The path to salvation

Contents Preface I. Introduction. “Life according to the custom of this world” Chapter one. Conversion to the path of salvation and the passage of this path A) The Church of Christ is the treasury of salvation B) Carrying one’s cross for Christ Chapter two. The fruits of the combined action of grace and freedom: a holistic Christian worldview and a true Christian disposition A) A Christian’s attitude towards God B) A Christian’s attitude towards the world - the universe and towards other people C) A Christian’s attitude towards himself and his life Living an active “life in Christ,” Fr. John, according to the precepts of Christian love, wants to share the fruits of his deep spiritual experience with his “brothers in Christ,” and for this purpose he has been carefully keeping, for many years, his deeply edifying notes, in the form of a diary. This book, entitled “The Saving Path,” is compiled from these daily notes of Fr. John for the most recent years - 1901 and 1902; - from the book published by our Society in 1902 about. John’s “Christian Philosophy”, it is distinguished by the predominance in it of themes of a vitally practical, active, and not contemplative nature, which is already noted by the title itself: a deep, but simply and accessiblely presented psychological analysis, the ability to penetrate into the most intimate corners of the human heart and reveal the most hidden springs of its life activity - features characteristic of all the works of Fr. John - this book has special features: without flattery, we can say that in many ways “The Saving Path” resembles the famous spiritual and edifying collection compiled from the works of St. ascetic fathers and known under the name “Philokalia”. “The Saving Path” was published under the close guidance and supervision of Fr. John: all the manuscripts were carefully reviewed and corrected by him; he approved the plan according to which the material in this book is arranged; finally, the venerable author even found time to look through the proofs. The burning modernity of many of the topics covered; depth and captivating freshness of thoughts and feelings; finally, religious animation, at times reaching touching, highly poetic, pious lyricism (for example, in sections: about life in God, about prayer, etc.) make “The Salvation Path” not only edifying, but also pleasant reading for every pious person keenly interested in issues of spiritual life. In conclusion, we wish this “good” book by the highly respected author the complete success that it fully deserves for its high qualities. I. Introduction. “Life according to the custom of this world” "Prince of this world"; the world and the flesh as tools for seducing and enslaving man; sin and its perverted nature The human race, just as it was then, before the coming of Christ into the world, was a spiritual corpse, and now it is approaching the state of a moral corpse. And “where the corpse is, there the eagles will gather together” (Matthew 24:28). So it was with the Jewish people before the Jewish War, so it was with the nations before the coming of Christ, and so it will be now. Humanity is corrupted because of unbelief, because of pride and passion for dominance, passion for profit, enrichment, luxury, feasts, drunkenness and bacchanalia, for theaters and lists - and becomes a corpse. “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the mighty seekers obtain it” (Matthew 11:12). Inertia and laziness in the matter of salvation are the common lot of man; very few are diligent as they should be in this most important matter, for which the Lord Himself came to earth and so diligently accomplished on His part everything that needed to be done in truth and mercy. Look around at the people, at the world: what is going on, and you will be convinced that the world lies in evil (1 John 5:19). In order to force a person to sin, the enemy fills the soul with hellish darkness, and attracts the heart to him with charm and sweetness, rapes the will, takes a person who does not fight captive, from whom only the Lord can save. The disembodied enemy enters with all our senses: sight, hearing, lips, taste, belly, touch and all spiritual powers: mind, memory, imagination, heart; all desires and lusts, all passions: pride, gluttony, voluptuousness, partiality, malice, envy, fornication, impatience, murmuring, disobedience. The vile, stingy demon abhors everyone and everything, especially the shrine of God and all the saints, and strongly forces us to abhor each other, especially the lowly and poor, the weak, the sick and the weakened, with whom we must sympathize and whose hardships we must endure according to the commandment of Christ. Deliver us, Lord, from the devil's vile detestation: the sick, the unattractive or burry, the tongue-tied or those who have wounds and ulcers on their faces, or rashes, or crooked eyes, lame cripples, the enemy especially forces us to turn away and despise (meanwhile, we must love them, for the sake of their weakness), and forces us to be seduced by beautiful faces and lust after them. This is the cunning of the enemy! In the matter of serving people, especially spiritually, the enemy often immediately intervenes in our spiritual relationships and introduces his own enmity and bitterness into them, stirring us up against those who invite and to whom they invite, if the inviters belong to the number of small, unfamiliar and poor people of this world; but if the rich and noble invite, then we readily comply with obedience in anticipation of a worthy reward. So everywhere in our relationships, either pride, contempt and hostility, or self-interest, generally low selfishness, the source of which is the devil, the original murderer, from whom may the Lord save us, interfere. Quickly, like lightning, the enemy strikes and paralyzes our soul with addiction to something from the earth, the so-called goods and treasures, thereby distancing and alienating it from God. And in general, the enemy captures all people through a blind, senseless addiction to the flesh, to the world, to its wealth, treasures, to earthly glory, to transient beauty and luxury. All this in the world deceives us and separates us from God - that is: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16)... The saints ran away from this triple lust in every possible way so as not to extinguish the fire of God's love in their hearts. Intemperance in food and drink entails enslavement to the enemy, who takes advantage of any excess of nutrition to our mental and physical harm. We, people of property, act very strictly, biasedly and demandingly with the poor, demanding that they work to earn food with their children. But why are we not strict and demanding of ourselves, allowing ourselves to use earthly treasures in great abundance: money, wealth, expensive clothes and luxurious homes and all kinds of jewelry made of gold, silver and precious stones? Isn't this all dead capital, bringing no benefit to anyone, but which could bring great benefit to the poor if we turned it into money and distributed it to the poor? And will not these useless treasures condemn us on the day of judgment, with which we could make many poor contented and happy and through them we could acquire from the Lord great grace and mercy both now and on the day of judgment. Prayer - how to end it as soon as possible, and dinner, tea, theater, evening, gambling, dancing - how to prolong it longer! How carnal and vain we are! We run away from God like savages, but we cleave to the world and make friends with the world. But “if anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “The love of this world is enmity against God,” according to Scripture (James 4:4). O ungrateful ones! We have everything from God, but we don’t want to have or show sincere love and gratitude to Him! In order for food and drink to seduce and satiate people more, so that they place their pleasure, their bliss in them, eat more, forgetting about spiritual food - the corrupted human mind has invented a special science - gastronomy, although even without it many prepare food and drink in the most attractive form, from which nutrition or food and drink turn into passion; and so that we forget the book of life, the lamp of our life - the Gospel, the corrupt mind and the world showered and showers us with its books, full of worldly vanity, talking only about earthly goods and events or pleasures, often not at all nourishing the soul, but only arousing spiritual hunger in them. To distract from the churches, the world invented the theater or folk houses, and whoever loves the theater obviously does not have the love of God. “If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in him” (1 John 2:15). Instead of the fragrance of incense in churches, the world has invented its own fragrance of tobacco, and diligently fumigates itself with it greedily, almost eats and swallows it, and breathes it, and smokes its insides and its homes with it, produces an aversion to the fragrance of incense, which is why many are afraid to even come to the church. But “the world passes away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17). Gentlemen, writers and worldly and spiritual people, all classes - are you equal to yourselves, as verbal creatures of God, as Christians, as neighbors to each other, as fellow believers, fellow citizens, members of society, family members, students of different educational institutions? Don't you constantly contradict yourself, your inner consciousness, your advice, knowledge, occupation, the idea of ​​a Christian, a citizen, a student, a merchant, a craftsman, an official, a warrior, a scientist, a farmer? You are never equal to yourself, your being, your idea, you are never right, identical, perfect - but always with countless shortcomings. “Who will separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword, as it is written: For your sake they kill us every day; They consider us like sheep doomed to the slaughter. But we overcome all this by the power of Him who loved us; For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35-39). This is what love was like in the apostles! Do we have such love for God, even a small spark of such love? Most people have no love at all, as can be seen from human affairs; in a few there is the ardor of constant, never-fading love. For most people are devoted to this age and to countless worldly passions that separate them from God: one bought a field and wants to see it; another has five pairs of oxen and wants to test them; another married, therefore he cannot come to God’s supper (Luke 14:18–20). The enemy of our salvation, knowing well the power of people's sincere love for God, came up with thousands of pretexts and gave birth and gives birth to the darkness of human passions, chaining him to the flesh and the world, and separating him from God, or countless false teachings, heresies, sects and schisms, through which he separates people from God forever and with which he arms people and nations against each other, while God is both holy and apostolic. the church is trying to unite them into one spiritual, mysterious Body under one Head - Christ, animated by one Holy Spirit. Does secular literature breathe the spirit of the faith of Christ, the spirit of the heavenly kingdom and eternal salvation, the spirit of love for God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of true love for one’s neighbor, desiring him eternal salvation in Christ Jesus? No and no. The spirit of this world breathes in her, the spirit of progress of this corruptible age, but not the Christian one; if sometimes some virtue of this age breathes - virtue not in the name of the Lord Jesus, but natural virtue, civil and social or military. How should a Christian handle secular literature? Handle with care, read a little, only when necessary, and engage more with the word of God. Among secular writers, it is necessary to choose only spiritually well-intentioned ones, distinguished by a Christian spirit; those who do not have a Christian spirit, who are occupied exclusively with the world and its passions, should not read. How to look at the theater? As if to the empty vanity of the age, for there is not at all the Spirit of Christ here. Our writers do not live at home (in their souls), but turn only to the outer world: they judge, parade about everything around them, but about what is happening in their soul, what ailments and shortcomings are in it, what passions control them, what they need to repent of before God and people, what to improve on - they do not deal with this and do not recognize confession or repentance. But “what good is it for a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? or what ransom will a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). External writers, employees of newspapers, multi-article magazines and books, rich in all the external wisdom of this age, - possessing much knowledge, do not know the main thing and the only thing needed - do not know the revelation of God, do not know their inner world, do not know and are not aware of their deplorable fall, their passion, their repentance before God, their poverty, blindness, nakedness, their unsuitability for the Kingdom of God. Apparently, they know everything, they judge everything, their tongue spreads throughout the entire earth, but they do not know about themselves that they are in the pitiful, deplorable captivity of all passions - self-love, pride, conceit, vanity, fornication, adultery, gluttony, self-interest, hard-heartedness towards the poor, condemnation of others and self-indulgence in everything, envy, jealousy, wickedness, repentance; They write and talk about everything and, by multiplying flattering words, strengthen their souls, and when it comes to self-condemnation and repentance, they become lazy and unable to bark at themselves, at their sins, the absurdity of which they are not aware of - they forgive themselves everything, excusing themselves in everything and not considering themselves unworthy of the Kingdom of God. Don’t we value secular writers too much and at the expense of our piety, faith and devotion to God and His Church, His word? What are the fruits of the secular education of our children? education based on the study of secular writers and on alienation from St. Scriptures and from the Church? What comes out of them! Disrespect for the Church, reluctance to worship and prayer, disrespect for parents, for authorities, for purity of morals, addiction to appearance, carelessness about internal work, self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-deepening, contemplation; forgetting about the purpose of one’s existence on earth or perverting this purpose, disbelief in the future judgment and resurrection, in general the purposelessness of life and lack of accountability in it; freethinking, violence, violation of conscience, perversion of the rules of order, blasphemy, passion for horse racing and other secular entertainment. There is extremely little or no love of God in us, for as soon as we are presented with a reason for sin, for example, carnal voluptuousness or dislike, hatred, envy, disobedience - we are immediately carried away, tempted by a beautiful or ugly face, and love for God and neighbor crumbles into dust, extreme inconsistency, absurdity of thoughts, and feelings, and dispositions of the heart appear in us. If you love God, then always love unceasingly, without falling away from Him even for a minute, and also think about your neighbor! How stupid is sin! How senseless - how stupid our heart is, fickle, shaken by the wind of the enemy. We walk in the flesh, not in the Spirit! O multi-passionate flesh, hostile to God and my soul! You continually strive to separate me from God through corruptible carnal passions, especially through self-love, carnality, voluptuousness, anger and malice, envy, laziness and unbelief. You have friendship with your multi-passionate flesh - this nest of the devil, but you need to declare a merciless war on it, all its whims and passions, for through addiction to it, invisible enemies constantly rob us, our salvation, and dominate our mind, heart, memory and imagination. People doze and sleep spiritually, in their pleasures - in the pursuit of self-interest and honor - they sleep for a long time in bodily sleep, and thereby relax their hearts, become lazy and motionless in prayer and thanksgiving to God. People forget about their immortality in their souls and live as temporary ones, as travelers; they forget what future immortality is - torment or bliss, and everyone lives carelessly, lawlessly, following only the laws of this temporary life. A man is flesh and blood and thinks only about his stomach, about profit, about entertainment, about profit, about interest, about income; He only lives in the earthly, perishable, disappearing, like smoke and dust. My God, how the enemy is destroying us through our greed for wine! Drunk people often lie on the roads like logs. Where is the rational soul, created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26)? Where is the faith in Christ? Where is the hope for the Second Coming and the Last Judgment of Christ? Where is the wisdom about heavenly things? Where is the spirit of Christ, the spirit of abstinence, purity and chastity, goodness, meekness and humility and aspirations for the Heavenly Kingdom? There is nothing. Sorry for humanity. Lord, grant me to completely hate the greed for food and drink, which causes so much mental and physical harm to Your people! Are you going with the flow or against the flow? that is, do you fulfill the desires of the flesh and the mind, or do you crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24)? My many-passionate flesh is the culprit of my violation of all the commandments of my God; and why do I love her and not hate her with all my hatred? For whoever does not hate his own soul cannot be a disciple of the Lord. For what fellowship has light with darkness, or righteousness with iniquity? – Who is so firm in faith and virtue that, despite all the temptations to sin, he remains unshakable in virtue, for example, chastity, abstinence? Usually our spiritual ship is broken by the first waves and onslaught of passions. “Where the worm and the aphid decay” (Matthew 6:19). These words of our sweetest Savior characterize the entire vain, temporary, transitory life of man on earth. Worms and aphids are sin, which, like a worm, wears away human life on earth. Sin corrupts everyone and everything; without the smoldering principle of sin, there would be no corruption on earth, sorrows, illnesses, death, countless dangers, fears, wars, earthquakes, destructive winds, fires, eruptions of fire-breathing mountains - the earth would not burn; there would be no need for a new earth and a new sky; all this happened and has to happen because of sin. Such is sin, which corrupts everything - such is the aphid of the earth! All human passions are pernicious; every sinful thought, every, even momentary, carnal lust is pernicious. Everything in man is sin; sinful thoughts, lusts, intentions, aspirations, enterprises, many plans, words, deeds; prayer itself often turns into sin, as lazy, careless, insincere, unfruitful, forced and hasty, concealing words. Sin is madness, darkness of uncleanness, abomination, rebellion against God; - disorderly conduct, arbitrariness, lawlessness, enmity of people towards God and towards each other. We can always attract the Spirit into ourselves and be filled with this blessed wealth - the Trinity, which loves and saves us. Only our sins separate us from our Heavenly Father. God is infinitely good, infinitely abhors evil, hates evil. That is why an infinitely great sacrifice was needed to satisfy God’s righteousness for the sins of all mankind. Sinners! Is it still possible to anger you with the sins of the Son of God, who took your sins upon Himself? But woe to those who crucify Him again! There will be endless torment for those who trampled on the Blood of the Son of God, for those who knew the commandments of the Gospel and lived contrary to them, and equally for those who did not believe in the Son of God, although they heard the gospel of Him and saw the miracles performed in His name. The sun touches anything transparent or reflective, making everything light: a simple drop of water, a piece of glass, a gold or silver coin. Thus, the Heavenly Father, in whom He dwells, will make everyone into suns. “I will dwell in them and walk around, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (2 Cor. 6:16). But black bodies resolutely do not accept light and remain black in the sun. Likewise, unrepentant sinners - and here they are gloomy in soul, despite the fact that the Sun of Truth - Christ offers Himself to everyone and wants to shine for everyone; despite the fact that the Gospel, like the sun, is given to everyone for enlightenment and spiritual revitalization; that the Church of God, like the sun, wants to illuminate and revive everyone with the light of God’s grace; - and therefore there, in that century, sinners will be gloomy forever and ever. Sinful boil - the suppuration of sin with all its consequences is constantly increasing to a terrifying extent in the human race; lawlessness and vices have increased and are increasing to gigantic proportions; the flock of true believers will shrink more and more, the corrupting teachings of false knowledge, like Tolstoy's, will increase and infect humanity, corrupt it, so that Christ, when he comes to earth, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8) In all of us, at conception, birth, after birth, throughout the entire course of earthly life, lives the old man, inherited from the fallen forefather and first-fallen foremother, so evil, nasty, ungodly, reeking of all kinds of sins, that our all-holy Creator and God, who created us in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26), has no place where the head bow down. How does this old man manifest itself? In sinful self-love, self-pity, self-indulgence or carnality, laziness, pride, contempt of others, vanity, ambition, disobedience, voluptuousness, greed, in guile, contempt and insults to one's neighbor, in stinginess, lies, deception, in anger, irritability, impatience with others because of the most empty reasons, in all sorts of types of prodigal uncleanness, in grumbling, vanity and other countless passions. How disgusting and disgusting to me is my old man, who lives and does not die in me until now! How tenacious, crafty, selfish, hypocritical, selfish and covetous he is, although in many ways by the grace of God I am generous when I see the true need in my neighbors, and for them, and for my soul, the benefit from alms! How lascivious, unclean, zealous, and love-loving our old man is! I am surprised and amazed by the inconstancy and changeability of the human heart - crafty, unfaithful, evil, impatient, irritable, lazy, proud, carnal, voluptuous, proud, contemptuous, derogatory, loving, envious, suspicious, vengeful, dreamy, murmuring, earth-loving. The deceit of the human heart due to natural depravity and habituation to sin is enormous, especially lack of faith and disbelief in Divine and mysterious things. So, for example, the greatest mystery of the communion of the Body and Blood is beyond doubt, besides the fact that the word of the Lord is to it and amen, that is, it is immutable, true, unchangeable, omnipotent - also because a person who believes and lives piously, has experienced the truth and life-giving power of it thousands of times and a million times with his heart and his whole being, its victory over all passions, cleansing of sins, sanctification, strength, peace, joy, space; and yet, at the very moment of communion, due to the action of the enemy and the depravity of his heart, sometimes a person becomes impoverished in faith, especially when on the eve of communion he cannot hold his stomach, and only with effort he again masters the truth of the mystery of communion, and is at peace. Terrible deceit! Terrible damage to the heart! Poor humanity! The human heart harbors: pride, contempt, anger, envy, self-love, disobedience, laziness, perseverance, fornication, lies, double-mindedness, deception, ill will, gloating, rancor and every sin. What sharp, fiery, deadly temptations I fall into every day from invisible enemies who seek to devour me completely and lead me to hell! A person learns about his passions through temptation. Sometimes a person becomes attached with all his heart to an empty and unnecessary thing, or even a necessary and expensive one, to the point that, having lost it, he becomes embarrassed, grieves and is sad, finds no place or peace for himself, as if he had lost something important, on which his life, peace and contentment supposedly depended. So one man lost his favorite tortoiseshell comb, skillfully set in silver with words engraved on it, meaning by whom it was given and made, when, to whom. Sorrow and distress overcame him, and he lost God from his heart, and lost peace, and the spirit of prayer, and strength; - and lost sympathy for his neighbors, for whom he previously had affection and respect, and seemed to have fallen away from God, from all sincere love and sympathy for his neighbors; He calmed down only after great struggles with himself. This is how an insignificant thing is often the reason for falling away from God, from the Gospel, from love for others. And how many other addictions and reasons does a person have that prevent him from loving God and his neighbor! Money, different things, different faces! “Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Me is worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). We are short-lived, we need to prepare here for eternity, and yet we are so frivolous, careless, absent-minded, idle, vain, idle. My God! What kind of salvation do we not care about? We cannot escape from the fire of hell if we do not turn, repent, and change! “The Lord will create a curtailed word on the earth” (Rom. 9:28). “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). “God is not pleased with the multitude of them on earth (Jews). If the number of the children of Israel is like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved” (Rom. 9:27). What answer will we give to God, the common and impartial Father, Lord and Judge, for the one thing that we are satiated and enjoy every day at home and at dinner parties and evenings, but do not care about the poor, the needy, orphans and widows and are hard-hearted towards them at the sight and request of them? God, my God! How proud and hard-hearted we are! The Kingdom of God with all its good things is in our hands, but we do not want to buy it with temporary goods! Judgment without mercy to those who show no mercy! Truly, truly, all Lazarus will receive the Kingdom of Heaven, and the hard-hearted will go to hell. “Depart from Me, O curse, into everlasting fire, for you are hungry and do not give Me food” (Matthew 25:41). You say there is no eternal torment, this is a threat only to ordinary people, nothing more. But if so, then there will be no eternal bliss and, first of all, there will be no resurrection of the dead; you say - it’s scary to say - with these sweet seductions the Scripture flatters our pride, which means that everything that is said in the Gospel can be questioned - you can not believe anything, and live as you want. Do you see what terrible consequences your speculations are leading you to! But there was never a lie in the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ! His word is hers and amen. “In That (in Himself) to her and in That Amen.” Be afraid, be extremely afraid, to doubt the truth or repent of right word and deed! This is the work of Satan, the envious and slanderer of truth and righteousness. Woe to those who doubt; woe to every servant of Satan! The forests are burning, the earth is burning, the earth is drying up, there is no dew or rain, because the hearts have dried up, the love has evaporated - dried up from the hearts of men from the heat of sins and passions: pride, selfishness, lust, gluttony; people have abandoned the source of living waters - the Lord (Jer. 2:13), and do not resort to Him with faith, humility, and hope in His mercy. Hearts smoke and stink of sin, but there is no gracious animal dew of the Holy Spirit. People sin and do not think about repentance, but without repentance there is no forgiveness, there is no correction - the human soul perishes. For it is said: “Unless you repent, you will all also perish” (Luke 13:3). A person can have true repentance and forgiveness of sins only in the Church, which has been given the power to bind and loosen (Matthew 16:19) and in which there are all sorts of touching examples of true, godly, fruitful repentance; Meanwhile, many foolish, self-important, ignorant of spiritual things have left the Church of God, the source of living water (Jer. 2:13), and dug for themselves leaky wells that cannot contain water. Chapter one. Turning to the path of salvation and passing this path A) The Church of Christ is the treasury of salvation Salvation is in and through Christ; The Church is a living organism; mutual communication between the earthly and heavenly Churches; grace; Sacraments of Repentance and Communion; the greatness of the priestly ministry; Church institutions and rituals December 25th, Christmas Day. – Today a mystery has been revealed, predetermined in the council of the Eternal before all ages, that is, the coming to earth of God in the flesh, the God-man. Sacrament - intended for the salvation of the fallen human race; a sacrament - as good as it is, so wise, faithful, most convenient for the salvation of every Orthodox believer and who tries to perceive with his mind and heart and with his whole life the power of this saving sacrament. This sacrament appeared for all nations, for the entire human race; it is preached, celebrated and assimilated in the one, established on earth by God Himself - the Flesh-Bearer, the holy Church of God, in the Holy Church. worship, sacraments and laws. So, through the sacrament of the incarnation of the Son of God, everyone is given the most certain means of salvation. Now I ask: has everyone perceived and perceives the power of this sacrament? Do everyone belong to the one Apostolic Church? The meaning and purpose of the incarnation, suffering and death of the Son of God. Man, created in the image and likeness of God in holiness and truth, through sin fell away from God and submitted to the enemy of God - the devil, who has the power of death, made his nature accessible to all evil and deceit, and was subjected to curse, disease and death. The connection with God is broken, man’s constant communication with God has ceased. It was impossible for man himself to restore this communication, this connection between the creature and the Creator, because it was necessary to restore holiness in fallen nature, cleanse it of all wickedness, revive it, renew it, remove the curse from it and reconcile man with God, destroying the barrier between God and man - sin. And this could only be done by an extraordinary Intercessor, neither an angel nor anyone else, but God Himself. For this, He needed to take upon Himself the perfect sinless human nature and with it fulfill all the truth of God, enlighten with Himself - His teaching and life - human nature darkened by sin, instill in it true faith and holiness, intercede forgiveness of sins for faith and repentance, and for this, suffer for the sins of mankind and die on the tree of the cross and thereby bring a ransom for damned humanity - from sin, curse and death, and to seek blessings for pardoned humanity and all the powers of grace for life and piety. This is the meaning and purpose of the incarnation of the suffering and death of the God-Man voluntarily, out of sole goodness, sacrificing Himself for humanity in order to remove the righteous curse from it, give a blessing and open for it access to God, through faith and repentance, through moving away from sin and doing righteousness. These merits of the Son of God are so great, the atonement accomplished by Him is so rich and generous that it is abundantly enough to atone for the sins of the whole world, for pardon and salvation of the entire human race, if all humanity believed and repented. But not everyone has faith. There are many unbelievers, crafty, proud, self-important, who reject faith in Christ as the God-man, Redeemer and Savior, or believe with a cold mind, but do not have good deeds, do not force themselves to correct themselves and do good deeds, do not do works of repentance and, like an unfruitful fig tree, perish (Matthew 21:19). Many are called, but few are chosen! (Matthew 22:14) In order to overcome the sting of death that stung the human race, and to destroy the curse for sin, the Son of God Himself had to be incarnate and be a man and fulfill all the truth of God, which people should have fulfilled and did not fulfill; it was necessary to suffer execution on the tree of the cross for all the sins of mankind and taste death with the sinless, most pure Theanthropic Body in order to destroy the condemnation of our death and grant resurrection to the entire human race; - to ascend into heaven according to humanity in order to open heaven to us, and to sit at the right hand of God the Father, to seat those who overcome sin and the ruler of the world with Him on the throne of glory. Wonderful are the works (Sir. 11:4), marvelous is Thy look, O Lord, upon the human race! “Even though our outward man decays, yet his inward man is renewed every day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Corruption entered the world through sin; incorruption flourished through the fulfillment of God's righteousness; none of the people could fulfill the whole truth; it was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ alone, as the God-man. He is One and eradicates the corruption of sinful humanity according to his faith; He alone abundantly revealed the sources of incorruption in His Church through faith and rebirth in us: baptism, in the fragrance of chrismation, through which the Holy Spirit is given, by which every soul is alive and exalted in purity; He constantly restores incorruption in us - who sin many times every hour - through the Sacrament of Repentance and Holy Communion. Your Mysteries, through prayers and daily worship, through reading and hearing the word of God and obedience to it. The building of our eternal salvation takes too long to build and has too strong a foundation and an infinitely wise, all-good and all-powerful Artist: the eternal Lord Jesus Christ Himself is its Builder, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Blessed are all, those who share and participate in the sparkle! Therefore, brothers, all of you, like living stones, are built into a spiritual church - to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Peter 2:5), and firmly hope to receive eternal salvation in Christ Jesus, through your faith and works of love. Oh, what a wise building of our salvation! What a solid building! What leaders and intercessors! The Lord Himself, the Lady Theotokos, the angels of the Lord, the holy men of God! God confirm! Enlighten us, God! Love is sociable. God is infinite, perfect love, and He is infinitely sociable and merciful, for at the very beginning, when He created man in His image and likeness, He called him into communion with Himself, giving him a covenant, the fulfillment of which for endless ages would confirm his union with God, and when man frivolously and boldly violated this covenant, breaking the holy connection with his Creator and, entering into an alliance with the enemy the devil, deception from this latter, - the Tripostal God again called fallen man to union with Himself, giving him clear commandments, covenants, vows, threats, benefits for its renewal, - promising the one who has to come into the world as a Redeemer, His Only Begotten Son. When the time came for the Redeemer to appear, God Himself appeared in the flesh, becoming a perfect man from the Holy Spirit and the Most Pure Virgin Mary; always remaining God without confusion and separation with our nature, “since the children have partaken of flesh and blood, and He sincerely partook of the same, so that through death he may abolish him who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). How amazing, striking every angelic and human mind, is the sociability of God with man, of the beginningless, all-perfect Creator with creation! “The heavens and the earth were terrified at this and were amazed, for God had appeared as a man in the flesh!” And in order to reveal His sociability not only to the contemporary people of the God-man in the world, but to people of all ages, He gave an all-good, wise, joyful covenant to His Church - to perform the all-saving and most necessary sacrament until the end of the age - the celebration of the sacrament of His Body and Blood and the communion of believers. And we have the bliss of partaking of the Divine Brush very, very, often; and what a sincere, close communication! “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in him. Eat My Flesh and drink My Blood to have an eternal life. But if, says the Lord, you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man, you do not drink His blood, you do not have life in you” (John 6:53–56). Such is the communication of love from the beginning to the present day! The Ever-Virgin Mother of God Maria is also filled with love for humanity and especially for the Christian race that honors Her with dignity and righteousness. And how touchingly, wonderfully, beneficially, savingly Her communication was and is manifested from the very beginning of Her glorification and hitherto in countless signs, amazing and wonderful! How many miracles of Her intercession, protection, salvation of Orthodox kingdoms and peoples, private pious individuals or those who sincerely repented of their sins and untruths! How many miraculous icons, righteously blessed and glorified! In the likeness of the Lord and the Mother of God, what communion of love and salvation the saints showed and show. angels, archangels, many, many saints in the Church of Christ over Orthodox Christians, for example. Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Great Martyrs George and Panteleimon and various martyrs and martyrs: - Theodore Tiron, Theodore Stratelates, unmercenaries and miracle workers Cosmas and Damian, Great Martyrs Paraskeva, Catherine, Barbara, and many different saints. We, who are partakers of the Spirit of Christ and the grace of Christ - the Orthodox faith, will be jealous of this communion of love and will imitate in strength! Let us bear each other's burdens so that we may fulfill the commandments of Christ! (Gal.6:2). Do not spare your flesh for your neighbors, not only perishable things. The All-Blessed God, who clothed himself with all of me as a human being, united me, that is, all pious Christians, with His Divinity. Hence, it is my duty and that of every person to unite with each other through faith and especially through love. I must take care of communication, I must consider myself nothing other than a member of the Church, and I must love every person as myself. The Church is the guardian and teacher of incorruption, holiness, truth, mercy, abstinence, courage, purity and chastity. During every church service, home, private, and public, the spiritual gaze of an Orthodox Christian is presented with the thought, the idea of ​​a single spiritual Body, which is the Body of Christ, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, the Head of which is Christ God Himself; this - the Church of Christ or the spiritual Body of Christ consists of three tribes - heavenly, earthly and underworld, therefore St. The earthly Church (or the earthly tribe) daily intercedes before its Head for the forgiveness of the sins of those who have departed in faith and repentance and their introduction into the Kingdom of Heaven, and as mediators of its intercession it calls upon the members of the Heavenly Church and the Head of the Church’s mental structure, the Mother of God, so that with their prayers the Lord may cover their sins and not deprive them of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is very gratifying and comforting for us living on earth, members of the Church of God, to always believe, know and hope that our spiritual Mother, St. The Church continually prays secretly day and night for us; and that we are always under the gracious protection of the Lord Himself, the Mother of God, St. angels, the Forerunner and all the saints. For Catholics, the head of the Church is the Pope, a sinful man (although he is incorrectly proclaimed infallible) and, as such, he has made many errors in the Church of Christ, and by his very deeds he has shown himself to be such and has distorted and fettered the spiritual freedom and conscience of Catholic Christians, at the same time subjecting Catholics to the wrong blasphemy and hostility of St. The Orthodox Church, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Protestants - the Germans and the English - have a completely distorted concept of the Church, for they do not have the grace of the legal priesthood; there are no sacraments except baptism and (the most important) communion of the Body and Blood of Christ; there is no tribe of heaven - the Church of Heaven: they do not recognize the saints, there is no tribe of the underworld - they do not recognize the dead and do not pray for them, considering this unnecessary. Glory to the Orthodox Church! Glory to Christ God - the most holy Head - the only Head of the Church of God on earth! – Glory to God in the Trinity that we did not fall into blasphemy against God, did not recognize and will not forever recognize a holy sinful man as the head of the Church! “May Thy Holy Body, O most gracious Lord, be the bread of the eternal life, and may Thy holy Blood be the healing of manifold ailments.” What kind of tender, wonderful, holy, wise, incomprehensible, divine love for sinful, believing humanity in the Christian, Orthodox Church? What are the fruits of communion: purification, sanctification, renewal, peace, joy, deification, eternal life! And our schismatics do not have this wonderful benefit. The apostate and scolder of faith, Leo Tolstoy, deprived himself of this blessing. What is the great love of God and His saints for us unworthy? And the fact is, by the way, that God and His saints, by grace, very quickly give us, through our prayer, the spiritual benefits we ask for, and often material ones, if they are necessary for us. Therefore, always pray with confidence that you will receive what you ask for. Why does St. educate and educate humanity? The Church with its teaching, sacraments, governance? To a spiritual, incorruptible, eternal and blissful kingdom with God and with the saints in heaven. To do this, people must first be prepared, enlightened, cleansed, changed with a good change, renewed, taught incorruptible, immaculate life, meekness, humility, purity, simplicity, obedience, courage, patience, self-control, unfeigned love, mercy, firm hope, undoubted faith, non-covetousness, sociability in earthly, material and spiritual goods. According to the establishment of our St. Church, every day, every week, month and year, during daytime, morning, and evening services, we rejoice with the Mother of God, with St. heavenly powers and with all the saints: patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, saints, righteous ones, glorifying their righteous lives and exploits. We ask them to be our prayer books, intercessors before God and through their prayers we hope to achieve the Kingdom of God, which they have achieved, and especially through the grace and generosity and love of the only begotten Son of God, who sacrificed Himself for us, for our voluntary and involuntary sins. Seeing the faces of others, I see my own face, for we are all, as one, created by God, from one person, from one blood, and still in the image of God, and therefore we must look at everyone purely, unblemished, non-hostile, non-deceitfully, unselfishly and with pure, God’s love. Also seeing on the icons the faces of holy people, the face of the Mother of God and the God-Man Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, I see myself in them; for they too are men, and Jesus Christ our God has clothed himself in all of me, through the incarnation and incarnation, honoring humanity with immeasurable honor, driving out the stench of sin from those who believe and are baptized into Him and scenting them with the holiness of the Holy Spirit, indwelling them through faith and baptism and the communion of His Divine Body and Blood. So, see yourself in others, and others see themselves in you, love everyone as yourself; - also see in Christ, in His Most Pure Mother, and in the faces of the saints, yourself and humanity, appropriated to God, - and be appropriated to God and the saints through imitation of their shrine, - so that they also see themselves in you, how much you become like God and them in virtue, - and they will recognize in you their member, when you appear at the world court, and they will take you to themselves as their own. The Most Holy Theotokos is my unshameful, firm consolation; She is filled with goodness, holiness, mercy, compassion - which I do not have, that is, in Her in abundance; I do not have purity, holiness, sincere goodness and mercy, but She has all this with all abundance, and She can ask everything from Her Son and God with her prayers and intercession. And therefore I pray to Her: show the depths of Your love for mankind, the depth of your compassion, and countless kindnesses and generosity to me, the damned; satisfy the pasture of sin, give up chastity and keep my soul and my body undefiled - wake up, wake up! The Womb of the Saints is humane, kind, moving toward mercy and compassion for everyone. Is the womb of the Mother of God not philanthropic and not moving towards mercy? She is an abyss of mercy and generosity. There were perspicacious saints on earth who knew the secret thoughts of hearts. Doesn’t the Mother of God always see all our thoughts, the Mother of God, in Whom the all-seeing Eye – the Lord Himself – has dwelt for all eternity. All the virtues are personified in the saints of God: virginity and the crucifixion of the flesh with passions and lusts - in the saints; lack of money - in those without money (against the love of money), contempt for the flesh and for life itself in martyrs; love for truth in general is in the righteous; love for virgin purity, humility, obedience - in the Blessed Virgin Mary. Draw from whoever you want: the sources are numerous and inexhaustible! What will happen to that person who, having fallen from a ship into the water and seeing a rope or a boat thrown to him to save him, not only does not grab the rope or boat, but also pushes them away? He will die in the abyss. Such are the Christians who, for salvation from eternal destruction, were given from heaven, as it were, a rope - St. Scripture, all the sacraments with the greatest mystery of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The boat of salvation is the Church of Christ. Whoever rejects Her will undoubtedly perish, and rightly so, for his pride, for his madness, superstition, vile addiction and his caprice. “Even though an Ethiopian can change his skin (black to white) and his lynx is variegated, so you cannot do good, having learned evil”: this means that evil is from our very beginning in our nature fallen by sin, and without the special grace and help of God, a person cannot do pure good on his own and all almost his good deeds are saturated with pride, calculation, self-interest, partiality, vanity, desire for human glory or fear, servility before the powerful of this world. Just as an Arab cannot change his black skin to white and a lynx cannot change his motley skin, so you cannot do good, being accustomed to evil and deceit. – We need all-powerful, gracious help from above. The mercy of God is indescribably great, transforming our evil hearts, through repentance, into good ones, angry ones into meek ones, self-loving ones into God-loving ones, prodigal ones into chaste ones, covetous ones into non-covetous ones, lazy ones into eager ones, proud ones into humble ones, voluptuous ones into abstinent ones, dead ones into living ones. This is a real miracle of transformation, restoration and renewal! For this be glory to the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving One! Who needs repentance - us or the Lord, to whom we repent? Of course, not to the Lord, but to us sinners, constantly guilty before Him in deed, word and thought, we need to constantly restore our union with God, which is constantly broken. We face a terrible and endless disaster if we break our vital, holy and blessed union with God, without which the creature cannot live a blessed life, but must suffer endlessly. The soul was created in the image of God, but sin perverted it and made it in the image of the devil, an apostate from God, full of all evil and wickedness, and became evil and wicked and everything became in his image. Repentance given to us, the great gift of the most merciful God, restores the soul to its first goodness, makes it again in the image and likeness of God, takes away the ugliness of sin and bestows the first beauty, and introduces it into a blissful union with God. Also, all the Sacraments - Baptism, Confirmation, Communion, Priesthood, Blessing of Anointing, Marriage - are needed not by God, but by us for the restoration and maintenance of our blessed union with God, also daily worship, fasting, holidays, Sunday - is needed for us, and not for God, who does not need anyone or anything. Sincerely, with a contrite and humble heart, before God, without mercy, to examine your life and your sins and impartially condemn yourself for them, to sincerely desire (hunger and thirst) for correction from the sins and passions that daily entangle our soul - this is true repentance! Trying to make amends for past sins and passions is true repentance. Deciding to completely abandon this or that passion, this or that bad habit - this is true repentance! Otherwise, what kind of repentance is that?! We are always almost outside of ourselves, and not in ourselves, because we are always busy with external affairs and things, passing by with our attention our inner world. The rite of repentance or the day of repentance gives us an opportunity and a reason, an incentive to go deep inside ourselves and test, check our inner content, our thoughts, desires, intentions, our faith, our deeds, our actions, our relationships with God and people; your love or dislike, find out your habits, passions, inclinations, in a word - to understand your inner world or your inner chaos and - bring everything into possible order. Confession has the goal of purifying and correcting hearts, “Son, give me your heart”! Whoever, out of pride, does not want to admit his guilt before a person cannot sincerely repent before God. Confess your mistakes sincerely, with humility before people, and you will be able to repent before God. With God's help, we began Great Lent and spent its first week in prayers of repentance and earthly worship, and awakened our souls that were in sinful slumber, lifted the sinful bandage from our heart's eyes, came to the knowledge of our sins and prepared with a contrite heart to repent of them, realizing their madness, absurdity, destruction for us and for others, and to reconcile with an angry God. Is this true? Are we ready to be reconciled with God, Our Creator and Savior? – Fasting was established precisely for this purpose, so that through abstinence and prayers of repentance we could be renewed, enlightened, awaken from the sleep of sin and cheerfully, firmly, wisely, diligently fulfill the commandments of God, leading us to eternal life. What a wonderful power is repentance! Unfeigned, comprehensive repentance constantly bows to the mercy of God, who is angry with our sins and all sorts of untruths, and miraculously changes the state of our soul, taking away from it sorrow, oppression, confusion, impenetrable darkness, establishing in the soul peace, tranquility, rightness of spirit, boldness, light, strength, cheerfulness, renewal. Glory to God, who has deigned so well! And this grace of repentance is given to all believers, without distinction, throughout their lives. “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood in me, I also abide in him” (John 6:56). What a close, spiritual, holy, imperishable, blissful union of creation with the Creator! But how can a Saint abide in a sinner? How can light coexist with darkness, for sin is demonic darkness - or incorruptibility with corruption, truth with lawlessness, fragrance with stench, beauty with ugliness, splendor with human absurdity, constancy with changeability, simplicity with wickedness, humility with pride, meekness with anger, spirit with flesh, that is, with all passions, love with malice human, mercy with hardness of heart, purity and holiness with sinful impurity! Man is a free being; he can be changed by a good change by the grace of God, he can become simple from the evil one, good from the evil one, meek from the angry one, pure from the unclean one, through diligent unceasing repentance, sighing, tears, prayers, just as the publican changed through repentance and sighing and through a short prayer: God, be merciful to me a sinner! (Luke 18:13) A person who has become old and defiled by sins can become a new creation. My God, what immense love, what kindness! What a complete gift! The Lord gave Himself to me as food and drink with all eternal and endless blessings. He gave himself entirely to the insignificant worm - man. God! that you exist, because you remember me and visited and inhabited me! (Ps.8:5; Heb.2:6) The Lord presents Himself to us under the forms of bread and wine for the same reason that He appeared to men carnally, with a human soul, that is, because otherwise a person cannot unite with Him, except through His visible and tangible nature - the most pure Body and Blood, transformed in essence and truth itself from bread and wine. This is the greatest goodness and wisdom of God, acting by the power of the Divinity of our sweetest Lord. Having received Holy Communion Mystery, always remember Who is in you and in Whom you should be. Having received communion of the meek, blameless Lamb, you must yourself be a gentle and blameless lamb; Having partaken of the Fullness of all blessings, one should not hunger for earthly blessings or feel sorry for them for one’s neighbor; Having communed with the mountain of the King, become wise on the mountain yourself, leaving behind earthly, carnal wisdom, hasten to the heavenly and eternal refuge! Why do we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ? In order to be cleansed from sin, to be enlightened, to be sanctified, to be renewed, to renounce earthly passions, in order to think about things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, for Christ who abides in us is in heaven. You, priest, become especially wise on high, despising all earthly passions. How good it is to receive Holy Communion. Secrets with an empty stomach i.e. after abstinence the day before! What peace, sweetness, boldness, breadth, lightness of soul! The Lord in His Blood drowns all my sins, delivers me from all evils, sorrows and illnesses and bestows all blessings: light and strength, peace, joy, bliss, perfect life. This is what I always experience after uncondemned, bold, with faith and love, communion of the Holy Mysteries. What will I bring, or what will I repay to my greatly gifted immortal King and to every creature for all His countless, immeasurable and all kinds of benefits to me? If I bring songs equal to the sand of the sea to You, Holy King, I will do nothing worthy of what You have given me! Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Life-Giving Mysteries! How many times have I seen sick people melt away like wax from illness, completely weakened and extinguished, and when I communed them with the Divine Mysteries, which they demanded either on my advice or on their own heartfelt desire, they miraculously and quickly recovered. So, I gave communion to one old man, over 80 years old, living in poverty with his family, twice at different times, when he was desperately ill, made a will and blessed all his household, and both times, on the second or third day, he got out of bed and recovered. In the gymnasium, one student of the lower class was unwell for three months with inflammation of the abdomen, had no appetite, and in the end he was completely emaciated to the point of skeleton, and was very close to death. I looked at him, advised him to partake of the Holy Mysteries, aroused in him a desire for them; then he soon came to give him communion: he gave communion, and the patient began to eat, drink and quickly get better, and soon got out of bed and was ready to go to class. Another merchant boy was sick with fever for 6 weeks, but as soon as he received Holy Communion, he recovered. It is remarkable that organisms affected by diseases seem to expect the Divine Body and Blood and, upon receiving them, are immediately revived and restored. These are only three cases that I could quickly recall. But I bear witness to God and my priestly conscience that the cases of rapid recovery of the sick after communion of the Divine Mysteries are countless in number. The Giver of Life, who rests entirely in His Life-giving Mysteries, often bestowed health and life on the sick, close to death, from whom He expected more good fruits. How then are Christians afraid to invite a priest to the sick person, so that, as they think, they do not frighten the sick person with the thought of imminent death, and thus allow him to melt away in his illness and remain without Christian refreshments, without the source of immortality, the Holy Body and Blood of Christ? O lack of faith! O demonic blindness! Fear Christ the Life-Giver and His Life-Giving Mysteries! Fear our Sweetest Savior! Don't be afraid of St. Mystery, but to wish with all your soul their communion at the very beginning of the illness of every sick person and before any medical medicine to take this Divine medicine! And we ourselves must do this and advise others to do the same; Then our most severe illnesses would pass very quickly and would not languish us in bed: we would not be bored with many different medicines, the money for doctors and medicines would remain at home and could be used for the benefit of poor people or for our own necessary needs. I do not reject doctors and natural healing methods: doctors are needed; The Lord granted them, and the Lord indicated medical benefits, but they must be used after receiving the Life-Giving Miracle Medicine; In the beginning, you should only use medicine when the disease occurs suddenly and does not tolerate delay in medical care. It is a disaster for the soul not to receive Holy Communion for a long time. Mystery: the soul begins to stink of passions, the strength of which increases the longer we do not communicate with our Life-Giver. What a saving, deifying sacrament the Lord entrusted to the hands of the priests, instructing them to perform, by the grace of the priesthood, by the power of the Life-giving Holy Spirit, the sacrament of His most pure Body and Blood! How holy and blessed must be the persons who perform this heavenly sacrament and often partake of it, making the multitude of people who partake blessed and joyful! How bright and glorious is the Church, which has within itself such sacraments, handed down to it from the Lord Himself - the Self-Life of all, and what it contains is immutable and holy, from the beginning to the present! What terrible greatness, what infinite truth, what immeasurable goodness does the priest sacrifice during the celebration of the all-embracing liturgy, and what kind of a priest should be who makes such a sacrifice! How one should be imbued with love for people; how holy he must be, impartial to everyone and everything! How one must always prepare for this service of the liturgy! During the celebration of the Liturgy, the entire Orthodox Christian race is brought to a single denominator, that is, to the single Body of Christ (the Church is the Body of Christ), and to the single Head - Christ, and those who diligently, with deep faith and truth in their hearts, perform this all-encompassing service of God - act in a salutary and striving manner on the entire Catholic Church, on all three tribes: heavenly, earthly and underworld. ABOUT! May God grant that we always perform this service with a reverently pure heart, embracing in our hearts the entire fullness of the Church! “Whom you foreknew, these you also predestinated” (Rom. 8:29). The Lord has vouchsafed me priestly service, the greatest after the royal service, to Him and His people, the Creator and His creation: the service of a priest is an intercessory, conciliatory, educational, secret, spiritual-administrative, sanctifying, renewing, fulfilling, deifying service. It elevates a person to heaven and even raises him above heaven when he celebrates the mystery of the Eucharist, the mystery of the most pure Body and Blood of Christ; here the priest himself unites mysteriously and essentially with the Lord in the mystery of Communion and unites people with God and serves as a mediator of their deification. The Lord has entrusted you with a bottomless treasure - immortal human souls, redeemed by His Blood: spare nothing for them, no labor, not even your very life, in order to save them and bring them into the Kingdom of Heaven, prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Do not have partiality for anyone, do not doze, do not sleep, do not be lazy, love the verbal sheep of the Lord, their eternal good, with all your heart; stay awake, act continuously for their good, be strong and take courage against opposing forces; and your reward will be abundant in heaven. Lord, behold, this begins the “week” of my unworthy of You, the King who is without beginning and before the ages - service, my standing before Your terrible and life-giving throne, and intercession for myself and for Your people, so that you may cleanse the sins of all; a week of service to the most heavenly, most pure, all-redeeming Divine and terrible Mysteries, the service of truth, the service of incorruptibility and immortality, renewal and deification, the highest, Divine service, of which there is nothing more holy or higher in the world. Help me in this ministry every day, unceasingly, may the grace of Your Holy Spirit protect me from all sin, keeping me in holiness! Grant me, Lord, for this service a pure, courageous and vigorous, firm heart, a good-voiced organ of the tongue, a splendid, calm, firm appearance; grant that we stand before Thy throne with extreme fear, love and thanksgiving, with a burning spirit. Let us pray for ourselves and for all people sincerely; to praise and thank You on behalf of everyone with a fiery heart and lips; Perform, use and teach the Holy Mysteries with fear and great love. So grant me, Lord, to serve You in the order of my turn all the days of my life. Amen. The priest very often uses the sign of the cross with the folded finger in order to remind himself and everyone for whom he prays and for whom he performs services - that he prays and acts in the name of Christ, and not on his own, that all the effectiveness and power of his ministry lies in Christ or in the grace of God. Glory to the wondrous power of Your cross, O Lord! When our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross, nailed to it by Roman soldiers, then - oh, a wondrous and terrible thing! – Christ and the cross were one, Christ’s Flesh and the wood of the cross were joined with nails into one. Thus, the Lord, as it were, became engaged to the cross and several hours of His hanging on the cross united Him, so to speak, with the cross until the end of time; and that is why the cross has many different powers, and will have it until the end of the age; that is why the cross is called Christ-bearing and life-giving; that is why Christ, the cross and the sign of the cross are one and the same: Christ on the cross and the cross in Christ; that is why any disdain for the cross is disdain for Christ the Savior Himself. And how many ways the cross and the sign of the cross are neglected; how many Christians carelessly cross themselves and do not want to properly mark themselves with the sign of the cross, how many are ashamed to be baptized! Brothers! Are you ashamed of the instrument of your salvation, or the victorious trophy of your Lord? Are you ashamed of your glory? Let me not boast except in the single cross of the Lord; “Having suffered on it, kill the passions, for this sake we also hold up the cross of the Lord, for we all praise, for we have this tree of salvation, the weapon of peace (with it we are reconciled with God), invincible victory, the cross is the image of the Trinity.” The sign of the cross, depicted by us on ourselves or on others, means that Christ is in us: or do you not know that Christ is in you, unless you are skilled in this? Where the cross is, there is Christ; By praying to God and making the sign of the cross on ourselves, we seem to say to the Heavenly Father: “For the sake of Your beloved Son, our Redeemer, who suffered for us and took upon Himself the sins of the world, and not for our sake, have mercy on us!” The complete blessing of God the Father rests on all altars, or thrones of Orthodox Christian churches, for God the Father spoke about His Son: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And in every church, the Only Begotten Son of God reclines on the throne in the Holy Mysteries: - this means that God’s entire favor rests in every church. Brothers! Catch with your heart’s ears every word of the Savior in the Gospel and apply it to your heart! This is not the word of man, which has often been false, empty, powerless, blissful, but the word of God, the word of truth, the omnipotent word. Every word of the Lord is life for us and everything spoken through the mouth of the Savior will come true to the last - nothing will pass away. Here on earth everyone strives for the light of the sun, moon or fire and does not want, they are bored, they are burdened to be in the darkness; but the majority do not strive for the eternal light of the Kingdom of Heaven and are not afraid of the eternal impenetrable darkness, even many love to be in sinful darkness and do not come to the light, lest their deeds be exposed! Brothers and sisters, greedy for darkness, have pity on your immortal soul, strive for eternal light, run away as quickly as possible from eternal darkness, time flies quickly. “A light has come into the world. Walk in the darkness, no one knows what's going on. Believe in me, not to walk in darkness, but to have the light of life” (John 8:12). Read the Gospel: here is our sun. Oil (or wood oil) means mercy from Greek and serves as a sign of God's mercy constantly pouring out on us; The oil burning in front of the icon signifies both God’s unceasing mercy towards us and our grateful sacrifice for these mercies and the continuation of our life, like spiritual oil and fire. For this purpose, we remember in prayer the living or the deceased, that it is also convenient and possible for the Lord to have mercy on famous persons, as we please to pronounce their names. If the Lord is so good and so mercifully bows to our heartfelt prayers, if pardon sometimes depends on the heartfelt prayerful pronunciation of His name alone, then how can we not pronounce in prayer out of Christian love the names of forefather, father and our brothers, relatives, friends and acquaintances. Fasting is an exercise for mortifying the flesh and for crucifying it with passions and lusts (Gal.5:24). Those who do not fast unnecessarily do evil. To prepare for a life where there will no longer be food or drink, you need to fast here. This is why Christians have established so many fasts; they are gradual preparation for a life where they do not eat or drink. The development here of greed for food and drink is unworthy of a person destined for heaven. That is why the saints of God, who ardently desired blissful immortality, exhausted their flesh with fasting and prayer, mortifying their carnal passions. Why fasting, Lenten services, bows, repentance, rare and early ringing? To bring a person to the consciousness and feeling of his sins, that he is removed from God - and is in danger of perishing, in order to destroy the barrier of sin and unite a person with God, in order to cleanse his heart from sin, and so that he sees God. “What era is the birthday or Angel Day of a person, why do we celebrate it? And here is the era: the day of taking office!” - this is what the secular man said. And I will say: this is absurdity! And what is more important, I ask you: entry into life and into this world, or entry into office? I think entry into life, because if you had not been born into the world, you would not have entered into office. No, it is worthy and righteous to honor with celebrations birthdays or namesake days: they are also the days of taking office in the service of the Heavenly King. Even Herod, great in atrocities, was aware of the need to celebrate his birthday. All people honor this great day for them - the day of their birth, brought from oblivion, and non-celebration, or better yet, disrespect for it, is ingratitude before the Creator for the invaluable gift of life and the inability to appreciate it! We solemnly celebrate the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, His Most Pure Mother, the Forerunner and Baptist John, the days of the apostles, prophets, hierarchs, martyrs, saints, righteous people and all saints. So, the birthday is an important era - since on this day God gave you a rational being, and the name day reminds you that you were given a Christian name and included in the society of those saved in Christ Jesus. B) Carrying your cross for Christ (Personal feat in the dispensation of salvation) 1) Fasting and abstinence; fighting passions and acquiring good habits. “Give flesh and receive spirit,” that is, leave the fleshly life and accept the spiritual Our flesh, as a substance revived by a soul fallen into sin, is blind, unreasonable, nervously irritable - therefore we do not need to obey it in everything, in all its physical arousals and demands. And so that we know when we need to obey it, when not, for this purpose the light of reason and the light of the commandments of Christ have been given, and with this light we must illuminate the animal impulses of our nature and moderate them, or completely cut them off; for this we have free will, i.e. we can not obey the impulses of our flesh, for example, the flesh forces me to eat and drink luxuriously, pleasantly and a lot, and I can not succumb to this influence and instead eat simple food, not very pleasant, a little, also drink simple drink that is not very pleasant, a little; the flesh forces me to sleep, to bask longer, but instead I resist it and sleep no more than enough to strengthen my strength, getting up from my bed when the flesh still wants to sleep and has difficulty letting me go from my resting bed. From here comes the virtues of sobriety, abstinence and vigilance. The flesh, due to its inertness and inactivity, disposes me to laziness, to indolence, to inaction. Should I obey her? Shouldn't. Otherwise, I will become lazy and do nothing for the rest of my life, I will bury my talents in the ground, and at the common judgment for all people I will be condemned, like an evil and lazy servant (Matthew 25:26), to eternal torment. Obviously, I must force myself in every possible way to do every good deed. The flesh attracts me to fornication, to drunkenness, to idle games, feasts, to music, to theaters, to revelry, because all this is pleasant to it, gentle, lulls it, indulges its unclean sinful desires. Should I follow these blind, ungodly impulses? Obviously not. Otherwise, I would have acted contrary to my reason, contrary to God’s commandments, contrary to my own good. The flesh attracts me to burn a cigarette, a cigar or tobacco in a pipe in my teeth, or to inhale tobacco powder through my nostrils. Should I again follow the blind attraction of my flesh, this carnal lust? No - otherwise I would act contrary to common sense, which suggests that the flesh should be given only that which serves to nourish it, maintain and strengthen its strength, protect it from the harm of the elements, which protects it from relaxation and illness. But tobacco not only does not nourish, does not support life and health, on the contrary, it clearly harms them, relaxing the body and creating a source of disease in it, for tobacco, as a narcotic plant, is pungent, produces a pungency in the blood, affects the lungs, produces poor digestion, relaxes intestinal activity, and generally relaxes the whole body. This can be seen very often in many individuals who smoke tobacco heavily and have little exercise in the fresh air, especially those leading a sedentary clerical life. How many individuals do I know who have completely upset their physical body through frequent, prolonged, voracious smoking of tobacco! And what can drunkenness, gluttony, delicacy, and adultery lead to! Who has not seen the unfortunate victims of excessive drinking of wine? Who has not seen the pitiful victims of debauchery, who have irretrievably lost the purity of soul and body, strength of strength and health, and walk like ghosts in this world? After this, please follow your blind, unreasonable, sin-loving flesh! No - we have all been given the light of reason, conscience, revelation of God or the light of God’s commandments; and we must urgently follow these lights if we wish ourselves health, peace of mind, long life and the salvation of our souls. “Do not please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:14). They who are Christ's are the flesh crucified with passions and lusts" (Gal. 5:24). More about the same flesh: due to their blind greed, some people would like to take everything for themselves and not give anything to others from the captured or righteously obtained property. Is this reasonable? Obviously reckless, because for one person very little is needed, and the excess should be removed to the needy or the poor, because we are all brothers and sisters of the One Heavenly Father, Who has given His gifts in abundance to everyone, Who has given to everyone the light of the sun, moon and stars; revitalizing air, cooling and thirst-quenching drink; the earth with everything that is on it - and not for me separately; and our very bodies are created from one earth, which, thus, is an element common to all. If the earth is an element common to all and we are earthly in body and are supported by earthly bread, then why should I have that much more bread beyond my needs, while others do not have it? Have you seen a greedy miser? He carries within himself a source of fierce torment for his free madness. He is boring, joyless, gloomy, tied up internally, whereas with his abundance he should live in peace, joy and simplicity. Please follow your blind, sinful flesh after this! And yet there are rich people who have made thousands and millions - and from this sea of ​​earthly blessings they do not want to remove a few drops for those in need. These rich people are awake and trembling over their treasures, as over their lives; they chained their hearts to them and exchanged their spiritual, heavenly blessings, their sublime thoughts and feelings for them: - after this, please follow your blind, sinful flesh! She closed your eyes, tied you hand and foot, and in life she is dragging you into hell, into the clutches of the devil. And what would happen to us if the grace of God did not knock on the doors of our hearts, if the light of the Gospel did not enlighten us, if we did not repent of our errors, did not come to our senses and did not take the path of light and truth? Sinful and blind flesh would drag us all into hell. After this, please follow the desire of your sin-blinded, greedy flesh! How strong the enemy of intemperance is within me; how terribly his mouth gapes, seeking to devour the multi-passionate me! Strict moderation should always be observed in food and drink. The saints maintained strict abstinence throughout their lives and conveniently overcame all the machinations of the enemy, praying and working tirelessly. All earthly life is a feat of struggle, and not of pleasure and laziness; not the pursuit of wealth and honors. Fast food, due to its strong nutritional value, coarseness, oiliness, is heavy for the body and soul, relaxing the body with an excess of nutrients and its indigestibility, and exposing the soul to despondency and melancholy; In addition, it produces lustful movements in the heart and in the flesh. A priest who receives Holy Communion daily must at least eat meat less frequently and in small quantities. Blessed a thousandfold is he who tries to preserve the purity and nobility of his Christian soul and remains faithful to Christ. He becomes a pillar in the Church of God, which is motionless by all the enemy’s excuses, by all passions. – But passions are extremely charming and fascinating: they are overcome by those who learn to despise the flesh as fleeting, who rejected friendship for the flesh and crucified it with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), for the sake of the love of Christ. Lord, grant me to always remember that my worst enemy and Yours is my flesh; My carnal heart is always in me and with me and always seeks what is contrary to Your will. God! grant me to always stubbornly resist my flesh and my heart and mercilessly fight against it! My heart, my old man, is blind, stinking, mad and evil. Grant me the strength to crucify him, to reject him, not to trust him like a viper, but to always step on him, trample on him, despise him, do everything in defiance of him! If you want (and how can you not want the good of everyone!) for God’s love to completely embrace your soul, try to completely extinguish and cut off all carnal passions that extinguish spiritual love, love for God and neighbor, and for the future life. For what fellowship is there between light and darkness, and righteousness with iniquity! A lover of money is not a lover of God; a carnivore is not a god-pleaser; a glutton is not a spirit-bearer or a god-bearer. In heaven there is strict logic - there are no contradictions, there cannot be even an iota of confusion between good and evil: the world of contradictions and mixtures is only here. And everything here is a soap bubble! I am constantly tired of my old man, fallen and corrupted into the depths, participating in the devilish nature in wickedness, malice, envy, fornication uncleanness, blasphemy, murmuring, impatience, laziness and inertness in faith, disobedience, disobedience, pride, greed and covetousness, gluttony and voluptuousness, in cooling towards the primary source of my life - God and towards my neighbor. He constantly hurts me, especially when I need to serve God and my neighbor with willingness, humility, and zeal. What is required is constant attention to oneself, the fight against sin, and constant repentance; there is a need for God’s unceasing mercy and healing of my soul from the wounds inflicted by the enemy. Oh, how I will escape from the enemy, this sin-loving one. Have mercy on me, Lord, as you usually do, the all-good One, who commanded to leave those who fall into sin seven to seventy times over! (Matthew 18:22) Prove, man, your love for God by exact fulfillment of His holy commandments, by firm resistance to the sin that fights you, for example. fornication, hostility, anger towards one's neighbor, contempt and pride towards him, partiality or disdain for his unseemly face; or envy, stinginess, love of money, hard-heartedness. – In the very beginning of other internal, hidden attacks of sin on the heart, try to firmly resist them, abhor them, despise them, no matter how charming, sweet, fascinating and violent they are, do as the chaste Joseph did, drawn to the bed of an Egyptian woman, and say to sin: “How can I create this evil verb and sin before God” ( Gen.39:9)? Sin is swift as lightning and can infect a soul that is not awake in an instant with its destructive poison, but it will not harm the one who constantly listens and has the fear of God in his heart, for such a one is protected by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit. Guardian angel. In whom there is a living faith in Christ, in whom Christ lives, the evil one will not touch him, seeing a soul protected by faith and the fear of God. – In any case, we need a constant struggle with sin, which creeps in through all the senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch; he sneaks like a thief, breaks into all the senses, like through windows and doors. Never spare any sin in yourself and diligently, joyfully crucify it at every opportunity you encounter, and for this, deny yourself, crucify your pride, your whims, your resentment, your pride, malice, envy, stinginess, laziness, despondency, cowardice, fear and love as benefactors those who hurt, as they say, your pride, awaken your passions intentionally or unintentionally. We usually have some kind of painful love for sin: it aches, our hearts hurt with passion, and yet we surrender ourselves to it. We must hate passion as sin, as the product of the devil, as death, as alienation from God. If you are carried away by any passion for a famous person, such as the passion of cowardice, fear, anger, pride, try to talk to that person from the heart, with spiritual love. If you remain silent and doze, the enemy can conveniently overcome you and instill hostility or false fear in you. If you are attracted to someone by an adulterous passion, then either do not speak to that person, or arm yourself with the name of the Lord, constantly carrying Him in your mind and heart, and you will overcome the passion, enduring yourself with dignity. In general, do not tolerate the leaven of passions in yourself for a minute, but drive them away from yourself with all your might. You are languid, melancholy - look in your soul to see if there is any sin in it, sincerely repent of everything that you find bad about yourself, abhor every sin, passion, every addiction; then your soul will be at peace and rejoice. There are moments when a person is full of evil and anger, when evil, like water, fills and drowns the soul and spills more and more, if it is not stopped in time by sincere repentance and the most fervent prayer. What should be done against this flood? It is necessary to contrast a stronghold in the soul - faith in God and firm, unfeigned love, which is long-suffering, merciful, does not get irritated, does not think evil, and never ceases (1 Cor. 13:4,8). Otherwise, we have a lot of pride, self-indulgence, love for peace and pleasure, but very, very little love for our neighbors: selfishness eats away; and an egoist is not a Christian: a Christian does not seek his own, but the benefit of his neighbor. Reflecting on how many painful and soul-destroying temptations come from the evil one through the medium of sight, you come to the consciousness of the need to tear out the eye not with your hand, but with your free will, so that it is better for one of the members to perish (that is, one of the passions of the soul), and not the whole body be thrown into Gehenna, that is, not the whole person with all his sins. Indeed, how deceitful is the spiritual eye of a sinner—and I am the first sinner—seeing beauty and being seduced by lust that corrupts and defiles the soul and departs from God; sees ugliness, ugliness, ugliness or deformity, and despises and turns away from the ugly, the ugly, the deformed in body, although the soul of the ugly is the same as that of beautiful people, and is also created in the image of God, and is also a member of Christ, and one should love the ugly and ugly or sick person just as much as any other person, or even more, because he has the misfortune of being innocently, not for sins, not for guilt, despised by so many. God! Teach us to love unfeignedly, teach us, in order to fulfill Your righteous, eternal Gospel, to righteously put away the tempting eye of the heart; it is one, but there are two bodily eyes; That’s why it is said: “If your eye (and not your eyes) causes you to stumble” (Mark 9:47). When you find temptation to sin, anger, bitterness, fornication, envy, delicacy, laziness and sleep, disobedience - firmly resist it with selflessness, despising sinful pleasures and carnal fury and heart movements, and when you overcome sin with the help of God, you will see for yourself how much joy, peace, contentment, inner triumph a conscientious person contains. selfless struggle against sin and victory over it. Oh, that all sinners like me would experience and know this, and would become everlasting conquerors of every sin, striving for virtue, if necessary, even to the point of blood and death! How much sweetness, bliss, peace, inner contentment, satisfaction is hidden in communication with God; This spiritual sweetness, this peace, this spiritual freedom is hindered by our sins, and each one in particular. Sorrow and distress upon every soul of a person who does evil, according to the strict definition of the eternal truth of God. If you want to rest forever on your bed in the Kingdom of Heaven, strive here in your earthly journey against all sin and stand firm in faith and virtue. Before a person sins openly, there is a secret fermentation of sin or some kind of passion, hostility, fornication, envy, disobedience in him, and in order not to sin openly, one must fight sins secretly, and with prayer and God’s help overcome them. If we always conquered our passions at their very origin, then they would not have a place in public manifestation, would not worry or confuse other people, and there would be peace on earth. In order to inherit eternal life and communion with the saints, it is necessary to prepare for this communion, to be washed from the filth of sin, to be cleansed, to be adorned, to be trained, to be established in virtue, in order to be consistent with the inhabitants of the Heavenly Fatherland, with its Head and Leader and the Father of the future age - with Christ. The consciousness of sins is darkened; it must be clarified; the heart and conscience fall asleep, we need to wake them up; the will becomes dull, inactive for prayer, thought of God, contemplation - it must be encouraged, the lazy one must be aroused to godly, soul-saving activity; the lips are closed and silent; one must boldly open them and say what is useful; in general, act together with all three forces of the soul: mind, heart and will! “Watch,” that is, do not fall asleep with your heart, be always on guard over it, like a sentry stands on guard over gunpowder, so that the villain does not sneak up on him and throw a spark of fire at him and ignite him; “Watch, for you do not know the hour of the day, in the same place the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:13). lest he come suddenly and find you asleep” Mark 13:36. So, “be sober and watchful, for your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). In the entire course of our life: in dealing with people, in words when reading, in church singing, in serving God and people, in thoughts, feelings, in actions - our invisible enemy tries to infuse sin and sin into our soul, into feelings, into our body, pride, self-love, wickedness, disgust, contempt, envy, hostility, uncleanness, etc., and thus tries to defile and corrupt everything our relationship to our neighbors and to God Himself, Who loves the holiness, goodness and simplicity of our hearts. Therefore, look vigilantly at yourself to see if your evil rival and teacher of all evil and deceit is with you, whether he is poisoning your spiritual atmosphere with his hellish, all-evil atmosphere - and constantly cleanse your heart, thoughts, feelings, imagination, memory, intentions, actions - and align your entire life with the good, holy and all-perfect will of God. A secret action takes place in our souls every day: either alienation from sin and the appropriation of grace to the Lord by our voluntary work, zeal, through prayer and the sacraments of the Church, or the secret and obvious work of the invisible enemy to alienate our soul from God through various passions, thoughts, lusts and sinful actions, as it is said: “everything in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, not from Father, but is of this world” (1 John 2:16). So, be attentive to yourselves and do the works of God, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, doing holy things in the fear of God. “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need and the needy delights it” (Matthew 11:12). Evil demons are deceitful always and everywhere, and at a time when the priest, at the request of the believers, blesses them with the sign of the cross: and here they often put into it negligence, laziness, carelessness, lack of faith, coldness, in order to deprive him and other fruits of the blessing of the Lord. Everywhere, therefore, you need extreme attention to yourself. When we begin to reject the old man with his deeds, then, as a necessary consequence, the cross of sorrows and patience will appear for us, and these sorrows will, in turn, be the following of Christ. “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and come after Me” (Matthew 16:24). In each of us there is an angry, capricious child (heart), who is ready to get angry and capricious every minute because of the slightest pretext, because of the slightest displeasure. There is no need to pay attention to him and his evil will must be crucified in every possible way. Let a new person live in us, kind, humble, patient, simple. It’s as if I don’t exist, there is only God, who is all in all (all things in all 1 Cor. 15:28); there should not be my will, there should only be God’s: that is, my will should be identical with the will of God and merge with it. This is how a Christian should think, relying on God in everything, subordinating everything to His law and voluntarily disappearing in Him with his old man, and endlessly developing, improving, increasing and establishing himself with the new. “Martha spoke of many services” (Luke 10:40). This is us, caring about what and what dishes we should eat, what table to prepare: what kind of roast, sauce, soup or cabbage soup, what wine to buy and drink, what dress, hat, fur coat, cap to buy! Mary chose the good part - sitting at the foot of Jesus and listening to His words - which will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:42). How few of us have Marys like us who would sit at the Gospel and read with heartfelt attention the words of the Lord or listen to others! They read on holidays, not to mention weekdays - magazines, newspapers, novels, secular stories and do not pick up the Gospels or other sacred books. It's boring, they say. Well, brothers and sisters! You will also be bored in paradise! When you are bored with the Gospel, you will certainly become bored in the Kingdom of Heaven. And this is why, if you do not convert, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven: it will be a burden to you. But God does not force anyone. Who is to blame for the fact that you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven? You alone, no one else. You see, how necessary it is to acquire here on earth a disposition towards spiritual, heavenly blessings, how necessary it is to develop spiritual taste! But it cannot be developed without weakening, without trampling on the taste of earthly, worldly, carnal, sensual, coarse, material pleasures. Think, Christian, more often about the wonderful, gracious, wise, omnipotent, unchangeable economy of God, about our eternal salvation in Christ, and give up your groveling on the earth, expand your spiritual horizons, ascend to the representation of the past, present and future works of God's Providence in the human race and confirm with them your faith, your hope and your love for the Trinitarian Deity and His children - people, and leave carnal passions, despise the flesh as transitory, as a temporary earthly home; for “even if our earthly church body is destroyed, the creation of God imams is a church not made with hands, eternal in heaven, for for this we sigh, having desired to be clothed in our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:1-2). We must always remember that the Heavenly Father is constantly looking down on everyone from the heavens of the saints. “The Lord looks down from heaven upon the sons of men, seeing if they understand or seek God” (Ps. 13:2). Therefore, one must always have a heart turned to the Lord and live in unceasing love among one another, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Always keep before your heart's eyes the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, full of selflessness and all kinds of patience for our sake, from His birth to His resurrection from the dead - before that; wonderful birth into eternal life. What is happening in the external political world or in nature is, of course, interesting to know and sometimes very useful, although not for everyone; but what is happening in our inner world in our heart, everyone needs to know this. We will not be responsible for the affairs of the external world, but for the affairs of our inner world we will give a strict and accurate answer to God and receive due reward. So, we don’t read all newspapers and magazines, but we need to read the Gospel most of all. - Look: even the Mohammedans are devoted to their extravagant alkoran, but we do not want to read or listen to the self-existent Truth and Wisdom, teaching, working miracles and prophesying. What answer will we give to God for such a way of life! The first feeling in the life of a Christian should be the fear of God in the heart. And most Christians don’t have it. And what should he do when our hearts, weighed down by daily eating and drinking, feel not the fear of God, but heaviness and tightness? And what grace comes from fasting! What grace it is to deprive yourself of fast food and be content with fast food in moderation. This is where the fear of God will penetrate the heart, and faith will appear, and the heart will become purer - and it will be much easier to pray. Oh, our Mother, Holy Orthodox Church! How wisely You acted to legitimize fasting for Your children, and frequent fasting! How happy we would be if we observed them as we should! But the slaves of the womb do not feel the need for them, they are ready to condemn and condemn You for frequent fasting: their god is the womb. Man's heart is deep, and he must love God and neighbor, truth and all virtue deeply, and not superficially; it is necessary that love, truth and truth be deeply rooted in the heart; for then only faith and virtue are strong and unshakable. Our Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel: “Whoever wills to be in you, let him be the servant of all” (Mark 10:43). And the Apostle commands: “Bear one another’s burdens” (Gal.6:2). We, Christians, are the ones who sin the most. We need to serve someone, to intercede - we don’t want to ask for him, and we get annoyed at the one who asks us to worry for him. And then in our hearts there is both sorrow and tightness - the manifestation of God’s righteous anger towards us, selfish, angry, irritable and inattentive to God’s commands! We must all serve with alacrity and a bright face until the position of our lives; we must hate peace and bliss, for here is a time of all kinds of worries, labors, sorrows and various troubles, but eternal peace is there in heaven. What peace did the Savior have on earth? What bliss? He knew no rest either day or night: during the day he taught and healed the people, and at night he prayed; I had no place to lay my head, moved from place to place, endured ridicule, curses, blasphemy, searches, strangling, spitting, beating, and finally, nailing to the cross and death for our sake. Always keep in mind the example of your Lord and give up the addiction to peace and bliss “They are Christ’s, having crucified the flesh with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Having eaten a hearty meal, you must exhaust your strength in work, in prayer, in soul-healthy reading, otherwise the food will turn to the detriment of the soul and body due to idleness. That is why it was said to the first man: “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread” (Gen. 3:19). Eating and not working is a sin against God, who legalized eating bread by the sweat of the brow, that is, after labor; a sin against people, for we must work for the benefit of society, and a sin against ourselves, that is, against our soul and body. The soul of an idle parasite weakens, becomes pampered and becomes overgrown with thorns of passions and vices, and the body also suffers from thinness and harmful plethora, becomes burdened, becomes lazy and clumsy and, in general, a very unsuitable instrument for the soul. The great, priceless, life-giving gift of God is the word. Often, when tempted by the enemy, you only need to say one word or a few words from a loving heart - and the devil will leave. And without this, he is oppressed by despondency, tormented by unsociability, unsociability, cunning and even malice. You need good, simple communication with your neighbor through the word. We must learn to speak and speak on time; it’s not for nothing that we are called verbal creatures. Sometimes the enemy hurts us because we speak sluggishly, without firm confidence, but as soon as we begin to speak with confidence, the demonic wound will pass. Consider the feeling of embarrassment and anger at your brother when you meet him as the dream of the old man and the spirit of malice; consider the feeling of impatience, anger and irritability at some fault in your brother as the dream of the old man and the spirit of malice, and do not pay attention to them, strengthening yourself to be good and meek, remembering the constantly meek and humble Jesus, “whose suffering shall not be forgiven ( 1 Peter 2:23), and like a sheep that was led to the slaughter, and like a Lamb before its shearers was silent (Is. 53:7), - Who blew (His) cloaks on the wounds, and did not turn (His) cheeks on the blows, and did not turn away (His) face from the cold of spitting” (Is. 50:6). Here is your example, here is the guide for your life! May you know one feeling of love! Grace; its basis is the will of God; it requires self-sacrifice and self-compulsion; a lover's prayer for his loved ones. Lord, Thy will be done! And Your will is mutual love to the point of self-sacrifice for everyone: “This commandment I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:17). Grant me all my wealth, all the strength of my soul and body, to sacrifice to love! Teach me to despise the flesh and everything temporary and to thrive in love. Generous God! teach me to be generous! Jesus Christ did not spare himself for our salvation: will I spare the dust of the earth for my neighbors? Is it food, sweets, drink, clothing, shelter? Finally, yourself, your peace of mind, your strength, your abilities? Listen, watch closely: respect every person from the depths of your soul, and be constant, always respectful and loving towards him - this living image of God. What does Christian love consist of? In a sincere desire for good to one's neighbor, especially in his illness, misfortune and need; he is sick, wish him health from the bottom of your heart, advise him of a remedy for the disease that you know; try, if you can, to deliver it, walk around it. If your neighbor is in trouble, try to help him if you can. And since our nature is lazy towards good, we must constantly force it to do everything good. If your flesh regrets your property or your labors for your neighbor, then correct yourself now and show your readiness to willingly sacrifice your strength and tranquility for him. Just as good children, seeing their brothers and sisters acting against the will of their father, stop and admonish them, so Christians, children of the Heavenly Father in Christ, seeing their brothers living disorderly, not according to the commandments of Christ, must stop and admonish them. This is a common cause not only of shepherds, although it is predominantly shepherds. That is why we read the century “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 6:9-10). We should not spare anything for our neighbor, because everything is not ours, but God’s; everything is for people in general, and not for us alone; because we actually need very little, and even that little we are unworthy of due to our sins, and because many of us have large excesses. This is the true adornment and true life of the soul - unfeigned love and affection for your neighbor, no matter who he is; especially love and affection for orphans, the poor and beggars, the sorrowful at heart, the sick - this is a true adornment of the soul! This brings down the blessing of the Heavenly Father on our head and brings wonderful, deep peace of mind! May God and your neighbor, your love for God and for your brother, always be close to the objects of your heart, and may your heart never become scarce! In order to love God and your neighbor unfailingly, you must know and always remember that there are enemies of love: pride, arrogance, contempt, arrogance, hard-heartedness, doubt, unbelief, anger, irritability, envy, stinginess, covetousness, carnal voluptuousness and other passions that must be vigorously fought. The character of true love is universality, comprehensiveness, selflessness, impartiality and impersonality, constancy; and the nature of untrue, false, carnal love is exclusivity, isolation and limitation to a close circle of loved ones, useful, beautiful or rich, in general - self-interest, inconstancy, changeability: the root and end of worldly love is in man, from man and for man’s sake, or rather for its own sake, for the sake of self-indulgence and self-interest (egoism). – Plant and establish, O God, true love in our hearts and uproot, pluck out worldly, carnal love, for the sake of the world and for the sake of only ourselves; for she is not from You, and will receive from You not rewards, but punishment - like idolatry! We can judge our love for our neighbors by how we pray for them during public or home prayer: with composure or fervor, only externally or internally. If we love our neighbors, then we pray for them fervently, just as we pray for ourselves when we are in any trouble, for we are all one spiritual body. Cold prayer means a cold heart towards God and neighbor. We must maintain constancy in love for those for whom we pray, and remember them from the heart, driving away indifference and coldness towards them - in a word, pray for them as for ourselves, constantly wishing for them every good as we wish for ourselves - “with diligence, do not be lazy, with a burning spirit, working for the Lord.” Lord, look upon my desire and intention Yourself, enlighten me and confirm me in every matter! All your neighbors for whom you pray, by name or in general, are children of God in Christ Jesus and our members, for we are one body, and the Heavenly Father is very pleased and kind to pray - sincere, simple, fervent - for people who are His property, the dearest work of His Divine hands. So, pray for them without weakening, pray sincerely from the depths of your soul, in the simplicity of your heart, as you pray for yourself in sorrows and adversities. Prayer for people is a matter of love, a great sacrifice of love. Prayer; the basis of prayer is God’s love for people; properties of true prayer; “evil” prayer; how to acquire the liveliness of prayer; conditions for fulfilling prayer requests; "night" prayer; the benefits of unceasing prayer; the Lord's Prayer and its edification. With childlike gullibility and simple-heartedness, we must always pray to the Heavenly Father, in the hope of receiving from Him everything that we ask and that serves for our particular or for the common good. Blessed are the simple-hearted: they will receive everything from God. – “Whenever you pray, believe what you receive, and it will be done for you” (Mark 11:24). You also need to pray to the Lady Theotokos, angels and saints, for the same God acts in them, “working all in all” (1 Cor. 12:6) - and their will is in complete agreement with the will of God. With childlike love, simplicity and trust, like a child with his father or mother, talk in prayer with the Heavenly Father, vividly imagining Him standing before you, lovingly listening to your every word; try also to vividly imagine His love for you and for all people. If a father and mother passionately love their children, then how much more does the Heavenly Father love us all, Who, out of the abundance of His love, gave all parents feelings of love for their children, and gave His Son to death for us! This is the greatest, ineffable sacrament of love! What an abyss of love! Pray before the image of the Savior, look at His Face, thinking to yourself: He gave me life and preserves it, and grants eternal life; gave me reason, heart and will, sight, hearing, language, smell and touch; He gave me a verbal soul and His holy word, so that I may achieve eternal life; air to breathe, food and water to support temporary life; gave me a wife, children (if any); he does not despise me as a sinner, but for salvation he granted me repentance, and everything, everything he gives me; He included me in His Church, in the community of those being saved, washed me with baptism, sealed me with chrismation and gave me the law that leads to eternal life, teaches me through shepherds and guides me to eternal life. When you always think this way, your prayer will be heartfelt, ardent, reverent and fruitful. The morning and evening prayers laid down for Christians by the Church are a spiritual, guiding thread for every Christian; this thread leads (or should lead) everyone to repentance, correction, righteousness, to the very Source of truth - to Christ, Who alone can justify everyone who believes and works. Prayer is the free outpouring of the soul, feeling its sins, weaknesses and shortcomings, or the mercy and perfection of God. We must more often bring into consciousness what we pray for every day - morning and evening, what we ask the Lord for - and mainly we pray to the Lord for the holiness and integrity of life and to behave extremely carefully throughout the day, according to the commandments of God. Listen to yourself... Lord, help me to lead a rational and verbal life, and not like the dumb - to be carried away by passions, lusts and pleasures! Listen to your heart, pay attention so that your prayer is always offered: 1) with love for the work, that is, for yourself; 2) with faith and trust in God the Father, the most good, most generous, wise and omnipotent, and with love for Him and for all His faithful children, for the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God, angels and saints, for what kind of prayer is without love? In addition, prayer should always be offered in the world, for all the people around us, and not for ourselves alone, for all people, especially Orthodox Christians, especially for parents, spiritual fathers, children, relatives, the Sovereign and Spouse, the Heir and the entire Royal House. Our Mother, the holy Orthodox Church, teaches us this, praying for the whole world in general, especially for the different states and ranks of human society. You must be sure that your prayer is heard and accepted by God when you made it with boldness and undoubted heartfelt faith and when throughout its continuation you felt peace, lightness and sweetness of heart or a sincere and firm struggle with contrary thoughts. But if you doubt anything, then don’t expect to receive it. “If you have faith and do not doubt, not only do the fig tree miracle (the miracle with the fig tree), but if you say to this mountain, “Depart from here, it will be done for you” (Matthew 21:21 – 22). Let us ask in faith, without hesitation! (James 1:5) When you pray for the Holy Synod, the patriarchs, the local apostle, for your bishop, the honorable presbytery, the deaconate in Christ and all the clergy, for military leaders, city governors, the Christ-loving army, for the whole people or fatherland, for all cities, all Christians, for father, mother, wife, children, sisters, brothers, acquaintances, friends and all over the world - then believe, trust, vividly imagine that the Lord God at this very time in which you pray is working in them, “even if you want and even work for good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13), and never think that your sincere prayer for the world, for individuals, will remain in vain before the Lord. No, your prayer is pleasing to the Lord, like a fragrant incense and a fat burnt offering, this sacrifice of love is pleasing to him. Let this multitude for which you pray not frighten you and not surround you: for the Lord all people are like one man, like one tree; Do not be ashamed of your unworthiness, but with boldness and childlike simplicity pray for all people, as for your brothers, as you pray for yourself. “All of you, says the Lord, are brothers” (Matthew 23:8). “Pray for one another,” says the apostle, that you may be healed; for the prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16). You see, you are empowered to pray for others through the apostles by the Holy Spirit Himself. In order to pray sincerely, life-giving, we must remember that God is always with us and cannot help but hear our words, that He, as the living God, does not love soulless, heartless, empty words; like the true one, he loves the true word, and not the feigned one, like the most righteous Judge, he evaluates every thought, good or evil, every feeling, good or bad, weighs every word and looks: whether it is a living word, with a kernel of spirit or empty, like an empty nut, an empty grain; The Bishop does not like idle talk, either in prayer or in conversation with people. We must also remember that the all-good and all-powerful Lord and our Heavenly Father will not leave in vain a single living, simple child’s word of prayer, and sooner or later, one way or another, he will fulfill it for our benefit, not so much temporary as eternal. Therefore, we should not be embarrassed if, after fervent prayer, something often happens in our life that is completely contrary to our earthly desires and expectations. We must also remember that God is a very simple Being, like a simple thought, and therefore we must pray in complete simplicity of the soul, without the slightest doubt, blasphemy, guile, reluctance, grumbling, passion, hatred or dislike for anyone, or partiality for anything. One must converse with the Simple One with a simple soul, not harboring any sinful thoughts. In the same way, when praying to the saints, we must remember that they are in God and God is in them, and they cannot help but hear our words and, as one spirit with the Lord, they can do everything that we ask of them and serve us to our significant benefit. “He will do the will of those who fear Him and He will hear their prayer. To the saints who are on His earth, the Lord surprises all His desires in them,” says St. king and prophet David (Ps. 144:19). From the depths I cried to You, Lord (Ps. 129:1), because if not from the depths, then the prayer that comes out is not sincere, but false, from a double heart; With our lips and tongue we pray or sing, but in our hearts we think evil, or we serve our passions - laziness, absent-mindedness and vanity, sweets, love of money, covetousness, or envy, pride, vanity, we condemn our neighbors, we become angry and angry. Would such a request be acceptable even to a person - a king or a boss? Wouldn't he also have driven us away from his presence? Oh! Every person is capable of being extremely cunning, even in prayer before God, the Knower of the Heart, Who is a simple Being, all-good, all-knowing, all-perfect, all-wise, all-true and all-righteous. During prayer, sometimes we are double-minded: we say the words of prayer, the words of God, but our hearts are intertwined with some passion that invades our soul, like a stormy stream, for example. we get angry with someone, we are greedy, we envy, we get irritated, we are impatient. Thus, the words of prayer are there, but its spirit, the heavenly spirit, contempt for earthly goods, the spirit of meekness, humility, gentleness, non-covetousness is not there - and we are two in our souls, outwardly we are servants of truth, but in essence we are servants of lies. Then we internally betray God in the Trinity, we do not have the spirit of prayer, the Spirit of God, and at the same time the Father and the Son. When we stand in prayer and pray, then the bodiless enemy tries to confuse us with some unworthy, crafty, blasphemous and nasty thoughts against the Lord and His saints, and through this he pushes many foolish people away from prayer, and when talking or praying with people, he tries to thrust into the heart either nasty, crafty, blasphemous, humiliating thoughts, or hostility, hatred, malice, envy and lustful thoughts. What a villain he is! When haste, words do not reach the hearts of those who read, sing and pray and do not borrow from the heart the life and strength inherent in them. Praying without faith, without hope for God’s mercy and without love for God and for those for whom you pray is like beating the air, clanging a cymbal. When praying, do not rush, but think with your heart, zealously desire the fulfillment of God’s will, the correction of your life and other people, earnestly desire the glory of God. Throughout your prayer, try to keep your feelings alive: feel the power of what you are talking about. Without feeling, prayer is dead and fruitless. “Their heart is far from Me, but they honor Me in vain” (Is. 29:13, Matt. 15:8). Liveliness of feeling is achieved by sound reflection on what we say in prayers or what we perceive in the sacraments. In order to vividly feel the boundless mercy of the Lord towards us, for example, in the sacrament of communion, we must think about how we fell into sins, were subjected to the curse of God, eternal death. Jesus Christ, by His suffering, death and resurrection, delivered us from eternal death, and He, in His most pure Mysteries, constantly gives us life and thereby assures us of the gift of eternal life; Through communion we become fellow members and dwelling places of the Most Holy Trinity. “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me” (John 6:56). The Lord essentially abides in me through the communion of His Body and Blood, in Him I have all the blessings that I can think of, or that I will have when I ask. My joy, Lord Jesus Christ, I thank You, for through the Divine Mysteries you made me healthy in soul and body, you penetrated me with abundant peace and wondrous lightness and rested in me! Prostrations to the ground during prayer have great bodily benefits: through labor and dejection of the flesh, they thin it, and dry up the source of passions, and strengthen the body. When praying in front of an icon of the Savior or the Mother of God, an angel or a saint, look directly at their face, just as you look straight into the face of a famous or simple person with whom you are speaking, and do not lower your gaze to the ground. “Beholding with revealed face the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image (of God), as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). How can I give you, man, these and those spiritual and physical benefits, when you don’t want to ask for them sincerely, when you don’t even want to say a proper prayer? How can you have mercy on such and such persons for your prayer when you, without consciousness or feeling, mutter their names in prayer? Ask heartily, pronounce from the heart the names of persons and known benefits, and the Generous One will show mercy to you and others for your sake, for it is as easy for Him to immediately have mercy and mercy on you and others as it is easy for you to say the words of a prayer or think about it; for He is everywhere and fulfills everything, endless goodness, kokosh, containing us all under His wings: whether we sleep, whether we are awake, we are with Him, in Him and under Him. Do you pray to Heavenly Father at night? Do you pray, I say, not with the prayer that you have learned and which you often reluctantly pronounce with coldness, but with your own heartfelt prayer, which the Heavenly Father Himself will put into your spiritual lips, a prayer of praise, thanksgiving, and petition? Oh, how sweet night prayer is! how bright, strong, filled with what faith, what hope and boldness and what love for the Benefactor God and for His people, raped by the devil and from carnal passions and terribly perishing because of their addiction to earthly pleasures! Pray to the Heavenly Father at night with unfeigned, but heartfelt, self-woven prayer! Not all of you, like children, repeat other people's words; You yourselves are verbal beings; the Spirit of God lives in you, ever teaching you into all truth. He will teach you what and how to pray to the Heavenly Father - he will not leave you empty and voiceless! How great is the benefit of unceasing prayer: through prayer I get rid of sins, gain victory over passions, am pacified, consoled, enlightened, illuminated, perform great heavenly Sacraments; – I save people who entrust themselves to my prayers. Holy Father! We are sinners, but we desire to be holy: “hallowed be thy name”! We are possessed by the devil, but we want You to reign in our hearts: “Thy Kingdom come!” We are self-willed, meanwhile, as Your creatures, we must subordinate our will to Your will; But we want Your will to be on earth as it is in heaven: “Thy will be done!” We are gourmets, gluttons, drunkards, but we wish, in conscience and according to Scripture, to be content with only what is necessary: ​​“Give us this day our daily bread.” We are willing to sin and, willingly or unwillingly, we anger You, our Creator and Benefactor, and, like children who have transgressed the will of our fathers, we repent of our sins and pray to Your goodness: “forgive us our debts for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your Son, who suffered and died for us. Forgive us our sins, just as we forgive our debtors.” We are weak in faith, hope and love, and cannot endure temptations, and we pray to You: “lead us not into temptation,” so that the opposing forces do not shake us, like the wind shakes a reed, “but deliver us from the evil one,” walking like a roaring lion around us and looking for someone to swallow into his devilish mouth; - for Yours is the kingdom (not the devil) and the power and the glory forever. Amen. How little spiritual meaning and sincerity we have! We all read “Our Father”... every day and more than once, but who knows the true meaning of each saying of this Divine prayer, who sincerely always reads it, pronounces it, who sincerely prays with these wonderfully wise and simply stated words? Who sincerely desires what he asks for in it, and even more so, who sincerely fulfills what he desires and asks for in it? Who sincerely hated sin, in all its forms, and loved and desired only truth and holiness (hallowed be thy name)? Who has actively desired that God alone reign in his heart unceasingly through every kind of virtue, and that the evil one may not reign for one minute, not for a moment? Who sincerely desired to fulfill and actually fulfills only the righteous, perfect, holy, blessed will of God - having rejected, hated his sinful, depraved, destructive, blind will (Thy will be done)? Who has loved all people sincerely and prays for everyone, as if for himself, is sick for everyone, wishes for everyone every good thing and salvation and deliverance from sin and destruction? Who sincerely wants to be content with only what is necessary (our daily bread) and does not want much and excess (for example, thousands and tens, hundreds of thousands of money)? Who sincerely repents every day and accepts the firm intention to live in truth, hating sin and its culprit, and not those who sin through deception and learning from it, or through weakness, habit (forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors)? Whoever sincerely avoids temptations and is not himself the cause of them; who bears them with humility - who does not fall under their burden? Who moves away from their cause? Who flees from the evil one and his temptations? A Christian must be all eyes, all fiery love for God and His law, all love for his neighbors. Chapter two. The fruits of the combined action of grace and freedom: a holistic Christian worldview and a true Christian disposition A) The Christian’s relationship to God For a Christian, every good is in God, who gives life to everything and provides for everything; the insignificance of everything earthly; life in God: complete surrender to Christ; active love for God and neighbors, patience “for God’s sake,” humility, reverence; - the saving power of the faith of Christ and the joy of the believing heart. “I am Syy” (Existing). “Existing” is the one in whom everything is; from whom is everything, who is everything to everyone and everything to everything. In God is everything for each of us, every good: everything is in the name of God, because His Name is He Himself. God is simple love, and you be love, only love; Do not dissolve with the shadow of malice and deceit. May God help you! With You alone, Lord Almighty, is salvation and life; You alone have space, peace, lightness, freedom, contentment and joy of the heart. Everything else that we want to rely on besides You are sharp, invigorating needles and deadly spears for the soul and body. Amen! God! Before the greatness of Your goodness to me, by which I was brought by You from non-existence into being and, after a terrible fall into sin and death, restored through Your Only Begotten Son, elevated to heaven and received entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom, my mind becomes numb and my heart cannot find sufficient feelings of love and gratitude to You! You yourself teach me to understand the greatness of Your benefits to us, to worthily thank and glorify Your endless goodness and generosity to us, Your unworthy servants, and to be worthy of them! Lord, what a countless number of heavenly and earthly blessings I borrow daily and hourly from the inexhaustible treasury of your gifts - the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of material nature; how much mercy, forgiveness, enlightenment, cleansing of sins and sanctification, peace, righteousness, freedom, joy in the Holy Spirit; how much I borrow from the treasuries of air, water, how many different drinks, sweet and strengthening, cheerful; how many fruits of the earth are pleasant and healthy, tasty and nutritious; how much light there is from the sun, moon, stars, electricity and other lights; how much warmth and peace there is from the fire! There is no number, no number for Your gifts! And the main thing of all gifts is Your most pure Body and life-giving Blood, of which I partake daily, with which I am cleansed, pacified, merciful, and renewed. Thank you, thank you, Creator Lord and Savior, for all your mercies! Oh, all-good and all-powerful Trinity, our God, glory to Thee! Glory to You, most merciful, most generous and most obedient Our Father, who art in heaven! Amen. Wonderful summer of God's goodness! Today, in hot weather and scorching sun, there were two thunderstorms, with large beneficial rain; the earth and the plants were watered with the life-giving dew of heaven, and everything began to smell fragrant, everything around began to live with new life, the earth became God's paradise. Great art thou, Lord, and wonderful are thy works, and not a single word will be sufficient for the singing of thy wonders! We thank You, Lord Almighty, Planter and Benefactor of all Your creatures! Oh, the wonderful gaze of God, reviving every creature! If you, hearing the chicks asking for food, are concerned to feed them immediately, then the Heavenly Father, who sees all our needs, will not take care to satisfy them in time and will not constantly, endlessly take care of the myriad of His creatures so that He always has enough to eat. If you, being angry, are compassionate about creatures, even unreasonable ones, how much more does the all-good God care and provide for everyone, especially people. “Nan has cast away all your sorrow, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). There, in heaven, those celebrating the unceasing voice and endless sweetness of those who behold Your face, Christ, the ineffable kindness. How not to sacrifice all predilections for this vain and corruptible world in order to become worthy of beholding face to face the endless beauty of the face of God! The saints of God understood this - and all their lives they strived to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, to create holiness within themselves in the fear of God! About the face of God! O the beauty and kindness of the face of God, which the saints of God could not get enough of even here! Lord, draw me to Your beauty, the image of which I see in visible creatures! God is everything to everyone and to me. Everything for us. Heavenly Father: “Nan has cast away all your sorrow, because she cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). Do not worry about anything (Phil.4:6): the Lord is near (Phil.4:5).” Disregard monetary rubbish and do not place hope in it; Trust in the One God, cleave to Him alone. The common Trustee of all, the Heavenly Father, and let His children live in brotherly love and in everything, trust in their all-good Father and everything will be added to them. Love every person as yourself, for everything is from the One and in the One and the One is Love. Passions disastrously shake a person’s entire being, soul and body: reject self-love, merge into universal Love. Everything is from the Existing One and the Existing God in Three Persons, and the Existing One is Love. Everything is God; I am nothing: treat everyone simply as you treat yourself, for all people, especially Christians, are one spiritual body! Everything for me is the Lord. I repeat again and again to confirm this truth in my thoughts and heart; The proof of this is both my entire previous life, my countless previous spiritual experiences, and the communion of St. Mystery, when the living faith that I commune specifically with My Lord and through them the Lord Himself in me, pacifies, delights, eases, cheers me; so also the frequent calling upon Him with faith in my heart; so also the sign of the life-giving Cross, when it, with faith in the Lord, depicted on the womb, drives away opposing forces from there and suddenly pacifies me with heavenly peace. Everything sometimes attracts me to earthly things, but also wounds me, and only I remember the Lord and place my trust in Him alone - my wounds are immediately healed; So, earthly things only scorch, sting, oppress me; The Lord alone cools, delights, pacifies, cheers. So, do not enjoy anything earthly, for earthly sweetness soon turns to sorrow. Disdain everything earthly, no matter how pleasant or dear it may be, like dust when it serves as an obstacle to the love of God; especially do not spare anything for the benefit of man. Do not attach your heart to anything earthly, lest you have anything in common with earthly things; only it should be attached to God and to its neighbor, especially to God. All earthly blessings are rubbish for the soul. This is how St. taught me to speak. The Apostle Paul and daily bitter experience. Blessed is he who does not cling to anything earthly and does not spare anything earthly for his neighbor for his benefit, for his needs. We owe unwavering respect and love to our neighbors and must take care of each other. There is only one God who exists, who gives life to everything and provides for everything. I believe in Him, I trust in Him, I cleave to Him alone. Through God I live, breathe, think, feel, see, hear, touch, smell, taste, am enlightened, purified, sanctified, renewed, strengthened, deified, freed from all troubles that surround me. There is only one sweetness and life for me - Christ; not sweetness for me - earthly sweets. Another sweetness and life for me: the word of God and love for your neighbor as for yourself. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God! The words of Your commandments are my enlightenment and confirmation on the slippery path of my life, the source of my peace, joy and greatness! Lord, grant me the grace to hold on to Your words at all times, always carrying them in my heart! “Let Your law be in the midst of my belly.” What kind of law? “Love the Lord God (always unchangeably, without falling away) with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (with all the strength of your soul), and your neighbor as you love yourself” (Luke 10:27). Oh, that we would strictly observe these two commandments of Yours, in which are the whole law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12)! Holy Soul, strengthening all mental and verbal powers that serve unwaveringly the Almighty God, strengthen me too, Thy creation, Thy breath, serve immaculately Your power together with the Father and the Son always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages! Amen. We often live, and for the most part, in such self-forgetfulness, as if no one looks at our actions from above and no one evaluates them, as if we do not have to answer for every deed and word - and that is why our life is full of iniquities of all kinds, small and great. And how good it would be if we always remembered that the watchful and all-seeing Eye is constantly looking at us (Ps. 32:18)! If only we remembered that our Judge, unwashed (incorruptible) and strict, stands in front of the door! Our life would then be morally much purer, we would cut off many whims, we would add many good deeds. My soul is often ruled by someone else who is contrary to me, and not by me; and I often feel like I am not my own and not at home, but a stranger and with someone else, and without a doubt it is necessary that I should always be my master, or better, the good Master of the whole world, who created it and maintains it with His hand, should be my master, Who clearly must also be my Master. Our Father, who art in heaven, may your kingdom come; May Your Kingdom be within us, for Yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All my consolation, all my heart contentment, my bliss, my light, my strength, my triumph lies in remembering You, my God! - to believe in You, to trust in You, to sincerely repent before You, and to be merciful by You, purified, justified, consoled by You - to pray to You, to meditate on You, to thank and glorify You! I would be a pathetic, pathetic creature in this world if I didn’t have all this every day! No bodily pleasures could satisfy my rational and immortal soul, created for pleasures other than those of the body, which is corruptible and content with corruption. And perishable pleasures have value only when spiritual, incorruptible ones, for example, food during and after fervent prayer. May the Lord and my God, in Three Persons, worshiped and glorified, be my constant treasure! Oh, Holy Trinity, glory to You! Amen. Lord, may my will not be done, the will of my evil, stingy, proud, envious heart, but may Your will be done, good, acceptable and perfect! Lord, may I always be conformed to You! Lord, may I always have You as my model! May Your image always be worn, the image of meekness, holiness, truth, love - always before my intelligent eyes! Lord, let Your words always walk with me like living faces! May they protect me from all evil! Think more often about the infinite love of the Lord God for the human race, for which He did not spare His Only Begotten Son for their salvation and eternal bliss, and try by all means to respond to Him in this love, enduring everything, as the Son of God endured for us. For God, one must generously endure cold, and trembling, and unbearable heat, illness, and sorrow, and labor, and insults; Do not become enraged and angry at anything, do not fall into grumbling and blasphemy at anything. With submission to the will of God, without fear and grumbling, part with the demands of Divine Providence not only with health and external well-being, but also with life. So the grass obediently, without noise, falls under the mower’s scythe, so the stalks with ears of grain fall into the hand of the reaper; but just as the reaper takes the reaped stalks of grain into his hands, so the souls of God’s chosen ones after the death of the body are taken into the hands of God: we will give up our whole life to Christ our God; “Our whole life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). Reverence before all the revealed truths and mysteries of God, especially before the truth and mystery of the Trinitarian Deity! Thank and glorify the infinite goodness of God for the fact that it announced to us about the endless torment awaiting unrepentant sinners in hell, so that we do not rush into hell and, through tearful repentance of our sins, avoid torment and earn the Kingdom of Heaven with good deeds. Thank the Lord deeply for revealing His holy truth to you and be in awe of it, do not allow yourself to be cold towards it in the slightest, or to neglect it, or to doubt it! How many times daily has the Lord saved and is saving me, repeatedly falling into secret and obvious sins - self-love, partiality or partiality, grumbling, discontent, grief, greed, envy, pride, vanity, gluttony, laziness! Oh, how saving is the faith of Christ! I have received and receive countless benefits through her every day. How pitiful are the unbelievers! How unhappy they are! They have no light, healing, peace, freedom, renewal of the spirit through faith and repentance; There is no standard, no unchangeable rule! Like blind people they wander through life; They don’t even have the joyful hope of life after death: all hope is only here! B) The attitude of a Christian to the world - the universe and to other people The world exists to manifest and glorify the perfections of the Creator; the high dignity of human nature; unity of humanity; friendly attitude towards all people; attitude towards the virtues and sins of other people; love for enemies. The world exists for the manifestation of the perfections of the Creator, His truth, and truth, and goodness, mercy, long-suffering, beauty, omnipotence, infinity, immutability - and for the manifestation of good and evil: may good appear as good, evil as evil, and may each receive due retribution; let it clearly appear that God cannot be mocked and that everyone will reap what he sows. Looking at the created beauty of creatures, precious stones, metals, minerals, plants, insects, fish, birds, animals, especially humans; to the beauty of the earth, electric and various fires, waters, sky, sun, moon, stars, clouds - I ascend to the original, reasonable, personal Beauty, infinitely superior to all beauty of creatures; Feeling the sweetness of earthly fruits and created sweets in general, I ascend to the original Sweetness; seeing the lightness of creatures (the sun, etc.), I ascend to the original infinitely holy Light; Feeling the wondrous and varied, pleasant fragrance of plants, I ascend to the first all-guilty, ineffable, immaterial fragrance of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit in general. Trinity; seeing the natural force acting in creatures, I ascend to the first infinite Force; seeing the wise, the structure of all creatures and the wisdom of the actions of even dumb creatures (a spider, a bee), especially an intelligent creature, a person, who with his mind does wonderful things and deeds, I ascend to the original Source of wisdom, to God; seeing life boiling everywhere in infinitely many and varied creatures, great and small, animate and inanimate, I ascend to the original, infinite, rational Life, which animates everything; Seeing everywhere the joy and contentment of living beings, their playfulness, hearing the wondrous singing of birds that delight me, their joyful playful flying - in general, a joyful, self-satisfied feeling of life in all creatures - I ascend to the first Goodness, to the first all-blessed Being, who, by His infinite goodness, has granted such a joyful existence to all creatures and am convinced that everything was created for joy, goodness and bliss; Seeing everywhere the infinitely diverse and innumerable great forces in nature, I ascend to the first actually infinite intelligent Power, to God, the one omnipotent Creator of all: thus, from creatures I ascend incessantly to the Creator; and seeing the King of the earth, surrounded by greatness and glory, I ascend to the King of Heaven, who has incomparable greatness and glory, eclipsing all earthly greatness and glory; Seeing the shrine in people, in the saints of God, I ascend to the first true Shrine - the Lord God. Glory to the Lord, who has clothed himself in confession and in the wondrous glory! I thank You, Lord, for the most good, inexhaustible, vital air treasury, from which we draw endlessly with our bellows (respiratory organs), arranged by Your wise hand for our constant inhalation and for the constant lightness of our physical existence: I thank You for the silence of the air and for the winds that refresh and change the air; I thank you for storms and rains, snow and hail, for blizzards and blizzards sent by Your all-creating and all-fulfilling Spirit; for thunder, lightning, striking our hearing and sight with their formidable phenomena, thinning and purifying the condensed air and making it easy and healthy for the breathing of all animate creatures! I thank You for the richness, beauty and life-giving nature of the sun’s light, delighting our vision and revealing all creation in a beautiful, delightful form; I thank You for the countless, delighting the spirit, cheering, various aromas with which You shower Your entire land in spring and summer, warming up the fragrant juices innate in the plants! I thank You for the countless beautiful forms of plants that delight our eyes and captivate us with their wisdom, proportionality, artistry, and beauty! I thank You, our Creator and Provider, for the countless variety, heterogeneity and beautiful forms of the fruits of the earth, trees, bushes, spikes and roots, with which You feed the human race, surprising every thought and mind with Your wisdom, care for the well-being of Your verbal and wordless creatures, may everyone praise Your boundless goodness, love, wisdom and Your fatherly kind and never-ending care for everyone! Only our extreme iniquities prompt You to sometimes restrain Your good right hand and strike us righteously with poverty and famine, but for this righteous rebuke I thank You, countless and righteous Grace! Man is God's property, precious, lofty, inviolable for our pride and in general for our passions. Unfailing love and kind affection for every person and willing sacrifice of everything for him should distinguish our relationship towards him; service to man is service to God. Saints are gods by sonship, or more clearly, deified creatures, or churches of the Divine: God rests in them, filling them all if they are removed from sin; on this basis, meekness and humility before all people, great reverence before the saints, as before the pure vessels of the Divine. What dignity is honored by God to humanity! According to earthly creation, from the beginning, man was created in the image and likeness of God, but man is especially honored by the Lord through the incarnation of the Son of God and the deification of human nature, through his calling to rebirth, to sitting on the throne of the Father with the Only Begotten Son. “To him who overcomes I will give to eat with Me on My throne, just as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne” (Rev. 3:21). Understand this, earthly ones, brothers of Christ! The Lord likens the human soul to a royal drachma, because it was created in the image of God; On the Greek coin, the drachma, the image of Caesar was depicted. This likening means the high dignity of the human soul, as the image of God, and inspires a person to care most of all about the soul, as an immortal being, and to consider it infinitely higher than all earthly blessings, which in comparison are the same as rubbish trampled under foot. “I count all my being, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). “What good does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul, or if a man gives treason for his soul” (Matthew 16:26). Looking at people, say to yourself: this is all me, for we are all one. Looking at people's sins or hearing about them, say: these are my sins, for we are all people, and pray that the Lord will deliver people from them, just as you pray for your deliverance from sins and passions. All good people who treat me with trust, diligence, love, deserve mutual trust, respect, diligence, love and affection (not caresses) without any partiality, concern for their peace of mind, cordial disposition, goodwill. We must drive away from ourselves the usual ingrained laziness and inertia of the old man, self-love, self-indulgence, self-pity, self-sparing, partiality, contemplation, disgust towards others who are sick, ugly, unattractive, crooked, askew, lame, scabby or lichen. We must value a person according to his essence, according to his immortal soul, as a member of Christ and His Church - as a co-member of ours, as a co-heir of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our simple people, despite their lack of material wealth, are extremely rich in spiritual simplicity, goodwill, generosity, endurance of all kinds of adversity, and faith in God’s providence; hope and sincere consciousness of one’s sins, sensitive repentance, patience, obedience to authorities and God Himself, hospitality, selflessness, hard work, piety. We sometimes neglect common people, considering them ignorant, lazy, drunkards (although there are some among them, for there is a black mark in a family), but get to know them better, condescend to them, talk to them sincerely, and you will see their rich treasury of hearts; they are ready to make any sacrifice for the person they love. Neglecting them is sinful and “inhumane.” Always wish the best for every person in everything - always accept every person to you with cordiality, willingly, with all your heart, as you wish it for yourself, overcoming savagery, lack of communication, alienation and malice of the heart. If you see good deeds or hear about the virtues of others, rejoice and say: these are also my virtues (if, however, you are jealous of virtue), and thank God for them. Love a person to death, conquer his evil with good until death, forgive him his mistakes, for a person is always a fallen person, always a weak person; until death, forgive him his material and spiritual debts, for all gifts are God’s gifts, we have received them from God, we will give them to him, and let us keep love to the end. The commandments of the Lord must be fulfilled without thinking, with haste, by trust to the Lawgiver, for example, about love for enemies and for those who harm us. Pray for the enemy and see how good it will be for you, how you will calm down, how easy it will be for you! Enmity is as bitter as death! Let us run from enmity like the poison of a snake, let us hold on to love, for sweet is love! God! instill and establish in me a feeling of sincere goodwill towards all people, even towards my enemies, even towards the enemies of my faith and fatherland! Open the eyes of their hearts, so they can see our righteousness; - may they accept the Orthodox faith and with one heart and soul may they glorify You, the One in the Trinity of our God; - Let them not do us harm, let them not oppose us in our righteous deeds, let them not attack our right faith, let them stop hating us. Wake up! May Your name, O Lord, be glorified in all nations and tribes of men! Amen. C) A Christian’s attitude towards himself and his life Christian understanding of real life; Christian disposition: remembrance of the future life, and of reward beyond the grave, desire for grief; inward - abiding, humility, awareness of one's sinfulness and Divine mercy, decorating the soul with virtues; - Christian way of behavior of private and public. What is time or the life of every person? There is preparation for eternity. The Lord and Master of our life daily awaits our voluntary turning to Him with all our thoughts and all our hearts and the complete turning away of our hearts from worldly vanity. Look at the clock: it runs just as the watchmaker wanted and wants; or - to the ship: it goes where the helmsman wants. You must direct your life as your Artist and Ruler of the world and yours wants; you are all of God, you are a vessel of God, you are a servant of the Lord. Try to make your spiritual disposition independent of the state of your body by the power of your will and always triumph over materiality: if you are sick, do not be discouraged, but be cheerful and complacent; healthy - do not boast about your health, do not indulge in intemperance and enthusiastic joy and do not risk your health, try to always be even-tempered - and in illness do not be cowardly, do not complain, do not indulge in a stream of blasphemy, do not groan, and in a healthy state do not dance, but thank God for everything. Ah, my soul and my flesh are two different things; and I must be diligent about one (soul) as immortal, and despise the other as transitory: “despise the flesh, for it passes away, but be diligent about souls, things that are immortal”!.. The motto of your life should be the following sayings of the Savior. “My food is, let me do the will of the One who sent Me.” (John 4:34). Live with your heart, not your belly, constantly thinking with your heart, especially about God, about the soul, about the souls of men, about the Lord Jesus Christ, His works, about the cross, about the Church, about the sacraments, about the saints of God who labored on earth. And in order to live in the heart, one must drive the devil out of it and bring Christ God into it through faith and love. Look at the end of everything: - what everything leads to and will lead to. Remember that what is visible is temporary, but what is invisible is eternal. You know how quickly time flows: minutes, hours, days, months, years pass quickly, irrevocably and carry with them everything temporary, perishable, while everything invisible, supersensible remains eternal and incorruptible. The many different benefits of temporary life are the image, indication and guarantee of the endless benefits of the future life; their sweetness is an image of endless future bliss, their beauty is an image of future beauty. So, man, do not stop at the temporary, but move towards future benefits! After the death of a person, the gaze of his soul receives amazing foresight and a clear view of everything around him in the afterlife there. So the poor Lazarus, who lay wounded in front of the gates of the house of a rich man, a luxurious merry fellow, and after death was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, saw the rich man in flames suffering and talking with Abraham, just as the rich man, in turn, saw Abraham and Lazarus in His bosom and talked with Abraham. Yes, it is there, behind the coffin, that our view of everything becomes clearer, and we see everything in the real light, without charm and charm. of this sensory world. Listen and understand, Christian soul, what awaits you in the future world! Like worn-out clothes, boots or shoes, we throw off and neglect them, “so let us throw off our flesh like clothing, like shoes, and it will be trampled under foot; but after the earthly church of the body is destroyed, on the day of the general resurrection, the Lord will create for us a church not made by hands, eternal in heaven. It is not our concern about how the Lord will raise us up and from what we will build our flesh after our death, just as it was not our concern when the Lord brought us from non-existence into everyday life, when He created our soul and flesh in the beginning. The Lord is everything for us: we place all our sorrow on Him. If the morning star is bright and beautiful, then how bright and beautiful are the spiritual lights - the angels, archangels and all the heavenly powers! Oh, wonderful beauty! Oh, indescribable kindness! If the sun is so luminous, life-giving and beautiful, then how luminous, life-giving and beautiful is the Creator and Creator of the sun and all the powers of heaven and all the stars! But cohabitation with the angels and glorification equal to the angels is promised to you too! Achieve this by diligently cleansing yourself in this life from all defilement of the flesh and spirit and by enduring adversity, sorrow and illness. “In your patience gain your souls” (Luke 21:19)! "Thy kingdom come." By saying these words, we must desire the coming of the Kingdom of God in us, both now and especially at the second coming of Jesus Christ. “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth.” And speaking these words, with all our hearts we must desire the fulfillment of His will on earth as well as in heaven; but when will this blessed time come? When there is a new earth and a new heaven, righteousness dwells in them (2 Pet. 3:13). If there were no eternal life and eternal torment prepared for sinners, then the Lord would not have come from heaven and would not have become a man, would not have lived on earth, personally taught people, suffered, died, resurrected and ascended to heaven with the flesh... He would not have left the Church on earth with pastors, divine services, sacraments, teaching, constant preaching of the word of God... Our Lord is invariably true, just, omnipotent, so that His word about eternal torment for bitter and unrepentant sinners in eternal fire passes by and is not fulfilled: there are too many decisive reminders and predictions about fiery hell, the lake of fire; There are too many images of this eternal fire, such as: the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:1–14), a tree being cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 7:19), and so on. and so on, - so that the word of the true, just and omnipotent God passes and is not fulfilled. Hey, amen! There will be eternal torment! God cannot be mocked. “Have ears to hear and let him hear” (Matthew 11:15)! There will be eternal torment, there will be eternal bliss, there will be a resurrection of the dead, there will be a Last Judgment, especially for unbelievers and lawless people who think that God is a liar: one liar is the devil with his evilly wicked temporary kingdom. We ourselves, in this life, experience what is true and what is false, for the Spirit of Truth guides us into all truth and exposes all lies. We cannot tolerate the heat of the sun here complacently, how can we endure the heat of the eternal fire? We cannot tolerate severe frost here, how will we tolerate that eternal tartar and frost when the Lord, the Sun of truth and life-giving love, leaves us forever?! Imitate plants that strive upward and gradually become thinner towards the top. Strive, too, to grow in spirit and constantly thin out your flesh through abstinence, prayer and labor. Thought, word, deed are the image of the Most Holy Trinity, consubstantial and indivisible. For the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, we must try with all our might so that our thoughts, words and deeds are inseparable from each other, and not so that we think something else, say something else, and do something else. This blasphemes the truth, holiness and simplicity of God. A Christian person of every rank, condition and both sexes and self-conscious age should often be at home in himself, and not live only in the outside world, that is, in the pursuit of worldly affairs, sciences, arts, crafts, games, shows. At home, that is, in his soul, in his inner world, there is someone who reflects on the beginning and goal or end of his existence, who prays in spirit and truth; whoever reads the word of God, who struggles with his passions and sinful inclinations, succeeds in virtue, in almsgiving, meekness, humility, kindness, truth and righteousness. “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Learn, Christian, the inner rightness of God, which is placed by the Creator in the depths of the heart; try not to violate this Divine truth with a single thought of guile, doubt, unbelief, blasphemy, murmuring, disobedience; not a single feeling of hostility, hatred, not a single movement of your sinful will. I am a small member, an insignificant branch of the infinitely great tree of humanity. I feed on the juices of this tree, I live its life, rather than God’s. I am the least of all, the last of all: this is the conviction, this is the truth, this is the life of my heart. A true Christian immediately regrets if he happens to commit any sin, sincerely repents and learns in the future to be careful, attentive to himself and restrained; tries to abhor all sin as senselessness, absurdity, lawlessness, destruction, betrayal of God and oneself. The abyss calls upon the abyss, the abyss of my sins daily calls forth the abyss of my repentance and God’s mercy towards me. Every day and hourly I experience within myself the abyss of God’s truth and God’s long-suffering towards me, the abyss of God’s good-will and mercy towards me. Oh, I will and will forever extol the abyss of God’s patience and mercy towards me and all sinners like me! Whatever misfortune or misfortune happens to us, it happens with dignity and righteousness because of our sins. Every passionate movement of the heart is punished by sorrow, tightness, darkness, so that we may always learn to look to the Lord, Savior and Benefactor of our souls, and may we not completely wallow in the mud of passions, may we always seek the Source of living waters - the Lord, and may we cleave to Him and drink abundantly from Him; and may we worldwide move away from the treasures of the broken blessings of this world, the worldly addictions of this age, which cannot contain the water of life, but contain only death, if we turn to them with the love of our hearts. Why temptations? How for what? The material purchased for the dress is torn to see if it is durable; flour, fruits, vegetables, wine, oil are tasted to see if they are fresh or not mixed with anything foreign; sometimes they break wood to see if it is rotten, and in general almost everyone is tested in one way or another so as not to be deceived in the goodness of the thing being bought - for there are many things of poor quality, counterfeit: there are many merchants who give bad goods for good ones, counterfeit coins instead of true ones, counterfeit silver for real ones. So a person can be false, pretended, but often he himself does not know it, and so through temptations he must be tested in many different ways, how much true spiritual wealth is in him and how much is false; how much pure silver and gold is in it, how much admixture of simple earth and dirt, rust. For the Lord needs pure silver and gold, a pure image of God, a pure soul, a pure heart, and “those who are pure in heart will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Make your heart a permanent home of faith, hope and love. The wedding robe is necessary for all Christians, an incorruptible, spiritual robe; adorn your souls with faith, mercy, purity, self-control, simplicity, goodness. To decorate the body you do not spare or spare your treasures, and sometimes you make jewelry worth tens of thousands; all the more, to decorate your immortal soul, you do not need to spare anything, neither treasures, nor your strength, and, without wasting time, adorn it like a bride to the groom, in every way: faith, love, humility, mercy, non-covetousness, patience with illnesses, sorrows and adversities, continence, purity and chastity and obedience and all sorts of virtues: for the soul is created in the image of God, and God there is endless beauty and a bright, beautiful, incomparable light, for the One who created such diverse and endless beauty of creatures, what kind of beauty does he have? So, be consistent, man: when decorating the body, do not forget to decorate the soul; or - despise the decoration of the body and take care of the decoration of the soul; then dust is temporary, but this one is eternal, for it is a simple, uncomplicated spirit and cannot be destroyed; It is the carnal passions that disfigure the soul - uncleanness, intemperance, greed, passion for the adornment of the body, also pride, malice, anger, envy, etc. A distinctive sign of the Christian life: love, meekness, humility, patience (cross), abstinence, constant attention to your heart. Behave at home as meekly and humbly as you behave when visiting, in the circle of noble and dignified people, for you are truly a guest on earth. Behave at home the way Alexey, the man of God, behaved in his parents’ house; behave like the last servant, like a beggar who, out of mercy, is given leftovers from the table. Public and home prayer, reading the word of God, the writings of St. fathers and lives of saints - this is true food for the soul, without which it dies spiritually, becoming carnal. Without food, the stomach is empty, the whole body weakens and then dies. A person who is disgusted by St. Scripture, prayer, worship, self-examination, repentance and the sacrament of communion - he is also sick, but with a most dangerous disease, a disease of the spirit. Christians are truly God's children; How should they live among themselves? In great love, meekness and humility, kindness, goodwill, mutual assistance, in holiness: “You will be holy, just as I am Holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). You might be interested in: