Декабрь

It’s in vain that you eat meat and drink vodka. Have you forgotten that your flesh is prodigal? There are Crimean apples and wine berries. Prayers to the mother in labor to Zarudnev in the 6th wing. Try to refrain from eating meat. You should not eat in the evening, especially fish and meat. Meat causes strong excitement and some nausea. On the day of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called (about present and future life). One of two things: either come to life in the flesh and perish forever in the spirit, or mortify the flesh and its passions and live forever in the spirit. That the cross, internal and external, is an inevitable companion of a true Christian. The impartiality of the apostles: they spoke the truth to kings and simpletons without fear. Thoughts from theological books in the Kronstadt Leaflet. Inspire the poor to persistently ask the governor and head together to do what is possible for them: either a workhouse, or for batteries, instead of sailors. It’s stupid for me to be angry with the director, he told me the truth. After all, I get a good salary and I have to do things as they should. And it’s stupid to be angry with Tsvetkov: he simply told the truth. Colonel V. Dmitriev teaches me through his actions not to care about people-pleasing and not to think about what people might think of me. He made me wait for an hour. Why am I in a hurry? Drink cold water with sugar in the morning and evening. Great, great (several time after what was written before). During Lent, do not eat pies or fish. Ivan Vasilyevich Tolmachev sent his bow. Rejoice, Lady, unshakable pillar of the Church! Blessed by You, Lady, is the Earthly Church and the Heavenly Church, after the Lord. Read the prayer behind the pulpit at the Presanctified Liturgy every day during Great Lent at evening and morning prayer. Zolotniks need to give me food and drink. I have received all this from You, O Lord, and I will not hesitate and will not regret giving the gifts of Your goodness, even though 2 You, the treasure of the inexhaustible life, may I not be deprived. Give me the meaning to know what true good is and not be blinded by imaginary good things. Do you see that everything on earth is subject to decay? We see, you speak. Are you convinced that everything is perishable on earth? - No. This is what is surprising. For several thousand years we have been seeing the corruption of earthly things, we have touched, painfully felt this corruption, we smell it, we hear about it - and we are still not convinced, and we are still chasing after the corruptible. The Lord, the apostles, prophets, saints, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries, righteous people and all the saints showed us imperishable life through their words, lives, sufferings, miracles; to this day the Lord reveals to us the incorruptibility of souls and bodies after death and the eternally fragrant life through the incorruption of holy relics - and we all remain either unfaithful or of little faith. What does it mean? Write an instruction to my spiritual children, print it, and distribute it. (Always pray to God, go to church, honor holidays, don’t play cards, don’t get drunk on wine, drink [weight], don’t deceive anyone, etc.) The enemy's terrible impudence against me at public prayer. God! When will you protect me? Calm, unhurried. Sin is a fox, for example, in lust, gluttony, or like a wolf - in greed, malice, or like a peacock - in pride. The fox flatters and then grabs and eats you. So is sin. Mental unrest is too harmful to health. Therefore we must beware of them. Applied part of the history of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Catechism. The science of worship and Church history. Write. Extracts from theological books. Go into the depths, and cast your nets into the catch [Russian: sail into the depths and cast your nets to catch] [Lk. 5, 4]. Preacher! This is what is being said to you. Step into the depths of your heart, the human heart, into the depths of Christian teaching, into its essence, into its spirit, and throw the words into the depths. Dig and deepen [Lk. 6, 48]. Priests are spiritual judges. The devil is the slanderer of our brethren [Rev. 12, 10]: he constantly slanders my brother, embitters him, instills envy, hard-heartedness, etc. My neighbor is another me; if I cannot, a sinner, so can he; if I love myself, I should love him too. The priest, as the father of his flock, must know all his spiritual children and know everything that is happening among them, especially social things, for example, theaters, what is played in the theater, etc., in order to act on them accordingly, educate them, correct them, instill in them this or that virtue, show their insufficiency in this or that. Do not eat meat completely and do not be tempted. Indigenous fish, as it is very nutritious, should be eaten less often and a little: it can be very hard, hellishly hard. Seek a priestly blessing, because the Heavenly Father gave His blessing through His Son to the priests, and whoever does not seek and does not want a priestly blessing will be deprived of it forever and from God and will be subject to the eternal real curse of God and wrath. I will walk in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house [Russian: I will walk in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house] (Ps. 100:2). Remember these words of the divinely inspired psalmist and conform to him in your life. Try to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord [Heb. 12, 14]. The shelter and singers in the Cathedral and the renovation of the church are a matter of prayer: as someone prayed to the Lord, so the most merciful Lord did everything. Glory to Him! The shelter is closely connected with the regent of the choristers, the choristers with the headman, the renovator of the Cathedral. Oh, how powerful is prayer! Make extracts from theological books week by week and publish them for the public. Book title: Minutes of spiritual sobriety. I only want to introduce the children of the Orthodox Church to the content of our theological books. God! teach me to have pity on my enemies and opponents and mockers, and not to be angry with them. God! teach me to do everything against the will of my flesh and my thoughts. Teach me to overcome despondency with hope, cowardice with courage, fear with trustworthiness. Understand my tongue, O my Savior, having widened my mouth and fulfilled 3, my heart has been touched, so that what I say, I will follow, and what I teach, I will do first, 4, and so on. (on my conversations that are about to be published). As soon as I smoked a cigar yesterday, smoke started wafting out of the forests again. Was it not this whim that brought upon us the wrath of God, poured out in fire? Isn’t it God who inspires the archpriest with different thoughts and actions, so that thoughts and passions that are hidden until time, until temptation, will be revealed from our hearts? I should not seek mercy from people, but from the Lord; I should not fear people, but the Lord. Gluttony, laziness, despondency are mortal sins. 1867 Elena Vasilievna Bakhtur. “Description of the miraculous icons of the Mother of God and other saints.” Collection. Take control of your heart and rule it according to the will of God. All our spiritual troubles come from our addiction to earthly things and from a lack of faith and love for God and neighbor; Our faith in the omnipresence of God is eclipsed, the faith that our neighbor is in the image and likeness of God, that he is the king of creation, the ruler of all earthly things, as it is said: he has put everything under his feet [Heb. 2, 8], and not a slave of creatures. We insult a person because of some things and do not think that in his person we are insulting God, we are insulting the king of the earth created in the image of God, even if he were a beggar. Let us humble ourselves before God and His image, so that He will exalt and glorify us. To the glory of the Most Holy and Life-Giving Trinity - Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Direct my steps according to Thy word, and let all iniquity possess me [Ps. 118, 133]. December 15th, 1867. Evening. 11th hour I thank You, my chastiser, Lord! My shepherd, my zealot. Bless, my soul, the Lord, and all that is within me, His holy name... who heals all your iniquities and cleanses all your iniquities [Ps. 102, 1, 3]. Extensive reading of prayers in grades V, VI, VII. Imitate the lives of the saints and you will be saved. Just wait, just like we won’t wait for you. If you drive more quietly, you will go further. Sin constantly fights us, we must constantly fight sin. That is why we are soldiers of Christ, and Christ is our warrior, strong and strong in battle. The thorns of passions constantly gore, disturb, and drag the soul and body towards sin. We must pray unceasingly. When your flesh is infuriated by passions, for example, love of money, voluptuousness, stinginess, greed, irritability, malice or others - fall to Christ and say: behold, Lord, you see how this passion outrages, torments me, weakens me, binds me. Intercede and save me yourself, my Savior 7 - and He will immediately save you. The spiritual serpent is simple: in an instant he will behead and sting the soul - and then he goes to do his dirty tricks. And we need to be simple, or whole, we need to have the simplicity of love. The devil continually deceives us, to our destruction; we must continually deceive him, to the destruction, in the power of the fortress of the Lord, of his head. He constantly tries to destroy us with voluptuousness, love of money, malice, pride - we must hurt him with love, meekness, humility, non-covetousness, and contempt for pleasures. A brother comes to you - and the enemy hurts you with anger towards him for the sake of the sweets that you should share with him. Despise sweets, love your brother, talk to him lovingly. Always do this and don’t let the enemy laugh at you. A beggar comes to you, asking you often, and the enemy arouses anger in you against him because of your addiction to money - despise money and respect the poor circumstances of the beggar, willingly and lovingly give him what you can, and do not be angry with him if he persistently asks you. You have everything, he has almost nothing. The womb of God is accountable, it is said somewhere in the service on the Sunday of the Samaritan. God! Grant us to perform this Sacrament, which 8 is nothing else on earth and in heaven. The Sacrament of Your Body and Blood, By Which the World Stands. With fear, a true heart, true humility and repentance, with gratitude, the most living love, in purity of soul and body, thinking of nothing more, the whole mind and heart were focused on grief. There are bad rumors about our gymnasium. We need to take this into account. Teaching, they say, is not good, morality is not looked after, children are playing around. St. Petersburg gymnasiums are approved. A lot of babies die in our city. Enter into the need of the poor and respect and satisfy his need to the best of your ability. At night you should not eat anything fatty - no cabbage soup, no borscht, no sauce. The heart is heavy and an excess of phlegm and blood is formed, headaches and toothaches occur due to poor digestion. Braiding your hair at night should not be considered healthy. God! let me constantly remember my heavenly destiny and despise earthly sweets and all things and philosophize about my heavenly Fatherland and love it with heartfelt love, especially You, Lord my God, the Father of the local Fatherland. We say to our brother: weirdo, this is equivalent to the word - freak, and those who say: freak, are guilty of fiery hell [Matt. 5, 22 ], equally speaking - a scoundrel, a brute, a scoundrel, a mug or an image. You have to be careful with your words. By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned [Matt. 12, 37]. When performing public prayer or at home, do not be distracted by anyone or anything and be completely immersed in the subject of prayer and in the omnipresent God. For the enemy is in the habit of entertaining and confusing our thoughts and hearts, either with new people whom we see at prayer, or with our own opinions or worldly passions. The enemy is constantly strengthening to keep our hearts in captivity, in his work. But He who was pleased in the flesh to ascend to the cross, so that He who created ecu from the work of the enemy, 9 Deliver us all from the real work of the original sinner and murderer, and, what destinies You Yourself know, save us, Your unworthy servants. Remember that the spirit of the Church, like the spirit of Jesus Christ, rules over the spirit of the world and the word of the Church, like the word of Christ, conquers human hearts. The nights are spent without sleep in the fruitless deeds of darkness - in gambling and uncleanness. Talk about it in reproof. Dream. Beggars, ragged, trembling, pale, half-dead, walking on the ice from Kronstadt, and I, in a silk robe, looking at her. Oh, I am guilty of stinginess and cruelty against the beggars! Have mercy on me, Most Righteous Vessel! Excess in food and sleep [...] is punished by illness, aching in the leg. Why do my teeth hurt? From satiety. When high sins are committed, for example by bishops, archpriests, city governors, heads of various parts of the administration, whom you are not called to expose, then do not pay attention to these sins, as if they did not exist, for the devil often inspires you to pay attention to the weaknesses of others in order to provide a pretext for disrespect, condemnation, and hatred. Know yourself, go deeper into your heart and recognize its corruption, its infirmities, its passions. And they have the voice of conscience, the voice of the word of God, the voice of everyday events, the voice of other books and people - in a word, thousands of admonishing voices. Contained in the Holy Books and in all church books and in the writings of the Holy Fathers is the fruit of great labors of repentance, fasting and prayer, spiritual contemplation, there is silver kindled, tempted by the earth, purified by the sevenfold [Ps. 11:7], but sometimes we don’t even understand to read it thoroughly, in the hearing of the church. So we are spiritually shallow, absent-minded, unclean! God! I thank Thee, for Thou hast fulfilled my prayer for an uncondemned presence at the throne of Thy glory and an uncondemned performance of the Divine Liturgy and prayers to the Lady, for all services by Thy grace were completed successfully. When obliging one of your neighbors financially, oblige them more spiritually. You oblige with bread and salt, money, clothes, housing - oblige most of all with love, meekness, kindness, forbearance, long-suffering, readiness for services, affection. While serving the Liturgy, you share the honor of priesthood with the Angels, with the prophets, forefathers, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, with the myrrh-bearers, with Joseph and Nicodemus. Oh, what great service! Oh, heavenly and most heavenly service on earth! Church of God truly there is heaven on earth. Let us put aside all worldly cares here. The best moments on earth are those in which we philosophize on heaven, in general when we recognize or defend the truth - this heavenly resident, citizen. Then only we truly live. This means that significant spiritual benefits require that we most often ascend above the earth - mountain, to heaven, where our true life is, our true patronymic, for which there will be no end. Oh, what immeasurable generosity You show to me, Lord, forgiving and cleansing my iniquities, my malice, my cruelty, when I truly repent before You! I praise Your mercy, Your long-suffering! I thank You, for You often save me from spiritual death and, always being cleansed by the dew of Your grace from my sins, You do not allow them to form body diseases in me. God! I thank You, for You have hitherto maintained peace between me and You, the source of my life, and between me and my household and co-workers, and with all my neighbors. This is Your priceless gift, for which I must constantly thank You. Looking at the many different entertainments of people, at the exceptional care for the flesh, you think: is there a soul in people? And if there is, then why don’t they care, don’t think about her salvation, for she is betrayed to countless sins, which constitute her death, and eternal death? Is there eternal torment and eternal bliss? And if there is, then why do we try so little or not at all to avoid eternal torment and inherit eternal bliss? That's what surprises me. And one more thing: why are people not afraid of the terrible hour of death? After all, we will not live on earth forever. Someday our turn will come and they will say to us: turn you too, sons of humanity, into the dust from which all are created. Oh, our absent-mindedness, our pride, our addiction, our nailing to the ground! Sinners, do you think that God has nothing to punish you with? Oh, there is something, there is something! This fire, which now illuminates and warms you, will then eat you, torment you, and torment you endlessly, because it will turn into unquenchable and will be infinitely fiercer than this fire. This scum, from which you protect yourself in winter with warm clothes, will then find you uncovered and will also cry out at you with ferocity, pass through all your joints, and you will grind your teeth endlessly. But why am I speaking only to you? I must say the same thing to myself, too, for I am the chief of sinners—the torments of hell were prepared for me, from which my Christ saved me, in whom is all my hope [1 Tim. 1, 1]. And you, my brothers, do you all have faith in Christ, in His Gospel, where is the life of the Gospel? How many of you even read the Gospel daily, this greatest gift of God? All who have deviated, life together is indecent: do not do good, not even one [Ps. 52, 4]. Christmas. We need to be born for God. How to be born? By the Holy Spirit. Mortify everything: pride, hatred, intemperance, uncleanness, covetousness, impatience, disobedience, thirst for much - and reproduce all kinds of virtues, especially faith and love for God and neighbor, God-loving humility, gentleness, purity of soul and body, non-covetousness, abstinence, patience, obedience, contentment with the present, or in the mind - knowledge, in the heart there is love, in the will there is obedience. This is what it means to be born to God. God! Teach me with all my soul to despise sin in every form - sin, but not the sinner. This will mean loving You with all my heart. It is necessary to firmly pronounce words or names during worship, for example, the names of reigning persons, without haste, otherwise the enemy has a habit of concealing them, not allowing the clergyman to pronounce them, just as he sometimes does not allow the names of saints to be pronounced. Speak loudly when he forces you to remain silent. I thank You, Lord my God, for You have granted me the grace to firmly pronounce the names of royal persons at the Liturgy. Resurrect everyone. If you died in pride, rise in humility; if in anger, rise in goodness; if in greed and satiety, rise in indifference to food and abstinence; if in covetousness, rise in non-acquisitiveness; if in stinginess, rise in generosity; if in laziness, rise in hard work and activity; if in prodigal uncleanness, rise in purity and chastity. I thank You, Lord, for You have made me a member of Your holy Church, that is, Your Body. Oud 10 is honest to the Church, show me. You say: why don’t priests play cards or go to the theater? - Because they must philosophize on earth, not on earth, and cards and theaters are worldly things. And you, as Christians, must abandon these games, worthy of laughter and characteristic only of children. But you are worse than the pagans: and they were wiser than you, and they considered it the sacred duty of man to look at grief, and therefore they called man the word ὁ ἄνθρωπος (man, man) from ἄνω - grief and τρέπο I turn, facing upward; While you, Christians, have bowed your noses to the ground and do not want to look at heaven and philosophize about things above, you are engaged in this laughable game of cards and money and theatrical acting, where everything is based on deception, on the love of money and on the ability to make people laugh. Singing sacred songs drives away passions. Oh, what grace, sweetness, peace, holiness is established in the heart when they sing! During the service, it is not the concelebrating Father Deacon who is to blame, but your heartfelt disposition and the common tempter. Admit it sincerely and temptation will pass. We live in time for eternity, and time is given for eternity. Remember this. Every living man is all vanity [Ps. 38, 6]. This must be remembered during the priestly service and the presence of the people, so that the truth of the Church in its prayers, chants, exclamations can be made triumphant and the clergyman himself can serve firmly and not be embarrassed by these ghost-like and vain people or from the machinations of vain demons, also like a ghost. It is necessary to reject one's own will and submit completely to the will of God and, in some cases, to the will of others. Willfulness and stubbornness, besides the fact that they are unreasonable, can lead a wayward person to very bad consequences: our enemy the devil is in the habit of plunging us into great spiritual dangers with the most insignificant things and arming us against God and our neighbor with things worthy of laughter - for example, a person flares up with hatred towards his neighbor just because he did not give him a certain thing that he expected and that he wanted to have (a reward, robe, gift), or that a famous person did something differently than we wanted and as we expected, etc., and the enemy of our salvation especially has the habit of arousing anger in us on great holidays, because he cannot remain indifferent to Christian celebrations, which are based on the crushing of the dark power of the devil, and wants to make his own demonic holidays on these deliberate Christian days - malice, intemperance and drunkenness, prodigal uncleanness, absent-mindedness, hypocrisy, etc. Young people who have studied, but have not studied enough, rarely go to church and do not conduct their spiritual education at all, considering it as unnecessary and giving themselves up to the vanity of life. We need to pay attention to this. This is the fruit of pride and spiritual underdevelopment. They consider visiting the church and worship a public matter for the common people and women, forgetting that in the church with fear the Angels serve together with people and consider this to be the greatest bliss. Is it not because the coldness towards public worship occurs because some do not understand it, while others, although they have taught the science of worship, have taught it dryly, without examples, to the mind alone, while worship, being a high contemplation of the mind, is at the same time and primarily peace, sweetness and bliss for the heart. The loves of this world (earthly splendor, theaters, sweets of food and drink, rich clothes, magnificent houses, furniture, etc.) are enmity to God [Jas. 4, 4]. A Christian must philosophize above and not attach his heart to the corruption of this world. Do not trust feelings when they serve as conductors of sin; through them the enemy seduces. Fix your gaze on grief, but don’t look at earthly things. Burning candles mean that you should burn with love for God, with zeal to fulfill His commandments. The light of a candle means that your life, your deeds, your thoughts should be light. The fragrance of incense inspires you to smell before God with humility, meekness, purity, self-control, humility, non-covetousness, almsgiving, love of truth, and patience. The royal doors are the gates of heaven, the altar is heaven. The doors of heaven are opened by the cross of the Son of God. In the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies was inaccessible to anyone except the high priest once a year (meaning Jesus Christ) [Heb. 9, 7]. The connection of Old Testament and New Testament history with Christian worship, as well as church history. All this must be explained one by one, and all these sciences must be taught as one whole. The enemy constantly robs us of knowledge, faith, hope, love, prayer. You have to constantly fight the thief. Worldly people want us priests to participate in their worldly distractions: in theaters, clubs, balls, skating rinks, etc. - How? Should we approve by our example what we should denounce publicly in the church? - God forbid. Absent-mindedness is a great sin. When will we think about the soul, about its education, salvation, when we go deeper into ourselves? When will we repent and improve? Simon! Simon! Behold, Satan has asked to sow you like wheat [Lk. 22, 31]. To unite with Christ means to love every virtue, and to renounce Satan means to break the connection with all sin, with all passions and not to servile to any of them. We must pray for those who harm us [Matt. 5, 44], for they store up evil on their own heads; we must endure and not be irritated, maintaining goodness. If one of the strangers comes to us and stays with us overnight, it is often unpleasant for us and we say to ourselves: why does he stay with us, why doesn’t he go home? Why are we saying this? Are we not one body and one spirit [Eph. 4, 4 ] ? Why do we even dare to think like that, why do we feel hostility towards our neighbor for what remains with us? Is there anything that's ours here? Isn't everything God's? The earth is the Lord's, and its fullness, the world and all who live on it [Ps. 23, 1]. As the image of God, you must constantly gaze toward the Prototype and conform to Him in holiness; as a member of the spiritual world, you must constantly maintain contact with it through prayer, contemplation, reading sacred books; as being called to the heavenly Kingdom and destined for it, you must little by little renounce the earth, from addiction to earthly things - and philosophize on the heavens, kindle with the desire for heavenly treasures. Do what you say constantly in church, for example, at litanies, and you will be saved. For example, you say: we will commend ourselves and each other and our whole life to Christ God - and do this: commit yourself, your household, your leaders, your brethren, all your spiritual children, relatives, comrades, acquaintances, friends, enemies - commend yourself daily to Christ God, and you will be blessed. At present, the spirit of extreme sparing and pity for the flesh, indulgence, satisfaction of its whims of carnal pleasure, laziness, and idleness reigns, while the spirit of Christianity requires the mortification of sensuality. Let us remember the saints, the martyrs, the unmercenaries. Let us remember the words of the apostle: I kill my body and make it into slavery [1 Cor. 9, 27]. The enemy has the custom of doubling the heart of a Christian with passions and indignations, especially the heart of a priest during ministry. Therefore, we must completely direct our thoughts and hearts to God and remember the machinations of the enemy. They say you give a lot of alms to the poor. Let's assume that, according to your short-sighted calculations, it is a lot. Although in reality it’s not enough. But no one else has received or receives mercy from God. For God saved you from so many sins? How often does he honor the Cup of Life? Purification, sanctification, renewal, strengthening through His Blood? How the Lord humbled Himself from on high for our sake, how He humbled and exhausted Himself! And do the tallest among us not want to humble ourselves? What is our altitude? Saints have what we do not have (holiness) and do not have what we have in abundance (sins). Oh, how honorable they are! How kind! Conversation with an English pastor. His review of the pillars as fanatics and of the monks as egoists living only for themselves, of icons as idols. The officers' conversation about the life of the priests: about their luxury in food and drink, about their voluptuousness, about their brutality. Delicious and very nutritious foods and sweet drinks lead to fornication, such as: meat, milk, sour cream, eggs, sweet tea, beer, wine. Protect your soul from mental thieves, that is, from sins or from evil spirits that creep into our soul through thoughts, through imagination, through memories, through desires and intentions. Blessed is the one who takes and breaks these Babylonian babies, of course mental ones, against a stone - Christ [Ps. 136, 9]. He will taste and will, according to his zeal for their destruction, always taste heavenly peace in his soul. But if a mental thief has crept in and confused and wounded your soul, for example, through suspicion of your neighbor in some kind of malicious intent against you (imaginary), or envy, or pity for your neighbor for some necessary thing (stinginess), or fornication, or bitterness, or vain and deliberate contradiction, immediately raise your mental eyes to the Savior. Yours, and as hitherto you mentally composed and conversed with sin, so now converse mentally with Christ and repent, pity, lament, abhor before Him your sin, committed mentally, or verbally, or in deed; and if you have offended your neighbor in any way, immediately ask for forgiveness and enter into such a close relationship with Christ as you previously had with sin, or, all the same, with the devil; and what ardor you had before this for sin, now show it to the truth, to Christ - and how quickly you have become united with sin and the devil - so, believe, your faith and your zeal and repentance will unite you just as quickly with Christ, for Belial is not faster than Christ, not wiser than Him, not stronger than Him - only we will quickly flow to repentance. Oh, how blessed we would be if we did not commit mental, or verbal, or active sin with all our ardor, with all our sincerity and, therefore, true heart, but instead flowed to repentance! Then we would have found our friend in the Lord, the Giver of Life. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father. You are My friends if you do what I command you (John 15, 14 and 15). Sin is like a fox: it flatters our sensuality, our sinful, accursed flesh, before we have yet given ourselves over to sin, and when we indulge in it, then without any mercy it torments us, like a fox its prey, and then what the holy psalmist says comes true for us: parts of the fox will be [Russian: they will fall as prey to the foxes] [Ps. 62, 11]. This is how the sin of fornication creeps up, the sin of gluttony and delicacy, the sin of covetousness and love of money, and envy, luxury, ambition, the sin of worldly absent-mindedness, the sin of contempt and hatred of one’s neighbor, the sin of disobedience, laziness, etc. The fluffy, soft fox tail of sin at first pleasantly tickles our insides, at first the violence of this mental tail is barely noticeable; then, if we weakly resist the charm of sin, it intensifies; then, if we begin to enjoy it and lean towards its side, it suddenly becomes gigantic, and we feel ourselves in spiritual captivity, still pleasant, until the charm of sin has passed - and then, when its stormy flow passes and the charm disappears, we see both its flattery and ugliness, and in our soul we feel death, darkness, sorrow, oppression, shame, dishonor. Such is sin. Blessed is he who has come to know this thief and deceiver and has learned to constantly be fully armed spiritually and emerge victorious from the struggle against him. Peace of mind, greatness of spirit, true glory, internal and external well-being will accompany him in life. On the contrary, woe to the one who succumbs to the charm of passions: he will have neither peace of mind, nor nobility and greatness of spirit, nor a good name, nor true prosperity, for passions will incessantly outrage him, humiliate him, dishonor him, and he will be a burden to himself and others. So, let us flee from suspicion, pride, hatred, envy, lust, gluttony, luxury, laziness, bickering and disobedience and all sin; Let us diligently practice all righteousness and make ourselves a friend of the Lord, who will give us eternal life. Amen. The existence of separate states on earth indicates the existence in heaven of separate, so to speak, states, or dominions, thrones; the existence of earthly cities also points to the existence of heavenly cities, as the Savior’s parable shows: take ten cities under your control [Lk. 19, 17]. Is there geography? Is there uranography? 11 The night before the service, eat and drink as little as possible, especially not drink wine at all. Otherwise, trouble will come from the enemy. The New Year's service was unsuccessful. Don't judge others - look at yourself. We are not good - everyone is good. Have you, who celebrate the incarnation of God the Word, become more humane, have you come at least somewhat closer to your primitive state, to the goal of your existence? you, created with a heavenly head and a forehead turned to the mountain, have you learned from the incarnation of the Son of God to philosophize on high, or are you still [plaiting] the earth, thinking about enrichment, about food and drink, about the pleasures of the flesh and not thinking about the soul, about its salvation, about the means to eradicate passions, about the means to establish yourself in virtue? The Son of God became man in order for the fallen to restore the image - are you concerned about restoring the image of God in yourself through the eradication of bestial passions: anger, rage, pride, misogyny, gluttony, gluttony and drunkenness, stinginess, envy, laziness - and through the implantation in yourself of meekness, humility, purity, abstinence, goodwill, compassion, mercy, indulgence in the infirmities of others, patience? Have you become less scattered, have you become more concentrated in yourself, have you gone deeper into yourself, are you deepening the words of God within yourself, are you diligent in all truth, in fulfilling the commandments of the Lord? The priest, as a doctor of souls, must himself be free from mental illnesses, that is, from passions, in order to heal others; as a shepherd, he himself must first be shepherded in green pastures - the Gospel and the Patristic ones, in order to know where to graze the verbal sheep; he himself must be skilled in fighting mental wolves in order to be able to drive them away from the flock of Christ; must be tempted and strong in prayer, abstinence, must not be bound by worldly lusts and pleasures, especially covetousness, love of glory, pride - in a word, he must himself be light in order to enlighten others, spiritual salt, in order to protect others from spiritual corruption and himself be free from the corruption of passions. Otherwise, every spiritually sick person can say to him: doctor, heal yourself first, and then I will let you heal yourself, you hypocrite! First take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from my eye [Matt. 7, 5]. Look at people as disembodied, as sinless, with all respect and purity. The monks imitated the life of the disembodied through purity, abstinence, vigil, and praise. Great people! Therefore they are worthily blessed with incorruptible glory. The poor are a reminder of our spiritual poverty. Unfortunately, few people understand this. The poor provide us with a means of conveniently enriching ourselves spiritually through charity. The shabby clothes, with patches, remind us that we always carry with us and within ourselves an old person, covered with wounds of passions. Unfortunately, we all love to dress up and shine with external decoration, which blinds the inner eye and does not allow it to see the inner ugliness. God! Grant me wisdom, strength, patience to love my neighbor as myself, according to Your commandment [Matt. 19, 19 ]; Grant that you can overcome your neighbor’s pride with humility, anger with goodness, envy with goodwill, shamelessness with chastity, and covetousness with selflessness. Grant me to pray internally for my enemies, to feel sorry for them, but not to have the slightest evil against them, not to take revenge on them either in thought, or intention, or word, or deed, for this is usually the last thing for our corrupt heart. Pray convincingly, with fervor, with constancy, remembering that God does not change, is always the same, while we are constantly changing. Everything that tickles in the palate (mouth) also tickles in the womb. Hence fornication. Therefore, one must avoid delicacies for the sake of purity of heart. Man must constantly remember that he is in the image and likeness of God, and strive constantly to achieve his high purpose - to be the dwelling of the Holy Trinity and a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom. He must remember that on earth he is a stranger and a stranger [Heb. 11, 13], and behave in relation to its benefits as a temporary resident, not clinging to anything with your heart, but clinging to the one God. My soul clings to You; Thy right hand accepts me. My soul thirsts for You, since my flesh abounds in You [Russian: my flesh yearns for You] [Ps. 62, 9, 2]. But man is constantly prevented from achieving his high destiny by evil, never-ending sin - the enemy of human salvation, the destroyer of our souls and bodies. This sin, as a product of the evil spirit - the devil, is simple, quick, like a flash of lightning, like a gust of wind, brazen, violent, contagious, like poison, and at the same time, like oil, it spreads softly and imperceptibly throughout the insides of the body, as well as through the thoughts and desires of a person. We must constantly fight against it and use auxiliary means to combat it: fasting, vigil, prayer, alms. What sin plagues a person? - Varied and heterogeneous: pride and disrespect, hatred, envy, luxury, greed and stinginess, delicacy, gluttony and drunkenness, fornication, dissent, absent-mindedness, laziness, effeminacy, waywardness, stubbornness, self-interest, disobedience to superiors, freethinking, unbelief, cowardice, fear and timidity, grumbling, despair, doubt, suspiciousness, suspicion, superstition, contemplation and partiality, hypocrisy, condemnation, slander, blasphemy, idle talk, laughter, negligence and negligence in fulfilling the duties of a Christian and citizen, impatience, irritability, pugnacity (insolence with the hand), deceit, godhood, disrespect for Sundays and holidays, coldness towards God and the church God, extortion and bribery, etc. An important treasure is the Christian faith: it makes a lamb out of a beast, a humble man out of a proud man, an abstinent out of a glutton and a drunkard, a chaste out of a prodigal, a alms-lover out of a money-lover, a God-lover out of a self-lover, a hard-working out of a lazy person, a cheerful one out of a sleepy person, a courageous one out of a timid person, a believer into God from a hypocrite, out of a luxurious person into a believer. all-moderate, from the envious - benevolent, from the deceiver and thief - truthful and honest, from the sad - ever joyful, from the powerless - omnipotent and omnipotent, from the sinner - saint, from the child of the devil - the child of God, from the earthly - heavenly! This is how important the Christian faith is! This is why we became Christians! This is what we must become according to the essential truth! This is what true Christianity is! If we do not change, are not renewed in spirit, but remain indifferent to all kinds of sins, then the name of Christian that we bear is an empty sound and worse, in comparison with the pagans, we will be rewarded with torment. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation [2 Cor. 5, 17]. The sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth [Matt. 8, 12]. How can one not be long-suffering towards one’s neighbor, knowing God’s long-suffering towards me, a sinner, and towards all people!.. Today (January 6th) the enemy stung me with mental anger at the archpriest for what seemed to me to be his careless reading of the water-blessing prayer on the Jordan. He constrained me so much that I could not say I was free in church... There is no need to turn my brother’s weaknesses or sins into a reason for his anger and contempt. Cover your neighbor's weaknesses. Everyone is responsible for themselves. Remember the branch and the beam [Matt. 7, 3–5; OK. 6, 41–42]. A thief, stealing from others, steals from himself, for he continually loses what he has acquired through evil. Luxury and extravagance in clothing, in food and drink, in home decoration, in tobacco. Just as parents love their children, so love your spiritual children with the same pure, impartial and constant love. Help, Lord, to change the thoughts, heart, and disposition of my old man! God! Grant me to remember this prayer and cry to You with it! Why do we reek of passion every hour? Why are we not fragrant with virtue before God and people? The virtue of a student and a Christian in general is reflection. Do not be irritated with anyone, even if someone has sinned: for it is foolish to add your own sin to your neighbor’s sin and increase moral disorder. Moreover, some unkind people deliberately create disturbances in order to irritate us and laugh at our irritability. So, one must endure disorder and dispassionately reprimand or punish the one who causes it, and if the disorder occurs accidentally, then excuse it, in general, be patient with one’s neighbor, be forgiving, bear his burdens, and replace him in action. Our cruel disease is love, addiction to earthly things, hope for earthly things and coldness towards God and neighbor, enmity towards our neighbor due to addiction to earthly things, while everything earthly is rubbish. Oh, the deceit of the heart, worthy of all tears! Why do we look sideways at our neighbor, who is eating our bread, and maybe not? - Because of the addiction to earthly things, to food and drink, to stinking belly. What causes coldness towards God and neighbor? Disdain for the poor, shaking from hunger and cold? – Because we love to dress richly ourselves, we are addicted to clothes, to luxury. But in whom is our true life, our peace? - In God and in fulfilling His commandments. We know this, we have even experienced it ourselves, but what then? Do we cling entirely to God with faith, hope, and love? No! Why? Because we do not dare, we do not have the strength to change our way of life and, like slaves, we are involuntarily led to silent idols [1 Cor. 12:2], leaving the living God, the source of life. Oh, blindness! Madness! Recklessness! Oh, the enemy's net! Oh, ingrained habits! We must give to our neighbors just as willingly as we willingly accept from others. The womb must be despised: all troubles are due to addiction to it. God fulfills everything everywhere and everything - heaven and earth, but He is not in our hearts, but here He should have been, as His Creator, as our Life. Demons live in the heart - the demon of love of money, the demon of pride, the demon of fornication, the demon of gluttony and many others. Against Lutherans and Anglicans: I would not only like to have an icon of the Lord in the front corner, but everywhere, on all the walls and in all places. Say the words of prayers with all your heart. Do not be entertained by strangers, objects, or thoughts. Streams flow into rivers, rivers into the sea or ocean; streams soon dry up, some rivers flow long and wide and never dry up, others, smaller ones, flow for less time and space and sometimes dry up, others finally dry up soon - but the ocean never dries up due to its very infinity. Streams represent individuals, rivers represent nations, and the ocean represents eternity. The life of private individuals belonging to a certain tribe or people does not last long; The life of a people (river) is very long, but even before eternity it is insignificant, and it is swallowed up by the same boundless ocean of eternity. Finally, eternity, represented by the ocean, is limitless. How instructive there is in this comparison! There are small receptacles of fire, formed by man, for example, furnaces, forges, lamps, and there is also an infinite receptacle of fire - the interior of the earth or fiery Gehenna, where sinners will suffer forever. Now the Lord cools us, sinners, according to His indescribable mercy with food, drinks, dew, rain, snow, well-dissolved air - but the time will come, or time will end, and eternity will come, when unrepentant sinners will be deprived of all coolness, all joy and will experience the full power and fury of fire with all the horrors of torment, and this fire, these torments will not exist end. Let us not use God’s long-suffering, who gives us time for repentance and correction, for evil. The night comes when no one can do [Jn. 9, 4]. Beautiful, holy, most pure is the Lord—beautiful, pure, and unblemished are His intelligent and other creatures. Only an evil, unclean heart is tempted by them. Only flesh and blood lust. The saints lived on earth and experienced grief. Such were the apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, saints, and unmercenaries. What is occupying us? Not heaven, not eternal life, not future bliss, but earth, temporary life and temporary goods and pleasures, transitory happiness, brilliant and flattering vice. How long will this last? When will we come to our senses? We are interested in theatre, money (raffles), clothes, food and drink, etc. Our hearts are full of idols: some have the idol of love of money, some have the uncleanliness of fornication, some have envy, stinginess, some have greed, some have vanity in clothing, in decorating the home. The heart is subtle, light, spiritual, heavenly in nature - take care of it, do not burden it, do not earth it, but be extremely abstinent in food and drink and in general in bodily feelings. The heart is the church of God; whoever corrupts God’s church, God will corrupt him [1 Cor. 3, 17]. If the Lord does not mount you as on a horse and does not take your bridle with His hand, then the devil will mount you and ride you and teach you all kinds of evil. You call yourself a Christian: are you really Christ’s, in your thoughts, in your desires, in your heart, in your life and deeds? Isn't it someone else's? You are called a servant of Christ - are you working for Christ God? Are you doing His commandments? Do you love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself? Are you zealous for His Church as for His dwelling place? You say: Lord, have mercy, do you have mercy on your neighbors in order to be worthy of God’s mercy, do you recognize your sins, do you desire correction with all your heart? You say: grant, Lord, do you heartily, sincerely ask for the various gifts of God, a perfect, holy, peaceful and sinless day... An angel of peace, a faithful mentor, guardian of souls and bodies... Forgiveness and forgiveness of our sins and transgressions... Good and useful to souls... The rest of our life in peace and repentance will end... and the Christian death of the belly? 14 Have these words become sounds without content for you? Oh, what necessary petitions these are, which the Holy Church puts into the mouths of her servants! You say: I commend myself and each other and my whole life to Christ God - are you telling the truth, are you really completely surrendering yourself to Christ God as the faithful Creator 15? Or you are still dominated by waywardness, lack of faith, lack of trust in God, but in yourself, in people. We must speak the truth. The priest proclaims these petitions, the singers or readers sing, answering them, and you, in your soul, following the priest and singers, repeat the same thing in the depths of your soul, for this is necessary. Singers and readers sing and read for you and on your behalf, you must be a participant in the divine service, it is performed for you and for you - you are a member of the Church, you must be a favorable chord in it, sounding praise and thanksgiving to the Lord or a prayer of repentance and confession. For this purpose, the divine service is performed in the form of a conversation: the clergy with God and the clergy with the people present, so that everyone takes a lively, warm part in the ongoing divine service, and through such participation of everyone in prayer, our conciliar prayer will be stronger and more fruitful, let us rather bow to the Lord's mercy, ask Him for the spiritual and material benefits we need, correct ourselves from bad deeds or from passions and become beautiful virtuous living. And what is the use of cold, soulless, insincere prayer? It is our own fault, but we blame others in our hearts and in our words, and we hate and despise them. And when the Lord opens the eyes of our hearts to repentance and to the knowledge of our sins, then we will see that we need to hate ourselves, and not our brother. So, a brother or boss will look at us unkindly and treat us coldly, and we send hatred and contempt after him. How? What are we doing? - Let's stop, damned ones. The boss or brother looked at us unkindly and treated us coldly because we are often not worthy, we do not deserve better treatment. Because we harbor in our hearts the abomination of anger towards our brother or boss, disdain for him. Naturally, his heart turns away from us, because ours turns away from him; Naturally, he neglects us, because he feels in his heart our disdain for him. But change your feelings towards him - he will change too; pray to the Lord of hearts that He will unite your hearts - and they will unite. When you feel in your heart goodwill towards your boss or brother, he will also be kind to you. That is why it is said: in everything that you want people to do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets [Matt. 7, 12]. The devil, through our everyday passions, addictions and intemperance, inhabits us and becomes with us as if one spirit, one being, sticks to our insides and thus rapes us, forbidding us from loud prayer, doxology, confusing and inciting us to various passions, weakening us for everything that is true and good, just, forcing us and strongly inclining us to any sin, such as: fornication, envy, covetousness, lies, deception, hatred. Only faith, living and firm, and frequent falling before God in prayer of faith and hope can free us from his violence and tear him away from our insides. What does the Church want to make of you? Let the man of God be complete, equipped for every good work [2 Tim. 3, 17], how the school prepares you to be useful servants of the Fatherland, members of society. You must create a pillar [Matt. 21, 33] - your salvation. I will create the 16th pillar of the Church of my God. Who creates something in this life, and you create your heart, cleanse and renew it - not by yourself, but by the Holy Spirit, for this is most necessary, this is essential. What is there in buildings made of stone and wood, when the building of the heart is in ruins, in uncleanness? Therefore, Scripture speaks with bitter reproach about people before the flood, that they built - but not with their hearts, they planted - but not with piety and faith in God [Gen. 6.5, 11 – 13; Matt. 24, 38 – 39]. From dense food, from the slightest excess, I’m not talking about the big one, my heart is corrupted and weakened, but from sobriety, prayer, contemplation of God, singing in church, reading the word of God, my spirit and body become stronger, cleansed, sanctified, pacified, relieved, enlivened. How many foreshadowings of future imperishable blessings are here, how many foretellings of them! And yet, we still have an addiction to perishable goods! And how many wounds, grief, embarrassment, cramped conditions, obscurations! A person who truly loves God often cries that, firstly, he himself does not sanctify the name of God incessantly, as he should, that the Kingdom of God has not yet come for him in full force, that he does not perfectly fulfill the will of God, that he cares about vanity, that he still loves sin, is subject to the temptations of the evil one, and that, secondly, that all this is not fulfilled by other people, that they forget their Creator, Provider and Savior. The divine service of the Orthodox Church is an image of the deeds and destinies of God in the created world and man and in the redemption of the latter from sin, curse and death - for a constant reminder of these deeds and destinies and for our moral progress, to which sacred readings and chants, the Sacraments and the preaching of the word of God and the spiritual guidance of believers through the hierarchy are especially incited. Chastity is the ability, the wisdom to keep oneself invulnerable from the sins of pride, hatred, irritability, envy, selfishness, satiety, impurity of the heart, especially from prodigal impurity, laziness, disobedience. We are constantly present before the face of the Lord invisibly - and that which is invisible, the Holy Orthodox Church presents visibly through holy icons: the Most Holy Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where I am, my servant will be, said the Lord [Jn. 12, 26], - on this basis, next to the image of the Savior, we place images of the Mother of God, holy Angels, the Forerunner, apostles, prophets, hierarchs, martyrs and martyrs, reverend men and women - servants and friends of God. You will always create a storm, but you could have been quieter: the sexton didn’t come to Matins or Vespers, he overslept - there was no service, the watchman read, sang - and okay, and then he would kindly notice in private why he overslept, wouldn’t tell him to wake him up, and he, seeing the kind treatment, would have apologized, and everything would have turned out okay. And then mutual anger emerges. Why do I still wear the chains of gluttony? Be kindled with the desire for incorruptible blessings, and not temporary, material, transitory ones. One should not fight against one's neighbor because of the belly. Because what is it? - stench. Who is the neighbor? - the image and likeness of God. A Christian needs abstinence, otherwise his heart becomes a playground for demons, it is violated by them, corrupted, passionately. Do not blame your brother internally, but blame yourself; despise not your brother, but yourself, for the enemy constantly incites us to see real or imaginary sins in our neighbor, and covers ours with our pride. The prayer of repentance for sin against my brother attracted my brother’s heart to me. (During Sunday morning after reading the Gospel, Father Archpriest Pavel Vasilyevich Trachevsky, as usual, approached the Gospel and kissed him touchingly). Looking at the silver and golden vestments of the icons, remind yourself of the bright beauty of the image and likeness of God, in which man was created and which we must value and cherish above all else and honor it in ourselves and in God’s saints. Remember also what glory, what light awaits the righteous in the future life: they will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father [Matt. 13, 43]. So, take care of your soul from malice, anger, pride, fornication, intemperance, love of money, envy, despondency, disobedience, laziness, etc. We are almost constantly working with the enemy: every now and then we need to get rid of passions. There is a vigilant and strong evil enemy of God and ours (I mean the leader of all sin), the enemy of everything heavenly, holy, the enemy of faith and piety, the enemy of true life, who constantly tries to chain our thoughts and hearts to the earth and to earthly goods, inhibiting our lives with various passions, so that we do everything contrary to God and our true life and everything pleasing to him, the devil. Many do not notice this and consider it only a matter of nature or weakness, entertainment - to get carried away by passions and bad habits, and do not try to improve. A disastrous condition! A Christian must be heavenly, considering everything earthly as a shadow. God raised us to heaven, but we are rushing to earth. God wants to take us to heaven, but we are rushing to hell. Alas for me! Instead of spiritual contemplations, I think about earthly vanities, instead of loving You, my God, with all my heart, I cling to earthly things with fornicating love. I also hate my neighbor, I envy, I am angry, and instead of all virtue I do all evil. A humble person does not get irritated, does not remember evil, does not take revenge when a boss or someone else treats him harshly, says injustice to his face, scolds, destroys morally, but considers this worthy of retribution, as a cure for his obvious or hidden spiritual illnesses: pride, self-love, anger, etc. The proud one himself gets irritated at the one who is irritated, gets angry, and often with anger remembers the insult of the offender or the one who was treated harshly the boss is with him, because his pride and self-love are wounded - about which the humble rejoices, for this is a cure, although acute, for his spiritual illnesses. In general, a humble person is always ready to despise himself first, to vilify himself, and first of all treats himself harshly, for he remembers that the old, sinful man lives in him. I am all of God, not my own, but I will surrender all of myself to God: soul and body. You are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you [1 Cor. 3, 16]. If anyone corrupts God's church, God will corrupt him [1 Cor. 3, 17]. Two main passions operate in me every day: addiction to earthly things and anger. Observe invariably that at all times you have in your heart love for God and His image - man; see that it is in your heart when you eat with your neighbor, when you see him asking you for alms or your services - and at all times, under all circumstances: in wealth and poverty, in health and in illness, in happiness and misfortune. I thank You, my holy Guardian Angel, because yesterday, when I was already lying in bed and, stung by mental sin, I cried out to You to intercede for me the mercy of God, you heard me and peace and great mercy interceded for me. May 15, 1868. I thank You, Lord, for the marriage of this day (the second), which You have granted me to perform it calmly and without stumbling, unhurriedly (January 21, 1868). Singing sacred songs after lunch or dinner is very beneficial for both the soul and the body, relaxed by sweetness; the heart is strengthened in grace, which strengthens the body at the same time. You live carelessly, leading a voluptuous, careless, intemperate life. How long is this? The judge is at the door [Matt. 24, 33; Mk. 13, 29]. Everything has become expensive because we value faith in God and virtue little or not at all, we live carelessly, and we do not value the salvation of our souls. Proceed to food and drink without partiality and greed towards them, without malice and contempt towards your relatives living with you, without having madness in your heart to spare anyone from your family anything, having a heart that is always kind, fatherly, generous. And this applies equally to the household and to the poor; know for sure that you are more greedy than everyone else at home and that you eat and drink more than anyone else, and always lament this, and sit humbly at the table. Be zealous with all your might for the love of God, so that it constantly burns in your heart - both while eating and after or outside the table; See the Lord always before you, as at your right hand [Ps. 15:8] and gives you everything for your prosperity and well-being; see the image of God in every person and try in every possible way, at every opportunity, to turn him away from the error of his path; Be patient with everyone, do not be angry with anyone, do not despise anyone, do not envy anyone, do not condemn or offend anyone, look at everyone with pure, simple-hearted eyes. Milk, butter, cream, eggs, fish, sweets lead a healthy person to fornication, to uncleanness of heart, they make them flesh, they deprive them of God’s grace. Don’t you still know that through excess in food and drink the devil rules in our hearts? Gluttony, gluttony and drunkenness constitute the power of the devil over us, and contempt of the stomach and abstinence in food and drink, or fasting, constitute our strength? Therefore, love fasting as a very important aid to salvation. The enemy constantly tries to undermine respect for one's neighbor and instill contempt for him, and to hinder the praise of the Lord. Simon constantly tries to attach his heart to earthly things, to the vanity of the world, to amusements, amusements, amusements, feasts, to envy, hatred, etc.! Simon! Behold, Satan has asked to sow you like wheat [Lk. 22, 31]. Oh, how much is said in these few words about the enemy’s malicious intent on us and his efforts to destroy us! But we slumber carelessly and do not notice how he sows us all and how we, as a result, are distracted every day, never entering into ourselves, into important reflection about our Christian name and title, about our purpose, about our vows given to God at baptism, about fulfilling the commandments of Christ, etc. The enemy of our salvation constantly, daily knits his thread, his fabric in our hearts, and in our thoughts, and in our lives. How many passions, how many whims, arrogance, stubbornness, anger, partiality, etc.! The wicked adversary lulls the thought, cools the feeling, paralyzes the will, lulls the whole being. Everyone dozed off and fell asleep [Matt. 25, 5]. Oh, how much, man, God has done for your salvation! The Son of God became incarnate and became human, enlightened, showed the way, suffered, died, rose again and ascended to heaven! He gave His Body and Blood in His memory! The kingdoms of earth point to the Kingdom of Heaven; kingdoms shaken by wars and other disasters - to an unshakable, serene Kingdom; temporary kingdoms - to the eternal kingdom; earthly rewards are a foreshadowing of eternal, heavenly rewards! Secular people find something to write, and quite a lot of them write; one must be surprised that we, the spiritual ones, do not write anything! Don't we have anything to write about? Do not love beyond the measure of your flesh, for love for it can be the cause of many sorrows. Why, for example, is this man angry with his family because they allowed the room to become steamy, and although the smoke came out and only some bitterness remained, he still continues to be upset with his family? Why is he annoyed because the windows in the room were open during a strong wind and caused a lot of dust? – From excessive love for the flesh, from effeminacy and voluptuousness, while bitterness and very dust for the flesh are often very necessary in order to drive out of it voluptuousness, fornication, and effeminacy. And if you cannot endure the bitterness of smoke and street dust, then how will you endure the suffering of the flesh, how will you endure insults, curses, beatings from others, if this happened? And is it not because you are impatient with domestic disturbances because you love your family very little, you are dissatisfied with them, you have little respect for them, you envy or have enmity towards them? For love is long-suffering, kind, and is not easily angered, and does not think evil [1 Cor. 13, 4 – 5]. During the first time of living with someone, we endure everything comfortably and willingly, because we maintain respect for that person and never consider some kind of carnal trouble, willingly enduring it for the sake of the respected person; but when we have lived for a long time with someone, selfishness takes over our hearts, we begin to be indignant at the smallest disturbances that disturb our peace, sometimes only imaginary disturbances, and we try to pour out our anger on those who have allowed the disorder, placing man, created in the image of God, at nothing, and valuing our own flesh or any of our own things too highly. In this case, shouldn’t we despise our own thing or our flesh and give the true value to a person, bearing with him, not remembering evil, being long-suffering to him for the sake of the Lord and for the sake of man’s weaknesses? So truly. I constantly live in the delight of feelings and break down over my family, as if because they love me so much and take care of me. Looking at some of my qualities, I think that I would not be a priest, but sit in the food aisles and sell meat, pancakes, etc. Oh, how sublimely I should philosophize, bearing the rank of priesthood, how to fast, pray, think about God! My life must be a daily burnt offering to God, a sacrifice of self-sacrifice, a burnt offering, that is, I must, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, burn away all the passions that arise in me. What do our citizens and many Russians believe about Christianity? It means going to church occasionally, and spending most of the time exclusively in earthly concerns: dressing up, taking a walk, going to the theater, to a club, to a ball. Do not complain or be upset with your rich brother when he does not give alms to the beggars who besiege you alone and whom you are forced to satisfy. Everyone is given free will, which God Himself does not force. To the free will - heaven to the saved. Be constantly with God and expect the solution of everything from Him. If you get upset at everyone who doesn’t give alms, then you won’t be able to live in the world—you have to leave the world. You look at other people's sins with vigilance and concern, but not at your own. You condemned in your soul and were indignant and hated your father and brother Archpriest Matthew, but you did not remember your gluttony and satiety, the bitterness of Esau, and for that - oh, how the Lord put you to shame at Matins, taking away from you the grace of the Holy Spirit. You could not serve, you were terribly embarrassed, completely disgraced, humiliated! So, judge yourself diligently and repent, but do not judge others. Don’t boast about alms, don’t complain about others for not giving. Do not eat meat, because eating meat results in terrible spiritual consequences. You taste the Divine Flesh and Blood. Stop eating not only meat, but also fish. Eat the fruit. It is enough to tempt the Lord: look, He will soon become angry and corrupt you, as He corrupted His church [1 Cor. 3, 17]. At night, don't eat anything except a bun. Wine - just drink a little. From overeating comes the powerlessness of the heart to pray, to love God and neighbor, and the enemy conveniently takes possession of the glutton. Was with an English pastor; it was about fasting, about dishonest houses in the city, about a school for the poor. The enemy rises up against us through our thoughts, instilling excessive pity in the flesh (unclean, odorous air) and thereby disturbing and killing our spirit, addiction to earthly things, envy of our neighbor, resistance to our superiors, combined with contempt and hatred, grief at our brother’s disturbances, combined with irritability. With the change of food, let us change our heart, thoughts, conversations and our morals, for there is no benefit in changing the type of food, and leaving the heart consumed by the same passions - malice, envy, pride, covetousness, gluttony, and allowing the soul to be defiled by drunkenness, sensuality, idle talk, to be weakened by idleness and laziness and other sins. When the flesh and with it the devil tempt you with the desire or stinging of food and sweets, tell them: man will not live by food and sweets, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God [Matt. 4, 4], and - give glory to the word of God, all things that exist, despising the womb that is about to cease to exist. When your thoughts tempt you with desire or pity for the clothes of the rich, tell them: my priceless and incorruptible garment is Christ, and my earthly clothing is made of earth and perishable. All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ [Gal. 3, 27]. I will take care of this spiritual and life-giving garment with all my might, I will take pity on it. If your thoughts tempt you to envy your neighbor, tell them: how can I envy a brother who is my member, how can I envy him in perishable goods, when I have been promised by the unfaithful God imperishable, countless and ineffably great blessings, which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not sighed [1 Cor. 2, 9 ]? It’s pointless, absurd to envy me, a Christian, who should I envy? A Christian, who, perhaps, for the unreasonable use of earthly goods is threatened with eternal destruction, for it is said: what good will it do to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? [Matt. 16, 26]. If pride and arrogance confuse you, pay attention to your sinfulness, weakness, damnation and, on the other hand, to the general nobility of human nature, united in one hypostasis with the Son of God, as well as to the fact that we are members of each other - will we be exalted and proud before our members, will we be arrogant before the members of Christ God? Is it before God, as Satan was in the beginning, before his own nature? Shouldn't we serve each other with all our hearts, shouldn't we work hard for the common good, shouldn't we prefer the common good to our own? This is what needs to be said to you, brethren: hitherto you have been concerned about the benefits of the body; from now on, transfer your concerns to your souls, neglecting the benefits of the body. Descend into the depths of your heart and there, seeing all the thorns of passions, pluck them out mercilessly. The English pastor speaks very disapprovingly of students learning lessons by heart, calling it a useless waste of time. He advises memorizing thoughts and teaching them practically (explaining oral lessons with examples). When you sit at the table at home (at home), consider yourself the only one unworthy of what is offered at the meal, and the others - worthy, and let your heart be simple and open to your neighbors sitting at your table. Consider everything on the table to be the Lord's, not yours. Oh, how long have you upset the Lord with your stinginess and greed! God! Because of my grave and gross sins, I am truly worthy of all Your disgust. And the disgust of my neighbors - relatives, co-workers and fellow citizens, for I am truly the most sinful of all, and my coarse passions cry out to heaven for righteous vengeance on me. But I thank Thee, Lord, that you correct my evil aspirations, arouse repentance in me and accept me, the repentant one, and cleanse my sins and, reconciling with me in Christ, give me peace, and holiness, and freedom, and spiritual lightness. God! Give me the grace to consider all my neighbors as my members (we are members of each other [Eph. 4:25]) and to love them as myself, especially my family, and not to spare anything for them, as for my members, even if they did very little work (for it would be better if they were sick or could not do anything). Lent has come: let us weed out the tares, pluck out the thorns of passions, burn wild meat, cut out sinful cancer so that it does not completely destroy our soul. Let us look 17 at the spiritual soil with heartfelt contrition, water it with tears of repentance, and it will grow the seeds of faith, hope and love for God. Let us begin to smoke out the stench of passions from our souls through fasting and repentance. We have no father - be You, Lord, instead of a father for us; We don’t have a mother - be you, Lady, instead of a mother for us. Amen. What the Lord did for us with His incarnation is beyond words and reason. Meanwhile, people have now become so cold towards the sacrament of redemption! What faith, what gratitude, what love the apostles, martyrs, hierarchs, priests, reverend men and women showed for the Savior! What about us? Hell continually manages to destroy me. Hell incessantly intensifies to arm me against my Lord - through the violation of His Divine commandments, through enmity towards His image and likeness - man, and above all against those at home, through pity for them, and not for them, through condemnation of them, through evil thoughts about them, through envy, resistance and disobedience, through prideful and jealous equating oneself with one's superiors, through gluttony, gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, covetousness, or love of earthly things through lies, deceit, godhood, etc. How long shall we offend the Spirit of God? How long shall we persecute our Lord with our sins?.. It is difficult for you to go against the prick [Acts. 9, 5]. My field is overgrown with thorns, but I want to weed someone else’s. Not from Father Matthew, but from himself. A glutton cannot be a guardian of souls, nor can he be covetous, prodigal, or ambitious. Either God or mammon will work [Matt. 6, 24; OK. 16, 13]. Gluttony and covetousness suppress the spirit, do not allow it to develop, to rise to its true homeland. By being upset with your brother for some of his vices, you will not help him and will not force him to do a good deed, but will only harm yourself mentally and physically; It is better to always pray for him from the heart to God, that He may correct him and have mercy, and, moreover, always keep in mind your shortcomings and pray for your conversion and correction. By giving little, you will receive more rewards from God. Just give it graciously, as to Christ Himself. Co-creator with me [Matt. 25, 40]. Sweets and sleep make the heart stony and insensitive. Excess in food and drink comes from hostility, from the devil, and through excess the devil enters our heart and takes possession of it. It is necessary to enslave the womb to reason and faith. Through smoking tobacco, idle talk, foul language - the same thing happens. During the wedding ceremony on Friday in Motley Week 18 with my father, Deacon Peter, I showed bad behavior - I wanted inappropriate services from him, forgetting that Christ came to serve for everyone. Christ is in all things and in all [Col. 3, 11]. If Christ is everything and in everyone, then accordingly one must treat everyone and behave oneself in accordance with such a high position. No matter how much I have given to the poor so far, I have given everything of God, not mine, and there is no merit of mine at all, and from now on I must also give willingly, as a distributor of God’s goodness, and not be irritated by the multitude of the poor. Be a Christian in your heart, that is, be always sincere in prayer, in dealing with your neighbors, always believing, trusting, meek, kind, kind to everyone, fair, not covetous, compassionate, merciful, self-controlled, chaste, patient, submissive, courageous. Assess your position, Christian, by which you are a follower of Christ, and take advantage of the priceless, greatest benefits of this high title, strive through the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments to inherit the heavenly Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. Look at the wealth of Christ - how many worlds does He have besides our earth, how many bright abodes in the sky? And you cleave to the earth!.. Cling to God, in Whom you will find everything. Where there are many temptations and snares of the enemy, there is surely much spiritual benefit for souls and our God is glorified. Let there be, if God wills, these temptations. And, in fact, why should the enemy bother? Temptations are used to achieve cleansing and health of soul and body: the enemy does what he would never want to do. O almighty, all-good, all-wise God! Glory to Your power! In the abundance of Your wisdom, power, and goodness, Your enemies serve You and Your servants [Ps. 65, 3 ]! Do not be afraid of the smoke of the enemy’s temptations! As soon as against your desire you cannot say prayers, and even due to illness, you are innocent, and there is no point in getting irritated and saying blasphemous words, impatient, and there is no point in falling into despondency. In spite of all the machinations of the enemy, no matter how poisonous they are, we must remain calm and not get irritated, because that’s what he wants us to do: to make us embarrassed and lose our temper. Remember the martyrs - nothing could separate them from the love of God, no torment, no sorrows and oppression, as well as from love for their neighbor, and you grumble at God when the enemy venomously attaches itself to you. The enemy's excuse does not count as a sin. Do not blindly adhere to the letters of the prayers: if you unintentionally miss something, it is not a problem, just maintain peace of mind and do not disturb those praying. Kiss the inner cross given to you by God, and wear it with patience and humility. If God did not want to have mercy on you forever, he would not grieve you temporarily. Look at the peace lovers - they live in open spaces. Day and night, with tears, the apostles taught the believers in church and from home [Acts. 5, 42; 20 g 31]. The time is coming for you to teach the people in the same way during confession and not to rush for the sake of self-interest, prefer the salvation of priceless souls to self-interest, so that the Savior of souls will love you. If we do not work out our salvation, then the enemy is constantly building our eternal destruction day and night, trying to captivate our entire being with various passions. Woe to the lazy and careless and partial to the blessings of this age! I thank the Lord, who strengthened me to confess my spiritual children in the first week of Great Lent peacefully, easily, in fasting: here I learned the grace of fasting and communion of the Holy Mysteries. But the next day, during Matins and Liturgy, I had a very hard time eating from the evening (I ate cabbage soup with mushrooms and cabbage, buckwheat porridge with vegetable oil, almond milk and drank tea and ate wine berries). Anyone who values ​​the subtlety of spiritual feeling will not eat fish during Lent, for fish dishes make the heart coarse. Consider it a blessing that you can pray to the Lord publicly (popularly) in church and pronounce such great words (of the Lord, the Mother of God, the saints, the Synod, the Metropolitan, the presbyters, etc.) and send up such wonderful, general prayers about the whole world in general and especially about every city and country, about the goodness of the air, the abundance of fruits and times of peace, and always speak sincerely, prepared fasting and contemplation of God. All the prayers of the Church are the prayers of saints, blessed souls who had the mind of Christ, according to the Apostle [1 Cor. 2, 16], therefore one must always pronounce them with reverent respect for them, with dignity and with an air of triumph. Time is the gift of God, or the talent of God, among other talents, which we must use according to God’s intention, for the glory of God and for the salvation of our souls, and not for idleness, not for vain conversations, games, fun, not for covetousness, not to kill in passions. Our feeling for the familiar and known, due to sinful weakness, soon becomes dulled, and sometimes the heart becomes so weak that the tongue cannot pronounce, for example, familiar prayers, although there is light and air and food and drink for our soul. We want new things everywhere and are looking for new things, but we ourselves remain old, old people, that is, with the old charm of sin. We are fools: we must renew ourselves, and not crave external news and not be bored with old prayers, worship, and the Sacraments, which mean to renew our souls. (Explain the Sacraments of worship.) God! How can you bear a world filled with so many iniquities and lawless people, of whom I am the first? - I wear it for the sake of the holy seed that is on it, and for the sake of the prayers of My Most Pure Mother, my holy apostles and saints. Long-suffering! Bear with us the spiritual debt, so that we may all repent. What does it mean that today in a dream (February 18th) I gave an inspired speech to the Emperor and married him to the Empress? Are my prayers for them not a crown for them? And Konstantin Nikolaevich 19 gave a welcoming speech. If I feel sorry for my neighbor’s sweets and am angry with him for using them immoderately, then I am still a slave of sweets, and not God, I am still an idol - my belly and sweets, and not the living God. God, have mercy on me! You pray - this means that you are a member of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ, an ally of God; you pray to God as the prototype, as His child, as a member of Christ; you pray to the Mother of God, as the Queen and Lady and by the grace of your Mother, for it is said: behold, your Masha [John. 19, 27 ]; You pray to the apostles, as the spiritual princes of the whole earth, who enlightened you with the light of the faith of Christ, according to what is written: You will make them princes throughout the whole earth [Ps. 44, 17 ]; you pray to the prophets, as friends and messengers and organs of the Spirit of God, who prophesied about your grace and heralded the coming of the Righteous One; to the hierarchs and reverend fathers, as your spiritual fathers, spiritually educating you, instructing you, guiding you with their God-wise writings, with their authority received from God; martyrs, martyrs, reverend women, unmercenaries and all the saints, like your elder brothers, for the sake of God and neighbor and for the sake of eternal salvation, who did not spare their souls and bodies, who voluntarily gave themselves up to wounds, to various torments, to death, who exhausted their bodies for the sake of saving their souls by constant vigil, unceasing prayer, labor, who did not consider anything their own, but everything of God (and not having property or suffering) - their very souls and bodies; and with all their might they served the good of their neighbors. This is what your prayer means, this is what you mean, this is who the persons to whom you pray are. Are you obliged to imitate the Lord Himself, and the Queen of Heaven, and the apostles, and prophets, and saints, and reverend fathers, and martyrs, and unmercenaries and all the saints? Why? Because you are the image of God, a copy of God, the likeness of God, and you borrow life and all spiritual benefits from God, Your Prototype and the Source of your life. Why imitate the Queen - the Mother of God and all the saints? Because they are a model and example for us from God of a holy, godly life, because they combined in themselves all kinds of virtues. How to imitate? By mortifying sin in oneself in every possible way and instilling Christian virtues: meekness, abstinence, purity, chastity, patience, devotion to God, hope, love. You must strive in all your life to the same place where they strived - to heaven, for there is your true Fatherland, there is God, living in the unapproachable light, from Whom your soul came; your body in its present form is only your temporary shell. But you must also pray for those still living in this world, for you are a member of the earthly society of people and you must consider the common good as your good, the common misfortune as your misfortune, pray for the aversion of the common misfortune as your own and for the granting or establishment of public prosperity as your own - in particular, you must pray for the Sovereign, the father of the Fatherland, for his wife - the mother of the people, their children and the entire royal house, for shepherds, for teachers, the spiritual father, for the father and mother, relatives, leaders, educators, benefactors and for all Christians. For what one must always have constant ardent zeal, the enemy inspires and introduces indifference, petrified insensibility (apathy), disgust, and spiritual impotence. (To prayer, to mercy, chastity, work.) And what one should have indifference and aversion to, for example, sweets, money, luxury in clothing and home decoration, inspires ardent idolatrous love. How a Christian must constantly watch over his heart and correct its aspirations! Show me earthly and material desires that exceed me, exalting from earth to heavenly love 20. How little attention and love there is for the sacrament of the cross and atonement and for the Redeemer, for the service during which the sacrament of our salvation is remembered and the Bloodless Sacrifice is performed! How little attention is paid to the salvation of souls, this greatest cause on earth, for which the Son of God Himself, without beginning, the Creator, came down from heaven, suffered and died! Oh, how frivolous we are, passionate about perishable, earthly things and cold towards heavenly, incorruptible goods! Collecting money, outfits, various household utensils, things, games, fun, entertainment, food and drink, [achieving] distinctions - these are the objects of our care, these are our affairs! Oh God! How long will we use Your long-suffering for evil? In unrepentant sinners, the devil is preparing victims of eternal fire, to whom it will be said: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels [Matt. 25, 41]. Therefore, woe to those who live unrepentantly and do not approach confession of sins every year. Oh, how dearly my Lord Jesus Christ valued my soul and its salvation, coming down from heaven for me, taking upon myself my soul and body, suffering terribly and dying for me! How do I value my soul, its eternal salvation? Oh, I do not know how to appreciate and have not yet learned to correspond to the love of my Savior, completely clinging to the earth, completely surrendering to laziness and various passions! How can the love of God, the Kingdom of God, be in you, when earthly love reigns in your heart: lust, greed and pride? – It is impossible until you crucify your flesh with its passions and lusts [Gal. 5, 24], for no one can serve two masters [Matt. 6, 24]. Friendship with the world is enmity against God [Jas. 4, 4]. Do not love the world, it is said, nor the things that are in the world... For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life... And the world passes away, and so does its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever [I Jn. 2, 15 – 17]. The enemy never sleeps, but constantly watches over us at night, laying out for us the nets of voluptuousness, greed, enmity, etc. In order not to fall into these nets at night, in a dream, we must escape them during the day, in reality. A dumb spirit often oppresses me, forbidding me to speak the words of the Holy Spirit. He wants to make us dumb dogs [Isa. 56, 10]. One should not be offended by the sharply spoken words of one’s neighbor, disrespect and rudeness, but accept them kindly, as an admonition to oneself, and respond with meekness. In Jesus Christ you must have unceasing peace: let you have peace in Me, says the Lord [Jn. 16, 33]. There is no doubt that we ourselves often act rashly, and there is no one to reprove us, while we strictly notice the rash actions of others and punish them for them. Being offended by the words of others suggests pride and anger in us, and they must be uprooted. The enemy constantly plunges people into spiritual slumber and sleep. Look how cold people have become towards God the Savior, how little we remember what our Savior did for us - His incarnation, His teaching, His suffering, the cross, death, burial, Resurrection, Ascension, Second Coming. Where is the fiery gratitude? Where is the praise to the All-Saving Trinity? Many have none at all, many have little, few have a heart that burns with love and gratitude. Hearts are turned to self-interest, lust, to absent-mindedness, to clothing, to external splendor, to luxury, envy, condemnation; we are hard-hearted towards the poor, unmerciful, contemptuous, and they are forced [to cry out] at us to the common Creator: for we are filled with much humiliation: most of all, our soul is filled with the reproaches of the gobblers and the humiliation of the proud [Russian: we are quite filled with contempt; Our soul is quite filled with reproach from the arrogant and humiliation from the proud] [Ps. 122, 3 – 4]. Where is the unceasing prayer? Where is attending worship services for the purpose of spiritually educating your spirit for eternal life? Where is the reading of the Gospel?.. God-wise writings of the holy fathers? Where is the reading of the lives of the saints? Where is the imitation of the saints?.. Alas! We are more willing to read only our own newspapers and magazines, Russian and foreign novels, fables and fairy tales, than the word of God, we willingly attend the theater, but not church, we willingly go to evening worldly meetings, full of vanity, but not to the evening divine service, we stay awake all night until the morning, only not in prayer, but at cards, comforting the demon of love of money, vanity and idleness. We consider every thing in the house important and mourn its loss or damage - only the soul is considered nothing and its spiritual corruption, its death, eternal destruction is considered nothing, and we do not take the trouble to think about it. What has been done to save our soul, we do not take this into account; What kind of torment awaits the unrepentant, we do not pay attention to that. We think that God, in His mercy, will forgive us everything without any correction on our part. O sons of men! How long is the heavy heart 21? have you always loved vanity and are looking for lies? [Ps. 4, 3]. It is a spiritual beauty that we look at those dressed gracefully in one way, and at those dressed simply in another way; for the rich it is this way, and for the poor it is different; for those wearing gold epaulettes, it’s different for those wearing a caftan. God doesn’t look that way: He looks at the heart, and before Him everyone is equal as men, and many of His simple people are much better and more honorable than the nobles; with Him many who are first are last, and many who are last are first. Equally, again, this is a sinful charm, contrary to God, to look at those with beautiful faces with pleasure, but to despise those who are not beautiful: both of them have souls equally in the image of God. For our vain view of human faces, for our partiality, we receive righteous retribution - and some, I don’t know why, we are afraid and subservient to them, others we despise and are wounded for their contempt, before others, so to speak, we melt and relax mentally. We must look at everyone equally, as created in the image of God, and direct everyone towards the First Principle - God. I thank the Lord, who heard my prayer and gave me the grace, with a feeling of tenderness and abundant tears, to celebrate the Divine Liturgy of Basil the Great on the Second Week of Great Lent (Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonites 22). The singers sang beautifully. Glory to Your endless mercy, Lord! You said: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted [Matt. 5, 4]. Grant me weeping for my sins, that I may always weep for them, and that by Thy grace I may be rewarded with the bliss of those who weep. I thank Thee, for in my house you heard prayer and transformed hostile feelings, sorrow and oppression into love, into peace and space. The Lord exhausted Himself for our salvation of everything - will you spare yourself for the good of your neighbors? Will you be burdened to supply them with what they need for life, to welcome them to you, to give saving advice? Are earthly sweets, food, drink, money, clothing, nothing, and how do we equate them or even place them higher than man - this being created in the image and likeness of God, this member of Christ, the child of God, this king of creation? Oh madness, oh blindness! Oh, malice! Oh, pride! Oh, addiction to earthly things! O neglect of the heavenly! We violate the commandment of love for one’s neighbor, which is the whole law, because of sweets, because of money, because of rags. Human! Joyfully share a piece with your neighbor, as well as your clothes, money, home; Serve with joy with a kind word, advice, consolation, instruction, reproof, material assistance, intercession, labor of hands, etc., so that you will find God merciful. Every day I anger the Lord my God, His Most Pure Mother, all the Heavenly Powers and my holy Guardian Angel by the fact that, having been called by their common and my Master to the heavenly Kingdom and to philosophize about the heavenly things, I still look to the future, I am still with all my heart attached to the earth and its benefits - to sweets, money, etc.; Having pledged at baptism to serve the one God, I still serve the devil with pride, malice, envy, stinginess, love of money and other passions. I anger the Lord all the more because I always unworthily accept the Divine Mysteries - the Most Pure Body and Blood of my Lord, I am not renewed in mind and heart, I do not strive for perfection day by day, I do not change for the better, but I still remain with the same passions of the old man, with the same sins, with the same sinful leprosy. He is great with God who sincerely, humbly, contritely acknowledges all his sins from the depths of his heart and confesses them boldly before everyone. How will I insult Saint Gregory, this thunderous trumpet of the Holy Spirit, how will I interrupt this golden chain of his prayer? How will I do this with other holy fathers who left us their prayers for guidance during public worship? How can I discredit their universal prayers, how can I upset their divinely inspired organs? I consider it a blessing to speak in their words. Every German, or English, or Catholic pastor, accepting this title, takes upon himself both the guilt of Martin Luther, who separated from the Universal Church, and the guilt of the Roman high priest, who fell away from the Eastern and Apostolic Church. Consider it a blessing to pronounce the names of the holy saints of God, who have pleased God in many different ways; say their names with a triumphant look. Until now, the enemy has constantly caught me at the bait of gluttony and deceived me with a poisonous addiction to food and drink and enmity against my brother because of food and drink - from now on, let this delusion cease. Yes, I neglect food and drink, and I despise the flesh itself. To him who seeks the Kingdom of God all things will be added [Matt. 6:33 ], just as the Lord had shown this before. Let me be careless about temporary blessings. We count our money and think to ourselves: soul! you have a lot of good things lying around for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry [Lk. 12, 19], - and we do not think of sharing them with the poor and needy or using them for the needs of the church and those serving in it. But look, rich man, and the voice of God will come to you; insane! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? [ OK. 12, 20]. The right hand of the Lord has not yet failed for you; let not yours fail in giving to the poor. Sometimes there is such weakness that your legs refuse to walk, your tongue refuses to speak, your insides tingle with needles - you think it’s from lean food or malnutrition. No, from the enemy. Conquer him with the grace of Christ, and you will be convinced. Are you thinking about starting fast food? Take your time - don't amuse the enemy. Do not pass up one jot from the liturgical prayers, lest you be condemned. Confused somewhere, faltered - calm down and repeat the same thing again. In prayer, the life of the new man and our heart, the old man, oppose each other. The Lord feeds you with His Flesh and Blood, which gives eternal life, and you feed Him in the person of the poor, household and guests with bread and salt, tea and sugar - His own good, and kind, affectionate treatment and soul-saving conversations. Break the connection with the prodigal flesh - evil, proud, disdainful, stingy, envious, impatient, luxurious, crafty, hypocritical, partial, cowardly, timid, sad, covetous and money-loving, gluttonous, drunkard, lazy, absent-minded, a thief, a gossip, a daring, a blasphemous, a polytheist, a man-pleaser, a perjurer, a perjurer, a despiser of the sacred, disrespectful, an opponent of everything holy and God-loving, a suicide, a harlot, a slanderer, etc. Let God do all things for you. I notice that during Lent, as well as during sacred services on Sundays and holidays, I am, willy-nilly, in a state of war: the demons of malice fight against me with all the demonic ferocity: here bullets, and grapeshots, and bombs constantly fly, hurt you and scorch you, and numerous arrows pierce you. Whoever loudly and heartily asks for something means that he really needs the thing he is asking for, and we should not be offended at him for this cry, but should feel sorry for him and satisfy him according to our strength. So, whoever strongly desires forgiveness of sins, victory over passions, loudly, with all zeal, asks the Lord for this, and receives what he asks for, and whoever does not sincerely desire this, prays only out of habit, coldly, sometimes unconsciously, and sometimes becomes numb in prayer, due to the action of a dumb spirit, which, seeing the hypocrisy of the one praying, interrupts him, darkening his heart and thoughts. When you say a prayer without stumbling, on behalf of everyone, then you will please God, and you will do yourself and those around you a great service, pacifying both yourself and their souls, and when you are afraid out of cowardice and lack of faith and doubt, then you will be displeasing to the Lord, and you will be a waste to people by not doing their souls good with a compassionate prayer, and you will cause grief and distress to yourself. I thank the Lord, who saved me now before the liturgy from cramped conditions, sorrow and cowardly fear and who enlightened His face on His servant. Out of demonic fear, I could not read the prayer behind the pulpit at the Presanctified Liturgy, and in front of the people I seemed to go crazy and my tongue changed. It is difficult for a priest to fight with all the spirits of malice creeping in all those who stand in the church more out of custom, habit and position, and not with the spirit of prayer. Oh, how hard it is! The heart leaves! Learn non-covetousness. He who takes pity on the poor is covetous; whoever gets irritated by giving to the poor has not acquired love. One should joyfully squander one's wealth on the poor. Oh, how evil I am, that because of an expensive and sweet piece I neglect the priceless creation of God - man, the priceless law of God, which is love - and, thinking of abstaining from fish during Lent, I do not refrain from anger, pride, envy, greed, covetousness, love of money, laziness, voluptuousness, idle talk, condemnation. God! I thank You for Your great mercy and speedy mercy, for You saved me from my evils, through the prayer of my repentance, and forgave me my sins, and gave me heavenly peace. Read your prayers as sincerely as you sing, and chant them. Speak slowly, word by word. Remember what dreamy fears demons instilled in the holy ascetics who lived in the deserts, what war they waged against them, and they were hard and motionless, like a rock. But even now the enemy is the same, and now he brings dreamy fears to the faithful servants of the Lord or those trying to be faithful. Through prayer and fasting let the evil one be repelled from our feet 23 . Every word in the prayers is useful and not a single word is superfluous. The iota is one... will not pass away [Matt. 5, 18]. But the devil can sneak in through the omission of even a single iota, like a simple spirit. During divine services, and at all times, try to have a broad view of holy worship and of the work of God’s economy of human salvation, and of the community of those saved by the grace of Christ, and of yourself as an instrument of Divine grace, Divine mercy for sinners. Do not be surprised that your temptations and sorrows are great, for the work you are doing is great: it destroys the works of the devil, you plunder the vessels of the enemy, you snatch your favorite prey from his mouth. This is true. That is why he constantly opposes you, at home, in church, at school, and everywhere. But remember: life is endless, bliss is endless, the blessings for which you fight, struggle, suffer wounds, sorrows, and misfortunes are indescribable. True Christians are always warriors, fighting the spirits of evil in high places. In the first centuries they fought against idolatry and wickedness and valiantly endured various torments, then they fought against heretics and iconoclasts, and in addition, at that time and another, against internal enemies - with their passions, as well as with worldly addictions, coldness towards faith and the Church, luxury, covetousness, etc. Nowadays, true Christians are at war with the spirit of unbelief, indifferentism, or indifference in faith, against coldness and negligence about the one thing needed, against worldly passions, against idleness, frivolity and absent-mindedness, against luxury in clothing and housing, as well as in food and drink, against covetousness, voluptuousness, free-thinking, hard-heartedness towards the poor and needy; against pride and ambition, arrogance, irritability, envy, false shame, false fear and fear and doubt in the profession of faith and in prayer; against despondency, frivolity, impatience, partiality, hypocrisy, bribery, deification, deception in trade, perjury - against all-round indulgence of the flesh. Now the enemy relaxes and captivates us with our very world, plunging us into spiritual slumber and sleep, lulling us with many different worldly pleasures. Have eyes to see, that he may see, and ears to hear, that he may hear [Matt. 13, 9]. Tune (Church Glav.) - for free. Tochiyu (Church Glav.) – only. First (Church Glorious) - before everyone else. Punisher (Church Slavic) – teacher (punishment – ​​lesson, admonition). Zealot (Church Glav.) – caring for me (jealous – care, try). Antiphon for Matins, tone 4. Egozhe (Church Slav.) – whom. Troparion to the Image Not Made by Hands. Oud (Church Slavic) – a member of the body. Uranography - description of the sky. Ever (Church Glorious) - always, unceasingly. 3le (Church Glav.) – bad, crafty. Petitions at the litany of petition. Zizhditel (Church Slav.) – creator, creator. I will create it (cf.: a certain man... planted grapes, and protected it with a stronghold... and created a pillar [Russian: tower]... and departed). To look - to plow as a rogue. “Motley Week” is popularly called Meat Week. Konstantin Nikolaevich (1827 - 1892), Grand Duke, second son of Emperor Nicholas I, brother of Emperor Alexander 2. Canon of prayer to the Guardian Angel, hymn 6, troparion for And now. Heavy-hearted (Church Slavic) – rough-hearted, bitter. Gregory Palamas (c. 1296 - 1357), saint, archbishop of Thessaloniki, father and teacher of the Church. The main thing in the theological heritage of the saint is his teaching about the Divine essence and Divine energies. The Lord fasted for forty days in the desert, and then hung, showing humanity; soul, do not give up, if an enemy comes to you, but let it be reflected from your feet through prayer and fasting. Canon of St. Andrew of Crete on Monday of the First Week of Great Lent. Song 9. You might be interested in: