Path of Purity

(From conversations of a pastor-teacher of the law) Dedicated to senior high school students. In this conversation, I want to talk with young people about one very difficult and very sad phenomenon in the lives of young people, about the painful internal drama that many boys experience in connection with the premature and incorrect awakening of the sexual instinct in them. I want to talk about this not for the purpose of denunciation or teaching, but with the goal of sincerely and clearly raising before young people that painful question, to which they themselves must give themselves a correct and honest answer, and from the solution of which they should not cowardly deviate. Observing our young students (the male half), I notice in them an amazing combination of opposite properties. On the one hand - ardent impulses towards everything high, beautiful, kind, noble; warm responsiveness to human grief and suffering; sincere indignation at all untruths, hypocrisy and violence; readiness to sacrifice everything, even life and freedom, in the name of truth and goodness. On the other hand, there is a series of falls to the darkest and dirtiest depths of sin, an uncontrollable attraction to the most shameful sensual pleasures, a frivolous trampling into the dirt of not only one’s own human dignity, but also the dignity of another person, for whom at other moments young people are ready to so ardently sacrifice themselves. This combination of opposites, this mixture of good and evil, selflessness and gross selfishness testify, undoubtedly, first of all, that our human nature, even in its youngest representatives untouched by life, already carries within itself sinful corruption, the legacy of original sin. But on the other hand, this phenomenon is partly explained by the properties of youth. Youth, by its very nature, is characterized by ardor, impetuosity, imbalance, passion to the last limit in all its actions and desires, both good and evil. A young man often acts under the influence of the moment, and then begins to wonder whether he acted as he should have or not. In addition to the indicated property of youth, there are also reasons for the observed mixture of good and evil in the lives of young people. These reasons consist partly in insufficient clarity of consciousness of what should be considered good and evil, partly in insufficient firmness and experience of the will, untrained to coordinate its actions with the clear demands of duty, and partly in unfavorable conditions and the bad influence of the environment. All these reasons clearly reveal their effect in that dark spot of youthful life, which in all fairness should be considered the greatest misfortune of youth and which consists in the violation of one’s purity and chastity. The question of the chastity of young people, of the preservation by young men of the same moral purity and modesty that are considered obligatory for every girl, is a very serious question, a very sore point not only of our time. At the same time, this issue is very difficult, very sensitive, and many parents and educators try in every possible way to avoid it in silence, partly, perhaps, because they consider it indelicate to interfere in one of the most intimate areas of the lives of young people, partly because, realizing the importance and seriousness of the subject, they are afraid with inept, careless words to push young people into such thoughts and questions that can only bring them harm. As a result of such caution, which is not always prudent enough, our young people, in one of their most important and dangerous inner experiences, remain alone, morally helpless, and through this, out of ignorance, inexperience and carelessness, sometimes fall into deeply sad and even irreparable mistakes. The experiences of youth associated with awakening sexual feelings require special attention to themselves and, although cautious, firm and sincere explanation on the part of those in charge of educating young people. These experiences are often accompanied by the most unhealthy extremes. They often leave an indelible mark on the spiritual appearance of a young man for the rest of his life, sometimes they capture an area of ​​attention that is too wide and inappropriate for them, they turn into intrusive, depressing mental states, they prevent them from living and breathing freely, from devoting their strength and attention to more sublime, pure and beautiful interests. Gradually intensifying and filling the soul, they empty it of all moral content, making it lethargic, cold, dull, indifferent to everything except one favorite area. At such a fateful moment in a young man’s life, when his entire future fate in life, his entire subsequent moral growth may be decided, the question of the happiness and misfortune of his entire life is being decided, he should not be alone. Unfortunately, young people themselves usually avoid talking to anyone about this type of inner experience. They are embarrassed, ashamed to talk about something that is so unacceptable, so uncomfortable to talk about! They are afraid to appear morally corrupt and depraved in the eyes of other people, and thus deprive themselves of the only reliable means of salvation from obsessions - sincere consciousness in their experiences, sincere conversation about their inner life. Nothing is more afraid of the light of sincerity than unhealthy experiences in the sphere of sexual feelings; open sincerely, they lose their imaginary charm, fade, become alien to the soul, powerless. Experienced alone and silently, they take on fantastic shapes, torment the soul with unknown pleasures, illusory sweetness, and, having tormented it morally, make it powerless and incapable of anything pure and good, making it their obedient slave! Taking this painful issue in the lives of young people to heart, wishing, to the best of my ability, to come to the aid of both the youth themselves and the people in charge of their upbringing, I dare to talk about this issue, especially since, by my title of priest and confessor, I do not consider myself entitled to shy away from discussing the most intimate, most unhealthy areas of the inner life of young people. I will try, while maintaining complete truthfulness and not hushing up anything, at the same time not to offend the moral sense of my readers and to ensure that my words, without causing harm to anyone, will bring only benefit. The Word of God teaches us that every moral evil we commit first of all arises in the depths of our soul. Our heart is the source of both our good and evil actions. “From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy” (Matthew 15:19), says our Lord Jesus Christ. “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) Explaining the Old Testament law in His Sermon on the Mount, the Lord everywhere raises the thought and attention of His listeners from the external manifestations of sin to their internal source - evil movements of the heart. “You have heard that it was said to the ancients: Do not kill... But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21, 22). “You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:24, 28). Usually we tend to attach little importance to the bad movements of our heart and say to ourselves and others: “Think and feel what you want; just don’t harm anyone!” Or in other words: “Why should anyone care about my thoughts and feelings... After all, I won’t hurt anyone?” But this kind of reasoning is deeply erroneous. For “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” What a person carries in his heart is involuntarily revealed in his deeds, and is involuntarily felt and noticed by everyone around him. Father John of Kronstadt in his book “My Life in Christ” says: “Passion according to the spiritual dispensation is contagious; for example, anger, not yet expressed in words, not expressed in deeds, but hiding only in the heart, and reflected slightly on the face and eyes, is already transmitted to the soul of the one against whom I have anger, and is noticeable to others; I am indignant with passion, my indignation also touches the heart of another, there is some kind of spiritual overflow of an unclean stream from one spiritual container to another” (Thoughts of a Christian, p. 36). A soul filled with unclean thoughts and wishes gradually loses the ability to do bright and good deeds. “A sin in thought can be worse than a sin done,” we read from one author. “Sin by deed is always limited by the conditions of its commission; sin by thought is never absolutely limited by anything. There is only so much that can be done, but there is no end to the heinous crimes that a person who has unleashed his imagination can mentally commit. The worst thing is that by falling into this sin (internal uncleanliness), a person deceives himself with the knowledge that he is not doing anything bad. And meanwhile, when the moment of (real) activity comes for him, his soul turns out to be completely exhausted, completely corrupted (by the internal sin of imagination), incapable of goodness and power over himself.” And so there is the evil of internal, moral uncleanliness, which is the germ, the beginning of external uncleanliness. And in the area of ​​sexual life, everything unhealthy, everything bad begins first of all within a person, in the depths of his heart, in the movement of his thoughts and then bears corresponding external fruits. Maintaining internal neatness as the basis of external moral decency means being chaste. Chastity, from the Church Slavonic language, means whole, healthy, unspoiled wisdom, i.e. a healthy state of thought and feeling. In this meaning, it is not limited to the area of ​​sexual life alone. A chaste soul is precisely that soul on which sin has not left its harmful, corrosive trace, be it sin in the area of ​​sexual feelings, or the sin of pride, or the sin of greed, etc. Every sinful thought with which our soul benevolently unites, already violates the chastity of the soul. An example of true, high, impeccable chastity is presented to us in the history of mankind only by the purest soul of the Mother of God, who did not know personal sin, neither in deed, nor in thought, nor in desire. So, to be chaste in the full and true meaning of this word means to protect your soul from all sinful corruption, let’s say even more, from all disorderly wandering of thought, from all idle and unhealthy daydreaming. This is the meaning of the word chastity in its broadest sense. In a narrower and more ordinary sense, it is applied to the area of ​​sexual feeling and means the integrity, unaffectedness of the soul by sinful lusts in this area. The question now is, how do our youth relate to the question of preserving this inner chastity? Does she recognize its necessity? Does he care about not losing it? Life answers all these questions in the following way. Taking a closer look at young people, we can divide them into several groups based on the nature of their attitude towards the issue of chastity. Some young people, having by nature a pure, simple and clear soul, not only in childhood, but also in youth, maintain a pure, clear and calm attitude towards a woman, seeing in her only a person similar to themselves. They don't seem to notice the gender difference. A woman for them is only a mother, only a sister, only an acquaintance, only a person. But there are few young men so pure in heart and thoughts. Others, on the contrary, from a very early age already lose the ability to treat a woman purely and calmly. Their internal state is depicted with vivid and truthful features by L. N. Tolstoy in “The Kreutzer Sonata”. Outwardly, it is sometimes expressed in extreme shyness, every time they have to be in society or talk with females, especially young and beautiful ones, and in the special excitement and fussiness that they display at the same time. Where does this special attitude towards women come from in them? Its causes are varied: sometimes it is explained by heredity, congenital sexual sensitivity; sometimes it is influenced by the environment in which these young people move from childhood, conversations, interests, tastes of the people around them... After all, it often happens that in some families the youngest children are already beginning to jokingly talk about the fact that so-and-so is in love with so-and-so, and so-and-so will marry so-and-so, etc. Sometimes the unhealthy influence of someone, a less than clean friend, a servant, or sometimes a careless and premature choice of shows, books, paintings, etc. comes into play here. Be that as it may, this feature leaves its mark on the entire inner life of these young people, and often becomes the beginning of their subsequent unhealthy spiritual development. Happiness for them if, at the very beginning of their life’s journey, they manage to meet and make friends with a simple, chaste, morally healthy comrade, or fall under the influence of an intelligent, attentive, experienced educator, who, noticing and understanding the peculiarities of their mental structure, will be able to direct their soul onto the path of a healthy, serious and working life. Then this feature of their mental appearance can gradually smooth out. But if this, unfortunately for them, does not happen, if they find themselves completely left to their inclinations, or if, what is even worse, they find themselves in conditions favorable to the development of these inclinations in a bad direction, then the most tragic results can occur. Such boys can gradually develop into two equally unsympathetic types: the type of outspoken, bold cynic and the type of secretive, hypocritical cynic. For boys of both these types, the interests of their lives gradually become more and more concentrated on one point - namely in the area of ​​sexual desires and fantasies. But the outspoken cynic does not hide this, at least among his comrades. Not only is he not ashamed of his bad tastes, he flaunts them. You can always hear a cynical phrase, a dirty wit, or an indecent anecdote from him. He likes to talk about people of the other sex with a touch of cynicism. Comrades who are disgusted and alien to the topics of his conversations and their very tone evoke ridicule and mockery on his part. Thus, in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” the pure, modest, chaste Alyosha Karamazov was subjected to ridicule and gross bullying from his frivolous schoolmates. As the outspoken cynic grows older, his baser inclinations blossom more and more in him! He has a special expression in his eyes, a nasty smile, with which he accompanies every beautiful woman. He allows himself ambiguous words and glances, and smugly enjoys when he manages to confuse a modest girl or woman with his trick. Simultaneously with the development of cynical inclinations, one is drawn into comradely feasts, revelries, drinking bouts; wine drowns out the last glimmers of decency and shame in the cynic’s soul, and he enters the wide and dirty road of complete depravity, with all its unsightly and sad consequences. The moral character of the young man is finally determined, and the song of his moral youthful life is sung forever! However, upon closer examination of this type of young man, one cannot help but notice two special shades in him. There are stupid, self-righteous cynics, and there are smart cynics who understand themselves and despise themselves. For the former, cynicism is a natural, so to speak, sphere of their existence and they are not at all burdened by it and are not at all ashamed of it. Like pigs, wallowing in the mud, they experience only pleasure from it, they do not desire or seek for themselves anything better, nothing more noble and more human. The latter understand the baseness of their inclinations, but do not have sufficient willpower or even a strong desire to give up their sensual whims. In their best moments, they feel in the depths of their souls a certain disgust towards their tastes. But as a result of many years of inattention to their inner experiences, their soul is already corroded to such an extent by its dirty sensations, to such an extent weakened by them, that they feel completely powerless to break away from them, rise above them, enter the area of ​​pure and bright moods and experiences. Of course, they are deeply mistaken in their hopeless view of themselves! Salvation is possible for them too, but their soul must be inflamed with ardent love for the ideal of moral purity and beauty! Let us now turn to another type - secretive, hypocritical cynics. They do not like to expose their tastes and inclinations. You can't always recognize such a cynic by his appearance. He is modest and shy. He is very shy about women, but at the same time he is drawn to their company. Indiscreet conversations bring color to his face, but it cannot be said that they sincerely outraged him. He sometimes pretends to be dissatisfied, but deep down he finds pleasure in them. The immodest picture makes him turn away for the sake of appearance, but on the sly, or in private, he is not averse to admiring it. Such young people, modest and bashful in appearance, can sometimes find a stock of indecent postcards or photographs. And what happens in the recesses of their souls, what they experience in solitude, in the darkness of the night, only the Lord and their own soul know about this! And among secretive cynics, one can also notice two shades: some give themselves over to their cynical inclinations quite carefree, not realizing how disgraceful they are for human dignity; others, on the contrary, are burdened by their state of mind, would like to free themselves from it, but feel unable to fight the thoughts and desires that overcome them. Their mental state is like a kind of mental illness, depressing them spiritually and weakening them physically, requiring systematic and proper treatment. But how to treat what is usually hidden in the depths of the soul and is extremely reluctant to trust another person? Left alone with their experiences, these young men fall more and more under the power of their disordered, unhealthy imagination, lose all self-control and often become victims of the so-called “secret vice”, which finally kills their good spirits, cheerfulness and self-esteem. These, in general terms, are the unhealthy inner experiences in the area of ​​sexual feelings that our youth often suffer from. These experiences are the seed of subsequent sad facts in the lives of young people. To avoid what follows, you must protect yourself from the initial, you must love and protect the purity of your heart, and not allow unhealthy, soul-corrupting experiences to take root in it. You must have more vigor, more energy, you must resolutely stand up for the defense of your human dignity, your moral purity, and then, with the help of God, you can protect yourself from internal corruption. Let us again refer to the deep connoisseur of the human soul, Fr. John of Kronstadt. He says that at the slightest approach of temptation, our soul should already be in a fighting position... “Do everything opposite to what the enemy inspires: he inspires to hate those who offend us - you love them; bless those who scold; when despondency occurs, try to cheer up; when there is envy, rejoice in the well-being of others; when contradiction and disobedience arise, immediately submit and agree; when you have lustful thoughts, be jealous of the purity of your heart, imagine the high dignity of a Christian, remember that our members are members of Christ.” The fight against moral evil must begin precisely when evil is still within us, when it is still in its infancy and has not yet become stronger. “It is not the time to save a house from a fire when the fire has already spread, but start saving it in advance, when the flames appear,” says the same John of Kronstadt. From what has been said, a rule follows for young people: at the very first awakening of sexual sensuality, stand firmly and courageously in guard of your purity. Of course, this is easier said or wished than done. When the life around us is full of erotic temptations, when the press, and shows, and the examples of elders, and direct, immediate temptations push a young man onto the path of violating his purity, and sometimes directly onto the path of debauchery, then one must have too firm and strong internal moral foundations so as not to follow the common, beaten, albeit dirty, path. One must be a kind of Lot, who, living in depraved Sodom, managed to maintain the independence and purity of his moral path; or to be a kind of beautiful Joseph, whom the fear of God living in his soul kept from the temptation to fall. Without being able to change the spirit and morals of the environment around us or eliminate the temptations that beset us, we must inevitably come to the conclusion that the only serious and sure way to protect youth from losing their internal and external purity is, in the end, only the internal stability of the youth itself. In this case, she has almost no one to rely on but herself. In order to find support within herself, she first of all needs to have a clear and undoubted conviction that maintaining internal and external purity is one of the most important, serious and high goals of her life. If she does not have this conviction, if she sees in violation of chastity only a fun and tempting adventure that does not contain anything humiliating, then, of course, no forces will be able to keep her from this seductive path. What can be the basis for convincing young people of the need to maintain cleanliness? For young sincere believers, this conviction is firmly based on the commandment of God: “You shall not commit adultery,” which, as explained by the Savior (Matthew 5:28), obliges not only external, factual purity, but also internal purity of thoughts. By accepting this commandment as the law of his personal life, the young man will find in it sufficient support to overcome temptation. If the temptation turns out to be too strong, or faith turns out to be insufficiently alive, and the will is weak, such a young man must go to confession, sincerely reveal his state of mind to the priest, and this sincere confession will pacify his soul. It has already been said above that lustful thoughts fear nothing more than the light of sincere confession. Therefore, every time they begin to unbearably overcome the soul, one must go to confession, remembering that in this case healing is not given from the priest, but from heavenly grace, from above. This is a tried and true path. To this religious justification for purity for both believing and non-believing youth, other grounds can be added, and, above all, a correct view of the meaning and purpose of the sexual instinct. This instinct should not be trivialized. It was not given to man so that man, by abusing it, would make it an object of base pleasure. This is not why it was given to man. The purpose and meaning of the sexual instinct is to create a family. And for no other purpose, and not for pleasure alone, should it be used. Any such indirect use of the sexual instinct is a sin, a violation of the law of nature. This law is as binding for a man as it is for a woman. The commandment “You shall not commit adultery” applies equally to both men and women, for it is a necessary step to another commandment: “A man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4–6). This last commandment, given in the Old Testament to the first people and repeated in the New, is the commandment about the family, for which preliminary chastity of both men and women is a necessary moral condition. The specified meaning of the sexual instinct is not recognized by young people with all seriousness, and the law given to people to create a family life, people have frivolously turned into a toy, into a means of satisfying unbridled sensuality, often leading to the destruction of family well-being, and personal happiness and health. The law of God, the law of nature, is this: just as a woman is intended for one man, so a man is intended for one woman, and their mutual union is established not for temporary pleasure, but in the name of fulfilling the will of God, in the name of a great and holy duty - building a family and procreation. “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:27, 28). Of course, procreation alone is not the goal of married life. Marriage is not only a physical union, but also a spiritual one, and this is its main value and significance. Marriage is based on mutual affection, on mutual spiritual intimacy. Chastity before marriage makes youthful love especially pure and sublime, raising this feeling to limits unattainable under other conditions. If the onset of love was preceded by the preservation of chastity, it always remains whole, complete, unclouded and brings into the soul that ideal imprint that forever remains a valuable contribution to a person’s character. By warning against violating purity and condemning young men for being carried away by the dirt of sensual pleasures, we are not at all encroaching on that pure and beautiful feeling of love for persons of the other sex, which at a certain age becomes available to young people. One must not just forget that this feeling is not based on a thirst for sensory communication, but on the desire for spiritual unity. If for an animal the sexual issue is resolved very simply and comes down to physical possession, then for a person it is not so simply resolved. A man cannot look at a woman as anything other than an object of physical possession. Only a physical attitude towards a woman, even at the moment of possession, leaves a bitter aftertaste of dissatisfaction, boredom, shame, and emptiness in the soul. This is very clearly and truthfully shown by L.N. Tolstoy in his “Kreutzer Sonata”. Human nature requires that the relationship between the sexes be not only physical, but also spiritual, and above all, spiritual. Only in the rays of spiritual intimacy does it receive its true charm and physical intimacy. The essence of marriage is that two beings of different sexes, complementing each other, first of all merge into one soul, and then enter into physical communication. Only the one who is able to maintain his chastity before marriage will be able to bring into his marriage the correct attitude towards his wife, imbued with true and pure love. If young men were clearly aware of the above-mentioned meaning of the sexual instinct, if they consciously protected both soul and body for future married life, and had that correct idea about it, which follows from the relationship between the spiritual and physical nature of a person, they could find in this greater moral support in the fight against erotic temptations. The third basis for maintaining purity is the awareness of its necessity for the correct, healthy spiritual growth of the young man himself. The loss of purity distorts and weakens the moral character of a young man. Maintaining chastity helps the correct development of will and feelings. Among the feelings of high importance for a person, one of the first places belongs to the feeling of shame. This is a true human feeling: animals do not have it. Maintaining chastity before marriage is one of the most powerful conditions for the development of this feeling and for its penetration into the whole being of a person. Shame keeps a person from everything that is shameful in a moral sense. Shame is that spark of God that makes it possible to recognize evil in its most subtle, rudimentary manifestations and actively respond to everything that offends moral well-being. The damage caused to the development of this subtle feeling is an extremely serious matter. Early loss of purity, infatuation with sensuality - violate the sense of shame in its deepest foundations and bring a person down from his exceptional heights. Maintaining purity is conducive to the development and strengthening of the will. The fight against developing sensuality and curbing such a strong instinct as the sexual instinct contributes in the most powerful way to the development and formation of the will. Just as the will of a child becomes stronger under the influence of constantly overcoming feelings of fear or feelings of anger, so the will of a young man becomes stronger and his soul is ennobled by constant persistent struggle with the passions of sensuality. There is no need to think that this struggle is unnatural. It is not directed against a normal, healthy sexual feeling, which in due time should come into its own, but only against its painful, premature and perverted action. In the process of moral development and improvement of man, this struggle is necessary; it puts instinct within proper boundaries, promotes the development of self-sacrifice and the humanization of the lower manifestations of human nature; at the same time, it ennobles the relationship between the two sexes and raises them to a height that ensures a woman’s preservation of her human dignity. The fourth reason encouraging young men to preserve their purity should be the thought of the human dignity of those women who serve to satisfy the unhealthy sensuality of men and who are rightly called “white slaves.” No one will deny that the human dignity of these women, whom we as Christians should consider our sisters, has been trampled into the dirt. These women are turned into some kind of thing, into a means to satisfy sensuality. Of course, one can say to this that they themselves are to blame for this situation, because they failed to preserve their human dignity. This is partly true, but at the same time it is also true that such a shameful phenomenon should not exist not only in Christian, but in any human society. It exists because there is a demand for it. Therefore, the blame for its existence also falls on those who present this demand, i.e., men. Christian society does not dare to put up with such a phenomenon, and it, in the person of men, not only does not fight it, but also supports its existence. Someone else will say: if I alone do not participate in this evil, it will not be destroyed, and there will never be a general refusal. True, but if there is a consciousness of the shamefulness of the matter, then conscience obliges me not to take part in it even when everyone is participating in it, regardless of whether the business itself will be destroyed due to my non-participation or not. An honest person must say: this is a shameful matter, and I will not participate in it, and let others act according to their own conscience. This is what young people should do, refusing to participate with others in the humiliation of the human dignity of women. If it can do more, organize itself to actively combat said evil, so much the better; if she does not have the strength for this, at least let her not participate in the evil deed. These four reasons, it seems to me, are quite enough for every sincere and honest young man, taking them seriously, to come to the conclusion about the need for purity and abstinence. But they will say: the mind and heart say one thing, and the base impulses of instinct force you to do something else. And if I abstain from debauchery, will I not fall into some even more vile and shameful deeds? We already said at the beginning: to prevent this from happening, you must carefully guard your heart from the very beginning. “From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, fornication, adultery, theft, false witness, blasphemy” (Matthew 15:19). “Keep your heart with all your guard, for from it are the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23). Every young man, and especially a believer, must carefully observe his inner life, his thoughts, his desires. He should not passively give in to his desires. He must control himself, be ready for a constant and stubborn struggle with himself, with his bad desires. He must strengthen and temper his will. Bad habits and passions do not appear in a person right away. At first, only the thought of evil arises in us, and this thought appears in us as something alien to us, indifferent, and does not affect our soul. But you just have to pay attention to this thought, and it can already arouse interest in yourself, and then sympathy. With our further carelessness, sympathy can turn into desire. Desire, undefeated and unrejected at once, growing and intensifying, turns into an irresistible attraction, which, with constant satisfaction, becomes a passion, a habit. The earlier a person’s stage of development is captured by an unhealthy moral process in his spiritual life, the less effort of will and with greater success he can stop it. By practicing in this struggle, our will without much difficulty learns to be a winner in small temptations and then manifests itself with all the courage and determination in serious cases. For a young believer, in addition to introspection and internal struggle, the main means of overcoming temptations are prayers, confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. You need to pray sincerely and fervently. You need to pray not only during temptation, but always. Prayer should become a habit of constant internal coexistence with God. This kind of prayer must be learned. Prayer is not only the fruit of inspiration, it is the result of persistent work. “The kingdom of God is taken by force,” says the Word of God. Sincerity, strength and depth of prayer are achieved with persistence in the work of prayer. Prayer may not be long, but it must be frequent. From the depths of her soul she must be turned to God many times during the day. Brief but powerful prayers: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” “Son of God, have mercy on me,” “Most Holy Theotokos, save us” are very effective and saving. They can be pronounced in the depths of the soul during any activity, in any situation, in the most crowded society. Unknown to others, the soul prayerfully turns to God, lives in the spiritual world, and renounces everything around it. We must try to make this our habit, our true inner life. And then there will be no room left for bad thoughts, as the great ascetic, Rev. John Climacus says: “In the name of Christ conquer your enemies.” I have already spoken about the meaning of confession. Confession immediately weakens the internal enemy. A confessed sinful thought becomes external to the soul: it already looks at it as something alien to it and not affecting it. Confession may not be accompanied by communion of the Holy Mysteries, which requires special preparation. But received with proper preparation, with faith and reverence, the Holy Mysteries are in us the source of true life, purity and spiritual strength. There are known cases when a person who partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ with faith and love acquired such a power of inner purity that for several weeks it protected his soul from the penetration of bad thoughts and desires. “It is a disaster for the soul not to receive Holy Communion for a long time. Tain,” writes Fr. in his diary. John of Kronstadt, “the soul begins to stink of passions, the strength of which increases the longer we do not communicate with our Life-Giver.” Due to the close connection that exists between soul and body, and their mutual influence on each other, proper care of the body and healthy bodily exercises have a great influence on the health of the spirit. Let specialist doctors tell young people about this in detail. I will only say that proper and healthy physical exercise imparts cheerfulness and cheerfulness to the soul, drives away despondency and boredom, refreshes thoughts and feelings, gives energy to the will, and distracts from unnecessary and harmful delving into one’s feelings. Our youth in the past was too overburdened with indoor, exclusively mental, theoretical studies, too little attention was paid to its bodily life. As a result, the body weakened, and at the same time, spiritual life became sluggish. Now everyone has already recognized the disastrous one-sidedness of this direction. A lot of attention is paid to the physical development of young people, to games, to sports, to excursions, perhaps even more than is necessary for the normal life of their spirit, but the main idea of ​​this new direction is correct: a healthy physical life is necessary for a healthy state of spiritual life. And in our issue of preserving youthful purity, undoubtedly, the correct organization of the physical life of young people is of very great and useful importance. It would be good to bring young people closer to the life of nature, to take schools out of stuffy, morally stale cities, from huge stone buildings, to place schools closer to the field, to the forest, to the river, to the garden, to give school dormitories a cozy and family character, distributing them into separate small houses among greenery and flowers, with a common church in the center of the student village, with reasonable and fun summer and winter work and games in the open air, in the garden, in the field and on the river. Young people should be held to less over textbooks, and more should be taught to draw knowledge from the surrounding nature and life. However, we have already entered an area beyond the scope of our task. We consider, however, that it is necessary to repeat once again that the healthy and normal physical life of young people is undoubtedly an extremely important and necessary condition for maintaining their internal and external purity of thoughts and life. For a young man, there is nothing more painful and destructive than loneliness. And this is especially painful and harmful for a soul overwhelmed by unclean thoughts. The soul, tormented by these thoughts, however, is unable to turn to the only means that would bring her salvation - false shame prevents her from confessing her experiences, and they continue to remain inside her, continue to oppress her. Only the emergence of sincere, pure friendship with one of your comrades or even your elders can bring you out of this painful state and free you from the oppressive feeling of loneliness. Good, sincere, pure friendship has enormous, saving, educational significance for a person, especially in his youth. Sincere, serious, deep friendship between young people, alien to any selfish calculations, conducive to complete mutual trust - in itself is such a bright and beautiful feeling that it involuntarily elevates and cleanses the souls of young people from everything bad. This feeling must also be used to successfully combat the base desires of one’s sensual nature. Friendship is not only a bright adornment of youth - it must certainly be used as a means to moral improvement. A lonely person often turns out to be spiritually weak; he cannot always understand his internal state; oppressed by some persistent thought, he loses heart, loses vigor and energy, and he himself is voluntarily drawn into the abyss of temptation. Two people connected by mutual friendship, trust and love, and a willingness to help each other represent great moral strength. One has only to open one’s soul to one’s sincere friend in a moment of despondency, to share with him one’s grave doubts, and this alone brings peace, joy and cheerfulness to one’s soul. Shared grief becomes easier, thoughts become clearer, moral energy grows. It is with friends that the Apostle’s covenant is most closely fulfilled: “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way fulfill the law of Christ.” “Confess your wrongdoings to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” Thus, with sensual temptations, as with all other infirmities and difficulties of life, one must fight not alone, but together with a sincere and faithful friend - and then this struggle will be twice as easy, and victory will be achieved more surely. At the end of my conversation, I would like to express one more consideration that applies exclusively to young believers. After all, our life is not limited to earthly existence alone; earthly existence is only a moment in comparison with the ocean of the eternity ahead of us. If this is understood and if these two periods of our existence are correctly compared, then all our earthly affairs and interests will appear in a completely new light; then the struggle for one’s moral dignity and for one’s purity will receive its true, deep and serious meaning. So, let those who decide to enter into this struggle in the name of obedience to God, in the name of their human dignity, not lose heart. The struggle is difficult, but the task is high. “To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne” (Rev. 3:21). “And I looked, and behold, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty-four thousand, having the name of His Father written on their foreheads... These are they who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They are redeemed from among men, as the firstborn to God and to the Lamb” (Rev. 14:1, 4). You might be interested in: