Kriny villages or beautiful flowers, collected briefly from the Divine Scriptures

Contents Preface Word 1. Brief summary of thoughts conducive to repentance Word 2. The fight against despondency, laziness and relaxation Word 3. Touching teaching, cutting off all human exaltation and pride and turning the soul into sources of tears Word 4. About the grace of God Word 5. About feelings of the soul and body, about virtues and which virtue is born from which. On the major and initial virtues. If someone fulfills these virtues, everyone else will obey Word 6. On faith Word 7. On love Word 8. On fasting Word 9. On abstinence Word 10. On vigil Word 11. On the Jesus Prayer Word 12. On humility and humility Word 13. On silence and silence Word 14. On non-covetousness Word 15. On reasoning Word 16. About passions and destructive vices and about which ones are born from which Word 17. About bodily passions. Why they occur and how they are overcome Word 18. About always being attentive Word 19. A short speech about all mental and physical passions Word 20. About dispassion Word 21. About purity of heart and soul Word 22. On the darkening of the mind, that is, unreasonableness Word 23. On sobriety of the mind, that is, attentiveness Word 24. On the Jesus Prayer, which quickly instills grace and conveniently saves the soul Word 25. On never worrying about anything Word 26. On unceasing prayer Word 27. The four connecting virtues Word 28. On taking care of the inner, but not going into unnecessary worries, but unceasingly pray to God Word 29. QUESTION: How does the sobriety of the mind remain, what causes drowsiness and coldness of our thoughts, quenching the holy warmth in the soul and zeal for God? Word 30. About sleep. How one should fight sleep for those who want to work hard for God in a solitary life Word 31. On praying with great attention in psalms and prayers Word 32. On embarrassment and fears of demons Word 33. On enduring vain lies and all reproach and annoyance Word 34. On enduring sorrows Word 35. On the variety of demonic warfare and how cut off the beginning of every thought and lust. Word 36. On various sorrows and burdens from demons. Word 37. On insurance. Word 38. About what demons are especially afraid of Word 39. Brief selected patristic words about the most necessary objects Word 40. What is a monk? Word 41. About the fact that it is useful to flee from the world Word 42. About the fact that there is a suggestion from God or an enemy's excuse Word 43. About undoubted faith Word 44. Exhortation Word 45. Conclusion About the commandments of God and the holy virtues In the library of the Russian St. Elias monastery on Athos there is a manuscript written in the semi-Slavic dialect (similar to the dialect of the Chety-Minea of ​​St. Demetrius of Rostov), ​​in Church Slavonic letters. The following oral information has been preserved about this manuscript. In the twenties of the last century, a young novice of one of the Russian monasteries (a peasant from the Oryol province) moved to the German monastery in Moldova, which was then famous for the high spiritual life of its monks and the ascetic writings of its abbot, the famous elder Paisius Velichkovsky, who died there in 1794. This novice, having taken monastic vows at his new place of residence with the name Sophronius, stayed for a long time in the monastery, in which he found many disciples of the great Elder Paisius, including the monk the eloquent writer Plato, who was copying his works and translations from Greek during the life of Elder Paisius. The artist Plato, in favor of the monk Sophronius for his skillful singing on the choir, presented him with the manuscript copied in his own hand and at the same time stated that the 45 ascetic words contained in it, imbued with a strictly patristic ascetic spirit, were compiled by Elder Paisius. In 1836, the monk Sofroniy, leaving the Moldavian Nyametsky monastery, entered the St. Elias monastery on Mount Athos, founded by the elder Paisius Velichkovsky, during his residence on the holy mountain. In this monastery, the monk Sophrony died in 1867, at the age of 72, leaving in this monastery the aforementioned manuscript, about which he informed many of the monastery’s brethren as explained above. In terms of the content of thoughts, imbued with a strict patristic spirit, and in terms of the nature of the presentation, distinguished by simplicity and extremely convincingness, the manuscript is very reminiscent of the well-known in print works of Elder Paisius, a zealot in word and deed of the inner spiritual monastic life, which serves as confirmation of the reliability of the aforementioned bibliographical oral reports about it. But it is impossible to affirmatively whether the manuscript belongs to the independent works of Father Paisius, or to translations, or even to a simple extract from the patristic writings, for he was engaged in all this, and all this can be seen in the manuscript, which, translated into Russian, is published by the St. Elias Skete, for the spiritual benefit of all monastics, especially those who are zealous for a solitary ascetic life; and some words in it are very useful for secular people. Word 1 Brief summary of thoughts conducive to repentance Remember, my soul, the terrible and terrible miracle that your Creator became a man for your sake and deigned to suffer for your salvation. His angels tremble, the Cherubim are horrified, the Seraphim are afraid and all the heavenly ones constantly praise, but you, unfortunate soul, remain in laziness; although from now on, arise and do not put off, my dear soul, holy repentance, heartfelt contrition and satisfaction (penance) for your sins. By putting it off year after year, month after month, day after day, you will not at all want to repent from your heart and you will not find anyone who has compassion for yourself; Oh, with what torment you will begin to repent, but without success. Having the opportunity today to do some good, do not put off, my dear soul, until tomorrow your holy repentance, because you do not know what today will give rise to, or what misfortune will happen to you this night; for you don’t know what day or night will bring you: will you have a long life ahead of you, or will you suddenly and unexpectedly receive a disastrous and quick death? Now, my dear soul, is the time of patience; now is the time to endure sorrow; now is the time to keep the commandments and fulfill virtues; Now is the time of crying, sweet and tearful sobbing. If you truly want to be saved, my soul, love sorrow and groaning, as before you loved peace; live as if dying daily; soon your life will pass like an ordinary shadow before the sun and you will remain without a trace; the days of our life seem to flow into the air; do not yield even in the face of the heaviest sorrow. In relation to people, not to mention unreasonable, but also in reasonable grief, do not indulge in sadness, do not be embarrassed, do not run away; but consider yourself as dust under their feet. Without this you cannot be saved and avoid eternal torment. For soon our life ends, as one day passes. If a person does not crush himself piously through virtues, or does not sacrifice his life to fulfill the commandments of God and the traditions of his fathers, he cannot be saved. So, my dear soul, remember all the holy prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, saints and saints, holy fools and all who have pleased God from the ages. Where did you find saints who did not subjugate the flesh to the spirit, or who did not suffer severe disasters and cruel tribulations? They accepted the darkness of troubles, endured hunger and thirst, performing vigil and prayer day and night, had humility and contrition of heart, childish kindness and all mercy, helped others in every sorrow and need, did various alms and alms, according to the strength of their ability; what they did not want for themselves and what they hated, they did not do either of them, with obedience, like bought slaves, working not as a person, but as God, with wise simplicity - being not wise, not knowing anything, but only heeding their salvation. Oh man! death awaits you; If you strive, you will be honored with eternal life in the next century. Virtue is acquired by forcing oneself in every way. Therefore, if you want to conquer passions, then cut off sweets; if you chase food, you will spend your life in passions; the soul will not humble itself if the flesh is not deprived of bread; it is impossible to save the soul from destruction by protecting your body from trouble. Let us therefore turn to the first; if you want, my soul, to be saved, to go through that sorrowful path previously indicated, to enter the kingdom of heaven, to receive eternal life, then refine your flesh, taste free bitterness, suffer heavy sorrows, as all the saints tasted and suffered. When a person prepares and makes a covenant to endure for God’s sake all the sorrows that come upon him, then sorrows and all troubles and attacks from demons and people seem easy and painless for him; he is not afraid of death, and nothing can separate him from the love of Christ. Have you heard, my dear soul, about how the holy fathers spent their lives! Ah, my soul! Although imitate them a little: didn’t they have tears? Oh, woe, my soul! Weren't they sad, thin and emaciated in body? Oh, woe, my soul! Didn’t they have physical illnesses, great wounds and mental lamentation with tears? Oh, woe, my soul! Were they not surrounded by the same weak body as we are? Oh, woe, my soul! Didn’t they have wishes for the beautiful, sweet and light in this world and all bodily peace? Yes, they did; and their bodies truly ached; but they changed wishes for patience and sorrow for future joy. They cut everything off once and for all, considered themselves dead, and mercilessly tormented themselves in spiritual feats. You see, my soul, how the holy fathers worked, having no rest in all suffering, subjugated the flesh to the spirit, fulfilled all the other commandments of God and were saved. But you, pathetic one, do not want to force yourself at all, from small labors you become exhausted, despondent, and in no way remember the hour of death and do not cry about your sin; but my unfortunate soul is accustomed to overeating, getting drunk and being lazy; Don’t you know that you volunteered to suffer? And you don’t tolerate it at all; how do you want to be saved? At least from now on, arise, my dear soul, do what I tell you. If you cannot work like the holy fathers, then at least begin according to your strength; serve everyone with humility and simplicity of heart; contemplating your weakness and condemning yourself, say: woe to you, my accursed soul, woe to you, stingy; woe to you, all-nasty, lazy, careless, sleepy, cruel; woe to you who perished. So, little by little she will be touched, shed a tear, come to her senses and repent. Word 2 The fight against despondency, laziness and relaxation When it happens, then occupy your mind with thinking about death. Come mentally to the coffin, look at the four-day-old corpse there: how it turns black, swells, emits an unbearable stench, is devoured by worms, losing its appearance and beauty. Look elsewhere: here lie in the grave the bones of young and old, handsome and ugly, who was fasting, abstinent and ascetic or negligent, and whether it benefited the rich that they rested and enjoyed in this world. Remember the endless torment that the sacred books speak about: the fire of Gehenna, pitch darkness, the gnashing of teeth, the tartar of the underworld, the never-ending worm, and imagine how sinners cry out there with bitter tears, and no one delivers them, they weep, mourn themselves, and no one will take pity on them; they sigh from the depths of their hearts, and no one has compassion for them; they beg for help, complain about their sorrows, and no one listens to them. Think how every creature invariably, in its own time, serves the Lord, its Creator. Think about the glorious miracles of God from the beginning of the century performed on His servants, and especially about how the Lord, having humbled himself and suffered for our salvation, benefited and sanctified the human race, and for all this give thanks to God, the lover of mankind. Remember the endless future life and the kingdom of heaven, peace and unspeakable joy. Keep and do not abandon the Jesus Prayer. If you remember and reflect on all this, if you do all this, then despondency, laziness and relaxation will disappear and your soul, as if from the dead, will be revived by the grace of Christ. Word 3 A touching teaching that cuts off all human exaltation and pride and turns the soul into sources of tears If you are looking for such tenderness, then it is very sweet and spiritually beneficial to listen to the following teaching about the outcome of your soul. Now you, man, delight in beauty, beauty, glory, and spend your life in vain decoration, hoping to spend it hour after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year. Oh man! Your age is coming to an end, life is passing, time is passing little by little, the terrible throne of the Lord is being prepared, the righteous Judge is approaching! Oh man! The court is at the door; expect a terrible answer! The fiery river, agitated, makes noise with crashing sounds and strong sparks!... Terrible torments are raging, awaiting the torment of sinners! Oh man! Work, try, strive; before death the messenger does not come! The reward of the saints is ahead, the crowns of the righteous are being prepared; For those who work and endure sorrow, the Kingdom of Heaven is opened, endless peace awaits and unspeakable joy is prepared. The eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not entered into what God has prepared for those who love Him. Oh man! Have you heard of torment? Why do you not tremble and are not horrified? ...Oh man! Have you heard of endless joy? Why are you not striving, why are you wasting your life’s time in rumors and vanity? After another time you won’t find it, even if you search with tears. Oh man! If you live a hundred or a thousand years in this world in all food and pleasure, being nourished like a calf and preening like a fox; when the terrible death comes, our life will appear in one day, and all satiety and adornment will disappear without a trace, like the flower of grass that soon falls away. Oh man! It’s like one day of your birth and your age and old age, and after that - a quick unexpected end to your life. Oh man! Remember where your grandfathers and great-grandfathers are, where your father and mother and brothers are; where are your relatives and beloved friends? Hasn’t everyone departed from this life; didn’t they also want to live in this world – to enjoy, adorn themselves and have fun in their well-being? But against their will, they were kidnapped. Remember that you are the earth, you feed from the earth and you will go back to the earth: the flesh will collapse and decay, eaten by worms, and the bones will crumble like dust. Remember the eternal days and the summers of past births. How many kings and princes there were in every pleasure and adornment! What helped them as they departed from this temporary life, where is pleasure and decoration? Now they are earth and ashes! How many strong, rich, brave young men there were in this world, blooming with youth and beauty; How did the mighty force, the pleasant youth blooming with beauty, help and assist them? It was as if nothing had happened! Thousands of thousands and darkness, or like the sand of the sea, there were all kinds of people, and they all departed from this life. Some of them could not even give any answer in the hour of death, but unexpectedly, standing or sitting, they were abducted by death; some, having eaten and drunk, gave up the ghost; others died suddenly along the way; others, lying down on their beds, thinking of calming their bodies with a small, temporary sleep, and in this position fell asleep in eternal sleep; some in the last hour suffered great tortures, terrible, formidable intimidations, the very idea of ​​which can frighten us a lot. And others are different and there are sudden deaths! Oh, oh! Woe, woe! It is terrible and scary for everyone when the soul is forcibly separated from the body: the soul departs crying, and the body is consigned to the earth; then the hope for vain things, the beauty, glory and pleasure of earthly things, turns into nothing. Oh, oh! Woe, woe! Great crying and weeping, great sighing and illness - separation of the soul. Oh! Woe, woe! This path that we walk with the body is short; smoke, steam, finger, ashes, dust, stench of this life; as smoke disperses in the air, as the flower of grass quickly falls away and withers, as a horse quickly runs, as water flows quickly, and as fog rises from the surface of the earth, and as the morning dew disappears, or as a bird flies by, so the life of this age passes; or as the wind passes, so time passes and passes by and the days of our life end. It is better to endure and love fierce and cruel sorrows in this world than a thousand years of joy and peace against one future day. For the path of earthly life is not long; appears for a short time and soon passes away. Truly all that is sweet, beautiful and glorious in this world is vanity and corruption; for like a changeable shadow everything passes, and like a dream it abides in this world; there is someone now; goes away a little later; today with us, and in the morning he is given over to the grave. Oh, oh! Woe, woe! It is truly in vain that every earthly being worries. Everything will change, we will all die: kings and princes, judges and strongmen, rich and poor and all human nature: today another person rejoices with us, has fun and shows off, and in the morning we cry, lament and weep for him. Oh man! Come to the tomb, look at the dead man lying there: not glorious, not visible, not beautiful; how it swells and emits a stench; the flesh rots and decays and is eaten by worms, the bones are exposed and the whole composition crumbles. Oh, oh! Woe, woe! Sinful soul, terrible vision! Woe, woe! Enriched with spiritual and physical feelings, wisely created, you have no splendor, no appearance, no beauty at all! Where has your physical beauty and beautiful youth gone? Where is the smiling face, where are the beautiful and bright eyes? Where is the Aristotelian (oratorical) eloquent language? Where is the breath, the sweet, thin and gentle voice? Where is the eloquence of wisdom, the stately walk, dreams and desires, and vain care? All this was lost and eaten by worms: some of them come out of the mouth and nostrils, others from the eyes and ears; others from the passage, and everything was filled with ugliness and vileness. Oh, oh! Woe, woe! Looking at the ashes lying in the tomb, let us say to ourselves: who is the king and the nobleman, or the beggar? Who is the lord or the unfree? Who is nice and not nice? Who is wise or foolish? Where is the beauty and pleasure of this world? Where is the strength and wisdom of this age? Where are the dreams and short-term delights? Where is the perishable and vain wealth? Where are the silver and gold jewelry? Where are the many upcoming slaves? Where is all the care of this vain world? But none of this is there anymore; a person is deprived of all this. Oh, oh! Woe, woe! It is truly in vain that every earthly being worries! “I look at you in the coffin and am horrified by your appearance; I look at you and tremble and shed tears from my heart. Oh, oh! Death is cruel and merciless! Who can escape you? You reap the human race like unripe wheat. So, brethren, realizing the brevity of our life and the vanity of this age, let us take care of the hour of death, leaving behind the rumors of this world and the unhelpful cares of life; for after death neither wealth, nor glory, nor pleasure will remain with us, and none of these will go with us to the grave, only good deeds will go and protect us and remain with us; We were born naked, naked again we go away. So, hearing this, we must not only sit silently in our cells, hold our tongues, worry about our souls and cry in prayer for our sins, but we must also hide underground, weep there alive for our sins and live, dying for God’s sake as a feat. Knowing our imminent departure, we will exhaust our corruptible body before death, because even after death it must remain corruptible until the Lord God raises us from the dead on the last day and gives us immortal life and an endless kingdom forever. Amen. Word 4 About the grace of God QUESTION: Why can anyone know whether he has achieved perfect grace or not? Answer: Where grace is the source of life, there good deeds flow from the heart; when the Holy Spirit visits, then all work becomes easier, and unceasing prayer comes from the heart, and the eyes constantly shed tears, and all spiritual enlightenment occurs with this and pure, sober reasoning, for the Holy Spirit then acts inside a person. And whoever gives himself over to passions, his passions multiply; then through them the evil spirit takes possession of a person, then all darkness, gloom, and burden arise in his soul. The question is who is holy (i.e., has the indicated properties of perfect grace)? Answer: - one who immaculately preserved and kept the commandments, who conquered passions and renounced all pleasure. Who gave up pleasure? One who has completely rejected self-love in all forms of his will; who hated himself in this short century for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and endless life; who has acquired unshakable faith, firm and undoubted hope in God in all his sorrows and needs; such a one is truly holy and passionless. Word 5 About mental and physical feelings, about virtues and which virtue is born from which. On the major and initial virtues. If someone fulfills these virtues, everyone else will obey him. During the creation of man, God’s love for the human race was manifested inexpressibly and innumerably: for God gave man spiritual and physical feelings. Mental feelings or forces are: mind, meaning (reason), word, dreaming (imagination), feeling of the heart. The bodily senses are as follows: sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. Through both of them we perform spiritual and physical virtues. It pleased Christ our God that books should be written, so that through them man might reason and learn the fear of God—the beginning of spiritual wisdom. The fear of God gives birth to faith; faith - hope; hope - love for God and people; love - patience and many other virtues; patience - obedience and every virtue; obedience is trust; hope - fasting; fasting – purity and silence; silence gives birth to abstinence, prayer, tears, vigil, crying, vigor, sobriety and many other things, and cuts off all evil tongues; crying gives birth to all non-covetousness; non-covetousness gives birth to truth and cuts off all dispute; prayer gives rise to reasoning, sobriety of mind, tears, joy, humility of heart, meekness; humility gives rise to humility and solitude; Humility cuts off pride and vanity and grows spiritual fruit. These virtues destroy all mental and physical passions, and little by little grace increases. These virtues are necessary for those who are healthy in body and possessed by carnal passions. The first virtue is faith, for by faith even mountains are overthrown and you will receive everything you want, said the Lord. Everyone is confirmed by his faith in all glorious and wondrous deeds. From our will, faith either decreases or increases. The second virtue is unfeigned love for God and people. Love embraces and binds all virtues into one. By love alone the whole law is fulfilled and a life pleasing to God is accomplished. Love consists in laying down your life for your friend and what you don’t want for yourself, don’t do to another. For the sake of love, the Son of God became man. He who abides in love abides in God; where there is love, there is God. The third virtue is fasting. I call fasting eating a little one day during the day, while still being greedy, getting up from the meal; food to have bread and salt, and drink to have water, which the springs themselves supply. This is the royal way of eating, that is, many were saved this way, as the holy fathers said. A person cannot always abstain from food for a day, two, three, four, five and a week, but he can always do so in order to eat bread and drink water every day. Only after eating, one must be a little greedy, so that the body is submissive to the spirit, and capable of work, and sensitive to mental movements, and bodily passions are conquered; fasting cannot mortify bodily passions in the same way that meager food mortifies. Some people fast in the meantime and then indulge in sweet foods; for many begin fasting beyond their strength and other severe feats, and then weaken from immoderation and unevenness, and seek sweet foods and rest to strengthen the body. Doing this means creating and then destroying again, since the body, through poverty from fasting, is forced to indulge in sweets and seeks consolation, and sweets kindle passions. If anyone sets a certain limit for himself, how much meager food to take per day, he receives great benefit. However, regarding the amount of food, it must be established how much is needed to strengthen strength; such a one can accomplish every spiritual work. If someone fasts more than that, then at another time he indulges in peace. Moderate feat has no price. For some great fathers took food in moderation and had moderation in everything - in exploits, in bodily needs and in cell supplies, and they used everything in due time and every thing according to a certain moderate rule. Therefore, the Holy Fathers do not command one to begin to fast beyond one’s strength and to weaken oneself. Make it a rule to eat every day, this way you can more firmly abstain; If someone fasts more, how can he then resist satiety and gluttony? No way. Such an immoderate undertaking arises either from vanity or from recklessness; whereas abstinence is one of the virtues that contributes to the curbing of the flesh; hunger and thirst are given to man to cleanse the body, to preserve him from bad thoughts and lust; Eating sparingly every day is a means to perfection, as some say; and the one who eats every day at a certain hour will not humiliate himself morally and will not suffer spiritual harm; These are praised by Saint Theodore of Studite in his teaching on the heels of the first week of Great Lent, where he cites in confirmation the words of the holy God-bearing fathers and the Lord Himself. This is what we should do. The Lord endured a long fast; equally Moses and Elijah, but one day. And some others, sometimes, asking something from the Creator, imposed on themselves some burden of fasting, but in accordance with natural laws and the teaching of divine Scripture. From the activities of the saints, from the life of our Savior and from the rules of life for those living decently, it is clear that it is wonderful and useful to always be ready and to be in asceticism, work and patience; however, do not weaken yourself by excessive fasting and do not spend your body inactive. If the flesh is inflamed in youth, then much should be abstained; if she is weak, then you need to eat enough to be full, regardless of other ascetics - whether many or few people fast; look and reason according to your weakness, as much as you can accommodate: for each there is a measure and an inner teacher - his own conscience. We cannot all have one rule and one feat; because some are strong, others are weak; some are like iron, others are like copper, others are like wax. So, having known your measure well, take food once every day, except Saturdays, weeks and sovereign holidays. Moderate and reasonable fasting is the foundation and head of all virtues. Just as you fight a lion and a fierce serpent, so you must fight the enemy in bodily weakness and spiritual poverty. If anyone wants to have a strong mind from evil thoughts, let him refine his flesh by fasting. It is impossible to serve as a priest without fasting; Just as breathing is necessary, so is fasting. Fasting, entering the soul, kills the sin lying in its depths. The fourth virtue is temperance - the mother and union of all virtues. If you control your belly, you will enter heaven, for abstinence is the murder of sin, removal from passions, the beginning of spiritual life and the intercessor of eternal blessings. On the contrary, satiety deprives a person of spiritual talent, because the satiety of the belly makes him sleepy and arouses bad thoughts in him, and he cannot keep a vigil, nor read, nor engage in handicrafts, nor perform any other good deed. Easily, beautifully, soberly and thirst-quenching for nourishment, bread and warm water. Without warm water, a fasting person's stomach dries up and it becomes difficult to defecate; and bread or crackers steamed in boiled water, or oatmeal, or jelly, are quickly digested; the latter is a particularly suitable food during a holiday or supper. The four orders of eating food are: fasting, abstinence, contentment and satiety. If anyone holds his womb, he will not lose his heavenly stay; whoever does not resist is the prey of death, is deprived of all virtues and is reproached. The fifth virtue is vigilance. With reasoning in moderation, novice monks should stay awake half the night and sleep half the night until the morning, that is, stay awake for six hours and sleep for six or five hours. The average measure is four or three hours to sleep and eight to stay awake. For the perfect, sleep for one hour, and the rest - all-night standing and attentive wakefulness. During the day, everyone should sleep for one hour. Vigil with reasoning clears the mind from the scattering of thoughts, makes it light and introduces it to prayer. Just as sensual eyes enlighten the body and illuminate all its members, so vigilant attention and wakefulness enlightens the soul with spiritual vision, for it reminds a person of the ineffable blessings that the Lord has prepared for those who love Him, and shows the eternal torment prepared for sinners; and a waking person is always amazed at the Creator, how day and night change, how the sun, moon and stars shine; how frost, snow, heat, thunder, rain are replaced, reminds a person of the transitory life of this age, of the end of death and draws from him abundant tears and, like a watchman in a high place, clearly illuminates to the spiritual eye the state of a person, how he lives - rightly or wrongly. Regular vigil gladdens the heart. Word 11 About the Jesus Prayer The sixth virtue is the Jesus Prayer. This is a common thing between people and angels; With this prayer people quickly approach angelic life. Prayer is the source of every good deed and virtue and drives away the darkness of passions from a person. Acquire it, and before death your soul will be equal to the angels. Prayer is divine joy. This is the only precious sword; There is no other weapon that can cut down demons more than this; it scorches them as fire scorches thorns. This prayer, like a fire, kindles the whole person and brings him inexpressible joy and joy, so that with joy he forgets about this life and considers everything in this century to be rubbish and ashes. Word 12 On humility and humbleness of mind The seventh virtue is humility and humbleness of mind. Heartfelt humility easily saves an old, sick, wretched, poor and uneducated person; for his sake all sins are forgiven; it raises a person from the very abyss of sin. Through humility, all enemy networks and plans are destroyed, and it takes root in spiritual life and protects from falling. Word 13 About silence and silence The eighth virtue is silence, i.e. removal from all worldly cares and confusion, or unrequited silence among the crowd. He who bridles and restrains his tongue will also control his whole body. He who has a temperate tongue will avoid all evil that comes from him. Language is an uncontrollable evil; many have fallen from the edge of the sword, but not as much as from their tongue, for the tongue is a two-edged sword, invisibly piercing the soul and body of those who talk idle in idle gatherings. O tongue, the enemy of my righteousness! O tongue, my destroyer and my satanic spirit! For with much labor man builds a spiritual building (salvation), and you, tongue, in a word, in one hour destroy and destroy it. A wise man leads in silence. Word 14 About non-covetousness The ninth virtue is non-covetousness of things and extreme poverty. A non-covetous monk, like a pompous eagle, remains uncatchable by any vain net of this age and is not vulnerable. We run, we run from the love of money and other things, as from a roaring lion, for it turns a person’s meekness and humility into merciless anger and rancor and turns him into a fierce beast. The tenth virtue is prudent reasoning in every matter; because recklessness and goodness lead to evil, and therefore it is not good. Without these ten virtues mentioned above, it is impossible to be saved. The holy fathers explained them in various extensive conversations; Here they are briefly discussed. Three of these virtues: firstly, fasting, i.e. temperance is judicious and unchangeable; secondly, constant exercise in the teaching of the divine Scriptures with judicious vigil, i.e. according to the conscience, strength and vigor of everyone; and thirdly, the Jesus Prayer is reasonable, i.e. with the attention of the mind to the words of prayer and the inner guarding of the heart - these virtues, the essence of which are the most fundamental, must be fulfilled wisely - before the face and for the sake of God, without any hypocrisy, man-pleasing and vanity; otherwise, the one who fulfills them is no different from the one who does not. It is better to abandon that virtue through which we arbitrarily become highly intelligent; The reward is given not so much for work, but for the sake of humility. It is better to sin and repent than to reform and ascend. May the Lord God instruct and confirm us to do His will and sacred commandments and virtues, to Him be glory now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Word 16 About passions and destructive vices and which are born from which Before any fall, demons inflict on a person the following passions: gloomy oblivion, cruel anger, i.e. inhuman and brutal malice and ignorance, like hopeless darkness. These three passions precede all sin. For a person will not commit a single sin before he is first disposed towards all evil, either through oblivion, or anger, or ignorance. From them comes spiritual insensibility, i.e. the mind, the spiritual eye, is dark and then captivated by all passions. First of all, lack of faith is born. Lack of faith gives rise to self-love - the beginning and end, the root and ancestor of all evil, it is senseless love for one’s body, when everywhere and in all things someone chooses for himself only what is useful. This evil root of passions is eradicated by love and mercy and renunciation of self-will. Self-love gives rise to unmercifulness and love of money - an unsatisfied womb, which is also the root and cause of all evil. From these two - pride and love of money - every misfortune and cruel crime occurs in every place. Both in the laity and in the monk, the love of money gives rise to pride, through which demons fell from holy glory and were cast out of heaven. Pride gives rise to the love of glory, with which Adam was seduced, wanting to be God and not being, and thus brought suffering and an oath to the entire human race. The love of glory gives rise to voluptuousness, through which Adam fell and was expelled from paradise. Lust gives rise to gluttony and various fornication. Fornication gives rise to anger, which extinguishes the warmth of the heart and is detrimental to all virtue. Anger gives rise to remembrance—a cooling of spiritual warmth. Memory malice gives rise to gloomy and malicious blasphemy against one’s brother. Hula gives rise to untimely sadness, like rust consuming a person. Sadness breeds insane arrogance. Impudence gives rise to vanity, which flaunts virtues and through this leaves labors without reward. Vanity gives rise to intemperate eloquence. Polyphony gives rise to idle talk and captivity. Dejection gives rise to a dark dream. If someone conquers these passions, then others will submit to him, such as: insurance, horror, envy, hatred, hypocrisy, flattery, grumbling, unbelief, covetousness, addiction, love of things, cowardice, acute bile, self-doubt, lust for man-pleasing, insolence, laughter, complete fall, an inexpressible ditch and destruction through despair, in in what state a person will sacrifice himself, not knowing the love of God and mercy that He came to save sinners, and that there is no sin on earth that cannot be forgiven. Of the seven following passions - self-love, love of money, pride and vanity, rancor, condemnation, conceit - despair is the end of all passions. From these passions, if anyone does not protect himself and does not reject them, he will destroy the ten virtues mentioned above: faith, love, fasting, abstinence, vigil, prayer, humility with humility, silence with silence, non-covetousness and reasoning, and together will damage all other virtues. If anyone has even one of these main passions, he will not succeed at all, even if he strives against other passions, performs any virtue, and even sheds his blood for Christ; and the prayer of such a person is unpleasant to God. May the Lord God deliver us by His grace from all adversity and passions forever. Amen. Word 17 About bodily passions. Why do they occur and how are they overcome? Bodily lust in a person occurs: either from warm dissolution, or from overeating and immeasurable sleep, or from the action of Satan, or from condemnation of others and one’s vanity, bodily beauty, or from idle conversations, panache and failure to guard the eyes. If lustful thoughts and dreaming come at night, sleepy or during the day, or carnal lust, then nothing can get rid of it except by fasting, abstinence and prayer with tears during the all-night vigil. When someone knows the mental and physical strength of exhaustion, he will soon receive peace from passions. Word 18 About always being attentive Every evening we should test ourselves how our day went, and every morning we should again test how the night went. And not only at a certain time, but at all times, in every place and about every thing, we must give ourselves an account and reason about the virtues and passions, in what state of life we ​​are in - at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end; Do we work and perform virtues worthy of reward, or do we just work and not receive rewards? When we sin in any way, we will make up for the lack of virtue with tears and crying. We do not reach perfection and are poor in grace because we do not know what the beginning, middle and perfection of virtues are, what causes the impoverishment of virtue, and that with every virtue the vice of vanity is mixed in, which counteracts it. Without knowing this, we work in vain. Although virtues are called mental, the body suffers and is strengthened in all of them. Passions are different: some are called spiritual, and because they are loved or enjoyed by the soul alone, in addition to the body; others are bodily, because in them only the body luxuriates and becomes fat, i.e. in both cases, the soul and body do not sympathize with each other in anything. Word 19 Abbreviated speech about all mental and physical passions First of all, the royal house must be cleansed of all uncleanness and decorated with all beauty, and then the king can enter it. In the same way, one must first of all cleanse the soil of the heart and eradicate the thorns of sin - passionate deeds and soften it with sorrows and hardships, sow the seed of virtues on it, water it with lamentations and tears; and then the fruit of dispassion and eternal life will grow. For the Holy Spirit will not move in until a person is cleansed of mental and physical passions. Only one thing can dwell inside a person: either the Holy Spirit or the passions; where the Holy Spirit is, the passions do not approach, and where the passions are, the Holy Spirit does not dwell there, but the evil one. First of all, one must drive away from oneself self-love in all forms, desires for the objects of this world and humiliate oneself in all types of repentance - in thought, in deed, in word, in food, clothing, in home furnishings and internal things, in everything one must humble oneself and condemn; choose the worst for yourself in everything, and thus the passions of the soul will be silent. Humility never falls, because it lies below everyone. It is also necessary to pacify your flesh, depressing it with exploits of virtues and sorrows without peace, and bodily passions will be silent. You must also restrain your tongue, as the source of all evil and the destroyer of good, in this way all mental and physical passions will cease to act and will be pacified; the person will be dispassionate and begin to acquire eternal life; the enemy will be defeated, for he will be powerless and all his weapons and intrigues will fail. Dispassion consists not only in avoiding sinful, partial deeds, but in not having the desire for them. He is dispassionate who has overcome addiction in all circumstances, compelling or seducing, and, having become above all passions, is not indignant for any thing of this world, is not afraid of sorrows, troubles and misfortunes, is not afraid of even death itself, considering this a guarantee of eternal life. He is dispassionate who, suffering from demons and from evil people, does not pay attention to it and does not consider it evil; as if someone else is suffering; glorified he is not exalted and insulted he is not angry; but like a child who is punished, she cries and when she is consoled, she rejoices. Dispassion is not one virtue, but a collective name for all of them. Then a person is revived by the Holy Spirit; because without Him the entire spiritual body, the composition of virtues, is not strong. Until the Holy Spirit indwells a person, after being cleansed from passions, he cannot be called dispassionate, for until then he suffers in every place. When the Holy Spirit descends on a person, then He will ease all his burdens and sorrows, and he will remain in everything without difficulty. Glory to our God forever. Amen. Word 21 About purity of heart and soul Through a difficult life, through our spiritual deeds, we enter into heart, mind and spiritual purity, for from sorrows, difficult spiritual and bodily virtues: greed, thirst, vigil and others, the heart is cleansed... From bad passionate lusts, bodily passions are born, i.e. fornication. Purity of heart and fasting with prayer cleanse the mind from bad thoughts and dreams. Through purity of mind the soul is freed from its passions and enlightened; from spiritual purity comes intelligent vision. Without heartfelt, mental and spiritual purity, that is, dispassion, demons dare to enter us, disturb us and show delusion instead of truth. For only with a pure heart, soul and mind can the Intelligent Sun be contemplated. One must be especially diligent in fasting and unceasing prayer, so that it descends into the depths of the heart and cleanses it of mental and physical passions and, delighting, softening, amusing and driving away bad thoughts and dreams of the mind, enlightens the soul. When a person’s heart, mind, soul and body are thus cleansed, then grace will infuse him; The entrance of the demon and passions is closed, and he begins to feel spiritual sweetness. Until a person’s natural movements in the body weaken, so that they do not arouse sinful pleasures in the heart, and all bodily feelings are purified during life; Until the mind is freed from dark, nasty dreams and the soul gets rid of addictions, until then the sweetness of grace will not be aroused in that person, and he will not see the Divine in his soul. The beginning of purity is disagreement with the sin of the mind, and the end is mortification, deadness to the sin of the body. Impurity of the heart - lustful passion and sinful fervor of the heart; uncleanness of the body is actually a fall into sin. Impurity of mind - bad thoughts; The impurity of the soul is various spiritual passions, when the soul loves something excessively and delights in it. If someone works with his body and performs some virtues, but does not care about the mood of his heart, does not diligently engage in mental work - attention, and does not care about spiritual sobriety, then he is like someone who collects with one hand and scatters with the other; inner heart sobriety, smart work and spiritual mood are the end of it. Bodily labor without inner mood and attention is like dry leaves. That is why we do not reach perfection and do not receive grace, because we do not know where to begin spiritual life, what constitutes the middle and end of it, and what is the essence and basis of virtues - until we learn this, until we work and ruin at the same time. Oh man! understand what the spiritual ascetic life begins with, where virtues are born, and through which passions easily enter into us, and then you will soon receive enlightenment to your soul; Without this same beginning, you are, as it were, sowing a seed in the sea, and it is destroyed. Word 22 About darkness of the mind, that is, lack of judgment Darkening of the mind comes from passions: from verbosity, from fussiness, from immeasurable care, from sorrow, from daydreaming, from overeating, from sleeping too much; often it happens from demons, that is, from their confusion when they approach us. From the entry of these passions into us, our spiritual eye closes, that is, the vision of the mind is dulled; and he no longer sees anything spiritual and has no reasoning, just as someone cannot see with a healthy bodily eye in the darkness of the night, sometimes he stumbles, and sometimes he falls into a hole; Likewise, a person, having a darkened mind, falls into the pit of various passions: he becomes depressed, dreams, indulges in a lot of sleep and completely forgets that he is walking the path of eternal destruction. Word 23 About sobriety of mind, that is, attentiveness Sobriety of mind - clarity of thought, comes from dispassion, i.e. from purity, fasting, abstinence, undistracted silence, continuous stay in the cell, the Jesus Prayer, carelessness, moderate sleep and from the action of the Holy Spirit, when grace is given to us from the Benefactor. With these virtues the mind is cleansed from darkness, rudeness, daydreaming and is enlightened, and then a person becomes intelligent, reasonable and cheerful. No one can stop the whirling of thoughts with anything, except the unceasing Jesus Prayer, the memory of death and future torment, the memory and desire for future blessings, attentive singing or reading alone. Most of all, prayer, fasting and the silence that never leaves the cell clears the mind from darkness, rudeness and daydreaming. Prayer and fasting drive away all sinful thoughts, stop the overheating of the brain, preserve the mind from rebellion, collect it from distraction and enlighten it. Prayer and fasting drive out unclean spirits from a person and heal those who are possessed, as the Lord said: this generation (demonic) does not come forth except through prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). Through prayer and fasting, the mind, which is often darkened by demons, is also cleansed. Prayer and fasting are weapons that block every entrance of demons into us. Prayer, as a gracious spirit, purifies our spirit, enlightens the mind and gives zeal. Prayer with sobriety of mind and heart is the protection of the mind and extinguishes its oblivion, like water fire. Therefore, this virtue and the bright contemplations arising from it must be given an honest name. Having loved her, you obscene and vile sinners will become holy and worthy, the foolish and unreasonable will be reasonable and prudent, the unrighteous will be righteous; Moreover, you will also be contemplatives, theologians and witnesses of divine mysteries through invoking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Many St. the fathers said that the Jesus Prayer is the source of all good, the treasure of virtues, it quickly grants the grace of the Holy Spirit, saves, explains and teaches the unknown. Just as a person sees his face in a mirror, so in sober and kind prayer he sees with his mind his whole life, whether he lives well or badly. This sober prayer drives away the darkness of passions from a person, frees him from all demonic networks, thoughts, words and deeds, conquers all natural desires, feelings and sorrows, helps and cleanses him from every temptation and, like a flaming sword, cuts them off, for God is the One called by this name, to whom everything is subordinate. Nothing can defeat the evil cunning cunning of demons like the sober, pure and attentive Jesus Prayer, performed with a pure mind and humility; It is impossible, and an ascetic cannot, besides this, rebel against demons and resist them. However, without a mentor in this prayer, he, the victim, dies; having heard or learned from the words of St. fathers that it is great, and without understanding its essence, it commits, and unreasonably thinks about it that it has reached perfection, and begins to dream with its mind of having warriors inside, without first purifying it with sobriety, attention, wakefulness, and thus is cast down from demons. The beginning of this good and wonderful work is as follows: first, you must weaken your passions, not do what God does not want, and not do to your brother what you yourself hate; then keep your heart from lustful pleasures and evil desires, firmly guard your mind from thoughts, so that it always keeps your heart in humility. From this, prayer is already born, which conquers and destroys many passions and evil spirits, and grace multiplies. Just as fasting and the Jesus Prayer serve as purification and strength for sobriety and attention, so sobriety constitutes the dignity, holiness and support of prayer. Sobriety is otherwise called purity of mind, while impurity of the mind is bad thoughts, and impurity of the heart is lustfulness and lust. The heart cannot remain pure, so as not to become defiled, unless it is crushed by fasting; It is impossible to maintain holiness without fasting, and the flesh will not submit to the spirit for spiritual activity, and even prayer itself does not rise and does not work, because the natural need overcomes and the flesh is forced to be kindled; from the softening of the flesh, thoughts rebel and the mind becomes defiled; from thoughts the heart is excited and defiled, and through this grace is removed and unclean spirits have the audacity to rule over us as much as they want, forcing the flesh to passions and directing the mind wherever they want, or, as if tying it with a rope, keeping it incapable of spiritual desires and actions. Without this, the demons cannot defeat us; for the evil ones first try by any means to bring our mind into darkness and oblivion and then plunge us into the sinful abyss. But we will always keep fasting, as a quiet refuge from the enemy’s mental network; for fasting cleanses the body; nourishes and strengthens prayer, makes it strong, and like a flame of fire it rises from the lips. Sober prayer combined with fasting scorches the demons, so that they, as if to a hot oven, cannot approach and harm a chaste soul. Homily 24 About the Jesus Prayer, which quickly instills grace and conveniently saves the soul “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” If someone with desire and incessantly, like breathing from the nostrils, says this prayer, soon the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - will dwell in him and create an abode in him, and prayer will devour the heart, and the heart - prayer, and the person will begin to say this prayer day and night and will be freed from all the snares of the enemy. The Jesus Prayer should be said like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Whether you stand, sit, eat, travel, or do anything else, constantly say this prayer, diligently forcing yourself to it, for it strikes invisible enemies, like a warrior with a strong spear. Imprint it in your thoughts; do not be embarrassed to do it secretly and in the right places. And when your tongue and lips become weak, then pray with your mind alone. From prayer pronounced over a long period of time with the tongue comes prayer of the mind, and from prayer of the mind comes prayer of the heart. When the mind is exhausted from constant tension and the heart is sick, then you can let them sing a little. Say the Jesus Prayer out loud, quietly, enough to hear yourself. During prayer, one should not deviate one’s thoughts here and there to the perishable things of life, but remain non-slothfully in the memory of this prayer alone; for prayer is nothing other than alienation from the visible and invisible world. Therefore, one must close one’s mind in prayer. Where the body stands, let the mind be with us, without having any thoughts during prayer. The Holy Fathers say: “If someone prays with his lips but neglects his mind, he works in vain, for God listens to the mind, and not to much speech; mental prayer does not allow the mind to have any dreams or impure thoughts.” If someone does not get used to the mental Jesus Prayer, he cannot have unceasing prayer. If someone becomes accustomed to the Jesus Prayer, and it connects with the heart, then, like a source, this prayer will flow in every place, in every case, at every time, and will always excite the person who is awake and sleeping; when the body begins to sleep or doze, and then it excites it, erupting from within and never being destroyed. Therefore, this prayer is great, never abandoned, so that with it, although the lips become weak and the body slumbers, the spirit never sleeps. When an urgent task is being diligently carried out, or the mind is strongly oppressed by thoughts, or sleep is overpowering, then one must pray diligently with the lips and tongue so that the mind will listen to the voice; when the mind is quiet and calm from thoughts, then you can pray to them alone. This prayer path is faster to salvation than through psalms, canons and ordinary prayers for the literate. As a perfect man is before a youth, this prayer is before literacy, i.e. an artificially written prayer. Mental-heart prayer - for those who have succeeded; for the average – singing, i.e. ordinary church hymns and for beginners - obedience and work. This prayer requires sobriety, abstinence, withdrawal from people, all carelessness and serenity, from which true prayer grows and is confirmed. If someone does not reject these obstacles, he cannot maintain unceasing prayer. Word 25 About never worrying about anything All annoyances and sorrows are caused to us by demons; they cunningly bring untimely worries and various snares in order to distract our mind from prayerful contemplation, that is, they try to make our mind idle, unoccupied with the work of salvation, to tear it away from the high prayerful love of God. If it were possible, they would be given the kingdom and wealth of the whole world, if only through solicitude they would distract our minds from the memory of love for God, that is, from unceasing prayerful memory, unceasing prayer, which is love for God. And we will be most concerned about this and will not abandon the sweetness of prayer. Let us entrust all care to God; He will provide for all our needs. Let us consign all the affairs of this world to oblivion and let us have no concern for anything in this age, for it binds the monk’s hands and feet and against his will draws him to the love of this world; just as water extinguishes fire, so the sorrow of this age is the love of God. Therefore, let us be attentive and always zealous for the love of God, and the Lord will take care of our needs; then the source of tears from this prayer will appear. If we distance ourselves from the embarrassment and excitement of the world, then through attention and care of the heart, prayer becomes sweet, and tears flow by themselves; Man no longer exudes them from himself under compulsion, but with joy. If anyone, with the above prayer, desires to be filled with ardent love for God even before the exodus of his soul, to live as an ascetic and in need, and to bear on his body the deadness of Jesus: to be always dead in the flesh and all the days of his life to work without embarrassment for God alone, then the beginning and end of all this is to cut off all addictions and lusts and all care and vanity of this world. Get away from every person, rumor and confusion, leading a bird's life and not at all worry about the vain; everything will remain on earth, for we live here as guests, as the Apostle said: our life is in heaven (Phil. 3:20); Let us take care only of the soul and have God as our guardian in every need; nowhere, never, in any need does God leave those who undoubtedly hope in Him completely and work for Him with all their hearts in love for Him. If we live in hope of God, even though we die for one day, then this is better than many years spent in double-mindedness; It is not written anywhere that those who trust in God should be abandoned. For it is impossible to be saved without tearing your mind away from vanity and all worries and collecting it in one place. One mind can either be given over entirely to Christ, or to vain care. Every thought and concern that is premature and distracts our mind from prayer comes from demons. Anyone who wants to be saved and please God should turn away from everything earthly and live like one of the birds; let him choose a separate suitable place and remain alone or with his spiritual child, suffer a lack of bodily needs - food, clothing and things; in lack, the soul is humbled and touched, and the mind is elevated; when a person sees nothing in himself, he endures more easily in his body, and his soul rejoices about future rewards. Where there is an abundance of all needs among many brothers, it is impossible to keep the mind unperturbed, because it requires obedience and abandonment of one’s will and fulfillment of what is commanded in everything. Sermon 26: On Continuous Prayer What should one do to keep the mind always occupied with God? If we do not acquire the following three virtues: love for God and people, abstinence and the Jesus Prayer; then our mind cannot be completely occupied with God; for love tames anger, abstinence weakens lust, and prayer distracts the mind from thoughts and drives away all hatred and arrogance. Be constantly occupied with God, for God will teach you everything and will reveal with the Holy Spirit the things above - the heavenly, and the things below - the earthly. Amen. Prayer to the Life-Giving Trinity: Most Blessed Father, and Most Holy Son, and Holy Soul: Holy Trinity, Indivisible God, save me a sinner! Word 27 Four connecting virtues The basis for all good things is the following: sit in your cell, practice unceasing prayer, control your stomach and tongue. Let anyone who neglects these four virtues know that he not only destroys these, but also destroys the foundation of all virtues and opens up the source of passions and the abyss of confusion. The cell of a monk is like a coffin for the dead: the dead never moves in the grave, and the monk, sitting in his cell, never sins, being free from three reasons for sin: sight, hearing and conversation; only God abides in him and good deeds. Prayer distracts from all thoughts, so that everything in this world is considered as dust and ashes. When the soul feels the sweetness of prayer, then it considers life to be nothing, does not desire beauty and sweets, and forgets about itself and everyone living on earth. Therefore, one must fulfill the prayer rule and strongly force oneself to pray. When we are exhausted, then we need to take up needlework so that sleep does not overtake us. If at night, during prayer, sleep comes over you, a burden on your eyes, then you should stay awake when the fire is on and not bend down, but look straight at the icon. Retaining the belly from food, that is, fasting and abstinence, gives vigor and ease to the body to perform virtues; the abstainer flies like an eagle without feeling the flesh. Abstinence of the tongue saves you from the following vices: slander, embarrassment, idle talk, lies, petrification of the heart without tenderness, despondency, vanity, showing off your feat. From verbosity comes the destruction of virtues, the ruin of silence and other dishonorable passions. The silent one is terrible to demons, because they do not see the secrets of the heart of the perfect when they do not speak with their lips. He who loves verbosity will not avoid sin. If we put all the deeds of a sinful life on one side of the scale, and silence on the other, we will find that it will pull them away. You see how many virtues are helped by desert hermitage and abstinence of the tongue, and how many bad things they destroy! The beginning, strength, and end, the root and foundation of a deserted silent life is a lot of prayer; and sobriety, non-dreaming of the mind and greed are helpers of this. Without this, a person is prone to getting carried away with thoughts, sleep, laziness, distraction, despondency, relaxation, and he wastes time in vain. In addition to this, he requires ardent, unshakable faith and trust in God, patience, constancy confirmed by courage, care for all objects, blessed and unblessed, because the mind, occupied with objects, cares, dreams, scatters, clings to them, and this extinguishes the warmth of the heart, the sweetness of prayer, spiritual fervor and zeal; the mind in negligence dozes and is forgotten, and a person idly wastes time, forgets about death, torment and the Kingdom of Heaven, dozes both in body and sleeps in a dark sleep, and the soul alone cannot fight sleep, awakens and raises the flesh from sleep without excitement and assistance of the mind, that is, sobriety and heartfelt prayer. A person either strengthens and comes to perfection from mental excitement and heartfelt activity, or weakens and is overcome by passions and often suffers from demons. For whoever abides in the gums, that is, in the work of the heart, keeps the mind from evil thoughts and guards the heart, then the holy powers abide in him and help him; if anyone remains in the shuii, he is overcome by opposing forces. Many St. the fathers spoke about it this way: “if you stay calmly in your cell (and your cell will teach you everything) with excitement and warming up yourself, soberly and diligently, with all your soul, mind and heart, be occupied with God alone, withdraw from everything, and keep your mind sober and dreamy in thoughts, abstain from food, constantly and diligently practice the Jesus Prayer - if you stay in your cell like this, then It’s as if the soul and heart will be wounded by the bone, and the mind will be illuminated with jealousy.” Silence is undistracted service and presence before God. If a person, having accomplished all this, which he has never experienced, tastes the sweetness of love for God, precisely from the Jesus Prayer, then he avoids the people like a wild donkey and then he will experience desert silence and benefit from hermitage. Sermon 28 About taking care of the inner, not getting into unnecessary worries, but constantly praying to God Look, monk, be attentive to the cunning plans of crafty demons and be sober in mind! When crafty demons see a person in a good mood, doing prayers and doing virtues with tears, then they remind him of some work in his cell, saying: “this work is necessary, see that you do it”! Today this, tomorrow this, or that, or the tenth; or: “go and visit your brother,” or: “go here and there,” or they force him to stockpile excess food and offer him something else and something else in every possible way, bother and disturb him. They do this so that he would not be free for God and would not be satisfied with the tearful emotion of crying. You, an ascetic and warrior of Christ, recognize the deception of crafty demons and watch what they do, so that they do not deceive you in any way. For just as it is impossible to look at the sky with one eye and at the earth with the other, so it is impossible for a person to take care of soul and body. Just as a spring cannot pour out sweet and bitter water in one flow, so it is impossible for man and God to work and take care of the body; It is impossible for mammon to work and please God, it is impossible to eat, for you will hate one and love the other, just as a slave serving two masters cannot love both. Thus, we should not consider any other object eternal for ourselves, except for our immortal Creator: to work for Him, to use this little time for Him, to trust in the eternal. Therefore, the holy fathers themselves only cared about the present day; about tomorrow, regarding every thing and need, they entrusted care to God, commending soul and body into the hands of the Lord; Yes, He Himself provides for their lives and takes care of every need. Cast your sorrow upon the Lord, and He will nourish you (Ps. 54:23); Be constantly occupied with Him alone; for He always hears day and night those who cry to Him; especially looks at their unceasing prayer. If we take care of ourselves, then God does not take care of us; if we ourselves take revenge, then God does not avenge us; If we free ourselves from illnesses, then God does not heal us. When we accept hope, let go of prayer, give up care, then the memory of death and the coming of Christ comes to our minds, and the warmth of the heart is kindled, the mind is cleansed and enlightened, and our soul delights in tenderness and remains in the fear of God. When we become attached to excessive handicraft and care, then we forget everything; and the memory of death and the coming of Christ, and the warmth of the heart is extinguished, and the brightness of the mind is darkened, and tenderness and fear of God depart from the soul, and it moves away from God through excessive handicraft and care. Therefore, we must place our trust in God, so that He will provide for our life, and our life will then be in agreement with the apostolic word, as it is said: whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:8), i.e. if we live in hope in God, as the Lord said: believe in Me, even if you die, you will live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die (John 11:25-26). If we worry about tomorrow and worry about sweets, and spend this little time in that, then when will we be free for God? It is clear that we will leave Him and fall away from His Divine love and will be deprived of all virtues, and we will be abandoned by Him Himself, deprived of His glory, and our life in hope for ourselves will be like this: either we live or we die, we live in sin and die to torment. Let us not somehow become tied up little by little with this most destructive concern; otherwise we will lose earthly blessings and will not receive future ones. One day we renounced earthly things and worldly wisdom forever; Let us consign to oblivion all worldly charms; let us despise all that is charming and despise all that is temporary of this age; and so let us approach the Lord alone, day and night we will serve Him in fear, from everyone in this world we will be naked and have the life of a bird. Oh, monk! Don’t you consider everything in the world to be nothing, but take care of the necessary bodily needs? Everything is perishable and has an end; the prosperity of this world or bodily peace is vanity of vanities. Oh, monk! I will tell you a useful word that there is nothing more necessary for everyone than his own soul; and we will have our very body as if it were someone else’s, for it is mortal and perishable. Besides God, only our soul is immortal and incorruptible. He who trusts in God truly does not care about the flesh - how to feed it, clothe it, does not collect property in case of famine and is not afraid of anything - neither being eaten by a beast, nor being killed, but leaves all this according to the commandment, for he has God as his guardian and helper in everything. If someone does not cast all of himself on God, and in necessary bodily needs and in all sorrow he does not say: “as God pleases,” he cannot be saved. He who endures sorrow will little by little rejoice at the departure of his soul, and at the end he will rejoice with indescribable joy. When we are sick, we receive wounds, or we approach death and die, or we suffer a lack of necessary needs and have no one to show mercy to us; and if at the same time we say: “As God wants, so let him do with us,” then by this alone the devil, our enemy, will be put to shame and defeated. Expect your death and the coming of Christ every hour and say: “Now I will try for my soul, in the evening I can die”; when evening comes, think: will it be this night that I will die, or death will suddenly come, or a tree will strike me, or the house will collapse and kill me, or my breathing will suddenly stop and, like a flower falling away, I will wither and, like grass dries up, I will die and then remain without a trace; God alone knows where I will be then; for He judges each one according to his deeds, saying, “I will appoint him there.” Think like this every day and don’t worry about anything, only about your sins, and in this way your soul will enter into humility and weeping and you will consider yourself a terrible sinner and constantly shed sources of tears. In your needs, clothing, dishes and things, observe simplicity, thinness, modesty - not because there is nothing to buy, but because by this the soul humbles itself and does not move away from God - and it will conveniently find them everywhere; and simply say, in this act in such a way that your conscience does not convict you of anything. He who does not despise every thing, and glory, and bodily peace, and even self-justification in anything, cannot be saved. Oh man! Be attentive to your soul, because you have only one, and one time of your life, and the end is unknown - death, and the abyss of the air is impassable and filled with your enemies. Then there will be no other helper except good deeds; take heed to yourself, lest you repent for ever. Pray unceasingly and spend day after day paying attention to the salvation of your soul, provide for the most necessary of your bodily needs. I forgot, unfortunate one, your promise and your first zeal to pray unceasingly, and to entrust all care to God, so that He would provide for everything, about food and clothing, and in sorrows, when you were similarly incorporeally courageous. Don’t you know, poor one, that as much as the saints abandoned all the vanity and cares of this world, God fulfilled their needs and shortcomings; They had divine help like an inexhaustible treasure. As much as a person fusses, he is abandoned by God. Oh man! Remember the hour of death and eternal torment, remember endless life, indescribable beauty and glory, which God has prepared from time immemorial for those who love Him, His chosen ones. Remember your past time and the years that were lost in the vanity of this world; can you return even one day or night from them? equally, if the end of your life comes, can you add or ask for at least one hour of repentance? We want to recoup the wasted time of our lives and will not find it. So, know the charm of crafty demons; Let us be sober in mind and not worry about vanity; when the body is hungry, then it will find food, as well as for other needs; for as a bubble on water perishes, so every thing of this world perishes. It is impossible for God and Mammon to work. But the crafty demons carefully and relentlessly watch us, which we are inclined to do, and encourage us to do so; noticing our sinful desire, they darken our mind, and day after day they steal our time, and, like thieves, secretly penetrate our thoughts and force us to care about perishable things, and leave God and our soul, and put in us the thought: “this or that thing is very necessary, do it today or tomorrow”; whereas it is not at all necessary. O man, be attentive to this, and you will be blessed! Listen to the Apostle Paul, who says: pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), at all times in every place. And if you say: “It is impossible to pray constantly, for the body will weaken in service”? He is not talking about the fact that only while standing is the time for prayer, but about always praying, such as: at night, during the day, in the evening, in the morning, at noon; and at every hour - working, eating, drinking, lying down, getting up, say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” And do not wait for a certain time for prayer - a year, a month, a week, and do not make distinctions between places, for it is not in place and time, but in the mind that the Divine is represented and His dominion in every place. Word 29 QUESTION: How does the sobriety of the mind remain, what causes drowsiness and coldness of our thoughts, quenching the holy warmth in the soul and zeal for God? Answer: this holy warmth is kept in mind by sober, ardent jealousy, in order to courageously and patiently protect your soul from relaxation with all your might every hour. This zeal eliminates all resistance, slumber, laziness, heaviness, relaxation and despondency. This jealousy is strengthened, aroused, inflamed, and becomes the guardian of the house of virtues. At the same time, one should perform the usual bows, do handicrafts and cool off in the air, for this provides great help and strength against sleep, laziness, burden and relaxation. And to pray you need to stand in a fresh place, i.e. cool, because then the blood does not flow into the legs, this is not only for the weak and sick in body, but for the healthy. In a warm room, it attacks: drowsiness, sleep, laziness, heaviness, relaxation, and this constrains and overcomes the ascetic. Nothing torments solitary desert dwellers more than these infirmities. However, be attentive to yourself: verbosity is born from rumor; from verbosity - idle talk; from idle talk - idleness; from idleness - deprivation of good deeds, and then a person falls into all kinds of evil. Word 30 About sleep. How should those who want to work hard for God in a solitary life combat sleep? In the desert, in the solitary life, there are six strong struggles: laziness, despondency, sleep, despair, burden and fear. For the sake of these six passions of St. fathers forbid living alone. Truly, sleep is more destructive than laziness, despondency, and despair, since these latter and many other passions arise from it. Heaviness and fear overcome time. As I call it (sleep), isn’t it laziness when someone sleeps unsatisfied. When the gloomy sleep overcomes, then the ascetic becomes despondent and mourns over the lost time; then comes despair about the loss of spiritual salvation; a conscience-piercing thought appears, saying: “Your labor is in vain, since sleep has taken possession of you.” The great, brethren, calamity is sleep: just as darkness covers the sun, so many sleep covers the contemplative power of the mind, and like a curtain imposes oblivion on the mind, which therefore becomes insensitive to everything good, spiritual and unmemorable. The guard dozed off - the robbers attacked; when the mind does not feel and everything is dark and passionate. Demons darken the mind with darkness, and just as they extinguish a fire with water, so they overcome with drowsiness and sleep, in order to be able to deprive the soul of all good deeds and bring passions into it. All the effort and diligence of demons against us is to distract our minds from God and unceasing achievement. For this purpose, they try in every way, with every pretext to keep us in the darkness of this century, or they want to plunge us into sleep in order to steal time through idle stay. One dream, but there are many reasons for it: from nature, when we have a need, from gluttony, dreaminess of the mind, rumors, embarrassment, grief, demonic envy, despondency, or from an excessively long fast, from which, exhausted, the flesh wants to calm itself with sleep. How does eating and drinking a lot become a habit - who, for example, learns to eat a lot, especially drink, nature asks for a lot; and whoever learns to eat little, then nature asks for little; - so is sleep: if someone becomes weak and does not fight sleep, but wants to sleep until he is full, then nature requires a lot of sleep. And such a person always spends his life as if in darkness, constantly having a gloomy mind and not busy doing virtues. If someone learns to sleep a little, then nature asks for it. The habit of excessive sleep is very harmful; whoever acquired this from youth, let him labor and force himself against it at the beginning of the rejection of the world. If someone wants to overcome sleep while standing, sitting and lying down and accustom himself to vigor, then a lot of abstinence, sobriety of mind, the unceasing Jesus Prayer, undisturbed silence, ardent zeal are required in order to protect your soul from relaxation with patience at every hour. Let mortal memory sleep and rise with you, then the body, against its will, will follow the soul. Nothing helps against sleep more than the following four virtues: abstinence, sobriety, the Jesus Prayer and mortal remembrance; these virtues are called a cheerful and sober guard. Without these four virtues, the spiritual home becomes sleepy and daydreaming. A hungry belly does not tolerate lying on its bed all night, and one who has a sober mind does not fall into a deep sleep, and one who feels the sweetness of prayer on one’s bed does not hesitate, and one who remembers his position in the grave does not become lazy. The above four virtues always excite the spirit. Let us watch, abstain, be sober, say the Jesus Prayer and have mortal remembrance, and in this way let us arm ourselves against sleep; for if someone is awake during the day and does not have the indicated virtues, then he falls into many different evils. Therefore, prolonged wakefulness, abstinence, sobriety, a firm stand in prayer and the memory of death are required so that sleep is gradually destroyed. When, standing at prayer, you become exhausted, then sit down on a chair in the middle of the cell, and do not lean on the wall at all, because if you start to doze, you will begin to stagger and wake up. If you doze off while praying, then take up your books and fight; If sleep prevents you from reading books, then take up handicrafts and protect yourself with prayer. I know that with prayer alone without handicraft you will not overcome sleep, but you will be overcome by it. The demons force us to sit down unnecessarily, under the pretext of exhaustion, and forbid us to do handicrafts, and immediately after some little vigor they suddenly induce a deep sleep like darkness and thus darken us and plunge us into unconsciousness. Therefore, dear ascetic, do not listen to them; never sit down without a book or handicraft; not because handicraft is needed, but in order to counteract sleep. For the whole night in the crucifixion one should stand against sleepy sweetness, resist in every possible way, and not remain in laziness. First correct the usual prayer rule, forcing yourself to pray firmly, then rest a little while doing needlework so as not to indulge in sleep; For the sake of weakness, handicrafts are considered necessary. This is also why sleep takes root and grows so much that after the first awakening, a person, turning around, falls asleep again, like a lazy calf, or like a pig that always wants to wallow in the mud. Then the angel of God retreats from such a thing, and he falls into the hands of nasty enemies, and they keep him in his sleep as long as they want, showing him all sorts of dreams and ghosts. If you get up from your bed, and sleep again begins to torment you from demonic obsession, then jump up courageously, as from fire, or as from a poisonous snake, or as from a roaring lion wanting to devour you. Resist sleep, ascetic, and rise and refresh yourself in the wind, keeping up your prayer at the same time. A person living alone does not need to sleep at the end of the day or night, for this causes a great burden to him, and also because at the end of the day St. an angel, our guardian, comes to worship God, giving an answer about our deeds, as one of the fathers writes about this. But one must rest either before or after dawn; like a bird, if it sleeps through the dawn, it cannot, as some say, fly. Enemies often force us to sleep at the wrong time, saying in our minds: “lie down for a little while and get up again,” so that through this there will be no time to read books or take up needlework. If you listen to them and lie down, you will waste a lot of time. This is the habit of sleep: when someone gets used to sleeping ahead of time, then sleep increases; when someone misses sleep time until he himself becomes weak, then sleep decreases and there is time left for needlework. From too much sleep and overeating, the body becomes weak, heavier and unhealthy. If you are very overcome by sleep, then sleep at one specific time, either in the evening or at night, in a warm or cold place where you sleep less, and in the warmth, be careful not to get acne; at other times, do not go to bed, but stay awake. The measure of sleep during the night, that is, per day: for beginners - seven hours, for average - four, for perfect - two hours and all-night standing. And always, day and night, you should stay awake and strong as much as possible. Here is an angelic vigil: having slept the first sleep, getting up at that time seems difficult and painful, as if all the limbs are sick and weakened, but when a person strengthens himself, gets up and walks a little in the wind, then all illnesses and hardships will disappear; and all day long he will be cheerful and joyful for not being lazy. Do this and you will conquer sleep. When you cannot do the above, then take yourself a friend; for no one can defeat sleep, being alone, unless he resists it with all his strength - since such a person does not have an associate and mentor from among people, it is necessary to have courage and fear of God. Therefore, many saints took little sleep while sitting; some, standing in prayer, blinking their eyes, looked at or served the saints; and you, who love to sleep, want to overcome sleep; no, not like that! If we do not overcome sleep, our work will be in vain. Why is it that when we are together with the brethren, we are awake and strong because of shame, but when we are alone, then we are driven by sleep and are not strong? Obviously because we are empty and lack good deeds and the fear of God. Until then, the holy fathers were so strong from sleep that they almost fell to the ground. One of the fathers supplied a candle, tying a string with a weight near it; when the candle burned out, the string burned out and the weight hit the ringing copper thing and woke him up. Another had a very narrow bed, and when he wanted to turn around (during sleep), he fell down. Someone put a stone on his hand, and when the stone fell, it awakened him. Courage and patience are the mother of every good deed. Therefore, brothers, we must take courage and endure, and the Lord God will strengthen us forever. Amen. Sermon 31 On praying with great attention in psalms and prayers Doing, keeping, man! That is, when praying attentively, guard yourself with great care, so as to pray in psalms and prayers with fear, joy, ardent zeal and low bow to the divine icon. For you will find in the psalms both teaching and prayer. Do not just say it with the edge of your tongue, but pray with all your heart; unite into one: body, soul, and mind. If anyone worked recklessly, i.e. not paying attention to himself, such a person does not have a reward from God, but even angers Him. Just as someone who fills a thin vessel with water can never fill it, so someone who prays without attention will not receive a reward. What is required is not just to say a psalm or say a prayer, as if to fulfill your usual lesson; but with a psalm and prayer one must pray to God with all the heart and constantly in spiritual tenderness, with a pure thought. God does not require the number of established psalms and prayers, but listens to our unconfused and firm mind. For many thousands of prayers are made with the tongue, but with the mind they think vain, nasty and unclean things; and how will God hear and listen to such? You yourself don’t know what you’re doing, oh man! God does not want many prayers from us, but that with the fear of God and tenderness we should begin to pray, as the Angel of the Lord commanded the great Pachomius. Your efforts should not be about quantity, but about deep reasoning and attention, so that everything you do will be accepted by God. Not everything small is small, and not everything great is great and perfect. But acquire fasting and the fear of God, take on a sad and sorrowful appearance, that is, stand in prayer tenderly, modestly, and imagining yourself to be before the throne of God and considering yourself to be earth and ashes, a spider and an ant, and your work - a cobweb, feel yourself as judged by God, having transgressed His commandments and done everything evil. Legs should be kept straight, feet pressed together and not move from place to place, hands should be placed decently on the chest. Just as someone condemned to death stands before the judge, not daring to look here and there, so you must stand before God, Whom the Angels stand before with fear and glorify Him in unceasing songs. For the never-slumbering Eye watches day and night what we do, what we think or how we live, on whom we place our hope in every sorrow and need - whether on a person or on His bounty. And as our Great Master and righteous Lord wants, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the true God, can deliver us from every misfortune and misfortune. Consider yourself worse than every person and every creature, and consider your work displeasing to God. Without this, secret fearlessness arouses blasphemous arrogance. According to our faith, God helps us in every need. If we hope and trust more, God helps us more. Word 32 About confusion and insurance of demons During times of mental storm and darkness, when it is a particularly difficult time for someone living alone, unceasing prayer is useful; handicraft with prayer also serves as a great help; or simply sleep through that difficult time, without thinking or sadness, and thereby get rid of the harm. During times of strong enemy confusion, when the soul is afraid, one should say psalms and prayers out loud, or combine handicrafts with prayer, so that the mind listens to what it is doing, and not pay any attention to the confusion and not be afraid, for the Lord is with us and the Angel of the Lord never yields from us; sometimes you can chill out in the wind, and the demons will immediately move away from all this. Demons are especially opposed to the Jesus Prayer, because nothing harms them and plunges them into despondency like this prayer. The Jesus Prayer is very terrible for demons, for just as fire burns thorns, so this prayer, combined with fasting, scorches and drives them away. That is why they strive to take it away, but after disturbing it a little, like smoke in the air, they disappear and become invisible. If you are preparing for prayer, prepare for the battle of demons and firmly arm yourself to courageously endure the battle that comes from them. Like wild beasts they will come against you and cause suffering to your whole body; for they cause great confusion to those who are awake and diligently engaged in prayer, since they see that weapon that destroys their strength and, not tolerating it, disappear with illness and trembling. May the Lord God help us and preserve us with His grace forever. Amen. Sermon 33: Tolerate lies and all reproach and annoyance Be strictly careful and be attentive, my soul, because the last times are already approaching, and a special feat and patience from demons and people is required for you; - among people from visible ones, and in the desert from invisible enemies. No one ever accepts the crown of life without suffering, without defeating the enemy; if someone comes out against a fighter and defeats him with his courage and courage, then he receives honor and glory and a bright crown. So you, my soul, must be strong and endure every annoyance, dishonor, and every reproach with joy, and not only without exaltation and self-justification, but even ask for forgiveness, since every insult, annoyance, reproach, slander, reproach and every contempt and falsehood gives a person humility and grace. If you do not endure all this, but are upset, exalted and angry at the offenders, then you cannot come to perfection and be saved, for this is the work of beginners, passionate, cowardly and weak-minded; those who are perfect tend to accept all this with joy and endure with thanksgiving. When the enemy himself cannot annoy any of us in any way and prevent us from living a good life, then he inflicts unbearable sorrows - he instigates against us some people suitable for him, so that through them, as his weapon, he can defeat us, then against the enemy himself there will be a commendable victory for us - to endure for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven the sorrows he inflicts, through annoyance and lies and humiliation from people. Remember the saints from the ages, of whom the whole world is unworthy, who were in hardships, sorrows, persecutions, oppressions. What new path do you want to establish, by which you think to be saved? If you cannot work like a father, then at least endure wisely like a father. This is no small thing, or rather, greater than all the virtues: if someone endures falsehoods or annoyance for God’s sake with thanksgiving, he does no small deed. This is humility and love to endure sorrow from a brother. By this alone many have been saved, especially this path belongs to the holy fools, for they suffer many lies in vain. Foolishness for God's sake is a great thing, for it embraces all virtues; Of all the things of life, they have nothing in themselves; they only earnestly acquire patience and thereby overcome all sorrows. So, my soul, at this time there is no better way to salvation than this. Be deaf, dumb, blind and seemingly insensitive to everything in life, and isolate yourself from people themselves like a madman, and consider yourself incapable of anything, as if you were a fool for God’s sake. Whoever wants to be wise and reasonable in this world, buiim (unreasonable), before God, let him be a servant to everyone. Solomon, reproaching himself for excessive philosophizing, said that it was vain, and that blessed is the man who has acquired the fear of God, humility and love, that is, unceasing prayer; such a one has acquired the true wisdom of the world and wealth. Faith, without any sinful vice, saves us. Just as faith without works is dead, so works without faith are dead; Where there is right faith and good deeds, there is complete righteousness. In modern times, a person needs to teach himself, to listen to himself in every virtue. He who sighs for one hour for his soul is better than he who benefits the whole world. If we save ourselves, we have enough to eat. Everyone, by doing any of the virtues, saves himself alone; If someone saves the whole world and destroys himself, then what good does it do him? We all know how to be saved, but out of laziness we don’t want to, save yourself! Not everyone will give the answer that they did not instruct others, but those to whom it is given must suffer until death and lay down their souls for the flock; Everyone will give an answer about themselves. If the great monks, out of humility, ran away from authority, and glory, and from teaching others and carrying other people’s burdens, as the sacred stories tell about them, but only cared about themselves, then all the more we, sinners and weaklings, need to avoid such a thing, for by doing this we will harm both ourselves and our neighbors. Instead of many, let's take care of ourselves. Nowadays some people do not accept the good teaching and fatherly life; but moreover, they also laugh at those who strive well: they live according to their own will and choose teachers similar to themselves. Therefore, some, by teaching others, thereby harmed themselves; From such a dispensation of others, we ruin our foundation and cool the warmth of our soul. It is enough for us to only care about ourselves, about our salvation. When you see and hear, treat your brother’s shortcomings as if you were blind, deaf, and dumb—not seeing, not hearing, and not speaking, like someone who is coarse in mind, not understanding, not showing yourself to be wise; but be attentive, reasonable and perspicacious to yourself. If someone who wants to be saved, seeing and hearing every annoying word, does not make his eye blind, his ear deaf and his tongue dumb, he cannot be without confusion and in spiritual silence. When you are interrogated by someone, do not allow yourself to make excuses or contradict, but say with humility: “forgive me for God’s sake” and be silent about the rest. For our Lord Jesus Christ set an example of humility, as it is written: Like a sheep that is led to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before its shearers, so you do not open your mouth. In His humility His judgment is taken away: whoever confesses His generation (Is. 53:7-8). Thus must you, man, imitate your Creator; So you should be unrequited before someone who insults you, as if you have water in your mouth or have no tongue; just say: “forgive”, considering yourself worthy of all torment, think within yourself: “if the whole world rises up against you, bringing reproach and grief to you for a whole year, then what do you care about people, you nasty one”? Do not think that you are harmed in any way by your brother. Without it, evil naturally arises in us. If you endure any sorrow for the sake of a future reward, then reproach yourself for everything, and not your brother. In every matter, try to reproach yourself, showing and considering yourself that you are earth and will go back to earth again. Acquire three words forever: “forgive, bless and pray for me, a sinner.” Don't ask anyone about something you don't need. Learn to speak kindly about every person, but humiliate yourself. In this there is great humility that lifts the soul out of hell, the cutting off of passions and a great victory and weapon against the devil. May the Lord God strengthen us to endure lies in vain. Word 34 About enduring tribulations Anyone who wants to be saved should not be afraid and look at the fierce sorrows that come from demons or from people, because in human life there are many changes: people also change from evil to good and love. He who is afraid of sorrows usually becomes weak and cowardly. If someone gets used to running away or getting rid of sorrows, or moving from place to place, or choosing a time and then starting to struggle, he will not find the place and time to receive benefit all the days of his life. We must look and hope for the mercy of God and remember from time immemorial His glorious miracles and the help of His saints who trust in Him, that God does not leave us in any need or sorrow and never allows temptation beyond our strength, and therefore we must, with thanksgiving for the sake of God and future eternal blessings, courageously bear our cross - endure everything sorrowful in a given time and place. According to the word of the Apostle: We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of heaven (Acts. 14, 22); By this narrow, sorrowful path we will reach the highest perfection of patience and in every place we will not lose what is useful, but we will receive it by the grace of God and will not waste the time of our life in vain. Let us forget everything sorrowful from demons and people and let us not worry about any sorrow or food; Let us only take care that the present time does not pass idlely, that is, without spiritual achievement and prayer. When any sadness from demons or people, or sorrow, or illness, or misfortune comes upon us, then we will especially diligently pray to God, cry out with tears, not at all reasoning or worrying about how to get rid of that need, for no sorrow without God’s providence does not happen to us, therefore we will love the narrow and difficult path of a sorrowful life; for this narrow and sorrowful path leads to the Kingdom of Heaven, and therefore we will not avoid it in misfortunes, troubles, needs and sorrows, but we will courageously endure everything sorrowful, difficult, and unpleasant until we receive divine help. It is fitting for an ascetic, a servant of God, to be strong in all sorrow, to place his heart as if on a stronghold, and not to be weak like water. This life, like a spinning wheel, is fickle and discordant; sometimes there is prosperity for a person, some honor - don’t put your heart into it; sometimes there is persecution from people - then don’t be sad; sometimes from demons there is sorrow, attack, passion - then don’t grieve. All this comes to us and is allowed by God for our salvation, and again departs as His grace arranges, in order to punish and have mercy on us. To him be glory now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. If you want not to be angry with your offender, then diligently pray to God for him with all your heart and give him some gift or small consolation; sometimes come to him yourself when you see that he has come to his senses from anger, and talk about forgiveness of sin, find out the reason and show him even greater love; when you meet, warn him with a low bow, and tell everyone about him that he is kind; nothing brings him to tenderness and humility like this; and nothing arouses his anger more than the reproach of him by the offender, and disgust from him, and his slander in absentia, because the one who hears can tell him about everything. This evil is great, and the spiritual are affected by this passion. Such a one, who saves himself and his friend, is truly a wise and perfect ascetic and better than one who works hard. If anyone thinks that he has love, but not the same for everyone, but distinguishes, separates the poor from the rich, the weak from the healthy, the sinner from the righteous, the stranger from the neighbor, the enemy from the lover; then such love is imperfect, but partly. Real and perfect love consists in considering and loving everyone equally, both those who love and those who hate. Such love, and with it inseparable mercy, I will say briefly, is a net for all virtues, it embraces and contains all the commandments of God. If anyone can keep all the commandments, then only those who have kept this. That is why we do not reach perfection and do not receive grace because we do not fulfill the commandments perfectly. To the one who rests on the Lord’s pure breasts, it is said in Revelation: to the one who has overcome the world I will give an animal crown. To conquer the world means to conquer through patience its wisdom, passions, and all evil; those. suffer, put aside your habits and will from worldly wisdom, a peaceful life, and turn to spiritual life, not do any evil and keep the commandments of God. For good deeds are a sacrifice to God, and God will not despise a contrite and humble heart, but human passions are a sacrifice to demons. However, man is created dispassionate; His passions arise from arbitrariness - to do or not to do them. May the Lord save us from passions. Homily 35 About the variety of demonic warfare and how to cut off the beginning of every thought and lust Pay attention to yourself, monk, wisely and diligently with a cheerful mind: when demons come, how they catch them and how they themselves are overcome. Guard yourself with great caution, because at every hour you walk among passions and snares: passions surround you everywhere, snares are placed everywhere, so that through passions and snares you will not be drawn by the enemy into his will. Great need will present itself and the need for the fleshly man to fight against the incorporeal, alone against the darkness of enemies; many tears, much patience, much suffering and fear and thousands of eyes are required everywhere. For evil spirits fly at us viciously, like a lion; would have destroyed us if the Lord had not been with us. They are highly experienced in the art of catching, for more than seven thousand years, without sleep, food and rest, always, at every hour, in every way they seek our destruction, with all cunning and with great diligence. Having found themselves powerless in one thing, they plot another, they also begin something else and look out for something else, and they scour around to do mischief and do evil. Or do you not know with whom you are fighting, what regiment of invisible enemies surrounds you and each of them is fighting their own battle, emitting countless voices, wanting to devour your soul - and you are not happy? Is it possible that, while being nourished, indulging in sleep, lying down and constantly being comforted, and at the same time receive salvation? If you are not attentive to this, you will not escape the snares. As if to jump into the fire, we came to the feat. If we want to be real warriors of the Heavenly King and not false accomplices, then let us remove from ourselves all rumors and attachment to everything earthly, from which mental fumes arise and cover the soul like a dark fog. Let us throw off all carelessness, cowardice and feminine weakness, and thus resist the demonic cunning; Let us work in prayers and other virtues with all our zeal and strength, soul, heart, mind, just as someone quickly runs along the road without looking back, or a stingy person fasts. For such is the cunning of the crafty demons: they are constantly busy with us; how watchmen notice our inclinations and wishes: what we think about and what we love, what we do besides them; and whatever passion they notice in us, they encourage us to do so, and they set nets for us; Thus, we ourselves first arouse every passion against ourselves and become the cause of it. That’s why demons look for a reason in us, because through our inclination and desire we are more likely to get confused. They do not force us to do what we do not want, from which we deviate our minds, with which we do not agree of our own free will, knowing that we will not listen to them; they little by little test us: whether we will accept any passion, and now they add their intrigues to our desire and zeal; for in fact, the reason for sin belongs to us - addiction, weakness and negligence - we do not cut off the beginning of each passion; and the final cause of evil is demons; Through demons we fall into every sin, and apart from them no evil befalls us. Thus, demons plunge us into every passion, force us to fall into every sin, and we become entangled in every net. I call them snares the attachment of desires and bad thoughts, through which we are bound by every passion and fall into every sin; better to say, this is the door to demons and passions, through which they enter us and plunder our spiritual treasure. Excessive sleep, laziness, untimely eating are the reason for the entrance of demons. Having arrived, they first of all push the doors of the heart, that is, secretly, like thieves, they put in a thought and notice whether there is a guard or not, that is, whether the thought will be accepted or not; if accepted, then they begin to produce passion and encourage it and steal spiritual wealth. If they find a guard at the door of the heart, that is, when someone is accustomed to humiliating and driving away their thoughts, is turned away by the mind of the initial mental pretext, has his mind deaf and dumb to their barking, turned to the depths of the heart, that is, not at all agreeing with them, then they cannot do dirty tricks to such a person, since his mind is sober. Then they begin to invent and lay various nets and catch in passions, such as: forgetfulness, rage, foolishness, pride, pride, love of glory, voluptuousness, gluttony, gluttony, fornication, unmercifulness, anger, memory malice, blasphemy, sadness, impudence, vanity, verbosity, despondency, insurance, sleep, laziness, burden, horror, jealousy, envy, hatred, hypocrisy, flattery, grumbling, unbelief, disobedience, covetousness, love of things, cowardice, cowardice, double-mindedness, acute bile, lust, man-pleasing, insolence, laughter. Then they stir up a great storm of persistent prodigal and blasphemous thoughts, so that the ascetic becomes afraid and despairs, or so that he gives up his feat and prayer. If the enemies, erecting all this, cannot in any way restrain and turn away from the feat of a strong soul and an unshakable warrior of Christ, who has passionately laid his foundation on the rock of faith, so that even the rivers of sorrows with their aspiration will not shake him, then they rob him of some apparent good, considering it more convenient to offer something of their own under the guise of good, and thus deprive him of the real most perfect virtues, prayer and deeds. So they force us to have spiritual conversations, for the sake of love to teach people or to add something to food, for the sake of a friend or for a holiday to please a few, for the flattering ones know that Adam fell from voluptuousness; first they begin to darken mental purity and attention to themselves, and in this way they suddenly plunge into the ditch of fornication, or into some other passion. If in this way they do not sway the sober mind, then they arm themselves with false ghosts, excite people and arm themselves with them, insulting and confusing him with various diseases. The most skillful warrior lets all this pass by and puts it in nothing, as if it does not relate to him; for he knows that all this is a demonic thought. If they don’t win anyway, then they fight with arrogance, putting in the thought that he is holy, telling him secretly: “how many sorrows have you endured.” Demons, like a cunning hunter, when their first means prove powerless, then they leave them, retreat, hide and appear defeated. Look, man, pay attention, don’t make a mistake, they won’t leave even to your grave, but they are preparing a big ambush, looking carefully for how to start again and rise up, for they are not resting. When the warmth of zeal in the ascetic has cooled, they secretly, having prepared some kind of net, come again and spread it out and catch. In all the paths of virtue, demons arrange intrigues and obstacles when we carry out every task carefully for our own salvation, and not out of man-pleasing, or according to any plan. If some kind of impurity is hidden in virtue - pride, vanity and arrogance, then the demons do not hinder us in such a matter, but even force us to work without benefit. Demons try nothing so hard as they manage to steal the time of the idle in all sorts of ways. In everything that demons do, they try to dig us three holes: firstly, they oppose and interfere, so that there is no good in all types of virtue; secondly, they try to prevent good from happening for the sake of God, that is, not being able to deviate from good, they try through vanity to destroy all our works; thirdly, they please us, as if we were pleasing to God in everything, that is, being unable to entangle us with vanity, they try with their arrogance to ruin our labors and deprive us of rewards. All demonic warfare against us comes in three forms: first, demons darken our minds, and a person becomes forgetful and much distracted in every matter; then they put in an idle thought so that time is wasted through it; finally, they inflict various temptations and illnesses. Therefore, we need to be very sober in mind at all times; for the enemies constantly contrive to oppose us. If someone labors for many years, his enemies look for a convenient time to destroy his labors in one hour. Few people see the countless tricks, plans, and cunning of demons. As a disembodied spirit, it does not require rest and through a long life has learned to catch. Therefore, no one will escape deceit, destructive snares and their ambush, except one who is in bodily weakness from constant struggle and lives in spiritual poverty, that is, with a contrite heart and humble thoughts - such a one will defeat them. Most of all, divine help helps us. However, in us, as they said before, is the beginning of all passions: addiction, weakness and negligence, which we do not reject in soul and thought and do not cut off the original motive of each passion that finds itself, but the demons apply even more. Look within yourself for the cause of every passion and, having found it, arm yourself and dig out its root with a suffering sword; if you don’t eradicate it, it will again send out shoots and grow; Without this means you cannot overcome passions, come to purity and be saved. Therefore, if we want to be saved, we must cut off the original motive of thought and the desire of every passion; conquer the small so as not to fall into the great, and you will conquer everything that follows with this alone. Obviously, God allows one to be overwhelmed by demonic warfare or some other stubborn passion because of pride and arrogance, when someone considers himself holy or strong and relies on himself, but exalts himself over the weakest. Let such a person realize his weakness, recognize God’s help and understand that without God’s help he cannot do anything and humble his thoughts. Or again he allows it as a punishment for sins, so that they will repent and be more experienced in feat; or - for the sake of crowns for victory. However, what you are defeated by, what you suffer from, arm yourself against that first of all passions - and use all your zeal for that. Every passion and suffering is overcome by undoubted faith, heartfelt work and tears, ardent zeal and quick striving to resist real passion - this is a high and commendable fatherly struggle. Every demonic warfare against us arises and is confirmed from four reasons: from negligence and laziness, from pride, lust, and from demonic envy. The Lord will preserve us with His grace from all the snares of the enemy and passionate deeds forever. Amen. Word 36 About various sorrows and burdens from demons A monk should not begin silence before testing and much study of the passions. If he himself is not experienced and does not have a mentor and without such help begins to fight against evil demons, then he is soon killed by them. We need to learn about various demonic causes, illnesses and burdens; for demons, for example, produce headaches, as if the whole brain were shaking and moving when it was necessary to make prostrations. It is the evil one who dares to enter through the ear canal and plots intrigues: he burdens the head, excites the brain and deters them from feats and bows, which are harmful to them. Sometimes a headache occurs from the mere approach of demons to us and the great spiritual confusion they cause; but it happens that they enter us through the ear and come out again, and this causes a headache. From embarrassment, the approach and entrance of the demonic, the head hurts and the mind becomes darkened, the heart aches and the lips close. Then we need to freshen up, and immediately the wind will carry them away without a trace, like a bunch of mosquitoes. The demons also cause deafness, heat in the head and ears, as if a leech is crawling on the head, or as if someone is tearing at the hair, so that one can hardly bear it, the head is raw, they produce severe darkness, so that, it seems, part of the mind has been taken away, and they do not understand Scripture and the book store; with this the demons want to drive us out of the desert silence; however, everything will be as before, as before; Do not be afraid, monk, just trust in God. They also induce forgetfulness and blindness, as if the eyes wanted to pop out; bring sluggishness in words and sickness to the tongue and lips, as if they were stuck together with glue when we pray; they let out hiccups, not the kind that happens during belching of the food that we ate, but another kind - only with air, so that the larynx really hurts; They also plague the neck, as if someone were squeezing the veins with pincers. If in these temptations we work earnestly and vigorously in prayer, then demons, like mice, fill the air, scream loudly in different voices, wanting to tear us to pieces or at least throw us down on a seat or on a bed and barely leave. If we sit down, then the demons, standing nearby, play the flute and sniffles, which are called a buffoon bubble, and the soul, hearing this, relaxes with laziness, and like a fire lowered into water, it is extinguished and so falls asleep; and they hover over us so that we doze and sleep even more. The stench from them is much more disgusting than the stench of dogs, so that the lips are compressed; During the vigil, they seem to scorch our faces with heat. Some believe that the flesh dries up from vigil, but this is incorrect, and from the demonic approach at that time; Also, from any stimulating food, we get a double heavy curse. All this is caused by demons in a solitary life in order to drive us out of the desert. Since some saints experienced illness many times, we consider this to be a natural weakness and, as if out of need and weakness, lie down on the bed, wanting to get relief, not suspecting the cunning of crafty demons; They, noticing our negligence, that we do not even want to force ourselves against illness, take possession of us even more, so that all members weaken and get sick. If we strengthen ourselves, stand up, cool ourselves in the wind and pray fervently, then the disease disappears and remains without a trace. The demons also cause itching in the hands, illness in the legs - as if they were beating; itching all over the body; they induce melancholy and discontent, they even touch all our bodily members, enter into them and cause harm to passionate people. And to say a lot, this all happens. Similarly, Macarius the Great, walking through the desert, saw a demon instead of clothes hung with pumpkins, who involuntarily revealed his deeds to the saint: “Pay attention,” he says, to the vessels that you see on me; in which places which vessels hang, I anoint those places among people from the corresponding vessels, and they, being burdened, suffer.” Whatever sorrows the demons cause us, they all try to hide so that we do not know that they come from them; They look out for a special time and inflict illness or hardship, so that they are not considered the culprits, but would grumble for the time that it is difficult, and, not understanding their wickedness and not enduring with thanksgiving, they are deprived of the reward. When any illness or hardship happens to us, then with all our hearts we will stand on the rock of faith, like a brave warrior of Christ, and if it is demonic, then it will soon begin to weaken and soon disappear; if it is a natural disease, it will begin to intensify. And when we learn that it is demonic, then we will resist to the death; if it is natural, then there is no need to force your nature. Nevertheless, we can endure and overcome all the sorrows brought by demons if we are forced, because God, who is greater than our strength, does not allow temptations to befall us, but makes it easier, if only we endure and do not come out of our silence and unanimously and undoubtedly rely on God. If anyone resists enemies, they run away from him; if someone does not force himself, he is overcome by them; God brings like-minded people into a home and drives out those who are bound by courage (Ps. 67:7). Every day He expects patience from us and applies His help to our will, giving it to our every need. Until then, the ascetics suffer until grace visits them; for then thoughts are purified, and passions are then reduced and destroyed; then the suffering from illness and hardship are alleviated; then the entrances to demons and passions are blocked within us. Through prayer and fasting, tears and bows and the grace of God, demons are driven out of us; however, even then, before the departure of our souls, great caution is required, lest we unexpectedly, through our carelessness, do something displeasing to God; or lest the demons bring some misfortune upon us, and through this the grace of God would not depart from us. For the cunning and cunning of evilly cunning demons, and their countless evil deceits and plans are terrible. In all our intentions they hinder and oppose us. Few know their networks; but only courageous souls, to whom God reveals. May the Lord our God help us and strengthen us against all the sorrows of demons, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. If anyone is fearful, then do not be embarrassed at all, but be courageous and place your trust in God and do not pay attention to the embarrassment at all. Do not allow this childish mood to take root in you, as children are usually afraid of, but consider it as nothing, as demonic. The servant of God fears only his Master, Who created the body, put the soul into it and revived it; demons, without God’s permission, cannot harm us, but only frighten us and threaten us with dreams. He who has acquired a courageous mind and placed his trust in God does not fear them, he has a strong helper and hope in the Lord; for what creature can harm us, when it is displeasing to God, will not allow this to happen against us. From his thoughts a person either strengthens or weakens, for every good and bad deed is born in him; through custom, every good and bad deed is instilled in a person; what a person gets used to, it seems to be his own. And be courageous, and let your heart be strong, and protect yourself with the sign of the cross when you find insurance. Fence the place where you will enter with the sign of the cross, and when entering any empty church, cross yourself and, having said a prayer and saying: “Amen,” enter boldly. If the demons find that we are steadfast in the Lord, they are immediately put to shame and do not embarrass us. Let us keep in mind that we are in the hand of God. The Lord said: Behold, I give you power to tread on the snake, and on the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy: and nothing will harm you (Luke 10:19). Let us keep in mind that without the command of God not the power of our head will perish (Luke 21:18). We inflict insurance on ourselves with a fearful thought, saying: “What if a demon comes and hits me, or jumps up and frightens me.” Let us not think about this in any way, as if it were happening to us, and we will not be our own enemies, thinking about anything unexpected, but let us think that God is at our right hand, and we will not move. Demons watch us like fishers and carefully watch our thoughts; as we are in our thoughts, similar ones present us with their dreams. But the fear of God casts out the fear of demons. Word 38 About what demons are especially afraid of Demons are very afraid of six virtues: 1) hunger, 2) thirst, 3) the Jesus Prayer, 4) the image of the cross - who depicts the cross well on themselves, on their face, 5) frequent communion of the Most Pure Mysteries of Christ - who receives communion worthily, and 6) undoubted hope in God. There is no weapon more terrible than this against demons. Word 39 Brief selected patristic words about essential items When temptation comes upon you by God's permission, such as nakedness, illness, hunger, or some other temptation for your body, even the shedding of blood for the sake of God, then endure it for the glory of God, in the hope of the merciful God, so that you can boldly and unashamedly say: we have passed through fire and water, and are led into rest. If you want, man, to find out the will of God in anything, I will tell you briefly: in the continuation of all your deeds, in every deed, add, according to your strength, sorrow for the sake of God: this is the good will of God; for even a little sorrow for the sake of God is better than a great deed without sorrow. And to slacken yourself little by little is not from God, but from demons. If we are weak and unable to strive, then we will acquire humility, thanksgiving and the Jesus Prayer; if we are healthy, then we must push ourselves to the point of exhaustion; and so little by little our heart will strengthen and learn patience and virtues. Otherwise, it is impossible to be saved. If anyone lives inconsistently with the place, he persecutes himself. A skillful word is sweet and pleasant to everyone; “A gentle calf, they say, sucks two queens”; Do not consider this as flattery; rude words excite anger. A dispute, although about a good deed, is a contradiction. If you do not have tenderness in your soul, then know that you have pride or anger at someone, or eat, drink, sleep a lot, or indulge in absent-mindedness and care, this does not allow your soul to be touched. If you are overcome by gluttony, then say to yourself: O man, you will be deprived of heavenly food and all heavenly pleasure and beauty, and this food will turn into worms. O minister of divine service, reflect and be attentive to yourself, because you are doing a great thing - you are standing in a holy place with angels, where everything is filled with fear and trembling. Oh, priest, move away from where they are in a hurry to please people. For what kind of tenderness will there be when you are in a hurry? and without tears one should not serve; if your conscience accuses you of anything, then do not dare to serve with it. If you want to learn something, then put in the effort and you will learn. Many were great theologians and writers of skillful words; however, only through wakefulness were we in a state of tenderness; because wakefulness and solitude gives meaning to reasoning and removes confusion, for this served them instead of handicraft. Those who are busy talking have no use for theology. But try every day to eradicate the sins you have committed through repentance and wash your face with tears. If your death happens on the day on which you shed tears, then you will be freed from eternal torment; this is true repentance. Likewise, the robber who wetted his handkerchief with his tears, and the monk who daily fell into fornication and daily repented before the image of Christ, and the publican who beat his breast and said with tears saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13), the harlot who wetted the most pure feet of Christ with tears, and Manasseh, were delivered in the same way. cleansed by tearful repentance. I truly think that if it were possible to wash one’s entire body with tears, it would be incorruptible. However, a person will not cry if he does not have painful labor, that is, contrition from sinful inclinations or joyful tenderness, or remembrance of the future fire, or reward to each according to his deeds. For the sake of these four virtues, the Holy Spirit does not leave a person, but always remains with him. But whoever remains lazy for a long time, or has fallen into great sin, or does not care about the passion in which he is, the Holy Spirit departs from him. The beginning of obedience is the complete denial of one's will and justification, the denial of one's body. It is not an easy feat to conquer your will and your character; but no one can be saved without denying his will, even if he strives diligently; for our will and our character are like a copper wall between us and God. We cannot approach God until we abandon our character and will. If we ask for something of our own accord and our request is refused, next time you will find it stronger against you. For every good and bad deed grows through skill and is strengthened by custom (habit); in any case, remember this. If you want to know someone’s customs and deeds, then listen to what his mouth says: for the mouth does not say anything that was not first in the heart. Word 40 What is a monk? A monk is a fulfiller of the commandments of Christ, a perfect Christian, an imitator and accomplice of the passions of Christ, an everyday martyr, a self-willed dead man, voluntarily dying in spiritual deeds. The monk is a pillar of patience, the depth of humility, a source of tears, a treasure of purity, a despiser of everything that is considered beautiful, sweet, glorious, charming in this world. The monk is a sick soul, constantly, both in wakefulness and in sleep, learning from the memory of mortals. A monk is a constant constraint of nature and an unflagging guarding of the senses. Monk is the rank and state of the incorporeal, preserved in a material body, at all times, in every place and in every deed, having in mind only the divine. It is impossible for one to constantly stand before God who has not relied on Him for every need with all his heart and has not cast aside all care. When you want to start some good deed, then first of all prepare yourself for the temptations that come your way, so that you can face them courageously and not waver in your hope in God. When a person begins to live well with warm faith, the enemy of good usually meets him with various and terrible temptations, so that he, frightened by this, stops the work of good desire. If you do not prepare yourself to face temptations, then beware of practicing virtue. A person who doubts God's help fears his shadow without temptation. Let each person have his own conscience as a teacher and witness. In any case, do not speak without discussing every word in advance. Every hasty task is not good. Without recognizing your friend, do not reveal the secret. A flattering friend turns away into an enemy. Word 41 About the benefits of running away from the world It is better to fight alone with demons and die in hunger, nakedness and all sorrow with a small feat in the desert, avoiding the world, than to seek great feats of salvation in the midst of the world; for the flame of the passions of this world kindles and scorches the monk who turns in it. If anyone seems dispassionate, he will suffer harm in the world; and whoever is passionate will become entangled in every sinful network. Just as a fish, hastening to steal food on a fishing rod, is taken out of the water and dies, so a monk, being in the world, is attracted by his thoughts to worldly affairs and against his will, as if attracted by a fishing rod, falls into the enemy’s net and dies, falling away from the angelic life, he mortifies his soul and consigns himself to torment. Peace and voluptuousness are a demonic bait, with which demons catch the souls of monks for destruction. While we love bodily peace, sweetness and laziness, we still fight with the flesh, and not with demons; she fights us at all times and helps the demons against us. Laziness especially combats us both while standing and sitting, and on the bed. That’s why we love peace, sweetness and laziness, because they naturally grow with the body, and that’s why they fight us so much. However, anyone who wants to live according to God must force himself to be above natural habit. Let us repent and exhaust ourselves in this world; we cannot avoid one death; Those who force themselves will receive a great reward after death, but those who love peace and pleasure in this short-lived life will receive eternal torment after death. What is better, man, to mourn for a few days and then reign forever, or to rest for a few days and suffer forever? From rest and pleasures comes laziness, from laziness - idleness, from idleness - despondency, from despondency - wandering of the body, from wandering of the body - incontinence of feelings, from incontinence of feelings and from the demonic excuse all passions rise together, from consent and permission the passions are strengthened. It is obvious that in a world where everyone is free to look at, listen and speak, there is incontinence of feelings and agreement with pretext. Therefore, let every person withdraw from bodily rest, from listening, seeing and talking. Human feelings are like python, when the eyes see something, or the ears hear, or what we are talking about, the mind listens to that, the soul strives for that, the heart desires, that is what a person gets used to, that is what takes root inside, then the demons constantly put it in the mind and remind them of all this; when our feelings enjoy the passions with pleasure, then sin already fully appears. A person cannot cleanse himself of passions until he cuts off the reason for passions. The following passions cause absent-mindedness of thoughts, darkening of the mind and entrance to demons: laziness, wandering of bad thoughts, insatiable sleep, frequent untimely eating, hot temper and bodily rest. Only internal doing, i.e. unceasing, intelligent, heartfelt prayer and fasting that flows from the heart drives out demons, does not allow them in, prepares a place within for the Holy Spirit, and so man is the church of God; Without this, a peace-loving evil spirit takes possession of the body. This generation, said the Lord, proceeds by nothing but prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21); inner work is impregnable and terrifying for demons. Infatuation with bad thoughts gives them access inside. As long as a person is bound by passions and love of peace, demons dare to rule over his body, insult him, drag him into all passions, force him, as if he were submissive and subservient to himself; passions are the door to demons; They enter with them as if by a door; God allows them to arm themselves against us, so that we recognize our weakness and do not become arrogant. Only spiritual properties and strength cannot be directly perverted by demons, for the power of God does not allow them to do so. It happens that sometimes someone strives well, but allows demons to enter through these passions, then for him there is a double struggle and burden, and for a long time he cannot come to the initial zeal. “This once happened to me,” says one of the fasters, “I struggled very hard for three years.” From the scattering of thoughts comes drowsiness and gloomy, insatiable sleep; from darkness there is also a fall into sin; from the Fall - desperate torment of the soul. Since hovering and darkening of the mind, as said above, comes from wandering, absent-mindedness of thoughts and incontinence of feelings, then in every possible way one must avoid the temptations of the world, restrain the feelings and turn them away, like a horse with a bridle, from harmful cases, not giving them the will to avoid bad deeds by guarding them. A sober mind should be set as a good guardian of one’s soul, so that it does not allow feelings to become evil. When your mind abandons inner caution and prudence, then the passions rebel, and each of them, plundering your spiritual forces, like a weapon against you, directs them to their own actions; then the mind begins to be passionate, scattered in thoughts and gloomy, it casts off the shackles and the heaviness is broken, the ties are dissolved and the thing becomes free. Therefore, monk, be sober in mind, sober; find yourself a place that is deplorable and completely unnecessary to people, so as not to be kicked out, and removed from the world; there is your silent life, even if you desire any worldly matter, but not having the opportunity to do it, thanks to the distance, you will not fall into it. In the desert, just by moving away from the world, a person is freed from passions. Word 42 About the fact that there is a suggestion from God or an enemy’s excuse QUESTION: Why was it possible to find out whether it was God’s favor or an enemy’s temptation when a dubious good deed happened, i.e. one thought encourages you to do it, and another, on the contrary, prevents it? Answer: The enemy has a habit of hiding the truth and mixing good with evil. But how can you find out the truth? God's favor in all our intentions is meek, trustworthy and certain; not only in our good deeds, but also in our iniquity. God is patient with meekness and awaits our repentance. Why find out the enemy's pretext? The enemy usually hinders us and turns us away from good. However, if in something apparently good, the mind is confused and upsets us, drives away the fear of God, deprives us of peace, so that without any reason the heart hurts and the mind hesitates, then know that this is an enemy excuse and reject it. The enemy is outrageous, restless and doubtful for the mind in all our intentions. We should not trust the disposition of our hearts in everything, but judge whether disposition is useful. When our mind is constrained from enemies by thoughts and darkness, then we must completely abandon all thought and reasoning, for we do not know the truth until the mind is cleansed by prayer, for then thoughts, like muddy water, rise into the mind, or, like a cloud, they wander, and spiritual feelings are insensitive to everything. Therefore, whoever wants to know the truth, let him motivate himself for a long time to fervent prayer and to the desired deed; during prayer, the enemy cannot hide the truth, since then he has no power; you can actually experience the truth of such faith. Glory to our God forever. Amen. Word 43 About undoubted faith Undoubtedly, a believer in God's providence does not decide what kind of death he will have to die: either from people, or from animals, or from hunger, or from the burden of great labor, or from any other cases; there will not be two deaths, but no one can avoid one. Having once relied on God for all your needs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and died for the world, then you no longer care about how you die. Once he has put his trust in God, he no longer cares about himself, and whatever he does, he will find the benefit of his soul in everything. But let him know that he who gives himself up to all sorrows for the sake of God will find salvation in every place. According to our faith, the grace of God is given to us; little faith, little is given; We believe more, we are awarded more grace for patience. Nothing will happen to us apart from God’s providence and His dispensation; God expects from us only the will of our mind. But the destinies of God are incomprehensible, and therefore we must save our souls through patience, and he who endures to the end will be saved through Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. I beg and exhort you, my beloved fathers, brothers, children in the following: love your Lord with all your soul and with all your heart, be fair and truthful, submissive, with your head down and your mind turned to heaven, have tenderness towards God and people, be a comforter of the sad, patient in temptations and not annoying, generous, merciful, feeder of the poor, hospitable to strangers, sad for the sake of sins, joyful in God, greedy and thirsty, meek, patient, not a lover of glory, not a lover of gold, a lover of others, not hypocritical, not proud, hardworking for God, silent, pleasant in answers, diligent in fasting, frequent prayers, vigils and psalmody, reasonable; do not judge every person, but look at yourself; and for all this you will be a child of the Gospel, a son of the resurrection, an heir of life in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be honor and dominion and worship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Today, O beloved ones, collect crins and beautiful flowers, and compose a life of all good things about the Lord God. From those who are written, teach them (relatives) and neighbors. I also pray to you: do these works; For these sakes, gain eternal blessings; Yes, in the unflickering light from the angels you will receive eternal life. For there those who exist glorify God beyond measure, and praise the Trinity with its angelic faces forever. Oh, what a gift God gives to those on earth in heaven, so that if He pleases Him they will accept Him for their needs! Dear King of all in Christ, make us worthy of Your love for mankind, so that we may be heirs to be Your Kingdom! I kindly beg you, readers, for this: I wish for correction of my own rudeness; but even more so, with your prudence, correct us: humbly and mercifully leave Thy servant, O Master. Even if you love my diligence in this, do not put in my zealous labors in vain. “Conclusion”, written in poetic form, we have placed literally from the original, without translation into Russian. You might be interested in: