Ч

Human! Understand your dignity. Look at the meadows and fields, at the vast rivers, at the boundless seas, at the high mountains, at the luxurious trees, at all the animals and livestock of the earth, at all the animals and fish wandering in the expanses of water - look at the stars, at the moon, at the sun, at the sky: this is all for you, everything is assigned to your service. In addition to the world we see, there is also a world invisible with bodily eyes, incomparably superior to the visible. And the invisible world is for man. How the Lord honored his image! What a high destiny has been destined for him! The visible world is only a preliminary threshold of the monastery, incomparably more magnificent and spacious. Here, as on the eve, the image of God must be decorated with final features and colors in order to obtain the most perfect resemblance to its most holy, all-perfect Original, in order to enter in the beauty and grace of this similarity into that palace in which the Original is present incomprehensibly, as if limiting His unlimitedness, to reveal Himself to His beloved, rational creatures. 2.129 Man on earth is not for playing! Not for games... It is important that God created man in His image and likeness! It is important that the Son of God redeemed fallen man with His Blood!.. We must give a price to these bounties of God! We must give a price to the all-holy Blood of the God-Man!.. No! Those who do not appreciate them worthily are those who pay superficial, passing attention to faith, and exhaust all the attention of their souls on playing with vain, temporary, perishable things. And those who dedicated their whole lives to God did nothing, did not bring anything worthy in comparison with the blessings of God! One, one is worthy to stand before God: a spirit filled with contrition and humility. This human dignity alone was recognized by God Himself as dignity. And our spirit may become in such a mood - when it avoids all games. 6. 381–382 The Holy Fathers call the state after creation natural, the state after the fall subnatural, and the state after redemption supernatural. 2.363 Separation of incoming evil from natural good through one’s own efforts has become impossible for man. Evil has penetrated to the very beginning of man; man is conceived in iniquities, born in sins. From his very birth, a person does not have a single deed, not a single word, not a single thought, not a single feeling, even for the shortest minute, in which there would be good without a greater or lesser admixture of evil. This is attested to by the Holy Scriptures, which speaks of fallen men that among them there is no one who is righteous: all who have strayed, together they are indecent. Do not do goodness, not even one (Rom. 3:10-12). Pointing to his fallen nature, the holy Apostle Paul says: goodness does not live in me, the lilac in my flesh (Rom. 7:18). Here, by the name of flesh, the apostle does not mean the human body itself, but the carnal state of the whole person: his mind, heart and body. And in the Old Testament the whole person is called flesh: “My Spirit,” said God, “may not remain in these men forever, for they are flesh” (Gen. 6:3). In this carnal state, sin and eternal death live as in one’s own body. The Apostle calls the carnal state the body of death (Rom. 7:24), the body of sin (Rom. 6:6). This state is called flesh, body, the body of death and sin for the reason that in it the thought and heart, which must strive for the spiritual and holy, are directed and nailed to the only material and sinful, living in matter and sin. The human body of the apostle, as everyone knows, was the temple of the Holy Spirit, was imbued with Divine grace and exuded from itself the actions of Divine grace. Expressions that so truly refer to the carnal state into which human nature was cast by the fall cannot apply to it: those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8), let the body of sin be abolished (Rom. 6:6), who will deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. 7:24). The apostle excellently describes the mixture of good and evil in fallen man, left to his own efforts to create good; moreover, of necessity, evil penetrates from nature, distorts its goodness and overthrows the plans of the mind, which vainly attempts to introduce true service to God into the spiritual church. “The Law,” says the Apostle, “is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold for sin. Whatever I do, I don’t understand: I don’t do it because I want to, but I do it if I hate it. Even if I don’t want to, I do this, it is no longer I who do this, but sin that lives within me. I have now acquired the law, because I want to do good, as evil is due to me. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man: but I see another law in my heart, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive by the law of sin which is in my heart. I am a damned man: who will deliver me from this body of death? With the same mind I work the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:14-25). By the word flesh here we must again understand the carnal state, by which all attempts of the human mind to fulfill the will of God are overthrown, as long as man remains in a state of fall, until he is renewed by the Spirit: The Spirit, having entered into man, frees him from sinful slavery, destroying the body of sin, i.e. carnal state in man. This is how we must understand the words of the Apostle: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:10). Here, the name blood and flesh refers to thoughts and feelings that are born in fallen nature, containing a person in a carnal state in his mind, heart and body. This state is also called the old man (Eph. 4:22), which the Apostle commands the Christian to put aside and put on the new man, created by God in righteousness and the excellence of the truth (Eph. 4:23-24). This is the same thing that he said in the Epistle to the Romans: “Put on our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14), and to the Corinthians: “Let us put on the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49) (man). It is known that the apostle was renewed by the Spirit and, moved by love for his neighbors, he pronounced on behalf of fallen man, striving to break the chains of sin, a confession of the state produced by the fall; a state in which a person, raped by the evil living in him, cannot help but commit evil, even if he wants to do good. Such vision of the fall of man is a gift of God’s grace. Hieromartyr Peter of Damascus, counting the grace-filled spiritual visions that appear to the mind of the ascetic of Christ during his gradual purification, places between these visions the vision of the fall to which humanity has undergone. 2. 364–366 Not only did sin through the fall become as if natural to man, so much so characteristic of him that Scripture called sin the soul of man (Matthew 10:39), that renunciation of sin became renunciation of oneself; fallen man received Satan, who deceived him, and became the dwelling place of Satan. “In some way,” says St. Macarius the Great, “the enemy himself, fighting and captivating us, is found to dwell within us.” This is by no means an arbitrary judgment or a dream, but an experimental knowledge received by those who, as the same saint of God says, have sincerely devoted themselves to the Lord, remain firmly in prayer and unshakably resist the enemy who fights them. 2. 367–368 A deep and accurate knowledge of the fall of man is very important for the ascetic of Christ: only from this knowledge, as if from hell itself, can he prayerfully, in true contrition of spirit, cry out to the Lord, according to the instructions of Saint Simeon the New Theologian: “God and Lord of all! He who has the power of every breath and soul, the only one who can heal me, hear the prayer of me, the accursed one, and consume the serpent nesting in me with the influx of the All-Holy and Life-Giving Spirit.” 2. 375–376 (See Spirituality, Demon Warfare). What is a person? The apostle answers this question to people: “You are the churches of God who live, just as God said: for I will dwell in them and walk, and I will be God, and these will be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16). The Holy Scripture calls every person a house, an abode, a vessel. That person who does not want to be the house of God, a vessel of Divine grace, becomes a house and a vessel of sin and Satan... A person cannot help but be what he was created: he cannot help but be a house, not be a dwelling, not be a vessel. He is not allowed to be alone with himself, outside of communication: this is unnatural for him. He can be with himself only through the mediation of Divine grace, in its presence, under its action: without it, he becomes alien to himself and involuntarily submits to the predominance of fallen spirits for arbitrarily removing grace from himself, for trampling on the Creator's purpose... Man is made a vessel and dwelling place of God through Christianity; the dwelling is arranged and decorated by the action of the Holy Spirit: “You are being built,” says the apostle, “into a habitation of God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). Satisfaction of the Divine purpose is desirable for man! It is desirable for a person to achieve the dignity granted to him by God! At the creation of man, this dignity was a gift from God; lost by the fall, after redemption it again became a gift of God. “I bow my knees,” writes Saint Paul to the Ephesians, “to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you, by His Spirit, to be strengthened in your inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:14, 16-17). Dignity is bestowed and ordained by God - the rejection of dignity entails eternal destruction. “Be in Me and I in you,” the Savior said to all His disciples – Christians. - Just as a rod cannot produce fruit of itself (by itself) unless it is on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the birth, and whoever is in Me, and I who is in him, will create much fruit, because without Me you cannot do anything. If anyone does not abide in Me, he will be cast out like a rod, and will be consumed, and they will gather it up, put it into fire, and burn it up” (John 15:4-6). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). All the chosen ones of God have become churches of the Divine, as the holy Apostle Paul says about himself: “Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). He calls those who have not satisfied the Divine purpose not what they should be. “Or do you not know,” he says, “that Jesus Christ is in you? Is it true that you are not skillful with them,” i.e. (according to the Russian translation) “unless you are what you ought to be” (2 Cor. 13:5). For man's dissatisfaction with his appointment, the apostle announces to him eternal disaster. Do you not know, he says, that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone corrupts God’s church, God will corrupt him (corrupt – to ruin, crush, damage) by retreating from Him, surrendering to his own state of fall, communion with fallen spirits and their consequence – burial forever in the hellish fiery abyss. The church of God is holy, as you are, - i.e. “The church of God is holy, and this church is you” (1 Cor. 3:16-17). Not only your souls, but also your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you received from God, having received within you at the Sacrament of Baptism, and carry your own: purchased, of course, at the price of the Blood of the God-Man. Glorify God in all your bodies and in your souls, as you are the essence of God (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Based on these testimonies of the Holy Spirit, we define man as follows: “Man is the God-created church of the Divine in soul and body.” We invite our beloved brethren, monks and all ascetics of Christianity in general who wish to strive correctly, legally, in accordance with the will of God, to pay due attention to the definition of man we have made! Indication and explanation of the correct feat is the goal of our wretched “Word”. The fruit of the right feat, ordained by the Holy Spirit, is the renewal of the ascetic by Divine grace and the installation of Christ with His Father and Spirit in His church - man. “Those who do not feel the indwelling of Christ,” said some great father, “the Holy Scripture calls unskillful, i.e. those who do not know Christianity from experience” (St. Mark the Ascetic). The apostle invites the servant of Christ to the right feat, as to an essential necessity: “Suffer evil,” he says, “for Jesus Christ is a good warrior. Even if someone strives, he will not be married, unless he strives lawfully” (2 Tim. 2, 3, 5). Naturally, the teaching of the Holy Scriptures about man is proclaimed and preached unanimously by the fathers of the Orthodox Church. “We are the house of God according to the prophetic, evangelical and apostolic word,” said St. Mark the Ascetic. Saint John Chrysostom says: “The grace of the Holy Spirit makes us, if we lead a pious life, churches of God, and we receive the ability to pray in every place. Our Divine service is not the same as it once was among the Jews, associated with a significant external environment, requiring many rituals. There, those who intended to offer prayer had to come to the church, buy a turtledove, have firewood and fire in their hands, invite the priest, approach the altar, and, in addition, fulfill many other regulations: there is nothing like that here; Wherever you are, an altar, a priest, and a sacrifice have been prepared for you. You yourself are the altar, the priest, and the offering.” ...We also read the teachings of St. John Chrysostom in the sublime words of St. Isaac of Syria. Bishop of Nineveh and a hermit in the deserts of Mesopotamia, and then Egypt, Isaac clarifies this teaching from the experiences of holy asceticism. “I dare to say,” says Isaac, following St. Paul, “that we are the church of God. Let us cleanse His church, because He is pure, so that He will desire to dwell in it. Let us sanctify him, because He too is holy. Let us decorate it with all good and splendid deeds. Let us show him with censer - the repose of God by the fulfillment of His will, with pure and heartfelt prayer, which cannot be acquired through frequent communication with the world and participation in its actions. Then the cloud of God’s glory will overshadow the soul and the light of His greatness will shine within the heart.” “Heaven is within you, if you are pure: in yourself you will see the Angels with their light and their Lord with them and within them. The treasure of the humble is within him: it is the Lord." Saint Isaac, in agreement with the other fathers, teaches that Christ is planted in our hearts through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, like a seed into the ground. This gift is perfect by itself; but we either develop it or suppress it, judging by the way we live. For this reason, the gift shines in all its grace only in those who have cultivated themselves with the Gospel Commandments, and to the extent of this cultivation. The Monk Macarius the Great very often, in his deep conversations with perfect Christians, turns to an explanation of the purpose given to man by the Creator. He constantly expresses himself about man as a monastery, a church, a vessel, the Throne of the Divine: “The Heavenly Father has deigned to dwell in everyone who believes in Him and asks Him (John 14:21, 23). This is how the Father’s boundless mercy willed it! So pleases the incomprehensible love of Christ! Such is the favor of God’s unspeakable goodness.” “The inner man is a kind of living being that has its own image and appearance: the inner man is the likeness of the outer man. This is a most excellent and most precious vessel, because God was more pleased with it than with all creatures.” “The throne of the Divine is our mind, and, conversely, the throne of the mind is the Divinity and the Spirit. Likewise, after Adam transgressed the commandment, Satan, the principalities and powers of darkness sat on his heart, mind and body, as on his throne. To destroy their kingdom, the Lord came, taking flesh from the Virgin, and cast down the spirits of evil sitting in the body from their thrones: from the mind and thoughts in which they lived. The Lord cleared the conscience and made the mind, the mind and the body His throne.” “Our nature can be in communion with demons and evil spirits, as well as in communion with Angels and the Holy Spirit, it can be the church of Satan and the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, brethren, consider your conscience: with whom are you in communication, with angels or with demons? Whose church and dwelling are you, God's or the devil's? What treasure is your heart filled with, is it grace-filled or satanic? Just as a house, defiled by stench and uncleanness, must, firstly, be completely cleansed, then decorated and filled with all kinds of fragrance and treasures, so we must also cleanse our hearts, so that instead of Satan the Holy Spirit will come and rest in the souls of Christians.” 11. 10–16 (See Earthly Life, Image and Likeness, Holiness, Union, Communion with God). Correct love for one's neighbor lies in fulfilling the Gospel Commandments in relation to him, and not at all in fulfilling the whims of one's neighbor, not in acting towards him according to the desires of a fallen heart, according to the calculations and concepts of a false mind. The fulfillment of the Gospel Commandments regarding people is for the most part incomprehensible and unpleasant for them: they seek and demand that their will be fulfilled, that their passions be satisfied. This they call love, and this love, full of hypocrisy, wickedness, deception, is brought by the sons of the world to those who need them in the form of earthly, carnal prosperity. This wrong love, this distortion of love, this hatred covered in the guise of love, Scripture calls man-pleasing. Man-pleasing destroys not only the love of God, but also the very remembrance of God. “God scatters the bones of people-pleasers” (Ps. 52:6) - all the strength of the soul, without which not a single virtue can be unshakable. Even if he were still pleasing to man, he would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10), says the apostle. 4.260 The sons of the world, sick with pride and enslaved to it, express love for their neighbor by indiscriminately fulfilling all the wishes of their neighbor. Disciples of the Gospel express love for their neighbor by fulfilling the all-holy commandments of their Lord regarding him; They recognize satisfaction with human wishes and whims as soul-destroying human-pleasing and fear it as much as they fear and run away from self-love. Self-love is a distortion of love towards oneself; People-pleasing is a distortion of love towards one's neighbor. A self-lover destroys himself, and a people-pleaser destroys both himself and his neighbor. Self-love is woeful self-delusion; man-pleasing intensifies and makes one’s neighbor an accomplice of this self-delusion. 4. 264–265 The earth is a vale of exile, a vale of uninterrupted disorder and confusion, a vale of urgent suffering of beings who have lost their primitive dignity and home, who have lost common sense. People suffer in countless forms of suffering in this dark and deep vale! They suffer both under the yoke of poverty and in the abundance of wealth; they suffer both in wretched huts and in magnificent royal palaces; suffer from disasters from the outside and from that terrible disorder that affects the nature of every person inside him, which affects both his soul and his body, which distorts and blinds his mind. 2. 97–98 The human race is a category of fallen creatures. Earth is the threshold of hell with initial executions for criminals. The Savior made it the threshold of Paradise. 6.405 (See Prodigal Passion, Virtues, Monastic Vows). Spiritual books should be read little by little so that the mind does not become satiated with reading. The same thing happens to the mind as to the stomach, which, having had enough, turns away from the best food. 6.685 As an example of how a corrupted spiritual eye acts harmfully on our salvation, let us cite the following, which we have seen from experience: some have read novels and have adjusted their minds and hearts to them; Subsequently, struck by some vicissitudes of life, or by their own inner awakening attraction, or even by the grace of God, these people wanted to lead a pious life. It was then that the disastrous effect of the mood obtained by the previous reading was revealed. The habit of enjoying voluptuousness constantly distracted them from the feeling of repentance and introduced into the very feat the enjoyment of voluptuousness, so abominable before God, making the human soul inaccessible to the Holy Spirit, an easily accessible abode for Satan. This is especially clear in the female field. Those women who read many novels, then devoted themselves to piety and even asceticism, most want their new life to also be a novel; they want to be mistresses according to the mood of their soul! They want to, because the will, damaged by its incorrect use, forcibly attracts them to acquired voluptuousness, and the mind, weakened, darkened, corrupted, captivated by thoughts communicated by reading, has neither the strength nor the ability to guide the will and keep it from the wrong desire. Those who are nourished by reading novels are very capable of self-delusion and demonic seduction, as those who have acquired a taste for the pleasure of voluptuousness, which can act not only in a crude, but also in the most refined way, incomprehensible and inconspicuous for a person who has not yet thrown off the yoke of passions. A certain monk, during his worldly life, not knowing what prudence and circumspection should be observed when exposing the soul to impressions that remain to live in it, read out of empty curiosity some works compiled against the Christian faith. When he entered the monastery and took upon himself a reasonable monastic feat, the impressions he received began to reveal their presence in the soul with thoughts of doubt, bewilderment, and blasphemy, proving that the spiritual eye was clogged with communication with thoughts from the realm of Satan. 5. 362–363 Read (the Psalter) simply, slowly, do not look for the mysterious meaning and do not get carried away by it if it presents itself. 6.824 (See Psalmody, Psalter). A Christian living in the middle of the world should not read the holy fathers who wrote for monastics. What is the use of reading those virtues that cannot be fulfilled by deeds themselves? There can be no benefit, but there may be harm, consisting in the fact that a dreaminess of a spiritual state will be aroused in a person, which does not suit him in any way. This dreaminess will at times flatteringly delight us with the imagination of high virtues, at times it will bring despondency and despair to the soul when we see that we cannot fulfill these virtues, it will always and constantly distract us from good deeds that are right for us, thus making our life empty and fruitless. A Christian, whose lot is to live and end his life among the world, should read the holy fathers who wrote for all Christians in general. 6. 375–376 If the book teaches advice about silence and shows the abundance of spiritual fruits gathered in the deep desert, then the novice will certainly have a strong desire to retire into solitude, into the deserted desert. If the book speaks of unconditional obedience under the guidance of a spirit-bearing father, then the desire to live strictly in complete obedience to the elder will certainly appear in the novice. God has not given our time either one or the other of these lives. But the books of the Holy Fathers, written about these residences, can affect the novice so strongly that he, due to his inexperience and ignorance, easily decides to leave his place of residence, in which he has all the convenience of being saved and spiritually succeeding by fulfilling the Gospel Commandments, for the pipe dream of perfect residence, which is depicted picturesquely and seductively in his imagination. 5.53 Conversation and the company of neighbors has a great effect on a person. A conversation and acquaintance with a scientist reveals a lot of information, with a poet - a lot of sublime thoughts and feelings, with a traveler - a lot of knowledge about countries, about people's rights and customs. It is obvious: conversation and acquaintance with saints communicate holiness. With the venerable you will be, and with the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the chosen you will be chosen (Ps. 17:26-27). From now on, during your short earthly life, which Scripture did not even call life, but a wandering, get to know the saints. Do you want to belong to their society in heaven, do you want to be a participant in their bliss? From now on, enter into communication with them. When you leave the church of the body, they will accept you as their acquaintance, as their friend (Luke 16:9). There is no closer acquaintance, no closer connection than the connection by unity of thoughts, unity of feelings, unity of purpose (1 Cor. 1:10). Where there is unanimity, there is certainly unanimity, there is certainly one goal, equal success in achieving the goal. Assimilate the thoughts and spirit of the holy fathers by reading their writings. The Holy Fathers achieved their goal - salvation. And you will achieve this goal in the natural course of things. As one of one mind and one with the holy fathers, you will be saved. Heaven received the holy fathers into its blessed bosom. By this he testified that the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of the holy fathers were pleasing to him. The Holy Fathers expressed their thoughts, their hearts, their way of acting in their writings. This means: what a true guide to heaven, attested by heaven itself—the writings of the fathers! The writings of the holy fathers were all compiled under the inspiration or influence of the Holy Spirit. Wonderful harmony in them, wonderful anointing! Anyone who is guided by them is, without any doubt, guided by the Holy Spirit. All the waters of the earth flow into the ocean, and perhaps the ocean serves as the beginning for all the waters of the earth. The writings of the fathers are all united in the Gospel; everyone is inclined to teach us the exact fulfillment of the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ; of all of them, both the source and the end is the holy Gospel. The Holy Fathers teach how to approach the Gospel, how to read it, how to understand it correctly, what helps and what hinders understanding it. And therefore, first, spend more time reading the holy fathers. When they teach you to read the Gospel, then read the Gospel primarily. Do not consider reading the Gospel alone sufficient for yourself, without reading the Holy Fathers! This is a proud, dangerous thought. It is better to let the holy fathers lead you to the Gospel, like their beloved child, who has received preliminary upbringing and education through their writings. Many, all of them, who madly and arrogantly rejected the holy fathers, who approached the Gospel directly, with blind audacity, with an unclean mind and heart, fell into a disastrous error. The Gospel rejected them: it admits only the humble. Reading the scriptures of the fathers is the parent and king of all virtues. From reading the Fathers' writings we learn the true understanding of the Holy Scriptures, right faith, living according to the Gospel Commandments, the deep respect that we should have for the Gospel Commandments, in a word - salvation and Christian perfection. The reading of the Fathers' writings, in derogation of the Spirit-bearing mentors, became the main guide for those wishing to be saved and even achieve Christian perfection. The books of the holy fathers, as one of them put it, are like a mirror: by looking at them carefully and often, the soul can see all its shortcomings. Again, these books are like a rich collection of medical remedies: in it the soul can find saving medicine for each of its ailments. Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus said: “One glance at the sacred books excites one to a pious life.” The reading of the holy fathers must be thorough, attentive and constant: our invisible enemy, who hates the voice of affirmation (Proverbs 11:15), especially hates it when this voice comes from the holy fathers. This voice exposes the intrigues of our enemy, his deceit, reveals his networks, his way of action, and therefore the enemy arms himself against the reading of the fathers with various proud and blasphemous thoughts, tries to plunge the ascetic into vain worries in order to distract him from saving reading, fights him with despondency, boredom, and forgetfulness. From this battle against the reading of the Holy Fathers, we must conclude how saving the weapon, so hated by the enemy, is for us. The enemy is very concerned about tearing him out of our hands. Everyone choose for yourself a reading of the fathers that suits your lifestyle. Let the hermit read the fathers who wrote about silence; a monk living in a dormitory - the fathers who wrote instructions for monastic dormitories; a Christian living in the middle of the world - the holy fathers who delivered their teachings for all of Christianity in general. Everyone, no matter what your rank, draw abundant instruction from the writings of the fathers. Reading that suits your lifestyle is a must. Otherwise, you will be filled with thoughts, although holy, but unfulfilled by deed itself, arousing fruitless activity only in the imagination and desire; works of piety, befitting your way of life, will slip out of your hands. Not only will you become a fruitless dreamer, but your thoughts, being in constant contradiction with the circle of actions, will certainly give rise to confusion in your heart, and in your behavior - uncertainty, painful, harmful for you and your neighbors. If you incorrectly read the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, you can easily deviate from the path of salvation into impassable jungles and deep abysses, which is what happened to many. 1. 410–412 (See Books, Jesus Prayer, Reading the Fathers). Know this: Divine Scripture, misunderstood and misinterpreted, can destroy the soul. This is what the holy Apostle Peter said about the Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul, extending this remark to other books of Holy Scripture (2 Pet. 3:16), which should especially apply to the Old Testament, full of prototypes, shadows, and therefore sacred gloom. Be careful with the two-edged sword of Scripture. The Holy Fathers advise novice monks, more than just reading the Holy Scriptures, to practice reading the active works of the fathers, in which the monastic exploits are explained in detail and the path to the correct understanding of the Holy Scriptures is indicated. And you follow this holy and saving advice of the fathers. 6.299 Have reverence for the Holy Scriptures, the reverence due to a true son of the true Church; have due trust and reverence for the scriptures of the fathers. The same Spirit of God who acted in the prophets and apostles acted in the holy teachers and shepherds of the church; the witness of this dogma is the holy apostle: “God ordained,” he says, “in the Church the first are the apostles, the second the prophets, the third the teachers” (1 Cor. 12:28). In accordance with the words of the apostle, the words of the Holy Scriptures and the instructions of the Church, the first place in your pious reading should be occupied by the writings of the apostles. Among the writings of the apostles, the Gospel occupies first place. To correctly understand the New Testament, read the holy teachers of the church, read the Psalter and other books of the Old Testament. Cleanse yourself with the Gospel Commandments and pious deeds. According to the purity of the soul, God appears to it, God’s word is revealed to it, for carnal eyes covered with an impenetrable veil of the human word. 6.447 Reading the Apocalypse leads to the fear of God; refrain from explaining this mysterious book... 6. 534 Do not allow yourself to read the Gospel and other holy books superficially and fluently: read them slowly and with attention. When reading, observe moderation. Moderation maintains a constant desire to read, and satiety with reading produces aversion from it. 6.526 (See Reading the Holy Fathers). (See Soul, Demon Warfare). The desire found in modern Christian society to see miracles and even perform miracles should not be ignored. This aspiration needs careful consideration. The desire to perform miracles is greatly condemned by the Holy Fathers: such a desire reveals the self-delusion that lives in the soul and has taken possession of the soul, based on conceit and vanity. ...Those who want to perform signs desire this out of carnal fervor, out of passion for passions they do not understand, although, perhaps, it seems to them that they are guided by zeal for the cause of God. Those who want to see signs are in the same state of self-delusion and overheating. 4.316–318 A terrible disaster is the lack of true knowledge of God in man: he mistakes the works of the devil for the works of God. Before the second coming of Christ, when Christianity, spiritual knowledge and reasoning become extremely impoverished among people, false Christs and false prophets will arise and give great signs and wonders, as if it were possible to deceive even the elect (Matthew 24:24). In particular, the Antichrist himself will abundantly lavish miracles, amaze and satisfy with them carnal wisdom and ignorance: he will give them a sign from heaven, which they seek and thirst for. His coming, says St. Apostle Paul, - will be accomplished according to the work of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders, and in all deceitfulness of unrighteousness among those who are perishing: not having received the truth for love, how can they be saved (2 Thess. 2:6-10). Ignorance and carnal wisdom, having seen these miracles, will not stop at all for reflection: they will immediately accept them according to the affinity of their spirit with their spirit, out of their blindness, they recognize and confess the action of Satan as the greatest manifestation of the power of God. The Antichrist will be accepted very hastily, thoughtlessly. People will not realize that his miracles do not have any good, reasonable purpose, any definite meaning, that they are alien to the truth, filled with lies, that they are a monstrous, all-evil, meaningless act, trying to surprise, lead to bewilderment and self-forgetfulness, seduce, deceive, captivate with the charm of a luxurious, empty, stupid effect. It is not strange that the miracles of the Antichrist will be accepted unquestioningly and with delight by apostates from Christianity, enemies of truth, enemies of God: they prepared themselves for open active acceptance of the messenger and instrument of Satan, his teachings, all his actions, having well-timed entering into communication with Satan in the spirit. It is worthy of deep attention and lamentation that the miracles and deeds of the Antichrist will lead to difficulties for the very chosen ones of God. The reason for the strong influence of the Antichrist on people will lie in his hellish cunning and hypocrisy, which skillfully covers up the most terrible evil in his unbridled and shameless audacity, in the abundant assistance of fallen spirits to him, and finally, in the ability to create miracles, although false, but amazing. The human imagination is powerless to imagine the villain that the Antichrist will be; It is unusual for the human heart, even a corrupt one, to believe that evil could reach the degree that it will achieve in the Antichrist. He will trumpet himself, as his forerunners and icons trumpeted themselves, and will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God; those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion and will join him. He will sound the trumpet and call himself the promised Messiah: the children of carnal wisdom will exclaim at his meeting; seeing his glory, power, genius abilities, extensive development in the elements of the world, they will proclaim him a god and become his associates. The Antichrist will show himself meek, merciful, full of love, full of all virtue; those who recognize fallen human truth as truth and have not renounced it for the truth of the Gospel will recognize him as such and submit to him because of his most sublime virtue. The Antichrist will offer humanity the creation of the highest earthly well-being and prosperity, he will offer honors, wealth, splendor, carnal comforts and pleasures; seekers of earthly things will accept the Antichrist and call him their ruler. The Antichrist will reveal to humanity a disgrace of amazing miracles, inexplicable by modern science, similar to sophisticated theater performances; he will instill fear with thunder and the wonder of his miracles, satisfy with them reckless curiosity and gross ignorance, satisfy human vanity and pride, satisfy carnal wisdom, satisfy superstition, and perplex human learning; all people, guided by the light of their fallen nature, alienated from the guidance of the light of God, will be carried away in remembrance of the seducer (Rev. 13:8). The signs of the Antichrist will primarily appear in the airy layer: Satan predominantly dominates in this layer (Eph. 2:2; 6:12). Signs will act most strongly on the sense of sight, charming and deceiving it. Saint John the Theologian, contemplating in revelation the events of the world that must precede his death, says that the Antichrist will accomplish great deeds, and even cause fire to descend from heaven to earth before men (Rev. 13:13). This sign is indicated by Scripture as the highest of the signs of the Antichrist, and the place of this sign is the air: it will be a magnificent and terrible sight. The signs of the Antichrist will complement the actions of his cunning behavior: most people will be caught in following him. Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered troublemakers, enemies of the public good and order, and will be subjected to torture and execution. Evil spirits, scattered throughout the universe, will arouse in people a general lofty opinion of the Antichrist, a general delight, an irresistible attraction to him. Scripture depicted in many ways the severity of the last persecution of Christianity and the cruelty of the persecutor. A decisive and definite feature is the name given by Scripture to this terrible man: he is called a beast (Rev. 13:1), while the fallen angel is called a serpent (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:3). Both names faithfully depict the character of both enemies of God. One acts more secretly, the other more openly; but to the beast, which has similarities with all beasts (Rev. 13:2), combining in itself their varied ferocity, the serpent gave him his power, and his throne, and a great region (Rev. 13:2). A terrible test will come for the saints of God: the wickedness, hypocrisy, and miracles of the persecutor will intensify to deceive and seduce them; refined, invented and covered by the insidious ingenuity of persecution and constraint, the unlimited power of the tormentor will put them in the most difficult position; a small number of them will seem insignificant before all mankind and their opinion will be betrayed by special weakness; general contempt, hatred, slander, oppression, violent death will be their lot. Only with the special assistance of Divine grace, under its guidance, will God’s chosen ones be able to resist the enemy of God and confess the Lord Jesus before him and before men. ...Before the second coming of Christ there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, the sea will roar and be troubled (Luke 21:25). How to distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist, because he too will give signs in the sun, moon, stars, and air? The first signs will be true, which is completely different from the signs of the Antichrist, which will be made up of phenomena that deceive the senses. The performers of the signs of the Antichrist will be the Antichrist and his apostles; signs in the sun, moon and stars, signs - the messengers of the coming of Christ - will appear by themselves, without any mediation. The heavenly bodies will fulfill their purpose, with which, at the command of the Creator, they shone in the sky. They already fulfilled this purpose at the Nativity of Christ with a wonderful star; They performed it at the crucifixion of the God-man, when the sun was covered with a dark veil of darkness at midday. The Holy Evangelist Matthew says that after the passing of the sorrow caused by the dominion of the Antichrist, the coming of Christ will immediately begin, and it will begin with the sun darkening, the moon not giving its light, and the stars falling from heaven. These luminaries will remain in their places, notes Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, but they will fade and appear to human eyes as having disappeared from the firmament of heaven due to the abundance of heavenly light with which the world will be illuminated, prepared to receive the Lord in His glory. We dare to call the teaching about miracles and signs presented by us the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church, the teaching of its holy fathers. The essential need for an accurate, as detailed as possible presentation of this teaching is obvious. True signs were the accomplices of true knowledge of God and the salvation it provided; false signs were the accomplices of error and the destruction flowing from it. In particular, the effect of the signs that the Antichrist will perform will be extensive and powerful, attracting unfortunate humanity to recognize the messenger of Satan as God. It is edifying, comforting, soul-saving, pious contemplation of the miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ. What holy simplicity they have! How through them the knowledge of God was made convenient for all people! What kindness they have, what humility! What irrefutable power of persuasion! Contemplation of the miracles of Christ leads us to the Word, which is God... The signs, having completed their ministry, left the field of service, leaving the essential worker to act - the Word, which abides and will remain a worker until the end of the world, as It Himself announced: Behold, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). After the widespread performance of signs, which accompanied the sowing of Christianity to the preaching of the apostles and men equal to the apostles, ceased, signs were performed locally by selected vessels of the Holy Spirit. Over time, with the gradual weakening of Christianity and damage to morality, the standard-bearing men were diminished. Finally, they dried up completely, meanwhile people, having lost reverence and respect for everything sacred, having lost humility, recognizing themselves as unworthy not only to perform signs, but also to see them, thirst for miracles more than ever. People, in the intoxication of conceit, arrogance, and ignorance, strive indiscriminately, recklessly, boldly towards everything miraculous, they do not refuse to be participants in the performance of miracles, they decide to do it without thinking at all. This direction is more dangerous than ever. We are gradually approaching the time in which a vast disgrace of numerous and amazing false miracles should be revealed, dragging into destruction those unfortunate children of carnal wisdom who will be seduced and deceived by these miracles. The revival of the soul by the Word of God produces living faith in Christ. Living faith seems to see Christ (Heb. 11:27). For her eyes, Christianity, while remaining a secret, becomes open; remaining incomprehensible, it is clear, understandable, no longer covered by that thick, impenetrable curtain with which it is closed from dead faith. It no longer needs signs, being completely satisfied with the signs of Christ and the greatest of His signs, the crown of signs, His Word. The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs were given to unbelief in order to convert it to faith. Let us cleave to the Word of God with all our souls, let us unite with it into one spirit, and the signs of the Antichrist will not even attract our attention. With disdain and contempt for them, we will turn our gaze away from them, as from a demonic disgrace, as from the deeds of frenzied enemies of God, as from a reproach to God, as from poison and deadly infection. Let us remember the following remark of particular importance, drawn from the experiences of ascetic activity. All demonic phenomena have the property that even the slightest attention to them is dangerous; from one such attention, allowed without any sympathy to the phenomenon, one can be imprinted with the most harmful impression, and be subjected to a grave temptation. ...Knowledge of God, living faith, grace-filled humility, pure prayer are accessories of the spiritual mind; they are its constituent parts. So, on the contrary, ignorance of God, unbelief, blindness of the spirit, pride, arrogance and conceit are accessories of carnal wisdom. It, not knowing God, not accepting and not understanding the means offered by God for obtaining the knowledge of God, constitutes for itself an erroneous, soul-destructive way to acquire the knowledge of God, peculiar to its mood: it asks for a sign in heaven. 4. 296–331 (See Path of asceticism). You might be interested in: