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When asking the Lord, or the Most Pure Mother of God, or the Angels, or the saints, you need to have the kind of faith that the Capernaum centurion had. He believed that just as his soldiers obeyed and fulfilled his words, so much the more according to the almighty word of the All-Good Lord his request would be fulfilled. If the creatures, with their limited power, fulfilled what he asked them to do, then will not the Lord Himself, with His almighty power, fulfill the requests of His servants, who turn to Him with faith and hope? Will not our petitions, submitted with faith, hope and love, be fulfilled by His faithful servants, strong in grace and intercession to God - the Most Pure Mother of God, Angels and holy men? Truly, I believe with the centurion that if I ask as I should and for what I should of any saint: give this and he will give, come to my aid and he will come, do this and he will do it. This is the kind of simple and strong faith you need to have (1). When your heart wanders into the thoughts of evil and the evil one, as they say, begins to wash away your heart so that it is completely moved from the stone of faith, then say to yourself internally: I know my spiritual poverty, my insignificance without faith; say: I am so weak that I only live in the name of Christ, and am at peace, and rejoice, my heart expands, but without Him I am dead spiritually, I am worried, I am embarrassed in heart; Without the cross of the Lord, I would long ago have been a victim of the most severe sorrow and despair. Christ keeps me in life; the cross is my peace and consolation (6). If we do not warm the warmth of faith in our hearts, then through negligence our faith may completely extinguish; Christianity, with all its Sacraments, may seem to completely die out for us. The enemy is only trying to extinguish faith in the heart and bring all the truths of Christianity into oblivion. That is why we see people who are Christians in name only, but who are perfect pagans in deeds (6). Since man, of his own free will, fell away from God, he, like an animal that was once domestic, but then went wild in the dense forests, reluctantly looks at the place of his former residence, loves more the darkness of the forest, that is, this world, than the light of the former place, that is, the paradise of God. It is difficult to unite with God and, after union, often falls away from Him; it is difficult to sincerely believe in God and in everything that He has revealed to him; he does not constantly care about preserving the heavenly gift of faith in his heart (6). Just as a mother teaches a baby to walk, so the Lord teaches us living faith in him. The mother will put the baby down, leave him to himself, and go away, then tell the baby to go to her. The baby cries without his mother, wants to go to her, but is afraid to try to take a step, tries to approach, takes a step and falls. So the Lord teaches a Christian to have faith in Him, like walking (faith is a spiritual path): our faith is so weak, so elementary, like a baby learning to walk. The Lord leaves him with His help and gives him over to the devil or various disasters and sorrows, and then, when there is an urgent need for help to get rid of them (when we have no need for salvation, until then we are ready not to go to Him), as if he orders us to look at Himself (be sure to look at Him) and go to Him for this help. A Christian strengthens himself to do this, opens the eyes of his heart (like a baby spreading his legs), strengthens them to see the Lord, but the heart, not taught to see God, is afraid of its courage, stumbles and falls: the enemy and the innate depravity of sin close his opening heart eyes, tear him away from the Lord, and he cannot approach; and the Lord is close, ready to take you to Himself, as if in your arms, just approach Him by faith, and when you make an effort to completely see Him with the eyes of your heart of faith, you fall on Him with your heart’s vision, then He Himself extends a helping hand, as if taking you in His arms and drives away the enemies, and the Christian feels that he has fallen into the arms of the Savior Himself. Glory to Thy goodness and wisdom, O Lord! So, in the violence of the devil and in all sorrows, one must vividly see with one’s heart, as if before one’s eyes, the man-loving womb of the Savior; look boldly into this womb as into an inexhaustible treasury of goodness and generosity and pray to Him with all my heart that He will give us from this inexhaustible source of goodness and spiritual help: and immediately what we ask will be received. The main thing is faith or heartfelt vision of the Lord and the hope of receiving everything from Him as the All-Good. Truly! From experience! By this the Lord also teaches us to recognize our extreme moral weakness without Him, to be contrite in heart and to be in a constantly prayerful frame of mind! (6). Faith is the key to God's treasury. She lives in a simple, kind, loving heart. “If you can believe as much as possible, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Faith is spiritual lips: the more freely they open, the greater the flow of divine sources entering into them. Let these lips open freely, like bodily lips, and not be constricted by doubt and unbelief: if you close them with doubt and unbelief, a treasury of God’s blessings will be hidden for you. The more openly you believe in God’s omnipotence, the more generously God’s heart will open to you. “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and it will be done for you” (Mark 11:24) (6). When you are asked to pray for the salvation of someone from bodily death, for example, from drowning, from death due to illness, from fire or from any other disaster, praise the faith of those asking for this and say to yourself: blessed be your faith, according to your faith, may the Lord grant the fulfillment of my unworthy, little-faithful prayer and may He add faith to me (6). When your faith in the Lord during your life and prosperity or in illness and at the end of this life weakens, fades from the vanity of life or from illness and from the horrors and darkness of death, then look with the intelligent eyes of your heart at the hosts of forefathers, patriarchs, prophets and righteous people (Simeon the God-Receiver, Job, Anna the prophetess, etc.), apostles, saints, martyrs, saints, unmercenaries, righteous and all saints. See how they constantly looked to God during their lives and, when leaving this life, died in the hope of resurrection and eternal life, and be their imitator. These living examples, so numerous, are capable of confirming the wavering faith of every Christian in the Lord and in the future blessed life. Those Christian societies that do not venerate the saints and do not call on them in prayers lose much for piety and Christian hope. They deprive themselves of the great reinforcement of faith by the examples of people subservient to us (7). What is faith? Confidence in spiritual truth, in Being or in God, in the existence of the spiritual world with its properties, just as we are confident in the existence of the material world and its accessories. To be confident in the reality of the spiritual Universal Principle and the spiritual world with all its properties and accessories, just as we are confident in the existence of the material world with its objects and their properties, means to believe. For example, I am undoubtedly sure that God is eternal, all-good, wise and omnipotent, and I do not think that He is not eternal, not all-good, not wise, and not omnipotent. This means that I believe firmly and undoubtedly; I believe that God, as Goodness, will give everything you ask of Him, and I will not doubt it; that means I believe (7). In ordinary human knowledge, once you know an object well, you often know it well for the rest of your life, without clouding your knowledge of it. But in faith it is not so; Once I have known, felt, touched, you think that the object of faith will always be so clear, tangible, and loved by my soul; but no: a thousand times it will darken for you, move away from you and, as it were, disappear for you, and what you first loved, what you lived and breathed, to which from time to time you will feel complete indifference; and sometimes you have to clear the way for yourself with sighs and tears in order to see him, grab him and hug him with your heart. This is from sin (7). How many Christians are there who say: I believe in God, but do not believe in deed? How many lips are numb when it is necessary to defend in society the glory of God and His saints, which the sons of this age blaspheme - and become numb before them? Others are silent when it is necessary to maintain a conversation about God or when it is necessary to stop some outrage or insolence. Many people say: I believe in God, but if trouble, adversity, temptation happen, they become faint-hearted, despondent, sometimes grumble, and where does all the faith go? Here it would be necessary to show devotion to the will of God, to say: “[as it pleased the Lord, so it was done;] blessed be the name of the Lord!” ( Job 1:21 ). Otherwise, apparently, they believe in God only in happiness, and in misfortune they reject Him (7). The stronger our faith, the greater the saving power of God it attracts to a person, and there is no sin, there is no such great sorrow or misfortune from which faith cannot save. She cleanses sins, delivers from passions, drives away demons, heals sorrows, heals illnesses, delivers from death, resurrects the dead, transforms enemies into friends, sinners into righteous people. She moves mountains, she performs all sorts of miracles (8). The Lord Christ seeks firm faith among us. And whoever has such faith, hope to receive from Him whatever you ask. Do you need cleansing of sins? - You will get it. Healing from illness? - You will heal. Do you need help in your affairs? - You will get it. So, brethren, when you ask God for something, have the strongest faith, without the slightest doubt, be absolutely sure that for God, as the beginningless King of glory, from whom everything received being and by whom everything exists, nothing is impossible, that everything obeys Him. Believe everything simply, firmly, without a doubt, that for God in His endless Kingdom nothing is impossible and everything obeys His word. Whether it is necessary to stop the sun, extinguish the stars, move mountains from place to place, turn fire into dew, turn water into wine or wine into blood, stones into people, make the sick healthy, bring the dead to life, justify a repentant sinner, make the humble and poor noble and rich, the rich into poor - everything will, has happened and is happening according to His word. So believe when you pray to God, and you will receive everything (8). We should not waver in faith and lose heart during storms and waves of temptation from evil spirits and in difficult circumstances in general, but firmly trust in the mercy and almighty power of God, for “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23), says the Lord... We are drowned by demonic temptations and our sins from our lack of faith and unbelief, from worldly addictions and from a lack of Christian love; this deprives us of the power of God, we are often afraid of fear where there is no fear, we are afraid of ghosts and demonic dreams. But when we are strengthened in faith and cry from the bottom of our hearts to the Lord for help, this help will not delay, and we will overcome temptations (8). Faith in the Lord as Being is the source of life for the soul. How to imagine the Being? Consider everything visible and invisible as nothing and imagine that there is only one Lord (8). Jairus, mentioned in the Gospel, was not disgraced by his faith in the divine Wonderworker. “Do not be afraid, just believe,” the Lord told him when they told Jairus that his daughter had died, “and she will be saved (Luke 8:50). And he, according to the word of the Lord, undoubtedly believed that his daughter would be resurrected - and he actually saw her resurrected. So, when your soul, my brother, is killed by sin, passions, falls into the depths of evil, do not despair of your salvation, but believe that the Lord, who came into the world to save sinners, can save you and raise you up from the depths of sin; “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14) (9). Brothers and sisters, cherish your faith! Guard your faith. Without faith there is no salvation; without faith a person will perish forever (9). Faith in the Lord, in His Word, living, undoubted faith is the key to the inexhaustible treasury of all the gifts of God, a life-giving power bestowed from God on simple, unwise, humble souls and attracting to them the wealth of God’s bounties. Let's prove this with examples. An example of a Roman centurion before my eyes: his simple, firm faith in the almighty Jesus Christ surprised the Lord Himself and immediately attracted the mercy of God to the centurion and his sick servant: “Go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you.” And his servant recovered at that hour” (Matthew 8:13)... The apostles sometimes fell into the temptation of unbelief only before the descent of the Holy Spirit on them on the day of Pentecost, and after the descent of the Holy Spirit they never fell into unbelief, but always had unshakable faith and with it they performed countless miracles: they healed all sorts of diseases, cast out demons with a word, raised the dead. The holy saints of God of ancient and modern times performed many miracles by faith, as you yourself have heard and read. How many today, through their faith, have received numerous healings, wonderful deliverance from troubles and misfortunes, from the torment of demons! How many were miraculously healed through communion of the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ! How many healings have been and are happening from the relics of the holy saints of God or from miraculous holy icons or simply from sincere prayers of faith in repentance to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother or to the holy saints of God! (9). One pious shepherd, an acquaintance of mine, told me sincerely that through the prayer of faith in the simplicity of his heart he asked the Lord and the Most Pure Mother of God for many miraculous benefits of God to ordinary people who asked for his prayerful help, and as proof he was ready to personally present to me all those who were honored with the merciful visit of God and could testify with a living voice to the truth of his words. “I,” he said about himself, “am an ordinary mortal, a man of many sins, I do not differ from other people in any deeds: neither by fasting, nor by standing all night in prayer, I allow myself to eat and drink what is permitted - in myself and among people, but I have only faith in the Lord, I live in constant repentance, I thank the Lord for everything, whatever I receive from His bounties, and I do not remain in shame. Every day I receive salvation from the life-giving right hand of God, every day the Lord surrounds me with the joys of deliverance. If someone asks me to pray with him for him, I do not refuse, if only I notice in the person asking sincere faith and a sincere desire for salvation - and faith and hope do not put him to shame” (9). The blind suddenly received their sight at one word of the Savior; The Creator of man, Light Himself and the Giver of light, said the word - and the word became deed. He said the creative “let it be” - and the former blind are now sighted. And He gave such a wonderful gift to the blind for faith alone, without any merit on their part: “According to your faith... it will be done for you” (Matthew 9:29). What is so pleasing to God in a person is one simple, sincere faith in the omnipotence of God! Faith works so powerfully! Such miracles happen through faith! Do you and I have faith? If we have, then we cannot help but see in ourselves the wondrous works of God, both in our souls and in our bodies. The Lord is still with us today according to His divine promise: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” He said to the disciples before His Ascension into heaven (Matthew 28:20); “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). I see the wonders of His mercy and power in me every day and I glorify His mercies daily, for they are without number (9). Great is the power of faith! The stronger our faith, the greater the saving power of God it attracts to a person, and there is no sin, there is no such great sorrow or misfortune from which faith cannot save. She cleanses sins, delivers from passions, drives away demons, heals sorrows, heals illnesses, delivers from death, resurrects the dead, transforms enemies into friends, sinners into righteous people; she moves mountains; she does all sorts of miracles. One citizen in a certain city, living by faith and waging a stubborn battle with the passions, like a warrior of Christ, told me in a conversation with me that with daily and hourly prayer of repentance and faith he almost constantly admires from God the power that saves him from all sins and passions, that despite countless temptations and internal falls, he is in the end always the conqueror of passions and the banisher of demonic dreams and obsessions, the destroyer the machinations of demons - in a word, that by the grace of God and by the faith of God given to him, he is a constant miracle for himself. This is what the prayer of faith, the prayer of repentance means! This is how we believe, this is how we pray, and this is how we conquer our passions! (9). Try most of all in life to maintain and kindle in your heart faith in God and patience in adversity: faith strengthens us in the fight against the disasters and sorrows of life and saves us from sins and eternal death, which undoubtedly awaits unfaithful and impatient slaves. “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8), faith is the basis of the Christian life; a person without faith does not live like a Christian, and he will not be saved. Especially often stir up a living faith in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead: it is this that saves you under other conditions for salvation on your part, as the apostle says: “If... you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). If you believe that Adam fell and carried the entire human race with him to fall, believe also that another Adam - the God-man Jesus Christ - restored our nature from the fall and planted our nature with Him in heaven. Just as he subjected everyone to death by his death, so this one raised everyone with him by his resurrection (10). Why was the Savior surprised at the simple-hearted, sincere faith, for example, in the centurion and the Canaanite woman? Because she was rare among people, while it was she who He was looking for. Let us remember how often He demanded faith from the sick as a condition for the healing of mental and physical ailments. Man fell from crafty distrust of God, that is, he imprinted in his soul the properties of the devil himself; His approach to God must therefore certainly be only through faith, through sincere trust in everything Divine, in the entire economy of our salvation. Be simple and gentle, like a child; Believe what the Church commands you to believe, and you will be saved. “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8) (10). Every believing Christian who tries to live piously, according to faith, must expect, among other things, that heavy, bitter attack of the devil, the subject of which will be the stealing of faith from the heart, so that he, not believing, will not be saved (see Luke 8:12). If, with God's help, a person has managed to cut off many passions and addictions, with which the devil tempts us as the most available, most convenient means, then he rushes into the very depths of our being, tries to establish his dominion in the heart and there, like a skilled master of destruction, undermines the very foundation of our life - faith. It is difficult to fight when faith, so to speak, is torn out of the heart: then the very support of the struggle is lost, all moral strength is taken away, because faith is our strength and our victory, as the apostle says: “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). So what is victory without faith? How we must stand in faith, take courage, and strengthen ourselves! (10). You might be interested in: