Last word

“The Last Word of St. Tikhon (From his Spiritual Testament)” is the last work of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, which he called the “small letter”. The saint begins the text with a series of praises and thanksgivings to God for all His blessings (“Glory to God for everything!”), and then turns to the “brotherhood,” expresses gratitude to the benefactors and asks forgiveness for sins. Glory to God for creating me in His image and likeness! Thank God that He redeemed me, the fallen one! Thank God for taking care of me, unworthy! Thank God for calling me, who had sinned, to repentance! Glory to God that He gave me His holy word, like “a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Pet. 1:19), and thus guided me on the true path! Thank God for enlightening the eyes of my heart! Glory to God for giving me His holy name to know! Thank God that the bath of Baptism washed away my sins! Thank God for showing me the path to eternal bliss! The way is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who says about Himself: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Glory to God that He did not destroy me when I sinned, but in His goodness He suffered my sins! Thank God for showing me the beauty and vanity of this world! Thank God for helping me in many different temptations, troubles and misfortunes! Thank God for saving me in times of disaster and death! Thank God for protecting me from the enemy, the devil! Thank God for raising me up as I lay! Thank God for comforting me when I was sad! Thank God for converting me when I was in error! Thank God for fatherly punishment! Thank God that His Last Judgment was announced to me, so that I would fear it and repent of my sins! Thank God for declaring eternal torment and eternal bliss for me, so that I could avoid one and seek the other! Thank God that he gave me, unworthy, food with which my weak body was strengthened; gave me the clothes with which to cover my naked body, gave me the house in which I rested! Glory to God for His other blessings, which He gave me for my maintenance and comfort! I received as many benefits from Him as I breathed! Now I turn my word to you, my brothers. I cannot talk to you, as before, with my lips and voice, for I am breathless and voiceless, but I talk with this small letter. First. The church of my body was destroyed and, like earth, it was given over to earth, according to the word of the Lord: “You are earth and to earth you will go” (Gen. 3:19). But with the Holy Church “I hope for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century.” My hope sits at the right hand of God, Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God. He is the Resurrection and my Life. He says to me: “I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25). He will awaken me, sleeping, with His omnipotent voice. Second. I left you “on the path of the whole earth” and went away, and we no longer see each other as before. But we will see you again where all the peoples who have lived from the beginning of the world to the end will gather. Oh, grant us, Lord, to see each other there too, where God is seen “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12), and with this He revives, comforts, gives joy, amuses and makes those who see them eternally blessed! There people shine like the sun, there is true life, there is true honor and glory, there is true joy and fun, there is true bliss, and everything is eternal and infinite. “Let Thy mercy be upon us, O Lord, as we have trusted in Thee” (Ps. 32:22)! Third. To my benefactors, who did not abandon me in my need and weakness, but out of their love and mercy supplied me with their blessings, I give a lot of thanks. May the Lord reward them on that day on which everyone will be rewarded according to their deeds! Fourth. I have forgiven and forgive everyone who has offended me in any way, may the Lord forgive them with His grace! I ask you to forgive me if I have offended anyone in any way, as a human being. “Forgive, and it will be forgiven you,” says the Lord (Matthew 6:14). Fifth. I had no belongings, and none remained after me. So, I ask those who lived with me and served me not to exact anything from them. Forgive me, beloved, and remember Tikhon. 1 Strive after goodness, so that your life, although it flows like water, is gathered again in God. Direct the small stream of your life towards God, so that when it dries up here, it becomes a sea of ​​life there. Your stream of life in this transitory world is not great - direct it to God so that it becomes bottomless. Day after day your life flows and flows away - pour it out on God to find it for yourself in the next world. Provide for the future as a reasonable man, observe the present as a mortal man. Prepare your affairs for the coming, put everything in order on your field, and the field is this life. Take a good spade - the New Testament, protect your possession with thorns - fasting, prayer and teaching. If you have such a fence, then the beast, that is, the devil, will not rise. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian This last farewell word begins the spiritual testament of Saint Tikhon, written by him shortly before his death, on January 29, 1782. This farewell word, probably according to the thoughts of the testator himself, was read at his grave before the last kiss, “out loud to all the people,” and, according to an eyewitness, it made such an impression that “both the reader himself and the listeners interrupted his reading with sobs.”