Поучение 19. О благочинии и благодарении.

My brothers, fathers and children! Calling you to instruction, I would like to have a varied and varied word, so that, like a certain founder of a feast, I could offer you various foodstuffs sufficient to abundantly satisfy your souls. But since I am poor and can barely give you a little bread and water, I offer you these few words: and so accept the little instead of the much. I rejoice and have a lot of fun, looking at your progress according to God and your living in one accord, and your exploits in novice suffering, and that we all gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and God voluntarily, not simply and as it happened, but orderly and divinely, as the Holy Fathers bequeathed to us, in a single mind, that we have no divisions for the sake of carnal friendship, that we do not fulfill our will in what we desire, and do not separate ourselves on our own initiative; but we copulate and unite in one and the same spirit, and truly with one desire and love to work for the Lord in this communal and angelic life, as if in some other paradise. All this is the gift of God and the grace of the Holy Mother of God. You thought commendably, were inspired by the love of God, withdrew from the world, and with your prudence flew from earth to heaven. So, blessed is your sacred will, even more blessed is your departure moved by God, and blessed is your residence; I’ll say something else: blessed are your parents and your wombs; and I am not saying anything beyond what is improper, for they have left you, according to the Scripture, “a tribe in Zion and neighbors in Jerusalem” (Isa. 31:9). They rejoice greatly over you, especially when they hear the good glory of your Divine, virtuous and obedient life; through this their loins are illuminated with the sacred firstfruits. There is not a single family among them that would not be illuminated with tenderness from the mere memory of a relative: so great and abundant are our blessings, so great and numerous are the talents that reside within you; not to mention the future bliss that will shine upon you in the future life, and its ineffable reward. How can I not rejoice when I am humble and sinful? How not to strive in every possible way, in deed and word, to preserve your carefully corrected good deeds, hidden in your sacred souls? Truly I rejoice and am glad. But as much joy as there is in me, so much on the contrary is fear and trembling, so that, due to my many sins, no disorder occurs and does not waste what you have collected and acquired through many exploits, labors and illnesses. My first speech concerned everyone in general, but now I speak to everyone separately. Let each of you not have his own will, and not relax in ascetic labors, and not waver his feet on the stone of patience and true faith towards the abbot; and let him not accept in any other way the many-headed serpent, flattering and varied, being deceived by this or that sin, by this or that image, in this or that case, by verbal justification and false justification. For the inventor of wickedness, the sower of evil, the cunning cunning, the apostate from God, has many wiles, cast out from heaven, like lightning fallen to the earth, like a thief who entered paradise, who deceived our forefather Adam, (alas, recklessness), who from that time until now, in various ways and actions, divided and separated our race into languages, tribes and peoples, into infidels and godless; in the Christian race itself, he created a division, on the one hand, through evil heresies, and on the other, through vile, criminal deeds leading to the abyss and destruction. So he attempts to shoot the arrows of sin at us, to wound us with them and kill us. Know especially what kind of warfare and incessant war he wages against the monastic order and against good ascetics. It was revealed to the Holy Fathers and hermits that the overthrow and fall of the monks was imputed to him by the apostate forces as a great victory and wonderful valor. Therefore, I ask and implore you, children and brothers, to walk without stumbling; being fenced in from everywhere, armed from everywhere, clad in iron armor; and do not give the devil any room on either side to enter and kill you, but you can do this with good hope, firm confession, constant God-loving confession, humility, unfeigned obedience, patience and unflagging long-suffering. By her, by her, I ask and pray to you for the sake of God, for the sake of reward, for the sake of life and the joy of it; or, on the contrary, in order to get rid of the pitch fire and countless torments, let us endure some more, we will try to reach refuge, having crossed the great abyss of this age, so that by a holy death we may receive unfading crowns of righteousness, victorious gifts of immortality, the blessed and eternal peace of eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs glory and power, forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: