БЛАГОДАРЕНИЕ

Remember with what joy, with triumph, with complete devotion to God and gratitude to Him, all the saints went to all types of torment, infinitely fierce and varied, and what crowns they were honored to receive from God! How rich in virtue is human nature, truly godlike (3). It is not grumbling, but patience and gratitude to God that a believing soul should offer even for the most serious illnesses (4). Thank God every day with all your heart for giving you life in His image and likeness, a life that is rationally free and immortal. Thank you especially for the fact that He restored you, having fallen into eternal death, and sent you back to life, and not by a simple act of omnipotence, for this would be inconsistent with His justice, but by giving His Only Begotten Son, who suffered and died for us, as a ransom for us. Thank you also for the fact that every day He, by His will through sins falling from life to death countless times, again gives you life just because you say from your heart: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before You” (cf. Luke 15:18)! Thank you also for the fact that He, who recklessly plunges yourself into illnesses - a harbinger of bodily death, often delivers you from them, corrects your mistakes and does not deprive you of your earthly life, knowing that it is dear to you, that you are not yet ready for that eternal life. Thank Him for all the means of life, for all the joys and sorrows in life, for everything is from Him, the All-Good Father, everything from the First Initial Life, which gave and gave life to everyone (6). Give from your wealth to your demanding, needy, and poor brothers, who are left for this purpose in this life, so that you can prove to them your love, gratitude to God, and receive a reward from God for this in eternity (6). Jesus Christ, distributing food, first looked at the sky, thanked, blessed, then broke it and served it. The Apostle Paul did the same on the ship. Likewise, we should thank God for food and drink and for all material blessings, but especially spiritual ones (7). Why do you need to thank God and good charitable people for everything? More for our own benefit: so that the feelings of our soul are more tender, more subtle, the feeling of our dependence in everything on God and on good people, grateful love for them and the feeling of our insignificance without God, the feeling of our weakness to do without the help of good people (7). What is false gratitude to God? False gratitude - when, receiving from God generous, undeserved gifts of spiritual and material, they thank God for them with their tongues and use them only for their own benefit, without sharing them with their neighbors, receive and hide them in their treasuries, chests, book depositories, thereby depriving many of their brothers of spiritual enlightenment, edification, consolation or food, drink, clothing, housing, healing in illness or movement from place to place for obtaining funds for food. Such gratitude is false and ungodly. This means giving thanks in tongue, but in deed showing extreme ingratitude and malice. And how many are so grateful, or rather ungrateful! (7) A person must always remember that he has everything from God and has the gift of soul and body, all the strength and abilities, power, wealth, beauty, health, strength - everything, and only his own sins and shortcomings; and, realizing this, he must always sincerely acknowledge his insignificance, revere God, always thank God and, to the best of his ability and ability, serve the good of people, the good of the country and fatherland (8). Believe with all your heart, without the slightest doubt, that the only begotten, incarnate Son of God suffered for you, namely, for you, in order to deliver you from eternal torment, which we had to undergo according to the justice of the Heavenly Father, and now we will undergo if we do not wholeheartedly believe in His Son, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, and keep His commandments. Bring His torment closer to your heart, appreciate it as much as possible with your weak minds and endure generously, without grumbling, with gratitude to God, each in your own life, your own sorrows, illnesses and sufferings, and let the fire of love burn in your hearts for the One who, out of love for you, endures the painful fire of bodily and mental suffering (12). You might be interested in: