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June 6, Sunday of the Third Week after Pentecost. I thank You, Lord, for You have easily and quickly granted me to compose a teaching and pronounce it in church, and to celebrate the Liturgy with power, and to receive communion into the world of spiritual strength and the remission of sins. Help me always, my Savior, for the glory of Your name, Lord! The Liturgy is Thy unceasing, magnificent glory, preaching Thy boundless love for us, forbearance, long-suffering, mercy, and Thy righteousness. God! Teach me to do it with dignity. Why did the Lord raise you to the height of the priesthood from a simple class, rank (deacon)? Yes, having maintained the simplicity of your title in this [rank], and having experienced poverty yourself, you are distinguished by your simplicity of heart and faith in this high field, and you sympathize with poverty and poverty, and may you do good to it according to your strength. For where does the simplicity of faith live? In the simple class of people - in the villagers, farmers. The spirit of voluptuousness and gluttony now dominates and tyrannizes over people and the resulting spirit of pride, contempt, envy, covetousness, stinginess, rudeness, laziness, insensibility, ingratitude; this spirit despises his neighbor for his coarse face, coarse clothes, coarse speech and is surprised by a beautiful face, smart clothes, educated speech, even if it is just empty eloquence or idle talk. We must fight it in every possible way through abstinence or avoidance of sweets, and especially unleavened, coveted wheat cookies. Bread is called coveted because it is consumed with greed due to its special pleasantness, and because it produces lust and kindling in the flesh. Oh, how my flesh is infuriated with voluptuousness! My wife made a very sweet dish, and I don’t want to eat it out of malice, envy and stinginess, offering the reason that the dish was made very sweet, while I regret spending a lot of sweets, I envy sweet-eaters and I am angry with my wife, who recklessly put a lot of sugar in the dish. But our God is the God of sweets, and He created all sweets for man, His most beloved creation, the image and likeness of His glory. Rejoice when the sweet creatures of God eat the sweets of God (from your hands, so to speak), and do not be sad and do not envy them; do not be the least partial to these sweets, knowing that they are the same dust as the dust of the earth. Despise the flesh, respect the soul, the spirit. Be indifferent, cold to sweets and in general to all earthly goods, so that you will be ardent towards the Lord and towards your neighbor. The enemy of my salvation does not harm me so much as by encouraging me to love sweets, for through them he constantly plunges me into enmity with my neighbor. Always respect the rights of man, the image of God, and the rights of the mother in your mother. Beggars ask for blessings and kiss their hand - I get embittered: why are they kissing? noble and rich people do not ask for blessings or receive blessings and do not kiss hands - again I get embittered: why don’t they kiss; O mad, evil, damned flesh of mine! How terribly you play with me! Or again: I am seduced by a beautiful face, I am disgusted by an ugly one, I feel attracted to the gentle, and disgusted by the rough, or again: I am seduced by sweet foods and drinks, I feel sorry for them for my neighbors, but I wish for others not to be seduced, to be indifferent to them and not feel sorry for me or for anyone else; I myself regret giving money to others, accepting - I willingly accept and want others to generously reward me for my small labors. He is affectionate towards the rich, obsequious, rude towards the poor, however, sometimes he is also affectionate towards them by God’s grace; I am unkind and gloomy towards guests, especially those who come to me often, - when I visit others, I want them to be kind and kind to me, and I repent of my rudeness towards my guests, seeing the affection of others towards me. I am proud and humble, evil and kind, fornicator and chaste, greedy and abstinent, blasphemer and glorifier, covetous and wasteful, lazy and diligent, both of little faith and believer. I am full of strange, monstrous contradictions. I am a well-wisher and a malicious person, I am a sly and a simpleton, I am a beast and a lamb, I am a coward and a brave man. But strengthen me, my Savior, in faith, hope and love, and make me unshakable in virtue. Give to a beggar who often asks you for alms, that is, daily, as you would give to him daily for the first time - with such eagerness. For the Lord gives you daily as if on the first day for the first time, without being in the least burdened by you, although you are not worthy of His mercies. When you get bored of serving your neighbors, the poor, the sick, and others, say to yourself: servant of God! You have not yet laid down your soul for your friends, your deeds are still insignificant! That he received a bookish, secular education and put on a student's frock coat or an official uniform - and imagined that he had become a different person, as if of a different nature, than the uneducated and rude simpletons, considers himself to be some kind of deity in comparison with them - nothing happened: you are the same damned sinner, the same man subject to dishonest passions, the same weak mortal, like everyone else your brothers, the same beggar and even more bitter in your soul than the real beggars, for you are proud, arrogant, irritable, angry, envious, covetous, etc. Or this woman put on a silk or velvet dress, stuck on a lot of gold and precious stones - and imagines that she is almost a queen, that no one can equal her, that she is not like others, especially ragged beggars, creature. Nothing has happened: you are the worst of all, accursed sinner, for you place your adornment not in faith, hope and love, not in Christian virtues, not in Christ, not in adoption to the Heavenly Father and a life consistent with sonship, not in internal virtues, but in empty, external, corruptible splendor, in the adornment of the flesh, which is decay and rot, not in mercy towards others, for You are proud and hard-hearted, like your gold, and you spend all your wealth, all your income, your husband’s salary on yourself, on these clothes, on the table that you have, because you are effeminate and shun simple food. Look at yourself with true eyes, throw off your disguise, shake off the vanity, love the truth. Be a Christian and a Christian not only in name, but also in deed; be humble, self-controlled, simple in everything. If not, you will be judged without mercy at that Last Judgment. Loving God with all your heart means: 1) hating sin (not the sinner) with all your soul and in all possible ways (especially those indicated by the Church - fasting, vigil, prayer) to eradicate it in yourself and in others. What sin is it to hate? - Everyone: pride, malice, envy, disobedience, gluttony and delicacy, drunkenness, fornication and all uncleanness, covetousness, love of money, foppishness, idleness and laziness, parasitism, passion for revelry; loving God with all your heart means 2) loving every virtue with all your soul and striving to fulfill all the virtues, namely: planting and rooting in yourself faith, hope, love, meekness, humility, kindness, obedience and submission to authorities, goodwill, abstinence, chastity, non-covetousness, contentment with little, devotion to the will of God, simplicity in clothing and in all home furnishings, hard work, perseverance at home in the practice of thinking about God, reading the word of God and the writings of the holy fathers, and prayer. Look with good and simple eyes, and not with evil and crafty eyes, at the words and actions of people, especially those close to you through service, relationship, or acquaintance. Otherwise, sometimes, at one point that others have not put at our discretion, we become embittered at the person who put it and say to ourselves: what is he pointing out to us, teaching us about such a trifle? We engage in the destruction of our passions lightly, sometimes, and not at all times; other times we indulge them, instead of destroying them constantly, mercilessly. We are more concerned with vain bodily matters - what pits and drinks, what we wear, what kind of house, apartment we will live in, where we will go for walks, etc. That is why passions are ignored by us, everything grows and grows and one day they will give us a nice bath. Rampant with passions - stinginess, greed, envy, pride, malice, covetousness, disobedience, laziness, murmuring, fornication and other passions, you want to live, my accursed flesh, the devil's slave, but you must be put to death: I pacify and enslave my body (1 Cor. 9:27), - you must be crucified: those who Christ's, they crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts [Gal. 5, 24]. We are one, that is what I must constantly think in my heart. God! I thank You, for You have made me worthy to perform the Liturgy without stumbling and to partake of peace and boldness, lightness and space. I thank You, for in the classroom You also gave me freedom, boldness, speech, and sovereignly delivered me from the impurity of a prodigal thought and did not allow it, through faith in You and my zeal, to enter my heart. When, after frequent guests come to you, you become indignant in spirit and become embittered at them, then turn this anger from them onto yourself and say to yourself: this is working in me, it’s raging, my greed is tormenting me; I must hate my greed, and not my neighbors - I must always love them as I love myself. The priest, having an incorruptible, heavenly spiritual waste - the Flesh and Blood of Christ, despises corruptible waste and drinks, imputes them for rubbish and slop, like Alexy, the man of God; equally, having an incorruptible robe - Christ, he despises perishable clothing: he hopes to receive the eternal, bright clothing of glory. Tune himself receives everything in abundance - do not regret giving to Tune and others. God will reward the offended one. If your acquaintances offend you, as you think, by frequenting you, eating and drinking from you, do not be upset with them, but kindly accept them as members of Christ, and the Lord will reward you, for He is good, generous, knowledgeable, righteous, omnipotent. If you measure according to measure, it will be measured to you. Just hold on to love. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you [Matt. 6, 33]. We are angry with our neighbors because of sweets, because sweets are more dear to us than our neighbors, they are our idols. But God is our Nourisher. If He gave us the Flesh and Blood of His beloved Son for food and drink, this life-giving and sweet food, then will He not give us something unimportant - ordinary food and drink? And when did He not give? When we were hungry and had nothing, even for one day? Haven't we always had enough to eat? Were you not always dressed with some luxury? Why are we worried after we have experienced God’s bounties so many times? When the Lord unceasingly and unfailingly provides for us, faithful to His word: For He Himself said: I will never leave you nor forsake you [Heb. 13, 5 ]? Christ enters and reigns in us as love, for example, for our neighbors - for the poor, for guests, for family, for people in general; the devil - like anger, irritability, envy, stinginess, etc. Ordinary food is decay of the spirit and body (corruption); Spiritual food is life of spirit and body. By blessing the people of God in the name of the Lord, spread the blessing of the Heavenly Father to them. Blessed ones of My Father [Matt. 25, 34]. To despise every sin in oneself, to impute it to nothing, to consider it madness, to consider it madness, and not to delude yourself for a moment and not to follow it. One heart and one soul we should all be. I need Christ alone, He alone is my life. Magnificent Lord Jesus Christ! I thank You, for yesterday and today You delivered me from the fierce sorrows of soul and body through the communion of Your Divine Mysteries, and You pacified me, and made me happy, and made me glad. I praise Your goodness, wisdom, omnipotence. But enlighten, O Savior, the mental eyes of my heart and free me from passions. Be afraid to despise any of the people, for human nature in the person of the God-man Christ is deified, and he who despises a person, even for sin or for simplicity and rudeness, also despises the God-man, who took away the sins of the world and crucified His flesh for us. And one should not despise a sinner, but only his sins, or despise a sinner only who is unrepentant, an unbeliever, a blasphemer, a man-hater. Love is all-conquering; through love you can achieve all that is good, that is, through long-suffering, meekness, mercy, etc. Lord! How great Your mercies are to me, it is impossible to express with my weak mind and mortal tongue. Oh, what miracles of power You perform in me with Your terrible and glorious name, driving away demons, taking away passions, extinguishing the flame of hell that they kindle in my being! So now You have surprised Your mercy on me, removing me from the jaws of the hellish serpent, who had devoured me with His malice. I thank and glorify Your goodness, Lord Jesus! I thank You, Lord, for You have made me worthy to partake of Your most pure and life-giving Mysteries during the Liturgy into the world of my spiritual strength. Confirm this which you have done in me. Christ the Lord is sufficient for me in all things. The flesh speaks about people, co-humans: this stranger, this one is not his own, why did he come to me, why is he visiting me, or: why is he asking me, why am I going to give him alms or something else, - but faith, or the new man, a new creature in Christ, says: all people are our own, as if they came from one God and from one blood, all created equally in the image of God; Christians are purely, doubly their own, as one body and one spirit [Eph. 4, 4 ], for all are members of the Church of Christ or His spiritual body, sheep of His verbal flock, under His eternal shepherdship and leadership, all are children of God in Christ, all are united through Christ God with God, all are baptized in the same font according to the same rite in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all partake from the same Chalice and are all adored, all expect a single eternal fatherland under a single paternal covering and with the fulfillment of all by one God. So, everyone should live in mutual harmony and love and should not tear anyone away from themselves in vain, for example, because of money, because of food and drink, because of clothing, because of housing or something else; We must provide each other with help and assistance, always respect each other, edify, admonish, and where and when necessary punish with meekness and love, pray for each other to God, for the clergy, for the perfection of ourselves and our neighbors, care for the glory of God in them and through them, according to the Scripture: hallowed be thy name [Matt. 6, 9], or: that you may proclaim Him to virtue, Who called them out of darkness... into His wonderful light (1 Pet. 2, 9). One body, one spirit [Eph. 4, 4]. Our neighbors, like us, members of Christ, are fed from His body and from His bones, and He, the Head, constantly provides for us all, fills everyone with His grace, His salvation, peace, joy, light (that is, those who are ready to accept all this), gives everything to everyone, and material benefits: food, drink, clothing, air, light, warmth, all the pure pleasures of life. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything [Phil. 4, 5 – 6]. For He Himself said: I will never leave you nor forsake you [Heb. 13, 5]. If you loved your neighbor firmly as yourself, you would not need to write this many books, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word: to love your sincere person as yourself [Matt. 22, 39]. Look at your neighbors as the fingers of your hand, which you always protect and do not allow them to get sick or for anyone to hit them, cut them or otherwise annoy them. Divide the material gifts of God, given to all by the generous Heavenly Father, with love and turn them into a reason and proof of your love for them, and do not feel sorry for them, do not tremble over them, greedily holding them for yourself and for yourself only: this is a devilish teaching, a devilish skill and custom of many and yours. So, rich people have a lot of things and spare a few kopecks or rubles for the poor. Do not rely on perishing wealth, on money, food and drink, sweets, clothing, but on the living God, who richly gives us everything for our enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17). Do not give stingily and squander with prudence: an unbeliever in giving sees only a waste and loss of his well-being, but a believer in giving sees an acquisition and a sure guarantee of his well-being, for the hand of the giver does not become scarce. You are the Provider and Giver of every good, says the morning prayer about the Holy Spirit. Why should we worry? As united to God, let us live in love, for God is love (1 John 4:8). I am entirely in the bounty of the all-good God: He unceasingly cleanses my iniquities and, after frequent spiritual death, gives me life again, peace, freedom, lightness, space, washes and whitens my soul with His Body and Blood, nourishes and gives life to it, enlightens it, constantly shows it the paths of life, illuminates me with the sun (oh, how many hours, minutes the sun illuminated me daily), refreshes and fills me with air. my insides, drink quenches my thirst, etc. Do not despise your neighbor, but despise the devil, who instills contempt for his neighbor and teaches man many different evils, many different sins and captivates the human race with worldly passions. Do not hate your neighbor, but the devil, who instills hatred of your neighbor, whom, according to the commandment of our God, we must love as we love ourselves - the devil, who puts the sting of hatred in the heart and instigates and incites to insult, offend him, do evil and harm to him. Despise and hate your old man, who learned from the devil to despise and hate man. Grant me, Lord, Your grace, merciful, cleansing, enlightening, strengthening, saving. Oh, how life-giving, peaceful, sweet, relieving is Your Divine grace! Woe without Thy grace! In the cloud, light 66 - because the Virgin Mary, as sinless and holy, was light, like a cloud, not attached to anything earthly, like a cloud, she was all grief. This is how we should be. One should not consider anything on earth or in oneself as one’s own, but everything as God’s, as in reality, and one should not cling to anything, but every person should be considered one’s own, close to one’s heart. Heart and soul are one [Acts. 4, 32]. Here is the Church! We say: we believe in the Church, but by deeds we prove the opposite. If we are one body, if the Head of the body of the Church is Christ, who laid down His soul for people and for the Church out of love for them, why don’t we love each other, why don’t we bear each other’s burdens, but pity each other, don’t help each other, envy each other, are proud, despise each other? Are we deceiving each other? Why don’t we despise this ancient charm of passions? Sin is madness, absurdity, empty malice, while we are endowed by God with reason and the ability to love and are obliged to love [and enemies]. Let us take, for example, pride and arrogance: a proud person despises not only strangers, for example beggars, but also relatives, his own parents, if he is highly placed and lives independently of them, and they are of a simple low family, and especially if [they] depend on him for everyday needs; he despises not only them, but also himself for the fact that he was born from them, and not from noble parents, as if a noble family only makes us people, or more than people, and as if a simple title, descent from simple parents makes us not human and humiliates our dignity, for is it not the same noble and ignoble person, is it not the same mind, is it not the same gift of speech, is it not the same free will, is it not the same ability for virtue and the pinnacle of virtues - love of God and neighbor, meekness, humility, mercy in the noble and ignoble? And aren’t noble people even more capable of feats of self-sacrifice out of love for God and their neighbors than simple people, unspoiled by wealth and luxury and the refined decency of the world, imbued with gloss, with which noble people are most infected? So we see this in practice very often, although we also do not reject the sublimity and nobility of spirit, courage, readiness for self-sacrifice and in some noble people who have proven their sublime, noble soul through various deeds and self-sacrifices for the benefit of the Church and the fatherland. But this happens to those who combine faith in God and the fear of God with nobility of blood, for without this they are only noble flesh and blood, without a noble spirit. We must not forget that by original origin from God, as created in the image and likeness of God, everyone is noble, and sin has made us low-born, without exception of anyone; then the Lord Jesus Christ, having accepted our nature, again ennobled us all, becoming incarnate for our common salvation, for us, for our sins, having been crucified and died and risen, especially ennobled the Christian race (the race of Christ), giving birth to it through the wash of rebirth 67, granting it sonship, for to those who believe in His name He gave the power to become children of God, who are neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor from the will of a man, but were born of God [Jn. 1, 12 – 13], and in the highest way ennobled and ennobles us with the most sincere communion of Him in His Divine Mysteries of His Body and Blood. After this, every Christian, especially the right believer, must be looked at with the greatest respect, reverence, love, as one deified by Christ Jesus Himself, as a member of Him, as at Himself (Matthew 25; Acts (26:14). Why do you persecute Me? ), as a member of His Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all [Eph. 1, 23]. However, right faith and the Sacraments must be accompanied by right life: meekness, humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, non-covetousness, selfless love for God and neighbor, ready to make all sacrifices for the glory of God and for the good of others - without all this, both right faith and all the Sacraments of faith will only serve to further our condemnation. So, let us be a new creature in Christ with a new spirit, with a new heart. Let us leave madness, let us live forever, let us reject the madness of passions. You, Lord the Savior, enlighten, help and save! For this we pray to You, for this we stretch out our hands to You: Your name is Savior, because You are in power, in deed - Savior; save us from all our sins. Behold, You see them, you see this abyss of sin in us - You Yourself dry it up with the grace of Your Holy Spirit in all of us. You see pride in us - pluck out its thorns; If you see malice, pluck out its tares; If you see covetousness and envy, pull out their roots; you see fornication and all uncleanness - dry up all the streams of fornication, you see intemperance - You yourself restrain us, You yourself set the striving of the passions of all, for without You we cannot do anything. Appearance seduces our feelings because of our sensual life, and inner dignity is hidden under a rough crust - bodies, words, clothes do not attract us, because due to passions they have become far from them. Look not at the word - rough, artless, dissonant or soft, refined, red, skillfully composed - but at the being, at the heart, at the spirit, at the deed of the speaker. The word is a husk, a shell - look what its core, essence, fruit is. See if anger is breathing in you when you hear the speech of a person dear to you from a low, simple family or poor person asking you for help - rude, awkward, uneducated speech, although this person speaks with meekness, gentleness, love, affection, or whether there is in you servility, man-pleasing, vain servility and surprise at an educated, noble, eloquent, idle talker, to someone speaking out of decency or ex officio in memorized expressions, without the participation of the heart, without love, without action? Both that delusion and this delusion of your heart - you must respect everyone equally as Christians, as fellow humans and not look at the person and the word, not with the outer, but with the inner eye and ear, look at the person and listen to the person. Give up both contempt and servility completely. How can one despise the image of God? How can you be servile when you are the image of God and the servant of God? Be a slave, but for the glory of God, but for the salvation of your neighbor, and not for the sake of vanity. Passions are a dream, the stench of the devil: don’t pay attention to them, do the opposite of them, quickly, undoubtedly, and they, like smoke, like stench, will disappear. If you don’t resist, you will doubt whether they really are telling lies, and they will confuse you, and overcome you, and greatly hurt and torment you. And passions act quickly, like scorching lightning, and impetuously, like a destructive whirlwind - and virtue enlightens and enlivens quickly, like the rays of the sun, and fills the heart and body, like the coolness of the air. Don’t pamper your flesh with warm drinks and sweets and soft and elegant clothes - you will intensify your passions, you will intensify the war with yourself, you will start a war. All earthly blessings are a shadow, having no essence, reality, constancy - we see all this in practice, but heavenly blessings are abiding, eternal; the goods here are changeable, the goods there are unchangeable. May God grant us all to receive those blessings through neglect of earthly things. Who is a sage who does not apply his heart to earthly blessings, rough ones that do not give peace, freedom, light to our spirit and depressing anxiety, sadness, shameful slavery, keeping people in infinite darkness and blindness regarding their eternal fate on the other side of the grave? – Who diligently cleaves to God and constantly remembers that age, that bliss in the unapproachable light, which the righteous and those who have turned away from the aphrodisiac of sin and passions will see and gaze into endless centuries, as well as the eternal fire that has to devour sinners forever, who will understand the complete simplicity of his nature and manage to live simply, fixing his mind and heart on God and placing it on Him one with all his hope, he will soon become blessed very simply and without difficulty. Whoever despises the belly and trash, which God will abolish, will despise the enemy of human salvation and will wound him to the very head, for he lifts up his head and has power over people because of their gluttony, as at first he had power over Eve and Adam and as we all experience every day. Who will learn to condemn himself for everything and not look at the sins of his neighbor, not condemn him, but pray for him when he sees him in temptation, in the fall? Who will expose this flattery to the enemy and defeat the proud devil, who wants to prematurely condemn everyone to the fiery hell they deserve? Who will overcome the passion for clothes (because of which people despise their soul and do not care at all about decorating this god-like tabernacle, disfigured, littered and crushed by various everyday passions), because of which they are hard-hearted, uncompassionate towards their neighbors, cold towards their Creator, who inexpressibly loved them and gives them life with breath and all the blessings of spirit and body, because of which there is so much envy, enmity, quarrels, seduction, loss of chastity, thoughts and suspiciousness about the church itself, vain labors, sleepless nights, deceptions, theft, robbery, robberies? Who will despise the color of skin and value a person out of his skin, despising a person with rough and dark skin and respecting a person with skin and complexion of the opposite property, valuing in a person a person, his soul created in the image of God, and not his flesh, this temporary shell of it, although this, as the work of God’s hands, is venerable, and, moreover, both rough and dark, and tender and soft? Who will despise clothing and value a person not by his attire, by this completely accidental attribute of a person, and not by his inner dignity? - How long will appearances consume the sons of Adam? How long will we not be sons of Jesus Christ, how long will we not be led by His spirit? How long will there be contemplation, partiality, skin frenzy, color frenzy, clothing frenzy? When the evil one stings you with disgust at one of your neighbors for his rudeness, lack of education, poverty, unpleasant appearance of his face, etc., then say to yourself: I must truly abhor myself as the greatest sinner, who corrupted himself in childhood with various sins, and beg the infinite mercy of God to have mercy on me, and to respect every person as created in the image of God and as a member of Christ. body, as a child of God in Christ, despite his shortcomings, which the Lord Himself covers, cleanses and forgives as a result of his repentance. Where their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched [Mk. 9, 44]. These words are terrible and true. They are terrible because they are true to an iota. They talk about the nature and eternity of the torment of sinners. That they are true is vouched for by the eternal and true being of the Lord, who spoke them, who cannot lie, and also that well-known truth that after death there is no repentance and whoever dies as an unrepentant sinner is the eternal prey of hell: in hell, who will confess to You? [Ps. 6, 6]. The truth of the worm and the fire of hell after death can also be proven by experience in real life. How many, many of us have experienced and are experiencing the action in the heart of a spiritual worm, sucking our heart, tormenting, disturbing, and fire devouring our insides, after committing any, even mental sin? So now the worm of self-love, pride, malice, selfishness, envy, stinginess, love of money, covetousness, greed, jealousy, disobedience and disobedience wears away at the heart of a sinner, and the fire of hell burns the heart - and oh, how painfully this worm wears out the heart of a sinner, this fire devours his insides to admonish him, to awaken in him the spirit of repentance, contrition and remorse for sins and correction! My brothers! Sinners like me, repent and turn with all your heart to the path of virtue, so that you do not become prey to the eternal worm and unquenchable fire! Yes, true is this worm, true is this fire! Saturation gives rise to pride, contempt for one's neighbor, free-thinking, malice, envy, stinginess, covetousness, fornication and other passions. What an evil satiety is! But for us it’s almost an ordinary sin. Spare us Lord! Give us reason, correct us, Lord, so that we may not perish in our sins. Why do we despise the rough, dark body of a simple, uneducated man with a harsh word? Because our flesh is prodigal, pampered by sweets, beautiful clothes, because our eyesight is accustomed to looking at beautiful faces and being surprised by them and captivated by them, as well as beautiful clothes, manners, and our heart is accustomed to admiring them! Therefore, one should not stare at beautiful faces and outfits, not chase after appearance at all, but value the inner person in a person - his soul, his title as a person, a Christian, father, mother, brother, sister, child - his neighbor. O prodigal flesh! I despise you. How little food and drink I need to maintain life and strength! And I hunger for everything! Oh, foolishness! Oh, incomprehensible seduction! Oh, greed! Oh, how the devil envies our nature, so exalted and exalted, blessed and blessed by God! What passions of dishonor does he plunge us into! How does he not deceive us, what means in his hellish malice and cunning did he forget to use against us? And external torment with various tortures, and heresies, and schisms, and passions: and fornication, and malice, and pride, and envy, and gluttony, and covetousness, and everything that only humiliates, scalds us with abomination, that binds, darkens and plunges us into slavery! Merciful God! Have mercy on humanity! Do not let our enemy rejoice over our destruction! But You thunder with Your righteous voice: I gave you reason and free will, I gave you My saving grace, I gave you the means to fulfill My commandments - and in your mind, with free will, all your life you resisted Me and pleased My enemy and yours. Depart from Me, all you damned and unrepentant sinners, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels [Matt. 25, 41]. So, resisting the devil all your life, doing the will of God - this is the means to get rid of the enemy’s snares and eternal torment. I sinned - I was offended by my father-in-law for an unjust, false word against me, and perhaps a fair one, but unpleasant to me, as if I were tearing church vestments. And I became angry with my mother for taking my piece of white bread. Oh, madness, oh, the stench of passions! July 15, 1866. All of us, Christians, have been given infinitely many blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ through His incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection, and we have nothing to envy each other, and there is no need to hunger for earthly blessings, transitory, corruptible, relative and corruptible for the soul and body, because we have been given eternal blessings, which no eye can see, and no ear can hear, and there is no sigh in the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). So, let us live in mutual love, awaiting the appearance of our Savior and the life of the next century and fulfilling His commandments: This is My commandment, that you love one another... As I have loved you, so you also must love one another [Jn. 15, 12; 13, 34]. As you want people to do to you, do so to them [Matt. 7, 12]. The devil, because of the disharmony of his brother’s voice, outrages us during the service, the accursed one, and here he forces us to care too much about appearance, passing on the inner and using the disharmony of the singer as a reason for anger towards him. O flatterer! The gifts of God’s love for people: money, food, drinks, honors, power, etc. – are used by the devil or we ourselves as a reason for hostility towards our neighbor, envy, contempt. We are damned! How can we be justified before the righteous Judge? Yes, we charge everything for rubbish! And let us love one another diligently, for we are brethren in Christ, because we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones [Eph. 5, 30]. Every day the accursed one inflames me to various passions, every day he works in me, forcing me into sins and even destroying me. Be gone, you damned one! God! Help me! God! Save me. Perceivers! Raise those you receive in the faith! The Lord will punish you for them! God! Have mercy on me, as you condemned my brethren for hardness of heart and unmercifulness and grumbled that I alone give alms! Isn't it a matter of freedom to give alms? Will not everyone give an answer about themselves to You, our God? Will not everyone bear his own burden [Gal. 6, 5 ]? Precious and candle utensils for holy icons and for clergy and clergy in the church of God are used in order to: 1) to show that the faces adorned with them, as images of God, are precious and infinitely more valuable than all gold and silver and precious stones, 2) in order to show the purity and lightness of their souls, for gold and silver and precious stones shine and amaze the eye with their purity, 3) to show the angelic dignity of the clergy, angelic service, angelic purity and firmness of their faith, hope and love, for gold, silver and precious stones are distinguished by their hardness. Common church prayers, common infirmities, passions, sins, sorrows, misfortunes, illnesses, needs; the same soul, a common God and Savior, a common Lady, the Most Holy Theotokos, common intercessors - the holy apostles, prophets, saints, martyrs, saints and all saints; the common hope of the calling, the common church, the common cup of the covenant, the common font of baptism—everything is common. Man is the image of God! Oh, how many guarantees of goodness, truth and beauty are contained in man! How majestic is the essence of his soul, sometimes hidden under a simple, rough exterior! A simple, uneducated person is often a hundred times better than me in terms of his heart, which is the main thing in a person. With all my education, with all my reading, worldly experience and everyday prudence, I sometimes fall before a simple, uneducated person when it comes to the virtues of the heart and find myself not knowing the ABCs of heart literacy, heart virtues: meekness, humility, patience, simplicity, purity and chastity, non-covetousness, generosity, kindness and cordiality in hospitality, I find myself proud, contemptuous, impatient, hasty, angry, wayward, dishonest, crafty, stingy, unkind, insincere, uncompassionate. This means that the education of the mind without the education of the heart is insignificant and does not lead to true happiness and to the true, final goal. When you educate your mind, you must also have an educated, kind, meek, forgiving, patient, pure heart. And such a heart is most often found among simple, uneducated people, who, however, even without education very often know the only thing needed, while people with a secular education very often do not know this. I must show all the so-called noble people an example of how to honor a simple, uneducated, low-status mother, kissing her hand and thanking her for everything after God, and I should not be ashamed of her for her baseness and rudeness, for one should be ashamed of pride, not humility, not humiliation. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted [Lk. 18, 14]. Everything that is beautiful and tender and carnal must be considered nothing, like dust, just like the ugly and coarse, but the soul must be considered infinitely higher flesh, the soul must always be respected as the image of God, a child of God and a member of Christ. Our Father, who art in heaven! Everyone: noble and ignorant, learned and uneducated, rich and poor, different classes, genders and conditions - we equally call God our Father - which means we are all equal, equally His children, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, noble or from a low state. Thus, this prayer should teach us daily humility, love, sociability, respect. Mirrors, furniture, room decoration in general, sets, tableware and tea utensils serve the lust of the eyes, various foods and drinks serve the lust of the flesh and belly, clothes serve the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And all this together is vanity. Escape the bustle of the world. The heart immediately lets us know whether God is found in it or His adversary and ours: in the first case it is peaceful, free, in the second it is confused and bound. We cannot use our money for anything better, as for beggars, for everything in life: decoration, etc. is vanity. Do not be satiated with your mother, father, wife, or other household members and do not neglect them. With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. After God, your mother is higher, dearer, and dearest to you than anyone else on earth, for after God you received your existence and your first thorough upbringing, your first lessons of faith and life from her. Tread on suspiciousness, it is a devilish lie, a dream, his delirium. So, for example, strangers come to your house to visit, they bump into you and your mother - and you think that they think unfavorably about your mother, as a simple woman, and therefore about you, and despise her and you. This is one dream. For why should we despise your mother (even though she is simple), and through her, you? For simplicity? But one must respect for this, and pity for lack of education. But simplicity is not proud, and is kind, sincere and easy to deal with everyone, but your education is proud, evil, crafty and stingy quite often. Even if others really thought and spoke unfavorably about your mother and you - what does that matter to you? Let them think and talk. You can’t connect someone else’s thought, and neither can someone else’s language. But God is the Judge of human thoughts and consciences. You walk, think, speak, act before God, and so do people. What do you need the approving opinions of men, or are you troubled by the evil thoughts and words of men? The Lord is my judge (1 Cor. 4:4). You will give him the answer - not to people. Saturation with the material gifts of God - food, drink, money, clothes, home furnishings leads to satiety with both the moral gifts of God and the gifts of faith. So, do not be satisfied with food and drink, lest you be satisfied with your family, colleagues, and parishioners. Avoid displeasure and bitterness in your heart, so that your love and respect for others do not cool. Be patient, be forgiving. Try to implement in your life the idea of ​​a kind, meek, reasonable, constant father and shepherd. The father always loves, provides, cares, prepares an inheritance; the shepherd tirelessly and unceasingly shepherds, guides those who go astray to the true path, does not slumber, and watches over his flock. This is not a pastoral spirit, not meekness and humility, that you get irritated and shout at the poor in the middle of the street with bitterness; children are simple, trusting and at the same time stupid: one must respect one thing about them (simplicity, gullibility, need, courage generated by need), as if not noticing the other, calmly neglecting (their shamelessness, importunity, which stems from childish recklessness), and in general be above children's stupidity, as befits a shepherd, a respectable person and a reasonable priest. And the priest has nothing to be irritated about: if there are many people demanding alms, then to whom he needs to give, he can give, but to others he may not give, or to give more to some, less to others, no one will force him; almsgiving is a matter of freedom. And the priest should consider money as rubbish, as lifeless dust, which is what it is. His belly, his bread Christ is a wonderful, perfect, endless Belly; It is only out of unreason, out of infatuation with his passion, that the priest becomes irritated and embittered at those frequently asking for alms: the poor are his intercessors before God, the guarantee of his own pardon. Liturgies, prayer services, the performance of the Sacraments and prayers are cleansing for your soul; You should thank God that He gives you opportunities for frequent prayer and sacred rites, but you should not even think about grumbling that the brethren serve and work less than you, and you work more than them. You are at a huge advantage before them, although what you acquire goes to the general benefit, and not to yours only, for it is also a gift of God that what you acquire goes not to you alone, but to everyone. Submit to the will of God in everything and note in everything the will of God, and not chance. Leeches that sucked the bad blood from the merchant and healed his legs. I walked to Ilyeshi. You taught Old Testament history in order to know about the beginning of all things through their creation from God, about the beginning of the human race, about the qualities of the first people created by God, about their blessed state, about their fall and in their person the entire human race; about the corruption of the mind, heart and will and body by sin (raise me from aphids, O God 68), about the promise of the Savior, about transformative sacrifices, prophecies; about the chosen men - patriarchs and forefathers, from whose tribe it was predicted that the promised Savior would come, about the chosen people, in whom faith in the true God was preserved, about the fate of this people and its rulers, about their punishments and the mercies of the Lord God of Israel to them and about the fall of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. You teach in order to know that you are a sinner, that you are a perishing creature, and how terrible the consequences of sin are if you remain stuck in it (eternal torment), so that you care with all your soul about saving your soul from sin, passions and vice. And the New Testament history shows that the promised Savior really came, as it was written about Him (according to Scripture 70), and, having lived in this world for thirty-three and a half years, accomplished our salvation through His Divine teaching, His life, death and resurrection - thus you teach the New Testament history in order to assure you of the Divinity and salvific nature of the Christian faith and its Founder and so that you always deal with a prayer for salvation and help to this Divine Redeemer and Savior, most merciful, wise and omnipotent. Simple, uneducated people are the most sheep, and the so-called secularly educated people are the most goats. The habit of faith, satiety of faith, ignorance of faith, desire for earthly interests, noticeable in everyone. Exposing these shortcomings. Love your neighbor as yourself [Matt. 22, 39], because by loving our neighbor, we love ourselves: my neighbor is the same as I. I measure according to measure, it will be measured to me. I am a damned man: every day I am fed up, and therefore I become more hard-hearted towards the poor. Doesn’t the Lord Heavenly Father provide for us that I regret wasting my wealth on the poor? I have not yet acquired meekness: I still give place to boldness of hands. I have sinned against the Lord! Is it possible for a priest to take revenge with his own hands for anyone? The sting of God and the sting of demons: the sting of God when we feel sorry for God, seeing Him insulted by evil demons or evil people, when we feel sorry for a person who is in poverty, hunger, nakedness, cold, misfortune, adversity, illness, or unjustly insulted or raped, etc. The sting of the devil is when we feel sorry for something earthly, for example, money, food, drink for our neighbor, clothes, housing; the sting of pride, hatred, envy, stinginess, disobedience, etc. Lord! I thank You for You heard my prayer when unexpected guests from Rambov came to me and my heart was embarrassed: You [pacified] and pacified my heart and gave me the strength to joyfully treat them with sweet coffee. Grant me, Lord, the grace to joyfully spend my wealth on my neighbors, especially on the poor. Children are gentle and simple: you punish them, shout at them, pull them by the hair or ears, and give them alms, and they kiss your hand and thank you earnestly. We will give our whole life with all alms, with all sorrows and deprivations to the Lord God: He, the All-Good One, will arrange everything for good, as a faithful Creator. Dovleti (Church Glav.) – to be sufficient. In the hedgehog (church glory) - so that. Irmos of the 4th song of the canon of the Theotokos, tone 4. Irmos of the 6th song at Matins, tone 2. Kosneti (Church Glav.) – to hesitate. You might be interested in: