Thoughts of Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev, rector of the Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral on various subjects of Christian faith and morality

Contents Review of the newspaper “Russian Invalid” (No. 126 of June 11, 1900). Archpriest Fr. John Ilyich Sergiev Thoughts of Father John of Kronstadt Review of the newspaper “RUSSIAN DISABLED” (No. 126 of June 11, 1900). M. G. Krivoshlyk. – Thoughts of Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev. 1899 St. Petersburg. Archpriest Father John Sergiev, rector of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt, is the son of the priest of the Arkhangelsk province, Pinezhsky district, the village of Sura, born in 1829. (He is now 69 years old 1). He sleeps no more than three hours a day, and sometimes he barely manages to take a nap while sitting or riding somewhere in carriages. He is always on his feet, constantly serving in the church, confessing and communicating the Holy Mysteries to hundreds of people.” “Sovereign Emperor Alexander III, feeling the approach of His death, wished to see Father John and joyfully greeted him. Father John prayed with the Tsar, and the Tsar felt the power of his prayer. On October 7, according to the will of the Sovereign, Fr. John communed Him with the Holy Mysteries. Called then by the August Sick on the very day of His death, Fr. John, at the request of the Tsar, read a prayer for the healing of the sick man and anointed Him with oil from the miraculous icon. Then, at the request of the Tsar, Fr. John laid his hands on His head and did not take them away for a long time. The Emperor, being fully conscious, asked Fr. John to rest, but Fr. John said that he did not feel tired and asked Him: “Isn’t it hard for Your Majesty that I keep my hands on Your head for a long time?” But the King said to him: “On the contrary, it is very easy for me when you hold them.” Then the Tsar continued: “You are a righteous man: the Russian people love you.” “Yes,” answered Fr. John, “Your people love me.” “He loves,” said the Emperor, “because he knows who you are and what you are.” Indeed, the fame of Father John extends far beyond the borders of Kronstadt and St. Petersburg. And this fame comes from the fact that Fr. John knows how to distribute the money he collects from donors; he knows how, by giving, to encourage and teach the poor man to be wise. His Sunday sermons, delivered in St. Andrew's Cathedral, attract thousands of people. Not everyone hears, not everyone has the opportunity to be in the cathedral, but everyone wants to hear... And so Fr. John began to print them. Then they moved to the newspaper Vedomosti St. Petersburg. City Government" and finally ended up in a book published by M. G. Krivoshlyk. St. John speaks about prayer, about the church, about miracles in our time, about love, about science, the science of conquering sin. The priest united in him with the rhetorician, the philosopher with a mere mortal. Every word breathes with faith and love for God, with a sincere desire to help one’s neighbor and to captivate one’s neighbor with one’s faith. “Love without thinking - love is simple,” he said in one place, “don’t look at the beauty of a person’s face, but look at his soul; do not look at his clothing (the body is temporary clothing), but look at the one who dresses in it, do not look at the splendor of the house, but look at the tenant, who lives in it and what he is like - otherwise you will offend the image of God in man, you will dishonor the Tsar by bowing to his servant, and without giving Him the slightest honor due to him...” “Educated and uneducated youth,” - writes further about. John - “rarely goes to church, does not conduct his spiritual education at all, considering it as if unnecessary and giving himself up to the vanity of life. We need to pay attention to this. This is the fruit of pride and spiritual underdevelopment. They consider visiting the church and worship a public matter for the common people and women, forgetting that in the church with fear angels serve together with man and consider this to be the greatest bliss.” This is the general nature of the thoughts of Fr. John. He takes the most topical, everyday phenomena, general issues and examines them with a deep knowledge of the human heart and a sincere desire to teach and instruct. His thoughts are imbued with such faith and love that they can captivate a person. The book is recommended by the Main Directorate of Military Educational Institutions for all classes of cadet corps. There is an age - 13-16 years old, when the young brain is tormented by doubt, when, on the one hand, the priest’s ingenuous stories about the creation of the world and about Joshua, who said: “Stand still the sun and be motionless the moon” (Joshua 10:12), on the other, Darwin’s theory and information on cosmography in no way want to agree... When, on the one hand, life through the crack of ajar doors beckons with the temptation of sin, on the other hand, the church does not yet give spiritual bliss, it is not yet understood. At these moments, thoughts about. John, simple and deep, a story about the heartfelt attitude of the King-Peacemaker towards him, can make a young man think and pause at the ajar doors of worldly temptation and, pausing, listen to the distant church melody that calls and asks... and, who knows, maybe the young soul will be saved, and who will save “one of these little ones” (Matthew 18:6)... In any case, these “thoughts,” in a difficult moment of life, can successfully stand against the bleak, gloomy philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Archpriest Fr. Ioann Ilyich Sergiev The venerable pastor of the church, Archpriest, Father John Sergiev, rector of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt, is the son of the priest of the Arkhangelsk province, Pinezhsky district, the village of Sura, born in 1829. At the 10th year of his life, barely able to read letters, he was sent to the Arkhangelsk parish school. Since he was not at all prepared for school, and there was no one to help him, and he had to figure out everything on his own, reading and writing was very difficult for him, which caused him a lot of grief. But, from childhood, having been accustomed to prayer by the example of his father and mother, he was a pious boy and visited the churches of God with great zeal, fervently praying that God would give him meaning and reason. And the Lord heeded his prayers. Suddenly, as if a veil had fallen from his mind, he began to understand the teaching well. Successful in the sciences more and more, he graduated from the seminary as the first student and was sent to the public account in St. Petersburg. The Theological Academy, after completing the course in which he entered as a priest (1855) in the city of Kronstadt, where he still serves as a priest today, in the rank of mitered archpriest. This worthy servant of God attracts the hearts of everyone with his boundless love for God, his selfless service to his neighbor and that faith in God’s help, about which the Lord Himself spoke: “If you have faith and say to the mountain: move, it will move.” Father John is now 74 years old; but who can give him so many years: he is so fresh and vigorous! He sleeps no more than 3 hours a day, and sometimes he barely manages to take a nap while sitting or riding somewhere in a carriage. He is always on his feet, constantly in church, confessing and communicating the Holy Mysteries to hundreds of people. After the afternoon service, he daily hurries to visit the sick and everyone who calls him for prayer. Almost every day he travels from Kronstadt to St. Petersburg and back. Neither bad weather, nor fatigue, nothing can stop him. Seeing the always friendly, cheerful, contented face of the shepherd, it is difficult to imagine that in his continuous service to his neighbor he does not even have enough time to reinforce himself with sleep and food. And who now, in sorrows and joys, does not resort to the prayers of Fr. Joanna! Our beloved late Sovereign Emperor Alexander III in Bose, feeling the approach of His death, wished to see Father John and joyfully greeted him. Father John prayed with the Tsar, and the Tsar felt the power of his prayer. On October 7, according to the will of the Sovereign, Fr. John communed Him with the Holy Mysteries. Called then by the August Sick on the very day of His death, Fr. John, at the request of the Tsar, read a prayer for the healing of the Sick One and anointed Him with oil from the miraculous icon. Then, at the request of the Tsar, Fr. John laid his hands on His head and did not take them away for a long time. The Emperor, being fully conscious, asked Fr. John to rest, but Fr. John said that he did not feel tired and asked Him: “Isn’t it hard for Your Majesty that I keep my hands on Your head for a long time?” But the King said to him: “On the contrary, it is very easy for me when you hold them.” Then the Tsar continued: “You are a righteous man: the Russian people love you.” “Yes,” answered Fr. John, “Your people love me.” “He loves,” said the Emperor, “because he knows who you are and what you are.” These were almost the last words of the Patient. Soon afterwards he quietly rested in Bose. ABOUT. John took his hands off His head, on which cold sweat appeared. It is difficult to describe the impression that the service of Fr. John. Orthodox Christians willingly donate money for good deeds. John, and he accepts with gratitude both the pennies of the poor man and hundreds of the rich, but he gives everything to charitable works. This great ascetic of God does a lot of good. Confessing to Fr. There are so many of John that, not being able to confess each one separately, he confesses them all at once, out loud. This nationwide confession makes a stunning impression. Anyone who was present at such a confession will, of course, never forget these great moments of communication with God through the medium of our great prayer book. Thoughts of Father John of Kronstadt 2 Many do not like to be at Divine Services because they do not know it well, in all its richness, greatness, wisdom, sweetness, life-giving. Not a single word of sincere prayer is wasted before God, but brings good fruit, for pure prayer is a great power that bends the goodness of God to mercy and generosity. Our prayers - church, home, public - suffer in us and from us from a very important shortcoming - superficiality, or lack of depth and sincerity, and haste, or greyhoundness; Because of these two shortcomings, people often “lose all the fruit of prayer, and at least give up our prayers, as they say: so they are empty, insignificant, ephemeral! The work of prayer is a great thing! It is a conversation with God, our verbal sacrifice to God! Who is GOD for us, and how do we imagine Him? And before this all-perfect, all-righteous, all-knowing, all-good, all-wise and all-powerful Being, we offer a careless, thoughtless, heartless prayer - before the One from whom we received life, breath and everything! Shame on you! During prayer, each person praying should have his own living thought, his own warm feeling. If many Christians do not love churches and divine services, it is because their souls are not ready, are not disposed to this love, have not cultivated it in themselves due to worldly addictions, and because they do not know the church, its meaning, its spirit, its purpose. Go to church, listen with deep attention to the Divine services, songs, canons, readings, and you will get used to the church, love it: you will see, be convinced how many inclinations of life, peace, consolation there are in it - how much light, strength, shrine, truth there is in it. Our faith in eternal retribution in terrible and righteous judgment is weak; and that is why we strive to delight our rewards here, sometimes, alas, for our faults - and receive our consolation at the wrong time, in the wrong order... Oh, if only we could more often imagine a terrible, impartial judgment! Our love for earthly rewards would then cool down. Oh, if we only remembered the ever-vigilant and unforgettable eye of the righteous Judge! We would not reward ourselves so diligently here for everything, as if so that in the future life there would be nothing left to reward us for. What cunning is the prince of this age and what short-sightedness on our part, voluntary blindness! I feel his actions in me, his incitement to seek earthly things and neglect heavenly things, every day from morning to evening. A Christian without a church, like a fish without water, cannot live a true life: the church is his element. What is the ever-living, ever-interesting side in our Orthodox Church? This is that wondrous love that breathes throughout the entire Divine service, the love of God for people and the devotion of rational beings - people to God the Savior, the love of the Church for all its members and for all people. Delve deeply into the Divine service, and it will never lose interest for you, the highest, inexhaustible. In the church is the true food of our souls: the Word of God, the Sacraments, divine services or readings, chants, sacred rituals that nourish the mind and feelings; Walk, people, often and partake of incorruption with your mind, heart and lips. In the world you constantly feed only on decay: your vision, your hearing, taste, smell, touch, mind, memory, imagination, imagination - all senses feed on decay. In the church everything is imperishable: beauty is imperishable, eternal, sweetness is imperishable, wealth is imperishable, glory is imperishable; worldly, carnal beauty, sweetness, glory, wealth are subject to decay and disappearance; Yes, they are deceptive, charming, sinful. Remember, Christian, that because of eternal life you fight with sin and the devil, endure wounds, ulcers, endure sorrows, cramped conditions, labor, poverty, and do deeds of virtue! There is something to work hard for, be patient! Through longsuffering all the Saints received eternal life. Keep, Christians, always one goal in mind. Which one? Eternal life. They say that now there are no miracles, but we live in a world of miracles: especially in the grace-filled Kingdom of Christ - in the church, countless miracles have happened and are now happening, both with our own eyes, and in the inner world, in human souls. Believers and God-fearing souls know this and glorify the Lord of miracles. Man is constantly perishing from sin, and he constantly needs a daily savior. This savior is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; just cry to Him inwardly with living, clairvoyant faith for salvation, and He will save you! Parents and educators! Protect your children with all care from the whims before you, otherwise the children will soon forget the value of your love and infect their hearts with malice. Caprice is the germ of heart corruption, the rust of the heart, the moth of love, the seed of malice, an abomination to the Lord. Why is it that we remember human grievances and are angry and angry at those who offend, but we very quickly forget the devil’s grievances, the most evil, the most harmful and continuous, even though we were wronged by him a thousand times a day; Meanwhile, how do we sometimes hold one insult of a person in our hearts for more than one day? This is a devilish delight! Do you hate the enemy? You're stupid. Why? Because when the enemy persecutes you, you are also internally persecuting yourself; for tell me, is it not persecution, is it not the most cruel persecution - to torment oneself with hatred of the enemy? Love your enemy and you will be wise. Oh, if you only knew what a triumph, what a bliss it is to love an enemy and do good to him! My soul! Remember your heavenly dignity and do not be indignant over things that are perishable and insignificant. Respect the heavenly dignity of other people and do not dare to insult or hate them because of anything perishable. When you are slandered, and because of this you are embarrassed and sick at heart, it means that you have pride, and it is this that must be wounded and driven out of your heart by external dishonor. So, do not be irritated by ridicule and do not hate those who hate and slander, but love them as your doctors, whom God sent you to enlighten you and teach you humility, and pray to God for them. Bless those who curse you. Say: “They are not slandering me, but my passion; they are not beating me, but this snake that nests in my heart.” Dislike, enmity or hatred should not exist between Christians even in name. Everywhere you see love. And you always and everywhere discover love! Will you still not love when everywhere you hear a sermon about love, when only the murderer-devil is eternal enmity? A proud person, while others talk about the virtues of a person, slyly fears that this person will be superior to him in virtues and eclipse him, for the proud person puts himself above everyone else and does not imagine finding the same or better virtues in other people. Where would there be a place for struggle, for exploits, for virtue, if we were not harmed by our neighbors, if we were not offended? Where would there be a place for tolerance of insults, meekness, humility? You see that we need to experience many different evils in order to demonstrate our virtue and receive crowns. Do not be irritated by those who sin and insult, do not have the passion to notice all sorts of sins in your neighbor and condemn him, as is usual for us; everyone will give an answer to God for himself; everyone has a conscience, everyone hears the Word of God, knows the will of God either from books or from conversation with others; especially, do not look maliciously at the sins of your elders, about which you do not care - everyone stands or falls for his Lord (Rom. 14:4); You correct your sins, correct your heart. Why did the Lord allow you to be poor? For your good, so that you can cleanse and atone for your sins, for alms cleanses away all sin (Prov. 15:27, Sirach 3:30), so that you can obtain prayer books for you from them, so that you can make your Lord merciful to you, for the merciful will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). Be attentive to yourself when a poor person in need of help asks you for it: at this time the enemy will try to fill your heart with coldness, indifference and even neglect towards the person in need. Overcome these non-Christian and non-human dispositions in yourself, arouse in your heart compassionate love for a person who is similar to you in everything, for this member of Christ and your own - we have made each other happy (Eph. 4:25), for this temple of the Holy Spirit, so that Christ God may love you; and whatever the needy one asks you to do, fulfill his request according to your strength. Give to him who asks you, and do not turn away from him who wants a loan from you (Matthew 5:42). A person who is embittered against us is a sick person; you need to put a plaster on his heart - love; we need to caress him, talk to him with affection, with love - and if there is not an ingrained anger against us in him, but only a temporary outbreak - see how his heart or his anger melts from our affection and love, how good overcomes evil. A Christian must always be good, wise, so that good can overcome evil. If you are offended by someone, do not be vindictive, and when those who have offended you show you a kind look and turn to you with a speech, do not turn your heart to anger, but speak kindly and good-naturedly, as if nothing had happened between you and them; learn to overcome evil with good, malice with goodness, meekness, humility. Do not be proud and vindictive, so that the Lord will not be angry with your hard-heartedness. Envy in a Christian is madness. We are commanded to be content with what we have. We acquire mutual love, goodwill and contentment with our condition, friendship, hospitality, love of poverty, love of hobbies and the height of virtues: humility, kindness, meekness, holiness. Almsgiving is good and saving when combined with the correction of the heart from pride, malice, envy, idleness, laziness, gluttony, fornication, lies, deception and other sins. And if a person does not care about correcting his heart, relying on his alms, then he will receive little benefit from it, for what he creates with one hand, he destroys with the other. He who is insolent towards man is also insolent towards God, as many of us are. Respect the majestic, priceless image of God in man and be patient with the mistakes and errors of fallen man, so that God will be patient with yours too. Our self-love and pride are revealed especially in impatience and irritability, when one of us does not tolerate the slightest trouble caused to us by others intentionally or even unintentionally. Our self-love and pride would like to put everything on our own, to surround ourselves with all the honors and comforts of temporary life, we would like all people to silently and quickly obey our beckoning... Christian! You must certainly be humble, meek and long-suffering, remembering that you are clay, dust, insignificance, that you are unclean, that everything good in you is God’s, that God’s gifts are your life, breath and everything... He who is impatient and irritable does not know himself and humanity and is not worthy to be called a Christian... Every day they ask you for alms, and give every day willingly, without bitterness, rudeness and murmuring: you give not your own, but God’s to God’s children of the cross, who barely have where to lay their heads; you are the steward of God’s property, you are the daily servant of the lesser brethren of Christ, do your work with meekness and humility, do not bore them. You serve Christ the Judge and the Giver of Retribution: great honor, high dignity! Our life is love, yes, love. And where there is love, there is God, and where God is, there is all goodness... Nourish and delight everyone with joy, please everyone with joy and rely in everything on the Heavenly Father, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. Present all human untruths to the Lord, for God is the judge, but love everyone diligently from a pure heart, and remember that you yourself are a great sinner and need the mercy of God. And in order to earn God’s mercy, we must have mercy on others in every possible way... Do not be upset at people who express their pride and arrogance or anger, effeminacy and impatience towards you or others; but, remembering that you yourself are subject to the same and greater sins and passions, pray for them and meekly deal with them. It is good in all respects to give to the poor: in addition to pardon at the Last Judgment, and here on earth, alms-givers often receive great mercies from their neighbors, and what others get for a lot of money is given to them for free... To be meek means to endure untruths about us, curses, etc., in a gentle heart, and to pray for your enemies. The main thing in life is to be jealous of mutual love and not to judge anyone. Everyone will give an answer to God for themselves, but look within yourself. Beware of malice. When anger flares up in your heart against someone, then believe with all your heart that it is the work of the devil working in your heart, hate him and his offspring, it will leave you... Be guided by the same in relation to others; when you see that someone is angry with you, do not consider his anger to be his direct work; no, he is only the passive instrument of an all-evil enemy. We must sincerely pray to God for all people subject to passions: the enemy is active in them. Keep peace of mind within yourself and do not be indignant or irritated by any opposition, insults, malfunctions, untruths - and you will always enjoy mental and physical health... To manage others, you must first learn to manage yourself. When I don’t know how to control myself, when I don’t have the spirit of self-control, the spirit of meekness, holiness, love and truth, then I am a bad manager... Be as meek, humble, and simple in your dealings with everyone as possible, considering yourself, without hypocrisy, to be lower than everyone else in your mental state, that is, more sinful and weaker than everyone else. I am the first of sinners, speak up. From pride comes pompousness, cold treatment, without any sincerity, of those who are lower than us or from whom we do not hope to benefit ourselves. Human alms are suspicious: they are afraid not to give to someone who has or not to give a lot. The mercy of the Lord is not like this: the Lord is good to everyone and His bounty is in all His works. (Ps.144:9) Love calms and pleasantly expands the heart, revitalizes it, while hatred painfully constrains and disturbs it. He who hates others torments and tyrannizes himself is the stupidest of all fools. In order not to remember your neighbor’s malice against you, but to forgive him from the bottom of your heart, remember that you yourself are no stranger to malice, as well as all other passions... True love willingly endures hardships, worries and labors, endures insults, humiliations, shortcomings, errors and malfunctions, if there is no harm from them to others; patiently and with meekness to endure the baseness and malice of others, leaving judgment to the all-seeing God, the righteous Judge, and praying that God will enlighten those darkened by irrational passions. It is unpleasant for a proud person when they demand humility from him before others; to the envious - when they demand goodwill to enemies; to the vengeful - when they demand forgiveness and reconciliation... But they must conquer their feelings, their passions and joyfully do what the Gospel requires or requires of them: otherwise, indulging unrepentantly, incorrigibly to their passions, they will perish forever. Do not listen to the enemy’s slander against your neighbor, his abominations and various evils and his pride. Look at every person simply, with respect, as the image of God, and do not think anything bad about him without reason. When you pray only internally or together and externally, be firmly confident that the Lord is here, with you and in you, and hears every word, even if you say it to yourself, even if you only speak mentally. Speak from the bottom of your heart, sincerely, condemn yourself also sincerely, without the slightest justification for yourself. Have faith that the Lord will have mercy on you - and you will not remain unmercied. Right. Taken from experience. You are sick, and your illness is very painful; you are downhearted, despondent; thoughts, each darker than the other, overwhelm you; your heart and your lips are ready for murmuring, blasphemy against God. My brother! Take sincere advice from me: endure your illness generously and not only do not be discouraged, on the contrary, if you can, rejoice in your illness. What’s there to be happy about, you ask, when it’s breaking far and wide? Rejoice in the fact that the Lord has punished you with temporary punishment, that He may cleanse your soul from sins: for the Lord loves him and punishes him (Heb. 12:6); rejoice that you now do not satisfy those passions that you would satisfy if you were healthy; Rejoice that you bear the cross of illness and, therefore, walk the narrow and sorrowful path leading to the kingdom. He who has suffered in the flesh is free from sin (1 Peter 4:1), it is said in Scripture. When you give to a beggar who is not poor, healthy and, apparently, does not deserve alms - which is why your heart will regret the alms given to him - repent of this, for divine love gives us its blessings, while we already have enough of them. Love for your neighbor should speak to you like this: although he has it, it’s not bad if I increase his well-being (and, to tell the truth, one or two or three kopecks will not really increase or improve his well-being). God gives to me, why shouldn’t I give to someone in need? I say - to the needy, for who would stretch out his hand without need? Every person on earth is sick with sinful fever, sinful blindness, possessed by the rage of sin; and since sin primarily consists of anger and pride, then every person suffering from the disease of sin must be treated with gentle love - an important truth that we often forget. We often, very often act contrary to it: we add anger to anger with our embitterment, and we rebuff pride with pride. This is how our evil grows and does not decrease; it does not heal, but becomes more infected. Lord, have mercy on us, have mercy on humanity. The science of sciences is to overcome the sin that lives in us, or the passions operating in us. For example, there is great wisdom not to be angry with anyone or anything, not to think evil about anyone, even if someone has done us harm, but to excuse it by all means. Wisdom is to despise self-interest and sweets, and to love non-covetousness and simplicity in food and drink with constant moderation; wisdom is not to flatter anyone, but to speak the truth to everyone without fear; wisdom is to love your enemies and not take revenge on them in word, deed, or thought; wisdom is not to accumulate wealth for ourselves, but to give alms to the poor, so that we may acquire for ourselves a treasure that will not fail in heaven. Alas! We have studied almost every science, but we have not taught the science of avoiding sin at all, and we often turn out to be modern ignoramuses in this moral science. Passion is hot, vague, thoughtless, evil, impetuous, and therefore a person in passion, for example, in anger, says a lot of thoughtless, untrue, fictitious, evil things that he would not say in a calm state. Therefore, knowing from experience this property of passions, firstly, do not speak when you are embarrassed or angry, and excuse hot and irritated people when they hurl curses and reproaches, unfair or just. To love God with all your heart means to love with all your soul meekness, humility, purity and chastity, wisdom, truth, mercy, obedience for the sake of God and never do the opposite of these virtues, that is, do not be proud, do not be irritated, do not be angry with anyone, avoid all reckless unnecessary words and deeds, avoid all untruth, hate stinginess and greed, avoid selfishness and disobedience. Take away from everyone from visible things what he loves most: ask or take away money from a money-lover, sweet food from someone who loves satiety, some of his advantages from an ambitious and proud person, call him by a bad name - and you will see what is the hope of everyone! ABOUT! What shameful hopes one sometimes encounters! The troubles of Christians come from the fact that they do not have Christian hope. Here a person has a sinful tightness in his heart, melancholy, sinful boredom; if there is no Christian hope in his heart, then what does he do? He resorts to artificial means to drive away cramped conditions and boredom, to criminal entertainment, and not to Christ, whose yoke is good to our hearts and His burden is light; not to prayer, not to repentance of sins, not to the word of God, which is useful for teaching, for relief, for consolation. This is how it is done for the most part. Hence the need for secular people to have theaters and a variety of entertainments. They resort to suicide. The experience of receiving what one asks for greatly contributes to the affirmation of hope in the heart of the person who prays. And those who are attentive to themselves will easily notice these experiences. Faith is undoubted, hope is undoubted, love is undoubted. Root these words in your heart and show them in your life. Place a firm intention in your soul: to strongly hate every sin - thoughts, words and deeds, and when there is a temptation to sin, resist it courageously and with a feeling of hatred for it... Without hatred for sin established in the heart, it is impossible not to often fall into it. Self-love must be uprooted: every sin comes from self-love... We must love our neighbor even more when he sins against God or against us, for then he is sick, then he is in spiritual trouble, in danger. Then you need to have mercy and pray for him and apply a healing plaster to your heart - a word of affection, admonition, reproof, consolation, forgiveness, love. Forgive one another, as God in Christ also forgave you (Eph. 4:32). All sins and passions, fights and quarrels are truly mental illnesses - that’s how you need to look at them. Or all passions - a fire of the soul, a great fire raging inside, a fire emerging from the hellish abyss. It must be extinguished with the water of love, which is strong to extinguish every flame of anger and other passions... Do not despise a single person, any poor person, but treat with complete respect and goodwill every well-intentioned person, especially the poor, as members of ours, or otherwise members of Christ, worthy of pity, otherwise you will cruelly wound your soul... When in your eyes people fall into various sins against you, against the Lord, against their neighbors and against themselves, do not be angry with them, for even without you there is a lot of evil in the world, but pity them from the heart and forgive them when they offend you, say to yourself: “Lord! Let them go, for they are confused by sin, they do not know what they are doing.” You become embittered at your neighbor, at your brother, and say: he is this and that, a miser, angry, proud, or he did this and that and so on. What do you care about that? He sins against God, not you; God is his Judge, not you; he will answer to God for himself, not you. Know yourself, how sinful you are, what a log you have in your own eye; how hard it is for you to cope with your sins, how you want the indulgence of others in their weaknesses. And your brother is a man just like you. Have mercy on him, as on a sinful man, similar to you in everything, just as weak as you. Love him as you love yourself, hearing the Lord say: I command you, that you love one another. (John 15:17). An angry and proud person is ready to see only pride and malice in others and is glad if others say bad things about one of his acquaintances, especially those who live happily and richly. And the worse it is, the more he rejoices that others are bad, and he is perfect in front of them, and is ready to see only evil in them and compare them with demons. O malice! O pride! O absence of love! In order for you to test yourself - whether you love your neighbor according to the Gospel, pay attention to yourself at a time when people offend you, scold you, laugh at you or do not give you the respect that is due in the community. If at this time you are calm, not filled with the spirit of enmity, hatred, impatience, then you love your neighbor according to the Gospel, and if you are irritated, embarrassed, then you do not love... Let us not take revenge on anyone ourselves with a single evil thought or intention, but let us leave it to God to take revenge for ourselves. Vengeance is mine, I will repay (Deut. 32:35), says God. When praying, we must certainly take control of our heart and turn it to the Lord. It must not be cold, crafty, untrue, or double-minded. Otherwise, what is the use of our prayer? How quick we are to do evil and slow to do good! So I want to be kind to the enemy and express my kindness in practice, but before I have time to become kind in my heart, I am already angry, already a fiery arrow of anger is scorching my insides. I want to be patient, but before I establish my heart in patience, I become irritable and impatient. I want to be humble, but satanic pride has already found a spacious corner in me. I want to be affectionate, but when I need to show affection, I turn out to be rude... Rejoice at every opportunity to show kindness to your neighbor, like a true Christian, striving to acquire as many good deeds as possible, especially the treasures of love... And the saints of God were overcome by devilish despair and despondency. What is wrong with us sinners? Oh, the enemy often hurts us with heartfelt bitterness, destruction and fierce despondency! We must constantly turn to the Lord and be with him every minute, so that the enemy’s bitterness and despondency do not take possession of us... You cannot overcome a single passion or a single sin without grace-filled help; always ask for help from Christ your Savior. Are you talking about how to be saved when there is sin at every step and you are sinning every minute? The answer to this is simple: at every step, at every minute, call on the Savior. Remember the Savior and you will be saved, and you will save others. It is necessary for a Christian to fast in order to clarify the mind, and arouse and develop feelings, and move the will towards good activity. We overshadow and suppress these three human abilities most of all by overeating, drunkenness and the worries of life, and through this we fall away from the source of life - God and fall into corruption and vanity, perverting and desecrating the image of God in ourselves. And how a person humiliates himself with gluttony, overeating and drunkenness! Live (and you live) as members of one body, as children of God in love and harmony, in peace and silence, respecting each other, condescending to each other, as the Lord condescends to us. Do not be proud, do not envy, do not be hostile, curb carnal lusts, be chaste, abstain from all excesses, do not be lazy in prayer, always begin everyday affairs with a short prayer, begin and end the day with fervent prayer to God, the Queen of Heaven and the Guardian Angel; Pray for everyone as for yourself, wish good for everyone as for yourself, and do not wish or do evil to anyone. All people are the breath and creation of one God. As the breath of one God and as descended from one person, people should naturally live in mutual love and mutual preservation and should not be separated from each other by pride, pride, malice, envy, stinginess and unsociability. Do good to the poor willingly, without suspiciousness, doubt and petty inquisitiveness, remembering that in the person of the poor you are doing good to Christ Himself. Human anger is a terrible, unnatural phenomenon in a person; it is often aroused in the heart because of the most unimportant reasons, because of self-love and pride. Keep a close watch on the manifestations of pride: it manifests itself unnoticed, especially in being upset and irritable with others for the most unimportant reasons. Life is a great experimental science. There is nothing more difficult than to pass through this science, the narrow path and the narrow gate. And whoever, at motherhood school or college, has not learned faith and the fear of God and a pious life will find it especially difficult to study at the school of life. Even if he was smart, knowledgeable in the school of sciences, and was held in high esteem for his abilities, in the school of life he turns out to be an ignoramus; moreover, sometimes he is not useful for anything, neither for family life, because of his quarrelsome character or his unbridled heart, nor for social activities. He is poor and often wrecks in life, like a ship loaded with a lot of goods at sea, launched during a storm without a rudder, without tackle and sails. Prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God. From here it is obvious that one whose mind and heart are firmly attached to something carnal, for example, to money, to honor, or who has hatred and envy for others in his heart cannot pray. All who begin to work for the Lord in prayer, learn to be, like Him, meek, humble and true in heart, have no guile in your soul... Remember that not a single word is wasted in prayer if it is said from the heart: the Lord hears every word, and every word is in His balance... Do not spare your heart for prayer; take him out from under the attachments and passions that cover him like bark, and lift him to God, and illuminate him with a bright mind; and then there is darkness in it, and in this darkness there are reptiles, they are countless. In prayer, strike directly at the sinful heart, at its particular glaring, annoying shortcomings, squeeze it out of it; do not spare yourself; shed tears for them: they will come out with tears. And if you spare your heart and don’t touch it, all the rubbish will remain: and prayer will do you no good. Prayer offered from the heart can always be useful for the soul and body and is never harmful to the body, even if the person praying is in poor health. This is experience. Prayer miraculously calms the soul, and peace of mind makes the body calmer. What do you say to this, who refuse prayer due to poor health? Are you the only one who is weak for good deeds? 0, sinful flesh! How you deceive the unreasonable! Great virtue is patience and trust in God’s mercy, and despair is a grave sin. The devil tries with all his might to plunge the sinner into despair; but the sinner must be strengthened by hope. Fall and rise. Sorrow is a great teacher; sorrows show us our weaknesses, passions, and need for repentance; Sorrows cleanse the soul, sober it up, as if from drunkenness, bring grace into the soul, soften the heart, inspire disgust for sin, and confirm faith, hope and virtue. A bad heart, an unclean heart! Now I clearly see that the all-good, righteous and wise Lord deservedly allowed you to suffer for a considerable time. If you are still so wicked, unclean, stinking, then what would you be like if you had not experienced cruel suffering for your wickedness, for your unfaithfulness to God? 0! I see that you should be tortured in order to squeeze out of you the evil with which you are filled. Heartfelt faith in the spiritual world, especially in the spiritual all-enlightening and all-reviving Sun, pleases and enlivens the soul that has an immaculate conscience. Faith must reach the vision of the heart. This means that the soul must rise, as it were, above sensuality, above its corporeal, dark nature, and penetrate with itself - perhaps with the pure vision of the heart - into the spiritual world. This is where she feels good, this is where her true life is, her peace and joy. Experience. Imagination and representation are the vision of the heart or soul creating or reproducing a known object: that is why it is quick, instantaneous, and has a spiritual character. This is a daguerreotype or photograph taken by the soul of a famous object. Reason is the painter who takes pictures from this photograph. In ordinary human knowledge, once you have learned an object well, you often know it well for the rest of your life without clouding your knowledge of it. But in faith it is not so, once you have known, felt, touched, you think: the object of faith will always be so clear, tangible, loved for my soul, but no: a thousand times it will darken for you, move away from you and, as it were, disappear for you; what you previously loved, what you lived and breathed, to which, from time to time, you will feel complete indifference; and sometimes you have to clear the way for yourself with sighs and tears in order to see him, grab him and hug him with your heart. Remember: the mind is the servant of the heart, which is our life; if he leads the heart to truth, to peace, joy, to life, he fulfills his purpose, he is truth; if to doubt, to anxiety, languor, despondency, darkness, he deviates from his purpose and is certainly deceitful (of a false mind). If the heart feels peace, pleasure, lightness from believing in something, that is enough; There is no need to demand proof of the truth of this subject from reason; he is undoubtedly true, he assures his heart with his life, for the goal of all searches is truth and life. Preserve in every possible way the simplicity of your heart, the simplicity of faith, hope and love, meekness, humility, and kindness. Every good thing comes from God, and God is every good thing for us, this is the simplicity of faith, hope and love! If we do not warm the heart with warmth, then faith in us may completely extinguish due to negligence; Christianity, with all its sacraments, may seem to completely die out for us. The enemy is only trying to extinguish faith in the heart and bring all the truths of Christianity into oblivion. That is why we see people who are Christians in name only, but who are perfect pagans in deeds. You give glory to God with words, but you don’t give it with deeds. Glorify God more through deeds: abstinence, hard work, love, mercy, humility and patience. Do not doubt any truth; you of little faith, why did you doubt (Matthew 14:31)? The trouble comes from our doubt and conceit. When you are asked to pray for the salvation of someone from bodily death, for example, from drowning, from death due to illness, from fire or from any other disaster, praise the faith of those asking for this and say to yourself: blessed be your faith, according to your faith may the Lord grant the fulfillment of my unworthy, little-faithful prayer and may He add faith to me. Love without thinking: love is simple. Love can never go wrong. Also, without thinking, believe and trust: for faith and trust are also simple; or better: God, in Whom we believe and in Whom we trust, is a simple Being, just as He is simple love. We are all one, and for everyone everything is the Lord, as for angels, for saints, for all material worlds and every smallest part of them. Look at the birds of the air. Look at the grain of the villages... if God clothes the hay like this, how much more than you, you of little faith... Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (mutual love), and all this will be added to you (from God) (Matthew 6:26-33). Here is the most necessary truth for you! Follow her! Rely on God for everything. Cast away all your sorrow, for He cares for you. Indeed, how can you live as if there is no God the Guardian? We think to arrange everything ourselves, we think to provide for ourselves, putting aside the thought of a common Trustee for all. Looking at God's world, what do I see? I see everywhere an extraordinary breadth and playfulness of life: in the animal kingdom, among four-legged animals, between reptiles, insects, birds, between fish. Now the question arises, why is there a cramped, sorrowful path of life for a person and especially for people who are zealous for piety? The Lord has poured life, contentment and joy everywhere everywhere, and all creatures, except man, glorify the Creator with contentment, life and playful joy. Why am I at odds with general life? Am I not a creation of the same Creator? The solution is simple. Our lives are poisoned either by ourselves, by sin, or by the disembodied enemy, especially by him and especially by those people who strive in piety. The life of a person, a true Christian, is ahead, in the next century; there all joys and complete bliss will open up for him. But here he is an exile and under punishment: here sometimes all of nature arms itself against him for sin, not to mention the ancient enemy, who, like a lion, roars, walks, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). So, I am not embarrassed by why there is joy and contentment everywhere in the world, but there is often no joy in me, and I look gloomily at the joy and spaciousness of God’s creatures. I have an executioner for sin, this executioner is always with me and beats me. But joy will come for me too, just not here, but in another world. If my life had continued for a few moments, let’s say ten - and five of them were moments of calm, and the other five were of languor and torment, and then I would undoubtedly have to say: yes, undoubtedly I also have a Life-Giver, and my Life-Giver is providing for me; I would also undoubtedly have to say that there is a being in the world who has the power of death; because the five unfavorable moments must come from a being opposite to God; because the same cause cannot produce opposite effects. And I, a sinner, in my spiritual life, out of 100 parts, have at least 70 belonging to God, and only 30 to the devil. How can one not constantly see the Benefactor before oneself and waver mentally in living faith in Him! Since the time when man, of his own free will, fell away from God, he, like an animal that was once domestic, but then went wild in the dense forests, reluctantly looks at the place of his former residence, loves more the darkness of the forest, that is, this world, than the light of the former place, that is, the paradise of God. It is difficult to unite with God and, after union, often falls away from him; It is difficult for him to sincerely believe in God and in everything that He has revealed to him; he does not constantly care about preserving the heavenly gift of faith in his heart. If God does not leave a grass, a flower or a leaf on a tree with His good providence, will He leave us? 0, every person should be convinced with all his heart that the Lord is faithful to Himself in His providence for every creature, even the smallest of His creatures. Understand that every creature has an invisibly inherent Creator. In the words of the Savior: God clothes the flowers of the field and feeds the birds of the air. How does God not make us, His creatures, happy? Even flowers. Like a tender mother, according to Her eternal strength and wisdom, every summer she creates for us these magnificent plants out of nothing. Let us amuse ourselves with them, and let us not forget to glorify the goodness of the Creator, our heavenly Father; We ourselves will respond to His love for us with our loving hearts. With thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy - who suffers: is it the object about which they doubt, which they do not believe, which is blasphemed? These are the last ones. They are then afraid of fear, where there is no fear (Ps. 13:5), they are tormented by their doubt, unbelief, blasphemy; and the object of their agony remains firm, motionless and takes obvious advantage over them by the fact that it forces them to change their thoughts about it for their own peace of mind and does not allow them to calm down until they repent of their previous false thoughts regarding it and bring favorable, true thoughts. Therefore, it is foolish to hesitate and be indignant, and even more so to become faint-hearted and discouraged in spirit when thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy, and other similar things come during prayer or at other times. Unite with God with your soul through heartfelt faith and you can do everything. Are you being fought by strong, invisible, never-ending enemies? You will win. Tormented by passions? You will overcome. Suppressing sorrows? You will disgust me. Are you discouraged? You will get courage. With faith you can overcome everything and you will receive the Kingdom of Heaven itself. Faith is the greatest good in earthly life: it connects a person with God and in Him makes him strong and victorious. Cling to the Lord; there is one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). Don’t stare at the beauty of a person’s face, but look at his soul; do not look at his attire (the body is temporary clothing), but look at the one who dresses him, do not look at the splendor of the house, but look at the tenant, who lives in it and what kind of person he is, otherwise you will offend the image of God in man, you will dishonor the king by bowing to his servant, and not giving him the slightest honor due to him. Also - do not look at the beauty of the printed font of the book, but look at the spirit of the book: otherwise we will humiliate the spirit, but we will exalt the body; because the letters are the body, and the content of the book is the spirit. Do not be deceived by the melodic sounds of an instrument or voice, but by their impression on the soul or by their words, find out what their spirit is; if sounds evoke quiet, chaste, holy feelings in your soul, listen and feed your soul with them; If through them passions flow into your soul, stop listening, abandon both the body and the spirit of music. Man, you see for yourself, does not die in his word; He is immortal in it and speaks after death. I will die, but even after death I will speak. There is so much of this immortal word between people, which was left behind by those who died a long time ago and which lives on, sometimes on the lips of an entire people! How tenacious is the word, even a human one! Moreover, the Word of God: it will survive all centuries and will always be alive and valid. Brethren! What is the purpose of our life on earth? So that, after our trial by earthly sorrows and disasters and after gradual improvement in virtue with the help of grateful gifts bestowed in the sacraments, we may rest upon death in God - the peace of our spirit. That is why we sing about the dead: Rest, O Lord, the soul of Your servant. We wish the deceased peace, as the end of all desires, and we pray to God. Isn’t it therefore unreasonable to grieve a lot over the dead? Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, says the Lord. Our dead, having fallen asleep in Christian death, come to this voice of the Lord and rest in peace. Why mourn? How many empty and incessant pretexts does the hater of the human race present for hating our neighbors, so that at least be constantly angry with people, at least be angry in vain, live according to the hellish, all-destructive will of the demon. Do not chase after his ghosts, leave all enmity and love everyone, for love is from God. The edge of sorrow, which you thrust innocently into someone else’s heart, will enter your heart too, according to the strict law of retribution: measure according to the measure, it will be measured to you. If you don’t want grief, don’t give it to others. Pride is a demon; anger is the same demon; envy is the same demon; the abomination of the prodigal is the same demon; violent blasphemy is the same demon; violent doubt of the truth is a demon; despondency is a demon; passions are different, but one Satan acts in all; the passions are different, and together satanic barks in different ways, and a person is one, one …………………………………………… (gap, no p. 44–45) The body, as the temporary clothing of the soul, is perishable and does not constitute the direct life of a person; true life is spiritual life. Tear and destroy a person’s clothes, he himself will remain alive: so after murder, after death, after the decay of the body, the soul will remain alive. Yes, we take the greatest care for the soul, for its salvation! Repentance is helped by consciousness, memory, imagination, feeling, will. Just as we sin with all the strength of our soul, so repentance must be all-soul. Repentance only in words, without the intention of correction and without a feeling of contrition, is called hypocritical. The consciousness of sins is obscured, it must be awakened; the will grows dull and becomes weak for correction; it must be forced: the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force (Matthew 11:12). Confession must be heartfelt, deep, complete. Ah, my brothers! Will we not all soon disappear from the face of the earth and be as if we had never existed? Where are the works of love? Where is the fulfillment of the Creative commandments? Where is the spirit of Christ in us? Where is kindness, where is humility, where is love for souls, where is dispassion for the temporary? Where is the zeal for spiritual benefits? We are vain, stupid people! We have distorted the image of our souls, we have distorted our lives, we have turned them around, we have turned them upside down. Instead of Christ, we please the devil. There is, Christian brothers, true, real life, and there is imaginary, false life. To live in order to drink, eat, dress, walk, get rich, generally live for earthly pleasures or worries, as well as to initiate intrigues, intrigues, judge and dress up others, is an imaginary life, to live in order to please God and neighbors, to pray for the salvation of their souls and in every possible way to help their salvation, means to truly live. The first life is an unceasing spiritual death, the second is an unceasing life of the spirit. He who rejects fasting forgets what caused the fall of the first people (from intemperance), and what weapon against sin and the tempter the Savior pointed out when he was tempted in the desert (fasting forty days and nights), he does not know or does not want to know that a person falls away from God most often through intemperance, as was the case with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with the contemporaries of Noah - for intemperance causes sin in people; whoever rejects fasting takes away from himself and from others weapons against his many-passionate flesh and against the devil, who are strong against us, especially through our intemperance, he is not a warrior of Christ, for he throws down his weapon and voluntarily surrenders into captivity of his voluptuous and sin-loving flesh; he, finally, is blind and does not see the relationship between the causes and consequences of affairs. Do not look at the sins of others and do not be hostile to the sinner, either internally or externally, but present your sins before you and diligently repent of them, considering yourself truly worse than everyone else; pray with love for those who sin, knowing that we are all prone to every sin. Young people who have studied and who have not been educated rarely go to church, and do not engage in the education of their spirituality at all, considering it as unnecessary and giving themselves up to the vanity of life. We need to pay attention to this. This is the fruit of pride and spiritual underdevelopment. They consider visiting the church and Divine services a public matter for the common people and women, forgetting that angels serve in the church with fear along with people and consider this to be the greatest bliss. The opening of seas and rivers is an image of the release of our soul from our body. The waters, freed from ice, come face to face with the air, which begins to sway them, and with the sun, which begins to bathe in their waters. Thus, pure souls, having separated from the body, come face to face with Christ, are cooled by Him, and are illuminated by Him (p.48). The waters, while there is an icy shell on them, are, as it were, in prisons, in chains, and do not have direct communication with the air and with the light of the sun. Likewise, our souls, while they live in a bodily shell, do not have direct communication with God and with the saints, but only partly through their shell, and when the bodily shell falls off, then we will see our Lord face to face, just as the waters, after breaking free of ice, are directly turned to the sun and come into direct contact with the air. Don’t be embittered by anything, conquer everything with love: all sorts of insults, whims, all kinds of family troubles - don’t know anything but love. Always blame yourself sincerely, admitting that you are the culprit of the troubles. Say: “I am guilty, I am a sinner.” Remember that just as you are weak, so is your neighbor, and weakness for weakness is destroyed, and there is nothing to blame for the weak and sinners if they admit their weakness. The devil, strong in evil, must be blamed. I marvel at the greatness and life-giving power of the Divine Mysteries: the old woman, who was coughing up blood and completely exhausted, eating nothing, began to recover on the same day from the communion of the Holy Mysteries, which I taught. The girl, who was completely dying, after communion of the Holy Mysteries, on the same day began to recover, eat, drink and speak, while she was almost unconscious, tossed about violently and did not eat or drink anything. Glory to Your life-giving and terrible Mysteries, Lord! Why is it necessary to pray at home and go to church for Divine services? Why do you eat and drink, and walk in the fresh air every day, or work every day? In order to support and stimulate the life of the soul, which is ailing from sins, to cleanse it, like food and drink, you use other things to cleanse yourself of harmful phlegm or impurities. If, therefore, you do not pray, then you act very unreasonably and recklessly, supporting the body in every possible way, delighting, strengthening, and leaving the soul in disdain. After all, every person is twofold, for he consists of soul and body. Do you pay sufficient attention to the state of your soul: is it healthy, and, since it is alive, is its life strong, and if the temporary life here is prosperous, then is eternal life, eternal well-being secured in any way, for example, by faith - is there a living faith in God, in the Savior, in the Church - by good deeds, meekness, humility, kindness, love of truth and honesty, abstinence, chastity, mercy, patience, obedience, hard work, etc.? Otherwise, all your work is vain: the soul does a lot, perhaps worthy of wonder, but it itself will perish. What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul (Matthew 16:26). It’s an amazing thing: no matter how much we worry about our health, no matter how much we take care of ourselves, no matter how healthy and enjoyable foods we eat, no matter how healthy drinks we drink, no matter how much we walk in the fresh air, but in the end, what happens is that we are exposed to disease and decay. The saints, who despised the flesh, mortified it with incessant abstinence and fasting, lying on the bare ground, vigil, labor, and unceasing prayer, immortalized both their soul and their flesh; our bodies, much nourished and sweetly nourished, emit a stench after death, and sometimes during life, and their bodies are fragrant and bloom, both during life and after death. It’s an amazing thing: while we create, we destroy our body, but they, while destroying, created; We, pouring fragrances on it, do not avoid its stench, but they, not caring about the fragrance of the body, but that the soul should be a fragrance for God, smelled their bodies. My brothers! Understand the task, the purpose of your life. We must mortify the multi-passionate body or carnal passions through abstinence, work, prayer, and not revive it and its passions through delicacy, satiety, laziness. You, who so much in this life avoid the suffering of the body and the sorrows of the soul, who so cherish your flesh and please your soul, that you do not care about avoiding the eternal fire, a thousand times more fierce than the earthly elemental fire? Why don't you try to avoid eternal sorrows? Poor people, please contact us. To her! It will be unbearable. Real life is not a joke or a toy, but meanwhile people have turned it into a joke and a toy: they frivolously play with time given to prepare for eternity, they play with idle words. They will gather for a visit, sit and chat idlely, and then sit down to play one way or another; they will gather in the theater, and there only the actors and those watching their actions will have fun; others are amused by their mental gifts, human weaknesses or virtues, the ability to speak and write well; they even indulge in food and drink, consuming them in excess, instead of using them only for the necessary saturation; they amuse themselves with their clothes, they amuse themselves with their faces; They amuse themselves with their children instead of raising them in faith, piety and the fear of God. Their whole life is fun. Woe to those who amuse themselves! Remember, man, that you are a moral and physical nonentity; moral - because you are all sin, passion, weakness, and physical - because your body is earthly dust; so that through this they can vividly and tangibly show their humility before God, as was clearly depicted by ancient people, and even today by some, sprinkling ashes on their heads, taking off light clothes that feed vanity and vanity in the immortal human spirit. So, man, the smallest good in you is from God, like the smallest trickle of air that is in you or that you inhale from the air around you. When your spirit becomes despondent in illness and begins to imagine death with horror, then calm and comfort your restless, trembling and sad heart with the following saying: You, Lord, with the depth of wisdom, humanely build everything and give useful things to everyone, and believe that He will certainly arrange everything for our good: whether life, illness, misfortune, sorrow, or death, so what better can you wish for? it is impossible. Don’t say: it would be too early for me to die, I would like to live a little longer for the glory of God, for the benefit of my relatives and neighbors; I would like to see the light again and enjoy the blessings of the earth. Be grateful to God for the fact that you have previously enjoyed His benefits, His mercies, His bounties. Now submit to His will, His calling, and, however, at the same time, do not despair of the continuation of your life here. Many practicing doctors who receive a lot of money from their patients must give generous alms for their souls if they believe that they have an immortal soul; rich priests, who receive generous rewards for their prayerful labors, must also give rich alms, so that they will not be condemned with Judas the traitor who sold the Lord of Glory for silver; merchants who receive large profits must certainly practice almsgiving and decorating and supplying the churches of God; officials who receive large salaries should also not consider generous remuneration for their feasible labors their exclusive asset, and also remember their poor brethren, may they receive a reward from the Lord and may they purify their souls. Everyone must stock up on the oil of alms and good deeds, so that no one will appear naked before the Judge on the day of the terrible trial, and no naked person will appear on the same world stage. The inner man, from under the vanity of light, from under the darkness of his flesh, not bound by the temptations of the evil one, looks out more freely in the morning, upon awakening, like a fish that sometimes jumps to the surface of the water. The rest of the time it is covered in almost impenetrable darkness; there is a painful bandage over his eyes, hiding from him the true order of spiritual and sensual things. Catch the morning hours, these are the hours of a new life, renewed by temporary sleep. They point us in part to the state when we will rise renewed on the general morning of the non-evening day of resurrection, or when we will be separated from this mortal body. And time flows without stopping, and during my lifetime my body is still constantly changing and passing, and the whole world, as can be seen from its movement, also passes, and seems to be rushing towards its supposed end, like a wound-up car. Where is the constant? What is constant is that it all moves and directs towards its goals: the first cause of everything complex and created is constant, which itself is not complex and therefore not transitory, eternal; The spirits of Angels and men, created according to the model of the first Vina, are still constant. Everything else is a soap bubble. I do not humiliate creation with these words, but I say this about it in comparison with the Creator and with the blessed spirits. Anger or any other passion, settling in the heart, strives - according to the indispensable law of evil - to pour out. That is why they usually say about an evil or angry person that he took out his anger on this and that, or took out his anger on that and that. The trouble with evil is that it does not remain only in the heart, but strives to spread outward. From this it is already clear that the author of evil is himself great and has a vast area in which he reigns. The world is all evil. Just as vapors or gases, having accumulated in abundance in a locked place, tend to erupt out, so passions, like the breath of the spirit of malice, filling the human heart, also tend to spill out of one person onto others and infect the souls of others with their stench. Keep a close watch on manifestations of pride; it manifests itself unnoticed, especially in being upset and irritable with others for the most unimportant reasons. Passions, like cruel drivers, drive you on, daily forcing you, due to our passion for earthly things, to do something contrary to the Lord and our true good and pleasing to the flattering Satan. May simplicity accompany you everywhere, especially be simple in faith, hope and love, for God is a simple Being, an ever-worshipped Unit, and our soul is simple. The simplicity of our soul is hindered by the flesh when we please it, when, for example, we eat and drink sweetly and generally pleasantly and a lot, smoke, have fun, and generally do whatever it pleases, for then it takes precedence over the spirit... Do not confuse man - this is the image of God - with the evil that is in him, because evil is only his accidental misfortune, illness, demonic dream, but his being - the image of God - still remains in him. No matter what passions your enemies fight you with, endure without despondency, without bitterness, with meekness and humility, and do not allow impatience, anger, murmuring and blasphemy to move in your heart. When we hear bad reviews about a person, then, internally comparing him with ourselves, we say in our hearts: I am not like that, I am perfect in comparison with him, and, dreaming this way about ourselves and internally condemning others, we enjoy our superiority over others. This is satanic pride, this is the stench of a carnal, sinful man. May such thoughts flee from your soul! May we consider ourselves the worst of all people! When they speak ill of someone, let us sigh and say to ourselves: we are worse, a hundred times more sinful than this person, and from the bottom of our hearts we will pray for our condemned brother. Notice yourself - your passions, especially in your home life, where they are freely visible, like moles in a safe place; outside the home, some of our passions are usually covered up by other passions, more plausible, and there there is no way to drive out these black moles that undermine the integrity of our soul. Begin to fulfill the commandments concerning the small, and you will fulfill the commandments concerning the great: the small everywhere leads to the great. Begin to fulfill even the commandment about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or the tenth commandment concerning evil thoughts and desires, you will fulfill all the commandments; and he who is unfaithful in little and in many ways is unfaithful. By 1903, the venerable shepherd was 73 years old. – Publisher's Note. Borrowed from the newspaper "Vedomosti of St. Petersburg. City Government" for 1897 and 1898. The newspaper is published under the editorship of M. G. Krivoshlyk. You might be interested in: