Завещание

To my children: Anna, Vasily and Kirill and Olechka - in case of my death 1. I ask you, my dears, when you bury me, to partake of the Holy Mysteries on this very day, and if it is absolutely impossible, then in the coming days. And in general, I ask you to join more often soon after my death. 2. Do not be sad for me and do not grieve if possible. If you are joyful and cheerful, then this will bring me peace. I will always be with you in spirit, and if the Lord allows, I will often come to you and look at you. But trust in the Lord and His Most Pure Mother and do not be sad. 3. The most important thing I ask of you is that you remember the Lord and walk before Him. With this I say everything I have to say. The rest is either details or secondary. But never forget this. 4. Do not forget your family, your past, study your grandfathers and great-grandfathers, work to consolidate their memory. Try to write down everything you can about the past of the clan, family, home, furnishings, things, books, etc. Try to collect portraits, autographs, letters, printed and handwritten essays of all those who were related to the family, clan, acquaintances, relatives, friends. Let the entire history of the family be enshrined in your home and let everything around you be saturated with memories, so that nothing is dead, material, inspiritual. 5. Do not sell houses, libraries, or things unless absolutely necessary. Most importantly, I would like the house to remain in our family for a long time, so that under the wing of St. Sergius you, and your children, and grandchildren will have strength and firm support for a long, long time. 1917.07.06. Sergiev Posad 6. My conviction is that our family should have primates at the Throne of God. My feeling is that thousands of God’s admonitions and thousands of hostile eyes in wait direct our race towards one Goal - not to change our appointed standing at the altar of the Lord. Refusal of this standing, the flight of the altar will lead to heavy doom over our home. It seems to me that the difficult things that our family has experienced, starting with our grandfather, are a consequence of deviation from the altar of the Lord. Let there be at least one priest in every generation, preferably like me, i.e. a priest for himself, a priest for the sake of God's service, who has something special as a craft! Think about this, my sons! 7. I think that the tasks of our kind are not practical, not administrative, but contemplative, mental, organizational in the field of spiritual life, in the field of culture and education. Try to think deeply about these tasks of our kind and, without shying away from directly following them, if possible, firmly adhere to the activity inherent in us. 8. Don't look for power, wealth, influence... All this is not typical for us; in a small proportion it will come on its own, to the extent necessary. Otherwise, your life will become boring and painful. 1919.VI.26. Sergiev Posad, st. Art. 9 . My dear children. This time of revolution was as difficult as one could imagine; it was – and is, and God knows how long it will last. Epidemic diseases, hunger, incredible high costs, lack of rights, the possibility of any kind of violence - everything that one could imagine that was difficult was not absent around us. But the Mercy of God, the Protection of the Most Pure Virgin and the Help of St. Sergius, as well as the prayers of Hieromonk Isidore 1 and Bishop Anthony, 2 and perhaps Archimandrite Pimen, did not leave us, and by a great miracle we did not suffer shortages, although according to human understanding we should have died a thousand times from hunger, cold and disease, and also endure all types of violence. My dear children. The Lord protected us, we were not left without His Protection. Never forget, I ask you and bequeath to you, this time of your childhood and always turn for help to the Lord, the Mother of God, the saint of God Sergius, and also Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Seraphim and your Angels. Address with an ardent request and plea for help to the friends and patrons of our house, Hieromonk Isidore and Bishop Anthony and Archimandrite Pimen. Don’t forget this, remember, through many experiences I have been convinced, we have been convinced of the effectiveness of prayers and requests to them. And I will say again, do not forget them, my dears, turn to them with every need, remember that in their person you have home patrons who knew us, and loved us, and took care of us during their lives. 10. My dears, during this difficult time, friends and acquaintances helped us a lot, and without their help we would not have survived. Many showed kindness and attention that we did not deserve. And you, my dear ones, always be kind and attentive to people in life. There is no need to give away, scatter property, affection, advice, there is no need for charity. But try to listen sensitively and be able to come in time with real help to those whom God will send to you as those in need of help. Be kind and generous. When you yourself feel bad, then call on God, turn to the holy saints - to Nicholas the Wonderworker, to the Monks Sergius and Seraphim, turn to the patrons of our home, about whom I have already told you. Believe me, my dears, that I speak from much experience - they will not leave you without help. Many, many times I was convinced of the reality of prayers to them and was never unheard when I asked for them. And so, my relatives, my dear ones, never forget to pray and turn to heavenly patrons for help. Of the friends who helped us, I will especially name: Natalia Aleksandrovna Kiseleva, Sofia Sergeevna Tuchkova, Sofia Ivanovna Ogneva 3, some of my students at the Academy. 11. My dears, the sin that would be especially hard for me to see in you is envy. Don't envy anyone, my dears. Don't envy, it crushes the spirit and vulgarizes it. If you really want to have something, then get it and ask God to give you what you want. But don't be jealous. Mental philistinism, pettiness, impudent gossip, anger, intrigue - all this comes from envy. Don’t be jealous, comfort me, and I will be with you, and as much as I can, I will pray to the Lord to help you. And one more thing - don’t condemn, don’t judge your elders, don’t over-judge, try to cover up sin and not notice it. Say to yourself: “Who am I to judge, and do I know the inner motives to condemn?” Condemnation is born mostly out of envy and is an abomination. Give everyone due respect, do not curry favor, do not humiliate yourself, but also do not judge matters that have not been entrusted to you by God. Look at your own work, try to make it the best possible, and do everything you do not for others, but for yourself, for your soul, trying to derive benefit from everything, edification, nourishment of the soul, so that not a single minute of your life flows past you without meaning and content. Moscow. 1921.III. 19–20. Night at V.I. Liseva. 12. My dear children, my heart yearns for you. When you grow up, you will learn how a father's and mother's heart yearns for children. And it yearns for my poor mother, who sits alone and does not have the strength to approach internally. I want to write to you a lot. Strings of thoughts and feelings come, but there is neither time nor energy to write them down. Here is one thing that especially urgently asks for recording: Get used to it, accustom yourself to do everything, no matter what you do, clearly, with grace, distinctly; Don’t blur your activities, don’t do anything tastelessly, haphazardly. Remember, in “somehow” you can lose your whole life, and on the contrary, in the distinct, rhythmic doing of even things and deeds that are not of the first importance, you can discover a lot for yourself that will later serve you as the deepest, perhaps a source of new creativity. For some reason, in this regard, I am calm for Olechka and partly for Kira, and most of all I am afraid that my firstborn Vasenka will make a mistake and will live carelessly. God grant that this is not so. But I’m afraid that Vasya will take after his uncle Shura. He who does it somehow, learns to speak somehow, and a sloppy word, smeared, not minted, involves thought in this vagueness. My dear children, do not allow yourself to think carelessly. Thought is God's gift and requires self-care. Being clear and accountable in your thoughts is the key to spiritual freedom and joy of thought. I have long wanted to write down: look at the stars more often. When you feel bad, look at the stars or blue sky during the day. When you are sad, when you are offended, when something doesn’t work out, when a mental storm comes upon you, go out into the air and be alone with the sky. Then the soul will calm down. 1923.III.19 s.s. Before leaving for Moscow. My dear child Mick, you keep getting sick, without ever emerging from illness and suffering. Don't blame your mother, my dear; she suffered and suffers more than you - your time torments you. May the Protection of the Mother of God be above you forever, my clear angel! Know that we love you with all our souls and cry over you, my dear son. Live for the joy of yourself and everyone. God bless you, child. Florensky met the elder of the Gethsemane monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Hieromonk Isidore (Gruzinsky), in 1904, and was cared for by him while studying at the MDA. He died on February 4 (17th Art.), 1908. The essay “The Salt of the Earth” is dedicated to him (see: Priest Pavel Florensky. Works in 4 volumes. T. 1. pp. 571–637). Bishop Anthony (Florensov) (1847–1918) – confessor to P.A. Florensky in 1904–1918, blessed him for family life. Natalia Alexandrovna Kiseleva is the abbess of the Red Cross Sisters of Charity Shelter. Father Paul was a priest in the home church of the Shelter in the name of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. Tuchkova Sofya Sergeevna is a sister of mercy of the Red Cross in Sergiev Posad. Emigrated to Czechoslovakia in 1934. Ogneva (Kireevskaya) Sofia Ivanovna (1846–1940) - wife of Moscow University professor, histologist Ivan Florovich Ognev. I recorded a number of his works from Pavel Alexandrovich’s dictation, including “Iconostasis” and “To My Children.” You might be interested in: