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People, perhaps not knowing the future, despair of saving those who live extremely viciously. God does not give up hope until they die, but, looking at what follows, he exhorts and calls them all the more. The luminary of the great Byzantine Church, or, better to say, the whole world, the wondrous priest John, like a persevering one, saw many times that the house of the Lord at almost every hour, especially during the Divine and bloodless sacrifice, is never abandoned by the Angels or deprived of their care. Why, filled with surprise and joy, he privately told about this to his closest spiritual friends. As soon as the priest, he said, begins to perform the holy proskomedia, suddenly the blessed powers, descending from heaven in great numbers, dressed in certain bright vestments, with bare feet, with an attentive gaze, with a bowed face, in reverence, great silence and silently surrounding the altar, stand before the performance of the terrible Sacrament. Then, spreading throughout the entire venerable church, each of them here and there assists, helps and gives strength to the bishops, presbyters and deacons who are in the church - to everyone who distributes the Body and the venerable Blood. I am writing this so that, having learned how much fear there is in the Divine Liturgy, we ourselves, having lost this Divine fear, do not indulge in negligence, and do not allow anyone else to talk and whisper during the proskomedia, or boldly give signs to others, or stand, swaying from side to side, looking here and there, or carelessly and easily walk from place to place. For the Lord says to Moses, and through him to all the priests: “Be reverent, and not careless, the children of Israel...” (Lev. 15:31). The Divine Apostle calls the divine apostle “bodily exercise” to suppress and bring into inaction the rage of the flesh and the voluptuousness inflamed in the body by suffering. “But godliness,” he says, “is profitable for everything” (1 Tim. 4:8); and it really is such, because with the assistance of God it can completely destroy passionate memories and finally acquire permanent purity of mind. Satan at all times tries to hinder the soul in striving for the best, and especially during prayer he uses many methods and instills thousands of thoughts, turning the mind away from what is supposed and leading it into whirling and soaring, so that a person with empty bowels will retreat from the All-Perfect. For the evil one knows exactly that great deeds can be accomplished by those who pray to God without distraction, and therefore, in any way, reasonable or unreasonable, he strives to bring the mind into a whirl. But we, knowing this, will resist our enemy and, when we stand in prayer or bend our knees, we will not allow a single thought to enter our hearts, white, black, gum and suey, based and not based on Scripture, except for one prayer offering to God and from heaven the descending illumination and enlightenment in our sovereign (mind). Therefore, having rejected every reason for entertainment, and laziness, and despondency, and every plausible excuse, let us soberly and fervently devote ourselves to the great work of prayer, which is the root of immortality. One should avoid servility, servility and intemperance in food, but more with modesty, with reason, with the fear of God and with gratitude one should touch what is offered. On the day of judgment we will be our own accusers, convicted by our own conscience. Therefore, in this extremity, will we find any other protection or help other than faith in the most loving Lord Christ? This faith is our great defense, great help, security, and boldness, and the answer for those who have become irresponsible due to an unspeakable number of falls. For, during our struggle and immeasurable fear, the remembrance of the beloved Master Christ and the firmly rooted and unshakable faith in Him, appearing like some benevolent, peaceful, bright and meek Angel, drives away trembling and shame, fills with complacency and makes the alienated one close to God. Therefore, in this sense, understand those apostolic words, the meaning of which you wanted to find out, namely: “... their thoughts, now accusing, now justifying... in the day when... God will judge the secret deeds of men” (Rom. 2:15-16). In everything one can find the great dispensation of the good Lord for His servants, so that if something seems sorrowful and does not in everything correspond to their desire, then this too is arranged for the benefit of many by the inconceivable wisdom of the Lord, according to His unsearchable judgments. But resist the temptations that now rise up against us like a storm, and crown yourself, father, by praying for me. Do not be cruel, so as not to experience God’s wrath on yourself, although it seems to you that you are burning with the zeal of God. For the most blessed Jonah softened the great fervor of jealousy with the help of a whale. Therefore, you too should be careful not to ever be betrayed by a whale or some unexpected and intolerable temptation for lack of compassion. And by whale I now mean the devil. But so as not to seem as if I am exceeding the limit, I will briefly retell an ancient story, and perhaps you will be convinced to spare the weak in soul. There was one Bishop Carp, contemporary to the apostles. Under him, two young men, having turned from Hellenic delusion and from external schools, approached the Church of Christ and, at the request, were honored with Divine baptism. But immediately, having learned about this, those who grew up with them became disgraceful and worthless. When he said this, a very terrible and amazing sight opened up. Christ descends from heaven, and the fiery serpents take flight, and He, having appeared with good will and great meekness, carries the young man out of the abyss and places him on earth, thereby demonstrating their salvation. For indeed, later, having converted, they turned out to be great Christians. Christ reproaches Karp for his sullenness and cruelty, and also for the fact that he pronounced a curse with firmness without compassion. Therefore, knowing this, bishop, do not mercilessly anathematize, do not forever expel from the Church people who are passionately attached to wickedness, Philemon and Sosander, but rather, according to the rules of the holy apostles, having excommunicated from the Church for a legal time, reprove, admonish, exhort, compel, pour out the mercy of Christ on them, console, renew, strengthen, wash them with your own cries and tears, decorate them with fasting, enlighten them with many vigils, cover them with prayers when they are naked from godliness through the malice of the devil and the malice of lawless people, sow good hopes in them when they ask, beg, give alms and propitiate the only compassionate, humane and full of generosity, our Savior Christ. Do not be at all embarrassed when evil demons, during prayer, inflamed with anger, bring a horde of obscene thoughts into the soul. For even the fiercest snakes are the most irritated and come into violent motion when they hear a conspiracy spoken against them. Thus, the most powerful, effective and terrible conspiracy for demons is sober prayer. And just as at the time when any righteous and pious person comes to one possessed by the spirit, he is in greater confusion, so when we sing psalms and pray, the demons, tormented and oppressed, as if from the invasion of some righteous and hostile man, scorched by our godly deeds, are disturbed and most then go berserk and, being unable to do anything more, like with kindled arrows, they torment us with illicit thoughts. And unless we stop praying and singing psalms, then in a short time we will see that they will disappear before us like smoke. In no case will we beg God to deliver us from His chastisement and punishments, and we will not turn away from the Father of spirits, lest for short-term carelessness and cowardice we should lose that eternal, inalienable inheritance and unceasing joy prepared for us in heaven. Since you write to me that my writings are very pleasing and pleasing to you, now accept Saint David, who, instead of the sorrows of this age, preaches to you unceasing joy. For he says: “Blessed is the man whom you punish, O Lord” (Ps. 93:12); “In all the days to come we rejoiced, for the days in which you humbled us, the summer, in your sorrow we saw evil” (Ps. 89:15); and: “Fill with the stream of Thy sweetness” (Ps. 35:9) us who hope for the protection of the wings of Providence. Kill, I ask you, your bodily members; If possible, always follow the spirit; do not hesitate to take the narrow path traversed by few. Become humble and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly, heir to God, joint heir with Christ. May you have continuous prayer, good, unflagging and united psalmody, teaching in the words of God, frequent bending of your exhausted knees, vigilance of soul and body with tears that cleanse the filth brought in, as probably by feelings, assistance to the weary, care for the poor, food, clothing and drink for them. For if all this and the like is found in you and multiplies and grows daily, then it will not present you idle and fruitless to Christ, the God of all, on the day of reward. During the enemy’s attacks, to relax, to become scattered, not to remember with a strict way of thinking about the terrible judgments of the Lord, but to indulge in pleasures and yield to the will of the flesh means to fall from a lattice window and fall ill with the most difficult mental illness, which is much more painful than a physical illness. For it is said: “Ahaziah fell through the bars from his upper room... and fell ill” with a mortal illness (2 Kings 1:2), that is, the royal mind fell into the mental death of active sin. And you yourself will have enough strength to give everyone the proper rules to those living in your monastery. But since you mentioned food in your letter, asking for your opinion about this, I consider it best, since the physical constitution varies and some are sick and others are healthy, to establish different food, suitable for each person, and to offer the healthy ones coarse vegetables to satisfy their needs, and to those who are slightly sick to console them, garden vegetables, and to those who are extremely exhausted and weakened to give a measure of meat to strengthen their strength. Respect your name at least! The priesthood, apparently, has become the right to arbitrariness, when you furiously beat and rob free people who do nothing wrong. Where can we give room to the great Paul, who decreed the law: “a bishop must be... not angry... not a murderer, not a covetous man” (Titus 1:7)? And you, vile for the sake of profit, offend and persecute everyone. The most supreme of the apostles, Peter, says that if “you are reproached for the name of Christ, then you are blessed” (1 Pet. 4:14); and the Lord spoke through the mouth of Isaiah: “Do not be afraid of their slander” (Is. 51:7); Yes, He Himself cries out in the Gospel: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11,12). And the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, highly praised those who had ardent faith in the Savior Christ. And if this is really so, then do not lose heart and do not become afraid if low, godless and hateful people revile you for your good reputation, for the kindness of your morals and for your piety that is visible to everyone. For the fornicators laugh at the chaste, and the wicked mock the pious, and the wicked mock the good, and the blind call themselves far-sighted, and the most wicked people with applause proclaim sins and the most shameful passions of dishonor, assuring that bitter is sweet. And we will laugh at them, we will condemn them, we will cry and shed tears for the death of all those like them. Instructions for new monks A young person should accustom himself to quietness of bodily movements, to decorum in dress, to regularity and order in his voice, to the serene eating of food and drink even in times of poverty, to silence before elders, to attentive listening to the wisest, to the love of equals, to the readiness to lovingly give advice to younger ones, to distance from people who are bad, carnal and who interfere in something other than their own business. He should speak little and think more, not use bold expressions, not carry on unnecessary conversations, not be prone to laughter, adorn himself with modesty, not talk to women, lower his gaze and lift up his soul, avoid contradictions, not covet the dignity of a teacher, not highly value the honors given by people, especially those who do not know what is truly honorable, but try to earn the approval of prudent people, this best of all praise. And having succeeded, he must train himself to seek praise only from God. And if he becomes capable of teaching and benefiting others, then let him do this for the sake of the reward set aside by God, as a work that he is obliged to fulfill before God and which is rewarded from God with eternal gifts. Reverend Neil. Byzantine engraving of Kyriakos, monk Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the apostle says, “will transform our lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). For now it sometimes happens that the human body is in humiliation and dishonor, suffering from demonic attacks, and often from the laziness of the soul itself, falling into some kind of vices and defilements, sometimes it is enslaved and extremely humiliated by sin and at the time of death and burial, with humiliation and dishonor, it drags along the earth and indulges in it in great misery, as it is said: “it is sown in humiliation, rises in glory" (1 Cor. 15:43). But during the uprising of all people, having laid aside corruption and humiliation, our body will rise adorned with the glory and splendor of Christ the Savior and will no longer be seduced into sin and corruption, and degraded by mortality, vanity and suffering, but will remain incorruptible for endless centuries. “Thou hast made men upon our heads” (Ps. 65:12). For sometimes God allows demons to shamelessly sit inside the head, that is, in thought, and drag the soul into obscene thoughts, with which we need to fight and fight, without agreeing or entering into an alliance with them. There are other states and positions among people, so pure that one takes the place of the sun, another - the moon, a third - the star; and you see that another person was often glorified by wisdom from above more than Solomon, and later, for falling asleep, for weakening attentiveness, he was abandoned by God, puts aside reverence and fear of the All-Perfect and falls into wickedness and great sins, so that you can say: the sun has turned aside, he has fallen into unlawful deeds beyond his expectations! For things like this often happen; and zealous people sometimes later, for negligence, are deprived of the protection of the Holy Spirit, and Nebuchadnezzar goes to war against them, destroys the city with satanic weapons, and blinds the king, I mean the mind, like Zedekiah, puts the youths in bonds and takes them to the allegorical Babylon, and the shrine of David and Solomon and other kings - everything that was in the treasuries of the heart with great labor and acquired, collected and prepared with care, he takes it with him, and burns the church of the Lord and is ready to trample under unclean feet. And I hear how, lamenting about this, the psalmist cries out: “Have mercy on me... as there are many demons fighting me from on high, trampling me down... all the day long” (Ps. 55:2-3); “For you have made enemies upon my head” (Ps. 65:12). And Jeremiah mourns the soul, which formerly ruled for its prosperity, but now, by the right of war, was taken into tribute (Pl. 1:1), serving the devil with sins. However, whoever has fallen into such disasters, if he does not completely neglect himself out of cowardice, but, having repented, turns to the Lord and courageously resumes his former wise deeds, the Sovereign grace will return to him again and will speak a prophetic word about him: I will turn, and “I will restore the fallen tabernacle of David, I will repair the cracks in it” and prosperity, and Divine gifts, and internal I will restore and build knowledge (Am.9:11), “the glory of this last church will be greater than the first, says the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:9). I wrote this in response to what was contained in your letter. Whether you like it or not, you are a woman in body. Therefore, stop teaching husbands in the church; because the apostle clearly recognized this as indecent (1 Cor. 14:35), although you will assert a thousand times that you are far from the state characteristic of wives and, having established a virginal way of thinking in yourself, have become firmer than husbands. There is no need to be surprised by what happens in life, because even with sober people everywhere temptations are inseparable, both from their own and from strangers. Therefore, the apostle, seeing the storms of danger arising and fearing that some of the disciples would be embarrassed by this, said in his letter: “I sent Timothy to you... so that no one will be shaken in these afflictions: for you yourselves know that this is how we are destined” (1 Thessalonians 3:2-3). What he said means: such is our life, such is the order of the apostolic decree - to endure thousands of evils; so we are destined, says the apostle. Just as goods are laid out in order to be sold and bought, so the apostolic life is destined to be subject to slander, to suffer, to have no rest; and those who are sober not only do not suffer harm from this, but also gain great benefit. It is said: “I will bless the Lord at all times; I will make His praise in my mouth” (Ps. 33:2). For it is a shame for us to bless God when things are good and to remain silent when things are sad. On the contrary, then we should give thanks more when we suffer, knowing that “the Lord punishes whomever he loves; and he beats every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6). “I am like an olive tree that bears fruit in the house of God” (Ps. 51:10), I never lose blessed hope. Let us therefore become a fruitful olive tree, not in some other place, not in paganism, not in Judaism, not in a harmful heresy, but in the house of God, that is, in faith and piety, because the wicked, outside the Church, bear fruit in vain. Just as the beginning was difficult for Joseph, for a long time things seemed to go contrary to the promise, but later more than was expected happened, so in the work of the cross it was not suddenly, not before the beginning and not at the beginning that there was complete success, but at first the temptation grew, and although something a little happened for the sake of a miracle and for the admonition of those who dared to crucify the Lord, however, all this soon passed; because if then the veil of the church was torn, and the stones fell apart, and the sun darkened (Matthew 27:51, Luke 23:45), then all this was the work of one day and was consigned to oblivion by many. After this, the apostles were soon in flight, in persecution, subjected to attacks, intrigues, hiding, hiding, fearing and thus preaching the word; but the Jewish people have full power to drag, disgrace, and torment believers, and the Crucified One sees this and endures. But look how after this the work of the Church shone brighter than the sun and embraced the whole universe. He who first proclaims to God: “I will call in the days, and you will not hear” (Ps. 21:3) - later says: “For do not despise, lower than an insolent prayer..., and when I called to Him, He heard me” (Ps. 21:25). Therefore, there is a time of delay for God, who provides something better for us and wisely arranges our destiny, and therefore, with benefit for us, does not suddenly grant what we ask for. There is a time of not hearing and a time of hearing: “for the time has come to show him compassion” (Ps. 101:14), says Scripture, that is, to show mercy to the soul that lifts its gaze to God, as the time has come for the miracle-working of the All-Perfect. You might be interested in: