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Taught by the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, we believe and confess that Divine grace acts both before and now in the Orthodox Church, despite the fact that it finds few vessels worthy of it. She overshadows those ascetics of God whom she is pleased to overshadow. Those who claim that it is now impossible for a Christian to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit contradict Holy Scripture and cause the greatest harm to their souls, as St. Macarius the Great beautifully argues about this 16 . They, not assuming any particularly high goal in Christianity, not knowing about it, do not try, do not even think at all about achieving it, being content with the outward fulfillment of some virtues, they deprive themselves of Christian perfection. What’s worse is that, being satisfied with their condition and recognizing themselves, because of their outward behavior, as having ascended to the heights of spiritual life, they not only cannot have humility, spiritual poverty and heartfelt contrition, but also fall into conceit, into exaltation, into self-delusion, into delusion, and no longer care at all about true success. On the contrary, those who believe in the existence of Christian perfection strive towards it with all diligence, embarking on a relentless feat to achieve it. The concept of Christian perfection protects them from pride: in bewilderment and crying they stand in prayer before the imprisoned entrance to this spiritual palace. Introduced by the Gospel into correct self-view, they humbly and humbly think about themselves: they recognize themselves as indecent slaves, who have not fulfilled the purpose acquired and destined by the Redeemer for the people He redeemed. Rejection of living according to the commandments of the Gospel and according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers - living without permission, based on one’s own thinking, even if it is very active or very plausible - has the most harmful influence on the correct understanding of Christianity, even on dogmatic faith (see 1 Tim. 1:19). This is proven with all clarity by the nature of those absurd errors and that depravity into which all the apostates, all the heretics and schismatics rushed. At the same time, again based on the Divine Scripture and the writings of the fathers, we affirm that the mind and heart, not cleansed of passions by repentance, are not capable of becoming partakers of Divine grace - we affirm that those who compose for themselves gracious visions and gracious sensations, flatter themselves with them and deceive themselves, fall into self-delusion and demonic delusion. While we undoubtedly believe in the existence of grace-filled action, we must just as undoubtedly believe in the unworthiness and inability of man in his passionate state to accept God’s grace. Because of this strong conviction, let us immerse ourselves completely, disinterestedly in the work of repentance, betraying and completely surrendering ourselves to the will and goodness of God. Let us pay ourselves in due time, wash, cleanse with tears and confession our sins, recorded in the books of the World Ruler. We acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit - this seal, this sign of election and salvation, it is necessary for free movement through the air and for gaining entry into heavenly gates and abodes. All earthly blessings and advantages leave a person, remain on earth, when a person, according to the inevitable and inexorable law of death, leaves the earth and moves irrevocably into eternity. Divine grace will follow a different rule: it accompanies those who acquire it here into the afterlife. As soon as a person throws off his body like shackles, grace, as if previously constrained by the flesh, develops extensively and majesticly. It serves as a pledge and testimony for God’s chosen one. When he appears at the court that awaits every person after his death, and presents his testimony and his pledge, then in accordance with them, as a logical consequence of them, spiritual, eternal, ineffable and unlimited riches, splendor, and pleasure are provided to him in heaven. “In the age to come he will inherit eternal life” (Mk. 10:30; Matt. 19:29), said the Lord, a life so abundant and graceful that the carnal man, basing his judgments about the unknown on concepts about the known, cannot form any concept about it through his own judgment. Let us direct all our strength in time and in good time to our God, so that we may become assimilated to Him forever and in assimilation to Him we may find our salvation and bliss in time and in eternity. With such a life, when it is constant and thereby proves our loyalty to God, Divine grace overshadows us, strengthens our wavering feat, changes and regenerates it, grants us a new, strong, spiritual, heavenly feat - with this feat it leads us into quick and abundant prosperity. And during his own feat - and a person’s own feat, grace contributes, but without revealing itself - the servant of God, although he still struggles with passions, already partakes worthily of the Body and Blood of Christ, when he partakes of them in contrition of spirit and in the full consciousness of his unworthiness. The Body and Blood of Christ contribute to his feat, the feat of martyrdom: they cleanse and punish him according to their merciful Divine judgment, burning and destroying in him those filth that he cannot see or destroy on his own. After the ascetic is overshadowed by the grace of the Body and Blood of Christ, they revive him, awaken in him new, hitherto completely unknown to him, spiritual, higher understandings and sensations, reveal the Divine Mysteries, fulfill the actions of the Holy Spirit, bring humility, incomparable in its depth and in the wonderful calm it produces with the humility brought by suffering under the yoke of passions and fallen spirits. Word 3. Ch. 12, 13 and 14. You might be interested in: