Life and works of Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov

Contents Life of St. Demetrius of Rostov About the sufferings of Christ grateful remembrance and prayerful reflection Meditation on the sufferings of Christ Worship of our Lord Jesus Christ Worship of the Most Holy Trinity Teaching on the week of the Last Judgment Lamentation for the burial of Christ The miraculous action of love About the difficulty and salvific nature of love About patience The Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the world Consolation in sorrow About the rich man and Lazarus Spiritual alphabet Deeds pleasing to God Rejoice in the Lord Word for Saturday of the fourth week of Lent Lesson for the fifth week of Great Lent On communion of the holy mysteries Discourse on divine communion Discourse two against despair Word for Palm Sunday Life of Saint Demetrius of Rostov Saint and wonderworker Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov, was born in 1651, in the month of December; His homeland was the small and little-known city of Makarov, now a place located 8 miles from Kyiv, up the Dnieper. About Father St. Demetrius, Savva, it is known that he served as a centurion in the Little Russian army and that he and his wife Maria were distinguished by great piety. In his “Diarium,” that is, his diary, the saint noted the following about his parents: “My parents, Savva Grigorievich and Maria Mikhailovna, married by legal marriage, are pious Christians.” In addition, there are marks about the time of their death, from which we can conclude that these pious Christians spent the end of their lives in the Kiev Cyril Monastery. So, we read: “On the 29th day of March, Holy Great Friday, my mother Maria Mikhailovna reposed at the ninth hour of the day. She was over seventy years old from her birth... She died in good spirits, memory and speech. On April 3rd, on Wednesday of the Bright Resurrection of Christ’s week, we performed a burial in the Kirillovsky Monastery.” This is listed as 1689. Father St. Demetrius died four years later, precisely in 1703. “On January 6th, at the third hour of the Epiphany, my father Savva Grigorievich reposed and was buried in the Kirillov Monastery in Kiev.” Such is the scant information about the life of the parents of St. Dimitri; but there are even fewer of them about the first childhood of the saint himself. It is only known that at baptism the newborn was given the name Daniel, and that he was brought up in the fear of God and the commandments of the Lord, “extending his years with both his mind and virtues, like a ladder, from strength to strength to come.” When Daniel grew up and learned to read and write, his parents sent him to the school that was in the Kiev Epiphany Monastery. Thanks to his abilities and rare diligence, Daniil soon showed great success in all subjects taught at the school, and after some time he also distinguished himself with the gift of versification and eloquence. But not just this, but in general, Daniil stood out sharply from the circle of his school friends. In his free time from classes, Daniel did not get carried away with various games with his peers, but usually retired and devoted himself entirely to reading divine books, or went to church and prayed there with great zeal. Thus, while still living in the world, Daniel already showed in himself the rudiments of monastic life. Having reached the age of seventeen, Daniel decided to leave worldly life and, having received a blessing from his parents, settled in the Trinity Cyril Monastery in Kyiv, and soon after that he was tonsured as a monk and renamed Demetrius. About such a memorable day of his life, the day when he embarked on the difficult and difficult path of self-denial, St. Demetrius himself wrote this: “On July 9, 1668, the holy martyr Pankratius was exposed as a monk in the Kirillov Monastery of Kiev, by the Venerable Father Meletius Dzok, abbot of the Kirillov Monastery.” Having become a monk, St. Demetrius devoted himself entirely to his calling; not caring at all about the world and its blessings, he thought only about pleasing God, learned obedience, humility and love for mankind, and in his deeds tried to imitate Anthony, Theodosius and other miracle workers of Pechersk. Less than a year passed after the tonsure of St. Demetrius, as the abbot of the monastery, expressed his desire to ordain him to the rank of hierodeacon; the dedication was made by Metropolitan Joseph of Tukalsky of Kyiv in the city of Kanev on the feast of the Annunciation, 1669. In this spiritual rite, St. Demetrius stayed until 1675. He lived all six years of his diaconal service in the same Kirillov Monastery, continuing with all his might to fulfill the monastic vow he had taken; in his great humility and obedience, he unquestioningly carried out all orders and requests; He was the first to arrive at the divine service and the last to leave, but at home, in his cell, he read books or labored in a prayer vigil. This is how the life of St. Demetrius until 1675; in the same year, with the permission of Archbishop Lazar Boranovich of Chernigov, he was called to the city of Chernigov and there he was ordained hieromonk on May 23, the day of the Holy Spirit. Soon the Right Reverend, noticing in St. Demetrius' great knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, the gift of preaching and a penchant for correcting hearts with the word of God, blessed him for the work of preaching in the city of Chernigov. With great success over the course of two years, St. Dimitri worked in the preaching field, both in the Chernigov cathedral church and in other churches of the same diocese; his word was marked with the seal of a strong mind, firm conviction and great piety. In the third year of his preaching activity in the Chernigov diocese, St. Demetrius asked for a blessing from the Right Reverend and went to the city of Vilna, where he said two words and then moved to the city of Slutsk; Here he settled in the fraternal Transfiguration Monastery and for a whole year labored in the work of preaching. St. returned Demetrius again went to Little Russia - to the hetman city of Baturin, in the monastery of which he chose to live; this was in February 1679. Upon arrival in Baturin, St. Demetrius visited the noble hetman, whom, in the saint’s own words, he was very graciously received and whose favor he enjoyed all the time. In the silence of the Baturinsky Monastery of St. Demetrius spent about two years uneventful. Life flowed smoothly and serenely, now under the arches of the church, now in the silence of the cell, and always and everywhere in fasting, prayer, piety and humility. For such a pious and ascetic life, for the good and saving work of Preaching for everyone, St. In 1681, Demetrius was recognized as worthy of the abbess. In his diary, the saint writes about it this way: “On August 10, 1681, the abbot of the Preobrazhenskaya Maxakovsky monastery died, and on the 26th of the same August, Father Victor Baturinsky and Father Ragoza came to me at the monastery from all the brethren with the election and petition to them in the monastery for the hegumenship.” “On September 1st I left Baturin to Archpastor 1st for a decree.” “On September 4th I visited the bishop with the hetman’s letter and was very graciously received by his eminence. As soon as I opened the letter, I immediately said the following words: “Without reading the letter, I say, may the Lord God bless you not only with the abbess, but by the name of Demetrius: “I wish you a miter: May Demetrius receive a miter.” “That same day I was at dinner with his Eminence and was lovingly treated, where, between other merciful words, he announced this to me: “Today the holy prophet Moses the Seer of God, today the Lord God has vouchsafed you the abbess, where the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was, like Moses on Tabor: and whoever said his ways to Moses, let him also tell you on this Tabor his path to the eternal Favor." I, a sinner, set these words for myself as a good omen and prophecy and noticed them. On September 5th he accepted the blessing and decree for the abbess of Maksakovsky... and His Eminence gave me his good staff for blessing and so he kindly let me go and no other way than the father of his own son.” Thus St. Demetrius was made abbot; a few days after this, he arrived at the Maksakov monastery and assumed a new position. But not for long St. Demetrius ruled the Maksakov monastery; In February 1682, the abbot of the Kyiv St. Michael's Monastery, Meletiy Dzok, died, in whose place the abbot of the Baturinsky Monastery was appointed, and the Baturinsky abbot was awarded to St. Dimitri. Not for long either St. Demetrius was the abbot of this monastery: a year and eight months after his arrival in Baturin, on his namesake day, October 26, he resigned from the management of the monastery and began to live in it in complete solitude. Having done this, St. It was as if Demetrius was listening to some secret voice, preparing for him a different, more difficult task, showing him a different, more glorious destination. Indeed, after some time, St. Demetrius was invited to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra by its archimandrite Varlaam Yasinsky. This pious man called St. Demetrius for an important and great cause. Following the example of the deceased heads of the Lavra: Metropolitan of Kyiv Peter Mogila and Archimandrite Innocent Gisel, who had previously worked on correcting the books of the lives of saints, Archimandrite Varlaam was also preoccupied with the idea of ​​finding a worthy husband to whom he could entrust this work. And so, knowing St. Demetrius, as a God-fearing man, highly intelligent, knowledgeable in the sciences and experienced in the knowledge of sacred and spiritual books, Father Varlaam, having prayed to God and after consulting with the cathedral fathers and brethren, decided to award the monastery to St. Demetrius - this great preacher of the Word of God, the work of collecting and correcting the lives of the saints. St. Demetrius for a long time refused the task entrusted to him, but then, seeing in this the true need of the Church of Christ, not daring to disobey and hoping for God’s help, he took up it in June 1684. In the diary it is written about this: “That same month—June, of course—I began, with God’s help, out of obedience, to write the Lives of the Saints for a whole year. God grant, do it!” With fervent prayer, the greatest zeal and diligence, the saint began to work on the work entrusted to him, drawing from great sources - the books of Blessed Macarius, the Metropolitan of Moscow and other Christian historians. During his work, St. Demetrius saw two visions. The first was on August 10, 1685. “I heard,” the saint says about himself, “that they were announcing the news for Matins, but out of laziness I fell asleep and at that time I saw the following: It seemed as if I had been entrusted with some kind of cave with holy relics; examining the coffins of the saints, I saw among them the resting Great Martyr Barbara: approaching her coffin, I saw that she was lying sideways, and that her coffin was somewhat rotten. Wanting to cleanse the latter, I took the relics out of the reliquary, put them in another place and did what was necessary; when he wanted to put the relics back in their original place, he suddenly saw that the Great Martyr Barbara was alive. Then I turned to her with the words: “Holy Virgin, pray to God for my sins.” To this she replied: “Will I beg? I don’t know, since you pray in the Roman way,” (I think this was said to me because, like in Rome, I pray briefly and rarely). Hearing these words, I began to grieve, but the saint, after some time, looked at me with a cheerful and smiling face and said: “Don’t be afraid.” She said something else to console me, but I don’t remember. After that, I put her body in the coffin, kissed her hands and feet and, regretting that the coffin was so thin and dilapidated, began to look for something new and better, but at that time I woke up.” To this St. Demetrius adds: “God knows what this dream signifies and what event will follow! Oh, that through the prayers of Saint Barbara God would give me the correction of my evil and cursed life.” The second vision happened in the same year, during the fast of the Apostle Philip. “Having finished,” the saint himself also says, “in one night the description of the sufferings of the holy martyr Orestes, about an hour before matins I lay down to rest without undressing, and at that time I saw St. Orestes with a cheerful face, who told me: “I endured more torment for Christ than you wrote”; at these words, he opened his chest and showed a large wound on his left side going inside, saying: “This was burned through me with iron.” Then St. Orestes opened his right hand to the elbow and, again showing the wound on it, said: “This is what was cut for me,” the same thing happened on his left hand. Finally, bending down, he opened one and the other leg to the knees and showed the wounds on the bend of them, with the words: “And this was cut through my scythe.” And standing directly opposite me and looking me in the face, he said: “Don’t you see that I suffered more for Christ than you wrote?” I couldn’t say anything against it, I was silent and only thought what kind of Orestes he was; Having foreseen my thought, the saint answered: “I am the same Orestes whose life you wrote today.” I also saw another person standing behind Saint Orestes, but he was silent all the time. The sound of the bell for Matins woke me up.” St. lived and worked. Demetrius in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, inspired by the great shrine that surrounded him. About two years passed like this. In January 1686, St. Demetrius, together with the Kiev-Pechersk Archimandrite Varlaam, was in Baturin. Here the hetman himself and other secular authorities, as well as the clergy, turned to him with a request to again take over the abbess of the Baturyn monastery: the saint refused for a long time, but finally bowed to their convincing requests and in February of the same year he moved from Kiev to Baturyn. In Baturyn St. Demetrius completed the compilation of the first book of the lives of the saints for three months: September, October and November, and sent the manuscripts to Archimandrite Varlaam for consideration. When they were read by all the fathers of the Lavra, St. Dimitri came to Kyiv and here began to publish his work under his own supervision. This was in January 1689. In the summer of the same year, St. Demetrius had the opportunity to visit the capital of Moscow and see the sovereigns. For some reason, the noble Hetman Ivan Mazepa was entrusted with going to Moscow, and among the clergy who accompanied him was St. Dimitri. Upon arrival in Moscow, everyone was presented to Sovereign Ioann Alekseevich and Princess Sofia Alekseevna and “given the hand”; on the same day, that is, August 11, they received a blessing from His Holiness Patriarch Joachim. Sovereign Peter Alekseevich at that time was in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where the hetman, St. Demetrius and the others set off a few days later. About this visit to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra of St. Dimitri writes in his diary: “On the 10th day of September, the noble hetman and I were at the hand of the most pious Tsar Peter Alekseevich... In the same monastery at that time there was also a patriarch, whom we visited often. On the 13th day of the same month, another time we were at the sovereign’s pen for vacation. His Holiness blessed me, a sinner, to continue writing the lives of the saints and gave me an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in the frame for blessing.” “On September 22nd, from the reigning city of Moscow, we are preparing to go to our homes with God’s blessing. Lord, hurry up!” Returning to Baturin, St. Demetrius again began his work, compiling the second book of lives, also for three months: December, January and February. The next year, that is, 1690, was marked for St. Demetrius with the following memorable circumstance. At the beginning of the spring of this year, Patriarch Joachim reposed and Adrian, Metropolitan of Kazan, was elected to the patriarchal throne and consecrated; the consecration took place in August; in the same month, the above-mentioned archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Father Varlaam, was ordained in Moscow to the Kiev metropolis. And so, when the latter was returning to Kyiv, His Holiness the Patriarch sent through him St. Demetrius received a letter “blessing the writing of the lives of the saints.” The Patriarch wrote: “God Himself rewards you, brother, with every kind blessing... for your godly labors in writing, correcting and quietly publishing the book of soul-helping lives of the saints for the first three months. May the same one bless you from now on, strengthen you and hasten you to work even for a whole year and completely correct other such books of the lives of the saints.” Next, the archpastor encourages the great worker, exhorts him not to abandon the work he has begun, and finally sends his blessing - “we send our desired archpastoral blessing.” For this letter of St. Demetrius sent a grateful response... Having first thanked the Lord God for deigning him to write the first book of the lives of the saints, the saint continues: “I give the same thanks to your archpastorship, for you have deigned to remember me, an unworthy servant, with your blessing and to cheer me up with a gracious fatherly word... Nowadays, even I, who am unworthy, work harder to I stretch out my mortal and sinful hand, having your holiness in this matter assisting me, strengthening and instructing blessing. "... Immediately St. Demetrius asks the patriarch to send him the Chetyi-Minea from Moscow. For the calmest writing of the lives of the saints, St. In the fall of 1691, Demetrius built himself a special cell, which he called a “skete,” and settled in it, and when the Cheti-Minea were sent, he again laid down the burden of managing the monastery and devoted himself entirely to his work. By the summer of 1693, the second book of lives was completed and sent for printing. It came out of print only in 1695, when St. Demetrius was again the abbot, only not of Baturinsky, but of the Peter and Paul Monastery in the city of Glukhov; here he received from His Holiness the Patriarch a second letter of commendation for the newly printed book of lives. Encouraged and encouraged by such attention from the archpastor, St. Demetrius began the third book, which was supposed to contain the months: March, April and May. From Glukhov St. Demetrius was transferred to Kyiv, to the Trinity Cyril Monastery, but stayed in the latter for only five months. His Grace Varlaam, Metropolitan of Kiev, wishing to distinguish such a great and glorious man, by agreement with the Archbishop of Chernigov, dedicated St. Demetrius was made an archimandrite and appointed to the Assumption Yeletsky-Chernigov Monastery. The dedication took place on June 20, 1697. Having become an archimandrite, St. Demetrius did not stop working on compiling the lives of the saints, despite the fact that concerns about the improvement of the monastery, various affairs of the church and the needs of the brethren constantly distracted his attention. Two years and three months after moving to the Yeletsky monastery of St. Demetrius was transferred by the archimandrite to the Novgorod-Seversky monastery. In this monastery he completed the third book of the lives of the saints; it was printed in 1700, under the archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Joasaph of Krakow; the latter, wanting to honor its author with something, sent St. Demetrius received a royal image for his blessing, the same one that Emperor Alexei Mikhailovich, when he was crowned king, sent as a sign of his favor to Metropolitan Peter of Kyiv Mogila. The great work adopted by St. Demetrius took charge of himself, his powerful and inexhaustible gift of preaching and his pious, impeccable life became known to the monarch; the latter deigned to reward St. for all this. Demetrius with the rank of Metropolitan. By personal decree of Emperor Peter Alekseevich, St. Demetrius was called to Moscow in 1701 and there on March 23 of the same year he was ordained metropolitan and appointed to the metropolitanate of Tobolsk and Siberia. But the newly consecrated metropolitan did not have to leave for Siberia to take his throne. Soon after his appointment, St. Demetrius fell ill and during his illness was honored with a gracious visit from the sovereign. The Emperor, having learned that the true cause of the illness was some kind of secret sadness, asked about it. The saint said that the true cause of his sadness and illness was his appointment to the metropolitanate in such a distant and harsh region as Siberia - a region too unfavorable for his health, and that in addition he had a task: compiling the lives of saints, the completion of which, as his greatest duty, he was extremely concerned about, and yet, as a result of this appointment, he may not complete it. Having learned this, the sovereign deigned to cancel the previous determination and ordered St. Dmitry to stay in Moscow. Here St. Dimitri did not live long. At the end of 1701, the Right Reverend Joasaph, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, to whose metropolitanate St. was appointed, died. Demetrius January 4, 1702. Arriving in Rostov, on the first of March of the same year, St. Demetrius first of all went to the monastery of Jacob, and entered the cathedral church of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray; at that time, foreknowing, perhaps by revelation from above, that he would rest in Rostov, he appointed himself a burial place in the right corner of this church, saying to those who were then with him: “Behold my rest.” Having assumed control of the metropolis, St. Demetrius performed the liturgy in the Rostov cathedral church, and at the end of the service he said a word to his flock. The word of the holy archpastor breathes with unspeakable love, meekness and benevolence: “Oh, beloved sheep of the flock of Christ,” the saint addresses, “peace be upon you!” peace to the God-saved city of Rostov, peace to your residence and cohabitation, peace to your homes, peace to your hearts! Let not your heart be troubled by my coming to you! entered by the door, but did not climb over somewhere, did not look for, but was found, did not know you and was not known to you; The fate of the Lord is inscrutable - they sent me to you. And so I came not so that you could serve me, but to serve you. I came to you with love, like a father to his children, I will say more, like a brother to his brothers, like a friend to his beloved friends... And if you call me father, then I will answer you in the apostolic way: “My children, in the same image I am sick.” In saying this, the saint was truly true to his words. Having taken upon himself the work of governing the region, he did not spare his strength in vigilant care for the flock entrusted to him; with his preaching he spread the true teaching of Christ, and with his life, full of abstinence, purity and fear of God, he set an example of a true shepherd of the Church of Christ; tried to eradicate untruth, no matter where it came from - from those in power or those under power, from secular or clergy, tried to dispel ignorance and took care of planting love, justice, peace and the light of knowledge everywhere. Thus, soon after assuming the metropolis, the great archpastor was struck by the general ignorance and rudeness among the clergy. Many of the rural priests not only did not know what was appropriate for their title, but also did not even understand the true meaning of the priestly order. Some were proud of their rank, others talked about what was told to them in confession, denouncing and reproaching their spiritual children. Some did not care about giving communion to the sick, went only to the rich, leaving the poor without communion, or kept the body and blood of Christ in inappropriate places and inappropriate vessels, calling the most pure mysteries by a simple and unworthy name. As an example of the reigning ignorance, St. Dimitri says the following. Once, while traveling to Yaroslavl, he happened to go into a rural church; Wanting to venerate the mysteries of Christ, he asked the priest of this church: “Where are the most pure and life-giving mysteries of Christ?” He, not understanding these words, remained silent; then St. Demetrius asked again: “Where is the body of Christ?”, but the priest did not understand this either; when one of the priests who were with the lord said: “Where is the supply?” then the priest took out “a very vile vessel and showed in it a great shrine kept in negligence.” In view of all this, St. Demetrius wrote two teachings for priests. In them, he briefly but clearly outlined everything concerning the purpose and duties of the priestly rank, and those religious and moral requirements to which the life of a priest as a shepherd must be subject. So that these teachings are known to everyone and no one can justify themselves by ignorance, St. Demetrius ordered that lists be made from them and sent to cities and districts with instructions to every priest - having copied them, have them with him, often re-read them and try in every possible way to exactly fulfill what was written. Instructing the clergy both orally and in writing, St. Demetrius at the same time understood that it was impossible to eradicate ignorance by this alone, and that this required the light of teaching and religious and moral education; That’s why I decided to set up a seminary in Rostov. “So that the children of the priestly church ministers would not be as ignorant as their fathers, and when instead of their fathers they are awarded the priestly or deaconate rank, they would understand the power of the divine scripture they reverence and would be able to teach the people in the church not only by reading books, but also by the oral word of God,” St. Demetrius gathered up to two hundred people from the children of priests and clergy into his seminary and, for better order, divided everyone into three schools, assigning a special teacher for each. Despite the assigned teachers, the saint himself constantly applied his efforts to the teaching and upbringing of children; often visited schools, listened to students, checking their progress; on Sundays and holidays he ordered everyone to attend church, stand in fear and listen with attention to everything that was read and sung during the service. When the teachers were absent, the tireless archpastor himself took over their position, no matter how much work he had on church affairs; Having selected the most capable of his students, he taught them in his free time, interpreted the books of the Old Testament, and in the summer, living in his bishop’s village of Demyanakh, explained the New Testament to them. St. did not leave without his attention. Demetrius is also a sexton and sexton; so that they “serve their service with all reverence and fear in the church,” he ordered them to be ordained as surplices, which had never happened before in Rostov. With all these labors for the benefit of the Church and the flock of St. Demetrius continued to work on compiling and correcting the lives of the saints; by the end of the third year of his archpastoral service in Rostov, he completed the fourth and together the last book of lives, which contained the months: June, July and August. In the “Chronicle of the Bishops of Rostov” at the Rostov Cathedral Church he writes: “In the summer of the incarnation of God the Word 1705, the month of Fevruaria on the 9th day, in memory of the holy martyr Nicephorus, the so-called victorious one, on the occasion of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord I expressed my last prayer to St. Simeon the God-Receiver: Now let you go thy servant, Master, on the day of the Lord's suffering, Friday, in the same speech of Christ: Having been accomplished, before the Saturday of remembrance of the dead and before the week of the Last Judgment, with the help of God and the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints, the month of August was written with the prayers. Amen"... In the same year, i.e. 1705, the book was sent to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and printed. Thus, the Lives of the Saints for the whole year from the first day of September to the last day of August, thanks to the incessant work of the saint for twenty years. Demetrius, were collected, corrected and compiled; in this way a great deed was accomplished for the benefit of the entire Church of Christ. In addition to this main work of St. Demetrius's many other works are also known. As one of the most important, it is necessary to mention the book against schismatics. The reason for compiling it was the following. Saint Demetrius became aware that in many places of the metropolitanate entrusted to him there were false teachers who came from the forests of Bryansk; it became known that with their false teachings they shake the true Orthodox faith, deceive and seduce many of the sheep of the flock of Christ into their faith. Desiring to confirm and strengthen those who waver in the Orthodox faith, and to return those who are lost to the Church of Christ, St. Demetrius wrote “Search for the schismatic faith”; in this book he argued that the faith of the schismatics is not true, the teaching is disastrous for the soul, and their deeds are disgusting to God. Before moving to Rostov, when he was still in Little Russia, St. Demetrius wrote two books: the first is “The Spiritual Alphabet,” that is, spiritual instructions arranged according to the letters of the alphabet. This book was published only after the death of its pious author. The second, called “Irrigated Fleece,” was composed in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it tells about the miracles of the miraculous image of the Mother of God, located in the Ilyinsky Chernigov Monastery and offers corresponding conversations and moral teachings; it was printed in 1696, when St. Dimitri was in Chernigov. As for the teachings of St. Demetrius, then their number must be very large. It is known that wherever the saint was: in Chernigov, Vilna, Slutsk, Baturin, or finally in Rostov, no matter what position he held, no matter what rank he was in - whether he was a priest, whether he was an abbot or ruled a metropolitanate - nothing and nowhere prevented him from speaking a word of sermon in front of his always numerous listeners. Unfortunately, not all of the teachings have been collected. The book of teachings kept at the Rostov Cathedral Church contains mainly those spoken by St. Demetrius in Great Russia, and from the number of words spoken in Little Russia, only five are placed in it. Quite a bit has been written by St. Demetrius and small works of various contents. These are the “Apology, to quench the sorrow of a person who is in trouble, persecution and embitterment”; This contains a conversation between the comforter and the mourner. The Apology was published for the first time in 1700 in Chernigov. “Brief questions and answers about faith”, “Grateful reflection on the passion of Christ”, “Lamentation at the burial of Christ”, several devotions, prayers and confessions of sins. There were also works with the nature of a chronicle - about the Slavic people and about the construction of churches and the installation of bishops in Russia. The “Apology” and the chronicles were written in Little Russia: when and where the others were written is unknown. One might think that after writing four books of the lives of the saints, St. Dimitri will rest and calm down; the consciousness of great work accomplished, old age, worries about management and, moreover, an ill state - all this, apparently, inclined towards peace. But what do we see? we see that he does not calm down, but, on the contrary, sets new goals, takes on new works; We see the same insatiable thirst for knowledge, the same passionate desire to teach and enlighten, burning with an unquenchable fire in the saint’s chest and irresistibly drawing him further and further. The Lives of the Saints was completed by St. Demetrius, as stated, in 1705, i.e., in the 54th year of his life - so what? Following this, he began to compile the book “The Chronicler”. “Under the name and image of the “Chronicle,” writes St. Demetrius, I would like to write some useful moral teachings, so that the reader would not only be entertained with stories, but also taught with moral teachings,” that is, it should have been nothing more than the sacred history of the Old Testament along with the corresponding moralizing arguments. In addition to the desire to use such a book himself, St. Demetrius, in his own words, is the fact that not only in Little Russia, but also in Great Russia, Slavic Bibles are very rarely found, and that as a result, even many clergy do not know the order of biblical stories. As an example, St. Demetrius talks about how one abbot asked him when Elijah was a prophet! before the Nativity of Christ or after the Nativity of Christ? And others said that with the same sword with which Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the prophet Elijah later cut off the priests of Baal. The book was not to be large, not expensive, and therefore accessible to everyone. At the end of the Chronicler, St. Demetrius thought of writing interpretations of the Psalter. But the saint’s good intentions did not come true! Whatever the strength, whatever vigor and inspiration renews them, time and extraordinary efforts take their toll. And so, when St. Demetrius set to work on the Chronicler, and this clearly affected him; Doubt already arises in his soul about his strength, about his ability to complete his plans. In one of the letters to the Right Reverend Stephen, Metropolitan of Ryazan, regarding the “Chronicle” of St. Demetrius writes: “There is desire, but no strength. And they still look at the clearing and the writing hand trembles... In the same letter, the saint complains about the difficult times Russia was then going through. External wars and internal unrest, which were so abundant in the reign of Peter the Great, could not help but influence the soul of the saint, which was sensitive to everything. “And also, writes St. Demetrius, and the current times take away the mind and the desire to write books. The teaching is silent during the noise of weapons.” This letter dates back to 1707. In later letters there is even more doubt and uncertainty. In September 1708 St. Dimitri wrote to the director of the Moscow Printing House: “I can’t write soon, not only because of the difficulty of the matter, but also because of my weakness: I am often exhausted and God knows whether I can complete what I started: because of my frequent ailments, the pen from the writing hand becomes cold, and the scribe is thrown to the bed.” – Doubts of St. Demetrius was justified; he did not finish the Chronicler, and did not even begin to interpret the Psalter. Saying to himself: “My thoughts are overseas, but death is behind me,” St. Demetrius, perhaps, did not even realize how right he was. Bowing before St. Demetrius, as a man of reason and knowledge and a tireless worker, we should honor him with the same surprise as a man with a meek, pure, loving, compassionate and God-fearing soul, as a true Christian who carried within himself all human virtues. Since he became a monk, St. Demetrius really abandoned all earthly goods and did not care about them; stinginess, love of money or any other self-interest was completely unknown to him and never violated the peace of his soul. St. Demetrius never collected money, but always spent it on appropriate needs: during his abbess, on monastic needs, and when he became an archpastor, on decorating churches, and mainly on the needs of the poor. Fatherly caring for orphans, widows and the poor, St. Demetrius generously endowed them all; often called together the blind, deaf and lame, fed them, distributed clothes and showed other acts of mercy and attention, thus being, according to Job, “an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame.” St. was no less attentive. archpastor and to all kinds of needs of his spiritual children. An example is the following incident, told by him. When St. Demetrius in Yaroslavl, in 1705, when he was returning home from church one day, two people approached him, saying: “Holy Master, what do you order? we are ordered to shave our beards, but we are ready to lay our heads by our beards; Let them cut off our heads rather than shave our beards.” The bishop was surprised at such an unexpected question and, unable to immediately answer anything from St. Scripture, said: “What will grow, a cut off head or a shaved beard?” After a pause, they answered: “The beard will grow, but the head will not.” “Therefore,” the Bishop said again, it is better not to put a price on a beard, which will grow back dozens of times, than to lose your head, which will only grow back at the resurrection of the dead.” Having said this, he headed home, and he was accompanied by many of the best citizens of the city and, having come to the bishop, began a conversation about “barbering and not barbering.” From this conversation I learned St. Demetrius, that those who shaved their beards began to doubt their salvation; for, according to them, after the “barber shaving” they lost the image of God. On this occasion St. Demetrius began a long conversation, explaining that the image of God lies not in the visible face of a person, but in the invisible soul, and that in vain some people think of receiving salvation through their beard, and those who shaved their beard consider this an unforgivable sin. About this same St. Demetrius later wrote at length in his book about the schismatics. Thus constantly caring for the salvation of the flock of Christ entrusted to him, St. Demetrius, like a good shepherd, always walked ahead in word and deed. Despite the numerous worries of management, the constant labor of compiling and writing books, teachings, etc., St. Demetrius “flowed daily to the church for God’s services for prayer, but on Sundays and holiday services the holy liturgy was rarely abandoned, except for weakness or great need.” During religious processions from the cathedral church of Rostov, for the most part he labored himself, regardless of the long distance or the weakness of his health; At the same time, he did not forget to teach the people with his preaching. Teaching fasting and abstinence, St. Demetrius himself led a strict life; with the exception of holidays, he did not allow himself anything extra in food except what was necessary; St. was especially ascetic. Demetrius in Lent: in the first and Holy Week he ate only once. Never noticed that St. Demetrius was harsh and cruel, so that he was proud of his high position, humiliated his subordinates and inferiors in general, or at least was inattentive to them. Household servants used to come and bow to the Bishop on their name day; then he mercifully blessed them with images, and if this did not happen, then he gave them money. Loving everyone like children, like brothers, St. Dimitri himself enjoyed universal love and respect. The Great Monarch himself and the entire royal family were filled with the greatest favor towards the ruler; They often called him to Moscow, where, in the presence of high-ranking persons, he performed services and preached the word of God. Many royal persons also came to Rostov to see the saint for his blessing; so the wife of the deceased sovereign Ivan Alekseevich, Paraskeva Fedorovna, came with her children, and the princesses, daughters of the sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich, Maria, Feodosia and Natalya Alekseevna, also came. All of them “bestowed the bishop with robes and other various things,” of which St. Demetrius prepared himself bishop's clothes for death. Such was the life of St. Demetrius, full of work, prayers, meekness, piety and love, so the years of his archpastoral service passed one after another, and the saint, weakening and exhausted, walked quickly to the grave. The last autumn of 1709 finally arrived, he was extremely exhausted and coughing heavily. In October, Empress Paraskeva Feodorovna, who wished to travel from Moscow to Yaroslavl to venerate the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, called Tolska, had to come to Rostov due to the autumn weather; It was difficult to get to Yaroslavl, which is why the empress wanted the miraculous icon to be brought from the Tolsk monastery to Rostov. St. Demetrius, having learned about this, summoned the bishop's treasurer, Hieromonk Philaret, and said: “Behold, two guests are coming to Rostov: the Queen of Heaven and the Queen of Earth, but I will no longer be worthy of seeing them here, but you, the treasurer, must be ready to receive them.” On October 26, on his name day, St. Demetrius, despite his exhaustion and cough, served the liturgy himself, but, exhausted by the service, he could no longer say the lesson, but ordered one of the singers to read it from a notebook; he himself sat at the royal gates. On the same day, he sat at the dinner table with the guests, according to the custom of previous years, but with the greatest difficulty. The next day, that is, October 27, I came to visit St. Demetrius from the mountains. Varlaam, Archimandrite of the Monastery of St. Daniel the Stylite of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. St. Demetrius received the guest with great joy, treated him and talked for a long time in private. At this time, a messenger came from the nun Varsanofia, who lived near the bishop’s house, and conveyed the latter’s request to the bishop to visit her. St. Demetrius, due to extreme illness, almost refused, but the nun sent a second time to ask for the same thing. Then the saint, on the advice of the guest, to go and thereby alleviate his illness at least a little, ordered him to behave before the nun. Having stayed with her for a short time together with Archimandrite Varlaam, he barely made it back to his cell, where, supported by the servants, he coughed for a long time and violently. Having calmed down, St. Demetrius called the singers to him and ordered them to sing spiritual songs he himself composed, such as: “My dear Jesus,” “I place my hope in God,” “You are my God, Jesus, you are my joy,” while he himself listened, standing and warming himself near the stove. After singing, the saint sent everyone home, leaving with him only one beloved singer, who was his assistant in his labors, and began to tell him about his life - how he spent it in his youth, in adulthood, how he tried to please God, and concluded his speech with the words: “And you, children, pray in the same way.” Then, saying: “It’s time for you, child, to go to your home,” he blessed him and, leading him out of his cell, bowed to him almost to the ground, thanking him for his many labors in rewriting all sorts of works. When the singer, embarrassed by such a bow, said: “Do you worship me, the last servant, holy master?” The saint again said in humility: “I thank you, child,” and returned to his cell; The singer, heading home, began to cry. Returning to his place, St. Demetrius ordered the servants to go to their places, and he himself locked himself in a special cell, as if to rest, and began to pray. So the fire burned mighty and strong, and now only the dying flame of the prayer lamp glows; the sun was shining shining and bright, but now only a distant, barely noticeable star trembles; there was a deep ocean with a boundless blue distance, and now only a small drop of water glitters in the last rays of the setting sun! An hour of another night passed, and the lamp of holy life went out. When they entered the cell in the morning, they found the saint in the position of praying on his knees, lifeless. As soon as the sad news about the death of the ruler spread throughout the city, its residents began to gather in crowds to worship the body of the deceased, crying and mourning. And how could I not cry! Some lost their mentor and teacher, others - a true friend and brother, the weak - a protector, the strong - a wise adviser, orphans - a loving father, the unfortunate - a comforter, and all together they lost the shepherd of the church, who laid down his life for his sheep. Perhaps never before have grief and sadness, like autumn clouds, covered and tormented so heavily the souls of the flock abandoned by the shepherd. On the same day, that is, October 28, the body of the deceased was dressed in the clothes he had prepared earlier, placed in a coffin and taken to the Church of the Savior, which was near the bishop’s cells. According to the will, all his rough written works were placed under the head and under the entire body of the saint. On October 28, the queen and the princesses arrived in Rostov and, not finding St. alive. Dimitria, I grieved a lot about this. Having ordered to serve over St. Demetrius performed a requiem service, the queen left to meet the miraculous icon. Upon the Empress’s return to Rostov, on October 30, the body of the saint, at her request, was transferred from the house church of the Savior to the cathedral, where a requiem service was served for the second time in the presence of all the royal persons. For the burial of St. Demetrius arrived in Rostov, His Eminence Stefan, Metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom: coming straight to the church where the saint’s body lay, the bishop wept over him for a long time. Both rulers were each other's best friends and advisors. St. Demetrius, both on matters of government and especially regarding his writings, often consulted with the Reverend Stephen. Having written his spiritual will more than two years before his death, St. Demetrius announced it to Eminence Stephen; Then they agreed that whichever of them survived should bury the deceased. Fulfilling this covenant, the bishop arrived in Rostov and immediately began making orders for the burial of St. Demetrius in the monastery of St. Jacob. The clergy and many honorary citizens of the mountains. Rostov then turned with a request to the Right Reverend Stephen to bury the deceased in the cathedral church of Rostov, where the predecessor of St. was buried. Demetrius, Metropolitan Joasaph, and all the former Rostov bishops. But since St. When Demetrius first entered Rostov, he himself chose a place for burial, and since this same place was indicated in the spiritual charter, the bishop did not agree to the request of the residents of Rostov. On the day appointed for the burial, His Grace Stephen, with a full assembly of all the priests and clergy of the mountains. In Rostov, the liturgy was served and the funeral service was performed in the cathedral church; after which the body of the saint was transferred to the monastery of St. Jacob and there, in the right corner of the Church of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was buried. The burial took place on November 25th. He ruled the metropolis of St. Demetrius was seven years without two months; he was a monk for forty-one years, three months and eighteen days, but his entire life was almost 58 years. After the death of St. Demetrius left many books of Latin, Greek, Polish and Slavic, both handwritten and printed; all of them were collected by Eminence Stephen and sent to Moscow - to the book depository of the Synodal Printing House. Forty-two years, ten months and twenty-four days after death, precisely on September 21, 1752, during the repair of the sunken floor in the Church of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the relics of St. Demetrius, and in 1757 he was canonized. The memory of the holy saint is celebrated twice a year: September 21st is the day of the discovery of St. relics, and October 28th is the day of the death of St. Dimitri. Grateful remembrance and prayerful reflection on the sufferings of Christ Oh, how wonderful is Your procession, Son of God, who descended from heaven! Looking for the lost sheep - the sinned man, You took on countless labors (and made many wanderings), after which you went to free suffering and death. Surrendering myself to the memory of all this, I offer You, my Redeemer, thanks with all my heart. For Adam, who sinned in the Garden of Eden, taken and bound in the Garden of Gethsemane, second Adam, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! Bound me so by the power of your love that I decide to die sooner than to embitter Your kindness and philanthropy by any sin, for which I pray to You. From the garden, led through the brook Kidron and fallen on the way to the ground, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! I fall down in prayer at Your feet: save my soul from every fall. Led from Annas to Caiaphas and there suffering blows on His cheeks, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! Before Kiapha, the deceitful bishop, he heard false testimonies against himself and all in silence, like a lamb that endured. Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Send me silence and patience when my enemies rise up against me, and let no lies touch my lips, I pray to You. Covered with all kinds of reproaches, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Cover my sins with forgiveness so that shame does not cover my face when I appear before Your face, which I pray to You to be worthy to contemplate. Like a criminal bound, given up to mockery and humiliation until late at night, beaten many times in the bishop’s courtyard and thrown into prison there until the morning, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! When I leave this life, free my soul from eternal darkness, I pray to You. In the morning, bound by the Jews and brought before Pontius Pilate, who did not find a single fault in You, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! So preserve me in this life, so that at this hour the mortal enemy of my soul will not find a single fault in me, I pray to You. Brought from Pilate to Herod, who had long desired to see You, and dressed by him in bright clothes, You were given over to reproach, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Save me from the reproach of my invisible enemies and clothe me after death in the robe of incorruptibility, I pray to You. Scolded by Herod, You were sent back to Pilate and on the way again suffered blows and reproaches, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Direct my path according to the words of Your commandments, I pray to You. Brought out from Pilate, you were brought to a pillar, from which you took off your clothes, then, ready for torture, you leaned against it and hugged it with your innocent arms. The cruel warriors tied Your hands tightly and beat You with thorn rods and whips. Your divine body was all wounded, and the most pure blood flowed in streams, long-suffering Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! For the sake of all these invaluable sufferings and wounds of Yours, forgive my sins and save me until my very death from the sword of the enemy, I pray to You. After so much torment and torture, You were completely covered in blood, like a garment, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Warm the coldness of my heart for virtue with the warmth of the Holy Spirit who descended in the form of fire, I pray to You. Beaten underfoot and dragged by the hair, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! May my soul, kept under Your roof, not be carried away into Gehenna, I pray to You. You were wounded by thorn needles and drops of blood fell from Your head; The crown of thorns was then taken off and then put on Thy most pure head, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! They hit the crown of thorns with sticks, and sharp needles pierced Your head to the brain; I, pierced by the sharp thorns of Your suffering, cry to You, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! To you, who sits at the right hand of God the Father, the Jews mockingly gave the royal cane into your right hand, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to you! With this reed, O Lord, blot out the list of my countless sins, so that I may be on the right side of Your glory and glorify You forever. You who have received countless blows on your head and chest, accept, as you once received from the tax collector, my prayer, when, confessing my sins, I bow my head before You and begin to beat on my chest: strengthen me so that I can endure all the blows of fate with gratitude, with confidence in Your saving providence, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Make me worthy of Your divine glory, I pray. All wounded from feet to head, as the prophet predicted: “And when I saw him, he had no appearance, lower than kindness” 2 with a crown of thorns on his head, all exhausted and exhausted, so that even Pilate was surprised at the inhuman cruelty of the Jews and said: “This man is tortured without mercy and is therefore worthy of mercy.” You were not shown mercy by the Jews, who exclaimed: “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” I exclaim: “Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! You, who brought water out of the stone, were brought to Pilate, who was sitting in the judgment seat, and this one, sitting on the cherubim and judging the living and the dead, condemned you to death, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Make me constantly remember death and be always ready to appear before Your righteous and terrible judgment; Then, I pray, do not judge me according to my deeds, but save me according to Your mercy. When Pilate, who gives us life and death, condemned You to death, the Jews tied Your hands and, laying a cross, led you along with the thieves to be crucified, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! From the cunning of the invisible enemy, who is preparing various temptations for my soul, protect me, I pray to You, so that the treasures of eternal blessings that You have intended for those who love You will not be stolen from me. Carrying the cross laid on You, You fell to the ground under its weight, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! By the power of Your cross, save me from falling, I pray to You. Brought to Mount Golgotha, You, the Lord of all the heavenly powers, You Yourself took off Your clothes, disturbing the wounds and renewing their pain. You, who have renewed human nature, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Take away the wounds of my iniquities, gaping in my soul, from me, I pray to You. Having arrived at Golgotha, the soldiers laid a cross on the ground to crucify You on it, threw You onto the cross and began nailing Your hands and feet to it. And thus what the prophet David said was fulfilled: “You have cut up all my bones.” 3 And these Thy sufferings were more painful than all the previous ones, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to Thee! For the sake of Your life-giving suffering, heal the suffering and torment of my soul, I pray to You. Who let out so many heartfelt sighs before his death, who shed so many tears and blood during his suffering, pour out Thy mercy on me, O Lord, send me sorrow and tears for my sins; Most of all, I pray: wash my soul with your tears and blood, so that I exclaim: Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! Raised to the cross in almost His complete nakedness, hanged between two thieves, having tasted gall and vinegar, Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! And save me from the bitterness of sin, I pray to You. Creator of my soul and body, You endured suffering with all your soul and all your feelings: you suffered with your whole body from pain and wounds, tasted the bitterness of bile, smelled the stench from corpses, heard false testimonies and curses, saw bitter tears and the tormented gaze of the Mother of God standing at Your cross. Remembering all this, I exclaim: Lord Jesus Christ, glory to You! and I pray: for the sake of Your suffering, forgive all the sins of my soul and body. The source of immortality, who died at the ninth hour, after my death settled me where the nine ranks of angels glorify You; who made a sacrifice for the whole world, Lord, accept from me an unworthy sacrifice - the remembrance of Your most holy sufferings, accept the prayers offered for us sinners from those standing at Your life-giving cross - the Most Holy Mother of God, Your beloved disciple John the Theologian, Mary Magdalene and others standing there. You are the truth and in truth you want salvation for everyone, and everyone should bring you honor and worship, now and ever and forever and ever. Amen. Reflection on the sufferings of Christ Every true son of the Church of Christ must remember the suffering on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He innocently endured for us. It is known that after the Last Supper, Jesus Christ, together with His disciples: Peter, James and John, went to the Garden of Gethsemane and, kneeling, prayed to God the Father: “Abba Father! everything is possible for You: carry this cup past Me; but not what I want, but what You want.” 4 So in great sorrow Christ prayed, and bloody sweat fell in drops to the ground. When Christ finished the prayer, Judas was already approaching with the sent soldiers, to whom he gave the following sign: “Whomever I kiss, he is the one,” and, having arrived, he immediately approached Him and said: “Rabbi! Rabbi! and kissed Him. And they laid their hands on Him and took Him.” 5 Oh, God-thinking soul, now follow Christ and look at His suffering! First of all, He was brought bound to Caiaphas’s father-in-law Anna, who began to ask about the teaching and the disciples. “I said clearly,” Jesus answered, “Why are you asking Me? ask those who heard what I said to them.” As soon as Christ said this, one of the ministers came up and hit Him on the cheek. “Is this your answer to the high priest?” Jesus meekly answered the one who struck him: “If I said something bad, show me what is bad; What if it’s good that you beat Me?” 6 With these words, Christ seemed to want to say: O man, why do you cause such great pain to Me, your Creator? Reflecting on this, Christ-loving soul, with bitter tears and a tender heart, offer a prayer to the Lord! But continue, God-thinking soul, to continue following Christ. Here He is tied to a post, receiving countless blows, bloodied, wounded, naked and abused. The Prophet Isaiah, foreseeing these sufferings, said: “And when I saw him, I did not have a form lower than kindness.” 7 One of the teachers of the Church, interpreting the words of the Gospel: “Behold a man,” says this through the mouth of Pilate: “O, the Jewish race, look at your king, who does not have a human appearance at all, but is all torn, bloodied and in wounds, look and stop raging! But the Jews shouted: “Take him, take him, crucify him!” O heaven, oh earth, and all you inanimate elements, look how an animate creature endowed with reason brings dishonor and offense to your Creator! Do not hesitate any longer and take up your weapons. You, heaven, strike with swords of lightning and thunder; You, sea, flood and drown with your waters; You, sun, moon and stars, turn the ungrateful into ashes with your fire, and you, earth, open your bowels and consume not only their bodies, but also their souls! Yet you do not give even a moment of peace, but torment and torment the tormentors of Christ, who endlessly loved the human race and innocently suffered for it. Oh, God-thinking soul, do not leave yet, do not return to the vanity of the world, but wait a little and look at the very face of the Lord. It was not enough to torture the whole body, cover it with wounds and blood, no! The embittered and distraught man touched the holy face of Jesus Christ, the tormentors, mockingly, spat at him and, covering him, struck him. Some commentators, discussing why they covered the face of Jesus Christ, say that the face of our Savior was filled with indescribable beauty, as David said: “You are more beautiful than the sons of men,” 8 and that the torturers, in order not to look at the bright face of the Lord, covered it and beat it until they disfigured it: from strong blows it turned blue and covered with blood. Come, all you people of the earth, and look at your King! Can you find out who it is? All wounded, all covered in blood, and He endured all this for your intemperance, for your sins! Stop grieving your Redeemer, repent and do not inflict any more wounds on Christ, who was wounded because of you! The Lord said through the prophet about his suffering: “All who come along the way, turn and see if there is a disease, like my disease.” 9 Mocking and torturing, the Jews placed a crown of thorns on their heads and beat them, and the sharp thorn needles pierced the head, passed to the brain and caused unbearable suffering - and to whom? To our Savior, the gentle Lamb! Be horrified, soul, tremble and fall to the ground with tears and prayer! Go, God-thinking soul, follow Christ again! The cruel tormentors took Jesus Christ, laid a cross on Him and led him to Golgotha. The cross was heavy, having a length, as the teachers of the Church say, about fifteen steps. And the exhausted and tormented Christ bore such a weight on His shoulders! Moreover, the cross, with its weight, tore apart the dried wounds and renewed the torment; Moreover, on the way, Christ was beaten and pushed until He fell to the ground, exhausted. Oh, true believer soul, follow your Teacher, join the weeping Mother of God who follows Him along with the other wives and cry! Weep and sob, open your petrified heart, and the Son of God coming to free death will tell you, as he said to the wives who followed Him: “Daughters of Jerusalem! do not weep for Me, but weep for yourself and for your children.” 10 O our Hope and Comforter! deign us to contemplate You, when You come with glory to judge the living and the dead, accept us into Your kingdom, where we could contemplate You forever! Some teachers of the Church speak of the three greatest torments of Christ. The first is when He suffered on the cross; second, when among these sufferings He saw the ungrateful and unbelieving; third, when He grieved in soul, seeing the Mother of God standing at the cross, sad and suffering, with a tormented soul and a pierced heart, as Simeon said: “And a weapon will pierce your own soul.” 11 “Oh, My Son,” the grieving Mother of God spoke to Christ with sobs and tears, “Oh, My Son, how can You bear this terrible, shameful death?!” I cannot bear Your suffering." Many testify that if we were to collect together all the suffering and torment of all those who suffered for Christ and compare it with the mental suffering of the Mother of God, then the last suffering would be immeasurably greater than the first. Reflecting on this, give worship and praise to the Most Holy Theotokos. God-thinking soul, stand at the cross of the Lord and listen to the last words spoken by the crucified Christ! I. When Jesus Christ prayed for those who crucified Him, He said to the Father: His “Father! let them go; they don’t know what they’re doing.” 12 Keeping this in mind, you, a sinful man, forgive the offenses of your enemies and pray for the forgiveness of their sins; then you can ask for yourself, with tears, forgiveness from God for your sins, saying: I have sinned, forgive me! II. Those passing by mocked Jesus Christ, saying: “He who destroys the church and builds it up in three days! save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." 13 The chief priests and scribes also mocked Him and said to one another, “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself. Let Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe.” 14 Hearing how the senseless crowd so cruelly reviled and mocked Him, Christ exclaimed: “My God, My God, have you forsaken Me forever?” 15 Cry out, O soul, to Christ! Son of God, Word of God, my Savior, who suffered on the cross, hear my words: My God, why have you forsaken me? raise me who have fallen, revive me who have been killed by sins, accept me who repents and have mercy! III. One of the villains crucified with Christ also began to slander the innocent Sufferer, saying: “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” 16 But another calmed him down and said: “Or are you not afraid of God, when you yourself are condemned to the same thing? We were judged justly, but He did nothing wrong.” 17 And then, turning to Jesus Christ, he said: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your kingdom.” 18 To this Jesus Christ answered: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” 19 Remembering this conversion of a repentant sinner, we too will approach God with sincere repentance, sincerely confessing our sins and praying: remember us, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom. IV. Seeing His Mother and beloved disciple at the cross, Jesus Christ said to the Mother: “Woman, behold your son,” 20 then said to the disciple: “Behold your mother.” 21 Oh, Mother of God! – let us remember here the words of St. John Chrysostom on the crucifixion of the Lord - oh, Mother of God! What stings have not wounded your soul, what arrows have not pierced your heart, what spears have not torn your chest?! You, Most Pure One, stand at the cross and sob, crying out: “What is this terrible, unbearable sight before My eyes? What kind of miracle is this that obscures thought, what is this incomprehensible mystery, My Son?! I cannot see You, clothed with light as with a robe, without clothes - without those very clothes that I have woven with My hands and for which they are now casting lots; I cannot help but languish with inexpressible torment, seeing You crucified in shame among two thieves in front of the whole universe. O ethereal powers, come down and weep with Me! O sun, be filled with compassion for My child and turn into darkness, for the light of My eyes is already darkening! O moon, hide your rays, for the dawn of my soul, the most beautiful of the sons of men, is entering the grave.” Saying this, the Mother of God bowed her head in exhaustion; Jesus Christ, pointing to his beloved disciple, John the Theologian, said: “Woman, behold your son!” V. After all this, Jesus Christ, knowing that everything has already been accomplished so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, says: “I thirst.” 22 One of the soldiers standing near the cross dipped a sponge in a vessel of vinegar, stuck it on a reed, and brought it to His mouth. Remembering this, let us say to the Lord: Lord crucified for us, give us Thy sweet drink to drink when You come in Your glory, but here do not reject us who are thirsty and hungry and deign to partake of Your body and Your blood, which You shed for us. VI. Having tasted the vinegar, Jesus Christ said: “Having been completed... Father, in Your hands, I commend My spirit” 23 and then, bowing His head, gave up His spirit. Worship of our Lord Jesus Christ I worship Your birth from a Father without a mother, which was before the creation of the world, and Your unspeakable care for us, the Son of God. I worship Your mysterious condescension, through the influx of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin, the incarnation of Your birth and the first tranquility in the manger. I bow and glorify Your circumcision, your humble baptism from a slave, your transfiguration at Tabor, your glorious and victorious procession to Jerusalem for voluntary suffering. From a young age, you took upon yourself all the labors, you fasted and performed ascetic labors for us, walked and worked, taught and preached, healed, resurrected; Remembering all this, I glorify, honor and fall with love before You, merciful Creator of the world! I worship Your Last Supper, when You gave Yourself as food for the faithful, I glorify Your deep humility, which was expressed in washing the feet of the disciples I pray to you: humble the pride of my soul and teach me meekness. I adore Your kneeling in the garden of Jerusalem, where You prayed with bloody sweat that the cup of suffering would pass by. Now I pray to You, Lord: teach me fervent prayer and give me the cup of salvation to drink. I worship You, Lord, remembering Your sufferings - the treacherous kiss of Judas, the taking, countless insults, striking, strangling and other humiliations. Imagining all this in my mind and heart, I am filled with love and compassion for You, Lord, and offer thanks for the fact that You laid down Your soul for me in Your endless love. I worship Your, my Judge, condemnation to death, the painful carrying of the cross and Your crucifixion among two thieves, I worship and pray: do not judge me according to my deeds, give me the strength to bear my cross and crucify me with my passions and lusts. I worship Your most pure head, wounded for my sake by sharp thorn needles, and I ask You: eradicate all evil, nasty, ungodly from my thoughts. I worship Your most pure eyes, filled with tears and blood for my sake, and I pray to You: let my eyes not see the vanity of the world. I adore Your most holy face, like the sun that shone on Mount Tabor and was so darkened during the days of suffering, and I pray: shed the light of Your face on Your servant. I worship Your most holy lips, which were thirsty and tasted vinegar and gall, and I pray: put silence on my lips. I worship the most holy wound that is on Your right hand and pray: deign me to stand on Your right side when You come in Your glory. I worship Your most pure wound on your left hand and pray: deliver me from the fate of those standing on the left side of Your glory. I worship Your most holy wound on my right leg and pray: guide me on the right path of repentance. I worship Your most holy wound on my left leg and pray: do not allow me to follow the path of the wicked. I worship Your most holy, pure and life-giving wound on Your ribs and Your heart and pray: strike my cruel heart and wound it with love Mine so that I love You with all my heart and with all my soul and so that springs of tears flow from my contrite heart, washing away my sins. I worship Your holy body, wounded for my sake, and I pray: heal me, covered with sins. I adore Your most pure nakedness and pray: cover the shameful nakedness of my soul. I worship the removal of Your body from the cross and burial and pray: send me so that I may be dead to this world. I worship and glorify Your descent into hell. Your victory over death and Your resurrection from the grave and I pray: conquer my soul, captivated by sins, with Your love, raise it from the dead and deliver it from the torments of hell. I worship Your ascension into heaven, where You sit at the right hand of God the Father, you see my weakness, hear my sinful prayer and know all my thoughts; I pray to You, Lord: lift up my mind from everything earthly, strengthen my weakness, correct my prayer, so that I will not be condemned by You when You come to judge the living and the dead. Falling prostrate to the ground, I exclaim: You are truly worthy of worship, O Lord, before whose name all creatures of heaven, earth and hell bow. I too, unworthy, bow my knees before You, Lord, and pray: save me according to Your goodness, and not according to my works, save me as you want, as you can, as you know. I only trust in You and entrust myself to Your holy will; do with me what you want - if you want to see me among the light, I bless You, if you want to condemn me to darkness, I also bless You; If you open the doors of mercy for me, it will be good for me; if you close them, blessed are You, Lord; You did not destroy me with all my iniquities - glory to Your immeasurable mercy; if you destroy me - glory to Your righteous judgment! Worship of the Most Holy Trinity Come to worship God in the One Trinity: Father and Son and Holy Spirit. I worship You, most holy, consubstantial and indivisible Trinity, I believe in You, I send up praise and thanksgiving and pray: have mercy on me, Your servant! I worship You, God the Father, for calling me from non-existence into being and adorning me in Your image! I adore You, Son of God, for having redeemed me with Your blood and enlightened me with Holy Baptism! I worship You, Holy Spirit, for having revived me, enlightened me and sent down the light of faith into my heart! I worship You, God the Father, because with Your breath you breathed a living soul into me! I worship You, Son of God, for laying down Your soul on the cross for me! I worship You, Holy Spirit, for delivering my soul from death! I worship You, God the Father, for Your long-suffering, that You do not condemn me, living in sins, to destruction, but in Your long-suffering wait for my correction! I worship You, Son of God, for Your mercy! You do not want my death in sins and call me to repentance. I worship You, Holy Spirit, for Your mercy towards me, a sinner, You do not reject anyone who calls on You, but You accept him as a prodigal son and renew my spirit in me! I worship You, God the Father, for Your mercies to me! I worship You, Son of God, for Your condescension to my human weaknesses! I worship You, Holy Spirit, for Your healing of my infirmities! I worship You, God the Father, for raising me up when I fall! I worship You, Son of God, because you care about me, who is perishing! I worship You, Holy Spirit, for you revive me, who is dying! I worship You, God the Father, stronghold of mercy and my hope! I adore You, Son of God, my refuge and my savior! I worship You, Holy Spirit, my helper and patron! Lesson for the Last Judgment Week The Son of Man will come in his glory (Matthew 25:31). Recently we celebrated the first coming of the Lord, and now we are busy thinking about the second; We recently glorified and rejoiced at His birth, but now we stand in awe of Him, who will come in His glory and power. The first time He came in meekness and gentleness, like a lamb, to take away the sins of the world and save sinners; the second time he will come threatening and vengeful like a lion, to judge the world for its sins, to reward everyone according to their deeds and to condemn sinners to destruction. The first coming was not unexpected, in fulfillment of prophecies, in the midst of general night silence and silence; the second will be unexpected and terrible. With a terrible noise, the earth will shake, the dead will rise from their graves, the seas will become extremely agitated, the heavens will change, the stars will fall, and all the elements will mix. For the first time, the Lord was seen as a baby, lying in a manger and carried in the arms of the Mother; the second time we will see Him as a man, sitting on the throne of glory, angry and dooming the universe to final destruction. The second coming is rightly called the Last Judgment; judgment will come over the dead and the living, and a terrible judgment, since all creatures living below and above, visible and invisible, will tremble. Oh, how fearful is the second coming of the Lord! Whoever feels his sins and expects the terrible judgment, let him tremble before it in advance, leave his sinful life and thereby avoid eternal punishment. It is said: “The Son of man will come in his glory.” 24 And first of all, the voice of the archangel’s trumpet will sound over the entire universe, calling for judgment. All fear will then seize sinners; at the sound of the trumpet, each soul will have to enter its body, which from dust and destruction, by the command of God, will take on its former form and will be revived by its soul. And at this time, I repeat, the sinful soul will tremble with fear and horror of its body: before, in a past life, it was beautiful, covered with blush, pleasant, but then it will be ugly, disgusting and terrible like a monster. But by the command of God, the soul will unite with the body and then begin to reproach it. Oh, damned body, the soul will say, why did you seduce me with sinful desires, why did you entice me into lawless deeds? And the body will answer: oh, damned soul, why didn’t you keep me from evil with your mind, given to you by God? At a time when sin embarrassed me, you only agreed and helped me. The soul will again say to the body: cursed are you, because from gluttony and drunkenness every day it became heavier and heavier, plunging me into the hellish abyss; and the body will object: no, you are cursed, soul, for not teaching me abstinence; Didn't you eat from the same dish with me and drink from the same cup? And the soul will also say: woe to you, my body, because you caused harm to your neighbor, robbed, kidnapped and killed! And the body will answer: woe to you, my soul, since you helped me in all this! You embittered me so that I would rob my neighbors, you filled me with self-interest so that I would rob and steal; You were my friend and mentor in everything, and I couldn’t do anything without you. In such quarrels, the soul and body of the sinner will be at enmity with each other. But besides the fear of your body, another fear will embrace your soul - the fear of general exposure in all dishonest and shameless deeds. The Lord said to David, who had sinned in secret: “As you have done in secret, I will do this word before all Israel and before this sun.” 25 It is known that every person does not like and fears the reproof of his bad deeds. The thief is afraid that his theft will not be discovered, which is why he hides his deeds by all means and does not tell them even when he is caught and exposed. The adulterer hides, which is why he seeks a hidden place for his evil deeds, where no human eye can see him, and does not confess to them even in confession to his spiritual father. A criminal does not like it if someone reveals his criminal deeds, which is why Scripture says: “Do not rebuke the wicked, lest they hate you.” 26 Indeed, will a thief love you if you call him a thief in front of people, will a murderer be pleased if you call him that in front of everyone? Let someone really be a robber, a violent predator, or an adulterer; tell him that he is like this, will he like it? When the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus Christ a certain sinful wife, taken at the scene of a crime, He bent down and began to write on the ground. According to the interpreters of the Gospel, Christ wrote about the shameful deeds of the same scribes and Pharisees - deeds they committed in secret. And so, when the wife’s accusers saw what Christ wrote, they left unnoticed: they were afraid that He would not tell this to everyone, which is why many hated Him. Let us now imagine what fear and shame there will be at a time when not only our lawless deeds such as theft, murder, adultery, deceit and others, but also all our words and thoughts will become known to the whole universe. Not only our brothers in sin will see this, but all the faces of the saints: prophets, apostles, martyrs and other saints; They will see all our sinful deeds and will be surprised at our shamelessness: how dare we do all this! Let's think about this one more thing. We feel ashamed when some of our transgressions are revealed even to a few people and, moreover, people equal to us. What a shame there will be on that day when not just one act, but all the sins we have committed will be revealed not only to sinners, but to all the saints and ranks of angels! Then the words of the Gospel will be fulfilled: “For there is nothing hidden, and it will not be revealed; it is hidden, and it will not be known, and it will come to manifestation.” 27 Oh, how ashamed we sinners will be then; but we will be most ashamed before those who were the same sinners in life, but who through true repentance were awarded forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Will not the thief be ashamed when he sees his former friend, the thief, among the righteous, and himself among the condemned? Will not the robber be ashamed when he sees his fellow robber sent to heaven, and himself persecuted to hell? Oh, truly all shame will embrace us then! Many people, as you know, often wish to die rather than endure shame and disgrace. About Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, in history we read the following: “When Cleopatra, taken captive by Augustus, learned that the latter wanted to take her to Rome as a captive in the form of an ornament for his triumph, and when she imagined all the shame that she would have to endure in the face of the Roman people, she decided it would be better to kill herself. First of all, she stabbed herself in the chest with a knife, but since the wound was not fatal, she applied a poisonous plaster to it and finally ordered a poisonous snake to be brought, from the bite of which she died. So are the sinners of the day the courts would rather die than appear before the Lord, rather than be bound hand and foot and led in disgrace to the general judgment. They will then wish to die, but they will not be able to; they will remain in eternal shame. To the fear and shame of exposure will be added the fear of sinners in the face of those hated by them, persecuted, tortured, killed and generally suffered by them. Cain will see Abel, who was innocently killed by him, Herod will see John the Baptist, Nero, Diocletian and other tormentors will see many Christians tortured by them. Cruel masters will see their servants, unrighteous judges will see those innocently condemned by them, or all sorts of tormentors who have suffered from them will see them crying out to the Lord: judge, Lord, those who have offended us, take revenge on those who have done us harm! And the righteous will stand without trembling in the face of those who have offended them, and will say to them: Why have you offended us? Why did they cause harm and persecute you mercilessly? What will they answer them? In their confusion they will not find what to answer and will only say to themselves: these are those who were once before us in such shame; How did they become among the sons of God? When Joseph said to his brothers, who came to Egypt and did not recognize him: “I am your brother whom you sold into Egypt,” they could not answer anything from fear and embarrassment. So on the day of judgment, every cruel ruler, unjust judge, robber, offender, seeing in the kingdom of heaven those against whom he acted unjustly, will be confused in his fear and will not find anything to answer them. With all this, sinners will have to experience the greatest fear when they appear before the face of our Lord, the righteous judge and terrible avenger: “Who can stand against His wrath?” 28 says the prophet Nahum. Indeed, the very face of Jesus Christ, which during his earthly life appeared so meek and full of love, will at that time be menacing and angry; earth and heaven will flee from His presence. Saint John the Theologian in Revelation describes the fear of being in the face of an angry God this way: “And the kings of the earth, and the great, and the rich, and the captains of thousands, and the mighty, and every slave, and every free man, hid in the cave and in the ravines of the mountains, and they said to the mountains and the stones: Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath has come, and who can stand?” 29 It is not joyful to lie under an oppressive stone, under a fallen mountain; nevertheless, it would have been easier for a sinner at that time to endure the weight of the mountain lying on him than to stand before the face of an angry God and contemplate Him. What do we sinners expect to hear from an angry God on the day of judgment? Nothing other than His terrible voice, more terrible than all the thunders of heaven: “Depart from Me, cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” 30 Oh, how then will all those who do injustice and iniquity, adulterers, and thieves, robbers, predators, robbers, tormentors and others, who are now incurring the wrath of God, tremble! Let us remember, sinful people, the fear and horror that awaits us on the day of judgment, and let us fear the Lord; Let us fear His terrible judgment and renounce our sinful deeds. We have to remember - death, judgment, Gehenna. Let us earn the mercy of the terrible Judge with tears, repentance and alms before our death, so that we can thereby get rid of the fate of the condemned and become among the justified. Amen. Lamentation for the burial of Christ Where are you going, carried away Jesus? Where are you going, our hope and refuge? Where do you go from our eyes, unstoppable luminary? Stop, you who carry the One who carries the whole world in His hand, who bore the burden of sins for the human race, stop! The sun and moon stopped in their course when they saw Him on the cross. Do not prevent us from approaching the Father, do not forbid the children to cry for their common Parent, Who revived us with His blood; let me shed at least a single tear over the One who poured out His blood in whole streams for us. What is this, what a terrible and terrifying sight, such as the eyes of our forefathers had never seen! Has anyone ever seen God naked, beaten, crowned with thorns, watered with vinegar, nailed and lifeless? What is this, God is dead, giving life without life, the light is darkened, sweetness is filled with bitterness, the most glorious and worthy on earth is dishonored and humiliated like no other person! What do I see, what do I see! I also see that the most pure body of the Lord, like old clothes, is torn to pieces and everything is covered with blood and wounds. The holy head of the Lord is wounded, the same one who arranges everything, controls everything, has paved wondrous paths to human salvation, the same one who is wounded to the brain with sharp thorn needles. And now we see how what God said to man came true: “Cursed is the land in your inheritance: thorns and thistles will grow for you.” And this cursed land grew thorns on the head of its Christ. The eyes are covered with darkness, the same eyes that looked at everyone with tenderness and love; eyes from whose gaze the sad were comforted, the loving rejoiced, and the sinners turned to repentance. The face, full of light, like an angel’s, darkened with divine glory, like the sun, a shining face; now it has been dishonored, spat upon, cruel blows have been dealt to it by hand. O full of beauty, you are devoid of it! The lips, from which sweet speech flowed in a stream, filled with vinegar and bile, fell silent, the divine tongue fell silent, the larynx fell silent, silence was imposed on the word of God. Who will comfort those who cry now? Who will heal the sick with a word? Who will say to sinners: Your sins are forgiven? In the ulcers of the hand, those hands at the touch of which death trembled, which were a healing plaster for all diseases, in which a few loaves fed thousands, those hands are nailed through with iron. The hands that created man are inhumanly tortured! The legs are covered in ulcers, the legs that walked on water as on earth, the legs washed with the tears of a sinner and wiped with the hair of her head, those legs are also pierced with iron nails. The rib of the One who created the helper of our forefather Adam from a rib was pierced. The Lord called Himself a door: “I am the door; whoever enters through Me will be saved 31 - and also said: knock and it will be opened to you.” 32 But now there is no need to knock on it. One of the warriors pierced his rib with a spear - this is the open door through which anyone can enter and exit and find pasture. The spear, piercing the rib with its long point, reached to the very heart and wounded it, wounded the heart that was the beginning and source of all love, a heart that loved the world to the end, a heart that ached for the world, full of mercy and compassion for the suffering. The heart of Christ was wounded because He loved the world with all his heart. This heart was kindled, kindled by an excessively ardent love for people. Let this heart be cooled: the cold of iron has passed inside it, let the cold wind blow on it: the door is open. Rise, north and south, and blow into the heart of him who loved us, and who was burned by this love! Once upon a time, Moses struck a stone with a rod and water flowed; the warrior pierced the side of the stone of Christ and blood and water flowed. Oh, the hand of the tormentor, which dared to strike the side of Jesus! Oh, hearts of stone that decided to commit such a murder! Two springs poured out from the side of Jesus - blood and water: water for our washing, blood for sanctification; water to quench thirst, blood to heal. Thirsty, go to the water! sick in soul and body, come to the healing blood of the immaculate Lamb of Christ! It was not from His glory, but from His wounds that we all received healing. This world, lying all in evil, is filled with the bitterest bitterness of Marah. The Lord opened an inexhaustible source of sweetness in His ribs, wanting to sweeten the bitterness of the world. But, alas! this source is neglected... Oh, world, damned world, how do you think to sweeten your bitterness if you neglect this source? But I’d rather neglect this world and its vanity, look at myself and at My God, who speaks to me with His wounds, as if in words: I loved you, you too love Me, and I don’t want or demand anything more from you. I was born for you, endured labors, languished with hunger and thirst, fasted, finally went into suffering, was wounded, was crucified and died - all for you. For all this I want to receive one thing: remain in love for Me. But what else can we love besides You, our Lord? How else shall we sweeten our bitterness, if not through You, sweetest Jesus! Only You Yourself, Lord, overshadow us with Your love: make us seek You and be filled with desire for You, so that we love You and forever burn with unquenchable love for You. Let the nails and the spear with which You, O Lord, were pierced because of your love for us, pierce our hearts so that we may love You; let Your ulcers teach us to love Your sufferings, let all of our love be taken by Your love! Oh, our love, oh, sweetest Jesus, coming after You, buried, I go along with others. You are buried with your body, and we are buried with You in our hearts. Let our hearts be a grave for Your body, and Let Your wounds be a grave for our hearts. We know that You will come out of the tomb on the third day, but let our hearts forever be with Your wounds, for there is nothing more desirable and pleasant for our hearts than these most pure Thy wounds, which we contemplate in tears and kiss with our lips, although unworthy. Amen. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27). Some, condemning the present times and the present human race, say: there are no longer miracle workers among people, as there were before, there are no miracles. Do not believe them, beloved listeners! If you wish, I will show you miracle workers now, just listen to me carefully: everyone who loves his enemy there is a miracle worker! Just don’t think, my listeners, that I said this about those enemies who are going to war against our fatherland and are at enmity against our Orthodox faith. These enemies, as ungodly, should be driven out, go against them with weapons and not spare your life in the fight against them. There was once a question about this from the wicked to Saint Constantine, named Cyril; they asked: if Christ is your God, then why don’t you do what He commands? He commands you to pray for your enemies, to do good to those who hate you, but not only do you not do this, but on the contrary, you sharpen your weapons, go to war and kill. Saint Constantine first of all asked them: if two commandments are prescribed in any law, then who will be the true keeper of the law - will it be the person who fulfills both? The wicked answered: the one who will fulfill both. Then he continued: Christ our God commanded us to pray for those who offend us and at the same time said: “Greater love has no one to lay down his life for his friends,” 33 and so we patiently endure the insults and evil inflicted on each of us individually, but from the common enemy we protect each other and lay down our souls so that none of us is taken captive by the wicked and loses his soul in theirs. ungodly community. This was the answer of Saint Constantine. In my present conversation, I mean not external and foreign enemies, but internal, domestic enemies. Everyone has such an enemy: one has a neighbor, another lives far away, one is equal to him, another is greater than him - in any case, he is at war, slandering, hating. Regarding these, the Lord commands us: love your enemies. And so, I repeat: there is a miracle worker who loves his enemy, and I will show that this truth is from the Holy Scriptures and the works of St. fathers. First of all, I’ll ask: what is a miracle? Everything supernatural is called a miracle, since no one is surprised or calls a miracle what happens usually, naturally by nature. It is not a miracle that Pharaoh and his entire army died in the sea: it is natural for someone immersed in water to drown, but the miracle is that the sea parted, made way for the Israelites and took Pharaoh along the same path. Likewise, it is not surprising if someone loves those who love him, since this is natural; but the surprising thing is that when someone loves his enemy, this is already something supernatural. Let us take a closer look at how supernatural it is to love your enemies. Three natures are inherent in a person: reason, desire and rage, which is why anyone offended naturally seeks revenge, seeks not only during his life, but also after death. Does not the blood of Abel cry out to God, asking for vengeance? Also, the souls of the saints, destroyed for the word of God, cry out to the Lord about the same thing, as John the Theologian testifies: “And they cried out with a loud voice, saying: How long, O holy and true Lord, do you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 34 If this is done after death, then it is all the more natural for a living person, a being subject to anger and unable to bear insults, to think and care about revenge. But will we need any proof if we only take a good look at ourselves and look at others? It is better for someone to die than to suffer even an insignificant insult. And so, I repeat, it is quite natural not to love your enemies, to take revenge on them; and if this is so, then, on the contrary, loving enemies is for a person something supernatural, something miraculous; I call the person who performs this supernatural thing a miracle worker. What miracles does such a miracle worker perform? He who loves his enemy and does good to him enlightens the blinded by his mind. Nothing, as we know, darkens our mental eyes more than anger and rage. St. Cassian says that everyone in his anger acts insanely: the mind becomes confused, the light of reason is darkened. St. also says: Gregory: Where anger brings darkness to the human mind, there God takes away the ray of His knowledge. History tells that King Cyrus, when his favorite horse died in the Gindas River, was angry and ordered the excavation of this river into 180 ditches; Isn’t this madness, isn’t such anger worthy of laughter? It is clear that an angry person is like a blind man, that he is in darkness and does not understand where he is going and what he is doing. The only way to cure this disease, this mental blindness, is the kindness and love of the one at whom one is angry; The one who is angry will see love and goodwill towards himself instead of anger and bitterness, will be ashamed of his anger and will soften. This is what happened between the angry Saul and the gentle David. And so everyone who has an angry enemy, and with love and kindness towards him, little by little turns him from an enemy into a friend, from an angry one into a loving one, little by little enlightens the blind. This is how a miracle worker who loves his enemy is, this is how he performs a miracle. Then, he who loves his enemy turns bitterness into sweetness, like Moses at Marah. The children of Israel came to Marah and could not drink the water because it was bitter. Human enmity is also filled with bitterness. The apostle exhorts that all bitterness be put away from us. What kind of bitterness is this? He explains that this is “all irritation, and rage, and anger, and crying, and slander, with all malice.” Naturally, there is no sweetness in a soul embittered by anger; the thought that thinks evil is bitter; bitter speech with reproach, vexation and bitterness; Any deed that begins in anger is bitter. How can this bitterness be destroyed? We think that the bitterness of human enmity and anger can only be destroyed by some kind of spiritual sweetness, that is, either a friendly and pleasant word spoken to the hater, or a good deed done to him. In this way, everyone who loves his enemy, enduring the bitterness of enmity and anger, transforms this bitterness into the sweetness of friendship and love; in this way he again performs the same miracle as Moses, who turned the bitter water of Marah into fresh and drinkable. Need I also say that an angry person looks like a demoniac or even an animal? His gaze becomes wild and terrible, his face turns purple, his voice changes, and he, gnashing his teeth, like a beast, is ready to tear himself and others to pieces. And, meanwhile, the lover, approaching him with a kind word, with a quiet speech, with an expression of love and benevolence, humbles and tames this beast. Isn't this a wonderful act of love? But why list all the miracles? I’ll just say one more thing, but the most important thing: he who loves his enemy becomes an accomplice of God - a son of God. It is said: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” 35 You will be sons of the Most High! What more, what even greater miracle is needed? And so love your enemies and you will be new miracle workers, you will save your souls and theirs. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself, start loving your enemies. The Son of God will be your guarantee that you will then become sons of the Most High; heaven and earth, as you know, will pass away, but His words will never pass away. About the difficulty and salvation of love Allow me, beloved listeners, to present a real conversation under the guise of a meal. The costs for this meal are not great - just two pieces of silver: one is called love, the other - patience. Both of these pieces of silver are not separate from each other: love cannot live without patience. Love is patient, 36 says the apostle. Where there is love, there is patience. Ask: whom to love, from whom to endure? I will answer: love your enemies, suffer from your enemies, love your enemies. Right there at our spiritual meal, love for our enemies will replace bread for us, and patience will replace drink. Do you know, listeners, that in St. In Scripture the word of God is called bread. Angry at the ungrateful Jews, the Lord speaks through the mouth of the prophet Amos: “I will send a famine to the earth, not a famine of bread, but a famine of hearing the word of God.” 37 And since the words: love your enemies came from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself, then love for our enemies should be our spiritual bread, food for our soul. This bread is hard and uncomfortable, like a stone; Loving your enemy is like gnawing on a stone. The first martyr Stephen told us how inconvenient it can be. The torturers became bitter against him, gnashed their teeth, and finally, taking him out of the city, they began to stone him. Saint Stephen, exhausted, with his last breath prayed for his enemies, exclaiming: “Lord! Do not impute this sin to them.” 38 It is truly a great task to feel the cruel blows of stones on your body and at the same time, in kindness of heart, to pray for your tormentors. Great is the work, great is the reward! St. Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looking up to heaven, saw “the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.” 39 What could be better, more pleasant and more desirable? Will we exchange all the sweets of this world, all the royal feasts for this one thing - to see the sky open and Jesus Christ standing, waiting, meeting, accepting and calming in His bosom? O bread from heaven! oh, our immortal saturation! We see the same love, the same patience in St. Apostle Paul. He says about himself: “Five times the Jews gave me forty stripes minus one; They beat me with sticks three times, and once they stoned me.” 40 Well, does the holy apostle complain about all this, is he angry at his enemies for this? He says: “There is great sorrow for me and constant torment in my heart.” 41 But what is his grief about, is it not that he was subjected to blows and torture? No, he grieves for those who beat him - that they are moving away from salvation and are on the path to destruction. “I would like to be excommunicated from Christ for my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, that is, the Israelites.” 42 This is what the apostle says, this is how he grieves for his enemies: he is ready for destruction, he is not horrified to be excommunicated from Christ and go to hell, just to save his persecutors - the Israelites. Obeying the commandment of God, St. the apostle loved his enemies and suffered persecution from them; in the same way, anyone who wants to fulfill this commandment must endure a lot of grief. There is no love without them. You have to endure insults, condemnations and other injustices, who enjoys this? But true love, according to the apostle, must be patient. “Love,” he says, is long-suffering, merciful, not irritated, does not think evil... covers everything, endures everything.” 43 St. John Climacus praises the cup of patience as saving for the human soul; He says to one of his own: “Come and live with us and drink reproaches like living water; Having endured, you will be cleansed of filth and purity will shine in your soul and the light of God will never be exhausted in your heart.” In the same way, King David, in misfortune, exclaims: “I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” 44 What is this cup of salvation that the prophet David drinks? Let us remember that, first of all, Saul hated David, initiated persecution against him and wanted to kill him, and so David, enduring this persecution innocently, exclaims: “I will accept the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,” that is, in the cup of suffering he endures, he hopes to receive salvation. In the same way, when Absalom rebelled against David, when the son overthrew his father from the throne and drove him out of Jerusalem, plotting against his very life, David exclaims: “This is the cup of salvation, I will accept and drink it.” No matter how bitter and difficult it was for David to endure persecution from his son, he is patient in humility and, seeing with the prophetic eye the suffering of the Savior, he exclaims: “I will accept the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Someone named Shimei, seeing King David fleeing from the persecution of Absalom, ran ahead and began to reproach him with abusive words, saying: “Go away, go away, man of blood, man of iniquity!” and at the same time threw a stone at him. Then one of David’s servants, seeing such dishonor of the king from Shimei, said: “Why does this dog curse my master? I’ll go and take his head off.” But David did not allow this, saying: “Leave him, let him curse!” By this he seemed to want to say: don’t stop me from drinking the cup; As I began, so I will finish, I will drink to the dregs in the name of the Lord. Let us look at David as he, a king, and not a simple man, drank the cup of patience, the cup of insults, reproaches, persecutions, the cup of disasters and sorrow, the cup of salvation, as the Gospel testifies: “But he who endures to the end will be saved.” 45 Jesus Christ himself drank the cup of suffering on the cross, but for whom? for my enemies, I say, that is, for sinners; Christ died for us because we are sinners. And how did the Lord drink His cup? St. Apostle Peter says: “Although He was slandered, He did not slander each other; while He suffered, He did not threaten.” 46 In His great patience, Christ not only did not reproach, but, on the contrary, prayed for those who killed Him. Oh, the kindness of the gentle Lamb of God! We cannot bear even one word of insult or reproach, but our Lord listened to countless reproaches and remained a silent lamb. We cannot bear the least thing from those who hate us, but our Lord endured wounds on His body from head to toe. We will not tolerate even the slightest sorrow from those who are raising persecution against us, but the Lord suffered a painful death on the cross for us. The Lord loved sinners with all his soul - his enemies, as it is said, but we love our friends more hypocritically than truly, and we don’t even think about loving our enemies. And, meanwhile, the Lord Himself with His most pure lips turns to us saying: “Love your enemies, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” 47 “By your patience ye shall gain your souls. Save your souls with your patience,” 48 it is said in the Gospel, but with what patience? Many suffer through their own fault. “What kind of praise is it if you endure being beaten for your misdeeds? says the Apostle Peter. But if, while doing good and suffering, you endure, this pleases God. For this is what you have been called to do.” 49 It is this kind of patience - innocent, accepted out of love for God - that will be the subject of this conversation. First of all, I’ll ask: what is the strongest and strongest in heaven? I think that here they will remember another dispute between the three servants of King Darius on this issue. One of the disputants is known to have said that the strongest thing is wine; another - that there is nothing stronger than the king; third - that woman is strongest. But I, being a Christian, do not agree with them. Not much wine unless a person wants to get drunk with it; Royal power is not scary if a person is not guilty of anything; A woman is also powerless if a man does not give free rein to his desires. What is the strongest and strongest in heaven? I ask again. The wise Solomon says that hardly anyone is stronger and stronger than a patient man: “A long-suffering man is better than a brave man.” 50 I thought that Solomon would begin to list the ancient heroes and knights: Joshua, Gideon, Jephthah and others; I thought that I would remember Sampson, who beat the army of the Philistines with a donkey’s jaw, or finally about his father David, who defeated the terrible giant Goliath. So I thought about Solomon, and what do I hear from him? “It is better,” he says, for a husband to have great patience than to be strong in body.” Let's see what patience struggles with. Patience, someone will say, struggles with the enmity of its enemy; but I will say that it fights, first of all, with the enemy located inside a person - with impatience, anger and rage. Anger is stronger than bodily strength, because it is one of the innate passions of man. A person is not always strong: everyone experiences childhood and old age; a person’s innate passions live with him inseparably from birth to grave. It is not in vain that the church sings: “From my youth, many passions have fought me.” At the same time, a person who is strong in body at times only fights the enemy - only when he is there, and when he is not there, he lives peacefully; with innate passions there is no peace; and day and night a person has to fight with them. It must also be borne in mind that a person fighting the enemy may have assistants; when fighting passions, no one can help: neither a friend, nor a brother, nor soldiers, since this struggle is internal, invisible to anyone. That is why in order to overcome any passion, much more strength is needed than in order to overcome an external enemy; That’s why to stifle anger in oneself when it rises in the soul and, like a beast, rages and torments it, to overcome, I say, this giant is truly an extraordinary, almost supernatural thing. What overcomes this passion of anger? St. John Chrysostom answers this: “Nothing but meekness.” I, reflecting on this answer, think that meekness, gentleness and patience are one and the same; meekness does not live without patience, just as patience does not live without meekness. St. himself Chrysostom speaks of meekness as follows: “In battles, it is considered valor when a warrior kills his enemy; but it is more valiant and more glorious if someone subdues the offender with his patience, just as the pious Joseph, with meekness and patience, defeated his brothers and the wicked wife of Pentephry.” History tells that Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, who conquered so many kingdoms, could not, however, overcome the anger in himself: in a fit of anger, he killed his best friend. Isn’t it clear that a patient man who rules his heart and tames his passions is undoubtedly stronger than the bravest and most courageous warrior? This is why patience is so useful, this is why St. The Gospel advises us to save our souls with patience! I’ll propose one more question: who knows how to make an enemy a friend? There is no other way for this but patience. The Apostle Paul says: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink: for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.” 51 I would put it this way. When your enemy sees your patience and kindness and, moreover, your good deeds towards him, he will be ashamed, his conscience will hurt him, and he will repent of his enmity; With your love, like burning coals, you will warm the cold soul of the enemy and make him your friend. That this is the truth is evidenced by sacred history. Saul launched a persecution against David; David, escaping from the royal wrath, hid in one deep cave, but Saul, following him, wanted to rest and, not suspecting anything, chose for this the same cave where David was; he fell asleep in it. Then someone says to David: “The Lord has delivered your enemy into your hands, kill him!” But David answered: “How can I raise my hand against God’s anointed?” and having said this, he approached the sleeping Saul, cut off the hem of his garment and disappeared. After this, Saul, waking up, set off again on the road, and David, coming out of the cave after him, shouted: “Lord King!” and when Saul turned around, he bowed to him to the ground and, showing the hem of his robe, said: “Here in the cave the Lord delivered you into my hands, but I did not think to lift my hand against my master; look, here is the hem of your garment and understand that I have no enmity against you; Why are you persecuting me, the innocent one?” Saul, touched by such words of David, also by the fact that in his kindness and love he did not think of killing him, exclaimed: “Is this your voice, child David?” and having said this, he began to cry. So David warmed the soul of his enemy and turned him into a friend. This is the benefit of patience, this is the benefit of the Gospel exhortation - to find salvation in patience. I’ll also ask: what enriches the human soul? I know that you will remind me of various virtues: fasting, prayer, purity, love, etc. I will say without hesitation that patience enriches the soul, since there is no virtue that does not come from patience. Is it fasting? it bears hunger and thirst: is it prayer? it is a struggle against despondency and laziness; Is it clean? oh, how much patience she needs! In the same way, every other good deed has its own special labor and its own patience. Patience is that fertile soil in which every virtue grows. Have patience and you will find that treasure hidden in the field, which is spoken of in the parable of the Gospel. Let us remember it: “It is said that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which, having found, a man hid for joy, goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.” 52 Let us first interpret the parable. It is said: “The treasure is hidden in the field, but the kingdom of God is within you,” 53 says the Gospel; Why shouldn’t the kingdom of heaven be in a city where there are so many inhabitants, why is this treasure taken out of the city into the field? It is known that the treasure of the kingdom of God moves from one place to another; where it pleases, there it remains, and where it does not like, it leaves from there, saying: “Behold, your house is left to you empty.” 54 The kingdom of heaven left the city for the field, why? David says about the city that “deceit and deceit do not leave its streets”; 55 But where there is iniquity and deceit, there is no place for the kingdom of heaven. It came to the royal chambers, to princes and rich people, and saw there many riches collected by all sorts of untruths, insults and human tears. Being itself truth, the kingdom of heaven could not live together with unrighteousness and left from there. The kingdom of heaven went to various merchants and began to watch how buying and selling was done there. And he sees that everyone there is deceiving each other, lying to each other, selling bad instead of good, making assurances, swearing not true; The whole kingdom of heaven saw this and left from there. The kingdom of heaven was walking along the street past the house of some nobleman and, hearing the voices of those having fun and feasting, she thought: lovers have gathered here, and where there is love, there is God; I should be here too. It entered the room, and what did it see? I saw that the feasters condemn each other, plot evil against each other, flatter with words, but deceive in their hearts. The kingdom of heaven left the feasting people and began to think about where to find a place for itself, and decided: I will go to the church of God, to the holy church, and settle there. He entered and saw: some were dozing, others were talking to each other about completely unrelated subjects, and others were not listening to prayer, but were thinking about unknown things, even those performing divine services were doing everything without paying attention. Seeing this, the kingdom of heaven left the church. So the kingdom of heaven did not find a place for itself in the city, it left the city and went to those living in the field. There it found many, in poverty, distressed, tormented by hunger, crying, and said: this is my peace, I will settle here, and it remained there. That is why, we think, it is said in the Gospel: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” But what does this field mean? Every person who accepts the words of the Lord in his heart is like a field that is plowed and sown, and like a field that is not plowed and cultivated does not bear fruit, even if seeds are thrown into it; so is a person, if he is not riddled with disasters and sorrows, that is, if he does not have patience, then he will not bear spiritual fruits and will not be enriched with spiritual treasures. “In your patience you will gain your souls,” it is said, and so everyone who wants to lay up spiritual treasure for himself, acquire the field of patience and in patience bear your fruit. Every person born of water and spirit must be spiritual; but how can a person be spiritual when he also consists of a body? The Apostle Paul says: “You do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.” 56 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, whom you have from God?” 57 In this way, everyone who has the Holy Spirit in him is spiritual. According to the apostle, two spirits are available to man - the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the world. “We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God,” says the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. But both of them are as far apart from each other as the east is from the west, as different from each other as white and black, like light and darkness, like day and night. “Beloved,” says St. John the Theologian, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.” 59 The Spirit of God is the Spirit of righteousness; there is no unrighteousness in Him. The Lord has never deceived anyone; “The Lord is righteous in all his ways,” says the psalmist 60. Everything that God said in words, he fulfilled in deeds. He promised Abraham that his descendants would multiply like the stars of heaven, like the sand of the sea, and he fulfilled His promise; He promised through the prophets to descend to earth, to be incarnated by the Most Holy Virgin and to suffer for the human race, and he did it; He promised to rise on the third day and send down the Holy Spirit, and he rose again and sent it down. This is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of righteousness. And so everyone who does what is right, who speaks and thinks only the truth, carries within himself the Spirit of God. He asks. David of the Lord: “Who can dwell in Your habitation! who can dwell on Your holy mountain!” 3) and then the inspired one further answers this: “He who walks blamelessly and does righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart.” 61 This is the one to whom the door of the kingdom of heaven has been opened; this is the one who, like a shipbuilder safely sailing into a quiet harbor, will reach heaven, guided by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Scripture, we know, calls our forefathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, holy and righteous; How did they please God? to say that they built churches or decorated them? But then there were no churches; to say that they mortified their flesh by fasting, vigils and prostrations? But we don’t read about this about them either, since at that time they knew nothing about fasting or any other spiritual exploits; How, we ask again, did our forefathers please God? Because they did nothing untruthfully, because they never spoke a lie and never even thought about lying. Abraham, for example, had many servants, had quite a few neighbors around him, but he never offended anyone, did not slander anyone, did not harm anyone either in word or in deed. It was with this truthful life, with this sincerity and purity that Abraham pleased the Lord so much that the souls of the righteous were drawn into his bosom. Such is the case with Isaac and Jacob. What do all our fasts, deeds and donations to churches mean before the piety of our forefathers, before their truth, which they preserved without difficulty! What kind of work, really, is it not to offend anyone, not to slander, not to deceive?! We, with great desire, apparently try to fulfill our truth and do not have time at all. Is it surprising? We fast, but we eat people - what is the truth here? We strive in virtue, but we embitter our neighbor; we build churches, and rob and steal other people’s property; We care about the poor, we give them alms, but we hate our brother; we talk and lie; we flatter and deceive and so on. and so on. Where is the truth here? This is not how our forefathers lived: not a trace of untruth in their entire lives; their deeds, speeches and thoughts were pure, blameless and righteous. Such is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of righteousness, who lived in our forefathers. The spirit of the world is the spirit of lies, untruth, deceit and deceit. “You sons of men lie,” says David. This world promises wealth, health, long life, but what does it deliver? Didn’t the rich man of the Gospel say: “Soul! you have a lot of goods for many years, rest, eat, drink and be merry.” 62 “Mad! This night your soul will be taken from you,” 63 the Lord said to this rich man. This is the end of all the promises and hopes of this world. Didn’t the spirit of the world promise glory and honor to the wicked Haman, did he promise to make him second after the king, and what did he fulfill? Brought him to the gallows! And who doesn’t this world lie to? In words - honey, but in reality - bile; promises a lot, but gives nothing; feeds you with hopes, but tells you to eat stones. This world is similar to its teacher and mentor - the prince of darkness, the father of lies. Such is the student of his teacher - this world is poor, since everything he has is temporary, perverse and deceptive; deceitful, because he does not fulfill anything that he says or promises. And all those who do injustice, those who love lies and flattery, those who deceive their neighbors - all of these do not carry within themselves the Spirit of the Lord, but the spirit of the world, the spirit of lies. “Their words are more tender than oil, but they are naked swords,” 64 says the prophet David about such. The word is soft, but the anger in the heart is sharp; soft is the conversation of a flatterer, but sharp is the insidious plan; hypocritical friendship is soft, but betrayal is sharp. In words: “Hail, Rabbi”!, 65 but in deeds: “He is the One, take Him.” 66 In words: are you healthy, brother? But in reality, it is murder, death. The latter refers to Joab, David's general; he, seeing that Amasai was better than him, approached him, greeting: “Are you healthy, brother?” and then, taking his beard with his hand, as if wanting to kiss him, he stabbed him in the stomach with a knife and killed him to death. Oh, spirit of the world - flattering, crafty, insidious, to whom have you done good? Who, leaning on you, did not fall; who, relying on you, did not perish; who, loving you, was not deceived?.. The Spirit of the Lord is gentle; reproached, he does not reproach each other. If one who carries the Spirit of God within himself is convicted of something, he will not become angry, but on the contrary, will love the one who accuses him; It is written: “Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” 67 This is not the spirit of the world; do not tell him the truth, do not reprove him, so that he does not hate you; the spirit of the world flees from the truth, fearing reproof. An example is Pontius Pilate, the unrighteous judge who condemned our Lord to death; when he heard the words from the Lord: “For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I came into the world, to testify to the truth; everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 68 The Spirit of the Lord is a spirit that benefits everyone, which is why the prophecy of Isaiah says about the seven gifts of the Spirit of God: The Spirit of the Lord is a treasure of good things, not only for the worthy and for the unworthy. “He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” 69 says the Gospel about the Heavenly Father. In the same way, everyone who has the Spirit of the Lord in him does good to everyone. “All day long the righteous have mercy and give in return,” says the psalmist. The spirit of the world is stingy, borrows and does not return; Apparently he does good, but in reality he doesn’t even think about it. The Lord says in the Gospel about those who own pagan nations: “Those who own them are called benefactors.” 71 Why didn’t the Lord say: those who own them are benefactors, but are only named. Because I wanted to say this about the spirit of the world, who does not know true good deeds. The spirit of the world in its never-satisfied desire can not do good, but only offend, rob and kidnap, like those skinny cows that Pharaoh saw in a dream, which ate the fat ones and did not gain any weight. Anyone who offends his neighbor and plunders the property of others carries within himself the spirit of the world. We will not have time to show all the difference between the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the world. The Spirit of the Lord commands: do not be angry with your brother in vain, but the spirit of the world says: not only be angry, but also offend and kill. The Spirit of God exhorts: cleanse yourself from all filthiness of spirit and body, but the spirit of the world says: sin and become defiled. Such is the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the world. Everyone who obeys the Spirit of the Lord is a son of God, and whoever obeys the spirit of the world is a son of the vanity of the world, a son of wrath and hell. One spiritual elder, having heard about the great sorrow that befell a certain layman, began to pray for him: “Lord Jesus Christ, God of generosity and all consolation, comfort the grieving man! You visited him, Lord, with Your fatherly punishment, sending sorrow; Now You, who punish but also have mercy, comfort the one who is crying, change sorrow to joy, sorrow to joy, and show him Your incomprehensible mercy.” When the elder finished his prayer, some inner voice told him: “It is not enough just to pray for the mourning, but it is also necessary to console them with words, for this is one of the works of mercy. The Apostle exhorts us to comfort the faint-hearted; go and be comforted!” The elder listened to this voice and, after praying, went to the mourner. “It’s good that you came to us, father, with your blessing,” said the mourner, receiving the old man who came. “God bless you in your life,” answered the elder. Mourner. Is there, father, any other reason for your visit? Comforting. I heard that some sadness from the vicissitudes of the world visited you; For this reason, I decided to come to the house of mourning, to see if I could do anything to console the mourner. Mourner. I thank the Lord that He sent you to me: I have been waiting for a long time, but there was no comforter. Speak, I am glad to be consoled. Comforting. Tell me first, what is the reason for your sadness, why do you grieve so much? Mourner. Don’t ask, father, about this, so as not to irritate the wounds of my heart. I’m afraid that when I start telling you about everything, my soul will be filled with even greater sorrow and instead of being consoled, it will weep even more. Comforting. You know that sorrows are sent to us at the discretion of the Lord Himself. Don’t we pray to the Heavenly Father every day: Thy will be done, and His will knows no evil. Does a father wish evil upon his son, or does a mother seek misfortune and misfortune for her daughter? Likewise, our heavenly Father never wants harm to people, but sends everything to them for their own good. If he sometimes allows sorrow, it is only so that we are not proud; if he punishes us, as the father punishes his son, it is so that we walk before Him with reverence and fear and fulfill His commandments. Mourner. Even if sorrows are sent to us by the good will of the Lord, then they are still sorrows, and it is impossible for a person not to grieve and cry from them. Calamity is a punishment for sins; how can one not be saddened by it? Comforting. It is true that often the Lord, executing us for our sins, sends us disaster. But despite this, He, in His goodness, does not wish us harm even then. Look at the doctor. Sometimes he orders you to drink the most bitter medicines, sometimes he cuts, burns and causes terrible pain, but why? Then, what cannot be cured without this; What the doctor wants for you is not illness, but health, not death, but life. So the physician of our soul, the Lord God, seeing spiritual wounds in us, sends trials to heal them. That is why the prophet David says that the Lord punished him with punishment, but did not give him into the hands of death. 72 At this very time, the punishing Lord is more kind to him than cruel, more merciful and compassionate than angry and vengeful. At the same time, I say, it is impossible without tests, since they only heal our spiritual ulcers. That is why punishment must be accepted from the Lord with gratitude, and not sorrow, with patience, and not grumbling, with spiritual cheerfulness, and not in exhaustion. Mourner. I know that our sinful wounds are healed by sorrows and sorrows sent from the Lord, that they cleanse our spiritual impurities. Only our human weakness amid these trials tends more towards grumbling and exhaustion than towards gratitude and joy. Comforting. This is what happens to the faint-hearted and impatient; but you, grieving husband, take heart, strengthen your heart and pray together with Chrysostom: Lord, give me generosity. In addition, remember that the Lord does not always send misfortunes upon us for our sins, but that He, the lover of mankind, often plunges us into sorrow only in order to test our soul in the crucible of suffering. Remember Job and Tobit, righteous and pious men and yet who endured so much by the will of God; all the misfortunes were sent to them not because of their sins, but to test their faith and love for God. So Moses says to Israel: “The Lord your God is testing you to see whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Mourner. Whether the Lord punishes me for my sins or tests me, that is His holy will, I must endure; But isn’t all this beyond my strength? Comforting. Listen to the apostle about this; he says: “No temptation has befallen you other than that of man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with temptation will also give you relief, so that you can endure it.” 73 The Lord sends sorrows, the Lord will also send patience to those who trust in Him. It is said: “Cast your worries on the Lord, and He will support you.” 74 “The Lord will keep you from all evil.” 75 “The Lord protects all those who love Him.” 76 And now, if you love your Lord, do not grieve over the grief that has befallen you, since He Himself will deliver you from it and glorify you. All the evil of this world, such as persecution, insults, insults - all this serves not for the destruction of those who love the Lord, but for their salvation. He is strong to turn crying and sobs into joy, He is strong to turn all misfortune, poverty, to turn chains, hunger and death itself into good - that is His incomprehensible omnipotence. Mourner. Oh, that the Lord would turn my tears into joy and comfort the sadness of my heart! Comforting. In vain does your soul grieve, in vain is it troubled; put your trust in the Lord, and He will “bring out your righteousness like the light, and your justice like the noonday.” 77 Mourner. But tell me, does the Lord really want us to spend our lives in grief and sorrow? Comforting. Our Lord Jesus Christ, leaving this world, bequeathed persecution, tears, sorrow and sorrow to His chosen ones as a special gift. “You will be cut off from the hosts... you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, but you will be sad,” 78 says Christ. However, He did not bequeath all this to His chosen ones in order to embitter them and dishonor them, but in order to later console them even more, magnify and glorify them: “When I see you again, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” 79 The Lord will send silence to the waves, joy and joy to crying and sobbing. He punishes and has mercy, says Tobit. Mourner. Oh, that the Lord would help me to sail across these sad waves and find joy in the peaceful haven! Comforting. Wait a little, be patient and you will receive the mercy of the Lord. Think how long the farmer waits for the fruits of his labors; think how during a drought he waits day and night for beneficial rain to fall on the earth, and be patient; be patient and wait for the mercy of the Lord during your sorrows. Do not be troubled in spirit and continually trust in the Lord. Mourner. I hope in the Lord, but from great sorrow I am overcome by doubt that the Lord has forsaken me for my sins. Comforting. I will answer this to you not in my own words, but in the words of St. Chrysostom: “When the Lord sends a test to you, do not think that He has abandoned you; this should only be a sign to you that He cares about you and is punishing you to cleanse your sins.” So says St. Chrysostom How can the Lord abandon His faithful servant when He cares for him more than a mother cares for her children? Even if a mother forgets her child, the Lord will not forget His servant. Mourner. May the Lord God Himself reward you, father, for taking the trouble to come to comfort me. But still, I just can’t come to terms with the fact that I endure such insults completely innocently. Comforting. Think, friend, about our Lord, who suffered for us and left us an example that we should follow. Not only did he not do any harm to the Jews, but on the contrary, he did only good: he made the blind see, he cleansed the lepers, he healed the lame and paralytic. And for all this I heard from the ungrateful: “Crucify, crucify Him!” He endured countless torments, was crucified and died. We must always remember this image of Christ, who endured everything to the end, and conform our lives to it. Patience is the duty of a true Christian. A Christian, in the midst of sorrows and temptations, must stand like an anvil, unharmed and unshakable, says St. Ephraim. Let us also remember the suffering of the holy saints - their persecution, insults, torment, and let us think about how insignificant and small our suffering is in comparison with their suffering. Mourner. But the saints endured for Christ's sake; I do not suffer persecution for Christ, but because of the malice of people who were jealous of my well-being. Comforting. If you endure persecution not for Christ’s sake, but endure it innocently, then this will be credited to you. Remember the martyrs Boris and Gleb; Did they suffer for Christ? No, but since they were tortured innocently, this is imputed to them, as if they suffered for Christ, for which they were awarded the rank of saints. That’s why don’t say that you are not suffering for Christ’s sake; just endure to the end and do not despair of God’s mercy. At the same time, remember the rewards that await us in heaven; as St. teaches Basil the Great: “If anyone dishonors you, think about the glory shining in heaven; if your wealth is taken away from you, remember the heavenly riches and treasures, incomparable to those on earth; if you are expelled from your fatherland, know that you have a fatherland - Heavenly Jerusalem"; in this way our sorrows are more easily endured. It is not in vain that the apostle says: “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that from tribulation comes patience, from patience comes experience, from experience comes hope, and hope does not put you to shame”... 80 Mourner. I will also place my hope in the Lord, let Him do with me what He knows, according to His holy will. Comforting. You do well to rely on the Lord, your Creator and Provider. Listen to a short story about this. Once upon a time there lived a teacher; He prayed long and hard that the Lord would show him a person who could guide him on the path leading to heaven. One day, while praying, it seemed to him that he heard some voice from above, commanding him to go to the church porch. “There,” said this voice, you will find the person you are looking for.” The teacher went and saw at the church door an old beggar in rags and covered in scabs. Passing by him, he said the usual greeting to the beggar: “Good afternoon, old man!” “I don’t remember,” the old man told him in response, that I had some bad day.” Hearing these words, the teacher stopped and, as if wanting to get better, said: “God grant you happiness!” “I’ve never been unhappy,” the beggar objected again. “The teacher was surprised at this answer and, thinking that he had not heard well, said: “What are you saying, old man? I wish you all the best." “I have never been ill-fated,” the old man answered again. Then the teacher, intending to test him, said: “I wish for you what you want for yourself.” “I have no lack of anything, and I have everything I want,” he objected. “Tell me, old man,” the teacher finally said, are you the only one happy among this suffering humanity? I cannot understand how you could avoid those troubles and that evil with which, according to Job, man is filled from the day he was born.” “Here’s how, listen! answered the old man. For the fact that God sent me life, I thank Him; yet my happiness lies in the fact that I do not seek happiness. Happiness and unhappiness are not indifferent to those who care about them; I don’t think about happiness at all and never pray for it; that's why I'm never unhappy. In the same way, I have never been unfavorable: whether I feel hungry, I thank the Lord for this, who knows what we need: whether I suffer from the cold, whether I am exhausted by the rain, I endure and glorify the Lord; when I am reviled, I also glorify God, because I am sure that all this is done according to the will of God. That is why everything that the Lord sends to me - good or evil, joy or grief, I equally accept with gratitude and want only what the Lord wants; this way I have everything I want. The one who is unhappy in this life is the one who seeks happiness in it, while true happiness consists solely in hope in God. The will of the Lord is perfect, it cannot be evil; It’s to her that I cleave completely, with all my soul, that’s why I don’t consider myself unhappy because I surrender my will to the will of God and don’t want anything else but the agreement of my will with God.” This is what the old man taught. “But tell me,” the teacher also asked, “would you say so if God wanted to send you to hell?” “Should I be sent to hell? “The old man objected, but know that with the deepest humility and sincere love I seem to be tied to the Lord and wherever I go, I will carry Him with me and it is better for me, I assure you, to be outside heaven with God than in heaven without Him.” The teacher was surprised at these answers and thought to himself: isn’t this the true path to God, in order to agree with the will of God? Thinking like this, he still wanted to draw wisdom from the elder and asked him: “Where did you come here from?” “He came from God,” answered the old man. “Where he left everything worldly.” “Where do you keep God now?” - “Among pure thoughts and in a good conscience.” - “Who are you?” finally asked the teacher. “Whoever I am,” the old man answered, but, as you can see, I am satisfied with my life and would not exchange it for all the riches of the kings; every person who knows how to control himself and command his thoughts, in my opinion, is a king.” - “Where is your kingdom, if you are a king?” “There,” said the old man, pointing to the sky. Finishing the conversation with the elder, the teacher asked: “Who, old man, taught you all this, where did you learn such wisdom?” “I’ll tell you, my lord,” the old man finished, that I am almost always silent and when I pray or think about something, I only think about and care about one thing, to be in harmony and unity with God; agreement with His will teaches everything.” Mourner. Amazing old man, amazing story! Only at times my mind tells me that I endure because of human malice and envy, and not according to the will of God. Comforting. What happens without the will of the Lord, tell me? Is it not said that without her not a single hair will fall from our head? That’s why don’t think that you endure because of human malice, and not according to the will of the Lord. Your enemies who have risen up against you are nothing more than a scourge in the hands of the Lord. When He wants to have mercy on you, He will take this scourge away from you, and will comfort you and reward you. Imitate the apostle who said: “I take comfort in weaknesses, in insults, in needs, in persecutions and in oppression.” 81 You, too, should be content in your sorrows, thank the one who sent them, bow before the good will of the Lord and expect mercy from Him. Mourner. Thank God for everything. I thank you too, father, for instructing me and shedding consolation into my grieving soul. A certain man is not rich. There was a poor man named Lazarus. The parable of the Gospel speaks of two people - a rich man and a poor man, and shows what their present earthly life is like and what their future life is like after death. Let us first consider the real lives of both. Looking at the lives of rich and poor, who wouldn't rather be rich? The rich man lives in luxurious chambers, while the beggar lies at the gate on a heap of rubbish; the rich man is dressed in purple and fine linen, and the beggar in rags. The rich man has fun, gets drunk every day with the best drinks, enjoys all kinds of dishes, and the beggar in his sadness is glad if someone gives him a mug of water, and would like to be satisfied with even the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table; but these crumbs are not given to him. They serve the rich man, treat him with respect, console him in sorrow, visit him in illness and offer condolences; but who will look at the beggar, who will take care of him, who will visit him? Nobody. Will the dogs come near him? “And the dogs came and licked his sores,” 82 it is said about Lazarus in the Gospel. And, meanwhile, often all the well-being of the rich comes from the bloody sweat of the poor; when he becomes rich, the poor become poor; when the rich become fat from luxury and carelessness, the poor wither from sadness and hunger. The rich, ruling over the poor everywhere, often oppress them; St. The Apostle James says to the poor: “Do not the rich oppress you, and do they not drag you into courts?” 83 This is how the rich behave towards the poor. I don’t say this about those rich people who do good, about the merciful rich people who grow rich from their honest labors; But I’m talking about the rich who are evil, unmerciful, and who gain wealth for themselves through untruth. The rich man who gives alms and builds churches of God takes care of the kingdom of heaven; the merciless rich man does not care about anyone: it would only be good for him; This is the evangelical rich man who said to himself: “I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will gather there all my grain and all my goods, and I will say to my soul: soul! You have a lot of good things for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry.” 84 And so, when such a rich man eats, he devours the labors of the poor, devours people, according to the psalmist, who said about the rich: “They who eat my people as they eat bread, 85 and when he drinks, he drinks human blood, he is drunk with human tears. I will say again - all the happiness of the rich man is that he is rich, the whole misfortune of the poor man is that he is poor. Who is honored? rich; who is dishonest? wretched; who is glorious? rich; who is inglorious? beggar; who is smart? rich; who is stupid? poor man A rich man with a small mind is nevertheless considered an intelligent person, and everyone listens to him with attention and praises his intelligence, but a beggar, even if he were truly smart, is still stupid, because he is a beggar. Such is the life of a rich man in contentment and prosperity, and such is the life of a beggar, miserable and homeless. Let's look at their life after death. But first, let us recall Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The king of Babylon, as you know, once had such a dream. He saw in the middle of the earth a great tree, reaching in height to the sky, and covering the whole earth with its branches, its leaves were beautiful, and its fruits were plentiful. But a saint came down from heaven and cut down this tree. Isn’t it, we ask ourselves, similar to this tree and the rich man? He, like this tree, is tall in his pride, wide in estates, beautiful in honors, fruitful in profits; but suddenly the judgment of God comes, and this tree is cut down by the ax of death and in one hour is thrown into the grave. Tell me, rich man, where is now the height of your pride, where is the breadth of your wealth, where is your beauty and profit? Wasn't it all destroyed? And what happens after death? The rich man died, and the angels of Satan came and plucked his accursed soul from his body in illness and torment, “for the death of sinners is cruel,” 86 says the psalmist. The hour of death of the beggar came, and the holy angels came and took his soul easily, without illness, “for the death of His saints is honorable before the Lord.” 87 The rich man died, and the beggar died too. The soul of the rich man was taken to hell to the chief of demons; the soul of a beggar - to Saint Abraham, the chief of the forefathers; “The beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom,” 88 it is said about Lazarus in the Gospel. What is life like for both? Rich in this life, he becomes poor there; a poor person here becomes rich there. The rich man is in the abyss of hell, the poor man is in Abraham’s bosom; the rich in darkness, in fiery hell, in torment, crying and sobs, and the poor in light, coolness, glory and joy. The rich man in agony thirsts for one drop of water, crying out: “Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” 89 Oh, rich man, you have drunk a lot of wonderful drinks in your life, day and night you have drunk with your friends - can you now extinguish the whole fiery hell with one drop of water? No, now all the springs, and rivers, and seas will not be able to extinguish that Gehenna. This is how the gospel parable shows the life of the rich man and the life of Lazarus, earthly life and the afterlife. St. says the same thing. Apostle James: “Listen, you rich people: weep and howl for your troubles that are coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are rusty, and their rust will testify against you and will consume your flesh like fire.” 90 Concerning the poor and needy, the same apostle says: “Listen, my beloved brethren, has not God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?” 91 Listen to all this, you poor, poor and persecuted, and thank the Lord, who is preparing for you after your death the bosom of Abraham, the blessings of paradise, the kingdom of heaven. Patiently endure all kinds of misfortunes and untruths here, in the hope of receiving the mercy of the Lord in your future life: there your poverty will turn into wealth, sighs into joy, tears into eternal joy. But let it be known to you that not all rich people will be condemned to torment, just as not all poor people will be sent to heaven. The rich, who gather wealth for themselves from their labors, the rich who are generous and do good, will gain for themselves the kingdom of heaven. We know many who were rich in this life and yet were worthy of the kingdom of heaven. King David was rich, and our forefathers were not poor: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but all were saved and merited the glory of the Lord. There are also many other kings, nobles and rich people who are now revered among the saints. So not all the rich will perish, just as not all the poor will be saved. The poor who, out of laziness, do nothing, do not work, who feed on theft and robbery - such poor people will not only not be worthy of the kingdom of heaven, but on the contrary will be doomed to eternal torment. Descendant of Adam - and I advise you, every descendant of Adam: remain in humility. Humble yourself, remembering the words of righteous condemnation: “You are earth and you will go back to earth.” 92 Know God, meditate on His good deeds and walk in the footsteps of His commandments in order to inherit eternal blessings. Believe in God, always have abstinence in everything, constantly remember death and the final change of all things, and you will not be captivated by anything worldly. Beware of sin, whatever it may be; Never forget about your sin, so that you can pray more fervently for forgiveness. Day by day, rise higher and higher along the path of virtues, make every effort to do so in order to follow righteous paths in everything. We know that there is hope for the good, peace, joy and reward for work and deeds in the future life. Never forget eternal life and its future blessings, since your heart should always be directed there. Apply every care and diligence to your work, so as not to waste your life in vain. Love the truth, beware of lies, in order to avoid punishment according to the prophecy: “Destroy everyone who speaks a lie.” 93 Ascend to God with your mind and heart, never forget about Him in your soul in order to unite with Him forever. Love God with all your heart, with all the strength of your soul, and you will be free from earthly passions and desires. Pray constantly, for prayer is not a stolen treasure, with the help of which you climb to God, like on a ladder. Do not cling your soul to earthly blessings, but love the Lord God alone with all your heart. He alone is the Lord, the source of all blessings and eternal life. Remember the Lord so that His name is inseparable from your heart and lips. Every day, wash your soul with tears of repentance in order to become whiter than snow and appear unashamed before the face of God. Often raise your hands to the sky in prayer and ask for help from there in order to defeat your mental enemy - the devil. Remember death, beware of stinginess, so that the doors of God’s mercy do not close before you, overwhelmed by stinginess and unbelief, at the hour of your exodus. Be quiet and meek in everything, so that you may appear as a true imitator of Christ and His blameless disciple. Beware of despondency and laziness if you want to acquire eternal treasure for yourself. Try to drown the mental Pharaoh in your tears, so that by being at enmity he does not constantly raise persecutions against you. Seek Christ alone, to abide with Him forever. Let your goal and refuge be the Lord alone, and your hope is His most holy love. Love purity and chastity, so that the pure can unite with the Pure. May the six virtues always be in your soul: zeal, brotherly love, patience, piety, meditation and love. Be generous and merciful with everyone, so that on the day of the Last Judgment you will find generosity and mercy from the Lord God. Throw away unholy desires from your youth. Beware of rage, anger and slander, lest your spiritual eyes be darkened; Constantly praise the Lord with psalms and songs, so that you can always be comforted by this. Purity - by the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and through purity is elevated and brightened; everyone who is pure abides in Christ and Christ in him. The Lord turns His face away from the unclean. It is true, the divinely inspired prophet says: he who loves untruth hates his own soul, since all untruth is a mortal sin. Fasting - you need to start eating late and eat little; he who abstains will settle in paradise: just as a bird without wings cannot fly, so a person cannot be saved without fasting and prayer. Abstain from rich food, from empty verbosity, from all untruths and from intoxicating drink. The prayer to God is sincere, heartfelt, pure from worldly thoughts. Compassion and alms - even if you are not rich, give little, but do not be stingy. Love - love not only your brothers, but also your enemies, and those who hate you, and those who do you harm, love and do not take revenge on them with evil. Patience. Endure insults, ridicule and reproaches with gratitude. Love humility and do not be proud under any circumstances. Be silent, do not chatter uselessly, especially when you are standing in a holy church. Do not be lazy in the work of God, but on the contrary, always strive with cheerfulness and eagerness. Do not envy anyone in anything, do not slander anyone, do not lie, do not condemn anyone, even if you see any sin with your own eyes. Live constantly in prayer in your soul, think about death, about keeping the commandments of the Lord; be ready to always stand in judgment and give an answer to God about all your sins. Whatever the Lord finds us doing, He will judge us: among good deeds and in repentance, it is good for us; will find us in evil, unrepentant - woe to us, for for this we will have torment that has no end. Always bring true repentance for sins to God and your spiritual father, in sorrow and tenderness; Promise not to sin and wash away your sins with tears. One should rejoice in the Lord alone. “My joy, deliver me from those around me,” says the prophet David. “Rejoice,” the angel says to Tobit, and your joy will always be with you.” “What joy is there for me,” Tobit answers the angel, in this deplorable vale, in darkness and the shadow of death, without any hope for anything except death, without any thought about anything except the thought of separation from all this, of an unknown death? What joy is there for the mourner, what consolation for the one who hopes for the bitterness of death? None. What does a person want to console himself with: the glory of this world, which is so transitory, or the wealth that is soon perishing, or the beauty of his body, which is corruptible and turns to dust? There is nothing for you to console yourself with, man, in this deplorable century! You are not in your homeland, but in exile, not in the midst of peace and quiet, but in struggle; not in joy and merriment, but in a deplorable vale. Who's having fun in the dungeon? who rejoices when thinking about death? Nobody. This world is full of crying, not joy, sorrow and sadness, not joy, hardship and grief, and not consolation. There is nothing permanent or immutable about it. His joy is mixed with sorrow, his joy is overshadowed by sadness, his glory is transitory, his wealth is not lasting, beauty and pleasure must turn into dust: yet all this is cut off and destroyed by sudden death. There is nothing in this life worthy of joy and consolation, but everything is filled with weeping and sadness: all human life is vanity of vanities. In fact, a person is born from corruption, grows up in illnesses and ailments, and spends his whole life exhausted in grief and sorrow in struggle and inconstancy: troubles, persecutors and enemies come from everywhere. There is struggle, fear, anxiety and worry everywhere. The whole world is full of grief and struggle. Overeating and drunkenness are fought there, laziness and insensibility are there, fear, sin and crime are there. Then death will come and everything will change: the soul will enter another life, and the body will remain to be devoured by worms and turn to dust. There is nothing joyful in all this. That is why do not rejoice in anything in this temporary life, since everything in it is impermanent and changeable, everything in it is deceptive and false. If you want to be comforted, take comfort in the Lord alone; if you want to rejoice, rejoice in the Lord alone. Rejoice in the Lord, all you righteous in heart, says the prophet; Always rejoice in the Lord, says the apostle, pray constantly and give thanks in everything. Any other joy is a lie and deception; any other consolation is a burden and confusion of the spirit. Joy will flash and again unexpectedly sadness; consolation will come - and again crying and sobbing. It also happens that one grief does not pass, as another already befalls. That is why in the Lord alone rejoice and be glad. Rejoice in the Lord God, since your God is the great, eternal, immortal and omnipotent God, since God is generous, merciful, righteous and humane, since He is the Father of generosity and God the Comforter. Heaven and earth, mountains belong to him; hills and oak forests; His beasts, reptiles and all birds; His sun, month, stars and all the elements of heaven; Its waters, seas, rivers, lakes, snow and winds, thunder and lightning; His is every being, visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; His are all the people, all of humanity; His angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim and all the powers of heaven. There He has truth, there is unfeigned judgment; there is goodness and philanthropy; there is silence and peace; there is no disease or sadness; there is glory, wealth and eternal pleasure, there is joy, fun, light, beauty and consolation; there is freedom, space and endless life. Everything is there, just cleave your soul to the Lord and rejoice in Him. Rejoice in the Lord and thank Him for the fact that He created you in His image and likeness, that He called you from non-existence to existence; because he created you not as a beast or any other animal, but as a man with a rational and immortal soul. Rejoice in the Lord and thank Him for the fact that everything has been created for you. For you, heaven and earth, sun and moon and all the stars of heaven; for you seas and rivers, fish and birds; fields, forests and deserts are for you. Rejoice in the Lord and thank Him for the fact that He arranges everything for you and constantly cares for your soul; protects, preserves, sends health, admonishes and enlightens you for all sorts of good deeds. Rejoice in the Lord and give thanks to Him for the fact that He, the omnipotent one, became a man for you and took upon Himself all our infirmities. For you he was laid in a manger and circumcised, fled to Egypt, bowed his head before the Forerunner and was baptized. For your sake I received blows, was dishonored, spat on, bound and crowned with thorns. For you, he was nailed to the cross, tasted vinegar and gall, gave up the ghost, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Rejoice in the Lord and give thanks to Him that He allows you, who have sinned immeasurably, to repentance. Rejoice in the Lord and give thanks to Him for the fact that He promised you eternal life and the kingdom of heaven; for the fact that it sends life not for some short time, not for a hundred or a thousand years, but for eternity, without end. Glory to His inscrutable mercy, glory to His wise dispensation, glory to His incomprehensible goodness and love for mankind! Sermon on Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent Remember your teachers (Heb. 13:71). Remember your last (Sir. 7:39). Remember and remember - this is the content of today's conversation, beloved listeners! Remember first your departed mentors and your ancestors; Renewing the memory of them in our souls, we must look at the end of their lives, remember all their good deeds, speeches and instructions that they taught us, we must imitate them in faith and in pleasing God. But remembering this, everyone remember your last breath, death, grave and decay - remember your last. The memory of both is salutary for our soul. In memory and prayer for the deceased, we ask God for mercy towards them; We ourselves are filled with the thought of a sinless life. Remember your death, it is said, and you will never sin; when we remember the death of our mentors, we will certainly remember our own. The custom of going to foreign lands to study various sciences, to enrich the mind and heart with knowledge is worthy of praise. So my thoughts will be transported to foreign countries, overseas, from Europe to Asia, and not in present times will my thoughts visit them, but in times long past. Thus David traveled in his mind, saying: “I meditate on the days of old, on the years of centuries past.” 94 And so I go first of all to the country called Lacedaemon, and I see the king of the Lacedaemonian Pausanius, sitting proudly on his throne, and the sage Simonides standing in front of him; and the king says to the latter: “Tell me something from your philosophy that I could use and remember.” The philosopher replied: “Remember that you are human and mortal.” The answer is short, but full of great wisdom. The philosopher expressed two truths in it: first, remember, king, that you are a man, and not God, that you were born the same as all people, and that your body is not made of silver or gold, but the same mortal body as that of all people; remember this and don't be proud. The second truth is that he is mortal. By this the philosopher seemed to want to say: king, remember that you will not live forever; Today you are surrounded by glory, and tomorrow you are stinking; today, among wealth and power, dressed in royal purple and sitting in the royal chambers, and tomorrow, lifeless and powerless, entwined in funeral clothes - in the grave; Today you are formidable and unapproachable, everyone listens and obeys you, and tomorrow you are dust of the earth - who will be afraid of you? This is the wise answer of the philosopher. But I move on. I come from Lacedaemon to Athens and see there a certain famous man Solon - one of the seven wise men of Greece. This sage, who wrote the law to the Athenians, I see, approaches his church and writes on its doors: “Know yourself.” Why, sage, did you write this on the doors of the church? For this reason, he answers that many people come here every day; Let everyone who enters through this door read what is written and think about it. Regarding how to understand this, think about this; who are you, where are you from and where are you going? Who are you?.. a weak person, perishable and subject to all sorts of misfortunes, where from? - created from the earth and born in illness by a mother, where are you going? - to the grave, since there is no other outcome for either the king, nor the prince, nor the rich, nor the poor, neither the wise nor the ignorant: all are grave, dust, decay. This is how everyone should know himself. From Athens I come to Delphi. There, a certain Zeno asks the god Apollo: “How to direct your life in truth?” To this I received the following answer: “Ask the dead,” that is, ask for advice and guidance from the dead. But how will the dead, lifeless and mute tell it? They will teach silently and tell without language; they will speak not with words, but with their deeds; not with speech, but with his whole life. This is what they will say: you live now, as we lived before, but soon you will come to where we are now. You now eat, drink and be merry, and we are under the yoke of the grave earth. Where is the food, drink, fun, where is the joy of life? There is nothing, you have lost everything, so you will lose everything, and you will go down into the darkness of the tomb, just as we went down. The wisdom of Solomon through the mouth of the dead also teaches us. What good is it to us to have pride, wealth, and former greatness? the dead ask. “Everything has passed like a shadow, like a passing rumor,” they answer. Does a ship sailing on the waves, or a bird cutting through the air leave a trace? so we passed without a trace. And so, I say, will an unclean desire sink into the soul, will passion begin to agitate it, ask the dead, namely the inhabitants of Sodom, burning in unquenchable fire; they will say: if you want to go down to this Gehenna and suffer here forever, go and do it. If you want to feast every day, ask the dead, the rich man who asked Lazarus for one drop of water to quench his thirst. If you want to raise persecution against the innocent, ask Pharaoh, who died at sea. If you think you can hope for wealth, ask the rich man of the Gospel, who said to his soul: “Soul! you have a lot of good things lying around for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him: you fool, this night your soul will be taken from you - who will get what you have prepared? 95 Let us follow, beloved listeners, the Israelites coming from Egypt to the promised land and see how they make a sacrifice; They, at the command of Moses and Aaron, slaughter a lamb as a sacrifice for the sins of all. Then the blood of the lamb is collected in a vessel, and its body is burned outside the camp. Finally, the ashes of the burnt lamb are diluted in clean water and everyone is sprinkled with this ashes and blood. In this way people were cleansed of their sins. What did the Old Testament sacrifice mean - lamb, wood, blood, water and ashes? The Apostle Paul said that she was a type of the Savior Himself, who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world: If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer through sprinkling, sanctifies the defiled, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself blameless to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works. 96 Now let us ask only one thing: what did the ashes represent? He served as a prototype of the death of Christ: Christ was laid in the tomb, as if he would turn to the dust of the earth; the same ashes serve as a prototype of our death, after which we must turn to the ground. They say that when sprinkling the Israelites, everyone was ordered to remember the words spoken by God to the first man: “Thou art the earth, and unto the earth shalt thou return.” 97 We, who are cleansed from sins by the life-giving blood of Christ, also need to remember these words, we need to remember death. It is known that many often partake of the body and blood of Christ, but live unvirtuously; why? because they do not think about their death. The holy psalmist says this about these wicked ones: “They have no suffering until their death, and their strength is strong. That is why pride, like a necklace, has broken them off, and insolence, like an outfit, dresses them.” 98 This is how those who do not think about death live. Let us, beloved, remember it, let us remember the souls of the departed servants of God and pray for them in the hope that the sacrifice of the Savior made for us, now performed in the holy chalice, will sprinkle and cleanse their souls. For, if the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, washed away the sins of the whole world, then why should it not wash away our sins? If the Savior’s sacrifice redeemed countless souls from eternal slavery, will it not also redeem the souls of those now remembered? Let us believe in the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse, redeem and justify! Amen. Sermon for the fifth week of Lent Jesus said to them: Can you drink? the cup that I drink? They answered: we can. Beloved listeners! Two disciples of Christ: James and John, sons of Zebedee, express a desire to be closest participants in the glory of the Lord. They say to Him: “Grant us to sit at Your side, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in Your glory.” 99 Jesus Christ answered them, “You do not know what you ask,” and then asked them, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?” 100 So the holy apostles ask the Lord for dominion: thrones, glory and royal greatness, and Christ commands them to drink the cup that He Himself drinks, as if saying: if you want thrones and power, if glory and honor, then first drink My cup, then you will receive what you ask for, and without this you will not achieve what you want. Both disciples, to their Teacher’s question, obviously without thinking or knowing what Christ meant by His cup, answered: we can. The cup of the temporary earthly life of the Lord Jesus is not sweet, but full of bitterness, not with honey, but with wormwood, not with sugar, but with vinegar and gall. His cup is not the cup of the royal throne, but of the cross; not glory, but dishonor; not pleasure, but suffering. This cup is spoken of in today’s Gospel: “Behold, we are ascending to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed as a bishop and a scribe, and they will condemn Him to death, and they will betray Him with the tongue. And they will mock Him and hurt Him and kill Him. 101 Such is the cup of the Lord! Today’s word will be addressed to those who are moving away from the cup of Christ, that is, from holy communion, from the body and blood of Christ. Many, not only in a year, two, but even in ten years, do not even begin to approach the mysteries of Christ, while others do not know what communion is all their lives. Oh, the negligence of the human soul, oh, the coldness of the frozen heart! Let me tell you what we gain by being worthy of holy communion, and what we lose by moving away from it. First of all, learn that the cup of the Lord is twofold: the cup of the very suffering and death of the Lord and the cup of remembrance of them. The first cup, as we know, was on Golgotha, on the cross, but the second cup - the remembrance of suffering and death - is performed on the throne, in the holy chalice, under the guise of bread and wine. That this is the truth, the Lord Himself said: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” 102 The apostles were commanded to drink both of these cups—the communion of the body and the blood of Christ and to suffer for Christ—and they actually drank. The Lord does not force us to drink the cup of suffering, endure torment and persecution and die for Him; The Lord knows our weakness and weakness, knows that we will not endure all this. But for this we must partake of the cup of remembrance of the sufferings of the cross, partake of the body and blood of Christ. There is no suffering, no bitterness, or any other burden in this cup. But what will this cup give us? Jesus Christ Himself said: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life”; and vice versa: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. 103 Thus, the cup of the Lord is life and eternal life, and detachment from Him is eternal death. The cup of the Lord is the kingdom of heaven, as Christ said: “I bequeath to you, as My Father bequeathed to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table,” 104 but removal from it is Gehenna, intended for those expelled from the kingdom; the cup of the Lord, finally, is a community with the angels, and the deprivation of it is a community with the servants of darkness. What is better, let everyone judge: whether to have eternal life or to be doomed to death, whether to receive the kingdom of heaven or go to hell, whether to be with angels or with demons. Not everyone will answer: life is better than death; kingdom than Gehenna; angels than demons. Pathetic man! If you are afraid of eternal death, why do you turn away from eternal life in the cup of the Lord? If you tremble before Gehenna, why don’t you seek the kingdom of heaven? If you avoid demons, why don’t you strive for the angels who stand with reverence around the cup of Christ? Life, kingdom, and holy community - such is the gain for a person from communion. Death, Gehenna and the wicked community - such is the punishment for renouncing him! I’ll also ask: does anyone want forgiveness of their sins and their eternal oblivion? I think that everyone desires such a good thing. Why do you, a sinful person, avoid communion if you care about the forgiveness of sins? It is said to eat and drink for the remission of sins. I know that many will say this: I am a sinner, Lord, and am unworthy to begin Your divine mysteries. It’s good that you recognize yourself as an unworthy sinner. And can anyone be completely worthy?! But you will not do well if you remove yourself from the shrine of the mysteries of Christ, as David said: “Those who remove themselves from You perish.” 105 Among those who admit their unworthiness, there are truly repentant and there are Pharisees, and the former deserve holy communion for the remission of sins, according to the words of the Savior: “The healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick.” 106 The latter, who do not repent sincerely, are not worthy of the mysteries of Christ, for it is said: “Do not give holy things to dogs.” 107 Anyone who does not sincerely confess his sins to his spiritual father, does not regret his previous fall, or does not have in his heart a firm intention to renounce his sins and begin another righteous life, such a person should not approach divine communion, since this will not serve as an excuse for him, but as a condemnation: “He who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment for himself.” 108 A sincerely repentant person, who sincerely weeps for his sins, asks for mercy and desires salvation, is worthy of holy communion, no matter how sinful he considers himself to be. An example of such sincere contrition about one's unworthiness is provided by Mary of Egypt. In confession to the Monk Zosima, she told that when her foot touched the church porch, it seemed to her that the church, which accepted everyone, did not accept her, and that some invisible force did not allow her to enter inside. After falling in front of the icon of the Mother of God, she sincerely repented of her previous life and vowed never to return to it, she not only entered the church, but on the evening of the same day she was awarded communion of the body and blood of Christ If you do not believe me and doubt that holy communion serves every truly repentant person for cleansing from sins, believe the immutable words of the Savior, who commands us to do all this for the remission of sins. A true believer must believe every word of the Savior and therefore, out of fear alone, should not exclude himself from communion, but, on the contrary, approach it with fear and trembling. Just think, sinful man, that God is not your enemy, but a doctor and wants to heal you, and not destroy you; remember that He is your Father, seeking your salvation, that He is your Provider, caring for you. Why avoid His divine secrets? Isn’t it better to receive spiritual healing from a spiritual doctor and no longer live with sinful ailments? Isn’t it better to come to the Father and be satisfied with His immortal food? From the Gospel it is clear that he who partakes of the cup of the Lord is united with Christ: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” 109 In his interpretation of this passage, Saint Theophylact writes: “Here we comprehend the great shrine of the mysteries of Christ.” To howl in unity with Christ, to have Christ in yourself and to unite with Him yourself, oh, what could be greater, more important and more precious! He who does not partake of the cup of Christ drinks the cup of demons. Do you know that there is such a bowl? Saint John the Theologian in his revelation writes: “I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, filled with names of blasphemy... And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls, and holding a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations.” 110 This is the cup of demons. Who lives depravedly; commits adultery, wallows in uncleanness and is enslaved by passions, he drinks the cup of demons; The Apostle Paul says about her: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; You cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and the demonic table.” 111 The grace that descends on us in the cup of Christ is incalculable, and the death from the cup of demons is also immeasurable; I will say briefly: the cup of the Lord is the cup of our salvation, but the cup of demons is the cup of eternal destruction and eternal torment. Know this, beloved listeners! So, whoever wants to be with Christ, whoever wants to stand on the right side of His glory when He comes with His angels, do not reject the divine cup, do not run away from His most pure body and blood, and partake of His holy mysteries for the remission of sins. Just first, without delay, put in your heart the beginning of sincere repentance, now, this very minute, in the words of David: “today I have begun.” 112 I will begin without waiting, not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, but now; I said now, I will begin to repent right now in the hope of God’s help. And the Lord has been waiting for your repentance for a long time; He is glad of your conversion, will open the doors of mercy to you, will honor you with His cup and will bring you closer to Him in the kingdom of heaven. May He vouchsafe this to all of us. Amen. “Let no man tempt himself, but let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup,” 113 says the apostle. How should a person tempt and test himself? He should approach communion only with the following thoughts: has he brought the purest confession of his sins and has he not hidden anything? Does he regret his sins, his fall, does he cry and repent? does he have the desire and intention not only not to return to sin, but to run away from it with all his might? does he have any enmity with anyone? Has he prepared himself with fasting and prayer? So let man tempt himself. “For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself, without discerning the body of the Lord. 114 Who does not talk about the body of the Lord? The one who approaches the mysteries of Christ without testing himself, as said above, does not reason. The one who approaches not as God, but as simple bread and wine, does not reason: “This judgment is to eat and drink.” The one who approaches without trepidation and tenderness, without humility and love, without faith and hope of salvation, does not reason either. In order to truly be worthy of receiving the holy mysteries of Christ, you need to turn to God with the thought: I am unworthy, Lord, not only to partake of Your holy mysteries, but even to look at Your righteous meal; I approach only in hope of Your mercy, knowing that You came to earth for the sake of sinners, and not for the sake of the righteous. I dare to take communion and pray that I will never be excluded from holy communion. I dare to begin communion and hope in the words spoken by You Yourself: “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that whoever eats from it will not die; and again: Amen, amen I say to you, unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of man, you have not drunk his blood, you have not life in you.” 115 I hope in these words, knowing that You, Lord, spoke them not so much for the saints and righteous, but for the sinners and unrighteous. And if this is said for sinners, then I, a sinner, relying on Your mercy, dare and approach Your most pure mysteries. Discourse on Divine Communion My Lord and my God, in His most pure mysteries, is my healing for the sick. The Lord is my health for the paralytic me. The Lord is my cleansing for the defiled me. The Lord is my life for me who is dead. The Lord is my shepherd, and I am His lost sheep. The Lord is my support for the fallen me. The Lord is my justification for the condemned me. I approach Him as a healer and will receive healing; I will appear relaxed to my doctor and will be healthy; I will show my leprosy and become clean; I will lose my life and will rise again and live from the death of sin for virtue. I will go like a sheep to its shepherd and will be protected from the wolf; I will take hold of my support and will not fall any more; I will stand condemned before my judge and be justified. By accepting the most pure mysteries, from now on I lay the beginning of my salvation, so as not to be enslaved by sin, but to work according to my strength to the Lord God, on whose help and mercy I place my hope. Reasoning two against despair What do my sins mean before Your mercy, Lord! They are no more than a cobweb before a strong wind, like a small swamp before a great river, like darkness before an all-illuminating sun. The wind will blow and tear apart the web, the river will overflow and cover the swamp, the sun will shine and drive away the darkness. So is Your ineffable mercy, Lord! It will scatter all my sins, wash away my iniquities, and enlighten me, driving away the darkness - my evil deeds, speeches and thoughts. Why should I doubt? No, Lord, I will not allow doubt in Your goodness and I will not despair of Your mercy. I know that You are a strong and mighty God, and that therefore the sins not only of mine, but of the whole world cannot overcome Your mercy. And if they had overcome it, then You would not have been the Mighty and Strong God. Word for Palm Sunday Let us imagine, beloved, in our minds, how our Lord Jesus Christ solemnly entered Jerusalem, how with branches in his hands he met His people, and the children exclaimed: “Hosanna!” Let’s imagine the place where this happened, remember how it happened and look at everything with spiritual eyes. The procession of Jesus Christ began from the Mount of Olives, or in other words, the Mount of Olives, so called because olive trees covered it with a dense forest; This mountain was located east of Jerusalem and was five stadia, that is, one mile, from the old city. Thus, this mountain was not far from Jerusalem, but was quite high; Between the mountain and Jerusalem lay the Valley of Jehoshaphat, otherwise called the Valley of Weeping: there was the cemetery of all Jerusalem. The Kidron stream flowed through the middle of the valley. Christ loved the Mount of Olives for its silence and desolation and often spent nights on it in his prayer vigil: He usually chose for this either the very top of the mountain, from where he later ascended, or the garden of Zebedee, which lay on its slope. Another reason why the Lord often visited this mountain was that the flight here of the forefather David, persecuted by the son of the forefather, served as a prototype of His undeserved suffering. David went up the Mount of Olives barefoot and wept, covering his head. From this mountain began the glorious and solemn procession of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem through the Valley of Jehoshaphat and the brook Kidron. Let us consider, beloved listeners, spiritually this whole procession. Just as Jesus Christ began His procession from the Mount of Olives, that is, the Mount of Olives, so every Christian who wants to enter heavenly Jerusalem must also begin his journey from the Mount of Olives. David says about himself: “I am like an olive tree that bears fruit in the house of God.” 116 Likewise, each of the people must be an olive tree, that is, he must bear spiritual fruit to the Lord. The Apostle says that such fruits are: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, abstinence, as well as all good deeds, such as fasting, prayer, almsgiving, forgiveness of our debtors, forgetfulness of offenses, renunciation of sinful deeds, repentance and deeds in good deeds. These are spiritual fruits pleasing to God: whoever does this is like a fruitful olive tree. To this we must add the following. Following the example of the Lord Himself, who ascended the Mount of Olives to pray, it is necessary for us to rise to the heights of spiritual contemplation and from there, as from a high mountain, to ascend in prayer from the earthly to the heavenly, abandoning for a while all concern about everything worldly. Given how clean and fragrant the garden is, a person’s conscience should be just as pure and decorated with good thoughts, like garden flowers. Having begun the feat of Christian salvation from the Mount of Olives, everyone must pass through the valley of tears, that is, walk the path of humility, remembering death, the future terrible judgment, and go weeping about their sins and shedding tears, like the Kidron stream. In this way we will approach the heavenly Jerusalem. But let us look again, beloved, with spiritual eyes at our Lord. He makes His procession sitting on a donkey and a colt; First the Lord sat on a donkey, and then soon moved onto a colt: this has its own mysterious meaning. The donkey, accustomed to the yoke, serves as a sign of the Jewish people, as if yoked to the yoke of the law on Mount Sinai; an unaccustomed foal symbolized the entire family of pagan peoples who did not yet know the law of God. The Lord moved from a donkey to a colt in order to show that He would soon reject the Jews as unfaithful and bitter against Him, and would accept to Himself a new Church from the pagans that was about to be born. Imagining the solemn entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, we involuntarily marvel at such a wonderful humility of our Master. In fact, there were a lot of people meeting and following behind. “Many of the Jews, as the Gospel says, came not only for Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.” 117 Moreover, not only from Judea, but also from many other countries and from many pagan nations, large crowds flocked to Jerusalem for the holiday. Never before or since has there been such a flow of people to Jerusalem as in the year of the Lord’s suffering: according to the calculations of the leaders, up to three million came from all over the world. This is seen as a matter of divine dispensation: the whole world had to see the innocent suffering of the Son of God. And here, among such a multitude of people, among the exclamations: Hosanna, king of Israel! Our Lord goes in glory and honor. But how? Is it royal? Is it in a gilded royal chariot, or on decorated royal horses? No! just as the prophet Zechariah predicted: “Say to the daughter of Zion: behold, your King comes to you meek.” 118 Christ sits on a colt and teaches everyone humility and meekness, teaching not only ordinary people, but also those who have risen to the royal level and have the wealth and glory of this world. Sitting on a donkey and thereby striking pride and human vanity, Jesus Christ seems to be saying to everyone: like a reed shaken by the wind, so you waver in your inconstancy. Now you meet Me with branches, and in a few days you will dishonor Me! Now you are cutting branches from trees, and in a few days you will be cutting and trimming these same trees for the cross; Now you will place your clothes under My feet, and in a few days you will beat Me with whips; Now you exclaim: Hosanna, king of Israel! and after a few days you will cry out: crucify, crucify Him! Oh, human inconstancy, the inconstancy of the glory and honor of this world! “Every hill will be humbled,” says the Forerunner, that is, all pride will fall. It is known that the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead greatly contributed to the celebration being celebrated today: everyone who heard about the miracle flocked to Jerusalem to see Lazarus. Yes, beloved listeners, it is a great miracle to raise the dead! But how much greater and more glorious is the miracle of resurrecting a sinner who has died in soul from spiritual death and leading him to eternal life in heaven. To resurrect the dead body is the work of God’s omnipotence; to resurrect a dead soul, that is, to call a sinner to repentance and direct him on the path of truth and salvation, is a matter not only of the omnipotence of God, but also a matter of immeasurable mercy and the great wisdom of God. So, let it be clear to us that it is a greater triumph and miracle for the Lord to resurrect a sinful soul that has died for a righteous life than to resurrect the dead Lazarus. Lazarus, resurrected from bodily death, although after many years, will die again; the resurrected soul of the sinner’s wife, who cried at the feet of Christ, will be immortal. She was, like an animal, enslaved to bodily lusts and suddenly became in communion with the angels. So, if the Lord, riding on a donkey, goes and triumphs, then let it be known that He triumphs not so much about the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, but about those sinners who had to rise from spiritual death; in anticipation of their salvation, He rejoices and triumphs. With this I end my word today, beloved, I worship the Lord and exclaim: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest! Amen. To Chernigov Archbishop Lazar Boranovich.