Слово о молитве умной, сердечной и душевной

Whoever with constancy and reverence engages in attentive prayer, pronouncing its words loudly or in a whisper, depending on the need, and enclosing the mind in words, who, during the feat of prayer, constantly rejects all thoughts and dreams, not only sinful and vain, but apparently also good, the merciful Lord will grant in due time mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer. Brother! It is not good for you to receive heartfelt, grace-filled prayer prematurely! A premature feeling of spiritual sweetness is not good for you! Having received them prematurely, without acquiring preliminary information, with what reverence and with what caution the gift of God's grace should be preserved, you can use this gift for evil, to the harm and destruction of your soul 159. Moreover, it is impossible to reveal grace-filled, mental and heartfelt prayer within oneself through one’s own efforts: because uniting the mind with the heart and soul, separated in us by the fall, belongs to one God. If we force ourselves recklessly and seek to discover through our own effort those gifts that are bestowed only by God, then we will endure futile labor. And it would be good if the harm was limited to loss of work and time! Often proud seekers of states characteristic of renewed human nature are subjected to the greatest spiritual calamity, which the Holy Fathers call delusion. This is logical: the most basic point from which they begin their action is false. How can a false beginning not result in false consequences? Such consequences, called prelest, have different types and degrees. Charm is mostly hidden, and sometimes it is obvious, often puts a person in a state of frustration, at the same time funny and the most pitiful, often leading to suicide and the final destruction of the soul 160. But delusion, understandable to many in its obvious consequences, must be studied and comprehended at its very beginning: in false thought, which serves as the basis for all delusions and disastrous states of mind. In the false thought of the mind, the entire building of delight already exists, just as in a grain there exists the plant that should come from it after it is planted in the ground. Saint Isaac the Syrian said: “The Scripture says: “The kingdom of God will not come with observance” (Luke 17:20) of expectation. Those who labored with such spiritual assurance were subject to pride and fall. But we will set our hearts in works of repentance and in living a life pleasing to God. The gifts of the Lord come by themselves if the church of the heart is clean and not defiled. To seek with observation, I say, the highest gifts of God, is rejected by the Church of God. Those who attempted this suffered pride and fall. This is not a sign that anyone loves God, but an illness of the soul. And how can we strive for God’s high gifts, when the Divine Paul boasts in his sorrows and recognizes fellowship in the sufferings of Christ as the highest gift of God!” 161 In your prayerful feat, rely completely on God, without Whom even the slightest success is impossible. Every step towards success in this feat is a gift from God. Deny yourself and surrender to God, let him do with you what he wants. But He, the All-Good One, wants to give you something that “has not entered our minds or hearts” (1 Cor. 2:9): He wants to bestow such blessings as our mind and heart, in their fallen state, cannot even imagine. It is impossible, impossible for one who has not acquired purity to obtain the slightest understanding of the spiritual gifts of God, either through imagination or through comparison with the most pleasant spiritual sensations known to man! With simplicity and faith, cast your care on God. Do not listen to the idea of ​​the evil one, who even in paradise said to our forefathers: “You will be like gods” (Gen. 3:5). Now he offers you a timeless and proud desire to acquire the spiritual gifts of heartfelt prayer, which, I repeat, are given by God alone, who has determined his time and his place. This place is the entire vessel, both mental and physical, cleansed of passions. Let us take care to free the church - soul and body - from idols, from sacrifices to idols, from things sacrificed to idols, from everything that belongs to idolatry. Just as the holy prophet Elijah brought all the priests and prophets of Baal to the stream of Kiss and there put them to death, so we will plunge into the cry of repentance, and on this blessed stream we will kill all the principles that force our heart to make sacrifices to sin, all the justifications that justify and excuse such a sacrifice. Let us wash the altar and everything that surrounds it with tears: we will double, triple the washing: because spiritual impurity requires copious tears to wash itself. Let the altar be built from stones in the name of the Lord - from sensations borrowed solely from the Gospel; let there be no place here for the feelings of the old man, no matter how innocent and graceful they may seem (1 Kings 18). Then the great God will bring down His all-holy fire into our hearts and make our hearts a church of grace-filled prayer, as He spoke with His Divine lips: “My church will be called the church of prayer” (Matthew 21:13). First, let us pay attention to bodily passions, to the consumption of food and to our prodigal aspirations, which are most dependent on excess in this consumption. Let us try to wisely arrange the condition of our flesh, giving it so much food and sleep that it does not become unnecessarily exhausted and remains capable of exploits. Giving them so little that she constantly carries deadness within herself, not coming to life for sinful movements. According to the Fathers, when eating and sleeping, the skill you have done matters a lot: why it is very useful to accustom yourself in advance to moderate, small, if possible, consumption of them 162. Saint Isaac the Syrian expressed himself this way about fasting and vigil: “Whoever loves communication with these two virtues throughout his entire life will become a confidant of chastity. Just as the beginning of all evils is the satisfaction of the belly and the relaxation of oneself by sleep, which kindle lustful passion, so God’s holy path and the foundation of all virtues is fasting and vigil, and wakefulness in the service of God during the crucifixion of the body throughout the whole night by depriving it of the sweetness of sleep. Fasting is the protection of all virtue, the beginning of asceticism, the crown of abstinence, the beauty of virginity and sanctification, the lordship of chastity, the beginning of the Christian path, the mother of prayer, the source of chastity and reason, the teacher of silence. He precedes all good deeds. Just as the desire for light follows the health of the eyes, so fasting done with reason will be followed by the desire for prayer. When someone begins to fast, then from fasting he comes to the desire to have a conversation with God in his mind. The body of a fasting person does not tolerate spending the whole night in bed. When the seal of fasting is placed on a person’s lips, then his thoughts are filled with tenderness, his heart exudes prayer, his face is clothed with lamentation, and shameful thoughts are far removed from him. Fun is not seen in his eyes, he is an enemy of whims and empty conversations. It has never been seen that someone fasting with reason was enslaved by an evil desire. Fasting with reasoning is the great church of all virtues. He who does not care about him does not leave a single virtue unshaken. Fasting is a commandment given to our nature from the very beginning to protect it when eating food; from the violation of fasting, the created beginning of our existence fell. From where the destruction came, from there the ascetics begin to march back to the fear of God, when they begin to keep the law of God” 163. One who indulges in excessive sleep and gluttony cannot help but become defiled by voluptuous movements. As long as the soul and body are agitated by these movements, as long as the mind delights in carnal thoughts, a person is incapable of new and unknown movements that are aroused in him from the overshadowing of him by the Holy Spirit. As much as fasting is needed for someone who wants to engage in and succeed in mental prayer, so much does he need silence or extreme solitude - generally possible withdrawal from wandering. While living in a monastery, leave the monastery as rarely as possible; when absent from the monastery, return to the monastery as soon as possible; When visiting a city or village, guard your feelings with all care, so as not to see or hear anything harmful to your soul, so as not to receive an unexpected and unforeseen fatal wound. In the monastery, know the church, the meal and your cell; Go to the cells of other brothers only for a good reason; if possible, do not go at all; visit the cell of your mentor and spiritual father, if you are so happy that in our times you have found a mentor; and then visit in a timely manner and as required by need, and not out of despondency or for idle talk. Accustom yourself to silence so that you can remain silent among people. Speak as little as possible, and then only when absolutely necessary. It is hard for one accustomed to absent-mindedness to endure the misery of silence; but anyone who wants to be saved and succeed in spiritual life must certainly subject himself to this suffering and accustom himself to solitude and silence. After short-term labor, silence and solitude will become desirable because of the fruits that the soul of a prudent silent person will not be slow to taste. The Venerable Arseny the Great, being in the world, prayed to God that God would instruct him how to be saved, and heard a voice proclaiming to him: “Arseny! Run from people and you will be saved.” When the Saint entered the Egyptian monastery, where monks of great holiness lived, he again prayed to God: “Teach me to be saved,” and heard a voice: “Arseny! Run, be silent, be silent: these are the roots of sinlessness.” Saint Isaac the Syrian says about Saint Arsenius the Great: “Silence helps silence. How is this? Living in a crowded monastery, it is impossible for us not to meet someone. Even the equal-angel Arseny, who loved silence more than others, could not avoid this. It is impossible not to meet with the fathers and brothers living with us; This meeting happens unexpectedly: and at the time when someone goes to church, or to some other place. When this venerable man (Reverend Arseny) saw all this, and that it was impossible for him, as someone living near a human settlement (although he lived in an Egyptian monastery filled with perfect monks), to avoid, for the most part, getting close to the worldly people and monks who lived in those places, then he learned from grace this method - constant silence. If, out of necessity, he opened the door of his cell for some, then they were consoled only by the sight of him - the conversation and its need remained unnecessary” 164. The same Saint Isaac says: “Love silence most of all: it brings you closer to fruit. Language is insufficient to express the benefits that are born from silence. First, let us force ourselves to silence: then from silence something is born in us that instructs us in the silence that gave birth to it. May God grant you to feel something born of silence. If you begin to live this life, I cannot even say what kind of light will shine for you from here. Don’t think, brother, that the wondrous Arseny, as they say about him, that when the fathers and brethren who came to see him came to him, he accepted them in silence and let them go in silence - he did so only because he wanted to. He did this because he first forced himself to do it. A certain sweetness is born over time in the heart from learning to do this, and with compulsion instructs the body to remain in silence. In this residence many tears and a wondrous vision are born to us” 165. Saint Isaac in the 75th word says: “For a long time, having been tempted by the gums and the lips, having tempted myself many times with the following two ways of living, having received countless ulcers from the enemy (the devil), having been granted great mystical intercessions, I, admonished by the grace of God, acquired through many years and experiences the experienced knowledge that follows. The foundation of all virtues, the calling of the soul from the captivity of the enemy, the path leading to Divine light and life, lies in these two ways of living: in gathering oneself into oneself in one place, and incessantly fasting. This means: to establish for yourself wisely and reasonably the rule of abstinence in a permanent, never-ending home, with constant exercise and teaching about God. From here comes the submissiveness of feelings, from here the sobriety of the mind, from here the taming of the fierce passions moving in the body, from here the meekness of thoughts, from here the movement of bright thoughts, from here the diligence in doing virtues, from here high and subtle understandings, from here immeasurable tears at all times and the remembrance of death, from here that pure chastity, which is separated from any daydreaming that tempts the mind; hence the quickness of vision and the sharpness of understanding those far away (i.e. good and evil, which can be distant consequences of any activity); hence the deepest mysterious understandings that the mind comprehends by the power of God’s Word, and the internal movements that arise in the soul, and the discrimination and reasoning of spirits from holy powers, and true visions from vain dreams; hence the fear of paths and the path in the sea of ​​thought, cutting off carelessness and negligence, hence the flame of jealousy, trampling on every misfortune, elevating above all fear - that ardor that despises all lust and destroys it from thought, produces oblivion of every memory of what is transitory and of everything that belongs to this world and age. In short, hence the freedom of a true person, the joy and resurrection of the soul, its rest with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven. If anyone neglects these two ways of living, let him know that he has not only deprived himself of all the above, but also shakes the foundation of all virtues with contempt for these two virtues. Just as these two virtues are the beginning and head of Divine work in the soul, the door and path to Christ, if someone keeps them and endures in them, so, on the contrary, if someone leaves them and retreats from them, he comes to two opposite ways of living, that is, to bodily wandering and to shameless gluttony. This is the beginning of the opposite of what was said above, and they create a place in the soul for passions.” “The first of these principles first of all releases the feelings that have already come into obedience from the bonds by which they were held. What can be done from this? Hence the inappropriate and unexpected adventures, close to falls, 166 the uprising of strong waves, the fierce liquefaction excited by sight, taking possession of the body and containing it in its power, convenient inclinations in the (accepted pious) way of thinking, uncontrollable thoughts leading to a fall, cooling of warmth for the works of God and gradual exhaustion in the love of silence; finally, the complete abandonment of the begun way of life, the renewal of forgotten evils and the learning of new, hitherto unknown, due to the incessant new encounters that involuntarily and diversely appear to the eye when moving from country to country, from place to another place. Passions, already mortified in the soul by the grace of God and destroyed in the mind by oblivion of the memory of them, again begin to move and force the soul to do them. This is what—I don’t count everything else in detail—is revealed (in monastic life) from the first beginning, that is, from the wandering of the body, after the rejection of patient suffering in silence. What happens from another beginning, that is, when the work of pigs begins? What is the work of pigs, if not leaving the belly without a charter for him, if not incessantly feeding him, without a specific time to satisfy his needs, in contrast to the custom of words? What will happen next? Heaviness of the head, significant heaviness of the body with weakening of the shoulders. This makes it necessary to omit oneself in the service of God, such as laziness, which does not allow bowing during the prayer rule, negligence about the usual genuflections, darkness and coldness of thought, dullness of mind, lack of judgment due to indignation and special darkness of thoughts, a thick and thick darkness spread over the entire soul, abundant despondency in every work of God, as well as in reading, according to due to the inability to taste the sweetness of the Word of God, abandonment of the most necessary exercises; an uncontrollable mind soaring throughout the earth; accumulation of abundant moisture in all members, unclean dreams at night, presenting nasty and obscene images of the soul, filled with lust, and fulfilling their unclean desire in the soul itself. This accursed man’s bed, his robes and his very body are desecrated by a multitude of shameful acts, draining from him as from a source. And this happens to him not only at night, but also during the day; the body constantly excretes impurities and defiles the thought, so that a person, due to such circumstances, is deprived of the hope of maintaining chastity, for the sweetness of the contortions acts throughout his whole body with incessant and unbearable dilution, and seductive mental images are formed in front of him, depicting beauty before him, irritating him at all times, and inclining the mind to combine with itself (with these mental images of beauty). Without a doubt, he is combined with them by thinking about them and lust for them, due to the darkening of his judgment. This is what the Prophet said: “This is the reward of your sister Sodom, who enjoyed eating bread until she was full,” and so on. (Ezek. 16:49) 167. But the following was also said by some of the great sages: “If anyone feeds his body, giving it pleasure, he plunges his soul into great warfare. Even if such a person comes to his senses and wants to force himself and restrain himself, he will not be able to do this because of the excessive intensification of bodily movements, because of the violence and power of irritations and seductions that captivate the soul with their lusts.” Do you see the subtlety of ungodly forces here? Again the same one says: “The pleasure of the body, with its youthful softness and moisture, becomes the reason for the soul’s rapid acquisition of passions, death embraces it, and thus it falls under the judgment of God. On the contrary, the soul, constantly learning to remember its duties, rests in its freedom, its cares are diminished, it does not care about anything (temporary), it cares about virtue, curbing passions and preserving virtues, it is gradually in prosperity, in carefree joy, in a good life and a comfortable haven. Bodily pleasure not only strengthens passions and restores them to the soul, but even eradicates it from its foundations. At the same time, the belly is kindled by it to intemperance and to prodigal, disorderly sensations. It encourages untimely consumption of food. The one he advocates does not want to suffer a little hunger in order to gain control of himself, because he is a prisoner of passions.” All the Holy Fathers reason in a similar way, whom we do not cite here so as not to spread the Word too much. Having protected our life from the outside by abstaining from excess and pleasure when consuming food and drink, having protected it by solitude that depends on us, that is, a hopeless stay in the monastery and avoidance of acquaintance outside and inside the monastery, let us turn our attention to spiritual passions. Let us first of all, according to the commandment of the Lord, pay attention to anger (Matthew 5:22), which has its basis in pride 168. Let us forgive our fathers and brothers, those near and far, living and departed, all the insults and insults they inflicted on us, no matter how grave these insults may be. The Lord commanded us: “When you stand praying, forgive whatever you have against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will forgive you your sins. If you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25-26). First of all, pray for your enemies and bless them (Matthew 5:44), as instruments of Divine providence, with which you were rewarded for your sins during your short earthly life, in order to save you from the reward you deserve in eternity with the torments of hell. When you do this, when you love your enemies and pray for them that all blessings, temporal and eternal, will be granted to them, then only God will come to your aid, and you will trample all your adversaries with your prayer, you will enter with your mind the church of your heart to worship the Father in Spirit and Truth (John 4:24). But if you allow your heart to be hardened by remembrance of malice and justify your anger with your pride, then the Lord your God will turn away from you, and you will be given over to be trampled under the feet of Satan. He will trample you with all his bad thoughts and feelings, you will not be able to resist him 169. If the Lord deigns to place kindness, love, non-judgment of your neighbors, and merciful apology for them as the basis of your prayerful deed, then with particular ease and speed you will defeat your opponents and you will achieve pure prayer. Know that all passions and all fallen spirits are in close affinity and union with each other. This affinity, this union is a sin. If you have submitted to one passion, then through the submission of this one passion you have submitted to all other passions. If you have allowed yourself to be captivated by one spirit of malice, by conversing with the thoughts it puts in and being carried away by these thoughts or dreams, then you have entered into slavery to all spirits. After your victory, they will hand you over to each other as a captive 170. The Holy Fathers teach this, experience itself teaches this. Pay attention to yourself, and you will see that, having allowed yourself to be defeated in something voluntarily, you will be defeated involuntarily in something completely different, in which you did not want to give up victory; until you restore your freedom through thorough repentance. Having laid the basis for the feat of prayer on freedom from anger, love and mercy towards others, commanded by the Gospel, with decisiveness rejecting all conversation with thoughts and all daydreaming. To meet all your thoughts and dreams, say: “I have completely surrendered myself to the will of my God, and therefore there is no need for me to rant, assume, predict, for “The Lord is near.” “Do not worry about anything,” the Holy Spirit instructs me, together with all true believers in Christ, “but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made to God” (Phil. 4:5-6). “Be sober,” that is, reject satiety and pleasure, reject deceptive thoughts and dreams, “and be sober in prayer, casting all your care upon God, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 4:7, 5:7). “I want men to say their prayers,” that is, Christians who have perfected themselves in the feat of prayer, “in every place, raising their holy hands,” with their minds and hearts cleansed of passions, filled with humility and love, “without anger and reflection,” that is, being alien to any malice towards their neighbor, alien to the addition of thoughts and the pleasure of dreams ( 1 Tim. 2:8). Hate “every way of unrighteousness,” and you will be guided “to all the commandments of the Lord” (Ps. 119:128). The path of untruth is conversation with thoughts and daydreaming. He who has rejected this conversation and dreaming can inherit all the commandments of God, can accomplish the will of God in the midst of his heart (Ps. 39:9), constantly clinging to the Lord in prayer, inspiring his prayer with humility and love. “Lovers of the Lord! you hate evil” (Ps. 97:10), the Holy Spirit admonishes us. The person doing the prayer needs to know and see the effect of passions and spirits on his blood. It is not without reason that the Holy Scripture says that not only “flesh”, but “even blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). Not only the gross carnal sensations of the old man, but also more subtle sensations, sometimes very subtle, coming from the movement of blood, are rejected by God. All the more, this subject needs the attention of the ascetic, since the subtle effect of passions and spirits on the blood only becomes clear when the heart feels the action of the Holy Spirit within itself. Sensation is explained by sensation. Having acquired a spiritual sensation, the ascetic suddenly sees with all clarity the effect of blood on the soul, sees how passions and spirits, acting through the blood in the most subtle way on the soul, keep the soul enslaved within themselves. Then he will understand and be convinced that every effect of blood on the soul, not only gross, but also refined, is abominable before God, constitutes a sacrifice, defiled by sin, unworthy to be placed in the spiritual realm, unworthy to be numbered among spiritual actions and sensations. Until the manifestation of the actions of the Spirit in the heart, the subtle action of the blood remains either completely incomprehensible or poorly understood, and may even be recognized as an action of grace if due caution is not taken. This precaution consists in not recognizing any heartfelt feeling as correct until the time of cleansing and renewal by the Spirit, except the feeling of repentance, saving sorrow for sins, dissolved by the hope of pardon. From a fallen nature, God accepts only one sacrifice of the heart, one feeling of the heart, one state of the heart: “A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19). The effect of blood on the soul is quite obvious when the passion of anger and thoughts of anger act on the blood, especially in people prone to anger. What a frenzy a person inflamed with anger goes into! He is deprived of all power over himself, enters into the power of passion, into the power of spirits who thirst for his destruction and want to destroy him, using himself as an instrument of atrocity; he speaks and acts as if he has no reason. The effect of blood on the soul is also obvious when the blood is inflamed by the passion of prodigal passion. The effect of other passions on the blood is less obvious, but it exists. What is sadness? What is despondency? What is laziness? These are various actions on the blood of various sinful thoughts. The love of money and greed certainly have an influence on the blood: the pleasure that dreams of enrichment produce on a person, what else but the seductive, deceptive, sinful play of blood? The spirits of evil, vigilantly and insatiably thirsting for human destruction, act on us not only with thoughts and dreams, but also with various touches, touching our flesh, our blood, our heart, our mind, trying by all means and ways to pour their poison into us 171. We need caution, we need vigilance, we need clear and detailed knowledge of the mental path leading to God. There are many thieves, robbers, and murderers on this path. At the sight of countless dangers, we will cry before our Lord, and we will beg Him with constant weeping, so that He Himself will guide us along the narrow and regrettable path leading to life. Various inflammations of the blood from the action of various demonic thoughts and dreams constitute the fiery weapon that was given during our fall to the fallen cherub, with which he rotates inside us, preventing us from entering God's mysterious paradise of spiritual thoughts and sensations 172 . Particular attention should be paid to the effect of vanity in us, the effect of which on the blood is very difficult to see and understand. Vanity almost always acts together with refined voluptuousness and gives a person the most subtle sinful pleasure. The poison of this pleasure is so subtle that many recognize the pleasure of vanity and voluptuousness as a consolation of conscience, even as an effect of Divine grace. The ascetic, seduced by this pleasure, little by little comes into a state of self-delusion, recognizing self-delusion as a state of grace, he gradually comes into the full power of a fallen angel, constantly taking the form of a bright Angel, and becomes an instrument, an apostle of rejected spirits. Entire books have been written from this state, praised by the blind world and read with pleasure and admiration by people who have not purified themselves of passions. This supposed spiritual pleasure is nothing other than the pleasure of refined vanity, arrogance and voluptuousness. Pleasure is not the lot of the sinner: his lot is crying and repentance. Vanity corrupts the soul in the same way as lustful passion corrupts the soul and body. Vanity makes the soul incapable of spiritual movements, which then begin when the movements of spiritual passions become silent, being stopped by humility. That is why the Holy Fathers offer as a common practice to all monks, especially those engaged in prayer and wishing to succeed in it, holy repentance, which acts directly against vanity, bringing spiritual poverty to the soul. Already with significant exercise in repentance, the effect of vanity on the soul is discerned, very similar to the effect of fornication. Prodigal passion teaches one to strive for impermissible copulation with foreign flesh, and in those who obey it, even with the mere pleasure of unclean thoughts and dreams, it changes all the feelings of the heart, changes the structure of the soul and body; vanity leads to the unlawful participation in human glory, and, touching the heart, sets the blood into a discordant sweet movement - with this movement it changes the entire dissolution (disposition) of a person, introducing into him a connection with the stout and gloomy spirit of the world, and thus alienating him from the Spirit of God. Vanity in relation to true glory is fornication. “It,” says Saint Isaac the Syrian, “looks at the nature of things with a lustful vision” 173. How much it darkens a person, how much it makes it difficult for him to approach and assimilate to God, the Savior testified to this: “How can you believe,” He said to the vain Pharisees, who sought praise and approval from each other, and from a blind human society, “receiving glory from one another, and do you not seek glory other than from the one God?” (John 5:44). The so-called proud zeal for the premature search for what comes in due time by the Venerable John Climacus and Nilus of Sora 174 can be infallibly attributed to the passion of vanity with the indispensable assistance of blood; the blood is heated and set in motion by vainglorious thoughts, and vanity, on the contrary, grows and multiplies seductive dreams and pompous opinions about oneself, called by the Apostle the confusion of the carnal mind, which rages without mind (Col. 2:18). From all of the above, one can discern the time appropriate for mental, heartfelt prayer. To engage in it, a mature age is appropriate, at which the impulses in a person are naturally tamed. Youth is not rejected when it has the quality of maturity, especially when it has a leader. But for maturity, the number of years from birth, or from entering a monastery, is not enough; maturity should most flow from a long preliminary examination of oneself, consideration not arbitrary, but about the Lord Jesus Christ, in the light of the Gospel, in which the new man and all the shades of the ailments of the old are depicted - when studying the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Eastern Church, who instruct us to use the light of the Gospel infallibly. The more a person delves into himself, the more he knows himself, the more he knows his passions, their varied action, means of struggle, his weakness, the more he tries to destroy in himself the sinful properties instilled by the fall, and acquire the properties indicated by the Gospel, the stronger the foundation for the building of prayer will be. There should be no rush when drawing out the foundation; on the contrary, care must be taken that it has satisfactory depth and hardness. It is not enough to study the passions with their multi-braided branches by reading the books of the fathers; one must read them in the living book of the soul and acquire experimental knowledge about them. It is obvious that many years are needed for such an exercise to be fruitful, especially in our time, when it is rare to easily receive any spiritual knowledge from a person, when one must search in books for each such knowledge, and then see in the books the order, the gradualness of spiritual knowledge, deeds, states. Those who did not care enough about the strength of the foundation saw in their building many shortcomings and inconveniences, significant cracks and other damage, and often they saw the sad destruction of the building itself. Brethren! Let's not rush; according to the advice of the Gospel (Luke 6:48), we will excavate, deepen, and lay hard, heavy stones as the foundation. Digging and deepening are a detailed study of the heart, and solid stones are skills approved by long time and practice in the Gospel commandments. When the ascetic of Christ, by his strength, dominates the movements of the blood and weakens its effect on the soul: then spiritual movements will begin to arise little by little in the soul, subtle Divine understandings will begin to appear to the mind, attracting it to consider them and distracting it from wandering everywhere, concentrating 175 in itself; the heart will begin to sympathize with the mind with abundant tenderness. From spiritual actions, the effects of blood on the soul are finally weakened: the blood enters into the administration of its natural service in the bodily composition, ceasing to serve, outside of its natural purpose, as an instrument of sin and demons. The Holy Spirit warms a person spiritually, simultaneously watering and cooling the soul, hitherto familiar only with various heated blood 176 . When the mental Sun of Truth appears, the mental beasts retreat to their lairs, and the ascetic sets out from the darkness and captivity in which sin and fallen spirits held him, to spiritual work and success until the evening of earthly life, until he enters eternal, non-evening life (Ps. 103:22–23). From the blessed action of the Holy Spirit in a person, at first an unusual silence begins to breathe in him, a deadness appears to the world, to the enjoyment of its vanity and sinfulness, to services in the midst of it. A Christian is reconciled to everything and everyone through a strange, humble and at the same time high spiritual reasoning, unknown and inaccessible to the carnal and spiritual state. He begins to feel compassion for all humanity and for each person in particular. Compassion turns into love. Then his attention begins to deepen when he prays: the words of prayer begin to make a strong, unusual impression on the soul, to shake it. Finally, little by little the heart and the whole soul will move into union with the mind, and after the soul the body itself will be drawn into this union. This prayer is called Smart when pronounced with the mind with deep attention, with the sympathy of the heart; Heartfelt, when pronounced by the mind and heart united, and the mind, as it were, descends into the heart and sends up a prayer from the depths of the heart; Soulful, when it is done with the whole soul, with the participation of the body itself, when it is done from the whole being, and the whole being is made as if by a single mouth saying a prayer. The Holy Fathers in their Scriptures often include both heartfelt and spiritual prayer under the same name of mental prayer, and sometimes distinguish between them. Thus, St. Gregory of Sinai said: “Ceaselessly call mentally or spiritually.” But now, when the teaching from living mouths on this subject has become extremely diminished, it is very useful to know the definitive difference. In others, mental prayer is more effective, in others it is heartfelt, and in others it is spiritual, depending on how each is endowed by the Distributor of all benefits, both natural and grace-filled 177; sometimes in one and the same ascetic one prayer or another is active. Such prayer is very often and for the most part accompanied by tears. A person then partially knows what blissful dispassion means. He begins to feel purity, and from purity there is a living fear of God, consuming the plumpness of the flesh with a strange horror hitherto unknown to man, from a clear sense of his standing before God, as before God. A Christian enters into a new life and a new feat, corresponding to his renewed state of mind: the old milk for nourishment is no longer there. All his deeds flow together into blissful, unceasing repentance. He who understands, let him understand: the most necessary, the most soul-saving, the greatest importance information for a true worker has been said, although the words are simple. This state was depicted by the Great Pimen in his answer to the question, how should an attentive silent person behave? The Great One answered: “Like a man who is sunk in mud up to his neck, who has a burden on his neck, and cries out to God: have mercy on me.” 178 Deep weeping, the weeping of the human spirit, moved to weeping by the Spirit of God, is an integral companion of heartfelt prayer; spiritual prayer is accompanied by a spiritual feeling of the fear of God, reverence and tenderness. In perfect Christians, both of these feelings turn into love. But these sensations also belong to the category of blessed ones. They are gifts of God, given in their own time, alien even to the comprehension of the one who strives in their area, even if he struggles correctly. Heartfelt prayer is most effective when praying in the name of the Lord Jesus; those who have received heartfelt prayer pray with spiritual prayer when they engage in prayer and psalmody. Mental, heartfelt, spiritual prayer is commanded to man by God in both the Old and New Testaments. “You shall love the Lord your God,” God commands, “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the first commandment" (Mk. 12:30. Deut. 6:5). It is obvious that the fulfillment of the greatest, most sublime commandment of all commandments cannot be achieved otherwise than by mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer, by which the one praying is separated from all creation, and with his whole being, rushes to God. Being in this aspiration towards God, the person praying suddenly unites with himself and sees himself healed by the touch of the finger of God. The mind, heart, soul, body, hitherto cut by sin, suddenly unite into one in the Lord. Since the union took place in the Lord, was produced by the Lord, it is both the union of man with himself and his union with the Lord. The union, or together with the union, will be followed by the manifestation of spiritual gifts. More correctly: connection is a gift of the Spirit. The first of the spiritual gifts, which produces a wonderful union, is the peace of Christ 179. The peace of Christ will be followed by the whole face of the gifts of Christ and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which the Apostle numbers as follows: “love, joy, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). The prayer of one healed, united, reconciled within himself and with himself, is alien to the thoughts and dreams of demons. The fiery weapon of the fallen cherub ceases to act: the blood, held by the power from Above, ceases to boil and worry. This sea becomes motionless, the breath of the winds - the thoughts and dreams of demons - no longer affect it. Prayer that is alien to thoughts and dreams is called pure 180, non-vapor. An ascetic who has achieved pure prayer begins to devote a lot of time to practicing it, often without noticing it. His whole life, all his activities turn into prayer. The quality of prayer, the Fathers said, certainly leads to quantity. Prayer, having declared a person, gradually changes him, makes him spiritual from union with the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle says: “Be cleave to the Lord; you are one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). The mysteries of Christianity are revealed to the confidant of the Spirit. The gracious peace of Christ, by which the ascetic is introduced into pure prayer, is completely different from the ordinary calm, pleasant disposition of people: having settled in the heart, it fetters the outrageous movements of the passions, takes away fear not by removing the terrible, but by a blessed, valiant state in Christ, in which the terrible is not scary, as the Lord said: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor be afraid” (John 14:27). In the world of Christ such spiritual power dwells secretly that it tramples underfoot all earthly sorrow and misfortune. This power is borrowed from Christ Himself: “In Me have peace. You will be in a world of sorrow: but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Called upon by heartfelt prayer, Christ sends down into the heart a spiritual power called the peace of Christ, incomprehensible to the mind, inexpressible in words, incomprehensibly comprehended by blissful experience alone. “The peace of God,” says the Apostle to Christians, “surpasses all understanding, that it may guard your hearts and your minds on Jesus Christ” (Phil. 4:7). Such is the power of the peace of Christ. He is “exceeding all understanding.” This means: he is above every created mind, and the mind of man, and the mind of the angels of light, and the mind of the fallen angels. He, as the action of God, sovereignly, divinely controls the thoughts and feelings of the heart. When he appears, all demonic thoughts and sensations dependent on them flee, and human thoughts, together with the heart, come under his all-holy control and guidance. Henceforth he becomes their king, and keeps them, that is, keeps them untouched by sin, in Christ Jesus. This means: it contains thoughts unoriginally in the gospel teaching, enlightens the mind with the mysterious interpretation of this teaching, and nourishes the heart with daily bread, which comes down from heaven and gives life to all who partake of it (John 6:33). The holy world, with its abundant action, brings silence to the mind and attracts both soul and body to blissful tasting. Then all movement of the blood, all its influence on the state of the soul ceases: there is great silence. A certain subtle chill blows through the whole person, and a mysterious teaching is heard. A Christian, held and preserved by the holy world, becomes unapproachable to adversaries: he is attached to the enjoyment of the world of Christ, and, reveling in it, he forgets not only sinful pleasures, but all earthly pleasures, both physical and mental. Healing drink! Divine healing! Blissful rapture! Exactly: what other beginning can there be for the renewal of man than the grace-filled feeling of peace, by which the constituent parts of man, separated by sin, are united again into one! Without this preliminary gift, without this union with himself, can a person be capable of any spiritual, Divine state created by the all-good Holy Spirit? Can a broken vessel, before it is repaired, be a container for anything? The feeling of peace in Christ, as well as of all grace-given gifts in general, begins first of all to manifest itself during prayer, as in that activity in which the ascetic is most prepared by reverence and attention to receiving Divine impressions. Subsequently, having become, as it were, an accessory of a Christian, he constantly accompanies him, constantly and everywhere rousing him to prayer, performed in the spiritual cell, pointing out from afar mental enemies and slanderers, repelling and striking them with his omnipotent right hand. The greatness of the spiritual gift, the peace of Christ, its appearance in the chosen people of God, the new Israel, Christians, its power to heal souls, its power to maintain the health of souls, the beginning of this gift from the God-man, the giving of this gift by the God-man, is described by the holy prophet Isaiah as follows: “Mighty God,” says the Prophet about the Lord made man, “Sovereign, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come: I will bring peace to the princes,” to successful Christians who overcome passions and therefore deserve the name of princes, “peace and health to Him. And His rulership is great, and His peace knows no bounds on the throne of David and on His kingdom; correct it and intercede for Him in judgment and righteousness, from now to eternity: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isa. 9:6, 7). “In His days righteousness and abundance of peace will shine” (Ps. 71:7); “The Lord will bless his people” - Christians - with “peace” (Ps. 28:11), “the meek will inherit the earth and enjoy the abundance of peace” (Ps. 36:11). How the Holy Spirit proclaims the Son (Jn. 16, 14): thus the action in man of the Holy Spirit, the peace of Christ, proclaims that a person’s thoughts have entered the all-holy region of Divine Truth and Truth, that the Gospel has been accepted by his heart: “mercy and truth have been met, righteousness and peace have been embraced” (Ps. 84:11). The action of the peace of Christ in a person is a sign of his remaining in the commandments of Christ, outside of error and self-deception: on the contrary, confusion, the most subtle, no matter what excuses it may be covered up, serves as a sure sign of deviation from the narrow path of Christ onto the broad path leading to destruction 181. Do not condemn either the wicked or the obvious villain: “He stands for his Lord, or he falls” (Rom. 14:4). Do not hate your slanderer, scolder, robber, or murderer: they crucify you at the right hand of the Lord, according to the incomprehensible arrangement of God’s destinies, so that you, from your heartfelt consciousness and conviction, can say in your prayer to the Lord: “I accept what is worthy of deeds, remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom.” Understand from the sorrows allowed to you your unspeakable well-being, your election by God, and pray the warmest prayer for those of your benefactors, through whom well-being is brought to you, with whose hands you are torn away from the world and killed for it, with whose hands you ascend to God. Feel mercy for them in the likeness of the mercy that God feels for the unfortunate humanity drowning in sins, Who gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for a hostile creature to the Creator, knowing that this creature for the most part will laugh at this Sacrifice and will neglect it. Such mercy, extending to love for enemies, poured out in tearful prayers for them, leads to an experienced knowledge of the Truth. Truth is the Word of God, the Gospel; Truth is Christ. Cognition of the Truth introduces Divine truth into the soul, expelling from the soul fallen and defiled by sin human truth: Divine truth bears witness to its entry into the soul through the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ makes man both a church and a priest of the living God: “His place is in the world” (God’s), “and His dwelling place is in Zion. There, destroy the fortresses of bows, weapons and sword, and warfare” (Ps. 76:3-4). The greatest teachers of monasticism testify to the blissful union of a person with himself through the action of the world of Christ. Saint John Climacus says: “I cried with all my heart,” that is, body, soul and spirit: “where these two are united, there is God “in the midst of them” (Ps. 119:145; Matt. 18:20) 182. Venerable Isaiah the Hermit: “If you, like the wise virgins, know that your vessel is full of oil, and you can enter the palace, and should not remain outside; if you felt that your spirit, soul and body were united immaculately, and rose undefiled on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, if your conscience does not denounce and condemn you, if you became a child according to the word of the Savior, who said: “Leave the children and do not forbid them to come to Me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14): then truly you have become a bride (Christ's); The Holy Spirit rests on you, although you are still in the body." 183 Saint Isaac the Syrian: “Do not compare those who do signs, wonders and powers in the midst of the world with those who are silent with reason. Love the idleness of silence more than feeding the hungry in the world and turning many pagans to the worship of God. It is better for you to free yourself from the bonds of sin than to free slaves from work. It is better for you to reconcile your soul into the unanimity of the trinity that is within you - I say: body, soul and spirit - than to reconcile those who differ in their views with your teaching" 184 . The Holy Peace is that stillness of the mind, born from the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, mentioned by Saint Isaac the Syrian in the 55th word, which Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Basil the Great felt, and, feeling it, withdrew into the desert. There, having occupied themselves with their inner man and finally formed him with the Gospel, they became spectators of the mysterious visions of the Spirit. It is obvious that the stillness of the mind, or non-vapority (the destruction of absent-mindedness) is acquired by the mind by connecting it with the soul. Without this, he cannot stop himself from floating and wandering everywhere. When the mind, through the action of Divine grace, unites with the heart, then it receives the prayer power about which St. Gregory of Sinai speaks: “If Moses had not received the rod of power from God, then God would not have struck Pharaoh and Egypt with it: so the mind, if you do not have prayer power in your hand, will not be able to crush sin and opposing forces” 185 . The teaching about the peace of Christ is depicted with extraordinary clarity and simplicity, the height and importance of this gift is shown in the spiritual instructions of Hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov, everything is taken directly from the heart’s holy experience: “When the mind and heart are united in prayer and the thoughts of the soul are not scattered, then the heart is warmed by spiritual warmth, in which the light of Christ will shine, filling the peace and joy of the entire inner man.” 186. There is nothing better than peace in Christ, and in him all warfare of air and earthly spirits is destroyed. A sign of a rational soul when a person immerses his mind inside himself and has action in his heart. Then the grace of God overshadows him, and he is in a peaceful dispensation, and through this, in a worldly state: in a peaceful state, that is, with a good conscience; in the worldly, for the mind contemplates in itself the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the word of God: “His place is in the world” (Ps. 76:3). When someone walks in a peaceful dispensation, he, as it were, draws out spiritual gifts with a spoon. When a person comes to a peaceful dispensation, then he can shine the light of reason on himself and on others. This world, like some priceless treasure, was left by our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples, before His death saying: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). We must concentrate all our strength, desires and actions in order to receive the peace of God and always cry out with the Church: Lord our God! Give us peace (Isa. 26:12). We must try by all means to maintain peace of mind and not be indignant at insults from others: for this we must try in every possible way to restrain anger and, through attention, guard our mind and heart from indecent movements. We must endure insults from others with indifference and become accustomed to such a state of mind, as if their insults were applied not to us, but to someone alien to us. Such an exercise can bring silence to the human heart and make it the abode of God Himself. How to overcome anger can be seen from the life of Paisius the Great. He asked the Lord Jesus Christ who appeared to him to free him from anger. And Christ said to him: If you want to overcome anger and rage, covet nothing, hate no one, disdain him 187. In order to maintain peace of mind, one must distance oneself from despondency and try to have a joyful spirit, not a sad one, according to the words of Sirach: “Sadness kills many, and there is no profit in it” (Sir. 30:25). To maintain peace of mind, one must avoid judging others in every possible way. Through non-judgment and silence, spiritual peace is preserved: when a person is in such a dispensation, he receives Divine revelations” 188. “The Kingdom of God is truth, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in these ways is well-pleasing to God” (Rom. 14:17–18). The Peace of Christ is the source of unceasing mental, heartfelt, spiritual, grace-filled, spiritual prayer, prayer brought from the entire human being, by the action of the Holy Spirit; The peace of Christ is a constant source of grace-filled humility of Christ, which surpasses the human mind. The one who says that grace-filled prayer is grace-filled humility, and grace-filled humility is unceasing prayer, will not be mistaken. We recognize the need to outline here the closest union of prayer with humility. What is humility? “Humility,” said the Fathers, “is divine and incomprehensible” 189. Doesn’t this mean the same as what the Apostle said: “the peace of God surpasses all understanding”? (Phil. 4:7). We will unmistakably define humility if we say: Humility is an incomprehensible action of the incomprehensible world of God, incomprehensibly comprehended by blissful experience alone. In drawing up such a definition of humility, we have the Lord Himself as our guide. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,” said the Lord, “and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29). Rev. John Climacus, explaining these words of the Savior, says: “Learn” not from an Angel, not from a person, not from a book, but “from Me,” that is, from My presence in you, illumination and action, “for I am meek and humble in heart,” and in thought, and in an acquired way of thinking, and you will find peace from battles and relief from passionate thoughts “to your souls” 190. This learning is active, experiential, and blessed! Further, in his word on humility, Saint John Climacus, having enumerated the various signs of humility that can be known and understandable not only to the owner of this spiritual treasure, but also to his relatives and friends in the Lord, adds: “There are signs for the owner of this great wealth (humility) in his soul (by which he can know that he has become the owner of humility), exceeding all of the above. For all of them, with the exception of this, can be seen by outside spectators. You will understand and will not be deceived that this reverend (humility) is present in you, by the abundance of ineffable light and by the indescribable zeal for prayer.” Saint Isaac the Syrian answered the question: “What are the hallmarks of humility?” - answered: “Just as the elevation of the soul is its waste, forcing it to soar (through the dreaming it produces) and not preventing it from being lifted up by the clouds of its thoughts, on which it flows around the whole creation, so (in contrast to elevation) humility gathers the soul into silence; through humility the soul concentrates in itself. Just as the soul is unknown and invisible with the eyes of the body, so the humble person is not known when he is among people. Just as the soul is hidden inside the body from being seen by people and from communicating with them, so the truly humble person not only does not want to be seen and understood by people because of his distance and renunciation of everything, but even he would like to plunge into himself, to live and remain in silence, completely forgetting his previous thoughts and feelings, to become somehow non-existent and not beginning to exist, even unknown to his very soul. Such as he is hidden, hidden and separated from the world, so completely is he in his Master” 191. What kind of state is this if not the state produced by grace-filled mental, heartfelt and spiritual prayer? Is it possible to abide in the Lord otherwise than by uniting with Him through pure prayer? The same word contains Saint Isaac’s answer to the question: “What is prayer?” - The saint said: “Prayer is the abolition and idleness of thought from everything here and the heart, completely turning its gaze to the hoped-for future.” So, is it not the same, in actions and consequences, as true prayer and true humility? Prayer is the mother of virtues and the door to all spiritual gifts. By carefully performing attentive prayer with patience and forcing oneself, both grace-filled prayer and grace-filled humility are acquired. Their giver is the Holy Spirit, their giver is Christ: how can they not be so similar to each other when their source is the same? How can all the virtues not appear from such a source, in wonderful harmony and correlation with each other? Suddenly they appear in that Christian into whose inner cage Christ entered to attend to the crying of the prisoner in the cage and to take away the causes of the crying. “Prayer is the mother of virtues,” said St. Mark the Ascetic, “it gives birth to them from union with Christ” 192. Saint John Climacus called prayer the matter of virtues, and humility the destroyer of passions 193. It is necessary to explain and make somewhat understandable the union of mind, soul and body for those who have not felt it, so that they will recognize it when, by the grace of God, it begins to manifest itself in them. This connection is quite clear, quite tangible, not some kind of dreamy or assimilated by a seductive opinion. It can be somewhat explained from the opposite state in which we all usually find ourselves. The opposite state - the separation of mind, soul and body, their discordant action, often turning into opposition of one to the other - is a sad consequence of our fall in our forefathers 194. Who does not see this discordant action in themselves? Who does not feel the inner struggle and the torment it produces? Who does not recognize this struggle, this torment - often unbearable - as our illness, a sign, convincing proof of our fall? Our mind prays or is in contemplation and pious intention, but various vicious desires move in the heart and body, various passionate aspirations force the mind from its exercise and for the most part carry away! The very bodily senses, especially sight and hearing, counteract the mind: by delivering to it constant impressions of the material world, they lead it into distraction and distraction. When, by the ineffable mercy of God, the mind begins to unite in prayer with the heart and soul, then the soul, first little by little, and then the whole will begin to rush together with the mind into prayer. Finally, our most perishable body, created with the lust of God, and from the fall infected with bestial lust, will rush into prayer. Then the bodily senses remain inactive: the eyes look and do not see, the ears hear but do not hear 195. Then the whole person is enveloped in prayer: his very hands, feet and fingers, unspeakably, but quite clearly and tangibly, participate in prayer and are filled with power inexplicable in words. A person, being in a state of peace in Christ and prayer, is not accessible to any sinful thoughts - the same person for whom previously every battle with sin was a sure victory. The soul feels that an adversary is approaching it; but the prayer power that fills it does not allow the enemy to approach and desecrate the church of God. The person praying knows that the enemy came to him, but does not know with what thought, with what type of sin. Saint John Climacus said: “I have not known the evil one who turns away from Me” (Ps. 101:4), below is how he came, below for what he came, below as he departed, but in such cases I remain without any sensation, being united with God now and always” 196. When uniting the mind with the soul, it is most convenient to engage in the memory of God, especially the Jesus Prayer: with it, bodily feelings can remain inactive, and such inaction greatly contributes to the deepest attention and its consequences. Reading prayerful psalms and other prayers is not only possible, but should also be done with connection, as it is especially conducive to attention. But just as during psalmody the mind is presented with various thoughts, so during psalmody it cannot be as free from distraction as during short, uniform prayer. When reading the Holy Scriptures and the books of the Fathers, one should also unite the mind with the soul - the reading will be much more fruitful. “What is required of the mind,” says Saint John Climacus, “with each of its prayers (and therefore with reading, which feeds prayer and which constitutes a branch of prayer and mental activity) is the expression of the power that is given to it by God - why should it listen” 197. Brother! If you have not yet felt the connection of mind, soul and body, then engage in attentive prayer, connecting verbal and at times vowel prayer with the mind. Stay in the Gospel commandments, struggling with patience and long-suffering against the passions, not becoming despondent and hopeless when you are overcome by sinful thoughts and feelings, however, do not allow yourself to be arbitrarily defeated. Having fallen, get up, and having fallen again, get up again, until you learn to walk without stumbling. The cup of weakness has its own benefit: until a certain time, it is allowed by God’s providence to the ascetic for cleansing from pride, anger, remembrance, condemnation, arrogance and vanity. It is especially important to recognize the effect of vanity in yourself and curb it. As long as it is in effect, a person is not able to enter the land of spiritual residence, into which entry is impartiality granted by the coming of the peace of Christ. If you feel that your mind has united with your soul and body, that you are no longer cut into parts by sin, but are part of something single and whole, that the holy peace of Christ has wafted in you, then guard the gift of God with all possible diligence. Let your main work be prayer and reading holy books, give other matters secondary importance, and be cool towards earthly affairs, if possible, aloof from them. The sacred world, like the breath of the Holy Spirit, is subtle and immediately retreats from the soul that behaves carelessly in its presence, that violates reverence, that violates fidelity by indulgence in sin, that allows itself to be careless. Together with the peace of Christ, grace-filled prayer retreats from the unworthy soul, and passions invade the soul like smooth beasts and begin to torment the self-sacrificing victim, left to himself by God who departed from her (Ps. 104:20-21). If you become fed up, especially if you become drunk, the holy world will cease to act in you. If you get angry, its effect will cease for a long time. If you allow yourself to be insolent, he will stop acting. If you love something earthly, become infected with an addiction to a thing, to some kind of handicraft, or a special disposition towards a person, the holy world will certainly retreat from you. If you allow yourself the pleasure of lustful thoughts, he will leave you for a long, very long time, as one who cannot tolerate any stench of sin, especially that of lust and vainglory. You will look for it and you will not find it. You will mourn over his loss, but he will not pay any attention to your crying, so that you learn to give the gift of God its due price and preserve it with due care and reverence. Hate everything that draws you down, into entertainment, into sin. Crucify yourself on the cross of the commandments of the Gospel, constantly keep yourself nailed to it. Courageously and cheerfully reject all sinful thoughts and desires, cut off earthly cares, take care of reviving the Gospel in yourself by zealously fulfilling all its commandments. During prayer, crucify yourself again, crucify yourself on the cross of prayer. Reject from yourself all the memories, the most important ones, that come to you during prayer, neglect them. Do not theologize, do not get carried away by considering brilliant, new and strong thoughts if they suddenly begin to multiply in you. Sacred silence, brought to the mind during prayer by a sense of the greatness of God, speaks about God more sublimely and more powerfully than any word. “If you truly pray,” said the Fathers, “then you are a Theologian” 198. You have a treasure! The invisible thieves see this and guess about it by the loss of their influence on you 199 (Ps. 125: 1-2). Throughout the Psalter, the name tongues refers, in a mysterious sense, to demons. Then the ascetic will know his deliverance from enslavement to demons, when his mind ceases to be carried away by the thoughts and dreams they bring, when he begins to pray pure prayer, always combined with spiritual consolation. This deliverance is also clear for demons: “Then they say among the nations: The Lord has magnified to do with them.” They are hungry to steal the gift of God from you! They are skillful, rich and experienced and evil ingenuity. Be attentive and careful. Keep within yourself and grow the feeling of repentance, do not admire your condition, look at it as a means to achieving true repentance. Spiritual poverty will preserve in you the gift of grace and protect you from all enemy snares and deceptions: “God will not despise a broken and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19) by handing it over to the power of the enemy and depriving it of salvation and grace. Amen. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 5: “We should not prematurely seek great measures, so that God’s gift is not consumed due to the speed of its acceptance. Everything that is easily acquired is easily lost; everything acquired with heart disease is stored carefully.” St. Simeon the New Theologian. About the first way of attention and prayer. Kindness, part 1. Also: Ascetic Experiences, part 1. About the Jesus Prayer. Conversation between an old man and his disciple. Life of St. Dosifei. Book of teachings of St. Abba Dorotheus. Experience shows that encounters with the female sex, with depraved society and with other temptations have an incomparably stronger effect on a monk than on a layman, who always revolves among temptations. The more attentive and strict his life is, the stronger this effect is on the monk. The passions in him are exhausted by hunger and rush with fury and frenzy at their objects when caution is not taken. Even if excited passion does not commit murder, it can cause a terrible ulcer, the healing of which will require many years, bloody labor, and most of all the special mercy of God. The actual verse of Scripture reads: “This is the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, in the abundance of bread, and in abundance of wine, and in the voluptuousness of her and her daughters.” St. Mark the Ascetic. A word to Nikolai the monk. St. Mark the Ascetic. Homily 7, On fasting and humility. St. Isaiah the Hermit. Word 8, ch. 1. This monk, who delved deeply into himself, said: “Sometimes I see myself like a horse wandering without a rider: whoever finds it sits on it, but when this one lets go, then another one grabs it and sits on it in the same way.” St. John of Carpathia, ch. 87. Kindness, part 4. According to the explanation of St. Macarius the Great (Conversation 37, Chapter 5) and St. Mark the Ascetic, Homily 6. St. Nil Sorsky Word, 11. “Above all (spiritual gifts), non-vapor is bestowed upon the mind by the Lord.” Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos, ch.24. Dobrot., part 2. Conversation by Rev. Maxima Kapsokalivi with Venerable Gregory of Sinaite. Dobrot., part 1. Barsanuphius the Great. Answer 184. St. Gregory Palamas. Message to nun Ksenia. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 15. Guide to the spiritual life of St. Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet, answer 59. Ladder, Homily 28, ch. 61. Word 19. The same thought was placed by the monk in his Word 17. Precept 11 on prayer. Chetii-Minei, June 19. Life of St. Paisius the Great. Instructions 3 and 4. About spiritual peace and its preservation. Moscow, second edition 1844. Teachings of the Venerable Abba Dorotheos on humility. A word about those who think to be justified by works, ch. 35. The Monk Simeon, the New Theologian, calls this state of our nature tearing it apart. Word 3. Reverend Simeon. New Theologian. Word 10. Ladder. Word 29, ch. 10. Venerable Neil of Sinai. Chapters on prayer, ch. 61. “The captivity of Zion would never be returned to the Lord as a source of consolation. Then our lips will be filled with joy and our tongue will be filled with joy. Then they shout among the nations: “The Lord has magnified what he will do to them.” You might be interested in: