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I thank You, Lord my God, for You have granted me, after my illness, to perform the early liturgy and to partake of Your Divine Mysteries for the salvation and to perform a prayer service to the Most Holy Lady Theotokos with the Blessing of Water without stumbling. But forgive me my sin that I was irritated with a poor old woman (90 years old), who called me to serve a prayer service, because it was as if she did not speak clearly, intelligibly, or clearly about her place of residence, but in fact because she was poor and homely! Oh, hypocrisy! Oh, godless sight! Those whom we need to pity more, caress (the poor and old), honor, treat with all meekness and friendliness, we offend, embarrass, get irritated with! But aren’t they the ones who can and do appreciate our kindness in treatment most of all? Aren't they the ones who pray for us from the heart and in the simplicity of their hearts to the Lord God? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, meek and humble of heart, teach me, Your servant, meekness and humility, so that I may always have Your spirit within me, for if anyone does not have Your spirit, he is not Yours [Rom. 8, 9]. God rests in simple hearts. Where are the simple hearts? In simple people it is greatest: under the visible rudeness and ignorance they have a simple, meek, humble, kind, patient heart, which is of great value in the eyes of God. God! Grant me, by Your grace, to acquire the church of my soul and body, beautifully adorned with all the virtues - love for You and my neighbor. Here comes a neighbor from outside or from home - and the first feeling that the enemy tries to instill in me is vain anger. God! Protect me. Grant me, when meeting every person, to feel love, meekness and humility towards him. God! Grant me this in any case, whenever and whatever sacrifice my neighbor demands from me, for love is dearer than anything. My God! How limitless is Your power, how endless is Your goodness and wisdom! Being God by nature, You also became a man by nature, without ceasing to be God! How can it be worthy to revere Your omnipotence? How can I thank Your goodness and wisdom? Heaven and earth were horrified at this and were amazed, for God had appeared as a man in the flesh... 71 Remember constantly that you are 1) the image of God, 2) a Christian, or Christ’s disciple, Christ’s son, Christ’s heritage, 3) that other Christians have the same dignity - and therefore behave in accordance with these honorable names and treat others in accordance with their honorable Christian names, for all are in the image of God, all children of God, all members of Christ. After communion, drink one glass of tea at home, without a roll, have a moderate lunch, and tea with a roll in the evening. How dare I, insignificant, damned one, get irritated, angry, angry at my beggar brother, the image of God, a member of Christ, Christ Himself? How can I give alms with anger towards him? Does he often come to me? Don't I come to Christ more often? Does he need much? Not true - not much: just to satisfy an urgent need. But you have long ago satisfied all your needs, you are satisfied with everything, and you have some, albeit small, surpluses: give them to your neighbors, the poor, and with meekness and humility, as your brothers, equal to you in everything (in the image of God, in the font of Baptism and the Sacrament of Communion), and even more so as the brothers of Christ. Look, where is your faith? Remember that love does not get irritated. Remember that love lays down your soul for your friends, for your neighbors, not just your property. Remember what Christ suffered for you and what He commanded you to do towards your neighbor. As I have loved you, [so] let you also love one another [Jn. 13, 34]. Resurrection. After early mass. I thank You, Lord, for You have vouchsafed me to perform the Divine Liturgy with a cheerful heart and sober thought and to partake without condemnation for the remission of sins and into the world of spiritual powers of Your Most Pure Mysteries, and when the enemy at the prayer service stung me with his punctuation, confusing my spirit, You again, through the communion of Your Holy Mysteries, took away my ulcer and You have given me confusion and Your peace. I thank you, because upon coming to the house, you took away the most absurd anger towards my relatives. Save Thy servant and all Thy servants from all the machinations of the enemy. Eleven o'clock in the morning. When reading church prayers, do not philosophize, but in the simplicity of your heart say all their words. Look at the actions of your neighbors, especially those older than you, with simplicity and goodness of heart; be strict with yourself, and lenient with others, especially with your parents, who were so condescending to you, put up with you so much, and cared for you a lot. Remember that love is patient, merciful, does not boast, is not proud, does not think evil, bears all things, endures all things... (1 Cor. 13). Remember that the devil tries to turn all everyday little things into a reason for anger at our neighbor - we urgently need to turn everything into a reason for love. May everything with you be done with love... Achieve love (1 Cor. 16:14; 14:1). Love each other diligently from a pure heart (1 Pet. 1:22). Give no place to the devil's malice. From now on, may I hate her with complete hatred, as well as my devilish pride. God, help and confirm: grant grace to walk in the gentleness of my heart in the midst of my house [Ps. 100, 2] and Yours, that is, Your Church, the assembly of believers. God ! raise up Your power, and come to save me [Ps. 79, 3]. Give me the grace to see my sins and not condemn my brother, much less my father or mother, for everyone is free, everyone is the master of his life, everyone will bear his own burden [Gal. 6, 5]. How can I commit sin or lawlessness against the Creator, when He gave me laws for my own bliss, when He, the All-Perfect One, created me in His image and likeness and wants me to be as perfect as He (be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect [Matthew 5:48]) - and when I commit a sin in thought, word or deed, then I rebel, I rebel against my Creator. God! Enlighten the eyes of my heart. Will you stand on the right side of the Judge at that Last Judgment or on the left? You can guess this. Why? By its character or heart properties. If you, like a goat, emit the stench of passions - pride, anger, envy, greed, etc., if you, like a goat, butt, fight, get angry, then you will be on the left - and if you are meek, patient, willingly giving what is yours to strangers, then you will stand on the right hand. The priest must be above this lordly arrogance of noble and pampered people and not servile, not indulge this arrogance, not humiliate himself, not be cowardly in the face of the mighty of the world, but behave in a dignified, sedate, even, pastoral manner, in service leisurely, not people-pleasing. Whims, discontent, lordly arrogance, coldness towards matters of faith must be denounced. You are amazed at the tenderness, purity, and whiteness of the skin of city residents and, it seems, you are devouring their beauty with your eyes. In vain: this is a dream. Respect the roughness and blackness of the skin of the face and hands of villagers, because the tenderness and whiteness of the face and hands of city dwellers comes mostly from their vain care about it, from the lack of labor, exhausting activities, work, from inaction, and the roughness and blackness of the skin of the face and hands of villagers comes from their hard, almost constant field and household work, and villagers have no time to care about the vain beauty of their flesh. So, respect the man with a rough face and rough hands, and don’t be ashamed to kiss them. To feel sorry for our neighbor on any of the gifts of the Lord that belong to us means to show Judas’ disposition, Judas’s curse, and to betray the Lord in the person of our neighbor for earthly things. There is no need for your neighbor to spare anything that is necessary, for your neighbor is dearer than the whole world, and everything that is God’s is not ours. You constantly worship idols, hoping for perishing wealth, wanting more money and sparing it to the poor and needy, or taking it from others in an inconspicuous way. Shouldn’t we rely on the living God who gives life to everyone and cares for everyone, and shouldn’t we please Him completely? Shouldn’t we be content with little and not crave much, because much, as superfluous, weighs on the soul, deprives it of peace, peace, freedom, deadens it, but little does not do this, and brings us closer to God, and makes it possible to care about God, to please Him, to breathe and live in Him. Isn’t everything superfluous and worse than any kind of rubbish, because it clogs the soul, darkens and distorts the image of God, makes the image of God a slave to rubbish, to the dust of the earth? Blessed is he who has renounced all his possessions: he is the freer, the more attached to the Lord, the source of life. That's why the apostles had nothing of their own! We have a lot of earthly blessings. But we do not have the Lord in our hearts [...]. So, do not envy the one who has a lot, for he is unhappy, he forgets God, he often insults his neighbors due to his addiction to wealth. It is a treasure, and no one knows for whom I will collect it [Ps. 38, 7]. Envy exposes a lack of love for one's neighbor, excessive pride and addiction to earthly goods. There is one heart in us in the image of God, one object of love should be for him - the Lord, or eternal life in God, and not earthly goods, and in earthly goods we must love the Lord, the generous Giver of all blessings, who constantly benefits us, the unworthy. A Christian must extinguish the completely earthly love kindled by the devil, and be inflamed with the fire of love for the one and only Lord. So, if you have lost something earthly, do not be sad, do not mourn, for this sadness and grief mean our partial love for them. But be sad if you have committed a sin, for example, spared something for someone in need. Walk over all earthly things as if through rubbish and march cheerfully to your mountainous fatherland; remember that in everything earthly, in all earthly blessings, there is the charm of the enemy. Remember that you must love the one Lord, both in Him and for His sake – your neighbor. Remember that pitying earthly blessings is the heart’s trust in them and the heart’s retreat from the Lord, although you serve the Lord outwardly. As true is my existence, so true is God’s providence for me. God continually cares for me: until now, during the thirty-five years of my life, the Lord has shown me many miracles of His providence for me and His countless mercies on me, a sinner. I will place all my trust in Him for the rest of my life, for He is unchangeable. Everything is God: as God pleases, as God commands, as God arranges, as God helps - let that be my motto. Oh, what providence the Lord God showed over me and over all humanity, sending His Son into the world and founding the Church of those who are being saved! And look how He provides graciously, generously, wisely, omnipotently, growing everything necessary for people and livestock in abundance! The earth is filled with Your creatures, O Lord! I have experienced a thousand times that God is my simple belly, peace, lightness, joy, sweetness. When you vividly imagine what the Lord has given us through His incarnation, what incorruptible blessings, then all the earthly blessings that we withhold from our poor and needy neighbors will seem insignificant. For what are these last ones? The earth and ashes are both God’s and not ours. So that there is no shortage for both us and you [Matt. 25.9]. Maybe I'm not good enough in good deeds? - one must do deeds of mercy generously and diligently. Attachment to earthly things is the spirit of the devil; because of attachment to earthly things, there is enmity towards one’s neighbor, whom one must love as oneself (enmity is the spirit of the devil). Hence, to despise earthly things, to love every person in simplicity of heart, enduring and long-suffering, forbearing and forgiving, remembering that everything will pass - both earthly things, and all everyday sorrows and sorrows, and love will endure forever with its fruits. I am fed up: why do I spare money for the hungry, I mean the poor? Or why do I spare delicacies for my neighbors when delicacies are harmful to me? Truly, I should rejoice when distributing money and delicacies to my neighbors, for they 1) constitute a spiritual burden for me; 2) giving in the name of the Lord acquires for me a reward in eternity and peace of soul in time with the cleansing of sins; 3) I have spiritual food - the most pure Body and Blood of the Lord, true food and true drink, and I must despise corruptible food and corruptible drink. May the Lord help you. Beggars are birds of the air: feeding them should be considered an honor and pleasure. To be forgiving of their weaknesses, to generally be patient with them for the sake of the Lord, who is long-suffering to us, many sinners. How should you pray to the saints? As deified and written in God and resting. When the poor ask you for generous alms, remember that they are children of the Heavenly Father, the Father of generosity, who is strong, righteous, wise, all-good, to reward you for them. God! Your throne is the throne of mercy: I will fall to it with faith, I will kiss it with love, as if You, the King of glory, sitting on it, and will receive mercy and help. And how often do I do this and get it! Glory to Your throne, glory to You who sits on it continually! How obedient, gracious and merciful is the Lord our God! If you ask Him with faith to turn rainy weather into rainy weather, it will happen; If you ask for rain during a drought, you will soon see the sky covered with clouds and rain pouring from the sky. This has been tested many times! Glory to Your ineffable goodness, Lord! And who are we that You listen to us with such love, Lord, Creator and Master of the whole world, Creator and Father of the Angels and all the saints? Are they not sinners who constantly transgress Your will? Are they not insignificant worms, reptiles on the earth, in the earthly dung? So I asked You with faith, which is Your gift, for buckets during rainy weather, turning my face to Your holy church, and You soon made a beautiful bucket. They will say: this is in the order of nature, and not the special mercy of God - no, I believe that it is the special mercy of God, for it rained almost all summer (1866), and if no one had cried out to the Lord, they could have continued the whole summer - and rotted the hay and bread in the fields! But this is not my work, but the work of grace, so that all flesh may not boast before God! The Word of God commands to look at man as the image of God, at a Christian, as a child of God, a member of Christ, a member of the Church of Christ, which is His body [Eph. 1:23], - but our flesh, our old man, has its own views: this man, he says, is well dressed, he must be respected, but this man is poorly dressed, you can not pay attention to him; this one is rich, you need to bow to him, but this one is poor - you can pass him anyway; This one rarely comes to me, bothers me - his mail, and this one often bothers me - I don’t care about him. These are the views of our flesh! But let the Gospel view reign in our lives, and let the devilish and false one cease. If our soul is a spirit (the breath of the Almighty), then it is simple as a thought, as a spirit, as a word, as an instant, and, therefore, when we call on the Lord or the Most Pure Mother of God or the Angels or saints with faith, zeal and love, at that time they are in our mouths and in our minds and in our hearts like mental air, for they live and are filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit fills (fills) everything everywhere. You see how close the whole heaven is to the believer, but the Lord God, who is everywhere and fulfills everything, is far from the unbeliever, and the devil is close with his flattery and charm, for he is in his mind and heart with his flattery and charm. An old friend is better than two new ones. So a mother, wife, sister, brother is better than all new acquaintances and friends, sincere, friendlier, more constant, more selfless. And we are so greedy for new acquaintances! How servile and sometimes how contemptuous of their relatives! Carminatives! God! I thank You for Your mercies, for last night You delivered me through my prayer from the greatest evil (malice, pride and contempt) and from the jaws of Satan. Guests, mother, my inner reluctance to serve her (to find a candle stub), a second kiss on the hand (unwillingness), contempt. The serpent of pride in the heart, humiliation, crampedness. – Through prayer, everything disappears. Mother is righteous and healthy in spirit, I am a sinner and sick in spirit. With ignorance or, better yet, lack of education, she has everything that I want to achieve and cannot: simplicity, kindness, meekness, humility, patience. O my priceless Savior! Through His suffering and death, who sought for me forgiveness of countless and cruel sins and passions, and who brought me out of hell and is destroying me, what will I bring to You for Your ineffable mercies and bounties? Do not be satiated, do not drink wine at the wrong time. This satiety and this wine drinking entail terrible consequences for the soul: pride, contempt, anger, irritability, discontent, stubbornness, self-will, etc. How can we learn to treat everyone with meekness and humility, even our enemies? We must constantly remember that we are all members of the Body of Christ, from His flesh and from His bones [Eph. 5, 30], also that the enemy constantly seduces us into anger towards each other and from time to time intensifies to root it deep in our hearts. Therefore, we must love each other not just somehow, but diligently, constantly resisting the machinations of the enemy, and love not only those who love us, but also those who love us, but also those who are our enemies or who bother us, who take our property, who are embittered against us, our scolders, our offenders, who look askance and with malice at us, or who speak to us and treat us coldly, carelessly, contemptuously, for all this is done in people by the devil with their own participation, out of ignorance, passion, blindness and delusion. We must daily master ourselves in the science of love, just as the devil daily masters himself in the science of malice, pride and deceit. You don't have to doze off for a minute. When you feel the action of any passion in yourself, for example, anger, pride and contempt, envy, disobedience, murmuring, blasphemy, carnal uncleanness, know that at this time the devil is challenging you with God, and you yourself decide the question: are you God's or the devil's? If you lean towards the side of anger, pride, etc., then you are devilish; if you lean towards the side of meekness, kindness, gentleness, then you are God’s. Remember this. A proud and fierce look is wrong, and a meek and humble look is wrong; a rough and black appearance is wrong, a gentle and white appearance is also wrong (we are seduced); the ignorant is wrong and the educated sometimes is wrong (painfully wise), - you cannot please a person filled with guile, but you must love and respect everyone in the simplicity of your heart. Didn’t the wickedness of our hearts, pride, contempt and malice punish us and internally reprove us? God! Grant me to always remember vividly that with Your coming to earth You moved us to heaven, that the earth is not a fatherland, but a place of sojourning and wandering, so that my heart does not become attached to anything earthly, and especially in the church I am completely heavenly, leaving behind its threshold all worldly cares or addictions and counting everything as rubbish. Grant me, for the sake of Your name, to have such sublime thoughts and feelings. God! Standing in Your church and standing before Your terrible throne, I truly recognize that You have moved us, earthly ones, by Your infinite goodness to heaven and made us members of Your body and Your heavenly Church, or the firstborn, written in heaven; I see that I am a member of that most holy society, the Head of which is You Yourself, and the leading members are Your Most Pure Mother, then the Angelic ranks - Cherubim and Seraphim, Thrones, Powers, Powers and Dominions, Principalities, Archangels and Angels, for one Church of Angels and men through the sacrament of Your vision, that is, Your incarnation, was established; then follow the pain in those born of women, Your Forerunner, Your apostles - witnesses and Your servants, prophets, a host of Your bishops, [...] in them Your dignity on earth, martyrs, married in blood, saints, who exhausted their flesh for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and may they not be involved in the fire of sin, unmercenaries who counted everything as rubbish for Your sake precious thing on earth, Your righteous and all your saints; then follow Your earthly and still wandering members - a host of bishops with a host of archpriests and deacons, as an apostolic face correcting the apostolic work, the work of reconciling God with peace, the ministry of truth, the work of shepherding and supreme supervision of the lower shepherds and all the sanctified clergy and the worldly; behind them are the kings of the earth, living in Orthodoxy and shining with the righteousness of the apostolic faith, ruling Thy property in mercy, righteousness and truth; behind them is the entire government synclite 72, military leaders, city governors, the Christ-loving army and all the laity. For a long time I have been suffering from an addiction to earthly things, especially to sweets, and I have been mad a lot until now; It's time for me to come to my senses. God! Help me. Give me the grace to love You with all my heart, the inexhaustible treasure of the belly, inexhaustible wealth, indescribable beauty, strong food, inexhaustible drink, bright and adorned and incorruptible clothing, and my neighbor as myself. Help me in my effort not to work for passions and mammon. By giving money to the poor, feeding the poor, clothing the poor, giving shelter to my neighbor, serving the sick, comforting the sad, instructing the ignorant, turning the erring to the path of truth, the sinner to the path of virtue, I become rich in God, enrich my soul, although, perhaps, sometimes I take it away from the body. So, I must do all this with zeal and joy, so that I may please Christ. Not a single person should be ashamed, no matter how uneducated and rude he may be, for every person is in the image of God, and even more so if he is simple in heart. Blessed with purity of heart [Matt. 5, 8]. Ordinary people bear heavy penance for their sins, living in exhausting labor and worries. He who is ashamed of a person does not honor man; he who is ashamed of his simple, uneducated parents in the face of secularly educated people does not honor his parents and gravely sins before God, who has decreed that you honor your father and your mother [Ex. 20, 12]. Our sun, the Lord Jesus Christ, walks around us every day, enlightening, warming, cleansing, sanctifying and reviving us. This happens during the liturgy. Truly, Lord, You are my only endless and perfect belly, and everything earthly is rubbish for my soul, since it clings even in the slightest to earthly things. Do not undermine, do not hurt each other, cover up the weaknesses of your neighbor. Remember the following five axioms: 1) every man is a lie [Ps. 115, 2 ], that means you too; 2) that you are worse than everyone else and everyone is better than you; 3) that we all carry the wounds of sins in our souls; 4) that we are all one body and 5) that every person needs indulgence. I thank You, Lord, for You have granted me to spend yesterday in all possible love for my neighbor and to please and reward my guests throughout the day with the blessings that You have given me. Make me wise, O Lord, to love my neighbor as myself. Lord the Savior! Without You, I am an abyss of evil, sins, passions, fears, infirmities. To the feeling of pity for your neighbor’s sweets that confuses you, or to the demon of voluptuousness, say: hasn’t the Lord our Creator and Provider calculated from the foundation of the world how much is needed to maintain life, vigor of spirit and body and the delight of bodily food, drink and various sweets, and hasn’t He created everything for our needs in insufficient quantities, and hasn’t He created everything for us in abundance and given everything, but not there will be scarcity in the works of His hands, so that no one will say that He could no longer create or that He is not good and generous, not wise and not omnipotent, and will He allow us to be burdened beyond our strength with our neighbors who are hungry and thirsty, naked and bloodless? No: His all-wise and all-good and all-effective providence will not allow us to do this: God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with temptation will also give relief, so that you can endure it (1 Cor. 10:13). So, receive everyone who visits you with a cheerful face, without evil thoughts about your sweets, without pitying them. Will the gifts of God's love serve as a reason for us to disrespect the person of man - the image of God, the object of God's tenderest love, for whom the whole earth with all its blessings? It seems that it is time for us to understand the thought of God when we see all the blessings of the earth, especially when we think about the incarnation and incarnation of God the Word, about His suffering, the outpouring of blood and death for us, about the resurrection, ascension, about the gift of Himself as food and drink. If one of the parishioners comes to you for a spiritual or physical need and you are able to fulfill it, do not hesitate to fulfill it, do not invent excuses for refusal, much less to upset the person coming, but treat him meekly and kindly, as you want others to treat you; say: if you please, I am ready for your services, please come here, etc. in that way, sincerely respect every person who is worthy of respect and even has shortcomings and weaknesses; talk, comfort, instruct, turn away from sin, help materially, so that no one leaves you with sadness in their heart. And if you can’t serve, say meekly, kindly that you can’t, but don’t get irritated under any pretext, don’t get angry with a person and don’t speak to him rudely and contemptuously, for man was created in the image of God, even if he bears the wounds of sins. Respecting your neighbor, you respect yourself, for we are all from one man, all in the image of God, all members of one body, members of humanity, or members of the Church of Christ, which is His Body [Eph. 1, 23]. With what selflessness and how fearfully and horribly the Lord Jesus Christ served us, becoming incarnate, suffering, shedding His blood, dying for us, becoming a homeless stranger for our sake and not having anywhere to lay His head! And we, His followers, what do we do for each other? And we don’t want to make a little self-sacrifice in something unimportant. The Lord shed blood for us, endured reproach for us, spitting on us, strangling, beating, nailing to the cross, tearing our hands and feet with nails, shedding blood, perforating our ribs, tasting death! What do we do for our neighbors? We don’t want to give alms, to intercede for our neighbor, to endure some labor for him. He had no place to lay his head, teaching thereby that earthly life here is a pilgrimage and the path to heaven, and we live in spacious, decorated chambers and do not allow simple and poor people to be in them, considering ourselves as only worthy of these chambers, and unworthy of them. Where is unanimity, equality, impartiality, Christian love, leading others to participate in and enjoy the gifts of God? I thank you, Lord, for you heard my prayer and took away the sin of contemplation, pride and contempt and disgust. Have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord of glory, regardless of the evidence [Jas. 2, 1]. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. In everything that you want people to do to you, do so to them [Matt. 7, 12]. Strange thing! A person often looks at a person as a thing, and not at a person - not at a living, intelligent and free, venerable being, not as the image and likeness of God, and if a person has a good face and is pleasing to his gaze, he reveres and appreciates him, if he is not good and unpleasant for the gaze, he neglects, despises him, even hates him in vain, is ready to never see him. Oh, the perversion of human nature, oh, the madness of someone gifted with reason, oh, the fleshiness of someone who has a rational soul, for which the flesh is no more than a tool, like a temporary home, like clothing! Is it because of a dilapidated or rude house that one should despise the owner who lives in it, when he is also high by nature, and kind, and reasonable? Is it because of clothes that one should despise the one dressed in clothes, when the one dressed is of the royal race and a friend of God and the heir of the future Kingdom? In every church prayer, in every divine service and sacred rite, those present at prayer at home or in church should take a lively part, precisely by reflecting on what is being done, read, sung, performed, for when we ourselves even read any prayers or the word of God, but do not reflect on what we are reading, then they will not turn into our property, but will soon dry up from our mind and heart and will, as if they are not deepened into our own soul reflection. Who am I? - Worker. Whose? - Christ's. Am I doing a good job? – Conscience must answer. So, we are all workers of Christ: how do we work? Irmos of the 9th song of the Sunday canon, tone 8. Synclite - a meeting of senior dignitaries. You might be interested in: