Август

I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, who saved me now from the great demonic storm and confusion with darkness before the start of the prayer service in the gymnasium on the occasion of the beginning of the teaching. By Your name alone, which I called with faith, on which I placed my hope, You saved me: the storm disappeared, confusion and darkness were gone. I praise Your mercy, Sweetest Jesus! Amen. Again, I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for once again and again You have granted me in the power of Your fortress to defeat the all-unclean, evil, evil and simple enemy who attacked me three times in the house of Shishmarev (Ivan Semenovich). For the first time, I easily conquered the instantaneous unclean thought and the beginning confusion and crampedness, saying: The Lord is the cleansing of my sin, my peace, my enlightenment, my space. The Lord is with me - why should I be afraid? In the second it was more difficult, in the third it was even more difficult and I struggled for a long time. Money-loving, greedy and stingy. It’s strange, wild, absurd, how our heart or – it doesn’t matter – our soul clings to something that is not at all akin to it: the spirit clings to matter, the living to the soulless, the eternal to the temporary, the infinite in being to the transitory like smoke, the rational and endowed with freedom to that which has neither reason nor freedom - and it turns away from God and its neighbor, created in the image of God. Lover of money, glutton, miser! Well, tell me, how can your heart hope for money, food, drink, etc.? How can life hope for something in which there is no life, the soul for soulless matter? And why are you embarrassed when you have to part with money or your favorite sweets, or when they only hint at them to you? Shouldn’t we rely on God, who abundantly gives us everything for our enjoyment? Do you see who is our trustee, who gives us everything? Yes, let us place all our trust in Him: Cast all your cares on Him, it is said, for He cares for you (1 Pet. 5, 7), - this will be the most dear thing for the soul, that is, the living soul to rely on the Source of life, on the Creator of everything, on the Provider of everything and the Giver of all good things, and not on soulless, rude matter that has no mind or care for us. God is the Father of all: He created everyone and everything, brought them from non-existence into existence, and He cares for everyone and gives everything to everyone: He is the Lord, the Almighty and the Giver of everything. For Thine is the power, O Lord, and Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Our souls, like flies in honey, have clung to the sweets of this world and are wallowing in them; and our bodies and our thoughts are drowned in the luxury and pleasures of this world, but have fallen away from God, the source of life, our breath and all good; They clung to their earthly journey, but forgot about the Heavenly Fatherland. God! Have mercy on us. The coming of a neighbor to our house, especially a stranger - a peasant, a monk, a nun, we must rejoice as the coming to us of the Angels of God, as of God Himself, according to Scripture: I was a stranger and you received Me [Matt. 25, 35], and not be upset that our neighbors come to us and (allegedly) bother us. We are not animals who do not allow anyone outside into our den or lair. We are human beings and created for communication and mutual love. How long until we learn to look upon our neighbor as the venerable image of God? Like a deified creature? For it is said: Man is God, so that he can make Adam (and the race descended from him) God. 116 Our attachment to the wealth and sweets of this world is known from our confusion, grief, anger, sorrow and darkness in the case when we lose or assume the loss of our money, or assume that it is hidden by others, or see that it is illegally taken away from us and appropriated by others, or when we are deprived of sweets and grieve over them, for example during Lent, or when we need to share them with frequent guests, or when merchants sell to us low-quality sweets for a lot of money, for example, bad sugar instead of good sugar, etc. Is it necessary to be embarrassed here (that means, to voluntarily kill spiritual life by attachment to material things), be upset, angry, grieve and suffer? Is it worth grieving over the ashes? We do not grieve about our soul, that it is dead through sins, that it is subject to the wrath of God, that it has fallen away from its union with its Creator, the source of life, that it is threatened with eternal death - we do not grieve about this, we are not embarrassed because of this, because of this we are not upset with ourselves, we are not angry, we do not grieve about this, we do not cry inconsolably! Oh, damnation! Oh, delusion! Oh, free madness! We have sinned, O Lord, and are lawless and untruthful before You, before You, below the observant, below the co-creator, as He commanded us, but do not betray us to the end, O Fathers God, 117 teach us to count everything as rubbish and waste 118 and You, our peace, not to be deprived because of the dust, but to cast all our sorrow on You, all losses consider our material things as nothing, as our very acquisitions, when we are united with You, for very often and for the most part, the acquisition of earthly goods is a reason for separation from You, for the blessings of this world often serve as a strong barrier between our heart and You, the God of our heart, belly, peace, joy, light, space of our heart. Amen. It was not in vain that Your chosen ones voluntarily chose poverty and destitution for the Kingdom for Your sake. Through various passions we strive for some imaginary space of life, and yet through them we lose the life of the heart, peace, joy, space, we agitate the blood and expose the body to disease, for passions, like fire, scorch the body and produce disorder, death in the soul, and create painful disturbances in the body. So, passions are dreams, wildness, absurdity. What does our life consist of? - In faith in God, in active trust in Him, in piety towards God, or in active, unfeigned love for God and neighbor, in contentment with one’s position, in gratitude for everything, in amazement at the mercies and bounties of God, not according to our dignity, poured out on us from God every day, instead of punishing us for our sins and countless infidelities towards God. This is where humility comes from, imputing oneself as nothing and imputing everything to God without hypocrisy. Confirm, O God, this in us! Elder Eutyches is true: loving of God, loving of brothers, perspicacious, simple. He is the same, and I change, crazy as the moon, I doubt him, but my doubts about him always turn out to be unfair, they always put me to shame. God! Confirm me to be with this elder as I was today by Thy grace (August 18, 1864). Let the slanderer enemy be put to shame, just as he was put to shame today by Your sovereign name. I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for from the misfortune of my sins - the malice and contempt of a beggar, from the sorrow, oppression and darkness that befell me for my malice, You delivered me through my prayer and the Liturgy comfortably, and with boldness, and with simplicity, and with the wisdom of the serpent, You granted to me, most unworthy of all, to perform to Your servant. In order to please the Lord of the belly, we must honor and love every person, even the least beggar, as ourselves, and not at all be proud of anyone, not to despise anyone - even the last drunkard, and the most desperate harlot, and a murderer, because we don’t know which of them will ever be and what will be of us, we don’t know who will end their life how: who will be victorious and who will be defeated; neither should we be angry with anyone, but maintain unchanging kindness and meekness towards everyone, no matter how anyone sins, no matter how anyone bothers us intentionally or not, for there is nothing worse than demonic malice, which turns a person into a spirit of malice, while our anger towards our neighbor is covered up with various plausible pretexts. What is the excuse for anger? Can anger ever be legitimate? She cannot: there is no reason for anger, no excuse - she is decisively, unconditionally guilty. You should also not cleave with your heart to any thing, not to any sweets, not to any clothing or decoration and insignia, not to any decoration of your home, not to any beautiful thing, not to money, not to other treasures, but to cleave to the one God, as the source of our life, our archetype, from whom we received life through the Divine breath: and breathed, it is said, into his nostrils the breath of life [Gen. 2, 7]. He alone will always replace everything for us. God is with us - and what is for us? What do I have in heaven?... God of my heart, and my portion, O God, endures forever [Ps. 72, 25 – 26]. Is tea harmful to piety? Harmful: tickles, undead, relaxes the heart and makes it very irritable, prone to any passion: pride, contempt, malice, envy, stinginess, lust, gluttony, laziness, idleness and so on. Found out. You need to drink simple and strengthening drinks: water, water with wine, etc. A heart pampered by sweets becomes an idol of self-love, irritability from the smallest things, loving peace, coolness and not tolerating anxiety, work, despising everyone and everything that is not to its taste. Just as, after reading the student lists at the end of the school year, some find themselves transferred to higher classes, and others left in the same classes or expelled, and some go home with joy, while others go out with sadness, so it will be at the end of this age with the righteous and sinners: who will be transferred to the Kingdom of Heaven, and who will be expelled. Many who were first here will be last there, that is, they will be expelled into utter darkness, and those who are last here will be first there. This is how deceptive the local state of affairs is, how easy it is to make mistakes in people: some seem to be good, but others don’t – they are bad, and others seem to be bad, but turn out to be good. God alone knows the secrets of the heart, who will illuminate what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart... (1 Cor. 4:5). Live with God alone, with the God of your heart, and do not cling to anything material. Your heart, or your life, your soul, came from God and receives its life: with You is the fountain of life [Ps. 35:10], and not from matter: God formed our body from matter, and He nourishes, grows, and preserves it. His care and concern are us. We only need to keep His commandments. God's providence for our soul and body is a continuation of creation. What is lust? That which is desired and done after satisfaction and beyond real, legal intercourse. For example, someone satisfied the feeling of hunger and strengthened his strength with food and drink, and also wants and asks for food and drink and strives for food and drink; or, for example, he somehow reinforced his strength with sleep, but still wants to sleep and goes to bed; or who has the necessary and decent clothes, but is not content with them, but wants expensive, elegant ones, or is not satisfied with the necessary number of clothes - two or three, but wants many clothes; or he is not content with a simple, comfortable home, but wants and is looking for a luxurious, decorated, spacious home, or furniture, simple and necessary utensils, but wants and does have furniture, rich, beautiful utensils (service), beyond his needs; or who wants and seeks ranks, distinctions, awards, unnecessary and burdensome connections, who keeps unnecessary books, etc. This is what is called lust. They are sinful, and a Christian must cut them off and be content only with what is necessary, essential, so that the mind and heart are not distracted by a multitude of things, do not fall away from God and do not cleave to matter, in order to have something to help our neighbors in need, for they are our food and drink, and clothing, and a beautiful home (churches of God), they are our books, our treasures, our reward, our wealth. Observe fraternal unity with your neighbors in everything: what is for yourself, so is for others; what you wish for yourself, do not spare for others: you yourself eat and drink sweetly, and do not spare for others a sweet morsel and drink; You don’t count your own pieces, and don’t count those of others: as much as anyone wants, he eats and drinks as much. Say, we are all one: all brothers, all children of God. By doing this, you will always be calm and satisfied with yourself and everyone and talkative; and if you begrudge others food and drink or money, you will always be cramped, gloomy, sad, you will always be restless, joyless, and taciturn. Truly and rightly so: do not be a damned self-lover, but a lover of everything. Love everyone as yourself, according to the word of the Lord [Matt. 19, 19]. There have been cases with me: when you feel sorry for someone else’s sweets, you are immediately overcome by cramped conditions, grief at your neighbor, dissatisfaction with yourself and darkness; How can you say from the heart to yourself: I don’t feel sorry for anything for myself, and I don’t feel sorry for anything for anyone else, I don’t count how much I ate and drank for myself, and I don’t want to count anyone else, for we are all one, and your heart will become calm and cheerful, and you will look straight into everyone’s eyes without a twinge of conscience, and you will speak to everyone freely and judiciously; otherwise, conscience kills: you cannot look directly into the eyes of another, you feel awkward, you fall in your opinion, you become somehow despicable in your own eyes; It seems to you that everyone is looking at you with displeasure and everyone is moving away, and so on and so forth. This is the trouble, what a punishment it is not to love your neighbor as yourself. Glory to the Lord, who has so determined and so punished our sins with our own sins! All of God’s daily admonitions to us tend to teach us to philosophize on heaven, not on earth, to sigh about the Heavenly Fatherland and about our sins, and not about money, but about sweets, but about clothes and houses. How long will I be mad? A thousand times I sincerely repented of my commitment to earthly blessings, a thousand times I received forgiveness from the long-suffering and merciful Master for my free madness - and I still continue to be mad, I still don’t want to come to my senses. God! Have mercy. Oh, the flattery of the enemy! Carnal flattery! Flattery of sweets! Flattery of the visible and temporary, transitory! Damned, multi-passionate flesh! You will be stench, earth and ashes - this is your end, your fruits, the result of everything. This is the beauty of earthly blessings! I thank Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, for through Thy sovereign name Thou hast delivered my face from shame and my heart from oppression and darkness, and bestowed boldness before my disciples. Why did the enemy strengthen himself against me? – From the insincerity of my heart in welcoming children. We must be true with our hearts. (20 August 1864) On the basis that we are one spiritual body, we are commanded to pray for each other and promised to fulfill our prayers. On this basis, the Church prays for everyone and for everyone, and we should pray for everyone. Pray for one another so that you may be healed [Jas. 5, 16]. He humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on the cross [Phil. 2, 8]. These are our Christian virtues: humility, obedience, patience with all unrighteousness until death and crucifying the flesh with passions and lusts. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts [Gal. 5, 24]. What do we have? All kinds of bliss of the flesh, all its senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. We live completely contrary to the Gospel, we are epicurean, 119 we drown in pleasures. What about worldly pride? What about self-will, stubbornness and disobedience to God’s word, God’s Gospel, the Church, its commandments and statutes? We live with the Lord God on this earth. Somehow we will begin to pay for the billet, for all the bread and salt, clothing, education and for all the things that we did at this billet! To us, temporary residents, this house - the land and life itself - was given so that we could live in it at the command of the owner, the Lord. What are we doing? We live according to the whims of the devil. Martha (peace, our flesh) worries everywhere and speaks of many [Lk. 10, 41]. This is immediately evident when you look at worldly affairs: he cares about wealth in the sciences, arts, food, drink, clothing, housing, money, treasures, and writing. People speak the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love (1 Cor. 13:1). But Mary (the Church) has chosen the good part, even though it will not be taken away from her [Lk. 10, 42]. This part is the word of God, worship, Sacraments, sacred rites. Blessed is he who adheres to the church of God: he is God's. I write about delicacy and gluttony and condemn them, but I myself willingly indulge in the delicacy and forget about its sinfulness, willingly excusing it to myself. Oh, hypocrisy! Where is true repentance? Where is the disgust for sin? Where is the firm intention to improve? Where are the fruits worthy of repentance (that is, corresponding to repentance)? Delicious food is a great delight: eat and eat everything - and you will unnoticeably fill up a lot: this will whet your appetite. And you become, also imperceptibly, a slave of the womb, and you become cold towards God and towards your neighbor, becoming a greedy self-lover, and you ruin the health of your soul and body. How the carnal, old man is strengthened by gluttony and overeating! It grows and becomes stronger gigantically; passions are intensifying: pride, contempt, malice, envy, hatred, stinginess, covetousness, fornication, nasty, evil, unfaithful and blasphemous thoughts, irritability, spiritual savagery, aversion from God and the Church of God, from prayer, and in general from works of piety. Gluttony makes the heart rough and unable to feel the sweetness of God's word and prayer. Don’t spare any sweets, count everything as dust, rubbish, pus, manure - it’s easy. But we are deceived as if we have no understanding, as if we do not know the end of all things and the end of our body. The end of all things is destruction by fire, and the end of the body is pus, stench, and the dust of the earth. Go to the cemetery and you will see. This is what comes out of our bodies! I need a little to nourish and strengthen my body, and a lot of the rest is a whim. Luxury in decorating homes is harmful to the soul: 1) you yourself serve charm, turning the soul’s gaze away from heavenly goodness and chaining it to earthly, ephemeral, illusory things; 2) you fall into luxury and take away what is necessary from the poor and thus transgress the Lord’s commandment to love your neighbor [Matt. 19, 19 ]: twenty rubles costs you one chair, which perhaps someone will only have to sit on once a year. What is this for? Mirror - sixty to seventy rubles - for what? In order to stare at your sinful flesh? Isn't this crazy extravagance? Meanwhile, if a poor man were to receive from you the price of even one of your chairs, he would be well-fed for almost a whole year, or he could at once get dressed and pay for lodging in the apartment, and be well-fed for a whole year. After all, we, brethren, are one spiritual body, because we are members of each other and must provide for each other, just as the members of the body mutually care for each other: and if one member suffers, all members suffer with it; If one member is glorified, all members rejoice with it (1 Cor. 12:26). 3) You tempt others to luxury, blind the eyes of others and instill in them dissatisfaction with their home, which is much worse than yours, and set him on fire for the same luxury, if he has the means, and if he does not, you kindle envy in him: after all, we all extremely love to imitate each other in earthly things and reach out for others, while the heavenly from this earthly attachment is increasingly declining, and the teaching of our Savior God remains the voice of one crying in the wilderness: His sufferings on the cross, His death for our sake, remain useless for us - and if only they were useless! No, they become for us the cause of the most severe torment in eternity, if we do not repent and turn to God with all our hearts and do not philosophize on high. Whoever has wealth in the world, but, seeing his brother in need, closes his heart from him - how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:17). When others, inferior to me in place or in education, although not in years (see, I am at the Academy, and they graduated from the seminary. Oh, insolence! Undeservedly turning the great gifts of God into an excuse for exaltation! But to whom much is given, much will be demanded), do something good - I envy, why didn’t I do it, but I myself was asleep? Oh, pride! How can you consider yourself better than anyone? Isn't everything from one God? Isn't everything the image of God? Isn’t everything with us God’s? What do you have that you have not received?.. (1 Cor. 4:7). Everything comes from God, and for everything we must thank Him, the All-Good One, and respect every person and his good deeds as a gift from God and for them thank the Lord, who makes us wise for mutual good. Let us all be united by mutual love, as brothers and as children of the Heavenly Father. God! Have mercy on us. Let the gifts of God, which are special before my neighbors, not serve for exaltation, but for the deepest humility, that the Lord, the worst, the most worthless, the weakest, the most sinful, the most abominable of all, has so loved, benefited, enlightened, purified, exalted me, so that even though from the feeling of His greatest benefits to me, I have rid myself of passions and all my abominations, for where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more [Rom. 5, 20]. I am more unworthy and ignorant than the last rural priest who behaves unworthily, for with education and material means and in an urban environment, and most importantly with frequent sacred rites, I have all the means to behave with dignity - and I do not behave like that. God! Have mercy on me. God! Support me. I am the least of all holy priests. Oh, demonic envy! How does she not fight against goodness and truth in every possible way: with malice, and envy, and persecution. If your brother is tempted by some of your deeds, even if it is good, but it catches your eye, then if he expresses his temptation to anyone or to you yourself, humbly ask him for forgiveness in his temptation and say that in the future you will try to eliminate this temptation. Do this, but do not be upset with him and do not say: I do a good deed, but they reprimand me; so-and-so himself does not want to do this and that, for example, help the poor, and when he sees me doing this clearly, he is offended and reprimands me. No, don’t say that, don’t be proud of your alms, and don’t judge your brother who doesn’t give alms. Judge not, lest ye be judged [Matt. 7, 1]. Remember the Pharisee and the tax collector. The first one prayed, gave alms, and fasted, but was condemned for one exaltation; and the other, during his sins, beat only himself on the chest and said: God, be merciful to me, a sinner [Lk. 18:13], and left the church justified more than the Pharisee. Be ready to serve for others with the same desire with which you want others to serve you. Be obedient without thinking, immediately. They ask you to caress a child - immediately caress the babies; In general, love children and everyone as your own flesh and blood. In general, be quick to all good and immovable to evil. Be wise to do good, as a serpent is wise to do evil, and safe as a dove [Matt. 10, 16]. Sweets and everything pleasant are the fire of the flesh. Who wants fire? Who sticks to the fire? Isn't he rather running away from him? So one must flee from sweets, for they strongly inflame the flesh and through them the devil strongly fights against the soul, clinging the heart and flesh to earthly things, inflaming all passions and cutting the heart away from God and the heavenly. Strive for spiritual sweets, in God and the thought of God, in reading the word of God, found in fasting and prayer, despising carnal sweets, which pleasantly tickle the flesh, but oppress and scorch the soul, which is eternally hostile to the flesh and which has its own very special sweets, felt in the very suffering of the flesh and for the suffering, for its many different sorrows, bestowed by God. As the sufferings of Christ increase in us, our consolation also increases through Christ (2 Cor. 1:5). When I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:10). Insolvent people: soldiers, peasants - give alms, but wealthy people: merchants, officers and ladies - do not give. Why is this so? Or do those need God’s mercy, but these don’t? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? or what ransom will a man give for his soul? for the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward everyone according to his deeds [Matt. 16, 26 – 27]. How could I crucify my prodigal, gluttonous, evil, proud, contemptuous, stingy, covetous, lazy and stupid flesh! She has done and continues to do a lot of harm to me. The absurdity of pleasing the flesh has been demonstrated in practice. We must decide, only with God’s help, not to please her. The Lord will defeat the enemy, as he is omnipotent. From addiction to earthly goods, even momentary, our heart hurts, aches, feels embarrassed, becomes darkened, and becomes irritated. With a strong conviction of the mind and heart, any carnal rebellion, irritation or addiction to something must be considered a dream, a lie or irritation of the nerves. My flesh! You will be rot and earth, tell her. But most importantly, we must call on the Lord for help, without Whom we cannot do anything [John. 15:5], and cling to Him alone with all your heart. It was not in vain that I wrote this: so the Lord delivered me from the effects of passion for true wisdom! Here in my heart is life and peace. And then there was oppression and death: For carnal wisdom, death is immutable, unchangeable, always, but spiritual wisdom is life and peace [Rom. 8, 6] according to the laws of the eternal truth of God. The life of our heart is God, heartfelt faith in Him, firm hope in Him and unchanging and unfeigned love, and not the material blessings of this world. With You is the source of life. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters [Jer. 2, 13]. So, let nothing in this world be kind and desirable to our hearts except the holy, magnificent and life-giving name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and especially the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, in whom we find, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, breath, light, wisdom, peace, sweetness, lightness, space and firmness of our hearts. Yet everything earthly is vanity, vanity, soon-disappearing smoke, a mirage, a ghost and temporary irritation of the nerves. Amen. Or a theater stage: while the theater continues, looking at the actors and the people gathered, you are consoled by it; the theater ended - and there was nothing: everything fell silent, the candles went out, the people left. The charm is over. The devil rapes our mortal body, forcing it to passions. But our job is to fight with the weapon of the word of God in our hands, and in our mouths, mind and heart - the sweetest name of the Savior! To whom should my benefactions, treats, affection, my humility and respect be extended first of all? - To my father by wife, whose place I took by the grace of God and in whom I take advantage of all the bounties of the Lord, whose daughter became a loving, protective wife. I must always honor and love him from the heart and not listen to any false suggestions and slander from the devil, who incites pride, malice, and contempt for his father. The father's personality is invariably respectable and worthy; every spirit of contempt and enmity is a lie, a dream, the malice of the devil. Amen. Keep a strict distinction between the spirit of the devil and the spirit of grace, do not be united for a minute with the first, constantly be in unity with the second. Since carnal pleasures, money, clothing, rich homes, etc. almost always serve as a pretext for enmity, then all the more despise all this as a network of the enemy. It’s a wonderful thing: you don’t feel sorry for any jewelry, no soft, expensive, beautiful clothing, and if it were possible, you would dress like Solomon in his glory or like the rich man of the Gospel, who dressed in purple (purple color) and fine linen (soft, tender, expensive and beautiful clothing) [Lk. 16, 19], but one’s neighbor feels sorry for even a piece of expensive, beautiful fabric, and the heart hurts when one has to give it away out of duty, or decency, or need. Oh, self-love! Oh, love of earth! Oh, the beauty of the hair! Oh, the stupidest passion! Oh, my heart's dream! Oh, demonic lies! Is not the grace of the Holy Spirit our clothing? Is not the Lord our garment? How long will we need these clothes? And do you need soft and expensive clothes? Do they not pamper our flesh, which must be crucified with its passions and lusts? And because of the stench of passions, will we undead her so much? Is it for her sins? Is it for resisting God? She needs a rough hair shirt, she needs chains, she needs a stone at the head, she needs boards for her sides, not a bed - that’s what she needs. But he won’t be so raging with passions; he’ll be more subdued, more hands-on, and closer to God. And then he does dirty tricks. If we loved our neighbor as ourselves, we would not make ourselves very spacious, expensive homes and expensive furniture, but would live more cramped and simpler, and would give the extra corner for free or at a low price to our poor neighbor - after all, everyone complains about the lack and high cost of apartments, because many have nowhere to lay their heads. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests [Matt. 8, 20], but these cannot lay their heads anywhere. And it’s all because of your hardness of heart, the rich, because of your love of money: you built houses, and you charge the highest prices for lodging, as they say, out of hand: take it whether you like it or not, knowing that need will force you to take it, especially the wine merchants, who have taken almost all the houses in the city for drinking shops. Is this land yours? The earth, its fulfillment, the universe and all who live on it are not yours [Ps. 23, 1]. You yourself are God’s and you are doing great impudence before God by selling God’s gift for a high price or not wanting to give a corner of your house to a poor person (you need to consult with rich people about this). But this would be a work of mercy, pleasing to the Lord. Love and respect shown to pious people pass on to God Himself, Whom a pious person serves and of Whom he is a living image (portrait), and bring us the peace and blessing of God. So, do not hesitate to love and honor every person, especially the pious, especially the elder. If you honor another, you honor yourself, for we have one nature and we are one spiritual body. The devil stung me, proud, with the contempt of the old wanderer, and I suffered greatly for my wickedness. I repented from my heart, and the Lord forgave me my sin. Do not regret the money given in abundance for any thing you bought, but, considering everything as rubbish - both money and the purchased thing, rest your soul in the Lord God, who constantly cares for us and gives us everything we need for life in abundance and will never leave us. He said: I will not leave the imam to you, but the imam will retreat from you [Heb. 13, 5]. When the enemy presents you with your brother’s sins against God, against the Church or against your neighbors, or specifically against you and incites you to be angry with your neighbor, immediately pray in your heart like this: have mercy on me, Lord, in the person of my brother so-and-so or my sister so-and-so, for we are one spiritual body, and his or her sins are my sins, his or her infirmities are my infirmities. When I prayed in this way in my heart for my brother, against whom, under various pretexts, the devil aroused anger in me and created a scorching fire and oppression in me, my heart became calm and light. The enemy presents countless pretexts for enmity between us every hour, minute, and we must be convinced about them once and for all that these are empty pretexts only - nothing more, that we should not see a bitch in our brother’s eye, that we ourselves are the most sinful of all, that nothing is ours - everything is God’s, and that nothing of substance should be spared for anyone. The enemy begs and begs our heart with unimportant things and distracts our heart from what is most important, occupies us with the transitory and distracts us from the eternal. Understand what is being said. An addiction to material things extremely narrows the horizons of our soul, namely: it is limited only to the material, never extends beyond a chest of money, or a table with your favorite foods and drinks, or an elegant wardrobe, or a gold watch, rich home furniture, a tea or table set and other things, while the horizon of our soul should be endless and ascend more often to the heavenly, eternal villages, to God, to to the holy Angels and to the holy blessed men and to their ineffable eternal glory. Oh, how man is exalted by God and how man humiliates himself! Man is honored with the title 120 of the son of God and is prepared to be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ [Rom. 8, 17], - and he (a pitiful man, and I first) is attached to foolish beasts and is likened to them [Ps. 48, 13]. What is in my brother is also in me; Whatever sins he has, such are mine. Undoubtedly, everything that is bad in any brother is also in me, for everyone has the same sinful nature. The only difference is that he, perhaps, sins openly, and I secretly, or he does not do any good deed, but I, moved by the grace of God and the awareness of my many sins, do it, although I do not always do it with pleasure, complacency, and often with grief in my heart. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [Rom. 3, 23 – 24]. That is why it is said: Judge not, lest ye be judged (yourselves), for with the same judgment ye judge, so shall ye be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye... [Matt. 7, 1–3]. Every sin a neighbor commits not on his own, but according to the teachings of the devil, blinded by it and raped by him. How to fulfill in action the commandments of love for God and neighbor? Here's how: sin constantly increases its reign in our soul and in our flesh, in our thoughts, feelings, desires, intentions, enterprises, words and deeds. If you love God, fight all sin and do not allow it to nest in your heart, for example, anger, pride, envy, stinginess and other passions; Try by all means so that there is only good in you, so that God, and not the devil, reigns in you; Hate sin with all your might, love virtue with all your strength, with all your strength, and you will love God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, as it is written [Deut. 6, 5; Matt. 22, 37, etc.]. How can you fulfill the commandment to love your neighbor? But here’s how: no matter what kind of person you meet in life and anywhere - whether at home, in church, on the street, in someone else’s house - sincerely wish him well, as for yourself, and look at him as at yourself; if you see in him infirmities, sins, vices - take pity on him and pray for him internally, or at home in prayer, or in church, help him in spiritual trouble with a brotherly word of sympathy. If he is good, noble, honest, pious, be sincerely disposed towards him and talk to him kindly and respectfully. In a word, whenever you and whomever you meet, have in your heart the commandment of the Savior: love your neighbor as yourself [Matt. 19, 19]. As you want people to do to you, do so to them [Lk. 6, 31]. I believe in the Holy Church - what do these words suggest? Live in holiness and keep your soul and body pure. What is the motivation? Our head is Christ, and we are His body. On the other hand, do not despise anyone, do not condemn anyone, do not consider anyone bad, for the purification of all is Christ, and everyone stands or falls for his Lord [Rom. 14, 4]. And the heavenly Church, triumphant, having entered into perfect and closest union with the Lord, is all holy, not having any filth or vice [Eph. 5, 27]. So, the Church is holy - let me not dare to think bad things about anyone without reason, and let me not condemn anyone. Yes, I am jealous in every possible way about my holiness. All our sins, the whole abyss of them, are like a web for the Lord God: with one breath He can tear it apart and put the devil to shame, like an insignificant spider. It is not for nothing that the machinations of the enemy are called snares. I walk among many networks. 121 There is no need to despair in the oppression of sin, but we must pray to the all-merciful Savior - and He will save, for He is good and a lover of mankind. We just need to avoid new networks, and if we are careless and inattentive to ourselves, we can get completely bogged down in them. In communion, man is united with God: man is in God, and God exists and abides in man. This is the most obvious proof that man is the breath of God, that is, his soul, that he is the image and likeness of God. Have high respect for every good thought, word and truth expressed by them, for these simple principles are the image of the simplicity of God - the image of God the Father, Who is the infinite Reason or boundless Thought, God the Son, Who is the Co-original Word of the Beginning Father, and God the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Truth or Truth, as the holy Apostle John the Theologian says: The Spirit is truth (1 John. 5, 6). A glutton, accustomed to being undead and pleasing his flesh and soul, does not like any anxiety and gets irritated when he encounters any anxiety; for example, if a baby screams a lot, he gets irritated with him; if one of his subordinates thinks something is wrong, he gets irritated and is ready to beat him. There is no need to love the bliss of our flesh and soul, otherwise our soul is extremely impatient. Look at people as if they were gods, according to the Scripture: Az said: You are naturally gods, and you are all sons of the Most High [Ps. 81, 6], - with such respect and readiness, serve them in whatever way you can; but especially look with respect at people who are simple, humble, devoted to God, and pious. We are deified by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Divine Body both adores you and nourishes you. 122 He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him [Jn. 6, 56]. Sometimes they tempt someone to eat, drink or sip something with these words: eat or drink, because by tomorrow it will go bad, or: otherwise you will have to give up, but these are scraps of money, the money has been paid for, and we are not rich - and others are greedy, even though they are full and happy, and also, like slaves, they eat and drink only because it is a pity to throw away the scraps of money: it is a pity that the tea, the pie, or that something else will spoil. Yes, let something spoil in the pantry, as long as it doesn’t spoil in my stomach - it’s worse if it spoils in my stomach and harms my stomach, rots my stomach, burdens my heart, or somehow angers the Lord. Go away from Me, the curse, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel [Matt. 25, 41]. That there will indeed be eternal fire is guaranteed by: 1) the untruthful words of the Lord: His word is truth, just as the word of the devil is a lie; 2) the fire in which the devil and his angels are already present and with which he scorches all those possessed by passions. Since my youth, the enemy has been tempting me, burning me with sweets. 123 We experience this fire here - what more? What more evidence is there for? But here are only some beginnings. And what will happen there when sinners completely rush into it? Poor people, how the enemy of the human race torments them! In those houses there is enmity and quarrels, fighting, in others there is drunkenness and rioting, there the evil tormentor is love of money and stinginess, and even in one house all together. I sympathize with you, brothers and sisters, in our common misfortune - sin, and I cry with you from this evil tyrant - sin, from this heavy burden, this satanic yoke. The saints, people subservient to us, became citizens of heaven - eternal. Remember this more often, brothers, and imitate them in faith, in hope, in love for the Lord and neighbor and in all your life. This is why we commemorate one of them every day. May you cry for your sins sincerely, and your heart will be easy. A good owner or mistress in the house - everything is good, clean, in order, everywhere you see the work of the mind, everywhere you see the fruit of care. So it is on a steamboat, on a ship, on a ship in general, on which there is a good manager... From these things draw conclusions about the order of the universe... and know that the World Ruler is active in it at every moment. Man came from God and is the image of God, a child of God; what is the means of communication between a person and God and at the same time proof that he is the image of God and, as it were, a friend of God? – Prayer, which is a conversation of the soul with God and a heartfelt union with Him and the life of the soul, its light, its peace. One word, children, by which you call your pupils, is a good teaching by the grace of God, for it teaches them mutual love... just as the prayer Our Father teaches us love. In the morning, a glass of milk at fast time, almond milk at fast time, or a glass of tea with a half-bun; lunch at noon; After lunch until the evening, do not eat or drink anything, and in the evening, drink two glasses of tea and have something to snack on. Never eat or drink again. Help, Master! Instead of tea, there is cabbage soup and porridge at dinner; in the morning a glass of water or milk or almond milk. Don't eat roast potatoes at night, don't drink cream with tea, don't eat black bread, don't eat a roll. Sometimes you don’t need to eat anything at all in the evening. Elder Eutykhios is wise, like an experienced elder and taught by the Holy Spirit; from the very roots he wants to pull out anger against brother Matthew and condemn him. The all-evil enemy is trying in every possible way to lock my heart for the humble elder Eutyches and for his poor people with doubt, suspicion, bitterness, and contempt. The flattery of wealth and homeliness plays a big role and puffs up imperceptibly. Aren’t you a mental beggar yourself? Are you a stranger in the world? Today he’s alive, and tomorrow they say: get back into the earth, don’t burden it. I myself am the first, most disgusting sinner, and I shun others as sinners. I am the worst of all, but I judge others. Why do we often pray for the sovereign and his house, for the Synod, the metropolitan, the entire bishopric, presbytery, deaconry, for all the clergy and people? For the same reason why we often pray for ourselves. Because every minute we need God, every minute everyone is surrounded by invisible or visible enemies, every minute the snares and machinations of the enemy are laid out for everyone, and we ask that the Lord will intercede and save us all. When the enemy becomes boring and kills the soul with despondency, then courage is needed. This is not the last virtue: a lot of generosity and patience are needed so as not to give in to despondency when the enemy, having overcome us in some sin, enters into us and covers our face with shame and humiliation. Our educated youth have their heads weighed down with various secular (and spiritual – false) knowledge, but their hearts are empty, and that’s why it’s a disaster! You will have to tell God about the schoolchildren: Here I am and the children whom the Lord has given me [Isa. 8, 18]. Look, do you raise them well - do you love them like children, do you sincerely call them children? Our flesh is an evil snake, an evil beast, an evil spirit: despise it, a despiser of God’s commandments. Elder Eutyches is truly spirit-bearing. Talking to him, you soon change for the better. Before God, he said about himself that he was like a candle always before God. Not eating meat - the heart becomes rough, the flesh becomes prodigal, and, moreover, proud. In general, a person becomes hard-hearted, not feeling the weight of sins and adding sins to sins. Don’t eat fish with vegetable oil or cabbage soup with vegetable oil – all this is unhealthy. Pies are fornication. The Old Testament story is a photograph of the New Testament story. Teacher of the Law! Conduct yourself in the gymnasium for the glory of God with firmness and importance, as a representative of God and the Church. Write an explanation of the commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Faith. We are all children of the Heavenly Father. Our Father, who is in heaven... [Matt. 6, 9]. But some of us, either because we have given natural existence to our children by the will and creativity of God, or because we spiritually give birth and raise them into spiritual life, are called fathers, and true spiritual fathers are more important, more expensive, more honorable than natural fathers, just as the soul is more important than the body, because they become the culprits of their spiritual rebirth, and enlightenment, and salvation. Calling children children from the heart. Thought, word, heart - so that it is one thing in our speech: we are the image of the Trinity of the same essence. Do not eat what is stale and rotten: it is both sinful and unhealthy, because eating something rotten means taking poison and poisoning yourself. Do not covet or give anything that is rotten to anyone else to eat. Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself [Acts. 15, 29]. And there are people who, out of stinginess and greed, eat rotten food and give it to others to eat. God! May our souls and our bodies always be fresh and healthy. It is especially necessary to observe abstinence in food and drink and eat and drink without greed, with thoughts of God the nourisher and gratitude in the heart. I have nothing against Elder Eutyches; I look at my sins and lament and cry for them. I close my vision to the sins of others. God! Enlighten the dark me. Buy a special [...] book for prayers. The peasant collectors need to be given more, because they are neglected and given little and not allowed, and the monks – less: they are better received and given more. Don't look at faces. You shouldn't eat milk, and you shouldn't eat meat either. Almond milk is good, easy. No cod. Fear, like poison, excesses in food and drink, especially meat; Drink as little milk as possible. Do not eat white crackers, but black bread; Stick to all the black bread: it strengthens the body better and does not clog the stomach. Do not eat lingonberries with sugar or with fish: they become strong and clog; It's better without sugar. Just as leaves draw in oxygen and release nitrogen, so human hair on the head, like leaves, has a function. Therefore, there is no need to braid your hair and put sticky lipsticks on it: it’s harmful. Do not drink champagne and no sweet wines. Without the urge to sleep, do not go to bed, just as you cannot eat without hunger or drink without thirst. Don’t eat Lenten pies with vegetable oil: they clog the stomach and larynx. Pies have long been seen as harmful to the body and heart. Pumpkin porridge is healthy and easy. Do not consume milk raw, but boiled. Do not be tempted by food and drink, which are very pleasantly irritating: they subsequently burden the body the more, the more pleasant they were when eaten. Don’t chase what’s pleasant, but what’s useful. Prefer black bread and plain tea to everything. Sweets sit on the loins through fornication or prodigal fire, prodigal irritation. Tea with a bun is relaxing and relaxing, not strengthening. Wife, don’t caress my flesh—the villain, the scoundrel—with warm blankets. Tea with sugar is useful: it calms. You can see it in my father. But I am scrofulous, and anything hot is quite harmful for me. The pagan life of Christians: literary drunkenness, drunkenness of luxury, lusts and whims, theatrical drunkenness, gambling drunkenness, musical drunkenness, wine drunkenness - there is not only spiritual drunkenness. Drunkenness of clothes. Elder Eutykhios is a God-taught and God-enlightened elder. His words are light, strength, power. Father Archpriest Pavel Vasilyevich Trachevsky is a kind and pious man. Father Matthew too. "A collection of instructive and edifying thoughts." "Spiritual Meadow" Prepare well for class. Lingonberry jam with molasses - good, great. The fight against the passions of the carnal man. The air of my soul changes with the old man. For me, white bread is a delicacy, because I grew up on black bread. If you eat enough, you can’t study: it’s hard. The state of the stomach has an extremely large influence on the mood. If there is any irregularity in my stomach, for example constipation, then I am gloomy, sad, and heavy with myself. Fatty bream with buckwheat porridge is healthy. Why am I irritable and unclean, vile at heart? - From excess in food and drink. Write out “Home Conversation” for 1865. Do not wash in a good, clean cassock, unless necessary. a place not to go, not to pray at home. Do not eat milk, butter, cream, especially meat. The Feast of the Annunciation stichera on Praise, on Glory, and now: “For ever since the ages the sacrament has been revealed today...”, tone 2. Irmos of the 7th song of the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Umet (Church Slavic) – droppings, manure. Epicureanism is a penchant for sensual pleasures, for a pampered life; The philosophical justification for this way of life is a distorted interpretation of the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Titlo (Greek) – honorary title. The prayer of St. John of Damascus “Master, Lover of Mankind, is this bed really for me...” from the sequence of prayers for the future sleep. Poems of Saint Simeon Metaphrastus from the sequence to Holy Communion. Antiphon 1st at Matins, tone 8th. You might be interested in: