Ноябрь

God! I thank You for Your wondrous powers, revealed to me now, a sinner, through the communion of the Holy Mysteries. After terrible sorrow and cramped conditions and irritability, I suddenly felt in my heart heavenly peace, lightness, sweetness, and I still have them (four o’clock in the afternoon). I would like to always be with You, Lord, but sin flatters and wrestles with my soul, and sometimes I cannot bear the terrible struggle. Lead me Yourself, arm me Yourself, Your fighter. [I sin] through food and drink, fornication and uncleanness in various forms, fornication, evil thoughts, covetousness, love of money, lust, stinginess, pity for sweets, greed, envy, enmity, bitterness, irritation, impatience, crafty, evil and blasphemous thoughts, heavy eating, drunkenness, flattery, contemplation, hypocrisy, negligence, laziness, man-pleasing, false shame, inappropriate fear, pride, contempt, disobedience, zeal, quarrelsomeness, theft, lies and deceit, ill will, malice, gloating, rudeness, lack of communication with family and strangers, grandeur, arrogance, boldness of the hand, disrespect for shrines, careless performance of all the Sacraments (sometimes), prayers (sometimes), negligence about the flock, negligence about one's own Christian progress, negligence about preaching independently, addiction to clothing, to housing, to the environment, disrespect for elders, even for parents, sometimes embitterment and contempt for father and mother, disrespect and dislike for his wife, despite her love and affection, anger towards brothers and sisters, etc. At night in a dream, someone fed me (gave me a spoonful) sweets as a sign of future sweetness, as if in advance. How glad I was for this, but I realized and confessed that I myself was unworthy of future bliss, but only by the mercy and generosity and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. The more you eat and drink, you become prouder and more contemptuous, but the lighter and hungrier you become, you become more humble and respectful. Nothing [is punished] more than pride. I am an abomination, and my mother is sacred: 1) as the image of God, 2) as a member of Christ, 3) as a parent. The mad devil, the flesh is mad, his disciple, despises the often visible faces, the often read same sacred words. O villain! Oh, villainess! O desecrator of the image of God! Lord, let me cleave to You with all my heart, for it is good to cleave to You, for to cleave to the things of this world is painful for the soul, as everyone and I have experienced, for in You there is life, peace and joy. God! I thank Thee, for Thou hast delivered me from the hand of sin and my invisible enemies, who trampled me after the evening prayers and partly earlier in the face of my mother. (Unfailing respect.) Lord! I thank You, for You sovereignly, graciously, and quickly saved me from cramped conditions and the humiliation of anger towards my brother, which the enemy stopped me at the entrance to my house. I knelt before You in my office, cried out from my heart with faith and hope - and immediately received help, and my face was not put to shame. (It was November 4th. Recorded on the morning of November 5th at 6 o’clock.) So, everyone turn to God during the action of the passions, this hellish storm, this sweeping stream of waters. Blessed is he who stands on the rock of the faith of Christ. For our passions are many different, and each of them and all of them in general are disastrous and painful; they would always produce weeping and gnashing of teeth if the Lord allowed us to be tempted more than we can, and, unable to endure their torment, they would all lay hands on themselves and prematurely take their own lives. Although even now there are those who take their own lives, this comes from cowardice and impatience and a vicious lifestyle. God! Teach me to cover the weaknesses and sins of my neighbor and not to be irritated by them. Teach me to destroy everything sinful from myself. Love is patient and merciful (1 Cor. 13:4). If you see in your family or in strangers anything hostile or proud, contemptuous, unkind, do not repay them with evil for evil, do not think evil thoughts about them, but, remembering, firstly, the leader of all evil - the devil, and secondly, the general corruption of human nature by evil, have pity, certainly have pity on the evil people who are disposed towards you or those who despise, hate you and create They inwardly pray to the Lord God, may He deliver them from the snares of the enemy, in which you yourself so often get bogged down - and look at yourself, whether you have given them an opportunity for dislike and hostility towards you, namely: maybe you yourself thought evil about them in advance or held a grudge. And who will harm you if you are zealous for good? (1 Pet. 3:13). All troubles, enmity, disorder often occur because we ourselves are evil, like the evil one, that is, the devil. Look at the malice of others as a severe disease, and at those possessed by malice as the sick; Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good [Rom. 12, 21]. You see or hear whims, inappropriate demands - if it costs nothing to fulfill them, fulfill them and do not feed your anger with your resistance. Have the wisdom of a serpent and the integrity of a dove - love your enemies, bless those who curse and do good to those who hate you, put the words of the Savior God into action, do not be a hypocrite [Matt. 5, 44]. Be careful that your soul does not die. God rules over our life and death. He sets the pre-ordained times and limits of residence for each person. The time will come - nothing will hold you back: neither tears, nor prayers. Correct yourself day by day from your passions; if you are not correcting yourself, at least cry daily about your internal sinful captivity - the Lord will despise your tears, your strong desire for correction and will send the grace of the Holy Spirit, freeing you from slavery to sin and passions. How long until I put off the old man and put on the new? Until I am reborn, born of water and the Spirit? Where are the baptismal vows? Where is the denial of Satan, and all his works, and all his angels, and all his ministry, all his pride? Where is the combination of Christ? Where is the humility and meekness, gentleness and patience of Christ? Where is the abstinence? With children be like a child, with young men like a youth, with men like a husband, with elders like an old man. The difficulty of fighting sin lies in the fact that the thoughts and sinful movements of the heart, the movements of the passions are very subtle, fast, fascinating, and it takes a lot of intense attention to notice them and not succumb to them, a lot of attention to the law of God, renunciation of oneself. How long have I been communing with the Holy Mysteries every day, but I’m not getting any better: I’m still just as impatient with insults: I can’t stand offensive words or looks, I’m still just as proud among my family, all the anger still lives in me; covetousness, gluttony, satiety have not dried up in me, stinginess, envy have not yet left me, prodigal uncleanness has not yet been smoked out of me. I am still an old man, not yet reborn by deeds. To instill in Christians that they strive for rebirth in all thoughts, desires, intentions, words, actions, so that the education of themselves and their youth is led and directed in such a way that it leads to rebirth, to the putting aside of passions and to the perception of all virtues. For this is what becomes the children of God. We are not pagans, but Christians: how come we are all pagans, everything becomes pagan - both education and our whole life. Instead of these books, translate church books into Russian, familiarize the people with their contents. Start and continue gradually. Take Octoechos. Thank the Lord for your wife: how loving she is - in illness, in adversity, in sorrow! How weak you are in love! Constantly carry in your heart the words: virtue, goodness, kindness, meekness, humility, etc. The snake rushed quickly, flew high, high and burst. God's word says: we are many in one body (1 Cor. 10:17), and instills in us mutual love, like member to member; and the devil says: no, I (the devil) and you (the man) are one body, and torments us with malice, pride, envy, and stinginess towards each other. Consider your old man to be stupid, insane (as he is), deceitful, dark, fetid, unclean, worthy of all disgust, and if someone called you stupid, do not be offended, for you are exactly like the old man. The devil wants and is trying to make me a Judas-traitor. A person is a victim of delusions, hobbies, passions, illnesses, hereditary damage, temperament, wrong upbringing, bad habits, bad society. He is worthy in every possible way of regret, love, and our prayer for him. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, as You heard me, stupefied by sin and the spirits of malice, praying to You for help, and You delivered me from cramped conditions, shame of the face and the disappearance of the inner, and You gave me Your sweet and majestic and beautiful peace, and You delivered me from addiction to things and malice towards my brother. I glorify You, living, omnipresent, all-good, benevolent Master, for in Your many compassions You do not turn me away from Your face, but are generous, like the Father of the son. But grant me Your goodness, Master! (Rubber galoshes, branded, brother Al.) Grant me, Lord, to be hostile against one sin and against addiction to things, and not against a person, not against Your image, not against Your member, not against my flesh and blood, for my neighbor is my flesh and blood. Take, eat, this is My body, and those who have come from you, become My body and one body among you; drink of it, all of you: this is my blood of the New Testament [Matt. 26, 26 - 28], - and be wise among you with My blood, intimate, bodily to Me. Be one heart and one soul with each other. Man is God's image, a royal image, a majestic, venerable image. Everything earthly: sweets, gold, silver, and the body, and clothes, and dwellings, and beautiful dishes, and furniture - earth, dust. Blessed is he who honors and unfailingly loves the image of God and who knows the true value of all this dust, with which many are foolishly seduced; Blessed is he who observes moderation in the consumption of earthly goods and in the very desire for them. Crucify yourself (that is, your sins), and pray for others (that is, for the sins of others). Cut off everything sinful from your heart immediately. Carry the burdens of others. What trifles Satan upsets me with! The cup is thin, whispers, and stings the heart; your brother takes a lot of sweets, offends you, says, and arouses anger towards him. Meanwhile, the Lord rewards a hundredfold for what the brother charges. Where is my hope in God? Where is the patience? Where is the long-suffering, merciful love, not proud, not envious, not seeking its own, never falling away? My property is a common property, for it is God’s. Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple [Lk. 14, 33]. By name we mean both body and abilities. My father (father-in-law) passed on to me his priesthood, place, daughter, property, spiritual children. How grateful I should be to him and his entire family, how I should love him and his entire family! How he must be unanimous with them, helpful and affectionate to them! Am I like that? If you love God, love your neighbor, who is His image. Love all your household, who, perhaps, offend you, are tired of you; pray for them, pity them for the very fact that they offend you or deprive you, so that they do not lose the Kingdom of Heaven for their offense! Sweetness, taken internally, soon emits a stench and stench. What are we jealous about? Who is our life, our Sweetness, our true bread, giving true life to people? - Christ. And He gave us all of Himself. Why are we fussing? Let us despise the corruptible world and love the imperishable. The Lord will reward you for what your brother stole from you, but do not have a heartfelt addiction to stolen things, for example, sweets, do not have a heartache for them, for they are decay; do not lose so easily, because of such trifles, your love for your brother, who will inherit immortal life, who is in the image of God: do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died [Rom. 14, 15 ], do not appreciate with a few pieces of sweets the one for whom the priceless blood and greatest sacrifice of Christ, the King of heaven and earth, was sacrificed, whose mercy is infinite, and truth is limitless, and power is immeasurable, who with a single word can transform for you, if he pleases, the dust of the earth into sweetness, who can save you from eternal torment and lead you into enjoyment of endless blessings or be plunged into hell into eternal torment, deprived of the endless joys of paradise. Pray, pray for every neighbor, for every oppressor and troublemaker (although his heart does not want it), so that he does not lose these eternal blessings; break your heart according to the commandment of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, give up your addiction to earthly sweets, give up pride, malice or vain hatred of your neighbor, this venerable, majestic image of God, venerable for reason, the gift of speech, the ability of love, free will, capable of great deeds, great virtues. In one moment, conquer yourself in the name of the Lord. When they collect your sweets, remember that you are promised endless sweetness - to contemplate the ineffable kindness of the face of the Lord, and neglect earthly, corruptible, rough sweets that captivate and, like thorns, pierce the heart; in general, neglect earthly pleasures - instantaneous, fleeting, which are sweet at the moment of tasting, and then often bring a lot of bitterness to the soul, especially those partial to them. Love eternal sweetness, achieve it. Be careless about earthly blessings: the Lord will send everything, as He has sent before, just live in love. Do not envy the amount of rubbish that others accumulate: this amount of rubbish greatly clogs the heart and is eaten into it by the action of the all-evil enemy. God and mammon cannot work [Matt. 6, 24]. Place all your sorrow on the Lord God and do not be embarrassed by any losses or the fact that others have a lot of property, but you have little. Where there is little possession, there is often a lot of Divine grace. If you wish for the death of your neighbor in order to sell him off, then it is in vain, and stupid, and evil, and wild such a desire: you will not only be full, but also sated, just as you are now full, and from satiety such thoughts and desires wander in your heart and from the dark, ethereal enemy. You will all be well fed and dressed. But you, in the spirit of the love of Christ, must sympathize with the suffering, the mentally ill, serve those who diligently require services, as Christ Himself, and leave the course of the illness and the continuation of life to the Author of life - the Lord, who wisely and graciously measures our days and arranges what is useful and beneficial for everyone. We are all meager vessels: when we want to lay them down, we add them up; when we want to destroy, we crush these vessels. Skudelnik - Lord. We must think of ourselves humbly and be filled with feelings of heartfelt goodness and love for our neighbors. Everything is God, every moment of our breathing depends on Him: He delights - and suddenly our life will end, as it happened with many; will delight - and will continue, like Hezekiah, king [of Judah]; will delight - and no skill of a doctor will help heal the sick; again he will want to do the opposite - and his little help will be useful, useful, and successful. Everything is God in everyone. We are nothing - we have everything from God, and therefore let us think about ourselves humbly and with fear, and wish everyone as much good as ourselves, counting all earthly goods as rubbish and being content with the small and necessary and dividing the excess to those in need at their request or hastening to their aid and forestalling their request, not measuring them with a meager measure when God sends you generously. Do not allow a feeling of hatred to settle in you for those who are placed in the need to ask you for alms every day - you should feel sorry for them all the more for this, since they are placed in such a sad necessity; if you do not have this need, that is, to stretch out your hand daily to accept alms, then thank God for this, that because of your sins He did not deprive you of His generous gifts, and through alms treasure yourself mercy on the day of the universal Judgment; but have mercy with a good will, remembering that for this self-sacrifice for the benefit of the poor, a great reward is prepared for you from the righteous Giver of Retribution, and that serving poor and distressed humanity is a great honor and great mercy of God, if anyone wants to understand this - for this service is service to Christ God Himself, who deigned to unite with people through incarnation and become their Head. Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me [Matt. 25, 40]. The Lord serves you daily with His greatest gifts - serve Him in the person of your neighbors, but serve with joy, and not with sorrow, bitterness, irritation and grumbling. Do God’s work with fear and joy, for you do everything before the eyes of God, brighter than the sun. The Lord does not allow you to be enriched with earthly blessings, so that you would come to know His rich name and place all your hope in Him, and not in the blessings of life, so that you would renounce earthly, charming things and be heavenly on earth. Others, whose main goal in life is the accumulation of wealth, and not pleasing God and not the salvation of souls, then He allows them to get rich and spend their time in vanity. But be afraid, and you too do not spend time in vain cares and passions, for the evil spirit of earthly passions does not leave you, and sometimes you are overcome by the desire for more, the desire for new and shiny clothes, when you yourself have not yet been renewed and enlightened, the desire for wealth, when your soul is still poor, and the vanity of life pursues you and seeks to nest in your heart; but look, your heart is the sanctuary of the Lord: be afraid to defile it with addiction to this world, or with malice, pride, envy, uncleanness, self-will, rebellion, etc. Remember your high rank, election, calling. You desire shiny clothes, but I was dressed in the clothes of reproach and meekly endured this shame for you; you want shiny clothes, but I was completely naked and in this form was nailed to the cross and endured this reproach, this blasphemous execution because of you, so that I may teach you patience, to endure everything inflicted by human malice and envy. Before the holidays of our Holy Orthodox Church, which should elevate our spirit to our heavenly Fatherland and evoke a feeling of lively gratitude to God for His Fatherly providence for us, the enemy has the custom of scattering, darkening and tormenting our spirit with earthly passions, also with malice, envy of each other, pride and contempt. Let everyone take heed! The Germans and English have destroyed the building of the Church, the connection with the heavenly Church has been destroyed, with the Church those who have departed from this life and are not established in heaven and who require help from their living members. There it is forgotten that a Christian is a heavenly citizen, for heavenly citizens are not respected, and all those who depart are considered as if they have sunk into the water, about whom there is no need to care. Do you, Lutherans and Anglicans, have enough strength and wisdom to remove from yourself all the machinations of invisible enemies, without the beneficial assistance of the saints; Do you have enough boldness to turn directly in prayer to God Himself in everything and expect from Him the speedy fulfillment of your desires? We say: for many sins, the imams do not have boldness towards God, and we pray to the Mother of God to pray for us to the All-Creator. It’s strange: how am I not satiated with myself, but with others living with me, I am satiated, I feel them both superfluous and unnecessary? Ridiculous. This comes from my satiety with the blessings of the earth, and satiety has the property of wanting as much of these blessings as possible, and of hating those who prevent us from having more of these blessings. But we must desire to joyfully share blessings with our neighbors, so that there will be communion of hearts between them and us, one heart and one soul [Acts. 4, 32], which is most precious and for which the Son of God Jesus Christ, our Savior, prayed to the Father. Respect for humanity. Who is the person? And what is before him all the fruits, all the gold and silver, all the most precious fabrics, and all the most magnificent chambers, and everything that is highly valued in this world? - Nothing. So, do not feel sorry for a person, do not be hostile to him for anything in the world. If you notice a spirit of rebellion and pride in your sister, know that she resists the spirit of pride and rebellion that is in you: leave this spirit, and she will be like a lamb before you. Always have a meek and humble spirit and you will see her as a humble servant. Who will harm you if you are zealous for good? (1 Pet. 3:13). Be transformed daily into a new person, putting aside the old. Mortify your body and enslave it (1 Cor. 9:27). Sin in one's neighbor is a demonic dream, the violence of the devil. Do not pay attention to his sins, but cover them with Christian love, tolerate his passions, pride, anger, envy, etc. Pity him as if he were sick, pray for him. Consider yourself worse than everyone else and the culprit of all evils, all the displeasures of your neighbor, for example, at home. Where is the spirit, the breath of the love of Christ in you? Do not trust your eyes, your ears, or your sense of smell in the evil they inflict on your neighbor: they are lies. You yourself have experienced many times how insidious and deceitful they are and torment the soul with imaginary dreamy evil, for example they represent smoke as evil or great harm and because of it they arouse enmity among those who make smoke in the room; they represent their neighbor’s face as angry, pouty, and induce them to pay him the same, etc. All feelings, on the contrary, serve love; present yourselves to God... and your members to God as instruments of righteousness [Rom. 6, 13]. You cannot defeat evil with evil, but only strengthen it, but you will defeat evil with love, meekness, humility, prayer, and a heartfelt disposition towards the one who does evil. Father! let them go: for they know not what they do [Lk. 23, 34], - this is how you need to pray for your most evil enemies, and not become embittered at them yourself. Having thought about what you want, what feelings you have regarding your sick neighbor living with you, what vain anger you breathe towards him, be finally convinced that you are a scoundrel and worth all the disrespect for which you should blame yourself, and not your neighbors. In every Christian, see Christ Himself, especially in the priest and bishop, and despise his sins, his passions, for which Christ suffered, and remember that you yourself are the first, that is, the greatest, sinner. If you love those who love you, what is the use? If you only kiss others, what else are you doing? And the pagans do the same. Love your enemies, bless those who curse, do good to those who hate you [Matt. 5: 47, 44]. Always have the commandments of Christ in your heart and do them. It's an old song, brother. This is what they say to the person who presents some old, hackneyed proof of his words. It's an old song, they say. This is how we need to speak to our flesh, our old man, when, according to custom, he instills in us sin, for example, pride, malice, envy, ill will, lust, greed, etc. This is an old song, a satanic song, a stupid song - and make it silent. See that you do not despise one of these little ones [Matt. 18, 10]. Contempt and hatred for children, especially the poor, these little ones of this world, comes from the devil and is extreme injustice towards them; Instead of feeling great pity for them, as compassionate people who do not have daily food without benefits, many despise and hate them because they constantly ask them for alms every day. Half the battle, half of our grief, is when the Lord has provided for us and abundantly gives us the gifts of His goodness. But let us remember and do not forget that He gives abundantly so that we can give from our property to the poor. From Him who was crucified on the cross for us, I must constantly learn to sacrifice for the good of my neighbor not only my property, but also my life, I must learn to love my neighbor, laying down my soul... for my friends [John. 15, 13]. The breath of this spirit of love should be manifested in the gaze, in the manner, in the gait, in words and deeds. It is not in vain that the Church gave me the name of father, as a priest: I must be faithful to the idea of a father to my spiritual children, I must be loving, affectionate, instructive and edifying, compassionate, generous, patient, kind, sublime, straightforward, simple, sincere, disinterested, temperate, not greedy, chaste, alien to earthly and material wisdom, wise about things above, about life there. Love. Consider everything as rubbish, so that love will not be effaced, for love, addiction to earthly things hinders love for one’s neighbor and for God Himself. Be kind to all those who live with you and eat what you earn from your labors. To spend your life and possessions for the good and peace of others is a great thing, only do it with the spirit of love, without grumbling, remembering that Christ God Himself died not for the righteous, but for sinners, the ungrateful and evil-willed. This is what the life of a Christian should be about: laying down his soul for his friends, his soul, that is, his labors, health, peace of mind, possessions, strength, abilities, power. God is an inexhaustible treasury of blessings for everyone, His Providence is ever awake, all-rich; He sends good things enough and in abundance for everyone, and with Him everyone could be fed and clothed; if some are naked and hungry, then either through the hardness of their neighbors, or through their own fault. If one of us, being well-fed and clothed, spares an excess for his neighbor in order to give him for bread, for clothing, for renting a home, for appearance (documents), for help in his illness, misfortune, then his actions are unforgivable, voluntary madness, stupid pride, stupid passion for materiality, oblivion about the heavenly, incorruptible life, about death, about the resurrection, about the general judgment, eternal bliss and torment; unbelief in God's Providence, alienation from the spirit of Christ's and Christian love, which considers everything common, stupid greed for earthly rubbish, obviously harmful to the soul and body, combination with the Devil, like Judas the traitor, eternal destruction. If there is no imam for love, there is no benefit to me (1 Cor. 13:3] - there is no benefit from my prayers, from my alms, from my reading the word of God. What is love? In long-suffering, mercy, in meekness, humility, obedience, goodwill towards everyone, in not seeking one’s own benefits, in covering up the shortcomings of one’s neighbor, in not thinking evil, in trusting in everything, in patience of all things, in the hope of all things, in everlasting perseverance, or in perseverance 84 and not falling away. We must remember that man is a being of infinite value and importance 1) as the image and likeness of God (oh great name!), 2) as redeemed by the priceless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and destined for eternal life. My father is an elder, an honored archpriest, an important person - one must always respect and not get used to it, not become arrogant; do not spare anything for him, for everything before a person, and especially one like him, is insignificant rubbish. My sister Anna is a chaste virgin, for this reason alone we must always treat her respectfully, and excuse her some pride or consciousness of her merits; to preserve the vessel of virginity, in general to protect her for God and for the sake of the fact that she is a member of the family, to respect her moral dignity; not to want her and her kind at home to serve our species, to conform to our tastes, to indulge our passions. We must not forget that they are servants of God and have the same rights as us as humans. O most stupid, most sinful, most stingy flesh! From one glance at a woman’s naked body, like flax from fire, it suddenly ignites with unclean fire! Oh, sinful simplicity 86! Oh, the speed of sin! Oh, how quickly, decisively, firmly one must resist every sin! Oh, the importunity of sin! Oh, violence! Oh, spinning whirlwind! Oh, river aspiration! O blazing fire! We must quickly resist every sin, decisively, boldly, firmly, strongly, for example, pride, malice, envy, covetousness, stinginess, self-will, stubbornness, fornication, delicacy and intemperance, gloating, ill will, doubt in the truth, vain fear, despondency, laziness and coldness towards piety, prayer and good deeds, etc. What is the greatest misfortune in life? - Sin. What is the greatest well-being? - Virtue. Agree that in your brother-in-law there are many wonderful sides, qualities that you do not have: for example, you do not have this zeal, this selflessness in caring for the sick, this readiness for services, this accuracy in services. Extract a percentage of Christian love from everything, just as the devil tries to extract a percentage of evil, pride and all sin from everything. Acquire the spirit of Christ. Always carry these words in your heart: the spirit of Christ. Laugh at the devil's machinations, constantly, every minute, delivered to you. Help in the power of the Lord's strength - help in love. O greedy flesh, the dwelling place of Satan! From one glance at a brother eating from our meal or using our sweets, she becomes indignant and at the same time commits two great sins: she cleaves to food, which must be despised according to the example of the Lord and the apostles, and becomes embittered against her brother, whom she must always love as herself, according to Scripture, according to duty, according to nature, or according to the unity of nature, grace, calling and purpose. This is what a domestic animal our flesh is, this is what the devil is! So, do not spare your brother anything, no food or sweets, and do not be offended by him, for both pity and resentment are from the devil. (Dream: food in the dining room and in the hall: fresh fish fried in potatoes in oil - a vision from the evil one.) At the sight of the rich clothes of a friend or colleague, often [the flesh] is kindled with jealousy or envy. Oh madness! Created for heaven, for imperishable and eternal blessings, he dreams of elegant clothes and envies his brother or sister. Where is the endowment in Christ? Or, at the sight of a beggar in thin clothes coming up to greet us with affection, he despises us - for what? For the fact that he is not in clothes like themselves (which they should regret and try to wear), that sometimes his face is rough (to regret again), and not tender, like hers, because she lives in clean chambers and eats selected dishes. We must compare what we have and what the poor have, what our situation is like and what theirs is like; we have supplies, they don’t, we are the chosen food and drink, they do what they can; we are almost always fed up, they are often hungry, we have a lot of clothes, they have only rags, one dirty shirt, or none of those; We have a spacious apartment, clean air, they have a cramped basement, uncleanliness, dampness, crowds, stale air; We are provided daily with food and drink and everything, they are not, many do not know whether they will be fed today or not, whether they will have shelter for the night, and are happy to shelter their heads; many of them do not even have the advantage of standing in the church and seeing the divine service being performed. For all this they deserve every pity, but not contempt. And then they were filled with the reproach of the gobblers and the humiliation of the proud, according to David [Ps. 122, 3 – 4]. Is this one body out of many? Does this mean bearing one another’s burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ [Gal. 6, 2 ]? Nobody seems to care about the poor, everyone even reproaches them that they are parasites, lazy, although they do not know whether they really are parasites and lazy, whether they are sick, crippled, or ruined due to unfortunate circumstances. Or again: in church, a sexton or deacon makes a mistake in something - whether he sings out of tune in singing or gets confused in reading - the insidious flesh becomes embittered, as if rejoicing at the chance that it has caught a neighbor in a fault, while according to the spirit of Christian love one must cover up the weaknesses of one's neighbor, correct his mistakes, mistakes with love and a spirit of meekness. I thank You, Lord, for You have granted me to triumphantly celebrate the Liturgy and to partake of Your Holy Mysteries without condemnation. I thank You, for You have granted me to celebrate the all-night vigil with Catherine Nikita, and to read the Gospel about the virgins well and the prayer of blessing of water. Asked the Lady. I rarely read. The current life of Christians has become pagan to such an extent that we must arm ourselves against it, as the apostles and martyrs armed themselves, and endure cruel persecution, like the persecution in the first three centuries after the Nativity of Christ. What are we, shepherds? - We are silent. We must cut down the truth. Start with naming the name, with the Sacrament of Baptism, spells, vows before baptism, baptism itself, and so on. Both have an eyesore, both don’t want to give in, both don’t want to be affectionate to each other, both are proud - but someone has to humble himself, give in, otherwise the disease of the soul will not be cured. If you see that disagreement, discord continues due to the intransigence of mutual rights, true or imaginary, then the eldest and smartest give up your rights or give up your rights for the sake of mutual good agreement. Look at the example of the Son of God, what He did for our salvation, how He humbled Himself, how He humbled Himself, how He condescended to our weakness, healing our empty pride and arrogance (vain, absurd). Blessed is he who understands this. Blessed is the one who has acquired wisdom in fulfilling the commandments of Christ, who will be a servant of all, spiritually and physically, willingly, voluntarily, without grumbling, without vexation, envy, stinginess, pride and bitterness. Joyfully treat and provide for every neighbor - this is a verbal creature created in the image of God, or, if he is a Christian, this member of Christ for the sake of the image of God in him, for the sake of the articulation of Christ, for the sake of Christ Himself living in him. And how little is required for a guest! And how much Christ values ​​mutual love! By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another [Jn. 13:35], - which means, on the contrary, if we do not live in mutual love, but in pride, contempt and disdain for each other, in bitterness, anger at each other, then we will be disciples of Satan, and not of the Lord Jesus Christ. The important thing is to walk in kindness of heart among your household. Should a Christian harbor malice? Who said before baptism: I deny Satan, and all his works, and all his ministry, and all his pride... I renounced; and again: I am united with Christ... united 87 - repeating three times. This negation and combination shows a firm and immutable intention to sever all connection with sin and its culprit and to unite firmly with Christ, the source of our life. So what? Are we really going to constantly lie shamefully, saying one thing and doing another? - No: we must remember and keep the vows of baptism, so that we do not fall away from our hope of eternal blessings, and first of all, let us leave satiety, intemperance - this guilt of all evil, then pride in life, pride in words, in manner or in dealing with others, in clothing, arrogance, in the table, in clothing, envy, covetousness, loving to gain perhaps our own soul and the souls of others to Christ God in His heavenly granary and denying a loving and loving life, which destroys the soul, which pervades all vices - or you see another law in your lives, fighting against the law of your mind and taking you captive by the law of sin that is in your lives [Rom. 7, 23 ]? Kneel before Christ and ask for His grace to overcome this delusion, reveal your weakness, your leprosy to Him and ask for healing and help. Be afraid to break the fast established by the Church and disobey God because of your belly, because you want milk, cow butter, meat. Adam and Eve, through eating the forbidden fruit, lost the grace of God and sold themselves to the devil, and not only themselves, but all of humanity. We constantly taste the sweetness of the fruits of the Lord, but have we ourselves become sweetness for the Lord because of the fruits that are sweet for Him - mutual love, abstinence, purity and chastity, meekness and humility and unquestioning obedience? When you slaughter the figurative Lamb at the proskomedia, remember, imagine, feel vividly how the innocent Lamb of God Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sinless and most holy, was slaughtered for your sake, how His most pure members were mercilessly crushed, and do not crush these members again with your proud, evil, unkind and envious treatment of neighbors, oppression of neighbors! You read: like a sheep being led to the slaughter, be meek and gentle like sheep, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so it does not open its mouth, and like a sheared lamb, voluntarily, without complaint, give up to others your wool - your belongings, for everything is not ours, God, and everything is earthly and earthly. it will be (for it is taken out of the ground), and things follow us unceasingly. In His humility His judgment will be taken, you say - be yourself absolutely humble; Who can confess His generation? As if His belly would be lifted up from the earth [Isa. 53, 7 – 8] 88, and remember that you too have been accepted into the heavenly kinship, as it is said: you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem... and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to the Mediator of the new covenant, Jesus [Heb. 12, 22 – 24 ], and your belly will rise from the ground. When you cut the figurative Lamb and say: the Lamb of God is devoured, take away the sin of the world, for the worldly belly and salvation 89 then sigh and repent in your heart about your sins and, if you can, shed tears about them and about such boundless condescension of the Divine to you. Remember how He was sacrificed for our sins on the cross, how He suffered, what shame He endured, how He was burned with internal sorrows over the sins of mankind, sorrow over untruth and blindness of the high priests, elders, scribes and all the people, internal and external torment from hanging on the cross with pierced and nailed hands and feet! And He endured everything like a meek Lamb, not becoming embittered against anyone, not complaining about anyone. Take away the sins of the world for worldly belly and salvation! That is, with His suffering He redeemed us from eternal death and granted us eternal life and salvation! What [grace] of infinite price! – Freed me from eternal torment and gave me eternal life! Will I think about the perishability of earthly life after this? Should I cling to it? Is it for clothes, for sweets, or for wealth? Is it the honors of this world? But how to receive honors from the world that crucified the Lord of glory? - Be crucified to the world for Christ with the cross, according to the Apostle: with the cross the world was crucified to me, and to the world [Gal. 6, 14]. I thank You, Lord, for You have granted me, unworthy, the grace on the day of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine to unfalteringly perform the Liturgy and public prayer service with the water-blessing prayer. Remember that we are one spiritual body and we have the same spiritual wounds: we must have compassion for each other, pity each other, pray for each other, not cause any stumbling block or temptation for our brother, not to be arrogant, not to envy, for what... do you have that you or your brother did not receive? (1 Cor. 4:7). Everything is God's. Thank God for His inscrutable gift. And we are nothing. Oh, enter into our hearts, O Christ our God! Thank God also for the fact that your sister, whether truly or hypocritically, pleases you; You yourself do not always sincerely serve others. Remember: our common weakness - we all need indulgence and mutual love. Sow with poverty, and with poverty you will also reap; and if you sow with blessing (generously), you will also reap with blessing (2 Cor. 9:6). Why are you angry when you have an opportunity to sow generously? We should be happy about that. If you grieve and are indignant at those who often ask for alms, then this comes from your lack of faith: is not the Lord able to soon reward you for your alms? How often has the Lord shown His providence over you, rewarding generously for the alms you give! How you yourself were always satisfied, well-fed and full and over-clothed, had and still have a wonderful home - and the poor were satisfied, and your conscience was at peace, because you fulfilled the commandment of the Lord. So, calmly, willingly, from the heart, with a sweet heart and look, give alms to the poor, and caress your family above all else; always be kind to them in heart (merciful), face, and look, and speech, and deed or service. Remember how the poor suffer deprivation in everything: sometimes they don’t have soup, decent clothes, and don’t have rent, so they are kicked out of the house for non-payment, and even if they live in the open air, we have everything in abundance, and we are still often angry with the beggars because they often ask us for alms! How can one not ask often, when they have constant shortcomings and when the world is so stingy in giving! What can you do in a day for five or ten kopecks? Judge for yourself. If you want the Lord to be generous to you, be generous yourself to the best of your ability! If you want others to reward you generously for your work, or to give you something for free, then be generous to others and, most importantly, do not dare to be angry with a person who is the image of God, although he bears the wounds of sins; always be meek and humble, consider yourself more guilty than everyone else, consider yourself unworthy of any earthly sweetness, even a piece of bread; Consider everything to be God’s, not yours, and do not be proud as a master, but behave as a servant of all, as the lowest, the worst of all, as nothing and worthy of nothing. Food, sweets, clothes, money, etc. must be considered rubbish, and the very least rubbish, because Satan is associated with it in our heart, but not with ordinary rubbish, because this tasty, beautiful and shiny rubbish separates the soul from God and from the neighbor, arms against God and the neighbor. If you are a warrior of Christ, then you will abstain from everything for the sake of convenience in conducting spiritual warfare, and if you are not a warrior and have folded your hands during battle, then use all the pleasures and surrender to eternal captivity without God. But you have entered the number of soldiers of Christ - it is shameful for you to indulge in inaction and bliss. How my soul grieves because from evening to Sunday I did not break myself for the first time, did not complete the entire prayer rule! Without any worries on my part, the Lord has abundantly fed and clothed me and my family even until now (for eleven years), and from now on he will feed and clothe me in the same way: there is no need for me to worry. May I transfer my mind to heaven, where my hope is Christ, who sits at the right hand of God, and may I dwell [in peace] with everyone, especially with those close to me. How subtle and spiritual one must be in order to fight the invisible spirits of evil and the passions that they infuse into the thoughts and heart! How to fast! For through satiety and delicacy, the soul becomes more coarse, weak, darkened, and through food and drink the demons fight against us most powerfully, just as in the beginning the devil destroyed Eve and Adam through food. You are a member of the earthly Church, which is one with the heavenly Church: see that you behave worthy of a member of the Church, live in mutual love, holy, in purity, abstinence, be merciful, sociable, meek, humble, edifying, non-covetous, obedient. The Lord sends generously to everyone, the whole world is fed and clothed. It’s not you who feeds, drinks, clothes - God, there is no need for you to worry and take upon yourself the proud concern of how to feed your relatives and the poor. How long will you have to deal with these children's toys, I mean sweets, clothes, money, etc.? How long will you not be a wise man and love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself, considering everything earthly as nothing before him? How long will you not surrender yourself, each other and your whole life to Christ God? Habit, arrogance with a person: having become arrogant, a person puts a person like himself in nothing, worse than rubbish, and, sparing everything for him, does not spare only himself. Beggars. Their relatives, step-relatives. According to the truth of God, man must be placed above everything in the world, the whole world must be considered as nothing before him, like rubbish, for the world for him and everything in the world has been subjugated by God under his nose as a king, as the image of God. Oh, how the devil angrily roars at this image of God, intending, firstly, to destroy, destroy this very image of God, and secondly, through this to cause insult and sorrow to God Himself. All the devil's daily efforts tend to devour one of the people. My elder is cleansed by illness, but in health I sin, indulge in voluptuousness, become defiled by fornication and sleepy dreams. But I also dream in reality, and not in truth, for I am seduced by sweets, money, clothes, good faces, and I do not crucify the dreamy, evil, proud, envious, prodigal, greedy flesh with passions and lusts and do not strive with all my might towards true, eternal life. I, the accursed one, spend my time in the bliss, pride, and pomp of this world: I live in large, rich chambers, in pleasant and plentiful dishes even during Lent, I walk in soft and rich clothes - I, the accursed one, am dying alive. Where is the crucification of the flesh with passions and lusts? Where is the participation in the sufferings of my Savior? To love all the saints, starting with the most holy of saints, the Lord of glory, and then the most holy Mother of God, all the Angels, all the holy people, for in them our being created in the image and likeness of God (in the Lord a human being) is pure, bright, good, loving. But to love the Lord God above all and everything, for He is everything in the saints: He is their holiness, love, wisdom, strength. But we must also love sinful people living on earth, pray for their conversion and salvation, be patient with them, be merciful, not be arrogant, not be proud, not envy, not seek our own, and have pity on everyone, for everyone is a spiritual body covered with the same scabs of sins. Until now I was stupid: I did not rely on God in everything with my heart - from now on I must and will be reasonable; Hitherto I clung to the substance, was wounded by desire and pity for it - from now on I will not. Help, Lord! If the Lord deprives me of earthly blessings or strikes me with illness or some misfortune, then this means that this is saving for me. May the will of the Lord be done. The sinful flesh, my destroyer, stands up for itself when it mourns deprivation, illness and misfortune, when it rages because of deprivation. But we must place our hope in God and live in love with everyone, treating all the treasures of the world as rubbish, despising them as the charm of the devil. Remember that the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared for a Christian with incorruptible and eternal blessings - one must be touched by heartfelt love for them, especially for the Lord God, the Mother of God, the holy Angels, Archangels and other Heavenly Powers and holy people. To cling to earthly goods and to feel sorry for them means to have a pagan disposition of the heart, and not a Christian one. The freshness of relationships with your family as not only your own, but also God’s, God’s property. The same goes for everyone you know and don’t know. Father... child. We are spiritual fathers; people, lay people are our children. We are the shepherds, they are the sheep. We must develop a fatherly spirit in ourselves, a fatherly relationship with the laity, and in them a filial relationship with us. Let the spirit of fatherly and maternal love for parishioners blow through us and our spouses. Oh, how good that would be for the glory of God! Let parishioners know that we are confidants, heirs of the love of the Heavenly Father for the human race, so beloved by God that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life [Jn. 3, 16]. Let heavenly life blow through us, let us not be carried away by worldly calculations and self-interest - we will be above this rubbish, this money, which, in essence, is dust; let us take care with all our might for the soul or souls, according to what is written: they watch vigilantly for your souls, as those who are obliged to give an account [Heb. 13, 17]. We are like drops in the ocean of air or water, or like inseparable parts of air or water. These parts are surrounded on all sides by water or air: our souls are surrounded by God. Let us live with fear, fulfilling the commandments of God, the will of God, holy and saving. The Lord sees our thoughts, our feelings, our deeds. Fulfill everything, Lord, have mercy on us! O Lord who fills heaven and earth, have mercy on us! We must deeply respect these words of the Gospel (and, of course, all the others): just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me, and to look upon the poor as on Jesus Christ [Matt. 25, 40]. One body. Serve willingly, without zeal or irritation or envy. He will not give up trusting in God: He promised and has not given up until now. I thank You, Lord, for You have taken away the oppression and flame of passions, and You have given me peace, coolness and space, and You have enlightened Your face upon Your servant. Don’t look at the beauty of money - look at the needs of the brethren, that is, the poor. Remember the words of the Savior Christ: give us this day our daily bread - and have trust in the all-good and generous, wise and almighty providence of the Heavenly Father. Don't worry about tomorrow [Matt. 6, 34]. And a moment of sin is sin and a falling away from God. Therefore, for a moment, try not to sin. We ate, drank, left, and were full, and thank God, and thank you. And God will send it to you. You have not yet hungered or thirsted. But in love there is fulfillment of the law. Consider it happiness that your brother eats and drinks yours, or rather God’s. We are one body. There are the same physical and spiritual needs, one Head – Christ, our Savior and Provider. Rejoice that the flesh is deprived of sweet food and drink; if she rages at someone who eats and drinks sweets, do not pay attention to her: if she rages, she will stop. She is furious that they are depriving her of food and drink. Cool down to everything earthly, have fervent love for God and neighbor. A moment of attachment to earthly things is the greatest offense to the Lord God, a moment of anger at one’s neighbor, pride, envy, stinginess is the greatest offense to the Lord God. Beware of offending the Creator, the all-benefactor, the all-savior, the all-provider. How long will earthly dreams wander in the heart? How long should we attach a high price to the unimportant, the insignificant and chase after it, but not give a price to the truly high, for example, love for God and neighbor? This is how Satan fights against us in order to deprive us of the eternal, long-desired blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven. He occupies and seduces with trifles, but distracts from what is essential - from God, from the soul, from heaven, from eternity! Even to this day, I, the accursed one, hope for food, and not for the word of the Lord, not for the Lord. Oh, rubbish! How long will you seduce me? Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. What does this mean, how should one reveal such a conviction in life? If you see someone sinning, for example, smoking or playing cards, do not judge, but say: I am a thousand times more sinful than him, and do not be embittered at those who sin, but be patient with them, just as the Lord is patient with you. God is spirit [Jn. 4:24], and our soul is His image and likeness, therefore we ourselves must walk in the spirit and not commit carnal lusts - cut off all desires: delicacies, smoking, etc., philosophize on heaven, not on earth, not about collecting wealth, but about virtues. The earthly, spiritual, demonic spirit is little by little formed in a person - how? If a person daily directs his thoughts not to God, not to the salvation of the soul, but to, for example, how he could get more income, profit, profit today, what better dishes to make, how it would be more convenient to receive a reward or favor, the favor of a famous person, how to quickly sew such and such clothes that he really likes, etc., or buy such and such things for the home, for example, good furniture, dishes, how to clean his room with taste, for example, like so and so such a rich person, as if to go to the theater, etc. This is how the earthly spirit, earthly, spiritual, demonic wisdom is formed. Heavenly people, earthly Angels, saints of God, teach us to be wise on heaven, not on earth! Holy prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries and all saints! Teach us to be worthy members of the Church of Christ. We must arm ourselves in the strongest possible way against addiction to earthly things, covetousness, stinginess, love of money, greed and lust: this addiction is the scourge of faith, hope and love for God and neighbor, kills our spiritual, heavenly dispositions and aspirations and turns us into earthly, spiritual people, servants of the devil. Let us do the work of our Redeemer! Let us save our souls! Guests have come to you, or a guest, or an uninvited guest who comes often: why are you angry and sitting in your room? Go out and talk with love, and so always practice the communication of love, and you will please the Lord, and you will be a skilled man. Do you regret sweets? You don’t feel sorry for yourself, and neither do they - your neighbor as you do yourself. A little of this, a little of another, a little of everything - and you’re full, there’s still left, like the Lord had five thousand people in the desert. Sweetness is sweet, for example, honey, jam, and the sweetness of love for one's neighbor is even sweeter; sweets conceived and created the highest Sweetness, the Sweetness of love, which is God. May we live as members of one body among ourselves, in everlasting love. What is some earthly sweetness and what is man? A man of infinite value: for him, at his service, for his delight, all sweets, and the sweets themselves (earth, dust) are like nothing. It should be considered happiness that a person consumes our, or rather God's, sweets. If a person subordinate to us behaves with dignity, this is how it should be - he is the image of God; We ourselves behave with dignity, so as not to become a playground of human passions, when it is convenient to avoid this, without harm to others and for our own benefit. We don’t need to tempt others to attack us! If you wish evil upon another, you yourself will reap this evil. He who digs a hole for another will fall into it himself. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you [Matt. 7, 2]. The dignity and swagger that you attribute to others belong no less to you. So, doctor, first heal yourself, remove the plank from your mind. What about your satiety? What can you compare it to? You, like a pig, rummage through sweets, drown in the bliss of sensuality, satiety and drink. Don't be greedy - there will be enough for everyone. Hate voluptuousness: it causes corruption of the heart, greed, coldness towards God and neighbor, captivity to the enemy, oppression. I have sinned, Lord, that I became embittered against Your poor children! Poor children are my teachers in simplicity, meekness, kindness, and patience. God! Forgive me that I am irritated with them, I am embittered because, out of childish simplicity and gullibility, they relentlessly ask me for alms several times a day! May I learn from them the persistence of prayer to You and trust in prayer, may I be like a child in prayer. What a cursed flesh, what a cursed heart! Everything is dissatisfied, everything is not according to him, oh, my ulcer is my heart! Oh, my constant illness! Looking for convenience in everything, peace, bliss! Would you like a stone under your head? Would you like some matting for the body? Will it not be that your body will one day be laid on a mat, when it will be lifeless, when it will no longer be able to demand anything for itself, when it will be like a lump of earth? Oh, how much sin there is because of the accursed, whimsical, envious, irritable flesh! When will I live in simplicity of heart, meekness, and kindness? When we have Christ in our hearts, then we are happy with everything, and inconvenience is like the best comfort, and bitter is like sweet, and poverty is like wealth, and hunger is like satiety, and sorrow is like joy! And when there is no Christ in the heart, then a person is not satisfied with anything, does not find happiness in anything: neither in health, nor in wealth, nor in ranks and honors, nor in amusements, nor in rich chambers, nor in the brilliance of lighting, nor in a richly served table filled with all sorts of dishes and drinks, nor in satiety, nor in drinking sweet drinks, nor in rich clothing, nor in anything. Oh, how necessary Christ is for man, the Giver of Life and Savior of our souls! How necessary it is for the sake of Christ, in order for Him to dwell in us, to hunger and thirst, and sleep less, and dress more simply, and endure everything calmly, with a patient and gentle spirit! The catcher of our souls - the devil every minute catches our souls, as if to hurt us with some sin, with some passion, as if to root more strongly this or that sinful habit, passion, as if to make the salvation of the soul as difficult as possible, as if to cool us towards God, towards the saints, towards the Church, towards eternity, towards humanity. You are raging, my flesh, with many different passions! Do not resist evil and an evil person: if they offend - endure, if they slander - bless, if they are unkind - be kind, if they do harm - do good. Exercise your heart and will in this daily. If they are proud before you, humble yourself; if they are irritated, be meek and kind; if they are deceitful, be simple-hearted. Often in a conversation with God you say: God of mercy, generosity and love for mankind, - how come you have not yet breathed into yourself, inexperienced, the spirit of mercy, generosity and love for mankind; How do you not have compassion for the poor as you do for yourself? Why are you afraid to be generous, seeing their extreme needs? Why don’t you heartily love the poor and other people? You are a member of the Church, whose Head is Christ, to which belongs the Mother of God, Angels and holy men - forefathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, priests, martyrs, saints, righteous, unmercenary. Tell me which of them gives you a reason, an example to be proud, hateful, envious, greedy for earthly things, stingy, covetous, hard-hearted, dull, rude, impatient, capricious, a fellow inhabitant of the earth, an invader, a glutton, a drunkard, a tame, a fornicator, a fanatic, a hypocrite, a liar and a deceiver, full of zeal, malice, deceit, etc., etc.? Remember which Church you are a member of, and be a worthy member of it, or get out of it! Cast out, says the Apostle, the corrupt from among you (1 Cor. 5:13). Respect every person as an image of God and a weak member of Christ; do not count his mental and physical weaknesses as anything. The devil is growing stronger every day, gradually more and more undermining respect and love for family, exposing their shortcomings and weaknesses of the flesh and spirit, but do not pay attention to these weaknesses to which we are all subject, or even more pity the weak. Pay all your attention to the immortal soul, created in the image and likeness of God. Oh, so many temptations! Temptations from smell, from taste, from hearing, from touch, from sight! Not fornication, but malice; not anger, but pride; not pride, but despondency or fear, or blasphemy, or the like, the evil one puts in the heart. Don't yawn - reject. A person grows, is educated, and lives under different conditions. Not one shoe last. Karamzin holiday 90. The world has its own holidays, the Church has its own. It’s a pity that the Christian world has its own secular holidays, while church holidays are neglected – this smells of paganism. You feel sorry for good paper for your brother - believe me, this is one pretext of the evil one, to cool you off towards your brother, to instill hatred towards him in your heart. Do not regret anything, be ready to give everything and love him, considering everything as rubbish. Think the same about sweet food, pleasant drink, beautiful expensive material, or clothing, or books and any valuable thing, for everything was created for the service of man. Do not owe anyone anything except mutual love [Rom. 13, 8]. Never put a person and the thing he takes and uses on the same level, respect the immeasurably great dignity of a person, exalted above the whole world, who received the whole world into possession from the Lord of the world, which, with all its enormity, means nothing before his soul. Trample the beauty of things! Oh, lovely! Lovely! Break this rainbow bait that the enemy throws on all things. In order to separate God from us, the devil instills in our hearts an adulterous, criminal love for matter, or for this world, for its corrupt customs, and plunges us into his slavery, into oppression, sorrow, and the fire of Gehenna. God commanded to love Him with all our hearts, undividedly (not loving wealth and God together) and our neighbor as ourselves, sparing nothing for him, and the devil instills a criminal love for the corruptible things of this world, surrounding them with charm, bait, while instilling in our neighbor disrespect, contempt, the idea that he has no right to a certain thing, and because of a thing, sometimes, even if insignificant, we are often ready hate your neighbor, treat him roughly, destroy him. Oh, when we will be one! When we love the common mountainous fatherland to which we are called! We have a common delusion, a common delusion of heart and will and thoughts. God! Enlighten, guide and save! Sinful, passionate flesh, like a dark cloud, like a strong wall, stands between God and neighbor. This wall must be crucified, destroyed - the fire of hell smolders in it, enmity towards God and neighbor, since it is a living wall. One must be at enmity against oneself, and firmly, incessantly, invariably, courageously. We must rejoice that we are depriving ourselves of something pleasant in favor of our neighbor and thus offering God a sacrifice of love, a sacrifice of selflessness for the sake of love for our neighbor. For my flesh is 1) decay, dust of the earth, 2) sinful, and it is necessary to crucify it, subject it to deprivation for the good of the soul. Conversation with the headman: the life of our society - clubs (what's in them), theaters, skating rinks, cards. They say: the Church and the clergy are not needed. What is the Church? The need for the Church as a preparatory holy institution in which future citizens of the Heavenly Fatherland are educated. You need educational institutions in which students are prepared for civil life - why don’t you need the Church? You are not animals, you are human and Christian. And now I’m fed up - what will happen if I’m left alone? And now I’m crafty - what will happen if I’m left alone? Thank God that the gifts of the Lord do not go to my sinful body alone, but are distributed as appropriate among others. If you said something wrong and it was noticed to you, apologize immediately and do not be offended by the person who noticed it. Be skilled in communal love. Love is the fulfillment of the law [Rom. 13, 10]. But love is long-suffering, merciful, forgives, covers, is not irritated, is not proud, does not act outrageously, does not seek its own, trusts everything, endures everything and never falls away from the beloved (1 Cor. 13:4-8). Student youth, as well as those teaching and governing people, must remember the following important saying of the Apostle Paul: If... I know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith... but do not have love... it is of no benefit to me (1 Cor. 13:2-3). And then learn the lesson of love taught by the Apostle Paul, namely: love is patient and so on (1 Cor. 13:4-8). This must be remembered especially by the priestly rank. What kind of priests are we if we don’t want to endure anything from our neighbor, especially from our inferiors! What kind of priests are we if we are the first to give room to sin? We must immediately extinguish the flame of anger, or passions in general, with patience, love, affection or severity, admonition (and we fan it both in others and in ourselves), for we are one body, and when we fan evil in others with our irritability, at the same time we fan it in ourselves. Sin and passions terribly plague our lives and greatly interfere with Christian life, success in it and the discharge of family and civic responsibilities. This means that sin and passions must be eradicated for the good of man himself, temporary and eternal, spiritual and material, for the happiness and well-being of families and civil societies. It is especially necessary to eradicate malice, pride, envy, carnal lust, or fornication. Humanity is possessed by the cruel disease of sin, therefore we must feel sorry for it, be forgiving of it, and pray for it. By doing this, we will calm ourselves by fulfilling the Lord’s commandment, and we will do good to humanity, for the prayer of faith and love will not remain in vain. When we do good to our neighbors, we do it to ourselves, for we are one body and we treasure for ourselves the great mercy of God. There will be mercy and mercy [Matt. 5, 7]. Manage to walk at home with a gentle heart: the enemy especially incites those at home, for he knows our weakness to be arrogant with those at home, to neglect and place them in nothing, especially the lower ones, and easily destroys the weak union of love and arouses enmity between those at home. We must place ourselves below everyone else and consider ourselves the servant of everyone. A proud heart is the cause of domestic troubles. It is better to live in resentment, to endure ridicule, beatings, stench, hunger and cold, than to offend others and live in enmity. Therefore, if someone has offended you, bear it generously; if you have offended someone and he is angry with you or out of kindness is not angry, treat him quickly and speak to him; if you see him doing something, tell him: God help you, or talk about something everyday in a friendly tone, or about his everyday circumstances, etc., and soften his heart. In general, try to have love between each other, yielding to each other, condescending, tolerating each other. You convict parishioners of their sins in church - why don’t you yourself like reproof from your family, consider this reproof to be an attack of malice, justify yourself in sins and suffer from the incurable ulcer of pride, self-confidence, self-delusion, hypocrisy? Love reproof, even though it is unpleasant for an old, passionate man, and be grateful to those who reprove. Do not delude yourself that you are the head of the house, that you get everything, everyone lives by you (by God, not by you). The head must be sound and must serve everyone. The head must endure rebuke from its members so that it may govern all its members well. The Head must honor everyone, for everyone is like her, all human, all in the image of God. The head must humble itself and bend towards the lowest members - the legs, so that the whole body prospers. The Savior washing the disciples' feet. Great lesson! Parable. Every person is free and can be either evil or good, and we cannot exact from him for evil if he is no longer a child, not an adolescent. Every proud person, addicted to money, to clothes, to sweets, is a person in delirium: do not be offended by his pride, arrogance, addiction, but feel sorry for him that he is delirious when he should be in a clear consciousness of things. But here I am among those subject to delirium: others delirium with pride, malice - and I respond to delirium with delirium, also with pride, irritation, embitterment. God! Be merciful to me, a sinner. This sinful delirium must be treated with humility, kindness, and patience. We are all mentally ill, and we all need compassion or a person skilled in Christ, who would be able to correct us from sins, heal passions, pouring on the heart, as on wounds, the oil of love, meekness, humility, kindness, and helpfulness. When noticing any passions in others, first of all ask yourself: do you have this passion or several of them together, and judge yourself sincerely and forgive your neighbor. Man is a living image of God. Oh, how you should treat him, with what meekness, humility, pure love! The Lord, as it were, carries me in his arms, constantly holds me by the hand: I must be entirely in God, with childlike simplicity I must place all my trust in him, not hoping for anything earthly, not sparing anything earthly for anyone. It is dangerous to play with addiction to earthly goods and even to one’s own flesh: it excludes love for God and neighbor, in which the fulfillment of the whole law. A Christian must look at everything earthly as rubbish (in itself it is rubbish and because it clogs a person’s heart). Demon scum on the heart. Take it off. Master! Stop thinking that you are the owner, that this is yours - this is common. Rejoice that through your labors, which are feasible and life-giving for you, you are serving others materially. But don’t forget to bring into the family the principles of love, respect, peace, order, courage, and firmness. If the Heavenly Father showed such a great providence for my life that he gave His only begotten Son, so that through Him I would receive eternal life, then will He refuse earthly blessings that serve to support temporary life? - No! The Church of heavenly (saints), earthly (Christians living on earth) and hell (those who died in the faith and hope of resurrection and eternal life). Do Lutherans and Englishmen have such a Church? No. This means that these are fragments of the Church, cut off from life-giving communion with it, these are heretics. From the one bread - the Lamb of God, we partake, so that we may learn to communicate in bodily things, for example, in money, food, drink, clothing, shelter, etc., as well as in spiritual things. We all use the gifts of God, therefore we should not envy others because they work little, but receive a lot, and contribute to the labors of others. Envy is the devil's sting, business. Man is the image of God more valuable than the whole world. May we live in love and be friendly to everyone. Like the sage of Christ, be embittered at the sin, and not at the sinner. After the Lord, I owe my happiness to this Nesvitsky house: how should I be grateful, respectful, loving, affectionate? And love your enemies: they bring you benefit according to God’s goodness, wisdom and omnipotence. Remember David, remember the apostles, martyrs, saints, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Enemies only contribute to greater virtue (humility, patience, kindness) and to greater glory. We see all this in the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles, martyrs, hierarchs, and saints. There are many beggars, and many donations for their benefit. The devil perverts my thoughts, my desires and affections, my words, my heart, my will! I'm in trouble! I sin almost constantly. The devil is constantly working in me. So, for example, when you pray, he will transform any word in such a way that from a pure word he makes it bad or expresses something bad, blasphemous. Or, for example, I settled in my father-in-law’s house, took his priestly place, his apartment, salary, income - everything, and I should be very grateful to him, respect and love him unfailingly, but I alone want to move into the land [Isa. 5, 8], in the apartment, as if I wanted to survive the old man, while I, a stranger, could rightly be kicked out. This is crazy! This is a perversion of the order of things! What vile ingratitude! What evil! Or it would be necessary to cleave with all your heart to God, to your neighbor, to his soul, to the Heavenly Fatherland, but here you constantly find yourself tied to the earth, to sweets, clothes, honors, money, etc., and because of them you are alienated in your heart from God, your neighbor, eternity, the heavenly Fatherland. So one should feel sorry for a person, but we feel sorry for money, sweets, clothes for a person for whose service the whole earth has been given. Hence the obligation to resist the flesh in everything and not to indulge it, to deny it what is pleasant. Everything earthly, all earthly treasures are rubbish before what is given to us, Christians, through the Sacrament of Redemption, that is, before heavenly, spiritual blessings, which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). Who will I envy when I have been given so much infinitely and when we are all equal in spiritual blessings? Earthly goods are insignificant. Every day, accursed, I surrender to despondency, I, a Christian, believer in Christ, in His cross. Should I lose heart, a child of God, a partaker of the most pure Body and Blood of the Lord? Will the Lord forget me? - He won’t forget. He Himself speaks. I need to rejoice, according to the Apostle (1 Thess. 5:16). Until now, I have not been faithful to the idea of ​​God as a Father and Provider: if God is a Father, then He, as a Father, constantly cares about us and about our salvation and about our well-being and contentment in this life. This is from birth to now; if the Provider, then He provides for all of us: both the rich and the poor, the noble and the ignorant, the healthy and the sick, and He is everything for everyone, although He allows a lot to our free will. If we here envy our neighbor’s well-being in such insignificant goods as health, physical beauty, nobility of family, distinctions, height of honor, money, wealth of clothes, sweets, drinks, richly decorated home - then don’t we envy his well-being in paradise, in his heavenly glory and bliss? If we envy her, we would poison both our own bliss and the bliss of others. Therefore, obviously, envious people will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, like the children of the devil. That is why in this life you must have broad goodwill towards people, which you want from others, for this goodwill is our inner wealth, our glory, our beauty, our health, our tranquility, our bliss, our life, our nobility, while, on the contrary, envy is an internal illness, poverty, ugliness, meanness, crowdedness, languor, torment. Moreover, all the blessings here are just a passing shadow before those there, eternal, and we need very, very little of them to satisfy our immediate needs, in order to maintain our existence, strength, vigor: excess weakens the soul and body. Therefore, it is crazy to envy the rich who live in luxury. If the poor saw the soul of the rich and living in luxury, they would never envy them, but would pity them and please their lot. You must be benevolent and sacrifice your neighbor to the point of sacrificing your peace of mind, health, property, even life, and, moreover, willingly, with joy: by serving your neighbor, you are serving God. Apparently God sends to the sick father and Marya K., just live in love and sincerely wish well and have compassion for the sick person. The thought that I am a member of the Church of God, whose Head is Christ God, and the Head of the mental structure is the Mother of God, to what heights it lifts me! - I am united with God, I am deified, like the last servant, the last beggar is also deified. What responsibilities are required by the title of member? I must be good, meek, humble, kind, holy, self-controlled, submissive, compassionate, merciful. If I want to be a living member of such a society, to which belongs the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, the prophets Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel (oh, what a high man!), the apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, saints and all the saints, then I must be in holy relations both with them and with the earthly members of the Church of Christ: Try to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord [Heb. 12, 14 ]; must be meek, kind, compassionate, forgiving, merciful, pliable, patient, etc. Fasting in food and drink, quantity and quality is necessary. Why do passions: envy, pride, irritability, covetousness carry us away? From our satiety and satiety; we forget how little we need, we forget that we are insignificant, sinful, guilty. Be innocent of the hands with which you touch the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world. Don’t be angry with beggar boys because they often come up to you and chase you. Remember how you yourself relentlessly fall before the Lord until you receive complete forgiveness of sins and great mercy. Likewise, poor children, out of simplicity, kindness and trustfulness, do not leave you until they receive what they need. Remember that when you are angry with them, you are angry with Christ God Himself, Who in their person accepts alms; By choking them, you are choking Him Himself: beware of doing them harm. If they are guilty, punish them without rage and malice, and not with your own hands. I have unlimited pride, and yet, by the will of the Lord, I must hate (and not love) my soul, for it is completely contrary to the will of God. Oh, what work I must undertake! However, this work, with God’s help, is sweet work. Why do I consider this or that to be mine? - Everything is God's. Love... does not seek its own (1 Cor. 13:5). No one called anything of his property his own, but they had everything in common... and each was given whatever he needed... There was no one in need among them [Acts. 4: 32, 35, 34]. If you give away everything and are left without anything, you won’t do anything special, for everything is God’s, for we have nothing of our own, and we must lay down our souls for our friends, like Christ, and this is the goal of our life, our glory. Why be sad and angry here? We must rejoice, for with perishable things we gain an imperishable and endless kingdom. Damned me, I spend my time in laziness, idleness, absent-mindedness, pleasing the belly, in idle talk or in anger, rage, envy, pride, stinginess, vanity, in the desire for shiny clothes, in reading vain books. You are a hypocrite, brother, giving alms to strangers and sparing your own: you must give with joy to everyone as brothers, as to Christ Himself, and we have received everything, we must give and give with the same joy with which we ourselves receive from others. Let us live unceasingly in love, let us serve each other with love in spiritual and worldly, material needs, and if someone offends us, let us forgive with joy, entrusting to God all the offenses we receive from others, for He judges and measures righteously. Let us all be one heart and one soul [Acts. 4, 32]. If you are dozing, then I am not dozing. So, brethren, we are dozing, but the enemy does not sleep for a minute, arranging our eternal destruction. We indulge in passions, and he applauds. You ask the successor and the successor: do you deny Satan, and all his works, and all his angels, and all his service, and all his pride 91 - but the first one himself did not deny: and you are covered with pride, entwined along the ribs, and malice, and envy, and covetousness, and the lust of clothing, and gluttony, and greed, and fornication, and willfulness, and stubbornness, and stinginess. Society for the correction of immoral people - drunkards, fornicators and harlots and others. Oh, how a person must be respected! - to respect so much that you value nothing earthly, everything precious, beautiful, sweet on earth and willingly sacrifice everything for it. Who is the person? – Image of God, child of God, member of Christ (Christian). Make wise and strengthen, Lord, to live in mutual love and respect, to endure and be patient with one’s neighbor, to cover his weaknesses, not to seek one’s own, to be merciful, not to be arrogant, not to be proud, not to be irritated. Oh my God! Passions, like oil, have penetrated my bones, tormenting, tyrannizing, darkening, oppressing me. The robe is new - the robe is old. What does it mean? Apostles, prophets, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries, all saints - a new robe. I, you, we, you are an old robe. Temptation. A lustful thought has come to you - this is the temptation: arm yourself, prove with deeds that you are a warrior of Christ, overcome and destroy the bad thought; or if you are disturbed by pride, malice, malice, malevolence - again, put on your armor and conquer. Be alert every day, win every day. True Christianity is a bloody war with the flesh, with the devil, with the world. The censer (with incense) is the image of our heart. Do our hearts burn and shine, like this censer, with love for God, do they emit the fragrance of meekness, gentleness, patience, abstinence, purity and chastity, obedience, non-covetousness, moderation and simplicity, mercy, etc.? Or are they cold, black, like extinct coals? Or smelly like feces? Some people don’t respect you because you don’t respect them—and it serves you right, and there’s no need to be angry: with what measure you measure to others, it’s measured back to you, according to Spasov’s words [Matt. 7, 2]. We sing: We do not serve the creation of God’s wisdom more than the Creator, 92 but we ourselves serve the creature more than the Creator. Why be a hypocrite? We hear about repentance, but do not repent. Did someone not respect you, intentionally or unintentionally, and did not give what was due - and the enemy incites you through this to hate the disrespectful one, and you, as a wise Christian, respect him all the more, knowing the machinations of the enemy and in fulfillment of the commandment of the Savior Christ to kiss not only our friends, but also our enemies; whether someone has done something wrong or is not pleasing to you - cover it up, let this fault pass by if it is unimportant, or lovingly notice the faulty one, but do not be angry with him, knowing the machinations of the enemy, who, because of a trifle, incites to the greatest sin - anger towards one's neighbor, as happened yesterday, that because of the extra words of hallelujah sung by the cleric, he aroused anger in the heart right before communion, although through prayer I was granted mercy by the most merciful Lord; or how, because of sweet foods and drinks, he is in the habit of arousing anger against his brother, the tuna, and often among us the eater and drinker. Oh, the machinations of the enemy! Oh, diverse networks! How he traps us in pride, malice, envy, covetousness, fornication, stubbornness and other passions! Take heed, Christian! Respect and love for a brother (for every person) must constantly increase, but for earthly things it must cool and fall: we must grow in the mind of God, rejecting the mind of the flesh. We fall into materialism and fall away from God - through what? Through excessive consumption of carnal pleasures, this is done gradually and imperceptibly. We must pray, read the word of God more often, the writings of the holy fathers, and reflect on our own destiny. Remember that everything is from God and by God and in God. Everything about me is disgusting, disgusting, stupid (this is how you need to condemn yourself; you need to constantly prepare for repentance, that is, for confession. Confession is a great thing). What is more natural than love for God and neighbor, and yet sin, or our nature damaged by sin, has made for us the fulfillment of these commandments, which are very easy in essence, extremely difficult. I have come into the world as light [Jn. 12, 46]. Visual proof on Tabor. The righteous will shine like the sun [Matt. 13, 43]. Proof on Tabor. How stupid I am that I am angry with the beggars who importunately demand alms from me! As if they could force it from me! Be calm. You see, they are not at all affected by your concern and rely on their own throat. Pay attention to the modest ones, to the silent, timid ones. Let us take a meaningful, Christian look at luxury, at these colored, rich glasses in frames, at this exquisite, luxurious decoration of homes: not only do people themselves dress in purple and fine linen, they also dress the walls of their homes in them, decorate their windows and their seats with them. Where is the love for God and neighbor? These decorations are a treasure for you, your idols. Your neighbor is shaking from the cold, covered with holey, unclean rags, and your walls, your sofas, your chairs, even your floors are flaunting, they are decorated as Solomon was decorated in all his glory. But what awaits you during this madness? After all, if these luxury items were sold and the proceeds were used to buy food and clothing for the poor, then they could feed several months and clothe thousands of poor people. And now all this lies completely in vain on the walls, on the floor, on the seats on which occasionally someone sits. Oh, what an enemy of love for God and neighbor is this luxury! What an enemy of the Christian life! For it nails the heart of a Christian to the earth, and not to heaven, to the beauties of the earth, perishing, passing like sleepy dreams, and not to the heavenly, indestructible. Brethren! Understand the essence, the spirit of Christianity: this essence is mutual love. This I command you, that you love one another [John 15:17]. What kind of love is this when we spare nothing for our luxury, but are sorry to give to the poor for bread, for rags, for renting a car or lodging for the night? We ourselves are drowning in food and drinks, we are satiated every day, and we regret giving the poor one bread, a cup of tea, a lump of sugar? We ourselves are satiated and drunk, and we condemn the poor because they get drunk; they themselves are faulty - it’s not a problem, the poor person is guilty of something - it’s a problem; We do not have Christian condescension, love that endures and covers everything. What if the Lord judges us in court the same way we judge the poor? Who will stand then? What will we be condemned to, to what torment? The poor man fell, he sinned, but he sinned against his Lord, he fell, and again God is able to raise him up. And who are you, judging someone else's slave? [Rom. 14, 4]. The Church is a house of correction for sinful, passionate humanity; priests are doctors. The highness of the purpose of the Church and its ministers. I thank Thee, Lord, for Thou didst hear me, who cried out to Thee, and Thou didst take away my corruption, the stench of my passions, and Thou didst grant me breadth, truth, and joy in the Holy Spirit through Thy mercy. But make me meek, humble, and kind, O my God, my Creator, my Savior. I myself am a scoundrel, greedy, and I should be angry with myself, and not with those who eat and drink what is mine (more than God’s). I am worthy of severe punishment, firstly, for my greed and addiction to sweets and, secondly, for my anger towards my neighbor. But deliver me from the passions of dishonor. He who loves himself cannot love God and his neighbor. Let him deny himself [Matt. 16, 24], let him hate... his soul [Lk. 14, 26]. We must crucify our pride and sacrifice ourselves for the good of others, our abilities, strengths, labors, peace of mind, property; to place our good in the general prosperity, but to see that our strength, our property, peace, and labors are not used for evil; not to be angry with those who sin, but to endure everything with meekness and generosity. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends... The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep [Jn. 15, 13; 10, 11]. Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart [Matt. 11, 29]. Those who trust in the Lord have become like the Mount of Saints: those who are moved in no way by the excuses of the enemy 93 . Everywhere the devil nails me to matter, even in the service of God. Listen. Prosphora, vestments, the voice of the singers. The Lord does not speak in a voice, but in a quiet feeling, in meekness, humility, kindness, patience, and condescension towards one’s neighbor. The devil in the world chains our hearts to things, in the church he irritates us with discordant sounds and arouses anger at those who sing ugly. I give you the most important things every day - forgiveness of sins, peace, light, freedom, but will you really regret giving your neighbor every day the unimportant: money, food, clothing - My gifts? After all, you are full, dressed - what more? From everything one must extract a percentage of love for one’s neighbor, make comments in meekness, in humility, without zeal or irritation. Give not your voice, but your heart to God in serving Him. Watch yourself, how you start the day, what sins and passions arise in you in the morning: is it not greed for food and drink, is it not the love of money and covetousness, is it not stinginess, is it not cursed pride, is it not with a proud eye and an insatiable heart that you eat and drink at home with your neighbors; whether malice, envy, contempt have crept into your heart, whether you are not hurting your neighbor with words, whether you are mocking him to his face or in absentia, whether you are cutting the honor of your neighbor, as with a sharp knife, with sharp words; or are you not discouraged, do you harbor lustful thoughts, etc.? Condemn yourself, correct yourself. You are corrupted, but your wife and sister-in-law are not corrupted: they can eat and drink more and sweeter, but you must fast; you must respect them deeply; they have a chaste, noble heart, capable of love, but your heart is an unclean and broken vessel. My wife is the same governor, that is, she is just as venerable, and I must treat her with the same respect; the governor’s wife is also a sister-in-law and all her sisters-in-law, and the brothers, the father himself, are like governors, that is, I must treat them with the same constant respect as the governor. Meanwhile, what happens through the deceit of our flesh or damaged nature? The degree of respect gradually decreases from frequent handling of family, from habit towards them and from the heavy breathing of everyday vanity and from the fact that we notice some weaknesses among them, the infirmities of damaged human nature. It is necessary, on the contrary, that the degree of our respect and love for our neighbor constantly increases, and the more our love for him grows, the more frail he is. However, the perfections of our neighbor naturally elevate our love and respect for him, and shortcomings, especially arbitrary sins, push us away from him and lower our respect for him. But in this latter case, all measures must be taken to correct it. We can all fit in, there is enough for everyone - why hate each other, persecute each other, envy each other? May we live in love: our life is short, but eternity is limitless. The gradual decline of respect and love for a person is from the devil. We must resist this decline and constantly force ourselves to love. All members of the human body, both male and female, are equally venerable and holy, for everything is the work of the most holy hands of the Creator. Thy hands create me and create me [Ps. 118, 73]. Every person is venerable as a rational, verbal, free being, created in the image of God. It is better to be beaten or reviled, or to endure fierce glances or lies, to endure slander (when you are falsely reproached, for example, as if you spare everything for famous members) or fair, harsh remarks, than to be embittered at others yourself. We must despise anger both in ourselves and in others, and drown it out with patience and meekness. This is audacity - to rely on the creature, and not on the Creator, on people, on money, on food, and not on God; on the substance, and not on God, who created the substance. One must resolutely rely on God and reject one’s will, one’s calculations, and assumptions. As if you alone were settled on earth [Isa. 5, 8 ]? Our flesh alone would like to take possession of everything, to acquire the whole world. And God enjoys communication. Bread in society should be sweet. Damned me, I do not bear the burden of my father, from whom I received everything, whom I must have in love in abundance. His need is my need, his pleasure is my pleasure, his weakness is my weakness. What will happen to me when I am weak? How will they sympathize with me and will they? We, people, are one spiritual body, and not people and matter are one spiritual body: matter and body are our temporary home, earth, box, coffin, wineskins, bag. Two principles want to possess me, and both absolutely, holistically, inseparably: God, my Creator, and the devil: God in Christ and the Holy Spirit, the devil in addiction to substances, in anger, pride, envy, covetousness, impurity, laziness, etc. May God be the one and only principle (as he truly is) of my life. I cast my whole self upon Him, like these worlds, these countless creatures. Sin, for example, malice, is a charm, a ghost: it seems to me that my neighbor is plotting against me, and it seems to him that I am plotting against him; in fact, neither my neighbor is malicious, nor am I wrong: I don’t see the matter in its present form. Everything is a dream. Calm is the truth. Why do we want so much? To become satiated, destroy the soul, despise it and cleave to the soulless, weak, heavy, oppressive, transitory dust, and leave the source of living waters - the Lord! Therefore, it is good, blessed to be poor, to be content with a little and to make every effort about the soul and about pleasing God and about the salvation of human souls. My father: 1) man, 2) image of God, 3) archpriest, 4) father, 5) elder, 6) member of Christ, 7) servant of Christ, 8) child of God, 9) heir of the future Kingdom. How many honorable titles! For all these titles, he must be honored with great honor! What does all the money, medicine, doctor’s fees, food and drink mean? Nothing, and everything from God, is mine. Truly, he must be respected, loved, feared as Christ Himself, and served with all zeal and joy as Christ. Almost constantly, the dark, invisible enemy grabs me with his spiritual teeth: pride, contempt, malice, envy, ill will, gloating, gluttony, greed, covetousness, coldness towards God and neighbor, laziness, uncleanness, blasphemy or despondency, fear, cowardice. We are all victims of the violence of our common enemy the devil, a vigorous, vigilant, evil enemy, therefore we must feel sorry for our neighbor even when he is in the agony of some passion. That is why the Savior teaches us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who do us harm, and condemns us because we are accustomed to loving only those who love us, doing good only to those who do good to us, and lending only to those from whom we hope to receive back [Lk. b, 34]. One must have Christian wisdom in order to fulfill the commandments of Christ. Here I am, a pitiful instrument of the devil, worthy of pity, mourning and the most severe punishment. What can we say about people who live in the world, with a worldly spirit, who rarely attend divine services and receive communion, who rarely hear the word of God, who read the Gospel and soul-saving books! They must all the more be excused, all the more patient and long-suffering, forbearing, merciful: [one must] despise and hate sin, but not the sinner, who is the image of God, although he bears the wounds of sins. The devil bites us with malice, pride, fornication, envy, greed and gluttony (pleasant captivity), love of money, addiction to shiny clothes, etc. We are all sick, paralyzed, blind (Bethesda, the house of mercy, - Church). The sheep font is a baptismal font. How do we spend our time? - In eating and drinking; Having eaten and drunk, we take care of the best cooking of the food, then we do something everyday (related to life here), then we eat and drink again, then we walk, taking care of the cooking of the food, then we sleep or play - this is how life passes in such bustle. I thank Thee, Lord, for Thou hast had mercy on me and, close to malice, kept me from being angry at my neighbor, and rightly turned the malice on its culprit - the devil, on the very sting of malice that is released into the heart, and not on the person who is Your image. Oh, truly the devil’s dream is malice, and it must be despised at all costs. The constant demonic agony in people day and night, outside of worship and during worship, on weekdays and holidays, on holidays is stronger: we have a holiday, they have theirs, that is, their malice increases and also wants to triumph like hell. Therefore, on the part of Christians there must be necessary counteractions [...], especially before holidays, namely: fasting and prayer. Thus, the Church appointed fasts before the holidays of Easter, the Nativity of Christ, before the Dormition of the Mother of God, before the memory of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and these fasts must be observed without fail, because demonic agony is stronger on holidays than on ordinary days. So the priest needs to intensify his prayer, his fasting and spiritual vigil before the holiday, because the devil attacks him more strongly at this time; foreseeing great spiritual benefit from the priest's priestly service and preaching, he tries to destroy the benefit (preliminary) that can occur through the priest's temptation with various passions: malice, hatred, pride, covetousness, envy, etc. The agony of anger, love of money, covetousness, gluttony, fornication, pride (in educated people - rejection of the Church, nihilism, spiritualism, etc.). When we are in church during worship, then everything in it reminds us that we are members of this saving ark, this house of God and we have hope of salvation, if not for our prayers and deeds, then for the prayers of the saints of God, for the prayers of the priests of the Lord. And if we reject the Church, what hope of salvation can we have? Who will pray for us? By whose merits can we be pardoned? All that remains is to await the judgment of eternal fire. All who separate themselves from You will perish [Ps. 72.27]. The Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ is approaching, for our sake we became poor, that through His poverty we may be rich; Let us honor the holiday for the sake of the poor with compassion and alms for our poor brothers, so that we gather the wealth of His grace, merciful, cleansing, saving, enlightening, strengthening. Let us recognize brotherhood, so that He who has now become our brother in humanity will not be ashamed to call us brethren, saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brethren [Heb. 2, 11 – 12], and we will all live in brotherly love, so that neither anger, nor pride, nor envy, nor other passions oppress or tear our hearts apart. It is unfortunate that the younger generation is being brought up in the spirit of the world, and not in the spirit of faith and the Church! Oh! Aren't these children Christians? Here they are playing the piano! And all is nothing: not a spiritual word, not a spiritual sound! Now it’s Lent, guests come to me, my wife sits down at the piano and plays - what? Not a spiritual melody, but some kind of annoying disharmony in the spirit of modern frivolity. Do you pity the one who is dearer than the whole world, pity the best and sweet gifts of God, the one to whom the Creator Himself, who is all sweetness, gave Himself for food and drink and prepared for him an endless Kingdom from the creation of the world with blessings, which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9)? What madness, blindness, malice, dreaming! How can one compare any thing and a person - the image of God, the owner of the earth and all creatures, the king of creation? Ridiculous! God gave him everything, God subjugated everything to him - who are we who dare to resist the Creator? Or are we at one with the devil, a rebel against God? Be gone, you damned one! Lord, my King! Teach my hands to fight, my fingers to fight [Ps. 143, 1], so that I may be able to resist all the wiles of the devil and destroy all carnal passions. God! Grant me heavenly wisdom! God! I thank You for Your great grace, for You have made me prosperous on this day: You have granted an instructive word for Your people, for the glory of Your name, to perform the Liturgy without stumbling with the victory of all the fierce and subtle machinations of the devil, to receive communion without condemnation with victory in these machinations of the enemy (the cool warmth of the water), to speak the word with boldness and with strength and prayers to perform in Thy grace, and in the midst of the house to defeat the snares of the enemy and my sinful flesh, and to overcome malice with the prayer of faith! For everything I thank You, my wonderful Savior! My wife and sister Anna have a lot of sympathy (sympathy) for their friends, but I have little. I'm a moral freak in this regard. Everyone has their own character. This character, as a distinctive feature, should not be despised in a person and shown hatred towards a person because of it simply because we do not like it, perhaps it hurts our pride, our pride, conceit, but we must, if not with respect (for sometimes the character is not good), then always with condescension, with all-covering love, look at him and not notice some harshness in him. In this case, we must remember the words of the Savior: why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye? [Matt. 7, 3]. We are so angry, self-loving, proud, envious that very often, only because of the apparent mistake of our neighbor, even only because of the expected one, we are ready to hate him, scold him; we are embittered that our neighbor stepped wrong, walked wrong, sat down, spoke, sang, read, looked, took it wrong, put it down, did something wrong. Often we become embittered simply because it seems to us that there is some kind of malfunction or irregularity in our brother’s work, which in fact does not exist or which he allows out of weakness. Oh, how many ghosts Satan places before us! But love covers everything, condescends to everything. Let us cover everything in our neighbor with love, and be as strict as possible towards ourselves. The devil does the opposite in us: he makes us extremely lenient towards ourselves, and extremely strict towards our neighbors, to the point of embitterment, as with certain things in the world, for example, elegant clothes, beautiful faces, money, sweets, richly decorated dwellings, he makes us very hot, and towards the Lord, the Giver of all good things, cold, towards the soul of our neighbor, towards its eternal good (as well as towards our own), cold, contemptuous. It’s not a problem to cry, there wouldn’t be anger and fornication, pride and envy, and irritability nesting in the heart, only mutual love and brotherhood would reign. How we should value this, that food and drink can serve as an expression of love for our neighbor, commanded to us from the Lord! We must rejoice at the opportunity to show this love. But it happens the other way around: we get so used to a person that sometimes we put him at nothing! The old and inveterate charm of passions, for example, anger, stinginess, love of money, must be resolutely and boldly rejected from the heart, despite dreamy fear and demonic violence. Acquire Christian integrity. I am in God, my Creator, Father, Provider and Savior, and He is eternal, endless life, and I have eternal life in Him. After this, what do we have in heaven? and what did You want on earth? My heart is gone, O God of my heart, and my portion, O God, forever [Ps. 72, 25 – 26 ]! You, Omnipresent, strengthen me at all times, enlighten the thoughts of my heart! And you, most impudent Satan, most stupid, most absurd, teaching me to inwardly place my hope in earthly things, in these evil and weak elements that bring soul and body into weakness, flee from the servant of the Lord! I have no faith in you, in your suggestions! In the simplicity of my heart I place all my trust in my God and will not be put to shame, just as I have not been put to shame before. For He Himself said: I will never leave you nor forsake you [Heb. 13, 5 ]; from the beginning of my life until now, for thirty-seven years, I was never abandoned by the Lord, but had everything I needed, and even in abundance. You, Satan, do not feed me, do not give me water, do not clothe me, but only bring intrigues upon me, throw me into empty dreams. Away from the name of the Lord! I will strike you with the life-giving cross - with that I will strike you with which you killed my Savior and God according to the flesh! Wonderful work of my God! The cross, a mortal instrument, became life-giving and the banisher and mortifier of him who has the power of death, who deceived me with the tree, killing me with the poison of the forbidden fruit. Glory to You, Christ God, for through the cross you have given me eternal life, eternal dispassion! You redeemed us from the legal oath with Your honest blood, nailed to the cross, and pierced with a copy, immortality was exuded by man, Our Savior, glory to You! 94 For this reason, the Son of God appears and destroys the work of the devil. What shame will the devil have when all his works, for which he put so much effort, art, and day-and-night vigil, are destroyed? To build, to use all your energy, all, so to speak, your being on the building, and to see your work being destroyed and completely destroyed - oh, how much shame, vexation, humiliation for such a proud and all-evil spirit as the devil is! God! Destroy in me everything that the devil builds, all his works, all passions! With small things, the devil achieves great results with our inattention, for example, with one thought about food, drink, money, an instant addiction, he can drag the unwary into the depths of evils and many passions, and even completely destroy. If Adam and Eve had not tasted the forbidden food, they would not have died and humanity would not be dying. If Judas had not thought about the pieces of silver, if he had not had an addiction to them, he would not have fallen into the jaws of Satan. Let us remember that we are Christians, citizens of the heavenly, eternal city of Jerusalem, and let us not cling to anything earthly as temporary strangers, guests of this world. You like to visit: remember that we are all guests here. Do you remember this? Remember also that Satan with all his might wants to tear out of our heads and from our hearts the thought that we are guests here, and is trying to chain us, as it were, to the earth and its blessings, in order to deprive us of eternal life, in order to tear our hearts away from the Lord and reign in it himself. Let us remember why the Son of God came to earth, that he may lead us to heaven, that he may free us from the corruption of passions, and that he may grant us eternal life. Let us strive, like pilgrims, to this mountainous homeland day and night, let us put on the whole armor of God against the enemies of salvation, who have everywhere placed their nets for the poor travelers near all earthly blessings; let us fight, let us struggle against sin until we bleed, let us please the Lord of life, let us seek in ourselves and in others the Kingdom of God, and everything else, worldly, will be added to us; Let us live in love among ourselves, let us be patient, merciful, not envious, not arrogant, not proud, not irritated - let us endure everything, let us cover everything, let us not seek our own, but our neighbor (always keeping in mind the common benefit more than our own); Let us never fall away from love, so that today or at this hour, due to favorable circumstances, we love, but tomorrow or the next hour, due to changed circumstances, we no longer love, quarrel, envy, etc., as if following the flow of the wind. Let us love God and our neighbor to the end. He who endures to the end will be saved [Matt. 10, 22]. It’s cramped, bitter, hot, but there’s nothing to do—it’s not always like this, it can be spacious, cool, and sweet. This beast, that is, my flesh, really shouldn’t be fed or given water: it’s terribly enraged. We must pacify with hunger. Let everything teach you, learn from everything a lesson for life: look at the steam rising from the samovar, remember the words of the Apostle James: what is your life? a vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears [Jas. 4, 14 ]; Remember the same thing when you see a steam engine or a steamship: our life, like steam, disappears, or, like a steam engine or a steamship, it quickly runs past. I am constantly full, I have everything in abundance - and why am I still depressed, seeing my sweets destroyed, why am I indignant, angry at those who consume? They are created for consumption. Oh, devilish envy! Oh, when will I give up sweets? When will I eat crackers with water? When will I grow cold towards sweets, when will I despise them like dust? When will I truly respect and love a person and serve him with joy? When will I surrender my heart and my whole life to the Lord? O corrupt, stupid, evil, proud, envious, voluptuous, covetous, overprotective, stubborn, lazy, self-loving, misanthropic heart! When will I renounce you? Let him deny himself [Matt. 16, 24]. When will I laugh at you? Avoid pies, unleavened white bread, sweets in general, and tea. Everything about me is sinful, not according to the will of God and contrary to my own good; It’s morning: there is no need to eat or drink, but I eat and drink - and that’s why I sin grievously, and passions act strongly in me. Truly, whatever you set foot on, you sinned. I need very, very little: the rest of what I have is all given by God for others. I have nothing of my own, I myself am all of God and I do not dare to appropriate myself to myself: I am all of God and must live for God, and not for myself; living for oneself is self-love - a great sin. Oh self-love! Self-love! How deep you penetrated me! My father, Archpriest Konstantin, deserved a pension from the Lord - to have access to an apartment, food, drink, clothing, medicine, everything necessary. The servant of Christ must be protected and respected in his old age: the Lord has already rewarded me for him and will reward me again. His daughter is a priceless treasure. Wafers (unleavened bread). Just as these wafers are dry, so your church is dry, lifeless, alien to the life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit. And ours, like prosphora, is full of life, life-giving. Don't eat unleavened bread. Christianity for me - how do I feel about Christianity? How faithful are you to your baptismal vows? Have you put off the old man and put on the new? Should I, a Christian, take care of this decay, this dirt, this pus, that is, body, food, drink, clothing, money, housing, furniture, service? Am I crazy? Should I not love this eternal, god-like, rational, free being - man - should I despise this because of my rubbish? Where is the mind? Oh, the absurdity! Oh madness! Pay no attention to the whims of a foolish heart. Strive for eternity! Trample this speck of dust called the earthly world, and all its momentary brilliance, its sweetness! What were you before and what are you now? What did you have before and what now? And for whom? In what love should you live with your family! How to caress! Strange thing! The more satiated I am, the more despondent, the more angry, proud, envious, the more I feel sorry for others for what I myself enjoy, the more I worry about what I will eat and drink in the future, although perhaps I will die tomorrow; the heart retreats from God and hopes for the weak and bad elements and therefore wants to collect as much money as possible, supplies of bread, clothes, houses, etc. It is better to despise the flesh and everything material and place all hope on God the Trustee. I am the culprit of the fact that they don’t love me at home, they don’t care about me; You have to blame yourself and no one else. Truly, a person who is in passion, for example, in anger, evil suspiciousness, despondency, envy, etc., is worthy of great compassion, also immersed in pride, for he is blinded, bound, sick in spirit, scourged with internal scourges, and suffers very much. This is the most unfortunate person. My sister Anna is a kind girl (I learned from experience), you just need to have mercy for her weaknesses. Regarding faith, hope and love for God, our Heavenly Father, we should be like children of earthly parents in relation to these latter, carefree relying on their parents in everything. We must place all sorrow on God, for He cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7). For the needs of life, we must rely on God as children rely on their father. Who is more kind, wiser and more caring than Him, the Nourisher of all creation? Sometimes a person becomes completely irritated, embittered, he has such inner tightness that he is driven from one evil and contemptuous thought to another, is strongly incited, driven to anger, envy, contempt, greed, covetousness, against his will, he constantly falls internally from one sin to another; there is hellish tightness, despondency, darkness in it. This is the cross of God’s abandonment and leaving it to us ourselves, so that we would know what we are like without the grace of God, what evils we are filled with, and so that we would value God’s grace more diligently and seek it more than anything else in the world, more than the whole world, preferring it to wealth, honors, sweets, splendor and luxury of the world. The Church sings about this difficult state of mind or about the cross of abandonment of [man] by God: Who hast Thou cast me away from Thy presence, O Light that never traverses, and the alien darkness of the accursed has covered me? But turn me, and direct my path to the light of Your commandments, I pray 95. Do not be discouraged, Christian soul, betrayed for a time to the power of Satan, but endure the hellish darkness that has come upon you, calling earnestly to God, like Jonah from the belly of the whale, that He may rid your belly of the corruption of passions and may He establish your moving heart on the rock of His commandments 96 . Do not be discouraged, I say, for the Heavenly Father sees that the devil is raping you, inciting you with hellish cruelty to sin, just do not deign to sin, do not enjoy it and constantly pray to the Lord to deliver you from it. This abandonment, these sorrows are like the strong, sharp means of a doctor who wants to cauterize some strong old disease, like cauterization, cutting, cutting off, as, for example, happens with the disease of cancer, with a member struck by Anton’s fire 97 . Our passions are not long-standing illnesses of the spirit, threatening us with eternal destruction, and this is the wisdom and goodness of the Heavenly Physician: he uses the strongest, most bitter, caustic means to heal the old passion, to cleanse the hearts, to chastise and humble the soul or to teach it patience. We must thank the Heavenly, merciful Doctor for such fatherly care for us, for He does not want the sinner to die eternally, but to be converted and live forever. That is why the Apostle tells us: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations [Jas. 1, 2]. We must thank the Lord for everything: for joy and for sorrow, for space and for crampedness: he sends cramped conditions, so that he does not give room for sin in us, so that sin does not reign in our dead body; space sends, let us rejoice in God, our Savior, let us pour out our souls in the space of our hearts in prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God, let us have fellowship of love for each other, and do greater deeds of virtue. This means illness - the state of our spirit, struck, as it were, by Anton’s fire, that we do not sympathize with the disasters, sorrows, illnesses, and poverty of our neighbors. We are one spiritual body, but in the body the healthy member has compassion for the sick person and strives to provide him with assistance and restore him to health. So we must sympathize with our neighbors in their sorrows, illnesses, sadness, and adversity. Love to accept moral teaching from those inferior to you, even from a woman, from a girl, and, moreover, not respected by you for some reason. This is for the sake of God, who speaks the truth through everyone, even through a dumb donkey. Let us trample on pride in every possible way. These poor, helpless, defenseless, kind, simple-hearted children, if they had their own acquisitions, oh, how they would take you into their home, with what joy they would give you everything you need, with what cordiality they would treat you! But now they have nothing, and for them He will reward you, Whom they call Heavenly Father: Our Father, who art in heaven, is the common Father and Nourisher and Savior of all. So they appeared as intercessors for a cripple, for an old man broken by paralysis, brought by his son from a distant place to ask alms from the lovers of Christ, and, forgetting their benefit, joyfully hastened to give my contribution, which I told them to give to the old man. What kind simplicity, what childish compassion! If only the unfortunate man would be satisfied, but we are still left without anything, they thought, and, grabbing the back of the sleigh from behind, they rode off with the wretched old man. May I also be like children in simplicity and compassion! Look how generously the earth bears fruit, may it teach you generosity towards your neighbor; see how the cow generously gives milk and does not spare it, and you will learn not to spare pleasant food and drink for your neighbor; See how the sheep willingly gives its wave, and may it teach you to willingly give yours to others. Look how horses, oxen, cows, sheep and goats together graze the grass in the meadow, in the pasture - so we, people, especially Christians, should have everything in common and together use the gifts of our Heavenly Father, common to all. It’s an amazing thing: a cow or a sheep does not spare their milk, wool, they do not intercede when they are milked and sheared, but a person often spares his sincere food and drink, although he himself is well-fed and has excesses, and is furious when they take milk and wool or the products of the earth that belong to him, given to him by God for him and others, and he wants to use God’s gifts alone, without sharing them with others, he would like to be alone, take possession of everything. Oh, wickedness! Oh, self-love! Oh, misanthropy! Christ came down from heaven and became man, this God, so that He might become our Head and unite us under Him, making us one body. May we all unite in a union of love into one body, bearing each other’s burdens. With a proud eye and an insatiable heart, I do not eat with this [Ps. 100.5]. Everything is God's, not mine. I am the most insignificant, the last, not worth anything, not even a stale piece of bread, for in every possible way I have angered and continue to anger my Creator. Be gone, soul of malice. Sister-in-law is a kind, respectful, smart girl. If you measure according to the measure, it will be measured to you [Lk. 6, 38]: understand this both spiritually and physically. What a fierce war Satan is waging against us through the womb! It produces in us a burning, oppressive, vague thirst for earthly goods and at the same time hatred for those people who should share our property with us! But the Lord, of course, knew which of our neighbors needed to be given to us for our service (so that in their person they could be served as Himself), and how much we needed for our life and contentment, and how to give us everything we needed. He is the Creator, Life-Giver, Provider, or Trustee and Savior. A wicked heart worships idols daily. But the Lord alone will be the God of my heart - my perfect belly, my perfect peace and contentment. He is infinite, inexhaustible, immutable, eternal. Away with satanic dreams! Those who here avoid the communication of love, how can they be capable of this communication in eternity, in the Kingdom of glory? They cannot be capable unless they change here. So, we must have a fellowship of love here. Oh, how the devil slanders different people in our hearts! What anger it arouses against them, what envy! Don’t trust him one iota and do the opposite immediately, decisively, firmly. Help, Lord! And what kind of seduction does earthly goods produce in the soul: sweets, money, various colored materials, various forms, the grace and brilliance of things soft and hard, wooden and metal! All life is delightful! Where is the care for the soul? About changing it? About putting off the old man and putting on the new? Where is the concern for the beauty of virtue? What should I do? The enemy dissolves and unites with me. Jesus, save me! What can I wish for, what can I envy? I have been given from the Lord so much to infinity in creation and redemption! What can I feel sorry for my neighbor or myself: he and I need so little, but my Lord is inexhaustible, He will reward a hundredfold for giving. So, I don’t envy anyone, I don’t regret anyone. Before the image of the Lady, a scoundrel and a blasphemer of all that is holy blasphemes; before the face of his father he puts malice, envy, pride, the all-damned one! And how it incites, with what fierceness, with what strength, what fire of hell it pours out in the insides! Oh, eternal fire, terrible! Oh, the gnashing of teeth is unbearable! The guarantees of your eternal existence (oh, fire, oh, rattle!) still exist in this life! Not one iota... will pass from the law until all is fulfilled [Matt. 5, 18]. Since when did the enemy instill in me disrespect for man and passion, respect for sweets! - From my youth, from the time when my passion burned, depriving me of the wealth of simplicity, purity, love and chastity! Since when did sweetness itself become more precious to me, higher than the personality of my neighbor! But who is the neighbor? – The image of God, the body of Christ! Let it be honored according to its heritage! Insignificant rubbish (food, drink, money, clothes, furniture) - and the image of God, a being of infinite value. Let me only be united with God by faith, hope and love, and with my neighbors with love and peace, and everything else will be added to me, like air and water, as hitherto everything has been added to the protective love of the Heavenly Father. Whose fruits or labors are you using? Father, your father-in-law: your place is the fruit of his labors, your wife is his fruit. Where is your tender, filial love for your father? Where is the sincere gratitude? What's in this daily, hypocritical gratitude of yours? And man is a priceless image of God, and everything earthly is rubbish. Why don’t you value the soul?.. Oh, delusion! Talk more often with your family, have loving communication with them in sincere words. Rejoice in their peace and contentment, otherwise you will be jealous. He became fat, plump and plump; and he forsook God [Deut. 32, 15]. It's me, the sinner. Towards our own, and to frequent guests, and to those who live in the same yard and share the same mug - anger! This is crazy! What a bad habit! Forgive me, Lord! Everywhere I am surrounded by evidence of the love of the Creator and my relatives for me, and how can I not live out of love? If I must certainly love my enemies as a Christian, then what answer will I give for not loving those who love me? Blessed are You among women and blessed is the Fruit of Your womb! You see the unity of Mother and Son - one blessing of the Son and Mother. Unity of holiness, unity of honor! The number of days and years depends on the Lord, as can be seen from the example of King Hezekiah of Judah, who, through his prayer, was given another fifteen years of life. Who among us would be so senseless and evil that, for some reason in life or out of malice and envy, he would wish for the death of someone and thus would boldly enter into the orders of the all-governing, wise and all-good Providence? In the world, everything is contained in a circle - in the circulation of transformations, and nothing is lost: everything is transformed again by the wisdom and omnipotence of the all-good Creator after decomposition. For example, water absorbed by us returns from us again to the water element, air - to the air element, earth - to the earth element, fire, light and heat - to those akin to them. Fruits nourish us - the majestic fruit of the earth, the bodies of animals nourish our bodies - and mutually: our bodies serve either as fertilizer for the earth, or as food for worms and plants. Thus, everything is contained in the circle and nothing can be lost or diminished or impoverished. The Creator, when he wants, can call into existence many living and animate beings or only organic, plant ones. Therefore, let us have complete hope in God and surrender ourselves, each other and our entire life to Him with all our needs, contentment, joys, sorrows, illnesses, misfortunes and adventures. One must have a greed of love for God and neighbor, for reading the word of God and the lives of the saints and imitate them, a greed for good deeds: for mercy, meekness, kindness, humility, purity and chastity, and not for food and drink, for money, for worldly glory, for pleasures, entertainment, for the best entertainment for a Christian is to help the poor, comfort the sad and mourning, visit the sick and etc. This is the kind of saving greed we need to have! What will our carnal greed bring us, besides harm to body and soul? Where do we have such pride, combined with pride and envy, that we consider ourselves more than others, the right to enjoy certain pleasures that are not prohibited either for us or for others like us, and when, for example, we ourselves eat and drink sweetly, we are indignant at others, related to us and living with us, that they eat and drink just as sweetly? Oh, excess of self-love, pride, envy and malice! God! Cleanse everything in us that is not worthy of Your holy view, and teach us simplicity, goodness, generosity, meekness, humility, and mercy. Source of mercy, have mercy on us! Renew us in Your image and in Your likeness. Love gives, and gives abundantly; self-love takes away or gives sparingly; love joyfully gives - self-love often with a constricted heart; love does not spare anything, as long as the beloved person is satisfied - pride spares what is pleasant to the taste, to the eye; love spreads - pride compresses the heart. I thank you, Lord my God, for through my prayer you saved me from anger towards my relatives. I myself express that I am being raped by anger and I do not sympathize with it. For how can I be angry with those people from whom I received everything? My father-in-law is my metropolitan: let me give him due honor and serve him with joy to everyone, considering everything earthly as rubbish and not comparing what I consume with a person to whom everything is put under his feet. My Lord is an abyss of abundance. God! Blessing the five loaves and feeding the five thousand, multiply my meager possessions, so that I can help everyone who needs help, and may I myself have everything I need for my temporary life! Allow me to give freely to all who need it. Let me treat all guests and family with sincerity. Because of the belly, we become like evil animals. Ready to bite and destroy each other. Oh, what madness of the flesh! Oh, how necessary it is to bridle the belly and despise it! For the most part, our youth is being educated not in the Russian way, but in a completely German way, and they want to make of them not Russians, not Orthodox Christians, but some kind of cosmopolitans, indifferentists, for whom every faith is the same, or for whom at least there is no faith - they form sons of the world, but not sons of God, idealists and dreamers, but not useful servants of society. The Lord, in the Christian faith, gave me incorruptibility and ever-blessed life: I rejoice and thank God. Everything else – earthly things – is all unimportant. This is how the Lord teaches us to look at earthly things: do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul [Matthew 10:28]. Beware of covetousness, for a person’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions [Lk. 12, 15]. Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and body than clothing?.. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you [Matt. 6:25, 33]. Looking at Him crucified on the cross for our sake, remember His cherished words: This I command you, that you love one another [Jn. 15, 17] – and let us hold on to love. For love is the fulfilling of the law [Rom. 13, 10]. If someone has sinned against you, or even more so against the Lord, for example, he got drunk and asks you for alms, pretending not to drink, do not be angry with him, but, having recognized your countless sins, burn with rage at yourself and at the sin living in you and at its culprit, and take pity on man, this image of God, raped by the devil, and show him leniency. Every man is a lie [Ps. 115, 2], says the Psalmist. So, do not trust yourself, your corrupted heart, but when you feel in it the movement of evil towards your neighbor, or envy, or stinginess and other passions, tell yourself: you are lying, you are lying - and do not follow evil for a moment. Yes, and expose evil in others without malice. I thank You, Lord, for the grace that I received in the apartment of Your servant Evgraf Andreevich Vsevolzhsky, for their kindness and goodwill. What mutual respect there is in his house - his and his sisters, what silence! Give me, Lord, the grace to respect my household and every person who comes to me, and to have the same peace in my home as they have. May I be as a guest in the house, and my family and guests as hosts; Give me the grace to treat every person with respect and condescension and not to get used to anyone to the point of forgetting the importance and dignity of humanity, not to become arrogant with anyone. Grant me, O Lord, Thy wisdom and Thy strength, Thy simplicity to live according to Thy will. Most importantly, walk in the gentleness of my heart in the midst of my house and Your house, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). Lord, do not allow me to neglect anyone, despise someone, hate someone, abuse someone, or feel sorry for someone. Whole (church-glorified) – simple, pure, immaculate. Abide (Church Glav.) – remain, last forever; abiding – firmly standing, strong, faithful, constant. Stingy - stingy, greedily protecting his money and property from spending. Pr ό sty (Church-Glav.) – meaning whole, indivisible into parts. Prayer from the rite of the Sacrament of Baptism. He was tortured, but He suffered voluntarily and did not open His mouth; like a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. He was taken from bonds and judgment; but who will explain His generation? for He is cut off from the land of the living; For the crimes of My people I suffered execution (Isa. 53:7-8). Prayer of the priest at the proskomedia. On December 4, 1866, in St. Petersburg, the Society organized the Karamzin Evening to benefit writers and scientists - obviously, Father John had this event in mind. Irmos of the 7th canon of the Theotokos, tone 4. Antiphon 3rd at Matins, tone 2. Troparion of Great Heel, tone 4. Irmos of the 5th song of the canon at Matins, tone 8. Irmos of the 3rd song of the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Prayer for the blessing of the loaves at the lithium. You might be interested in: