Раздел 2

Easter 1860. Propter maledictionem patri Dominus te poenae dedit 92 [...] Lord! Grant me of Your Spirit, who fills the whole universe, who revives everyone and everything, and who pours out Your gifts to everyone without reserve. If you are not simple in heart, like a mother, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you will not have peace in your heart, and you will not avoid many sins. Remember Moses turning water into blood. On our holy altars wine is offered in the Blood of the Son of God Jesus Christ, and the works or fruits He produces in us testify to this. Where God speaks, there must be only unconditional faith: The True One cannot lie and to the Almighty all things are possible. With God no word will remain powerless [Lk. 1.37]. Tremble to be conceited with God. If people, weak, transitory, mortal creatures, do so many great and wondrous deeds with the powers and abilities given to them by God, if sometimes many millions of people obey the word of one person, then what will not the Author of human life do that does not obey His word? Remember the words of the centurion: I, he says, am a subordinate man, but, having soldiers under my command, I say to one: go, and he goes; and to another: come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does [Matt. 8.9]. Further: if many animals are gifted with the art of doing various amazing things that man cannot do - animals that we trample under our feet, which are so insignificant and weak - then what will not the Creator of everything do, who generously endowed everyone with all kinds of art, all kinds of abilities and powers? If soulless plants, which exist today and are swept into the oven in the morning, are formed at His word into such tender and beautiful forms, or we see every substance completely subordinate to His word and modified to the point of immeasurability (to infinity) according to His mania (through the mediation of only the five elements) - then who else, seeing all this, will begin to demand guarantees of His omnipotence! Wonderful are Your works, O Lord! At every step, at every moment of life! Fill heaven and earth with the glory of Your wisdom, the glory of Your goodness, the glory of Your omnipotence. You are not only the wise Creator Yourself and constantly reveal Yourself to be the wise Creator, but You have also given Your creatures the creative ability - and they create according to Your word with the powers given to them. ABOUT! in what splendor you have clothed yourself! Humble faith is needed when fulfilling the commandments, so that without any reflection, accurately and strictly fulfill what is commanded by the commandments. We sin a lot and, while sinning, we suffer because where we need to do, there we think, instigated by our passions and the incorporeal enemy. In order not to be servile to passions and the devil every day, you need to set yourself a goal, constantly keep it in mind and strive for it, conquering all obstacles in the name of the Lord. What is this goal? – The Kingdom of Heaven, the Divine palace of His glory, prepared for believers from the foundation of the world. But since the goal is achieved by known means, it is necessary to have these means at one’s disposal. What are these means? – Faith, hope and love, especially love. Believe, hope, love, especially - love, love, despite any obstacles - God more than all, and every neighbor as yourself. You don’t have the strength to keep these priceless treasures of the human spirit in your heart - fall more often to the God of love; ask, seek, ask - you will receive, you will find, it will be opened: He who promised is faithful [Heb. 10.23]. Walking, sitting, lying down, talking, studying - at all times pray with your heart for the gift of faith and love. You have not yet asked properly, with fervor, with constancy, you have not had the firm intention of acquiring them. From now on say: behold, I have begun. When on the path to God and His Heavenly Kingdom you encounter obstacles presented by the devil: doubts and unbelief of the heart, also heartfelt malice (sometimes towards persons worthy of unconditional respect and love), as well as other passions - do not be indignant at them, but know that they are the smoke and stench of the enemy, which will pass from the one mania of the Lord Jesus Christ. How omnipotent is the Almighty Lord and how powerless, weak, and insignificant is man with all his plans and undertakings! Yesterday we got ready to take a boat ride around the bay: it was warm, the sky was clear, the breeze was fair - the most moderate; probably everyone expected to be in Rambov 93, where they were heading, and were already at the very shore - but while they were struggling aground, they found clouds, lightning flashed, thunder roared, torrential rain poured down, a storm began, which seemed to us on the shore of Rambov as an extraordinary upsurge of dust that covered the Rambov forests, and we, being near the shore and having already reached a deep place, must were to turn back without reaching the shore. So the Lord is omnipotent and so powerless is man in his affairs! This circumstance led me to the idea that there are and were many people who, having been in sight of the promised heavenly fatherland, at the very shore, so to speak, due to severe falls and unrepentance, do not enter it, but are denied back by their sins. Isn’t this the lesson that my Lord wanted to give to me, a great sinner? Truly so. Otherwise, why wouldn’t He allow me to reach the shore, which was so close to us and was already fragrant with the aromas of its blossoming forests and herbs? Thus, many Christians, having tasted the heavenly gift, having been partakers of the Holy Spirit and having tasted the good word of God and the power of the coming age, the fragrance of peace and the joy of the Holy Spirit, are not worthy, through their unrepentant malice, to enter through death into the paradise of God, fragrant with all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as if only smelling it from afar. This happened educationally in the Old Testament with the Jews, who, having been near the promised land itself and having seen it and smelled it, could not enter it for unbelief and ill-will, dissatisfied with everyone! Oh, be happy with everything, Christian, and thank God for everything; do not be unfaithful and malicious - otherwise you will not enter the promised heavenly fatherland. Children! do you have any food? [In. 21.5]. All people are children, especially Christians - true children of the Son of God. He created and creates them; parents are only [intermediaries]. Yes, I am a child of God. Mother loves me - it is a weak shadow of the love that God Himself has for me. He gives love to parents for children only such as can be contained by limited human nature, a meager vessel - love in all its Divine beauty will develop after the fall of the body. To the glory of the All-Holy Spirit of God. Breath of the Holy Spirit. To the Holy Spirit all saving wine. Case of a patient. The ubiquity of breathing (he breathes where he wants [John 3:8]), the intelligibility of this breath (you hear his voice [John 3:8]) - you just don’t know where it comes from. Why did the Holy Spirit appear in a stormy breath (to mean that it is precisely the Spirit of God, the breath of God. The hypostatic rushes); Why does the place sometimes move due to the appearance of the Holy Spirit (the place where the congregation moves)? In order also to clearly indicate His presence for believers and to show that He effectively moves our hearts towards good, uplifting, increasing, arranging the grief of those whose inheritance dies. Does the Spirit of God breathe in people today? Breathes in everyone striving for self-purification. When does it breathe? At any time when he sees a person disposed to accept His breath, but especially during prayer; then suddenly a stormy breath often descends on us and fills the whole house where our soul sits; in our breath there is a storm: as if from a rushing strong wind... [Acts. 2.2.] (Every breath... from the Spirit is called.) At the same time, life-giving fire descends into the soul, sins in the heart melt from it, like ice or like wax from fire, and flow from the eyes along the cheeks, miraculously relieving and delighting our soul and body. She cries sweetly and easily, her breathing is frequent, intensified, especially light and pleasant, there is a wonderful change in her whole being: holy warmth, an abundance of life, lightness, calmness, tenderness. Such cases of the influx of the Holy Spirit are often repeated with sinners who come to a living consciousness of their sins. They only thirst for one thing: the forgiveness of their sins, like food and drink, like bliss - so captivated are they by the [sweet] flow of the Spirit; illness and bodily death are neglected. Such a case happened with one sick woman who suffered from dropsy for a long time, and had water drained from her stomach three times. At first she apparently had the sadness of this age, the flattery of wealth had power in her heart, but after the first confession and communion she apparently calmed down, and worldly worries left her; all her thoughts turned to her illness and death and a terrible and righteous test: she saw that her illness was intensifying and there was little hope. It was then that sadness took over her, even after God [2 Cor. 7.10]. Her husband himself told me that before she regretted parting with the world, she grieved that their house was built so recently, there was so much trouble with it, so much money was put into it - and she managed to live in it so little, she had to leave it. And now she gave up completely regretting it, and only thought about how he would forgive her sins. It was necessary to release the water for the fourth time... before this dangerous operation, the patient wanted to confess and take communion again, and they called me again... It was then that the breath of the Spirit of God was wonderful, and I, feeling It, with love and reverence internally repeated: glory to Thee, Comforter of the Soul, Living and Life-Giving, Fire coming from Fire, incinerating our souls with the holy flame of contrition for sins and love for God; glory to You, the Sweetness of our hearts; glory to You, our peace and joy! Breathe, O Soul of love, and do not come from Your servant, into whom You breathed according to your inheritance for her obedience and uncomplaining enduring of her illness. [Followed by a space of two author’s pages. – Ed.] What does the soul do with the substance of the body when it enters a dead body according to the word of the Life-Giver? – Revives and restores it; from an ugly decaying mass of earth he makes a beautiful body, blooming with life, restrained in all parts. Almighty is the Life-Giving Spirit! The soul is strong in its body and above its body! Now I want to talk about God, who gives life to everyone and everything. Every moment my soul is protected on all sides by the mental laws of the Most High: I will put My laws into their thoughts, and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people [Heb. 8,10]. State laws are only a weak semblance of mental laws through which the Almighty governs our souls. Our faith is good wine, old, tasted, proven, sealed with seven seals (seven Sacraments). Anger towards the mother arises in the soul from impurity of the heart, from a lack of holy simplicity, from pride. Therefore, when it appears, you must immediately, in humility of heart, ask the Lord for mercy and not at all look for its cause in the person towards whom hatred was kindled. In your opinion of yourself, do not depend on other people, but always on your conscience and your consciousness. Whoever knows what is in you, even 94 your spirit that lives in you [1 Cor. 2.11]. Otherwise, it happens that in the presence of others you think: what will others say about you if you say this or that, or do this or that? Bad. You must have your own views on people and your own beliefs. Non propter factum, nec verbum, nec manieres 95 you must honor and love tuammatrem 96, but for the sake of the fact that she is a mother. You fulfill the commandment of the Lord: honor your mother [Matt. 15.4], and to fulfill it he must not look at anything. Remember that she was in her early youth?????????? ?????? 97 and that is why it is unusually simple in everything. So be it. This is godly. You are not simple and proud: learn from her, although it is hard and bitter for your heart, simplicity and humility. Until now I have sinned against the Lord by seeking vain honor from people and did not notice it, and now I am sinning. Have mercy, Lord, correct and cleanse, Lord, and teach, Lord, to seek glory from You alone. Spiritual blind man, blinded by stupid pride, how afraid you are of dishonor from people! But thirst for it if you want salvation from mental illnesses. Remember what dishonor the Lord of glory suffered! Will you, the greatest of sinners, seek glory? Isn't the dishonor you deserve better? Have peace and holiness with everyone, except [Russian: without which] no one will see the Lord [Heb. 12,14]. Every neighbor is a shrine for us, like the image of God. Why is it that we remember human grievances and are angry and angry at those who offend us, but we very quickly forget the devil’s grievances, the most evil, the most harmful and continuous, and even though we were wronged by him a thousand times a day, we still forget, while we hold one offense of a person in our hearts for a long time, sometimes for more than one day? This is the devil's charm! The devil cleverly knows how to deceive us: when offending us, he always hides behind our own pride, as if wanting to please us at first through the movement of a certain passion, although afterwards he always kills, and we get bitterly from him for our stupid, unreasonable self-love. He always increases the insults inflicted on us by others a hundred times and presents them in a false form - and again, here he hides behind our pride, as if jealous of our well-being, which others allegedly think to destroy with their insults. Deceiver! Honor your mother like a saint. And indeed, for me she is an object of sacred reverence. To prevent your teacher’s authority from falling, to be able to maintain the self-respect of students and to remain their scientific ideal throughout their teaching - this is the task of all the teacher’s activities! (“Education.” Magazine for mentors and parents. No. 3, 1860) Another thing is to always have a list of all students with you and accurately assign your grades to everyone. FYI. Last night the disembodied deceiver presented me with a voluptuous vision (my liturgy this morning). This is how he always spreads his nets before mass. When dealing with different people, you need to establish a certain tact and not act in different manners, but be independent with everyone. This is especially required of a priest, who in his approach should be an ideal for everyone - cordial, simple, but without any humiliation. On the day of the Holy Trinity, invite strangers to the table, treat them, serve them with joy and simplicity of heart, like Abraham. A person who loves deeply would usually want to be satisfied with the flesh of his beloved, as the Holy Scriptures express it. Therefore, if you love your parents from the heart, then with pleasure you look for an opportunity to kiss their face and hand; and if you don’t love, then you kiss without pleasure and run around kissing them on many occasions, and if they present themselves directly, then you perform the usual task with displeasure, and here, in addition to the insincerity of love, you also show pride. And what, it would seem, is such a burden to kiss your parents’ hand one more time? Next week, eat less, especially meat. Disbelief in the Mysteries is death; faith is the life of the inner man. Unbelief is a weakness, a disease of the human spirit. Collapsed chair. So one day my body will fall apart and it will be no better than a broken chair: the bones will lie in the ground or on the ground, and no one will pay attention to them, no one will say: these are so-and-so’s bones - because they will not know whose they are, just as we don’t know from which tree the fragments or stumps or ruins lie on the ground. Yes, I will crumble: my land will go into the ground. But my spirit will return to God - certainly to God, as now often, by nature it turns to Him and finds in Him an abundance of peace and life. A tree established by its roots in the earth lives, grows and bears fruit. The human soul, confirmed by faith and love in God, as spiritual roots, also lives, grows spiritually and bears the fruits of godly virtues, by which the soul lives and will live in the next century. A tree uprooted from the ground ceases the life it received from the ground through its roots. So the human soul, having lost faith and love in God and does not abide in God, in Whom its whole life is, dies spiritually. What the earth is to plants, God is to the soul. On Sinai, where the Lord’s feet stood, the Lord will leave a lasting mark. On the spiritual Sinai - the Most Pure Virgin, there is also a trace - every spiritual light. The word is true - publicans and harlots go ahead of the supposed lawyers and righteous into the Kingdom of God [Matt. 21.31]. What tears! Looking at God's world, what do I see? I see everywhere an extraordinary breadth and playfulness of life: in the animal kingdom - between four-legged animals, between reptiles, insects, birds, between fish. Now the question is, why is the cramped and sorrowful path of life for a person, and especially for people who are zealous for piety? The Lord has poured life, contentment and joy everywhere everywhere - and all creatures, except man, glorify the Creator with contentment in life and playful joy. Why am I at odds with the general life? Am I not a creation of the same Creator? The solution is simple. We ourselves poison our lives with sin, [and sinfulness] is a terrible poison for the soul; then - an incorporeal enemy, especially he, and mainly among those people who strive in piety. The life of a person - a true Christian - is ahead, in the next century: there all the joys and complete bliss will be revealed to him. But here he is an exile and under punishment: here sometimes all of nature arms itself against him for sin, not to mention the ancient enemy, who walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour [1 Pet. 5.8]. So, I am not embarrassed by this: why is there joy and contentment everywhere in the world, but there is often no joy in me, and I look gloomily at the joys and spaciousness of God’s creatures? I have an executioner for sin: this executioner is always with me and beats me. But joy will come for me too, just not here, but in another world. Looking at the world of God, I see everywhere the extraordinary generosity of God in the gifts of nature: the surface of the earth is like a rich meal, prepared in abundance and variety by the most loving, kind and generous Master; and not only does the surface of the earth - the depths of the waters also serve to nourish man. What can we say about four-legged animals and birds - how much generosity is there in delivering food and clothing to people? The bounties of the Lord are endless. See what the earth does not deliver in summer and autumn? So, every Christian, especially a priest, imitate the generosity of the Lord: may your table be open to everyone, like the Lord’s table. The stingy is the enemy of the Lord. Glory to the Lord who loves mankind! Today I called on Him (May 22, walking from the harbor) in the sorrow of my heart, and He heard me and delivered me from my sorrow. Wonderful thing! The Creator of heaven and earth bows to the cries of my heart, like a mother to the cries of a baby, every time I call upon Him. Meanwhile, who am I? - A worm crawling on a tree leaf! Snuff me out and I'm gone. Sweetest Jesus! What is it that you remember me, that you bow to my heartfelt cries? Better! I kiss Your redeeming right hand and sing Your ineffable mercy! If the soul is not bright with virtue, if the face is not bright with inner light, what is there in light and rich clothes? Then the word of the Savior applies to us: without [Russian: out] they are red, but within the interior they are naturally full of theft and deceit and all uncleanness 98 [Matt. 23,27]. This word is said, they say, in such and such a spirit. You see, a person’s spirit is recognized in a word, and his spirit appears with the word and is often communicated to others with whom he speaks. Thus, with the Word of God, begotten from eternity by the Father, the Fatherly Spirit proceeds and is given or communicated to those who obey the word of God. Know every moment of whose spirit you are, and hold fast to the Spirit of Christ. Beware in every possible way, lest the spirit of the devil creep into you. From their fruit it is always easy for you to recognize them. One is expressed by peace, love, breadth and lightness of heart; the other - confusion, anger, tightness and sorrow of the heart; One gives life, the other kills; One always stands in the truth, the other does not stand in the truth and always deceives. During prayers and before communion, embarrassment and fear often flow to the heart, extremely constraining, suppressing and killing the spirit. This comes from the devil. The proof of this is that embarrassment and fear immediately pass when through them something happens that you feared as a sin, and suddenly your heart becomes light. Obviously, there is an intelligent evil force at work here, which, having achieved its goal, leaves. There is nothing more changeable than matter, and it changes into millions of species naturally according to the laws of the Creator, not to mention miraculous changes, for example, fire into dew, water into blood, water into wine, staff into serpent; Even man sometimes changes matter in thousands of ways. What can we say about God, who created everything? The property of a substance is changeability. The Lord does not do this and does not want to do this with the rational spirit: the property of the spirit is immutability in goodness; it is bad if he changes for evil. But perfection in goodness is the duty and goal of the rational, created spirit. That triumph of spirit over matter is that spirit changes it into thousands of species. Notice, for example, how this spirit changes matter in the plant kingdom, how the forms of plants are infinitely varied - and all from one earth: one light of the sun, one air, one water, one earth. And the bodies of animals - how diverse they are! So, the property of matter is changeability; Under this condition, the world was created, with all its diversity. Glory to the one eternally unchanging God - the omnipotent Creator! If matter were unchangeable, then God would not be omnipotent. Glory to spiritual nature! May she always conquer material nature. Ask God to give you consistency in goodness. By invocation of the Holy Spirit and by blessing from the priest, bread and wine are completely transformed by the Holy Spirit, Who is also the Spirit of the Son, into the Body and Blood of the Savior, so that the essence of bread and wine consists entirely of spirit and life, according to the words of the Savior: the words that I speak to you (about flesh and blood) are spirit and life [Jn. 6.63]. Serve as calmly as possible, that is, so that all thoughts are in deep peace and tranquility, without haste, without zeal. A person cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God [Matt. 4.4 ]! And I still have an addiction to earthly acquisitions. And the Son of God suffered and died for me and gives me His Flesh and Blood for food and drink. Oh, foolishness! Oh, the meaninglessness! (The Lord showed me an example in words and deeds: why don’t I follow His example? And you have the same thoughts and dispositions as He.) The devil often leads by the nose the one whose heart is attached to earthly acquisitions, that is, he often cruelly laughs at his stupidity. Remember that your heart should be occupied with Christ alone - your true peace. Remember also that the connections of the heart with the world and its lust grow stronger and stronger from time to time. Don't waste time tearing them apart. If you miss it, you will prepare yourself for an abyss of work and exhaust yourself uselessly. Have you still not properly assessed the substance, whatever it may be: food, clothing, money, or anything else that serves our corruptible body? All this for our immortal spirit is the same as in numbers 0 (zero) - nothing. However, what am I saying: zero? Worse!! Zero means nothing, and this, meaning nothing in itself for our immortal soul, kills and destroys it itself! Seduction! The visible seduces because it is visible and flatters the external senses; and the invisible, despite the fact that it is the real truth and brings true life to the heart, does not captivate us with such constancy precisely because it is invisible and is accepted by faith or is felt by the heart when it is capable of feeling invisible goods, that is, when it is comparatively purer. And it’s so unclean here! That is why it lives so unworthy! Thus, the invisible does not possess our heart as much as the visible. But isn’t our soul itself also invisible? Isn’t she the mover and appraiser of matter? How is it that she is not attracted to the invisible benefits that are akin to her? Depravity, the corruption of our inner man at the beginning - this is the true reason why people place so little value on invisible goods. The invisible soul, through eating forbidden food, fell under the dominion of its flesh, which was seduced by the food. And who does not notice that even now our soul suffers most of all because of the poison with which man fell into corruption in the beginning? Our thought is clothed in word, and in the word (as if resting) the spirit of the thinking subject is visible. Apply it to God. God the Father is revealed through the Word. And through the Word the Spirit of the Father appears to verbal beings - people. In the future, when on the feast of the Holy Trinity you read wondrous, divine prayers at Vespers in the hearing of the people, read them with special prudence, humility and sincerity. Confess your sins in [middle] prayers especially with the deepest humility - as if you yourself had made it on your own behalf, and not be at all hypocritical in your words: this is an abomination to the Lord. Prepare for the celebration of the Liturgy in the most dignified manner. Amen. Confession of a priest’s sins in prayer is considered a matter of extreme necessity and pleasing to the Lord of all. In fact, what kind of priest or bishop should he be like when he pronounces such prayers for the people before the Lord? How high should he be in life, exalted in his thoughts and heart? But just as he is just as sinful as everyone else, and because of his sins he is unworthy to open his lips to prayer for others, the living and the dead, being himself full of sins, then his indispensable duty is to confess his sins before God from the bottom of his heart, so that, having thus bowed to the Lord’s mercy with his humility, then beg Him for the forgiveness of the sins of others. This is what the young men Ananias, Azariah and Misail, sentenced to burning, did: they confessed their sins and the sins of the people, recognized themselves as worthy of God’s execution, and then prayed to the Lord to be merciful to the untruths of them and the people. When you offer prayer to God - this is a verbal service, have complete respect for it, for every word it says; know that the Author of all prayer is God Himself, His Word and the Life-giving Spirit, who intercedes for us with unutterable groanings [Rom. 8.26 ]; Be firmly confident that the Lord hears your prayer and will fulfill it if you pray with all your heart. Regarding the truth of all the words of the prayer, do not doubt at all. God the Word Himself stands at the head of the prayer word and controls it. The Incarnate Word of God itself prays through your lips. Despising the visible, love the invisible. Accordingly, love the immortal soul in a person and do not pay attention to his body. Respect every thought, feeling or disposition. For the invisible, do not spare the visible. When treating the brethren, imagine their pleasant feelings from your treat and cordiality. Try to give peace to everyone’s spirit, and the Lord will give you peace in this life too. When Jesus came to the apostles with the doors closed - why? By the way, in order to assure all of us that when we pray in our house, the Lord comes from His dwelling place and into our dwelling with the door closed. When you doubt anything concerning faith, remember that everything we believe in is confirmed by the faith and practice of the entire Church, now triumphant in heaven and glorified on earth. So, it would be ridiculous to doubt anything. If you feel dislike or anger towards someone because of his ugly face or ignorance of words and indelicacy of manners, then you are an adulterer, proud and vain without any doubt. For me, my mother is higher and more honorable than all people. So I must have her in my thoughts and heart, and honor her everywhere. Consider yourself and people, from the fullness of your conviction, as earth and ashes - and then for you there will be no difference between white and dark, between gentle and rough, between pretty and ugly faces. Remember that in a short time we will all equally become earth. I am an insignificant, weak spirit from the infinite, omnipotent Spirit - God; my spirit before Him is like the spirit of an insect that I crush with my finger; my body is like the body of a worm. And how much impurity, how much evil there is in an insignificant spirit and in a small body! Abyss! Try urgently to correct what the Almighty beats you for. As you correct yourself, absorb faith and love, meekness and humility into your heart with all your might. A well-known medicine, always formulated in the same way, always has the same strength if the patient follows the diet. Likewise, the life-giving Mysteries, always created in the same way according to a deliberate, well-ordered order, always have saving, life-giving and cleansing power, if there are conditions on the part of the sick soul - faith, recognition of one’s sinfulness and an unfulfilled stomach. If thousands of chosen Christian people experienced the victorious power of the Cross and cried out in surprise: invincible, incomprehensible, Divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross, do not forsake us sinners, and if you, having experienced its power on yourself many times, now do not experience it, although you often use the sign of the cross, then this means that you do not know how to use God’s sword, but does not mean at all that it is not sharp, but has become dull; it means that you have no living faith in his power; it means you have insulted his Divine dignity. The necessary and most certain consequence! The child cuts himself with a razor that he does not know how to use! Remember what the Cross did and is now doing, and with living faith depict on yourself the sign of salvation. Unite your soul with God through heartfelt faith - and you will be able to do everything. Are you being fought by strong, invisible, never-ending enemies? - You will win! Enemies visible, external? - You will win. Tormented by passions? - You will overcome. Suppressing sorrows? - You will turn me away. Are you discouraged? - You will gain courage. With faith you can overcome everything and receive the Kingdom of Heaven itself. Faith is the greatest good in earthly life: it connects a person with God and in Him makes him strong and victorious. He who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord [1 Cor. 6.17]. In order to give you heartfelt respect to everyone higher than you, you need to admit from your heart that you are worse than him, more sinful and not purer than him. Say: I alone am unclean, and so-and-so, compared to me, is clean. About respect through kissing the hand. After all, I am definitely no purer and worse than everyone else, although pride hides this from me. Daily and hourly carry within yourself the conviction that you are weakness and that the Lord alone is your strength, and say to the Lord: You are the strength of my weakness. Satan the scoundrel tempted me greatly last night! Oh, what a bad thing! So cleverly he deceived me: me, a man weak in every virtue, like a reed shaken by the wind [Matt. 11.7 ], conveniently excited by all sorts of passions and wishes! The temptation followed as a result of the very close treatment with the girls the day before, and also with our own! Continue to hold yourself! The enemy has upset me greatly! How obvious is the presence of the enemy! But also how clearly the existence of God is – in dreams and in reality. The enemy, with his actions and temptations hostile to God, awakens in us the most living faith in the existence of God, Whom he resists in every possible way and before Whom he slanders or defiles us in every possible way. The abomination of Satan in the soul after a nightly temptation: deceit of the heart, apology for sin, insensibility towards it. I must repent of the sins of my youth, the sins of temptation. Being a leader of others (senior), I set an example of drunkenness and other sins. The sin of my youth, Master, do not remember [Ps. 24.7] and do not judge me for them. Do not pray as if jokingly, carelessly, now flaring up, now extinguishing your heart, now weakening, now again intensifying somewhat - but seriously, always with spiritual firmness, without yawning, without looking to the side. Contemplate constantly with the eyes of your heart the laws of the Almighty, and in them the Lawgiver and Judge Himself, who urgently punishes every sinful movement of the heart, and who is merciful and weakens and gives freedom to the soul after heartfelt repentance. This means walking with God, as David says: I have seen the Lord before me, for He is at my right hand; I will not be shaken [Ps. 15.8]. Have you noticed that with the worthy acceptance of the Holy Mysteries, the same Christ who descends into the soul during heartfelt, fervent prayer enters into the soul? The same peace, the same warmth and lightness? Today I took communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ to my inner joy and peace. The Lord, with life-giving warmth, which unusually lightened my insides, rested within me. When I took communion, I based my faith on eternal salvation from the worthy reception of the Mysteries. They save - therefore, the Savior is here. (25 May 1860) Today I also received Holy Communion in a life-giving way. He tried to serve mass and served calmly, with firmness (May 27). He pronounced the words clearly, firmly, expressively. A meek and humble person is not angry with anyone. Keep your tongue from evil [Ps. 33.14 ]; do not express with your tongue any evil, any passion; let it freeze within you. Signs of the presence of an evil spirit in a person: the insides are unusually constrained, breathing is difficult, the voice is trembling, the expression on the face and eyes is pained, vague; the activity of thought and feeling is suppressed; the whole person is connected. When you are carried away by the charm of passions, then from the depths of your heart cry to the Lord: Truly, illuminate with Your light the charm of the passions that are warring on my soul, and burn through their choking darkness! It is good to give yourself a daily report in the evening about whether you remained faithful to the commandment of love on the previous day, for there is nothing more important than to keep up with love day by day, and there is nothing more unworthy of a Christian person than to violate the commandment of love in some way during the day. They say he passed on his spirit to his children, subordinates or disciples; or such and such a worthless person infected his comrades with his spirit. You see that even people can pass on their spirit to others - good or bad. All the more does the Son of God do this, Who gives to people worthy of the Hypostatic Spirit of God: receive the Holy Spirit [Jn. 20.22]. And who does not notice that two spirits are visible in the world: one is the Spirit of Christ, and the other is the spirit of the world, the spirit of the prince of this age, who has blinded the minds of the infidels, the spirit of the devil. Therefore, whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not His [Rom. 8.9]. We must always firmly thank God for His merciful help to us in the fight against passions and the bodiless enemy, for the fact that He, who fall daily and often into sins and iniquities, does not abandon us with His love and providence and is constantly, through our prayer, a Helper and Intercessor. ABOUT! What would the enemy do to us if the Lord had not delivered us from him! I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for You wash my heart from the filth of sin with Your life-giving Mysteries, revive, give peace, and make you joyful. Glory to Thee, my Benefactor! May 26, 1860 Consider the Lord’s transformation of bread and wine into His Body and Blood to be as ordinary, although immensely greatest, as the pharmacist’s daily preparation of medicine. Accept the Mysteries with the greatest calm and the firmest confidence. Fearfulness and doubt are unforgivable stupidity and a great sin. He punishes himself, precisely with fear - where there is no fear [Ps. 13.5]. The rivers overflowed... and fell on that house; and he fell [Matt. 7.27], that is, rivers of involuntary anger fell on the human heart; or rivers of various passions, which, like a fast river, wash away the heart and drag it towards evil. This phenomenon often happens in the soul. There is no need to hesitate. If you do not love simplicity, that is, the simple appearance of a person and his rude speech and simple manners, then you have strayed far from simplicity and are proud, and pride has blinded your eyes. My mother deserves absolute respect from me! I will love everyone for Christ, my daily Benefactor, no matter what. And for this I will unswervingly look to Christ. Help me, God! I close my eyes and ears to all my mother’s shortcomings and know one thing: that she is my mother. Who in real life will avoid the devil's haste in attacking the soul? It is fast, strong and swift, like a spirit, like a thought, like an instant, like the flash of lightning - and woe, great woe to the unwary who has taken the breath of the enemy into his soul: it will oppress, set on fire, torment, crush. You must have, like breathing, the Jesus Prayer on your lips: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. Lord, deliver everyone from the devil’s haste. No wonder the Great Macarius prayed to the Holy Spirit: deliver me from the devil’s haste. My God is good and a lover of mankind - so should I be. He feeds me with His Body and Blood - at least I should not spare ordinary food and drink for my neighbors. The Most Holy Lady Theotokos is an abyss, an abyss of grace, just as I am an abyss, an abyss of sin. Celebrate all services and perform the Sacraments with extreme calm. Confusion and fear already mean a breakdown of mental strength, but we must serve God with a well-ordered, peaceful soul. Grab the disembodied enemy by the very head: if he really forces you to hate your mother, then he appears here clearly, all and with his head. Peace and abundance of life of the heart after communion is the greatest, invaluable gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, surpassing all gifts related to the body and taken together. Without spiritual peace, with a cramped and tormented heart, a person cannot enjoy any benefits - neither material nor spiritual: for him then there are no pleasures that come from feelings of truth, goodness and beauty, because the very center of his life - the heart, or inner man - is suppressed and killed. Like a car on a steamship or in some factory, a person has a heart; the heart is the mover of the whole person: it moves the mind, imagination, and the whole body. When the enemy settles in the heart and torments and oppresses him, then you need to tell him with extreme humility and simplicity, as if he were standing at your left hand - with such faith: why did you come to me, so humble and weak, what pleasure does it give you to defeat me - and what if I defeat you? How will your pride be wounded? Get away before I defeat you in the name of the Lord. I, a sinner and humble one, need to wear clothes of humility: light and elegant clothes imperceptibly bring pride and vanity into the soul and pamper and relax the soul. Coughing is not evil: you clear your throat too. Bring me from your catch, yes, for my soul may bless you [Gen. 27.4]. If even now blessings flow from the lips of a father or mother for the food supplied by the son, or for the money sent to him, these blessings are valid. What does it mean that the patriarch blessed his son, ordering him to bring food earlier and eating it? The fact that children should nourish and comfort their parents during old age, and the parental blessing is, as it were, a reward to them for their love for their parents and care for them. Glory to the incomprehensible, Divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of the Lord, which does not leave me, a sinner: the enemy seized my heart with malice and tormented me, oppressing my heart, but after the words: may all opposing forces be crushed under the sign of the image of Your Cross, spoken with firm faith, and after the image of the sign of the cross on my chest and belly, demons are like smoke, disappeared and suddenly it became easy, easy. We need firm confidence that torment of the heart is caused precisely by demons, and living confidence in the power of the Cross of the Lord Jesus, which is always inherent in us. Out of His great love for me, the Lord feeds me with His life-giving Flesh and Blood. If God so loved us, then we should love one another [1 John. 4.11]. It is very quiet and easy in the soul after a struggle with any passion and after a happy victory over it in the name of the Lord. This is Divine silence; this is the good and easy yoke of Christ! Confusion is the beginning of the action of the devil and passion and disorder of the soul. The life-giving Mysteries animate the soul, which itself animates the body. This is where the obvious proof of their Divinity is, although the words of the Savior do not need proof, being the very thing, like the words of the Creator. In spite of everything, one must love one’s parents, even if they have glaring flaws. The boor is also cursed for mocking his drunken and naked parent. A person's life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions [Lk. 12.15]. You see, our life does not depend on wealth. The Lord feeds my unworthiness every day, clothes me, forgives my sins and has mercy on me in every way; even - which constitutes the unsearchable abyss of mercy - feeds me daily with His Flesh and Blood: how can I not feed my brother, even if he does not deserve it, daily and, moreover, kindly and generously. Let him come to me to use my mercy, just as I come to the Lord every day to ask for His mercy - forgiveness of sins and non-judgmental communion of His life-giving Mysteries, not to mention the fact that I, without asking, use the daily graces of health and other earthly blessings. The devil is strengthening himself so that I would extremely offend the goodness and generosity of God through disrespect and dislike for my mother. Meanwhile, through my mother, I have been honored by the Lord with existence, with the enjoyment of life and the works of God’s hands, and I serve the Lord in the rank of priest; through the body received from her, I unite with the Lord Himself in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and have the hope of receiving eternal blessings. My mother is the mediator or guide of such great gifts from God to me! According to all this, how high should be my respect and love for her! Remember the greatness of your service and the fact that you can show great love and gratitude to God for His gifts in the rank of His priest and receive the greatest rewards in His Kingdom. Your whole life is service to God, while others, by their very title and habits, are placed in such a way that with their life they serve their corruptible body, and devote only the most insignificant part of their life to God, and then, due to the short time in which they turn to Him, they do not have time to concentrate in serving Him, but wander with thoughts and desires on external, earthly objects. Sin is the greatest and only villain: it separates us from God, the Source of life, deprives the soul of peace and all spiritual blessings and plunges it into all evil. He alone is all our torment, all our destruction. Getting rid of sin is the goal of all our aspirations and efforts. Our mental, invisible soul is controlled by the mental, invisible, supreme legislative Being - God, His mental-heart laws. I will put My laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts [Heb. 8,10]. There is no reason for a Christian to have any malice in his heart against anyone; malice as malice is the work of the devil: a Christian should have only love in his heart; and since love... thinks no evil [1 Cor. 13.4–5], then one should not think any evil about others; for example, I should not think about others that he is angry, proud, etc., or if I, for example, show him respect, he will become proud; if I forgive the insult, he will again insult me ​​and laugh at me. It is necessary that evil does not nest within us under any form, and evil usually comes in too many forms. Glory to my Savior God, who delivered me from the fiery furnace, which was kindled in my bowels by the sevenfold enemy for my malice. The All-Powerful One turned the fire into the cool dew of His grace after heartfelt repentance and sincere prayer for forgiveness. I said: Save, save me. It was in the church - in the Assumption Church. Glory to Thee, All-Good, Wonderful One, hover in the church and in every place and listen to our prayers that come from the heart. It is extremely necessary to always listen to your heart, but especially before the liturgy and especially before the liturgy on holidays, when there are a lot of people at the liturgy. The enemy wants by all means to defeat the priest in front of a large crowd (May 29, 1860). The world is the wisdom of God incarnate. About prayer. When we read prayers without the intention of praying, but only as if out of curiosity, then, have you noticed how easy they are to read for the soul and how clearly their light is imprinted in the soul! But when you actually begin to pray, where does reluctance or reluctance come from, laziness of the heart, darkness of thought that does not accommodate the light of prayer. Strange thing! – out of curiosity you read willingly, but when you really need to pray, then there is no desire and you have to force yourself. Such are all prayers, all services, and Sacraments for us. God's gifts are not given without work! The enemy is stumbling everywhere! Prayer before kissing at the liturgy: Lord Jesus Christ, our God! O Creator of Love and Good Giver, grant to us, Thy servants, to love one another as Thou hast loved us, so that by one love we may unite all beings, we pray to Thee and send forth praise to Thee and may partake of Thy Holy and Most Pure Mysteries. For You are our Love, and we send glory to You with Your beginningless Father... (From the Service Book of the Edinoverie.) Just as a ladle of water comes from a stream, so from our property is giving alms to the poor or treating guests. You draw from a stream and the water flows without diminishing; You give from your property - and it flows from the Lord in a continuous stream, and there is no shortage in it. For the stingy rich, it forms a stagnant dead sea, in which they perish alive with their souls and will perish forever after death if they do not correct themselves. If you sacrifice anything to the church of God, sacrifice with faith and love for the Lord, willingly, and your sacrifice will be favorable to the Lord of the church. He went away with sadness, because he had great possessions [glory: many acquisitions] [Matt. 19.22]. The sorrow of the heart over the deprivation of acquisitions means its painful attachment to perishable wealth. And the heart grieves because this attachment is unnatural, that in wealth there is no life for the heart (beware of covetousness, for a person’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions [Luke 12:15]), but death for him, that the heart was created not for attachment to sensory goods, but for love of God and for attachment to spiritual goods. Great is the power of wealth and money in general over the human heart! It’s hard for a stingy person to part with his rubles! His heart grieves when he gives them away. Tell him that with his wealth he can buy heaven - he will exchange heaven for money. God! Have mercy on us! Yesterday, at evening prayer, the enemy touched my heart with a poisonous denial of the Three Lights of the One Goodness; not then reflecting this attack with all my heart, but only saying in my mind: I know in whom I have believed [2 Tim. 1:12] and I was taught the secret of the Trinitarian Divinity from the Bad, I did not put all the power of these words on my heart, I was too lazy to make a heartfelt effort to imprint them on my heart - and the enemy remained in my heart. When I want to sleep at night, it doesn’t let me: it confuses me and suffocates me. We need to drive away the impudent visitor. What? With the same thing that he stuck me on - Tri-radiant Grace. This is how it always needs to be: the way he hurts you, the more you hurt him, because he wounds with slander on a well-known subject, and you admit with all your heart the truth of that subject. What have I done? I acknowledged with all my heart the truth of the Three Lights in God and with the words: in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen! – crossed his womb. Having painfully burned my stomach, the devil came out, and I calmed down and slept peacefully and easily all night. When you serve a prayer service before beginning your preaching work, confess before the Source of wisdom, together with the apostle, that you yourself were not able to think anything of your own in preaching, as if from yourself, but our ability is from God: He gave us the ability to be ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit [2 Cor. 3, 5–6]. I rejoice in my heart that the One Infinite Goodness is in the Three Lights. Just as this Trinity is beneficial for creatures! If there were no Trinity in Persons, who would redeem us sinners from damnation and eternal death; would the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, be with us then forever, and guide us into all truth! Glory to Thee, Triple Grace! Rejoice, all of you, that Goodness is in the Three Lights. Confirm, Lord, my heart in love: for You are the being and wine of love. Amen. When praying, you need to put the words on your heart: Goodness listens to me. Due to the frequent, subtle, sharp, instant attacks on the heart of the spirit of malice, one must always have a weapon in the heart ready against it. This weapon is the word: charm (deception). Because all his attacks and all their success consist in deception, skillfully concealed; often, however, its success depends on the passions nesting in our hearts. Learn the great art or, better yet, simplicity of saying and doing everything sincerely, from the heart. Over time, a lot of pride and vanity accumulated in me. I see it. It is necessary to cleanse the heart, although this cleansing is painful. He who humbles himself will be exalted [Lk. 14:11]. Intentionally humble yourself in the eyes of people; say that you were raised by the Lord to such a height from poor, uneducated and ignorant parents; have your mother as a role model in her simplicity and humility - and the Lord will glorify you and exalt you. In meekness and humility, constantly listen to your heart. Parents affirm the existence of children even after their birth throughout their lives. Honor your father and mother... may you live long on earth [Exod. 20.12]. What respect they deserve! And everyone’s own good obliges them to honor their parents - may there be goodness. Parents, in a way, are our gods. The devil ties the hearts of people to sensual things with the most evil intention - to kill their souls forever, so that, clinging to sensual things, they forget to cleave to God, the Source of life, and do not see the nakedness of their soul and do not adorn it with the clothing of good deeds. ABOUT! The shame, the great shame of the nakedness of such people will appear after their death! So that the shame of your nakedness is not visible. I advise you to buy from Me... white robe to cover yourself [Rev. 3.18]. Simplicity, kindness and kindness of heart as a necessary condition for prayer; fasting is a necessary condition for the success of prayer. Parcere cuilibet rei patris causa, qui sororem suam nupto tibi dedit, est maxime Deo maledicere facto, Ejus bonitati 99 and bounty. If I owe others love and generosity, then much more to him. Speaking about prayer, talk about nasty, crafty, blasphemous thoughts and about absent-mindedness and play of the imagination, which greatly captivates the one praying - about heaviness, boredom (from the devil). There is no need to be cowardly when the enemy puts doubt in the heart and, suddenly weakening the heart with it, burns it; one must firmly, without embarrassment, stand for the truth and with all one’s heart, intelligently and quickly repel slander. When starting to pray to the Queen Theotokos, before praying, be firmly confident that you will not leave Her without receiving mercy from Her. To think this way and to be confident about Her is worthy and righteous. She is the all-merciful Mother of the All-Merciful God the Word, and all ages and all Christian Churches proclaim Her mercies, innumerably great and countless, - and She, for sure, is an abyss of goodness and generosity, as is said about Her in the canon of Hodegetria. Therefore, approaching Her in prayer without such confidence would be unreasonable and impudent, and doubt would offend Her goodness, just as the goodness of God is insulted when one approaches God in prayer and does not hope to receive from Him what is asked. How do they rush for mercy to some high or rich person, whose mercy everyone knows, who has proven his mercy through numerous experiments? Usually with the calmest confidence and hope of getting from him what they want. This is how it is necessary in prayer: do not doubt, do not be double-minded. I thank Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, for Thou hast granted me, in Thy name, to stand above the snares of the devil and to taste victorious peace with my soul. Grant me all the days of my life to conquer it in Your name and write thanksgiving to You. We must despise the inner fire that the devil spreads in our intestines, and courageously endure its flame; however, try to drive the enemy out of your heart through the prayer of faith. If fire occurs during prayer, do not be indignant, but continue your work with firmness; if when talking with people, be patient and speak calmly. When he sees that they are not paying attention to his light, but are complacently tolerating it, he will leave behind: he is proud, he will not tolerate being amazed by the courage of weak creatures - people. But how angry, the damned one: if I stood strong all day and resisted him with success, then in the evening he will certainly use all his efforts to kindle his fire in my insides and torment me. It is usually struck by an instantaneous sinful movement of the heart - and, having vomited poison into it, it sets it on fire. You need extreme vigilance at every moment, especially when it comes to objects around which the passions of your heart revolve - then it will flash like lightning in your heart and cast its hellish fire into it. All prayer should be on the lips; all attention to cardiac movements. Before the cross of the Lord, especially when you hold it in your hands, behave with extreme reverence, as before the crucified Lord Himself, and do not dare to relax your soul to the point of laughter: by doing this you will belittle the suffering of the Lord for your sins. When you see the cross, there is only time to pray and cry. Always have in your memory the abyss of your sins and your eternal guilt before Divine Justice. I will not be lazy to glorify my Lord and His Most Pure Mother, the Intercessor for me, a sinner, before His Son. I praise my Lord that even today He has delivered me from my fierce sorrow, which visited me for my sins. When I was in sorrow, I cried out to the Lord with the words of repentance (that is, the 50th Psalm) of David, and the God of my salvation heard me. May 19, 1860. Just as a mother teaches a baby to walk, so the Lord teaches us living faith in Him. The mother will place the baby, leave him to himself, and she will go away; then he tells the baby to go to him. The baby cries without his mother, wants to go to her, but is afraid to try to take a step; tries to approach, takes steps - and falls. So the Lord teaches a Christian to have faith in Him, like walking (faith is a spiritual path; our faith is so weak, so elementary, like a baby learning to walk). He leaves him with His help and gives him over to the devil or various other disasters and sorrows: when we have no need for salvation, until then we are ready not to go to Him; and then, when you desperately need help getting rid of them, he seems to tell you to look at Yourself (be sure to look at Him) and go to Him for this help. A Christian strengthens himself to do this, opens the eyes of his heart (like a baby spreads his legs), strengthens them to see the Lord, but the heart, not taught to see God, is afraid of its courage, stumbles and falls, and falls; the enemy and the innate depravity of sin close his opening eyes of the heart and tear him away from the Lord, and he cannot approach, but the Lord is close and ready to take him to Himself, as if in His arms for help, just approach Him in faith; and when he makes the effort to completely see Him with the eyes of the heart of faith and falls on Him with the vision of the heart, then He extends a helping hand to him, as if taking him in his arms and driving away his enemies - and the Christian feels that he has fallen into the arms of the Savior Himself. Glory to Thy goodness and wisdom, O Lord! So, in violence from the devil and in all sorrows, we must vividly see with our hearts, as if before our eyes, the humane womb of the Savior, look boldly into this womb as into an inexhaustible treasury of goodness and generosity, and pray to Him with all our hearts so that He will give us from this inexhaustible [source] goodness and spiritual help - and immediately what we ask for will be received. The main thing is faith, or the heart’s vision of the Lord, and the hope of receiving everything from Him, as from the All-Good One. (June 1st day 1860.) Truly! From experience! By this the Lord also teaches us to recognize our sins and iniquities, to recognize our extreme moral weakness without Him, to be contrite in heart and to be in a constantly prayerful frame of mind. He who comes to God must firmly believe that He exists [Heb. 11:6] that He is in three Persons. It is necessary to firmly plant in the heart forever that He exists - and exists one way and no other way. The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity was revealed by the Son of God. One must always just be grateful for this and not in the least weaken the faith in Her in the heart. When confessing sins at evening prayer, do not weaken in spirit, do not flatter your tongue - so that your tongue expresses sins, but your heart does not sympathize with them - but sincerely, with a burning spirit, confess them, and if those sins are not in your prayer, add them yourself; You are not a child to always repeat only other people’s words. You will add a new one to your previous sins: pretense, double-mindedness before God, if you do not sincerely repent of the sins you have committed throughout the day; and the evening prayers, by the way, are meant to bring repentance to God for the sins committed during the day. Use the great benefit of the Church for the good of your soul. My mother is my shrine, my deity, since she is the creator of existence after God. Approach your mother’s hand as you would the hand of a saint’s relics, no less. When you are on the street and looking at the sky, contemplate the Lord Jesus in its heights, from where He appeared to the first martyr Stephen and Saul, and beg Him for salvation. His appearance did not mean that He then only allegedly opened the heavens and looked at them from the open heavens, but that He always sees us all from heaven, all our deeds, words, thoughts and intentions, as you have been convinced of this through many experiences, lifting your eyes to heaven to the Lord and receiving wonderful and great help from Him - and this only meant that He opened up in those cases, revealed Himself in heaven. To sin is another important disadvantage that a sinner despises himself and is disgusted by the human community, because the inner, tightness of the heart and the worm of the heart make heavy any society that does not correspond to it in space, the breadth of its life. The sinner is cramped in the vast world of God. And rightly so: because the world is the work of the All-Holy and Righteous God, and a sinner who does not obey the laws of God, the laws of love and peace, is a monster of God’s creation who has no place in the world - that’s why he is cramped: he is persecuted by God, his own conscience, persecuted by all of His creation. Vengeance is mine, I will repay [Rom. 12.19]. The Lord constantly takes revenge on us for our sins against Him and against people. Is this sorrow and distress and this confusion of the sinner other than God’s reward? You did not honor, let’s say, your parents, and the Lord immediately takes revenge on you for them: you feel it in your soul, and continues to take revenge until you sincerely condemn yourself for what you are suffering internal punishment for, and until you accept the opposite way of thinking, which is what your conscience tells you. Human! Watch the paths of your heart, correct your currents so that they are not crooked and so that you do not always be internally oppressed by your sins. Especially eradicate pride in yourself and with all your might plant humility in your heart: pride, more than anything else, is the cause of our sins. Remember often that you are earth and ashes. God demands the most perfect respect from children for their parents, not violated by any unrighteous thought or selfish feeling. If such a thought and such a feeling nest within you, internal punishment is inevitable; if the opposite ones are uprooted and introduced into the heart, the punishment stops, peace, silence, tranquility, joy and spaciousness of the heart are restored in the soul. You are marvelous in our souls, O Almighty! Taken from experience. July 1st, 1860. The devil is tormenting me greatly. With thoughts of doubt, disbelief, blasphemy, who suffers: is it the object about which they doubt, do not believe, which is blasphemed, or those who doubt, do not believe, blaspheme? - These latter: they are then afraid of fear, where there is no fear [Ps. 13.5 ]; they are tormented by their doubt, unbelief, blasphemy; and the object of their agony remains firm, motionless and takes obvious advantage over them by the fact that it forces them to change their thoughts about it for their own peace of mind and does not allow them to calm down until they repent of their previous false thoughts regarding it and accept favorable, true thoughts. Therefore, it is foolish to hesitate and be indignant, and even more so to become faint-hearted and discouraged in spirit when thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy and other similar thoughts come during prayer or at other times. This is all satanic charm. Sometimes there is an enemy in me, and then - oh! I feel what kind of communication... light has with darkness... between Christ and Belial... what kind of complicity of the faithful with the unfaithful? [ 2 Cor. 6,14–15]. Then there is nothing of Christ in me, there is absolutely no His Spirit. All dislike is pride, therefore only the meek and humble in heart can truly love. The time of real life must not be spent in passions, but in constant reflection on the endless love of the Savior for us, who for our sake suffered and prepares for us eternal abodes of peace and joy in heaven, and in possible correspondence on our part with His love through loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves. The enemy is intensifying to prevent us from calmly and unperturbedly using the premium gifts of faith (prayer, the Sacraments), and in every possible way indignates us, stumbling, deceiving our minds and hearts with all possible means, so that with one hand we must ask for God’s mercies, and with the other we must drive away our enemies. Stand firm for every truth, until you bleed, and say to the all-evil enemy: I know what I stand for, I know in whom I have believed [2 Tim. 1.12]. But the wisdom that comes from above is, firstly... peaceful... obedient... impartial [glory: well-submissive... unquestioning] and unfeigned [Jas. 3.17]. Understand: if, from any movement of the heart, you immediately experience confusion, oppression of the spirit, then this is no longer from above, but from the opposite side - from the evil spirit. Rather, change for the better, and as you succeed in your inner peace, obedience to Providence, doubtlessness, and unhypocrisy, you will become wiser and wiser. Outline the order and nature of classes at the school and strictly follow it. Devote yourself completely to the education of boys, love them, always treat them meekly, evenly, sedately, with decent importance. Mama, with her simplicity, humility, and gentleness, extremely humbles my pride. You do not love the dishonor of Christ, you do not bear His reproach in your mother, in her simplicity and careless position of her hair. Remember what Christ was like at the trial and on the cross, how dishonored His appearance was, how humble he was more than all the sons of men [Isa. 52.14]. For the sake of this appearance of Christ, love every humble form of man. I honor in my mother the guilt of my existence, maternal love, the immeasurable labors she undertook for me in my youth, her meekness, humility, simplicity, tenderness of heart (tears for sins and out of sympathy for others). She has all the virtues; and your position is the fruit of her prayers and a reward for her from God. Listen with your heart to the flattering suggestions of the devil, be indignant and tormented in spirit and not sleep at night - or close your mental ears to his suggestions, be at peace day and night. Which is better? Fight and pay attention to yourself with all caution. Although the outer is careless, the inner is in order and beautiful - which, in fact, is expensive; and this is enough for us. But you are looking for appearance! O hypocrite! O enemy! Oh, ridiculous intrigues! Passions are usually aroused by an enemy in a person’s heart because of something insignificant or that seems contrary to a person’s self-love, although if you look at it sensibly, from a Christian point of view and even from the point of view of a sound philosophical mind, this is not at all disgusting. Every passion is therefore necessarily deception or delusion. The torment caused by each passion should admonish those subject to passions to listen to their hearts by all means and repel attacks of passions as soon as they strike. Every man will go to the earth, from where he was created. Why should earth and ashes be proud? The Lord pleases prayer that is warm, calm, firm, conscious, and confident. You never know what kind of evil is in your soul, but not everything that is in the oven is on the table. Let it be known only to God, who knows everything secret and hidden, and do not show people all your impurities, do not infect them with the breath of the evil hidden in you: close the stove, let the smoke of evil die in you. Tell God your sadness, that your soul is full of evil and your life is close to hell, and show people a bright and gentle face. What do they care about your madness? Or announce your illness to your confessor or friend, so that they can enlighten you, guide you, and hold you back. Every righteous person will pray to You at the time of need: and then the flood of many waters will not come near you [Ps. 31.6], - the overflow of many waters, that is, with a strong presence of evil, as the Savior says: the rivers overflowed... and rushed against that house, and one fell: it was not founded on stone, but on sand; but the other did not fall, because it was founded on a rock [Matt. 7.25–27]. The stone was Christ [1 Cor. 10.4]. How to rise above the poisonous lies of the devil? Speak firmly in your heart: dreams, lies! Because excuses, indeed, always begin with the devil’s slander or a lie accepted in the heart, which a person accepts as something true. But lies expose themselves precisely by tormenting the heart, not allowing it to calm down until it spews out the poison of lies. Don't be outraged by soap bubbles. And the fact that these soap bubbles are painful is the property of the killer devil. The work of the greatest love is to nourish His creation with His Flesh and Blood. Creative Wisdom, having conceived from the foundation of the world to nourish infant animals with the milk of their mothers, conceived something similar from the foundation of the world to reveal on Herself: Hypostatic Wisdom, the Word of God and the Son of God, having become incarnate for the sake of our salvation, deigned to give His most pure Body and most pure Blood to us for food and drink, so that as He lives for the Father’s sake; and we who eat Him will live for His sake, just as infant animals and human infants, eating and drinking milk from the body of their mothers, thus live by them. He gradually cleanses and makes me holy, without spot or wrinkle [Eph. 5.27], through the frequent reception of His Body and Blood, and thus prepares me to be a chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit and to be the heirs of the future, ineffable blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven, prepared for those who love Him [1 Cor. 2.9]. ABOUT! What perfect purity He requires of me in order to receive His most pure and life-giving Mysteries. This is known only to Him and to me, the vessel of uncleanness. Marvel, beloved, at the most pure Mysteries of creative Love and find out that only the Creator and Giver of Life could give His Body and Blood for food and drink to His creatures and say: take, eat; this is My Body, and drink of it, all of you: this is My Blood of the New Testament [Mk. 14,22–24]. Man cannot say that, and the idea of ​​feeding his own kind with his own flesh and blood could never have occurred to him, because he is not the Creator and, having said these words, he would have said the impossible, and he is not the Giver of Life, so that people like him can be revived from his body and blood. Those are God's words. To a Christian who is attentive to himself, that is, who cares about pleasing God and the salvation of his soul, God often vividly and clearly shows the hour of death, life in that age, the Last Judgment - and all this is as clear as if it were happening now in your own eyes. This is how He sometimes brings closer to the soul those once great and formidable events, in which our faith is far from being as alive as it should be, and about which we remember so little. Then you involuntarily think about what will happen to you then, what will be your fate forever, for eternity. When praying, you must thirst for forgiveness of your sins; Do you, brothers, thirst for forgiveness of your sins? Do you wish with all your heart that they be forgiven? We must long for their forgiveness; we must thirst for justification through the merits of Jesus Christ, the Lamb who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. Remember that your sins are forgiven by Jesus Christ alone, Who suffered and died and rose again precisely for this purpose, in order to obtain from the Heavenly Father the right to forgive our sins as a result of our heartfelt repentance. If Christ had not suffered and died for us, we would forever remain in sins and forever be dead in soul; a glorious resurrection would not await us, but a terrible resurrection - for eternal torment of hell. So, repent with faith in Christ and hope in His mercy; say to Him: You wanted, Master, having become incarnate for us for the sake of the Holy Spirit and the Most Holy Virgin Mary, to be slain like a sheep, sin for the sake of men - therefore I pray to You, cleanse my sins too. I thirst for the cleansing of my sins, my heart withered from their hellish heat: but you have cleansing, and You generously give this cleansing to everyone, You whiten the souls of all who sincerely ask You for the cleansing of sins. Give me this soothing, joyful cleansing too. Without Christ, without heartfelt, living, clairvoyant faith in Him and in His life-giving Mysteries (during communion) - death to the soul; No matter how she throws herself without Him, it’s all death: a terrible, soul-killing tightness in the chest and a destructive fire. And with Christ, with heartfelt faith in Him and in His life-giving Mysteries, there is life and bliss for the soul: there is lightness and breadth in the chest, peace and joy in the heart. Experience. December 8, 1859. Continuation. When I deeply, sincerely felt in my heart how I had offended the Lord by carelessly performing the Sacrament of Baptism and being stingy before my father, when I regretted it in my heart, I suddenly felt at ease after unbearable heartache: the Lord saw my sincere conversion and had mercy on me, although I suffered evening, night and morning and, due to the lack of success of prayer, not imbued with heartfelt repentance, I did not receive forgiveness and relief from my heartfelt sorrow. Finally, the Lord heard the voice of weeping [Ps. 6.9 ] of my soul. If the Lord had not been philanthropic and long-suffering, would He have endured such great insults from us; would he have incarnated, would he have suffered, would he have died for you; Would I give you His most pure Body and Blood, which the Angels look at with fear and trembling? Would I save you from sins and from spiritual death so infinitely? He would then say: suffer, if you are so evil, I will not deliver you anymore, having delivered so many before. But now He endures countless insults from us all his life and still expects us to turn for the better. Glorify His love and patience. Imagine what would have happened without Him, without His salvation! Terror and trembling embrace the soul. But unrepentant sinners will finally suffer the wrath of God itself on the day of wrath and revelation of God’s righteous Judgment. A careless teacher of the law kills his disciples morally. We have, in addition to the physical, such vision with which we see what happens in our thoughts and hearts, with which we see our voluntary and involuntary sins or good deeds. The Lord God has such vision thousands of thousands of times brighter and clearer than ours, and He sees, down to the last movement, imperceptible even to us, our thoughts and hearts, even what we will think, feel and do in the future due to certain circumstances; before His face is our soul with all its thoughts, desires, words and deeds - just as before our eyes is any object brightly illuminated by the sun, even incomparably clearer, because in the sun we still do not see what is inside the object, but the Lord tests our hearts and wombs [Ps. 7.10 ]; The eyes of the Lord are darker than the brightest sun [Sir. 23,27]. When one promises to see God with a pure heart, this does not promise anything new: the vision of God with pure hearts begins here. The Lord is marvelous in our hands, especially in His most pure Mysteries! When the flesh and the devil are tempted to sin by the sweetness of sin, then imagine that this sweetness is completely disgusting, disgusting to the Lover of mankind, and He says to you: if you love Me, then keep My commandment, which forbids you to do this evil to which you are inclined. I sleep, but even during sleep my soul lives and reveals itself to be a constantly living being (for which the body is only a home), completely different from the body. During sleep, my body is like a dead tree, but my soul lives and revives, pours new strength into the insensitive body, and I awaken from life to a new life. Isn’t it so true that after death I will awaken – only to a new life? My body will remain insensitive, lifeless, dead, but my soul will be alive and will remain exactly the same soul. The most tangible proof of the immortality of our soul! Sometimes it’s like a snake is sucking my heart and bitter words are heard from my lips; I can be gloomy and sad. The unkind words coming from my lips testify that there is a dirty trickster in me..., an angel of Satan [2 Cor. 12.7]: he himself shows his presence in the heart with these words. The Lord is close to all who call on Him in truth [Ps. 144.18]. Strain your heart with faith and lift it up to God with prayer in your sorrow - and your help is ready. Multiple experiments. The Lord fills every space and every minute of time, and there is not a moment when He is not vigilant over His moral laws (of course, physical ones), when He does not punish for every movement of the heart and unkind thought that is contrary to Him, or reward for a noble movement of the heart and a good thought. The unbelief of the heart of the priest in the most pure Mysteries, which so often produce wonderful changes in him, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The devil tries by all means to draw him into this sin, knowing that there is no sin more difficult for him. Listen to yourselves, priests of the Lord and all Orthodox Christians, when you partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord, faithful in His words, which do not go unnoticed. Why are you persecuting Me, what have I done to you? What sin have you found in Me? Understand. Christ dwells in you through His life-giving Mysteries, but through your sins you drive Him out. He has created an abode in your heart and, being Peace, pacifies your heart, and you, foolish, drive Him out, peacefully resting in you, with your sins. Oh, evil! The Shorter Catechism is taught to boys from the very beginning. Do not hinder nature by your observation from completing the mystery of sleep: at the moment at which falling asleep should have occurred, one moment of intense thought - and sleep disappears for the whole night. This is why insomnia occurs in people who think seriously or are passionately devoted to something. There is probably a sleep nerve in the head, which if touched, sleep instantly disappears, no matter how much you want to sleep. After spending the whole night, you feel that at the very top of your head there is irritation of the nerves, which is revealed by mild pain. Thus, nature does not like to be prevented from doing its work, which it always does perfectly according to the laws given to it by the Creator. So she does not tolerate that a person is prevented from falling asleep in the eternal sleep of death: the dying person must be given peace - it can be hard for him when someone prevents him from dying by knocking or talking or anything else. The mystery of death is accomplished secretly, evenly, gradually. The One who created sounds and gave various voices to created living beings, so that they would express their inner state with them (and the non-living ones would preach with their voices the eternal power and wisdom of the Creator), Himself, of course, not needing this voice, but hears every voice, every movement of our soul, expressed and even not expressed by any sound. Pray to Him: Your voice is pleasant to Him, because it is His creation: and of those that exist, You love everything that exists, and you do not disdain anything that you have created, for you would not have created it if you had hated something [Wis. 11.25], says the Wise One. But He listens to the voice that happens from the heart, since the voice has this very purpose, to express what is in the heart. Wherever I am, as soon as I lift my heart’s eye to God in my sorrow with inner prayer, the Lover of Mankind immediately answers my faith and prayer, and the sorrow now passes. He is near me at all times and at every hour. You just don’t see, but feel Him vividly. A thousand times I have noticed that after falling away from God through heartfelt faith, there always inevitably follows sorrow, death of the heart, and, indeed, breadth and tranquility of the heart with living faith in Him. And all this proves more clearly than day that the Lord is always with me and knows everything within me. What intercessor or angel has ever delivered us from sins and sorrows? Nobody but God. When my heart is open to God through faith, then I feel good, but when it is closed through unbelief, it feels bad. The devil then closes it. There are people who are terribly afraid of dust: for goodness sake, aren’t you dust yourself; Why are you afraid of dust so much, as something unnatural? Humble yourself and admit then, as the dust rushes towards you and covers you, that you yourself are the dust of the earth, and remember that in ancient times, for the sake of humility before the Lord, people deliberately sprinkled ashes on their heads, even kings, like the king of Nineveh. We should not be indignant at the wickedness of the enemy, who acts on the soul through the flesh, but to humble ourselves before God and consider the obstacles that he places for us as nothing, even if we fell defeated by them. You cannot do without falls in this life. How to celebrate holidays? We celebrate either an event (to delve into the greatness of the event, its purpose, its fruits for believers), or to a person, for example, the Lord, the Mother of God, the Angels and saints (to delve into the attitude of that person towards God and humanity, into his beneficial influence on the Church of God in general). You need to delve into the history of an event or person and approach the event or person with your heart, absorb them into yourself, otherwise the holiday will not be perfect, not pleasing to God. Holidays should have an impact on our lives, they should enliven, warm our faith (hearts) in future blessings and nourish piety and good morals. But they go through more sin, as they are encountered unreasonably, with a cold heart of little faith, often not at all prepared for the feeling of those great blessings of God that God bestowed through a certain celebrated person or event. I often turn my mental gaze to the standard of my moral life, which constantly measures the merits of my thoughts, desires, words and deeds, which either rewards or punishes me, my heart. Unbelief of the heart and passions of the heart at the beginning - if a person himself does not voluntarily succumb to them - is the charm of the devil: by looking and praying inwardly to the Lord, it is easy to overcome them. We must say when we find ourselves: how I anger You, Lord, with this and that (by lack of faith in something or passion for something); I don’t want this, I don’t deign it to the enemy. You, my omnipotent Helper, help me. The evil spirit tries in every possible way to erase from our memory the torment of the heart that it inflicts, and the feeling of the sweet gifts of God - the feeling of forgiveness of sins, the feeling of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and wants to assure, the vile one, that the forgiveness of sins is not from God, but just so-so, by chance, or as if the sins never happened, and the torment was not from sins. Giving to the poor: money, bread and clothing do not lie on the street, like food and drink for birds - their food and clothing are provided to your virtue. Why is a living creature called breathing? From the Spirit of God - since the beginning of their life is the Life-giving Spirit, who once rushed above the waters and poured life into the original waters. The mystery of the cleansing of sins is especially performed in the church. Reverence the place where the cleansing of your spiritual impurities takes place, where you are reconciled with God, where you receive the true life of the spirit. How many times has the Lord given me here the cleansing of my sins, without which I could not enjoy the gifts of God - the greatest gift of life, the gifts of peace and joy and material blessings. Glory to You, Jesus, Son of God; You are the cleansing for our sins, not for ours specifically, but for the whole world! When the Lord grants us, for our attention to ourselves, some day to remain without sin, then sleep at night is unusually sweet and peaceful, and in the morning, upon awakening, there is such a grace-filled silence and tranquility in the soul that the heart rejoices and everything is so easy, easy for you. Oh, how good is the yoke of the Lord’s commandments, how light is His burden! And sin poisons both our waking state and our sleep: and in our sleep its horrors disturb our spirit. All the variety and beauty of matter exists on the basis of the cohesion of bodies. What would happen without her? (I noticed the law of adhesiveness on one flower: sticky moisture, in combination with the finest particles of earth passing through plant vessels, turns into flower meat.) The laws of the Spirit are everywhere in matter. They direct the substance to one or another end (goal); they grow and modify, they keep it in being. Faith tells me: your life is faith, hope and love; but the flesh and the devil say: no, your life is the riches of this world. Words of faith are always justified by the deed itself, but the words of the flesh and the devil in practice always turn out to be false, because they kill the soul by the very thing in which they previously promised life. I don't deserve to have what I use. By what miracle did the Lord give me all this? This is His only mercy. I have been honored with your blessings and gifts, Master Lord, as an unworthy servant. So, in order not to remain an insensitive beast, I flow to You diligently, with all my heart, and according to my strength I offer You thanks for all Your gifts - spiritual and material, and I cry out to You with all my soul: Glory to You, most generous God! Thirst, hunger and sleep rather affectionately remind us of the perishability of our nature; and illnesses are rather unkind, and rightly so: caresses don’t bring reason, so you need to use a threat. I thank You, Lord, for what You have told me and will constantly tell me in the ways of the belly. Otherwise, how pathetic would I be? Now I know what constitutes life, bliss for me; I know what I need to avoid as something deadly. With all my soul I will desire and seek the one Christ; nevertheless, everything else that occupied me before in life, let it be lower than my desires, let everything worldly be only some addition to this greatest, priceless treasure, which constitutes the peace and bliss of my soul; whether this application is great, little, or insignificant - in the first case, let the heart not be attached to it, and in the last, let it not be in the least saddened. Chapters about faith, hope and love. Chapters on prayer. The chapters are moralizing. The chapters are natural. Observations and experiences of spiritual life. Different thoughts. Having given your word not to be irritated with your wife, keep it. Lord, help me! Observing your spiritual life, you are amazed at the extent to which the grace of God preserves our freedom intact. She does not use anything except the exhortation: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... My yoke is easy and My burden is light [Matt. 11.28–30]. The spirit of evil also seeks our will; For this, he uses many different temptations: the sweetness of some sin, the promise of prosperity in contentment with sensory goods; fear and confusion, blindness and indignation of the heart, in which a person becomes not himself and in this state does what is pleasing to the devil; fiery arrows that produce impatience and irritability in the soul; passions, also illnesses, various losses, sorrows, despondency. That is why the Savior said: in your patience gain your souls [Lk. 21:19], that is, since the devil, inclining your will to sin, will use many different temptations for this, which require patience and generosity, then you must endure all your life (because there will be temptations throughout your life) and in this patience you must gain your souls. Only he who endures to the end will be saved [Matt. 10.22]. To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne [Rev. 3.21]. Two majestic monuments. Everyone sees once every week two majestic and instructive monuments; only everyone has taken a closer look at these ancient monuments, and therefore few people see greatness and edification in them. Here is the first monument: Saturday. There is an inscription on it: the world and man were created by the omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of the Creator God out of nothing - in six days; on the seventh day God rested from the works of creation; From the foundation of the world, eternal Sabbath, or eternal rest and eternal bliss, was prepared from the Heavenly Father for the people of God. Another monument: Sunday. On it is the inscription: humanity, corrupted by sin, was recreated by the incarnate and made man Son of God, who, having taken upon Himself, as the spotless Lamb of God, the sins of the whole world, suffered for them and died on the cross, and on the third day rose from the dead, resurrecting with Himself all humanity that had fallen from life into death, as the firstborn of the dead. They look at ordinary monuments, read their inscriptions and often deliberately retain significant inscriptions in their memory. Why don’t these two monuments receive the attention they deserve? How significant are these two monuments? Their inscriptions? Or are they not clear? No - they are so clear that from the first time you see what they are talking about, what deeds they are passing on to us. If the first inscription, written in the Hebrew dialect, is not clear and intelligible to everyone, then the last inscription, written in their native language, should be understandable to everyone: who does not know the Holy Resurrection of Christ? Who didn’t celebrate it lightly and joyfully? And by celebrating the resurrection of Christ, aren’t we celebrating our own resurrection on the last day of the world? Did Christ rise for Himself? What other meaning would there be in the resurrection if it were for Him alone and not for us? – A bright meteor that flashed and disappeared without any purpose. And so, while every week God shows us such two instructive holidays, we often pass by them without any thought about them, often without any feeling of the great benefits of God to the human race, whose memory the Lord deigned to perpetuate on these two monuments. How ungrateful and malicious we are! Some are even insanely daring, daring, in defiance of these monuments, to assert that the world is not God’s world, calling it some meaningless word of nature, that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen [1 Cor. 15,12–13]. And who is so crazy that he can say this? The conception of Saint Anne, when the Holy Mother of God is conceived. Likewise, people who are blessed by all earthly beings are at first an insignificant seed, they are conceived as an ordinary tree fruit is conceived, and gradually grow into a fruit. Why are animals born inside - in the mother's womb, while tree fruits are born outside the tree? Because the animal fruit, being inside, is protected from various collisions of the giving birth being with others and from various unfavorable accidents, and plants stand motionless, and from this side their fruit is safe. Man, animals, birds, fish, reptiles. The third is a private monument. Birthdays and namesakes. A majestic monument! An instructive monument! My torment is a monument to God’s omnipresence and omniscience, as well as the peace and joy of my heart in the Holy Spirit. Prayer should be a vision of the heart of God and oneself as it is, and not a ghost; prayer is a means to clarify the constantly dimming vision of the heart from the influx of carnal lusts and the darkness of the devil. Christ warms, calms, caresses and cheers me, like the mother of a baby. God! Grant me to always see You and be grateful to You. Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them [Matt. 18.20]. Wherever you serve a prayer service or perform any other requirement, the Lord is here, in the midst of you, without fail, urgently. How carefully one must behave in all situations! The future life is the perfect purity of a heart that is gradually being cleansed, which is closed and darkened by sin and the devil’s breath, and sometimes, through the action of God’s grace, it becomes clearer and sees God, uniting with Him sincerely in prayer and the Sacrament of Communion. Jesus is my daily victory over invisible enemies; Jesus is my faithful and reliable doctor of my fierce, daily sorrows of the heart, a most ready deliverer, if only my heart were ready [Ps. 56.8 ] to Him; Jesus is the breadth of my heart, its peace and bliss. Where I cannot penetrate to drive away invisible enemies and to get rid of sorrows, my Christ penetrates there and accomplishes the desired victory for me. Also, what I cannot do, despite all my efforts, is done by one image of the cross of the Lord, made with heartfelt faith on my chest and belly. Marvelous is my Lord in me, marvelous is His Life-giving Cross: invisible enemies, invisibly and mercilessly striking my soul with kindled arrows, often pouring hellish fire into me, killing my spirit with sorrow and oppression, flee from the terrible name of Jesus Christ and the sign of the cross for them: it scorches them, just as they scorch me, and for equal the Lord rewards them for me with equal. Suddenly there is lightness in my soul, and it becomes clearer, as after dark and menacing clouds. When educating youth, what should we strive for most? About acquiring for him the enlightened desire of the heart [Eph. 1.18]. Don't you notice that our heart is the first agent in our life and in almost all our knowledge, the vision of known truths with the heart (idea) precedes mental knowledge? This happens with knowledge: the heart sees at once, inseparably, instantly; then this single act of vision of the heart is transferred to the mind and in the mind is decomposed into parts: there are sections, the previous, the subsequent - in a word, the vision of the heart in the mind receives its analysis. The idea belongs to the heart, not the mind - the inner man, not the outer. Therefore, it is a very important matter to have an enlightened search of the heart in all knowledge, but especially in the knowledge of the truths of faith and the rules of morality. Again and again I will write thanksgiving to my Most Holy Lady, Lady Theotokos, get rid of the evil ones. Receive from Me, obscene, foul, with foul thoughts and acts of passion, having created everything indecent for yourself and, through my malice, the devil’s accomplice of the former, the outpouring of my grateful heart. Here it is, Lady, by Your intercession and intercession now, instantly healed from the devil’s anger, from his kindled arrows, from his hellish cramped conditions, from his fierce bondage, from his unbearable work - and rests in heavenly peace: I am no longer at all the same as I was a minute before this; I am not a slave of the devil, I am not an accomplice of his evil nature, his murderous deeds: I am Your servant, I am a servant of the Lord my God; Your invisible hand has tangibly touched my sinful heart. Oh, happy reality! I will glorify Your mercy, Your quick intercession, Merciful, Benevolent and Moisture-loving Lady, Most Holy Theotokos! I am at a loss, accursed one, to praise You according to your inheritance: but accept my faith, the Representative of all Christians, and do not deprive me of Your good dominion at the rest of my life. (December 10th day, 1859) Christians! Boast about the Lady, our Intercessor, confess Her glory to all who do not know Her intercession. May this day be everlasting, a new monument for me to the blessings of the Mother of God! December thirteenth, 1859. He, the murderer, was in me - and he is not: he was driven away. If, as you have experienced many times, I quickly hear and fulfill your prayers, then why don’t you always pray to Me with undoubted faith about everything? In church and at home, during services and Sacraments and during home prayer? You insult Me with your lack of faith, which in you is inexcusable. The illness of one member often redeems the well-being of the whole body or its most important parts. When you pray to the Lord or the Lady Theotokos, then be sure that your prayer, if it is offered with all your heart, is instantly heard by the Lord or the Mother of God. What am I saying? “They see the very disposition of your heart towards prayer before you actually pray, and in order to give you the good for which you pray, for this all that is often missing is you, your heartfelt faith, the sincerity of your desire, the depth of your humility, your consciousness that you are pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked [Rev. 3.17]. During prayer, when, despite our efforts to have a living faith in God, it is not in our heart, we must remember that the devil always, and especially during prayer, tries to close and darken the eyes of the heart so that it does not see God (faith is the vision of the heart of the invisible God); one must also inwardly say to the Lord: Lord, the enemy is hiding You from me, and my foolish heart, covered with his darkness, is troubled and wavering: let the light of Your countenance be seen upon me, a sinner [Ps. 4.7]. By the quick intercession of the Mother of God and the saints, prove the immortality of human souls and the general resurrection; the vastness of their activity (in the body their activity was constrained: they could not be everywhere and hear everyone, and now - everywhere and everyone). Embarrassment. The girl, meeting the person she loves, is embarrassed; when a hater meets the hated, he becomes embarrassed; the envious person is embarrassed; In general, anyone devoted to any passion is certainly internally confused. Why? Because a person given over to passion unites with the devil, and he is alien to all peace. Holy Mother of God! Again I must praise You today. Again today, through my prayer, you delivered me, unworthy, from the tightness of my heart. Glory to You! About communion. Do not look at the types of bread and wine, but look at the heavenly life, undoubtedly pouring out from them into your heart, if you do not offend the Mysteries with doubt or unbelief. So, do not look slyly at the types of bread and wine, but marvel at how these types of bread and wine, transformed into the Body and Blood of the Lord, have a life-giving effect on our soul, killed by sin, reviving our body, how it is alive and rested by them. Marvel at this and give glory to the Lord, who revives us, killed by sin. Doubt, lack of faith, unbelief, all passions and sins are an abomination of the devil. Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first. For this reason the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the devil [1 John. 3.8]. After communion, ask yourself internally: do you love the Savior with all your heart? If you love, if your heart says to the Lord: Lord! You know that I love You [Jn. 21:15 ], then you received communion worthily, if not, unworthily. If you feel disgust for any sin, especially passions: hatred, envy, pride, selfishness, selfishness and others, then it is worthy; if not, it is unworthy; if there is living faith in the heart, it is worthy; if not, it is unworthy. During mental pursuits, especially with subjects of faith, the eye of the heart is cleansed, clarified, and brightened. It's good to do mental work! You go to bed in the evening and think that you will get up tomorrow morning; So, even as we lie down in the grave in the evening of our lives, we will be confident that we will rise on the morning of the general resurrection (about the resurrection). The inevitability of death. Death constantly, daily takes its victims from among us. We see either a mother mourning her birth, or a wife weeping for her husband, who has gone on a journey from which there is no return, or a husband who has lost his wife; we see babies and decrepit old women, young men and strong in spirit and body husbands, virgins and wives in the arms of death, lifeless, voiceless, ugly, inglorious. How rare it is to find a family in which all members, starting with father and mother, are alive: some are missing from those close to the heart, and some are eaten by an invisible hand, while others are abandoned. We all see this sad spectacle, but everyone is almost so accustomed to it that it does not occupy us, or at least does not touch us. So, our turn will come to be a victim of death, and maybe very soon, whether we think or not we think about it; and after death, everyone faces an inevitable and, for many, difficult, difficult judgment. Why did we spend our lives in absentmindedness, in inaction? Why are we not preparing to step, as we should, in a Christian way, beyond the boundaries of real life? Why don’t we think about the Heavenly Judge and about the terrible Throne of Glory, where we will all certainly appear? Here, too, I rest in Christ and with Christ—how can I not believe that after death, eternal rest in Him awaits me after the struggle with earthly enemies? Even here, without Christ, it’s hard, painful for me - how can I not believe that it will be all the more painful for me without Him there, when He finally rejects me from His presence? Thus, the current state of our souls prefigures the future. The future will be a continuation of the present internal state, only in a changed form relative to its degree: for the righteous it will turn into the fullness of eternal glory, and for sinners - into the burden of eternal torment. Let educators and mentors listen to themselves, their hearts, and strengthen their hearts with heartfelt prayer in all their undertakings: the evil prince of this world opposes their good intentions and efforts with his machinations and tries in every possible way to deprive them of their occupations of warmth and sincerity, sowing in their hearts, like tares, laziness and reluctance to engage in activities; Let the pupils pay attention to themselves and be diligent in their work, early and late. When an evil spirit weighs on your heart, inclining it to some passion, arm yourself with courage and patience and thereby deprive it of all hope for further success: it will leave you behind when it sees your firmness. But it is bad if you are faint-hearted: it will take power over your heart. Experience. Another talkative person or another talkative person in a circle of friends or relatives cuts with his tongue, like a sharp sword, the good name of his neighbor and does not notice how the evil one robs his or her soul through this. Keeping with the mouth [Ps. 140.3 ] is an important matter. Charmed by the charms of the devil, people curse at the door of life, through which they themselves entered this world by the grace of the Life-Giver God, Who gave the laws on marriage, and turn it into an object of shameful pleasure. Where is the mind of those who call themselves reasonable? How can they not reason that people are not like irrational animals; that they owe free obedience to the will of God, His Creator; that the wives to whom God gave this door do not themselves have rights over it, just as they did not have the right to enter their mother’s womb and be born, just as they could not create themselves with certain organs. The head of their door of life is the Creator Lord, the Life of all, and according to His all-creating will, after the marriage blessing, the firstfruits of man (conception) must be thrown into the door of life. Likewise, men [...], who contain the seed of man in their loins (Levi... was still in the loins of his father... [Heb. 7:9-10]), just as they did not themselves create this seed (who can make a hair of us white or black, or add to his height even one cubit [Matt. 6.27], – we can create nothing, especially the human seed – the foundation of a future man similar to ourselves). So they cannot scatter this seed spontaneously, but according to the instructions and laws of the One who put this seed in them. Let all those who look with crafty and impure hearts at the door of life know who passed through the Maiden's door of life, closed naked at the entrance, and the Flesh-Bearer at the exit. This is the Head of our life, the all-wise Creator of men with all their organs. Why did He pass through it and appear at the end as the Flesh-Bearer? To deliver us from sinful corruption, to show us in His flesh an example of victory over the flesh. Neither fornicators... nor adulterers... will inherit the kingdom of God [1 Cor. 6.9–10]. Woe from Him will be to those who swear senselessly and impudently at the door of life: he will not see life and will suffer death - eternal torment from the face of the Lord. Your desire is for your husband [Gen. 3.16]. Poor woman! The whole century in dresses, the whole century in 100 clothes - and everything to please her husband. Thus the husband prevailed over her thoughts and heart after she had prevailed over him in temptation. Serves it right! But sometimes it is bitter to pay the husband for this: often the husband puts all the fruits of his labors on his wife. With the Lord, simple bread is pleasant to me and simple drink is sweet. For constant prayer, the Lord vouchsafes those who pray to Him to die in prayer and soar with their souls directly to His throne. The pure in heart... will see God [Matt. 5:8], and (it is implied) in God they will see the real meaning of all things created by Him, and in the true light - all human affairs, all mutual relations between people. You have the Faces of the Savior and the Mother of God: believe that in these Faces are the Lord Himself and the Most Holy Theotokos Herself by His grace. So, many times before the icon of the Savior I received many of His great mercies - from one glance at His Most Pure Face; I was vouchsafed many heavenly gifts from the Queen of Angels and men - before Her Kazan icon. Praying before them, I prayed as if before Themselves - and was never put to shame. Is it true that the Lord, by His grace, is always present in His icon, and the Lady in Hers? Exactly: let us recall an example from the biography of Father Seraphim, how he once, while serving the liturgy as a deacon, saw during it after the words: Lord! Save the pious - the Lord who appeared at the top of the church, Who then entered His local Face. Let us remember how the glory of the Lord, which dwelt in the Jerusalem Temple, abandoned it for the increase of lawlessness in the Jewish people just before the destruction of Jerusalem, and a voice was heard: let us leave from here. And the radiance, which was noticed in the church, left the church, leaving it through the gates. So, pray before the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God as before Themselves, peer into their majestic Faces, glowing with heavenly calm, meekness and humility. If your heart is double-minded in prayer, remember where and before Whom you stand. You stand before such Beings who know every movement of your heart, every thought of yours; Who know completely whether you pray truly, from the heart, as you pray before the living - or falsely, not from the heart, having forgotten that you stand before the God of the heart and before the Mother of the God of hearts, who searches hearts and wombs, who knows and counts all your secret thoughts and undiscovered desires and intentions. Oh, how much one glance at the heavenly Face of the Lord or the Mother of God, directed with faith, means! So, there was a case with me (tell Rambov’s case). Keep yourself in the love of God. During prayer, the disembodied enemy weighs heavily on the heart and gnaws at it with doubt and lack of faith, so that prayer pronounced without faith does not bring us any benefit. Will not God give them repentance to the knowledge of the truth, so that they will be freed from the snare of the devil, who has ensnared them in his will [2 Tim. 2.25–26]. To the divinely enlightened gaze of the apostle, people appear to be caught alive in the devil’s snare. [If] this network is mental, spiritual, then the apostle’s expression means that people are entangled spiritually [and physically] and are so removed from the spiritual Light and Source of life - God, that they do not see either Him or themselves in the form in which they are; have no life in themselves (don’t have a life in you [John 6:53]) and have died alive in soul: destructive thoughts, desires and intentions tending towards destruction, words and deeds - everything is directed by the devil to their destruction, and he leads them like blind men, entangling their sight, their hands, and their feet. In the devil’s snare, as we see, he has ensnared both the shepherds and the flock - and he was the first to put a seal of silence on their lips or is trying in every possible way to achieve this, so that they do not speak to the people in the name of the Lord, do not enlighten their heartfelt eyes, blinded by the devil, or they themselves live carelessly, viciously, not caring about their salvation; and he bound others with the sadness of this age, or with worries about the things of life: the flattery of wealth, the burning love of acquisitions or the relaxation of mental and physical forces not occupied by work, various passions: the passion for travel, entertainment, talkativeness or the passions of hatred, revenge, envy, stinginess, unseemly habits and inclinations and every kind of sin. It is pitiful and painful to see humanity in this devilish net, which it does not notice, which is even more bitter (everything is entangled in it: the heart, the mind, and all spiritual activity, and it does not notice these fetters), and which it seems to willingly hold on itself and is voluntarily drawn to destruction. What is needed is the intensified, fervent prayer from a loving heart of pious and God-loving shepherds and laymen, so that God will look upon them - although the people who have completely abandoned Him are unworthy - so that He will look at them from His height and send them shepherds after His heart, who would ignite them with reason and teaching, so that with the movements of His righteous anger He will enlighten the foolish and turn them to Himself. This same generation (the devil) is driven out only by prayer and fasting [Matt. 17.21]. Why fasting? Because in our flesh, which once tasted the murderous fruit of disobedience, this ancient serpent-murderer nests, and the flesh strengthens over our spirit through its intemperance; fasting weakens her, and with her the devil. Through the womb the devil strongly influences people, because our soul is in our entrails (renew the right spirit in my womb [Ps. 50:12]), and what the stomach (belly) is in a physical sense, the heart (soul) is in a spiritual sense; just as the stomach, since it is the cause of physical life, is located in the very middle of our bodily nature, so the corresponding spiritual life principle is also in the middle, from where it extends its actions to the head and all other parts of the body. Two - two: one against one. How important should the commandment of fasting be! When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast [Matt. 9.15]. You see, the Lord Himself recognized fasting as necessary for our salvation! Experience shows that a heart weighed down by excess, especially drunkenness, is deaf to teaching; It is even more deafening to prayer, and it involuntarily bends the one praying to the ground, preventing him from rising to God. Behold, beloved, the feast of the Nativity of Christ is near. Let us take care to meet him in a Christian, spiritual way. I know in advance how you intend to celebrate it: you will soon go to the market and you will be there walking and talking about many different dishes on the holiday, but one thing is needed, and the thought of how to delight your soul with spiritual food on the upcoming holiday, how to more worthily celebrate and spend the holiday, with what thoughts and deeds, rarely occurs to anyone. But the meal, beloved, is always with you, but the Feast of the Lord is not always. Let us take care of how we can more worthily celebrate the spiritually approaching holiday - let this be our first and most important concern: it is enough if we spend a few hours before the holiday worrying about shopping for the holiday. We have been singing for a long time: Christ is born, glorify. Christ from heaven, hide, that is, meet. Christ on earth, ascend, and sing with joy, people, - and we sing in order to think in advance about why the Son of God came from heaven to earth; why he became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became a man, without ceasing to be God; about the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, about why this mystery was given to us and what great benefit it brought to us - former slaves of the devil, sin and death. With what thoughts and feelings should we meet Him? (And one must certainly greet such a great Guest in a decent manner.) The angels sing to the divinely born Child: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men [Lk. 2:14], and we are taught what we should rejoice on this holiday, how and for what gift we should thank God. So, shake off the vanity of life, and let us come to the holiday with a soul not disturbed by any everyday worries, so that we can devote ourselves to the holiday with all our souls. This is why you fasted before the holiday, so that you could meet the Lord’s holiday with a sober mind and a cheerful heart. Otherwise, why post? For what? For this reason, the high God came to earth, says the Holy Church, so that he may lead us to heaven. Remember everything and deepen in your hearts this thought that the Son of God came to earth in order to save us from sins and eternal death and lead us to heaven, that is, to where there is eternal life, eternal bliss. And if Christ came down to us in order to lead us to heaven, then we must, in advance, more often ascend there with our thoughts and heartfelt desires and gradually renounce with our souls everything that binds us to the earth - to this country of exile (to this inn), in which there are so many temptations, disasters, illnesses, sorrows, where, with all the transience of earthly life, you see only sins and temptations and death with all its horrors. (So, when the great day of the Nativity of Christ comes, ascend to Him with pure hearts, unoccupied with anything earthly, go out to meet Him joyfully and with your thoughts and hearts ascend to the villages of heaven, to the abodes of the Heavenly Father, where the Only Begotten Son of God the Father came to resettle everyone from the earth.) Christ is born, glorify. Christ from heaven, take it down. Christ on earth, ascend... Some of us may have to celebrate this holiday for the last time. Think about heavenly things, desire heavenly things, strive for heavenly things. So, before the holiday of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior comes, prepare to celebrate His Nativity with pure hearts, unoccupied with anything [earthly], so that the Most Pure King may please your holiday, so that when He appears from heaven, you will be like a bride adorned for her husband [Rev. 21:2], as decently worthy of His greatness and holiness. Be more attentive to yourself when Christ is on earth: soon you will all ascend in your thoughts and hearts from the earth to God. When you celebrate the holiday of the Nativity of Christ with such thoughts and with such a disposition of heart, you will celebrate it with dignity, in a Christian way, and with benefit for your soul. Amen. Now we have two holidays: the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ is added to the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Let us repay our debt to both the holiday of Christmas and the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ. One holiday is annual, and the other is weekly. Christ was born in order to come to the triumph of the resurrection, and was born for us and rose again for us: our and begotten Child, our and risen Christ! (The same Christ is born, just as Christ is risen!) Such is His love for us: He gave Himself to us all, if only to make us alive forever, if only to lead us into the abodes of the Heavenly Father. In both holidays, beloved, our own triumph is hidden: Christ was born and rose again for us; our and begotten Child, our and risen Christ. Such is the love of God the Savior for us: He gave Himself to us, if only to make us alive forever, if only to bring us into the abode of the Heavenly Father. The life of our Lord Jesus Christ from His birth to His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven is, beloved, so to speak, a mirror in which everything that happens and will happen to His followers is reflected, or, in other words, His entire earthly life is an image of our life. Therefore, His Nativity is, as it were, our birth, His Resurrection is our resurrection. What kind of celebration is there for us on either holiday? - What if it’s not a celebration? And by His Nativity and Resurrection we are called to eternal life, to an incorruptible inheritance, reserved for us in heaven [1 Pet. 1.4]. Without the Savior, without His birth, our birth would be for condemnation and torment, our resurrection would be for eternal damnation. By His birth, Jesus Christ sanctified our birth, lifted up our horn through the resurrection, and made us glad with the hope of our resurrection. By faith Christ rose from the dead, the firstborn of those who died [1 Cor. 15.20]. Why do we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ once a year, and the Feast of the Resurrection fifty-two times, and one of them is so bright, with such solemnity that its light seems to outshine all other holidays? To solve this question, let's take another to explain it: is it necessary to assure a person several times that he was born? No need: because everyone knows this without certainty. Is it necessary to assure a person many times that he will be resurrected? It is necessary: ​​because since the resurrection will still be there and we have it only in hope, we need to resurrect more often, revive our faith in our resurrection and hope in it, all the more so as we see fewer examples of resurrection before our eyes, while examples of birth are always before our eyes. But the year, brothers, is like our century with its annual changes: spring, summer, autumn and winter. But a person will be born once, and therefore memories also happen once a year. That is why we celebrate our birthday every year, as if every year we were born and began our lives: every year we thank the Lord for the fact that He deigned to give us existence on the day of our birth. So, a year represents, as it were, a human century. In this annual age, we remember once all the great events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this single memory is enough for us, because, just as everyone believes in his birth, there is no need to assure him of it. And the Resurrection of Christ, precisely the day of His actual resurrection from the dead, we also celebrate once with all solemnity; and we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ once and fifty-one times a year, in order to assure people more often that their resurrection is certain. Because just with less solemnity, the Nativity of Christ is, as it were, our Nativity, and the day of the week, the Resurrection of Christ is, as it were, our resurrection: rise with Christ [Col. 3:1], that is, you were resurrected together with Christ, says the apostle. So, glory to the Lord who was born for our salvation, and glory to Him, who rose from the grave and raised us with Himself. And you, beloved, all remember with each coming resurrection that you will be resurrected and, having been resurrected, appear at the Judgment, because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone can receive according to what he did while living in the body, good or bad [2 Cor. 5:10], and therefore everyone take care to arrange their lives in such a way that at this Terrible Judgment they will not be put to shame and not be sent into utter darkness. Amen. And so that the holidays of the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ do not condemn us in that century for our inattention and disrespect for them. Amen. Man breathes and every breath breathes, and the Spirit of God breathes, but the Spirit of God breathes and with His breath gives life to everyone. Happy, blessed is that person to whom the Spirit of God breathes according to his inheritance: soon then he will take off from the earthly, soaring, rising, settling in grief from the All-Reviving Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving Lord. Fight against ethereal villains: the Lord sees everything, and the hour may not be far off when He will call you to Himself and crown you for victory. To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne [Rev. 3.21]. Be inspired by this thought. How to look at language learning? The gift of tongues was given by the Holy Spirit to the apostles so that they could preach to all nations speaking different languages ​​the word of God about repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal life in Christ. According to this, now: the rapprochement of a person of one nation with a person of another and one people with another through mutual knowledge of languages ​​should mainly have the goal that through this rapprochement a nation professing the true faith, not damaged by human wisdom, preaches about the need to profess precisely this faith (or confession), and not another - that is, the rapprochement should have the goal of the glory of God and the salvation of human souls. For this purpose it is good to have a knowledge of languages; but if this goal is completely lost sight of and in its place only worldly goals and attitudes are put in place, especially vain ones, harmful to faith and the fatherland, as is usually the case, then the knowledge of languages ​​will be for the linguist a sword that kills his own soul, useless capital, a waste of precious time. We must remember that although the Holy Spirit, when He distributed tongues of fire, called all things into unity, it was into the unity of faith and love; for such a unification, God grant that everyone begins with all diligence to study foreign languages ​​and with their knowledge of them contributes to the spread in the world of the truth of God, the holy Orthodox faith, calming hope and true love that revitalizes human hearts, which is what is being done here in Russia, because the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is preached to such peoples who previously did not know the Lord, even without calling on Your name [Ps. 78.6]. But if this goal is not in mind, then it is better to remain with your native language and remember why the Lord once came down to mix the languages ​​of people. This mixing was then necessary for proud and reckless people. It is necessary for many (linguists) even now. Let their tongues loosen to converse with other nations, and they will commit mischief and destroy their souls either by apostasy to another religion, or by malicious chatter about their native land, or by accepting the customs and vices of foreigners. But the most surprising thing is that within the boundaries of the native fatherland, the native language is even neglected, while foreign languages ​​are held in great respect! What kind of comedy is this that great attention is paid to the study of foreign languages ​​and in education, and to faith, to the Law of God - this foundation of human earthly well-being and the guarantee of eternal bliss - only due to the attention of the autocratic authorities and lower authorities, attention is paid to it, but in fact very little attention is paid to it by parents? Obyurodeli; fell into an unskilled mind - to do inappropriate things [Rom. 1.28]. Our native language is God’s gift to us along with being, and after being, God’s greatest gift: in it the first prayer for us was raised to God, in it our spiritual rebirth was accomplished, in it we first of all heard the word of God, calling us from non-existence into being, the word about the Word incarnate for our salvation, or the Son of God, about the remission of sins in His name; on it we heard all the Divine services, on it we hear the performance of all the Sacraments. And how can one then neglect one’s native language? How to look at and engage with other languages ​​with preference? Doesn’t this mean swearing at the gifts of God, that is, at the Russian language, and at the invaluable gift of the Orthodox faith? So they swear: and the indifferentism, or cold indifference in the faith of many, proves that the Orthodox faith for them is the same as Catholicism or Lutheranism, even Islamism. How harmful it is to taste something foreign! Ours seems inferior to everything foreign. And this is not only in faith, but in almost all sciences and arts, as if everything that is ours actually becomes worse from comparison with foreign ones. The damned one will blind the terribly unreasonable admirers of everything foreign. O mother tongue! O strong and sonorous tongue! Ring the bell for all lovers of foreign languages; call, call to your defense all the faithful sons of the Fatherland and through their lips tell all lovers of foreign things, tell them, noble, ancient, sacred language: I originally brought to you the Orthodox faith and with faith - your salvation; I thundered to you in the saving word of the Gospel and in the radiant 101 order of Orthodox worship; For almost a thousand years I have been resounding in all your churches and bringing faithful waves of God’s grace into your hearts; I, and not French, not English and German, was in the heart and on the lips of all the saints of your Church, glorified by God for incorruptibility and miracles; I expressed their loyalty and love for the Tsar and the Fatherland, all the faithful sons of the Fatherland; through me they heard the cry of your victorious soldiers, when they called on them to protect the Fatherland or when they returned, crowned with glory, from the battlefield - and, to put it briefly: through me the mighty kingdom of Russia stood and stands, through me the greatest treasures of all people - pilgrims to the heavenly fatherland - faith, hope and love flow from hearts to hearts. Why are you neglecting me? What sin have you found in me, my frivolous children? Do I not ring as gently and pleasantly as the language of the French, German and British rings? But are you children? Is your business only bells? Is the essence of language in the tenderness and softness of ringing? Language is the organ of truth; Can holy truth be expressed worse by me than in foreign languages? But no: you are not looking for truth. You love vanity and seek lies [Ps. 4:3], as David says. That is why you like them (especially the French language) more than your own language. I am not insanely jealous of you. Study and know foreign languages, but know for the benefit of your soul and the Fatherland: this is why I lament, this is why I grieve, that you study and know them for the wrong reason. Look, I will tell the Word about you, which distributes the word to everyone through the Holy Spirit, that you offend the native word, and with the native word, the word of God in the native language. You have left the Word and do not read the words, and say: God’s word is not understood. Were foreign languages ​​really understandable at first? Did you suddenly, like the apostles, receive the gift of speaking in different languages? Didn't you study them for a long time? In the same way, if you wanted to study your native Slavic-Russian language, you would recognize it, and God’s word would be clear to you. Now what? Knowing foreign languages ​​perfectly, you do not even know how to read Church Slavonic, and you yourself have withdrawn from the verbs of eternal life [John. 6.68], spoken in God’s word. Mary sits at the feet of the Lord and listens to His word; and Martha speaks only of the many services [Lk. 10.41 ] - about European languages, about empty and useless ranting in these languages; writes letters in these languages ​​and asks in them for new fashions of dress, various potions for bodily decoration, various items of everyday vanity. Nothing more bad can be said about that Martha, but a lot of bad things must be said about ours: our Martha has a very corrupt heart; She has no concern for her soul, but cares entirely about her body: her idol is her body; does not know how to decorate, how to honor her body; she bows to him day and night, and yet it still seems to her that she doesn’t worship her body much. And all her life Martha sat over her body. And the century is so short - you look, Martha feels ill, and Martha is in despair, and rushes in all directions, but there is nothing to help, and the perfumed, discharged Martha dies, and, like a broken doll, is carried to the grave. Here's the light! Think: wonderful things! Yes, as soon as they are done! He who does not tolerate unkind comments about himself, who is tormented by suspicion and wants to force everyone to speak only well of himself, is very proud and proud. If your conscience really reproaches you for [sensual] weakness and you think that you are being condemned for it, be patient: you deserve condemnation; humble yourself and improve; and if your conscience is clear, why should you be indignant? The Lord tolerated slander, but who are you that you don’t want to tolerate it? Are you not His follower? Blessed are you when they revile you [Matt. 5.11]. Woe to you when all people speak well of you [Lk. 6.26]. Honoring the saints of God, glorifying the days of their memory, we must remember that eternal peace and glory await us if we imitate their faith and life. When does the devil intensify his attacks on us? – When we need to open our mouths for teaching and instruction; For this purpose, he settles in the heart and tries to drown out every good feeling in it, so that it, not being in the heart, could not appear on the lips. Next - before the holidays, especially before the great ones, in order to deprive us of all the fruits of the holiday; at the end of pious activities, for example, prayer, in order to destroy with one end the entire previous work, sometimes a very long one. The nature of his attacks is indescribable anger, destructive burning, heaviness and tightness in the chest and heart, embarrassment and fear, impatience and irritability to the highest degree, stemming from internal fire and tightness; despondency, relaxation of the soul and a strong reluctance to do anything, a dead end or tetanus, or a burning stream of unkind thoughts. What should we oppose to him? Patience and faith. Here is the patience and faith of the saints [Rev. 13.10]. Do not give in to him even one step and nurture in your soul meekness, humility, patience, love for everyone, especially for your friends or family. We must wage a constant internal battle with him and manage to understand his tricks during attacks, and in every possible way deprive him of hope for success: when attacking us, he always has hope and never despairs of tempting, knowing our inclination to sin. Therefore, one must always show special firmness in the face of temptations and tell him, for example, like this: although you kindle your arrows with seven and move them at me, I will not give in to you, and in the name of the Lord and by His Life-giving Cross I will extinguish them and I will turn you into a shameful flight. We notice that the devil is always close to us, but the Lord God is even closer to us. He who guards Israel does not slumber or sleep [Ps. 120.3–4]. If my heart is struck by the devil, I am completely defeated, completely powerless, spiritually dead; if my heart is filled with the grace of Christ, if Christ is in my heart, my whole being is at ease and good. This means that the heart is our soul. How much I should appreciate the blessings of Christ, the blessings of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, pouring into my heart. Oh, how glorious is Christ my God in me! How wonderful is the Life-Giving Spirit within me, the Spirit of our Heavenly Father! When others greatly offend you in one way or another and you are indignant in spirit, say to yourself: Jesus Christ, my Lord, suffered not just that, but much more; my patience is insignificant - and pray for your enemies together with the Savior: Lord! Let them go, for they know not what they do [Lk. 23,34]. So you go to church and, apparently, pray to God; another will look at you and say: in everything I see you are like pious [Acts. 17.22]. But isn’t it true that many of you do not pray from the heart, but come to church only out of habit, out of necessity, and pray only outwardly – ​​with your lips? How appearances can sometimes be deceiving! Therefore, it is impossible to conclude from some external signs about the internal movements of a person’s soul. However, with intense attention, it is easy to notice who prays only externally and who prays internally. The internal is expressed in the external. Darken their foolish heart... [Rom. 1.21.] Understanding is attributed to the heart... The crampedness and untidiness of my apartment is a worthy retribution from God for my oppression in my womb and for the uncleanness of my heart. Some holy ascetics deliberately lived in cramped and stuffy cells or caves. It’s good for us to be here [Lk. 9.33]. This is the nature of being with God - during prayer or after receiving the saving Sacrament: we experience good, good - inexpressibly good - so that we would not part with God and would always remain with Him in such a pleasant position. Let us make here three tabernacles 102 [Lk. 9.33]. Heartfelt faith in the spiritual world, especially in the spiritual, all-enlightening and all-reviving Sun, pleases and enlivens the soul that has an immaculate conscience. Faith must reach the vision of the heart. This means that the soul must rise, as it were, above sensuality, above its corporeal, dark nature, and penetrate with the purest vision of the heart into the spiritual world. This is where she feels good, this is where her true life is, her peace and joy. Experience. Imagination and representation are the vision of the heart or soul, creating or reproducing a known object: that is why it is quick, instantaneous, and has a spiritual character. This is a daguerreotype or photograph taken by the soul from a known object. Reason is the painter who takes pictures from this photograph. Having assumed that the heart is the soul, you understand why peace, joy, broadness of heart, faith, hope, and love are of such high and important importance. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you [Jn. 14.27]. Your heart will rejoice [Jn. 16.22]. Passions tear in the heart and tear the heart, and the grace of the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart. What from here? Bring prayers or Mysteries to your heart by faith and close them with faith in your heart: if you don’t convey them, there is no benefit, but only harm. A wonderful creature is the heart. Hypocrites! You know how to recognize the face of the earth and the sky (geognosts), how can you not recognize this time of God? Why don’t you judge for yourself what should happen? [ OK. 12,56–57]. There are many scientists who seem to know everything, but do not know themselves. And it turns out: he will gain the whole world, but will lose his own soul [Matt. 16.26]. What is the use of all knowledge to such a person? - None. Astronomer! Lawyer, agronomist! Physicist, mathematician, philosopher, rhetorician! Turn to knowing yourself first! The action of the evil spirit in the heart is very noticeable when you begin to read the Holy Scriptures, or the works of the holy fathers, or prayers during public worship, during religious services, during home prayer: you read hard, reluctantly, and while reading, you do not understand with your heart; what is read does not fit into the heart, which is occupied by the spirit of the darkness of hell. But soon the word of God, or the scriptures of the fathers, or prayers take on their power, and they drive away the evil spirit, which, seeing our firmness in action, runs away from us. Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me. Jesus... stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him: I want you to be clean... and he became clean [Mk. 1.40–42]. We, beloved, are this leper. Your sins are your leprosy. We, lepers of sins, often come (as we sin) to Christ and, bowing to Him in prayer, we say to Him: Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me. And the Lord mercifully stretches out His hand to us every day, touches our unclean heart, infected with the leprosy of sin, and says to us: I want you to be cleansed. And immediately our leprosy is cleared: we clearly feel it. Come to Him, all of you, like this leper, and say to Him with faith: Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me. God! my servant [glory: my youth] lies at home in relaxation and suffers cruelly [glory: fierce suffering]. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. The centurion, answering, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed [Matt. 8.6–8]. Our soul is this youth: it lies in the house of the body [now] relaxed and suffering fiercely. Let us say to the Lord: Lord! my boy... Just say the word, and my servant will be healed... [Matt. 8.8]. Answer: Go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you [Matt. 8.13]. No matter how strong our faith is, so great are the gifts God gives us; The more alive the faith, the greater the gifts it obtains for us from God: all things are possible to him who believes [Mk. 9.23]. And his servant was healed that hour [Matthew 8:13]. So our soul is healed from sins and passions at a time when our faith is the most solid, sincere, living... when the eye of the soul, cleansed and enlightened by tears, sees God as a merciful Savior, saving us from our sins. Our soul is healed at that very hour when the Lord speaks the word to us: go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you. ... I saw Petrov’s mother-in-law lying in a fever [glory: lying and burned by fire] [Matt. 8:14] - this is your soul, defeated and burned by passions. So the Lord touches her hand and leaves her the fire of passions, and she rises and serves the Lord with a free heart. Behold the Love that took our ailments and bore our illnesses. A lot goes away, but much more comes in. This is how we should think [if] stinginess troubles a heart greedy for corruptible acquisitions. Those who sin, destroy the essence of themselves, their belly [...]. Remember that God commanded the moth to eat your and your wife’s fur coats as a reproof and punishment for your stinginess. Spare nothing from now on. What's that in your mouth? You say: cigar, - and I say: smoking brand. And with these two words, I remember the words of the prophet Isaiah, who, on behalf of the Lord, called two very important people in rank, but indecent in life, smoking brands. How can you not say, and quite rightly, that people who spend their lives only in sensual pleasures are the most exact replica of those cigars that smolder in their unclean lips? So, a carnal man, and your cigar, forever smoldering in your mouth, and you yourself are almost the same thing. You only smoke God's light with your carnal deeds, but do not think about the deeds of righteousness. But remember that people who sow to the flesh are promised eternal corruption in the fire of Gehenna, and you, like raw smut, will be the food of eternal fire. Smoking your cigar and inhaling its smoke, absorb the thought, implant faith in your heart that you yourself will one day turn into an eternal firebrand if you are devoted in this world to the pleasures of sensuality alone. Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels [Matt. 25.41]. The Lady died in body, but even after death she is alive, She saves those who ever call upon Her with all their hearts. From this I am undoubtedly convinced that I too will live after death, just as it is undoubtedly true that the Mother of God is alive even after the death. It’s the same with other saints - and they are alive and save those who come running to them with zealous faith. How many guarantees of my immortality! Although the future life is only in promise, it is as certain as the present. The writings of the holy prophets, apostles and holy fathers are a photograph of their holy souls, or, more precisely, a photograph of the great spiritual Light - God (??? ???? 103). You are the light of the world; you are the salt of the earth... [Matt. 5.13–14.] This light, this salt, is almost absent in the capital. For three hundred thousand Orthodox Christians, there are only sixty churches and two hundred white clergy. A drop in the sea. Great night! Holy night! Saving night! While everyone was sleeping except the shepherds, and no one was thinking about the great event, the Only Begotten Son of God, by whom all things were created, descended to earth. And how he got off! Quietly, imperceptibly, like rain on a mown meadow, like drops watering the earth [Ps. 71.6]. The greatness of heaven does not surround Him, no: He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man [Phil. 2.7 ]; and He does not shine with the unapproachable light of the Divine: He is a weak Child, although He Himself contains heaven and earth; He is wrapped in swaddling clothes; He lets out a cry of weeping like us; He is even in a manger - because there was no place for him in the house: because there was no place for them in the inn [Lk. 2.7]. True, heavenly glory shines not far away: the Archangel announces the gospel, and many armies of heaven, surrounded by heavenly light, appear to the awake shepherds and announce to them what a great and joyful event took place that night! But the King of Angels Himself does not allow them to shine with heavenly light in His manger: He Himself is in humiliation, ours for the sake of salvation - so can His servants surround Him in heavenly glory? If they appeared in heavenly glory to the shepherds, then in order to assure them that the news of the birth of the Savior to the world was brought to them from heaven, it means that the news is true, undoubted. The Son of God came from heaven to earth for us, so that we, who were perishing on earth, could be raised to heaven, to endless life for the joy of the holy Angels. So, brethren, Christ was born - glorify; Christ descended from heaven - welcome; Christ is on earth - ascend and sing with joy, people. Now our Savior has been born - how can we not sing in joy, how can we not triumph, how can we not ascend from earth to heaven? Shepherds worship the Infant God; The Magi rush with gifts to the Newborn and offer Him gold, frankincense and myrrh. What will we bring? Each of the creatures He created brings Him a gift: Angels - singing; heaven - a star; earth - den and manger; shepherding is a miracle; Magi - gifts; and the human race - Mother Virgo. It was then, at birth - and now, with the solemn remembrance of the wondrous birth of the Great Divine Child, what will we bring to Him? So what? (He does not need our material gifts: the Creator of all things does not accept pleasure from the hands of men, because He Himself gives to everyone life and breath and everything [Acts 17:25]). There is no gift from us more pleasant for Him than a pure heart; and since the heart, according to the testimony of the word of God, is our soul, it means that for Him there is no gift more pleasant from people than their pure, faithful, kind soul, responding to love with love, to good deeds with gratitude, to calling with diligent followership. Therefore, now let us be especially attentive to ourselves, to our heart, and let us make it feel with all our strength, with all our strength, all the greatness of God’s love for people, for the sake of which He did not spare His Only Begotten Son, but betrayed Him for them all; let us deepen into our hearts these great words of the Savior about God’s love for the world: God so loved the world, He says, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life [Jn. 3.16]. And we will respond to this love of God with our love. And here is this Son of God, given to us, the same one who, taking the form of a servant (man) [Phil. 2:7] and having become a man like us in every way, he now lies in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Come, people, to this manger and fall down to Him who lies in them and in humility of heart say: You, the Only Begotten Son and Word of God, were called from heaven by our sins and Your immeasurable love for us. We have nothing that we could bring as a gift to You worthy of You: we are Your creatures and everything that we have is Yours; but we know that it would be pleasant for You to receive our heart as a gift from us, we know what You are looking for in us: give me, son, Your heart [Prov. 23.26]. It would be a dear gift for You from us, but few of us have it, even if everyone could, with Your help, bring it to You. So, let us offer Him pure hearts; may a sincere prayer ascend to the Infant God from a contrite and humble heart. So, create in us a pure heart yourself [Ps. 50.12] - and we will bring it all to You as a gift. And besides this, we have no gift for You. And we, for our part, will try, with Your help, to cleanse it from all filth. Amen. Let us earnestly pray to Him, the God of hearts, that He will give us a pure heart, and we will try in every possible way to cleanse our hearts from all sin, from all passion, from all passionate attachment to anything in life, from thoughts of doubt, lack of faith, unbelief, wickedness, and blasphemy. The heart is the eye of man; if this eye is simple and pure, the whole person has light, he walks in the light: he sees all things in their proper light and meaning, uses them in accordance with their meaning, he also sees all people in the proper light and has or tries to have his relations with them always correct - in general, he walks in the light; if it is crafty and unclean, then a person’s whole life is made up of craftiness and all uncleanness: he sees everything crookedly, in a distorted form, does not know the proper price of things and uses them inside out. If your eye is pure, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is evil, then your whole body will be dark (they come from the heart... the eye is evil). So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness?.. [Matt. 6,22–23]. How necessary it is to pay attention to this spiritual eye when educating youth! What do we have? And almost no attention is paid to the heart. But Christians! But we listen to the word of the Lord Jesus Christ very often and we know how much attention He pays to the human heart! Was it in vain that all chosen humanity tried all their lives to cleanse their hearts? Where is our meaning? Educators! Focus all your attention on the hearts of your pupils and pupils: when you enlighten their hearts, then their minds will enlighten themselves; the mind is the herald of the heart; the mind sees what the heart sees first. Why do you think evil [glory: evil] in your hearts? [Matt. 9.4]. If the heart were pure, a person would not have evil thoughts - their beginning is in the heart. Therefore, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God [Matt. 5.8]. Just as it happens with people that the supplicant first sees the person from whom he needs to ask for something, and without this he does not ask (unless through paper - and then he sees him with faith, with the eyes of the heart), so in spiritual matters: before or during prayer, one must see the Person to Whom we resort in prayer, see with spiritual vision - with heartfelt faith. It's simple! How does it happen? They do not see the Face to whom they pray, and with the eyes of the heart closed, they do not know who and do not know what they are asking for. If people are offended by this, then aren’t the holy celestial beings even more so? And this is due to lack of faith and unbelief, which are the offspring of the devil. To the glory of the All-Holy Life-Giving Trinity. On the 27th of December at 10 o'clock in the morning they called me to baptize the baby to the Kronstadt merchant Alexei Konovalov and at the same time announced that the baby was very weak. Having gathered as quickly as possible, I got into the cab's sleigh with the clerk and went to the house of the said merchant. Here he ordered the water to be quickly prepared and the baby carried out. When the baby was carried out, I immediately examined him and found that he was extremely weak and the life in him was quickly extinguished: there was already mortal pallor on his face, his eyes, rolled under his forehead, had no shine and life - the baby fell asleep in mortal sleep, and the whole body began to grow cold. Seeing that only a short baptism could be performed on him, I exclaimed: Blessed is the Kingdom... and then, having read a prayer and poured oil into the water in the shape of a cross, I anointed him, and then took him in my arms to immerse him in the water. Here I was finally convinced that the baby was living his last hours, if not his last minutes: he was all like a piece of meat - no density in any parts of his body. I was afraid that he would die in my arms, but, hoping for the power of the Sacrament, in which the Life-giving Spirit revives our souls, killed by sin and the devil, and is all the more powerful to revive the body - the ministering instrument of the soul, I immersed him three times in water - in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Taking him out of the water and placing him in the hands of the receiver, I heard him scream; Looking into his face, I saw that his eyes and gaze began to visibly clear and a certain liveliness appeared in his body; then, when I anointed him with holy oil, the baby could no longer be recognized: his eyes lit up and shone, his face became animated and blossomed, an extraordinary liveliness appeared throughout his whole body, in all his limbs. The baby looked cheerfully with all his eyes; there was an extraordinary brightness and tension in the light of his eyes - after the darkness of death. Life caught fire in the baby, just as smoldering wood in a stove catches fire when a splinter is suddenly placed under it. It was almost obvious how the grace of the Life-Giving Spirit revived the dying baby. Glory to our God who works marvelously in us! Orthodox! Reverence the holy Sacraments of our Church and, while performing them, stand with humility, faith and hope. Invisibly for you, the Spirit of God descends on the waters of baptism and revives those baptized in them to a spiritual, grace-filled life. The immutability of the Divine laws operating in me in this life assures me of the immutability of these laws after death, as well as those threats and promises that must be fulfilled after death. God is always the same, equal to Himself. From the action of the Divine laws of justice in me, I see how inexpressibly holy my Lord is and that He requires me to be holy like Him. Be holy, for I [the Lord your God] am holy [Lev. 11.44]. In order to reach the resting place of my soul, I must continuously cling to God with heartfelt faith: I fell away and the spirit collapsed. (Experience.) During prayer, we must have such faith in our hearts that it vividly feels the overshadowing of God over us. A person subject to passions, what do you need? Life, you say. What are you fussing about? Because of life. But are you living a true life? Reason and experience force us to say no. So what makes up your life? Faith, hope and love - reason and experience tell me. So, the life of our soul is God, living faith in Him and love for Him and love for people like me. They are the peace and breadth of my heart; Without them I am a martyr of sin, a slave, a slave of passions, my life passes in sorrow and cramped conditions. If God the Father did not spare His only begotten Son for our salvation, but gave Him up for us all [Rom. 8.32], then what will we spare for a person like us, especially our own, so that he is calm, well-fed, clothed and, if possible, happy with everything? And isn’t it the greatest sin to spare what is necessary for him? Two especially dominant vices among us are shamelessly raising their head: drunkenness and debauchery. Let us defeat them, according to our duty, with the sword of the word of God. Our word will also concern doctors who encourage the latter vice: they, recklessly dreaming of healing the body, kill human souls, and through this they themselves become seducers, who would be better off if they hung a millstone around their necks [Matt. 18.6 ] them and drown them in the depths of the sea, according to the true and wrathful verdict of the righteous Judge. Let us sharpen our sword against them, given to us not for destruction, but for salvation. So, drunkenness and debauchery, stand before us and expose your shameless head to us: we will first expose your purulent, stinking scabs, which you do not see on yourself, and then we will cleanse them. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you [Jas. 4.7]. How to resist an invisible spirit? The invisible One works palpably in our hearts - and we know when he works. When an inner, tormenting passion burns you, resist it, oppose it with faith and love, do not succumb to it with a single thought - and you will resist the devil, and he will run away from you, and after the hardship you will suddenly feel at ease, and you will clearly see that the devil has fled from you. Faith is a sucker with which we absorb heavenly gifts, like an ordinary nipple for a child with which he draws in milk. Marvelous, Lord, are Thy truth, righteousness and holiness: without faith in You, the Invisible, there is no peace and joy for my invisible soul - immutable, unchangeable; I feel bad without faith in You, when I am powerless to force her to believe in You, but I glorify Your fidelity to Yourself and, in my distress, I give praise to You: fickle and changeable - Constant and Unchangeable. By the same measure that you measure, it will be measured to you. Look, measure as you want to be measured. In everything that you want people to do to you, do so to them. For whoever is ashamed of Me... of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed [Mk. 8.38]. Equal for equal. If you want people to act with you sincerely, kindly, from the heart, do the same with them... Sometimes a person wonders why he cannot achieve sincere faith during prayer or when receiving the Mysteries, but it turns out that this is because he is insincere with people. How sincere is he with God? There is no confusion and spiritual sorrow from which the Lord would not deliver me through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother. Glory to Thee, God, glory to Thee, Mother of God! Regarding insomnia resulting from satanic confusion at night; and the confusion is due to the negligence of prayer: he did not bring Christ into the heart, and the devil remained in him. Look: the nature of doubt, suspiciousness and fearfulness in your entire life - both in public service, and in preaching the word of God, and when performing duties, and in home life. Strengthen your faith and trustworthiness. My spiritual life is constantly open before my God, and my soul feels this: it’s like a snail in the sun feels that the sun is baking it. It is also open to the devil. How I cannot make a single hair of mine white or black [Matt. 5:36], and everything with me is done according to God’s command, so in the area of ​​faith I cannot look at things differently, as the Lord and the Holy Church have commanded. In every work you see its creator and the vision of his heart - whether it is pure or not. In the word of God, in the apostolic epistles, in the works of the holy fathers. When there is doubt or lack of faith, sorrow gnaws at my heart until I, through the efforts of my mind and heart, awaken faith in my heart - and then it usually calms down. And all is faith in Christ: without faith in Christ there is no life. The nations put their trust in His name. Christ is our hope. Subject. Develop for teaching. While the people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away [Matt. 13.25]. We often experience this in practice. Just be careless in your spiritual life - now the enemy sows tares in your heart. Woe to the world because of temptations [Matt. 18.7]. Say a word about temptations. A great deed has been done: The sacrifice has been made for us once and for all; God the Trinitarian took care of our eternal lot even before our birth. Glory to the Lord! Fig tree. So the Lord, hungry for our salvation, comes to our soul and, not finding in it fruits worthy of repentance, which it does not bear due to negligence, leaves it with His grace, and it dries up. It will be cast out like a branch and wither; and such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire, and they are burned [Jn. 15.6]. Through God it is very convenient to have communication with everyone - with the Mother of God, and with the Angels, and with the saints, and with all the people on earth, because God holds everyone in His hand and for Him everything is in the palm of your hand. Do you want, for example, a boss to change his unfavorable thoughts about you to favorable ones, pray to God that He will speak good things about you in the heart of your boss, and if you yourself have unfavorable thoughts about him, change them to favorable ones - and be sure that he will change towards you. And they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve full baskets of pieces of bread and the remains of the fish [Mk. 6,42–43]. Lover of God! Do not worry much about food and drink or about silver and gold - God can multiply the insignificant amount of your remains, as in Zarephath of Sidon for the widow's wife or as for many saints. Look: you are ashamed not to know the visits of the Spirit of God. The world does not know and does not see Him, this is not so surprising: that is why it is an adulterous and sinful world; and you must know when His visits occur: He abides with you and will be in you [Jn. 14:17], the Savior said to His disciples. You live by the Spirit of God, you rest, you rejoice spiritually in Him, and not in anyone else! Vision of the heart (inner man). You know how the heart sees quickly, far and clearly (especially objects of the spiritual world). Notice this in all knowledge, especially in spiritual knowledge, where very much is learned only by faith (the vision of the heart). The heart is the eye of the human being: the purer it is, the faster, farther and clearer it sees. But among the saints of God, this spiritual eye, even during their lifetime, was brought to the purity possible for a person, and after their death, when they united with God, by the grace of God it became even brighter and more extensive within the limits of its vision. That is why the saints see very clearly, widely and far; see our spiritual needs; they see and hear everyone calling them with all their hearts, that is, those whose intelligent eyes are directly directed towards them and are not darkened, not obscured during aspiration by doubt and lack of faith - when the eyes of the hearts of those who pray coincide, so to speak, with the eyes of those called. Mysterious vision here! An experienced person understands what is being said. Therefore, how easy it is to have communication with the saints! You just need to clear the vision of your heart, direct it firmly towards the well-known holy face, and ask for what you need - and it will happen. What does the Lord say about vision? He is all Sight – all Light – all Knowledge. He always fills heaven and earth and sees everything in every place. The eyes of the Lord are in every place: they see the evil and the good. [Prov. 15.3]. (Elisha.) If a painful feeling of unbelief creeps into your heart, do not be embarrassed by this, but remain courageous and firm and say to it internally: I despise you, unbelief, and the one who is to blame for yours; I stand on the rock of faith and will not leave it; this stone of faith is my peace and my life, while fearful, cowardly unbelief is anxiety, languor and death of my heart. Having established me on the rock of faith, you enlarged my mouth... Watch carefully that during prayer your heart's eye certainly and directly turns towards God or the saints to whom the prayer is addressed, and does not deviate towards other persons (not saints) and things. When you are slandered and because of this you are embarrassed and sick at heart, it means that you have pride; It is this that must be wounded and driven out of the heart by external dishonor. So, do not be irritated by ridicule and do not hate those who hate and slander, but love them as your doctors, whom God sent you to enlighten you and teach you humility, and pray to God for them. Bless those who curse you [Matt. 5.44]. Speak: they do not slander me, but my passion; It is not me who is being beaten, but this snake that nests in my heart and is reflected in the pain in it when slander is applied; I am consoled by the thought that, perhaps, good people will knock it out of there with their barbs, and then it will not hurt. Thank God for external dishonor - having suffered dishonor here, you will not be subjected to it in that century. He accepted double for all his sins [Isa. 40.2]. Give us your peace, for you have given us everything [Isa. 26.12]. The abbot of the monastery sins gravely if he is stingy in feeding the brethren and visiting strangers, because God never leaves the servants who serve Him, seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness [Matt. 6.33]. So the priest sins gravely, being stingy in his house and not relying on the bounties of the Lord; It is true that God will provide everything necessary for those who serve Him by seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness. Keep this in mind. Do not despise me, shepherd, sheep of the verbal flock; let me, on the one hand, be a person similar to you in everything, with all human infirmities, but, on the other hand, I am exalted above you to the skies, although I consider it madness to be proud of this. I will point out to you the power to knit and to decide, given to me by the Lord; I do not boast about this power, but I will tell you what I can do with you, given to me for creation, and not for destruction, with this power. I will bind your soul - and you will be an exile and a wanderer on earth [Gen. 4:12] all your life, if you do not turn from your evil way; Moreover, if you die without my permission, you will go bound into that age. Yes, I will bind you on earth, and you will be bound in heaven; If I give permission on earth, you will also be permitted in heaven. You have not experienced how difficult the bondage of a priest is: God forbid that you experience it; but you can judge its severity by the fact that if you are bound by a priest, then it is the same as if you are bound by God himself; but it is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God [Heb. 10:31], says the apostle. Oh, what kind of sorrow and distress will strike your heart when the priest binds you. No, I myself am afraid to bind, and I only use my power in extreme cases. Look, sheep of the verbal flock, do not despise me, the shepherd: you are harming yourself incomparably more than me, or, better, you are not harming me at all, unless you cause grief to my heart about your own madness and about your destruction. You wonder how the saints from heaven listen to us when we pray to them. And how do the rays of the sun from heaven bend towards us and shine everywhere, all over the earth? Saints are the same in the spiritual world as the rays of the sun are in the material world. God is the eternal, life-giving Sun, and the saints are the rays of the intelligent Sun. Just as the eyes of the Lord constantly look at the earth and earth-born, so the eyes of the saints cannot help but turn to where the providential gaze of the Lord is directed to the creatures and where their treasure is (their body, their deeds, sacred places, persons devoted to them). For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also [Matt. 6.21]. The mysteries, the Cross, the Sacraments act with their Divine, omnipotent power, and not with your weakness, not with your infirmity: why do you doubt? Offensive to God's omnipotence, God's holiness and immutability. Just do not offend them with unbelief - they are always able to do their work by the hidden power of God, which will not leave them until the end of the world: and lo, I am with you always, until the end of the age [Matt. 28,20]. If your weakness were at work here, then one could doubt that there would be no expected effect, for example, from the cross; but when God acts here, then doubt is inappropriate. Why do they bind their conscience with illegal gains? – They cannot overcome the flattery of wealth acting in the heart. He will cut him up and subject him to the same fate as the hypocrites [glory: he will put his part with the infidels] [Matt. 24.51]. About drunkenness. Say. It will be cut in half like a tree; There are two halves in a person: one is the body, and the other is the soul. Suddenly, the Lord of the House will send an merciless Angel, just as he himself was not merciful to himself, and he will mercilessly torture his soul: whether you like it or not, get out of your sinful, unclean body. But where should you go - at least to repose from the torments of drunkenness during your life: no - to new, terrible torments with the infidels. He will put part of it with the infidels. Doubt is the rust of human good deeds, consuming the heart and taking away much dignity from the deed. For example, you gave alms to a beggar and then doubted whether your alms would have any value in the eyes of God; or you regretted that you gave a lot or gave it to someone who shouldn’t have - it has already lost a lot of value from you. Hypocrite, is the largest portion of your property made up of the alms you give and, in any case, is your sacrifice to God so great that you, malicious and ungrateful, are tormented by doubt and pity? In a good deed, firm confidence is always necessary. Whatever is not of faith is sin [Rom. 14.23]. A rich person should not only give alms, but also give generously - respond to the Lord's bounty with generosity. Giving meagerly, for the smallest coin, is hypocrisy. I will lift up my eyes to the Lord—that is, the eyes of the heart, says David—for He will pluck my noses from the snare [Ps. 24.15]. It is the duty of every Christian to do the same. The spiritual one judges [glav.: vystitsya] about everything, but no one can judge him [1 Cor. 2.15]. Therefore, we can and should challenge both geognosts and astronomers - hypocrites, according to the Savior. Thanks to the Lady, who has now again delivered me from the fiery arrows of the enemy, through my prayer. Glory to Thee, most swift Intercessor! You do not make us wait long for Your heavenly help. The Lord endured everything in the flesh, and He endures everything in me. When He is in me, then about Him, meek and humble, all insults are broken, like a cascade of a waterfall on a stone. Sheep have enemies - wolves; and people’s enemies are mental wolves. A shepherd is needed there, and a shepherd is needed here. He who reaps receives his reward and gathers fruit into eternal life [Jn. 4.36]. What a high purpose of shepherds: the Heavenly Vertogradar appointed them to collect fruits for the eternal belly. These fruits are His intelligent sheep. Golden meeting. Trust completely the word about the resurrection and do not be afraid of its inconsistency: the resurrection will not be accomplished by your weak power, but by the almighty power of Him who bears all the worlds with His word. So that...he who believes in the Son of God may have eternal life, says the Lord, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:40). Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me has eternal life [Jn. 6.47]. Why is living faith required before receiving the Sacrament of Communion and other Sacraments and in prayer? Because the unbeliever makes 104 God a lie [1 Jn. 1:10] and, therefore, internally swears at God’s greatness, God’s truth, God’s omnipotence and goodness. But just as the devil was the first to lie against God, so all those who lie are his children. Do you believe that I can do this? [Matt. 9.28]. Do you believe that from bread and wine I create My Blood? Do you believe that these types of bread and wine are spirit and belly for you, and without them you have no belly? Believe, admit with your heart that this is truly so, and do not slander, do not lie against Me as if this is not so. In these mortal forms of bread and wine - I Myself: in them is My Spirit, united hypostatically with human flesh; That is why they are My Body, just as your soul is in your body. Take up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one [Eph. 6.16]. The truth of these words has been proven and is constantly justified by experience. Believe with all your heart that the Lord is constantly looking at you, look constantly with the eyes of your heart towards the Lord - and the enemy will not be able to nest in you, but will run far away from you. It’s a pity to look at modern education: pupils and pupils emerge with completely dark eyes of heart, without faith in their hearts, without the fear of God, with an inclination towards the gaiety of the world - what will happen? The younger generation is of little use. If you often glorify God’s compassion, be compassionate yourself. Lovers of God! The thoughts of unbelief that reverberate poisonously in your heart are, among the people of this age, ordinary thoughts that have turned into conviction and are revealed in words and deeds. Because your teeth hurt, God is punishing you for your greed. God! How many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me? up to seven times? I do not tell you: until seven times, the Lord answers, but until seventy times seven [Matt. 18,21–22]. Leave, and they will be left to you. You need to remember this firmly and renew it in your memory every day. Keep the commandments of the Lord. I walked in the gentleness of my heart in the midst of my house [Ps. 100.2]. I walk through my kindness [Ps. 25:1,11]. The whole life of the godfather shows that he was extremely gentle. Always have David’s kindness before your eyes so that you can imitate him. The Lord is called gentle, as the absence of any shadow of malice, as endless kindness and meekness! Jonah, who evaded preaching, the storm that arose on the sea as a result of this evasion, and the sea beast that emerged from the abyss of the sea and devoured Jonah, who had been cast down by the shipmen, depict the state of the priest and every believer who deviates from serving the Lord: the devil raises a storm in the soul of such a person; she is embarrassed and agitated by passionate thoughts; The angels leave her under their guardianship and protection, and she is devoured by the beast of the abyss (Apoc.). Jonah, having prayed in the whale, was heard from God and delivered from the belly of the beast: and the believing soul, devoured by the devil for some sin and found in his belly, through prayer to God is heard by Him and is brought out of the very, so to speak, belly of hell and is placed again on the stronghold of God’s commandments. The Savior walks on the waters as on dry land; from this we know who forms solid ice on water and gives us the opportunity to walk and ride on water as if it were dry land. It is He – Jesus Christ – the Creator. Just as our body cannot live unless it is nourished from the plant or animal kingdom, so our soul cannot live a real life if the Spirit of God does not breathe in it: the Spirit breathes where it wants, and you hear its voice [Jn. 3.8]. We constantly notice from experience that it is good for us when we are in agreement with the Divine, and terribly bad when we are separated; it is good when we feel a life-giving force in ourselves, and bad when we feel a deadening force in ourselves. With seven days the Chaldean tormentor furiously kindled the cave of the pious. The devil is for the lovers of God. The existence of ordeals after death is proven by the present state of souls bound by their sins. And the soul wants to be delighted with God, tormented by sins, but the dark forces to which we have sold ourselves through sin do not allow us. Develop. Passions are too deadly to give in to. Strain all the strength of your mind and heart to get rid of them, all the heat of your soul. Have God in your thoughts and heart. He cleansed the visual soul, they say about the heart of the holy fathers. What from here? All food and all drink will turn into pus. Remember. Touch His robe, that is, His image, as if bleeding, and from this you will receive deliverance from the arrows of the enemy. Be attentive to yourself: you often quietly sin against the tenth commandment, wishing for yourself what you see good in others. It is impossible for a priest to ever become poor. Therefore, his house should be open to everyone, and he should welcome everyone. Beware if you are suspicious and slow-witted: the evil one will present your entire situation in a gloomy way and will plunge you into despondency every hour. Cards are useful: friendship is maintained and the person is busy. Extremes are only harmful. But what, taken to extremes, is not harmful? So, wine is not reproachful, but drunkenness is reproachful. Honoring my father, I will endure everything with pleasure. Amen. All bodies contract from cold and expand from heat. It is in material nature. In the realm of the spirit there is something similar to this. There are two spiritual forces that act oppositely on human souls: one is a compressive, numbing force, plunging into sorrow and despondency; the other is one that expands the heart, revitalizes, and spreads joy and cheerfulness throughout the entire being. This is the devil and the Life-giving Spirit. How to explain the involuntary crying of His fans at the tomb of the Savior? The harlot wept sweetly at the feet of Christ. - The power of the Lord's grace. Apparently there is no Christ on earth, but we are His vicars; He does not speak visibly, but invisibly - we must speak visibly on His behalf; He does not apparently threaten sinners with judgment - we must threaten; He does not bind apparently - we bind; He apparently does not allow - we allow; What He would have done visibly Himself if He had been on earth, we do in His non-existence on earth. He gave all his power to the priests. So, listen to us, as Christ Himself, God of gods and Ruler of kings [Dan. 2.47 ]; If you don’t listen, He will condemn you at the Judgment just as much as you would not listen to Him Himself. Are you surprised by this? What is there to be surprised about? If He, in the person of a beggar, accepts alms from willing givers, then in the person of a priest does He Himself not accept obedience? He who listens to you listens to Me [Lk. 10.16]. Eternal fire, gnashing of teeth, undying worm. Eternal coolness, eternal peace and consolation. How much do you need? Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this (food, drink, clothing, other blessings) will be added to you [Matt. 6.33]. Obligationem 105 not suddenly give away. Otherwise they will be spoiled. Behold, beloved, great holidays have come for us: the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His Baptism in the Jordan. Now the baptized Christ walks through cities and villages and says to all people: repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand [Matt. 3.2]. These sweetest words of the Lord are addressed to all of us; He invites everyone to repent of their sins, so that everyone will be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, because without repentance no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes, beloved, sins lead and will lead everyone to hell, to eternal torment, if we do not repent of them, if we do not hate them, if we do not decide to live and do not live according to the will of the Lord! The wages of sin, the Scripture says, is death [Rom. 6.23]. So, look, repent: now the Kingdom of Heaven is closer to us than ever. Amen. Do not be seduced by the satiation of your belly. Death, Judgment, Kingdom of Heaven. May all knowledge related to faith always be as if new for you, that is, always have the same importance, holiness and entertainment. Glass and man 106. What does it mean to seek entertainment? It means wanting to fill with something the inner, painful emptiness of the soul, created for activity and cannot tolerate being idle. Doubt, lack of faith and passions paralyze the human heart - or not, more: weakening it, they still torment it. Do not rejoice when you receive material profit, but rejoice when living faith and holy tenderness visit your heart, when you feel in your heart love for God and for His living image - man, when you have compassion from the heart for the suffering. The Kingdom of God and His truth are more valuable than all material blessings. May Your people not stand in Your church, thin and cold - may their hearts burn in Your church. Burning in the Spirit [Rom. 12:11], may they work for You! A person has enough strength for a goal, like any animal. Develop. The winds blow and lean on the church, that is, evil spirits against human souls. The inevitability of this; it is necessary to stand on the rock of faith. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are my life, my breath, my peace and my joy. An evil spirit, settling in my heart, undermines my hospitable feelings, my sincerity and love for guests - and where does it not set a snare for me? In every good deed, in intentions, in words, in thoughts. Notice. Be a master and not a slave of your property. Parents and educators! Protect your children with all care from being capricious in front of you, from becoming angry, from breaking in front of your caresses, otherwise the children will soon forget the value of your love, infect their hearts with malice and early lose the holy, sincere, ardent love of their hearts, and upon reaching adulthood, if they do not change their habits through education, they will bitterly complain that in their youth they were cherished too much, indulged in the whims of their hearts. Caprice is the germ of heart corruption, the rust of the heart, the moth of love, the seed of malice, an abomination to the Lord. The lovely, insignificant, false, ghostly web of demons before and during communion of the Holy Mysteries and the heart disease that comes from its touch - do not count it at all, laugh at it. Don't be cowardly. Be as strong as a rock in your faith; say: what I do is true, what you suggest is false; I don’t want to agree with you and the moment of my thought - you are a lie, a murderer, a thief. The whole trouble is that you are afraid of his remorse; let him gnaw: don’t be afraid, he won’t eat. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [Matt. 5.3]. In the first place, the Lord placed the commandment about spiritual poverty as the most necessary for the salvation of man, as the foundation of all virtues. Just as pride is the basis of all sin, so humility is the basis of all virtue. Prayer is based on humility: whoever considers himself poor in spirit runs to God for everything, asks Him for everything, believing firmly and unfeignedly that everything is from Him and that a person has nothing of his own - no reason, no other abilities, no strength of bodily strength, no other bodily benefits. Humility is the basis for resorting to the prayers of the holy Angels and holy saints of God, who have acquired high humility, rich in poverty, as having an abundance of spiritual gifts, poured out on those who resort to them with faith and love. Is my service acceptable? While serving earthly rulers, they are often preoccupied with the thought of whether their service is pleasing to their rulers, whether they please them in everything, whether they are serviceable before them, and are extremely concerned about their serviceability before them; but, serving the Heavenly King, they think little, no more, and do not think at all whether their service is pleasing to God, whether they do everything as it pleases Him; they do not experience what the will of God is, good, acceptable and perfect [Rom. 12.2]. Bad! Always have a weapon ready within you against the spiritual enemy, who at all times strives to paralyze the soul with various arrows. Look: I am saving you from murderous sorrows, and not anyone else. The lover of God knows what a blessing it is to cleave to the Lord and from what sorrows the Lord saves him. If the creations of saints or other people have survived to our time, then aren’t their very creators still living? If the work exists, then doesn't the producer exist? Creation exists – isn’t it even more so the Creator Himself? Beloved! You couldn’t help but notice that all the strength is in the heart: the heart is easy - and the whole person is easy, good; the heart is heavy - and everything is bad; but you can find this lightness only in faith and, therefore, especially in the Church, as the place of faith par excellence. Here God touches your hearts with His cleansing grace and gives you to wear His good yoke. Here is a great secret that everyone should know. With a light heart, a person is ready to run, jump, gallop. That is why David galloped, playing in front of the ark of hay. If you want to ask God for some good from God through prayer, then before praying, prepare yourself for undoubted, strong faith and take remedies in advance against doubt and unbelief. It’s bad if, during the prayer itself, your heart becomes weak in faith and does not stand in it, then don’t even think that you will receive what you asked God for, doubting. Because you insulted God, and God does not give His gifts to an insulter. Everything, said the Lord, if you ask in prayer as a believer, you will receive [Matt. 21:22], and, therefore, if you ask unbelievingly or with doubt, do not accept. If you have faith and do not doubt [Matt. 21:21], He also says, then you can move mountains; This means that if you doubt and don’t believe it, you won’t do it. Let him ask with faith, without hesitating in the least [glory: hesitating nothing], says the Apostle James, let him not think and hesitate to receive anything from the Lord. A man with double thoughts is not steadfast in all his ways [Jas. 1.6–8]. A heart that doubts that God can do what is asked is punished for doubt; it painfully languishes and is embarrassed by doubt. Do not anger the Almighty God with even a shadow of doubt, especially you, who have experienced God’s omnipotence many, many times. Doubt is blasphemy against God, a bold lie of the heart or a spirit of lies nestling in the heart against the Spirit of truth. Fear him like a poisonous snake, or not, what I say is: neglect him, do not pay the slightest attention to him. Remember that God, at the time of your petition, expects an affirmative answer to the question He internally offers you: do you believe that I can do this? [Matt. 9.28]. Yes, you must answer from the depths of your heart: I believe, Lord! [Mk. 9.24]. And then it will be according to your faith. May the following reasoning help your doubt or unbelief: I ask God: 1) an existing, and not just an imaginary, not a dreamy, not a fantastic good, but everything that exists received being from God, because without Him nothing began to be that began to be [Jn. 1:3], and, therefore, nothing happens without Him, what happens, but everything either received existence from Him and according to His will, or it happens and is done by allowance through the means of His powers and abilities given to creatures by Him. And in everything that exists and happens, the Lord is the sovereign Ruler; Moreover, He calls the things that do not exist, as if they exist [Rom. 4.17 ]; This means that if I asked for something that does not exist, He could give it to me by creating it; 2) I ask for the possible, but for God [even] our impossible is possible, which means there is no obstacle on this side, because God can do for me even what according to my concepts is impossible. Our misfortune is that our faith is interfered with by myopic reason, this spider that catches the truth in the nets of its judgments, conclusions, and analogies. Faith suddenly embraces, sees, and the mind reaches the truth through roundabouts; faith is a means of communication between spirit and spirit, and reason – the spiritual-sensual with the spiritual-sensual and simply material; that one is spirit, and this one is flesh. All the blessings of the soul, that is, everything that constitutes true life, peace and joy of the soul, comes from God! Experience. That's what my heart tells me. You, Holy Soul, are the Treasure of the good. Having Christ in your heart, be afraid lest you lose Him, and with Him the peace of your heart; It's bittersweet to start again. The efforts to cleave to Him again after falling away will be difficult and will cost many bitter tears. Cling with all your might to Christ; acquire Him and do not lose holy boldness before Him. When we die, then centuries will fly by for us like days, and will soon bring us closer to the terrible Day of Judgment, the entire network of time (net) will quickly be woven. You look at the icon of the Savior and see that He is looking at you with bright eyes - this looking is a sign and image of the fact that He really looks at you with His clearest eyes of the sun and sees all your thoughts, hears all your heart desires and sighs. An image is an image: in features and signs it represents that which cannot be written or signified, but is comprehensible only by faith. Believe that the Savior always looks at you and sees you all - with all your thoughts, sorrows, sighs, with all your circumstances - in full view. Behold, I have engraved you on My hands; Your walls are always before Me [Isa. 49:16], says the Lord. How much consolation and life there are in these words of the Almighty Provider! So, pray before the icon of the Savior as if before Him Himself. The lover of mankind is inherent in it by His grace and with the eyes written on it, as if looking at you; His spiritual eyes see in every place [Prov. 15.3] - that means on the icon; and with the hearing depicted on it, he listens to you. But remember that His eyes are the eyes of God, and His ears are the ears of the omnipresent God. Experience. The saying is true that fasting is a benefit for the soul, and satiety is the death of the soul. How many times have I experienced that, having eaten heavily, I was always almost the prey of the devil due to the relaxation of my heart or its aggravation by gluttony; and in moderation - he was always cheerful in spirit and sober in thought, with internal attention he avoided the machinations of the enemy. The tyrant Satan cruelly abuses people because they forget Christ the Savior, the conqueror of the devil and death, and do not ask for His help; scolds those of little faith, unbelievers, drunkards, adulterers, envious people, misers, haters - and how cruelly he tyranns them! What can a person be likened to under the tyranny of the devil? I will liken it to a damp tree branch, whose fibers are bent by hand along and across in a spiral, in which there is not a single fiber standing straight, in its usual natural position. In many branches these fibers are torn or broken due to the action of extraordinary, destructive force; for others, they are only curved, depending on which of them are hard and which are soft and flexible. So the devil bent and perverted all the powers of our soul and did not leave in it a single ability in its natural, primitively correct position. He continues to do this even now, using strength and cunning for this purpose and taking advantage of the weaknesses of everyone: and some of the people, being rude, harsh and unkind, break under the yoke of his temptations; others, being soft and skillful due to experience, bending in different directions, happily withstand its oppression and then, with the assistance of God’s grace, straighten up again. About the custom of opening the royal doors in case of difficult childbirth. A wonderful custom. If the gates of human life are difficult to dissolve, then we must resort to the extensive opening of the gates, in which the Hypostatic Life Itself so often appears, and in this opening to contemplate the easily opened wombs of the Mother of God, who gave birth to the Head of our life, Who passed from Her womb, preserving Her incorruptible and unharmed. So, just as the holy gates are opened for the salvation of the people of God, so let the falsehood of the servants of God be opened for their salvation and the new life that appears from them into the world. If you want God to give more heartfelt faith to your prayer, try to say and do everything with people with all your heart and do not at all be double-minded with them; when you are straightforward and trusting with people, then the Lord will give you straightforwardness and sincere faith in relation to God. The Lord inconveniently accepts someone who is not straightforward with people in prayer, making him feel that he is insincere in his attitude towards people, and therefore cannot be completely sincere in his attitude towards God, without spiritual suffering. There is a slight smell of malice in the heart, the soul is already indignant and becomes unworthy of God. What is needed is perfect kindness, perfect kindness of the heart, not irritated by anything, not darkened by anything, and not bound by malice. We should cry because for the most part we pray to God insincerely. Sinner, far from God! Realize in the depths of your soul that you are unhappy, and pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked [Rev. 3:17] spiritually, - and you will see with your own eyes how grace will touch your heart: tears will flow from your eyes, and suddenly you will feel so good, in such closeness to God! The trouble is that our hearts are proud and covered with the darkness of pride - they do not see their poverty and wretchedness and still want to do without the Lord. That is why we fall from sin to sin - because the Lord is far from us; but humble yourself, feel with all your heart your poverty and damnation, and call on the Lord for help - and suddenly you will come to life, you will rejoice, you will be at peace. Come to Me... and I will give you rest [Matt. 11.28]. Always remember that while you live, you are not at all safe for a minute from the spiritual enemy - the devil, who is constantly looking to devour you, and the Lord saves you only by your faith. Every thought of unbelief already paves the way for the devil into your heart and gives him the opportunity to act in it to your destruction; I’m not talking about the fact that every movement of passion, whatever it may be, also makes its way into your heart. You are ready, due to your weakness, to strengthen it against yourself every minute, and although your Savior is omnipotent, he seeks your faith for your salvation. Do you believe that I can do this? [Matt. 9.28]. But the devil pulls out faith with effort, like a dog snatches its tasty morsel. I am a living statue of my God, wisely arranged by Him and revived by His breath. Remember this every person and know your Creator with all your heart; know Whom you should constantly thank, Whom you should glorify, Whom you should turn to in your spiritual and physical needs. Don’t be your own idol—don’t idolize your strengths and abilities, your beauty, your wealth. Remember that the statue will turn to earth, and the spirit will return to God for judgment. In well-intentioned writings of people, respect the light of Christ, which enlightens every person coming into the world [John. 1:9], and read them with love, thanking the Light-Giver Christ, who endlessly sheds His light to all who are zealous. You are our red sun, Most Pure Lady! You are all light and there is not a single dark spot in You! After a severe physical illness, for example, after a severe toothache, the deeper and more peaceful the sleep is. So after the greatest sorrows of the righteous, deep peace will come. I passed through fire and water, and brought you to rest [Ps. 65.12]. Satiety and drunkenness are voluntarily imposed fetters, which you do not notice when you put them on, due to the pleasantness of food and drink, but which have a serious effect when you are already dressed. The earth is a spinning top. The unbelievers say in their hearts: Who will ascend to heaven? - in order to bring Christ from there for us [Rom. 10.6 ], for our salvation: He is so high, inaccessible; who will go down into the abyss? - in order to raise Christ from the dead [Rom. 10.7]. But the Holy Scripture puts such questioners to shame with the assurance of Christ’s perfect closeness to us as the omnipresent God: The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart... if... you... believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved [Rom. 10.8–9]. Just believe in your heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead - and you will be saved. There is no need to send for the Savior to heaven or to the abyss of the dead: He is near you (that is, the word of faith that you preach [Rom. 10:8]). What convenience! There is no need not only to ascend to heaven, but also to cross any space; there is no need to swim across not only the sea, but also any river: the word is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart. When you think about the air that surrounds the whole earth and fills everything, at the same time you always think about the Holy Spirit, existing everywhere and filling everything (imagine at the same time that this air is full of the powers of the air - the spirits of evil in the heavens, which also scurry about our sinful earth everywhere and act evilly everywhere, looking for someone to devour [1 Pet. 5:8]). The air is some semblance of the Spirit of God: you hear His voice (breath) [Jn. 3.8 ] (surrounded by it on all sides), you live in it, move, but do not see it. It was not in vain that the Spirit of God appeared to Elijah the prophet in a thin voice of coldness. You need to know when the Spirit of God comes to you and when the evil spirit comes. Just as a body cannot live without air, so the soul cannot live without the Spirit of God; For this reason, air is everywhere, and the Spirit of God is everywhere. Establish, O Lord, the Church which You have acquired with Your venerable blood. (On the wall.) Run in every possible way to harmonize with the devil. Why would Satan fill your heart? We know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews [Jn. 4.22]. By receiving communion unworthily, I become weak in both soul and body. If you overcome a feeling of anger or some kind of passion, [it] is both good and easy; or you will say to the Lord, having already sinned: this is what evil I thought, wished, said, did; I know that this is evil and disgusting to You, I repent of it with all my heart - and again it’s easy: the Lord will look at the repentant heart and forgive. So we learn to succeed in good and avoid evil. Deepen love in your heart as much as possible. In any case, try to do this. You know in advance the machinations of the enemy, what they will touch on on a certain day, especially on deliberate days of fasting and holidays; in advance, triumph over him in the name of Jesus Christ, not allowing your heart to be darkened by the darkness of the devil, despondency and fear. On the wall: Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, overseeing it not under compulsion, but willingly and godly, not for vile gain, but out of zeal, and not lording it over God’s inheritance, but setting an example for the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory [1 Pet. 5.2–4]. And you can visit your flock with a word of edification, deliberately, if necessary, and with the holy cross on special days, and you have seven such days - general and church holidays - in a year. Rather than remaining silent when visiting parishioners with a cross and getting away with only empty, memorized phrases: how is your health, how did you celebrate the holiday? Isn’t it better to offer edifying questions like the following: have you entered into the essence of the holiday? All holidays remind us of eternal salvation in Christ Jesus. Have you considered it your duty to celebrate the holiday with spiritual, childishly simple-minded joy? Do you remember God's benefits and have grateful feelings towards the Lord? Are you trying to love God with all your heart? You must love Him first of all in your neighbor - this is the beginning of love. Do you mean the unknown of the hour of death; Are you trying to be ready to answer at the Last Judgment of Christ? Do you care to live in such a way as to give a good answer to this terrible test of all people? Have you forgotten, while living in prosperity here, about the life of the next century; whether God's order has been perverted; have not made real life the goal of their existence, whereas it is only a short preparation for that endless life? Don't put the bottom up. Attend God's church. Say often in your heart: I sin most of all against the sincerity of faith and love. Confirm, God! The prayers were composed by the saints according to the crying needs of their hearts. The Lord would not allow them to lie and insincerely ask for what they ask for in them. He allowed them to be exposed to many weaknesses so that they would not become proud and judge others. Remember often the wise rule: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good [Rom. 12.21]. Achieve such purity of heart that you constantly see God before you, like David. The Spirit of God, which originally hovered above the waters and laid the embryos of creatures, could not help but impart a certain share of intelligence needed by everyone, sufficient to preserve and maintain their life. That is why we see this rationality in everyone. From the pupils, whatever they may be, it is first necessary to form faithful sons of the Church, and then useful servants to the Fatherland, because the main purpose of man is for heaven, for eternity; and also because if they were not good Christians, then they would not be useful, selfless servants of the Fatherland. O flesh! It prevails everywhere (and in education). Everyone find out: who are you and what do you need? You don’t know who you are and what you need, but it seems to you that you know. Human! Where is your life, its center? I'll tell you: in the heart. Examine with your inner eyes the internal phenomena of the soul: you will see in it very often the Manifestation of God; You will see in yourself, in your heart, the wisdom, justice and goodness of God’s government. You will see how fickle you are and how unchangeable the Lord is; how you are always sinful beyond measure and how He is beyond measure holy, righteous, long-suffering. If you are upset that others stink in your home, then remember how you stink with your sins before God. Wherever I am, as soon as I lift my heart’s eye in my sorrow to God, the Lover of Mankind immediately answers my faith and prayer - and the sorrow now passes. He is near me at all times and at every hour. You just don’t see, but you vividly feel Him in your heart. Tribulation is the death of the heart, and it is a fall from God. The breadth and calmness of the heart with living faith in Him proves more clearly than day that the Lord is always with me and He lives inside me. What intercessor or Angel will deliver us from sins or sorrows? No one but one God. That is experience. When my heart is open to God by faith, then I feel good; when it is closed by unbelief, it is bad. Unbelief is spiritual death, coming from the devil. Know that the inner fire is the devil. During the Divine Liturgy, immerse yourself entirely in thought and heart in the mystery of the Lord and in His love. What is the name of the one who gives life? - Spirit. There is a Spirit who gives life [Jn. 6:63], says the Lord; so your soul is called so because it animates your body. And the Secrets revive the whole person: both soul and body. This means that in the Mysteries is the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ the Giver of Life, His Holy Spirit and the Father. The words that I speak to you are spirit and life [Jn. 6.63]. Never despair of defeating the devil: the almighty force is with you. It is a sin to despair of victory over him, no matter what this victory concerns; despair is blasphemy against God, the all-good and all-powerful. Always win! If we pray daily and from the heart, then we do not allow sin to nest within us, and if we do not pray from the heart or at all, then we give it power within us. The one who falls on this stone will be broken [glory: crushed] [Matt. 21:44]. It is constantly justified in practice. The heart is painfully crushed by lack of faith in the Lord or His commandments. Do not despair, fornicators, adulterers, predators, thieves: for everyone there is hope in the Gospel. In me the devil sees, hears, smells deceitfully; he paralyzes all of me - my whole soul and my whole body; then it will burst into the fire of voluptuousness in my hearts, then with the destructive flame of passions, then with crafty laughter, then with despondency, sorrow and fear; then it weighs on my heart and suppresses faith in God in it, does not allow me to pronounce the words of holy prayers and deprives me of all reverence for the Supreme Being. Notice, beloved: before the Sacrament of Repentance, the devil tries in every possible way to steal from you - [to take away] all consciousness of your sins. Your flock greatly needs your prayers. This need is too obvious for those who have an enlightened heart [Eph. 1.18]. The mental wolf does not sleep and looks for opportunities to catch the unwary and often grabs sheep with its teeth; and the sheep are mostly inexperienced, they do not know that their mental wolf is catching and actually catching them, they are not familiar with the manner of its attacks and with the methods of struggle. Pray for them, pray fervently, as you pray for yourself when this wolf bites you. Adulterers! With what eyes will you look at your parents, cursing over that seed from which you yourself grew, and at that door of life through which you yourself entered the light - at the desecration of God's holiness, wisdom and goodness and at the trampling of the laws of the eternal, all-powerful God? (Adultery is closely related to non-observance of fasts, binge eating and drunkenness.) The adulterer crawled into the world without getting stuck at birth and suffocated; he won’t crawl into the future life, but will get stuck in eternal torment at the second birth - at the resurrection of the dead. Like air in a glass, so is the soul in the body. At proskomedia and during holidays, remember the saints with zealous faith. We remember them, and they remember us. In fact, if we, being evil, remember them, then they, being good, will not remember us? They will certainly remember and pray for us to the Lord of all. The resurrection of the dead will be in the blink of an eye. How do they say that it took many periods for the formation of the world? Man - the small world - was created on one day, and all people will also be resurrected on one day; Why couldn't the whole world be created in a few days? To ask like that, to ask, or to pray like that, to pray, - and not be: not cold... below burning [Rev. 3.16]. If in a dispute about something with others, others defeat you with a clear presentation of the truth and you are upset by this and angry with that person, then you are a true Pharisee and a hater of Christ. Always love the truth as Christ Himself, no matter in whose mouth it may be, even your enemy. Rich! Atone for your iniquities with righteousness: unjust profit or unjustly collected property - with generous alms to the poor, and then you can hope for salvation. Otherwise you will not be saved. If your brother, who causes you harm, lives dissolutely, attract him to you with love and good advice, so that, seeing your virtue, he will be captured through it. But if you hate him and push him away with your hatred, you will do very badly. So that God does not seek his destruction at your hand. Woe to me from the unworthy (with doubt) acceptance of the Holy Mysteries: the evil culprit of unbelief, remaining in my heart and receiving strength from my unsteadiness in faith, begins to unbearably burn my insides with his fire; from this fire an unusually strong heat spreads throughout my entire blood and its abnormal condition: there is a rush of blood to my head - it all burns, especially my face, which is why I have toothaches. Woe is me! Woe is me! I am weak in spirit and body. But it serves it right! How gloriously You have become glorified in me, O Lord, in Your most pure Mysteries! How often have all my bones and my whole being said upon communion: Who is great God, even as we are our God; You are God, work miracles in me! [Ps. 76,14–15]. In the most pure Mysteries, the Lord so closely and sincerely joins the essence of bread and wine, as our soul does to our body and blood, and makes them His true Body and Blood. Just as my spirit lives in my body and in my blood, so in the bread and wine, or in the Body and Blood of the Mysteries, lives the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ; just as He creates my body, so He creates His Body, only mine - from the seed of the father in the laboratory of the mother, and His - from wheat bread and wine by the artistry of the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the Life-Giving One. Remember your last, and you will never sin [Sir. 7.39] (remember your death, hell and kingdom). I live only by prayer. This is my life when I pray. Make sure that there is nothing at the bottom of your soul: be all pure, all light. For those who do not believe the obvious truth, Satan sits at the bottom of their heart. The suggestions of the Guardian Angel are easy to notice for those who are attentive. Sometimes, amid spiritual relaxation and darkness, a bright thought suddenly shines, strengthening the soul in faith, guiding it in the holy work of prayer or in another good deed. We will measure the dignity of our prayer by human standards, by the quality of our relationships with people. How are we like with people? Sometimes we coldly, without the participation of the heart, out of position or out of decency, express to them our requests, praise, gratitude, or do something for them; and sometimes with warmth, with the participation of the heart, with love; or - sometimes feignedly, sometimes sincerely. We are just as different from God. But it’s not necessary. We must always express praise, thanksgiving, and petition to God from the bottom of our hearts; one must always do every deed before Him with all his heart; Always love Him with all your heart and hope in Him. You begin to do something good (for example, pray), and suddenly a painful doubt appears in your heart and interferes with this deed. This is a sure sign that your work is pleasing to God and you need to do it with full confidence in its holiness. Painful doubt is a sign that the devil does not want this matter and is setting intrigues for you. When, due to lack of faith, your inner fire burns you, beware that it does not turn into hellfire and burn you all. Then quickly strain your faith and prayer. It is good for me, Lord, for You have humbled me, so that I may learn Your justification [Russian: statutes] [Ps. 118.71]. And you humbled me through the Right Reverend Metropolitan Gregory, my Master, and rightly so. I, having previously been lifted up by praise, became proud imperceptibly and strongly, and so the Knower of the Heart commanded to beat my soul, to heal me with the bitter methods of dishonor, and deigned to water me with tears in moderation. [...] and he sent the devil against me to swear at me, to show me my ultimate powerlessness, my insignificance. Glory to You in all things, Lord! Before my eyes, two trees of pride were crushed. Do not prematurely indulge in the whims of those who are extolled with praise: this often unnoticeably prepares them for the danger of falling, giving them a sweetened pill. The pleasures of a man who is cured of his weakness by humiliation. Love one another diligently from the bottom of your heart [1 Pet. 1.22]. Parallel in the increase of vice and virtue. Vice takes root in the soul and grows gradually until it finally becomes a great tree, falling on a person with all its weight and killing him temporarily and eternally. It is good if such a person is still admonished by God’s visits, but woe if he is not admonished. Example of Judas. The passion for love of money in Judas grew gradually over the course of his three years with Christ, until it finally matured to the last degree and burst out in betrayal of the Lord. It is said that after this piece Satan entered into him [Jn. 13.27]. Satan had always been with him before and fanned the flames of passion, but he did not want to be attentive to himself, resist it and became spiritually united with Satan (one of you is the devil [John 6:70]). Notice how pride grows in the boy and the pupil: it begins from careless praise of parents, relatives, bosses and mentors and at first is expressed by self-pleasure; then contempt for less capable comrades (he puts their abilities and deeds at nothing); then he gradually loses due respect for his superiors and begins to gradually neglect them and disregard their orders; until, finally, nothing great remains for him on earth, and as if he alone was great. Here a terrible fall awaits a person, and God grant that the Lord does not allow anyone to do this, but with the bitter methods of punishment, mental or physical, drives out the spirit of pride from within. We sometimes see good, pious people suffering internal sorrows and internal punishments that are incomprehensible to many; in this case, let us glorify God’s goodness and God’s wisdom, which heals them temporarily so that they do not perish forever. But woe to those whose pride is humbled by nothing. They will be the children of the devil [1 John. 3:10] and they will be tormented with him forever. If we see the proud, overthrown from their places and cast into a low lot and suffering dishonor, let us glorify the goodness of God, which does not want the sinner to die, but to be converted... and he will live [Ezek. 33.11]. A lesson for educators: do not lavish praise on young men recklessly, so that they do not dream of themselves and their hearts do not become infected with pride, but just let them feel a little bit of their advantage over others to encourage them, and point out other virtues in the less capable that are not found in the most capable. Virtue also grows imperceptibly until it finally becomes a great tree, in whose branches the birds of the air, that is, human souls, find peace and pleasure in their spiritual creations or in their life, their invisible intercession (in prayers). All saints are like this, especially the great ones. Our soul is like a stream in the earth, which is open to the flow of clear and muddy waters - from opposite sides; or that the fire is in the stove, open to the action of external air or closed from it; either air in a scanty vessel or light in the same vessel. The devil fills him with his turbidity, or darkens him with his smoke (foul breath), or falls upon him like a storm (the winds blew and lay down [Matthew 7:27]), or covers him with darkness. Develop. Truth and trifles (lies). When there is faith in your heart in God and in all His truths, then it is the truth, but when there is doubt or unbelief, then it is a trifle, a lie, and do not pay attention to them; when love is from a pure heart, then it is truth, and when there is dislike, disinclination, irritability at the actions of others, or (what is worse) hatred, envy, stinginess and other similar things, then it is nonsense, a lie, and do not touch them with your thoughts alone. What is blues? Infatuation with dark thoughts brought into the soul by the devil. Spiritual death. For example, an angry, envious, money-loving person lives, but only in appearance, but his inner man has died: he is internally tormented, has no peace, no joy. The wicked shall not rejoice, says the Lord [Isa. 57.21]. The unrighteous will become agitated and almost [Russian: calm down] will not be able to [Isa. 57.20]. This internal, most painful agitation is terrible. And now, when they say: he is excited, they express by this a very abnormal, unpleasant situation of a person. Sins that are not cleansed by repentance and not washed by the Blood of the Son of God will in no way allow the sinner into the Kingdom of Heaven and into communion with God. The evil one will not dwell with You; The wicked will not abide in Your sight [Ps. 5.5–6]. We learn this truth from experience here on earth. Anyone who has even the slightest malice in his heart towards someone, despite all his efforts, cannot unite with God in prayer: he calls on God - and He does not respond to his voice; and in general, a person who has some kind of passion in his heart cannot here in any way unite with God, even if he wanted to, to find freedom and peace from his passion in God - and this until he hates it and heartily repents of it. If this happens here, then, of course, it will happen there too. (And now the Lord is not far from each of us [Acts 17:27].) What does light have in common with darkness? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial? [ 2 Cor. 6,14–15]. Those who wish to partake of the life-giving Mysteries! Be afraid to approach these Mysteries of love and peace with anger towards someone or having any worldly passion and attachment in your heart: You will receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, but Christ will not be in you, and you will accept it as condemnation for yourself; after communion, Satan will enter into you, whom you serve heartily with one passion or another, just as Satan entered into Judas after communion at the supper - a truth that is confirmed not only by the word of God, but also by countless experiences of people of all ages and places. Why do we see many who often go from the Chalice of Christ to the cup of wine and get drunk with it; Why do we see many Christians, soon after communion of the Holy Mysteries, as thieves, robbers, drunkards, adulterers, unbelievers, blasphemers, persecutors, haters, envious people, lovers of money (and so on) - devoted to all sorts of passions? From unworthy communion. Otherwise Christ would live in them and produce in them the fruits of good works. This is certain. This means that there are many unworthy participants. Bitter truth! Terrible truth! Saints are trumpets that convey God’s mercies to us from the ocean of God’s grace. How do the saints see and hear us? How do you mentally see, for example, your parents and mentally talk with them? This is in the body; and they are without a body. You can know at what point prayer is pleasing to God and at what point it is not. The heart is a herald. It is a sin to think that the words of your prayer remain in vain and are uttered to the wind. Very sinful. We must believe that God hears them and gives them according to the desire of the praying person’s heart. God is an all-good, omnipresent Father, faithful in His words. And He said: whatever you ask in prayer in faith, you will receive [Matt. 21,22]. Ask, and it will be given to you [Matt. 7.7]. Do you have enemies - pray for them, for their reconciliation with you, to God. His power is above all; through your prayers He is able to enlighten them too, to win their hearts towards you. If they do not reconcile due to strong anger, His will be done. Just don't be angry with anyone. The imperfection of the present life and the expectation of a perfect life. Dream. There was some dead man. We were at a loss about the speed of his death. Some man, resolutely and firmly pointing at those present, said: you will die soon, and you, and you... and there was me and my former comrade Rusanov. Rusanov began to tell me: well, when we move into that century, I will be your servant in writing: after all, you write well and there will be a place for you. And I, according to the instructions of the Guardian Angel, began to speak and then seemed to write down: in that century there will be neither a letter, nor a word, nor any other deed that characterizes our temporary life. Writing, or types 107, as well as words, are earthly means for transmitting thoughts and feelings and various states of the immortal, invisible soul, and this refers to the imperfections of temporary life: all animals and even inanimate objects speak in their own way: How many ... different words are there in the world, says the apostle, and not one of them is without meaning [1 Cor. 14.10]. The heavens tell the glory of God, creation... 108 [Ps. 18.2.] But the imperfect must be abolished and the perfect come. Therefore, we must rejoice when a Christian, who was here a good son in Christ of the Heavenly Father, passes from this life to another: he passes into the most perfect, most blessed life, or into true life, since this life is a life of material images and shadows, prefiguring future blessings. Doubt is the devil’s wall, or fortress, separating our heart from God. Woe to those who doubt: through doubt, the stronger and longer it is, the devil becomes more and more strengthened in the heart. And is doubt anything other than the slander of the devil, a lie that creates God Himself as if untrue, or distrust of one’s own powers, which in fact are quite sufficient to say or do anything in the matter of faith? The devil is a liar, all lies come from him; Christ is the Truth, and from Him is all truth. Glory to the Cross of the Lord, which drives away my spiritual enemies! February 2, 1860 There was a fire in my chest - the kindled arrows of the evil one, burning my insides, and the sign of the cross extinguished it. The Lord's Last Judgment is like a real one. Almost all prayers are permeated with the thought of the Last Judgment. Why is [the Last Judgment] associated with the prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem? There is no Jerusalem as it was under Christ. Everyone sees this clearly, and that should be clear. The word of my God is the truth, then from the word of God I see, from the fact that not one jot goes in vain; I have experienced it countless times; I see this all the time. Thin painted iron crowns were served today at the wedding. He looked at them slyly and smiled slyly. The devil misled me, a difficult one, and I lost peace of heart and the grace of God - and the fire of the evil one touched me. God! Forgive my sins. Thank the Lord with all your heart when you perform any service worthily. Great is the mercy of God to serve God worthily, and it is sent to those who are zealous for worthy service. What sweetness, what bliss for the heart of that person who worthily serves the Lord! Those who serve the king of the earth do not feel as good, in such delight of heart, in which those who worthily serve the King of Heaven feel. O all-blessed King, Source of bliss for our hearts! Grant us Your mercy - to serve You worthily and in worthy service to You to find our bliss. Amen, amen, amen. The righteous soul kisses God with its heart; just as a sinful woman is united with the devil. It's so clear. Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorified in me with power [Exod. 15.6]. About flesh and spirit. An evil spirit entered human flesh through the sin of the soul and infected it with its breath (drive out of it every evil and unclean spirit hidden and nesting in its heart). That is why there is so much disorder in it, that is why people are poor in all kinds of spiritual gifts. Hold on to the feet of the Savior - you will not perish. And I myself strive to always have an immaculate conscience... [Acts. 24.16.] Conscience is a book: bad thoughts, desires, words and deeds must be blotted out, and good ones inscribed; the judgment will be according to this book. God feeds you daily with His Flesh and Blood - will you refuse your brother daily food? You call God our Father: Our Father; How can you not love or hate your brother? Truth prevails over everything (most powerfully). Communicate with doubt, without a living, heartfelt faith of the life-giving Mysteries, and you will burn with a terribly scorching flame and groan painfully - until you cry out your heartfelt unbelief, until you believe with all your heart that this very is the Most Pure Body, and this very is the Most Pure Blood of the Savior. Just as life lies in faith, so death lies in unbelief. Faith in the existence of God is closely connected with faith in the existence of one’s own soul as a member of the spiritual world, and to the pious soul the existence of God is as obvious as one’s own existence, because with every thought, good or bad, desire, intention, word or deed, corresponding changes occur in the heart - peace or anxiety, joy or sorrow, and this is due to the action of God of spirits and all flesh on it [Num. 16.22], Which is reflected in a pious soul, like the sun in a drop of water: the purer this drop, the better, the clearer the reflection; the more unclean, the dimmer, so that in a state of extreme impurity, the blackness of the soul, reflection stops, and the soul remains in a state of spiritual darkness, in a state of insensibility: a person has eyes and does not see, has ears and does not hear. Also, the Lord God in relation to our soul is the same as the external air in relation to the mercury of a thermometer, with the difference that expansion and contraction, rise and fall of mercury occurs due to changes in the state of the atmosphere, but there God remains unchanged, eternally good and righteous; the soul, changing in its relationship to God, suffers changes in itself, [therefore] it inevitably expands, rests in the heart, as a result of approaching God through faith and good deeds, and inevitably shrinks, worries, languishes, burns, as a result of its distance from God through lack of faith, disbelief in the truth of God and illegal deeds. Just as a person often feels a disease (hemorrhoids) in the burning sensation of the back, that is, of the spinal column or veins, so he feels the touch of the devil in the burning sensation of the chest and entrails; it is extinguished by a saving sign, especially with the utterance of the words of the God of spirits: in my name they will cast out demons [Mk. 16,17]. The evil one tries to scatter the prayer like a mound of sand (he wants to make words like dry sand, without connection, without moisture, that is, without warmth of heart). Prayer is sometimes a church on an arctic fox, sometimes a church on a stone. Those who pray without faith, absent-mindedly, with coldness build on the sand; such a prayer falls apart on its own and does not bring any benefit to the one praying. Those who build on stone have their eyes fixed on the Lord throughout the entire duration of prayer, and pray to Him as if alive, talking with them face to face. The word of grace (the writings of the holy fathers, prayers), especially the word of the Hypostatic Word Himself, is truly living water: flowing water, and the word flows like water; water refreshes and revitalizes the body, and the word of grace revives, penetrates the soul with peace and joy or tenderness and contrition for sins. The spirit of love (spirit of the fatherland: child) does not bind pastors and parishioners, but separates the spirit of self-interest. Respect us, the servants of Life, before Whom we so often intercede for you. When you are persecuted in this city, flee to another [Matt. 10.23]. If the devil persecutes you in one mental city of truth, run to another; truth has many cities, and all are firm: just know how to stay in them. Why do you not condemn yourself before the Last Judgment, filled with all untruth: wickedness, unbelief, malice, envy, stinginess, pride, condemnation, zeal, anger, greed, satiety, gluttony and other abominations? Condemn yourself diligently, with all your heart, sigh, beat your heart, shed tears, so that the Lord does not condemn you. Listen - the evil one often merges with you, with your soul, and tries to make all your prayer words insincere and feigned, undermining faith in what they mean, preventing you from feeling their truth in your heart. This wickedness is painful, painful, and murderous! He, the evil one, tries to introduce insincerity in his dealings with people. ABOUT! How it paralyzes our entire soul! How much work is needed to cleanse the heart from satanic leaven! ABOUT! How the tares butt the heart, growing in it continuously, gigantically, in our poor sinful soul, like the roots of an excised cancer (disease). God! Help me tear out sin. The heart is a thermometer: if it is warm through faith and love, then God is in it; if it is cold due to lack of faith and lack of love, there is no God; the heart determines the degree of our approach and distance from God. Yes, our soul is a real living thermometer: it either falls or rises, depending on whether the Life-giving Spirit of God is in it or whether it has withdrawn due to the sins of man and a killing, numbing spirit has taken up residence in it, that is, the devil, which is expressed more by the coldness of unbelief and various passions. Our hope of receiving what we ask for during prayer is based on faith in the goodness and generosity of God, for the God of mercy and generosity and love for mankind is God. At the same time, we remember the previous countless experiences of goodness and mercy both on other people (in the Holy Scriptures and in the Lives of the Saints) and on us. Therefore, for the success of prayer, it is also necessary that the one praying has already received what he previously asked for and firmly believes in it in his heart. Often through our prayer we receive what we ask for, especially requests for the salvation of our souls; we must attribute this directly to the Lord, to His grace, and not to any chance. Where can chance be given place in the Kingdom of the Sovereign God? Without Him, nothing truly happens, no matter what happens, just as without Him nothing could have happened [Jn. 1.3]. Many do not pray because it seems to them that they have not received any gifts from God through prayer, or they consider prayer an unnecessary matter: God, they say, knows everything before we ask, and they forget what is said: ask, and it will be given to you; seek...knock... [Matt. 7.7.] Our petitions (prayers) are needed precisely to strengthen our faith, by which alone we are saved: by grace you have been saved through faith [Eph. 2.8]. Oh woman! great is your faith [Matt. 15.28]. This is why the Savior forced the woman to ask earnestly, in order to arouse her faith, to strengthen it. Such people do not see that they do not have faith - the most precious asset of a Christian, which is necessary like life, that they create a lie about God through unbelief and are the children of the devil [1 John. 3:10], unworthy of any mercies of God, that they are perishing. It is also necessary that the heart burns during prayer with the desire for spiritual blessings, love for God, clearly contemplated by the heart in His extreme goodness for the human race and ready to listen with Fatherly love to all his prayers. So if you... how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him [Matt. 7.11]. How can we look at the fiery torment of the enemy after he craftily tempts us and we are defeated by him? “They are charged to us for the cleansing of our sins and together constitute retribution for our lack of faith, through which the enemy overcomes us. When it burns, say: if you burn, you will go away; the proud man does not tolerate this and leaves when this is said firmly. My future crowns are as certain as my struggle with the enemies of my salvation is certain, as my sorrows in the struggle and my tears are certain. The sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us [Rom. 8.18]. May this comfort you. Watch your heart all your life and look closely and listen to it: what prevents it from uniting with the all-blessed God. Let this be the science of sciences, and with God’s help you can easily notice what separates you from God and what brings you closer to Him, unites you with Him. This is evidenced by the very heart, now united with God, now rejected from Him. Most of all, the evil one stands between our hearts and God: he alienates God from us with various passions or the lust of the flesh, the lust of desire and the pride of life. God, as the eternal Truth, does not tolerate even a moment of doubt in us about the truth. God, as eternal Goodness, wants all people to be saved and to achieve the knowledge of the truth [1 Tim. 2.4]. And we, as children of the good God, must also from the bottom of our hearts wish everyone, even our enemies, salvation and take care of this. A majestic sight, beloved brethren, now appears before our eyes. We see the Divine Infant Jesus Christ and the elder Simeon in the church; We see that the Baby is in the arms of the old man - but who is holding whom? One holds the other, and the Baby holds the old man more tightly than the old man holds the Baby with old hands. The Child holds with His word the entire universe and Simeon himself, as the Creator and Giver of Life; holding, it is said of Him, all things by the word of His power [Heb. 1.3]. And the Divine Son, the Child, is represented as speaking in one of the songs sung today: It is not the old man who holds Me, but I who hold him: for he asks for forgiveness from Me. Let go, calling, the slave, Master, I have seen You, my Savior. [Warning]. The devil will use to his advantage all your weaknesses, all your infirmities, all your passions, just to shake you in your faith, to tease you, to laugh at you in solitude and in front of others, so that, if possible, to seduce others through you. During prayer, the mind and heart of the person praying must themselves produce good thoughts and feelings, so that ready-made prayers should only lead them to their own feelings, for example, gratitude and praise, or requests for their special needs. Prayer should be the spirit and belly for the one praying, so that everything comes from the soul, from her life, from her needs, so that she does not say unnecessary words to God, that is, words that were not prayed, so to speak, from the soul, from her needs. Remember the commandment: as you want people to do to you, do so to them [Matt. 7.12]. People are not bottomless wells. You wonder why a passionate person does such stupid things. He is blind - he does not see his nonsense. Do not laugh at him, but have pity on him and, if possible, admonish him, turn him from the error of his path. Let all sorrow (heart irritation) ... and anger and blasphemy be taken away from you along with all malice [Eph. 4.31]. Malice or any other passion, settling in the heart, strives, according to the indispensable law of evil, to pour out. That is why they usually talk about an angry or angry person, that he took out his anger on this or that or took out his anger on that. This is the trouble with evil, that it does not remain only in the heart, but tries to spread outward. From this it is already clear that the author of evil is himself great and has a vast area in which he reigns. The whole world lies in evil [1 John. 5.19]. Just as vapors or gases, having accumulated in abundance in a locked place, tend to erupt out, so passions, like the breath of the spirit of malice, having filled the heart of a person, also strive from the individuality of one person to spill over to others and infect the souls of others with their stench. The devil is eager to flow into the soul like a muddy, dirty, poisonous stream. It’s a disaster if it flows in: until the soul spews out this poisonous dirt in tears, it will not rest. And this dirt is doubt about the immutable, lack of faith, disbelief, anger, envy, hatred and other passions: irritation, impatience, grumbling, mental blasphemy. The devil will make your life cramped, and you will walk along such a narrow path, as if through a narrow crack in a mountain; it will constantly darken your mind, oppress your heart, forcing you every minute to sin, to some kind of passion. And here you will have to fight his attacks on God’s truth and defend the treasure of your faith, which is constantly plucked from your heart. Living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the memory of Him closes the entrance into our hearts for the devil; doubt, lack of faith and unbelief, passions open the entrance to his heart, and he painfully enters it and takes possession of it. If you promise, fulfill. This rule is sacred for every Christian, but especially for you, a priest. You are a servant of the God of truth, who has either fulfilled everything he promised or will certainly fulfill. Not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until everything is fulfilled [Matt. 5.18]. When you receive it, be sure to thank it. God doesn't like ungrateful people. An ungrateful person is insensitive and unfaithful. The evil one has closed our eyes, tied us hand and foot, and we, the servants of God, serve in a manner contrary to God, more and more swearing at God’s service. We see that the devil is depicted as fiery. This is taken from the essence of the matter: eternal fire is prepared for him, and he is definitely on fire; when he touches a person, while the fire burns his insides. I do not boast inwardly about observing the actions of the evil one within me, for who can boast in revealing the actions of a thief who is constantly stealing from within himself? Who is proud of his misfortune? Who boasts that his house is on fire and he knows that it is on fire? When reading spiritual books, water your heart like a lip, without skimming through the content of the reading with your mind alone. Such reading is of very little use - the heart remains empty. Just as during prayer it is necessary that the prayer come directly from the heart, from the need of the soul, so when reading one must listen with one’s heart to what one is reading. Christ, introduced into the heart by faith, will sit in it with peace and joy. It is not for nothing that it is said about God: Thou art holy, and restest among the saints. The world is nothing more than embodied ideas, that is, intuitions. If ideas are embodied, then what is surprising if God the Word Himself, the Creator of everything visible and invisible, was incarnate? What is surprising if He transforms, transubstantiates bread and wine into His most pure Body and His most pure Blood? In this bread and wine, the Son of God is incarnated not again, because He was once incarnate and that is enough for all the endless ages, but with the very body that was previously incarnated, in the likeness of how He multiplied from the five loaves several thousand - Christ our God was gloriously glorified! There are many secrets in nature that my mind cannot comprehend even in things, but things exist with their secrets. So in this Sacrament of the life-giving Body and Blood there is a mystery for me, just as bread and wine are made by the Body and Blood of the Lord Himself - but the Mysteries of the Body and Blood actually exist, although it is incomprehensible to me. My Creator (I am His poor one, or the Lord created me from food and drink and put the spirit in me), like the wise, infinite, omnipotent God, has many secrets; I am a mystery to myself, like the work of His hands. For my soul is the Spirit of the Lord; for my body - His Body and Blood. Let everyone who prays affirm his hope of receiving what he asks for in the following words of the Savior: ask, and it will be given to you [Matt. 7.7]. So if you... how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him [Matt. 7.11]. To priests accepting confession: do not judge by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment [John. 7.24] (for judgment is the work of God [Deut. 1.17]). Let us not tilt the scales of God arbitrarily; Let us be righteous judges, not unduly condescending to human weaknesses and not opening the door to bitterness and despair with excessive severity. Just as the soul carries its body, so God carries the entire universe, all worlds; the soul fills the whole body, and the Spirit of the Lord fills the universe [Wis. 1.7 ]; only the soul is limited to the body, although not completely, because it can be carried everywhere, and the Spirit of the Lord is not limited to the world and is not contained in the world, as in the body. A great person is a worthy priest - he is a friend of God, a constant executor of His will. If he performs, for example, the Sacrament, he is the direct, closest, immediate executor of His will; whether he baptizes, he fulfills the command of the Lord: walking [Russian: go] ... baptizing [Matt. 28.19 ]; whether he performs the Sacrament of the Body and Blood - he represents His face, he fulfills His word of love: do this in remembrance of Me [Lk. 22.19 ]; whether he teaches, he also fulfills His direct commandment; whether he shepherds - represents himself as the Good Shepherd and the Chief of the shepherds appointed by the Spirit of God. The priest is a great person - he is truly a friend of Christ Himself, the King of Heaven: You are My friends if you do what I command you [John. 15.14]. But every priest must remember that what makes him a worthy shepherd, teacher and priest is his living faith in Jesus Christ and love for Him and for His verbal sheep. You are Peter, and on this stone... [Matt. 16.18 ]; do you love me?.. [Jn. 21,15–17]. So, prosper, priests of the Lord, in faith and love. We do not cause anyone to stumble in anything 109 (in any sin), so that the ministry is not blamed [2 Cor. 6.3]. Remember these words, servant of the All-Holy God, who abhors the slightest inclination of the heart towards sin. Strictly speaking, God Himself does not punish anyone, but it is sin and the culprit of sin, the devil, who punishes us. Therefore it is said: Your wickedness will punish you, and your apostasy will expose you [Jer. 2.19]. Untruth will come down on his head. God is Love, God of mercy, generosity and philanthropy. I clearly see the finger of God in my life. But just as he acts in my life, so he acts in the life of every person, in the life of families, nations, peoples, the whole world. This is as true as two and two are four. Why do the saints conveniently and quickly hear us? Because they are one spirit with the Lord, as it is said: he who is united to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord [1 Cor. 6.17]. How high and revered should the holy men of God be in our eyes?! (Zlatoust and others.) This deceased, or this deceased, during her life, like me, recognized herself as a sinner, lamented over her sins that tormented her, and raised her eyes to God, expecting from Him weakening and forgiveness of her sins, and now she needs this forgiveness all the more in order to rest her soul. In this way, enter into her feelings and desires and pray for her with complete sincerity, as you would wish to pray for yourself or as you would pray for yourself. A perfect prayer book does not speak a single word that is not from the heart - and this both in prayer and in all life. For an example of the sincerity of prayer, let us take, for example, the prayers: Heavenly King... Holy God... Most Holy Trinity... and Our Father, with doxology: Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit... centuries. Amen. Do you feel the power of every word and the truth of each?.. When you pray for living sinners, then pray for them in the same way as for yourself. If you see, for example, a drunkard and know that he is threatened by eternal fire, try by all means to snatch him from the fire. So pray for all other sinners and try by all means for their salvation. To that speech, and it was: To that commanded, and it was created [Ps. 32.9]. By one command of God the world came into being. By one command of God, both the Body and Blood are created from bread and wine. To that speech, and it was: To that commanded, and it was created. If everyone prayed truly and received communion worthily, then everyone would be righteous; there would be no adulterers (members of Christ [1 Cor. 6:15]), no predators (Jesus Christ is the incorruptible Treasure), no envious people, no haters, no lovers of money. If everyone saw their sins, everyone would burst into tears, and this moisture would not be enough to adequately mourn all sins. If you did not sigh for the salvation of your spiritual children, then you are a bad shepherd; if you did not rejoice with great joy over the salvation of a sinner and did not grieve over the bitterness of an unrepentant sinner, you are a bad shepherd. Love everyone as your own children. Do you hear what the Church sings about God’s love for us: Thou hast laid down steadfast love for us, O Lord, for Thou hast given Thy Only Begotten Son to die for us. If the Lord takes away temporary blessings, it is more in order to bestow eternal ones. Once ours; the other is more ours; the third - even more. This is the motto and the nature of the demonic machinations over man. Woe to the conquered and the stagnant to rise from defeat! You have abundantly revealed to me, O Lord, Your truth and Your righteousness. Through educating me through the sciences, You revealed to me all the riches of faith and nature and human reason. I have known Your word - the word of love, it penetrates to the division of soul and spirit [Heb. 4.12] ours; studied the laws of the human mind and its wisdom; penetrated partly into the secrets of nature, into its laws, into the abyss of the universe and the laws of circulation; I know the population of the globe, I know about individual peoples, their deeds, about persons who have passed through the world; I partially learned the great science of self-knowledge and approaching You - in a word, I learned a lot, a lot, so that a lot of human knowledge was revealed [Sir. 3.23 ]; and to this day I still learn a lot. I have many books of varied content; I read and re-read them; but still I am not satisfied. My spirit still thirsts for knowledge; my whole heart is not satisfied, not full, and from all the knowledge acquired by the mind, it cannot receive complete bliss. When will it be satisfied? I will be satisfied, never appearing in Your glory [Russian: I will be satisfied with Your image] [Ps. 16.15]. Until then I won't get enough. He who drinks this water (from wise knowledge) will thirst again, and whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life [Jn. 4,13–14]. How do the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let's make a comparison. May you be transported to the sun and unite with the sun. The sun illuminates with its rays the whole earth, every grain of sand on the earth. (In these rays you also see the earth. But you are so small in relation to the sun that you constitute, as it were, only one ray; and there are infinitely many of these rays in it. By its identity with the sun, this ray closely participates in the sun’s illumination of the whole world.) So the holy soul, uniting with God as with the spiritual Sun, sees through the medium of its spiritual Sun, illuminating the entire universe, all people and the needs of those who pray. When selling books, do not rejoice about the monetary profit, but rejoice in the edification that those who buy will receive; Having received money, it is good to give part of it to the poor. If you did this, you would do it very wisely: you would do both spiritual and physical mercy together. But the Lord’s promise is not false: blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy [Matt. 5.7]. It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man [Ps. 117.8], that is, it is good for a Christian, and especially a pastor-preacher, to hope in the word of God, rather than in the word of man (that is, in the works of the human mind, even if they are exemplary); otherwise: we must read the word of God most of all, and exemplary works of people to the extent that they help us to correctly understand the word of God and teach us Christian life and Orthodox dogmas. See that you always have full respect in your heart for whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely... [Phil. 4:8], despite the digestion of the heart by the devil’s fiery breath, which produces in the heart a crafty disregard for the truth and its rejection, recognition of it as a lie. About prayer. About the significance of evil spirits in a person’s spiritual life, and especially in prayer: the obstacles they pose; about the meaning of good angels: their necessity for driving away demons, their efforts, help. Don't be afraid that Satan will overpower you. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world [1 Jn. 4.4], that is, Satan. Remember the words of the Savior in the Lord's Prayer: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one [Matt. 6.13], and then – what? For Thine is the kingdom and the power (and not the devil) and the glory forever. Amen. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord [Prov. 16.5]. Remember this more firmly - and may you be lower than everyone and everything. When, during the communion of the life-giving Mysteries, the devil entices you to doubt them, do not stop at all from his machinations and say to him: I despise your deceit and in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ I conquer your deceit - and with these words consume the Holy Gifts. The trouble is that we are faint-hearted at his slander and regard them as something important. Despise, absolutely despise the lying spirit, the killing spirit. Should you pray to God privately at home, slowly or quickly? In order for prayer to be more lively and energetic, it seems better to pray with haste with the heart, but in such a way that the power of each word is felt in the heart, that is, so that the prayer is the warmth of tenderness, thanksgiving, and praise. But if the heart is dull or cold, then warm it up with slow, intense verbal prayer. Because you did it to one of these... you did it to Me [Matt. 25.40]. You go, let’s say, to visit a sick person: you show this benefit as if to Christ Himself, who bore our illnesses; you bury for free those who died in poverty: you participate in the glory of Joseph and Nicodemus, who took down the body of Christ from the cross and laid it in the tomb. Because of the sincere communion of the God-man with our flesh and blood, everything done by faith in Christ to suffering humanity is done as if to Him Himself. Why is suffering humanity so especially close and akin to Him? By deprivation, suffering - in a word, by the cross. And the Savior was the first and greatest Crusader of ours for the sake of salvation, therefore all the crusaders are His lesser brothers: just as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me [Matt. 25.40]. But he who is spiritual judges all things, but no one can judge him [1 Cor. 2.15]. Why? Because he has the mind of Christ, perfect, bright, while the people of this age have a mind darkened by passions, imperfect; therefore, a spiritual person easily sees shortcomings in the words or works of people of this century, while people of this century cannot expose the words or works of spiritual people for their shortcomings because of the perfection, the correctness of their view of objects. Kutorga 110 considers luxury an innocent matter. How wild it is! Have you learned to envision 111 the Lord before you - as an omnipresent thought, as a living and active word, as a life-giving Spirit? Have you learned to see your soul as a hypostatic thought, always identical, immortal? Holy Scripture is the realm of the Thought, Word and Spirit of the Trinity God: in it He manifested himself clearly. The words that I speak to you are spirit and life [Jn. 6.63 ]; the writings of the holy fathers - here again is the expression of the Thought, Word and Spirit of the Hypostasis, with greater participation of the human spirit itself; the writings of ordinary secular people are a manifestation of the fallen human spirit with its sinful attachments, habits, and passions. In the word we see face to face God and ourselves as we are. Recognize yourself in it, people! Man, you see for yourself, does not die in his word - he is immortal in it and after death he says: I will die, but even after death I will speak. How much of this immortal word is there between people, which the dead left behind long ago and which sometimes lives on the lips of an entire people? How tenacious is the word, even a human one! Moreover, the word of God: it will survive all centuries and will always be alive and active. Since God is a creative, living and life-giving Thought, those who, with the thoughts of their spirit, deviate from this Hypostasis Thought and are occupied with material, perishable objects, thereby materializing their spirit; Especially sinful are those who, during worship or home prayer, completely deviate their thoughts from God and wander in different places outside the church. They extremely insult the Divinity, in Whom our thoughts should be fixed. Kutorga has the idea of ​​fixe 112: the degeneration of creatures (not excluding humans) from earthly and climatic conditions; the disappearance of genera and species of creatures (and humans: one genus is replaced by another, one people by another, the mortality of genera and all humanity) and the appearance of others 113. And he has this in both inanimate and animate nature. The earth has gone through many periods and phases of existence. What do fasting and repentance lead to? What is the labor for? They lead to the cleansing of sins, to peace of mind, to union with God, to sonship, to boldness before the Lord. There is something to fast about and confess with all your heart. The reward will be invaluable for conscientious work. Tell me, perhaps, how many of you have a feeling of filial love for God? How many of you boldly and without condemnation dare to call on Heavenly God the Father and say: “Our Father!” Is it not the other way around: in your hearts such a filial voice is not heard at all, muffled by the vanity of this world or attachment to its objects and pleasures? Is not the Heavenly Father far from your hearts? Shouldn’t all those who have gone away from Him to a country far away imagine Him as God’s avenger [Lk. 15:13 ]? Yes, for our sins we are all worthy of His righteous wrath and punishment - and it’s amazing how He is so patient with us, how He does not cut us down like the barren fig trees? Let us hasten to appease Him with repentance and tears. Let us go within ourselves and examine our unclean heart with all severity, and we will see what a multitude of impurities block the access of Divine grace to it; We confess that we are mentally dead. Give alms without any doubt, sorrow and need (necessity). Do not spoil a good deed and do not cause yourself voluntary torment. God is true: the reward is certain for the giver of alms. Christ Himself accepts her and even in this life rewards her a hundredfold. Amen. The loving Lord is here - how can I allow even a shadow of malice into my heart? May all malice die within me, may my heart be anointed with the fragrance of kindness! May the love of God conquer you, evil Satan, who incites us, the evil ones, to evil! Malice is disgusting to my God, who loves His creation, so let all malice be far from Me. Anger is extremely deadly for the soul and body: it scorches, crushes, torments. Let no one bound by malice dare to approach the throne of the God of love. We can see traces of the spirit everywhere in matter: in not only organic matter, but also in dead matter; in substances not only created by God, but also made by man, for example, in material buildings. For example, look at this house? Is there much room in it for substance as substance? I see traces of the human spirit everywhere here. First, take bricks: after all, each of them has a form given to it by the human spirit; further - each of them is made, it is fired after it is made from clay. Next, look at the building: the house itself was not built from bricks, but people put it together and in this building showed their creativity: who arranged the rooms this way and not otherwise; Where does this convenience come from in their location? How is it heated, how was the smoke allowed to escape freely so that it does not smoke the room itself? How are bricks (cement) connected to each other and how does the building stand firmly without falling apart? What do these windows mean, like eyes through which light passes into the house? Delve well, deeper into this simple matter: you will move from this to the affairs of the great Creator of the entire house of the universe, you will see the spirit of the Creator everywhere in it, in all creatures, and you will not say that everywhere I see matter and nowhere - spirit; you will then see everywhere the expression of the laws of the Spirit. Matter everywhere is only a building tool of the spirit; spirit is everywhere the master of matter. Every house is created from someone, and the Creator of everything is God. Remember: money should always be below you and should serve you or your neighbors in their needs. Therefore, feel free to be hospitable: have fun with your friends and acquaintances; feed the poor, clothe them; serve the sick. May they always be a means to spread the good of humanity: peace, love, joy. Through countless experiences I have learned that you, the bodiless enemy, have a habit during the holy practice of prayer, especially before and during the reception of the life-giving Mysteries, to darken the mind and heart and overwhelm the soul with thoughts of lack of faith. But let your ghostly darkness disperse like darkness. It is known that he is nothing. Why be afraid of him? Kutorg explains the hugs of friends as a result of nerves. Come here. This means that the Blessed Virgin Mary also extended her arms to Elizabeth through the action of her nerves alone - so what! – did the Savior hug children because of the effects of his nerves? God! Pure negation of spirit: everything is matter. They don't even see spirit in the human body. And I, really, see traces of the human spirit in the design of the house. Yesterday Kutorga read about the nervous system. The brain is large, right and left; small - under the large, below - the right and left and the spinal cord. Ashy and white brain matter. Their fibrous (filamentous) structure; bundles, bandaging each; common shell, extraordinary thinness of threads (microscope magnifies); formed balls between the threads (balls from which all parts of our body are formed - blood and various fluids; muscles, bones). Nerves – nasal, optic. Materialism (also the dominance of the flesh over the spirit) is a consequence of sin. When the devil incites you to stinginess, tell him: I believe with all my heart that everything spent on our own, on guests and on the poor is gain for my soul - and for this money I will not give an account to the Lord at the Last Judgment. Prayer is a need for a Christian, like food and drink. Prayer at home and in public. Do not become despondent or impatient because of anything - neither in the flesh nor in the spirit. Doubting the Divine Mysteries, the Divinity and life-giving nature of which you have learned through countless experiences, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit; and this sin, as the Lord Himself testifies, will not be forgiven to man either in this age or in the future [Matt. 12.32]. So, this is why you always feel in your chest, as if a burning fire, contained in your bones [Jer. 20.9], when you doubt the life-giving Mysteries; your sin is too great, like the sin of lack of gratitude and ingratitude before God, who loved us before communicating with us in flesh and blood. Your sin cries out for vengeance and, before actual Gehenna, exposes you to this Gehenna so that you will come to your senses. When your heart deviates into the thoughts of evil and the evil one, as they say, begins to wash away your heart so that it is completely moved from the stone of faith, then say to yourself internally: I know my spiritual poverty, my insignificance without faith; say: I am so weak that I only live in the name of Christ and am at peace and have fun, I am expanding in my heart, but without Him I am dead mentally, I am worried, I am embarrassed in heart; Without the Cross of the Lord, I would long ago have been a victim of the most severe sorrow and despair. Christ keeps me in life; The cross is my peace and consolation. They flatter with their tongue [Ps. 5:10], says David about some people. Look: do you not also flatter with your tongue when you pray? Proud, evil and money-loving people are the devil’s most accessible tools, and through them he does what he wants - and betrays Christ. Protect yourself in every possible way from these passions and be humble, like the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Theotokos; meek and gentle, like David; non-covetous, like the unmercenary. Happy are you if during prayer the Lord punishes you for the slightest insincerity of heart: He leads you to perfect purity of prayer. Shut up: we are all terribly to blame. If here I rejoiced in Him with the joy of faith, then much more then, when His glory will appear, when I come and appear to the face of God. Let's talk about how we can worthily fast, confess and receive communion. You stand and pray to God, who has the understanding of all. How pure should your prayer be? But they restrained Him, saying: stay with us, because the day has already fallen towards evening. And He entered... [Lk. 24,29]. How? Does the Divine Savior yield to coercion? Yes, he is inclined to agree to a strong request. So you, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ as a guest, compel them from your heart to stay with you. The Savior is like a guest. On a full stomach and heart sits the spirit of insensibility. We must drive him away with tears of repentance. God is invisible, my soul is invisible. My connection with Him is invisible. Be careful: the devil plunges you into anger because of insignificant reasons - he achieves great results with trifles. Our souls experience not imaginary suffering, but real, cruel illnesses. And this is where we need a Savior, a Healer of the ulcers of our soul. Don't get carried away by dark thoughts. There is so much good in the world - why dwell only on the bad qualities of people? Always have the conviction that without God you cannot do anything, that you are a lost person. We ask a lot, do you think, in the prayers of the Missal? But He Whom you ask is very great and all-powerful and all-good. Pray without doubt. Read the prayers of the Service Book as an intercessor for people before God. Our whole life is an act of God’s mercies. God is Life and the Father of life; the devil is death and the father of death. The devil steals service prayers from the heart and completely steals them from those who are inattentive. In the liturgy, contemplate the birth, life, teaching, suffering, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The need for heartfelt confidence in the existence of the world of spirits: then faith in the God of spirits and all flesh will be sincere [Num. 16.22], and into existence after the death of human souls. Where there is malice, there is the devil; where there is love, there is God. Let go of your thoughts from your hearts. Heart is soul. A proud man thinks to win with his pride, but meanwhile he constantly loses in everything. Not only God, but also people resist the proud [Prov. 3.34; Jacob 4.6]. When they call you to administer unction to a poor sick person, do not think to yourself, much less say: he will manage without unction, the Sacrament of Repentance and Communion is enough for him, but go immediately and do not neglect the sick person for his poverty; for the Lord there is no difference between rich and poor; Remember that among the sick and poor, especially those who have suffered for a long time, there is refined gold, that is, great righteous people, of whom prayer can greatly benefit the Lord. Having come to the house to perform the Sacrament and seeing in it traces of poverty and destitution: cramped conditions, lack of decoration, dirt - do not say in your heart: everyone here is poor, low, illiterate, and I can perform the Sacrament quickly, briefly, somehow - for our Lord is here and the Angels: yours, the Angel of the sick and everyone who is here - are here and see the face of My Heavenly Father [Matt. 18.10]. Look: they will be witnesses before God of your secret thoughts and your careless performance of the Sacrament. Have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord of glory, regardless of personalities [Jas. 2.1]. When you are called to perform other Sacraments, also do not look at the faces and circumstances of the place and time, but do your work as it should - before the face of God. The saints, having passed away, still live with us, directing our worship, rites of faith, and our lives. Here comes, for example, Lent - and what a turning point in life! Everything is quiet; here, guess what, one dares to show itself insolently - yet the majority silently follows the mania of the Church, that is, the saints of God who have established this or that rule in the Church of God. What about worship? What about the Sacraments? What about the rituals? Whose spirit moves there and touches our hearts? The Lord God and the saints of God. Here is proof of the immortality of the human soul. How is it: people have died, and after death they control our lives; died, and still speak, teaching, edifying and touching us? I am nothing more than a mass of earth, quickened by the Spirit of God. When we pray, beloved, we must certainly take control of our heart and turn it to the Lord. It must not be cold, crafty, untrue, or double-minded. Otherwise, what good does our prayer, our fasting do? Is it good to hear an angry voice from the Lord: this people draws near to Me with their lips, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me [Isa. 29.13; Matt. 15.8]. So, let us not stand in church with spiritual relaxation, but let each one burn in his spirit, working for the Lord. And people appreciate a little those services that we did coldly, out of habit. But God specifically wants our heart. Give Mi, son, your heart [Prov. 23.26]. Because the heart is the most important thing in a person, his life; more - our heart is man himself. Therefore, whoever does not pray or does not serve God with his heart is the same as not praying at all, because then his body prays, which in itself, without a soul, is the same as the earth. Remember that when you stand in prayer, you stand before God, who has the mind of all. Therefore, your prayer should be, so to speak, all spirit, all mind! Another thought. How can the saints of God not live after death? - They live, they live. So I often hear in church how the Mother of God sings Her wonderful song, passing through the heart, which She composed in the house of Her aunt Elizabeth, after the Annunciation of the Archangel; Here I hear the song of Moses, the song of Zechariah, the father of the Baptist, Anna, the mother of the prophet Samuel, the song of the three youths, the song of Mariam. And how many New Testament holy singers still delight the ears of the entire Church of God?! There are moments in the life of a Christian when not a single bright thought shines in your head and does not respond to the call of your soul, and you feel only terrible darkness and confusion in your soul. At this time, a dark force covers the soul. This is where we learn experimentally that we ourselves are not our own, but God’s, and we receive strength from Him. How varied are the temptations of the devil! If you have done some important thing, then he whispers: well, now you can cut yourself some slack, you can let your heart go free - let it amuse itself, let it breathe freely, you have done a very useful thing; Even if you sin a little, your sin will atone for the deed you have done, it will make God merciful to you. And with such cunning ideas he sometimes leads the inexperienced to great sins, for example, to drunkenness. Those who have worked hard often consider themselves entitled to drink a little, but in fact they get drunk; also to adultery, at least internally. Those shepherds who read and read the words and writings of others, but themselves say nothing to the people, act foolishly; they are like bottomless vessels into which no matter how much water is poured, it is all absorbed by these vessels and there is no wait for its return. Meanwhile, they would need to regurgitate the word good from their hearts themselves [Ps. 44.2] for the teaching and edification of the believers. So, shepherds of Christ’s flock, read, speak for yourself, write for yourself. You must, like bees, collect honey from all the products of the human mind, that is, extract what is useful and convenient for your sheep. Your life should be devoted to the good of your flock, just as the life of parents is devoted to the good of their children; All your life you must earn for them this spiritual property, spiritual wealth, on which their salvation depends, and not think only about your own enrichment with various information, about your only multiplicity of learning, for please tell me, what is your wealth, your learning, when your flock is poor, ignorant in the faith, hungry and thirsty? Isn't the closest connection - the connection between a father and his children - between you and your spiritual children? Are you not destroying your soul if you yourself, as they say, are satiated with knowledge, if you are as wise as seven wise men together, and you barely give your children a grain of your rich knowledge, of your wisdom? In addition, stinginess in your spiritual gifts to your spiritual children also leads to suspicion of stinginess regarding material goods. You, probably, regarding these last blessings, are only trying to get rich yourself, collecting silver for silver, gold for gold, but don’t know how to share with those in need? What if so? What if the conclusion is true? If you are not sensitive in the most important things, then you are probably even less sensitive in the less important things. Let us correct ourselves, beloved brothers: let us not spare neither our spiritual nor our material blessings for our spiritual children when there is an extreme need for them, and we will not recklessly ruin our lives and our labors. (See Gregory Dvoeslov. Word to the Bishops.) The devil steals the word from the hearts of men, that is, living faith in the word of God (or in the preaching of another). This happens almost constantly when reading and hearing the word of God or a sermon. Otherwise, why don’t we correct ourselves internally? Why does the word of God, in itself living and active, become ineffective in us? Develop. And how many sacred books we will re-read! It would seem that, having swallowed so much spiritual wisdom, one must be saints, but that was not the case. Why? Because we swallow, not with our hearts, but with a cold mind; because the devil steals everything we read from our mind; but it steals because through reflection and our own activity the word of God is not implanted deeply in the heart, and is not turned into our lives and deeds. Just as breathing is necessary for the body and without breathing a person cannot live, so without the breath of the Spirit of God the soul cannot live true life. What air is to the body, the Spirit of God is to the soul. Air is some likeness of the Spirit of God. The spirit breathes where it wants [Jn. 3.8]. The Lord God as the Cause of thought; We can think because there is an Infinite Thought, just as we breathe because there is an infinity of air space - this is why bright thoughts about any object are called inspiration. Our thought constantly flows - precisely under the condition of the existence of the boundless thinking Spirit. That is why the apostles say: not because we ourselves are able to think anything from ourselves, as if from ourselves, but our ability is from God [2 Cor. 3.5]. That is why the Savior says: do not worry about how or what to say; for at that hour it will be given to you what to say [Matt. 10.19]. You see, both the thought and even the word itself (inspiration) come to us from outside. This, however, is in a state of grace and in times of need. But even in our ordinary situation, all bright thoughts are from the Guardian Angel and from the Spirit of God; whereas, on the contrary, unclean, dark - from our damaged being and from the devil, who always sits down 114 on us. How should a Christian behave? God Himself is active in us [Phil. 2.13]. In general, everywhere in the world we see the kingdom of thought: both in the entire composition of the visible world, so, in particular, on earth, in the circulation and life of the globe, in the distribution of the elements - light, air, water, earth, fire (in secrecy - while other elements are diffused: light most of all; air - very much; water - less, otherwise it would cause harm; earth - even less; fire - even less); in all animals - in birds, fish, reptiles, beasts and humans - in their wise, purposeful structure, in their abilities, morals or habits; in plants, in their structure, in nutrition and so on - in a word, you see the kingdom of thought everywhere, even in a soulless stone and grain of sand. Brethren, priests of the Lord! Serve with compassion, reverence, and do not rush. What do you know if 115 by your reverent address in church you will save the wicked who comes to church? You are instruments of grace; Through one word, spoken touchingly, softly, with sympathy, the Spirit of God can act on the stony heart of a sinner and soften it. Yes, you need to be extremely reverent in the church of God. For the covetous, each new profit brings with it a new, higher degree of attachment to gold in the heart and strengthens the hellish fire of love for it. In order for the criminal fire of attachment to wealth not to burn in the heart, one must squander it generously on the necessary needs of oneself, one’s relatives, and the poor. It is remarkable that in this case the connections of the heart with wealth are greatly weakened; It is also necessary to spend money, willy-nilly, on at least something, for example, on travel or other things. About sin. When you are faced with a temptation to sin, then, beloved, imagine vividly that sin greatly angers the Lord, Who hates iniquity. For you are not a God who wills iniquity [Ps. 5.5]. And in order to imagine this more vividly, imagine a righteous, strict father who loves his family, who tries by all means to make his children well-behaved and honest, in order to reward them for their good behavior with his great riches, which he prepared for them with great difficulty - and who, meanwhile, sees, to his regret, that his children, for such a love of their father, do not love him, do not pay attention to the inheritance prepared by their father’s love, live dissolutely, and are rapidly rushing towards destruction. And every sin, mind you, is death for the soul, because it kills the soul, because it makes us slaves of the murderer devil; and the more we work for sin, the more difficult is our conversion, the more certain is our destruction. Fear all sin with all your heart. Speak and actually do: I strive for what is intended, for the honor of the highest calling [Phil. 3.14]. Pay attention: the Lord expects warm prayers for the people according to the Service Book from you, and not cold, insensitive ones. Woe if you run through them like a holy fool, without comprehending them. Constantly strive for love: walking, standing, sitting, lying down, praying, reading, doing something else; extract from everything the honeycomb of love; turn everything into a reason for love. Help, Lord! On the contrary, drive out dislike from everywhere, especially hatred; Avoid the slightest reasons for hatred. I give a new title to You, Christ: You are mine, for there is nothing closer to You to my heart: as soon as you call on You with my heart, You are already here. There is nothing closer to You for those who pray to You truly, with all their hearts. The rest of my heart is with Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ; but on earth I find no peace for myself in anything; I sometimes dream of resting him in an abundance of earthly blessings, but these blessings, or, better, the slightest attachment to these blessings, terribly torment my heart - I suffer from earthly blessings. The devil flows thoughts into the soul; Likewise, the Guardian Angel – with bright thoughts. Right! If you doubt the life-giving Mysteries in your heart, then you do not recognize the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart as God, as the truth: just as it is certain that God is truth, so it is also certain that His Mysteries are His Body and Blood. It is impossible for God to lie [Heb. 6.18]. He said: This is My Body, and this is My Blood [Matt. 26.26–28] – and it will be like this until the end of the century. On the Week of the Paralytic - about the relaxation of morals. Many types of mental relaxation. Lack of faith - weakened (one who stands poorly in church - weakened in spirit; one must burn in spirit in church); hater and irritable - weakened in spirit; the proud and ambitious man is weakened in spirit; those who talk idle and condemn others are weakened in spirit; the lover of money and covetousness are weakened in spirit; the envious and the stingy are weakened in spirit; those who eat sweetly and eat a lot are relaxed in spirit; drunkard - relaxed in spirit; the fornicator and the adulterer are paralyzed in spirit and body. Leaving other types of spiritual relaxation, let us turn our attention primarily to two types of spiritual and at the same time bodily relaxation - to drunkenness and debauchery, spreading in our city, like a huge flame, scorching with its unclean, hellish fire the souls and bodies of people created in the image of God and redeemed by the priceless Blood of the God-man Jesus Christ. For a long time I wanted to admonish these unfortunate people in the name of God from the church pulpit, but other objects distracted my attention, and now is the perfect opportunity for this. So, in the name of God and the eternal salvation of people given over to these vile vices, I open my mouth against them, and I pray to my God, the Teacher of wisdom and the Giver of meaning, to fill my lips, for it is said: widen your lips, and I will fulfill them [Ps. 80.11]. Here we can talk about how, without a twinge of conscience, people indulge in debauchery at all times, how they consider this matter to be a requirement of human nature, which means an innocent matter. Show the falsity of their beliefs; looking at their work with the eyes of faith - members of Christ [1 Cor. 6.15]. Why does the vice of voluptuousness spread? From intemperance in food and drink, from non-observance of fasts. Expose slander on fasting regulations; imaginary weakness of the flesh (I cannot eat lean). An example from the sacred story about the Jewish captives - Ananias, Azariah, Misail and Daniel, who not only did not lose weight from fasting, but also became more good-natured than those who ate sweets. So I said it out of duty. Now whoever goes without a twinge of conscience into these prodigal deeds, let his conscience punish him; may bodily relaxation befall him, as well as the consequence of mental relaxation; and may the Lord enlighten him through illness in his folly; and may he wash away his sins with tears of repentance. Show how drunkards, as an excuse, are justified by the community and its temptations, by the advice of doctors. An example of how one unfortunate drunkard said that the doctor did not tell him to stop drinking: otherwise he would die. How adulterers refer to doctors' advice. Against examples. Prayer is the golden connection of a Christian man, a wanderer and a stranger on earth, with the spiritual world, of which he is a member, and most of all - with God, the Source of life: the soul came from God, to God and may it come again through prayer. Regarding the benefits of prayer for the person praying: it gives rest to both soul and body; it gives rest not only to the soul of the one who prays (I will give you rest [Matthew 11:28]), but also often to the souls of our departed forefathers, fathers and brothers. You see how important prayer is. Just as smoke from a burning tree goes into the air, so does the soul from a body that has given itself over to the burning of corruption. About prayer in general. What is prayer? Thoughts of the holy fathers on the meaning of faith in prayer: what is faith? The benefit of prayer for a Christian is the improvement of internal and external life. About private (or home) prayer at home and in every place. About church or public prayer. Just as God is spirit and thought, then union with Him must be and happens spiritually, through thought and vision of the heart. This is our bliss, to unite with Him mentally, with the vision of our hearts - but alas! It is His strong evil spirit that prevents us from seeing by flowing into our thoughts and hearts with thoughts of lies. It is something that often comes between our heart’s vision and God—and becomes either doubt in the truth of God, that is, as a lie and a deceitful creator of God, or some kind of fiery passion for something perishable, or something similar. Priests of the Lord! Be able to use the consolations of faith to turn the bed of sorrow of the Christian sufferer into a bed of joy; manage to turn him from the most unhappy person, in his opinion, into the happiest person in the world. Assure him that, having been punished in the slightest, he will be greatly favored after death - and you will be friends of humanity, comforting angels, organs of the Comforter Spirit. ABOUT! How can I depict the state of drunkards and adulterers caught in death without repentance! Their souls would want to return to their body in order to live soberly and chastely in it and earn God’s mercy by correcting their lives, but they will not be able to; They will lament their recklessness and evil behavior terribly, but [it’s too late]! And with what eyes will the soul then look at its body, stinking with the uncleanness of debauchery! In real life they did not see all the ugliness and disgustingness of their vice, but there it will present itself as it is, in all its monstrous form. Then he will see that he has desecrated the ouds of Christ and made them the ouds of harlots; that he corrupted the church of God, which he thought of as his complete property, which he could dispose of at will. Then he will see how absurd all his apologies were, which he presented as some justification for his shameful acts of voluptuousness; then he will curse, but in vain, the comrades of his depravity, the persons with whom he has desecrated himself, the places in which he has desecrated himself; I would want to destroy my sin, erase the memory of it; I would wish that those persons with whom he was corrupted would never be remembered, that the places in which he indulged in vice would disappear - in vain: terrifying images of sin would constantly float before his soul, pursue [everywhere] and torment him. When a person sees with the eyes of his heart his insignificance and the greatest gifts of God’s goodness to him, then he cries with tenderness; also, when he sees with the eyes of his heart the greatness of the Lord and His extreme love for people, he also cries from the consciousness of his poverty and the thinness and unprincipled greatness of his Creator - and those tears are sweet and wonderfully lightening the heart. About masturbation. What pathetic people - onanists! How cruelly the enemy mocks them. They are always timid, fearful, trembling, internally confused. (After confession.) About adultery, about drunkenness. Oh! How everywhere the enemy tyrannizes man! We are sinful people: we ourselves want others to fulfill our will exactly, but we ourselves do not want to fulfill God’s will exactly and do not try. O we, unrequited debtors! Just as wine, even in small quantities, burdens the body with its vapors and agitates the blood, so sin, admitted only in thought and for one moment, darkens the clarity of the soul, deprives it of a premium state and, as it were, imposes some kind of burden on it. Yes, how often do you experience the truth of the Savior’s words: My yoke is easy and My burden is light [Matt. 11.30]. Only with Him does the soul feel good, only with Him is it easy. I saw one brother distributing the Divine Body and Blood to the people of God - and alas! What did I see! Extreme deceit of the heart, extreme deceit of vision of the Holy Mysteries! He treated them so disrespectfully that, it seems to me, with great respect the benefactors distribute ordinary food and clothing to the poor. Oh, evil look! Oh, look more disrespectful! Oh, a look expressing disbelief! God! Do not allow me, a sinner, to be evil in view of Your most pure, heavenly, life-giving and terrible Mysteries. Teach me to always look at them with fear and trembling. Beloved brothers! Take heed... lest any heart of yours be deceitful, filled with unbelief [Heb. 3.12] in Divine Mysteries. The demon himself runs in the eyes of the evil man. Do not seek, do not strive far to seek the miracles of Spasov - these miracles are in you, the greatest miracles: the resurrection of the dead (your soul), the frequent transformation of the fire of the devil into the dew of God’s grace, cooling and resting the soul. How does the truth of God triumph over the lies of the devil and man? Powerful, sovereign, constant. It is guarded in the human heart with fiery scourges, internally punishing the heart that is unfaithful to God’s truth. Without God (without His omnipresence) there cannot be a single movement of my thought and heart: there is an action - there must be a reason; there is a consequence - there must be a beginning. That is why the apostle says: not because we ourselves are able to think anything from ourselves, as if from ourselves, but our ability is from God [2 Cor. 3.5]. God lives, but that is precisely why my soul lives. The cross is my friend and benefactor. Do not look slyly at the words and actions of others, that is, do not interpret everything in others in a bad way, but try, on the contrary, to find something good in seemingly unfavorable actions, especially since do not interpret the words of good people in a bad way. An evil look at the words and actions of others is the work of the devil, the evil enemy of God and men, and one who is accustomed to look evilly at the words and actions of others will look evilly at the objects, words and actions of the priesthood, at the very word of God and the words of the holy fathers, at the internal actions in himself of the invisible God. Beware of deceit in your gaze. Keep it simple. Pray with all your heart and be sure that your prayer will be heard (for example, for the forgiveness of sins); since our heart usually sins, then the heart must repent and grieve for sin. So, today (February 16) I sinned before the Lord by reluctantly and hastily reading a prayer to my wife in childbirth - and after that the sinful thorn pinched and crushed my heart. And so, on my way to church, I made an effort to read the 50th Psalm with all my heart: Have mercy on me, O God - and so what? When I internally spoke the words of this psalm, the thorn of sin came out, and I suddenly felt at ease, and I glorified the Lord, and the scripture was fulfilled on me: call upon Me in the day of your sorrow, and wear you out, and glorify Me [Ps. 49.15]. How faithful the Lord is in His promises! He hears the cry of the heart everywhere and delivers. The priest, praying together with the people, must take all measures to ensure that through his prayer he can breathe into the people a spirit of prayer, and to pray for this to the All-Holy Spirit. When, during prayer or reading the word of God or the works of the fathers, or your sermon (before the people), your heart deceives, distracting your mind from the content of what is offered to your mind and heart, and takes away your self-esteem, presenting you as a moral and physical monster and thereby plunging you into despondency (which the evil one does not do!) - then know firmly that there is an evil demon in you, and immediately concentrate in prayer or reading and don’t pay attention to it. The devil's flame and confusion of heart happen in you when your heart is not established in the Lord and your horn is not lifted up in your God, which is why the devil lifts up his horn in you. That this is true is evident from the fact that when you establish your heart with faith in the Lord, the flame disappears and confusion disappears, and you taste heavenly peace and feel boldness before God. The devil offends or insults us only when our heart is not in God. If we do not kindle the warmth of faith in our hearts, then faith in us may completely perish from negligence, Christianity with all its Sacraments may completely die out for us. The enemy is only trying to extinguish faith in the heart and bring all the truths of Christianity into oblivion. That is why we see people who are Christians in name only, but in deeds they are complete pagans. To such, the Church annually proclaims its formidable word: anathema. During the service, lead the upcoming people into your prayer as lively as possible; he is so undoubtedly entrusted by God to your prayer, just as it is certain that he stands and prays in the same church with you. But remember that your prayer is strong with the prayer of Christ. Fasting! Be afraid of your imaginary righteousness or sinful insensibility, which affects the heart especially before the great Sacrament of Confession and Communion. Don't you find yourself sinners, great sinners? Do you not feel or remember your sins? But if you do not love God with all your heart, isn’t this a great sin, and you love something other than God; If you don’t have living, sincere faith and hope in your heart, isn’t this a great sin? Isn’t insensibility itself a sin—blasphemy against God? If we say that we have no sin... 116 [1Jn. 1.8 .] Ah! We have seen such insensitive people in confession who stood and said nothing, as if they had not done anything criminal. Satan's dirty trick. Fear Satan. This is where the devil wants to destroy all the work of your fasting. There are also those who fast for two, three, or even one day and approach the Sacrament without in the least preparing their hearts for it through prayer with contrition for their sins. For a whole year of sins, for a whole year of separation from God, they don’t want to pray and grieve for four or five days. It is necessary that with the image of the Cross there be a fragrance of faith in the Crucified One - then there will be a sure victory over the devil. Do not think that our faith is not life-giving for us shepherds, that we serve God hypocritically. No, we are the first to benefit most from God’s mercies and we know from experience that for us the Lord is with His Sacraments, that His Most Pure Mother and His saints. For example, when we partook of the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we often, often experienced their life-giving nature, the heavenly gifts of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; We know that the merciful royal gaze of the last of his subjects does not please as much as the blessed gaze of our Heavenly Lord, as His Mysteries do. And we would be extremely ungrateful before the Lord and hardened in heart if we did not tell you about this glory of the life-giving Mysteries, beloved of God, if we did not glorify His miracles in our hearts, performed at every Divine Liturgy! Thus, we often also experience the invincible, incomprehensible, Divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and by its power we drive away passions, despondency, cowardice, fear and all the machinations of demons from our hearts. He is our friend and benefactor. We say this sincerely, with the consciousness of all the truth and power of our words. Students. Students learn to penetrate into the spirit of the lecture, into its essence; through this they must learn to penetrate, like Christians, into the spirit of faith, Scripture, prayers, rituals and lead a spiritual, not carnal life. But that's not the case anymore. About tears. You cry for your sins, but in your tears God sees the tears of Christ, shed for your sins, and has mercy on you. [...]. There is a persecuting spirit, or mental pharaoh, who rapidly drives away our thoughts when reading prayers. We have to be careful. And how he persecutes the people of this century! Prayer should embrace the entire life of a Christian with all his sins, good deeds ([thanksgiving]) and all circumstances; all his times, needs, all states of people - from the king to the farmer, from the shepherd to the last flock. The division is in accordance with this. In serving God, no matter what type it may be (mainly in serving required things), place all your pleasure and happiness. Forget about food for serving God, about home, wife, bodily peace and all the pleasures of life. Do not hesitate to work for the Lord day and night with all your heart. Let the slightest murmur of displeasure not for a moment touch not only your lips, but also your heart (February 28, 1860). Remember that it is worth laying down your life for God. Shouldn't we sacrifice everything for our life, for our peace, for our bliss? If, out of lack of faith and impatience, you ever happen to show impatience and displeasure towards those persons who call you to the work of God (for some kind of demand), quickly destroy this godless impatience with heartfelt readiness (if not, arouse heartfelt readiness) for all demands, at all times, for the demands of all possible persons. If you don’t have time to complete all the requirements - it’s not your sin, then refuse. God of my heart, God of my life, strengthen me in serving You. The devil achieves very important consequences through insignificant means. Christian! Be strong and believe in Christ with all your heart, knowing that without Christ you are the sure prey of the devil. This latter uses all his strength to prevent you from believing in Christ in your heart. And then woe to you. You want to comprehend the incomprehensible, but can you understand how internal, soul-killing sorrows befall you, and find a means outside the Lord how to drive them away? Find out with your heart how to free yourself from sorrows, how to make your heart calm, and then, if necessary, philosophize about the incomprehensible. So, if you can’t do even the slightest thing, why are you worrying about the rest? [ OK. 12:26]. Think more often: Whose wisdom manifested itself in the structure of your body and constantly supports it in being and functioning? Who prescribed the laws of your thought and does it still follow them among all people? Who inscribed the law of conscience on the hearts of all people, and to this day it rewards good in all people and punishes evil? God Almighty, All-Wise and All-Good! Your hand is constantly on me, a sinner, and there is not a moment when Your goodness leaves me. Grant me to always kiss Your right hand with living faith. Why should I go far to seek traces of Your goodness, Your wisdom and Your omnipotence? Oh! These traces are so clearly visible in me! I, I am a miracle of God's goodness, wisdom and omnipotence. I, in a small form, am the whole world: my soul is a representative of the invisible world, my body is a representative of the visible world. Brethren! What is the purpose of our life on earth? So that, after our testing by earthly sorrows and disasters and after gradual improvement in virtue with the help of grace-filled gifts taught in the Sacraments, we may rest upon death in God - the peace of our spirit. That is why we sing about the dead: rest, O Lord, the soul of your departed servant. We wish the deceased peace as the end of all our desires and we pray to God for this. Isn’t it therefore foolish to grieve a lot over the dead? Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [Matt. 11:28], says the Lord. Here are our dead, who have fallen asleep through Christian death, come to this voice of the Lord and rest in peace. Why mourn? Listen: the Lord this night figuratively presented to you the machinations of an invisible enemy and the throwing of fiery arrows into your soul - under the guise of the enemy bombarding a seaside city. Find out who is deflecting many of the enemy’s arrows from you, for many bombs explode in the sea or slip past the home of your soul, and you remain in the middle of the city (among the people) unharmed. These deliverers are Angels: you saw how, under the guise of brave people, they took rolling bombs in their hands and threw them further from your home. Who else are these benefactors? These are the beggars whom you joyfully saw in the church and gave them alms (the beggars were all children - probably the Angels of the beggars). Another savior is your prayer. You did not forget to turn to God in prayer and, opening the Bible, found the prayer of Hezekiah or Esther and cried out to God heartily for help. Learn also from the dream that you are asleep in spirit during divine services, careless (you, while celebrating Vespers, fell asleep at the end and did not finish; Father Matthew came and served himself). Know where the fire rages in your inner beings - it is the enemy, with his fiery arrows. The saints confessed Christ with joy when they were led to fiery bonfires or placed on fiery grates, when their bodies were whittled with iron claws - and you, in the midst of fiery temptations, confess Christ with firmness and joy. As little as possible on yourself and as much as possible on others! Do you only serve God for pleasure? Gratefully endure the finder. Belong to God with all your heart; otherwise you will belong to the devil, and he will scoff at your insincere efforts to please God. Always burn in spirit in serving God, no matter what the cost. The enemy greatly offended me without Christ: he inevitably moves into me and is only driven out by tears. It comes out palpably: as if the tip of the right side of the stomach is pricked - and then suddenly it becomes easy. When you receive communion with doubt and, therefore, unworthily, and your heart is overcome with confusion and fear, according to Scripture, there you are afraid of fear, where there is no fear [Ps. 13.5 ], also sorrow and distress - then do not fall into despondency and despair, but let your first sigh be about the fact that you have angered the infinite love of the Lord and lied about His truth, and not about the fact that you have been destroyed internally and are suffering. This is the most offensive pride for the Lord - to regret your punishment and not regret the anger of Love. On the contrary, rejoice in your suffering, which serves as a sign of God’s immutability (stone), punishing our impermanence and changeability. In fact, the Lord must not stop for us - for our pride, to be unchangeable, to indulge our false heart, which must certainly, according to the law of God's truth, be crushed by falling on a stone - Christ (having stumbled on a stone - Christ). It is said that whoever falls on this stone will be broken [glory: crushed] [Matt. 21.44]. That is why Christ is called a stone, because He is solid and does not change, not like we are weak, changeable, fickle. So all our faith is a stone; He who falls on this stone will certainly break his heart, but the stone will remain a stone. If you, by faith in the Lord, become one spirit with Him, then you too will be a stumbling block for others; but all who stumble over you will be broken, but you will remain (a stone) whole. People who try to lead a spiritual life experience the most subtle and most difficult war through their thoughts; every moment of life is a spiritual war; you need to be a bright eye every moment in order to notice the thoughts flowing into the soul from the evil one - and reflect them; Such people must always have their hearts burning with faith, humility, and love - otherwise the devil’s wickedness will easily take up residence in it, behind the wickedness there will be little faith or unbelief, and then all kinds of evil, from which you can’t quickly get rid of it even with tears. Therefore, do not allow your heart to be cold, especially during prayer, avoid cold indifference in every possible way. It often happens that there is prayer on the lips, but in the heart there is crafty lack of faith or disbelief; It is as if a person is close to the Lord with his lips, but with his heart he is far away. And during prayer, the evil one uses all measures to cool and deceive our heart in the most imperceptible way for us. Pray and be strong; strengthen your heart. Always keep in mind the high dignity of yourself and your flock, as redeemed by the Blood of Christ, and do not lose heart when attacked by invisible enemies. At the head of you and theirs stands Christ Himself. The devil, as the enemy of God and the spirit of blasphemy, tries by all means to tear us away from the inner confession of Christ as God and to distract us from His life-giving Chalice. Be strong. Remember the greatest miracle of bringing you from non-existence to existence - and always be beyond measure grateful to the Creator. If you do not have the spirit of meekness and humility, then weep before the Lord and say: Lord! I do not have Your spirit, the spirit of meekness and humility - grant me this spirit! If you are cold and insensitive to the gifts of God, then say more often: Lord, grant me to always remember the bringing of me and everything that I have and on me, from non-existence into being, namely: the gift of life, and education, and the order of the priesthood, all the graces that I received in the past temporary life and now receive. You bring everything from non-existence into existence for me (in fact, as for me, since I did not have it before): all external blessings and all internal gifts of knowledge, peace of spiritual strength, joy, love. There wasn’t – and there is. So I received the first external reward - and it actually came from non-existence into existence for me; Please do not deprive me of Your heavenly rewards. I have received so many earthly gifts from You. Grant me, when receiving the rewards of spiritual ascent, to believe in my heart: may I ascend with them, as if on steps, to You, the Beginningless One. And in prayer, a person is for the most part not a son of freedom, but a slave of necessity and duty (officium 117). Look at any person, even a priest: how many pray with a free, spacious heart, with living faith and love? Our inner man, from under the vanity of light, from under the darkness of his flesh, not bound by the temptations of the evil one, looks out freely only for a few moments in the morning, upon awakening, like a fish that sometimes jumps to the surface of the water. The rest of the time he is covered in almost impenetrable darkness: a painful bandage lies over his eyes, hiding from him the true order of spiritual and sensual things. Catch the morning hours - these are hours of a new life, renewed by temporary sleep. They point us in part to the state when we will rise, renewed, on the general morning of the non-evening day of resurrection or when we will be separated from this mortal body. Pay attention: just as the punishments for your sins in this life are true, so are the rewards promised to you in the next century. Through the experiences of temporary life, learn how faithful He is who promised. The pitiful state of sinful human nature: they punish for sins (Higher) or for vices and crimes (civil power) a hundred, a thousand times - and yet a person sins. Punishment is bitter, and sin is tempting. O fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, deceiving, deadly fruit. Don’t look at the beauty of a person’s face, but look at his soul; do not look at his clothing (the body is temporary clothing), but look at the one who dresses with it; do not look at the splendor of the house (body), but look at the tenant, who lives in it and what he is like, otherwise you will offend the image of God in man, you will dishonor the King by bowing to His servant, and not giving Him the slightest honor due to Him. Also, don't look at the beauty of the book's print, but look at the spirit of the book; But there are truly people who admire the beauty of the letters and the purity of the printing of a well-known book, but pay very little attention to its content. They sin. The spirit is humiliated, but the body is elevated, because the letters are the body, and the content of the book is the spirit. Do not suddenly be deceived by the melodic sounds of an instrument or voice, but by the impression they make on your soul or by their words, find out what their spirit is: if the sounds evoke quiet, chaste, holy feelings in your soul - listen and feed your soul with them; if passions flow into your soul through them, stop listening, abandon both the body and the spirit of music. When you approach the life-giving Mysteries, to repel the devil’s lies in your heart, say to yourself with all your heart: I am a lie, but here is the pure Truth; also, do not be afraid for a moment of his dreamy confusion and fear, with which he strikes the heart before communion. He who trusts in the Lord is like Mount Zion 118 [Ps. 124.1]. Trust in Him too, and do not hesitate at all. Do not trust your heart when it is angry with your brother and condemns him; tell yourself: I don’t believe you, heart, and I never want to believe, because I know and am convinced that I am a lie. The sons of men are but vanity; the sons of husbands are lies [Ps. 61.10]. I will always be angry with myself, condemn myself for the lies and various evils nesting in me: this will be both useful and fair. Man earns all material goods with effort in order to bring peace and pleasure to his heart; but woe if, because of material goods, he neglects the acquisition of spiritual goods. It is illogical, reckless, blind. Matter and spirit (the human heart) are not related. Peace and pleasure of the heart - God and His eternal spiritual benefits; The heart never rested from material goods; on the contrary, it always felt a new thirst and insatiability. Wonderful things! What no amount of money brings to my heart, the sign of the cross depicted on my heart and a sincere turn of thought and heart to the Lord Jesus Christ or to His Most Pure Mother brings me very comfort! Appreciate wealth after this, collect it by all means, sweat over it. For all your efforts, it will only hurt your heart. Christian! With faith and love, kiss the Cross of Your Lord and bring all of yourself, your whole life, all your labors, all your sorrows and all your joys and all your external blessings to its foot: here is your peace, here is your bliss. When you are called to receive unction and your heart will ache with little faith (and with little faith the heart is fearful and all a person’s actions are imprecise, unsteady, indecisive; words are unsteady, quick and intermittent, the voice trembles) and in bewilderment, as it were, begins to ask yourself: how will the Lord heal such a weak one through my unworthy prayer? - then, to resolve your lack of faith in a living, reassuring faith, ask yourself the following questions: is the watchmaker not able to fix a damaged watch; is the machinist unable to repair the damage to his machine that he built; In general, a master of any craft will not be able to correct the work of his hands that has been damaged by anything and give it its proper appearance? - Of course you will. In the same way, be absolutely sure that the Lord is able to correct or heal a person who is the work of His hands; our body is nothing more than a meager vessel, made by the hand of the All-Wise Artist of God; in this vessel, by the wise will of the Creator, is contained the immortal spirit - His breath, which in the state of its fall carries away its material dwelling - the body - to illness and destruction. Therefore, try to arouse in the sick a sincere desire for the forgiveness of his sins and hope for the omnipotence and goodness of the Lord, who is strong to heal every disease and every weakness in people [Matt. 4:23], and pray yourself with ardent faith, without double-mindedness. About the Cross. What an abyss of love the Creator God expressed on the cross for His creation - man. The Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible - He who shone in the sky the sun, the month and an innumerable multitude of stars, He who poured out the air for the breathing of all living things, Who poured water over the face of the earth, Who covers the whole earth with vegetation and bears fruit, and grows, and nourishes all living creatures - deigned to become a man in order to save a person who fell from life into death, endures for him the most painful sufferings, the very death diarrhea, in order to save him from unimaginable eternal torment in hell and from the second death. A person with a pure heart, undarkened eyes, seeing such endless love of the great, omnipotent God for sinful man, cannot help but cry from the feeling of God’s boundless love and sheds tears of love and gratitude, having nothing more to bring than his tears to the One to whom our tears of love are dear. But how do most of us respond to such love? - Insensibility, readiness to crucify the Son of God a second time with all possible vices. But let's talk about the power of the Life-giving Cross for the sake of Him Crucified on it: it is a friend of faithful Christians. In prayer, do not feel sorry for yourself and always pray with all your heart. Do not spare yourself for heartfelt prayer even when you have spent the whole day in the labors of fulfilling your needs; Do not neglect the holy prayer, tell the Lord everything from your heart: see - it is the work of God. I picked up the tug, don’t say it’s not strong; Having laid your hand on the head, do not look back. If you pray carelessly, not with all your heart, you will not fall asleep (if you pray at night) until you pay off your sin before God. This does not happen to everyone, but to those who have perfected themselves. Look: do not put God above your flesh, but neglect bodily rest for Him. What prayer rule have you undertaken to fulfill (if the prayer rule is long, then fulfill the whole rule well; if it is short, too), fulfill it with all conscientiousness and do not fulfill the work of God with a divided heart [Sir. 1:28], so that one half of it belonged to God, and the other to his flesh. The Lord is avenger on those who do this and humiliate Him. The zeal of the Lord God will not tolerate your wickedness, your self-pity. He will hand you over to the devil - and the devil will not give rest to your heart for neglecting the One who is the true peace of your heart, and will always do this for your own good, in order to keep your heart close to God, because every insincere prayer removes the heart from God and arms Him against man himself; and on the contrary, every sincere prayer brings the human heart closer to God and makes it close to Him. So, believe the word: if you hurry in prayer for bodily peace, so that you can rest faster, you will lose both physical and mental peace. Oh! With what kind of labor, sweat, and tears is it possible to bring our heart closer to God? And again, will we make our very (careless) prayer a means of moving away from God, and won’t God be jealous of this? After all, He pities both us and our previous labors, and He wants to force us to certainly turn to Him again with all our hearts. He wants us to always belong to Him. (Let us assume that you were previously close to Him in heart for the sake of constant sincere prayer or communion with undoubted faith of the life-giving Mysteries. But if you prayed double-mindedly, carelessly today, then you have already moved away from Him. Even the vagueness of your heart will tell you about this.) Let us also assume that you read the rule before communion not with all your heart, but coldly, without penetrating your soul with its magnificent, touching content - you have again withdrawn from God and from His most pure and life-giving Mysteries, and be afraid that you will partake of them with the same double-mindedness, which means unworthily, as a judgment to yourself. In general, when you take up prayer, pray with all your heart and be neither cold nor hot [Rev. 3.16 ], but certainly burning. The Lord creates various bodies from the earth - grass, trees, fish, birds, animals, humans. He transforms the same earth (wheat bread), transforming it into His most pure Body, and wine into His most pure Blood. Oh, the mercy of God! He has been pleased to perform miracles in our sight to this day! Do you like that person who looks at you incredulously and, in your opinion, assumes in you something that you are not, that is not in you? If, for example, you do good to him with all your heart, and he suspects you of the sincerity of your intentions; what if you are telling the truth and he thinks you are lying? You rather turn away from him, because it’s unpleasant for you to look at his questioning glances. If you sometimes look at the most pure Mysteries with distrust, questioningly - what does it feel like for the all-perfect, all-holy Lord, faithful in all His words, and how will He look at you? ABOUT! He will turn His eyes away from you this hour. That is why the distrustful have torment in their hearts, that is, because they offend the Lord with distrust, and the Lord turns His face away from them. For the slightest movement of impatience and anger, the grace of the Lord leaves the priest before the Liturgy and the leader of evil - the devil - enters into him. Then the priest must use all his strength to mourn his sin or sincerely repent of it, otherwise he will perform the liturgy and receive communion unworthily. If there is fire in the right side, it means that the devil has entered the heart and is burning it; if on the left, it means that from feelings of repentance and heartfelt contrition for sin, he is on the way to the exit: he enters with his right, exits with his left. What's so strange about the fact that a demon is hiding in the washstand? And we prayed at the Sacrament of Baptism: may the dark demon not hide in the font water. The Christian, with joy and full consciousness of the Divine power of the Lord and His Cross, says the prayer: May God rise again, and His enemies be scattered... Rejoice, Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, drive away demons by the power of our heated Lord Jesus Christ... The majestic importance and consciousness of his high dignity shines on his face then, because he then sees on himself the experiences of Divine good providence for him, goodness and strength. The demons working in him disappear like smoke from the sign of the cross; just as wax melts from the fire, so they melt, and the Christian suddenly feels peace and sweetness in his insides after the destructive fire that raged in him from demonic dirty tricks and made a whole hell out of his insides: because where the demons are, there is hell. Turning to the Cross with a greeting of joy, he is not a dreamer, not a fanatic, but speaks the true word; and he says this out of complete surprise and gratitude to the Cross, which performs great miracles for him every day - driving away dark, fiery forces from him, freeing his soul from the rivets of hell. Glory, glory, glory to the faith of Christ! Glory to His Life-Giving Cross! Truly life-giving soul of faithful Christians. If you suffer punishment... If you remain without punishment... [Heb. 12:7–8.] I see many living without punishment, and sometimes I am tempted, like David, who said: I envied the foolish, seeing the prosperity of the wicked [Ps. 72.3]. But I will not be tempted in the future: if I endure frequent internal punishments, then God will be found to me like a son; and whoever does not endure punishment is an adulterer. May your feat be strong throughout your entire life, so as not to succumb to any efforts of the devil to distract you from standing in the truth and incline you to the side of his lies. Hold fast to the holy faith and everything given to God, so that you learn the solid foundation of the teaching in which you were instructed [glory: you learned about them] [Lk. 1.4]. Confess the Most Holy Trinity, as you have learned, until the end of your life; Confess Christ and all His teachings and His Sacraments, as you have learned; Consider all church traditions to be true, pray in spirit and in truth; Correct the rites of worship handed down by the holy fathers as they should; Honor their divinely wise writings and read them with diligence, recognizing them as divinely enlightened. When performing any Sacrament or praying for something, do not worry about how that Sacrament will be performed or what you ask for will be fulfilled; your job is only to do your job, and everything else is done by the Almighty, the One who brought you into existence from nothing. You are just a tool here. Do not test, but believe. Your Lord is the God of miracles. You yourself, in your soul and in your body, are a miracle. For example, just as blood circulates without your knowledge and forms again a constantly disintegrating body, so the Body and Blood of the Lord, without your knowledge, is transformed from bread and wine. There are constant hidden miracles in your body: the formation of blood and juices. Your body is constantly being built or created with constant destruction, and all of it lives completely independently of you, but from the will of the Creator God, who gave him the laws of existence and supports them. In the oaths, the Lord Himself appears in the Cross and the Gospel - and everyone should look at it no differently - and asks everyone who wants to take the oath: do you love Me, the Sun of Truth, and are you really Christians, that is, My slaves and followers, and are you ready to always be servants of truth, and not servants of lies and deception? If you are My servants and love Me, then do the work ahead in good faith and do not kiss Me with a flattering kiss. Beware: the time of My judgment will come, and then I will expose you before the whole world in your unrighteousness, in how you repeatedly kissed Me with the kiss of Judas, gave the word of truth in My presence and did not act in truth. Don't forget: the oath is a great thing. It's scary to be an oathbreaker. The Lord will destroy all those who speak lies. You kiss My true words in the Gospel and thus, as it were, say: I will be as true as Your word is true; you kiss the crucified Lord and seem to say: just as you suffered in order to deliver us from all unrighteousness, so I am better prepared to suffer than to serve unrighteousness in any way for my truth in the upcoming work and office. The information every Christian needs is presented in short chapters. During prayer, there are sometimes moments of deadly darkness and confusion of heart, arising from unbelief of the heart (unbelief is darkness). Do not be too faint-hearted in these moments, but remember that when the Divine light in you is cut off, it always shines in all its splendor and greatness in God, in His holy word, in the world of the most holy spirits, in the Church of God, heavenly and earthly, and in the material world, in which His eternal power and Divinity are visible [Rom. 1.20]. Do not think that the truth has fainted: it will never faint, because the truth is God Himself, and everything that exists in Him has its basis and cause, and only your weak, sinful, dark heart faints in the truth, which cannot always bear the tension of Her light and is not always able to accommodate Her purity, but only when it is purified or cleansed from sin, as the first cause of spiritual darkness. The closest thing to proof of this is from yourself. When the light of faith or the truth of God lives in your heart, then it is calm, firm, strong, alive; and when it is stopped, then it is restless, weak, like a reed shaken by the wind, lifeless. Don't pay attention to this satanic darkness. Drive him away from your heart with the sign of the Life-giving Cross. Pay due remembrance to the saint or saints of each day and for this purpose follow the rules daily. And the saints will remember you: they do not like to remain in debt. (Note to self.) If you sometimes feel it difficult to reach God the Father with your heartfelt faith, then remember the words of the Savior: no one comes to the Father except through Me [Jn. 14.6 ]; or: no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son wants to reveal [Matt. 11:27], - and pray about it to the Son of God. Remember that in your life you have prayed little sincere prayer, prayer from the bottom of your heart - and repent to God more often of this sin, ask Him to grant you sincere, ardent prayer, from your whole heart. Yes, many times you offended the Lord with your double-minded prayer. ABOUT! How sinful I am before God! There is no number of my sins - without any exaggeration! God! do not enter into judgment with Your servant [Ps. 142.2 ]: if you see lawlessness... who will stand? [Ps. 129.3]. Stop the spirit of vain wisdom with the following words: Do not seek what is too difficult for you, and do not try what is beyond your strength. What is commanded to you, meditate on [Sir. 3.21–22]. The spirit of wisdom torments more learned people, whose horizon of knowledge is wide and in whom there is room for the spirit of false wisdom to roam. If my life lasted only a few moments, let’s say ten, and five of them were moments of calm, and the other five were of languor and torment, and then I would undoubtedly have to say: yes, undoubtedly, I have a Life-Giver and my Life-Giver is looking out for me; and I would also undoubtedly have to say that there is a being in the world who has the power of death, because the five unfavorable moments must come from a being opposite to God, because the same cause cannot produce opposite effects. But I, a sinner, in my spiritual life, out of a hundred parts, have at least seventy that belong to God, and only thirty that belong to the devil. How can one not constantly see the Benefactor before oneself and waver mentally in living faith in Him! With the mental eyes of my heart I see how I mentally breathe Christ into my heart, how He enters it and suddenly gives it peace and delight. Oh, may I not remain alone - without You, the Giver of Life, my breath, my joy! I feel bad without you! Bring your faith to such a degree that you can always pray with all your heart, that is, with all sincerity: let not a single word be flattery. Otherwise, we have flattering lips (albeit unintentionally) in our hearts, and we speak evil words in our hearts during prayer itself. Always give alms with a cheerful face - Christ Himself accepts; Do not offend anyone with a glance or a word. For your Lord, for His holy word, renounce yourself - your mind, your feelings, if they go against the words of the Lord. It’s hard, but it will be a cross. If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and come after Me [Matt. 16.24] (and will indeed follow Me). About confession. You are the words of iniquity. Let me confess... my iniquity to the Lord... [Ps. 31.5.] In every person there prevails a great darkness of ignorance about God and about himself. When you do God’s work, do not at all think in your heart how this happens, but believe without a doubt that this happens as it should. One sin inevitably follows another, like drop by drop. My soul revives my body, and the Body and Blood of Christ revive my very soul - with soul and body. Glory to Your Mysteries, Christ! How obvious the miracles from them are. O faithless and corrupt generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you? [Matt. 17.17]. See: The Lord, the faithful and true Witness, is angry with unfaithful people, with those who see His miracles, hear about them, and do not still believe that the Lord is omnipotent and nothing is impossible for Him. These words are good to apply to priests of little faith, who see with the eyes of their hearts the miracles in themselves from the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, and for all that, while receiving communion, they sometimes doubt whether the Lord truly transforms bread and wine into His Body and Blood? To such the Lord angrily says: O faithless and corrupt generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you? Priests of the Lord! Listen: in the life-giving Mysteries it is as certain that the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ, just as your body and blood and the soul in your body are certain. Just as you have body and blood and a soul in your body, so on the paten, after transubstantiation, there is the Body and Blood of Christ, and in the Body and Blood is the Spirit of Christ. You yourself experienced this in your soul when you received communion worthily with undoubted faith, when the Spirit of the Lord embraced and, so to speak, absorbed your soul, and His peace and sweetness spilled over all your limbs. Before communion, say internally: as my body and blood, so here are Your Body and Blood; Just as my soul lives in my body, so in this Body, lying on the holy platter, is Your Spirit, O Life-Giver Christ my God! And time flows without stopping, and my body, while still alive, is constantly changing and passing; and the whole world, as can be seen from its movement, also passes away and seems to be hastening towards its expected end, like a wound-up car: where is the constant? What is constant is that it all moves and directs towards its goals; constant - the first Cause of everything complex and created, Which itself is not complex and therefore imperishable, eternal; the spirits of Angels and men, created in the image of the first Vina, are still constant. Everything else is a soap bubble. I do not humiliate creation with these words, but I say this about it in comparison with the Creator and with the blessed spirits. Appreciate the greatest miracle of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, revealed in communion with faith in His Divine Mysteries. What miracle? The repose and revitalization of your heart, deadened by sin, so obvious after the heartache and spiritual death that often precedes communion. Out of habit, never regard it as something ordinary and unimportant: such thoughts and dispositions of the heart will bring the wrath of the Lord upon you, and you will not taste peace and life after communion. With the most lively, heartfelt gratitude for the gifts of life, obtain life from the Lord, and let your faith grow more and more. Consider the fear and anxiety that occurs from unbelief during communion as a sure sign that through unbelief you are moving away from the Life presented in the Chalice, and do not pay attention to them. O faith! Faith! You yourself are a miracle for us! You save us: your faith has saved you [Mk. 5.34]. And after living faith in the truth of God, we always depart from the Lord in the world; on the contrary, after lack of faith - always without peace. Oh! Satan often enters after unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries, and he tries in every possible way to plant his lies in our hearts, that is, unbelief, because unbelief is the same as a lie. A murderer from time immemorial, he tries in every possible way and now to kill a person with his lies and various thoughts, and, having crept into the heart in the form of unbelief or some kind of passion, he then reveals himself in a manner worthy of himself - more impatience and malice. And you see that it is in you, but you don’t suddenly get rid of it often, because it usually tries to lock in your heart all the ways out of it through unbelief, bitterness and other creations of its own. Be afraid of your disobedience to others, otherwise it will be reflected in others’ disobedience to you - and then do not complain about others, but blame yourself. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you [Matt. 7.2; Mk. 4.24]. So be afraid of any sin: it will certainly respond very unfavorably to you later. If you take, for example, bribes, you yourself will be forced to give large bribes; if you steal, it will be stolen from you or you will lose it. You labor in vain in me, fallen archangel; I am a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ. You, exalted pride, humiliate yourself by fighting so hard against me, the weak. So speak mentally to the evil spirit that lies as a heavy burden of evil on your heart and forces you to do evil of various kinds. These words are like a fiery scourge to a proud spirit - and he, disgraced by your firmness and spiritual wisdom, will run away from you. You will now see it, feel it, be surprised at the wonderful change in you: suddenly there will be no heavy, soul-killing burden; it will be so easy, so easy. And you will be tangibly convinced that there are spirits of wickedness in high places, constantly seeking our destruction, poisoning our hearts with the poison of dark and evil thoughts, intensifying to destroy our love for people and sociability with them. Thus, beloved, our Head - Christ - suffers so that the rest of His body, that is, us, may have it easy; The head burns with the fire of the torment of the cross in order to deliver His members from the eternal fire of Gehenna and, while we are on earth, to deliver us, through our prayer, from the snares of the invisible enemy, to free us from the fire of passions. Thus, our Lord suffers on the cross so that we do not suffer forever in hell, so that we, who repent, are here freed from passions. ABOUT! Who will comprehend with his mind and heart the price of this good deed? He alone knows fully the greatness of His sacrifice, because He alone knew and saw the real eternal torment of sinners and all the cruelty of eternal torment. And we - we barely understand, even on earth, and even in our hands with difficulty, we often do not understand the whole misery of our present situation; and what will happen after death - who will find out? O our dearest Savior! What will we offer to You for Your endlessly great sacrifice? - Faith and love for Him. So, beloved, believe with all your heart, without the slightest doubt, that the Only Begotten Son of God suffered for you - precisely for you - on the cross, so that you would not be in eternal torment prepared for sinners; bring His torment closer to your heart, appreciate it, if possible, with your weak minds; let everyone deny himself and take up his cross and follow Him into the heavenly land, despite any temporary obstacles; and let the fire of love burn in your heart for the One who, out of love for you, endures the painful fire of bodily and mental suffering; Let each of you refrain from disagreement, hatred and discord among one another; May everyone keep peace and love with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord [Heb. 12:14 ], because our mutual hatred and disagreement are tearing apart, like arrows, the loving heart of Jesus, the Son of God, who loved us to the cross and death; Let no one tie his heart to the world, to its pleasures: for us there is no place in this world, no, our place is in heaven: where I am, you will be, said the Savior. The world with its blessings is unworthy of us - we must have a bright, clear sky both in our thoughts and in our hearts: in My Father’s house, says the Lord, there are many mansions [Jn. 14.2]. There, to heaven, direct your thoughts and hearts more often. He who lives for the world and the flesh will not see the eternal life. Amen. Our Lord suffered for us out of love: and where your treasure is, there will your heart be also [Matt. 6.21]. Amen. Look, live carefully according to your inner man - the Lord sees every thought, every movement of the heart: your soul is in God, like a fish in water or like a body in the air: from all sides - God, from everywhere - His Spirit, everywhere He is all; He sees everywhere, he is all sight, or, more precisely, light, and in Him there is no darkness at all [1 Jn. 1.5]. Look, follow every thought, every movement of the heart and the corresponding bodily movements. Beware...how dangerously you walk [Eph. 5.15]. And the enemy is always near you, and always looks at you with his crafty, all-evil eyes, seeking to devour your inner man with thoughts of wickedness, unbelief, discontent, despondency, malice, anger, envy, love of money and others. Look, live carefully, servant of God, remember God constantly. You have found honey, eat as much as you need, so as not to be full of it and not vomit it [Prov. 25.16]. Keep this in mind about books of excellent content. Don't read too much at once. Listen, beloved: you all need such sincere, ardent repentance as Manasseh brought to God: this is exactly what you should say to God from the depths of your soul... (from Manasseh’s prayer according to the Russian text). Just as the Lord tolerates your many sins and does not take your life, so make it an indispensable rule for yourself to tolerate the mistakes and weaknesses of others, even if they hurt you too much; and in the sorrow of your soul do not wish for them to die and thereby put an end to your anxiety. Why know? Perhaps, for our sins - and precisely for our sins - the Lord allows us to live with such people who make us feel cold with their sins and weaknesses. Pay attention immediately to your weaknesses; when you see the weaknesses of others, correct yourself from them, and generously endure in others what the long-suffering Lord endures in you. Otherwise, why save you, if you, being infinitely indebted to God’s long-suffering over you, do not want to earn God’s mercy with your long-suffering? For it is said: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you [Matt. 7.2; Mk. 4.24]. The devil laughs at us more because we, being passionate and subjected to the devil’s violence for our passions, do not have patience in the sorrow and distress brought on by him, and do not properly appreciate the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit - peace and joy of the heart; when we stand in the truth and have boldness before God, we do not ascribe them with all our hearts to the one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Comforter of our hearts, the only Joy of our souls. All my troubles occur in my invisible thoughts and in my invisible heart - therefore I need an invisible Savior to guide our hearts. Oh, my Strength Jesus, Son of God! Oh, the light of my mind! Peace, joy, breadth of my heart, glory to You! Glory to Thee, the Deliverer from my invisible enemies, who attack 120 my mind and heart and kill me at the very source of my life, in my most sensitive place. Keep a close watch on the manifestations of pride: it creeps in unnoticed, especially in grief and irritability at others due to the most unimportant reasons. “I am goodness, love, meekness, humility, peace, joy,” the words of the Lord. Be like Me. In every possible way the devil tears me away from my Most Dear, Sweetest Savior and often keeps me in his chains, which scorch my soul with fire. What does the miraculous effect of the Life-Giving Cross on our soul, stung by the poison of evil, undoubtedly and tangibly assure us of? He assures us that 1) that we definitely have a soul - a spiritual being, 2) that there are evil spirits that murderously touch our soul, 3) that there is God and our Lord Jesus Christ and He is always with us according to His Divinity and 4) that He definitely accomplished our salvation on the Cross with His suffering and death on the cross and destroyed the power of the devil with the Cross. How much evidence in favor of our faith comes from the miraculous action of the Life-Giving Cross over us! Glory to the Christian faith! To spend the entire day perfectly, holy, peacefully and sinlessly, the only means for this is the most sincere, fervent prayer in the morning after rising from sleep: it will introduce Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit into the heart and thus give strength and strength to the soul against the attacks of evil. You just need to guard your heart. In the sorrow of your soul, sometimes you wish to die. Dying is easy, not for long; but are you ready for death? After all, you only have to die - and then the judgment of your whole life. You are not ready for death, and if it came to you, you would probably tremble with your whole body. (Proof of this is the danger of death, deliberately presented to you by your guardian Angel in a dream: you tremble like an aspen leaf, and thereby show your strong attachment to this life.) Don’t waste words, don’t say: it would be better for me to die; but say more often: how can I prepare for death in a Christian way by faith, good deeds and generous enduring of the troubles and sorrows that happen to me, and meet death without fear, peacefully, shamelessly, not as a terrible law of nature, but as the Fatherly call of the Immortal Father in Heaven, the Holy, the Blessed, to the blissful land of eternity. Remember the old man who, having toiled under his burden, wanted to die rather than live, and began to call death to himself. She appeared - she did not want to, but wished to better bear her heavy burden. Here, great benefactors are recognized by their charitable institutions, by their wealth, by their convenience, by the multitude of people who benefit from his handiwork in his institution. So know God's Greatest Benefactor by His charitable establishment. For what else is the world if not a charitable institution for many creatures? Especially the Church of God - what else if not a charitable institution, in which there are sick people who use medicine - in Baptism, Repentance, Communion and Blessing of Anointing, and those recovering - for eternal life; There are also students and students who are being brought up here as if in a preparatory institution - for the inheritance of the most perfect, holy life of the next century. What a great way to organize this charitable institution! How much goodness, wisdom and omnipotence of the Benefactor is visible in him! So many amenities! How rich it is! What generosity everywhere! What love for those who have been blessed is visible everywhere! How not to shed tears of gratitude? How not to send honor and worship to such a Benefactor? Is it possible to pray hastily without harming your prayer? It is possible for those who have learned inner prayer with a pure heart. In prayer, it is necessary that the heart sincerely desires what it asks for, feels the truth of what it is talking about - and a pure heart has this, as it were, in its nature. Therefore, it can pray with haste and at the same time pleasing to God, since haste will not harm the truth (sincerity) of prayer. But those who have not acquired heartfelt prayer must pray slowly, waiting for the corresponding echo in the heart of each word of prayer. And this is not always quickly possible for a person who is not accustomed to prayerful contemplation. Therefore, the rare pronunciation of the words of prayer for such people should be made an indispensable rule. Wait until every word resonates in your heart with its own echo. If one of the unbelievers asked: Is Jesus Christ God? - then, as proof, it would be enough for us to point to the power of the Life-giving Cross. God is love [1 John. 4:8,16 ] - and does not tolerate moments of our hatred towards others and punishes them. God is truth - and does not tolerate a moment of doubt in the established truth in us. Correct your heart and trust your spirit with God. About the Jews, who enjoyed the great benefits of God and turned out to be ungrateful, it is said that they did not correct their hearts and did not trust their spirit with God [Ps. 77:8]. Don't touch the snake and it won't touch you; but start attacking her and you will see how she will hiss and begin to sarcastically at you. This snake is sin in us. In order not to completely kill our soul, we must drive it out from within, even though it is sarcastic. Gently endure demonic beatings, and do not be indignant. God allows it for your salvation. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God [Matt. 5:8], because God is the purest Spirit, and our heart is our soul. This means that the purified kindred will see the kindred to itself. The pure soul is of the Most Pure God. Not to believe in the Mysteries means to renounce Christ and His Divinity. And He is the Truth of all things, and of yourself. Those who lead a spiritual life see with the eyes of their hearts how the devil works, how the Angels guide, how the Lord sovereignly allows temptation and how he comforts. Always have in your heart the memory of the atoning suffering of Jesus Christ. (On the sixth day and hour... at the ninth hour... On the wall.) When reading morning or evening prayers of light, to warm your heart and sincerity of prayer, call for help the Comforter Spirit, who intercedes for us in our prayer with unspeakable groanings [Rom. 8.26]. Say: I myself am a great sinner and am not worthy to open my mouth for others; my iniquities burden me like a heavy burden, and I myself need prayer for myself. Warm my heart, Lord, so that it may lament over its own sins and bring tears from my eyes - and then pray yourself. When the devil’s embarrassment arises while reading any prayer, immediately pay attention to the golden, venerable words of the prayer pouring out from the holy heart, the abode of the Holy Spirit, and then the embarrassment will pass. The whole trouble is that the devil takes our heart away from these words and darkens their dignity in our mind and heart. Chalk up the spirit of confusion, fear and despondency to smoke, as indeed it is no stronger than smoke, if you have faith in your heart. All due to our unbelief, it touches our heart. It is necessary that during the service the prayer of the heart should constantly burn. Notice what kind of spirit you are [Lk. 9.55 ]; and this is very easy to notice, because there are only two completely opposite spirits: the spirit that kills the soul, and the spirit that quickens; the spirit of sorrow and distress and the spirit of peace and space; the spirit of joy and the spirit of despondency; the spirit of passions and the spirit of sanctity - light, broad. Do this for the glory of the All-Holy Spirit. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother and the saints as if they lived and acted yesterday - so revive their memory. Don't look at the distance of time. There is one unchangeable Cause of everything: if this Cause is with you, then you will remain unchanged under the most powerful causes that change the soul (demonic temptations), or the soul and body together (the martyrs, the three youths: Ananias, Azariah and Mishael; the Maccabees, all the New Testament martyrs), and it happens that everything around you will change, pass away, but you will remain unchanged (the seven Ephesian youths who slept for two hundred years as one night as an indication of the brevity of mortal sleep). But if you, a changeable being, wanted to mentally somehow change the Unchangeable First Being, then you would pay dearly for this attempt; instead of changing the Unchangeable (which is impossible), for your insolence you yourself will suffer a terrible change in your soul and body - sorrow, tightness and inner fire - punishment from the Unchangeable for your insolence, and your memory will perish noisily. I thank You, Lord, with all my heart, that You punish me painfully internally for my sins. This punishment is a precaution against great sins and at the same time a punishment for the sin committed. For internal sin, internal and suffering. Glory to Thee, all-merciful Lord! He said it himself (αὐτὸς εἶπεν 121). If pagan philosophers spoke with such trust and respect about the words, then with what trust and reverence should we look at the words of the most incarnate Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” [Acts. 20.35], - may this word be the solution to all doubts and perplexities. Look no further. The word of all my Lord and God is true. Why do saints hear our prayers in every place? It must be because for them, as bodiless, our land means no more than the palm of our hand, and before their eyes we are all in full view, especially since they are one spirit with the Lord [1 Cor. 6.17]. Earthly distances mean a lot to us, because we are surrounded by measurable flesh, which judges the magnitude of the distance according to its limited measures; but there are no such measures for them. By faith and prayer we can communicate with the saints faster than electric telegraphs and railways. In prayer and throughout your life, deny yourself, that is, recognize your heart as deceitful and refuse forever to follow its carnal, sinful demands; Consider as true only what the word of God and the Church teach you (regarding faith, hope and love). When you perform your home prayer, services and all the Sacraments sincerely, from the heart, with selflessness, then there is a wonderful peace of mind in your soul; and when you do not overcome yourself - your wickedness, your lack of faith, then you are certainly punished and there is no peace in my bones from the face of my sins [Ps. 37.4]. Do not dare to think that the power of the Life-giving Cross or the Divine Mysteries depends on your faith or unbelief - the Cross is always Life-giving, whether you believe or not; Secrets too; always keep yourself at a respectful distance from them and always use them with reverence. They have their own power, not yours; They are given, as it were, into your power, but they themselves rule over you, and you actually do not have a single power over them. You endure [smoke] from your father, but not the cross, not the nails, not the spear; and the Savior suffered even this for you. Look. If you, having a cramped apartment, envy a brother who has a spacious, comfortable and clean apartment, then correct yourself immediately from envy in this way: immediately force your heart, by the power of faith, to rejoice in the fact that you have one earthly blessing less than your brother, and thank for this from the bottom of your heart the all-good Lord, Who deigns you to have external crampedness in order to grant you breadth of spirit ( walking in breadth [Ps. 119:45]) and to make a participant in the exploits of the saints of God, who most often lived in cramped conditions, and many wandered through deserts and mountains, through caves and gorges of the earth, although the whole world was not worthy of them [Heb. 11.38]. And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself on earth had no place to lay His head, although foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests [Matt. 8.20]. The devil, our original envier and murderer, is trying in every possible way to deprive us of peace of mind and to poison all our pleasures that the Lord gives us. Through the machinations of the devil, one who possesses many gifts of God often indulges in stinginess and envy and, thus, putting what the Lord has given him into nothing, recklessly desires more, looks with greed at what his neighbor has, wanting to get his property for himself; or, attributing some extraordinary, greatest value to silver and gold and other things and from things that are by nature transitory and fluid, thinking to make something imperishable, eternally abiding, his heart hurts every time the thing he loves is spent or spent, and his heart is torn to pieces when he steps into the mud, when he has to part with money. The stingy man trembles for sweet food, clothes, money - for everything. Counter the wiles of the devil with the most living feeling of gratitude to God. The devil, pressing on the heart, often suppresses both faith in God and the feeling of God’s mercies towards us, but there is no need to pay attention to this. May the cross, which we so often depict, strike the ethereal villain and may it vividly remind us of the countless mercies of God. Everything unnecessary that enters the stomach through the mouth has an effect on the heart, which is closest to the stomach, and weakens and often closes the eyes of the heart, so one must be extremely careful in consuming food and other pleasures received through the mouth. Who is closer to us than the Lord God, our omnipresent Creator and all-good Father? - Nobody and nothing. Meanwhile, the flesh and the devil living in it so hide Him from us that we only feel His closeness to us from time to time, when living faith visits our heart. Today is the day of my birth and baptism, that is, both the birth of the flesh and the birth from above; It’s remarkable that two births - carnal, sinful, and spiritual, grace-filled - seem to be connected with each other in my life. If only this were a good omen that life in the spirit, soon replacing life in the flesh, would save me, making me a resident of the heavenly, spiritual Kingdom! The sinful flesh has gained such power over the spirit that even in spiritual matters it puts its foot down, so that many of us, having begun in the spirit, often end up in the flesh, in sin. ABOUT! We are damned people! Who will deliver us from this body of death? [Rom. 7.24]. Everywhere in the flesh we lose our spirit. We must pray to the Lord that He will grant us in all the light and majesty to see the purity and holiness of the Angels of the Lord and the holy people of God, glorified by God, so that we can see in their beauty and holiness our spiritual ugliness, our great uncleanness and sinfulness, and through this deeply humble ourselves before them in prayer to them and with all our hearts ask them to pray for us to the All-Perfect, so that He will mercifully look upon us. to their prayers, to the spiritual poverty we perceive, and enriched our soul with Divine virtues. About the consolation of the Holy Spirit for those who are sick and about to be separated from life, and about how pitiful are those who, because of their commitment to the blessings of this age, are not worthy of this consolation. Observation. Give peace to the fallen, O Lover of Mankind! By their fruit you will know them [Matt. 7.16]. If there is peace in you, God is in you, if painful anxiety is the devil; if you are blessed, God is in you; if you are tormented, you are the devil. There is often something in us that compels us to evil: and evil itself compels us to strive to pour ourselves out in evil and torment us; in a word, we feel in ourselves something completely unnatural to us, which torments, kills us, stumbles us in deeds and words, from which we become not free, but slaves, not our own. For the most part, it passes when it receives satisfaction, or when it rubs against us, or shames us in deed or word; but sometimes it remains even after that - to torment us with despondency. If the passion for the blessings of this world, having occupied your heart, will painfully oppress it, then in order to get rid of it, say internally to the Lord: O all-good King, whose kingdom is not of this world, dissolve by Your almighty power the attachment of my sinful heart to the corruptible blessings of the present age and give it attachment to the eternal blessings of the heavenly world. Grant me, like the Apostle, to count all earthly things in my mind, 122 so that I may gain You. Grant me to see not the visible, but the invisible: for the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal [2 Cor. 4.18]. Whatever the sorrow of your heart comes from: whether from a momentary thought of unbelief or an attack of some kind of passion - do not engage in it; it is from the devil, who in every possible way wants to keep you in sorrow and suffering and plunge you into despondency. He tries in every possible way to harden your heart with sinful flattery. These are all his lies. I was first nothing, then a seed. What good hand created me in my mother’s womb and formed members within me? Who brought me from non-existence to existence and, having given existence, has been constantly benefiting me to this day? I couldn't be myself; Yes, I cannot make a single hair white or black [Matt. 5.36]. All-merciful Lord! It is your hands that create me and create me [Ps. 118.73]. It is You, who brought everything from those who do not exist, created me through Your Hypostatic Word and accomplishes it through Your Spirit. Before You created me in the womb, You already knew me and, before You brought me out of my womb, You sanctified me, making me a priest of Your people. Glory to Your compassion, glory to Your power, O Lord! The devil often closes the eyes of our hearts, darkening them with his darkness, so that the heart cannot see God and His mercies. And the heart must see God before him, just as David saw the Lord before him, for He is at his right hand [Ps. 15.8]. It is hard when Satan closes the eyes of the heart: the soul is deprived of the spiritual light that makes up its life, and remains in a state of darkness, sorrow and suffering. Is it not from the deprivation of this light that hell itself received its name, which from Greek means a place devoid of light: ???, or ???? 123. What is earth in the sensual sense for living beings, is faith in the spiritual sense for rational beings. So that the bodies of material beings do not disappear in the boundlessness of creation, the earth is given to them as a fulcrum, as the foundation of their bodily existence; from the earth and their bodies, and food to support their existence, and clothing; and they walk on the earth without breaking away from it, and after death they return to the earth again. And so that spiritual beings - human souls - do not carry with every wind teaching examples of seductive examples in the boundlessness of the mental world, so that they do not do deeds that bring about spiritual death, so that the fallen spirit does not drag human souls into its destructive area of ​​​​sin and death, into the world of ghosts and shadows - for this we have been given faith in God with all its holy and life-giving truths. And whoever does not want to perish in the abyss of hell must stand as firmly as possible on the rock of faith - from it receive food for his mind and for his heart (since without food akin to itself, our soul cannot exist as it should, that is, blissfully, unless it can only crumble and perish spiritually, as the wisdom of Solomon says about everything that is pleasant in this world: all this is vanity and ruin of the spirit). You see many people worthy of sincere and deep regret, who, knowing the faith only superficially, in name and in general, and not in deed and in detail, live without any spiritual foundation, without any firmness on which they could rely in their lives: they are easily persuaded to everything - both good and bad, and most likely - to the bad, which, due to the corruption of our nature, sticks to us with all convenience. The devil very conveniently wins over such light (frivolous) souls to his side and plunges them into all serious sins, making them his pitiful slaves. It hurts to look at such people. And all troubles come from unbelief or ignorance of faith, because the hearts of such people do not have moral support, just as their bodies have their support in the earth. Others are often stingy towards us or envy us, and we condemn them for envy or stinginess; but the envy of others towards us or towards someone else or stinginess in relation to us or towards others is often a worthy retribution to us or others for our stinginess, for our envy - and they measure it to us with the same measure that we used. Saint Andrew the First-Called. The Lord calls everyone to follow Him. And everyone needs to immediately follow the Lord. Let us leave others, foolish ones, to swirl in a whirlwind of vanity; we know that not only human vanity will pass, but the earth will also pass away, and that we need to take care of a strong, unshakable forever refuge for our eternal soul. The word is an excellent means of restoring peace of mind in people with whom we live together or have intercourse and who, due to some misunderstanding of our relationship to them, look at us unfavorably; just as it is the only sure way to calm ourselves down at the expense of others. A few words of explanation - and at once our often long-lasting apathy towards others, which stems from a misunderstanding of our mutual relations, is destroyed: there is no need to remain silent when a word is needed, when isolation in oneself harms both ourselves and others. When there is any darkness, a misunderstanding in the relationship between two or more persons, then the word must come into its own and clarify or destroy this darkness. The word is the revelation of the soul, its discovery. Without a word, which man knows what is in a certain person, except the human spirit living in him? [ 1 Cor. 2.11 ]; and the word lets others know about us, what is in us and what we are. Take into account everything that if sometimes you are strangled by inner malice, from which your insides burn with a destructive fire, do not become more and more embittered by this and do not take this inner malice for the state in which you - and only you alone - have put yourself. It is not only you who are evil, but the evil devil in you doing his work, pouring out his malice. How can I prove this? With faith, make the sign of the cross on your evil heart and in the place where you especially feel the fire of hell - and it will now go out, and peace and lightness will be restored in your soul. And this means that before there was a devil in you, who came out from the power of the cross that burned him. Do not stand in evil, but be as willing as possible to goodness - and defeat the enemy. Take up the sign of the cross more often and call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Do not be proud, hateful, envious, stingy, that is, do not deign in the least to these passions. At the beginning, give in even for a moment - the devil will enter you and will scorch you with this or that passion; it will hurt. Most of all, be afraid of the influence of an evil spirit on your brother: he knows that love is our first virtue, and knows its most beneficial fruits for Christians, and therefore he tries most of all to deprive our hearts of love. He uses all possible pretexts, both small and significant, to arouse enmity, hatred and other passions between people that violate the peace and security of their neighbor. He gives man a wicked heart and a wicked eye to see pretexts for passion everywhere, in the most innocent faces and objects. Our God is the Father of Lights - the Son and the Spirit, existing eternally in Him. In the One Divinity there are Three Radiances. Through the Son of God, everything received transformation and transition from non-existence to existence. Know that there are good angels and evil spirits, and [as] the first take a great part in the salvation of people (see the canon of the Guardian Angel), so others try in every possible way to destroy a person, and very often destroy those who are inattentive and devoted in soul to some vice, who are not concerned about their salvation. Many unfortunate examples between people given over to passions can only be explained by the participation - and the most powerful - of evil spirits. The Apostle warns and says: be sober, watch [1 Pet. 5.8]. Our duty is to honor the good Angels who burn with love for us mortals, and to hate evil spirits and all their works in every possible way, to deny Satan and all his works, and so on. Time is precious: your days are numbered; It is also known how much good you should have done these days and did not do. Treasure your time and don’t waste it recklessly. Tell me, O Lord, my end and the number of my days, what it is, so that I may know what my age is [Ps. 38.5]. Reason is for the world of feelings, complex, where it is impossible to see the whole soul with one method of vision, but processes are needed - concepts, judgments, inferences, analogies, guidance 124. The thinking faculty is the guardian of the heart, or soul. Not before anything from the world of thought (in this life) and material reaches the heart, but having been in thought for at least a moment: the mind will not allow it - and it will not reach the heart. But the mind missed - and the guests are in the heart. So the devil, the killer of our souls, enters the heart only through thoughts, captivating the soul with their beauty. When we reach a quiet and safe haven, where thieves do not break in and steal [Matt. 6:20] the possessions of our souls, when the Lord the Savior gives us eternal life, when no one can snatch us out of His hand [Jn. 10.29], - then our guardian, reason, mind, will be taken from us, like a mentor upon reaching our majority, as an earthly leader; our heart will remain with its spiritual vision or mind, or all the same - our soul, which will directly see God, without the mediation of concepts, judgments and conclusions. The pure in heart... will see God [Matt. 5.8]. “I’d rather dress in rags, grow a beard, go live in the wild Siberian steppes, than give up one inch of land acquired with the blood of my ancestors,” said blessed Alexander of Russia upon Bonaparte’s entry into Russia. And a Christian must say to the spiritual Napoleon, who is predatorily invading his soul: I would rather be left without a piece of bread, without shelter, without clothes, without a fatherland, than agree to lose the purity and integrity of my soul, acquired for me by the Blood of the Son of God, than agree with you to this or that passion, to this or that sin. (And if he wants to share you with your family, say the same without adding: relatives and friends. And so adapt to each passion.) You need Angels in this life, but especially after death: do you call on them, as your guardians, for help; do you honor them, love them, even believe that they exist, with all your heart? If you don’t know them and don’t want to know, why should they protect you from enemy attacks here? Why should they meet you after death - in another world? And there are deliberately composed prayers and praises to the Angel, the guardian of human life. You see how inattentive you are to the creatures of the heavenly world, you don’t even think about getting used to them through faith here on earth. And you, as Christians, are also waiting for the terrible second coming of the Lord from heaven with His Angels, and you are also waiting for the life of the future century, in which Angels are ever-present residents! Before time runs out, pay attention to this article. The pagan demonians were taken from us. What is the means to spend the entire day perfectly, holy, peacefully and sinlessly? Morning prayer. You need to strengthen your heart against sin with sincere prayer and pray with warmth to your Guardian Angel. Whoever defiles the door of life will not see life. The Lord now calls everyone to follow Him. But now many have ears, and when they hear, they seem not to hear His voice. But the terrible, last day of the world will come, and then not only all those living, but also those in the tombs will gather to the thunderous voice of the Son of God; then, willy-nilly, it will be necessary to follow the voice of the Terrible Judge - some to eternal life, and others to reproach and eternal shame. The heart is a person’s treasury, which contains the good or bad wealth of a person. It is good if it is filled with good: in this case, a person wears out good things from the good treasure of his heart [Lk. 6.45] for the benefit and salvation of others; but woe if there is only evil in it: in this case, a person wears out evil from the evil treasures of his heart [Lk. 6.45] to the harm and destruction of others. We see many examples of this. But if anyone needs to have a good treasure of the heart, then most of all it is the priest, who is so often obliged to stand before the face of the All-Holy and All-Good God in prayer, whether during public worship, or during the performance of the Sacraments and prayers, or at home prayer; who must, by his very service, certainly utter good words from the good treasure of his heart for the teaching and edification of the people: usually from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks [Matt. 12.34], that is, what the heart is filled with involuntarily appears on the tongue. What excess will a priest wear out if his home treasury is not filled with good wealth and is empty or, what is worse, filled with all abominations? And there is only one thought - an abomination to the Lord, as the Wise One says - what will a heart filled with various impurities be for the Lord: robbery, deceit, adultery, fornication, blasphemy, pride and the like. In this case, it will look like a covered coffin [Russian: painted] [Matt. 23:27 ] and only by name will he be a priest, instead of being holy and inwardly (to which his very name obliges him), bearing his title quite deservedly. Communicant! Receive communion with full faith: with the Mysteries Christ Himself enters your soul - your salvation, your strength, your strength, your God, your breath, your joy. Woe, if without faith, then there will be no Christ in your heart, your strength and joy: your malice, your passions will triumph in you, and who will help you when Christ is not in you? It is bad for the person who moves away from Christ through unbelief. We know that in family and social life the virtue of love is beautiful and fruitful; We experience this ourselves and see it in others, but first of all we hear that the Lord and His apostles command us love - the Lord who loved us to the cross and death; the apostles who laid down their souls for the gospel of love and for the salvation of people. But, despite the fact that we forget that love is a great virtue and our first duty, we often lose love and indulge in the passions of malice, hatred, envy and others (thus, we know for sure that the Body and Blood of the Lord are life-giving for us, but despite this, due to the internal malice hidden in us, we seem to forget that this is the Body and Blood of the Lord, and we do not believe that they are saving) - somehow We experience this and that many times. Our grief! For us, sometimes love is not love, virtue is not virtue. You know that there will be death, but at the same time some kind of darkness settles in the soul, which closes death - and you live as if without thinking of dying. The benefits of fasting are undoubted: you are light in spirit and body, you sleep well, and you get up very well. (The benefits of birch buds in wine tincture.) God's omniscience and providence appears in the supervision and omniscience of superiors over their subordinates. Just think, they say, and everything is known. So our conscience tells us that as soon as we think about something, the Lord already knows it; and you feel internally that you know. Dream: how I drank vodka with my friends at the Academy during class hours; Then they sat down to have a snack during school hours, while others gathered around for an untimely snack. This is the devil’s seduction, putting him to sleep so that vice, covered up by the company of comrades and the imaginary commonness of sin, can freely manifest itself. Dreams - just interpret them - are an important moralizing thing. I stopped the flow of my thoughts in order to catch a bright, teaching and edifying thought - and this stopping of the thinking machine was often painful for my head; My head was often heavy. You fall ill and in the sorrow of your soul you ask the Lord to extend the days of your life, and now, like Hezekiah, the Lord gives you a few more years of life. Find out why: so that you use this time for the benefit of your soul, pleasing the Lord with deeds of repentance and virtue. A priest, like the Savior, must guard his flock in such a way that at the end of his life he can boldly say to the Lord: those whom You gave Me, I have kept, and none of them perished, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled [Jn. 17.12]. You are not responsible for the sons of perdition, bitter and stubborn sinners, but you will answer for those who perished through your negligence. Never feel 125 that God will be like you. When you sin, do not think that God will accept you into fellowship and love with Him, not cleansed of sins, without your heartfelt contrition and humility. No, without being cleansed from your sins by warm prayer, from a contrite and humble heart, do not dream of being in communion with God. It is true that the wicked will in no way be found near God, the wicked will not remain in His sight; and He hates all who do iniquity [Ps. 5.5–6]. Yes, I experienced this myself. One day (October 24) in the evening I drank and ate quite a lot at a party and thereby made my heart 126 white (for the heart of these people is clothed [Isa. 6:10]). In the evening I didn’t pray with all my sincere heart, which means I didn’t take away the dullness of my heart from my heart with the warmth of faith and humility. That night, however, I slept peacefully, but I saw a dream, which, obviously, was an admonition from God for me (see above). In the morning, when I woke up, I, as usual, stopped two wonderful thoughts in the process of fresh, morning thinking, and since I tried several times to hold these thoughts in a rapid stream of thoughts, this irritated the nerves of my head, and my head became heavy with irritation. Since the warmth from the heart was thus diverted to the head, and, moreover, the fatness in my heart from the previous evening still remained, then at morning prayer I could in no way introduce the warmth of faith and sincere prayer into my heart and, thus, again did not remove the fatness from my heart. And it was necessary to serve the liturgy for the repose of all previously deceased forefathers, fathers and brothers and Orthodox Christians everywhere (Parental Saturday). With a heavy head from mental tension and a cold, hardened heart, I went to Matins. During Matins, I could not pray again with all my heart: the heaviness of my head did not allow me - which means that my heart again remained unwarmed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus, I performed the Liturgy unworthily: there was a coldness in my whole being with a chilling lack of faith - I did not see my unworthiness very clearly and could not feel it with all my heart. Only at the end of the liturgy did I finally gather my courage and the touching prayers of the liturgy moved my heart to a feeling of my deep unworthiness and received communion with some significant faith and love. Only the mercy of God did not allow me to fall, seeing my humility and my sighs. Take note of this. The devil plays tricks in the head as well as in the heart; the crown of the head burns. Every day, ask yourself internally: Do I have humility in my heart? Is it planted deeply, if so; and if not, hurry to quickly place it in your heart. Our misfortune comes from a lack of humility: we are sons of perdition without it. In the heart of a person, there is an approximation of him to God, then a distance from God, and at the same time, now peace and joy, now confusion, fear and crampedness; sometimes life, sometimes spiritual death. Approach for the most part happens in sorrow, when no one can deliver us except the Lord, to Whom we turn with all our hearts and, thus, approach Him with all our hearts; and removal is in the contentment and abundance of earthly blessings, which puff up the carnal, old man, and precisely when a person thirsts for wealth, glory, nobility and when, achieving this, he loses faith from the heart and forgets about God - the Judge and the Giver, about the immortality of his soul, about his duty to love God with all his heart and every person as himself. Humility is imperceptibly stolen from the heart, and with its loss, spiritual death occurs gradually, slowly. The killer - the devil - kills the soul gradually. The height of the sacred dignity is proven from the words when the priest puts on sacred robes, from the prayers of evening, morning, liturgical and other services and requirements (prayers during the Sacraments). Just as an unfit person, coming with a request for something to a good, meek and humble person, for the better success of his request, he himself tries to become like him, so a Christian, approaching with prayer to the Lord or His Most Pure Mother, or the Angels, or the saints, for the success of his prayer should become, if possible, like the Lord Himself or His Most Pure Mother, or the Angels and saints. And this is the secret of approaching and quickly hearing our prayers. Look at Constantina as your temptation in life and courageously always overcome this temptation. Why are we often not liked? - Because we don’t love others. Why don't they obey? - Because we don’t obey. Why do we stumble in prayer? – Because we often stumble in sins. Passions are the fruit of a forbidden tree. God forbade touching them and eating them and said: on the day or hour in which you eat from it, you will die [Gen. 2.17]. But the devil says, tempting people: No, you will not die [Gen. 3.4]. A person is seduced by the beauty of passions, eats their fruits and - what? - dies. For some, these fruits are wealth, not in quality, but in quantity (they want to collect as much as possible); for others - a woman, whom they look at criminally, with lust [Matt. 5.28], and then the fruit is torn from it, and so on. With your patience save your souls [Lk. 21.19]. And what we need most of all is to endure the dirty tricks of the devil—in us and outside of us. Endure them courageously and do not be discouraged by them: if you become discouraged, it will be worse; do not indulge in the movements of impatience and cowardice. Do not consider yourself an outcast at the sight of inner evil. Agree: do you need salvation from Gehenna, from hell, into which sin plunges you? Remember what it is like to be in this flame - and remember what it is like to be with the Lord. It is better to be in the rain and cold, it is better to walk naked and barefoot, it is better to endure thousands of insults from others than to sin with unbelief, hatred, envy, stinginess and other sins. Disappear before Christ. Let it not be you who live, but Christ who lives in you. The Lord leads us into temptation or punishes us through Satan: the Corinthian incest; Job. Therefore, thank God when you were handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that your spirit may be saved [1 Cor. 5.5]. And he will exhaust her greatly! What a fire! How cramped! A person is proud and loves another more because he needs him. This weakness in a person often extends to everything religious and sacred. So that he loves God with all your heart and with all your soul [Lk. 10:27 ], let him feel all the need for Him; strike him, keep him in a feeling of constant dependence on Him, in a feeling of his complete poverty, and then he will turn to God - and it will be sincere and ardent. Be afraid of the slightest movement of any passion, otherwise the demon will take possession of you and will laugh cruelly and mock you. The stronger and longer the movement of passion, the stronger the devil will cling to you. Experience. He is especially keen on holidays and holidays. Examples. Into the sermon. If you have love, God is in you, if hatred is the devil; if humility is in you, God is in you, if pride is the devil; if generosity is God, if stinginess is the devil; if there is contentment with what one has, it is God; if there is discontent and envy, it is the devil. Today's education is not education, but disgrace, because it is completely imbued with the spirit of the world, and not the spirit of the Lord, not the spirit of faith and piety. True, there is the Law of God, and although it is put in first place in the program, in reality it turns out to be last; and because of the love for the world [preoccupied] by pupils and pupils, and because of the corruption of human nature by sin, there is little sympathy for him, and without sympathy, what is the use of knowledge? Sympathy introduces all knowledge into life. Add to this secular magazines, breathing completely with the spirit of light, light, playful, filled with caricatured examples of various human passions, at which readers only love to laugh (in general they love to laugh at others, and not to borrow lessons from them for their lives, of which there are few or no examples) - and then judge how to expect from society the Christian spirit, the spirit of salvation, the spirit of churchliness! Neither Christ nor the Cross is there in the heart, only in appearance. Sin cannot in any way be thought of as not from the devil and not originating from the devil (he who commits sin is of the devil [1 John 3:8]), just as sand, for example, cannot be thought of outside the earth from which it was taken. Understand. The Divine Spirit and the Devil's Spirit. In the morning before prayer, do not strain your head at all. Otherwise, you won’t be able to pray with your heart. A heaviness of the head is a sign of the devil. The yoke of the Lord is good. Drink water in the evening before going to bed. About the reflection of a mother’s spiritual mood on the face of a child carried in the womb. Develop. Place the light of Christ in your heart and you will not greedily grasp at the [brought] light. Just as you cannot exhaust the ocean with a sieve, so with your mind you cannot exhaust all truth, the entire mental world. It is folly to chase after all opinions. Woe to those who have destroyed 127 their hearts, that is, woe to those who have lost the sense of the benefits brought to us by the Christian faith; grief - those who have no feelings of gratitude. Sin kills both soul and body and removes it from God; humility and faith always save from sin; impatience (from pride) increases sin. Know that in the transubstantiation of bread and wine the same omnipotent word of the Creator acts, which in the beginning called the world out of nothingness and still calls creatures from non-existence into being. Like creatures from the words of the Creator: grow and multiply [Gen. 1:22], hitherto formed, born and live, accomplished by the Holy Spirit, so the bread and wine in the Eucharist are from the words of the Lord: Take, eat... and drink all of it... [Matt. 26:26–27] through the mediation of the priest (as creatures through the mediation of their parents, and plants through the mediation of male and female organs) have hitherto been transformed by the Holy Spirit into the true Body and true Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The words of the Creator have been sovereignly and creatively heard in the churches of God for more than one thousand eight hundred years and will be heard until the end of the age, just as they will bring creatures into being until the end of the age. I will pass away like smoke and go down into the earth, and my place will not be found, and perhaps my name will not be remembered on earth, but the words of the Lord will still be heard in the churches of God and will not return to Him empty. This is our first concern: to plant in our hearts the first of the virtues - humility. Look how we need humility: Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was humble. He, the God-man, is meek, He says, and lowly in heart [Matt. 11.29]. Who are we that we should be proud of? The Mother of God was humble: She says, God has regard for the humility of His Servant [Lk. 1.48]. Without humility, all virtue is a lost cause. First of all, let everyone know that he is a sinner; and above all, let him beg the Lover of Mankind for mercy (Lord, have mercy), for the forgiveness of sins (church litanies and prayers). Know that first of all you need to know exactly how to cleanse your heart and unite with a pure heart with the Lord, and don’t bother your head with other knowledge, especially don’t be crazy in this regard when you have a feat of prayer ahead of you. Otherwise, chasing after the unimportant, you will lose the most important thing - heartfelt prayer, burning spirit. From what? – From irritation of the head nerves and from the heaviness of the head, in which the destructive heat is concentrated. The Tri-radiant God sees and hears me - this is the most life-giving confidence for the heart, penetrating my heart with peace and joy! The compassionate Mother of God the Word also sees me and hears my prayers and sighs to Her - another comforting confidence that is constantly justified in practice! I will walk in a sense of the omnipresence and omniscience of God! On the day of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Your time has been measured and counted: you see and hear evidence of this clearly every day in the chiming of the clock. The last day of your life will finally come, inevitably, the last hour of departure will strike - and you will no longer be in this world. Each, every strike of the clock calls you, brothers, to prepare for eternity and, as it were, tells you: pay attention: you have less than one hour left until the afterlife, in which there are no hours and days, but one endless day of eternity. Do not be seduced by the temporary sweetness of sin: it will pass like a dream, leaving your soul empty, naked and painful; it takes away the precious time of the soul and ruins it for eternity. The Lord knows how many more of these measures will be measured out for us; These standards of time will still break through, by which we calculate our vain life, but we do not calculate how much we have moved closer to a blessed eternity or how much we have moved away from it by lawless deeds. But - he calls you with the chiming of the clock, he calls you with thunder and lightning and sudden cases of death from God's mercy, that is, from thunderstorms, from fires, from drowning; calls you with sorrows, illnesses, bloody wars, wealth, joys, promotions and distinctions; calls you to the changes of the seasons: blossoming, leaf fall, sunrise and sunset; calls you youth, manhood, decrepit old age, the rising and setting of the sun (your life will set as it rose). Do not waste time in vain in inaction and vain amusements, take care of the unceasing amusements in the Kingdom of Heaven, into which millions of people have passed before you, having achieved peace and joy through the incessant labors of their whole lives, sweat and tears. Hurry to destroy sin in all its forms. What happens to pious people in their spiritual life, what states, changes, phenomena - show on the basis of the canons and prayers of the Canon, the Service Book and the Breviary. About suffering for the truth. Christ the Lord Himself, the Baptist, martyrs, saints. A lesson for modern people. They do not like to endure for the truth and shy away in every possible way due to lack of faith in future rewards. But one must suffer for the truth, rejoicing. Are there martyrs today? Those who suffer for the truth are martyrs. Just as the Savior thirsts for our salvation (thirst [John 19:28]), so does His Most Pure Mother. Therefore, as in everything else, They have one spirit, one desire. We know, Lord, that Your Mother imitates Your love for mankind and does not cease to pray for us sinners. Just as it is impossible to imagine a person without words (without the ability to speak) and breath, so God cannot be imagined without the Hypostatic Word and Spirit. Therefore, the Son of God is called the Word of the Father, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Father God (the Spirit of your Father will speak in you [Matthew 10:20]). The devil, like a madman, rushes first to the head, then to the heart. Before, he was always pinching my heart, but now he was targeting my nerves and brain. My head feels like it's in a frenzy. The most striking proof that there is a devil in the world is that people do not feel or feel very little (although others try) of the mercy of God in creation, providence, redemption: there is a strong counteractor. The heart, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, hears, sees, understands: all life is attributed to the heart. What is it? - Soul. And according to the teachings of the Savior, it is the same. When partaking of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood, try to see them with the eyes of your heart as they are, in all their greatness. If the heart turns out to be unfaithful and refuses to recognize the Mysteries as the true Body and Blood, then tell your flesh: I don’t believe you, lying flesh, which always plunges me into destruction, evil, weak, thin, blind flesh. You want me not to believe everything that is true and holy, but I don’t believe you. Moreover, I always experience that if I take communion with doubt in my heart, I am always scorched by the Holy Mysteries as an unworthy communicant. ABOUT! The flesh is evil and deceitful! Now I understand you: you gradually gain power over all people predatorily, by deception, if you are not resisted with all their might. I don't believe your wisdom. The apostle's commandment: do not be harsh with your wives [Col. 3.19]. Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord [Eph. 5.19]. The priest must have all the attention and respect for the sign of the cross as for Christ. The task of our life is to unite with God, and sin completely prevents this. Therefore, flee from sin as a terrible enemy, as a killer of souls, because without God there is death, not life. Let us understand our purpose: let us constantly remember that the common Master is calling us to unite with Himself. We do not see, but Angels and evil spirits walk the earth and do their work... the devil walks like a roaring lion [1 Pet. 5.8]. Angels of God ascending and descending... [John. 1.51]. On the day of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Seek first the Kingdom of God... [Matt. 6.33.] Christians especially need to have a pure heart, because with the eyes of the heart we need to see God as He is [1 John. 3:2], - with His love for us and with all His perfection; the beauty of the Angels, all the glory of the Lady, the beauty of Her soul and Her greatness as the Mother of God; the beauty of the souls of God's saints and their love for us; you need to see how they are in themselves; one must contemplate the truths of the Christian faith with all its Sacraments and feel their greatness; you need to mature the state of your souls, especially your sins. An unclean heart, occupied with an addiction to earthly things, feeding within itself the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, cannot see anything that we have indicated. Prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God. From here it is obvious that one whose mind and heart are firmly attached to something carnal, for example, to money, to honor, or who has passions in the heart: hatred, envy and others, cannot pray, because passions usually bind the heart, just as God expands it and gives it true freedom. They say: if you don’t want to, don’t pray. Evil carnal wisdom: if you don’t just pray, you’ll completely give up praying—that’s what the flesh wants. No: The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force [Matt. 11,12]. Without self-compulsion to do good you will not be saved. The devil often puts pressure on the heart, closing the eyes of the heart and preventing one from ripening towards the Light - Christ, although the person is strengthening. How obvious are the actions of the evil spirit in us! You just can’t see them through their eyes. I recognized it in spirit. And carnal people recognize the importance of being of a courageous spirit. And they recognize the spirit of man as an important part of the being, although they themselves live in the flesh. Come to Me... I will give you rest [Matt. 11.28]. Christ calls us to His rest. Let's go to Him. You give rest to the old age of your father and mother - and the Lord will give you eternal rest. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you [Matt. 7.2]. I am a lie, and here is the truth. So speak, O man of the flesh, when you come to church. The Cross without love cannot be thought of or imagined: where the Cross is, there is love; in church you see crosses everywhere and on everything - so that everything reminds you that you are in the church of the God of love, in the church of Love crucified for you. In education, it is extremely harmful to develop only the reason and mind, leaving the heart unattended; Most of all, you need to pay attention to the heart: the heart is life, but life spoiled by sin; we need to cleanse this source of life (the issue of the belly [Proverbs 4:23]); you need to light a pure flame of life in him, so that it burns and does not go out and gives direction to all the thoughts, desires and aspirations of a person, his entire life. Society is corrupted precisely because of the lack of such education. It's time for Christians to understand the Lord, what He wants from us, namely: He wants a pure heart: blessed are the pure in heart [Matt. 5.8]. Listen to His sweetest voice in the Gospel: but the true life of our heart is Christ (Christ lives in me [Gal. 2:20]). Learn all the wisdom of the apostle: this is our common task - to instill Christ in the heart by faith. In this I rejoice and in this I glorify and thank the Lord that He cleanses my sins, constantly saves me, delivers me from death and brings me back into spiritual life. To publish in the magazine “Presbyter” a discussion about deacons and clergy; instructions on how they should behave in relation to the priests, to the divine services performed by them; how to behave when singing, reading, exclamations at the altar (in relation to sacred things - the throne, etc.). What is the Mother of God for us sinners? Show from the prayers, canons and chants of the Canon. What is the Lord Jesus Christ for us? How much does He benefit us? Show from the same place, from the Service Book and from the Trebnik. What is God the Father? What is God the Son? What is God the Holy Spirit? If, because of some pretext, the devil arouses hatred towards your brother in your heart (and you begin to be indignant), then be even more kind, even more affectionate towards this brother. Notice: he always arouses dislike because of something carnal, and by this he clearly exposes himself. Remember that God is love [1 John. 4:8,16 ]; remember that Christ loved you to death. And stick to love by all means. Remember that the Savior suffered extreme injustices and insults, but He endured everything and loved everyone. It is not clear how the power of Christ is combined with the sign of the cross and gives it miraculous power - to drive away passions, demons and put the indignant soul to rest. In the same way, it is incomprehensible how the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ unites with bread and wine, transforms them into Flesh and Blood and Himself cleanses our soul from sins, bringing into it heavenly peace and tranquility, making it good, meek, humble, full of heartfelt faith and tenderness. This is partly explained by the fact that the omnipotent, creative Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ is everywhere and everywhere He can even call something that does not exist, as if it exists [Rom. 4.17], especially to make another existing thing out of existing things. And so that a heart of little faith does not think that the Cross or the name of Christ works miraculously on its own, and not by Christ, the same Cross and the name of Christ do not produce a miracle unless I see Christ the Lord with the eyes of my heart or by faith and believe from my heart in all that He has done for our salvation. When the evil one sees that a person is despondent from his wiles, he usually rejoices and kindles his arrows in the heart as much as possible. So, we don’t need to lose heart for a minute, but be strong in spirit and give glory to God for sending this hellish dog to us - so that he, willy-nilly, will force us to turn to the Lord. Do not be afraid of sorrows, but desire them: you are a sinful person, without sorrows how would your salvation be possible? Thank the Lord with all your heart for your sorrows and glorify His justice. God would not be God if he did not punish for every sin. I am with you always, even to the end of the age [Matt. 28,20]. So, Master, You are with us - all the days - we do not live a single day without You, without Your co-presence. You are with us especially in the Sacrament of Your Body and Blood. Oh, how truly and essentially you are in the Mysteries! You clothe yourself, Master, every liturgy with a Body that is subservient to us, except for sin, and feeds us with Your life-giving Flesh. Through the Mysteries You are completely with us: Your Flesh is united with our flesh, and Your Spirit is united with our soul - and we feel, feel this life-giving, premium, sweet connection; we feel that, clinging to You in the Eucharist, we become one spirit with You, as it is said: he who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord [1 Cor. 6.17]. We become like You, good, meek and humble, as You said about Yourself: I am meek and lowly in heart [Matt. 11.29]. True, often the evil and blind flesh, or the prince of this age living in our sinful flesh, whispers to us that in the Mysteries there is only bread and wine, and not the very Body and Blood of the Lord, and sends sight, taste and touch as evil witnesses for this. But we do not allow ourselves to listen to his slander and reason like this: for You, Lord, everything is possible. You create flesh for people, animals, fish, birds, reptiles - all creation: are You not for Yourself - You are everywhere and fulfill everything - do you not create flesh? What sculptor is able to make it for himself? Moreover, You transform dead matter into a living being, for example, the staff of Moses into a serpent, and nothing is impossible for You: Will You not create flesh for Yourself from bread and wine, which are so close to our flesh, being used for food and drink and turning into our flesh and blood? You do not allow our faith to be tempted more than it can suffer; You do not transform the lump of the earth into Your most pure Body and Blood, but white, soft, clean, pleasant-tasting bread; You do not create water with Your blood, but wine suitable to the color of blood (which is called the blood of grapes [Sir. 39.32] in the Holy Scriptures), pleasant to the taste and gladdening the human heart; You know our weakness, the weakness of our faith, and therefore you deigned to use the most suitable substances for the Sacrament of Your Body and Blood. And you could, Almighty, tell us: behold, this skudel is My Body, and this water is My Blood; believe that this is My Body and this is My Blood: I do everything as the Creator and Lord, and nothing is impossible for Me. However, You did not tell us so, knowing our weakness. Let us firmly believe that under the forms of bread and wine we partake of the true Body and true Blood of Christ and that in the Sacrament of Communion the Lord will be with us all the days until the end of the age [Matt. 28,20]. Tobacco is a sweetened pill of the devil, which he gave to the flesh, hiding behind its imaginary need, its senseless lust. The devil does four evils at once through tobacco: he kills precious time, shortens life, produces the most stupid luxury and takes away the daily food of the poor. Believe me, this is so. For all intents and purposes so. Oh, damned, senseless smoking (and sniffing) of tobacco! Look what a plague tobacco is: it has infected everyone - everyone smokes very seriously, as if it were business, and almost constantly, without discerning the time: they get up - they smoke instead of praying, they eat - they smoke, they drink - they smoke, they read, of course, something light, carnal, everyday - they smoke; on weekdays - they smoke, on holidays - they smoke, when the bell calls for worship - they smoke, at home - they smoke, when they come to visit - they smoke, when working - they smoke, from idleness - they smoke; They only sleep - they don’t smoke, and even then in their dreams, in their dreams - they smoke; and everyone and everything - they smoke, they smoke all their lives. Vanity, huge, endless vanity! Brethren! Others! What are we doing? Is life really given to us for smoking? That we smoke everything and everyone so much that because of smoking we almost forget not only to properly carry out our work according to the duties of our service (because even when we are passionate about smoking, we think more about how to go out and smoke), but about the most important matter of our salvation! Understand the cunning of the enemy who acts through our corrupted flesh! Oh, the Spirit of God cannot dwell in these men... they are flesh [Gen. 6.3.] Flesh, flesh - almost all of us, with the exception of a few, because we all live in the flesh, we sow everything in the flesh - and, of course, from the flesh we will all reap corruption, if we do not give predominance to the spirit over the flesh! The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were voluptuous in the satiety of bread and wine, and today’s most educated people, who have left the ancient world far behind them, add to the satiety of bread and wine the stupefying, health-destroying satiety of tobacco! Oh, wonderful progress! Oh, wise progress! Oh, progress that brings us closer to the bottom of hell! What about the progress of heartfelt, living faith? And the progress of Christian love, denying itself not only the superfluous, but also some necessary needs in order to make up for the glaring, terrifying shortcomings of others who do not have their daily piece of bread, the necessary clothing and the necessary shelter? Where are you - true progress? They forgot about you; your name was stolen from you and added to this monstrous, satanic progress! What do we need in soulless, dry, cold enlightenment, which enlightens the mind, but leaves the heart cold, unfaithful, not warmed by love for the true good of humanity? What are your sciences if they do not teach the most necessary, the most important knowledge: the heartfelt knowledge of the Father of bounties - God, and His Son - Christ God, and with Him the Life-giving Spirit? What are your sciences when they remove faith in the life of the future century from the heart and plant in the heart a feverish love for the enjoyment of temporary life, in which a person remembers only himself, forgetting about others? Christ, the true Light, enlighten and sanctify every person coming into the world, enlighten us, surrounded by the darkness of sin! How long will we be the devil's mockery?! (Tobacco weakens the heart, strengthens the flesh over the spirit - this has been tested.) Now we truly know, Lord, that I am worse than all people, without any exaggeration, because I have no love in dealing with them, but some kind of arrogance, pride, suspicion. If... I do not have love, then I am nothing [1 Cor. 13.2]. Carefully monitor your treatment of people and notice: do you treat them with love; If you notice anything in your thoughts and feelings that tends to destroy love, throw it away and be sure to treat it with love and with all the sincere simplicity characteristic of Christian love. What kind of person am I! I do not live, but suffer from a lack of love and patience, while others are calm and happy! O Divine world! Truly you are Divine, because you are from God both in God and in people pleasing to God! It is sweet to have you in my heart and bitter, joyless without you! Experience. When I look with intelligent eyes at the many miraculous icons of the Lady, who received different names from the places of Her appearance, then, remembering Her countless mercies to the faithful, I myself cannot despair of Her intercession. When you feel something in your chest gnawing, burning, consuming, pushing away from God, forcing you to impatience, to irritability, to torment yourself and everything around you and to hatred - then know that it is the devil in you. By their fruits you will recognize them [Matt. 7:16], said the Savior. Temptations of the evil one always contain [...]. We should not be indignant at the deceit of the flesh, or at the enemy’s temptations through the flesh, but to humble ourselves before God and count for nothing the obstacles that he places on us, even if we have fallen many times - sigh, say: Lord, have mercy! Lord, look upon my weakness! And be calm and do not give in to despondency. I am a fallen creature: evidence of this is at every step of my life. How I need humility at every step! How I need a Savior at every step! This, what worries you so much inside, is the struggle of flesh and spirit. Instill in parishioners that after communion they should extremely abstain from eating and drinking heavily. When we lose faith in God from our hearts, then we lose faith in ourselves and become fearful - and this is a worthy retribution for a proud heart, so that it knows that when it rejects God, it at the same time rejects its peace, its bliss. We cannot teach the whole world, we cannot remake it. Teach those for whose ignorance you will have to answer before God. Thoughts of Mikhail Ivanovich Deploransky 128. Grieve over this and sigh often because with your passions you daily delight the enemy of God and man - the devil, and despair of the Lord, Creator and Benefactor. When you are very young or live the life of a sinful world, then you know both Christ the Savior and the enemy of God and man, the all-evil Satan, by just one name and you think that Christ is far from you - in heaven, and the devil is somewhere, just not close or near you, and although you hear that he is here, you think that his anger does not concern you; but when you get older and enter into an ascetic life, when you serve God with a clear conscience, then you will experience on your heart both the good yoke of the Savior and the heavy, unbearable yoke of Satan, who mercilessly insults us. The devil takes the greatest part in the sins of people, therefore, in prayers before confession, sinful people are condescendingly condemned for their sins before the Lord as deceived by the devil. Therefore, no one should consider himself an outcast, even if he were a great sinner: the devil is largely to blame for your sins. Remember Jesus Christ immediately and turn to Him immediately for the forgiveness of your sins. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world [Jn. 1.29 ]; This is why He is the Lamb of God, to take upon Himself and cleanse our sins. A dark, evil force often comes between me and God, between me and my neighbor. I know this from experience, right, logically. Grant me, Lord, to remember the composition out of nothing and the resolution into the earth of the composition of my passionate flesh, so that I may learn humility in my life and respect You, my Creator, in all Your deeds. Our Father! This means that we must have filial feelings before God when we pray to Him, and not stand with a cold heart, indifference or some kind of slavish fear. We must also have brotherly love. How can you not feel in your heart the One whose mercies we use every minute, whose mercies we previously felt and in feeling them found our peace and delight! The sacrifice you make daily to your father is the same as a sacrifice to God: God gave you everything and, in order to see your gratitude, requires you to sacrifice His blessings; your father has given you everything and only demands the daily sacrifice necessary for his sustenance and pleasure. Pay attention. Human! Guard your heart from the first inclinations to sin: if you don’t guard [carefully], it will always easily incline towards any sin and will bring you great torment in life. Peace is the life of human souls, and the Lord alone gives it. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you [Jn. 14.27]. Understand your purpose: the Lord calls everyone for deification, for the most blissful union with Himself. The Savior is my belly; without Him there is no life for my heart; and if the heart died, all of me died. When you do not believe Me (the human form, and if in the Mysteries, then Flesh and Blood), believe My works in order to know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him [Jn. 10.38 ] (what I do in your souls directly speaks of My Divinity: peace of spiritual strength, meekness, humility, love). Our soul is, so to speak, a reflection of the face of God: the larger and clearer this reflection, the brighter and calmer it is; the smaller, the darker, more restless. And since our soul is our heart, it is necessary that every truth of God be reflected in it through feelings, through gratitude, and that there should be no reflection of lies at all. Feel the love of God in the most pure Mysteries; feel the truth of all prayers. Our heart is a mirror; truth as objects of the external world in an ordinary mirror must be reflected with all accuracy in our heart. The flesh is strengthened and has strengthened over the centuries over the human race regarding faith. Thus, it intensifies over time and over every person in all circumstances of life and strives to completely suppress the spirit, its cherished demands and needs. We must resist it with all our might so that it does not overcome us (in faith, in prayer, in the Sacraments). Tobacco, they say, is a child's prank. Let us assume that it is a prank, but if because of it the child is alienated from his father and mother, it is bad; if his prank is harmful to others, it is bad; if it’s to your own detriment, it’s bad. No matter how you look at it, everything is bad. Where is the treasure... [Matt. 6.21]. It is good, very good to be virtuous: a virtuous person pleases both himself and God, and he is kind to people. A virtuous person involuntarily attracts the attention of everyone. Why? – Because the fragrance involuntarily forces you to pay attention to yourself and breathe it in. Look at the very appearance of the virtuous - at his face. What kind of face is this? This angelic face, the meekness and humility spilled over it, involuntarily captivates everyone with its beauty. Pay attention to his speech - it gives even more fragrance: here you seem to be face to face with his soul, and you melt from his sweet conversation. Gloriously be glorified the Lord our God. Follow all the centuries and you will see. All creation is obedient to the word of the Creator, but man is more disobedient than obedient. Air, water, fish, animals, birds... fire (ten plagues). From the history of the earthly life of Christ Jesus. On the day of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Listen to me with simple and humble hearts. It is bad to be a passionate person and to harbor passions: self-love, pride, hatred, envy, stinginess; and for people such a person is disgusting, because the stench of passions naturally repels them from him. What should he be like for God, Who sees him through and through and to whom one unrighteous thought is an abomination? And such a person himself disgusts himself, and is low in his own eyes. Passions are reflected on his face and disfigure his face. To teach a short sacred history so that it serves only as an introduction to a new history, and to show Christ everywhere in the Old Testament history. Sometimes saints see in themselves, as it were, a whole sea of ​​passions, raging with a choking storm, and they pray to the Lord with all their souls to tame this painfully corrupting soul - the sea, and to place it above this spiritual corruption; sometimes they see in themselves a lot of iniquities and ask to cleanse them, sometimes they are sad, as if their soul is full of evil and their life is approaching hell. The consequences of virtues and vices for virtuous and vicious people are sufficient guarantees of the truth that in eternity there will be bliss for the righteous and eternal torment for sinners. Both begin here. Here vice brands itself and others are branded with shame and punished, knowing that it will be to a greater extent there; judge virtue equally. To the heart of a person who loves God and people, prayer is easily given, and the life-giving Mysteries with all their fruits; but to the one who does not love it is not given; for those who have little love - it is difficult and little is given. From the Mysteries, relief from the severity of sins is clearly felt through worthy acceptance; both peace and joy occur after communion in a person. When you have to experience failure in business or in your career, do not be faint-hearted, do not despair, but have the courage or fortitude to endure it generously, knowing that everything on earth is vanity and only faith and virtue are the best, life-giving, inalienable property of man. Say: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord! [Job. 1.21]. (Hope.) Forget your brother’s sins against you - and God will forget your sins. Sometimes darkness will cover your entire soul: barely one hole will remain through which you can see the intelligent Light; but even here do not weaken in looking to the Light - Christ. People attached to the world are covered by the alien darkness of the accursed, and they do not see the light of God’s commandments. Do not love without knowing God, for God loves [1 John. 4.8 ]; This means, do not love the knowledge of the devil, who is hatred. Why, I thought before, telling the truth to my people, did I shout and be indignant in spirit? Now I understand that this came from a lack of love, from a feeling of hatred with which I told the truth. Christian meekness and humility require that we not insult our brother even with a glance or a cold treatment, but that love and cordiality are constantly expressed in our gaze, and in our treatment - warmth and delicacy. Love calms and pleasantly expands the heart, revitalizes it, while hatred painfully constrains and worries it. He who hates others torments, tyrannizes himself, is the stupidest of all fools; and whoever loves is blessed, always calm, cheerful and wise. I have created and I will bear, I will lift up and save you [Isa. 46.4]. Breathe these words. Oh, the abyss of goodness and omnipotence! What will we bring to You, or what will we reward You, O most gifted, Immortal King, for Your gifts of creating us, bearing us and saving us through the Only Begotten, Your beloved Son. Pray more often and more: in prayer you will find life-giving contact with God. Let marriage be about the Lord, and not for passion, that is, for the Christian birth and upbringing of children and in order to have a friend and helper in a wife, and not for carnal and unclean purposes - to satisfy the passions of love of money and fornication. Be strong during the day in every possible way in the fight against passions; otherwise, the devil will tempt you in your sleep with that passion in the fight against which you were unsteady during the day. A radiant Woman, in whose gaze there was something amazingly delighting the soul of grief and the Divine fire burned. Isn't the Wonderful Woman the Mother of God? Everything is permissible for me, but nothing should possess me [1 Cor. 6.12]. And tobacco possesses a person. All tobacco smokers admit that when they don’t smoke for a while, then they feel like they’re missing something and they don’t feel like themselves. And what about the fruits, the fruits of smoking? By their fruits you will recognize them [Matt. 7.16], it is said. Consider impartially these fruits from addictive and excessive smoking of tobacco. When you see the painful destruction of the body, do not murmur against the Lord, but say: the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord! [Job. 1.21]. You are accustomed to looking at your body as your inalienable property, but this is extremely unfair; remember that your body is God's building. Look at the birds: they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them [Matt. 6.26]. Won't it soak you? Be ashamed of your lack of faith. May the sparrow put you to shame. Notice - you lay down your life... for your friends [John. 15:13], for his father. Isn't this the highest honor? Isn't this a feat for the sake of the Lord? Away from me from now on, the demon of stinginess! A passionate person wants to spread his life through passion - and dies from it. Experience of millennia! What kind of high figure is this priest? He constantly has a conversation with the Lord, and the Lord constantly answers his speech; Whatever is required, whatever the prayer, talk with the Lord. Whatever is required, whatever the prayer is, the Lord’s answer to it. When finding passions, how can a priest not remember that passions are low and unclean, especially for him to allow them into his heart, which must always be filled entirely by the one Jesus Christ. The priest is an angel, not a man; he must leave everything of everyday life far behind him. Lord Jesus! Your priests will be clothed with righteousness [Ps. 131.9 ]; may they always remember the height of their calling, and may they not become entangled in the networks of the world and the devil; may the sorrow of this world and the flattery of riches flee from their hearts [Matt. 13:22] and [other] lusts entering their hearts! Numerous and varied are the ways in which the devil enters our soul and removes it from God, pressing upon it with his whole being - gloomy, hateful, killing. Whatever the movement of passion is, it is a path for him - and he does not miss the slightest opportunity to enter into it. The paths of the Holy Spirit are equally numerous and varied: the path of sincere faith, heartfelt humility, heartfelt love for God and neighbors, and others. But the trouble is that the primordial murderer is trying in every possible way to block these paths for us. More common for us sinners, moving away from God to a land far away [Lk. 15.13], the path to God is the path of suffering and bitter tears - crying bitterly [Matt. 26.75]. Both Holy Scripture and experience confirm that in order to get closer to God, a sinner must suffer, shed tears and cry, and correct his double-minded heart. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you; Cleanse your hands, you sinners; straighten your hearts, you double-minded. Contrite, weep and lament [Jas. 4:8–9]. Tears have the power to cleanse the filthiness of our hearts; and suffering is necessary because through suffering the sinful breadth of the heart is salutarily constrained, and it is from the constraint of the heart that tears flow most easily. When the devil is in our heart, then there is an extraordinary, killing heaviness and fire in the chest and heart; the soul is extremely embarrassed and darkened; everything irritates her, she feels disgust for every good deed; he interprets the words and actions of others in relation to himself crookedly and sees in them malicious intent against himself, against his honor, and therefore feels deep, murderous hatred towards them, is furious and rushes to revenge. By his fruits you will know (know) him [Matt. 7.16]. “There are days when an evil spirit disturbs me” 129. When starting to pray to the Most Holy Trinity, pay attention to your heart and lips: what are they? From unclean lips, from a vile heart, from an unclean tongue, from a soul defiled, we usually offer prayers to the Triune God; If possible, cleanse yourself with the deepest humility and heartfelt contrition for your sins. Realize in the depths of your soul that this is exactly what your mouth and heart are like. The truth of the Gospel is such that everything that is said in it regarding us is fulfilled in our lives: the word of the Gospel is deed; the word of the Gospel is spirit and life. The words that I speak to you are spirit and life [Jn. 6.63]. It is a great insult to the good God, the good Mother of God the Word, good Angels and holy people, when during prayer you do not hope for their goodness, you do not expect all that is good and saving from their goodness. When praying, see that your prayer does not go in vain, that it is not just empty verbosity. Notice how often an evil spirit comes to you for love in order to steal it. This is his first concern as long as we live. In order for you to be what you are, how many times did the sun need to rise above the earth and above you? After all, without the sun nothing would grow, and without food you could not live! Remember that God created and raised you. Be convinced finally how meaningless stinginess is: what you want to save is eaten by moths, or you, not wanting to give for nothing, give money or things (to Count Yavorsky), without receiving anything for it, or you lose it, like a cross or a fur coat. Drop the stupidest petty avaritiam 130. These hands that love to take will fold on their chests and take nothing; these legs, which love to do evil and do not love to stand in prayer, will be spread out forever and will not go anywhere else; these eyes, which loved to look with envy at the well-being of their neighbor, will close, and their fire will darken forever and nothing will deceive them; the ear, which was often opened with pleasure to hear slander and slander, will become dead and no thunder will be heard for it; he will hear one trumpet, raising the dead, and then our incorruptible body will rise either in the resurrection of the belly, or in the resurrection of judgment. What will live in us even after death and what should be the subject of all our concerns during life? What we now call the heart, that is, our inner man, our soul. She should be the subject of our care. Purify your heart, brothers, throughout your life, so that it, or your soul, will then be able to see God; take care of the body and its needs as much as is necessary to maintain its health, strength, and decency. Everything will die: the earth will take everything with it. Then try to perfect what in you loves or hates, what is calm or restless, what rejoices or grieves - that is, your heart, or the inner person (what thinks, reasons through your mind). Whoever gives me the jealousy of Phinehas 131, may I mercilessly expose fornication, may I not weaken my soul in relation to virtue and may I not be indifferent to vice! He who loves God hates all those who do iniquity (you have hated all who do iniquity [Ps. 5:6]), hates them with complete hatred so that they are his enemies (I hate them with complete hatred: they are enemies to me [Ps. 139:22]). Pay attention. A teacher should care about his students so much that he considers them everything to himself. Now, he says, we are alive, as you stand in the Lord [1 Thess. 3.8 ]; and again: For who is our hope or joy?.. [1 Thess. 2.19]. Do you see how he cares about the welfare of his disciples no less than his own? Teachers must be superior to the carnal fathers, must be more diligent than them. But children should also have love for them. Submit, he says, to your teachers... [Heb. 13.17]. Tell me: why, while your mentor is subject to such dangerous responsibility, do you not even want to obey him, and, moreover, for your own benefit? At least everything that concerns him was in order - he worries until everything that concerns you is in order, and gives a double account; imagine how much he needs to work and take care of each of his subordinates. What honor can you give him, what service, that would be equivalent to such dangers? You cannot offer anything equal: you have not yet laid down your life for him, but he lays down his life for you. If he does not put it here as circumstances dictate, he will destroy it there, and you do not want to obey him even in words! This is the cause of all evil: due obedience to those in authority has disappeared, there is no shame or fear. Obey, says the apostle, your teachers, but now everything is perverted and overthrown. I say this not for the sake of those in charge - what benefit will they receive from our honor, even if we are extremely obedient to them? - but for your own benefit. If we respect them, they will not receive any benefit from it for themselves in the future life, but they may still be subject to great condemnation; if they insult, they will not suffer any harm from it in the future life, but they may still have more excuses. No, for your own sake I wish it to be so. When superiors are respected by their subordinates, this does not even turn out to their advantage, as for example, God said to Elijah: I chose you from your father’s house, and when they are insulted, as for example happened to Samuel, then God says: they did not reject you, but they rejected Me (1 Sam. 8:7). Thus, insult serves them in favor, but respect serves as a burden. So I say this not for their sake, but for yourselves. He who honors the priest will also honor God; and whoever begins to despise the priest will one day gradually reach the point of insulting God. Whoever receives you, said the Lord, receives Me [Matt. 10.40 ]; give honor to His priests, it is said elsewhere (Num. 18:8). The Jews began to despise God because they despised Moses and threw stones at him. He who reveres the priest will reverence all the more before God. Even if the priest were wicked, God, seeing that out of reverence for Him you honor even those unworthy of honor, will Himself reward you. If anyone receives a prophet, in the name of the prophet, as the Lord says, he will receive the reward of a prophet [Matt. 10:41], then, of course, the one who respects the priest, listens to him and obeys him will receive a reward. If in the matter of hospitality, when you do not know whom you are accepting, you receive such a reward, then much more will you receive it when you obey the one whom the Lord commands to obey. In Moses' seat, He said, they sat down... 132 [Matt. 23.2.] Don't you know what a priest is? He is the angel of the Lord. Is he speaking his own way? If you despise him, then you despise not him, but the God who ordained him. How do you say it is known that God ordained him? But if you do not have conviction of this, then your hope is vain, for if God does not do anything through him, then you do not have Baptism, you do not partake of the Mysteries, you do not receive blessings, and, therefore, you are not a Christian. How, you say, does God really ordain everyone, even the unworthy? God does not ordain everyone, but He Himself acts through everyone, even if they are unworthy for the salvation of the people. If He spoke to the people through a donkey and Balaam, a wicked man (Num. 22), then much more through a priest. What does God not do for our salvation? What doesn't he say? Through whom does it not work? If He acted through Judas and through those prophets who say: I do not know you... depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness (Luke 13:27; Matt. 7:23), and who cast out evil spirits, then much more will He act through the priests. When we begin to examine the life of leaders, we ourselves want to be ordainers of teachers, and thus everything is perverted: the legs become at the top, and the head at the bottom. Listen to Paul, who says: It means very little to me... 133 (1 Cor. 4:3) and also: Why do you condemn your brother?.. 134 (Rom. 14:10). If one should not condemn a brother, then even less a teacher. If God commanded you to do this, you would do well, and you would sin if you did not do so; but if on the contrary, then do not be impudent and do not go beyond your limits. When the calf was made, Aaron’s accomplices rebelled against Aaron: Korah, Dathan and Abiron, but what, didn’t they die? Everyone - take care of your own affairs. Do not listen to anyone who teaches wrong teaching, even if he were an Angel; and if someone teaches the right teaching, then look not at his life, but at his words. But, you will say, the priest does not give to the poor and does not manage things well. How do you know this? Before you know for sure, do not blame, be afraid of responsibility. Many people are convicted on suspicion. Imitate your Lord; listen to what He says: I will go down and see whether they are doing exactly what the cry is against them, rising to Me, or not; I will know (Gen. 18:21). Even if you have learned, researched and seen, and then wait for the Judge, do not anticipate the right of Christ; He has the right to judge, not you; you are the last slave, not the Lord; You are a sheep, do not judge the shepherd, lest you be punished for what you accuse him of. But why, you say, does he tell me, but doesn’t do it himself? - He doesn’t say it himself. If you obey only him, you will not receive a reward, Christ commands you. What am I saying? Even Paul should not have been obeyed if he had said anything of his own, anything human, but he should have been obeyed as an apostle, having Christ in him, who spoke through him. Let us not judge other people's affairs, but each his own; explore your own life better. But, you say, the priest should be better than me. - Why? Because he is a priest. What does he not have more than you? Is it labors, dangers, worries or sorrows? How is he not better than you, having all this?.. In any case, if you consider yourself better than another and do not sigh, do not hit yourself in the chest, do not bow your head, do not imitate the publican, then you have ruined yourself, even if you were really better. Are you better than the other? Be silent, so that you remain the best; and as soon as you speak, you will lose everything. If you think about yourself like that, then you are no longer like that; and if you don’t think like that, you’ll gain even more... Tell me: if you, having received a wound, come to a hospital, then, instead of applying medicine and treating the wound, will you begin to find out about the doctor, whether he has a wound or not? And if he has, do you care about it? And because he has it, do you leave your wound without healing and say: he, as a doctor, should have been healthy, but since he, being a doctor, is himself unhealthy, then I leave my wound without healing? So it is here: if the priest is not good, will this be a consolation for the subordinate? Not at all. He will receive a certain punishment - you will also receive what you deserve and deserve. The teacher performs only the service. All will be, says the Scripture, taught by God (John 6:45) and will not say: “Know the Lord,” for all themselves will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest (Jeremiah 31:34). Why, you say, does he occupy such a place? “Let us not, I admonish you, speak ill of teachers, let us not talk about them, so as not to harm ourselves; Let us examine our affairs and not speak ill of anyone... In a father, even if he has countless weaknesses, the son covers up everything; do not seek... 135 (Sir. 3:10–13). If this is said about carnal fathers, then all the more must it be said about spiritual fathers. Be ashamed: he serves you every day, offers to read the Scriptures, decorates the house of God for you, watches for you, prays for you, stands before God and intercedes for you, makes petitions for you, performs all his ministry for you. Be ashamed of this, imagine this and approach it with all reverence. Is he not good? But tell me, what of this? And does a good man himself impart great blessings to you? No! Everything happens according to your faith. And the righteous will not benefit you at all if you are an unbeliever; and the wicked will not harm you at all if you are a believer. God also acted through oxen at the ark when He wanted to save His people. Can the life of a priest or virtue accomplish anything like this? The gifts of God are not such that they depend on priestly virtue: everything comes from grace; The priest’s job is only to open his mouth, but God does everything; the priest performs only visible actions... There is not a single person who would stand as far from another as John (the Baptist) from Jesus, and, however, the Spirit descended on Him at the Baptism of John, so that you would know that God arranges everything, that God does everything. I want to say something wonderful, but don’t be amazed or embarrassed. What is it? The offering in the Eucharist is the same, no matter who makes it, Paul or Peter; it is the same that Christ taught to His disciples, and the priests do the same now; this is in no way lower than that, for this too is not sanctified by people, but by God Himself, who sanctified it even then. Just as the words now uttered by the priest are the very ones that the Lord spoke, so the offering is the same; Equally, the Baptism is the same, which He administered. So everything depends on faith... And this offering is the Body of Christ just like that; and whoever thinks that it is lower than that does not know that Christ is both now present and now active. (On the 2nd Epistle to Timothy, Chrysostom's conversation. Christian reading for 1859) The flesh or the devil inclines us to sin, either through sinful indolence, relaxation of the heart, or through the heaviness of sin, promising to remove it if you commit that sin that lies against our will in the heart. Oh Satan! O flesh! The gifts of the Lord should not be kept to oneself, but poured out on others; the example is nature: the sun does not hold light in itself alone, but pours it onto the earth and the moon. Especially shepherds should not keep their light, or, better, God’s, to themselves, but abundantly shed the light of their mind and knowledge on others. Develop. Humanity, corrupted by sin, had a need for renewal; human hearts, dried up from all kinds of evil deeds, were in dire need of the dew of God’s grace. Everyone was looking for Christ, everyone, and Andrei was looking. Why? He rejoiced when he found it, and said to his brother with joy: they have found the Messiah [Jn. 1.41]. It seems that we do not need to look for Christ: Who is more familiar to us and Who is closer to us, it seems, if not Christ. We see His most pure Face both at home and in church, and we ourselves often have His sweetest name in our mouths, and in the Church of God we glorify it so often! It seems that there is no need to search: they are looking for what they do not have, but what they need - and we have. But it is necessary to search: the majority do not have Christ in their hearts; Instead of Christ, hearts are completely occupied with something else, which is contrary to Christ. Let us seek Him with all zeal and diligence: we will overcome everything, we will not look at anything, at any obstacles presented by the charming world, the evil flesh and the devil. The Holy Apostle Andrew, having found Christ, did not separate from Him in heart throughout his entire life, endured great labors, sorrows and illnesses of evangelistic labors and laid down his life for Him on the cross. So, in order not to be separated in heart from Christ, we must also endure a lot from the people of this age who hate the servants of Christ, and from our original invisible enemy, the devil, who will try in every possible way to separate you from Christ and stand in the way between you and the Lord. Stand strong. For general edification, we will tell you how the holy Apostle Andrew ended his glorious life. They were waiting for a Deliverer from heaven, who would help the common grief. From the Holy Scriptures very many knew that the Deliverer must come now; It was time for the prophetic predictions to come true. What are our hearts doing? One God, who tests our hearts and bellies, sees what happens in all of us in our hearts, to which it is attached during most of our lives, and if the Lord gave us to see the whole depth of human hearts, then our eyes would turn away with horror from this accumulation of all uncleanness: adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy, pride and other things. What abomination we would not see in him: the abomination of ingratitude to God, forgetfulness of God, unbelief, lack of faith; various attachments to earthly things, often the most absurd; carelessness about heavenly things, about one’s fate beyond the grave; inattention and disdain for the Church, its worship, its rituals and statutes, disdain for sacred persons, representatives of the faith and the Church - and who knows what kind of abomination they would not see? Look into your own heart and say before your conscience: what are your hearts most occupied with? Aren't these ordinary and everlasting passions the inhabitants of your hearts: anger, hatred, condemnation, envy, stinginess, ambition, arrogance, drunkenness, gluttony, vanity, covetousness, adultery, fornication, deception, theft and the like? Now do you see if Christ is in you, if He lives in your hearts? Ah, Sweetest Jesus, our Life, Peace and Sweetness of worthy hearts, our Joy, our Treasure - where are You? Where are you, where do you live? - In pure hearts, in pure hearts, brothers, in pure hearts - where they do not insult Him with little faith or unbelief, offensive indifference to Him, our God and Redeemer, where they do not prefer to Him the temporary sweetness of sin, where He is valued, where they are attentive to Him at all times and at every hour. He lives there. And what is He doing there? Oh, if you only knew what He does in worthy hearts - in these centers of human life, in this seat of souls! If you only knew how He comforts, delights, and delights these hearts and how blessed these hearts are to Him! Brethren! The Lord is our Life-Giver, and with Him a person can live a full life, a true life, but without Him, what kind of life? This life that we spend without Him is only, so to speak, the scraps of life, the scraps of life, a grain from a rich table, horns or acorns that pigs eat. ABOUT! If you would experience in your hearts the words of the Lord: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives, that is, light, I give you [Jn. 14:27], - then you would not want to part with this heavenly world, which makes you completely blissful and with which you are as if in paradise before actual paradise? Yes, people who have Christ and the peace of Christ in their hearts say that there is nothing more pleasant in the world than this peace, this bliss. Since Christ - everywhere and everything - fills the whole world with Himself, it is impossible that He would not be close to each of us and that He would not touch you and me, beloved brother. Yes, He certainly does, and very often; Moreover, He often stands at the doors of your heart and knocks on them, so that you open them with faith and love for the Savior, and if you open, He will certainly come to you and have dinner, that is, talk with you. Oh! How He often talks with His faithful servants, as with true friends. What should God's conversation be like? So, you see, beloved brothers, Christ Himself is looking for you; you only need to go to meet Him, and as soon as you go to Him, you will surely, undoubtedly meet Him: what is easier to meet with the omnipresent God, Whose dominion is in every place; May you find Him forever, so that everyone may leave his advice... Against stinginess, have the following weapon ready: when guests arrive and they are offered food and drink, remember then how merciful and generous the Lord is to you without any measure, what countless spiritual benefits (especially spiritual: the cleansing of sins, the Body and Blood of the Savior) and physical, material He has given you; and at the same time, imagine how unimaginably small in comparison with God’s gifts to you is that part of God’s gifts (not yours - what do you have that you have not received? [1 Cor. 4:7]) gifts that are offered from your property to your brethren. And then, with perfect cordiality, treat your neighbors. The Spirit gives life [John. 6.63]. It is the Spirit of the Lord who gives life to creatures from the time of their creation; and to the Son of God - creation, their translation from non-existence into being. Therefore, the Body and Blood of Christ are transformed by the Holy Spirit from bread and wine, just as in the womb of the Most Pure Virgin they were created by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit creates us in our mother's womb; Our spiritual blessings belong to the Spirit of God. Is it necessary to laugh at someone possessed by passion, as in the theater? After all, this means adding fuel to the fire. Every passion is accompanied by pride, as is the work of Satan, who is proud. The passionate person needs to point out his passion with meekness and love and show all its disgustingness, and pray for him from the bottom of his heart to God. If you like people to be generous to you when visiting, be generous yourself when you have guests; If you love to be treated cordially, treat yourself cordially. When you find the passion of stinginess, say: such and such eats and drinks his own, not mine: what do you have that you would not receive [1 Cor. 4.7] from God? I am a distributor, a steward of God's gifts. And the dogs of the same yard and kittens live cheerfully, playing friendly with each other, not caring about anything and satisfying their hunger within themselves; and the miser is gloomy, sad and gloomy, unkind, cold in dealing with others - recklessly consumed by greed and stinginess, not relying on God's bounties, abundantly poured out on all creatures. Oh, blindness! The miser is also afraid for his future expenses, for future visits to relatives and friends. But we must, in spite of it [stinginess], rejoice at visiting relatives and friends and the opportunity to show them hospitality. For a miser there is no virtue of hospitality and hospitality. He looks at everyone coldly from the side of his money, his murderous greed! He cools everyone with his gaze. Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing [Matt. 6:3], that is, if you are married, then let your wife not know what good deed you have done. Throughout their entire earthly life they seek everything except Christ the Giver of Life - that is why they do not have spiritual life, and that is why they are given over to all sorts of passions: unbelief, lack of faith, greed, envy, hatred, ambition, the pleasures of food and drink. Only at the end of their life do they seek Christ - in communion, and then - out of blatant necessity, and then - as if according to a custom accepted by others. O Christ God! Life and our Resurrection! How fussy we have become, how blind we have become! And what would happen to us if we were looking for You, if we had You in our hearts! The soul cannot express the bliss that those who have You in their hearts taste. You are for them strong food and inexhaustible drink, bright hope and sun and peace that surpasses all understanding [Phil. 4.7], and unspeakable joy, and everything and everything. With You everything earthly is dust and decay. (From the akathist.) The flesh should be hated, because the devil nests in it, in its lusts; Therefore, with the lust of fornication, hate it; when she is jealous, hate her; hates - hate; stingy - hate. Our soul often has conflict with demons. Everywhere in matter there is either spirit or invisible force (law); but an unclean spirit also operates in the human body, admitted into it by freedom, by allowing the spirit of malice into itself through the soul - through agreement with it in thought and desire (the forbidden fruit and the history of temptation). About the relationship of each Person of the Most Holy Trinity to the world and to people. Through the laws invested by God or the human mind (Divine laws) into matter, matter is animated, moves and moves other bodies: planets - their movement (in a mill - millstones, in a car - wheels). You see, the spirit also acts in dead (apparently) matter - through its laws, sovereignly subordinating it to itself and making anything out of it. (Look, I say, at the forces and laws contained in matter, and at the countless variety of forms that man gives to gross matter: after all, these forms are an expression of the known laws of the spirit, and the form is, so to speak, the life of the substance that the spirit gave him). Now apply this principle to the entire material world. It all consists of laws and is subject to these laws; and these laws are obviously the work of the all-wise, all-good and all-powerful Spirit. This spirit is God. You see that the mill is grinding (and note that the millstones are soulless and nothing in the mill has a soul). Stop just one lever, one wheel, and the mill will stop; in the same way, a machine moves with the speed of an arrow and moves with it a multitude of living and bulky creatures; but there is no soul in it either; her soul is made up of forces and laws given by the Creator to nature, noticed by man and applied by him to the needs of life - even, for example, to this machine. This is exactly how the Spirit of God, all-wise, all-powerful, put His laws into the dead and ugly matter of the world, and these laws are power and, at the same time, order and movement of matter; and watch how this boundless machine - the world - has been rushing around for several thousand years; how the bodies of the world excite others to movement and support them; as on each individual world body, the forces: light, heat, centrifugality, attraction and the laws of the Spirit of God animate each substance; how it moves and moves others, etc. etc. Since man was created in the image and likeness of God, he also does something similar to what God created, using the ready-made forces and laws of nature given by God; and he does the works of God in a small way (a mill is a semblance of worlds; a car, its wheels, too; just as a car, a steam locomotive, is carried by the power of steam, so all the worlds, by the power of the laws put into them by the Creator, rush in the boundless spaces of the universe). God do not vivify matter through His Spirit and deprive them of His laws, which are spirit and life [Jn. 6.63], - all worlds will become, all worlds will crumble (because even a stone exists on the basis of the law of cohesion; take away this law - and it will disintegrate; and grains of sand - cohesion) and will be destroyed. Here is an example of this: the destruction of a leaf or grass, when the power of nature, exhausted by its activity in the summer, abandons them; death, the decomposition of animal bodies, including human ones, when the spirit, unable to live in a disordered body (in which the laws given to matter have become disordered and cannot contain matter in such a form that the soul could live in it and control it) leaves it. That's what the whole world means; This is what the laws of the Spirit - God - mean to him! People die because they have not preserved and do not preserve the laws of the Spirit - God (the laws of life); and they were created with sufficient powers for immortality. The devil is treacherous over man day and night: he constantly strives to plunge him into sin, to kindle passions in him, but especially the passions of hatred and adultery; he quarrels with others in reality, he amuses himself with you in his dreams, forcing you to produce soul-tearing pictures of enmity; he arouses in you the fire of voluptuousness in reality, he presents to you instantly and charmingly pictures that arouse voluptuousness in a dream, and plunges you into the feces of voluptuousness. I understand you, ethereal enemy, despite the fact that you are trying in every possible way to hide your tail. I will be as careful as possible, with the help of my Lord. What, just think, is an insignificant web for God - the whole world and all earthly creatures! Only God take away His Spirit, His laws, and everything will be as it never happened. Let us remember the Wise One, Who says that the world is like the shaking of a scale or like a drop of morning dew falling to the earth [Wis. 11.23]. It is expressively said in the Holy Scriptures that the world is put together by God, that is, as if molded. What are the responsibilities of the Guardian Angel towards us and what does he do for us? Important responsibilities, and he does a lot for us. From the canon to the Guardian Angel. If there is no life in you, but there is sorrow, heartache, then you do not have the Life-giving Spirit, you have offended Him, and in you is the one who has the power of death [Heb. 2.14]. When we sin, we feel that our heart dies first; just as, when justified or saved by the Lord from sins, the heart also comes to life first of all. The kingdom of life and the kingdom of death go side by side: I say they go, because they are spiritual. The head of the first, that is, the kingdom of life, is Jesus Christ, and whoever is with Christ is undoubtedly in the realm of life; the head of the second, that is, the kingdom of death, is the prince of the power of the air - the devil with the spirits of evil subordinate to him, of which there are so many that it far exceeds the number of all people living on earth. (These children of death, subjects of the prince of the air, in a constant, stubborn war with the forces of life, that is, with faithful Christians, and with all measures of cunning, try to win them over to their side through some sin: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, because sin, crime is their element, and through sins, if we do not repent of them, we go over to their side; those for whom sins constitute, as it were, They do not bother with daily needs, which drink iniquity like water, because they are their property while they live carelessly about their souls; but if they only turn to God, acknowledge their sins, voluntary and involuntary, - and the war will flare up: the hordes of Satan will rise up and wage a continuous war...) From here you see, brethren, how necessary it is to seek Christ as the Author of life, conqueror of hell and death. When passions overcome you and you become weak in the fight against them, sing from your heart: You are my strength, Lord, You are my strength, You are my God, You are my joy. Every sorrow and oppression comes either from a lack of faith, or from some passion hidden inside, or from some other impurity visible to the All-Seeing One, and, therefore, because there is no Christ in the heart (Christ is peace, freedom of spirit and ineffable light), because there is a devil in the heart. I often swing my spiritual sword, that is, the cross, and cut with it - what do you think? - my womb. Because our spirit is in our insides, and it wages a continuous struggle against invisible enemies, like itself. And how sharp, brethren, is this sword; he greatly wounds my enemies, so that they leave the battlefield and run away from me; the soul suddenly feels peace. This clearly happens. You just don’t see it, but you feel it perfectly, just like a patient feels that the wound that hurt him before has now healed. A strange phenomenon happens with passions. According to the proverb - knock out a wedge with a wedge - one passion is driven out by another: a stingy person, drunk and drunk, becomes generous and is ready to put everything on the table. So it is with other passions. This means that there is an ethereal villain hidden in passions, but he doesn’t care: whatever it is, just serve him, he doesn’t argue here - he’s cunning! How not to seek Christ? After all, He alone has the power to forgive sins, and who are we all if not sinners? The air and the breath of the wind, the breath of creatures in the material world correspond to the spirits created in the spiritual world, and to the most uncreated, All-Life-giving Spirit of God. That is why the Spirit appeared, by the way, in a stormy breath; That’s why the Savior likens the breath of the wind to the breath of the Spirit of God in the souls of believers. In the material world there is a lot that corresponds to the spiritual world - and it is not surprising: because the material world is the creation of the Spirit, and how can the Spirit, the Creator, not show in part His image, affinity in the creatures He created. Man is only the highest possible image of God among creatures, those involved in matter and the purely material. Kissing the lips corresponds to kissing the soul, and when we kiss the shrine, we must kiss with our lips, soul and heart. The Lord marvelously and powerfully rules the material worlds - and all through His wisdom, through His word. Just as particles of an animal’s body, wood, grass, stone are held together by cohesion, so all worlds are held together by the forces and laws invested in them. Just as the soul carries the body and animates it, so God bears the world, enlivening it with His Spirit - it is not for nothing that man is called a small world. What an insignificant web for God is the world! What an insignificant web my body is. And everything is wisdom at every point of matter; and everything is held together by wisdom, by the eternal laws of wisdom. O wisdom! Wisdom! We all owe our existence to you - your good Culprit! My death, my decay or destruction clearly proves how insignificant I am in Your web! The meek and humble Mother of God (look for humility [Luke 1:48]) gave birth to Jesus, meek and humble in humanity. These are His Motherly properties. A lesson for mothers when they are pregnant. The devil still whispers to people: no, you will not die [Gen. 3.4], closes the fear of the hour of death from people, destroys the fear of eternal torment, pulls out the Last Judgment from memory and erases from the memory and heart the torment caused by sin here on earth. The devil is trying in every possible way to hide the bright face of people from us and present it as dark. Be extremely careful not to look at people through his eyes. What is the sign that a Christian person is close to Christ? A person close to Christ often turns to Christ with faith and love, often pronounces His sweetest name, often calls on Him for help, often turns his eyes to Him, because he cannot help but pronounce, turn his gaze and call: filling his thoughts and heart, Christ God naturally appears on his tongue and in his eyes, because without Christ he is weak, powerless, joyless. A person who is far from Christ rarely, rarely turns his thoughts to Christ, and then not with heartfelt faith and love, but only out of some necessity, and then as a Person who is little known to his heart, who does not please or delight his heart, and does not have all the attractiveness for him. That is why we see that people close to Christ do not let Christ out of their thoughts and hearts, they live by Him: He is their breath, food, drink, clothing, home - everything; Because of the sweetness of the name and the gracious touch of Jesus Christ on them, they, so to speak, stick to Him with their whole being (my soul clings to You [Ps. 62.9 ]) and in this clinging they find for themselves an indescribable bliss that the world does not know. Here, brethren, are the signs by which one can know who has found Christ and who has not yet found Him; those who have not found Christ live in this life without heartfelt faith, they think and care more about everyday things: how to have fun, drink sweets and eat; how to dress more elegantly, how to satisfy their lusts with which they burn day and night; as if to kill time, which they don’t know what to do with, although time is looking for them and, not finding them, quickly rushes in their eyes: days after days fly by, nights after nights, months after months, years after years, until finally the last, terrible hour strikes and they say to him: stop, your course is completed, your time is measured and your sins and iniquities have all come before you, and with all their strength they will fall on you, and with their weight they will forever suppressing you. In the evening, after the labors of the flesh and spirit, the human composition begins to disintegrate, the density between the particles becomes weaker - it is necessary to unite them, to revive them; and now the house of the human body is locked all around: all feelings cease to act, and the soul, the vital principle in relation to our body, seems to be locked in our body and, during the sleep of our body, carries out the work of revitalizing it, unites the entire composition of the body, penetrating into all its parts and compositions; and in the morning the person becomes fresh and strong again. You see what the soul means for a person, and not only for a person, for every animal: it is the life principle for a person and for an animal, that is why animals sleep; sleep is the triumph of the spirit over the flesh: as the spirit is, it gives life [John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3.6], it revitalizes the body, requiring revitalization and reinforcement; As for plants, which also live, get tired and require rest, then instead of the daily sleep of animals, in the evening and at night they release nitrogen from themselves - an unusable air principle and take into themselves, for their strength, for their life, oxygen, and thus they also have their sleep: they release unnecessary, non-nutritious, destroying their life, and take in what nourishes, strengthens, revitalizes them. How much wisdom of the Creator is here! But there are those who do not want to see in this process of life of animals and plants the wisdom of God, but everything - nature and nature, as if nature without a Parent, or, more precisely, without a Creator, Who made such amazing powers and laws innate to it - there could be such wise deeds! Oh, I see God everywhere: in the density of stone, and in the density (the law of adhesion of bodies) of wood and all plants, and in the density of the bodies of animals and humans, not to mention the laws of their life: about the nutrition of plants, fruitfulness, and so on. Everywhere, everywhere I see God! In order for you to be what you are now, many conditions were required, many gifts from the Lord: the sun had to rise above you many times, many changes of the year had to take place, you needed a lot of food, drink, clothing, fresh air, fire; a lot of careful care for you, so that you don’t hurt yourself, don’t crash in infancy, so that you don’t get sick, so that you become educated and well-behaved. After all, all this has been forgotten, but if you bring everything back to memory, then you will be horrified at how dear you are to God, your parents and good people. Remember more often about your past life, bring to mind the great and varied mercies of God, the tender care of your parents and the care and concern of your superiors and mentors and all the people who had beneficial relations with you, and always carry within you a tender, kind and grateful heart. The closeness of a saint or saint to us can be recognized by frequent, sincere, loving invocation of them. Lake of Fire [Rev. 20.15 ]! ABOUT! What kind of lake is this! Imagine how scary it is. Whoever does not turn to Christ with faith, heartfelt contrition and humility, and does not pray to Him with all his heart for deliverance from sins, will certainly plunge into this lake. Are we seeking Christ? We are not looking, but looking for something completely different, which is contrary to Christ. It's dangerous. Why should we seek Christ? He alone delivers from sin - and we constantly sin; one delivers from spiritual death; with the help of Him alone we can do good deeds. How to seek Christ? In prayer, in calling upon Him frequently, in the Sacraments of Repentance and Confession. Christ is not far away, and He Himself is looking for us: I stand at the door [Rev. 3:20] - and calls to Himself all those who labor and are burdened with sins, and Himself helps to find Himself. How do I know: am I close or far from Christ? Solemnly, from the heart I sing to you, Cross: Your height, Life-Giving Cross, beats the airy prince: and the depth (lower end) of the whole abyss slays the serpent, the breadth again imagines, overthrowing the worldly prince with your strength 136. I sing this as a reality that often repeats itself. His heart was not right with Him (God) [1 Kings. 11.4 ]; heart is soul. Having admitted that the heart is the soul of man, the words of the Savior, pure in heart, will be completely understandable... They will see God [Matt. 5.8], that is, the soul will see God. And here we notice this in part - having heard it with a kind and kind heart... with a kind soul. Sins bind us, make us slaves. He who seeks Christ does not run away from the sufferings and sorrows that happen to him in life, but complacently endures them, looking at the Love crucified for him on the cross; he reads the word of God, he is diligent in prayer, in almsgiving, in fasting - because the example of Christ is dear to him: Christ did this, which means it is very necessary for me (about fasting); was merciful - be merciful and you will find Christ in the face of the poor: I was sick and you visited Me [Matt. 25,36]. The action of an evil spirit is clearly revealed in the heart by the fact that sometimes, due to an insignificant reason for which we are not to blame and for which we should love a dear or charitable person more, we feel in our hearts hatred towards him, destroying him. A drunken man, opening his mouth in front of the king, thereby insults his majesty and, not receiving mercy from him, is sometimes punished for this. A sinner who prays without humility in his heart offends God’s majesty and not only does not receive mercy from Him, but is also subject to punishment from Him. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you [Jas. 4:7], that is, resist internally the devil who is working in your heart and forcing you to evil, and he will flee from you. When you suffer punishment for sin, do not feel anything more in your suffering heart than the highest, holy respect for the laws of the Almighty, and do not try to quickly get rid of heartbreak or other punishment, but rather be willing to endure it complacently. Without Me you can do nothing [Jn. 15.5]. Without Him we cannot do any truly good and useful deeds; Without Him, all our good deeds are imbued with the impurity of passions - self-love, ambition, arrogance, self-interest. Sins and iniquities and the responsibility for them are so undoubted and they are so clearly shown to us by the just God that they appear in the soul in the form of fire, destroying the peace and tranquility of the spirit, both soul and body, and flow out in the form of burning water, called tears; therefore, if this water does not flow out here, it will turn into a lake of fire there. This is all so that we see our iniquities and our guilt and do not blame ourselves before God. When you endure sorrow and tightness in your heart, then imagine that the Lord says to you: you are not with Me, the Source of life, peace and joy, but with the devil, the leader of spiritual death in all its forms (sorrow, tightness, despondency, fear or embarrassment, doubt, lack of faith, unbelief) and physical; you are not in My region - the region of truth and holiness and life, but in the region of sin, uncleanness and death - and that is why you feel so bad. Turn to Me, hate the sin that binds you, and follow My commandments - and it will be good for you. These words are taken from real life, from frequently repeated experience. This is the key to our sorrows, this is where the keys of life and death are! Harm from drinking sweet tea (stickiness, sugariness): relaxation, bliss of the insides and genitals, frequent ejaculation of semen. There is especially no need to drink sweet tea during Lent: whoever drinks sweet tea does no better than someone who eats a modest meal during Lent - although tea does not burden the body like meat, dairy and butter foods, it is very tender to the flesh and often immerses it in the feces of fornication and adultery. It seems that the reason is insignificant, and yet how much harm it does to our purity: if there were no sweet tea, there would not be such frequent nightly outpourings; there would be fewer reasons for Satan to defile us with voluptuous pictures: he sees the disposition of our body to ejaculate semen and uses this disposition for his gloomy views! And the doctors! ABOUT! Doctors! You, together with Satan, are setting humanity on fire to fornication and adultery, and with your mind, your knowledge, your experience, imperfect, half-true, you serve the prince of the power of the air. How many people have I met who, to justify their Jupiter adventures, refer to the necessity of nature, and specifically to the advice of doctors, saying that it is impossible to live without it, otherwise accumulation will settle on the chest and upset it; that without this, people who do not allow themselves these adventures are either onanists (clairvoyants are adulterers in a dream), or homosexuals. Not true. All who lead a virgin life are rebelling against you. ABOUT! How carefully should a Christian consume food and drink? How careful you should be with women you meet in reality! For one overly affectionate glance, for one not entirely chaste word, or for one gentle handshake, you can pay in a dream in the most vile way. Why is there no circumcision now? Because now a spiritual law is being fulfilled, according to which they do not care about the flesh, but are only concerned about souls, things that are immortal. How fruitful was the bearing of the Spirit of God over the original waters! Until now, life is in full swing and strives to spread and expand; How much intelligence and art are in animals, given by the Spirit of God during the initial wearing! Wonderful are your works, Lord! Cards. The devil saw that people love to pour from empty to empty. So he circles them in the cards. And how much of this transfusion is there, how much precious time for the immortal soul is wasted on them! Our mind should be occupied with objects more worthy: after all, it is a shade of the Divine mind! Our God is called the God of Salvation because of the frequent salvation of us from sins and the spiritual death inseparable from them. The Lord is here. There is a Lord in this place [Gen. 28.16]. When, after any sin of yours, a fierce sorrow of your heart befalls you, weakening your entire being and not allowing you to do anything, then, uttering with faith the words: invincible, incomprehensible, Divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross, do not forsake us sinners, draw the sign of the cross on your belly - and surely, your sorrow will pass, and you will certainly glorify the Lord. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me [Ps. 49.15]. When my heart is in God and sees Him, then it is good for me: I am calm and cheerful; and when the heart falls away from God through some sin, it is bad for me: I am restless and despondent. If I return to God again, I feel good again. What kind of existence is this with us! So it is ready to collapse every day, and so it threatens us with disappearance every day, reminding us of this with hunger, thirst and the demand for peace. Oh! It is nothing more than a shadow of life, not life itself. That will be life when we do not need material food and drink, when our food will be righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit [Rom. 14.17 ]; when we see God as He is [1 John. 3.2]. This will be our life when we rest eternally in God (come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [Matthew 11:28]); and now, for the time being, we must be content with this imperfect life, this, so to speak, guarantee of a most perfect life. Real life - material and spiritual - is sustained by spirit (soul) and matter (food and drink). This very difficulty of maintaining life is precisely a sign of its imperfection (in comparison with the future life, although in its place with the Lord everything is perfect), and since it is imperfection, we must expect perfection, that is, the most perfect life, in which mortal things will be swallowed up by life [2 Cor. 5.4]. We notice that here, too, the reason for our life is the soul: it controls our material part, and only with its co-presence in the body can nutrition, growth, and bodily rest occur. Only with its assistance does the substance ingested - food and drink - transform into those principles that are necessary for bodily life; with it only a modification of food and drink is made in the human body: without it, everything is destroyed; she is the engine of everything in the body. So, it is necessary to expect that the imperfect in our being will be abolished, and only the perfect will remain - that which will be consistent in its subtlety and indestructibility with our spirit - and death will certainly be swallowed up in victory [1 Cor. 15.54], because death relates only to material life, and a person dies because he fell into materiality or into sensuality - through eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. As for how dead and inert matter in itself is revived and lives, passing from age to age and from one species to another, this is a constant, greatest miracle of the Living God, Whose wisdom has found a way to give life to him. Look at the earth, at the stones, at the rotting organic bodies: this is the real destiny of matter that was not revived by the Spirit of God, which rushed at the top of the water during creation [Gen. 1.2]. And the life of matter is a miracle of miracles, a constant, unceasing song to the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator. The spirit lives - that’s not wonderful: it must live, that’s why it’s a spirit; and how matter lives, which in itself is dead, how it moves, how it modifies the substance received from outside and how it lives - this is an eternal praise to the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator, this is the triumph of the Creator of all things. I wrote while happily eating a slice of black bread. We are alternately in the hands of Him who has the power of life, and now in the hands of Him who has the power of death [Heb. 2:14]: by faith, by calling [the name of the Savior], by the cross, by heartfelt repentance, by tears we get rid of this latter; we fall into it every time we commit a sin. He who has the power [of death] strives to constantly invade our soul - through our passions and various sins, in order to keep it in mortal chains; and He who has the power of life meekly stands at the doors of our hearts and pushes at them, so that we open them with faith and love - and be alive and blessed. Having uttered the words: invincible, incomprehensible, Divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross, do not abandon us sinners and at the same time depicting the sign of the cross on my chest and belly, I drove away today (November 28) the dark force that oppressed my heart and relaxed me to the point of being unable to do anything. She left me instantly, and suddenly I felt completely at ease. God! How undoubted are the actions of evil spirits in us and how You are always present in us! Glory to your strength, Lord! Glory to Your Honest Cross! Signs to tell if your stomach is strong: lack of appetite and voice, back pain when waking up from sleep at night; lethargy throughout the body; internal tightness, manifested by compression and a painful expression on the face; gloomy mood. By the power of faith, the cross and the name of Jesus, the mountains of the heart are removed, that is, Satan, like a mountain, pressing on the heart. Do deeds of love - and for deeds of love the Lord will always give you what you need. Seek... righteousness... and all these things will be added to you [Matt. 6.33]. And if it doesn’t work, thank God for the work of love: it comes from Him. Remember that you need little and the grave will swallow it all up, or, better yet, nothing will go into the grave. The enemy really wants to separate me from my brothers, wants to instill in me extreme disgust for them. He separated me from them; he still wants to further and further distance me from them, but let that not happen, most evil one! Lord Jesus! Our loves! Unite us with great love! Resist the devil, and he will flee from you [Jas. 4.7 ]; that is, when he inclines you to hate, then love more the one whom he inclines to hate; if you are envious, wish more good; if it means stinginess, be more generous; if it leads to condemnation, try to find the good side in a person and praise him, and so resist all sin. The evil one is trying in every possible way to entangle me in matters of hatred. When you have an evil spirit, then try most of all to humble yourself: humility scorches him, the proud archangel; The more humility a person has, the purer and more pleasing he is to God, because then the devil is farthest from him, and then man is farthest from the possibility of falling; with humility all the great saints pleased God. The Immaculate Mother of God Herself points to humility in Herself as a spiritual fragrance most pleasing to God, as the most beautiful, most fragrant color of the human soul. If you speak in human and angelic tongues, that is, if your word is the height of perfection: clear, strong, convincing, sweet, but if you do not have love, you are nothing. How true the cross is in its power, if only it were depicted with faith - with a living feeling of Christ, the Son of God! He drives away passions and demons. But just as he is faithful in this, so he is also faithful regarding those future blessings that are interceded for us by the Son of God through the cross. The most correct conclusion! When satanic fire burns you and turns you away from prayer and you cannot tolerate demonic shooting, then imagine Jesus Christ as clearly as possible in your mind, call on Him with a clairvoyant heart - and your help is undoubted: Jesus will burn the devil and he will run away from you. Experience. Woe to the weak hearts, who daily and repeatedly yield victory over themselves to the devil! When the devil enters the soul, then the soul is surrounded by a very special mental atmosphere that completely characterizes him, so that those who observe his entrances can easily recognize his coming. Since, according to the parable, a tree cannot produce evil fruits [Matt. 7:18], and the devil, as evil, cannot be good (no matter how he wriggles, good is not in his nature), then he is easily distinguished by his anger at everything, by the extreme shortening of our life (by its crampedness) and extraordinary darkness, the absence of peace of heart and heartfelt joy. But he can be especially recognized by the fact that with his gloominess he hides the Lord, His Most Pure Mother and all that is holy from the eyes of our hearts; faith is nothing more than a clear vision of the heart of the invisible God and His holy and holy truths and promises; when the devil is in us, then this vision does not exist, then the darkness of unbelief destroys for our soul everything that it lives and breathes - only darkness and torment. The darkness can be so great that then for a person it is as if the previous, obvious mercies of God, received through our faith from God, completely disappear - as if they did not exist, that is, as if they were not from the mercy of God, but just so naturally. What should I tell you, brothers, who want to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ? I won't say much. You approach the Cup of Love: Christ - Love and together your Life - offers Himself to you as food and drink, so that you love Him and each other, so that you live. He who loves God and man created in the image of God lives; and whoever does not love does not live, he has only the ghost of life. Drink love from this Chalice, taste love from it, guide yourself from it with love into family and social life, and you will live, for although you die, you will be revived by the love and life hidden in you: love is tenacious, it cannot die in any way - and this is because the immortal God Himself is love; and whoever loves abides in God, and God abides in him. Love and always approach the Cup of life with love. Amen. It must not be easy for the flesh to strain faith; disbelief is closer to her, therefore we are often reluctant to undertake the work of faith. And how rarely do Christians receive communion! The reason is the same. The prayer of a beggar can do much. On the day when generous alms are given, the devil is far from me and I am free from his fiery arrows. We must try by all means to make our heart subtle and light, then it will easily contain living faith and love for God and for everything spiritual and holy; but if it grows fat (the hearts of these people are clothed [Isaiah 6:10]) and becomes heavy (not when your hearts are heavy [Luke 21:34]) from food and drink of a coarsening and burdensome nature and worries about the things of life, then it becomes unable to contain faith and love, and then the devil easily nests in it. You will recognize this by your inner confusion and fear. The Giver of life, having given me life out of His ineffable goodness, in addition to this greatest gift, gave me another life (a wife, like Adam Eve - life), so that from two lives a third life would appear. I am amazed at Your goodness and don’t know what to bring me as a gift for Your invaluable gifts? Goodness delights in kindness; I will bring Him kindness according to the commandment of the Apostle: Be kind to one another [Eph. 4.32]. Evil and lazy slaves, praying to God and not seeing anyone, think: no one hears or sees us - why pray? There are no eyes that would look at me, and I do not notice an ear that would hear me. (Misconception, brethren, the greatest delusion. The Lord looks at you and listens to you, and His eyes are thousands of times brighter than the sun, looking into everything secret and hidden.) Brother! Do you see only with your eyes? Your eyes are only some semblance and aid of the vision with which your soul is endowed: it sees incomparably more with its inner, spiritual eye than through the sense of sight; this glassy pupil is only, so to speak, a window through which the soul communicates with the material world, and with the spiritual, mental world, which is much more extensive and varied than the material world, it communicates through its vision, purely spiritual, with the eyes of the heart - this vision is called contemplation. Night dreams. So remember that vision is only a servant of the soul, and only for sending it into the material world. She herself, without eyes (sight), sees a lot, a lot. As for the eyes of God, they are darker than the brightest sun, seeing in every place [Sir. 23,27–28]. Why should I move real mountains, which do not bother me, when I have my own mountains in my soul, which I need to move, because they suppress my soul and close the light of God from me and do not allow God Himself to my soul? Through the removal of the mountains, the Savior signified this sacrament that happens to our souls, although real mountains, according to our faith, can be rearranged from place to place. From such material things the Lord always sends us to similar spiritual things: for example, He said in Jerusalem: Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up [Jn. 2.19]. They thought that He was talking about the temple of Jerusalem, but He was talking about the church of His Body, because it was definitely the church of God: the Son of God lived in it. And such a correspondence between the objects of the spiritual and material worlds, I think, occurs because the Creator of both worlds is One, and therefore matter, as a creation of the Spirit, must and does express in itself what happens to the spirit. Why do we celebrate Sunday so often, and one Sunday a year we celebrate so much that we don’t celebrate any other holiday? In order to remind you more often of your own resurrection, of your immortality. Always greet the resurrection with thoughts about your resurrection, with confidence about your resurrection. Why did the Jews always solemnly celebrate the Sabbath and did not dare to do anything on it except for the most necessary things? In order for them to remember that the world and everything was created by God, solely by His goodness, out of nothing, and so that through contemplation on this day they can delve deeper into the consideration of God’s mercies to people, and in order to thank God with all their hearts (not occupied with anything else) for His invaluable benefits. On it you shall not do any work... nor any of your livestock... for in six days the Lord created the world, and on the seventh day He rested from all His works [Ex. 20.10–11]. We now celebrate Sunday, not Saturday, because this is the highest work of God’s goodness: we, who fell from life into eternal death, are recreated, quickened forever by our risen Savior. In the world, the main member of God's creation, His most precious creation, the bright face of God's face was man. But he fell, became darkened, died - and everyone seemed darkened: the whole earth was cursed for him, the peace of earthly beings with God was lost, people lost God’s favor towards themselves. But the Savior rose again and brought everyone to life with Himself; reconciled the cursed earth with heaven with His Blood - and here again is the triumph of life on earth. Another reason why Saturday and Sunday is more important is that the visible world is insignificant in comparison with the human soul as the image of God; and on Sunday the renewal of the image of God was completed, that is, of man, bringing him from eternal death to eternal life; On Sunday the love of God triumphs in its victory. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world?.. [Mk. 8.36]. In order for me not to relax at all in serving the Lord as His priest - due to the inclination of the flesh to laziness in matters of faith - the Provider God handed me over to Satan, to his fiery temptations, in order to temper me, in order to purify my service and make it most desirable for me; He gave over to the spirit of confusion and fear, which, instilling an incomprehensible fear in me during the service, tore words of prayer from my heart and from my lips and left me, disgraced, scorched by his arrows kindled among unfinished prayers - so that I finally began to desire, as the greatest good, unfailing service. There are people who run away from the preaching of the word of God, like deaf adders who stop their ears. May such people stumble over the stumbling stone, may their feet stumble in their lives, so that they will feel in their hearts the need to listen to the word of God and not regard at nothing the servants of the Lord who work in preaching the word of God for the enlightenment and salvation of human souls. May grief meet them in life and may it turn their hearts to the God of our hearts. What are we really? Are we worse than the actors who receive great attention? Don’t we speak our words with our souls, don’t we pronounce them with all possible skill? Is not the word our living word? Isn’t it the people’s speech in our mouths? Do we utter our mockery 137, and not the law, and not the word of our Lord? Why do people sometimes run away from us? Where is the shame and fear among these people? Where is their gaze to the Lord Christ, the Heavenly God, whose eyes and heart are in His church? ABOUT! Carnal people! You only prove by this that it is difficult for you to stand and the most holy liturgy, not only to listen to the word of God pronounced at the end of it! By this you only prove that you are unworthy to hear, due to your lack of faith and heart depravity, the word of God, which does not fit in your minds and hearts, that the word of truth is disgusting to you; You enjoy only the word of earthly wisdom and light secular reading. You are afraid to hear the word of salvation, because you do not find it necessary to save your soul, lulled by the charm of light; your hearts have grown cold and thick, you have closed your eyes, and your ears are hard to hear, and you will not return to be healed. Without God in the heart, death and the devil are sure to be with us; with God there is certainly life and sweetness, and He is with us. December 2, after the liturgy. Do I not know the goodness of the Lord and the bounty of the Lord to me? Don't I know that I will never become poor? Why am I oppressed in my womb and oppose the bounty of my God with my greed and stinginess? God! Let this not happen from now on. Let my generosity respond to Your generosity. ABOUT! How powerless I am without the Lord! Why do we so often celebrate, beloved, the resurrection of Christ? In order for us to remember our resurrection more often, because Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection; Christ rose again in order to mark the beginning of our resurrection. Every Sunday brings you news: you will be resurrected; On weekdays, among the worries and affairs of everyday life, you forget, perhaps, about your immortality, that you will be resurrected for a new life: Sunday reminds you of that. The character of our life is the desire for immortality in Christ. The causes operating in the world (even in the material world) are all invisible, spiritual. Therefore, whoever rejects the existence of spirits simply because he does not see them must reject the law of causality, since it is also invisible. Meanwhile, it cannot be rejected: we all clearly see the actions of invisible causes, most often called operating laws. As for evil spirits, they, like the evil spirits, even know how to hide their actions well in our nature corrupted by sin, hiding behind its inclinations, habits, passions, but you can’t hide an sewer in a bag. The effects of their malice in people are so obvious that they involuntarily force them to consider the cause of their evil spirit, which is why some people given over to the passion of anger are said to be enraged - and this is probably because in anger a person most of all expresses the devil’s malice; the actions of anger are so amazing that they best characterize their culprit - the devil. This is not mine, but someone else’s; mine is Christ: He is my eternal heritage, my inheritance, my life. So speak, looking at the blessings of this world given to you by God. Use earthly things like a wanderer, without attaching your heart to anything. Those who use this world as if they do not use [1 Cor. 7.31]. When you are blissful, being with Christ, then remember how terribly you suffer, being with the devil, and cling to Christ as tightly as possible, knowing truly, positively that Christ is your life, your strength and strength, your breath, your peace, your joy, your food, your drink, your clothing, your shelter - everything. You pursue the devil everywhere - at every step, and you burn him with the saving name of the Trinitarian Deity and the sign of the Life-giving Cross in all the Sacraments, in every divine service and in every prayer, even in every case when he touches you, you attack him in sermons - so he is glad to have the opportunity to bully you when you get entangled in his nets through some passion or any stumbling block. holy cause due to lack of faith, lack of attention, false shame, haste and other things. You squeeze and burn him - and he squeezes and burns you. But he endures and does not despair when you oppress and burn him, and you endure and do not be faint-hearted, do not despair. Reject, most importantly, passionate thoughts, and do not give in to them in any way, and do every holy or good deed purely, with joy and a bright face, knowing that by doing this you serve the Lord of Heaven himself. Having sinned before God and suffering internal torment for sin, first of all take care of appeasing the loving and righteous Master, grieve that such a loving Father, who has been good to you since the time of your birth every day and hour, you have angered with sin - generously endure the torment of your heart, directing it from the evil, destructive, satanic path to the true, saving, Godly path. The heart is a person. Deep is the heart (of man) more than all others, and man is, and who knows him? [Jer. 17.9]. Why did the Lord give us His Body and Blood for food and drink? Because the Body and Blood go into the womb, and our spirit is in the womb, that is, in our insides, as David says: renew a right spirit in my womb [Ps. 50:12], and thus acts directly on our inner man - on the heart, just as the devil acts on the heart. Find out how important it is to receive the Holy Mysteries and how important our heart is! It is our soul. When you do not have love for God and your neighbors in your heart, turn to your beloved confidant of Love - the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian and pray to him like this: Apostle, beloved of Christ God and yourself filled with love, beg Love crucified for us to pour out love into my heart by the Holy Spirit; We know that He who fell on His side accepts your intercession. With all my heart I pray to you, friend of Christ, with your prayers transform my heart from unloving to loving and extinguish in it the insane and impure love for the corruptible blessings of this world, which separate me from true and holy love. The spirit must love the spiritual, and yet our soul does not love people like itself, the saints of God, the Angels and God Himself, as much as it loves the corruptible things of this temporary world. What is akin must seek what is akin and strive to unite with it, just as things that are chemically akin strive to unite with themselves and actually unite when the opportunity arises. Is it really possible that, while we notice such a desire for something similar to something similar in the material world, we will not strive for union with God and with each other - through faith and love? We understand, brothers, we understand what a close connection there should be between us and between God, between the heavenly Church of saints and the earthly Church - among themselves. Although we are many, we must be one body [1 Cor. 10:17], as one God and Father of all. Look, the whole world is a single, harmonious, beautiful, majestic whole, in which everything is connected by interaction, but especially majestic is the unity of the brightest world of blessed spirits, eternally shining with light from the First Light of God. When I fall away from God with heartfelt faith, the destructive fire in my insides grows fierce and burns; and when I unite with Him by heartfelt faith, the fire goes out and it becomes easy. When I do not stand in truth (in faith) and love (for God and neighbors) - the same fire. The Spirit gives life [glor.: revives]; the flesh does not benefit at all. The words that I speak to you are spirit and life [Jn. 6:63], that is, the Flesh and Blood of the Lord is spirit and life, because they quicken human souls; if they were only flesh, they would not give life. Glory to Thee, Lord! But the devil burns everything; As soon as you fall away from God by faith, it burns at all times. When you think about rewards, remember that you are worthy of great punishments for your sins, and temper your ambitious desires with the fear of future judgment. Have you noticed that every time you want to do a work of faith and piety, you suddenly feel in your heart something heavy, pressing, hindering your work, which separates you from the shrine with unbelief that kills your soul? This is the devil. Did you insult some kind of benefactor? A? This is what they say to a person who has had the misfortune, through some passion or for some other reason, to offend his benefactor, whose favors he constantly enjoyed. Have you insulted such a benefactor? Now feel your mistake and ask him with all sincerity and humility for forgiveness, so that he forgets your insolence and does not deprive you of his mercies in the future. But if this is said to a person who has offended a person like himself, even a benefactor, then all the more should this be said to a person like a Christian, who so often and so recklessly and greatly offends God. We use God's mercies unceasingly: all these mercies are great to the point of immensity, starting with the gift of existence to us and the redemption of us by the death on the cross of the Son of God - to a stream of air, to a sip of water and a crumb of bread that we absorb, to a good deed, heart peace and heart sweetness that we feel. We should say, when we offend the All-Holy God with our sins or passions, say: Have you offended such and such a Benefactor? Feel quickly your sin, your recklessness, your ingratitude and your extreme malice, and ask Him from the depths of your heart, contritely and humbly, for forgiveness of your sins, so that He will not be completely angry with you and will not deprive you of His mercies in the future. Yes, after every sin, due to the blindness of passion and weakness of spirit and our evil nature, we certainly must quickly feel our guilt with all our hearts and humbly, with contrition of heart and, if possible, with tears, ask for forgiveness from the Lord - the Benefactor and Creator, for Whom our sin is the greatest insult. And how beneficial such pain and repentance is for our soul! Such cases have happened to me many times. I'll tell you one. God tests our hearts and bellies [Ps. 7,10]: He sees our soul in a way that we do not see. For example, during prayer, the slightest movement of the heart away from God, the slightest insincerity is punished, and God seems to say to us: correct yourself, you are forgetting yourself - and when you correct yourself and turn your mind to God and establish your heart in Him, then again the soul feels easy and good. So it is throughout life: the slightest malfunction, the slightest illegal (against faith, hope and love) movement of the heart - and the Lord punishes it; He corrected himself, repented of him heartily, guided him according to the commandments of God - and again he did well. What's clearer? Human souls are immortal and see and hear us. Look, the Mother of God, for example, or who is a saint, for example Nicholas the Wonderworker, when you pray, they hear you and fulfill your request. Just as faith, piety or love for God and the saints is expressed in the love of having icons and worship, so unbelief and wickedness are expressed in the fact that icons are completely kicked out of houses or, for the sake of decency, only the smallest, barely noticeable ones are kept. Appearance is an expression of the inner. They even attack icons completely, they want them not to exist at all. It was a bad sign when there was iconoclasm in Greece. He testified to the decline of inner piety. Man is a wanderer on this earth to the heavenly fatherland. He travels in a machine designed by God. This machine is the earth. She quickly carries us on her back. On this traveling machine called earth, the Lord, before our existence, prepared for us treasures of food, drink, clothing, warmth, and air. We receive some from this treasury without difficulty, like water, fire and air, and others with difficulty - so that we do not become lazy and maintain the energy of our spiritual forces; Thus, we have difficulty obtaining food, clothing and shelter. Just as on an ordinary car going on a long journey, the riders have food, drink, fire, and clothing next to them, and while the car is running they go about their necessary business, so all people - travelers on an earthly car during its journey, each do their own thing until the end of their earthly journey comes and their body is separated from the soul, which will go to another world. The machine, meanwhile, goes on without stopping until the last day of the world comes, and then it will stop in order to release from its depths all the travelers who have fallen asleep and lay with their bodies in it and return them to the Heavenly House. Our earthly machines – steamships and steam locomotives – brought me to these thoughts, brothers. We quickly rush in these machines from end to end by the power of steam; but we rush faster, unlike in an earthly machine, to the city of the Heavenly God, Jerusalem, and the Church of the Firstborn [Heb. 12.23], written in heaven, and many angels. In fact, think about what else is our land if not a wandering machine? A car, just a car. Look: the essential thing in a machine is the movement of the wheels: the wheels rotate by the power of steam, and it moves, and the earth has a circular motion; on the car there are riders (passengers) and with them their necessary accessories, on the ground - on a vast scale - the same; the machine has boilers with reserve water so that steam is always available, and steam or smoke is constantly billowing above the machine; there is fire on it and always fuel 138 for fire - firewood - and on the earth there are always large reserves of water, vapors in the form of clouds always swirl above it, there are always reserves of fire on it and constantly food for this fire. After the fumes, the reason for the movement of the machine is the various levers and wheels; The reason for the movement of the earth is attractive and repulsive forces, which for the earth replace levers and wheels. The car is the car! You are amazed at the art of the first builder of the machine - marvel at the wisdom of the Great Builder of the earthly machine - God! All earthly sages, since the spirit created in the image and likeness of God lives in them, adopt only a certain piece of wisdom from the Great Sage, God, from the works of His creation; They will notice from Him how He has created things, what powers He has, what laws operate - and they themselves do it imitatively. When it occurs to you that you have incomparably less than your comrades who live richly in the same place, remember the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, who lived without having anywhere to lay their heads, and did not have two boots and two clothes of change, nor their belts of copper (with a light load it is easier for a ship to sail); thank God that you have less than others and take part in some way in the voluntary poverty of the Lord and the apostles. The worker is worthy of reward for his labors [Lk. 10.7]. This means that as long as you work for the Lord in your service, you will always have what you need. And from the strong desire to have more, it is clear that you love wealth and would be strongly attached in your heart if it were given, and the devil would catch you captive with it. With my thoughts, or, better yet, with my heartfelt faith in God, I always calm, delight, and delight my heart. And as a result of disbelief in something spiritual, undoubtedly true, there is a burning fire in me, scorching in my bones - and I weaken everywhere and cannot bear this fire. The Savior fills millions of hearts of worthy people, pacifying, delighting and cheering them. It was not in vain that the Savior said in the Gospel about those who obey the voice of God: let us come to him and make our abode with him [Jn. 14.23]. There are many mansions among men, occupied by the God of peace and all comfort [2 Cor. 1.3]. Path, Truth, Belly... Diligent prayer! Tell me, praying in the church, what do you carry from the church in your heart? Are you carrying something inexpressibly pleasant, light, expanding your being, something that you didn’t have before? This is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was He who came and settled in you and created an abode in your heart. It is He who reassures you, makes you happy, makes you feel better. This is His good and easy yoke. Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive [1 Cor. 15.22]. There is no doubt that Adam, the first man, our root, died; It is also certain that all people die because of Adam. But it is also certain that the second Adam, our second root, rose from the dead; It also means, undoubtedly, that because of Him everyone will come to life and rise from the dead. Only then would there be no resurrection of the dead if Christ had not risen. But Christ rose from the dead, the firstborn of those who died [1 Cor. 15.20]. This means that the truth of the resurrection from the dead can be proven with mathematical accuracy. Three terms of the proportion are already present: the fourth must certainly exist and follows naturally from the previous ones. Ergo 139: just as we have borne the image of earthly, let us also bear the image of heavenly things [1 Cor. 15.49]. How long will you not be sure that I am always present in you? You call to Me - and every time I hear you, your heartfelt prayers and deliver you from the torment of passions. I save you constantly: you live by Me, rest and rejoice in Me, and have not yet learned to see Me before you. Sin necessarily entails mental torment - God's punishment; That’s why the devil is tormented and will be tormented forever as an apostate from God, from His laws; That is why a person experiences heartache even when the devil attacks him; just as torment and death are inseparable from resistance to the will of God (and the devil is an eternal opponent of the will of God), then torment is inseparable from his being, and his touch to a person, for the same reason, is always accompanied by torment, spiritual death for this latter. Money is the means by which the world keeps in its power those devoted to the love of money and stinginess. Money is a delicious bait with which the world attracts the unreasonable and greedy. But the devil keeps the world in his nets through the love of money. Have you read the Akathist to the Sweetest Jesus? After all, everything that is said here in praise of the Lord has actually been tested by people, everything is taken from experience, from real life. Parse it at least partially to see the truth of the words. He who loves God strongly desires that there should be fewer sinners; he always prays to God that their number should be as small as possible; he cares with all his soul about the correction of those who are in error. Having created my soul alone in an image known to Him alone, He alone heals and revives it, wounded by sin, through the life-giving Mysteries and prayer. It is better, without any doubt, when there is no splinter in the body, although you can take it out when it gets in; If you get a splinter, the place of the splinter will burn with fire, and the whole body will feel unpleasant. Thus, without a doubt, it is incomparably better when you keep your heart free from the splinter of sin, although even if you have a splinter, you can remove the splinter from it. A splinter is a splinter: it hurts the heart, it burns. Moreover, it also removes us from God, and sometimes even attacks Him - such is the nature of sin. Therefore, when you have a splinter in your heart, immediately take the splinter out so that it does not rot in it, that is, so that it does not spread the rottenness of sin. Do you know who takes out these splinters? – Lord Jesus Christ. Show Him your thorn, sincerely admit your inattention, tell Him with all your heart: You are the only Healer of all my spiritual ulcers, I fall to You: remove the thorn of sin from my heart, heal my ulcer, - and the thorn will come out and the ulcer will heal. During the service, the priest must say to himself: If... I do not have love, then I am nothing [1 Cor. 13.2]. God is a God of love; Cross of love; I kiss Love on the cross, and in the church stand the sheep of Him who loved them to death. Include in the teaching on prayer how to listen to the Apostle and the Gospel, how to be present at the celebration of the Sacraments and begin the life-giving Mysteries. Prayer with faith. Explain what faith is. People fell into unbelief because they had completely lost the spirit of prayer or did not have and do not have it at all, in short: because they do not pray. The prince of this age has room to act in the hearts of such people - he is the master in them. Through prayer they did not ask and do not ask the Lord for the dew of God’s grace (but only those who ask and seek are given the gifts of the Lord) - and so the hearts, naturally corrupt, without the life-giving dew of the Holy Spirit, dried up and from extreme dryness finally burst into flames with the hellish flames of unbelief; and the devil knows only that he inflames the passions that support this terrible fire, and triumphs at the sight of the destruction of unfortunate souls redeemed by the Blood of the One who trampled on his power. Since the time when man, of his own free will, fell away from God, he, like an animal that was once domestic, but then went wild in the dense forests, reluctantly looks at the place of his former residence, loves more the darkness of the forest, that is, this world, than the light of the former place, that is, the paradise of God, it is difficult to unite with God and after the union often falls away from Him, it is difficult to sincerely believe in God and in everything that He has revealed, if he does not care constantly about preserving the heavenly gift of faith in the heart. Unbelief comes from the fact that they do not live the true life of the heart, but live with the serving instrument of the heart - the mind, which has a purpose from God to show the heart the path with its light. Sorrows keep me in unity with God better and more reliably; and in the spaciousness, in the joy of my heart, I soon fall asleep. Always remember that with faith in the life-giving Mysteries there is spaciousness and joy of the heart, and with little faith or unbelief there is sorrow and tightness. God! Creator and Lord of the world! Look mercifully upon Thy creation, adorned with Thy Divine image in these morning hours: may Thy eye revive, may Thy eye illuminate, thereby being brighter than the rays of the sun, my soul, dark and mortified by sin. Take away from me despondency and laziness, grant me joy and spiritual vigor, so that in the joy of my heart I glorify Your goodness, holiness, Your boundless greatness, Your endless perfections at every hour and in every place. For Thou art my Creator and the Lord of my life, O Lord, and glory befits Thee from Thy rational creatures every day and hour, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. When you decide to read an essay of spiritual content, never rush your thoughts to some other, less important matter. Remember that your whole life should be a constant teaching in the word of God. Let the sacred books, or reading them, be your first and best occupation. Read, learn, save yourself and save others. Most of all, take in your hands and read the very word of God - the Bible: let not the book of God's law depart from your mouth. This word is an example of our human word. In order for you to be strong in words, you must borrow passages from the word of God, you must be imbued with the spirit of the word of God, the spirit of salvation, its purity and holiness. Remember that you now, in this new rank of yours, take all your importance from your Lord Jesus Christ. You are a priest. Whose? - Christ, that is, in His name and appointed by Him. You are the shepherd of the verbal sheep. But this shepherding you have is borrowed from the shepherding of Christ: the only Shepherd is the Lord Jesus; all people only in relation to Him alone can be called verbal sheep in all the power and fullness of this word. Only He is our Shepherd in the full meaning of this word. You are a teacher of faith. But again, the only Teacher of the faith and its Head is Jesus Christ. Try to be like this Supreme High Priest, Shepherd and Teacher: He is your Perfection. He is your God, your Creator and your Redeemer. Revere Him, pray to Him, love Him. With Him, try to love His sheep as He loved and loves them. Simon Ionin! do you love me? [In. 21.15]. Always be ready to answer from your heart: Yes, Lord! You know that I love You [Jn. 21.15]. And He will answer you: Feed My lambs [Jn. 21.15]. And you will put them into His courtyard. And now I stand at the judgment of God on the right hand or left side: when sin removes me from God and scourges me, then I stand on the left side; and when, by the grace of God, I am close to God with heartfelt faith and good thoughts and deeds, then I am at His right hand. As we are in this world, so is He in this world. When I partake of the life-giving Mysteries with doubt, then I am deprived of my inner, moral strength: my heart weakens. Instant doubt in faith is not surprising for a sinner: just as it is not surprising that he sins daily and repeatedly, so it is not surprising that he doubts what is beyond any doubt - this is the weakness of our nature damaged by sin. It is not only we, sinners, who are subject to this weakness: the Holy Scripture did not hide from us that the saints of God, for example, even Zechariah, the father of the Forerunner, doubted the faithfulness of the words of the Archangel Gabriel who spoke to him and was punished for his unbelief by silence until the time the words of the Angel were fulfilled. Doubt and unbelief are a common human weakness: the apostles of Christ did not hide from people that they themselves, before the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, were often subject to unbelief - so that even those who saw the Lord risen from the dead did not believe [Mk. 16.11 ]; They did not hide the fact that the Lord Himself reproached them for unbelief and hardness of heart [Mk. 16.14]. The Lord said to the apostles: if you have faith and do not doubt [glory: if you have faith and do not doubt] ... if you also say to this mountain: be taken up and cast into the sea [Matt. 21.21 ], then she would listen. Here I draw attention to the words: if you do not doubt, which show that doubt is an ordinary human weakness; The Lord would not have said these words if people were not subject to this weakness. So, it is not surprising that a person doubts; Until a person is completely imbued with the Spirit of God, Who is the Spirit of truth, until then he still has the opportunity to doubt and not believe: the father of lies, the devil, will not stop instilling thoughts of doubt into his mind and heart, even for a moment, even if the person did not want it. Since the first people, as a result of the words of the tempting spirit, doubted the truth of the words of God and believed him, the spirit of lies, the human race to this day, at all degrees of its mental and moral perfection, has been more or less subject to the same weakness of the first people, that is, doubt in the truth, albeit momentarily, and in this respect all people are like one. But it is surprising and extremely criminal that a person becomes rigid in unbelief, openly opposes the truth, accepts the delusion and deception of sin as the truth, hardens his heart with sinful flattery, according to the Apostle [Heb. 3:13], and, wandering in darkness, does not want to seek the way out of it into the light of God, he loves more... darkness than light [John. 3.19 ], death rather than life. It is known from experience that there is nothing more bleak and painful for the human heart than unbelief, while, on the contrary, in faith there is peace and sweetness for our hearts and light for our minds, light for all our relationships with people. How wildly, ugly, joylessly, myopically the unbeliever looks at everyone and everything... Oh, let us try not to allow ourselves doubt and unbelief even for a moment: it is contrary to God, Who is the Truth: if anyone hesitates, says the Lord, My soul does not take pleasure in him [Heb. 10.38]. Let's look around: after all, the truth is all around us; only we know her little. Lies are only the devil and his works; only every person who does not care about his salvation is a lie and his deeds. Everything else is true. Unbelievers themselves break the connection with the spiritual world, they themselves reject God’s advice about themselves, about their eternal salvation, like the Pharisees in the time of the Savior. They do not reject God, but God rejects them, just as He rejected the unbelieving Jews. Their unbelief will not abolish the faith of God; although they are unfaithful, God remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself [2 Tim. 2.13]. It is not their lies that overcome the truth of God, but the truth that overcomes their lies, darkening their minds; It is not they who swear at the True Lord, but the Lord who laughs at their bitterness and blindness; It is not the wicked servants who outwit the Lord, as our famous preacher says, but the long-suffering Lord allows their malice to learn by experience what a bleak end their miserable unbelief leads and will lead to all unbelievers, if they do not turn to faith. Their unbelief, bitterness and blindness were predicted long ago by the apostles of Christ and, even before them, by the prophets of the Lord. The terrible judgment of God is carried out on unbelievers. They do not overcome faith, but faith, which has overcome the world [1 John. 5.4], defeats them. Their unbelief exposes their inner, heartfelt emptiness and impurity, their inability to contain the precious, purest treasure of heaven - the faith of God. Write, with God’s help, an essay: “Healing against unbelief.” Just take away, brethren, the uncleanness from your heart, just suppress in your heart wickedness and all passions, all attachments to earthly things, just give a place in it to the Pure One, who abhors all uncleanness of the heart, - and you will see what the Lord will do to you, to your souls; You will learn from experience how life-giving and sweet faith is for a person, how good and light the burden of the Lord is - not like your burdens, voluntarily placed on yourself, oppressing and killing the soul. You will then be convinced that all the words of the Lord and His apostles are spirit and life [Jn. 6.63 ] and the purest truth. Let us, the priests who partake of His goodness more than others, talk about the Lord. Unbelievers! Do you address your prayers for help to the purified, chosen, kind, ready to help humanity at your request, blissful in unity with God 140? Or don't you think it's necessary? Are you rich in everything and lacking in nothing? Throw away your pride and pray tearfully - otherwise Satan will devour you. We have experienced and continue to experience unbelief - we do not hide sin and we know that it is not the mind that is guilty of it, but the heart: the mind presents all the irrefutable evidence of the truth, and the heart remains adamant, cold, hard as a stone until you touch it, hurt it, stir it with something or shed a bitter tear about its illness - perseverance and about your madness. When there is disbelief in something true and holy, the mind is usually clouded, the unfaithful heart is struck with fear and narrowness, but with sincere faith, it feels joy, calmness, breadth, or expansion of life within itself, so that the mind becomes bright and far-seeing. Doesn't truth clearly triumph over the madness of the heart? Isn't the heart obviously deceitful? Yes, the suffering of the heart when not believing in something true, holy is a sure sign of the truth of what it does not believe in: the heart itself dies with dignity, questioning or disbelief the truth, encroaching on the destruction of what cannot be destroyed; whereas the expansion of the heart with sincere faith is also a sure sign of the truth of what we believe in, because the object believed imparts life to our heart and adds and strengthens this life. Our heart, infected with sin, is an insignificant repository of life, because sin is death, not life; the fullness of life is outside of us; but since this life is spiritual, invisible and communicated to us through our faith in an invisible, better life, then the conductor of life in our heart is our living, sincere faith in this life; Without faith, the heart should naturally feel oppression, sorrow - as a shortening, diminishment of life. But with faith there must also be agreement between our spiritual activity and the believer, since the believer is a moral Being. If ever, then during prayer, love the Lord your God with all your heart... [Matt. 22.37] - so that there is no place left in him for partial love for anything earthly or enmity towards anyone, so that the whole heart is undividedly given to the God of the heart. The wages of sin is death [Rom. 6:23], the revelation of the Lord is true [Ps. 18.8]: spiritual death first, then physical; every sin is inevitably punished by scorching inner fire, inner tightness and sorrow. Try to achieve childlike simplicity in dealing with people and in prayer to God. Simplicity is the greatest good and dignity of man. God is completely simple because He is completely spiritual, completely good. And let your soul not be divided into good and evil. Predictions in the body of rain or damp weather: weakness in the legs, pain in the right side, lack of appetite. When You are not in me, in my heart, then it means that I am unworthy of You, and that’s all, but a proud heart dares to think that You seem to be absent: let it not be so, Lord! Even if you had to endure a shortage, then do not envy your colleagues. Remember the words of the Lord's prayer: give us this day our daily bread [Matt. 6.11] – and be a faithful disciple of Christ; or the words of the apostle: have a disposition that does not love money, being content with what you have. For He Himself said: I will never leave you nor forsake you [Heb. 13.5]. When your passions draw you to the sensual, then remember where the Cross draws you; remember what benefits he sought for those who looked at him with faith and love and, if possible, followed his path. The priest, who is rewarded with the gifts of grace after communion - heavenly peace and joy in the Holy Spirit - must in every possible way beware of passionate attachment to earthly things, that is, from the passions of stinginess and envy. Otherwise they will burn him with hellish fire. The Lord, who reveals His heavenly gifts in communion, is disgusted by attachment to earthly things. If you have tasted and seen how good the Lord is [Ps. 33.9], then why do you still cling to the ground, why don’t you lift up your eyes to grief? Habit in the matter of faith is the lull of the evil spirit. Nile, the ascetic of Sinai, letter 21 to Nicodemus. You must thank God that you have no money that would require you to account for on the Day of Judgment. For it is said: from everyone to whom much has been given... from him they will require more [Lk. 12.48 ] torturers Angels; and the rich man, for the money given to him, will be subjected to severe punishment, strict liability and a terrible examination of whether he managed well or badly what was given to him by the Providence of God. Letter 25. Presbyter Procopius. If you condemn turning to the worse, then avoid turning to the worse, for it is said: no one... who looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God [Lk. 9.62]. From a letter on the 17th to the monk Panigirius. To the extent that we draw closer to God, the demons become more and more fierce against us. Consider earthly blessings so unimportant and insignificant that because of them never even think of losing spiritual blessings - love, which there is nothing higher in the world, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; never change the latter for the former. Having the latter, one can be happy and blissful without the former, but having the former without the latter, one can never be happy. Remember this always. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you [Matt. 6.33]. When praying to the Lord or His Most Pure Mother, or an Angel, or a saint, imagine that they are looking at you with their brightest eyes, listening to you with an all-hearing ear. Eyes to eyes. When you are carried away by a feeling of hatred towards your neighbor, oppose it with the following prayer barrier: Lord, grant me to love Your image as myself, 141 although it bears the wounds of sins. His sins are also my sins; grant me to see myself in my brother, my sins in his sins. (When you feel envy, remember the words of the Lord’s Prayer: give us this day our daily bread [Matthew 6:11]; or: do not worry... what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or what shall we wear?.. the pagans are looking for all this [Matthew 6:31-32]; or the words of the Apostle: have a disposition that does not love money, being content with what you have. For He Himself said: I will not forsake I will not forsake you [Heb. 13:5]. The same is true of the passion of covetousness.) Again and again let us glorify the Lady, the Most Swift Intercessor of all who come running with faith in Her sovereign protection. Yesterday unze mi turn [Ps. 31.4] sin in the heart, as it always happens to me, the accursed one, and burned my chest with hellish fire, depriving me of peace and joy and boldness before my God. But as soon as I prayed with all my heart to the Lady, reading the prayer: Undefiled, unglamorous... I just raised my eyes of faith to Her, when She heard me and took the scorching thorn from my chest. Glory to the Lady! Otherwise, I would have suffered without Her and walked around, looking for peace and not finding it. From your own experience of living, heartfelt prayer, you can know that the saints are accepted into closest communion with God. And from your own experience you also know that in communication with God through the prayer of faith, our mind is unusually enlightened and takes on the most extensive dimensions of action: at this time it sees what it does not see in its ordinary state. From this it follows that the saints, being in communion with God, and, moreover, pure, detached from the body, have the brightest, far-sighted minds and hear our heartfelt prayers and, if they are pleasing to God and useful to us, they certainly fulfill them. In the matter of God's good providence for people and at the request of reason, there must be mediators between people and God from the spiritual world (since people occupy the middle between both and are guided to the heavenly Kingdom), namely: Angels. The Lord has amazing gradualness and order in all his affairs; everywhere with Him the lower ones are guided by the higher ones. And here is the need for Guardian Angels for Christians, redeemed by the Blood of the Lord, from reason. In addition, the Angels themselves are filled with love for us and rejoice over the conversion of one sinner, and love is active; but the Lord gave all freedom to such noble, useful activity, as we see from the word of God. Guardian Angels are necessary for people because of the insidiousness of evil spirits over people, and people do not see them themselves. People are very weak for spiritual life: in addition to the grace of God, they also need a person filled with this grace, wise, strong by nature, and such are the Angels. In addition, after leaving life there must be witnesses about the deeds of men against demons. My Savior, see, without You I can do nothing [John. 15.5]: living faith in You gives life to my heart, but lack of faith deadens me, makes me weak to all good, too prone to evil. God! You are glorious in me when through faith you dwell in my heart: it is good and easy for me then; Glorious even when you leave me for lack of faith: it is bad and hard for me then. Without fail, immutably: You are my life; You are my peace. ABOUT! Don't leave me, Lord! Everything that has come into existence cannot be destroyed except by the will of God, who created everything. All things came into being through Him [Jn. 1.3]. Keep this in mind about the human soul. The Lord, having created once, does not destroy His creation, created in His image and likeness. But I created you, He says through Isaiah, not to be destroyed, to be destroyed [Isa. 54.16]. This means that the human soul will certainly exist. The Savior fills millions of hearts, and millions are blessed by Him. What are you saying, freethinkers? You carry your devil's burden, your yoke; but your burden, your yoke, is heavy, but Mine is good, light. During prayer, the mind brightens. Unbelief, like the falling away of the soul from the Source of life and bliss, is always painful. Comparison between a tree and a person. Do you hear how the tree rustles with its leaves, see how tall and thick it is, how many branches it has, how far it has spread them? But all this height, thickness, this branching, all these leaves are the work of God: God is the cause of all this. There is now this tree - you see it and hear the noise of its leaves; but not long ago there was a time when he was not there. So are you. You rose from the ground, you are stately, you sent forth branches from yourself - the young generation; You also have a lot of leaves, that is, various additional gifts from God to you: honors, wealth and other things - you rustle with them in pride and self-forgetfulness, the wind of the prince of the air plays with them in your soul. But you won’t think that all this is God’s; but there is no feeling of gratitude in the heart. Ask yourself: what did you have a few years ago? Where have you been all these years? ABOUT! Don’t make noise to me, don’t make noise to me with your leaves, but rather, in the silence of your heart, thank God that He has grown and beautified you. Look, it’s amazing that you exist on your own – out of nothing. Don’t forget that you won’t have long to show off in this world. Look: 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 [Lk. 3.9]. Did you hear that? You knew this, that with all your pride, you are like a tree in the garden of the Heavenly Gardener, Who, without asking you, gave you life, raised and decorated you, enriched you with all His gifts, spiritual and material, and if you are unfaithful, ungrateful before Him, you will not want to recognize your Benefactor in God’s gifts to you - also without asking you and against your will, as barren will the tree, which occupied the land in vain, cut you off and throw you into the eternal fire? After all, this is absolutely true - and how long will it take for this to happen? Remember that you and the tree have the same Creator. But why did God create you not as a tree, but as a man? The reason for this lies solely in His goodness. He wanted to surprise you with His mercies, so that your malice would not overcome His unspeakable goodness and mercy, so that you could at least teach others how long-suffering and abundantly merciful He is [Ps. 102.8]. The Savior twice multiplied the loaves of bread in the desert, twice fed several thousand people with an insignificant amount of bread, in order to assure by this subsequent generations, all unbelief, that He also multiplies Animal Bread for Christians to this day and will multiply until the end of the age, that is, His Body and Blood. When, during prayer or outside prayer, you experience torment in your heart from unbelief or doubt, know then that the original murderer is with you, and may the very torment of your heart be the most striking proof for you that what you doubt is true. From the difficulty of assigning a place to your comrade at the Academy, G., learn how great the mercy of God is for you, shown in such an unhindered placement of you. The clouds are precise executors of the commands of the Heavenly Lord: like a formation of troops, they sedately disperse over a certain place, as if they were forming into ranks, and together they pour life-giving moisture onto the earth, rattling and sparkling as if from firearms. When you are angry, do not sin [Ps. 4.5], that is, do not be angry from the heart. For the sake of love, sacrifice everything, because Love is God Himself; do not lose love for any reason, under any plausible pretext; Your deeds to preserve love will be deeds for God Himself. Having lost love yesterday, I lost peace and lightness of heart, that is, I lost the grace of God that dwelt in me; I could not pray a worthy prayer in the evening; I could not sleep peacefully and all night and morning I felt heaviness, emptiness and a killing cold in my heart. June 10, 1859 A loving person does not think evil [1 Cor. 13.5], that is, he does not suspect evil in anyone, does not suspect that others think badly of him or are angry with him, or are trying to do him harm. Darkness comes from the heart to the mind, and light is also transmitted from the heart to the mind - pay attention. If God does not leave a grass, a flower or a leaf on a tree with His good providence, will He leave us? ABOUT! Make sure with all your heart that the Lord is faithful to Himself in His Providence for every creature, even the smallest one. Understand that every creature has an invisibly inherent Creator. According to the Savior, God clothes the flowers of the field, feeds the birds of the air, and so on. How does God not make us, His creatures, happy? Even flowers. Like a tender mother, He, according to His ever-present power and wisdom, creates for us these magnificent toys out of nothing every summer; Let us amuse ourselves with them, and let us not forget to glorify the goodness of the Creator, our Heavenly Father; We ourselves will respond to His love for us with our loving hearts. A person puts aside old clothes in order to put on new ones - from time to time, and finally he will also put aside the clothes of his body. Let us remember this when we change clothes. Ordinary clothing decays from time and use, and the clothing of the body also decays from the same reasons, and especially from the destructive power of sin: our soul alone is eternal; Some of her deeds - good or evil - are eternal. What do you care about your clothes [Matt. 6.28], is not the soul greater than it? [Matt. 6.25]. The world, as the work of a living, wise God, is full of life: everywhere and in everything there is life and wisdom, in everything you see the expression of thought - both as a whole and in all parts. This is a real book from which one can, although not as clearly as from Revelation, learn the knowledge of God. Before the world became, there was only the living, infinite God; when the world became, called out of non-existence into being, God, of course, did not become limited - all the fullness of life and infinity remained with Him; but this fullness of life and infinity was expressed in creatures, of which there are immeasurably many and all are gifted with life. The limitations of the world and especially of man. The world is like a fulcrum for corporeal creatures, so that they do not disappear into infinity. The writings of the word of God speak more truly and clearly about the world than the world itself or the arrangement of the layers of the earth: the writings of nature within it, as dead and voiceless, do not express anything definite. Where were you, O man, when I laid the foundations of the earth? [Job. 38.4]. Were you with God when He created the universe? For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was His adviser then? [Rom. 11.34]. And you, geognostics, boast that you understood the mind of the Lord in the construction of the layers of the earth, and you assert this in defiance of the Sacred Scripture. You believe more in the dead letters of the layers of the earth, in the soulless earth, than in the divinely inspired words of the great prophet and seer of God Moses. When some passion begins to take possession of you, then remember that great man who was no longer among those born of wives, that is, John, the Forerunner of the Lord, and mentally trace his life: turn your soul's gaze to his home, his food and clothing, to his contempt for all human glory and his zeal only for the glory of God and, having such a bright example in mind, drive away the darkness of passion from their hearts. yours. A strong example for us is the man whom Our Lord Himself testified to as the greatest man. The world is insignificant before the Lord God, and God is, as it were, the only being, so that God at all times and everywhere is present in His entire being, as if He were the only one and there were no other beings or creatures at all. Examples of how He suddenly, unexpectedly told the prophets, how He acted through various animals: donkeys, lions, ravens and others. I have seen the Lord before me, as He is at my right hand, so that I will not be moved [Ps. 15.8]. The prophet sees the Lord with the eyes of faith always close to him. I will walk from Your Spirit... [Ps. 138.7]. If God gave us existence, the greatest gift of goodness, if after we fell away from Him and fell from life to death, He gave us, to recreate us, to bring us to life, His Son, then how small are all the other blessings that we ask Him in prayer, so that, according to the first, sincere word of faith, to grant them to us, if they are essential for us, and how inexcusable we are when we doubt receiving them from God in prayer. The Savior said directly: ask, and it will be given to you [Matt. 7.7]. He who gives His Son... how can He not also give us everything with Him? [Rom. 8.32]. My Lord - Jesus Christ - is my life, my consolation, my happiness, my treasure, my gold and silver, my clothing and my home: with Him I have everything. The prophecies were not clearly spoken by the prophets, but in secret, according to God's wisdom, in order to catch the evil spirits who insidiously seduced man and drew him into destruction, so that with the same measure with which they measured, measure it to them, so that, that is, secretly from the spirits of wickedness in heaven, the Son of God may dwell in men with the participation of their flesh and blood, teach them the verbs of eternal life, suffer and die for them. If the devil had known that the Son of God had taken upon Himself the soul and body of man, if He had known of His intention to redeem people through His suffering and death, He would never have brought Him to suffering and death, but would have tried in every possible way to distance Him from redemptive suffering and death; meanwhile, the suffering and death of the God-man had to be accomplished by the same free, evil will of the prince of darkness, with which he drew the first people into destruction. It was necessary for the people who perished through the malice of the devil themselves, out of ignorance, to offer the universal Sacrifice on Calvary for the salvation of the world, according to the teaching of the same devil, in order to thus further disgrace the evil spirit and so that the immeasurable love of God for fallen humanity would be gloriously glorified. That is why the Savior, performing great miracles, commanded that they should not be told to anyone - until He rose from the dead - because, that is, so that people, having reliably learned everything, that He is Almighty God, who hid His glory in the image of a servant [Phil. 2.7], did not prevent his suffering and death. It is beautifully said about the redemptive actions of God and our Savior Jesus Christ in one of the prayers read at Vespers on the Feast of Pentecost, that He began to grasp the evil and deep serpent with God’s wise flattery 142. And when Moses raised his hands, Israel prevailed, and when he lowered his hands, Amalek prevailed [Exod. 17.11]. This is the image of the prayer of the New Testament priests for the people present in the church or remaining in their homes due to blessed wines. When, during the service, the priest raises his mind and heart sincerely to God, when he raises his reverend hands for the people, then those standing and praying in the church defeat the spiritual Amalek, who is fighting them internally; and when the priest relaxes in spirit during the service, does not lift up the grief of his heart, prays coldly, out of habit, without heartfelt participation, without sincere love for his flock and for God - then those present in the church are overcome by spiritual Amalek, that is, the spirits of evil, entertaining the forces of the soldiers of Jesus Christ praying in the church with nasty, evil and blasphemous thoughts. Watch, priests of the Lord, over yourselves during the divine service. Thy hands create me and create me [Ps. 118.73]. The hands of God are the Son and the Holy Spirit. New Tablet. Speak to the Lord with Job: I have heard of You by the ear of the ear; now my eyes see You; therefore I renounce and repent in dust and ashes [Job. 42.5–6]. Every person, first of all, remember that you are a fallen creature, sick, that your spiritual powers are damaged and act incorrectly, discordantly. Remember also that the evil spirit is trying in every possible way to defend its imaginary rights to you, which we gave to it in the person of Adam and Eve, having sold ourselves to it through sin. Deny it daily, and in your thoughts and deeds and by all means unite yourself with Christ - that is, with good thoughts, desires and deeds, try to assimilate yourself to Him, as you promised to Him at baptism. What is the reason for unbelief? Carnality, the subordination of the spirit to the flesh, and the flesh is the same as sin, because good things do not live in the flesh, according to the testimony of the Apostle. The Spirit of God, who gives us faith, does not live in people who walk in the flesh. My Spirit will not forever be despised by men [these], because they are flesh [Gen. 6.3], - God said about the antediluvian people. And today's people also live in the flesh. Without the Spirit of God, no one can heartily and sincerely confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God. No one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit [1 Cor. 12.3]. The natural man has a deceitful, corrupt heart; there is no saving simplicity in him, [which] believes everything [1 Cor. 13.7]. Take heed, says the apostle, lest in any of you there be a deceitful heart, full of unbelief [Heb. 3.12]. Truth is simple, and evil is crafty. Cunning is vile duality (a consequence of the fall). Evilness deliberately wants to see lies, untruths in direct truth, recognized by everyone. Evilness is a property of the devil, who was the first to grow the bitter fruit of guile in Eve, inspiring her to see lies in the true words of God, when he said: Did God really say: do not eat... no, you will not die... [Gen. 3.1–4]. Woe to the wicked and unfaithful if they do not correct themselves: they will undoubtedly go into eternal torment with the evil, crafty spirits to whom they have likened themselves through wickedness. Do not offend the priceless, Living Treasure, that is, Christ, by regretting an insignificant, perishable loss. See if God is testing you, what do you love more: Him or perishable treasures? Having a priceless treasure that can and does enrich with all spiritual and sensual benefits, what madman would regret the loss of a few rattles? Understand what I say. For we who are alive are continually being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh [2 Cor. 4:11], says the holy Apostle Paul. The power of the Lord Jesus is made perfect in weakness [2 Cor. 12:9 ], as He said to the same apostle: when we are weak, then in the whole world the ever-present strength or omnipotence of the Lord who saves us appears to our short-sightedness, our lack of faith. And this is the triumph of the Christian - the ascetic of Christ: he is alive, ever given over to spiritual or physical death and is always snatched by the omnipotent power of God from the very jaws of death into life so that through numerous experiences of God's omnipotence in his own life he is unshakably convinced of the providential goodness and omnipotence of the Lord and completely relies on Him in everything as the all-good and omnipotent Assistant. And I, a sinful and unworthy servant of my Lord Jesus Christ, am ever given over into spiritual death—to the original murderer, the evil tormentor, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in my mortal flesh [2 Cor. 4:11] then, as I cry for help to my God, my Savior. ABOUT! How often does my Savior save me! What trouble do I have without my Savior! When the passion of envy begins to take possession of you, then most likely, with all your heart, thank the Lord for all the blessings that you previously received from God and now have: for food, for clothing, for housing, for bringing from non-existence into existence, for good parents, relatives, especially for the gifts of the Christian faith and especially for the Gifts of the Body and Blood of the Lord. The priest must always recognize himself as a representative for the people; This consciousness is especially needed in church during worship, when he is primarily an intercessor. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [Matt. 11.28]. When you are weary and burdened with the enemy the devil who is internally fighting you, then come and fall to the Savior - and He will undoubtedly, without fail, give you rest; just come to Him without fail with your heart. The repose of the Lord will appear to you in the fact that it will become wonderfully good (good) in your soul: My yoke is good [Matt. 11.30 ]; after the burden of sin it is surprisingly easy. Experience. The life of my soul, my consolation, the light of my mind is the Life-giving Spirit of God, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who dwells in me for the sake of mercy from the side of the Lord through the flowing Blood - that is, for the sake of the fact that Jesus Christ always reconciles me, a sinner, a repentant one, with God through His Blood shed for me, and thus makes me accessible to the Spirit of God. The names that are attributed to the Spirit of God are justified by the very deeds in my soul. God! I cannot think of any other salvation except You, the Savior of the world, Jesus, the Son of God! Save me, Lord, always when I need salvation from my sins. Doubt and unbelief in the matter of faith refer to blasphemous thoughts implanted in us by the devil. Ignore them, laugh at them. He who does not believe in God, who saves in difficult circumstances, and is faint-hearted, does not want to give glory to God, imagines Him as unawake and sleeping, or not omnipotent and not good; he creates a lie as a God of truth and through this he sins gravely; The cowardice of unbelief in a person who was often honored to receive miraculous help from God the Savior is especially unpardonable. ABOUT! I am a great sinner! (Swimming in a small boat.) Just as in the soul of an unfaithful, low, unworthy person the kingdom of darkness or dark spirits is often reflected, so in the soul of a faithful, exalted, noble soul the kingdom of light is reflected, or the Lord God Himself (like the sun in a drop of water), His properties: goodness, love, meekness, long-suffering, joy, peace; the properties of the angels and saints of God are reflected, with whom he becomes akin to the good, meek and quiet mood of his soul. Just as a passionate person is the dwelling place of demons, so one who removes or removes passions from himself is the dwelling place of God, the dwelling place of the Most Holy Trinity. My sinful body! How little is needed for you to nourish you, to adequately cover your nakedness, to protect you with shelter from the fickleness of the elements - and how much you demand! When will salvation shine for me from heaven - from the Lord or my intermediaries, His Most Pure Mother, the holy Guardian Angel and the holy people of God who have moved to heaven? - Then, when in prayer to them my faith reaches such a degree of simplicity that I see them with the eyes of my heart, when I vividly imagine their goodness and love and perfect readiness to help my real needs. When there is no such vision, there is no help. The Lord accustoms me to constant contemplation of Him in my heart. On the holy icons of the Lord and Savior are the eyes and heart of God, as in Solomon’s temple; the same is on the icons of the Lady and other saints. In prayer, what is most necessary is a heartfelt vision of the Lord with His goodness, love, omnipresence - and the vision of Him alone, excluding any, even the slightest, aspiration of the heart to worldly objects. I have learned heartily, through countless experiences, that there is no salvation for me in anyone else [Acts. 4:11 ] from my sins and from my sorrows, and in no one else can I find bliss and peace in life except the Sweetest Jesus my Lord. He is my salvation from my sins and from the sorrows of my heart; He is my bliss, my life. Gloriously glorified in me is the Lord our God. This is human grief: a sinner, even at a time when sins torment him, often does not see and does not want to sincerely see his spiritual or bodily impurities in order to repent of them, and wallows in the abyss of sin, without appealing to the unsearchable abyss of the mercy of God, who saves us from all our sins through our prayer. Generous! Grant me to always be generous. Our bodies are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in us. How sinful it is not to know and not to honor with proper worship the All-Holy Spirit: He lives, comforts, fills our hearts with peace, prays with us, makes us saints. If you begin to serve the Lord your God, then prepare your soul for temptation: [Sir. 2.1], that is, test yourself - do you have the living faith and sincere humility in your heart necessary for this? Be careful: do not be like a man who tempts the Lord [Sir. 18.23]. The burning fire in the chest, the sorrow and heaviness of the heart, which does not contain faith and the spirit of prayer, the disposition of the heart towards impatience and blasphemy come from the poisonous pretext of the devil. By their fruits you will recognize them [Matt. 7.16]. In the time free from his pretext, there is a light, delightful warmth in my chest, in my heart there is breadth and joy, amicably meeting and accompanying prayer, whether it be from a petition for some needs, or from thanksgiving, or from the praise of the wondrous God within me. God is what you have in your heart. Almost in your heart there is God. Never be so careless that you fail to pray to God with all your heart: never spare Him with all your heart. You will regret not bringing Him everything as a gift - and soon you will see for yourself how bad you have done: in your heart there will not be the One who should always occupy it; there will be no One in Whom it lives and rejoices. That’s why it will be languid and painful. Several times I experienced that sleep flees from my eyes, peace from my heart, if I did not pray with all my heart at Evening Prayer. You see: you can’t go back. Before, I always prayed with all my heart, but now I became lazy and did not set my whole heart in motion towards God - it senses the lack of the One in whom it is accustomed to live and rest: He did not come to lazy prayer. Brethren! Learn from the experience that happened to me as a sinner to always pray with all my heart. Of course, those who previously did not pray with all their hearts and now do not pray with all their hearts, but only superficially, are not visited by the Lord with trials because they are imperfect. The temporary absence of God’s grace is too palpable for my heart. The heart can be cramped, sorrowful, fearful; and with grace, it expands and rejoices. Heart negligence is disastrous for me. My life is in the closest connection with the Savior: my life and the Savior are one and the same. I have become accustomed to appreciating and loving the Savior inseparably from myself. It is good for me to cleave to God [Ps. 72.28] - here is my theology, here is my morality, here is my philosophy, here is all my knowledge. Make sure that your heart always has God and everything that requires faith and love from you, everything that is holy. The presence of a Guardian Angel with every true Christian is necessary because the bodies of Christians are, according to the testimony of the Word of God, churches... of the Holy Spirit [1 Cor. 6:19], and Christians themselves are members of the body of Christ, sanctified by His suffering on the cross and death, sealed by His Sacraments, in which the grace of the Holy Spirit is communicated to us, especially because we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ Himself in the Sacrament of Communion. The dignity of a Christian person as a member of the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit certainly requires the presence of a Guardian Angel with him, as our elder brother and friend who guides us to the common Lord of all - the Kingdom of light and bliss. If there is joy among the Angels of God over one sinner who repents [Lk. 15:10], then we can judge by this what a strong part the Angels of the Lord take in our salvation. If our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God lives in our hearts, then during prayer there is nothing better than directing our mind to the heart, and in the heart and with the heart to send prayer to God; raising the mind to grief without raising the heart there is dangerous: evil demons fly in the heights of the air and can soon occupy a heart that is not occupied by the flame of prayer; the mind can easily daydream during prayer, although it will speak the words of prayer; and the heart can easily fall asleep under the charm of the mind. The love of our Divine Savior Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit is so great and immeasurable for us that in front of it all dislike, enmity, and hatred of us becomes insignificant or, as it were, disappears; It is because of this immensity of God’s love for us and the insignificance of human enmity that the Savior commanded us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who harm us. We are in the love of God. Be perfect... [Matt. 5.48.] Is it great that people are unkind to us? What can they do to us when God has loved us so much? Priest of God! Know and remember that prayer for your spiritual children, for their salvation, must be your indispensable duty: the Holy Church has indicated this duty to you in her prayers, praying for them on your behalf. But you should not only pray for them in church, but also at home during home prayer. How can you shepherd the verbal sheep properly if you don’t pray for them – both in church and at home? Only through prayer can all spiritual blessings be acquired, which means the benefit of spiritual, experienced, effective shepherding. When worshiping the Most Holy Trinity and praying to each Person of the Most Holy Trinity, be careful in every possible way to mentally experience the mystery of the Trinity Divinity; remember the rule: do not seek what is too difficult for you, and do not try what is beyond your strength [Sir. 3.21]. Remember your insignificance, your limitations. It is enough for you to know that God the Father brought you from non-existence into being through the Son in the Holy Spirit and loved you so much that He gave His only begotten Son to die for you, so that you, having fallen from life, would not perish forever, but for His sake have eternal life; that the Son of God created and redeemed you, and the Spirit of God gives life, teaches you everything good and useful, and, perfecting you, guides you, like a mother’s child, to the Kingdom of Heaven. They will not feel [glory: touch] Him (God) and will not find [Acts. 17.27]. To find and touch the invisible, but located not far from each of us, God is the goal of our life, according to the Apostle Paul. Finding and, so to speak, touching or feeling the invisible God is the height of our bliss on earth, because God is all Bliss. He who has found God, who constantly experiences His life-giving touch on himself, will not exchange the happiness of having Him in his heart for anything in the world and looks in every possible way for cases in which the Invisible comes into contact with our spirit. Seeing the Invisible One, he was strong [Heb. 11.27] (Moses). Reach such perfection of faith that you seem to see the invisible God with your eyes, have Him in your heart, look at Him with the eyes of your heart - and you will not be the last of the Christians, and your steps will be corrected. It means a lot when a person can sincerely say: it’s as if I see the invisible God with my eyes - I’m so confident in Him! Be careful in every possible way lest you contradict your own words during prayer. For example, in prayers for communion you ask for the non-judgmental acceptance of the life-giving Body and Blood of the Lord. But, instead of the Body and Blood of the Lord, look, isn’t your heart fed on the objects of your passions, isn’t it devouring them with joy? Look: where is your treasure? So it is in all other cases. Look: do you not contradict your heart with your words? Are you not drawing near only with your lips, but your heart is far away [Matt. 15.8 ]? Aren't you a hypocrite? With the assistance of God's providence. Just as the soul, co-present with the body, keeps in order and revitalizes all its parts, so the Spirit of God, filling the entire universe, keeps in order all its parts, great, small and the smallest, and revives it with His Divine breath. You send forth Your spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth [Ps. 103.30]. If you take away their spirit, they die and return to their dust [Ps. 103.29]. Lord, my victory, I will not let you go! Dream on the 29th of June. It seemed to me that in the dark midnight the sky was suddenly illuminated with a light similar to the sun, and in the four sides of the sky, corresponding to the four cardinal points, Angels appeared shining with an indescribable light, also with shining trumpets, messengers of the general resurrection and the terrible coming of Christ. All the spectators of the new and unusually great phenomenon were amazed and frightened with indescribable fear: mute and motionless they stood in their places and anxiously awaited the terrible event. What about me, a sinner? What am I, a sinner? Where do I get such mercy? “I was not afraid, I did not tremble, looking at this formidable phenomenon, but calmly and with a triumphant look, I joyfully awaited the appearance of my Lord from heaven. He is so good, I thought, so I often experienced delightful visits from Him in my heart during worthy prayer, also after receiving the Holy Mysteries, that He, the Many-Merciful One, even now, according to the abundance of His mercy, like the abyss of love for mankind, will have mercy on me, a great sinner, and will be worthy of the communion of His ineffable light in His monasteries and will not send me to the other side. ABOUT! May I become more familiar with my Lord in prayer and come into contact with Him worthily in the life-giving Mysteries, so that I may always have boldness before Him. I went to bed after praying grace. Lady Theotokos! Grant me to plunge with the eyes of my heart into the abyss of Your meekness and humility and Your goodness, and I myself will bring out from this abyss some drops of spiritual gifts. For carnal wisdom is death, but spiritual wisdom is life and peace [Rom. 8.6]. What carnal, that is, passionate, person would not agree with these words of the apostle? The wisdom of the flesh is indeed death. Come here, money-loving, covetous, envious, self-loving, proud, ambitious man - and let us look at you, at your actions, at your life, reveal to us, if you want, your heart thoughts - we will assure you, by a living example, that the thoughts of the flesh are death: you are not living the true life; you are spiritually dead; In freedom, you are internally bound; mind like a madman, because the light that is in you is darkness [Matt. 6.23 ]; you received from God a heart capable of enjoying the feelings of everything that is true, holy, good and beautiful, but through carnal wisdom you suppressed noble feelings and noble impulses in it; you are a dead man, you have no stomach in you [John. 6.53]. But spiritual wisdom is life and peace. Any Christian man, leading a life of faith, destroying passions in himself and contemplating whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise [Phil. 4:8], - come to us and tell us what you feel in your soul from spiritual wisdom: I, you tell us, feel in my heart eternal peace and joy about the Holy Spirit; I feel the expansion of the heart - an abundance of life, I laugh at everything carnal and marvel at how it has such great power over the hearts of carnal people, and I myself am engaged in constant contemplation of the heavenly, spiritual, invisible blessings prepared for those who love God. When there is some kind of passion in your heart, which turns out to be a loss of heartfelt faith and boldness before God, confusion, sorrow and tightness of heart, then repent quickly and decisively, and in a state of passion do not perform a prayer, not a single demand: you will perform a Divine work contrary to God, as a judgment to yourself, and the devil will easily stop you during prayer and service. Your heart will resist the work of God, will have no disposition towards it, and will clearly tell you that you are now not God’s, but someone else’s. Always remember that there is not the slightest communication between light and darkness. When there is passion in the heart, then there is no Spirit of God in it, then there is no worthy service to God. Rather, then sincerely lament your sins, quickly bring into your heart the lost warmth of spiritual life, sigh and, if possible, cry—and then you will again become a partaker of the Holy Spirit. My bliss and the peace of my heart are hampered almost exclusively by my sins. But my Lord saves me every time I cry out for salvation from my sins, and every time in Him alone I find peace of heart. Attachment to perishable, earthly things is always accompanied for me by spiritual death, and attachment to God and to the spiritual in general is accompanied by life. So, make sure that your life is there - in heaven, in the Kingdom of Spirits, and not on earth, not in this kingdom of death and corruption. I thank You, my most merciful Savior and Most Righteous Judge, that You beat me with a spiritual rod for every sin, for every sinful movement of the heart. Beat me, strike me, but do not deprive me of Your mercy. Fasting on Wednesday and Friday was predicted by the Savior: the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them (the disciples and followers of Christ), and then they will fast - in those days [Matt. 9.15]. And the Savior, the Bridegroom of our souls, was taken from us on Wednesday, being given over to suffering on that day, and on Friday - dying with His body on our cross for the sake of salvation. As a child-loving, but strict Father, the Lord treats us: if you are guilty, he punishes; If you repent, He forgives and favors with His love. A sinner, says Abba Mark the Ascetic (Sk. 2, v. 58), cannot avoid retribution (for sin) except by repentance corresponding to the sin. I have experienced this a thousand times. If you understand, according to the Scriptures, that the judgments of the Lord are in all the earth [Ps. 104.7], he says, then every opportunity will be for you a teacher of the knowledge of God. 66 art. 108 Art. What we say or do without prayer later becomes either sinful or harmful and exposes us through deeds in a way unknown to us. 114. The space of the heart is trust in God, and its tightness is care for the body. 128. He who enjoys bodily pleasures more than appropriate will reward their excess with sorrows a hundredfold. 130. Anyone who is offended by someone and does not exact this portion from the one who offends him believes in Christ and will receive a hundredfold for this in this age and will inherit eternal life. 137. Do not rejoice when you do good to someone, but when you endure the subsequent resistance without rancor. For just as nights follow days, so vices follow virtues. My... Mary, said the Lord, has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her [Lk. 10.42]. Thus, I do not have a comprehensive mind, I cannot speak about everything that the world speaks about, I cannot shine with extensive information in various branches of knowledge, but from all knowledge I have chosen almost one thing - and the best of all - the knowledge of the Gospel (and the Old Testament), and I boast of this one knowledge, which is a good part for me (of all existing knowledge). Let them reproach me for one-sidedness and ignorance of the modern world. I know that knowing myself and knowing my God with His works is more necessary than all knowledge. Let those who need it worry and talk about the abundance: I know that I have only one need; Mary chose the good part, which will not be taken away from her [Lk. 10.41–42]. I am not averse to other knowledge, but I acquire as much of it as I need to understand and establish the only thing I need; but I don’t worry about many things, so as not to lose the time that I need to preserve and return the good part. When your thoughts compel you, during prayer or at other times, to examine the actions of others and slyly see the bad side in them, say within yourself: each one will bear his own burden [Gal. 6.5], therefore, look better into the depths of your heart and correct your own heart, on whose guard you must constantly stand, and do not notice the motes in the eyes of others: this will bring you nothing but condemnation. When thoughts praise you, presenting to you your imaginary spirituality, your warmth of heart, humility, alms and other virtues and placing you above others, tell them: it is not he who praises himself who is worthy, but whom the Lord praises [2 Cor. 10.18]. If indeed there were such virtues in me, then they are works of God’s grace; mine is only a desire; even desire is given by the grace of God, because God works in you both to will and to act according to His good pleasure [Phil. 2.13]. Moreover, I am a very bad person in other respects: I have been plagued by many passions since my youth, and I often succumb to them. God! The enemy has been deceiving me for four years now, for four years I have been experiencing mental death from his deceptions; For four years I have known what he is deceiving me about - so what? I keep giving myself over to the scoundrel's deception! [Passion]. Sometimes [...]. When invisible enemies, with the goal of defeating you, press on your soul, striking it with hellish fear and tightness, so that you cannot free your heart from their dark influence and introduce Christ into it - oh! don’t get irritated then, but be patient and pray, pray hard, trying by all means to bring the Lord into your heart with living faith! What to do? The law of God's truth requires that we are sometimes left to the will of invisible enemies to test our faith and our devotion to the Lord. Just as fire cannot help but shine and warm, so the life-giving Mysteries cannot but revive the souls and bodies of the Christian receiving communion worthily and enlighten his mind and heart. Always treat your fellow service members sincerely and lovingly and do not cunningly look for opportunities for hostility. Do not insult the One who searches hearts and wombs. On the icons of the Lord or His Most Pure Mother or His saints, their hearts and eyes are inherent. This is why icons are miraculous, especially the Mother of God. Just as in Solomon’s temple the heart and eyes of the Lord were, according to His promise, so they are in our churches and even in our homes – on icons. He who righteously valued the widow’s two mites also righteously values ​​your prayers and sacrifices, when you with diligent faith ask us to pray with you in church or in your homes. ABOUT! Then with joy the Lord looks at you and pronounces this judgment about you: Mary chose the good part [Lk. 10.42]. Always remember that during prayer you are seen and heard by God or His Most Pure Mother; then imagine that such all-good beings are listening to you, from whom you will certainly receive mercy if you pray to them from your heart. Parishioners need to be taught everything (in all words and actions), but in no way should they indulge their weaknesses: pride, impatience, and the like. You bear names that are not justified by your life. And the name of Jesus 143, our God and Savior, is in fact justified every day, every minute. He saves us constantly, every time we raise our minds and hearts to Him from our sins, from the sorrows of our hearts. Every pious person's own daily experience speaks this; Moreover, how many times He saves us daily is unknown to us! In the matter of heartfelt faith and piety, one must in every possible way beware of backward movement - especially since it is very easy and almost imperceptible. One must not tempt the God of righteousness. He, in His love and truth, will return us to our previous path, but this return will cost us tears and sobs, that is, deep repentance, because the Lord punishes moving back in a heart that suffers anxiety and languor. If one temptation (whether in the body or in the soul) has passed, we must expect another. We, fickle and constantly ready to fall away from faith and love, must be kept under temptations constantly, so that we see ourselves as we are, since temptations have this as their fruit. To what extent is it good to cleave to God [Ps. 72.28] and constitutes bliss for the heart, to the same extent, clinging with the mind and heart to something perishable, for example, to money, is bad and constitutes torment for the heart. Experience. He who is united with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord [1 Cor. 6.17]. That is why the saints certainly hear each of us, if only we call upon them with all our hearts. Telegraphs soon communicate with distant places and persons, and faith - with God and saints, who are far from unbelievers, that is, from their hearts. Far are you from their wombs. Our soul, descending into materiality, always feels tightness and heaviness; and rising up to God, he always feels extraordinary lightness and expansion of his life. Experience. My hands created and created you. I have put spirit in you - the breath of My mouth, and how can you sometimes think that I am not near you? I am God near, not God from afar. The purer the heart, the more capable it is of containing faith in God and His saints and in all that is holy. The more unclean it is, the more untrue it is. Daily experience. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God [Matt. 5.8], - not only there, in the Kingdom of glory, but also here on earth, - with the eyes of the heart; just as those who are in the tombs (that is, not only those who contain our ashes, but also the souls in the tombs of our bodies, filled with all uncleanness), now hear the voice of the Son of God and, having heard, come to life spiritually. Take comfort in sorrows and illnesses by thinking about future joys, about future bliss that never ceases, because just as sorrows and illnesses are certain, so are future joys certain: they serve as a guarantee of them (future joys). The more food you add to the fire, the stronger the flame; The more money a money lover receives, the more his passion ignites. Blessed and Generous! Grant me the strength to offer You the sacrifice intended in my heart, the sacrifice of love for You and my neighbor. (I will place my hope in You: You arrange everything for good Yourself.) When you see that the Orthodox Faith of Christ has existed unchanged for more than eighteen centuries, with all the variability, with all the inconstancy of human hearts, subject to passions and changing their directions in the course of one hour, then remember that this is the work of the Lord God, who provides for His Holy Church; that the preservation of faith in its original purity and immutability is a constant miracle of God on earth. Indeed, it’s a wonderful thing: how among people, whose ability to change a hundred times a day in their thoughts and feelings, is faith kept unchanged for so many centuries? How, despite all the attacks of freethinkers, does she stand unshakable? How, with all the furious aspirations of the waves of self-thinking and blasphemy, does she remain unharmed and motionless? I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it [Matt. 16,18]. Without the providence of God, left to only people, the Christian faith, as the Church of God, would have collapsed long ago. When the devil tempts you through the eye of your right hand, whispering to you that such and such is ex tua familia multum edit et bibit 144, and crushes your heart with a heavy stone avaritiae 145, tell him: man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God [Matt. 4:4], and about the animal Bread, which the Son of God offers me almost daily in His life-giving Mysteries. But all I need is life: I need money, bread and everything else as much as they give me life; as soon as they serve as an instrument of constraint in my life, food of death for my soul and body, they are no longer good for me, no longer necessary for me: then I must flee from them or, according to the word of the Savior, sell all the food and give it to the poor. Also tell me: I have been living with such and such a person for several years now: has he really changed for the worse in this regard only now? Now, you are publishing your work 146: will there be many readers of your work? And the word of God is read and re-read for many centuries by the whole world. The creations of the holy fathers also shine throughout the world for several centuries. God! I entrust to you the fate of my essay. What does it mean for me to feel joy after defeating evil in my heart? This means that the culprit of evil is not only me, but, and especially, the devil, who will internally overcome me. When doubt enters your heart during prayer: will God hear it, then say to yourself internally: what do you have that you would not have received [1 Cor. 4.7] from God? If I am all of God and everything I have is from God, then how can I not hope to be heard from the One who does me good every minute? The essence of my God is goodness. Remember what the apostles said to the Lord: behold, we have left everything and followed You [Matt. 19.27]. And you also need, absolutely need to leave all worldly blessings and worries about them in order to be a true follower of Christ. Repeated experiments that have happened to you assure you of this. Your highest good is Christ. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor [Matt. 19.21]. The Lord requires far from such a sacrifice from you to please Him - and you do not want to make it. Truly, for the Lord, who left heaven for me and laid down His soul for me, I must leave everything and follow Him, the Sweetest, without hesitation. I have learned through countless experiences that it is good for me to cleave to God [Ps. 72:28], that He has peace for my soul, that His yoke is good and easy - and what will make me move away from Him in my heart? Earthly goods torment and kill me, as soon as I want to cleave to them - and what will make me become attached to them? What good is it to a man, even if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul [Russian: harm] or destroys it? [Matt. 16.26]. Or what ransom will a man give for his soul? [Mk. 8.37]. Truly, the life of the soul is more valuable than the wealth of the whole world. Grief is a disease of the soul that requires healing, salvation, and for it the only salvation is Christ. There is salvation in no one else [Acts. 4.11]. Be meek and lowly in heart [Matt. 29.11] - and living faith will dwell in your heart, and you will not be tormented by unbelief (mistrust) and hopelessness in the most faithful and reliable matters. The Lord is punishing you for your pride. The abyss calls upon the abyss [Ps. 41.8]. The abyss of God’s mercies towards me, beginning at the edge of earthly existence and continuing to this day and having to continue into infinity, evokes an abyss of gratitude on my part, an abyss of grateful love for my Creator and Savior. Brethren! We warn you that the devil is trying in every possible way to sit in the depths of your heart and steal from it faith, hope and love and every good desire. The job of a wise and courageous husband is not to pay attention to the whims of the heart at any time. You Yourself, Lord, support me at the height of the priesthood, to which You raised me from moral insignificance. Considering the multitude of your enemies, imagine the multitude of the enemies of Jesus - and you will calm down. With satanic fear (of people), imagine the people standing before you lying in graves, for we will all go to the ground. The struggle between the sick and the healthy in the animal body is accompanied by severe illness; so in a soul infected with original sin, like some kind of inveterate disease, the struggle of sin with good or flesh with spirit is always accompanied by a painful sensation. But, brothers, endure this illness generously: from this illness you will derive the triumph of good over evil, life over death. Dental disease is severe, but it does not last long: the more severe it is, the shorter it will last: it will torment you for a day, turn you around, and then go away. The invisible, all-fulfilling God often and tangibly touches my invisible soul, which from His touch tastes wonderful peace and heavenly joy. It is not the eye that conveys to me the message about my God (senses for the lower objects of existence - only hearing, through words and voice sounds, conveys to me messages about the incomprehensible), but the soul itself, so to speak, merges with God. When the malice of people confuses you and plunges your heart into despondency, remember then how infinitely the almighty and all-righteous Lord God loves you, Who endures malice for a time and then - in His own time - punishes it in a worthy manner. I thank the Lord, who visits me with illness: it tangibly reminds me, a forgetful person, of the corruption of my bodily composition and encourages me to neglect everything corruptible, earthly, and fleeting. Some saints, for the sake of their humility, gave themselves up to be trampled underfoot; But at least learn to willingly replace your boss in demands at his request. Oh, I will correct the needs of my brothers as much as I can, and thereby I will humble my pride. When a proud person has no one to humble himself before, then he too can say that he is humble; but put him in front of a person who would arouse his pride, and then you will see how proud he is. One must acquire inner meekness and humility and readiness for all obedience. Meekness is happy with everyone and everything, and there is no accident that would irritate it. Before the assembly of many, list the Royal family with a cheerful and complacent face. You cannot cope with yourself, with your tongue, with one member of your body. Judge by this what He is like who rules the whole world, Who keeps it in such amazing order, Who rules the entire human race, evil, corrupt, always ready to destroy each other - and yet more prosperous under His power than poor. How omnipotent and wise He is, ruling such a heterogeneous multitude! No matter what unpleasant thing happens to you, never get impatient and say: what is this? why is this? how could this be? Everything happens for a good purpose: the reason for everything is in yourself. Rejoice in the visitation of the Most High not only when it comes to you in the peace and joy of the heart, as His favor, but also in the sorrow and tightness of the heart, as the Father’s punishment for you, and since for every bad movement of the heart anger descends on you from heaven, then every time you meet with joy the punishing right hand of the Most High, even though His rod is heavy for the soul, and glorify the unchanging truth of God, as well as and the unchanging mercy of God - and rejoice in these guarantees of the future Judgment, future torment and bliss. Let it not be hidden from you that the primordial enemy darkens you before the conciliar service of the Liturgy, and especially at the time when the Gifts are transferred and the entire Royal House is spoken of. It so darkens and entangles you at this time that you stand as if bound both mentally and physically; he humiliates you completely in his own thoughts, whispers to you that before the eyes of those ahead you should only be ashamed of yourself and your position, while at this time you are great and your position, although the last one, is also a very important position. The original liar and murderer hides in suspiciousness: he presents everything in false and enormous proportions to the suspicious person. Note the same in relation to other cases when, while performing a holy deed, you are ashamed of yourself and what you are doing. Know that in such cases the enemy enters you and merges with your thoughts and feelings - do not believe him. He, the destroyer, is easy to recognize: he comes only to steal, kill and destroy [Jn. 10.10 ]; everything that kills the soul is his business (except the punishments of the Lord); everything that revives and pacifies the soul is God’s work: I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly [Jn. 10.10]. Remember how it all ends: eternal torment in the fire of Gehenna or endless bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven. You go uphill or downhill, as it were, along the path of this life; Think about what your last step will be, what you will step on when you finish your earthly path: the fire of hell or the heavenly water of rest. To be healthy, you need to eat everything: a wide variety of food. Everyone who is idle has desires [Prov. 13:4], says the Holy Scripture, that is, the heart of an idle person is constantly subject to passions and lusts. An idle person is easily subject to envy, hatred, pride, ambition and every passion; An idle person is the devil’s most accessible tool, because an idle person is an unfenced garden. Who is in my heaven? and with You I want nothing on earth... God is the stronghold of my heart and my portion forever [Ps. 72.25–26]. Yes, You, Lord, must be everything to me; I should not part with You because of anything, O God of my heart, or, according to the Apostle, nothing should separate me from You: neither height, nor depth, nor heaven, nor earth, nor Angels, nor Principalities... nor any other creature [Rom. 8,38–39]. You are my priceless, inalienable Treasure. (Do not eat fatty beef; try not to sleep during the day; eat in moderation - for the sake of scrofula. Thou art righteous, Lord, worthily punishing [...] dental disease.) When you retire, do not forget that spiritual peace is found in God, and therefore, before sleep, try to rest your heart in the Lord with fervent prayer, then your body will rest. But woe, if you neglect prayer and do not rest your heart in God with it, then there will be no proper rest for the body: there will be tightness in the chest, sorrow in the heart. God! When I am united with You by living faith, then I am in living connection with nature: as if she were smiling at me, she then speaks to my heart, or, better yet, You, the Sweetest, the Loving, then speak through her to me; but woe to me when You are not in my heart - then I am disconnected internally and with nature: it does not please me, it does not occupy me - and there is sorrow and tightness in my heart. A painful tightness in my chest tormented me (today is July 24 in the barracks), and why, I thought? And so I called, I strengthened my heart to call my Jesus, from my heart I called Him mine - and He moved into me, and suddenly it became easy for me. Oh, my life Jesus! Oh, my Sweet Jesus! It is good for me to cleave to God [Ps. 72:28], says David, who experienced the sweetness of clinging to God in prayer and praise. The same is confirmed by pious people. It’s the same for me, a sinner. Note: even here on earth, it is good and good to cleave to God (when we are in sinful flesh, which has many of its own pleasant or unpleasant). How would it not be good to unite with God there - in heaven? And the bliss of clinging to God here on earth is an example and guarantee of blissful clinging to God after death in eternity. You see how good, merciful, and true the Creator is: in order to assure you of the future bliss that comes from union with Him, He allows you to experience the firstfruits of this bliss here on earth when you sincerely approach Him. Yes, my invisible soul, indeed, still rests here in the invisible God - which means that all the more after detachment from the body it will rest in Him. Do not, O Lord, when praying or reading sacred books, turn my heart into thoughts of wickedness [Ps. 140.4], but let it be simple and direct, without deviating in a bad direction, as is often his custom. My illness is with me: I feel it; but You are also with me, and I feel Your life-giving visit in my heart. My illness is in Your will. Learn patience and meekness. You especially need them. At the time when you fall away from God, you need to experience sorrow and illness in your chest: endure this sorrow and illness; get used to it, but don’t get stuck in it. Honor your wife's father as you would your own father; show how you would love your father if he lived with you. It has been proven, and often tested, and undoubtedly true, and recognized by the entire majority - but still there is a contradictor who whispers that this is not so, and this, and the fifth, and the tenth... You pray - it contradicts, you read the holy book - it entertains with thoughts and takes away faith or instills disgust. Fight everywhere. Glory to the life-giving Mysteries of the Lord! What miracles they produce in me, a great sinner! As a sinner, I often do not have peace in my bones from the face of my sins [Ps. 37.4] - and they create deep peace in me; I am proud and irritable - and they produce in me extraordinary meekness and humility, and, in a word, after worthy acceptance of the most pure Mysteries, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me [Gal. 2,20 ]. There is such a difference between me and me: at one time I am completely different from what at another, so that if these changes had not occurred in me, I would not have recognized such a wonderfully changing person. They instill pure love for everyone in me, who is poor in love. Glory, glory to Thy Mysteries, O Christ! When it comes to the Mysteries of God, do not ask internally: how does this happen? You don’t know how God created the whole world out of nothing—you can’t, and you shouldn’t know here how God does anything in secret. The mystery of God is a mystery and must remain for you: because you are not God, you cannot know everything that the infinitely wise and omnipotent God knows. You are the work of His hands, His insignificant creature. Remember that there was a time when there was nothing, and then everything that is now was created out of nothing by the Word of God. Without Him nothing would have happened, nothing would have happened [Jn. 1.3]. When praying to God and the saints, we must first of all imagine their highest goodness, according to which they are always ready to give us what we need. You appear small and despicable in the eyes of God when you pray, but know that God has no sight on his face; all are creations of His hand; With Him there is no difference between great and small. A pure heart is what is great for Him. Have a pure heart and, even if you are small, without being ashamed or faint-hearted, pray for the whole world, for kings and for all people. You are their representative before God. My invisible, sorrowful soul, hold on to the Invisible, rich in immaterial consolations; the alien darkness of the accursed, covering you, may not close the Light of the Inexorable from you. Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His mercies, do not forget Him who cleanses all your iniquity [Ps. 102.1–3], who reposes and delights you with the communion of the Divine Mysteries of His Body and Blood. Remember that after the bliss that always follows the worthy acceptance of the Body and Blood, which you have tested many times, is absolutely true and known, you can endure all difficulties, all illnesses and sorrows for the sake of testing with a grateful and jubilant spirit. Do not be discouraged, do not be faint-hearted, but always place your hope in the Living and Life-Giving Lord, Who can never fail in His presence with you. August 1st, 1859. May my conversation (prayer) please Him; I will rejoice in the Lord [Ps. 103:34]. One of the means to weaken the power of illness is to divert the attention of the soul from it: the soul itself is warmth, or spiritual fire, imparting warmth to the whole body; therefore, naturally, where the soul is, that is, where its attention is, there is an increase in natural or painful heat. Observe this especially in dental diseases. The word is the expression of the thoughts of the invisible soul; the world is an expression of the thoughts of the invisible God: therefore they say that God is visible in the world, like a soul in a body. The invisible everywhere moves the visible, controls the visible - whether it be force or the soul. Therefore, do not be seduced by the visible as something very important and do not despise the invisible as of little importance. Just as a spider spreads its web, so God spreads out the visible world. God does such great things with people through priests that they must constantly be amazed and in awe of the greatness of God’s goodness and wisdom and gratefully glorify His boundless love for us, joyfully hastening to the holy works of their calling. I loudly confess that the best moments of my life - peace and joy of heart and light of mind - I owe, like all other spiritual and physical benefits, to my Lord, from turning my thoughts and heart to Him. Understand the blasphemy of the evil spirit against the Lord, the Most Pure Mother of God, the Angels and saints, and do not accept them as the work of your own heart, especially do not be discouraged; but from whom they came, send them back to him. Sometimes the evil one blasphemes God the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; sometimes he generally presents God as not omnipotent, sometimes he introduces him into a debate about the Trinity of Persons, sometimes he makes him doubt the existence of the Guardian Angel, and so on. In general, as soon as blasphemy against someone appears in your heart, immediately push it away and know where it comes from. It is sweet and easy to pray to God for you, brothers, from a pure, sincerely loving heart; It is sweet to wish you all spiritual blessings from the Lord. Oh, I understand what sweetness of love the great Moses felt in his heart when he prayed to God for the rebellious Jewish people and said to Him: forgive them their sin, and if not, then blot me out of Your book, in which You wrote [Ex. 32:32]. Lord, let waves of Thy grace flow into the hearts of those praying in Thy church, let them drink with the flow of Thy sweetness, so that they will understand that it is good to cleave to You, and may they love prayer with all their hearts. As much as you open your heart, Christ will ascend, and as much as you hold back, it will remain in you. When we constantly eat bland food, without oxygen, we become sick, our body becomes excessively plump and thin; Eating salty food is harmful, especially for those who have a strong stomach and a lot of thinness in the body; hot drinks are also harmful. It is good to eat food that contains oxygen, such as vinegar, and light food, such as semolina soup with fresh roots, vinegar and molasses. Experience has proven it. I know in whom I have believed [2 Tim. 1.12 ]; He did not labor in vain [Phil. 2.16 ]; service to our God is service to life, bringing peace of heart and joy to our souls. Just as a body turned to the sun feels warmth and tenderness in its members, so a soul, sincerely turned to God, feels life-giving warmth and tenderness in itself, which make it completely calm and contented and truly blessed. Experience. August 1st, 1859. Small! With small deeds, treasure for yourself in this life the great mercies of the great God in heaven. I realized that a thorn had been given to me in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to oppress me so that I would not become arrogant. Many times I prayed to the Lord to remove him from me, but He says to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness [2 Cor. 12.7–9]. It is necessary that you, often and involuntarily defeated by him, should hate him more. After communion, especially try to be meek and humble in order to honor the Meek and Humble of Heart who came under your roof. But woe if you lose the spirit of meekness and become irritated because of the sensitivity of your pride. The spirit of peace and joy will leave you; hellish fire will burn in your breasts, and then you will seek peace with much sorrow and tears and will not receive it for a long time - as a lesson, so that you take care of an invaluable treasure. It is convenient for the Lord to destroy the wiles of the devil over us. Therefore, do not be discouraged if you are unwittingly caught in his machinations. How conveniently and quickly the Lord can save us! Instantly, unexpectedly, unnoticeably! Often during the day I was a great sinner, and in the evening, after prayer, I retired justified and whiter than snow by the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the deepest peace and delight in my heart. How easy it is for the Lord to save us even in the evening of our lives, at the end of our days! Oh, save, save, save me, Most Blessed Lord, into Your Heavenly Kingdom! Everything is possible for You. We stand for our Lord or we fall. Let us stand, for God is able to raise us up [Rom. 14.4]. God! You, of whose existence and Providence my every breath testifies to me, do not separate from me for a minute - may the memory of You be one with my breath. What is especially important and constitutes the life of a being, the Creator placed and hid far in the depths, inside that being. We see this everywhere. So it is in a person: the soul is in the very middle of his being, in the heart, which is why the soul is often called the heart, and the heart the soul. And my spirit is depressed within me, my heart is troubled within me. [Ps. 142.4]. The heart is pure... and the spirit is right... [Ps. 50.12.] Give, praying people, your heart to God, that loving, sincere heart with which you love your children, parents, benefactors, friends, in which you feel the sweetness of unfeigned pure love. Sometimes in a long prayer only one minute is truly pleasing to God and constitutes true prayer, true service to God. The main thing in prayer is the closeness of the heart to God, evidenced by the sweetness of God’s presence in the soul. Let it be as I want, and not as you. This is the sovereign voice our soul always hears, having fallen into sin and wanting to get out of the state of spiritual sinful sorrow. Let it be as I want: either bear repentance commensurate with sin in the depths of your heart and return to the path of life indicated by Me, or bear the punishment corresponding to sin, determined by My justice, otherwise your sin will torment you as a deviation from My laws. And our soul will only taste peace when, in fact, it either brings repentance corresponding to sin in the depths of the heart, or suffers the punishment due from God. O all-powerful and all-righteous power of our God, ruling invisibly our invisible souls, eternal glory to you! Glory to You, God, our Savior! May Your will be done upon us! Insane! Why do you burden yourself with excess food consumption? What kind of blind greed? And you also partake of the life-giving Mysteries! Eat less, especially in the evening. When a strong tormentor strongly and painfully wrestles with you and you become exhausted in the struggle with him, then call on the Savior and tell Him: Lord! Tie the strong one, I cannot overcome him without You. Or if he blasphemes the Lord or the most pure Mysteries in you, do not pay attention to his blasphemies and leave him, despicable and evil, with your blasphemies. Whoever is embarrassed and exhausted by human malice will be all the more embarrassed and exhausted by the malice of the devil, because the latter’s malice is a hundred times stronger and concerns our most essential good - peace and the salvation of the soul: he tries in every possible way to kill our soul. Evil people must be pitied: they are an instrument of the devil. The child is sleeping, and at that time the tender mother prepares a gift for him, so that upon awakening she will delight him with her tender care and her generous love. Isn't this what God does to us? We get up and sleep, night and day, and meanwhile the Lord prepares gifts for us in the rich bosom of His earth: various fruits, tasty and healthy, and then, as if after sleep, He gives them to us, having unknown to us prepared wonderful gifts. Oh, how good, how great is the hand of the Lord! Unless you eat [Russian: if you do not eat] the flesh of the Son of Man (or eat it with unbelief), nor drink His Blood, you have no life in you [John. 6.53], said our Divine Savior. The word of my Lord and God is true. If I do not introduce into my heart by living faith the Lord Jesus, who is truly present in the Holy Mysteries, I will not have life in my heart after communion; Then I suffer from my heart, I die mentally. Oh, how hard is this torment! Try through prayer to ask God for firmness in the fight against the invisible enemies fighting you; but we need to have such firmness that, despite all the burning of their arrows, despite all the density of the darkness they scatter, despite all their blasphemies, to stand motionless on the rock of faith, without betraying the Lord either in thought or word of any dissatisfaction, and to bless His power, which for a time seems to be hiding from our soul to test what it is inclined to and what its own efforts are in the fight against enemies. But without patience, without meekness, without courage, this firmness cannot be achieved. Therefore, be patient, as the disembodied, meek and courageous, as the Lord was meek and humble and courageous - throughout His entire life and before His enemies. Do not serve God with all your heart for grace-filled consolations alone: ​​this will be a selfish and fragile service, but as a creature to the Creator and Life-Giver, out of an urgent, necessary duty. The Lord gives you over to the tyranny of demons so that you cleave more firmly to Him with all your heart. You yourself see that as soon as you tear yourself away from Him, you fall straight into the roaring, gaping mouth of ethereal enemies, like roaring lions, looking for someone to devour. Baby! Let yourself be carried in your mother's arms. If it were not for the immeasurably great and blessed Sacrament of the Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, the enemy would not intensify with such desperate constancy to attack the communicant and plant blasphemous thoughts that kill the soul in his heart. He, the all-evil killer, knows that with faith and love the Mysteries we have accepted with Christ the Giver of Life unite us, make us blessed and snatch us from his jaws; and now he directs all his strength, all his infernal cunning to deprive the sharer of the Divine Mysteries of the treasures of faith and love, reflecting in every possible way - oh, horror! the idea that this is the Body and Blood of the Lord. This is apparently the bread, but in fact it is the Flesh with which the Lord Jesus Christ, the Giver of Life, was clearly felt by the soul that has tasted the wonderful Bread after the invocation of the Holy Spirit for Gifts and blessing; This is apparently wine and water, but in reality it is the Blood in which the Divinity of my Savior is hidden, one in bread and wine, His loving Spirit, which burns our sins. Tasting these mysterious Gifts, I unite with my Lord, and truly, this connection is effective: I feel clean, washed from sins; I become meek and lowly in heart, like Him; I am filled with love, peace and joy and sweet, sweet peace. With all my heart I send glory to You, O all-merciful Savior, the sovereign part of my being who revives, delights and miraculously pacifies all its powers. ABOUT! What was my bliss immediately after receiving communion! You can't describe it, you can only feel it. And it is a shame and an unforgivable sin for Christians to perish spiritual death despite those means of salvation that the Lord has given us: through the Sacraments of Repentance and Communion. And the Lord will severely punish us for our negligence. How can we run away 147... carelessly? Joyful reality. To the glory of the Almighty Lord and His Life-Giving Cross. A dark force this morning tormented my heart with confusion and fear: it was hard and restless for me; but now I folded the fingers of my right hand, forming the saving Name from them, and prayed to the Lord that He would drive away the ethereal enemies from my heart with His name and the power of the Cross; then he marked his womb with a cross, saying the words: in my name they will cast out demons [Mk. 16.17], - and the evil spirits disappeared like smoke. How close the Lord is always to us! After this, I read the rule for communion with lightness of heart, and at the morning prayer, without making an uninterruptible reception, I could not concentrate as I should for prayer, and had confusion during it. The dark force lodged in the heart did not allow prayer to reach the heart. Those works that create Mysteries in you, to whom are they applicable except the one and only Lord? Who can revive a soul killed by sins, cleansing sins; Who can instill peace and joy in the soul, love, wonderful delight, meekness, humility, tenderness? Who can revive the soul so much that from the fullness of its life the face blooms and the body plays with joy? O thorn in the flesh, angel of Satan [2 Cor. 12.7 ]! O murderer! By communing with doubt, I inevitably kill my soul, but with faith, I revive it, or, better, the Lord revives it. He talked about transformation, but he himself was not transformed for the better. Our God is a God of mercy, generosity, and love for mankind, and not a God of torment and punishment: torment is the fruit of our sins and of disembodied apostates from God. Therefore, if you grieve from the heart, blame it only on sin and the devil, and better yet, on yourself: because the devil will not cause you any harm if he does not find anything in you that he can stick to. I am the Lord your God, a jealous God [Exod. 20.5]. I will not give My glory to another [Isa. 42.8]. These words of the Lord of glory are fulfilled every time I yield the glory of the works of my God, produced in me by the Holy Gifts, in my heart to someone else or something, and do not offer it to Him with all my heart. He will then instantly become jealous of the glory of His Mysteries, always wonderful, life-giving, and with His righteous judgment He punishes my soul with His Fatherly rod! Oh, my soul then clearly hears the words of my Lord: I will not give My glory to another [Isa. 42.8]. Because you do not ascribe to Me the glory that is due to Me, so obvious to you in My Mysteries, I beat your inner being with the rod of My truth and with this I let you know and heartily believe that I will never give My glory to anyone else. I cleanse your sins and make your soul whiter than snow with My Blood; I visit your soul with peace and joy; I warm and caress you like a mother of a baby; I instill in you My meekness, humility; I pour love into your heart; I am transforming you all, transforming you (to your surprise) into a new person - and to whom else will I give the glory of My deeds? No: I am eternally unchangeable; God is not a man, that He should lie, and not a son of man, that He should change [Num. 23.19 ]; I would not be God if I gave up My glory and My deeds to another. You, Lord, alone do we sin, but you alone do we serve; You always see us praying and kneeling before You - correct our prayers, like incense before You [Ps. 140.2], having purified our hearts; Quench the kindled arrows of the evil one, flatteringly moving towards us. Carnal man is far in spirit from the spirit of Holy Scripture, so that much of it for him is foolishness and he cannot understand [Cf.: 1 Cor. 2.14 ]; but when a person lives a spiritual life and succeeds in it, then there will be nothing closer to him than the Holy Scriptures, then the truth of everything that is in the Holy Scriptures will be so obvious to him that he will not think and speak differently, as he thinks and speaks the Holy Scriptures, even if he knows little of the Holy Scriptures, then by his own experience he will learn the truth of all Scripture. Speaking about prayer, I will tell you, brethren, about what eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man of flesh is what God has prepared for those who love Him [1 Cor. 2:9] and in prayer those who cleave to Him... Oh, know, brethren, all that is good: it is obviously good for us to cleave to the Lord [Ps. 72.28], confess to Him, proclaim His mercy in the morning and His truth at night [Ps. 91.3]. Oh Lord! To whom else should we go, to whom else should we cleave? You have the words of eternal life [Jn. 6.68 ]; in the world we have found and will find only spiritual death, and even more so with the devil. The life of our soul is from the one God (and of course the body): You are the One Giver of Life. Can our Lord Jesus Christ ever be without a body? can there be such an absurdity? Can't be. Where Jesus Christ is, there is certainly His glorified, incorruptible body, not limited by the narrow boundaries of space and time. But the Spirit of my Lord Jesus Christ is undoubtedly present everywhere; His presence is especially sensitive to the soul in church and after communion of the Holy Gifts, received with faith in the heart; This means that His body is present everywhere; but for our tactile union He deigns to create His visible body - in the Holy Mysteries. Remember that the Lord is eternal and everywhere with His body: and this is why the Holy Spirit creates bread with the Body, and wine with the Blood of the Lord, truly and essentially, so that in the transubstantiated bread and wine the Lord Jesus Christ is truly, truly and essentially. Satan! You want in every possible way to deprive me of the bliss of union with the Lord. Damn thing!!! The Lord is most pleased to be presented, named and felt in our hearts as Goodness. Represent Him as Goodness; call - in the same way, believe in Him with your heart as in Goodness; feel Him as Goodness - and your whole being will be delighted from your single sincere faith in Him as Goodness with unspeakable sweetness: all your bones say: Lord, Lord, who is like You in goodness? [Ps. 34.10]. Experience. (As his mother consoles someone... Isa. 66:13.) ...Out of non-existence he created everything: can he really not create a body for himself out of existing... The Savior delights my life - and the devil sometimes poisons even the joyful moments of life, not to mention ordinary minutes. But, Satan is a deceiver! Should I be discouraged by your wiles and by your kindled arrows, I, who have experienced countless times in my heart the sweetness of the Lord, His wondrous help? Only through foolishness can I be discouraged by your arrows, flatteringly fired at us. Beware in every possible way of even one moment of passionate attachment of the heart to any of the earthly, so-called blessings - especially beware of the reception of the heavenly, Divine, most pure and life-giving Mysteries. You have repeatedly experienced a scorching fire within yourself after moments of such affection and tried in every possible way to get rid of it, not enduring its burning sensation. Don’t be your own enemy in the future, don’t be a madman. God! who should we go to? You have the words of eternal life [Jn. 6.68]. In the world we will find only spiritual death, and even more so with the evil one. God! Most Pure Mother of God! In you, in your name, we find our peace and our joy; our salvation, our bliss is inseparable from your name: in your name it is good for us. When you want to make the sign of the cross on your breasts and womb in order to drive away the evil spirit nesting in your heart, first ask yourself internally: do you have humility, with humility do you want to create a saving sign, or do you have arrogance, anger or other passions? Without humility (and with humility, passions are silent) the cross will not save, will not drive away opposing forces. I will expose you and bring you before your eyes [your sins] [Ps. 49.21]. I will not allow you to hide from yourself or forget your sins, so that you cannot commit new ones without stumbling, no: I will reprove you and bring your sins before your eyes; you will see them in all their disgustingness; they will torment and torment you - and you will involuntarily turn your attention to them; and I will make you repent of them most of all from the depths of your soul, and you, groaning and lamenting, will beg Me for mercy, promising Me not to sin again. Remember every minute that your heart must cleave to God; see that it does not stick most of all to anyone or anything else. Consumed materiality, as something insignificant, serving only to support the same material body, is worthily and righteously neglected, and considered as nothing. And never neglect those who consume because of what they consume, but always honor and warm them in the heart with love. Isn’t it unreasonable to see in a person a passionate attachment to materiality and - dislike, hostility, hatred towards a person, a moral being (because of material things)? The very fact that you do not believe, doubt, despair, is the reason for fear: be bold like a lion [Prov. 28.1], and you will not be afraid. Truly, in prayer we must bring God or the saint whose intercession we ask for closer to our very heart and talk eye to eye with Him; there is no material distance between spirits, there is only a moral distance, which comes from our unworthiness, from our heartfelt uncleanliness, from our coldness, from our unbelief; bow to God in spirit and in truth - and your Helper is always ready; He is always ready to come and fill your heart and make you blessed. You do not tolerate instruction - you are proud. Know this firmly - and correct yourself. The Invisible Lord acts on my soul as if the Visible One, yet as if He is in front of me, knowing all my thoughts and feelings: any inner laziness or obstinacy, or passion is always accompanied for me by a corresponding punishment. In general: if my inner disposition is unworthy of God, His holiness, then I suffer punishment in my heart - scorching fire; and when it’s worthy, then I’m cheerful and calm. An evil, outrageous demon does not spare his kindled arrows in order to gain even a slight victory over the servant of God (although, for example, so that he becomes embarrassed and stumbles during God's service); He, the all-evil one, wants to plunge him into despondency and fear by some kind of stumbling block. One priest told me: while serving a cathedral liturgy in a cemetery one day, I took upon myself so much ignited arrows from an adversary that before the great entrance I felt no better than a man in flames: my insides burned unbearably, the fire poured over my face, and I was a true sufferer. After this hellish fire had passed (it ended after the Great Entry), I wondered what was wrong with me, why I could not survive from the heart of the enemy with any prayers, and with all my heart I thanked God that such a state did not last for me. What did the enemy want from me by attacking me so cruelly? In order to stop me at the great entrance when pronouncing the names of the Royal family. Proof of this is that after the great entrance I soon calmed down. Oh, how angry and base you are, you evil demon! No, no matter what you say, sometimes a person is too irritable and angry, not on his own, but with the most diligent help of the devil. Just watch yourself or others during times of irritability and anger, when you or someone else would like to destroy a person who is hostile to you or him, truly or imaginary, and compare the following (sometimes soon) according to the action of the Guardian Angel, the calmness, meekness and kindness of the character of yours or the person you are observing with the past opposite state - and you will say to yourself: no, this seems to be not at all the person who shortly before this he was angry and furious; This is a man who came out of the devil from worthlessness, sitting at the foot of Jesus (meek and humble), clothed and understanding [Lk. 8.35]. There is not even a shadow of the former anger and the former senselessness in him! Some reject the existence of evil spirits, but what can more clearly testify to their existence than similar phenomena in people’s lives. If every phenomenon has a corresponding cause and the tree is known from its fruit, then who will not see in a madly angry person an evil spirit operating within him, which cannot manifest itself otherwise than in a manner worthy of itself? Who, in the outpouring of human malice, will not see the chief of malice? In addition, a person prone to irritability and breathing malice very clearly senses the presence of a hostile, evil force in his chest; it produces in the soul something completely opposite to what the Savior says about His presence: My yoke is easy and My burden is light [Matt. 11.30]. In that presence you feel terribly thin and heavy – both mentally and physically. Know, you who work for the Lord, and firmly remember that the devil constantly walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour [1 Pet. 5.8]. Observe behind yourself, being sober and awake in mind and heart, and you will see that the evil one almost constantly stands before the doors of your heart, if you have not yet opened them for him, and with impudence he strives to open them and enter the house of your soul, planting his hellish fruits in your mind and heart, always almost plausible in appearance, so that if we accept them, it will be convenient for him to stick to his work, because, if he had nothing more in us than in the Lord, then he would not have entered into us. Pay attention: either he will instill in you, for insignificant pretexts, a feeling of hatred towards someone, or he will incite you to envy your brother or neighbor, presenting his well-being in the most rosy terms, and yours in the gloomiest; then he will present to you that your money is being spent on excesses, flowing in vain, while you got [them] through labor and sweat, and look - he instills in your heart a criminal, burning love for them, depriving you of hope in the all-good God, our faithful Trustee and Helper, who tells us daily and hourly: I will not leave you and will not forsake you [Heb. 13.5 ]; then he will present you with a lot of imaginary inconveniences in the furnishings of your home and will encourage you to make alterations and reconstructions - sometimes to the point that you cannot tear your thoughts away from other important objects for a long time; then he will present to your eyes many imaginary or just, but exaggerated by him, malfunctions between your household in their affairs, disorders in the situation of things, shortcomings of this and that and the third subject, and so on and so forth and so on. And this is all so specious, under the guise of justice and necessity. But, if you are attentive to yourself, to the phenomena of your spiritual life, you can easily notice and destroy his intrigues: you will notice them by the loss of peace of mind, this most precious treasure of our life, by the restless languor of your heart and some kind of painful fog and dullness of your head - in a word, you will notice that you are entangled in some kind of labyrinth from which you do not know how to get out. It is better to do any task well in one go, than, having done it poorly, without paying attention the first time, then start doing it another time. This is unreasonable, unreasonable: time is wasted and labor is wasted for nothing. Apply this to every task, but especially to the most important task in your life - prayer. If you do not pray well, not with all your heart, without full attention, then you will do a bad job, and your soul will certainly demand better fulfillment of it (if you have already made significant progress in prayer, because someone who has not learned to pray with true prayer will not feel such a need). Everyone is plunged into the abyss of the goodness and mercy of the Mother of God, and Her Motherly goodness is sufficient for everyone: is it only for me that it is lacking? So, sinner, with such thoughts, fall with all your heart to the icon of the Mother of God, have such hope in Her - and you will soon see that your hope will not put you to shame. You are a baby: you are the suckler of the Divine Body and Blood and, having wonderfully satisfied your soul with it, do not ask: how was the suckler created? This is obviously reckless. And on earth people receive distinctions, promotions and honors after long labors and often after suffering great troubles. Let this be a lesson for you, that all the more the honors of the high title, bestowed upon us for endless centuries, must be inherited after the long labors of earthly life, after great sorrows. Turn to your heart more often and listen to it: is there peace in it; if not, then ask yourself: why not? And hasten to establish peace. The devil is trying in every possible way to plunge me into despondency. But why should I be sad? God, who always saves me, is with me: He is omnipotent: why should I be discouraged? The holy King David calls God the God of his heart: notice, he experienced the same thing as you. The entire Psalter can easily be applied to our soul: it all poured out from his soul. That is why it has such a powerful effect on the hearts of all the pious. From the Song of Songs, apply to yourself the words and verses that apply to you; It’s amazing how they come to my soul. When someone corrects the demand for you and takes your income for himself, do not be disturbed in spirit because of this, but tell your thoughts: this loss is insignificant; but this is a great loss, if for the sake of money I lose peace of mind, I lose the Lord from my heart. Wonderful! Instant attachment of the heart to money - and the heart is embarrassed and suffers! An instant, heartfelt view of God - and it is filled with peace and bliss. Everyone in prayer must have his own basis - heartfelt faith (heartfelt vision); Without its basis, prayer is not prayer, because speaking in someone else’s words does not mean praying. If other people’s prayer words, like a string of beads, are attached to our foundation - to heartfelt faith, then the prayer will be ours, although the words are not ours. In the church you hear most of all the voices of the clergy and those singing about having mercy on us. What does it mean? This means, brethren, that all of us, no matter how many of us are in the church of God, for our sins are worthy of God’s executions and that first of all, upon our coming to the church, we must remember that we are sinners, that we came to the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator and Benefactor, daily and hourly angered by our untruths, to beg Him - each for himself, and even out of Christian love for others - for God’s mercy. Prayers for mercy are sometimes great, sometimes severe; since in the Church there is not a single superfluous word, then when singing the special litany, we must especially pray to God, from the very depths of the soul, from the most contrite heart, as it is said in the initial litany: with all our hearts and with all our thoughts, with all our hearts, - at this time we must put aside the slightest coldness, the slightest inattention of the heart, but, burning with a humble spirit and becoming fully attentive, offer up to the Creator warmest prayer for mercy for us sinners. But what do we see when the clergyman proclaims and the singers sing the special litany and the great one? For the most part - ordinary inattention and indifference of those praying. Both after unworthy communion and after unworthy, cold prayer, the soul feels equally bad. This means: the Lord does not enter our hearts, offended by our heartfelt unbelief and coldness, and allows evil spirits to nest in our hearts in order to make us feel the difference between His yoke and theirs. I want you to be without worries [glory: I want you to be without sorrow] [1 Cor. 7:32], says the apostle. God especially wants this carelessness from you about worldly things. At every step he almost makes you feel that you should leave everything worldly and material to your wife, and he himself would deal only with spiritual things. I count everything [glory: I count everything as rubbish] in order to gain Christ [Phil. 3:8], says the apostle. So, if you do not count everything worldly, everything material, as rubbish, you will not gain Christ: you must count everything worldly as nothing, so that Christ may be magnified in our heart. Because where there is a preference for Christ over something else, there can be no place for Christ: Christ must be dearer than anything else to our soul, as its Creator and Creator of everything that is. That is why there is always torment in your heart when you discover even the slightest love for material things, when, out of love for material things, you either strongly desire material things, or you regret in your heart and save (out of stinginess) material things. A terrible truth. Unrepentant sinners after death lose all opportunity to change for the better, but remain unchanged and, therefore, given over to eternal torment (sin cannot but torment). How to prove this? This is clearly proven by the present state of some sinners and the property of sin itself - to hold a person in captivity and block all outcomes for him. Who does not know how difficult it is, without the special grace of God, for a sinner to turn from his beloved path of sin to the path of virtue? How deeply—one can say without exaggeration—sin takes root in the sinner’s heart and throughout his entire being, how it gives the sinner his vision, which sees things completely differently than how they are in his being, appearing to him in some kind of rainbow radiance! Therefore, we see that the sinner very often does not think about his conversion and does not consider himself a great sinner, because self-love and pride blind his eyes; if he considers himself a sinner, then he indulges in hellish despair, which casts deep darkness in his mind and greatly hardens his heart. If not for the grace of God, which sinner would turn to God? Since the property of sin is to darken us, to bind us hand and foot. But the time and place for the action of grace is only here; after death - only the prayers of the Church, and even then they can act on repentant sinners: on those who have acceptability in their souls, the light of good deeds that they have carried away from this life, to which the grace of God or the grace-filled prayers of the Church can be grafted. Unrepentant sinners are undoubtedly sons of perdition! What does experience tell me when I am captured by sin? Sometimes I just suffer all day long and cannot turn with all my heart, because sin hardens me and somehow overwhelms me, making God’s mercy inaccessible to me: I burn in fire and voluntarily remain in it, because sin has tied up my strength, and I, as if inwardly chained, cannot turn to God - until God, seeing my powerlessness, my humility and my tears, has mercy on me and send me His grace. It is not for nothing that a person given over to sins is called bound by the captives of the Falls. Your spiritual life is apparently divided into two states that differ sharply from each other: a state of peace, joy, largeness of heart - and a state of sorrow, fear, narrowness of the soul; The cause of the first state is always the harmonious action of my soul with the laws of the Creator, and the cause of the latter is the violation of His holy laws. I can always notice, and indeed I do notice, the beginning of one and another state: in my consciousness there is always one and the other. Therefore, it always happens that, having destroyed the beginning from which the state of sorrow and crampedness arose, you also destroy the consequence, that is, the very sorrow and crampedness of the soul. Remember that calmness and prudence in spiritual life are the most important thing. This prudence is necessary both in matters of virtue and, especially, when identifying passions. For the kingdom of God is not in the word (of prayer), but in the power of (it) [1 Cor. 4.20]. Knowing from experience how strictly the Lord punishes every unlawful movement of the heart and how graciously he accepts us who convert, you too observe mercy and judgment over others. The evil one darkens a person’s mind and heart so that he does not think about heavenly things, does not desire heavenly things: he hides in darkness the beauty of the heavenly world. You know how the evil one leads you by the nose; reject it, and he will have no power over you. Lord Jesus! Help me. You sometimes suspect whether the servants are stealing your property; but hasn’t the Lord protected our property with His laws, doesn’t He take care of it, doesn’t His voice cry out in everyone’s conscience: do not steal [Ex. 20:15 ] - and the one who wants to steal or the one who steals by the very act of stealing is embarrassed and scourged with fear? If the Lord does not guard the city, the watchman watches in vain [Ps. 126.1]. Place yourself mentally in your house not as the master, but as a stranger and the last of those in the house, after the servants - and then you will be humble and kind to everyone: the pride of a master deprives you of peace of mind. Look how brazenly passion deceives you: while the action from which passion is aroused continues, you burn with hellish fire and are indignant at the persons performing the action; but when the action is over, you yourself repent and see clearly how blind you were. The name of my Lord Jesus Christ means Savior, and His very essence is love for us; His job is to save us. It is yours to have mercy and save us. By their fruits you will recognize them [Matt. 7.16]. What kind of spiritual properties should our Lady Theotokos be, when Her Fruit is so Perfect and Sweet? Truly, all the beauty of virtues is within Her, all the glory of Her is within. The mind is the uncle, the mentor of our inner man (may He grant you... to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, and for Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith [Eph. 3:16–17]); when our earthly wandering and upbringing are complete, the mind, as an unnecessary guardian after a person comes to age, will be removed: its very complexity (unsimplicity) really proves that it is not an eternal accessory. And the heart is simple: it sees directly, simply. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God [Matthew 5:8]. That is why sometimes understanding itself is attributed to the heart, as the main thing in our nature (they will not understand with their hearts and will not be converted so that I can heal them [1 Pet. 3:4]). God answers the prayer of our heart to every sincere thought (speak correctly, for I am exactly that [John 13:13]) and to every sincere desire, to every breath. Experience has proven it. How earnestly and cheerfully one should always pray! Secrets are called terrible because they burn the unworthy. When during the sacred service the evil one appears in your heart and, like a greedy dog, wants to snatch from your lips, like your tasty morsel, the words of prayer - not for himself, because his nasty being cannot accept them, but in order to leave you hungry and confused - stand firmly for your food, keep it in your mouth (that is, do not let it out of your thoughts) and do not drop it from his insidious intimidations, from his murderous excuses: you drop it, and you yourself will remain mentally sad and embarrassed, and you will give the enemy the means to laugh at you. Let everything with you be done with love [1 Cor. 16.14 ], even reprimands for malfunctions, for misconduct. Put these words in your ears. Imagine more often how you are called into existence out of nothing; imagine also how the world, which had not been, then began to be. For your temporary well-being, you strongly desire one thing (a larger apartment), and another (good furniture), and a third, and you don’t get it: wait. The Lord is waiting for a time when your passion for these earthly blessings will cool, so that you do not become attached to them in your heart when you receive them, or so that you know how to be grateful when you receive them. Apply this to getting some place or something else. The devil knows when our body is disposed to pour out, and - the all-evil one - uses it for his own pleasure, and to your sorrow: he quickly spreads a seductive living picture before your eyes and with an instant attack inclines your soul to fall. Only a strong soul, strengthened in virtue, is not tempted by such views, does not burn with unclean fire and does not ignite the body with it. Such a soul usually, during such attacks, instantly turns to God and in Him finds its strength for victory over the enemy. When struggling from passions, the object of which is usually either excessive love for oneself or for the world (that is, its goods), or dislike for one’s neighbors - if you love God and one’s neighbors, then this love will instantly triumph in the heart over the thought of blasphemy against God or hatred of one’s brother that has come into the soul; and if this holy love is not strengthened in the heart, then they usually overcome thoughts of malice and kindle a painful fire in the chest, and this fire often spreads more and more. I make it a rule: from now on, don’t get excited and don’t say anything offensive in front of your superiors. Or do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless you are what you ought to be [2 Cor. 13.5]. Truly Christ lives in me. Meanwhile, until now I was inexperienced - I did not think and did not know for sure that the Lord was in me. It is He, the All-Holy One, who is so sensitive in me to the slightest impurity of heart. It is He who encourages me to drive out the very germ of sin in my heart from my soul and not put it into action. But - alas! And Satan is right there, ready to devour me at every step: he disputes me with the Lord. Knowing from your inner experience how holy the Lord is, that He does not tolerate the slightest shadow of sin, be yourself holy, like the Lord. It is not in vain that it is said: Be holy, for I [the Lord your God] am holy [Lev. 11.44]. During prayer, we need heartfelt confidence that God is listening to us. Otherwise, prayer will be only according to position, not from the heart, out of habit, careless, unworthy. How do mentors read when they are sure students are not listening? Out of position, out of habit, reluctantly. There is no need to prove this. Isn’t it childish feuds – a dispute over apartments? So children quarrel over their artificial houses or over their children's toys. Isn’t this, in fact, a toy characteristic of children: a husband, as you should be, shouldn’t you neglect these things when they are difficult for you and deprive you of peace of mind, and more often raise your gaze to grief, where eternal abodes are prepared for us? Truly so. Generous! Grant me to be generous! Love! Give my heart love! The Gospel view of man (on his life in this world and on the figures in his life: God, Angels and saints - and the devil with his invisible hordes). Teachings of Macarius the Great. Learn to appreciate in the highest, most perfect way the heavenly gifts sent down from the one Lord - in the Holy Mysteries and in prayer: salvation from sins, peace and joy of the inner man. There is nothing in the whole world more valuable than these gifts - these are gifts inseparable from the Lord Himself, that is, with these gifts the Lord Himself certainly enters the soul. Woe to your soul, if you show even the slightest, momentary unintentional disregard for them or, through inattention to your thoughts, allow new sins into your soul, then again you will involuntarily be subjected to a new, severe punishment. Sins will sting you with all their destructive severity and plunge you into confusion and sorrow. Then you will clearly see the difference between the gifts of the Lord and the tares of the devil, then internal torment will oppress your heart in a cruel way for the fact that you did not appreciate as much as you should the visitation of the Lord. To write this to the Consistory regarding the appointment of conversations: for a year I could not prepare for an indefinite sermon, and having not prepared, I was afraid to get down to business after such a severe reprimand. If the authorities don't encourage the young preacher, nothing will get off the ground. Pray for the forgiveness of the sins of others in the same way as you pray for the forgiveness of your own sins, when they, striking your soul with sorrow and tightness, prompt you with pain, contrition of heart and with tears to beg God for mercy; Equally, pray for the salvation of others as for your own. If you achieve this and turn it into a skill, then you will receive from the Lord an abundance of spiritual gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit, Who loves a soul that sympathizes with the salvation of others - because He Himself, the All-Holy Spirit, wants in every possible way to save us all, so long as we do not resist Him and do not harden our hearts. The name of the saints, like the name of God, eternally passes from century to century. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible for me, but nothing should possess me [1 Cor. 6.12]. Tobacco possesses man: all of humanity smokes and smokes heavily, with affection. Tobacco is harmful to a person in all his ranks (for where your treasure is, there your heart will be [Matthew 6:21]), when it possesses a person: it is harmful to a pupil, harmful to an official, a tradesman, a merchant, a military man, an artisan, a farmer - it is harmful both in civil and religious terms, weakening the physical and moral forces of a person. Satan is all-evil and all-evil: in various ways he inclines people, and especially lovers of God, to destruction, but perhaps most of all, through the method of despair. If you have already succeeded in living a virtuous life, and then he does not despair of your destruction, but either he suspects your good deeds, denigrates them in your own eyes, imagining that their entirety is one lost work or one reckless waste of property, or, striking your soul with his fiery arrows, does not give it any joy for several hours in a row, in order to also plunge you into despair with its duration and burning intensity. internal torment and tear words of murmur and vexation from your lips. Be strong, lover of God, do not give up and bless the Lord. When you meet a person you do not love and hatred for him hisses in your heart and internally binds and oppresses you, then bring to mind the commandment of the Savior: love your neighbor as yourself [Matt. 22.39 ]; place it on your heart, which experiences daily the love and great mercies of the Lord; Imagine to your heart the boundless love of the Savior for you and for the entire human race - and, truly, the passion of hatred will leave you, and you will be kind and sincerely good-natured with the person whom you hated before. Completely reject laziness and hasten to the works of the Lord with joy. If you are unfaithful to the Lord in small things, you will be unfaithful in many things. I want to say that you look with faith at every task of your service and accept it as an opportunity to show your zeal and love for the Lord, and not without faith - as a monotonous, boring activity that the Lord does not seem to pay attention to. God! I want to be carefree in this too, so as not to notice in others the excesses in the use of food: and I entrust this to You - to Your all-wise and all-good instruction and admonition, especially since hitherto under Your guidance I have been prosperous, and no one has stolen anything from my external property. God! Grant me to rely on You in everything, grant me to engage in Your service without hindrance. Brethren! Be sincere and tell me: when are you completely at peace in spirit and completely happy: is it when you touch your souls with God in prayer - or when you indulge in worldly concerns? Of course, you will say when we sincerely pray to God. So. Everyone has experienced this: then your thought is clear, free, light, your heart is calm and light - you feel wonderful, in your place. And worries are always somehow heavy on the soul, binding it, depriving it of freedom. When the evil one stings you with his kindled arrows, do not rush around impatiently like a madman, impatiently begging the Lord for healing from the arrows pierced into your heart: with this you will please the enemy, and not drive him away - but with firmness and courage, calmly lift up the voice of prayer to the Lord from your heart - and you will see how the enemy will be put to shame and run away from you. The Lord wants patience from us and is not pleased to quickly deliver us from our enemies when He sees our cowardice and impatience. Do not be angry with anyone or have any malice except the devil, your greatest, persistent enemy and the enemy of God. Sin kills both spiritual and physical life: who among those who cried over sins did not notice that before crying during sin they suffered mentally and physically, their face fell away 149 and their insides were as if pierced by nails; and after crying, after the tears with which bad things of the heart usually come out, the body was free and light as a feather, and the face bloomed with a blush of joy and tranquility? You created everything and Ruled everything, everything is possible for You [Mk. 14.36]. Create a river for my soul: behold, my grief is the change of the right hand of the Most High [Ps. 76.11]. Desperasti in Deum, si fratres remittas a te. An hoc facies? An adhuc erant tibi quae restant; an nunc deerunt? Quisque suam habet dignitatem. Neminem negligere oportet. Omnes amandum. 150 One enjoys unity; why the One from the One and Who is in the One prays that all may be one, as He is in the Father and the Father in Him [Jn. 17:21 ]; Love is pleased to see love, Generous is pleased to see generosity. God! Free me from the fire of passions; they burned me with the fire of love. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I want to be loving and generous. It is yours, O God, to help me. The gate is narrow, and the path is strait, because there is often a tightness of heart for every unrighteous thought, for every bad word, and even more so for every bad deed, which among people who walk the broad path go unpunished. The Lord punishes whomever he loves; he beats every son whom he receives [Heb. 12:6]. So a pious soul follows a narrow path, the path of constant punishments, and since the source of human life is the heart (from which, it is said, the issue of the belly [Proverbs 4:23]), it usually accepts these punishments and therefore often grieves and is painfully embarrassed. Sorrow and distress to every soul of a person who does evil [Rom. 2.9]. We often hear from others or often read in the writings of others what God has placed on our minds, hearts, what we ourselves have cherished, that is, we often meet our favorite thoughts in others, as if they were taken from us, while we thought that such lofty thoughts are new and constitute exclusively our property. Proud thoughts! How, is there not one Lord God of minds; Is there not one His Spirit in all who seek the truth? Isn’t there one and only our Enlightener, who enlightens every person coming into the world? Glory to the One; glory to the One who loves everyone and who generously bestows His gifts - spiritual and physical; Glory to the One who does not see faces and reveals the secrets of His love, omnipotence and wisdom to babies! The saints of God are close to believing hearts and, like the most sincere and kind friends, are ready at a moment to help the faithful and pious who call on them with faith and love. For the most part, one must send for earthly helpers and sometimes wait a long time for them to arrive; and for these spiritual helpers, there is no need to send and wait for a long time: the faith of the person praying can instantly place them at his very heart, as well as accept by faith the necessary help, I mean spiritual. What I say is from experience. I mean frequent deliverance from the sorrows of the heart through the intercession and intercession of the saints, especially through the intercession of our Lady Theotokos. Perhaps some will say to this that what is at work here is simple faith or firm, decisive confidence in one’s deliverance from sorrow, and not the intercession of the saints. To this I will say that it is precisely faith in the saints, in their effective intercession for us before God. How can this be seen? Because if I do not call upon the saints known to me (without distinguishing anyone) in heartfelt prayer, if I do not see them with the eyes of my heart, then I will not receive any help, no matter how much confidence I have in being saved without their help. I realize, I feel clearly that the help I receive is in the name of those saints whom I call upon, for the sake of my living faith in them. This matter happens as in the ordinary order of earthly things. I will first see my helpers with heartfelt faith; then, seeing, I ask them, the same with my heart, invisibly, but clearly to myself; then, having received invisible help in a completely inconspicuous way, I at the same time receive a strong conviction that this help is from them, just as a sick person healed by a doctor is convinced that he received healing from this doctor, and not from another, and not from himself, but from the doctor. All this is done so simply that all you need is your eyes to see. I am a man, and the mercy, truth and righteousness of God continuously operate in me. God either has mercy and comforts, or punishes and saddens me with sorrows for internal spiritual movements that are contrary to Him. But the earth is full of people like me. This means that in them the Lord reveals His mercy, truth and righteousness, just as in me. He who produces all things in all [1 Cor. 12.6]. Let no one think that sin is something unimportant: no, sin is a terrible evil that kills the soul now and in the next century. In the next century, the sinner is bound hand and foot (speaking of the soul) and thrown into outer darkness, as the Savior says: having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness [glory: throw him into outer darkness] [Matt. 22:13], that is, he completely loses the freedom of all the powers of his soul, which, being created for free activity, suffer through this some kind of supernatural, murderous inactivity for all good: in the soul the sinner is aware of the consciousness of his powers - and at the same time he feels that his powers are connected by some indissoluble chains: he is contained in the bonds of his sin [Prov. 5.22 ]; To this add the terrible torment from your very sins, from the consciousness of your folly during earthly life, from the idea of ​​an angry Creator. And in the present century, sin binds and kills the soul: who among those who fear God does not know what sorrow and oppression strikes their soul, what painfully scorching fire rages in their chest when they commit any sin? But, by binding and killing the soul temporarily, sin kills it forever, if we do not repent from the bottom of our hearts for our sins and iniquities. And here is experimental proof that sin kills the soul temporarily and eternally. If one of the God-fearing people happens to go to sleep without repenting of that sin or those sins that were committed during the day and tormented the soul, then this torment will accompany the person for the whole night - until he heartily repents of sin and washes his heart with tears (this is an experience). The torment of sin will awaken him from his sweet sleep, because the soul will be in cramped conditions, bound captives of sin. Now, let’s assume that a person who goes to sleep in some sin and is tormented by sin will suffer death at night: isn’t it obvious that the soul will go to that age in torment, and since after death there is no place for repentance, it will suffer there, depending on the extent of its sins. The Holy Scripture also testifies to this. Notice yourself - your passions, especially in your home life, where they are freely visible as if in a safe place; Outside the home, some of our passions are usually covered up by other passions, more plausible, and there is no way to drive out these black moles that undermine the integrity of our soul. In the soul of a pious, God-fearing person, the spiritual teaching of God takes place invisibly: like a father or like a strict mentor, the Lord God either approves or condemns our thoughts, desires and intentions, then says that this is good, and that is bad, and rewards for good, and punishes for evil; and all this is so obvious to the soul, right there, on the spot. Just as the devil does not despair of anyone’s destruction, so do not despair of anyone’s salvation. (To the priest.) Begin to fulfill the commandments concerning the small, and you will fulfill the commandments concerning the great: the small leads to the great everywhere. Start fulfilling at least the commandment about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or the tenth commandment concerning evil thoughts and desires, and you will fulfill all the commandments. But he who is unfaithful in little things is also unfaithful in much [Lk. 16.10]. This poor widow put in more than anyone else... for all these people put in out of their abundance as a gift to God, but out of her poverty she put in everything she had, all her food [Mk. 12.43]. How does God look at our prayers? It varies according to the difference in the states of those praying and their knowledge, but He wants a pure heart from everyone. You, ignorant brethren, are a poor widow: what you have, with which God has made you wise, you sacrifice to God, and it happens to you that, out of the simplicity of your heart, you offer all your spiritual possessions as a gift to God, while people rich in knowledge, for the most part, only bring a certain part as a gift to God and, due to the arrogance of their minds and the pride of their hearts, do not want to offer all their possessions as a gift to God. Therefore, do not say, lesser brethren: we are not knowledgeable, we know very little; We do not have sacrifices worthy of God to bring to Him (who can worthily serve the All-Perfect?): bring as a gift to God what you have, but especially a pure, simple heart, and your sacrifice will be rich in the eyes of God. And you, many knowledgeable ones, offer as a gift to God humility and humble recognition that God has given you both the abilities and the means to acquire various knowledge, and remember that all knowledge without knowledge of God and yourself means nothing! And so that you do not humiliate the smaller, less knowledgeable, rude and uneducated brethren, remember the following: a stone, precious in its radiance and purity (like pure water), is a diamond, although in its raw form it is unattractive and is trampled under foot, but in its essence it is still the same precious stone, hiding its preciousness behind a rough bark, and if it is taken from the earth and given for dressing (like you for education) jeweler, then it will sparkle, and perhaps the eyes of many will be fixed on it. You, a brilliant, subtle, knowledgeable man, are a precious stone, but from the same earth, only you are cut, formed into the correct form; you, ignorant, rude, are also a precious stone, only uncut, uneducated, with the difference that if a precious stone is not cut, then it does not emit radiance, but you, even in your rough form, very often emit the purest radiance of mind, truth and virtue. Take the trouble to spend even one day according to God’s commandments - and you will see for yourself, you will experience with your heart how well it is to fulfill the will of God (and God’s will in relation to us is our life, our eternal bliss). Love the Lord with all your heart, although just as you love your parents and benefactors, evaluate by your strength His love and benefits to you, go over them with your mind in your heart: how He gave you existence and with it all the blessings; how He infinitely endures your sins on you, how He infinitely forgives them for the sake of your sincere repentance due to the suffering on the cross and the death of His Only Begotten Son; what bliss He promised you in eternity if you are faithful to Him - benefits that are infinitely great and numerous; further - love each person as yourself, that is, do not wish for him anything that you do not wish for yourself; think and feel for him as you think and feel for yourself; do not want to see in him anything that you do not want to see in yourself; let your memory not retain the evil done to you by others, as you wish for your evil to be forgotten by others; do not intentionally imagine anything criminal or unclean in yourself or in others; imagine others as well-intentioned as yourself, if you do not clearly see that they are malicious - in general, do for them what you do for yourself, or at least do not do for them what you do not do for yourself - and you will see what will be in your heart: what silence, what bliss! Before heaven you will be in heaven, before heaven in heaven you will be in heaven on earth. The Kingdom of God, says the Savior, is within you [Lk. 17.21]. He who abides in love abides in God, and God in him [1 Jn. 4.16]. Who will excommunicate us... [Rom. 8.35.] Truth is the basis and diversity of everything that is created; and in your affairs (internal and external) let truth be the basis of everything, especially the basis of prayer; Let your whole life, all your deeds, all your thoughts and desires be strung on truth, as a foundation. For My yoke (because the yoke of the devil is) is good for you (because the yoke of the devil is bad), and My burden is light [Matt. 11:30] (and the devil’s is hard, hard). A man who dreams of a perishable life and does not think about an endless, heavenly life! Think about what your temporary life is? This is a constant heating of firewood (I mean food) so that the fire of our life burns and does not become scarce; so that our house (I mean the body) is warm and so that the constantly transient life of our body is restored by nourishing principles from the organisms of other living creatures, deprived of life for the life of our body. Indeed, what an insignificant web is your life, man: every day you strengthen its support twice inside for its strength (that is, you reinforce yourself twice with food and drink) and every night - once, that is, you lock your soul in your body, closing all the feelings of the body, like the shutters of a house, so that the soul does not live outside the body, but in the body and warms and revives it. What a web is your life, and how easy it is to break it! Humble yourself and revere the endless Life! I will walk in integrity [glory: walking in innocence] of my heart in the midst of my house [Ps. 100.2], says David. It is most necessary for you, as a priest, to walk in a gentle heart at home. Be kind to your family. Undoubtedly, there is a Guardian Angel who offers salvation to our souls. So I wake up from sleep, and on my lips there remain the words that I repeated in my sleep: with three I was adorned and became beautiful before the Lord and people: this is unanimity between brothers and love between neighbors, and wife and husband living in harmony with each other [Sir. 25.1–2]. The words were on my lips: unanimity among brothers, which served as a lesson for me. In reality they would never have come to mind. How long must I mourn the same sins? How long shall I break my heart? How long should I suffer? God! I have the decisive intention to remain in love, meekness, humility and gentleness. Establish and preserve, O God! The evil one has laughed at me until now - now it’s time for me to repay him in kind. Lord, help me. We must worship in spirit and truth [glory: in spirit and truth it is worthy to worship] [Jn. 4.24]. In truth, for example, you say: Hallowed be thy name [Matt. 6.9 ] - do you really have a desire for the name of God to be sanctified by the good deeds of people and yours; you say: Thy kingdom come [Matt. 6:10] - do you really want the coming of the Kingdom of God? Do you want to be a village of the Spirit of God, and not a village of sin? Don't you rather want to live in sins? You say: Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth [Matt. 6:10] – are you not seeking your own will rather than God’s? Hey, yes! You say: Give us this day our daily bread [Matt. 6:11 ] - don’t you say something completely different in your heart: I don’t need to ask You for this, I have it without asking, let the poor cry like this - or you greedily seek a lot and are not content with little, or with what God has given, or you don’t give thanks for what you have, but you need to give thanks; You say: And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors [Matt. 6:12 ], but doesn’t your heart whisper: I’m not God knows what kind of sinner, I seem to live no worse than others, and I don’t need to ask for forgiveness of my debts or sins; or, while praying, do you have displeasure or anger towards someone, and thus you brazenly lie in prayer to God; you say: lead us not into temptation [Matt. 6:13 ], but don’t you yourself stumble upon, don’t you rush, without temptation, into all sorts of sins; You say: but deliver us from evil [Matt. 6:13], but don’t you yourself live in partnership with the evil one, or with evil of every kind, whose leader is the devil? Be careful that your tongue is not at odds with your heart; do not lie, look to the Lord in your prayer. Always keep this in mind both when you read the Lord’s Prayer and when you read other prayers; Observe whether your heart agrees with what your tongue says. Just as the Lord does not look at whether a virtuous or vicious person throws his seed into his native land - and in any case creates a person from the seed, so the Lord does not look at whether a virtuous or vicious priest performs the Sacrament of the Most Pure Body and Honorable Blood of Christ God - and in any case creates the Body and Blood of His Christ from bread and wine, as long as the form of the Sacrament is observed. Just as a quiet wind kisses the trees, so the Spirit of God touches the human soul. When thought is attached to God, then it is good for a person. The dominance of the flesh over the spirit is expressed, among other things, in the fact that the spirit seems to be buried in the flesh, bound by the flesh. This is especially evident when it comes to serving God - then a person rather approaches God only with his lips, flesh, falsely, and not with his heart, not with his spirit, not with the truth. In fact, we often live as if there is no spirit in us, and the highest degree of human corruption is revealed by the fact that the spirit is completely suppressed and man becomes, as it were, one flesh. My Spirit will not forever be despised by men, because they are flesh [Gen. 6.3]. Take a good look at the deeds of human worship: you will see how the flesh intensifies to gain predominance over the spirit. In the saints, the predominance of the spirit over the flesh is visible in the fact that they see the spirit in everything in the world, in everything - the wisdom, omnipotence and goodness of God, in all phenomena, in all deeds they see the imprint of the spirit; In sensual people, the preponderance of the flesh over the spirit is revealed by the fact that in everything they see only what appears to their senses, and, as they say, they do not see beyond their nose. A sensual, carnal man looks at the world and sees it almost like an irrational animal: he is not surprised in it by the wisdom and ever-present power and goodness of the Creator; reads the Holy Book - and sees only a letter in it; whether he prays, he mechanically runs through prayers with his mind and does not penetrate into their spirit; does not know the art of bowing in spirit and truth. The flesh also dominates in the education of people. Look, are they learning in institutions the most important Christian work of prayer, are they learning to see God (??? – ???????) 151? The flesh will dominate the world until the end of the age, and the Lord, coming to judge, will find faith on earth [Lk. 18.8] (and unbelief is a work of the flesh), like among the people of the first [world]? One moment of passionate attachment to something carnal - and the arrows of the evil one light up in the soul, fire begins to burn the chest; whereas, on the contrary: one sincere feeling of gratitude and love for God - and in the soul there is the life-giving warmth of the Holy Spirit, peace, joy. But it’s wonderful that in carnal passions, wedges are knocked out with wedges, that is, give the evil one something to gnaw on, like a dog, so that he will not be idle in his malice. If the Lord imparts such invincible, incomprehensible, Divine power to the Life-giving Cross, then what is surprising if He imparts the incomprehensible power to recreate our nature with His most pure, terrible and life-giving Mysteries of His Body and Blood. Oh, how great art thou, Lord, and how wonderful are thy works! How infinite is Your omnipotence! Whatever Your power, Your grace touches, it itself becomes life-giving. (About the Cross.) If you want to correct someone’s shortcomings, do not think of correcting him by your own means: we ourselves spoil things more with our own passions, for example, pride and irritability that comes from there, but cast your cares on the Lord [Ps. 54:23 ] and pray to Him, the Searcher of our hearts and bellies, with all your heart, so that He Himself will enlighten the mind and heart of man. If He sees that your prayer breathes love and comes from the whole heart, then He will certainly fulfill the desire of your heart, and you will soon say, having seen a change in the one for whom you prayed: a change in the right hand of the Most High [Ps. 76.11]. The Monk Nilus writes to Presbyter Anatoly: and what is surprising if you, having contained every virtue in your depths, are devoted to the spirit of fear for greater exercise? It is said: he turned his fortress into ruins [Ps. 88.41] and You have exalted the right hand of his opponents [Ps. 88.43]. But be patient a little and you will see that the holy Angel has crushed the muscles of the enemies that recently crushed you, and you will look for the place of the demon of fear and will not find it, and you will see with your own eyes that those pursuing you have fled. ??????, ?????? 152. Glory to the Lord, who has delivered me from the spirit of fear. They say: he serves with his soul, he sings with his soul, he reads with his soul, he speaks with his soul (with animation). What does it mean? This means that there are very many who serve, sing, read, speak without a soul, that is, as if they were one flesh. Thus, the flesh almost everywhere takes precedence over the spirit. Poor spirit! Fallen spirit! Spirit buried by carnal passions! When will you be released? Plants and animals (I mean their bodies) are formed, develop and grow according to the law of cohesion of bodies. This is the reason why human seed, the seed of all animals, birds, fish, insects and reptiles (frog's nest) is sticky, viscous, stretchy. With the assistance of food and drink, this seed gains the ability to stretch and increase in volume, and also to develop into the form that it has in its miniature. Therefore, the seed, for example, of a person, has in its miniature all the bodily members, all the external and internal parts. Wonderful are Your works, O Lord! The base of all bodies is earth, water and caloric air. Who is it in flowers that so wisely, subtly arranges, forms the ugly, that is, the formless, formless substance of the earth? Who gives him such an amazing shape? Creator! - Let us kiss Your wisdom, Your goodness, Your omnipotence in the flowers. Having accepted into yourself the most pure Flesh and Blood of the Lord, do not then, when you come home, rush with greed towards the flesh of an animal; observe extreme moderation in using it and do not indulge in long sleep during the day. All this contributes to the hardening of the heart, which urgently needs to be preserved in the holy tenderness and sensitivity that we receive after the worthy acceptance of the most pure Mysteries. It would be good not to eat meat at all after receiving the Holy Mysteries and not to sleep at all. However, if you got up early and did a lot of things before mass and even after mass and were very tired, then it would not be reprehensible to refresh yourself with meat food, as it is especially nutritious, and sleep after lunch - half an hour, many hours. I like to call the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of Life, and the apostles the messengers of Life. Our spiritual dispositions, even those not expressed by external signs, have a strong effect on the spiritual disposition of others. This happens all the time, although not everyone notices it. I get angry or have unfavorable thoughts about another - and he feels it and equally begins to have unfavorable thoughts about me. There is some means of communicating our souls with each other, besides bodily feelings; As for the action of the soul on others through the senses, then through the sense of sight the soul amazingly acts on another person, even if he were far from us, but only accessible to our vision and was alone in the event that we direct our gaze to him. Thus, we can use our vision to put another in an awkward position, into confusion. It happened to me more than once to look intently from the window of my house at the faces passing by the house, and these faces, as if attracted by some force to the very window from which I was looking, looked back at this window and looked for a human face in it; others fell into some kind of confusion and suddenly quickened their pace, preened themselves - straightened their tie, hat, etc. There is some secret here. Imagine the Lord more often as the Ruler of creation. Distinguish within yourself between the Life-giving Spirit and the deadening spirit that kills your soul. When you have good thoughts in your soul, it is good and easy for you; when there is peace and joy in your heart, then you have a good Spirit, the Holy Spirit, but when you have unkind thoughts or unkind movements of the heart, you feel bad and hard; when you are internally confused, then there is an evil spirit in you, an evil spirit. When there is an evil spirit in us, then, with tightness and confusion in our hearts, we usually feel an extraordinary difficulty in reaching the Lord with our hearts, because the evil spirit binds the soul and does not allow it to rise to God. The evil spirit is the spirit of doubt, unbelief, passions, oppression, sorrow, confusion; and the good Spirit is the spirit of undoubted faith, the spirit of virtues, the spirit of breadth and freedom of spirit, the spirit of peace and joy. By these signs, know when the Spirit of God is in you and when the spirit is evil, and as often as possible rise with a grateful heart to the All-Holy Spirit, who revives and sanctifies you, and with all your might, flee from thoughts of doubt, unbelief and passions with which the spiritual serpent, the thief and murderer of our souls, creeps into our souls. The highest degree of strength of active passion usually occurs as the last outburst during a strong confrontation of the spirit of the flesh - I mean in people who are trying to exterminate their passions. Therefore, there is no need to be discouraged and despair of God’s mercy when some passion torments, tears, so to speak, our soul into pieces. The flesh usually rebels more strongly and fights against the spirit when the spirit wants to subjugate the sinful flesh. I know Mine, and Mine know Me [Jn. 10.14]. How does this knowledge happen? How does learning happen? Internally, from the Divine Spirit, as those who know it themselves know. He grabbed him and strangled him, saying: Give me what you owe [Matt. 18.28]. This is an accurate depiction of human malice! What strength and swiftness of evil! Even if you bend your neck like a sickle, how will I listen to you... 153 The verb of God, who always sees those who worship Him, bowing their necks in green humility before Him, as before the Creator, Lord and righteous Judge. When you pray to the saints, call them partakers of the Divine nature [2 Pet. 1.4]. So and so, partaker of the Divine nature, pray to God for me, a sinner. During prayer, it is better to use the cross less often, but with faith gathered in the heart: throwing it at random, without consciousness, is sinful, just as it is sinful to take the name of God in vain. There are in the lives of pious Christians hours of abandonment by God and the darkness of the devil, and a person from the depths of his heart cries out to God: why have You cast me away from Your presence, O Light that never goes away? For behold, the alien darkness of the accursed, evil Satan covered me, my entire soul. It is hard for the soul to be in its painful darkness, which gives me a premonition of the torments of a gloomy hell - turn me, Savior, to the light of Your commandments and correct my spiritual path - I fervently pray to You. Why is a person, although he is kind and prudent, afraid of work? From sin-loving and lazy flesh. The Last Judgment will be the full revelation of the judgment by which the Lord now judges each of us in our conscience. Now, because of our poorly used freedom, which the Lord does not take away from us, we often do not listen to Him or drown out Him, we despise Him - and the long-suffering Lord now suffers reproach in our conscience from His servants who rape our conscience. Then the Lord will sit in judgment and exact all insults from the wicked slaves. You do not recognize the spiritual world: that means you are flesh. The purer the heart, the more spacious it is, the more it accommodates loved ones; the more unclean, the narrower it is, the less capable it is of containing loved ones - to the point that it is limited only to self-love, and that is false: it loves itself in objects unworthy of an immortal soul - in silver and gold, in fornication, in drunkenness and the like. Priest of God! Understand the intentions of the disembodied enemy: these intentions extend to your entire life, to all its circumstances - at home, at work and in the community - everywhere from him there are intrigues for you: in reality and in dreams, in the morning and in the evening, day and night. Hearken: let us not be offended by Satan. While the devil in a dream instantly scatters seductive pictures, the Angel of God presents pictures that strike the soul, for example, for me - the bombardment of the city in which I live: these fiery balls rushing in the distance and near you, ready to fall near you and tear you apart; or a house fire – your neighbor’s or yours. So, when the devil instantly presents to your vision a naked woman or maiden (and the Angel allows the devil to present a tempting object before you in order to see your will: whether you will bow to the devil’s disgrace 154, whether you will enjoy it or not) and the fire of voluptuousness ignites in your blood - the Angel of God presents a picture of a burning house and rejects the further temptation of the enemy. Understanding, understand the good Angel, his prudent care for the purity of our soul, his holy vigilance over it. Priest of God! What is an appeal in the captivity of my thoughts 155? Explain prayers for communion. It would be good to read the prayers for communion with your own lips, with your grateful heart, with the grateful parts of your soul and body, and not with the celebrant. You yourself use the priceless and all-beneficial Shrine, but someone else thanks you - it’s not good. Through this you deprive yourself of many gifts from the Master, Who gives them to us, proportioning them to the degree of our feeling, our gratitude to Him. Observe the readers, their performance of the service, the order and correctness, the reading and singing: whether they sing and read reverently or not, whether they try to do their job with the spirit or with just their chattering tongue. Having not experienced the evil machinations of the evil spirit, you will not recognize and honor as you should the spirit of the Good Spirit over you; Without recognizing the killing spirit, you will not recognize the Life-giving Spirit. Only because of the direct opposites of good and evil, life and death, do we clearly recognize one and the other: without being exposed to troubles and the danger of physical or spiritual death, you will not recognize the Savior, the Giver of Life, who delivers from these troubles and from spiritual death, from your heart, you will not comprehend the absolute necessity of Jesus - during your life. Oh, Jesus is the consolation, joy, life, peace and spaciousness of our hearts! Glory to the all-wise and all-good God that He allows the spirit of evil and death to tempt and torment us! Otherwise, how would we begin to value the consolation of grace, the consolation of the Comforting, Life-giving Spirit? When you stand for prayer, then pray in complete silence of your feelings and listen to your prayer. Where does the devil not do his deeds? Suppose you sincerely want to be a good mentor to youth - somehow, through some sin, it will make its way into your heart and in it, as at the center of our life and spiritual strength, it puts strong obstacles to thought and word, somehow paralyzing our heart, constricting and killing it. Villain! No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God [Lk. 9.62]. Having begun to pray to God and having turned your mind and heart to Him, do not turn your thoughts and heart to the world and its cares, otherwise you will not be ruled in the Kingdom of God, that is, you will not receive the fruit from prayer - peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Treasure your neighbor’s reputation as your own—I command you in the name of the Lord. Whoever allows himself to eat modest foods during fasts pave the way for himself to satiation, which especially should not happen during fasts: satiation is very convenient and imperceptible due to the special nutritional value of modest food, its special pleasantness, which easily leads to excess, and because of the greater availability of modest foods. My sheep obey My voice, and I know them; and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand [Jn. 10.27–28]. About obedience to the voice of the Lord. (On the day of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The history of the calling of the Apostle, his obedience to the voice of the Savior.) Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with Me [Rev. 3.20]. The Lord knocks on the doors of everyone’s heart, and those who are attentive know when and how the Lord knocks, and hear His voice, and open the doors of their hearts to Him, and He enters them completely tangibly, tangibly, comforting, calming and cheering them and talking with them as with His true friends. But those who are inattentive miss the knocking of the Lord: amid the cares of everyday life and the noise of passions, the voice of the Lord is either indistinct, or, although audible, they do not want to listen to it and, like ignorants, as unskilled in the matter of their salvation, are thereby deprived of the greatest spiritual treasure - their Lord, Creator and Master, who gives life and breath and everything to everyone. Many hear the voice of the Lord: follow Me [Jn. 1:43 ] - and they think: this has nothing to do with me, the Lord is calling the apostle to follow him; others know that this also applies to them, but it seems more convenient for them to follow their lusts, wealth, honor, the pleasures of the world, satiety, drunkenness. These are not sheep, but goats; The Lord knows His sheep internally and will give them eternal life. The Lord God, as the Self-Life and Abundance of Life, Himself from eternity, as Saint Gregory the Theologian says, moved into Three Persons and settled on Three, that is, God is the Father, the Word and the Spirit. You ask: how is there Three Persons in God? I answer: I don’t understand how - but I know that it should be this way and it cannot be otherwise. You will also ask: why is there a Spirit in God (the Third Person is called the Spirit), and why is He a special Person, when God Himself is without that a Spirit? I answer: it cannot be otherwise - the Spirit of God is called Spirit in relation to creation. The Lord breathed His Hypostatic Spirit - and at the beck of His, the Life-giving Spirit, an innumerable multitude of spirits appeared: by the spirit of His mouth - all their host [Ps. 32.6 ]; breathed His Spirit into the human body - man became a living soul [Gen. 2.7], and from this breath people are still being born and will be born until the end of the age - grow and multiply [Gen. 1.22]. If the Lord created so many personal, individual beings by His Spirit, then how could the Spirit of God Himself not be a Person, or a Personal, Creating Being. The spirit breathes where it wants [Jn. 3.8]. You see, the Spirit is called the Spirit as the Hypostasis of God. If there are countless created, personal spirits, then should God Himself remain without the Spirit, as without His Person - Independent, Hypostasis? And the Son, the Wisdom of the Father, Personal, Living, is not necessary in God? Look at yourself: you are a creature and you have such wisdom that many people are surprised at you: you create truly amazing things, and you are called the creator of these things. But it’s you, a weak little creature. How, judge now, can there not be Self-Personal Wisdom in God, how can there not be a Creator in God, how can He not have His Living Self-Existing Wisdom? Look at everything in the world - how wise everything is! How amazing wisdom is visible in all the smallest things, the amazing fulfillment of the all-wise Thought with amazing precision and impeccable purity! How can there not be Personal Wisdom in God? Think about it: how could God, having created a multitude of rational, personal, wise, living beings, but Himself not give birth to Personal Wisdom from Himself? Is this Lepo 156? Is this possible? Is this consistent with the perfections of the Creator? Thus, in God there must be Hypostatic Wisdom, or the Hypostatic Word of the Father, as well as the Life-Giving Spirit, proceeding from God the Father and resting on the Son. Why do you have breath? With you it is material and not personal, but with God, as the Life itself, it is a Personal Spirit [...], but simple, life-giving to everything. From now on, you will not regret your own money for any current household needs or habits. Passionate attachment to money is death to the soul. Experience. I confirm again and again. Because you initially took four rubles from your brother, God gave you the position of teacher at the School, and your allowance increased. But you wouldn’t live in poverty anyway. Glory to Thee, Lord! Learn to notice the intentions of the evil spirit. When there is in your heart a passionate attachment to earthly so-called blessings, when in your heart there is dislike for your brother, one way or another manifested in anger towards him for some reason, in envy, in hatred or in others - understand that the devil is plotting over you, and with your understanding of his cunning tricks, put him to shame, driving him away in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is sinful for a priest to pray only for himself. Prayer for the flock must follow him everywhere. Do not pray to the Lord without heartfelt contrition: God is disgusted by this pride, the insensitivity of one’s sins; but if you do not have contrition, arouse it by bringing into clarity the consciousness that you are a great sinner; feel how you immensely anger God every day - and then pray with complete contrition. Your faith has saved you [Matt. 9:22]: it is not our labors, not our good deeds that save us from our sins and from our sorrows - we have experienced this many times, for example, in prayer, and everyone has experienced it - but our faith. Faith always saves us. How we should thank the Lord for this! In cases where something is not done according to your wishes, do not get irritated, do not get excited, but act kindly on those who should do it your way and do not; and if soulless things interfere with any of your deeds and intentions, then it is reckless and ridiculous to get annoyed with them. Be human. It has been tested that the Mysteries turn out to be either a life-giving fire in the mouth and chest, or a fire burning in the heart. They are life-giving fire so that you see in this a clear trace of the Spirit of God, in the fiery tongues that descended on the holy apostles, warming and reviving our cold hearts, and so that you see in this a guarantee of the burning of your sinful impurities. God loves when a person notices His actions in the heart, because He is Light and Truth; and the devil is afraid of this in every possible way, because he is darkness, a lie, and darkness does not come to the light, lest its deeds be exposed. The devil is only strong through darkness, through deception and lies: expose his lies, bring them to light - and everything will disappear. He deceives a person into all passions. Through deception, he puts people to sleep and does not allow them to see things in their true form: the devil’s veil lies over very many things. Passions are hellish fire that destroys the body and kills the soul. Today I had a spirit of impatience, irritability, hatred, stinginess - why? Because I probably, through satiety, removed my Lord, my strength, from my heart; but I felt that He, the Sweetest, was not in me. And so the evil, all-evil one overcame me without Him. Oh, how could I get rid of him, the all-evil flatterer! Oh, how terrible are the torments of hell! God save everyone from them. Yesterday I still didn’t fulfill my evening prayers, and this resonated so badly for my soul! You wicked and lazy servant: I judge you by your works [Matt. 25:26]. The Lord at the Last Judgment will judge everyone from everyone’s conscience, for this is what the words mean: from your words I judge you. People will judge themselves or will leave this life having condemned or justified themselves. The Lord is looking for a place for himself in our hearts. I stand at the door and knock [Rev. 3.20]. And the devil too. What does it mean? Pay attention: our heart is our soul. What does it mean that a person himself often lives devoted to passions and sometimes delights in their stench, while he persecutes others mercilessly for the same thing of which he himself is guilty, and does not tolerate anything in them that is in himself? Truly... satanic deception. He smells his own stench - nothing; but others can’t stand it! One reason we should despise material goods is that when we are attached to them, the devil strongly influences us, precisely through our attachments. Let us not give room to the devil. In the same way - this is why we especially must love all people, especially those close to us, because through hatred the devil takes possession of us and strongly influences us through it. In every person, respect the breath of the Divine and, since this breath is fallen and falling, tolerate its fall generously and in no case neglect it, do not exchange it for anything material. Don’t say that because of your schurinow 157 you cannot send as much money as you should to your relatives. You send to your relatives or have the opportunity to send precisely because your father schurinoff provided you with a place that gives you the means to abundantly satisfy not only your father-in-law’s family, but also your relatives. Look what a miracle the merciful Lord did for you: He temporarily struck your father-in-law with an illness that seemed incurable, fatal, so that he was forced to give up his place to you, and as soon as he gave in, he recovered and is now strong in strength, as if nothing had happened, so that you could see that his illness was the reason and incentive to give you a place. In order to learn how to love the loving Lord as you should, learn first to love your loving wife: do not be irritated with her and do not insult her. If you learn not to offend her, then you will learn not to offend the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ did... Church [Eph. 5.25]. When I am tormented by the sin I have committed, developing and raging with a destructive flame in my insides, I think: what if all sinners suffer and will suffer like this after death? And I feel scared - both for myself and for others, and then I pray earnestly for the repose of all the departed - relatives, friends and all Orthodox Christians. But the torment of sin is truly terrible. Whoever the Lord has given to experience this torment in full force knows this. And now man suffers with the devil together, because the devil is certainly in a person when a person suffers from sin, and there, in the next world, he will be with them: what horror! So you need to experience for yourself both the beginnings of future torment and future bliss, in order to completely hate the former and love the latter with all your heart - and then, with all possible effort, escape the former and achieve the latter. A Christian walks among the snares of many, and bitter, bitter things often happen to him between these snares. It’s hard for a bird when it gets caught in a net - with all its might, poor thing, it struggles, beats its wings, makes different bends, and often without success; if he manages to escape, he often injures himself either a wing, or a leg, or a head, or something else; in the same way, it is hard for a person when he falls into the net of the devil: the poor soul struggles with all his might, like a stuck bird: the iron, fiery net of Satan pinches and inflames her - and she falls to her knees in her body, and raises her teary eyes to God, and often depicts a saving sign with her hand, and uses other movements - and often it costs her dearly, dearly to free herself from this net: only streams of tears free her from it when bowed down with tears, the Lord mercifully looks at the sorrow and crampedness of the soul and with a single wave of His will drives away the hunter, or, more precisely, the robber and murderer of our souls. The bird gets caught in the net because it is drawn to the net by the instinct of food and drink; a person falls into the devil’s snare because he has sinful inclinations or passions, which have become for him, as it were, his natural sinful instinct: through these passions, through the food of these passions, for example, through silver and gold, through persons of the other sex, through food and drink, through hatred, through envy and other passions, the devil catches the foolish and unskilled - and torments them, holding them in his claws. ABOUT! Deliver, Lord, everyone from the snares of the enemy. A person’s illness, whatever it may be, is a pre-betrothal, a guarantee of his death. Therefore, every sick person must think about his mortality and from the thought of death and the Judgment that inevitably follows death, extract for himself the rule of life. I want to tell you, brothers, what the priest prays for you during Vespers, Matins and Mass, in order to increase your zeal for visiting the churches of God. I know Mine, and Mine know Me [Jn. 10.14]. What intimate knowledge: Jesus Christ knows His faithful servants as He knows His Father; and the faithful know Jesus Christ as Christ knows them. Comforting! For our prayer to be valid, we need to cast out from our hearts all attachment to anything earthly, destroy all hatred of our brother and love with our hearts the objects of the heavenly world, the blessings of that age, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven, especially the Lord of that Kingdom. Words: Set your mind on things above [Col. 3.2] – should be performed especially during prayer. When you start to pray, to talk with God, stop thinking about everyday things, and think about heavenly things. But - oh, the flattery of earthly blessings, the flattery of wealth, honors! How strongly you pull us to the ground. The Spirit of God came upon the Blessed Virgin Mary - and she conceived the Son of God; The Spirit of God now breathes in churches during liturgies for the calling of a priest - and creates the Body and Blood of Christ. Many saints breathed on the dead with the Holy Spirit living in them - and the dead came to life. Do not listen to the anger roaring in you and the bitterness that is trying to pour out in words, but command it to be silent within you, to freeze. Otherwise, accustomed to seeing your obedience and flowing from your tongue, she will overcome you. Just as the water standing behind an earthen dam, having found a well, erodes it more and more, and the water seeps through it if we do not fasten it or weakly fasten it, and finally, with increasing weakening on our part and with frequent breakthroughs, the water breaks through strongly, and the further it goes, the stronger and stronger, so that finally it becomes very difficult, even impossible, to block it, so with the malice hiding in the heart of man: if we let it break through once and twice and three times, it will flow out more and more and finally may break completely and flood your dam. Know that there are waters of wickedness in the soul, as the Psalmist says: the waters of wickedness have reached [my] soul [Ps. 68.2]. Having unworthily partook of the life-giving Mysteries, that is, having not overcome heartfelt stubbornness or unbelief, I become weak internally and become an easy play of passions. An experience that was often repeated. When passions arise, grab the Cross with living faith - and the passions will certainly subside. So, today I only remembered with sincerity, while depicting the sign of the cross, where it was drawing me, what benefits it was seeking for me - and the passion, pressing and burning, passed. I went free, like a bird delivered from the snare of its catchers. Miser! Is your life a waste that you feel so sorry for them? Fight against the enemy with the weapon of the Savior: man shall not live by bread alone, speak to the evil one, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God [Matt. 4.4 ]! That you do not fulfill the commandments of the Savior: if your right eye causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you [Cf.: Matt. 5.29 ]? - Your eye has been seduced by stinginess: why do you not turn it away from the objects with which it seduces you? How long will you not learn to neglect the sensual? How long will your faith in future blessings be so weak?.. Why does a sinful soul not first receive remission of its sins until it feels with all its heart all their folly, all their ruin, all their falsity? - Because the heart is our soul; just as she committed sins, recognizing them as pleasant, plausible, so she must repent of them, recognize them as disastrous, completely false. This repentance takes place precisely painfully in the heart, just as the desire for sin usually also happens in the heart. A person addicted to everyday things and carried away by passionate thoughts! Be anxious and talk about the abundance in your heart, but there is only one thing you need [Lk. 10.41–42]. Their heart is far from Me [Isa. 29.13]. You see what the Lord is complaining about, you see what He wants from us: our closeness to Him according to our hearts. Yes, everyone should strive for this all their lives if they want to be peaceful and happy here, and blessed in the next century. And if the Lord had not shortened those days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom He chose, He shortened those days [Mk. 13.20]. If the Lord had not shortened the time of the onset of passions on people struggling in piety, none of them would have been saved - because of their strength and burning intensity; but the Lord, for the sake of His chosen ones, shortens the days of temptation. The world of God is an amazing spectacle of God’s generosity, and the house of a rich but stingy man is a soul-shattering spectacle of stinginess. The hand of God is stretched out to give; the hand of the stingy is clenched to keep the gifts of God to himself. Miser! Be generous, and the generous God will multiply His bounties to you. One woman, having brought into the house a plaster vessel of peace made of pure, precious nard [Mk. 14:3], broke it and poured it on the head of the Savior. But the money-loving disciple was indignant at this outpouring of peace and expressed his desire to sell it and get a lot of money for it. But a money-lover has no heart, no high feelings - faith, gratitude and love! He would turn everything, if possible, into money, even heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven, not to mention the earth, and would sit with piles of gold and silver, refusing, if this were possible, from food and drink. What kind of person is this? This is a monster; this is a monster! If he pities the precious world for the Savior, then he certainly pities it for his father and mother. God! Grant me to see, as it were, You in my father and not to spare for him not a valuable thing, not three hundred pennies worth of peace, but only a few dozen. How terribly the devil laughs at us. Then, when we should pour out our souls before God in the liveliest feelings of gratitude for His blessings, again poured out on us, the devil paralyzes our soul with insane discontent; when it would be necessary to bless the generous right hand of God, which graciously and generously extends to us, then we are especially ill with the passion of stinginess and, when God extends His hand, we squeeze it; When God pours His gifts upon us in an abundant stream, we, as if for evil, as if behind some dam, hold back all the currents of Divine gifts. People! See how the spirit of evil laughs at you! Convert me, change me, and I will turn and be changed [Jer. 31.18]. On my own I will not be converted or changed. Can an Ethiopian change his skin, and a leopard his spots? So can you do good if you are accustomed to doing evil? [Jer. 13.23]. He who receives communion unworthily becomes weak both in soul and body. Experience. To be in sin is the same as to be on fire; to be in passion is the same as to be in death. There are such sinners who are better prepared to suffer and even die than to turn and repent of their sins, and almost every person has minutes and even hours in which he becomes so hardened and angry in passion that he would also agree to suffer mortally rather than repent immediately. When you sin against God and your sins torment and burn you, then quickly seek the One Sacrifice for sins, eternal and living, and cast your sins before the Face of this Sacrifice. Otherwise, there is no salvation for you from anywhere. Don't think about saving yourself. The Lord could have created the whole world—heaven and earth—with His Body, or, without creating the world, instead of it, created for Himself a church of the Body; but only for you He deigned to create a body similar to yours in order to save you, and, having created the world out of nothing, He creates His Body only from a small substance of it to revive you, leaving the world to be what He created it. Oh, the goodness and mercy of God! We are of His flesh and of His bones - because of the communion of His life-giving Mysteries! The devil attacks us especially viciously when he sees that we want to give up some passion. ABOUT! Then he shoots all his hellish arrows into our soul, ignites that passion in the strongest possible way, makes it especially painful and, so to speak, inviolable: one fleeting thought about the object of passion - and it flares up painfully in us and begins to become ferocious, tearing our insides apart. All the machinations of the bodiless enemy tend to steal humility and faith from the heart of man, and all the admonitions of God tend to plant humility, faith and love for God deeper in the heart of man. This is why we are tempted, this is why we allow the devil to plot against us. The power that miraculously controls everything in the material world is conscience in human souls (as in rationally free creatures); Evil, like disorder, is punishing and cutting, and good, like order, is rewarding and spreading. Every branch of Me that does not bear fruit He cuts off; and every one that bears fruit he cleanses, that she may bear more fruit [Jn. 15.2]. Thanks to the Lady, who through Her prayers delivered me from the torments of passion and from the devil’s furnace, kindled by the sevenfold. When wealth increases, do not put your heart on it [Ps. 61.11]. Do not cleave your heart not only to wealth, but also to anything earthly: you need to cleave your heart only to the Lord God. The heart is the same as the soul; and the spirit must strive for a principle that is akin to itself, and not for something that is not at all akin to it. This is a delusion, a disease of the spirit. God, as love, cannot be without the Son and the Spirit - and so He, first of all, gave birth to the Son through the Holy Spirit, just as a person gives birth to a word through breathing: Trinity, alien to any complexity. One Being, One God. Do you ask God for anything in prayer? - ask with all your heart. Whether you glorify or thank, glorify and thank with all your heart, so that it does not become divided between God and anything else. Love also God with all your heart and with all your soul; It is not without reason that it is said – by all: not many pray to God or love God with all their soul and with all their heart. God, who looks at the heart, sees that most people only honor Him with their lips, but are far from Him in their hearts. The current world bows to the golden body, that is, money: the desire for self-interest is everywhere. This means he worships idols. The Lord turned fire into dew for the Jewish youths. Since, in addition to material fire, there is also spiritual fire - the fire ignited by Satan and his angels in our soul (and our sinful flesh, for example, the fire of passions), the Lord often transforms this satanic fire into the dew of His grace, which cools our soul from scorching passions. For His youths - for those who serve Him with faith and good deeds - the Lord turns the fire that is raging in their souls into dew. I clearly distinguish three spiritual forces in my soul: I, the resister, my opponent, with whom I fight, and the One for Whom I fight. Are there martyrs now? Those who struggle with passions are martyrs. [...] place all your hope in the Lord regarding your household needs and not have a single care. The Lord preserves the property of God's servant. If the Lord does not build the house, those who build it labor in vain [Ps. 126.1]. So, fearfulness about possessions is foolish. If I were deprived of ordinary bread, I would still have the most excellent Bread - Animal Bread - the Body and Blood of my Lord; if they took off my clothes, I would still have the most precious clothes in which Christ clothed me and which, if I want, no one will take away from me. We clearly recognize sin in ourselves, we notice previous circumstances, motivations for it, its very beginning, we know in advance the punishment that will inevitably befall us for sin - and why, despite all this, are we still sinners? We have an innate, hereditary corruption that quickly leads us to sin, so we need strong resistance to this evil force, without which it is impossible to defend good. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it away [Matt. 11,12]. With the consent (internal) of a person to the false word (suggestion) of the devil, the devil himself, who is a lie (or denial of truth) and mental evil, enters the soul. This is what happened to the first people who, having agreed with the false word of the devil, accepted into themselves, so to speak, his being, or united with his being. Therefore, having sinned in something mentally and heartily, that is, having accepted the element of the devil, who is evil and lies, one must also inwardly, through heartfelt efforts, expel the accepted evil from within oneself through pain, sadness, sighs about sin, recognition of its lies, absurdity, and best of all, streams of tears that cleanse the filthiness of the heart, according to the experience of pious people now struggling, and many saints, who testified to this in their lives. But the most reliable means of eradicating the element of the devil nesting in our hearts is the life-giving Mysteries, which, having been accepted with faith, have a divine effect on the heart, the nest of dark power, scorching the sinful substance and burning the thorns of passions. On the days of my service, my strength against passions is the most pure Mysteries, and on non-service days - fervent home prayer. It should be the same for all my other brothers. Who does not know how to manage his own home, will he care about the Church of God? [ 1 Tim. 3.5] First rule your house - that is, soul and body, and then you will be able to rule others. Curb your passions, correct bad habits - and then you will be able, with God’s help, to curb the passions of others. The spirit is strong and powerful, which is why it easily carries heavy matter; and the flesh is inert, powerless, and therefore it is easily suppressed by its native substance. Therefore, God carries the whole world like nothing with His powerful word; therefore, the spirit of a person blessed with grace easily, with God’s help, subjugates his flesh to the spirit, even the flesh of others to their spirit (as we see in the saints), easily copes with the letter of the word in prayer, transforming it all into the spirit; and the carnal man at every step submits to his flesh and is burdened by the letter of prayer, which he is unable to turn into spirit, being himself flesh, or to penetrate his unclean, embodied spirit into its pure, holy spirit. Savior. Man is constantly perishing from sin, and he needs a constant, daily Savior. This Savior is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; just cry to Him inwardly, with living, clairvoyant faith for salvation - and He will save you. Thus, He miraculously saved me countless times: this salvation was as obvious as, for example, some deliverer clearly comes to prison and delivers a prisoner from it. So He saved me today on the road. Oh, faithful friend! If therefore there is tightness in your heart, call on the Savior with all your heart - and he will save you. Just as saints become partakers of the Divine nature, so vicious and passionate people become partakers of the devilish nature. The devil diligently visits his work - sin - and takes care of its spread, carefully fanning its flame. Not because we ourselves are able to think something from ourselves, as if from ourselves, but our ability is from God [2 Cor. 3.5] – how true are the words of the apostle! I have experienced this and experience it constantly in practice. All my good thoughts are from God, because they come to my mind only when my soul turns to God; outside of this state there are carnal, sinful thoughts. This is how it should be: light comes from Light. In a priest, both when performing divine services, and when performing services and when communicating with parishioners, warmth of feeling or tenderness of heart is dear. It is necessary that every word comes out, surrounded, so to speak, by a warm, heartfelt atmosphere, so that it comfortably reaches the hearts of the people among whom we operate: hearts, as the center of life, are warm and love warmth, therefore a cold word, not spoken from the heart, does not reach the heart, but what is said from the heart goes to the heart. Every priest, deacon, and celebrant, especially a priest, should pay attention to this. What happens? Rudeness, callousness of feeling. Divine service occurs without life, while divine service is life. As if lubricated, not dry. Woe to those who destroy their hearts, says the Lord. Listen, Christians, walking the sorrowful path of life. Woe to you if you have no patience: the devil will overcome you. Abram, it is said, believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness [glory: truth] [Gen. 15.6]. So the Lord imputes our living faith to us - for our justification, for example, during communion, during prayer. My notes should be summarized under the following articles: about God, about faith, about prayer, and so on. The Lord turns a soulless thing into a living being: for example, the staff of Moses into a serpent. What from here? The fact that the Lord, with His characteristic omnipotence, turns both bread and wine into His Body and Blood. The devil first takes people into his power through sensual pleasures, then conveniently deprives hearts that have fallen in love with sensual things of faith, and without faith a person becomes flesh. Develop. The priest himself needs to experience the power of faith, and the sweetness of prayer, and the remission of sins, and when it is unsuccessful, and the sorrows of the soul, and when they comprehend, and the consolation of grace - so that in prayer to God about the believers he can say this: grant them such and such a good, as You always grant it to me, the unworthy. To ask for everything from your own experience. Whoever loves a son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me [Matt. 10.37]. This seems difficult to a carnal man, but a spiritual man knows from experience that he loves the Lord more than his parents, wife or children. All the words of the Lord are truth and truth. He demands from us what he should demand and what is completely feasible on our part. My heart says to you: I will seek the Lord [Ps. 26.8]. Why heart? Because it is a soul. With heart disease, do not try to save what must perish sooner or later - I mean money and all property, but strive by all means to save what should not perish and which, if it perishes, will become the cause of eternal torment for you. Save what the Lord Himself came to save. Save your soul by saving! Of what benefit is it to a man... [Matt. 16.26.] It is impossible to live without the Lord, but it is possible to live without external, additional benefits. And how little we need of them! What is necessary is always given. The Most Precious, Sweetest Lord offers Himself to you as food and drink, in order to instill His Life in you, His bliss; and you turn away from the Heavenly Brush and the Heavenly Drink and greedily grab at another, completely opposite food - the food of death, that is, passions. Look into the depths of your heart: you will clearly see what a disgusting, deadly food your heart is - it torments, consumes 159, oppresses your heart. How do you insult the Lord by such a preference for perishable things over His immortal Body and Blood, which was shed and broken for you! The truth of Moses' story about the fall of our first parents. And now the same story is repeated with every Christian - this reborn, grace-filled person. Just take a closer look at the inner phenomena of your life. Feuding! Be ashamed of Him who was crucified on the cross and who killed the enmity on it. God the Creator is one in Three Persons! And He also bound the creations of rational beings together by the unity of their origin, and from one blood He brought forth the entire human race to inhabit all the face of the earth [Acts. 17.26 ]; he gave us one bread, as a symbol of one body (many of us), for food: we all partake of one bread [1 Cor. 10.17]. The human race is one blood and one body: thus the multitude is raised to the One in unity to the One Love through love, so that people love each other, contributing to God’s intention. Constantly nourish in yourself that feeling that you are an ant and a worm, says the Monk Theognostus, so that you may become a God-created man... and the more you humiliate yourself, the more you will rise. If you, like the Psalmist, consider yourself as nothing before God [Ps. 38:6], then from a small thing you become imperceptibly great, and at a time when you think that you have and do not think about anything, you become rich in activity and knowledge that is worthy of praise in the Lord. Sunday Reading, 1859, No. 13. Our God is a consuming fire [Heb. 12.29], Which from every heart, filled with Him, drives out the insensibility of cold and ignites with love for eternity (Christian reading, 1831, part 2, pp. 207 and 208), - fire, says Saint Basil the Great, Who, burning a log in the inner eye - mind, makes it pure (Christian reading, 1841, part 3, p. 12). From Nestor the Chronicler: The Lord, seeing us living wrongly, sent wounds and sorrow so that we would, even if we did not, find mercy in the age to come. For a soul executed here will find mercy in the next century and relief from torment: the Lord does not avenge one thing twice. (Complete collection of Russian Chronicles. 1.95–96.) They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word [Jn. 17.6]. This is why the apostles became apostles, this is why the Lord honored them with election: because of the kindness and purity of their hearts, they were children of the Heavenly Father even before: they were Yours. The Heavenly Father knew them as His own and gave them to the Savior as those foreseen. You just can’t see with natural eyes how you stand under the protection of the Lord in complete safety and how, on the other hand, for offending the Lord with some sin, the Lord leaves you, and Satan begins to offend you: then it is bitter and hard for the soul - spiritual death penetrates into it. Feeling your warmth and your breath, remember the Spirit of God as a Face; when speaking the word, remember the Personal and Living Word of God; and when acting with your mind, remember the great Mind - God, from Whom is every mind and everything that is wisely created. The devil, with his characteristic cunning and malice, has a habit of attacking the end of our pious activities and at the very end depriving us of the fruits of our labors, for example, the fruits of prayer, of virtue, in order to turn all our labors into nothing. From experience, almost daily! An evil spirit is with me almost constantly, incites me to passions and inflames them, or prevents me from doing good deeds as I should, with all sincerity, especially the work of prayer. If he is with me constantly and constantly seeking my destruction, then, according to the law of God’s truth, shouldn’t a good spirit, my Guardian Angel, also be with me constantly? Yes, naturally. The teaching of the Church about Guardian Angels is fact and truth: it is necessarily required by sound reason and experience. You call the Lord good - be good yourself; If you call it love, love yourself. Hold on with your mind and heart to God as Three Persons, and not as One Undefined, impersonal Person. When a person spends the day in love, generally conscientiously, then it is easier to pray at evening prayer, because the Lord greets the first words of prayer with favor. Prayers! You ask God for many blessings every day in your church prayers. What if they were all given to you? Many of them are really given to you, just unnoticed. Take a good look at your soul. You will notice the good betrayal in her of the right hand of the Most High. In prayers we run through the entire existence of the world, mentally stand at the end of it and appear before the Court of the Almighty Judge God. Ah, I will remember the Court. The Savior told us: everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart [Matt. 5.28]. And many of the people of the present time, who call themselves Christians, as if acting contrary to the words of the Lord, deliberately cast shameless glances at persons of the other sex and, often not content with living faces, acquire – sometimes for high prices – picturesque venereal paintings from the hands of artists corrupted in mind and heart of a corrupt people; or they display the same images on the walls of their houses for everyone to see, shamelessly gaze at them with unclean eyes and allow others to gaze at them, or, better, with unclean hearts, and thus constantly nourish corrupt thoughts and feelings and in one day repeatedly transgress the commandment of the Savior, Who through the Cross and death acquired us for Himself, purchasing us at the price of His Blood, so that the rest of the time in the flesh we would no longer live according to human lusts, but according to will of God [1 Pet. 4.2]. Do you not know, lost brethren, that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price [1 Cor. 6,19–20]. You are the uds of Christ. Shall I take away the members [glory: ud] from Christ in order to make them members of a harlot? It won't happen! [ 1 Cor. 6.15]. Lyubodeev... fate in a lake burning with fire and brimstone. This is the second death [Rev. 21.8]. Brethren! Fear this second, eternal death. Avoid weakening your strength through idleness and inactivity. The Lord gave us powers, or abilities (talents), so that we could use them in business, as the Gospel says, merchants and others. Woe to the one who buried his talent in the ground, who weakens his strength or abilities with empty pastime. Force is called force because it acts and produces, develops or supports something. Take any animal, any power and ability in nature: you will see that each of them does its job for which it was created, and not one remains idle, not one exists idle. For example, the force of attraction and repulsion holds and carries the globe within its boundaries, and thanks to it, we, earthly beings, happily live on our earth, study in bright light during the day, and at night - in the darkness of the night we restore our strength, exhausted during the day. Further, take any animal endowed with strength and abilities - and you will see that each of them acts with its own forces, does not leave them alone and inactive. Look at the ant: is his strength remaining in vain, is he living in vain, is he not working incessantly all summer; Look at the bee: does it spend its time in idleness, does its strength remain empty? Will we, rational beings, to whom the Lord has given the strength to increase the capital of good deeds, for eternal bliss in the future life, be sleepy and inactive creatures, destroying ourselves in time and in eternity? ABOUT! Let us hasten to diligently practice the talents given to us, always vigilant, so that in this age we may not remain outside the Palace of Christ. Let us be zealous of good deeds; Let us carefully understand that this is the will of God, good, acceptable and perfect for us [Rom. 12.2 ]; Let us not abandon the church meeting, as is the custom of some [Heb. 10:25], let us not move further and further from our salvation; We will also spend more time at home reading soul-saving books or having edifying, soul-saving conversations. Away from us is idleness and all its countless offspring. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary... [1 Pet. 5.8]. Stay awake because you don't know the day or the hour... [Matt. 25.13]. He is close to his heart, they talk about two unequal persons, one of which is the patron and the other is the patron. And just as someone who has been awarded the highest protection and closeness to his heart knows about this and is mutually close to him in his heart, so it is between God and people who serve Him with a pure heart: God is always close to these hearts, and they are close to God’s heart. This is how it should be when every Christian prays: when praying, we must certainly be close to God in our hearts and to God’s heart. Our good, sincere relationships with people must be transferred to God. Be extremely attentive to yourself so that the spirit of malice does not somehow pour the poison of hatred and malice into your heart. Just as love is poured into our hearts from the Holy Spirit, so is malice poured out from the unclean spirit: both the one and the other - the Life-giving Spirit and the spirit of destruction - seek our free will, inclined towards love or hatred, in order to establish their dominion in our hearts. Be careful: the devil always seeks to establish his dominion in you through some kind of appearance, imitating the actions of the good Spirit. But from its fruit you will know it: promising you life at first, he immediately kills your soul, as soon as you more or less express consent to his seductive advice. Remember that you always walk in the presence of the Sweetest Jesus. Tell yourself more often: I want to live in such a way that my life pleases my Love, crucified on the Cross for me. Especially, I will take as my companion and friend in life holy love, which contains everyone in my heart, thirsting for the salvation of everyone, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep; and this will especially comfort my Comforter Christ. The Son of God and the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from the Father, as being One in essence with Him; For the sake of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, who are eternally with the Father, do not separate from your father and his sons until the time has come for them to leave their father and mother for a well-known reason. To the Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [Eph. 3:15 ], without any doubt, it is pleasant that you do not separate his sons from the father - especially if you do this for the sake of the Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity. My brothers, that is, my wife’s brothers, are having dinner with me. I should be happy about this. Our life, strictly speaking, is one great burden of God’s mercies to us. This burden continually increases more and more, and will finally, with eternity, increase into an endless burden, into an endless stream of mercies, into an endless burden of eternal glory. The original foundation of this burden is small and insignificant - a seed in which only in possibility was contained all the present and future burden of the Lord's mercies. God! Your mercy is upon me. Who has not seen spider webs, especially those visiting gardens or walking in forests - how many there are, and mainly towards the end of summer, and how often there is a lot of prey for the greedy spider in them? Who has not seen how an insect caught in a net first struggles with all possible effort to get out of the mortal net, and sometimes breaks out and flies away, but for the most part it is completely entangled by the oncoming spider and remains in its net to die - to be devoured by it? These networks, brothers, remind me of a different kind of network - those networks in which the spiritual spider and the killer of our souls, looking for someone to devour, catches our souls. Everywhere he has many of these networks: no matter what passion is, it is a bait for sinful flesh; no matter what happens to passion, he has a net for our souls. And we often fall into these mortal nets. And some of us get out of them, with the help of the Savior, and others, who were well pleased, as the apostle says, sometimes do wrong [2 Thess. 2.12], remain in them to perish. This is what a terrible phenomenon happens to people in this case. Having completely gotten caught up in the devil’s snare, entangled on the head, hands and feet, poor people do not feel that they are entangled in a mortal net, they do not feel pain from this net, like those who have received inflammation throughout their entire being and do not have a single healthy place; They even often deny that there are neither the devil’s snares nor the devil, and they remain to perish in the mortal net. Why such blindness, such insensitivity? Because the spiritual spider, or, as the Holy Scripture calls it, the god of this age, has blinded the minds [2 Cor. 4.4] these infidels, or unbelieving people, and they, seeing, do not see and, having feelings, do not feel. But it also happens that people, having gotten stuck in the devil’s net, feel unbearable pain in their souls and struggle to get out of it with all their might, calling on our Lord for help. Just as a spider certainly nests somewhere in its web and by the movement or shaking of it hears that there is prey in it, and by its shaking, as if by a sign, it runs out to its prey, so the spiritual spider - the devil, is always near its webs - our sinful flesh and its passions; and as soon as our soul gets stuck in the deeds of its sinful flesh, as soon as it expresses its mental and heartfelt consent to any deed or passion of the sinful flesh, as soon as a sinful shock occurs in the flesh - a spider nesting in the networks of sinful flesh and in the world, now, based on this shock, or on the sinful movement of the flesh, as if by a given sign, it runs out on its prey - the soul, entangling it in its hellish, burning networks, and then the poor soul begins to fight with all its might, wounded by the remorse of the enemy, then the man experiences a scorching fire in his bones and turns his tearful eyes to the Savior, so that He, by His great mercy, will save his soul, which spontaneously, through carelessness, fell into the enemy’s net. This happens to those who have not given themselves over to the enemy, but zealously serve the Lord, but still have passions in their souls, with which Satan, like nets, catches them. All this is taken from experience. Most often, the devil sets up networks of enmity, envy, stinginess, etc. And therefore there is no need to be indignant in spirit when enmity or quarrel arises because of something, sometimes because of one word, but look at it with complete calm, knowing that it is excited by the devil, the father of enmity, and harboring complete contempt for him in your heart. Otherwise, the devil will always celebrate his victory: he exalts himself and triumphs, seeing that we are embarrassed by his wiles. Just don't change your love. If I tolerate untruth from my brothers and they offend me, then how joyful should it be for the Lord to endure this untruth and love them, according to the Savior’s commandment, as myself? How much merit can I make here before the Lord? O I, infidel! God! You are the King of heaven and earth; Everything was created by You, and yet - what? You came to your people, and your people did not accept you. What does this untruth of people towards You mean in comparison with the imaginary untruth of my brothers towards me? Quae est causa? Superbia 160 and greed. It would be commendable wisdom if I loved them as benefactors. For the offended, as a reward for their patience, the Lord will arrange a better future. This is the example of Joseph, who was sold by his brothers. This happens very often now and will always happen, because the Ruler of the World is always the same. People are so confident in this truth that when someone is wronged, for example, unjustly deprived of a place or another insult is caused, they usually say: well, for this he will get a better place, God will reward him for his patience. But especially blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven [Matt. 5.10]. Learn the wisdom of Ignatius the God-Bearer - to carry Christ in your heart, and then no confusion will take you, no passion will overcome you, because then I will say: Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world [1 John. 4:4], that is, the devil, who takes us captive through the passions of the heart. O me, great sinner! The church of Christ is my living heart, I have completed the life of intelligent pigs! 161 But, Angel of Christ, my holy guardian, help me cleanse this, incense and sprinkle aromas and ointments - prayers and purity, so that the church of Christ may again be fragrant. He went abroad. It often happens, especially in the present time, that people of the same fatherland as us go abroad and live there and enter into communication and friendship with the people there, but they despise their compatriots and dishonor them verbally and in writing. This is called living abroad. But this foreign life is not called that in its proper sense; in the proper sense, we must call the life abroad that will begin for us after the separation of the soul from the body - and in justice it should be called a life abroad, because it goes beyond the borders of this world and this life; in it - everything is foreign or trans-border, that is, not at all the same as in this world: a different way of life, different needs, different joys, different sorrows and torments - everything is different. It is about that life that we should take care: how can we from here, from earth, safely and with good views go beyond the borders of this life and there rest in a place of light and coolness. And our ordinary trips abroad are for the most part nothing more than a means of cheerfully passing time, which idle people have nowhere to spend; and even more - if not a means to waste accumulated wealth, for which there is no place in your blessed country? In the melodic sounds of sacred songs, the life of the Spirit, sweetness, all-blessed bliss pours into the open heart - this is what the heart tells us about church songs. How much their harmonious, euphonious singing means. Pay attention to this. Make sure that without Christ there is no life for the soul - and always be with Him in mind and heart. He is your Life and Strength; your God, your joy. Listen to your prayer in church for the repose of souls. God does not listen to the prayer that we ourselves do not listen to. I will sing to You of mercy and judgment, O Lord [Ps. 100.1], says David. And I, who alternately experience the mercy and judgment of the Lord, must also sing to the Lord daily of His mercy and judgment. My God! My mercy, have mercy on me. Write to the angel of the Ephesian church [Rev. 2.1]. Priests are angels. And their outer sacred clothing during worship has the appearance of lowered wings. Priests of the Lord! How high is your dignity! Why is this timidity with which we so timidly rely on the omnipotence and goodness of God, like children alien to the waters, afraid to enter the ocean of faith, fearing to drown in it? A? The service of a priest with feeling comes from his living faith, from his grateful feeling towards God: he himself has experienced what he says and asks for. God for him is a God of mercy and generosity, as He is for everyone. Prayer is not a puzzling task - it won’t give you a headache - but the easiest and most beneficial yoke. The devil wants to defeat with his malice the boundless love of God for man in the most pure Mysteries. Such is his shameless and daring anger, which knows no bounds! And that’s why he stubbornly rebels against them. When you go to a place where you know that you will be greeted [with noise], say in your heart: His compassions are in all His works [Ps. 144.9] and His great mercy is upon me. Enjoy luxury in food, drink, clothing, home and room decoration. Luxury in food and drink relaxes and upsets the health of the body, and plunges the very soul into relaxation and pampering. In addition, luxury is the daily theft from the property of the poor, who exist in the world in order, among other things, to show gratitude to God for His benefits of some and the ingratitude of others who benefit from the Lord’s bounties - and may the Lord be justified in His words before His ungrateful servants at His second and terrible coming, for He will then say to the luxurious: I was hungry, and you did not give Me food; I was thirsty, and you did not give Me something to drink: I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me; I was naked, and they did not clothe Me... [Matt. 25.42–43] and so on. Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire... [Matt. 25.41]. A luxurious and insensitive person (and sensitivity is rarely found among luxurious people: the proof is the evangelical rich man) increases, and perhaps daily, the number of unfortunates who are exhausted from hunger, thirst, lack of clothing and housing. If there were no luxurious, insensitive people, then there would be incomparably less inequality between people in the material means of life, the unfortunate poor would be reduced by tens of thousands. In addition to all this, it is necessary to run away from luxury because in luxury a person easily forgets God: when they were filled, their hearts were exalted [glorified: their hearts were exalted], says the Lord through the prophet, and therefore they forgot Me [Hos. 13.6]. You see why we often forget God: we are filled beyond measure with the gifts of God and are exalted in our hearts. Avoid drunkenness: it destroys your physical strength and mental abilities. Avoid deception in trade: what is acquired by deception is not durable and will always go either to dissolute children or to ungrateful strangers! What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul [Matt. 16.26 ] for the sake of illegal profit? We see and have seen many rich people who, having plundered wealth through deceit and insults, were then unable to use it themselves, sometimes spending half a century of their lives in such an illness that made them insane and immobile. What a lesson for greedy merchants! It collects, and who knows who will collect it from me. Insane! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? [ OK. 12,20–21]. The rich man also died and was buried [Lk. 16.22], and where did he end up after death? – In hell, being in torment [Lk. 16.23]. Take a deep dive into these words. They apply not only to the rich man of the Gospel, but also to everyone like the one mentioned in the Gospel: they also find themselves in torment after death, from which they see the poor Lazarus who were neglected among them in the Kingdom of Heaven - in the bosom of Abraham. Avoid playing cards, which waste precious time for the soul, which in any case we need to redeem for the benefit of our souls, and which develop and intensify the passion of greed and anger, and often the well-being of the family suffers. Avoid smoking tobacco, especially excessive amounts. Smoking is downright unnatural. The lips were not given to eat smoke. Smoke is not nutritious, ask anyone, and it does not aid digestion. Our breathing does not exist for the purpose of breathing smoke. It is another matter to smell the fragrance of censer or other aromatic smells. Tobacco, as recognized by the most experienced and intelligent doctors, is decidedly harmful to health, especially for weak natures, dulls mental faculties and makes the whole person weak and inactive, incapable, and even completely incapable of the most important undertakings that require time and effort. Be convinced from the bottom of your heart that sin destroys the soul, undoubtedly removes it from the Source of life of God, and is the greatest evil in the world, which the Lord alone can destroy in us if we turn to Him with a prayer about it with all our hearts. Honor us shepherds; do not neglect our blessing, as it has intensified at the present time; contempt for us certainly passes on to Christ Himself. Meet us when we come to you with the cross, with joy, as the Lord Himself. It will be bad for those who do not accept the servants of Christ and His cross, in whose name they enter everyone’s house. As you enter, say, the Lord said to the apostles: peace to this house; and if the house is worthy, then your peace will come upon it; if you are not worthy, then your peace will return to you [Matt. 10,12–13]. Those are unworthy of the name of Christians who reject the servants of Christ from themselves. You will be like gods... [Gen. 3.5]. Don’t today’s progressives say by their deeds: we are gods ourselves; We ourselves know good and evil: we do not need any outside authority. We don't need the Church. The devil is the same devil; people are the same Adam and Eve. Run around wearing vanity clothes; especially let that sex, which by its very nature is most akin to modesty, modesty and chastity, observe modesty in clothing; Let them not enlarge their storehouses or increase the cost of their garments [Matt. 23.5] and let the elasticity of the hair (crinoline) be banished from the camps that love to show off with exorbitant width (taken from the prophet Isaiah). Inner communication with the Lord is still a source of peace and joy, even more so after death. Jesus breathed and said to the apostles: receive the Holy Spirit [Jn. 20.22]. Here is some image of how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and is given through the Son of God, who rests in Him, to believers. Sacred Journal – Presbyter. Magazines are adapted to all states of life. There is no magazine on how to perform high, pastoral ministry. Show the height of the priesthood, how high are the shepherds, the performers of all services and Sacraments, and how are the shepherds of the people; with what reverence we should perform all services, how we should be attentive to ourselves, sober, according to the instructions of the apostle and the likeness of the venerable fathers (Philokalia). How to behave externally. The entire class of priests must be the light of the Church. If the light that is in you is darkness, then how great is the darkness? [Matt. 6.23]. Sources: Saint Chrysostom on the priesthood; Saint Demetrius of Rostov, Saint Ambrose of Milan. Missal, Breviary, Canon. Your experiences and instructions drawn from experience. (From the Canon, explain the prayers for communion, how everything that is said in them happens in reality.) About the need to always read the prayers for communion; akathists, canons; benefits for the soul from them; paraphrase canons and akathists. Place more explanations of the Gospels and the Apostles; they will serve as sources for teachings. Offer more short, simple teachings on Sundays and holidays. There are countless countless trees in the forests; many people in cities and around the world. But both trees and human bodies grew from the same earth and will go to the same earth. And the human body can be called in some way a tree, as the Lord called people; His Forerunner and other saints. How great is the human soul, which does so many amazing things, and how we need to take care of it! The body, like the earth, is insignificant. All the importance is in the soul. Smoking as a passion and a ubiquitous cause is the work and network of Satan hiding in our flesh. Smoking also strengthens the flesh over the spirit, and how else! They say: tobacco is an indifferent thing. Word game. How indifferent? Look how much sin there is in it: by its fruit you will know it, whether it is sin or not. Passions are primarily harmful as sin. Remember what you were [...] in your youth, and be completely satisfied with the state that you have now, and thank God with all your heart that He not only did not destroy you with your iniquities, but also surprised you with His mercies so graciously and generously. You have more than you expected. Let your heart overflow with gratitude to God. You have everything from your wife’s relatives - don’t spare them anything. Like a well-fed calf, full of food and drink, and yet thirsts for more. An example of greed. A priest in his prayer should not separate his flock from himself. Otherwise, his prayer will be unworthy of God, sinful. The priest must carry his flock in his heart so that, like the Apostle Paul, he can call them his womb - because of their special and ever-present closeness to his heart. Like an eagle, he must carry them like chicks on the wings of his love. After communion, beware of overeating and drunkenness in every possible way; the enemy is trying in every possible way to deprive us of a priceless treasure. Woe to the inattentive. If, for the sake of honor for the accepted Mysteries, one is not allowed to bow down to the ground soon after accepting them, then judge how reprehensible it is to get drunk and burden oneself with food. The economy flows in a uniform stream. During prayer, firmly believe and hope that the Master graciously accepts and listens to you as His image. What is closer and dearer to Him than His image! And you say internally: I am Your breath 162, I hope that You will hear me and not reject me. Flee fornication and adultery in all its forms - natural and through nature. When my heart is established in the Lord, then my word is firm; and without that it is unsteady. I take it upon myself to offer reflections on prayer - from experience; also discussions about canons and akathists, about following to communion; also moralizing thoughts, borrowed from experience; practical instructions on how to address needs, how to read prayers and how to deal with the laity. Mich. Change God. invite you to explain the Sunday and Feast Gospels. Grieg. Al. Debolsky - to an explanation of all church services. There is a great reward from the Lord: priests must be a light for the people. What kind of mercy will those who benefit the priests receive from the Lord? The Eminence will support a multi-useful journal. His heart departed from the Lord: his heart, not his mind. The heart is more important than the mind - the human soul. Knowledge of God and self-knowledge, or internal sacred teaching from the Holy Spirit. Do not turn nights into days and days into nights in the evenings. The anointing itself teaches you everything; and true is and false is not. Not because we ourselves are capable... [2 Cor. 3.5.] Bring your young children—babies—more often to the Cup of Life, that is, to the most pure Mysteries of the Body and Blood, and do not neglect this duty. The life-giving Mysteries will have a saving effect on bare hearts, warming them with the warmth of the Holy Spirit and predisposing them to a pious life. I am a priest and have the right to talk about smoking tobacco. [...]. Why have people become so corrupt? Because we partake of the most pure Mysteries rarely and unworthily, and only the Mysteries renew our nature, corrupted by sin. There is no opposition, therefore, to human corruption. They still don’t pray. From the same blood […] muscles, bones, juices, blood, brain, and everything. Love, meekness and humility, generosity. To love God, you need to have living faith in Him, you need to see Him with the eyes of your heart, see His countless and unspeakably great benefits to us. Because of your father's curse, the Lord handed you over to punishment (lat.). Rambov is the common name for the city of Oranienbaum (now the city of Lomonosov). Not for the sake of business, not words, not manners (Latin, French). Needed mercy, compassion (Greek). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, while inside they are full of robbery and unrighteousness... Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside seem beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness (Matthew 23:25, 27). To regret something for the sake of your father, who gave you his sister for marriage, means causing the greatest insult to God by deed, His goodness (lat.). In rags - in gatherings, preparations. Brilliant - decent, holy. Lies create - they represent deceitful people. The explanation of these words is further in the text: “Like air in a glass, so is the soul in the body” (see page 280). Types - the word is used in the meaning of “letters” (cf. in the word “typography”), from the Greek. “typos” – sign, trace, imprint. The heavens declare the glory of God, but the firmament proclaims His handiwork [Russian: about the works of His hands] (Ps. 18:2). Kutorga Stepan Semenovich (1805 – 1861) – scientist, professor of natural science at St. Petersburg University; already from the 30s of the 19th century, he became a conductor of natural-historical knowledge into Russian society, both through his scientific works and social activities: giving public lectures, publishing numerous popular science articles on various issues of natural science, including human physiology. To foresee - to see before oneself, to have before one's eyes. Article by S.S. Kutorgi “The general law of the appearance, existence and disappearance of organisms.” Squat - to be close to something, to be treacherous, to viciously attack, to oppress. What else weighs - you know what... If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). Duty, obligation (lat.). Mount Zion is the sacred mountain on which Jerusalem is built. The prophets see Zion as the center of the people of God and the Church of God, often meaning the Kingdom of God in all its fullness. The word “Zion,” according to the interpretation of the holy fathers, also has the meaning of a community of saints who, being in peace with the Lord and standing at the pinnacle of virtues, are rightly called Zion, about which it is said: its foundations are on the mountains of saints; The Lord loves the gates of Zion, more than all the villages of Jacob (Ps. 86:2). Related - related, close, unchanging. Hell, or invisible (Greek). Nepshchuy – meaning “don’t think, don’t invent.” Odebeleti - to grow fat, become heavy, become coarse. Destroy - break, break, crush. Deploransky Mikhail Ivanovich (1828 - 1864) - priest, served in the church of the Technical Maritime School in Kronstadt. Poem by A.K. Tolstoy. Greed, covetousness, stinginess (lat.). Phinehas - third high priest of Judah, grandson of Aaron; enjoyed well-deserved respect among the Israelis for his zeal for the faith and courage; With a courageous struggle against iniquity, he turned away the wrath of God against the Israelites because they fell into idolatry, and for this he acquired special favor from God. The scribes and Pharisees sat on Moses' seat; So whatever he tells you to observe, observe and do; But do not act according to their deeds, for they say and do not do... (Matthew 23:2-3). It matters very little to me how you judge me or how other people judge me; I myself do not judge myself... but the Lord is my judge (1 Cor. 4:3-4). Why are you judging your brother? Or are you also why you humiliate your brother? We will all appear at the judgment seat of Christ (Rom. 14:10). Do not seek glory in the dishonor of your father, for the dishonor of your father is not glory for you. The glory of a man is from the honor of his father, and the shame of his children is a mother in dishonor (Sir. 3:10-13). Life-giving Cross, Your height (Your upper end) strikes the airy prince, the depth (Your lower end) pierces the serpent of the entire abyss (i.e. the devil), the breadth (right and left ends) saves us again, overthrowing with its strength the worldly prince (Satan) (canon of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross, canto 4). Mockery here means “teaching, reflection.” Therefore, therefore (latin). I ate and drank a lot from your family (lat.). Perhaps we are talking about the book: “Catechetical conversations spoken in St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt.” Kronstadt, 1859. Serpents, spawn of vipers! How will you escape from condemnation to Gehenna? (Matthew 23:33). Puffs up - puffs up, makes you arrogant, arrogant. Save – here it means “to lose weight.” You have lost hope in God if you send your brothers away from you. Will you really do this? Did you really still have something that remains; or will something be missing now? Everyone has their own dignity. No one should be neglected. Everyone must be loved (lat.). Eureka, eureka! – found, found (Greek). ...To humble a man’s soul: even if you wear your neck like a sickle, you put on sackcloth and ashes [Russian: A man languishes his soul when he bends his head like a reed and lays sackcloth and ashes under him] (Isa. 58:5). Disgrace – here it means “spectacle”. An appeal in the captivity of my thoughts - words from the 5th prayer of thanksgiving for Holy Communion to the Most Holy Theotokos. One of the meanings of the word “proclamation” is deliverance, restoration, liberation; therefore, this expression can be translated as follows: “Give me... a return to the good thoughts of my mind in cases of its infatuation.” Lepo - appropriate, decent. Shurinov - a word written in Latin, appears twice in a paragraph with a different spelling of the last letter. Godly - worthy of God, as characteristic of Divine power. Consumes - eats, devours, wounds. What is the reason? Pride (lat.). I made my heart, which is the church of Christ, a dwelling place for intelligent pigs (demons) (canon of prayer to the guardian of human life Angel, canto 8). And the Lord God created man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). You might be interested in: