НЕДЕЛЯ О САМАРЯНЫНЕ

Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman Jesus Christ, having learned that the growing number of His disciples aroused strong displeasure among the Pharisees towards Him, left Judea and returned to Galilee. The shortest route there was through Samaria. Jesus took this road and on his way passed through a fertile valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, in which the city of Shechem, or Sychar, is located. Both mountains rise 800 feet (or 244 meters) above the valley, which lies 1,750 feet (or 534 meters) above sea level. The numerous terraces and gorges of Garizima, as well as the entire valley, are adorned with gardens and groves rich in beautiful southern vegetation: orange, pomegranate, mulberry, apricot, fig, almond and other trees produce abundant fruit; the hot sole of Ebal is planted with olive trees. At a distance of half an hour from the city to the east, the valley of Shechem bends into another, stretching from north to south; An ordinary road from Galilee to Jerusalem runs along it, without turning into Shechem. Joseph's tomb is located in this place. Directly near the grave, on the slope of Mount Gerizim, is Jacob's well, which is 75 feet deep. This area is also very remarkable in historical terms. Here Abraham, having left his fatherland at the command of God, first pitched tents and created an altar to the Lord. Here Jacob bought a field from the sons of Hamor; here, in this place, Joseph's bones were buried; here Joshua, in the meeting of the people that was before his death, pronounced a blessing on the performers and a curse on the violators of the Law and renewed the Covenant of the people of Israel with their God; here, under Rehoboam, a great division of the land into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah took place. Jesus Christ walked along this lovely valley, not far from the city of Shechem. It was six o'clock in the afternoon, i.e. noon. Tired from the journey, He sat down by the well. The midday heat hung over the golden fields of Shechem. The whole earth seemed to doze off from the burning rays of the sun, everything seemed to fall asleep, only the Savior’s love was awake. A short time later, a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. She came here, as she had come hundreds of times before, without thinking about anything in particular, and saw a man sitting near a well. Recognizing him as a foreigner, and, moreover, from the Israeli nation hostile to her compatriots, she does not welcome him. Having filled her waterpots with water, the Samaritan woman was about to leave, but Jesus stopped her, saying: Give Me a drink! The disciples would have gladly served their Master and Teacher, but they went to the city to buy food (John 4:7–8). The woman looked at Jesus from head to toe; she saw in front of her, as it seemed to her, an ordinary Jew. Therefore, remembering the enmity that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans, she said to Him: How can You, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? (John 4:9). In response, Jesus testifies to her that He is, however, greater than she thinks. He answers her: If you knew the gift of God and Who says to you: Give Me a drink, then you yourself would ask Him, and He would give you living water (John 4:10). The woman did not understand Jesus. She thought He was talking about well water, but He did not have a vessel with which He could draw water, and the well was deep. Therefore she answered: Master! You have nothing to draw with, but the well is deep; where did you get your living water from? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it, and his children and his cattle? (John 4:11–12). However, judging by the fact that she called Him master in the conversation, it can be seen that Jesus made a special impression on her. She does not doubt the truth of His words, but she just cannot understand what He means by water. Jesus points to the well where they stood and says to her: Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life (John 4:13–14). From these words the Samaritan woman should have understood what the One speaking to her actually wanted. She should have guessed that what He meant here was not some earthly, visible water. And the woman understands that that water must be very good and incomparably better than the water from Jacob’s well, because it quenches thirst forever; only she doesn’t know what kind of water Jesus is offering her. However, she asks Him: Master, give me this water, so that I won’t be thirsty and won’t have to come here to draw (John 4:15). She asks for living water. This is the first step that Jesus Christ wants her to take. But in order for her to drink this water, she needed to come to the realization of her sins and know the One who spoke to her. Therefore, Jesus Christ continues to speak to her: Go, call your husband and come here (John 4:16). The Savior's words touched her heart. Her conscience was awakened. But she still tries to evade the Heart Teller and in embarrassment says: I don’t have a husband. Jesus condescendingly accepted this half-confession as a full confession and, pointing with the finger of holy love to the sore spot of her conscience, he says to her: you said the truth that you do not have a husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; This is true what you said (John 4:17–18). With these words, He reminds her not only of her present, intemperate life, but also of all her sins during her five previous marriages, which, of course, were broken off not without her fault. Her conscience was wounded. Like a poor sinner she stands before a stranger, whose holy, penetrating gaze saw everything. She answers: Lord! I see that You are a prophet (John 4:19). By this she acknowledges the truth of His words. Her answer is the most perfect confession; she feels like a sinner in need of pardon. Therefore, in bashful confusion, she changes the direction of the conversation and proposes to Jesus for resolution the question: Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where we should worship is in Jerusalem (John 4:20). The question was completely casual. She could and should have talked with the prophet about God and worship of God and hoped to hear something comforting for her soul in response to this question. The Lord, in order to show her that external worship and reverence alone would not help her sinful soul, said to her: Believe Me, that the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You do not know what you are bowing to; but we know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews (John 4:21–22). By this, He condemns the worship of the Samaritans and takes the side of the Jews, who alone have true revelation and from whom salvation must come (the Messiah), but at the same time He opens to the Samaritan woman’s gaze the time when the barrier that separated the nations will fall. God will call the pagans, destroy transformative institutions and establish spiritual, heartfelt worship of God throughout the entire earth. He repeats this great truth here and another time: The time will come and has already come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such worshipers for Himself. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24). This time is already opening with the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh. True worshipers henceforth serve Him not only with prayer on their lips, but sacrifice the whole person to God in spirit and truth. This was the living water about which the Samaritan woman said: Lord! give me this water (John 4:15); now this water flowed in the words of the Lord. The Samaritan woman could only draw and drink. She, of course, did not understand these words in their entirety. Jesus was telling her something that he had never told any of his disciples. His word made a deep impression on the Samaritan woman, although she, of course, felt that she was weak and unable to understand these words in all their depth. Therefore she said: I know that the Messiah will come, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will tell us everything (John 4:25). This recognition was what Jesus Christ wanted from her. He is ready to fulfill the desire of her heart and therefore says to her: It is I who speak to you (John 4:26). At this time His disciples returned from the city. They were surprised that Jesus was talking to a woman, and a Samaritan woman at that. But love for Him restrained their desire to ask Jesus why and what He was talking to her about. The Samaritan woman left her waterpot and hurried to the city with a joyful heart. Here she announced to everyone: Come, see a man, who told me everything that I did: is not this the Christ? (John 4:29). Just as He transformed me, so He will transform you, just go and you will see! Many Shechemites went out of the city to see Jesus. Meanwhile, the disciples asked Him, saying: Rabbi! eat. But He answered them: I have food that you do not know (John 4:31–32). The disciples did not understand His words; however, not daring to question Him further, they said to each other: Who brought Him anything to eat? (John 4:33). Jesus, seeing their surprise, explains to them His first words: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work (John 4:34). He does not think about hunger and thirst, not about heat and fatigue, not about midday rest and lunch in these sacred moments. Now His soul is with God, Who sent Him; now His whole spirit is immersed in the great work that the Father has entrusted to Him. The Samaritans hurried across the field to Him. Therefore He continues: don’t you say at the time of sowing: four more months, and the harvest will come (John 4:35). But here things go even faster. The seed of the word is barely sown, and the field is already ripe for harvest. Oh, what a huge, wide and glorious harvest field the Lord saw before Him when He spoke this to the disciples at Jacob’s well, near Shechem! His eyes, shining with joy, then saw not only the fields of Samaria, not only the mountains of Judea - He contemplated the entire universe in spirit. But in order to awaken desire and hope in the disciples who will have to work in this spiritual field, He points out to them that they will receive the reward of the reapers - it is they who will, to His and their common joy, gather saved sinners into eternal life - to His joy as the Sower and their joy as reapers; because the saying applies in its full sense to this case: one sows, and another reaps (John 4:37). Jesus Christ himself does the hard work of sowing; they will only reap and gather into granaries. No matter how hard their work may be sometimes, in comparison with His work it is nothing more than a cheerful and easy harvest. Meanwhile the Samaritans approached. They believed the woman's testimony and asked Jesus to stay with them. He stayed with them for two days, and this time was filled with fruits and blessings. If they had previously believed in Him at the word of the woman, now they believed in His word, because they themselves knew and experienced that He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. On Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth The Spirit is God, and whoever worships Him is worthy to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). But not everyone, of course, understands this commandment. We will try to explain it as simply as possible. When you, beloved brother in Christ, standing in the church of God or at home in front of the holy icons, place the sign of the cross on yourself, bow your head or knees, or throw your whole body to the ground, pronouncing with your lips the words of a prayer or a psalm or some other sacred song; when you kiss the Holy Cross, or the Holy Gospel, or a holy icon; when you light a candle or oil before a holy icon, or bring incense to church to burn incense to the glory of God and in honor of His holy saints; or when you decorate holy icons with gold and silver for the splendor of the shrine, then you honor, serve and worship God externally, externally. But when you ascend with reverent thought, pious desire and feeling to the invisible God; when, realizing and deeply feeling your insignificance and your guilt before Him, your dependence in everything on Him and His boundless love and mercy for you, you betray your will and your whole life to His All-Good and Holy Will, during visits to the sorrowful with filial humility and complacent patience, with good intentions and undertakings with firm trust in His all-powerful and always ready help; when, remembering that you are always and everywhere in His presence, before His face, out of reverence for Him, you guard against all thoughts and deeds unworthy of His holiness, and carefully take care to do what He commanded, then you honor Him inwardly, serve and worship Him in spirit. There is no need to say that honoring God, serving and worshiping Him in spirit is higher than outward service and honoring and bodily worship; external service and worship alone, without internal, is only an image of piety without its power. Exhaust your body with fasting and labor, spend your nights in vigil and standing, continuously bow to the ground before holy icons, wear a hair shirt and chains on your body to mortify the sinful flesh: all this can be spiritually beneficial and pleasing to God. But all this will remain the fruitless labor of the flesh if at the same time you do not ascend to God in spirit, reverent thoughts, pious desires and holy feelings, if you do not captivate your mind into the obedience of faith, subordinate your will to the will of God, and offer your heart to God as a living, holy sacrifice. We must not, however, forget that although we are spiritual by nature and especially by rebirth from the Holy Spirit, we are not incorporeal. Incorporeal spirits do not need visible images to express reverent feelings, and our spirit, clothed with flesh, cannot do without them. Due to the close connection of the soul with the body, a strong and deep feeling of the soul, regardless of our will, is revealed in body movements consistent with it. When, for example, the soul is full of joy in the Lord, feelings of praise and gratitude to the gracious God, then these feelings, as if not contained in it, strive to pour out in exclamations, songs and other signs of joy and thanksgiving: from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). When the heart is filled with a feeling of reverence for God and a feeling of need for God’s help, then these feelings are involuntarily expressed by kneeling, throwing oneself to the ground, raising one’s hands or raising one’s eyes to heaven; in a similar way, the feeling of sadness about sins pours out uncontrollably in tears and sighs from a heart contrite by repentance. So, our body is not only the clothing of the spirit, but also its necessary God-given instrument; through it our spirit performs many of its actions and through it receives stimulation to action. Therefore, the very structure and composition of our nature from invisible and visible nature, from spirit and body, the very truth of our existence requires that the internal rational honoring, service and worship of God in the spirit be expressed in visible signs and accompanied by the participation of the body, so that our entire being performs the service of God, as the Apostle commands: glorify God in all your bodies and in your souls, which are God (1 Cor. 6:20). It is in this harmony of spiritual service with bodily service that the Lord commands us to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Spirit is God: and whoever worships Him is worthy to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). From here you can see how much they sin against the truth who serve and worship God in only external signs and bodily actions, such as: bowing, making the sign of the cross, kneeling, reading prayers without the participation of the heart, lighting candles, etc.; as well as those who limit it only to the internal actions of the spirit, neglecting or rejecting as unnecessary all external signs of faith, love and blessing towards God; both of them hinder the spirit in its ascent to God: the former enslave it to the body, and the latter deprive it of the benefit of the body as a necessary instrument for expressing and maintaining its feelings. Both want to serve and worship God with only one part of their being, and not with their whole being: some do this out of unreasonable simplicity, out of laziness, and others out of reckless arrogance, madly tormented by the mind of their flesh (Col. 2:18). Let us, Orthodox Christians, always combine our physical service and worship of God with the spiritual, heartfelt, internal, as commanded to us by the word of God and the example of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the apostles and all the saints, and as our mother, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, taught us. Worshiping with our bodies and saying with our lips or listening to the words of prayer, we will always ascend with pious thoughts, desires and feelings to God; By lighting a candle in front of the holy icon, we will ignite our hearts with love for God; making sacrifices from our wealth according to our strength to decorate the church of God or a home holy icon, we will at the same time take care of decorating our souls with deeds pleasing to God; for the soul of a Christian should be a magnificent temple of the Holy Spirit. What an instructive example the Samaritan woman sets! She went to draw ordinary water, but at the source of ordinary water she found a source of salvation. Her soul, apparently, was not completely absorbed in the worries of everyday life, which is why the Lord, with two or three words, transferred her thoughts from earthly to heavenly and taught her to look for water, from which the drinker will not thirst again. And whoever drinks of the water, I will give him, and there will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an eternal belly (cf. John 4:13–14). Hearing this, the wife desirably cried out: Lord, give me this water! (John 4:15). Let's delve into this lesson of the Gospel. “Let him thirst and let him come to me and drink,” the Lord invites. But you cannot come to the Lord with every thirst, but only with such a thirst as it is proper to ask Him for satisfaction. What is more decent to ask from the Savior than salvation? So, having thirsted for salvation, let us approach the Lord in the hope of quenching this thirst, simply using the methods that He was pleased to outline for this. But the thirst for salvation is appropriate in whom? In one who feels constrained on all sides, surrounded by dangers, burdened with troubles and deprivations. You can say to everyone: “Come to the realization that you are in such a position, and you will flow to the Lord to seek salvation.” ABOUT! If this is so, then there should not be a lack of compulsions to go to the Lord: and one must marvel at why not everyone is already directed towards Him in order to draw water with joy from this source of salvation. Let's see what's around us and in us? Unbelief, doubt, and indifference to everything holy walk around us, which, coming inside us, can shake our soul with perplexities and cover the mind with a fog of opposing thoughts, bringing discord into the area of ​​​​peaceful and pleasing faith. The mind seeks the light of knowledge and is blissful when it enters into it. And on the contrary, it is common for him to languish when this light is hidden, just as the bodily eye languishes, being deprived of the light of knowledge for a long time, and the one who thirsts for it cannot help but cry out: “Lord, send Your light and Your truth, so that it may guide me.” Isn’t this the situation many of us are in today? If so, then go to the Lord and do not depart from Him: for He is Light, and whoever follows Him will not remain in darkness. Take a closer look at what is inside us, and you will see there the soul, bound in all its movements, like a prisoner bound hand and foot. You want to begin some feat, somewhat difficult, but self-pity does not allow you to do this and takes away all the strength to do so. You want to do good, but selfishness shortens your hand. You want to forgive, but offended pride excites you to take revenge. You want to rejoice in the happiness of another, but envy extinguishes this joy. So on every good movement there are like chains imposed, preventing the soul from acting freely. And the soul is characterized by freedom. Therefore, finding herself so bound, she cannot help but cry out to the Apostle: who will deliver me (Rom. 7:24), or with the Prophet: bring my soul out of prison, to confess to Your name (Ps. 142:8). So, feeling ourselves bound and desiring freedom, let us approach the Lord, who says: if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36). What's in our hearts? By his nature there is a desire for peace, peace, consolation, happiness, but in reality one sorrow is replaced by another: now annoyance from the failure to fulfill desires, now grief from the loss of what has been achieved, here fear for oneself or others, there languor from immoderate or deceived hope; Yesterday failure struck like an arrow, now care is like a worm, tomorrow an unfavorable combination of circumstances threatens to crush you like paralysis. How long will it be like this for us? Or do we have no one to turn to? Let us come to our senses and hasten to safely turn to the Lord, Who calls everyone: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28). You who thirst for light, come to Him! He is Light, outside of Him there is darkness. He will enlighten your mind with knowledge, not only externally, through revelation, but also internally, through the anointing from the Holy One, which teaches everything, as the seer experienced, and imparts such tangible confirmation of the truth that it is just as impossible to renounce it as to renounce one’s existence. You who thirst for freedom, come to the Lord! He will resolve the bonds of passions by which the soul is bound, will pour strength into goodness, against which no passion can resist, through the work of goodness he will so akin goodness with the soul that it will not feel not only external, but even internal bonds - from the law, which does not lie with the righteous. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is only freedom (cf. 2 Cor. 3:17). He sets the feet of those who act in space (see: Ps. 30:9), and they act in all the breadth of good intentions, under the blessing and active right hand of God. You who thirst for rest, peace and bliss, go to the Lord! He is life, peace and quiet, and He alone. He will drive away all worries from the heart, reviving in it other, unearthly worries and quests; He will extinguish the burning sensation of earthly sorrows, extinguish every impulse for earthly consolations. He will allow Himself to be tasted - Himself, the Good and Pleasing One, and thereby bring the taste for everything else into oblivion. For He is the fullness of all comfort. He points out endless bliss to the heart beyond the grave, gives it a foretaste now and assimilates it with hope in the future, in order to replenish the feeling of bliss in Him, not only with His equanimity, but also with continuity. So, go to the Lord, who calls you and promises to quench all your thirst. He alone will give us water to drink, from which the drinker will never thirst. What must you do to be saved? “Do good, avoid evil, and you will be saved,” said Saint Mitrophan of Voronezh. In other words: “love virtue, avoid vice.” More extensively: learn and contain in your heart everything that the Holy Church teaches, and, receiving the powers of grace through the Sacraments and kindling them through all other sacred rites of the Church, walk steadily along the path of the commandments of God prescribed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of legitimate shepherds - teachers of the Church, avoiding everything contrary to this, and you will undoubtedly be saved - you will reach the Kingdom of Heaven, this is known to everyone. The following legend will further explain the matter. One deep old man, who lived in a secluded desert, fell into despondency, and the darkness of his thoughts began to crush his soul, instilling in him bewilderment as to whether he was going the right way, and whether there was any hope that his labors would finally be crowned with success? The elder sat with his head bowed, his heart ached, but his eyes did not shed tears, dry grief tormented him. While he was so overcome with grief, an Angel appeared to him and said: “Why are you troubled and why do thoughts enter your heart? You are not the first and you are not the last to follow this path. Many have already passed through it, many are going and many will go to the bright abode of heaven. Follow me, I will show you the different paths that the sons of men walk, as well as where these paths lead. Look and understand." Obeying the sign of the Angel, the elder stood up and walked, but barely took a few steps when he became beside himself and plunged into contemplation of the wondrous vision that opened to his intelligent eyes. On his left he saw thick darkness, like an impenetrable wall, inside which he heard noise, alarm and confusion. Peering carefully into the darkness, he saw a wide river along which waves moved back and forth, right and left, and every time a wave flashed before his eyes, as if he clearly said in the elder’s ear: this is a wave of unbelief, carelessness, coldness; this is not mercy, debauchery, bribery; this is bliss, fun, envy, discord; and this is drunkenness, uncleanness, laziness, unfaithfulness of spouses and other things. And every wave pulled a countless number of people out of the depths, and again plunged them into the depths of the river. In horror, the elder exclaimed: “Lord! Will they all really perish and there is no hope of salvation for them? The angel said to him: “Look further and you will see the mercy and truth of God.” The old man looked at the river and saw it along its entire latitude and along its entire length covered with small boats, in which bright young men sat with all kinds of tools to save the drowning. They called everyone to them and shook hands with some, lowered poles and boards or threw ropes to others, and sometimes plunged hooks and hooks deep into the depths - wouldn’t anyone grab it there too? So what? Very few responded to their calling voice, and even fewer were those who properly used the instruments of salvation given to them. The largest part rejected them with contempt and with some kind of wild pleasure plunged into this river, into its fumes, stench and fumes. The old man stretched his gaze along the river and at the end of it he saw the abyss into which it was cast. Young men in large numbers swiftly sailed on boats back and forth, at the very edge of the abyss, carefully giving help to everyone; but, despite that, every minute, at every place of the river, whole thousands of people, along with the stream, were thrown into the abyss - from there only groans of despair and gnashing of teeth were heard. The elder covered his face and began to sob. And a voice came to him from heaven: “It’s bitter, but who is to blame? Tell me, what could I do to save them that I have not already done? They bitterly reject any help given to them. They will also reject Me if I come to help them in the most bleak places of their suffering.” Having calmed down a little, the elder turned his eyes to the right side, to the bright east, and was consoled by a joyful vision. Those who, heeding the call of the bright youths, gave them a hand or grabbed some saving tool, were taken by them to the right bank. Here other persons received them, led them into small slender buildings, scattered in large numbers along the entire length of the coast, where they washed them with clean water, clothed them in clean clothes, girded them, put them on shoes, gave them a staff and, having strengthened them with food, sent them on their way further to the east, commanding them not to look back, to walk without stopping, to look carefully at their feet and not to let a single similar building pass without entering it and not strengthen yourself there with food and advice from those to whose care these buildings are entrusted, as well as everyone who enters them. The elder looked along the shore and saw that along its entire length these redeemed ones were preparing to set off. Joy and inspiration were etched on everyone’s faces. It was clear that they all felt especially light and strong and, with some irresistibility, rushed along the path, the first stages of which were strewn with pleasant flowers. The elder then turned his gaze further to the east, and this is what was revealed to him. The pleasant meadow ended not far from the shore; then the mountains began, lying in ridges in different directions - sometimes bare and rocky, sometimes covered with bushes and forests. They rose higher and higher and were intersected by abysses. Travelers and workers were visible everywhere. Another climbed a steep slope, another sat tired or stood in thought, another fought with a beast or a snake; one went directly to the east, another in an indirect direction, and another crossed the paths of the others transversely; only everyone worked in the sweat of their brow, in struggle and strain of strength - both mental and physical. Rarely does a traveler see the road all the time; often it completely disappeared or was fragmented into crossroads; in another place it was hidden by fog and darkness; and sometimes she crossed an abyss or a steep cliff; animals from the oak forest or poisonous reptiles from the gorges lurk there. But that's what's amazing! Scattered throughout the mountains were beautiful buildings, similar to those into which those rescued from the river were received for the first time. As soon as the traveler entered them, as he was commanded at the beginning, then, no matter how exhausted he was before that time, he came out of there cheerful and full of strength. Then the animals and reptiles could not bear his gaze and fled from him; no obstacles stopped him for long, and he easily and quickly found the hidden path according to the instructions that he received in those buildings. Every time someone overcame an obstacle or defeated an enemy, he became stronger, taller and more stately. The higher one ascended, the prettier and brighter he became. Towards the top of the mountain the area again became smooth and flowery, but those who entered it soon entered light clouds or fog, from which they no longer emerged. The old man looked above this cloud and from behind it or from behind the mountain he saw a wonderful, indescribably beautiful light, from which sweet sounds came to him: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts! The elder fell on his face in tenderness, and the word of the Lord rang loudly over him: “Thou shalt thus, that ye may comprehend” (1 Cor. 9:24). Rising to his feet, the elder saw that from different places on the mountain a considerable number of travelers were again quickly running towards the river; some silently, some with shouting and blasphemous and abusive words. To each of them, both above and below, an appeal was addressed: “Stop! stop!” But, driven by some small murins, they did not heed the warning and again plunged into the stinking river. Then the elder cried out: “Lord, what is this?” and heard in response: “The fruit of arbitrariness and disobedience to the established order!” That was the end of the vision. The angel asked the elder if he was comforted, and he bowed to the ground. The elder’s vision, taken from the ancient “Fatherland,” is self-explanatory. The river is the world; immersed in it are people living according to the spirit of the world, in passions, vices and sins; the bright young men in the boats are Angels and, in general, grace calling for salvation; the abyss into which the river with people fell is destruction; a beautiful building on the right bank - the Church, where, through the Sacrament of Repentance or Baptism, converted sinners are washed from their sins, put on the garment of justification, girded with power from above and put on the path to salvation; climbing a mountain with difficulties - works to cleanse the heart from passions; beasts and reptiles are enemies of salvation; smooth terrain towards the top - peace of the heart; a light cloud hiding travelers is a peaceful death; light from behind the mountain - blissful paradise; the buildings scattered throughout the mountain are churches of God. Who enters these buildings on the way, i.e. receives the Sacraments and participates in the sacred rites and prayers of the Church, uses the advice and guidance of pastors, he easily overcomes all obstacles and soon comes to perfection; and whoever arbitrarily rejects them, not obeying the instructions and advice of the shepherds, soon falls, and the spirit of the world carries him away again. Brief rules on how to save your soul 1) Repent and turn to the Lord, recognize your sins and mourn them with contrition of heart. 2) Abide in God with your mind and heart, and work with your body to fulfill your obligatory duties. 3) Guard your heart from evil thoughts and feelings - pride, anger, condemnation, addiction and other things. 4) Sacrifice your whole life to God and live no longer for yourself, but for God, doing one thing pleasing to Him. 5) Humbly surrender yourself to the will of God and with patience stand firmly in the order of saving life. 6) As a support for this, let your constant concern for acquiring living faith, hope and love. 7) The tools of such a life are prayer, fasting, vigil, solitude, work, frequent fasting, reading the Word of God, etc. 8) Protect yourself with the fear of God: remember the last thing - death, judgment, hell, the Kingdom of Heaven. 9) Above all, pay attention to yourself: keep your mind sober and your heart untroubled. 10) Acquire the spiritual fire of God’s grace, so that it burns the thorns of your passions and sins and plants the seeds of virtues in your heart. So arrange yourself, and by the grace of God you will be saved! What and how can we be saved? a) Whoever wants to be saved must belong to the One Holy Orthodox Church, be her faithful son, obey her institutions in everything, such as: fasting, going to the church of God, honoring spiritual shepherds, etc. If someone does not obey the Church, who out of the spirit of rebellion or pride separates from the Church, if someone is a schismatic, then no matter how much he bows, fasts, or prays, he will not be saved. The Lord compared the one who disobeys the Church with an idolater: if anyone disobeys the Church, He said, he will become... like a pagan and a tax collector (Matthew 18:17). The schismatic and the heretic are alien to humility, just as the devil is alien to humility, and therefore they are alien to salvation, just as the devil is alien to it. Once upon a time the devil appeared to the Monk Macarius and said: “Macarius! you fast a lot, but I don’t eat at all; you sleep little, but I don’t sleep at all; You defeat me only by your humility.” He who does not humble himself is not a disciple of Christ, he has not submitted to Jesus Christ. “True humility comes from obedience,” said St. John Climacus, “just as the Lord showed His humility by being obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross (cf. Phil. 2:8).” Without obedience to the Church there is no humility, without humility there is no salvation: humble yourself and save me, said the Prophet (Ps. 114:5). b) Whoever wants to be saved must pray to God, at least little by little, but often. On weekdays, pray to God at home, if everyday affairs and services do not allow you to go to the church of God; in the morning - rising from sleep; at night - going to bed; Pray also before lunch and before dinner. On holidays and Sundays, one must take part in public church prayers. It is great happiness for a sinful person that he is given the opportunity to attend the Church of God: he can beg God to forgive him his sins and grant him salvation. David was a glorious and rich king, and at the same time a prophet, but he asked one thing of the Lord: I have asked one thing of the Lord, this I will require: that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord and visit His holy church (Ps. 26:4). The Holy Fathers call prayer the mother of all virtues, because with it you can ask the Merciful Lord for all other virtues, all temporal and eternal blessings, as the Lord Himself testified: ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, ask and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). c) Whoever wants to be saved must, according to his strength, do mental and physical alms and generally love his neighbors as himself. Mental alms consists of forgiving our neighbors for their sins, that is, insults and insults inflicted on us by our neighbors, as well as our concern for the salvation of the souls of our neighbors, for example, about teaching them truth and goodness. Physical alms consist of helping one's neighbor as much as possible with bread, clothing, money and hospitality. The Lord said: blessings of mercy, for these will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7), that is, they will be saved. On the contrary, judgment without mercy awaits the unmerciful (James 2:13), that is, the unmerciful cannot be saved. d) Whoever wants to be saved must bring to God, Whom he must love above all, thorough repentance for his sins, both during his daily prayers, and especially before his spiritual father during the Sacrament of Confession. The God-inspired Prophet proclaims: I have known my iniquity and have not covered my sin, reh: let me confess my iniquity to the Lord, and You have forsaken the wickedness of my heart (Ps. 31:5). Consider the order of the words spoken by the Holy Spirit, that first a person knows his sins, which is achieved by godly consideration of himself; then he rejects those excuses with which an evil conscience usually tries to excuse its sin; finally, the repentant person becomes an accuser of himself and expresses to the Lord, with his spiritual witness as a witness, all his sins, without at all sparing his pride. Then he receives forgiveness from God for his iniquities. The Apostle said: if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from the spirit of unrighteousness (cf. 1 John 1:9). Having cleansed oneself by confessing to one’s spiritual father, having made a strong intention not to sin in the future and, in any case, to fight strongly against temptations to sin, one must, with the fear of God, faith and love, partake of the All-Holy Body of Christ and the All-Holy Blood of Christ, which is completely necessary for salvation. The Lord said: Amen, amen, I say to you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourself, that is, you do not have salvation. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will have eternal life, that is, he will have salvation (John 6:53–54). One must confess and receive communion at least during all four fasts, four times a year. If, unfortunately and unhappily, everyday worries do not allow this to happen, then you should certainly partake of it once a year. e) Whoever wants to be saved must generously endure all the sorrows that will be allowed to him during this short earthly wandering. Will there be a crop failure, or the already ripened grain will be destroyed by locusts, or hail will strike; whether there is a loss of livestock, a fire, illness of oneself and family members, the death of one of the close relatives, whether one has to endure persecution and insults from a strong person - all this must be endured generously, without grumbling. Especially without blasphemy. The Lord commanded us to gain our souls through our patience (see: Luke 21:19); He who endures to the end, He said, will be saved (Matthew 24:13). Sorrows sent by God are a sure sign for a person that he has been chosen by God and loved by God. I, the Lord testified, even if I love them, I rebuke and punish (Apoc. 3:19). For this reason, the Apostle comforts the mourning and suffering in this way: my son, do not be overwhelmed by the punishment of the Lord, weaken below, we are reproached by Him. For the Lord loves him, punishes him, and beats every son who accepts him. If you endure chastisement, as if God were found to you as sons (Heb. 12:5–7). Such is the dignity of earthly sorrows when they are endured with complacency! They are the gift of God (see: Phil. 1:29)! They are a sign of a Christian's adoption to God! In order to learn to patiently and complacently endure sorrows, one must meet each coming sorrow with the words of a prudent thief: I accept what is worthy of my deeds, remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom (cf. Luke 23:41–42). It is also useful to remember and repeat the words of the much-pained Job: we receive good from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the evil (Job 2:10)? As the Lord willed, so it was: blessed be the name of the Lord forever (Job 1:21). f) Anyone who wants to be saved must read divine books. Blessed is the man, said the holy prophet David, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the ways of sinners, and does not sit on the seats of the destroyers, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he learns day and night (Ps. 1:1-2). Our mind, as darkened by sin, cannot in any way limit itself in relation to salvation to its own thoughts, weak, wavering, deceptive. He needs - through careful reading or careful hearing of the Word of God - to borrow Divine thoughts from it and be admonished by them. The Holy Fathers called reading and hearing the Word of God the king of all virtues. The Word of God reveals to us all the sinful passions that live and act in our damaged nature, reveals all their tricks, exposes malice when, to deceive us, it hides behind the guise of virtue and teaches us to fight the sin living in us. Save yourself, brothers, save yourself! The earthly life of each of us is very short - you won’t notice how it passes. You won’t notice how death creeps up on each of us. Let anyone who has lived piously until now continue to do so. Let those who have hitherto allowed themselves to lead a sinful life bring repentance and from here begin to lead a virtuous life, avoiding sins in every possible way, without which salvation is impossible. As I live, says the Lord, I do not want the sinner to die, but to turn and live to be him (cf. Ezek. 33:11). Keep the commandments and thereby save your soul Saint Hermas, an apostolic man, who is greatly praised by the Apostle Paul (see: Rom. 16:14), is known for his book called “The Shepherd,” which in the first centuries was read even in churches along with the Apostolic Epistles. He begins his exposition of the soul-saving commandments contained in the book as follows: “I prayed,” he says, “at home and then sat down on my bed. I see a husband enter, his appearance inspiring respect, in shepherd’s clothes. He was wearing a white cloak, a knapsack hung over his shoulders, and a stick was in his hands. He greeted me, and I greeted him. Then he sat down next to me and said: “I was sent to you to be with you the rest of your life.” When he said this, I thought that he was tempting me, and I asked him: “Who are you? “For I know well the one to whom I am entrusted.” “So you don’t recognize me?” – he asked. “No,” I answered. “I am the shepherd to whom you are entrusted,” he said. With this word his face changed, and I recognized him as my Guardian Angel. I felt ashamed, fear and grief began to disturb me; but he reassured me, saying: “Do not be afraid, I have been sent to show you everything by which you can save your soul. Listen carefully and write everything down for memory, so that by re-reading it from time to time, you will refresh your thoughts and strengthen your shaky will. If you keep everything that is revealed to you from a pure heart, you will receive from the Lord all the benefits that He promised to His faithful. If, after listening to my instructions, you not only do not correct yourself, but, on the contrary, begin to add sins to sins, then the Lord will send trouble after trouble to you until He crushes either your heart or your bones.” Having said this, my shepherd, the Angel of repentance, offered me twelve commandments in the following order: 1) Believe in the One God, worshiped in the Trinity, the Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible, Who from nothing called all creatures into being and gave them as many perfections as each of them can contain. 2) Live in simplicity and purity, do not harm your neighbor even with a word, on the contrary, help everyone in their needs, without discerning who asks and to whom you give. 3) Let no rotten word proceed from your mouth; love the truth and flee lies. 4) Preserve marital fidelity like the apple of your eye, for this is the immutable law of the Creator - to be pure and blameless before Him either in virginity or in an honestly preserved marriage. Married, do not seek permission or another wife; decided to be a virgin, do not look for a wife. Likewise, when a husband or wife dies, the surviving half does not sin when it enters into a second marriage; but he is honored with a greater portion from God when he decides to keep widowhood in purity and integrity. At these words, says Hermas, I asked him: “What should one do who sins?” “Repent,” the Shepherd Angel answered me. I tell him: “I heard that, besides baptism, there is no other repentance, that by plunging into the waters of rebirth, we receive remission of all sins and should not sin in any way after that.” The angel answered me: “Baptism is not called repentance. God established repentance for those who, having been called through baptism into the number of believers, then fall into sins, through the machinations of the devil. God the Merciful accepts the repentance of such; but you need to know that frequent falling into sin, corrected even by frequent repentance, makes repentance itself suspicious; and you can finally fall so that after that fall there will be no opportunity to get up again and begin to live for God. Let everyone who looks lightly at sins fear this.” Having said this, the shepherd continued to indicate God’s saving commandments for us: 5) Walking the path of the commandments, you cannot avoid obstacles and labors. Take courage, and let your heart be strong: be patient in doing good deeds and enduring all the troubles along the way. 6) Remember, with every person there are two angels - good and evil. One attracts him to good deeds, and the other to sins and vices. Pay attention to yourself and lean towards the first, and reject the second, guessing from the inner thoughts of your heart which of them is giving you lessons at that time and wants to rule over you. 7) Fear the One God, your Creator and Provider and your Savior, and do not humiliate your childish devotion to Him and your strong trust in Him with the empty fearfulness of dark forces. 8) Be careful to show yourself as a zealous fulfiller of all God’s commandments without exception and a thorough doer of all the deeds that an Angel will inspire in your heart or indicate a combination of circumstances of your life - and you will be a son in the house of God, and not a slave. 9) Pray, strain yourself in prayer, pray unceasingly, so that every time, as needed, strength will come to you from above to do good, and help to evade evil. Prayer makes the earth-born a celestial being and clothes him with heavenly purity and holiness. 10) Flee false prophets - fortune-tellers and magicians (spiritists, i.e., conjurers of spirits, who then appeared in large numbers. Among them was Simon the Magus and his disciples), through whom the enemy destroys the servants of God. Those who are weak in faith turn to these deceivers, and they, answering them according to the desire of their hearts, fill their heads with dreamy hopes. Immediately, mixing a drop of truth with a sea of ​​lies, they seduce them and again draw them back to paganism. He who sincerely believes and has devoted himself to God will not go to them. Such a person is looking for heaven, but they usually wonder only about earthly things. 11) May the Church of the Living God, the pillar and affirmation of the truth, be your teacher, your only teacher. In it is the light of immutable true knowledge. Outside there is darkness and darkness. There the prince of peace set up his teaching pulpit and blinds the minds of those who listen to him and do not want to listen to the voices of the Church because they are secular. Here's a test for you: what disagrees with the teachings of the Church, that is, the voice of the father of lies. Pay attention and keep yourself clean from this fall. Here is another sign: the word of truth establishes deep peace, tranquility and sweetness in the believing heart; the word of the deceitful stirs up dreams and doubts and, like salt water, kindles the thirst for knowledge, trapping the mind like a captive in an uncertain, gloomy desert. 12) Without your closest leaders, you cannot live holy on earth. You will find them in the Church, where the Holy Spirit appoints them to shepherd the flock of Christ; beg the Lord to grant you what you need. At the right time, and without your asking, he will speak a comforting word to you. The Spirit of God will teach him what is appropriate to say to you, and you will hear from him what God wants from you. Beware, however, of flattering spirits here too. Humility and quietness adorn a true leader. Where there is pomp, that is, external shine in word and life, there is flattery. Heed this and you will be saved. These are all the twelve commandments that the Shepherd Angel gave me, concludes Hermas. After listening to them, I said to him: “Excellent rules, but is there a person who could fulfill them properly?” To this the Angel answered me: “Accept them with your heart in simplicity, without thinking, and you will not encounter any difficulty in fulfilling them. But as soon as you begin to decompose in your mind whether and how you can do both, and whether you can somehow free yourself from under this yoke, the enemy will creep up, put relaxation in your heart and make you incapable of any good. But there’s too much to say!.. Know that if you don’t do something, there is no salvation for you - there is no salvation for you, nor for your children, nor for your family.” Having said this, the Angel changed in his face and became so terrible that I don’t know if there is anyone who would be able to bear his gaze at that moment; I was scared. The angel, seeing my embarrassment, began to speak meekly to me, with a face capable of spreading joy into my heart: “How do you think and say this? Have you forgotten the Omnipotence of God! Is it possible that the One who put everything under your feet did not give you the strength to fulfill His commandments? Know that he who always has God in his heart will easily fulfill all these commandments. Whoever has Him only at the end of his tongue will fall under the weight of them, considering them impossible.” I remarked to this: “Who does not ask God for strength to fulfill His holy commandments? But the enemy is strong: he tempts the servants of God and keeps them in his power.” “No,” the Angel answered me, “the enemy has no power over the servants of God. He can tempt those who believe in God with all their hearts, but not rule over them. Resist him with courage and he will run away from you.” This was the end of the angelic instructions set forth in the second book of Saint Hermas, entitled “The Shepherd.” Let us pray to the Lord that He will grant us gracious help to fulfill these saving instructions given through the holy apostolic man. He who is in unity with the Orthodox Church is saved Some monks once came to the Monk Agathon and, wanting to test whether he would get angry, they asked him: “Are you Agathon? We have heard about you that you are a fornicator and a proud man.” He answered: “Yes, it’s true.” They again ask him: “Are you, Agathon, an empty talker and a slanderer?” He answered: “I am.” And they also say: “Are you, Agathon, a heretic?” He answered: “No, I am not a heretic.” Then they asked him: “Tell us, why did you agree to the first questions, but did not bear the last?” He answered them: “I admit the first vices in myself: for this recognition is useful to my soul, and to be a heretic means to be excommunicated from God, but I do not want to be excommunicated from God.” This is how the great saint of God reasoned. And whoever excommunicates himself from the Church excommunicates himself from God, for our Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of His Church. St. Augustine says: “Only he is saved who has Christ as his head, and only he who is in His Body, which is the Church, has Christ as his head.” While you are in unity with the Church, you are a living member of the Body of Christ, although, due to your sins, you cannot call yourself a healthy member, and if you left the Orthodox Church, then you have ceased to be its living member, you are already cut off from it, and therefore a dead member; and no matter how great your virtues are, they will not bring you any benefit. God's punishment for blasphemy against the Church This happened near the village of Mishnevo, Kaluga district. On a hot July day, peasant Deev went to the field where his horse was grazing on a leash. Having untied the rope from the stake, he rolled it into a ring and, to make it more convenient to control the reins, put it on himself, mounted his horse and rode to the village. On one strip, a reaper, wrapped in a zipun, unexpectedly rose from behind the sheaves, the horse got scared, shied away, and Deev, like a sheaf, flew to the ground, getting tangled in the rope. Seeing this, many chased the horse, shouting at the top of their lungs: “Catch, catch!” The horse rushed across the field like mad, leaving a bloody trail behind it, and when it stopped, everyone shuddered in horror: Deev turned into a bloody, dirty mass, the rings of the rope cut into his body to the very bones. He was still breathing, but did not move a single member; a few minutes later he died, in the prime of his life, he was only thirty years old. This is what Deev’s close relative, his aunt, an elderly girl, said about this incident. Deev was at first Orthodox, but then fell into schism and became a great blasphemer of the Holy Church. He especially wanted to seduce the aforementioned aunt and her sister into a schism; He tried in every possible way to achieve this, but to no avail. Three days before the incident, he, returning from work, again invited his aunt to join the schism, but upon hearing her refusal, he said: “Remember, you damned heretic! When you die, I will not bury you, but, like a dog, I will tie you to the tail of my gray horse, drag you out of the village, lash you with a whip with all my might - let the gray one scatter your old bones across the open field. I’ll definitely do that!” And this is what happened two or three days after this: Deev himself tied himself to this same gray horse and died a terrible death... In 1891, a Edinoverie parish was opened in the village of Saltykovka, Aktarsky district, and a church was built. Three years later, the parish already consisted of 350 souls, and all of them were converted from the schism. For their part, the schismatic false teachers used every effort to dissuade those who had little knowledge of Scripture from joining the Holy Church. They showered the Church with innumerable blasphemy and curses that were intolerable to the ears of every Orthodox Christian. But sometimes heavenly punishment will not touch such detractors. Among the residents of Saltykovka, one middle-aged peasant woman of the Austrian consent was a terrible detractor of the newly built church. The all-merciful Lord endured her terrible attacks on the Holy Church until the time came, awaiting admonition and her conversion. But she did not stop speaking her crazy words at the dwelling of God. And then she began to have seizures, during which she shook terribly all over her body, screamed, uttering incomprehensible words, and generally went completely berserk. At first such seizures were rare, but then more and more often. It got to the point where she stopped coming to her senses. So, as long-suffering as the Lord is, He is just as righteous, according to the words of the Prophet: The Lord is righteous in His words (cf. Ps. 145:13), and His words are as follows: God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7). The parish chronicle of the village of Prishiba, Tsarevsky district, mentions an incident in the life of local Molokans. One of them, V.I. K-nov, who assumed the title of mentor, went in 1872 for the purpose of propaganda along the lower reaches of the Volga River. In the spring of the same year, when crossing to Dubovka, K-nov, being in a boat with Orthodox companions, began to mock them when, due to the strong excitement of the river, they were baptized, prayed to God and called on St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for help. But God cannot be mocked! K-nov accidentally fell out of the boat and immediately disappeared into the water, so that his body was not found anywhere. Such is the destruction of the wicked who mock the Orthodox Church! When you hear the church bell ringing, calling everyone to prayer, and your conscience tells you: let’s go to the house of the Lord (Ps. 121:1), then, if you can, put everything aside and hurry to the church of God. Know that it is your Guardian Angel who is calling you under the roof of the house of God; it is he, the Celestial One, who reminds you of earthly heaven, in order to sanctify your soul there with the grace of Christ, in order to delight your heart with heavenly consolation. And who knows, maybe he is calling you there in order to take you away from temptation, which you cannot avoid if you stay at home, or to shelter you under the shadow of the church of God from some kind of trouble... Here is what one Christian, attentive to the ways of God’s Providence, told about himself: “I did not always have the opportunity to attend evening services in church; but once - it was on a Sunday - when the announcement was made for Vespers, it was as if some secret voice quietly suggested to me: “Why don’t you go to Vespers too? Today is the Feast of the Lord! God willing, you will have time to do what needs to be done even after God’s service.” I obeyed and went. My soul was so calm, joyful and light that I did not notice how Vespers ended. I had no one at home; I arrive and notice that not everything is in the same order. It is clear that there was an uninvited guest here without me. The cash drawer was empty; Two or three more valuable things were missing. “God judge him,” I thought, “money is a gainful thing, it’s good that he didn’t touch the shrine,” and I had valuable decorations on holy icons. The judgment of God actually found the kidnapper. Less than six months later, he was caught in the murder, and at the trial he confessed to stealing money from me, and most importantly, he admitted that he knew my habits well, he knew that on holidays I let the servants go to vespers and am left alone, which is why he stocked up on a heavy iron tool, and, of course, if I had not gone to church this time, I would hardly be able to talk to you now. “I believe and confess,” the narrator added, “that the secret suggestion to go to church was the voice of my Guardian Angel, and the church of God sheltered me under its canopy from sudden death, like God’s faithful guardian.” And here is another similar story, preserved in the writings of the patrists for our edification. One unfortunate father, seeing that he, his wife and son were about to die of hunger, said to his son: “Dear child! There is only one way left to save our lives - to sell you as a slave to some nobleman. Do you agree to this? The obedient son answered: “Do what you want, father; I’m ready for anything.” The grieving father himself took his son to the rich nobleman and, parting with him, said to him in parting: “Here is my father’s testament to you, my son: when you pass by the church and see that God’s service is going on there, stay there until it ends.” The son took his parents’ covenant to heart and began to steadily fulfill it. A year later, the nobleman’s wife hated him so much for some reason that she decided to destroy him at all costs. One young slave, the mistress’s favorite, especially contributed to this. And so she says to her husband: “I have learned for certain that the newly purchased slave is plotting against your life; It’s better that he himself dies before he kills you.” The frivolous nobleman believed the slander and on the same day, meeting with the judge, he told him: “Tomorrow I will send you one slave with a handkerchief; order his head to be cut off and, wrapped in a scarf, give it to the one who comes for him.” And he did not name either one or the other. The next day, the nobleman sends the innocent young man with a handkerchief to the judge, and he goes, not at all thinking that death awaits him there. His path lay past the church, where at that time the service of God was being performed; he remembered his parents' covenant and stopped at the church door until the end of the service. Meanwhile, the impatient mistress hastened to send her favorite to the judge and ordered him to ask: “What will be the answer to what the newly purchased slave was sent with?” Passing by the church, he stopped for a minute out of curiosity. The kind young man looked around and, seeing his comrade, asked him: “Where are you going?” “To the judge,” he replied, “the gentlemen demand an answer to what they sent you for.” “Oh,” said the young man, “I haven’t been to him yet; I really want to listen to God’s service; do me a favor, brother, take this handkerchief to the judge instead of me, and I will be worthy of service and go in your place for an answer.” Wanting to serve his mistress and not suspecting anything, the slave took the handkerchief and went to the judge - and the judge immediately ordered his head to be cut off. The service ended, and the young man, by agreement, came to the judge for an answer. There they gave him something heavy, wrapped in a scarf, and he, without curiosity, handed the parcel to his masters. You can imagine how amazed they were when they saw the one they had sent to death alive! And having unfolded the scarf, they saw with horror the head of their beloved slave... When the matter was clarified, both the husband and wife involuntarily admitted that God Himself had covered the innocent and punished the guilty, and glorified the judgments of God. Hearing this, brothers and sisters, do not leave the church before the end of God’s service, so that the Lord will cover you from all sorts of troubles. The church of God is God’s guardian and blessed are those who take refuge in the house of God: God Himself is their protection and faithful protection!.. A young woman, who went into schism with her grandmother as a child, married an Orthodox man. She said the following about her return to the fold of the Orthodox Church: “The eve of the Epiphany, or Christmas Eve, has arrived. On this day, my husband invariably visited the church, received the holy Epiphany water there and returned home with great joy, bearing with tenderness, as he put it, “the great gift of heaven.” On the day of that memorable Christmas Eve, I was terribly sad. I had an irresistible desire to see my husband. About two o'clock in the afternoon our gray horse appeared. My husband was sitting in the sled, holding a blue jug in his hands. Without realizing it, I hurried into the hallway to meet my husband, who, entering with extraordinary grace-filled inspiration and joy, sang “I am baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,” and opened the lid of the jug. At that moment, three tongues of fire appeared above the jug, emanating from the water. The song in the mouth of the singer fell silent. He wept like a child with joy and tenderness. Seeing such a great miracle of grace resting in the holy Epiphany water, I knew with my soul and heart that the Holy truth resides only in the One Holy Apostolic Church, from which I deviated through the action of the devil. At that same moment, in the depths of my soul, I decided to return to the fold of the Orthodox Church and told my husband about it. His joy knew no end. In the evening, my husband and I went to the parish church, where I was joined to the Holy Orthodox Church. The state of my soul was so joyful that such joy, I think, is possible only in heaven. The reading of Great Compline began in the church, every word of the holy psalms I heard, as if with a sharp chisel, deeply cut into my sinful soul. And then the words were especially imprinted on me: the sin of my youth, and do not remember my ignorance (Ps. 24:7). Only then did I understand the full gravity of my apostasy from the Holy Orthodox Church; and with hope in God’s mercy, I ask Him for forgiveness and mercy for my great and grave sin.” You might be interested in: