Слово о поучении, или памяти Божией

By the name of teaching, or remembrance of God, the Holy Fathers mean some short prayer, or even some short Spiritual thought, to which they became accustomed and which they tried to assimilate to the mind and memory instead of any thought. Is it possible to replace all other thoughts with one spiritual, brief thought about God? - Can. The Holy Apostle Paul says: “For I judge not the things that are in you, but rather Jesus Christ, and him that was crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). A vain, earthly thought, constantly occupying a person, produces impoverishment of reason in him, prevents the acquisition of useful and necessary knowledge: on the contrary, the thought of God, having been internalized by a Christian, enriches him with spiritual intelligence. To the one who has acquired Christ within himself, by the constant remembrance of Him, Divine secrets are entrusted, unknown to carnal and spiritual people, unknown to earthly scientists, inaccessible to them: “in Him” (in Christ) “the essence of all the hidden treasures of wisdom and understanding” (Col. 2:3). He who has acquired the Lord Jesus Christ within himself becomes the owner of these treasures. Teaching, or the memory of God, is a Divine institution. It is commanded by the Word of God Himself made man, confirmed by the Holy Spirit through the messengers of the Word (the Apostles). “Be vigilant at all times when you pray” (Luke 21:36), the Lord once bequeathed to His disciples who stood before Him. He bequeaths this to us, who now stand before Him and implore Him, that He may grant us to do His will and to be His disciples, Christians not only by name, but also by residence. The Lord spoke the words given here, pointing to those moral and material disasters that will surround the earthly wandering of each of His disciples, to those sufferings and fears that precede the death of each of us, accompany it, follow it, to those temptations and sorrows that will befall the world before the coming of the Antichrist and during his reign, and finally, to the shaking and transformation of the universe during the second glorious and terrible coming of Christ. “Be vigilant, praying always, that ye may be counted worthy to flee all that will be, and stand before the Son of man” in the joy of salvation; “State” in this joy both after the private judgment that comes for each person following the separation of his soul from the body, and at the general judgment, at which the chosen will be placed at the right hand of the Judge, and the rejected at the left (Matthew 25:33). “Be sober in your prayers,” says the holy Apostle Peter, repeating the Lord’s commandment to the believers. “Be sober, be vigilant; your adversary the devil, like a lion, roars about, seeking whom he may devour; but resist him in the firmament by faith” (1 Pet. 4:7, 5:8–9). Repeating and confirming this all-holy, saving commandment, the holy Apostle Paul says: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). “Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made to God” (Phil. 4:6). “Be patient in prayer” (abide), “watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). “I want men to say prayers in every place, lifting up their holy hands, without anger or reflection” (1 Tim. 2:8). “Be cleave to the Lord” with unceasing prayer, “there is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). He who cleaves to the Lord and unites with the Lord through unceasing prayer, the Lord delivers from enslavement and service to sin and the devil: “But God,” the Savior proclaims to us, “shouldn’t he take vengeance on his chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night, and be patient for them? I tell you that he will take their vengeance quickly” (Luke 18:7–8). A sign of monastic perfection is unceasing prayer. “He who has achieved this,” says Saint Isaac the Syrian, “has reached the heights of all virtues and has become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit” 134. Practicing unceasing prayer and accustoming oneself to it is necessary for every monk who wants to achieve Christian perfection. Practicing unceasing prayer and accustoming oneself to it is the duty of every monk, entrusted to him by the commandment of God and monastic vows 135. It is obvious that the holy Apostles, who personally received from the Lord the commandment about unceasing prayer and passed it on to the believers, themselves were constantly engaged in prayer. Before receiving the Holy Spirit, they remained in the same house, engaged in prayer and supplication (Acts 1:14). The name of prayer here refers to those prayers that they performed together, and the name of prayer is the constant prayerful direction of their spirit, unceasing prayer. When the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles, he made them churches of God and made them together churches of unceasing prayer, as Scripture says: “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Isaiah 56:7). “When the Spirit dwells in any person, then that person does not cease from prayer: for the Spirit Himself prays unceasingly” 136. The apostles had only two spiritual exploits: prayer and preaching the Word of God: from prayer they moved to proclaiming the Word of God to people, from preaching the Word they returned to prayer. They were in constant spiritual conversation, either talking in prayer with God, or talking on behalf of God with people. The same Holy Spirit was active in both conversations (Acts 6:2, 4). What can we learn from the example of the holy Apostles? The one who, following obedience, active obedience to the Word of God, must concentrate all his activity in unceasing prayer, because unceasing prayer brings a Christian to a state capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. The Lord, who entrusted various ministries to the Apostles, when He made them capable of receiving the Holy Spirit, commanded them to remain “in the city of Jerusalem,” in the city of peace and silence, outside of any service: “Sit in the city of Jerusalem,” He said to them, “until you are endowed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). From the writings of the venerable monks it is clear that the memory of God, or teaching, was in common use among the monks of the primacy of the Church of Christ. The Monk Anthony the Great bequeaths the constant remembrance of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Do not consign to oblivion,” he says, “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, but constantly turn it in your mind, keep it in your heart, glorify it with your tongue, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” Also: “Lord Jesus Christ help me.” Also: “I will praise You, my Lord, Jesus Christ” 137. Not only the silent and hermits, but also communal monks were engaged in unceasing prayer. Saint John Climacus says about the monks of the Alexandria hostel he visited that they “even during the meal itself do not cease from mental endeavor, but with an agreed and customary sign and wave, the blessed ones remind each other of the prayer performed in the soul. And they do this not only at meals, but also at every meeting, at every gathering” 138. The Monk Isaac, the silent one of the Egyptian Skete, told the Monk Cassian the Roman that the second verse of Psalm 69 serves him for unceasing prayer: “God attend to my help, Lord seek my help” 139 . The Monk Dorotheos, a monk of the cenobitic monastery of Abba Serida in Palestine, taught his disciple the Monk Dositheus, it is said in the life of Dositheus, to constantly exercise in the Memory of God, commanding him to constantly say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” and: “Son of God, help me” 140. The Monk Dosifei prayed alternately with the first and second words of the prayer taught to him. It was taught to him in this form because of the new beginning of his mind, so that the mind would not become sad from the uniformity of prayer. When blessed Dositheus became seriously ill and was approaching death, his holy mentor reminded him of unceasing prayer: “Dositheus! Take care of prayer; be careful not to lose it.” When Dositheus’ illness intensified even more, Saint Dorotheus again said: “What, Dositheus? How's prayer? Does it remain? From this one can see the high concept that the ancient holy monks had about teaching. The Monk Ioannikis the Great constantly repeated the prayer in his mind: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, glory to Thee” 141. The disciple of Ioannikis the Great, the Monk Eustratius, whom the holy writer of his life called Divine, acquired unceasing prayer: “he always said “Lord have mercy” in himself,” says the writer of his life 142. A certain Father of the Raifa desert constantly sat in his cell, weaving ropes, and said with a sigh, shaking his head: “What will happen?” Having said these words and being silent for a while, he repeated again: “What will happen?” He spent all the days of his life in such teaching, constantly lamenting about what would follow after his departure from the body 143. Saint Isaac the Syrian mentions a certain Father who prayed the following prayer for forty years: “I, as a man, have sinned; You, like God, forgive me." Other Fathers heard that he studied this verse with sadness: he cried without stopping, and all prayers were replaced for him by this one prayer day and night 144. Most monastics have always used the Jesus Prayer for teaching: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Sometimes, depending on the need, they divided it into two halves for beginners and said for several hours: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner,” then over another period of time: “Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” However, one should not often change the words of the prayer: because trees, often transplanted, do not take root, as St. Gregory of Sinaite notes 145. The choice of the Jesus Prayer for teaching is very thorough, both because the name of the Lord Jesus Christ contains a special Divine power, and because when practicing the Jesus Prayer, the remembrance of death, of torture from the spirits of the air; about God's utterance of the final determination, about eternal torment, begins to come in due time by itself, and so vividly that it will lead the ascetic into abundant unceasing tears and bitter weeping for himself, as a dead man, already buried and stinking, awaiting revival from the omnipotent Word of God (John 11:39, 43–44). The benefits of teaching, or the memory of God, are innumerable: it is above words, above comprehension. And those who felt it are unable to fully explain it. Continuous prayer, as a commandment of God and a gift of God, is inexplicable by human reason and words. A short prayer gathers the mind, which, if it is not attached to teaching, said one of the Fathers, cannot stop floating and wandering everywhere 146. An ascetic can pray a short prayer in any place, at any time, during any activity, especially physical activity. Even when present at a church service, it is useful to engage in it, not only when reading is not clearly intelligible, but also when reading clearly. It helps one to listen to reading, especially when it takes root in the soul and becomes, as it were, natural to a person. Teaching in general, especially the Jesus Prayer, serves as an excellent weapon against sinful thoughts. The following saying of Saint John Climacus is repeated by many holy writers: “In the name of Jesus, defeat the opposing warriors: for neither in heaven nor on earth will you find a weapon stronger than this” 147. From unceasing prayer, the ascetic falls into spiritual poverty: learning to constantly ask for God's help, he gradually loses confidence in himself; if he does something successfully, he sees in it not his own success, but the mercy of God, for which he constantly begs God. Continuous prayer leads to the acquisition of faith: because the one who prays incessantly begins to gradually feel the presence of God. This feeling can gradually increase and intensify to the point that the eye of the mind will see God in His providence more clearly than the sensory eye sees the material objects of the world; the heart will feel the presence of God. One who has seen God in this way and felt His presence cannot help but believe in Him through living faith, manifested by works. Continuous prayer destroys wickedness through hope in God, introduces it into holy simplicity, weaning the mind from various thoughts, from forming plans for oneself and others, always keeping it in the poverty and humility of the thoughts that make up its teaching. One who prays incessantly gradually loses the habit of daydreaming, absent-mindedness, vain care and much care, and loses it all the more as the more holy and humble teaching deepens into his soul and takes root in it. Finally, he can come to the state of infancy commanded by the Gospel, become wild for the sake of Christ, that is, lose the false mind of the world and receive spiritual mind from God. Continuous prayer destroys curiosity, suspiciousness, and suspicion. This makes all people seem kind; and from such a heartfelt commitment to people, love for them is born. He who prays unceasingly abides unceasingly in the Lord, knows the Lord as the Lord, acquires the fear of the Lord, through fear he enters into purity, through purity into Divine love. The love of God fills its church with the gifts of the Spirit. The venerable Abba Isaiah the Hermit says in his teaching: “A prudent rich man hides his treasures inside his house: a treasure exposed outside is exposed to the predation of thieves and is slandered by the mighty of the earth: so a humble and virtuous monk hides his virtues, like a rich man hides his treasures, and does not fulfill the wishes of the fallen nature. He reproaches himself hourly and exercises himself in secret teaching, according to what is said in Scripture: “My heart is warmed in me, and in my teaching a fire will burn” (Ps. 39:4). What kind of fire is Scripture talking about here? About God: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). Fire melts the wax and dries up the mire of nasty impurities: in the same way, through secret teaching, bad thoughts are dried up and passions are destroyed from the soul, the mind is enlightened, thoughts are clarified and refined, joy is poured into the heart. Secret teaching hurts demons, drives away evil thoughts: it revitalizes the inner man. God strengthens the one who is armed with secret teaching; Angels teach him strength; people glorify him. Secret teaching and reading make the soul a home, closed and enclosed from everywhere, a motionless pillar, a quiet and serene haven. It saves the soul by protecting it from wavering. The demons are very confused and silent when a monk arms himself with secret teaching, which consists in the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Reading in solitude facilitates the exercise of teaching. Secret teaching is a mirror for the mind, a lamp for the conscience. Secret teaching dries up fornication, tames rage, drives away anger, takes away sadness, removes insolence, destroys despondency. Secret teaching enlightens the mind and drives away laziness. From secret teaching, tenderness is born, the fear of God is instilled in you: it brings tears. Secret teaching brings to the monk unflattering humility, complacent vigil, and untroubled prayer. Secret teaching is a prayer treasure: it drives away thoughts, wounds demons, and cleanses the body. The secret teaching teaches patience and abstinence; He announces to his communicant about Gehenna. Secret teaching keeps the mind dreamless, and brings to it contemplation of death. Secret teaching is full of all good deeds, adorned with every virtue, and is uninvolved and alien to all bad deeds” 148. Saint Isaac the Syrian: “Whoever is constantly taught by God drives away demons from himself and eradicates the seed of their malice. The heart rejoices in revelations of the one who constantly listens to his soul. He who turns the vision of his mind into himself sees in himself the dawn of the Spirit. Disgusted by all soaring (wandering, absent-mindedness), he sees the Master in the inner cage of his heart... Heaven is within you, if you are pure, and in yourself you will see the Angels with their light, and their Master with them, and within them... The treasure of the humble is within him, and it is the Lord... Passions are driven out and eradicated by the constant teaching about God: it is the sword that kills them. He who wishes to see the Lord within himself tries to purify his heart with the unceasing memory of God: in this way, with the brightness of the eyes of the mind, he will behold the Lord at every hour. What happens to a fish taken out of water happens to a mind that has come from the memory of God and wanders in the memories of the world... Terrible to demons, dear to God and His Angels is the one who, night and day, with ardent jealousy, seeks God in his heart and eradicates from it the vegetating excuses of the enemy 149. Without unceasing prayer it is impossible to get closer to God” 150. Venerable Cassian the Roman: “Praying with this small verse (the above-mentioned second verse of Psalm 69) must be constant, so that temptations do not overthrow us, so that we are preserved in prosperity from exaltation. Let the teaching in this little verse, I say, revolve in your hearts unceasingly. Do not stop repeating it, no matter what your deed, or obedience, or if you are on a journey. Learn from it when going to sleep, when eating food, and when correcting the lowest bodily needs. Such an exercise of the heart will become a saving rule for you, which will not only keep you undamaged in any attack of demons, but also, having cleansed you from all bodily passions, will lead you to invisible and heavenly visions, and will lift you to the ineffable height of prayer, known to very few from experience. This little verse will keep sleep away from you until you, having been educated by this inexplicable exercise, learn to practice it even during sleep. When you happen to wake up, he will be the first to come to your mind; when you wake up, he will prevent all other thoughts; when you rise from your bed, he will occupy you until you begin to kneel; he will guide you to every work and deed; he will follow you at all times. In it study according to the commandment of the lawgiver (i.e. Moses, the lawgiver of Israel), sitting in the house and walking along the way, going to bed and getting up from sleep; write it on the thresholds and on the doors of your mouth: write it on the walls of your house and in the inner treasures of your chest, so that when you recline, it will be a psalmody ready for you, when you get up and begin to correct everything necessary for life, convenient for departure and unceasing prayer” 151. Saint John Chrysostom: “Brothers! I beg you: do not allow yourself to ever stop performing the rule of this prayer, or to despise it... Whether a monk eats food or drink, sits, or serves, travels, or does anything else, he must constantly cry out: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” So that the name of the Lord Jesus, descending into the depths of the heart, humbles the serpent, which has the pastures of the heart, and saves and enlivens the soul. Abide continually in the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart of the Lord and the Lord may consume the heart, and may these two be one” 152 . The brother asked the Monk Philemon: “What does this mean, Father, hidden teaching?” The elder answered: “Go, be sober in your heart and say in your thoughts soberly, with fear and trembling: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” 153 Why is unceasing prayer or unceasing remembrance of God called teaching? – Because the ascetics, upon whose work the dew of Divine grace descended, found in the short prayer they repeated a spiritual, deepest, inexhaustible meaning, which constantly attracted and aggravated their attention with its spiritual novelty. And for them a short verse became the most extensive science, the science of sciences, and their occupation in the precise sense of teaching. Such are the instructions of the Holy Fathers: such was their doing. Not only all their deeds and words, but all their thoughts were dedicated to God. This is the reason for the abundance of the gifts of the Spirit in them. On the contrary, we are careless about our affairs; We do not act as God’s commandments command, but as it happens, according to the first attraction of the senses, according to the first thought that presents itself. We are even more careless about words than about deeds, and we do not pay any attention to thoughts; they are scattered everywhere, they are all sacrificed by us to vanity. Our mind, in contrast to the state of the mind, fenced off by teaching 154, is like a four-gate church, with all the doors open, in which there are no guards, into which anyone can enter and leave, bringing in and taking out whatever they want. Brethren! Let us cease from such inattentive and fruitless living. Let us imitate the work of the Holy Fathers, and among other works, the remembrance of God, in which they constantly kept their minds. Young man! Sow with diligence the seeds of virtues, accustom yourself with patience and forcing yourself to all God-loving exercises and deeds, accustom yourself to the memory of God, enclose your mind in holy teaching. If you see that he constantly slips away into extraneous and vain thoughts: do not become despondent. Continue the feat with constancy: “Try to return,” says Saint John Climacus, “or, more correctly, to conclude the thought in the words of prayer. If in infancy it is expelled (from the conclusion in the words of prayer), introduce it again (into them). It is characterized by inconsistency (mobility); but He who orders everything can give him standing. If you constantly continue in this feat, then the One who sets the boundaries of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200byour mind will come in you and say to him in your prayer: “You will come to this and will not pass” (Job 38:11) 155. Teaching on the surface seems like a strange, dry, boring activity, but in essence it is a most fruitful activity, a most precious church tradition, an institution of God, a spiritual treasure, the heritage of the Apostles and Holy Fathers, who received it and handed it over to us at the behest of the Holy Spirit. You cannot imagine the riches that you will become an heir to in due time, having acquired the skill of constantly remembering God. On the mind and heart of the novice, “not the things God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9) not only in the next century, but also in this life (Mark 10:30), in which they anticipate the bliss of the future century. “Prepare,” said Saint John of the Climacus, “with unceasing prayer, performed in the secret of your soul, for prayer, and you will soon succeed” 156. In due time, the teaching will take over your entire existence, you will become as if intoxicated by it, as if belonging to this world and at the same time not belonging to it, alien to it: belonging to the body, not belonging to the mind and heart. Intoxicated with sensual wine, he does not remember himself, forgets grief, forgets his dignity, his nobility and wealth: and intoxicated with Divine teaching, he becomes cold, insensitive to earthly lusts, to earthly glory, to all earthly benefits and advantages. His thought is unceasingly with Christ, who through teaching acts as a sacred fragrance: “I smell like the stink of death into death; I smell like the stink of animals into the belly” (2 Cor. 2:16). Teaching kills in a person sympathy for the world and passions, revives in him sympathy for God, for everything spiritual and holy, for blissful eternity. “What do we have in heaven?” - cries, intoxicated with teaching. Nothing. - “And what did You want from the earth?” Only so that I can continually cleave to You in silent prayer. Some desire wealth, others desire glory, but I desire to “cleave to my God and place the trust of my dispassion in Him” (Ps. 72:25, 28) 157. The words of teaching should initially be pronounced in the tongue, in a very quiet voice, slowly, with all possible attention, enclosing, according to the above advice of St. John Climacus, the mind in the words of teaching. Little by little, oral prayer will turn into mental, and then into heartfelt. But this transition takes many years. One should not seek it prematurely; let it happen by itself, or more correctly, let God grant it at a time known to Him, depending on the spiritual age and circumstances of the ascetic. The humble ascetic is content with the fact that he is honored to remember God. And he already considers this a great benefit of the Creator for the poor and weak creature - man. He recognizes himself as unworthy of grace, does not seek to reveal its actions in himself, learning from the teaching of the Holy Fathers that such a search begins with vanity, which leads to delusion and fall, that this search itself is already seduction, because with an all-powerful search, the receipt of grace depends solely on God 158. He longs to discover his sinfulness within himself and acquire the ability to cry about it. He submits himself to the will of the all-good and most merciful God, who knows to whom it is useful to bestow grace, and for whom it is useful to withhold its coming. Many, having received grace, fell into negligence, arrogance and arrogance; The grace given to them served, due to their foolishness, only to their greater condemnation. Blessed is the guarantee of the heart in a monk, according to which he, practicing in any feat, exercises completely unselfishly, hungers and thirsts solely to fulfill the will of God, and betrays himself with all faith and simplicity, with the rejection of his understanding, power, will, to the control of the merciful Lord our God, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the mind of truth. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. A breviary or a special book containing the rite of tonsure into the minor schema. The abbot, handing the newly tonsured rosary, bequeaths to him the unceasing Jesus Prayer. By accepting the rosary, the newly tonsured vows to fulfill the will of the abbot. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 21. Antonii Magni Opera. Patrologiae Graecae. The Life of the Venerable Dositheus in the book of the Venerable Abba Dorotheos, also in the Chetyi-Minaia of February 19. Canon, Prayers for the future sleep. Also the life of the Venerable. Written patericon from the library of Bishop Ignatius. 15 chapters on silence, chapter 2. Kindness, part 1. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 72. Alphabetical Patericon of Skitsky, letter N. Cassiani callatio X, cap. X. Dobrot., part 2. Ksanfopulov ch. 21. About Abba Philemon. Dobrot., part 4. See above about the teaching of the Monk Isaiah the Hermit, who likens the soul, fenced in by teaching, to a house that is closed and imprisoned from everywhere. Word 28, ch. 17. On standing and ever-moving mind, see the chapters of St. Callistus Katafighiot. Kindness, h, 4. Ladder. Word 28, ch. 25. Venerable Isaac the Syrian. Word 55. You might be interested in: