Авва Исаия

1. Abba Isaiah, called a hermit because of his chosen type of monastic asceticism, lived in the Egyptian Skete, in this vast and wild desert, which served as a haven for a large host of silent people for four centuries 315. The name of the great prophet of the Jews was borne by many great monks of 316 Skete who lived at different times. Isaiah the Hermit apparently lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. In his new beginning, he used the instructions of the Venerable Pimen the Great 317, and included some of the Great’s sayings in his writings. In general, the character of the Monk Isaiah is very similar to the nature of the instructions of the Monk Pimen and is very different from the nature of the instructions pronounced by the first monks of Skete 318. Isaiah refers to the writings and sayings of the ancient monks of Skete 319. From the book of Barsanuphius the Great, first an Egyptian, then a Palestinian monk who lived in the 6th century, it is noticeable that he personally knew Saint Isaiah 320 - one can even guess that he used his edifications. The book speaks of the Monk Isaiah as a person of undoubted holiness, known for his experience and knowledge in monastic life. From the story of the Monk Elisha it is clear that the Monk Isaiah lived after the IV Ecumenical Council 321 and was a contemporary of the Patriarch of Alexandria, St. Eulogius. The instructions of the venerable hermit, like all the holy monks of Skete, apply most to the silent. We have an incomplete collection of the words of the Saint. Some and probably very many of them have been lost, as can be concluded from the passage that St. John of Damascus placed in his writings, and the passage on the secret teaching. They are not in the hermit's book. The Mohammedans, conquering Christian countries, destroyed written monuments of Christianity. They did this with frenzied fury and particular success in Egypt. 2. They told about Abba Isaiah that he once came to the threshing floor and said to the owner of the land: “Give me wheat!” - “Did you sting, Abba?” – asked its owner. “No,” answered the elder. The owner objected: “How do you want to get wheat when you haven’t reaped?” To this the elder said: “Doesn’t he who has not reaped receive wheat?” “He doesn’t receive it,” answered the owner. Having heard this answer, the elder left the threshing floor. The brothers who witnessed the act bowed to the Abba and asked him to explain his act to them. The elder told them: “I did this with the goal of showing that those who do not strive will not receive a reward from God.” 322 3. One day Abba Isaiah saw that his brother was committing a grave sin; he did not convict him, saying to himself: “If God, who created him, sees this and has mercy on him: then who am I that I should convict him” 323. 4. One day Abba Isaiah invited his brother to his place. He washed the visitor's feet, poured a handful of lentils into the mountaineer, and when it had cooked a little, he took the mountaineer off the fire. Seeing this, the brother said: “Abba! The lentils haven’t cooked down yet!” Abba answered: “Isn’t it enough for you that she was on fire? and this is a great consolation" 324. 5. Abba Isaiah said: “It happened that the brethren ate food in the church at the supper of love. They started a conversation among themselves. Then the presbyter from Pelusium, who was here, stopped them, saying: “Be silent, brethren. I know that one of the brothers eats food with us and drinks the cup along with the others, but his prayer, like a flame of fire, ascends to God” 325. 6. Abba Isaiah used to say about himself: “I see myself like a horse wandering without a rider. Whoever finds it gets on it and rides it as much as they like. When this one leaves the horse, the other one does the same with him” 326. 7. He said: “I am like a captive, bound by enemies and thrown by them into a ditch filled with sewage. When this captive cries out to his Lord, then his enemies beat him to keep him silent." 327 8. He also said: “I am like a bird caught by a boy and tied by his feet with a thread. When the boy loosens the thread, the bird flies up, believing that it is free; but the boy pulls the thread and throws the bird to the ground again. This is how I see myself. I say this with the aim of showing that no one can indulge in negligence about his salvation until his last breath.”328 9. He said: “If you have lent something to your neighbor and do not demand it back, then you are acting in the nature of Jesus. If you demand a return, then you will act according to the nature of Adam. The demand for interest is lower than Adam’s nature” 329. 10. Again he said: “If you perform prayers and deeds with humility, as if unworthy, then they will be favorable to God. If you remember someone else who is sleeping or careless, and you become exalted in your heart, then your work is in vain” 330. 11. Again he said: “The humble person does not even have the tongue to say about someone that he is careless or careless about his salvation. He does not have the eyes to see the shortcomings of others. He does not have ears to hear words and conversations that are harmful to the soul. He does not care about anything temporary: he cares only about his sins. He maintains peace with everyone for the sake of God’s commandment, and not because of friendship based on human principles. The labors of the one who, without humility, fasts a lot and carries out difficult feats are in vain” 331. 12. Whoever says that he fears God, and does not find the fear of God in himself when the need for it presents itself, in order to curb anger, insolence, the attempt to teach another what he himself has not learned by experience, in order to curb man-pleasing or the search for human glory, or any other passion: all his exploits are vain 332. 13. The mind, before it awakens from the sleep of laziness, is with demons. When the Lord Jesus Christ awakens him from laziness and makes him capable of seeing and reasoning, then he gets the opportunity to ascend to the cross. At the same time, the devil begins to blaspheme and utter obscene words in the hope that the mind will not weaken, will not give up asceticism, or will turn to its former laziness and inaction. The image of this was two thieves who were separated from each other by the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified between them. One of them blasphemed the Lord, and the other prayed to Him, and heard: “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43) 333. 14. He spoke of holy communion: “This gift combines and unites us with God. If so: then where do we have this connection? Overcome by passions, anger, envy, man-pleasing, vanity, hatred and others, we stand far from God” 334. 15. He who wishes to truly remain silent in his cell and not be carried away by demonic suggestions, let him remove himself from everything that is common among people: let him not blame or praise anyone, let him not extol the truth of people, let him not heed their shortcomings, and let him not allow the sting of remembrance of malice towards his neighbor to remain in his heart. 16. Do not convey to the foolish the mysterious knowledge that has been revealed to you, and to the insane the aspirations of your good will: know yourself and study what harms your soul 335. 17. Those who trust in their own truth and follow the will of their fallen nature will not be able to avoid the wiles of demons, will not be able to acquire heartfelt silence, will not be able to discern the thefts to which they are exposed, and after leaving the body it will be difficult for them to receive mercy from God 336. 18. The crown of all good deeds is to place all hope in God, to resort to Him alone with all your heart and with all your strength, to be filled with kindness towards everyone, to cry before God and pray to Him for help and mercy 337. 19. He spoke about teaching his neighbors the commandments of God: “How can I know whether I am pleasing to God, so that I can say to my brother: “Do this or that.” I myself am still under the yoke of repentance because of my sins” 338. 20. Whoever has ever fallen is under the law of repentance. He cannot calm down and stop crying until he knows for certain that his sin has been forgiven. 21. A sign that a sin has been forgiven is that it no longer produces any effect in your heart and you have forgotten about it to the point that, when your neighbors talk about similar sins, you do not feel any sympathy for it, as it is completely alien to you. This means that you have been pardoned 340. 22. On the contrary, it is an unfavorable sign if sympathy for sin continues to live in you and act, and you neglect it. Cry, lament, be sick about this condition until you ask God for mercy 341. 23. God becomes the teacher of all who choose to obey Him. If God does not become a teacher of man, then his labors are in vain 342. 24. Of great importance is the feat of the heart, which consists in the fact that a person abandons his truth and will, which he recognizes as pleasing to God, and fulfills the word of his mentor, to whom he surrendered for the sake of God in obedience 343. 25. If someone begins to speak unhelpful words to you, then do not bow down to listen to him, so as not to damage your soul. Do not be ashamed of his face if he is offended by this. Do not tolerate him continuing his speech, tell him: “My soul cannot bear your words! Stop talking about it, I beg you. I am not stronger than the first man whom God created with His own hands, and who was deceived by evil conversation.” Run away from harmful words, don’t want to hear them. Be careful that, while running away with your body, you do not retain the secret desire to know what the one who began to say unhelpful things intended to tell you. Run with determination, so as to immediately forget what you managed to listen to. If you allow anything you have heard to remain, the demons will not fail to take advantage of it and inflict an ulcer on you 344. 26. He said: “As far as I see, the desire for profit, honor and bodily peace fights a person until his death” 345. 27. He said: “The desire to teach others, when one recognizes oneself as capable of this, causes the soul to fall. Those who are guided by self-conceit and want to elevate their neighbor to a state of dispassion lead their souls to a state of distress. Know and be aware that by instructing your neighbor to do this or that, you are acting as if you were an instrument with which you are destroying your house at the very time you are trying to build your neighbor’s house” 346. This does not apply to shepherds, who are obliged by their duty to instruct their neighbors, nor to those successful monks whose feat is overshadowed by Divine grace, with whom the monastic rules are bequeathed with advice for beginners. This applies to monks who are tempted by conceit and jealousy, not yet purified from carnal wisdom. 28. He said: “Woe to the soul that fell into mortal sin after holy baptism! such a person, having entered the category of penitents, cannot calm down while he is still in this category” 347. 29. Take care not to stain the purity received in holy baptism. Whoever sins by falling bodily, or by stealing something, or by looking passionately at someone else’s body, or even if someone eats food secretly, looking around so as not to be seen, or is curious to know what the things that belong to a brother are, he will dishonor Jesus with all this. “Someone objected to the Abba: “Father! Are the insignificant errors you mentioned really so important?” Abba Isaiah answered: “Whoever gets carried away by these little things is deceived by the devil in the same way as someone who digs into a wall to steal money. He who is victorious in small things will be victorious in important matters; he who is defeated in small things will also be defeated in important cases” 348. 30. He said: “He who performs great signs and healings, has a spiritual mind and raises the dead, if he has previously fallen, then he, as one of the repentant, cannot be without sorrow about his eternal fate” 349. 31. If someone depresses himself with great deeds, but, seeing someone who has fallen into sin or lives carelessly, humiliates him: he thereby ruins the entire feat of his repentance. Having humiliated his neighbor, he humiliates a member of Christ, he himself condemns him, without leaving judgment to the Judge - God 350. 32. He said: “We are all in earthly life, as if in a hospital. One is sick with the eyes, another with the hand, another with the throat, another has deep wounds. Some patients have already been cured, but the disease recurs if the person does not abstain from foods that are harmful to him. Likewise, one who is committed to repentance, condemning or humiliating his neighbor, thereby destroys the beneficial effect of his repentance” 351. 33. Everyone should take care of their mental illnesses! everyone should mourn their sins, without despising their neighbor! If my sinful, unhappy state were constantly before my eyes, I would not pay attention to my brother’s stumblings 352. 34. Woe to the soul that does not deign to flee from all sin! she must be subjected to grave insults from the demons who envy her and hinder her salvation 353 . 35. Abba Isaiah repeated the explanation by the ancient holy elders of Skete of the following words of the Holy Scripture: “the Lord said to Moses: I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt, and until then I will let you go from here. Speak the words into the ears of men, that every man may ask from his neighbor, and his wife from her neighbor, for vessels of silver and gold, and vestments” (Ex. 11:1-2). According to the arrangement of God's providence, the Egyptians felt the greatest generosity; The Israelites robbed them (Ex. 12:36), and subsequently used the taken gold and silver to build the tabernacle. “Vessels of gold and silver and vestments,” said Abba, “signify feelings enslaved to enemies - demons. Until a person extricates his feelings from under the dominion of his enemies and reaches the point where his feelings begin to act according to the will of God, until then the cover of God’s peace will not overshadow him. If he frees them from their enemies and submits them to God, then peace from God enters into him. And no cloud overshadowed the tabernacle until the whole construction of it was finished; when it was completed, a cloud overshadowed it. In like manner the cloud did not overshadow the temple of Solomon until all the work in it was completed without failure. When were they finished; when the fat and blood were offered up on the altar; When the Lord smelled the fragrance of the burnt offerings, then a bright cloud descended on the church” 354. 36. Until a man loves God with all his strength; until he cleaves to God with all his heart: until then he is not given rest from God 355. 37. He said: “If the mind attempts to climb the cross before the weakness of the senses is healed, then it attracts the wrath of God upon itself, as if it had begun a feat that exceeds its measures. The ascent to the cross must be preceded by healing of feelings” 356. 38. If defilements are committed in you, and you enjoy it and contribute to that from which defilement is born, without sadness or pain in your heart: then your state is in the fallen nature of Adam. Then you will act in accordance with the nature of Jesus and attract His help to you, when your heart renounces sin, when it renounces the principles that give rise to sin, when you constantly remember the torments of hell, when you feel that your Helper is constantly present with you, when you do not offend Him in anything, when you constantly cry before Him, saying: “Lord! deliverance of me from sin belongs only to You. I myself, without Your help, cannot escape from the hands of the enemy” 357. 39. Pay careful attention to not grieving your mentor in the Lord 358. 40. To the question: “What does humility consist of?” - Abba Isaiah answered: “Humility consists in a person recognizing himself as a sinner before God, having not done a single good deed that is pleasing to God. Humility is cultivated and expressed by the following actions: when one remains silent, when one does not implicate oneself in any way, when one avoids arguing, when one is obedient, when one keeps one’s eyes lowered to the ground, when one constantly has death before the eyes of the mind, keeps oneself from lies, avoids vain and sinful conversations, does not contradict elders, does not insist on one’s opinion and word, endures reproach, hates idleness and bliss, forces oneself to perform bodily exploits, when it doesn’t offend anyone” 359. 41. Abba Isaiah was asked: “What is repentance?” He answered: “The Holy Spirit teaches us to withdraw from sin and no longer fall into it. This is what repentance consists of” 360. 42. Abba Isaiah was asked: “What should one who is silent in his cell observe?” He answered: “Let him who strives, as the Scripture says, abstain from everything. He who cultivates true silence must continually prostrate himself before the all-good God in humility, carefully engage in prayer and with all his might drive away evil thoughts from himself: this is flight from the world. With such behavior and the mood of the ascetic, the Lord will curb the fury of his enemies. What can a person do? he is only flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50). 43. They asked Abba Isaiah what is meant by the word peace? He answered: “The word peace denotes activity according to the mind and will of the fallen nature, when we fulfill carnal desires, when we hope to remain for a long time in earthly life, when we care more about the body than about the soul” 361. 44. To the question, how does a person acquire purity? - Abba said: “Not committing the sins that I fell into before. The goodness of God is such that it immediately accepts a person who turns to her from his sins, and consigns to oblivion the sins he has committed. This can be seen from the Gospel story about the youngest son, who squandered the part of the estate that he got fornication. Unhappy! he came to such a situation that he was forced to graze pigs, and wanted to be satisfied with their food. Then he realized that it is impossible to find satiation in sins: because the more a person indulges in them, the greater his lust for them. This led him to repentance. As soon as the thought of repentance touched his heart, he, without hesitation at all, returned with humility to his father, abandoning all his carnal desires. He had confidence in his father! he was sure that his father was merciful and would not torture him for his misdeeds. According to such an appeal from the son, the father ordered that he be immediately given clothes of cleanliness and restored the son’s relationship with his father, granting a deposit for this. Our Master Jesus Christ instructs us with this parable, so that when we intend to turn to Him, first of all, we should leave the food of pigs. Then He will accept us. He accepts only the pure. He said this so that we would not lose heart and doubt His mercy, saying: “When God hears.” He alone knows the time at which it is appropriate to take revenge on the blatant opponents, and at this time he will hasten to hear it. Let us turn to God with all our hearts and, without succumbing to double-mindedness, let us cry out to Him with frequent prayers, not giving these sins the opportunity to enslave us. Let us believe that our prayer will certainly be heard in due time. “Ask,” said the Lord, “and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; press, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). 45. Abba Peter, a disciple of Abba Isaiah, said: My father said: “Correct with courage what requires correction. Only out of purity can true prayer be offered to God” 362. 46. ​​The fear of God and living in exploits and hardships provide remission of sins 363. 47. The prayers and deeds of a person who harbors in his heart anger towards his neighbor and a desire for revenge 364 are in vain. 48. Do not wish to learn about the actions and meetings taking place in the vain world, and do not retell them to others 365. 49. Constantly listen to the thoughts that speak to you inside you, and pray to God to grant you to understand which of these thoughts should be obeyed and which to reject 366. 50. Try your best not to say one thing with your lips while having another in your heart 367 . 51. He said: “He who submits himself before God in understanding and obeys the commandments in humility achieves love. Love leads to dispassion" 368. 52. The silent one must peer into himself hourly to see if he has passed the demons that hold souls in the air? did he free himself from them while still in earthly life? He is not freed if he is enslaved by them; he must strive and ask God for mercy 369. 53. He said: “A person who continues to be convicted by his conscience is far from the mercy of God” 370. 54. In response to my request for an edifying word, Abba Isaiah said: “If you want to follow our Lord Jesus Christ, then keep His commandments. If you want to crucify your old man with Him, then remove from yourself those who drive you from the cross, and prepare your heart to endure humiliation complacently, to love those who insult you, to humble yourself before everyone, to curb your desires. Be silent with your tongue and lips, do not condemn anyone in your heart" 371. 55. Again he said: “The silent one must combine with his breath the feeling of the fear of God and constantly think about how to appear before the judgment of God. There is no fear of God in a person if his heart obeys sin; he is still far from God’s mercy” 372. 56. Again he said: “It’s a difficult state when there is holiness on the lips, but lawlessness and malice in the heart” 373. 57. Again he said: “If a person does not decide to take on the feat with such selflessness as one feels when preparing for a violent death, and does not make his body similar to the body in which the God-Man came to us, then he will not be able to appear before Him in joy and will not be freed from bitter slavery.” Having told this, he exclaimed: “Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! where has my soul fallen! in what purity it was created! What slavery is he in now! how entangled in vanity!” 374. 58. He also said: “I beg you: while you are in the body, do not leave your heart unguarded for a moment. Just as a farmer cannot recognize his fruit as reliable while it is in the field, and does not know what can happen to it until the time it is stored in the storerooms: so the ascetic cannot leave his heart unguarded, “until there is breath in his nostrils” (Job 27:3). Until the very death of a person, passions retain the ability to rebel in him and he does not know when and what passion will arise; for this reason, as long as he breathes, he should not abandon vigilant observation of his heart; he must constantly cry out to God, begging Him for help and mercy” 375. 59. I asked him: “Father! What is humility, and how is it acquired? Abba answered: “Humility consists in having obedience, cutting off the will of the fallen nature, depressing oneself with exploits, loving purity, complacently and patiently enduring insults and insults from one’s neighbor. This is humility" 376. 60. He said: “Blessed is he who has put on the new man before he appears at the judgment seat of Christ: because “flesh and blood,” as the Apostle says, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). 61. He also cited the following words of the Apostle: “Where there is envy and zeal and strife in you, are you not of the flesh and walking after men?” (1 Cor. 3:3). 62. He said: “That is why our enemies cruelly oppress us, because we did not know with due detail and accuracy our weaknesses and sins, and did not acquire weeping in the spiritual mind. If crying were revealed in us, it would make our sins obvious to us. If we saw our sins for what they really are, we would be overcome with such shame that we would not dare to look our brothers in the face, giving preference to everyone before ourselves. We would consider ourselves the worst harlots! they sin in ignorance of God, and we, who know God, serve sin, along with harlots, in our hearts” 377. 63. He said: “The sign of a doer of virtues is when he constantly maintains self-reproach, cuts off his will before his neighbor for the sake of God, does not allow the suggestions of the enemy to produce their effect, keeps his mind sober, awake, throws himself at the feet of the Lord Jesus in his mind, tries to mortify the desires of the fallen nature, so as not to be separated from the beloved Lord Jesus. He who clings to his fallen will cannot be at peace with true Christians: because cowardice, anger and irritability are present in his heart. He who says, “What is the importance if I see or hear this or that,” is like a blind man who, no matter where he is brought in or taken out, does not see the light. A small cloud, having found itself in the sun, crosses the action of both its light and its warmth: understand from this example the effect of little things on the ascetic, which is not understood by those who do not know the essentials of monastic life” 378. 64. He said again: “A person busy with the incessant contemplation of his sins has no tongue for empty and many conversations” 379. 65. Again he said: “Hate everything worldly and even bodily peace: because they make you an enemy of God. Just as a warrior who has an opponent fights with him, so we must fight with the body, not allowing it to bask and relax from excessive tranquility” 380. The body, pampered by excessive calm and nutrition, becomes plump, especially capable of laziness, and acquires exclusively carnal sensations; it communicates these sensations and whiteness to the heart. Carnal lust and the capacity for anger and rage are unusually intensified in such a body and in such a heart. When these passions become agitated, their effect is so strong that the mind can neither curb them nor resist them: it is overthrown and carried away by them. 66. Again he said: “A true ascetic, a true lover of God, must listen to every thought of his and consider whether it is carnal? As long as the old man acts in any member of him, he will not be recognized as a virgin” 381. 67. I asked him: “What does the petition pronounced in the Gospel prayer, “Hallowed be Thy name,” mean? He said: “This petition belongs to those who have achieved perfection. In us, possessed by passions, it is impossible to sanctify the name of God” 382. 68. He repeated the saying of the ancient Fathers: “Hermitage consists of flight from the body and constant remembrance of death” 383. 69. He said about peace with others: “Where there is no peace, God does not dwell there. He who sees his sins is also familiar with the world. Forgiveness of sins is achieved not by place, but by humility. David, having fallen into the sin of adultery and murder, did not find any other sacrifice acceptable to God except a contrite and humble spirit” 384. 70. Again he said: “Cowardice and reproach of one’s neighbor confuses the thought and does not allow it to see the light of God” 385. 71. Again he said: “Make every effort to avoid the following three passions that corrupt the soul: the love of profit and acquisitions, the love of honor from people and the love of bodily peace. If they conquer the soul, they will deprive it of prosperity” 386. 72. Again he said: “If, while you are silent in your cell, the thought comes to you to condemn your brother, then judge him by considering your sins, recognizing your sins as more significant than your brother’s sins. If you consider some of your deeds to be good, then do not think about them, so that they may be pleasing to God. Healthy members of the body take care of the sick, and until health returns to them, they serve them because of their natural union with them. When mutual sorrow is encountered, the hard-hearted one says in his heart that he is not at all to blame, but the humble one blames himself, and not his brother, saying: I have sinned. The proud one is infected in his heart with the thought that he is wise and has never offended anyone; He who has the fear of God in himself takes care not to make omissions in any virtue” 387. 73. Again he said: “Whilst living a life of silence and performing prayerful service to God with your mind with the silence of your lips, if you see that your heart will deviate into something not pleasing to God, then do not consider that such infatuation is not a sin, but only absent-mindedness caused by extraneous thoughts. If such absent-mindedness is not a sin, then your prayer, performed with the mind alone, is not true prayer. If you affirm that God accepts prayer of the heart, performed with the silence of the lips, then obedience to evil, committed by the heart alone, is imputed to man by God as a sin.” – I asked you to explain this to me. He said: “He who does not find help during battle cannot have peace of heart.”388 74. Again he said: “It is dangerous to teach your neighbor prematurely, so as not to fall into what your neighbor is warned against by teaching. He who falls into sin cannot teach how not to fall into it” 389. 75. He spoke about communion of the Holy Mysteries: “Woe is me! Woe is me! Without ceasing to be drawn into fellowship with the enemies of God, how can I have fellowship with God? From this it follows that I take communion for judgment and self-reproof. Before the presentation of the gifts, the words are proclaimed: “Holy to Holies.” This means: holy people are invited to the holy Mysteries. If I am holy, then who are these who bring sin into action in me 390? 76. I asked him: “What is the fear of God?” He answered: “There is no fear of God in anyone who is carried away by something displeasing to God” 391. 77. Again I asked him: “Who is God’s servant?” He answered: “He who works with passions is not recognized as a servant of God: he is a slave of the one who possesses him” 392. 78. Again he said: “Woe is me! Woe is me! I did not take care to acquire purity and holiness, which result in the mercy of God. Woe to me, unfortunate one! I did not strive to overcome my enemies, for which the kingdom with Christ is given. An unfaithful slave will not dare to approach his Master. Woe is me! Woe is me! I bear the name of Your name, my Lord, and I serve Your enemies. Alas! Alas! I delight in what my King abhors, and therefore He does not heal me” 393. 79. Once I visited Abba while he was sick. I found him very suffering from illness. He noticed my sadness caused by his serious illness and said to me: “Depressed by such an illness, I barely brought myself to remember the bitter hour of death. This memory would be foreign to me if my body were healthy. Actually, carnal health does not bring any benefit: seeking to support itself solely for itself, it enters into a mood hostile to God. A tree watered daily will not dry out, but will bear its own fruit. Sorrow in the flesh serves as an aid to preserving the commandments of God” 394. The ascetic must maintain the health and strength of the body so that the body retains the ability to serve God. Excessive development of health and plumpness in the body introduces it into a difficult carnal state, arouses in it bestial movements and attractions with irresistible force, and robs it of all ability to experience spiritual sensations. Anyone who makes his body light through moderate fasting and vigil will give it the most lasting health and make it capable of receiving and preserving spiritual movements, that is, the action of the Holy Spirit. 80. Again he said: “A person needs great courage of heart to keep the commandments of God” 395. 81. Again he said: “Woe is me! Woe is me! My accusers, known and unknown to me, stand before me, and I cannot refute their accusations. Alas! Alas! Having such accusers, how will I appear before my Lord? How can I appear in the congregation of His saints, when my enemies have not left a single member of mine undefiled?” 396 82. I asked him: “What should a silent person observe?” He answered: “The silent person needs the following three actions: constant remaining in fear and distrust of himself, unceasing aspiration to God in prayer asking for help and mercy, and constant vigilance over the heart.” 397 83. Again he said: “A silent person must guard himself from hearing any unhelpful word. Otherwise, he will ruin all his work” 398. 84. Abba Isaiah told the following about Abba Serapion: “A certain elder asked him: “Show love, tell me how you see yourself?” Abba Serapion answered: “I see myself like someone standing on a watchtower, examining the area around him and giving a sign with his hand to those who are approaching him so that they do not approach.” To this the elder who asked him said to him: “And I, as it were, surrounded myself with a solid fence with iron gates, so that I would not even hear the arrival of the one who would come to me and start knocking, so as not to find out who he was, where he came from, what he needed. So I don’t open the door for him, and he leaves” 399. 85. Abba Isaiah said: whoever seeks the Lord with illness of the heart, the Lord listens to his prayer and fulfills his petitions, if they are offered in the spiritual mind, if the one praying in contrition of spirit cares about his salvation, if he is not entangled in anything worldly, if he works in the fear of God according to his strength to present his soul blameless to the judgment of God 400. 86. Abba Isaiah said: “Love to be silent rather than to speak: from silence the mind concentrates in itself; from verbosity he falls into absent-mindedness" 401. 87. He said: “Faithful servant of Christ! keep your work secret, and take care of your heart disease, so as not to ruin the reward of your deed because of man-pleasing. He who does something for show to people is deprived of his reward, as the Lord said” 402. 88. He said: “Flee vanity, and you will be rewarded with glory in the next century” 403. 89. He said: “Humiliation of oneself is the place in which peace is found” 404. 90. He said: “A novice monk moving from monastery to monastery is like a horse that rushes from the bridle in different directions” 405. 91. Abba Isaiah spoke about the new monks who gave themselves up in obedience to their spiritual fathers: “The color with which the scarlet was originally painted cannot be erased from the scarlet by anything” 406. This means: the initial direction that a monk receives when he enters a monastery remains with him, to a greater or lesser extent, for the rest of his life. 92. He also spoke about the novices: “A newly planted tree, if they do not water it carefully, dries up: the same thing happens with the novices” 407. They need constant edification according to the moral tradition of the Church. 93. He also said the following about beginners: “Nothing is so useful to beginners as humiliation. What daily watering is to a newly planted tree, it is humiliation to a newly planted tree” 408. Humiliation in its various forms was very much used in the education of monks, when the elders abounded in grace-filled gifts, and the new ones with zeal and power of will. Through humiliation, heartfelt humility was developed, which soon raised the worker through the degrees of spiritual success to a state of grace. This spiritual healing, while retaining all its dignity in itself, in our time requires special prudence when using it. Prudence demands from a modern elder that, looking closely at his own success, he should not impose on his neighbor such burdens as he himself did not bear and is not able to bear. Cruel humiliation in our time can crush a beginner and upset him forever. It is replaced, not without success, by correct, meek denunciation of the mistakes of the beginner and careful edification of him. 94. Abba Isaiah said about the novices: “The novices, who have given themselves over to obedience to their fathers, are like soft branches that bend comfortably into a hoop” 409. 95. He said: “He who speaks is not wise, but he who knows the time when he should speak. Be silent in your mind, and speak in your mind; Before you start speaking, discuss what you should say; say what is necessary and necessary; Do not boast of your intelligence and do not think that you know more than others. The essence of monastic life is to reproach yourself and consider yourself worse than everyone else” 410. 96. He said: “For five reasons, fornication intensifies: 1) from idle talk, 2) from vanity, 3) from too much sleep, 4) from the love of beautiful clothes, 5) from satiety. Let him who wishes to remove from himself the abuse of fornication be kept from the mentioned reasons for it: let him replace idle talk with prayer, vanity with the humility of Christ, much sleep with vigil, fine clothes with rags, gluttony with abstinence from excess in food. Passions hold on to one another, like links in a chain” 411. 97. He said: “If God wants to have mercy on a soul, but it persists and does not obey, but acts according to its damaged will, then God allows it sorrows that it would not want to have, so that in this way this soul will seek God.”412. 98. He said: “Let us remember Him who had no place to lay His head. Consider this, man, and do not be arrogant about yourself. Consider who He is and what He has done for you. Your master spent his earthly life as a wanderer, without a home. Your indescribable love for mankind is amazing, Our Lord! How You humbled Yourself to such humiliation for my sake! If the One who created everything in one word did not have where to lay his head, then you, unfortunate person, why do you indulge in worries about vanity, why are you blinded by insane hunger? Consider this and choose what is good for yourself” 413. 99. The same Abba Isaiah also pronounced the following teaching: “A prudent rich man keeps his treasures in the inner compartments of his house: because treasure exposed to the outside is exposed to the predation of thieves and is slandered by the powerful of this world. Likewise, a humble and virtuous monk hides his virtues and does not fulfill the wishes of his fallen nature. He reproaches himself hourly and is engaged in secret teaching, following the instruction of the Holy Scriptures, which says: my heart is warmed, and “in my teaching a fire will burn” (Ps. 38:4). What kind of fire are we talking about here? About God: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). Fire melts wax and dries up the mire of foul impurities: so with 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 hearts. Secret teaching stings demons, drives away evil thoughts: the inner man is revived by it. God strengthens the one who is armed with secret teaching; the angels teach him strength; 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, giving it a state of steadfastness. The demons are very confused and say, as the monk arms himself with a secret teaching, which is contained in the Jesus Prayer and is pronounced like this: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. Reading in solitude promotes success in learning. 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, compassionate vigil, and untroubled prayer. Secret teaching is a prayer treasure. The secret teaching instructs longsuffering and abstinence; it announces to its communicant about Gehenna. Secret teaching keeps the mind dreamless and brings it contemplation of death. Secret teaching is full of all good deeds, adorned with all virtue, and is uninvolved and alien to all bad deeds” 414. 100. Abba Elisha, a disciple of Abba Isaiah, said: “In my youth, I suffered from an illness from which I was near death. My father, making special efforts to cure me, daily invited doctors to see me. The doctors, having worked a lot, did not have time to do anything and finally told my father: the young man will die before the end of three days. My father, hearing this, was struck with grief. Shedding tears, he hurried to the church of St. Mark the Evangelist and found there, as he later said, an elderly monk. Seeing my father sad, the monk said to him: “What is the matter with you, Mr. Procopius? What are you grieving about? My father answered: “He who revealed my name to you will also reveal the reason for my sadness.” The elder said: “Let’s go to your house.” The elder, having come to our house, visited me and said to my father: “Bring your wife.” My mother was Christ-loving and monastic-loving; my father hated monks. The elder told him: “God is looking for you to fulfill the three commandments, and if you keep them, he will give life to your son.” My father said: “I bear witness to the holy Evangelist Mark to fulfill what you command me.” The elder said: “For fifteen years now you have been committing adultery and fornication, desecrating your wife’s bed; For this, God flogged your five children with premature death. Second: do not marry this young man, but allow him to enter monasticism. Third: no longer be in communication with the Arians and Theodosians.” My father said to him: “I will keep your words all the days of my life.” The elder prayed, and I recovered on the third day. After that I lived with my father for three years. After their expiration, my father betrothed me to the niece of the hegemon’s wife. When my father was preparing everything necessary for the marriage, a fierce demon became attached to the young woman engaged to me and began to torment her mercilessly. For seventeen months, her parents and my father took her everywhere to churches, giving alms, even bringing her to the wise men and sorcerers, but they did not have time at all: the girl fell into a worse state. With general consent and advice, they bring her to Father Macarius 415. I went there with her, and my father. The elder, taking the oil and saying a prayer over it, ordered the girl’s mother to wash her and then anoint her with oil from head to foot. When she was anointed, the demon began to cry out: “Woe, woe!” Having emerged from the maidenhood, he attacked me and tormented me seven times more. So I spent thirty days, cruelly tormented by a demon. And then comes the old man who had previously spoken to my father and healed me of my illness. His father saw him and ran away from him. The elder took me and brought me to his cell; Having spent the whole night in prayer and kneeling, he drove the demon away from me, then shaved off the hair of my head, clothed me in a monastic image and handed me over to Abba Isaiah. Abba Isaiah also had another disciple named Peter. I lived with Abba for nine months. My father, having heard about what had happened to me, sent four servants to me, with seven camels, laden with all kinds of food supplies and vegetables, and also sent a letter. Taking the letter and reading it, I cried. Father Isaiah, seeing the letter in my hands, took it out of my hands and tore it up. When I was indignant for this, the elder began to reproach me in the presence of my father’s servants. From that hour the demon of hatred seized me; I could not see the elder or hear his voice; I looked at him as if he were a buffoon; his words seemed to me like arrows, a two-edged sword. Standing with him at prayers and vigils, I cursed him. Because of the great hatred and disgust that I received towards him, I got up several times at night to kill him, but stopped, fearing another disciple Peter who lived with us. The elder did not cease to instruct me, sometimes exhorting me, sometimes threatening me. When I went to take communion to St. Tain, then he rebuked me and drove me away with reproaches; He also excommunicated me from the meal, saying: “I will not give you food until you say: I have sinned, forgive me.” But I did the opposite: I stole and ate in secret. When the elder stood in prayer, I sat; when he practiced vigils, I slept; when he cried, I laughed: I was so obedient to the demon! The demon began to show me strange dreams about the old man in my dreams: I, unfortunate one, believed these dreams, and then I often began to see in reality what had previously appeared to me in a dream. Thus, confidence crept into me about the nasty and unclean thoughts against the elder that flowed from my heart and confused me, and I began to agree with them. The demons confused me internally with thoughts, and externally they excited me, appearing to me like ghosts, into rage, anger and grief. The demon of pride, or better to say, destruction, was created by my teacher; What he taught me secretly and secretly, I began to pronounce in front of everyone. Sitting, I said to myself in grief: “Who is this flatterer and hypocrite of low birth! I, being of such a city and of such a kind, the son of noble parents, boiling with wealth, having so many different livestock, became a student, or in essence a slave! I stand before him as a servant; I serve water to my hands, prepare meals, carry water, collect firewood, I work for him like a slave! he should work and obey me, not I him! how many troubles, griefs, grief and sadness, reproaches and misfortunes I suffered from him! how much he forced me to hunger, thirst, watch and lie on the bare ground! how much he humiliated me! how much harm he did to me!” When the demon inspired this in me, I gave myself over to anger more and more, considering myself to be offended and to have suffered a lot. The thought told me: “Get away from the damned one and stay alone in your cell, like all the fathers: he is not a monk and not a Christian.” From such thoughts I began to again see dreams about the old man, as if he were playing with a woman and jumping in front of idols; Trusting my dreams, I became convinced that the old man was the enemy of God and a friend to demons. Far from the Skete, about nine furlongs away, there was a Greek church, among which stood a marble idol. The elder had the custom of leaving the Skete every Saturday and, sitting in the temple, indulging in tears; There were also coffins of pagans there. And it appeared to me in a dream not once, but several times, that the old man was making sacrifices and worshiping idols, and I considered these dreams to be true. One day, at the hour at which the elder usually went to the church, having warned him, I left the cell and hid inside the church in the bushes; I see an old man walking, with a woman ahead of him. A woman entered: I see she is praying and worshiping an idol; when she finished the prayer, I see the elder came, worshiped the idol, kissed his wife and fell into fornication with her. Then the elder returned to the Skete, and the wife to the meadow. I saw this clearly seven times, and firmly convinced of this, I began to sit outside the cell and say to the brethren who came to the elder for the sake of benefit: “Brothers! this father is a fornicator and an idolater; you are seduced when you come to him!” In this way I spoke to the monks who came to the elder for four months. But no matter how much I tried to prevent them from coming to the elder, they, guided by the grace of God, continued to go to him. Seeing this, I, the unfortunate one, lamented and, raising my hands to the sky, exclaimed: “Lord! grant me patience! I, unhappy and passionate, thought that I was suffering for the sake of truth, and, like one who practices virtue, I said, sighing: “Glory to Thee, God! From what honor to what dishonor have I come, and what have I become!” - and cried. The elder, seeing me in this position, said: “Good child! cleanse your heart, humble your thoughts, love the humility of Christ, abhor pride, and pay attention to yourself.” When he said this, I was angry, upset and embarrassed; his words seemed to me like kindled arrows, consuming me. When I sat with him at a meal, the food seemed to me a stench and I was disgusted to the point that not once or twice, but many times I rejected it. The thought internally did not cease to confuse me, saying: “Get away from the elder’s cell, and, if possible, from the Skete: looking at this elder, you will not be able to be saved.” I said to myself: “Why do I endure such suffering? in the world I have not fallen into fornication, nor into adultery, nor into theft, nor into murder.” The thought, or more correctly, the demon told me: “You are suffering justly: you insulted your father, mother, relatives and friends, you left the holy fathers, you came to monk with this deceiver, of vicious morality, merciless and impudent.” The demon instilled this in me and found me ready to accept nasty and evil thoughts; being buried in darkness, I thought I was walking in the light; being Satan, he considered himself a monk, and instead of blaspheming and condemning himself, he condemned the servant of God. When I was in such a storm of confusion of thoughts, my father informed me by letter that my mother was dying; come, he wrote, to see her before she dies. After reading the letter, I told Father Peter: “I’m leaving; I need to see my mother.” The brother went and told the elder about this. The elder came to me and began to say: “Good child! abide here with patience, for the sake of God, abandoning attachment to father and mother: we have Father and Mother in God; His providence will arrange something beneficial for both us and your parents. If you disobey me and go, then you will not bring any benefit to your parents, and you will harm yourself. Subsequently, you will greatly regret your action, but it will be too late. However, your retreat will punish you.” Hearing this from the elder, and, by the action of the demons, inflamed with anger, I answered him: “Deceiver, idolater, fornicator and adulterer! Do you want to make me like you, an idolater and a fornicator? The elder answered this: “The grace of God is in your mouth, child!” I kept shouting, “Deceiver! idolater! - so many of the fathers flocked to my voice, and all the elders reproached and cursed me. I, instigated by the demon, grabbed my clothes, tore them in anger from top to bottom and, throwing them in the elder’s face, walked out of the cell naked. Having entered the cell of one of the elders, he stole his festive clothes and went to Alexandria. I found my mother already dead, and my father sick. After three days, my father also died. While I was taking care of the remaining rich inheritance and repenting of having accepted monasticism, evening came. I lay down on the bed and, thinking about Skete and Father Isaiah, I said with groaning: “Glory to Thee, Christ, my God! You delivered me from the deceiver, the lying old man.” I had scarcely uttered these words when I heard a voice like thunder. The voice said: “Destruction and destruction to the house of Prokopius!” The wind immediately rose and the house caught fire from all four corners. I jumped up in embarrassment and barely had time to run out of the house with everyone else in the house: the fire engulfed it from all sides. The inhabitants of Alexandria flocked, but could not give any help: the flames devoured even the stones. I stood disgraced and ashamed, thinking about what had happened; out of great sadness and despondency, he went to the church of St. Mina and threw himself on the church platform. Again the demon, taking on the likeness of a martyr, said to me: “Know that Father Isaiah is to blame for everything that happened to you.” Having come to my senses, I said: “Exactly! This deceiver is a sorcerer, and he sent demons to burn my house.” In the morning, getting up, I went to the patriarch and said: “Master! take revenge for me on the idolater, the father of Isaiah: with his sorcery he burned down my house and everything that was in the house.” The Patriarch told me: “Let flattering lips be dumb, slandering the iniquity of the righteous” (Ps. 30:19). When the patriarch said these words, I saw Murin, who began to beat me with a fiery rod and clothed me in iron armor; I fell at the feet of the patriarch, furious. Then the patriarch stretched out his hand to me, and the bonds of my tongue were loosened. But I spent seven months tormented by the fierce Belial, and presenting myself to everyone as a spectacle worthy of regret. It was necessary to bind me with iron chains; I beat myself and everyone around me, I ate human waste. Christ-loving people, feeling sorry for me, clothed me, because I wandered naked, tormenting my flesh and clothes, torturing myself and pushing those I met. From the lack of food, from the dirt and uncleanness in which I lay and wallowed, my body was covered with scabs, like scales. The Christ-lovers of the city of Alexandria, seeing some of the fathers of Scete, brought them to me; but the fathers, seeing me, did not recognize me. Then the Christ-lovers said: “This is the son of Procopius, who took monasticism from Abba Isaiah.” The fathers said: “Show love, take him to Skete.” The lovers of Christ found a guide with a camel, gave him a gold coin and, tying my hands and feet, sent me to the Skete. The skete fathers gathered in the great church, held an all-night vigil, prayed for me and, anointing my whole body with oil, drove the demon away from me; however, wounds and scabs continued to torment me. Then I, unworthy and sinful, told them in detail everything that had happened to me, told everyone my misfortune and begged them to show me mercy: they begged the elder to accept me for repentance and not allow a new temptation from the demon to come to me. The elders went and brought Father Peter, another disciple of Abba Isaiah, who was with me. He, seeing me lying, and my body, bent from wounds and scabs (the fathers, wanting to bend the elder to mercy and regret, took off the clothes I was in and laid me naked on a mat), threw himself on me, and there was no end to his tears. I lay there in awe, not daring to look at him. Having cried enough, Father Peter stood up, taking some of the fathers, went and brought Father Isaiah. When I saw the elder coming towards me, I cried out: “Servant of God, have mercy on me, deceived by the demon! do not leave me in complete joy and joy to the soul-destroying enemy! I have been punished enough, I was tortured justly!” The elder, weeping quite a bit, said to me: “Child! Have you realized that fall is a punishment for the proud? I said: “I know it, my father! I learned from what happened to me, and learned from what I was exposed to! I believed that the Lord rewards everyone justly according to his deeds.” The elder, marking me with the sign of the cross, said: “May God, the creator of every creature, forgive the past and correct the future.” They laid me on a bed and carried me to my cell. A few days later I was healed by the grace of Christ and the prayers of the elder. The words of the prophet were fulfilled on me: “You will bind their jaws with bridles and bridles, those who do not come near you” (Ps. 31:9). And again: “many are the wounds of the sinner” (Ps. 31:10). The fathers of Scete, seeing that everything that happened to me was worthy of being written, called Pionius, a skilled red-writer, and ordered me to tell him everything with accuracy and detail. The Krasnoscriber, having written the story, placed it in the first book, which contains articles about the dreams and temptations of demons. After this, I already stayed with my father Isaiah, obeying him in everything.” 101. Brothers! be silent, each one in his cell, with the fear of God, work in your handicrafts and do not neglect teaching and frequent prayer. Keep your heart from alien thoughts and do not get carried away into thinking about any person or about any object of this age. Continuously examine where you stumble and try to correct yourself, praying to God with pain in your heart, with tears, in the mortification of your flesh, that He will forgive you the sins you have committed and will save you from repeating them in the future. 102. Have death before your eyes every day. May you be constantly concerned about how you will be separated from your body, how you will be able to pass through the region of the powers of darkness that will meet you in the air, how you will appear safely before God. Prepare for the terrible day of answer at God’s judgment, as if already seeing it. Then all the deeds, words and thoughts of each of you will receive their reward: “all of God is naked and declared before the eyes” of Him (Heb. 4:13), to whom we must present an account in our earthly life. 103. At meals and in church meetings, do not say anything except when absolutely necessary. 104. Without the same necessity, do not enter each other’s cells and do not allow yourself untimely meetings. 105. Do not be curious about your brother’s cell activities, and do not want to know who works more, he or you. 106. When going out for general obedience, do not idle talk and do not allow yourself to freely communicate with each other: let everyone, in the fear of God, pay attention to himself, to his work and to the teaching in the secret of the soul. 107. When the church service or meal is over, do not stop to sit together and talk, below, about Divine objects: let everyone rush to his cell, and there let him mourn his sins. 108. When the need requires you to speak one to another, speak with humility and reverence, as befits the presence of God, who is constantly present with us; talk, shortening the conversation as much as possible. 109. Do not argue with each other on any matter, do not speak ill of anyone, do not judge anyone, do not condemn or humiliate anyone either in word or in your heart, do not grumble at anyone, do not suspect anyone of any evil. 110. Let no lies come out of your mouth. 111. Do not allow yourself to hear or speak about anything unprofitable for your souls. 112. Do not allow anger towards your neighbor, hatred and envy towards him to remain in your heart. 113. Let not one thing be on your lips and another in your heart. “God is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7): He sees both the secret and the obvious equally 416. 114. Do not hide any of your thoughts, any sorrow, any desire, any suspicion of your neighbor that causes confusion in you: confess them with all sincerity to your Abba 417, and whatever you hear from him, try to accept with faith 418. 115. I beseech you, brethren: study the purpose for which you left the world, and take care of your salvation, so that your renunciation does not remain fruitless, so that you are not put to shame before God and before His saints, who renounced the world for His sake and labored truly 419. 116. Excessive self-restraint, allowing oneself to indulge in excesses and vanity ruin all the work of a monk 420. 117. If you are traveling with brethren, then go somewhat away from them in order to maintain silence. On the way, do not look back and forth, but occupy your mind with teaching, and pray to God in your heart. 118. Wherever you go, do not allow yourself to be treated freely: observe modesty in all respects. 119. At night, before you go to bed, pour out many prayers to God. 120. When sitting at a meal, remember your sins: this will protect you from enjoying food when you eat it. Stretch out your hand only to what is offered before you, but do not stretch out your hand to what is offered before others. 121. Do not open your mouth to laugh: this is a sign of an absent-minded and careless soul, alien to the fear of God. 122. Having seen your neighbor’s clothes or belt, or cowl, or some other thing, do not allow yourself to desire any of this; do not fulfill your wishes by arranging such things for yourself. 123. Having purchased a book, do not decorate it with an elegant binding: because this is also the satisfaction of the heart’s passion. 124. If you are given handicraft, then do not do it carelessly: take care to complete it with the fear of God and not sin through ignorance. 125. When learning handicraft, constantly consult with the one teaching you; do not be ashamed to ask him often, saying: “Show love, see whether I am doing well or not.” 126. Upon your return to the monastery from absence, do not tell anyone what you saw and heard outside the monastery, and do not keep it in your memory. 127. If you keep your ears, you will not sin with your tongue. 128. Every morning, get up from sleep, before starting to do needlework, engage in prayer and the word of God. 129. Great is he who obeys his brother. 130. If, during your wanderings, you are received by someone into a house, and the one who received you leaves, leaving you alone, then do not lift up your eyes to inspect the furnishings of the house; Don’t allow yourself to open any windows, or any box, or book. When the one who received you leaves, ask him to give you a small task during his absence, and carry out this task with diligence. 131. Praise only that whose merits you have verified with your own eyes. Do not talk about what you have only heard about as if you had seen it. 132. Do not show contempt to anyone because of his physical defect. 133. When you get up to perform your cell prayer rule, do not do God’s work carelessly, so that instead of pleasing God, you do not anger God. Stand in prayer with the fear of God. Do not lean on the wall and do not move your legs, standing on one and lightening the other, as the ignorant do. Retain your heart so that it does not wander over the objects of your passion, and God will accept your sacrifice. 134. At the hour of making a bloodless sacrifice, curb your thoughts and feelings. Stand in the fear of God so that you may receive the Holy Mysteries worthily and receive healing from the Lord. 135. When leaving your body neglected, beware that vanity does not creep into you because of this; It is good for a young man to completely neglect the appearance of his body. 136. A young man should by no means wear good clothes until he reaches the age of his husband. This serves as a cure for prodigal passion. 137. Never allow yourself to laugh until your teeth are exposed. 138. Let your face, clothed with modesty, be constantly lowered to the ground. 139. When you go to bed, be girded with your belt, and train your hands so that they do not touch the nakedness of the body: the body combines many sinful sensations and communicates them to the heart. 140. When you walk, keep your hands folded at your waist: do not wave them as the laity does. 141. When going to a city or village, keep your eyes cast downwards, so as not to receive through them a reason for mental confusion upon your return to your cell. 142. When traveling, do not spend the night in a house in which your heart feels the danger of falling into sin. If you hear that a woman will be present at a meal with you in that house, then do not stay there. It is more beneficial for you to offend the person who invited you by refusing, than to commit adultery in the secret of your heart. Don’t even look at women’s clothes, if possible. If a woman meets you on the way and says hello to you, greet her with your eyes lowered to the ground. 143. If some speak in front of you about such sinful thoughts that fight you, then turn away and do not listen to the conversation, which can increase your warfare in you. 144. Force yourself to abundant prayer: prayer is light for the soul. 145. Consider your sins daily, pray for them and God will forgive you for them. 146. Having left your relatives to live in the desert in order to become a stranger on earth for the sake of God, do not allow the sweet memory of them to act in you. If regret about your father or mother, memories of a brother or sister, pity for children, attraction to your spouse begins to disturb you: then remember the inevitable death, when none of them will be able to help you. Why not leave them to you for the sake of virtue? 147. Although you remain silent in your cell, this does not free you from love for your brother and does not give you the right to refuse him if he asks you for any thing. But if this thing is not superfluous to you, and you have a necessary need for it, then do not give it away, so that your silence is not upset because of this. It is better to lose one member than your entire residence. 148. Having been tempted at night by the dream of carnal copulation, guard your heart when the day comes from remembering the images that appeared to you in your dreams and from examining them, so as not to be defiled by the pleasure of such viewing and not to incur the wrath of God. Submit yourself before God with all your heart and He, who is merciful to human weaknesses, will help you. 149. When practicing deeds, do not allow your heart to place hope in them; Don’t get the idea that they are helping you, but say to your thoughts: “Oh! if only God would hear me crying out to Him from the distress of my body through the misery of my body” 421. 150. Having retired to silence in your cell, set yourself to constantly consume such an amount of food that would satisfy the needs of the body, so that it remains capable of the feat performed for the sake of God, and does not force it to leave the cell due to exhaustion. But do not eat any kind of food, neither expensive nor cheap, out of passion for voluptuous desire. 151. If, when you encounter a need, you visit a brother or a cenobitic monastery, then do not allow yourself to become satiated with any tasty food, so that you can easily return to your cell, and there, in your cell, your body will not become your traitor on the basis of the pleasure allowed to it. 152. If demons incline your heart to a feat that exceeds your strength: then do not listen to them. They inflame a person for every task that he cannot do, and he falls into their hands; they rejoice having deceived and caught him. 153. Eat food once a day. Satisfy the needs of your body, however, getting up from the meal unfulfilled and somewhat hungry, so that you can constantly remain in your pious deed. 154. Perform vigils with reason, without denying the body the necessary rest. Perform pious deeds wisely and with humility, so that your soul does not become darkened by excessive vigil and abandon the field altogether. It is enough to use half the night for vigil and half for calming the body. 155. Before you go to bed, spend two hours in prayer and psalmody, then fall asleep. When the Lord awakens you, get up and fulfill your prayer rule with diligence. If you feel laziness in your body, tell it: “Do you really want to rest during this short life, and then be forever cast into utter darkness?” Push yourself a little, and soon vigor and strength will come. 156. If you live near a crowded human society, exhausting your body with exploits for the sake of God, and for this people will honor you, then leave the place and move to another, so that your exploit will not be in vain. 157. If you see that you have a desire to visit different places, then overwhelm your body with labor and handicraft more than usual, so that it learns to remain undisturbed in your cell and eat bread from your sweat. 158. If you go to the city to sell handicrafts, then do not argue about their price, as the laity do. Sell ​​as necessary, so as not to lose the dispensation acquired in the cell. 159. When buying something you need for yourself, do not bargain, do not say: “I will not give you such and such payment anymore.” Force yourself to give as much as they ask. If you do not have enough money, then silently refuse the purchase. Perhaps, with such behavior, thoughts about the necessity of things will outrage you? tell your thoughts: “In every possible way what happened to me was what all the saints were subjected to. God tempted them with poverty until their will proved true. Then abundance was given to them.” 160. If you encounter a need to go to the village where your homeland is, do not freely interact with your relatives according to the flesh, and do not interfere in their conversations. 161. Having borrowed something from your brother for a time, according to your need, do not handle this thing carelessly; take care to return it safely as soon as possible. If this is a tool with which any work is done: then give it back immediately after finishing the work. If you break or damage it, fix it, or replace it with a new and better one. 162. Having lent something, to the best of your ability, to your poor brother, money or clothing, and seeing that he is unable to repay, do not upset him, do not insistently demand the return of this thing. 163. Reveal every thought that causes battle within you to your mentor, and your battle will be eased. Out of shame, do not allow yourself to hide any such thoughts, because demons find a place for themselves only in that person who hides his thoughts, both good and evil. 164. If a brother, through foolishness, is deceived by the teachings of heretics and deviates from the Orthodox faith, but then, having changed his mind, returns to it again: then do not show him contempt, because he fell into error through ignorance. 165. Do not allow yourself to enter into conversation with heretics, under the pretext of defending the faith, lest you be wounded by the poison with which their words are saturated. 166. Having found a heretical book, do not allow yourself to read it, lest your heart be filled with deadly poison. Stay in the teaching with which the Holy Church has enlightened you, without adding anything to it or subtracting anything from it. Guard yourself from “false reason” (1 Tim. 6:20), which “is opposed to sound teaching” (1 Tim. 1:10), as the Apostle says. 167. Young monk! Having not acquired full training in physical feats and having heard about the high virtues of the fathers, do not rush recklessly to acquire them, thinking to acquire them directly and without prior training in bodily feats. You cannot acquire them without preparing and cultivating yourself. If you prepare yourself by carefully cultivating yourself through physical deeds, then these virtues will come to you by themselves. 168. Guard against laziness: it destroys all the fruit of a monk’s labors. 169. When struggling against passions and spiritual disturbances, do not weaken, but submit yourself before God, saying from the sincerity of your heart: “Lord! I cannot resist them on my own: send Your help.” And you will calm down. 170. If, while you are silent in your cell, the seeds of filth (carnal lust) begin to sow in your heart: be careful, resist this attraction of your soul, so that it does not prevail over you. Try to remember God and that He is co-present with you, that what you think in your heart is open to Him. Tell your soul: “If you are ashamed of sinners like you and are afraid that they will not see your sins, how much more should you be ashamed and fear God, before whom everything is open.” Such reflection awakens the fear of God in the soul. When you are established in it, passions will cease to shake you, as Scripture testifies: “he who trusts in the Lord is like Mount Zion: he does not move for the living age in Jerusalem” (Ps. 125:1). 171. May your heart not rejoice if, during a feat, in battle against the passions and spirits that have rebelled against you, you notice that it is weakening and retreating from you. The main forces of evil spirits usually stand in their rear ranks. As the leading regiments take flight, the spirits at the same time prepare for a battle more fierce than the initial clash. They set up an ambush on the side of the city, giving it the order not to move, and when you attack them with your feat, they flee from you, pretending to be exhausted before you. When your heart is lifted up with pride and you imagine that you have driven them away, that the city is almost in your hands: then those who fled suddenly stop in front of you, and those hiding in ambush rise from it to your rear; the unfortunate soul, surrounded by them everywhere, has no opportunity to escape anywhere. The city in which one can find refuge in such a calamity is God. Surrender yourself with all your heart before Him: He will save you from all the temptations of the enemy. 172. If you pray to God to free you from the sinful warfare that oppresses you, and you remain unheard by God, then do not fall into sadness because of this. God knows what is good for you better than you. When praying to God during a battle, do not say: “Free me from this or give me this.” Say in your prayer like this: “Lord Jesus Christ! help me, do not allow me, lost, to remain in my sin; do not allow me to follow my will; do not allow my sins to destroy me; have mercy on Your creation. I am weak: do not despise me! I have come running to You: do not leave me; Heal my soul like those who have sinned. All are cold before You, and I have no other refuge, my Lord, than You. God! save me according to Your great mercy: “let all who rebel against me be ashamed and disgraced,” “let them seek my soul, take it away” (Ps. 39:15). God! “all things are possible for You, and through You we glorify God the Father and God the Holy Spirit forever.” Then your conscience will mysteriously tell your heart why God does not heed your request. It’s up to you not to neglect the suggestions of your conscience and to do what it proposes to do. Know that God does not listen to the prayer of only such a person who himself disobeys God. God is close to every person, but our fulfillment of our desires, which are contrary to His will, does not allow Him to hear us. Don't let self-delusion deceive you! Just as the earth cannot bear fruit by itself, without being sown and watered, so a person cannot bear spiritual fruit without suffering, produced by an ascetic life, and without humility 422. The word suffering refers to bodily exploits and deprivations. A monk who wants to free himself from the power of passions must certainly take upon himself the yoke of exploits and hardships. Deeds and hardships should not exceed legal limits, that is, they should not exceed strength and not destroy health; otherwise, immensity can damage and destroy the entire life. The legitimate measure of satisfying the demands of the body is to give it only what it needs, and not to give it something that serves only pleasure and bliss, not to give what one whimsical desire seeks. This applies to all types of satisfaction of bodily needs: food, sleep, clothing, cell supplies, and the cell itself. From the satisfaction of whimsical desires, pampering, carnal and voluptuous sensations and moods appear in the body, communicated by the body to the heart, and by the heart to the soul and mind. Then the carnal life begins to predominate in a person, suppressing the aspirations of the spirit and giving the passions an easy victory. 173. God first created everything visible and invisible, then man. He created man in His own image and likeness, honored him with the dignity of a king over visible creation, and placed him in paradise. Man's feelings were in a state of integrity, in accordance with his immaculate nature. When he listened to the seducer: then his feelings were distorted and passed into an unnatural state; man is cast out from a state of glory. The Lord, out of His great love for our family, showed mercy to them. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14), became a man in the full sense of the word, similar to us in everything except sin. In Himself He returned the perverted nature to the primitive nature: thus He saved man. He opened the enclosed paradise to him, reviving His followers through the holy resurrection, walking in the commandments He taught to humanity. He has given us the power to overcome those who robbed us of our glory. He gave us holy service to God and a pure law, so that man, through them, could ascend to the natural state in which he was created by God. He who wishes to come to a natural state cuts off all his carnal desires in order to achieve a natural predominance of the spirit over the flesh. 174. There is natural lust, without which love for God is impossible. This lust is transformed by the enemy into passionate lust. 175. There is natural zeal, without which success in the work of God is impossible. This jealousy has changed into unnatural, and we are jealous against each other, envy each other and lie to each other. 176. There is natural anger, without which it is impossible to acquire purity; It is impossible to acquire it if we are not angry at everything that the enemy instills in us. This anger has been replaced in us by anger at our neighbors for the most insignificant, insignificant reasons. 177. There is natural hatred, and without hatred of sin and demons the glory of the soul is not revealed. This hatred has turned into an unnatural hatred of our neighbor. Carried away by it, we become infected with disgust for our neighbor; it drives all virtues out of a person. 178. It is natural for our spirit to have a sublime feeling of contempt for our demonic enemies; but this feeling has been distorted: we have bowed our necks to the demons, and we exalt ourselves one above the other, we hurt each other, each recognizing himself as more righteous than his neighbor. With our pride we make God our enemy. 179. All these properties were created with man and turned into shameful passions from the time man poisoned himself by disobedience to God. 180. Let us make every possible effort to eliminate passions from ourselves and restore human qualities in ourselves in the state in which our Lord Jesus Christ revealed them in Himself. He is holy and dwells in the saints alone 423. 181. Let us remain in the fear of God, preserving and observing the virtues by practicing them, not doing anything against our conscience, but being attentive to ourselves in the fear of God, until our conscience gains freedom with us, until a union is established between it and us. From that time on, she will become our guardian, showing us every stumbling block. If we do not obey her, then she will fall silent and leave us: we will fall into the hands of our enemies, who will no longer spare us. 182. The Lord teaches: “Be quick in admonishing your opponent, and while you are on the road with him, lest your opponent hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the prisoner, and you are thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you: if you do not leave there, give the last coin to Dondezh” (Matthew 5:25–26). The Fathers explain that conscience is called a rival here, as it resists a person when he wants to fulfill the wishes of his fallen nature. If a person does not obey her, then she, according to the righteous judgment of God, betrays him to his enemies-demons. 183. The prophet Hosea spoke with tears about the Israelite tribe of Ephraim: Ephraim defeated his opponent, and trampled the court: “Egypt prayed” (sought help from Egypt), “and was taken into the Assyrians by force” (Hosea 7:11). Ephraim, seeking help from the Egyptians, represents a heart striving for the fulfillment of carnal desires; The taking of Ephraim to the country of Assyrians depicts the enslavement of the heart to demons, already against his will. The involuntary is a consequence of the voluntary. 184. Let us take care of ourselves so as not to fall into the hands of our enemies, that is, so that the will of our flesh does not prevail over us and does not forcibly drag us into the country of the Assyrians, so that the sad news does not spread about us: “the king of Assyria made an invasion of the land of Israel, moved the tribe of Ephraim from his fatherland to the country of Assyria, and settled there on the rivers Aloi and Abor [in the Russian Bible - “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and resettled the Israelites in Assyria, and settled them in Halakh and in Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of Media.”] (2 Kings 17:6) There they are to this day.” Disaster befell Ephraim because he acted contrary to the ideas of his rival conscience and trampled the court. 185. To the one who begins serving God, only an image of the virtues is revealed - a superficial understanding of them. If he does not undertake the feat by deed, then he will not be able to approach God through an active and significant understanding of the virtues. 186. If a person does not complete the appropriate bodily feat, then the true vision is not revealed to him. 187. The blindness of the eyes of the first wife of the patriarch Jacob (Gen. 29) signifies that a person is incapable of being a spectator of the glory of true vision when he is still in the school of bodily asceticism, albeit correct: at this time, enemies still continue to mix man-pleasing into the deeds of the ascetic and keep him in blindness. 188. When, through a satisfactory bodily feat, he subordinates the senses to the power of the spirit and frees himself from passions: then the true vision is revealed in all its glory to the mind. 189. Bodily labors protect man from his enemies, sins and demons: true vision unites him with God. 190. When the mind reaches a vision of Divine glory: then it becomes terrible for enemies. Although Esau, full of rage, came out to meet Jacob, who was returning to his fatherland, Jacob’s humility extinguished the enemy’s anger, and Esau did not make the planned attack on Jacob (Gen. 33): so the demonic enemies, although they rage against a person, cannot commit violence against him, seeing the great glory that embraces him at the time when he prostrates himself before God. God has already become his helper, as the Scripture says: “Arise and depart from this land, and go to the land of your birth, and I will be with you” (Gen. 31:13). 191. When, finally, a person goes through the field of struggle and receives protection from God: then he reaches the peace of the soul, builds an altar and makes offerings on it from the property acquired by long labors of asceticism. 192. When a person begins to move away from fulfilling his desires, stops sinning and resorts to God: then, first of all, despondency arms itself against him. It intensifies to return him to his former sins and is driven away by diligent remembrance of God. Remembrance of God is born from abstinence. Physical labor contributes to maintaining abstinence. By these means spiritual Israel overcomes. Then he gives thanks to God: “I am weak,” he says, “You are my Lord, my helper from generation to generation.” 193. If the mind does not carefully watch over the feelings, if it does not remain in sobriety, then it will not be able to taste spiritual immortality (resurrection from mental death), which ascends to the glory that God reveals to the ascetic who has been worthy of this immortality. The sign of spiritual immortality is when our deeds become pure and permanent, when we stop returning to those sins for which we prayed for forgiveness. 194. When God accepts a man’s feat and he is cleansed of the sinful admixture, then his enemies will not be able to resist the man. When they see that a person no longer fulfills their will in anything, then they retreat from him of their own accord. 195. Against the will of God, demons intensify to sow sinful seeds in him, but cannot bring their intentions to fulfillment. They do everything they can; but the man of God does not obey them: because his heart, being in the will of God, does not deign to the will of the demons. 196. It protects those who have acquired spiritual immortality through pious deeds from all the arrows of the enemy. Those who acquired immortality were awarded this gift for the reason that they constantly ran under the protection of God, begging God to help them and not hoping for any feat of their own. The Protection of God became for them a city surrounded by the most solid walls. They knew that without Divine help, on their own, they had no strength, and therefore, from the humility that acted in them, they confessed with the psalmist: “Unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain; unless the Lord preserves the city, its efforts will be in vain” (Ps. 126:1). 197. When God sees that the mind of man has completely surrendered to Him and is not seeking help from anyone else except from the one God, then He strengthens him, saying: “Do not be afraid, My son, Jacob, My servant, Israel, “Do not be afraid, for I have delivered you, I have called you by your name, for you are Mine. And even if you pass through water, I am with you, and the rivers will not cover you; and even if you pass through fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not burn you. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, save thee” (Isa. 43:1–3) 424. 198. When traveling together, pay attention to the one who is weaker than the others among you: show him leniency when he needs to sit a little or eat food before the appointed hour. 199. When you go out into general obedience, let each of you watch himself, and not his brother. Don’t dare teach your brother or order him! 200. If a brother says: “Show love, teach me this matter; I don’t know him”: then the one who knows should not excuse himself by ignorance. Such humility is not pleasing to God. 201. When you see that your brother is not doing his job enough, do not tell him that he is doing it wrong or spoiling it. But if he asks you to show him love and teach him, and you do not fulfill his request and remain silent, then you will show that it is not the love of God that lives in you, but wickedness. 202. If a brother cooks food and does not cook it well, then do not say that he cooked it poorly. Such a review will harm your soul. Think how difficult it would be for you to listen to such feedback from someone else, and you will calm down. 203. If you are singing psalmody together and the reader makes a mistake in a word, do not immediately notice it to him; Don’t confuse him, even if he missed something. When he asks to be corrected, do it with love. 204. Do not act impudently under any circumstances. Let your outermost image serve as edification. In particular, let your silence, both open and in spirit, serve as an edification. 205. In one who is relaxed in life, all passions nest because of the idleness of his heart and because he does not see his sins. 206. In a humble heart there are: Divine intercession, hope, meekness, a watchful conscience, denial of one’s will and forcing oneself to do all that is good. In a hardened heart there is arrogance, selfishness, preference for oneself over one's neighbors, trampling of conscience, disregard for the sorrow of a brother who has grieved you, when someone says: “What do I care if he grieves.” 207. Virtues performed in secret are pleasing to God. 208. If you live with brethren, and a thought begins to suggest to you that you impose special abstinence in food on yourself: then say to the thought: “The weak brother who lives with me is my master.” If you absolutely want to abstain more than others, then retire to a separate cell, and do not upset your weak brother. 209. Do not do anything that you think will offend your brother when he learns that you have done it. 210. If you need something, but your brother doesn’t think of giving it to you, don’t grieve him, saying: “Why didn’t he think of giving it himself?” Tell him with trusting simplicity: “Show love, give me this or that, because I need it.” Such is the holy sincerity of the heart. If you do not say it, but grumble and reproach your brother in your heart, then you will be condemned. 211. If a question arises among you about the meaning of any of the sayings of Scripture, then let him who knows the meaning of this saying explain it humbly, according to his strength, without insisting on his opinion, and let him reassure his brother with love. 212. The main thing we must look for is that we humble ourselves before our brethren. 213. He who constantly thinks about the judgment to which he must one day appear, makes every effort so that his lips are not blocked with bewilderment, so that in this terrible hour he does not find himself without any justification. 214. Do not be curious and do not ask about the vain affairs of the world. 215. According to your purity, be an altar of God; make the inner man a priest. Let him always offer censer, both morning and evening, so that the altar is never left without incense. Force yourself to constantly remain in prayer and supplication before the Lord, may He grant you simplicity and gentleness and may He take away from you the opposite of these virtues: guile, demonic cunning, curiosity, pride and malice. These passions destroy all spiritual fruit in those who are carried away by them. 216. The perfection of the entire monastic life lies in the fact that a person achieves the fear of God in the spiritual mind, and his inner ear begins to listen to his conscience, directed according to the will of God. Such a person will learn more mysteriously than from outside words. Whoever does not have this master of the house is worthy of all pity: his soul is governed by the will of the flesh alone; demons, at their own discretion, put in thoughts whatever they want; his heart is not in his power, but in the power of his enemies. 217. If anyone lives in harmony with his father or brother, he must maintain a conscience towards them and not enter into communication with anyone outside on any subject. In everything he must remain in communication only with those with whom he lives. This is peace and obedience. 218. When living with your father or brother, do not make friends with anyone secretly from them, do not write letters to anyone secretly from them, wanting them not to know: because by doing this you can destroy both yourself and them. 219. Living with your elder, do not allow yourself to do a favor to a beggar without asking him first. Don't do it secretly. 220. If you ask about your thoughts, then ask them before you fulfill them. Ask about him at the very time he is struggling with you, whether there is a thought about moving, or about learning some kind of handicraft, or about changing handicrafts, or about entering into cohabitation with some brethren, or about separation from them. Ask freely about all this before you carry out your thoughts. 221. Reveal to him who is able to heal you the ailments of your soul and the passions that arise in your body; open, not as if you were innocent of anything, but as if you were wounded, in order to receive healing from your illness. 222. When consulting about your thoughts, do not allow yourself to be hypocritical, not saying directly what should be said, or speaking about your own action as if it were the action of another. Tell the truth and prepare to do what you hear. If you try to deceive the elders whom you question, you will deceive not them, but yourself. 223. Having asked the elders about your internal struggle, do not listen to the thoughts that will advise you to change the advice of the elders with any additions of your own. 224. Before asking the elders, pray to God, saying: “Lord my God! show mercy to me, and inspire the fathers to give me an answer according to Your will.” Having prayed like this, ask the fathers what they will say, do it in faith, and God will calm you down. 225. It may happen that, while living with the brethren, you want to leave them, not finding peace in cohabitation with them for some reason: either because of work unusual for you, or because of oppression, or because of a lack of various amenities, or because of despondency that you cannot endure, or because of the desire to live in silence, or because you are unable to obey obedience, or because you cannot fulfill your will, or because a lack of necessary needs for you, or at the desire to take on heroic deeds, or because you are weak and cannot endure the labors of living together, in a word, for any reason that prompts your heart to move. Be careful: do not do this rashly, do not leave with grief, as if throwing off the yoke of slavery, do not run away secretly in grief, do not escape from the midst of the quarrel, so as not to take with you the memory of malice towards the brotherhood. Choose a time of general tranquility for your departure, and after your departure, your heart will remain in peace. 226. Having moved somewhere, blame the reason for your removal from your previous place on yourself, without slandering the brothers with whom you lived before. Do not listen to your demonic enemies who encourage you to cover yourself up with the censure of your brothers, to pervert their good attitude towards you and to appear offended. If you do this, you will not be able to stand against your enemies in the newly chosen place. 227. Having arrived at a new place, do not immediately decide to settle yourself in it without considering its position. If you are prudent, then within a few days you will find out whether staying there is beneficial or harmful to your soul. 228. While silent in your cell, if you have taken upon yourself any special feat, for example, to eat food no earlier than a certain hour, or not to eat boiled food, or anything else: then during your journey, sitting with others at a meal, beware of saying: “Forgive me, I do not eat this food.” By doing this, you will make your entire feat vain, betraying it to vanity. The Lord commanded us to do this in secret, so that our Father would reward us openly (Matthew 6:18). He who loves his labors preserves them so that they are not in vain. 229. Try to consign to oblivion every shortcoming and every mistake of your brother known to you; Let not your mouth be opened to say anything about them to the other brethren, because by doing so you will inflict a serious wound on your soul. 230. Direct your attention not to pleasing yourself, but to God’s judgment; in everything you do, keep God before your eyes. 231. Having settled down to live in some place alone, by your own choice, or having come there to the brethren already living there, and seeing there handicrafts and activities that are harmful to the soul or uncharacteristic of monasticism, do not dare to open your mouth to denounce them: go to another place if you do not find peace of mind in this place. When you move to another place, do not slander the brethren you left behind; otherwise you will cause the greatest harm to your soul. 232. If you are weak and prone to passions; then do not allow your brothers to reveal to you the passionate thoughts that come to them, as if you have achieved dispassion: because such an activity will become disastrous for your soul. 233. In our days the wrath of God punishes the universe. When you hear this, don't be embarrassed. Enlighten your hearts with this reasoning: “What do these sorrows mean in comparison with the torments of hell, to which they will betray us for our sins” 425. 234. Those who want to remain silent through soul-beneficial silence must carefully protect themselves from everything that conceals silence, and not waste time indulging in mental captivity and bitter enslavement in the spirit, which draws the hearts of the silent into a mental activity that is unusual for them, in which they are left crying about their sins. 235. A disposition towards a curious study of Scripture leads to enmity and disputes, and by crying over sins peace is achieved. 236. A monk who is silent in his cell is charged with sin if he, leaving lamentation for his sins, turns to an inquisitive study of Scripture. 237. Whoever indulges in the explanation of Scripture without first acquiring spiritual freedom has become enslaved to the passion of curiosity and a strong infatuation with mental captivity. 238. He who stays awake, trying not to be carried away by captivity, loves to continually cast himself before God in contrition of heart. 239. He who keeps and fulfills the words of God as a debtor: he has come to know God. 240. While you are still begging God for help, so that He will come and save you from sin, do not seek the high gifts of the Spirit: the gifts of God come by themselves, when there is a place, i.e. the heart will become pure, free from all filth. 241. He who asserts himself on his own reason and follows his own will becomes the dwelling place of the spirit of hostility and does not participate in that Spirit from Which contrition of the heart is born. 242. He who understands and fulfills the words of Scripture according to his own understanding, stubbornly insisting that this is how he should understand and fulfill them, does not know the glory and riches of God. On the contrary, the one who, understanding, says: “I don’t know the word of God with accuracy, because I am a limited person,” gives glory to God. The glory of God will dwell in him, according to his prosperity and humility. 243. Do not consult with everyone about your thoughts: consult about them only with your fathers. Otherwise you will bring grief and embarrassment upon yourself. 244. Let your tongue exercise itself intelligently in the words of God, and lies will flee from you. 245. From love for human glory a lie is born. 246. The fear of God grows and intensifies in the heart of that person who reflects human glory from himself through humility. 247. Do not seek friendship with the glorious ones of the world, lest the glory of God be extinguished in your heart. 248. Simplicity and insanity cleanse the heart from wickedness. 249. Whoever behaves deceitfully towards his brother will not be able to avoid heartbreak. 250. Whoever has one thing in his heart and another on his tongue through wickedness, his prayer and deeds are vain. Do not make acquaintance with such people, so as not to become infected with their poison and filth. Let those who are not malicious be your friends, and you will become a participant in their purity and glory 426. 251. Three virtues constantly protect the mind and are constantly necessary for it: natural jealousy, courage and rejection of laziness. 252. Three virtues, when the mind sees them in itself, serve as a sign for it that it has achieved immortality: reasoning, distinguishing good from evil in all cases, timely foresight of both good and evil, freedom from external influence. 253. Four virtues have the property of purifying the soul: silence, keeping the commandments, eliminating excesses and humility. 254. The mind constantly needs the following four virtues: in submitting oneself before God with endless prayer, in killing oneself with impartiality towards every person, in completely rejecting the condemnation of one’s neighbors, in acquiring deafness to the words with which the passions speak seductively. 255. Four virtues bring God’s help to youth: unceasing teaching, heart disease, vigilance and insanity. 256. Four shortcomings in behavior defile the soul: going to the city and not keeping one’s eyes there, making friendly acquaintance with a woman, making friendly acquaintance with the famous of the world, frequent conversations with relatives and partial disposition towards them. 257. Four defects in behavior stimulate fornication in the body: satiation with sleep, satiation with food, laughter and jokes, adornment of the body. 258. Four shortcomings in behavior make the soul barren: moving from place to place, disposition to worldly cares, love of property and stinginess. 259. All others are preserved by three virtues, difficult to acquire: contrition of the heart, weeping over sins, and constant remembrance of death, as if already present. 260. Three vices do not cease to possess the soul until it reaches the measure of perfection. These vices never cease to tear the mind away from virtue. They are: captivity, laziness and forgetfulness. 261. Forgetfulness fights with a person until his last breath and leads him into feat. She is more persistent than all passions and the parent of all evils; it hourly destroys what man creates. 262. Having renounced the world and dedicated yourself to God through repentance, do not allow the thought to confuse you if it imagines that you will not receive forgiveness for the sins you have committed. But again, do not neglect the commandments of God, turning to previous sins; otherwise they will not say goodbye 427. 263. Do not eat with women, and do not enter into close acquaintance with young people. 264. When dressing and undressing, do not give freedom to your eyes. 265. Do not abandon the rule of prayer, lest you fall into the hands of your enemies. 266. Be diligent in psalmody, it will save you from defilement by sinful dreams. 267. Love bodily exploits and hardships, and your passions will be tamed. 268. Try not to impute yourself in any case: this will give you the opportunity to indulge in weeping for your sins. 269. Beware of lies: they drive out the fear of God from a person. 270. Do not reveal your thoughts to everyone, so that this does not cause stumbling for your neighbor. 271. Reveal your thoughts to your fathers, and the grace of God will cover you. 272. Practice your handicraft carefully, and the fear of God will dwell with you. 273. Do not get carried away by the delightful memory of the sins you have committed, so that the feeling of these sins is not renewed in you. 274. Love humility: it will cover you from your sins. 275. Do not be contentious, lest you become the home of all evil. 276. Commit your heart to obedience to your fathers, and the grace of God will dwell in you. 277. While silent in your cell, take special care of three activities: prayer, teaching and handicrafts. 278. Live as if every day you experience were the last in your life, and you will not sin before God. 279. Do not allow yourself to be satiated, especially to be satiated with food, so that your previous sins do not renew in you. 280. Do not give in to despondency and laziness in any form of achievement, so that the enemy’s action does not enter into you. 281. Practice carefully in Divine teaching, and soon God will make His abode in you. 282. Just as a ruined house standing outside the city becomes a place of all uncleanness, so the soul of a monk, given over to laziness, becomes the home of all shameful passions 428. 283. Force yourself to abundant prayers, combined with crying, and God, in due time, will have mercy on you and remove from you the old, sinning person 429. 284. Combine labor, poverty, wandering and silence in your feat: from them humility is born, and through humility one obtains forgiveness of all sins. 285. A monk is obliged to keep the doors of his soul closed, to preserve all his feelings so as not to fall through them, and to move away from those who involve him in conversations about the vain subjects of the transitory world. 286. The heart cannot become and remain the dwelling place of God if it is not protected by humility and chastity, if it is not alien to other vices. It is impossible to serve God and passions together. 287. An ardent youth is gradually tamed and reaches the proper mood if, abandoning his will, he is instructed by the teachings of the Fathers and obeys their advice. 288. If a young monk remains in the company of his relatives or even monks who are not guided by the rules of true monastic activity and asceticism, then he will lose that good moral structure that was taught to him by his fathers. 289. Vanity destroys the good deeds of the person who displays these deeds to others. 290. If the mouth of a vessel with wine is left open, mosquitoes and midges will crowd into the vessel, causing the wine to spoil. The soul is also subject to similar damage from verbosity, from humorous and empty conversations. 291. Wine exposed to the wind loses all its dignity. Likewise, pride destroys all the deeds of a monk. 292. Wine is hidden in deep cellars and covered: then it settles, gains strength and taste. Silence and insanity have a similar effect on the monk. It is impossible for him to keep his feat intact except in silence and with a sincere awareness of his lack in all respects. 293. It is impossible for a monk to trust in his residence until he appears before God, until God appreciates and approves of his residence. Until that time, he must constantly be in fear 430. 294. Little things, the most insignificant little things, can destroy the entire fruit of an ascetic life if a monk neglects these little things. 295. He who places hope in a transitory world is blind. If, having rejected this object of hope, he directs it towards the promises of God, then he has received his sight. 296. He who apparently seeks God, but at the same time loves the carnal will of the heart and is led by carnal wisdom, is lame. If, having renounced following carnal lusts, he loves God with all his heart, then he will begin to walk upright. 297. He who gives himself up to worldly cares and worries suffers from deafness. Deafness produces in him a constant fascination with vanity and oblivion of God. If he, leaving vain pursuits, turns to a thorough study of the commandments of God, then the ability to hear returns to him. 298. He is a leper who has enmity against his neighbor, hatred and envy towards him, who slanderes his neighbor. For this reason, like the ancient lepers of the people of Israel, he is prohibited from entering the house of God. If he rejects these vices, he becomes purified. 299. When the blind receives his sight, the lame begins to walk without stumbling, the deaf begins to hear, and the leper is cleansed: then the person resurrected and renewed, hitherto killed by these ailments during his laziness. He preaches his state of renewal to feelings that were hitherto in a state of poverty in relation to virtues. 300. John the Baptist had clothes made of camel's hair, was girded with a leather belt around his loins and lived in the desert. This serves as a sign of mortification of the flesh through labors and as an image of repentance. Feats of repentance perform preliminary cleansing of a person and make him capable of ascending to the cross. The cross is a sign of spiritual immortality. 301. The ascent to the cross takes place after the mouths of the Pharisees and Sadducees are stopped. The Sadducees serve as an image of unbelief and hopelessness, while the Pharisees serve as an image of guile, hypocrisy and vanity. 302. When the mind sees itself not enslaved by any passion: then it prepares for immortality, collecting its feelings together, making them into a single whole, feeding them and maintaining them in mutual agreement with spiritual action, for which it serves as an instrument. 303. The mind, wanting to ascend to the cross, must shed many prayers and many tears, must prostrate itself hourly before God, surrendering to His will and asking for help from His goodness, so that it strengthens, preserves it, and raises it into holy renewal, no longer subject to defeat. 304. At the hour of ascending to the cross, great sorrow comes. The one who prays needs Peter, John and James to be present with him, that is, sound faith, courageous hope and love for God. 305. Our Lord Jesus Christ endured suffering and death on the cross for us, and through these actions He serves as a model for us. We must, as the Apostle says, “understand Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the communication of His passion, being conformed to His death, in order to reach the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11). 306. The Lord tasted gall for our sake, so that we would throw out all unclean lusts from ourselves, so that we would block all exits for them, not allowing them to be satisfied through the body and destroy us. 307. The Lord tasted the otzet for us, and we must quench in ourselves all manifestations of anger, all vain confusion. 308. The Lord took upon Himself the spittle, so that we would learn to despise man-pleasing and the glory of this world. 309. The head of the Lord was crowned with a crown of thorns, so that we could learn to constantly remain in self-reproach and, through it, endure reproaches unabashedly. 310. The reed with which they beat the Lord on His head serves for us as an image of humility, with which, like a club, we must defeat the pride planted in us by the devil. 311. The Lord Jesus, before being nailed to the cross, was given over to be beaten. And this serves as an instruction for us: before ascending to the cross, we must endure various reproaches and accusations from people. The Lord's garments were divided by lot: this serves as an image for our behavior. Before ascending to the cross, we must despise the world and endure without embarrassment the loss of perishable property, as the Apostle said: “Take the plunder of your possessions with joy, knowing that you may have something lasting and better in heaven” (Heb. 10:34). A person must fulfill all this in order to ascend to the cross. If he does not fulfill, to the best of his ability, what the Lord has done, then he will not be able to ascend to the cross. 312. During the struggle with passions, being subjected to grief from them, we must patiently endure this state, not give in to despondency and relaxation, but cry out to God in humility and be strengthened in hope. Passions will fade in due time. 313. When the mind is freed from all hope in the vain world, then this serves as a sign that sin has died in the soul. 314. When the mind receives freedom: then the mediastinum is taken away, separating it from God. After sin has been mortified in us, heaviness, blindness, and everything that oppressed the soul disappears; feelings, hitherto mortified and bearing fruit in death, rise in health and invincibility. The mind is, as it were, entwined with sanctification and rests in incorruption: having freed itself from all disturbances, it observes the Sabbath, lives in another, new age, deep in the consideration of new, incorruptible objects. 315. Beloved! Let us take due care of our salvation: each of us has little time left to live on earth. But a person cannot take proper care of the soul if he cares too much about the body. When you are separated from the body: then you will regret that you cared so much about something that does not bring any benefit 431. 316. Gain the feeling that God is looking at your every deed. It is not permissible to think in the secret of your heart about such deeds that you are ashamed to do before people. 317. The tree is known from the fruit, and the structure of the mind from the thoughts in which it dwells. The state of the soul is known by the structure of the mind. 318. As long as sin overcomes you, even in small things, do not recognize yourself as dispassionate. 319. To whom freedom has been granted, the sins he committed before are no longer passionately renewed in his memory. 320. Do not recognize yourself as free until you anger your Master in something. 321. Freedom cannot be granted to a person as long as he desires something that belongs to the world. 322. Take care of your body as the church of God. Take care of him! it must be resurrected, and you must give an account to God of what you have done with your body. How much you care about healing the body when it is sick: take so much care to prepare it for the resurrection by cleansing it from all passions. 323. Every day, before offering prayers to God, begin to examine yourself, to what extent you have conquered each of your passions, or to what extent you have been conquered by it. 324. The earth cannot bear fruit without being sown and watered: so a person cannot perform repentance without humility and humiliation of the body through exploits. 325. Plants vegetate from seed and bloom from the action of beneficially dissolved air on them, and the human mind grows and prospers from the fulfillment and keeping of the commandments. 326. The evidence of faith in God lies in the fulfillment of God's commandments, and the evidence of the fear of God lies in careful obedience to conscience. 327. If a silent person feels that lustful lust is trying to infiltrate his soul, then he must immediately repel the attacks of this passion at the very beginning, otherwise it can carry him away. Try to remember that God is looking at you, and that what you are thinking about in the secret of your heart is open before Him. Tell your soul: “You beware of sinners like you, so that they do not see you while you are committing a sin: much more should you fear and be ashamed of God, Who sees the hidden movements of the heart.” From such reflection, the fear of God will be aroused in the soul, and if you act under the guidance of the fear of God, then no passion will force you. 328. Anyone who believes that after leaving the body he must appear before the judgment of God will in no case allow himself to condemn his neighbors. He remembers that God will require from him a full account of his own affairs. 329. He who believes that the kingdom is prepared for the saints tries to guard himself from the slightest and most insignificant deviations in order to become a chosen vessel. 330. He who believes that his body will be resurrected on the day of general resurrection takes care to cleanse it from all filth. 331. There is nothing in the world that could separate the heart into which it has settled from the love of God. 332. I recognize the victory over vanity and the acquisition of spiritual intelligence as a great and honest deed. Possessed by the vile and evil passion of vanity, alien to the world, his heart hardens against the saints, and to top off his evils, he falls into arrogance and the habit of lying 432. 333. Faithful servant of Christ! hide your deeds and virtues, restrain your sick heart and tongue, which rushes towards vanity, so that your tongue does not take away from you what you have acquired and does not betray it to your enemies. 334. It is impossible for one who loves human glory to achieve dispassion: envy and zeal live in him. 335. Blessed are those whose feat is accomplished in spiritual mind! they no longer feel any burden in their lives, having achieved sacred peace; they have risen above all the machinations arranged by sneaky demons, especially those who instill fear, doubt and double-mindedness, thereby turning a person away from every good deed he undertakes for the sake of God. Demons bring despondency to the soul, wondering whether its patience will be exhausted in the long wait for God's mercy, whether it will abandon the very life of God, recognizing it as unbearably difficult. But, I believe, if we have love, patience and abstinence, then the demons will not succeed in any of their intentions, especially when the mind acquires the knowledge that all virtues are corrupted by laziness and despondency, when the mind overcomes the passion of laziness and despondency. 336. If you have left everything that belongs to the vain world, then beware of the demon, which brings sorrow on the basis of the great poverty you have chosen and the sorrowful situation associated with it, full of deprivation. If you are overcome by sadness, you will not be able to achieve great virtues. These great virtues consist in not being imputed to yourself, in order to endure reproach with complacency, and to rejoice in the fact that they consider you incapable of any business or occupation in the vain world. If you take the trouble to acquire these virtues, they will prepare an imperishable crown for your soul. 337. Not only those who have left visible substance are considered poor, but most of all those who have become poor in relation to evil, who constantly yearn to exercise in the memory of God. 338. Dispassion is achieved not by those who devote themselves exclusively to bodily exploits, but primarily by those who care about the structure of the inner man and cut off the desires of fallen nature; These are the ones who receive the crown of virtues. 339. Stand guard over your heart, listening to your feelings, and if the memory of God acts in your peaceful mood, then you will see the robbers robbing you. Only one who watches his thoughts can recognize those who are trying to enter him and defile him. 340. Concerned with fiery zeal for the fulfillment of God’s commandments, you will notice those who trouble you and the principles on the basis of which they trouble you. They confuse the mind in order to lead it to distraction and idleness. 341. Those who have recognized the cunning of demons remain unabashedly in the place that was given to them by God to perform the monastic feat, thanking God for His gift. 342. Patience, long-suffering and love send thanks to God for difficulties and hardships, while despondency, cowardice and disposition to excesses in life seek a place where they can gain fame. When the ascetic achieves this, then his feelings weaken, passions, of necessity, rape and captivate him: he loses the abstinence that mysteriously held him together. The beneficial effect of abstinence is destroyed by pride and satiety, this inevitable consequence of excess in the needs of life. 343. If your heart is carried away from prayer and teaching into various thoughts and is subjected to absent-mindedness against your will, so that you cannot stop this passion: then your work is still in the nature of Adam. On the contrary, it is in the nature of Jesus, if the heart sincerely hated sin and with determination removed itself from the principles that give birth to it, if eternal torment constantly stands before your spiritual eyes, and you have become alien to everything that attracts it, if you pray to your Creator with concentrated prayer that He will remain with you and do not anger Him with any disobedience, if you cry before Him, saying: “Lord! my salvation from my enemies belongs to You: it is impossible for me, without Your help, to escape their hands.” At the same time, watch your heart, so as not to upset those who instruct you about the Lord in anything. 344. If a person does not acquire obedience, humility and patience, then he cannot come out of an unnatural state, even if he has kept all the other commandments. 345. Turn to obedience to God with all your heart, sincerely begging Him and saying: “Lord! I am all before You. Make me worthy to be in Your will, because I do not know what is good for me. Make war with my enemies, because I am unable to know all their malice and all their tricks.” If you pray in this way with all your soul and direct your activity according to the nature of Jesus, then He will not allow you to be deceived and deceived in anything. 346. If you do not surrender yourself to complete obedience to the Lord, but follow only one or a few of His commandments, then He will not help you. 347. A field cannot by itself be cleared of tares: it cannot by itself be sown with seeds according to its soil; Fruit-bearing plants cannot grow on it along with malignant tares, because the tender fruitful plants will be choke and choked by the burly tares. Likewise, if a person does not receive Divine help, he will not be able to cleanse himself from carnal lusts and be kept from sin. 348. He who has succeeded or who wants to succeed, must guard himself prudently from the principles that give rise to sins, and the sins will disappear by themselves. 349. He who strives learns the meaning of sin and all its bitterness; he who neglects asceticism prepares flour for himself. 350. He who fears the weakness of the body will not achieve the state characteristic of an immaculate nature; but God is able to bring him this state if, in every difficulty encountered, he falls to Him and asks Him for help. 351. If Gideon had not broken the clay vessels, he would not have seen the light of the lamps that were hidden in these vessels. Likewise, if a person does not despise his body, he will not see the light of the Divine (Judges 7:20) 433. 352. If the mind strengthens and decides to follow love, then all passions of the flesh and spirit are extinguished. “He is patient and merciful” (1 Cor. 13:4), hates zeal and pride, makes insanity natural for the heart and does not allow anything unnatural to forcibly enslave the mind. With the power of love, the mind resists vicious attractions that are hostile to the immaculate nature, and, finally, completely destroys them. 353. If the mind, guided by the truth, prevails over the movements of the heart, then it becomes the head of the soul and does not allow it to accept anything unnatural, that is, sinful. He will tell her all the disasters to which her unnatural attractions subjected her during the entire time in which they were mixed with natural attractions. 354. When a person separates himself from what is on the left side, that is, from communication with demons and from following their suggestions: then he will see his sins before God in all their detail; then he will know Jesus. But a person cannot see his sins until he is separated from them through separation filled with labor and sorrow. Those who reached this state found crying and prayer. Remembering their crafty friendship with passions, they do not dare to look to God and remain in constant contrition of spirit (Luke 23:42) 434. 355. Let us strive carefully in the short field of earthly life, keeping our work intact and free from evil. Only under this condition will we be able, after death, to escape from the hands of our enemies - demons, immeasurably crafty and unmerciful. Blessed is the one in whom these opposing forces will not find anything that belongs to them 435. 356. Beloved! Let us cry before the Lord according to our strength, so that He, in His goodness, will have mercy on us and send us the strength with which we could, in good time, through our earthly activities, overcome the princes of Tartar, who will come to meet us after our departure from the body. 357. Let us strive in lamentation of the spirit and acquire in ourselves the desire for God, and He will snatch us from the hands of the demons when the demons who are supposed to meet us set out to kidnap us. 358. When the soul leaves the body, the passions that it acquired during earthly life serve as the reason for its enslavement to demons; virtues, if she has acquired them, serve as protection from the aspirations of demons. 359. Let us do our duty according to our strength, and the great power of our Lord Jesus Christ will help our humility. He knows that man is damned, and therefore granted him repentance for the entire duration of his earthly life. And powerful and saving repentance affects us until our last breath. 360. Constantly direct your thoughts towards God, and He will protect you. Do not place any hope in the transitory world, lest it destroy you: when you leave the earth, you will leave behind everything that belongs to the world, but what you have done for the sake of God will accompany you and help you in times of need. 361. Hate worldly conversations, so that your heart becomes capable of seeing God. 362. Love to pray often, so that your heart may be enlightened. 363. Do not love laziness, and the fear of God will dwell in you. 364. Be supportive and merciful to the poor, so as not to be ashamed before the saints when they enter into eternal bliss for their mercy. 365. Hate the lust for food, so that Amalek, i.e. “prodigal passion” did not prevent you from entering the Promised Land. 366. Do not like to drink wine to the point of intoxication, so as not to lose the Divine joy. 367. Remember the kingdom of heaven, and little by little this remembrance will attract you to it. 368. Remember Gehenna, and hate the deeds that lead you to it. 369. Every morning, waking up from sleep, remember that you must give an account to God for every deed you do, and you will not sin before Him: His fear will dwell in you. 370. Prepare to appear before Him, and you will do His will. 371. Bring repentance for every mistake you make, and you will not be bewildered at the hour of death. 372. Do not rely on yourself: everything good that happens in you is a consequence of the mercy and power of God. Do not be proud of your faith; but remain in fear until your last breath. Do not be arrogant about your life, considering it worthy of approval: because your enemies are still standing before you. Do not look upon yourself while you are wandering in earthly life, until you have passed the dark powers of the air. 373. Be sober against the spirit that brings sadness to a person: it spreads many nets to catch you and plunge you into relaxation. Sorrow for God brings joy and confirms a person in the will of God: on the contrary, the enemy is looking for you to abandon the feat of abstinence and surrender to despair. Know that the demonic thought is the one that says: “Where will you run away? If you don’t have repentance, you won’t receive forgiveness.” 374. Sadness for God does not plunge a person into despair; on the contrary, it consoles him, instilling in him: “Do not be afraid, run to God again: He is good and merciful; He knows that the person is weak and helps him.” 375. Reject blasphemous thoughts without paying attention to them, and they will run away from you: they upset only those who fear them. 376. He who is afraid to begin to perform virtues reveals by this that he does not believe in God. 377. He who considers himself to be nothing admits his ignorance: he shows by this that he seeks to fulfill the will of God, and not his passionate desires. 378. The fear of God is the guardian and protector of the soul; he is the guardian of the mind, that king who rules over the inner man; he defeats all the king's enemies. 379. He who seeks the glory of God tries to destroy all impurity in himself. 380. He who wears himself thin through abstinence approaches health. 381. Indulging in despondency, we certainly become traitors to ourselves. A courageous heart will help the soul according to God; in contrast to this, despondency will help anger. 382. The strength of those who want to acquire virtue is this: if they fall, they should not indulge in cowardice; they must rise up and fight again. 383. Bodily feats performed in the spiritual mind are the tools with which virtues are cultivated. 384. Passions are born from negligence. 385. Non-judgment of one's neighbor serves as a protection for those struggling with passions under the guidance of spiritual reason. The one who blames his neighbor madly destroys this fence. 386. Restraint of the tongue proves of a person that he is a true ascetic. An unbridled tongue is a sign of a person alien to virtue. 387. Almsgiving leads to love. 388. Kindness towards one's neighbor is the mother of purity. 389. From much care and absent-mindedness passions arise. 390. Hard-heartedness is the father of anger. 391. Mental fasting consists of rejecting cares. 392. Passion for care is the fall of the soul; it is corrected by silence in the mind. 393. Saturation with sleep arouses passions in the body; moderate vigil protects the heart from passions. Excessive sleep makes the heart plump; moderate vigil makes it weaker. 394. Crying drives all passions out of the soul. 395. Do not hurt your neighbor’s conscience, and you will acquire humility. 396. Little by little, pride is born from human glory. 397. He who loves complete contentment in everything loses his spiritual mind. 398. Abstinence of the womb tames passions; conveniently kindles their whimsical consumption of food. 399. From constant thinking about the judgment of God, the Fear of God is born; he who tramples on his conscience loses virtue from his heart. 400. Love for God drives out laziness: it is born where the fear of God is absent 436. 401. Keeping the mouth in the mind arouses the thought to God; verbosity can be the cause of despondency and irritability. 402. He who cuts off his will in front of his neighbor proves by this that his mind is a servant of virtue; He who persists in fulfilling his whim by insulting his neighbor reveals foolishness. 403. The fear of God and secret teaching keep the soul from passions, and conversations about worldly affairs darken it and deviate it from practicing virtues. 404. Addiction to a substance outrages the mind and heart: it renews their contempt for the substance. 405. The silence of sinful thoughts reveals the search for praise and the shameful glory of the world. He who reveals sincerely passionate thoughts to his fathers expels these thoughts from himself. 406. Reptiles and snakes freely crawl into a house that has neither doors nor windows. An ascetic who does not preserve his deeds is like such a house. 407. Iron is consumed by rust, and the heart of a person who indulges this passion is consumed by ambition. 408. Ivy, entwined around a vine, destroys its fruit, and vanity destroys the fruit of a monk. 409. The foundation of all virtues is humility; the basis of all passions is gluttony. 410. The crown of virtues is love; the crown of passion is the justification of one’s sins. 411. Communication and conversations with laymen disturbs the heart, depriving it of boldness towards God, and disgraces it during its prayer. 412. Love of exploits is hatred of passions; On the contrary, laziness and idleness conveniently introduce passions into the soul. 413. Do not bind yourself to the affairs of the world, and your thoughts will remain silent within you. 414. Do not rely on your strength, and God’s help will always assist you. 415. Guard your eyes and heart from evil views. He who looks voluptuously at someone commits adultery in the secret of his soul. 416. Guard your hearing, so as not to bring harm upon yourself. 417. Practice in labor and handicrafts in order to deliver a piece of bread to the beggar and protect yourself from idleness; Idleness is a fall and death for the soul. 418. Frequent prayer destroys the captivity of sinful and vain dreams, and negligence about it, creeping in little by little, is the mother of forgetfulness. 419. He who expects imminent death will not fall into many sins. On the contrary, he who hopes to live long is entangled in many sins. 420. The life of one who prepares himself to be accountable to God in all his actions is cleansed by God from sins through His providence and His help. On the contrary, the one who neglects the judgment of God and says: “Someday this day will come” follows the path of sin. 421. Every day, before you start doing anything, think: where are you? Where will you go after leaving the body? and do not spend a single day in negligence about your soul. Think about the bliss and glory that all the saints have been granted, and little by little you will be drawn to imitate their lives. Think also about the humiliation that sinners will undergo, and you will be constantly protected from evil. 422. Consult constantly with your fathers, and you will spend your entire life in peace. 423. If the demons begin to confuse you about food or clothing, or your great poverty, also about the insults to which you are subjected: then do not answer them anything, but surrender yourself to God with all your heart, and He will calm you. 424. Carefully fulfill your prayer rule. Beware! do not allow yourself to neglect it. The soul is enlightened and strengthened by carefully following the rule. 425. If you have done something good, do not boast about it. Again: if you have done a lot of evil, then do not be overly sad about it, but decide firmly in your heart not to get carried away in the future. 426. If a lustful passion overcomes you, then suppress your body in humility before God through labor and abstinence; At the same time, do not allow your heart to be captivated by voluptuous thoughts and sensations, and you will find peace. 427. If you feel in yourself the effect of the passion of gluttony and the desire for various foods: then remember the stench into which all food turns. This will help you maintain abstinence. 428. If pride arises in your heart, then remember that it is capable of destroying all your good life, that for those who surrender to it, there is no longer any repentance. This will stop its action. 429. If physical beauty begins to deceive your heart, then think how stinking this sin is, and refrain your heart from being carried away by it. When you feel a voluptuous disposition towards a woman, remember the women who have already died. What happened to them? What did their bodies become? 430. Spiritual reasoning, considering correctly all passions, removes them from a person. It is impossible to acquire spiritual reasoning without cultivating it in its field. This field is silence. 431. Asceticism is born from silence; from asceticism - crying; from crying - fear of God; from the fear of God - humility; from humility - spiritual insight; from spiritual insight or reason - love. Love makes the soul healthy and dispassionate. Then a person will know how far he has moved away from God. 432. He who wishes to achieve high spiritual honor, that is, to acquire the above-mentioned virtues, must renounce partial concerns about any person, must put himself in a mood of readiness to die every hour, must, when approaching prayer, each time consider what separates him from God and eliminate it from himself, must hate earthly life. Then the goodness of God will not be slow to grant him what he desires. 433. Be convinced that every person who consumes food and drink carelessly and incontinently, who loves anything worldly, will never receive high spiritual honor, will never achieve it: he will only seduce and deceive himself with empty hope. 434. I beg every person who wants to bring repentance to God to stop drinking wine in large quantities. Wine revives extinguished passions in the soul and drives out the fear of God from it. 435. Ask God with all your strength to send His fear into your heart. The fear of God mortifies all passions that fight the unfortunate soul, striving to separate it from God and take possession of it. With the goal of taking possession of a person, his enemies, demons, use every effort to overcome his passions. 436. Brother! While you are in the body, do not allow yourself to be careless. Even if you see that you have calmed down from passions for a while, do not trust this calmness. The demons slyly stop their attacks for the duration. They do this with the intention that a person, imagining that he has achieved dispassion, will stop watching and preserving his heart. Then they suddenly jump on the poor soul, catch it like a bird, and, if they turn out to be stronger than it, they trample and humiliate it mercilessly, plunging it into various sins, more painful than those for the remission of which it had hitherto prayed. 437. Let us stand in the fear of God, and by keeping our deeds we will complete our very deeds. Let us carefully cultivate those virtues that counteract the evil aspirations of our enemies. The exploits, hardships and sorrows of a short earthly life not only protect a person from passions and demons, but also prepare crowns for the soul before it leaves the body. 438. Our Holy Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed to us the inhumanity and cruelty of demons. He, out of sympathy for the human race, commanded us to be courageous and watchful. Be ready every hour! the thief is coming! as if he did not find you sleeping, having come by accident. 439. The Lord, taking away from His associates the fear that is brought by the world persecuting the Lord’s disciples, said: “You will be in a world of sorrow. But be bold, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Strengthening them so that they would not be faint-hearted in sorrows, He gave joy to their hearts, saying: “You have been with Me in My adversities: and I bequeath to you, as My Father has bequeathed to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table” (Luke 22:28-30). He did not say this to everyone, but to those who were with Him in temptation. Who are these who were with Jesus in temptations, if not those who resist the attractions of fallen nature and finally completely destroy their effect? The Lord spoke these words to them when he went to the cross. He who wishes to eat and drink at the table of the Lord, let him go to the cross with Him. The Cross of Jesus is abstinence from passions, culminating in their complete destruction. 440. The Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy, his son, says: “If we die with Him, the Lord Jesus, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. the carnal, sinful will of fallen nature, and reproach holy Baptism? In the name of the Lord Jesus in holy Baptism, remission of sins was granted to us; but our enemy, out of envy and hatred of us, again bound us with sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing the malice of the demons with which they were infected with man from the very creation of man, added to the gift of Baptism the gift of Repentance, which is valid to the last. our dying breath. If there were no repentance, there would be no one to be saved. 441. As long as we have the seal of holy Baptism on us, let us try to blot out our sins through repentance in order to find mercy on the day of judgment, which has approached and is already approaching. 442. Passions are illnesses of the soul, its ulcers and scabs, separating it from God. Blessed is he who is cleansed of them. He, like a verbal sheep, will be lifted up on the altar of God and will hear the voice of the Lord, teaching eternal joy: “Good, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful for a little, I will make you ruler over many: enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21). 443. Those who deign to fulfill their carnal desires and do not deign to heal themselves with the holy medicine of repentance in order to become pure and holy, will find themselves naked at the hour of their departure from the body, not wearing the robe of virtues. They will be cast into pitch darkness, in which the devil is imprisoned, clothed in the clothing of passions. 444. Passions: fornication, sinful lust, love of money, despondency, slander, anger, hatred, vanity and pride. These are the main branches of evil. 445. Similar to them: intemperance, decoration of the body, carnal and vain carelessness, laziness, ridicule and jokes, abandonment of modesty, desire for a luxurious life, trampling of conscience, forgetfulness of God's judgment, envy of one's neighbor, slander of brothers, man-pleasing, false witness, false intelligence, disposition towards teaching, disposition towards material acquisitions according to the custom of the laity, cowardice, impatience, anger at one's neighbor, abandonment of self-reproach, love for human glory and coldness for the glory of God, announcing one's achievement to instill in people a high opinion of oneself, disposition towards refined and many foods, satisfaction of carnal passions in the heart with the dream of sin, rejection of insanity, a vain opinion about one's mind, self-controversy, stubborn adherence to one's will, recognition of oneself wise and kind, recognizing a brother as insufficient in intelligence and virtue, humiliating him. 446. All passions, if they are allowed freedom, act, grow, intensify in the soul, finally embrace it, take possession of it and separate it from God. These are the heavy burdens that fell upon Adam after he ate of the tree. Our Lord Jesus Christ killed these passions on the cross. These are those old wineskins into which new wine is not poured (Matthew 9:17). These are the swaddling clothes with which Lazarus was bound (John 11:44). These are demons sent by Christ into the herd of pigs (Matthew 8:31–32). This is the old man, whom the Apostle commands the Christian to put off (Col. 3:9; 1 Cor. 15:49). These are the thistles and thorns that the earth began to spew out for Adam after he was cast out of paradise (Gen. 3:18). 447. Christ's yoke is easy and the burden is light (Matthew 11:30). It consists of: purity, free from anger, goodness, meekness, spiritual joy, abstinence from all passions, love for everyone, holy reasoning, unshakable faith, patience with sorrows, alienation from the world in the feeling of the heart, the desire to be separated from the body and united with Christ. This is the good yoke and light burden that Christ commanded us to take upon ourselves and carry on our shoulders. Together this is the way. For his sake, in order to reach him, the saints undertook many labors and underwent many sorrows. No one will be able to enter this path if he does not first put off the old man, if he does not free himself from all passions, if he does not acquire love. Divine love frees man from all the assimilations of the transitory world. 448. As long as we love anything that belongs to the world, until then the love of God cannot dwell in us. This is attested to by scripture. “You cannot,” it says, “partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21). “Who will tell you the eternal place? Walk in righteousness, speak the right way, hate iniquity and untruth, and shake your hands from gifts: harden your ears, lest the blood of your blood hear judgment: close your eyes and He will not see iniquity. He will dwell in a high cave, a strong stone: his bread will be given, and his water will be faithful” (Is. 33:14-16). 449. The Lord rewards with honors and rewards those who strive courageously in the short field of earthly life, who throw off the burden of the transitory world through endurance of sorrows and mortification of the body. 450. God's help descends to those who cut off carnal and sinful lusts. She erases all passions from them. This is how she acts because they will follow the will of God. On the contrary, those who follow the will of the fallen nature and want to fulfill it, although they first display a spiritual desire, cannot resist their enemies for the reason that they do not want to renounce the will of the fallen nature and fulfill it. By doing this, they fall asleep in the flesh, that is, they descend into a carnal state and make their entire feat vain and futile. The Prophet denounces them, saying: “Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). 451. God does not help those who, although they have entered into His service, still serve their passions. God leaves them to their own devices, since they arbitrarily wanted to follow themselves, and delivers them into the hands of their enemies, the demons. Instead of the honor that they sought from men, they are subjected to dishonor before them, as if they had not resisted invisible enemies. If they had done this, then God would have helped them in due time and would have humbled their enemies under their feet. 452. All Scripture testifies that a person is not heard by God if he prays to God not in labor and fatigue of the body, not from an environment of deprivation, not from a contrite and humble heart. Let us approach the goodness of God with all diligence, in tears, in the dejection of the body through exploits and hardships, showing humility before each person, humbling ourselves before our brethren, as before those who are superior to us in all respects, not repaying evil for evil to anyone, not harboring bad thoughts about anyone in our hearts, having one heart and one soul with everyone. 453. Every day let us consider what state our mind has reached, and guard it from defilement by unclean thoughts. Let us not give the body saturation, so that the passions characteristic of it do not make their demands, so that the body submits to the soul, and the soul submits to the mind and becomes an immaculate bride. Having come to this state, she calls the groom to her and says: “Let my Brother come down into His grapes and eat the fruit of His vegetables” (Song. 5:1). 454. Two paths are laid before us: the path of life and the path of death. He who walks on one does not walk on the other. Whoever goes first one way, then the other, does not ultimately belong to either of the two paths, neither the one leading to the kingdom, nor the one leading to torment. When he dies, then the judgment over him belongs to the only God, whose mercy is ineffable. 455. The Kingdom of God is the destruction of all sin. In the heart in which the kingdom of God has established itself, although enemies try to sow evil by bringing sinful thoughts; but these thoughts, not finding any sympathy in a person, do not bear any fruit. 456. From the time the mind tastes Divine sweetness, the enemy’s arrows no longer enter it: the whole armor of virtues in which it is clothed protects and protects it, does not allow it to rebel, keeping it in the Divine vision. He, by the power of spiritual reasoning, constantly distinguishes between paths, avoids one, and adheres to another. 457. The head of all evil is one: the malice of our enemies, the demons. The source of all virtues is one: the fear of God. 458. Beloved brother! acquire the fear of God in yourself and you will spend your life in spiritual peace, because the fear of God gives birth to all other virtues. He who is not guided in all his actions by the fear of God has not yet become a partaker of the kingdom of God. Stay constantly in asceticism, and little by little you will cut off passion. The sign of success or failure in a feat is as follows: as long as the “shuitsa” is in effect (Matthew 6:3), i.e. left hand or fallen nature, until then sin did not die, until then the right hand, that is, the virtues did not enter into a sacred union with you. Scripture teaches us this. “Do you not know,” it says, “how you imagine that slaves will obey him, the servants of nature, whom you will listen to, either sin leading to death, or obedience to righteousness” (Rom. 6:16). 459. The Lord said about His companions that He took them out of the world. From what world did He take them away? from the world, that is, from a vain and sinful life. Everyone who wants to be a disciple of Jesus must flee from passions. He who does not leave them cannot be the abode of God, and will not be allowed to taste the Divine sweetness. 460. The mind, unless it acquires health and becomes alien to malice, cannot become a spectator of the Divine Light. Evil, like a wall, stands before the mind and makes the soul barren. 461. He who loves God, who is inflamed with the desire for God to make a dwelling for Himself in him, and who does not want to remain in a miserable orphanhood, let him first take care of keeping the commandments of Jesus, in order to live his life for the sake of Jesus. Jesus is not far from each of us. There is one barrier between Him and us: our passions. And therefore, if you claim that you have renounced the world, but act in many cases according to the principles of the world, then you have not completely renounced; you are deceiving yourself. 462. The Lord commanded us to bear the cross. What is the significance of this commandment? Its meaning is to keep the mind constantly awake and in virtue. Let the one who ascends to such a cross not leave it, that is, let him remain in constant abstinence from passions. He who constantly abstains from passions mortifies them in due time. Then the mind is resurrected into a state of invincibility. 463. If a person does not abandon all vain worries, then he will not be able to ascend to the cross. On this basis, the Lord commanded to abandon all assimilation and all the initial causes that bring the mind down from the cross. 464. The Apostle, knowing that it is impossible to love both God and the world at the same time, wrote to his disciple: “No one, having been a warrior, undertakes to buy money for life, so that the commander will be pleased. Even if someone strives, he will not get married, but if he struggles unlawfully” (2 Tim. 2:4-5). 465. Those who bear good fruit are purified by God, with the goal that they become even more fruitful. But the Lord does not honor with His love those who fulfill the sinful will of the flesh. 466. Let us resort to the goodness of God, begging God to have mercy on us and grant us the strength to overthrow the heavy yoke of a world drowning in sinful filth. Our enemy does not sleep! every hour he tries to catch us and steal our souls. With us is our Lord Jesus Christ. He will crush the enemy with His holy word if we keep that word. 467. As long as we have the opportunity to resort to God’s mercy and enjoy the wealth of God’s bounties, as long as we are in the body, let us repent from our whole hearts of our sins. Briefly the field of earthly life. If we take upon ourselves a feat that corresponds to our strengths, then we will inherit eternal and unspeakable joy, but if we turn back, then we will be like that young man who asked the Lord what he should do to be saved, and who left the Lord, saddened by the Lord’s answer. The Lord said to him: “Sell all the trees and give them to the poor, and take up your cross and follow Me” (Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22). With these words, the Lord teaches us that our salvation lies in cutting off the will of our fallen nature. The young man found it burdensome to give all his property to the poor, but even more burdensome to bear the cross. Providing property to the poor is a private virtue. It makes a person capable of bearing the cross. Wearing the cross consists of renouncing all types of sin, and gives birth to love, without which wearing the cross cannot take place. 468. There are also imaginary virtues, in which there is neither love nor perfection. 469. He who wishes to enter the path of love, let him renounce caring about people, whatever they may be, good or evil, and let him direct all the desire of his heart to God. From such a desire for God, natural anger begins to act, which resists everything that the enemy infests. Then the law of God is inscribed on the soul and reveals its presence in it through activity motivated by fear and love. A person who has reached this state boldly speaks to the Apostle: “I do not want to be bound, but I am ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 21:13). Blessed is the soul that has achieved such love. She becomes dispassionate. 470. Those who have retired from the world! Let us consider ourselves, in what dispensation we are. The Lord Jesus is abundantly merciful. He gives reassurance to everyone according to his deeds: great reassurance for great deeds, small tranquility for small deeds. One kingdom, but everyone finds their own place and business in it. 471. Let us resist laziness! Let us overthrow ourselves, sir (John 20:7)! Sir, closing his eyes is forgetfulness. It prevents us from seeing the light of repentance. Let us acquire for ourselves Martha and Mary: the dejection of the body by labors and weeping. May they intercede before the Savior, and He will raise Lazarus: a mind bound by many shrouds - the desires of a fallen nature. 472. Let us strive according to our strength, and God, according to the abundance of His mercy, will assist us. If we have not kept our hearts pure, as the Fathers kept them, then let us try to keep at least our bodies from sin, as God requires. We believe that during the terrible sorrow that must befall us at the hour of death, He will have mercy on us, as He had mercy on all the saints 437. 473. He who carries a heavy burden of passions and acts according to the principles of fallen nature is not a true Israelite. He deceives himself, bearing in vain one name. He will receive nothing from the Lord Jesus, from Whom he denies himself by his activity, resurrecting in himself what He killed and reviving what He buried. It is obvious that whoever does this is not a true Jew, but a false one. He is not circumcised and does not keep the Sabbath. And therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, when He comes in His glory, will then bring into His eternal kingdom only the sons of Israel, that is, only true Christians, circumcised not by carnal circumcision, but by spiritual circumcision. The Israelites of God, the chosen people, made up of all nations, have circumcision of heart and keep the Sabbath, that is, they have abolished sin in themselves. 474. Blessed is he who strives, who has put off that which drags him into Gehenna, and who has put on that which leads him into the kingdom. The time of earthly life is insignificant, but we are deluded and waste it on empty things. Meanwhile, the last hour is approaching imperceptibly, and we are subjected to eternal crying. Let us not neglect guarding our hearts! We will constantly watch over him, making every effort to save ourselves and constantly praying for the goodness of God to help us. Let us not be angry with our neighbors for the words they utter recklessly. Being uncultivated by virtues, they are alien to God, they are vessels of the enemy: their life will end in due time, and they will leave the field of earthly activity. 475. Beloved brothers! In every action of yours, pay the main attention to humility, so as not to miss the patience of dishonor and cutting off the will of fallen nature that it requires. He who adheres to his own will damages and destroys all his virtues. 476. He who is guided by humility cuts off his will in meekness and righteousness of the Gospel, fearing strife like a snake. The disposition to dispute and discord corrupts the entire edifice of virtues, casts darkness on the soul, and blocks the light of the Gospel commandments from it. Take care to eliminate from yourself this damned passion, which mixes with virtues, creeps into a person under the guise of truth and destroys him. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not ascend to the cross until after the excommunication of Judas from the host of disciples: and a person, if he does not destroy this vile passion from himself, will not be able to succeed in serving God. This passion will be followed by different types of sin: the rejection of patience will follow it; the infatuation with vanity will follow it. Everything that God hates lives in the soul of the curious and highly wise. Whatever curiosity represents as righteous and Divine, it represents falsely. 477. Let judgment of oneself precede judgment of one's neighbor. This brings humility. 478. Humility consists in cutting off one’s will before one’s neighbor in the spiritual mind. 479. Purity of heart is proven by undistracted prayer. 480. Crying vegetates out of insanity. 481. Love is evidenced by non-judgment of neighbors. 482. He who has acquired long-suffering will not allow himself to think evil thoughts about his neighbor. 483. A God-loving heart is alien to vindictiveness. 484. Silence consists in not being distracted by anything from serving God. 485. Spiritual poverty is the property of a kindly heart. 486. Peace of the soul comes from obedience to the powers of its mind. 487. Meekness comes from patience. 488. The mercy of the heart is revealed by the forgiveness of insults and insults. 489. All countable virtues are born from cutting off the will of fallen nature. When a person renounces his will: then the virtues enter into a sacred union with each other; then the mind comes into a state unshaken by disturbances. 490. From all Scripture I see that God’s demands from man are concentrated in the following: that he should humble himself before his neighbor in everything, that he should cut off the will of fallen nature in everything, that he should constantly beg God for mercy, that he should constantly beg God to give him a helping hand. Only this hand can save a person from falling asleep, into which he is constantly drawn by the disease of forgetfulness; This is the only hand that can keep the mind from being distracted and wandering everywhere. Fallen human nature is infected with cunning and fickleness. 491. All our virtues in God are by no means our property. God saves us; He sends down upon us the power to be kept from evil; He covers us with His providence and gives us the opportunity to remain in non-covetousness; He grants us a turn to Him, and when we turn to Him, this is a consequence of His action on us; He inspires us to give thanks to Him, and we thank Him according to His gift; He sends down grace in us, the action of which arouses gratitude to God in us; He protects us from our enemies, the demons, and snatches us from their hands and jaws. 492. The disposition to disputes and strife or curiosity is born from the following vices: from idle talk, from cunning verbosity, from hypocritical words uttered with the aim of pleasing people, from insolence, from duplicity, from the desire to insist on one’s word. These vices corrupt the soul mercilessly. She becomes sterile from assimilating them to herself. 493. If a person does not shed sweat in feat to acquire every virtue, then he will not be able to achieve the peace of the Son of God. 494. Brothers! do not be careless about your life and salvation; make sure that in every matter in which laziness operates, malice also operates. Beware that the time and space given for repentance are not taken away from you before you have time to reach the rest of the Son of God. This peace consists in humility, which must embrace all the behavior and all the actions of the monk, in gentleness, in the complete rejection of hatred, so as not to feel it towards any person, in abstinence from any action displeasing to God, in constant vision of one’s sins, in deadness to all evil. The promise of God cannot be false: if we try to acquire such a mood, then He will be inherent in us and will strengthen our weakness through His goodness 438. 495. One of the Fathers said: “If a person does not acquire faith in God, constant striving for God, if he does not acquire innocence, not repaying evil for evil, if he does not acquire asceticism, humility, chastity, love of mankind, renunciation of the world, meekness, long-suffering, frequent prayer with heart disease, true love, blind to turning back (Luke 9:62 ), patience with tolerated sorrows, rejection of hope in one’s virtuous life: then one cannot be saved.” 496. Man! your evil enemies do not sleep: they are vigilantly concerned about your destruction. Don’t be careless, don’t trample on your conscience; Do not trust yourself that you have achieved anything pleasing to God: you are still in the country of your enemies. 497. Prudent dejection of oneself through exploits erases the vices produced by previous negligence. 498. The cry of the heart heals ulcers inflicted on the heart by internal enemies. 499. Perfect love for God resists internal struggles, overcoming them by the will of God and subjugating them to it. 500. Purity of heart, conquering battles of the heart, prepares the heart for a place of rest for the Son of God. 501. Virtues are preserved intact by chastity. 502. Spiritual mind is both a winner and a preserver. 503. He who finds thanksgiving to God during the temptations that come upon him turns the temptations that come upon him to flight. 504. Distrust of your feat, that it is pleasing to God, will attract God’s help to you, which will protect you. He who has given his heart to a pious, true search for God cannot even imagine that he is pleasing to God. 505. He who is convicted by his conscience of anything belonging to a fallen nature is alien to freedom. Where there is reproof, there is also accusation; where there is accusation, there is no freedom. 506. When you finally see that during prayer your conscience does not convict you of any type of sin: then this will be a sign that you have definitely received freedom and, by the will of the All-Holy God, have ascended into His holy rest. 507. If you see that the good fruit has grown strong, and the enemy’s tares do not suppress it; if the adversaries are definitely defeated and retreat from you not with deceit, which becomes clear from the cessation of the struggle with feelings; if a cloud overshadowed the tabernacle, and “in the days the sun will not burn you, the moon is lower by night” (Ps. 120:6); If all the accessories of the tabernacle are found in you, and it is set up and kept according to the will of God, then in truth victory has been granted to you by God. He, He Himself, overshadowed His tabernacle as belonging to Him; He comes before her and prepares for her a decent, safe place. If God does not first stop in the place where it pleases Him to stop, then the tabernacle must continue its march. This is what Scripture says. 508. A person is in great danger until he knows himself, until he understands with all accuracy that all the inveterate opponents and defilers of monastic work, who arouse in the monk the action of the old nature, have left him. We need the fear of the all-good God to constantly prevail over us, so that the remembrance of God’s good deeds works in us unsparingly; we need the grace of God to constantly possess our hearts through holy humility; we need to be diligent in everything that prepares and preserves this state, remaining in sobriety and asceticism until the end of our lives. 509. He who judges his neighbor, reproaches his brother, humiliates him in his heart, reproaches him with anger, speaks ill of him in front of others: he removes from himself mercy and other honest virtues with which the saints abounded. Such behavior towards one’s neighbor destroys all the dignity of one’s exploits and destroys all good fruits. 510. He who says that he mourns his sins and continues to be subjected to them deceives himself. 511. He who strives to remain silent and at the same time does not care about cutting off his passions suffers from ignorance of the holy art of creating virtues. 512. He who has abandoned concern for his own sins and taken upon himself the care of correcting others is alien to prayer offered from the whole heart, alien to the consolation delivered by the Divine mind. 513. Courage consists of when a person arms himself against the sins he has previously committed, prays to God to grant him forgiveness for them, prays to God so that they do not recur either in his mind, or in his heart, or in his actions. 514. If the memory of the sins committed does not greatly dominate the heart and does not turn the eyes of the mind away from everything that belongs to the world, then a person will not be able to get rid of the violence of the passions he has acquired, will not be able to abstain from the sins to which he is accustomed, will not be able to distract his thoughts from the condemnation of God’s creatures. 515. Those who bring true repentance are no longer engaged in condemning their neighbors, they are engaged in mourning their sins. 516. If your sins attract all your attention, then by this you will distract yourself from attention to the sins of your neighbor. 517. He who repays evil for evil removes crying far from himself. 518. Far from crying is he who indulges in worldly concerns in order to satisfy his vanity. 519. Those who follow the will of fallen nature are far from crying. 520. If a person crying says about someone that he is good or bad, then this judgment alone already serves as shame and reproach for him. Such a judgment exposes him that he could see something that he should not have seen: a person more sinful than himself. An attempt to find out about something that does not actually concern oneself is an undertaking contrary to one’s conscience, a sign of ignorance of the path of God, an evil infatuation and captivity that does not allow one to see one’s sins. 521. If you are reviled and you are grieved by this, there is no true crying in you. 522. If you suffer a loss or are in any way deprived of things that belong to you and are saddened by this, then you have no fear of God. 523. If someone glorifies you, and you accept praise with pleasure, then there is no fear of God in you. 524. If they say something unfair about you, and you become confused, then you have no fear of God. 525. If, when talking with brethren, you seek for your word to prevail over the words of others, then you do not have the fear of God. 526. If you are engaged in visiting the glorious people of the world, with the intention of making short acquaintance and friendship with them, then you do not have the fear of God in you. 527. If your word is neglected and you are offended by this, then there is no fear of God in you. 528. The calculated signs show that the old man is alive in the ascetic, that he possesses it, that he does not encounter resistance to himself, that there is no true crying in the ascetic. 529. A servant of God must have spiritual eyes, see himself with them, and know that he who follows the will of fallen nature is an enemy of God by choice. 530. If you keep God’s commandments and do all your deeds in the spiritual mind for the sake of God: if you understand that it is impossible to please God worthy of His greatness; if you present your sins to the gaze of your mind, and constantly keep them before them, then you will find in this protection against an evil enemy who is trying to overthrow a person, enticing him to justify himself; you will keep intact the building built by crying. 531. Do not let your heart hope that you have won! Until a person appears before the judgment of God, until he hears a final determination about himself and finds out what place is assigned to him: until then his service to God is under fear, in an unresolved situation. 532. Sorrow in the mind of God, consuming the heart, keeps its feelings from being carried away by sin, and sobriety resists evil thoughts and protects the mind from unpleasing movements. 533. A person, while he is in the body, should not and cannot trust himself in any way. He is incapable of immutability. He needs to remain in uninterrupted feat. 534. Blessed are those who have not placed their trust in their own works, who have understood the greatness of God and have been honored to fulfill exactly the will of God. Having recognized their weakness, they concentrate all their deeds into the sadness of repentance: they mourn themselves, leaving vain and sinful concern for everything that happens in the world, which, as the creation of God, is subject to the judgment of the one God. 535. The victory of the ascetic lies in the fact that he surrenders himself entirely to God, and by fulfilling His will he achieves perfection. Then his name will be entered in the book of life, the Angels will testify of him that he has escaped the princes of the air, and he will be numbered among the heavenly blessed spirits. But as long as the struggle continues, man remains in fear and trembling. He does not know whether today he will win or be defeated; he does not know what awaits him the next day, whether victory or defeat. 536. Dispassion is no longer subject to wavering from the attacks of the enemy. It accepted the reward for the struggle - the honor of victory. It remains in peace and is not afraid of the separation of the three parts united by the peace of God. These three parts are: spirit, soul and body. When these three parts, through the action of the Holy Spirit, form one whole, then they are no longer separated. 537. Do not admit that you have died to sin when you see that the enemy is still raping you, whether it be in a dream or in a waking state. 538. “Temptation is the life of man on earth” (Job 7:1), says Scripture. Whether we are awake or asleep, the enemy does not stop attacking us. 539. He who fights in disgrace does not sing a victory song before victory: and a monk, suffering under the yoke of the struggle against sin, cannot be calm and rely on his life while the battle is going on. 540. Blessed are those eyes which a person, because of humility, does not dare to raise to God! Blessed are the monks who are diligent in healing their wounds in spiritual mind, who have acquired the knowledge of their sins, who wash them with tears and ask for forgiveness from God. 541. Woe to those who waste time on vain pursuits, consider themselves sinless, trample on their conscience, not deigning to come to tenderness and not understanding that what they despise as a trifle is by no means a trifle. 542. The farmer recognizes as lost every seed he sows that does not bear fruit; he grieves about labor and expenses that are not rewarded. Likewise, a monk, even if he learned all the secrets and acquired the most extensive knowledge, even if he performed great signs and healings of bodily ailments, even if he took upon himself various difficult feats, even if he observed the strictest non-covetousness and had clothes barely able to cover the nakedness of the body: but if he does not see in himself the signs of Divine love, he is still under fear. He has not yet been at peace with his conscience, he is still surrounded by enemies, hunters, slanderers, he has not yet learned from experience that “love no longer disappears” (1 Cor. 13:8). 543. Oh, how difficult is the path of God! The Lord Himself said: “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it” (Matthew 7:14). We, lazy, idle, devoted to carnal pleasures, place our peace and well-being in rejecting the yoke of Christ. 544. He who sees a snake, or a viper, or a scorpion, or any other poisonous animal, runs away from it in fear; the reckless and unhappy soul looks indifferently at everything that death inflicts on it, does not move away, does not run away; on the contrary, she delights in all this, conquers her heart to all this. For this reason, she wastes her earthly life on empty pursuits and leaves it without bearing any good fruit 439 . 545. Monastic life is a path; the goal of the path is to achieve peace. On this path, on the path of virtues, there are falls, there are enemies, there are changes; on it there is abundance and depreciation, and fruits and barrenness, and sadness and joy, and painful lamentation of the heart and peace of mind, and success and loss. But dispassion is alien to everything mentioned. It has no disadvantage. It is in God, and God is in it. For dispassion there are no enemies, no fall. Neither disbelief nor any other passion bothers him. It does not feel any labor in preserving itself, it is not bothered by any desire; it does not suffer from any enemy warfare. Great is his glory, his dignity is inexpressible. Far removed from it is any mental structure that is outraged by any passion. It is the body that the Lord Jesus took upon Himself; it is the love that the Lord Jesus taught 440. 546. It is impossible for a mind bound by the cares of the vain world to serve God, just as the Lord said: “You cannot work for God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). All vain activities in general and each of them in particular are called mammon. If a person does not leave them, then he will not be able to enter into the service of God. 547. What does serving God consist of? in nothing other than the removal of everything alien from the mind when we praise God. Let there be no pleasure in us for anything earthly while we pray to Him! may there be no malice in us while we sing His praises! May there be no hatred in us towards our neighbor while we worship Him! May there be no evil zeal in us while we direct our minds to Him! Let shameful lust not move in our members at the time when we are engaged in the memory of God. With all this the soul is darkened, kept in captivity, and, having these passions within itself, cannot bring pure service to God. They forbid her in the air, that is, stirring up thoughts and dreams, they do not allow her to appear before God and perform mysterious service to Him, praying to Him from the sweet action of Divine love with the delight of the heart, in the holy will of God, and the soul is enlightened by God. Without cutting off the mentioned passions with the spiritual mind, the mind is constantly in darkness and cannot succeed in God. 548. It is impossible to take upon oneself the feat by which passions are cut off, if the vain cares of the world are not abandoned. Carnal wisdom of two kinds holds the soul in captivity. One of them acts on the soul from the outside, binding it with concerns about bodily success in the middle and according to the beginnings of the world; the other acts within the soul, consists of the action of the passions, and prevents the action of the virtues. The soul cannot see the action of the passions within itself unless it first postpones its activity in the beginning and in the middle of the world. For this reason, the Lord determined that no one can be His disciple without completely rejecting the will of fallen nature. Bodily, external activity, as dictated by carnal wisdom, depends on arbitrariness, and internal activity depends on external activity. Teaching us that the will of fallen nature rules over this and other activities, our Lord Jesus Christ commanded to cut off the will. The mind is mortified in relation to eternal life while the soul is given over to the cares and affairs of the world: at this time the passions that secretly dwell in the soul develop and intensify freely. If the soul obeys the teachings of the Lord Jesus, who commands to cut off all sinful and carnal desires; then she will hate all things according to the beginnings of the world; then the mind rises from the earth and from sleep, remains in a state of wakefulness and strength, expelling all passions from its home, listening generously to the soul and protecting it so that it does not return back into the arms of its enemies. 549. The mind, raised and brought into a state of wakefulness, carefully takes care of the soul, and, constantly protecting it, gives birth to and raises children from it, enters into such close communication with it that the mind and soul become one heart. The soul enters into complete obedience to the mind, which becomes the head of the entire human being. Here are set forth the deepest psychological truths, which cannot otherwise be explained except through experimental Christian, holy asceticism. This teaching is also set forth in the 21st Discourse of St. Macarius the Great. 550. When the soul comes into obedience to the mind, which rules over it in the Lord, then the mind and soul united together bring pure prayers to God, then they glorify the Lord in the sanctity of the heart, then enlightenment from the Lord is granted to them. They are the true worshipers the Father seeks, those who worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24). It is said about them: “I will dwell in them and walk around” (2 Cor. 6:16). They were given a promise: “If two of you take counsel on earth concerning every thing that anyone asks, it will be given to him by My Father” (Matthew 18:19). 551. It pleases God that those who are His are free both from external bonds imposed by carnal wisdom, and from internal ones hidden in the soul. Those and other chains were broken by the incarnation of the Lord, in His name, as He said: “Be in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). Brother! understand the following: it pleases God that, firstly, we remain in Him with all our activity; then He too will abide in us, who have purified ourselves according to our strength. 552. It is impossible for Christ to dwell in a person along with sin. If Christ has dwelt in you, then sin has died in you. 553. Anyone who wants to know whether Christ has moved into him can find out from his own thoughts. As long as sin forces his heart into obedience to itself, God does not dwell in him and the Holy Spirit does not find peace in him. The order of the matter is this: God inhabits a person if the person first completes the feat required by God and acquires a life corresponding to the will of God; also, a person inhabits God if the soul is freed from passions. 554. “Be cleave to the filthy woman,” says the Apostle, “there is one body with the harlot; be cleave to the Lord; there is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:16–17). The name harlot means every desire of the fallen nature. If the soul is exalted above all those who resist it in the air, then it abides in God and becomes a partaker of His Spirit; then what was said to her will be fulfilled: cleave unto the Lord; there is one spirit with the Lord; then the Lord teaches her how she should pray, worshiping Him with true and satisfactory worship, clinging to Him. He dwells in her, giving her peace and constantly keeping her in peace, revealing in her His glory and ineffable gifts. 555. The soul is born from God into a new existence, first through holy Baptism, and then through the influx of the Holy Spirit into it, and Scripture says: “He who is born of God does not sin, and the evil one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18). 556. Let us try to pluck out and cast out passions from our hearts, so that we may become infants in relation to malice, according to the testament of the Gospel (Matthew 18:1-3). Those who have made efforts to destroy passions in themselves have reached a holy, great age. Those who have become infants through malice receive the ability to resist the enemy, as if they have stripped themselves of everything that belongs to him. Again: these babies are made by their fathers as having reached perfection. The sacraments are revealed and entrusted to them, and they achieve unity with themselves and with God, in wisdom, goodness, purity, of which meekness is composed. Those who have reached this state glorify Christ both in their souls and in their bodies (1 Cor. 6:20). 557. A great famine has come on earth. Let's not give in to despondency! Let us constantly beg the goodness of God not to allow us to be seduced by the seductions of the enemy and the envious, who commits atrocities with bitterness, waits with persistence for a favorable time and opportunity, saying to himself: “If not today, then tomorrow I will succeed; I will not retreat until I defeat him.” According to the cunning and maliciousness of the enemy, we will pray constantly and unremittingly, imitating Saint David, who prayed like this: “O Lord my God! Look, hear me, enlighten my eyes, lest I fall asleep into death, and not when my enemy says: Be strong against him. Those who are cold will rejoice if I move” (Ps. 12:4-5). 558. If enemies begin to overcome us, then we will cry out in the following words: “God! who will be like You? Do not remain silent, subdue, O God: for behold, Thy enemies have made noise, and those who hate Thee have raised their heads. Thy will is evil against Thy people, and Thy counsel is against Thy saints. Deciding: “Come, and I will consume the tongue, and the name of Israel will not be remembered” (Ps. 82:2-5). 559. Those who act in the fight against enemies by faith inspire their hearts with courage, and before entering into the fight with the enemy, they have already founded themselves on the holy stone, which is Christ 441. 560. Let us not give in to despondency and relaxation if we see that our enemies have surrounded us with their intrigues and deceit. Their net and catch lies in the fact that they intensify either to drown us in laziness, sadness and bewilderment, or to plunge us into voluptuousness, or to arouse us to anger at our neighbor when he does something contrary to us; sometimes they seduce our gaze with bodily beauty, sometimes they bring us down with a lust for delicious food, sometimes they present the word spoken to our neighbors as caustic, sometimes they inspire us to challenge the word of our neighbor, sometimes they teach us to pronounce judgment on our brethren and say: “This one is good, but this one is not good.” Let us not, I repeat, give in to despondency and relaxation if such thoughts attack us from everywhere and such attractions influence us; On the contrary, let us cry out with all our hearts in the words of David: “The Lord is the protector of my life. Even if a regiment rises up against me, my heart will not fear: even if it rises up against me, I will trust in Him. This is the only thing I have asked of the Lord, and this I will require: that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and that I may attend His holy church. As you hid me in Your village in the day of my evil, cover me in the secret of Your village, and lift me up on a stone. And now lift up my head against my enemies” (Ps. 27:1, 3–6). 561. Let us use all means within our power to acquire sobriety of mind. A sober mind constantly listens to the soul, protects it from dead deeds, from every deed that is contrary to the holy nature. The soul needs constant attention: because its nature is changeable 442. 562. The soul is like iron, which, when left neglected, becomes covered and damaged by rust, but when put into fire, it is purified. As long as it is kept in fire, it itself becomes like fire; no one can touch a red-hot iron, just as no one can touch fire. The same thing happens with the soul. As long as she remains with God, as long as she learns from God through mental and heartfelt prayer, she remains as if heated by fire, burning all her enemies who covered her with rust during her negligence. What sensual fire does with iron, Divine fire does with the soul: it purifies and renews it, and the soul, having united with the Divine fire, no longer enjoys anything belonging to the vain world, but rests in its nature, in which it was created by God, into which it was worthy to enter again by rebirth. 563. A soul that has strayed from its immaculate nature dies. The soul that has achieved Christian perfection abides in this nature. If she turns to actions contrary to nature, she dies immediately. 564. Those who have been rewarded with the mercy of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit look at the world as a prison in which they are imprisoned, and flee communication with it as if it were death. Such a soul cannot love the world even if it wanted to love. She remembers the state in which she was poor before she entered into the state in which she began to rest in God; she remembers what the world did to her and the desolation into which it led her. 565. If a soul, after holy baptism, is again enslaved by the devil, then he subjects it to terrible humiliation, insidiously casting it into all defilements; he throws out the image and laws of the true King from the soul, replaces them with his own image and his laws, introduces the soul into the cares of this age, draws him into negligence and shameful passions, into fulfilling the will of demons. When the goodness of the holy and great King Jesus grants repentance to the soul: then the soul is revived with joy and through repentance opens the entrance to King Jesus. Having ascended into the soul, He destroys the enemy, destroys his abominable image and abominable laws, frees the soul, places His holy image in it, gives it His holy law, teaches it to successfully fight the enemy, pacifies all its feelings, and from that time begins to dwell in the soul as already belonging to Him. 566. It is impossible for a soul to enter into the rest of the Son of God if it does not have His image. No merchant accepts or issues coins that do not have a royal image on them: coins that do not have this image are not deposited in the royal treasury: so a soul that is not sealed with the image of the great King, Jesus Christ, is not accepted by the Angels into their fellowship. They reject it, saying: “How can you enter here when you do not have the Royal image on you.” 567. The sign of the Royal image is love, as the Lord Himself declared it, saying: “By this they all understand, just as you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). But Divine love cannot abide in us if the soul is divided and, while seeking God, does not abandon its attachment to the world. The soul will not be worthy of spiritual success in God if it is bound by something belonging to the world; she will not swim through the turbulent sea of ​​passions if she lacks any virtue; she cannot pass through the cloud of evil spirits unless she rejects all vain cares and passions. When the slightest part of the wall of the city, surrounded by a wall on all sides, is destroyed; then the enemies, carefully watching the city, seeing a gap, enter the city through it. Even if the guards stood at the gates of the city, they could no longer protect it; To do this, it is necessary to correct the collapsed section of the wall. Likewise, an ascetic is unable to resist enemies if he is possessed by any passion; he cannot achieve Christian perfection. 568. In Deuteronomy, God commands Israel: “If you go out and fight against your enemies, let you be preserved from every word and deed of evil” (Deut. 23:9), that is, from any kind of satisfaction of passions, and in due time your enemy will surrender into your hands. Of the foreign nations hostile to you, “you will not leave alive every breath,” that is, do not allow any sinful thought that brings you to live, in agreement and conversation with it, “lest it teach you to do all your abominations, and sin before the Lord your God” (Deut. 20:16, 18). To the ascetic who has become timid at the sight of the terrible, gigantic growth of enemies, and who doubts victory over such enemies, God proclaims: “You will not be able to destroy them quickly, lest the earth be desolate, and the wild beasts multiply against you: but little by little the Lord your God will destroy these tongues from before you” (Deut. 7:22). Meanwhile, you will increase in number, that is, you will be enriched with experience in asceticism. God often repeats the commandment to the Israelites not to enter into any friendly relations with the peoples of Canaan, whom God intended to destroy from the face of the Promised Land. This commandment applies to us: they are prohibited from every slightest passion and pleasure in sin. 569. Ecclesiastes, teaching us that the slightest passion can destroy the entire edifice of virtues, says: “The flies of the dead rot the sweetness of the oil” (Eccl. 10:1). And the prophet Ezekiel says: “If a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits unrighteousness, all his righteousnesses will not be remembered” (Ezek. 18:24). “A little kvass leaves the whole mixture leavened” (Gal. 5:9), said the Apostle. 570. All Scripture urges us to carefully consider ourselves so that, while leading an ascetic life, we do not harbor malice and are not angry with our neighbor, which ruins the entire feat of the monk. Because of our memory of malice, our Lord Jesus Christ will not help us in the fight against the invisible enemy. He turns away from someone who does not forgive his neighbor. “You wicked servant,” He says to him, “he has forgiven you all your debt, because you begged Me tenderly. Wouldn't it be appropriate for you to have mercy on your minion? And his Lord became angry and handed him over as a tormentor, Dondezhe will repay all his debt. My heavenly Father will do the same for you, if you do not let each of your brothers away from your hearts their sins” (Matthew 18:32-35). 571. Brother! examine yourself daily and open your heart before God in order to understand the invisible agents living in your heart. Is there any indignation or hatred towards his brother, envy, contempt for him, do you humiliate and condemn him for the shortcomings that seem to you in him? If you find such poison in your heart, then know that, being infected with it, it cannot please God. 572. He who fears Gehenna should cast out all types of malice from his heart, so that the terrible decree of rejection does not fall on him from the Lord. Brother! listen to your heart, watch over it: because the incredible malice of your enemies is combined with incredible deceit. They never sleep! Be convinced in your heart of the correctness of this information being taught to you. 573. As long as a person does evil, he cannot do good, but can only do evil under the guise of good. 574. There is nothing belonging to this world that could separate from the love of God those who have loved God with all their hearts and listen to themselves. Be careful not to let anything hostile creep into you and distract you from your love for God. These are: addiction to money, to property, voluptuousness, hatred, in a word, all the poisons that the serpent breathes into our hearts. 575. Serpents live in the hearts of those who tempt the Lord Jesus. Those who tempt the Lord are those who ask about His commandments and do not fulfill them, just as Scripture says: “Teacher of the law, ask one question of them when you tempt Him” (Matthew 22:35). 576. Strengthen your heart with courage; Do not give in to despondency, saying: “How can I fulfill the commandments of the Lord when I am a sinner?” If a person forsakes his sins and turns to God; then repentance revives him into a new, spiritual and holy life. 577. Let us strive to remain in the arms of repentance and feed on the milk from his holy breasts, so that it will educate us. Let us despise everything that is visible, so that this milk may be sweetened in our mouths. Let us submit to his authority and his instructions so that it may heal us. If we are fighting with enemies, and they begin to overthrow us because of our childhood, then we will cry in the arms of repentance, and it will beg our Father to protect us from violence and insult. 578. Let us completely cut off the will of fallen nature and love wandering, so that it will save us, as it saved Abraham. Let us entrust ourselves to his hands, like Jacob, so that like him we may receive the blessing of the Father. 579. Let us not give room for despondency in our hearts, so that it does not deprive us of the opportunity to inherit the Promised Land. 580. Let us love humility and labor, and let us enter a land boiling with honey and milk, just as Caleb entered it. 581. We will not allow the belly and larynx to be pleased with refined and sweet food, lest this destroy us, as it destroyed the sons of Eli the High Priest. 582. Let us love abstinence in all its fullness, depressing our members with asceticism and keeping them dead from passions, in order to gain a courageous heart against our enemies, like the great prophet Elijah the Thesbite. 583. Let us show obedience to our fathers according to God, cutting off our will before them, and we will acquire true obedience. When we acquire it, the blessing of the fathers will rest on us, just as it rested on Elisha. 584. Let us carry out our prayerful service unfailingly, without inclining to the idea of ​​laziness, which lives in the body and suggests the need to calm it down. Let us be like Daniel, who decided to die rather than abandon his daily rule of prayer. 585. God is omnipotent: He saves those who love Him from temptation, but He gives over the evil ones to destruction. The faith of the righteous in God transforms beasts into lambs. 586. Blessed be the God of repentance! and blessed be God is he who loved repentance and bowed his neck under the yoke of repentance! He will be born again into rebirth through the union of his will with the will of God. 587. In order not to be deceived and fall into the hands of the enemies of repentance, a person needs great reasoning, cutting off all carnal lust, constant attention to himself, and sobriety in all his ways. 588. He who justifies himself alienates himself from repentance. 589. He who condemns sinners expels repentance from himself. 590. He who despises the careless destroys repentance in himself. 591. It is written about repentance in parables: “The paths of her house are hard: but do not waste the waste of laziness, but make thin clothing for your husband. He who works from afar is like a ship; he gathers up wealth for himself” (Prov. 31:14, 22, 27). Based on these words, let's consider repentance. His actions are similar to the actions of a merchant who, when loading a ship, puts into it not just one product, but everything that he recognizes as providing a profit. If he sees another merchant who has suffered losses, he does not imitate him; he imitates those merchants who became rich. He rejects any unprofitable trading enterprise; He tries to acquire everything that brings benefits for himself, resorting to loans for this. He takes care to buy the most goods that have already brought him the greatest profit. He asks those who have become rich and do not envy him at what price they can buy and sell various items of trade. Such activity of a merchant is similar to the activity of a soul wishing to appear safely before God. She is not content with any one good deed: she tries to fulfill everything that advances her intention; she runs away from everything that harms her. - Brother! Having become the mysterious merchant of our Lord Jesus Christ, make every effort to purchase your King, moving away from everything that brings loss. They bring loss: human glory, pride, self-justification, negligence, slander, covetousness, strife, self-praise, worldly concerns. All this is harmful in the purchase of Jesus, and those His merchants who have these accessories in their goods will not be able to please Jesus. 592. Brother, look carefully at yourself! examine your feelings to find out which of them bear fruit according to God, and which obey sin. Do not your eyes admire, as if forcibly, towards a voluptuous view? Is your tongue not overcome by insolence? Does not your heart delight in human glory? Doesn't the slander suffered by the one who insulted you please your ears? All this is extremely harmful to the soul. 593. “Speak to Aaron the high priest,” God commands: “As many as have any blemish on them, let them not offer unto the Lord, lest they die” (Lev. 22:18, 20). The name Aaron must mean mind. Before sacrificing, he is commanded to consider what is being sacrificed, so as not to die: because demons mix their malice into our good, covering it with justification. Death for the mind is when it descends from the heights of the spiritual mind into the thoughts offered by demons and submits to them. The consequence of obedience to demonic truth and their thoughts is desecration of feelings. 594. A careful examination of oneself is the property of those who have loved Jesus and have placed their hope in Him. Their souls are made brides of the heavenly Bridegroom and adorned with all the virtues. Holy Baptism revived them into renewed existence, replaced the old nature in them with a renewed nature, and repentance supported the purity of the renewed nature in them, made them virgins, like saints, as if they had forgotten everything old to such an extent that nothing of the old even comes to their minds. The words of Scripture apply to such a soul: “Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house. And the King will desire your kindness” (Ps. 44:11-12). All the heavenly powers will be surprised at such a soul; they will be surprised at the purity in which her repentance has clothed her; they will be surprised at the wonderful union with the Lord into which the soul is brought through repentance. They will exclaim at the meeting of such a soul: “Who is this one who ascends, made white and adorned by her Brother, in the midst of His daughters!” ( Song 8:5 ). 595. Let us try with all our might to acquire tears and succeed little by little in the feat of crying, so that through it we may be stripped of the deeds of the old man. At the same time, let us beware of everything that harms the soul. Then His love will come to us from God, take away from us the image of the earthly man and place His holy image in our hearts. Then, cleansed from all vice, we will become worthy of the Lord. 596. From the time our race was damaged by sin, not a single person can be without sin; but repentance can return every person to a renewed state, to a state of innocence. On this basis, Scripture pronounces an admonition to all of us so that we leave the activity of our ancestor according to the flesh, who disobeyed the commandment, and enter into the activity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This activity is depicted in the holy commandments of the Lord. He performed an unspeakable mercy on us: He took upon Himself the slavery of man, and by this means opened the paradise reserved for man. He gave man all His holy virtues, granted him to eat the fruits of the tree of life. The Tree of Life is holy purity. The Lord revealed this purity in Himself by eliminating the cherubim and the flaming weapons (Gen. 3:24), which blocked the path to the tree of life. This path is the understanding of the holy words of the Lord, which He bestows on the minds of His faithful disciples (Luke 24:45). He keeps them vigilantly; He stops their inner hearing from the serpent, and not a single crafty word of the serpent penetrates their heart; He maintains in them the remembrance of that bitter work in which they languished before their deliverance, and this remembrance keeps them from deeds that return them to this work; He arouses in them frequent gratitude to Himself, the Savior, who redeemed them with His honest blood, blotted out the handwriting on the cross by which they were doomed to eternal slavery, made them His brothers and friends, and poured out the grace of the Holy Spirit on them. 597. A great mystery is performed in those who are ignorant of Christ: through regeneration they are made belonging to His essence, belonging to His body (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 5:30). He pleased that man should be like Him in all respects. Eve is from Adam: so are the brides of Jesus from Jesus. 598. Let us subject ourselves and our activities to our own judgment before appearing before the judgment of God. Let us not follow those who fulfill the carnal desires of the heart; Let us try to acquire the wealth that can help us in the terrible hour of need, and we will despise, as an enemy, perishable wealth, which, of necessity, we will have to leave here. Let us understand the errors of those who spent all the strength of soul and body to gain one temporary thing: they left here, leaving everything, and inherited Gehenna. They died because they did not want to follow the holy footsteps of the Lord, they were not worthy to become His brides. 599. A great storm rages on the sea of ​​life. Let us throw off everything that belongs to the vain world, and let us cry out in prayer to God, so as not to drown in the furious waves of this storm. If a person does not strip himself of worldly attachments from the outside and from the passions with which his soul is clothed within, then he will not be able to save himself from drowning in the troubled sea. 600. If the mind preserves the spiritual feelings from carnal desires, and the pillar of vision guides the soul through them, just as the pillar of Israel led through the desert, which they saw cloudy during the day and fiery at night (Ex. 13:21-22); if this pillar separates the soul from bestial lusts, as it separated the regiment of Israel from the regiment of the Egyptians (Exodus 14:19-20): then God will look angrily at the violent shamelessness of the passions rushing into the soul and intensifying to contain the feeling of sin (Exodus 14:24). He sends His help to the mind, which constantly exercises in secret teaching, destroys and instantly destroys all its enemies (Ex. 14, 27–28) 443. 601. St. Isaiah the Hermit's Word on the Passion (19). At the right time, I can also exclaim with the prophet Isaiah: “For the one who is in labor, I will destroy and dry up together: I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and dry up all their grass” (Is. 42:14-15). If you know about yourself that the source of the Holy Spirit has opened in you, then this serves as a sign that the passions that lived in you have dried up and died. This is indicated by the words of the Savior: “The kingdom of God is not here or there, but is within you” (Luke 17:21). Some people like to talk a lot about the kingdom of God; but they remain idle and do not do what leads them into the kingdom. Others strive for the sake of the kingdom of God; but they remain outside it, because their feat is alien to spiritual reason and vigilance over themselves. Rarely are there those upon whom the word of the Savior would have been fulfilled, who would have acquired the kingdom of God within themselves. The Holy Spirit of God descended upon those who acquired this kingdom; what was said by the Evangelist John was fulfilled on them: “Given to them the realm to become children of God, who believe in His name, who were not born of blood, nor of the lust of the flesh, nor of the lust of men, but were born of God” (John 1:12-13). They were freed from the sorrows that befell Eve as a result of the definition that struck her: “In sickness give birth to a child” (Gen. 3:16). They were freed from the grave consequences of the sentence pronounced over Adam: “Cursed is the earth in your deeds” (Gen. 3:17). The joy that infused the grace-filled Mary when the Holy Spirit descended on Her and the power of the Most High overshadowed them. Her. A sorrowful state became the lot of Eve and her descendants: a joyful state became the property of Mary and Her descendants - Christians. We were previously the sons of Eve, and we saw the curse that fell on her on ourselves: we knew this curse from the criminal thoughts that acted on us. In contrast to this, we recognize that we were born of God from the thoughts of the Holy Spirit living in us and from the sufferings of Christ, if our body actually participated in them by crucifixion. The Apostle said: “Or you do not know that Jesus Christ is in you; unless you are unskillful by nature” (2 Cor. 13:5). When we bore the image of earthly Adam, then we knew that we were his sons, according to the thoughts of the vile carnal wisdom that lived in us and possessed us, serving as an expression of the morbidity of the soul, its ailments or, what is the same, passions. Those who bear the image of the heavenly man, our Lord Jesus Christ, understand about themselves that they are His sons, according to the Holy Spirit living in them. Isaiah proclaims: “For the sake of Thy fear, O Lord, we received in the womb and was sick, and gave birth to the Spirit of salvation” (Is. 26:18). It is also read in Ecclesiastes: “Like the bones in the womb of a woman in labor, so is the way of the Spirit” (Eccl. 11:5). The Holy Virgin, overshadowed by the Spirit, conceived and carried in her womb the Son of God made man: similarly, those Christians upon whom the grace of the Holy Spirit has descended, mysteriously conceive and bear in their hearts the Son of God through the action of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle says about this: “May God give you the power to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, to let Christ dwell in your hearts: rooted and founded in love, so that you may understand with all the saints the love of Christ that transcends understanding” (Eph. 3:16-19). “Imams, this treasure is in scanty vessels, so that the abundance of power will be from God, and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:7). Have you achieved an experienced knowledge of the following words: “Beholding with revealed face the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). Have you also experienced the words: “Let the peace of God dwell in your hearts” (Col. 3:15) and: “Christ is in you” (Rom. 8:10) and: “God flows out of darkness into light to shine in our hearts to enlighten the mind of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6)? Have you fulfilled the following commandment of the Lord: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, and you may be like a man who waits on his Lord” (Luke 12:35-36)? Take care that your lips in the terrible hour of God’s judgment are not suddenly bound in silence, so that you do not become bewildered and are not excommunicated beyond your expectations from the face of the Saints. Do you really know about yourself that your vessel is sufficiently filled with oil, like the vessels of the wise virgins (Matthew 25:4), that you are able to enter the palace, that you will not remain outside it? Have you felt that your spirit, soul and body were united by the action of the Holy Spirit and were resurrected blameless from eternal death, having been visited by our Lord Jesus Christ? Has your conscience completely stopped denouncing and condemning you? Have you become a baby, according to the command 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)? If all this happened to you: then, while still in the body, you truly became the bride of Jesus, and His Spirit (Gal. 4:6) dwelt in you. If what has been said is not at all known to you from your own experience, then know that disaster and bitter lamentations await you. Shame and dishonor have already preceded you at the judgment of Christ; You will be exposed to it before a countless assembly of holy Angels and men. Every day, getting up early in the morning, the only thing the virgin cares about is to appear beautiful before the eyes of the groom. She often looks in the mirror, examines whether there is any flaw on her face that might seem unpleasant to the groom. So the saints spend both night and day in careful consideration of their deeds and thoughts: they study themselves whether they are under the guidance of God, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or not. Brother! strive diligently through the feat of a sick heart and the feat of the body in the spiritual mind in order to receive eternal joy. Few people receive this joy! those who acquired the sword of the Spirit and freed the soul and feelings from defilement by passions were rewarded. God is able to have mercy on our weakness and number us among His saints. Amen. The hermitage in the Skete was founded by the Monk Macarius the Great in the 4th century, destroyed by the Mohammedans in the 7th century. Bishop Ammon mentions one of them in a letter to Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria, who lived in the 4th century and at the beginning of the 5th century. Patericon of Skete and Memorable Tales, about Pimen the Great, ch. 20. This will be seen clearly when the works of the Monk Isaiah are compared with the works of the Monks Macarius the Great and Mark the Ascetic; on the contrary, there is a significant similarity between the works of Macarius the Great and the works of Mark the Ascetic. The second borrowed a lot from the first. The story of Elisha, a disciple of Abba Isaiah, mentions the later Abba Macarius, who lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Theodosian heretics appeared after Patriarch Theophilus and after the Council of Chalcedon. They rejected this Ecumenical Council, convened in 451 after the Nativity of Christ. Word 8, consisting of the sayings of Abba Isaiah, collected by his disciples. Word 27. This word consists of the sayings of the Monk Isaiah, which Abba Peter heard from him and wrote down. A saying quoted by Saint John of Damascus. Patrologia Graecae. Tom. XL, pag. 1211 and 1212. Here, of course, it is not Macarius the Great, the founder of Skete, who lived in the 4th century, but another of the same name, the later abbot of Skete, who lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. Under the leadership of this Macaria, the Monk Apollinaria, who left Constantinople under Emperor Theodosius the Younger, labored in the Skete, in male attire under the name Dorothea (Cheti-Minea January 5th). Probably this Macarius talked about insolence with Abba Agathon, a contemporary of Pimen the Great. But Pimen was older than Agathon, as can be seen from the life of Pimen. Word 1. Both this and all subsequent sayings of Saint Isaiah the Hermit are selected from his teachings. Abba, that is, father, elder or abbot. In ancient times, the significance of these duties was almost equivalent, because the power of the abbot and his management of the monastic brotherhood were purely spiritual. Word 17th. In this word, the Monk Isaiah will tell you that the soul, leaving the body and passing through the air space, accompanied by holy Angels, is met by demons and subjected to torture. This place is included in the Word on Death, and therefore is not repeated here. You might be interested in: