Слово 2. О беспристрастии, то есть, отложении попечений и печали о мире

1. He who truly loves the Lord, who truly desires and seeks the future kingdom, who has true sorrow for his sins, who has truly acquired the memory of eternal torment and the Last Judgment, who truly fears his departure from this life, will no longer love anything temporary, will no longer care or worry about possessions and acquisitions; neither about parents, nor about the glory of this world, nor about friends, nor about brothers, in a word, about anything earthly, but putting aside all worldly and all care for him, and first of all, hating his very flesh, naked, and without care and laziness will follow Christ, constantly looking to heaven and from there expecting help for himself, according to the word of the saint who said: “My soul cleaves to You” ( Ps.62:9); and according to the saying of another ever-memorable one: “But I have not labored to follow you, and have not desired a day or a man’s rest, O Lord” (Jer. 17:16). 2. Great shame for us, who abandoned all the above, after the calling with which the Lord, and not man, called us, to take care of something that cannot benefit us during our great need, that is, during the exodus of the soul. This means, as the Lord said, to turn back and not be led into the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord, knowing our ease in the new beginning, and that we, living and dealing with the worldly, can easily return again to the world, said: “Tell me to go and bury my father,” says: “Leave the dead to bury their dead” (Luke 9:59-60). 3. Demons, after our renunciation of the world, inspire us to please the merciful and compassionate among the laity, and to condemn ourselves as having deprived ourselves of such virtues. The intention of these our enemies is to either return us to the world through false humility, or, if we remain in monasticism, to plunge us into despair. It is another thing to humiliate those living in the world out of arrogance; and others, at a distance from them, to condemn them, in order to avoid despair and gain hope of salvation. 4. So, let us hear what the Lord said to the young man, who apparently fulfilled all the commandments: “One thing is lacking: sell your possessions and give to the poor” (Luke 18:22), and make yourself a beggar, accepting alms from others. 5. All who wish to undergo the feat (monasticism) with fiery zeal, consider carefully how the Lord called everyone in the world and the living dead, saying to someone: “Leave it to the dead, that is, to the laity who died in the vanity of the world, to bury the dead with their bodies” (Luke 9:60). Wealth did not in any way prevent this young man from proceeding to baptism. Therefore, it is in vain that some people think that the Lord commanded him to sell his wealth for the sake of baptism. May this testimony of Christ be sufficient to completely assure us of the greatest glory of the monastic calling. 6. We must investigate why those who live in the world, and are in vigils, in fasting and suffering, when, after leaving the world, they begin monastic life, as a place of testing and an ascetic field, they no longer go through their previous feat, false and feigned. I saw very many and varied plants of virtues, planted by worldly people, and, as if from an underground runoff of impurity, soldered with vanity, entrenched in self-praise and fattened with the dung of praise; but they soon withered when they were transplanted into empty land, inaccessible to worldly people, and without the stinking moisture of vanity, for moisture-loving plants cannot bear fruit in dry and waterless places. 7. If anyone has hated the world, he has escaped sorrow. If anyone has an addiction to anything visible, he has not yet gotten rid of it; for how can you not be sad when you lose your favorite thing? Although we need to have great sobriety in everything, but first of all we must be most reasonably attentive in this regard. I have seen many in the world who, through care, concern, occupation and bodily vigil, avoided the violence of their body; but having entered into monasticism and being provided with everything here, they were pitifully defiled by the carnal movement 17. 8. Let us take heed to ourselves, so that, thinking we are going along the narrow and narrow path, we do not actually wander along the long and wide path. The narrow path will be shown to you by oppression of the belly, all-night standing, moderate drinking of water, scarcity of bread, the cleansing drink of dishonor, accepting reproaches, ridicule, curses, cutting off your will, enduring insults, uncomplainingly enduring contempt and the burden of annoyance; when you are offended, endure courageously; when they slander you, do not be indignant; when humiliated, do not get angry; when they condemn you, humble yourself. – “Blessed are those who walk in the paths of the path shown here, for to them is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3–12). 9. No one crowned will enter the heavenly palace unless he makes the first, second and third renunciation. The first is renunciation of all things, both people and parents; the second is the renunciation of one's will; and the third is the rejection of vanity, which follows obedience. “Come out from among them, and separate yourself, and do not touch the uncleanness of the world, says the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:17). For which layman has ever performed miracles? Who raised the dead? Who cast out the demons? Nobody. All this is the victorious honors of the monks and the world cannot accommodate them; if he could, then why would there be monasticism and removal from the world? 10. When the demons, after our renunciation, begin to inflame our hearts with the memory of our parents and relatives, then we will arm ourselves against them with prayer, and ignite ourselves with the memory of the eternal fire, so that with the memory of it we can extinguish the timeless fire of our heart. 11. If someone thinks that he has no passion for some thing, but having lost it, his heart grieves, then he is completely deceiving himself. 12. Young people inclined towards carnal love and gluttony, if they want to enter monasticism, must train themselves in it with all sobriety and attention, and force themselves to distance themselves from all pleasure and wickedness, so that the latter is not worse for them than the first. This refuge is the cause of both salvation and troubles: those who sail this mental sea know this. But it is a pitiful sight when those who survived in the abyss undergo drowning in the shelter itself. Second degree. Let the current one run, imitating Lot, and not his wife. Because they did not have decent work and proper security. You might be interested in: