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Today I saw a humble servant of God - a pilgrim who is, as it were, living relics, who is entirely fragrant with the grace of the Holy Spirit; he speaks - and with his speech he pours sweetness into the soul. His eyes are light blue, kind, clear, gentle, his face is clean, his cheeks are somewhat sunken. He speaks in such a way that an insight into the soul was clearly visible in his words. He spoke to me about humility and kindness; He also spoke about how the patriarch confessed him in Jerusalem. He also said that we need to educate and affirm the parishioners that this is directly our duty. Christ is our one simple, eternal, endless life, who has given Himself to us in our life and all material blessings. Life has appeared, and we have seen and testify, and proclaim to you this eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us (1 John 1:2). Food, drink, wine, sweets, money, clothes, houses, festivities, theaters, clubs - this is not life, but aphids, the death of our heart, they alienate the heart that clings to them from God. All this, together with the body, must be considered rubbish and dust, trampled under foot, counted for nothing, despised. My hypostatic Life, Lord, dwells in my heart, taking away from it all attachment to earthly things and comforting me with future blessings, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor hast risen into the heart of man, and which Thou hast prepared for those who love Thee, O Lord, our Creator and Master (1 Cor. 2:9). Those who show meekness and humility before their neighbors and give him honor, to whom do they ascend, if not to God, in whose image and likeness man was created, to whom, if not to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, of Whose our neighbor is a member, albeit a weak one, bearing the wounds of sins? For He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our diseases [Matt. 8, 17]. He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the punishment of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed [Isa. 53, 5]. So, be meek and humble before everyone, honor each and every one as Christ Himself. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood (1 Pet. 2:17). Pour out your anger on the devil and on your malice, and not on your neighbor, for it is in the habit of our hearts, for no apparent reason, without any reason, or, better, with a dreamy reason, to hate our neighbor. Hate yourself alone. I had a servant of God, Andrei Matveevich Podosenov, and he told me, among other things, foreseeing my weakness, that I should not be partial to anything. Then when we achieve this, what peace will we have, undisturbed by anything! But I am partial to all things - to food, and to drink, and to money, and to differences, and to physical beauty, and to breed, and to education, or educated people. Why did I have lunch today when I didn’t have to have lunch? How good I felt before lunch and how awkward after lunch! How long will I be in shameful captivity in the womb! How long will I be enslaved to food and drink? God, have mercy on me: everything is possible for You. How long will this old beauty possess me? How long will I be the old man? How long will I not change? He who is partial to earthly goods forgets that there is heaven with eternal bliss, there is the Lord in heaven, living in unapproachable light, that he has been adopted by God in the Son of God and has received the promise of the inheritance of the future world, truly, immutably, if he continues in faith in Christ. A biased person's gaze narrows extremely and sees only what is under his nose. Give us our daily bread today - we must ask for bread sufficient to support life for this day, because the Heavenly Father cares about every day. You should eat no more food than what is needed to maintain your strength, to strengthen your strength, no more - if more, it will not be beneficial, it will be detrimental. Everyone needs to study their own nature and know how much is needed to maintain its strength - eat and drink as much. Single people especially need to remember this, that is, consume food and drink extremely moderately, because they do not deplete vital juices (for the formation of which, by the way, food is used), and the seeds of life - their strength lies in them: they need very little food; It’s good if some days they don’t eat at all. But if they have lunch and dinner every day, then: 1) they must have lunch and dinner in extreme moderation, 2) eat low-nutrient food, mostly liquid, 3) according to the amount of food they eat, work or walk in the fresh air, get rid of it; if they do not observe extreme moderation and have exercise in the fresh air, then they will feel extreme heaviness and lethargy in the soul and in the body, an inclination to sleep, an inability to pray and study the word of God and the writings of the holy fathers (even secular writers, no matter how easy they are for the flesh), in general for serious studies; they will feel in an unpleasant way the burden and excess of food taken in the body and the effort of nature to expel excess, unnecessary nutritional principles out through severe sweat or itching, through the reproductive organ or through the upper passage; they will suffer from insomnia, will not be capable of any serious business or important work that requires reflection and will bind, darken their mind, their heart and free will: the weight of the body will completely get the better of them and crush the spirit - this is what will happen from immoderation. You must be attentive to the voice of your nature and not eat when there is no urge to eat, when you feel an excess of bodily strength or nutrition. In order to eliminate everything harmful to the soul and body, reason is given to man, and everyone must understand, reflect on what and how much he needs, for example, food and drink at a certain time, and live according to reason, and not according to the blind attraction of his nature or, even worse, according to established habit: for example, every day you must have lunch or dinner at a certain time - because sometimes you can deny yourself lunch or dinner in order to maintain the balance of the forces of soul and body or for their strength and harmony. What can we say about overeating gluttons and drunkards? They are worse than senseless cattle. Oh, into what absurdities sin plunges us! Many, when they sin, lay the blame on the flesh, like Adam did on Eve, and say: my flesh, which God gave me, it deceived me, and I sinned, it led me into delicacy, satiety, drunkenness, fornication, love of money, theft - and I sinned. Oh, how many people who, indulging in intemperance and debauchery, excuse themselves by saying that they are irresistibly drawn to this by their flesh: but, they say, God gave man these aspirations, God created them with them, and thus lay their blame on God. You fools, come to your senses! Our passions do not come from God, but from the sin that lives in us, and from the devil, who deceives us - and we must fight sin; God is not the culprit of our sin, just as He was not the culprit of the sin of Adam and Eve, but our vile arbitrariness is the culprit of sin. Why do many people live abstinently and chastely? Is it not from your own good will? Is it not from the fear of God, is it not from the fear of His commandments and His Last Judgment, which they constantly remember? Whoever is married, pay attention to the fact that you do not entrust everything to your wife, as Adam did in the beginning to Eve, but follow the voice of your reason, your experience, and especially the Gospel voice of the Lord God, otherwise your wife will just slip you something like a forbidden fruit, for example, she will offer you something sweet to eat and drink when you don’t need it, and this will burden our heart and body and stop us in our work. How many husbands, having sinned, for example, in excess of food and drink, say to themselves: my wife gave me something to eat, and I ate, but if I hadn’t given it, I wouldn’t have eaten. I thank You, Holy Father, that You have given Your grace to me in Your Son and for the sake of Your Son, and You have changed me with a wondrous change during my morning meal. You delivered me from evil suspiciousness and stinginess and greed and untied my heart, which was previously bound by 20 enemy bonds. For the rest of my life, keep me in Your Son, Holy Father! Oh, how great is the corruption of my heart by the ancient serpent, how great is my wickedness and pride! Reading the letter of His Grace Metropolitan Philaret to the Emperor, I thought that the holy elder was flattering and pretending, and I inwardly despised him! I have sinned, Lord, have mercy on me! Take away, O Lord, wickedness from my hand, give me simplicity of heart, give me unchanging humility. Give me the grace not to think evil. Oh, how willful, angry and capricious I am when a sexton serves with me, especially when Orlov is a sexton! For a moment he forgot - trouble; soon sings, reads - trouble; slow - trouble; I forget my weakness, our common weakness. I myself want to be completely pleased, but I myself do not know how to please other people from the heart, especially the Lord God. And to please God and my neighbor for good is my first duty. Make me wise, Lord! Is it because of a diabolical dream, that is, because of my neighbor’s sin, that I will become embittered and despise my brother, this image of God, this member of Christ, and myself serve the evil Belial? No, I must despise my brother’s sins against me, even if there are many of them, as the dream of the devil and, like the Heavenly Father, show his goodness, mercy and generosity over his neighbor. For God, as the all-good and most generous, forgives us countless sins in Christ, tenfold talents seventy times seven, so that through the forgiveness of our neighbor’s sins we destroy the malice of the devil and bring judgment to the Lord over our offenders. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord [Rom. 12, 19]. However, I will pray to the Lord that He will have mercy on them, enlighten them and correct them. The flesh says: pity yourself, do not pity others; the spirit says: do not feel sorry for yourself, feel sorry for others, deny yourself - give to your neighbor, cause grief for yourself - please your neighbor, bypass yourself - find your neighbor. The Spirit says: the love of the Heavenly Father has prepared these blessings for my neighbors, as well as for me; the flesh says: these blessings should exist only for me, and is ready to take possession of everything alone. I thank You, Holy Father, for You heard my prayer in my sinful oppression and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, You granted forgiveness of sins and victory over the passions that tormented me. Give me the grace to always run in simplicity of heart under Your protection, All-merciful, most merciful and generous Father, and to rejoice greatly in Your salvation. What kind of work is it to resort to the Father, filled with love, with prayer for help and intercession? If He did not spare His Son for us sinners, but gave Him up for us all, then how will He not give us everything with Him? [Rom. 8, 32]. So, let us all who are raped by manifold passions take refuge under the protection of our Heavenly Father and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ask Him for all that is good. Who, tell me, evil person, gave you the right to judge the thoughts of the hearts of others and think that such and such a person, who speaks good, speaks insincerely, not from the heart, hypocritically? Tell me, how dare you think this about a man known to everyone for his virtue, about a man blessed by Divine grace and an elderly man? How do you think this, evil one, about the Holy Father? Is there anything sacred for you after this? Take away wickedness from your soul, take away your pride and your malice. God, cleanse me, a sinner! Do not lose heart after any sin, intentional or unintentional, for loss of spirit, or despondency, cowardice, is a new sin that kills the spirit of a person and constitutes the joy of the devil. A Christian must always trust and be courageous and generous, hoping in Christ - the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and gives us peace and great mercy. Loss of spirit spoils the whole thing. You stumbled, fell - and now get up, do not lose heart for a moment, for such is the malice of the devil that he who has fallen through weakness or carelessness, imprudence, lack of preparation for the task or through passion, through violence into sin, is immediately frightened by the sin he has committed and intensifies to plunge him into despondency, cowardice, and despair. The evil is indescribable! But the goodness of the Lord is endless for those who trust in Him! The Lord Jesus Christ, by His suffering and death and in general by His incarnation and His earthly, all-humble life, earned us all, the entire human race, forgiveness of countless sins under the condition of faith in Him and repentance for sins and countless grace for victory over sin and death, resurrection from the dead and eternal bliss in heaven; the bounties of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit are endless. Now - how do we use these bounties, how do we try to make others, our brothers, Orthodox Christians, of whom there are many ignorant and lawless or immersed in paganism, Mohammedanism, Judaism, heirs of these bounties of the Lord? And we ourselves make little use, we think little about the heavenly things, and we do not try to attract others to the eternal kingdom on high, interceded by the blood of the Son of God. And the devil often inspires in us despair in God’s mercy, slandering that God is stingy with mercy (while His generosity to sinners is endless), and torments the sinner’s heart with hopelessness and despair. Poor sinners! Consider these thoughts of the evil one, tormenting your heart, as the dream of the evil one, and never lose heart, but add hope to hope! The fruits of the resurrection of Christ: the resurrection of the Mother of God, the acceptance into eternal rest of the apostles, saints, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries and righteous people who worked here for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, especially for the sake of the Lord, for the purification of their souls - this image of God. All of them, through constant activity, prayer, abstinence, vigil, contemplation, ascended to their Prototype and united with It, just as the sun unites all the light visible during the day in creatures, as air unites with air, fire with fire, smoke with smoke. The key to the immeasurable merits of Christ, to the inexhaustible treasury of His Divine gifts and mercy is faith in Him; to instill faith in people. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit... And now and ever and unto ages of ages. Send glory by deed and word, remember that God is eternal and that you yourself are eternal in your soul as the image of God and will be eternally blessed if your life is for the glory of God, and will suffer forever if it is a dishonor to God. If anyone has an addiction to sweets and spares them for his neighbor and because of them enmity against a person, he is a slave of the devil and an adversary of the Spirit of God, like Judas - after all, even now one can betray the Lord because of the love of money and lust, as Judas once betrayed, for in all Christians even now is Christ: Christians are His living and personal members, His brethren: everyone and Christ in all [Col. 3, 11]. Therefore, we must try hard to live in love, meekness and humility and cut off evil lust, covetousness and gluttony and try to please God and our neighbor for the good. We, the strong, must endure the weaknesses of the powerless and not please ourselves... For Christ did not please himself [Rom. 15, 1–3], and treat everyone with simplicity and kindness of heart. Wake up! Sometimes severity with boldness is also needed, for cowardly silence is a sin. Another complains that the entrance to his house is not good, or that one of the two doors was closed due to the loss of the lock and handle, but his own house of heart is not good, the doors to his heart are locked by pride, malice, stinginess, and hardness of heart. What should you care about more? Let your heart be established in the one Lord and in no case be divided between the world and God, between the Spirit and matter, between the earthly and the heavenly. Confirm your heart in meekness, impartiality, kindness, purity, simplicity. Having the God-given incorruptible food of the Body and Blood of the Lord, despise all earthly food, value them at nothing with your heart, [precisely] do not become attached to them, for through sensual poison, through love and addiction to it, we fell into sin and were united with the devil, and because earthly food is perishable, but we are eternal and called to eternal life; Through addiction to earthly sweets, even now the devil combines with himself the greedy, and alienates and torments us from Christ, the true life. God’s gaze is not your own, do not have a worldly gaze on everyone and everything. Wild, sinful discord between word and deed, mind and heart due to damage to the primitive. Educators, preachers, and pastors should pay attention to this. How to unite, reconcile, bring spiritual forces into harmony? Every mentor starts with himself. The devil is a divider, a corrupter of the spiritual forces of both individuals and entire societies. Let them all be one [Jn. 17, 21] – both mental powers (everyone has a soul and body), and all people among themselves! Great words! Even more exercise them! The kindness of a beggar boy: out of cruelty I tore his hair out, but he bore this daring act of mine with kindness and still did not lag behind me, caressed me. The excuse for pulling his hair was that he was inciting another boy to buy wine and drink. Teach me, Lord, childish kindness. Do not lose heart from any sinful fall and do not add another sin to sin. Fall - and immediately get up immediately. Help, Lord! Why did I stumble greatly during the liturgy on August 5th? Because on the evening before Sunday I ate immoderately: I drank two glasses of tea with oval buns and ate a plate of cabbage soup with meat, while two glasses were enough for me. Take care of the vessel of your body, if for nothing else, then for the fact that it is the receptacle of the Divine waste - the Body and Blood of the Lord; in addition, the body is the house of the immortal soul, created in the image and likeness of God, and the abode and church of the Holy Trinity. Help, Lord! Remind me, Lord! Save, Lord! I constantly make mistakes in eating and drinking: instead of eating and drinking to maintain strength and health, I eat and drink for pleasure and therefore I am always almost satiated and burden myself. Oh, foolishness! You should never drink more than two glasses in the morning. Holy Father! I thank You, because yesterday You heard me calling You and You delivered me several times from the violence of my passions for the sake of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who sought immeasurable grace for me from You. Holy Father! For the sake of Your Only Begotten Son, do not let me perish! Behold, you see how the enemy seeks my destruction! Do you see his slander, intrigues, dirty tricks, embarrassment, insurance, darkness, oppression! In the Old Testament, man corrupted the commandment of the Lord and therefore corrupted himself and all mankind and plunged the whole earth into illness, sorrow and death - in the New Testament, man was renewed by the most pure Blood of the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ. This is My Blood of the New Testament [Matt. 26, 28]. By Jesus Christ our ignorance is enlightened, by His sufferings we are paid for our temporary and eternal sufferings, by His death our death is overcome, by His resurrection we are resurrected and raised to incorruptible life. By His ascension we are lifted up and seated with Him in heavenly places. What is the purpose of studying Old Testament history and New Testament history? – To show in one way how man corrupted himself and everything with him; in the New Testament - how man is renewed: talk about the Renovator, about His life, preaching, miracles, prophecies, the Last Supper, suffering, death on the cross, resurrection and ascension into heaven, about the renewal of man. Saints... relics... about the future renewal of the whole world. Behold, I make all things new [Rev. 21, 5]. How to achieve the update? – By fulfilling the commandments of Christ, participating in the Sacraments of the Church, especially in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ (eating My flesh... [John 6:56]), abstinence and fasting, prayer, as the Lord indicated in His life. Help, Lord! From the tree - the forbidden fruit that killed me; And from the tree was also the bread of life, who quickened me and gave me eternal life—Jesus Christ. On the tree is a deceiving serpent, who deceived Eve and Adam with vain and false words; on the tree is our Truth, our Enlightener, who enlightened us all with the word of truth and revived us, charmed by the 21 flattery of the enemy. All of me, my whole life from my mother’s womb until now, is a manifestation of God’s mercy, great and immeasurable: God created, knitted me in my mother’s womb, reborn me by the washing of rebirth 22 in Baptism; raised me, raised me, fed me, clothed me, kept me, enlightened and is enlightening me; cleansed and cleanses my sins, forgave and forgives me without number; brought me closer to the throne of grace, clothed me with the grace of the priesthood, feeds me with the priceless, heavenly broth of His flesh and blood and with them cleanses, enlightens, pacifies, spreads me, bestows boldness before Himself and before people and youths who study. What shall I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid? [Ps. 115, 3]. – I myself must be merciful to [the co-worker], I must be all love for God and His image - man, all long-suffering, meekness, holiness, obedience, self-control, spirit, and not flesh. I am not, I must say, but Christ is in me; there is no my will - there is Christ’s will; I have nothing of my own—everything is God’s. Not only should you not spare anything for a person, but you should be ready and joyfully lay down your soul for him. Treat everyone this way. In every neighbor there is Christ. Never betray your neighbor for sweets, for money, for substance. For man is immeasurably more valuable than matter. Spare no sacrifices of love for him. Remember that you, who partake of the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God without blemish, must yourself be a lamb of meekness and gentleness, and a lamb without blemish, and try your best to be like that. Lord help me! Do not feed your flesh with tasty dishes and do not give it a lot to eat and drink: it will turn these food-sweets into fornication and into a cooling of the heart towards God and neighbor, into blasphemy against God, into pride, malice, envy. When she bothers about a tasty table, know that she wants to fornicate: she is a fornicator - resist her all your life, observing simplicity and moderation in food. When she is greedy for sweets and spares them for others, know that she is worried about herself, about sin and about the distance of your soul from God. Despise her: she wants to be despondent, she forces you - don’t be despondent, but be courageous and trustworthy; if he wants to get angry, wants to envy and forces you - don’t be angry and don’t envy, don’t serve the devil, be glad that your brothers, your sisters in Christ eat and drink from you, use what you have. Everything must be done contrary to the flesh and worldly corrupt customs. If he says: we need our own, our relatives are poor, say: in Christ we are all relatives, I do not consider flesh and blood as kinship for the sake of Christ, but I consider everyone as one spiritual body. Glory to You, Lord Jesus, who has given me the grace to unfalteringly perform, although in weakness of spirit and body, Your Divine Liturgy and to partake without condemnation into the world of my spiritual powers of Your Divine Mysteries - Your Body and Blood. I thank You, for You have made me glad with Your face with peace and joy. Lord, I thank You, for through my prayer You took away the sin of heartfelt anger towards Your poor children, and again 23 Your peace, which had forsaken me, You gave me. God! Make me a lamb, as the Lamb of God, take away the sins of the whole world. I myself take as much sweets as I want - and I must leave it to others to take as much as they want, for both me and my neighbor have conquered the whole earth; not to humiliate the dignity of a person, to reverence him as the image and likeness of God, to be ready to joyfully make sacrifices of love for him, willingly giving him from his property, enduring for him labors, worries, worries, and deprivations. We ate, rested - then what? You have to go show yourself and see people - and then? – Drink, then play an instrument or read a magazine, novel, newspaper, then smoke. Should I go and see if there are any poor, hungry, naked, ragged, wretched people in order to help them? We are not there for this. How can you lower your soul and body to this? - These are brutes, parasites. Meanwhile, who exactly are these brutes? – Christ is hungry, naked, poor. That's what Christians do. But they are filled with the gifts of God, they are sated, dressed to the point of luxury, they do not spare money on wine, on cards, on tobacco, on the best tea and coffee. The Lord Jesus truly is peace and joy in my heart and health in my body. Through Him I became peaceful and healthy after receiving the uncondemned communion. September 6, 1865. And for my sister Anna, for her weaknesses, my Savior suffered, and Christ is in her. Dream September 7, 1865. Have mercy on her infirmities. Are you busy? What kind, you ask? By restoring the image of God in yourself, and if you are truly wise, then you can do it in others, for this is our most important work on earth - to drive out sin and the devil from ourselves and, through obedience to the will of God, to become a servant of God. Apply this to the history of the Old and New Testaments, to the Catechism, to worship and to the history of the Orthodox Church. To unite all these sciences with unity of thought, idea and purpose. Christ is in all things and in all [Col. 3:11]: Christ dwells in the saints forever, but sometimes He does not dwell in us, that is, when sin reigns in us. Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith [Eph. 3, 17]. Countless, dreamy pretexts of the evil one for anger, pride, vanity and contempt of one’s neighbor, for embarrassment, fear, despondency and cowardice, and all these pretexts are a dream. We must turn all of them into pretexts, into occasions for love, meekness and humility and helpfulness towards one’s neighbor, for courage and boldness and trust in God. Be wise, Lord! There are many more pretexts for stinginess - we need to turn them into occasions, pretexts for generosity. You don’t have to be partial to anything, says the wanderer Andrei Podosenov: how calm we would be if we weren’t partial to anything! He also said how the patriarch confesses intelligently, confesses with the Holy Spirit, freely, and not slavishly, treats confession, with the freedom of the Holy Spirit. Anger must be driven out of the heart in every possible way. You have to trust in God - everything will work out. The right of a priest and teacher of the law to bless is his inalienable right, and especially in school he should not abandon it, but bless the children and force them to kiss his hand. This is due respect. Honor your father [Exod. 20, 12]... Priests honor Him [Sir. 7, 31]. The reluctance of children to take a blessing from a priest-teacher of the law hides: 1) disrespect for his person, 2) disbelief in the grace of blessing, in the grace of Christ, in the grace of the priesthood (of Christ): through the priesthood, Christ God sanctifies everyone, and our sanctification is the goal of His incarnation, teaching, His Sacraments, suffering, resurrection and ascension into heaven. The great person on earth is the priest of Christ. Jews, Mohammedans, pagans cannot have priests, Lutherans and Protestants or the English also, in fact, do not have a priesthood, for the mutually accepting apostolic grace 24 imparted to us through ordination has long been stopped among them. That is why they do not have obvious signs of shrines: holy relics and holy miraculous icons, no people shining with Christian life, no seers, no people filled with the Holy Spirit or His miraculous gifts. Holy Father!.. Sanctify them with Your truth; Your word is truth... And for them I consecrate Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth [Jn. 17, 17–19]. You see by whom and how we deserve the priesthood. Spiritual children, for example, pupils, are higher than carnal children, more expensive. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit [Jn. 3, 6]. We are wanderers here: no matter how long we live, we must certainly get ready there, to the fatherland. It’s good in a foreign land, but better at home. If you try to live according to God, according to His commandments, then the devil will try to turn all your weaknesses into evil for you and into disgust from God and your neighbor: whether you love sweets, money, elegant clothes or other things - for others this is not a problem, for those who are still in childhood or adolescence, or in manhood, but do not try to live according to God (they allow themselves everything and find pleasure and joy in it), - for you it is free, without sorrow will not be enough: no, no, and the evil one will hurt you with the same sweets, money, clothes through an evil addiction to them, through one thought, one movement of the heart. Repent from your heart, consider them as rubbish, and they will leave you, and the Lord, who loves you to the point of jealousy, will have mercy on you, holy and righteous jealousy, for the Lord does not want you to cleave to anything other than Him. He is your life, He is your treasure. With what love my wife takes care of me everywhere! But how the Lord protects me is impossible to imagine: with unspeakable love and wisdom, truth and mercy, he protects me for eternity, cleansing me from sin, like a poison that has penetrated all of me and is intensifying to forever reject me from God and destroy me. The Lord, loving me, punishes me, grieves me temporarily, but delights me forever, beats me, and rewards me. Glory to Thee, Lord! All of the worldly things and customs for which a person has a passion and because of which he leaves his God in his heart are idols; That’s why Christians have many idols: the educated have theirs, the uneducated have theirs: the educated have secular magazines, novels, newspapers (because of them the word of God, prayer, the church of God are abandoned), theaters, clubs, visits, fashionable dresses, wines, sweets, dancing, cards, cigars, cigarettes; the uneducated have their own: gluttony, drunkenness, fraud, etc. Oh, man of God! Cling to God: He is your life and the Giver of all good things. Always walk before the face of the Lord like a son before his father and be afraid to anger His immeasurable goodness. I thank You, Lord, for now at mass and vespers you have granted the whole royal house to speak freely and fearlessly. I thank You, for now you have saved me many times from my passion for sweets, and as a ghost you have given them to me, and with the desire and disposition of the heart of your neighbor, to whom you have given the whole earth into power, you have been worthy to receive and treat... Lord, what did you teach in the Old Testament and New Testament history that I am partial to the sweets and goods of the earth and am stingy? – Jews in the desert, Elijah the prophet. Creation from nothing. I thank You, Most Pure and Most Blessed Lady, for You have made me wise to call upon You with reverence and for You have strengthened my heart to calmly, unfailingly, loudly speak out to the royal house at the Great Litany during Vespers. Glory to Your sweetest name, Jesus, who saved me from the oppression of the enemy during evening prayer! September 8. The true bread is the Body of Christ and His Blood, because He is the truth itself - Christ and because true life is established in the hearts of those who worthily receive it; ordinary bread is untrue, because it is used falsely, in excess, and not the truth, but a lie establishes in the heart (and in every [excess] food the devil, the father of lies, nests) and because the devil deceives people with food and drink and instills in them the false use of it. When you become angry with your neighbor, always blame yourself, not him, and immediately repent of your anger: the enemy constantly presents the emptiest pretexts for anger towards your neighbor. – You turn everything into a pretext for love. On the way to heaven, our true Fatherland, the first and ever-present, insidious, irreconcilable enemy is our own flesh. It is necessary to crucify her, to fight against her, not to trust her, to despise her. What are the works of the flesh? Pride, malice, gluttony, greed, envy, stinginess, love of money, self-pleasing, nasty, evil and blasphemous thoughts, laziness, idleness and absent-mindedness, alienation from God, negligence about the salvation of the soul, cooling towards our neighbors, contempt, disobedience - or is it from our accursed heart and from our darkened mind? Is it not these ghosts: sweets, money, clothes, distinctions, etc. that separate me from God and my neighbor? Why am I still chasing after them, glorifying them for great things? Do they not cool me towards God and my neighbor, make me gloomy, sad, despondent, gloomy? Why don’t I rate them worse than any dung (feces)? Why don’t I despise them (I don’t pass them by with my sight, I don’t pay attention)? Who are you, who show your father his deeds? How can you see the mote in your brother’s eye, but you don’t see the log in your own? Who are you, so impatient that you don’t want to endure the tobacco smoke from him, which is not without some pleasantness, reproaching him? Come to your senses. - I came to my senses and repented: the Heavenly Father in His Son had mercy on me, a sinner. September 9, 1865. My flesh is terribly picky, dissatisfied with everything and judgmental: it’s as if others are doing everything wrong, but it’s as if everything is fine, or at least there’s nothing wrong, but others are a disaster: I need to reprimand, reprimand. I thank you, righteous Father, for you have kept me in peace during the table through my prayer. Holy Father, do not leave me for the sake of Your Only Begotten Son, whose most pure Body and Blood are in me and in Him I am. Always listen to me and save me. My simple being is sacred, truth, love, peace. If sin comes to you, say: my being is holy, how can I do something contrary to it? If there is malice, say: my being is grace, I cannot be evil, like the devil; if there is confusion, say: my being is peace, why should I worry? The Lord is my belly, He is everything to me. How do people indulge in gluttony in the world? Sometimes they eat and drink all day long: first in the morning they drink tea, then coffee, then they have breakfast, then they have lunch, then again coffee, smoking, in the evening - tea, snacks, sweets. I have sinned, been lawless, untruthful before You, Lord! 25 Have mercy on us! Do not have a passion for anything earthly, because where there is a passion for earthly things, there is hatred of one’s neighbor, pride, envy, stinginess, greed, gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, coldness towards God and one’s neighbor, unbelief and other sins. Pray more often with the words of the Compline prayer: Sovereign Lord! Tame the desire of the passions, extinguish the kindled arrows of the evil one, even flatteringly driven towards us, quench our flesh’s rebellion and put to rest all our earthly and material wisdom and grant us, O God, a cheerful mind, a chaste thought, a sober heart... raise us up during prayer to be confirmed in Your commandments and the memory of Your judgments to always be steadfast 26. You must be a great sinner that the devil finds in your heart every day and hour a place for his anger, pride, envy, stinginess, waywardness, stubbornness, disobedience; You must be no better than the beast, if not worse. – Be a lamb following the example of Christ. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls [Matt. 11:29], that is, when you are meek and humble. How meek was Christ? Being slandered, He did not slander each other; while suffering, he did not threaten, but handed it over to the Righteous Judge (1 Pet. 2:23). And what insignificant insults we have to endure in comparison with Christ’s! They take our sweets, money, etc., but we have nothing of our own - everything is God's: God gave and God has taken, but it is true, He will never leave us according to His false promise: I will not leave you and will not forsake you [Heb. 13, 5]. They slander you unjustly - rejoice, remembering that they also slandered your Christ; They beat you unjustly - they beat Christ too and tortured you to a blasphemous death. I thank You, Lord Jesus, for You have made me worthy to perform the Divine Liturgy and You have covered all my sins and pacified me. I thank You, for You have made me worthy to partake of Your Holy Mysteries for the remission of sins and for the peace of my spiritual strength, and for lightness, and sweetness, and freedom. Behold the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding [Phil. 4, 7 ]! God! I thank You for Your all-powerful, magnificent and majestic help to me during classes and in general for Your mighty looking after me until now during worship, both at school and in my home. The cross is placed on the person being baptized for this purpose (in addition to what is said in the Catechism) to mean that his birth by water and the Spirit and renewal are the fruit of the merits of the Savior, who suffered, died and rose again, and that they are imputed to him as a member of Him; also that he is henceforth under the special protection of the Crucified One. This is also what the sign of the cross means in prayer. The poor in spirit are those who constantly see themselves filled with sins and firmly realize that without God they not only cannot do anything good, they cannot even think good and, like beggars, they constantly ask God for all good things and, having received whatever good they may have, thank God for everything. Our all-evil flesh, or the most evil one operating within us, has so many pretexts for enmity against our neighbor - and all the material or carnal pretexts: what should serve as an incentive to mutual love, we (or he) turn, through its poisonous whispering, into a reason for embitterment towards our neighbor, for example, the material gifts of the Lord. Christians are more willing to deal with shops and merchants, buying various luxury items (rarely just basic clothing), but not in houses or in shelters of poverty and not with the poor, whom they look down on and with contempt as vagabonds, parasites, crafty people, as unclean dogs whom they are afraid to touch. O pride of this world! Oh, the flattery of wealth! Oh, the contempt for the image of God is mutual - both in the poor and in oneself! Oh, how the devil curses through the sons of this age (from them I, a great sinner), curse the images of God and through them God Himself! Oh, how he removed us from the commandment of God: love your neighbor as yourself [Matt. 19, 19]. In fulfillment of the Savior’s commandment: repent... we ask at each service: the rest of the time... end in repentance... When praying, we must remember our heartfelt attention and the power of prayer, the power of every word: this power must be assimilated by the heart. You despise the Church, but she still remains your mother, having given birth to you in the waters of baptism with the Holy Spirit, vigilantly concerned about your salvation and praying for you day and night; you despise her, but she silently preaches that man is deified through the incarnation of the Son of God and the Sacrament of Communion and calls everyone to this deification, to the eternal glory and sight of God in heaven and the enjoyment of the eternal joys of the Heavenly Kingdom. You left her, but she doesn't leave you. Sinful flesh wants our piece to be bigger, better and sweeter, and our neighbor’s to be smaller and worse; the flesh rejoices when we get a good piece, and is annoyed that our neighbor got the same or bigger and better. That's how ugly it is! But everything is God’s gifts, gifts of His love, and for our sins we deserve not a clean stream of air, not a good piece of bread, not a sip of clean water. The flesh becomes satiated - the spirit wants to fast; the flesh becomes angry with a person for no reason at all - the spirit is kind to every person, even animals. The flesh rejoices at a good, full measure of something, when this measure goes entirely in its favor, and grieves when a good and full measure is measured out to a neighbor, especially when it is taken away from its property. The flesh uses everything good and pleasant for itself, although it is harmful for it, as long as it doesn’t get this pleasant thing, [or gets it in the smallest quantity, to its neighbor], and the spirit wants to share everything pleasant all the more with others, the more certain things are pleasant, tasty, and it itself does not like to enjoy the gifts of God alone, loving its neighbor as itself, considering itself unworthy to alone use the gifts of God’s love, created in common for everyone, considering itself those who deserve the smallest amount of God's gifts, only the essential ones, so as to live and not die. The flesh rejoices over a good, full measure of something, when this measure goes entirely in its favor, and grieves when a good and full measure is measured out to a neighbor, especially when it is allocated from its property. The flesh uses everything good and pleasant for itself, although it is harmful for it, as long as it doesn’t get this pleasant thing, [or gets it in the smallest quantity, to its neighbor], and the spirit wants to share everything pleasant all the more with others, the more certain things are pleasant, tasty, and it itself does not like to enjoy the gifts of God alone, loving its neighbor as itself, considering itself unworthy to alone use the gifts of God’s love, created in common for everyone, considering itself those who deserve the smallest amount of God's gifts, only the essential ones, so as to live and not die. God! Take away from me the greedy and insatiable heart and grant me, in simplicity, goodness and generosity of heart, to always sit at Your table, in Your pasture, for we are all sheep of Your pasture. Grant me, O Lord, the one heavenly meal of Your hunger, which abides in the eternal belly [Jn. 6, 27]. God! Give me the grace to joyfully serve You, my Savior and Benefactor, in the person of Your poor and those Christians whom You will in one way or another command to serve me from their possessions or through my word and example. Give me also the grace to stand freely in the teaching chair, like a father among children, calmly and with humble importance; give me the gift of speech, give me much strength in words, give me everything useful to teach to Your people and Your servants. According to the law of Christ, we must despise our flesh with passions and lusts and love our neighbor, but we do the opposite - we despise our neighbor because of the flesh and love our flesh with passions and lusts, we are proud, we are stingy, we are angry, we indulge in covetousness. Chew it yourself, give what you chewed to the parishioners. And then today I created a heresy based on someone else’s book. Take your time, think and judge for yourself what you say, so as not to create absurdities. I thank you, Lord God, Father Almighty, for you have had mercy on me and you have heard my tearful prayer! My sin was grave, but it is not a sin to bear, conquering Your love for mankind 27 . September 12, 1865. Lord Jesus Christ, my God, I thank You, because last night at the evening table, through the prayer of faith and hope, You delivered me from my cowardice, despondency and sadness about my unintentionally committed sin against Your endless shrine of imputing You with the lawless. May my sin never be remembered, O my Lord! May my heart not remember him! May I henceforth be careful when I speak the words of others. As a result of His suffering and death for the human race, Jesus Christ became for us an inexhaustible treasury of spiritual and even physical blessings, from which every believer can draw as much as he needs according to his faith, zeal and love for the Savior: Jesus, inexhaustible treasure, says the Holy Church in the akathist to the Sweetest Jesus 28; in the name of Jesus Christ, a believer can find deliverance from all evils, from all sinful passions that overwhelm and oppress his soul, the supply of all blessings - spiritual enlightenment, peace, boldness or courage, joy, long-suffering, meekness, unfeigned love, strength to do good. So, are you poor in love for God and your neighbor, do you often feel in yourself a storm of anger, envy, stinginess, greed, covetousness - fall with faith to your Savior, in every place that exists, reveal to Him with all sincerity and truth your weakness, your malice, your passion nesting in you, recognize your madness, your delusion unfeignedly, with the whole depth of your heart - then humbly and earnestly, with hope and love, ask the Savior, who is rich in love for fallen humanity, for victory over your passions, over your pride, your pride, anger, etc., tell Him that I myself am powerless against them, I cannot do anything to eradicate them: Help me Yourself to eradicate them, with You I can do everything. You speak and they will disappear. Only Your name will appear, only Your name will shine in my heart, and it will suddenly cleanse my soul from corrupting passions, as all those who truly believe in You and call upon You in truth have experienced this, as I, writing these words, have experienced this a thousand times. So, my brother, I have shown you the spiritual treasury of countless blessings - the sweetest name of the Lord Jesus, but to this treasury you need the spiritual key of faith: only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His infinite merits before the infinite righteousness of the Heavenly Father [is able] to give to believers who repent and ask all the blessings of the soul and, I do not hesitate to say, of the body as needed, for example, health, contentment, prosperity in business, for He Himself said: Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (external blessings) will be added to you [Matt. 6, 33]. So, my brother, do you believe with all your heart in the Only Begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, for our sake as a man and for our salvation, who came down from heaven and became incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became human, crucified for us on the cross under Pontius Pilate and suffered, and was buried, and descended into hell, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven 29, and sent down from the Father the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Life-Giving Lord, to those who believe in Him, and in Him poured out on them all the treasure of Divine grace and the cleansing of sins, living faith and living hope in God, and fiery love, as befits, for the Lord, Who is immaterial fire, and love for each other, enlightenment souls, peace that surpasses any mind, freedom from sin, courage, fearlessness of spirit and Divine wisdom, in the light of which they despised this world as rubbish, as nothing, and with all their hearts loved the heavenly, spiritual, eternal blessings prepared from the creation of the world for those who love God? If you believe in the Lord like this, then you have everything with your faith, and if you don’t have it, then quickly acquire faith. How, you ask? - Diligent prayer, patience with temptations. However, just ask earnestly from the Lord for faith - He Himself knows how to give it to you. People are not ours - God's; How can we want to be both masters and judges over them and rule over them in our own way, when the Lord does not restrict their freedom? Unreasonable. Everyone will give an answer to God for themselves, everyone’s sin will return to their depths if they do not correct themselves, and we must know ourselves most of all, and pray for our neighbors, so that God Himself will correct them, have mercy and save them, as He corrects, has mercy and saves us; we must remember the abyss of our sins. Brothers-in-law are our own, our own members, our own flesh and blood, all the more so we must love and take care of them, and not spare anything essential for them. To hate and despise everything earthly, so that you can love your neighbor, so that you can love the poor or frequent guests who eat and drink with us without fail and not be upset with them, and not disturb them and yourself. When guests come to your table, try not to sit, but to stand before them like Abraham, in order to show them greater honor as living images and children of God, and to show by this your service to them, your humility before them, for everything is God’s, not ours, and the guests are doing us a favor by eating and drinking with us. If you have to love your enemies, then what do I deserve, what kind of punishment, when I hate those who are not my enemies and have not done me any harm? And it’s all from satiety, - the damned one became proud, while there is nothing of his own. Good God! Have mercy on me! We change our dresses very often, putting aside the old ones and putting on new ones, but the soul is still dressed in old, unclean, sinful rags. To renew your soul, dress it with the clothing of virtues! Or is it none of our business? Let us begin to walk in newness of life [Rom. 6, 4]. Even though our outer man decays, yet our inner man is renewed all the days... If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 4:16; 5:17). I create all things new [Rev. 21, 5]. Beware of hatred towards your brother, that is, towards every neighbor, and if you see a person coming towards you, towards whom for some reason you were and are now not disposed, immediately say a sincere greeting to him, get up if you are sitting, and bow to him, so that Satan does not tempt you with your dislike for your brother. Do not be ashamed to bow to your brother, no matter how closely you look at him or get used to him: he is the image of God, a member of Christ and a child of God. Warn one another in respect [Rom. 12, 10]. May love and unanimity always reign among the inheritance of God. Let everything with you be done with love (1 Cor. 16:14). Forgive us, Lord, the sins of self-love, pride, bitterness, envy, stinginess regarding our neighbors, these sins that often repeat among us, raising Your righteous anger against us. Grant us, as Your children, to live in kindness and simplicity of heart. Eat less, drink as little coffee and tea as possible. This has a connection with love or dislike for one's neighbor. Passions nest comfortably in a well-fed person, while a moderate or somewhat hungry person is humble. Don't be a self-image 30 . For the proud, all high authorities are nothing, but for the humble, every person is honored, even the last beggar. But how absurd this pride is! In the absence of a person or persons whom she does not honor, she is proud before them in words and in her heart, and in their presence she becomes cowardly and frightened; or he neglects his acquaintances and relatives, and respects strangers, of course, until he gets used to them, and then the same will happen to them. How fickle and fickle the sinful soul is! How unsteady she is in goodness. How she does not know how to respect and love her neighbor as herself. All Christians daily drink tea and make money, but they do not expect the resurrection of the dead and the future life: sweet hot tea drowned their hope for a future life. To this was added wine and tobacco. Here are four strong figures against the Hereafter! This is our Christian life, that is, anti-Christian, pagan! Many people only think about tea, wine and tobacco; they only enjoy them. Reveal in sermons the contrast between worldly life and Christian life, the customs of the world with church customs. The end of both shows. No one talks to her sister-in-law at home - so she chats for her own pleasure or out of boredom, like a parrot. Why don’t I rejoice in the well-being of my neighbor as I do my own, for example, when I give a good reward to the doctor for his visits? After all, he is my neighbor, my heart, my friend, my treasure! How many feelings of love and gratitude may be hidden in it! How can it be useful in case of need, according to the dispensation of the all-good God, Who righteously measures to us in the measure with which we measure! [...]. Be like a stranger and a stranger in your home, and not like a master, alone ruling over everyone and over your possessions, for there is one owner and Lord of everyone and everything - the Lord Jesus Christ, from those who brought everything into being. Holy Father! I thank Thee, for yesterday, through my prayer, Thou didst grant the great blessing of forgiveness of the sin of doubting me in Thy grace, and Thou didst banish my oppression, and again Thou didst grant peace, space and joy of heart in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. September 16, 1865 Everything in this temporary life is composed and then decomposed, everything [visible and invisible], all types and kinds of creatures - it is clear that the world itself will have to decompose in due time, because it too is a complex being. What is visible is temporary, but what is invisible is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Our soul - an eternal, God-like being - must despise everything temporary and material, especially since it greatly removes the unloving soul, partial to earthly things, from God and from eternal life and puts us in enmity with God and our neighbors. It is better to give the extra piece to your neighbor, and leave the worse one for yourself, in order to humble your flesh and show love and respect for the priceless image of God on earth - man, for whom the whole earth, to whom the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ gave Himself as food and drink. The sweeter and more abundantly our flesh feeds, the more it becomes self-loving, proud, evil, irritable, an opponent of God and neighbor, the more it regrets for the neighbor and for God Himself what is pleasant to it, with which it itself enjoys and is satiated. Remember often that man is the living image of the Living God on earth, God’s vicegerent on earth. With love, endure his weaknesses, his sins and pray for him to a generous God. With love and joy, give him everything he needs within your power. September 16, 1865. Not as I want, but as You want [Matt. 26, 39]. People would like to do everything according to their own will or for others to do according to their will. This is a delusion of the mind and heart. We must subordinate our will to the will of our elders, parents, spiritual fathers, and superiors, if it agrees with the will of God, and not follow our own will, which is sinful and corrupt. We must renounce our carnal, sinful freedom and restrain ourselves in order to fulfill the will of God. Narrow path, enter into the stomach. Hence - slavery to God: you must enslave yourself to God, crucify your flesh with passions and lusts - and carnal freedom, and gluttony, and pride, and malice, and envy, and stinginess, and covetousness, and disobedience with stubbornness, and wickedness, and blasphemy, and fornication, and drunkenness, and theft, and riotous living. A greedy person like me suspects others of greed. Meanwhile, who is more greedy than me? No one really. I thank Brother Konstantin. Family treats and consolation should always be provided to him and other brothers-in-law willingly. After all, they are brothers and members of Christ and images of God. Everything is common, not mine - I myself am not worth anything. God sends for them. The people at your side, without education, being rude people, cannot have those spiritual pleasures that you can have with your education, and naturally they find their pleasure in things, in food and drink, beautiful clothes, etc. Therefore, give them the means to eat and drink well and dress them decently, so that they receive pleasure, although in this they glorify the mercy and bounty of God and yours; But you, as a spiritual and educated person, do not pay attention to sensual pleasures, consider them as nothing and place your pleasure in spiritual objects - in clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ and in contemplating His wonderful economy of our salvation. O beauty, loveliness, loveliness of earthly sweets, how bitter and deadly you are for our spirit! Use them like a simple herb, like nothing. By sparing the sweets of earthly servants, you do not value their labors and their personality, and thereby insult Jesus Christ Himself, of Whom they are members, for whom He suffered, for whom He redeemed with His blood, with His death, to whom He gives His most pure Body and Blood as food and drink. The more simple food and in small quantities we feed and drink them, the more we spare them the pleasant food that we ourselves use, the less we value and love them, for we do not regret anything for our beloved, we are ready to joyfully give all our sweets and treasures to him, just as the love of God gave to man not only all the treasures of heaven and earth, but also the Only Begotten Son of God Himself. So, don’t feel sorry for anyone: everything, say, is for you, man, God gave everything to you. I don't have anything of my own. A greedy and stingy person is worse than a drunken person, for a drunk person rages for a day, two, or several days, but a stingy person rages every day. With a stingy [...] heart, he constantly spares his neighbor money, food and drink; he constantly goes crazy and serves the human enemy. Oh, how we, humans, anger with our stinginess the all-generous God, who has prepared for us in eternity the endless sweetness of His sight and who has enriched the earth with all kinds of fruits of sweetness for the sake of man, His beloved creation, His child, His image and likeness, whom He has honored with the participation of His Divine nature! Let the Lord be the only God of your heart, cleave to Him alone, and despise everything earthly, so that everything will be added to you, and love your neighbor as yourself, in the simplicity of your heart and do not spare anything for him - for whom God the Father did not spare His Son, did not spare. Through addiction to earthly things, the evil one commits adultery with our soul, and through contempt for earthly things and love for heavenly things, he is trampled upon by us, and Christ our God, the source of our life, is installed in the heart. Remember, Christian, what is prepared for you in heaven, and do not count everything on earth as anything. I count everything on earth as rubbish, says the Apostle Paul, caught up to the third heaven, the dwelling place of the righteous [Phil. 3, 8]. Do everything in your own time: time passes quickly, yet it is very precious, and much, much good can be done from time. Put everything in its place so that you know where everything is, and so as not to waste time looking for something that is not in its place and lost for a while, and so as not to lose peace of mind in the haste of searches. Icons of the Savior, the Mother of God, Guardian Angels, holy people of God in our homes - this means that they are as if they are in our homes, or, better, in the house of God, and they live with us, and they constantly look at us, and they know us to the entrails of our hearts better than all our household, better than father and mother, better than ourselves, and they hear our prayers, and help us in our affairs, especially in the matter of pleasing God and saving the soul. This is exactly how we should look at icons, that the faces depicted on them are always with us and they are closer to us than our family, father and mother, brothers and sisters, and they see and hear us. After all, we all live in one house of God: this house is the Church of God; We all have one spiritual Head - the Lord Jesus Christ, and in all of us there is one Spirit - the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, interceded for us by the self-sacrifice of the Son of God for us, His incarnation, His baptism, His life and His walk on earth, His suffering and death; after all, everyone - the Mother of God, and holy angels, and holy people, and we - are one family of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You, who ineffably united the heavenly, the earthly Christ, and made one Church an Angel and men, we unceasingly magnify 31, says our holy mother Church. So, know, my brothers, your honor, your dignity, with which our Lord Jesus Christ has exalted us, and live worthy of your calling, in accordance with your dignity as members of the Church of Christ and members of the body of Christ. I urge you to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called [Eph. 4, 1]. Avoid drunkenness, fornication, envy, anger, enmity and hatred, covetousness, stinginess, theft, hypocrisy and deceit, lies, slander, deception, for all this is contrary to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother, His holy Angels and God’s holy men. Be with heavenly morals on earth, be self-controlled in everything, chaste, honest, benevolent, meek, kind, zealous for good deeds, generous according to God’s generosity to you, giving your own more willingly than taking from others, simple-hearted, truthful, as befits members of Christ. O brethren, our Christian title is high (how will we restrain ourselves on this earth, full of temptations and iniquities?) - this pledge was given to us from God, we [need] to keep it pure and multiply it with good deeds; we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to walk in [Eph. 2, 10]. But we live carelessly, often worse than the pagans: we eat, drink, have fun and even often get drunk! He who has the Spirit of God in himself does not sit proudly at the table, with an insatiable heart, he is not greedy, he does not spare anyone the sweets of this world, because the Spirit of God is in him, and He is sweetness, love, peace, inexhaustible wealth, endless life and the Giver of life. From here it is clear that whoever is greedy and spares his brother bread, sweets, money, clothing despite his wealth, does not have the Spirit of God in him, for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of love, condolences, and sympathy. You drank a glass of sweet tea, and it’s good for you - let it be so good for your henchmen, your servants. They are both servants and together our masters: masters, because the Lord is in them, and the Lord is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me [Matt. 25, 40]. With such generosity of love, the Lord God forgives daily, repeatedly through your prayer, the prayer of repentance (to damn, to blame yourself), your iniquities - show your gratitude to Him for His indescribable goodness and long-suffering in forgiving your neighbors for their sins, insults, taking your property (although we have everything from God), frequent visits to you for the sake of your bread and salt, forgive, that’s all for nothing impute how the Lord, after your repentance, imputes your pride, your malice, your envy, your stinginess, your covetousness, your fornication, your gluttony and drunkenness, your nasty, crafty and blasphemous thoughts, your irritability, your stubbornness and disobedience, your laziness, idleness, absent-mindedness and so on. And what does your forgiveness of your neighbors’ sins and insults mean in comparison with what the Lord forgives you, for can your insults to God ever be equal to the insults you receive from your neighbors? Never. For our neighbors often rightfully offend us for our sins, and we insult the Lord for His endless mercies towards us, whereas we should please Him perfectly, love Him, thank Him, and constantly glorify Him. We are all one body, and all gifts common to all are given to us from God; We all have the same rights to them, or, better, no one has any right, for all gifts are one of God’s mercy to us sinners: drops of air, water, crumbs of stale bread for our sins, we don’t stand for our abominations, for our bad behavior, our ingratitude. If you are shameless 32 beggars, as you say, often asking you for alms, then it means you are also shameless, asking so often during one day for mercy from the Lord, so that He would give you the greatest gift of forgiveness of sins, peace, freedom, light and joy of the spirit and boldness of the soul before God. If you want the Lord to have mercy on you daily and unceasingly, then unceasingly have mercy, to the best of your ability and ability, on your fellow servants, your fellow members in one body, for we are many in one body (1 Cor. 10:17). Love everyone as your flesh and blood, as your heart; be patient with everyone, as the Lord is with you; do not envy, do not be arrogant, do not be proud, do not be gluttonous, for from gluttony there is a cooling towards God. The Church is the earthly heaven, here the Lord Himself is especially present with His grace. This is His throne. Here are all His treasures; here is the baptismal font, here is the holy myrrh, here is the harmonious order of worship, here the angelic singing ascends to Him incessantly; here the voice of the apostles and evangelists, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is constantly heard; here are the prophetic voices, here are the spiritual treasures of the holy hierarchs, great hierarchs, fathers and teachers of the universe; here the sweet spiritual creations of the God-bearing, God-wise Fathers John of Damascus, Ephraim the Syrian and other creators of church services and canons are heard daily; here is a Christian school of faith, piety and fear of God; here is our spiritual education for heaven, for which we were destined from the creation of the world by the Lord God and created at a time determined by Him; here is common teaching, common edification, common accomplishment, common prayer, common praise, common thanksgiving, common spiritual pleasure, and here is the knowledge of common infirmities, a common Doctor and Savior of us all, the identity and unity of our fallen nature and restored by our Savior God - here is our true home. What about at home? Incessant vanity, incessant sin, incessant passion, or bitterness, or envy, or gluttony, or covetousness; there we are constantly almost in captivity by the enemy, in submission to him, in work 33 for him, whereas in the church, if we came into it with faith, with a true heart and with zeal, we are free, in the open space of the Father. This is what a church is and what a home is! How many people say: why go to church? I feel good at home and I can pray at home; there is only temptation in church. How? Temptation in church? If someone tempts you, do not be tempted, move away from him. But the church is not for temptation, but for prayer: seducers are driven out if they are noticed. If bad, crafty and blasphemous thoughts come to your mind, do not pay attention to them. These are the dreams of evil spirits, vile, nasty, envious - do not be cowardly and do not take them for your own, do not agree with them, and God will not impute them to you. Listen to the divine service with all your heart, think about God’s Benefits, about how God brought you from non-existence into existence, how he preserved you until now, how he raised you, how he brought you through all the troubles and dangers of life; how he cleansed your sins without number, pardoned you, saved you, calmed you down, gave you boldness and the joy of salvation; how your horn lifted you up after your sinful, passionate, demonic humiliation, how you were brought into tenderness many times in the church, or at home, or outside it; how until now he has taken care of you, caressed you, educated you, and never ceases to educate you for heaven, in order to make you an eternal citizen of it, reigning with Himself, a cohabitant with the luminous Angels and His holy chosen people. Think about this and similar things in the church, and all evil thoughts will flee from you. What constitutes a gain for the soul, the flesh considers it a loss and becomes embittered at those who cause it this imaginary loss. For example, pleasing, or treating (guest 34 - from the word please), a neighbor with food and drink, with an affectionate, friendly word, is service to the neighbor and in the person of the neighbor - to God Himself, if it does not extend beyond the limits of prudence, moderation, honesty and rightness, if, for example, they do not try to feed to the point of satiety and to drink to the point of intoxication, if immodest conversations are not allowed during the treat, songs, disorderly screams, body movements, if they do not allow themselves to gamble. But what does our flesh do? She generally does not tolerate guests and pleasing them, considering a material defect caused by guests a loss for herself; she does not want to see in the person of her neighbor her co-member, her brother, the image of God, a member of Christ, in order to consider it happiness to accept and treat him and find her gain in this pleasure, for he who seeks the Kingdom of God in himself and in others and his truth, that is, mutual love, according to a false promise, everything that is needed in this temporary life will be given [Matt. 6, 33]. No, the flesh does not pay attention to what is infinitely important, and pays attention to what is insignificant and has no value in the eyes of a true-hearted Christian like rubbish and dust: to food, drink, sweets, to what it itself tramples, from which it then turns away its sight and especially its smell 35 or smell. What is our flesh like? Does she have reason, reasoning? No: the flesh, like flesh, is mad, stupid, wild, ugly, because it is sin. Therefore, our reverend fathers, both in word and especially in deed, taught to despise the flesh, but to be diligent about the soul, the most immortal thing 36 . However, what is our treat and who are our guests? Our treats are a sin, and our guests are more likely to sin. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ says: when you make lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends, nor your brothers, nor your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they invite you and you receive reward. But when you make a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind [Lk. 14, 12–13 ], for for them you will be rewarded from God, but for the rich there is no reward, for they will reward you themselves. O proud, evil, envious and stingy flesh of mine! Others feel sorry for the large sweet pieces, but I don’t feel sorry for myself; I would take it away from others, and I would devour it all myself - even if it was to my own detriment. But why is it better not to give up more to others, but to take less for yourself, making a sacrifice to your neighbor, or why, if I want more, not to give more to others along with myself, according to the rule: love your neighbor as yourself? O sinful, God-hating flesh, how long will I not resolutely resist you in everything? Addiction to any kind of things from God and from the neighbor separates the heart, unites it with the devil - why do we still cling to them with our hearts, which are the spirit? Where is the mind? Despise everything that is coveted and sweet: do not be afraid, your property will not run out, everything will be added to you if you despise earthly things. I thank You, Holy Father, for Your multiple salvation for the sake of Your beloved Son by Your Holy Spirit. September 18, 1865 Reception of the Metropolitan. I thank Thee, Holy Father, for for the sake of Thy Son, by Thy Holy Spirit Thou hast saved me from the sin of contempt for a beggar-child through the prayer of my repentance, and Thou hast granted me Thy peace and the joy of Thy salvation. September 18, 1865. I thank You, Lord God Almighty, for You have granted me 37 now to perform the all-night service to You without stumbling. I thank You, Lady, for you have vouchsafed me, through my prayer, to unfailingly pronounce the great litany once and again. Mistress, through Your all-effective, all-powerful prayers, take away from me the corruption of my heart. Therefore, we often send prayers and praises to the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in order to more often saturate, enliven and delight our souls with the Divine name, for one pronunciation with faith of the name of God is life and sweetness for the soul and the remission of sins. The name of the Divine Trinity is our breath, our life, our light. That is why the name of God is often heard during divine services. If you feel sorry for money or sweets, you will not feel sorry for a person, and feeling sorry for him is our most sacred duty. Today I became angry with the meek and humble poor old woman Euphemia, damned one, and for what? Because she always comes up to the blessing and, you see, seems to bother me. And if a well-dressed, rich, handsome, prominent person approaches the blessing, then he immediately gives the blessing with full readiness and with zeal. Is this not contemplation, is this not pride, is this not hypocrisy? How we despise the poor, brothers of Christ in meekness, gentleness and poverty, when we should honor, caress, love them, as more than all other people conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the rich and noble of this world, who have made idols of themselves or from whom people make idols, we honor, caress them, while they should often be rebuked with severity! Oh, how crafty the flesh is and how its wickedness creeps in everywhere, in all our everyday relationships with people! But isn’t it the image of God, aren’t our neighbors, and especially the poor, members of Christ, and isn’t it for the dignity of man as the image of God and a member of Christ that we should respect a person, despite his condition, title, clothing, beauty or ugliness of face? And shouldn’t we respect those who preserve within themselves the features of the image of God and members of the body of Christ more than those who forget their title of Christian and live in luxury, indulge in intemperance, covetousness and other sins that degrade the title of Christian? God! Teach me not to look at faces, but to love every person unfeignedly, especially the poor, and to have compassion for them, to imitate them in simplicity, kindness, humility, and abstinence. Grant me, Lord, to remember that I must be a servant of all for Your sake, as You served everyone, and that I must joyfully serve everyone in every possible way, as one who fulfills Your work on this earth, Your lesson, that I, together with the rank of Your priesthood, have taken upon myself the work of this service to others and should not please myself, just as You did not please Yourself. God! Let me remember that I am an unworthy servant of all. God! Give me meekness and humility! God! Teach me to despise the flesh, its tranquility, its charms, sweets, satiety, the beauty of clothes, etc. Holy Father! Grant me to remember that I only need a piece of black bread and a glass of plain water a day, for my body and soul are corrupted by sins, and I must fast and wear signs of sadness for my fall, for my corruption, as I have corrupted the work of Your hands, desecrated Your image, angered and saddened You, my all-good Creator, who has endlessly benefited me. Do not let me live in carelessness and negligence regarding the correction of my heart and will. Sweets corrupt my soul and body, especially satiety, and where there are sweets, there is gluttony, for you eat and drink more of what is pleasant. Food and drink, consumed even a little immoderately, cause heaviness for the soul and body, darkness, cramped conditions, humiliation of the spirit, timidity, and cowardice. This must be remembered: do not do the evil that perishes, but do the evil that abides in the eternal life which the Son of Man will give you [Jn. 6, 27], that is, be zealous for the Body and Blood of Christ, and not for corruptible foodstuffs, but for the word of God, but for spiritual contemplation, and for spiritual writings. Perishable food and drink and addiction to them drown out heavenly aspirations and needs. A worldly, secular appearance, or this secular bearing - hairstyle, outfits, going out to evenings, to theaters, to clubs, the habit of living generally in the outside, external material life, and not internal, greatly harms the human soul, its essential needs, suppressing and killing them. That is why we see secular virgins and women who have absolutely no faith, no concept of their purpose, with which God created them and with which they live in the world, who do not know how to pray to God at the age of 17, 20, 25 and beyond and make the sign of the cross on themselves and are even ashamed of the rituals of their saving faith. Convict mercilessly and force you to learn faith. Do not marry such people until they learn. When we see a clergyman performing the sacred service calmly, evenly and firmly, we are all pleased with this and say to ourselves and others: how well, calmly and firmly he serves. This means that everyone internally demands from the clergyman calmness and firmness, so characteristic of the servant of the God of peace. Remember this, embarrassed priest, or deacon, or reader, and do your job decently, with due calm and firmness. Read the psalms. The father, his children - and the poisoners of his children. God, people, or Christians in particular are their corrupters or seducers. And whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble... [Matt. 18, 6]. The Orthodox sovereign, his children, Orthodox Christians, and the drunkards, or the government that allows drunkenness. In matters and things related to food and drink, clothing and various household utensils, if something goes wrong, do not pay attention to it, and everything, even if it is faulty, let it seem to be in order; consider all materiality as nothing if because of it you have to lose your peace of mind. Moreover, if we get used to paying attention to material disturbances, then over time we will become so picky that every trifle, every slightest malfunction in household things will disturb and anger us, and we will harm ourselves in the affairs of our calling, depriving ourselves of spiritual light and tranquility and losing our spiritual integrity and energy, for passions and addictions darken the spiritual eye and violate the integrity of the soul, oh to whom the Lord said: Be ye... targets like doves [Matt. 10, 16]. When you pray and pronounce the words of prayers or say them secretly in your soul, then do not be content with just cold, memorized reading of them, but remember that you have reason and you must understand everything that is said in prayers; further, there is a feeling, or heart, and you must feel what is said in them, the truth and power of the words of prayer; further, you have free will, and you must have the desire to actually carry out what you say. Look for what you ask from God, for example, a life pleasing to God, or what you promise to God to do, or what God requires of you. In man there are three forces that make up the single and inseparable being of the soul: reason, heart and will - and they must act and develop together in the spiritual life of man, also in the upbringing of youth, so that all three will be one, and the people of God, so raised and educated, will be one for the glory of the Triune God. May it not be that we only approach God with our lips and honor Him with our lips, but our hearts are far from God, or that we speak and do not do, or feel our sins, but do not move forward in correcting our hearts and wills. When you see frequent guests or beggars around you, do not be upset with them and do not spare them anything edible, from money, as children of God, as the sheep of the Lord’s pasture, for whom all the fruits of the earth were created, all the blessings of the world, and tell your belly: you will always be full, and if you go hungry a little, then for your well-being - you will be lighter, healthier, and most importantly - to mental well-being. Always receive your brother and, in general, any neighbor who comes to your apartment with love, even if he goes often, and if he wants to eat and drink, give him something to drink and feed, for just as you receive everything freely from God, so let him eat and drink from you for free, for just as he, in your opinion, does not deserve to eat and drink for free like someone who often comes to you, so you are not worthy to eat and drink so well for nothing, for you sin daily with various passions and addictions. Everything is God’s, not ours, and let everything be common. We all tune 39, not according to our deserts, we use the generous gifts of the all-good God, but we all live in mutual love, and we all partake in the simplicity of a loving heart from the common meal of our common Heavenly Father, not being proud of each other, that you eat and drink what is mine, you owe me, - for we all owe it to God; also not being greedy during the meal, so that we take everything good and pleasant for ourselves, and for others what is worse, for this is sinful self-love: we must please others more, and ourselves less, then our spirit will be satisfied with the fulfillment of the commandment of God (so that we love our neighbor as ourselves, and honor each other more than ourselves [Rom. 12:10]), and the body will be satisfied. Be less jealous of the satiation of your body, most of all - of the satiation of the soul, as the most important and eternal part of your being, and bodily satiety plunges the soul into spiritual hunger and prevents its saturation. It’s a strange thing: how we neglect our neighbors, who have the same needs as us every day to eat and drink, what to wear, food, drink, sweets, money, clothes, which, like rubbish, are put under the feet of a person for the needs of his body and spirit and which so burden our spirit and body - the soul with worries and addictions, and the body with their natural heaviness! What a strange perversion of nature! We ourselves want to eat and drink, collect supplies, dress decently and even elegantly, but we are indignant at others - why? - because they want to eat, drink, dress, and collect money the same way and as much as always. I’m talking about the poor and those who live with us and enjoy the common meal: why do we separate others from ourselves in life? After all, we are one spiritual body, we have one very rich and generous and omnipotent Head - Jesus Christ, and one inexhaustible source of life, strength and holiness - the Life-giving Spirit with the Father and the Son. What are we bothering about? What are we sad about? Are we mourning? Rejoice when your neighbors eat from you, when the poor receive your alms, just as you rejoice when you eat from others or accept a gift from others. Remember the following truth every day: God looks at the heart of every person, as a person looks at his face, and strictly look after your heart: see if there is pride, malice, envy, greed, stinginess, covetousness, hypocrisy, disobedience, impurity, etc. in it. A person is full in body, but hungry in soul - this happens all the time, even with me, for example. How good it is if the soul is satiated with the grace of God, holiness, peace and freedom, and how awkward if these gifts of the Spirit are not in it! A man is well dressed - and he shines from his feet, and from his head, and from his shoulders, and from his chest, and from all sides he shines, but his soul is gloomy and gloomy. And this is vanity, and this is bad: the soul must always be clear, so that it is not darkened by the black clouds of gloomy passions. A person has a lot of various rich household utensils, a lot of rich decoration in his temporary home, but the soul is poor, poor in good deeds, these spiritual decorations and vestments, poor in meekness, humility, gentleness, purity, faith and trust in God, love for God and His image, His child - a poor and beggar person. But if a person does not have this latter, then it is the same as if he has nothing and he himself is like nothing: if I do not have love, then I am nothing (1 Cor. 13:2). But this man sat in school for several years, took and, perhaps, studied a course in science, got fed up with a variety of knowledge and imagined that he is now a judge of everything, can judge everything as he wants and as it comes to his mind - about the Holy Scriptures, and about the Church, and about faith in general and in particular, about all its dogmas and rules of faith, for example, about the creation of the world, man, the fall of man and his fate after the fall, about the Redeemer world, about the resurrection of the dead, the future Judgment, future bliss and torment - and judges as he wants, not on the basis of Holy Scripture, but on the weak, rotten foundation of his corrupt mind and heart, daring in his pride to contradict the clear teaching of Holy Scripture, the Church, her holy fathers and teachers, as if not wanting to know that our faith is the priceless revelation of God with all its Scripture and tradition, with all worship, the Sacraments and rites of faith, and considering neither worship, nor the Sacraments, nor rites unnecessary. And this is bad and can cause eternal death to the soul, for it is very dangerous to neglect the works of God. Therefore we must be especially attentive to what we hear, lest we fall away [Heb. 2, 1]. Lord Jesus Christ, what will I bring to You or what will I reward You for Your so quick, so merciful, so all-powerful salvation by Your name, by the power of Your holy name? You saved me before class, during class you saved me from the abominations of demons, and after class, going home, you saved me repeatedly through my prayer! Glory to Thee, great name, Lord Jesus Christ, our God! Glory to Thee, who takes away my sins; glory to You, who gives me Your shrine, Your peace, the freedom of the Holy Spirit, boldness, Your word, Your strength! Glory to Thee, my air, my belly, my breath, my light, my strength! We rejoice at any excess of sweets, money, clothes and other things, if we have this excess; why don’t we rejoice at this excess in the hands of our neighbor? – From sinful pride, seeking love only for oneself, for one’s many-passionate flesh, instead of a person seeking love not for oneself, not for individual love, but for love for the entire body of humanity, as the Church teaches us; also from envy of the well-being of one's neighbor, instead of rejoicing in his well-being. Therefore, of course, decisively, without hesitation, we must despise the flesh or crucify it with passions and lusts - with the passions of greed, stinginess, love of money, envy, malice and gloating and others. Through heavy eating and heavy drinking, especially through addiction to food and drink, we ourselves impose iron shackles on our soul, whereas it would be easy to get rid of them through fasting; We ourselves thereby cool our hearts towards God and our neighbor, whereas it would be easy to be warm towards Him and our neighbor through abstinence. One must despise materiality like dust, along with the body. Oh, who will give me this simplicity, this wisdom, this strength! We must learn such faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to see Him constantly before our eyes, so that according to our faith He will be everything, every good we want: the cleansing of sins, and peace instead of the embarrassment of sin, and freedom instead of the bonds of sin, and light instead of the darkness of passions, and space instead of the tightness of sin, and boldness instead of cowardice and despondency, and healing and health instead of illness - so that He only for us was every good, but also for our neighbors through our prayer, for all things are possible to him who believes [Mk. 9, 23]. Teach people and youths faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ and conversation with God, or prayer: when they learn this, then everything else, every good will be easy for them to acquire from God, for a believer can receive everything. And whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive, says the Lord [Matt. 21, 22]. Instill in Christians more often why they and why they are called by this name, what Christ, the Son of God, did for them, why He came down from heaven, gave His saving teaching, the Sacraments, why He suffered, died, rose again, ascended, what covenant He left for Christians, and demand from them knowledge of the Gospel teaching, the commandments of Christ, the fulfillment of them or His covenant, Christian life, repentance of sins, so that they leave empty activities and prepare to eternity, would not neglect the Sacrament of Redemption, would not live carelessly and carelessly. About the holy people of God. You see where they flew, and you need to fly there too. With almost thirty years of labor, his wife’s father (father-in-law) earned this place where you now live, and handed it over to you: shouldn’t you be grateful to him all your life after the Lord 1) for the daughter he raised and saved for me, who loves and takes care of you, 2) for the place that he occupied and gave to you and 3) for the fact that he introduced you into his extensive and good kinship, So truly. Don’t be sad that you need to rest his old age and be grateful to him for everything. Always fulfill this duty with joy. When you see any person, let your first thought be that he is the image of God and a member of Christ, and not that he has such and such weaknesses, or that he eats and drinks what is yours, or uses your money, or that he is your subordinate, or a person very familiar and familiar to you - for all these and similar thoughts are demonic deception, tending towards the humiliation of the image of God in man and the Lord God Himself and to the destruction of God’s commandment about love for one's neighbor. Talk to everyone kindly, with an open face and heart, looking straight into the face. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for You have delivered me from the sin of stinging sweets for one’s neighbor and sweet flattery, and You have transformed the fire of passion into the dew of Your grace. I thank You, Lord, for I am saved from the flattery of the Pharisees’ self-praise and from the words: I am not like other people [Lk. 18, 11], the fire of hell that poured out in my soul, you delivered me from fire, oppression and humiliation and with a calm look and heart you granted me to sit through class. The enemy stopped me while reading the book “Indicating the Path to the Kingdom of Heaven” 40 in the fourth grade. I thank You for saving me from all sins and in every possible way. Save me to the end, my God! May my sins and transgressions not overcome Your unspeakable goodness and mercy! Receive every person to you with joy and a cheerful face. Consider all sweets as rubbish, consider everything earthly, and count them as nothing, as the Lord taught you. 1) Eat and drink to the glory of God with your neighbors, sparing nothing for anyone, if you are the owner, 2) then sincerely thank your father and mother, if you have them, or the father or mother of your wife, 3) eat and drink in moderation - then food and drink will always be in your favor; otherwise it will be harmful. Again, I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for Your merciful salvation of my wretchedness. God! Give me a simple 41 soul eye! Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord [Eph. 5, 18–10]. Do you see how convenient it is to be filled with the unenviable, all-good Spirit of God? But sing psalms and spiritual songs with your heart, and you will be filled with the Spirit. How good it would be to teach church singing to young people! A Christian must live in such a way that he is pleased with the hoped-for eternal blessings promised by God in the future life, and not with the present, temporary, like a passing shadow. Do not envy your brother who succeeds in all good things and becomes rich through the works of his hands: it is God who blesses him, and you be content with your lot, your condition, your means of life. Bless God, who prospers your brother in his generally beneficial affairs, and rejoice in his well-being as if it were your own. Don’t say in your heart: oh, if only I could do this, or: I could do this easily. We only wish for the most part, but do not do it and, perhaps, never will do it, but here the Spirit of God, acting fully in everyone, moved the brother to accomplish a work that benefits the inheritance of God. Rejoice in this, and use your brother’s labors yourself, for they are a gift from God and a common heritage. (We don’t have anything of our own.) Or may your brother’s labors encourage you to do similar labors. Do not be lazy in the vineyard of God, do not be lazy, do not relax. Our old, corrupt man would have taken everything into his own hands: the glory of the author, and the glory of a pious person, and the wealth of this world, and the differences of this world - but he himself is lazy for the glory of the name of God, for composing soul-helping works, or is inexperienced, or does not have the time or light of mind and purity of heart and willpower to write generally useful works. Envy alone guides the movements of his heart. You should honor your father-in-law more than your own father, for he by nature gave birth, raised and did everything for you, but this one, being a stranger, fell in love with you, gave you his daughter - a priceless treasure, and his place, and takes care of you like his own son; and honor his daughter as your real sister, take care and love her from the heart. My wonderful and comprehensive spiritual and physical wealth is the Lord Jesus Christ; according to my faith, He becomes for me everything I want, every good thing - and this is all because of my faith in Him alone, because I have come to know His sweetest name. I will deliver and, because I know My name... I am with him in sorrow, I will destroy him and glorify him: I will fill him with long days and show him My salvation [Ps. 90, 14–16]. Be complacent, and do not be angry, when you see the faults or disorders, the mistakes of others, so as not to add to their disorder your own mental disorder (from which there can be no benefit, but perhaps harm) and do not increase the disorder. Above all, be complacent, be strong and take courage in the face of disorder, so that at least you have internal order, so that through it, as much as possible, you can restore the disorder that others or you have already caused. We are in great distress in this life: our life is short (it serves as the eve of a blissful or painful eternity), and most of it we are in some kind of oblivion, relaxation, laziness, in a sinful sleep, spiritual meaninglessness regarding our future fate, we spend time in vain amusements, troubles and worries. Co-humans! Rise up from your sinful sleep and remember that death will inevitably befall you, that after death you will immediately be greeted by impartial judgment, and in due time you will appear at the Last Judgment, after which your fate will be decided forever. Who sincerely wishes us well and blesses us? Beggars. Who is cold and ambiguous towards us? Rich and learned today. And what, brethren, will the Lord recognize us at His second and terrible coming by our morals, customs, habits, that we are Christians? – He doesn’t recognize many, many of us. We don’t know you, he will say [Matt. 25, 12]. That's right. Christians! Brethren! Be horrified: there are many of these among you too. Get well and let yourself be known to the Lord by your deeds. Proud, drunken, covetous, stingy, envious, vengeful, wicked, adulterous, unfaithful men, let yourself be known to the Lord - you are known only to the devil as his zealous servants. What would happen to us if the Lord did not save us from our sins every day? Our hearts would languish, our faces would fall, our bodies would dry up, and burn from the fire of passions. Glory to Thee, our most merciful Savior, who saves us with so much mercy, with such generosity. Glory to Your love for mankind, not overcome by our malice, pride, contempt, envy, stinginess, covetousness, uncleanness, wickedness, blasphemy, etc., and graciously bowing down to mercy towards us in the prayer of our repentance before You. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, our Savior, our Advocate, sits at the right hand of God the Father. This gives us great hope, great boldness before God. He sits at the right hand of the Father - which means that He is equal to God in power and glory, which means that He can defeat all our enemies, which means that He can conveniently accomplish our salvation if we want to be saved ourselves and surrender our will and our belly to Him; This means that He can obtain everything from God the Father for us: a prosperous temporary life, eternal bliss. So, turn with faith and hope, Christians, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God His Father: the Son will pray to the Father for all our sins and will grant us His forgiveness (we will only forgive ourselves) and heavenly bliss will be granted to us. September 26 days 1865. Who is this majestic, radiant man in this icon, red with kindness more than anyone else [Ps. 44, 3 ]? This is the benevolent God becoming human. And who is this chosen wife, this pure dove, this undefiled Lamb, whose face shines with all kindness, with all spiritual beauty? This is the Mother of the favored God who became human. I adore You, my God made man! I bow to You, Most Pure, Majestic Mother of the King of all and God. The Lord, the Son of God, came down from heaven for our salvation. Help Him save you all your life, for He cannot save you without you, as if you are free, and do not live in idleness; remember that you are wallowing in the abyss of sin: it is impossible [without forcing yourself] to get out of this abyss. Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God [Acts. 14, 22]. If our thief the devil had known in advance that the Son of God made man would suffer for us, then he would have tried by all means to prevent His suffering and death for us - but, cursed, he was seduced by His humility and extreme humiliation, could not understand the mystery in his malice and pride and poured out all his malice over the Savior of the world and brought him to death, but then - alas! found out who he killed. - The One who, having descended into hell, destroyed hell, trampled upon the spirits of evil, and brought all those who believed in Him into paradise along with the robber. Defeat him too with humility. Why were there symbolic rather than clear indications of the Savior in the Old Testament? So that the devil does not recognize the sacraments. Why are prophecies hidden? - That’s why. We are blind, short-sighted: while enjoying earthly blessings, we think that all the blessings are here, and do not imagine that the blessings of heaven are many times better than those of earth, and most importantly, that they are eternal. We ourselves get a lot - and okay, it should be so, we think, and even if it were even more, it wouldn’t hurt, we say - the beggars ask us - it’s a pity for even the smallest thing, and we get angry, why do they ask every day, although every day we ourselves receive a significant profit. We do not spare ourselves for luxury, for excesses of tens of kopecks and rubles, often hundreds of rubles. We spare a neighbor who is in need a few kopecks, not to mention a ruble, a few rubles. What does this mean, brothers? Is this how Christ God told us to live? Whose benefits do we have? Aren't they Christ's? Didn’t He bestow His generous gifts on everyone? Why do we ourselves become satiated, live luxuriously, wear expensive clothes, ride in magnificent carriages, live in richly decorated rooms, and regret giving the poor and beggars a little for their needs from our excesses? Why do we regret giving them food, buying them cheap clothes, paying for their lodgings, cheap, cramped, unclean? Why don’t we give them a few kopecks for firewood to warm their home and cook their food? Or are we, like some tall and worthy persons, supposed to abound in everything, while they need everything? No, God forbid to think so: the rich are often mentally worse than the poor - proud, pompous, vain, etc., and the poor are left to the compassion and mercy of the rich, so that the rich have the means to cleanse their sins in the poor, so that they can do deeds of love and mercy that please God. Why is the priest reluctant to baptize a baby in church after mass? Because there is no table with food and drinks here, because even before the mass he was invited to the funeral service of the deceased and to dinner (where, however, they could easily have done without him), and baptism in the church became contrary to his desires, to his will. But we must say: may your will be done, Lord, not mine, and always do your direct work without thinking, that is, without a doubt, with readiness, not think about feeding the body, but prefer serving God to this; Also, one should always prefer the public good to one’s private one, and the spiritual to the physical. When you look closely at the indignation and rage of the flesh, you will see that it is always angry about food and drink and about money. And there are so many excuses for not doing what we are supposed to do: at the wrong time, lack of time, ill health, etc. But when they call us to a rich person, or to a noble person, or to a place where we can expect a treat, then we willingly go - we have leisure, time, and are healthy. O wicked flesh! Do not sleep under a very warm blanket, so as not to relax the body and soul together with excessive warmth, because the soul is closely connected with the body, and weakness, bliss in the body responds to weakness and bliss, relaxation in the soul. It is clear that there is no need to drink a lot of warm drinks internally, for example tea, coffee, which also do not strengthen, but only relax the body and spirit: a glass or two - no more, more is harmful; however, an overweight person can drink three glasses without harm. In Russia, it has become a custom to drink tea a lot and often, as if for fun - this is bad fun, it is positively harmful not only for bodily, but also for spiritual life, it weakens spiritual life, pampers the flesh, and imperceptibly plunges into sensuality. And what is nutritious and strengthening in tea? Nothing. So, prefer food that is cooling or moderately warm, not hot, and moderately warm, semi-cool blankets; The bed and pillows are not very soft, in no case down. The flesh should not be indulging in anything, but should be given only what it needs, serving to strengthen and invigorate it and the spirit living in it. How to behave in the gymnasium: 1) during class; 2) outside the classroom: a) in busy rooms, b) in the classroom, c) on the street, near the building, d) in the dining room, e) in the bedroom; 3) how to behave in church; 4) how to behave outside the gymnasium - at home, at a party, on the street, when meeting with bosses and mentors, with acquaintances; 5) how to behave during home prayer. How to handle science, how to prepare lessons, when to prepare, timeliness. Hunting, love for a subject, the combined action of all the forces of the soul when studying a lesson; self-coercion. Vasily Ivanovich said: the main thing is not to lose heart when you stumble; a warrior in war if he loses heart is a disaster: his actions are timid, indecisive, unsteady, and often confuses others; and if he is cheerful and courageous, everything is fine: no matter what is wrong, it seems okay, and he instills cheerfulness in others. So, courage, and not succumbing to the spirit of despondency, is a considerable virtue in the life of a Christian. Vasily Ivanovich also said: God does not demand much, but demands from everyone according to their strength. Don't ask yourself too many questions that you can't handle. And a horse, if you put a lot on it, will soon weaken and, perhaps, be completely unlucky. The Church daily preaches through its worship the immortality of the human soul, the life of people after death, the unity in God of all holy Angels and holy men. In church we constantly hear: Most Holy Theotokos, save us; holy apostles, etc., pray to God for us; we glorify them as living, as hearing our praises; they are with us as one family of God, eternally living. And the miraculous icons of God’s holy men and their miraculous relics irresistibly prove the life of the saints after death, their pleasing to God and fellowship with Him, unity with Him. And the annual church festivals glorify the highest mystery and highest good deed of God to people - their redemption from eternal damnation and eternal death, the salvation and deification of people in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His union with them. Daily services also constantly remind us of this wonderful, gracious view of God towards people, for they depict creation and redemption. I thank You, Lord, for Your gift, I thank Your servant, who gave it to me for Your sake; I thank You also for my colleague, who also accepted a generous gift according to his rank and position. Correct the works of the hands of Your servant, who gave us generously for our little and the smallest labor, and grant salvation with health to him, and to his wife, and to his children, and to his mother. God! Let me rejoice in the well-being of my neighbor as if I were my own, and not envy him. God! Grant that your gift in the hands of my neighbor will not seem very great to me, but in my own hands it will not seem small, although my own is greater than that of my neighbor; Take away the evil eye from me. Everyone must understand his high calling as a Christian and learn the duties required by the Christian faith; one must give oneself the true value: a) the old man and despise him, b) the new man - and with all his might cherish his high advantages and try from day to day to renew and improve in virtue, and to reject the old life. Otherwise, we give a price to what should not be given any price - sinful flesh, sinful passions, and do not value what has an infinitely great price - spiritual salvation, the Christian faith, worship, the Sacraments, fasting, etc. The Holy Trinity is the life, shrine and power of the holy people of God, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Authorities, Dominions, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels, holy apostles, prophets, hierarchs, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries and all saints: God is all in all (1 Cor. 15, 28). Monday. Lord, Lover of Mankind, in Three Hypostases Symbolic and Glorified! I thank You with all my heart, for You have taken away all my sins through the communion of the Divine Mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ and filled my soul with deep, sweet peace and made me glad with Your face. September 28. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, for on this day You have made me worthy to partake of Your Divine Mysteries for the cleansing of my sins and for the peace of my spiritual strength, and for majestic posture and boldness before Your people and my disciples, and for a living and effective word. I thank You, Lord, Father, Holy Word and Soul, for the good change You have wrought in the hearts of Your servants, entrusted to my weak leadership. God! Lead them yourself, educate them yourself. God! Let them not be corrupted through my weakness, for the sake of my sins. Cover, O Most Blessed and Wise One, my sins and make me wise, instructing them in 43 ways. I thank You, Trinitarian Lord and our Helper, for You helped me to pronounce the entire royal house by name at the great entrance. Give always. We must feel sorry for the poor boys and girls, and not be angry with them because they follow us and look into the windows of the house into which we entered, because, at the request of their nature, which God gave them, they want to eat and drink every day, and perhaps many of them are shaking from the cold, not having warm clothes and shoes. Just as our eyes are constantly directed to the Lord our God in anticipation of the gifts of His goodness from Him, and we receive daily from His generosity everything we need for life, so the eyes of the poor are fixed on us, and we must, as stewards of the gifts of God, distribute them with love, meekness and kindness to the poor and poor, for for this service to the Savior Himself in the person of His least brethren, He will not leave us with His favor throughout our lives and bounties. Remember and remember more often how the love and condescension of the Son of God extended to us: through His incarnation He deigned to become our brother, this God, and is not ashamed to call us brothers, but we, sinful, mortal men, are proud before our fellow men and are ashamed to call them our brothers and sisters; The Son of God did not spare His life for us and throughout his life on earth he worked for us, traveled, taught, healed the sick, raised the dead, endured mockery, strangulation, spitting, beatings, the cross and death - but for our brethren we do not want to sacrifice part of our property, a few pennies, we do not want to work for them without compensation, we do not even want to see them. Where is our Christian love? Where is our brotherhood, according to the saying of Christ: all of you are brethren [Matt. 23, 8 ]? It happens again that we become embittered with the poor because they stand in front of everyone in the church, although this happens rarely. How? Are they perhaps a hundred times more worthy than us before God and could stand before the very throne if they had the rank of priesthood, but we do not tolerate them standing in front of the people? Is the church ours, and not God’s? Does God look, as we do, at the face, at the clothes, at the wealth, at the worldly nobility of a person? Are we not all wounds before Him? Isn’t everything in His image and likeness? Doesn’t God look at the heart? For man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Why are we judges of evil thoughts? We must also remember what the Lord said about children and about all who truly believe in Him: See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven [Matt. 18, 10]. We must not forget that we all live in the great house of the Heavenly Father, that we are all His children (or what am I saying? - many of us ourselves became from children adulterers, and not children), that the Heavenly Father has a great multitude of His faithful, luminous, strong children, such as the Angels whom He appointed as guardians of His earthly children, His indescribably beloved ones in His Only Begotten Son, who redeemed them with His blood, and that their Angels always see the face of the Heavenly Father and can always speak about the offended speak truth to His children and about their offenders and seek vengeance for them. Walk in the presence of God, the Most Holy Lady Theotokos, the Heavenly powers, the apostles, prophets, hierarchs, martyrs and all saints. Honor the human nature in every person, hold highly venerable the incarnation and incarnation of the Son of God from the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. Honor highly every person of the male sex and every person of the female sex; have much mercy on every person, especially on the poor, who suffers poverty in everything, who is abandoned and despised by everyone. If there are weaknesses in beggars, then you have more of them, only in a different form than he has. Remember the unity of your nature with the poor, the unity of redemption, the one baptismal font, the one Fatherland, for they and you have one Heavenly Father. Do not despise them because of the dust, because you must often give them alms, [let not your good be blasphemed [Rom. 14, 16 ]]; remember that the whole earth has been subjugated by God under the feet of man and each of us has the right and must use everything freely for his needs as his own property or as a gift from God to him. Do not consider only yourself as having the right to the gifts of God, but others not; on the contrary, say: I am worth nothing, I do not deserve it, and that your brother or sister, who is more worthy, is better than you, they deserve these gifts of God’s goodness. But I, say, am angry, proud, envious, greedy, stingy, fornicating, willful, impatient and do not deserve anything from God, on the contrary, I am worth all punishment, all condemnation and torment. So reason and act, and you will reason and act correctly, and for such wisdom and humility you will have peace in your heart and boldness before God. Despise your many-passionate, much-rebellious flesh and crucify it with its passions and lusts, so that you may appear as a companion to us crucified for the Lord in His glory. Remember His free suffering for our sake, may it free us from passions. Strive with all your might to cleanse your heart from passions and to renew your corrupted nature with the help of God’s grace. Remember your great task in life - you must cleanse yourself and unite with God, correct your mind in knowledge, your heart and will in virtue. What is more vile in the world than the human womb, not by nature, but by abuse? - Nothing. Because of the womb, man has angered God and is constantly angering him, he is constantly at enmity with his neighbors, and he often breathes indignation and malice towards those closest to him. What is more vile in the world than human flesh? - Nothing. The flesh is prodigal, filthy, blasphemous, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, envious, evil, impudent, stubborn, capricious, a predator. Therefore, we must despise and crucify her in every possible way. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts [Gal. 5, 24]. Children's souls are innocent, immaculate souls, they are worthy of love and compassion, but they are simple and short-sighted and worthy of leniency; they are playful, playful, as carefree, and worthy of indulgence, although they need to be given suggestions; if passions are expressed in them - anger, stubbornness, then we must remember our corruption and not be angry with them, but correct them with meekness. Believe that the Lord can equally save you in all difficult and undifficult circumstances, and call on the Lord for salvation with the same faith and power with which you call on Him for the Holy Gifts. Guests come on a fast or fasting day - and I am glad for the opportunity to eat and drink. But a true Christian must always be self-controlled if he wants to have the Spirit of God within himself. Remember that your sister Anna is a weak vessel; whether she is subject to the action of passion or bodily infirmity, be forgiving of her infirmities and pray for her. Remember how weak you yourself are when passions influence you, and what kind of condescension you need. Passions are rapists: we must feel sorry for those who are raped and pray for them. The goal of your life, Christian, is the purification of your mind and heart and union through faith with Christ, or the achievement of paradise, from which we were expelled in the beginning. I thank You, Holy Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for you have given me an old father to live with me and through him you have delivered and are delivering me from the gross manifestation of corrupt will and passions. If you feel in your heart a strong, restless resistance to the order or action of your superior or an equal or subordinate person, while this action or order is done in the form of direct benefit, then know that the spirit of resistance and the spirit of self-love, pride and self-will are active in you. Then quickly pray to God and repent of your pride and your waywardness and voluntarily and willingly submit to your brother’s orders, considering the common benefit or the benefit of your brother above your own and for the benefit of your neighbor, enduring something unpleasant. Bear each other's burdens [Gal. 6, 2]. At home, the enemy torments and confuses me with greed, stinginess, insincerity and coldness in his treatment of those at home; in the church, irritation at the malfunction of employees, absurd embarrassment and fear, blasphemy, hypocrisy, weakness, [...], conceit; in the classroom - by sight and hurt by physical kindness. But in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ I defeat his wiles, and then especially when I am firmly and clearly convinced that these passions are the cunning of the enemy. What a madness sin! We almost constantly turn weakness, infirmity, sin, passion, bad habit, poverty, ignorance and baseness, subordination, dependence in the needs of life, the ugliness of a neighbor's face, old age itself into a reason for our own sins, for condemnation, bitterness, irritability, pride, contempt and for our own torment! Oh, what a monstrosity sin is! What madness! What a terrible evil, misfortune, trouble for us humans! Human! Cover your neighbor's weaknesses with love, so that the Lord will cover yours too. Do not look at the sins of your neighbor, look at your own and see that you have surpassed everyone in your sins, and humble yourself before God and people, consider yourself worse than everyone and the servant of everyone, and not others worse than yourself and your servants. In fact, notice that in you there are such shortcomings, weaknesses, passions, wild, absurd, which are not found in others and constitute your property, characterizing your individuality and beauty: although we are all sons of fallen Adam, but in some of us such sin predominates, in others - others, so that we are all guilty before God and all have good from His grace; We are one sinful body, we all need leniency, mercy and mutual services, mutual prayer. The adults among us will give God every answer for ourselves. Therefore, one should not be embittered at those who sin, but pray for them, regretting that they are perishing. I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for you have rewarded me with peace that surpasses all understanding and purity of heart now after receiving communion, having taken away all my sins, like those who go hungry. I thank You, my belly, for bodily health and for the lightness of soul and body. September 30, 1865 When drinking the blood of the Lord from the Holy Chalice, say within yourself: I am drinking the essence of Christ, and when tasting His body, say: I am drinking the essence of Christ. God! Thank You, Lord, glory to You! Christian! What exhaustion of the Divine, what reproaches, what passions and what cruel death of the Son of God made man, did your salvation cost! But you don’t value it at all, you indulge in earthly pleasures, various passions, you live in vanity, far from God. Woe to you, ungrateful and malicious. Be wise on high, where Christ sits at the right hand of God [Col. 3, 1]. Christian! For your sake, Christ stretched out His most pure hands on the cross and bled His most pure fingers, although He would deliver you, the work of His hands, from the mouth of the hellish serpent. Do not stretch out your hands into iniquity. The Son of God descended to the form of a slave to help distressed and perishing humanity, to save it - shall we not descend to our brethren: the poor, the needy, the orphaned, widows, the sick, those imprisoned, the crippled, and help them in any way we can? After all, the poor, the sick, and other unfortunates are members of Christ; After all, they were created in the image of God and in the likeness - how can we despise them, become embittered at them? We respect the rich, or we don’t dare despise them, be angry with them, because they are rich and have power in society. This woman or girl has a coat worth two hundred or three hundred rubles, a dress worth forty to fifty or more rubles, a hat worth ten to fifteen, twenty rubles, and if you ask her for boots, for a caftan, even for rent, she will say: I don’t have it. Foolish virgins! Why don’t you think to stock up on the oil of good works for the day of the coming of the Bridegroom? Now there are still those who sell oil and it can be bought - the time will come, and perhaps soon, that it will not be possible to buy it, and the doors of the bridal chamber will be shut - and you will be cast out, weeping, but to no avail. But this blacksmith or master of a famous craft receives large incomes, profits, counting them several hundred, and sometimes thousands per month; his small labors are rewarded in abundance, and he receives large sums for nothing, but if a beggar asks him, he will give him no more than a penny or a kopeck or not at all and will say: go with God to another who is richer than me; and if beggars begin to ask him every day, he will forbid them to bother themselves and will appoint one day a week, for example, Saturday, so that on this day only they come to him for pennies and kopecks, and on the other day they do not dare, while he himself, being rich, receives good profits every day even with wealth. This is our truth, this is our Christian life! Deign to give such people the Kingdom of Heaven to Jesus Christ, who bought it with His exhaustion, His suffering and death. But what is known about this person is that he sits at cards evening and night, often on holidays or from holidays to weekdays, and loses tens of rubles or wins tens and, therefore, receives them for nothing. Does he give freely or for the sake of Christ to the poor? - No, he only gives him a lecture that you are a parasite, a beggar, a drunkard, although he himself is primarily one of them, and will not give money to the poor. And how to give? With so much work and sweat they are earned - is it possible not to appreciate such work? Give the labor of several hours to the poor. However, God is with them, with such pennies of labor, keep them for what you know, but for Christ’s sake it’s a sin to give them away. Give from your righteous labors. Probably, just as your money came, it will go away from you. But just know, gambler, that the Lord of times will punish you very strictly for abusing this precious gift, that is, the time that has been given to you for repentance, doing good deeds and preparing for eternal life. Often, right there in the house, the judgment of a famous person is decided by the Lord: if you love those who love you, what gratitude do you have for that? [ OK. 6, 32], - for in the same house and in the same apartment live both those whom he loves and who love him, and those who are not loved by him and those who do not love him. He does not love a famous person because he looks at him with hostility, is unkind and harsh with him, or does not give him gifts, etc. - but he loves others for their affection, for their friendly glance. Who behaves the most disorderly of all, at home, in church, and in society? - Scientists. Who are the unbelievers, the freethinkers? - Scientists. Who is arrogant, majestic? - Scientist. Who is proudest of all? - Scientist. On my birthday and namesake. Rejoice that the Lord created you not as a beast, not as a beast, not as a dog, not as a cat, not as a fish, not as a bird, not as a snake, not as an insect, not as a worm, but as a man, and thank the Lord, your Creator, and live as a man, as created in the image and likeness of God, as a child of God, destined for eternal unity with God, as a resident of the heavenly, spiritual, luminous world, and not as a beast, with brutal properties, or like cattle, with bestial properties, or like a snake - with serpentine properties. If you drink sweet tea, give it to the poor as well; if you smoke tobacco, do not refuse a piece of bread to the poor; If you live in magnificent apartments, give it to a beggar for an apartment; If you dress luxuriously, give it to a beggar for clothes, or buy him cheap clothes for three, four, five rubles... If you ride in a carriage, give a beggar at least enough to buy shoes so that he can walk safely. Look at yourself and around you: what is on you and around you - and look at the beggar and around him, what is on him and around him - what a huge difference there is between you. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me [Gal. 2, 20]. So it is in the Mother of God, so it is in the Angels and saints. Love parables and anecdotes in which vice and vicious people are presented as funny, pitiful and despicable; love those people who have harmed you or directly, even with a spirit of hostility, express to you your bad sides or passions, your unkind disposition, love them as friends, as doctors, but despise your caresses: they corrupt our souls with their inappropriate praise. Love those who eat your bread with you at the same meal, even though they are not your relatives; Do not always demand a good mood and affection from your cohabitants, service comrades and friends. This is impossible. Judge for yourself - how often you are unwilling, gloomy, and heavy. Try to maintain your daily loyalty to the Lord your God and your neighbor, hold firm to your love for God and your neighbor and not heed the slander of the enemy of men; These pretexts regarding one's neighbor are the following: does not love me, is not kind to me, is not respectful to me, is not grateful to me, is hostile to me; eats and drinks mine for nothing, offends me, laughs at me; and regarding the Lord God: God has abandoned you, does not listen to you, is not concerned with you, sends you temptations beyond your strength, does not want to save you, has left you to the attraction of your passions; God loves others more than you, etc.; that the Lord loves the rich and noble more, because, in your opinion, everything is fine with them, wealth flows to them, everyone respects them, everyone bows to them; they are calm, they are well-fed and satiated, beautifully dressed, ride in their carriages, etc. - but note that this is all appearance, and you don’t see or know the inside of them, and by speaking in this way, you show ignorance of the fact that God looks at man differently than we do, that the Lord looks at the poor and grieving over his sins with reverence, and at the rich and ungrateful and not feeling his sins - with anger and only be patient with him, waiting for his repentance, so that he does not perish in his sins and become a prey to hell. Brethren! The truth I tell you is unpleasant. What to do? The scribes and Pharisees also found the words of Jesus Christ unpleasant. The truth must always be expressed, whether pleasant or not. I don’t want to be your friend in order to become God’s enemy: there is no doubt that I will be your friend if in my preaching I do not expose your untruths, your disorder, and I say only what pleases you, but then woe to me. The Apostle says: If I still pleased people, I would not be a servant of Christ [Gal. 1, 10]. And I will not be a servant of Christ if I remain silent about your non-Christian deeds. So, put aside luxury in clothing, in the table, and give alms to the poor. Give up card games, give up deception, extortion in trade, give up greed for money. Hold on to Christian love, provide for your neighbors. How perverse temporary life is: in the same house you encounter joy and sorrow, contentment and poverty, wild revelry and tears. What don't you see in many other homes? – In one tier of the house lives a rich and well-fed man, below – a poor and hungry man; at the top there is a festive revelry, below or nearby in the adjacent room they are mourning the dead; or here they greet a newborn baby with a joyful smile, and here they cry over a sick person getting ready to set off on the journey of the whole earth; here is a solemn marriage - here husband and wife live in enmity and want to leave each other; or here there is peace and love, and here there is enmity and quarrel, here there is a gentle greeting, and here there is despair, reluctance to even see you. But where is our true life? There, in the Kingdom of truth, peace and love - in heaven! We will strive there from this vale of tears. You yourself live in a spacious and clean apartment, but your neighbor, your partner, has none: give him money to pay for the corner. You dress in luxurious clothes that cost several tens and sometimes hundreds of rubles - give your neighbor at least one ruble for clothes that can protect him from the cold. You are sitting at a table consisting of many delicious dishes - give the poor man at least a piece of bread and a stew of cereals and roots. Well, please tell me, what is reasonable, human, not to say Christian, in our life when we ourselves indulge in luxury in food and drink, in clothing and housing, and leave our brothers, our neighbors, and even, perhaps, our relatives, or even sometimes our parents, to live in poverty, in shortcomings of all kinds? What kind of life is this if I am fed up and leave my neighbor to starve? I dress myself in silk and velvet, hell in the best cloth and various materials, and leave my neighbor to walk around naked or in only dirty and holey rags; if I myself live in spacious, clean, beautifully furnished rooms, but I leave my neighbor homeless and don’t want to give him a few kopecks for a dirty corner; if I allow myself all the pleasures - the theater, and cheerful evenings with guests, and clubs, and smoking fragrant, and maybe stinking tobacco, and playing cards, if I allow myself to drink to the point of joy, let’s assume that no more, not to the point of oblivion (but because they will condemn me if I drink more, and they will [...] be shunned as drunkards and will not be accepted into decent society - that means, not for God, but for people I will do this), and I don’t have to reproach myself for anything - but with the same weaknesses I can immediately reproach a beggar, who is the same person as me, for drunkenness, parasite-eating, idleness and laziness? What is reasonable, fair, human in such a life? - Nothing. This is a meaningless, wild, carnal life. And what a lofty, priceless creature God has, man - the Lord created everything for him: the earth and the sun, the month and the stars, animals and fish and birds, and fruits and grains, from which many were created for the animals at hand, and gold and silver, and steel and iron, and copper and valuable stones - if only we lived in love and mutual respect! And we, who are so honored by God, how do we honor Him, how do we thank Him, with what love do we repay, how do we love each other? Consciously, calmly and freely approach prayer, reading the word of God, worship, lessons, and performing the Sacraments. Think about what is said and done. After praying to the Lord God, we read a prayer to the Guardian Angel and the Mother of God, 1) because we constitute the Church of God, to which Angels and men belong, and the Heavenly Father, out of His love for us, has given us from the community of Angels an Angel, a peaceful, faithful mentor, guardian of our souls and bodies, whom we must call upon and must thank; 2) because the Most Holy Theotokos is the Head of the mental creation 45, or the spiritual, holy body of the Church, as the Mother of God; We also call upon the saints in prayer, as members of the great body of the Church, of which we are members. That is why in all services we call upon the Mother of God, the Angels, and the saints, or glorify them, thanking them as ever-present figures and supporters for the believers. We pray to the Lord God Himself - like children we talk with the Father. Just as the Divine Blood in the chalice penetrates the entire Body of Christ and all the particles taken in memory of the living and the dead, so the Lord God with His Spirit constantly penetrates all those who believe in Him and live piously. Just as air penetrates us, so the Holy Spirit penetrates us, lives in us, enlightens, sanctifies, enlivens, pacifies, strengthens us. Our life is one simple and endless; our guardian and breadwinner is the Lord. It is not our care—His unceasing care feeds everyone and lives them. Our job is to do His commandments and the affairs of life. Pray to the saints in peace and holiness, with faith, hope and love, with which they themselves have pleased God: without this they will not hear your prayer, because you yourself do not know who and what and what to ask for. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5). Who is this? – We, who always pray and show a faulty life, pronounce the words of prayers, but their powers are alien, pray with our lips, but are far from God in our hearts. I say in prayer to God: Lord, Master, - and I myself am the lord and master of the devil, who dominates me either through greed and gluttony, or love of money and covetousness, or pride and malice, or envy, or disobedience and sullenness, or drunkenness and fornication and other passions. Stop submitting to the enemy and then say: Lord, Master, otherwise you lie in prayer, you lie in the first word. Of course, God is our Lord, whether we serve Him or not, but He does not rule in you, in your heart. Why do you call Me: Lord! God! - and do not do what I say? [ OK. 6, 46]. You see, if God is our Lord, then we need to do His will, just as a servant does the will of his master, to do it for our own bliss. Holy Father! I thank You, for for the sake of Your Son, Your Lamb, You have now saved me three times: 1) from the delusion of prodigaldom, 2) from the delusion of malice and contempt, and 3) from the delusion of covetousness or addiction to sweets. Grant me, Lord Lord, to constantly remember that I am heavenly on earth and to philosophize on the earth, and not on the earth, and to regard everything earthly as nothing. I thank You, Lord, for Thou hast granted to celebrate the Liturgy in the Assumption Church safely, and Thou hast granted to offer unhypocritical prayer for Thy people, and Thou hast made me worthy to receive communion worthily, an unworthy one, and Thou hast pacified me, and Thou hast taken away all my sins. October 3, 1865. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for this day (October 4), which You gave me according to Your great mercy, You began with my salvation: I cried out to You internally, when the passion of voluptuousness and envy carried me away, and You delivered me and sorrow into the world, You transformed cramped space into the space of my soul. Thank You, my priceless Savior! But give me the grace from above to be wise, and not earthly, to be heavenly on earth, for for this You created us, for this you destined us, for this we sincerely unite with You in Your Divine Mysteries. This is how Christians spend the time given to them by God in repentance, this is how they wait for the Son of God Jesus Christ from heaven - at cards, at tobacco, at theaters, at dancing, at drinking, at dressing up! The villain does not cease to incite us to pride, malice and stinginess during the table with those sitting with us, but we must always remember his intrigues and resist him. He never ceases to incite us to greed, gluttony, delicacy and satiety. – We must resist and know when to stop, be content with what is necessary and essential. Oh, pride and greed unspeakable! Oh, the blindness and madness and malice of the flesh (the carnal heart) are monstrous! A person feels pity for his neighbor, who has the same rights to earthly blessings as him, so that he can use them alone. Beast! Can you fit it all into your womb? Are you alone in the world and does God’s earth exist for you alone? Are you more worthy than others to use the gifts of the Creator? Are you worth even a rotten piece of bread for your sins? Is not the earth a common meal for all the sheep of the Lord's pasture? So, deny yourself, despise yourself, do not pay attention to the madness of your heart and do not be embarrassed by its madness, for it is also a sin to be embarrassed by its madness: blame all the passions of your heart for your dreams, for trifles, hold on to love for God and your neighbor above all else. When confronted with people, the enemy incites them to anger, pride, disobedience, fornication, confuses and defiles them with the presentation of the sin of Sodom. We must know this and resist unremittingly - and in the church with despondency, boredom, blasphemy, doubt, vain care, laziness and relaxation, coldness towards God and saints or petrified insensibility, forgetfulness of God's mercies, ingratitude to God. The madness of our flesh is remarkable: the more the Lord indulges us, the more tuna He gives us, the more greedy and stingy you become towards your neighbor, the prouder, angrier, envious and colder you become towards God and your neighbor, instead of, on the contrary, being more ardent towards God, who loves and spares us so much, and towards your neighbor, the object of His greatest love, even more generous, humble, more friendly. Who does not see from this the extreme necessity of denying oneself, taking up one’s own cross and following our Savior? And how pitiful are those Christians who spend time in spiritual slumber, do not try to know themselves, all their spiritual and physical corruption, do not spend time in repentance, tears, self-correction, in acts of virtue, in abstinence and fasting, in prayer and alms, but indulge in entertainment, reading empty books of this world and killing time for nothing? We should not pay the slightest attention to our flesh, that is, to our passionate heart, as if we were a mad person or like a fierce, stupid dog barking at everyone passing by and even at the owner himself. Let him bark for himself, but we ourselves must have unceasing prayer in our hearts. To despise the flesh and everything that is for the flesh, like a dung heap, and give it only what is necessary so that it can be a fit and powerful instrument of the soul. Oh, what a tricky task is human life on earth! Please go against yourself, against your flesh: you are both your own enemy and your friend! And deny yourself, hate yourself - and take care of yourself, love yourself for God and your neighbor. Love yourself as the image of God, as the work of God’s hands, as a member of Christ, as an heir to the future Kingdom - and hate yourself as a dwelling place and instrument of sin and the devil, as the enemy of God and men; love yourself in God and for God and in your neighbors, and not in yourself and for yourself. The more and the more deliciously you eat and drink, the more carnal passions fight and captivate our spirit. Hence the need for abstinence and fasting. Secular people who rebel against fasting do not understand the matter, they do not understand the corruption of human nature and how to restore it from the fall, how to raise it to incorruption. We must look at the Church as a God-wise society, instructed by the Holy Spirit, and at its institutions as divine institutions, and not to philosophize in our own way. But whoever disobeys someone who is being taught 46 is like a pagan and a tax collector [Matt. 18, 17]. It’s good to preach a sermon about this: many of us do not follow the Church in observing fasts, many do not go to divine services, and do not listen to sermons. The flesh is inflamed by delicacies. Daniel says that the desired bread (dainty) is not poisoned [Dan. 10, 3]. Here's a post! Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael ate grains in the land of Babylon. Here's a post! The soul that feeds in space is alive and dead, says the Apostle (1 Tim. 5:6). We study Old Testament and New Testament history and the history of the Church and worship, but we are not getting any better. The servant is the one who knew the will of his master... [Lk. 12, 47]. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned to my bosom [Ps. 34, 13]. The satiated soul is proud; in a well-fed state there can be no inner prayer. The longer a carnal person lives, the more his attachment and passion for carnal things, for example, for money, for sweets, clothes, honors, increases, and his love for God and neighbor cools more and more, for the enemy acts day and night, vigilantly, tirelessly, drilling the soul, like a tree-cutter, with his drill and penetrating it, like frequent rain penetrating clothes. From here we must immediately learn to disdain everything earthly, all kinds of sweets, beauties, treasures as temporary, fleeting, and as deadly for the soul when it is attached to the perishable, and as removing the soul from God and neighbor: to despise everything earthly, to love the only heavenly thing - God and the Lady, and the holy Angels and saints, and the light there, the bliss there, the all-blessed there and endless life. Oh, if we would constantly remember that this life is momentary, and the future is endless, oh, if we would remember the eternal joys there! The commandment of God is God’s boundary: do not dare to cross it, but remain within its boundaries. If you go out, the wolf will grab you and bite you badly, and perhaps even eat you. Commandments in the Decalogue. Someone speaks the truth, but doubts, hesitates whether he stands for the truth, and is carried away by his passion, for example, addiction to sweets, money, clothes, and thereby sins, because he does not speak with confidence in the justice of his words. For example, I tell the truth why my wife gives the servants a lot of sugar for tea every day, in great excess, but if at the same time I get carried away by my addiction to sweets and feel sorry for them, then I am sinning. I should not spare anything necessary for a person working in my favor, a guest or relative, or a wanderer, or a beggar - but if anything is given beyond the need and in excess, I must calmly notice that it is superfluous, unnecessary and that it is unreasonable, and stop the inappropriate luxury. Don’t trust yourself, your carnal heart, you are a lie. Every man is a lie, says the holy prophet and king David by the Holy Spirit [Ps. 115, 2]. There is one body and one spirit, just as you are called to one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all [Eph. 4, 4–6]. The unity of the heavenly and earthly Church - everyone is deified in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. All are one in the Lord Jesus. Prayer is a conversation with God, with the Lady, with the saints; the one who prays talks mouth to mouth with the Lord, with the Mother of God, with the holy Angels. Close to you... the word of faith, for example the Lord, an angel, a holy man of God, is in your mouth and in your heart [Rom. 10, 8]. But the enemy darkens, does not allow us to know, feel, feel that the Lord, the Lady, the Angel or the holy people of God, whom we call internally or externally, in our mouths and in our hearts, far away tears us from them, and he himself predatory, predatory, and by violence seizes the heart. Who can describe his malice, his intrigues? However, sometimes he is cleverly caught, like a bird in a net, like a chicken in cabbage soup, according to the proverb, but the Lord’s grace allows us to see this and defeat the enemy, to bind him in the memory of the name of the Lord. The Most Holy Lady Theotokos is the mistress, and moreover, the mistress of the house of God, that is, both of the entire universe, and especially of the Church of God, and She graciously visits everyone who honors Her according to her heritage 47 and resorts to Her sovereign protection, and everywhere in all the ends of the earth She appears, saving and covering Her flock from troubles. I am all holy in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. All my members are holy, all the members of Christians are holy, as the work of the wisdom of God and the holy hands of God. The human body is clay, earth, as the Lord said: you are earth, and you will go back to earth [Gen. 3, 19]. If an evil, alien spirit often talks to me, and is in me, and penetrates me like air, and dissolves with me, although I do not want this, then is my Lord, my Creator, Father, Provider and Savior not with me, or is He far from me when I repent of my sins and seek union with Him? Is the Lady not with me? Are they heavenly angels? Are they saints of God? If I repent of my sins, for one distance, one barrier, a wall separates me from God and from His saints - sin, then I am again united with God, that is, I become one spirit with Him, and in Him with all the saints. Oh, what an infinitely high privilege of a shrine - to be one with God, the source of life and bliss. How carefully we need to live on this earth, my brothers, how wisely, how wisely: eat, drink, speak wisely, treat others, pray to God, etc. I say: eat and drink wisely. Yes, we must always eat and drink wisely, in accordance with need, no more, not for pleasure, not for delicacy (to which our flesh is very prone), without greed, calmly, thinking, for example, about God, the Nourisher of every creature. If you eat greedily, you will certainly indulge in excess, and where there is excess, there is the evil one: anything beyond this is from the evil one [Matt. 5, 37]. He seeks this excess and himself incites it in order to take possession of a person’s heart; from excess in food and drink there are unclean night dreams, ejaculation, and nocturnal defilement. The enemy sees all our insides, and if he notices that there is an excess of the seeds of life in us, he seeks to use this excess for his hellish benefit, seeks to defile a person with a night dream - therefore we must be moderate when consuming sweets, sweet tea, cow butter, cream, sweet pies, etc. If we have an excess of seeds from sweet substances taken in food, it tickles and inflames us to carnal sweets, to voluptuousness; if we have a lot of hot things in us, for example tea, wine, he heats up our flesh again and takes advantage of every opportunity to plunge us into uncleanness; but if we eat a lot of cold food, it cools our heart towards God and our neighbor, - thus, everything taken in excess - hot, cold, and sweet - is used to our harm. By depicting the sign of the cross on ourselves, through this we remind ourselves that we are members of Christ, His heritage, purchased by His blood, that Christ is in us all, according to what is said: Christ is all and in all [Col. 3, 11], and we also remind ourselves of the duty of Christians to crucify their flesh with passions and lusts and to live in mutual love, in the readiness to sacrifice their peace of mind and their lives for the good and salvation of others, for the Lord who was crucified for us before His sufferings, as always, taught us mutual love. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you [Jn. 15:12], and His love for us, sinners and cold and petrified, ungrateful and malicious, lifted Him to the cross. My love has been crucified, says Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer 48. Although I have sinned, I am not yours, but God’s, my enemy, and I despise you with all your carnal impurities. Go away in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Do you fight sin, do you overcome sin? Do you resist passions and their attraction? These are the questions a Christian needs to ask himself every day. Christians do not forget that they are rich, noble, educated, wealthy, intelligent, in connections with eminent people - they forget that they are Christians, that they are poor in faith, hope, Christian virtue, that due to their negligence they have not at all formed their souls in a Christian way, that is, they are not yet meek, not self-controlled, not chaste, have not learned patience, surrender to the will God, that they are called to the honor of the heavenly calling, that they are in the most holy relations with the Savior, the Mother of God, the holy Angels and the holy men of God, pure as the purest gold, white as snow with the blood of the Lamb, wise as a serpent, whole as doves, exalted as eagles. God is a simple, all-seeing eye, a simple, all-hearing ear; God is the same or the same in the saints: in the Most Pure Mother of God, in the Angels and saints and in God-fearing people who strive on earth. He is the simplest and most perfect being. All kinds and in all [Col. 3, 11]. All the saints converge in Him and rest and are contained, like radii in the center, like rays in the sun, like all photographic portraits and views in a camera obscura or in film glass, like all earthly treasures in the earth. The Church is a small earthly heaven. God is marvelous in His saints: the God of Israel [Pm. 67, 36]. Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee! If you use your head, your teeth will ache, and your head will ache; smoke more - same thing; If you walk any further, the blood will rush to your feet, your legs will hurt and ache. My strength, my peace, my power, my greatness in the church and in the classroom, glory to You, Lord! My goodness, my purification, the driving away of my strong internal enemies, glory to Thee, Lord! October 6, 1865 One must greet others sincerely and expressively. He sinned against the Lord - he became irritated and angry with the servant for his inability to light the stove and for making the room smoke. Love for one's neighbor is always higher and should not fall away from it because of anything earthly or everyday; The commandment of God, its fulfillment, is to be placed above everything in the world, all worldly benefits, one’s peace of mind, all things. The sin of disrespect and arrogance before my father plunges me into oppression, sorrow, relaxation, humiliation, and dumbness. I must honor my father, despite his weaknesses or shortcomings, of which I have far more, - and it is not for me to judge my father, but for God, the Judge of all. And how can you not honor your father! After God, through him, everything came to me, I received everything: his place, his daughter, a comfortable apartment, foreign positions, and a name. Thank You, Lord. Passions, like gusty winds, carry away especially people who are incontinent in food and drink: the greater the intemperance, the more strongly the passions act and carry away. Therefore, be always abstinent, especially do not violate the fasts established by the apostles - Wednesday and Friday and bequeathed by the Lord Himself, and other fasts, except in cases of extreme weakness. And against the infatuation and violence of passions - pride, malice, envy, fornication and others, read the prayer: Holy Father, for the sake of Your Only Begotten Son, by Your Holy Spirit, take away from me the sin that acts in me and combats me and do not allow me to sin before You. Or: Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy [Ps. 50 ] – to the end. I thank You, Lord, for You have tamed the waves of passions, You have cleansed my sins, and You have given Your peace to me. October 8th. I thank You, for You have granted the Holy Sacrament of Baptism to be performed peacefully, majestically, powerfully and fruitfully. October 7th at Bogdanov’s in the house of Grigory Sidorov. I thank You, Lord, my strength, my purification, my holiness, my boldness, my wisdom, my word, as now with great boldness you have granted me to teach two classes (the fourth and third) in the simplicity and power of the word. October 8th. 1865. Remember that you are the son of a sexton, the son of poor parents, not particularly distinguished by piety, and so the Lord has elevated you to the position of a city priest. Humble yourself before God and people; Humble yourself before your wife’s father, the archpriest, and rejoice that you can please him, serve him with his favorite food and drink, like Jacob or Esau, but do not be like Esau in your greed for earthly sweets and in your neglect of your heavenly birthright. For a greedy person, it is temptation and torment when others, especially his constant cohabitants, eat sweets and drink sweets at the same table; They leave the table - his torture is over, he is glad that the eating and drinking is over, and meanwhile he is ready to eat and drink as much sweet and pleasant things as possible - and it doesn’t matter. Oh, damned greedy man! The gifts of the Lord are common to everyone, and he spares them for others, not sparing himself. And how we anger the goodness and generosity of the generous God! The servant of Christ, seeing the immoderate use of his sweets by others, rejoices at this, and does not grieve, remembering the words of the Apostle: you accepted the plunder of your property with joy [Heb. 10, 34 ]; or: The Kingdom of God is not food and drink [Rom. 14, 17], or: I count everything as loss [Phil. 3, 8]. Some people need to make tea and coffee as a snack, while others, even though they go there often, need to make a mistake, because they were brought up and grew up under different conditions and are used to sweets! There is no need to spare anything for your neighbor, for the Lord spares nothing for us, He did not spare Himself for us. We measure according to measure, it will be measured to us [Matt. 7, 2]. For a person, all earthly sweets. The more precious sacrifice we make for our neighbor, the greater love we show for him and the greater the reward for it we will be awarded. A Christian is promised a reward for a cup of plain water. Why do we, people of little faith, begrudge our neighbor a cup of tea or sweet coffee? Where is our Christian faith? What we should rejoice about, that is, what we are given to treat our neighbor, we grieve about. Are we happy to give alms? Often with sorrow. [Like] Christ Himself? When you eat white bread or pie, remember that many eat black and stale bread, and many do not have even that. When you eat delicious stew and drink tea and coffee, remember that many of your brothers eat bread and water, and moderate your meal and set aside something for the poor. Living in wide, clean chambers, remember that many live in dirty, damp, cramped basements, several people at a time, that many are eaten by fleas, bedbugs and lice - and console them by giving alms or by bringing them into your home and giving them refreshments. When dressing in beautiful, expensive, clean, warm, neat clothes, remember that many of your brothers walk around in torn, dirty rags, and give them clothes or buy them stronger and cleaner ones, so that the Lord will cover your sinful nakedness with the robe of His righteousness. Everything is God's, not mine. Every man, as the image of God, is the king of the earth, the king of all its works, which are given to him by the Creator; The ruler has his own hand, takes as much as he wants, according to his need. Let my guests take from me as much as they want. Who am I who resists God in His orders? Who am I, proudly appropriating His gifts for myself? I get a whole loaf of sugar for free, but I spare my neighbor ten kopecks at a time. This is such a stupid habit! Remember that, pitying your neighbor for this or that, you are worrying about yourself, about your sinful, demonic, godless benefits, in order to become rich yourself, to enjoy yourself, to be satiated, to adorn yourself, to get fat, to get fat, and not about believing in God, trusting in Him, loving Him and His image - the man for whom the Lord laid down His soul, whom He accepted into His communion Divine nature, whom He seated on His throne. Feeling sorry for the neighbor's earthly blessings, the flesh wants to despise the neighbor, imputing him for nothing, while everything earthly is nothing, and man is infinitely above everything and everything is subdued for him and under his feet, like rubbish. O villainous flesh! Oh, the devil's receptacle! Devil's friend! Do not spare anyone anything, just as you do not spare yourself (and you do not spare any sweets for yourself when you want to please your taste, and you blame everything on nothing): God the Trustee will arrange it in such a way that there will be enough for everyone - He tests only your Christian hope, do you have hope in Him, do you not place your hope [...] in perishable things: in money, food, drink, clothes, houses or in a certain craft, position or on people. Do not feel sorry for anyone and do not lose precious peace and spiritual integrity because of dust, and most of all do not lose Christian love because of it: to those who seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness all things will be added [Matt. 6, 33]. My sinful, nasty, godless flesh! We must despise you and be diligent about souls, things that are immortal, whether they beat you, whether they deprive you of sweets (to which you are especially inclined and with which you feed your voluptuousness), or money, or honor and distinction, with which you delight and from which you are puffed up; I must despise you, I must rejoice that you - the snake, my killer, unclean, nasty - are being deprived of this and I am being brought closer to God through killing you. The enemy gains power over us through voluptuousness, over-eating, over-drinking, sleep, not to mention other countless cases through which he catches us in his trap. To protect yourself from his wiles, you need to eat little, sleep little and be almost constantly on guard of your heart. I am corrupt and vile, worth nothing, no respect, no material benefits, but only contempt and punishment and perhaps a rotten piece of bread. My life should be spent in repentance and tears. Oblivion of Christians about the day of the second coming and the Last Judgment of the Lord: eating, drinking, theaters, reading secular books, magazines, newspapers, games, lack of faith and thoughts about the second coming. Consumption of souls by worldly things. Look at the deeds of people: are they waiting for the second coming? And it will be. Behold, he is coming from the clouds... [Rev. 1, 7]. The fear of this day has disappeared. No one is ready, while the holy fathers trembled at him all his life and shed tears, spent time in abstinence, vigil, prayer, and labor. But the Lord is faithful in all His words. Old Testament, New Testament. It is not necessary to pray as we are accustomed to say, for example, the words: “hello, dear sir,” “brother,” or “by God,” and others - without thought, without feeling, without truth, without strength - no, but with understanding, with feeling, truth, with strength. Holy Father! I thank You with my unworthy lips and unclean heart, for You have had mercy on me, who called You in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, and You have taken away the uncleanness of my heart, and You have given me Your peace. Whose bodies are the bowels of the earth filled with? - Human. Whose stinking ruins are these? - A person. What kind of collapsed building are these ruins? The human body, perhaps satiated, soaked in wine, tobacco smoke, desecrated with abominations. Why are we seduced, O people! Why are we negligent about the commandments of the Lord? The Spirit of God is simple, the Angel is simple, and the human soul is simple, living by the Spirit of God. You said with faith, in the simplicity of your heart: Holy Great Martyr George, pray to God for me, and he will hear you and pray for you - just pray sincerely, pronounce every word from your heart, in the simplicity of your heart, truly. The kings of the earth, military leaders, poets, artists, whose fame resounded throughout the world - where are they? Haven’t they fattened the bowels of the earth with their already rotten bodies, have they not become level with the earth, have their bodies become dust? The same will happen to us. We should all come closer and closer together, unite into one spirit, into one heart, for we are all children of one Father, we all came from the same blood, we all use the inexhaustible gifts of a common Father and Master, and we are at enmity, especially against those who have to give, willingly or unwillingly, the gifts of God, given to us not for us alone, but also for our brothers - neighbors, so that we distribute them upon demand. with simplicity of heart and humility. What else happens? We despise the very expression of love and gratitude towards us from our neighbors, to whom, out of habit and out of a sense of duty, we are accustomed to give alms, and those who are honored by the rank of priesthood from God, in order to be good shepherds and servants of all and live not for themselves, but for Christ and their neighbors, often do not want to bless the name of Christ with the name of Christ, His lesser, beloved brethren, for whom He died - and it is remarkable that what the more well-fed a person is, the more extensively and luxuriously he eats, the richer he is, the more contemptuous he is towards the poor, while, on the contrary, he should be more compassionate towards them at the thought that he is well-fed, and they are hungry, he is well dressed, and those are poorly, he lives in good chambers, and those in dirty, damp, suffocating, he is well off, and they should think every day what they will eat and drink today, who to turn to asking for food, how the rich will look at them. I thank You, Most Blessing to the Lady Theotokos, for You, who cried out to You with faith in simplicity for my salvation, saved me from my anger towards the poor and from my contempt for them. The passion and custom of the flesh is to reduce the measure of your neighbor, and increase your own, to envy your neighbor’s good measure, to rejoice at your own, and, perhaps, to jump, gallop for joy because it is great, and good, and sweet. But Christian love does not do this: it rejoices in the good measure of its neighbor as if it were its own, it says within itself: this is good for me, let it be the same for my neighbors; or: let this not be taken away from them; or: I should live a spiritual life more than they do and despise carnal pleasures, but they are carnal, have not developed a taste for spiritual pleasures and live more by a lower, sensual nature. Let it be better for them, sweeter - better remember God and thank me and remember me from the heart and love me; let them not say: little and sparingly - but better: enough and generously, and they will glorify the bounties of God and their master or their father - in a word, what we wish for ourselves from others and do, we ourselves do to our neighbors, especially to our henchmen, for they are people similar to us in everything: they are us. We are still like them, they are like us. There is little in people of spontaneous thought, reflection on the essence of Christianity, on Christian life, on the hope of a Christian, there are few Christian deeds. Everyone is immersed in reading books, and secular, vain, empty books. We talk with God, with the Mother of God, with the heavenly powers, with the holy prophets, apostles, hierarchs, holy martyrs, saints. What honor, what friendship, what intimacy, what unity! And we still do not value this life-giving, heavenly conversation! Let's run from her! Oh, evil! We quickly accept everything that is bad with our hearts - everything that is good is slow and inconvenient! Our grief! There is one spiritual body - the Council of Angels and the human race: that is why the Angels know everything that happens between people, they know, they see the inner life of each person, and there is joy in heaven for the one sinner who repents; The saints also know our life, and this is because all of them, like all earthly Christians, are one spiritual body, in all there is one Life-giving Spirit of God, omniscient, one Head of the body - Christ and one Father of all. So elemental air is one body and unites us all into one body, for we all breathe the same air, like an element; so the earth, as an element, is one body, and in relation to it we are all one, for we will all go from the earth and all into the earth; so is water, the sun, and fire. With such unity of the heavenly and earthly Church, how should Christians live, in what simplicity, righteousness, holiness, how to shun wickedness and sin! In what kind of mutual love, never falling away, should we live! How to bear each other’s burdens, pray for each other, instruct each other, admonish, encourage one to do good, turn one another away from evil, forgive mutual insults, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit and comfort the sick, encourage the sad, visit those in prison, admonish, console, etc. Most merciful, most obedient Lord, I thank You, because You heard my unworthy prayer from the official of the gymnasium, Alexander Vasilyevich, and You soon granted healing to the baby. Lord of Heaven! Glory for the sake of Your all-important name, praised and exalted forever, stretch out Your hand to bring healing to Your people. Not me, but Your name, but glorify Your priesthood unceasingly and Your Holy, Orthodox, Apostolic Church. Wake up! October 12th, 1865 The more and more pleasantly and the more greedily you eat and drink, the more you strengthen the old, sinful man, who is one spirit with the devil, and the more you plunge the spirit, or the new man, the Christian, who is one spirit with the Lord, into greater weakness. We must know the secret of life, that the flesh and spirit are in constant struggle and that what is especially pleasant to the flesh is especially harmful to the soul, that the flesh, no matter how close it is to us, no matter how dear its interests are to us, is our most dangerous enemy, and undead, resting it without measure and necessity with food and drink, clothing, riding in carriages, sleeping at the wrong time, reading funny secular books is sinful and dangerous; we must guard cruel ways [Ps. 16, 4]: abstinence, fasting, vigil, forcing oneself to do everything that is contrary to the flesh and that is necessary, however, for the well-being of the soul and the strength and health of it itself. The main thing we must care about is to have a healthy spirit in the body, or a pure heart, burning with love for God and neighbor. Glory to You, Jesus, sweet, saving, life-giving, heart-cleansing name! Glory to Thee, Jesus, a balm and a healing plaster for the wounds of the sinful heart of my heart! Glory to Thee, my lightning, for the speed of illumination of the church of my soul. Glory to You, Jesus, a double-edged knife that quickly cuts off the rottenness of my heart and my passions! Glory to you, Lord Jesus, glory to you! I thank You, for You have granted me the heartfelt knowledge of Your all-holy name! I am a sinful person, a crazy smart guy! I write, and I say, and I pray to God, that I may love my neighbor as myself, bear his burdens, forgive him his debts, shortcomings regarding me, or his grievances, protori 49, give him willingly what is necessary for his life, not be stingy for him, not envy him, not despise him if he is poor or morally bad, angry, capricious, stubborn, disobedient, disrespectful - but in reality it turns out the opposite: in the event of a fault with my neighbor, and especially with the poor, whom I should serve freely (freely received, freely give [Matthew 10:8]), I get irritated with him, become embittered with him, despise him, impute nothing, as if I was just waiting for his fault in order to pour out my anger on him. But one’s own spiritual church is always faulty before God, and very faulty, and the Lord is patient with me every day, a sinner, and leaves me my great and numerous debts. How can I not willingly condescend to my brother and sister? Love is long-suffering, merciful, and not irritated (1 Cor. 13:4-5). Or the beggars ask for alms: what is easier, it seems, is to give a few kopecks - and even then it’s not: it’s annoying for them, why do they ask every day, although I daily ask the Lord God to have mercy on me, and He daily, without being burdened by me, has mercy on me. The disease of the present time is verbosity in schools, in magazines, newspapers; we must resist it. This is a plague, cholera. A lot of words - little action or no action at all, that is, Christian work, which alone is true work - doing the commandments of Christ. Correct our steps to do Your commandments 50, Lord! Teachers and students! Remember that first of all you are Christians, heavenly citizens on earth, and then that you are members of an earthly, civil society. Learn to be true Christians and you will be true citizens and true scientists. Whose anointing is holy in the saints? Spirit of God. Just as a lot of food taken into the stomach produces satiety and aversion to it, so a lot of knowledge that, willy-nilly or unwillingly, they want to put into us, produces satiety and aversion to it. That is why, at the end of an academic course or upon expulsion from school, pupils and even students completely abandon their books and studies and even have a complete disgust for them; This is why most of the knowledge that one would like to instill in them at school is not instilled in them. That is why they appear in the world as pitiful ignoramuses of life, because, that is, they were stuffed with various antiquities and useless abstractions, but the deeds and concepts of life as it is and should be were not communicated to them. Verbosity and the absence of serious Christian action is a disease of the present time, a terrible disease. The mind is formed or maneuvered, they teach it mental [steps], formalism, but they do not give it practical essence, something to seriously think about; hearts do not form will; Bad habits and habits are not destroyed. Who does business between Christians? I went in the evening to different places to see what Christians were doing, and I found only one busy with business, and all the others were devoted to vanity: some play cards, others eat and drink, others carry on empty conversations, these read empty books, these are engaged in dressing up - what is the most beautiful thing to dress in, these teach or have given their children to teach vanity. What did the doer of the true work do? He read an akathist to the Mother of God. Oh, our heart! - what a tender, subtle thing, how it must be preserved so that it does not become coarse, does not become fleshy, and does not become alienated from the purest Spirit of God, does not fall away! But the heart is adjacent to the stomach: therefore, we must eat and drink in moderation, fast and pray, so that we may be filled with the Spirit, and not with food and drink. Another feels that he is full, and he doesn’t need to eat or drink, but he doesn’t want to give up his habit, he doesn’t want to change the established order: the samovar is served, the tea is ready, poured, the bread is on the table - how can he not eat or drink, and so he eats and drinks like a slave of the established custom. Or again: no one else should eat or drink - but it’s a pity for the good, as he puts it: it will remain, it will also be lost, it will go to nothing, it will be thrown away or it will go to others - and let’s eat or drink tea there, or coffee, or wine, or beer and honey, although, perhaps, we’re full! This is how crazy we act when we have reason! This is how we destroy soul and body, the soul is the image of God, the body is the work of God’s hands, beautiful and majestic! Oh, what will happen to us if we don’t come to our senses! It is not the Holy Spirit who lives in us, but sweets that live and fight in our members - let us leave behind lust and satiety, so that we may be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit through fasting and prayer! How is the Church one spiritual body, and not only earthly, but also heavenly, and not only holy people, but also Angels? Have you ever seen a good preacher standing in a church pulpit and preaching simply and powerfully the truth of God to the people standing in the church? The whole people then becomes like one body: one sight, one hearing, and, a wonderful thing, there are many ears, but they all hear one, and there are many eyes, but they all merge, as it were, into one, and they all think one, and feel one, and sometimes tears flow from the eyes, like those of one person - then it is clear that everyone is exactly one person, everyone is one spiritual body, because in everyone there is one Spirit. So, there is one spiritual body, both the heavenly and earthly Church. When we sincerely pray, for example, to the Mother of God, the Angels or the saints, they see and hear us in the Holy Spirit, it is as if we have one vision, one hearing, one thought, one feeling, because then one Holy Spirit fills both them and us - and He unites us all, brings us into unity. The case of the harlots. Their tears during prayer and exhortation. They say: it’s boring to stand in church and sit through the entire service, but why isn’t it boring to chat empty speeches at home or at a party, why isn’t it boring to spend time talking with people, but why isn’t it boring to talk with the Lord God? Firstly, because you are a sinner and do not want to acknowledge, feel your sins sincerely, and they stand as a barrier between God and you; 2) because you do not know how to pray, have not learned inner prayer of the heart, and do not know the language of your mother Church. So that you at least know the repentant prayer or song of the king and prophet David: Have mercy on me, O God... [Ps. 50 ] let him repeat it more often in his heart, pray with his God-inspired words. And then you wouldn’t be bored in church, or you wouldn’t say your prayer: need will teach you how to talk to God. Apparently, you have not yet been in great need, trouble, or sorrow, or you have been, but did not know how to handle them. Oh, if you only knew how sweet it is to talk with the God of life, with the God of our salvation! What peace, what lightness, sweetness in the soul from this conversation, [reasonable, sincere]. It is wrong, they act against nature when they eat and drink a lot; It is wrong to work a lot with one head without the participation of the heart, as happens in schools. Both this and other things harm a person. We need measure, harmony, proportionality in everything. Why do liberals, fanatics 51, egoists who do not sympathize with their neighbors leave educational institutions as people whose goal is to live for themselves, for pleasure, not for business? Because they worked with one head, without a heart; their heart is left in neglect, not warmed with love for God and neighbor, because they were stuffed with only abstractions, only words, and their heart, or their flesh (after all, there is a carnal and old man in them), - an [old] corrupt heart (they did not pay attention to the new) thirsts for pleasures, pleasures, and the old mind of their old man, like an instrument of the devil, denies the existence of God, the basic principles of social life, and the rules of morality. So much for education, [...]. This is for your stupid upbringing, gentlemen, teachers. Be more clearly aware and more deeply, more deeply feel during prayer your sins, which you have, to which you are subject, your sinful corruption, your weakness, your poverty, spiritual poverty, blindness and nakedness. Why are we cold and insincere in prayer? From gluttony, satiety, and perhaps covetousness - and also because the liar devil who lives in gluttonous hearts cools our hearts, for he, like a leech, is sucked into our insides and sticks to our ribs. The strong point of the sinful flesh: it’s bad from satiety, gluttony, drunkenness - so let’s correct or, better yet, irritate ourselves, again with the same delicacy, drunkenness, instead of already denying ourselves pleasant food and wine - that is, we are great masters of adding evil to evil. And this is true in everything. Someone is proud in front of us, and we are in front of him, instead of immediately humble ourselves, seeing the wound of pride in another, so that we can set an example of humility as a medicine for him, and not hurt ourselves. Oh, sinful corruption! Who are those who curse us? Those who speak insolently to us, slander us, or scold us, reproaching us? With it (the tongue) we bless God and the Father, and with it we curse (scold, slander) people created in the likeness of God [Jas. 3, 9]. Don’t be vindictive, capricious, stubborn, capricious. Lord Jesus! Most pure, most sweet, saving, mighty name! I thank You, my Savior, that you saved me solemnly during two classes from the impurities of Satan and gave me peace, boldness and strength in the face of my students. But do not completely disgrace me, Master, for the sake of Your name, for I am Your priest, Lord, even if unworthy. I thank You, Holy Father, obedient, our lover, justice and mercy, for several times in one evening you saved me from my sins, from their oppression and torment through my prayer, for the sake of the sweet and all-saving name of Your beloved Son, Your Lamb, who bore the sins of the world and nailed it to the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Treasure most precious, inexhaustible, sweetest. I thank You, Holy Father, for I knew You in Your Only Begotten Son through Your Holy Spirit, consubstantial with You and the Son and emanating from You. October 19, 1865 Holy Father! For the sake of Your beloved Son, in His name, before You, by Your Holy Spirit and through your destinies, unite disparate Christian communities into One Holy Church, so that they all speak the same words, may there be no discord in them, may they have the same spirit of love. Father! Everything is possible for You! My mercy, All-Holy Father, I thank You again, for for the sake of Your Son, by Your Spirit, You have now saved me from my sin! I confess and will not cease to confess Your great mercy. This is peace and joy in my heart. Proud, angry, and reproachful people should live with us or have clashes with us, so that they teach us humility, kindness, kindness and patience and give us the opportunity to earn crowns from God with our humility and patience. What if there were no temptations with us? Evil and passions would remain in us as they are, and would corrupt us, and deprive us of eternal life; temptations reveal to us the inner evil hidden in our hearts and give us the opportunity to repent, cleanse ourselves and correct ourselves. Therefore, we must be grateful to evil and reproachful people, because they reveal the evil nesting in us, our mental illnesses, and pray to God for them, so that He will make them good, meek and humble. If you have been reproached for your petty waywardness and ill-will, then, finding these sins in yourself, try to correct yourself from them and be grateful for pointing them out; and if you do not have these sins, show by deeds that you do not have them, and by deeds convict the one who reproaches. (But it is foolish to be angry with someone who reproaches. This means proving by action the truth of the words of the reproacher.) So, if they reproach you for any other sins, do the same. Be grateful to the scolder as to your doctor and add from yourself: this is what you need, damned sinner, that is what you deserve in justice, while you are looking for the affection and approval of others; You are a monster of humanity, a moral monster, a savage, a beast, a viper, and you want to be called a kind, beautiful, sociable, amiable person - you see how you yourself are a hypocrite and want others to be hypocrites with you, you see how you are jealous of the devil’s lies and want to serve the original murderer, who did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies [Jn. 8, 44]. I have not acquired humility, Lord, have mercy on me and allow me to acquire it; I have not acquired the grace of the heart - grant me from You, the source of goodness, to acquire it. Gratitude to your father for bread and salt is a good deed, and you must always thank him with humility, although you yourself, by the grace of God, through labor, obtain bread, salt, tea and sugar, and although now he does not work to feed himself and lives on all your support, for he worked a lot before and through his labors got himself this place where you are now, and with the labor of his hands and with his bread, salt, tea and sugar he raised a daughter for you yours - your wife, your friend, your love, your helper, to whom what is more precious?! Have wisdom and do not succumb to the madness of your evil, contemptuous, envious, stingy heart. Respect gray hair, wrinkles, rank, and the name of your father in your elder. Almost the face of an old man, and fear the Lord your God [Lev. 19, 32]. Do not grieve him in any way, lest the Lord grieve you. My flesh is a zealous, unbridled horse: I must constantly restrain it. This is the difficulty and wisdom of love: to eliminate all plausible, charming pretexts for enmity with and against one’s neighbor and pretexts of addiction to earthly things, because of the attachment of which one has left God in one’s hearts, in order to endure everything for the sake of the love of God and one’s neighbor. Firmness in religious beliefs and adherence to church regulations is called hypocrisy, independence and firmness of character in domestic and family affairs are called caprice, stubbornness. I am a man corrupted by sin and corrupting myself by sins, but I eat and drink from the Lord my God everything fresh and good, I breathe fresh, fragrant air. I myself am bitter to the Lord because of my sins, because of my malice, my pride, ill will, malice, lust, etc., but I myself eat and drink from the Lord everything tasty, sweet, and most pleasant. God! Cleanse, renew me, fragrance me with the grace of Your Holy Spirit for the sake of the merits of Your Only Begotten Son, make me sweet bread for You. All the ridicule of us by others, all the malice, contempt, annoyance, curses, slander - everything is from the devil, and everything will pass like the wind, like a dream. Stand and take courage in faith, hope and love and do not be embittered by enemies, ill-wishers, deceives, high-ranking proud people, harassers, scolders, slanderers, but feel sorry for them that they are blind, and pray for them, and look at yourself: isn’t it hurting, isn’t your heart’s eye blind? Remember that everyone who wants to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12), and do not be surprised if this persecution follows you from strangers or from your own household, from your father or mother, or wife or sister, or sister-in-law or brother-in-law, or uncle, or your son or daughter: from now on, it is said, five in one house will be separated [Lk. 12, 52 ]; and a man’s enemies are those of his own household [Matt. 10, 36]. Do not resist evil... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good [Matt. 5, 39; Rome. 12, 21]. The very fact that the evil of another confuses and hurts us is proof that evil is a spiritual disease, spiritual death - why would you voluntarily accept this death from another, when you must and can not accept it from another, not become infected by it, not succumb to its influence? What confuses and worries you is your neighbor’s proud gait, pouting face, impudent, angry and insolent eyes, evil and impudent words? – Don’t pay attention to all this as a dream. So, do not let any other sin of your neighbor bother you, for the sinner harms himself and sins against God, but you pray for him, as for your sick member, more than for Christ, and live in meekness and humility. I will break all the horns of sinners, says the Lord, and the horn of the righteous will be exalted [Ps. 74, 11]. The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble [Prov. 3, 34]. Continually humiliate yourself before everyone, so that the Lord will exalt you for your humility, according to the Scripture: for you look upon the humility of His servant and create greatness for her, O Mighty One [Lk. 1, 48–49]. If you don’t want to do something for your family, considering it indecent, tell them meekly: forgive me, I can’t do it. Lord, my Savior! I thank You for Your wondrous salvation, merciful, quick, strong. I said with faith in my heart, when sin oppressed me, the following words: The Lord is my cleansing, my holiness, my peace, my freedom, my space, my light, my strength, my mercy - and immediately my heart was cleansed, calmed, expanded, enlightened, strengthened! And this is twice – soon one after the other. Thank you, my mercy! I sinned by sparing sweets to my neighbor, worthy of respect - that’s what a demonic dream was in my heart with malice, gloating about my elder relative when he coughed painfully. This, however, was for a moment, like an excuse, like a flash of my corrupted heart. I immediately resisted this evil feeling. The essence of rational creatures, Angels and men, is the image of God - reason, word, shrine, or holy will, the Holy Spirit; they are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the abode of the Holy Trinity, the Divine Tabernacle, according to the word of Scripture: I will dwell in them (2 Cor. 6:16). He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him [Jn. 6, 56]. I am the vine, and you are the branches [Jn. 15:5]: you see the unity of the Church, the unity of the saints and the unity of us earth-born laborers. A storm of passions comes upon us - on me and my neighbor, and we are confused, and passionate against each other, and we are mistaken, and we are darkened; the storm passes - we look at each other calmly again. God! Save! We must diligently love each other as we love ourselves, and constantly carry this commandment of God in our hearts. October 17, 1865. Sunday. I thank You, Holy Father, for in Your Son and for the sake of Your Son You have graciously forgiven me for my sins that overwhelmed me, for I prayed to You for this in the depths of my soul. Behold, my Lord, You manifest Your presence everywhere, everywhere You mercifully incline Your ear to us and have mercy on us in Your Son and for the sake of Your Son by Your Holy Spirit. Do not be discouraged, man, in the fight against bad natural inclinations, for example, greed, stinginess, malice, pride, envy, stubbornness or perseverance, rudeness, etc., but trust in God, in His almighty power and His innumerable bounties, for there are no sins that the Lord could not cleanse, from which we could not be saved through our prayer, and there is no sin that conquers God’s love for mankind. You are stingy and greedy and cannot be at peace when your own or strangers consume your sweets, you feel hostility towards them - immediately pray in the depths of your soul to the lover of mankind, the common Father of all: Holy Father! Show mercy to me in Your Son and for the sake of Your beloved Son, Your Lamb, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, forgive my grave sins and give me the grace not to spare anything for anyone, for everything is Yours and everything for man was created and appointed by You, for man, Your image, Your beloved creation, for whom You prepared the Kingdom of Heaven from the creation of the world. When you sincerely and with faith in the omnipresence of God, in the ever-present goodness of God, say these words in your heart, you will now receive heavenly help, and your heart will calm down, and you will glorify God’s mercy towards you, a sinner, and His power, which is so clearly manifested on you. Also fight pride, anger, envy, disobedience, self-will and stubbornness, gluttony, drunkenness. Do not fall away from love for God and your neighbor because of any material benefits, but firmly hold on to this love, counting all material benefits as rubbish, and everything will be added to you. When you serve God, for example, you perform the Sacrament, a prayer service, when you serve your neighbor, do not think about profit, do not be double-hearted, serve for the sake of God and for the sake of your neighbor, and God will reward you, and your honesty, your nobility will be your own reward. Remember that you cannot work for God and wealth, you cannot serve God sincerely and at the same time think about money, profit or regret about a flaw. These are two opposites that can never come together. In the same way, one cannot sincerely serve God and at the same time think about pleasing the stomach, about pleasant foods and drinks, passionately desire their profit or regret the loss of a sweet piece. You cannot serve God and mammon [Matt. 6, 24], or the womb. Serve God diligently, serve your neighbor sincerely, do not worry about the reward for your work - God will take care of this without a doubt and will give you everything: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you [Matt. 6, 33]. Simple (Church Slavic) – meaning: whole, indivisible into parts. Yuzhe (Church Slav.) – which. Mrezha (Church Slavic) – network. Charmed (Church Slavic) – seduced, enchanted by lies. Renewing (Church Slavic) – new being, rebirth, renewed life. Packs (Church Glav.) - again, again. That is, transmitted successively from one to another. Irmos of the 7th song of the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Prayer And grant us, O Master, peace of body and soul as we go to sleep... from the observance of Great Compline. Prayer For Your terrible and impartial judgment is coming... from the sequence of prayers for holy communion. Ikos 10th: Jesus, incorruptible treasure; Jesus, inexhaustible wealth. That is, do not make yourself an idol. Wed: Self-immolated by passions, harming my soul, Generous... The Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, read on Thursday of the First Week of Great Lent, 4th hymn. Canon of the Ethereal Forces, canto 9. Shameless (church glory) - shameless, daring, acting without embarrassment and confusion. Work (church glory) – slavery (to work – to be a slave). In Old Russian, as well as in other Slavic languages ​​- Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, to visit means to treat (hence the word gift - a gift). Hoot (old church) – sniff, smell; smell - fragrance; sense of smell. General troparion to the monk. Satisfied (Church Glav.) – granted, gave strength, made capable. Whole (church-glorified) – simple, pure, immaculate. Tune (Church Glav.) - for free. The book was written by an outstanding Russian missionary, St. Innocent (Veniaminov) of Moscow. Simple (Church Slavic) – meaning open, direct, pure. Tolikiy (church glory) – so many, so great. In the hedgehog (church glory) - so that. Osten (Church Slavic) – sting, butt; needle, nail. Creation (church glory) – re-creation, renewal. Rejoice, Head of the mental creation [Russian: Rejoice, Originator of spiritual rebirth] (Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, ikos 10). Disobedience (Church Glav.) – disobedience, disobedience. According to property (church glory) - according to dignity. See Romans chapter 7: “My Love is crucified, and there is no fire in me that loves matter, but living water...” Protori – flaws, expenses, losses. Prayer to Christ, the true light... from the follow-up of the first hour. A fanatic means a person who professes a false belief. You might be interested in: