Послание к братии Сергиевой Пустыни из Николо-Бабаевского монастыря

Dearest Fathers and Brothers! Thank you for your remembrance of me, a sinner, for your love for me. May the blessing of God rest upon you and upon all those who cross the sea of ​​life with the goal of salvation, with the goal of reaching the Divine harbour. Whoever looks solely at the benefits, advantages, pleasures of the transitory world, I have no word for him. During my journey from the Sergius Hermitage, through Moscow, to the Babaevsky Monastery, I visited many monastic monasteries and saw in experience what the Holy Fathers describe in their Divinely inspired books. I saw that in every place: both in the solitary desert and among the noisy crowds - those Christians who delve into the Word of God and try to implement it with their lives, fill their minds and hearts with parting words to a blessed eternity. On the contrary, those who neglect to exercise in the Word of God, to fulfill God’s holy commandments, remain in the sad darkness of sin, in captivity to sin, in complete sterility, despite the fact that they live in the deep desert. Desert living, not combined with spiritual pursuits, nourishes, makes you fat, and intensifies sinful passions 11 . This is how the Holy Fathers instruct us; this is how it really is. The Word of God is an eternal life: whoever feeds on it “will live forever” (John 6:51). Wherever a person feeds on the Word of God, whether in the desert or in the midst of a crowd, everywhere the Word of God retains its holy property: the property of eternal life. Therefore, no place prevents this eternal life from imparting spiritual life, the one true life, to those who partake of it. While staying with you, I always reminded you, exhorted you to engage in the Word of God: it can give our noisy monastery the dignity of a solitary monastery: it can build a spiritual fence around our monastery, which does not have a material fence. This spiritual fence will be stronger and higher than any fence built of bricks and stones; no vice will penetrate into our monastery, no virtue will be lost from it. Being away, I can’t find anything better than to repeat to you in writing what I said with my lips. Brethren! Do not spend your life in empty pursuits; Do not waste this short earthly life, given to us for eternal gains. She will run, rush by and not return; its loss is unrewarded; Those who spend it in vanities and games deprive themselves of the blissful eternity prepared for us by God. Use it to study the will of God, good and perfect, as set forth in the Holy and Holy Scriptures. “For me to write to you,” said the holy Apostle, “is not lazy for me, but for you it is firm” (Phil. 3:1). When the merciful Lord, having granted me some improvement in my bodily health, returns me to your blessed society and makes me worthy to see your faces like the faces of the holy Angels: and then my word to you will be the same as it was before. And first I admonished you, so that while you endure the refuge given to us by God, you should seek peace of mind in the Word of God, not being carried away by vain thoughts and dreams, which promise to give peace and take it away. “The part of a fool is small in his eyes,” 12 said the great Isaac. On the contrary, in a soul that accepts the gifts of God with gratitude, the value of these gifts increases. This is what I say about our refuge, the Sergius Hermitage. Thanking God for this pier can make the pier quiet and pleasant; confused looks of murmur and discontent convey their dullness, their gloominess to that for which, in all fairness, one should thank and glorify God. A tree, transplanted from place to place, wastes its strength, even if it was strong by nature, and is deprived of the opportunity to bear fruit. “In our patience” our Divine Teacher commanded us to “gain our souls” (Luke 21:19). He declared that those who create fruit “do it with patience” (Luke 8:15). He proclaimed: “he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13); “Whoever hesitates,” He finally announced, “My soul is not pleased with him” (Heb. 10:38). I am immersed in the contemplation of Christ’s field. How many seeds have been sown on it, how many ears have grown! How beautifully they turn green, make a comforting and delightful noise, stirred by the wind. The time of maturity, the time of harvest, is coming for these ears of corn; they leave the field in which they were born and raised, gather at the threshing floor, dry, thresh, and winnow. This is exactly how our life is. How many different revolutions are needed for a person to see all the vanity of the world, all its insignificance, and finally reach, like a threshing floor, the depths of the holy monastery. The heavy, fruitful grain, no matter how it is winnowed, always falls on the threshing floor, and the tares and grains, powerless, empty, light, are carried away from the threshing floor by the wind; at first they appear as a cloud, something meaningful; then they thin out, thin out, get lost from sight, disappear. The sorrows encountered in society cannot be an excuse for cowardice. A sorrowless life and place on earth is an impossible dream sought by minds and hearts that are alien to Divine enlightenment and deceived by demons. We are commanded to seek spiritual peace by mutually bearing infirmities. It is not by changes of place, born solely from the condemnation of one’s neighbors, that the law of Christ is fulfilled. No! “Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). He who madly seeks a place without sorrow runs away from the fulfillment of the law of Christ. A sorrowless place and life is in heaven: from there “all sorrow and sighing will flee” (Is. 35:10). The earth is a place of sighing, and blessed are those who sigh on it: they will be comforted in heaven. A place and life without sorrow - when the heart acquires humility, and through humility enters into patience. The Word of God teaches us all this, everything that is good and saving. And therefore the Lord Himself commands, all the Prophets and Apostles, all the Holy Fathers exhort, command, beg to constantly abide in the Word of God, which is the source of all good things, which is life, which is light on earth, in this vale of mourning, famine, darkness, death. “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it” (John 1:5). Guided by the ray of this light, the earthly wanderer goes out into saving, spiritual pasture, and from here he begins eternal life. Accept, brothers, my words, which are nothing more than an echo of the teachings of all the Saints. So a deserted wild den - the home of reptiles and all uncleanness - echoes the inspired sounds of Divine chants. Archimandrite Ignatius, 1847, asking for your holy prayers and committing himself to your holy prayers. Nikolaevsky Babaevsky Monastery Venerable Cassian the Roman. About anger, Philokalia, part 4. You might be interested in: