Глава 1. О том, что молитву должно предпочитать всему

Every action, beloved, and every word of our Savior Jesus Christ is a rule of piety and virtue. This is why He became incarnate, as if depicting both piety and virtue in an icon, so that each and every one, looking at Him, would, if possible, imitate the Prototype. For this is why our body is worn, so that we, too, can imitate His life as much as possible. Therefore, when you hear about His word or action, not in passing and not just as it happened, listen to it, but, entering the depth of contemplation, become a participant in what is mysteriously taught. Thus, Martha receives the Lord into her house, and Mary sits at His feet (Luke 10:38–39). In both sisters you can see wonderful zeal, but you distinguish between deeds. Martha served, preparing the food necessary for His bodily needs, and Mary, sitting at His feet, listened to His words. Therefore, one gave rest to the visible, and the other served the invisible, because what was present to them was truly both man and God. The Lord Himself approved of the zeal of both women. But Martha, tired of her labors, called on the Lord to be a mediator, so that she could have her sister as an assistant in the ministry. “Say to her,” she says, “that he may help those who have rebelled.” The Lord says to her: “Martho, Marfo, worry and speak about the multitude, but only one thing is needed. But Mary has chosen the good part, even if it will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:40-42). I am not here to recline on the bed and feed the belly, but in order to feed you the word of truth with the contemplation of mysteries.” Therefore, just as he did not distract one from what she was doing, he approved of the other for what she was attentive to. Consider what these two “parts” mean, represented in the person of two women, one is lower, who has chosen a more physical service for herself, although it is very useful, and the other, who has ascended to the contemplation of the mysteries, is higher and more spiritual. Understand this, listener, spiritually and choose what you want. If you want to serve, serve in the name of Christ, for He Himself said: “Before you have made one of these least of my brethren, you have created for Me” (Matthew 25:40). Whether you receive strangers, whether you give peace to the poor, whether you show compassion to the sick, whether you give a helping hand to those in need and misfortune, whether you serve the sick - Christ takes all this upon Himself. But if you want to compete with Mary, who left the service of the body and rose to the contemplation of spiritual objects, then sincerely get to work. Leave your body, leave agriculture, food preparation and troubles, but sit at the feet of the Lord and listen to the word of the Lord, so that you may become a partaker of the mysteries of the Divine, because contemplation of the teachings of Jesus is higher than serving the body. So, beloved, you have received examples and direction. Imitate whatever you want: be either a minister of the poor or a lover of the dogmas of Christ. If you can be zealous for one and the other, then with both you will obtain the fruit of salvation. However, spiritual teaching is the first, and everything else is second to it. For it is said: Mary has chosen the good part. Therefore, if you also want to be a secret man of Christ, if you sit at the feet of Christ, accept the gospel of Christ, then you will leave your entire worldly life and live carefree, you will forget your own body and thus will be able to converse with Christ in contemplation, in order to imitate Mary and reap the heavenly glory. When praying, be careful not to ask for one instead of the other and do not anger the Lord. Don’t ask for property, or human glory, or power, or anything else that is transitory, but ask for the Kingdom of God, and He will give you everything that serves the body’s needs, as the Lord Himself says: “Seek... the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Prayer, beloved, has two types: the first is praise with humility, and the second, lower, is petition. Therefore, when praying, do not suddenly begin to ask; otherwise, you yourself reveal your own will, that you pray to God forced by need. Therefore, when starting a prayer, leave yourself, your wife, your children, part with the earth, pass through heaven, leave every creature, visible and invisible, and begin by praising the Creator of everything. And when you praise Him, do not wander your mind here and there, do not speak pagan fabulousness, but choose words from the Holy Scriptures and say: “I bless You, Lord, long-suffering and gentle, who daily shows Your long-suffering to me, a sinner, and who gives us all freedom to repent. For this, O Lord, You are silent and patient with us, so that we glorify You, who builds the salvation of our race, who visited us now with fear, now with admonitions, now through the Prophets, and finally with the coming of Christ. For You created us, not we. You are our God" (Ps. 99:3). When you finish your doxology, borrowed from the Scriptures to the best of your ability, and send up praise to God, then begin with humility and say: “I am not worthy, Lord, to speak before You, because I am very sinful.” This is what I need to tell you, even if you don’t recognize anything bad in yourself. For no one is sinless except God alone. And we, although we sin in many ways, do not notice most of our sins. That is why the Apostle says: “I have nothing in myself, but I am justified in nothing” (1 Cor. 4:4), that is, I sin a lot and do not notice. That is why the Prophet says: “Who understands the Fall?” (Ps. 18:13). Thus, you are not lying when you call yourself a sinner. If you understand your fall, then you sin by saying: “I am not a sinner.” On the contrary, say better: “I am a sinner more than all sinners, transgressing God’s commandment, which commands: “When you have created all things ... say, as we are servants who are without duty, for whatever we ought to create, we must create” (Luke 17:10). This is how you should always reason: “I am invincible” and also: “through humility one another, creating honor for one another” (Phil. 2:3). So, pray to God with fear and humility. When will you extend a word of humility and say: “I thank You, Lord, that You were patient with my sins and have left me unpunished until now, for long ago I was worthy to endure thousands of calamities and to be cast away from Your presence, but Your kindly love for mankind was long-suffering towards me; I thank You, although I do not have sufficient strength to give thanks for Your kindness” and when you have completed both parts - praise and humility - then ask what you should ask, that is, as I said above, not wealth, not earthly glory, not bodily health, because He Himself created you and cares about your salvation and knows what is useful for everyone, whether healthy or sick - but, how You are commanded to ask only for the Kingdom of God, for, as I said above, He Himself takes care of the needs of your body. Our King is glorious and is indignant if anyone asks Him for anything small, if any of us asks Him for something unworthy. Therefore, do not bring indignation upon yourself with your prayer, but ask yourself for what is worthy of the King of God. And when you ask for what is worthy of God, do not give up until you receive it. For, suggesting this, the Lord says in the Gospel: “Whoever has a friend from you, and goes to him at midnight, and says to him: “Friend, give me three loaves of bread in return, since the friend came from the way to me, and the imam will not offer him anything.” And he will answer from within: “Do not do any work for me, the doors are already closed, and my children are with me on the bed; I can’t give you a rise.” I say to you, even if he rises up and does not give it to him, he is his friend, but because of his recklessness, when he rises up, he will give it to him and demand it” (Luke 11:5-8). The Lord sets an example for us to teach us to be unflagging and zealous in the faith. He takes the example of man and for man, so that you learn never to lose hope, so that when you ask and do not receive, do not lag behind until you receive, unless, as I said before, you ask for what pleases God, and so that you do not say: “I am a sinner, and therefore I am not heard.” And so that you do not despair, for this He says: “Even if he does not give it to him, he is not his friend, but for his recklessness he will give it to him, whatever he demands.” Finally, even if a month passes, even if a year, three years or more years pass, until you receive, do not give up, but ask in faith, constantly doing good. It often happens that one of us cared about chastity in our youth, then pleasure crept in, natural desires awoke, prayer weakened, wine was added to youth, and chastity perished, and a person from one became another. This is how transformations occur, because a person does not resist passions with courageous reason. Therefore, he must do everything on his part, but cry out to God so that He will be his helper. For if someone, out of inconstancy, gives in to desires and betrays himself to his enemies, then God does not help him and does not listen to him, because he has previously made himself alien to God through sin. Whoever wants to have help from God does not betray his duty, and whoever does not betray his duty never betrays God’s assistance. Therefore, there is no need to bring yourself to the point where your own conscience condemns you for anything, and in such a state, call on God’s help; one should not call upon it carelessly, without wandering the mind here and there. Such a person will not only not receive what he asks for, but will upset the Lord even more. If the one who stands and speaks before the prince stands with great fear, not allowing both his outer eye and his inner, spiritual eye to wander, so as not to be exposed to danger, then shouldn’t it be all the more necessary to stand before God with fear and trembling, directing the whole mind to Him alone, and not to anything else? For He not only, like people, sees the outer man, but also sees into the inner man. Therefore, if you stand before God as you should, and do everything on your part, then do not stop asking until you receive what you ask for. If you are condemned by your conscience as a despiser and if you stand absent-mindedly in prayer, then do not dare to stand before God, lest your prayer turn into sin. And if, exhausted from sin, you are not able to pray without entertainment, then force yourself as much as you can, and continue to stand before God, directing your mind towards Him and collecting it within yourself, and God will forgive you, because not out of neglect, but out of weakness, you did not have the strength to stand before God as you should. If you force yourself to do every good deed, do not stop asking until you receive what you ask for, but patiently push into His door, asking for what you ask for. “Everyone,” it is said, “whoever asks receives, and whoever seeks finds, and it will be opened to the one who interprets” (Luke 11:10). For what else do you want to receive but one salvation in God? Do you want to know, beloved, how patient the saints were and did not despair? God called Abraham in his youth and moved him from the land of Assyria to Palestine, saying to him: “I will give this land to you and to your seed after you, and like the stars of heaven, so will your seed be, which cannot be numbered” (Gen. 17:8, 15:5). And a large number of years passed, the nature in him became dead, death was already at the door, but he did not say: “Lord, You always promise me children and predict that I will be the father of all nations; The natural movements in me are dead from old age, and Sarah my wife, in her old age, no longer has a woman's (Gen. 18:11), therefore the promise is false. For what hope remains for the two of us, the elderly? He did not say or think this, but remained unshakable in faith, and although he was old in age, his hope was young; the body became powerless and inspired despair, but faith strengthened both soul and body. “He who gave me the promise,” he says, “is God and the Master of nature; and it cannot be otherwise. This is the One who makes the impossible possible, because “he creates and transforms everything” (Am. 5:8) as He pleases.” Imitate the faith of Abraham too. So, when nature was exhausted and the movements were dead, then the promise of God came to life. Here are some examples. And we will pray for a year and leave, fast for two years and stop. Let us not weaken, keeping in mind the promise of God. For He who promised Abraham to multiply his seed also promised us that He would give to those who asked what they asked. For he says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). When you were far from Him, having mercy on you, who were toiling and burdened with a heavy burden of sin, He called you to relieve you of the burden and finally give you peace (Matthew 11:29); don't you believe Him? But if we wanted to remain silent, our conscience would expose us. For we do not trust Him in that which can give us peace, but we refuse to take upon ourselves the yoke of His goodness and ease (Matthew 11:30) and enter the Kingdom of Heaven through the narrow gates; but on the contrary, we prefer to bear the burden of sins, walk the broad path of the passions of voluptuousness, and enter destruction through the wide gates (Matthew 7:13). But you say: “I asked many times and did not receive.” Without a doubt, because he asked badly, or with unbelief, or absent-mindedly, or that was not useful to you. And if he often asked for useful things, he did not have constancy. For it is written: “through your patience you will gain your souls” (Luke 21:19) and “he who endures... to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). God knows the heart of those who pray. Therefore, you say, what need does God have of our petition? Doesn't He know what we need? Therefore, what is the need for petition? God knows what we need, and “he gives us richly everything bodily for our enjoyment” (1 Tim. 6:17) and, being good, “he will rain on the righteous and on the unjust,” and “his sun shines on the evil and on the good” (Matthew 5:45) even “before we ask” (Matthew 6:8). But if you do not ask with difficulty and much patience, you will not receive faith, the merits of virtue, the Kingdom of Heaven, because you must first desire, and having desired, seek sincerely in faith and patience, using on your part everything necessary, so that your own conscience does not condemn you in anything, as if you were asking either carelessly or lazily; and then you will receive it, if it pleases God. For He knows better than you what is good for you. And perhaps He hesitates to grant (what is asked), making you wise in zeal for Him, and so that you learn what the gift of God is and guard what is given with fear. For everything that someone acquires with much labor, he tries to preserve, so that, having lost it, he does not lose much of his labor and, having rejected the grace of God, does not become unworthy of eternal life. What benefit did it bring to Solomon that he soon received the gift of wisdom and lost it? Therefore, do not be faint-hearted if you do not quickly receive what you ask for. For if the good Lord saw that you, having soon received the gift, would not lose it, then he would be ready to grant it even before your request. And now he does this out of concern for you. For if the one who accepted the talent and kept it intact is condemned for not putting it into circulation, then will not the one who lost it be condemned all the more? Therefore, knowing this, whether we receive it faster or slower, let us remain grateful to the Lord, because everything that the Master does is arranged for the sake of our salvation, but let us not, out of cowardice, stop asking. For this is why the Lord told the parable of the widow, who, with her persistence, bowed down the lawless judge, so that for the sake of our persistence we would receive according to our petitions. This demonstrates both your faith and love for God, when, even if we do not quickly receive, we remain grateful to Him. Let us always thank Him, so that we may be worthy to receive His eternal blessings, because glory is due to Him forever and ever, amen. You might be interested in: