РОСА ПРОГНАНИЯ ЛУКАВЫХ ДУХОВ

Rejoice, thou who destroyest the inhuman tormentor from the authorities! (Akathist, ikos 5) From the Lithuanian country, from the outskirts of the city of Minsk, a man named Demyan, who had an evil spirit tormenting him, having heard about the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Elias Monastery and about the quick healings that happened with it, set off on a journey, carrying with him his misfortune, the evil tormentor. When he was already close, in front of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos Yeletskaya, standing between Chernigov and the Ilyinsky Monastery (at that time that Yeletskaya Church was empty and there was no one living near it), the devil began to torment him fiercely, roll him on the ground, so that he emitted foam. It happened that the monks took the same route from the city to the monastery. Seeing such torment, they took pity on him and, lifting him up, led him to the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Elias Monastery. And as soon as they brought him into the church, at that very hour the evil spirit left him. He became healthy by the grace of the Mother of God and served for a long time in that monastery. “You do not know what kind of spirit you are,” - it was once said to the disciples of Christ (Luke 9:55). If someone wanted to take a closer look at the various spirits of different people of these times - the spirit of pride, the spirit of untruth, the spirit of wickedness, the spirit of enmity, the spirit of zeal, the spirit of rage, the spirit of hatred - what would he say? Only this: “You don’t know what kind of spirit you are.” For each one breathes with his own spirit, and not as before, when everyone breathed with one spirit, living in love, unanimous and like-minded. Nowadays they are “annoying one another, envying one another”, multi-souled (Gal. 5:26). Some people are so careless about their souls, as if they have not one, but many souls, and having destroyed one, they keep another in reserve, and a tenth. He deserves to be called soulless, for he does not preserve his soul for eternal life, he has many spirits of malice in his heart, so that the word of David may come true: “His heart spoke lies, he stored up iniquity in himself” (Ps. 40:7). But who will drive away the lawless spirits from us? She upon whom the Holy Spirit descended and upon whom the power of the Most High overshadowed - if only we resort to Her with a contrite and humble spirit. Saul was once tormented by a demon: the Spirit of the Lord departed, and the evil spirit oppressed him. What then do his servants do? They are looking for David with the harp. And so, when the unclean spirit was in Saul, “then David took the harp and played, and Saul felt happier and better, and the evil spirit departed from him” (1 Samuel 16:23). Where did those harps have such power that they were able to drive away from a person the evil spirit with one movement of the strings, which hardly anyone can drive out with diligent prayer, great fasting and undoubted faith? Consequently, they foreshadowed the Virgin Mary, for this is how the Church reads to Her: “Rejoice, God-inspired Godfather of David” (Akathist to the Dormition of the Theotokos, ikos 5). That is why the harps drove away the evil spirit, because in them there was an image of the Mother of the Lord, and Her prayers were like strings: when they shout before God, all the evil spirits immediately run away, like dust blown by the wind. Let us appeal to Her in prayer, so that she may drive the enemy away from us, so that she may beseech God to “renew the right spirit” within us (Ps. 50:12). The prayer book is warm! Do not cease to pray for Your servants! Not only before Saul, but also before God, David sang with the harp, for he says: “I will sing to Thee with the harp, O Holy One of Israel” (Ps. 70:22). He sang before Saul to drive away the evil spirit. Sang before God to attract the good Spirit. “My lips,” he says, “I have opened and drawn into myself the Spirit. Your good Spirit will lead me into the land of righteousness” (Ps. 119:131, 142:10). But with what harp did David sing before God? I think that not in material things, but in spiritual ones, that is, in God’s institutions, preserving them: “I will keep Your statutes; do not forsake me completely” (Ps. 119:8). God's commandments can indeed be called harps, for as in the harp: if at least one string is not tuned, all the harps will emit a discordant song, so in the commandments of God: if even one is not fulfilled, all of them will be counted as nothing. “Whoever sins in one thing,” says the Apostle James, “he becomes guilty of everything” (James 2:10). And we, when we want to drive away evil spirits from ourselves and attract the good Spirit, let us accept the harp - God’s commandments - and keep them all. If we do not preserve everything, then our song will not be pleasing to God. David says that “it is good to confess the Lord and sing to His name on the ten-stringed psalter, with singing on the harp” (Ps. 91:2, 4). By the ten-stringed psalter, teachers understand God's ten commandments. When someone sings to all these strings, that is, when he fulfills all the commandments, then his confession is good. The Lord in the Gospel remembers a woman who had lost one drachma out of ten - how he diligently searches for her: he lights a lamp and sweeps out the church, “and searches carefully until he finds it, and having found it, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them: rejoice with me: I have found the lost drachma” (Luke 15:8-9). And what does it mean that he rejoices so much about the acquisition of the tenth drachma? Not without difficulty, I think, she acquired the first, and the second, and the third drachma, and others, but she is not so happy about any of them. Only when she has found her lost one does she call her friends and neighbors to rejoice over her. Saint Gregory teaches that the tenth drachma marks God's tenth commandment. The woman did not yet rejoice when she received the first, and the second, and the third drachma, but she rejoiced over the tenth, showing that a person has nothing to rejoice about, having kept one commandment of the Lord, or another, but only then will he truly rejoice when he completes the tenth, when he fulfills all the commandments of the Lord in deed. “Then,” says David, “I would not be ashamed, considering all Your commandments” (Ps. 119:6). For the transgression of even a small commandment, God will execute not only the evil, but also the good, if not in the future, then in the present century, for with Him there is no small virtue without reward, and a small sin without punishment. The Judge is righteous and rewards everyone according to his deeds. A sinner is rewarded with good for little truth. The small sin of the righteous is punished by death. Saint Athanasius told about a certain father, a virtuous hermit, shining with signs and wonders. This father's disciple, out of necessity, was sent to a city where someone lived - rich, evil and merciless, not fearing God. When the disciple entered the city, he saw: the rich man had died and was being escorted to the coffin with candles and incense, presbyters and deacons and a multitude of people singing, “With the saints, rest O Christ, the soul of His servant...” The disciple marveled at the great honor with which he was buried as if he were a saint. Having done the commanded work, the disciple went back to the desert. When he approached the elder’s cell, he found his holy and honest father in front of the cell’s door, eaten by a beast. And he began to weep bitterly and sob for the old man, falling on his remains and killing himself. In grief, his soul cried out to God: “Lord, how did that evil rich man die and was buried with glory and honor, and this spiritual old man, who spent so many years in fasting labors, prayers and tears, died a bitter and dishonorable death, eaten by a beast? Our deserted labor is in vain, our cramped life is in vain, our renunciation is in vain, if worldly people, living freely and in every joy, are awarded a better end than we, the poor!” While he was crying like that, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “Why do you regret the old man and cry for your teacher? In his entire evil life, the rich man had only one small good deed and for it he accepted a reward on earth - an honest burial, but there, finally condemned, he goes to Gehenna. Your father and honest teacher, adorned with all sorts of virtues, pleased God in all his life, but as a man he had some small sin. That is why God allowed him to die a cruel death from the beast, executing him here - yes, very purified, he goes from this life to appear before the throne of the Lord with the holy martyrs in great honor and glory, as a martyr and courageous sufferer.” Having said this, the Angel became invisible. The disciple was comforted by accepting the news about the elder that he would stand before the throne of the Lord, and, having buried his venerable relics, he lived in that place for many years in all virtue, until his blessed death. “The Lord is righteous, and there is no unrighteousness in Him, but His destiny is a great abyss” (Ps. 91:16, 35:7). You might be interested in: