord, and upon me, a sinner, Thy mercy, show the power of Thy goodness and show the strength of Thy timely mercy, and accept me, a sinner turning to You. I trust in You, my God! If there is hope of salvation for me, if Your love for mankind exceeds without number the multitude of my iniquities, be my Savior and, according to Your generosity and Your mercies, weaken me, leave me everything in which I have sinned before You, for my soul is filled with many evils, and there is no hope for salvation in me.” You are a sinner, you are constantly falling. Learn to get up, take care to find this wisdom. This wisdom consists of this: learn by heart the psalm “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy” (Ps. 50), inspired by the Holy Spirit to the King and Prophet David, and read it with sincere faith and hope. After your sincere repentance, expressed in the words of King David, forgiveness of sins will immediately shine upon you from the Lord, and you will feel peace in your spiritual strength. Having prepared in a worthy manner, having realized and mourned his sins, having felt within himself the determination to correct his life, a Christian must confess his sins to the priest. Confession is certainly necessary for the purification of the soul. You will endure the difficulty and painful sting of the operation, but you will be healthy. This means that in confession you need to openly reveal all your shameful affairs to your confessor, even though it is painful, embarrassing, shameful, and humiliating. Otherwise, the wound will remain unhealed and will hurt, and ache, and undermine mental health, and will remain a leaven for other mental illnesses or sinful habits and passions. A priest is a spiritual doctor; show him the wounds without shame, sincerely, openly, with filial trust. After all, your confessor is your spiritual father, who must love you more than your relatives, father and mother, for Christ’s love is higher than carnal, natural love, he must give an answer to God for you. Why has our life become so unclean, full of passions and sinful habits? Because so many people hide their spiritual wounds or ulcers, which causes them pain and irritation, and there is no way to heal them. Whoever gets used to giving an account of his life in confession here will not be afraid to give an answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. For this reason, a short court of repentance was established here, so that we, purified and corrected through local repentance, could give a shameless answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. Finally, everyone who sincerely repents and confesses his sins should know that his repentance, giving him peace of mind and the joy of cleansing from sin, is at the same time a subject of joy in heaven. How pleasant it is for you, how fun it is when you find some lost, necessary and valuable thing! You are ready to jump for joy. Imagine how pleasing it is to the Heavenly Father at the sight of His lost child, a human sinner, but found, at the sight of His lost and revived sheep, at the sight of His lost and found drachma, this living image of God - man! It is impossible to describe this joy! The Heavenly Father’s joy over His lost and found prodigal son is so great that it makes all the loving and benevolent heaven rejoice, for there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Dying brothers and sisters! Return from the path of destruction to the Heavenly Father! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! Chapter six. About Confession The Great Power of Priests in the Sacrament of Confession Wonderful power has been given to priests! “They,” says St. John Chrysostom, - still live on earth, but were allowed to rule the heavenly, received such power that God did not give to either the Angels or the Archangels, for it was not said to the Angels: “If you bind anything on earth, it will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Although those in authority on earth have the power to bind, but only bodies, and this power concerns the soul itself and ascends to heaven. For what the priest determines below, God confirms in heaven, and the Master takes into account the opinion of His servants" 53 . In confession we must see the infinite goodness of the Heavenly King towards His criminal subjects 54 It is in vain that many look at confession as a heavy burden, and some even avoid it altogether. The infinite goodness of God can be seen in the following example. Let us imagine that a man of low birth was called to the court of a powerful Monarch, showered with countless benefits and mercies, and for all this he paid his Sovereign with cruel ingratitude: he dared to inflict upon him the grossest insult. The angry Tsar condemned the culprit to death. The sentence should have already been completed; the criminal was awaiting his death. But suddenly a messenger from the Tsar appears to him and promises him forgiveness on behalf of the Tsar if he fulfills one condition, namely: if he confesses his crimes to one of the Tsar’s ministers, whom he chooses for himself. Moreover, the Tsar obliges this minister not to reveal the secret entrusted to him to anyone. Is this condition really difficult for a criminal? Let us also imagine that the merciful Tsar, for such a confession, again promises the criminal to return his mercy and return to him all his former dignity and honors. What could be higher than this royal mercy? Only the mercy of the Heavenly King is higher than it, and infinitely higher. For, having committed a sin, we deserve not only temporary death, but also eternal death; and in order for us to get rid of endless plagues, infinite goodness indicates a means that is no less easy for us. This means is a sincere confession before a minister of the Church; it again introduces you to the number of children of God. We must confess as if we were confessing for the last time in our lives 55 “A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19) Again the day of repentance and confession! Once again we will open the dark scroll of our deeds before the Omniscient, once again we will hear from His face forgiveness for everything we have done, and we will go to our home justified! So inexhaustible is the mercy of our Lord towards us! His truth could reject our current repentance: it could tell us that since we have repented so many times and accepted forgiveness just as many times, but have not stopped offending her with our sins, then it remains for her to arm herself against them with judgment and execution, and not to pardon in vain the criminal and wicked slaves. But they will not do this to us: before the Throne of this Truth we will now find the same mercy, the same love and forgiveness. Do you feel it, sinful soul? Do you feel that you have long been worthy of hell a hundred times over, but that heaven and the kingdom of heaven will be opened to you again? Beware that this mercy is not shown to you for the last time! Yes, my brothers, there is no one on earth who could tell us for sure that our confession today is not our last. Only He could do this, in whose right hand are “the keys of hell and death” (Rev. 1:18), thanks to whom we all “live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). But He Himself, protecting us from carelessness, deigned to announce to us in His Gospel that the day and hour of His coming to us, as well as our departure to Him, should remain a mystery to us. After this, everyone who values ​​the salvation of his soul must confess as if he were doing it for the last time in his life. How would we confess when we are on our deathbed? We would confess with the deepest contrition of spirit and complete disgust for sin, which would then lose all attractiveness for us; they would confess completely, without hiding anything, for what is there to hide before death? We would confess with a firm determination not to deviate any more to the side of lies and lawlessness, for then the need for a pure and holy life would be revealed to us in all its strength. Let us now act in exactly the same way as we would have acted on our deathbed. Let us reveal to the Omniscient our whole soul and heart, all our secret passions and sinful lusts. May God's mercy see all the ulcers and all the rottenness of our inner man; it will see them only in order to heal them all the more perfectly 56 . And to confirm ourselves in this necessary feat, to protect ourselves from new temptations of life, from new attacks from passions, let us take with us from the holy lectern, as parting words of life, the memory of death, for it was not in vain that the Wise Ones said: “Remember your end, and you will never sin” (Sir.7:39). What should our confession be like? 57 Tell your iniquities first, so that you may be justified (Isaiah 43:26) Now we will go to confession to the minister. If we make our confession as we should, we will receive forgiveness of sins, we will receive justification. Therefore, we need to know what kind of confession to bring. 1. Our confession must be complete and perfect, it must not hide anything: from a shameful action to an insane word, from an unclean thought to a criminal desire. Let us reveal our whole soul and heart, all our secret passions and sinful lusts, before God and His servant. The knower of the heart saw all our iniquities even when they were just emerging in the secret thoughts of our hearts. The Omniscient One was with us even when we, hiding from human sight and considering ourselves invisible to anyone, thought recklessly and did shameless things. Do we want to hide our sins from Him? He waits patiently until we ourselves abhor our uncleanness, confess our iniquities before Him, and open and expose the wounds of our conscience. But the day of Judgment will come, when He Himself will reveal all our shameful deeds before the entire assembly of Angels and men. 2. Our confession must be sincere and sincere, we must not hide the impulses to iniquity that are hidden in the corruption of the heart, in the love of sin, in the sweetening of the heart with sinful lusts and feelings, we must not seek false excuses for our sins, much less we must not blame others instead of ourselves. We come here to heal our ulcers, and not hide them from the doctor, to confess our sins, and not to condemn others, so that instead of forgiveness we do not receive double and insoluble condemnation. The judgment of God differs from the judgment of man in that in it the one who most accuses himself is justified, the one who sincerely reveals his uncleanness is cleansed. To whom should we apologize? Before the altar boy? But he is only a witness of our confession and is himself one of the sinners seeking justification and salvation in the one Lord and Savior. This is why the Lord transferred the power to forgive sins not to the Angels, saints and impassive ones, but to passionate people like us, who know all the infirmities of human nature, so that they could sympathize with us and be attentive to the serious illness of our soul. The more sincerely you open your heart to your spiritual father, the more sincerely you confess your life to him, the more you will induce him to grieve with you, to ease the difficult experiences of your soul, to calm your languishing conscience, and to sincerely sigh for you to God. Lord, “do not turn my heart aside to evil words to make excuses for sins” (Ps. 140:4). 3. Our confession should be tearful, contrite and humble. One sacrifice is acceptable to God - “a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19). Let us stand, like a repentant tax collector, at the church threshold and, beating ourselves on the chest, cry out with a cry: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Ah, if only we could see the fate that awaits the sinner beyond the grave! If we could experience those indescribable torments that unfortunate souls endure who have not brought true repentance, we would understand the full power of the Lord’s words: “Blessed are those who mourn now, for you will laugh.” But: “Woe to you who laugh now! For you will mourn and lament” (Luke 6:21, 25). Then we would cry, weep inconsolably, as those to whom the state of souls separated from the body were revealed all their lives cried. Our repentance in general must be firm and unchanging. What is the use of confessing sin without intending to leave it forever? Rise up to fall even deeper again? Wake up only to again plunge into the most painful and unreal sleep? Turn to God in order to, having stolen, so to speak, forgiveness, betray Him again, surrender to His enemy? Doesn't this mean that we are tempting God's patience, trampling on the Blood of Christ's covenant, and re-crucifying the Lord? Doesn't this mean a mockery of the Holy Sacrament? No, beloved, having received the forgiveness of our sins, let us expel them immediately, not only from life and activity, but from our very imagination and memory. Let them remain for the lot of our enemy, who taught and tempted us to sin, who rejoiced when we violated the commandments of the Lord. Having made a vow before the Holy Cross and the Gospel to lead a pure and good life, let us repeat this vow to ourselves morning and evening, in hours of joy and sorrow, in the church of God and at home, sitting at a meal and resting on a bed, so that the work of our salvation never leaves our memory and turns into the main work of our life. Let the word of the chaste Joseph be constantly in our minds and tongues: “How can I utter such an evil word and sin before God” (Gen. 39:9)? Application. About the salvation of the soul 58 1. Both to do evil and not to do good is a sin (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk). 2. Not doing good just because something unfavorable may happen from it means refusing to always do good (St. Innocent of Kherson). 3. How much labor a person endures to fulfill his sinful desires! What worries, what torments are those who seek honor and glory subjected to! What exhausting labors does one subject himself to who wants to get richer and richer! Oh! If, in order to please the Lord, we were subjected to the same labors that we subject ourselves to in order to please our passions, then what heights of spiritual perfection we would achieve! (Archbishop Filaret of Chernigov). 4. Do you want to practice virtue without difficulty? Think about labor that it is temporary, but about reward that it is eternal (St. Neil of Sinai). 5. You must always start small in order to be able to do great things (Prot. A. Ivantsov-Platonov). 6. The closer someone comes to God, the more he sees himself as a sinner (Abba Dorotheus). 7. Until a person appears before the Court of God, hears a decisive determination about himself and sees the place awarded to him, until then he cannot know whether he is pleasing to God or not (Abba Isaiah). 8. While you are in the body, do not be careless, and never trust yourself, at least sometimes you feel freedom from passions. For enemies with evil intentions cease their attacks for a while, so that we may weaken our jealousy. Then they rush at us, foolish ones, seize the poor soul like a small bird, and plunge it into sins more serious than those for which it had previously prayed for deliverance (Abba Isaiah). 9. Forgetting your good deeds is their safest repository (St. John Chrysostom). 10. Good deeds are valued by intention (St. Ambrose of Milan). 11. Do what is worthy of reward, but do not seek it. 12. The head and essence of all virtues is love, without which neither fasting, nor vigil, nor labor mean anything. The devil can imitate everything in a person. Shall we call it a post? And he doesn't eat anything. Vigil? But he never sleeps and always “walks like a roaring lion” (1 Pet. 5:8). Only love and humility are inimitable for him (St. Augustine). What must you do to be saved? “Do good, avoid evil, you will be saved,” said Saint Mitrophan of Voronezh. In other words: love virtue, avoid vice. More details: learn and contain in your heart everything that the Holy Church teaches, and, receiving the powers of grace through the Sacraments and warming them up through all other sacred rites of the Church, walk steadily along the path of the commandments prescribed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of legitimate shepherds - teachers of the Church, avoiding everything contrary. And you will undoubtedly be saved: you will reach the kingdom of heaven. Everyone knows this. The following legend will further explain the matter. One very old man, who lived in a secluded desert, fell into despondency; and the darkness of his thoughts began to crush his soul, instilling in him bewilderment: was he going the right way, and was there any hope that his labors would finally be crowned with success? The elder sat with his head bowed. My heart ached, but my eyes did not shed tears. Dry grief tormented him. Meanwhile, when he was so overcome with grief, an Angel appeared to him and said: “Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts enter your heart? You are not the first and you will not be the last to follow this path. Many have already passed this way, many are going, and many will still go this way to the bright abode of heaven. Follow me, I will show you the different paths that the sons of men walk, and where these paths lead. Look and understand." Obeying the command of the Angel, the elder stood up and walked; but he barely took a few steps forward when he became immersed in the contemplation of a wondrous vision that opened to his intelligent eyes. He saw to his left a thick darkness, like an impenetrable wall, inside which he heard noise, alarm and confusion. Peering carefully into the darkness, he saw a wide river along which waves moved back and forth, right and left, and every time a wave flashed before his eyes, someone seemed to clearly tell him in his ear: “This is a wave of unbelief, carelessness, coldness; this is a wave of unmercifulness, debauchery, bribery; this is bliss, fun, envy, discord; and this is drunkenness, uncleanness, laziness, unfaithfulness of spouses, etc.” And each wave carried a countless number of people in front of him, lifted them out of the river and again plunged them into its depths. In horror, the elder exclaimed: “Lord! Will they all perish, and there is no hope of salvation for them? The angel said to him: “Look further and you will see the mercy and truth of God.” “The sea of ​​life, raised in vain by misfortunes and storms, flowed to Thy quiet refuge, crying out to Thee: Raise my belly from aphids, O Omni-merciful One” 60. The old man looked at the river again and saw that along its entire width and along its entire length it was covered with small boats, in which sat bright young men, with all kinds of tools for saving the drowning. They called everyone to them and shook hands with some, lowered poles and boards to others, threw ropes to others, and sometimes plunged hooks and hooks deep into the depths - wouldn’t anyone grab it there? So what? Very few responded to their calling voice, and even fewer were those who properly used the instruments of salvation provided. But most often they rejected them with contempt and, with some kind of wild pleasure, plunged into this river, which emitted fumes, stench and fumes. The old man stretched his gaze along the river and at the end of it he saw the abyss into which it fell. At the very edge of the abyss, many young men quickly swam back and forth in boats, carefully giving help to everyone. But, despite this help, every minute along the entire length of the river thousands of people were thrown into the abyss - from there only groans of despair and gnashing of teeth were heard. The elder covered his face and began to sob. And a voice came to him from heaven: “It’s bitter, but who is to blame? Tell me, what else could I have done to save them that I would not have done? But they bitterly reject any help given to them. They will also reject Me if I come to their aid in the most bleak places of their suffering.” “The final abyss of sins has filled me, and my spirit disappears; but simple, Master, save Your high arm, like Peter, the Steward!” 61 Having calmed down a little, the elder turned his eyes to the right, to the bright east, and was consoled by a joyful vision. Those who, heeding the call of the bright youths, gave them a hand or grabbed some saving tool, were taken by them to the right bank. Here they were received by others, led into small slender buildings, scattered in large numbers along the entire shore, there they were washed with clean water, clothed in clean clothes, girded, shod, given a staff and, having strengthened themselves with food, they were sent on their way further to the east, commanding them not to look back, to walk without stopping, to look carefully at their feet and not to let a single similar building pass without entering it and strengthening themselves in it. food and advice from those to whose care these buildings are entrusted. The elder looked around the shore and saw that along its entire length these redeemed ones were preparing to set off. Everyone's faces were filled with joy and enthusiasm. It was evident that they all felt a special lightness and strength and with some irresistibility rushed along the path, the first stages of which were strewn with pleasant flowers. “Thy God’s light, O Blessed One, illumine the souls of You with love, I pray, to see You, the Word of God, the True God, crying out from the darkness of sin” 62. Then the elder turned his gaze further to the east, and this is what was revealed to him. The meadow ended not far from the shore; further on the mountains began, the ridges of which stretched in different directions. They were sometimes bare and steep, sometimes covered with bushes and forests. The mountains rose higher and higher, intersected by abysses. Travelers and workers were visible everywhere. One was climbing a steep slope, another was sitting tired or standing in thought, another was struggling with an animal or a snake; one walked straight to the east, and another - in an oblique direction, and another - across the path of others; however, everyone was in labor and sweat, in struggle and strain of strength - both mental and physical. A rare traveler always saw the road: often it completely disappeared or branched into crossroads; sometimes it was hidden by fog and darkness; sometimes she crossed an abyss or a steep cliff; sometimes the path was blocked by animals from the oak forest or poisonous snakes from the gorges. But that's what's amazing! Scattered throughout the mountains were beautiful buildings similar to those in which those rescued from the water were received. If a traveler entered them, as he was commanded at the beginning, then, no matter how exhausted he was, he came out cheerful and full of strength. Then the animals and snakes could not bear his gaze and fled from him; no obstacles stopped him for long; and he easily and quickly found a path that had somehow disappeared according to the instructions that he received in these buildings. Every time someone overcame an obstacle or defeated an enemy, he became stronger, taller and more stately. The higher someone ascended, the better and brighter they became. At the top of the mountain the area again became smooth and was strewn with flowers. But those who entered here soon entered a light cloud or fog, from which they no longer appeared. The old man raised his eyes above this cloud and from behind it or from behind the mountain he saw a wonderful, indescribable beauty of light, from which sweet sounds came to him: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of hosts!” The elder fell on his face in tenderness, and the word of the Lord resounded over him: “So go your way to receive” (See 1 Cor. 9:24). “Train me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth” (Ps. 85:11). Rising to his feet again, the elder saw that a considerable number of travelers from different heights of the mountain, from different places, were again rapidly running towards the river, sometimes silently, sometimes shouting and blasphemous, abusive words. An appeal was addressed to each of them, both above and below: “Stop! Stop!” But, driven by some short Ethiopians, they did not heed the warning and again plunged into the stinking river. Then the elder cried out: “Lord, what is this?” And I heard in response: “The fruit of arbitrariness and disobedience to the established order!” That was the end of the vision. The angel, showing him to the elder, asked him: “Are you comforted?” And the elder bowed to him to the ground. The vision of the elder, taken from one ancient “Fatherland”, is understandable. The river is the world. Those immersed in it are people living according to the spirit of the world, in passions, vices and sins. The bright young men in the boats are Angels and, in general, grace calling for salvation. The abyss into which the river with people fell is destruction. A beautiful building on the right bank is the Church, where through the Sacraments of Baptism and repentance, converted sinners are washed from their sins, put on the garment of justification, girded with power from above and set on the path of salvation. Climbing a mountain with different difficulties means different efforts to cleanse the heart of passions. Beasts and snakes are the enemies of salvation. The smooth terrain closer to the top is peace of mind. A light cloud hiding travelers is a calm death. The light from behind the mountain is a blissful paradise. The buildings scattered throughout the mountain are churches of God. Whoever enters these buildings on the way, that is, receives the Sacraments and participates in the sacred rites and prayers of the Church, uses the light and guidance of shepherds, he easily overcomes all obstacles and soon comes to perfection. And whoever arbitrarily rejects them, not obeying the instructions and advice of the shepherds, soon falls, and the spirit of the world carries him away again. “O Angel of God, my holy Guardian, keep my life in the passion of Christ God, strengthen my mind in the true path, and wound my soul to heavenly love, so that by you we guide me, I will receive great mercy from Christ God” 63. Brief rules on how to save a soul 64 1. Repent and turn to the Lord, recognize your sins and mourn them with contrition of heart. 2. Abide in God with your mind and heart, and work with your body to fulfill your duties. 3. Protect your heart from bad thoughts and feelings: pride, anger, condemnation, addiction, etc. 4. Sacrifice your entire life to God and live no longer for yourself, but for God, doing only what is pleasing to Him. 5. Humbly surrender yourself to the will of God and patiently and firmly stand in the laws of saving life. 6. Let your constant concern for acquiring living faith, hope and love be the support for this. 7. The tools of such a life are prayer, fasting, vigil, solitude, work, frequent fasting, reading the word of God, etc. 8. Protect yourself with the fear of God, “remember the end” (Sir.7:39): death, Judgment, hell, the kingdom of heaven. 9. Pay attention to yourself most of all: keep your mind sober and your heart untroubled. 10. Acquire the spiritual fire of God’s grace, so that it burns the thorns of your passions and sins and plants the seeds of virtues in your heart. So arrange yourself, and by the grace of God you will be saved! Whoever wants to be saved must belong to the one Holy Orthodox Church, be her faithful son and submit to all her institutions, such as: fasting, going to the church of God, honoring spiritual shepherds, etc. Anyone who does not obey the Church, who has separated from her in the spirit of rebellion or pride, who is in a schism, no matter how many bows he makes, no matter how much he fasts, no matter how much he prays, will not inherit salvation. The Lord compared those who disobey the Church with an idolater: “If anyone does not listen to the Church,” He said, “let him be like a pagan and a publican to you” (Matthew 18:17). The schismatic and the heretic are alien to humility, just as the devil is alien to humility, and therefore they are alien to salvation, just as the devil is alien to it. Once upon a time the devil appeared to the Monk Macarius and said: “Macarius! You fast a lot, but I don’t eat at all; you sleep little, but I don’t sleep at all; You defeat me with only one thing: your humility.” He who has not humbled himself is not a disciple of Christ, he has not submitted to Jesus Christ. “True humility comes from obedience,” said St. John Climacus, - just like the Lord, showed His humility by the fact that He “was obedient to the point of death, death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). Without obedience to the Church there is no humility; without humility there is no salvation: “I humbled myself, and He saved me,” said the prophet (Ps. 115:5). Whoever wants to be saved must pray to God, at least little by little, but often. On weekdays, if everyday affairs and services do not allow you to go to the church of God, pray to God at home: in the morning, waking up from sleep, at night, going to bed, before lunch and before dinner. On holidays and Sundays, one must take part in public church services. It is great happiness for a sinful person that he is given the opportunity to attend the Church of God: he can beg God to forgive him his sins and grant him salvation. David was a glorious and rich king, he was also a prophet, but he admitted: “I asked one thing of the Lord, and this only will I seek: that I might live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I might see the beauty of the Lord and visit His holy church” (Ps. 26:4). The Holy Fathers call prayer the mother of all virtues, because with it one can ask from the Merciful Lord all other virtues, all temporal and eternal blessings, as the Lord Himself testified. “Ask,” He said, “and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Whoever wants to be saved must, according to his strength, do mental and physical alms and generally love his neighbors as himself. Spiritual almsgiving consists of forgiving one’s neighbors for their sins, i.e. insults and insults inflicted on us by our neighbors, as well as in our concern for the salvation of the souls of our neighbors, for example, about teaching them truth and goodness. Physical alms consist of helping your neighbor within your means with bread, clothing, money and hospitality. The Lord said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7), that is, they will be saved. On the contrary, “judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13), that is, the unmerciful cannot be saved. Whoever wants to be saved must bring to God, Whom must be loved above all, thorough repentance for his sins, both in his daily prayers, and especially before the spiritual father in the Sacrament of Confession. The divinely inspired prophet proclaims: I have known my iniquity and have not hidden my sin. He said: “I confess my iniquity to the Lord, and You have forgiven the wickedness of my heart” (see Ps. 32:5). Observe the order of the words spoken by the Holy Spirit. First, a person becomes aware of his sins, which is achieved by pious self-examination; then he rejects those excuses with which an evil conscience usually tries to excuse its sin; finally, he becomes an accuser of himself and expresses to the Lord all his sins in front of his spiritual witness, not sparing his pride at all. Then he receives forgiveness from God for his iniquities. The Apostle said: “If we confess our sins, He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). After cleansing oneself by confessing to one’s spiritual father, having made a strong intention not to sin in the future and to fight strongly against temptations to sin on every occasion, one must, with the fear of God, faith and love, partake of the All-Holy Body of Christ and His All-Holy Blood, which is necessary for salvation. The Lord said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you, i.e. salvation. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life” (John 6:53–54), i.e. has salvation. One must confess and receive communion at least during all four fasts, four times a year. If, unfortunately and unfortunately, everyday worries do not allow this, then you should certainly receive communion once a year. Whoever wants to be saved must generously endure all the sorrows that will be allowed to him during this short earthly wandering. Will there be a crop failure, or the already ripened grain will be destroyed by locusts, or hail will strike; whether there is a loss of livestock, a fire, whether illness happens to us and family members, the death of one of our closest relatives, whether we have to endure persecution and insults from a strong person - all this must be endured generously, without grumbling, especially without blasphemy. The Lord commanded us: “Through your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19). “He who endures to the end,” He said, “will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Sorrows sent by God are a sure sign that a person has been chosen by God and loved by Him. “Whomever I love,” the Lord testified, “I rebuke and punish” (Rev. 3:19). For this reason, the Apostle consoles the mourning and suffering in this way: “My son, do not despise the punishment of the Lord and do not weaken, being rebuked by Him. The Lord punishes whomever he loves, and beats every son whom he receives. If you endure chastisement, become sons of God” (Heb. 12:5–7). Such is the dignity of earthly sorrows when they are endured with complacency! They are the gift of God (see Phil. 1:29). They are a sign of a Christian’s adoption by God! In order to learn to endure sorrows patiently and complacently, one must meet each coming sorrow with the words of a prudent thief: “I accept what is worthy according to my deeds; remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). It is also useful to remember and repeat the words of the much-sick Job: “We accept good from the hand of the Lord, but will we not endure evil” (Job 2:10)? “As the Lord wills, so it will be: blessed be the name of the Lord forever” (Job 1:21). Anyone who wants to be saved must read divine books. “Blessed is the man,” said the holy prophet David, “who did not go to the meeting of the wicked, and did not stand in the way of sinners, and did not sit in the company of the destroyers, but his will is in the law of the Lord and his law is taught day and night” (Ps. 1: 1-2). Our mind, darkened by sin, cannot in any way, when it comes to salvation, be satisfied with its own thoughts, which are weak, wavering, and deceptive. He needs, through careful reading or careful listening to the word of God, to borrow divine thoughts from it and be admonished by them. The Holy Fathers called reading and hearing the word of God the king of all virtues. The Word of God reveals to us all the sinful passions that live and act in our damaged nature, reveals all their tricks, exposes malice when, in order to deceive us, it hides behind the guise of virtue, and teaches us to fight the sin living in us. Save yourself, brothers, save yourself! The earthly life of each of us is very short, we will not see how it passes. We will not see how death creeps up on each of us. Brothers! Whoever of you has lived piously until now, let him continue to live like this. Whoever until now allowed himself to lead a sinful life, let him bring repentance and from now on let him begin to lead a virtuous life, avoiding sins in every possible way, without which salvation is impossible. “As I live, says the Lord, I do not want the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live” (Ezek. 33:11). A statement of the commandments, by observing which you can save your soul 66 Saint Hermas, an apostolic man, whom the apostle greatly praises. Paul (see Rom. 16:14) is famous for his book called The Shepherd. In the first centuries, this book was even read in churches along with the apostolic epistles. I think it will be useful to familiarize yourself with the soul-saving commandments set out in this book, by fulfilling which you can save your soul. The apostolic man begins like this: “I prayed at home and then sat down on my bed. I see a husband enter, inspiring respect with his appearance, in shepherd’s clothes. He was wearing a white cloak, a knapsack hung over his shoulders, and a stick was in his hands. He greeted me, and I greeted him. Then he sat down next to me and said: “I was sent to you to be with you the rest of your life.” When he said this, I thought that he was tempting me, and I asked him: “Who are you?” For I know him well to whom I am entrusted. “So you don’t recognize me?” – he asked. “No,” I answered. “I am the shepherd to whom you are entrusted,” he said. With these words, his face changed and I recognized him as my Guardian Angel. I felt ashamed, fear and grief began to disturb me, but he reassured me, saying: “Do not be afraid. I have been sent to show you everything by which you can save your soul. Listen carefully and write down everything for memory, so that by re-reading it from time to time, you refresh your thoughts, and thereby strengthen your shaky will. If you keep everything that has been revealed to you from a pure heart, you will receive from the Lord all the benefits that He promised to His faithful. If, after listening to my instructions, you not only do not correct yourself, but, on the contrary, begin to add sins to sins, then the Lord will send trouble after trouble to you until He breaks either your heart or your bones.” Having said this, my shepherd, the Angel of repentance, offered me twelve commandments, in the following order: 1. Believe in one God, worshiped in the Trinity, the Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible, Who from nothing called all creatures into being and gave them as many perfections as each of them can contain. 2. Live in simplicity and purity, do not harm your neighbor even with a word; on the contrary, help everyone in need, without distinguishing who asks and to whom you give. 3. Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth; love the truth and avoid lies. 4. Keep marital fidelity like the apple of your eye, for this is the immutable law of the Creator - to be pure and blameless before His face either in virginity or in an honestly preserved marriage. If you get married, don’t look for a divorce or another wife; decided to be a virgin - don’t look for a wife. Likewise, when a husband or wife dies, the survivor does not sin when he remarries; but he receives greater honor from God if he decides to keep his widowhood pure and pure.” At these words I asked him: “What should one do who sins?” “Repent,” the Shepherd Angel answered me. I tell him: “I heard that besides Baptism there is no other repentance, that by plunging into the waters of rebirth, we receive remission of all sins and after that we should no longer sin at all.” The angel answered me: “Baptism is not called repentance. God established repentance for those who, having been called into the number of believers through Baptism, then fall into sins through the wiles of the devil. God the Merciful accepts the repentance of such; but you need to know that frequent falling into sin, corrected even by frequent repentance, makes repentance itself suspicious. And you can finally fall so that after that fall there will be no opportunity to get up again and begin to live for God. Let everyone who looks lightly at sins fear this.” Having said this, the shepherd continued to name the commandments of God that save us. 5. Walking the path of the commandments, you cannot avoid obstacles and labors. Take courage and let your heart be strong: be patient in doing good deeds and enduring all the troubles along the way. 6. Remember that with every person there are two Angels: good and evil. One attracts him to good deeds, and the other to sins and vices. Pay attention to yourself and lean towards the first, and reject the second, guessing from the inner thoughts of your heart which of them is giving you lessons at that moment and wants to rule over you. 7. Fear the One God - Creator and Provider, and your Savior, and do not humiliate your childish devotion to Him and your strong trust in Him with empty fearfulness of dark forces. 8. Take care to show yourself as a zealous and careful fulfiller of all the commandments of God without exception and all the deeds that the Angel will inspire in your heart or indicate by the combination of circumstances of your life - and you will be a son in the house of God, and not a slave. 9. Pray, bother yourself in prayer, pray unceasingly, so that whenever you need, strength will come to you from above to do good, and help to evade evil. Prayer makes the earth-born a celestial being and clothes him with heavenly purity and holiness. 10. Flee false prophets - fortune-tellers and magicians, spiritualists (i.e., conjurers of spirits who were then in large numbers; Simon the Magus and his disciples were among them). Through them the enemy destroyed the servants of God. Those who are weak in faith turn to these deceivers, and they, answering them according to the desire of their hearts, fill their heads with dreamy hopes. Mixing a drop of truth with a sea of ​​lies, they seduce them and again draw them back to paganism. Whoever sincerely believes and has devoted himself to God will not go to them. Such people are looking for heaven, but usually only guess about earthly things. 11. Let your teacher, your only teacher, be the Church of the Living God - “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). In it is the light of unchanging true knowledge. Outside of it there is darkness and darkness, where the prince of the world has set up his teaching pulpit and blinds the minds of those who listen to him and do not want to listen to the voice of the Church, due to their addiction to secular life. Here is a criterion for you: what does not agree with the teachings of the Church is the voice of the father of lies! Take heed and keep yourself clean from such a fall. Here is another sign: the word of truth establishes deep peace, tranquility and sweetness in the believing heart; a false word stirs up dreams and doubts, and, like salt water, kindles the thirst for knowledge, locking the mind like a prisoner in an uncertain dark desert. 12. Without your closest leaders, you cannot live holy on earth. You will find them in the Church, where the Holy Spirit instructs them to shepherd the flock of Christ. Beg the Lord to give you the one you need. At the right time and without your asking, he will speak a comforting word to you. The Spirit of God will teach him what to say to you, and you will hear from him what God wants from you. But beware of flattering spirits here too. Humility and meekness adorn a true leader. Where is the pump, i.e. external shine in words and in life, there is a lie. Heed this and you will be saved. These are all the twelve commandments that the Shepherd Angel gave me,” concludes Hermas. - After listening to them, I said to him: “Wonderful rules, but is there a person who could fulfill them properly?” To this the Angel answered me: “Accept them with your heart in simplicity, without thinking, and you will not encounter any difficulty in fulfilling them. But if you begin to think in your mind: is it possible and how to do this or that, and is it possible to somehow free yourself from under this yoke, the enemy will creep up, put relaxation in your heart and make you incapable of any good. But what is there to say? Know that if you do not fulfill this, there is no salvation for you; there is no salvation for you, nor for your children, nor for your family.” Having said this, the Angel changed in his face and became so terrible that I don’t know if anyone would be able to bear his gaze at that moment. I was scared. The angel, seeing my embarrassment, began to speak to me meekly, and his face became such that it could pour joy into my heart: “How do you think and say this? Have you forgotten the omnipotence of God! Is it possible that the One who put everything under your feet should not give you the strength to fulfill His commandments? Know that whoever always has God in his heart will easily fulfill these commandments. Whoever has Him only at the end of his tongue will fall under the weight of them, considering them impossible.” I remarked to this: “Who does not ask God for strength to fulfill His holy commandments? But the enemy is strong: he tempts the servants of God and keeps them in his power.” “No,” the Angel answered me, “the enemy has no power over the servants of God. Those who believe in God with all their hearts, he can tempt, but not rule over them. Stand up to him with courage and he will run away from you.” This ended the instructions of the Angel, set out in the second book of St. Erma. “For our part, we do not dare to add anything to all this!” - says the disciple of the apostles, the husband of the apostles. And really, why do we use our limp words here? Let us just say one thing: how comforting it is to know that in our time they say the same thing that was said during the time of the apostles and immediately after the apostles, and that, consequently, for so many centuries the same word of truth has been heard invariably in the Church of God. If now every word stands with two and three witnesses, then how firmly should the word of truth preached in the Church of God stand when such an immense host of witnesses stands for it? Brothers! Let us pray to the Lord that He will grant us gracious help so that we can fulfill these saving instructions given through the holy apostolic man. Amen. From the sermon of St. Innocent of Kherson. T. III. 1873. P. 117. From the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsky. T.V. See Feelings of a Sinner, etc. Spiritual conversation, No. 12, 1858. From the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsky. Soulful reading. February 1896. P. 215. Sunday reading. No. 18. 1838. From the book of St. Grigory Dyachenko “Daily Teachings”. T. III. 1897. With more frequent Communion, in modern practice it is customary to prepare for at least three days (Ed.). From the sermons of Archbishop Demetrius of Kherson. Extracted in abbreviation from the book “The Path to Salvation” by St. Theophan the Recluse. pp. 145 – 146. See also the book “Lessons and Examples of Christian Love” by St. Grigory Dyachenko. Ed. 3. pp. 214 – 216 See p. 86 of this edition, about the Venerable Martyr Evdokia. From the writings of Bishop Justin of Ryazan and Zaraisk. T. IX. Based on the book “My Life in Christ” by the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. Priest Grigory Dyachenko. According to the works of St. Tikhon of Zadonsky. From the book “Daily Teachings” by St. Grigory Dyachenko. T. III. 1897. From the book of St. Grigory Dyachenko “Full annual circle of short teachings.” T. II. See Orthodox Confession. Part I. Answer to question 111 and 113. Long catechism on repentance. Saint Basil the Great. Interpretation of the book of Isaiah, I, v. 14. Creations of the Holy Fathers. IV. pp. 58, 59. Saint Basil the Great. Moral rules. I, ch. 4. Creations of the Holy Fathers. VII. P. 361. See Metropolitan Macarius. Dogmatic theology. T. IV. From the book of St. Grigory Dyachenko “Daily Teachings”. T. III. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. pp. 215 – 216. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. P. 220 Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. pp. 222 – 233. See Soulful Reading. 1860. Part I. See Memorable stories about the exploits of the holy and blessed Fathers. See Chetii-Minei. October 8. Venerable John Climacus. Ladder. Word 4, About obedience. § 11, 12. See Chetii-Minei. March 1st. See the words of Bishop Macarius of Tambov and Shatsk.. From the book of St. G. Dyachenko “Full annual circle of short teachings.” T.I. See Fatherland of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninova). P. 436. From the conversations of St. Grigory Dvoeslov. Sunday reading. XVII. P. 459. From the works of St. Demetrius of Rostov. From the book of St. Grigory Dyachenko “Daily Teachings”. T. I. 1897. See the teachings of Archpriest. Roman Putyatin. From the words of St. Theophan the Recluse. From the works of St. Gregory the Theologian. Ed. 3. Part 2. P.74. Based on the book “Lessons of a Life of Grace” according to the guidance of Fr. John of Kronstadt. pp. 51 – 57. Saint John Chrysostom. About the priesthood. III. P.45 Sermons of St. Innocent of Kherson. T. II. Bishop of Tobolsk Justin. Holy Pentecost. 1893. Priest Grigory Dyachenko. Kind words. T. III. Ed. 1. From the works of St. Theophan the Recluse. Irmos of the 6th song of the 6th tone. Irmos of the 6th song of the 3rd tone. Troparion to the Guardian Angel, tone 6. From the writings of Bishop Justin of Ryazan and Zaraisk. T. IX. From the book of priest Grigory Dyachenko “The Complete Yearly Circle of Brief Teachings.” T. II. pp. 459–460. According to “Words to the Tambov flock” by St. Theophan the Recluse. See book. priest Grigory Dyachenko “Spiritual sowings”. Ed. 2. 1897. You might be interested in: