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1. Cooling down is a dangerous state of mind. Reasons and means for returning warmth from the Lord Is your previous warm state still preserved? It must be stored. The basis for it is humility. As soon as humility diminishes, so will coldness. For when the soul begins to consider itself something, the Lord immediately retreats, and it, left alone, with itself, grows cold. It is not necessary to say “I am nothing” with the tongue, but to feel one’s insignificance in the heart. And here there will always be the Lord, who created and is creating everything out of nothing. The Lord will give you warmth, but you also have to put in the work yourself. This work is, as has just been said, humility and attention and a painful falling towards God within the heart, persistent in every deed and word, while moving and sitting, at home and in church. May the Lord make you wise! Read holy books and, having assimilated everything useful through reflection, apply it to your life and to your soul (4, p. 190). 2. A state of insensibility as a punishment for slipping into sin and as a training in humility The main thing is cooling. This is a bitter and dangerous state. With the Lord it is among the guiding, intelligible and corrective means. But sometimes it can also be a kind of punishment. The reason for this is obvious sin, but since you don’t see it, the reasons must be sought in inner feelings and dispositions. Has the conceit crept in that you are not like others? Don’t you make a plan to walk along the path of salvation and ascend the mountain using your own means? Aren't you complacent in the order of life that you have established... and settled down to sleep in the thought that there is nothing more to worry about?.. Such and similar thoughts lead to carelessness, and carelessness is the first step towards cooling down. Therefore, take the trouble to collect more thoughts, since you have not yet started business; what previously seemed spiritual only mattered as a calling to work, and not as a fruit. Apply the conviction that, even though you have reached high levels, you are not safe from falls... the path to which the enemy is paved by carelessness and negligence - the companions of cooling. When collecting such stimulating thoughts, do not think that you will warm yourself... The Lord will warm you when the time comes. Your business is labor and labor. In addition to this mental work, add a prayer to the Lord specifically for deliverance from this ulcer. Leave all other items, keep this one prayer against cooling. Whether you stand at prayer, whether you read, whether you stand in church, or whether you are doing some work, keep one thing in mind: “Lord, deliver me from this coldness.” And don't give yourself any rest until you get warm. Warmth is the Lord's touch to the heart, and constant warmth is the Lord's dwelling in the heart (1, pp. 110–111). 3. Reasons for cooling: training, punishment “A dull insensibility attacks you, you become like an automaton: no thoughts, no feelings.” Such states sometimes occur as punishment for attempting something unkind with thoughts and sympathy; and sometimes - as training: mainly as teaching humility, so that a person learns not to expect anything from his own strength, but everything from God alone. Several such experiences undermine self-confidence, but getting rid of hardship shows where help comes from and who you need to rely on in everything. This condition is difficult, but we must endure it with the thought that we are not worth anything better, that it is deserved (1, p. 216). 4. Cooling is God's penance. Remedies: Patience and Prayer As soon as it appears, resort to humility, saying: “On business; I’m not worth grace, but mercy.” Observe; Perhaps you will find that before the onset of such a state there are proud thoughts and feelings; and repent of them quickly. Do not abandon ordinary affairs - neither prayers, nor readings, nor anything else that you have... Cooling is God's penance (1, pp. 226-227). 5. About the causes and means of combating insensitivity. Testimony of the Holy Fathers Someone says: “Put yourself in the state of a dying person”... Another adds: “Even better, put yourself at the moment of Judgment over you, when the final decision about you is ready to come from the mouth of God...” One cannot but agree that such techniques are really powerful in softening a stony heart (1, p. 232). Tolerate. It is possible that God Himself sends this to teach us not to rely on ourselves. Sometimes we take on a lot and expect a lot from our efforts, techniques and labors. So the Lord takes grace and leaves one, as if saying: “Here, try to the best of your ability.” The more natural talents there are, the more necessary such training is. Having realized this, we will endure. This is also sent as punishment - for outbursts of passions that were allowed and not condemned and not covered by repentance. These outbreaks are the same for the soul as for the body - bad food... which aggravates, or weakens, or dulls... It is necessary, it turns out, to look around when there is dryness, whether there was anything like that in the soul... and repent before the Lord and put forward to beware. Most of all this is due to anger, untruth, annoyance, condemnation, pride and similar healing - returning again to a state of grace. As grace in the will of God, we can only pray... for deliverance from this very dryness... and from petrified insensibility. There are such lessons: do not abandon the usual prayer rule, but follow it exactly, trying in every possible way so that the thought accompanies the words of the prayer, straining and stirring the feeling... Let the feeling be a stone, but the thought will be, even half, but it will still be a prayer, for there must be a complete prayer with thought and feeling. When you are cold and insensible, it will be difficult to keep your thoughts in the words of prayer, but it is still possible. You must do it in defiance of yourself... This overexertion of yourself will be the means to bend the Lord to mercy and return grace. But one should not give up prayer... St. Macarius says: the Lord will see how sincerely we wish for the good of this... and he will send it. Send a prayer against cooling in your word before and after the rule... and in continuation of it, cry out to the Lord, as if presenting a dead soul before His face: “You see, Lord, what she is like! But the word will heal.” With the same word, throughout the day, often turn to the Lord (1, pp. 230–231). I thought you were constantly cold... or dry and numb. But you don’t have this, but there is something that happens to everyone from time to time. Almost everyone who has written about spiritual life remembers this. St. Mark the Ascetic exposes three enemies of this kind: ignorance with oblivion, laziness with negligence, and petrified insensibility. “Some kind of paralysis of all mental strength.” St. did not forget them in his short prayers. Chrysostom: “Deliver me from ignorance, oblivion, despondency (this is laziness with negligence) and petrified insensibility.” The remedies indicated are not complex: endure and pray (1, p. 230). Needs and worries are truly destructive to the spiritual order, but this destructive power of them can be cut off by surrendering oneself to the will of God. This does not mean that you sit with folded hands and wait for what God will give, but come up with ways and put them into action, and leave the success of everything to God’s dispensation, without prejudging or building castles in the air, and standing ready to accept graciously whatever God pleases to send. You must have care, but to be tormented and tormented by the heart until it is torn apart is a sin, for there is no faith, and hope, and obedience to God (1, pp. 244–245). 7. Coolness and insensibility do not constitute the fundamental mood - they can only be overcome by patience and prayer What must always be there is a determination to please and a living and active zeal for this (1, p. 247). 8. Coolness and insensitivity are a direct consequence of self-aggrandizement and complacency. That we fell into insensibility and coldness is a direct consequence of self-aggrandizement and complacency. This consequence is like a punishment, like a drunkard having a headache in the morning (1, p. 252). 9. Cooling begins with oblivion You have to run in every possible way to cool down. Cooling happens like this: it begins with oblivion... The good deeds of God are forgotten, and God Himself, and one’s salvation in Him, the danger of being without God, and mortal memory fades away - in a word, the entire spiritual realm is closed. This happens both from the enemy and from distraction of thoughts with affairs, worries, and many ways of dealing with people. When all this is forgotten, the heart becomes cold and its sympathy for the spiritual is cut off... and that is insensibility. And when it happens, along with it comes a movement of negligence and carelessness... As a result, spiritual pursuits are postponed for a while, and then abandoned completely. And the old life, both careless and careless, went on in oblivion of God, to please only its own. Although in this case nothing will happen carelessly, but do not seek God’s things either. Empty life! If you don’t want to fall into this abyss, then beware of the first step - oblivion. Therefore, always walk in the remembrance of God, that is, about God and God’s things. This will maintain sympathy for them, and from both of them jealousy will constantly simmer. And this is life (2, pp. 85–86)! You experience cooling... And you see the reasons for it. These reasons are indeed such that they can cool. They all depend on your will - and you can reject them as soon as you want. You favor them for no reason at all - out of inattention, fearlessness and fanfare... What is this for?! Is cooling a minor problem? - Not easy. The enemy will jump up and stir things up, and before you know it, he’ll wring your head... So, if you please, wake up and cheerfully look after yourself: you’ve already seen enough, you were amused at that time. Now is the time to be stricter with yourself. You have forgotten the words of the apostle: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling 169 - but you have lost even simple caution (3, p. 171). 11. Cold and warmth of heart “Cooling of the heart is preceded by clinging to something, preoccupation with something, anger and condemnation... discontent and some kind of indulgence of the flesh, sybaritism... and scattering of thoughts! Take care of this, and there will be less cooling (4, p. 79). 12. Weakening humility leads to a cooling of the warmth of the heart When the warmth of the spirit weakens, we must strive in every possible way to restore it, falling before God with fear and trembling. Everything is from Him. Dejection, boredom, burden of spirit and body will come sometimes, perhaps for a long time. You must not be timid and firmly stand your ground, diligently fulfilling the accepted rules, and do not expect that your soul will no longer have any taste. You don’t expect your soul to always be equally warm and sweet. It doesn't happen that way. Instead, constantly expect unexpected changes. When lethargy and heaviness come, think that it is you - the real one, as you are; accept spiritual sweetness as undeserved mercy (4, p. 186). 13. Decreasing warmth of the heart is a sign that half the path to apostasy from God has been passed While diligently following the rule, maintain sobriety of mind and warmth of heart. The latter, when it begins to decline, hasten to warm it up, firmly knowing that as soon as it is gone, this means that more than half the path to retreat from God has been passed. The fear of God is the guardian and activator of inner warmth. But you also need humility, patience, loyalty to the rules, and most of all sobriety. Pay attention to yourself, for God's sake. Disturb yourself in every possible way so as not to fall asleep or, having dozed off, to wake up (4, p. 214). 14. Reasons for cooling and its connection with absent-mindedness If you feel your thoughts wandering, beware. This is very dangerous. The enemy wants to drive you into some slum and kill you there. Thoughts begin to wander as fear diminishes and the heart cools. The cooling of the heart has many reasons. The main one is complacency and conceit. These are very similar to you. Beware and hasten to awaken the fear of God and warm your soul. Otherwise, dissipation and cooling will increase. The enemy is here and will start throwing stones and attacking you. An absent-minded person is like a house with open windows without an owner. Anyone who wants to throws stones and all sorts of rubbish there. The owner returns and is amazed by the multitude of all sorts of rubbish scattered there, so that it is impossible to live without clearing everything away. So the soul, having returned to itself from distraction, sometimes finds in itself a lot of rubbish from infested thoughts that have left traces on the heart. Sit down and clean yourself. But it’s good, as the hunt takes it, otherwise everything will remain so. That's the problem! Save you, Lord, and have mercy (4, p. 221). 15. Various reasons for cooling in spiritual life. How to behave when cooling appears What kind of philosophy is this: monotony gives rise to indifference and coldness? The world transfers its own to God’s. In created things, monotony is definitely boring, because they are finite. A glass of sweet water, even if you drink it little by little, you will still drink it; So is every worldly pleasure. The heart will drink all the sweet stuff from it - and that’s the end... then it will become unnutritious and boring. In relation to God it is not at all the same. He is an infinite good, sufficient for everyone and for all ages. In the future life, all those who have prepared themselves will taste this one good; and they themselves will be satisfied, and they will not exhaust it, but will thirst more and more and expand in thirst and in tasting. Ask why Father Seraphim and Father Parthenius were not bored by such a monotonous and even monotonous life? A church and a cell... or even a seclusion... Lord, have mercy! How can you kill yourself? And they didn’t even think about torturing themselves... but, on the contrary, they were blissful (11, p. 16). We have our own reason for loss of taste and cooling. It is inevitable in the course of success. It’s like the proverb: I fell behind on one shore, but didn’t stick to the other. A state of thought, as it were, is not initial, but later, on the road... it temporarily creeps in... The heart has not yet completely lagged behind the sensual and has not completely penetrated into the spiritual. The urges from here and there will make you dizzy and foggy for a while... that’s indifference and tastelessness... Be patient a little - and it will go... So that’s it! Let us work little by little with patience and dedication to the Lord. There's a little left. The time will come, let us stand before the Lord and what will we say? That we can dance, speak French, and appreciate theatrical plays well? - Oh, trouble! oh woe! Then we will rush here and there, but it’s too late... Give, Lord, a minute, give a minute... let’s repent... and it won’t be possible because prayer was aroused by balls and theaters (11, p. 17). You are afraid: you won’t finish it, even though you start diligently. Yes, we should be afraid of this, for we are often changeable in front of ourselves and against ourselves. There's no point in relying on yourself. All hope is in the Lord. Do not abandon this fear, but support it either with the fear of offending your beloved Lord, or with the fear that, having weakened, you will no longer rise to such inspiration, and then today or tomorrow death. Afterwards, this fear will pass and be replaced by the sure hope of salvation, but now do not leave it: it will ignite jealousy and drive away urges to indulgence, which are very harmful. As a result, you will have a constant cry in your heart: “Oh, Lord, save me! Oh, Lord, hurry up!” and “In the image of fate, save me, unworthy!” This is what I always call a painful fall to the Lord in the heart. The enemies are strong; both without and within, you don’t know how, storms will arise and confuse you. You fall and you're gone. So he cried out: “Oh, Lord, save me!” This is the contrite and humble heart about which the repentant prophet David says that the Lord does not humiliate him, does not despise him, but listens to him. Take this into account. As you have already seen this danger, then you should put in a little: always feel it and cry for help. This feeling of a painful fall for the Lord from the awareness of surrounding dangers that can stop the flow of spiritual life and drown it out should be a constant feeling. Notice this. Whoever has it means he walks and walks the straight path. This is the most decisive sign of this! You write: “God would grant that the current readiness for the work we are starting does not weaken longer.” Not longer, but it should never weaken. Note that this readiness, otherwise - zeal to work for the Lord, or zeal for pleasing God, or the determination to devote oneself to serving the Lord by strictly fulfilling His commandments (which is all the same thing; the words are different, but the deed is the same) - constitutes spiritual life. When there is this readiness, there is spiritual life, and when it is not there, there is no spiritual life. When she is gone, it is the same as spiritual breathing will stop and the spiritual heart will stop beating - the spirit either dies or freezes. That is why the first concern of anyone entering God’s path should be to support and fuel this readiness, zeal and zeal in every possible way. You can limit all subsequent rules to this one, i.e. take care only of this jealousy and readiness, it will teach you and will constantly teach you what to do and when to do it. Notice this! This, together with the previous painful fall to the Lord, is the root of spiritual life, its protection and fencing. You have well defined the enemy of this fundamental disposition and, therefore, the main enemy - cooling. Oh, bitter and most bitter thing! But know that not every diminishing of the heat of jealousy is a harmful cooling. It also happens due to excessive tension of mental strength, and it also happens due to loss of physical strength or ill health. Both are fine, they will pass. It is disastrous to cool down as a result of arbitrary deviation from the will of God, with consciousness and in defiance of conscience, which admonished and stopped, with an addiction to something not Divine. This kills the spirit and stops spiritual life. And for this reason, fear it most of all, fear it like fire, like death. It happens due to loss of attention to oneself and fear of God. Watch them in order to avoid that terrible evil. As for involuntary accidental coldness due to exhaustion and ill health, there is only one law for them: to endure, without violating the established pious orders in any way, although they will be carried out without any taste. Whoever endures this patiently, soon loses his coolness and returns to normal, warm, heartfelt jealousy. If you please, take this into account and from now on, firstly, do not allow jealousy to cool down arbitrarily, and secondly, in the case of accidental cooling, pull and pull the established routine, in the confidence that this dry execution of affairs will soon return the liveliness and warmth of zeal (9, pp. 147–149). When you begin to work on yourself, you will see that all external guidance and instructions are only aids. What exactly the soul needs or how best to act in this or that case, every soul must decide for itself, with the help of God’s grace, invisibly guiding it. He who sincerely desires to please the Lord and who has completely surrendered himself to Him will always find himself in the real business, but he accepts it with humility (9, p. 150). ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). You might be interested in: