Слово 7. О радостотворном плаче

1. Crying for God is the lamentation of the soul, such an arrangement of a painful heart that frantically seeks what it longs for, and not finding it, strives for it with difficulty and weeps bitterly in its wake. Or in other words: crying is a golden sting, with its wounding it exposes the soul from all earthly love and passion, and in the contemplation of the heart it is planted with holy sadness. 2. Tenderness is a constant torment of conscience, which cools the fire of the heart through mental confession before God. Confession is the forgetting of nature, just as someone forgot to “take away his bread” (Ps. 102:5). 3. Repentance is a sorrowless rejection of all bodily consolation. 4. The characteristic of those who still succeed in blissful weeping is abstinence and silence of the lips; those who succeeded - lack of anger and forgetfulness of malice; and for the perfect - humility, thirst for dishonor, arbitrary greed for involuntary sorrows, non-judgment of those who sin, mercy above strength. The first are worthy of praise: the second are praiseworthy; but blessed are those who hunger for sorrow and thirst for dishonor; for they will be filled with unsatisfied food. 5. Having reached crying, guard it with all your strength; for before perfect assimilation, it is very easily lost; and just as wax melts from fire, so it is easily destroyed by rumor, bodily cares and pleasure, especially by verbosity and laughter. 6. The source of tears after baptism is greater than baptism, although these words seem somewhat impudent. For baptism cleanses us from previously former evils, and tears cleanse us from sins committed after baptism. Having received baptism in infancy, we have all desecrated it, but with tears we cleanse it again. And if God’s love for mankind had not granted us these, then those who were saved would be truly rare and would hardly be found. 7. Our sighs and lamentations cry out to the Lord; tears coming from fear intercede for us; and those who are out of all-holy love show us that our prayer is accepted. 8. If nothing is more consistent with humility than crying; then, without a doubt, nothing resists him so much as laughter. 9. With effort, hold on to the blissful, joyful sadness of holy tenderness, and do not cease to practice this work until it places you above all earthly things and presents you pure to Christ. 10. Do not cease to imagine and remember the abyss of dark fire, unmerciful servants, the merciless and implacable Judge, the endless depth of the underworld flame, and close descents into underground places, terrible abysses, and other similar things, so that the lust nesting in our soul is destroyed by great fear, and the soul is united with imperishable purity, and receives radiance immaterial light, shining more than any fire. 11. During prayer, stand with trembling, as a convicted criminal stands before the judge, so that you can quench the wrath of the Righteous Judge with both your outward appearance and inner dispensation: for He cannot despise the widow soul who stands before Him with a painful feeling and torments the Unwearied One. 12. He who has acquired spiritual tears has every place to cry; and those whose work is only external will always need to choose decent places and positions. Just as a hidden treasure is not so much subject to theft as one lying in the market place: this should also be understood about the above. 13. Do not imitate those who bury the dead, who sometimes cry for them, sometimes get drunk for their sake; but be like prisoners in the mines, receiving blows from the guards every hour. 14. He who sometimes cries, and sometimes enjoys and says funny things, throws bread at the dog of voluptuousness instead of stones; Apparently he drives him away, but in fact attracts him to himself. 15. Complain internally, but not by expressing yourself, but by going deep into your heart; for demons are afraid of lamentation, like thieves of dogs. 16. We are not invited to a wedding feast, O friends, not to a wedding feast; but He who called us here truly called us to weep for ourselves. 17. Some, when they cry, untimely force themselves during this blissful time to have absolutely no thoughts, not understanding that tears without thoughts are characteristic of a dumb nature, and not of a rational one. A tear is a product of thoughts; and the father of thoughts is meaning and reason. 18. When you lie down on your bed, imagine yourself reclining in a coffin; and you'll sleep less. When you sit at the table, bring to your mind the deplorable meal of worms; and you will enjoy less. When you drink water, do not forget about the thirst in the unquenchable flame; and without a doubt you will force your very nature. 19. With honorable dishonor, annoyance and reprimand from the abbot, let us imagine the terrible sentence of this Judge; and we will undoubtedly cut off the unreasonable sadness and grief that pervades us with meekness and patience, like a two-edged sword. 20. “The sea becomes scarce with time” (Job 14:11), says Job; With time and patience, little by little the virtues we are talking about are acquired and perfected. 21. Let the memory of the eternal fire fall asleep with you every evening, and let it rise with you: and laziness will never possess you during psalmody. 22. Let your very clothes excite you to cry: for all those who mourn the dead dress in black. If you don’t have to cry, then cry about it yourself; If you have tears, then cry even more because from a painless state you yourself have reduced yourself through your sins to a state of labor and sorrow. 23. Our good and righteous Judge, as in everything, so without doubt and in crying, judges according to the strength of nature; for I saw that some shed small tear drops, like drops of blood, while others easily shed whole sources of tears. But I judged those who worked more by their work, and not by their tears. Thinking that God also judges. 24. It is indecent for those who cry to theologize: for this destroys their tears. He who speaks theologizes is like one who sits on a teacher's pulpit, and he who weeps is like one who dwells in dung and sackcloth. For this reason, I think, David, although he was a teacher and a wise man, but when he cried, he answered those who asked: “How can I sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land” (Ps. 137:4), i.e. in a passionate state? 25. As in external creation, so in tenderness there is something that is self-moving, and there is something that is moved by something else. When the soul, even without our suffering and care, is prone to tears, soft and imbued with tenderness, then let us hasten; for the Lord came to us even without our call, and gave us the lip of God-loving sorrow and the cool water of pious tears to blot out the handwriting of our sins. Keep this cry like the apple of your eye until it little by little leaves you; for great is its power. And it far exceeds the power of that crying that comes from our diligence and intention. 26. It is not he who has achieved the perfection of crying who cries when he wants, but who cries about what he wants (i.e., about something mentally beneficial). Even he has not yet achieved the perfection of crying, who cries for what he wants, but who cries as God wants. The most vile tear of vanity is often intertwined with a godly cry; and we will piously learn this from experience when we see that we cry and indulge in anger. 27. True tenderness is the pain of the soul, which does not ascend and does not give itself any consolation, but every hour only imagines its departure from this world. And from God, who consoles humble monks, he expects consolation like cool water. 28. Those who acquired weeping in the feeling of their hearts hated their very life (as full of labor and the cause of tears and illnesses); they turn away their bodies as if they were an enemy. 29. If we see anger and pride in those who think that they are crying for God, then the tears of such people should be considered incorrect: “What kind of fellowship does light have with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14). 30. Exaltation is born from false tenderness, and consolation is born from true tenderness. 31. Just as fire burns brushwood, so pure tears destroy all external and internal defilements. 32. Many of the fathers say that the meaning of tears, especially among beginners, is dark and incomprehensible, and that they come from many and different reasons: from nature, from God, from wrong grief and from true grief, from vanity, from lustful passion, from love, from the memory of death and from many other motives. 33. Having examined all these motives for tears through the fear of God, let us try to acquire those pure and unflattering tears that are born from thinking about our separation from the body; for in them there is neither stealing nor exaltation, but purification, success in the love of God, washing from sins and liberation from passions. 34. It is not surprising that crying begins with good tears, but ends with incorrect ones; but it is worthy of praise to move from irregular or natural tears to spiritual crying. The meaning of what has been said is clear to those who are prone to vanity. 35. Do not believe your tears before complete cleansing from passions; for that wine is not yet safe, which is put straight from the winepress into a vessel. 36. No one can contradict the fact that all our tears for God are useful; but what kind of benefit comes from them, we will find out during our exodus. 37. He who abides in constant mourning for God does not cease to celebrate daily (spiritually); and who always celebrates physically, eternal mourning awaits him. 38. There is no joy for those condemned in prison, there is no holiday on earth and for true monks. That is why the sweetly weeping prophet says with groaning: “bring my soul out of prison” (Ps. 142:8) into the joy of Your ineffable light. 39. Be like a king in your heart, sitting on the high throne of humility, and command laughter: go, and it goes; and I cry to the sweet: “come and come”; and to the body, this servant and our tormentor: “Do this and he will do it” (Matthew 8:9). 40. He who has put on blessed, gracious lamentation, as in a wedding garment, has known the spiritual laughter of the soul (i.e., joy). 41. Is there such a monk who would spend all his time in monasticism so piously that he never lost a day, an hour, or a moment, but devoted all his time to the Lord, thinking that it is impossible in this life to see the same day twice? 42. Blessed is the monk who can look with the eyes of the soul at the powers of the mind; but he is truly protected from falling, who, due to the remembrance of death and his sins, always waters his cheeks with the living waters of his sensual eyes. And it is difficult for me to believe that the first dispensation could take place (and be firm) without the last. 43. I saw petitioners and shameless beggars, with eloquent words soon bowing the hearts of the kings themselves to mercy, and I saw the poor and poor in virtue, who, not with eloquence, but with humble, unclear and bewildered words, from the depths of a hopeless heart, shamelessly and relentlessly cried out to the Heavenly King and, as it were, forcibly extorted mercy from Him, Whose nature is not subject to any compulsion. 44. He who is inwardly proud of his tears, and condemns in his mind those who do not cry, is like one who asked the king for a weapon against his enemy, and who kills himself with it. 45. God does not demand, brothers, and does not desire that a person should cry from heart disease, but that out of love for Him he should rejoice with spiritual laughter. Take away sin, and painful tears will be unnecessary for sensual eyes; for when there is no wound, then there is no need for a plaster. Adam had no tears before his crime, just as there will be none after the resurrection, when sin is abolished; for then “sickness, sorrow and groaning will flee away” (Is. 35:10). 46. ​​I saw in some weeping, and I saw others who wept because they had no weeping. These latter, although they have crying, think that they do not have it, and by their good ignorance they are preserved from theft. It is said about them: “The Lord makes the blind wise” (Ps. 146:8). 47. It often happens that tears puff up the frivolous; that is why they are not given to some. Such people, trying to gain and not finding them, curse themselves, condemn and torment themselves with sighs and lamentations, sadness of the soul, deep contrition and bewilderment. All this safely replaces tears for them, although for their own good they regard it as nothing. 48. If we observe, we will find that demons often mock us bitterly. For when we are full, they arouse tenderness in us; when we fast, they harden us so that we, seduced by false tears, indulge in pleasure - the mother of passions. But one should not submit to them, but do the opposite. 49. Reflecting on the property of tenderness, I am amazed at how crying and so-called sadness contain joy and joy, just as honey is contained in a honeycomb. What do we learn from this? Because such tenderness is truly a gift from the Lord. Then there is no unsweetened sweetness in the soul, because God comforts the brokenhearted in a hidden way. To demonstrate the power of true crying and the benefits that flow from contrition, let us listen to the following soulful and touching story. 50. There lived here a certain Stefan, who, loving the desert and silent life, spent many years in monastic endeavors, and shone with various virtues, and was especially adorned with fasting and tears. He previously had a cell on the slope of St. mountains where St. once lived. Prophet and God-seer Elijah. But then this worthy man accepted the intention of the most real, severe and severe repentance, and retired to the abode of hermits called Siddin, and there he spent several years of the most strict and severe life; for that place was devoid of all consolation, and was removed from every human path. Since it was located at a distance of seventy fields from the villages. Before his death, the elder returned to his cell on St. grief, where he had two disciples from Palestine, very reverent, who guarded the elder’s cell in his absence. After living there for a few days, the elder fell ill and died. The day before his death, he fell into a frenzy, and with open eyes he looked around first at the right and then at the left side of his bed and, as if being tortured by someone, he sometimes said out loud to everyone present: “Yes, indeed, this is true; but I fasted for this for so many years”; and sometimes: “No, I didn’t do it, you’re lying”; then he said again: “So, truly so, but I cried and served the brethren”; sometimes he objected: “No, you are slandering me.” To another he answered: “Yes, indeed it is, and I don’t know what to say to this; but God has mercy.” This invisible and merciless torture was truly a terrible and trembling sight; and what is most terrible of all, he was accused of something that he did not do. Alas! The silent and hermit spoke about some of his sins: “I don’t know what to say to this”: although he spent about forty years in monasticism and had the gift of tears. Alas for me! Alas for me! Where was the word of Ezekiel then, to say to the tormentors: in what I am found, in that I will judge, says God (Ezek. 33:13, 16). He couldn't say anything like that. Why? Glory to the One Knowing. Some, as before the Lord, told me that he (Stephen) even fed a leopard from his hands in the desert. During the continuation of this torture, his soul was separated from his body; and it remains unknown what the decision and ending of this trial was, and what sentence followed? 51. Just as a widow who has lost her husband and has her only son, in him alone, has consolation according to God: so for a fallen soul there is no other consolation when leaving the body except the labors of fasting and tears (repentance). 52. Those who mourn will not sing or exclaim in songs: for this is how mourning is destroyed. If you try to call him by these means, then you are still far from this task; for crying is the sorrow of a soul that has a (Divine) fire in itself, rooted in habit. 53. For many, crying is the forerunner of blissful dispassion, having pre-embellished, pre-purified the soul, and consumed substance (i.e. passion). 54. One skilled doer of this good told me: “When I felt a desire for vanity, or for anger, or for satiation of the belly, then the thought of crying internally convicted me and said: “Do not indulge in vanity, otherwise I will leave you.” In a similar way it kept me from other passions. And I told him: “I will never disobey you until you introduce me to Christ.” 55. So in the abyss of mourning there is consolation; and purity of heart receives enlightenment. Enlightenment is an ineffable action, understood in an unknown way and invisibly visible. Consolation is the cooling of a sick soul, which, like a baby, cries internally and at the same time smiles joyfully. Intercession is a renewal of the soul immersed in sadness, which miraculously turns painful tears into sweet ones. 56. Tears about the end of this life give rise to fear; and when fear gives rise to fearlessness (i.e., hope), then joy will shine; when endless joy reaches its end, the flower of holy love vegetates. 57. With the hand of humility, reject the coming joy as unworthy of it, so as not to be deceived by it and not accept a wolf instead of a shepherd. 58. Do not strive for vision not during vision. Better let it itself, attracted by the beauty of your humility, come to you, embrace you and unite with you in the purest marriage forever and ever. 59. From the very beginning, when the baby begins to know his father, he is completely filled with joy and sadness; joy, because he again sees what he longed for; but sadness, because for such a long time he was deprived of the vision of the beauty that was most dear to him. The mother also sometimes hides herself from the baby, and seeing with what sorrow he is looking for her, she has fun; and thus teaches him to always cleave to her, and inflames his love for himself more strongly. “Having ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9), says the Lord. 60. The convicted criminal, who has heard the death sentence, will no longer care about the organization of spectacles: and the truly mournful one will not turn to sensual pleasures, or to glory, or to anger and irascibility. Crying is the deep-rooted sorrow of a repentant soul, which adds sorrow to sorrow every day, in the likeness of a woman giving birth and suffering. 61. Righteous and holy is the Lord; To the one who is silent with reasoning, He wisely bestows tenderness, and to the one who prudently obeys He cheers daily. And whoever does not follow either one or the other path in a lawful manner will not be allowed to cry. 62. Drive away the (hellish) dog that comes during the deepest crying and presents God to you as implacable and unmerciful. Watching him, you will see that he, before the Fall, calls God humane, merciful and condescending. 63. From constant practice a skill is born; skill turns into feeling, and what is done in feeling is inconvenient. 64. Even though we have undergone great deeds in our lives, if we have not acquired a sick heart, then they are all feigned and vain; for those who, so to speak, have become defiled after washing, it is necessary, truly necessary, to cleanse their hands with the unremitting fire of the heart and the oil of God’s mercy. 65. I saw in some the extreme limit of crying: from the grief of a painful and wounded heart, they sensually spewed blood from their lips. Seeing this, I remembered the one who said: “I was wounded like grass, and my heart failed” (Ps. 102:5). 66. Tears from fear in themselves have trembling and storage; Tears from love, before perfect love, are stolen in some people; unless that great and ever-memorable fire kindles the heart during the action. And it is truly amazing how the humblest thing can become stronger in its time. 67. There are things that dry up the sources of our tears; and there are others who give birth to mire and vipers in them. Through the first, Lot unlawfully copulated with his daughters; and through the second the devil fell from heaven. 68. The wickedness of our enemies is great, so that they turn the mothers of virtues into the mothers of evils, and turn the means to achieve humility into a source of pride. Often the very locations of our homes and the sight of them call our hearts to tenderness; The example of Jesus, Elijah and John, who prayed in solitude, assures us of this. But I saw that some, both in the cities and among rumors, were aroused to tears. This happens through the malice of crafty demons, so that we think that we are not receiving any harm from this rumor, and so that we draw closer to the world. 69. Often one word destroys crying; but it would be wonderful if the same word returned it. 70. We will not be accused, brethren, we will not be accused, at the end of our souls, for not working miracles, for not theologizing, for not achieving vision, but without a doubt we will give an answer to God for not weeping incessantly for our sins. You might be interested in: