Слово 2. О молитве

Prayer is a great blessing if it comes with a feeling of gratitude, if we learn to thank God, not only receiving (what we ask for), but also not receiving. God, both when he gives (what is asked) and when he does not give, does both for the benefit, so that whether you received or did not receive, you received thanks to what you did not receive; whether you had time or didn’t have time, you managed through what you didn’t have time. Sometimes it is more useful not to receive. If it were not often useful for us not to receive, God would certainly give; meanwhile, not to receive with benefit means to receive. Let us not grumble about the delay in granting what we ask, but rather let us show ourselves great firmness and patience. Couldn't God have granted our requests first? But He waits in order to receive from us a reason to righteously honor us with His care. Therefore, whether we receive what we ask or not, we will be persistent in our request, and we will give thanks not only in case of success, but also in case of failure. Not receiving when God so wants means no less than receiving, because we ourselves do not know what is good for us, as He knows. Thus, whether we receive or not, we should equally give thanks and accept with joy what is pleasing to Him. It is not because God often hesitates to fulfill our requests that he rejects them, but because he wants to teach us constancy and attract us to Himself. Likewise, a tenderly loving father often does not agree to his son’s request, not because he does not want to give, but through this, wanting to encourage his son to persevere. For the one who prays to be heard, it depends, firstly, on whether we are worthy to receive; secondly, if we pray according to the laws of God; thirdly, if we pray unceasingly; fourthly, if we do not ask for anything of this life; fifthly, if we do everything that is due on our part, and, finally, if we ask for useful things. Just as it depends on these conditions to be heard, so it depends on the opposite conditions to not be heard, even if those praying were righteous. Who was more righteous than Paul? But when he asked a useless request, he was not heard: “About this,” he says, “I prayed to the Lord three times... but the Lord said to me: My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:8-9). Who is also more righteous than Moses? But he was not heard, and God said to him: “It’s enough for you” (Deut. 3:26). Since he asked to enter the promised land, and it was useless, God did not allow it. In addition, we are not heard for another reason, namely, when we pray, continuing to remain in our sins. God pointed out this when he said about the Jews to Jeremiah: “Do not ask for this people... don’t you see what they are doing?” ( Jeremiah 7:16–17 ). “They,” he says, “have not abandoned wickedness, and you offer a petition for them? But I won't hear you. Likewise, when we ask for something against our enemies, we not only fail to be heard, but also irritate God. Prayer is medicine; but if we do not know how to apply this medicine, then we cannot take advantage of its healing power. So, constancy in prayer is a great good, as the event with the Canaanite woman teaches us; in fact, what Christ did not agree to when the apostles asked Him, she managed to do, with her persistence achieving the fulfillment of the request. God wants us to ask Him for our sins more than others for us. When we ask people, we sometimes need to spend money, and slavishly flatter, and go around and fuss a lot, because often it is impossible to directly gain access and speak with the masters themselves, but it is necessary first to win over to our side both with money and with the words of their servants, stewards, attorneys, and through them to obtain what we ask for. It's not like that with God. He does not need intermediaries when He is asked, and He is not so inclined to mercy when others plead (for us) as when we ourselves ask Him. God wants us to ask Him often, and He is very grateful for this, because He is the only debtor who, when asked of Him, thanks and gives what we did not lend. And if he sees someone asking earnestly and diligently, he also grants what he did not receive from us; and if the one who asks is lazy, then He Himself hesitates, not because He does not want to give, but because He is pleased when we ask Him. It is not because God hates or turns away from us that He hesitates to give what we ask, but by desiring by such delay to constantly keep the gift with Himself. Tenderly loving fathers do the same: by delaying the fulfillment of requests, they teach careless children to be diligent. Has your request been heard? Give thanks for being heard. Not heard? Stand firm to be heard. You don’t need intermediaries, you don’t need to bother a lot or flatter others; on the contrary, even if you were completely alone, even if you had no patron, you will certainly achieve what you asked for if you ask God on your own. If it happens with people that, despite thousands of insults, when we appear morning, noon, and evening to those who are offended by us, we easily stop the enmity with such persistence and constant appearance in their eyes, then all the more so it happens with God. God does not usually bow down when others pray to Him for us, as when we ourselves ask Him, even if we are filled with countless evils. Let those who pray carelessly and complain about the slowness of granting what they ask for listen to me. When I say: “Call God, ask Him, beg Him,” you answer: “I asked once, twice, three times, ten, a hundred times - and I didn’t receive it.” Don't lag behind until you get it; when you receive, then leave behind, or rather, and then do not lag behind, but remain in prayer: if you have not received, pray to receive; if you have received it, give thanks for what you have received. Many enter church, perform thousands of prayers and leave, not knowing what they said: the mouth moves, but the ear does not hear. You yourself don’t hear your prayer, but you want God to hear it? I knelt, you say. But your thought was on the side. The body was inside the church, but your spirit was outside; your lips spoke a prayer, and your mind calculated interest, obligations, trade turnover, acquisitions, friendly meetings. The devil, being wicked and knowing that during prayer we achieve great success, comes to us at this time - often we are lying on the bed without any worries and not thinking about anything, but we came to pray, and countless thoughts immediately attack us - in order to deprive us of the fruits of prayer and make us completely unsuccessful. And it often happens that, having completed the prayer, we leave; as if they didn’t even hear what they were saying. So, when we notice this, we will immediately repeat the prayer, and if the same thing happens to us again, then we will say it the third and fourth time, and not before we stop praying before we pour it all out before God with a sober soul and attentive thoughts. And if the devil notices that we do not lag behind the prayer before we pronounce it with care and a sober soul, then he will finally lag behind with his machinations, knowing that nothing else will come of his tricks except that he will force us to repeat the same prayer many times. If, when we come to a person, we show such attentiveness that we often don’t even see those standing nearby, but focus our thoughts and think only about the person we are coming to, then all the more we need to do this in relation to God, we need to be attentive in prayers, without wandering our thoughts in different directions. If the tongue pronounces words, and the mind wanders on the side, thinking about household affairs or thinking about public affairs, then not only will there be no benefit for us, but, on the contrary, there will be even greater condemnation. If we stand before people for so long, serving in the army and enduring hard labor, performing slave duties, and in the end we often lose our very hope, then do we really not have the courage to stand before our Lord, from Whom we can undoubtedly receive a reward much greater than our labors, with due diligence? And what kind of punishment is this worthy of? After all, even if there was nothing to be received, does not constant conversation with God itself contain countless benefits? Truly, prayer and conversation with God through it are a great blessing. If a person conversing with a virtuous person gains considerable benefit from this, then what benefits will he enjoy who has been rewarded with a conversation with God? Isn’t it crazy to order servants to serve us all the time, and not even devote a little leisure to God? You do not know what is useful to you, man; You often ask for something harmful and deceptive. But He, who is much more concerned about your salvation, does not listen to your prayer, but before prayer, He provides for what is useful for you. In fact, if carnal fathers do not necessarily give their children what they ask for, not because they neglect those who ask, but because, on the contrary, they care more about them, then all the more does God do so, Who loves us most and knows best what is good for us. When you weaken in prayer and do not receive, remember how many times you heard the poor man calling you, and you did not listen to him, yet he was not indignant and did not insult you; Moreover, you do this out of cruelty, and God does it out of love for mankind. So, if you yourself, not listening to your fellow slave due to your cruelty, do not consider yourself worthy of accusation, then how do you accuse the Master, who does not listen to the slave due to his love for mankind? If blessed David, being a king, absorbed by countless worries and entertained on all sides, prayed to God seven times a day, then what justification and forgiveness can we have, who have so much idle time and do not pray to Him constantly, despite the fact that we can receive great benefit. It is impossible, truly impossible, that a person who prays with due diligence and constantly calls on God will ever fall into sin. Whoever inflamed his mind, aroused his soul, moved to Heaven and thus called upon his Lord; whoever, remembering his sins, talks with Him about their forgiveness and prays to Him to be merciful and forgiving - he, indulging in such a conversation, puts aside all worldly cares, takes inspiration and becomes above human passions. Springs of water do not make gardens bloom in the same way as springs of tears that water the tree of prayer, raise it to the greatest heights and place the one praying before God. От этого-то зависит более всего и услышание. In fact, whoever, while his body is prostrate on the ground and his lips are uttering words meaninglessly, his soul is wandering everywhere - at home and in the square, can he say that he is praying before God? One prays before the Lord who has completely concentrated his soul and has nothing in common with earth, but has moved to Heaven itself and expelled every human thought from his soul. The person praying should pray in such a way that, fully concentrating and straining his mind, he calls on God with a sorrowful soul, not multiplying words and not expanding in prayer, but uttering few and simple words, because hearing depends not on many words, but on the sobriety of the soul. And this can be seen in the example of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. She says exactly: “Lord... Hosts! If You will consider the sorrow of Your servant... and give Your servant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord... all the days of his life, [and he will not drink wine or... intoxicating 1 ], and no razor will touch his head" (1 Samuel 1:11). Are there many words here? But since she performed this prayer with attention and sobriety, she achieved everything she wanted: she corrected her corrupted nature, opened her imprisoned womb, and brought herself into a state of great complacency, harvesting a fat ear from a barren stone. So, the one who prays should not talk too much and pray constantly. Both Christ and Paul commanded to perform short and frequent prayers, with short intervals. If you spread your words, often doing it without paying attention, you will give the devil great freedom to approach you, create feats and distract your thoughts from the words you are saying. And if you say constant and frequent prayers, constantly repeating them frequently, you will easily be able to maintain your attention and will perform your prayers with great vigilance. Do you want to know what vigilance, sobriety and perseverance in prayer are? Go to Anna, find out what she did. They all got up, they say, from the meal (1 Samuel 1:9), and she immediately turned not to sleep, not to rest - why it seems to me that even while sitting at the meal, she was abstinent and did not burden herself with any dishes, otherwise she would not have shed such tears. In fact, if we, fasting and abstaining from food, can hardly pray like that, or better yet, never pray like that, then even more so she could not pray like that after the meal, if she were not like those who fast during the meal. Let us be ashamed, men, women - we, who, praying for the Kingdom, yawn from sleepiness - let us be ashamed of the one who asked for a son and cried. Notice her piety in another respect. “Her voice...,” it says, “could not be heard... her mouth only moved” (1 Samuel 1:13). This is how someone who wants to receive something approaches God - without straining and yawning, without drowsiness, without scratching, without carelessness. Couldn't God give without prayer? Didn’t He already know his wife’s desires even before the request? But if He had given the petition first, then the wife’s zeal would not have been revealed, her virtue would not have been revealed, and she would not have received such a reward for it. But let's look at her wisdom. When the priest Eli considered her drunk, look what she said to him: “Do not consider your servant a worthless woman, for out of my great sorrow and out of my grief I have spoken hitherto” (1 Samuel 1:16). This is truly a matter of a contrite heart, when we are not angry or annoyed at those who insult us, but even make excuses. Truly, nothing makes the heart wiser than sorrow and sorrow for God. So, we must thank God both at the beginning of the meal and at the end. He who has prepared himself for this will never fall into drunkenness and disorder, will never experience the consequences of overeating, but, restraining his thoughts by waiting for prayer, as if with a bridle, he will use everything offered in due measure and thereby bring both soul and body great well-being. A table that begins and ends with prayer will never become scarce, but will bring us all the blessings more abundantly than the source. Let us not neglect such benefits. It is strange that our servants, having received something from us from the table, thank us and leave with a kind word, but we, enjoying such great benefits, do not give God such honor. That is why, in both public and private affairs, much comes out contrary to expectation, because we do not worry about spiritual matters first, and only then about everyday ones. Or don’t you know that if you come to worship God and take part in the local (church) activities, then the upcoming (everyday) things will become easier for you? But do you have everyday worries? It is for their sake that you come here, so that, having attracted the favor of God by staying here, you can leave in safety, so that you can have God as an ally, so that with the help of the Heavenly hand you can become invincible to the demons. If you join in spiritual prayers, if you share common prayer, if you attract God’s help, if you leave here protected by His weapons, then neither the devil himself nor the evil people who are trying to offend and slander you will dare to look at you. If you leave the house to the square and find yourself deprived of this weapon, you will be easily defeated by all offenders. And let them not tell me that it is impossible for a worldly person, busy with service, to constantly pray during the day and run to church. Perhaps, and quite easily. If it is not easy to come to church, then you can pray without leaving your service, standing there, in front of the doors of the judgment seat. And many people did this often. When the chief inside (the court) shouted, threatened, lost his temper, raged, they, having fenced themselves in front of the doors with the sign of the cross and praying in their minds with a few words, entered and forced the judge to change, tamed him and turned him from a fierce one into a meek one; and neither place, nor time, nor silence was an obstacle for them to such prayer. After all, prayer requires not so much a word as a thought, not so much the movement of the hands as the tension of the soul, not the position of the body, but the disposition of the spirit. So Anna, the mother of Samuel, was heard not because she uttered magnificent and loud words, but because she cried out a lot inside her heart. “Her voice was not heard,” it says, and God heard her (1 Samuel 1:13). Let us not make excuses by saying that it is not easy to pray for a person who is burdened with everyday affairs and does not find a house of prayer nearby. Wherever you are, you can build your own altar; Neither place will hinder this, nor time will hinder it. Although you do not bend your knees, do not beat your chest, do not stretch out your hands to the sky, but only show your ardent soul, you will thereby fulfill everything necessary for prayer. You can, after all, go out into the square and walk around alone, and say fervent prayers. You can, sitting in the workshop and sewing leather, lift your soul to the Lord. It is possible for a servant, both while shopping, and going up, and going down, and working in the kitchen, when it is impossible to go to church, to perform sincere and fervent prayer. God does not disdain space, but requires only one thing - a fiery heart and a focused soul. So Paul, not in a house of prayer, but in a prison, prostrate, not standing up straight and bending his knees - because this was not allowed by the stocks into which his feet were driven - but lying down, having prayed with zeal, he shook the prison, shook its foundation, frightened the prison guard and then led him to the Holy Sacrament. In the same way, Hezekiah, not standing upright and not bending his knee, but reclining on his bed due to illness and turning to the wall, with fervor and a humble soul called on God and thereby canceled the sentence that had already been pronounced, attracted God’s great favor to himself and restored himself to his former health. And the thief, stretched out on the cross, acquired the Kingdom of Heaven with a few words. And Jeremiah in the mud and the ditch, and Daniel in the ditch and among the beasts, and Jonah in the very belly of the whale, calling on God, eliminated all threatening disasters and attracted the highest favor to themselves. What should you say when you pray? Same as the Canaanite woman. As she said: “Have mercy on me... my daughter is cruelly raging” (Matthew 15:22), so you say: “Have mercy on me, my soul is cruelly raging.” Sin is a great demon. The possessed person arouses compassion, and the sinner - hatred. “Have mercy on me”: a short word, (but it found) a sea of ​​philanthropy, because where there is mercy, there are all kinds of blessings. If you are outside the church, cry out and say: “have mercy on me,” at least not moving your lips, but calling with your mind; God hears even those who are silent. What is required is not a place, but a basis of godliness. Jeremiah was in the mire and drew God to him; Job sat on dung and found favor with God; Jonah was in the belly of the whale, and God listened to him. Even if you were in the bathhouse, pray; wherever you are, pray. You are the church of God; don't look for a place. The sea was in front, the Egyptians were behind, and in the middle was Moses, who did not say anything: there was a great difficulty for prayer. And God says to him: “Why are you crying out to Me?” ( Ex. 14:15 ). So you too, when you are tempted, run to God, call on the Lord. Is He a man for you to go to any place? God is always “nearby.” “You will cry out, and He will say: “Here am I!”" (Is. 58:9). You have not yet finished your prayer, and He is already giving medicine. If your soul is pure from obscene passions, then whether you are in the square, or on the road, or in court, or at sea, or in a hotel, or in a workshop - wherever you are - you can call on God and receive what you ask for. What does it mean to stretch out your hands during prayer? Hands serve as instruments in committing many evil deeds; Therefore, we ourselves are commanded to stretch them out, so that service in prayer will be for them an obstacle to evil and abstinence from vices; so that when you intend to steal, or appropriate someone else's property, or hit another, you remember that you will prostrate them as intercessors before God and make a spiritual sacrifice with them, and do not disgrace them, do not make them unrequited through serving vicious deeds. So, cleanse them with alms, philanthropy, helping those in need, and then extend them to prayer. If you do not allow yourself to begin prayer with unwashed hands, then even more so you should not defile them with sins. If you are afraid of the lesser thing - praying with unwashed hands, then be all the more afraid of the more. It is not so rude to pray with unwashed hands; and stretching out hands defiled by many sins brings the great wrath of God and destruction. Do you want to know how great the power of prayer performed in church is? Peter was once bound and imprisoned in strong bonds. “The Church prayed diligently for him” (Acts 12:5) and immediately released him from prison. So, what could be more powerful than this prayer, which helped the pillar and stronghold of the Church? Those who are announced are not yet allowed to pray such a prayer, since they have not yet received such boldness; but you are commanded to make prayers both for the universe and for the Church, which extends to the ends of the earth, and for those who rule it, and for those who stand in it. And you willingly obey, confirming by your very deed that the power of prayer unanimously offered in the Church by the people is great. If it happens to people that the people ask for criminals to be led to death, and the king, yielding to the crowd, cancels the sentence, then how much more will the King of Heaven, appeased by you, fulfill your request. Have you not heard how Peter was snatched from prison as a result of the Church’s fervent prayer for him? To approach God and plead for so many people - how insufficient do you think our smallness is for this? Indeed, if I do not have the boldness to pray for myself, much less for others; this can be done by people who deserve everyone's approval. So, when I myself deserve anger, how can I pray for another? For one to ask for many is too bold and requires great boldness; but for many who have come together to pray for one - nothing inappropriate will seem in this. Of course, you can pray at home; but it is impossible to pray as in a church, where there are so many fathers, where the voice is unanimously raised to God. The Lord does not hear you as much when you pray on your own as when you pray together with your brothers, because there is something else here, namely, unanimity and agreement, the union of love and prayer of the priests. This is why the priests stand, so that the prayers of the people, as the weakest, uniting with their stronger prayers, ascend to Heaven with them. If the prayer of the Church benefited Peter and freed this pillar from prison, then tell me, how do you neglect its power? Just as the power of love is not restrained by the distance of place, so is the effectiveness of prayer; but just as the first unites those who stand at a distance from each other, so the latter can bring the greatest benefit to those who are at a distance. Moses, although he was not present in body with those who fought, however, no less, and even much more than them, assisted in this battle, by stretching out his hands, rousing his forces and instilling fear in the enemies. No feat can be great enough if it does not benefit others. Even if you were a faster, even if you slept on the ground, even if you ate ashes, even if you cried incessantly, but if you do not benefit anyone else, you are not doing anything great. Moses performed many great signs and wonders; but nothing else made him as great as the following blessed words he spoke to God: “Forgive them their sin, and if not, then blot me out too” (Ex. 32:32). And David, showing the same thing, said: “Behold, I have sinned, I have acted lawlessly; and these sheep, what did they do? Let Your hand turn against me and against my father’s house” (2 Samuel 24:17). Great, of course, are these deeds, and worthy of angelic life; but Paul’s action has a great advantage over them, since he wanted to lose future glory for the sake of saving others. Meanwhile, Jonah, for seeking his own benefit, even ran into the danger of death, and while the hail stood, he himself was drowned in the waves of the sea. So, other deeds of Moses’ virtue were also great, but the head and crown of this holy soul was that he wanted to be blotted out of the book for the salvation of the Jews. But Paul's desire greatly surpassed even this. Moses wanted to perish with the others, but Paul prayed not that he would perish with the others, but that he alone would lose eternal glory while others would be saved. So, it is good to use the prayer of the saints, but under the condition that we ourselves are active; and if this is not the case, then the help of others will not help us; on the contrary, we will die with her too. How did Jeremiah benefit the Jews? Didn’t he approach God three times and hear three times: “Do not ask for this people and do not offer prayers and petitions for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you” (Jer. 7:16)? What benefit did Samuel bring to Saul by grieving and praying for him until his last day? How did it benefit the Israelites as well? Didn’t he say: “And I also will not allow myself to sin before the Lord so as to stop praying for you” (1 Samuel 12:23)? Didn't they all die? Listen to what God says through the prophet: “And if these three men had been found in her: Noah, Daniel and Job, then by their righteousness they would have saved only their own souls,” since their wickedness has increased (Ezek. 14:14). What then? Do prayers really bring no benefit? They bring great benefits, but only when we ourselves contribute. And if you want to know how great a benefit they bring, remember Cornelius and Tabitha. Listen to what God says: “I will guard this city to save it for Myself and for the sake of David My servant” (2 Kings 19:34; Isaiah 37:35). But when? Under the righteous Hezekiah. Otherwise, if, that is, the prayers of great sinners had power, then why didn’t God say the same thing when Nebuchadnezzar came and betrayed the city? Because wickedness has increased. Likewise, the same Samuel prayed for the Israelites and had success. But when? When they themselves were virtuous, then they defeated their enemies. But why, you say, do I need the prayer of others when I myself please God? What are you saying, man? Paul did not say: “Why do I need prayer,” although those who prayed were not only not worthy of him, but were not even equal, but you say: “Why do I need prayer”? Peter did not say: “Why do I need prayer,” - after all, it is said: “The Church diligently prayed to God for him” (Acts 12:5), which [prayer] immediately freed him from his bonds, - but you say: “Why do I need prayer”? That’s why you need it, because you consider it unnecessary for yourself. If God tested with His judgment our carelessness and carelessness during prayer, experienced how we, standing before Him and begging Him, do not even give Him the same honor that servants give to masters, soldiers to leaders, friends to friends, because when talking with a friend, you are attentive, and when turning to God with a prayer about sins, asking for leniency for your great sins, asking for forgiveness for yourself, you are absent-minded and often, kneeling on the ground, you allow your mind to wander around the square and around the house, so that your mouth chatters in vain and in vain - which happens to us not once or twice, but all the time - if only this was what God wanted to experience, would we receive forgiveness? Can we have an apology? Don't think. If God tests our voluptuous faces and the bad desires in our souls, which are aroused by nasty and unclean thoughts arising from frivolous wandering of the eyes, if He brings to judgment those slander with which we daily reproach each other, indecent gossip in which we condemn our neighbor without having anything to do with it, those deceits that we perpetrate against each other, praising a brother in his presence and talking with him as a friend, and in his absence blaming him - shouldn’t we really give an answer for this? And what can we say about the envy that we often feel towards respected people - not only enemies, but also friends - about how we rejoice when others suffer disasters, and consider other people's misfortunes to be a consolation in our own misfortune? If we are commanded to abstain from worldly goods even when we have them, then how do we turn out to be pitiful and unhappy when we ask God for what He commanded and have to refuse? If we are commanded to pray not only for the faithful, but also for the unfaithful, then think how great an evil it is to pray against the brothers. What are you doing, man? You come to appease God, but ask harm to another? If you don’t let go, it won’t be released to you either; and you not only don’t let go yourself, but you also ask God not to let go? If someone who does not let go is not released, then how can someone who also asks the Lord not to let go be released? If having enemies is already a crime, then think what a crime it is to pray to harm them. You should ask for forgiveness for having enemies, but you still blame them? And how can you receive forgiveness when you blame others, and at a time when you yourself need great mercy? You come to pray for the forgiveness of your sins: do not remember the sins of others, lest they remind you of your own. If you say: “Defeat the enemy,” then you will block your lips and tie your tongue, firstly, because at the very beginning of the prayer you angered the Judge, and secondly, because you are asking something completely contrary to the form of prayer. In fact, if you pray for the remission of your sins, then how do you talk about punishment? It would behoove us to do the exact opposite—to pray for our enemies, so that we can boldly pray for ourselves. If you pray for them, then, even though you didn’t say anything about your sins, you fulfilled everything. So, if there is nothing more despicable than a soul that curses others in prayer, and worse than a tongue that utters such curses, then why don’t you try with all your might not to say anything in prayer that will anger your Master? You are a man, don’t spew out the venom of asps. You are a man, don’t be a beast. Your lips were not given to you to wound, but to heal the wounds of others. Remember, says God, what I taught you: to leave and forgive. And you beg Me to be your accomplice in violating My commands and devour your brother, stain your tongue with blood, like madmen who torment their own members with their teeth. Have you thought about how the devil rejoices and laughs when he hears such a prayer? Have you thought, on the contrary, how angry, disgusted and hateful God is when you pray like that? Remember, man, to whom you approach with prayer for the destruction of your enemies. Are you approaching another God? You are approaching the same One who said: “Pray for... your enemies” (cf. Matt. 5:44). How then do you cry out against them? How do you ask God to break His own law? This disguise is indecent for a praying slave: everyone should pray not for the death of another, but for his own salvation. Why do you take on the appearance of a praying slave, but speak like an accuser? Moreover, when we pray for ourselves, we scratch ourselves, yawn, and entertain ourselves with countless thoughts; and we pray with all our attention for the destruction of our enemies. Since the devil knows that at this time we are raising the sword against ourselves, he does not entertain or stop us, in order to harm us even more. But, you say, I was offended and upset? So pray for the destruction of the devil, who incomparably offends us more than anyone else: it is he who gives birth to enemies. If you pray for the destruction of your enemies, you will pray the prayer that the devil wants; on the contrary, if you begin to pray for your enemies, then your prayer will be against him. Truly, he alone is our irreconcilable enemy; and man, no matter what he does, remains our friend and brother. So, why do you, leaving your real enemy, torment your own members? So, beloved, knowing this, let us try to act in accordance with the commandments and the will of the Lord, so that we may achieve the Kingdom of Heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Ἐκλογαί άπό διαφόρων λόγων . Under this name are known collections of conversations compiled by various persons after the death of Chrysostom on certain topics, from those related to the topics and especially liked by the compilers of the works of the saint. The passages are given partly in a literal presentation, partly in a free retelling and are borrowed both from the original works of Chrysostom, and from works only attributed to Chrysostom, which have not only survived to this day, but have also been lost. These Eclogues (selections) were widespread and were used by both private individuals and kings. Known, for example, is the luxurious collection of Eclogues, owned by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Botaniatus (1078–1081), registered among the codices of the Koalene Library under No. LXXIX. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” These words are not in the Synodal translation. You might be interested in: