Слово о скончавшихся отцах

My heart hurts; be compassionate also, brethren, blessed servants; come, listen; my soul is sick; my insides hurt. Where can I get tears, where can I get contrition, so that I can wash my body with tears and sighs? Who will take me to an uninhabited place, where there will be no noise to interrupt tears and anxiety to prevent crying? There, raising my voice, I would weep bitter tears before God and say with sighs: “Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed” (Jer. 17:14), because my heart hurts beyond measure, and its sighs do not allow me to rest for a moment! I see, O Lord, that You take Your saints, like chosen gold, from the vain world into the rest of life. Just as a smart farmer, when he sees well-ripened fruits, hastens to gather them with forethought, so that they are not damaged by any unfavorable blows to them, so You, the Savior Himself, gather the elect who work righteously. But we, lazy, weak-willed, remain in our bitterness, and our fruit always remains unripe, because we do not have the determination so that it ripens in good deeds and is righteously gathered into the granary of life. For our fetus there are no tears that would bring it to maturity; there is no contrition for him to flourish from the breath of tears; there is no humility that would bring him into the great heat; there is no non-acquisitiveness, so that nothing resistant does not burden (weigh down) him; there is no love of God - this strong root that supports the fruit; there is no carelessness about earthly things, no vigil, no wakeful mind sober in prayer. Instead of these beautiful and good virtues, we have the opposite of them: there is terrible anger and irritability, with which the beaten fruit becomes useless; there is a covetousness that presses him down; there is great despondency. Will all these disadvantages allow him to mature as he should, so that he will be fit for his Lord, the Heavenly Farmer? “Alas, alas for me!” - say your soul, and cry, having lost so quickly your perfect fathers and righteous ascetics. Where are our fathers? Where are the saints? Where are the awake? Where are the sober people? Where are the humble? Where are the meek? Where are the silent ones? Where are the abstinents? Where are the reverent ones? Where are the non-covetous? Where are the contrite in heart, pleasing to God, who stood before God in pure prayer, like the Angels of God, who almost wet the earth with sweet tears and contrition? Where are the lovers of God, filled with the love of God? They did not acquire anything perishable on earth, but, constantly taking up their cross (patiently enduring insults, illnesses and sorrows), they followed Christ, reliably walking the narrow path and carefully being careful not to fall from the rapids in the impassable, waterless and darkened desert (gloomy), but on the direct path of the truth of God’s commandments, always filled with the illumination of Christ’s commandments, they passed through the beautiful life and fervently served God, voluntarily enduring sorrows in a vain world. Therefore, God, having loved them greatly, gathered them into the haven of life and into eternal joy, so that they would rejoice there, there they would enjoy the greatest joy with the Immortal Bridegroom in the paradise of sweetness, in the heavenly palace. They moved from here to the holy God, having their lamps ready. Now we don’t have their virtue; We don’t have their asceticism; Now we don’t have their abstinence; Now we don’t have their reverence; Now we don’t have their meekness; Now we don’t have their non-covetousness; Now we don’t have their vigilance; We have no love for God; Now we have no mercy of Christ; We have no compassion in our members. But we are all fierce, cruel, and do not tolerate each other at all. Our tongue is like flaming arrows, with which we strike each other hourly. We all strive for honor, we are all lovers of glory, we are all covetous, we are all relaxed, we are all sleepy, we are all not straightforward, we are strong in idle talk, we are lazy in prayer; hunters of jokes and weak for silence, ready to indulge in luxury, but sad in abstinence; cold in love, hot in anger; lazy for good, diligent for evil. Therefore, who will not shed tears, who will not cry over our state, brought to complete relaxation? The fathers who lived before us, who were useful to the Lord and saved themselves, were not so weak. They, being perfect, did not have two thoughts, but one thought, how to be saved. They were a wonderful mirror for all spectators. One of them could plead with God for many people, and two were able to appear before God in holy prayers and righteously appease the philanthropic God even for thousands of people. Alas, alas for me, soul! What times we live in! Woe is me, my beloved! What an abyss of evil we have entered today! We don't know this because we don't want to know. Since our spiritual eye is not sober due to great blindness and absent-mindedness, we are therefore unable to comprehend the upcoming sorrow. Now the venerables and saints are being chosen and brought into the haven of life, so that they will not see the sorrows and temptations that befall us for our sins. They are elected, and we are dozing; they are delighted, and we are dragged along in a vain world; they join a single assembly, and we sleep; they boldly go to God, but we on earth indulge in absent-mindedness. The coming of the Lord is already at our door, but we hesitate. The heavenly trumpet is ready to sound, according to God’s command, and shake everything with a terrifying sound in order to awaken the dead, and so that everyone receives what is worthy of their deeds; The Heavenly Powers stand ready in their ranks to appear with fear before the Bridegroom, coming in glory on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead, but we do not believe. What will happen to us at this hour, brothers? How can we justify ourselves before God in our negligence about our salvation? If now we don’t try and cry without shame, bringing beautiful repentance with spiritual humility and great meekness, then how will everyone shed tears in grief? Then each of us, repenting, will say with bitter tears: “Woe is me, a sinner! What suddenly happened? How did my life, filled with weaknesses, go? I don’t know at all how time was stolen from me, who was absent-minded? Where are those quiet days that I spent in distraction, instead of repenting in sackcloth and ashes? And he will not receive any benefit from many words. And when he sees the saints soaring with glory in the light, on the clouds of air, to meet Christ, the King of glory, and sees himself in great sorrow, then who will endure this shame and terrible disgrace? Let us be sober, brothers; Let us be sober, beloved; Let us be sober, lovers of God, beloved children of God the Father! Let's go into ourselves and collect, at least a little, our thoughts, distracting ourselves from the hustle and bustle of life! Let us fall to God with many tears. Without shame, let us diligently beg Him to deliver us from unquenchable fire and bitter torment. Let us not separate ourselves from Him, the sweetest Master, who loved us and gave Himself to the cross for us! I ask you all, I beg you all, unworthy and sinful: and for me, the paralytic, shed tears in your prayer and in pure supplication, so that I too may come into contrition and weep with you, so that the blindness of my heart may be somewhat enlightened and to seek for me the holy God the Savior - may He grant me perfect readiness to diligently repent, while it is still time to accept tears, and may I be saved with you, brothers, and I, unworthy of life. I ask you, beloved, accept the prayer of sinful Ephraim, your paralytic brother. And we will all try to make holy God merciful while we have time. For behold, the Lord stands at the door to bring about the end of the vanity of the age. You might be interested in: