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The practice of patience has its own measures and degrees. The perfect ones maintain perfect silence when faced with accusations, corresponding to the degree of their self-sacrifice and suffer all the consequences of such silence, such as, for example, St. Andrew and Simeon, holy fools for Christ's sake. This activity is not only unsuitable for you, as it exceeds your measure, but it is also extremely harmful to your soul, because you cannot stand it. 6. 775–776 (See Oath, Monastic vows). Brethren! At the foot of the cross of Christ we will lay down and bury all the world’s concepts of honor, of grievances, of insults, of losses, of injustice, of human laws and of human justice. Let us become fools for Christ's sake! Let us expose our cheeks to spitting and strangling! Our earthly honor, dilapidated, may it be sprinkled with the dust of humiliation! Let us not look with mercy and sympathy at our perishable property: let the whirlwinds plunder and carry it away when they are released! We will not spare our flesh in free deeds and involuntary suffering! Let us learn from the Lord Jesus Christ His mysterious silence, which is the most sublime Theology and eloquence that astonishes the Angels! The world did not give justice to him, God incarnate: should we seek it from the world? Let us renounce it at the foot of the cross of Christ! Let us not be beasts that bite and sting hunters and other animals that attack them! Let us become like the Lamb of God here on earth, during our short-term earthly wandering, and He will make us like Himself in eternity, where our bliss will have no end or measure. And here, in earthly exile, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, comes to the faithful disciple of Jesus and brings to his soul the unspeakable bliss of the future life, which takes away from him the feeling of suffering, which leads him into invisible, holy pleasure, independent of people and circumstances. Before this pleasure, all earthly pleasures, even legal ones, are insignificant. 1.420 (See Holiness, Communion with God). “Let us create man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26), - God the Trinity mysteriously consulted within Himself and with Himself before the creation of man. Man is the image and likeness of God. God, unapproachable in His greatness, God, surpassing every image, was depicted in man, depicted with clarity and glory. This is how the sun is depicted in a humble drop of water. 2.128 The image of the Trinity-God is the Trinity-man. Our mind is the image of the Father; our word (we usually call the unspoken word a thought) is the image of the Son; spirit is the image of the Holy Spirit. Just as in the Trinity-God the three Persons unfused and inseparably constitute one Divine Being, so in the Trinity-man three people constitute one being, without mixing with each other, without merging into one person, without dividing into three beings. Our mind has given birth and never ceases to give birth to thought; a thought, having been born, does not cease to be born again and at the same time remains born, hidden in the mind. The mind cannot exist without thought, and thought cannot exist without the mind. The beginning of one is certainly the beginning of the other; the existence of the mind is necessarily the existence of thought. In the same way, our spirit comes from the mind and contributes to thought. That is why every thought has its own spirit, every way of thinking has its own separate spirit, every book has its own spirit. Thought cannot exist without spirit; the existence of one is necessarily accompanied by the existence of the other. In the existence of both is the existence of the mind. What is the human spirit? The totality of heartfelt feelings belonging to the verbal and immortal soul, alien to the souls of cattle and animals. The human heart differs from the heart of animals in its spirit. The hearts of animals do not have a sense of the spiritual - this feature of the Divine image, the exclusive property of man. The moral strength of a person is his spirit. Our mind, word and spirit, by the simultaneity of their beginning and by their mutual relationships, serve as the image of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, coeternal, co-originating, equal in honor, one in nature. “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” declared the Son. “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” (John 14:9-10). The same can be said about the human mind and its thoughts: the mind, invisible in itself, appears in thought; having become acquainted with a thought, one has become acquainted with the mind that produced this thought. The Lord called the Holy Spirit the Power from Above (Luke 24:49), the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17); Truth is the Son. The human spirit also has the property of strength; he is also the spirit of a person's thoughts, whether they are true or false. It manifests itself in the secret movements of the heart, and in the way of thinking, and in all human actions. The spirit of a person reveals both his mind and way of thinking; the spirit of each action reveals the thought that guided the person during the action. The merciful Lord adorned His image and His likeness. The image of God is the very essence of the soul; similarity – mental properties. There was a newly created image of God - man - like God, infinite, wise, good, pure, incorruptible, holy, alien to every sinful passion, every sinful thought and feeling. A skilled artist first depicts the form, the features of the face from which he is taking a portrait. Having depicted these features with precision, he gives the face, the clothing itself the color and colors of the original, thereby perfecting the resemblance. God, having created His image, adorned it with His likeness: it is characteristic of the image of God to have a resemblance to God in everything. Otherwise, the image would be insufficient, unworthy of God, would not fulfill its purpose, would not correspond to it. It is convenient for everyone to see a disorder of image and similarity in themselves. The beauty of likeness, consisting of the totality of all virtues, is defiled by dark and foul passions. The features of the image are deprived of their correctness, their mutual agreement: thought and spirit fight among themselves, disobey the mind, rebel against it. He himself is in constant bewilderment, in a terrible darkness that closes God and the holy, infallible path to God from him. Terrible torment accompanies the destruction of the image and likeness of God. If a person carefully, in solitude, for a considerable time, constantly looks into himself, then he will be convinced that this torment operates continuously - it opens and closes, depending on how much or little his entertainment drowns out. 2. 129–132 The Son became man - God's Word, God's Truth. Our thoughts are corrected and purified by the truth; our spirit has become capable of communication with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit revives our eternal spirit, deadened by death. Then the mind entered into the knowledge and vision of the Father. The Trinity-man is healed by the Trinity-God: The Word heals the thought, transfers it from the area of ​​lies, from the area of ​​self-delusion into the area of ​​Truth; The spirit is enlivened by the Holy Spirit, transferred from carnal and mental sensations to spiritual sensations; The Father appears to the mind - and the mind becomes the mind of God. “The mind of Christ is imams” (1 Cor. 2:16), says the apostle. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, man, as if dead in spirit, asked: “Lord, show us the Father” (John 14:8). Upon receiving the Spirit of Sonship, having felt his sonship, having become alive in spirit for God and salvation, from the action of the Holy Spirit, he relates to the Father as known, as the Father: Abba Father (Rom. 8:15-16)! In the baptismal font the fallen image is restored, man is born into eternal life by water and spirit. Henceforth, the Spirit, which retreated from a person during his fall, begins to be present with him during his earthly life, healing with repentance the damage caused to a person by sin after baptism, and thus making it possible for him to be saved, through repentance, until his last breath. The beauty of the likeness is restored by the Spirit, as is the image at baptism. It develops and is improved by the fulfillment of the Gospel Commandments. The example of this beauty, the fullness of this beauty is the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. The closest similarity, the connection, is obtained and, upon receipt, maintained by staying in the Gospel Commandments. “Be in Me,” the Savior commands His disciples, “and I will be in you. I am the vine, and you are the birth, and those who are in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit” (John 15:4-5). The most blessed union is achieved when, with a clear conscience, cleansed by the removal of all sin, by the exact fulfillment of the Gospel Commandments, a Christian partakes of the most holy Body of Christ and His most holy Blood, and together with His Divinity united with it. “He who eats My Flesh,” said the Savior, “and drinks My Blood, remains in Me and I in him” (John 6:56). Reasonable image of God! Consider: to what glory, to what perfection, to what greatness are you called, destined by God! The incomprehensible wisdom of the Creator allowed you to make of yourself what you want to make. Reasonable image of God! Don’t you really want to remain in the worthy image of God, do you want to distort yourself, destroy the likeness, turn into the image of the devil, descend to the dignity of the dumb? God did not pour out His blessings in vain, did not create the wonderful universe in vain, did not in vain honor the creation of His image with a preliminary consultation, did not unconsciously redeem it with Himself when it fell! He will demand an account of all His gifts. He will judge how His generosity is used, how His incarnation is valued, how His Blood shed for us at our redemption is valued. 2.133–135 Cold, superficial service to God, mixed with service to the passions, confession of God with the lips, without confession by activity and the hidden life of the heart, while only performing some external rituals and church decrees, is recognized as empty, soul-destructive hypocrisy. Hypocrites, - this is how the Savior of the world denounced those who neglected the commandments of God and with petty precision adhered to the old traditions, who preferred traditions to commandments - hypocrites, Isaiah prophesied kindly about you, saying: “These people draw near to Me with their lips, and with their lips they honor Me: but their heart is far from Me. But they honor me in vain, teaching me the commandment of men” (Matthew 15:7-9). Church decrees are very useful and necessary, both for every Christian and for Christian society, providing order and rules to behavior; order and rules contribute to a pious life: but the commandments must be the soul of both every Christian and Christian society. The Savior of the world gave due place, due value to both the traditions of the fathers and the commandments of God. “Siya”, i.e. the traditions of the fathers, “it is fitting to create,” He said, “and oneh,” i.e. the commandments of God, “not to forsake” (Matthew 23:23). By observing the decrees of the Church, the fulfillment of the commandments becomes especially convenient, and by living according to the commandments, strict observance of the decrees of the Church is protected from vanity, hypocrisy and carnal wisdom. The law of God is spiritual (Rom. 7:14); The Gospel Commandments are spirit and life (John 6:63). But since a person consists of soul and body, external rituals and regulations turned out to be necessary. They are united with the spirit of the Law. One who is content with fulfilling only church decrees and rituals, while neglecting attention to the Gospel Commandments or with insufficient attention to them, through his feeble-mindedness, reduces the Law from the height of spiritual significance, robs it of its spiritual dignity, its entire essence, and perishes in his carnal wisdom and because of his carnal wisdom (Rom. 8:6). 4. 254–255 When a Christian turns all his attention to external rituals, he will certainly ignore the essential part of Christianity - the cleansing of internal vessels, therefore, he will be deprived of all spiritual prosperity and the true knowledge of Christ flowing from this prosperity, i.e. becomes alien to true Christianity. When, on the contrary, a Christian is cold to faith and performs its outer rites with negligence, he thereby removes God from himself, Who desires His servants to serve Him with fear and trembling, and becomes an atheist and a heretic. 8.23 If no temptation can touch a person without the will of God, then complaints, grumbling, grief, justification of oneself, blaming neighbors and circumstances are movements of the soul against the will of God, the essence of attempts to resist and oppose God. 1.328 Do not blame anyone for your weaknesses, not even the circumstances and entertainment in which you are placed. Blame only yourself. King David, the holy prophet and God-seer Moses, the holy prophet Daniel pleased God among many different activities, among all kinds of entertainment. The monks of the Egyptian community, described by Saint John Climacus, told him: “Among the rumors, acquire a silent thought, which is glorious.” Reproach yourself, reproach your weak will, because the power of will produces great things even in the weak. Find solace in blaming yourself. Blame yourself and condemn yourself, and God will justify you and have mercy on you. 6.172 Tell yourself: “It is not without the Providence of God that what happens to me happens. May the Name of God be blessed from now on and forever!” Don’t look too closely at the circumstances of life: they don’t stand still, they go, they rush quickly, they are replaced by one another. And we ourselves are rushing to the limit of eternity! And whoever looks at the circumstances, to whom they seem motionless, conveniently falls into despondency. Whoever sees that everything is flying and he himself is flying, his heart is light and cheerful. 6.195 Place your external circumstances on the Providence of God, and as they work out, so let them work out; and you be peaceful and calm, worrying only about your soul, which you promised to present to Christ purified by repentance. 6.581 God, looking at the inner disposition of a person, arranges his circumstances accordingly. Those who have the will to please God are also given a position in accordance with their will, so that the pious may have the opportunity to prepare themselves for eternity. 6.674 When you can’t stay away from noisy society, then try to keep yourself away from verbosity and unnecessary jokes, and when you can’t keep away from this, then wash yourself in repentance. 6.596 Everyone needs to walk with patient constancy along the path on which they are set by fate, especially since it is not in our power to change this path. I do not advise you to pay much attention to people’s opinions and speeches and to subordinate your behavior to them, especially God-loving impressions and movements of the heart. Behave simply, without coercion and enthusiasm, abandon actions that are strikingly conspicuous, outside the ordinary circle of actions - this is a completely sufficient sacrifice for your neighbors. 6.626 Saint John Climacus says: “The chief of demons is the fallen star, and the beginning of the passions is gluttony.” 2.354 The connection between the body and the human spirit is worthy of deep consideration and surprise. A person’s way of thinking, his heartfelt feelings depend a lot on the state in which his body is. “When the belly is oppressed,” noted Saint John Climacus, “the heart is humbled; when the belly is satisfied, then the thoughts become infected with exaltation.” “The soul cannot come to humility otherwise,” said Pimen the Great, “than by diminishing food for the body.” The rector of a certain hostel asked the Great: “Why don’t I feel the fear of God in myself? “How can you feel the fear of God,” answered the Great One, “when your belly is stuffed with pies and cheeses?” When the body is saturated, our heart cannot help but generate fornication sensations, and the mind - fornication thoughts and dreams, which, with their strength and fascination, are capable of changing the most decisive good will, inclining it to the pleasure of sin; That’s why Saint John Climacus said: “He who pleases his own belly and together wants to defeat the spirit of prodigalness is like one who extinguishes a fire with oil.” 2. 356–357 (See Affairs, Activities). Saint Isaac of Syria says: “Love wretched clothing, in order to disgrace the thoughts that vegetate in you: arrogance, I say, of the heart.” Loving splendor cannot acquire humble thoughts, because the heart inside is imprinted according to the external image. 2.357 Clothing should be, if possible, simple, but decent and neat. The beginner must observe this rule, because his soul is conformed by its state to the state of the body and cannot retain the feeling of repentance when the body is decorated with lush and shiny clothes. From luxurious clothing, vanity and bitterness arise in the beginner; his flesh comes to life for lustful sensations and movements. It is indecent for a sinner to have beautiful clothes, otherwise he will be like a watered and gilded coffin, bright and rich on the outside, with a stinking corpse on the inside. 5. 19–20 Are you sad in your loneliness in spirit? This condition is the condition of almost everyone. For thirty-eight years he lay paralyzed in Solomon's porch in the midst of the most crowded Jerusalem; but when the Lord who became man approached his bed, he brought Him a complaint: man is not an imam. The relaxed man could not get attracted to a man for 38 years! - and in this case one must rely on God: He allows a person to suffer from hunger, so that the person will give the due price for food at the time when it is offered to him. A well-fed soul, says Scripture, belches a hundred times. 6.696 Submit your mind to Christ. When the mind submits to Christ, we will not justify either ourselves or our hearts. When excuses become scarce in the heart, it comes into a state of humility and tenderness. God will not despise a contrite and humble heart; and excuses are a terrible sinful death. Saint David prayed this way and teaches us to pray this way: “Do not turn your heart into words of wickedness, do not forgive the guilt of sins.” “Not to bear guilt about sins” means to make excuses, to justify one’s sins. The thoughts and words in which this justification is portrayed are called words of deceit. The sinner is craftily trying to deceive himself and people! He slyly tries to present himself as a righteous man before himself and before people! Sometimes the very necessity, the benefit of our neighbor, who could be tempted by our sin, forces us to justify ourselves before people, to hide our sin before them. To justify yourself to yourself, to deceive, to drown out your conscience is always lawless, always disastrous; internalized words of deceit make a person a bitter Pharisee, capable of any crime. Justification for sins, which does not require fiction and verbosity, justification always accepted by God is repentance. 6.417–418 ...Do not make unnecessary excuses: for the Lord, the Truth itself and the Truth itself, standing before the Jewish Bishops and Pilate, did not hide the truth from them, so as not to give them reasons for error, but, having said it in brief words, he did not further justify himself, but with silence endured slander and torment, giving us an image of how to deny ourselves and how to bear the cross of the Lord, i.e. sorrows sent by the Lord. 6.211 (See Self-justification, Accusations, Sorrow, Your own will). The opinion about the impoverishment of human help is a type of temptation that God allows to His friends, so that they die from trusting in people and come to life through trusting in God. Read the end of the 78th Word of Saint Isaac of Syria - and you will be comforted. Let us not be afraid of temptations, “for God is with us,” allowing them to us and teaching us through them. 6.832 (See God-forsakenness). One must forcefully distract oneself from condemning one’s neighbors, protecting oneself from it with the fear of God and humility. In order to weaken and, with God’s help, completely eradicate temptations against one’s neighbor from one’s heart, one must, in the light of the Gospel, delve deeper into oneself, observe one’s weaknesses, and examine one’s sinful aspirations, movements and states. When our sin attracts our attention to itself, we will have no time to observe the shortcomings of our neighbor, to notice them. Then all our neighbors will seem beautiful and holy to us; then each of us recognizes himself as the greatest sinner in the world, the only sinner in the world; then the gates will open wide for us, the embrace of true, real repentance. The great Pimen said: “We and our brothers are like two pictures. If a person, looking at himself, finds shortcomings in himself, then he sees perfections in his brother. If he seems perfect to himself, then, comparing his brother with himself, he finds him thin.” 1.421 One day Abba Ammon came to a certain residence of the monks to share a meal with the brethren. One of the brothers of that place was very upset in his behavior: a woman was visiting him. This became known to the other brethren; They were embarrassed and, having gathered for a meeting, decided to expel their brother from his hut. Having learned that Bishop Ammon was here, they came to him and asked him to go with them to inspect his brother’s cell. The brother also found out about this, and hid the woman under a large wooden vessel, turning the vessel bottom up. Abba Ammon understood this and, for God’s sake, covered up his brother’s sin. Having come with many brothers to the cell, he sat down on a wooden vessel and ordered the cell to be searched. The cell was searched, but the woman was not found. "What is this? - Abba Ammon said to the brothers. “May God forgive you your sin.” After that, he prayed and ordered everyone to leave. He himself followed the brethren. On his way out, he graciously took the accused brother’s hand and said to him with love: “Brother! Pay attention to yourself! So Saint Ammon avoided condemning anyone and healed sinners, softening their hearts with mercy, leading them to repentance with mercy. 1. 422–423 The sin of temptation and condemnation is so convenient for the destruction of people and therefore is so loved by the devil that he is not content with arousing in our hearts an evil jealousy that is alien to the gospel mind, arousing proud thoughts, always combined with humiliation and contempt for our neighbor; but he also arranges obvious intrigues to ensnare the inattentive into temptation and condemnation. Abba Pimen said: “The Scripture says: What your eyes have seen, speak (Proverbs 25:8). But I advise you not to even talk about what you have touched with your own hands. One brother was deceived in this way: it seemed to him that his brother was sinning with a woman. For a long time he struggled with himself; finally, approaching, he pushed them with his foot, thinking that it was definitely them, and said: “It’s enough for you, how much longer?” But it turned out that they were sheaves of wheat. That is why I told you: do not reprove, even if you touch with your own hands.” The sin of condemnation is so disgusting to God that He becomes angry and turns away from His saints themselves when they allow themselves to condemn their neighbors: He takes away His grace from them, as can be seen from numerous examples preserved by church writers for the benefit and edification of Christian generations. No righteousness gives the right to condemn a sinful brother, to whom the Lord can very conveniently grant significant righteousness, incomparably greater than that which we think we find in ourselves. We can be righteous by the truth of God; when we condemn our neighbor, we thereby reject God’s truth and replace it with our own truth, or more correctly, with the disease of pharisaism. He who condemns his neighbor admires the dignity of God, to Whom alone belongs the judgment of His creatures - he admires the dignity of Christ, who has to judge the living and the dead on the last day. The wondrous John Savvait told about himself: “While I was living in the desert not far from the monastery, a brother from the monastery came to visit me. I asked him: “How do fathers and brothers live?” “Good for your prayers,” he answered. Then I asked about one of the brothers about whom there was a bad rumor. He answered me: “Believe me, father: this brother continues to live as before.” When I heard this, I said, “Oh!” - and immediately went into a frenzy. I saw myself standing before Calvary in Jerusalem. Our Lord Jesus Christ stood on Calvary between two thieves. I rushed to worship Him. At this time - I see - the Lord turned to the Angels standing before Him and said to them: “Cast him out, because in relation to Me he is the Antichrist: anticipating My judgment, he condemned his brother.” While the Angel was expelling me and I was leaving the doors, my robe got entangled in them and was held by them. I left her there. Immediately coming to my senses, I said to the brother who visited me: “This day is cruel for me.” He asked: “Why is that, father?” I told him what I had seen, adding that the removal of the mantle meant the taking away of the protection of God and the help of God from me. From that day on, I went deep into the desert and wandered in it for seven years, without eating bread, without entering under a roof, and without talking with any person. After this time, I saw the Lord again: He returned my mantle to me.” 1. 424–425 In our time, in which temptations have multiplied so much, we must especially pay attention to ourselves, not paying attention to the lives and deeds of our neighbors and not judging those who are tempted: because the pernicious effect of temptation conveniently passes from those carried away by temptation to those who condemn them. 1.493 When grace-filled consolation operates through the mysterious knowledge of Christ and His gaze, then the Christian does not condemn either the Jew, or the pagan, or the obvious lawless person; but flames for everyone with quiet, immaculate love. He contemplates with the purity of his mind that since the coming of Christ, the dignity, value, praise and salvation of man has been constituted by Christ, and not by natural human virtues. He considers the cup of sorrows to be the cup of salvation, evidence of election, a gift of God. He cannot have hatred and enemies: because those who cause him sorrow in his eyes are nothing more than instruments of God’s Providence; he excuses them, citing their ignorance as the reason for the excuse; he blesses them as instruments of God who benefits him. “Can I,” he says to himself, “can I condemn those who now, before me, fall into obvious iniquities, when Christ has already atoned for all their sins, past, present and future, when in Christ they already have justification and salvation, which they cannot lose otherwise than by completely rejecting Christ?” 2. 140 Do not condemn either the wicked or the obvious villain: he stands or falls for his Lord (Rom. 14:4). 2.223 (See Pomyslov's confession). If good deeds, according to the feelings of the heart, brought salvation, then the coming of Christ would be unnecessary, the redemption of humanity through the suffering and death of the God-man on the cross would be unnecessary, the Commandments of the Gospel would not be necessary. It is obvious that those who recognize salvation as possible through the works of a fallen nature alone destroy the meaning of Christ and reject Christ. 1.500 (See state of Christianity, Good, Heresy, Fallen Nature, Monasticism). Despair is the accuser of unbelief and selfishness that precedes in the heart: he who believes in himself and trusts in himself will not rise from sin by repentance; the believer in Christ, the all-powerful Redeemer and Physician, will arise for them. 1.504 (See Silence, Solitude). Temptations, changes and cooling, according to the teachings of the holy fathers, were with all ascetics; there is no need to be surprised by them, but we must try to get out of them through repentance and prayer: prayer is fire, and the one praying cannot help but warm up, and cooling is evidence of the absence or diminishment of fire, which conveniently flares up again from the action of repentance. 6.825 (See Variability, Impermanence). You might be interested in: