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Believe that it was not without the Providence of God that temptation befell you, so that you may die to the world, and its glory, and its justification. Pray for everyone who brings you sorrow, so that your heart may be completely healed of malice and become capable of receiving Divine grace. As soon as a memory of someone who has offended you comes to your mind, immediately pray for it. Beyond God's permission, no power or human power can touch you. 6.839 (See Love for Enemies, Prayer for Enemies, Prayer, Lord's Prayer). Saint Isaac of Syria: “Whoever is constantly taught by God drives away demons from himself and eradicates the seed of their evil. The heart rejoices in revelations of the one who constantly listens to his soul. He who turns the vision of his mind inward sees in himself the dawn of the Spirit. He who is disgusted by all soaring (wandering, absent-mindedness) sees the Master in the inner cage of his heart... Heaven is within you, if you are pure, and in yourself you will see the Angels with their light, and their Master with them, and within them... The treasure of the humble is within him, and it is the Lord... Passions are driven out and eradicated by the constant teaching about God: it is the sword that kills them. He who wishes to see the Lord within himself tries to purify his heart with the unceasing memory of God: in this way, with the brightness of the eyes of the mind, he will behold the Lord at every hour. What happens to a fish taken out of water also happens to a mind that comes from the memory of God and wanders in the memories of the world... Terrible to demons, dear to God and His Angels is the one who, night and day, with ardent jealousy, seeks God in his heart and eradicates from it the vegetating excuses of the enemy. Without unceasing prayer it is impossible to get closer to God.” 2. 196–197 Some monk said to St. Siso the Great: “I am in constant remembrance of God.” The Monk Sisoes answered him: “This is not great; It will be great when you consider yourself worse than all creation.” A high occupation is the constant remembrance of God! But this height is very dangerous when the ladder to it is not based on the solid stone of humility. 6.422 “Only one who has become close to the thought of his end,” said one reverend father, “can put an end to his sins.” “Remember your last,” says Scripture, “and you will never sin” (Sir. 7:39). Rise from your bed as one who rises from the dead; lie down on your bed, as if in a coffin: sleep is an image of death, and the darkness of the night is a harbinger of the darkness of the grave, after which the light of the Resurrection, joyful for the servants of Christ and terrible for His enemies, will shine. A thick cloud, although it consists of only thin vapors, obscures the light of the sun, and with bodily pleasures, absent-mindedness, and insignificant earthly cares, the majestic eternity is hidden from the eyes of the soul. The sun shines in vain from a clear sky for eyes stricken with blindness, and eternity does not seem to exist for a heart possessed of a passion for the earth, for its greatness, for its glorious, for its sweet. Do you want to remember death? Maintain strict moderation in food, clothing, and all household utensils; see that necessities do not turn into luxury goods, study the Law of God day and night, or as often as possible, and you will remember death. The memory of her will be combined with streams of tears, with repentance for sins, with the intention of correction, with fervent and many prayers. 1. 380–381 “The remembrance of death is a gift of God,” the fathers said: it is given to the doer of Christ’s commandments in order to perfect him in the holy feat of repentance and salvation. The gracious memory of death is preceded by one’s own efforts to remember death. Force yourself to remember death often, assure yourself of the undoubted truth that you will certainly, no one knows when, die - and the memory of death will begin to come by itself, appear to your mind, a deep and strong memory: it will strike with deadly blows all your sinful undertakings. 1.383 It is useful to force yourself to mortal memory, even if your heart turns away from it. She is a gift from God, and our compulsion to her is only evidence of the sincerity of our desire to have this gift. When you force yourself, you need to pray: “Lord, give me mortal memory.” This is the teaching of Macarius the Great, Isaac of Syria and other great fathers on this subject. 6. 152–153 The memory of death, of God’s judgment, of eternal torment is good; but when at the same time hopelessness, despondency, despair comes, then you need to know that there is also a demonic admixture here, which is driven away by faith. The Holy Scripture calls God faithful and man a lie. God is faithful and will in no way deprive the salvation of the person who wants to be saved; also will not send a premature and untimely death to such a person, but will give him all the time to prepare. 6.524 The Monk Philotheus of Sinai advises the ascetic of Christ to devote the entire morning to sober and prolonged prayer, and after eating food to spend some time remembering and thinking about death. Citing this ancient father as testimony, our Venerable Nilus of Sora also advises devoting the time of the meal to thinking about death and judgment. This instruction of the holy fathers, as drawn from blissful experience, is useful and should be used by everyone who wants to learn to remember death, who wants to free themselves from the seductive and deceptive mental state in which a person seems to himself to be eternal on earth, and considers death to be the lot of only other people, not at all his own. After forcibly training oneself to remember death, the merciful Lord sends a living foreboding of it - and it comes to help the ascetic of Christ during his prayer. It delights him in good time for the Last Judgment of Christ; In good time at this trial, a person begs the humane Lord for forgiveness of his sins, and receives it. That is why the twisted John Climacus called the prayer of those who truly pray a judgment seat, a judgment, the throne of the Lord, anticipating the general future judgment. 3. 177–178 Constant remembrance of death is a wondrous grace, the lot of the saints of God, especially those who have given themselves over to thorough repentance in indestructible silence. Only in silence do the most sublime virtues ripen and flourish, like the rarest and most precious plants in greenhouses! But we, weak and passionate, also need to force ourselves to remember death, to acquire in our hearts the skill of thinking about it, although such thinking is extremely disgusting to a sin-loving and peace-loving heart. For such training, it is useful to set aside a certain hour every day, free from care, and devote it to the saving memory of a terrible, inevitable death. No matter how true this event is for every person, at first with the greatest difficulty one can force oneself even to the cold memory of death, which serves as one of the countless proofs of the fall of our nature placed in it itself. The constant distraction of thoughts, which we have become accustomed to, and gloomy oblivion constantly steal the thought of death from those who begin to work on remembering it often. Then other counteractions appear: unexpectedly the most necessary things and concerns appear precisely at that hour that we have set aside from the day to care for our eternity, in order to steal this hour from us, and then - in order to completely steal the work itself, even the very memory of the existence of the spiritual, most saving work - thinking about death. When, having learned the machinations of the powers of the air, we persist in the feat, then we will see in ourselves a new battle against it - thoughts of doubt about the reality and benefits of the feat, thoughts of ridicule and blasphemy, calling it strange, stupid and ridiculous, thoughts of false humility, advising us not to separate from other people by our behavior. If, by the great mercy of God, this battle is also overcome - the most painful fear, produced by the living memory and imagination of death, as if by a premonition of it, is at first unusually difficult for our old man: it terrifies the mind and imagination; a cold thrill runs through the body, shocks, relaxes it; the heart languishes with unbearable melancholy, coupled with the hopeless. One should not reject this state, one should not fear harmful consequences from it. “For anyone who begins to live according to God,” says Saint Simeon the New Theologian, “the fear of torment and the illness that results from it are useful. He who dreams of making a beginning without such illness and bonds not only lays the foundation on the sand of his deeds, but is also like someone who tries to build a church in the air, without a foundation at all, which is impossible. From this illness all joy is soon born; with these bonds the bonds of all sins and passions are torn apart; this tormentor is not the cause of death, but of eternal life. Whoever does not want to avoid the disease born from the fear of eternal torment, and does not jump away from it, but by the will of his heart surrenders to it and puts its bonds on himself, he, in accordance with this, will quickly begin to march, and she will present him to the King of kings. When this is accomplished and the ascetic partly looks towards the glory of God, then the bonds will immediately be resolved, painful fear will run away, heart disease will be transformed into joy, a source will appear, draining sensually ever-flowing tears like a river, and mentally - silence, meekness, indescribable sweetness, courage, rushing freely and uninhibitedly to all obedience to the commandments of God.” It is obvious: such a change takes place from the grace-filled appearance in the heart of the hope of salvation. Then, when thinking about death, sadness dissolves with joy, bitter tears turn into sweet tears. A person who began to cry at the memory of death, as at the memory of an execution, suddenly begins to cry at this memory, as at the memory of returning to his priceless fatherland. This is the fruit of remembering death. According to the importance of the fruit, one must be courageous in cultivating it and overcome all obstacles with reasonable labor and constancy; we must believe that the fruit will be acquired by us in due time, by the mercy and grace of God. The memory of death, the fears that accompany it and the fears that follow it, a memory coupled with fervent prayer and weeping for oneself, can replace all labors, embrace a person’s entire life, give him purity of heart, attract to him the grace of the Holy Spirit, and thereby grant him a free ascension to heaven past the aerial authorities. Before we reach that prayerful blissful state in which the mind directly sees the impending death and is horrified by death, just as a creature should be horrified by the threat of the Creator pronounced along with the commandment, it is useful to arouse in ourselves the memory of death by visiting a cemetery, visiting the sick, being present at the death and burial of our neighbors, and frequently examining and updating our memory of various modern deaths that we have heard and seen. 3.179–181 Let us reject grumbling, reject complaints about our fate, reject heartfelt sadness and melancholy, from which weak souls suffer more than from sorrows themselves. 1.351 God, who allows sorrow to man, also sends consolation among them. I am sure that this consolation is brought to your heart from the throne of God by your holy Guardian Angel, because true consolation can come from God alone. Earthly entertainments only drown out sorrow, do not destroy it: they are silent, and again sorrow, rested and, as it were, strengthened by rest, begins to act with greater force. On the contrary, consolation from God destroys the sadness of the heart at its root - in the dark thoughts of hopelessness. It brings to a person good, humble thoughts of submission to God, thoughts full of living faith and meek, sweet hope. An immeasurable eternity opens before the eyes of the mind, and earthly life begins to seem like a short journey; her happiness and unhappiness begin to seem unimportant and insignificant, because all the unevenness of earthly life is smoothed out and equalized by the contemplation of eternity. 6.468 When a wish remains unfulfilled, especially when the wish seems prudent, useful, and necessary, then the heart is struck with sadness. According to the meaning of the wish, sadness can intensify, often turning into despondency and even despair. 2.96 Boredom happens to me for two reasons: after I fall into some deed, word, or sinful thought, and when I do not engage in repentance for a long time, even if at that time I was busy with useful activities. Then the soul feels lack, deprivation: from the feeling of lack - sadness. 6.411 (See Dejection, Thoughts, Thoughts of sadness, Passion, Sorrow, Jesus Prayer). (See Tears, Gospel, Prayer). In the absence of spiritual leaders, our only guide should be the fatherly writings and prayerful lamentation before God. 2.258 “When the devil,” says St. Gregory of Sinai, “sees someone living in tears, he does not stay with him, turning away from the humility produced by crying.” 5.379 Having his dead body lying before him and seeing himself killed by sins, does he need teaching - at what kind of thoughts should he shed tears? Your soul is killed by sins, the one who is dearer to you than the whole world is laid dead before you: does she really not need to be mourned? It is obvious that such crying can only be born in one who has a clear understanding of the states of the fallen nature and the nature renewed by baptism. Only he can weep bitterly and cry constantly who understands the value of the lost gift. “Crying for God,” said Saint John Climacus, “is a constant feeling of an aching heart, which has become internalized to him, with frenzy, incessantly searching for what he longs for, with tension chasing after what it lacks, and sobbing heavily in its wake.” The painful feeling of crying should constitute the character of a repentant Christian. Stopping crying is a sign of self-delusion and delusion. 2.396 (See Tears, Virtues, Jesus Prayer, Lamentations). (See Fallen nature, Man). The truth of our corrupt nature is armed against the truth of Christ, which is His Cross. Our flesh and blood rebel against the Cross. The cross calls the flesh to crucifixion, requires the shedding of blood, but they need to be preserved, strengthened, dominate, and enjoyed. The path to the Cross is full of troubles, reproaches, and deprivations; they don’t want to follow this path: they are proud, they want to prosper and be proud. Do you understand that flesh and blood are proud? Look at the decorated flesh, at the abundant blood - how pompous and arrogant they are! It is not without reason that poverty and fasting are commanded to us! 6.275 The person doing the prayer needs to know and see the effect of passions and spirits on his blood. It is not without reason that the Holy Scripture says that not only flesh, but also blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). Not only the gross carnal sensations of the old man, but also more subtle sensations, sometimes very subtle, coming from the movement of blood, are rejected by God. All the more, this subject needs the attention of the ascetic, since the subtle effect of passions and spirits on the blood only becomes clear when the heart feels the action of the Holy Spirit within itself. Sensation is explained by sensation. Having acquired a spiritual sensation, the ascetic suddenly sees with all clarity the effect of blood on the soul, sees how passions and spirits, acting through the blood in the most subtle way on the soul, keep the soul enslaved within themselves. Then he will understand and be convinced that every effect of blood on the soul, not only gross, but also refined, is abominable before God, constitutes a sacrifice defiled by sin, unworthy to be placed in the spiritual realm, unworthy to be numbered among spiritual actions and sensations. Until the manifestation of the actions of the Spirit in the heart, the subtle action of the blood remains either completely incomprehensible or poorly understood, and can even be recognized as an action of grace if proper caution is not taken. This precaution consists in not recognizing any heartfelt feeling as correct until the time of cleansing and renewal by the Spirit, except the feeling of repentance, saving sorrow for sins, dissolved by the hope of pardon. From fallen nature, God accepts only one sacrifice of the heart, one feeling of the heart, one state of the heart: “The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: God will not despise a contrite and humble heart” (Ps. 50:19). The effect of blood on the soul is quite obvious when the passion of anger and thoughts of anger act on the blood, especially in people prone to anger. What a frenzy a person inflamed with anger goes into! He is deprived of all power over himself: he enters into the power of passion, into the power of spirits who thirst for his destruction and want to destroy him, using himself as an instrument of atrocity; he speaks and acts as if he has no reason. The effect of blood on the soul is also obvious when the blood is inflamed by the passion of prodigal passion. The effect of other passions on the blood is less obvious; but it exists. What is sadness? What is despondency? What is laziness? These are various actions on the blood of various sinful thoughts. The love of money and greed certainly have an influence on the blood: the pleasure that dreams of enrichment produce on a person is nothing more than a seductive, deceptive, sinful game of blood? The spirits of evil, vigilantly and insatiably thirsting for human destruction, act on us not only with thoughts and dreams, but also with various touches, touching our flesh, our blood, our heart, our mind, trying by all means and ways to pour their poison into us. We need caution, we need vigilance, we need clear and detailed knowledge of the mental path leading to God. There are many thieves, robbers, and murderers on this path. At the sight of countless dangers, let us cry before our Lord and beg Him with constant weeping, so that He Himself will guide us along the narrow and regrettable path that leads to the stomach. Various inflammations of the blood from the action of various demonic thoughts and dreams constitute the fiery weapon that was given during our fall to the fallen cherub, with which he rotates inside us, preventing us from entering God’s mysterious paradise of spiritual thoughts and sensations. 2.213–215 There is an action from the blood, which seems to the inexperienced to be a good, spiritual action, but it is not good and not spiritual - it is from our fallen nature and is known because it is impulsive, ardent, and disturbs the peace in ourselves and our neighbors. Spiritual action is born from the world and gives birth to the world. Watch over your waters (heartfelt feelings) so that they flow quietly, as the prophet said about the waters of Siloam: the waters of Siloam flow flowing. Every heated feeling is bloody! Do not consider it zeal, zeal for piety, love for God and neighbors. No - this is a movement of the soul produced in it by nerves, blood. And the blood is set in motion by spiritual passions, which are the tools and chains of the world ruler, his scepter and power. Keep yourself in deep peace and reject everything that disturbs the peace as wrong, even if it has a correct and righteous appearance. 6. 229–230 The “action” you mention that was produced in you by reading the Scriptures—what impression the distant sounds of hammers striking the nails during the crucifixion of the Savior had on John the Theologian and the myrrh-bearers—was “bloody.” Understand: my nerves were shaken. Such actions are rejected in spiritual achievement and are called “pretty”, i.e. originating from self-delusion and leading to it, because they are not from the grace of God, but our own human state, characteristic of our fallen nature, which is reached through the tension of imagination and sensuality. Those inexperienced in spiritual life attribute such states to the action of grace; from this comes an opinion about oneself; an internalized opinion is self-delusion or prelest. Therefore, one must keep oneself in a state of equanimity, silence, calmness, and poverty of spirit, carefully moving away from all conditions produced by heated blood and nerves. 6.286 (See Mental and physical feat). “It is better to die as a feat,” said St. Isaac, rather than life in the fall." And what kind of life is life in sin? It is not worth the name - life; Scripture called it death; she is the firstfruits of eternal death, perhaps even eternal death, if she is not killed by the life of Christ. 6.281 Do not think that our feat was devoid of sorrows and crowns: no! It is associated with martyrdom. This martyrdom is similar to the languor of Lot in Sodom: the soul of the righteous languished at the sight of incessant and unbridled fornication. And we languish, surrounded everywhere by minds that have violated fidelity to the truth, entered into an adulterous relationship with lies, infected with hatred against the scriptures inspired by God, armed against them with blasphemy, slander and hellish mockery. Our feat has a price before God: our weakness, our means, our circumstances, and time itself are weighed on His scales. A certain great father had the following vision: before him, the earthly life of people was depicted as a sea. He saw that the ascetics of the first times of monasticism were given wings of fire, and they were carried like lightning through the sea of ​​passions. The ascetics of recent times were not given wings: they began to cry on the seashore. Then they were given wings, but not fiery, but rather weak ones: they flew across the sea. On their way, due to the weakness of their wings, they often plunged into the sea; with difficulty rising from it, they began their journey again and finally, after many efforts and disasters, flew across the sea. Let's not be discouraged! Let us not recklessly strive for brilliant feats that exceed our strength; let us accept with reverence a humble feat, very much in keeping with our weakness, given as if by the visible hand of God. Let us accomplish this feat with fidelity to the holy Truth - and in the midst of the world, a noisy, countless crowd, striving along a wide, spacious path following self-willed rationalism, we will go to God along the narrow path of obedience to the Church and the holy fathers. Not many people follow this path? As for that! The Savior said: “Fear not, little flock: for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Enter through the narrow gates: like a wide gate and a wide path you lead into destruction, and many are those who enter through it. What a narrow gate and a strait path you bring into the belly, and those who find it eat few” (Luke 12:32; Matt. 7:13-14). 6.443–444 If you offer your sacrifice with humility, as if you are unworthy, then it will be favorable to God. If you are lifted up in your heart and remember others who are sleeping or careless, then your work is vanity. 6.490 As far as I can understand from my own experience and from the stories of various skilled monks, a person who wants to please God cannot strive for the feat that a person would want to strive for according to his own election: he must strive for the feat that God, who alone sees infallibly the abilities of man, will provide him. The person himself almost always looks at himself erroneously. Again: in the passage of the very service that God has assigned to us, we encounter not those circumstances that we assumed and which should have been in logical order, but circumstances that are completely unexpected, unforeseen, out of order, disrupting order. From all this it is clearly evident that the Lord is not looking for from us those virtues and benevolence that we are pleased with and which we perform with pleasure, but those that are connected with the crucifixion of ourselves, with the cutting off of our will and mind, even if our will and mind were the most holy and reverend. The Apostle Paul wanted to convert the whole world to faith in Christ. The abundant grace that dwelt in the apostle made such an intention quite possible, and the intention itself was filled with love for one’s neighbor and God, and therefore was the best. But God allowed that in the field of preaching, which was provided to the apostle by God Himself, the apostle would encounter countless obstacles and the most severe sorrows. This should also console us, for through many sorrows we must enter into the Kingdom of God. 12.31 (See The path of asceticism, Sorrow, Humility, Human purpose). A spiritual and physical feat A physical feat, no matter how great it may be, cannot by itself reveal inner bonds and inner distress: for this a spiritual feat is necessary. A physical feat that is not accompanied by a spiritual one is more harmful than useful; it causes an extraordinary increase in spiritual passions: vanity, hypocrisy, deceit, pride, hatred, envy, conceit. “If internal work according to God,” said the great Barsanuphius, “does not help a person, then he works in vain in the external.” 2.369 You need to keep your body even and healthy through a moderate outward life, and show self-sacrifice in the rejection of all thoughts and feelings that are contrary to the Gospel. A violation of evenness will disrupt all order and all monotony in the activities that are necessary for an ascetic. “Flesh and blood” is not in flesh and blood actually, but in carnal wisdom. It puts the soul under the influence, the power of flesh and blood, and the flesh and blood under the complete power and control of sin. And the bodies of the saints had flesh and blood, but they overthrew the yoke of sin by spiritual wisdom, and came under the control and influence of the Holy Spirit. Others are so designed by the Creator that they must stop the action of their strong flesh and blood through severe fasting and other deeds, thereby giving the soul the opportunity to act. Others are not at all capable of bodily feats: everything must be worked out with the mind; their soul by itself, without any preparation, is in constant activity. She should only take up spiritual weapons. God appears to a person in mental purity, whether a person has achieved it through physical and mental feats or through spiritual ones alone. A spiritual feat can accomplish cleansing alone, without a physical one; the physical, if it does not turn into the spiritual, is completely sterile, more harmful than useful: satisfying a person, it does not allow him to humble himself, on the contrary, it leads to heights of opinion about himself as an ascetic, not like other weak people. However, physical feat, performed with true spiritual reasoning, is necessary for all those gifted with a healthy and strong physique; the general monastic rule must begin with it. Most of Christ’s workers, already after long-term practice and hardening in it, begin to understand: mental feat must certainly crown the ascetic with physical feat, without which the physical ascetic is like a tree without fruit, with only leaves. You and I need another way: regarding the body, we need to preserve and preserve prudent evenness, not to exhaust our bodily strength, which is not sufficient to carry out the common feats of monasticism. All our attention must be paid to the mind and heart: the mind and heart must be corrected according to the Gospel. If we exhaust our bodily strength through empty, bloody zeal for bodily exploits, then the mind will weaken in battle with the spirits of the air, the rulers of the darkness of this age, the heavenly forces, the fallen forces, the angels cast out from heaven. For the sake of the weakness of the body, the mind will have to abandon many, strong, essential weapons and suffer immeasurable damage. 6. 319–320 Man is doomed to eat the earth in sorrow all the days of his earthly life, and bread in the sweat of his brow: here, by the name of earth, we must understand carnal wisdom, by which a person who has departed from God is usually controlled during his earthly life, being subjected, due to carnal wisdom, to incessant care and thoughts about earthly things, incessant sorrows and sorrows, continuous confusion; Only one servant of Christ feeds during his stay on earth with heavenly bread by the sweat of his brow, in constant struggle with carnal wisdom, in constant labor of cultivating virtues. For cultivation, the earth needs various iron tools: plows, harrows, shovels, with which it is turned over, loosened, softened, - so our heart, the center of carnal sensations and carnal wisdom, needs to be processed by fasting, vigil, kneeling and other depressing of the body, so that the predominance of the carnal passionate sensation gives way to the predominance of the spiritual sensation, and the influence of carnal, passionate thoughts on the mind loses that the irresistible force it has in people who have rejected asceticism or neglected it. Whoever would decide to sow seeds on the ground without cultivating it will only destroy the seeds, will not receive any profit, and will cause himself a certain loss; in exactly the same way, anyone who, without curbing the carnal desires of the heart and the carnal thoughts of the mind with appropriate bodily deeds, would decide to engage in mental prayer and planting the commandments of Christ in the heart, will not only work in vain, but may also be subjected to mental distress, self-delusion and demonic delusion, incur the wrath of God, as he was brought upon by the one who came to the wedding feast in non-wedding clothes ( Matthew 22:12). Land cultivated in the most careful manner, highly fertilized, finely loosened, but left unsown, will give birth to tares with greater force; so the heart, cultivated by bodily exploits, but not having assimilated the Gospel Commandments, the more strongly the tares of vanity, pride and fornication grow from itself. The better the land is cultivated and fertilized, the more capable it is of growing thick and juicy tares; The stronger the physical feat of a monk who neglects the Gospel Commandments, the stronger and more incurable his conceit. A farmer who has many excellent agricultural implements, admires them, but does not cultivate the land with them, only seduces and deceives himself, without receiving any profit; Likewise, an ascetic who fasts, vigils and other bodily exploits, but neglects to examine himself and govern himself in the light of the Gospel, only deceives himself, hoping in vain and mistakenly for exploits; he will not receive any spiritual fruit, will not accumulate spiritual wealth. Anyone who would decide to cultivate the land without using agricultural tools will work a lot, and will work in vain; so the one who wants to acquire virtues without physical achievements will work in vain, will lose unrewarded, non-returnable time, will spend mental and physical strength, and will gain nothing. Whoever decides to constantly plow his land will never sow or reap: so the one who constantly engages in one physical feat will lose the opportunity to engage in spiritual feat, planting in himself the Gospel Commandments, from which spiritual fruits are born in due time. Bodily labors are necessary in order to make the earth of the heart capable of receiving spiritual seeds and bearing spiritual fruits; abandonment of exploits or neglect of them makes the land incapable of sowing and fruiting; excess in them, relying on them is as much or more harmful than leaving them. Abandoning bodily exploits makes people similar to cattle, giving freedom and scope to bodily passions; their excess makes people similar to demons, contributing to the disposition and strengthening of spiritual passions. Those who abandon the physical feat submit to gluttony, fornication, and anger in its gross manifestations; those who carry out immoderate bodily exploits, use it recklessly or place all their trust in it, seeing in it their merit before God, their dignity, fall into vanity, conceit, arrogance, pride, bitterness, into contempt for their neighbors, humiliation and condemnation of them, into memory malice, hatred, blasphemy, schism, heresy, into self-delusion and demonic lovely. Let us give all due value to bodily exploits, as tools necessary for the acquisition of virtues, and let us be careful not to recognize these tools as virtues, so as not to fall into self-delusion and lose spiritual success due to a false concept of Christian activity. Physical feat is necessary even for saints who have become temples of the Holy Spirit, so that the body, left unbridled, does not come to life for passionate movements and does not cause the appearance in a sanctified person of bad feelings and thoughts, so unusual for a miraculous, spiritual church of God. The holy Apostle Paul testified to this, saying about himself: “I mortify my body and make it enslaved, so that by preaching to no one else, I myself will not be enslaved” (1 Cor. 9:27). The Monk Isaac of Syria says that permission, i.e. abandoning fasting, vigil, silence and other bodily labors, these aids to a pious life, allowing oneself constant peace and pleasure damages both the elders and the perfect. 5. 272–274 (See Jesus Prayer, Feat). It is very easy to indulge in the wrong endeavor, and through it become completely alienated from God. 6.573 This is the property of all bodily exploits and visible good deeds. If, when we perform them, we think of making a sacrifice to God, and not of paying off our unpayable debt, then good deeds and exploits are performed in us by the parents of soul-destroying pride. 4.20 Children and youths, when, due to their lack of understanding and frivolity, they attempt to lift a weight that exceeds their strength, they strain themselves and often completely destroy themselves; Likewise, those who have not matured in spiritual age are subject to great disasters from spiritual achievements that do not correspond to their structure, and often fall into incorrigible disorder. 1.264 Deny any feat, both physical and mental, that exceeds your strength. The Lord loves humility, and does not accept insane jealousy for super-strong feats, whatever it may be: because in the desire for super-strong feats there is pride and conceit. A feat beyond strength, according to the teachings of the holy fathers, is very harmful and brings either embarrassment, or conceit, or both alternately, which serves as proof that there is no truth in a super-strong feat, but it is a false state of the soul. 6.244 Beware of the snare of the devil, who certainly inspires a person to take up life and feats that exceed his strength: the devil does this with intent in order to prematurely deplete a person’s strength and make him incapable of any soul-beneficial activity. 6.334 The fathers of the ancient Skete of Egypt no longer considered that feat to be a feat that people learned about, but abandoned this feat, imputing it as a sin. This is what the holy fathers thought and acted, wanting to sacrifice themselves entirely to God, and not to man-pleasing and vanity. 6.73 ...Such a soul tries in every possible way to hide its sweetness and inner feat from people, so that the evil one does not secretly introduce evil and destroy good deeds. 5.265 “One day Abba Tithos was sitting in his cell; he had a brother with him who lived with him. Abba Tifoi, being in spiritual ecstasy, sighed, forgetting that his brother was with him. Looking back and seeing his brother, he bowed to him, saying: “Brother! Forgive me: I am not yet a monk, because I sighed in front of you." Thus, the venerable monks were afraid of appearing and were protected from vanity, which was so close to good deeds performed openly. 7.329 “The earth is the Lord’s and its fulfillment” (Ps. 23:1). “His dominion is in every place” (Ps. 102:22). “For those who strive, whether they come in or go out, He is well-pleasing” (2 Cor. 5:9). No place is of particular importance in my eyes, but life for the sake of God in any place is priceless. 6.304 Everyone should value their place and time, not succumbing to the flattering advice of our enemy, who inspires us: “Today behave somehow; the time will come, a convenient place will be given, then you will behave as you should.” Contrary to this advice, let us behave every day and everywhere as we should, and we will heal violations in due course by repentance. The enemy flatters in order to steal all the time given for repentance. But we, having realized the flattery of the enemy, must resort to repentance every day and make a good beginning. A person who has given himself to God must consider his “now” the best time for salvation. 6. 695–696 In every place, both in the solitary desert and among the noisy crowds, those Christians who delve into the Word of God and try to implement it by life, fill their minds and hearts with parting words to a blessed eternity. On the contrary, those who neglect to exercise in the Word of God, to fulfill God’s holy commandments, remain in the sad darkness of sin, in captivity to sin, in complete sterility, despite the fact that they live in the deep desert. Desert living, not combined with spiritual pursuits, nourishes, makes you fat, and intensifies sinful passions. This is how the holy fathers instruct us, this is how it really is. The Word of God is eternal life: whoever feeds on it will live forever (John 6:51). Wherever a person feeds on the Word of God: whether in the desert or in the midst of a crowd, everywhere the Word of God retains its holy property: the property of eternal life. Therefore, no place prevents this eternal life from imparting spiritual life, the one true life, to those who partake of it. 2.49 The sorrows encountered in society cannot be an excuse for cowardice. A sorrowless life and place on earth is an impossible dream sought by minds and hearts that are alien to Divine enlightenment and deceived by demons. We are commanded to seek spiritual peace by mutually bearing infirmities. It is not by changes of place, born solely from the condemnation of one’s neighbors, that the law of Christ is fulfilled. No! “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ” (Heb. 6:2). He who madly seeks a place without sorrow runs away from the fulfillment of the law of Christ. The place and life without sorrow are in heaven: from there all sorrow and sighing will flee. The earth is a place of sighing, and blessed are those who sigh on it: they will be comforted in heaven. A place and life without sorrow - when the heart acquires humility and through humility enters into patience. 2.50 God is omnipresent. Every place is equally close to Him, and in every place He can appear to a person; the place in which He usually appears is a contrite and humble heart. 6.670 We do not live as we would like, but as God leads us to live. He knows what is most useful, and the present situation should recognize Him with great mercy. 6.751 During storms, sailors throw anchor and hold on to it from the pressure of the waves; the holy fathers call an anchor - self-reproach; By self-reproach, keep your soul from drowning in confusion. I must say to myself: I am not worthy of a better position than the one I am in; and God put me in the position in which I am, according to His great wisdom and mercy, according to my ailments. If the medicines are palpable to me and I cry out from the pain they cause, then it means that they were chosen correctly. A person who has worthy of the position, even the difficult and bitter one, in which he is placed, finds peace; and the world is a witness to the Truth. Although our unfulfilled will appears to us as a great saint; but if it were exactly like that, then wouldn’t the All-Good God fulfill it? He does the will of those who fear Him. And why doesn’t He create it, when everything, big and small, is equally possible for Him! In cutting off our will with the eye of faith we see that our will, due to its imperfection, is unworthy of being fulfilled. Why let us renounce it before God and submit to Him, so as not to join the ranks of those who are trying to go against the prick. 6. 831–832 God desires and seeks the salvation of all. He always saves everyone who wishes to be saved from drowning in the worldly and sinful sea; but it does not always save you in a ship or in a comfortable, well-equipped shelter. He promised salvation to the holy Apostle Paul and all the apostle’s companions - He gave this salvation, but the apostle and his companions were saved not in a ship that was broken, but with great difficulty, some by swimming, others on planks and various fragments from the ship (Acts 27, 21 - 49). 5.54 Where is that desired peace to which our heart is drawn, which it cannot help but crave and seek? It is hidden in the Cross of Christ. You will look in vain for it in anything else. The devil, looking at the face of the human soul and catching it in destruction, sees the desire, the natural desire of our heart for indestructible peace, and regarding this desire he gives advice: “Move from your place of residence to another, there you will find the desired peace.” This is his advice, under the guise of which another is hidden: “Come down from the cross.” 6. 155–156 Listen to the advice of Saint John Climacus, who speaks in the 4th degree of his Ladder like this: “Those who easily decide to move from place to place are completely unskillful: for nothing makes the soul barren like impatience... By moving, you can lose the redemption with which Christ redeemed you.” St. Gregory of Sinai likens those who move from place to place to transplanted trees, with each transplant being in danger of dying, and certainly losing a significant part of their strength. 6. 157–158 I do not advise you to seek a change in the monastery until the Providence of God itself shows you such a change, making it possible and convenient. 6.237 Let your outcome be in the Lord. It will be such when you accomplish it with humility, blaming only yourself, citing only your weakness as the reason for the outcome and reproaching yourself for not being able to act as the Holy Fathers recognize as the best, i.e. withstand and overcome mental battles on the spot. Then your entrance into another monastery can attract the blessing of the Lord, “who does not despise the broken and humble in heart,” but “who resists the proud!” 6. 159–160 (See Spiritual warfare, Temptations). Don’t trust your opinions: it is said about true love that it does not think evil. 6.239 Like mortal poison, beware of jealousy and suspicion of the old woman and sister. The temptation that has befallen you should show you with all clarity how disastrous it is to entrust yourself to self-reflection and suspicions inflicted from the enemy, the incorrectness and evil origin of which is recognized by the confusion they produce. 6.245 “Where are you dying, the house of Israel?” (Ezek. 18:31). Why do you, Christians, perish from your sins by eternal death? Why is hell filled with you, no matter how almighty repentance has been established in the Church of Christ? This infinitely good gift was given to the house of Israel - Christians; and no matter what time of life, no matter what the sins, he acts with the same power: he cleanses every sin, saves everyone who resorts to God, even if it was in the last, dying minutes. You are dying, O house of Israel! That is why Christians finally perish by eternal death, because throughout their entire earthly life they are engaged in one violation of the vows of baptism, in one service to sin; they perish because they do not pay the slightest attention to the Word of God, which tells them of repentance. In their dying moments, they do not know how to take advantage of the almighty power of repentance! They do not know how to take advantage of it because they have not received any concept of Christianity or have received the most insufficient and confused concept, which should be called complete ignorance rather than any knowledge. 1. 98–99 All the saints of the Orthodox Church throughout their lives relentlessly held to repentance, holding on to it even when the grace of God clearly acted on them. Nowadays, when engaging in religion, they are more likely to seek either cold knowledge of the letter, or seductive pleasure. Both belong to this world, and not to Christ. 6.549 Let us immerse ourselves entirely, unselfishly, in the work of repentance, betraying and surrendering ourselves completely to the will and goodness of God. “There is no unrighteousness with God,” instructs St. Macarius the Great. “God will not leave unfulfilled what He allowed Himself to do when we fulfill what we are obliged to do.” 1.280 “Repentance,” says St. Mark, “as I believe, is not limited either by time or by any deeds: it is accomplished by fulfilling the commandments of Christ, in proportion to this fulfillment.” 2.155 For those who faithfully and constancy remain on the path of repentance, the ineffably good Lord increases consolation, increasing tenderness and the feeling of human insignificance. He seals His chosen and most faithful servants from now on with the Holy Spirit and introduces them from time to time to partake of the future age. From time to time they become partakers of unspeakable spiritual consolation. Whoever creates pleasure for himself is in obvious demonic seduction! 6. 263–264 Listen to what the Lord said. Give value and weight to the words of the Lord!.. Everything for us is without price and without weight!.. With price and weight, only our wishes... “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a hidden treasure in a village, which a man has found hidden: and for his joy he goes, and sells everything he has, and buys that village” (Matthew 13:44). What kind of treasure? The Holy Spirit bringing the Father and the Son into the soul. What village is this treasure hidden in? Repentance. How is this village found? Living faith. What does joy mean? Kindled zeal for the cause of God, born of living faith. What does it mean: hidden? Silence and stillness. What does it mean: the whole tree is sold and the village buys it? Non-covetousness. Everything, everything must be sold, every addiction, every inclination of the heart, in order to buy repentance. Otherwise it won't sell. If a trifle is retained in the heart, the heart cannot inherit repentance: this trifle entertains it. You need to hide in silence. Hide not only from people, but, if possible, from yourself. Whoever does this will be repentant; whoever acquired this village has his treasure - the All-Holy Trinity. ABOUT! If She looked upon us, who are in misery in the waves of the invisible sea, would grant us, me and you, by self-denial, to inherit the land of repentance, would become our treasure, immeasurable and incalculable wealth 6. 294 One should not be embarrassed by the changes that occur as if they were something extraordinary; one should not indulge in the subtle examination of sins, but should spend life in constant repentance, recognizing oneself as a sinner in all respects and believing that the merciful Lord accepts everyone who only admits their sinfulness into the arms of His mercy, into the bosom of salvation. This, of course, is not about mortal sins, repentance for which is accepted by God only when a person leaves mortal sin. 6.353 Some humble, some poor in spirit will find their peace, both temporary and eternal. This is the lot and destiny set apart by God for those whom He has chosen to spiritually, truly serve Himself. During their earthly life, they must remain in repentance, alien to the pleasures and amusements of perishable things - and this constant repentance distinguishes the chosen ones of God from the sons of the world. Only through repentance can one move from a mental state to a spiritual state. St. says Isaac of Syria: “If we are all sinners and not one of us has risen above any temptation, then not a single virtue can be higher than repentance (that is, all virtues, and the highest ones, must be dissolved by repentance). The feat of repentance can never be completed: it always befits all sinners and righteous people who want to receive salvation. There is no limit that would indicate its perfect fulfillment, because the perfection of even the most perfect is truly imperfect. Why repentance cannot be certain either in time or in the number of deeds even to death.” ...In another word this great mentor says: “Repentance is the door of God’s mercy for those who carefully practice it. Through this door we enter into Divine mercy: we cannot enter into this mercy except through “that door.” Even the most sublime feats are vain, fruitless, and often soul-harming when they are not dissolved by a feeling of repentance. Repentance is alien to self-delusion and is inaccessible to it. 6. 459–460 Repentance is a general act, higher than private acts; and if you chase after private activities, then repentance can easily slip from your mind and from your heart. 6.824 Believe, enter into repentance with simplicity - and “God’s things will come of their own accord” to you, as St. Isaac of Syria. God is faithful: He opens those who interpret, He comforts those who mourn, He grants the Kingdom of Heaven to the poor in spirit. Do not think about repentance lightly: this is the soul of all deeds, this is a common deed that should animate all other deeds. Some who are in true repentance have achieved true prosperity. It is that essential work that prepares us for the manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven in us. The Savior Himself announced this! Repent, He said, the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near. The merciful Lord has prepared for us a wondrous, heavenly, eternal Kingdom, showing us the door through which we can enter the saving pasture of the Spirit and Truth - the door of repentance. If we neglect repentance, without any doubt, we will remain outside. Good deeds that are natural, according to feelings, cannot in any way replace repentance. Saint Simeon the New Theologian, calculating the benefits he received from his mentor, Simeon the Reverent, says: “He taught me repentance!” And how can one not consider it a blessing to indicate the means by which eternal, ineffable treasures are acquired? Repentance is the whole secret of salvation. How simple, how clear! But what do we do? We abandon the saving repentance indicated to us by God and strive to practice imaginary virtues, because they are pleasant to our feelings; then little by little, in an inconspicuous way, we become infected with an opinion, and just as grace is in no hurry to overshadow and crown us, we ourselves create sweet sensations within ourselves - we reward ourselves and console ourselves! Isn't this funny? Isn't this stupid? Isn't it proud and insolent? Let's stop joking with God (forgive the indecent expression, which I did not stop using because it accurately describes our behavior!), Let's live before Him in constant repentance. The time has approached, the Last Judgment is being prepared for us, at which we will be judged not according to our opinions with which we flattered ourselves, but according to the Truth. Let us prevent a terrible disaster by repentance, and turn away eternal weeping with temporary weeping. Let us come to our senses, sinners! The eleventh hour has already struck, and the field of work will soon, soon end. But there is still time to condemn yourself so as not to be condemned by God. Until now we have justified ourselves. 6. 261–262 The incomprehensible God, after the creation of man, having given him all the means to preserve life, left the choice of life or death to his free will: in the same way, at redemption, God, incomprehensible both in goodness and in His mind, having completed redemption, left it to our will to accept or reject redemption. He first invested in us the natural property of repentance: the means that we use to destroy hostility and restore peace among ourselves, He wanted to use as a means to destroy hostility and restore peace between God and humanity, between the rejected and lost creation and its Almighty Creator. Repent! – He says to humanity, calling humanity to Himself. Your salvation is accomplished by God; your death was trampled upon and killed by God, without any of your participation, assistance, or labor: arbitrarily reject the death you arbitrarily accepted! Voluntarily accept the blessed eternal life that you arbitrarily rejected! For this purpose, use the property of repentance that was put into you in good time, a property that is completely dependent on your will! Nothing heavy or new is placed on you: use the method of reconciliation among yourselves as a method of reconciliation with God! Just as initial faith consists in believing the words of God, so initial repentance consists in the awareness of one’s sins and one’s sinfulness, in regret for them, in bringing this awareness and condolences through sincere confession and fervent prayer in the face of God, with the determination and promise to leave a sinful life and accept the Gospel Commandments as a rule of conduct. Such repentance will be followed by forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, assimilation to God, according to the clear testimony of Holy Scripture, which says: “I have known my iniquity, and have not covered my sin. Reh: Let me confess my iniquity to the Lord, and You have forsaken the wickedness of my heart” (Ps. 31:5). Such repentance was required of those who accepted Christianity before their baptism (Acts 2:38); With such repentance the souls of Christians are healed from the ulcers with which sin wounds and defiles them after receiving baptism (1 John 1:9). The Gospel is received by faith (Rev. 1:15); living according to the teachings of the Gospel strengthens faith - faith from hearing, theoretical, little by little turns into active, practical faith. A similar thing happens with repentance from living according to the Gospel Commandments. The own light of fallen nature, as damaged by sin, weakly illuminates human activity; in this light we see few of our errors, we see only the most gross and tangible ones. When our activity is illuminated by the light of Christ’s commandments, then our self-view changes; we begin to see many shortcomings in ourselves that we had not noticed at all before. Our damage by sin then appears before our mental eyes in astonishing variety! What is revealed to us is both that sinfulness that constitutes our sad common heritage with other people, and that private sinfulness that each person acquires as their property from his inattentive, reckless life that preceded a life devoted to piety. With the multiplication of incentives for repentance, repentance itself intensifies and deepens. It cleanses the eye of the soul. A cleansed eye sees more stains on the robe of the soul than it saw, being clogged and ulcerated by sin; Naturally, such a vision intensifies and deepens repentance. It operates in successful ascetics incomparably more than in those beginning the feat. Moral Christian success is success in repentance, because success in repentance comes from especially careful fulfillment of the Gospel Commandments. All the saints abounded in the feeling of repentance; They concentrated their activities in repentance and performed the commandments as payment of that terrible debt (Luke 17:10), which even with constant payment remains unpaid, which, due to the perfection of the Lender and the weakness of the debtors, becomes unpayable, even if it is constantly paid. Repentance in mature Christians acquires a special, extensive meaning. When Saint Isaac of Syria was asked: “What is repentance?” - he answered: “A contrite and humble heart.” This same great mentor of perfect Christians said: “If we are all sinners and not one of us has risen above temptation, then there is not a single virtue, the highest repentance. Doing it can never achieve perfection. It always befits everyone who wants to receive salvation, both sinners and righteous. There is no limit at which it could be recognized as completed - and therefore repentance cannot be limited either by time or by the deeds of the ascetic until death.” When the grace of God overshadows faith, then the Christian ascends to a life above natural. In the same way, repentance, being overshadowed by Divine grace, elevates its doer to a supernatural life. Overwhelmed by the feeling and thirst for repentance, the holy fathers entered into endless seclusion for him, indulged in crying and sobbing from the contemplation of their sinfulness and that of all mankind; they forgot food because of their groaning and roared from the abundance of sadness, like lions wounded by hunters. Having recognized the virtue of repentance brought in silence, they said: “Outside silence there is no perfect repentance.” Others of the fathers, due to the contemplation of their sinfulness, with humility endured slander, humiliation, expulsion and death itself, weeping and condemning themselves, as if guilty of what the slander accused them of. The holy martyrs, accepting terrible torment and the death penalty, saw in them the longed-for cleansing of their sinfulness. While grace was demonstrating their election and holiness by clear signs, they were concerned about repentance. ...Because of their deep humility, the greatest saints of God did not seem to see the grace-filled gifts with which they abounded - they saw only their sinfulness, which had already been washed by Divine grace, which testified by its obvious presence in the chosen vessels the removal of sinfulness. Among the properties that distinguish holy men is the fact that they always have their sin before their eyes, although it has been forgiven by God - they mourn it, as if it had just been committed and not yet worthy of forgiveness. Thus, Saint David, crying, says: “I know my iniquity, and I will take away my sin before me” (Ps. 50:5). They say about the holy Apostle Peter that throughout his life he remembered his denial of the Lord, and every night when the rooster crowed, Peter indulged in bitter sobbing, just as he indulged in bitter sobbing and weeping on the very night of his renunciation (Matthew 26:75). The Monk Sisoes the Great, an Egyptian desert dweller, was filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit; but, upon the approach of his death, he expressed a desire to remain for some time in earthly life in order to improve in repentance. The greatest saints of God had this opinion about repentance: it was formed in them from constant and thorough cleansing by repentance, and the ineffable greatness of God, the insignificance of man and the severity of his fall become clear to man. ...God's saving gift - repentance - requires that we accept it with the greatest reverence and care. Careless, contemptuous behavior towards the gifts of God entails terrible disasters, which naturally arise from such behavior. How can the greatest, spiritual, essential, eternal disaster not arise when we, accepting the gift of God, reject a proper study of both the gift itself and the use that should be made of it? Unfortunately, many act extremely carelessly and ignorantly with the great gift of repentance! They do not want to learn that repentance cannot be combined with an arbitrary sinful life. Living in a sinful life out of sympathy for it, out of attachment to it, at certain times they resort to repentance so that, having washed themselves for a minute, they again plunge into sinful filth. O terrible deception of ourselves! O terrible mockery of the gift of God! O terrible curse against God! “The last pot of the first was for them” (2 Pet. 2:20–21). With such hypocritical repentance, such play with the great sacrament and mockery of it, sinful life is imprinted, strengthened, and becomes the inalienable property of man. The following words of Saint John the Theologian apply to arbitrary sinners: Everyone sins without seeing Him (the Lord Jesus Christ), nor knowing Him. Children, let no one flatter you. Create sin from the devil is. Anyone born of God does not commit sin, for His seed abides in him, and cannot sin, for he is born of God. For this reason the essence of the child of God and the child of the devil has been revealed (1 John 3:6, 10). The children of God and the children of the devil are evident, the sign of their difference is clear; deception is impossible. Those who lead an arbitrary sinful life, drowning in carnal pleasures, even if they were called Christians, are the children of the devil; on the contrary, the sign of the children of God is that they lead their lives according to the will of the Gospel and the Holy Church, and the sins into which they fall due to weakness are hastily healed by repentance. Even the most righteous person cannot be completely sinless: and for him, healing through repentance is necessary, as the same holy Apostle John testified. “If we say that we are not sinners, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Christians of the primal Church, leaving the faith of the pagans, also left their life (1 Pet. 4:3-4). The holy Apostle Peter calls this life the shedding of fornication. Not to mention popular entertainment, all the institutions of the pagans represented a varied service to voluptuousness, which, like a stream, washed over the entire society. Sinful, depraved life was the life of the pagans, the soul of their society; it cannot in any way be combined with Christianity. Let us love repentance and receive salvation. Let us accept from the hand of the Lord the lifelong gift of repentance - and in due time we will receive the eternal gift of salvation. The All-Good God gave repentance to life (Acts 11:18), He will give to those who truly repent, those who are reconciled with Him, who have assimilated to Him through repentance, bliss in eternity, for the Lord’s salvation is (Isaiah 3:9). 4. 10–19 (See Confession, Prayer, Lay Work, Death, Cross, Mortal Sins). Bows are divided into ground and waist bows; They usually rely on the evening rule, before repose to sleep. It is best to bow before reading the evening prayers, i.e. begin the rule with bows. From bowing, the body will become somewhat tired and warm, and the heart will come into a state of contrition: from such a state, the ascetic will pray more fervently, warmly, and more attentively. You will feel a completely different taste in prayers when they are read after bowing. Bows must be made very slowly, this bodily feat must be animated by the cry of the heart and the prayerful cry of the mind. If you want to begin kneeling, give your body the most reverent position that a servant and creation of God should have in the presence of the Lord his God. Then collect your thoughts from wandering everywhere and with extreme leisurely, aloud only to yourself, enclosing your mind in words, say from a contrite and humble heart a prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Having said your prayer, slowly bow to the ground, with reverence and fear of God, without heat, with the feeling of a sinner repenting and begging for forgiveness, as if at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Do not imagine in your mind the image or image of the Lord, but have conviction in his presence; have the conviction that He is looking at you, at your mind and heart, and that His reward is in His hand; the first is an impermissible dream leading to disastrous self-delusion, and conviction in the presence of the omnipresent God is conviction in the all-holy truth. Having bowed to the ground, again bring your body into reverence and calmness, and again slowly say the above prayer; Having said it, bow again in the above manner. Do not worry about the number of bows, pay all attention to the quality of the prayer performed with kneeling. Don’t talk about the effect on the spirit; a small number of bows performed in the above manner will have a much stronger effect on the body itself than a large number performed hastily, without attention, for the sake of counting. Experience will not be slow to prove this. Having tired yourself from kneeling, move on to bowing from the waist. The measure of the bow is determined by when, during performance, his lowered hand touches the ground or floor. Having made it an indispensable duty when performing prostrations to perform abundant spiritual activity, consisting of attentiveness, slowness, reverence, and the intention to bring repentance to God, the ascetic will see within a short time how many prostrations his physique can bear. Having excluded from this number several bows in the form of his weakness and self-indulgence, from the remaining number of bows he can establish a daily rule for himself and, having asked for the blessing of a confessor, or abbot, or one of the monks to whom he has power of attorney and with whom he consults, he can apply such a rule daily. 5. 101–102 For the edification of our beloved brothers, let us not remain silent about the following: bows performed for the sake of numbers, not inspired by correct mental and heartfelt deeds, are more harmful than beneficial. The ascetic, having fulfilled them, begins to rejoice. Behold, he says to himself, like the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel, today God has vouchsafed to make (approximately) three hundred bows! God bless! Is it easy? In modern times, three hundred bows! Who now bears such a rule? It must be remembered that bowing warms the blood, and warmed blood greatly contributes to the stimulation of mental activity; Having come to such a disposition, the poor ascetic, for the sole reason that he has no concept of true spiritual activity, indulges in soul-harmful mental activity, indulges in vain thoughts and dreams based on his feat, through which he thinks to succeed; the ascetic delights in these thoughts and dreams, cannot get enough of them, internalizes them, implants in himself the destructive passion of conceit. Conceit soon begins to manifest itself in secret condemnation of neighbors and in an obvious disposition to lecture them. Obviously, such a disposition is a sign of pride and self-delusion... This is the fruit of any bodily feat, if it is not animated by the intention of repentance and does not have the goal of repentance alone, if the feat in itself is given a price. 5. 102–103 If you feel that your body is not being taxed by the prescribed number of bows, then add a few, so that the body feels some fatigue, which contributes to contrition of the heart, remembering the following words of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Be careful that, wanting to increase your labor somewhat, you do not stop at all and do not stop your entire flow. Do not stretch your feet beyond your strength, lest you become completely idle.” And the following words also belong to Isaac: “Every prayer in which the body is not weary and the heart is not oppressed is imputed to the rejected: for such prayer is without soul.” Just as these last words are true, so are the first ones important and thorough: they were spoken to the brother, who was especially engaged in bowing. Saint Isaac says: “Love bowing in prayer rather than practicing poetry,” i.e. in reading psalms and canons. Let the number of bows be determined by the satisfaction of their purpose. Their purpose is to warm the body, and the spirit also gets hot. At the same time, it is good to remember the words of St. Demetrius, spoken by him from experience and belonging to his cell stay: “It is better to have a short and frequent prayer than a long one with long intervals.” 6.204–205 (See Prayer Rule). Four kinds of thoughts and sensations act on the person praying: some vegetate from the grace of God, planted in every Orthodox Christian through holy baptism, others are offered by the Guardian Angel, others arise from fallen nature, and finally, others are inflicted by fallen spirits. The first two types of thoughts, more correctly, memories and sensations, promote prayer, enliven it, increase attention and the feeling of repentance, produce tenderness, crying of the heart, tears, expose before the eyes of the praying person the vastness of his sinfulness and the depth of human fall, announce death that is inevitable for anyone, the unknown of its hour, the impartial and Last Judgment of God, eternal torment, according to cruelty exceeding human comprehension. In the thoughts and feelings of a fallen nature, good is mixed with evil, and in demonic ones, evil is often hidden behind good, acting, however, sometimes with open evil. The last two types of thoughts and sensations act together due to the connection and communication of fallen spirits with fallen human nature - and the first fruit of their action is arrogance and absent-mindedness in prayer. Demons, bringing supposedly spiritual and high understandings, distract them from prayer, produce vain joy, pleasure, self-satisfaction, as if from the discovery of the most mysterious Christian teaching. Following demonic theology and philosophy, vain and passionate thoughts and dreams invade the soul, plunder, destroy prayer, and destroy the good structure of the soul. According to the fruits, truly good thoughts and feelings are distinguished from thoughts and feelings that are supposedly good. 1.211 When a person is especially bothered by thoughts against his will, this is a sign that God has mercy on that person. Unclean spirits are jealous of such a person and try to confuse him. One should not analyze such thoughts and pay special attention to them, because this increases embarrassment. You cannot find order in those in which everything is disorder. All embarrassment must be answered with short words: “I surrendered myself to the will of God.” Also, in prayer, daily ask God to do His holy will over us, and then be affirmed by faith in God, without Whose will nothing can happen to us. 6.523–524 The attack on us by sinful thoughts is allowed to us for our benefit, because it leads us to humility, to the experimental knowledge of our fall, our sinfulness. The Fathers recognize the invasion of sinful thoughts on those engaged in prayer as a good sign: from the fight against sinful thoughts, an active mind and strength of spirit are obtained. Sinful thoughts must be resisted, and passions for them must be immediately healed by repentance. Do not enter into a subtle examination of your passions: this is beyond your power and will certainly harm you. Know that our fall planted the seed of sin in each of us, and therefore the fall must necessarily manifest its presence in us through various sinful thoughts and sensations. This should not be surprising as something strange! This should be! But one should not consider sinful thoughts and sensations, lest they creep into the soul and infect it; one should immediately reject them, and oneself should plunge into the abyss of God’s mercy. 6.535–536 One should never reason with thoughts. The enemy can present a lot of logical, irrefutable things, inclining our mind to accept evil, murderous thoughts, disguised in the guise of virtue and piety. Let your heart be the touchstone of your thoughts. No matter how good the thought may be, if it takes away peace from the heart and subtly leads to a violation of love with neighbors, it is enemy. Don’t argue with him, don’t reason, otherwise he’ll catch you and force you to eat from the forbidden tree. Arm yourself quickly against it, drive it away from you with spiritual weapons: praising God, thanking God, surrendering yourself to His will, reproaching and condemning yourself, prayer. An excellent weapon during a strong battle: come to your cell, prostrate yourself for a moment before God, asking for His help and surrendering yourself to His will. In case of severe abuse, this is repeated several times a day - and it helps a lot. ...I repeat again: gird yourself with the sword, put on your armor. Do not deign not only conversation to your enemies - below words, below views. As soon as you hear the voice of war, get up for battle, shouting to your thoughts and feelings: let us take courage and be strong for our people and for the cities of our God! (2 Kings 10, 12). The voice of war is a violation of the peace of the heart. As soon as the peace of the heart begins to be disturbed, to waver, know: foreigners are coming. 6.284–300 All the fathers agree that the novice... must reject sinful thoughts and dreams at the very beginning, without entering into debate, below into conversation with them. This should be done especially in relation to prodigal thoughts and dreams. To repel sinful thoughts and dreams, the fathers offer two tools: 1) immediate confession of thoughts and dreams to the elder and 2) immediate appeal to God with the warmest prayer for the driving away of invisible enemies. St. Cassian says: “Always observe the head of the serpent, i.e. the beginning of thoughts, and immediately tell them to the elder: then you will learn to trample on the evil undertakings of the serpent, when you are not ashamed to reveal them, without exception, to your elder.” 5.338 Venerable Nil of Sora, based on the instructions of Saint Isaac of Sora, offers the following method of combating sinful thoughts, of course, when abuse does not have much effect and is inferior to this method. This method consists in turning evil thoughts into good ones and replacing, so to speak, passions with virtues. For example, if a thought of anger or remembrance comes, then it is useful to remember meekness and gentleness, the commandments of the Lord, threateningly prohibiting anger and remembrance; if a thought and feeling of sadness comes, then it is useful to remember the power of faith and the words of the Lord, Who forbade us to indulge in fear and sadness, assuring and assuring us with His Divine promise that the hair of our head is counted by God, and nothing can happen to us without the Providence and permission of God. The Monk Barsanuphius the Great said: “The Fathers say: if demons lead your mind into fornication, remind it of chastity; if he is carried away into gluttony, bring him fasting as a reminder. Do the same with other passions.” Do this when thoughts of love of money, vanity and other sinful thoughts and dreams arise. This method, we repeat, is very good when it turns out to be strong enough; it was indicated to us by the Lord Himself (Matthew 4:3, 6–7). But when the passions are agitated, the mind is darkened and confused before the enormity of temptation, thoughts attack with persistence and fury - then not only against lustful thoughts, but also against thoughts of anger, sadness, despondency, despair, in a word, against all sinful thoughts, the most reliable weapon is prayer with the participation of the body in it. An example of this was shown and the Lord Himself commanded us again. Embraced by death's anguish, the Savior of the world prayed, kneeling, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and to the disciples, who did not understand the approaching great sorrow, he said: Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune (Matthew 26, 39, 41). 5. 344–345 It is necessary for beloved brothers to know the following: all good thoughts and virtues have an affinity with each other; in the same way, all sinful thoughts, dreams, sins and passions have an affinity with each other. Because of this affinity, voluntary submission to one good thought entails natural submission to another good thought; the acquisition of one virtue introduces into the soul another virtue, akin and inseparable from the first. On the contrary, voluntary submission to one sinful thought entails involuntary submission to another; the acquisition of one sinful passion attracts into the soul another passion akin to it; the voluntary commission of one sin leads to an involuntary fall into another sin, born of the first. Anger, the fathers said, does not tolerate “remaining unmarried” in the heart. 5.351 Do not consider it permissible for you to have any conversation with thoughts, no pleasure in dreams that are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. Agreement with the enemies of the Lord, unity with them cannot but be accompanied by a violation of fidelity to the Lord, a violation of unity with Him: whoever keeps the whole law, yet sins in one thing, will be guilty of everything (James 2:10). Just as the violation of one commandment is at the same time a violation of the entire law of God or the will of God, so the fulfillment of one piece of the devil’s advice is at the same time the fulfillment of the will of the devil in general. An ascetic who has fulfilled the will of the devil is deprived of his freedom and is subjected to the violent influence of the fallen spirit, to the extent that the will of the devil is fulfilled. Mortal sin decisively enslaves a person to the devil and decisively breaks a person’s communion with God, until a person heals himself through repentance; infatuation with thoughts and dreams produces lesser enslavement and separation, but it does produce them. And therefore it is necessary to abstain from all thoughts and dreams that disagree with the teachings of the Gospel, and to immediately heal any infatuation with repentance. We beg our beloved brethren to pay attention to this. Those who do not know this and do not pay attention to it suffer the greatest harm and deprive themselves of spiritual success. 5.352 Many, guarded from prodigal thoughts and dreams, consider the pleasure of thoughts and dreams of greed and vanity to mean nothing, while according to the spiritual law, thoughts and dreams about property, about honors, about human glory are the same prodigal ones. All sinful thoughts and dreams have such a meaning in a person’s relationship with God, as distracting a person from the love of God. According to spiritual law, one who delights in vainglory and other sinful thoughts and dreams will never be freed from lustful passion, no matter how much he strives against it. The Monk Macarius the Great says: “You must guard your soul and take care in every possible way so that it does not associate with foul and evil thoughts. Just as a body, having copulation with another body, becomes infected with uncleanness, so the soul is corrupted, combining with nasty and evil thoughts and agreeing with them as one, with thoughts that lead not to this or that sin, but which plunge into all kinds of malice, such as: unbelief, flattery, vanity, anger, envy, zeal. This is what it means to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). Know that even in the secrets of the soul, corruption and wandering are caused by the action of obscene thoughts.” 5. 352–353 By conversing and mixing with thoughts that belong to the realm of Satan, without assimilating them, by contemplating thoughts and dreams brought by demons, the spiritual eye is damaged. His visual power loses to some extent, in accordance with the degree of communication with Satan, its correctness and purity. The Monk Hesychius of Jerusalem says: “Just as we harm ourselves by looking at harmful things with our sensual eyes, so we harm ourselves by looking at harmful things with our minds.” 5.362 (See Jesus Prayer Thoughts). Here experiential knowledge is an absolute necessity. The Monk Cassian the Roman says: “It is useful to reveal your thoughts to your fathers, but not just any father, but to spiritual elders who have reasoning, elders not according to their physical age and gray hair. Many, carried away by the appearance of old age and expressing their thoughts, instead of healing, received harm from the inexperience of those who heard.” 1.489 Sinful thoughts and sensations arise from our fallen nature; but when sinful thoughts and sensations begin to constantly and intensely come, this serves as a sign that they are brought by our enemy, a fallen angel, or he forces our fallen nature to especially produce them. Such thoughts and feelings should be confessed to the confessor, so often and as long as they are cold, even if the confessor were a simple-hearted man, without the glory of a saint. Your faith in the holy Sacrament of Confession will save you; the grace of God inherent in the Sacrament of Confession will heal you. By constant and intensified attack on us, the fallen spirit tries to sow and grow the seeds of sin in us, to accustom us to some type of sin with frequent reminders of it, to arouse a special attraction to it and to turn this type of sin into a habit, as if into a natural property. A sinful habit is called passion, it deprives a person of freedom, makes him a captive, a slave of sin and a fallen angel. Against the intensified and frequent attack of sinful thoughts and sensations, called abuse in monastic language, there is no better weapon for a beginner than confession. Confession is perhaps the only weapon for a beginner during battle. At least it is the strongest and most effective weapon. Run to him as often as possible during a misfortune inflicted by the devil: run to him until the devil and the misfortune inflicted by him leave you. The devil loves to commit evil in secret; loves to be unnoticed, misunderstood. He catches in secret, like a lion in his fence: he catches in order to snatch the poor (Ps. 9:30), an inexperienced and weak monk. He does not tolerate being discovered and declared: having been exposed and declared, he throws away his prey and leaves. Thoughts, although sinful, are fleeting, do not become assimilated by the soul, and do not need immediate confession. Reject them, do not heed them, drown them out by remembering the Gospel Commandments opposite to them; mention them in general terms, without at all taking the senseless concern of counting them; in confession before communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, say that in addition to the significant sins that should be stated accurately, you have sinned in various thoughts, words and deeds, in knowledge and ignorance. 5. 149–150 The Monk Macarius the Great, having learned that a certain monk Theopempt was carried away by lustful thoughts brought by the devil, gave Theopempt the following advice: “Fast until the evening, so that you feel hungry, memorize the Gospel and other books of the Holy Scripture, so that you always remain in the mind of God. If an evil thought comes to you, do not accept it, never allowing your mind to be brought down, but always direct it to grief, and God will help you.” 5.324 In particular, one must avoid conversation and debate with lustful thoughts. The ascetic is the most drawn into such verbal debate, mistakenly believing that lustful thoughts and dreams have arisen of their own accord in his soul and can be curbed by the power of prudent exhortation to himself - not understanding, due to his inexperience, the coming to himself of a demon who willingly enters into conversation and verbal debate with us, probably knowing that voluptuous thoughts and dreams will find sympathy in the soul of the novice, arouse and they will kindle the voluptuousness that lives in her; he lures and lures us into conversation and debate, then as if yielding and moving away, then attacking again, in the full hope of gaining a decisive victory over us. Saint John Climacus said: “Do not think of putting down the prodigal demon by argument and contradiction: because he has plausible pretexts, as one who fights with us on the basis of nature... He who wants to enter into a fight with his flesh or defeat it by himself, works in vain: for if the Lord does not destroy the house of the flesh and does not build the house of the soul, then the destroyer watches and fasts in vain... Submit the weakness of your nature before the Lord, recognize your powerlessness in all respects, and you will accept the gift of chastity in an inconspicuous way.” 5. 340–342 From living faith in God comes complete submission to God, and from submission to God comes peace of mind and tranquility of the heart. You need to instill in your heart faith in God, submission to God; Having tasted them, you will taste with them spiritual consolation in sorrow and peace. The fight against thoughts that bring sorrow, no matter how complex, intricate and clever these thoughts may be, should be very simple, just as the whole Christian faith is simple, in its simplicity accessible to every person, and in its strength satisfying every person. Fight against thoughts and feelings of sadness with short words: “Lord! Thy will be done! Blessed and holy is God in all His works!” Say these words with your mind, and when you are alone, say a few out loud; say slowly, with great attention and reverence; repeat these short words until the thoughts and feelings of sadness subside. When they rise again, you again use the same weapons against them. Through experience you will learn the power of this weapon, which at first glance looks so insignificant. And it is impossible to get out of a state of struggle into a state of calm other than through victory. Submitting to sadness is extremely dangerous: when it intensifies in a person, it prevails over him and can kill both body and soul. 6. 466–467 (See Thanksgiving, Doxology). When blasphemous thoughts of unbelief, doubts and the like come, then, according to the teaching of the holy fathers, we should not be embarrassed by this, but know that these thoughts do not belong to our soul, but to our enemy - the devil. One should not be embarrassed by them, should not accept them and become entrenched in them. 6.633. Do not be embarrassed about the thoughts of unbelief and blasphemy that come to you. This obvious demonic warfare, which happened to many saints and lasted for a very long time. Saint Niphon was tormented by such abuse for four years. Look at his life in Chetiy-Minea, December 23. In such battles there is no need to be embarrassed, no need to fall into despair, but to throw yourself before the all-seeing and all-powerful God and, surrendering your soul to His will, ask for His mercy. Out of embarrassment and despair, the enemy’s abuse strengthens against us, but if we look at this abuse with generosity, saying to ourselves: “Well? The Lord sees this battle and allows it - it means this is His holy will and it is for my spiritual benefit,” then the battle weakens and diminishes. 6.631 The desire for earthly prosperity, how strange, how monstrous! It searches with frenzy. As soon as it is found, what is found loses its value and the search is aroused with renewed vigor. It is dissatisfied with nothing present: it lives only in the future, it thirsts only for what it does not have. Objects of desire lure the seeker's heart to itself with a dream and hope of satisfaction: deceived, constantly deceived, he chases after them throughout the entire field of earthly life, until unexpected death delights him. How and with what can we explain this search, which treats everyone like an inhuman traitor and dominates everyone, captivates everyone? The desire for endless benefits is implanted in our souls. But we have fallen - and the heart, weakened by the fall, seeks in time and on earth for what exists in eternity and in heaven. 1. 86–87 An absent-minded life, filled with worldly cares, makes a person fat, along with overeating and overeating (Luke 21:34). Such a person is stuck to the earth, busy with only temporary and vain things; service to God is done for the scattered with a foreign object; the very thought of this service is wild for him, full of darkness, unbearably painful. 1.373 Doing housework and housework is very useful: it removes you from idleness and eases the mind’s invisible struggle. Struggle during idleness elevates it to a strong feat, permissible only to those who are forced to it by circumstances or brought by God. Prudence requires not to go into a fight that exceeds one’s strength; on the contrary, to make it as easy as possible for oneself. 6. 353–354 With faith, surrender yourself to the will of God, rejecting not labor care for yourself, but dreamy care. When such concerns come, it is much better to pray to God for yourself, rather than delve into writings and paintings of various plans, which are always unrealizable. 6.523 Your desire is in vain to be in complete obedience to an experienced mentor. This feat is not given to our time. He is not only absent among the Christian world, he is not even present in monasteries. Mortification of the mind and will cannot be carried out by a spiritual person, even a kind and pious one. For this, a spirit-bearing father is necessary: ​​only before a spirit-bearer can the disciple’s soul be revealed; only he can discern where and where the spiritual movements of the one he is teaching are directed. For the purity of his conscience, a student must confess his thoughts with accuracy and detail; but the mentor should not be guided by this confession in judging the student’s state of mind; he must penetrate with spiritual sensation, measure it and tell him the state of his soul invisible to him. This is how Pachomius the Great, Theodore the Sanctified and other holy mentors of monks acted. The disciples said to Theodore the Sanctified: “Father! Reprove me,” and he, moved by the Holy Spirit, revealed to everyone the spiritual ailments hidden within him. These great fathers recognized “monastic obedience” as a special gift of the Holy Spirit: this is what a contemporary writer, the Monk Cassian, tells us. Obedience is “the miracle of faith!” God alone can accomplish it. And it was done by those people who were given this gift from above by God. But when people want to achieve through their own efforts what is given only by God, then their labors are vain and in vain; then they are like the pillar builders mentioned in the Gospel, who begin a building without the means to complete it. All passing, i.e. demons and passions laugh at them, because outwardly they seem to be performing virtue, but in essence, they are in bitter deception, blindness and self-delusion, subordinate to their passions, fulfilling the will of demons. And many thought they were going through obedience, but in reality it turned out that they were fulfilling their own whims and were carried away by the heat of the moment. Happy is the one who, in his old age, manages to shed a tear of repentance for the hobbies of his youth. The Lord said about blind leaders and those led by them: “But if a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14). Our time has been given another feat, fraught with many difficulties and stumbling blocks. We had to travel - neither during the day, nor in the clear light of the sun, but at night, in the pale light of the moon and stars. We have been given the Holy Scriptures for our guidance - the holy fathers of later times say this directly. When guided by Scripture, the advice of neighbors is also useful, namely those who themselves are guided by the writings of the fathers. 6.441–443 He who subordinates his will to his neighbor reveals the diligence of his soul in acquiring virtues; on the contrary, he who is partial to his will reveals his ignorance. 6. 490–491 We believe, having learned to believe so much from the holy fathers that if the Lord, for reasons unknown to us but known to Him alone, does not allow anyone to understand the path of obedience, he will not accept anything from people, and even if he had the holy apostles themselves before him, he will throw stones at them. 6. 170–171 Obedience is the most saving feat. The strength and life of all the passions of a person are concentrated in his corrupted will: obedience, binding and killing the will, binds and kills all passions together... Obedience is more useful than all voluntary exploits, although at a superficial glance it seems that a position in obedience hinders spiritual success, preventing the accomplishment of voluntary exploits. This view is wrong. 6.531–532 Do not be at all embarrassed by the battles operating within you, associated with burden, darkness and despondency. Everyone who has come from a long-term self-imposed life to obedience is usually subjected to such abuse. 6.242 All spiritual success lies in the fact that the heart, having renounced the changeable, stupid laws - more correctly - the lawlessness of its will, accepted the laws of the Gospel, and obeyed them everywhere. True obedience is in the mind and heart. There's selflessness there! There is also a knife, about which the Gospel commanded his disciple: “Let him sell his robe and buy a knife” (Luke 22:36). This concept of obedience, self-sacrifice, and spiritual success leaves outward behavior in complete freedom. 6.304 St. Basil the Great and, according to him, other saints. the fathers claim that if we needed to have relaxed bodies, then God would have created them as such; why do they command a measure of fasting precisely such as is necessary to curb carnal passions, which at the same time would not upset those, but would keep them capable of fulfilling the commandments of Christ or, more simply, of obedience and feats of vigil, prayer and kneeling, which weakened bodies are ultimately incapable of. 6.74 St. John of the Climacus ate from everything permitted to the monastic rite, in order to avoid the spiritual passions of vanity, self-importance, man-pleasing, secret eating, hypocrisy, deceit, and lies, which often appear among ascetics in the flesh and make spiritual success absolutely impossible for them. God appears in simplicity and humility, and serving Him cannot be combined with serving human glory. 6.77 The merciful Lord established, through the mediation of His holy apostles and holy fathers, saints and teachers of the Church, various soul-saving feats, and among them holy fasting, by which our flesh is bound and bridled. In relation to all these exploits, we must remember that they are for man, and not man for them, just as the Lord said: “The Sabbath was made for man’s sake, and not man for the sake of the Sabbath.” This should also be understood about fasting. Why, being in extreme weakness and not having the need to depress the body, but on the contrary, having the need to strengthen it, do not hesitate at all to eat fish soup during this Holy Pentecost, for fish soup will give less strength to your weak body than bread and water to another strong one. The Lord, the knower of the heart, who sees your weakness, will not exclude you from among those who fast. This is what many great saints of God did and, by the way, Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus. St. Isaac of Syria says in the 10th word: “Let not you disturb and cut off your life, which is like a spiritual faith, and for the lust of a little labor, let not you remain and cease from all your progress. Eat in moderation, but not always eat. And do not stretch out your legs beyond your strength, so that you will not be at all idle.” This wise advice of the great mentor of monastics may well be applied to you; because by abstinence that does not correspond to your strengths, you can lead yourself completely to weakness, you will lose church service and your society, to which you are now bringing some service, will serve as a burden. 6. 245–246 As for your bodily food, you should not worry about it with all your heart: for such care can distract you from God. But at the same time, you need to pay due attention to this bodily weakness of yours. The Monk Cassian the Roman in his word “On Discourse” says: “Extremes harm both countries equally: excess of fasting, and satiation of the belly, and immensity of vigil and satiety of sleep, and other excesses. For we saw some who were undefeated by gluttony, but who were overthrown by immeasurable fasting,” and so on. According to this reasoning of the holy fathers, I advise you to take care of some correction of your stomach by eating fish soup from ruffs, fresh milk and similar benefits, valuing their use as medicine, and not as a delicacy. “Let us learn to be passion-killers, not body-killers,” said the Great Pimen to a certain brother, who saw that this saint of God was pouring water on his feet. 6.236 A detailed study of the Christian faith and everything leading to an accurate knowledge of Christ’s teachings contains the resolution of many perplexities born of unbelief and superstition. Church history has preserved for us the following event from the first times of Christianity. On the island of Cyprus there was a bishop of great holiness, Spyridon of Trimythous, who lived at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth century, who was present at the first Council of Nicea, a man who performed great signs. In the first week of Great Lent, on Friday, a Christian wanderer came to him. His daughter lived with the bishop. The bishop says to his daughter: “Do we have some food for the stranger?” The daughter replied: “My father! You don’t eat anything this week, and I try to imitate you: that’s why we don’t have any cooked food; and the meat-eater eats the leftover pork meat.” The bishop says: “Put this meat on the table and prepare a meal for us.” The daughter carried out her father's orders; the saint of God invited his guest to the table and sat down with him to eat. The wanderer said: “I am a Christian, and I do not eat meat during Lent.” The bishop answered him: “Because you are a Christian, and not a Jew, you must eat: we abstain from meat not because they are unclean or because there is any virtue in it, as the Jews abstain from them, but so that our bodies are not burdened by gluttony and drunkenness.” This story is in one of my precious books, which contain many interesting and useful events and traditions of the primal Church of Christ. It is useful for people to explain such circumstances, without fear of hurting superstition (one must bear the infirmities of one’s neighbors, but not indulge their prejudices). God, seeing the direct intention, will act for good on their hearts. I have seen examples of this. How the ancient Christians put the Gospel Commandment above all else, and according to it they already honored Church tradition! The Monk Cassian, a father of the 4th century, wandering around Egypt, came on a fast day to a certain holy desert dweller. The desert dweller presented him with a meal with some deviation from the strict Lenten rules. Leaving the elder, St. Cassian asked him: “Why do the monks in Egypt allow visitors to fast, while the monks in Syria do not?” (The Egyptian monks, and among the Egyptian monks the monks of Skete, were revered - and rightly so - as the most exalted monks in terms of holiness and spiritual intelligence in the whole world). The desert dweller answered: “Fasting is mine; I can have it whenever I want; and by accepting brothers and fathers, we accept Christ, Who said: Accept you, He accepts Me, and: sons of marriage cannot fast until the Bridegroom is with them. When the Bridegroom departs, then they fast.” This is the true concept of the teaching of Christ! 6. 648–650 The head of virtues is prayer; their basis is fasting. Fasting is constant moderation in food with prudent pickiness in it. Proud man! You dream so much and so highly about your mind, but it is in complete and continuous dependence on your stomach. The law of fasting, while outwardly a law for the belly, is in essence a law for the mind. The mind, this king in man, if it wants to enter into the rights of its autocracy and preserve them, must first of all submit to the law of fasting. Only then will he be constantly cheerful and bright; only then can he rule over the desires of the heart and body; only with constant sobriety can he study the Gospel Commandments and follow them. The basis of virtues is fasting. The newly created man, introduced into paradise, was given a single commandment, the commandment of fasting. Of course, one commandment was given because it was sufficient to preserve the primordial man in his integrity. The commandment did not speak about the quantity of food, but only forbade the quality. Let those who recognize fasting only in the quantity of food, and not in quality, remain silent. By delving deeper into the experiential study of fasting, they will see the importance of food quality. The commandment of fasting, announced by God to man in paradise, is so important that, along with the commandment, a threat of execution was pronounced for violating the commandment. The execution consisted of defeating people with eternal death. And now sinful death continues to strike violators of the holy commandment of fasting. He who does not observe moderation and proper discernment in food cannot preserve either virginity or chastity, cannot curb anger, indulges in laziness, despondency and sadness, becomes a slave of vanity, the home of pride, which his carnal state introduces into a person, which is most evident from a luxurious and well-fed meal. The commandment of fasting is renewed or confirmed by the Gospel. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness (Luke 21:34), the Lord commanded. Overeating and drunkenness impart fatness not only to the body, but to the mind and heart, i.e. They bring a person’s soul and body into a carnal state. On the contrary, fasting puts a Christian into a spiritual state. Purified by fasting, he is humble in spirit, chaste, modest, silent, subtle in his heartfelt feelings and thoughts, light in body, capable of spiritual achievements and speculation, capable of receiving Divine grace. The carnal man is completely immersed in sinful pleasures. He is voluptuous in body, heart, and mind; he is incapable not only of spiritual pleasure and the acceptance of Divine grace, but also of repentance. He is incapable of spiritual pursuits at all: he is nailed to the ground, drowned in materiality, alive - dead in soul. Woe to you who are now saturated: for you will hunger! (Luke 6:25). This is the saying of the Word of God to those who violate the commandment of holy fasting. What will you eat in eternity, when here you have learned only to be satiated with material indulgences and material pleasures that are not in heaven? What will you eat in eternity, when you have not tasted a single heavenly good? How can you eat and enjoy heavenly blessings when you have not acquired any sympathy for them, and have acquired disgust? The daily bread of Christians is Christ. Insatiable satiation with this bread is satiety and saving pleasure, to which all Christians are invited. Feast insatiably on the Word of God; be insatiably satisfied with the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ; be insatiably satisfied with the meal prepared to resist those who are cold to you, and be drunk with the cup of power (Ps. 23:5). “Where should we begin,” says Saint Macarius the Great, “who have never studied our hearts? Standing outside, we will knock by prayer and fasting, as the Lord commanded: Press and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7).” This feat, which one of the greatest teachers of monasticism offers us, was the feat of the holy apostles. From among him they were privileged to hear the broadcasts of the Spirit. “To those who serve the Lord,” says the writer of their deeds, “and to those who fast, the Holy Spirit said: Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work that they called upon. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on her, she sent them away” (Acts 13:2-3). From the midst of the feat, in which fasting and prayer were combined, the command of the Spirit was heard to call the pagans to Christianity. A wonderful combination of fasting and prayer! Prayer is powerless if it is not based on fasting, and fasting is fruitless if prayer is not built on it. Fasting removes a person from carnal passions, and prayer fights spiritual passions and, having defeated them, penetrates the entire makeup of a person and purifies him; She introduces God into the purified verbal church. Whoever sows the land without cultivating it destroys the grain and reaps thorns instead of wheat. Likewise, if we sow the seeds of prayer without thinning our flesh, then instead of truth we will bear fruit in sin. Prayer will be destroyed and plundered by various vain and vicious thoughts and dreams, desecrated by voluptuous sensations. Our flesh comes from the earth and, unless it is cultivated like the earth, can never bear the fruit of righteousness. On the contrary, if someone cultivates the land with great care and expense, but leaves it unsown, then it will be thickly covered with tares. So, when the body is weakened by fasting, and the soul is not nourished by prayer, reading, and humility, then fasting becomes the parent of numerous tares - spiritual passions: arrogance, vanity, contempt. What is the passion of gluttony and drunkenness? The natural desire for food and drink, which has lost its correctness, requires a much greater quantity and varied quality of them than is needed to maintain life and bodily strength, on which excessive nutrition acts opposite to its natural purpose, acts harmfully, weakening and destroying them. The desire for food is corrected by a simple meal and abstinence from satiety and enjoyment of food. First, satiety and pleasure must be abandoned: this is how the desire for food is refined and receives correctness. When the desire becomes correct, then it is satisfied with simple food. On the contrary, the desire for food, satisfied by satiety and pleasure, is dulled. To excite him, we resort to a variety of tasty foods and drinks. The desire at first seems satisfied, then it becomes more whimsical and, finally, turns into a painful passion, seeking constant pleasure and satiety, constantly remaining unsatisfied. Intending to devote ourselves to serving God, let us make fasting the basis of our endeavor. The essential quality of any foundation must be unshakable firmness, otherwise it is impossible for a building to stand on it, no matter how strong the building itself is. And we will never, ever, under any pretext allow ourselves to break our fast through satiety, especially drunkenness. The holy fathers recognize that the best fasting is eating food once on a day of insufficiency. Such a fast does not weaken the body by prolonged abstinence and does not burden it with excess food, and moreover preserves it capable of soul-saving activities. Such a fast does not represent any striking feature, and therefore the fasting person has no reason for the exaltation to which a person is so inclined regarding virtue itself, especially when it is sharply exposed. Anyone who is busy with bodily labor or is so weak in body that he cannot be content with eating food once a day must eat twice. Fasting is for man, not man for fasting. But with any consumption of food, both rare and frequent, satiety is strictly prohibited: it makes a person incapable of spiritual achievements and opens the door to other carnal passions. Immoderate fasting, i.e. prolonged excessive abstinence in food is not approved by the holy fathers: from immeasurable abstinence and the exhaustion that results from it, a person becomes incapable of spiritual achievements, often turns to gluttony, and often falls into the passion of exaltation and pride. The quality of food is very important. The forbidden fruit of paradise, although it was beautiful to look at and tasty, it had a detrimental effect on the soul: it imparted to it the knowledge of good and evil and thereby destroyed the purity in which our forefathers were created. And now food continues to have a strong effect on the soul, which is especially noticeable when drinking wine. This effect of food is based on its varied effect on flesh and blood and on the fact that its vapors and gases from the stomach rise to the brain and have an effect on the mind. For this reason, all intoxicating drinks, especially bread drinks, are forbidden to the ascetic, as they deprive the mind of sobriety and thus victory in mental warfare. A defeated mind, especially by voluptuous thoughts, having delighted in them, is deprived of spiritual grace; what has been acquired through many and long labors is lost in a few hours, in a few minutes. “A monk should not drink wine at all,” said the Monk Pimen the Great. This rule should be followed by every pious Christian who wants to preserve his virginity and chastity. The Holy Fathers followed this rule, and if they drank wine, it was very rarely and with the greatest moderation. Hot food should be excluded from the abstinent meal, as it excites bodily passions. These are pepper, ginger and other spices. The most natural food is that which is assigned to man by the Creator immediately upon creation - food from the plant kingdom. God said to our forefathers: “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb that yields seed, which is on the top of the whole earth; and every tree that has seed in it will be for you to eat” (Gen. 1:29). After the flood, eating meat was allowed (Gen. 9:3). Plant food is the best for an ascetic. It warms the blood the least, fattens the flesh the least; vapors and gases that separate from it and ascend to the brain have the least effect on it; finally, it is the healthiest, as it produces the least mucus in the stomach. For these reasons, when using it, the purity and vigor of the mind is especially conveniently preserved, and with them its power over the whole person; when using it, passions are less active, and a person is more capable of engaging in deeds of piety. Fish dishes, especially those prepared from large sea fish, have a completely different effect: they have a more noticeable effect on the brain, fatten the body, warm the blood, and fill the stomach with harmful mucus, especially with frequent and constant use. These effects are incomparably stronger from eating meat food: it extremely fattens the flesh, giving it special plumpness, and heats the blood; its vapors and gases greatly burden the brain. For this reason it is not used at all by monks; it belongs to people living in the middle of the world, always busy with intense bodily labor. But for them, constant use of it is harmful. "How! - the imaginary clever people here will exclaim. “Meat food is permitted to man by God, and do you forbid its consumption?” We respond to this with the words of the Apostle: “All are to fly (that is, everything is permitted to me), but not all are for good: all are to fly, but not all are to edify” (1 Cor. 10:23). We shy away from eating meats not because we considered them unclean, but because they produce special fatness in our entire composition and interfere with spiritual success. The Holy Church, by its wise institutions and decrees, having allowed Christians living in the middle of the world to eat meat, did not allow their constant consumption, but divided the times of meat-eating into times of abstinence from meat, times during which a Christian sobers up from his meat-eating. Anyone who observes them can experience this fruit of fasting. For monastics, the consumption of meat is prohibited; the consumption of dairy foods and eggs during meat-eating is allowed. At certain times and days they are allowed to eat fish. But most of the time they can eat only one plant food. Plant foods are almost exclusively consumed by the most zealous ascetics of piety, who have especially felt the walking of the Spirit of God within themselves (2 Cor. 6:17), due to the above-mentioned convenience of this food and its cheapness. For drinking they use only water, avoiding not only hot and intoxicating drinks, but also nutritious drinks, which are all bread drinks. The rules of fasting were established by the Church with the aim of helping her children, as a guide for the entire Christian society. At the same time, everyone is instructed to consider himself with the help of an experienced and prudent spiritual father and not to impose on himself a fast that exceeds his strength: because, we repeat, fasting is for man, and not man for fasting; food given for the maintenance of those should not destroy it. “If you hold your belly,” said Saint Basil the Great, “then you will ascend to heaven; if you do not hold back, you will be a victim of death.” The name of paradise here should mean a grace-filled prayerful state, and the name of death a passionate state. A person’s state of grace during his stay on earth serves as a guarantee of his eternal bliss in heavenly Eden; the descent into the power of sin and into a state of spiritual deadness serves as a guarantee of the descent into the hellish abyss for eternal torment. 1. 131–137 Passions are diminished in beginners not from intense fasting, but from confession of sinful thoughts, from labors and from withdrawal from free interaction with others. 5. 17 The ascetic of Christ, illuminated from above and taught by his pious experiences, turning to the consideration of the Lenten feat itself, finds it quite necessary not only to abstain from satiety and constant satiety, but also to be strictly selective in food. This legibility seems unnecessary only with a superficial, cursory glance at oneself; but in essence the quality of food is especially important. In paradise the only quality that was forbidden was. In our vale of tears, on earth, we find that indiscriminate quality produces much more mental disasters than excess in quantity. We should not think that one cluster tends to affect our mind, our soul; Each type of food has its own effect on the blood, on the brain, on the whole body, and through the body on the spirit. He who carefully observes himself, practicing the feat of fasting, will find it absolutely necessary to sober up his body and soul from prolonged consumption of meats and even fish; he will lovingly embrace the statutes of the Holy Church on fasting and submit to them. 4.89 By the name of teaching or remembrance of God, the holy fathers mean some short prayer, or even some short spiritual thought, to which they became accustomed and which they tried to assimilate to the mind and memory instead of any thought. 2.189 Why is unceasing prayer or unceasing remembrance of God called teaching? Because the ascetics, upon whose work the dew of Divine grace descended, found in the short prayer they repeated a spiritual, deepest, inexhaustible meaning, which constantly attracted and aggravated their attention with its spiritual novelty. And for them the short verse became the most extensive science, the science of sciences, and their occupation in the precise sense of teaching. Such were the instructions of the holy fathers, such was their doing. Not only all their deeds and words, but all their thoughts were dedicated to God. This is the reason for the abundance of the gifts of the Spirit in them. On the contrary, we are careless about our affairs; We do not act as God’s commandments command, but as it happens, according to the first attraction of the senses, according to the first thought that presents itself. We are even more careless about words than about deeds, and we do not pay any attention to thoughts; they are scattered everywhere among us, they are all sacrificed by us to vanities. Our mind, in contrast to the state of the mind, fenced off by teaching, is like a church with four gates, with all the doors open, in which there are no guards, into which anyone can enter and leave, bringing in and taking out whatever they want. Brethren! Let us cease from such inattentive and fruitless living. Let us imitate the work of the holy fathers, and among other works, the remembrance of God, in which they constantly kept their minds. Young man! Sow with diligence the seeds of virtues, accustom yourself with patience and forcing yourself to all God-loving exercises and deeds, accustom yourself to the memory of God, enclose your mind in holy teaching. If you see that he constantly slips into extraneous and vain thoughts, do not be discouraged. Continue your feat with constancy. “Try to return,” says Saint John Climacus, “or, more correctly, to enclose the thought in the words of prayer. If in infancy it is expelled (from the conclusion in the words of prayer) - again introduce it (into them). The mind is characterized by instability (mobility); but He who orders everything can give him standing. If you constantly continue in this feat, then He who sets all the boundaries of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200byour mind will come to you and will say to him in your prayer: You will reach this, and you will not pass away (Job 38:11).” Teaching on the surface seems strange, dry, boring; but in essence it is a most fruitful work, a most precious church tradition, an institution of God, a spiritual treasure, the heritage of the apostles and holy fathers, who received it and handed it over to us at the command of the Holy Spirit. You cannot imagine the riches that you will become an heir to in due time, having acquired the skill of constantly remembering God. The mind and heart of the beginner cannot imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:4) not only in the next century, but also in this life, in which they anticipate the bliss of the next century. “Prepare yourself,” said Saint John Climacus, “with unceasing prayer, performed in the secret of your soul, for prayer, and you will soon succeed.” In due time, the teaching will embrace your entire existence; You will become as if intoxicated by it, as if belonging to this world and at the same time not belonging, alien to it: belonging in body, not belonging in mind and heart. Intoxicated with sensual wine, he does not remember himself, forgets grief, forgets his dignity, his nobility and wealth - and intoxicated with Divine teaching, he becomes cold, insensitive to earthly lusts, to earthly glory, to all earthly benefits and advantages. His thought is unceasingly with Christ, who through teaching acts as a sacred fragrance: the smell is like the stink of death into death: the smell of animals is like the stink into the belly (2 Cor. 2:15-16). Teaching kills in a person sympathy for the world and passions, revives in him sympathy for God, for everything spiritual and holy, for blissful eternity. What is there in heaven? - cries, intoxicated with teaching. Nothing. And what did You want on earth? “Only so that I can continually cleave to You in silent prayer.” Some desire wealth, others desire glory, but I desire to cleave to my God and place the trust of my dispassion in Him (Ps. 72:25, 28). The words of teaching should initially be pronounced in the tongue, in a very quiet voice, slowly, with all possible attention, enclosing, according to the above advice of St. John Climacus, the mind in the words of teaching. Little by little, oral prayer will turn into mental, and then into heartfelt. But this transition takes many years. One should not seek it prematurely; let it happen by itself, or more correctly, let God grant it at a time known to Him, depending on the spiritual age and circumstances of the ascetic. The humble ascetic is content with the fact that he is honored to remember God. And he already considers this a great benefit of the Creator for the poor and weak creature - man. He recognizes himself as unworthy of grace, does not seek to reveal its effects in himself, learning from the teaching of the holy fathers that such a search begins with vanity, which leads to delusion and fall, that this search itself is already seduction, because with an all-powerful search, the receipt of grace depends solely on God. He longs to discover his sinfulness within himself and acquire the ability to cry about it. He submits himself to the will of the All-Good and Most Merciful God, who knows to whom it is useful to bestow grace and for whom it is useful to withhold its coming. Many, having received grace, fell into negligence, arrogance and arrogance; The grace given to them served, due to their foolishness, only to their greater condemnation. Blessed is the guarantee of the heart in a monk, according to which he, practicing in any feat, exercises completely unselfishly, hungers and thirsts solely to fulfill the will of God, and betrays himself with faith and simplicity, with the rejection of his understanding, power, will, control of the merciful Lord our God, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the understanding of truth. 2.198–201 Ignorant and hypocritical ascetics recognize themselves as having achieved their goal when they see themselves as saints, when the world recognizes and proclaims them as such; they rejoice at the self-delusion and conceit that enters them, not understanding how disastrous conceit is, not understanding that human praise serves as a sign of a false prophet. This sign is extremely important: it was given by the God-Man Himself. “Woe,” said the Lord, “when all men tell you good things: for this reason their fathers committed false prophecy” (Luke 6:26). 5.380 (See Vanity, Reproaches, Pride). Regarding the rule of prayer, know that it is for you, and not you for him, but for the Lord. Why have freedom with reasoning. In case of weakness, decrease, in case of strength, increase - both with moderation and caution. 6.158 The greatest holy fathers command that the rule for a Christian be as simple and uncomplicated as possible. The Great Barsanuphius says that the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven are closed and that there is no need to give broad rules for entering them; a broad rule can even prevent us from entering them, because, chasing the little things, we can miss the most important. 6.470 The Holy Fathers, praising the rule of prayer and confessing the necessity of it, instruct to have it in moderation, commensurate with one’s strength, with the state of spiritual prosperity and with the circumstances in which a person is placed by God’s Providence. The essence of fulfilling the prayer rule is that it be fulfilled with attention. From attention, our spirit comes into humility: from humility, repentance is born. To be able to make a rule slowly, the rule must be moderate. The Holy Fathers, highly praising the moderate rule, advise us to fulfill it without neglect. 6.525 When you find it necessary to add or subtract something from your prayers and readings on the occasion of weakness or other activities encountered independently of you, do it without doubt or embarrassment. Be free! Don't bind yourself to any scrupulousness. The rules are for the man, not the man for the rules. The opposite of this understanding produces only bewilderment and frustration. 6.534 According to the Holy Fathers, there is no price for a moderate and constant rule. And therefore, in your life, maintain prudent proportionality, without binding yourself by quantity. 6.840 “Go into your closet, and when you have shut your doors, pray to your Father who is in secret: and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you in reality” (Matthew 6:7). This is the Lord Himself’s establishment of solitary cell prayer. The Lord, who commanded solitary prayer, very often Himself, during His earthly wanderings, as the Gospel narrates, remained in it. He had no place to lay His head, and therefore the silent mountain peaks and shady hillsides often replaced His silent, calm cell. Before His descent into suffering, which was to purchase the salvation of the human race, the Lord prayed in the secluded garden of Gethsemane. During prayer, the God-man knelt; from the intense prayerful feat, abundant sweat rolled from His face in bloody drops to the ground. The Garden of Gethsemane consisted of centuries-old olive trees. And during the day, in the light of the sun's rays, a thick shadow lay in it, and then the dark night of Palestine lay on it. No one shared His prayers with the Lord: His disciples were sleeping in the distance, and sleeping nature was all around. A traitor came here with torches and an armed crowd; the traitor knew the favorite place and time of Jesus’ prayers. The darkness of the night covers objects from prying eyes, the silence of silence does not entertain the ear. In silence and at night you need to pray more attentively. The Lord chose primarily solitude and the night for His prayer; He chose them so that we would not only obey His commandment about prayer, but also follow His example. Did the Lord, for Himself, need prayer? While He was with us on earth as a man, He, together as God, was inseparable from the Father and the Spirit, and had with Them one Divine will and Divine power. Go into your closet, and when you have shut your doors, pray to your Father who is in secret. Let no fool of yours know about your prayer! - neither your friend, nor your relative, nor the vanity itself that cohabits your heart and incites you to tell someone about your prayer feat, to hint about it. Shut the doors of your cell from people who come to talk idle talk and steal your prayers; close the doors of your mind from extraneous thoughts that appear to distract you from prayer; close the doors of your heart from sinful sensations that try to confuse and defile you, and pray. Do not dare to bring to God multi-verbal and eloquent prayers composed by you, no matter how strong and touching they may seem to you: they are the product of a fallen mind and, being a desecrated victim, cannot be accepted on the spiritual altar of God. And you, admiring the elegant expressions of the prayers you have composed and recognizing the refined effect of vanity and voluptuousness as a consolation of conscience and even grace, will be carried away far from prayer. You will be carried away far from prayer at the very time when it seems to you that you are praying abundantly and have already achieved a certain degree of pleasing God. The soul that begins the path of God is immersed in deep ignorance of everything Divine and spiritual, even if it is rich in the wisdom of this world. Because of this ignorance, she does not know how and how much she should pray. To help the infant soul, the Holy Church established prayer rules. A prayer rule is a collection of several prayers composed by the divinely inspired holy fathers, adapted to a certain circumstance and time. The purpose of the rule is to provide the soul with the amount of prayerful thoughts and feelings it lacks, moreover, thoughts and feelings that are correct, holy, and truly pleasing to God. The grace-filled prayers of the holy fathers are filled with such thoughts and feelings. For the prayer exercise in the morning there is a special collection of prayers called morning prayers or morning rule; for night prayer before going to bed - another collection of prayers, called prayers for bedtime or the evening rule. A special collection of prayers is read by those preparing for communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and is called the rule for Holy Communion. Those who devoted a large part of their time to pious exercises read a special collection of prayers, called the daily or monastic rule, around the 3rd hour in the afternoon. Others read several kathismas every day, several chapters from the New Testament, and made several bows: all this is called the rule. Rule! What a precise name, borrowed from the very effect produced on a person by prayers called the rule! The prayer rule guides the soul correctly and holy, teaches it to worship God in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23), while the soul, left to itself, could not follow the correct path of prayer. Due to her damage and darkening by sin, she would constantly turn to the sides, often into the abyss: now into absent-mindedness, now into daydreaming, now into various empty and deceptive ghosts of high prayerful states, created by her vanity and self-love. Prayer rules keep the person praying in a saving disposition of humility and repentance, teaching him constant self-condemnation, feeding him with tenderness, strengthening him with hope in the All-Good and All-Merciful God, delighting him with the peace of Christ, love for God and his neighbors. How sublime and deep are the prayers for Holy Communion! What excellent preparation they provide to those approaching the Holy Mysteries of Christ! They clean and decorate the house of the soul with wonderful thoughts and sensations that are so pleasing to the Lord. The greatest of the Christian sacraments is majestically depicted and explained in these prayers; In contrast to this height, man’s shortcomings are vividly and accurately calculated, his weakness and unworthiness are shown. From these prayers the incomprehensible goodness of God shines like the sun from the sky, because of which He deigns to unite closely with man, despite the insignificance of man. Morning prayers breathe vigor and freshness of the morning: he who has seen the light of the sensual sun and the light of the earthly day learns to desire the vision of the highest, spiritual Light and the endless day produced by the Sun of Truth - Christ. The brief calm of sleep during the night is an image of a long sleep in the darkness of the grave. And they remind us of our sleep prayers for our future migration into eternity, they review all our activities during the day, and teach us to bring God confession of our sins and repentance for them. The prayerful reading of the Akathist to the sweetest Jesus, in addition to its own dignity, serves as an excellent preparation for the exercise of the Jesus Prayer, which reads like this: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. This prayer is almost the only exercise of successful ascetics who have achieved simplicity and purity, for whom all much thinking and verbosity serves as a burdensome distraction. The Akathist shows what thoughts can be accompanied by the Jesus Prayer, which seems extremely dry for beginners. Throughout its entire space, it depicts one sinner’s request for mercy by the Lord Jesus Christ; but this petition is given various forms, in accordance with the infancy of the minds of the beginners. This is how babies are given food that has been previously softened. The Akathist to the Mother of God glorifies the incarnation of God the Word and the greatness of the Mother of God, Who is blessed by all generations for the birth of the God incarnate (Luke 1:48). As if in a vast picture, the great Mystery of the incarnation of God the Word is depicted in the akathist with countless wondrous features, colors, and shades. Successful illumination enlivens every picture, and the akathist to the Mother of God is illuminated with the extraordinary light of grace. This light acts purely: it enlightens the mind; from him the heart is filled with joy and news. The incomprehensible is accepted, as if completely comprehended, by the wonderful effect it has on the mind and heart. Many reverent Christians, especially monks, perform the evening rule for a very long time, taking advantage of the silence and darkness of the night. To their bedtime prayers they add reading kathismas, reading the Gospel, the Apostle, reading akathists and bowing with the Jesus Prayer. In those hours in which the blind world indulges in riotous and noisy amusements, the servants of Christ weep in the silence of their cells, pouring out fervent prayers before the Lord. Having spent the night in a mad vigil, the sons of the world meet the coming day in gloom and despondency; in joy and good spirits, in the consciousness and feeling of an extraordinary ability for the thought of God and for all good deeds, the servants of God greet the day for which they spent the previous night in a feat of prayer. The Lord knelt down during His prayer - and you should not neglect kneeling if you have enough strength to perform it. By worship to the face of the earth,” according to the explanation of the fathers, our fall is depicted, and by uprising from the earth, our redemption. Before starting the evening rule, it is especially useful to make a feasible number of bows, from them the body will become somewhat tired and warm, and a feeling of pious sadness will be communicated to the heart; Both will be prepared to read the rule diligently and attentively. When performing the rules and bows, there should be no rush; must perform the rules and bows with possible leisurelyness and attention. It is better to read fewer prayers and bow less, but with attention, than a lot without attention. Choose for yourself a rule that corresponds to your strengths. What the Lord said about the Sabbath, that it is for man, and not man for it (Mark 2:27), can and should be applied to all pious deeds, and between them to the prayer rule. A prayer rule is for a person, not a person for a rule: it should help a person achieve spiritual success, and not serve as an unbearable burden, crushing bodily strength and confusing the soul. Moreover, it should not serve as a reason for proud and harmful conceit, for harmful condemnation and humiliation of others. A prudently chosen prayer rule, according to one’s strengths and type of life, serves as a great aid for one who strives for his salvation. Performing it at the prescribed hours turns into a skill, a necessary natural need. The one who has acquired this blessed skill is barely approaching the usual place of performing the rules, when his soul is already filled with a prayerful mood: he has not yet had time to utter a single word of the prayers he reads, and already tenderness flows from his heart and his mind has gone completely deep into the inner cell. “I prefer,” said a certain great father (St. Matoi), “a short rule, but constantly followed, to a long rule, but soon abandoned.” And this is always the fate of prayer rules that are disproportionate to strength: at the first impulse of ardor, the ascetic performs them for some time, of course, paying more attention to quantity than to quality; then the exhaustion produced by a feat that surpasses his strength gradually forces him to reduce and reduce the rules. And often ascetics, who have foolishly set a burdensome rule for themselves, move from the difficult rule straight to abandoning all rules. After leaving the rule, and even with one reduction in it, embarrassment will certainly attack the ascetic. From embarrassment, he begins to feel mental distress. From frustration comes despondency. Having intensified, it produces relaxation and frenzy, and from their action the reckless ascetic indulges in an idle, absent-minded life, and with indifference falls into the grossest sins. Having chosen for yourself a prayer rule commensurate with your strengths and spiritual needs, try to fulfill it carefully and strictly: this is necessary to maintain the moral strength of your soul, just as sufficient consumption of healthy food at certain times of the day is necessary to maintain bodily strength. “God will not condemn us on the day of His judgment for abandoning the psalms,” says Saint Isaac of Syria, “not for abandoning prayer, but for the subsequent abandonment of them, the entry of demons into us. Demons, when they find a place, will enter and close the doors of our eyes: then they will fulfill with us, their tools, violently and uncleanly, with the cruelest vengeance, everything forbidden by God. And because of the abandonment of a small rule, for which Christ’s intercession is honored, we become subject to demons, as it is written by some wise men: “He who does not submit his will to God will submit to his opponent.” These rules, which seem small to you, will become walls for you against those who are trying to captivate us. The implementation of these rules inside the cell was wisely established by the founders of the Church Charter, according to revelation from Above, for the preservation of our belly.” The great fathers, who remained in unceasing prayer from the abundant action of God's grace, did not abandon their rules, which they were accustomed to perform at certain hours of the night. We see many proofs of this in their lives: Anthony the Great, following the rules of the ninth hour - the church ninth hour corresponds to the third hour in the afternoon - was honored with Divine revelation; when the Monk Sergius of Radonezh was engaged in prayerful reading of the akathist to the Mother of God, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to him, accompanied by the apostles Peter and John. Dearest brother! Submit your freedom to rule; it, having deprived you of your destructive freedom, will bind you only in order to give you spiritual freedom, freedom in Christ. The chains will seem burdensome at first; then they will become precious to those bound by them. All the saints of God took upon themselves and bore the good yoke of the prayer rule: by imitation of them, you too should follow in this case our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, having become human and showing us His way of behavior, acted as His Father acted (John 5:19), said what the Father commanded Him (John 12:49), and had the goal of fulfilling the will of the Father in everything (John 5:30). The will of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one. In relation to people, it consists in saving people. 2. 170–176 All gifts of God to man are worthy of respect. The gift of speech undoubtedly belongs to the greatest gifts. They make man like God, who has His Word. The human Word, like the Word of God, constantly abides with its father and in its father - the mind, being one with it and at the same time separating from it inseparably. The human word is known only to the mind, from which it is constantly born and thereby expresses the existence of the mind. We cannot imagine the existence of mind without words and words without mind. When the mind wants to inform the mind of its neighbors, it uses its word for this. The word, in order to acquire the ability to communicate, is clothed in sounds or letters. Then the immaterial word becomes, as it were, material, remaining unchanged in its essence. And the Word of God, in order to enter into communication with people and save them, became human. With a thorough look at the word of man, the reason for the strict sentence of the Lord becomes clear, by which it is determined and announced that people will give an account of every idle word. The divine purpose of the word in writers, in all teachers, and especially in shepherds is the instruction and salvation of people. What a terrible answer will be given by those who have turned the means of edification and salvation into a means of corruption and destruction! 6.118 Worldly conversations plunge the heart into darkness and turn it away from virtues. 6.491 Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones: for I say to you, for their angels in heaven always see the face of my heavenly Father. The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost man. He shed His priceless Blood for each and every one, and thereby established for all people one, the same equal price, one, equal value (Matthew 18:10-11; 1 Cor. 6:20). 5.293 True Christians of all times have been guarded with all possible care from the deadly poison of heresy and other false teachings. They steadfastly adhered to the dogmatic and moral tradition of the Church. Not only did they believe Orthodoxy in the Holy Trinity, but they also directed their lives, their deeds, and their morals according to the tradition of the Church. A distinctive feature of all the holy fathers was the unwavering guidance of the moral tradition of the Church, and they commanded that only such a spiritual guide be considered true, who follows in all the teachings of the fathers of the Eastern Church and their writings and testifies and seals his teaching. Whoever thinks to lead his neighbors from the principles of earthly wisdom and from the principles of fallen reason, no matter how brilliant he may be, is in self-delusion and leads his followers to self-delusion. The Holy Fathers decreed that the indispensable rule for those who wish to be saved is to follow the moral tradition of the Church. To do this, they command those who wish to live piously and pleasingly to follow the instructions of a true teacher or to follow the scriptures of the fathers, which correspond to the way of life of everyone. After eight centuries after the Nativity of Christ, church holy writers begin to complain about the impoverishment of spiritual mentors and the appearance of many false teachers. They command, due to the lack of mentors, to turn to reading the patristic writings, and to avoid reading books written outside the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The further times deviated from the appearance of the Divine Light on earth, the greater the lack of true holy mentors, the greater the abundance of false teachers; Since the discovery of printing, they have flooded the earth like a flood, like bitter apocalyptic waters, from which many people have died a spiritual death. “Many prophets will arise,” the Lord foretold, “and will deceive many: and because iniquity will increase, the love of many will dry up. This prophecy has come true: its fulfillment is before our eyes. And there is another prediction of the Lord about the nature of the time in which His second, terrible coming to earth will take place. The Son of Man, said the Lord, pointing to the future fate of faith, when he comes, will he find faith on earth? Then false reason and human wisdom, hostile to faith and God, will dominate it. 6.438–439 “Enterprise” is what the active fathers call acceptance (renewal) in the thought and feeling of a sin that was once actually committed. Enterprises torment the repentant ascetic for a more or less long time after he has given up sinful deeds. This can be clearly seen from the lives of the Venerable Moses Murin, Mary of Egypt and others. 2.399 (See Insolence, Love of neighbor). St. Gregory of Sinaite says: “In general, one reason for delusion is pride.” In human pride, which is self-deception, the devil finds a convenient refuge for himself and adds his deception to human self-deception. Every person is more or less prone to delusion, because “the purest human nature has something proud in itself” (St. Macarius the Great). 1.222 If... anyone, driven, in the words of St. John Climacus, by proud zeal, seeks to receive prematurely spiritual sweetness or heartfelt prayerful action, or some other spiritual gift befitting a renewed nature, he inevitably falls into delusion, no matter what form of prayer he engages in, whether psalmody or the Jesus Prayer. 6.249 Prelest is the damage to human nature by lies. Delusion is the state of all people, without exception, produced by the fall of our forefathers. We are all in delight. Knowing this is the greatest protection against delusion. The greatest charm is to recognize oneself as free from delusion. We are all deceived, all deceived, all in a false state, in need of liberation by the truth. The truth is our Lord Jesus Christ (John 8:32, 14:6). Let us assimilate this Truth by faith in It; Let us cry out in prayer to this Truth, and She will rescue us from the abyss of self-delusion and seduction by demons. ...The fallen angel used lies as a means of destroying the human race (Gen. 3:13). For this reason, the Lord called the devil a lie, the father of lies and a murderer from time immemorial (John 8:44). The Lord closely connected the concept of lying with the concept of murder, because the latter is an indispensable consequence of the former. The word “from time immemorial” indicates that lies from the very beginning served as a tool for the devil to commit murder and constantly serves him as a tool for murder, for the destruction of people. The beginning of evil is a false thought! The source of self-delusion and demonic delusion is a false thought! Through lies, the devil struck humanity with eternal death at its very roots, in its forefathers. Our forefathers were deceived, i.e. They recognized a lie as the truth, and, having accepted a lie under the guise of truth, they damaged themselves with an incurably deadly sin, which our foremother also witnessed. “The serpent deceived me,” she said, “and I died” (Gen. 3:13). Since that time, our nature, infected with the poison of evil, strives voluntarily and involuntarily towards evil, which appears to be good and pleasure to a distorted will, a perverted mind, a perverted feeling of the heart. It is arbitrary because we still have a remnant of freedom in choosing good and evil. Involuntarily because this remnant of freedom does not act as complete freedom; he operates under the inherent influence of the corruption of sin. We are born this way; we cannot help but be like this, and therefore all of us, without any exception, are in a state of self-delusion and demonic delusion. From this view of the state of people in relation to good and evil, a state that necessarily belongs to every person, the following definition of prelest follows, explaining it with all satisfaction: prelest is the assimilation by a person of a lie that he has accepted as the truth. Charm acts initially on the way of thinking; Having been accepted and perverted the way of thinking, it is immediately communicated to the heart, perverting the heart’s sensations; Having mastered the essence of a person, it spills over all his activities, poisoning the body itself, as inextricably linked by the Creator with the soul. The state of delusion is a state of destruction or eternal death. Since the fall of man, the devil has had constant free access to him. The devil has the right to this access: to his power, by obedience to him, man arbitrarily subjected himself, rejecting obedience to God. God redeemed man. The redeemed man is given the freedom to obey either God or the devil, and in order for this freedom to be revealed freely, the devil is given access to man. It is very natural that the devil makes every effort to keep a person in the same attitude towards himself or even bring him into greater enslavement. To do this, he uses his former and ever-present weapon - lies. He tries to seduce and deceive us, relying on our state of self-delusion; our passions - these painful attractions - he sets in motion; their destructive demands are clothed in plausibility, and are strengthened to incline us to satisfy our passions. He who is faithful to the Word of God does not allow himself this satisfaction, curbs his passions, and repels the attacks of the enemy (Jas. 4, 7); acting under the guidance of the Gospel against his own self-delusion, taming passions, thereby gradually destroying the influence of fallen spirits on himself, he little by little emerges from the state of delusion into the realm of truth and freedom (John 8:32), the fullness of which is delivered by the overshadowing of Divine grace. He who is unfaithful to the teachings of Christ, who follows his own will and reason, submits to the enemy and moves from a state of self-delusion to a state of demonic delusion, loses the remainder of his freedom, and enters into complete submission to the devil. The state of people in demonic delusion can be very diverse, corresponding to the passion by which a person is seduced and enslaved, corresponding to the degree to which a person is enslaved by passion. But everyone who has fallen into demonic delusion, i.e. through the development of their own self-delusion, those who enter into communication with the devil and into enslavement to him are in delusion, they are churches and instruments of demons, victims of eternal death, life in the dungeons of hell. All types of demonic delusion to which the ascetic of prayer is subjected arises from the fact that repentance is not placed at the basis of prayer, that repentance has not become the source, soul, and goal of prayer. “If anyone,” says St. Gregory of Sinaite, “with arrogance based on conceit, dreams of achieving high states of prayer and has acquired jealousy that is not true, but satanic, the devil conveniently entangles him with his nets, like his servant.” Anyone who strives to ascend to the marriage of the Son of God, not in clean and bright clothes, arranged by repentance, but right in his rags, in a state of old age, sinfulness and self-delusion, is cast out into the utter darkness - into demonic delusion. ...The most dangerous wrong image of prayer is when the person praying by the power of imagination creates his own dreams or pictures, borrowing them apparently from the Holy Scriptures, but in essence from his own condition, from his fall, from his sinfulness, from his self-delusion - with these pictures he flatters his conceit, his vanity, his arrogance, his pride, he deceives himself. It is obvious that everything created by the dreaminess of our fallen nature, perverted by the fall of nature, does not really exist - there is fiction and a lie, so characteristic and so beloved of the fallen angel. A dreamer, from the first step on the path of prayer, starts from the realm of truth, enters the realm of lies, the realm of Satan, and arbitrarily submits to the influence of Satan. Saint Simeon the New Theologian, describes the prayer of a dreamer and its fruits as follows: “He raises his hands, eyes and mind to heaven, imagines in his mind Divine conferences, heavenly blessings, orders of holy Angels, villages of saints, in short, collects in his imagination everything that he heard in the Divine Scripture, considers it during prayer, looks at heaven, with all this excites his soul to Divine desire and love, sometimes sheds tears and cries. Thus, little by little his heart becomes proud, without understanding it with his mind; he imagines that what he does is the fruit of Divine grace for his consolation, and prays to God to grant him to always remain in this work. This is a sign of charm. Such a person, even if he remains completely silent, cannot help but be subject to insanity and madness. Even if this does not happen to him, it is still impossible for him to ever achieve spiritual intelligence and virtue, or dispassion. Thus those who saw the light and radiance with these bodily eyes, those who smelled the incense with their sense of smell, and those who heard voices with their ears were deceived. Some of them went berserk and moved from place to place, mentally damaged; others accepted the demon, transformed into a bright angel, were deceived and remained uncorrected even to the end, not accepting advice from any of the brethren; some of them, taught by the devil, killed themselves: others fell into the abyss, others hanged themselves. And who can count the various seductions of the devil with which he seduces and which are inscrutable? However, from what we have said, any reasonable person can learn what harm comes from this way of prayer. If any of those who use it are not subjected to any of the above-mentioned disasters due to cohabitation with the brethren, because most hermits living alone are exposed to such disasters, but such a person spends his entire life unsuccessfully.” All the holy fathers who described the feat of mental prayer forbid not only making up arbitrary dreams, but also bowing with will and sympathy to dreams and ghosts that may present themselves to us unexpectedly, regardless of our will. And this happens during the feat of prayer, especially in silence. “Do not accept,” says St. Gregory of Sinai, “if you see anything with your sensual eyes or mind outside or inside you, whether it be the image of Christ, or an Angel, or some saint, or if the light appears to you... Be attentive and careful! Do not allow yourself to trust anything, do not express sympathy and consent, do not hastily trust a phenomenon, even if it is true and good; remain cold and alien to it, constantly keeping your mind formless, not forming any image and not imprinted by any image. He who sees something in his thoughts or sensually, even if it were from God, and accepts it hastily and conveniently falls into delusion, at least revealing his inclination and ability for delusion, as one who accepts phenomena quickly and frivolously. The beginner must pay all attention to one action of the heart, recognize this one action as unattractive, and not accept anything else until the time of entering dispassion. God is not angry with someone who, fearing delusion, watches himself with extreme caution, even if he does not accept something sent from God without examining what was sent with all care; on the contrary, God praises such a person for his prudence.” 1. 228–234 Just as the wrong action of the mind leads into self-deception and delusion, so exactly does the wrong action of the heart lead into them. Filled with reckless pride is the desire and desire to see spiritual visions with a mind that has not been cleansed of passions, not renewed and recreated by the right hand of the Holy Spirit: filled with the same pride and recklessness is the desire and desire of the heart to enjoy holy, spiritual, Divine sensations, when it is not yet at all capable of such pleasures. Just as an unclean mind, wanting to see Divine visions and not being able to see them, composes visions for itself from itself, or deceives itself and deceives itself, so the heart, trying to taste Divine sweetness and other Divine sensations and not finding them in itself, composes them from itself, flatters itself with them, seduces, deceives, destroys itself, entering the realm of lies, into communication with demons, submitting to their influence, enslaving to their power. One sensation of all the sensations of the heart, in its state of fall, can be used in invisible Divine services: sadness about sins, about sinfulness, about the fall, about one’s destruction, called crying, repentance, contrition of the spirit. 1.243 Everyone knows what kind of spiritual distress arose for the Jewish scribes and Pharisees from their wrong spiritual mood: they became not only alien to God, but also frantic enemies of Him, deicides. Ascetics of prayer are subjected to a similar calamity, those who have expelled repentance from their feat, who are intensifying to arouse love for God in their hearts, who are intensifying to feel pleasure and delight: they develop their fall, make themselves alien to God, enter into communication with Satan, and become infected with hatred of the Holy Spirit. This type of delusion is terrible: it is equally destructive to the soul as the first, but less obvious; it rarely ends in madness or suicide, but it decisively corrupts both the mind and the heart. Based on the state of mind it produces, the fathers called it opinion. The holy Apostle Paul points to this kind of delusion when he says: Let no one deceive you with the humility of wisdom and the service of angels that is bestowed upon him, even if he does not teach you, being driven madly by the mind of his flesh (Col. 2:18). The one possessed by this delusion thinks of himself, has created an “opinion” about himself that he has many virtues and virtues - even that he is abounding in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Opinion is made up of false concepts and false sensations: according to this property, it completely belongs to the realm of the father and representative of lies - the devil. The person praying, striving to reveal the sensations of a new person in his heart and not having any opportunity to do so, replaces them with sensations of his own creation, counterfeit ones, to which the action of fallen spirits is not slow to join. Having recognized the wrong sensations, his own and the demonic, as true and grace-filled, he receives concepts corresponding to the sensations. These sensations, constantly assimilated into the heart and intensified in it, feed and multiply false concepts: it is natural that from such an incorrect feat self-delusion and demonic delusion are formed - “opinion”. “Opinion does not allow something to be imaginary,” said Saint Simeon the New Theologian. He who imagines himself to be passionless will never be cleansed of passions; He who thinks he is holy will never achieve holiness. It’s easy to say: he who ascribes to himself spiritual works, virtues, virtues, gifts of grace, flatters himself and amuses himself with “opinion”, with this “opinion” blocks the entrance into himself of spiritual works, and Christian virtues, and Divine grace - opens wide the entrance to sinful infection and demons. There is no longer any ability for spiritual success in those infected with “opinion”: they destroyed this ability, bringing to the altar of lies the very beginnings of human activity and his salvation - the concept of truth. Extraordinary pompousness is this charm in those who are ill: they seem to be intoxicated with themselves, with their state of self-delusion, seeing in it a state of grace. They are imbued with, filled with arrogance and pride, appearing, however, humble to many who judge by appearance, unable to evaluate by fruits, as the Savior commanded (Matthew 7:16, 12:33), much less by spiritual feeling, which the Apostle mentions (Heb. 5:14). The prophet Isaiah vividly depicted the effect of the charm of “opinion” in the fallen archangel, an action that seduced and destroyed this archangel. You, says the prophet to Satan, have said in your mind: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit on the highest mountain, on the high mountains even to the north: I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Now you will go down to hell and to the foundations of the earth (Isa. 14:13-15). 1. 245–246 “Opinions” infected with charm are very common. Anyone who does not have a contrite spirit, who recognizes any merits and merits in himself, anyone who does not steadfastly adhere to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, but argues about some dogma or tradition arbitrarily, at his own discretion or according to heterodox teaching, is in this delusion. The degree of evasion and persistence in evasion determines the degree of prelest. Weak man! “Opinion” certainly creeps into us in some form and, realizing our “I,” removes the grace of God from us. Just as there is, according to the remark of St. Macarius the Great, not a single person who is completely free from pride, so there is not a single person who would be completely free from the effect on him of the refined charm called “opinion”... Is there any connection between the delusion of the first kind and the delusion of the second kind? There is certainly a connection between these two types of charm. The first kind of delusion is always connected with the second kind of delusion, with “opinion.” He who composes seductive images through the natural ability of imagination, who combines these images into a charming picture through reverie (fantasy), who subordinates his entire being to the seductive, powerful influence of this painting, certainly, out of unfortunate necessity, imagines that the heartfelt sensations excited by painting are sensations of grace. The second kind of delusion—actually “opinion”—acts without creating seductive pictures: it is content with creating counterfeit, grace-filled sensations and states, from which a false, perverse concept of all spiritual achievement is born. He who is in the delusion of “opinion” acquires a false view of everything around him. He is deceived both within himself and without. Daydreaming has a powerful effect on those deceived by “opinion,” but it acts exclusively in the realm of the abstract. She either does not engage at all, or rarely engages in painting in the imagination of paradise, heavenly abodes and palaces, heavenly light and fragrance, Christ, Angels and saints; she constantly invents pseudo-spiritual states, close friendship with Jesus, internal conversation with Him, mysterious revelations, voices, pleasures, based on them a false concept of herself and about the Christian feat, generally a false way of thinking and a false mood of the heart, leading either into self-intoxication, or into excitement and enthusiasm. These various sensations arise from the action of refined vanity and voluptuousness: from this action the blood receives a sinful, seductive movement, which appears as a blessed pleasure. Vanity and voluptuousness are aroused by arrogance, this inseparable companion of “opinion.” Terrible pride, similar to the pride of demons, is the dominant quality of those who have acquired both charms. Pride leads those seduced by the first type of charm into a state of obvious insanity; in those deceived by the second type, it, also producing damage to the mind, called corruption of the mind in Scripture (2 Tim. 3:8), is less noticeable, clothed in the guise of humility, piety, wisdom, and is known by its bitter fruits. Those infected with an “opinion” about their own merits, especially about their holiness, are capable and ready for all executions, all hypocrisy, deceit and deception, all atrocities. They breathe irreconcilable enmity against the servants of truth, rushing at them with furious hatred when they do not recognize in the deceived the state attributed to them and exposed to shame by the blind world of “opinion.” Undoubtedly, there are spiritual states produced by Divine grace, such as the state in which spiritual sweetness and joy are tasted, the state in which the mysteries of Christianity are revealed, the state in which the presence of the Holy Spirit is felt in the heart, the state in which the ascetic of Christ is granted spiritual visions, but they exist only in Christians who have achieved Christian perfection, previously purified and prepared by repentance. The gradual effect of repentance in general, expressed by all types of humility, especially prayer brought from the poverty of the Spirit, from crying, gradually weakens the effect of sin in a person. This requires considerable time. And it is given to true, well-intentioned ascetics by the Providence of God, who vigilantly watches over us. The fight against passions is extremely useful: it most of all leads to poverty of spirit. For the purpose of our significant benefit, the Judge and our God bear with us for a long time and do not quickly take revenge on our rival (Luke 18:7) - sin. When the passions have weakened greatly - this happens most towards the end of life - then little by little spiritual states will begin to appear, distinguished by an infinite difference from the states created by “opinion”. Firstly, gracious crying enters the spiritual church, washes it and makes it white for the acceptance of gifts that follow crying according to the establishment of the spiritual law. A carnal person in no way, in any way, can even imagine spiritual states, cannot have any concept below about gracious crying: the knowledge of these states is acquired only by experience. Spiritual gifts are distributed with Divine wisdom, which sees to it that the verbal vessel, which must receive the gift, can endure the power of the gift without harm to itself. New wine bursts old wineskins (Matthew 9:17)! It is noted that at the present time spiritual gifts are distributed with the greatest moderation, in accordance with the relaxation that has enveloped Christianity in general. These gifts satisfy almost exclusively the needs of salvation. On the contrary, “opinion” squanders its gifts in immeasurable abundance and with the greatest haste. A common sign of spiritual states is deep humility and humbleness of mind, combined with preference for oneself over all neighbors, with disposition, evangelical love for all neighbors, with a desire for the unknown, for removal from the world. “Opinion” has little place here, because humility consists in the renunciation of all one’s own merits, in the essential confession of the Redeemer, in the consolidation in Him of all hope and support, and “opinion” consists in appropriating for oneself the virtues given by God, and in inventing for oneself non-existent virtues. 1. 247–251 (See Visions, Jesus Prayer, Prelest). Studying God's Law requires patience. This study is the acquisition of your soul: “In your patience,” commands the Lord, “gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). This is the science of sciences! This is heavenly science! This is science communicated to man by God! Its paths are completely separate from those ordinary paths followed by earthly sciences, human sciences, sciences born by our fallen mind from its own light, for our state in the fall. Human sciences are boasting, puffing up the mind, realizing, growing the human “I”! Divine science is revealed to a soul that has been prepared, erased, angled by self-sacrifice, as if deprived of its originality due to its humility, becoming a mirror that does not have any form of its own, capable for this reason of receiving and reflecting Divine outlines. Divine science - the Wisdom of God, the Word of God. The son of Sirach says about her: Sons, you have exalted your wisdom, and stands for those who seek it. He who loves loves life, and those who wake up to it will be filled with joy; hold on to it, he will inherit glory, and wherever he enters, the Lord will bless him; He who serves her will serve the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her; listen to her, judge with tongues, and listen to her, hoping to dwell, Such is Divine science! Such is the wisdom of God! She is a revelation of God! There is God in her! Access to it is by humility! Access to it is by rejecting your mind! It is inaccessible to the human mind! He is rejected by her, recognized as madness! And he, her impudent, proud enemy, blasphemously recognizes her as foolishness, is seduced by her because she appeared to people on the cross and illuminates them from the cross. Access to it by dedication! Access to it by crucifixion! Access to it is by faith! The son of Sirach continues: “If you believe, you will inherit” (Sir. 4:12–17). 2. 8–9 (See Wisdom, Worldly Learning). Says Saint Simeon the New Theologian: “If anyone exchanges love for the Bridegroom Christ for love for something else, secretly or openly, and his heart is held by this love, he becomes hated, abominable to the Bridegroom, unworthy of union with Him. He said: I love those who love me. 6.292 A small speck of dust that gets into the eye disrupts the correctness of vision: an apparently insignificant attachment deprives the mind of correctness, damages, and changes the way of thinking of the ascetic. 5.291 Christ, the Lawgiver of love, commanded renunciation not of love, but of addiction, this illness, the distortion of love. Have love for everyone, especially for the servants of God; and heal addiction, protect yourself from it by renouncing the creature... - by surrendering the creature to the Creator. Do not internalize the creature; sacrifice your freedom to the One God. With such self-sacrifice and renunciation of everything, or in everything, of selfhood, you can have spiritual love for every neighbor. 6.318 “The world is nothing other than carnal lust, and the lust of desire, and the pride of life; it all lies in the heart. All this must be driven out of the heart in order for it to become enlightened, because peace and spiritual enlightenment of the heart are contrary to each other. One must go out so that another can fit in, and the more the world comes out, the more the heart will be enlightened” (St. Tikhon of Voronezh). A person’s heart is one: when it seeks the temporary, then it forgets about the eternal; when he turns to the eternal and deepens in it, then he forgets about the temporary and does not care about it. There cannot be two kinds of care - about the temporary and the eternal, twofold love - for the temporary and the eternal. It certainly has one of two things: either temporary or eternal. 7. 334–335 The blind world really likes pretense; it attracts praise, respect, and the trust of people. “Those who pretend to be virtuous and sheepskin in outward appearance show one thing, but in essence in the inner man they are another, who are filled with all untruth, filled with envy, jealousy and evil passions, are considered holy and dispassionate by very many who have an uncleaned spiritual eye and cannot recognize them from their fruits; those who are in reverence, virtue and simplicity of heart, truly saints, are disdained as if they were ordinary people, they are ignored and despised, they are treated as nothing. Such people recognize the talkative and vain person as teaching and spiritual, while the silent person who avoids idle talk is proclaimed ignorant and voiceless. Those who are highly wise and afflicted with devilish pride turn away from those who speak with the Holy Spirit, as if they were highly wise and proud, being more horrified by his words than moved by them; on the contrary, they greatly praise and accept someone who speaks subtle words out of his learning or belly (by the word “belly” we must understand the carnal state) and who lies against his salvation” (St. Simeon the New Theologian). 5.29 The sun is fully represented in every humble but pure drop of dew: so Christ in every Christian Orthodox Church is fully present and offered at the sacred meal. He imparts light and life to His participants, who, having partaken of the Divine Light and Life, themselves become light and life: thus, drops of dew, having received the rays of the sun, begin to emit rays themselves, similar to the rays of the sun. If the material and corruptible sun, the creation of the Creator, which cost Him one effortless wave of His will to come into being, can at the same time be depicted in countless drops of water, why should not the Creator Himself, Almighty and Omnipresent, be wholly present at the same time with His Most Holy Flesh and Blood, united with them by the Divinity, in countless churches, where according to Him by command and establishment, the All-Active, All-Holy Spirit is called upon bread and wine to perform the greatest, most saving, most incomprehensible sacrament? 1.358 “The Lord,” says Saint Basil the Great, borrowing the story from the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Tradition, “even though He went forth to His free and ever-memorable and life-giving death, in the night, in nugity, He gave Himself for the life of the world, receiving bread in His holy and most pure hands, showing God and the Father, thanking, blessing, sanctifying, having broken, as His disciple and Apostle, the river: Take, eat: this is My Body, broken for you for the remission of sins. The likeness and cup of the fruit of our vines was received, dissolved, thanked, blessed, sanctified, given to His saints by His disciple and apostle, saying: Drink of it, all of you, this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.” (Divine Liturgy of Basil the Great.) This body and blood are the true Body and Blood of the God-Man, borrowed by Him from the Blessed Virgin; this Body and Blood are Divine, as truly united with the Divine. “The body that was not lifted up,” says Saint John of Damascus, “descends from heaven, and the very bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of God. If you ask how this is accomplished, then it is enough for you to hear that this is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord, from the Holy Mother of God, made flesh for Himself and in Himself by the Holy Spirit. More - we do not know anything, we only know that the Word of God is true, effective and omnipotent. His manner of action is unsearchable.” 4. 130 In order to extract humanity from fall and destruction, the Trinitarian God accepts humanity as one of His Persons, renews man in Himself and with Himself, and thereby gives him a union with Himself, incomparably closer than what was granted at creation. The Son of God by nature, becoming human and becoming the ancestor of men, made them sons of God by grace. Bestial conception and birth, to which men submitted after the fall, are rejected; it is covered, so to speak, by the birth of the Holy Spirit at baptism. Regenerated people are transformed from flesh into spirit, not by nature, by property: what is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). Christians, born from Adam into death, are already born children of God (John 1:12–13). Their being is called re-being and is re-being (Matthew 19:28; Tit. 3:5); it is being into eternal life, a being completely different from what being into death was; it is a second being, given a second time after the loss of the first being through the fall, eternal death. The state of being again is given food appropriate to the state. Just as birth into rebirth is birth from the Holy Spirit, so the nutrition taught to a renewed person is prepared by the Holy Spirit. The food is the Flesh and Blood of the God-Man. “The flesh of the Lord is a life-giving Spirit,” said Saint John of Damascus, “since it was conceived from the life-giving Spirit; I say this without destroying (without rejecting) the nature of the body, but wanting to show all its Divinity and life-giving nature.” ...The Holy Mysteries of Christ, being the Body and Blood of the God-Man, being the Spirit, preserve for the bodily senses the external appearance of bread and wine. And bread and wine are seen, and bread and wine are smelled, and bread and wine are touched, and bread and wine are tasted. The Holy Mysteries are revealed and revealed through their action. This is how God, covered by humanity, was exposed. He was revealed and witnessed by His actions... A deeply humble appearance, covered with simplicity, alien to sophistication, alien to effect - a supernatural, Divine action! By divine action the dignity of a wondrously humble appearance is exalted. Exactly! God humbled himself unspeakably by His incarnation and His earthly life: all His actions are unspeakably humble, unspeakably magnificent and majestic in their humility. This also applies to the Holy Mysteries. What could be more humble in appearance, more ordinary than the food offered to renewed people, that extraordinary, wonderful, terrible food in which the Holy Spirit is taught as food, in which the God-Man is taught as food? “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood,” He said, “he who eats Me will live forever (John 6:56–57). “Those who partake of the Most Holy Body and the Most Holy Blood,” said the Great Father (St. John Chrysostom), “stand with the Angels and Archangels and the heavenly powers, dressed in the very royal purple of Christ, girded with spiritual weapons. By this I have not yet said anything great: they are clothed in the King himself.” “Drink of it, all of you,” the Lord commands everyone, calling everyone, “for this is My Blood of the New Testament” (Matthew 26:27-28). All are invited to drink the Blood of Christ! The invitation is made for the same reason for which the prohibition is pronounced. In the Blood of Christ is His soul. When receiving the Holy Mysteries, the touch of the soul of Christ on the soul of the communicant, the union of the soul of Christ with the soul of the communicant is clearly felt. Without words, without instruction in words, the soul begins to feel in itself its tranquility, meekness, humility, love for everyone, coldness towards the corruptible and transitory, sympathy for the future age, alien to its fallen nature. These sensations are evoked, implanted into the soul from the soul of Christ, as He said: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). “Learn not from an Angel, not from a person, not from a book, learn from Me,” says Saint John Climacus, explaining the words of the Savior, “from My assimilation to you, from My radiance and action in you, that I am meek and humble in heart, and in thought, and in the way of thinking, and you will find peace from the internal struggle, relief to your soul from the burden and confusion caused to it by thoughts brought from the realm of fallen spirits." This is the effect of the Holy Mysteries: they, acting on us, together act on our invisible and vigilant enemies, on demons, protecting from them our vessel - a person who worthily contains them. Food, material in appearance, acceptable by the mouth, acts against spirits, fetters them as if in chains! A meal on which, by appearance, bread and wine are presented, fights with spirits, tramples them! “Thou hast prepared a meal before me,” the prophet exclaimed in delight to God, pointing from a distance to the Christian altar, “thou hast prepared a meal against those who are cold against me!” (Ps. 23:4). ...Fallen souls know the power of the Holy Mysteries. They tremble at her, hate her, envy those who receive communion, envy the envy of which demons are capable. Often with frenzy they attack the person preparing for communion, plunder his thoughts, instill coldness and bitterness in his heart, bring heavy sinful memories and dreams, try to desecrate the conscience, lead the Christian into bewilderment, and prevent communion; often after communion the spirits make a similar attack, again with the aim of plunging into bewilderment, confusion, in order to shake faith, to instill the idea that communion of the Holy Mysteries does not bring any benefit. This invisible warfare raised by the spirits of malice against those receiving communion serves as evidence of the greatest importance and benefit of the Holy Mysteries. Precious is the treasure that a person’s enemies are so keen to prevent a person from receiving! Precious is the treasure that a person’s enemies so furiously try to seize from him! Let us be strong in faith and courageously resist our adversaries. Let us try, as we prepare to receive the Holy Mysteries, to maintain all possible vigilance over ourselves; Let us try, after receiving the Holy Mysteries, to maintain this vigilance over ourselves. Let us not be afraid of the spiritual storm produced by the invasion of spirits! We will not allow despondency and embarrassment to take over us. The action of the Holy Mysteries will not fail to appear in the soul of a patient ascetic, just as the sun appears in the sky after it has been cleared of clouds. “Look my eye upon my enemies” (Ps. 103:9), said Saint David, after the disturbance they had caused in his soul had passed. He also made this confession about himself as a communicant of the Holy Mysteries, freed from the invasion of spirits, which the action of the Holy Mysteries would expose to him all the more clearly. Anyone who has received communion with attention and reverence, with due preparation, with faith, feels a change in himself, if not immediately after communion, then after some time has passed. A wonderful world descends on the mind and heart; the members of the body are clothed with tranquility; the stamp of grace falls on the face; thoughts and feelings are connected by sacred, spiritual bonds that prohibit reckless freedom and ease and curb them. With a constantly pious and attentive life, the effect of the holy mysteries becomes clearer, more tangible, and more abundant. This action is likened in Scripture to the anointing of the head, i.e. mind, spiritual oil, is likened to a sovereign, royal cup, sovereignly intoxicating the soul with sensations emanating from the Holy Spirit, emanating from Christ. With a constantly attentive and pious life, the incomprehensible mercy of God, revealed to people in giving them heavenly food, becomes partly comprehensible. This mercy of God will marry to salvation, by its supernatural power, the one who receives communion as often as possible, as worthily as possible, throughout the days of his earthly life, to settle him in the heavenly house of the Lord for the endless length of eternal days (Ps. 23:5-6). ...The body, deprived of material food, must of necessity become a victim of death. Spiritual bread - the Body of Christ - strengthens the heart of a person, strengthens his whole being, strengthens the will, strengthens the mind, brings correctness to the desires and impressions of the soul and body, frees the natural properties of people from ailments with which it was infected during the fall, which are called passions, i.e. suffering, illness. Spiritual drinking promotes spiritual food. It imparts to the soul the quality of the properties of Christ. Christ took upon Himself all human properties, except sin: the properties of the human soul of Christ are alien to the damage of sin, immaculate; by reason of union with the Divine, they are Divine. These deified properties infuse the soul of the one who drinks the Blood of Christ. “Just as material wine,” said Saint Mark, “dissolves in all the members of the drinker, and there is wine in him, and he in wine: so the one who drinks the Blood of Christ is drunk with the Spirit of the Divine, dissolves in the perfect soul (Christ), and this Soul in him, - thus sanctified, he is made worthy of the Lord.” He who withdraws from communion of the Holy Mysteries is alienated from Christ, left to himself, to his nature, stricken by eternal death. Eternal death is destroyed in man, within him, in his mind and heart, by Christ alone. He enters, like an omnipotent God, into the inaccessible treasuries of man, and there he strikes death with death. If this is not done, eternal death will remain in man, will remain as the beginning and guarantee of eternal death. There is no way to avoid eternal death for those who have and keep within themselves the beginning and the guarantee of it - eternal death. ... Worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries is possible only with a constantly pious life or after decisive repentance for a sinful life and decisive abandonment of it, witnessed and sealed by the offering of repentance according to the instructions of the Holy Church. An absent-minded, inattentive life, not illuminated and not guided by the Word of God, directed according to the ideas of one’s own mind, according to the desires of sin-loving hearts and bodies, leaving a person with the vain name of a Christian, deprives him of a thorough knowledge of God and self-knowledge, deprives him of a proper understanding of the Holy Mysteries, deprives him of a proper preparation before accepting them, a proper mood and state during acceptance, the necessary storage of acceptance. “He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself, without discerning the Body of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:29), without giving it the due price, without preparing his vessel to receive the greatest, most holy treasure. The most saving treasure is at the same time the most terrible treasure due to its ineffable shrine. The judgment of God would not punish us if we spent an attentive life according to the commandments of Christ, carefully fulfilling them, carefully healing omissions in fulfillment through repentance. “Even if they had reasoned for themselves, they would not have been condemned” (1 Cor. 11:31). ...The unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries has a different meaning when living an arbitrarily and intentionally sinful life, when falling into mortal sins, during unbelief and evil faith. Those who receive communion in such a state commit a crime, which entails non-corrective executions, decisive executions, and brings on eternal torment. This crime is equal to the crime committed by the murderers of the God-Man, who showered Him with insults, struck Him on the cheeks, covered His face with spittle, and tormented His body with cruel beatings, nails, and crucifixion. “Whoever eats this bread,” said the great Paul, “or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27). A certain aspiration of judgment is terrible, and the fire of jealousy is to destroy those who want to resist. Anyone who has rejected the Law of Moses dies without mercy in the presence of two or three witnesses: because, remember, the worst one will be worthy of torment, even though he trampled upon the Son of God, and having considered the Blood of the Covenant, he was sanctified by it, and he rebuked the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:27-29). “Let a man tempt himself” (1 Cor. 11:28), let him consider himself before he approaches the Holy Mysteries - and if he is mired in the filth of sin, let him avoid the terrible communion, so as not to commit and so as not to mark his sins with the most serious sin: desecration of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, desecration of Christ. Before boldly entering into marriage with the Son of God, let us take care of our spiritual robe: it is washed, cleansed from sinful stains, whatever these stains may be, by the ineffable mercy of the Lord, with our repentance. The Monk Mark the Ascetic made the following remark: “Between sowing and harvest there is a certain space of time: for this reason we do not believe in reward.” Almost all those who partake unworthily are subjected to this kind of unbelief. Approaching the Mysteries of Christ from the stench of sin, being exposed to the stench of sin after receiving the Mysteries, not seeing immediate punishment upon themselves, they believe that no punishment will ever follow. Wrong conclusion! A decisive execution was predicted for the Jews for deicide; but it followed several decades after the commission of a terrible crime. The inexpressible mercy and long-suffering of God still awaited their repentance. This mercy and long-suffering awaits our repentance. Execution is delayed and delayed, but it is sure to befall unrepentant, willful, stubborn sinners. We see its beginning most in sudden death or in death caused by such an illness that takes away the possibility of repentance. The execution itself is carried out in the afterlife. “Do not be flattered,” says the apostle; do not deceive yourself. “God cannot be mocked: for as a man sows, that will he also reap.” For whoever sows to his flesh, from the flesh he will reap corruption; but whoever sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit he will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8). 4. 115–130 If the tempter dared to approach the Lord Himself made man, then we should not be surprised that he approaches us, even if it was after we had accepted the Lord into our vessel. The larger the treasure, the more the thieves try to steal it. The greater the treasure, the more vigilant one must be about keeping it. After communion of the Holy Mysteries, after fervent prayer, after any deed that is especially beneficial for the soul, we need, according to the experienced instruction of the fathers, special observation of ourselves, for then the enemy is especially inflamed against us with envy and malice; seeing earth and ashes ascend into heaven, from whence he was cast down. The spiritual paradise, which, according to the teachings of the Savior, is within us, must be cultivated and preserved, as it was commanded by God at creation itself, in the person of Adam, to all people. 6.579 Regarding the feelings that you had before and after communion, I will tell you: we must always consider ourselves unworthy of Christ and approach Him as the Physician of our souls and bodies, including the lepers, the blind, and the mad, because that is what we are at heart. But we must watch that heartfelt contrition does not turn into hopelessness, which comes from relying on oneself, and not on the bounty of Christ. 6.586 God looks at the will of man. It is up to us to have a good will. God will give the means and strength to bring good intentions into fulfillment, if He wants a person’s good intention to be fulfilled by the deed itself. 6.657 It is not enough that we want: it is necessary that our desire be in accordance with the will of God. We want it now, but God sometimes prepares the same thing many years later. 6.686 ... These are my own actions, in which my will and judgment are evident, but I entrust this will, this judgment, these actions to the will of God, praying to Her to guide me and direct me according to Her wise and all-good purposes. 6.693 ...Many are the ranks, but few are the chosen (Luke 14:24). The merciful God calls everyone to salvation, but very few obey Him. We all belong to the number of those called due to the ineffable love of God for us, but very few of us are included in the number of the elect: because inclusion in the number of the elect is left to our own free will. 4.287 (See your weaknesses, Circumstances, Skill, Salvation and perfection, Monastic vows). Above times, social events and private destinies is seen God, the Creator of all creatures and their infinite Lord, who sees everything, controls everything, predetermines His goals for everything, gives His purpose. God allows man to be a spectator of His government. But the causes of destinies, the beginnings of God’s commands are known to the One God: who understands the mind of the Lord, or who is His adviser? (Rom. 11:34). And the fact that man is allowed to be a spectator of God in His Providence, in His management of creation, in His destinies, is the greatest benefit for man, exuding abundant spiritual benefit for man. The vision of the Creator and Lord of all visible and invisible creatures invests the viewer with supernatural power: with this vision is connected the recognition of the unlimited power of the Almighty King of creation over creation. The hair of our head, hair so insignificant in the weak opinion of men, is counted by this unlimited, all-encompassing Wisdom and is preserved by Her (Matthew 10:30; Luke 21:18). Moreover, without Her beckoning, no adventure, no revolution in human life can take place. A Christian, looking steadily at the Providence of God, maintains constant courage and unshakable firmness in the midst of the most severe misadventures. He speaks with the holy psalmist and prophet: “I have seen the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand, and let me not move” (Ps. 15:8). The Lord is my helper: I will not be afraid of any troubles, I will not give in to despondency, I will not plunge into a deep sea of ​​sadness. For everything - thank God! Through the vision of God's Providence, boundless submission to God is instilled. Will the servant of God be surrounded by various and multi-woven sorrows from everywhere? “This is how he consoles his wounded heart: “God sees all this. If, for reasons known to Him, the Wise One, sorrows were not useful and unnecessary to me, then He, the Almighty, would have turned them away. But He does not turn them away: it is His all-holy will that they oppress me. This will is precious to me, more precious than life! It is better for a creature to die than to reject the will of the Creator! In this will is true life! He who dies to fulfill the will of God enters into a greater development of life. For everything – thank God!” From the sight of God’s Providence, deep meekness and unchanging love for one’s neighbor are formed in the soul, which no winds can agitate or disturb. For such a soul there are no insults, no insults, no atrocities: all creation acts according to the command or permission of the Creator; the creature is only a blind tool. In such a soul a voice of humility is heard, accusing it of countless sins, justifying its neighbors as instruments of just Providence. This voice sounds joyfully in the midst of suffering, brings peace and consolation; he quietly proclaims: “I accept what is worthy according to my deeds. It is better for me to suffer in a short life than to suffer forever in the eternal torment of hell. My sins cannot go unpunished: God’s justice demands it. In the fact that they are punished in their short earthly life, I see God’s ineffable mercy.” God bless! The vision of God's Providence preserves and grows faith in God. He who sees the invisible omnipotent hand - the Ruler of the world, remains undisturbed during the terrible storms that trouble the sea of ​​life: he believes that civil life, the helm of the Church, the destinies of each person are held by the omnipotent and wise right hand of God. Looking at the fierce waves, at the menacing storms, at the dark clouds, he satisfies and pacifies himself with the thought that God sees what is happening. It is fitting for man, a weak creature, to have quiet, humble submission, only reverent knowledge, contemplation of the destinies of God. May everything be directed along the paths destined for it, towards goals determined from above! For everything - thank God! Not only temporary sorrows, but also those that await a person upon his entry into eternity, beyond the grave, cannot stand before the vision of Divine Providence. They are dulled and destroyed by the grace-filled consolation that always descends into a soul that has renounced itself in submission to God. With self-sacrifice, with devotion to the will of God, death itself is not terrible: the faithful servant of Christ betrays his soul and eternal destiny into the hands of Christ, betrays with firm faith in Christ, with unshakable hope in His goodness and power. When the soul is separated from the body and the rejected angels boldly and brazenly approach it, it will amaze and put to flight the gloomy and evil angels with its selflessness. “Take me, take me,” she will courageously tell them, “throw me into the abyss of darkness and flame, throw me into the abyss of hell, if this is the will of my God, if such a determination came from Him for me: it is easier to lose the sweetness of heaven, it is easier to endure the flames of hell, than to violate the will, the determination of the great God. I gave myself up to him and still give myself up to him! He, and not you, is the Judge of my weaknesses and sins! You, even with your insane disobedience, are only the executors of His decrees.” The servants of the world ruler will shudder and be perplexed when they see courageous self-sacrifice, meek, complete devotion to the will of God! Having rejected this blessed obedience, they became dark and all-evil demons from bright and good Angels. They will retreat in shame, and the soul will unrestrainedly direct its march to where its treasure is God. There she will behold face to face the Visible One here by faith in His Providence and eternally proclaim: glory to God! 1. 385–389 A Christian should never be embarrassed by anything, for God’s Providence carries him in His arms. Our care should be that we remain faithful to the Lord. 6.579 Divine Providence has the power to correct everything and to bring forth life-saving consequences from apparently unfavorable circumstances, like water from a stone. Maintain peace of mind through prayer and hope, leaving to God what is beyond our power. 12.3 A weak person wants to act even where action is impossible for him. Everywhere he would stretch out his “strong” hand, everywhere he would indicate the course of action according to his “wisest” consideration. He does not want to recognize God as a sufficiently powerful and intelligent figure and on this basis constantly resort to God in prayer. Meanwhile, as soon as a person resorts to God with humble prayer - not carnal, nervous, heated by the movement of the blood - surrendering himself and his neighbors to the mercy and will of God, he will calm down. 6.530 (See submission to the will, Circumstances, Troubles, Sorrows, Temptations). To what else can we attribute the great signs that were performed by the saints of God, if not to the fact that God abided and acted in them? To what else can we attribute the ability for prophecy, for the revelation of secrets hidden in the depths of their hearts and minds, which was revealed in the saints of God, if not to the fact that God was present in them and spoke through them, looking at the distant future as the present, a God for whom there are no secrets? The saints themselves testified to this. The Apostle Paul wrote about himself to the Galatians: “I live as no one, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20); He wrote to the Corinthians: seek temptations, Christ speaking in me (2 Cor. 8:3). When the apostles Peter and John healed a man lame from birth at the Red Gate of the Jerusalem Temple and the surprised people crowded around the apostles, they said to him: “Men of Israel, why are you marveling at this? Or why do you look at us, as if we made him walk by our own strength or piety? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, God our father, glorify His Servant Jesus” (Acts 8:12-13). 4. 248–244 God changed his definitions, announced through the holy prophets, such as the prophecy of the prophet Jonah about the Ninevites, Elijah about Ahab (1 Kings 21:29), Isaiah about Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:1-11); the more convenient it is for the prediction of the false prophets not to come true, even if it had any basis. He who has surrendered himself and everything to the will of God does not need to know anything in advance. 6.776 What is the condition for Christian simplicity? Following God's law. The virtuous and well-intentioned do not need to present themselves as such; on the contrary, the one who loves sin, whose will is in sin, needs a mask. Faith gives birth to simplicity. A believer walks the path of life, trusting in his Provider, as Scripture says: walk simply, walk in hope. An unbeliever does not see Providence, he thinks that his fate depends on the cunning of his mind, he places all good in earthly things; striving for it, he deceives in word and deed. The more we delve into the Word of God, the more we grow in spiritual age, the more we will be convinced that it is impossible to approach God except through simplicity, in which there is faith, purity of conscience, and a way of thinking created by the commandments of the Most High. Only the simple-hearted are able to succeed spiritually, as Scripture says: Wisdom will not enter the soul of an evil-doer. 6.502 The fathers observed extreme simplicity in clothing, in cell needs, in monastic buildings, in the structure and decoration of the churches themselves. The thought and heart of a weak person are consistent, which is incomprehensible to the inexperienced and inattentive, with his external situation. If the icon has shiny clothes, if the cell is decorated carefully, with taste and luxury, even if the monastery’s churches are magnificent, shining with gold and silver, equipped with a rich sacristy, then his soul is certainly vain, full of conceit and self-satisfaction, alien to tenderness and consciousness of his sinfulness. Intoxicated with vain pleasure, which appears to her as spiritual joy, she remains in darkness, self-delusion, bitterness and deadness, as if in the midst of a solemn celebration. On the contrary, when the clothes on a monk are simple, when he, like a wanderer, lives in a cell, as if in a tent or a bush, when in this booth there is only one thing necessary, when the church of God serves for him as a place of prayerful confession and weeping, without entertaining or delighting him with its splendor - then his soul borrows humility from the external environment, is separated from everything material, is transferred with thoughts and feelings to the inevitable future of all people. eternity; the soul tries, through repentance and fulfillment of the Gospel Commandments, to prepare for itself a favorable reception in eternity. A commoner enters a modest cell, simply decorated, on a par with a nobleman; In a carefully decorated cell, there is no entrance for a commoner, who could, by his arrival, disturb the distinctness of the decoration in the cell. In the person of a poor commoner, often rich in faith, Christ is rejected (James 2:1-6). 5.292 (See Self-justification, Prayer for enemies). The name psalmody, which is mentioned in the lives and their writings, should mean extremely unhurried, drawn-out reading of psalms and other prayers. Long reading is necessary to maintain strict attention and avoid distraction. Due to its length and similarity to singing, such reading is called psalmody. 2.187 The Book of Psalms is the most sublime spiritual book. It describes in depth and detail the inner feat of a warrior of Christ. Demonstrative shadows and allegories are often used, giving the book mystery and darkness (there is a veil on it for a reason!). There is no need to take it literally: the literal understanding of Scripture kills the soul. Spiritual understanding is necessary: ​​it revives, puts on right, holy paths. 6.298 The war and struggle of the ascetic of Christ with his fall and with fallen spirits was excellently depicted by the Holy Spirit in the Psalter. The monks of the first times studied the Psalter from memory and clothed their prayers with the words of the Spirit for their extraction from the pit of passions, for deliverance from the jaws of the enemy, the devil. 5.49 “The time will come when people will become ill. Seeing someone who is not susceptible to a common illness, they will rise up against him, saying: “You are predominantly in illness, because you are not like us” (St. Anthony the Great). Here it would not be out of place to note that this one must be very wary of thoughts of false humility, which will not fail to be presented to him by demons and people - the tools of demons. Usually in such cases, carnal wisdom objects: “Are you really the only one who is right, and all or most people are wrong!” An objection that has no meaning! There have always been a few, very few, who have walked the narrow path; in the last days of the world this path will be extremely empty. 7. 10–11 Let us turn to the spectacle presented by modernity. What should we say about ourselves? How should we live, how should we act? We find the answer to these questions from the ancient monks: they foreshadowed our situation; They predetermined the way of action in this situation. “In the last time, those who will truly work for God will wisely hide themselves from people and will not perform signs and wonders in their midst. They will follow the path of action, dissolved in humility, and in the Kingdom of Heaven they will find themselves greater than their fathers, glorified by signs.” (St. Niphon.) What profound instruction, what consolation for us in these prophetic words of the standard-bearing and spirit-bearing father! Due to the multiplication of temptations, due to their universality and dominance, due to the oblivion of the Gospel Commandments and their neglect by all humanity, it is necessary for those who wish to be saved to withdraw from human society into external and internal solitude. Due to the drying up of grace-filled leaders, due to the multiplication of false teachers, deceived by demonic delusion and dragging the whole world into this deception, it is necessary to live dissolved in humility, the most precise living according to the Gospel Commandments is necessary, it is necessary to combine prayer with weeping for oneself and for all humanity, caution is necessary against any enthusiasm for passion, thinking of doing the work of God with human strength alone, without God acting and doing His work. Let the one who saves save his soul, - it is said to the remnant of Christians, it is said by the Spirit of God. Save yourself! Blessed if you find one faithful collaborator in the work of salvation: this is a great and rare gift of God in our time. If you want to save your neighbor, be careful that he does not drag you into a pernicious abyss. The latter happens hourly. The retreat was allowed by God: do not try to stop it with your weak hand. Stay away, protect yourself from him: and that’s enough for you. Get acquainted with the spirit of the time, study it, in order to avoid its influence if possible. “Nowadays there is almost no true piety, now there is only hypocrisy,” says St. Tikhon a hundred years ago. Fear hypocrisy, first, in yourself, then in others; Fear precisely because it is in the nature of the time and is capable of infecting anyone at the slightest deviation into frivolous behavior. Do not strive for show to people, but in secret for your salvation, in the eyes of God, and your behavior will be cleansed of hypocrisy. Do not condemn your neighbors, leaving judgment over them to God, and your heart will be cleansed of hypocrisy. Pursue hypocrisy within yourself, driving it out of yourself; Avoid the masses infected by it, acting both intentionally and unconsciously in its direction, covering up service to the world with service to God, seeking temporary blessings with seeking eternal blessings, covering with the guise of holiness a corrupt life and a soul completely devoted to passions. 7. 511–512 Truly, the path leading to the stomach is narrow, for on the one hand it is hampered by our untruths, and on the other by the truths themselves, when they are associated with contempt and condemnation of our neighbor. 13.274 The common path of ascetics is to heal the weakness of feelings through patience between people, to see God’s Providence and to enter into mental prayer. 6.151 Drunkenness is a terrible vice! This is a passion, an ailment that enters the physique by weakening the desire, receiving from the skill the strength of a natural quality. A servant of Christ must be protected not only from drunkenness, but also from the habit of drinking a lot of wine, which warms the flesh and arouses bestial desires in it. “Do not get drunk with wine, for there is fornication in it” (Eph. 5:18), said the apostle. It is permissible to drink wine in very small quantities; Those who cannot limit themselves to moderate use will do better if they completely abandon it. Pimen the Great said: “What the ascetic needs most is a sober mind.” Wine deprives a person of the ability to keep his mind sober. When the ascetic is exposed to the action of wine, then his adversaries attack his weakened and darkened mind, and the mind is no longer able to fight them. Bound by the action of wine, he is drawn into the abyss of sin! In an instant, the fruits of a long-term feat perish: because the Holy Spirit retreats from those defiled by sin. That is why the Monk Isaiah, the Egyptian hermit, said that those who love wine will never be granted spiritual gifts: these gifts, in order to remain in a person, require constant purity, which is possible only with constant sobriety. 1. 376–377 You might be interested in: