580. How many times, O Master Lord Jesus, have You renewed my nature, frivolously corrupted by my sins! There is no limit to this! How many times have You taken me out of the cave that was burning inside me, from the cave of many different passions, from the abyss of despondency and despair! How many times by Your name alone, called upon by me with faith, have You renewed the corruption of my heart! How many times have I done this through the life-giving Mysteries? Oh, Master! Your mercies towards me, a sinner, truly have no number or measure. What will I bring to You, or what will I repay You for Your immeasurable benefits to me, Jesus, my life and my lightness! May I be prudent in my ways according to Your grace, for You are pleased with all those who are prudent on the way, as You, through Your Spirit, through the mouth of our father, David, declared (cf. Ps. 119:1; 17:21, etc.); I will try to be faithful to You, humble, meek, not irritable, kind, long-suffering, hardworking, merciful, generous, non-covetous, obedient.
604. ...Oh, Christ God, our Life and Resurrection! How fussy we have become, how blind we have become! What would happen to us if we were looking for You, if we had You in our hearts? The tongue cannot express the bliss that those who have You in their hearts taste. You are for them strong food, and inexhaustible drink, and bright clothing, and the sun, and peace, which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), and joy unspeakable, and everything, and everything. With You all earthly dust and decay.
610. Glory to Thee, Life-Father, Life-Son, Life-Soul, Holy One - Simple Being - God, who always delivers us from spiritual death caused by passions to our souls; Glory to Thee, Trinitarian Master, for from one invocation of Thy name you enlighten the dark face of our soul and body and bestow Your peace, which surpasses all earthly and sensual good and all understanding.
617. The human soul is a free force, for it can become either a good or an evil force, depending on the direction you yourself give it. Lord, Almighty Power! strengthen my weak soul in all virtue! Strengthen my heart, weak for all good, on the immovable stone of Your commandments! God! and I experience daily that without You I am nothing, that without You I cannot do any good; Without You there is only evil in me in its various forms; Without You I am a perishing son. Oh, indescribable Grace! Fill my heart with Your goodness! Most of all, I pray: grant me to love You with all my heart and my neighbor as I love myself. May I not be angry, proud, contemptuous, or disobedient, but may I be gentle, humble, respectful with tenderness, and obedient. Amen.
625. ...I glorify Your all-good, holy, omnipotent, all-wise power, Lord! Reveal upon me, O Lord, Thy wondrous power and, in the image of destinies, save me, Thy unworthy servant, despising my voluntary and involuntary sins, known and unknown sins, always instructing me on Thy path and strengthening me on this path with Thy grace, and through me - and others for whom You have made me a lamp, a shepherd, a teacher and clergyman.
626. When you eat immortal food and drink - the Body and Blood of the Lord, lift up your grateful heart to the Lord and say: I thank You, Lord, the Bread of life and the Source of immortality. You have given us Your Body and Blood for food and drink, and, being cleansed and sanctified here, we will enter Your eternal kingdom - to enjoy Your sight and Your blessed life forever. Lord, do not allow me to worry only about bodily bread and drink; do not allow me to become addicted to them, but let me cleave to You alone. When you taste perishable sweets, thank the Lord, saying: I thank You, eternal sweetness, incomparable, innumerably surpassing all earthly, carnal and rough sweets, incorruptible sweetness, life-giving, holy, quiet, light, premium, most joyful, not exhausting; I thank Thee, for Thou hast given me these perishable sweets to taste pleasure, and, although in part, I know how sweet You are, that You are all sweetness, all desire.
Shining with the material light, say: glory to Thee, the everlasting Light, sweet and all-joyful, as with this corruptible, but beautiful light - the image of Thy unapproachable divine light, we are illuminated, and from this material light we continually flow in thought to You, the eternal, everlasting Light, and let us strive through the purity of life to achieve Thy all-blessed contemplation.
Breathing air through your lungs - this life-giving and cooling element, which is incessantly necessary for us to maintain perishable life, again ascend in thought to the Life-Giving Lord, the Holy Spirit, with the Father and the Son, by Whom we live, move and exist, thanking Him for the incessant breathing, and know that just as a body without air, so a soul without the Holy Spirit cannot live a true life for even a minute, and pure, abstinent Through your life, try to constantly be in communion with God: for without Him the soul dies; so from every creature ascend unceasingly to the Creator, thank Him for everything and do not cleave to any creature, do not serve any creature more than the Creator: for the service or slavery of a creature, addiction to earthly things is idolatry.
631. Glory to the power of Your grace, Lord, nothing, no violence of sin, can withstand it among those who call on it with faith. So, raped by the enemy of all good - the devil and carried away by passions, I depicted the sign of the cross on myself and said internally: nothing can resist the power of Your grace - and the violence stopped, confusion and oppression passed away, silence and calm took their place. Glory to Your power, Lord!
633. Grant me, Lord, the grace to deny myself - this devil, which I became by succession from Adam. New Adam, Lord Jesus, transform me, make me a new man, clothe me in Thee.
637. Lord! may my heart cleave to You alone and not cleave to anything earthly: for in cleaving to the earthly there is sorrow, oppression, torment; Let nothing earthly be dear to the heart, but let me value the one Lord above all else, everything heavenly, and the immortal, rational, verbal, free soul created in His image, the breath of the mouth of God. Let there be no earthly idols for the heart: money, food, clothes, ranks and insignia, etc. You need to eat the simplest, most unpalatable food so as not to attract the heart, eat a little - only for reinforcement.
641. ...Make us wise and establish us, O God, to live according to Your will! For You are our Father, and we are Your children in Christ Jesus our Lord.
643. Lord! May Your gifts, spiritual and material, not be idle in us and with us, give them saving and useful movement. Do this in everyone. May your talents be multiplied, Lord, by the own activities of each of us.
658. Lord, do not allow me for a moment to do the will of Your enemy and mine - the devil, but that I unceasingly do the will of Your only God and King; You are the only one, my true King, by Whom kings reign, grant me to obey You, to revere You always sincerely and firmly. Come, let us worship our King God, let us work for Him with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling (cf. Ps. 94:6; 2:11).
686. Lord! let me see my sins, so that I do not despise sinners like me, and do not harbor evil in my heart for them for their sins, and I would despise myself according to my dignity, as the first sinner; I would always harbor irreconcilable anger towards myself - towards my carnal man. Unless someone hates... his own life, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26), says the Lord.
708. When communing the Holy Mysteries, O priest, say in your heart: come to me, O Life-Giver, to snatch me from the jaws of the hellish serpent, to cleanse me from the filth of passions, to pacify my restless heart, to revive my mortified soul, to cheer my sorrowful and despondent spirit; You are coming to feed me, languishing in the hunger of sin, to clothe me, naked of all virtue, to strengthen the weak me, to honor the dishonest me, to exalt the base me, to ennoble me the despised, to enlighten the dark me. You grant me every good deed: I thank You, Most Merciful!