Август

August 13, 1868 How merciful and merciful is the Lord! I prayed to Him wholeheartedly with faith and strong hope, that He would send down rain to the earth, that He might extinguish the fire of the forests and dispel the darkness of the smoke, I prayed relentlessly, several times, to fulfill my prayer for the sake of His beloved Lord our Lord Jesus Christ - and the Lord fulfilled the request of my heart: on the 13th, during mass, the sky was covered with clouds of rain, the smoke that had stood for a month in a row disappeared, and it began to rain. Glory to Your mercy, Lord! Glory to Your obedience, O Lord; glory to faith and trust in You, for through faith and hope we can receive everything from Your goodness. I thank You, for You have vouchsafed me to perform the Divine Liturgy without stumbling and to partake of Your Divine and Life-giving Mysteries without condemnation, into the world of my spiritual powers. Glory to You, endless mercy, Lord Jesus! I visited Lieutenant Mikhail Vasilyevich and spent an hour or two with him. Smart and kind conversationalist. He spoke about the life of rural priests, about how sadly priests are appointed in many parishes, how little influence they can have on the people: about means of making priests influential; send priests to villages from the Academy or from Seminaries - the best, with good provision, as family people; impose quitrent on parishioners. They talked about the need for public education; there was also talk about monks and their way of life. Those who are ashamed of the priestly blessing and the sign of the cross. Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed... [Mk. 8, 38 ]; he did not want the blessing, and it will move away from him... [Ps 108:17]; I do not want to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world [Gal. 6, 14]. Come, ye blessed of My Father... [Matt. 25, 34 ]; Depart from Me, you cursed (who have rejected the blessing) [Matt. 25, 41]. It's not a blessing, it's an oath. If you don’t want a blessing, then should I give you an oath? Is empty ceremony and form the sign of the cross? Oh no: the power of God is for those who receive it with faith. Demons flee from those who sign the sign of the cross, but in those who do not sign they live as in their own homes. Proskomedia is an abbreviation, an overview of the entire liturgy, or a preparatory part of it. Parts of the saints are taken out from the middle - from the inscription: JESUS ​​CHRIST NICK, because they were written in the Lord and conquered sin by His grace. On August 14th, he performed the entire Matins cheerfully and spoke the names of the royal household cheerfully, boldly, and without stumbling; He also performed the liturgy cheerfully. Only during the celebration of the Holy Gifts, reading the prayer, Lord, Who is Your Most Holy Spirit, did I remember the old man - retired general Repin (father-in-law) - and for some reason I was confused in spirit, and could not calmly call on the Holy Spirit, and was very hurt in my heart. Oh, this servility to the nobles during the liturgy and during the service in general! How stupid it is! During mass, should we think about pleasing people? Isn't he flesh and blood? Not to have the slightest face in the church: consider everyone equal. Do not indulge in prosphora. On the eve of those great days or on those very days in which, according to the intention of the Church and the word of God, we should be especially exalted in spirit and heavenly, the devil uses all his efforts to humiliate, suppress, and confuse our spirit with some kind of everyday squabbles, enmity against our neighbor over the most empty things (over a piece of bread, sugar) or other passions. Christians! Pay attention to yourself: on the eve of the holidays, try especially to be sublime, heavenly, delve into the essence of the holiday, what its subject is, what it teaches you - what it directs your attention to, what purpose of life it indicates to you, etc. Otherwise, the enemy of your salvation will occupy your thoughts and heart with his earthly objects, will direct you towards his hellish goals, will in every possible way scatter your mind with worldly affairs. The holidays of the Church of Christ have a moral and educational significance, their goal is to teach us to live Evangelically, Christianly, to have a Christian way of thinking and disposition, so that all carnal lusts will be trampled, we will go through spiritual life, all to please the Lord both wisely and in action I thank the Lord, who has given me the grace to celebrate the all-night vigil in the Cathedral on the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God without hesitation, cheerfully, with strength and sincerity to the end. I thank the Lord that at the liturgy on this day I firmly read the travel prayer for the Tsar. Hitherto, to satisfy the greed of my flesh, I became upset and shouted at the beggars when they often approached me, and I was crazy for doing so. From now on, Lord, grant me to joyfully give what is required to the poor, if I can, and if I can’t, then not to be upset or irritated. What kind of malice, what kind of pride is mine! You don’t feel sorry for money - and a significant amount for a not very necessary thing (for example, a new cane), but a beggar feels sorry for a trifle, a few kopecks. I broke a cane and asked the turner Rakovsky to make a new one for 3 rubles, and I gladly sacrifice this money for my thing - and the beggar had to add more than 12 kopecks, maybe the same amount - and it was a pity, and he did not give it, although the beggar was waiting at the fence opposite the windows of my house; I was upset with him that he was standing - but how could he not stand and expect alms when he really needed them? Oh, self-love, self-love! You love buying books - good, but sometimes not really, because here too covetousness can manifest itself, or better yet, non-covetousness and almsgiving. Give alms to the poor - here are books for you, and even a sacred book, very useful, instructive. The flesh is the more infuriated by passions (for example, greed, stinginess, covetousness, fornication, irritability, malice, envy, disobedience, self-will, etc.) the more it is satiated; the more she fasts, vigils, and works, the more she is tamed. Therefore, fasting and prayer are necessary for a Christian. That you are a citizen of heaven and a member of the spiritual world, you demonstrate through prayer - through your conversation with God, the Mother of God, holy Angels, holy people, and participation in the Sacraments of faith. And it’s a sin for me that I irreverently, inattentively, hastily anointed with myrrh and holy oil; he depicted the sign of the cross inattentively and irreverently, without faith and love in the heart, on babies being prayed for, baptized, or going to church, also when blessing people, especially the poor; reluctantly, inattentively and irreverently pronounced the words of prayers, etc. What lofty thoughts came to me in the public church (in the Duma) at the all-night vigil on August 17 while censing and standing at the Gospel? How did I get a vivid picture of God’s goodness towards people? Divine services, Sacraments, material and temporary benefits. Consider yourself the first sinner in your house and outside it, unworthy of a piece of bread, and do not be upset with anyone but yourself. Humble yourself in every possible way. Remember that you live in a place deserved by the father of your wife and sister-in-law. You are their guest - they are at home. Food and drink consumed in excess of needs turn out to be rubbish and dung for the body, harmfully affecting the entire bodily organism and the soul itself; This causes severe itching in the body, nausea, and nervous irritability. You should eat especially little at night. A person who smokes tobacco, which does not bring him any benefit, but on the contrary, is harmful and does not at all correspond to his nature, acts worse than a dumb animal, which, guided by instinct or, more simply, by nature, uses only what satisfies him, what is useful to him, or does not know such excesses, such crazy, unnatural uses at all. But a man, according to the word of the prophet, weighs out his money for that which does not satisfy [Isa. 55, 2]. Look how various types of sin attract you - now to voluptuousness, greed, stinginess, impurity of fornication, now to malice, vengeance, rudeness, disobedience, envy, now to dissatisfaction with yourself and with people, despondency, melancholy, now to laziness and inaction. We must constantly fight against sin in its various forms. Let them laugh at you, resist you, when you are under the influence of any passion - do not be at all offended by those who laugh and resist, for they do you good; crucify your pride and recognize the wrongness and delusion of your heart. But bitterly regret those who laugh at the words and deeds of faith, piety, truth, those who oppose the good that you do and which you want to implant in others - but may God keep you from being embittered at them, for they are pitiful and worthy of tears. (Glory to Thee, my Savior God, who delivered me from the tyranny of passion through my prayer.) August 19, 1868 11 pm. We are blessed when we vividly recognize and feel in repentance our sinful abomination, and Your holiness, O Master Lord; your malice, and yours - goodness; my untruth, and Yours - the truth; your evil changeability, and Yours - all-good immutability; your powerlessness, and yours - strength; your madness, and your wisdom; its ignorance, and Yours is omniscience; your insignificance, and Yours is infinite greatness; your ephemerality, and Yours - beginninglessness! Lady Theotokos! We are blessed when we recognize and feel our sinfulness, and Your holiness; your malice, but Your goodness; my untruth, but Your truth; Your evil changeability, and Your all-good immutability; my powerlessness, but Your strength; your madness, but Your wisdom; your ignorance, but Your wisdom; your insignificance, but Your greatness. May we always be sincere and fair both regarding ourselves and regarding Your Most Pure Shrine. Why do we very quickly forget the insults of Satan and his angels, inflicted daily, and sometimes we don’t even suspect his insults, while we remember the insults of our neighbor for a long time? Because the devil works all evil in us secretly, under cover, and we often do not suspect him in ourselves, and if we know that he is evil, we become embittered at him only at that very time, and then, since he does not act on us, we, out of natural kindness, forget his insults. Lord, give me the grace not to be embittered even for a moment against the one created in Your image and likeness and not to defile myself forever with this hellish stench, just as not to commit fornication either with my eye, or my thought, or my imagination, or my word, or my deed. And my word and my preaching are not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power [1 Cor. 2, 4]. He did not... consult with flesh and blood... [Gal. 1, 16]. The prayer of believers should be a living conversation between their souls and the Lord God; To do this, they must understand the content of all church readings and hymns, as well as the essence, character and purpose of the entire divine service during which they are present. It is good for me in the church of my God: I pray and cry - and so easily, easily 66. It is good for me in church when I converse whole-heartedly with the one God and am entirely in Him, and He is in me. It is necessary that worship be experienced in the heart and turned into life. Compile the Sacred History of the Old Testament [adapted] to the needs of the present time (love of money, lust, lust for clothing, ambition, luxury, all sweets). The history of the New Testament and the Church are the same. Sin is a rapist - it constantly rapes the soul with various passions: now fornication, now with sexual lust, now with covetousness, now with envy, now with despondency and other passions - so you must constantly fight against sin. And how simply, strongly and quickly sin hurts! Just as a spark falling on a combustible substance immediately ignites it, so sin, like a spark, falling in a heart subject to corrupting passions, immediately ignites it with hellish flame. I thank You, Lord my God, for You surprised Your mercy on me, a sinner, and granted me to perform the Liturgy, this Angelic service on earth, with great power, without stumbling, and to partake of Your Divine Mysteries without condemnation. You heeded my prayer about this at home before mass. I thank Thee, for I am able to strengthen in the power of Thy strength [Gal. 6, 10]. August 25, 1868. Resurrection. How does a person differ from an animal? The fact that he is given reason, will, that he is given commandments or that he has a covenant with the Creator, that his soul is eternal: it will either live forever or suffer forever. In the church, in its structure and worship, paradise, and all the destinies of the human race, and bliss, and eternal destruction are depicted. Altar – paradise, or heaven and the Kingdom of glory; the church itself is the earth, or the Kingdom of grace; porch - peace. What do Vespers and Matins mean? What is liturgy? Foundations of worship in the Holy Scriptures, especially in the Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. God-wise and significant placement of icons in the church: in the iconostasis and on the royal, northern and southern gates. Remember the word of the Wise: reprove the wise, and he will love you; give instruction to a wise man, and he will be even wiser; teach the truthful, and he will increase knowledge... Do not reprove the blasphemer, lest he hate you [Prov. 9 G 8 – 9]. You are one of the latter. It's a shame. Your anger at your accusers and instructors means that you really didn’t do your job well and that, despite all this, you are still too proud and proud and do not tolerate instruction. He who reproaches the wicked is his own stain [Prov. 9, 7]. I thank You, Lord, for You have given me this consciousness. The duty of a Christian is to contemplate grief and have a heart, to despise earthly things, to love enemies. Whoever does this is blessed and close to the Kingdom of God. Fire, the fire of the heart, the Lord wants from us in prayer and throughout our life, that fire about which He said: I have come to bring down fire on the earth [Lk. 12, 49], the fire that descended on the apostles on the day of Pentecost [Acts. 2, 3], the fire that took the prophet Elijah to heaven [2 Kings. 2, 11]. But Satan tries in every possible way to extinguish this fire in those in whom it was kindled. How does he repay? - The sweets of life. So, whoever has this fire in him, guard it in every possible way, conversing with Christ in prayer of praise, thanksgiving and petition as often as possible and abstaining from indulgence and excess. Yesterday I drove away a beggar from me: damned, I drove away Christ Himself. Why are you persecuting Me? [Acts. 9, 4]. I repent, Lord, have mercy. The more our spirit is struck by sorrows, the more it is enlivened, for our spirit awakens from spiritual death through sorrows, deaths, so to speak. Many times at the point of death... We who are alive are continually given over to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh [2 Cor. 11, 23; 4, 11]. So, die your flesh, grieve your soul, so that you may rise into spiritual life. For me, conciliar service is sorrow, crowding, disappearance, illness. Terrible crowding from evil spirits! Just death! Everything feels like there are needles, or it’s like there are sharp needles piercing me all over. The officials of the reigning house could not pronounce everyone out of incomprehensible embarrassment. All who sincerely sought the blessing of God through the priest in this life and humbly accepted it will hear at the Last Judgment the longed-for voice: come, ye blessed of My Father... [Matt. 25, 34], and those who despised him will hear: Depart from Me, you cursed, into eternal fire [Matt. 25, 41]. For whoever does not desire blessing will be removed from him [Ps. 108, 17 ] and he will fall under a curse. After that, if you want, be proud, if you want, be humble. The connection between church history and the History of the Old and New Testaments. Practically teach it. Great and great is our sinful ulcer, for not only do we not recognize it, but we also take up arms against those who heal it, as if against our enemies, and we harbor enmity and hatred towards them. I thank You, O most merciful Lord, for the works of Your power, constantly invisibly performed in me, for the constant miracles of pardon, cleansing, sanctification, renewal, strengthening. Do not cease, Lord, to have mercy on Your creation. An evil person, instead of being corrected by conviction, invents justification for his sins, omissions, negligence, laziness, and thereby becomes more and more rigid in them. And he should immediately begin to improve his affairs. Lady, Refuge of all Christians, and You be a refuge, at least for some of the poor and unfortunate. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness [Matt. 5, 6]. Suppose that you are plagued by 67 nasty and blasphemous thoughts and you turn away from them with all your heart and want, hunger, so to speak, to praise the Most Immaculate 68 and rejoice, echoing Her praise - you are hungry and thirsty for truth. Suppose you are overcome by pride - and you, hating it, are hungry for humility, or anger - and you are hungry for goodness, or envy - and you are hungry for virtue, or stinginess - and you are hungry for generosity, or irritability - and you are hungry for meekness and gentleness, or impatience - and you are hungry for patience, or cowardice and fear - and you are thirsty generosity and courage, or despondency and despair - and you are looking for hope and joy, or laziness, relaxation, drowsiness in prayer - and you are hungry for work, composure and vigilance - you belong to the number of those who hunger and thirst for truth and will be satisfied with all these and similar virtues. ...Those who desire you because of the abundant grace of God upon you [2 Cor. 9, 14]. This is why people love the servants of God or the Orthodox people - for the sake of the grace of God resting on them: so be it; be the glory of God's grace. Sweets produce misfortunes. Potatoes cause severe cramping if you eat them immoderately. It is very harmful to scrofulous. It is better to give your last to the poor in hope of God, than to become embittered with them and push them in anger and rage, shout at them or beat them. We must deny ourselves for the sake of Christ, just as Christ, for the sake of our salvation, rejected His heavenly glory and exhausted Himself of everything, descending to the cross, death and burial. One must despise the enemy's fiery needles or flaming arrows. Our all-evil belly incites and arms us against our neighbors, the abolition of which, that is, destruction, was predicted long ago in the epistle of the holy Apostle Paul [1 Cor. 6, 13]. The whole war is about the womb. The devil, like sharp and fiery butts 69, excites and forces us to sin - to anger, pride, envy, greed, stinginess, love of money, love of clothing, lust, disobedience, laziness, impatience, despondency, lies, unbelief, aversion from holiness. We must endure this gore 70 generously and pray to God. When we sincerely pray to Him for deliverance from this goring, or stabbing, shooting, then the butts, or arrows, the fire, disappears, and the soul becomes peaceful, calm, spacious, joyful. In every bad deed or bad desire or thought, we must greatly regret that we become accomplices of the devil, his slaves and enemies of God. For you are the living church of God [2 Cor. 6, 16]. When studying church history, be or try to become churches of the living God - that’s why you go to church, that’s why you study church history. When you are in church, remember that you are in the living presence of the Lord God, standing before His face, before His eyes, in the living presence of the Mother of God, the holy Angels and the Church of the Firstborn [Heb. 12, 23], that is, all the saints: forefathers, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, saints and righteous ones and all saints. (Prayer Save Thy people, O God...) Always have this memory and feeling when you are in church, and stand with reverence, willingly and heartily participating in the divine service. Why do many, having well learned the science of worship, do not go to worship at all, or stand casually, talk, cross themselves and bow lazily, carelessly, and go out before the end of the service?.. Why do they neglect the priestly blessing? They abandoned me, the source of living waters, and hewed out broken cisterns for themselves that could not hold water [Mer. 2, 13] (theaters, novels, social songs, parties, cards). Imagine the spiritual benefits from visiting a holy church and from heartfelt prayer (purification, peace, sweetness, space of the heart, spiritual light). Whoever goes to church will avoid eternal torment if he diligently and wisely participates in the divine service. (Throne of the Judge.) Lord! Let not Your drachma perish, that is, my soul, created in Your image. A priest who knows well the spirit of his Lord and His New Testament must seek heavenly treasures, heavenly honors, not earthly ones, a heavenly light, and not be seduced by earthly splendor, which turns the eyes of the heart away from the imperishable light. Where is there no sin between people? There are sins everywhere: all of humanity is implicated in sin, both you and me. So, calmly and patiently endure deceit, malice, envy, condemnation, slander, ridicule from others, but avoid all sin yourself, fighting it to the death. Lord help me! A person who is subject to passions and displays them is worthy of pity, and not of bitterness and revenge. The episcopal and priestly rank is deification: they themselves are deified and through them faithful people are adored through the Sacraments, especially through communion. What respect is due to the priesthood! What power does the blessing of the priests have! Do not neglect the little things: neglecting the little things can result in a great fall or neglect of very important matters and loss of salvation. Thus, one who neglects the priestly blessing and home prayer becomes unaccustomed to public worship and neglects it. One who begins to drink wine or smoke tobacco, play cards little by little and infrequently, begins little by little to drink, smoke, play a lot and often; He who disobeys in small things becomes disobedient in many things. The Savior teaches this perfectly, saying: He who is faithful in a little is also faithful in much, but he who is unfaithful in a little is also unfaithful in much [Lk. 16, 10 ]; he who is lazy in little things is lazy in many things; a little proud person will imperceptibly become more proud if he does not recognize his sin in time and does not take care to correct himself; a little greedy and dainty will little by little become a glutton; he who envies little will envy much, or he who envies little will envy many and will envy everyone. A neglected spark often turns into a huge flame that destroys entire cities or forests. Every sin is a seed that grows and becomes a tree, just as virtue from a small, like a mustard seed, grows into a great tree. Flee everything that removes the soul and thoughts of the heart from God, outrages, worries, darkens and chains to the earth, inclining the mind and heart to further deliberation. We are related to God, the Queen of Heaven, the Angels and all the saints. You are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone [Eph. 2, 19 – 20]. How a Christian should behave! I am the instrument of the Church, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth [1 Tim. 3, 15], and he himself must be a pillar, a stronghold of truth in word and deed. Divine service inspires respect for clergy and sacred service, to be sanctified by it and bring it into life, that is, to correct the heart, to be imbued with it in all matters. Inspires that God sits on the throne and listens and constantly looks at hearts and judges. The purpose of the liturgy is that we may understand the love of Christ that surpasses reason and may partake of His holiness, that we may be intimate and intimate with Him, of His flesh and of His bones [Eph. 5, 30]. The Church, otherwise the Christian race, is the flock of Christ, His inheritance. Shepherds! How high is your rank! How great are your responsibilities! The element of fish is water; the element of Angels - the Light of the Trinity Divinity, unceasing praise; The element of a Christian is prayer, public worship, contemplation of God, reading the word of God. What is the relationship between theater and Church? – As between lies and truth, as between darkness and light, as between the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God. Theater is a service to the adulterous and sinful world and the most evil one, inspiring to love the world and even in the world, contrary to the Gospel, which says: Do not love the world f neither [Russian: nor that] in the world [1 John. 2 G 15]. Divine service awakens, warms and nourishes faith, Christian hope and love. Without it, they would freeze and go out. The altar is heaven, the church is earth, the porch is the underworld. The Mountain of the Lord is an altar. As members of the Church, you come into the Church, into the company of saints; The militant Church unites with the triumphant Church. Let every day be a step of ascent to heaven, and let your whole life be a ladder to heaven. Every day we call on the Heavenly Father and ask Him for various spiritual and material benefits in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, as those who think about the Heavenly Father and the Heavenly Fatherland and have filial feelings towards Him, as those who care about holiness, about the Kingdom of God in their hearts, about the fulfillment of His will, as those who hope from Him to receive everything necessary for life, as those who thirst for forgiveness of sins and want to forgive offenses themselves and not be vindictive, as those who move away from temptations and sins and hate the evil one and his wickedness - is all this really so? Do we really want all this sincerely? Do we really want to become what the Lord’s Prayer or, better yet, the Lord Himself wants to make us? Everyone trust himself and find out if he is praying sincerely? And if not sincerely, then what should he expect for a hypocritical prayer? And Your blessing is upon Your people [Ps. 3, 9]. There is no blessing for those who reject the priestly blessing. Constantly delve into the mystery of the Cross. Let everyone who confesses the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness [2 Tim. 2, 19]. Who is this being said to? The incorruptible spirit (sinless) makes the body (the relics of saints) incorruptible. Be zealous for incorruption. Corruption is a sin, the seed of aphids. Prayer at home and in public, sacredly observed, brings life, order and health to all our members: peace, silence, light, prosperity, strength into our soul; meekness, humility, kindness, purity, justice in our relations with our neighbors; correctness, energy in the performance of our public duties. There are countless benefits from sincere and constant prayer. How can one not pray after this? Will he receive heavenly joy (will he be rewarded) who pursues earthly amusements? I thank You, the Most Merciful Lord my God, who gave me the gift of tender prayer with tears during the all-night vigil on the day of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky; I thank You, for You have granted me to peacefully and without stumbling the Divine Liturgy at the congregation on the day of the holy noble prince on August 30 and to partake of the Divine Mysteries without condemnation and to stand peacefully during the prayer service 71 . I thank You for You consoled me and gave me peace when I, sad and troubled in my heart, was returning from the school housekeeper Alexander Pavlovich, having something against the director and father Pavel Lamanov for their insults, as it seemed to me. As soon as I said in my heart: who can harm me when the Lord is with me, when He is my protector, I suddenly felt at ease and completely at peace, and I immediately thanked the Lord in my soul for giving me right thoughts and feelings and for peace of mind. August 30. Evening. I confess the mercy shown to me by my God: firstly, through my prayer He granted me the gift of a loud marriage; from his cowardice and deceitfulness of his heart, he only stumbled four times - in words, the servant of God Thekla became engaged, etc., embarrassed by her breasts being too exposed, and then in words of blessing: may he fill you with goodness among all who are on earth, etc.; then in words: give to those who come together for the communion of marriage, and in words: even if you have favored to marry each other... I thank the Lord, who through my prayer took away the wickedness of my heart and gave within me the gracious, life-giving stream of grace of the Holy Spirit. I said to the Lord inside: Lord! Behold, my wickedness carries me away like a river: take away my wickedness from me. We were talking about the arrangement of sister Anna Konstantinovna and her trip to Chisinau. After the mercy of the Lord, which took away my guile and my insincerity, my gloating, I fervently prayed to the Lord on my knees for its arrangement, so that He Himself, the all-good and Self-Good, Father of generosity, would improve the fate of His servants Gregory and Anna. I thank my Lord that He saved me even at the Strelnikovs! O my Savior! Everywhere, everywhere You save me, everywhere you have mercy on me, everywhere you do good to me, everywhere you show Your powers on me, a corrupt, accursed sinner. I glorify Your grace, Your mercy, Your mercies. Your power is made perfect in weakness [2 Cor. 12, 9]. Today there are many birthday people: I mentally lift the curtains in the houses of the birthday people and what I see: a card game, idle talk, eating and drinking, and that’s all. Who knows the life of their saint? Who cares to imitate him and reach the heavenly fatherland like him? Absolutely no one. Strelnikov talked about the younger generation that they don’t go to church, don’t pray to God at home, don’t know or observe holidays, don’t honor their parents, are bored at home and don’t stay at home, and neglect kinship. Lord, Knower of the Heart, I thank You for the gift of prayer, given to me through my prayer during the all-night service on Sunday, September 1st. Christ, the true Light, did not pronounce it to the end, but to the words: let it be signified, although he repeated the prayer twice from the beginning. The enemy is causing mischief; however, by the grace of the Lord he will not have time. O holy church! How good and sweet it is to pray in you! For where is fiery prayer, if not within your walls, before your throne and before the Face of Him who sits on it? Truly, the soul melts from the tenderness of prayer and tears flow down the cheeks like water. It is sweet to pray for everyone. Brethren! Many of you do not pray: how not to pray, I am perplexed, having such a merciful and quick-to-obey Master, who easily bends to our mercy? That is why many of you are in the shameful captivity of passions: fornication, drunkenness, lust, love of money, unbelief - and they perish! Meanwhile, those who pray ascend from strength to strength, from love to love, from faith to faith. You, teachers of external sciences, deal with the elements of this world or with the elements of the word, and we, teachers of faith and the law of God, deal with heavenly life, with the Hypostatic Wisdom Itself and guide us to eternal life through the commandments of God. I thank you, Lord, for the unfaltering performance of the liturgy (except for the prayer for those traveling, everything was fine), and for the gift of strength to speak to all the faces of the reigning house at the great entrance, and for the gift of the word to be spoken during the liturgy. At the beginning of the liturgy there was a strong attack from the enemy. And this is the great mercy of God from the communion of the Life-giving Mysteries, that upon their worthy acceptance all people submit to me, respect me, the very enemies of wolves become lambs - this is a Divine gift! And I myself am humbled! Oh, God's gift! If the Creator determined to create man in His image and likeness, then He had to create him free (because freedom is a property of God), and every person, as the image of God, must do the will of God, His will, otherwise he will not be the image of God; and the first people had to receive some commandment from God, as beings with free will, in order to show the experience of freely fulfilling the will of God and gradually exercise themselves in fulfilling it to strengthen freedom in goodness and free obedience to the Creator. During the service week, I hardly need to eat at home at all, but am content with the Holy Mysteries alone, and I have very little need for ordinary food and drink. When I eat too much at night, I feel woe. When you see or hear someone’s misfortune, for example, a fire, illness or death, see if you have sly gloating in your heart, if you say internally: that’s what he or they (the victims) needed - they were proud, unfair, evil, and the like. This is your anger. Consider someone else’s misfortune, someone else’s misfortune, as your own and force yourself to sincerely sympathize with the misfortune of your neighbor, and are you yourself pure of passions that you so categorically condemn others to God’s punishment, while shielding yourself? Shouldn't you have been punished first? Do you love the truth and willingly suffer for it? Do you not persecute or hate those who tell you the truth, expose your sins, reprimand you for your omissions and present your official work as unsatisfactory? I thank the Lord, who has strengthened me this day to perform the Liturgy alone, cheerfully, loudly, without stumbling. The entire cathedral was present at the funeral of Vasily Pavlovich Kamnykov (September 3). My classes started today. Started off well. I visited the inspector. Very kindly received. You are looking to wear the cross with the crucifixion of the Lord on your toes! Is it not for brilliance, is it not for vain glory that you seek this? Have you become a disciple of the Crucified One in meekness, humility, kindness, poverty for the sake of God and others, in patience? Have you learned to lay down your life for your neighbors: do you thirst for their salvation, as the Lord Jesus Christ thirsted? Do you crucify your flesh with passions and lusts? Are you wise, the one above? Do you despise the earthly, earthly splendor, earthly glory, earthly treasures, earthly space and the delight of the senses? Why are you cowardly about your business and are afraid of your comrades, who are making intrigues and obstacles for you? Am I not the Lord of all the earth and those who live on it? Isn’t everything that happens in My power? Have peace in Me and do the works of your calling. I care about you. Throw away dreamy passions: I cannot be in a passionate, vain heart. I love to be in those whose heart is completely devoted to Me, loves Me alone and in Me finds every treasure, all glory, beauty, bliss, despising the glory of the earth, the treasures of the world, in whose heart this world does not live, but only I live. O Lord, give me Yourself instead of all earthly blessings, for You are the true, simple, perfect eternal good, yet earthly blessings are deceptive, perishable, are rude and do not satiate the immortal spirit. The Divine Liturgy is the Divine Mystery - the union of humanity with the Divine in the Most Pure Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of Christ, the marriage of the Royal Son with faithful souls. I hurried today (September 5th) at the liturgy and at the prayer service in order to be in time for the gymnasium earlier, and I harmed the cause and disgraced myself: I did not reprimand the persons of the reigning house because of the spirit of haste and aspiration, and at the prayer service I could not finish reading the Gospel and lost my peace of mind: I slandered the deacon unintentionally instead of not telling him anything and enduring for the sake of God. Henceforth, science - do not rush during worship. I also harmed myself because I did not have the proper spirit in the class - I was cramped and embarrassed and harmed the teaching of the Law of God. I sinned. Irresponsible. The maiden Ekaterina Lebedeva (daughter of Marya [Arsenyeva]) recovered from a serious and prolonged illness by the grace of the Holy Mysteries; the girl in the house of Arkhip Kuzmich or Feona - too. I thank You, Lord my God, for you have taken away my cowardice, which stems from my passions, and have granted Your peace with spiritual freedom. The abyss of mercy, glory to Thee! It’s like a burden will roll off the soul, Doubt is far away - And you believe it, and you cry, And it’s so easy, easy!!! (M.Yu. Lermontov, poem “Prayer”, 1839). They are cold (Church Slavic) - they bother, annoy. According to property (church glory) - according to dignity, worthily. Bodets - a point, a thorn, a thorn. Premiramous (Church Glav.) – located above the earthly world, heavenly. You might be interested in: