Раздел I. слова, проповеди, аскетика, слова архимандрита Феофана

Reflections on time and the temporal. Lord, He who bears the universe by his strength carries us. At this moment God holds us at his right hand over the abyss of nothingness. Let us keep ourselves pure. Our future is in God's hands. So another year has passed - and a new summer enters the succession of passing years, to pass away like all the others. Day is continually added to day, month to month, year to year, and the multiplication of time shortens time. The river of time flows continuously and quickly and rushes to the line beyond which there will be no more time. But we are not standing on the banks of this river, so as to be only outside spectators of its flow. No, but along it or together with it and in it we ourselves are drawn along the same path of temporary changes towards our end. Therefore, thinking about time is not alien to us; it touches on a very significant feature in our temporary life, and if at any time it can occupy us, then all the more inevitably it must occupy us now, when we gather in churches to pray to the Lord Almighty for the sanctification and blessing of the new summer. Living in time, we know a lot about time: we know that time is fleeting, that it must be treasured, that lost time can no longer be recovered, that the period of time given to us is short, and what must be accomplished during its continuation has an eternal price, that time is only for a while and over time everything must give way to eternity. But what is temporary itself? How does that happen in time? Continuous changes are before our eyes, and from our lips we constantly hear: now, yesterday, tomorrow; but what is the value of what is now, or this hour? Where did what happened yesterday or an hour go? Where will what will happen tomorrow or in an hour come from? Do not think, pious listeners, that the spirit of idle inquisitiveness raises such questions. No. They lead us to very important truths - truths that should guide us in the use of the time given to us and govern our entire life. Therefore, having decided to briefly answer these questions in this conversation with you, I do not think of deviating from the purpose of the conversations offered from this sacred place. So, 1. What is the value of what exists now, or this hour? We are in the habit of expanding our existence, as well as the existence of the whole world, across the space of time, we see ourselves and all other things far in the past and extend our gaze far into the future. Meanwhile, our actual existence is one moment, like one thin strip of light in the thick darkness of the night. And there is no affirmation under us. And yet we stand, like the whole world, showing a certain constancy, a certain firmness. Who keeps us in this abyss of insignificance? Who prevents the nothingness around us from consuming us? Who, by taking away reality from the past, preserves existence for the present and, by bringing into the future, which does not exist, brings into existence? Everyone has a ready answer to this. He who created us, in whom is the source of all being, who contains and lives everything. Thus, brethren, we believe that nothing can happen even for one minute without the action of the almighty power of God within it; but let us not forget to add to this that it is impossible to be - not only this big world, but by name every thing, by name to each of us. When pronouncing the word - Almighty, others are accustomed to think that He only holds the world, while we are held by the world. No, the world will not help us: it itself does not have firmness in itself, it is all like a drop from a tub, or “a guard on the balance” [“arrow on the scales” (Wis. 11:23)]. It is in vain that they think highly about the world and its laws, about nature and its forces, as if there is something inviolable, indisputable, indestructible in them - and under the guise of science they invent idolatry for themselves, which is more fatal than the mythological idolatry of the ancient Greeks. No, brethren, the life of each of us is held together not by the laws and forces of nature, but by the power of God acting in us. The Lord, who bears all things with the word of His power, bears each of us with the word of His power. Let us confirm this thought in our minds and imprint it on our hearts. The all-effective power of God carries us over the abyss of nothingness, and we live, move and are. He will take away his spirit, withdraw his hand, and we will disappear and will not be remembered by anyone [more] alive. But if the Lord holds us, then he touches us. He doesn’t just see us mentally; no, it touches us like a hand to a hand or air to a body. Comforting and scary! It is comforting to feel that not far from us is the existence of the All-Good Father and Provider, the always ready Attendant of our petitions and prayers, willing and able to help. It is terrifying to feel such closeness of the Pure to the unclean, the Good to the evil, the Generous to the stingy, the Meek to the proud, the Judge to the sinner. Is it not because the remembrance of God and His closeness to us is avoided in every possible way because the thought of His closeness is incompatible with impurity of the heart? But it exists, and our crafty oblivion will not eliminate reality. Yes, our God is fire, consuming everything unclean and sinful. And He is always nearby, and there is nowhere to run away from Him. This gnawing of conscience, which torments us for sin, is the touch of the All-Holy God to us, is His word: stop, repent. And there is nowhere to hide so as not to hear this voice. The only refuge is repentance. And there will be no peace until there is repentance. So, God, who holds us, touches us: either be clean or repent. Here's a lesson from the present! 2. Turning to the past, we ask: where did our past go? Where is what happened in a year, in a day, in an hour? Seems to be swallowed up by nothingness. What was is no longer there: our deeds and words are gone, there are no sorrows and joys, there is nothing that was in our soul and in our heart. And we ourselves are not there. It seems so. And how someone else would rejoice if much of what was felt, loved, planned and carried out disappeared forever and was never remembered! But no, nothing disappears, nothing turns into nothing - neither a thought, nor a word, nor a desire, nor a deed, just as the sap is intact, particle by particle forming a tree. Let something else be forgotten, slipped from memory, but it is still there, intact, not lost, stored. Our life is like a ball of threads. The threads are wound layer by layer and form a ball: only the top layer is visible, but the rest are all intact, only covered. So it is with us: deeds are added to deeds, thoughts to thoughts, feelings to feelings and form us ourselves, our soul in the form it now is. Only recent deeds and those that can no longer be covered up are remembered, but all other deeds have not disappeared, but exist - they have only hidden inside the heart and conscience. Unwind the ball and you will see all the threads in the same form as they were wound. So there will be a time when everything hidden inside us will open up, come out and be obvious to us and to everyone. You know what time it is! How joyful it will be for those who have nothing in themselves except pure and godly deeds. They will rejoice, as one who has found a treasure hidden in his village rejoices, or as a rich man rejoices when he lays out in front of everyone the expensive things that were hitherto hidden in his treasuries. But another would not even want to look at much of what would then be revealed from himself, he would not want to look, but he would look and be tormented - others would see it too - God, Angels, saints, and they would increase his torment and torment. I would like to turn my eyes away from myself, but not turn them away, I would like to run away and hide, but where will you run and where will you hide from yourself? He will cry: Mountains, fall on me and cover me from the face of Him who sits on the throne; but the mountains will not fall and cover it! What should we do? - Do not allow anything unclean and sinful into yourself, set a standard for your eyes, lips, hands and feet and what corresponds to them in the soul, thoughts: feelings and desires, so that the treasury of our being (heart and conscience) that is made up of them is always pure, bright and God-loving - for our joy on that day. For if not a single action of ours is wasted, if every thought, every feeling, every word and deed, look, everything down to the slightest movement leaves its trace in us, remains in us and together with us will appear at the universal judgment in our justification or condemnation, then judge for yourself whether it is prudent to allow something into ourselves that then we would like to tear out, but it will be too late. Who pours poison into his veins with his own hands, or heaps coals of fire on his own head? – Let us remember that our life is not a joke and nothing in life should be a joke, for everything in it has an eternal price. But what to do with the bad things that have already happened? If, through frivolity, carelessness, enthusiasm and passion, something bad has already been allowed into our lives, let us take care in advance to avert the extreme into which it will put us at the hour of revelation of all our deeds. What has been done has already been done, and what is done bad will remain bad forever, and there is no way to do it good. There is only a means to blot out a bad deed and blot it out so that it will never again be remembered among human deeds. The remedy is repentance. It only blots out sins, and they will not remember it. Let us wash ourselves with tears of repentance - and we will be clean, and we will appear clean at the judgment of God. Thus, nothing that is transitory perishes, but remains in us forever: therefore, either do not allow anything unclean, or, if you have already allowed it, take care to blot it out with repentance. Here is a lesson from the past. 3. Finally turning to the future, we ask: what will happen to us in the future? What does the future hold for us? The most interesting question. But no created mind can answer this for us. We can say what will happen from this or that seed, but we cannot say what will happen to this or that person, although his future, as from a seed, is revealed from him - from what he is now. We can't say; for the arrangement of his fate includes, on the one hand, his own freedom, which cannot be subordinated to correct calculation, and on the other, the actions of God’s Providence, all-free and independent, although always just and all-good. That is why we almost constantly see transformations incomprehensible to us both in the fate and in the characters of people: the good fall, the bad rise; the rich gets poorer, the poor gets richer; the glorious one is dishonored, the unknown one rises in glory - and all this in ways unknown to us, so that no one can guess what the future has in store for him. All our consolation and tranquility is in God - in the fact that our God is infinite love, is our God, and we are His children, and wants only good for us, and not only wants, but also arranges everything so that we taste this good, and brings His very providential arrangements to fruition. He embraces us with His care, seeks us with His blessings, and fills us with all good things. The mother will forget the child, but the Lord will not forget us. Isn't this fame enough? Is it not clear to the eye of faith that everything that happens to us, coming from the hand of the Lord, will be for our good? Let us not know definitively what will happen to us in the future, but knowing one thing, that what pleases God will happen to us, we are confident that only good will happen to us. And isn’t it better, instead of any desire to determine our future, to desire one thing, that what God wants would happen to us, and to pray for one thing: Thy will, O Lord, be upon us! – This is the most reliable guiding light in the darkness of the future, a rein for our vague desires, empty fears and bleak hopelessness! He who grasps this cat [having taken hold of this “anchor” (Heb. 6:19)] of hope, even in the midst of the shadow of death, will not fear evil, and will face all sorrow without fear, believing that it comes from God’s love for us for our purification, as a fiery step to perfection in the Christian life. We can say that the life of a devotee flows unerringly into the will of God. How the Lord leads him by the hand to his destiny and calms him with His love. Is it not because most of the sorrows that befall us are because we lack this devotion, because, contrary to the will of God, we bring our own will into the arrangement of our fate and undertake to act ourselves, when everything should be left to God’s arrangement. We pre-empt when we should have waited, or we wait when we should have acted, we make mistakes out of frivolity and, out of unkindness, we choose the wrong path in life. True, God has an abyss of goodness and He often deigns to graciously correct our mistakes, but sometimes we take a step that cannot be corrected except with painful fractures. Here comes the sorrow! But who is to blame? On the other hand, why do sorrows come to us? Sin for our sake. So, let us leave sin - and there will be no sorrows and troubles to punish it. Yes, brother, King Hezekiah is on his painful deathbed. The Prophet comes and on behalf of God announces to him the definition of death. But Hezekiah, turning to the wall, prayed tearfully, and God changed his definition. Nineveh is predicted to fall; but the people in sackcloth and ashes brought repentance - and God’s decree was canceled. Do you see the power of repentant turning to God? Do you see this equalizer of our life’s path, turning the stubborn into the right and the sharp into smooth paths? Do you see this water that extinguishes the fire of God’s wrathful judgments? Therefore, if doubt arises whether there is some terrible decree of God about us and our fate, let us sigh and fall to Him in repentance, and the storm will pass. Or better... since we do not know the judgments of God, we will continually sigh, cry and repent for our sins and thereby avert all kinds of sorrows. Do not think that apparent causes are the true causes of what happens to us and around us. No. Everything is controlled by the invisible beckons of God - and these beckons are always in direct correspondence with the movements of human hearts. God acts on us according to how we behave in relation to Him. If we don’t repent, he punishes... if we repent, he has mercy. Here the key to explaining upheavals and changes is not in our private lives alone! God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. Thus, the entire future is in the hands of God: therefore, either walk in devotion to God blamelessly in His will, or hasten through repentance to avert the threatening decree of His judgments. Here's a lesson from the future. Let us now briefly repeat all the instructions offered to us on behalf of time! - At the present moment, God holds us in His right hand over the abyss of insignificance and touches us with His power: let us either keep ourselves pure, as He is pure, or cleanse ourselves by repentance, if we have already committed something unclean. Not a single action of ours, having become past, does not pass away, but remains in our being and together with us, while in ourselves one day it will appear for judgment in our justification or condemnation: let us take care not to allow anything unclean into ourselves, which at the hour of judgment could put us in a difficult situation from which we will no longer extricate ourselves - or if something reproachful has already been admitted, we will hasten to blot it out with repentance. Our future is all in the hands of God: therefore, walking steadily in His commandments, let us surrender ourselves entirely to His Fatherly guidance; To avert the punitive visits of God, let us precede His presence with confession of sins and sincere repentance for them. So there is one lesson from everywhere - a lesson of purity and repentance. And what other instruction can one expect from time, when the purpose of time itself is repentance? We were created to live in paradise. But they sinned and were banished to this sorrowful land. For what? - To bring repentance. Our life on earth is penance. And what is characteristic of the one who bears penance? - Complain, lament and cry about your sins. Amen. Word on the day of the fiftieth anniversary of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy What is Orthodoxy and how to preserve and support it. “Speak with a trumpet throughout all your land...And sanctify the summer, the fiftieth year.” Thus the Lord commanded through Moses “the sons of Israel” (Lev. 25:9–10). Today the fiftieth anniversary of this sanctuary of spiritual enlightenment has passed. And so, not because of the noisy voice of the trumpet, but because of the attraction of the spirit of love and gratitude, we have all gathered here today to sanctify this day with a prayer of gratitude to the Lord God and an expression of mutual joy and consolation. So. Thanks be to the Lord, who put in the thought and blessed the work of establishing and erecting this institution, and who has preserved it to this day for our good! Thanks also to all the chosen instruments of His good care for us: thanksgiving in God to the deceased Sovereign Emperors - Alexander the Blessed 90 and Nicholas the First 91, with prayer for the repose of their souls! Thanks be to the now safely reigning most pious Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, 92 who pours out his mercies on us too! Thanks to the Holy Governing Synod, which fatherly takes care of everything that concerns us! Thanks to all those who have done and benefited us, to all who have worked and are toiling for us, to all who wish us well and rejoice in it! We all deeply understand how worthy and righteous such thanksgiving is. Therefore, it would be unnecessary to depict or arouse these feelings. And what can be said in this regard that everyone does not know and feel stronger than any word? But, brothers and fathers, food for more than one heart is our celebration. It also contains lessons for us. In the Old Testament, when the consecration of the fiftieth year was legitimized, after: blow the trumpet and sanctify - added: and let each one go to his own place, and let each one go to his own country (Lev. 25:10). That is, there the fiftieth summer was a time of equalization of property rights and personal freedom or the restoration of a previously destined and established order that had undergone changes due to some accidents - therefore, a time of judgment and reprisal: they sorted out the past and prepared the course of affairs for the future. Shouldn't we do the same? - Yes! And we need to look at our past in order to see whether the order of teachings destined for us is not in some way disturbed there, and turn to the future in order to prepare in advance how we should meet what we have to meet there. Let's do it! Turning to the past, they usually ask: what has been done? And in relation to teaching, what new discoveries have been made, new improvements, new changes in direction, etc.? What will we find in our past? – We don’t see anything special. Everything is the same, both in the beginning and now. Of course, no one will consider small changes in external appearance as something significant worth taking attention to. - What is this? - Stagnation? – Yes, this word is often heard, indiscriminately used as a reproach for us. - The only reproach, perhaps, that the reproached can boast of! – For in human teachings this is the glory of science when it is renewed from time to time and in repeated renewals represents a movement towards the best, the most perfect, towards its exemplary size and development. Such variability there is perhaps a good sign - at least an inevitable destiny. Not so in the doctrine mainly taught here and characterizing us. As a Divine teaching, it must always remain one and unchanging, just as God Himself is unchanging and eternal. And it would be a terrible revelation for us if in our past we could indicate any changes in the teaching, even under the magnificent title of improvement and development; and the fact that it is now invariably the same as it has been for fifty years is not worthy of reproach, but of approval. He must remain as he was not only over these fifty years, but also over dozens of other fifty years - until the apostles themselves and our Lord Jesus Christ. Other Christian societies that have fallen away from unity with the True Church of God can boast of additions, changes, and developments. They disappeared due to changes in teaching, and variability became their essential feature. And let them - not to their honor - boast of novelties! Let the papists boast, having invented the center of unity and lost the true point of support - let them boast and measure their vitality by this, if they can boast of unnecessary growths or scabs that disgrace the body, as, for example, double-headedness, six-fingered, hunchbackedness disfigures it! Let the Protestants, fickle as the wind and unstable as the waves of the sea, boast with their false and never-before-existent freedom of conscience and convictions, who in their latest conclusions have reached the point of all-theism and atheism! - So - let them boast; Let us not boast, unless it is with zeal that we preserve our teaching as it was in the beginning, in praise of the Church of God on the Day of Christ, fearing the terrible judgment pronounced by the Apostle: if we, or an Angel from heaven, brings you more good news (he didn’t say the opposite, but more, that is, something else besides what was preached, something more), which brought good news to you, Let him be accursed (Gal.1:8). Our institution has given more than twenty births in this fiftieth anniversary, and thanks be to the Lord if our last ones are the same in spirit as the first ones, presenting neither excesses nor shortcomings, not deviating either on the wrist or on the surface. Is this true? Here we are all here - both the first and the last; We all, standing before God in the bond of peace, testify that we have all been imbued with one spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), except perhaps those who departed from us, but were not infuriated from us. We, the last, learn from the first; the former guide, warn, and keep us within proper limits. Thus, one truth passes from fifty years to fifty years, from generation to generation, from century to century. If there is a doubt whether something new has entered into us, whether the truth has not been sold into captivity to superstition - this illegal freedom to think, without considering anything and without being limited by anything - then we are all open to each other - we will all judge together and return to the truth what is its own, so that it may go back to its own world and to its fatherland, for we all equally know that the unbridled freedom of science is the captivity of truth. Let us bind science, so that the one truth of God may remain free forever. Turning their gaze forward, they usually try to determine what else needs to be done, what path to take, what to pay attention to. What's here for us? It's the same thing for us and ahead. Human teachings all strive for something new, grow, develop - and naturally, for they do not have the truth, but only seek it. And let them search, if only they find something durable. For us, both the truth and the path to the truth are determined once and for all. We possess the truth, and all our work is directed toward assimilation, and not toward discovering it. It became a law there: forward, forward! And regarding our teaching, it is said from above: stand... remain motionless. If anything remains for us, it is only to assert ourselves and affirm others. In this regard, our teaching is also characterized by movement—expansion, but not in the realm of truth, but in the realm of those who possess the truth and are submissive to it. It is our duty to communicate and instill in every new generation among us the truth of God, to enlighten peoples who do not know it, to enlighten the preaching of it, and most of all to keep the truth of God inviolable in the hearts of all who are within the fence of the Church of God. And here, according to the time, there may be special works for which it is necessary to prepare students and invite students. Yes, brothers and fathers, our job is to see through and predict the tricks of the spirit of lies and counteract its machinations with a strong and effective rebuff. Since the appearance of the Lord on earth, the spirit of lies has not ceased to rebel against the truth and has been hostilely attempting to suppress it, modifying methods and techniques and remaining unchanged only in deceit, flattery and guile. After various heresies, he invented a center of unity in the West and with its help, directly and indirectly, he propagated there many harmful teachings, which almost completely obscured the truth, which was exhausted in the fight against them, because a part of the lie was mixed in with it, weakening it. That is why Europe, which is ahead of us in some respects, suffers greatly from false faith, unbelief and indifference. Meanwhile, in our country only Europe is praised, and now whole ships are bringing to us from there, along with goods, hordes of enemies of truth (things, persons, books), for whom it is difficult to find a decent name, between which one can, however, distinguish, as it were, two enemy camps: papism and freethinking (as if they are opposites, and yet this is the father and his fiend). They enter our region through secret paths in the hope of certain success. For us personally, of course, neither the cobwebs of this society of renegade papists, nor the illusory flattery of superstition, covered with the guise of common sense and advocating in the name of freedom of opinion, are scary; but we must not only save ourselves, but also protect the flock of Christ. And here is the domestic enemy, who is in conspiracy with external enemies and is preparing the way for them - the separation of the flock from the shepherds, not known how it was formed, but which has already begun to be expressed in print - on the one hand, and the increasingly expanding development of the elements of the worldly spirit, contrary to the spirit of Christ, on the other. You know all this, brothers and fathers; It’s true, your soul ache about it and burn with readiness to confront your enemies. I just take this opportunity to simultaneously spread the word to everyone in order to unite everyone in one thought and one determination to actively save St. faith and everything that is based on faith. At least you see what we have to do ahead, what kind of struggle we need to prepare students for and what kind of labor we should invite students to. It is no secret to anyone that our time is a time of some kind of fermentation, similar to the decomposition (chemical) of the elements in the material world. But just as the latter, they say, is always accompanied by a kind of connection, little noticeable under the visible discordant movements of the elements, so a kind of spiritual connection must also occur among us today. Just what kind are they?! The Lord, having come to earth, brought about a saving separation between the wickedness of the world, which was strong in unanimity. The fire of Divine life cast onto earth by Him, stripping away sensuality and selfhood and attracting the spirit of man to itself, from this union formed the spiritual Kingdom of God, the Holy Church, which He has preserved to this day both in us and among us. Why is this being done now?! Is it not the fire that springs from the abyss that again inflames selfhood and sensuality in order to extinguish the spirit kindled at the beginning? If so, then we, brothers, have been entrusted with keeping the fire of God unquenchable in the sanctuary of God. Let us stir up our jealousy! The current state of affairs is not unexpected. St. foresaw it in all its details. The Apostle Paul and at the same time prescribed, in the person of the Apostle Timothy, instructions on how and what their successors should do in such cases. “This is the truth,” he says to St. Timothy, for in the last days there will come times of cruelty. People will be self-lovers, lovers of money, majestic, proud, blasphemers, opposed to parents... unloving, uncompromising... intemperate... traitors... sensualists more than lovers of God, having the image of piety, but having rejected its power... diving into houses and captivating the bridegroom... Isn’t that so now? Always learning and never more able to come into the mind of truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these too resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind and inexperienced in the faith... There will be a time when they will not listen to sound teaching, but according to their own lusts they will choose teachers for themselves, with their ears scratched: they will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to fables. Isn’t that what’s happening now? What should a zealot of truth do in such circumstances? That's it! “But you are sober in everything, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelist, do your ministry known... Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ... but be compassionate for the gospel of Christ, according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling... Have the example of sound words, which you have heard from me... Preach the word, insist on the timely and untimely, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching” [2 Timothy 4:5, 1:8–9, 13, 4:2]. So, let us preach, brethren, in churches and homes, in general meetings and private conversations, orally, in writing, and in print. Let us be trumpets, constantly sounding, but intelligible. Let us put an end to the division that is secretly taking place in our ranks; Let's form a fraternal alliance, concentrate our forces, and direct them all towards one thing. The truth stands for itself; let us make it known to everyone, and it itself will attract those whom our Heavenly Father foretold. Let’s just handle this matter in such a way that no one can tell us the truth: doctor, heal yourself. So this is the lesson our celebration led us to. And naturally. Our institution prepares shepherds and mentors for shepherds. Consequently, our triumph is the triumph of shepherding not in visible splendor without strength and not in external advantages, but in the inner strength of their words over the souls of their flock, when every shepherd can say: the sheep listen to my voice, that is, they submit their mind and will to his word, form their concepts according to his teaching, arrange their lives according to his advice and resolve their doubts with his admonitions. How can all this be achieved? Not otherwise than through the preaching of the word, for we have this one weapon. Take one more thing into account. Our triumph coincided with the time when the sheep publicly began to rebel against the shepherds. What does our celebration mean? – The last flash of life or the color on the face of the deceased? No, this is a call for the shepherd to really appear and become triumphant, to be zealous for this triumph, characteristic of it, which is revealed not in external dominance, but in internal power over souls, - this is a call for intensified activity - to stand not for their rights (let them all take and leave one freedom without hesitating to speak pastorally), but for the work of God entrusted to us - the work of preserving and spreading the truth of God on earth by the power of the word, incessantly preached. We are the light of the world: we will shine. We are salt: let us not be overwhelmed! Amen. Word on the day of accession to the throne of the most pious Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich Do not consider improvement and success (progress) of that which cools one to faith and alienates gives from the Church, which can lead not only to violations of the statutes of faith and the Church, but also to the desire and demands for changes and cancellations in them, which may very well overshadow the bright face of faith and displaces from memory every thought about our end and destiny. With the triumph of the accession to the throne of the most pious Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, His first word, addressed to us for the first time from the height of this throne, comes to mind. Then all of Russia listened to him, took him to heart and decided to steadily follow the instructions of the Sovereign wisdom. But it is not useless for us to keep it in our thoughts at all times, because it gives us very important instruction. Remember this Sovereign word! After well-wishing the Fatherland for truth, peace, prosperity, the spread of education, the expansion of useful activities, He adds: “finally,” and this is our first living desire, “the light of saving faith, illuminating minds, strengthening hearts, may it preserve and improve more and more public morality - this surest guarantee of order and happiness.” What is the purpose of this so intense reminder? Is there really doubt in our devotion to faith?! No, rather, it is a wise prediction of the dangers to which our faith may be exposed, and calling us to attention and caution. In fact, brothers, we are improving, moving forward, inventing and adopting many new things. The Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Himself contributes in every possible way to this. As for His own orders and instructions, they will undoubtedly be beneficial; but much, moreover, is left to our own choice, to our voluntary enterprise - much that His will does not touch and which His eye will not see. And in this how many unhelpful and even harmful things can slip through, to which, however, we can become attached through carelessness or passion? Then we will repeat the Savior’s parable about the sower who sowed good seed in his village, where the enemy later came and sowed tares. Wishing to protect His beloved Russia from such a misfortune, the All-Merciful Monarch points us to faith as a faithful guardian against all that is harmful and a faithful guide to all that is beneficial. He seems to be telling us this: “As for Me, only truly beneficial institutions will come from Me; but even without Me you can undertake a lot, invent, adopt. Look, choose strictly. Let faith be your guide in everything. I wish you all the best and useful things - all improvement and success; but do not consider as good and useful, do not consider as improvement and success anything that is inconsistent with the spirit of faith in its entire structure - that can lead to admission and change in it or to betrayal of it - that can completely darken its bright face in your mind and heart. This is the instruction that is so needed at this time! Yes, brothers, we really need such instruction. Our forces are excited, we strive for improvements, we move forward, as they say, and develop. But not every movement forward, not every development is a sign of true improvement and improvement. Thorns and thistles grow and develop in the same way as wheat; but the wheat is gathered into the granary, and the thorns and thistles are destined to be burned. Let's move forward, but let's not forget that there is a path that leads to the bottom of hell! The same can happen with our improvements, with our so-called improvements, with our - let's use the accepted word - progress. And here's why! We can develop and improve only what is in ourselves, as in a seed. But there are two principles at work in us, according to our double origin - from the first Adam, the earthy one, and from the second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47). We are born into the world in the image of earthy Adam and at first we are the same as he - earthy; but then, in the font of St. baptism, we are graciously grafted into the new Adam - heavenly and receive the power and obligation to be like Him - heavenly. Here we are reborn, receive new life in our Lord Jesus Christ; but the elements of the old man also remain in us, act and captivate us. Behold, from these two springs flow all the streams of our deeds! Look around the entire field of human affairs and you will see that they are all divided into two halves: some are imprinted with a heavenly character, others - with an earthly one; some are the fruit of the old, others of the new; some satisfy the flesh, others satisfy the spirit. True perfection belongs only to new life. Living according to the elements of the old man is the source of all imperfections, the distortion of our nature, the decline and suppression of our spiritual powers. The only path to true perfection and improvement is to put aside for us, according to the first life, the old man, which is corrupting in the lusts of deceitful desires, and to put on the new man, created according to God - in righteousness and in the excellence of the truth (Eph. 4:22-23). Now bring under this division and under this assessment new methods for improving and ennobling us, and you will agree that in this way of thinking, and in these conditions of mutual relations, in this spirit and direction of enlightenment, in this way of spending time with taste, which are considered a sign and fruit of the highest development and perfection, if not all, then there may be so many things that feed in us only earthly, carnal, sinful things and, therefore, not improves, but upsets, suppresses, destroys. Therefore, we cannot indiscriminately grab onto everything, adopt and assimilate it simply because others do it and consider it good. We, who have pledged in holy baptism to work for the Lord Jesus Christ and to mortify our flesh with passions and lusts, must choose from everything only that which is in accordance with His spirit, and do this not somehow, but with fear and every apprehension, lest we make a mistake and creep into something inconsistent with the seal with which we are sealed in the Holy Spirit. baptism, and do not harm yourself. The question is, how can we avoid such a mistake when we are surrounded by such attractive, such brilliant and so much praised forms of life?! These are the simplest and most accessible rules for everyone! Firstly, do not consider as improvement and success (progress) that which cools you to faith and alienates you from the Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Restorer and Perfecter, established His Holy Church on earth for the education of true life in us - he outlined a wise confession, pointed out the path of holy life, bestowed sanctifying sacraments and the entire order of church prayers. This is the only true school of education, combining all the elements to stimulate, develop and strengthen the spiritual life inherent in us. The seeker of perfection must live with mind and heart in this divine institution. And only those who wholeheartedly submit to this guidance can achieve the desired height. Therefore, as soon as they offer you new ways to improve and ennoble you and captivate you with the seeming fruits of it, and you do not want to fall into error and run the risk of harming yourself, test everything according to the rule given by the Apostle Paul: the flesh lusts for the spirit, and the spirit for the flesh: these are opposed to each other (Gal. 5:17), i.e. what one wants, the other turns away, and vice versa. So, if, having touched something like this (progressive), you feel a cooling of the faith and alienation from the Church, know that it is not a beneficent spirit that is at work in it, but a destructive delusion. Whether you are studying some science in a new direction, or are exposed to the influence of new enlightenment and all writing and see that they arouse doubts in your faith, do not consider success in this as true movement forward. No - this is a return back, from light to darkness, from which the Lord called us into His wonderful light. If you come across new customs that are considered the fruit of higher education, and you see that they alienate you from the Church and force you to violate its rules without fear, do not consider adopting them as an improvement and ennoblement. No, this is a return from the realm of God to the realm of Satan, a descent from true nobility into wild carnality, albeit tinted and refined. Are you forced to submit to new conditions of mutual relations - a new tone and find that they bind you so much that you are unable to live according to the demands of the spirit of the Gospel - do not consider entering into such an order of life an acquisition - liberation from the bonds of ignorance. No, this is the loss of freedom of the children of God and the willful binding of oneself by the bonds of vanity and opinion, which are worse than extreme ignorance. So judge everything that is even slightly contrary to the spirit of faith and the Church - and you will not be mistaken! Just don’t get carried away by no matter how many people from your own circle follow this. It is not others who will be responsible for us. Let them boast of higher education. There will be a day when all deeds will be tested by fire. Then it will turn out who has gold and who has dry courage. The Lord is true in His promise: believe in Me and have eternal life (John 6:47). Secondly, do not consider as improvement and success that which can lead you not only to violating the statutes of faith and the Church, but also to the desire and demand for changes and abolitions in them. We are developing. The property of development is such that, leaving behind the old, it forces us to accept the new: the old frames are insufficient for new, developed forms of life. This is how it happens in everything earthly and in all human affairs, but not so in Faith, which, being of unearthly origin, cannot be subject to the fate of earthly changes. Nothing in it can be canceled or changed: neither in confession, nor in the rules of life, nor in the manner of performing the sacraments, nor in the order and structure of the church. Our Holy Faith in all its composition is our physician, containing all kinds of medicine for all our infirmities. But just as real medicines are only strong when they contain all the compounds required by the prescription, so also St. Our faith is only healing for us when we keep it in its entirety, without any cancellations or changes. Take away any compound from a medicine or replace it with another, it will lose all its healing power. Take something away from the Faith and the Church, or add something, or change and transform it, and it will no longer be healing and saving for you. Without its integrity we have no salvation. Therefore, the Lord Himself protects her like the apple of his eye. Let everything in the world move and change, - St. Our faith abides and will remain unchangeable. It is the same among these changes as a calm strip among the agitated sea. Imagine a sea raised by the wind: the waves rush in different directions, one after another and one against the other and represent the amazing struggle of the water element - this is an image of earthly changes! Then imagine, amid all this excitement, one stripe of calmly flowing water, calmly cutting through all the waves - this is the image of Vera! She flows calmly from the beginning of her foundation and will be like this until the end of the world, giving peace to everyone who takes refuge in her bosom from the worldly cycle. The enemy of our salvation knows that all the power and healing of the Faith depends on its immutability or this decisive immobility, and therefore he tries in every possible way to introduce it into the flow of human changes: he stirs up heresies, irritates superstition, raises the sword, scatters seductive charm - he uses everything to introduce some changes in its Divine structure and thereby destroy its power. In other countries, under the deceptive pretext of civilization, humanity, common humanity, he has already managed to persuade people to change in the Faith. In the forms of imaginary improvement, some things were canceled, others were added, and thereby ruined the healing power of the Faith. The enemy rejoices in success and reaps the fruits of unbelief, depravity, disturbances and all kinds of disorder. Judge by this what kind of spirit is at work in that development (progress), for the sake of which it is possible to change something in our Faith, as if it is time for us to leave one or another of its institutions and replace them with new ones in accordance with new education and taste. This is a spirit hostile to the truth and harmful to us. Therefore, do not consider as beneficial the improvement and ennoblement that results in such demands, do not adopt them and do not internalize them. Those who, carried away by the spirit of the new education, have reached the point where they are embarrassed by fasting, ashamed to confess sins, prefer to go to other places instead of the Church of God, consider it indecent to conduct a spiritual conversation in society and are afraid to remember the worshiped name of God, avoid sacred prayers, place the sanctity of marriage and family relationships at nothing, and so on. and so on, and he allows himself to do all this not out of weakness, but out of a spirit of superstition, with a wayward desire and demand - to improve, as it seems to him, the composition of the Faith and the Church, i.e. to forge it to suit your corrupt taste and subordinate it to your desires and pleasures - let him not boast and lie about the truth! This wisdom is not from above, but is earthly, spiritual, and demonic (James 3:14–15). Thirdly, do not consider as improvement and success that which can completely overshadow the bright face of Faith in your mind and displaces from memory any thought about our end and destiny. Recreate, brethren, in your mind the outline of the image of our Faith, see how bright, joyful and life-giving it is! “God, worshiped in the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created everything and provides for everything, saves us - the fallen and perishing - in our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit given through the Holy Sacraments in the Church, under the condition of faith and unquestioning submission to the Divine economy, with the promise of eternal bliss in heaven." Here is a brief image of the entire order of the Divine world government and all the destinies of humanity! This face of truth inherent in consciousness illuminates the entire path of our life. By its light we clearly see what we are, why we are here on earth, and how our course will end, we see our entrance into this world, and our departure from it, and what the middle should be filled with, separating these extremes. He who has entered with his mind and heart into this Divine invisible arrangement of everything flows his way as best he can, without taking his eyes off that last door through which everyone must inevitably pass; - and this mental contemplation kindles the zeal of the procession in him, eliminates excesses, protects him from unnecessary stops and keeps him in constant sobriety and wakefulness. Our enemy knows the power of this thought - he knows that whoever lives in this invisible world with his mind and heart will find little on earth that could occupy and hold his attention. Therefore, he tries in every possible way to dispel, bring into oblivion, and overshadow this face of Divine truth with other images, scattering attractive earthly delights before his eyes. The one caught in his net forgets all this, rushes into the outside, worries in the bustle and dies. So, when, under the seductive title of higher education, you come across such a way of thinking and life, which, leading those devoted to it, as it were, into some dark region, makes them forget the heavenly structure of things - forget what they are, why they are here on earth, and what awaits them - keeps them, as it were, intoxicated, spinning in a whirlwind of worries and vanity, tyrannizing them under the inexorable dominion of some demands and conditions of life, without giving to come to your senses and come to your senses - judge by this yourself which spirit invented and established such an order of things, and do not be seduced by it, do not adopt it and do not assimilate it for yourself. This is not the bright realm of perfection, but the dark depths of Satan. We are not children! We know well that today or tomorrow we must die, appear before the judgment of God and give an account. So what? Is it better to awaken from oblivion at that hour without any benefit or opportunity to improve the matter, or to remember this in advance? Let us not forget that no matter how momentary our life is, an entire eternity depends on it! Therefore, there is reason to take care not to waste it in vain. Or do they want to turn the earth into paradise?! But the verdict of God's court is unchanged. The earth has been and will be a vale of tears. Our life on it is a constant penance. No matter how you sweeten it, you cannot destroy its bitterness. No one would think that, speaking in this way, we are rebelling against any improvement and any change for the better. Oh no! May God bless every good improvement, and may He bless the efforts of those who devote themselves to this. We only want to say that the true measure of the beneficialness of improvements should be their conformity with the spirit of Faith and that everything that cools one’s faith and alienates one from the Church, everything that forces one to violate its statutes and demand changes in them, everything that leads to the oblivion of the Divine order of things should not be considered a sign and fruit of true improvement and prosperity (progress), but a return back (regression), decline and destructive. Judge for yourself, brothers! The Lord came to earth and planted saving Faith in it precisely in order to heal our infirmities and lead us to primitive perfection; For this reason he gave us the holy confession - this is a reduction of all truths, he spoke the commandments - this is the outline of the most perfect life, he established the Holy Church and the Holy Sacraments - sources of revival and sanctification. Do you want perfection (true progress), believe and, having received the powers of grace through the Holy Sacraments, live according to the demands of Faith. There is no other way. It is impossible to achieve perfection in knowledge without containing St. confession, one cannot achieve the perfection of life without fulfilling the commandments, one cannot heal one’s infirmities without the assistance of the Holy Sacraments and submission to the entire rite of sanctifying prayers of the Church. It’s not that we want to say that this is the only thing and nothing else, but that this is the main thing, inaccurate, guiding, so that if this is not there, everything else is worthless. Work to expand the circle of knowledge, but not otherwise than under the guidance of confession and according to its instructions, and not in opposition to it; otherwise all your wisdom will be nothing more than the dream of a dream. Improve the order of mutual relations, but without violating the Gospel instructions: otherwise all your civilization and humanity will be nothing more than the beauty of a fallen tomb. Improve the external conditions of life and well-being, but without forgetting the eternal order of God: otherwise all your splendor and all the pomp will be nothing more than a deceptive ghost. Will there be any meaning in our action if we, leaving this Divine institution, undoubtedly beneficial and, moreover, obligatory for us, turn exclusively to our own methods - arbitrary, always dubious and unreliable! Then the reproach spoken through the prophet will righteously fall on us: I have forsaken the source of living waters, and dug up for myself broken treasures that cannot hold the water (Jer. 2:13). Brothers, experience is the test of everything! But look, has this vaunted progress brought anyone to the promised perfection, has it given them peace, has it made anyone happy? Nobody! And of those who unswervingly follow the path of the Faith of God, you have a whole cloud of witnesses - a host of saints of God who have truly improved and have shown by deeds that this and not another path leads to perfection. These are examples of true progress! And all who imitate them, strengthened by Divine grace, go from strength to strength, until they reach the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ (Eph. 4:13). I think, brethren, that always, especially now, when lifting up prayers to God for the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor, everyone accompanies this prayer with a sincere desire - to do everything pleasing to Him, no matter what sacrifices it requires, and even more so if someone had to hear or know His direct will. But out loud He long ago declared his first and most living desire - that the light of saving Faith may illuminate our minds and confirm our hearts. Shall we step back from the demands and vows of the heart?! “I do not demand much from you and not anything new,” as if our most pious Monarch were speaking to us: keep the true faith of our fathers, as I myself keep it, and do not deviate from the saving and sanctifying institutions of the Church. I believe this to be the cornerstone of your prosperity and the safe firmness of the State. Do you want to serve Me faithfully and make yourself happy? “Be true sons of the Church, do not be carried away by the illusory shine of new things coming to us from somewhere, and do not thereby disturb the good mood of your souls and the good order of your pious life.” Well, shall we say to this: amen? Let's say, brothers and fathers! Let us say with readiness to do so: for it is not words that are needed, but deeds. Amen. Words to the Tambov flock Word upon entering the Tambov flock Complete outline of Orthodox truth and instructions In the name of God, worshiped in the Trinity - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I greet you, the flock entrusted to me by God, with an apostolic greeting - in the desire for grace and peace. May grace and peace multiply to you - as two sources of every good of soul and body: may your mind be filled with the knowledge of God and all truth that comes from Him, with corresponding feelings and dispositions; May your heart open to brotherly love and every kind of goodness, and may all your undertakings turn to the glory of the One God... the goodness of the air, the fertility of the earth and everything that is necessary for your temporary prosperity, may the generous mercy of God grant you, if it pleases you. About all this is my unceasing sinful prayer to God. For we are no longer strangers to each other. At the hour of the naming, not yet knowing you, I had already entered into communication with you, making a vow to God and the Holy Church - to belong to you through care, labor and even this life. In equal retribution, as I believe from the confidence in your Christian conscience, you have done something similar, dedicating yourself to attention and, if necessary, to obedience to my weak word and deed of faith in love. And now this mutual union, based on mutual self-sacrifice, is sanctified by the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice to the Lord who sacrificed for us, from Whom for this reason may every blessing descend upon our beginning co-existence. From this moment we have both good and evil in common, and this is not only for a while, but also for eternity; for this co-existence, although it began in time and for a time, is imprinted with a character that goes beyond time, because, being associated with mutual obligations, determined above, and on the day of judgment it will serve to justify or condemn us. This seems to be enough of an incentive for us to walk before each other, as before the face of God, with all attention and kindness, with mutual good wishes, in prayer for each other and in mutual assistance to each other, working out our salvation with fear and trembling. I think, however, that there is no need to disclose to you our mutual obligatory relationship. This is not the first time you have entered into them, but let me remind myself of them to myself. I consider it necessary to offer you only one thing in some detail for the first time, namely: to draw an image of sound Christian teaching, which you need to heed, like a lamp shining in the darkness of human opinions and errors, and which I will follow in my feasible service to the word of truth. Listen to what I confess, what I teach and what I will seek to believe in, out of duty as a shepherd, and according to this judge who is ours and who is alien to us, with whom we should communicate and whom we should run away, what we should follow and what we should move away from. It will not be something new or our own that will be offered, but something that has been handed down to us since ancient times as St. the law of faith and the unchangeable rule of life. Thus, I confess that God, One in Essence, is Trinity in Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that these Three are not names of one and the same Person and not names of different actions of the same Person, but Three Hypostases of the One Divinity. This is how the Holy Church commanded to confess, this is how I will teach and this is the faith I will seek from everyone in the duty of shepherding. I confess that this Trihypostatic God, all-perfect, by His free will, without any internal or external necessity, in six days with His one word created this world, not pouring into the world and not merging with it, but remaining in Himself whole and unchangeable, although He is omnipresent and fulfills everything. This is how the Holy Church commands to confess, this is how I will teach, and this is the kind of faith I will dutifully seek from everyone. I confess that the All-Good God, having created the world, did not leave it to the mercy of fate and did not shackle it with the bonds of some inexorable necessity, as unbelief and superstition teach, but with the same freedom and power with which He created it, with the same He rules it and graciously cares for every creature, especially rational ones, freely directing everything to His good goals, not embarrassed by the laws of nature, which themselves are nothing more than an expression of His will, and therefore are entirely subject to His free order and change where His infinite wisdom requires it. This is how the Holy Church commands to confess, this is how I will teach, and this is how I will seek faith from everyone. I confess that we, having been created for constant communion with God and unchangeable bliss in Him, in our first parents, by violating His commandments, fell away from Him, incurred His righteous wrath and fell under temporary punishment and eternal condemnation, and that therefore every evil we see and experience, internal or external, is not our natural state or a consequence of our limitations, but is the direct fruit of sin - punishment, only by mercy God turns it into an instrument of cleansing for us under the condition of faith, repentance and humble submission to the will of God. This is how the Holy Church commands to confess, this is how I will teach and this is how I will seek faith from everyone. I confess that the Lord, moved by love, not tolerating His beloved creation - man - perishing in this plight, deigned to descend to earth, take upon Himself human nature, satisfy the truth of God through suffering and death, and, after the Resurrection, ascend to Heaven, and, sitting at the right hand of God and the Father, again open to man free access to living Communion with God. I confess that all the restorative Divine powers, including life and piety, were placed by the Lord in His Holy Church as our only physician and act in it by the Holy Spirit through the Holy Sacraments and other sanctifying institutions on everyone who approaches them with a heart opened by faith... and that there is no other way to receive the powers of grace and there cannot be, no matter what they plan and no matter how otherwise Some dreamy minds dreamed of becoming spiritual. I confess that everyone who seeks salvation must first of all repent with the determination not to sin again, even if it costs his life; then proceed to the Sacraments to receive grace, to strengthen those weak in the good of their natural powers, then to go as far as we can along the path of the commandments of Christ among all the sanctifying institutions and prayers of the Church, which are essential to kindle the spirit of grace in us, under the influence of feats of self-denial to mortify passions - until, finally, we reach the bright region of dispassion and purity, to this measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ. I confess that those who have begun this path, entering into communion with God, at the same time enter into communion with the invisible world - the Angels and all the saints who have previously pleased God, and, resorting to their intercession, receive timely help from them - most of all from our Most Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary - our all-powerful Intercessor and Intercessor. I confess that for original sin the soul will be separated from the body by the action of death and will remain in this separation until the future resurrection and judgment - either nourished by the hope of eternal bliss, if it followed the will of God in everything, or languishing with the fear of eternal torment, if it resisted the commandments of the Lord. I confess all this with all my soul, with all my heart and with all my thought, because the Holy Church commands to confess this way... So I will teach and I will seek such faith from everyone... And so I deliberately outlined our entire confession to you in order to renew in your thoughts the bright face of our faith - I pointed out the path that we are commanded to follow, and hinted at those crossroads that some deviate from due to lack of teaching, others due to ill-directed erudition. And may the Lord deliver you from these deviations! Everything I depicted is not new! Hold on to this old faith, as our fathers held on to it and for this they left us clear traces of their pleasing to God, from them there is also Sergius of Radonezh, so zealously revered by you and glorified by all Orthodox Russia, whose memory is now celebrated. – Beware of innovations in matters of faith and piety and beware of these lying prophets who come... in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves – understand the lies hidden in the attractive words of flatterers who seek to corrupt you under the guise of goodwill. I mean all those who are wrong-thinking and wrong-doing, not out of weakness, but out of perseverance, with the desire to attract others to their side - I mean... Those who do not believe in the Holy Trinity and think that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not Persons of the One Divinity, but are names of one Person, - Those who reject Divine creativity and providence and think that the world with all the creatures in it spontaneously arose and is governed by itself - Those who do not believe in the fall of man and our disastrous state in another way, - Those who do not believe in the Holy Church as a single physician who contains within herself all the powers restorative for us, and who consider her Holy Sacraments and sanctifying means to be simple rituals without inner strength, - Those who dream of receiving the sanctifying power of God's grace in some hidden, invisible way, and not in the way offered by the Holy Church - Those who do not recognize asceticism and all works of self-sacrifice as necessary, flattering themselves with the false hope of uniting the spirit of Christ with the spirit of the world - Those who shun communion with the saints and contemptuously reject their intercession and intercession, as well as the destructive actions of the spirits of wickedness in high places, - Those who do not recognize the spirituality of the soul, its immortality, the future resurrection of our bodies and the eternal reward of all of us according to our deeds - Obvious and secret violators of the statutes of the Holy Church of God, who do not consider it necessary to observe fasts, confess, take communion, and who do not honor St. holidays and Sundays, or instead of properly honoring them, indulging in unreasonable amusements and amusements, - With the daring self-justification of those who do not maintain purity before marriage and marital fidelity after marriage, - inventing some other way of cohabitation instead of what is blessed by God - In general, everyone who is carried away and captivated by the indomitable self-will in their way of thinking and the rules of life... You see now who is ours and who is not ours, on whose side is the truth and where is the lie. Avoid evil and do good. The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, seeing the destruction from the appearance of false teachers in the flock of Christ, on the one hand, aroused the vigilance of believers, pointing out this appearance, on the other hand, he taught them to recognize the falsity of their teaching by internal spiritual unction. Finding ourselves in somewhat similar circumstances, we turn to you the words of the same apostle: “...beloved, do not believe every spirit, but tempt the spirits that are of God: for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). “Now there were many antichrists... which came forth from us, but they were not maddened from us” (1 John 2:18–19). Ask how to recognize them and their teaching? According to the outline of the truth proposed by us, or according to the wise rule proposed by St. Ignatius the God-Bearer: “stick to the lawful shepherding - and you will never fall away from the truth.” For shepherds and teachers are given to the Church by the Shepherd and Head of the Lord - for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of service, for the building up of the Body of Christ... Let us not be infants, blown about by every wind of doctrine, in the lies of men, in the deceit of the wiles of flattery (Eph. 4:12, 14). May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Him - the enlightened aim of your heart, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the abounding majesty of His power in us who believe, according to the working of the might of His might (Eph. 1:17-19). Amen. The general structure of life required by Orthodoxy as Inspecting your churches, I saw your unflattering zeal to rush towards the house of God and your readiness to cordially communicate with everything that works and who works in them. This alone pleases and testifies to your living faith. But when I bring to mind your intentions - either to renovate dilapidated churches, or to restore abolished but still memorable monasteries, then I cannot help but say with the apostle: I thank my God Jesus Christ, for your faith is so clearly proclaimed by your deeds in the presence of all who know you. Therefore, further, wanting, like the same apostle, to impart to you some spiritual gift for your strengthening, I must involuntarily limit myself to one consolation - the common faith - yours and mine (Rom. 1:11-12) and one expression of good wishes to you. So, may the Lord bless your labors and your undertakings, may he improve your outer and create your inner. I believe that this will come true according to your faith. For the abundantly merciful Lord will not put to shame your works of love and your trust. But at the same time I cannot hide my fears: - the enemy would not laugh at the simplicity of your faith and, covering up the roadblocks with good looks, would not deviate you onto the wrong path, portraying it in your mind as right. In this assumption, I consider it my duty to remind you of some warnings, which, however, are valid everywhere and for everyone. 1) In deeds of piety and in works pleasing to God, do not forget to balance the external with the internal. External things are things that are visible to everyone; internal is invisible to others, but nevertheless known to conscience and visible to the All-Seeing, the mood of the mind and heart, that is, the way of thoughts, dispositions and feelings. The outer one is leaves without fruit or a flower without an ovary - a barren flower. The internal one, if possible, is like the power of vapor, not limited by anything and therefore dissipating in the air. The same and the other together are a leafy tree, full of vital juices and abundant in fruits, pleasing the eyes of all. Thus, not only by silence testify to your non-resistance to faith, but also in your thoughts do not contain anything contrary to it. Don’t worry about just one thing, so that you don’t speak provocative speeches with your tongue, but also drive away every hostile feeling from your heart. Not only stand in the church with your body, but with your mind and heart stand before the Throne of the Most High, and so on. Where the internal does not agree with the external, there is contempt, hypocrisy and hypocrisy... May the Lord save us all from this infection that is destroying many, many! Often, by virtue of our position, we must appear to be what we are not in our inner mood. But there will be a time when all this will be brought to universal fame. And then everyone will be praised not according to what he appears to be, but according to what he is in his heart. This is the first and most important thing! 2) Set laws for your inner being: submission of the mind to the definitions of dogmas, submission of the will to the commandments of the Gospel, submission of the heart to detached hopes and aspirations for good in the future. There are many temptations to the mind from the diversity of thoughts and other thoughts that surround us or the almost universal enslavement to vanity; there are many temptations to the will from the examples of non-Christian living among Christians around us; There are many temptations to the heart from the pleasures of the world scattered before us, with which the enemy attempts to obscure the heart’s memory of the desired eternal bliss and tie it to the earth. It is appropriate to fight against all this especially now, when the superstition of the mind is increasing, evil customs are expanding and the charms of the world are multiplying richly. Do not say: it is difficult to overcome yourself and resist the hobbies of others. We are not alone. The Lord is near, Who said: Be of good cheer, for I have conquered the world. The Lord Himself is our Wisdom and strength and consolation. 3) For your external affairs, make it a law - the charter of the Holy Church. Take a good look at this charter, and you will find that it determines our behavior in all, one might say, details. Here food, work, rest, staying at home and in the church, activities of the day and night, etc. are defined. For example, you came to church: the charter has already determined how you should stand in the church, that is, quietly, not speak, listen to what you sing and read, and so on. Also: sit down at the table; - the charter states that when you can eat - now, for example, only fasting. The hour of sleep has come: it has already been said how one should go to sleep in a Christian way - namely: make peace with everyone, confess your sins, pray, etc. Likewise, for every matter there is a rule in the Church. A Christian, a member of the Church, must live like a churchman, just as a warrior lives like a warrior. Nowadays there is an especially urgent need to remind us of this often, for many Christians, carried away by superstition, do not want to know the rules of the Church, considering it below their rank, and themselves above it. No, brethren, the charter of the Church comes from God. Whoever does not submit to him resists God. St. the apostles, martyrs and all the saints who lived according to the order of the Church and laid their lives in it are witnesses to the fact that there is nothing arbitrary or fussy in it, but everything is established with wise proportionality and consciousness of need and imposed on everyone as a duty. Are not the experiences of all the essence of indicating the urgency of the law? 4) So, having established your internal and external, do not rely on your own labors or tension, but completely surrender yourself to the all-arranging welfare of God. Look for fulfillment from Him, just as from Him there is beginning and continuation. Without Him everything is nothing. You need to make a sacrifice out of yourself and your deeds to God. God, who looks upon everything, will accept her graciously only when she is dedicated to Him. He who confines his affairs within himself or in his external life wastes time and labor in vain. Here, perhaps, there will be some other fruit for him from this, but not in the future. Son, give Me your heart, says the Lord (Proverbs 23:26). The heart means the whole person. He who does not give himself to God is outside of God. He who is outside of God is outside of true life and bliss. The darkness and emptiness terrify us. There is darkness and emptiness in that spirit in which God does not dwell. But how will He dwell in one who does not surrender himself to Him and does not devote himself entirely to Him? This tradition is the opening of the heart to the Lord who interprets and seeks entrance into it. Many people think that the more independent they are, the higher they are. But this is flattery. Because of this, Satan fell and thus drags everyone into his fall after the first successful experiment with our forefather. Come to Me, and I will give you rest, says the Lord; – and didn’t say: and rest yourself as you know... Thus, in devotion to God, live according to the rules of the Church, in obedience to the dogmas, commandments and prohibitions of God. By balancing your inner with your outer in this way, you will glorify God in your souls and bodies - glorify with complete glorification, for which He who Himself glorified Himself with the Father after He glorified Him on earth will not deprive you of eternal glorification. Amen. Word in Kozlov, in the cathedral A warning against new hobbies. Walking around your city and examining your churches, I could not help but see so clearly your love for the holy faith and the Church imprinted on everything, I could not help but notice the spirit of sincere piety animating you. I rejoice in this, as having gained much self-interest, and I thank the all-merciful Lord, who has set you up in this way, praying for His goodness to preserve the same spirit in you until the time of His Last Coming, so that you may appear blameless on the last day before the face of the whole world. But while expressing such joy about you in front of you, I cannot hide my fears for you, lest your minds decay from simplicity - lest you deviate into crossroads - to unfruitful concepts and deeds. Therefore, I consider myself obliged to say a few words in relation to this as a warning to you... Take care, brethren, most of all so that the spirit of zeal for St. faith and life pleasing to God. You have it, and it is predominant. But how many spirits have entered the world - and every spirit seeks predominance, then look - not to be carried away by any of them, not to the glory of God and not to one’s own praise. One cannot live without the spirit of life; Everyone who lives is inspired by something. The spirit inherent in us is the spirit of Christ, which alone must animate us, subordinating all others to its power and making them instruments of service to itself. The Spirit of Christ is known to you as Christians. This is to do everything for the glory of God and one’s salvation. Opposite to it is the spirit of the world, according to which, in oblivion of God, they work tirelessly, chasing empty dreamy goals, never achieving them and never enjoying the peace of this achievement. Otherwise, he is called a “flattering spirit,” which, under various appearances, captivates many, transforming into an Angel of Light. For example, it is impossible not to have. But who with oblivion of God and His holy. the law indulges in lust, he is inspired by an unkind spirit. Acquire, but according to God and for God. It is impossible not to have pleasures in life, otherwise life is not life. But whoever sets the goal only for joy and pleasure has strayed from the wrong path. You must have a good name. But anyone who only bothers to hear good reviews or the noise of flattering rumors is pursuing a dreamy goal. All these are wrong spirits, each of which is born into many branches and species, which it is impossible to count. One thing is common to all of them - to turn away from God and, plunging into forgetfulness of God, extinguish zeal for salvation. Beware of all this, keeping the true spirit of Christianity still alive within you. Keeping the spirit of zeal according to faith, be careful not to exhaust the strength of this spirit in vain, not to waste it on something that does not bring glory to God or salvation to the soul. There are many things and deeds that seem good without actually being so. You know how this is possible and in what respect it is possible. To avoid mistakes, here's what to do: do everything with advice. In matters of trade, for example, you consult with skilled traders, in matters of craftsmanship - with skilled craftsmen. And in matters of faith and piety, consult with those who are entrusted with their care in the Christian world and their creation in your souls. Of course, your best advisor is the very spirit of piety. But, on the one hand, not everyone can have it in force, on the other hand, there are already many examples of deviation towards the wrong directions, which, judging by the people and places where they are found, seem to be right. How long does it take to make a mistake? Nowadays many are carried away by novelty... but not everything new is good, just as much of the old has outlived its usefulness. We need to take it apart. The old, however, as tested, is always better than the new, not yet tested. In matters of faith and piety, the older the better, or even the old is the truest. Of course, only the spirit should remain unchanged, but in the external expression of this spirit there is much that is so essential and close to the spirit that it cannot be touched except at the expense of the spirit itself. Breathing, for example, is the outer expression of life. But man has been breathing the same air since creation. Almost everything is of the same kind in the outer vestments of our faith and the Church. There is very little here that can be compared to the cut of a dress or the way it is sewn. And what need is there to change, for example, the design of an icon or the notes in a chant? - especially when the old creates and the new destroys. Europe is driving us crazy; but almost all of Europe and in its entire composition became pagan. Isn't it better to leave her to herself? The true light came to us from Byzantium. And we are not little, we didn’t come into the world yesterday. Soon it will be a thousand years since we believe in the Lord and keep His holy law. And in this let others learn from us, as they should: for the truth is with us. I did not touch on this to force you to put the external on an equal footing with the internal. No. To each his own, and the inner is always higher. But here is a new warning: be careful that, while indulging in worries about external matters of piety, you do not forget its inner spirit; but be careful not to abandon the external entirely under the pretext of preferring the internal to the external. The external can still exist without the internal, but the internal can never exist without the external. Have you ever seen plant power without the visible body of the plant?! And how many plant bodies – trees, there are – without inner life?! Not leaving the external is the law. But let us not stop at him alone. And under him - under his influence, guidance and direction - to mature internally. The inner faith is composed of the knowledge of St. faith and corresponding deeds, or from the totality of sound concepts and St. feelings and dispositions. I especially draw your attention to a collection of sound concepts about everything or to clarifying for yourself the truths of St. faith. See how the teachings of the world spread! And how many books are written and published, imbued with the spirit of the world! The ability to read is also expanding more and more. Do not be too greedy for worldly writing. There is, of course, some good there, but there is also a lot of bad. I consider it my duty to warn you: do not get carried away by that reading. You cannot remain without enlightenment. But we must distinguish light from light. And the dung heap smoking in the darkness emits some kind of light. But what kind of light is this?! A lamp shining in a dark place, according to the Apostle, is the Revelation of God - or the totality of the teaching, content and offered to the Holy Church. Strive for it, be jealous of it, and you will be truly enlightened... Brothers, beware! Many evil teachings are now being spread. Contrast them with the knowledge of truth. Listen to the conversations that will be said here - in this church, every Sunday - take care to purchase books at the direction of your shepherds, which I will suggest, or read, talk, reflect. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. And you will walk in the light, as sons of light and day; darkness has no power over you, and you will never be stumbled. If you are jealous of such enlightenment, then in it you will find guidance on how to generally balance the internal with the external - how to avoid wasting the strength of the spirit of zeal for faith and how to preserve this very spirit. That is, appear and will always appear as you should be before the face of God and the Christian world. May the Lord bless you in this way, mother-in-law, so that you will comprehend and, appearing to the Chief Shepherd, receive the unfading crown of glory, which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him and are sincerely zealous for His glory and the salvation of their souls. Amen. Word for the Week of the Holy Fathers Subjugating the mind to the yoke of faith is the protection of Orthodoxy. The Holy Church now remembers the First Ecumenical Council of 318 St. The fathers who defended the dogma of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and condemned Arius 93, who philosophized wickedly about this. The intention of the Holy Church in this action is that by reminding us of the dangers to which Christians were exposed at that time from the false teachings of Ari, to direct our thoughts and concern to the dangers of faith with which we are surrounded today - and by the example of the Christians of that time, especially the Holy Fathers, to inspire us to stand firmly in the truth, not swayed by the wind of passing and rapidly changing opinions. True, we do not now have any Arius - the boss and leader of false teaching; but false teachings impersonally spread everywhere - they destroy simple souls, just as a corrupting wind or malignant dew destroys plants and flowers. These teachings come from the centers of secular enlightenment; but even there they are not native, but are brought there from everywhere; so that what the holy Apostle Paul said to the Ephesians is exactly being fulfilled over us, as you heard in the current apostle: For we know this, that after my departure heavy wolf wolves will enter into you, not sparing the flock. And from among you men will rise up, saying that you are corrupt, and will tear away the disciples after themselves (Acts 20:29-30). Wolves come to us - strangers; ours, adopting from them, following their example, say “corruptions” and, tearing away from the holy faith, drag them after themselves. But no matter what great place evil comes from, it is nevertheless less evil, and our duty to be on guard does not become less obligatory. You see that lies are walking around us, crawling into our ears and eyes in order to break through inside us and kill there the truth that we also love and honor. I think that when you saw this, more than once a question arose from the depths of your heart: what should we do? Nothing more than what Christians have done at all times when lies attacked the truth: stand in faith and for faith. To maintain faith, you must first take care of yourself. The Apostle Paul, pointing out to the Ephesians the danger to their faith, added: for this reason, watch. First of all, we need to watch over ourselves. We ourselves carry within ourselves a ready-made leader of the heresy and a forger of all lies - our mind. Just give in to him - and he will lead you who knows where. Wonder if it is possible without thinking that such is the mind; but in reality it is so. Nowadays everyone is looking for rationality everywhere. All you hear is: this is what reason demands, this is what reason says, give a reasonable view, a reasonable conviction, a reasonable faith. If the proverb is true: what hurts someone, that’s what they talk about, then the mind is the disease of the present time. It's good that they are looking for rationality. But it is not good that they look for it in the human mind alone. They want to make this mind a universal mentor - the king of truth. It is not clear where he got such an honor? When a person is born into the world, he knows nothing; He doesn’t even know how to name a single thing himself, he learns everything; and as soon as he gets on his feet, before he has yet come of age, he begins to rise with pride and repeat: I and my reason will judge everything and decide for ourselves. Reason is definitely a great gift of God, but in giving it to us, God did not make it the source of truth, but only its receiver. He did not tell us: here is wisdom for you, listen to it and do as he teaches you; what did you do? having created a man with reason, he immediately appeared to him and began to teach him the truth, and since then he has not ceased and has not ceased to guide him to the knowledge of it and to enlighten his mind with knowledge of it. He Himself appeared many times, sent Angels, raised up Prophets, and in the last days He spoke to us in His Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And a voice was heard from heaven more than once: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have been well pleased; listen to him. This is who you need to listen to, not reason. Reason is the ability to know truth; but the truth itself is not in him, but must be taught to him from without. Who else if not God – the source of being and true knowledge! It was taught by Him, remains on earth, is preserved and taught to everyone. The mind must be told: study it and preserve it; - from yourself you can only emit phantasms, like soap bubbles, or draw out an intricacy of thoughts, like a cobweb, which scatter with a light breath of wind. So, brother, when the urge for excessive rationality stirs in you, like some worm, and your reason, puffed up, climbs onto the teacher’s pulpit, bring him down from this height as an impostor, and, placing him on the student’s bench, say: your job is to listen, not to teach. But you also need to listen with reason, someone will say. Yes, with reason, but with a reason completely submissive to the voice of God - with a reason that does not examine and criticize, but humbly assimilates. For when God speaks, the creature must listen, and not philosophize. The apostles who went out to preach were tasked with captivating every mind into the obedience of Christ. They captivated, but not by the wisdom of the word, but by the power of God that accompanied their word. Thought is powerless against action, and everyone submitted. This does not mean that reason is completely suppressed; but that he should expand entirely only to assimilate what is preached from the face of God, without arrogating to himself the right of judgment over the content of this. This judgment is that action which the Apostle called a charge taken against the mind of God (2 Cor. 10:5), and which was condemned then, and is now worthy of all condemnation. Co-questioning - why, for what, how - is inappropriate when orders are received from God Himself - the Lord of all. Everyone tell yourself, would you ask God: why and how, when He Himself personally gave you commandments on how to live and how to understand things? Of course not. It has become - when we allow ourselves to do this now, we ourselves do not understand what we are doing. For the teaching now taught to us is the same one that directly came from God and came to us through mutual succession. Someone will say: I want to make sure whether the teaching I hear is from God? Do you think that the mind is a test of truth?! No. But this is this: the teaching from God, which is confessed by the whole Church. For the Church itself, both in structure and in spirit, is all from God - and everything in it is God. God taught the apostles; the apostles taught the believers and conveyed to them all the truth of God. Those who received the truth from the apostles passed it on to their successors as they received it. So, find out how the Holy Church confesses what, and be sure that it is commanded by God to confess it this way, and when you encounter thoughts that are new to you, do not worry about how it turns out according to your considerations, but about whether the Holy Church contains it as it is. God did not place reason as the source of truth; He did not give it a sample of truth. It is outside of him, in the Holy Church and precisely in the community of confession, so that what has been confessed by everyone, always, everywhere, is true. 318 St. The Fathers gathered at the Council to approve the main Christian dogma. And what did they do? Did you philosophize? Did you indulge in thoughts? Not at all. But they only asked each other how and where the confession about the Lord the Savior was contained. When they were convinced that everyone, everywhere, had not heard any other teaching about the Savior than that He is God, then they unanimously affirmed that he is a fighter against God who teaches otherwise, that this is the fatherly, apostolic and divine faith. As this Council acted, so did all subsequent Councils, so does the Holy Church act to this day, and all those who seek truth in the knowledge and determination of all truth have rummaged and are rummaging not in their own considerations, but in the God-given confession of the Holy Church. Here is a banner and a test of truth for you! Just as during a war, when they are confused, they look at the erected banner to distinguish their side from someone else’s; So God raised the banner of truth in His Church, so that with the confusion of concepts that almost always takes place in humanity, everyone, seeing this banner, could confidently say: “This is the truth, this is what God wants!” The inscription on this banner is a community of confession. And independence of research, personal comprehension was and is always a source of heresies and delusions. Why did Arius, Macedonius 94, Nestorius 95 and all the other heretics fall? Because when questions arose, they turned to the wrong place for a solution, they turned not to the community of confession, but to their own considerations, to their own comprehension of the truth - they became confused and fell. History preserves these experiences as a lesson for us, so that we do not succumb to the vain and proud urge for independence and independence, but humbly maintain what has been confessed everywhere, by everyone, everywhere - or, which is the same, what is contained by the Holy Church. This is the only sure path to truth. This is why, brethren, we need to institute guard over ourselves! If we keep ourselves this way inside, then no external differences of opinion will shake us. When we tame the waywardness of our mind, other people's superstition will do nothing for us. It is necessary, however, not to abandon the work of studying what the Church contains. Our trouble is that, having learned the truths of St. faith... no matter how much you have to study in your youth, we then leave this holy activity, as if everyone already knew for sure. Meanwhile, books after books are read or rumors after rumors are listened to. The head is filled with many images and thoughts, which push the truths of faith far from consciousness, obscure them or even completely drown them out; so that when we finally have to enter this area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe objects of faith, it turns out to be a land almost completely unknown to us... In such a state, with all the readiness to be faithful to the principles of St. faith, it is very easy to be carried away by the wind of false teachings, to get lost and remain in error, thinking that we stand in the truth. The trouble is considerable! “And you can see for yourself how to turn her away.” We need to read and listen more to church patristic writings, which set forth the pure truth of God. Another problem we have is that we think that Christianity is a theory, like all other theories, that it is something only mental, and not active. Thinking this way, we leave Christianity in one thought, not worrying too much about embodying it in ourselves and fully introducing it into our lives. And it turns out that thoughts that are contrary to faith, coming to us, are met only by thoughts against ourselves. And a thought, even a true one, not attached by deeds to our being, but hovering in one head, easily gives way to an untrue thought that seems interesting and valuable from some other point of view. Truth, which should be a matter and which is not a practical matter in us, accepts a certain shadow of inconsistency in us and stands weak, defenseless, unsupported - and we easily betray it. Do you see now what the trouble is, and do you understand how to avoid it?! We must become accustomed to Christianity through action and life, and not in some superficial way, but in its essence and in all its fullness. After all, Christianity is all about action, and in us it begins to ripen and reaches perfection, too, all about action. The more it goes into action and life, the more deeply and broadly it is comprehended, the more firmly and heartily it is confessed. We can say that only those who are Christians themselves know Christianity. And no lie can overcome this. With the strongest influx of false teachings, the heart, which has actually sensed the truth, will repel them, no matter what sophisms they arm themselves with. For then the truth will be in our being, and sophisms will be in our thoughts. The wind will not shake a church founded on stone, as the Savior says (Matthew 7:24–25). Much more could be said about the same thing. But I think what has been said is sufficient. Tame the wildness of the mind and subordinate it to the Divine teaching contained by the Church - then become more closely acquainted with the patristic writings - and most importantly - take care to experience by doing what is true in our Lord Jesus Christ. Set yourself up this way, and the gates of hell will not prevail against you. May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, - may He enlighten the eyes of your heart, so that you may see what is the hope of the calling of Christ and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints (Eph. 1:17-18), - may He grant you, according to the riches of His glory, with power to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, to be filled with Christ by faith in your hearts, so that, rooted in love, you will be able to understand with all the saints that the breadth and length, and depth and height are the great work of salvation, arranged by the Lord on earth (Eph. 3:18). Amen. Words to the Vladimir flock On week 24. In the seminary church on the day of the consecration of the building for government officials The principles of faith in Christian life must be preserved Finally, our higher educational institution accepts its final structure. Let us glorify the Lord, who has so favored us! Let us bless the generosity of those who donated! Let us thank those who took up the labors in intercession for the beginning and in their efforts to bring what was begun to a good end - and let us pray earnestly that the Lord may bless this first step of your new life and may He never turn His face away from this abode of wisdom and mercy throughout its existence. Let only a part of you, pets, enter a new position from now on; but this situation is such that it will not remain without influence on the rest of the pupils, and from all the pupils it cannot but pass on to your bosses and mentors; - so it’s fair to call this day the beginning of a new life for this institution. I wish you all the best in this new turn, although your life is already ordinary, your usual works and activities, I wish this to everyone: both you - bosses with mentors, and you - pets. But on your part I also expect one good desire, a strong desire - to correspond to the views and intentions of our Church, which cares about you. You are children of the Church. Show yourself to be churchmen not only in name, but more importantly in spirit and mood of mind, heart, character. What is the church? A pillar and a stronghold, according to the word of the apostle. Its distinctive feature is firmness and immutability in the principles of knowledge and in the rules of life and sanctification. Take great care to imprint these traits in yourself, without fear of the reproach of immobility from those who are agitated in a whirlwind of thoughts and blown by every wind of teaching, imputing to themselves the shameful mobility of opinions and the reproachable inconstancy of life as dignity. Let small changes like this in your outer life not irritate the urge for changes in your inner spirit and mood. How big the waves at sea are sometimes! But, they say, these vibrations occur only on the surface, without touching the body of water itself, the lower layers of which remain motionless. So your movements and changes are inevitable: changes in the premises, as now, changes in other times, bosses and mentors, changes in methods and subjects of training, etc., but let all this pass as if past you, on top of you, without touching or shaking the depth of the mood and spirit that is obligatory for you. In your current event, finding a reason to speak, I consider it necessary to remind you especially of this, because, as you see, everything around us has begun to move and everything is striving for renewal. Who would not have thought that in these impulses towards novelty there are no longer and should not be any restrictions or exceptions. No. There is an area that is no longer subject to renewal, precisely because, having been renewed once, it remains invariably new and all-renewing. Look what an area this is! The true renewal of humanity has already been accomplished once and no other is promised. The ancient mimoidosha (2 Cor. 5:17), the apostle assured, behold, it was all new. And then what? The creatures long for the revelation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19). “We,” he says, “sigh, and all creation sighs with us.” About what? About liberation “from the work of decay.” When? Into the future restoration of all things (Rom. 8:20–23). So, you see, after the renewal of humanity in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, a renewal that continues to this day in the Holy Church of God, we blessedly desire and await with sighing only one renewal - the renewal of all creation, which is to follow at the end of the world. Until that time, we must remain unchanged and motionless in the entire saving dispensation, which the Lord has given to the Holy Church for safekeeping and application. Stagnation, do you think? No. It is precisely in this that the true, life-giving, ever-moving spirit is hidden. The very structure of Christianity is precise and immovable, but everyone who enters into it and passes through it, having partaken of renewal from the first minute, constantly grows stronger in it until he puts on a completely new man, created by God in truth and the honor of truth. This is the mystery, hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed only to infants in the spirit of faith. Force yourself, too, to enter into possession of this mystery through infantile faith and try to become familiar with this initial principle of life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). For the Christian, true renewal is already complete. All other reformative techniques should not touch him deeply, touch him from the side in which he is a Christian. This part is finally determined and must remain inviolable. The preservation of this immobility of the Christian spirit in Christians is entrusted to the shepherding of the Lord Himself through the holy apostles. You are preparing for the same work of service. Keep this calling of yours in your thoughts and from now on learn to be firm and intransigent. Let everything around us move and change, do not get carried away by it and do not touch it, because in all this there may be a lot that goes against Christ’s truth and Christian conviction. Pay attention. The forms of the human word are constantly changing and being renewed. And so be it. But if in all his verbose works you rarely encounter or do not encounter at all what expresses the essence of Christianity, such as, for example: The Word became flesh and dwelt in us (John 1:14), the Lord bore our sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), one man sin into the world below and died by sin (Rom.5:12) and so on, then know that it accepted the false direction, and do not imitate it. Science is moving forward quickly. And so be it. But if they allow conclusions that are contrary to revealed truths, such as the following: that everything came into being because God spoke and was, commanded and was created, or that when the body returns to the earth from which it was taken, the spirit will go to God who gave it; - then know that they have strayed into the crossroads of lies, and do not follow them. The conveniences of life are multiplying everywhere. And so be it. But know in advance that this cannot in any way change the truth that the narrow gate and narrow path lead into the stomach, and whoever preached the opposite of this would preach a lie. Don't listen to him. Here the forms of mutual relations (humanity, civilization) become more refined. And so be it. But let no one deceive you with flattery, as if for the sake of this truth can give the hand of lies, the spirit to the flesh, Christ to Belial. Whoever would claim this, there is no truth in him. Have no part with him. Everything is being invented to strengthen prosperity on earth. And so be it. But it is certain that this will never reach the point where there is no longer a need to look forward to new heavens and new earths, according to God’s promise. And whoever would insist on this would go against the truth - avoid this. So it is in everything! Confirm in yourself the consciousness of the spirit of faith and Christian life and, keeping it unshakable, tear away everything that disagrees with it. Let this consciousness be in your spirit, like a rock among the waves of the sea. We live in the world. It is impossible not to encounter the unrest occurring in it. But in the fact that we meet them, there is no need to be carried away by them along with everyone else. On the contrary, here is a call to those who have realized the truth to stand for the truth, denouncing lies. Look around. In our Fatherland or in the members of our Church, the spiritual (proper) title is entrusted by the Providence of God - to keep the pledge of the holy faith pure and intact, as it was handed over to us by the Universal Church. If this pledge contains the foundation of the promises of the present and future, then it means that the hopes of the Church and the Fatherland rest on us. This is so, and know that until the Providence of God itself removes this assignment from us, no thought, no matter how solid it may seem, can dismiss us from fulfilling it and free us from responsibility, not to mention for evading the truth, but for mere negligence and carelessness in preserving and protecting it. The spiritual rank in the work that is entrusted to him is higher than other ranks in the religious and moral order of life. It pleases the Providence of God. We ourselves are nothing here. I say this not to make you proud, but to irritate your jealousy, it is known to create your calling and election. The purpose of the title is high, but everyone who belongs to the title only becomes high himself when he enters into the views of God’s Providence and begins to walk worthy of the title to which he is called. Put this in your conscience and take all your weapons to defend the cause of God. See how quickly the spirit of lies takes possession of a rank that stands directly above us in the civil order. We stand behind him. The Father of Lies has already begun making attacks and attacks on us. We need to become breastfeeding and never allow ourselves to let lies through us into the rest of the body of the Church and the Fatherland. This is currently primarily our calling and the feat expected of us. Rise into consciousness of this and take care to tune in accordingly. If we are already overcome by lies, what should we expect? If this happens in the harsh tree, what will happen in the sus? Lies will prevail. But this can only be for a while. The time will come, and the Lord will be justified in His words and will win, and He will never judge. A lie is nothing, a ghost. The entire weight of judgment and condemnation will fall on the instrument of lies and on everyone who allows themselves to be its conductor. Woe, even temptation comes. Contrary to the spirit of the times, I considered it necessary to remind you of all this, taking advantage of this opportunity. Although I am sure that you teach and study no differently; but I don’t think it’s superfluous to give you a voice of approval: yes, that’s how it should be, and it shouldn’t be any other way. Amen. On the day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the name day of the heir to the Tsarevich The strength of the state's prosperity not only in good morals, but also in Orthodoxy. We now celebrate Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, 96 the speedy helper of all - in all needs, sorrows and cramps. May he look upon us from above and, having asked from the Throne of God’s glory through prayer, may he send down to us the comforting, enlightening and guiding overshadowing of God’s grace in everything. This is necessary for us, and even more so for the heir to the All-Russian throne, the blessed Sovereign Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich 97 - the hope of ours and the Fatherland. Praying for his health and salvation, now, on his namesake day, what else is better to wish for him? When the shadow from above comes over him, everything will be, his glory will be like the noonday, and then his throne will be like the days of the world. But, brethren, the fate of royal persons is not the same as the fate of private persons, and the structure of their lives is not the same as the structure of the life of each of us. Private individuals are the only ones responsible for their fate. The fate of royal persons and thrones is not from them alone, but together from the spirit, rules and aspirations of the people themselves. How often does the Lord take away a God-chosen and God-loving king, along with his throne and kingdom, from a people who have made themselves unworthy of it! In this thought, turning to the future and prayerfully desiring a continuous series of successions to the throne in our Fatherland, it is impossible, along with this desire, not to take upon ourselves irrevocable obligations in the face of the all-ruling Providence, the fulfillment of which determines our dignity by the grace of God and determines the strength of the thrones. The royal throne will be unshakable for us forever and ever, if we ourselves form an inhumanly strong foundation for it, but worthy of God’s special favor and protection. To explain this, I will point out to you the sorrowful fate of some peoples, which was determined by the public judgment of God as punishment for their bad character and their unkind deeds. After this, you yourself will give guidance: if we are not like that, we will not experience the same fate. There was a people - the Babylonians. God, according to His special intentions, gave him strength that no one could resist. And he conquered the entire East under his rule. He would have humbly given glory to God, but he became so proud that he did not fear God and was not afraid of people. And here is the judgment spoken through the prophet Isaiah against proud Babylon: ... you have said in your mind: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven... I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High (Is. 14:13-14)... Now you will descend into hell, and into the foundations of the earth... and you will be cast down on the mountains, like a dead man... and I will lay you are empty, for you are nested in you, and it will come to nothing (Is. 15:19-23). This is done. So God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble - let us humble ourselves under the strong hand of God - and He will not destroy, but will always exalt us in glory. There were Syrians - a weak people. God blessed them with contentment and protected them with security many times. They forgot about God the Helper and, instead of the One who created them, they based all their hopes on alliances with neighboring peoples. For this God was angry with them, and here is His judgment through the prophet Isaiah over Syria and Damascus, its capital: behold, Damascus will be taken from the cities, and will fall (Is. 17:1). Therefore there will be no kingdom in it, and the remnant of the Syrians will perish (17:3)... You have not forsaken God your Savior and the Lord your Helper (17:10)... and the nations trusted in the works of their hands (17:8). O fierce multitude of many languages. Like a stormy sea, so it will be troubled... like the dust of chaff that blows against the wind, and like the dust of wheels, in a storm the wrath of God will scatter you across lands that are foreign to you (17:12-13). This came true! Thus, brothers, he who trusts in people leans on a broken reed. The Lord turns His face away from him and gives him into the hands of his fall. But whoever trusts in the Lord will receive mercy. The living one, with the help of the Most High, will dwell in the shelter of the Heavenly God... Evil will not come to him, and the wound will not come close to his body. This is the law both for each person and for the whole people. You see for yourself what lies on us therefore. There were Tyrians - the seed of merchants - Phoenician merchants. As a network they settled all the coastal countries with ships and colonies and became strong princes of the earth; but, forgetting the truth in heartless self-interest, they then began to absorb someone else's property, like a leech sucking someone else's blood. And here is the vengeance of the righteous right hand of God on the unrighteous merchant people! The ships of Carhidonstia lament, for Tire perished and was taken captive. - Who is this meeting at Tire? “The Lord of hosts conspires to scatter his wealth and dishonor his glory. His hand will not strengthen the sea, angering kings... To whom do not rebuke and offend... Take the harp, destroy the city, O forgotten harlot, sound kindly and sing a lamentable song about your former glory (Is. 23: 1, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16). This came true. Thus, a brotherhood that succeeds in falsehoods and misappropriations through untruth, violence or cunning, usually triumphs for a time. But there is an eye that watches the right side; the measure of iniquity will be fulfilled, and the judgment of God will not be stagnant. So for every person, so for every people! I won’t continue with any more instructions! So, the spirit of humble submission to God, the spirit of perfect devotion to His leadership and strong trust in Him alone, the spirit of truth of people to people, alien to any unrighteous appropriation and violence - this is the spirit pleasing to God, not anger, but mercy, attracting from above and imparting trustworthy strength to the kingdoms. God will never abandon a people so disposed and filled with such spirit. Let us always dispose ourselves this way, and the Lord will be merciful to us. He will cover us with His cloaks and with His hand He will strengthen and protect us. Just recently, proud Babylon - France, weak Syria, based on alliances - Austria and commercial Tyre - England rose up against us! Since we humbled ourselves before God, as obedient slaves and abandoned by everyone, we placed all our trust in Him alone, not to appropriate what was alien to us, but only wanting to hold on to our own, then we were honored with the merciful care and intercession of God. What spirit of power has He sent to us? And what confusion he brought into the minds and hearts of those who attempted to deceive us! It will always be so. If we preserve this spirit of humility, hope and righteousness, God will not only preserve us, but will choose us as an instrument for the fulfillment of His providential plans for all the peoples neighboring us - announcing mercy or judgment to them through us. I have shown you the characteristic features of the entire face of the people that attract the mercy of God. – But the people themselves are a multi-component whole. Just as the strength of our body depends on the integrity of its parts, so the strength of the state depends on the legal action of its constituent classes of people. – Let’s take St. as a teacher again. Prophet Isaiah and let us learn from him what is required of us for the strength of the state in this regard. – The Spirit of God introduced the spirit of this prophet into all the ways of life of the people of God and marked with the prophetic imposition of judgment and punishment everything that irritated God and attracted His wrath. “Listen to what it is, so that you can see what should not happen to you, if we do not want to lose God’s mercy!” “Your princes, the nobles, the nobility,” says St. prophet - they do not repent, they are plotting new laws and a new way of government. For this reason, the Sovereign Lord of hosts says: Woe to the mighty in Israel: for My wrath will not cease against the enemy... And I will destroy those who do not repent.” “Your judges,” says the prophet further, “all civil ranks, judge for bribes, together with thieves and robbers, they love gifts, they do not judge the orphans, and they do not listen to the judgment of widows. For this reason the Lord says this: I will bring My hand against you, and I will burn you cleanly, and I will destroy all the wicked” (Is. 1:23-25). How is it, then St. calls out. Isaiah, the faithful city of Zion has become full of judgment! Before, truth rested in it, but now in it, robbers and offenders were measured by the unrighteous, counterfeit silver, wine mixed with water?! And this is the sentence he writes about them: woe to those who say good - evil, and evil - good, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! As a reed is burned by a coal of fire and burned by a burning flame, so their root is like a finger; the Lord will lay His hand on them and smite them with His wrath (Is. 5:20, 24-25). Then the prophet looked at how the Jews spent their time - and saw that they got up early in the morning and waited for the evening (balls, theaters) then to have fun with harps, and harps, and timbrels, and pipes; but they do not look at the works of the Lord - the pious order of life - and do not think about the works of His hand. And here is the judgment for them: “... enlarge hell with its soul and open its lips... and all the riches will descend into it, rejoicing madly” (Is. 5:11-14). The prophet looked at the women - and this is what he saw! The daughters of Sioni ascended, and walked with a high neck, and with anointing of their hair, and with the stepping of their feet, dragging their garments along the valley (today's headdress), and their feet playing together (dancing); and this is what he has awarded them: the Lord will humble the chief daughters of Zion... and will take away the glory of their garments... and their woven gold... and rings, and monistas, and bracelets, and fine jewelry... and the storehouses of their utensils will mourn (Is. 3:16-19, 25). When, finally, he surveyed all the people and all their iniquities, he cried out in grief: ... the earth will decay with corruption, and it will be plundered ... The earth has created iniquity for the sake of those who live on it, since they have transgressed the law and changed the commandments, destroying the everlasting covenant (Is. 24:3, 5). This is the order of life that is contrary to God, attracting judgment and punishment. These punishments strike those who sin in parts - each in his own way. But when then evil, unstoppable, covers the entire people, the whole earth is considered empty and becomes the home of eagle owls and bats! You can see for yourself what follows from this. Do you want to strengthen the kingdom? - we must avoid such things and practices that attract the wrath of God and strike the entire body of the people. Whether all the reproaches and threatening sentences of the prophet come to us and to what extent, see for yourself. God grant that they don’t go at all. But if they do, it is better to confess it and correct themselves, rather than hide under the guise of correctness and remain faulty. Not human judgment, but God's! The eye of God sees everything even in the dark secrets. So we often praise ourselves: Holy Rus', Orthodox Rus'. Oh, if only we could forever remain saints and Orthodox, at least loving holiness and Orthodoxy! What a sure guarantee of indestructibility we would have in these titles! But look around! What is sad is not only the corruption of morals, but also the apostasy from the image of confession prescribed by Orthodoxy. Have you ever heard - in Russian - blasphemy against God and His Christ?! And now they not only think, but also speak, write, and publish a lot of things against God. Do you think it will remain for nothing? No. He who lives in Heaven will answer us with His anger and crush us with His fury. The West carries us away. The sun of truth is already setting in the west. We are Eastern, we must remain in the light and not only be illuminated, but also shine for everyone. Recently there was a political coalition against us. We all merged into one desire and stopped the very attempt to attack us. Let us do the same in the matter of faith. There, in the West, there is another coalition directed against the light of our faith. Evil teachers rise up one after another. Clouds of evil thoughts rise to darken the sun that illuminates us. God would grant that even in repelling these enemies, we would all merge into the living unity of Orthodoxy and with our combined efforts we would sweep away from our land the pernicious dust that comes from there. Now the English are distinguished by their fidelity to the principles of their faith; - and what happened before? - Godless teachings have begun among them. How did they manage to cleanse themselves? So, when the atheists began to spread their teachings among them, they all rose up - both spiritual and even more secular - and with conversations, sermons, meetings, and writings they argued against all the nonsense of the anti-Christ fighters - they convinced everyone of their falsity and thereby saved the faith in their kingdom. Now their country is clean of Christ-fighters. This wickedness passed on to the French and Germans, and from them it comes to us. We are slowly growing apart. What should we do? Leave it like that? Everyone will finally be damaged in their faith. We must raise the spirit of Orthodoxy within ourselves and unite in rebellion against any way of thinking that does not agree with it. With this alone we will repel the enemies of Christ, just as we repelled the coalition of enemies of the fatherland. You, the secular ones, must start, and the more educated among you. Evil is spreading among you, you must begin a rebellion against it... Your silence will be either unbelief, or indifference to faith. Speak and write. You blame everything on spiritual things. Yes, we are only judging by guesses what kind of talk is going on between you. Which of you has ever come to your spiritual father and revealed your illness to him - that you heard this and that and I was embarrassed? There is hardly such a thing. And another is completely confused in unbelief, but comes and speaks as a believer. What can we do when you alienate yourself from us so much and are secretive? Let's act together. We will open conversations from the church pulpit, we will organize evenings for reading and interviews, we will compile books - we will do everything in defense of the faith. Just make a start. Come and reveal what is going on between you. We only guess that there are persons who are conspiring against Christ the Savior and His Holy Church. But we don’t hear what thoughts guide them. Arguing with assumptions is the same as fighting shadows. And so we inevitably remain inactive. So I agreed on mournful speeches. But I don’t take my word back. May the Lord make everyone - both you and us - unite together in the cause of defending the faith! May the zealot of Orthodoxy - Saint Nicholas - illuminate our minds with his zeal for St. May our hearts be filled with faith - to stand for the glory of God and His Holy Church. This is the guarantee not only of eternal salvation, but also of temporary prosperity. Amen. The basis of Orthodoxy is unanimity; the beginning of it - what has always been confessed by everyone and everywhere; fortress and perseverance is in the knowledge of truth. Today we celebrate the triumph of Orthodoxy - the victory of truth over lies and error. Just as, after an ordinary victory, the victors proclaim the main battles with their enemies, in which they prevailed over them, and praise their most courageous leaders and warriors as a lesson to subsequent generations, so the Holy Church, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, which at different times was subjected to attacks by superstition hostile to the truth, and repelled them with glory, has now established to solemnly proclaim its victories, condemning the enemies of the truth, denouncing their false speculations and at the same time proclaiming the holy truth and glorifying its champions, so that its faithful sons would know what it wants, and thus protect themselves from the same or similar errors. Hearing this, let us glorify the Lord, who gave triumph to the truth, so that it, like a light in the darkness, shines in the darkness of human error and shows the correct path to those seeking the right path. The Lord is watching: who will steal?! But let us not forget that the Lord does not watch over His supernatural power alone, but at the same time He was so pleased to organize the Holy Church that it was and will remain capable of forever preserving this truth under His leadership. In this sense, our duty in relation to the holy truth is twofold: what is from the Lord to preserve it, we accept gratefully and obediently, what is from the Church, to that, as her faithful sons, we must both recognize our duty and provide all possible assistance, and this is everyone - both big and small, both dedicated and uninitiated. Here is an idea that is not recognized by everyone and is implemented by even fewer. I want to bring your conviction closer to it. What is the power to preserve the truth that the Lord has laid down in His Church itself? In unanimity. Look how the Christian truth has spread across the earth. The Lord came and taught St. apostles; - then he sent down the Holy Spirit on them, by which they were strengthened and enlightened, they spread the same Heavenly truth everywhere. Since there is One Lord and One Spirit, the teaching was one everywhere. There is one Lord, says the apostle, one faith. Why is there one body and one spirit, just as all were called in one hope of calling (Eph. 4:5, 4). Thus, unanimity, unanimity, like-mindedness became an essential feature in Christianity, as if the initial beginning of its life - the cornerstone of the foundation in its standing. And St. the apostles valued him so much that in their instructions they constantly turned to their convictions in him: and there is no speech, no message where this is not mentioned. Either they exhort to be of one mind and the same wisdom (Phil.2:2; 1Pet.3:8), then they persuade the saints to strive for the faithful faith of one (Jude.3), to strive diligently to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace [Eph.4:3], then they praise those who stand in one spirit in the truth... not wavering about anything from those who are opposed (Phil. 1:27-28), then they warn against the blowing of every wind of doctrine (Eph.4:14), then they strictly reprove for division, and precisely in teaching (1 Cor. 1). This spirit of unanimity, introduced by St. apostles among believers, remained forever between them and later became the main beginning of Christian knowledge and a touchstone for distinguishing truth from lies. Those who sought the truth, those who were embarrassed by lies, those who demanded identification, were told: “Go to Jerusalem, to Antioch, to Alexandria, to Ephesus, to Rome. The truth was sown there by the apostles, and as they teach everywhere, so believe. Or - the truth is in both, for this is how everyone taught and teaches everywhere. And this - everything, everywhere, always - has become a term characterizing Christian truth. How should we believe and teach? Just like everyone, everywhere and always believed and taught. It was this unanimity from the beginning that Christian truth was verified and lies exposed, for it was not only depicted in books, but was alive in the minds and hearts and constituted the real mood of everyone. Why, as soon as a difference of opinion was discovered anywhere by anyone, it was immediately noticed by everyone and denounced by everyone and brought to the forefront as a matter deviating from the general order - lawless. Arius began to say: there was a time when there was no Son, meaning the Second Person, the Holy One. Trinity. This immediately set everyone in motion. One, two, three asked: how did it not happen? Is it possible for it not to happen? “Where does this news come from?” From Alexandria this movement spread to other dioceses, there throughout the Church. And everywhere the lie was exposed and the truth confirmed by the unanimous confession of all. The same thing happened with Nestorius. The preacher who preached under his leadership used one word about the Mother of God: Christ Mother. This new word alarmed everyone. What do they say, the Mother of Christ? She gave birth to God in the flesh and is truly the Mother of God, just as Elizabeth confessed at the beginning, saying: whence come this to me, that the Mother of my Lord may come to me (Luke 1:43). This is how the people, the clergy, the authorities spoke - and even to the king. – And the heretic was exposed, despite all his tricks. It is now obvious to you that the power to preserve the truth, which lies in the Church itself, is the living unanimity of its members, when the truth lives in the minds and hearts of all and is possessed by all, when, according to the Apostle, everyone is wise to each other... (Rom. 15:5), - everyone speaks the same words and is affirmed in the same understanding and in the same thought (1 Cor. 1:10). I had the intention of bringing your thoughts to this truth, not in order to justify on the basis of it the judgment of the Church, which you will hear, but then in order to bring closer to your consciousness the responsibilities that lie on every Christian to preserve the truth. If part of the preservation of the truth is entrusted to the Church itself, that is, to all its members, the power for such preservation is hidden in unanimity - and living unanimity; then it is obvious that everyone, to the best of his ability and strength, must enter into this unanimity and then maintain himself in it - recognize these truths that are everywhere and always contained by everyone and preserve them. In order to keep the truth, you must have it; in order to have it, you must know it. Thus, everyone who leads the Christian truth becomes its guardian, guardian and defender. The more people lead the truth, the stronger its protection, the safer it itself is - not in itself, but among people. On the contrary, the fewer those who lead the truth, the fewer the bulwarks against lies, the more dangerous the position of truth among us. For in this case, if any false teaching appears, someone ignorant of the truth will miss it, because he has nothing with which to recognize and expose it. From him it will go to another - the ignorant, from another to a third - and so on. Lies will come in and crowd out the truth. Is the one who missed it right?! No way. It will be the same as if a warrior, who through negligence did not recognize the password, let the enemy into the camp. In this regard, therefore, anyone ignorant of the truth is already a traitor to it and a traitor to the society of believers, or the Holy Church. Strictly? But that's how it is. It goes without saying that this guilt falls heavily on those who have the strength and means to find out the truth and do not know it, that is, mainly on the educated class. You yourself know to what extent the educated people of our fatherland are guilty of this. You yourself know what differences of opinion with Christian teaching have begun to take place everywhere among us. And it passes through them, although it is not their invention. They take it from others and pass it on. Would they take someone else's lies and pass them on to their own if they knew their truth? “And those who do not know the Christian truth take it over from them again, and because they do not know it.” We have a strange prejudice that as a layman, he does not need to bother himself with full knowledge of Christian truth - they are ashamed to take on this work, they are ashamed to declare this knowledge, if they have it, and even more so to stand up for it. And thus the area of ​​lies and the kingdom of its father are expanding among us. Another will say: I myself have reached conclusions that are dissimilar to Christianity. Doubtful. Or rather, I came across a strange book that was contrary to Christianity - I read it and was confused; he became confused because to the ignorant, things and deceptive probabilities seem to be business, and he lacked the desire to check the false testimony and listen to the truth opposite to it due to indifference: they seized the ghost and, thinking that they had the truth, were satisfied. Others are carried away by a passion for independent views, and they measure this independence by independence from Christian teaching, alienation from it, opposition to it. And this again comes from ignorance of Christianity, which alone provides support for independence. Independence is a good thing. But we need to find the right point to stand on. Christianity is based on the truth of God. Where can I find the best foundation? God teaches intelligent creatures. It is the duty of rational creatures to listen to this teaching, and everyone who listens will undoubtedly know the truth, for God is the Truth Himself. God of old spoke in prophethood, in the last days of the verb to us in His Son, the Son of God and the Lord conveyed the truth to St. the apostles, the apostles - the Church. In the Church, what is undoubtedly recognized as true? - something that has always been confessed by everyone everywhere. Stand at this point yourself, and you will be independent—independence in the most faithful and unforgettable way, although it will be a denial of independence, as it is usually understood. Ordinary independence is a feature of knowledge, while Christian independence is a community of belief. A Christian is alien to the urge to understand everything in his own way; but seeks one thing - how everyone has always understood things and judged them. According to his conviction, to separate oneself means to fall away from the truth and, therefore, not to go towards perfection, but to destruction. But, submitting to the general belief, he does not think that he is losing his independence. In this general, he assimilates to himself only the principles - the true principles, for they come from God - and, based on them, he then judges everything and decides everything - and decides without error - for he proceeds from true positions, imprinted by Divine authority. All heresies and all lies arose from the violation of this fundamental rule of truth. Heresy is a judgment about something in one’s own way, without considering how the Lord gave the Church to judge it. Arius began to judge the Lord in his own way and fell into heresy, not recognizing His Consubstantiality with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Luther began to compile a system of Christian teaching in his own way - and how many lies did he invent? It’s the same with dad, and it’s the same with all the new errants. When a question arises, a Christian seeks a solution not in himself, not in his own comprehension, but in the common confession of all. It’s not that he himself didn’t reason and didn’t construct any considerations; They can swarm with him faster than with anyone else. But the fact is that he will not give them any price until he checks them with general teaching. If they agree with this teaching, he leaves them behind him; if they disagree, he rejects them. And this is his peace. He stands on this common ground as on a solid stone. For through it he ascends to God as the Source. What has been said is enough, I think, to encourage a full knowledge of Christian truth and to choose the right path to that path. Let us, brethren, force ourselves to recognize it and, having recognized it, become its defenders, learning this from the Church and those champions whom it glorifies. How much work has the Church had in the struggle for the truth?! How many protective actions does the Lord have for her?! - and it’s all like nothing! Let us pray that the one truth will always remain triumphant, offering ourselves as faithful instruments for preserving and protecting it. Amen. When visiting the city of Sudogda, in the cathedral (Tuesday of All Saints' Week) Schism is not an old thing, but a new thing. Our Lord and Savior in this Gospel warns believers against false teachers, saying: take heed from lying prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves (Matthew 7:15). That is, look, do not trust these humble people, whose flattery will entrap your souls into destruction, not bringing you sound teaching, but always depraved, so as to tear people away from the unity of faith to follow themselves. The Lord foresaw that wolves of gravity would come into the midst of the children of His Church, not sparing the flock, therefore he arouses vigilant vigilance: be careful not to get carried away. And you know how many of these evil wolves there were! Some wanted to damage Christianity with an admixture of Judaism, like the Judaizing heretics, others tried to overshadow it with the dreams of pagan wisdom - the Gnostics, Manichaeans; others distorted the teaching about the Holy One. Trinity, like Paul of Samosata; they rejected the Divinity of Jesus Christ, like Aryans; and these did not honor the teaching of the Holy One. Spirit like Macedonius. Behind them rose the Nestorians, Monophysites 98, Monothelites 99, iconoclasts, then the Papists and Lutherans with all their offspring. And here in Russia, soon after the adoption of St. faith of Christ, Martin the Armenian appeared, similar to the current schismatics, then the Strigolniki, the Judaizers (pseudo-Christian sects), the Molokans, the Khlysty and the schismatics with all their discordant agreements and stupid talk. The Holy Apostles and their successors, fulfilling the warning word of the Lord, strictly looked after all these deviations from the true teaching of Christ and immediately upon their appearance they denounced them - both privately, and especially at councils - while announcing to all believers: look, here and here there is a lie; do not follow this. This is how the ancient heretics were exposed and rejected: Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius, Eutyches, the iconoclasts - this is how our schismatics were exposed and rejected. The sound teaching of our Lord and Savior, received from Himself and St. distributed everywhere by the apostles and their successors, it was approved and protected and is preserved in its intact integrity by the Holy Orthodox Church. It came to us intact and undamaged and is our precious property. Let us thank the Lord for this inscrutable gift of His! The Holy Church now enjoys peace, there is no persecution, and no influential false teachers are visible! The humble children of the Church, listening with obedient faith to her holy teaching and being sanctified by her Divine Sacraments, all work out their salvation according to their strength, hoping to receive eternal bliss at the end of their lives. But lies are not peaceful and lying prophets have no peace. And so, excited by the enemy of all truth, they rebel against the Lord and His Christ and with their false interpretations they want to eclipse the bright teaching of Christ and corrupt the minds of those who simply believe and honestly live according to the laws of the Holy Spirit. faith. To a greater or lesser extent, these false teachings, of course, reach your ears. Why, fulfilling my duty, on my first visit to you, I find it not indecent to address you with the word of this Gospel: listen to the lying prophets, beware of the distributors of false teachings. When I say this, I mean all sorts of lies in general, of which there are many now circulating in the writings and speeches of men, but especially schismatic lies. Any other lie is immediately visible. It is contrary to our Creed and is preached in the name of reason, for which believers are not students, but teachers; - and a schismatic lie can seduce, for it is preached in the name of the apostles and the Holy Church, as if it were some ancient teaching. The dissenters falsely hide behind this title. “The Lord said to the apostles: Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves [Luke 10:3],” and the cleavers, hiding behind the name of the apostolic teaching, appear in lamb’s clothing, but since they preach lies, they are truly wolves in these sheep’s clothing. Take heed from these ravenous wolves. They humbly creep into homes, and just as the serpent once deceived Eve with his wickedness, so they corrupt the minds of the unconfirmed. They all insist that their rumors are the essence of ancient fatherly tradition. – What ancient fatherly? - these are all new inventions. The ancient patristic tradition is contained by the Orthodox Church. We borrowed St. teaching from the Holy Orthodox Greek Church, and all the sacred books from it have passed down to us. In ancient times these books contained everything as we do now. But 100 or 150 years before the blessed Patriarch Nikon 100 and the most pious sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich 101, inexperienced scribes began to spoil them and during that time they spoiled and spoiled everything and, finally, they spoiled everything so much that it was no longer possible to tolerate it. – These damages included in the books were all new without exception. When they were later abolished and the books were put in the same form as they had been since ancient times, did that mean that something new had been introduced into the books?! They did not introduce new things, but returned them to the old ones. In our books now everything is the same as it is in the Greek and as in our ancient ones, after Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. Anyone who wants to, go and look at the old books in the Patriarchal Library in Moscow, and see for yourself. It became that we have the old books, and not the schismatics, and the ancient tradition is also with us, and not with them. They have everything new - the books are new and the tradition is new. Let me explain this to you with an example. St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv - the oldest cathedral - was originally painted on the walls. Sometime later, no one remembers, they plastered over this painting and painted the church again on new plaster. The old painting remained underneath. - But recently, this new plaster and schedule were knocked off and the schedule that was under it was restored - the most ancient one. What is it - did they introduce something new into the St. Sophia Church or put it in its ancient form? Of course, they put it in its ancient form. Now the St. Sophia Church is in the same form as it was in ancient times, and not as it was 20 years ago. That’s how it was with books. When they threw out everything that was newly introduced, they did not update them, but returned them to the ancient ones - and our corrected books are truly ancient, and not schismatic - damaged. So reflect back when one of the schismatics begins to explain to you that they have ancient books. – Their books are no more than two, many three hundred years old; and our 1000 have more. And when they begin to assure that they have an ancient patristic tradition, ask them where you have the ancient patristic tradition - from the priests or the bespopovtsy, from the Filippovites or Fedoseevtsy, from the Spasov consent, or from the re-baptized people, or from the new Austrian (various Old Believer sects) rogues. Are there 10 ancient legends? After all, it is one. When they have more than one, it became, it is not ancient, but all human inventions. We have one, and it is completely in agreement with our most ancient tradition, in agreement with the Greeks and all Orthodox Christians existing throughout the entire earth. We have agreement everywhere, but they have disagreement everywhere. In some villages there are three or four groups, and even in the same house the same thing happens, and they do not communicate with each other. Where is the United Church of Christ here? What kind of body of the Church is this when all the members disintegrated and went in different directions? Where is this one herd? And how can one say that the One, True, Divine Shepherd is their shepherd? Judging by this, it is clear as day that they have no truth, no following of Christ, no Church. And when there is no Church, there is no salvation: for only in the Church is salvation, as in Noah’s ark. The Church of Christ has a priesthood. They have no priesthood; became, there is no Church. The Church of Christ has the Sacraments. They have no one to perform the Sacraments; therefore, they do not have a Church. How dare they still open their mouths and approach the Orthodox and seduce them! They say we want to save. How can we save when we ourselves are dying?! They themselves perish and drag others into destruction, rather than saving them. Note to self. Salvation without grace is impossible; grace is not given without the Sacraments; The sacraments are not performed without the priesthood. No priesthood, no Sacraments; no Sacraments, no grace; no grace, no salvation. Some of them say: now we have found the priesthood or have planted the root of the priesthood. They planted a root, but it was rotten and barren. Judge for yourself. Ambrose 102, whom they lured to themselves, was bound by prohibition - bound by legal authority. The Lord promised this legal power: if you bind everything on earth, they will be bound in heaven (Matthew 18:18). Therefore, Ambrose was also bound in Heaven. If he is bound in Heaven, then how could he, bound in Heaven, communicate Heavenly grace? Where did he get it?! He could not communicate it and did not communicate it; and all those who were appointed to them, just as they were laymen, remained laymen, although they are called priests and bishops. These are just names, like when children, while playing, give themselves different titles - colonels, generals, commanders-in-chief. Let them say it was banned. The elders allowed it. Wonderful thing! Ordinary laity authorize the bishop and return to him the power to episcopate. Don’t you know that only the one who has the power to ordain can authorize? Their old men did not even have sexton consecration; how could they return episcopal power to the bishop when this is the same as ordaining? They did not return it, and Ambrose remained banned, despite the rituals that were ridiculous over him. If it is prohibited, then grace in him is stopped; if it is stopped, then it could not be poured out on others. When, for example, water flows through a gutter, it overflows from it onto other gutters and vessels; and when the gutter is locked, water will not flow through it and will not overflow to other places and things. So Ambrose, until he was banned, was like a trench overflowing water; and when he fell under the ban, he became the same as a dry trench, locked, and could no longer communicate to others the blessed water that he himself did not have. Thus, it is in vain that some of the schismatics deceive themselves and others, thinking that they have obtained the priesthood. They got names, but there was no case. That's right, Orthodox Christians! – don’t listen to these flattering words! There is no truth in them, but only lies and deception. They deceive themselves and plunge others into the same deception. The truth of God is clear. She does not hide, but goes openly and presents all the evidence of her truth. We stand on solid rock, which was built on the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet, which is the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself (Eph. 2:20). Knowing this, stand courageously in the faith - and boldly testify to its truth - and not only do not give in to schismatics, but, on the contrary, try to win them over to your side, sincerely convincing them that they have fallen into lies and error and are on the path of destruction, holding on to new things, which, through deception, they consider to be antiquity. Amen. Slovo in lower Landekhe, a village in Gorokhovsky district Warning against dissenters. Beginning his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul wrote to them: “...first of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8). With a similar speech I can begin my word to you, for your faith, if not throughout the world, then throughout your entire country, is proclaimed to everyone who knows you. Hearing this from afar, I rejoiced over you, and now, seeing you, I rejoice greatly and thank the Lord that you not only keep the purity of your faith inviolable, but also justify the sincerity of your unfeigned faith with your deeds. For us, pastors, there can be no greater consolation than to see the sons of the Church walking properly. But for you yourself there cannot be a more solid foundation for a state that can bring true joy, like maintaining faith and arranging life in accordance with its requirements. Have you heeded what was read in today's Gospel? The Lord says: everyone who hears these words of mine and does this, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his church on the rock: and the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the wind blew, and attacked that church, and did not fall: it was founded on the rock (Matthew 7:25-25). With these words, the Lord promises a certain indestructible strength to those who accept His teaching with faith and live according to it, strength primarily of the soul, and after it, of course, strength of external well-being, as interpreted by the Apostle, who showed us in piety the promise not only of the coming age, but also of the present. This is true, you know from your own experience, from the testimony that your heart gives you. I remind you of this only in order to tell you that if God’s blessing is upon you, then it is attracted by nothing other than your ardent devotion to the faith and deeds according to it, and to draw a lesson from here: keep the holy Orthodox faith like the apple of your eye. I take comfort in hearing that you are all pure in faith and there is not a single soul among you infected with schismatic misinterpretations. But beware, Orthodox Christians, lest, as the serpent deceives Eve with wickedness, your minds are corrupted by simplicity (2 Cor. 11:3). Dissenters spread many lies, hoping with them, like the net of the evil one, to deceive the gullible. Look, stay on guard. I hear that there are horse breeders not far from here. So, whether they come to you on their own, or you hear their speeches from the side, do not believe anything. They are all lies. We have the right side. They say that they have old rules and regulations - they say this is a lie. They do not have the old rules and regulations, but we do; - they have everything new. What we maintain, we maintain in the same way as was customary from Constantinople, under Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. And what they contain was introduced into the books 100 or 150 years before the blessed Patriarch Nikon and the pious Tsar and Sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich. All they have are mistakes and damage to books. When the books began to be corrected, the foolish Avvakum 103 and Nikita Pustosvyat and others like them clung to these corruptions, believing themselves and assuring others that they had been in the books since ancient times and that the correctors of the books were introducing new things. In fact, the corruption of books was not ancient, but was new in the books, and when they began to correct them, they did not introduce new things, but expelled the new, and returned, rather than expelling, the old. The schismatics, keeping to themselves all the mistakes and damage, kept the new, not the old. And they are the true innovators. Consider them that way and don’t let them tell you that they are of the old faith. They are outright new believers and deceivers. They say that the sovereign recognized their faith as right and gave them benefits. What they say is a lie. They are not given any benefits. The laws remain the same as before. And the fact that they are allowed to live peacefully is not because the Emperor recognized their faith as right. Both Tatars and Jews are allowed to live peacefully. Does the Emperor really recognize their faith as right?! The sovereign allows people of all faiths to live peacefully because he does not want to force anyone into his faith, for what kind of faith is there under bondage? And the schismatics misinterpret the mercy of the Sovereign Emperor, as if he recognized their side as right. The law says this: live peacefully for yourself, even though you are a schismatic, but do not dare to seduce or seduce anyone. Whoever seduces an Orthodox Christian into schism will be sent into exile. Would this law remain in force if the Emperor recognized their side as right?! The schismatics also say: now it is allowed to print our books... Therefore, they have learned that the truth is written in them. They say this about books written by schismatics, in which schism is praised and defended. And this is where they misinterpret the matter. These books were allowed to be published not because they see the truth in them, but to show everyone – including the schismatics themselves – that look what absurdities you believe. You have heard, it’s true, what happens when schismatics admonish you. They will clearly and clearly explain to them that they are in error, and will bring them to the point where they have nothing more to say. Then, to calm their conscience and, together, to cover up the shame that they persist for no reason, they say: “We have books where everything is clearly proven that we are right.” They say so, but they say it unfairly, because nothing is proven in their books, and the writings are nothing but absurd. So now they have printed some of their books so that they can be exposed by their own books. This is allowed so that when someone says: “We have books where everything is proven,” one can answer them: “Here are your books.” And here all the nonsense has been written, but nothing has been proven. It is for this alone that it is allowed to print; and they turn this matter to their advantage, as if the seal recognized their side as right. They interpret it crookedly. As if everything that is printed is true. How many fables and fairy tales are published?! A fable, even when printed, remains a fable. Likewise, schismatic books – and printed ones – all remain absurdities. These are the precautions you should take against schismatics. However, everything you should be afraid of from them cannot be told. And this is what you do: when you hear that from them and you yourself cannot expose the schismatic lies, go immediately to your priests and tell them everything, and ask how to expose what from the schismatics and how to respond to what. They will explain everything to you, and will calm your soul, and they will prepare you to be able to repel schismatic rumors yourself. By acting this way, you will be completely safe from any deception and deception by the enemy. I hear that you are thinking about buying books for yourself and starting a library. This is a very good deed; – books will provide great support to your schools; they will serve to continue studying at home. Then take care to choose books - all good ones, and buy some of them that expose the schism. Then, having read such books, you will not only expose the schismatic lies, but you can also enlighten and convert the schismatics themselves. And this will be the most salutary thing, for he who turns the wicked from his path will deliver his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. So, Orthodox Christians, stand in the faith, take courage, be established. May the merciful Lord help you in this, may you be like lamps burning in your country, showing everyone the right path. Amen. On the day of the transfer of the relics of St. the blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky and the namesake of the most pious Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich - in the Vyaznikovsky Cathedral Prosperity from God's blessing given for faith and piety as unbelief and schism destroy faith and piety, then we must take care of them in every possible way. We now celebrate the transfer of the relics of the holy blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky 104 and celebrate the namesake of our most pious Sovereign, Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich. The transfer of the relics took place from our city of Vladimir. But we don’t complain. The holy, noble Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky laid his relics at the foundation of the reigning city, in order to be there the closest assistant to our kings, admonishing them for all good and helping to accomplish it. There his relics became the common property of all of Russia and bear the most abundant fruit, attracting both the thought and the heart of the faithful children of the entire fatherland, and through this uniting souls at the foot of the throne itself. Taking our thoughts there, we - now even more so - will pray that he may not cease to be the leader and supporter of his namesake pious Sovereign, our Emperor. Our most pious Sovereign needs special help from above, for he is undertaking much more to do. And whoever does a lot needs both guiding admonition and strengthening strength! Pray harder. But I will tell you that neither the Sovereign’s cares, nor the Heavenly help itself will bring the desired good to our Fatherland, if we ourselves do not contribute to the Sovereign’s cares for us and if we do not make ourselves worthy of Heavenly guidance through humble submission to the order established by God on earth, embracing the works of the mind and the deeds of life. Listen, why is this so? The Emperor is ready to do everything for our good. But what will he succeed in if we resist at every step? He leads; but you have to give him a hand. How will a military leader win if his army does not move at his command? How can a builder build anything when the workers do not follow his instructions? The same is true in government life. – An order or instruction comes from the Sovereign: how will it bear fruit if no one acts on it? We must enter into its spirit and, submitting to it completely, be inspired by zeal for its fulfillment. When everyone is tuned in like this, then everyone becomes like one - one soul, the same movements of all. Then it will be easy for the Emperor to give orders, and the matter itself will be completed more successfully and blamelessly. The Emperor wants the labors of our hands not to weaken; For this purpose, he writes laws, makes instructions, and gives everyone room to act. But we must act ourselves according to his suggestions. Everyone needs to think about their own and the common good and take care to ensure that it prospers. And then both private and general thoughts will be formed and, converging in one, form one universal thinking and concern for the good; and from here will come common, unanimous efforts, which will make of all of us, as it were, one anthill, where activity is in full swing, and one thing is being built, common to all. The Sovereign Emperor wants education to spread everywhere through the education of children - boys and girls - and for institutions and orders to be established everywhere to alleviate the lot of the suffering. Where they listened to this, literacy began to be accepted and societies began to be established to help the poor - hospitals, almshouses. Such places bloom with prosperity and happiness. Here, too, I see a school for girls and a hospital. God bless these institutions. But in other places this has not yet been accepted. Didn't it work? There is no good that is brought by this. So in everything we must be diligently attentive and obedient to the instructions and orders of our father who cares for us, so that the happiness of each and every one will increase and stand firmly. But this alone is not enough. It is not only the intentions of the Sovereign that must be taken into account, but even more so the intentions of God. For everything comes from God and apart from Him you cannot do a single good deed. How does it mean to enter into God’s intentions? God’s intention for us is one, that we should all be saved in our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Church established by Him on earth. Whoever fulfills this intention reveals himself to be a sincere believer and pious person. After this, we can say this - that the one who succeeds in faith and piety enters into the intentions of God. From here I direct: work to establish your happiness and thereby contribute to the well-being of the entire fatherland; but above all, prosper and be firm in faith and piety: for without these latter, the former is also unreliable. Faith and piety are the foundation of the people's well-being - the most solid and unshakable. Why is this so? Because they attract God's blessing. And where God’s blessing is, there is every good and abundance. When God bless, where does something come from; and when there is no blessing from God, a person works and works and everything is to no avail. Jacob went to Mesopotamia with one staff, and from there he returned with 12 sons, with male and female servants and with a multitude of all kinds of livestock. Why? Because God blessed him. What happened to Cain? Groaning and shaking, he ran across the face of the earth, afraid that someone would kill him. Why? Because God took His blessing from him. So in every matter, God’s blessing multiplies the good and gives it strength. How can one earn God's blessing? Faith and piety. Will God bless the wicked and unbelieving? David was faithful to God, and God said to him: “...you have been faithful to Me, and I will bless you and your house, and your sons will sit on your throne forever.” It has become - the increase in faith and piety is the attraction of the greatest blessing from above; and the reduction of faith and piety is a reduction of blessing; reducing blessings is undermining prosperity. And so it seems to us that the unbeliever and the wicked only destroy himself, but in reality it turns out to be more: he harms the entire body of the people. The distributor of unbelief and wickedness is not only an enemy to himself, but an enemy to the fatherland. That is why we all have a duty to be believers and pious, not only for our own sake, but also for the sake of the integrity and firmness of our entire state. Don't be surprised that I talk so much about this. There was a time when it would have seemed strange to convince people of this, because everyone was already pious and sincere believers. And now, thanks be to the Lord, there are many more like this. But there are many whose faith is weakening and their piety is growing cold. And to our grief, this evil is growing and spreading more and more - ungodly opinions enter and undermine faith; by undercutting faith, they spoil piety. For us, this plague appeared in two forms - in the form of unbelief, - from the wrong direction of mental education, - and in the form of schism - from gross ignorance of what the main matter of salvation is. This is the destruction of the upper - educated class, and this is the common people. Empty ideas contrary to faith are disseminated through the press, mostly covertly, and through mutual communication and conversations. Beware of this poison, all who read, and do not read indiscriminately. Equally, accept what you hear indiscriminately and do not get carried away by the appearance of much learning, often tawdry. But just as taste distinguishes food, so let your ear distinguish between the true and the false. Have the word of God as your standard, and closer, the Creed. Here is God's truth and God's mind. What is the human mind and human opinions compared to it?! The split is spread by old girls, often depraved, and men, sometimes vagabonds, but always those who do not want to work and have decided to earn their bread through false priesthood and live at the expense of ordinary people. All of them have barely learned to read and can barely wander through a book, but are trying to become teachers. They shout: here is the old faith, here is the fatherly faith; But if they have seen the books of the Holy Fathers and read at least one, don’t ask about that. And their faith is newly invented, and the Holy Fathers did not even think about such faith. What holy Father believed faith in his mustache and beard, in his fingers and in the ends of the cross, in old icons and books - or in how many times to say alleluia, how many prosphoras to have at mass, how to walk - with the sun or against the sun? None. They placed saving faith in the holy dogmas, in the commandments, in the Holy Sacraments and in the Church with the priesthood; and this is all the wisdom of men - characteristic of blind ignoramuses. Don't listen to them and don't take them into your eyes. They have little use in cities. Here everyone is smarter than them and will immediately understand their nonsense; and in villages where someone who can read is already considered a great sage, how many people they confuse. We need to regret this, and not only regret it, but also take care that these wolves do not devour the meek sheep of Christ. You, city dwellers, must be leaders of the villagers, and whether you see them here or visit villages and villages yourself, it is your duty to warn and admonish when you see that there is a danger to anyone from schismatics. You yourself, I think, are firm, and there is no point in persuading you so as not to be tempted by a schism. This is what the Sovereign Emperor provided for. He sees that unbelief and schism are harmful and that it is easier for you to guard yourself against them, and he makes orders that brotherhoods be formed everywhere - for other good purposes and in defense of faith from unbelief and schism. When the provisions about this reach you, hurry to establish such a brotherhood, and God grant you such zeal that not only among you, but so that in your entire district there will not be a single schismatic and unbeliever left. Oh, if only this would come true! It came true not only in your district, but throughout our entire province and throughout Russia! Then we would have a truly blessed celebration! Let us pray about this, praying now for the Sovereign Emperor and his blessed kingdom. Amen. In the village of Mstera, Vyaznikovsky district. On Monday of the 13th week after Pentecost The schismatics cannot fulfill the conditions salvation, but what they wanted to replace what is missing has no power or value. For a long time I have been looking for an opportunity to talk with people who are alien to the Holy Church - our only savior - in order to see how they think about what, and to use this to admonish them. Yesterday we talked for a long time. Their darkened unbelief and dark reluctance to see the power of salvation where the Lord has concluded it is worthy of pity. Listen, feel sorry for them and pray, so that those who are blind in mind will come to their senses and those who are stubborn in heart will be softened. They themselves see that they lack much that constitutes an essential condition for salvation - they lack the priesthood and the Sacraments, without which it is impossible for the Church to exist and salvation to be accomplished. They say that the Church is where the right dogmas are kept. This is not true in general, and even more so in relation to them. This is generally incorrect, because the Church contains not only dogmas, but also other objects without which it cannot exist. Namely: the Lord, having established the Church through the holy apostles, commanded that all its members, firstly, should contain dogmas, or sound teaching about everything; 2, they fulfilled the commandments; in 3, they received the Sacraments and, in 4, they submitted to the legal priesthood. So - not one, but 4 points make up the essence of the Church and the work of salvation. That it is necessary to maintain sound teaching and fulfill the commandments is self-evident to everyone. Where is the lie and sin, what salvation is there. But in order to fulfill the commandments and live pleasing to God, this requires Heavenly grace; grace is not given for free. It cannot be received otherwise than through the Holy Sacraments: the Lord has already determined so. And to perform the Sacraments, the priesthood is necessary. So, all 4 points are necessary. Sound doctrine shows how one should live. Whoever begins to care about living holy and virtuously will feel the need for Heavenly help, or grace, and to receive it must resort to the Sacraments. He will perform the Sacrament, direct the execution of the commandments, and teach sound doctrine to the priesthood. So the whole matter of salvation can be expressed this way: maintain sound, apostolic and patristic teaching and, receiving grace through the Holy Sacraments, live according to the commandments of the Lord, under the guidance of the lawful shepherds of the Church, and you will be saved. He who goes through all this is saved. And in which society all this operates, where salvation is arranged, that society is being saved and saving, is the True Church of Christ. And where there is not at least one of those four, there is no salvation, there is no Church. The Pomeranians, and even the priests, do not have a priesthood; no priesthood, no celebration of the Sacraments; no Sacraments, no grace; no grace, no salvation, no Church. For those only are saved who are in the Church; Outside the Church, like outside Noah’s ark, there is no salvation. They themselves see that they lack what is essential to the cause of salvation, namely: the priesthood and the Sacraments; but they reassure themselves with the words that “we maintain the dogmas of the ancient fathers, and perhaps with them alone we will be saved.” Listen, what kind of ancient fatherly dogmas do they have? This is a two-fingered addition, double hallelujah, walking with salt, not shaving your mustache and beard, speaking the name of the Lord Savior in a corrupt way - Jesus. But look at all the saints. Look for fathers, is there even one who would consider these petty things to be dogmas? Not a single one. Do they have any hint that salvation depends on these things? None! Why are they called ancient fathers? Because St. They haven’t read the Fathers, but they know that St. Fathers must be listened to. Although they don’t know anything, they think that the reference to St. The fathers will be acquitted and the case will be won. The Creed tells us how to recognize the Holy Church. I believe, he says, in One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. These are the signs of the True Church! Unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. Look, do they have all these signs? There is nothing! There is no unity, because everyone has diverged into different thoughts - and one does not communicate with the other. There is no holiness, for without grace what is holiness? Only uncleanness and sin. There is no conciliarity, because they abandoned the conciliar Rules and did not listen to the Council of Patriarchs, which represented the Universal Church. There is no apostleship, because you can’t get them further than Avvakum and Nikita the Pustosvyat and others like them, and not only to the apostles, but to our saints - Peter, Alexy, Jonah and Philip. All of them and their teachings, one might say, were born yesterday. This is how they do not have the signs of the True Church indicated in the Creed, they invented others. They don’t say: where the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is, there is the True Church - but what do they say? - where there is two-fingered addition, and double alleluia, and the spoiled name of the Savior - Jesus - there is the church: and they changed the truth into a false interpretation. They say that these are their ancient fatherly dogmas. What ancient patristics are these? They are all new, and the ancient fathers did not know about them at all. This is how it happened: immediately after the Baptism of our forefathers at St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir accepted sacred books from the Greeks in Slavic translation, and when someone needed them, he hired copyists, and they copied them. While we had Greek metropolitans, they, knowing both Greek and Slavic languages ​​well and strictly watching the scribes, immediately corrected mistakes if they noticed. But when the Greeks ceased to be metropolitans among us, the Russians, not knowing the Greek language, could not notice the mistakes. So the books began to deteriorate. This began about 150 years before Patriarch Nikon - and the books became more and more deteriorated. One omitted one of the three alleluias, and the other did not dare to add it - and they began to write alleluia twice. The name of the Lord - Jesus - was written by Isa., but Jesus was still pronounced. Not knowing the Greek language from which this word was taken, they began to pronounce “Jesus”, and then write Jesus in all letters. You should have asked the Greeks. But they didn't ask. Someone thought that it was better to cross himself with two fingers, and he put it in the books. So one introduced one error into the books, another another; one made one increase, the other another. As it was written, they began to print it later. Although the printers were ordered to correct the books, but as they corrected them according to already damaged books, and more according to their own intelligence, they made even more mistakes and additions. By the time of Patriarch Nikon there were so many of these errors and additions that the true teaching began to be damaged. Noticing this, Patriarch Nikon entered into council with all the Patriarchs, and everyone unanimously ordered the Council to correct the books not according to their own wisdom and not according to Russian books, but according to the ancient Greek ones, of which a great many were brought then of all kinds. When the books were corrected in this order, then they all became as they were from the beginning, from the time of Vladimir Equal to the Apostles. All new additions and errors have been thrown out, and everything has been put back as it should be and as it was in the beginning. So Patriarch Nikon did not update the sacred books, but returned to the old ones. Still, I discarded the novelty. These novelties remained with the schismatics and constituted their ancient fatherly dogmas, as they say. Judge for yourself - what kind of ancient fathers are these? Ancient fathers! - they will only be, if you count from us, 200 or 300 years old. And these are ancient! The ancients, as the apostles decreed, we support, but with them everything is new. And they are not Old Believers, but New Believers. That's how you count them. They themselves see this partly. And whoever does not see can see. Take old written and old printed books and compare them, and you will see that we are absolutely right, and they are all to blame. Oh, watch out, brother [army]! The matter of salvation is a great matter, the first matter. What's worse is how the soul will perish. But the schismatics have no salvation for her. For they do not have the priesthood and the Sacraments. One part of the schismatics was afraid of this and began to seek the priesthood. For a long time they accepted fugitive priests, and then some Austrian schismatics found themselves a fugitive bishop - a banned one. Ours also borrowed from them, giving a lot of money. They think that they have found the true priesthood through this bishop, but it is not true. It’s all the same – he’s a runaway. Although he is a bishop, he is the same as a pope, and he is also under oath. He was forbidden, and therefore had no active grace; did not have grace - he could not communicate it to others. And even though he made many bishops and priests on his own behalf, all these are just names without real power, just flattery and foul profitability. What a pitiful and destructive blindness! The schismatics have lost the true Church and are wandering. The enemy has blinded their eyes. Why did they have to look so far? Before their eyes they have the true Holy Orthodox Church, but they do not see. There is a True Church, in which everything is there - there is sound teaching and the commandments of the Lord, there are the Sacraments and the priesthood. The blind will find it by groping; but they don't see. On! here it is, the holy Orthodox Church - one that has the power to save its obedient children and raise them to glorification. Look, the saints became famous in it - Tikhon, Mitrofan, Innocent and Demetrius of Rostov. And St. Demetrius still argued and denounced them, the schismatics. Glorifying his relics with incorruption, God seems to be saying to all of them: look, he has denounced you, and I glorify him with the incorruptibility of his relics, precisely so that you can even see with your eyes that he was telling the truth. Orthodox Christians, bring all this to your memory more often, and thereby affirm your faith, and denounce schismatics. The blessed Christians acted more prudently. Knowing that without the priesthood there is no salvation and that the true priesthood is nowhere to be found, as in the True Church of Christ, they turned to the right Church and asked for priests for themselves. The priests perform St. They had sacraments, commandments and dogmas before. So their image of salvation became not hopeless. For they began to have everything they needed for salvation. So now, if anyone does not want to turn to the Orthodox Church, accept the same faith, and do not destroy souls outside of any communion with the Holy Church. This is all I say to schismatics; and whoever goes to the Orthodox Church is not fit to convert to the one of the same faith. This means moving backwards, which is not appropriate. You, Orthodox Christians, bless God that you belong to the Church of God, that you are within its saving fence, and in every possible way guard against any tendency toward schism, which destroys souls! You are surrounded by division, but take heart. All Christians are looking at you; hold on and show everyone that you know how to stand in the fight for faith. God bless you! Amen. Vladimir as a provincial city should be an example for everyone in the province - and in the knowledge of truths Christian, and in a good Christian life, and in Christian piety. During my travels through the diocese, every time I had to serve, I heard everywhere that at the litanies they pray after the reigning cities for the city of Vladimir, and, of course, not for the walls, buildings and terrain, but for you - the inhabitants of this city. Do you know this? If you know, do you remember? If you remember, do you behave in relation to other cities and towns in the way that their prayer for you obliges you? I consider it necessary to remind you that, through oblivion, you do not turn out to be ungrateful and, through inattention, do not respond to good wishes with disfavour. I don’t mean your influence on them regarding civil administration, trade and community life. I want to tell you that you should be a beneficial influence on them in relation to faith and good living. And just as in relation to external life this city serves as a mediator of relations with the ruling power and all centers of well-being, so in relation to the spiritual, may it be the promoter of all in ascent to God - the King of all, from Whom comes every good gift. From this one thought, you yourself can already understand what this obliges you to. What the Lord said to the apostles: you are the light of the world, I will apply to you. You must be a light for the entire diocese - the light of an enlightened faith, the light of an immaculate and edifying life, the light of unswervingly following all the rites and statutes of the Holy Orthodox Church - that is, you must know in detail and clearly all the Orthodox teachings - not only for yourself, but in order to instruct and instruct everyone who has a question, to warn and distract from deviating into any kind of malice or malice. You must live so holyly that everyone who comes to our city is edified without words by your virtues - through the examples you present on all paths and all types of your affairs - in courts and trades, in family and official life, - even in all external relations. You must be more faithful than all others to the saving statutes of our Holy Church: in honoring Sundays and holidays, in observing holy fasts, in unforgettable fasting - confession and holy communion, in performing all prayers and sanctifying rites, in diligently visiting the churches of God, in reverently standing and praying in them, and in everything else. So that not only in the diocese, but everywhere, and there is no other name for you, like the holy city of Vladimir, and because of the shrines that shine here, and because of the desire of all residents to sanctify themselves through the Holy Church in our Lord and Savior. I remember that in the first times of Christianity, if any confusion arose among Christians, the teachers of the Church usually pointed them to the main cities in which Christianity most shone, and sent them there to seek admonition and solutions to their confusion. Go, they said, and see how they believe, live and are saved in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Caesarea, Thessaloniki, Athens, Rome and other cities - and believe in yourself, live and be saved. Such honor was given to those cities not because of their civic significance, but because they were filled with exemplary Christians in all respects. Oh, if only our city would be jealous of such an honor, so that everyone who does not know the holy faith or is tempted by schism and seeks admonition could be told: go to Vladimir, there children will teach you the right faith, and not just adults and the elderly - so that everyone who lives sinfully and viciously and wants to improve can be advised: go and live in Vladimir - there the spirit of holiness will be breathed upon you from all the inhabitants, and will sober up and strengthen your weakened soul; - so that everyone who has lost interest in the Holy Church can be inspired: hurry to Vladimir - there they know how to rush to the house of God, they know how to sanctify themselves under the influence of grace-filled shrines and warm their spirit by strict fulfillment of the rites and rules of the Holy Church - there your heart will warm and be inflamed with a new zeal for everything that is holy and sanctifying. Can this be said about you? You yourself know better than anyone else. I imagine your conscience will either praise you, if I may say so, or reproach you, if not. But I cannot remain silent about the danger and destruction for yourself, if not only this cannot be said about you, but the opposite must be said - if those who come here and enter into fellowship with you return from here, instead of building up in faith - shaken in it, instead of strengthening in good morals - with the seeds of depravity, instead of warming the spirit - with cooling towards the Church. I cannot remain silent, for the terrible word of the Lord lies behind this: woe to them is the temptation that comes (Matthew 18:7); and one more thing: whoever seduces one from these lesser ones, it would be better for him not to be born (Mark 9:42), and the inhabitants of villages and hamlets are definitely lesser in relation to you. You are a city on top of a mountain, and you cannot hide. Although reluctantly, you reveal yourself to others, and when they see you, they are either edified by your goodness, or they are corrupted by your evil, and they prepare for you either a reward or condemnation. Why is the word more applicable to you: take heed how dangerously you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time - not so as to manage to hide yourself and be a hypocrite, but then, so that in everything you present yourself as an example of wise living and knowledge - as in the current Apostle (2 Cor. 6: 1-11) St. Paul teaches to live so as not to give anything to anyone stumbling, - but in everything to represent ourselves as true servants and servants of God: in patience, in sorrows, in labors, in vigils, in fastings, in purification (i.e. fasting, confession and holy communion), in reason (rational knowledge of faith), in unfeigned love, in the word of truth and comprehensive justice. I have no intention of burdening you with reproaches and I do not deliberately bind you with a heavy burden in order to lay it on your shoulders. But, caring for you, I point out to you in your situation - both the danger so that you manage to avoid it - and the opportunity for salvation, so that you are able to take advantage of it. For if you truly edify everyone to everyone, then prepare for yourselves a great reward. To whom much is given, much will be required. Your city is honored with primacy in its area, such shrines have been revealed among you, every indicative order quickly flows to you - and I would have shown one more spiritual advantage among you - if for this moment my immodesty had not departed from me. Is all this for nothing? All these gifts or talents have been entrusted to you by God, as today’s Gospel teaches us with the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). Everything you have, internally and externally, is from the Lord, and all of it is talent. By putting it into circulation, you can multiply it by a beneficial effect on others - and for that, when the Master of the House comes to compete for words, you will hear joyful approval from Him: good and faithful servant, you have been faithful for a little, I will set you over many, enter into the joy of your Lord. As well as vice versa: if someone does not make any acquisition with the talents received, he will hear: “Cast the unspeakable servant into utter darkness: he will weep and gnashing his teeth” [Matthew 25:30]. After all, it happens in a worldly way that someone who is placed in an advantageous position begins to rise, but in a Christian way it is not so: you are placed first - be a servant of all [Matthew 23:11]. Set it in your hearts to be a servant to all the cities and villages of our diocese, and servants in our Lord and Savior, striving in every possible way to build everyone up in faith, holiness, steadfastness and devotion to the Holy Church of God. According to the wise popular saying: about each other, and God about everyone. Towns and villages remember you in prayer; Remember them in prayer and in everything that prayer serves as an expression and for which prayer disposes, be beneficial for them. This, on your part, will be both reward - for their heartfelt union with you, and the revitalization and strengthening of this union - and so, all united within ourselves - with one heart, and behind the heart and with one mouth we glorify the One God, worshiped in the Holy Trinity - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Farewell to the Vladimir flock What will happen ahead, who will determine? save yourself My almost three-year service among you and with you is already coming to an end, and I am compelled to say a word or two to you in parting. I was silent for a long time. And this is the occasion when I had to break the silence. A case for you, maybe. , simple and ordinary, but very significant for me. What will happen ahead, who will determine? But, turning back and going through in my thoughts everything from the beginning of my arrival here to the present time, I am filled with a feeling of gratitude to the generous Benefactor - for all His mercies, not according to my dignity, poured out on me. I could indicate the number of these mercies, but I cannot determine their measures. Thou hast surprised, O Lord, Thy mercies upon me, unworthy, by Thy abundant grace, calling me to repentance. “I offer thanks to the Most Pure Lady Theotokos and to the saints of God, who rest in this church and are glorified throughout the diocese, who spared me, despite my great weaknesses, and with their prayers did not allow the mercy of God to surrender to anger. I also believe that I owe a considerable part of your love and prayers for such a merciful Heavenly cover. And thank you for that; I thank you for all the good things you have shown me - for your kindness, for your attention to my weak word, for your reverent standing in the church, with which I have always been consoled, for your zeal for the splendor of churches, for your readiness for every good thing. May the merciful Lord strengthen you and multiply these good dispositions in you, so that, adorned by them, you will always form a crown of praise for the Church of Christ. Don't blame me, for God's sake, for leaving you. I’m not leaving so that I’ll be forced to leave you. Your kindness would not allow me to change you to another flock. But, as a follower, I lead myself to stay free from worries, looking for the best tea - as is akin to our nature. How this could have formed, I don’t undertake to explain. One thing I will say is that, in addition to the external course of events that determine our affairs, there are internal changes in dispositions that lead to certain determinations; there is, in addition to external necessity, an internal necessity, which the conscience heeds and which the heart does not strongly contradict. Finding yourself in this position, I ask your love for one thing - leaving judgment and condemnation of the step I have already taken, deepen your prayer, so that the Lord will not deny my aspirations and grant me, although not without difficulty, to find what I seek. And I will pray for you - I will pray that the Lord will always send you every good thing, improve your well-being and avert every misfortune, and, moreover, arrange your salvation. Save yourself and be saved in the Lord! I can't wish you anything better. Everything will happen when you are saved. The path of salvation is known to you, and the whole saving dispensation of God is known! In this regard, it is enough to remind you of the words of the Apostle Paul: O Timothy! Keep the tradition [1 Timothy 6:20]. Save what the Lord and St. It was committed by the apostles to the Church and is passed on by one generation of Christians to the next. I am compelled to remind you of this because today there are many false teachings circulating among us - corrupting teachings that undermine the foundations of faith, upset family happiness and destroy the well-being of the state. Beware, for the Lord's sake, from these teachings. There is a stone with which gold is tested. Let St. be your testing stone. a doctrine preached in the Church from ancient times. Reject everything that disagrees with this teaching as evil, no matter how plausible it may be covered with a title... You just observe this, and everything else will be added to you by itself. Purity of faith will be followed by the overshadowing of grace. Grace with faith will make your hearts holy and blameless. Those who are pure in heart begin to see God even here - they will undoubtedly see Him there and will forever see Him and bliss in this vision. Please accept this small reminder as your last testament; and I won’t burden your attention with more than that. You know everything yourself. Just be jealous to stand in the ranks of those blessed whom the Lord indicated in His word: this is the news; but you are blessed if you do [John 13:17]. Then - sorry! Forgive me if I offended, offended, lied to anyone, or seduced anyone in any way. May the Lord God, by His grace, forgive and have mercy on all of us! And I also ask: do not forget me in your prayers. Amen. The path to salvation (a short sketch of asceticism) Section I. About the beginning of Christian life through holy baptism, with instructions on how to preserve this grace during the period of education a) How does Christian life begin in the sacrament of baptism? Baptism is the first sacrament in Christianity, making a Christian person worthy to receive the gifts of grace through other sacraments. Without it it is impossible to enter the Christian world - to become a member of the Church. The Eternal Wisdom created a home for itself on earth: the door leading into this house is the sacrament of baptism. Through this door they not only enter the house of God, but with it they also put on clothing worthy of him, receive a new name and sign, imprinted on the entire being of the person being baptized, through which both those in heaven and earth then recognize and distinguish him. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, teaches the apostle (2 Cor. 5:17). The Christian becomes this new creature in baptism. A person leaves the font completely different from how he entered it. As light is to darkness, as life is to death, so the baptized is opposite to the unbaptized. Conceived in iniquities and born in sins, a person before baptism carries within himself all the poison of sin, with all the burden of its consequences. He is in the disgrace of God, is by nature a child of wrath; damaged, upset in itself, in the relationship of parts and forces and in their direction mainly towards the proliferation of sin; subject to the influence of Satan, who acts powerfully in him because of the sin that dwells in him. As a result of all this, after death, he is inevitably a quitter of hell, where he must suffer along with his prince and his minions and servants. Baptism delivers us from all these evils. It removes the oath by the power of the Cross of Christ and returns the blessing: the baptized are the children of God, as the Lord Himself gave them the name and name. And if you are children, then you are also heirs—heirs with God, and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the person who is baptized through baptism itself. He is removed from the dominion of Satan, who now loses his power over him and the power to act arbitrarily in him. By entering the Church - the house of refuge - Satan is blocked from entering the newly baptized person. It's like he's in a safe haven here. All these are spiritual and external advantages and gifts. What's going on inside? Healing sinful illness and damage. The power of grace penetrates inside and restores here the divine order in all its beauty, heals the disorder both in the composition and relationship of forces and parts, and in the main direction from oneself to God - to please God and increase good deeds. Why baptism is rebirth or new birth, putting a person in a renewed state. The Apostle Paul compares all the baptized with the risen Savior, making it clear that they also have the same bright and renewed being as humanity appeared in the Lord Jesus through His resurrection in glory (Rom. 6:4). It is impossible to determine when a person comes to the consciousness of being a Christian and the independent determination to live as a Christian. In fact, this happens at different times: at 7, 10, 15 years and later. Perhaps before this the time for learning will come, as is most often the case. In this case, the indispensable rule is to preserve the entire previous order without change and for the entire duration of training, for it essentially follows from the nature of our strengths and the requirements of Christian life. The order of training should not be in any way opposite to the mood shown, otherwise everything that has been created there will be ruined; that is, it should protect children-students, like infants, with the piety of everyone around them, churchliness, the sacraments, and it should also act on their body, soul and spirit. At the same time, in relation to teaching, one should only add: let the teaching be arranged in such a way that it is clear what is important and what is subordinate. The idea of ​​this is most easily conveyed by the distribution of subjects of study and time. Let the study of faith be considered the main thing, let it be better that time is assigned to works of piety and, in case of conflict, let the latter take precedence over science; let not only success in the sciences, but also faith and good morals deserve approval. In general, it is necessary to position the spirit of the students in such a way that they do not lose the conviction that our main task is pleasing God, and scientificity is an additional quality, an accident, suitable only for the time of real life. And therefore it should not be placed so highly and in such a brilliant form that it takes up all the attention and absorbs all the care. There is nothing more poisonous and destructive for the spirit of Christian life than this scientific approach and exclusive concern for it. It directly plunges one into coldness and can then keep him in it forever, and sometimes even add debauchery if circumstances favorable to it are encountered. Another thing to look out for is the spirit of teaching or the outlook on the subjects taught. It must be an immutable law that every science taught to a Christian should be imbued with Christian principles, and, moreover, Orthodox ones. Every science is capable of this, and even then it will only be a true science of its kind when it fulfills this condition. Christian principles are undoubtedly true. Therefore, without hesitation, set them as the common standard of truth. Our most dangerous misconception is that science is taught without any attention to true faith, taking liberties and even lies in the assumption that faith and science are two areas that are decisively separated. We have one spirit. He accepts the sciences and is imbued with their principles, just as he accepts faith and is imbued with it. How is it possible that they do not come into favorable or unfavorable contact here? Moreover, there is only one area of ​​truth. Why fill your head with something that is not from this region or with which you cannot appear in its bright courtyard. If education is conducted in such an order that faith and life in the spirit of faith rise above everything in the attention of the students, both in the manner of study and in the spirit of teaching, then there is no doubt that the principles laid down in childhood will not only be preserved, but will also be elevated, strengthened and come to a commensurate maturity. How beneficial this is! If a person’s upbringing is carried out in this order from the first years, then little by little the character that his life should have will be revealed to him, he will become more accustomed to the idea that he has an obligation on behalf of God and our Savior to live and act according to His instructions, that all other affairs and activities are lower than them and are appropriate only in the continuation of this life, and that there is another place of residence, another fatherland, to which one must direct all one’s thoughts and all one’s desires. In the natural course of development of forces, everyone naturally comes to the consciousness that he is a man. But if a new grace-Christian principle was grafted into his nature at the very first moment of the awakening of his powers and their movement (in baptism), and if then at all points of the development of these forces this new beginning not only did not yield primacy, but, on the contrary, always prevailed, giving, as it were, form to everything, then, coming to consciousness, a person will at the same time find himself acting according to Christian principles, will find himself a Christian. And this is the main goal of Christian education, so that as a result a person would tell himself that he is a Christian. If, having come to full consciousness of himself, he says: I am a Christian, obliged by the Savior and God to live this way and that, in order to be rewarded with blessed communion with Him and His chosen ones in the future life, then, having arisen to independence or to his own rational institution of life, he will set for himself the first essential task - to independently preserve and kindle the spirit of piety in which he walked before, under the guidance of others. Previously, it was remembered that there must be a special moment when it is necessary to deliberately renew in consciousness all the obligations of Christianity and impose their yoke on oneself as an immutable law. In baptism they were accepted unconsciously, then they were kept by someone else's mind according to someone else's mood and in simplicity. Now we must consciously put upon ourselves the good yoke of Christ, choose a Christian life, and exclusively devote ourselves to God, so that later all the days of our life we ​​can serve Him with enthusiasm. Here only man himself actually begins the Christian life. It was in him before, but, one might say, it did not come from independence, as if not from his face. Now he himself, on his own behalf, will begin to act in the spirit of a Christian. Then the light of Christ was in him like the light of the first day, uncentered, diffuse. But just as the light needed to be given centers, attracting it to the suns, the centers of the planets, so this light needs to, as it were, gather around the starting point of our life, our consciousness. A person becomes fully human when he comes to self-knowledge and rational independence, when he becomes the complete ruler and manager of his thoughts and deeds, he holds on to any thoughts not because others conveyed them to him, but because he himself finds them true. A person remains a person in Christianity. Therefore, he must be reasonable here too, only he must turn this rationality in favor of the holy faith. Let him be reasonably convinced that the holy faith he professes is the only true path of salvation and that all other paths that do not agree with it lead to destruction. It is an honor for a person not to be a blind confessor, but to be one who realizes that in doing so he is acting as he should. He will do all this when he consciously imposes the good yoke of Christ on himself. Only here does his personal faith, or a life good according to faith, receive firmness and steadfastness. He will not be tempted by example, will not be carried away by empty thoughts, because he is clearly aware of the obligation to think and act in a definitive way. But if he did not realize this, then just as before a good example set him up to do as he does, so now an unkind example can dispose him to evil, entice him to sin; and just as the good thoughts of others previously controlled his mind easily and without contradiction, so now evil thoughts will take possession of him. And from experience one can see how shaky the confession of faith and the kindness of life are in one who previously did not recognize himself as a Christian. He who encounters few temptations will continue to mature longer in the simplicity of his heart. But whoever cannot avoid them faces great danger. We see in the lives of everyone who retained the grace of baptism that they had a moment when they resolutely devoted themselves to God. This is indicated by the words: inflamed in spirit, inflamed with Divine desire. He who has recognized himself as a Christian, or who has consciously decided to live like a Christian, let him now himself preserve, with all diligence, the perfection and purity of life received from his previous age, as others previously preserved it. There is no need to offer him any special rules in his leadership. At this point, he converges with the repentant, who, having abandoned sin, accepts an inspired determination to live as a Christian. Therefore, from now on he must be guided by the same rules, which will be discussed in the third section. What difference he has with the repentant in his ascent to perfection will become clear by itself. Now we need to make only a few, however, very important, warnings for the age of adolescence, exclusively related to it. How good and saving it is not only to be disposed in a Christian upbringing, but also to recognize oneself and decide to be a Christian before entering adolescence. This is necessary in view of the great dangers to which a young man is inevitably exposed 1) due to the nature of his age and 2) due to his continued great temptations. 1) The river of our life is cut short by the wavy strip of youth. This is the time of effervescence of bodily and spiritual life. The child and the youth live quietly, the husband has few quick impulses, the venerable gray hairs tend to rest; Youth alone is in full swing with life. You need to have very solid support to resist the pressure of the waves at this time. The very disorder and impetuosity of movements is dangerous. His first own movements begin - the beginnings of the awakening of his powers and have all the charm for him: by the power of their influence they displace everything that was previously placed on the mind and heart. The former will become a dream and a prejudice for him. Only real feelings are true, only they have reality and meaning. But if, before the awakening of these forces, he bound himself to the obligation of confession and Christian life, then all the excitement, as already secondary, will be weaker and more easily yield to the demand of the first, already because they are older, have been previously tested and chosen by the heart, and most importantly, are sealed by a vow. The young man resolutely wants to always keep his word. What can we say about someone who not only did not love the Christian life and truth, but had never even heard of them? In this case, it is a house without a fence, given over to plunder, or dry brushwood, given up to burn in a fire. When the self-will of a youth’s thought casts a shadow of doubt on everything, when the excitement of passions greatly disturbs him, when the whole soul is filled with tempting thoughts and movements, the youth is on fire. Who will give him a drop of dew for coolness or give him a helping hand if a voice for truth, for goodness and purity does not come out of his heart? But he will not come out if love for them is not established first. Even advice will not help in this case. Then there is nothing to graft them onto. Advice and persuasion are powerful if, going through the ear into the heart, they awaken there feelings that exist and have value for us, but are only currently removed by others, and we ourselves cannot figure out how to release them and impart their inherent strength. In this case, advice is a precious gift to the young man from the adviser. But if there are no beginnings of pure life in the heart, it is useless. The young man lives by himself, and who examines all the movements and deviations of his heart? It's the same as exploring the path of a bird in the air or the running of a ship in the water!! Like the fermentation of a fermenting liquid, like the movement of the elements in their heterogeneous mixture, this is the heart of a young man. All the needs of so-called nature are in living excitement, each one gives voice, seeks satisfaction. Just as our nature is characterized by disorder, so the totality of these voices is the same as the disorderly cries of a noisy crowd. What will happen to the young man if he is not accustomed in advance to put his movements into a certain order and has not imposed on himself the obligation to keep them in strict subordination to certain higher requirements. If these principles are deeply imprinted on the heart in the initial upbringing and then consciously accepted as a rule, then all the disturbances will occur as if on the surface, transitionally, without shifting the foundation, without shaking the soul. How we emerge from our teenage years depends very much on how we enter them. The water falling from the cliff boils and swirls below, and then flows quietly through different channels. This is an image of youth into which everyone is thrown like water into a waterfall. Two orders of people emerge from it: some shine with kindness and nobility, others are darkened by wickedness and depravity; and still others are the middle class, a mixture of good and evil, the likeness of which is a brand from the fire, which inclines now towards good, now towards evil, like a spoiled watch, now it goes right, now it runs or lags behind. Anyone who has made a commitment in advance is, as it were, hidden in a strong boat that does not allow water to enter, or has drawn a calm chute through a whirlpool. Without this, good upbringing will not always save you. Let someone not fall into gross vices, but still if he does not close himself, then his heart, not detached from everything by a vow, will be torn by hobbies and he will inevitably emerge from the years of his youth cooled, neither here nor there. So it is saving before the years of youth not only to get a good mood, but also to seal oneself with a vow - to be a true Christian. Let him who is determined fear youth itself like fire, and therefore avoid all cases in which youth easily unravels and becomes indomitable. 2) And youth itself is dangerous; but to this are added two more attractions characteristic of this age, from which youthful excitement flares up more strongly and acquires greater strength and danger. These are: a) a thirst for impressions and b) a tendency to communicate. Therefore, as a means of avoiding the dangers of adolescence, it can be advised to subordinate these drives to rules, so that instead of good they do not bring evil. Good dispositions, previously aroused, will remain in full force if they are not extinguished or suppressed. a) The thirst for impressions imparts a certain speed, continuity and variety to the actions of the young man. He wants to experience everything himself, see everything, hear everything, go everywhere. Look for it where there is sparkle for the eyes, harmony for the ears, room for movement. He wants to be under a continuous stream of impressions, always new and therefore varied. He cannot sit at home, does not stand in one place, does not pay attention to one subject. His element is entertainment. But this is not enough for him; he is not content with an actual, personal test, but wants to assimilate and, as it were, transfer to himself the impressions of others, to experience what they felt, how others acted on their own or in circumstances similar to his. Then he throws himself on the books and begins to read; goes through one book after another, often without understanding their contents; The main thing for him is to find the so-called effect, no matter what kind of things it comes from and no matter what it concerns. New, imaginative, sharp - his best recommendation for the book. Here a tendency towards easy reading is discovered and formed - the same thirst for impressions, only in a different form. But that's not all. A young man often gets bored with reality, with what seems to be imposed on him from the outside: it binds him and confines him too much within certain boundaries, and he seeks some freedom. Then he often breaks away from reality, goes into his created world and there begins to act for glory. Fantasy constructs entire stories for him, where for the most part the hero is his own person. The young man is just entering life. Before him is a seductive, tempting future. Over time, he too will need to be there: what will he do? Is it possible to lift this veil and look? Fantasy, very active these summers, does not hesitate to satisfy. Here daydreaming is revealed and in this kind of action dreaminess is fostered. Dreams, light reading, entertainment, all this is almost the same in spirit - children crave impressions, crave something new and varied. And the harm from them is the same. There is nothing better to kill the good seeds that were previously placed in the heart of a young man than with them. A young flower, planted in a place where the winds blow on it from all sides, will endure a little and dry out; the grass that is often walked on does not grow; the part of the body that is subjected to prolonged friction becomes numb. The same thing happens with the heart and with good dispositions in it, if you indulge in dreams, or idle reading, or entertainment. Anyone who has stood in the wind for a long time, especially a damp one, when it comes to a calm, feels that everything in him seems to be out of place, and the same thing happens in the soul that has been entertained in any way. Returning from dispersion into himself, the young man finds everything in his soul in a perverted order; and most importantly, a certain veil of oblivion covers all that is good, and in the foreground there are only the delights left by the impression; consequently, it is no longer what it was and what should always be: the dispositions have changed dominance. Why, having returned to itself after some kind of distraction, does the soul begin to yearn? Because he finds himself robbed. The absent-minded one has made his soul a high road along which tempting objects pass through the imagination like shadows and lure the soul along with them. But then, when she thus breaks away from herself, as it were, the devil secretly approaches, takes away the good seed and places the evil. This is what the Savior teaches when he explains who snatches away what is sown along the way and who is the all-manifest tares. The enemy of man does both. So, young man! Would you like to preserve the purity and innocence of childhood or the vow of Christian life without reproaches? As much as you have strength and prudence, refrain from entertainment, random reading of seductive books and - dreams! How good it is to subject yourself in this case to strict and strict discipline and to be under guidance throughout your youth. Those young men who are not allowed to control their own behavior until adulthood can be called happy. And every young man should rejoice if he is placed in such circumstances. The young man himself, obviously, can hardly achieve this; but he will show a lot of intelligence if he believes the advice to be more at home doing business, not to dream and not to read empty things. Let him reject entertainment with hard work, daydreaming with serious studies under guidance, to which reading should especially be subordinated, both in the choice of books and in the manner of reading. However, no matter how anyone does it, just let him do it. Passions, doubts, hobbies flare up precisely in this, so to speak, shaky fermentation of the young man’s mind. b) The second, equally dangerous, tendency of a young man is a tendency to communicate. It is found in the need for companionship, friendship and love. All of them are good in true order, but it is not the young man who should put them into this order. Adolescence is a time of living feelings. They are near his heart - like the ebb and flow of the sea. Everything occupies him, everything surprises him. Nature and society revealed their treasures to him. But feelings do not like to be hidden within themselves, and the young man wants to share them. Then he needs a person who could share his feelings, that is, a comrade and friend. The need is noble, but it can also be dangerous! To whom you entrust your feelings, you give in some way power over yourself. How careful you must be in choosing a loved one! You will meet someone who can lead you far, far away from the straight path. It goes without saying that a good person naturally strives for the good and deviates from the bad. The heart has some taste for this. But, again, how often does it happen to the simple-hearted to be lured by cunning? Then every young man is rightly advised to be careful in choosing a friend. It is good not to form a friendship until you have tested your friend. It is even better to have your first friend as your father, or someone who replaces your father in many ways, or someone from your family who is experienced and kind. For someone who has decided to live as a Christian, the first friend given by God is a spiritual father; talk to him, confide secrets to him, weigh and learn. Under his guidance, with prayer, God will send, if necessary, another friend. However, there is not so much danger in friendship as in comradeship. We rarely see friends, but more acquaintances and friends. And here how much is possible and how much evil happens! There are friendly circles with very unkind rules. By bending towards them, you will not notice how you unite with them in spirit, just as you imperceptibly become drunk with stench in a stinking place. They themselves often lose consciousness of the obscenity of their behavior and calmly become rude in it. Even if this consciousness awakens in someone, he does not have the strength to lag behind. Everyone is afraid to announce it, expecting that he will be persecuted everywhere afterwards with barbs, and says: “so be it, maybe it will pass.” Good customs are corrupted by evil conversations. Deliver, Lord, everyone from these depths of Satan. For those who decide to work for the Lord, there is only one fellowship - with the pious who seek the Lord; one must distance oneself from others and not deal with them sincerely, following the example of the saints of God. The very height of danger for a young man is from treatment of the other sex. While in the first temptations the young man only strays from the straight path, here he, in addition, loses himself. In its first awakening, this matter is mixed with the need for beauty, which, from the time of its awakening, forces the young man to seek satisfaction for himself. Meanwhile, the beautiful little by little begins to take on an image in his soul, and usually a human one, because we do not find anything more beautiful than it... The created image is carried in the head of the young man. From that time on, he seems to be looking for the beautiful, that is, the ideal, the unearthly, and meanwhile he meets a human daughter and is wounded by her. This is the injury that a young man should most of all avoid, because this is a disease that is all the more dangerous because the patient wants to be sick to the point of madness. How to ward off this ulcer? Do not follow the path that leads to injury. This path is depicted in one psychology. It has three turns. 1) First, some kind of sad feeling awakens in the young man, it is unknown about what or from what, which responds, however, especially since he seems to be alone. This is a feeling of loneliness. From this feeling another is immediately born - some pity, tenderness and attention to oneself. Before, he lived as if not noticing himself. Now he turns to himself, examines himself and always finds that he is not thin, not one of the last, he is a worthwhile person: he begins to feel his beauty, the pleasantness of the shape of his body, or to like himself. This ends the first movement of temptation towards oneself. Since then, the young man has turned to the outside world. 2) This entry into the outside world is inspired by the confidence that others should like it. In this confidence, he boldly and, as it were, victoriously enters the field of action and, perhaps for the first time, sets himself the law of neatness, cleanliness, elegance to the point of panache; begins to wander or look for acquaintances, as if without a specific goal, according to the secret, however, attraction of a heart seeking something, and at the same time tries to shine with intelligence, pleasantness in treatment, helpful attention, in general, with everything that he hopes to please. At the same time, he gives full rein to the primary organ of soul communication - the eye. 3) In this mood, he is like gunpowder exposed to sparks, and soon encounters his illness. With a particularly pleasant look in his eyes or a particularly pleasant voice, as if struck by an arrow or shot down, he initially stands somewhat in a frenzy and stunned state, from which, having come to his senses and come to his senses, he finds that his attention and heart are drawn to one object and are drawn to it with an irresistible force. From now on, the heart begins to be consumed by melancholy; the young man is sad, self-absorbed, busy with something important, looking for something as if he had lost something, and whatever he does, he does for one person and as if in his presence. He seems lost, sleep and food are not on his mind, ordinary affairs are forgotten and become disordered; nothing is dear to him. He is sick with a severe illness that pinches his heart, constricts his breathing, and dries up the very sources of life. Here is the gradual progression of insults! And it goes without saying what a young man should be afraid of so as not to fall into this misfortune. Don't go this way! Drive away the warning signs - vague sadness and feelings of loneliness. Do something contrary to them: if you feel sad, don’t dream, but start doing something serious with attention and it will pass. Self-pity or a feeling of goodness began to arise - hasten to sober yourself up and drive away this whim with some kind of severity and cruelty towards yourself, especially by clarifying the common concept of the insignificance of what is popping into your head. Accidental or intentional humiliation in this case was like water on a fire... It is necessary to take care to suppress and drive away this feeling, especially because here is the beginning of movement. Stop here - you won’t go any further: neither the desire to please, nor the search for clothes and panache, nor the desire for visits will be born. If these break through, fight them. What a reliable fence in this case - strict discipline in everything, physical labor and even more mental work! Strengthen your studies, stay at home, don't have fun. You need to go out - save your feelings, run the other sex, and most importantly - pray. In addition to these dangers arising from the properties of adolescence, there are two more: firstly, the mood in which rational knowledge, or personal comprehension, rises to the skies. The young man considers it an advantage to cast a shadow of doubt on everything, and puts aside everything that does not coincide with the standard of his understanding. With this alone he cuts off from his heart the entire mood of faith and the Church, therefore, he falls away from it and remains alone. Looking for a replacement for what was left behind, he rushes to theories constructed without consideration of the Revealed (God-revealed - Comp.) truth, entangles himself in them and expels all the truths of faith from his mind. There will be even more trouble if the reason for this is given by the teaching of science in schools and if such a spirit becomes predominant there. They think they have the truth, but they accumulate vague ideas, empty, dreamy, for the most part contrary even to common sense, which, however, captivate the inexperienced and become an idol for the inquisitive young man. Secondly, secularism. Even though it may represent something useful, its predominance in a young man is harmful. It is marked by living according to the impressions of the senses, a state in which a person spends little time within himself, and almost everything is outside, either in action or in dreams. With such a mood they hate the inner life and those who talk about it and live it. True Christians for them are mystics, confused in concepts, or hypocrites, etc. What prevents them from understanding the truth is the spirit of the world, which exists in the circle of secular life, which young men are freely allowed and even advised to come into contact with. Through this contact, the world with all its corrupted concepts and customs is forced into the receptive soul of a young man, not pre-empted, not disposed against it, but just accepting the mood, and is imprinted on it, like on wax, and he involuntarily becomes its child. And this childishness is contrary to the childishness of God in Christ Jesus. These are the dangers for young men from youth! And how hard it is to resist! But to a well-educated person who has decided to devote himself to God before his youth, it is not so dangerous; Be patient a little, and then the purest and most blissful peace will come. Keep only the vow of a Christian pure life at this time; and then you will live with a certain holy steadfastness. He who has safely passed through his youthful years is as if he has swum across a stormy river and, looking back, blesses God. And another, with tears in his eyes, in repentance, turns back and condemns himself. You can never get back what you lose in your youth. Will he who has fallen still achieve what he who has not fallen has? From what has been said so far, it is easy to come to the understanding of where is the reason that those who retain the grace of baptism are so rare? Education is the reason for everything, both good and evil. This is why the grace of baptism is not preserved because the order, rules and laws of the education applied to it are not observed. The main reasons are: a) distance from the Church and its grace-filled means. This kills the germ of Christian life, disconnecting it from its sources, and it fades, like a flower placed in a dark place fades; b) inattention to bodily functions. They think that the body can develop in every possible way without harm to the soul; meanwhile, in his functions are the seats of passions, which, along with his development, develop, take root and take possession of the soul. Penetrating bodily functions, passions gain a settled position in them, or build out of them some kind of impregnable fortress and thereby strengthen their power for all subsequent time; c) indiscriminate development of the forces of the soul, not directed towards one goal. If they don’t see the goal in front, they don’t see the way to it. Hence, with all the concern for modern education, they do nothing more than inflate inquisitiveness, self-will and thirst for pleasure; d) complete oblivion of the spirit. Prayer, fear of God, and conscience are rarely taken into account. There would be visible serviceability, but those internal states are always assumed and therefore always left to oneself; e) during training - covering the most important matter with side activities, overshadowing its unity with many others; f) finally, entering adolescence without the prior establishment of good principles and the determination to live like a Christian, and further - failure to keep the impulses of youthful life in proper order, giving oneself up to all the thirst for impressions through entertainment, light reading, inflaming the imagination with dreams, indiscriminate communication with people like oneself and especially with the other sex, exceptional scientificism and devotion to the spirit of the world, current thoughts, rules and customs, which are never favorable to a life of grace, but are always hostilely armed against it and strive to suppress it. Each of these reasons and one is enough to extinguish the grace-filled life in a person. But it happens for the most part that they act together and one inevitably attracts the other; yet, taken together, they clog spiritual life so much that sometimes even the slightest traces of it are not noticeable, as if a person does not have a spirit, was not created for communication with God, does not have the powers intended for this, and has not received the grace that revives them. Why the appropriate order of upbringing is not observed is the reason for this either in ignorance of such an order, or in neglect of it. Education, left without attention to itself, necessarily takes on perverse, false and harmful directions, first in home life, and then during education. But even where, apparently, education is carried out not without attention and is subject to well-known rules, it often turns out to be fruitless and deviates from the goal due to false ideas and principles on which its order is built. It is not what is meant, or what is supplied as the main thing that should; namely, not pleasing God, not the salvation of the soul, but something completely different - either the improvement of only natural powers, or adaptation to positions, or fitness for life in the world, and so on. But when the beginning is unclean and false, then, of necessity, what is established on it cannot lead to good. The main deviations can be pointed out: 1) The removal of grace-filled means. It is a natural consequence of forgetting that the one being educated is a Christian and possesses not only natural, but also grace-filled powers. And without these means, a Christian is a fenced-in garden, which is trampled by prowling demons, broken by the storm of sin and the world, which there is no one and nothing to calm down and drive away. 2) To primarily prepare for happiness in temporary life, with the suppression of the memory of the eternal. They talk about it at home, they talk about it in classes, it is the main focus in simple conversations. 3) The predominance of appearance in everything, not even excluding the priesthood. Unprepared at home, having been brought up in this way, his head is inevitably foggy, he looks at everything with the wrong eyes as he should; presents everything in a distorted form, as if through broken or false glasses. That’s why he doesn’t want to listen either about his final true goal or about the means to achieve it. All this is a side issue for him, as if it were a joke. After this, it is not difficult to determine what exactly is needed to correct such a bad order of things? Need: 1) It is good to understand and assimilate the principles of true Christian education and act on them, first of all, at home. Home education is the root and foundation of everything that follows. A well-bred and well-trained person at home will not be so easily led astray by a perverse school upbringing. 2) After this, rebuild school education according to new, true principles, introduce Christian elements into it, and correct what is faulty; The main thing is to keep the child being brought up under the abundant influence of the Holy Church, which with its entire structure has a saving effect on the creation of the spirit. This would prevent sinful stimulants from flaring up, would ward off the spirit of the world and drive away the spirit from the abyss. At the same time, we must direct everything from the temporary to the eternal, from the external to the internal, to educate the children of the Church, members of the Kingdom of Heaven. The most important thing is 3) to educate educators under the guidance of such people who know true education not from theory, but from experience. Having been educated under the supervision of the most experienced educators, they will again pass on their art to others, those who follow, etc. The educator must go through all the degrees of Christian perfection in order to subsequently be able to control himself in activity, to be able to notice the directions of those being educated and then act on them with patience, successfully, strongly, and fruitfully. This must be a class of persons of the purest, God's chosen and saints. Of all holy works, education is the most sacred. The fruit of a good upbringing is the preservation of the grace of holy baptism. The latter abundantly rewards all the efforts of the former. For certain high advantages belong to the one who has retained the grace of baptism and from the first years devoted himself to God. 1) The first advantage, as if the foundation of all other advantages, is the integrity of the naturally blessed composition. Man is appointed to be the receptacle of unusually high forces, ready to pour out on him from the source of all good things, just let him not upset himself. And the repentant can be completely healed; but it seems that he is not allowed to know and feel that which has not fallen, or he cannot enjoy that wholeness and have that boldness that is its consequence. 2) From here the liveliness, lightness, and ease of doing good flow naturally flow. He walks in goodness, as if in the only world akin to himself. The repentant must strain and accustom himself to this goodness for a long time in order to do it easily, but even having achieved this, constantly keep himself in tension and fear. On the contrary, he lives in simplicity of heart, in some certainty of salvation that pleases him, an undeceiving certainty. 3) Then a certain evenness and non-stopness settles into his life. There is no impulse or weakening in him; and just as our breathing is mostly smooth, so his walking is good. The same thing happens to someone who has repented, but it is not acquired quickly and does not appear in such perfection. A repaired wheel often makes its defect known; and a watch that has been repaired is no longer as serviceable as a watch that has not been repaired and is new. 4) The one who has not fallen is always young. The traits of his moral character reflect the feelings of the child, before he has yet become guilty before his father. Here is the first feeling of innocence, childhood in Christ, as if ignorance of evil. How much it cuts off his thoughts and tormenting emotions of his heart! Then extraordinary cordiality, sincere kindness, quietness of disposition. In it, the fruits of the Spirit indicated by the apostle are revealed in full force: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22). It is as if he were clothed with the womb of generosity, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering (Col. 3:12). Then he maintains unfeigned cheerfulness, or spiritual joy, for in him is the Kingdom of God, which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Then he is characterized by a certain insight and wisdom, seeing everything in himself and around himself and knowing how to manage himself and his affairs. His heart takes on such a mood that it immediately tells him what and how to do. Finally, we can say that he is characterized by a lack of fear of falling, a sense of security in God. Who will separate us from the love of God? (Rom.8:35) All this together makes him both respectable and worthy. He involuntarily attracts you to himself. The existence of such persons in the world is the great grace of God. They replace the apostolic monks. Just as a lot of sawdust gathers around a strong magnet, or as a strong character attracts the weak, so the power of the Spirit that dwells in them attracts everyone, especially those who have the beginnings of the spirit. 5) The most important moral perfection, which belongs to someone who has been preserved intact in the years of his youth, is a certain steadfastness of virtue throughout his life. Samuel remains firm in the face of all the temptations of temptation in the house of Elijah and amid the unrest of the people in society. Joseph, among unkind brothers, in the house of Pentephry, in prison and in glory, equally preserved his soul immaculate. Truly, it is good for a man who is caught with a yoke in his youth (Lam. 3:27). Child, choose punishment from your youth, and then grow wisdom until your gray hairs. In doing it, work a little and you will soon eat its fruits (Sir.6:18-20). The right mood turns, as it were, into nature, and if sometimes it is somewhat disturbed, it soon returns to its original order. Therefore, in the Four Menaions we find saints for the most part those who retained moral purity and the grace of baptism in their youth. Moreover, whoever, maintaining purity, devotes himself to God from an early age, 1) does the thing most pleasing to God, offers Him the most pleasant sacrifice: a) because in general, according to the law of justifications, the first is most pleasing to God: the firstfruits of fruits, the firstborns of people, animals, and, therefore, the first years of youth; b) because the sacrifice being made is pure - immaculate youth, which is mainly what was required of any sacrifice; c) because they do this with overcoming considerable obstacles both within themselves and without - with renunciation of pleasures, for which they especially feel the urge at this time; 2) does the most prudent thing. One must devote oneself to God, for in this alone lies salvation. Unless someone has given in to despair. But there is no better and more reliable time for this time than the first one in which we recognized ourselves - for who knows what will happen tomorrow? But even if someone hoped to live longer without devoting all their time to God, he would only complicate himself by getting used to the opposite life, and God knows whether he would overcome himself later. Even if he overcomes: what kind of sacrifice to God is this - sick, exhausted, damaged in the limbs, not whole? However, although all this happens, how rarely! How rarely does one who has lost his virginity manage to regain it! How difficult it is to convert someone who has not known the good life since childhood, Blessed Augustine vividly depicts, from his own experience, in his confession. “I spent the summers of my adolescence,” he says, “in playfulness and pranks, even inappropriate ones, in disobedience and inattention to my parents. As I entered adolescence, debauchery began, and three years before I had become so depraved that after 12 years I kept intending to improve and could not find the strength to carry it out. Even after I made the turn towards a decisive change of will, I still hesitated for two years, postponing my conversion from day to day. So weakened the will from the first passions! But, after decisive conversion and acceptance of grace in holy baptism, what did I have to endure, struggling with my passions, which strongly attracted me to my previous path? Is it surprising that so few escape from those who spent their youth wrongly?! This example most clearly shows what great danger a person is in if he did not receive good rules in his youth and did not dedicate himself to God in advance. What a blessing it is, therefore, to receive a good, truly Christian upbringing, to enter with it into the years of youth, and then, in the same spirit, to enter into the years of courage. Division III. About how Christian life is accomplished, matures and strengthens in us, or the same about the order of a godly life 3. The order of external life according to the spirit of the new life Everything related to the order of external life, according to the spirit of the new life, can be called removal from the world, or the expulsion of the worldly spirit from the entire course of our external life. “I chose you out of the world, that is, I took you away,” the Lord said to the apostles. He does the same with Divine grace with every believer: he takes his spirit out of the world. And the conversion itself consists in the turning away of consciousness from the vain world and the opening before it of another world - the spiritual. But what at the beginning was accomplished invisibly in the spirit, then later, in life, must be fulfilled by deed, becoming a permanent rule. Those who seek the Lord must withdraw from the world. By the world we mean everything passionate, vain, sinful, which has entered into private, family and public life and has become a custom and rule there. Therefore, withdrawing from the world does not mean fleeing from family or society, but leaving behind morals, customs, rules, habits, demands that are completely contrary to the spirit of Christ, accepted and maturing in us. Citizenship and family are blessed by God, therefore one should not renounce them or despise them, as well as everything that belongs to their essential well-being. But everything lustful and passionate that comes to them, like an outgrowth that harms and distorts them, must be despised and rejected. To escape from the world is to establish oneself in true nepotism and citizenship; It’s another thing to make it so that it’s not ours, it doesn’t concern us. They demand this world, but they do not demand it (1 Cor. 7:31). Why this should be done is self-evident. Vanity, saturated with passions, inevitably conveys the same to our soul, excites or instills passion. Just as one who walks near soot is blackened or one who touches fire is scorched, so one who participates in worldly things becomes saturated with passionate, ungodly things. Therefore, having fallen into the world, the repentant one falls again, and the innocent one is corrupted. It's almost inevitable. Immediately the mind is darkened, oblivion, weakness, captivity and plunder are born, and then there is wounding of the heart, followed by passion and action - and the person falls. Witnesses of this are all the stories of corruption; just as the witnesses of how inevitable and necessary it is to abandon everything are all those who have converted, who flee all these customs like fire. And what exactly to leave and how, this is taught more by experience than by our Scripture. The law is this: one must leave behind everything that is dangerous for a new life, that inflames passion, causes vanity and extinguishes the spirit, and in all this there is so much variety!.. Let the measure of this be the own heart of everyone, sincerely seeking salvation without guile, not just for show. Nowadays there are theaters, balls, dancing, music, singing, traveling, walks, making acquaintances, jokes, witticisms, laughter, idle time, and even the time of getting up, sleeping, eating, etc. - everything needs to be canceled and changed. At other times and in other places it may be different. But the measure is always the same: leave what is harmful and dangerous to life, what extinguishes the spirit. But what exactly? Another may have the most trivial things, maybe even a walk in a famous place, with a famous face... All things are worthwhile, but not all things are good (1 Cor. 6:12). It follows that leaving the world is nothing more than cleaning out your entire outer life, eliminating everything passionate from it, replacing it with something pure that does not interfere with spiritual life, but helps it - in family, private, public life; establish a general image of your external behavior at home and outside, with others and in your position; at the request of the spirit of the new life, define everything by rules, establish order in the house in all parts, order by position, order of acquaintance and relations with whom, when and how. How to do this? As anyone can, just do it with advice and reasoning, according to the guidance of your spiritual father or someone in whom you trust. Some do it suddenly and, it seems, better, while others do it gradually. One must only from the very first minute hate everything worldly and sinful in one’s heart and be alien to it, not want it and not enjoy it. Do not love the world, neither those who are in the world (1 John 2:15). This internal abandonment of the world can be followed by a visible abandonment, both suddenly and gradually. A person weak in spirit will not endure a long period, will not resist, will weaken and fall. Such are especially those who possess carnal passions, which receive the power of the second nature. Therefore, it is inevitable for such people to suddenly fall behind everything, to move away from the place where they wallowed in sin. A person with a strong spirit of jealousy will bear it, if only gradually; but still, for both, from the first minute of conversion, it is absolutely necessary to cease all contact with the sinful world and everything worldly, until the forms of a new life are established. This will be the same as fencing off a transplanted tree from the wind, which, even if it is not strong, can knock it down due to its still weak rooting. The idea that one can live like a Christian and adhere to peace and secularism is an empty, delusional thought. Whoever lives according to it will learn nothing more than pharisaism and a suspicious life, that is, only in his opinion he will be a Christian, but in reality he will not. First, he will destroy with one hand what he created with the other, that is, what was collected at a distance from the world will again be plundered at the first entry into it, and from this there is a direct transition to opinion. What is lost from the heart may still remain in memory and imagination. Now, remembering and imagining how it was before, a person can think that it actually exists, while it has evaporated and only a trace of it remains in memory. And he will imagine that he has something that in fact does not exist. This is his judgment: what he thinks he has will be taken away from him (Matthew 25:29). From opinion there is one step to pharisaism. Tempered Pharisaism is a terrible state. It’s scary, but what to do if you leave the world? It is scary only on the outside, but on the inside, leaving the world is entering paradise. From the outside - immediately anger, sorrow, loss: what then? - Strengthen yourself with patience. What is more valuable: the world or the soul, time or eternity? Give the little and take the immeasurable in all dimensions. It also happens, however, that a strong onslaught from the world occurs only at the beginning, then it subsides, subsides, and the one who has left the world is left alone, because in the world they rarely value anyone - they will talk, talk, and then forget. With those who leave the world it is the same as with the dead. Therefore, one can not be so afraid of the hostility of the world for the sake of its fussiness and pride - for the sake of the fact that it loves the present and forgets the other. He is a spectacle: he is busy only or keeps within himself those who are in him, but he cares little about others. Thus, either by activities aimed at building the forces of the soul, or by constricting the flesh in all its parts, especially those that are the closest organs of the soul, or by repurifying the external order, a person seeking a good and strong stronghold will secure his inner. Having strengthened himself inwardly through the first spiritual and spiritual studies in solitude, with the constriction of the flesh, he goes to family or civil or communal affairs, to pure and saving affairs, according to the will of God, and by all this he is built up in the spirit, or, at least, is not squandered. One thing else that can entertain him is the constant seeing and hearing of things - sometimes mundane, sometimes simple, which, just because they act on the soul, draw it out through attention and plunder it. If these openings were also blocked, the peace inside would be undisturbed. Obviously, the most reliable and decisive means of achieving this is to block the feelings, but this is not possible or necessary for everyone. That's why St. The Fathers invented a saving remedy: to be impressed by external things, and not to entertain, but to build the spirit. It consists in giving a spiritual sign to every thing, everything visible and audible, and to become so strong in the thought of this spiritual sign that when looking at a thing, it is not the thing that touches consciousness, but its sign. Whoever does this for everything he meets will constantly go to school... And light and darkness, and man and beast, and stone and plant, and house and field - everything, every last thing, will be a lesson to him; you just have to interpret it for yourself and strengthen yourself in it. And how saving it is!.. “Why are you crying?” - the disciples asked the old man, who saw a beautiful, dressed-up woman. “I am crying,” he answered, “for the destruction of God’s rational creature and for the fact that I do not have such zeal for the soul for salvation as it does for the body for destruction...” Another, hearing the cry of his wife at the grave, said: “So a Christian should cry for his sins.” Alexander I Pavlovich (the Blessed) (1777–1825) – Emperor of All Russia (from 1801 to 1825). From the Romanov dynasty. Nicholas I Pavlovich (1796–1855) – Emperor of All Russia (since 1825), third son of Emperor Paul I. Alexander II Nikolaevich (1818–1881) – Emperor of All Russia, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland (1855–1881) from the Romanov dynasty. He entered Russian history as a conductor of large-scale reforms. He was awarded a special epithet in Russian pre-revolutionary historiography - Liberator (in connection with the abolition of serfdom according to the Manifesto of February 19, 1861). Died as a result of a terrorist attack organized by the People's Will party. Arius (256–336) – one of the early heresiarchs, the founder of Arianism. Macedonius I - Patriarch of Constantinople, occupied the patriarchal see in 341; then, as a heretic, he was overthrown, but several times seized patriarchal power into his own hands until 360. Nestorianism is a heresy that arose in Byzantium in the 5th century. Named after the founder Nestorius (after 381 - about 451), Patriarch of Constantinople in 428–431. The Nestorians rejected the concept of a “god-man,” arguing that the Virgin Mary gave birth to a man who subsequently, overcoming human weakness, rose to the level of the Messiah. Condemned at the Council of Ephesus (431). Nicholas (c. 270 – c. 345) – saint, archbishop of Myra in Lycia (Byzantium). Nicholas the Wonderworker, Nicholas the Pleasant is a great Christian saint, famous for his miracles during life and after death, called by the Church “the rule of faith and the image of meekness,” revered everywhere by Orthodox and non-Orthodox people and even often between Muslims (in the East) and pagans (in Russia). Memory May 9, December 6 according to the Julian calendar. Nikolai Alexandrovich (1843–1865) - heir-cresarevich. The eldest son of Emperor Alexander II, brother of Alexander III. Monophysitism is a heresy that declared that Jesus Christ had only one divine nature. Condemned by the Council of Chalcedon (451). Monothelitism is a heresy that developed in the 7th century. in Byzantium and proclaimed that Jesus Christ had two natures (human and divine), but one will and one “energy” (theanthropic). Condemned in 680–681. at the Constantinople (6th Ecumenical) Council. Nikon (Minov Nikita) (1605–1681) – patriarch (until 1668), church and political figure who played a central role in the reforms of Russian Orthodoxy in the era of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Alexey Mikhailovich Romanov (1629–1676) - the second Tsar (1629–1676) from the Romanov dynasty, the son of Mikhail Fedorovich and his second wife Evdokia. During his reign, the Code of Law (Cathedral Code) was adopted (in 1649), and Little Russia was reunified with Russia (in 1654). Ambrose Belokrinitsky (in the world Amirei PappaGeorgopoli) (1791–1863) - former Metropolitan of Bosno-Sarajevo (Patriarchate of Constantinople), who converted to the Old Believers in 1846 and founded the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. Avvakum Petrov (Kondratiev Avvakum Petrovich) (1620 or 1621–1682) – archpriest, champion of the old faith, opponent of the liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon, spiritual writer, author of the famous “Life” and a number of other works. Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (1220–1263) – holy noble Grand Duke, Prince of Novgorod (1236–1251), Grand Duke of Vladimir (from 1252).