Отделение девятнадцатое

Creation, redemption, resurrection Standing at the coffin, I looked into it and saw decayed flesh there; in the grave it became disgusting: there was no semblance of an attractive face, scattered, dried out and covered with decay bones were visible. With sorrow and grief, I retreated from the tomb, my thoughts were transported to the time when we will rise again at the sound of the trumpet and glorify You for the resurrection prepared for Adam’s children, and said: “Praise be to You, Lord of all!” Hearing what was said in the Gospel about the resurrection, I thanked God and exclaimed: “Praise be to the glorious nature of Your dominion, which at first adorned and honored our nature with His image, and at the end of time sent down His Son! And He saved us from destruction and will again come to resurrect the entire Adamic race - He will lift the righteous into heaven, and cast the wicked into Gehenna - and they will exclaim to Him: righteous is Your judgment, Lord the King! Praise be to You, Lord of all!” What will I repay? I will accept the cup of salvation The Lord is long-suffering and draws us all into His Kingdom, but will require us to account for our negligence in this short time. He will tell us: “For you I was incarnate, for you I visibly walked the earth, for you I was beaten, for you I was killed, for you I was crucified, lifted up on the Tree, for you, earth-born, I was given drink by my father to make you holy and heavenly, I gave you My Kingdom, I called you all My brothers and I sent down the Holy Spirit to you. What could I have done more than all this and have not done in order to save you? I just don’t want to force the will, so that your salvation does not become a matter of involuntary necessity. Tell me, sinners, mortal by nature, what have you endured for the sake of Me, your Lord, who suffered for you?” Come, let us all worship Him together, weep before the Lord who created us and say: “What will the generation of sinners render to You, the Incomprehensible, Good and Merciful God? You, who have enlightened the entire universe with grace, enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so that we may love You, Master, and always fulfill Your holy will with love! Here is the cup of Your terrible Blood, full of light and life. Grant us understanding and enlightenment, so that with love and the holiness of faith we approach it and it will be for us the remission of sins, and not for condemnation!” Understanding yourself with the thought of death and what accompanies it The coming of death is terrible for passionate, sinful and weak people who have not tried to live blamelessly in this vain world. Workers and perfect ascetics rejoice in the hour of separation. Having before their eyes the great work of their asceticism, vigils, fasts, bows, prayers, tears, sackcloth, their souls rejoice that they are called from their body to enter into peace. But separation from this life extremely saddens the sinner, who sees before his eyes his negligence with its bitter fruits. What repentance will then be felt in the heart of the one who neglected his salvation here! Alas, my soul, alas, why do you neglect your life? Suddenly your calling comes - what will you do there, being careless here? What will you do before the Throne of the Righteous Judge? How is it that the enemy robs you and you don’t understand it? How is it that the enemy steals heavenly wealth from you and you, distracted, do not know it? Have mercy on me, long-suffering Son of God and Sinless Christ! Grant me, my Savior, the thought of a future life, so that I may fulfill Your will. Although in my old age make me a co-worker of Your grace, so that at least I may end my bad life with a good ending. How will I, careless, appear before the terrible Throne? How can I, impatient and useless, join the community of those who have brought forth the fruit of righteousness here? By what features am I recognized when in heavenly beds the saints and the righteous recognize each other by their deeds? No, there is no need to flatter yourself! The righteous, chaste, humble will walk in the unapproachable light, and sinners, carelessly living to please themselves, like me, will walk in eternal and unquenchable fire. Sober up, my soul, and pray with tears! Cry out with all your heart so that death finds you converted and making a good beginning. Through the prayers of our Most Pure Lady Theotokos and all Your saints, grant us this, O Lord, for blessed are You forever! Days flow and fly away, hours run and do not stop, in the rapid flow of time the world is approaching its end. Not a single day allows another to go with him, not a single hour waits for another to fly at the same time. Just as water cannot be held and stopped with one’s fingers, so the life of one born of a wife does not remain motionless. The life of everyone entering the world is weighed and measured; there is neither the means nor the opportunity for him to step beyond the appointed limit. God determined the measure of a person's life, and this certain measure is divided into parts by days. Every day, unnoticed by you, takes its part from your life, and every hour with its own part runs uncontrollably on its own path. The days are ruining your life, the hours are breaking down its building, and you are hastening to your end, because you are vapor. Days and hours, like thieves and predators, rob and plunder you, the thread of your life is gradually torn off and shortened. Days bury your life, hours put it in a coffin, and along with days and hours your life disappears on earth. The life you live today leaves and flies away with the end of the same day, because every day takes its part from your life and goes with it. Every day buries its part, every hour places its share in the coffin, and in the rapid flight of time they leave, disappear and turn into nothing. As quickly as the days go by, life flies by so quickly - there is no way for her to stop and stand in one place. If the sun becomes high and the moon is delayed in its course, then the time determined for your life may stop - it may cease to strive for an end. God will give everything Himself, but you also need to pray The Merciful God gives what we ask not for the sake of our prayer, but feeds us according to His own bounties, because He created us. The all-exceeding Greatness, which we did not ask for, gave us His Son, who for our sake appeared in the world and, although we did not ask Him, sacrificed Himself for our salvation. For who asked the Father to hand over His Son to death on the cross? Or who begged the Son to die for sinners? Which of the righteous thought of asking the Father to give up His Son for the wicked? This is truly unheard of, and no one thought of it. The Father gave up His Son to die on the cross - and through His death sinners acquired life for themselves. And if He gave His greatest treasure, will those who ask from such a Lover of Mankind be prevented from receiving everything they need? So, let us ask Him, because He gives, we will declare our desires before Him, because He does not refuse, we will beg Him, because He wants to satisfy our needs in every way. But in His truth He expects that our prayer will appear at His doors and that through this prayer the truth will be reconciled with all sinners. If goodness forgave crimes without prayer, then truth would be violated and no one would think about it. Humanity would be more and more given over to wickedness, because the Judge does not use the admonishing rod. Everyone would happily continue to sin because no one would admonish him. The same goodness, so useful for us, would turn into harm, because it would give sinners a reason to multiply the number of their sins more and more. And now in the world, even the fact that truth is prompted to punishment is a matter of goodness, for the sinner is shuddered for this purpose, so that he stops sinning and comes into heartfelt contrition, because he has brought punishment upon himself. And thus the sinner, even for a short time, abandons his iniquities and tries to ask for remission of his sins. Who will not thank You, our Lord, that Your truth is goodness, and Your punishment is grace for us? You are truly good in everything! With the rod of righteousness You humble the head of sinners who sin with shameless arrogance and do not convert without special prompting. Let Thy punishment, O Lord, combined with mercy, be our mentor! May Thy right hand help us to take advantage of Thy punishment! Everything is the same in me, how long will this last? Turn around, for this is the end! So I collect my thoughts from everywhere and have no success, because within me there are still producers of them - passions. I have not yet freed myself from the influence of evil spirits on me, which will delay me on the air path. I have not yet learned the weight of my many sins. Those who plunged me into sin bear fruit in my flesh. How long can I, the damned one, get drunk without wine and not care about my own, as if it were someone else’s? Like a wicked servant against his master, so I scheme against my own salvation, as if someone else would suffer the harm that comes from him - I do not want to be vigilant, daily grieving Your long-suffering. My evil is before my eyes. You are patient with me because of Your great goodness. Grant me, Lord, the medicine of conversion, so that I can be healed of everything that is bad in me. Grant me to enter the field of abstinence, grant me to pass through all the days of my life in heartfelt contrition, enlighten the darkened eyes of my mind, so that with diligence I hasten to enter the path leading to Your vineyard! The time of my life has become impoverished, having been spent in vanity and shameful thoughts. The time of my life has already reached the eleventh hour. Steward, Lord, the boat of my purchase and grant understanding to the feeble merchant, so that I can complete my purchase while I still have time! For the hour of separation had come - it was already before my eyes - and I was extremely afraid when I saw my poverty. There is no need to hide: God sees everything. Better hurry up and wash yourself while you still have time. I sin and hide so that no one can see me, but the Lord sees me when I do evil. If a person sees me, I am ashamed, but I am not ashamed of God. Have mercy and mercy on us, Judge and Lord of Judges! If a person converts, sooner or later, You accept him. What should I do with my sins? I don’t know, my mind doesn’t see how I should wash and cleanse myself. If I decided to wash myself with waters, then the seas are small for me, the rivers are not enough to cleanse me. If I wash myself with the Blood and water from the side of the Son of God, I will be cleansed, and bounties will be poured out on me. Tremble, sinner, of the coming Judgment, with sorrow and tears resort to repentance! While prayer is still being accepted, pray here so that you may be accepted there. Pray until death comes and carries away your soul - then all prayer and supplication are in vain, then tears are useless. To the Mother of God. Even though I am unclean, accept prayer, let me repent and defend me in court! All-sung and All-Good Lady, source of mercy, abyss of philanthropy! Although I am unclean and devoted to the adulterous and rebellious world, negligent in thought, and in deeds, and in will, I am wasting my life fornicately, but You, as the child-loving and compassionate Mother of God, do not disdain me, a sinner and prodigal, first accept the petition brought to You by my vile lips, and by Your favorable and all-good prayers merciful to me make a Judge. Reveal to me the mercy of Your Generous-loving Son, beg me to despise my sins, direct my thoughts to repentance, show me a skillful doer of His commandments, do not allow me to become food for the molester of the souls of the devil, but through Your intercession renew me, who have grown old in many sins, correct my dilapidated life, so that, having You as an Intercessor, I am grateful that I could fearlessly appear before the Judge and avoid terrible torment. By Your intercession, make me an heir to glory, beseeching my Creator that I may gain it! Woe to the one who remains in sin and does not know the time of repentance, for there he will repent, uselessly mourning his sins forever. Woe to the one who says: “For now I will enjoy the flesh, but in old age I will repent,” for, like a snare, death will suddenly cover him, and his hope will perish. Woe to the one who arbitrarily sins with the intention of repenting in the morning, for he does not know what the coming day and the night preceding it will give birth to. Woe to him who, knowing good, gives his hand to the evil one, for on the day of his departure the evil angels will receive him. Woe to the one who causes his neighbor to stumble with his evil deeds, for on the day of Judgment he will give an account of everything in which he has tempted others with his evil customs. Woe to the one who has renounced the world and again clings to a worldly way of thinking, for the parable of one who takes up his forehead and looks back applies to him. Woe to the one who follows the desires of the flesh and neglects the care of his soul, for his life and his hopes will be scattered across the earth. Woe to him who does not hasten with all his strength to prepare himself here to give justification there. You might be interested in: