БЛАГОДАРЕНИЕ

(see also: Tribulation). Jesus has prepared hundredfold rewards for good deeds, and human praise is superfluous to those who do good, and therefore, with a brief but sincere thanks for your love, affection, hospitality, satisfying the demands of our heart, we leave all the compliments, these outfits, in which for the most part uncleanness is dressed - the harlot-flattery. 26. Make it a rule to thank the Lord daily for your cup, i.e. for your illnesses, for all your sorrows, for the lot of your daughters; In particular, thanks to God, sorrowful thoughts are driven away; when such thoughts invade, “thanksgiving” is pronounced in simple words, with attention and often - until peace is brought to the heart. There is no sense in sorrowful thoughts: they do not relieve sorrow, they do not bring any help, they only upset the soul and body. This means that they are from demons - and you need to drive them away from yourself. Sorrowful thoughts are driven away by “thanksgiving” to God. “Thanksgiving” first calms the heart, then brings it consolation, and subsequently brings heavenly joy - a guarantee, a foretaste of eternal joy. When you thank me, you try on the whisk. I would like to see the crown of heaven tried on in your soul, the crown of spiritual joy! “Thanksgiving” from simple and few words, but it will do more than thousands of the smartest books can do. “Thanksgiving” is a weapon bequeathed to Christians by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle. “Thanksgiving” is apostolic, God’s teaching and tradition, thanksgiving to God performs signs and wonders! And these signs are seen not with the eyes of the body - but with the incomparably superior eyes of the soul - and in the spiritual cage: there, from the Divine touch, a painful fire of sorrow leaves Petrov’s mother-in-law - she begins to serve the Lord. Peter is the image of faith, his mother-in-law is the image of the soul, Peter’s closest relative. Thanks is mighty to God Almighty, to whom it is offered! Thanksgiving is strong in faith, which alone, absolutely alone, is capable of perceiving and embracing the unlimited power of God; Faith has no boundaries, just as God and everything that relates to God have none. Reason, no matter how reasonable, is limited and not suitable for the affairs of God. He greets everything of God, every sign with repulsion: “How? Really? Why?". - Away, indecent, rejected by God!.. Come, holy faith and violence of the preaching of Christ, save us! 112. If our life on earth has its end, after which those who spend their time in studies for the sake of God inherit eternal consolation, then you should thank the Lord God, who brought you to His holy monastery, where His holy Name is glorified, where His servants remain in various sorrows far from all worldly amusements, in the hope of eternal consolation, which they will certainly receive if they remain in faith and humility in patience, which you sincerely I wish. If your heart does not have gratitude, then force yourself to give thanks; with it, peace will enter your soul. Do not imitate those who, for the sake of God and for the hope of inheriting the Promised Land, were in the desert, wished to return to Egypt and were rejected by God for this. Death is near, its hour is unknown. The judgment of Christ awaits, so that sinners will repent, the torment is ready, the flames of Gehenna thirst for their victims! Turn your eyes there, for those who often remember it can avoid Gehenna. Monks and nuns! Let us thank God, who chose us to serve Himself, despite the fact that we are the rabble of the world. Behold, brothers, your title! (see: 1 Cor. 1:26). - God chose the weak, the weak, the buoy! – Our lay brothers are great and exalted (see: Ps. 151) in names, and wealth, and wisdom, but God was not pleased with them! 119. You might be interested in: