Слово на открытие Иоанно-Предтечева женского монастыря близ города Ставрополя кавказского

“Depart from among them, and be separated, says the Lord: and touch not their uncleanness: and I will receive you: and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18). To which of the people is this calling of God pronounced? To those who have come to know and believe that the purpose given by God to men at creation, returned at redemption, is for men to become sons and daughters of God. From whom does God command people who want to become sons and daughters of God to separate? From the society of those people who are carried away by worldly concerns, earthly prosperity, earthly pleasures, who do not pay any attention to the high spiritual purpose of humanity. Earthly life is seductive! Our fall is terrible! We see with our own eyes that all our brothers, without exception, after a more or less long wandering on earth, equally short before boundless eternity, die; we see that here they leave behind both wealth and all temporary advantages, their very body. We see this; we know that we must certainly die, but we spend our earthly life as if we were eternal on earth; We exhaust all the strength of soul and body in the search for earthly goods, taken away by death; we indulge in sinful desires and aspirations, we thirst to enjoy abundantly the sin that killed us, we trample on the commandments of God, we neglect His threats and promises. It is very natural that with such behavior of human society, God commands his chosen ones: “Come out from among them, and separate yourself: and do not touch their uncleanness: and I will receive you: and I will be your Father, and you will be My sons and daughters.” Many Old Testament righteous people have already chosen withdrawal from the world and a wandering stay in the desert while enduring various shortcomings and hardships. They, says the apostle, “came in clothing and in goatskins, in deprivation, in sorrow, in embitterment: the whole world is not worthy of them, wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in the pits of the earth” (Heb. 11:37-38). They confessed with their very lives that man is an exile and a stranger on earth (Heb. 11:13), just as the sons of the world confess with their very lives their self-deception. Saint John, the Forerunner of the Lord, settled in the desert from childhood and, having received a command from God in the desert, went out into the country of Jordan, announcing to mankind the coming of the Redeemer, exhorting mankind to prepare to receive the Redeemer through repentance and humility (Luke 1:80; Luke 3:3). Our Lord Jesus Christ began His great ministry by withdrawing into the desert, fasting in it and defeating the devil, showing us that the most convenient place for an ascetic life and for preparing oneself for serving God is the desert. During His preaching, the Lord often retired into the desert to pray, not having Himself a need for this as a perfect God, but showing us, weak people, that the most convenient place for undistracted and intense prayer is a solitary desert. From the very beginning of Christianity, the leading Christians immediately began to leave the noisy middle of cities, settling in their extremities, in the suburbs and surrounding areas. The Christians of the populous city of Alexandria especially did this; there their solitary dwellings received the name of monasteries, and they themselves received the name of monks, i.e. solitary (from the Greek word μόνος - one). The outskirts of Alexandria and its surroundings were filled with cells of Christians who lived a solitary life. Subsequently, when temptations multiplied among the world, pious monks, at the command of God, went even further into the desert and founded various forms of monastic life. The Monk Pachomius the Great, instructed by an angel, established hostels for men and women - that kind of monastic life that was accepted by the newborn monastery of nuns, which we are opening today and blessing with the blessing of the Holy Synod, by order of our most pious Sovereign, Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich. But all types of monastic life, varied only in appearance, have one goal: it is to eliminate our weakness from the seductions and impressions of the world, to give the proper value to both temporary and eternal life, to use the first to obtain the second. “The sons of God,” said St. Isaac of Syria, “are different from others in that they live in sorrow, while the world shines with pleasure and peace. God did not wish that His beloved should rest while they were in the body; He wanted them, as long as they were in this world, to remain in sorrow, in a burdensome situation, in labor, in poverty, in nakedness, in solitude, in need, in illness, in humiliation, in insults, in contrition of heart, in exhaustion of the body, in renunciation of relatives, in a sad way of thinking, in a special view of all creation, in home, not like ordinary human dwellings: in a secluded and silent dwelling, remote from human gaze, alien to all earthly amusement. They cry, but the world laughs; they lament, but the world rejoices; they fast, and the world enjoys” 243. When the gaze looking at the universe from Christian piety sees the proud, magnificent chambers erected by humanity for abundant earthly amusement, for triumph and enjoyment of its fall, in order to develop, impress, strengthen, make this fall an inalienable property, then the heart is filled with inexplicable sorrow and fear. On the contrary, it is filled with quiet consolation when one sees the humble dwelling of the monks, their wretched cells, more like tents than buildings, wretched cells, testifying that this is the camp of spiritual Israel, wandering through the desert of earthly life, striving for the promised land - to Heaven. “May your houses be good to Jacob, and your tabernacles to Israel! like overshadowing oak groves, and like gardens by the rivers, and like the tabernacles that the Lord has set up, and like cedars by the waters. He who blesses you, bless you” (Numbers 24:5, 6, 9). Blessed are the inhabitants of these tabernacles, blessed are the inhabitants of this camp! “For they have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor have they stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the destroyers: but in the law of the Lord is all their will, and in His law they shall learn day and night” (Ps. 1:1-2). “Bless the Lord my soul!” (Ps. 102:1). “Praise the Lord, my soul!” (Ps. 146:1). “Blessed is the Lord, for you have surprised your mercy in the city of enclosure!” (Ps. 30:22). “Astonish your mercy”: this means that the Lord performed the greatest mercy by granting the Abode, protected from the temptations of the world by place, walls, customs, and clothing itself, an abode for His daughters who wished to retire and be alienated from the world for constant worship. “Hide them, O God, in the secret of Your face from the rebellion of man, cover them with shelter from the quarrel of the tongue” (Ps. 30:21). Let us bring from here, from the distant desert, from the distant Caucasus, a heartfelt voice of deep gratitude to our most pious Sovereign, Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, who has granted in the vast expanse of blessed, Orthodox Russia a new shelter for virgins and widows who have sacrificed themselves as living sacrifices to Christ. That blessing of God, which was promised to the one who gave a cup of cold water to a disciple of Christ, may rest upon the anointed one of God for the satisfaction of the spiritual, pious thirst of many souls. Let us bring reverent gratitude to the Holy Synod, which blessed the monastic community in the countries of the Caucasus, where not only monasticism, but also Christianity have long been forgotten by the local residents, where, after the victorious Russian weapons, first Christianity entered, and now monasticism is also entering. Let us pay due gratitude to the founder of this monastery, the first saint of the Caucasus; May the prayers and blessings of the founder of the monastery help it succeed and improve both morally and materially. Let us call on the blessing of God on all who contributed to the establishment and development of the monastery in the name of the Lord: may they receive hundredfold heavenly rewards from our all-generous God, before Whom not even the slightest alms and benefits are forgotten. “Bless my soul the Lord, and all that is within me His Holy Name” (Ps. 103:1). Blessed are you, virgins and widows, who have gathered in the desert to assimilate yourselves to God! You have chosen the good part if, until the end of your earthly life, your goal is to continually please God. Make yourself worthy of God's calling! You have been called by the Heavenly Father to be His daughter; make every effort to become daughters of God. Do not be burdened by your subordination, your humble position, for our Lord Jesus Christ “humbled Himself, and took on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of mankind, and being found in the likeness of man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:7–8). Do not be burdened by your long prayers, your vigils and your fasting: “who are Christ’s, the flesh has been crucified with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24), said the apostle. Do not be burdened by bodily ailments and other sufferings and deprivations that the Lord will allow you for your cleansing: “for the Lord loves him and punishes him: he beats every son, but he accepts him” (Heb. 12:6). The servants of God, although they are subjected to many different sorrows and sufferings, “even if they receive torment in the face of men, their hope of immortality is fulfilled: even though they have suffered little punishment, they will receive great blessings: for God has tempted them, and found them worthy of Himself. Like gold in the furnace I have tempted them, and like the fruitfulness of the sacrifice I have received” (Wis. 3:4–6). Do not be burdened by the reproaches and insults that you may be subjected to from the world: “If the world hates you,” the Savior says in consolation to His disciples and followers, “know that it hated Me before it hated you.” If you were quicker from the world, the world would love its own; because you are not from the world, for this reason the world hates you” (John 15:18–19). “Blessed are you when they revile you, and persecute you, and say all sorts of evil things against you who lie to Me for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is many in heaven” (Matthew 5:11–12). Based on these testimonies of the Holy Scripture and on countless others, the holy fathers recognized that the sorrows allowed by Divine Providence for a Christian serve as the most reliable sign of God’s mercy towards him, God’s care for him. This is how Blessed John of Carpathia consoles the suffering monk: “I say to you, O monk! Thy Heavenly Father, love thee, and offend thee with various temptations: Be kind, otherwise patient, even as through the Prophet the verbs: I will be a punisher for you, and I will put you on the path of Egypt, teaching you sorrowful: and I will block the vicious paths with the thorns of My Providence, struck by unexpected adversities and forbidding: yes, not even whatever you want with a foolish heart, put this into action in every possible way. And I will block the sea of ​​your passions, the gates of My bounties. And I will be like a panfir to you, consuming your thoughts of reproach, and contemplation, and repentance in the conscience of those who have not been led away by you: this all sorrowful greatest grace is the grace of God” 244. “The path of God is an everyday cross,” said the Monk Isaac of Syria, “no one has ascended to heaven living in pleasures... It is known that a person is under the special Providence of God from the fact that God constantly sends sorrows to this person” 245. The Holy Apostle Paul testifies that all, without exception, who pleased God were partakers of the punishment and admonition of sorrows allowed by the Providence of God: “even though you are without punishment, all were partakers of it; for you are by nature an adulterer, and not of the sons” (Heb. 12:8). The son of this world and this age, living in so-called unchanging prosperity, drowning in unceasing pleasure, entertained by unceasing amusements - alas! - forgotten, rejected by God. His constant well-being and contentment is a sign of the greatest eternal disaster - alienation from God. Daughters of the Heavenly Father! I greet you with the granting of monastic rights and the name of your monastery! I greet you with the field of monastic deeds and heavenly rewards that has opened up for you! At the same time, I greet you in the field of many different and diverse sorrows: the field of monasticism is a field of sorrows, and the cause of heavenly rewards is earthly sorrows. God calls to Himself not with the promise of earthly prosperity, but with the promise of suffering. As soon as Paul was chosen as the apostle of the tongues, along with his election, countless sufferings were predicted for him (Acts 9:16). The Apostle, having suffered abundantly and having experienced the spiritual fruit born of sorrows, calls other Christians to the same feat. “In the same way,” he says, “we have put aside all pride and are comfortable with the sin that besets us, that is, the sin that besets us, with patience let us pursue the struggle that is set before us: looking to Jesus, the Author of the Faith and Perfecter of the Faith, who instead of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, being careless for the shame, and sitting at the right hand of the Throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2). “Any punishment at the present time does not seem to be a joy of being, but sadness: after all, the fruit of the world rewards those taught with righteousness. By the same token, correct your weakened hands and weakened knees, and have all joy, i.e. Rejoice with the greatest joy whenever you fall into various temptations: for through many tribulations it is fitting for us to enter into the Kingdom of God” (Heb. 12:11-12; James 1:2; Acts 14:22). Amen. The word fasting. Dobrot., part 4 You might be interested in: