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I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ my God, that You, my all-powerful help, delivered me completely from the abominations of the hellish serpent and the spirit of despondency during two classes, the first and fifth, through my communion with Your Holy Divine and life-giving Mysteries. True, there was a struggle, but this struggle with vile forces was crowned with success. Thank You, Lord, for Your salvation. Strengthen me, my God! Let my teaching be a continuous miracle of Your mercies towards me, unworthy. God! Do not deprive me of Your boldness, Your dignity, before Your people and Your servants. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him [Jn. 6:56], that is, just as Jesus Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him, and they are one. I and the Father are one [Jn. 10, 30]. The union of true Christians with Christ is proven, among other things, by their incorruptible and miraculous relics: God, who works miracles, rests in the relics of the saints. Just as in the Body and Blood of the Savior, transformed from bread and wine, the whole Christ abides, penetrating every particle of bread and wine inseparably and completely, so in the soul and body of God’s holy men and true partakers of the Most Pure Body and Blood of the Savior. The participant is completely adored, completely becomes Divine, fiery, light, all light, power. But whoever eats and drinks unworthily, for example a glutton who is satiated, eats and drinks condemnation for himself (1 Cor. 11:29). As in a drop of water, as in a shard of glass the whole sun shines, so in the communicant is Christ; just as a coal in a flame is completely imbued with fire and light, so the soul of a true participant is filled with Christ, the Sun of Truth, the Divine fire. A great thing is the communion of the Holy Mysteries. But who receives them worthily? Who is simple, kind and pure in heart? Who is not addicted to food, drink, money? Who is patient and non-irritable? He is the head of the body of the Church [Col. 1, 18]. You form part of this Church, whose Head is Christ. What is your nobility, rank, what are your hopes for the future and how should you behave in the present in order to support and preserve this nobility and become an heir of the promises that are given to the members of the body of Christ! Also: the noblest members of the body, immaculate, cleansed from sin, are the saints of the Heavenly Church and, firstly, the highest of all creation, the Lady Theotokos, then the Forerunner, all the prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs, reverends and all the saints. – What kind of community are you in as a member of the body of Christ and how zealous should you be to imitate them, so that otherwise, for imitating the ungodly people of this age and the spirit of this age, you will not be cast out from this society as a stinking dog! This is the duty that the concept of the Church as the body of Christ, of which we are members, imposes on us. All prayers and sacred rites must be performed with understanding, or awareness of their meaning and importance, and with feeling. We must do everything heartily, willingly, before the eyes of God, for we work for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Everything you do, says the Apostle, do it from the heart, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that as a reward from the Lord you will receive an inheritance (that is, the Kingdom of Heaven), for you serve the Lord Christ (Col. 3:23-24). This is what he says to the slaves, instructing them to obey their masters according to the flesh. How high, in comparison with the ministry of slaves, is the ministry of the New Testament priests, servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1)! Do they not work for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the person of the members of His body, which is the Church? And with what complacency and joy they should perform all their services, remembering Whom they serve! Oh, high duty, oh, high honor! The creature is honored to serve the Creator, the creature - the Creator! God! Give us the strength to always serve You with readiness and desire! God! You see our weaknesses, our unpreparedness, our impatience, our anger, our irritability, our guile, our hypocrisy! God! Make us worthy servants of Your New Testament, ministers of Your holy Sacraments! When you see the poor according to the flesh, you must remember the poverty of your soul, that is, your sinfulness, and deeply humble yourself before the Lord, who tests hearts and wombs. God! Have mercy on me, who have become poor in will, and enrich me with virtues. From His flesh and from His bones we are, that is, His Church [Eph. 5, 30]. Adam, after bringing to him the woman created by God from the rib of his wife, said: Behold, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh [Gen. 2, 23], - and with these words he predicted the union of Christ with His Church. Anyone who is greedy for food and drink shows by this that he is bound by worldly aspirations and does not highly value the promised heavenly blessings, for one cannot serve two masters. Remember Esau, who sold his birthright to his brother for stew. Accept everyone as your own father, your own mother, your own brother, your own sister, with genuine affection, for we are all brothers in Christ - closer than siblings. Love the brotherhood (1 Pet. 2:17). Consider sweets, all food and drink as rubbish, and do not ruin them because they are deprived of love. Look: you are a person spoiled by sweets: they have weakened your heart, made it hypocritical, prodigal, cold towards God and neighbor, they bind you in public prayer and in class. Despise them as pleasant but heavy fetters, as a barrier between God and you, between you and your neighbor. And everything that poses an obstacle to love for your neighbor, overthrow and willingly sacrifice to him. Have constant enmity with yourself, remembering the words of Scripture: every man is a lie [Ps. 115, 2]. Man is like vanity [Ps. 143, 4]. If we notice that someone does not love us, is not disposed towards us, or despises us, laughs at us, then we usually feel dislike towards him, even dislike, contempt, bitterness; but this is completely contrary to the teachings of the Savior; We must certainly show love to such people, as those who are more in need of it: our love for them can heal their enmity and transform it into love - on the contrary, our dislike for them will only strengthen their enmity towards us. That is why the Divine Savior and Renewer of our corrupted nature says: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who oppress you and persecute you [Matt. 5, 44]. Someone didn’t honor you, laughed at you or cursed you - put it in nothing and instead of being bitter, show him love and prove that this means nothing to you, that he offends himself, not you, that you pity him because he harms his own soul. The martyrs voluntarily gave up their bodies to be cut, but we do not want to voluntarily part with not only our bodies, but with our sweets, with our delicacies, with our drunkenness, with our love of money, with our games, we do not want to part with our stinginess and, when our neighbors take our things, our sweets, we become embittered at them, while the martyrs were not embittered at their tormentors, at their crucifiers, against their murderers and prayed for them. Oh, we are of little faith! Oh, we are sensualists! Carnivores! Pray for those who offend you and do not give free rein to your heart to be offended by them. How long shall we remain willful? How long shall we not put off the old man? What has blinded our heart's eyes? What made us cold towards the Lord God, cold and proud, contemptuous, indifferent to our neighbors? What makes us hypocritical, evil, irritable, vile adulterers in our hearts? - Gluttony, greed for food and drink, sweets. It's been tested. Instead of the Giver, do not cleave to gifts - this is a great insult to the generous Giver of all good things. For everything, be sincerely grateful to the Lord and express your gratitude by doing good to His animate images - people, for He Himself does not need anything, does not require the service of human hands, as if He needed anything, Himself giving life and breath and everything to everyone [Acts. 17, 25]. So, with a cheerful heart and face, receive guests and give alms to the poor, knowing that He Himself accepts your gift in their person and will reward you a hundredfold for it; give me a loan. Treat every person with respect and love as the image of God. Do not forget to go against your old man, against your heart; if it spares its neighbor sweets, do not be sorry, but joyfully offer as much as it wants; if he is angry with one of his neighbors, then kindly caress him (glory to Thee, Lord!). The earthly spirit, or the spirit of love, passion for earthly things, and the unearthly spirit. Highland philosophize [Col. 3, 2]. My heart should have nothing in common with the earth, because there is one spirit, and it must cleave to God the Spirit and to my neighbor; and besides, earthly fruit was the reason for our separation from God and our destruction. We must use earthly goods in moderation and not cling to them with our hearts. God! Help. Sweets are a lie and a weak heart. Hitherto I was fooled by my attachment to sweets, and I was cold towards God and towards my neighbor, I was at enmity with my neighbor for sweets. From now on, Lord, help me to despise this flattering enemy and never count all kinds of sweets and their value for anything, but please my neighbor with joy with them. Grant me, Lord, to love the indescribable light and the indescribable sweetness of Your sight and future blessings, and to be cleansed from the aphids of passions. Wake up, wake up! Let me strive unswervingly for this goal - for the honor of a heavenly calling. God! I have sinned and am sinning before You: I set the goal of enjoying earthly blessings. From the church itself, from prayer and in the midst of prayer, I sometimes strive with my heart and thoughts for these sweets, if they are before my eyes. God! My incorruptible, pure sweetness, do not leave me! You often send glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with your tongue, but your heart does not send it, being bound by worldly pleasures, and you flatter with your tongue. But we must glorify the Lord with our hearts, burn with our hearts, rejoice in our hearts at His praise. About temptations and sorrows. Without temptations and sorrows, a person will not recognize his mental state, will not learn to believe, pray sincerely, without temptations will not be cleansed from the abomination of passions and will not learn humility. Today I despised a beggar, to whom I gave three kopecks, and the devil triumphantly entered my heart, which became only the church of God through the reception of the Holy Mysteries; fire burned in my insides and throughout my whole body, my spirit was embarrassed, my mind and heart were darkened; I was internally humiliated, dishonest, had no boldness, my tongue was tied, and the whole class, even the other ones, I was not myself (Frank and the fourth grade). Left the class - the same thing. I enter an empty classroom, call on the Lord, the Lady - I pray insincerely and therefore do not receive forgiveness and peace. Finally I say to myself: Satan has spread his paw and spread his tail; several times, many times I repeat this, and Satan, proud, arrogant, could not stand his shame and came out; I soon felt at ease. October 10, 1864. When you see a beggar asking you for alms, remember from whom and where your Savior, the Son of God, was born - from the poor Most Pure Virgin in the manger of Bethlehem and wrapped in poor swaddling clothes; remember who you were born from and where you were born and how you lived at first, and do not at all be proud of a poor person and do not despise him for what you should respect and love him for, that is, for poverty. The poor are the crusading brothers of Christ. What about us? We forget ourselves and become satiated in our contentment and raise our heads high. He is My chosen vessel [Acts. 9, 15]. Why are people chosen by God called His vessels? Because, just as vessels are filled with water or other liquid, so they are filled with the Holy Spirit. And Satan fills his servants like vessels. Why would Satan cause your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?.. [Acts. 5, 3]. Thy will be done [Matt. 6, 10 ], because if we do not fulfill the will of God, then we fulfill the will of the devil - there is no middle ground: we obey one of the two: either the Lord or the devil. (With both of them there is one oud shown by conjugation.) Do not disdain the beautiful, wise, gracious, sweet deeds of God. All this is good [Gen. 1, 31]. All uds 38 are planted well, let us all thank the Great Artist, 39 and use everything for the glory of His name. Only the devil tends to abhor human members and dream evil and unclean things about them - the inventor and teacher of all uncleanness. But to the pure all things are pure; but for the defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure, but their mind and conscience are defiled [Tit. 1.15]. Glory to the Lord, the All-Creator, for all His works. Let us not forget that we all came from one flesh and in Adam we were one flesh. Let us not forget that we have nothing of our own, but everything is God’s, down to the hair on our heads, down to the nails on our hands and feet that we cut, down to the moisture in our mouth or nose. I am all an instrument of God, the work of His hands. Do not always rush, but sometimes wait, wait long and be patient complacently and do not punish those who are slow, just as the Lord waits a long time for your conversion and correction and does not punish you with the severity of His judgment. Love is long-suffering (1 Cor. 13:4), and impatience shows our dislike and pride and our carnality: [only] we want to eat and drink, or go on a visit, or play, or want to relax. Live as God commanded, not as you want. If you have devilish haste, you will often have occasions to become embittered and irritated with your neighbors, who will unintentionally or deliberately do something slowly, not according to your wishes. The Lord is patient with everyone, and you are patient with everyone. Be patient with everyone, says the Apostle (1 Thess. 5:14). Save your souls with your patience, says the Lord of all [Lk. 21, 19]. May I not be satisfied [Russian: having had enough] I will lie [Prov. 30:9] - this means that satiety and gluttony pervert all of Christianity, which is the truth. Indeed, by neglecting the virtues of abstinence and fasting, the faith and virtue of Christians dry up and dry up: they become cold towards God, towards the church, towards prayer in general, and indulge in worldly pleasures, games, customs, habits. True love for one's neighbor, rejoicing with those who rejoice and crying with those who cry unselfishly, dries up; love is only selfish, or carnal and unclean. Therefore, abstinence and fasting are necessary for Christians. The undead don’t need their womb. I kill my body and enslave it (1 Cor. 9:27). How to kill? - Through abstinence and through labor. Do not be ashamed of the words of the Mother of the Church, the holy and immaculate Bride of Christ, so that Christ will not be ashamed of you at His second terrible coming. Are you ashamed or afraid of deceitful, proud, adulterous and sinful people, like grass that fades and passes away? Madness. Serving your neighbors - this is real life, and not eating and drinking, showing off, sleeping, walking, playing cards, visiting theaters and so on. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant... for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve... [Matt. 20, 26, 28]. Do not be angry with the poor and ignorant because, as it seems to you, they ask you to serve them at the wrong time: they have time when they need it. And why and for what and about what should one be angry with the poor and ignorant because they are poor, naked, simple, meek and unresponsive, like sheep, while the rich are well dressed, proud and can always give an answer? What inconsistency, illogicality! Of course, one should serve both willingly, but the poor more willingly, with greater readiness. Should one look at the magnificent houses of elegant architecture, at the richly decorated rooms, at the beautiful clothes, at the richly furnished tables, at the silver and gold, at the beautiful faces, at the rich images, etc.? – It should not, for all this is the lust of the eyes, and whoever looks greedily at all the above-mentioned objects will certainly avert his gaze or be alienated in heart and look with contempt at poor houses, at simple, cramped, low, unclean rooms, at simple clothes, at a simple table, at simple things (not silver or gold), at simple or ugly faces, at simple icons, without silver frames, and the dignity of all things will be based only on wealth, or high cost and elegance, even people themselves will be measured [...] by wealth, beauty and nobility. And how false this view is - anyone can now judge if he knows how to reason sensibly. Isn't the human soul more precious, nobler and more beautiful than anything in the world, even if it were in a person who is rude, simple and poorly dressed in appearance? Is not the soul the image of the immortal God, the King of heaven and earth? Is it not she who gives beauty to the body? Isn’t she the one who creates magnificent houses, decorates our earthly dwellings magnificently and gracefully, sews beautiful clothes, makes various gold and silver and precious stone decorations, doesn’t she make all the things that seduce the eye? This is what we must respect, love, and cherish in ourselves and in others, no matter who they are, because everyone has one soul - rich and poor, noble and ignorant, king and subjects, old people and babies, men and women. We must try to cleanse her from the rust or aphids of manifold passions, everyone must look at her more often and direct her life according to the commandments of the living God, in order to make her a participant in eternal life and the Divine nature, and not look at anything earthly - not to look at theaters or theatrical performances, even if they hide behind the auspices (guise) of morality, for they are - worldly and demonic charm, for where there is play with the word, the noblest and greatest gift of God, which distinguishes us from the wordless, and where there is incessant laughter, there is no God - but to be diligent about the soul, an immortal thing, to curtsey 40, like Mary, to the word of God [Lk. 10:42] and compose the words of God in your heart and be diligent in home prayer, consideration of your state of mind and repentance, abstinence and works of mercy. Whoever looks at earthly things reveals an earthly spirit within himself, and this is contrary to the spirit of Christ. A Christian must philosophize on high. What does excessive consumption of wealth lead to? To luxury, pride and arrogance, corruption of the heart and life. What do indulgences and intemperance lead to? Also to the corruption of the heart and morality. So, blessed are those who wisely, according to the will of God, use their wealth, giving to the poor. But the people who are more blessed are the poor and simple. Their heart, accustomed to need and grief, lives in faith and hope in God, there is always prayer to God in it; external and internal tightness does not allow various sinful thoughts and passions to nest in their hearts, because they are always concerned about daily food, often in grief and sadness due to cramped circumstances. That is why the lover of souls, the Lord, sets a narrow path as a sign for His followers. Enter at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it [Matt. 7, 13–14]. So, we must respect the poor and help them. October 11th day, 1864. Here is another strange and terrible flattery of wealth and the height of service that we correct in the church or in the world: we despise the lower, the subordinate, and for their insignificant, perhaps not at all intentional, disrespect for us, we become embittered at them, instead of not noticing it or covering it up with brotherly condescension. We see the bitch in others, but we don’t notice the log in ourselves. We want honor for ourselves, we do not honor others and equate them with animals. O Pharisees, we are hypocrites! Oh, dislike! Oh madness! But aren’t they people like us in every way? Are we not, and indeed are we no worse than them, simply because of our pride and contempt and the eclipse of our heart’s eye, which is bright for them? But we are also educated, we are still considered smart! Crazy people in life. Simplicity, meekness, humility, love - this is our wisdom, this is our education! How long will we amuse ourselves, like children, with gold and silver on icons, and not heartily venerate the icons themselves, and not pray before them in spirit and in truth? How long will we disdain the painting of icons and say to ourselves: this icon is not well painted, and this one too - and because of the icon we will humiliate the prototype, for example, the Lady, and because of the icon that we do not like, we will be cold towards the true Mother of God Herself? What madness! What a darkening of the heart! Adorned with the Divine glory of the Lady! Have mercy and save me. We must have heartfelt respect for the word of the Holy Scriptures, prayers, the writings of the fathers, for the words of our speeches and for the well-intentioned word of secular writers. The word is a high, precious, revered thing! A sinner is especially pitiful because he sins gravely and is not aware of his sins; he is often even very pleased that he leads a vile, sinful life, boasts about it, and plays with sins like a toy. God! Enlighten and enlighten those obsessed with such charm! Often parents themselves, seeing such a dissolute life for their children, look at it indifferently, thinking that it will pass or that it is not a problem. Woe to such parents too! What does this mean, brothers, what is this ugliness in our rational nature? The more the Lord encourages someone, the more he is sometimes stingy towards others, the more proud he is in front of others, the more he despises others, oppresses others, the more he lives lawlessly, instead of being more and more generous and merciful and humble, in order to be more considerate and intercede for others! Oh, we are blind, ungrateful and evil creatures! What is reason given to us for? What is God's word for? What is the heart for, if not for us to feel God’s love, God’s blessings and correspond to them, to feel love for those like ourselves and have compassion for them? You, my Lord, the original and imprecise sweetness, the creator of all spiritual and material sweets, I worship and thank you for all Your spiritual and earthly sweets - the guarantee of future ineffable sweets. When you go with the life-giving Mysteries to give communion to the sick, listen to yourself, let your flesh, that is, your old man, be silent, and let nothing earthly think in itself; Let no passion confuse or tear your heart apart: neither love of money, nor gluttony, nor malice, nor pride, nor irritability and impatience, for the King of kings and Lord of lords comes to sacrifice and give food to the faithful. But the persons of the Angels with all beginning and power come before Him, 41 invariably, always. And as luck would have it, passions often arise at this time and gnaw at us. For you, man, heaven and earth were created (for our residence is in heaven [Phil. 3:20]), for you everything that is on earth, for you the sun, the month, the stars; for you the Son of God became incarnate, suffered, died and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and will come again; for you, the adornment of humanity, the most perfect shrine, an unshakable pillar - the Mother of the incarnate Savior Christ, to save and cover you from troubles and sins; and how do you respond, man, to this protective love for you of your Creator, who loves you inexpressibly? – Inattention to yourself, to your eternal good and to what God has done and is doing for you, disobedience to His holy commandments. What can you expect after this, after all these omnipotent means of God for your salvation? Of course, eternal torment: for insulting endless mercy towards you - endless torment for you. These go into everlasting punishment [Matt. 25, 46]. Then you will remember your mockery of the truths of the Gospel, then you will remember your theaters, your cigarettes... all your sins. Hold on to love and remove demonic and carnal pretexts through which love dries up, such as money, food, drink, clothing and everything else, from your heart, counting all material things as nothing when it comes to the benefit of your neighbor. The devil, having not a shadow of good or benefit in himself, but only evil and direct harm, like sheer evil, cannot impart to others any benefit, but only evil: evil is his essential element and desire. And physical and spiritual benefit comes from one God: He, as the all-good Father, builds everything for our benefit. Why are people so irritable, angry, and capricious? – From gluttony: the flesh is pampered from gluttony, having become accustomed to constantly encountering sensations that are pleasing and pleasant to it; she gets angry and irritated when she encounters something that is contrary to her desires and expectations, unpleasant for her, and the slightest bit of someone has done anything wrong to her, it makes her angry. We must preserve the ways of cruelty 42 [Ps. 16, 4], and eat simple and rough food, and do not sleep on a soft bed and head, and do not dress in soft clothes, and do not stare at your face and do not bother with it - then we will be able to endure everything from others, then we will not pay attention as something worth attention to rich chambers, to rich people, to rich clothes, carriages, to beautiful faces, to rich tables or meals - and we will consider all this as rubbish, for soap bubbles. A thirst for simple, sincere, sincere words, and not learned, not artificial, cold, hypocritical, not warmed by genuine feeling, such as our textbooks of the Sacred History of the Old and New Testaments and church history, and about the worship of the Orthodox Church sometimes you do not recognize the original in them - they are so distorted by the author’s art and cunning. How does the enemy not hinder me in doing things pleasing to God, for example, in teaching the Law of God? Stutters, for example, with discouragement and false shame in case of some confusion during the story or some inaccuracy or not complete confidence in the truth of what he said; the confusion would only be momentary, or the inaccuracy in two or three speeches would remain an inaccuracy, without interfering with further accuracy in speech, or lack of perfect confidence in one circumstance would not interfere with the further story - but no: sin has its power, its claims, its propaganda, its conquering spirit: it climbed into the soul for a moment, so it tries to remain in it for hours and days, or at least hours: it captured a span - it is necessary to capture everything, the entire area souls. Well, what is the purpose of false shame, what is the purpose of discouragement? Why add new sins to the same sins? Don't they get up when they fall? [Jer. 8, 4]. This is the dignity, this is the perfection of our Christian faith and hope, so that we do not become stuck in sin, but immediately, having realized it, get up, and not at all become cowardly in some kind of pride, for who is without sin, who is without weaknesses among people? To be faint-hearted after making a mistake or sin means to regret that we turned out to be imperfect, that we will be considered imperfect, it means to want to be considered perfect, whereas no person has perfection in anything and it is common for everyone to stumble and fall. On the contrary, do not be ashamed to admit that you are imperfect, and if you stumble in anything, immediately admit that you made a mistake, but without blushing, for this is a weakness common to everyone, and considering the claim to perfection to be madness. Do not lead children into temptation with your vanity and hypocrisy, do not disguise yourself in front of them, but be simple and frank with them, willingly acknowledging your weaknesses in front of them, and this frankness will place you much in their favor. Don’t be ashamed to admit to sin—be ashamed to intentionally commit sin, considering it an absurdity, a dream. If ever you fall, rise up immediately and be saved. 43 Be humble, meek and gentle. If someone does something wrong, do not become embittered, but correct him or reprimand him with a spirit of meekness and love. Beware of any sin, as if it were the devil himself; have disgust for it, as if you were the devil himself, the culprit and teacher of the entire horde of sins and passions. Avoid gluttony and delicacy and intemperance, which pave the way for the devil in our hearts to all kinds of sins. Try to be perfect in teaching. And for this, always prepare, just as you prepare for worship and especially for communion. Teaching the Law of God is a great thing! Angelic work! Do the holy work holy, calmly, with posture, firmly; By doing it this way, you will conveniently position the students to listen and carry out what they have heard. Gluttony darkens the soul, dulls the mind and heart, makes the presence of God imperceptible to a person, cools him towards God and his neighbor, makes him a hypocrite in prayer and in teaching, because a heart hardened by gluttony does not sympathize with prayer and the truths of faith, makes him inwardly a blasphemer, dispassionate, petrified, crafty, nasty, evil and irritable, lazy, capricious, stubborn, and disobedient, and sad. With gluttony and satiety, the inner eye is darkened, the passion for the earth increases, adultery, fornication... false witness, blasphemy begin to emanate from the heart stronger and more abundantly [Matt. 15, 19 ]; the truth of faith loses its power for him, and the manifold lies of demons take on power, for through satiety he enters the human heart; a person grows cold towards God and towards spiritual life, towards reading the word of God; all thoughts and feelings gravitate toward the earth and philosophize about earthly things. How we must deeply feel and ardently thank God and the Mother of God for what we read in various prayers, canons, akathists! How one must lament and cry about one’s unrepentance, one’s shortcomings, one’s ingratitude! What has the Lord given us and is giving us, and how do we repay Him? How are we living? Are we walking worthy of our title? With what hunger and with what joy we must always rush to glorify with our hearts and lips our Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother! Oh, Lord, give us this hunger and this joy! The Lady Theotokos is closest to me, a sinner, the Mother and Provideress, for Whose my destiny is dear, for I am a child of Her Son, I am a partaker of His Body and Blood, I am united with Him. With what hope should I always turn to Her in my prayers for deliverance from all weaknesses and temptations, from all the abominations of sin! And She is always convenient and can and wants to save me from them, only I, in the simplicity of my heart, call on Her; She can also grant me this simplicity of heart if I sigh over its lack and ask for it from Her most simple and unshakable Shrine. Grant it to me, Lady! The enemy pursues me now with doubt, now with false shame, despondency (embarrassment), now with malice and contempt, now with conceit, now with impatience, haste and irritability, now with hypocrisy and contemplation, now with carnal abomination, now with covetousness and love of money, now with stinginess, now with greed for food and drink and gluttony. Oh, the multiform demonic lightning that scorches me, oh, the unclean, stinking fire of hell, which often devours me! But You, Christ, Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world, take away from Me the heavy burden of sin, enlighten me and make me wise to fight passions, teach my hands to fight, my fingers to fight [Ps. 143, 1 ] and guide me to the quiet refuge of Your Divine commandments through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and all Your saints. Amen. I believe in the Church - that is, I recognize that the Head of believers, that is, Orthodox Christians, is Jesus Christ, and all believers are His body, His members, that we are all one in Christ, one family, one heart, one soul, and therefore must live in mutual respect and love, not despising anyone, not even the last beggar, not even the last drunkard, but suffering for everyone, having compassion for everyone, caring for everyone as if we were our own body. This is what the ninth article [of the Creed] teaches us. I also believe in the Church, which means that I recognize all the saints, starting with the Mother of God, as one family of God with true Christians struggling on earth, animated by the one Spirit of God, under one Head Christ, having one Father God, lovingly praying to God for us, and interceding for our salvation, and helping us in our weaknesses, in troubles, misfortunes, sorrows and illnesses, and begging for forgiveness of our sins. Old Testament history says that man was created in the image and likeness of God, and proves with examples that man is the image of God, a child of God - with the examples of Abel, Enoch, Shem, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Samuel and other holy men of the Old Testament; but, on the other hand, it shows that people can conveniently become the image of Satan, children of the devil, if they do not want to obey God, but want to serve their passions, and this is shown in Cain, Lamech, Saul, in the depraved inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the contemporaries of Noah; it shows that self-love, pride, addiction to earthly things are service to the devil, and brotherly love, meekness and humility and striving for things above are from God and are service to God. What laziness and malice and hypocrisy of the flesh! He doesn’t want to bless those he meets on the way in the church, especially simple and poor people (kind, worthy, meek and humble)! I’m too lazy to extend my hand, I don’t want to give her a kiss - they’ll get it dirty! Oh, malice! And the rich and noble, wherever you want, come under the blessing - everything is fine, when you want - everything is fine, although in winter, in the rain, in the dust, in the open sky - with a smug look, with servility I bless; fortunately or unfortunately (for this is hypocrisy), only few noble and rich people are eligible for blessing! But you must be an impartial servant to everyone, O priest! Bless everyone equally with pleasure, for the blessing of Christ is not yours, but Christ does not look at the face, but at the heart. Call all the poor and needy brothers, sisters, children, mothers or fathers, depending on age; bless everyone from a good heart, with a gentle and meek look, without haste, because you will have time. Oh, peace-loving flesh, hasty, impatient flesh, evil, capricious flesh, stupid flesh! I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ my God, for through Your simplicity you have preserved me from abominations, darkness, humiliation, oppression and demonic sorrow. If you feel sorrow and oppression and some kind of bitterness towards everyone, heal yourself with love, affection, and doing good to your neighbor, for then the spirit of malice is in you. Remember that the enemy in vain, 44 as they say, for no apparent reason bears enmity against us - fight him, be strong and take courage; where you are embarrassed, fight there and try to be at peace; where the word is interrupted, raise it more strongly, but do not rush; the main thing is not to be discouraged. You have the same spirit of malice: which was in your youth, the same spirit now. At Neumann's yesterday, the Lord perfectly preserved me in simplicity and certainty, only at the very end, just before leaving, the enemy stopped me with absurd stinginess - oh, materialism! O cleaving the heart to food and drink! Oh, real hope! The first grade (first) at the gymnasium performed well in the story and questions; the other (sixth) is not good: at first it was good, victorious, peaceful, majestic, then the enemy attacked and scorched with fire, humiliated, shamed, when he gave the student a history lesson to read for the next class. And during the cathedral service of mass in the royal family, he faltered: embarrassment, timidity took over, powerlessness. God! May my spirit not be defiled in Your ever-present presence by pride, malice, contempt, malice, envy, love of money, stinginess, despondency, insensibility, murmuring, blasphemy, disobedience, and so on. I was spoiled with contentment and delicacy. But preserve, my soul, the ways are cruel [Ps. 16:4], for they are good for me. I thank You, Master, and You, the Lady Theotokos, for You have made me worthy to overcome evil embarrassment and stumbling at the cathedral service of the Liturgy during the Great Entrance and at the prayer behind the pulpit. Confirm, O God, this which you have done in me. Take your time when saying the royal name and prayers in general, say them word by word. I thank You, Lord, that You allowed me to spend my fifth-grade lesson calmly, with legal dignity and authority. But how the enemy scorched me during a lesson in the second grade with carnal pleasure! He did not give me the opportunity to speak sincerely and with force; I was not myself, I was sitting as if on coals, as if I was shackled with all my insides; I, like a sheep, was slain by him. And what did I use to defeat him at the end of the class? A firm conviction that all this darkness, all this mud is the fruit of one unrighteous thought planted in the heart by the evil one, and that the conviction of the unrighteousness of this thought or that this mud is a lie, a dream of the devil, is the sure path to the destruction of this unclean and dark mud. Be strong and take heart, John! Your struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and authorities and rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [Eph. 6, 12]. Serve every neighbor with readiness, with love, with meekness and humility, in the confidence that you are serving Christ Himself and will receive reward from Him. For who are the believers whom you serve? - Members of the body of Christ, which is the Church, in whom Christ dwells. You work for the Lord Jesus Christ. What an honor! What dignity! How many opportunities can you earn the favor of the Lord Jesus Christ, His mercy, and prove your love for Him! He Himself accepts tending His sheep and serving them as an expression of our love for Him. Serving others leads to the honor of a high calling. Whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all [Mk. 10, 44]. How do we and I serve? With displeasure, with grumbling, with anger! O faithless slaves! Torture 45 hearts and wombs, have mercy on us! The love of money often binds our hearts when we are preparing to commune the sick with the most pure Body and Blood of Christ! Confessing the sick, we feel that we ourselves are much more sinful than them, we ourselves are bound hand and foot by various passions, like shackles, that we do not believe as we should in God the Father Almighty, in His Only Begotten Son, who for our sake came down from heaven, became incarnate, was crucified for us, suffered, and was buried, and was resurrected, and ascended into heaven, and again is to come. judge; in the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father, who spoke the prophets; into one Holy Church as a society of those being saved, as a society of those pursuing the spiritual, Heavenly Fatherland, as strangers and strangers on earth, as a society of one mind, like-minded, holy, conciliar and apostolic; We do not keep the vows of Baptism, the garments of Baptism, the betrothal of the Spirit, we do not expect the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century, but we expect only improvements in this life, rewards in this life, contentment and all kinds of comfort in this life. We, the priests of one church, must be one by mutual love, like God the Trinity, Whom we stand during the liturgy and Whom we serve in general, like one Heavenly Bread, of whom we partake—and other faithful, seeing our love, will love each other. People have different crosses: some have a passion for drunkenness, another for delicacy, another for fornication, another for stinginess, another for pride, involuntary anger, contempt, another for laziness, another for despondency, demonic fear, another for some kind of illness, another for untruth from people, and everything must be endured, just as Jesus Christ endured everything, for the master of evil – the devil has been given freedom in this age, and one must gain one’s soul with patience [Lk. 21, 19]. Woe to the impatient! Satan will soon plunge them into the cave of despair and cowardice. Since the devil enters a person through food and drink, that is, through immoderation, delicacy, excess, the Lord, as a wise physician, healing like with like, gave us His own Body and His Blood as food, so that it would cleanse our souls and bodies. In fact, food and drink, taken in excess or in the form of sweets, constitute, as it were, the body of the devil - you always feel this after a delicacy or excess. What benefits does a sincere prayer before sleep bring to the heart? – Freedom from spirits of evil and peaceful sleep; and insincere, cold, sluggish prayer gives them a place in the heart and is the cause of restless sleep. There is no need to joke with prayer: one must be sincere and unhypocritical with God. Morning prayer, sincerely performed, gives a prosperous day and a successful fight against the spirits of evil that constantly treacherously over us. Pray sincerely for yourself and for others as for yourself; take care of yourself and others as you do yourself. We are one body [Rom. 12, 5]. Do not pity or caress your flesh if it is not necessary for its health, for example if it is sick. Exhaust the body with bows, pushes, sleeping on the bare floor, coarse but not heavy food, simple drink, coarse clothing, a foul smell or even smoke - this is in relation to the body, but in relation to the soul, which also makes up a carnal person - depress it with the contempt of others and joyfully accept this contempt (as long as it is in vain, undeserved, for you must care about honor for the sake of glory of the name of God); accept insults and slander with joy, do not be offended by the fault of others, but willingly forgive it if it was done recklessly and is not harmful to others, considering it as your own fault; Rejoice if they envy you or scold you, for all these are scourges, medicines for pride, anger, impatience, effeminacy, laziness of the old man. If the devil, or the Lord through the devil, had not awakened us from sinful sleep, then we would have fallen asleep in a sinful sleep. Therefore, rejoice if you fall into various temptations, so that your temptation, rather than perishing gold, may be found in praise and honor and glory in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:6-7). Temptation... makes patience perfect [Jas. 1, 3], patience is the art of overcoming temptations, and the art of hope: but hope does not put one to shame [Rom. 5, 3 – 5]: that is, if I hope to overcome temptation in a certain way, then I will win. So, for example, you know from whom all the hordes of passions come - evil, nasty, proud, doubtful, sad; you know that he and they are in their essence (that is, nothing, a dream, a ghost) - and conquer them with a simple thought in the power of the fortress of the Lord. You have already won and you know how to win, for the devil is one and the same. What a great guy you are and will you begin to condemn your brother after this! We must rejoice and thank God that He sends labors, for they are very useful for the soul and body, strengthening both, and not to turn them slyly, out of blind pride, into a reason for anger towards the family and for murmuring against them, because they rest and do nothing or do very little - this is their misfortune and, perhaps, illness; you need to feel sorry for them and instruct them how to get down to business, or give them or advise them to do this or that thing. Tell them how strictly the Apostle commanded work and how he condemns the lazy: if anyone does not want to work, he should not eat (2 Thess. 3:10). Also, he who bears the burdens of others fulfills the law of Christ [Gal. 6, 2]. The vile beast - the devil - makes beautiful boys and girls, these angels, desirable, but turns away the ugly and ugly ones and makes them hateful. Oh, vile carnivore! And all through the flesh! Crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts! Notice its absurdities! [Glooms] him! It makes one cling to beautiful and gentle faces like sugar, and to turn away from ugly and rude ones - and flattery is both, for the beautiful is earth and ashes, and the ugly is the same; What is precious in man is the image of God, according to which he was created. So the devil chains the heart to delicacies, and to money, and to clothes, and to a beautiful home and its furnishings, in general he tries to immerse us in earthly things, to occupy us with earthly things, to defile us with the flesh, so that, being defiled, he will distance us from the love of God and plunge us into eternal destruction. But our soul is the breath of God and must strive towards God, despising all carnal sweets, everything earthly, for everything is earth, although everything was created beautifully by the wisdom and omnipotence of God. Despise the flesh, it passes away, but be diligent about the souls, things more immortal. Look upon children as the Angels of God, with all purity. Try to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord [Heb. 12, 14]. I thank You, Lord, for the successful teaching of Your Law to the youth Frank and the youths - the students of the fourth grade gymnasium. October 17, 1864. But deliver me from demonic uncleanness, Lord! God! I insulted Your angel! Forgive, cleanse and do not blame! God! Glory to Your image and Your likeness! God! I renounce the impurities of Satan! Sometimes the devil suddenly makes such a mess inside you for no apparent reason that you are only surprised at your extreme [weakness], how you suddenly changed for the worse and became all involuntary evil. At this time, we must remember who it is from, and with a simple thought, drive out the enemy with the help of God, for without God we can do nothing. We must love everyone without distinction of condition, without showing preference to anyone, so that we respect one person and disdain another person who comes to us: all are one and all are the image of God and members of Christ. I believe in one Holy Church, they say. Do not listen to the many different slander of the devil; for example, he slanders like this: such and such a rogue, such and such a scoundrel, a hypocrite, a miser, a proud person; such and such endures everything he sees and hears, and teaches everyone to become embittered. And you love and love, despising the sins of others, knowing that you yourself are the first sinner, but you love yourself and want to be loved by others. Why do we attribute any importance and effectiveness to the thoughts and movements of the enemy in our hearts? They are a dream, a ghost, nothing. Have you not yet realized that the enemy is in your being? - Lie. The words of the Church are holy words, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for example in the liturgy, in Baptism, in Marriage, in the Blessing of Anointing and other Sacraments. In His Divine Mysteries, the Lord is the cleansing of my sins, my peace, my light, my space, my lightness, my boldness, the destruction of darkness and dirty tricks and the insolence of demons, blasphemies, his doubts and all his intrigues. Look: if you do not believe that in communion you are one spirit with the Lord, then you will, you will certainly be one spirit with the devil for this unbelief, and you will learn this through bitter, bitter experience. The heart of my heart is the Lord, simple and infinite. There is no one or anything intermediary between them by connection and there should not be. What the soul is to the body, the Lord is to the soul: he penetrates it all, enlivens it, pacifies it, enlightens it, strengthens it, spreads it, makes it easier, makes it bold. Be careful before communion, so that the enemy does not enter your heart in any way. God! Help! If the devil takes possession of the heart through a single thought, then isn’t the Lord even more righteous through a single thought? Do not be afraid of the misfortunes of demons in your heart, but despise them. God sees that Satan will offend you: do not be discouraged, do not be discouraged, although you sin unwittingly. If you have given your word to come and serve a prayer service to someone at a certain hour, and meanwhile a few minutes after this word you are called to give communion or unction to a sick person, go ahead hastily to the sick person, and then serve the prayer service, for the prayer service can tolerate a delay, but the sick person cannot. If, after fervent prayer before the Holy Mysteries and great boldness before God, the enemy stops you in the church or outside it in prayer, and with wickedness occupies and oppresses your heart, and makes you angry, and darkens, and weakens you - do not be afraid, do not be faint-hearted, do not be discouraged, but endure his machinations, knowing his vain enmity against us, call on the Lord for help and trust in His mercy. Oh, how terribly the enemy fights against the servants of God! Impossible to comprehend! What a storm of evil he raises just before the communion of the Divine Mysteries! Let an experienced and faithful Christian be strong and courageous in the power of the Lord's fortress, and let him not rely on his own skill and strength, but on the Lord alone. I have free will: no one can force me to do evil unless I want to do it myself. I want to be meek and humble and patient, and no one can force me to anger and pride against my neighbor or to irritability and impatience: I will endure everything calmly and patiently. When you see a dead person, humble yourself in spirit, saying to yourself: I myself am a dead person, having a dead soul in a living body - sigh and, if you can, shed tears for yourself and for the deceased. Also remember that the same table is waiting for you, on which the deceased lies. The cross of Divine abandonment is the heaviest cross, because then the devil, the source of all evil and torment, takes possession of you. The Lord sometimes leaves us for testing, so that we ourselves can be convinced from experience what it is like to be without God and hold on to Him more tightly, sometimes because of our abandonment of God, for our lack of faith or for our addiction to earthly goods. Repeat one thing about every sin when it tempts you: absurdity, absurdity, absurdity! God! I am all sin, all weakness, all disease. Help me, Good Shepherd, help me, O Lord Jesus. Notice the deceit of the flesh: don’t put incense on it, don’t let anyone else smell it, but you willingly smell your own; all the same pretexts for anger, one dreamy impatience, one effeminacy and irritability of the flesh, one sinful absurdity. Aren't we all a sinful stench? Isn’t everything, on the other hand, earth, air, water, heat, according to its body? Love alone, unchanging, must always be our being, our life. I want to be pure and unshakable love - help me, Lord! Take away my manifold malice from me, O Lord! Wake up! Reverend Father John of Rylsky, pray to God for me, a sinner, as I diligently resort to you, your quick helper and prayer book for my soul! October 19, 1864 Oh, how bitter and cramped is the anger! Our flesh, or the old man, is slow for good, motionless - and amazingly quick for evil; but you must force yourself to be quick to every good, to every kindness, like lightning, and firm in good, like a stone. God! Help! Oh, absurd evil! I thank You, my Savior, Lord, for Thou hast delivered me several times through my prayer from the malice that beset me. October 19, 1864. I thank You, my wisdom, Lord Jesus, who makes me wise to overcome the wisest even more than me through the simplicity that comes from You. October 19th, 1864. Not only do not regret what your neighbors want from you, but also do more than they want; and do not spare yourself for anyone, that is, for various services. Remember Abraham’s servant and Rebekah, or, more importantly, Abraham himself. Amen. When praying to the Lord, we must remember His boundless greatness and magnificence 46 and confession from all intelligent creation, 47 His infinite holiness, His omniscience, wisdom and immutability; When praying to the Lady, we must remember Her incomparable greatness after the Lord, and holiness, and goodness, and steadfastness in holiness; When praying to the Forerunner and other saints, we must also remember their greatness, holiness, and kindness. In general, we must all pray with the hope that we will receive what we ask for. Chosen Voevodo and Lord! As if I had gotten rid of the devil’s wiles, which with great and speedy power overwhelmed me, I will praise You, Thy creation and servant; but as if you have unspeakable mercy, free me from all troubles, calling: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! 48 He desecrated me both with fornication and malice, but my Lord cleansed me, and we know that He will never cease and will never become exhausted in cleansing me, enlightening me, illuminating and strengthening me according to His great mercy, even though 49 my faith and my hope may not fail. Jesus, infinite mercy, glory to You. October 20th day 1864. Now the enemy fights me with love of money, now with love of carnality, now with aversion to flesh and hatred of mankind - and all with absurdity. God, my belly, have mercy on me! Remember that your heart is one and simple, and its life is one - the Lord. One can and should cleave to the one Lord, as akin to oneself, like a drop of water to the sea, or a river, or water in a vessel. You cannot work for two masters - wealth and God: teaching the Law of God, and going to the cemetery to serve mass and bury the dead for the sake of money. This is a luxury because not eating is necessary and it will take a lot of time. Yes, and there is a priest there. Don’t chase after silver, don’t cling to silver, lest you anger God. It is good to cleave to God [Ps. 72, 28]. Place your trust in the Lord, and He will nourish you [Ps. 54, 23]. Remember that you must engage in the Law of God with your whole soul, and not be divided in heart: you cannot serve God and mammon [Matt. 6, 24; OK. 16, 13]. There will be no success in teaching there, where they do business with a split heart. Two opposing forces relax the heart. God! Belong to me completely! God! Yes, I despise money. Paralysis in the heart causes hunger for earthly blessings and does not allow him to surrender to the Lord; it separates him from Him. What does the devil need, taking captives with silver and gold? Leave the cemetery to the cemetery priests. Oh, all the hunger for silver, silver! But out of greed for the silver pieces, Judas sold the Priceless and died himself. One principle that animates me and the entire universe and provides for me, as well as for the entire universe and its parts, small and great, and its creatures, small and great, is the Lord God. He created us and gave us life, He provides for us all, raises us all up and leads us to a certain goal. Let us place all our trust in Him alone, and not foolishly place our trust in soulless or animate creatures. Everything is one; everything is revived by the Lord and is provided for well by Him alone. The enemy stunned me with his love of money: I must, yes I must, he says, serve mass in the cemetery for the headman for Anna, and you’ll be in time for class, - and he led me by the nose for a long time, darkened me, constrained me, scorched me, but the Lord had mercy, enlightened me and revealed to me the dreaminess of such a desire, as he is now inwardly and directly revealing. Glory to Thee, Lord! The devil stabs me, or tries to stab me, now with malice, now with carnal abomination, depending on what is more convenient, more convenient: at the sight of the beggars to whom I often give - with malice, at the sight of handsome boys and girls - with carnal, vile thoughts; It scurries around and around, trying to confuse me or turn me away from alms. Oh, intrigues! Oh, hellish cunning! But in the name of the Lord, I hope that I will overcome you. God! You are here: look, Lord! Help, Lord! Cleanse, Lord! During prayer, [the devil] intensifies his blasphemy or asks the question whether this image of the Mother of God is consecrated, and casts doubts about the consecration: after all, he says, you did not see how it was consecrated. I believe that I am sanctified. Yes, even if the images were not consecrated, I believe that the Lady was sanctified by eternal consecration while still in the church, and especially upon leaving the church, when, after the Annunciation of the Archangel, the Holy Spirit came upon Her and the power of the Most High overshadowed Her for the conception of the Son of God; Thus, She is eternally holy, and in God I call on Her, our eternal Shrine, and I know that every image of Her is holy: it is sanctified by Her very face and name. For me, the name alone is enough, that the well-known image is the image of the Lady, and I reverence it and the person depicted on it. Wake up, wake up! It’s all the machinations of the devil that he entertains and confuses us with doubts regarding the consecration of the image. This is how the beast does not allow you to love children sincerely, just as it does not allow you to sincerely love the Lady and the saints of God and the Lord God Himself, the separation is dreamy. God! Look upon me and have mercy on me! Lady! Cleanse me! Saints of God! Pray to God for me, a sinner. Wake up! Christ has clothed himself with the whole of me as a person, and I must put on the whole of Christ my Lord! Wonderfully, You have saved me now, Lord, several times from the fierce instigator of the devil: firstly, from anger towards the beggar, secondly, from abominations of the heart during classes and from unclean demonic storms. He granted the gift to celebrate Mass with boldness, to receive Communion with boldness. Thank you, Lord! Sometimes the enemy will clothe you with malice, sometimes with some kind of insolence and insensibility, sometimes with fornication and lust, and so on, and you must endure everything with prayer on your lips and in your heart and humility in your soul, with trust in the Lord, who is always near us, and who does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can. When you taste some sweetness, remember that the first infinite sweetness, the source of all sweetness - spiritual and material - is the Lord God, and cleave to Him alone, love Him alone with all your heart, and do not cleave to the sweets yourself, lest you anger your Lord - your first inaccurate sweetness. When you taste bitter things, remember that all bitter things are from God - for our own good, and give thanks for the bitter as well as for the sweet, for just as sweet, consumed in abundance, relaxes the spirit and body, so bitter strengthens. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for You have revealed Your truth to me and do not allow me to walk in darkness in my sins. Yes, Lord, do not take Your light from Me, lest the alien darkness of the accursed cover me, lest the evil one, this lion, seek whom he may devour, devour me (1 Pet. 5:8). God! Keep me in Your simplicity! How the enemy curses, Lord, over the pious, and specifically over them! Oh, vile dream! Carnal! Those who crucify their flesh are the subjects of his dreamy intrigues. But all his machinations are a dream, as you think about it, nothing. The body, as a material thing, cleaves to matter, and the soul, as a spirit, cleaves to the Spirit, that is, to God, and let the flesh despise, as well as any substance. Blessed and righteous are poor people: they are not satiated, but are always content with only what is necessary; they do not feast on food, but always eat simple food. They are worthy of all respect. But the rich are full of everything, proud, hard-hearted, deceitful... They live and sow in the flesh [Gal. 6, 8]... Do not despise or insult the Lord in the person of the poor and beggar, so that you do not offend both the beggar and most of all yourself; Give with love, respect and heartfelt condolences to the poor and unfortunate. Although you show mercy, the Lord shows mercy to you even more, accepting alms from you in order to repay you a thousandfold. God! I thank You, for Thou hast most abundantly demonstrated the power of Thy goodness and power on me, a sinner, during the Liturgy against the evil of demons and mine, for Thou hast purified my sins of malice, embarrassment and verbal stumblings with Thy Holy Mysteries, and Thou hast granted Thy peace and Thy strength and boldness to me before Thy people! God! In Thy goodness, receive from Thy creature, from Thy worm, the confession of Thy power and Thy good deeds, and for the rest of my life, strengthen me to remain in Thy holiness and in Thy goodness. God! I can’t do anything without You. And all this was good [Gen. 1, 31]. Words of the Holy Spirit about God's creations. If the Lord Himself testified about His creatures that they are all very good, then who dares to say that anything is unkind or unclean, who dares to look at anyone or anything with unclean eyes? To the pure all things are pure; but for the defiled and unbelieving there is nothing pure [Tit. 1, 15]. Only the devil, only this unclean and nasty and disgusted spirit can blaspheme God’s creation, disgust it with his dreams or pour out his anger on them. Confusion and doubt during prayer about whether I will read the well-known words is the direct deceit of the devil. There is no need to lose heart, but take courage and strengthen your spirit and take your time. When you are visiting, you like a sweet treat, but if your brother, who visits you often, likes sweet tea and puts sugar in his tea, you don’t like it. Hypocrite! After all, he is your brother. If others receive mercy from you, what about your brother, your wife’s half-brother? Well, how much does he need [...]? Isn't it a trifle? Why is your eye deceitful? How can you hate your brother in vain? But he who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). Oh, what are you worthy of? Do you yourself like to eat and drink sweet things from others, but when your brother eats and drinks sweet things, do you feel sorry for him and don’t love him? But others happily treat you to the best they have. How are you better than your brother? Damn you! Use all the gifts of God for the glory of God, but do not spare anything for your brother, for the blessings of nature are the common property of people, and not of private individuals. Use the gifts of God's love to express love for your neighbor, and not at all malice. Otherwise you will be condemned as an evil and ungrateful servant [Matt. 25, 14 – 30; OK. 19, 12 – 27]. Remember that the devil is looking for everything to use as a reason for anger - the very gifts of God’s goodness and God’s generosity. Joyfully offer the gifts of the Lord’s goodness to everyone who comes to you; give and more than anyone uses or expects. But they restrained Him, saying: stay with us, because the day has already fallen towards evening. And He went in and stayed with them [Lk. 24, 29]. Encourage them to consume your food and drink, so that it can be seen that you do not spare anything for the brethren, but want to give them in abundance from your labors, from the abundance of heartfelt love and respect for them. Show that you consider all the material blessings of the earth to be nothing in comparison with man, to whom everything has been subjugated from God under his nose [Ps. 8, 7, etc.]; Do not count his frequent visits to you, but rejoice every time at his visit as a visit to your own brother, blood, heart, beloved. Spread contentment and joy among those around you and those who visit you; be a comforting angel for them, and the Comforter Spirit will always comfort you. Let your heart be with every well-meaning person, and let it not be angry with anyone in vain. The enemy constantly defeats me, forces me to do his will: at home he defeats me with stinginess, malice, gluttony, outside the home with confusion, cowardice, despondency, doubt, stumbling in prayer, carnal, vile thoughts, and so on. I see this clearly - why else am I listening to him? A thousand times I have clearly experienced his charm, his dreams, my stupidity in following his dreams - and yet I follow them. What kind of madness is this, what inconsistency, what illogicality, what senselessness? God! Make Thy face shine, and I will be saved [Ps. 79, 4, 8, 20]. Lord Jesus! Through the prayers of You who gave birth to the Ever-Virgin, grant me to look with goodness and purity of heart at everyone and everything, at all the innocent movements and actions of Your people, especially those close to you, 50 and not to be upset with your wife. Wake up! Wake up! Oh, the deceit of the flesh! I become embittered towards the lower, the poor, the equals, those who cohabit, with whom I have become accustomed, because of trifles; to the highest, rich and noble, in charge, who do not depend on me - I am ready to forgive everything, even that which is contrary to the law of God, and I am too kind and affectionate towards them. God! Grant me to walk in Thy truth. Be sincere, kind, and simple towards others, as you would towards yourself. By not following this rule, we will be guilty of our own mental well-being and peace of mind. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, without thinking, and you will be blessed. Let nothing separate you from love for your neighbor: turn everything, even his very insults, into a reason for love, which never fails, is long-suffering, merciful, does not become arrogant, is not proud, is not irritated, does not think evil of one’s neighbor, and covers everything (1 Cor. 13:4-8). We sin a lot every day against the commandment to love our neighbor, and through this we inflict many wounds on ourselves every day. Oh, the stupidest, most evil flesh! Because of a towel soaked on your wife’s head and smelling of humidity, you become embittered, lose your temper, become disdainful, that is, because of nothing, because of trifles; There is no need to pay attention to this and be calm and blissful, but here evil anxiety is aroused. And if there is something pleasant to smell, eat, drink, look at, touch, then I rush towards it with greed and pleasure. Oh, evil, evil, unclean flesh! If only she could hate and indulge in pleasures with all her senses and carnal abominations! Help, Lord, to tame my beast. Your union with your wife means the union of Christ with the Church: reverence this union and do not violate it either with a single thought or word of hostility, or with a single unclean action. Live in mutual respect, enduring each other with love [Eph. 4, 2]. Thank the Lord for giving you a tender friend and love him. Reverence the union of Christ with the Church and adhere to this union, for you also belong to it. Husband and wife are one flesh, Christ and the Church are one flesh. Oh, how holy a husband and wife should be! To take care of the flesh, which will be pus, food for worms, earth, dust, trampled under foot and blown by the wind - what does this look like? Not to love your neighbor because of the flesh, or to offend the Lord because of an addiction to it - what does this look like? To insult the image of God in man because of an attachment to the flesh—what does that look like? Away with the stench of the flesh, the stench of carnal uncleanness! Glory to the image of God in man! Do not be seduced by the visible - neither beautiful nor ugly: this is a soap bubble that has just appeared and is ready to burst; Pay all your attention to your soul. Consider the flesh and everything carnal and material as nothing - still pay attention to the soul, give all its value to the soul. He who is attached to the carnal, material, apparently, naturally does not care about the soul, for it is impossible for two masters to work: either one will be zealous, and not care about the other [Matt. 6, 24]. How, by sinning, do I offend not only the Lord, but also His Most Pure Mother and all the Heavenly Powers and the holy Guardian Angel and all the saints? Because there is one Church of Angels and men, and you are a member of the Church; One Spirit of God lives in everyone, which means that everyone has one soul, everyone has one Head - Christ. There is one body of many (1 Cor. 10:17), and although the body has many members, they are penetrated and animated by one soul. Treasure your joint, so that if you are careless, you will not be cut off like a dry branch and be thrown into the fire [Jn. 15, 6]. Look at all people with respect, purity, and holiness, as members of the body of Christ, as temples of the Holy Spirit. Treat the Lord and His saints, in whom He rests, with heartfelt prayer, sanctify the name of the Lord within yourself, try to imitate the saints in your life, so that you will be a worthy member of them. Oil means the Life-giving Spirit of God. As long as there is oil in the lamp, the lamp burns; the oil is exhausted and the lamp goes out. Thus, when the Spirit of God ceases to animate the human body, the soul leaves, and the body, like a lamp, goes out and becomes like cold coal. Love... endures everything (1 Cor. 13:7), that is, if a neighbor has done something wrong, or endures the labors that he needs to endure. Love bears the burdens of another without complaint, without envy, with love. I, he says, will work, and let him rest: he is older, weaker than me, or he is busy with some kind of business, and the Lord, who looks upon my works, will reward me generously as a father for my unnecessary labors, and for my sins I am worth the hard work, so that my flesh may be crucified with passions and lusts; I need to mortify and enslave my sinful body, lest I be incapacitated; 51 I should rejoice in my many labors, and not grumble because I do a lot. One must regret that the brother does little: in inaction, the soul relaxes and indulges in sins involuntarily, and not envy him that he does little. I thank the wondrous help of my Lord Jesus Christ, who strengthened me to perform the liturgy without stumbling, and to receive communion for salvation, and to conduct classes successfully in His power. Consider everything as slop: wine, tea, coffee, cream, milk - everything when it is offered to a person. For who is man? - Image of God. For whom is everything? - For a person. Man is priceless, and everything earthly is insignificant before him. I behaved wonderfully and with dignity throughout the entire table with the guests, while [I was strengthening myself] and did not spare anything for them, considering all sweets to be slop; but as soon as I spared my brother the wine, my heart’s eye became troubled and darkened, my spirit was humbled, and I was all in a cramped position. Do not spare anything, but offer more than what they take, according to the instructions of the Savior: whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer clothing too [Matt. 5, 40]. Here is the true sage - the Apostle, who said about himself that he counted everything as rubbish in the world, so that he might gain Christ [Phil. 3, 8]. Imitate him. What are we doing? We highly value money, wines, sweets, sugar, teas, coffee, chocolates, clothes, magnificent houses, carriages, horses, etc. So, everything in the world is rubbish, and when the soul leaves the body, everything clearly turns out to be rubbish, even the body itself, which is rather buried in the ground so that it does not taint the surrounding air and people, like the worst feces. Christ, help! Yesterday (October 26), the enemy embarrassed, darkened and embarrassed me with slander against fellow servant Deacon Alexander: it seemed to me that the deacon could hide money from the fraternal circle because it was written down in two places, and not in one: in a book and on a piece of paper. How poisonous this slander was! How cramped and hard it was for me! How I was ashamed of myself! I even reached the point of despair for God’s mercy! However, the enemy in every sin and passion leads to some despair! God save me in future from this slander, from this suspiciousness of mine! Oh, damned love of money! Oh, Judas's pieces of silver! And sometimes he stumbles with embarrassment during prayer, confuses, darkens, oppresses, sometimes with carnal abomination, sometimes with malice, sometimes with envy, sometimes with irritability and impatience. By the sting and violence in the heart, also by the darkness, crampedness, and sorrow, you will immediately recognize him, the many-headed beast. With love, cordiality and peace, sit and eat at the table at home, rejoicing that your own people or strangers are enjoying the gifts of the Lord’s goodness from your labors. For they are all one, the sheep of the Lord's pasture. Do not feel sorry for anyone, for compassion comes from the devil. Be glad to communicate with good people and do not listen to demonic pretexts, as if this communication is very flawed for you 52 and as if guests only come to you to eat and drink. Remember that from communication with kind people, from conversation with them, there is a lot of benefit for the soul, and especially that it leaves its wildness and rudeness and becomes kind and soft. Even if they came to you to eat and drink, how much does a person need and is it worth thinking about? And won’t the generous Father reward everyone for them? Even if guests came to eat and drink, then even then we would be glad to see them, because we accept verbal beings, and not dumb ones, members of Christ, although perhaps they are sick - but who among us is not spiritually sick, who is not subject to passion? If someone, coming to visit you, deceives you, swears at your wealth, for example, by consuming sweets immoderately, then overcome evil with good [Rom. 12:21], bear it with meekness, with love, covering everything and conquering everything (conquer evil with good), and try not to notice it. The Heavenly Father is good to the ungrateful and evil [Lk. 6, 35], and you imitate Him, our common, supreme and eternal Father. Let all evil be seen as nothing before you. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good [Rom. 12, 21]. God is everywhere - man is a visible sign of His omnipresence: man is the image of God; Honor the image of God in every person. He who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? (1 John 4:20). Man looks on the face, but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). And you imitate the Lord: look at a person’s heart, and not at his face - whether he is rich or poor, noble or ignorant, healthy or sick, in happiness or misfortune. For man is the heart, and not his face, not his wealth, not his clothing, not his money, not his house, not even his mind, not his education. The formation of light for the most part has the wrong direction, for it mostly forms the mind and puffs it up with knowledge, without forming, without purifying the heart, without perfecting it in love for God and neighbor, and even through pride and conceit, turning it away from this love. Simple, uneducated people, without education, are better, simpler, kinder than educated people. Oh, how the devil slanderes and is angry with the poor of this world! Their faces teach us to despise God, for the poor are the same images of God. Oh dreamy appearance, how charming you are! How deceitful you are! Enlighten, Lord, the mental eyes of our hearts. He also slanders the brethren or his co-workers: such and such, he says, is a thief, a hypocrite, evil, crafty, proud, but he distracts our eyes from ourselves, from our sins, that is, and even makes us appear righteous before us. Oh, deceit, oh, lies! Oh, meanness! I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ my God, for you did not lock me up in the hands of the tempter and, through my prayer, you delivered me from his hands. How close You are, Master, to all who call You in truth. You are truly like air, always near us, above us and in us. You, as the thought of You, is always inherent in us, just as our thought is always with us; you, like the Word, are always with us, for the word, like thought, is always with us. You, as a good soul, are always with us, for our spirit is always with us. Therefore, be attentive to every thought, to every word, to every movement of your soul, so that every movement is kind, meek, and peaceful. The Lord is my light, my strength, my spiritual and material wealth (although I am not rich outwardly), my peace, my inner space, my shrine, my boldness, and I am nothing! Without Him I am an empty house, ugly, unclean, stinking. Why are we embarrassed and stumbled in prayer? Because our heart somehow deceives, or doubts something, or becomes proud, or becomes embittered towards someone, or is mentally stingy, or is afraid of something, or envies someone about something; also because we think that people will like us or that the presence of strong and noble people frightens us. It's a sin. You must be simple, just as God is simple. In a word one must distinguish three things: thought, word and its power; and these three are one in three, just as God is one in Three Persons, and this is because we are the image of the Trinity. Therefore, when you pray, for example, be careful that your words are not alien to thought and power, but, embracing each word with clear thought, place its power in your heart. Just for frequent gluttony and excess in food, how much torment and even rejection from God do I deserve? Adam and Eve once sinned by gluttony - and with all their offspring they were condemned to sorrow and illness and death itself. Wildness of heart, which is why we turn our eyes away from people, comes from the devil. You have to look everyone straight in the eye. Oh, so much trouble! How much powerlessness and struggle! My mercy, Holy Father, I thank You, for in Your Son and for the sake of Your Only Begotten Son, through my prayer, You have granted forgiveness of sins in Your peace and You have appeared to me as a very quick helper in the sorrow and oppression of my sin. Holy Father! Give me the grace to always turn to You with boldness and love, like a beloved child to his father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your most beloved Only Begotten Son. Amen. Holy Father! Take away our anger from us. Wake up! Holy Father! You see the rage and malice of demons and our heart corruption and our absent-mindedness and inattention, and his vigor and vigilance. Protect us 53 with Your holy Guardian Angels, so that we will not be offended by Satan. Look at all human weaknesses condescendingly, without malice towards those who have them, because you yourself, more than anyone else, are a person with many weaknesses and passions. Maintain yourself calmly in front of people who offend you, or who test you, or who deceive you. Conquer evil with good [Rom. 12, 21]. Otherwise, at least don’t live with people, because all people have sins. Do not suspect evil in people, which often is not in them. Look for the good side in people who are clearly hostile to you, and for the little good you notice in them, forgive them a lot of evil. There is one God without sin. Remember that you yourself have a log in your own soul; Because of your log, make peace with all your neighbors, in whose eyes you can only see a bitch and in whom, in fact, perhaps there are only minor sins. We are all a painful or, better yet, sinful scab, we are all pitiful, deplorable, that is, worthy of tears of pity and compassion, we are all darkened by meaning, we are all subject to sinful violence. We must pray for each other. Pray for one another so that you may be healed [Jas. 5, 16]. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke with sinners, and do not be shunned by sinners, you, the first sinner, may not Christ, who came into the world to save sinners, judge you. We are all like grass and we must all humbly treat our neighbors, just as grass humbly grows in a field, not despising anyone, not pushing anyone, not taking up arms against anyone. Or: we are all like leaves on a tree: each leaf knows its place, does not despise, does not push others. So are we. Rich or poor, we are all equal, all human, all in the image of God, all members of Christ. But the poor demand compassion and assistance from the rich. For this purpose, God sends His generous gifts to the rich, so that they give to the poor. And in our society there is a great misconception: the rich man thinks that wealth is his property. They have predatorily seized the gifts of God into their hands, are seduced by them, and do not help the poor. If your pride and pride forbid you to do any good deed, to say a sincere word of love, humility, forgiveness, reconciliation, then remember that by the victory of your pride you will rejoice the Heavenly Angels and your Heavenly Father Himself. Do not hesitate and do not be embarrassed to do a good deed or say a humble word. This doubt and confusion are from the devil. Do good in simplicity of heart. Do not sell a person cheaply for the evil he has done or is doing; remember that his soul is an infinite spirit, that by prayer for him, by gentle treatment of him, by admonishing him, you can make a lot out of him: you can make a good person out of an evil person. In the same way, if you help someone with material mercy and often someone bothers you with a request for assistance, do not be angry with him, do not despise him, do not consider him as nothing because of your alms: he is the image of God, a member of Christ, but put all your alms into nothing, so that Christ may magnify you, as you magnify Him in the face of the poor. Do you obey the blind, greedy, tasty and stingy, hateful, contemptuous and envious flesh, sparing food, drink, delicacies, money for your brother? Is it blind and evil flesh, which is ready to take everything into its own hands, to own everything alone, to eat and drink everything alone, without giving anything to the other, angry at everyone who does not come to us to eat and drink according to our wishes? But remember that this is the old man, that a Christian must certainly put off the old man, which is corrupted by deceitful lusts... and put on the new [Eph. 4, 22, 24], that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5, 17). Sacrifice the gifts of God’s love for us - money, delicacies, food, drink - to love for your neighbors, especially your own, and do not turn them into a reason for hatred, so as not to greatly anger the loving and generous Giver of blessings. Don’t forget that blind and evil flesh is ready to turn everything into chance, a reason for anger: someone spat - I’m ready to hate him because of the spitting, someone smokes - I’m ready to hate, someone walks a lot - the same, sings out of tune - the same, looks wrong - the same, eats and drinks a lot - the same. New creation, new creation [Gal. 6, 15]. How long will we remain old when we receive the life-giving Mysteries so often? Do we rely on bread, on food, on sweets, and not on the Lord? We are idolaters! We are gluttons, and I above all! We will not live alone on bread... [Matt. 4, 4; OK. 4, 4] – and we leave the verb of God. What kind of Christian am I? Oh, worthless flesh! Where would everything be turned into a pretext for love, but she turns everything into a pretext for malice! Ridiculous! Not knowing why she’s angry and sarcastic about herself! Rubbish! She eats and drinks every day to the point of satiety, and then she groans! (And the new creature, the new man, tastes little and is ready to share everything with others with love.) He has an addiction to food and drink, to money, and because of this he feels coldness towards God and his neighbor, and towards eternity, and towards the future fatherland, and towards the saints every day. You cannot work for God and mammon [Matt. 6, 24]. This is what greed leads to, this is what it means to spare one’s food and drink. Despising man for his bodily infirmities, we despise - I’m afraid to say - the Creator Himself, who created him for his humility with the infirmities of bodily nature, and we despise the image of God in man. Everyone must be revered in every way, and pray about weaknesses and sins, so that the Lord will deliver them from them. For an unbeliever, the holy icons of the church and household ones seem to be dead shadows, neither seeing nor hearing, but for a believer they are like living faces, seeing and hearing him; an unbeliever does not pray because he does not want to talk to the shadows (in his opinion), who do not hear or see anything - a believer sincerely prays because he knows with whom he is talking. Will he who plugs the ear not hear? and the eye that formed will not see? [Ps. 93, 9] - he whispers to himself when his thoughts tell him that no one hears or sees him. How will the heart feel the sweetness of God's love when it is burdened with food and drink and when it feels only their sweetness? The heart is one: if it loves one thing, it cannot love another. When performing services, Sacraments, prayers, when teaching the Law of God, when delivering sermons, one must be daring, courageous, cheerful, radiant, and consider the decline and gloom of the spirit to be a demonic dream and not succumb to it in any way; equally, to be above all irritability and anger towards one’s neighbor, but to be gracious and forgiving, looking in the simplicity of the heart at human weaknesses, at the abyss of weaknesses of our fallen nature, and let us also attract the abyss of God’s mercy to ourselves. Reverence the life-originating member, this path of life by which we all come into this world, and do not look at it uncleanly. All members and functions of the human body deserve all respect, as the work of God. Look at the words of the Church as pure gold. He who is ashamed of them will be ashamed himself, but in the simplicity of his heart he who pronounces them loudly will receive boldness in his heart and look cheerfully at people. The words of the Church are the words of Christ. Value every word as Christ Himself - the Word of God; If you are ashamed of the words of the Church, you will be ashamed of Christ and you will exalt the devil - the deceiving, vile, blasphemous, evil, proud, despicable. People without a heart, carnal, like me, who place all their pleasure in the beauty of the flesh and the fragrances of the flesh, are usually not lenient towards the weaknesses and carnal impurities of others, while they themselves want to be lenient towards them; they despise those subject to bodily weaknesses, for example, those who, due to a stomach illness, soil themselves, in their clothes, for example, while walking on the road or at home, whereas if this happened to them themselves, they would want this weakness or infirmity to be covered with complete indulgence and considered as nothing, as a weakness of the flesh, such as coughing, runny nose, spitting and the like. We must be pained by the weaknesses of others and feel sorry for them, and not turn their weaknesses into a reason for grief and anger at them and contempt for them. This kind of behavior signifies a devilish disposition. Love is infinitely condescending to human weaknesses, while an empty, carnal heart, an evil heart, proud and contemptuous to the extreme, is infinitely exacting towards human weaknesses, mistakes, bad habits and sins, forgetting its weaknesses, mistakes, habits, sins and considering itself as if for a sinless and perfect angel. This and similar infirmities remind us that we are earth, water and air. Man, never forget that you are pus and stench, and humble yourself, and have no attachment to anything earthly, because everything will be dust and pus. Remember that our bodies will be fertilizer to the earth, just like the fertilizer of the fields. Will you still have an addiction to the flesh after this? After this, will you have an addiction to the pleasures of the flesh, to the sweets of food and drink? After this, will you drown in voluptuousness, after this will you engage in ostentation and adornment of the flesh? After this, will you exquisitely decorate your home, knowing that the home of your flesh will be a coffin and a few arshins of space inside the earth, a dark, damp, cramped space? Oh, how we have become fussy in this life! How we have blinded the eyes of our hearts! Now I want to have a wedding - and now I feel how the evil one is crawling into my heart, into my chest and crushing me with evil despondency, embarrassment, fear, doubt. Although I know that this is a demonic darkness and it can conveniently dissipate from my faith, my hope, my boldness, as it often happened, but since I have not strengthened my spirit with preliminary prayer and abstinence, I weaken in the fight against the enemy or with incorporeal enemies, and they overcome me: I am embarrassed, in a hurry, stammer, interrupt my speech, become faint-hearted, irritated by any trifles and I become a pitiful playground for demons. At rare services the enemy often defeats me, but at frequent services I am strengthened by the grace of God, although, it is true, not completely. God! Grant me perfection in Your service. Everything that causes us to be embarrassed, doubtful, or embittered turns out, soon after completing the deed, to be a dream, trifles that we should not pay attention to. Let us hold on to the one long-suffering love, let it cover everything. Love the whole human family as yourself, and pray for it as for yourself. Honor the image of God in every person and consider all people as one. Christ is in all things and in all [Col. 3, 11]. So that you do not stumble in public prayer, read each word slowly, with your heart, and not with your tongue only, that is, with heartfelt attention, in simplicity, considering all vague, unclean, nasty, evil and blasphemous thoughts as emptiness, not worth attention. How do we look at the speeches of completely stupid and insane people? We do not give any value to their words: it makes no difference to us whether they are said or not, or as if they were not said; we look at them as the movement of the wind: the wind rushed by - and it is not there. This is how one should look at all the dreams of the devil - a deceiver, a liar, a slanderer, a blasphemer, a nasty spirit alien to all truth. The devil intensifies to destroy love between people in countless ways, but mostly through human passions, through leprosy, mistakes, human oblivion, which he teaches to do. The means to defeat his machinations is calmness and patience and love for humanity, which is raped and mutilated by the devil. What kind of person would he be, how perfect would he be, if there were no evil cause, no evil creature - the devil? After all, he was the pure image of the most pure God. So, with patience and long-suffering we must overcome all evil. Love is patient (1 Cor. 13:4). In addition, you must pay attention to yourself, your heart, and not allow any enmity, malice, envy, or impurity to arise and intensify in it. But without patience there is trouble: an evildoer can immediately plunge you into many evils and through you seduce many, for example, irritate, confuse, etc. So, he irritated me, the impatient one, yesterday during the liturgy with many (as it seemed to many) smoking incense. The burning of incense before the Cherubic Song irritates me, and that’s all: it confused me, and I didn’t read the prayer Nobody Is Worthy with all my heart... sweets (smoke, you see, is not the sweetness of the flesh, when it smokes in abundance, and there is some bitterness that you don’t want to endure) and Like the Cherubim... and then he could not speak of the royal house - because his heart was indignant and occupied with the enemy, and the whole mass afterwards he served somehow vaguely, insincerely, without boldness; He also received communion without boldness, but afterward, daring to speak a sermon with trust in God, he delivered it calmly, firmly, strongly, and calmed down, and finished the mass well, and went out in peace. It was only after Ivanov’s bailiff that he stumbled over the prayer of water and the Lord’s Prayer before the appetizer: he became confused and doubtful. The Lord seeks to freely reign in us, His creatures, His images, His members, through prayer, His word, through His Holy Mysteries, and the devil also seeks tyrannically, strengthens himself to reign in us and with force bursts, an uninvited tyrant, a predator, a thief, into our heart and sits there and plays dirty tricks on you, causing you to doubt the truth, slander and blasphemy. the truth, stumbling you, irritating you, darkening you and depriving you of peace. Oh, what an evil, violent enemy power! Oh, what a benefactor is our Savior! Let us adhere to His commandments! Our Father, who is in heaven [Matt. 6, 9]. These words point to the spirit of love that unites Christians. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another [Jn. 13, 35], - point to our sociability, that is, to churchliness, and teach us mutual Christian community. They had everything in common [Acts. 4, 32]. The word of truth is life, fruit, work, and the word of lies, that is, the devil, is death, a mere husk (without fruit), a ghost. So, for example, sometimes you take the husk of a grain of wheat or rye, oatmeal, barley and think that it is grain, but in fact it is a husk, one form of grain, a shell - and the word of the devil is more insignificant than any husk. It is the poor in Christ who deserve our full respect and love. It is in them that Christ rests primarily, who became poor for our sake and was born of a poor Virgin, who did not have the material means to rent a house in Bethlehem during childbirth and gave birth to the Divine Child in a wretched den. And that Christ rests among the poor, despised by the proud people of this world, the children and disciples of the devil, He Himself says about this: I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me [Matt. 25, 35 – 36], that is, He Himself hungers and thirsts and feeds in the poor, who are members of Christ not made with hands, spiritual, or, more precisely, Christ Himself, as it is written: Christ is all and in all [Col. 3, 11], - like in all the dewdrops illuminated by the sun, the sun shines and all of them, even if there are a million of them, are like small suns. Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me [Matt. 25, 40]: you see, in every poor person there is Christ, and Christ Himself accepts benefits. Do not look at the sins of the poor and do not judge - Christ is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world [Jn. 1, 29 ], not you. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Each one will bear his own burden [Gal. 6, 5]. Who are you, judging a stranger and not your own slave? [Rom. 14, 4]. The noblest, truest and most durable spiritual fatherland and childhood than the carnal. Parents worry about the temporary life of their children, about their temporary upbringing; spiritual fathers, teachers of the law - about the eternal, about the salvation of their souls. Remember this and do your work with zeal. Ouds (Church Slavic) – members of the body. See the prayer for the tonsure of the hair, “Sovereign Lord our God, who has honored man in Your image...” from the follow-up of the Sacrament of Baptism. Sit down (Church Glav.) – to be near something or someone, to be close. Troparion for the liturgy on Holy Saturday. So that my mouth would not speak of human affairs, I kept cruel ways, according to the words of Your mouth (translation by P. Yungerov). Prayer “Great and Most High God, worshiped of all creation...” from the Sacrament of Anointing. In vain (Church Glav.) - without reason or need, in vain. Tormenter (Church Glav.) – here: testing. Velelepota (church glory) – greatness, splendor. Smart (church glory) – spiritual, reasonable. Akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, kontakion 1st. Tochiyu (Church Glav.) – only. Prisny (Church Slavic) - a constantly close (native) person. Neklyuchim (Church Slav.) - useless, worthless. Ostenity (Church Glav.) – protect, fence. You might be interested in: