Слово второе в защиту священнобезмолвствующих. О молитве

Most gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to those worthy during prayer. Every reasonable person recognizes this. After all, the Lord said: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). Those who sincerely pray, God sometimes takes them beyond themselves and in an indescribable way raptures them to Heaven. And sometimes, when they do not leave the boundaries of their “I,” He Himself acts in them in a supernatural and incomprehensible way for the sages of this world. And indeed, when the apostles were once in earnest prayer and supplication, the Holy Spirit, having visited them, did not take them up to Heaven, but gave their lips tongues of fire. Moses, although he was silent before God, heard from Him: “Why are you crying out to Me?” (Ex. 14:15). This word of God shows that Moses, silent with his lips, but praying with all the strength of his soul, was in genuine communication with God and did not even hear the cries of the people. Of course, none of the people clothed with a body is capable of being in such a state constantly. As far as we know, people achieving this state are extremely rare. Thus, we must know that people for the most part pray while in the flesh and at the same time feeling passions within themselves while praying. But at the same time, they also taste the sacred fruits of prayer, which make them more perfect and raise them to Heaven. The beginning of everything is the fear of God. It gives birth to saving tenderness and blessed sorrow, followed by the bath of remission of sins, which washes a person with tears of repentance - his rebirth in God. A God-loving and cleansing tear inspires the soul, and, according to the words of the fathers, when combined with prayer, it enlightens the eyes of the mind. According to the Holy Theologian Gregory, prayer with tears calls for the return of Divine grace that has retreated from man. Therefore it is called by this holy father “the bath of sacred rebirth and divine immersion.” Of course, this baptism of tears is more painful than the first. But at the same time, it is not at all lower than it, and one can say that it is higher, as one of the fathers clearly testifies, saying: “Higher than baptism is the source of tears that opens after baptism.” So, these tears, cleansing, delighting from the earthly to the heavenly, leading to God, connecting with the grace of rebirth in God - these tears adore the one who has them. Those who live this way, devoting themselves to God, and with an unclouded mind striving to converse with Him, easily eliminate the creeping things of evil passions and collect love in the treasury of their soul. But those who live in the world must force themselves to do worldly affairs according to God’s commandments.” This compulsion, having become a habit over time, becomes a sweet attachment to the commandments of God and changes the disposition into a stable inclination. And a stable habit bears the fruit of dispassion, from which love for the One Good is born. So, in order to become a living sacrifice, we must consecrate to God the living and active powers of our soul, as the Apostle Paul says: “I urge you... for the sake of God’s mercy, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). How can we offer our body as a living sacrifice acceptable to God? This happens when our eyes look without guile, when our ears are obedient to Divine teachings, when we not only listen to God’s commandments, but also remember and fulfill them, so that it does not happen that God’s commandment flies into one ear and flies out of the other. Many of the saints we revere learned from personal experience about the Light of God's grace and taught us this. We confirm their experience with the Gospel teaching and quote the words of these saints who fulfilled the Gospel. Saint Isaac the Syrian, a faithful and undeceitful interpreter, teaches us that “we have two spiritual eyes, and the benefits of seeing with them are unequal: in fact, with one vision we see what is hidden in natural things, that is, God's power, His wisdom and His providence for us, comprehended through the greatness of His guidance by us; with another vision we see the glory of His holy nature, when God deigns to introduce us into spiritual mysteries.” The Lord said to His Father: “I want these to see My glory, which You have given Me, having loved Me from the foundation of the world” (John 17:24); and also: “Glorify Me, Father, with Yourself with the glory that I had with You before I was in the world” (John 17:5). He who has the knowledge of created things cannot always have God within himself. But through created things he draws conclusions about God and reflects on Him. But the one who has the Light of God in himself, in an indescribable way, sees everything as it is, and not in hints and reflections. However, let us see how man can acquire this vision of the glory of the Divine nature. Of course, he can achieve this by keeping the Divine commandments. Christ Himself said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” and: “I will show Myself to him” (John 14:21, 23). The apostles, who ascended with Christ to Tabor, during His Transfiguration became spiritual from the flesh, although they were not yet alien to the carnal life. This happened through the change of feelings that the Spirit wrought in them. I even consider our sacred faith to be the vision of the heart, so to speak, surpassing all feelings and thoughts. When I say “faith,” I do not mean our pious profession of faith in God, but our unshakable affirmation of it and the promises of God. Those who by faith receive this inner testimony will see God in a way that surpasses all thought. Let us devote ourselves more fully to this faith and to the Divine contemplation that accompanies it. This faith is the beginning and end of any virtuous life. This true faith always frees our race from any kind of error. It affirms a truth in us that no one can shake - even if we are considered crazy for our devotion to this true faith in God. We testify that we are not “driven by the wind of any doctrine” (Eph. 4:14), but hold to the only Christian knowledge of truth and honor the simplest, most Divine and truly unwandering contemplation. Leaving the future aside for now, let us notice from the past from the beginning how by faith a vision is given above the mind. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that what we see was not made from things visible” (Heb. 11:3). What mind can accept that the Universe arose from complete nothingness, and only by the power of the Divine word? Our faith rose above considerations derived from the observation of created things and united us with the highest meaning and simple truth. And we understood more clearly than with the help of any proof that the Universe was created not only from nothing, but also solely by the Word of God. Our faith is a power that surpasses nature: “This is the victory that has overcome the world—this is our faith” (1 John 5:4). The knowledge of God of Christians and the salvation resulting from this knowledge of God is acquired by this very faith that saves man. That is why the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans said: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). That is why all those who are worthy to accept by faith the mystery of life in Christ can sing praises to God and see Him within themselves within His Light. All these people, by faith and fulfillment of the Divine commandments, received this power that surpasses nature.