Письма 1–100

Most Reverend N N of the Lord! 1 May the small sacrifice you make by lighting a lamp before the icon of the Most Pure Virgin Mary with the image of the Eternal Child, our Lord Jesus Christ, be acceptable before God! It is a symbol only of your zeal, and not of your good deeds, about which you must be diligent in order to correct your heart according to the commandments of God, and ask for His help for this, because without Him we cannot do anything (John 15:5). But our adversary and enemy the devil constantly, like a lion roaring and seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), resists our good will, uses his abuse against us and attracts us to passions; when he does not have time to do this, he introduces him to an opinion about his virtues, and, simply to say, he fights as a warrior of Christ with his gums and ears. The weapon that is intolerable to him is humility, about which we must take every care, both during corrections and during spiritual weaknesses. In explaining your ulcers, you also mention the condemnation of your neighbors, and attribute it to pride. This is undeniable; but other sins, and especially anger, are the product of this God-hating passion. Those who want to correct themselves and are overcome by passions carefully accept this temptation, so that they humble themselves, even if involuntarily, and thereby attract the grace of God to themselves. – If you always have humility, then anger will not prevail over you; being overcome by it, do not be embarrassed, but repent and humble yourself, and with the help of God it will leave you.. When you are embarrassed and despair, then you will give them food for proud passion, and you should know that it has a strong effect on you. I can’t write to you much, I’m very absent-minded 2. Read the fatherly books: Climacus, Abba Dorotheus and others who themselves went through the work and gave us teachings for strengthening in spiritual warfare - you will benefit. Father O. L. - sends you his blessing, and I, with the desire for you peace of mind, health and salvation, with my respect remain your unworthy pilgrim, much-sinned I. M. May 26, 1840 Your words: “I seem to feel a little that it is impossible to be saved from my works, why I place my hope in God and in those of the brethren to whom the region has been given to be children of God through faith, it seems” gave me a reason to talk with you. From these small lines something is noticeable that shakes your mind and causes you confusion. Although I, due to my poverty in deeds and words, should have listened to myself, but out of love for my neighbor, and out of pity for you, I am undertaking to offer you a small discussion about this subject, not from my meager mind, but trusting in the God of intelligence and the Lord, who gives speech to the dumb for the benefit of His people; - from His word and from the writings of the God-inspired fathers, who, after an active life, left their teaching for us to guide. Faith is the foundation of all good things, and without faith it is impossible to please the Lord (Heb. 11:6.); it is also a gift from God. The Lord, after His resurrection, sending the holy Apostles to preach, commanded: going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who has faith and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not have faith will be condemned (Mark 16:15,16). And again: as you went on, teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all the things given to you in the commandments (Matthew 28:19,20). And the holy Apostle James teaches: What good is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works; food can faith save him? Faith, unless it has deeds, is dead about itself. Show me your faith by your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Do you want to understand the vanity of man, for faith without works is dead? Was it not by works that Abraham our father was justified, that he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see how faith has advanced through your works, and by works faith has been perfected. Do you see that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone? And just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead (James 2:14,17,18,19,21,22,24,26). And the holy Apostle Paul: have faith and a good conscience, having rejected the truth, you have fallen away from the faith (1 Tim. 1:19). And again: having the sacrament of faith in a clear conscience (1 Tim. 3:9). Enough of this to say that our salvation requires not only faith, but also works. The word of the Holy Apostle Paul: by the works of the law all flesh will not be justified (Rom. 3:20) refers to the ritual works of the Old Law, and not to the New Grace commandments. This same wisdom, that justification is acquired by faith alone without works, is Lutheran, not Orthodox, which our Church does not accept. Whoever is convinced that there is no need for works, but only faith, does not care about works, and through this he can fall into greater errors, contrary to the truth, and fall from faith; Likewise, whoever trusts in his works, even though he has faith, is mistaken. The children of God, to whom the realm of being such is given through faith in His name (John 1:12), means all those who believe and have been baptized, as St. John Chrysostom attests in his first conversation on repentance, speaking about the prodigal son: “So this son bears on himself the image of the baptism of the fallen. And what he means by the baptism of the fallen is clearly from the fact that he is called a son; Without baptism, no one can be called a son. So, through all this, the state of the faithful will be indicated to us.” Consequently, although we are sinners, we are all called children of God by grace through faith and baptism. After baptism, it is imperative to do the commandments of God, by which the grace given in it is preserved, and as you progress in them, it multiplies; breaking the commandments, we restore and acquire it through repentance. And all this works through faith, and without it we would not have begun the works of repentance; faith and works everywhere! “You feel a little bit that it is impossible to save yourself from your deeds,” a little bit, but you still don’t completely give up hope on them; It seems that before they relied a lot on them, but this is again harmful, thinking that we deserve salvation by our deeds: it was brought to us by the merits of the Savior. One must do, but not rely on works. When we think to earn it through deeds, this shows our arrogance; Then the Lord will not give us the strength to fulfill the virtues, but rather allows passions to strengthen on us, so that we recognize our weakness and humble ourselves before God, remembering this commandment of God: if you do all that is commanded you, say, for we are unimpeachable servants, even if we have done, we have done (Luke 17:10). Read in the Philokalia of St. Mark of the ascetic, in the chapters about those who think they will be justified by works (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11,12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.), you will see how faith and works are consistent. I believe that you, seeing the need for deeds to gain salvation, and wanting to fulfill them, but not seeing in yourself the achievement of this goal, and moreover, defeat by various passions, are confused and perplexed, what to do? Of course, placing hope in God and in the prayers of those who please Him can greatly help in the matter of our salvation; but in confusion, with attempts, it is clear that it comes from spiritual pride. You are well aware that those who want to please God and seek salvation have invisible enemies who resist this, as the holy Apostle Peter writes: your adversary the devil, like a lion, roars, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). And the holy Apostle Paul: our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). Having fought with such fighters, it is necessary to have a strong weapon against them, and with all known ones there is humility, which they cannot resist in any way, and without it, fighting with them arrogantly and proudly, we are always defeated. This is why the Lord allows us to fall, so that we humble ourselves, which is fittingly written in the 58th word of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Even if a certain case of sin crawls, obviously there are natural infirmities, God has allowed the souls to be more beneficial than that life of passions: I see that I will not exalt these things before the second pack of existence. Even more pleasant than these passions, it is useful to eat to mortify the conscience, but if you remain in these, you eat shamelessly and shamelessly.” Also read his word 7 and 46 and St. John of Carpathia, in the chapters (in the IV part of the Philokalia) you will find enough strengthening for yourself. The Holy Fathers, who have gone through experience, show us what kind of struggles there are from the enemy who opposes the fulfillment of the will of God; and in order not to fall into despair if a creep occurs, they strengthen, and restore to faith and works of repentance. God will not despise a broken and humble heart (Ps. 50:19), and again: the Lord is near to those who are broken in heart, and will save those who are humble in spirit (Ps. 33:19). I wrote to you little from many things; If you feel the benefit, give praise to God, and yourself, reading the active teachings of your fathers, recognize in them true reason and right reasoning; and in the light of faith and God’s help, try to fight a good fight, in the hope of God’s mercy, and He will direct your path to your intended goal - the salvation of the soul. We would be very pleased to see your visit, but since this desire of yours was not fulfilled during this Lent, then, surrendering this to the will of God, from now on rest in good faith for the Dormition Lent. May the Lord bless you and fulfill this intention, if it is for the benefit of your soul. I received the material you sent, which, as directed by your mother, I will try to use for the clothing of the throne and altar in the man-made church of God, where a bloodless sacrifice is made for the salvation of the whole world. And the name of your aunt, the servant of God......, for remembrance I will write down where it should be. But at the same time, there is my earnest request to you: the material is very good and durable, suitable for the purpose; but for the splendor of the church of God it would be very good, in these clothes, to embroider at the bottom a kind of border, wider, with bouquets; this will serve as a great decoration. Wouldn’t it be good for you to suggest this to your mother, would it be her permission to be zealous for this, and meanwhile this can be delivered to the poor girls living in S—? monastery engaged in this handicraft, food. I expect notification from you about this consent, and then I will proceed to execution: I will write to them, and having cut the material into stripes, I will send it to them for sewing in chenille, and in some places in gold or silver, according to decency. However, this sewing does not seem to be a significant expense; I don’t know how much exactly, but by writing to them I can notify you. May the Lord send His blessing to fulfill your mother’s wishes, in whatever way possible, and may it serve her spiritual benefit and those of her neighbors. Entrusting you to the protection of God, and asking His peace and blessing for you, with my zealous respect for you and desire for salvation, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. June 17, 1840. Father o. L. sends his blessing to you. He goes to Tikhonov Hermitage. The grace of God, which wants everyone to be saved and to come in the understanding of truth (1 Tim. 2:4), has opened your mind to the understanding of the scriptures, about the need to unite faith with works - give glory to God! But you are still faced with bewilderment, which confuses you, for not doing what you understand and know; and, moreover, it seems to you that you are decisively going against everything that should be. This opinion of yours is very erroneous: if you went against everything, you would consider this to be necessary, and you certainly would not be embarrassed; and when it is otherwise, then you are involuntarily and reluctantly conquered, carried away by the power of the passions to which you were previously enslaved, for which you grieve, and this is a sign of your reluctance to go against what you should. I suggested to you that those who want to do the will of God must fight against invisible spirits of evil, which you now see happening to you. Cutting off your will, and not forming your mind, is the first means to acquiring humility, and from this reasoning the enemy, not wanting to allow you to do this, presents you with this saving means in terrible forms; thinking only about this, you become indignant in your mind and heart, but the root of this is self-love and pride. Until now, you have based your correction and salvation on your opinion and reason and your will; That is why your strength in the confrontation is exhausted, because, due to this conceit, the enemy has a free and strong attack on you. Consider whether this is true? You have learned from experience that when you do something without reasoning with obedience, you do it very easily and calmly with benefit. To verify how much the enemy does not tolerate one who is in paternal subjugation, and what intrigues he contrives in order to remove him from obedience, read chapter 44 in the 4th part of the Philokalia of St. Theodore of Edessa. Further in your letter it follows: you need to reason less, and try to keep your thoughts occupied with prayer; but your whole trouble is that, knowing all this, you do not fulfill it, and, moreover, you still feel that you will be completely irresponsible at the Last Judgment. If this last thing has a strong effect on you and confuses you, then I’ll tell you again that this is the essence of the machinations of the enemy and the fruit of pride. You, recognizing yourself as a sinner, should not despair, but rather humble yourself and marvel at God’s love for mankind, who endures you and awaits your conversion and repentance. This same day I happened to read the 8th discourse of St. John Chrysostom (on repentance), and this, perhaps, happened by God’s will for your benefit and my benefit, from which I write out part: “repentance is a plaster of sins, consumption of iniquities, withdrawal of tears, boldness towards God, a weapon against the devil, a sword cutting off his head, hope of salvation, destruction of despair. It opens heaven to man; it leads you into heaven, it overcomes the devil; That's why I often talk about him, because it gives us hope of defeating him. Are you a sinner? do not despair: I do not know what weapon against the devil your non-despair is. If you have sins, do not despair. I will never keep silent about this: if you sin every day, you must repent every day. Are you worn out today from sin? renew yourself with repentance. Is it possible, you say, for someone who has repented to be saved? and very possible. I have spent my whole life in sins, and if I repent, will I be saved? Of course you will. How is this proven? the love of your Lord for mankind. And if there were only repentance, then I would rightly be afraid: but since repentance the mercy of God is associated; But God’s love for mankind is immeasurable, and His goodness cannot be expressed in words. For your malice has a measure, your sin, whatever it may be, is human sin, and God’s mercy is inexpressible; then hope that it will overcome your anger: imagine a spark falling into the sea, can it resist, or appear? As small as there is a spark against the sea, so small is the sin against God’s love for mankind; Moreover, not so much, but much smaller: since the sea, although it is great, nevertheless has its own measure; God’s love for mankind is limitless.” Read more about this for yourself in the 3rd part of the Philokalia, from St. Peter of Damascus, on the 48th sheet, as it is not proper to despair, even if many people sin, and on the 53rd sheet, oh, for a great good is true repentance. All these teachings raise the sinner from the deep pit of despair to hope in God’s love for mankind. Accept this healing for your ulcers, and calm your conscience with trust in God’s mercy. You ask to be taught how to acquire the gift of prayer. It's like asking a beggar for wealth. I recognize myself in this regard as being in a very poor position; How can I teach what I don’t have myself? But I offer you some reasoning from the teaching of the holy fathers on this lofty subject, subject to the understanding of my meager mind, from which you may benefit. We must and are obliged to pray according to our duty, according to the commandment of God and the Apostles, and the teaching of the holy fathers, about everything, such as: for our preservation, for our salvation, for the forgiveness of sins, for our neighbors and about many other things - but with great humility, and not to look for a gift in ourselves; The Lord himself grants it, but to those worthy of it, as Saint Isaac the Syrian writes: “I do not feel the things of God that come from myself; her, but if the place is clean and not nasty. If the apple of the eye of your soul is not pure, and you do not dare to look at the surroundings of the sun, lest you lose that very dawn, which is simple faith, and humility, and heartfelt confession, and small deeds, even according to your strength, and you will be cast out into one place of thought, which is total darkness, external from God, bearing the image of hell, like him deprived of spirits, enter into marriage in bad robes” (Isaac the Syrian, lyrics 2.). Many holy fathers offer an image of prayer, each from his own experience, about which I will tell you in part; Saint Macarius of Egypt: “The head of every virtue and the top of corrected deeds is constant abiding in prayer, through which we can receive other virtues by asking God daily. (But) if we do not adorn ourselves with humility, simplicity and goodness, the image of prayer will do nothing for us” (Homily 1, chapter 8. 9). And how it is necessary to remain in prayer, he further teaches: “This must begin: first of all, firmly believe in the Lord, and devote yourself entirely to the words of His commandments, and renounce the world in everything, so that the mind is turned to nothing from visible things, and continue unwaveringly in prayers, and not despair in waiting for the Lord’s care and help at all times, always having the offer of your mind in it” (Word 1, chapter 13.). “If anyone forces himself to pray, he will never receive any gift from God; to these things, such as: to humility, to love, to meekness and to other virtues, in the same way he does not do violence to himself, and is obsessed with laziness, even though sometimes, at his request, the grace of God is given: for God is good and merciful, and gives to those who ask Him according to their petitions; but he has not prepared himself beforehand, and is not accustomed to the spoken virtues, then he either destroys grace, or accepts it, and falls, or achieves nothing, falling into arrogance. The habitation and rest of the Holy Spirit is humility, love and meekness, and the other commandments of the Lord” (Homily 1, chapter 14). “Unless it is with humility and love, simplicity and goodness, prayer will not be combined in us, not this prayer itself, but there is a mask better than prayer, which cannot bring us a single benefit” (Homily 3, chapter 5.). From the teachings of the great father presented to you, you see what kind of preparation for prayer and going through it should be, in order to achieve its gift, and what obstacles there are to this. Consider yourself, whether you stand at the level at which you stand, and whether it is your measure to reach the height of such virtue, which the acquisition of the gift of both those who have withdrawn from the world, and those who have despised everything, a few have achieved, as Saint Isaac the Syrian writes: “as soon as a person is found alone, having fulfilled the commandments and the law, little is not enough, and has reached the purity of the soul; Thus, one out of a thousand is found worthy to achieve, with much protection, in pure prayer, and break this limit, and receive it the sacrament. Before that, I was not worthy of many and pure prayers, but not enough. Having reached this sacrament through one and the other, it is barely found in generation and generation by the grace of God” (16th word). And about those who wish to achieve some talent before their time, St. John Climacus writes: “Look into the thoughts of unskilled novices, and you will find there an erroneous thought: you will find in it the desire for extreme silence, the most severe plucking, prayers that cannot be distracted by various thoughts, the perfect glory of vain rejection, unforgettable mortal memory, unceasing contrition for sins, the mildest lack of anger, the deepest silence and the most excellent chastity. When they enter into the monastic feat, they, by the special Providence of God, have not achieved these virtues, and are finally deceived in their intention and fall away from it altogether. For the enemy inspires them to seek them ahead of time, so that if they are satisfied with their treatment at the present time, they will not receive them” (from the 4th degree). In addition, read for yourself in the first part of the Philokalia, from St. Gregory of Sinaite, from among the 15 chapters, on page 84, the 8th chapter from half: “simple slaughter”... a in other chapters 89 pages on the back: about the beauty of chapter 7; You will see that the memory of God, or mental prayer, is the highest of all works, and what is the punishment for those who dare to go through it on their own. I wrote all this to you without taking you away from prayer, but suggesting how dangerous it is to seek its gift ahead of time and arbitrarily, and beyond your measure; you see how wonderful this is. For, in the words of Saint Macarius: “the more someone strives for a greater gift, the greater the effort the evil one will make to attack, which is why it is necessary to care about the fruits of love, humility and others” (Sk. 3, ch. 2). And since I think you admit that you still lack humility, then it is dangerous to seek high things. Simply pray at a certain time, in quantity with humility, from which quality is born, forcing yourself to pray; What does St. write about? Zosima: “If you pray and endure with need, you will give birth and pray with peace. And there is a need to pray out of will; And it is with peace, it is from grace” 3. Saint Peter of Damascus, in the 2nd book, in the 24th word, writes (see. Philokalia, part 3): “give prayer to the one who prays, that is, God gives mental prayer to the one who prays well with bodily prayer” and so on... In case of scattered thoughts during prayer, there is no need to be embarrassed, but to humble yourself and repent, which can calm us down, which St. John the Climacus strengthens by teaching: “Try to always gather your wandering thoughts into one. God does not require that during prayer you should not have any other thoughts at all; Do not despair, being plundered by thoughts, but be complacent, always calling together your wandering thoughts: for never to be plundered by thoughts is characteristic of a single Angel” (Step. 4.). You can pray not at a certain time, but always; but only when taking this sword against enemies, one must be careful not to turn it on oneself when the time comes. Although many fathers write about prayer and its actions, but to those who came to this measure, they went through it according to its order. Meanwhile, look at what precautions they took, knowing the many and many decoys of the enemy, which appear in the form of truth and seduce those who boldly begin this sacred, intelligent work. I present to you for further assurance the teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian to one who desires and seeks talents in himself: “I pray to you, holy one, that this thought not come to your mind, but acquire, above all else, the patience of those who find it. And with great humility and contrition of heart, about our deeds and our thoughts, let us ask the Lord for forgiveness of our sins and humility of the soul. Even if he does not imagine himself being a sinner, his prayer is not favorable to the Lord. If you say that your father wrote about these things, what is purity of the soul and what is health, and what is dispassion, and what is vision; then let us not ask for what we wrote ahead of time, with hope. It is written beforehand that the kingdom of God will not come with the expectation of hope (Luke 17:20). With this intention, one will find pride and the fall of the money-grubber. But we will place the heart in deeds of repentance and the living of those who are pleasing to God; The Lord’s message comes about itself, if the place of the heart is pure and undefiled. She, whom we seek with observation, is the high verb of God, distinctly the Church of God; and having accepted that, the pride of the money-grubber, and the fall. And this sign is not a sign for someone to love God, but an illness of the soul” (Sk. 55.). Similarly, in the 2nd word, he, writing about the thorough work of the cross, says: “everyone, before perfect training in the first part, moving on to the second, for the sweetness of it, diligently, and not out of laziness, the wrath of God finds us, for not first putting to death one’s own evils, even on earth, that is, to heal the weakness of thoughts, with patience in doing vexation. cross. I dared to dream in my mind the glory of the cross.” Above this, he calls the first part: “an act performed by the action of the furious part of the soul, to endure the sorrows of the flesh, cleansing the suffering part of the soul with the power of jealousy; and the second, vision, accomplished by subtle work of the mind, and divine ever-teaching, and abiding in prayer, and others.” “I don’t know whether this scripture will be satisfactory for you, in which it is not my opinion that is set forth, but the teaching of the holy fathers, through whose prayers may the Lord help you to follow the true, humble, innocent path, and receive the salvation of your soul.” With my true respect I remain to you, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. July 2, 1840 It would be desirable to know whether you received relief from your confusion and resolution to the perplexities about which you wrote to me, to which I answered you? Having received your letter dated the 10th of August, I again see your embarrassment, for which I sincerely regret, I offer you these meager reasonings, whether they, with the help of God, and in the light of reason, can dispel the darkness that brings confusion and anxiety to your heart. When mentioning the communion of the Holy Mysteries, say: “but if the Lord looks upon my repentance, then it is unlikely that I will ever be allowed to receive communion from the source of immortality. Alas for me! I am a wicked and lazy servant, and therefore a prey to hell and death!” – If you thought or said that you worthily partake of this shrine; that would be a sign of your unworthiness. The saints and great spirit-bearing men Basil the Great and John Chrysostom, in their prayers, say about themselves, the first: “Lord, I know that I unworthily partake of Your most pure body and Your honorable blood.” And the second: “I am not pleased, Master Lord, that you may bring my soul under the roof.” When such lamps thought of themselves so humbly, how can we not humble ourselves and consider ourselves unworthy of this gift? And when we condemn ourselves, repent of our sins, and approach this greatest shrine with faith, fear and humility, then the Lord is able to consume, and burn away with the fire of the Divine, all our sins and cleanse our soul from all filth, for He came not to save the righteous, but to save sinners. You will say: “Even after accepting this gift, I still sin”; Of course, neither you, nor I, nor anyone else will approve of this. But God looks at our intention during repentance; Of course you want to make a beginning, not to sin in the future. And if what follows against your will, by accident, will serve you to greater knowledge of your weakness and humility, and again you will be worthy of repentance; one must be wary of indulging in sinful carelessness in the hope of repentance; this is the same as despair. About repentance, I have presented you with enough fatherly teachings in my letters, so as not to despair of attempts, and you will accept them for your spiritual benefit. Your expression: “the spoils of hell and death” looks like a kind of despair. Why should we allow this when we have such a Merciful Master, who shed His Blood for sinners, and how many examples we see of His love for mankind and mercy towards sinners in the Holy Gospel and in Church History. Cowardice of this kind comes from spiritual pride: when correcting virtues, you cannot restrain your opinion about yourself; and this is also the reason for the fall, in order to humble our wisdom, and so that by constant self-reproach and humility we attract the grace of God to ourselves; for He only looks upon the humble (Ps. 112:6), and gives them His grace. There is a lot about this in the teachings of the holy fathers, in the Philokalia, in John Climacus, in Saint Isaac the Syrian and Abba Dorotheus; but due to the shortness of time, I cannot present those passages to you to read. Judge, what is the use of embarrassment after any attempt? Isn't it better to humble yourself and repent? Here peace is born, and thus they are deprived of it. When you see yourself uncorrected, you involuntarily have to resign yourself to the thought; you condemn yourself, but God justifies. On the contrary, if you are justified, will you not be rejected by God, like the Pharisees? Perhaps you are embarrassed, not finding in yourself the high feelings of love and tenderness when praying. These and similar feelings are gifts, or rewards given from the Lord to the worthy and humble. But we see from examples that many, having received gifts and enjoying them quite, and then fell through exaltation, or, even more dangerously, deceived by their correction or holiness, became darkened in mind, and remained unhealed in such delusion. Ascension creeps up so subtly that it is difficult to notice. Saint John Climacus in the 26th degree writes that: “according to God’s special vision, for sacred deeds and labors they receive rewards: some at the beginning of deeds, others in completing them, others at the end, and some at death itself. The question is, which of them is more humble? It is obvious that those who are most likely to be rewarded with talent; but to give it to others at the wrong time would not be beneficial, but would lead to destruction. Are you asking me how to arouse zeal in yourself to fulfill the commandments? To this I answer, with the fear of God, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), and with the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil (Proverbs 15:27). There are many other texts in Scripture about this. When performing virtues, strengthen each one with humility, which Saint Dorotheos calls clay (mortar); since stones or bricks are laid to build a house and are bound with clay, the structure becomes strong, but without clay it crumbles; Likewise, virtues without humility do not bring any benefit. Saint Isaac the Syrian teaches in the 46th word: “humility and, in addition to deeds, forgives many sins. These (deeds), on the contrary, without it (without humility) are useless: but they also do us a lot of evil. Other things, with humility, as if you had died, forgive your iniquities. Just as salt is in every food, so is humility in every virtue; and this can destroy the strength of many sins.” - Know that inclinations curb our self-loving part, show us our poverty and badness, just don’t be embarrassed by them, and don’t lose your peace of mind, but get down to the work of repentance and virtue. The enemy rejoices in your confusion, and by causing despair, he turns you away from virtues. Do not let him rejoice in you, remember the words of Saint Isaac the Syrian from the 7th word, about which, it seems, I wrote to you: “Have a prophetic word even before your departure: do not rejoice over me, my opponent, as I have fallen; Again, if I arise, and if I sit in darkness, the Lord will give light to me (Mic. 7:8). And let him not give up his soul to victory (by retreating into despair), until there is breath in him, and in that very victory; but even if his boat is broken every day,” and so on. (Word 7th). “For this is wisdom given from God, and this is the wise man who is sick, not cutting off his hope” (ibid.). You can notice from all of the above that the reason for our non-correction and fall is not only negligence, but even more so exaltation. And just as pride is the cause of all evil, humility is the cause of all good. You see why we fall and do not perform virtuous deeds - from arrogance. Learn humility from the Lord Himself, who says: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). And again: even if you do all that is commanded to you, say, as we are unworthy servants: for whatever we ought to do, we have done (Luke 17:10). And also: without Me you cannot do anything (John 15:5). If you receive any benefit or consolation through these writings, do not attribute it to me, but give thanks to God, who, through your faith, has vouchsafed me to present to you from the scriptures of the Fathers a teaching appropriate to your dispensation. At other times, I really don’t remember anything, and can we do anything, or even think good, without God’s help. May He give you spiritual understanding and make you wise in spiritual battles. Likewise, in matters of your service, may the Lord help you to fulfill His holy will, and give you true reason and courage. You did it wisely, obeying your superior in this matter, for there is no authority except from God (Rom. 13:1); however, if something contrary to the will of God were to be presented, then you will faithfully try, with God’s help, not to act against your conscience... For this, entrusting you to the protection of God, and asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation and an unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. Father Fr. L. shows his respects to you. August 20, 1840. You, most respected one, want to have an assignment from me to S., I am not averse to this. There in the Maiden Monastery there are many poor people who, given the current high prices, do not live without need; then if you have an extra piece, or you can deny yourself something, provide them with alms that God puts in your heart, that you can give to the abbess for distribution to the poor sisters, for which you will one day hear: “Whatever you did for one of these least of my brothers, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Whoever gives to the poor will give back to God (Prov. 19:17). Who wouldn't want to have such a debtor! That's how many instructions I have given you, and moreover petitions. I thank you for looking at the work that your zeal brings to the church of God; may this sacrifice be acceptable to God, and may it be accepted into his heavenly altar! Although this is a sensual thing, it demonstrates the zeal and faith of your heart, which God looks at and accepts, for the external agrees with the internal. But let’s leave this aside, I am sure that you have no doubt about it! Your opinion of yourself, that you are a lost sheep, should not plunge you into despair; but it seems that you have this kind of it; which I sincerely regret. Enough has been written for you about this, take the trouble to read, and perhaps your feelings will be aroused to hope in the mercy of God and in the merits of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to find the lost sheep (Luke 15:4), and to find the lost coin (Luke 15:8), and to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13). The feeling that confuses you, recognize that it is the battle of the enemy: let you not see it in yourself; nothing good, but you are in sinful captivity, this should humble you; and instead you become embarrassed, in which (that is, in confusion) it is impossible to have feelings of repentance. If you, having freed yourself from sins, take the right path of virtues, then even in this case, if you do not have humility, but think something about yourself, gain hope through your deeds (which is also a network of the enemy, fighting with your gums and necks), then you will not find peace. And as far as I can see, in your dispensation the enemy has a strong attack on you: he lifts you to the heavens and brings you down to the abyss; and ego is a form of spiritual pride, and despair itself is the fruit of it, which is why we allow ourselves to fall because we do not have humility. Your peace of mind requires humility and trustworthiness; The Lord looks upon humility and sends His mercy. I don’t know what kind of sins burden and confuse you; Only this is known, that there is no sin that overcomes God’s love for mankind. I offered you the teachings of the great fathers, Saint John Chrysostom and Isaac the Syrian, about repentance and non-despair; seems to take a pretty big step away from the pit of despair. Now I am writing out St. Peter of Damascus from the 1st book, about how it is not proper for us to despair, even if we sin a lot: “It is not proper for us to despair, since we do not exist, even though it is proper for us to be.” This is evil, because you have sinned as a man: why do you anger God, and because of foolishness do you impute His impotence? Can’t food save your souls, the great one who created it, you see, for your sake, the world? If you say that this, moreover, is my condemnation, just like His condescension, repent and your repentance will be accepted like that of a prodigal and harlot. Even if you can do neither of these things, but sin out of habit, you would not even want to commit them; have humility, like a tax collector, and it is enough for you to be saved: for you sin unrepentantly, and do not despair, out of need, you have the worst thing in all creation, and do not dare to condemn or reproach any person: but he is even more amazed God's love for mankind, and one finds gratitude to a benefactor, and can receive many other good things. Even though I obey the devil in sin, but out of fear for the sake of God, I disobey the enemy, forcing Him to despair, and from this there is a part of God” (see in the Dobrotol. according to the 1840 edition, page 58 on the back). And again: about the great good that true repentance is: “Otherwise, whenever someone desires, he begins with repentance. If you have fallen, he says, arise; and even if you fell, again rise, not at all despairing about your salvation, even if something happens; Submit yourself to the enemy with your will, and this patience with self-reproach will be sufficient for your salvation” (ibid., page 64 on the back). “So don’t despair at all, not knowing God’s help, maybe because you really want to do something, but trust in Him and the only thing you can do from these things is either through certain temptations or other images, through which He tells you, He will arrange your correction, or accept your patience and humility instead of doing; or in some other way, don’t worry about it, he will do it in a humane manner, in order to save your daring soul; just don’t leave the doctor, don’t endure cruelty and death for ignorance of God’s hidden intentions” (ibid.). It seems that this should restore you from the ditch of despair. I reminded you that your confusion comes from spiritual pride, to which I represent the teaching of Saint Dorotheus: “and passion, if it is cold for us, we should not be embarrassed in any way: for anyone who is cold from passion, madness, and exaltation should be embarrassed; and do not derive your structure from the hedgehog; and from running away from labor, as the fathers decided.” (The Book of Abba Dorotheus, Slavic translation, at the end of the book of St. Ephraim the Syrian, according to the 1840 edition, p. 83 reverse). I wish you to gain wisdom in spiritual warfare, to understand the wiles of the enemy, and most of all to humble yourself; it (humility) is the strongest weapon against the enemy and his arrows. May the Lord strengthen you in this battle, and may he crown you on the day, but now do not look for rewards within yourself; the humble does not see himself as worthy, but is great before God. The saints considered themselves worse than all creation in their thoughts, but God glorified them. With the wish for you peace, health and salvation, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I. M. October 7, 1840. Glory to God, who has given you life and the opportunity to enjoy its benefits. Feeling inscrutable gratitude to His bounties, we must try to gain His love by fulfilling His holy commandments, according to the word of His holy lips: He who loves Me keeps My commandments (John 14:23). From your letter I see a complaint about lack of time, about the waves of the world’s sea and the inability to take care of your soul, as you should. But it seems that in the very waves and thoughts of life there is a means to occupy one’s soul, that is, to fulfill the commandments of God. How can we fulfill these without communicating with people? You are not yet of such a measure that you can lead a completely hermit and solitary life, and fight only demons, or enjoy the contemplation of the hidden mysteries. The holy elder Isaac, who once lived in Syrian countries, will teach you enough about this subject in the 55th word and in the 2nd word of his book, which you have already read, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. And also Saint John of the Climacus, who allows those who have a lower opinion of themselves to see the trace of silence. – Will you say that it is difficult to fulfill God’s commandments in the world? This is undeniable and the news is that in order to fulfill God’s commandments one must suffer a lot from the world, the flesh and the devil. The Holy Apostle writes: those who want to live godly will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12); and whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (Jacob 4:4). Carnal wisdom, enmity against God is (Rom. 8:7); He does not repent of God’s law, he can do less (ibid.). But those who want to live in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8). The devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Here is for you from many small testimonies of Scripture about the obstacle to us, from these three enemies, and the fulfillment of the commandments of God. And not only in the world, but also in the monastery they resist fulfilling the will of God, the world is passion, the flesh is with us and the devil is fighting. However, in the monastery there are not so many temptations and reasons for creeping; Therefore, the ancient holy fathers, seeing the impossibility or, even more so, their weakness, decided to choose this path, fleeing the world, and everything else in the world, in order to more conveniently fulfill the commandment of God in a small population, as the holy Abba Dorotheos writes about the seven, in the first teaching: about the rejection of the world. But you find yourself still unable to leave behind everyday things, then what should you do in this case? - imitate Saint Peter, drowned in the waves: Lord, save me, I am perishing (Matthew 14:31), and Saint David, crying: tell me, Lord, the way, where I will go (Psalm 142:8), and leave the path of unrighteousness from Me (Psalm 119:29). Yes, from a letter to Father Fr. From what you wrote, it is clear that the reason and root of all your attempts is pride; its branches: exaltation, opinion of oneself, contempt of people, humiliation, and condemnation of them. – No matter how hard we try to do virtues, with these actions they are gloomy and do not bring any benefit; for these are the essence of crime and resistance to the will of God; His holy teaching and life itself are meekness and humility, which He commanded us to learn from Himself, in order to find peace for our souls (Matthew 11:29). The cause of all our evils is pride, and the intercessor of all our blessings is humility! When, when performing good deeds, we must have a contrite and humble heart, and a contrite spirit, whom God will not despise (Ps. 50:19); How much more, in the poverty of our dispensation, must we plunge ourselves into the abyss of humility. They didn’t answer your letter, because I had to write everything, and I was busy this time; then we ask you to forgive us for this, and to accept this letter as an answer to both. In this you ask the priest for forgiveness; he forgives you, with the desire to make a good start. Engage in reading fatherly books, but more active ones, for with your dispensation speculative ones can do more harm than good; And from these (from the active ones) you will recognize your weakness and humble your heart, to which God looks and sends His help to fulfill His will. Otherwise, although you will have all the understanding of Scripture, you will not find any benefit with conceit; for the enemy knows how to build decoys and deceive those with imaginary consolation, just as he appears both in the form of an Angel of Light (2 Cor. 11:14), and in mental and spiritual activities he performs his actions, from which may the Lord deliver you, who wants to be saved as a whole person and come into the mind of truth (1 Tim. 2:4). I received books for you and sent them for delivery to you with V.I.Sh. The Philokalia in 4 books, St. Macarius’s 7 Words - 1 book, his 50 Conversations - 1 book, and Mental Medicine - 1 book; This one, although you have it, was taken from me, but that one is without binding, and this one is in good binding; I will receive the same from you; I also left the ladder in place of what you took from me. - As for N. N., then I grieve no less than you about his plight; but I cannot be an instrument in his actions, with which he confuses others, as you write, and wraps them in a ball. I see that he handed over my letter to you with that intention; but I am far from the dispensation of Saint Pimen, and I presented to him my duty not to enter into the affairs of my relatives; and he noted below that even without entering, he accepted the reprimand in such a case. So, in this matter I must completely eliminate myself; God is able to help him when he is worthy. He cares for His creatures and provides, according to His wise providence and foreknowledge, whom He punishes and whom He rewards. His fate is incomprehensible to us! Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, with the desire for your mental and physical health, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I.M. Father Fr. L. sends his blessing to you. March 8, 1841 Christ is Risen! Forgive me for delaying the response to your letter dated March 16, in which you inform about your exercise in reading books, and about the despondency that has found you, due to the fact that, forcing yourself to fast, vigil and prayer, you think that you are doing this, you yourself do not know why; but you must do this out of love for God, which you do not feel in yourself. When this thought leaves, another takes its place, and passions one another pass on to your poor heart. Ask me for advice regarding this perplexity, trusting in the Lord, who is able to save you by His power. With God’s help, promoting your faith, as much as I can understand about this subject, from reading the teachings of the holy fathers who have experienced an active life (I don’t dare say, from my experience or skill), I will try to present you with decent articles for your dispensation. Reading the books of the Fathers is very necessary and useful for knowing the will of God; for the fathers, reading the word of God, handed down to us in the Holy Scriptures, fulfilled it and lived an active life, leaving us an example in their teachings. Without reading them, you do not know the way of life and struggle, and thinking that by reading the word of God myself, I can fulfill it and do not humble myself; and as you read, you learn the path, strive to fulfill it, but without achieving their measures, you recognize your weakness and humble yourself, and receive God’s mercy, which extends especially to the humble. What is written about in the Fatherland: “brother asked the elder, saying: What will I do, since I honor the scriptures of the father and do not do? The elder answered: by honoring the words of the fathers and not doing anything, he humbles himself and receives the mercy of God, but by not honoring he does not humble himself and does not receive the mercy of God. Therefore, there is no small benefit in reading their active teachings. The bodily works you perform cannot be said to be done without knowing why; a definitely from love for God, but imperfect, but like a small embryo in the heart, coming from faith. Reading the word of God and the examples of the lives of the fathers who conquered passions and achieved the love of God, we believe this and are compelled to first perform physical deeds and show through deeds love for our neighbor. When we fulfill them correctly and with humility, we move on to vision or speculation, we receive spiritual consolation, and God’s love is shown to us more clearly. The fathers passed through this order and left this path for us. Read from Saint Isaac the Syrian in the 28th word about the second order of reason, and from Saint Peter of Damascus in the 1st book about the seven acts of the body. Other fathers have a lot about this matter. Take the example of small children learning to read and write: they start with the letter A and beyond, without understanding anything; but by going through it under compulsion, they learn the vocabulary, then they can read, and then the concept opens up. So in our training, it is not immediately possible to fly into the spiritual world as soon as we begin, but it requires work and deeds; but even these will not be crowned with the desired success if they are not coupled with humility. Many other examples can be imagined, such as: we don’t suddenly learn the arts; but with a lot of time and effort; entering the service as a lower rank, it is impossible to immediately become a general; the sown seed also does not suddenly grow and bear fruit. While going through bodily actions, we should not have the opinion that we are doing something good, because they are only preparing the earth and sowing, which can, over time, with the help of God, bear fruit. Not like the virgin about whom Saint Peter of Damascus wrote in the 9th word of the 2nd book: she thought that she had acquired something spiritual through these deeds; and when the elder asked her about dispassion, patience and love, she turned out to be a stranger to these fruits. Of course, you are worried that, while performing the feat, you do not see in yourself a spiritual reward, or, as you call it, anointing, so that you can be comforted and confirm that you have the love of God. On the contrary, it is still dangerous to look for this with observation and ahead of time: “the God of God comes about itself (writes Saint Isaac the Syrian in the 2nd word), I do not feel it, but if the place is clean and not bad, if the apple of the eye of your soul is not pure, do not dare to look at the surroundings of the sun, lest you lose even that small dawn, which is simple faith and humility and confession of the heart and small deeds, even according to your strength, and you will be cast out into one place of thought, which is total darkness, external from God, bearing the image of hell; as if he had become deprived of his senses and entered into marriage in bad robes.” Some receive sacred reward for their labors (according to the word of St. John Climacus, v. 26) before completing their exploits; some during the very passage, others at the end, and others at death itself. This, according to the measure of each humility, is clear that the humble are more likely to receive a spiritual reward, while the proud are deprived; and if they had received them ahead of time, it would have served them to their destruction. And Thomas a à Kempis believes that spiritual life does not consist in receiving consolations, but in enduring their withdrawal and bearing the spiritual cross. His Eminence Philaret of Moscow writes that: “when we seek spiritual consolations, we seek ourselves, not God” (in Notes on the Book of Genesis about Jacob). He preaches about the blessedness of believers: blessedness is it for those who have not seen and yet believed (John 20:29), that is, when even when deprived of grace-filled consolations they do not abandon the deeds of piety. From all the evidence given to you, you see that you should not become despondent as you go through your struggles, but have hope in the goodness of God; do not abandon them according to your strength and opportunity. It is obvious that the enemy is advocating for you with thoughts that you are not getting any benefit from going through them; for, having stopped them, he casts aside his bitter weeds, various thoughts and passions, with which Saint Isaac the Syrian writes in agreement: “The Lord will not punish us about rules on that day, but because by abandoning them, unclean thoughts enter into us.” Our life is a spiritual battle, and we are warriors, struggling against the spirits of wickedness in high places; We must have a weapon against them, and it is humility with which we can conveniently resist them; We must worry about this most of all in all our labors and exploits, and in dealing with our neighbors. Love itself with humility is inseparable. N N embroidered clothes and brought them to us on purpose, and sewed them here. So, on the days of Holy Easter in our skete church, the altar and the altar were decorated with the diligence of your mother, and yours, and your late aunt, and daily services took place there, during which your names were remembered. Your zeal for the deceased Fr. The Lord accepts Alexandra and we appreciate him, we commemorate him in the psalter and at liturgies, and on March 22 we celebrated a liturgy and a memorial service. May his memory be eternal! Father o. L. and I congratulate you on celebrating the great holiday of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the current holy Pentecost, and asking for you the peace and blessing of God, wishing you mental and physical health, and with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many sinner I. M. April 12, 1841. You were offended by Father Fr.’s illness. L., but it’s true that news of his death reached you. Due to his difficult course, he died peacefully and calmly, moved from local sorrows and illnesses to eternal peace, on October 11, at 7 hours and 20 minutes in the afternoon, to the heartfelt sorrow of all those who loved and revered; We are only consoled by the hope that he received the mercy of God, intercedes for us, his spiritual children, and remains with us in spirit. On the third day he was buried, but there was no unpleasant smell, and his hands were as soft as those of a living person. You will surely regret our orphanhood, but at the same time you will be comforted in spirit by his peace, which he will undoubtedly find, by the mercy of God. The state of your mental state you described cannot be praised; Yes, even if you were correct in everything, should I praise you, or should you praise yourself? If you do everything that is commanded, say, as we are unworthy servants: for whatever we ought to do, we have done (Luke 17:10), teaches the Lord. And in failure to fulfill what is due, although we will try to have the feeling of a publican, through which we will attract the grace of God, which gives us help in our affairs. But one should not be embarrassed at all, because there is no feeling of repentance and humility in it, but rather a kind of pride. You want to be dispassionate, or, simply put, perfect, and not owe anything to God; but in our frail dispensation God does not allow this, so as not to be condemned for pride. He is more pleased with a sinner with repentance than with a righteous man with pride. And this, that you want to fulfill your duties better than others, is a matter of pride; This lacks neither skill nor strength. Saint Peter of Damascus writes: “It is not evil to have reason, but it is evil to think that we have it”; also about deeds: “it is not a sin to wish and do well, but to think about this, that I do better than others, is a sin.” May the Lord preserve all your thoughts, words and deeds in humility pleasing to Him. If it is God’s will, when you retire from work and go to your mother’s, is it possible to come and visit us, even if only for a short time, and visit the tomb of the late Father Fr. L–a. I wish you peace and health, mental and physical, and I remain your unworthy pilgrim, many sinners I. M. October 28, 1841. I received two letters from you on January 9 and 12; from the latter I see that you are not healthy, which I sincerely regret; but God is able to give you healing. In the first letter, although briefly, they explained your mental illness, darkness in not seeing your own malice, and in seeing the opposite - therefore, virtue. You are well aware that our virtues are pleasing to God when they are done with humility; about which He Himself commanded us: if you do all that is commanded, say, as we are unworthy servants: as you ought to do, even if you have done (Luke 17:10). And in the Pharisee we see their rejection with praise. Read from Saint Isaac in the 34th word that the commandments done with humility are pleasing to God, and when the strength of the first becomes impoverished, the second intercedes for us with God. And St. Peter of Damascus writes that after seven spiritual works the mind begins to see its sins like the sand of the sea (and not virtues), and this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health (in Goodwill, according to the 1840 edition, part 3, p. 18). The enemy tries to seduce you with opposing opinions about himself, which you need to be careful of as much as possible; This is why we are sometimes allowed to fall into some weaknesses in order to curb our pride. When there is a change of leadership, it is impossible that there will be some embarrassment, while waiting for what will happen, etc. But for you, it seems, it cannot be so scary, while guarding your conscience in business with God’s help; and if something contrary touches you and prompts you to leave your position, then obviously God’s providence will arrange a different path for you. May His holy will be done for all of us! I received a letter from your mother dated January 9, and I should have expressed my gratitude to her for it, but believe me, I’m very busy and distracted; since there is nothing special about her, I ask you to write to her my deepest respects and sincere thanks. I ask her to generously forgive me for such discourtesy. Seeking God's peace and blessing upon you, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim I. M. January 24, 1842 I see from your letter that you grieve for your spiritual barrenness, and that with all both external provisions and internal gifts, some kind of darkness weighs over all of this. As far as I can understand, this is your weakness; Let's reconcile ourselves! This is what is sought from us, it brings peace and tranquility, even with our very shortcomings, we increasingly plunge into the depths of humility, and do not imagine that we can correct anything on our own. Remember that you are still passionate and far from dispassion; we demand repentance and compulsion to do good every day; but you should not completely abandon your work, although sometimes you may become soiled by some kind of absent-mindedness, but you should still flow to the merciful Lord, seek forgiveness and help from him, but not lose heart and not despair, as Saint Isaac writes in the 7th word: “and this is a wise man who does not cut off his hope.” Consider: leaving your position, can you be better without any physical action or communication with your neighbors? How will we fulfill God’s commandments, and from whom will we endure, or how will we humble ourselves? Shall we not only be deluded by our imaginary corrections? Having reasoned better, follow what is useful. I do not bind you, but I wish that the will of God be upon you, by which you surrender in everything, and pray: tell me, Lord, that I will go the way that I have taken my soul to You (Ps. 143:8). Thank you for the blessings you sent to our monastery. The Lord Himself will reward you for this. Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, and congratulating you on your entry into the Lenten field, I remain with my respect, the unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. - My sister and brother-in-law with their children visited me; they are in great grief: their big daughter, 21 years old, explained her desire to join a monastery, and this upsets them to the extreme, and I am not a little surprised at them. March 2, 1842 I believe that this day, by your intention, you have been worthy of the sacraments of repentance and communion of the holy mysteries of Christ; I congratulate you on this heavenly gift. If anyone is healthy, let him not sin (John 5:14). It’s good that your boss is a kind person and invites you to visit him often. Playing cards, according to secular customs and decency, is considered innocence, but spiritually, a lot of time (wasted), which could be allocated to much more useful activities, and even more so in the current Lenten time. Of course, it is difficult to bear reproach for deviating from this, but when we remember the word of God: if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you. If you had been quicker from the world, the world would have loved its own, as if it were not from the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you (John 15:18, 19), and the apostolic teaching: for whatever desires to be a friend of the world, there is an enemy of God (James 4:4), and that the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God: for the law of God is not repented, for the less can it be done (Rom. 8:7), then it will be more convenient for us to seek deviation from the world. Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. March 14, 1842 From your letter I see that when you consider your dispensation and compare it with the enormous labors undertaken by the holy fathers, for example: Mary of Egypt, or Mark of France, you are losing all hope for the salvation of your soul. God values ​​the virtues and works of saints in proportion to their humility; They, with all their holiness, considered themselves earth and ashes unfeignedly and not hypocritically, but having a pledge of this treasure in their hearts. And how dare we look at or approach such a height of their life, being deceived by little correction by vanity, and others by contempt. Moreover, you, living among people busy with worldly vanity, and as human beings, who may have sinned in some way, cannot keep your thoughts from condemning them, and even more so when you still see in yourself some correction of Christian duty, which should not be 5, but the seed of the enemy’s tares penetrates into hearts not fattened with humility. I offer you, from the writings of one great Moldavian elder, a reasoning about this, adopted from the teachings of Saint Cassian: “mortification of the flesh and meanings, abstinence should not be greater than the natural power and gift given by God, which was given to many famous saints, granted to feats and great acuity, even through special inspiration attracted them. The saints did not desire to inherit the life of those Divine powers, unless they were imashes, by means of sharp and unusual mortifications; but look at them exactly and be amazed, and humble yourself, according to the saying of the holy Climacus “about the poor”: for these (verbs) the royal treasures are seen, multiplying their misery, they recognize: so the soul of the great fatherly virtues, having read, in all humility creates its wisdom. Saint Justin says: heavenly grace reaches everyone, but not in equal measure; The Lord wants to save everyone, but not to consecrate them. Moreover, from here, do not imagine that you are unhappy, for you cannot live acutely and dynamically in your flesh, like the Holy One; You can accomplish this with warm desire and diligent inner work with humility and thereby please God” 6. From this you see that we cannot lose the hope of salvation without having such feats as the saints went through; but one must humble oneself and consider oneself the last of all. About salvation, the Holy Apostle Paul depicted that not everyone can be in equal measure: there is one glory for the sun, another glory for the moon, another glory for the stars, and star differs from star in glory (1 Cor. 15:41). And how dare we dare to reach heights when even the saints considered themselves earth and ashes. But you see in yourself negligence in doing good, and this confuses you, instead of what should have humbled you so that you could attract God’s help to you; But you are embarrassed, and confusion is the enemy’s chariot, and this is a sign of spiritual pride. Read chapter 117 of St. Gregory of Sinaite, at the end, how we can humble ourselves and contrite our hearts, which he calls watchful humility, and (says) that grace has it as its weapon for our salvation. If you fulfilled all your duty and performed the deeds of virtue, but did not have a contrite and humble heart, then your deeds could not bring you any benefit, as you will read about from the saints Callistus and Ignatius at the end of chapter 43, where it is said that humility, even apart from deeds, can save us, but deeds without humility are useless. Look at your disposition, when you happen to do something good, is there any opinion, vanity and arrogance, and humility - poverty? When this is the case, then we must believe that the grace of God takes away the power from us to create them, so that, seeing our poverty, we humble ourselves; But these imaginary virtues would not serve us to harm, that is, to deceive us; as we see, such actions happen to many. Writing to you about this, I am not saying that one should completely abandon virtue: not at all; we need to take care of them and think about what makes us lose the strength to fulfill them, as said above. Remember also about the always necessary repentance, about which I taught you fatherly teachings in previous letters; Take all this into consideration and do not despair of God’s mercy towards sinners who repent: He came to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous (Mark 2:17). When we consider ourselves sinners, we bring repentance with hope in the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ. His suffering, remembered in this great week, should give us sinners many feelings of pain over our sins, and hope for His ineffable mercy and love for the sinners whom He came to save! According to your intention, I wish that the Lord will grant you this week to receive the most pure Mysteries of Christ, and be worthy to celebrate the bright and joyful holiday of the Resurrection of Christ with heartfelt joy and peace of mind! On which holiday I heartily congratulate and greet you: Christ is Risen! Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, and wishing you mental and physical health, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. I am very glad that you have acquired your spiritual library, the lives of the holy fathers, feed your soul with them and other teachings of the fathers. April 14, 1842 Having not heard from you for a long time about your successful mental and physical health, I believed that the activities and entertainment of your service did not allow you to devote some time to this, which my assumption was justified upon receipt of your letter written on June 13th. Thank God that you have a free hour to study His words and examine yourself. Don’t get carried away, don’t look for high talents, but be with the humble: as you say, be moved in your hearts, on your beds (Ps. 4:5), look at yourself and reproach yourself for non-corrections, this will be better than your high corrections with self-conceit. While we are in this war, we should neither dare nor despair. Much has been written to you about this; However, may the grace of God, which replenishes everything, guide you. What can I tell you about myself? There is nothing to boast about except about my weaknesses and the lack of corrections that accompany my badness. On May 20, our monastery was visited by His Eminence Filaret, Metropolitan of Kiev, on his way to Kiev. I wish you to be healthy mentally and physically and, entrusting you to the protection of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I. M. June 30, 1842 I regret that our efforts for the girl N., who is willing or has already dedicated herself to serving the Lord, were unsuccessful; but this may be a test for her in the firmness of her intentions. However, when there is the will of God, then the obstacles will be destroyed, and the blessed reasons will be respected, for which you do not lose hope; Moreover, is it possible to respect her incapacity for worldly life due to illness, for which, perhaps, a certificate from the doctor will be needed. Whatever can be done for its benefit, and if it pleases God, He will instruct you and send His help; I'm sure of it. In both of your letters, you speak poorly of your mental state in corrections, albeit external ones, you are carried away by self-satisfaction and the opinion of yourself that I am doing well, and in your attempts you become cowardly and embarrassed. You can see from this that the cause of the latter is the former, but not the doing of good, but the opinion about it, which is why you are allowed to fall, so that you recognize your weakness, and in any case humble yourself, attributing corrections not to your strength, but to God’s help. Ego is a spiritual struggle, without which it is impossible to learn how to win; although wounds on it are acceptable, they should not cause splashes, but rise up and fight again. I’ve already written a lot about this to you in previous letters, and now I’ll just repeat it; read the 7th word of St. Isaac the Syrian, when you have it, or St. Callistus in part 2 of the Philokalia, chapter 43. May they be for you to strengthen in your spiritual endeavors; although these seem to be secular affairs, conscience must also be preserved in them, and therefore they can be called spiritual exploits. You say, due to your cold absent-mindedness, you can neither repent nor pray from the heart, and “I can hardly force myself to do this even a little.” I ask you: to whom should we submit our actions for judgment in these cases: ourselves, or God? It seems to me that our court will deceive us and seduce us, but God’s court is righteous and impartial. The destruction of our actions in our thoughts, and the awareness of our weaknesses before God, as well as labor and forcing ourselves to pray, He accepts better than our good deeds, defiled by arrogance and opinion, and the prayer that we think we offer from the heart. When we come to humility, all our actions will be sanctified by it. The holy fathers, the more holy they were, the more they saw their own weakness and humbled themselves, and the gifts of God were sent down to them even more, and if any of them raised their minds about themselves, they were deprived of their gifts, while the others came to humility. Saint Isaac writes that apart from attempts that occur with permission, it is impossible to come to humility. I believe that this is why you fall into various inclinations because you do not have humility; and if you all did what you should, except humility, you would not receive any benefit, but even greater harm - delusion! The duties of the service begin to tire you, but you are afraid to leave it for no reason, and that something worse might happen. Any service is not without difficulty, but it contains our duty in relation to our neighbors for their benefit; and we must seek not only our own benefit, but also our neighbor’s. Although you leave the service, you will not escape some duty that imposes on you work for the common good, and without that, how will you fulfill the commandments of God? May the Lord enlighten you and strengthen you in fulfilling His holy will with the humility by which the gift of reasoning is given. Asking for God's blessing on you, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 7, 1842 I earnestly congratulate you on the upcoming holy fast, and as you spend the first week of it, may the Lord help you to see it off with the acquisition of spiritual blessings, and I wish and hope to end and celebrate the holiday of Holy Easter in our desert. Let us give thanks to the Lord for His suffering and for all His efforts in our redemption, and glorify His glorious Resurrection! I am quite surprised at you that, having at first generously accepted the grief of the deprivation of your mother with submission to the will of God, you finally became faint-hearted, and sadness takes possession of you more and more hour after hour. It is much more likely to feel the pain of a heart wound at the onset of grief than to feel it afterwards. You seem to be a Christian, convinced of the all-wise providence of God, and that each of us has a predetermined limit to life here. Your mother completed the course of her life and went to the Lord in piety, faith and hope; this path is inevitable for everyone. The Apostle Paul exhorts us in his letter to the Thessalonians: I do not want you, brethren, to be ignorant of the dead, so that you do not grieve as others who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Look, who feels like grieving? Those who do not have faith and hope in a future life are forever separated from those close to their hearts; a ray of hope does not shine for them from a distant eternity; but for us believers there is hope: this death is only a transition to eternal life, and from sorrows and illnesses to peace. Is there any reason for you to indulge in such sadness, consuming your heart and destroying the fruits of faith and hope? I suppose there is no other reason that brings you this sorrow? Maybe your indecision about choosing a path in your life worries you; or did you encounter any kind of heartfelt embarrassment when fulfilling, according to the will of your late mother, separation from your brother? Or maybe it’s something else, I’m perplexed. I just advise you not to indulge in sadness, it will not bring you any benefit, but harm, and by doing this you are sinning before God. When you rely on God, He will arrange everything for good. You want to spend the holy fast better than how your whole life has been spent. The desire is good, but who will compare the present with the past? If you leave it to yourself, you can easily make a mistake; If you see yourself as the best, then this is not the best, but it will be pharisaical arrogance. When we look at the lives of people who pleased God, we see that the closer they came to God, the more they saw their own badness. May the Lord grant you the ability to achieve a measure of humility and not be deceived by the opinion of your virtues! Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, with the desire for your health and salvation, and with my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. March 2, 1843 After your long silence, which occurred on the occasion of your godly travels, I had the pleasure of receiving your writing, sent on October 7th. May the Lord instruct you, through the prayers of His saints, to direct your life according to His Holy will. You write that you have become calmer; But isn’t this the mercy of God that will do to you? You were all double-minded about choosing a way of life for yourself, but you never made a vow to anything; but you are afraid of any vows that may exist against you; who should know them better than your conscience? All kinds of life have their crosses and consolations, this is well known to you; and if you imagine only pleasures in family life, and on the contrary, in monastic life there are only difficulties and crosses, then the will of the flesh will naturally take precedence over the spirit; but one must imagine the burden of family life, and, on the contrary, the sadness about the everyday circumstances of the monastery, and the peace of conscience acquired from small sacrifices, then the scale will surely be on the side of the monastery. The Holy Apostle does not forbid getting married, he only prefers to live unmarried; and to those he says: These will be the sorrow of the flesh (1 Cor. 7:28). You know the image of worldly, vain life: you need to imitate all its decorums. Consider yourself, are you capable of this? You love to study the word of God and the teachings of the holy fathers, but is this so convenient in worldly life? And in general, when you want to live godly, you will not escape what the Holy Apostle says: but those who want to live godly will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). It is still unknown what the party will be? With all this reasoning, I do not forbid you from secular life, nor do I attract you to the monastic life. Without the title of God it is impossible to despise the world and its delights. Wait to see what God will do for you; Of course, His dispensation for the better is taking place; and even more so when we surrender our will completely to His holy will. I wish you, in surrendering yourself to the will of God, to find perfect peace of mind, and asking for God's blessing on you, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 16, 1843. Just as you would like to visit our desert, I no less wanted to have the pleasure of seeing you and talking to you personally; but until this is fulfilled, albeit in absentia, briefly, on these lines, I express to you my zealous gratitude for your disposition towards me, of which I am confident and which I see from your letters. I do not dare in any way force you to leave the world, when it is clear that there is no calling from God for this; You can be a good person in the world, and there are many of them, and fulfill the commandments of God, although it is impossible to do without crosses and sorrows; but for those who are called from God, it is much more difficult to be in the world than in the monastery. Your conscience cannot reproach you for having perishable money if you own it, and not they you; I think you know quite well how to own them. The name of your late uncle, servant of God S., is written down with us for remembrance; for alms for this item one hundred rubles assign. I thank you very much. While wishing you peace, health and salvation, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 25, 1843. The sweet voice of the Church: Christ is Risen! I accept from you, and I answer you in return: He is truly risen! and He raised us with Himself, having died sinners; This is why the Church calls its children to rejoice with unspeakable and glorified joy: this is the day the Lord has created, we will rejoice and be glad on it! It would be a pleasure to share the days of this celebration with you; but what to do when you are distracted by all the obstacles, albeit unimportant ones. You complain about your troubles, through which you allow yourself to become irritable and insanely furious; but it seems to me, on the contrary, that if you had no trouble and no entertainment, you would not be meek, but would only seem so; the passions lay hidden within you until the first incident that opened up. Having fun and being touched by the lies of others, you no longer see your own lies jumping out from your treasure 7, and you have every right to destroy it. Self-reproach, humility, repentance and asking for help from the Lord to abolish it; all these actions are the actions of those who are in a struggle with passions. Now you are still among those acting out of passion, but you do not boast about this, but grieve, and God willing, you will resist passion; now, even involuntarily, the horn of pride is broken; There is nothing to think about yourself when you are slaves to passions, and it is better to forgive others. You also write that you are worried about being bound by N.N.’s estate, which he asked you to do so as not to take possession, and you are afraid that some bad consequences would come of it; I told him about this, he suggests that he took this measure for this purpose, so as not to upset his sister when she finds out about this; however, he hopes that there can be no bad consequences. When it confuses and worries you a lot, he can pass it on to someone else, although at the cost of some loss. He invites you to write about this himself. Wishing you to be peaceful, calm and prosperous, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. April 4, 1844. You reproach yourself for being carried away by everyday troubles; so how can it be? The sea of ​​life is always agitated, but you are swimming in it, with no refuge in sight. When the fire that consumes things on earth comes into your mind, then your attachment to material things is surely weakened and your mind is more clothed in the spiritual sphere. Whatever we do or plan, we must not forget: that you are earth and will go back to earth (Gen. 3:19); the soul will move into the other spiritual world, and what it sows here, it will reap there, whether good or evil. In the absence of good deeds, let us resort to humility, which strongly intercedes for us to the Lord; Yes, even with good deeds it is necessary, necessary, for deeds without it are useless. May the most merciful Lord grant you to acquire this treasure. Having wished you mental and physical health, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. May 8, 1844. I received your letter through your colleague. Thank you for notifying me about my niece. Thank God that she is returned from the gates of mortals; You write, although somewhat more clearly, but everything is not enough to give complete information. - .... wrote in only three lines that the incident that happened to .... horrified them, but what is it? I don't know anything. I'm surprised they haven't notified me yet; and I am not a little amazed at them that they delayed until then to communicate her holy mysteries; in such cases, they must first resort to these saving sacraments repeatedly. See how powerful they are! O marvelous God! You complain about your current situation, that the vanity around you has awakened within you the same vanity and distraction that the memory of the soul has dried up in you. It is necessary to make a beginning towards good; With intelligence we can distinguish good from bad. When we judge it in people, then we must judge it even more in ourselves; We will not give account for people, but strictly give account for ourselves; Yes, and for this they will ask us that we are trying to remove the log from our neighbor’s mind, without caring about the log that is in our own mind. Condemnation of sin is great, we all know that; it’s not bad to leave it; It seems, what kind of weight is there in this? But the scripture says: good customs are corrupted by evil conversations (1 Cor. 15:33). We must try to have good conversations; Let us apply diligence to good will, and God’s help will help! I have the honor to congratulate you on the upcoming holiday of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, which I wish to celebrate in health with heartfelt joy; and with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. December 15, 1844. This month, on the 9th, in memory of your late mother, in our monastery at the liturgy for the repose of her soul there was an ektenia and after a requiem service, may the Lord rest her soul in the kingdom of heaven! However, rest assured that in our monastery both she and your other relatives are always remembered. You, explaining your spiritual weaknesses, and the confusion that results from them, ask me for remedies against this disease. You yourself know that the means to avoid embarrassment is self-reproach; but to be embarrassed and despair from the constriction of passions shows a sign of spiritual pride, and with it you will not calm down in the least; Even in the very attempts, one must not please the enemy with embarrassment and despair, but even more so descend into the depths of humility, seeing exactly one’s weakness, presenting it before the Lord and bringing repentance. Read in the 7th word of Saint Isaac the Syrian, where it is said: “and this is a wise man who is sick, who did not cut off his hope even in the time of victory.” It is always better to repent and humble yourself than to despair; By repentance and humility you will attract the grace of God and His help. Read also John of Carpathia; there you will find many comforting chapters in the inclinations. However, may the Lord Himself enlighten you and strengthen you in this great battle; Always try to resort to him and seek His help, and ask the Most Pure Virgin Mary for protection and intercession. Asking for you and your wife the peace and blessing of God, and testifying to both of you my true respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. December 15, 1845. Most venerable of the Lord.... and...., for your congratulations on the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, accept my most humble gratitude and mutual congratulations to you. May the Lord grant you for many years to meet and celebrate these solemn celebrations with a feeling of gratitude and spiritual joy about our glorious salvation. I have repeatedly written to you about the means to heal your weakness, most revered...., and now I propose briefly: remember the humility of Christ, recognize your weakness, blame yourself and not others, force yourself to refrain from bad habits; ask God for help and He, seeing your good will, will send His help, with which you will conveniently overcome all passionate weakness. But with all this, one must have humility, which abolishes all the forces of the enemy; revealing your weaknesses to others with self-reproach is the path to humility, which is why you were weakened in them after the revelation. A little distraction in a community of like-minded people who care about salvation cannot harm you, but will be beneficial; You just need to try to see the good side in others, because the good eye does not see evil, and notice small shortcomings in yourself, which can be healed by daily repentance. Household activities, a garden and a vegetable garden, are necessary for our physical strength, and between them, devote time to reading and prayer, as they are most necessary for the soul. May the Lord guide you on the true path and strengthen you in it and grant you peace, harmony and love; I earnestly wish and with my respect remain the great sinner I.M. April 18, 1846. I have the honor to congratulate you and the most honorable.... on your God-given son Vladimir; May the Lord send His blessing upon him and establish peace, love and harmony between you. You ask to write something to console your sorrowful soul. The very fact that there is sorrow will be a consolation to you, for through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), which is why it is clear that you too are on the path leading to it. If you consider them a punishment, then you are still not separated from the love of God: for the Lord loves him and punishes him: he beats every son whom he accepts, and if you remain without punishment, then you are not sons in nature, but adulterers (Heb. 12: 6. 8). Read from Saint Isaac the Syrian chapters 34, 35, 36, 37, and in 51 words one article: you will find strength for yourself in them and the Lord is able to send you consolation. You have no need for a position, but serve more so as not to be idle; If you find the boss’s favor not burdensome for you, you can leave her without regret and engage in family life and housekeeping. I testify to you and... my zealous respect and I remain your unworthy pilgrim, much-sinful I.M. December 2, 1846. I had the honor to receive two of your letters, dated January 6 and January 11; I offer you my most humble gratitude for congratulating me on the New Year; I reciprocally congratulate you on this and wish that the Lord will send His blessing upon you and grant you peace, harmony and love. You write that you intend to leave your position and have submitted a request for dismissal from it; Apparently the time has come for you to leave it, and a convenient opportunity presented itself: your ill health and a change in management. It seems to you that there is nothing to begrudge the position: thanks to God, you have a fortune, and you will not be idle, doing housework and watching your spiritual structure; If you are well occupied with these subjects, there will be no idle time. I regret the breakdown of your health, for the restoration of which we offer our sinful prayers to the Most Merciful Lord and the Most Pure Virgin Theotokos. The most venerable Vasily Petrovich visited your city and consoled those who were zealous for him, and again retired to his work in the capital. His ways are incomprehensible to us, the Lord knows them and gives him reason and strength, under visible foolishness to surpass the wise and reasonable. Asking for you and your little one the peace and blessing of God, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. January 18, 1847. I sincerely rejoice in your receipt of health and wish that you receive complete mental and physical health. And for the grief caused by the death of your father, the servant of God, I sympathize with you, and as you are true Christians, I hope that you will dissolve your grief with religious consolations. It was certainly the will of God to move him from this temporary life to eternal life, at the present time, for all the days of our years are numbered before God, and the limit of this life is predetermined for each of us. To console yourself and him, you pray for the repose of his soul in the kingdom of heaven, and together with our mother the Church you strive for this; and church prayers, especially those offered during a bloodless sacrifice, can greatly help the soul that has left here to receive God’s mercy; also alms given to the poor. Asking God's blessing for you and your child, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. February 22, 1847. Please accept my sincere gratitude for congratulating me on the feast of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: you,...., complain about your spiritual weakness - irritability; It seems that you know quite well what it is necessary to fight and resist this passion; do not shy away from cases that irritate you, but consider them sent from God for your healing. You need to resist firmly, and when the fall happens, you must not hesitate to rise up with repentance and self-reproach; but not to be faint-hearted and embarrassed; cowardice shows a proud disposition and amuses the enemy, through which he attempts to cause these plagues even more; and when you reproach yourself and not others, humble yourself; and the plagues of the enemy will be abolished. The fact that you are not dismissed from your position, perhaps there is God’s providence in this, arranging it for the benefit of your soul to be active. However, I can’t say for sure; pray to God to do this or that in this matter according to His holy will; then there will be words to say to the boss, with a decisive answer. Do not worry about how or what you answer (Luke 12:11). Hope for this; The Lord is able to give you a word through your prayer. May God bless you and your child! With my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. April 19, 1847. For some time I was absent, in the Tikhonova Hermitage and in Maly-Yaroslavets, and upon returning to the monastery I received your writing dated September 15, with which you describe your grief about the death of the little one dear to your heart; I know that this wound hurts your hearts; but will you help, indulging in joyless sorrow? It is the will of God for this, so that in youth this tender summer growth would be reaped by the scythe of death, to be installed forever in heaven. Imagine that he now rejoices with the Angels and joins the faces of the Righteous; this may give joy to your hearts; Do you know what could befall him in the field of this life? Could he be carried away into some false wisdom and into the network of the enemy? I would be exposed to so many temptations, sorrows and illnesses, passing through the stormy ocean of this life; and you, looking at this, wouldn’t you be more struck by sadness and could say: oh, it would be better if he died as a child (which can be seen in many people now); but now he is freed from all this and will rejoice forever. Be part of this joy, leave behind sadness and rejoice spiritually, thanking the Lord, who wisely arranges everything. And God will send you more children to console you, cheering you and giving you peace. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever! You mention the disorder of your economy and that you miss country life; but when you yourself spend time in the village, the economy will take on a new look, it will be more efficient, and you will not miss it in your activities. God bless you. We remember your little one for repose, and for you we pray for health and salvation, wishing for you, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many sinner I. M. October 4, 1847 Thanks be to the Lord, who has preserved you and your land from a deadly disease, may He continue to do so in the future, and may our entire fatherland free them. Everywhere there is a prayer for deliverance from this disease, then perhaps the Lord will have mercy and turn away His righteous anger from His people. Thank God that you were reassured about your little one by the hope of his eternal bliss. The Lord Himself said about them: of such is the kingdom of heaven (Luke 18:16). What more certification do you need? I wish, may the Lord fulfill your desire, that we have a Philippine fast, which will be comforting for us too. Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain with respect your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 25, 1847 With your writing dated November 9, you explain your grief about the ill-intention of one woman, the wife of a merchant, who rented a forest from you for cutting down, as if she were a witch and has ways of spoiling people, why are you afraid to let them settle for a long time in your possession, and ask for my advice on this. I am sure that you are convinced that without the will of God the power of our head will not perish (Luke 21:18), and that demons did not dare to enter into a pig without the command of the Lord; then in this case we must be sure that neither an evil spirit, nor a person, nor a beast, nor anything else harmful can do anything to us, unless it is allowed by God, according to His righteous destinies, either to temptation or to punishment; thus surrendering with firm faith in the will of God, we must strive to fulfill His holy commandments. But if faith becomes impoverished and doubt arises, then in this case, do not regret the fact that you gave away the grove at a profit, it is better to refuse and save yourself and many of the weak who are under your influence from such doubt and anxiety. Most honorable.... and I testify to you my respect and asking for the peace and blessing of God, with the desire for health and prosperity, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 22, 1847. I am writing this on the eve of the great and joyful feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which I wholeheartedly congratulate and greet you: May He grant you to meet and celebrate this holiday with heartfelt joy and good health. I received your respected letter, written on March 25th; you write that you have not received letters from me for a long time, but I wrote to you on February 7; I just don’t know if you received it; and further expected your arrival, according to your intention, in the second week of holy fasting; but the path and the weather prevented you from fulfilling this desire of yours; surrender this to the will of God and calm down on this matter. You complain about your mental disorder, which is why you fall into despondency and embarrassment; But I advise you in your spiritual weaknesses to have consciousness, self-reproach and humility, and not to be embarrassed and not to lose heart. Humility calms and gives hope for correction; and confusion aggravates the enemy more and incites you to greater battles. May the Lord give you true reason and strength to stand against the passions that cause you confusion. Have hope in God's help in your current situation... He is able to send doctors when needed; but you can do without them, which happens for many, and your... colds, with the help of God and home remedies, will receive healing. You intend to be in O... at the end of April, and drive to us from there, which we will expect in the month of May. And again, wishing you a peaceful and calm dispensation, as well as health and prosperity, and asking for God's blessing on you, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the much-sinful I.M. April 10, 1848. I have the honor to congratulate you on your God-given daughter... in honor and memory of your most venerable mother N.N.; May the Lord bless her and keep her in health, and grant her to come to age, to the glory and pleasure of God, and to your consolation. I make it my duty to pray to the most merciful Lord for this. You complain about the troubles and worries, and regret the distraction of your life. Yet you know your duty, and to what end we were created; then, in the midst of your passion, remember this, so that your desire to fulfill the will of God will manifest itself from your everyday actions; a with His help, and will actually be fulfilled. It is impossible for you to be in complete physical inactivity: then the passions will disturb you more. When you come to us, with God’s admonition, according to your faith, we will talk more about this. Wishing you peace of health and prosperity, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. May 11, 1848. I have the honor to congratulate you on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, our warm and speedy Intercessor and Intercessor of our salvation. Do not grieve because you did not fast with us. God bless! and there they were honored to be partakers of the most pure mysteries of Christ; May this gift be for the health of your soul and body! You NN complain about your meager spiritual structure, which does not bear spiritual fruits; what to do? Apparently we cultivate the land poorly, and having sowed, we do not cover the seeds with humble wisdom, but the crafty birds spoil them; There is no need to be embarrassed, but to humble yourself in the lack of fruits and ask God for help, without ceasing from the flow of works of faith. Receive the fruits in due time, when the heavenly Cultivator knows to give them to you. Take care most of all about humility: even without deeds it forgives many sins, according to the word of Saint Isaac (fn. 46). May the Lord give you peace and spiritual consolation, and bless you to live in your new home, in peace and health, for many years to come. - Asking for you and your little one the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. The disease cholera also visited our places; In our monastery two novices passed away into eternity. Fr. Hierotheus went to Fr. Anthony, and there he fell ill with this disease, which turned into a fever, and after 10 days he died. August 15, 1848 Please accept my sincere congratulations on the approaching day of your Angel N.N.; I wish you all, and your little one, to be healthy and prosperous, and I ask God’s blessing on you! You are worried about your big house, and you are depressed because, according to the word of St. John Chrysostom, it is difficult to be saved in a big house. But the word of our Savior, it seems, is even more terrible: the rich man who is inconvenient will enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:23). However, neither the rich nor those who have large houses should despair of their salvation; but strive with all your might to fulfill the commandments of God, then nothing will prevent you from being saved. When the holy Apostles asked: who can be saved? The Lord resolved their doubt: what is impossible with man is possible with God (Luke 18:27). And in your position, the words of Saint Chrysostom should not make you despondent about salvation, and not attach your heart to the greatness and splendor of the house, and not be vain about it. But how do you have a house not according to your desire, but built before you, and do you really have to tear it down and remodel it? which, perhaps, would require even more expense. So, while living in this house, try to fulfill the commandments of God, then nothing will prevent you from receiving the kingdom of God. You complain about the rage that darkens you, and you, N.N., about laziness in prayer and in reading edifying books; you need to force yourself to abstain from rage, and to prayer and reading, then you will see God’s help. – Reading will give you true reason, and the Lord will strengthen you. - And again, wishing you to be healthy mentally and physically, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I. M. September 18, 1848. Having not had any news about you for a long time, I was going to write to you, but my various worries and activities did not allow me to do this; and now, having received your letter dated February 24, I am writing to you without delay. I very much regret that your desire to be in our monastery was not fulfilled; and we do not have the mutual consolation of having a personal conversation with you, although through these small lines, as much as possible, I convey to you my thoughts, instead of words: 8 You write that you began to fast in the second week; this is a good deed; and I think that we have been worthy to be partakers of the mysteries of Christ; I heartily congratulate you on this, and wish you: may this sacrament be for the health of your soul and body! – Describe your various embarrassments that occur with the housework, and the shortcomings that occur due to the failure of the grain harvest. You are N. N., through these cases falling into rage, you understand that this comes from pride, and not being able to fight or repent, you fall into cowardice and despondency; and this also comes from pride or spiritual pride: you, not seeing correction in yourself, lose heart and become despondent; but it would be necessary, seeing one’s poverty in spiritual work and in failure to fulfill the commandments, to humble oneself and bring repentance; then the mercy of God will visit you and give you peace: God looks upon the humble (Ps. 112:16). Read in the book of Saint Isaac the Syrian, in the 46th word, that humility, even in addition to deeds, forgives us our sins; then I advise both of you to take care to acquire spiritual poverty in yourself and receive peace of mind; I don’t advise you to be embarrassed: not only will it not bring any benefit, but it will also cause great harm to your spiritual structure. Reproach yourself mentally for any failure to correct yourself, and embarrassment itself will not bother you, but humility and repentance will be born. May the Lord enlighten you, strengthen you and help you walk the path of His commandments with humility; and may he correct your affairs according to His holy will; And you humbly obey His all-good providence, even if it punishes, but loves you: for the Lord loves Him and punishes: He beats every son who accepts him (Heb. 12:6). Give thanks to Him in everything! I wish you, spending this holy fast reverently and soul-savingly, to meet with heartfelt joy the bright holiday of Christ’s Resurrection. And asking for you and your little one, the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. March 8, 1849. Please accept my most humble gratitude for your venerable writing and congratulations on the great feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; And I ask you to forgive me for not being able to preface you with my congratulations; although now I earnestly congratulate you on this holiday, and on the current Pentecost. I see from your letter that you are discouraged, finding that you have not corrected what should be done, and are embarrassed about this. I don’t know if you understand that this is also a wiles of the enemy, leading you away from work, and from repentance, and from humility! You are definitely faulty in many ways, as you accuse yourself of; but do you truly have the desire and will to fulfill the commandments of God? Not having the strength to do good, ask for God’s help and descend into the depths of humility; repent and do not be embarrassed; Confusion itself shows you spiritual pride: that, unable to achieve the desired goal, you are deprived of hope for it. And when they did something good, they would certainly be carried away by their opinions and self-praise about it. I advise you not to suddenly embrace the high path with zeal, but to humbly see your shortcomings, and with God’s help, arm yourself and resist the dominant passion; if you win in something, do not attribute it to yourself, but to God’s help; and when you fall, do not lose heart, but humble yourself and repent before God. You don’t understand spiritual poverty at all as you write; You can call it better, as you understand it: poverty of virtues; and spiritual poverty consists in a feeling of humility: God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). The Lord Himself pleases the poor in spirit; then you have not yet reached it, and we dare to remember ourselves in achieving it; the poor in spirit sees only his poverty, but is not embarrassed, but through humility he receives God's help and calms down. May the Lord grant you, seeing your weaknesses, not to be embarrassed, but to humble yourself; from which you will receive God’s help and peace of conscience. And I wish you all, and your little one, to be healthy and prosperous, and with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. April 12, 1849 Thank God for granting you, most honorable N.N., relief from your illness, and you are now with your dear family! I ask you for the Lord’s sake: take care of yourself; do not allow yourself to become irritable, even if things are not done as you would like; health is most important to you; and with it is also associated a good spiritual dispensation that can give you peace of mind; and the happiness of your entire family is determined by your well-being and health. When you know the cause of your health disorder, anger, then try, with God’s help, to resist this passion; and how? You have this teaching from the holy fathers: John Climacus, Abba Dorotheos, Saint Cassian the Roman and others. Do not grieve that you cannot be with us this winter, although I know your zeal for this and our desire to see you; but you can do this if your strength is possible and the weather is good. – I am very glad that you were honored in Moscow to pray to the relics of the holy saints, and were with St. Sergius in the Trinity Lavra; they will be faithful intercessors with the Lord for your health and prosperity. I believe that our monk, Fr., should now be in your area. K......, sent to ask for bread for the monastery. If you have him, then we ask you not to leave him with your Christian hospitality, and tell him our regards, and that, thank God, all is well in the monastery. We would like to have news about him, but he did not write from anywhere about his journey. I congratulate you on the upcoming holy fast, I wish you to meet the holiday of the Nativity of Christ in perfect health and spiritual consolation; and asking for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 15, 1849. The infirmity you describe worries you and lies on your conscience; try to destroy the past by repentance and have observance in the future; the effect of this also has an impact on the entire physical body, just as the violent part upsets the mental structure and harms physical health. According to the teaching of the holy fathers, one must understand that where the fall followed, pride preceded it; why strictly watch yourself, not allowing this serpent to creep into your heart. Our falls humble us, and you learn from this, and receive freedom from these passions, with your diligence and God’s help, and most of all, try to restrain yourself from ardor. Everything is not worth what you lose by depriving yourself of peace and health. May the Lord give you true reason, peace and tranquility; Asking for God's blessing on all of you, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. December 22, 1849. It’s a pity, N N, that you all feel unwell; I advise and ask you, do not allow yourself to become irritable; Are things, or what else, worth upsetting yourself and losing your health? If something happens that is not right, or against your will, you must leave it that way, leaving the case to the will of God, and thereby reassure yourself. Little by little you will get the hang of it; After all, both bad and good habits strengthen. May God bless your children and may they comfort you. Asking for you, and for them, God's blessing, and desiring peace, health and prosperity, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. January 29, 1850. Please accept mutual congratulations from me on the current holy day of Pentecost; time flows so quickly, we haven’t seen it for two weeks already; I wish you to spend the rest of the Lenten season reverently and soul-savingly, and to celebrate the bright holiday of Christ’s Resurrection with heartfelt joy, in good health, with heartfelt joy. – Write about your mental and external structure; see yourself in a faulty state; this very thing should involuntarily lead you to humility and through it attract God’s help: He looks upon the humble (Ps. 113:6); But if you correct something and do not get anywhere, and on this very fact you want to base your peace and salvation, then you may be mistaken; the enemy will not leave you to present your virtues and elevate your mind with your opinion of yourself; And whatever is high in men is an abomination to God (Luke 16:15). And therefore the Lord commands: if you do all that is commanded, say: for we are unworthy servants, those who must do them have done them (Luke 17:10). Our falls into anger and other actions of passions prove to us the spiritual pride that preceded us, and already involuntarily humble us; If we try to destroy this root, the branches will fall off on their own; this is said about the mental state, and it is also associated with the physical; from mental irritation, the bodily nerves are also irritated; and have an impact on the entire body, or simply say: through mental illness the body also suffers. You are also worried about the external situation in your household, such as: the barn burned down, there is a shortage of peasants, and so on. This is, as it were, a necessary action of God’s providence, for your test, and to assist with attention to the needs of your subordinates, although you find the reason: their laziness, or other cases. It is impossible for you to be without action, for all this is associated with a union of love and obligation to each other. They serve for your benefit, and you will serve for their benefit, bear each other’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). O. K.... has not yet returned to the monastery; If he doesn’t come to see you, then you can destroy our letter to him. – I wish you and your children peace, health and prosperity, and asking for God’s blessing on you, with my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I.M. March 21, 1850. The Lord was pleased to call to Himself from this deplorable vale, much revered by us and by many, His servant Vasily Petrovich 9. He truly crucified the world and crucified the world to himself, and reproached it. His life was suffering and toil. And that he did not want to communicate the Holy Mysteries at the last time is incomprehensible to us: just as no one comprehended the ways of his life, so this is unknown to us; maybe he will be awarded this Gift! We believe that his soul will dwell in good things; but we all consider it our duty to pray to the Lord for the repose of his soul, during a bloodless sacrifice and during the reading of the psalter. Having received your first letter of January 15, we at the same time wrote down his name for commemoration. You thank the Lord that He deigned you to serve him at his death and burial; he is your prayer book before God. I thank you most earnestly for congratulating me on Angel’s Day, and I wish you and your children peace, health and prosperity; With my respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. I send my blessing to your children. January 27, 1851. Note to letter No. 40. – V.P. Brauzin, a native of Livonia, a holy fool for Christ’s sake, has in some features of his life a great resemblance to St. Isidore, the holy fool of Rostov for Christ's sake. St. Isidore lived in the second half of the 15th century, he was originally from Germany and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. Leaving his father's house and renouncing a rich inheritance, he took upon himself the foolishness of Christ for the sake of; With a wanderer's staff, he traveled around many lands and cities, patiently enduring ridicule, insults and beatings from people who considered him insane 10. Finally, he came to Russia, accepted the Orthodox faith and settled in Rostov, whose location he liked. There he spent whole days on the streets of the city, in voluntary foolishness, and nights in prayer, in a twig hut, which he built for himself inside the city, on a swampy wasteland. Through his virtuous life, Blessed Isidore acquired the gift of clairvoyance and miracle-working during his lifetime. In his life it is related that one merchant he knew, drowning in the sea, was saved by St. Isidore, who miraculously came to his aid. Another time, through his prayer, empty vessels were filled with wine at the prince’s meal. His contemporaries called him Tverdoslov, because his word always came true. Blessed Isidore reposed on May 14, 1474. At the moment of his death, a fragrance filled the air throughout the city. The Rostovites buried him in the hut itself and built a wooden Church of the Ascension of Christ over his tomb, probably because on the day of his burial, May 18, it was the eve of this holiday. In the life of St. Isidore (in an ancient manuscript preserved in the church where his holy relics rest; - in the prologue and chety-menaion of May 14, it is abbreviated), several miracles and healings that took place at his tomb are recorded. Vasily Petrovich, as stated in the decree on his resignation, was from the Livonian nobles, served in the Lubny hussar regiment in the first officer ranks. Having accepted the foolishness of Christ for the sake of Christ, the first years of which are unknown to us, after traveling around Russia, he finally settled in Orel, almost went to prison - for open foolishness; but was bailed out by pious landowners. He lived either in the city itself, or in the district, with various pious persons; more often in the district of the city of D–x, in the city of the merchant I.M. N–a, he visited monastic monasteries, especially loved Optina Pustyn, and was in close spiritual communication with the elders: Hieroschemamonk Leonid and Father Macarius, and brought great benefit to the brethren with admonitions, denunciations, instructions, predictions and consolations; Each of the monks contemporary to him can cite something remarkable said to him by Blessed Vasily Petrovich. Recently he lived in Moscow, more often in the house of the Tula landowner V.V. A–a. Before his death, he went around to all his acquaintances, asking permission to die from them, and denounced many of those who were insincerely disposed towards him, for, fearing police formalities, they evasively responded to this request, except for the aforementioned V.V. A-a, who said: “You are welcome; as always, our house is at your service.” A few days before his death, Vasily Petrovich gave P.V. A–y his decree of resignation, ordering him to declare it to the police so that there would be no hassle for him at his funeral. He died alone, without witnesses: he was found lying decorously on the floor with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed. He died on January 15, 1851, and was buried in front of a satisfied crowd of people. Like St. During his lifetime, Isidore of Rostov acquired the gift of foresight, through which he helped those in need in various ways. He also had the right to the name Tverdoslov, for his words were not in vain for anyone, denouncing one and helping another. His life and actions would deserve a detailed description, which we have the right to expect from any of those who were spiritually blessed by him and his admirers, and especially from P.V. A–a. Most Honorable N.N. Glory to God, who has given you the feeling for understanding and knowledge of your innermost passions, and from them, your own weakness. In your letter, dated August 3, you discover them more clearly, and you recognize yourself as guilty - forgive the Lord for the sake of - I am not writing this to denounce you, but I am showing that when we do not recognize the passions that act upon us, and consequently do not accept proper resistance against them, then they take power over us and command our hearts; we think to ward off some insult or trouble with resistance, but instead we confuse ourselves even more and indulge in embarrassment; We suffer this until we humble ourselves, and when we resort to this reliable means—self-reproach and humility—then a ray of grace shines upon us, and we calm down as we become more settled. We will not repeat the past, so as not to touch your sensitive heart; but let me remind you of something that can serve you in future in such cases: although you yourself are quite knowledgeable in this, I think it would not be superfluous to include it here. According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, everything that touches the heart with confusion is passionate, and should not suddenly follow the impulses of the heart, but consider it diligently, and ask God not to allow blindness to take over the heart; it is quite well known that every passion blinds the heart and does not allow it to see the mental sun; sometimes deposits of passions are stored in us, then at the slightest chance they are revealed and deprive us of peace, for which no one is to blame, but we ourselves; why should they take care to eradicate them? However, we cannot only resist or eradicate them, but we cannot even recognize them unless something irritating them is allowed to happen; which is why every case must be attributed to the will of God. According to the teachings of St. Mark of the ascetic: “Do not be curious about how, or when, or through whom temptations are found; the propriety of each one, and their urgent diligence, and the cooperation of all creation in this regard, is led by one God, but we must absolutely believe in the truth of God, as nothing happens to people who are involuntary, even if the mysterious confluence of events and decent diligence are not comprehended by humans.” Also read its chapters in the Philokalia, you will find a lot relevant to this subject; and of course, such cases often happen in your position, which can show you your inner structure and from this you will receive correction if you pay attention. We sincerely rejoice that you have calmed down and are writing this unflatteringly to you. Father does not grieve for you, and he did not grieve, but found it unnecessary to write to you, not wanting to flatter or further offend; but now accept this letter from both of us, as if from one person, and be completely calm. But I, the most feeble-minded, remember that you in vain accepted false fear, and you yourself did not write to the priest, although he does not require this, but as a child-loving father rejoices and is glad that you come to the mind of truth. You mourn the deprivation of spiritual consolations; Of course it's hard; but when we resort to humility, we will find ourselves unworthy of it, and perhaps God’s providence, for our own good, takes away consolations from us, so that, enjoying them, and imagining something about ourselves, we would not perish with everything. When we seek inner consolation, we are not looking for God, but for ourselves. St. has a lot about this subject. teaching fathers: y St. John of Carpathia, in different chapters, by St. Isaac the Syrian in the 2nd word and in the 35th word, and in the Fatherland, about one bishop who, being a simple hermit, enjoyed consolation, and when he was elevated to the episcopate, he was deprived of this grace, to whom it was explained why this comes from. If we humble ourselves, God is strong and can comfort us with His mercy, we will only be afraid to seek and consider ourselves unworthy of this: both here and in many cases, devotion to God through faith is required; What does St. write about? Peter of Damascus in the 1st book, in the chapter: on the acquisition of faith: “Will You give me rest in Your mind? I don’t counter the verb. Do you want, for the sake of humility, to allow me to be tempted? I am also with You; I am by no means an imam to do anything on my own, except for You would not exist from something that does not exist, I can live below and be saved; do whatever you want with Your creation. I believe that it is good, that my plans are good, even if it is for the benefit and I do not know it; but below I am worthy of the nobility, below I ask you to understand, so that the imam may rest, if the negli are not for our benefit; Below, I dare to ask for relief from this battle, even though I am weak and depressed in everyone, because we do not know what is healthy to eat. You weigh everything, and as you weigh, let me not sin, if anything happens; but if I want, if I don’t want, save me, and this is what pleases You, since I am not an imam of things...... You can do everything, and do everything, and want every good thing for everyone, and always desire my salvation” 11. Read this instruction yourself, taking the beginning of the chapter above, you will receive strengthening and consolation for yourself.... Most Reverend N.N. in the Lord! First we must grieve with you and feel sorry for you, according to the Scripture: lament with those who mourn, weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). Do not say: I have not found one who grieves and one who comforts me (Ps. 69:21). I sincerely regret for you that you were so upset by God’s visit to the destruction of your fields with buckwheat, on which you relied and perhaps made calculations in your mind for your income; but when you saw your hope disappear, your heart was saddened that you could not do this or that, according to your assumption. But God has a different calculation: advise Mou, not as yours advise (Isa. 55:8). He exalts this and humbles this (Ps. 74:8). He makes dead and gives life, he makes poor and makes rich (1 Samuel 2:6. 7); and - who can resist His will? Where should a Christian look for consolation in the temptations and sorrows that come his way, if not in faith in God? But faith is not just to believe that He is our Creator: but to believe that He provides for us with His omnipotent right hand, and arranges everything for our benefit, although we cannot understand this due to the whiteness of our mind, darkened by the darkness of our passions, which we act from our will, and driven by passions and grief we feel more strongly. The most merciful Lord, loving us, and although saving us and delivering us from error and enslavement of passions, sends various sorrows, deprivations and illnesses, so that we, having recognized our vanity and not finding consolation, turn to Him, “the land of our desires.” Our heart, amazed by unexpected adventures and sorrows, involuntarily dies to the world, that is, passions, and seeks consolation in the best. Not only then can we be called faithful when we receive the blessings of God, but when we accept with thanksgiving also punishments from His hand, then our faith is tested: do we truly believe in His providence? We, as Christians, must have for ourselves guidance in life and strengthening the holy Gospel teaching, which assures us that the hair of our head will not perish without the will of God, and the bird will not fall without it. When an already insensible hair and a small creature - a bird - are under the providence of God, then what can we say about ourselves? About the ever-present providence over us, to the above, and these words of our Savior confirm: My Father is doing and I am doing (John 5:17), which is nothing else than he provides for the whole world, and what is even more important, for our salvation; and that he always gives us something useful, he teaches: whoever is a man from you, if his son asks for bread, food will give him a stone; or if he asks for fish, he will give him food for a snake. Even if you have done evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:11. 13). We, in our foolishness, consider ourselves then happy and at the height of bliss when we acquire wealth, honor, fame and respect; but God knows more than us; when He sees that with the increase of these our spiritual structure is damaged, He takes these benefits from us, like a prudent father who does not give his son things that harm him instead of useful ones; and since the very blessings of this world serve us not with benefit, but with harm, they plunge us either into luxury or into pride, if we rely on them for our hope of peace: then the Lord, being merciful, will take them away from us, so that we do not perish in souls; which is why we should thank God for his visits. We, the weak-minded, thinking of arranging our condition, become sad, fuss, deprive ourselves of peace, leave the fulfillment of the duty of faith behind vanities, in order to leave a good estate for our children; but do we know: will it serve them well? Don’t we see children left with wealth - but wealth is of no help to a stupid son - and it only served as a reason for them to have bad morals. We must strive to leave our children a good example of our lives, and to raise them in the fear of God and in His commandments: this is their main wealth; when we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then these things are here and everything we need will be added to us (Matthew 6:33). You will say: this cannot be done; Now the light demands not this, but something else! Fine; but did you give birth to children only for the light? and not for the future life? Comfort yourself with the word of God: if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you (John 15:18), and the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God: for it does not repent of the law of God, for it can do less (Rom. 8:7). Do not want your children to be from the glorious ones of the world, but to have good people, obedient children, and when God arranges them, faithful spouses, tender parents, caring for those under their control, loving towards everyone, and lenient towards their enemies. If you leave them property and less than what you expect, do not grieve for it; they will be happy with that too. Think about how many people there are living in the world; but most of them are not only in a moderate state, but also in poverty, which is more convenient for receiving salvation, for the mouth of our Savior spoke: the rich man in trouble will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23), and again: the wide path and the wide gate lead into destruction (Matthew 7:13). What do the spacious and wide gates mean? A luxurious life, accompanied by wealth, honor and glory; in such a life it is convenient to evade the commandments of God; how this evangelical rich man spent his life, rejoicing brightly every day, and dressing in purple and fine linen, that is, in rich clothes; After death, what place did you receive? - being in agony, he asked for one drop of water to cool his tongue, suffering in the flame; but instead of consolation I heard: child, remember that you received your goodness in your belly (Luke 16:25). On the contrary, the narrow enemy and the regrettable path lead into the eternal belly, i.e. those who have lived piously and have endured, either voluntary or involuntary, sorrows and illnesses sent from God, or poverty close to humility, will inherit it; as you can see there about Lazarus, who in poverty and illness involuntarily spent his life, and after death was carried into the bosom of Abraham, to a place of consolation; and when Abraham said to the rich man, “Thou hast perceived thy goodness in thy belly,” he added: And Lazarus is likewise evil; now here he is comforted, but you suffer (Luke 16:26). I know that you believe all this (God forbid from unbelief!). But since you are little concerned with this necessary subject for salvation, behind vanities, it will not soon occur to you; and I wrote to you briefly to remind you of this, so that by remembering this you can strengthen yourself in faith and receive consolation in sorrow, being confident that this is the will of God; and that the Lord, loving us, punishes and sends sorrows, about this listen to the teachings of St. Apostle Paul: “My son, do not suffer from the Lord’s punishment, do not weaken, we will be rebuked by him. For the Lord loves him and punishes him: he beats every son who accepts him. If you endure punishment, as if God were found to you as a son: for who is a son, his father does not punish him; But if you are without punishment, you have been partakers of him: for you are by nature adulterers, and not of sons (Heb. 12:5-8). The point is not to not feel sorrow, but to endure it gratefully. There is also much in other places of Holy Scripture that sorrows are for us a great blessing and a cure for mental ailments and passions. Turn to the thanksgiving of God for this visit, speaking with Job: The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, as the Lord willed, so it was, blessed be the name of the Lord. ( Job 1:21.22 ). In these feelings, receive consolation; Do not always wish what you want, but as God’s will is, then calm down. Let me now turn to the fact that you had the intention of visiting our monastery, but having received notification of sorrowful circumstances at home, your heart was upset, you left this path and hurried home. Well, what did you do with your early arrival, and what help did you give to the beaten Greek? Didn’t they bring more punishment upon themselves, losing quite a bit at the outpost? It would be most important for you to visit the monastery, not for me, but for your consolation in grief; Of course, the Lord would be able to comfort you here. But the greatness of sorrow upsets us, but with what disposition of our heart do we accept it and in what disposition is it? Now I can neither ask nor expect you; When you, who had such an opportunity to stop by twice, did not do this, is it possible to find time from home, doing business and bustle? I received your letter from P—a; I am heartily glad that you found pleasant consolation and unflattering love among your relatives there. Having left...... for education, pray to God that He will enlighten his heart in knowledge and thereby strengthen His will in the creation. May God grant him to receive true enlightenment, and not false; I conclude this in one word - what I wish for him: every young man, entering the circle of modern society, is exposed to no small danger in moral terms; May the Lord protect him from all the snares and snares of the world ruler. I had the intention of visiting my brother and seeing V—u there, but due to circumstances it was impossible to do this. I wrote to him, when he lets her go to you, would it be possible to stop by here, it would be no more than 130 miles away. Soon after my arrival at the monastery, we were honored with a visit from the Kyiv Metropolitan Philaret, who was formerly a bishop in Kaluga, and on September 5, our Eminence Nicholas, who was with us, consecrated the chapel in the name of St. Nicholas of Christ and, during the service, promoted our father the builder to hegumen, who is truly worthy of this award. Both the external structure and the internal care of the brotherhood give him this right; when he joined in 12 years there were 40 brethren; and now more than 150 people are under his flock. Asking for you and your children the peace and blessing of God, and wishing you health and peace of mind, I remain your zealous brother and unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. September 11, 1837. Most Honorable of the Lord NN 12 Having the duty to respond to your letter of October 15, I, poor thing, have not yet fulfilled this, both due to the weakness of my strength and for other reasons, for which I humbly ask and hope to receive your generous condescension and forgiveness. Starting to write this meager writing of mine, first of all, I make it my duty to congratulate you on the upcoming new year, and to wish you, your wife and your entire venerable family blessings from the Most Merciful Lord at the beginning of this summer; May you be illuminated by grace and the light of His mind, as in the days of grace you walk gracefully in the path of His commandments; and may He send you peace, health and prosperity for many years to come. Our Father Superior Moses, Father Anthony and I, the great sinner, bring you our most humble gratitude for visiting our humble monastery and for your writing, from which I see that during your journey you entered the monastery in the spirit of a humble Christian, through which you gained spiritual benefit. You have noted, for your edification, the lives that are still going on in monastic monasteries, among whom you have benefited from our desert stay. Although we must acknowledge ourselves humbly before God in our badness and insignificance, we thank His innumerable goodness, which enabled us to understand the vanity of this fleeting worldly life, brought us to this refuge, and gathered His verbal flock in unanimity and gave us such a shepherd, whose meek nourishment our souls feed on; and we place the hope of our salvation not in our works and deeds, but in the mercy of our Creator and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, perhaps there are people who, looking at the life of monks from the other side, are not edified, but are still tempted, not having an enlightened intelligent eye. The spiritual one only strives for everything, but he himself does not compete with one (1 Cor. 2:15). The outside does not always correspond to the inside; external appearances, exploits and labors, not dissolved by humility, do not bring benefit and charms are often to blame, both in modern times and in ancient times; and therefore one must have great discernment in order to distinguish delusion from truth, which is no small gift of God given to humble hearts; external wisdom alone is far removed from true reasoning, and therefore the best means is to adhere to the apostolic commandment: judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, Who will bring into the light the secrets of darkness and reveal the counsels of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). He who wants to use is created from everything, for the eye of good will not see evil; but on the contrary, the one who is sick with vision and sees vices in the very virtues, as they said about the Savior Himself: behold, tax collectors and sinners eat and drink (Matthew 9:11), behold a poisonous man and a drinker of wine (Matthew 11:19), and behold a prince of demons who will cast out demons (Matthew 9:34). But you followed first - the eye of good will not see evil - you did not heed our shortcomings, but seeing what was well-organized, you noted it in your memory; - May the Lord vouchsafe you to accept the reward of a righteous man. I know about the monastery that the place is convenient for monks to stay, by removing themselves from the world, and in other ways; but our salvation depends on our inner dispensation, which is found both from the good shepherd who feeds the verbal flock and from the spiritual pasture. I cannot tell you anything about the current state of this monastery; you know better, because while building the church there, you may have visited it several times, for which the Lord consoled you by receiving a blessing from the highest spiritual government, the Holy Governing Synod, with which I have the honor to wholeheartedly congratulate you. You presented two tasks in a special note: 1) “that the world found people who left the world to save themselves and fled into the desert and begged them to accept gold, for use, for salvation”; and 2nd) “that the ancient holy fathers sought true wealth, and glorified their holiness through poverty; but now they are bringing them great treasures, and they think to please them with this, but they also ask God; Could it be that the Saints, who ran after treasures, became lovers of money after death?” I don’t dare rely on my reason to accurately and fairly resolve these perplexities of yours; but having called on the Lord to help me, to show me the concept of this, I am forced to enter into reasoning, even if it was not our business to pass judgment on such matters. – 1st). According to the calling of God, from those who retired from the world in ancient times, some, with the help of God, through exploits, with humility and sharpness of life, having killed their bodies, did not demand the riches of this world; but the fame that spread about their virtues attracted many to them who wanted to receive salvation, who could not bear the cruelty of their life, and demanded more or less indulgence for their weaknesses, although from time to time men of high virtues appeared among them to guide others. Thus, often, and according to God's revelation, brotherhoods were formed, monasteries, cenovia, monasteries and laurels were gradually established, for the creation of which the treasures of this world were sent to them from God, through kings and nobles, which they, if they accepted, then, through much denial and not otherwise than asking for this will of God, through internal or obvious revelation, although grieving at the abandonment of their silence; but seeing the salvation of their neighbors in these monasteries, even in later times, they preferred the salvation of many souls to their own benefit. The brethren in the monasteries, sometimes numbering up to a thousand, more or less, also demanded maintenance; although many had food from the labor of their hands, they did not reject the zeal of those who brought their righteous acquisitions, using them for monastic needs: for the building, for receiving strangers, who visited the monastery in large numbers and benefited their souls. This, it seems, is the reason that prompted the ancient fathers to accept the treasures of this world: - the reason for the salvation of souls; for not everyone could be perfect like them; and again: the zeal of those who brought these gifts served to save many. They accepted these treasures dispassionately, and therefore without harm to themselves, and they also entrusted their use for the common benefit to people tested in virtue; for the rest, there was not the slightest concern about this: whether there was anything or not, “having this food and clothing were satisfied” (Tim. 6:8). There are many examples of this in the lives of the Palestinian and Russian holy fathers, and the ancient monasteries of the Holy Mount Athos and our Russian ones, which survived from the devastation of time and barbarism, testify that they were built not a little depending on the zeal of pious people sent, and not rejected by the holy fathers. 2nd) To those glorified by poverty and holiness of life, treasures are now brought to the holy fathers, not because they became lovers of money after death; but the Lord promised those who glorified Him to glorify Him; why the people, driven by faith and zeal, come to venerate their holy relics, receive, through their intercession and intercession, the healing of their physical and mental ailments: they come to their senses, repent and correct their lives. Here too God is glorified in His saints. People from a grateful heart bring them, some a lot, some a little, some two mites, and thus they calm themselves down and fulfill their vow; but the Saints do not demand this, least of all God; and zeal accepts it as the purest sacrifice of their hearts. For the glory of God, churches are built and decorated with splendor, holy shrines and vestments are built; the rest serves to support the brethren living and serving in these monasteries, who want to be saved, and to feed the strange. And in some times the treasures of the monasteries were given to the fatherland for the maintenance of warriors. Such offerings (from visitors) were never forced, but voluntary, not causing harm or loss to those bringing them, but even more so giving them pleasure and joy and God’s blessing; why they serve them for salvation; what you experienced yourself - spiritual joy - at the end of the church in V-e; therefore, offerings are not disgusting to God and His Pleasants. Anyone who does not have the disposition and will to do good may be tempted by this. St. John Chrysostom writes to those who bring him a complaint against the poor (who even use impermissible means, mutilation, etc., to ask for alms) and to those who cover up their unmercifulness, accusing them of the fact that the reason for this is their lack of charity, to which the poor, wanting to incline their hearts, resort to such means. The great teacher of the Church encouraged this method, as it could conveniently save their souls, knowing truly how much God bows to the prayers of the merciful, and that hardness of heart is more destructive than temptations. If, in any way, the misuse of these offerings appears to your eyes, then this happens privately and rarely, because people have weaknesses, and due to them they deviate from the right path. Having explained to you my feeble-minded opinion to your bewilderment, I leave it to your reasoning, or who can more, better and more clearly present to you about these preferences; And if I erred in my reasoning as a man, then I ask you to generously forgive me according to the commandment. With my deepest respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim I. L. January 15, 1838 Most reverent N.N. of the Lord! I have received your venerable writing, informing you of God’s visit to you with sorrow at the death of your beloved son. I sincerely sympathize and sympathize with you in your grief, and fully appreciate the sorrow of your heart, due to human weakness and grief akin to grief; Having lost someone so close and dear to the heart, one cannot help but feel and not have a heart ache, and one must repay the debt to the beloved object with condolences, but not indulge in inconsolable lamentation and sorrow; but since you are a true Christian, seek consolation for your suffering spirit in our sacred faith, in trust in the goodness of God, and His immeasurable love for us sinners, and in surrendering ourselves in all things to His holy will. For unbelievers, pure joy does not bloom in home life, for whoever dies for his heart dies forever; from distant eternity no ray of hope and consolation shines upon him; his joys are momentary, and his sorrows are joyless. When we only in this short-term life rely on consolation both from the blessings of this world and from relatives and friends, without looking with the eyes of faith into a future eternity, then of course, when fate changes and the deprivation of our neighbors, we lose heart and do not find consolation. But a Christian, convinced and confident in the actions of God’s providence, submits to His holy will, which arranges everything for the good, and knows that in this vale he is a wanderer going to his fatherland, escorting his departing relatives and friends only to it; according to the end of his wanderings appointed for them by Creative wisdom, he hopes to one day unite with them in blissful eternity, by the grace of our God. And this very thing quenches the sadness of separation from people close to our hearts. The holy Apostle Paul strengthens this with his teaching in his letter to Thessalonians: I do not want you, brothers, not to know about the dead, so that you do not grieve, like others who have no hope. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again; Thus God will also bring those who died in Jesus with him (1 Thessalonians 4:13.14), i.e. those who have died in faith and hope of eternal life will be resurrected. Accept this reasoning as a consolation for your sadness and hope that your dear son has been awarded the guidance of the Christian sacraments to a blessed eternity; If it upsets you that he left here in middle age, then this was arranged according to the wise and unknown destinies of God, and according to the scripture: he was caught up quickly, lest malice change his mind, or flattery deceive his soul. The zeal of evil is darkened by a good one, and the soaring of lust is replaced by a kindly mind. Having died in time, he fulfilled his duty: for his soul was pleasing to the Lord (Wis. 4:12). Rely on the mercy of our Creator, show submission to His holy will, and be comforted by the hope that your dear son, through temporary death, came to eternal life, where we too will one day be called. You repay him the debt of your parental love by caring for the remembrance of his soul, church prayers and alms: and this should console you with the hope of God’s mercy that the Lord will vouchsafe him such commemoration, this is his best legacy here, passing with him into the future; and in our monastery, since the receipt of your letter, his name is remembered for his repose, during the sacred liturgy, at proskomedia and at litanies, at memorial services and at psalter readings, may the Lord rest his soul in the kingdom of heaven and create eternal memory for him. I offer you my most humble gratitude both for your constant good deeds for our monastery and for the present. And I wish that the most merciful Lord will give you consolation in your sadness and grant peace, health and prosperity to you and your entire family. What humbly asking from the Lord, coupled with His richly bestowed blessing on you, with my deepest respect, I have the honor to abide with your unworthy pilgrim I.L. Most reverent of the Lord N N! From your writings I see that you are grieving and tormented by the fact that, having seen me, you did not talk enough about yourself, and that you said: “It will be God’s punishment to get married.” Even if you want to remain unmarried, your acquaintances inspire you that with this word you anger God, how could you even be above the Creator and arrange your life according to your own will, and that every desire is a sin, and you don’t need to ask anything from the Lord, but rely in everything on His holy will? Being perplexed by this, ask permission for this. Although I am poor in understanding, but wanting to get you out of confusion, calling on the Lord for help, may he enlighten my darkened mind and give a word to calm and to your benefit, trusting in the prayers of my father, I do not dare refuse you an answer; You are not looking for the florid style of worldly wisdom, but look for the truth of what is written. Man is gifted from God with reason and free will in choosing the best, therefore our desire is the origin of free will; when our autocratic will, controlled by reason, desires good, i.e. fulfilling the will of God, and strives for it by deed; this pleases God and He helps us in the creation of this. When, out of madness, he desires something contrary to the will of God and tries to do it, God, without binding our autocracy, allows this to happen, but rewards for the first, and punishes for the second; which is mentioned a lot in the Holy Scriptures; Therefore, the desire for good is akin to our nature and is in no way sinful, and not only about the desire, but even about the effort to fulfill it, one must have care; but you just need to conform and harmonize your desires and actions with the law of God, surrender to His will and ask for His help; then when God sees that this is for our benefit, and in accordance with His will, He will send His help to assist us in this matter; and when He does not foresee any benefit for us and there is no His will, then although we imagine that we want to do a good deed, it happens either out of vanity, or for some other reason - it hinders its fulfillment, because we ask Him: “Thy will be done, Lord.” But they say that every desire is a sin, and that you do not need to ask the Lord for anything, but rely on His will in everything: this is completely contrary to both reason and nature, and the Holy Scriptures. Not every desire is a sin, but a sinful desire really is a sin, and without a good desire, how could a person be called verbal and rational, and where would his autocracy be? And the Savior teaches in the Gospel about petition, urging us to it. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; press and it will be opened to you. For whoever asks receives it, and whoever seeks finds it, and it will be opened to the one who asks (Matthew 7:7. 8). Or if there is a man of you, if his son asks for bread, food will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, he will give him food for the serpent, for you are wicked and know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him (Matthew 7:9-11). Also y St. Luke, in chapter 18, verse 1, in a parable, teaches that we must ask God; when the unrighteous judge already granted the request of the widow according to her request (for persistence), how much more should God not create at the request of those who want to come closer to Him; - and when in ordinary everyday affairs you need desire, work and asking God for help: how much more so in matters of fate and those related to spiritual salvation. If you don’t want either one or the other, that is. neither marriage nor preserving oneself as a virgin, then what will you do? Nothing more than wood or stone, insensible; although you will think that: “I rely on God, as He will arrange it,” but quite the opposite. Imagine your situation: you don’t want to get married, you want to betroth yourself to God, you ask Him for this and await His fate. But to the test of your will, for example, suitors would appear, one, another, or more; Don't you have the power to refuse them at your request? And this is no mistake; So know that the will of God has confirmed your desire; If you agree to get married, then here too you must believe the will of God; but still your autocracy had an inclination towards this, and not the motivating power of God. However, even with your good will, if you indulge yourself in the vanity and distraction of worldly amusements, then it is not very surprising to darken the eye of your soul and change from the truly good to the imaginary: for good customs corrupt and evil conversations (1 Cor. 15:33) If you do not want this, then get away from this as much as possible, and ask God to save you from the arrows of the evil one. In marriage, there is a discordant life, and insult from the spouse, which is a clear punishment from God, allowed for sins; but since today the world, for the most part, has a completely opposite opinion and way of life, sometimes parties are not inferior to each other in treason; and this is also God’s punishment, blindness on the soul. You will put aside your embarrassment and fear about the words you have spoken; having the intention of devoting yourself to a silent life, pray to the Lord, that He Himself will correct your path before His face and guide you to His truth, and do not enter into disputes with secular people regarding your intention; The world always has its own laws, but they are contrary to God: carnal wisdom, enmity against God; God’s law is not subject to repentance (Rom. 8:6). Do not be afraid of the punishment here, but look to the future; Try to pacify your conscience with repentance and faith in God’s mercy, so that the most merciful Lord may comfort you, give you peace and arrange your life according to His holy will. Most reverent of the Lord N N I was quite surprised by your letter, in which you are seeking from me prophecies and predictions about the happiness of your life and fate. I cannot at all understand this, that the Lord has ordained in His power, it is indecent for us to penetrate into the future and experience; God's destinies are incomprehensible to us. The Lord gave us His commandments and commanded us to fulfill them; when we lead our lives according to them, we will receive God’s goodness, both here and in the future life; and if we turn out to be transgressors of God’s commandments, then not only will we be punished here, but unless we repent, we will not escape punishment in the next century. “I can’t tell you anything more, especially about the future, which all lies in the holy will of God.” When fulfilling His commandments, pray to Him, surrendering yourself to His will; and I, the most insignificant, with the wish for your health and prosperity, remain your unworthy pilgrim I.M. Most honorable uncle N N On January 20, a letter reached my hands, announcing the sad news - the death of the most venerable grandmother... Glory to the merciful Lord, who vouchsafed her to reach death at such an advanced age and enter into it in the white robes of sincere repentance, confession of her sins, bearing the seals of holy unction, and within herself Christ through the communion of His holy and life-giving Mysteries. I thank you for the details of her death: for they unanimously reassure me of her eternal well-being. Thank you for not hiding the feelings of your sorrowful heart from me, for I love to grieve with the saddened; all possible compassion is that indispensable duty that I owe to your love, which found me in this remote, silent and unknown corner. Having lost a person, we give him the real price, dear uncle, maybe we increase it. With my conception, the law of destruction was written within me; On each newly formed member, death imposed its formidable mark, saying: it is mine. The chain of my days is a chain of greater or lesser suffering; Every new day of my life is a new step that brings me closer to decay. Illnesses come and a trembling heart asks them: are you only the harbingers of my death, or have you already been given the power to separate the body from the soul, through a sad and terrible separation? Sometimes my mental eye, distracted by vanity, abandons the contemplation of my sad fate; but as soon as any sudden sorrowful adventure occurs, it quickly flows again to my favorite teaching, like a baby to its mother’s breasts - to the teaching about death; for true consolation is hidden in true sorrow, and a prudent remembrance of death dissolves mortal bonds! You, Whose ineffable goodness we are a creature of, tell us why you have dissolved our life with sorrows? Is Your mercy not touched by our suffering? Why do you give me existence and then delight it with a painful death? I do not delight, says God, in your illnesses, O man! But from the seed of your sorrows and your sorrows, I want to grow for you the fruits of eternal and greatest pleasure. “It was not in your body alone that I imprinted the law of death and destruction,” he imprinted it in every object of this visible world. I commanded the whole world to cry out to you, along with your body, that this life is not true and real life, that there is nothing permanent in this world to which your heart could become attached with non-blameable love! When you do not obey the loud voice of the entire universe, then my fatherly compassion, constantly desiring unlimited benefits for you, forces Me to raise the rod of punishment; then I torment you with temptations, exhaust you with illnesses, gnaw you with sorrows; so that you, leaving madness, become wise, leaving the shadows behind which you are chasing, fall at the feet of truth, and together at the feet of salvation, My ineffable goodness and thoughtless love for mankind forced Me to take on flesh; By my humiliation I delivered to the human race the greatness of the Divine (John 14:9). Having endured the cross for the sake of human salvation, whomever I want to attract to Myself, I first strike him with sorrows and with the arrows of sorrows I kill his heart for temporary sweets. The rod of punishment is the banner of My love for man. Thus, I once wounded the heart of My servant David with suffering, and when a stream of temptations separated him from the world, then some terrible reflection, some extraordinary calculation appeared in his mind and occupied it. I thought, he writes, the first days, and the eternal summer I remembered and learned! (Ps. 77:6), that is, I looked at the passing days of my life, and they seemed to me like an instant dream, a quickly disappearing phenomenon, a dead life! Then he remembered eternity; I began to compare it with the brevity of my past life and, comparing the infinite with the shortest, temporary, I deduced the result; what is this result? For a man walks in this way, but he fusses in vain (Ps. 38:7), that is, no matter how much a person fusses, no matter how much he worries about various temporary acquisitions; however, all this is in vain: for he does not cease to be on earth as some brief appearance, a guest, a wanderer! Such feelings and reflections removed him from the world of passions; he began to study the law of the Lord day and night, and to strive for knowledge of himself and God, like a thirsty deer at springs of cool waters. As a king, he had the opportunity of all temporary pleasures, but when he tasted the sweetness of internal blessings, then he forgot to take his own bread (Ps. 102:5). I wrote to you, uncle, my feelings, if contrary to secular reason, then at least sincere; and sincerity can be comforting in times of sadness. Your deceased mother bequeathed to you, before her death, to be a good Christian; and I wish this for you with all my heart. Then death will lose its menacing appearance in your eyes and will become only some most pleasant transition from temporary sorrows to endless pleasure; she will take you to the palaces in which, as we guess with some certainty, our most respected relative now lives. The very sadness for the dead, illuminated by the light of true reason, melts away; and in its place a good hope begins to vegetate, comforting and cheering the soul. Fanaticism constrains a person’s way of thinking, but true faith gives him freedom; This freedom is revealed by the firmness of a person in all possible happy and unhappy cases. The sword that cuts our chains is a purified mind that sees, in any case, its true, hidden, mysterious cause. Anyone who strives towards it by considering his own insignificance, with a reverent request for Divine protection and help, achieves this goal. ....For everything, glory to the most merciful God, who pours out unto us blessings in every case! for the source of goodness cannot emit from itself any other waves except good ones; without understanding which people often grumble against the all-good. Most Honorable Ones of the Lord N N The merciful Lord, who through His unsearchable destinies allowed a certain scourge to fall on you, and again, as a lover of mankind, punished, with mercy averted the execution, and in unexpected ways, untying the multi-braided knot of temptations, gave you the feeling and courage to endure with gratitude what you find, and arranged deliverance; Yes, the message is your love... that with such sorrows the heart of the world is mortified, i.e. lust, love of money, and love of fame, and the soul, frightened by the noise of temptation, with much humility runs to God and strives to hide from the remorse of sorrow under the cover of His providence; purified by His frequent memory, she comes to the knowledge of herself, is secluded by the sight of the countless number of sins, and begins to cry, which is the door to the inner cell or to the residence of a new person. Most Honorable of the Lord N N Listening to the contents of your letter, I find myself, due to my weakness and decrepitude, unable to penetrate deeply into your diverse dispensation: I can barely sign my name, therefore I must entrust others to write; but when I myself am afraid of errors in my answers, since others, inexperienced, may conveniently make mistakes; and thereby the truth will not be accurately presented to you, for which I am afraid to answer before God for your soul. You have your patron and mentor, His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret of Kyiv, whom you consider to be the Mother of God given to you; What do I mean in front of this man, high knowledge, virtue and dignity? You, leaving the sea of ​​reason, flow to a puddle that cannot quench your thirst. Wouldn't it be better for you to be perplexed about the offering of the icon.... and about your daughter, to His Eminence; correctly receive infallible permission; but I, for my part, do not dare to begin to resolve such issues that exceed my understanding, and I do not know what may follow; I also might have had some idea about your mental state; in previous letters I offered you my advice; Now, no longer having the strength, I cannot enter into detailed and subtle reasoning. The most merciful Lord is able to enlighten your mind and strengthen His holy will in creation. I am returning the letter to your daughter; I cannot draw any conclusions about it. If you and your children wish peace, health and salvation, I remain your unworthy pilgrim. We have received your letter, dated June 2. Without going into consideration of what you deign to write about His Eminence of Kiev, about the mercy of the Sovereigns to your children, about the presentation of the icon, about the portrait of Elder Seraphim, as if about subjects that far exceed the understanding of the wretched Elder Leonid, burdened by years, physical and mental infirmities, and the burden of daily, arduous activities; We did not even have time to properly consider those words where you mention in passing your intention to die in Kyiv in the form of an angel. And at your strong request, we turned our weak attention and feeble mind to those words where you mention your daughter. Our opinion is that preventing her from carrying out a holy and soul-saving work will be a grave sin, which will forever remain on your conscience if your daughter dies before the time you set, deprived of the means to fulfill her vow to the Lord. However, you, as a mother, should know better than us whether we can rely on the firmness of this intention, and whether it is not one of those that are very easily erased from our memory and do not bear fruit, like a seed thrown along the way, or on a stone. You know your age, ask her; and if you notice that her desire is constant, her thoughts are unconfused and thorough, the silence of her spirit; If you notice these truest evidences of a deed pleasing to God in her, then do not hinder her and bless her. May the Lord bless her, and may the merciful intercession of the blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve her. It is better, according to Climacus, to haste with poverty than to be slow in this matter with abundance of wealth. As for, most honorable..., your request to be your mentor, it is with regret that we must confirm the refusal, which has upset you so much. Judge for yourself: what are you entrusting to us? Soul, and its salvation for all eternity! This is not easy for you: but what is our unworthiness to accept such a pledge, which, according to the words of our Lord, cannot be replaced by the whole world, as transitory, corruptible and vain, in comparison with the immortal soul created in the image of God. - Think about it. In addition, think about the fact that in a novice, as you call yourself, the first and only godly act is obedience and cutting off your will and reasoning in everything, according to the first order of your elder. I don’t know whether an elderly secular person with deep-rooted conceit and habits can be capable of this martyrdom, when in our time we hardly see such feats among young men and virgins seeking their salvation. On the contrary, self-understanding guides almost everyone, and standing against it is difficult and dangerous: and almost useless with our strength. We do not refuse to answer your letters from time to time, as well as with other things that the Lord enlightens us with; and then in my free time and answering you carefully, as if I were a person respected by us, very well-disposed towards us and worthily honored by everyone, and not as our novice or student, whom we treat differently, and that you yourself will deign to see when you deign to visit our holy monastery and the rude old man whom you wish to name as your mentor. Most Honorable of the Lord N N By your writing, dated the 24th of October, sent with your people, you express to my thinness your weakness, known to me, from which you not only did not abstain, but you also see in yourself intensified and more so due to a certain occasion.... Wanting to find peace of conscience tormenting your heart, you draw your conclusions, according to your concept, citing from the Old and New Testaments the texts of Holy Scripture and the flow of the natural order; however, you do not find peace in anything, and you could come to despair, if not for the words of the Holy Apostle Paul, that faith and virtue itself do not come from works, but the gift of God; and so you fall to the Lord with repentance and petition, having overcome everything that is contrary in you to resurrect or revive in you a new spiritual person, in what way do you ask for my instruction and admonition? Although I feel the weakness of my health and the deprivation of strength to write you a handwritten answer, but since I see your faith in me, the poor one, I am writing this to you through dictation through another, wanting both to turn your opinions to the truth and to indicate a remedy: where and how to seek healing for your ailing soul. It is true and undeniable that a sinner who has felt his sins and is struck by remorse must seek forgiveness and healing of his wounds from our merciful Savior, who redeemed us by death on the cross, by the shedding of His most pure blood, who offered Himself to God and the Father as a sacrifice for our sins; but He, completing the work of our salvation, gave us His Divine teaching, founded the Church on earth, established the holy sacraments, appointed pastors and church teachers; and sending the holy Apostles, he said: Go and teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that are commanded to you; He who has faith and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not have faith will be condemned (Matthew 28:19); and before this: listen to you, He listens to Me: and reject you, Me is rejected: reject Me, the one who sent Me is rejected; and if he disobeys the Church, be like a pagan and a tax collector; And if you bind on earth, they will be bound in heaven, and if you loose on earth, they will be loosed in heaven (Luke. 10:16); all these words refer from the holy Apostles to their successors, church pastors and teachers, even to this day. The Church will remain in its foundation, always firm, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18); subsequently, what institutions and institutions were made in the holy Church as by the holy Apostles, ecumenical councils, pastors, church teachers, according to the above commandments of God, we must honor and keep holy; to obey the teachings of the Church, the meaning of Holy Scripture is not determined by one’s own reason, but because the Church accepted and defined it; for she acted in all this by the Holy Spirit, having the head of the Church, Christ Himself. On the contrary, it is known what heresies, schisms and divisions have occurred. But we, as by the grace of God are in the truly Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, must, thanking God, obey it in everything, not heeding the opinions of others or our own, otherwise we cannot be called and be sons of the Church, but opponents of it; for which condemnation cannot be avoided. You, making your conclusions based on the Holy Scriptures, nowhere suggested to yourself the commandment of God about obedience to the Church, and you did not relate your conclusions to it in any way, but you yourself directly assumed the meaning of the Holy Scriptures, and you sinned in many ways. Those people who established order in the Church and determined the meaning of the Holy Scriptures were divinely inspired shepherds and church teachers, in them the Holy Spirit Himself acted in this matter; but you cannot say this about yourself. Although you have a natural and scientifically enlightened mind; but not grace. Know that the wisdom of this world is the rage of God (1 Cor. 9:19). So, I advise you, when you want to be saved, to obey in everything the Church in which you are, the Eastern Orthodox Greek-Russian; and in order to know exactly its teaching, read the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East, which was published for the seventh time in 1838, also placed in the Christian Reading of 1838, in the month of January, and then published in a special article, entitled: “Royal and Patriarchal Letters, the Last Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith” and in the current year, in June and August, an article was published in Christian Reading: About the establishment of the Church on earth by the Lord Jesus Christ. You write that, according to the word of the holy Apostle, faith and all virtues are the gift of God and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which is why you rely on this, as if the fulfillment of this does not depend on you; read the interpretation of St. John Chrysostom: faith is truly a gift of God, given to us by His coming; but autocracy has not been taken away; He removes from us the fact that we should not boast about ourselves, saying: It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8.9), and then he says: We have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we may walk in them (Eph. 2:10). He made it a duty not only to believe, but also to deeds; Having the gift of God and faith as our foundation, we cannot boast either of it or of the performance of good deeds; for we have the grace of God preceding us, through our conscience calling us to good, and when autocracy bows to good, then grace again helps; because everything you will and every action is from God (Philip. 2:13), when God calls us through conscience to good, and our autocracy opposes it, then God, without forcing us, allows us to fulfill our will; from which our mind is darkened, our will is weakened, and we do inappropriate things: since we have not tempted God to have in our minds, God allows them to do inappropriate things (Rom. 1:28). The fruits of the Holy Spirit are bestowed on those who try to fulfill the commandments of Christ. Again you bring the words of the Holy Gospel (Matthew 5:31,32), in a completely different sense, to the matter at hand, about giving in marriage...; it says about a wife; but in this matter there is only one crime, about which one should be more horrified than respect the law of nature; because he is from a sinful act in opposition to the seventh commandment of God and the gospel (Matthew 19:9); and also the teachings of the Holy Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 6:9; Heb. 13:4), then without any fear you should try to marry off in order to break the sinful bonds that bind your conscience. Then you will be freer, and your repentance will be true and valid, for repentance is only true then when a person, feeling his sins, with which he angered his Creator, abandons the sinful act, regrets them and repents and is worthy of forgiveness by the grace of Christ through the permission of a clergyman of the Church. And when he does not leave, although he repents, then this is not repentance, but even a dangerous, excessive and reckless hope in the goodness of God, which, like despair, is equally judged before God. You see that you bear the mark of God’s punishment on yourself, leading your heart into sinful captivity and darkening your meaning: you interpret even the most sacred scripture not to benefit, but to harm yourself, and in some way you make God the culprit for allegedly not giving you the gift to do what is pleasing to Him. Remember your years - perhaps your day has fallen to evening - the uncertainty of your death; and in order not to be darkened even more and not to remain in captivity and in the bonds of sin, I call you to God with the beating of my conscience (I know that it does not give you peace and quiet), show your good will of self-government, leave... and ask for God's help, which you really need; then you will receive permission; and without this, it serves as a greater reason for you to sin. I remembered the spiritual punishments that befell you; but beware of the obvious ones, in which God’s mercy is revealed: when a person does not leave something harmful by his own will, he is involuntarily forced to do so. Submit in all respects to the rules of the Holy Church and its divinely inspired teaching, and do not follow your own reason; Perhaps this is not the case in you: you do not have special attention, and do not consider it necessary to adhere to the decrees and rules of the Church in all things, reasoning with your mind what can be attributed to pride; and for this reason you were allowed to be taken into captivity; humble yourself in everything before God and people, to which (i.e. humility) the most merciful Lord will look upon you and deliver you from this captivity and grant you forgiveness of sins. Offering you this advice of mine, I pray to the Lord that He will give you the feeling and strength to correct yourself and to bring true repentance, which is necessary for eternity. In the brief outline of your letter, I see the state of your life, as well as that of your daughter, in which by taking an active part in your parental love, you are aggravating your grief; You blame your spouse for such insults. You are looking for insignificant instruction from me and consolation in your sorrow. But I, recognizing myself as insufficient for such actions, cannot take upon myself the courage to reassure you in consolation from my mind; but the God of peace and all joy is able to give you comfort and admonition in your affairs. If anyone (as you write) received any consolation through my weakness, it was not otherwise than the merciful Lord, by their faith, giving the word to my feeble-mindedness, gave them consolation; Not wanting to upset you by completely denying an answer to your letter, I call on the Lord for help, and according to your faith I offer you these simple lines, but which come from zeal. The very fact that you bear your crosses with humility and gratitude to God gives you Christian consolation and trust in God’s mercy, to be rewarded with bliss in eternity. Your solitary life and the sorrows of your heart have separated you from noisy, worldly decency, which, if you obeyed, you would involuntarily move away from God, and would be on the long path leading to destruction, which many walk; Judging by hearsay about your Christian feelings, I believe you know the word of God, which teaches us that we cannot work for God and mammon, that is, the world (Luke 16:13), and that although we may be a friend of the world, we are an enemy of God (James 4:4); for the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God: for the law of God is not repented below, for it is possible (Rom. 8:7). The Lord, loving you, by His providence of God, carefully seduced you from the long path, placed you on the narrow and regrettable one, leading into the eternal belly, acquired by small ones, according to the words of the Savior. You make your husband guilty of your and your daughter’s sorrows; for man is not without sin; and he himself may be increasing and aggravating his sorrows. When the bird does not fall and the hair of our head does not perish without the will of God: can such a test follow without His holy will and permission? Your spouse is nothing more than an instrument through which God acts in your trial. You should regret him from the bottom of your heart and pray to the most merciful Lord to turn him to the true path and forgive him, both for your insult and for other sins. Without knowing the lifestyle of your daughter and son-in-law, I cannot judge them; but it is known that life requires large expenses; that your spouse does not give them anything, it seems, and this can be attributed to God’s providence, which allows them to have a need for maintenance, not to indulge in luxury, which is guilty of many sins, but to get used to moderation, which is guilty of mental and physical health. Without abandoning them, to the best of your ability, provide them with your help and advice - to generously and resignedly endure the lack, obeying the providence of God, who arranges everything for the benefit of the One. The fate of people is subject to many changes: from the rich and glorious of the world they pass into poverty and ignominy; and vice versa from poverty to wealth and glory. But even with the abundance of these blessings, when the heart does not have peace, nothing can bring consolation. This is the kind of peace we must ask for and seek, which the Lord gave to His disciples and to all who believe in Him: My peace I give to you; My peace I leave with you (John 14:27). Your daughter and son-in-law are inviting you to live in P..., which you do not dare to do without my blessing. But what do I mean, neither a seer nor a prophet, how can I know what will happen to you there? and I don’t take it upon myself to tell you decisively this or that; I can only say that the change in lifestyle, from solitude to rumor, I do not hope will bring you any benefit, and although it is pleasant to be together with those close to your heart, can this consolation last? So, in this case, surrendering to your free will, I wish that it conforms to the will of God. Asking for God's blessing on you, with the wish for you peace, health and salvation, I remain with my lowest respect for you... your unworthy pilgrim. From your letter, written without number, we see that you had the intention of being with us at the monastery during the past Great Lent: but, probably due to the bad roads that happened, you did not have time to do this; giving this to the will of God, have hope for the future fulfillment of your enterprise, calling on God’s help for this. – You inform that God has delivered you from misfortune; but you complain that your heart has endured many sorrows and sorrows, such that your soul barely remained in your body. The example you gave of bodily cutting and burning to spiritual or moral sensations does not at all belong and does not apply to your disposition. The body of elemental compounds, accepting destruction from something, by nature feels the illness inflicted on it, but in the soul there is a completely different effect: we are gifted from God with reason and free will, and are protected by His most holy law; With these spiritual powers we must choose and follow the law of God, avoiding everything that is contrary to the will of God, as explained in His law. As soon as a person willingly transgresses the commandment of God, he already receives spiritual punishment from God: he is deprived of God’s grace, exhausted in wanting and choosing the best, which (i.e., desire) does not bow to the good, becomes darkened in his mind, and, becoming a slave to passions, is already involuntarily drawn to them, and accepts punishment from them instead of pleasure. Our passions are merciless tormentors for us; and they torture and punish a person who is devoted to them, or who was in their power, but who has known their darkness and leaves them, until their memory is completely erased from their hearts by repentance and resistance. If you haven’t read the life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt, then read April 1: how, after her conversion, being in the desert for 17 years, she struggled with passions, like animals, until the grace of God blotted out their memory from her heart. And besides, God’s justice, in order to cleanse a person from sins here, also sends external sorrows, through people, like weapons, in order to come to our senses and know that we, who have sinned before God, are worthy of even greater punishments, and through patience we can be cleansed. We should not look for reasons whether people offend us justly or in vain; when we sin before God, then this is an important reason, His providence prompted us to raise a storm of sorrows. The duty of a repentant Christian is to thank God who is punishing him here, so that in the next century he will not be punished forever, and therefore he must forgive those who offend, not only according to the commandment: love your enemies (Matthew 5:44), and: forgive and it will be left to you (Matthew 6:14), but he will count them as his benefactors, because through them we are worthy to receive forgiveness of our sins. This is not a worldly philosophy, but a spiritual teaching, which is borrowed from the Holy Gospel, the Apostolic Epistles, pastors and teachers of church teachings. What the eternal Wisdom Himself - the Savior - teaches us: try the scriptures, and in them you will find eternal life (John 5:39). But secular books, and especially novels, do not teach, but relax the hearts and drive out the fear of God. In your letters to both of us, matters have a connection with each other, which is why we respond to you at all, wanting to bring you even our small and meager advice, to console your sorrow and to strengthen your Christian field in the future. We received your letter from your father. We have the honor to congratulate you on the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ: may the risen Savior comfort you and grant you peace and tranquility with health and prosperity and with your entire family. I. L – and I. M – ii. Hearing about the death of your most respected confidant, the princess..., and taking part in you, I wanted to know in what relation her heir would remain to you... I saw how difficult it was for you to bear the yoke of rule with her, which you endured solely out of respect for her, who had confidence in you and respected your merits. But this desire of mine has not yet been satisfied. The father of our desert who was with you conveyed to me your desire that I write a few lines to you in consolation that the Lord will announce; From this I conclude that you have some kind of sorrow in your heart; and probably the death of the princess should sadden you, and, moreover, the uncertainty of your future position. However, I’m guessing all this, and maybe I’m wrong; but no matter what happens, you just need to be awake in spirit, placing your trust in the almighty providence of God, who cares not only about His rational creation, but also provides for all creatures and arranges everything for the benefit. I know the weakness of the human spirit, that even great men could not maintain indifference in the changes of everyday circumstances; and many hesitated, and came to the point of exhaustion and cowardice; but in this case, you need to strengthen yourself with the word of God, so that the power of your head will not perish without the will of God (Luke 21:18); and: the bird will not fall without His will (Matthew 10:29); and there is much in the scripture about Providence, even more so concerning our circumstances, which relate not to one person, but to many: and be firmly convinced that people, no matter how strong and great they are, can only do what God allows them; and they won’t do anything else; Whatever God allows, it must be so and not otherwise, and it will be for our benefit. Our reason cannot comprehend this, but faith calms those who have it. Sometimes what seems useful to us, we try to seek and achieve, but God knows better; and if it is not beneficial, then He turns it away from us. For we are more concerned about this present temporary life, but the Lord is also trying to save our souls in eternity. Often honors, riches and pleasures that flatter humanity are a reason for us to become upset in moral terms, because our will deviates from the real goal; and the merciful Lord, depriving them, leads to repentance, which we see in our times, and even more so during the past century, happened to great people, both spiritual and secular. And if we consider the unfortunate adventures that befall people in the world as God’s punishment, then these punishments are the essence of the actions of God’s love; what is St. The Apostle Paul writes to the Hebrews in chapter 12, citing the words of the wise Solomon: my son, do not be overwhelmed by the discipline of the Lord, but weaken, we are rebuked by him. For the Lord loves him and punishes him: he beats every son whom he accepts. If you endure punishment, as if God were found to you as a son, whoever is a son is not punished by his father; But if you are without punishment, you will also be partakers of it: for you are by nature adulterers, and not of sons (Heb. 12:6–9). If you also have something that saddens your heart, then pour out the balm on it from the above, surrendering to the will of God and asking Him for permission from sorrows and consolation; and if you have any bewilderment in your undertakings, resort to Him and to the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God, Intercessor of the Christian race, in Whom you have warm Faith and hope for Her intercession, then you will find admonition and help. Take these feeble-minded lines of mine as a sign of my zeal for you, and cover the shortcoming in them with love. I cannot demand from you, knowing your extensive activities, but it would be desirable to have information about your current situation, at least in small lines. However, I am sure that there cannot be any troubles that are important for you; It is your will to leave these activities and be free from them if something unbearable were to happen. But may God’s will and His protection be upon you; His will is always good and useful for us, and you, surrendering yourself to it with obedience, will probably receive peace of mind in your heart. By your writing, issued on February 12, received by me on April 2, do you ask for my advice about the cases described in it that confuse you? I am not a little surprised at you that, without knowing me, but only based on rumors (which are not always true), you are looking for my guidance. Yes, and I feel that I do not have so much talent and enlightenment that I could penetrate in absentia, from such a brief explanation, your spiritual structure. But I do not dare to deny all this, according to the strength of my meager understanding, in the hope of God’s help, according to your faith, which is able to grant the voice of the word to respond to your writing. I see the main thing from your dispensation is that you do not have peace of mind and tranquility, despite all your imaginary high corrections; which is what compelled you to have an attitude towards me. With high corrections I honor the love of God, which you repeatedly mention that you love God; and also with such assurance: “I love God so much that I cannot even describe the whole feeling.” But you have forgotten that love is the height of perfection, and is acquired by fulfilling all the commandments of the Lord, about which our Lord Jesus Christ teaches: he who loves Me keeps My commandments; but he who does not love Me does not keep My commandments (John 14:21. 24), and the holy Apostle Paul described to us the properties of love: love is long-suffering, merciful: love does not envy: love is not arrogant, is not proud, does not act outrageously, does not seek one’s own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in truth: everything loves, everything has faith, everything trusts, everything endures. Love no longer exists (1 Cor. 14:4–8). If you say that these properties relate to love for people, and I love God: but this cannot happen, that without human love we can love God! The holy Apostle John the Theologian testifies to this: if anyone says that I love God, but hates his brother, it is a lie: for if you do not love your brother, he has seen God, but you have not seen Him, how can you love? and this commandment is from Him, that he who loves God also loves his brother (John 4:20). There is also this among the commandments of the Lord: when you have done all that is commanded you, say, as we are unworthy servants: for whatever we ought to do, we have done (Luke 17:10). This is humility, without which our virtues cannot be pleasing to God. But love also has a very close union with it, so that one cannot exist without the other. In your dispensation, fear, doubt and confusion are visible, which could not be with the fragrance of the love of humility, for the Lord commands us: learn from Me, that I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). Although no one will boast of being sinless, and the Apostles themselves recognized themselves as such; St. Apostle Paul: The Lord came to save sinners from them, and I am the first. (1 Tim. 1:15), likewise St. Peter always remembered his sin; and many who were going through spiritual life, even saints, considered themselves sinners, but were not embarrassed, because they did not place their salvation in their virtues, but in the merits and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. You consider yourself a sinner and see your virtues, but you are confused in spirit, and all this constitutes a dark chaos in you, preventing the light of reasoning from being in you. I will also say that what confuses you more is that you cannot pray peacefully in church in front of everyone; leaving it, you feel that you have never been there at all, but at home, pray better and offer tender prayers. You don’t understand that this is a strong charm that deprives you of peace; when you, praying in solitude, think that you are praying well, then be sure that this prayer is unpleasant to God, even if there are tears and a feeling of tenderness; when all this does not have deep humility, that is delusion. In church prayer, you, looking for the same feeling, and not finding it, consider yourself not praying, and are embarrassed; and this is the consequence or fruit of your prayers at home; the enemy raises you to heaven and brings you down to the abyss; there it elevates, but here it overthrows and causes confusion, which proves that your prayer is based on arrogance. You pray simply, not looking for high talents in yourself, considering yourself unworthy of them, then you will be calm: and although you see the coldness of your prayer, all the more have in the feeling of humility that “I am not worthy,” but without embarrassment: then it will surely be accepted by the Lord better than the one for which you think that you are praying well. Take as an example two people praying in church, a tax collector and a Pharisee; this latter prayed with an opinion about himself, but the first prayed with humility, and did not place the hope of salvation in the hope of his integrity; but confessing his sins, he humbly prayed, and He who always forgives the humble heard the prayer. On the contrary, the Pharisee became rejected. St. Isaac the Syrian teaches: “Whoever does not imagine himself to be a sinner, his prayer is not acceptable before God” (Sk. 55, p. 289). Gifts in prayer are bestowed on the worthy and humble, to whom they do not harm, but benefit; and whoever prays with an opinion is in great danger. I offer you the reasoning of one prudent man, based on truth and experience: “The most dangerous thing is the action of the devil against those deceived by the opinion of their holiness; people of this kind usually more or less renounce the objects of physical life, through physical exploits they refine their sensual nature and reveal in themselves a truly spiritual life, albeit misdirected. This makes them capable of receiving impressions, some of them spiritual; and therefore the evil spirit becomes closer to them. The spirit of malice fills the dreamer's soul with ghosts of light, one-sided, but strongly enthusiastic thoughts; Having aroused in him a special trust in himself, he leads him away from the truth and makes him a victim of superstition, and then fanaticism. The dreamer becomes an implacable enemy of anyone who disagrees with him on anything; strengthening his opinion of himself more and more, the spirit of malice finally brings him to the point where the dreamer is completely upset both in life and in thoughts.” As for church prayer, know that it is higher than your prayer at home; for it ascends from a whole council of people, among whom, perhaps, there are many purest prayers, offered from humble hearts to God, which He accepts like fragrant incense, with which yours, although weak and insignificant, are accepted. My advice to you: do not abandon church prayer, but humbly pray in it, and do not be embarrassed by the fact that you “didn’t pray and didn’t pray,” and reject this thought from yourself, and don’t get excited about homework; then you will be peaceful. Know that the fruit of pride and arrogance is confusion and disorder; and the fruit of humility is peace and tranquility; All evil came from pride, and all good came from humility; Therefore, when considering your dispensation, follow what is useful. I can write nothing more to you than to wish you the peace given to us by the Lord Himself in the person of the Apostles: My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you (John 14:27), which is given to the more humble. While asking for God's blessing on you and your family, I remain your unworthy pilgrim. The letters written to you from the former......, and then the monk....., at the same time I return. Father Father L read them: he found only verbosity, showing that he knows a lot; the exhibition of scripture texts, although inappropriate for many, is a flattering praise for you; but I didn’t see anything solid and was worried about you, if you are so firmly confident in his letters, and have them for yourself as a stronghold and guide in life; I was surprised at his audacity, how he dared, without question and without knowing your inner structure, to offer you his long-winded, but awkward, and without power, in the form of spiritual practical life, his epistole. For my part, I am of the same opinion; I will not expand further, not knowing what fruits his letters and interviews with him brought you; And I conclude with my desire, may the Lord protect you from the deception of the enemy and from all his snares, for he appears, transforming himself into an angel of light, and can introduce the spirit of flattery into the most rational feelings that are contrary to the truth, and deceive those who do not understand, and thereby, instead of the fruits of grace, force over time to eat the fruits of deception that are bitter and harmful. I congratulate you on the coming new year, at the beginning of which may the Lord send His blessing upon you and enable you to walk in the footsteps of His commandments. I have my deepest respect for you. Most Honorable of the Lord N N I had the honor to receive your venerable letter dated December 11; I answer this by recommending myself and asking you to be accepted into your Christian favor. Knowing from hearsay your mother and brother personally, who live in Christian rules, I believe about you, as is clear from your letter, that you have Christian feelings, want to bring yourself closer to God, and acquire eternal salvation. I rejoice in this with all my heart! Ask me for prayers for you; it is our duty to pray for each other, and for those who commanded us about this; although we do not dare to be bold, knowing our own badness and unworthiness; but trusting in the goodness and love of God and in the faith of those who ask for this, we resort to His goodness. You are looking for advice and guidance from me in gaining salvation; praising this quest of yours, or rather, to say hunger and thirst for truth, and, although ignorant, I do not deny, as much as I can, to offer you, or even more so as God will enlighten you, according to the measure of your faith, a word for the benefit of your soul; Meanwhile, I will tell you that I am quite surprised: considering that you are quite enlightened in knowledge of various kinds, have you really not had practice in this such an important subject - the school of faith? Every Christian born in the font of holy baptism must certainly know that he became the Son of God by grace, and what responsibility he took upon himself, in fulfillment of His holy commandments, which testify to his faith and love for God; otherwise it is known what must follow. Where and how can we learn the rules of faith and the implementation of them? The Church, our mother, is the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15)! You, since you are a son of the Eastern Greek-Russian Orthodox Church, must sacredly honor and preserve its dogmas, statutes, rules and regulations, which lead us to the direct goal of salvation. For they were established, from time to time, by the holy Apostles, holy ecumenical councils and God-inspired shepherds of the holy Church, to whom in the person of the Apostles our Lord Jesus Christ spoke: listen to you, He hears me, reject you, reject me: reject me, the Father who sent me is rejected (Luke 10:16), and again: and others disobeys the Church, make you like the pagan and the publican (Matthew 18:17). Why should every Orthodox Christian obey church teachings and decrees based on the word of God, for Christ Himself is the cornerstone of the Church and the head of it; and nothing contrary to the word of God was decreed. But there are people who themselves assume the meaning of Holy Scripture, only in the opposite direction, and, condescending to their weaknesses, not only do not consider it necessary to fulfill the laws of the Church, but also set rules for themselves, according to their own understanding, in which they greatly sin and if they do not repent, they will find themselves irresponsible at the judgment of Christ; they do not argue whether anyone has allowed them to enter into judgments about the laws of the Church and even judge her herself. The Holy Apostle Paul teaches that our Lord Jesus Christ gave His Church two apostles, two prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11) and in another place: how they preach if they do not send messages (Rom. 10:15). The Holy Church, when it was necessary to make some legal provision regarding the faith of dogmas and other decrees, by the command of pious kings, from time to time convened ecumenical councils of patriarchs and bishops and other church pastors and Orthodox teachers; and discussing the necessary things, they overthrew the heresies that arose and established rules to maintain them in unity everywhere; at which Councils the Holy Spirit Himself acted to establish orthodoxy; and the teaching of our Orthodox Eastern Church, since even from ancient times it was studied correctly and piously, defined and approved by the holy ecumenical Councils. Adding to them or taking away anything from them is impermissible; our duty is to sacredly honor and obey the statutes of the Church, as stated above; and in case of non-fulfillment and crime, whether due to weakness, negligence, or delusion, they must recognize themselves as criminals, repent of it, humble themselves, and correct themselves, for which actions the Lord will look upon, and forgive in sin and give His help to fulfillment; but not to refute them, and consider them superfluous or unnecessary, thinking by this to throw off the shackles of the conscience that burdens them with crimes. But the poor will be deceived! Perhaps someone will say that the rules and regulations of the Church are not the commandment of God; But isn’t this a commandment of God: a command to listen to the Church and her shepherds? Without this, how many errors and heresies occurred there: whoever understood, he decreed so, separating from the unity of the Church. But we, leaving others, not heeding their teaching, not accepting judgment upon ourselves, but leaving it to our God Jesus Christ, must turn to ourselves and, being in the Orthodox Church, on the basis of its teaching, create our salvation by fulfilling the commandments of the Lord; seeing your weakness, ask through prayer for help from God, but with a humble prayer, a publican’s, and not a Pharisee’s, and have constant self-reproach in your heart, also have a well-disposed heart for mercy and compassion for your neighbors, help in their needs, be forgiving in weaknesses, forgive those who have offended us; and if something happens to be done according to the will of God, do not attribute it to yourself, but to the help of God; Moreover, remember our sins, with hope in God’s mercy, which leads us to humility and makes up for our shortcomings before the merciful Lord, who humbled Himself even to the image of a servant. Accept this small mark, and if it bears fruit and you find in it benefit and a means to acquire living faith and calm your heart, then give thanks to the most merciful Lord, who wants to save everyone and come to the mind of truth. December 22nd, 1840. Most Honorable One of the Lord 13 It is with regret that I tell you that Father Leonid’s health has become very weak, he feels great pain in his chest, an accumulation of phlegm and great hardness in his stomach. We don't know what type of disease this is. They wanted to call a doctor, but he does not agree to this, but uses spiritual medicine: on the 15th he was especially blessed with oil; the sacrament was performed conciliarly: there were two abbots and two hierodeacons. Among this council were Father Abbot Anthony and Fr. builder Gerontius; – and to this end he often partakes of the holy and most pure mysteries of Christ. We didn’t want to write to you about this, but we decided that then it would be even more unfortunate for you, because they would also grieve us for not notifying you. To the news of Father’s illness, we add the fact that he has no appetite for anything, which is more relaxing. We received your letter dated August 15 on time, that is, on the 6th day - the 20th, and this last one, dated September 16, was received on the 21st. Unworthy I.M. September 23, 1841. We received your letter, dated October 3rd, on the 11th, which I read to Father Fr. Leonid, and he was, although in poor health, but in clear memory and sound mind. On the same day, he died at noon at 7:20 a.m., to the heartfelt sorrow of us and everyone who had zeal and love for him, and who benefited from his instructions. Although he was separated from us in body, which is covered with earth, we believe that he remains with us in spirit. His blessed death confirms to us that he undoubtedly received the mercy of God after being separated from the bonds of the flesh. He was sick for five weeks, and for more than 20 days he did not eat any food, only heavenly bread; the most pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthened him; for he was often honored to receive these sacraments, and on the very day of his death he was awarded this Gift. On the third day they buried him, but there was not the slightest reluctance in the spirit and his hands were soft, like those of a living person. O. the builder G–ii with some of his brothers found him alive and was at the burial. I know that the news of your father’s death is very sad for you, but it is impossible to hide it. Dissolve your sadness with the hope that he, having found the mercy of God, will intercede for all of us with Him. But it is clear that the time appointed for him by God’s decree had arrived and it was necessary for the soul to separate from the flesh, free itself from local sorrows and illnesses, and move on to eternal peace. The Lord is strong, through His prayers, to instruct you in how to lead your life and save you from all the snares and arrows of the enemy. We see from your letter that it is very sad for you to live, but what can you do, just be patient and God will comfort you; It is not without His will that sorrows are sent: to tempt us like gold in a furnace. And you, as a person, have some infirmities of your own, but through sorrows all this is cleansed; just thank the most merciful Lord, who has such fatherly care and love for you; for while sending sorrows towards purification, it does not allow one to fall into exhaustion until the end. Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, I abide with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. October 22, 1841. When we wrote to you, informing you of the death of the priest, we had no doubt that this would greatly upset you. But it was impossible to hide this event from general knowledge. Having received your letter, we see how saddened you are by your father’s death! Imagining his deprivation, you indulge in sadness and despondency: we sincerely regret you and advise you as a consolation - to look at your father’s present peace with the eyes of faith; when he moved from these sorrows and illnesses, his soul will undoubtedly settle in the good, and when he, bearing the burden of the flesh, poured out his fatherly love on everyone, how much more will he not leave us, his children, in the spiritual land, and interceding with the Lord for us, his spiritual children, will instruct us: how we should go through our lives in order to improve eternal salvation. Although he was separated from us in body, he remains with us in spirit. Remember his fatherly love and honor his memory! The Lord is able to grant you His spiritual consolation through prayers. You ask not to leave you and to continue everything as before; Yes, from our side it cannot be otherwise. Honoring the memory of our unforgettable elder, can we not have respect for those whom he loved and respected? Moreover, your goodwill extended to us even during his lifetime, and we respected you, so now should we leave you, especially in present sadness? Be sure that, although we cannot replace the priest for you, we will try to present our will to your service, and the Lord is strong through the prayers of our father and the mind to give in the right cases: what should be done, or what advice to give, for your benefit and strengthening on the path of life. Unworthy I.M. I have the honor to congratulate you on your holy fast; May the Lord grant you, through this soul-saving, joyful celebration of the Nativity of Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t miss you for describing your life and explaining your grief without blaming anyone, but your dispensation; and I’ll tell you this: it’s clear that it needs to be this way for your spiritual benefit; live your life in contentment, honor, glory - God grant that you may live many more years - but you also need to appear to the future and give an account not only of deeds, but also of words and thoughts; then the Lord, loving you, gave you freedom from economic and worldly worries, so that you could more conveniently reflect on your life and ask God for forgiveness of sins, voluntary and involuntary; We sin a lot and do not recognize it. And that you feel boredom and so on, it can be natural: after spending so many years in studies and in vanities, and now you are inactive; That’s why it gets boring; And besides, the enemy, who hates good, comes with his own imaginary reasons and tries to disturb your peaceful stay. We must be forced to self-reproach and humility and thank God for His great mercies to us throughout our lives, ask for help, so that the cunning of the enemy may be overthrown and a peaceful dispensation given to you. And as long as you feel the burden of this burden, accept this and that as a medicine that heals mental ailments and can present you purely to our heroic Master Christ; just beware of murmuring and cowardice, for through them the same sorrows become more severe. May the Lord strengthen you and give you spiritual consolation - I earnestly wish and pray to the Lord. Lord save us, for the care of our widows and orphans, the Lord said: whatever you do for one of these least of my brothers, you do for me (Matthew 25:40). He takes it upon Himself. And again the Scripture calls: whoever gives to the poor gives back to God (Prov. 19:17). Asking for you and your family the peace and blessing of God, I remain with my respect, your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 16, 1846. Having in mind the approaching day of your Angel, we wholeheartedly congratulate you on it and wish you to celebrate it in health, prosperity and spiritual consolation for many years to come. Your most venerable writing, sent on the 7th, we received; from which we see that you completely admit that God has arranged for you a carefree life for your benefit; but you see yourself that you are not living as you should. How do you want to ascend to the highest degree of perfection so quickly? But the very fact that you see yourself defeated, and in some cases upset, should show you the way to the knowledge of your weakness and humility. When you were busy doing housework, you couldn’t notice your mental infirmities as much; and now they are revealed to you more clearly. Looking at the height of God’s commandments, which even extend to loving our enemies, how can we not humble ourselves when sometimes we do not bear even an unpleasant word or look? When we humble ourselves, we find that we are not worthy of that; and we must believe that all cases that happen against our will happen according to the will of God, to our advantage; so that we, seeing our constant weaknesses, bring repentance to the Lord. But if everyone did what they should, and were carried away by the opinion that they had already achieved the perfection of virtues, then this would bring you more harm. When practicing virtue, humility is also necessary, according to God’s commandment: even if you do everything that is commanded, say, for we are servants without keys; But since we have not yet acquired this treasure - humility, then through our weaknesses the Lord teaches us humility. You ask us to pray for your son, so that the Lord will help him pass the exam in the sciences, which will begin on February 13 and will last two weeks. We fulfill your commandment, we pray to the Lord: may he give him everything useful to carry on here and to acquire a future blessed life. We believe that you wish the same for him and pray to God for this. What is most necessary for us is that we have right faith and true reason, and strive to fulfill the commandments of God. With such a dispensation, science will not interfere, but it will even more contribute to piety, but otherwise, what could happen?... I’ll keep silent. Asking for you and your entire family the peace and blessing of God, we remain with respect, your unworthy pilgrims, the much-sinful I.M. and N.N. February 22, 1847. I have the honor to congratulate you on seeing off St. Pentecost, Happy St. fasting; By varying food and abstinence, the body and soul are renewed. The Holy Fathers, moved by the Holy Spirit, established fasts for both our mental and physical benefit. If, without change, we all consumed the same food, lean and fat, then it could become boring, and the anticipation of the holiday does not bring such joy to those who do not fast as to those who prepare themselves by fasting - but not just physically, but also spiritually. By abstaining from food, we must also abstain from passions. You ask me: is it possible to eat fish on Wednesday and Friday, when the holy polyeleos occurs? We must obey the church charter, which states that we should eat fish on Wednesdays and Fridays on saints’ days, which is the vigil, even during fasts, except for Great Lent; You can even eat fish on those days - Wednesdays and Fridays - when there are royal vigils: on birthdays and namesakes of persons of the royal family. And in simple polyeleos, when there is no vigil, fish are not allowed. During the fasts of Petrov and Filippov, until the 20th of December, fish is eaten in simple polyeleia on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and, with leniency, on Mondays. Here I wrote to you as much as I could; And if you are perplexed, then as you go through life in simplicity of heart, the Lord is able to instruct you and admonish you for the peace of your conscience. I thank you most earnestly for sending me the book; the sermons of the priest Father Xenophon Deliktorsky received yesterday, and Fr. And he began to read and praise very much, and then I will read it too. You, I think, have heard, and perhaps even knew, Archimandrite Macarius, who was a missionary in Siberia, and then in Bolkhov, in a monastery, he was rector; On this May 18th, he died, and was on his way to go to old Jerusalem, but instead he moved, hopefully, to the heavenly Jerusalem. Wishing you and your entire family peace, health and prosperity, and with respect I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. May 20, 1847. God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the sorrows of those who have found us great (Ps. 45:2). These words of St. May the prophet David be your strength and comfort in your sorrow. Run to God, pour out your hearts to Him and receive help and consolation. We, heartily compassionate for you, and grieving together with you about the misfortune that happened to you, cannot help or console you in any way, except that we advise you to surrender to the will of God and seek mercy, help and consolation from Him. Believe firmly that this happened not just by blind chance, but by God’s permission, according to destinies unknown to us, or as punishment for sins, or as a test of faith. And in all cases it came from His love for you; for: He, who loves him, punishes, beats every son whom he accepts, and: if you endure punishment, as God is found to you as a son; If you are without punishment, then you are an adulteress and not a son (Heb. 12:6–8); These words are not ours, but St. Apostle Paul, from whom you see that you are also children of God; just be patient, don’t be faint-hearted and thank God, then everything will work out for the better. See here the judgment of God: you forgave a person without punishment, but the judgment of God befell him; by remaining, he could still have caused more evil, and now he is an example for others to avoid evil. Having exiled him, you could have been troubled in your conscience and been reproached by others, but now this is not the case. Entrusting you to the protection of God and desiring consolation in your sorrow, we remain your unworthy pilgrims: the many-sinner Hieroschemamonk L. and the many-sinner I.M. September 19, 1840. You complain about your busyness and great troubles; Is it possible to do without them? when they are not there, is there less anxiety? but they are necessary in our physical life; for idleness is the mother of boredom and many vices. However, with all external activities, you must devote a part to the soul, caring about it, offering a sacrifice of praise to God, and seeking His help in your affairs. Father Father L is still in the same position, in appearance it seems to be better, but inside what is happening, he himself only knows; - and God knows how long to extend his life, which is necessary and useful for everyone. I told your elder that I know; but there is a big difference between instructing and executing; We know what needs to be done, but how often we deviate into the opposite, forgetting the fear of God. You also need to bear their burden as best you can - fulfill the law of Christ. Entrusting you to the protection of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. September 29, 1841. Thank you for writing and for sending bread; may the Lord reward you a hundredfold and not only with temporary and perishable, but also with eternal blessings; and he will make you wise to walk the path of your life without stumbling, in accordance with the commandments of God; and let not the world carry you away with its flattering hopes; have the strength not to be ashamed of the world for fulfilling the commandments of God, which very often happens; Have peace, love, harmony among yourself, and bear each other’s burdens with humility. Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. December 30, 1841. I wish both of you to be calm in spirit and that God will help you in the household and in the construction. And may the Lord protect your hearts from all the lies of the enemy; and when they touch you mentally, remember the presence and omniscience of God everywhere, and thereby turn them away from yourself, and by calling on God for help, may He crush the power of the enemy and grant you peace; not only for deeds and words, but also for thoughts, when we do not repent of them, we will give an answer to God. Entrusting you to the protection of God, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. May 4, 1842. I sincerely regret the misfortune that happened to you. Receive this visit from God with indifference and be sure that He will even better help you improve. Perhaps your grumbling was the reason for this punishment, but in the future, try to be more generous in your daily meetings at home. I am sending you the icon of the Mother of God “visiting those suffering from troubles” for your housewarming and for consolation in your sorrow; May the Queen of Heaven comfort you with Her Divine protection and intercession. I wish that the Lord would grant you, in your grief, consolation, and help you get settled and start a home life, and while asking for God’s blessing on you, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I.M. September 7, 1842. The death of your mother should not strike you with great sorrow; especially since this was already expected; and she herself wanted to quickly be freed from the bonds of the flesh; and go into eternity. Her life, due to her illness, was suffering for her, but she has now passed into eternal rest; I believe this because she is an Orthodox Christian, and in faith and hope she departed from this life. You should consider yourself lucky that during the last part of her life she calmed down in your home, and in your arms she gave up her soul to God. Father Superior and I wrote down her name for commemoration at services and during the reading of the psalter, may the Lord rest her soul in the kingdom of heaven! May the Lord comfort you both in this sorrow, I earnestly wish you, much-sinful I.M. September 28, 1848. Most Honorable O Lord N N 14 I believe that you are sad, having arrived home, not to find your sister, with whom you lived for so long, shared both joy and sorrow, and did not find someone who grieves and sympathizes with your grief. But your wound is still so fresh and hot that you cannot soon forget and be insensitive. In time, God will send you consolation, but now dissolve your sorrow with the hope that it will find God’s mercy. Pray for her and have this consolation. In anticipation of your arrival, I remain a wisher for your health and salvation, much-sinful I.M. February 20, 1854. Thank you for sending us to visit us and informing us about your health. Thank God that you are at peace with everyone except one; but you need to pacify yourself in this too; We are all people, and no one can boast of being without weakness; And to this end, the enemy tries to disturb the abyss of the heart with insignificant things and darken the eyes of the soul, so as not to see the sun of truth, Christ, in our innermost neighbor. He spoke with His most pure lips: If ye have done unto one thing, my least brethren, ye have done unto me (Matthew 25:45); and this applies to both our good and bad disposition towards our neighbor and our treatment of him; He takes both upon Himself; and according to this, either reward or punishment will follow, either here or there - in eternity. His word is still powerful: if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you do not forgive the sins of man, My heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins (Matthew 6:14). The indispensable commandment is also about loving enemies; but how far we are from fulfilling it and only, we can only at least partially approach this when we reproach ourselves, remembering our sins. My health is normal, I drag around and become weak; I recently became addicted to porridge and thank God for everything: bodily illnesses cleanse the soul. Asking for God's blessing on you, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation, much sinner I.M. July 17, 1855. Most Venerable of the Lord N N 15 Regarding my letter to you about the unknown situation of your residence, you describe it, and number your entire family; and in the second letter you also mention your spiritual pursuits; From all this I perceive that you are seeking the salvation of your soul. You would like to leave the world for this, but, due to your responsibility to take care of the children and the household, you cannot do this. In your first letter, as far as I can remember, you wrote that you have the love of God; and in the last one you write that you sometimes feel joy, and sometimes sadness and embarrassment. I will tell you this: all Orthodox Christians are obliged to live according to the commandments of Christ, and we cannot justify ourselves in any way before God for not fulfilling them, except through His predestined merits and true consciousness and repentance for our crimes. You need to know that Christian life is a spiritual war, as the Holy Apostle Paul writes. Our struggle is against flesh and blood, and so on (Eph. 6:12), and the holy Apostle Peter writes: our adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). The all-evil enemy tries by all means to rebel against Christians, seducing them with the vanity of the world, and worldly pride, and carnal lust. He is even more armed against those who want to bring themselves closer to God. He fights them with his gums and neck; if he cannot entice him into a vicious life, then with his opinion about his virtues he leads them into arrogance, and by seducing him, he darkens their minds and takes them away from God so that the vicious one, having turned from his vices, can be reconciled to God by repentance rather than he who is seduced by his holiness; That’s why I warned you not to doubt that you have the love of God; it is the height of perfection, then how can we dare to dream of acquiring it? Although you sometimes feel comforting feelings and tears, you should not rely on them, and do not count them as great; but it is better to humble yourself, considering yourself unworthy of having such gifts. The higher the holy fathers were in life, the more they humbled and humbled themselves; and humility attracted God’s grace and gifts to them even more. Humility is one invincible weapon against all the machinations of the enemy, but achieving it is not without difficulty, and even more so incomprehensible to those living in the world. Although you reproach yourself with words, you cannot give them faith when you have not acquired true humility of heart. I see that you are reading the books of holy teachers; but scripture is a forest in which, without a skillful guide, you can get lost and be in danger; that many suffered due to their arrogance: whoever sets out to live a high life, and seeks spiritual visions and pleasures, is met with the wrath of God, because, having not first healed the passionate part of the soul “by enduring the vexation of the cross, he dreamed in his mind the glory of the cross” (Isa. Syrian f. 2, p. 13.); writes the same St. Isaac the Syrian: “Before you have even entered the city of humility, lest you believe that you have rested from passions; The one who resists is preparing some kind of plant for you, but if you rest, you will have many colds” (Sk. 74, p. 411.). When you read these holy books, do not take up high living or mental prayer, but cling more to the life-giving commandments of Christ, and in vain their height and your unworthiness, immerse your thought in the depths of humility, which the Lord will look upon: in chapter 43 of the monks Callistus and Ignatius (in the Philokalia) read that humility forgives many sins in addition to deeds, but deeds, on the contrary, forgive humility is useless. Your comforting feelings are very dangerous; they can seduce you and completely darken your mind. Even though they were definitely from grace, one should not get carried away by them; By accepting humility to help us, considering ourselves unworthy of it, grace sometimes visiting us, lets us know what wealth is hidden in it; and leaves (hides), but remains with us forever; But if we want it, we must strive to cleanse ourselves from passions, and in the presence of these, let us not dare to dream of acquiring it. I have already told you that the enemy fights us with his gums and elevates the mind in its opinion of itself; and according to St. John Climacus, among other vices, pride alone is capable of destroying a person; You read from them - Callista and Ignatius - in chapters 14 and 15 how instruction is needed, and how dangerous arrogance is, and about the properties of obedience; and so, as long as there is a need for you to live in the world, for the sake of building up your children, live; care most of all about fulfilling the commandments of Christ; to know them, read the Holy Gospel and the Apostolic Acts and Epistles, as well as the teachings of the holy fathers about the passions and virtues that teach us; As you walk the path of life, recognize your weakness, humble yourself and bring repentance to the Lord for not correcting yourself; Do not at all place your hope in your own works, but in the mercy of God. Fulfill the prayer rule to the best of your ability, and if possible, with the feeling of a publican rather than a Pharisee. St. Isaac writes: “Whoever does not imagine himself to be a sinner, his prayer is not acceptable before God” (Sk. 55, p. 289). Do not undertake high work and great rule; the same St. Isaac teaches that: “there is no price for doing things in moderation.” But keep your conscience. Don’t look for reward here in consolation, leave it to the will of God: He knows when to give. For now, this is enough for you, and if the Lord calls you to follow in His footsteps and move into the holy monastery, then the path of life will be revealed to you by practice, and not by theory. When preparing your children for secular life, have you taken care to instill in their hearts faith and the fear of God, which would be their guides to the future life? Pray to the Lord that He will preserve their hearts from the tares sown by the adversary in the midst of the wheat. I ask for God's blessing on you and them. I.M. In your letters you certify to me that you are writing unfeignedly before me the whole truth, and ask me to instruct you in what order to adhere to in your life? In my last letter to you dated December 10, it seems that I quite clearly described the path of Christian life and the fight against the enemy against those who want to bring themselves closer to God; I can’t offer you anything more and clearer. Adhere to this order with humility and trust in the goodness of God; He is strong, according to your good will, and through his destinies he will arrange your salvation. I have no doubt that you would hide something from me, or would like to be a hypocrite; but I notice that you do not understand yourself and contradict yourself. You write that from your letters I conclude that you are highly intelligent and immediately justify yourself. “Oh, really no, Master.... calling me npocmaya.... and say that this consoles you a lot.” What consoles you? praise? food of your pride? However, you think that it is not in you. Again you write: “Loving God, loving my neighbor is my bliss! I cannot hate my very enemies, but I grieve that they act this way, I will not give an answer to God, so that anyone will pay for evil with evil.” Based on these qualities, one could conclude that you have risen to the pinnacle of perfection; but I assure you that this is only in words, and you falsely deceive yourself with these virtues you have acquired, not realizing that this is proven from the results of your letters; further say that you are guilty of all sins, as the weak creation of God and especially two passions confuse you: the love of money and the domestic enemy, but only pride overwhelms you less than others; How can we agree on the meaning of your letters? It is known that pride is to blame for all our misery and aversion from God; but on the contrary, bliss and approaching God is humility; then all our vices come from it, as from an evil root, evil branches are the fruits of pride. But it nests so secretly in the heart that the one who has it cannot penetrate and understand it unless God sends some kind of reproof through temptation; read in the Philokalia of St. Peter of Damascus in the 2nd book, at the end of 24 words, about an old man whom everyone considered a saint, but at his death, one godly old man hears a voice to an unmerciful Angel standing with him with a trident, so that he would not rest his soul, since he had not rested the Lord for even one hour. You will see that pride was hidden not only from others, but also from himself. St. John Climacus in the 23rd degree writes about pride that one elder admonished his spiritual son not to be proud; to which he replied: “Forgive me, father, I have no pride.” - “And how else can you prove it, if not with these words, that you have no pride?” The elder answered him. You can understand where these words are heading. I will also offer you a word about love. Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us what the love of God consists of: you love Me and keep My commandments (John 14:21). Therefore, when we transgress the commandments of God, then the love of God is no longer in us; The holy Apostle Paul declared the properties of love in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, in the 13th chapter, 4th verse: it is patient with love, it is merciful, it does not envy love, it does not become proud, it is not arrogant, it does not act outrageously, it does not seek its own, it is not irritated, it does not think evil, it does not rejoice in untruth, but rejoices in the truth: it loves everything, it has faith in everything, everything trusts, endures everything, love no longer disappears. You see what height lies in love! But it is also associated with deep humility, which strengthens it and makes it unfallen. It does not see anything, no matter what good love does, but everything only sees its own shortcomings, and not those of its neighbors. I don’t know if you now understand that you were deceived by seeing love and other good qualities in yourself that you described? St. Peter of Damascus writes that after seven physical works the mind begins to see its own sins like the sand of the sea; and this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health, and in short: “there is a contrite soul and a humble heart and the least of all considers itself truly.” But you, although you mention your sins, do not do so in the manner explained here (According to the 1840 edition, p. 18). That same St. Read Peter of Damascus in the 2nd book, 9th word towards the end, about the virgin who came to the great elder and told her corrections: fasting and prayer; what fruits he sought from her and apply this to your own dispensation. I’ll also tell you that God’s love is tempted by those who are against it, otherwise we only dream of correcting it. By God's permission the blind man brought temptation to you, stabbed the arrow of love of money into your heart; it confuses you, does not give you peace, under the blessed wines to pay off the debt, to live with children is useless. Where is your faith and hope with which you imagine strengthening yourself? and there’s nothing left to say about love! When we believe that God’s providence controls us, then we must submit to Him and accept the test of poverty itself, as if from the love of God, sent for spiritual benefit unknown to us. Through poverty it is more convenient to enter the kingdom of heaven, which is why the Lord said that: it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23). God, who is rich in mercy, could enrich everyone if it were useful; but He works differently according to all-wise and incomprehensible destinies, before which we must humbly revere and submit with thanksgiving. Give your children a good education regarding morality, and when they are worthy and it is useful for them, God is able to enrich them or give them what they need and are satisfied with. Resist this passion, try to pluck this arrow from your heart by trusting in God and submitting to His will; ask that the memory of hope for the promised treasure be erased from your heart; be content with the little things God has given you. I can neither approve nor blaspheme your prayers; I’ll just tell you that everything is pleasing to God that is done with humility. I have already written to you from St. Isaac, that there is no price for moderate work; and if one strives in vigil and prayer and thinks something about oneself, then what benefit is gained from it? You write that you do this to mortify the flesh, that is, to overcome its ferocity against you; then listen to this St. John Climacus from the 15th degree, from the face of the flesh to the soul, the answer: “if you recognize my extreme and your own weakness, then you will thereby tie my hands; if you stop gluttony, you will tie my feet, so that they will not be able to walk further; if you cleave to obedience, then you will free yourself; If you lack humility, you will cut off my head”; And here the great elder Apollos consoled his brother, who was struggling with carnal passion, with these words: “Do not despair because of the capital’s lust, which is not only healed by human diligence, but by God’s love for mankind” 16; but you need to know that this strong abuse is tolerated more for pride. What is St. Isaac the Syrian and many holy fathers teach us. For this natural desire in us cannot defeat our will without these excuses: pride, condemnation of others, gluttony and excessive peace; Do not mean secular pride, but spiritual, about which I wrote enough above that it can hide from the very person who has it. Frequent communion of the most pure mysteries of Christ would be very good and saving, if it were not coupled in you with the sympathies of murmuring and condemnation of others for the love of money; you see the bitch in others, but don’t notice the log in yourself; The first thing is that you also have a desire for it; and secondly: your ambition, when you do not pay, or pay little, they will reproach you: what need do you have for this? This is one message that cannot be approved; therefore, it is better to begin once or twice, but without grumbling, than often with grumbling and condemnation of others. Again, this is not your business to argue that many are deprived of the sacraments through shortcomings, and others through lack of understanding. Who gave you this power? In the first centuries of Christianity, everyone began to partake of the sacraments at every service of the liturgy, but after that the Church decreed that it was mandatory for free people to begin communion of the sacraments four times a year, and for those busy with work at least once; the first is performed very rarely; and even the latter do not do everything, is this really the reason for poverty? Not at all! but attachment to the world and its things and cooling in faith. Paying for confession is not at all the law, but even against that. The Greek preacher Ilya Minyatii strictly rebels against this; but payment for confession became a custom not at all on the part of the clergy, but more on the part of the penitents, as a sign of gratitude, and became as if necessary; but there are many who can do without it: your judgment on this score is unfair. According to the commandment of the church and the apostolic testament, you must respect priests, as ministers of the altar and the sacraments of God; for without them it is impossible to be saved and, according to your strength, give to them as much as you can, for their needs, for those who serve altar share with altar (1 Cor. 9:13); but during confession you can give or leave your gratitude. It’s not your job to judge them for their mistakes; The sheep does not judge the shepherd, no matter what he is. To judge a priest is to judge Christ Himself; Beware of this as much as possible! I wrote to you quite a bit in response to your letters; I just don’t know if you will like my instructions; for it was all against you, and did not agree in the least with your opinions; and you have received favorable greetings from great men and holy elders; but I was found alone, due to my rudeness, to be completely disgusting; however, this happens from the desire for your salvation, entering into the details of your spiritual structure. To your like-minded interlocutors... and.... I wish you to follow the path of God’s commandments, without deviating one hand or another. May the Lord guide them on this and strengthen them in the struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil, and give them true reason. I wish that the Lord would send His blessing on your children and comfort you with their well-behaved way and life. Entrusting you to the protection of God and asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain unworthy of your pilgrim I.M. Most Honorable of the Lord N N 17 You write to me that your circumstances forced you to offer... to buy your village from you, so as not to sell it into the wrong hands. She does not agree to begin this without my advice, and does not dare ask about this, according to my prohibition on this subject; that’s why you ask for my advice, when I find it necessary to buy her this property, then allow it. If I find it unhelpful, then ask me to tell you my opinion. The trust and condolences that you and ...... give me regarding your situation compels me not to leave your demand unanswered. However, you know how ignorant I am of such developments in secular affairs, and undiscerning in the future, what benefit may come from it for you; why I can’t give definitive advice on either one or the other. But here's my opinion: what benefit will you get from making it belong to her on paper? The property is all yours in common. But we must be wary that this division would not yet occur in your marital and friendly consent. When you do not rely on your orders, but think: she can do it better, then you can entrust her with her complete management, considering the village as if it were sold anyway. Even if she had this amount in cash, how much would it cost...., and suddenly pay it; but she does not have it, and must try to pay everything out of her income, and income is not always reliable; Meanwhile, how much should be used to complete the deed of sale? It seems that not hundreds, but thousands will be required, and all this is an addition to the debt. Instead, it can serve as payment for it: here is my opinion; To this I will add the Russian proverb “and where there is harmony, there is treasure,” something you definitely need to take care of. In your letter you present the reasons for your unpeace, which consist in reproaches of your neighbor, and this is contrary to the spirit of a Christian, and this itself does not inform the other side to have a peaceful disposition; I don’t attribute this to you alone, but I don’t justify it either, and on occasion I don’t shy away from making my comments to her on this matter. I wish you to be healthy, peaceful and prosperous, and may the Lord help you to arrange your affairs in better order for your overall peace of mind, and entrusting you to the protection of God, with my respect I remain your pilgrim I.M. After my answer to you, you again honor me with your writing, in which, expressing your intention to take office, you ask for my blessing. To this I will tell you: in order to begin this, you must call on our omnipotent God for help, surrendering to His holy will, and when it is for this, He will send His blessing and help to you, and you, of course, try to justify this choice by caring for the benefit of your neighbors, with which ours is also associated. You write that you offered...... to take over your property and affairs at her disposal, and that she is dissuading herself from this, the reason for which, you note, is her pride; however, you hope that she will agree. For my part, I made you this offer, but its implementation does not depend on me. By the way, I must note to you that, seeing from your letter, the disagreement between you, about which I sincerely sympathize, the cessation of which is doubtful, given your mutual accusations of each other; you feel right, blame her; From your letter I see that she is in the same position. You reproach her for her pride; if you didn’t have it, you wouldn’t see it in her, but you would see your own shortcomings more. And according to the spirit of Christianity, they were forced to endure, and she was also obliged to fulfill it; then how you both shied away from the real goal - to bear each other’s burdens, and to reproach yourself, and not your neighbor - and because of this, every word of yours and hers seems to you like arrows to each other, because that is the enemy’s intrigue, creating enmity between you. Delve into the Christian law, whether husband and wife should not be one flesh; Moreover, the estate should be common, but you have division, but for what? For the words! And so as long as there is disagreement in spirit among you, and there is no peace, can the arrangement of your affairs be secure? Regarding the benefits of leaving it behind you..... both of you should be aware of this; why I can’t tell you anything, and leave it to your will and consideration; I don’t write anything about this, you can show her this letter whenever you want. I wish you peace, health and prosperity; With my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim I.M. In your father’s letter you express a desire to know something from me for the benefit of your soul; although I do not dare to boast of correction and rely on my mind and deeds, but trusting in the goodness of God, which can enlighten my feeble-mindedness for your benefit, according to your faith, I suggest to you that for us, seeking salvation, in fulfilling God’s commandments, the most necessary thing is humility, which attracts God’s grace to us and sanctifies all our actions, and without it no feats and labors can bring us the much-desired peace that the most merciful Creator gave us, saying to the Apostles: My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you (John 14:27), and in everything bring thanksgiving to God, and even more so, remembering His great benefits and mercies towards you. The Christian duty is to have compassion for one’s neighbors in their sorrows; then I, too, take part in your unfortunate situation, which, having described to me in detail with some of the most important incidents of your life, do you ask for my advice on leaving, or not, to foreign lands? And although I am not a seer, and not a tester of the depths of human hearts, but by your faith, calling on the omnipotent God for help, I do not deny, having compassion for you, to offer you feeble-minded reasoning and advice. You yourself clearly described the reason for your misadventures. First: the upbringing, although it was pious, received information about piety in theory, that is, about loving God and your neighbor, but did not go through it in practice. Second: at a young age you had no temptations and tribulations through which you could have learned practical piety, but instead the world deceived you with flattering praises; you are intoxicated with dreamy opinions about your good qualities; and when all other passions had not yet approached you, only pride and conceit acted on you, which were and are the beginning and source of our disasters. God resists the proud, and allows them to be humbled by punishment and the torment of passions; your abandonment of your first spouse revealed in you the first action of criminal passion, although contrary to pride, but allowed through it; after that the chain of punishments was fastened around you; the torment of conscience, this righteous and inexorable judge, deprived you of peace for a long time, and throughout your life various, albeit minor, incidents that happened against your will caused you trouble; and you, wanting to maintain your will, were not indifferent. This not only did not facilitate or soften morality; but it even led to a worse situation. Finally, your jealousy and suspicions completely destroyed your mental powers, which, although they returned, other family troubles followed; nevertheless, this resulted in the fact that, as can be seen from your letter, you became a burden to your husband. He sends you to foreign lands: as if the word of God is being fulfilled on you: measure with the least measure, it will be measured back to you (Matthew 7:2). However, do not think that you have been abandoned by God, having such sorrows! No. He, who loves him, punishes him, and beats his son, he also accepts him (Heb. 12:6), only you accept the will of God with submission, and with gratitude and complacency, deeming yourself worthy of being such and great, sorrows, and do not blame others who inflict them on you; for they are the instruments of God, working in the work of your correction and salvation. When you are in temptation, you see yourself, how far you are from the love of God and your neighbor; of which the first consists in fulfilling His holy commandments, and the second connection with them consists only in loving our neighbors, but even our very enemies; Transgressing even this one commandment, you are far from love for God. But God loves you, and out of love visits you with sorrows, punishing you for your sins here, so that in the next century he can free you from them; also tempting faith and correcting morality. The more our faith and love are tempted (tested) by the impatience of sorrows, and by informing ourselves that they are sent to us by the will of God, and how much more will we see our bad morality, if not by all that happens to us against our desire? From this, let us try to correct ourselves, calling on Almighty God for help, and recognizing our weakness. When you blame yourself in these cases, you will receive relief from your sorrows, because God looks upon humility and sends help, and if you blame others, then your sorrows will be even more painful for you. With intelligence, follow the best. Your trip to foreign lands, for what purpose should it be? I don't know. Is it to cure an illness, to receive an inheritance, or for some other reason? But in any case, I find it unnecessary and useless. And from the last conversation of your brother-in-law, I even see their conditional desire to stay at home for you, with a change in character; In this I also find a necessary need, as I explained in detail above and presented a means for correction. I advise you to agree with them and better stay at home, humble yourself. There you will be exposed to even greater temptations and dangers in fulfilling the religious duties of the true Orthodox Church, to which you are called by the grace of God. You won’t get peace of mind, even if you managed to get an inheritance there, but this is doubtful. If you do not hope, by living with them, to receive correction and peace of mind for yourself; then instead of going to the monastery, live with them, without going into anything, or in a special outbuilding, or perhaps in another village. Consign your children to the will of God, but all of you will not be completely separated from them. That the Lord accepts everyone, especially the most sinful, as you put it, there is no doubt about that; Only this truth must be given a direct meaning: the Lord calls everyone and accepts sinners who repent, and those who do not repent voluntarily withdraw from Him. You ask me for spiritual and physical consolation, advice and guidance, you believe that I know your sins, and for these visits from God. You attribute too much to my thinness; on the contrary, I don’t know anything about you, and I’m surprised why you assume this about me; Having the honor to know about you for the first time, only from your letter, and then very briefly, neither about your title, nor about your way of life, nor about your duties and connections, without having any idea, how can I know and judge sensibly? I by no means have the gift of clairvoyance, and I consider myself unworthy of it. As much as I can understand from your letter, that you are going through a stormy and difficult life, you admit that you have sins, and for these there is a visit from God, punishing you; I understand that this consists of some kind of sorrow, in which you are looking for relief and consolation from me. Concluding from all this that you belong to the number of educated and enlightened people of this age, but I am not taught the wisdom of this world, I don’t know if I can give you any advice according to your position? But, seeing that you are with faith seeking consolation from my badness, I have placed my trust in God, who is able to give a word for your edification for your benefit, I do not dare refuse you your request for an answer. With your sciences and education, you truly hoped through them to find happiness and prosperity in your life, and you looked for them in secular decency, pleasures and amusements; but I don’t know if you imagined the possible temptations and sorrows in life, which, it seems, no mortal avoids? and where to look for strength and consolation in them? Our holy faith teaches us how much sorrow we need in order to gain a future blissful eternity. It also gives us consolation; I have no doubt that in your life you have experienced various kinds of amusements, pleasures that people consider to be well-being; but are they durable? The past is like a dream; it's about the present; the future is unknown! You now grieve, and accept your sorrows with the visitation of God for your sins, this is a Christian feeling; and you can find relief and consolation in this, that is, in the consciousness of yourself being guilty before God - repentance, regret, removal from sins and in submission to His will to accept punishment for your eternal benefit. Do not weaken, but increase your faith, and be comforted by the hope of God’s mercy! By faith seek strength in the word of God; it is food for the soul, and a healing balm for our spiritual ulcers, a sweet consolation in sorrow; it teaches us that: the Lord punishes him who loves him, but beats every son whom he accepts (Heb. 12:6). The Word of God says that the long way and the wide gate lead to destruction, the woeful way and the narrow gate into the eternal belly, and again: “Woe to you who are full, for you hunger, woe to you who laugh, for you mourn,” but on the contrary, it pleases those who are poor in spirit, weep, whom they revile, and cast out without righteousness (Luke. 6:20–26); Then, with the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus, he shows that local pleasure and prosperity deprive us of future blessings, and sorrows and suffering, like Lazarus, acquire these (goods), and also what through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God. You see that you are not abandoned by God, but, out of His love, you are punished; and if you were on a long path, then He involuntarily leads you to the regrettable one that leads to eternal life. Accept this with faith and hope, and bring thanks to the Lord for His ineffable mercy towards you; from which you will receive relief and consolation in bearing your sorrows; and if the will of the Lord is done, then there will be complete liberation from them. With my zealous desire that these lines serve you with spiritual benefit and consolation, and with my respect, I remain forever thirsting for your salvation, the unworthy pilgrim I.M. Not knowing me, you seek consolation from me in your sorrows; but I, not knowing you, but only from your letter in a short sketch, I see your situation and cannot write to you in detail that could strengthen and console you, both due to the weakness of my health and feeble-mindedness, as well as due to ignorance of the subtleties of your position and structure. But the God of peace and all joy is able to grant them when you seek from Him, considering and blaming yourself, and not others; however, in the hope of His help and admonition, and in accordance with your faith, I do not refuse to write these lines to you. I don’t know whether you are obliged to marry or not, and from which of your neighbors you are insulted; I just see that you are unloved, and the indifference of those people whom you love as family is terrible for you. That's all I have to give you my word of consolation. As far as I can see, you are guided by the spirit of the world, and want to have consolation from it; But do not look for this in our holy faith and in the word of God, which are a comforting balm in all sorrow, distress and illness. They strengthen us to endure all kinds of sorrows, sorrows, humiliation, reproaches, poverty and other hardships of this life. We see and undoubtedly believe that the providence of God, caring for every creature, and at the same time for us, arranges it to be this way for our spiritual benefit, leading us away from something unprofitable, or tempting our faith, while punishing others for their sins, and with submission to His will we bear the burden imposed on us by His justice. People who cause us sorrow should be revered as the instrument with which God acts in the matter of our salvation and pray for them. You cannot find consolation for yourself by any other means, and even more so when you demand from people to love you, but looking through the veil of pride, do not blame yourself; if you, according to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, resorted to the virtue of humility, it would calm you down. He commanded this: learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). You write that you were raised by strangers, and in your youth you did not understand and did not think that you would ever grieve: everything filled you with joy, everything occupied you. I don't know what you studied? probably secular sciences and worldly decency, and believed in secular pleasures and amusements to find prosperity in their life, but whether they cared about the future life - I don’t see. But what does our faith and God’s law teach us? The words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: the wide way and the wide gate lead to destruction, but the sorrowful way and the strait gate lead to eternal life (Matthew 7:13, 14). And again: woe to you who are full, for you will hunger, woe to you who laugh, as you will weep (Luke 6:25), but on the contrary, he pleases those who are poor in spirit here, weeping, whom they revile and expel without truth, then with the parable of the rich and poor Lazarus he showed that the pleasure and prosperity here deprives of future blessings; and suffering like Lazarus acquires them, and the holy Apostles teach that through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). Therefore, seeing yourself in sorrows, believe that you have not been abandoned by God. But more than that, He, loving you, visits you with them in order to save your soul. Through all this, try to have hope in God, which, coupled with faith here, will strengthen and comfort you, and in the future life you will be rewarded with eternal blessings bestowed by the mercy of God. In your letter dated January 11, you describe the state of your circumstances, and ask me to be an intermediary between your parents and you, and to give advice in your affairs. You do me a lot of honor by entrusting me with such importance that surpasses my strength, exhausted by old age and illness; but looking at your faith and zeal for my evil, I do not refuse to tell you my opinion, according to the strength of my concept. You recognize yourself guilty before your parents in the past tense, in which you were carried away by the blindness of passions into misdeeds, but even now you cannot call yourself constant; Several years will pass, you will have a sound mind, and during this time you will also begin to repent; It seems to you that your parents do not forgive you, but I see that they love you, but you do not know how to appreciate their love and care for you; Because of your youth, they want to distract you from things that harm you. This is why your mother worries, worries, works to pay her debts and take care of her estate; Is this necessary for her? Not at all! a for you. You are a son, according to all the rules you must obey your parents, but you want to live away from them, of your own free will, which is our first enemy; and their life seems to you in a black form, and everything tends towards this in order to distance you from them: where is your filial love? And this can serve for your whole life, and you yourself will also receive retribution from your children. Regarding your marriage, I cannot give approval to either theirs or yours: theirs, because there is no need to use compulsion, and you, because you want to marry out of passion; there will be absolutely no use here, I know this quite well from many games. As for continuing your service, they will certainly not force you to leave it when they see it as useful for you. Having presented to you my opinions, which, if you wish, you can accept with advice; Can my mediation be useful to you? for my thoughts do not agree with you in many respects. Most Honorable Lord N N Having received your letter about the death of your parent..., I repaid the debt with condolences, mine, by human nature, and brought a prayer to the Lord God for the repose of his soul in the kingdom of heaven. You write about your grief that you have lost your parental protection and instructions, which you can no longer hear until your death. I am sure that your grief is great, and you, like a father-loving son, should feel it, but you should also know that we are not here forever, and that it is necessary, at the end of the time appointed for each of us on the lands of this wandering, to move into the future and appear before the righteous judge of all, God, and give an account of our deeds. By the will of our almighty Lord, he ended the course of his days, left you a good memory and heritage, his Christian instructions given to you should now be even more memorable and sacred for you, and you, of course, remembering them, will try, with the help of God, to urgently fulfill them and thereby give yourself some consolation. In your letter you ask for guidance from me; I cannot ignore your request, and I will tell you what can serve as eternal benefit for the soul of your parent and for you. He left you a good fortune: do not regret giving part of it for the redemption of his soul; for he, as a man, may have sinned in some way before God; and Holy Scripture says: the deliverance of a soul is wealth to him (Prov. 13:8) and again: sins are cleansed by alms (Prov. 15:27); and again: “through the alms and generosity of the poor, the Lord will be merciful,” of which we see many examples in the stories and lives of saints, that alms, even given after death for the deceased, appease God and provide forgiveness of sins; Most of all, it is important to do this for forty days, and to make offerings during a bloodless sacrifice. Strive, too, to help your parent through charity to the poor, and not only to those who ask, but who do not ask, but are in need of help, and moreover, do the possible indulgence to his debtors, and many of whom have a great need to support themselves and their families. By doing this you will force each of them to shed a tear of gratitude and offer a prayer for his soul; But do not deprive yourself, but rather you will gain a lot of spiritual and physical good, for the Lord is merciful and generous, and looks upon all our deeds. I accept participation in your grief and heartily sympathize with you, knowing your desire to be in the monastery and seek the salvation of your soul, but having encountered obstacles from the owner and your parent. In this case, I advise you not to be cowardly, but to be confirmed in faith, placing your trust in the providence of God, which is incomprehensible to us; you must be firmly convinced that without His beck, assistance or permission, nothing happens; on your part, it seems, and by good will, a step has been taken along the path leading to salvation, but the undertaking does not always happen in accordance with the will of God; apparently it is good, but, apparently, in the plan of God’s vision it has no significant benefit, or the time has not come, or your good undertaking requires testing to see whether it will definitely appear. St. Isaac writes in the 33rd word, “Heaven, every good desire from God flows into the heart, but it is beneficial when a person desires good, and God does not help him,” etc. read it yourself to this: “with ... a net in His mind.” Therefore, we must pray to the Lord that our choice may be according to His will and that He will help us to fulfill it, for without Him we can do nothing. There are clear, blessed obstacles in your business: leaving your father without care, and being tied up in debt for your business; it is clear that there is still no will of God for your departure from the world until you have arranged and put these affairs in order as much as possible. Even though you could somehow escape from here, your conscience cannot be peaceful and calm here either. Pray to God, as I said above, and do what a Christian should, do not tie your heart to the world, then the Lord is able to bring it out, and your parent and master will be informed about you when you are worthy. I can’t tell you anything more, but handing you over to the protection of God (and His holy will), I remain unworthy of your pilgrim I.M. I received your venerable writing, issued on the 5th of September, in which you express your regret about the impossibility of fulfilling your intentions: to be in our monastery every fast, to strengthen yourself with spiritual food, the most holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. I approve of your zeal, and as a consolation I will tell you that the Lord, seeing your will for good, and for the blessed reason of being unable to fulfill it, will impute it to you; and even more so when you always have in your heart a humble pledge 18 from which the same thoughts, words and deeds occur, according to the word of God, and which can give you true peace of mind and tranquility. I thank you for your disposition towards me, and although I feel unworthy of it, I do not doubt your zeal and possible benefit, not through my badness, but through your faith, the acting grace of God and unworthy; Without faith, no benefit can be gained from a prophet. As for your dreams, which you described in your letter, I doubt them, and I do not consider them necessary for you, as if they strengthen your zeal for me; Through these apparently beneficial dreams, the enemy can present for seduction those from which you can suffer no small harm to your soul. I know such cases quite well from experience, and we see them in stories; our mind is still so weak and unpurified that it cannot distinguish truth from lies, and there are many mistakes that cause harm. True reasoning is given only to the humble, but about this treasure and St. John Climacus said that its qualities cannot be described in words; and you cannot think of yourself as acquiring the gift of humility. I personally told you a lot and now I also confirm: do not give faith to dreams, for your spiritual benefit. May the Lord help you to complete your church both outside and inside, and through it to decorate the verbal Church of God, both externally and internally. With a sad feeling I received the news of the unfortunate death of your son....., then I was informed about this by your letter. I sympathize with you in your grief, of course it is exemplary; to lose his son by such an unexpected and terrible death! But this is now irreversible, and we must seek consolation from God. He is able to give it to you. Also, about his future fate, unknown and incomprehensible to us, surrender to the will of God, as He pleases and judge; for it is not in our power to issue judgment about the future, when the Father no longer judges anyone, but gives all judgment to the Sons (John 5:22), then what is our judgment? One can say about his letter written to you that it is very sensitive, but also desperate. What unbearable shame could have met him? This is puzzling. Is it really the one who called him a monk? This is completely insignificant, but there was something else weighing on his heart. Ardent character and pride were the reason for this act. How disgusting this passion is to God, why one must resist it with all one’s might with God-pleasing humility; but unfortunately people care little about him, and they understand him little. I cannot completely give you consolation; seek it, as I said above from the Lord. When you indulge in useless sadness and lamentation, you will not help him, but will do great harm to yourself. Human life is full of sorrows, and we must enter the kingdom of heaven through many sorrows. Read the history of ancient centuries, you will find that great men and heroes, rulers of kingdoms and rulers of nations were not alien to the sorrows that the all-wise Providence of God sends to everyone, either by good will, or by permission, testing faith, or punishing for sins. Even primordial man saw in his children the fratricide of Cain and the death of the first Abel, which added to his first sorrow another inexpressible sorrow. I will pass the others in silence, I will only mention the pious and holy. King and Prophet David, what sorrows he bore through his children; read his story and imagine that you are no better than them, and, according to the destinies of God unknown to us, you fell under such temptation. If you endure it with humility, presenting your sins, then God will most likely send you consolation, but if you accept it with cowardice, then you will increase and burden your own sorrow. So, having handed over this case to the fate of God unknown to us and His merciful judgment, I wish you and your entire family peace, health and salvation, and consolation in sorrow. With my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. September 25, 1843. What kind of answer do you expect from me to your letter about .... an announcement to you to go to the monastery? If he agreed with your opinion and feeling, he would have sinned a lot, he would have been unjust and a God-fighter would have come to resist her title. I rejoiced incomparably more and thanked God for this concern for her than you were saddened. And you, as Christians, should also rejoice and thank God that He is so merciful to you: He deigns to accept your fruit into His service; That’s why He wants to honor her with this high honor, because you raised her Christianly. Which dignity is better: to be the bride of Christ and serve Him all the days of your life, or to be the wife of some worldly man, let’s say noble and rich, and to work for the world and its decency, which often forces you to be ashamed to do what the law of God commands? What I often heard from you, sister: “It’s impossible, brother, we live in peace.” Listen to John, who compiled the ladder of virtues that leads to heaven, the great among the fathers, John, what he writes: “If I call us to the king of the earth, and want us to fight before him, we do not in the least hesitate, and we do not deny this feat, but, having left everything, we hastily flow to him; then, let us take heed to ourselves, lest we disobey the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the God of gods, who calls us to this angelic rank, out of laziness and negligence, at that terrible judgment, which will find no response.” He also teaches: “Hurry to go to the monastery, or turn away from the world; do not wait for the peace-loving people to come with you, since the hour of death, like a thief, unexpectedly comes upon us. As soon as you feel a flame of piety within you, then run quickly, for you don’t know when it will go out and when it will leave you in darkness” (Verse 1). She does not have the will to resist you, but you will give an answer to God for her if you restrain her, and she will be deceived by the world and its vanity. You believe that marrying her will bring her happiness and provide consolation for yourself, but who assured you of this? Do you know the future? Don't you see many parties unhappy with their fate? And you definitely think she will be happy; but I dare to think on the contrary: those who promised to disgrace themselves to God and abandoned such an intention do not receive a happy fate; I found this out on many people. What will be your later repentance then, about depriving her of true good with imaginary hope? And you, sister, write that she should not rush, for she is your support and consolation. Strange thought! If a groom worth it, according to this world, were to marry her, would you put it off? He could have refused, seeing that he was being taken in: he certainly would not have missed the opportunity to give her away to create imaginary happiness; and then I should let her go from me, and maybe even at a long distance. What do you say to this? And when the Lord calls to Himself, you are afraid to entrust your daughter to Him, you save it for your own consolation; you love yourself and her more than God. You do not understand this feeling, that is, the title of God. Who forced her to do this: was it your severity? do you need anything? On the contrary, you love her very much, and she is happy with everything. St. Climacus writes that this title, or feeling, is an understanding unknown to the people. Although I noticed these feelings in her, I never gave her advice, expecting that God himself, multiplying it, would bring it out, she was of such an age that she could distinguish good from bad; Is it possible that the black cassock and the monastery fence are seducing her? Therefore, there is something else that attracts her to itself: - the love of God!... and His voice, internally calling: take My yoke upon yourself, for My yoke is good, and My burden is light! (Matt. 11:30). But it can go out, and the voice calling it to be silent (which you can see from the teaching of the Lord about the seed that fell among the thorns and is suppressed), who will be the reason for this? There are enough servants for the world, let them live and prosper. God benefits everyone and wants to be saved, and salvation is not taken away from them; but whom He calls and sees resistance, I don’t know what to say about this.... Why do you want to turn her away from taking on a yoke, but a good one? and a burden, but a light one? on the contrary, do you want to subject her to the cruel yoke and heavy burden of the world? At the same time as your letter, I received two more letters: the first from a noble maiden, whose mother, two or three secular brothers, and two sisters, an elder and a younger, are in monasteries; she has a strong desire to enter the monastery, and asks her mother, but has not yet received what she asked; now she wants to ask for a decisive vacation, not being able to endure worldly temptations that distract her from her real goal. It will seem cruel to you that she leaves her mother, but there were many worthy and official suitors for her; if she had married any of them, she would have had to leave her mother for an earthly groom, since doing this for a heavenly one does not sin. I know mothers who had only one daughter, who, after getting married, left their mothers, although they believed in them the only joy of their lives. How do you judge this? The second letter is from a mother who gave her daughter away in marriage, and after a short time was forced to take her from her husband; She has been suffering from illness for two years now, and the mother’s heart constantly bleeds, looking at her suffering, especially at the present time; In addition, they received news that her son-in-law had already squandered his entire estate, consisting of 300 souls, which was all taken into custody for private debts, “and he was left with only his personal merits, such as: drunkenness, cards, a violent and dishonest temper, depraved behavior - these are the virtues of the daring husband of my unfortunate sick daughter; and he still wants her to live with him; Is it not in order to deprive her of the last piece of bread, having squandered the rest, to kill her with his violent actions, to quickly free himself and look for another victim? These are the words of a sad mother about her beloved daughter, whom, giving her away in marriage, she caressed herself with the hope of bringing her great happiness. Where is it? There are quite a few similar examples. As if on purpose I received these two letters and, together with yours, attached them to our case, I am writing out the matters from them for you, and you will consider and consider your affairs and your feelings; From everything I have written, deduce the result: are you not mistaken in your opinion, and is there any resistance to the will of God here? Do not excuse yourself with the painful feelings of your parents about separation from her for the heavenly bridegroom, which they would have suffered for the earthly one; or fear that he is entering a strict rank, in which you are quite mistaken, for God does not require greater strength; know that you are obliged to fulfill the same commandments of God that we do, except for virginity and non-covetousness. I don’t think that you agree with the opinion of Luther and his followers about the monastic rank; You are the children of the Greek-Russian Eastern Church, which made a statement about this title, and the experience of those who passed through it proved to us that we gained benefit from it. However, I neither force you to dismiss her, nor distract or force her, but leave it to your and her will; Leaving the rest to God's providence, may everything work out for good. And He is able to warm your hearts into His love, as a living and immaculate sacrifice, to entrust to Him for service, but even more so, you will rejoice and thank Him for this His mercy and love for you. Regarding time, this cannot be done suddenly if your case is decided, but it cannot be done before the fall of this year. Congratulations on celebrating the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ and welcoming the New Year. May the Lord send His peace and blessing upon you and your children, and if you wish for health and prosperity, I remain your zealous brother and pilgrim I.M. January 1, 1842. From your letter I don’t see anything about your intention, but your parents, with heart disease, write to me that you asked their permission to let you go to the monastery. Your feeling is commendable, and their indecision is excusable, due to their attachment to the world and love for you. I see that you have the title of God, which you should cherish, thank God, who has honored you with it, and bring your given word to Him into fulfillment through the assistance of His grace. He calls us to Himself, orders us to take upon ourselves His yoke, calls it good and His burden light; this must be believed without doubt; but I must warn you that faith and love of God are tempted by the contrary, that is, there will be various kinds of temptations and sorrows along the seven paths, without which it is not only impossible to be saved, but also to be established in faith. The wise Sirach writes: child! If you begin to work for the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation, guide your heart, and be patient (Sir. 2:1); and in the Gospel and in the Epistles of the Apostles they teach us everywhere about patience. But where there is the true calling of God, he does not look at anything, but having a firm will, he hopes for God’s help. I send you St. John Climacus book, which you read with attention, and learn how to fight passions; however, from just reading you cannot understand as you should if you do not go through experience. Pray to God that His holy will be upon you, and surrender to it; call upon the Most Pure Virgin Mary, our Intercessor, for help. However, don’t rush too soon, test your heart’s feelings to see if it is ready for this calling. If anyone wants to come to Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and come after Me (Matthew 16:24). You must reject your will and reason, and conquer others who can lead you in a saved way; Otherwise, you cannot learn, according to the word of the Lord, from Him that He is meek and humble in heart, and thereby you will find peace for your soul. He was obedient even to death (Phil. 2:8), and through obedience humility appears in us, and without it all our virtues are insignificant. When you make up your mind, you cannot choose the place to live and the one who will guide you, and pray to God about this: “Tell me, O Lord, the way, and I will go to it, for I have taken my soul to You.” This time I wrote enough to you. God is able to comfort your parents and turn their crying into joy, and their lamentation into joy, for your calling, just be worthy of it. Entrusting you to the protection of God and His all-wise providence, I remain the desirer of your salvation and an unworthy pilgrim I.M. January 1, 1842. Taking part in your sorrows, which are known to me and which you describe in your letter, I do not hope to give you proper consolation, but, due to the strength of my weak mind, I will offer you little, and the most merciful God Himself is able to console you with spiritual consolation, which, of course, cannot be compared with all the blessings and consolations of this world. You must believe, and I believe you believe, undoubtedly in the Providence of God, that He always controls everything, and wants us to be saved and to come to the mind of truth. Without binding our freedom, he allows us to go according to our own will, but when we deviate from the true path leading to acquisition in a future blissful eternity, he turns us through various means to the path of salvation. Due to the weakness of our minds, we place bliss and happiness in sensual pleasures, and, carried away by them, we forget our real goal - a future life, eternal, without end. And the word of our Lord Jesus Christ is true: the wide way and the wide gate lead into destruction, and many are those who walk in it; but the sorrowful way and the narrow gate lead into eternal life, and those who gain it are not many (Matthew 7:13). The most merciful Lord, providing for our salvation, unwittingly leads us away from the long path and places us on the narrow and sorrowful path, by which we can receive eternal life. The Lord does all this out of love for us, for He promised His beloved disciples not joy in the world, but sorrow: in the world you will be sorrowful (John 16:33). But he gave hope and consolation afterwards: but your sorrow will be turned into joy, and no one will take your joy from you (John 16:20. 22.). However, before is sorrow, and after is joy. This joy is the gracious consolation of the Holy Spirit, and peace abounding in all minds (Phil. 4:7). Also St. The apostles, strengthening their disciples, new Christians who were persecuted for their faith, taught that through many tribulations it is necessary to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). We see from Holy Scripture, and from the history of the Church and descriptions of the lives of great men, that obtaining salvation was achieved through sorrows, misfortunes, deprivations, bitterness and other harsh means, which all involuntarily divert our hearts from the love of the world, which harms our soul; but we don’t understand this. And now we see from those living with us and near us that most people are in sorrow; but not all the same and not at the same time are visited by them: one is now drinking the cup of sorrow, the other is awaiting soon; another, reveling in the sweets of the world, and fame and wealth, does not feel that he is tasting poison that is harmful to his soul, and sooner or later he will feel the harm of it, either through poverty, or illness, or contempt from others, or disobedience from children, or finally, a spiritual boa constrictor 19, not finding consolation in any of the blessings, although he is surrounded by them. How many people we see in cities and towns and villages living in need and poverty, barely able to feed themselves and their families; others melting away on their sick beds, and visited by other sorrows. But with all such and similar sorrowful adventures, the grace of God invisibly strengthens them to endure them, only with our cowardice they are more painful for us, but with generosity and submission to the will of God they are relieved. What benefit will the current way of education and enlightenment bring during various changes in life and sorrowful trials? This must be learned in the school of faith, which instructs us that even the hair of our head will not perish without the will of God (Luke 21:18). And a Christian, truly convinced of the Providence of God, in any case sees the all-wise creative power and the finger of God, showing us the path to eternity; but for the unbeliever the sorrows of this age are bleak; whoever dies among them dies forever; for them there is no ray of hope shining from a distant eternity. From these brief considerations, as much as possible, I advise you to accept in favor of your spiritual dispensation, strengthen yourself with faith and hope in the goodness of God, which leads you through sorrowful incidents to the knowledge of something better than what is presented to the eyes of ours and other senses. In difficult moments, run to God, pour out your heart before Him, remembering the prophetic word: God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the sorrows that have come upon us greatly (Ps. 45). Whenever my heart was depressed, I cried out to the Lord. To You, O Lord, I will cry and to my God I will pray (Ps. 29:9). I will pour out my prayer before Him, I will declare my sorrow before Him (Ps. 141:3). The Lord hears and loves me. The Lord is my helper. He turned my mourning into joy for me, he tore my sackcloth to pieces and girded me with joy (Ps. 29:11, 12). Having read your letter, I clearly see the fatherly providence of God, which saved you like a bird from a net that catches (Ps. 123:7). The network will be broken and you will be delivered quickly. The merciful Lord did not allow you to be seduced by the charms of Delilah, who prepared for you to blind not your physical, but your spiritual eyes, so as not to see the true sun of truth, Christ, our Savior; and deafness for hearing the word of God and His saving teaching. Simply put, you would be bound hand and foot with insoluble bonds that would prevent you from fulfilling the will of God and walking along the path of His commandments. How did this happen? Apparently, how could you get rid of the undertaking: the world, the raft and the devil were ready with their services to involve you in these networks. Of course, God’s mercy preserved you through the prayers of your parents, and gave you reason and strength to resist these attacks, and the patron of your regiment helped to deliver you from these fellow enemies. Give glory and thanks to the most merciful Lord, who has preserved you, and not only in words, but also in deeds, trying to fulfill His holy will with humility. And sometimes it happens that we fulfill our duty in one or two parts and are exalted, while we blame others; We don’t even think about the same thing, that even if we have done everything commanded, we must consider ourselves unbreakable slaves (Luke 17:10). Entering into your conscience, it doesn’t hurt to consider whether something similar happened to us, and whether it was for this reason that such a temptation was allowed to happen? But when you reproached yourself and saw many things that were previously hidden under the plausible clothing of imaginary truth, then the Lord showed mercy to you; for He looks upon humility! May this be a lesson to you for the rest of your life. Congratulations on the new year; May the Lord send His blessing upon you, I earnestly wish and with my respect remain your unworthy pilgrim, much-sinful I.M. January 1, 1846. Having thanked you for congratulating me on the feast of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, I reciprocally congratulate you on meeting it, may the Lord grant you the privilege of enjoying the fruits of the Lord’s ineffable care for us, in simplicity and humility of heart! I received your letter, sent on March 29, on April 9, during the days of this sacred celebration. Thank you for your contribution from your zeal, for which may the Lord reward you with His mercy! Glory to God that you have fulfilled the duty of a Christian, and have been worthy to be a partaker of the most pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ: may this sacrament be to strengthen our spiritual strength on the slippery path of life, on which, being on, we hesitate with various confusing thoughts, cowardice and fear. You, who were with us in the monastery, were honored to taste the gift of grace-filled sensations. By this it is shown to you that there is the grace of God, and so that you can distinguish between lies and truth, and worldly goods and spiritual goods. But it was shown to you and was hidden, for you cannot bear it without being tested in the battle with passions and without acquiring humility. Even if you lived here permanently, you still wouldn’t be able to keep her; for here too there is a struggle with passions, until a person humbles himself, he can neither conquer passions nor acquire spiritual gifts. But the very search for talents is not safe, it is subject to conceit, and on the contrary, sometimes the deprivation of them reduces us to the abyss of humility. It is our will to do good or evil; and the reward lies in the will of God. You are in the midst of the world and its temptations, out of necessity, or out of duty, having been placed in this field, not being able to evade it, you must have in memory the commandments of God and humility; then although you cannot rise to the heights of virtues, try not to descend into the abyss of vices; but always cleanse even small misdeeds with constant repentance and humility, mentally considering yourself the last of all. Humility alone will save you from all the snares and snares of the enemy. And how I see that, due to the lack of your corrections in virtue, while grieving, you are enslaved to confusion and deprived of peace of mind; This is a sign of self-love and pride. You want to see yourself as righteous, and not achieving this, you are embarrassed; and when they had achieved it, they too would have been carried away into pride - and would have become a strict judge of other vicious people and would have sinned more before God; and St. The Church commands us to pray: “Hey, Lord, king! grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother.” Why not pray: grant me to see my virtues? Because this would lead us to pride and self-delusion, but otherwise it leads us to humility. The great saints, with all their virtues, had themselves under all creation, which strengthened their virtues. You are frightened at the thought of the narrow path: you are afraid of the false shame of peace-loving people, ridicule, persecution and bitterness: but all this comes from pride, pride, and lack of faith; As your faith and humility grow, this fear will disappear. When you believe that without God’s will the power of our head will not perish, then even more so what concerns the feelings of the heart cannot happen without His will, and when something happens, it is true to our temptation and for our benefit, according to His will it will be allowed; what is needed here is faith and humility, submission to the will of God and prayer for strengthening. May the Lord give you true understanding, and keep you from confusion and from all the snares and snares of the opposite, but give you peace in your journey. Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, I remain with my respect your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. April 13, 1846. I received your letter, sent on November 7, on the 16th. And at another post office I received your parcel: the manuscript of the work of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and two views of the Pochaev Lavra, and a notebook about the commandments. For all this I thank you most earnestly and everything is distributed according to its belonging and decency. You write about your illness and accept it as a visitation from God; then ego alone serves you as a cure for mental ailments, to humbly accept His visit: as the Lord willed, so it was (Job 1:21), but since these thoughts are not always inherent in you, then, I think, you are also allowed to fall into the hands of cowardice, but do not be proud of the fact that “I suffer with patience and am worthy of God’s mercy,” but so that more humble yourself and become accustomed to this virtue through your spiritual weaknesses, so that the power of God will help you: for He looks upon the humble. You ask for your bewilderment about moving to M–y and changing the service of my reasoning. Although I do not dare to take upon myself such boldness that I can correctly judge things that are closed from us in the future; but through your faith, God is able to enlighten my darkened mind in your favor. I don’t dare say decisively, but I think that my service will be more convenient and useful for you, which is in accordance with the disposition of your heart. The two threads holding you back in P—e can thus be resolved: union with…. must remain undecidable after the transition to M–y; if not through a personal meeting, then through correspondence you can use his wise advice and instructions, which of course he will not refuse you. And regarding your brother, entrust him to the protection of God and the Queen of Heaven; and if possible, to some kind of supervision, or to any other pious person you know. However, the disadvantages of the service there that you described give you the right to move there and settle in M–y. And as our Lord said: without Me you cannot do anything (John 15:5), then pray to Him: if His holy will be done, then let Him do this, confirm your thoughts, and help in this undertaking. For which I, a sinner, have a duty to pray to His goodness. And about your highest intention I will say: keep this fire cast into your heart, and let it burn all the brushwood and tares inflicted by the enemy, and acting through our passions, still unrefined and unexterminated; But above all, guard with humility, for love cannot exist without it. The highest love itself has clothed itself in the humility of our flesh. Asking for you the peace and blessing of God, with the desire for your true good, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. November 26, 1846. Please accept my most humble gratitude for sending me the form of St. Mount Athos, with its laurels and monasteries; just as the views of the Pochaev Lavra that you sent earlier adorn the walls of my cell, so this last one also takes place, and will serve as a reminder of His servants working for God at the site of the lot of the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God: and as much as possible in our strength by imitation of them, and in weakness by contemplating ourselves, like the beggars looking at the royal treasures, and more aware of their wretchedness. I sincerely congratulate you on your Angel’s day; May the Lord comfort you with spiritual consolation! At the same post office I sent two copies of the recently published book of the life and writings of Elder Paisius, to....., of which I asked him to deliver one to you; although it’s discourteous for the first time, forgive my ignorance. I ask you to accept this book and wish to use it spiritually. With my respect, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. February 15, 1847. For your Christian greeting about the risen Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you and greet you: He is risen indeed! May the peace given to us by our Savior be with you forever! Your frank conversation shows me your sincere desire to bring yourself closer to God, to love Him with all your heart, and to have a reward from Him - spiritual consolation! The desire to draw closer to God is His title, to which we must add our assistance, the fulfillment of His holy commandments: wherever we are, whether in the desert, or in a community, in the world, or in a monastery, everywhere we must strive to fulfill the commandments, and everywhere there is a temptation to our will and opposition from the enemy, which occurs with God’s permission. And we must bend our autocracy to fulfill the will of God. Seeing your weakness or inconvenience, as you write, you must present yourself before the greatness of God, asking for His help and intercession from enemies visible and invisible; Having received help and corrected what was good, beware of the thought of praising you and condemning others; it is also a network of hostility that lures you into arrogance and takes away all the fruits of virtues. You are looking for spiritual consolation, and even inseparable from you. Take away spiritual pride, acquire the deepest humility, and consolation will not be separated from you. It is a gift from God; but it is given, according to the measure of our spiritual progress, in humility, and without it and without temptations, the gifts bring destruction to those who receive them, according to the word of St. Isaac the Syrian (f. 34, p. 168.). Having accepted the most pure mysteries of Christ, you felt joy; but after it is taken away, you become despondent and decrepit, but do not humble yourself, considering yourself unworthy of it. Read y St. John of Carpathia, chapters 70 and 71, in the 4th part of the Philokalia, on this subject, so as not to lose heart in the deprivation of consolation. Of course, one must always blame oneself for not correcting oneself, and thereby acquire humility; which is what you experienced when you saw the childish simplicity with which they approached St. sacrament; and despising yourself, your heart was contrite, and you felt calm. Do not think that those who go through spiritual life can always enjoy spiritual consolations. And here there is a struggle between the flesh and the spirit, victory and conquest, the consolation of time and its withdrawal to humility and learning to bear the spiritual cross, instead of the desired sweet consolation. The love of God is recognized in us not when we enjoy consolations, but when we endure the spiritual cross, in which the love of God is also tested in us, that we not only love God when He comforts us, but also when He tests us by the withdrawal of these (consolations) and the extension of sorrowful inner feelings; in the first case, as one teacher of the Church put it, we are not looking for God, but for ourselves. Achieving salvation precisely consists in acquiring a leader, and cutting off one’s will and reason; but now it is very difficult to find such a leader: you point to me, but I am afraid, lest a blind man lead a blind man... However, through the faith of those who seek benefit, the Lord is able to instruct the dumb and give the word to a little youth to speak for benefit. You expect a word from me and drop everything, and this will be your first step in the field of obedience, but it seems the time has not yet come for this. Pray to the Lord that He will arrange good things for you; and while you remain in peace until now, take care of the commandments of God. In perplexity, run to Him, and He will not allow you to fall into the abyss of sin or into the abyss of hopelessness, but will arrange everything for good. Summer will quickly fly by, autumn will come, and then it’s more convenient to talk about what needs to be discussed, but until then remain in prayer and in trust in the goodness of God. May He protect you from all nasty snares. May the Lord comfort you with imperishable consolation, I sincerely wish and with my respect remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. April 12, 1847. The slowness of my response to your most venerable letter sent on July 2 was due to my travel to V—and to K—; I returned to the monastery on the 23rd of July, and your letter was delivered to me in K–b in the last days of June; Since I could not write to you, now allow me to bring you my most humble gratitude for your attention to my request through your mother, and for accepting our manuscript into your care, and at the same time I ask you to generously forgive me for the fact that I sent the manuscript to you without a letter, and due to my sudden absence, I did not have time to write to you afterwards. Having read the spiritual thoughts extracted from this work, you see yourself bearing crosses imposed by the world, the flesh and the devil; and because of this they were saddened, not having a person who strengthens and acts on the heart, and the very name of the cross and yoke terrifies the soul. I will offer you the words of the Savior Himself: do not let your heart be troubled or afraid (John 14:1); According to our connections and responsibilities to each other, you have been placed by God’s providence in your present rank, and while you are in the army of the earthly king, you are also a warrior of the heavenly King. And this warfare is against the principalities and against the powers and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12); fighting in this battle, in cooperation with your neighbors, you have an eternal good goal obtained by the commandments of God, and our weapons are faith, hope and love; to this and in those described by St. Put on the apostle of weapons, and call on the Lord for help, without relying on your own strength, you will see victory. Our life is also likened to the sea and the ship of our soul sails on this stormy ocean, plunges into waves, but does not drown; in danger and let us cry: Lord! save us, we perish (Matthew 8:25), and we will see salvation from drowning. The crosses sent to us by God's providence lead us to true wisdom, cleanse us from sins and free us from passions, lead us to humility, and about which crosses you write: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the hair and pride of life, I mean the action of the passions; upon prudent examination, you will see that they humble us, but when we ignore them, we become captives of the passions and are only driven away from them by God’s punishment. Do not be discouraged and do not be embarrassed, but, trusting yourself to the commandments of God, adhere to the true path - repentance and humility. May the Lord enlighten you and strengthen you on this path, I earnestly wish and remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. on the 29th of 1850. You described to me your journey after leaving us; thank you for everything. I believe that you have received no small benefit from it; and most importantly, the prayers of the holy saints will serve as your path to your deliberate abandonment of the world and entry into the field of spiritual warfare. A conversation with the high archpastor, although brief, and his blessing are useful to you; your stay in the city will remain an impression of their life, and a competition; a conversation with my brother... showed you the weakness of our nature; and how much caution one must have against arrogance and condemnation of others who are in asceticism. And you yourself understand that in this struggle we need the special help of God and the guidance of man. How is it not surprising that, having been in a stormy sea, he did not suffer shipwreck or drowning, and in the harbour, from this storm, he was close to drowning. However, God is able to strengthen him. Let us see as a living example that a warrior is skilled when he was in battle, and not when he was at peace and was not cold from it; In battle, even if we receive ulcers, we must not retreat, but stand firm, calling on the hero Jesus, then we will not lose the crowns of victory, and even more so when we humbly acknowledge our weakness. You say about your constitution that it is neither warm nor cold; from the middle one has to reconcile oneself against one’s will. Struggle is inevitable for you both when starting a good deed and when choosing a place. The wise Sirach says: child, if you begin to work for the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation (Sirach 2:1). Usually we are not ready to bear people's gossip, but we must strengthen our hearts according to the words of St. John Climacus, on the anvil of the Cross of the Lord, so that the thought struck from all sides by hammers would not be crushed; in all of this, as I believe, there is false shame and fear, or you are afraid of fear, where it does not exist. The fear of God and trust in him cannot be put to shame. It seems to you that in an unknown place, where no one knows you, it is more convenient to start; but who cares? Does the enemy have enough networks and intrigues? he didn’t have time to overthrow one, he takes another, and so on; take you as an example...... Being removed from the world and from relatives, what kind of abuse does it have? And it almost gives you splashes. You don’t know what kind of abuse will greet you even at the first step: “you can’t hide anywhere from temptations except the depths of humility.” It's your word. And how often it happens that instead of the depth of humility we climb the mountain of exaltation and without noticing it ourselves, no matter how reasonable and wise we are, and this is the intrigue of the enemy more dangerous than others; and whoever follows the path of rejecting his will and reason (of course, the battle is great and such) is more likely to achieve knowledge of his weakness and humility. Don’t think that I attracted you to my place and found salvation only here - not at all. I do not know the destinies of God and His providence, where He is calling you, and in this I completely surrender to His holy will. But the signs by which you wanted to be here are known to you yourself. And so, I repeat: may God’s will be done for your calling. Although many moved away from their places and fatherlands, we see that many received salvation close by; somehow: Alexey, the man of God, John Kushchnik, and others. And the Russian ones: Nikola Svyatosha, Varlaam (Pechersk) and many more, about whom time does not allow to test and write. On the 7th of this month, the most venerable traveler and writer, Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov, visited our desert; stayed with us on the 8th, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and on Sunday the 9th, after early mass, he left us for M–y. Since he wanted to hear our monastery service, we had a liturgy on the holiday, and then on Sunday he listened to the all-night vigil with us, on the holiday he dined at the monastery meal, and left us a very pleasant impression with his address and conversations; It seems that he liked us too, loved us very much... He made us an offer to describe the life of contemporary Russian spiritual ascetics, who were influenced by the life, exploits, works, writings and translations of Elder Paisius, as it is briefly described in the preface to the life of Elder Paisius, that it was as if light had poured out on Russian monasticism through him. How to begin this difficult and inconvenient task, according to our strength and reason? where to get sources? We imagined the inconvenience of this as much as we could, but he remained with the desire that this flower be brought to the community from our monastery. If God calls you to our field, then you too should be participants in this work, then is it possible for you in advance, at the monasteries, to stock up on these sources, where you will hear about whom. In your spare time, write to me about your act of intentionality. I remain wishing for your health and salvation I. M. September 15, 1851. Do not demand much from Scripture, but accept these short lines, sent to you out of love and zeal. I wrote to you on the 15th of September, and received from you from P–a on the 18th, and therefore you still could not receive my letter. The beginning according to your disposition is done well, and God will crown it with a good ending; Just believe, be courageous and do not lose heart when waves of enemy thoughts rush towards your boat; cry to Him who is able to save you: Lord, save me! I don’t write much because I have a headache and my health is poor; May the Lord bless you and guide your path for good. All our fathers and brothers who know you bow to you earnestly and thank you for your memory and wish for your purchased life. Asking for God's blessing on you, I remain a desirer of your health and salvation, an unworthy pilgrim, a great sinner I. M. October 2, 1851. The Lord God bless you and your good intentions; in your letter dated October 2, which I received, the first word was to give glory to God about everything, and we, agreeing with you, glorify and thank Him for the feeling given to you to seek the saving path and for His calling you to His sweet work. My yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:30), He said, and we believe this without a doubt. And when He put this fire in your heart, He will help it to burn into a great flame; Just don’t doubt His help, and don’t be afraid of the enemy’s excuses that cause you doubt and fear, the supposed cruelty and inconvenience of this path. The enemy is ready to promise and present all the blessings of this world, just to divert him from this saving intention and path; but be courageous and strong, put on the armor of faith and trust in the Lord. Pray to Him, but do not rely on yourself, for with any reliance on ourselves, our weakness appears to us, and the knowledge of it leads to humility. While you are there in your free time, read John Climacus and St. Isaac the Syrian, but do not soar high, but strive according to your strength for the passions that come to the heart; Read also Nil Sorsky. Seeing the height of life and not achieving it, do not be discouraged, but humble yourself. According to your disposition, perhaps the Lord will arrange your path to us in the month of February, and sometimes even earlier, may it be His will. We are ready to accept you into our community with love; God bless you. Entrusting you to the protection of God and the intercession of God and the Mother, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation, the unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. Having received your letter dated November 6, returning from absence on November 26, and having found a lot of letters, I could not write to you soon, but now I have received the second one dated November 30 and am in a hurry, without missing the first mail, to answer you. In the first letter you describe how pleasantly you talked in the Neva Lavra with clergy, and look forward to a good censor in the archimandrite.... May the Lord grant everything for the benefit of people who seek spiritual benefit in explaining the word of God and who are experienced in the spiritual life of the teachings of the fathers; you mention Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov and that he intended to write about our monastery, and in another letter you say that he has already written. This is good for the glory of God; but woe to us, and especially to me, a sinner: when I look at myself, I see and grieve that my name is higher than my deeds. God bless Andrei Nikolaevich for his goodwill towards us in the Lord; and especially for his zeal for Orthodoxy and piety, although he may not please everyone with this, but even more so to rebel against himself, but God will not leave him. In your last letter, you express your firm intention to leave the world and settle in our desert, hoping for God to save you from cowardice and from the storm of passions (Ps. 54:9). May God grant you to fulfill this soon, but it is not yet clear that your resignation letter will be submitted, and it seems that the deadline is only until January; how not to miss it? Is it really not possible to have him occupied even after submitting the petition, when the proceedings are released for the brother? I advise you to read spiritual books and not get carried away by soaring into heights; and looking towards perfection, the more you recognize your poverty and humble yourself, this will be stronger; and when it pleases God to enrich you, then accept it; but this happens through much struggle and the acquisition of humility, and to seek this with observance shows obvious pride. Let us follow the path of humility and cry out to the Lord with the publican: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Please let me know if you have submitted your petition or when will you submit it? See that the world does not tie you to itself. Father Abbot expresses his respect to you and thanks you for the memory of him, as do all our monastery brethren. May the Lord strengthen and confirm you in your good intention and help you fulfill it, I earnestly wish and remain your pilgrim, much-sinful I.M. December 8, 1851. God bless! We have been honored to enter the field of this new year, seeing off the old year into endless centuries with the entry into the new one; I congratulate you, most venerable…….., may the Lord vouchsafe you to enter into a new race and way of life, to serve and work for the Lord, pleasing Him, out of love for Him, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Let us not dare to seek reward; He Himself will be the reward of those who seek Him and work for Him: I and the Father will come and make an abode with Him (John 14:23). However, before achieving this there is a lot of feat, labor and struggle in this invisible spiritual battle. For our enemies are cheerful, sleepless, ethereal, cunning, evil, proud, then most of all we need to be surrounded by the stronghold of humility from their attacks, inaccessible to any thieves and enemies, and while we are still far from love and humility, then we also need the fear of God, for with the fear of the Lord everyone turns away from evil (Prov. 15:27); Sometimes we also need efforts to realize our weakness, which are achieved by God’s permission, for a reward that is secret and elusive to us; and through falls we learn that they were preceded by pride, according to the word of St. John Climacus. I wrote this not to frighten you, but to warn you in advance, for St. Prophet: On this path, I walked along it, hiding the net for me (Ps. 142:4). But there are a lot of snares, and those who walk outside the path of humility fall into them and become entangled; The Monk Anthony saw many outstretched snares, and cried out: (Who can escape them?) To which he received the answer: “Humble wisdom!” This virtue is so high that not a single virtue can be firm without it; even love itself has close intercourse with it: “love elevates, but humility does not allow one to fall,” writes St. John Climacus; but what can one say much about this when St. John, who built the ladder leading to heaven, said that no word can explain this treasure (verse 25, v. 2), and has an incomprehensible inscription on it, like something that comes from above: holy humility! Read about it from the Climacus, from St. Isaac the Syrian and from others, and prepare to acquire it in practice in your place. May this bless you. Lord! From your letter dated December 21, I see that you are still delaying your resignation and believe that you can receive it even after January 1 due to illness; but it seems to me that it would be better in due time; who knows what will happen ahead; It would be good if you submitted before January: you can be useful to your brother in the production and filing of the petition. It was comforting to hear from the venerable... about you, and receive your scripture sent on January 4th. I talked to him about what I needed, thank God he is a good Christian, may the Lord help him fulfill his holy will and be saved from all the snares and snares of the enemy. Do not be surprised that during your care of....., you saw his ingratitude and inattention to him. Of course, he didn’t like your reproach, and his pride was offended. But this serves as a lesson for you in the future, and when you realize that perhaps you yourself were involved in your opinion and arrogance about yourself, and reproach yourself, then calm down, and forgive him for his foolishness; Of course, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he thinks he knows nothing. Thank God that you submitted your petition on time and hope to receive freedom to change your military service, from carnal to spiritual; may the Lord help you accomplish your intention; and it would be good if they got freedom at the post and came to us. I return the book of music to you; It’s difficult for us to introduce singing, with our weak voices, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold on any longer, I’ll have to worry about sending him away. Forgive my awkward writing; My time is being taken away, and there are a lot of letters, and I’m already writing somehow; I hope to personally talk about what needs to be discussed, but until then I remain a wisher for your health and salvation, much-sinned I.M. January 20, 1852. On the 20th of January I sent you a letter in response to what you wrote to me on the 8th, and soon I received your letter dated January 15th; I see how much it cost you to get rid of the world: the convictions of peace lovers, based on the lasting benefits of secular prosperity, fame, honor, pleasure, family happiness, wealth, etc., and to them the internal struggle; against all this you had to withstand a great battle, but with the help of God, with your good will, this time for the first time you remained victorious. “Throw horse and rider into the sea, helper and protector be my salvation”; sing this victorious song to the Lord. Not without heart disease, you must part with....., to whom you were disposed with heartfelt love and throughout your life enjoyed support from him in religious and moral terms; It is commendable to preserve this feeling even after being separated from it; and since you leave his community not for any reasons of worldly calculations, solely out of love for God and for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, entering into a new life, moving away from the light and escaping into the desert, hoping for God to save you from cowardice and the storm of passions (Ps. 54:9), then therefore your departure is blessed. Having entered the field of this life, you will find a new struggle, which you did not encounter there, but do not be afraid of this, for when there is no struggle, we cannot learn art, and we will not win crowns, freeing ourselves from passions. Your desire to cleave with the same love to me, the worst, I accept, and I submit this to the will of God to dwell in you, if only this will be for your benefit, and my unworthiness will not prohibit this; with the assistance of God, may this foundation be based on faith and be accomplished through love and humility: the former elevates, and the latter does not allow the exalted to fall. The step has been taken, may the Lord help the mother-in-law further and, having committed rejection and abandonment of the world, to enter into the feat you desire to acquire the kingdom of Christ. Entrusting you to the protection and providence of God, I remain the desirer of your health and salvation, an unworthy pilgrim, a great sinner I.M. January 26, 1852. Most Venerable of the Lord N N 21 ………..congratulated you on the day of your Angel, and I, together with her, in brief words, congratulated you on it, and on the 27th I received your letter, written on the very day of your Angel, and while you were not healthy. I feel sorry for you, and I wish you a speedy recovery from physical illnesses, and especially mental health. Thank the Lord that you have received spiritual consolation for yourself on your godly journey, and have safely returned to your home to accomplish your salvation by doing the commandments of God, until the Lord arranges for you another, more useful and desired path. You grieve, seeing that your soul is in a state of indifference and insensibility; what do you want? Of course: warmth in prayer, tenderness, tears and the like. But when you were in such a dispensation, what would happen? You would truly consider yourself blessed and having achieved, or achieving, your goal - salvation. But on the contrary, it could harm you, because you do not have a trace of humility. And such and similar talents even bring destruction to those without humility. Deprivation of these feelings, or, more than words, talents and the consciousness of your poverty, should lead you to humility; there is no need at all to seek these (talents), but to consider oneself unworthy of them and to contemplate one’s sins rather than virtues. Your confusion proves to you that there is no humility in you, but spiritual pride. Read in the superscript on Nil Sorsky: on pages XII and XIII you will find that people who practice virtue and think a lot about this are allowed to be betrayed to the satanic region for pride. And I also enclose for you an extract from the Ladder about obedience, which by the special providence of God is allowed to fall into dryness and insensitivity to the acquisition of humility. Do not seek high talents, but cleanse your heart by fulfilling God’s commandments and prayer, drive away passions and thoughts about them and try to acquire humility: for where there is no humility of mind, there everything we have is unclean and vain, writes St. John Climacus. So, I wish you to be peaceful and calm, and in the best situations not to lose heart. Spiritual life consists not only of enjoying consolations, but of bearing a spiritual cross, and from this learning patience and humility. Asking for God's blessing on you, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the great sinner I.M. September 30, 1850. P.S. You should also know this: after spiritual consolations, there will certainly be a spiritual cross. Extract from the Ladder (Step 4, verse 58). The devil tries in different ways to tear away the obedient from obedience: sometimes he defiles them with bodily uncleanness, makes them hard-hearted and embarrassed beyond usual; sometimes he introduces them into a state of some dryness, sterility, laziness in prayer, drowsiness and darkness, in order to convince them that they not only did not receive any benefit from their obedience; but they did not even follow the path of true obedience, for the devil does not allow them to understand that often the taking away of spiritual gifts, which happens by order of God’s providence, serves as the cause of the deepest humility. However, some many times repelled this seducer with patience. Letters from No. 1 to No. 41 were written to the same person. In the sense: busy, distracted by other things. Conversations of St. Zosima was subsequently published in the Rapturous Classes, in 1849; This place is on page 166. From handicraft. Fatherland or Patericon. That is, see your corrections. See the superscript to the book by St. Nil Sorsky, pp. XLVI and VII. In the sense: shelter, accommodation. See the note about him at the end of this letter. V.P. Brauzin, who, with great respect for him, understood somewhat the secret of his spirit, on the other hand, did not shy away from and did not argue with the bitterness of rude or unbelieving people. So one Oryol clerk, according to an eyewitness, beat him mercilessly and cruelly for a mere trifle, and V.P. accepted this dishonor rejoicing. Dobrotol. Part III, according to the 1840 edition, on 61 sheets, on the back. Letters No. 41 to 56, almost all (with the exception of two) were written by Father Macarius on behalf of the elder Hieroschemamonk Leonid and signed partly by one elder, and partly by both together. Letters from No. 58 to No. 64 were written to one person. To one of the sisters to whom the previous letters were written. This letter was written to the same person to whom letter No. 55 refers. To one of the relatives. A paternal expression meaning: the basis of humility. Letters from N 88 to N 100 were written to one person. Letters from N 100 to N 119 were written to one person. You might be interested in: