О чистоте

Fornication was a sin when the Old Testament reigned; It was a sin, as a dishonor of nature, as an abuse of an important property of nature, as a violation of the laws of nature. The crime was considered so significant that the perpetrator was executed by death. In the New Testament this sin received a new severity because human bodies received a new dignity. They have become members of the body of Christ, and the violator of purity already dishonors Christ, breaks the union with Him, and turns the “bites of Christ” into “bites of harlots” (1 Cor. 6:15). The adulterer is executed by death. The Holy Spirit departs from those who have fallen into the sin of fornication; the one who has sinned is recognized as having fallen into mortal sin, a sin that takes away salvation, a sin that is a guarantee of inevitable death and eternal torment in hell, if this sin is not cured in time by repentance. What is purity? This is a virtue opposite to lust; this is the alienation of the body from actual falling into sin and from all actions leading to sin, the alienation of the mind from the thoughts and dreams of the prodigal, and the heart from the sensations and desires of the prodigal, then the alienation of the body from carnal lust will follow. Some argue that falling into prodigal sin with the body and falling into it with the mind and heart are crimes of equal gravity and significance. They base this opinion on the words of the Savior: “Everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Unfair opinion! This is said in addition to the Old Testament commandment; This was said to those who recognized one bodily fornication as a sin, not understanding that “evil thoughts,” to which fornication thoughts are included, “come from the heart, defile a person” (Matthew 15:19–20), “separation from God” (Wisdom 1:3), and take away purity—the means of seeing God. Delight in lustful thoughts and sensations is fornication of the heart and defilement of a person, making him incapable of communicating with God, and fornication of the body is a change in the entire human being from mixing with another body (1 Cor. 6:16), there is complete alienation from God, there is death, there is destruction. To get out of the first state, you must become sober; in order to emerge from the second, one must be resurrected, one must be born again through repentance. Some argue that it is impossible for a person to be free from the enslavement of the flesh, especially from the thoughts and feelings of prodigal thoughts, that such a state is unnatural. God, who knows what is possible and impossible for us, lays down the law more than we do: and therefore the achievement of purity, both bodily and heartfelt, is possible for a person. God, the Creator of nature, sets the law: and therefore purity of heart is not contrary to human nature. It is unnatural to fallen nature; it was natural to nature after its creation, and can become natural after renewal. It can be cultivated and acquired: bread, vegetables, fruitful trees do not grow on the earth by themselves; but when the earth is properly prepared, and useful plants are planted and sown, then they grow in special abundance for the food and enjoyment of people. Uncultivated land produces only tares, or produces only grass, food for livestock and not for people. A feat is needed: the subject of a feat is worthy of having an intensified and difficult feat undertaken for it by those chosen for the feat. Purity is called holiness in Scripture: “This is the will of God, your holiness,” says the Apostle, “keep yourself from fornication: and lead everyone from you to acquire his vessel for holiness and honor, and not in lustful passions” (1 Thess. 4:3-5). The purity of those living in marriage consists of the spouses being faithful to each other. The purity of virgins and widows who are ignorant of Christ consists in fidelity to Christ. And to them is my wretched, comforting, encouraging, non-lying word - a word borrowed from the teaching of truth: from the All-Holy Word of God, explained by the Holy Fathers, their holy word and experience. When the Lord forbade arbitrary divorce, permitted by the Mosaic Law, and declared that what was united by God could not be dissolved by a person except because of the dissolution that had already taken place by falling into fornication of one half: then the disciples of the Lord raised the question of celibate life. To this the Lord said: “Not all can receive this word, but to them it has been given to eat... He who is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:11-12). Who is this “able to contain”? On what basis should each of us judge and conclude about our ability and inability to live a celibate life? We borrow the answer from the writings of the Holy Fathers: “according to our will.” “The ability is given to those who ask it from God from the sincerity of the heart, says Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria: “Ask,” said the Lord, “and it will be given to you... whatever you ask, he receives” (Matthew 7:7-8)” 364. The sincerity of the request is proven by living in accordance with the request, and by constancy in the request, even if the fulfillment of the request is delayed for a more or less long time, even if our desire is attacked by various temptations. His own exploits, by which the monk strengthens himself to defeat and change the properties of fallen nature, are only witnesses of true will. Victory and change of nature belong to the one God. “Where nature is defeated, says Saint John Climacus, there the coming of the One who is above nature is recognized” 365. God changes the natural attraction in the one who, by all means depending on him, proves his sincere desire for this attraction to change: then the Spirit of God touches the human spirit, which, having felt the touch of the Spirit of God, all, with all thoughts and sensations, rushes to God, having lost sympathy for the objects of carnal desire 366. Then the words of the Apostle come true: “Be cleave to the Lord; you are one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17). Then the body itself is drawn to where the spirit strives. Due to their will, experimentally proven and attested, many who did not know wives remained in this blissful state until the end of their lives, or retained their virginity; others, after married life, retained chaste widowhood; others moved from a depraved life to a chaste and holy life; Finally, some, wavering in their will, returned to him again and regained their lost chastity through repentance. All of them not only refrained from falling into fornication in the body, but also entered into a struggle with passionate thoughts and sensations, resisted them, defeated them, and accepted from God the freedom of purity, which is completely alien to communication with sin, even if it did not cease from attacks. This is how the effect of bad weather on the traveler ceases when he enters a comfortable house, even if the bad weather continues or becomes even more severe. - Beloved brothers, monks! Let us not be faint-hearted and discouraged. Let us not pay attention to the demons who make us mistrust the path we have chosen; Let us not pay attention to human judgments and advice, uttered out of ignorance or depravity and malicious intent: let us believe the Lord our God, who promised to hear us and help us if we remain faithful to Him. Let us testify to this fidelity by constant striving for Him and constant repentance for our deviations from this striving. It is impossible not to be subject to greater or lesser deviations, both because of our weakness, and because of our limitations, and because of the damage to our nature by sin, and because of the cunning of our invisible enemies, and because of temptations that have multiplied to infinity. We won't have to work long! It won't take long to suffer in the fight against yourself! The hour of death will soon come, which will snatch us from the languor of struggle and from the danger of falling into sin. ABOUT! If only at this hour, at the gates of eternity, we would see the arms of the Heavenly Father open to us, and hear His comforting voice: “Well done, good and faithful servant, for my little one you were faithful, I will make you ruler over many: enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:23). Until this hour, we will strive courageously, not trusting our flesh in any way, not trusting our dispassion, neither imaginary nor true. Those who relied on themselves, on the mortification of their flesh, on their dispassion and state of grace, were subjected to terrible temptations. Saint Isaac of Syria said: “He who does not voluntarily remove himself from the causes of sin is drawn into sin against his will.” 367 This rule, relating in general to monastic life, is especially important for those who have entered into a struggle with the property of nature that appeared in them after the fall. It is useful for us not to see at all the fruit that we have renounced eating. For this reason, the rules of the Holy Fathers prohibit the entry of women into male monasteries, which is still observed in the Holy Mount Athos. In the life of Saint John of the Climacus it is said that by living in the desert and eliminating himself from looking at faces, he finally extinguished the flame of lust in himself. All the holy Fathers tried to distance themselves as much as possible from acquaintance and communication with their wives, and this behavior was conveyed to us in their soul-saving, God-inspired writings. The fathers, knowing the ease of man, did not trust either his holiness, or his old age and his inability to sin. Until the end of their lives, they did not cease to move away from the causes of sin: such removal is the most powerful means for victory over sin. When the Monk Sisoes the Great became very outdated, then his disciple, Abba Abraham, suggested that he take up residence closer to the population. To this the ninety-year-old old man answered: “We will place ourselves where there are no wives.” The student objected: “Where is a place in which there would be no wives, except the desert?” The elder said: “Place me in the desert, child” 368. A person’s good will is strengthened away from temptations and receives extraordinary firmness and strength; on the contrary, being brought closer to temptations, it begins to weaken little by little, and finally becomes completely perverted. So the ice gets stronger and stronger in the cold; but, when exposed to heat, it melts and disappears. Brethren! It is appropriate for us to avoid meeting wives, especially close ones, and from frequent meetings and conversations with them. Those who intend to conquer nature! Understand that this victory is impossible if we constantly expose ourselves to the influence of nature and arouse its action in ourselves. The Monk Pimen the Great said to one who was struggling with fornication: “If a monk bridles his belly and tongue, and maintains his wanderings, then he will not die” 369 the spiritual death that befalls everyone who plunges into fornication. By the name of wandering we mean here removal from a distracted life, free circulation, many and short acquaintances, from which carnal lust is kindled. – The Venerable Isaiah the Hermit said that prodigal warfare intensifies from the following five reasons: from idle talk, vanity, much sleep, from decorating oneself with clothes and from satiety 370. Of the reasons for the arousal of fornication, two act with particular force and harm: violation of wandering and satiety. It's hard to decide which one is more harmful! both are disastrous. He who has submitted and enslaved himself to one of them will not be able to resist the struggle against his nature. To achieve purity, both causes must be renounced. Having paid special attention to protecting ourselves from the main reasons that arouse lust, let us not leave the secondary ones without due attention: we will protect ourselves from them too. And a less powerful reason acquires special strength from skill in it, from neglect of it. For example: others fast, live alone and unacquisitively, beg God to curb the lusts of their nature; but at the same time they allow themselves to slander, reproach, condemn their neighbors, mock them - and God’s help retreats from them; they are left to themselves, and do not find the strength to resist the sinful impulses of fallen nature. In a certain hostel there lived a recluse named Timofey. One of the hostel brothers was tempted. The abbot, having learned about this, asked Timothy what to do with his fallen brother? The recluse advised to throw out the seduced one. When he was kicked out, the temptation of his fallen brother passed on to Timothy, and led him into danger. Timothy began to cry out with tears to God for help and mercy. And a voice came to him: “Timothy! know that I sent you temptation precisely because you despised your brother during his temptation” 371. The members of Christ - Christians - must be treated very carefully and prudently: we must sympathize with them in their ailments, and cut off only those who, without giving any hope of recovery, only infect others with their illness. It is very important to preserve the body from falling into fornication: but this alone is not enough for the God-loving purity by which God is seen. We have an indispensable duty to cleanse our very soul from thoughts, dreams and sensations of voluptuousness, as our Savior commanded us. “Just as the body, says the Monk Macarius the Great, when copulating with another body, becomes infected with uncleanness, so the soul, combining with evil and nasty thoughts, and agreeing with them at the same time, becomes corrupted. If anyone corrupts the soul and mind by agreeing with evil, he is guilty of execution. We must keep both the body from visible sin and the soul from obscene thoughts: for she is the bride of Christ 372.” Having removed from ourselves the causes of sin, such as: frequent communication and close acquaintance with the female sex, free circulation and absent-minded life, satiety and enjoyment of food and drinks, luxury and excess in clothing and other cell accessories, condemnation of neighbors, slander, ridicule, idle talk and verbosity, let us decide to renounce the pleasure of voluptuous thoughts, dreams and sensations. Let us not arouse them in ourselves, and we will courageously reject them when they arise from our fallen nature, or are presented as enemies of our salvation - demons. Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem says: “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,” said the Lord, “will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but do the will of My Father” (Matthew 7:21). The will of His Father is this: “You who love the Lord, hate evil” (Ps. 97:10). And so: let us practice the Jesus Christ prayer, and let us hate evil thoughts. In this way let us do the will of God 373. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (2 Cor. 7:1), the Apostle bequeaths to us. The Holy Fathers command to “keep the head... of the serpent” (Gen. 3:14–15), that is, to discern the very beginning of a sinful thought and reject it. This applies to all sinful thoughts, but most of all to the prodigal one, which is promoted by the fallen nature, which, for this reason, has a special influence on us. The Monk Cassian the Roman commands the new monk to immediately confess any sinful thoughts that come to him to the elder 374. This method is excellent; it is the best for a beginner; but even for those who have succeeded, in other cases it is extremely necessary and always useful, as it decisively breaks friendship with sin, to which a sick nature is drawn. Blessed is he who can use this method! blessed is the beginner who has found an elder to whom he can reveal his thoughts! Those monks who do not have the opportunity to constantly relate to the elder, the Fathers command to immediately reject the sinful thought that appears, without ever entering into conversation or debate with him, from which a passion for sin will certainly follow, and to rush to prayer. This method was used with the greatest success and fruit by the Venerable Mary of Egypt, as can be seen from her life 375. “If anyone,” said the Monk Nil of Sora, “with every adversity encountered, and with every thought brought from the enemy, cries out with tears for help to the goodness of God, he will soon feel calm if he prays wisely” 376. “Just as fire tends to destroy brushwood, so pure tears tend to destroy all filth, flesh and spirit,” said Saint John Climacus 377. When we are alone, then, when attacked by prodigal thoughts and dreams, with an unusual liquefaction of the body, we should fall on our knees and face before the holy icons, imitating the work of the great Mary of Egypt, and with tears or crying beg God for mercy. Experiments will not slow down to prove the closeness of God to us and His power over our nature: this will give us living faith, and living faith will inspire us with extraordinary strength, and will give us constant victories. We will not be surprised if, after a long struggle, followed by an equally long calm, leading to the thought of killing poison and the death of fornication in nature, fierce warfare arises again, and obscene desires and movements revive in the body 378. Our enemy is shameless; he does not stop directing his arrows against the greatest Saints of God: experiences have proven to him that an attempt is sometimes successful, overthrowing and crushing even the vessels of the Spirit, as was the case with the Spirit-Bearer, who was walking in the evening on the roof of his royal house (2 Samuel 11:2). Our flesh is an unfaithful friend: it lusts after other flesh not only according to its own impulse, but also according to an alien impulse, according to the impulse of a fallen spirit, which finds pleasure for itself in the defilements of flesh that does not belong to it. Suddenly her obscene, arrogant, intense demand appears! For this reason, the Venerable Pimen the Great said: “As the king’s armor-bearer he must always be ready: so the soul must always be ready against the prodigal demon” 379. We can only marvel at the life and work of the ancient monks in many respects, but not imitate them; we can only contemplate them as God’s miracle, and glorify God in connection with them, who gave incomprehensible strength and holiness to weak man. Such actions include the method of struggle that successful monks of the first centuries of monasticism used against lustful thoughts and dreams. They initially did not resist the thought, but allowed it to be somewhat influenced, as they put it, “to enter,” and then they fought against it. – The Venerable Pimen the Great, before he reached perfection, tried to be edified by the advice and instructions of the holy elders of his time. He also turned for advice to Abba Joseph, who was silent in Panethos. One day Pimen asked the Abba: “What should I do when lust comes to me? Should we resist them or allow them to enter?” “The elder answered: “Allow me to enter and fight them.” Having received such an answer, Pimen returned to Skete, where he remained silent. After this, a certain monk from Thebaid happened to come to Skete; He told his brothers: “I asked Abba Joseph: if lusts come to me, should I resist them or allow them to enter?” And he said: “Do not allow lusts to enter, but cut them off immediately.” Abba Pimen, having heard that Father Joseph had said this to the Thebaid monk, went again to him in Panethos and said: “Abba! I did not hide my thoughts from you, but you told me one thing, and another to the Thebaid monk.” The elder answered him: “Don’t you know that I love you?” “I know,” answered Pimen. “Wasn’t it you,” the elder continued, who told me to tell you what I would say to myself? When lusts come to you, and you allow them to enter, and then fight them, then through this you become more skillful. I told this to you as to myself. But when the lusts of the beginners come, it is not good for them to let them in; they must immediately reject them from themselves” 380. From the answers of Pimen the Great himself, when he had already become a mentor of monastics, due to a similar circumstance, it is clear that the admission of lustful thoughts into oneself was forbidden to monks who sympathized with passion, but was allowed to those who lived in heaven 381. The existence of this work is explained by the sublime spiritual success of monasticism in general at that time: it is obvious that such a feat requires a state of dispassion. By the later Fathers, this activity, as very dangerous, and probably due to unfortunate experiences, was prohibited for all monks in general. “Do not allow,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “your mind to be tempted by lustful thoughts or the dreams of persons who have influence over you, believing that you will not be overcome by them; because in this way the wise were darkened and were ridiculed” 382. We need to adhere to this instruction. From the biographies of the holy saints of God, we see that some of them endured a very strong and prolonged struggle with prodigal thoughts and sensations, moving from a passionate to a dispassionate state. This was subjected to not only such ascetics who had previously led a depraved life, such as the Venerable Moses Murin and Mary of Egypt, but also virgins, such as Simeon the Fool for Christ, John the Long-Suffering Pechersk and others. The ferocity of the struggle elevated them to intensified, supernatural feats. And since the gift of Divine grace is always consistent and proportionate to the preceding sorrow and labor, the mentioned saints were awarded, according to the extraordinary feat and the ferocity of the battle they endured, extraordinary gifts of grace. And their struggle and feat were special events in asceticism: they cannot fully serve as a guide for all ascetics. One can and should imitate, if possible, the power of will, determination, faith, and self-sacrifice of these saints of God; but their very feat remains inimitable. In general, it is recognized by the most judicious Fathers that, when fighting the lusts of nature, abstinence from food and other bodily exploits must be prudent and moderate, that carnal lust is only curbed by these exploits, that it is overcome by humility and prayerful crying, attracting Divine grace to the ascetic, that intensified bodily exploits are more harmful than useful when they, excessively weakening the bodily forces prevent you from engaging in prayer, crying and acts of humility. In the Fatherland the following story is read: “a certain pious husband in Egypt left his wife and children, renounced the world, and retired into the desert. A strong attack arose against him from the prodigal demon, who brought him the memory of his wife. He confessed this to the Fathers. They, seeing that he was an ascetic and fulfilled everything commanded to him, entrusted him with a special feat, borrowing it from various biographies of the Holy Fathers. From this feat he became so weak that he went to bed. By God's will, an old man from Skete came there. In the Egyptian Skete - that was the name of the barren and wild desert, located not far from Alexandria - lived monastic monks, especially those who were abundant in grace-filled gifts and the gift of spiritual reasoning. The wanderer visited the sick man and asked him: Abba! why are you sick? He answered: I am one of the married people, I recently came to this desert, and the enemy brought abuse against me regarding my wife. I confessed this to the Fathers. They assigned me various feats, borrowing them from the lives of the Holy Fathers. When I began to fulfill them, I became exhausted, and the warfare increased greatly in my body. The skete elder, hearing this, was saddened and said to him: The fathers, being strong, rightly commanded you to do this. But, if you want, listen to my humility, and, leaving the performance of these feats, take a moderate amount of food in due time, perform a moderate rule and cast all your sorrow on the Lord: He will defeat the enemy who fights you. You cannot achieve victory in this battle by your own feat. “The bereaved brother began to behave according to the advice of the skete elder: after a few days he felt relief from his illness, and the abuse receded from him” 383. The monk of Skete, Venerable Agathon, known for his special gift of spiritual reasoning, was asked about fornication. He answered the questioner: “Go, cast your strength into dust before God, and you will find peace” 384. Other great Fathers gave similar answers on this subject. Quite right and true! if only God can change nature, then the awareness of the damage caused in nature by original sin, and the humble prayer for healing and renewal of nature by its Creator, is the strongest, most effective weapon in the fight against nature. This weapon is weakened by self-reliance, which is caused by excessive and disproportionate bodily feat. The Monk Cassian the Roman notes that “the passion of lust necessarily fights the soul until the soul recognizes that this struggle is beyond its strength, until it realizes that it is impossible for it to gain victory through its own labor and effort, unless there is help and protection from the Lord” 385. This holy Father spent considerable time among the monastery Fathers and was imbued with their teaching. When talking about purity, we find it essential to address with a wretched word the ignorance of our time, which is so proud of knowledge, and to give a helping hand to those who are drowning and languishing in confusion, despondency and sadness because of their ignorance. Quite a lot of people who want to lead a godly life are completely bewildered when thoughts and feelings of carnal lust arise in them. They look at this as something strange, something that should not exist, they become mentally relaxed and upset from this, and often decide to leave a God-pleasing life, recognizing themselves as incapable of it. The most erroneous view of yourself! Our nature is in a state of decline. In a state of fall, carnal lusts are natural to him, and cannot help but arise from him. And one should not be surprised or bewildered when thoughts, dreams, and feelings of lust appear: this is a natural necessity. Every person is subordinate to her; All holy men were subordinate to her. This is not enough. In order to succeed in spiritual life, it is absolutely necessary that our passions arise and thus be revealed 386. When passions are revealed in an ascetic, then he enters into a struggle with them. He who enters into the struggle and fights courageously can gain victory and be crowned with the crown of victory, the Holy Spirit. We invite our beloved brethren to carefully consider the biographies and writings of the Holy Fathers: we will see that all the saints of God were subjected to torture and the labor of this struggle, went through the fire of passions and the water of tears, and ascended into the peace of dispassion. The Monk Abba Dorotheos, upon entering the monastery, was very tempted by carnal lusts, and in this struggle he resorted to the advice and instructions of the Monk Barsanuphius the Great 387. The Great Father's answers contain excellent guidance for courageous resistance to the insane and corrupt demands of fallen nature. In one of these answers, the Monk Barsanuphius says about himself that he was tormented by prodigal passion for five years. “The warfare raised by the flesh,” he said, is abolished by prayer with crying” 388. The Monk Anthony the Great, as it is related in his life, was intensely overcome by lustful thoughts and dreams. Many of the saints, already after they were renewed by the Holy Spirit and upon achieving blissful dispassion in the refuge, were suddenly subjected to obscene impulses and attractions of nature, the invasion of unclean thoughts and dreams, as happened with the Monks Macarius of Alexandria, Joannicius the Great and others. That is why the Holy Fathers said that one can trust one’s flesh only when it lies in the grave 389. This is why we enter a monastery in order to discover the secretly living passions within ourselves and the relationship of our nature to the spirits of evil to which it has arbitrarily enslaved. For this purpose, we break ties with the world, leave the society of people, relatives, property, in order to see our internal bonds and break them by the right hand of the Lord 390. The second does not take place unless the first is accomplished first. Then only we can come to humility of spirit when we see in ourselves the fall of humanity, its captivity, the cruel domination of demons and eternal death over us; only then can we cry out to God in prayer and weeping from the depths of our hearts, with all our souls, and with such a cry, such a consciousness of our destruction and helpless weakness, attract Divine grace to help us. For this reason, the rising battles within ourselves contribute to our spiritual success if we fight courageously and do not succumb to cowardice. The Monk Abba Dorotheos relates that a disciple of a certain great elder was subjected to carnal warfare. The elder, seeing his work, said to him: Do you want me to pray to God to make your struggle easier? - The student answered: My Father! although I work, I see in myself the fruit of labor: it is better to pray to God that He will give me patience in battle. “Such is the one who truly wants to be saved!” - exclaims the Monk Dorotheos at the end of the story 391. The Monk Pimen the Great spoke about the great Saint of God, John Kolov, for the edification and consolation of his brothers, that he begged God and was delivered from the effects of lusts, which is why he remained in inviolable peace. Then he went to a certain elder, very experienced in spiritual life, and told him what had happened to him. The elder answered: “Go, pray to God that the battles and that contrition and humility that you previously had because of the battles will return to you: because through them the soul comes to prosperity” 392. Let us not indulge in confusion, despondency, cowardice, and relaxation when fierce waves of lust arise within us and thoughts attack us like strong winds! Let us resist sin: through this struggle we will develop a living faith in God and a living knowledge of God. We harm ourselves a lot and often by demanding from ourselves things that are unusual for us. Thus: those who have barely entered into the feat, soaked, so to speak, and filled with lust, want to have no sympathy for thoughts, dreams and carnal sensations. It exists; it is natural; it cannot help but be. It is reckless to seek the impossible. Lust must necessarily arise from a nature infected by it; but as soon as it arises in any form, we must immediately, with self-force, counteract it using the above methods. We must, in opposition to the strong will of our entire nature, through the action of the weak will of one mind (Rom. 7:23), guided by the Word of God, break out of our captivity, from our decay, from our fallen nature. “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need,” the Lord told them, and only those who force themselves, overcoming their sinful will, “take it away” (Matthew 11:12). When the grace of God begins to clearly help us, the first sign of its assistance is a “non-compromising thought,” as St. John Climacus says, 393 that is, little by little there appears in the mind a lack of sympathy for prodigal thoughts and dreams, instead of the previous sympathy, from which infatuation and victory arose in any case when no special effort was used for resistance. Virgins, that is, those who have not tasted spiritual death by actually falling into fornication! keep your virginity like a precious treasure: with correct monastic life, you will not be slow to feel what the Holy Fathers call the spiritual action 394, or the action of the Holy Spirit on the soul, an action that is communicated by the soul to the body, and experimentally confirms to us that our bodies were created for spiritual pleasure, that they descended to sympathy for bestial pleasures due to the fall, that they can return to sympathy for spiritual pleasures through true repentance. Alas! even knowledge about the existence of the human body’s ability to sense spiritual things has been lost by people who trumpet their knowledge. The announcement of this ability is listened to with distrust, as a new and strange teaching. It’s not new, and it’s not strange! Consider the Scriptures of the Holy Fathers: you will find this teaching in them. Having become acquainted with it briefly, you will find it in the Holy Scriptures. The redemption given to humanity by God is filled with ineffable, essential benefits and is evidenced by them; but we, being content with superficial knowledge of the letter, do not want to acquire experienced knowledge, which requires crucifixion (Gal. 5:24), and therefore we deprive ourselves of living knowledge. The feeling of the heart, which has partaken of spiritual pleasure, changes. Such a heart begins to have an aversion to voluptuousness, jealously resist its attractions and suggestions, and cry out to God with tears for deliverance from this stinking mire. Brought by God's providence to the state of widowhood, willing or required to bear the yoke of this state! Don’t stop running to God with warm and humble prayer, and He will give you victory over both your nature and your skill, which has strengthened and supported the power and right of nature. Do not renounce to endure the short-term sorrow of struggling with yourself: this sorrow means nothing compared to the consolation that comes from victory; This sorrow means nothing compared to the feeling of freedom that appears in the soul after victory. Those who are in the abyss of adultery and depravity! Hear the voice calling you to repentance, and accept from the almighty physician, God, the almighty medicine of repentance offered by Him. This medicine has already been tested. It has made adulterers models of chastity, and the depraved saints and righteous. It transformed the vessels of the devil into vessels of the Holy Spirit, and many repentant sinners left far behind them in the field of spiritual success ascetics who had not known mortal sin. The dignity of every Christian is the Redeemer, and that person is superior to others in dignity who has more essentially assimilated the Redeemer. Many Holy Fathers, who lived a virgin life, called themselves filthy and adulterers; that's not enough! Some of them, being slandered for the sin of prodigal sin, did not bring any justification, although it was very convenient for them, and subjected themselves to punishment and sorrow, as if they were truly guilty. Such behavior, with a superficial glance at it, may seem strange: it is explained by the property of the feat by which holy purity is developed. This feat so clearly reveals the fall of nature, so tangibly proves to the ascetic his inevitable submission to the demands of fallen nature, if the right hand of God had not snatched him from the realm of nature, that he cannot help but recognize himself as an adulterer. His purity is the work of God in him, and is by no means a property of nature and not the fruit of his efforts. The duration of the feat has a significant impact on the formation and assimilation of such a concept about oneself. It can be said with certainty that the Saints of God admit that they are defiled by fornication incomparably more than those who, living a carnal life, constantly drown in fornication. From such a self-view, Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, a husband filled with the Holy Spirit, uttered the following saying about himself: “I have not known a wife, and I am not a virgin” 395. What a deep feeling of crying can be heard from this saying! May the infinite mercy of God grant us to approach the holy purity of the Saints of God and their holy humility. Amen. Explanation of the above words of the 19th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Saint Isaac of Syria, Words 43 and 38. Word 57. The same teaching is read in Word 56. Sayings of the Reverend, placed after his spiritual and moral Words. Moscow, ed. 1860. Hon. tales of Abba Pimen, ch. 70. Reverend Cassian. Book 4. On decrees for those who deny the world, ch. 37. Venerable Macarius the Great. Word 5, ch. 14. Alphabetical Patericon and Ven. legends about Abba Joseph of Panethos, ch. 3. In the same place about Abba Pimen, ch. 62. Book VI on the spirit of fornication, ch. 5. Venerable Abba Dorotheos, Teaching 13. Venerable Isaiah the Hermit. Word 27, ch. 2. Venerable Macarius the Great. Conversation 21. Lesson 13: Enduring temptation. Alphabetical Patericon and Memorable tales about John Kolov, ch. 12. Word 15, ch. 9, translated by Paisius Nyametsky. See Monk Theophan the Ladder, Dobrot., part 1. Also the chapters of St. Gregory of Sinaite, the tradition of St. Nile of Sora, and the writings of many other holy Fathers. Venerable Cassian the Roman, book VI on the spirit of fornication, ch. 19. You might be interested in: