Письма к мирянам

Letter 176. To a certain family. Life is changeable like the sea. – Love for one’s neighbor is the greatest pleasure, thanks to God for the gift of friendship In quiet solitude, on the banks of the majestic Volga, I often remember you, blessed couple! and you are on the shore of the sea, which at times is quiet, is as clear as a mirror, and at times, disturbed by a storm, is covered with muddy waves and gray foam. This is our life! in it silence and storm replace one another; and time is running out, running away, tending to plunge into the abyss of eternity. Blessed is that swimmer of the sea of ​​life who often turns his gaze to heaven. He guides his path according to the heavenly bodies, does not lose heart during storms, and does not trust the silence of the sea: it is so changeable! The gaze for which the sky is accessible is faith; by it we see the spiritual heaven: the teaching of Christ. In this sky the Gospel shines like the sun. The Old Testament is like the moon, the writings of the Holy Fathers are like the stars. I am writing to you directly from my heart, I am writing what he was inspired to tell you. My heart is with the same sweet simplicity towards you as yours is towards me. Such relationships are a true treasure. Love for one's neighbor is the greatest pleasure! And what consoles me, especially in my friendly relationships, is that the reason for these relationships is God. He, as Scripture says, “is holy and sanctifies all things” (Heb. 2:11). He is the source of every true good, every true, pure pleasure. He will keep me in your memory, and you in mine. He will allow us to deepen the talent of friendship received from Him. This is what I wish: I wish that upon entering eternity we would be honored in the host of good and faithful servants to appear before the Lord, to say to Him: “You have given us the wonderful talent of friendship, we bring to You another talent acquired for it: the precious talent of salvation.” September 2, 1847 Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. Letter 177. Description of the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery. Friends are God's blessing I am writing to you from a secluded desert, where, after long travels, I have finally arrived, and where I am beginning to receive treatment. I made the journey with great fatigue; My St. Petersburg illness returned to me twice, i.e. legs were taken away. Now they are sweating heavily and I feel some relief. I’ll tell you about the Babaevsky Monastery that I like it extremely in every way. The location is great. What air! What waters, what crystal, spring waters! they beat, boil from the mountain and in such quantities that there would be enough of them, I think, for the whole of St. Petersburg. What groves with oaks, with centuries-old oaks! what glades! what a Volga! what silence! what simplicity! I open the book of the ascetic writer, read it, and see that here one can actually implement his advice, whereas in St. Petersburg one can implement them only in imagination and desire. In a word: for my earthly journey, at this moment, I would not wish for another, better shelter. With heartfelt pleasure I remember my friends from St. Petersburg; I remember them with gratitude, I invoke God’s blessing on them. God gave me friends: I accepted this reward from His All-Holy Right Hand for the thought of self-sacrifice, which I followed from the days of my youth. Experience itself convinces us of the gospel truth, which commands us to leave everything in order to inherit everything. The gospel deprives a man of what he mispossesses. From a quiet refuge, from a distant desert, I repeat the same thing that I used to say from a nearby desert: “Do not get carried away by the noisy, stormy stream of the world!” May the ears of your hearts be attentive to the voice of my prayer!.. Christ is with you! Letter 178. Advice to newlyweds: earthly life is a journey From my solitude, from the picturesque banks of the Volga, the majestic and magnificent Volga, I congratulate you on the successful completion of the work you have begun in your family, which for the parental heart is both so joyful and so difficult. May God's blessing fall on the newlyweds! an abundant blessing, such that you can clearly see it, be comforted, and thank God for it. He sends sorrows to those he loves, and after the sorrows he sends consolations. The fact that sorrows are replaced by consolations, and consolations by sorrows, gives rise to faith in God and deadness to the world. Faith, taking a person by the hand, places him before God. – Such a person rises above the world: under his feet is a dark chaos of doubts, unbelief, delusions, pompous and at the same time vain reasoning. So under the feet of one who has climbed to the top of a high mountain: clouds, cliffs, abysses, rustling waterfalls jumping over the rocks. Life on earth is a journey that never stops for an hour. Let's go, let's go: suddenly the gates of eternity open, and we are lost in its unimaginable space. As Saint David beautifully says: “I am a stranger on earth, do not hide Your commandments from Me!” (Ps. 119:19). Exactly: the law of Christ is the thread along which we get out of the dark labyrinth of earthly life into blissful eternity. Be healthy and prosperous. Letter 179. Virtue Needs Patience In the midst of the deep, gloomy night, the sonorous responses of the sentries drag on sadly, interrupting its sacred silence. The voice of his comrade encourages and consoles the sentry: that thought, that feeling that there is a person in the same share with him, in the same fate, has a beneficial effect on his soul. Comforting and reassuring for a Christian is the voice of his brother in this darkness and the shadow of death, in which we complete our earthly journey, marching towards heaven. What can I tell you from my distant guard? What comforting thought will my sounds bring to you? Hear what brings me special benefit: hear the words of the Savior, offered by Him for general information, edification, and strengthening of all the pilgrims of the earth: “In your patience ye will win your souls” (Luke 21:19). Oh! We need to remember this instruction of the Savior, we need to cling to it constantly, like a blind man clings to the hand of a guide; because sorrows, every now and then, pass us on one another, like a wave to a wave. “They resell us to one another, just as a cruel master sells a slave to another master, equally or more cruel.” And when the soul and body are already weakened by sorrows, become weak, insignificant like a cobweb, the coffin receives us!.. To overcome other types of grief requires courage; for the coming out of another - wisdom; to get rid of the third - humility. But in all sorrows, with all other virtues, patience is certainly needed. No virtue can take place without patience; virtue, in order to remain virtue, needs patience. Whoever wavers in virtue and does not endure in it to the end, loses his virtue. The Lord said about those who please Him that they “bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15), commanded “to gain your soul with patience” (Luke 21:19), and announced that only “he who endures to the end” will be saved (Matt. 24:13). This is my response to your call from my solitude! May it penetrate into the inner church of your heart, may it resound within it, may it shed gentle consolation in it, the consolation that the heavenly word and heavenly hope give. This is the voice of one crying out of the wilderness, silent in the wilderness!.. And again I plunge into my silence, into my distance, into my unknown, dark, inspired, like deep night. So the sentry is silent, drawing out his appointed, mournful response! Letter 180. We are pilgrims. – Facial features are forgotten, but the soul is not. – About patience I really liked your letter; I really liked your actions inspired by love for one’s neighbor; I really liked your advice, which I am implementing, as you can see from the attached letter to Paris. Finally - I really liked you; in your letter you are so peaceful, so calm. I don’t like earthly pilgrims to be insanely cheerful: this is not suitable for wanderers, exiles, who face death, judgment, a double eternity, blissful or sorrowful. I love them to be calm; calm is a sign that a wanderer has blessed hope in his heart. I live alone and am undergoing treatment; The effect of the medicine is life-saving, but at the same time it is strong, which makes me lie down for whole days. From my windows there is a beautiful view of the Volga, which I praise, but which I rarely look at, rarely, in passing. As I remember from childhood, my bodily feelings were not receptive; the material world had a weak effect on me through them. I was incurious, cold towards everything. But I could never look at a person indifferently! I was created to love human souls, to admire human souls! That’s why they are before me - what angels! - appear to the eyes of my heart so captivatingly, so comfortingly! Here is a spectacle, a picture that I look at, stare at, look at again, can’t get enough of. And strange! I immediately forget the face, the shape, the features, but I remember the soul. There are many souls, beautiful souls in my picture, which was painted by love, which faithful memory keeps intact, in the vividness of color. This coloring from solitude becomes even clearer, even brighter. In my picture you and your brother are also in it. I look at you often! My soul is filled with good desires for you. Whether in a magnificent outfit, or in a simple dress - what matters? – Let us complete our earthly journey, carrying the lamp of right faith, living faith. This lamp will lead us into the eternal Kingdom of God, before entering where both rags and magnificent attire are removed equally. And the most magnificent outfit in comparison with the light spiritual clothing is nothing more than despicable rags. “Through your patience gain your souls” (Luke 21:19), - it is said to the strangers of the earth: because our path is narrow and sorrowful, and we are weak. “The power of God is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), Scripture again comfortingly instructs us. I thank your brother for the added lines! If my letter had eyes, then I would command them to look at your brother closely, for a long time and so friendly that this continuous sufferer would involuntarily smile pleasantly. Letter 181. Flee sin! – About the Last Judgment You are in Paris! The waves of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife carried us in different directions. I am hovering on the secluded bank of the Volga: You are thrown into Paris, the capital of fashion, the capital of education of the world, and one might say, the capital of darkness and sin. In the capital of darkness and sin, protect yourself from darkness, protect yourself from sin. Where there is more danger, more caution is needed. If necessary circumstances force you to be in cities where plague or other infectious disease is raging, then you must try to finish your business there as soon as possible and leave as soon as possible. All the more so should this be done regarding the city, the capital of sin. Who knows - whether the all-evil sin will cause some kind of wound? Who knows what kind of wound he will inflict? Can he inflict a mortal wound that cannot be healed? Come back quickly, having finished your work. An important matter awaits you here. You must carefully attend to your soul. Don't waste it. But this can be done - and as many do! Remember that you also need to exit this life through the door of the tomb, to stand before the Lord for judgment, a terrible judgment both for His Saints and for those who have spent their whole lives pleasing Him. There, not only the sins, but also the righteousnesses of men will be judged; there many of their righteousnesses will be judged by the All-perfect righteousness. This was witnessed by the Savior Himself. “Unless your righteousness,” He said, “exceeds more righteousness than the scribe and the Pharisee, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Oh! as if the merciful Lord granted me to rejoice in the salvation of yours and mine in this and the next century. Today is the day of your Angel: may the Holy Angel, your guardian, keep you in perfect well-being. Letter 182. Wanderers and strangers. – Spiritual vigil Are you making your earthly journey safely? It happens to a person during this wandering to gaze at the objects that appear to his eyes; it seems to him that his march towards eternity has stopped. This is a deception of the eyes of the soul. We walk and walk and don’t stop for a minute. To the earthly wanderer on his difficult path, so that he does not get lost, her spiritual song is sung: “The will of God, the most holy commandments and commandments of God.” “Your righteousness was blown to me in the place of my coming” (Ps. 119:54), said the inspired David. So in these parts, when someone gets lost in the forest, the neighboring villages ring the church bell, and at the sound of the bell, the lost one comes out of the dark forest. And what? A vast, crowded city is in some respects similar to a vast forest: in it, like in a forest, you can get lost... Let my voice from my solitude be like the beneficent ringing of a church bell: it has always echoed in your soul, always found shelter in it. And now let your soul hear it! Having heard, may you be filled with true consolation! I think that a person cannot truly be consoled by anything other than the memory of God. “I remembered God,” says Saint David, “and they rejoiced” (Ps. 77:4). How true it is that we must all die! that this life in comparison with eternity is an insignificant moment! None of the people remained immortal on earth. And yet we live as if immortal; the thought of death and eternity eludes us and becomes completely alien to us. This is clear evidence that the human race is in decline; our souls are bound by some kind of darkness, by some indestructible bonds of self-delusion, with which the world and time keep us captive and enslaved. It takes effort, constant effort, struggle with oneself to swim out of the terrible dark abyss; you need patience to generously endure all the invisible spiritual storms. Temptation in the mind and heart is more terrible than all external temptations. No one is as dangerous to us as ourselves. “Watch and pray,” said the Lord, “so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Matthew 26:41). You can only watch over yourself in the light of the New Testament. The light in which spiritual vigil takes place is poured out from the writings of St. Fathers. Divine Scripture and the Fathers constantly remind us of God, His blessings, our destiny, an eternally blissful and eternally unhappy future, they expose the treachery of the world, its intrigues, and show the means of how to avoid these intrigues and enter the haven of salvation. Stay in the service of God for a short time in your earthly life - and you will inherit an eternity full of joys and continuous spiritual pleasure. You must inherit eternity!.. Don’t be discouraged by stumbling, infallibility is an impossible dream! Stumblings are common to all people who, due to this very tendency to fall, are commanded: “In your patience gain your souls. He who endures to the end will be saved” (Luke 21:19, Matthew 10:22). May God's blessing rest upon you! Letter 183. Prayer brings things together. – Spiritual renewal. – The wish to meet in eternal villages Last year, on October 14th, I was in your house, together with my brothers I served the Divine Liturgy in your home church. You were present at the sacred service with your blessed daughters, with your blessed offspring. Through prayer we united all as one. This unity is beyond earthly sensations; there is something heavenly here; here is a anticipation of a future life in which people will be united by the Spirit. Here on earth, what connects them most is the earth. I call our flesh and blood earth. This is what God called them: “You are earth,” He said to fallen man, “and to earth you will go” (Gen. 3:19). After the Liturgy, I had the true, heartfelt pleasure to bring you my congratulations on the day of your Angel, to wish you all the blessings that the merciful Lord in time and in eternity bestows on a person pleasing to Him and loved by Him. Now from my distant desert I come to you in thought, memory, heart, and finally, with these lines. I greet you on the day of your Angel, I greet you with the same spiritual pleasure, filled with the same sincere and good desires for you. God bless you! “May your youth be renewed like an eagle!” (Ps. 102:5). And a person is renewed and youthful - from piety. If we compare human life on earth with eternity, then we are all equally young and equally old. It seems to me, in the color and beauty of youth, that only the pious truly live. He gives off the spiritual stench of immortality; one can hear God living in him and reviving his soul. Thus, the soul is clearly perceptible to everyone in the actions of the body, which it uses as its instrument; the absence of a soul is also palpable; Everyone sees him in inaction, in the stench of a cold corpse. With true, deep, spiritual consolation, I witnessed how your heart came to life for God; how he witnessed this most pleasant sight and thanked God. There is no greater happiness on earth than to know God and cleave to Him with all your soul. This union is from now to eternity. In this union is the condition for true eternal bliss, the anticipation of which already begins here on earth. No matter how much I remember you, inseparably with this memory the psalm verse comes to my mind: “Let your youth be renewed like an eagle.” And my heart sends it to you on the wings of strong desire! I am forwarding my letter through my governor for the purpose: he will write to me that he has handed you the letter. It, as you see, is completely unceremonious: everything comes from the heart. Don’t bother yourself with answering it: I have a letter from you, which I always read and re-read with new spiritual pleasure, with thanksgiving to God. This letter is your soul; God wants it to be open to me for the common benefit: mine and yours. He who speaks the word of God and he who hears the word of God benefit together, and it is God who benefits. He unites people here on earth, in the vale of sorrows and tears, into unanimity with His all-holy, all-powerful word. At the end of their earthly journey, He instills like-minded people into an eternal home, where the spiritual holiday never ceases. May He grant us here a like-mindedness pleasing to Him, and unanimity as a guarantee; and there - in heaven, in eternity, may he bestow indescribable bliss, like the fulfillment of a pledge... What a thought just came to me! I won't hide it! The merciful Lord would grant me to see you with all your children and grandchildren in an eternal village, full of light and joy, full of praise to God, as I saw you all last year on October 14th, gathered in His holy church. You have created a shelter for God in your house, create it in your soul too; – He will build your house, a magnificent monastery in His holy city in Heavenly Jerusalem. He will arrange it: because he promised to reward everyone according to his deeds. Letter 184. How to repent as a layman. - Self-delusion. – Instructions for salvation With God's help I am answering your letter. The Lord said: “No one can come to Me except the Father who sent Me draws Him” (John 6:44). So, although the instrument of vocation is man, the vocation is God’s; calling God. Having sensed this calling, which has become audible to us after we have already traveled a long way on our earthly journey, do not harden your heart. But it is hardened by sinful flattery, as the holy Apostle Paul said. “Take heed, brethren,” he says, “let there not be a deceitful heart of you, full of unbelief, who will depart from God” (Heb. 3:12). I would not advise you to enter into a detailed and subtle examination of your sins and sinful qualities. Gather them all into one vessel of repentance and cast them into the abyss of God’s mercy. A subtle examination of one’s sins does not suit a person leading a secular life: it will only plunge him into despondency, bewilderment, and embarrassment. God knows our sins, and if we constantly resort to Him in repentance, He will gradually heal our very sinfulness, that is, sinful habits, qualities of the heart. Sins committed in word, deed, or composition of thoughts must be told in confession to the spiritual father; and, I repeat, a secular person should not indulge in the subtle examination of spiritual qualities: this is a trap set by the catcher of our souls. It is recognized by the production of confusion and despondency in us, although outwardly it is clothed in the appearance of goodness. This black veil is needed for monks to cover with them the rays of grace shining from their minds and hearts; This black veil is needed for the already successful monks, whom the sight of their sinfulness cannot lead to hopelessness, but only leads to humility. This is how Moses, the Seer of God, once wore a veil over his radiant face. It must be admitted, and this recognition will be quite fair; - we must admit that all of us, humans, are more or less in self-delusion, we are all deceived, we all carry deception within ourselves. This is a consequence of our fall, which took place through accepting lies as truth; This is how we always fall even now. That is why we are so changeable! In the morning I am like this, by noon I am different, in the afternoon I am still different, and so on. Both worlds act on me, I am subordinate to both of them, in captivity of both of them. The world of spirits acts through thoughts and heartfelt sensations; the material world - through bodily feelings. Both beckon to eat the forbidden fruit. To the bodily senses, sight, hearing, and touch, this fruit appears beautiful; a thought, the word of an invisible being, inspires, repeats: “taste it, find out!” Allures with curiosity, incites with vanity. The voice of the seducer is heard in our soul, the voice that was heard, firstly, by our first parents in paradise; a voice is heard: “You will be like a god.” It rings out and seduces; seduces and kills. That is why a new virtue was given to people: humility, a new inner activity was given: repentance. Both action and virtue are truly strange! They are radically opposed to what we have fallen through. Repentance mortifies the harmful influence of bodily feelings; and humility destroys arrogance, vanity, worldly pride, in a word, everything that, simply put, drives a person crazy. How can it be! – One should not be embarrassed by changes that occur as if they were something unusual; one should not indulge in the subtle examination of sins, but spend life in constant repentance, recognizing oneself as a sinner in all respects and believing that the merciful Lord accepts everyone who only admits their sinfulness into the arms of His mercy, into the bosom of salvation. This, of course, is not about mortal sins, repentance for which is accepted by God only when a person leaves mortal sin. Doing housework and housework is very useful: it removes you from idleness and eases the mind’s invisible struggle. Struggle during idleness elevates it to a strong feat, permissible only to those who are forced to it by circumstances or brought by God. Prudence requires not to go into a fight that exceeds one’s strength; on the contrary, to make it as easy as possible for oneself. Believe in Almighty God, trust in Him, live patiently and constantly, live in simplicity, repentance and humility, surrender to the will of God, when you happen to stray from the right path, head back to it again, and you will be saved. Letter 185. Consolation in everyday troubles Your last visit to the Sergius Hermitage is vivid in my memory. I saw you in it, when earthly glory, so fickle and changeable, smiled at you. Now you seem much more majestic to me; You left a deep impression on me. I respect all virtues; but none of them arouses in me such respect as generous patience with the fickleness of earthly happiness. On the battlefield a man is often a hero from the boiling of his blood; in the upheavals of life, one can be a hero only from the greatness of the soul. A valiant man, retired from the field of military exploits, forges his damask sword onto a plow or plow, a sword that threatens the enemies of the fatherland, and every true citizen, history and posterity behind him, will look at this plow with respect; - it will join the number and rank of magnificent monuments. Contempt and indignation are attracted to the insignia with which the chest of some scoundrel is dotted: every sign on it is a monument to intrigue, baseness, idleness. Tell me, what is it about the fact that Grishka Otrepiev had the crown of Monomakh on his head? -What is his glory? - The glory of a dashing, shameless, unscrupulous villain who does not stop at any lawlessness is glory inseparable from curses. God save everyone from this glory. And how many impostors!.. After saying goodbye to you, I fell even more ill. Seeing that I no longer had the strength either to fight the exorbitantly intensified illness or to deal with the circumstances, I wanted to retire from St. Petersburg and from noisy positions forever. Not everyone can be leaves, flowers, fruits on the state tree; Someone, like roots, needs to provide him with life and strength through unknown, quiet, essentially useful, essentially necessary activities. I recognize that one of these activities is the affirmation of our neighbors in the Christian faith and morality. This peaceful, modest occupation with the living word and pen has always absorbed a significant part of my time; and with my soreness it would have taken all the time. It did not happen according to my desire, it did not come true according to my assumption; but I assumed that they would probably give me a dismissal, there were so many people who contributed to getting it! I was given temporary leave to the Babaevsky Monastery for rest and treatment. This is where I am now. Imprisoned hopelessly in my cell, I act against the cold, which has penetrated deeply into my members and produced a nervous relaxation in them, which keeps me mostly in bed. My future is unknown... And I gave up on him! – He said to the Almighty God: “Do with Your creation what you want. I believe Your word! that the hair of my head will not fall without Your permission.” “My soul! Sail fearlessly on the waves of the sea of ​​life, not trusting its silence, not fearing its storms. Don’t think about tomorrow, don’t tire yourself with any assumptions, any dreams, don’t waste your time and energy on them. “His wickedness is sufficient for the day” (Matthew 6:34), said your God. Believe!.. Swim, rush along the waves!.. Earthly life is a deception. Before you see it, the shelter of the coffin is already in front of you. Where there is faith, there is neither sorrow nor fear; there is courage and firmness, irresistible by anything.” Here are the reflections of a weakened man, reflections on a sick bed, reflections from the desert! They will find you in some peaceful shelter; maybe in your village, in the circle of your family, having a friendly conversation, or reading something useful and enjoyable, doing chores, they will remind you of someone who is deeply involved in you, in whom you have planted many comforting memories, deep impressions. A person in his youth is engaged in acquiring information necessary for the possible expansion of the range of actions in the material world into which he enters as an agent. This includes: knowledge of different languages, fine arts, mathematical sciences, historical sciences, everything, and philosophy itself. When a person begins to incline towards old age, when the time approaches at which the husk must fall off and the fruit covered by it remains (I call the body by the husk, and the soul by the fruit), when he is preparing to enter the immeasurable region of eternity, the region of the spirit, then the subject of his study is no longer changeable matter, doomed to end and destruction, but the abiding, infinite spirit. As for that: one way or another the word sounds when all sounds must cease! As for this or that measure, when immeasurable things lie ahead! As for that: this or that petty thought, when the mind is preparing to leave many thoughts, to move into the vision and silence that exceeds thoughts, produced by the unlimited God in the limited beings surrounding Him. The study of the spirit gives a person a permanent character corresponding to eternity. The horizon for him expands, his gaze reaches beyond the boundaries of matter and time, from there they bring unearthly hardness. Please accept my most sincere advice: engage in deep reading of all the works of St. John Chrysostom; they are all in French; interpretation on the Evangelist Matthew, on the Epistle to the Romans, and there is something else in Russian. Until fate brings you back into the field of national service, engage in the definitive education of your spirit in freedom. I offer you that church writer who, with his extraordinary purity, clarity, and the power of Christian teaching, lifts the reader above all earthly things; This spiritual eagle soars at a sky-high height and from there shows the earth to its pet. I think the greatest acquisition for a statesman is to look at the earth from this height; - not to mention what an acquisition this is for a Christian and a person - an heir to eternity. Determination in religious and moral concepts has an extraordinary price; uncertainty is a big flaw that echoes in all actions with unsteadiness and fragility - Fate visited you with its blows. She said: “Whoever I love, I beat and punish.” Temper yourself under these blows into strong steel; become a priceless treasure for your loved ones who surround you and will surround you. Who knows the purpose of a person? – It is written in the sealed books of Providence. The Cincinatis left the sword for the plow, then the plow was left for the sword... This is told to you by someone who has spent his whole life in sorrows, who himself is covered in wounds, and rejoices in them, and thanks God for them. The banner of the cross flutters over my letter: - my word always comes out under this banner! – My word is both a proclamation of peace and a proclamation of war; - calls for courage, victory, conquest of the world, the mysterious army of Israel: the thoughts and feelings of a Christian. I find it unnecessary to ask you to preserve me in your memory: you have proven that I have shelter in your memory and heart. I invoke God’s blessing on you and on your entire house. Letter 186. About self-delusion. Criticism of “The Imitation of Christ” by F. Kempis Holy truth is communicated to the heart through silence, calmness, clarity, peace, a disposition toward repentance, toward deepening into oneself, toward hopelessness in oneself, toward consoling hope in God. A lie, even if clothed in the guise of good, is recognized by the confusion, darkness, uncertainty, changeability, entertainment, and dreaminess it produces; or she only deceives the heart - flatteringly brings him contentment, self-nourishment, some kind of vague, muddy pleasure. And this pleasure of a deluded heart is similar to the feigned silence that covers the surface of a deep, dark pool - the dwelling of monsters. Among other deceptive, pernicious zephyrs that bring this terrible silence to the heart, this disastrous, disastrous pleasure, they are also brought to him by reading the famous book by Thomas a à Kempis, a Western monk who was in demonic delusion, the book: “Imitation.” Seductive pleasure feeds on conceit, which is born from subtly acting vanity, blinding the mind and heart; it loves to express itself, it allows itself to deviate from strict obedience to the Holy Church - smarter than her, it, like all the charms, the machinations of the devil, like the devil himself and his child - sin, does not tolerate the fragrance for them of a deadly, murderous fragrance that repentance and its fruit - humility emit. The Savior of the world said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who hunger now,” and “Woe to you now that you are satisfied” (Matthew 5:4, 6; Luke 6:25). The human mind is not able to distinguish good from evil; disguised evil easily, almost always, deceives him. And this is very natural: the human mind is young, and those who fight it with evil thoughts have more than seven thousand years of experience in struggle, in deceit, in catching human souls. Distinguishing good from evil belongs to the heart - its business. But again time is needed, it is necessary to practice the commandments of the Gospel so that the heart acquires the subtlety of taste for the difference between whole wine and counterfeit wine. That it is the work of the heart to distinguish good from evil, and that the heart does not suddenly acquire the ability to do the work that belongs to it, the Apostle testified to both: “But those who are perfect have solid food,” he said, “those who have senses are trained by long training in the judgment of good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Therefore, until the heart acquires the skill of distinguishing good from evil, the experienced advice of a neighbor - a student of the Eastern Church, the only saint, the only true - who seeks and finds in obedience to her blessed freedom is very useful. “From obedience,” said St. John Climacus, - true humility is born; from humility - true spiritual reasoning, or reason.” And so, outside the unwavering obedience of the Church, there is neither true humility nor true reason; There is a vast area there, a dark kingdom of lies and the self-delusion it produces. Good is distinguished from evil by many signs, which are learned as we progress spiritually. At the beginning of my letter, I named those signs that are closer to your state of mind. And they are very sufficient signs! Learn little by little to distinguish between good and disguised evil. Letter 187. Spiritual warfare Be brave, fight courageously, steadfastly, persistently. Out of laziness, do not betray victory to the enemy. After defeat, don’t be discouraged; - again for the sword, and - to battle! Ulcers received in battle are targeted by repentance. Here is a regulation for invisible mental warfare. To whom the Lord wants to bestow spiritual success, he allows warfare. Mental temptation crushes and pacifies a person, like a horse - a race on the line. The winner is allowed entry to the supper of grace. And he enters and eats and enjoys the supper of his Lord, like a warrior at the king’s feast, a warrior who has proven his devotion to the king by constancy, courage, even the most ulcers, and victory. Christ is with you. May He strengthen you. Letter 188. “Be like children” I was pleased to hear that you visited the monastery of St. Sergius on the day of his feast day. You also entered my rooms with others who were disposed towards me for the sake of the name of Christ! Please accept my sincere gratitude! And I was here with my heart. What should I tell you? – The Savior of the world commanded those who want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven to be like children, simple, gentle, incurious, believing, learning, and quickly repenting of their wrongdoings. Follow this advice of the Lord: - in due time, you will feel a blissful renewal and strengthening of your soul. It will happen gradually, imperceptibly... Suddenly a person will see himself changed - and glorify the All-Good Almighty God. Do not complain about the brevity of my letter, do not measure it by the number of lines. Look at your heart: if it is comforted, satisfied, then the measure is full. Why do you say that you are unworthy of my affection and even condescension? I am nothing more than an indecent sinner who has an extreme need of God’s mercy, without which my sure destiny is hell. My God tells me: “When you measure accordingly, it will be measured to you, and with the same judgment you judge, they will judge you” (Matthew 7:2). Needing the mercy of my God, needing it fully, I have one mercy for my neighbor. Listening to my conscience, when it weighs and appreciates my dignity, I wish that it places me lower than all criminals. Condemned by my conscience, I cannot judge my neighbor, much less condemn anyone. It is good to be at the feet of your neighbors with the way you think: then the Gospel of Christ becomes accessible to man. These are my feelings for you! Your letter touched me, and this is the reason why I am responding to you in foreign lands, perhaps I am already overtaking you. You are in sorrow because in the struggle, in the struggle because the law of Christ is spiritual, it requires crucifixion. You will find consolation in the fact that humanity has never approached crucifixion without a struggle. The proof is the God-Man Himself. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Let the cup pass away from Him” (Matthew 26:39) and His sweat fell to the ground, “like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). If you see that weakness overcomes you, then know that the Lord is able to give “strength to His people” (Ps. 67:36), as St. David says. Those people are their own to God, so He gives strength to His people who remain faithful to Him in will, while their weakness produces a violation of fidelity in deeds. Remember that Christ came to call sinners, and not the righteous, to repentance. Stand in the ranks of sinners, fall in humility at the feet of Christ, surrendering to His will, entrusting your present and future to His will. And He will shed peace and tranquility into your soul, thereby showing that He is near you, that His Providence is watching over you. A certain Holy Father said: “Blessed is the man who knows his weakness: for the righteous man who does not know his weakness is on a very dangerous path.” Another says: “if Christ did not come for the righteous, then I reject my truth as a sin separating me from Christ, and in the fact that I am a sinner, I find my truth, Heavenly truth, which provides me with the means to approach Christ and be with Him.” I am writing all this to you as a consolation, so that you, seeing that you are in debt to Christ, would not fall into hopelessness and sorrow, but into humility, and be content because of your trust in Christ, which will not put you to shame. - He is omnipotent. Letter 190. On solitude and spiritual contemplation I remember with heartfelt pleasure that you visited the Sergius Hermitage last November. There, in the church of God, during the prayers and hymns of the Divine Service, you met the day of your Angel, thanked God for the past, prayed to Him for the future - you thanked your Guardian Angel for the past preservation, asked him to preserve you for the future time of earthly life, and until the end of this life, and until the very entrance into eternal bliss - before the face of God. After the Divine Liturgy you came to my cells; there we were comforted by mutual love for the Lord, by conversation about the Lord. Consolation on earth! - to see a person who fears God, sacrificing to Him the life and abilities received from Him. Unfortunately, most people act differently: they sacrifice the gifts of God to Satan. I thank the merciful Lord, who brought me to rest in solitude from the rumors of the capital. The feelings that visit a person in solitude are no longer unfamiliar to me. That is why the desert of solitude lured me so conveniently from the noisy Sergius Hermitage. Solitude strengthens the soul, breathes into it some kind of courage, some kind of contempt for the world, which is impossible to feel in contact with the world. When the soul tramples down corruption by renouncing corruption, then everything corruptible, without exception, becomes corruptible, and spiritual contemplation descends on the scales of the heart, which cannot be content with anything. It makes the resident of the silent cell a resident of, one might say, paradise - it introduces him to a new world, before which the local world is very small, insignificant. In the silence of silence, the soul floats, as if in some immense space, looks at the past, at the present, at the earth, at the sky, at time, at eternity. So in clear weather an eagle walks at an unattainable height, in a transparent azure abyss. The larger the space occupied by the landscape, the more magnificent the spectacle. Good are the beauties that a person can express and describe in words, but incomparably higher are those that exceed words, delight the heart, and seem to deprive the mind of the ability to act. They say: in Switzerland, from one extraordinary, rocky height, a most picturesque, delightful landscape appears to the eye; Some travelers, having climbed to this terrible height, were so amazed by the splendor of the spectacle that they could not stand on their feet from amazement, fell from the height, and were broken. This is exactly how spiritual contemplation works! “Whoever suddenly sees him will be thrown into this abyss from amazement, dying for the world!” – The above-mentioned travelers did not come to life: black wooden crosses over the ashes of these sons of Britain stand at the foot of the Swiss cliff; I would say: he who is killed by a spiritual vision for the world will no longer come to life for the world. Alas! I would say unfairly; and therefore I can’t say! Alas! man comes to life even for death! Solomon came to life for death! Judas came alive for her! Many came to life for her!.. Alas! How weak we are, how fickle!.. I look at our weakness, I look with tears!.. My eyes seek joy, consolation - and suddenly they turn to the desert, to solitude!.. There, there it is safest!.. Strive there - my soul!.. Run!.. If your legs are not enough for a fast flow, take wings! Rush!..fly!!! save yourself from the jaws of the beast: peace! Be like the blessed woman who ran and flew into the desert - the woman who was seen by the spectator of spiritual mysteries - John. Feet - a sound mind in the Lord; wings - faith: flaps them, mighty wings, is carried through the wilds, waters, steppes, mountains - the one to whom Christ gave them. Let us ask Him for faith; The Apostles showed us an example; they said and prayed: “Lord, add faith to us” (Luke 17:5). May the Lord grant us, on the wings of faith, to fly across the sea of ​​life and fly into the blessed haven: Heaven. Letter 191. About solitude. – Eternity Me?!! Nothing is needed! “What I need, what I need for my wretched soul, that’s what I asked for: I asked to be sent into solitude.” And I will give you a small report about solitude. This is a quiet, peaceful death before death, which is the indispensable lot of every person, which is cruel for sinners, for slaves of the world. In solitude, the impressions inscribed on it by the objects of the world are gradually smoothed out from the human mind - and the mind gradually loses its communication with the world. He looks at the world as if from the afterlife, as if from the other world. To explain this to yourself, think about China, then look at yourself, see what the relationship of your mind and heart is to this country. You will see in your soul only dark concepts, from one legend - concepts alien to life, which is given to them by looking at objects, communicating with them, close sympathy for everything. You will see that your heart for this country is as dead as it would be for a country that does not exist at all or exists only in fables. This is how the world seems to a hermit, to an inhabitant of the deep and distant desert. Everyone living in the world appears to him not as permanent residents, but only as travelers. And exactly! we live: we travel. Some walk modestly on foot, others ride on horses, others rush in fast chariots; the end is the same for everyone... But so little does the inhabitant of solitude look at the world with these eyes, just as little does the inhabitant of St. Petersburg think and care about China. What occupies him more, essentially, and only is the world where he will move: this world is eternity. Its gates opened wide before the astonished eyes of the soul, and the eyes of the soul greedily rushed into these boundless spaces, drowning in them, looking at the newly opened, hitherto unfamiliar, completely unknown sight, riveted to it, cannot tear themselves away... Eternity!.. All the times that preceded us flowed there; in this abyss all the millions of people who took turns on the face of the earth disappeared; before her, before her eyes, the world was born, humanity multiplied, tribes, peoples, kingdoms were formed; before her eyes, many flourishing kingdoms had already turned into deserts, many were covered with it; before her eyes, deserted deserts, dense forests, impenetrable swamps became the flourishing dwellings of human society, numerous, educated, noisy... She looked at all this, looks indifferently with cold severity - an eternity. Nothing satisfies her and nothing will satisfy her. Everything in her must disappear: everything is her victim; she looks at everything like the hot spring sun at the fragile, weak spring snow... And the hermit looks at eternity, gazes in silence, in the silence of her solitude. Instructed by this spectacle, he recognizes and calls everything temporary, as Holy Scripture teaches us to call it, vanity; he is convinced that man’s purpose is not for earth, but for Heaven. And Heaven revealed to us, in the Gospel, what the inhabitants of heaven should be like. His true servant copes with this law of the Most High God every hour; - asks whether the mind and heart have deviated somewhere to the side, whether they are fulfilling some other will, a dark will, an evil will, a corruptible will... With such a life, Heaven descends to earth, and with it descends into this vale of darkness, sorrow and crying - consolation, heavenly bliss. Letter 192. Warning against self-delusion. – On repentance for a layman I received your letter - and my sinful heart was informed to immediately respond to it. Nothing extraordinary happened to you. No one humbles a mentor as much as those he mentors! This is a common fate. Therefore, you have nothing to be surprised by what happened, nor to be embarrassed by it. This means: You – with spiritual benefit! And your letter today, somehow combed like a peasant’s head after a bath, is so humble! I was scared of your last letter! So smart, thoughtful, tall, magnificent! - It’s as if a whole guards corps was parading on Tsarina’s meadow! – I didn’t dare answer. No matter how I read it, I’m horrified and won’t answer. Stepan forced, forced me, like a plowman forces a skinny nag to drag a plow in the arable land, he kept repeating, he didn’t give me peace: “Why don’t you answer N.!” - No, no way! No answer! And nags can clearly have their own tempers. I didn’t want to write to you about the next one either... but I started writing, so there’s nothing to do, I’ll write at the same time. The repentance that, as you described in your last letter, you were honored to touch was only a self-seductive dream. They thought, but they thought, but they listened enough, but they were smart, but they were not humble; I had a dream in my little head, a magic castle was built in it. And I am the cause of all the trouble: I read something beyond your power and thereby confused you. “By their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:16), said the Lord. What was the fruit of this state, which the soul created for itself, with which it flattered itself? This fruit was pompousness, just empty, empty pompousness in every sense of the word, which brought you out of your ordinary state! You wrote to the great elder; - he, as one who lives in heaven, did not understand what you were writing about a fool, answered you about Ivan, affirmed you to remain in your dreamy repentance, believing that the vision of repentance operates in you, as in him - that vision of the wondrous grace of God, bestowed on monks who have already succeeded in silence. Christians living in the middle of the world should not be concerned with sublime monastic activities, especially silent ones. And the Lord commanded: “Do not put new wine into old wineskins” (Matthew 9:17). New wine breaks old wineskins, spills itself and destroys the skins; the works of monasticism, when the laity take up them, themselves disappear and bring spiritual destruction to their workers. Rumors have reached our remote, quiet places, from noisy and bright St. Petersburg, some very intelligent and distinguished lady wrote a beautifully eloquent letter to some monk about the immense number of her sins that she saw in herself, and as if that monk, apparently not an academician, answered her: “Mother! It’s not with your nose to look at your sins so subtly”... I pass off hearing as hearing; - Whether it happened or didn’t happen, I dare to discuss that below; and whether such rudeness is allowed in St. Petersburg, the capital of enlightenment and education, I don’t know. And if I were asked what the monk’s advice was to a lady in the capital, I would answer with all provincial frankness: “The advice is rude, but true, and this lady should write down such advice on the wall and stick to it tightly.” Repentance, befitting a pious Christian living in the middle of the world, must be reckoned with his conscience every evening. And happy! If a Christian tries to live according to the commandments and examine himself daily, then little by little he will acquire contrition of spirit, which is still far from repentance - vision. What came to you (sorry for the rustic expressions: they are good, they hit the target accurately!) was only nonsense, proud nonsense! I know it, I am constantly in it: and therefore I warn you. You shouldn’t go too crazy about teaching advice, but humbly refuse it. When forced, then say something lightly, leaving the matter to God. You are very holy: just a man to be crucified! And you don’t know how to crucify: you just torture in vain. You want to take everything with your mind and by yourself, but you need to take it by faith and God. Letter 193. About advisers. – Warning against despondency Calm down! The earthly life of a Christian is dissolved in consolations and temptations. This is how God's Providence arranged it! Consolations support you on the path of God, and temptations make you wise. Society and conversation with pious people bring significant benefits. But for advice, for leadership, it is not enough to be pious; one must have spiritual experience, and most of all spiritual anointing. This is the teaching of Scripture and the Fathers on this subject. A pious but inexperienced advisor is more likely to confuse than to be useful. Not only from among the laity, but from among the monastics it is extremely difficult to find an adviser who, so to speak, would measure and weigh the soul consulting with him, from her, from her property, who would give her advice. Nowadays, advisors and leaders teach advice more from themselves and from a book. And the first piece of advice is especially useful and valid; he is close to the soul seeking shelter under the canopy of advice - his own; This is what she feels. St. Isaac said: “There is nothing more useful to everyone than his own advice.” And alien advice, although apparently consisting of good and reasonable words, brings only torment and disorder to the soul. She feels his incongruity, feels that he is alien to her. “The essence,” says the Scripture, “those who speak pierce like swords; but the nations of the wise heal” (Proverbs 12:18). Resort to reading more of the Holy Fathers; let them guide you, remind you of virtue, and guide you on the path of God. This way of living belongs to our times: it was commanded, handed down to us by the Holy Fathers of later centuries. Complaining about the extreme lack of God-enlightened mentors and advisers, they command the zealot of piety to be guided in his life by the writings of his fathers. “The counsel of the saints is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). Try not to get carried away by absent-mindedness. If you happen to get carried away by it - due to the weakness that is common to all of us - humans - do not give in to despondency. Non-fallibility is not characteristic of man on earth - lower than the inhabitant of the deepest desert and solitude. Changeability and passion inevitably operate in every person - even in the strictest hermit. Moreover, it is impossible for someone living in the middle of the world, in the midst of all temptations, not to get carried away. Do not wish the impossible from yourself, do not demand from your soul what it cannot give. Heal your hobbies with repentance, and make up for the lack of your work with contrition of spirit. God bless you! Letter 194. Pre-New Year's reflections. – About seeing yourself. – Instruction of Abba Dorotheos Fast-flying time has already approached the brink of 1847, will soon fly over this brink, and the year we are living through will become one of the years past, irrevocable. Of its countless events, some will be recorded on the tablets of history for the long-term memory of humanity, some will be preserved in memory for a century, half a century, some will be preserved for an even shorter time; - the majority will plunge into the abyss of oblivion - they will drown in it, be buried, disappear. The 47th year has quickly passed by, and the 48th year will also fly by soon; Many years will soon pass, devouring each other, replacing each other. And we will unnoticed fly through the space of life on the wings of time, unnoticed we will fly to the very gates of eternity!... As I get older, it seems to me that time has become faster! He's in a hurry, he's in a hurry!.. Stop! Let us take a closer look at ourselves, and learn more about the will of God, and prepare ourselves for eternity, as for eternity! – The inexorable does not heed! does not deign to deign to look down on those who beg him! It's flying!.. People! God commanded you: “Watch!” - God told you about time: “the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). Before entering the field of the 48th year, I bring you my most sincere, heartfelt desire for all possible benefits delivered by the faith of Christ, which God inspired you to seek. Acquire them, acquire them with all deeds of piety! The basis of all affairs must be truth; This is how a solid cornerstone is placed at the foundation of a building! The God-given, God-revealed holy Truth to people is preserved in the Holy and Holy Scriptures. The building of virtues, when not based on this foundation, is not at all durable, it is indecent. I am very glad that you like it so much in Moscow, especially because of the shrines with which this ancient Christian city is rich. But even in such a beautiful place we must observe our hearts, in the light that the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers emit from themselves, and not at all in our own light, damaged by the fall, infected by delusion, or in some other false light. You write: “You cannot know what is happening in my soul. It seems to me that a person himself, if he wants to bear witness to his soul and delve into its movements with conscience, can recognize himself better than anyone else.” To the first, I agree: due to my sinfulness and the blindness of mind that comes from sinfulness, I do not see myself - much less do I see others. Therefore, I try to delve into and delve into the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, accepting it in the sense in which the Holy Fathers explain it, in which the Holy Church accepts it, and not in the sense in which demons and their followers give it. And demons interpret Scripture to the destruction and deception of those who listen to them! Perhaps in the light, in the true light that the Gospel and the Holy Church emit from themselves, I will somehow see myself, I will see my darkness, I will see my blindness! “My heart errs, and iniquity overwhelms me, my soul stands in fear,” says the saint who saw himself. Prophet Isaiah (Is. 21:4). Seeing oneself appears in poverty of spirit, not in complacency and self-confidence. The second half of your words above scared me! There's something dangerous about her! I will not stop writing to you the words of the Monk Dorotheus, which now come to my mind: “The enemy hates the voice of affirmation: because he always wants our destruction. See why he loves those who are his own: they help the devil as much as they create slander for themselves. I don’t know the monk’s fall, but I have to believe it in my own heart. The Nezians say: this is how a man falls, or this. I, like I died, sometimes fall, we don’t know, but that’s why. Have you seen anyone fall? convince yourself as if you were your own follower. Nothing of this is more painful, nothing is more destructive,” and so on. Would you like to know the whole article? read it in the book of Abba Dorotheus, under the title “Don’t make up your mind about the hedgehog.” May the Lord protect you from all the invisible snares of the ruler of the world, and may He save you for the glory of His Holy Name. Letter 195. Consolation in connection with the death of a young man. – Earthly life – preparation for eternal life I heartily share in the sorrow that has befallen you! May the merciful God Himself comfort you! May you be comforted by the thought that an innocent young man, pure as an Angel, who did not have time to be defiled by any earthly impurities, left and was carried away to a safe haven, into heaven. There, nothing and no one will slander his well-being! Quietly and happily flowing, undiminished, undiminished eternity was transformed into one day for the heirs of blissful eternity. There is unchanging joy, there is an unceasing holiday, there is a feast prepared from time to time and forever by the King of Kings - God. The young man hastily flew there, called by the great Founder of the feast, the Creator of men. Who can resist the almighty calling of the Almighty? Only a creature hears the command of its Creator and immediately rushes to fulfill it slavishly. With the eyes of faith we will look at the sweet young man walking through the airy spaces towards the sky! With the eyes of faith, let us look at the pure young man who resides in heaven and, from his joys, forgets about everything earthly! We spend it with fervent prayer and hot tears! Let us bring prayers and tears to his memory! The earth is a land of tears; heaven is a land of joy. Heavenly joy grows from seeds sown on earth. These seeds: prayer and tears. Accept my tears as participants in your tears, and you will partake of the spiritual consolation that I send you in these lines. We are all short-term wanderers on earth! We all have to leave here! And the hour at which God will claim us from our inn is unknown. Let us use earthly life to prepare ourselves for eternity; Let's prepare for ourselves a blissful eternity. Our eternal destiny is in our hands: because God rewards everyone according to his deeds. You are confident in the love and devotion that you planted in the heart of your unworthy Bogomolet. Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the upcoming New Year and on the approaching day of your Angel. May the Lord bless your entire life, may He tell your heart His holy will, good and perfect. Prosper, prosper in works of mercy! Life here is like a field dotted with various crops of bread and vegetables, planted with numerous, heterogeneous fruitful trees and shrubs; people are definitely doers; one is capable of tending vines, another of vegetables, another of sowing grain, another of soil, another of only plucking up thorns. Let everyone work in that area of ​​virtues for which he is capable, for which he is called by God, who reveals His calling to a rational creature with the spiritual abilities, with the means that He has bestowed on this creature. A beautiful plot, a field of material mercy; the one who does it labors and enjoys together. “He who has mercy on the poor,” Scripture comfortingly instructs us, “gives in return to God, and according to his giving he is repaid” (Proverbs 19:17). Prosper in your field: sow alms, reap consolation, clear your wheat from the tares, prepare a clean sacrifice, so that the King of Kings, looking at it with His searching and all-seeing eye, recognizes it all as worthy of the heavenly granary. “Forge unskilled silver,” the wise man teaches, “and everything will be cleansed; kill the wicked from before the King, and His throne will be straightened in righteousness” (Prov. 25:4-5). The throne of the King of God is the human soul; and the wicked, whom we are commanded to kill here, are thoughts and feelings of vanity, man-pleasing, hostile and maliciously attempting to take away a person’s heavenly reward through flattery, the dream of an earthly, human reward. They, these invisible enemies, the accusers of our salvation, are exposed before the face of the King - by the revealed law of God, the Gospel - and the true servant of the Kings can kill the wicked, enlightened and encouraged by the bright face of the Heavenly King. On this day I will not stop to bring before you a pleasant memory of the late K.T. The memory of her remains to live in my heart. And often, with such memories, I sadly reflected on the fate of her soul. During my current journey, I meet in the Borodino monastery a blind old woman, stricken with a severe cold, living there with her two daughters. Madame Abbess, having introduced me to them, said privately: “They live dependent on K.T., who gave them an annual pension.” You cannot imagine what consolation poured into my soul at these words! I have hope that K. in heaven will participate in the lot of the righteous! I know some of her good deeds; didn't know that; Having recognized him, it was as if I had acquired a rich acquisition! The holy prophet Daniel once spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was threatened with punishment from God: “O king, let my advice be pleasing to you, and atone for your sins with alms and your iniquities with the bounty of the poor: God will not be patient with your sin” (Dan. 4:24). I believe that the late K. redeemed her soul! I believe that God is merciful to her. Letter 197. Instructions on what to read. – Unsophisticated virtue is not virtue Please accept my sincere congratulations on the upcoming holidays and the new year. May the Lord grant you to spend this coming year and other years of your life in pleasing God, in thoughts of eternity, in deeds for eternity. The shadows of the earth are already passing! It’s time to stop chasing them, like a boy chasing a golden-winged moth, running through a meadow dotted with flowers! Time to think, think thoroughly about the essential, the eternal! And he deals with eternity as he should, who constantly practices reading the New Testament and the writings of the Holy Fathers, who teach to correctly understand the Gospel of Christ, who, thus recognizing the will of God, good and perfect, straightens his way of thinking, his spiritual movements according to it, and heals errors and hobbies with repentance. A Christian living in the middle of the world should not read the Holy Fathers who wrote for monastics. What is the use of reading those virtues that cannot be fulfilled by deeds themselves? There can be no benefit, but there may be harm, consisting in the fact that a dreaminess of a spiritual state will be aroused in a person, which does not suit him in any way. This dreaminess will at times flatteringly delight the imagination of high virtues, at times it will bring despondency and despair to the soul when we see that we cannot fulfill these virtues; - always and constantly distract us from good deeds that are right for us, thus making our life empty and fruitless. A Christian whose lot is to live and end his life among the world should read the Holy Fathers, who wrote for all Christians in general. These are the writers whose works were written in Russian or translated into it: St. John Chrysostom, St. Demetrius of Rostov, Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, Nicephorus of Astrakhan, George the Recluse. Abundant reading space! An abundant spiritual field in which the verbal sheep of Christ can feed until they are full and fat! I rejoice and rejoice with you, seeing from your last letter that your son’s health is improving. The Lord loves and accepts whomever he loves, beats and punishes, and then delivers from sorrow. Without temptation it is impossible to draw closer to God. Unsophisticated virtue, the Holy Fathers said, is not virtue! If you see someone called virtuous by Orthodox people, but he lives without any temptations, succeeds in worldly matters, know: his virtue, his Orthodoxy are not accepted by God. God sees in them the uncleanness that He hates! He looks condescendingly at human uncleanness and heals it with various means; in whomever he sees demonic uncleanness, he turns away from him. Loving you and your son, bringing you closer to Himself, He allowed you to grieve. You will be convinced of this from the fact that after the tribulation, both for him and for you, “the path of God became clearer and closer.” I see this from myself: before I told you much more superficially, more easily; and now something compels me to speak deeper, to offer stronger spiritual food that would give you more strength and movement. And you, seeing God’s mercy towards yourself, try to accept and preserve it as you should. The one who calls upon you God’s blessing is unworthy, etc. Letter 198. Regarding the death of the old woman. – Instructions on how to talk about religion I congratulate you and your entire God-loving family on the upcoming holidays and the new year, I wish you true blessings, the search for which the Lord inspired in your hearts. “Blessed have you chosen and accepted, the Lord.” Glory to God, who granted a happy death to your old lady! May He grant you all a successful exit from this life filled with disasters, may He accept us into the bright and joyful eternal abode prepared for His true servants. Until that time, we must endure various misfortunes from various reasons, and most of all from the sin living in us, from the damage from the fall living in us. In comparison with misfortunes of the last kind, other misfortunes are insignificant. In your letter you wrote slander against me. You are good St. Petersburg. You are already trying to get at the inhabitant of the nameless desert with slander! You write: “I’m very glad that they ordered me not to talk to anyone about religion and so on.” Not true! This is what was written to you, word by word. “You shouldn’t indulge too much in teaching “advice,” but humbly refuse it. When they are forced, then say something lightly, leaving the matter to God and so on.” There is a big difference between talking about religion and teaching advice: understand! And I did not forbid you to do the latter, but only told you to do it with the fear of God, with extreme caution and moderation. Not placing a burden on your neighbor is not a problem; shift it - and your neighbor can conveniently be damaged beyond repair, and become incapable of anything for the rest of his life. I tell you this with heartfelt tears, from seeing and experiencing many bitter experiences! And God forbid that I advise you in these lean times to hide from your neighbors that small but superior treasure of the whole world, the knowledge of God, which you received not without deeds and suffering, by the special grace of God. Nowadays there is a lot of heterogeneous knowledge, only the knowledge of the truth has left people. – There is a wonderful Russian proverb: “under-salting on the table, but over-salting on the back.” So, do not be angry, soul, because in my last letter, your back received several blows from the rod - the word. It was over-salted! I simply kiss you all, hug you, and press you to my heart. Christ is with you! God's blessing is upon you! Letter 199. About the Holy Trinity. – About sorrows The Holy Church, in her grace-filled, God-inspired hymns, calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter, and calls the Son of God the Comforter; - The Comforter is also the Father, incomprehensibly giving birth to the Son and incomprehensibly releasing the Holy Spirit. Comforter - Spirit; Comforter - Son; The Comforter is the Father. If the rays are light and fire; then the sun, from which they flow, is light and fire. Holy Trinity, God, glory to You! Glory to You, God, who has given us existence, who has granted us salvation, who has granted to us, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, the knowledge of the truth and the consolation that flows from the breathing of Your Holy Spirit upon us, promoting Your Holy Truth, which is Your Word. Those who have come to know and accept the Holy Truth have come under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit; they are part of the Lord, His lot. At the head of other knowledge and impressions that are not headed by the Truth is Satan. And his angels will follow Satan; they are part of it; their lot is with him. Let them eat the earth all the days of their bellies, and let them walk on their breasts. This determination descended upon them from God, the Judge of all. Their destiny is the carnal mind; vestments - Adam's old age. The Holy Truth, the Word of God says: “Through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter into the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Sorrows are especially the lot of our time, for which neither the feat of martyrdom nor the feat of monasticism is given for its lot. Our lot, Christians of the last time, is a lot of sorrows, apparently petty, insignificant. The scales are with God! Before Him, on His scales, all sorrow is insignificant, every sorrow is unimportant, no matter how great it is: because the overshadowing of His power and grace can turn the greatest sorrow into the greatest pleasure. So a little sorrow has all the value before Him, no less than the great sorrow. Everything depends on His grace, and He graciously accepts all sorrow from a person, accepted with thanksgiving, with humility, with glorification. Through thanksgiving, involuntarily make the illness that has befallen you an arbitrary sacrifice, and may God accept it as a censer filled with the most fragrant spiritual incense. Incense - thanksgiving. Letter 200. About crying for the dead. – God punishes mercifully It is destined for unknown fates that when 1848 approaches, I write to you not so much a word of greeting as a word of consolation. God calls you to know Him, and through this knowledge to eternal bliss! Now he calls you more clearly, louder, more decisively. At first, the calling of God appeared mysteriously in the incomprehensible attraction of your soul to the servants of God, to hearing the Word of God. And the servant of the Word spoke to you a word alien to flattery, alien to man-pleasing! – Now this calling has been marked by the sudden taking from the earth of one of the members of your family: your son has passed from time to eternity, passed on as the forerunner of other members of the family. Eternity has appropriated all people to itself; - awaits everyone in its vast depths! I’m not telling you “don’t cry”! No! I'm not saying that! Give freedom to your tears, shed them abundantly, so much so that your heart is full of them, and your holy faith, meek submission to Providence, and courageous self-sacrifice are not extinguished. Crying, dissolved in hope in God, is useful: it consoles the soul, softens the heart, opens it to all holy, spiritual impressions. Sorrow, not combined with hope, is alien to good fruits - with evil, murderous fruit! From it despondency, despair, physical death and spiritual death are born! - No! You will not fall into this sadness: you are invisibly held by the strong right hand of God! She led you into the days of lamentation, so that during these days you would become more immersed in yourself, wash yourself with a holy bath - with tears, so that many sighs would be born in your chest, rush to heaven, and clear the path to heaven for your soul. God's punishment has befallen you, a punishment dissolved in mercy, a punishment with which God punishes those whom He wants to bring closer to Himself, and not with the way He punishes and crushes His enemies. Punishment, dissolved by mercy, has befallen you! Look - how from the midst of darkness, the sadness sent to you, God’s mercy shines brightly and beneficially! Death is an indispensable tribute to mortals: every person must pay it; - To whom from your family did God send her? - To the meekest, most immaculate young man! For him, death is relocation to true bliss! – The young angel is now in heaven: there to his blissful home, he will attract your gaze, and these gazes, purified by tears, will begin to look with hope, to look joyfully, to look often at the clear, holy sky. Calling upon you blessings and consolation from God. Letter 201. “The Sign of Christ.” – Consolation in sorrow At no time has my soul been so full of sympathy for you as now... I pityingly look at you, at a wanderer who has been shipwrecked in the sea of ​​life, thrown by a fierce wave onto the seaside shore... On this shore is a quiet abode of monks - a pier from the storms of the sea of ​​life... I approach you... I see: this wanderer, watered by a cold wave, is my old acquaintance! - and the first thought, the first feeling: to shelter, warm a wanderer, console a friend and, if there is a means of help in my hand, put this means in his hands, bring it to his feet!... Such feelings were born in my soul when reading your letter!... Do not blame me for not putting a secular title in the title of my lines, replacing it with “the sign of Christ.” Let the banner of Christ flutter over my word... And you have stood under this banner! The leader of the crusaders says: “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). It’s been a long time since you were called to this banner! - now you are thrown out into its shadow by force, by an angry wave. God was watching this wave! Blessed is your deed: you have not turned aside either to the right or to the left; - in the hour of your sorrow you rushed to His church, to the holy monastery. And God accepted you... Not for games - a man on earth! not for games... It is not unimportant that God created man in His image and likeness! It is not unimportant that the Son of God redeemed fallen man with His blood!... We must give value to these bounties of God! we must give a price to the all-holy Blood of the God-Man!.. No! those who pay superficial, passing attention to faith do not appreciate them worthily, and exhaust all the attention of their souls on playing with vain, temporary, perishable things. And those who dedicated their whole lives to God did nothing, did not bring anything worthy in comparison with the blessings of God! – One, one is worthy to stand before God: a spirit filled with contrition and humility. This human dignity alone was recognized by God Himself as dignity. And our spirit may become in such a mood - when it avoids all games. I do not advise you to leave the outer circle in which you have been placed by the Providence of God. Your bonds are sacred bonds. They have a sacred seal placed on them by the blessing of God, called upon by the sacrament of the church and the prayers accompanying it. By your solitude - may your soul be mortified for the world; may your soul be your holy abode, may it be the abode of all the gospel virtues. Let the games be replaced by the essential, and the shadows by the truth. There is no way to approach God except through the thorns of sorrows. Admitted to God, he began to enter the treasury of all blessings, temporal and eternal. God, whoever He wants to bring closer to Himself, allows him sorrow. The wave with which you are thrown into the land of the cross was sent to you by God, who loves and chooses you - sent, just as the storm and the whale were sent to the prophet Jonah. If the merciful Lord returns me to the seaside monastery of St. Sergius, I hope to see you there, to see you, to strengthen and console me with consolation and strength from the Lord. Long ago, your soul chose my soul in the harbor of sincerity, - even now it does not leave this harbor, half-broken by the waves, pushed far away by constant and long-standing angry storms... And may the word of the incarnate God be fulfilled over us, Who said: “Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Letter 202. There are no unforgivable sins. - About repentance. About despair. - Deadly sins. – Immortal sins – Passion. – Sins in word, in thought. – Confession The Holy Orthodox Church recognizes that there is no human sin that cannot be washed away by the Blood of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ. No matter how many times human sin is repeated, the Blood of the God-Man can wash it away. The sins of the whole world mean nothing before the all-holy Blood of the Lord made man, shed for us. “The same plague was for our sins and the torment was swift for our iniquities, the punishment of our peace was upon Him; by His plague we were healed” (Is. 53:5). Only the one who himself rejects the healing and salvation given to him and all people remains unhealed. The mercy of God has been poured out on us so abundantly that the most grave sin, repeated by a person a thousand times, can be blotted out by a person’s repentance. Repentance is faith, repentance is recognition of redemption and the Redeemer! repentance is the assimilation of the merits of the Redeemer by faith in the Redeemer! repentance is self-sacrifice! repentance is an acknowledgment of the fall and destruction that has engulfed the entire human race! repentance is renunciation of all human virtue! Repentance places all hope in the Redeemer! The merits of the Redeemer alone have a whole price, an immense price! without price, without the slightest price, of human virtue! They borrow the price from faith in the Redeemer, when they are the expression of this faith - the fulfillment of the will of the Redeemer! Repentance makes up for the lack of human virtues and assigns to man the virtues of the Redeemer! God gave us repentance to help our weakness. Oh, how varied and great is our weakness! Another person hates his sin, but is so accustomed to sin, so powerless to fight against it, that he never ceases to fall into hated, abominable sin, carried away by the violence of his prevailing habit. For the unfortunate slave of sin, the refuge is repentance. No matter how many times he happens to be subjected to moral disaster, he can enter this refuge and repair the broken boat of his soul in it. Church history has preserved the following conversation between a certain monk who suffered from sin and one of the greatest saints of God, abounding in spiritual gifts, who, because of this abundance, received the name Velikago: the brother asked the Venerable Sisoy the Great: “Father! what should I do? I have fallen." The elder answered, “Arise.” The brother said to him: “I rose and fell again.” - The elder answered: “Arise again.” - The brother said: “How long will I rise and fall?” - Sisoes the Great answered: “until you are taken from this life.” – You will find this story in the book “Memorable Tales of the Ascetic Asceticism of the Holy and Blessed Fathers”; it is also placed in the Chetyih Menaion, in the life of St. Sisoy the Great, July 6. It must be assumed that the saint of God gave such an answer to a person who had an unfortunate habit of sin, a skill that seemed insurmountable. There are people who have fallen into this disaster. The word “fell” depicts that the brother’s sin was grave, mortal. However, we must know that God gave repentance solely to help our weakness - not at all to indulge sin. The gift of God should not be used for evil; it should be treated with great reverence, prudence, and caution. “Whoever, in the hope of repentance, repeats his sins,” said St. Isaac of Syria, he behaves deceitfully towards God, such an unexpected death befalls him” (Sk. 90). One must be careful to guard against falling into all sins, great and small, as an expression of enmity against God. The most serious sin is despair. This sin degrades the all-holy Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, rejects His omnipotence, rejects the salvation He gave - it shows that arrogance and pride previously dominated in the soul, that faith and humility were alien to it. More than from all other sins, one must be guarded, as from a deadly poison, as from a fierce beast, from despair. I repeat: despair is the worst sin among all sins. Mature despair is usually expressed by suicide or actions identical to suicide. Suicide is the gravest sin! The one who committed it deprived himself of repentance and all hope of salvation. The Holy Church does not make any commemoration of him, does not honor him with a funeral service and deprives him of burial in a Christian cemetery. Suicide is followed in severity by mortal sins, such as murder, adultery, heresy and others like them. These sins, although less harmful than suicide, and the despair leading to suicide, although the one who committed them remains the possibility of repentance and salvation, are called mortal. The one who dwells in them is recognized as dead in soul; those who dwell in them are not allowed by the rules of the Holy Church to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ or to participate in divine services. If death befalls him unrepentant of these sins, then his eternal destruction is certain. The repentance of a person in mortal sin can only be recognized as true when he forsakes his mortal sin. Then only he can be admitted to union with Christ through the communion of the Holy Mysteries! And therefore, after the main sin - despair and suicide, one must be especially careful to guard against mortal sins, with a firm and decisive intention in the soul - not to fall into them. If you have the misfortune of falling into some mortal sin, then you must leave it immediately, be healed by repentance, and be careful in every possible way so as not to fall into it again. If, by some unfortunate coincidence, we happen to fall into mortal sin again, we must not give in to despair, but must again resort to God-given spiritual healing, repentance, which retains all its power and reality until the very end of our life. There are sins that are not mortal: some of them are heavier, others are lighter. We must first unlearn heavy sins, and then unlearn light ones. For example: immortal sin - gluttony; also immortal sin is a delicacy. Binge eating is grosser and is associated with more harmful consequences than delicacy: and therefore one must first wean oneself from overeating, and then from indulgence. However, even unmortal sins, such as: gluttony, delicacy, luxury, idle talk, ridicule and others, having grown and manifested themselves in a person, can come very close to mortal sins. Sin that has taken possession of a person is called passion. Passion is subject to eternal torment, the Fathers said (teacher Nil Sorsky. Sl. 1). And therefore, one should not neglect immortal sins; one should especially watch so that some sin does not grow and a passion for it does not develop in the habit. To cleanse oneself from such sins and for better self-observation, the Holy Church has ordered every Orthodox Christian to resort to the holy sacrament of confession at least four times a year (at the very least, once). Holy confession brings two benefits: it brings forgiveness from God for sins committed, and protects from falling into sins again. “Soul,” says St. John Climacus, who has the custom of confessing her sins, is restrained from falling into them again by the memory of confession, as if by a bridle. Unconfessed sins are conveniently repeated, as if committed in darkness” (Flattery Sl. 4). There are sins committed by words. They should not be considered unimportant! From a comic word to a criminal word - the shortest distance! “You will be justified by your words, and condemned by your words” (Matthew 12:37), said the Savior. The tongue has committed great crimes: it has uttered renunciations of God, blasphemy, false oaths, and slander against one’s neighbor. Denial of Christ and blasphemy are ranked among the gravest mortal sins. There are sins committed by thoughts, feelings of the heart, and movements of the body. All of them are not small, they are all enmity against God! But when the thought and heart delight in sin, they love, as it were, to realize it with a dream speckled, decorated and long-lasting; Such secret spiritual sin is close to sin committed by deed itself. A person must avoid with all care all sins in general. For the same sins into which, due to weakness, one falls in deed, word, thought and all feelings, one must repent daily before God - which is best done after completing the rule, going to sleep. Moreover, the saint must cleanse his conscience four times annually. sacrament of confession. If you happen to fall into mortal sin, you must immediately confess it before your spiritual father. May the Lord protect you from the great spiritual calamity - mortal sin, and grant you the strength to avoid other sins, large and small. Amen. 1847 N. Babaevsky Monastery Letter 203. On the impossibility of saving Gentiles and heretics A spectacle worthy of bitter sobbing: Christians who do not know what Christianity consists of! And this sight greets the eye almost incessantly; Rarely are they consoled by the opposite, as if by a comforting sight! Rarely can they, in a large crowd of people who call themselves Christians, stop at being a Christian, both in name and in deed. The question you suggested is now asked in a row. “Why can’t pagans, Mohammedans and so-called heretics be saved,” you write? There are good people among them. To destroy these kindest people would be contrary to the mercy of God!... Yes! This is disgusting even to common human reason! – And heretics are the same Christians. To consider yourself saved, and members of other faiths lost, is crazy and extremely proud!” I will try to answer you in as few words as possible, so that the verbosity does not in any way damage the clarity of the presentation. - Christians! You talk about salvation, but you don’t know what salvation is, why people need it, and finally, not knowing Christ is the only means of our salvation! – Here is the true teaching on this subject, the teaching of the Holy, Universal Church: Salvation lies in the return of communion with God. This communication was lost by the entire human race through the fall of our forefathers. The entire human race is a category of lost beings. Destruction is the lot of all people, both virtuous and evildoers. We are conceived in lawlessness, born in sin. “I will go down to my son lamenting in hell” (Gen. 37:35), says St. Patriarch Jacob about himself and his holy son Joseph, chaste and beautiful! Not only sinners, but also the righteous of the Old Testament descended into hell at the end of their earthly journey. Such is the power of human good deeds. Such is the price of the virtues of our fallen nature! In order to restore man's communion with God, otherwise, for salvation, atonement was necessary. The redemption of the human race was accomplished not by an Angel, not by an Archangel, not by any other of the highest, but by limited and created beings—it was accomplished by the infinite God Himself. Executions are the lot of the human race, replaced by His execution; the lack of human merit is replaced by His infinite dignity. All the good deeds of weak human beings that descended into hell were replaced by one powerful good deed: faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews asked the Lord: “What shall we do, that we may do the works of God?” The Lord answered them: “This is the work of God, that you may believe in Him, His messenger” (John 6:28–29). We need one good deed for salvation: faith; - but faith is a matter. By faith, by faith alone, we can enter into communion with God through the sacraments he has given. It is in vain and mistaken that you think and say that good people among the pagans and Mohammedans will be saved, i.e. enter into communication with God! It’s in vain that you look at the opposite thought as if it were a novelty, as if it were an intruding delusion! No! This is the constant teaching of the true Church, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Church has always recognized that there is one means of salvation: the Redeemer! she recognized that the greatest virtues of fallen nature descend to hell. If the righteous of the true Church, the lamps from which the Holy Spirit shone, the prophets and wonderworkers who believed in the coming Redeemer, who at their death preceded the coming of the Redeemer, descended into hell, then how do you want the pagans and Mohammedans, because they seem good to you, who did not know and did not believe in the Redeemer, to receive salvation, delivered by one, alone, I repeat to you, means - faith in the Redeemer? - Christians! know Christ! - Understand that you do not know Him, that you denied Him, recognizing salvation as possible without Him for some good deeds! He who recognizes the possibility of salvation without faith in Christ denies Christ, and, perhaps unknowingly, falls into the grave sin of blasphemy. “We think about it,” says St. Apostle Paul, “By faith a man is justified without the works of the law” (Rom. 3:28). “The truth of God through the Christian faith is in all and on all who believe: there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God: we are justified by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:22–24). You will object: St. The Apostle James absolutely demands good works; he teaches that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Consider what St. demands. Apostle James. – You will see that he demands, like all the divinely inspired writers of the Holy Scriptures, works of faith, and not good deeds of our fallen nature! it requires living faith, confirmed by the deeds of the new man, and not the good deeds of the fallen nature, contrary to faith. He cites the act of the patriarch Abraham, the deed from which the faith of the righteous man appeared: this deed consisted of sacrificing his only begotten son to God. To sacrifice one’s son is a completely unkind deed by human nature: it is a good deed, as the fulfillment of God’s command, as a matter of faith. Take a closer look at the New Testament and in general at all of Holy Scripture: you will find that it requires the fulfillment of God’s commandments, that this fulfillment is called works, that from this fulfillment of God’s commandments faith in God becomes living, as active; without them she is dead, as if deprived of all movement. And on the contrary, you will find that good deeds of fallen nature, from feelings, from blood, from impulses and tender sensations of the heart - are forbidden, rejected! And it’s these good deeds that you like about pagans and Mohammedans! For them, even if it was with the rejection of Christ, you want to give them salvation. Your judgment about common sense is strange! Why, by what right, do you find and recognize it in yourself? If you are a Christian, then you should have a Christian concept of this subject, and not some other one, unauthorized or seized who knows where! The Gospel teaches us that through our fall we acquired a false reason, that the reason of our fallen nature, no matter what natural dignity it may have, no matter how sophisticated it is by the learning of the world, retains the dignity given to it by the fall and remains a false reason. It is necessary to reject it, to surrender to the guidance of faith: with this guidance, in due time, after significant deeds in piety, God grants His faithful servant the mind of Truth, or the mind of Spirituality. This reason can and should be recognized as sound reason: it is the informed faith, so excellently described by St. The Apostle Paul in the 11th chapter of his letter to the Hebrews. The basis of spiritual reasoning: God. It rests on this solid stone, and therefore does not waver or fall. What we, Christians, call sound reason, we recognize as a reason so sick, so darkened and lost that its healing cannot be accomplished otherwise than by cutting off all the knowledge that composes it, with the sword of faith and rejecting it. If we recognize him as sound, on some basis that is unknown, shaky, uncertain, constantly changing, then he, as sound, will certainly reject Christ. This has been proven by experiments. – What does your common sense tell you? That admitting the death of good people who do not believe in Christ is contrary to your common sense! - not only that! Such destruction of the virtuous is contrary to the mercy of such an all-good Being as God. – Of course, did you have a revelation from above about this subject, about what is and is not contrary to the mercy of God? - No! but common sense shows this. - A! Your sound mind!.. However, with your sound mind, where did you get the idea that it is possible for you to comprehend with your own limited human mind what is and what is not contrary to the mercy of God? - Let me tell you your thought - the Gospel, otherwise the Teaching of Christ, otherwise the Holy Scripture, - even otherwise, the Holy Universal Church has revealed to us everything that a person can know about the mercy of God, which exceeds all speculation, all human comprehension, inaccessible to them. The vacillation of the human mind is vain when it seeks to define the infinite God!.. when it seeks to explain the inexplicable, to subordinate to its own considerations... who? God! Such an undertaking is a satanic undertaking!.. Called a Christian, and not knowing the teachings of Christ! If you have not learned from this blessed, heavenly teaching the incomprehensibility of God, go to school and listen to what children are learning! Teachers of mathematics and the theory of the infinite explain to them that it, as an indefinite quantity, does not obey the laws to which definite quantities - numbers - are subject, that its results can be completely opposite to the results of numbers. And you want to define the laws of the action of God’s mercy, you say: this is in accordance with him, - this is disgusting to him! – It agrees or disagrees with your common sense, with your concepts and feelings! – Does it follow from the fact that God is obliged to understand and feel as you understand and feel? And this is what you demand from God! This is a most reckless and quite proud undertaking! - do not blame the judgment of the Church for a lack of common sense and humility: this is your shortcoming! She, the holy Church, only unswervingly follows the teaching of God about the actions of God, revealed by God Himself! Her true children obediently follow her, enlightened by faith, trampling on the arrogant mind that rebels against God! We believe that we can only know about God what God has deigned to reveal to us! If there had been another path to the knowledge of God, a path that we could pave for our minds through our own efforts, revelation would not have been given to us. It is given because we need it. – The own self-thinking and wanderings of the human mind are vain and deceitful. You say: “heretics are the same as Christians.” Where did you get this from? Does anyone who calls himself a Christian and knows nothing about Christ, out of his extreme ignorance, decide to recognize himself as the same Christian as the heretics, and not distinguish the holy Christian faith from the child of the oath - blasphemous heresies! This is not how true Christians talk about this! Numerous hosts of saints accepted the crown of martyrdom, preferring the most severe and prolonged torment, prison, exile, rather than agree to participate with heretics in their blasphemous teaching. The Universal Church has always recognized heresy as a mortal sin, has always recognized that a person infected with the terrible disease of heresy is dead in soul, alien to grace and salvation, in communion with the devil and his destruction. Heresy is a sin of the mind. Heresy is more a sin of the devil than of man; she is the daughter of the devil, his invention - wickedness close to idolatry. The Fathers usually call idolatry wickedness, and heresy wickedness. In idolatry, the devil accepts divine honor from blinded people; in heresy, he makes blind people participants in his main sin - blasphemy. Whoever reads the “Acts of the Councils” with attention will easily be convinced that the character of the heretics is completely satanic. He will see their terrible hypocrisy, exorbitant pride - he will see behavior composed of continuous lies, he will see that they are devoted to various low passions, he will see that, when they have the opportunity, they decide to commit all the most terrible crimes and atrocities. What is especially remarkable is their irreconcilable hatred of the children of the true Church, and their thirst for blood! Heresy is associated with hardening of the heart, with terrible darkness and damage to the mind - it persists in the soul infected by it - it is difficult for a person to recover from this illness! Every heresy contains blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: it either blasphemes the dogma of the Holy Spirit, or the action of the Holy Spirit, but it certainly blasphemes the Holy Spirit. The essence of any heresy is blasphemy: Saint Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who sealed with his blood the confession of the true faith, pronounced the ruling of the local Council of Constantinople against the heresiarch Eutyches in the following words: “Eutichios, hitherto a priest, an archimandrite, is fully convicted both by his past actions and his present explanations of the errors of Valentinus and Apollinaris, in stubbornly pursuing their blasphemy, especially since he did not even heed our advice and instructions to accept sound teaching. And therefore, weeping and sighing over his final destruction, we declare on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ that he has fallen into blasphemy, that he is deprived of all priestly rank, our communication and the management of his monastery, letting everyone who will henceforth talk with him or visit him know that they themselves will be subject to excommunication.” This definition is an example of the general opinion of the Universal Church about heretics; this definition is recognized by the entire Church and confirmed by the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. The heresy of Eutyches consisted in the fact that he did not confess in Christ after the incarnation two natures, as the Church confesses - he admitted one divine nature. - Just say!.. Funny in its lack of true knowledge and bitterly pitiful in its nature and consequences is the answer of a certain person clothed with the power of this world, St. Alexander the Patriarch of Alexandria on the Arian heresy. This person advises the patriarch to maintain peace, not to start quarrels, so contrary to the spirit of Christianity, because of certain words; he writes that he does not find anything reprehensible in the teachings of Arius - some difference in the turns of words - only! These turns of phrase, notes the historian Fleury, in which “there is nothing reprehensible”, deny the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ - only! They overthrow, therefore, the entire Christian faith - only! It is remarkable: all the ancient heresies, under various changing guises, strived for one goal: they rejected the Divinity of the Word and distorted the dogma of the incarnation. The newest ones most strive to reject the actions of the Holy Spirit: with terrible blasphemies they rejected the Divine Liturgy, all the sacraments, everything, everything where the Universal Church has always recognized the action of the Holy Spirit. They called it human institutions - more boldly: superstition, delusion! Of course, in heresy you see neither robbery nor theft! Maybe that’s the only reason you don’t consider it a sin? Here the Son of God is rejected, here the Holy Spirit is rejected and blasphemed - that’s all! He who accepts and contains blasphemous teachings, and who utters blasphemy does not commit robbery, does not steal, and even does good deeds of a fallen nature - he is a wonderful person! How can God deny him salvation!.. The whole reason for your last bewilderment, just like everyone else’s, is your deep ignorance of Christianity! Do not think that such ignorance is an unimportant flaw! No! its consequences can be disastrous, especially now, when countless little books with Christian titles and Satanic teachings are circulating in society. If you do not know the true Christian teaching, you can just accept a false, blasphemous thought as true, internalize it, and with it internalize eternal destruction. The blasphemer will not be saved! And those bewilderments that you depicted in your letter are already terrible accusers of your salvation. Their essence is denial of Christ! – Don’t play with your salvation, don’t play! otherwise you will cry forever. – Start reading the New Testament and St. the Fathers of the Orthodox Church (not Teresa, not the Francis and other Western crazy people whom their heretical Church presents as saints); study in the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church how to correctly understand Scripture, what kind of life, what thoughts and feelings befit a Christian. From Scripture and living faith, study Christ and Christianity. Before the terrible hour comes, in which you will have to appear in judgment before God, acquire the justifications given by God to all people - through Christianity. Letter 204. Consolation on the Death of a Son What unexpected news this post has brought me!... Konstantin Fedorovich, in the prime of his years of mature courage, who promised so much for the fatherland, for his parents and family, invaluable to everyone who knew him, suddenly left the field of earthly life - and his ashes are already covered with earth! - rests in the Sergius Desert! There he will rest for a long time!.. The trumpet of the general resurrection of men will awaken and revive him!.. And his soul!.. may it find peace in the blissful, quiet and bright abodes of heaven! May her own piety and the piety of her parents pave the way for her there! May the prayers of the Holy Church, the prayers of his father, the prayers of his mother, the prayers of an orphaned wife, and the orphanhood of those who are almost infirm and do not understand the orphanhood of their babies and children, pave the way for her! A strong, extraordinary sorrow has befallen you, but it corresponds to the strength of your soul! You must put on the full armor of living faith, which breathes into your heart firmness, courage, humility, and submission to the decrees of God. You are supposed to convey the strength of your soul to Daria Mikhailovna, who is weak in physical constitution, although not weak in trust in God: “she is a mother!” An unexpected and heavy cross fell on your shoulders! but he was sent by God... He came unnoticed, he approached, - suddenly, with all his weight, he lay down on his shoulders, - and blessed are those shoulders who were honored to feel the cross of the Lord on themselves! Blessed is the soul who with generosity accepts and bears the cross of the Lord. The cross is a sign of God’s election, the seal of Christ. With this seal Christ seals His own! this sign is depicted on God's beloved angels of God Almighty! If you see someone, - said the Monk Mark the Ascetic, - leading a sorrowless life, in constant prosperity, - know: “an unmerciful judgment awaits him after death.” All the Saints recognized it as an immutable truth that the one who leads a sorrowless life is forgotten by God. Do not look, says one of them, for Christian perfection in human virtues: it is not here; it is mysteriously kept in the cross of Christ! Whatever virtues were performed by the Saints, they considered them incomplete and insufficient if they were not crowned by the cross of Christ, sealed, not witnessed by the seal of Christ. Those who will only walk the path, guarded by the cherubim, will have with them handwritings sealed with the seal of Christ. God's mercy has been shown to you throughout your entire life, both in blessing you with family happiness and in blessing your service to the Tsar and the Fatherland. The same mercy of God appears in the cross sent to you. God's punishment is not human punishment!.. God's wrath is not human wrath! The Lord punishes - loves! He calls you into a closer knowledge of Him. A short acquaintance with the greats of the earth brings temporary honors and imaginary wealth; Such knowledge of God brings eternal blessings, vision of the glory of God, participation in this glory. I have always looked at you with the eye of my heart - with a deep heartfelt feeling that is difficult to comprehend, the existence of which is not even suspected by those who spend an absent-minded life. I think: God sent me this feeling so that I would have at least a small contribution, with which in the hour of need I could bring you a weak reward for your abundant love. I look at you from here, from the distant desert: I see the same thing! distance does not prevent you from looking and seeing with your heart. I constantly felt in you, in your soul, some kind of moral task that did not have a complete solution. All that remained was to decide! The will of God for you is now more clearly visible: He is pleased that your soul should bear spiritual fruit for the eternal granary, corresponding to the means and forces implanted in this soul. For this reason, He brought you to the feat. It pleases Him that you draw closer to Him and know Him more. Konstantin Fedorovich - almost the same age as me; a little younger than me. A whole quarter of a century has passed since we met; then he was in the uniform of a page, and I was in the uniform of a cadet. The first thought that flashed through me when reading the news of his death, flying straight into my heart, was: “and he went to the monastery.” Now you are an impartial judge: is it all the same to go to the monastery a few years earlier, a few years later?.. A monk is the same dead man with a living word!.. His word is from another world!.. from the world where the soul of the deceased is. I, the living dead, have acquired a new roommate in the Sergius monastery - your son, a dead man, who has closed his lips forever. May God grant me to pronounce for you and for myself a word from the other world - a word of consolation, a word of salvation!.. I burst into tears - the pen cannot be held in my trembling hand: Christ is with you! May He strengthen you and your entire family! Devoted to you with all my soul, A.I. Letter 205. Answer to those who doubt the existence of hell. - About the false-named mind. – Description of one of his mysterious visions Do you doubt the existence of hell and eternal torment? - repeat the current fashionable objection: “this is not consistent with the mercy of such a good being as God.” Ah, my friend! Can such a weak, limited being as a person judge by himself about God, an infinite Being, beyond all comprehension and judgment - to draw positive conclusions about God from looking into himself? Leave your own judgments and believe with all your heart everything that the Gospel teaches us. The Savior Himself said: “And these go into eternal torment” (Matthew 25:46); in another place he said: “he lifted up his eyes to hell” (Luke 16:23). The Savior said that there is hell, there is eternal torment; – why your objection! If you give room to this objection, it means that you doubt the truth of the Savior’s words and reject them. Whoever rejects even one dogma from the teachings of Christ denies Christ. Think carefully: your doubt is not such a light sin. If you internalize it and implement it with words, you will fall into mortal sin. One word of faith can save, and one word of unbelief can destroy a soul. The thief, at the hour of death, already on the cross, confessed Christ - and opened the doors to heaven for himself; The Pharisees, rejecting the Truth, blasphemed the Holy Spirit - and died. “You will be justified by your words, and you will be condemned by your words” (Matthew 12:37), declared the Savior. – If you allow your mind to object to the teachings of Christ, it will find thousands of thousands of them: it is inexhaustible - when we allow it to become infected with hostility towards Christ. Little by little he will reject all Christian dogmas! This is not news - this is the fruit of unbridled, arbitrary judgment; How many atheists and blasphemers have appeared from him in the world! Outwardly, to inexperienced eyes, they seemed to be brilliant minds that broke chains, went free, discovered the truth and showed it to other people. But the consequences showed that their imaginary truth is the most terrible, most destructive delusion. Streams of blood washed false thoughts, but the thought was not cleansed by this bath! It’s scary to stain a thought with a lie: human blood is not able to wash away these fierce stains. For such a washing, humanity needed the blood of the God-man. It received this blood, washed itself in it, cleansed itself! held by the hand of faith, it came into the light of true knowledge of God and self-knowledge - it came out there from the deep, dark abyss of the carnal, false mind. This mind calls man back into the abyss - and man heeds the murderous call! What's wonderful? Man retained his character: in paradise, filled with the fragrance and pleasure of the Divine, he did not stop entrusting his attention to the flattering words of the devil. My friend! you are a Christian, a member of the Orthodox Eastern Church; remain faithful to the spiritual body of which you are a member - maintain union with the holy Church to which you belong - preserve your spiritual dignity as a priceless treasure. Because of your weakness, do not go into judgment about dogmas: this is a deep abyss, a dangerous sea; Many inexperienced and arrogant swimmers drowned in it. Safely, with the hope of abundant spiritual gain, only those who have been fed by the mind in the right hand of the Spirit can swim and rush on the wonderful waves of theology. On the advice of St. Apostle Paul, cast away every thought that is placed on the mind of Christ. Do not enter into a dispute, nor into reasoning with doubts and objections generated by false reason; With the sword of faith, cut off the heads of these snakes, as soon as they put these heads out of their lair! This is a straightforward matter, the right thing! a deed worthy of one who was once united with Christ forever. Before the union there is reasoning; Once the union is concluded, it is already a crime. Nothing, nothing violates or shakes your loyalty! Oh! It is more tolerable to have not entered into an alliance than to be a traitor. With humility, bow to the good yoke; lead a pious life; go to church more often; read the New Testament and the writings of the Holy Fathers; do good to your neighbors: in due time, the divine teaching of Christ, from which holiness and truth breathes, will be assimilated to your soul. Then no doubts will come to her. Christ's teaching is supernatural as divine: it is approachable to the human mind through faith alone. It is a crazy undertaking to explain the supernatural by human reasoning, which is obviously incapable of leaving the general, ordinary, natural circle. The consequences of a foolish undertaking: inconsistency, countless objections, rejection of the unnatural, even if this unnatural were divine. People in their actions mostly contradict themselves! They take care of their eyes so that the eyes do not become clogged, but they do not at all think of protecting their mind - this eye of the soul; they litter it with all sorts of rubbish. The Lord commanded to keep the mind, because it is the leader of man. If the mind goes astray from the true path, a person’s whole life becomes a delusion. In order for the mind to stray from the true path, a little is needed: one false thought: “Whenever your eye is simple,” says the Savior, “your whole body will be light; but when you are evil, your body will be dark. Keep in mind that while there is light in you, there is darkness” (Luke 11:34–35). We do not observe this all-holy testament at all; We do not observe that our light, i.e. the mind has not become darkness, we throw all sorts of things into it; it becomes decidedly darkness and spreads darkness over all our behavior, throughout our entire lives. Why should thoughts be born in your soul that are hostile to God—thoughts of destructive unbelief and superstition? You have certainly read various empty foreign books, listened to a lot of various unfounded judgments about religion, with which our time is so rich, so poor in true religious knowledge. “Nothing leads a person to blasphemy more than reading heretical books,” said Isaac of Syria. Give up this disorderly reading, which fills the mind with confused and distorted concepts, depriving it of firmness, independence, and correct view, leading to a state of skeptical hesitation. Engage in a thorough study of the Holy Fathers. Do you belong to this Church? It's your duty to get to know her properly. Look how firmly the heterodox people of the West know their religion! – True, it is less difficult for them to learn their faith in detail. A papist - he just believed in the pope as in God, he did everything: he is a papist to perfection! He can be crazy as much as he wants! A Protestant only doubts the entire tradition, protests against the entire teaching of Christ, however, retaining the name of a Christian - he has done everything: he is completely Protestant. Having achieved such perfection, both the Roman and the Protestant write multi-volume works; their creations are loaded onto ships and sent to Russia to find readers. Don’t read what these people wrote without understanding what they write. You know so little, according to the general current fashion, of the Christian religion that you can very easily adopt some false thought and damage your soul with it. There is hell, and there is eternal torment; With a pious life, make them non-existent for yourself! I consider my answer complete. And what I will say next is a tribute to friendship. No! - not a tribute; it should be called differently. This is idle talk, which, however, leads to sincerity and friendship. I have often heard the thought of doubt, now expressed by you and supported precisely by the argument that you brought, that the existence of hell and eternal torment is incompatible with the mercy of God. Once, after such a conversation, when the visitor who was talking to me left me, I involuntarily, without noticing it, plunged into thoughtfulness. My heart was sad. However, no particular thought occupied me. This was the impression the visitor left me. And how could I not be left with a sad impression when I heard a Christian who dared to directly contradict Christ, who dared to recognize the words of the Self-Truth-God as a lie, a fiction, a superstition. How could I not be left with a sad impression when I saw that the mercy of God was being rejected - which one right confession of the dogmas of the Christian faith, which God Himself gives, is capable of accepting and preserving, and the vain human speculation about the mercy of God is given as an excuse for such rejection! “Suddenly a thought appears to me suggesting a trip around the world. The thought was so bright and gave me such a pleasant feeling that I didn’t think about it at all. I wholeheartedly agree. Guided by her, I fly as if in a balloon. I see all the countries, nothing stops me on my way, I rush past the sky-high mountains, I move quickly across rivers, across lakes, across seas. In the shortest possible time I looked around the entire universe, while sitting calmly in my chairs. What did I see during my journey? The suffering of humanity. Yes! I saw suffering, both physical and moral, - I did not meet a single person who did not suffer. I have seen suffering in palaces and on thrones; I saw him among the iridescent abundance. Where the body was healthy and nourished, there the heart was disgusting, painful - not enduring the severe illness, it uttered incessant groans. I saw prisoners buried for life in stuffy and gloomy dungeons; I saw those digging in the abysses of the earth, where the light of the sun does not reach, where, with the sound of chains and the blows of hammers and axes, gold is mined - a means to the pleasures of some through the constant misfortune of those who mine. I have seen in the most educated states entire families dying of hunger; saw humanity distorted by delusions! I saw humanity reduced to the likeness of dumb beasts and beasts of prey! People are caught there like animals; there they trade them as soulless goods, like cattle - and in this marketplace a person is a low-value commodity: his price is less than the price of livestock. There man lives almost like a dumb animal; and there he lives like a fierce beast, finding pleasure in shedding blood, devouring his own kind with mad, frenzied joy. Oh! It would be better not to exist than to exist so violently, so horribly. This is the picture of ordinary human life on earth. We must also remember the disasters to which humanity is subjected from time to time and place: about earthquakes, pestilences, civil strife, about the sword of conquerors, which sheds blood so abundantly when it is in the hand of Batu or Tamerlane. And now, for several thousand years now, one generation has been replaced on earth by another, replaced solely for the sake of suffering. However, God, the Creator and Lord of everything, omnipotent and all-good, looks at all this. This most terrible evil in which the human race suffers on earth does not prevent God from being all-good. No matter how much we add numbers to the Infinite, no matter how much we take them away from it, it will not change, it remains Infinite!.. But if you look at the earth on which so many generations have suffered in turn, on which they have died out by death, more or less cruelly, the thought of hell and eternal torment ceases to be strange!.. The human race is the category of fallen beings. Earth is the threshold of hell with the initial executions for criminals. The Savior made it the threshold of Paradise. Letter 206. Regarding political events in Europe in 1848 I greet you in writing - in response to your friendly letter and Christian greeting - before the personal greeting, which, I hope, the Lord will soon grant me. I am heartily consoled by the fact that you spent Holy Week, according to your custom, in the monastery of St. Sergius - in the temporary earthly refuge that God was pleased to give me with my like-minded brothers - my spiritual family. In the next century, may the ineffable goodness of the Lord grant us an eternal abode, in which may there be shelter for you, not for an urgent visit, but for a permanent stay. I received your letter in December: I was very weak then. The effect of this strong and useful medicine kept me in bed most of the time, and made my head so stupefied that I became incapable of any mental activity. Therefore, both before you and before many others, I was guilty of the same guilt: silence. When I heard about the events that were changing the face of the earth, I did not feel any surprise, lower than the interest that happens when hearing about something new. When I heard about these incidents, it was as if I heard about the death of a man who had long, long ago suffered and been exhausted by an incurable illness, killed alive by this illness before being killed by death. This is how educated Europe, or the so-called enlightened world, has always seemed to me. My lack of surprise seemed strange to myself. While I was thinking about my coldness, I suddenly remembered the words of the Savior: “When you hear abuse, and hear abuse, do not be horrified: for it is fitting, but it is not the end. For language will rise against tongue, and kingdom against kingdom: and there will be cowards in places, and there will be plagues and rebellions, this is the beginning of this disease” (Mark 13:7-8). What is especially remarkable here is that - and I always dwelled on this word of the Gospel - that the last sign of the initial illnesses that must precede the final illness - the Antichrist, the scripture exposes rebellions. Rationalism with its decrees cannot stop in its movement, as it is based on the constantly changing human mind. We must expect more and more development of the disease. It began to shake the peace of nations from the end of the last century; the further it goes, the more extensive and destructive its effect. From the final worldwide effect of this disease must arise a lawless man, a genius of geniuses, just as from the French Revolution his pre-image was born - the colossal genius, Napoleon. – What amazed me more than the current circumstances? I was amazed by the reasons for these circumstances: the general desire of everyone exclusively for one material thing, as if it were eternal, - oblivion of the eternal, as if non-existent, - ridicule and abuse of Christianity, - a subtle and fierce persecution of the Church, persecution of her life, of the Holy Spirit - the replacement of the Spirit and His statutes with false reason and statutes emanating from the ruler of the world. Deception, worldwide rumor, as if in pandemonium, - the widespread construction of railways - work similar to pandemonium. It should be noted that God, as the Scripture says, for this purpose mixed languages ​​and divided the people into nations, in order to deprive people of the opportunity to carry out all sinful enterprises with the common forces of all united humanity: steam locomotives return this opportunity to people. Then, during the pandemonium, God descended, says Scripture, to look at human affairs, and stopped the insane undertaking by confusing languages; Now the hour is near when God will come again to look at human affairs and put an end to them, no longer by confusion of languages, but by replacing the world, matured and decayed in iniquities, with a new and immaculate world. During my wanderings, I had the opportunity to take a rather detailed look at the land of Israel - at the Church. What can I say about her? It is necessary to say about it the words of the prophet about the land, “overthrown by the sword, gathered from the tongues of many against the land of Israel. It was very empty” (Ezek.38:8). This is what the inspired prophet says when he saw in the distance of time the last time, the fate of the Church, and the powerful kingdom that arose in the north. By the incomprehensible mercy of God, we have been given the greatest blessing of God: “the knowledge of Christ, the Orthodox faith in Christ.” The people, and, in particular, the human soul, are impregnable to godless rationalism and its consequences, as long as they are protected by holy faith. We must watch and pray according to the will of the Lord in order to avoid visible and invisible misfortunes. Letter 207. About purity of heart When on the path running across a vast plain there is a branchy tree casting a luxurious shadow, with what joy do travelers rush towards it; They enjoy inspiration and friendly conversation under the coolness of thick and wide shade. Such shelter, such consolation, is provided by the holy cross of Christ for those who are going through earthly life. The blessed tree on which the fruit of life blossomed: God incarnate - life and giver of life. I have a pleasant conversation with you under the shade of the Cross. Listen to the following sacred story: “A certain brother came to the great saint Pimen and complained that he saw an admixture of sin in his good deeds. The elder told him the following parable: two farmers lived in the same place. One of them sowed some grain, although unclean, and the other, giving in to laziness, did not sow anything. When the harvest came, the first one collected enough bread, although unclean, but the second one did not collect anything. Which of the two farmers will have food? The brother answered: the one who sowed and gathered some bread, although unclean. The elder answered: “Let us also sow little by little, even if it is unclean, so as not to die of hunger.” God granted you a faithful look at your heart when, looking into it, you saw in it a mixture of the spiritual and the spiritual. The above story can already comfort you enough: you see why it is given. For great consolation, hear the following: God alone can bestow holy purity of heart on those who believe in Him and resort to Him through repentance. He does not require from us, who are just beginning the procession to Him, this high purity, alien to all stains. Purity is preceded by sight and awareness of one's impurity. And this is already a gift of God, for which we pray to receive with kneeling: “Lord, grant me to see my sins!” But he who sees his uncleanness must mourn it and ask the all-powerful and all-good Doctor for healing. The Holy Spirit is the true mentor of Christians. His organs were the prophets, apostles and other saints of God: He spoke with them. May He be your leader and “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). You will come under this blessed guidance when you draw instruction for your life solely from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church, the only true one. “My soul has wandered many times!” (Ps. 119:6) May the merciful Lord, who gives everything to His servants at the time known to Him, grant me, a wanderer, a haven of repentance. May He grant me this precious gift! And I will share the treasures brought by repentance with my friends in the Lord. The gift of repentance is the guarantee of eternal bliss. Whitened by repentance, may I enter into a paradise where those whose vestments are not whitened with repentance will not be admitted. May I see those who love me in the Lord, and may I fall with them at the feet of the Lord, who has not hidden from us the village of repentance, on which the precious bead of salvation is hidden. But the merchant who wants to buy this village must sell all his property in order to buy the village of repentance. Let me be the owner of this spiritual gift! for the salvation of me and my neighbors! My soul sighs, longs for deep, inviolable silence, without which it is impossible to find abundant, complete repentance. I surrender to the will of God! Letter 209. About the fear of God My heart, orphaned on earth, heard an echo in your soul, striving to know God as God, and to worship God as God. If He humbled Himself for us, taking on the form of a servant out of inexpressible love for us, then we have no right to forget ourselves before Him. We must approach Him as servants to the Lord, as creatures to the Creator, “working out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), according to the will of the Apostle. His immense greatness naturally inspires awe in all those approaching Him, in everyone, even those closest to Him. The holy prophet David said: “God is terrible to all those around Him” (Ps. 88:8), to the glorious seraphim and fiery cherubim, who, impatient to see the glory that surpasses the powers of creatures, cover their faces with fiery wings, and in constant eternal frenzy cry out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!..” (Is. 6:3). How can a gloomy sinner appear before the face of his great God? Unless covered from head to toe with the robe of repentance. Without this clothing, for him, struck from head to toe by the stinking ulcer of sin, it is more natural, more righteous to be in darkness, in the fire of hell, than before the all-holy God. Hell!.. this is a place suitable for sinners. Let us deign ourselves to hell, so that God may deign us to Heaven. Letter 210. Repentance and prayer heal sadness Boredom happens to me for two reasons: after I fall into some deed, word, or sinful thought, and when I do not engage in repentance for a long time, even if at that time I was busy with useful activities. Then the soul feels lack, deprivation: from the feeling of lack - sadness. This sadness is cured by repentance and prayer. “God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. I remembered God and rejoiced” (Ps. 50:19, 76:4). Look at yourself. In the above-mentioned causes of grief, will you not find the reason for your grief? Use healing: prayer, dissolved in repentance. Letter 211. About one thing needed “Do not hide Your commandments from Me, for I am a stranger on earth!” (Ps. 119:19) - Saint David, the king of a vast kingdom and the owner of great riches, prayed to God with tears. Exactly, this is “the only thing needed,” as the Lord said. - “Mary has chosen the good part, lest it be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). And all other benefits will be taken away - at death and after death. Letter 212. About seeing your sins I offer you a sacred story from deep antiquity: “Three monks, zealous for a virtuous life, proposed the following pious activities for themselves: the first is to reconcile those who quarreled among themselves. The word of the Gospel led him to this activity: “blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). The second decided to spend his whole life serving the sick; he was attracted to such an activity by the words of the Lord: “I am sick and visited Me” (Matthew 25:36). The third retreated into silence into the desert. The one who reconciled those at war with each other had very little success. Tired, he came to his brother, who had devoted himself to serving the sick; but he also found him weakened, unable to continue his ministry. Then both agreed to see the hermit. Having come to him, they told him their grief and begged him to tell them what he had acquired in silence? The hermit, after being silent for a while, took some water and, pouring it into a cup, said to them: Look into the water. They looked but saw nothing because the water was cloudy. After a little time, the hermit again said to them: the water has settled, now look. When they looked into the water, they saw their faces in it, as in a mirror. He told them: “The man who lives in the midst does not see his sins, being outraged by the entertainment of the world; when he comes to silence, especially in the desert, then he begins to see sin living within himself.” You must first discern your sin, then wash it with repentance and acquire purity of heart, without which it is impossible to perform a single virtue purely, fully with the knowledge of your conscience.” Seeing one's sins is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. To acquire this vision, you need a lot of preliminary information. A detailed knowledge of the law of God is needed, without which it is impossible to know positively which deeds, words, thoughts, sensations belong to truth and which belong to sin. Sin often takes the form of truth! – You need to know in detail the properties of a person in order to know what the sinful ulcers of the mind are, what the ulcers of the heart are, what the ulcers of the body are. You need to know - what is the fall of man? You need to know what properties the descendants of the new Adam should have in order to see what and what our shortcomings are. So much preliminary information is required, important information, in order to obtain detailed information and a clear view of one’s sins! True silence leads to such vision. It gives the soul a dispensation similar to pure mirror waters; in them a person sees his own condition and, in proportion to his success, the condition of his neighbors. My solitude is interrupted by frequent internal and external rumors; My water is mostly cloudy! rarely, rarely does it receive some specularity - and then only for a moment! In this brief moment, a most attractive sight appears before the eyes of my mind. I see God’s endless mercy towards me, I see a chain of God’s unceasing blessings. Why did they pour out on me? – I’m perplexed. What did I pay the Benefactor for them with - continuous sins. I look at my sins and am horrified - as if I were looking into a terrible deep abyss, from just looking into which my head begins to spin. But what if we measure this abyss?.. And I begin to measure its sorrow, measure it with sighs and sobs!.. I still sob - suddenly the sadness in my heart changes to delightful joy: as if someone is telling my heart: “The incomprehensible benefactor God is dissatisfied with His benefits; He still wants to bring you into heaven, to make you a partaker of eternal pleasure.” I believe this: every good deed, no matter how great, can be expected from the immeasurable goodness of God. I believe, and my whole being is immersed in quiet, delightful joy. Letter 213. About solitude and silence I spend my time in idleness, which is due to the method of treatment I use. It brings tangible benefits, but takes up all the time. Unpleasant worries about the body, which, despite all the cares about it, must certainly return to its dust, to its soil, from which it was borrowed by the Creator. I delve into myself: - I find that through illness and circumstances I was formed for solitude; My heart is cold and dead towards external services. I would like to break my connection with society at once, with one blow! And I would do this not for myself, not for people, but so that my intention and enterprise would be pure before God, who said: “No one lays his hand on his forehead and in vain turns back, he is led into the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). However, the judgment of God and the judgment of man are very different: this is how a certain great venerable father, especially endowed with the gift of spiritual reasoning, put it. I don’t know what God has intended for me; and I, looking at myself, find myself incapable of public positions, more capable of solitude, to which I became accustomed, spending many years due to my illness almost hopelessly in my cell. In solitude I can freely indulge in wandering in the regions of the spiritual world where my thought and heart have migrated from earth. I am unable to return them to earth. And their migration from the land took place without my knowledge. I didn’t think about this resettlement, I didn’t know at all that it was possible - I unexpectedly saw them resettled. They are already looking at the earth like strangers at a foreign land. Having been in the wonderful region of the indestructible, in the region of blessed, blessed peace and light, they turned away from the country of darkness, from the country of strife, quarrels, constant confusion, from the country where all good is mixed with evil! Dark country - earth! it is a country of exile for criminals who desecrated paradise with sin, those guilty of disobedience to God, those who despised communication with Him, and exchanged this communication for communication with the devil. On earth, everything is hostile to man, and he himself is in a constant struggle with himself. The earth is the vale of exile, the vale of initial suffering with which eternal suffering begins - a just punishment for insulting the infinitely Good. The earth is our exile, that is why the Redeemer came here: he atoned for an immeasurable sin at an immeasurable price - with His blood. The earth is our exile: that is why the Redeemer raises those who accepted His redemption from earth to heaven. Heaven is the true fatherland of man: the procession there must be made within oneself. You need to see the rulers of the world in yourself; it is necessary to settle accounts with them by returning to them what belongs to them, which a person borrowed from them. We borrowed from them the poison of sin, sin in all its petty forms, in all its varied forms. Having separated from ourselves everything that is alien to our nature, we will remain with ourselves, with our own immaculate nature. This cleansing is carried out in us by the Word of God, which reveals to us both the properties of the new Adam and the plagues of the old. The All-Good Holy Spirit, seeing our whiteness, will descend into us, overshadow us with His peace and light, change, seal, place us in the blessed race of the chosen, in the descendants of the second man, who is the Lord from heaven. Sealed by the Spirit, we will no longer be afraid of the dark and evil rulers of the world, we will pass through their dark and dense hordes to the light of truth, we will find in its bosom a foretaste of future bliss. Whoever has completed this journey on earth in the inner man, who has freed himself from the captivity of sin and received the betrothal of the Spirit, his soul, after its separation from the body, will pass through the ordeal of the aerial torturers without hindrance and without harm. All this, and much more, inexplicable by earthly words, is learned by a person in silence: the Holy Spirit approaches the silent one correctly, is present with him, proclaims the secrets of the Kingdom of God, so that the silent one himself is greatly nourished with knowledge and spiritual sensations and feeds them to his hungry and thirsty brethren. The Teaching of the Spirit is a living teaching: light shines from it, life breathes from it. Human teaching, from fallen human nature, from the knowledge inherent in this state of fall, is gloomy, dead, has a false light, flatters the ears and heartfelt feelings, preserves and multiplies darkness in the listeners, strengthens the dominion of death. A wondrous miracle occurs during the teaching of the Spirit: when the Spirit-teacher, the one who pronounces the word of God and the one who listens to it, share the teaching of life. All glory belongs to the mysterious Teacher; the one who pronounces the word feels that he is not pronouncing his own word, but the word of God; the one who listens feels that he is hearing the word of God; all his attention is drawn to the spiritual power that animates him; towards the human word, in which the word of God is clothed, his heart remains cold. In the spiritual church the idol of “I” has been overturned and thrown out of it; in this church, cleansed from the filth of desolation, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit spreads, the broadcasts of the Holy Spirit are heard. What do you think is the feeling that surrounds a person who speaks the words of the Spirit and feels the action of the Spirit within himself? – A feeling that is characteristic of a creature before its Creator. Then a person clearly feels and sees that he is nothing. It is not from a book, not from a person, not from natural genius abilities that a person is made a student, a listener and an organ of the Spirit! - through faith in Christ, through the revival of Christ in oneself by transferring into oneself the properties of Christ, which Christ revealed to people in the sacred sayings of the Gospel. Where Christ is, there is His Spirit, there is His Mind - His incomprehensible Father. Letter 214. About selflessness What lightness, what well-being, what blissful purity in the soul when a person does not stop the feelings of affection from his neighbors towards him, but only serves as their guide to the holy, pure sky! when he says to God about his beloved: “God! They are Your property, Your creations! What's yours is yours, but what's mine? A short-term wanderer on earth, suddenly appearing on it and suddenly disappearing from it.” Whoever in this way purifies love from self-love and partiality finds in himself pure love, love in God. To acquire this love, we are commanded to self-sacrifice; This is the meaning of the words of the Lord: “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). In these words the command is connected with the promise. On the contrary, the one who decides to find his soul in a world full of deceptions, i.e. wants to fulfill her uncleaned wishes, he will destroy her. There is salvation in selflessness. Submit your mind to Christ. When the mind submits to Christ, we will not justify either ourselves or our hearts. When excuses become scarce in the heart, it comes into a state of humility and tenderness. “God will not despise a broken and humble heart” (Ps. 51:19); and excuses are a terrible sinful death. Saint David prayed like this and teaches us to pray like this: “Do not turn your heart into words of wickedness, do not bear the guilt of sins” (Ps. 140:4). “Not to bear guilt about sins” means to make excuses, to justify one’s sins. The thoughts and words in which this justification is portrayed are called “words of deceit.” The sinner is craftily trying to deceive himself and people! He is craftily trying to present himself as righteous before himself and before people! Sometimes the very necessity, the benefit of our neighbor, who could be tempted by our sin, forces us to justify ourselves before people, to hide our sin before them. To justify yourself to yourself, to deceive, to drown out your conscience is always lawless, always disastrous; The internalized “words of wickedness” make a person a bitter Pharisee, capable of any crime. Justification for sins, which does not require fiction and verbosity, justification always accepted by God is repentance. All sin flees from the face of repentance; no sin can withstand almighty repentance. Repentance is an evangelical virtue, a priceless gift of God, purchased for us at the price of the blood of the Son of God, this price that redeems every sin we have committed. Decide first, at least in your mind, to renounce yourself for the sake of Christ, deprive your mind of harmful, stupid autocracy, subordinate it to the commandments of Christ, subordinate it to the Gospel. The beginning of self-denial is in the mind: having submitted to Christ, he will gradually lead both heart and body to this blessed submission. Self-sacrifice is scary at the first, superficial glance at it. But as soon as a person decides on it, he will feel extraordinary lightness and freedom in his soul: lightness, freedom are witnesses of the truth. Letter 215. Discourse on Eternity. – “Mirror of the Gospel” I feel like I’m separated from everything! my thought incessantly cries out to God so that He will arrange for me a path to Him, a path of repentance. The gates of eternity opened wide before me. I look there into this endless distance, into this boundless space, into these immeasurable dimensions. Time has shrunk before me - it flies incomparably faster to flow, like a stream into the sea, into eternity. I look into eternity, the temporary is uninteresting, petty, vain, insignificant. I love solitude: from it you can look more closely into eternity, - see what is needed there, - prepare this necessary thing in advance, before the soul leaves the body. I'm interested in the Gospel. My gaze is struck by the features of the image of God and the shades of the likeness of God depicted in the Gospel! “Be like me” (Matthew 11:29), God says to people. So that they could comfortably grasp this wonderful similarity, God became human. What unspeakable beauty is in the new Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ! What a disgrace I am, what a disorder! how many spots I have! This is how I see myself when I look in the mirror of the Gospel. I need to attend to both the face of my soul and its clothes; I need that when I enter eternity there is no resemblance in him to the enemies of God, to dark demons; I need the Son of God to recognize me as similar to Him, as all the blessed inhabitants of heaven are similar to Him. Man's likeness to God, recognized by God, will give man a blessed eternity; the loss of this likeness entails expulsion from the face of God into dark hell, into its fiery abyss, to eternal suffering. “The peace of Christ surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7), uniting together a person cut by sin - the peace of Christ, filling our entire being with incomprehensible power and heavenly sweetness, begins to descend into the soul when it is cleansed of passions by keeping the commandments of Christ and pious deeds. In order to preserve the peace of Christ in oneself, in order to taste it abundantly, In order for them to change from an old person into a new person, solitude is necessary. A treasure thrown down at a crossroads must certainly be plundered and stolen. Powerful is the peace that flows from the action of the Holy Spirit. Who can resist his attraction? Passions flee from his face; from action his mind and heart move to heaven. Man is reconciled to everything in God. He begins, as it were, to float in the immeasurable space of the spiritual world and learns that “the commandment of God is broad and great” (Ps. 119:96). The peace of Christ has accomplished martyrs and saints: it brings the Christian out of the power of flesh and blood, uproots the sinful country from the soul and body, destroys the violent influence of demons on the soul and body, introduces into the Christian the properties of Christ, meekness, humility, goodness. The soul, having felt these properties, begins to taste wonderful peace - the guarantee and beginning of the eternal peace of the righteous in the villages of eternal bliss. Letter 217. Divine Fire. – Human heat “Our God is fire” (Ps. 49:3), - the Scripture teaches, but from the action of this fire it gradually fades away, finally the sinful fire, the fire of the flesh and the soul, is completely extinguished. Divine fire is pure, subtle, bright - it imparts truth to the mind, and wonderful calmness to the heart, wonderful coolness towards everything earthly, an abundance of meekness, humility, and goodness. Make no mistake! Do not consider human fervor to be the effect of Divine fire. Many made mistakes and fell into harmful self-delusion. From this inflamed state, countless delusions arose and filled the earth with false teachings. Behind these dark clouds the sun of truth is hidden from the world. “By their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:16), the Savior said about false teaching and false teachers. Where there is heat, there is no truth, nothing good, nothing useful can come from there: here the blood boils, here the false mind smokes and builds castles in the air. Meekness and humility, the action of which is accompanied by some subtle coolness, but then appears in countless good fruits, are witnesses of genuine, true, divine goodness. Letter 218. About the teaching of the fathers of the Eastern Church and the true path to salvation The teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church is correct: it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. I beg you, stick to this teaching! It will guide you to a blissful eternity. A brilliant lamp has been lit in the Holy Church of Christ - the radiance of the Holy Spirit: do not direct your gaze to other lamps shining on different paths. One path of holy truth leads to salvation; other paths all lead to destruction. Many labor, many suffer, many strive, only “those who run lawfully” will be saved (2 Tim. 2:5). True legal feat in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, in the fence of the Eastern Church. Letter 219. On the truth and agreement of the teachings of the fathers of the Eastern Church with the Holy Scriptures and on the false direction of the ascetics of the Western Church and their creations Now I am reading a book that I have in Slavic, Russian and other languages, which contains “a collection of sayings of the holy desert dwellers of Egypt.” These sayings are priceless pearls! A diver descends into the deep sea to get an expensive pearl: and the Holy Fathers retired into the deep deserts, there they delved deeply into themselves, found various priceless spiritual pearls: Christimitable humility, childlike simplicity and gentleness, angelic dispassion, reasoning and spiritual wisdom - in a word, they found the Gospel. Today I read that saying of the Great Sisoy, which I always especially liked, was always especially close to my heart. A certain monk told him: “I am in constant remembrance of God.” The Monk Sisoes answered him: “This is not great; It will be great when you consider yourself worse than all creation.” A high occupation is the constant remembrance of God! but this height is very dangerous when the ladder to it is not based on the solid stone of humility. Look how Scripture agrees with the Fathers! Scripture says; “You do not favor burnt offerings. The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” (Ps. 50:18–19). Human sacrifices and burnt offerings must be based on a feeling of spiritual poverty, on a feeling of repentance. Without this they are rejected by God. I also really like the saying of Great Pimen: “If we always blame ourselves for everything,” he said, “then we will find peace everywhere.” Another Father said: “We have left the easy burden of blaming ourselves and taken up the heavy burden of blaming others.” Such sayings are worth entire books! No one seems to have delved into the Gospel as much as the holy desert dwellers delved into it; they tried to realize the Gospel by their very lives, their feature was the deepest humility; the fall of man was a constant subject of their meditation; crying about their sins was a constant activity. The ascetics of the Western Church, its writers about asceticism, received a different direction from the time of the separation of this Church from the Eastern and its fall into the disastrous darkness of heresy. Venerable Benedict and Holy Pope Gregory the Dvoeslov still agree with the ascetic mentors of the East; but Bernard already differs from them in a sharp way; the later ones evaded even more. They are immediately attracted and draw their readers to heights inaccessible to the beginner, they are carried away and carried away. Heated, often frenzied daydreaming replaces for them everything spiritual, about which they have no idea. This dreaminess is recognized by them as grace. “By their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:16), said the Savior. Everyone knows with what crimes, with what streams of blood, with what behavior, decidedly anti-Christian, Western fanatics expressed their ugly way of thinking, their ugly feeling of heart. – The Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church do not lead their reader into the embrace of love, not to the heights of visions, but they lead him to consider his sin, his fall, to confess the Redeemer, to cry for himself before the mercy of the Creator. They first teach us to curb the impure aspirations of our body, to make it light and capable of spiritual activity; then they turn to the mind, straighten its way of thinking, its mind, clearing it of the thoughts that we acquired after our fall, replacing them with thoughts of the renewed human nature, vividly depicted in the Gospel. With the correction of the mind, the Holy Fathers take care of the correction of the heart, of changing its habits and sensations. It is more difficult to cleanse the heart than to cleanse the mind: the mind, having become convinced of the validity of a new thought, easily discards the old one and easily assimilates a new one; but to replace a skill with a skill, a property with a property, a feeling with another feeling, an opposite feeling, this is work, this is hard, long work, this is an incredible struggle. The Fathers express the ferocity of this struggle this way: “give blood and receive spirit.” This means: we must mortify all sinful desires of flesh and blood, all movements of the mind and heart that depend on flesh and blood. It is necessary to bring the body, the mind, and the heart into the control of the spirit. Blood and nerves are set in motion by many passions: anger, love of money, lust, and vanity. The last two extremely warm the blood of ascetics who labor illegally and turn them into frenzied fanatics. Vanity strives prematurely for spiritual states for which a person is still incapable due to his impurity, due to failure to achieve the truth - he invents dreams for himself. And voluptuousness, adding its action to the action of vanity, produces in the heart seductive, false consolation, pleasure and intoxication. This state is a state of self-delusion. Everyone who works illegally is in this state. It develops in them more or less, depending on how much they enhance their exploits. Many books have been written from this state by Western writers. He greedily rushes at them, preaches them mainly as saints and spiritual people, worthy to stand near the saint. Scripture is a blind and proud world, recognizing itself as enlightened to the highest degree, and therefore not needing to adhere relentlessly to the traditions of the Eastern Church. The heated state of blood is by no means visible in the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church. They never come into the enthusiasm that, being the birth of blood, often in the West sought the shedding of blood. From their writings breathes true self-sacrifice, breathes the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, deadening passions. The sons of the world flee from this fragrance, just as wasps fly away from smoking incense. “The world loves its own” (John 15:19), said the Lord. The works of Western writers who wrote from a state of self-delusion find numerous readers, are translated into Russian more than once, and loud praises are published; that which is filled with deadly poison is approved and approved. The writings of the Holy Fathers have been forgotten! The fact that from ancient times they have been recognized by the Holy Church as the only correct guide to ascetic life is not accepted in the least with respect. Their works are criticized and inconsistencies are found in them; contradiction to Holy Scripture. The reason for all this is that the Holy Fathers were instructed by the Holy Spirit, that they rejected the wisdom of the world in order to acquire the wisdom of the Spirit. Vain are the attempts of those who, contrary to the teaching of the Apostle, contrary to the teaching of the Church, attempt to enter into the wisdom of the Spirit through the wisdom of the world. And “the wise stumble in their deceit” (1 Cor. 3:19), they stumbled; fell a terrible fall. They wanted to explain the spiritual with a dark spiritual mind, and this spirituality in the writings of the Holy Fathers seemed strange to them, contradicting the Holy Scriptures. “The spiritual is spiritual with judgment,” said St. Apostle Paul. “A spiritual person does not accept even the Spirit of God: for he has foolishness and cannot understand; he is not spiritually motivated” (1 Cor. 2:13-14). The last words in the Russian translation of the New Testament read like this: “because this (spiritual) must be judged spiritually.” Letter 220. About spiritual and carnal wisdom You ask what is my opinion about human sciences? – After the fall, people began to cultivate the land, began to need clothing and other numerous needs that accompany our earthly wanderings; in a word, they began to need material development, the desire for which is a distinctive feature of our century. Science is the fruit of our fall, the acquisition and storage of impressions and knowledge accumulated by people during the life of the fallen mind. Learning is the lamp of the old man, the lamp by which “the darkness of darkness is kept forever” (Jude 1:13). The Redeemer returned to people the Lamp that was given to them at creation by the Creator, which they lost during their fall. This Lamp is the Holy Spirit, He is the Spirit of Truth, instructs in all truth, tests the depths of God, reveals and explains mysteries, and bestows material knowledge when it is needed for the spiritual benefit of man. The apostle bequeaths to a scientist who wants to learn spiritual wisdom: “If anyone thinks he will be wise in you in this age, let him be, for he will be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18). Exactly! learning is not wisdom itself, but only the opinion of wisdom. The knowledge of the Truth, which is revealed to people by the Lord, to which access is only by faith, which is inaccessible to the fallen human mind, is replaced in scholarship by fortune-telling and assumptions. The wisdom of this world, in which many pagans and atheists occupy an honorable place, is directly opposite, in its very beginnings, to spiritual, divine wisdom. You cannot be a follower of both together; one must certainly be renounced. Fallen man is a lie, i.e. a way of thinking, a collection of false concepts and knowledge, having only the outward appearance of reason, but in its essence - vacillation, delirium, madness of the mind, struck by the mortal wound of sin and fall. This illness of the mind is especially fully revealed in the philosophical sciences. Letter 221. About reading spiritual books according to your position Try to read the books of the Holy Fathers that correspond to your way of life, so that you can not only admire and enjoy reading the writings of the Fathers, but so that you can apply them to the work itself. A Christian living in the middle of the world must read the works of the great saints who wrote for the people, teaching worldly Christian virtues, for those who spend their lives among material pursuits. Another reading is for cenobitic monks: they should read the Holy Fathers who wrote instructions for this kind of life. And another reading for the silent and hermit! Studying virtues that do not correspond to the way of life makes life fruitless. And life is exhausted in vain, and virtues disappear: the soul cannot keep them with itself for a long time, it must soon leave them, because they are beyond its power. Such exercise in sublime virtues, which exceeds one’s strength and ability, often damages the soul beyond healing, upsets it for a long time, sometimes for the rest of one’s life, and makes it incapable of deeds of piety. The Lord commanded “new wine,” i.e. exalted virtues and exploits, “put new wineskins” (Luke 5:38), i.e. to provide to ascetics who have already matured in pious deeds, renewed and enlightened by grace. He forbade pouring new wine into old wineskins, and mending an old robe with a new patch. Do not think that a sublime feat, for which your soul is not yet ripe, will help you! No! He will upset you more: you will have to leave him, and despondency, hopelessness, gloom, and bitterness will appear in your soul. In such a state of mind, you will allow yourself to commit greater violations of God’s law than you fell into before. “They don’t put a new patch on an old robe, because this will only make the hole bigger” (Matthew 9:16, Mark 2:22, Luke 5:38). And for all monks in general and for Christians living in the middle of the world, the most useful reading is the New Testament, especially the Gospel. But it must be read with humility, not allowing oneself to make one’s own interpretations, but being guided by the interpretation of the Church. Letter 222. Enemy networks. – Path of life Abide in the haven of truth. The enemy of human salvation is trying to lure our thoughts from the haven of truth with various ghosts of truth. He knows the powers of this network. This network seems insignificant to the untrained eye; the mind is lured to it by curiosity, by the magnificent, holy name, which usually covers up destruction. So the gullible nightingale, a particularly curious bird, is lured by food scattered under the net - and ends up forever in boring captivity. A false thought is destructive: it introduces darkness into the soul; self-delusion makes her a captive of the world ruler. “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32), said the Savior; it is obvious that lies deprive you of freedom and subjugate the realm of the prince of this age. I wish that you were free, that the vision of your soul was pure and bright, that your mind was imbued with the light of truth and shed grace-filled light on your entire life, on all your deeds. “If your eye is bright,” said the Lord, “then your whole body will be bright” (Matthew 6:22). We must keep our minds! He must constantly remain in the truth. I wish you this from my sincere heart! I wish you this from my sick heart! That is why it is painful because in modern times it is rare, very rare, who remain faithful to the truth - they have bowed their minds and hearts to its good yoke and its light burden - they have submitted with all simplicity and submission to Christ and His Holy Church. “Save yourself,” says St. Apostle Peter, from this generation of obstinate people” (Acts 2:40)! Avoid the broad path that almost everyone follows! Choose for yourself the sorrows sent to you by the Providence of God! love the narrows along which the wise Providence, the Providence of God that saves you, has paved the path for your earthly wandering! Make your sorrows and hardships and the thorny path of earthly life pleasant and sweet for yourself. How to do this? Surrendering to the will of God, glorifying the Providence of God, recognizing this will and this Providence in everything that happens to you, thanking God for everything that happened to you, both sorrowful and joyful. The time is to begin living a true Christian life, coupled with the crucifixion of all sensations, desires, thoughts on the cross of the commandments and teachings of Christ. Soon, soon earthly life will fly by! - an eternal reward is already ready for every person for his short life, for his deeds, for his way of thinking, for his feelings. Letter 223. Love for God and people The Venerable Abba Dorotheos, speaking about love for one's neighbor, likens the ascetics of Christ to lines running from the circumference of a circle to its center. For clarity, here is the drawing! The closer the lines come to the center, the closer they become to each other. And the ascetics of Christ, the closer they come to God, the closer they become to each other through true love. Every path of the mind and heart, when its goal is God, is endless. “The fear of God is pure and endures forever” (Ps. 18:10); success in the wisdom of God is endless! success in love for one’s neighbor, when it is in God, is endless. Earthly life is not enough to complete this spiritual path! It is impossible to get enough of love for one’s neighbor in God! On the contrary, you can quickly complete the journey, you can quickly be satisfied and satiated with love for your neighbor, when the object of love is only a person. The fire of love requires a lot of food in order to be constant and multiply. When God feeds him, he constantly strengthens, there is no limit to him; but when it is left to man to feed it with himself, the food for the fire will soon become scarce, the fire will dim and go out. Love must be nourished by the infinite God; There is little food for her in the limited properties of human beings, even if they are beautiful. Letter 224. The Greatness of the Gospel. – Spiritual painting. – True repentance The heart can only enjoy blessed peace when it abides in the Gospel commandments, when it abides in them with self-sacrifice. When some other truth ascends into it, it loses its peace. The great and all-holy book is the Gospel! It depicts a new, god-like man; and what the properties of the new man should be—this is revealed by Christ’s commandments. In them, Christ revealed to us His properties, His way of thinking and acting. Peering into the Gospel, looking at ourselves in this mirror, we can little by little recognize our shortcomings, little by little throw out the concepts and properties of our old age, replace them with the thoughts and properties of the Gospel, Christ. This is the task, the lesson that a Christian must solve and fulfill during his earthly life. It is necessary to depict a portrait of Christ on the soul, to convey to it the resemblance to its prototype. Portraits devoid of resemblance will be rejected at that general exhibition at which each person will be tested to what extent he has preserved and renewed in himself the image and likeness of his Creator and God. Images in which all the features and colors are so distorted that all resemblance, all similarity is lost, will hear: “We don’t know you!” (Matthew 25:12). They won't be recognized! The Lord will refuse them! Let's begin spiritual painting! Let us pay attention to the image of God, thrown down, covered with dirt, scratches and dust, inscribed on us and entrusted to us by God! The painter is Christ; his brush is the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare the soul for this painting so that the soul, like a clean, new canvas, is able to take on everything - the finest features, the most delicate colors and shades. For such preparation, one needs to cleanse oneself with repentance and wash oneself with tears. And in order to arouse in oneself a feeling of repentance, saving sadness and crying, one must, while abstaining from all passions, often read the Gospel, compare one’s life with its most holy commandments, force oneself to fulfill these commandments, contrary to the aspirations and impulses of the sin-loving will. A certain holy father said: “By fulfilling Christ’s commandments a person learns his weakness.” Exactly: then it will be revealed to us how weak we are, how much we have been damaged by the fall, when we begin to force ourselves to fulfill the Gospel commandments. From the sight of one’s weakness, one’s damage, crying is naturally born. Crying is a heartfelt feeling of repentance! Crying is “a broken and humble spirit” (Ps. 50:19), so dear to God. When the Lord sees a soul purifying itself through repentance, then He begins, little by little, according to its purity, to renew on it with the Holy Spirit the features of His image, the shades and colors of His likeness. First of all, he imprints her with meekness and humility. “Learn from Me,” He says, “for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Then only can sacred peace be found when the mind and heart are immersed in the humility of Christ and His meekness, having learned them from the Gospel. These two virtues put in order the features of the image, disturbed by the confusion that is persistent cohabits with every person who serves the passions. The sign of order is sacred peace. Then, according to the corrected features, holy colors are laid down, comforting the spiritual gaze: goodness, mercy, purity of mind, heart and body, living faith, heedless of all vanity, teaching a person to follow Christ entirely, patience, which carries above all temporary sorrows, loving sorrows as participation. in the sufferings of Christ - love for God and neighbor, striving to fulfill all the duties of man to his Creator and to creatures similar to themselves, who must be one in their Creator. Deny yourself and follow the Gospel! Letter 225. Tribulation from the Lord for our correction Man is like grass, and how much does it take to mow him down? One minute can decisively destroy his health and plunge his body either into the grave or onto the bed of a painful and prolonged illness. The Gospel teaches us that no sorrow can befall us without the will of God - it teaches us to thank God for everything, at His behest, that comes to us. From your sick bed, bring thanks to God, just as Job, covered in stinking scabs, brought it from a heap of pus. Thanks to gratitude the severity of the disease is dulled. Thanksgiving brings spiritual comfort to the sick! A heart instructed and delighted by thanksgiving is renewed by the power of living faith. Suddenly illuminated by the light of faith, the mind begins to contemplate the wondrous Providence of God, vigilantly vigilant over all creation. Such contemplation leads to spiritual delight: the soul begins to abundantly thank, glorify God, begins to praise His Holy Providence, and surrender itself to His holy will. The sickbed is often a place of knowledge of God and self-knowledge. The suffering of the body is often the cause of spiritual pleasures, and the bed of illness is watered with tears of repentance and tears of joy in God. During illness, first you need to force yourself to thank God, but when the soul tastes the sweetness and peace brought by thanksgiving, it itself hurries to it, as if to a refuge. She hurries there from the heavy waves of murmur, cowardice, and sadness. “Through many tribulations it is fitting for you to enter into the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Whomever the Lord loves, he sends sorrows, and they mortify the heart of God’s chosen one towards the world, accustoming him to hover near God. In all sorrows, including illness, the following medicines bring spiritual benefit and joy: devotion to the will of God, thanksgiving to God, reproaching oneself and recognizing oneself as worthy of God’s punishment, remembering that all saints walked the path of earthly life in constant and fierce suffering, that sorrow is the cup of Christ. One who does not partake of this cup is not able to inherit eternal bliss. Letter 226. The brevity of human life. – The only useful activity on earth is knowing Christ. Strange thoughts come in solitude! “The ear of the silent will hear,” said a certain desert dweller. And in my insignificant solitude I encounter thoughts that strongly influence the mind with living truth. Recently I was thinking about the brevity of human life on earth. Suddenly life seemed so short to me that the rest of my earthly life seemed to me to have already passed. If I still live, what will I see on earth? - Nothing: the same virtues and the same passions that have hitherto appeared before me in various costumes and actions will continue to appear; in the same way, virtue will quietly make its way among people, unnoticed, persecuted by them; in the same way, vice, hiding behind countless guises, will deceive people and dominate among them. A two-year life and a hundred-year life are equally small, insignificant before eternity. Usually people only think of the future as continuous; the past seems to them so short, instantaneous, like a dream from last night. Solitude, combined with attention to oneself, makes the future tense short. Short past, short future! What about earthly life? – The path to eternity, which must be used, but on which one does not need to look to the side. This path must be completed with the mind and heart, not in the number of days and years. The mind, illuminated by the teaching of truth, can preserve the heart in peace, meekness, goodness, patience, in short, in the properties of the New Man. This is what the desert, and silence, and monasteries are for! This is what a soul-edifying conversation and spiritual advice are for! This is why reading the Holy Fathers! for this prayer! All Christians are obliged to live this way, although very few live this way. If you cannot live completely this way, live partly this way; shortcomings can be healed by self-condemnation and repentance. Seeing shortcomings in yourself, you should not be discouraged; on the contrary, one must work in humility. The venerable Isaiah the hermit said beautifully: “The glory of the saints is like the radiance of stars, of which one shines very brightly, another is dimmer, another is barely noticeable; but these stars are all in the same sky.” How many generations has the earth on its surface changed! – and it was as if they had never been there. How long have we heard big names among us? - and now they are forgotten. How long ago has our generation entered the field of civil life? - and now a new generation is entering this field and is pushing us out of the vast circle of activity into the modest corner of the aged, outdated. Human generations on earth are like leaves on a tree! now alone, soon others! Heat and frost destroy them, and just in time, the wind carries them away, and they are trampled by travelers. I look from my solitude at the noisy and restless world: I say to myself and my friends: one activity can be recognized as a truly useful activity during a short earthly life - while our turn turns green - the knowledge of Christ, Who is both the giver of eternal blessed life and the path to this life. Christ is present in the Gospel, the Gospel is the heliport in which Mary can find Christ, a faithful soul in repentance... outside the city, outside the love of the world. There is the tomb of Christ! there His loved ones cry - they cry before Him and for themselves. Letter 227. About observing your thoughts I often talk with you about the Truth. I want you to understand how important it is to monitor your way of thinking, your mind. A person is certainly led by his way of thinking: this is our light. We must watch with great care over our light, so that it does not become darkness, a false light, showing objects not in their places, not in their form, one instead of another. “Beware, food is light, and there is darkness in you” (Luke 11:35). It is necessary that our way of thinking be imbued with the Truth. I don’t understand and don’t know any other Truth besides Christ. And aren’t they blind, no matter who they are, who, at the time when Christ stands before them in the terrible greatness of humility, ask: what is the Truth? Delve deeply into my words! please, I beg you! I beg you for your own salvation. Usually people consider thought to be something of little importance: therefore they are very little picky when accepting thoughts. But from accepted wrong thoughts all evil is born. A thought is like a ship’s rudder: the direction and, for the most part, the fate of the entire huge machine depends on the small rudder, on this insignificant plank trailing behind the ship. “A reverent thought will keep you” (Prov. II. 11), says Scripture; it teaches that the very “beginning of our words” should be “truth” (Ps. 119:160). What kind of “beginning of words” is this, no matter the way of thinking. The truth is witnessed on earth by the Holy Spirit. This is what the apostles said to the Jews. The Witness of Christ the Truth is the Holy Spirit. Where there is no testimony from the Spirit, there is no evidence of Truth. Anyone who wants to follow the Truth infallibly must remain in the teaching, sealed and witnessed by the Holy Spirit. This is the teaching of Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church, the only holy, one Orthodox and true. Any other teaching is alien to the Truth-Christ, the Truth that came down from heaven through the inexpressible mercy of God, revealed to people “who sat in darkness and the shadow of death” (Ps. 106:10), mired in the dark and deep abyss of self-delusion, ignorance, fall, and destruction. Letter 228. About unswerving adherence to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, the abundance of false teachers, the impoverishment of teachers of piety “He believes in the truth in his heart,” the apostle said everything correctly, “but he confesses with his mouth for salvation” (Rom. 10:10). We need to confess the truth with our lips and, when possible, with our deeds. Truth, confessed in words and deeds, is, as it were, realized and becomes a person’s property. And because it is essential, it is a sure guarantee of salvation. You are convinced that the only infallible path to salvation is unswerving adherence to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, while decisively deviating from any outside teaching, from your very understandings, until the mind is healed of its illness and becomes spiritual from carnal and spiritual. Having recognized this truth with your mind and heart, confess it with your lips, make a vow to God that you will be guided by the teaching of the Holy Fathers, deviating from any teaching not attested by the Holy Spirit, not accepted by the holy Eastern Church. Having confessed the truth of God with your lips, confess and deeds, having made a vow, fulfill it. Do not be afraid of this vow! Every Orthodox son of the Church must give it, and his spiritual father must demand it from every son of the Orthodox Church when performing the sacrament of confession. Among the questions that the confessor is supposed to do, the first place is occupied by the following: 1) “Rits, my children: if you believe, as the Catholic, Apostolic Church, planted in the East and raised, and scattered from the East throughout the entire universe, and in the East hitherto motionless and certainly abiding, betrayed and taught? – 2) Have you ever doubted any legend? – 3) Rtsy mi child, were you not a heretic and an apostate? - 4) Didn’t you stay with them, visiting their churches, listening to their teachings, or reading their books?” Reading heretical books and paying attention to their teachings is a grave sin against faith, a sin of a mind that is sick with pride and therefore overthrows the yoke of obedience to the Church, possessing insane, sinful liberties. And now this sin is no longer considered a sin! Nowadays they allow themselves to read indiscriminately all kinds of heretical writers. The Church thundered anathema against them! but blinded sinners do not heed the thunder of the church, or they heed it, but only in order to laugh at the voice of the Church warning against destruction, so that it makes no sense to call its judgment and determination superstition and barbarism. Many heretical books have been translated into Russian, and one of them, besides all the patristic writings of the Universal Church, is given first place after the books of Holy Scripture. Exorbitant and incredible impudence! it is expressed in print. True Christians of all times have been guarded with all possible care from the deadly poison of heresy and other false teachings. They relentlessly adhered to the dogmatic and moral tradition of the Church. Not only did they believe Orthodoxy in the Holy Trinity, but they also directed their lives, their deeds, and their morals according to the tradition of the church. A distinctive feature of all the Holy Fathers was the unwavering guidance of the moral tradition of the Church, and they commanded that only such a spiritual mentor be considered true, who follows in all the teachings of the Fathers of the Eastern Church and their writings and testifies and seals his teaching. Whoever thinks to lead his neighbors from the principles of earthly wisdom, and from the principles of fallen reason, no matter how brilliant he may be, is in self-delusion and leads his followers to self-delusion. The Holy Fathers decreed that the indispensable rule for those who wish to be saved is to follow the moral tradition of the Church. To do this, they command those who wish to live piously and pleasingly to follow the instructions of a true teacher or to follow the scriptures of the fathers, corresponding to the way of life of each one. After eight centuries after the Nativity of Christ, Church holy writers begin to complain about the impoverishment of spiritual mentors and the appearance of many false teachers. They command, due to the lack of mentors, to turn to reading the patristic writings, and to avoid reading books written outside the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The further times deviated from the appearance of divine light on earth, the greater the shortage of true holy mentors, the greater the abundance of false teachers; Since the discovery of book printing, they have flooded the earth like a flood, like bitter apocalyptic waters, from which many people died a spiritual death. “Many false prophets will arise,” the Lord foretold, “and will deceive many: and because iniquity will increase, the love of many will fail” (Matthew 24:11–12). This prophecy has come true: its fulfillment is before our eyes. And there is another prediction of the Lord about the nature of the time in which His second, terrible coming to earth will take place. “The Son of Man,” said the Lord, pointing to the future fate of faith, “when he comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). Then false reason and human wisdom, hostile to faith and God, will dominate it. What does monastic virtue mean - obedience? It is the recognition of the human mind as fallen and therefore its rejection by the violence of faith. From faith comes obedience, from obedience comes humility, from humility comes spiritual intelligence, which is communicated faith. Monastic obedience flourished with an abundance of spiritual mentors. With the depletion of mentors, the great feat of obedience, which soon led ascetics to holiness, also became impoverished: faith, which constituted the essence of this feat, requires that its object be true and spiritual: then it leads to God. Faith in a person leads to frenzied fanaticism. The guidance of the writings of the Holy Fathers is much slower, weaker; There are many more stumbling blocks on this path: a book written on paper cannot replace a living book of a person. A wonderful book - a mind and heart written with the Holy Spirit! Life is pouring out of her! This is how this life is communicated to those who listen with faith. But the guidance of the paternal scriptures has become the only guide to salvation due to the final impoverishment of mentors. Whoever submits to this guidance can be recognized as already saved; whoever is led by his own understanding, or by the teachings of false teachers, must be considered lost. As a sample of how the Holy Fathers discuss this subject, I copy from the writings of Saints Callistus and Ignatius, the following: “What was the cause of contrition and death for us, while we were not originally created such? What again was the cause of renewal and immortality? We find that the cause of the first, that is, corruption, was the arrogance, self-indulgence and disobedience of the first Adam, which led him to rejection and transgression of the Divine commandment; the reason for the second, i.e. incorruptibility, obedience of the second Adam, our God and Savior Jesus Christ to the Father, one will with the Father, from whom is keeping the Father’s commandments. “I,” says the Savior, “have not spoken from Himself, but the Father has sent Me, He has given Me a commandment, that this river I will say: for His commandment is eternal life. For as I have spoken, even as the Father spoke to Me, so I speak” (John 12:49-50). and in the new man - the God-man Jesus Christ and in those who want to live like Him, the beginning, the source of all good is humility. We see that such a position and order is observed by the sacred hierarchy of God-like angels above us: like them, our earthly Church preserves them. disobedience, they are cut off from God, from the heavenly bright inheritance, from the catholic apostolic Church, and are sent into darkness and the fire of hell. We affirm that, according to the teachings of God-inspired words, the crafty and evil workers of the devil, slanderous heretics, who, due to self-indulgence and pride, were deprived of Divine glory and pleasure, were cast out from the sacred assembly.” The article from which I am borrowing an extract is concluded by the saints like this: “We say this, establishing ourselves on the sayings of the fathers, on the sayings of the Spirit, as on unshakable pillars” (Dobrotoll., part 2, Callista and Ignatius on silence and prayer, chapter 15). Having learned the path to salvation, do not stop taking it. Make a blessed covenant, a union with the holy Truth; resolve in your soul to remain faithful to the Truth all your life. From this good intention alone, lightness, joy, and strength will flow into your heart - witnesses of the accepted holy Truth. “He believes in the truth in his heart, because it is true, he confesses with his lips for salvation.” Letter 229. Devotees of ancient and modern times Your desire is in vain to be in complete obedience to an experienced mentor. This feat is not given to our time. He is not only absent in the Christian world, he is not even present in monasteries. Mortification of the mind and will cannot be carried out by a spiritual person, even a kind and pious one. For this, a spirit-bearing father is necessary: ​​only before a spirit-bearer can the disciple’s soul be revealed; only he can discern where and where the spiritual movements of the one he is teaching are directed. For the purity of his conscience, a student must confess his thoughts with accuracy and detail; but the mentor should not be guided by this confession in judging the student’s mental state; he must penetrate with spiritual sensation, measure it, and tell him the state of his soul invisible to him. This is how Pachomius the Great, Theodore the Sanctified and other holy mentors of monks acted. The disciples said to Theodore the Sanctified: “Father! reprove me,” and he, moved by the Holy Spirit, revealed to everyone the spiritual ailments hidden within him. These great Fathers recognized monastic obedience as a special gift of the Holy Spirit: this is what a contemporary writer, the Venerable Cassian, tells us. Obedience is a miracle of faith! God alone can accomplish it. And it was done by those people who were given this gift from above by God. But when people want to achieve through their own efforts what is given only by God, then their labors are vain and in vain; then they are like the pillar builders mentioned in the Gospel, who begin a building without the means to complete it. All passing, i.e. demons and passions laugh at them, because outwardly they seem to be performing virtue, but in essence, they are in bitter deception, blindness and self-delusion, subordinate to their passions, fulfilling the will of demons. And many thought they were going through obedience, but in reality it turned out that they were fulfilling their own whims and were carried away by the heat of the moment. Happy is the one who, in his old age, manages to shed a tear of repentance for the hobbies of his youth. The Lord said about blind leaders and those led by them: “But if a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14). Our time has been given another feat, fraught with many difficulties and stumbling blocks. We had to travel - neither during the day, nor in the clear light of the sun, but at night, in the pale light of the moon and stars. We have been given sacred and holy Scripture for guidance: the Holy Fathers of later times say this directly. When guided by Scripture, the advice of neighbors is also useful, namely those who themselves are guided by the Scriptures of the Fathers. Do not think that our feat will be devoid of sorrows and crowns: no! it involves martyrdom. This martyrdom is similar to the languor of Lot in Sodom: the soul of the righteous languished at the sight of incessant and unbridled fornication. And we are languishing, surrounded everywhere by minds that have violated fidelity to the truth, entered into an adulterous relationship with lies, infected with hatred against the scriptures inspired by God, armed against them with blasphemy, slander and hellish mockery. Our feat has a price before God: our weakness, our means, our circumstances, and time itself are weighed on His scales. A certain great Father had the following vision: before him, the earthly life of people was depicted as a sea. He saw that the ascetics of the first times of monasticism were given wings of fire, and they were carried like lightning through the sea of ​​passions. The ascetics of recent times were not given wings: they began to cry on the seashore. Then they were given wings, but not fiery ones, but some kind of weak ones: they flew across the sea. On their way, due to the weakness of their wings, they often plunged into the sea; with difficulty rising from it, they began their journey again, and finally, after many efforts and disasters, they flew across the sea. Let's not be discouraged! Let us not recklessly strive for brilliant feats that exceed our strength; let us accept with reverence a humble feat, very much in keeping with our weakness, given as if visibly by the hand of God. Let us accomplish this feat with fidelity to the Holy Truth - and in the midst of the world, with a noisy, countless crowd, striving along a wide, spacious path following self-willed rationalism, we will go to God along the narrow path of obedience to the Church and the Holy Fathers. Not many people follow this path? - What about that! The Savior said: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has been your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Enter through the narrow gates: like a wide gate and a wide path you lead into destruction, and many are those who enter through it. That you bring a narrow gate and a strait path into the belly, and those who find it eat few” (Luke 12:32; Matt. 7:13–14). Letter 230. About the patristic works and St. Scriptures You ask why reading the Holy Fathers is necessary! Isn’t it enough to be guided by the Word of God, the Holy Scripture alone, the pure Word of God, in which there is no admixture of human words? I answer: when reading Scripture, it is absolutely necessary to read the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church. This is what the holy Apostle Peter says about Holy Scripture: “Every prophecy in a book does not exist according to its own telling” (Russian translation: “no prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by itself”). “It was not by the will of man that prophecy came, but the holy words of God were enlightened by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:20–21). How do you want to arbitrarily understand the spiritual word, which was not pronounced arbitrarily, but according to the inspiration of the Spirit, and itself prohibits arbitrary interpretation of itself. The Spirit spoke the sacred Scripture, and only the Spirit can interpret it. Men inspired by God, the Holy Fathers interpreted it. Therefore, anyone who wants to acquire true knowledge of the Holy Scriptures needs to read the Holy Fathers. If you limit yourself to reading one Holy Scripture, then, of necessity, you must understand and explain it arbitrarily. Due to the same necessity, it will be impossible for you to avoid errors; because “a spiritual person does not accept the Spirit of God, and cannot understand, because this must be judged spiritually.” “No one knows the message of God, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:14, 11). The heretics of all times especially hate the Scriptures of the Fathers: the writings of the Fathers reveal the direct meaning of the Holy Scriptures, which the enemies of the Truth would like to distort to confirm their false ideas. The heresiarch Eutyches expressed his dislike of the Fathers at the local Council of Constantinople. “The Holy Scriptures,” he said slyly, “should be respected more than the fathers,” and he said because then the writings of the holy patriarchs of Alexandria Athanasius the Great and the recently deceased Cyril clearly exposed his blasphemous error. The Universal Church, on the contrary, has always had special respect for the Scriptures of the Fathers: these Scriptures have preserved church unity, for which a universally accepted, true, grace-filled explanation of Scripture is necessary. Ecumenical councils always began with the reading of those patristic Scriptures in which dogma or tradition were set out in particular detail, the consideration of which was the subject of the council’s meetings. And relying on the Father's Scriptures, the council denounced heresy, pronounced Orthodox teaching and confession. In the same way, in private life, holy ascetics were initially brought up by the Scriptures of their fathers; only then did they move on to reading primarily the Holy Scriptures, when they had already achieved special spiritual success. “The sea of ​​Scripture is deep,” said St. John of the Climacus, - and the mind of a silent person does not rush through him without trouble: it is dangerous to swim in clothes, and to touch theology to a passionate one” (Sk. 27, about silence). This danger, this disaster, obviously lies in an arbitrary interpretation, in a false concept of Scripture, which is why many monks fell into disastrous error. In vain do heretics display their imaginary respect for the Holy Scriptures - false, hypocritical: what kind of respect for the word of God is it when it is left to everyone, no matter how vicious he may be, to understand and interpret it arbitrarily? The Holy Church, accepting the gracious interpretation of the Holy Scriptures by the Holy Fathers, thereby proves its deep respect for the Holy Scriptures: it honors it, as the word of God should be honored. She teaches her children not to be impudent in relation to the Word of God, keeps them from proud self-will and lawlessness, commands them to be brought up by reading the Holy Fathers and, with their guidance, to penetrate into the wonderful light of the word of God, striking with blindness those who dare to look at it without proper preparation, with an unclean mind and a sin-loving heart. One has only to pay attention to the worship of the Eastern Church to be convinced of its deep reverence for the Holy Scriptures. The Gospel - the all-holy book containing the words spoken to people by God Himself incarnate - is always present on the holy throne, vividly depicting Christ Himself. Only sacred persons are allowed to read it publicly; when it is read, everyone listens to it, as if it were Christ speaking; when it is taken out of the altar, lighted candles precede it. It is taken out and placed on a lectern in the middle of the church: then all Orthodox Christians present reverently kneel before it, as before the word of God, kissing it with fear and love. And at this time the heretic, who had just boasted of his respect for the Holy Scriptures, is seduced by the reverence of the children of the Holy Church for the Gospel, mockingly calling their worship of the word of God idolatry, the worship of paper, ink, binding; poor blind man! he sees in this book only paper, ink, binding - he does not see the Gospel of Christ. The public reading of the Apostolic Epistles is performed by deacons and readers; The reading of other sacred scriptures is performed by the readers in the middle of the church. Church hymns, composed by the Holy Fathers, contain a complete course of dogmatic and moral theology. Glory to God, who has preserved His Church in purity and holiness! Glory to the holy Eastern Church, the only holy and true! All its traditions, all its customs are holy, fragrant with spiritual anointing! Let all who oppose her, all who separate themselves from union with her, be ashamed. Have reverence for the Holy Scriptures, reverence due to a true son of the true Church; have due trust and reverence for the scriptures of the fathers. The same Spirit of God that acted in the prophets and apostles acted in the holy teachers and pastors of the church: the witness of this dogma is the holy apostle: “God ordained,” he says, “in the Church the first are apostles, the second are prophets, and the third are teachers” (1 Cor. 12:28). In accordance with the words of the Apostle, the words of Holy Scripture and the instructions of the Church, the first place in Our pious reading should be occupied by the writings of the Apostles. Among the writings of the apostles, the Gospel occupies first place. In order to correctly understand the New Testament, read the holy teachers of the Church, read the psalter and other books of the Old Testament. Purify yourself with the Gospel commandments and pious deeds. According to the purity of the soul, God appears to it, God’s word is revealed to it, for carnal eyes covered with an impenetrable veil of human words. Letter 231. Warning against attachment to a mentor and correct spiritual guidance and about life in God Let your heart belong to the only Lord, and in the Lord also to your neighbor. Without this condition, belonging to a person is scary. Do not be a slave man, said the apostle. The words of St. always touched me to the depths of my heart. John the Baptist, spoken by him regarding the Lord and himself, preserved for us in the Gospel of John: “If you have a bride,” says the holy Forerunner, “there is a groom: and the friend of the grooms, standing and listening to him, rejoices with joy for the voice of the grooms: this is my joy being fulfilled. It is fitting for him to grow, but for me to grow small” (John 3:29-30). Every spiritual mentor should only be a servant of the heavenly Bridegroom, should lead souls to Him, and not to himself, should proclaim to them about the infinite, ineffable beauty of Christ, about His immeasurable goodness and power: let them love Christ as if he were worthy of love. And let the mentor, like the Great and Humble Baptist, stand aside, recognize himself as nothing, rejoice in his humiliation before his disciples, humiliation, which serves as a sign of spiritual success. As long as the carnal sense prevails in the disciples, their mentor is great before them; but when a spiritual feeling appears in them and Christ is magnified in them, they see in their mentor only the beneficent weapon of God. Protect yourself from becoming attached to your mentor. Many were not careful and fell, together with their mentors, into the snare of the devil. Counsel and obedience are pure and pleasing to God only as long as they are not polluted by partiality. Addiction makes a loved one an idol: God turns away with anger from the sacrifices made to this idol. And life is lost in vain, good deeds perish, like fragrant incense carried by a strong whirlwind or drowned out by a stinking stench. Do not give any idol a place in your heart. And you, mentor, guard yourself from sinful undertakings! Do not replace God with yourself for the soul that has come running to you. Follow the example of the holy Forerunner: seek only for Christ to be magnified in your disciples. When He is magnified, you will decrease: seeing yourself diminished because of the increase of Christ, be filled with joy. From such behavior, a wonderful peace will be brought to your heart: in yourself you will see the fulfillment of the words of Christ: “He who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). Blessed are those who selflessly follow the true Gospel teaching, who have renounced satisfying the lusts of the body and the lusts of the soul! The lusts of the fallen body are sinful: the lusts of the fallen soul are also sinful. She seeks everywhere to realize her self, to become some kind of separate, independent, superior being, for which everything else must exist. The Gospel demands that such a life be put to death, so that man recognizes God as God, and he himself takes his place: in the rank of creatures. After killing the crazy, dreamy, actually non-existent life, true life can appear, with an abundant sense of existence - the life of God. Letter 232. About Christian love The Gospel commands love for enemies: the Holy Fathers praise love that is equal to everyone. – Should love for one’s neighbor really be alien to any difference? This is what I’m thinking about talking to you about now. I would like to tell you about this subject not my word, but God’s: may the merciful God grant me this word. I understand only that love that acts according to the sacred commands of the Gospel, in its light, which itself is light. I don’t understand any other love, I don’t recognize it. Love, extolled by the world, recognized by people as their property, sealed by the fall, is not worthy to be called love: it is a distortion of love. That is why it is so hostile to holy, true love. True, holy love for God and neighbor is clearly depicted in the Gospel commandments; its correct, immaculate action is in the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. “Whoever loves Me,” said the Lord, “keeps My commandments” (John 14:21). In such love there can be neither daydreaming nor carnal fervor, because the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments is carried out by beginners with violence against themselves, with such violence that it is called crucifixion, and by those who have succeeded and felt the blessed overshadowing - with an abundant feeling of the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ is some subtle spiritual coolness: when it spills into the soul, it remains in high silence, in sacred deadness. “I have not come,” says the Lawgiver of holy and true love, says Love itself - God, “I have not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword. For I came to separate a man from his father, and a daughter from his mother, and a bride from her mother-in-law: and strike the man against his household” (Matthew 10:34-36). And all our actions towards our neighbor, both good and evil, the Lord will judge, as if they were done in relation to Himself (Matthew 25). The Lord concentrated the entire law in two commandments: love for God and love for neighbor. “Love is the union of perfection” (Col. 3:14), said the Apostle. If so, then what is the sword for, what is the enmity and separation for? Because God rejects carnal love, the love that Adam recognized after the fall, and accepts only one spiritual love, which was shown to the world by the New Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. We must love as He loves: the love of the fallen old Adam is a fruit forbidden in the paradise of the New Testament. She is filled with an impulse of dreaminess, changeable, partial, loves a creature outside of God. God is completely removed from the relationship of this love, sin and Satan are called to participate in it. Spiritual love is constant, impartial, all in God, embraces all neighbors, loves everyone equally, but also with great difference. “Love your enemies,” says the Gospel, “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who harm you and drive you out” (Matthew 5:44). Here it is clearly and definitely depicted what love for enemies should consist of: in forgiveness of the insults they have caused, in prayer for them, in blessing them, i.e. in good words about them and in thanking God for the misfortunes they inflict, in thanking them for their strength and spiritual success, in doing good, which can extend to tasting bodily death to save the enemy. The Savior showed an example of such love for enemies. But the same Gospel commands us to be careful with our enemies, not to trust ourselves to them. “Behold, I am sending you,” the Lord said to his disciples, “like sheep in the midst of wolves: therefore, be wise as a serpent, and your goals like doves. Take heed from men: for you will be handed over to hosts, and in their assemblies they will beat you... You will be hated by everyone for My name’s sake” (Matthew 10:16-17,22). And so the Gospel itself prescribes caution in dealing with enemies and, if possible, treating them wisely. The spirit of peace produces enmity; often it takes the place of carnal love. But even the most carnal love is very similar to enmity. One descendant of the old Adam is capable of carnal love and enmity: the more alive the old age is in him, the stronger the effects of the ailments with which the fall struck love: enmity, envy, jealousy, carnal love. A servant of Christ cannot be anyone's enemy. You see - the Gospel prescribes for us love for our enemies, not blind, not reckless, but sanctified by spiritual reasoning. Love is light, blind love is not love. Something similar should be said about love for friends. The Gospel commands that this love be about Christ, that Christ be loved in the neighbor, and the neighbor be loved as God’s creation. Because of this love in God and for the sake of God, the Holy Saints of God had equal love for everyone, and especially loved those who led a pious life, as Saint David said: “But your friends, Lord, were very honest to me” (Ps. 139:17). Those being mentored felt more favored by those mentors in whom they saw a special abundance of spiritual intelligence and other spiritual gifts. The mentors loved more those of their spiritual children in whom they saw special care for virtue and a special effect of God's favor. Such love, which gives due value to people according to the degree of their piety, is at the same time equal to everyone, because it is in Christ and loves Christ in everything. Some vessels contain more of this spiritual treasure, others less. Treasure - one! Where Christ is, there is no envy or zeal. “Lyuby thinks no evil!” (1 Cor. 13:5) - there is peace, there are good thoughts, there is constancy, there is holy peace. Love accompanied by zeal is earthly, carnal, unclean. The eyes of holy love are like those of an eagle, like those of a fiery Cherub: even the slightest sinful movement cannot hide from them. But love itself is unapproachable to sin, which always creeps on the earth; she lives in heaven - there she transfers to live the mind and heart, which have become partakers of Divine love. Letter 233. Knowledge of God is the greatest good. The deadness of Jesus is fidelity to the Holy Spirit. – About maintaining the right way of thinking. – Self-will is the path to destruction One type of service to my neighbor that I like and like is serving with a word pleasing to God and useful, guiding to salvation. Therefore, desert and solitude are desired by me. With their help, I would like to purify my mind and heart, purify them so that they become living tablets of the living word of God, so that it is depicted on them clearly, brightly, so that abundant salvation flows from the living word of God, pours into my soul and into the souls of my beloved in the Lord. The greatest, only good for man is the knowledge of God. Other goods in comparison with this good are not worthy of being called goods. It is a sure guarantee of eternal bliss - and in our very earthly journey it provides the highest and most abundant consolation. In the greatest disasters and sorrows, when all other consolations become insufficient and powerless, it retains all its strength. It is God's greatest gift. The most blessed, highest service on earth is to attract this gift of God into oneself through repentance and fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, and to communicate it to one’s neighbors. Happy is he who is entrusted with such service, no matter how insignificant he may be in appearance. Earthly concerns are incompatible with this service. It requires that the minister be simple and innocent, like babies, and be as alien to sympathy for everything desirable and sweet in the world as his babies are alien to him. It is necessary to lose the very concept of evil, as if it did not exist at all, otherwise the concept of good cannot be complete, pure, perfect. “Love who is in perfect union thinks no evil” (Col. 3:14; 1 Cor. 13:5), said the Apostle. Those who are pure in heart see everyone as pure (Titus 1:15). One must succeed so much in goodness that one must immediately, with a heartfelt spiritual sensation, recognize the approaching evil, no matter how hidden and disguised it may be, immediately, with courageous determination, reject it - and remain invariably good, good in the all-good Lord, who bestows His goodness on man. To do this, you need to leave earthly cares and the very responsibilities associated with worries and harmful entertainment. Nowadays, in many ways, people have dared to introduce their own regulations into the regulations of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the institutions of heaven became earthly, the spiritual - carnal, the holy - sinful, the wise - absurd. They see the incongruity, they see the destruction flowing from it; but they do not see the beginning from which disasters flow: because they look in the light of their own fallen mind, and not in the light of God. The beginning of disasters lies in the impermissible and proud contempt of the commands of the Holy Spirit, in replacing them with one’s own statutes. This is the reason for the general disorder, the reason for the fall of Christianity, the moral fall, which always precedes civil disorder and foreshadows this disorder. There are Christians in particular, but the common, identical knowledge of the Truth has been lost, by which everything would be united into one spiritual body, with one way of thinking, in one spirit, under one common head - Christ. Nowadays, everyone has more or less his own way of thinking, his own religion, his own path, adopted arbitrarily or accidentally, recognized as correct, or only justified. This countless flock, having lost connection and unity in truth and spirit, presents to the spiritual observer the appearance of the greatest disorder: each sheep wanders in its own direction, no one cares about it; people no longer hear - their hearing is so heavy - the saving voice of the true Shepherd, heard from His holy Church, Who still loudly denounces their untruth, proclaims to them the right path, shows it. They were deafened by the noise of earthly, cruel cares, the noise of sensual amusements, the noise of earthly prosperity. “Their soul is clinging to the earth” (Ps. 119:25), incapable of perceiving spiritual impressions. But some chosen ones still hear the voice of the true Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. They follow this voice, making their way with the greatest effort and difficulty, through the dense crowd, incoherently rustling, surrounding them. Until now, these chosen ones give justice on earth to Heavenly truth. There are very few of them! but the Lord encourages them: “Do not be afraid,” He says, “little flock, for the Father has deigned to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). What is the sign of these sheep by which they could be immediately recognized? This sign is exact obedience to the holy Church, fidelity to the holy Truth and the Holy Spirit. Guided by true humility, they renounce the understandings of their fallen natural mind and all human understandings, no matter how sublime and attractive they may seem in appearance. To remain faithful to God, they are not ashamed that the world calls them crazy. Not only do they generously endure persecution from the world, but they also subject themselves to various hardships, and thereby retain within themselves “the deadness of Jesus and His life” (2 Cor. 4:10). This means: “to lose your soul in this age in order to win it for eternity through quickening by the Spirit” (John 12:25). Let us remain faithful to the Holy Spirit. He is Most Holy and Most Pure - He rests among the pure and holy, He loves the humble, who prove their humility not by anything outward, but by obedience of mind to the Gospel and the Church. He turns away from the self-righteous, who separate themselves from the unity of the Church for some thought that flatters the mind and heart. He moves away from them and a dark spirit of delusion approaches them. “One false thought,” said one holy Father, “can lead you to hell.” The darkened sons of this world think more easily about thoughts about God; in their opinion, thinking about God one way or another is not a big problem. Unhappy ones! they do not know how important thoughts about God are, how important the Truth is in them and the Spirit that is always co-present and co-operating with it. From their mutual action is the revival of man into salvation, which consists in the communion of human nature with the Divine nature. On the contrary, false thoughts are always accompanied and assisted by the dark and crafty spirit of seduction. The father of lies is the devil, so says the Gospel; lying is a devilish property. He who has assimilated false thoughts has assimilated the properties of the devil, entered into kinship with rejected angels, and made union with God unnatural and unnatural. A stranger to God is a stranger to salvation and spiritual life. Let us protect ourselves from false thoughts and the heartfelt sensations that flow from them. From such false thoughts and sensations, the so-called prelest or self-delusion is formed, which has countless different types, according to the degree, according to the type of false thoughts and feelings accepted by a person as true. Let us acquire true knowledge of God, alien to error and speculation; it shines from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, like light from the sun, shining brightly at midday from the azure cloudless sky. Letter 234. The insignificance of our virtues before God. – Fighting temptations. – Path of repentance The all-perfect God looks down on all of us humans. Before His infinite goodness, human goodness disappears, which is so imperfect that, according to a very fair verdict of a certain Holy Father, it can rather be called a distortion of the law of God. And the most virtuous Abraham is praised for his virtues before men, but not before God. Before God, his faith in God, who makes up for human shortcomings, is considered a virtue. Then only God accepts our virtues when they are witnesses of faith; in themselves they are unworthy of God. “All righteousness is ours,” said the holy Prophet Isaiah, “like the port of a harlot’s wife” (Is. 64:6). For this reason, God, looking at our hearts, favors only the humble hearts, filled with the consciousness of their sinfulness, filled with repentance, confessing the insignificance of their natural good, the damage of its fall, bringing to it the desire for spiritual good. A person can perform spiritual virtues on his own; and spiritual virtues in a person are a gift in him from the merciful God, who bestows this gift on the poor in spirit, hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of Christ. Blessed are you, who have known the difference between spiritual and spiritual virtues, between the virtues characteristic of the New Adam alone, and the virtues of which the Old Adam is capable: between the virtues of the Gospel and the virtues of our fallen nature, virtues that are not alien to idolaters, Mohammedans and all other people who have deviated from following the holy Truth. Are you saying that the desire for spiritual good in you is still shaky? - in whom is it not shaky? - with what ease the heart betrays goodness! what forgetfulness, blindness, what hobbies and falls are accompanied by these changes! what kind of work is needed, what kind of struggle with oneself is needed in order to return to goodness! and again labor is needed, and again a stubborn bloody struggle is needed in order to remain faithful to goodness! The ancient tempter, the experienced tempter, constantly offers to eat the forbidden fruit. To defeat evil, we need God's help. When this all-powerful help assists us, we win; when she moves away from us we are defeated. “In my abundance,” said Saint David, “I will not move forever... You turned away Your face, and I was confused” (Ps. 29:7-8). When we are defeated, we feel our weakness so much that the state of the victors seems alien and impossible to us; in case of victories, if previous experiences had not assured us, we would not have believed that victory was so close to us - such an insignificant, disgusting enemy as sin. The wise Providence arranged it so that the ascetics of God were not always in a state of joy, triumph and victory. Such an incessant state could give rise to fierce pride in them: having never seen the experience of their own victory in weakness, they would imagine that the state of incessant triumph over sin belongs to themselves, and not the gift of God. That is why God dissolved for them, as St. Isaac of Syria says, “consolation and invasions, light and darkness, battles and intercessions, in short, oppression and space. And this is a sign that a person succeeds with the help of God” (Sk. 78). From such a dissolution of victories and defeats, from transitions from one to another, a person becomes more and more aware of his weakness - God gradually becomes magnified before him, and, finally, becomes everything for him, the object of all his love, hope and faith. This path, which God Himself leads man, in which man is kept in constant contrition of spirit, in spiritual poverty, in the sight of his sins, in crying about them, is called the path of repentance. All the Saints walked along it from sin to God. This path is illuminated by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, shining from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. On the path of repentance you will not find satisfaction with yourself. Looking within yourself, you will not find anything that flatters your self-esteem: on the contrary, you will find much worthy of lamentation and sighing, worthy of bitter and prolonged tears. You will be consoled by your crying, your sighs, your tears; Your consolation will be lightness and freedom of conscience: they will be brought, your crying, your sighs, your tears will gradually intensify and develop. Some humble, some poor in spirit will find their peace, both temporary and eternal. This is the lot and destiny set apart by God for those whom He has chosen to spiritually, truly serve Himself. During their earthly life, they must remain in repentance, alien to pleasures and perishable amusements - and this constant repentance distinguishes the chosen ones of God from the sons of the world. Only through repentance can one move from a mental state to a spiritual state. St. says Isaac of Syria: “If we are all sinners, and not one of us has risen above every temptation, then not one of the virtues can be higher than repentance (i.e. all virtues, even the highest ones, must be dissolved by repentance). The feat of repentance can never be completed: it always befits all sinners and righteous people who want to receive salvation. There is no limit that would indicate its perfect fulfillment, because the perfection of even the most perfect is truly imperfect. Why repentance cannot be determined either by time or by the number of deeds even to death” (Sl. 71). In another word this great mentor says: “Repentance is the door of God’s mercy for those who carefully practice it. Through this door we enter into Divine mercy: we cannot enter into this mercy except through this door” (Sk. 85). Even the most sublime feats are futile, fruitless, and often soul-harming when they are not dissolved by a feeling of repentance. Repentance is alien to self-delusion and is inaccessible to it. The fact that God opened the path of repentance to you shows God’s special mercy towards you, God’s special providence for you. Separate yourself from the earth with your mind and heart! begin your journey to God along the path that has opened before you. By the will of God, all circumstances, even seemingly opposite ones, will help you. In your patience, gain your soul, looking with magnanimous condescension at its weaknesses, at its involuntary hobbies. Demanding from oneself immutability and infallibility is an impossible demand in this transitory age! Immutability and infallibility are characteristic of man in the next century; and here we must generously endure the weaknesses of our neighbors and our own weaknesses. Avoid all sins as much as possible; and endure your inevitable weaknesses, into which thoughts involuntarily fall into your heart, courageously. Acquire, because of your weaknesses, a deep and constant feeling of spiritual poverty, so favorable to God - not despondency and cowardice! And complete the path of earthly life, walking before the Lord in contrition of spirit. Letter 235. Only in the future life will there be eternal bliss Nothing perishable or transitory can satisfy a person. If it seems satisfying, don’t believe it: it only flatters. He will not flatter for long, he will deceive, he will slip away, disappear, and will leave a person in all the horrors of poverty and disaster. God’s – positive, eternal. At the beginning, like the slightest grain, it appears in the heart in the form of the slightest good inclination, desire; then it will begin to grow little by little, embrace all thoughts, all feelings, embrace both soul and body; He will become like a tree, great and branchy. Birds of the sky, i.e. angelic thoughts and contemplations will come to hover on its branches. This must happen to a Christian during earthly life. On whom it is performed, upon entering eternity, he will see himself possessing spiritual treasures - the guarantees of endless bliss. Such a state is already here on earth eternal bliss, before the obvious entry into eternity through the death of the body. Such a life is now eternal life. Letter 236. “Holy Faith” and Superstition Holy faith, at which the rationalists laughed and still laugh, calling it blind, is so subtle and sublime that it can be comprehended and taught only by the spiritual mind. The mind of the world is disgusted with her, rejects her. Someday, due to some material necessity, he finds it necessary or tolerable; then he understands it falsely and explains it falsely: because the blindness he attributes to faith is his inalienable property. Then only faith is holy and true when it is faith in holy Truth, when it is faith brought to earth by the Divine Truth incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ. Any other faith, except faith in the holy Truth, is superstition. The fruits of superstition are destruction. Such a faith is condemned by God: it is believed by idolaters in their idols, Muslims in the false prophet Mohammed and the Koran, heretics in their blasphemous dogmas and in their heresearchs, rationalists in the fallen human mind. This is how his followers will believe in the Antichrist. Letter 237. Regarding the death of a baby. – Bliss of innocent souls May God, who sent you grief, also grant you strength to courageously and generously endure grief. Blessed are those who leave blameless from this world filled with sinful temptations. And temptations are constantly increasing, multiplying in the world, making salvation more and more difficult. The Holy Church conveys departed infants from this world to the eternal world, not with songs of lamentation, but with songs of joy. She recognizes their bliss as true: her prayers at the burial of infants do not speak about the unknown fate of a person after death, as they talk about it touchingly and mournfully at the burial of adults. These prayers ask God for repose of the deceased baby (because no human purity, in itself, can be worthy of heavenly bliss: it is a gift from God), and recognize that this repose has been given - the deceased baby is already called blessed. During their short stay on earth, infants avoid everything that deprives them of blissful eternity, manage to fulfill everything that brings blissful eternity: they are washed from their ancestral sin and are united to Christ by baptism, united with Him in one communion with His Body and Blood and His Divinity united with them. Without having time to desecrate either the sacred ablution or the most blissful union with God, they leave this vain world, going naturally to where they belong. We, the elderly, do not have this happiness: the white robe of the soul, in which we are clothed at baptism, is speckled during our earthly life with countless unctuous spots; We break the union with God by adulterous union with sin. Mature age and experience should have made us perfect, but we lose even those virtues that we had as babies. Our mental state becomes so wrong, false, fabricated that the Gospel, calling us to correction, calls this correction a conversion, as if from paganism or Mohammedanism. It commands us to turn and come to the state in which we were children. “Amen I say to you,” it testifies, “unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3). These thoughts can console you, mother, weeping for the blessed baby, your daughter, who has gone from here to eternity. Submit your mind and heart to the will of God, all-wise and all-good: in this devotion you will find peace and joy for your soul. God took your beloved child to Heaven, and together with him took your mind and heart there. It's good there. Letter 238. Living for oneself is separation from God. To one who has been healed of a mortal illness “No one lives for us,” said the Apostle, “and no one dies for himself: if we live, we live by the Lord; if we die, we die by the Lord; if we live, if we die. We are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7,8). Having remained to live on earth, live not for yourself, but for the Lord: he lives for the Lord who lives to fulfill His will; He lives for himself who lives to fulfill his wishes. The latter, although it seems alive to those looking with sensual eyes alone; but in soul he is dead, he is considered as if he does not exist for the Lord, he is not inscribed in the book of life, his name is entered in other books. The Lord for him is as if non-existent. There is no God for those who do not believe with living faith in God! (Eph. 2:12). The first does not die: through bodily death he only passes into a greater development of life. Dishes! so as not to come to life for yourself! By living in the Lord, mortify your life, sinful, carnal and spiritual, and thereby preserve yourself in eternal life. Letter 239. About surrendering your life into the hands of Christ. - The separation will not be long. To the dying father of the family A. A. Pleshcheev “God’s Wisdom,” says Scripture, “has created for itself a house” (Prov. 9:1), that is, the Holy Church: in this house, everything bears the stamp of God’s Wisdom that created it. This Wisdom also shines from the fact that almost all church petitions – ectenia – are concluded with the words: “let us commit ourselves, each other and our whole life to Christ our God.” A wise and holy conclusion of human petitions! Now you have to express it, fulfill it with your own deed: and fulfill it with living faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is strong, faith in something false is full of cold fruits. Faith in Christ gives Christ to the believer. And to Christ you can entrust everything with complacency and joy: both yourself and your neighbors. Yours. Turning your farewell glances to your family, hand it over to Christ. He arranged for you to be the support of your family: now He calls you to Himself. You have been His instrument: having put aside one weapon, He can take another weapon into His almighty right hand. You are separated from your loved ones, separated for a short time! You can draw the correct conclusion about human earthly life! You can calculate how fleeting it is! Soon the life that passed by passed by! soon their future earthly life will pass for those who are still destined to sojourn on earth. Go to Heaven, to eternity, where Christ calls you. Blessed is he who comes into eternity in the name of the Lord. Go to the endless and most joyful holiday of Christ. There you are called by Christ; You accepted the call there by living faith in Christ and with it you entered into the book of life. Your loved ones will soon come there and unite with you forever. Here on earth, they shared sorrows with you, shared the consolation delivered by faith; It is worthy and righteous for them to share with you the joys of Heaven, prepared by faith and earthly sorrows in faith in Christ. In Heaven, in eternal joy, at the bright feast of Christ, remember those who spoke the word of God to you, so that they may find mercy at the judgment of Christ, at which the deeds, words and thoughts of man will be judged as they were before God, not before people looking only at appearances. Letter 240. Easter wishes. – Illnesses in temporary life lead to eternal bliss Thank you for your friendly letter and congratulations on the holiday of holidays - the Resurrection of Christ, on which I equally congratulate you and wish you all true blessings. Christ, who through His death trampled the death of men and through His resurrection granted resurrection to all who believe in Him, has already won victory over all your sorrows, and with Christ you have won this victory, generously endure the furious waves, generously endure the pressure of the fierce winds with the power of faith - and Christ will lead you in due time to His peace. For the many illnesses that visit you in this temporary life, great consolation awaits you in eternal life. Do not be alarmed by rising passions: try to resist them as much as possible; Man, as long as he is on earth and clothed in a mortal body, is still subject to change; sometimes he feels peace and tranquility of the heart, not disturbed by any passion, sometimes he is overwhelmed by passions. Such changeability teaches us self-knowledge, humility, teaches us to constantly resort to God’s help, which as soon as it leaves us, even for one minute, then we fearlessly commit lawlessness. Letter 241. The need for God's help. - Fighting thoughts. – About patience with sorrows Without God's help and grace, none of the people is strong enough to resist the invisible struggles that arise in his heart and produce a spiritual storm. Prayer and reading the word of God help in spiritual storms, but even with this help, it will not soon be possible for a person to cope with himself, not soon to ascend into the haven of indestructible calm: because it is not soon that thoughts and sensations of the Divine are assimilated to our fallen nature, it is not soon that faith becomes alive. From living faith in God is born complete submission to God; and from submission to God - peace of thoughts and tranquility of the heart. You need to instill in your heart faith in God, submission to God; Having tasted them, you will taste with them spiritual consolation in sorrow and peace. The fight against thoughts that bring sorrow, no matter how complex, intricate and clever these thoughts may be, should be very simple, just as the whole Christian faith is simple, in its simplicity accessible to every person, and in its strength satisfying every person. Fight against thoughts and feelings of sadness with short words: “Lord! Thy will be done! Blessed and Holy is God in all His works!” Say these words with your mind, and when you are alone, say a few out loud; pronounce slowly, with great attention and reverence; repeat these short words until the thoughts and feelings of sadness subside. When they rise again, you will again use the same weapons against them. By experience you will learn the power of this weapon, from its appearance, at first glance, it is so insignificant. And it is impossible to get out of a state of struggle into a state of calm except through victory. Submitting to sadness is extremely dangerous: when it intensifies in a person and dominates him, it can kill both body and soul. Do not rush to die: the longest life in comparison with eternity is a moment. Surrender yourself and the duration of your earthly journey to the will of God; and you will use this period to prepare yourself as best as possible for eternity, to do as much eternal good as possible to your parent. Do not be surprised that you are weak in spiritual achievement: the reason for this weakness is your news. Time will enrich you with experience and strength. – I look with sympathy at your state of mind: you are melting in fierce sorrow, as if in fire. Endure the burden of this condition; after it, you will feel yourself reborn, you will see yourself enriched with spiritual treasures, the existence of which people have no idea, whose earthly life was strewn with only pleasures. Then you will know that the Lord is good even in the very sorrows He sends: because temporary sorrows lead to eternal blessings for those who accept these sorrows as they should. Letter 242. Congratulations. - The path of life. – Consolation in sorrows I bring you my deepest congratulations on your Angel’s Day! With this congratulation I unite my heartfelt desire that your holy Guardian Angel preserve your earthly life in peace and prosperity, guiding you along this path to blissful eternity. Exactly: our earthly life is a path. Only this path is measured not by distances, but by time. Just as on an ordinary path objects change and are constantly replaced by one another, so on the path of earthly life events replace each other. And it is unknown to man what event awaits him on each new day. God, who allows sorrow to man, also sends consolation among them. I am sure that this consolation is brought to your heart from the Throne of God by your holy Guardian Angel: because true consolation can come from God alone. Earthly entertainments only drown out sorrow, do not destroy it: they are silent, and again sorrow, rested and as if strengthened by rest, begins to act with greater force. – On the contrary, consolation from God destroys the sadness of the heart, at its root - in the dark thoughts of hopelessness. It brings to a person good, humble thoughts of submission to God, thoughts full of living faith and meek, sweet hope. An immeasurable eternity opens before the eyes of the mind, and earthly life begins to seem like a short journey, its happiness and unhappiness begin to seem unimportant and insignificant, because all the unevenness of earthly life is smoothed out and equalized by the contemplation of eternity. Letter 243. About difficulties on the spiritual path and the fate of those who wear masks “Thanks be to the merciful God,” said a certain holy Father, “when the words of one person benefit another person, they should both thank God.” I thank God, who chose me as an instrument to comfort and nourish your soul. With your letter you have greatly encouraged me: I hope to see in you further success on the spiritual path leading to all good things. Do not be afraid of that darkness, that desert into which you have now ascended with your mind and heart: between Egypt and the Promised Land there is darkness and desert. And soon the faithful and courageous Israeli will see the promised land, soon he will enjoy its blessings. The name Egypt means worldly life, filled with vain worries and entertainment; under the name of the promised land - spiritual life, filled with Divine consolations; the space that makes up the transition from one life to another is the desert. A faithful Israelite is a person who has decided to offer his life in the service of God. – I regret about V., little by little they print it out and read it. This is the fate of everyone who wears masks: you can’t always be wearing a mask! From time to time the mask is removed or falls off, the naked face of the soul appears to the gaze - and woe if it is ugly and only deceived by the beauty of the mask. - At the same time, I am enclosing an article: “Thank God.” The “Chalice” has not yet been finally printed. Letter 244. On reading the rule for the laity I hasten to present to you a weak experience of the rule, which I called: “The order of one who listens to oneself in the midst of the world.” I was inspired to make it as general as possible, so that it would not embarrass you at all. It seemed all the more convenient to me that I personally conveyed to you how to read, according to the custom of those who are attentive, morning and evening prayers and an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, i.e. not hastily, very slowly, even drawn out, not trying to read the entire akathist at one time, or the entire collection of evening and morning prayers, but taking care that the well-known section of these prayers you are reading is read with attention, as if into the ears of the Lord God, and not into the air. Guide for an active life - Gospel commandments. Be guided by them in your palace, as Saint David was guided by them in his palace. This king spoke prayerfully to God about His commandments: “Thy law is light to my paths; I have been guided towards all Your commandments; I have hated every way of unrighteousness; leave the path of unrighteousness from Me and have mercy on me by Your law; I have loved Your commandments more than gold and topaz; live for me in Your commandments” (Psalm 118). The greatest Holy Fathers command that the rule for a Christian be as simple and uncomplicated as possible. The great Barsanuphius says that the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven are narrow and that there is no need to give broad rules for entering them; a broad rule can even prevent us from entering them, because, chasing the little things, we can miss the most important. Letter 245. God educates through sorrows. – Gospel virtues In response to your letter, I will tell you the word of God, which should strengthen and comfort you in the sorrows that have befallen you. “I love them,” says the Lord, “I rebuke and punish” (Rev. 3:19). All those who have come close and become assimilated to the Lord achieved this through many sorrows, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle Paul preached among the dogmas that through many sorrows it is fitting for you to enter the Kingdom of God. On the contrary, those who are alien to sorrows are recognized as forgotten by God. - So, not Be discouraged in your sorrows, but thank God for them as for a great good deed, and rely on His holy will and His holy Providence. Yes, read the Gospel, so that you can learn from it that one who does not bear his cross cannot be a disciple of Christ! You would sacrifice all your time and all your abilities to vanity, and would enter eternity unworthy of any reward - on the contrary, worthy of full punishment for neglecting Christ the Savior of the world, the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself for you so that you would sacrifice yourself, for your own good, as a spiritual sacrifice to Him. It is not enough to be good by nature: you must be good according to the Gospel. Natural good often contradicts the good of the Gospel; because our nature is not in the primitive purity granted to it at creation, but in a state of decline, in which good is mixed with evil in us. And therefore this good, if it is not straightened out and cleansed by the Gospel, is in itself indecent and unworthy of God! Christ is with you! May He strengthen both your soul and body! May He arrange both your temporary and eternal relationships for the good. Letter 246. To K.P. Bryullov. About the loneliness of your soul; the faithful pier is the true knowledge of God; about the anointing of beauty by the Spirit My dear Karl Pavlovich! It was with heartfelt sorrow that I heard about the illness that befell you. I am so far from you and cannot visit you, which is what my soul so desires! I hope to arrive in St. Petersburg by June 1st; After the necessary appearances to the authorities, I will certainly try to visit you. I am being treated, I am very weak and have not yet left the room. I can’t write while sitting, but I write while lying on the bed, and therefore I write with a pencil. I have always taken a heartfelt part in you. Your soul seemed to me wandering alone in the world. So I too wander, surrounded by disasters from infancy. A circle of friends has formed around me who sincerely love me, but I have not yet met a soul before whom I could completely open up. And this is not because I am secretive; no, I am very frank, but the soul, before which I could open myself with true benefit, must be able to understand me, examine me - must comprehend my very inspiration, if there is any inspiration in me. Without this, frankness before those who do not understand only inflicts a new ulcer on the soul. In my earthly wandering and loneliness, I found a sure haven - the true knowledge of God. Not living people were my mentors; they were the Holy Fathers who had died in body and were alive in spirit. In their writings I found the Gospel, the fulfillment; they have satisfied my soul. I left the world, not as a one-sided seeker of solitude or anything else, but as a lover of higher science; and this science brought me everything: calmness, coolness towards all earthly trifles, consolation in sorrows, strength in the fight against myself - it brought me friends, brought me happiness on earth, which I have almost never encountered. You know how I live in the monastery! Not as a boss, but as the head of a family. “For several years now, since my health has deteriorated, I haven’t left my room for months, for six months; but religion at the same time turned into poetry for me and keeps me in continuous wonderful inspiration, in conversation with the visible and invisible worlds, in unspeakable pleasure. I don't know boredom; time shortened, rushed with extreme speed, as if merging with eternity; eternity seems to have already arrived. I invite those who are oppressed by grief and driven to my pier to enter my pier, into the pier of Divine thoughts and feelings. They come in, rest, begin to experience peace, consolation, and become my friends. Your soul needs to enter this harbor! She hears, by some secret premonition, that she is destined to find peace in this pier; but my heart is open to you, has been open for a long time. I saw long ago that your soul, in the earthly chaos, was looking for beauty that would satisfy it. Your paintings are the expression of a deeply thirsty soul. A picture that would definitely satisfy you should be a picture from eternity. This is the requirement of true inspiration. All beauty, both visible and invisible, must be anointed with the Spirit, without this anointing it bears the mark of corruption; it (beauty) helps to satisfy a person driven by true inspiration. He needs beauty to resonate with life, eternal life. When death breathes out of beauty, he turns his gaze away from such beauty. Get well soon, my dear Karl Pavlovich! I wish to see you healthy and strengthened upon my arrival. You still need to live, live in order to become more familiar with eternity, so that before entering into it you can acquire Heavenly beauty for your soul; There has always been this high aspiration in your soul. The embrace of the Heavenly Father is always open to accept anyone who wants to run into this holy, saving embrace. Farewell; goodbye, which I long for. Letter 247. The soul is healed by bodily illnesses. – Surrendering oneself to the will of God. – About your health Your Excellency, most gracious sir, Stefan Dmitrievich. We were waiting for you in the capital - we received unpleasant news about your illness. This is the custom of the Supreme King of Kings: He loves them, punishes them, beats every son, and accepts him. Constricted within the confines of human judgment, I thought that you are very needed here: but not in the judgment of God and not in man. I would like to see you again in your house, surrounded by your family, joyful, contented, but the Lord, who confirms our love for Him through misadventures, allowed you to scatter in different directions, like grains of wheat. Remember, my most venerable benefactor, that our Lawmaker endured the cross, and foretold to His followers and servants: “You will be in a world of sorrow!” (John 16:33) - Why is there sorrow? Because the world will hate you, and My Father himself “will cut off every rod that produces fruit, so that it may bear abundant fruit” (John 15:2). So, be complacent in the midst of excitement, surrender yourself to the will of God, endure illness with joy and gratitude, knowing that the soul is healed by bodily illnesses. Repeat this prayer often: “Lord, be the will.” Yours! It is short, but contains a broad meaning and has a very strong effect on calming a person who is in sadness. I learned this partly from my own experience. But why am I referring to an insignificant experience, when the Savior of the world Himself pronounced this sacred prayer in Vertograd and with this prayer blocked the petitions torn out by the weakness of humanity. I hope for God’s mercy, I look forward to that pleasant hour in which I will see you face to face. May the Lord restore you to good health, so that, abounding in both bodily strength and every contentment, you may abound in every good work in Christ Jesus our Lord, both for the Church in general, and in particular for its true members... With sincere respect and devotion, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and pilgrim, Archimandrite Ignatius. Letter 248. About V.F. I don't. Inner prayer. The danger of charm On Monday I no longer dared to disturb you, assuming that you were quite tired from the work you had done in the morning. Vasily Fedorovich Mr. Yan is visiting me, but we don’t quite agree with him in our thoughts. It is clear from everything that he is engaged in internal prayer. This prayer is the highest, most difficult and most sorrowful feat, requiring both complete selflessness and correctness of thoughts, otherwise the father of lies, taking the form of a bright Angel, approaches the heart with feigned delight, which, having felt a person and honoring it with the grace of Divine, is confirmed in its charm and begins to show its fruits with some signs of madness. For this, says St. John Climacus, God’s help is urgently needed: for such a thing is incurable by humans. And truly, will he who thinks (if not says so) agree to accept spiritual advice from his neighbor that grace is his teacher? Is it natural for someone who thinks that he sees everything clearly and sensibly and in his soul to feel heavenly consolation to admit ignorance and delusion? I find the position of Mr. Yana is extremely dangerous, for he is already reaping the fruits of his wrong feat: thoughtfulness is visible in him and often rubs his ribs with a painful expression on his face. Those parts that the enemy touches when a person attracts him to himself are the ribs; the beneficial effect is felt in the mountainous parts of the persea. Mr. John's reading consists of Thomas a à Kempis and Arnt (for whom he stands with great pride), but he has no idea at all about the saintly writers. In order to help him, it is imperative to transfer him from the first wells to the second. I see that my efforts will be unsuccessful; He is very opposed, and finds my condition very dangerous, which is true based on my sinful life, and not on the thoughts borrowed from the saint. Fathers. Your disposition towards him may have a stronger effect: for he is convinced by experience that you are looking for his benefit. And it’s better for me not to enter into any judgments with him, which I entered into solely because of my commitment to you. It is enough, it is enough if I look at my sins, strive for repentance and crying, and drive out the flock entrusted to me to this saving field with the rod of example and teaching. This is my vision, this is my pleasure - the inheritance of my forefather Adam, who sought pleasure in crying after the loss of the sweets of heaven. If our destiny in this life is to be sick about ourselves, and to be consoled even more, the greater the extent of this illness, then there is hardly any time left to sympathize. And there wouldn’t be any left, says St. Macarius, if only the merciful God had not led us out of our inner cage for the benefit of our neighbor. Forgive me for writing poorly: the eyes are very weak. I wish you all the best from the hand of the Creator and blessings to your entire family. With sincere devotion and respect, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and worshiper. Letter 249. About V.F. Yana and conversations with him Vasily Fedorovich seemed to like living in a monastery. Your sincere love and Christian care can convince him so that he bows some of his ideas, elevated to the Mind of Christ, before that Mind, which is incomprehensible. As for external matters, I found his conversation very pleasant: it is clear that he led a very attentive life and accumulated a lot of experience. But our spiritual principles are completely different. This difference could not produce a spirit of unity, unity of lips, unity of heart, but it did not prevent me from loving him very much as a meek and prudent person. Letter 250. Vision of the cross; Disease – cross – good yoke When I was with you, we talked a lot about the cross of the Lord, which truly is a good yoke and a light burden. Arriving at the monastery, I received a gift: on the 14th, before Matins, I had a dream: as if I wanted to give alms to the poor and for this I took my wallet out of my pocket; from which a brightly glowing golden cross suddenly jumped out into my palm. That same day I fell ill, and on the 16th I went to bed; a fever occurred; did not take any food for seven days; Now, although he is better, he is very weak. Since the time I was in St. Petersburg, I have not spent my days with such pleasure as these days of illness. Just as the Cross of the Lord is a good yoke and a light burden, and with Jesus there is heaven on Calvary. Sorry! May God grant you all the best. Letter 251. About the last hour and about his portrait Your Excellency. Dear Sir. What living, at the same time quiet, spiritual consolation poured into my heart when I accepted the package with your handwritten inscription in my hands, especially when I began to read the words breathing love. Exactly, “love no longer falls away” (1 Cor. 13:8). Here! You are a trustee of the poor, often rich in faith and passing from the pit to Abraham’s bosom. In the person of this lesser brethren of Christ, Christ Himself accepts your care and your service, just as He would accept in the person of church ministers. The appearance is not so brilliant, the essence is the same. ABOUT! how many glorious ministries there are, luring ambition, occupying and igniting the imagination: but the end crowns the work. Death comes, calls for a life without ghosts; No one can refuse this invitation, no matter how bitter it may be. The kings are coming without having completed the enormous proposed plans, from the implementation of which millions of people could prosper; geniuses go, leaving what they started to surprise posterity; legislators are coming without completing the legislative codes; in an instant, insignia and loud titles are laid aside, the acquisition of which took a whole life. Those rich in faith, on the contrary, become even richer: for by death they come into substantial possession of what they had before death only by faith. I wish you, as well as myself, the most respected Stefan Dmitrievich, to become rich in God. Do you want to have my portrait? I have your portrait, having received it from your hands; I have a portrait of your soul in my memory, in my heart. My sinful face is not worthy of being painted by an artist. Instead of this brush, let the grave worm sharpen the eyes, defiled by passionate vision; let him sharpen his mouth, which is opened for words with which God is angry; let him sharpen all the members that were instruments of crime. If, despite my unworthiness, by any chance you paint a portrait of me, then I will try to fulfill your desire, inspired by love. Christ is among us and always will be. Your Excellency's most humble servant and worshiper Letter 252. About charity. - About the letters of the deputy. Georgy Zadonsky. – God “punishes whomever he loves” Truly Christ is Risen! Your Excellency, most gracious sir Stefan Dimitrievich! I am writing to you, quietly talking with you, as if with someone present, and receiving your letter, in which you note that we wrote to each other at the same time. I thank you most earnestly for the assistance provided to our monastery. I read with pleasure Sturdza’s letter and selected stories about mercy from the lives of the Holy Fathers. This is a strong means of maintaining and improving the pious and kind Russian people by nature, with a strong inclination to help others. Are you asking why the publication of individual lives, which began under you and was received so favorably by the public, has now been stopped? What should you answer to this? This is due to human passion. I am leaving the letter about monasticism, very practical, with me for a week so that I have time to make some notes and forward them to you. Did you have in your hands a book of letters from the Transdonsk recluse George? Here is a spiritual writer who is far removed from all the spiritual writers of our time. A nobleman, a warrior, he laid down his material weapons in order to enter the field of spiritual warfare, spent seventeen years in seclusion and died in the year 36, being 47 years old, having replaced many years with spiritual success. He wrote letters to many persons favored by him, which after his death were collected, as many as could be collected, and printed. Streams of grace flow from his pen, the lack of external education is replaced by abundant spiritual dignity. This book has become one of my desk books. You can get it in Moscow. You will drink the cup of consolation that you now need. Saint John the Theologian, when he saw paradise filled with holy Belorizians, and asked who these Belorizians were, he was told: these are those who came, having endured great tribulation; they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This is the custom of the Heavenly King: “Whoever he loves he punishes, he beats every son in whom he is pleased” (Heb. 12:6). I am writing to you from life; if you don’t know yet, then of course you will learn from the Maltsevs. You can see my heart: it is sinful and not pure, but it loves unselfishly. Experience itself has confirmed to me that you wished and wish me well. Desire good, not perishable, not temporary, but true, which the Lord Himself will bring to you, giving to those who love Him the cup of suffering in this short earthly life. – Forever your humble servant and worshiper Letter 253. Review of the letter about monasticism: 1) History of monasticism. 2) The difference between monks and laity In forwarding herewith a letter about monasticism, which I have read repeatedly with pleasure and about which I had the honor of in a previous letter, out of your love for me and mine for you, I can say my unhesitant opinion: it is very sensible. Out of the same feeling, at your request and my promise, I do not stop and notice, not for criticism, but with the desire to provide a service within my power: 1) In my opinion, the origin of monasticism is not quite correctly stated. It is not the fruit of persecution, although some certainly fled into the desert from persecution. A few special cases do not allow us to draw conclusions about the whole. This is explained especially by the fact that the deserts began to be filled with monks after the end of the persecution, during which there were very few desert dwellers. Here is external proof; There is also an internal, stronger one: almost all the ancient monks entered into obvious temptations from demons, after which temptations from humans are not terrible. Is this the way to be afraid of tormentors? Anthony the Great, when he heard about the beginning of the persecution in Alexandria, came there, declared himself a Christian, wanted to suffer, but no one dared to lay hands on him: for monasticism is a long-term torment. Where did monasticism come from? In the first three centuries, the Church of Christ was persecuted by the government. To accept Christianity meant to lose all rights of citizenship, all property, life itself. The adoption of Christianity could not but be the result of a strong conviction. Christians lived as if they were sentenced to death, not knowing at what hour the Bridegroom would come - they prepared for death, wasting their perishable property to the poor, remaining incessantly in prayer and living with their hearts more in Heaven than on earth. Quite a lot of people led a virginal life, an ascetic life - everything. There was no thought about fun, luxury, acquisitions, self-will. You could say they were all monks; ascetics were perfect monks, not having a monastic dress, just as the clergy did not differ in clothes during persecution from society. When the persecution stopped, the life of Christians in the midst of the cities changed and weakened. The Christian faith was not always accepted out of sheer conviction, but very often out of custom; Many rotten souls entered the Church, which during persecution would have immediately been revealed by falling away; Christian society in the midst of the cities has changed. The woman-Church, whose first-born fruit, the face of a martyr, was caught up to God in Heaven, was given two wings of a great eagle - to flee into the desert: the face of a monk appeared. 2) The difference between a layman and a monk, so obvious from the Savior’s words to the young man, is not sufficiently explained: “If you want to be saved, keep the commandments: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal,” and so on. (Matthew 19:16–21, etc.) This is the activity of a layman, whose goal is salvation. When the young man asked what I am, he did not finish. The Lord teaches that there is perfection in Christian living; whoever wants to achieve it must first leave everything earthly, and then, naked from everything, accept the work of achieving perfection. This is also depicted in the Gospel parable, in which the Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a merchant who found out that a treasure was hidden in a certain village, and sold all his property to buy that village, mind you, and not the treasure. Saint Macarius of Egypt says that the one who squandered his property, left everything pleasant on earth, retired into the desert - has not yet done anything, only exposed himself to enter the field - it is unknown whether he will achieve his goal. Christian perfection consists in purity of heart, which is God, who reveals His presence in the heart with the many different gifts of the Holy Spirit. He who has achieved this perfection is a lamp, not through physical service, but through the service of the Spirit, fulfilling the commandment of love for one’s neighbor, guiding those who are being saved, raising them up from their falls, healing their spiritual wounds. The monastic face provided the Church of Christ with shepherds who, not with the bickering words of human wisdom, but with the words of the Spirit, furthering the teaching with miracles, shepherded and established the Church. This is why the Church, at the end of the torment, is represented as having fled into the desert. Church perfection fled there, the source of the light of the Church, the main strength of the militant Church. Who were Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Epiphanius, Alexy and Philip, metropolitans - in a word, all the holy shepherds? But not in the rank of bishop, but in the simple monastic rank, there are many lamps from Anthony the Great, John of Damascus, to Sergius of Radonezh and St. George the Recluse. The faith was affirmed, heresies were exposed and trampled underfoot. Without monks, Christianity among the laity would disappear. This is how necessary perfection is in the Church of Christ, without which salvation with faith itself can easily be lost, and will certainly be lost: for feelings, trained over a long time, are needed in distinguishing good from evil (Heb. 5:14). This perfection was achieved in the primal Church by ascetics and martyrs, and then by monks. Celibacy, non-covetousness, fasting, work, vigil, active love - these are tools, means to achieve perfection, but not perfection itself. It seems that the letter speaks about this in a dark way, which is why the difference and the necessity of monasticism are not shown in full force. It would be good for the writer to read the conversations of Macarius of Egypt, and strengthen the word with spiritual concepts. They will say: what a proud review of monasticism, exposing the pride of the heart. We answer: in a dark room, significant uncleanliness is not noticeable; In the bright rays of the sun, the fine dust is very noticeable and bothers the owner. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher of humility; having settled in the heart, he sighs with unutterable sighs and shows a person the insignificance of his righteousness, as Isaiah says: “all our righteousness is like the port of a harlot’s wife” (Is. 64:6). Real devilish pride is to reject the gift of God that exists, as if it did not exist. Forever your most devoted Letter 254. Patience in temptations. —About the Jessenes and the Pherapets. – Calmness during trials Your Excellency. Dear Sir! Again before my eyes is the handwriting of your hand, which always announced to me the most pleasant sensations that should fill my soul. Now it is enough to look, or better yet, to look at this handwriting in order to open the door to the heart for many sweet impressions. I thank you for the books you sent - narrators of your useful works: in the First Experiments of the Committee, having reached the reading of § 9, I triumphed spiritually, seeing that food for the flesh was combined with food for the soul; especially - edifying reading during work is news in Russia in our time, the resurrection of the ancient custom of well-maintained monasteries; When idleness is driven away from the body, this mother of vices is also driven away from the mind - and this is superiority! – Thank you for your gracious word about the plans for the land belonging to the Sergius Hermitage, which are now in our hands. Finally! Woe, we have hearts filled with thanksgiving! Glory to the merciful God, who heals the illness of your children and comforts your household with the hope of a harvest. Let us repeat the song of the youths in the cave of Babylon: “Those who sinned, those who were lawless... And all that you have done to us, and all that you have brought upon us, you have created true judgment... let us accept it with a contrite soul and a humble spirit” (Dan. 3:29, 31, 39). This is true spiritual feeling! The righteous, having been subjected to temptation, do not see their righteousness, the vision of their mind is directed towards the perfections of God, illuminated by this light, they see the impurity of their righteousness - and the heart is filled with feelings of deep humility, the mind begins to pronounce confession and praise of Divine justice. Here is incense favorable to Heaven; Behold the censer from which the smoke pours out on the high altar of the King of kings. – The information of Josephus Flavius ​​about the Essenes and Philo’s information about the Therapeti is not satisfactory; for these writers, being Jews, did not convey to us anything about the feeling with which they greeted the Christian faith. It is clear that the sect of the Essenes in Palestine and the Therapeutes in the vicinity of Alexandria strictly preserved the customs of Judaism and did not accept Christianity. Here is what St. Neil of Sinai, a monastic writer of the 4th century, says about the first: “many Greeks tried to indulge in philandering, and not a few of the Jews... From the Jews, those who chose this residence are the sons of Jonadab... always live in booths, abstain from wine and from everything that leads to voluptuousness, have simple food, satisfy the needs of the body with moderation, are very diligent in the formation of morals and are most in contemplation. Hence they are called Essenes: for this name denotes their type of residence. But what is the benefit to them from exploits and from being in labor when they killed the Hero of Christ. The reward of their labors perishes: for they have rejected the Dispenser of reward and the Source of true life. So, they sinned in the goal of wisdom: philosophy is the improvement of morals combined with the true knowledge of God, in which both Jews and Greeks sinned, rejecting the Wisdom that came from Heaven, and attempting to philosophize outside of Christ.” This is the opinion of St. Nile, a disciple of John Chrysostom; This is the opinion of other ancient church teachers about the Essenes. Their feat was more external, the best observers of church antiquities find that they went into the petty refinement of rituals more than other Jews, which is why, while filtering out mosquitoes, they forgot to take care of the camels. For this reason, their sect was close in spirit to the Pharisees. Doesn't the Gospel condemn their fasting, their almsgiving, their prayer, alien humility, along with those of the Pharisees? – It is useful for Christian monks to look back at the Essenes and see in them that physical feat, without love and a contrite heart, is a cymbal clanking with vanity, and brass ringing with its emptiness. Turning to the beginning of your dearest letter, breathing with kindness, on February 1, 1840, when I was required to listen to the verdict, which consisted of what and for what - I did not know, I felt a special peace of mind: the parting word was heard in the church by the Apostle, who on that day belonged to the church circle of this year (Petrov’s 1st letter, chapter 4, began with 12 verse and ended with the first verses of the next chapter). “Beloved! Do not shy away from the fiery temptation that is sent to you to test you, as if it were a strange adventure for you...” (1 Pet. 4:12). It’s time for judgment to begin from the house of God... So, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him, as a faithful Creator, doing good. Could there be anything more comforting and edifying? Especially the words: “It’s time for judgment to begin at the house of God,” plunge my mind into deep thought. They tell us the sublime spiritual thought that the work and feat of a Christian, no matter how sufficient in themselves, according to human judgment, are far from perfect according to God’s judgment and require purification and addition from temptations. Then the building of the church of God is considered complete when the Cross of Christ sparkles on its top. Good health to you and your dear children. May the Lord protect you and strengthen you for the benefit of humanity and for the benefit of the civil society. With true respect and heartfelt devotion, I have the honor to be... July 16, 1840 Sergiev Pustyn Letter 255. About my attitude towards S.D. Nechaev And I read the beautiful translation of the life of John the Merciful with pleasure, and I look lovingly at the familiar hand with which the envelope is written, I look for a short note, I want to know whether the feeder of the poor is healthy and prosperous in the Christ-loving capital - I search in vain, in vain I am curious with such care. From now on, put a small piece of paper in such envelopes with this two-word statement: I am healthy. The time you use usefully leaves you little time, and I do not need long letters from you: I have a long letter in my heart; it begins with the beginning of our acquaintance, the end of it... Oh! I want it to be endless, so that its continuation goes beyond the tomb and becomes eternal in Christ. What a pleasure love is. I am writing to you, and on my tongue I feel some special sweetness. This is the sweetness of the tree of paradise. The books you send tell me: make a small contribution to that treasury into which the rich contribute thousands of pieces of silver. I will not disobey this voice. November 12, 1840 From the bottom of my heart, Archimandrite Ignatius. Letter 256. About my health, the translation of Isaiah the Hermit, and about Father Arseny of Troepolis Christ is Risen! Dearest and most honorable Stefan Dmitrievich! I owe you a lot by not answering your letter, filled with friendship and sincerity, for so long. It never left my desk; I re-read it often, each time with new consolation. Saint Isaac of Syria rightly says: there is no object in the world more precious than the love of our neighbor, through which we enter into the love of God. Either I burdened myself with unnecessary writing activities, or temptations acted on my weak physique, or my chronic illness - tapeworm, or all together brought me in the middle of winter into such a painful situation that I stopped eating, felt severe pain in my chest, and during Lent I was so weak that I could barely sign my name on the lectern; I’ve been getting better since Holy Week. [...] I spend my time as usual: I study the monastic books of the Holy Fathers, of which God helped to complete the translation from the Latin of the book of St. Isaiah the hermit. From the first edition of this, I assign two hundred copies for the monastics of the Sergius Hermitage, and a thousand at the disposal of the feeder of the Moscow beggars. The book does not have the external order in presentation that is required of a writer learned in the schools of this world, but it has deep thoughts, it has a system for the heart and mind that can be expected from a student of the silent desert. I hope that you will read it with spiritual benefit and pleasure, for you are familiar with the taste of deep feelings generated by a humble examination of the inner person. This way I will be a participant in your classes and you in mine! This thought comforts me. Have you met Fr. Arseny Troepolsky! Exactly, he is a good man: I found his concept of monasticism more learned than experienced, more satisfactory for the mind than for the heart; I don’t know what situation he’s in now. May God grant that we all be saved from the serpents - our passions, which are helped by other serpents - demons. If you were to look now at the brotherhood of the Sergius Hermitage, you would be greatly consoled: for your hand was in the establishment of this spiritual garden and many vines were replanted with your help. Almost all the previous inhabitants of the monastery left; Now the first persons are those novices who entered the monastery together or after me. They are already hieromonks, and the main one of them, Viceroy Apollos, seems to be rightly called an exemplary monk of our time... I don’t know if I’ll get around to visiting Moscow at the end of the summer. And it would be very necessary for health - it seems that it would be necessary for the soul too. What a joyful meeting awaits me there and lures me there! I still encounter obstacles in the idea that it is dangerous to leave the monastery under the present circumstances of the Nevsky clergy; by your absence you could subject the Sergius brotherhood to theft. Will you come to the northern capital? Doesn't this upcoming need call on you to place your eldest son in the page corps, or guards school? – He must be about 14 years old? I was very glad to hear that the sovereign again turned his attention to your merits. Earthly honor, in itself insignificant, but for a person who has dedicated his life to the service of the Tsar and Fatherland, royal mercy is gratifying. It remains for me to portray the constant, diligent, and prayerful desire of my heart for all the best to you and your entire family. May God bless you to nourish and grow in your soul the feeling of Christian love for the sinful Ignatius! Your most zealous and devoted servant and pilgrim, Archimandrite Ignatius. April 11, 1841 Sergiev Pustyn. Letter 257. From St. Isaiah the Hermit. About humility and other instructions St. Isaiah from Homily VIII. – If you have lent something to your neighbor and do not ask for it back, then you are imitating the property of Jesus; if you ask, then you imitate the property of Adam; if you demand interest, then this is lower than Adam’s properties. If someone reproaches you for something you have done or not done, and you remain silent, then you become like Jesus; If you answer by objecting, what did I do? then you are no longer like Him; If you repay equals for equals, then you are completely different. If you offer your sacrifice with humility, as if you are unworthy, then it will be acceptable to God. If you are lifted up in your heart and remember others who are asleep or careless, then your work is vanity. Humility does not even have the tongue to say about someone that he is careless or disdainful; – does not have eyes to see other people’s errors; – has no ears to hear what cannot benefit the soul; finally, it has no worries except worries about its sins. He tends to maintain peace with everyone, not because of friendship, but for the sake of God’s commandment. Words XVII. – He who tramples on his conscience drives virtues out of his heart. He who fears God is diligent, but he who does not fear Him indulges in negligence. He who guards his lips and remains silent wisely lifts his thoughts to God. From verbosity comes laziness and rage. He who subordinates his will to his neighbor reveals the diligence of his soul in acquiring virtues; on the contrary, he who is partial to his own will reveals his ignorance. The fear of God and secret teaching keep the soul from passions. Worldly conversations plunge the heart into darkness and turn it away from virtues. – The mind and heart are outraged by love for earthly things, contempt for them brings silence and tranquility... Rust eats up iron; In the same way, the human heart is sharpened by ambition. The ivy, entwined around the vine, spoils its fruit; in the same way vanity overthrows a person's labors. Humility leads the virtues, and gluttony leads the passions. The end of the virtues is love, and the end of the passions is the esteem of oneself as righteous. Conclusion XVII Words. - Brothers! Let us try, while we are in the body, to fill our vessels with oil, so that our lamp will shine when we enter the Kingdom. The bright and shining lamp is the holy soul. For a soul shining with good deeds will enter the Kingdom, but a soul defiled by malice will descend into darkness. Watch therefore, brethren, and be diligent to good works: for the time is drawing near. Blessed is he who behaves strictly. The ears of corn have already ripened and the harvest is about to begin. Blessed is he who preserves his fruit, and the angels will come and deposit it into the eternal granary. Woe to those who are discouraged, for their fire remains. The inheritances of this world are gold, and silver, and houses, and clothes: all of them provide a reason for sin, and for all that, when we go there, we must leave them. The inheritance of God is immeasurable, it “is not seen by the eye, nor heard by the ear, nor departed from the human heart” (1 Cor. 2:9). It is given to those who in this short time obey the commandments of the Lord. It is given for bread, for water, for clothes that we give to the poor, for love of humanity, for purity of body, for purity of heart and for other virtues... Letter 258. About your health. - About the shortcomings of education. - About privacy. – About his portrait Your Excellency, most gracious sir, Stefan Dmitrievich! I did not answer your most respected and friendly letter for a long time. He became so ill at this time that they feared inflammation in his chest. Bloodletting is performed, leeches are applied, and the bloodletting is sentenced to repeat. I keep a big diet from writing and write only in extreme cases: this is caused by great weakness in the chest with pain and loss of voice. This is how we are melted in this life, and, God forbid, that it is not useless! Your service in the spiritual department gave you the opportunity to use the word ordeal to name those long and varied examinations to which books that are essentially useful are subjected to, and from which books of moderate use, especially empty and even harmful ones, are so free. I smiled when I read this word and now I often smile, seeing the revival of his deeds. The book of Saint Isaiah was with the Right Reverend of Kiev for 3 months; he read it and approved it for publication, pleasing the spiritual writer with the greatest and due praise. Now, of course, it will go to the Moscow (Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov)) for consideration. If my work can serve with any benefit for the needy brethren, then, upon complete approval of the manuscript for publication, I will not fail to present it to you. Be a distributor of bread, both material and spiritual! There are many of those and other beggars. Your fears regarding climate and morality are very fair: no eye can replace a parent’s, not to mention the heart. And among educational institutions, at present, almost the first place should be occupied by institutions that prepare for civil service, and of these, universities in general. We are flighty: the amount of knowledge that increases with the age of the world, we have more than our ancestors; This very knowledge makes us superficial, and we are inferior to our ancestors in the quality of knowledge, in the essence of knowledge. And frivolity comes from the desire for empty fun. Have you mentioned privacy? When this thought comes, you need to ask it: is it too early? Although you shouldn't be late. Exactly: the world does not amuse people who reflect, but it, feeding us with sorrows, pushes away our love for it and directs it to God. The world wounds our heart and thereby heals its illnesses - earthly addictions. Untimely solitude destroys this work of the heart, which, having found peace, often again makes peace with the world and becomes colder towards God. These are not my thoughts, but I borrowed them from the ascetic Fathers of the Church, and when I see experiences, they constantly confirm me in this way of thinking. Finally, I bow down to the portrait of my sinful face and consider it my duty to send you a copy so that you can also see the image of the one to whom you did a lot of good. My thoughts and feelings, which are not directly mine, but borrowed from the true spirit of Christ’s Church, have always found shelter in your heart. This results in mutual love! Love is that peace, that home into which God instills those who are like-minded in Christ, as the psalmist sings. Be healthy! I congratulate you on the New Year, I call upon you and your entire honorable family your blessings of God and the prayers of St. Sergius, and with a feeling of heartfelt devotion I have the honor to forever be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and pilgrim. Archimandrite Ignatius. [...] Letter 259. At the foot of the Cross of Christ. – About the treatment of heads. – About the children of S.D.P. - About the books of St. Isaiah the Hermit. – About your health and life Dear Sir, Stefan Dmitrievich! “I,” says the Lord in the Revelation of John the Theologian, “them I love, I punish” (Rev. 3:19). These words are performed on you. And your heart has long been prepared by an incomprehensible, mysterious sensation for wearing the cross! Your happy life, in which I found you, was like a beneficial summer, delivering abundant fertility to the fields: in it clear days were followed by days gloomy. Having read your letter, which every word echoed in my heart, I was transported by the memory of the experience of your poems, which you once read to me during one of our most pleasant conversations. The subject of your delight was Calvary, the Cross, the crown of thorns, nails! Golgotha became for the disciple of Jesus a place of mournful and at the same time comforting, sweet thoughts. He who sits at this foot looks with indifferent and calm philosophy at the fickle happy people of this fickle world. He does not envy them, he prefers the knowledge of the Cross of Christ, which opens the gates to blissful eternity, to that short-term rapture in which he holds his victim’s earthly happiness in order to betray it to eternal disaster. “Woe to you who are now saturated, woe to you who are laughing now!” – (Luke 6:25). These are not false words of the Son of God. While I often had the opportunity to enjoy seeing you, my eyes found a special feature in your character; it clearly showed itself to me with all the brilliance of your mind; this is simplicity of heart, expressed in trust in people, in the kindness of their hearts, and straightforwardness of conscience and rules. Such simplicity is one of the signs of love. “Love thinks no evil,” and therefore “has faith in all things” (1 Cor. 13:5, 7). Love is the seal of a soul capable of Heaven. So, in your soul is the reason why a person is a crusader; “The heavenly Father cuts off every rod that produces fruit, so that it may bear abundant fruit” (John 15:2). So your eyes have weakened. I understand how burdensome this illness is for a person whose main occupation is reading and writing. And your handwriting says that your eyes are not the same. I have been suffering from an eye disease for seven years now and spend long winter evenings in my room without candles; I write and read only in daylight, however, and this without eye pain only since this winter, after I began to tie chopped, or better yet, finely crushed beets to my eyes at night, in a cambric scarf, for half an hour or an hour, after first wetting my head with rum, preferably white, and wiping my face with it. All the previous medicines, all the famous drops, foreign and local, did not bring me any benefit; on the contrary, they weakened and dulled their vision even more. The last remedy, being not at all dangerous, helps me a lot; must be careful not to get beet juice or rum into the eyes. For you, who holds so many public positions, during the performance of which you do not like not to look closely, weakening of your eyesight is a great loss, a great deprivation. A monk should feel less of the burden of this deprivation, because he can, sitting in his cell, alien to any external activity, open the book of his soul and read in this book the most edifying truths. Your dear children, your beautiful children, who so comfortingly babbled prayer and praise to the Savior of the world, who performs His praise from the lips of babes and living things! They have reached adolescence; they feel they are carrying the yoke of the cross! May the Lord strengthen them and have mercy on them! May their parent be granted patience similar to the patience of Job, sending temptations similar to the temptations of this righteous man. You have been wounded in your property, in your family, and in your body. Do not touch his soul, the Lord commands the devil, handing over the outer man for testing. The devil does not touch the soul of a suffering person when the person is in self-reproach and in gratitude, when he erases the adversary with a multitude of glory. “Let us accept her who is worthy of her deeds” (Luke 23:41), these are the words befitting those crucified at the right hand of the Lord. Such will be remembered in His Kingdom. Thank you for sending the books. Both are so simple and clear that one can pleasantly see in them the desire to please not only the earth, but also Heaven. Word about. Sergius is very sweet: he combines wonderful feelings with a relaxed, pleasant style. And his word did not return to him fruitless, it was sown in the hearts of his listeners and brought forth fruit pleasing to God - compassion for the poor, immediately expressed in deeds! Having owed you an unpayable debt - a debt of love, I am in your special debt! And the reason for this is my eyes. The book of Isaiah awaits the final transfer, which I cannot undertake before clear spring days. Judging by the way the public now accepts such books, I believe that copies of Isaiah will not lie around, especially when they are at the active disposal of the chairman of the beggars’ committee. Now the letters of the Transdonsk Recluse are being published again in three volumes: many people liked this book extremely much. What can I tell you about myself? My days flow uniformly among mental and physical infirmities. The Sergius Hermitage blooms more than year after year, but year after year I grow frail, weaker, and in the winter I almost never leave my room. Sometimes the thought of traveling to Voronezh or Kyiv flashes through my mind, about a trip so necessary for my health, and again it is suppressed by countless obstacles that do not allow me to leave the monastery for a long time, especially in the summer. But at the time when this thought occupies me, I am in Moscow, I enter a house located near Devichyago Polye, I see the owner with the same smile of love on his lips with which I always saw him in St. Petersburg. And his blue eyes laugh at me warmly, his whole face is depicted in my imagination with an absolutely perfect resemblance. The heart harmonizes fantasy with tender delight and trembling. Sorry, sorry! United with me by bonds of sincere friendship and removed by earthly distance, Stefan Dmitrievich! Someday fate will bring you to see you, and what change I will see in you, impressed by eight joyless years. You would see gray hair and gray hair on me! I invoke God’s blessing and the prayers of St. Sergius on you, I entrust myself to your Christian love and with a feeling of heartfelt devotion and respect, I have to forever be Your Excellency’s most humble servant and pilgrim. Archimandrite Ignatius. December 13, 1843 Sergiev Pustyn. Letter 260. “Word” of grace-filled illumination; – About the sorrows of S.D. N-va Your letter traveled for a long time, most venerable and kind Stefan Dimitrievich, until it came to me. In response to your first page, I will say: according to your kind feelings towards me, my meager word to you seems to you to be good and bearing anointing. But whatever it is, it is the word of the heart. I admit, there have been moments in my life, either during severe sorrows, or after a long silence, moments in which a word appeared in my heart. This word was not mine. It consoled me, instructed me, filled me with imperishable life and joy, and then went away. I searched for it within myself, tried to make this voice of peace and tranquility resound within me - in vain! It happened to write down the thoughts that shone so brightly in these blissful moments. – I read after, – I read something that is not my own, I read words that descended from some higher sphere and remain instructions. Ordinary life, even monastic life, is associated with a lot of entertainment, and cannot always keep these heavenly visitors with you. Revealing myself in this way before you, most venerable and dearest Stefan Dmitrievich, I prove to you by my very deed that my unworthy soul, by the goodness of God, feels closeness to your soul, despite material space and the long time that separates us: because this closeness takes place in the Lord and for the sake of the Lord. A novice of the Borodino Monastery visited me about two or three weeks ago... she told me in detail for a long time about you, about your dear children, that the finger of God visits them too. Dear children! God, sending you sighs early, prepares you for His churches. Do not envy those who enjoy complete health, on whom the world smiles and whom it invites into its pool. The lips of the Lord who was crucified for us proclaimed sorrow to those who laugh now, and bliss to those who weep and sigh. Participating in you with your heart, your most devoted Letter 261. About the arrival of Wallenström; About the incessancy of your sorrows; New Year wishes I received two letters from you almost on the same day, my dearest and most precious Stefan Dmitrievich: one with a printed report, the other with a living report by Wallenström. You say less in your printed report than a living person says: in the first, your mind, your management are visible; the second one talks more, almost exclusively, about your heart... I liked Wallenström, and so did the brethren; as much as you can see and how he speaks, he also liked our monastery. According to his economic information, he can be useful to the monastery: therefore, you have given us a significant gift. Morally, we will not burden it with unnecessary, sophisticated demands, knowing that the old structure can only collapse from significant alterations. Thank you for your participation in the sorrow that befell me. But this is my path: one sorrow passes me on to another, and when the calm lasts a little, then I feel orphaned. Seeing the lifeless body, I sobbed over it without any thought, just from the bitter feeling of my heart. What thought, what reflection can there be then, how does fate, which exceeds thoughts, act? Be the will of God, be the will of God! In these words I found a solution to this case, these words brought peace into my soul - an indispensable consequence of devotion to the will of God. Often, standing before the gates of eternity, frequent feeling of it and reflection on it, not forced and not artificial, but appearing and acting in the soul as if independently and naturally, I become more and more cold towards the pleasant and unpleasant things that happen to me, betraying everything temporary to the will of God and asking God for the only prosperous eternity. The great holidays of the Church of Christ and the New Year are approaching. Congratulations to you and your dear children; I wish you and them all the best on earth and in heaven. During your stay in St. Petersburg, when I was accepted under your blessed shelter, your children were so small that, of course, they either don’t remember me at all, or remember very little; but I vividly retain them in my memory; it depicted their sweet images with features that time could not erase. The feeling of love for their parent naturally embraces their children as well. Be healthy, dearest Stefan Dmitrievich! The peace of God, which surpasses human understanding, absorbs all understanding, given by the Gospel, given by Christ, flowing abundantly from His wounds into the hearts of believers and those who endure sorrow here on earth, “let it dwell richly in you” (Col. 3:16) and may it fill you with sweet, gracious consolation - the joy of the Celestials! From the heart and soul, most devoted to you Letter 262. About simplicity. – About the silence of Christ at the trial. - We are wanderers on earth What a sweet, spiritual, lofty fruit is reaped by those who immerse their minds and hearts in the Word of God, who trust the experiences of their earthly journey according to the words of this Heavenly wisdom! Such achieve what the Apostle desired from believers in Christ when he wrote to them: “I pray you, brothers, that you may be established in the same understanding and in the same thought” (1 Cor. 1:10). I felt the event of these words within myself; most venerable and dear Stefan Dmitrievich, reading your lines, which were poured out by a heart pierced by many wounds and finding consolation in the wounds of Jesus, seeing the future more clearly, seeing more clearly the Providence of God, the true purpose of man, the insignificance and rapid disappearance of everything temporary and vain. Reading your lines, I seemed to be thinking to myself; in response, I could send your letter to you, adopting it for myself and signing my name under it. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, we don’t talk face to face, we don’t write to each other often, but we are getting closer and closer! This is the fruit of Christ's teaching! Your letter told me that you often resort to the Word of God and prayer, which enlighten people. By the thoughts born in the soul, you can find out what impressions affect it! Accept my words with simplicity of heart, because I also speak from the sincerity of my heart. There is nothing flattering in my words; Flatterers flatter in order to catch, laugh, damage. No! I don't have this goal! I speak for truth and love. Their language, of course, you can distinguish from the language spoken by deceitful people-pleasing people. I liked your thoughts on simplicity, heart and guile, drawn from the experiences of a Christian and attentive life, so much that I blessed my sincere disciples to copy your letter into their written books, into which especially noteworthy modern things are included for the purpose of spiritual benefit. What is the condition for Christian simplicity? Following God's law. The virtuous and well-intentioned do not need to present themselves as such; on the contrary, the one who loves sin, whose will is in sin, needs a mask. Faith gives birth to simplicity. A believer walks the path of life, trusting in his Provider, as Scripture says: “Walk simply, walk in hope” (Prov. 10:9). An unbeliever does not see Providence, he thinks that his fate depends on the cunning of his mind, he places all good in earthly things; striving for it, he deceives in word and deed. The more we delve into the Word of God, the more we grow in spiritual age, the more we will be convinced that it is impossible to approach God otherwise than through simplicity, in which there is faith, and purity of conscience, and a way of thinking created by the commandments of the Most High. Only the simple-hearted are able to succeed spiritually, as Scripture says: “Wisdom will not enter into the soul of an evil-doer” (Wisdom 1:4). The simple-hearted suffer, but not without reason. The Heavenly Vertigrader cuts off His vines: He sees their ability to bear fruit. A barren branch does not attract His attention or concern until the time comes to cut it off and throw it out of the grape; then the poor lands pick it up for their fuel. By the name beggars I mean here demons deprived of all good, who care that their eternal furnace burns hotter. The words you quoted are significant: “When you create, do it quickly!” (John 13:27). The silence of Christ before the judges, who judged in order to accuse, in order to find some pretext in the form of a righteous accusation, for the fulfillment of a plan conceived in a criminal and evil heart, has the same broad meaning. In the midst of this Divine silence, the words of the Savior to Pilate thundered for our instruction, words that were quiet in appearance, but terrible as thunder and lightning in meaning: “You shall not have any power upon Me, unless it be given from above!” (John 19:11). What a deep and extensive instruction for those who suffer for Christ, teaching them to look at their Pilates, as if at the soulless weapon of Providence, giving to their beloved the cup of Christ, the guarantee of eternal bliss with Christ. Here the wheat is separated from the tares and God's judgment is carried out on them. The follower of Christ suffers in generous silence, recognizing Christ through the cross; and Pilate coldly and casually asks about the Truth; does not think and does not want to know about it, because he does not even want to listen, wait for an answer; Meanwhile, the Truth of Christ is presented to him in humility and speaks about Himself in sublime silence. “Your mind is amazed at Me” (Ps. 139:6), St. David prayerfully cried out to God; a Christian who reads it with faith and purity of conscience will be amazed at the Gospel and its deep teaching, the teaching of the Divine, with insight from above: those who live a life borrowed from the old Adam according to the law of childbearing are in a state of decline: they prove their state incessantly by self-delusion, honoring the earth, the place of his exile, as a place of endless pleasures. The New Adam, Christ, saves the fallen through the cross: the life of the fall is killed by the taking away of earthly pleasures, and from the depths of this death life arises in Christ, finding pleasure in deprivation. From here a person moves with thoughts, desires, and hopes to heaven and awaits with informed faith the promises from above, renewal of the Spirit. We must journey with Christ, suffer with Him, suffer crucifixion, taste death, be buried, be resurrected and ascend. I wish this for you and for myself; why am I saying with you this consoling prayer filled with spiritual intelligence: “Lord! Do Your will over us, and grant us to think, feel, and act according to Your will. We ask this one thing from You, in this one thing we conclude all our desires and prayers.” While pouring out your soul, you forgot to tell me about your body, about the health of your dear family. May the Lord, who heals your soul, add this to you too! Thank you for sending me this story about your concerns and service to the lesser brethren of Christ. How soon will I fulfill my vow and repay you with something similar! My health is getting weaker and weaker, and with this, the world here begins to seem alien. No wonder when relocation is before your eyes! Your most devoted Ignatius. Letter 263. The cross is the banner of the flock of Christ and its crown is eternal joy “Through many tribulations it is fitting for us to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Acts 14:22). This word of God is fulfilled over you, most venerable and dearest to my soul, Stefan Dmitrievich. M-ov informed me of a new type of illness, a serious illness, that has opened up in you. May God grant you to endure suffering while maintaining your mental and physical strength and receive relief. His hand guides you along the thorny path Providence! But such is the fate of those beloved by God: as soon as Paul is called a chosen vessel, the Cross is already the banner of the flock of Christ, this is the sign of the sheep of Christ. May the Lord send in your moments of grave sorrow a good thought of thanksgiving to God, praise and blessing from His right hand. but powerful patience in Christ. And where Christ is felt, there is consolation! This consolation is not from this world, which cannot console in sorrow except by taking away sorrow. Christ acts differently: He does not remove the crown of thorns from His beloved, because this is how kings of the Heavenly Kingdom are crowned, but sends into the soul a gracious sweetness, a guarantee of a foretaste of eternal bliss - and in the face of this sweetness, temporary sorrows disappear - at least their edge is greatly dulled. Committing you to the Lord, I remain forever Your most devoted Archimandrite Ignatius. Letter 264. Suffering is the cup of Christ. - The cowardice of a philosopher in grief. – About your health Finally, I have information about you, dearest to my soul Stefan Dmitrievich, from a person who personally saw you, from a person clothed in a monastic image; This information is especially precious to me because the gaze of attentive monks penetrates deeper into the soul visited by the visitation of the Lord. He understood that the Lord, visiting you with sorrows, at the same time grants help for enduring them, as the Monk Isaac of Syria says: “Our generous Father, when He deigns to grant His true sons an escape from their temptations, He does not take away their temptations from them, but gives them patience in their temptations, and they accept all the benefits to the perfection of their souls with the hand of patience.” The doors of the mysterious Christian contemplation open before the mind: he sees Christ crucified for the sins of the world, calling His sheep to Himself and saying: “Whoever does not take up his cross and comes after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). He sees the members of the triumphant Church and hears about them from the Teller of Heavenly Mysteries: “These are they who came from great sorrow, and asked for their vestments in the Blood of the Lamb: for this reason they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His Church, and the one who sits on the throne will dwell in them: No one will hunger, nor will they thirst, nor will they have mouth the sun is on them, all heat is below: like the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, I will protect them and guide them to the springs of water, and God will take away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:14-17). Let them rest for a little while, until their slander and their brethren, who have suffered slaughter, will die, just as they did” (Rev. 6:11). So, suffering is the earthly inheritance of both the elect, and suffering is the cup of Christ. “I will take the cup of salvation and will call on the name of the Lord; Thy consolations make my heart glad. Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 115:4, 93:19, 33:9), and at the very time when he sends us sorrows, with which he makes us partakers of the cup of Christ from now to eternity. It happens here, too, to see mourners - and only those seeking consolation in faith find it. Recently I happened to see in grief one intelligent and learned man, who was much occupied with philosophy, invented by the fallen and darkened human mind from the fall. How did the philosopher turn out in the face of grief? The weak, the exhausted, those who do not see the Providence of God, those who do not know the Cross of Christ, those who seek human truth on earth and cannot find the truth of Christ in humility and patience. An instructive spectacle that we are allowed to look at not in order to condemn our neighbor, but in order to see our deadness when we are without Christ. And during the illness itself, in which we usually remember less material things, you took care to send me wonderful tea, so that I would remember you not only during spiritual exercises, but also over a cup of tea! Thank you! Every sign of your love brings pleasure to my soul. And I continue to get sick: my illnesses are associated not so much with severe pain, but with exhaustion and fever; During this winter I hardly leave my rooms, and from mid-January until now I absolutely have not left. Be the will of God! Can poor vessels judge what is necessary and useful for them? May the merciful Lord, who has allowed you to suffer a difficult trial and given you coolness at the springs of the holy and humble faith, grant you a speedy exit from sorrow, so that you may have all the comfort of health and abound in every good deed in the Lord. With unchanging feelings of heartfelt, sincere devotion, I remain forever Your humble servant and unworthy pilgrim Letter 265. About wandering. – Natural love and love “of which God is the beginning,” solitude and repentance O Lord, dearest to my heart Stefan Dmitrievich! Having thanked God, I must tell you directly and simply: God’s special mercy is upon you; God chooses you and brings you closer to Himself. The feeling of wandering is not a fantasy, is not a consequence of reflection, is not speculation, it is an involuntary feeling of the heart, moving on its own, regardless of our will. This is the voice of grace imparted to us by holy baptism. When the body was refined by illness, and the soul was somewhat purified, this mysterious, but strong voice was heard. As an instrument, it is usually made of dry, thin wood, without which the strings stretched on it cannot produce the proper sounds; so it is necessary to refine and dry out the body through abstinence, and cleanse the soul through constant repentance, so that the broadcasts of the Spirit can be heard in our God-created church. You can see that your feeling is familiar to me, that I am talking about it as if it were my own. I believe that your affection towards me is increasing; and it will increase even more if we direct our steps towards God. Natural love can soon become satiated and satiated; one who is satiated with it ceases to love and can conveniently turn to hatred: for even excess food can produce nausea and a burdened stomach often vomits it out. But love, of which God is the beginning, has neither saturation nor end: because it is nourished by the infinite God. When I read your letter and saw that movements of the future century had begun in you, which this world could neither accommodate nor understand, the thought appeared in me that, over time, you would need solitude, as conducive to the development of spiritual sensations and thoughts. The preparatory activity for solitude should be holy repentance, which heals the eyes of the soul. This is the healing polluria for the eyes that the Lord orders us to buy from Himself: for poverty of spirit is the Spirit of God, acquired by a person through comparing his heart with the Gospel. This polluria drives away from the eyes of the soul, which is our mind, cleanses from them all arrogance, every high concept about oneself, every recognition of any virtue in oneself. Tell me, please, in what clothes is it most appropriate to stand before the Creator for man, this fallen creature? I think that he dresses decently who in his prayers is fully dressed in repentance. I sincerely wish this for you, as I wish for myself; then I wish you preparation for eternity in solitude. May God see these desires and do with us not according to our desires, but according to His holy will. O Lord, most devoted to you, unworthy Letter 266. About my physical and mental state Accept, most priceless Stefan Dimitrievich, my most ardent congratulations on the upcoming New Year, which I wish you and your children to spend in the desired health and perfect well-being. [...] I am still being treated for an old cold with slow but significant success. All foreign medicines either did not help at all, or helped very little; The simplest remedies worked with excellent benefit: a bath with salt and rubbing with clean tar. Now I know from experience that compared to domestic tar, overseas opiates mean nothing - not just some kind of volatile ointment. This is the second year that my treatment has been going on - and I admit that the condition of someone being treated for a chronic illness is more difficult than the condition of someone who is sick: it takes up all the time, the effect of the drugs puts the body in an unnatural position, takes away bodily and mental abilities, takes away the possibility of mental activities, keeps me in a state of incessant fatigue, some kind of numbness and sleepiness. Man is like grass! Some foreign moisture will enter his body, occupy a place on the blood paths, disrupt its circulation - and the whole person has changed not only in body, but also in soul, in mind! “In my abundance I will not move forever” (Ps. 29:7). With these words, the Prophet depicted the strength of man, his strength in the health of the body, in the health of the soul, studying day and night in the law of God. “Thou hast turned away Thy face, and was troubled” (Ps. 29:8). These words will soon follow the above - and how true! Not to mention spiritual temptations, the mere impoverishment of bodily strength is a temptation, and when the body is exhausted, the soul involuntarily becomes exhausted. Here, most valuable Stefan Dmitrievich, is a detailed description of my actual state: external circumstances remain the same as they were before: the pleasant is replaced by the sorrowful, the sorrowful is replaced again by the pleasant. May the merciful God grant His servant to meet both with the same feeling of distrust and coldness. Earthly sorrow and joy only lead to the vain movement of blood: the word of God can stop this movement by saying to the blood: “not only flesh, but also blood will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). Calling upon you and your family the blessing of God, your most humble servant and pilgrim Letter 267. About the printing of the “Chalice of Christ” Dear Sir Stefan Dimitrievich! [...] Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of the Nativity of Christ and the coming new year. May the blessing of God overshadow you and your children, and may the grace of God protect your souls and bodies. About myself, I will tell you that, by the great grace of God, I feel better and better: I am already beginning to strengthen myself, and I see in myself the restoration of my abilities for activity. The new metropolitan is kind and just. Allow me to present you with this meager report from my impoverished soul, which has collected little spiritual alms on the path and marketplace of earthly life. [...] Many mourners wanted to have a list of the “Chalice of Christ” in order to draw consolation for their souls from this reading. This forced me to publish “The Chalice”; in general, I am afraid to publish my own work, seeing my spiritual immaturity. With feelings of unchanging devotion and perfect respect, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most sincere servant and pilgrim Archimandrite Ignatius. December 22, 1849 Sergiev Hermitage You might be interested in: