Часть 3-я

Section VI. Words and conversations for Holy Pentecost Word for the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee I am not, like other people, predators, an unrighteous woman, an adulterer, or like this tax collector (Luke 18:11). If you believe the Pharisee, then he was a very decent man, even one that you will not soon find. According to him, he abhorred many vices, which many do not disdain, did not like untruth, did not like to appropriate the property of others, and did not like the works of the flesh. Moreover, he not only did not indulge the lusts of the flesh, but also tried to mortify it. I fast, he says, twice on Saturday, i.e. twice a week, which was not required by law. Not only did he not take someone else’s by force or deception, but he gave his own for the benefit of the church. I give tithes, as much as I can get, he says. Is it not enough, how often can you find this, that you donate a tenth of your property to the Lord? Despite all this, the Pharisee was humiliated at God's court before the publican. Despite all this, the unrequited, humble publican is acquitted, and the Pharisee is condemned. This Sneed was justified into his house more than Onago. Why is this? Why was the Pharisee condemned? For proudly judging others. I am not like other people, I am not like this publican, he said. He not only exalted himself before others, but slandered the publican, and reproached the publican with pride. Let us learn, brethren, not to judge others; let us learn all the more, all the more attentively, since from this day St. the church begins to prepare us for spiritual and physical abstinence and, beginning the preparation, brings to our attention the Pharisee - a strict judge of the affairs of others. When the cry of the depraved inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah reached the throne of heaven, calling for vengeance on them, was vengeance immediately sent by the Lord? No. The Lord, merciful and just, says: I will come down and see if it is according to their cry that comes to Me that it is done, and if not, let me understand (Gen. 18:21). Heart-knowing Lord! Don’t you know that the land, burdened with the sins of Sodom, is not in vain to raise its cry to the throne of righteousness? Brethren! He knows everything, not only what has been done, but also what people will do, or what people are capable of doing. But He shows us that no eye is able to notice His excessive severity in His judgments, but it can always, should always see that His judgment is animated by all the condescension of righteous love. You see how His condemnation is preceded by a careful examination of the cases, how His sentence is slowed down by strict verification of the case with the law, how you can see the desire not to aggravate, but to alleviate the fate of the guilty. This is how our Lord treats them sinners! We should do the same in relation to others. This is what a person does with a good, pure, holy conscience. Even if they call him to testify about the misdeeds of another, he will speak only with reluctance and regret about the sin of another, he will talk only about what he is asked about, he will show only what he knows, what he probably saw, or probably heard; Not only will he not allow frustration, exaggeration, anger to reach his soul and his words, but he will suffer internally for the other, he will be tormented by the desire that the accused not be accused. And you, my brother, what do you do, dispelling gossip and slander? You talk about your neighbor when no one asks you, you blame him when no one calls you on it; you tell what you don’t know, you tell it with proud self-confidence, while this confidence is the fruit of sheer frivolity; Most often you say things that never happened, you only say things that you have heard and never seen; and you speak with caustic anger. What a black injustice! If you have already taken upon yourself, my brother, the task of judging the conscience of another, you should think about the legal proceedings of the court. What are you doing? Without listening to either witnesses or the parties - defending and accusing, without research, without confrontation, without having any other evidence other than news and rumors, you judge so boldly, condemn so decisively. Come to your senses. You say, “I was told this and that, I didn’t make anything up.” So be it! But are the faces whose words you repeat worthy of faith? Can you, with your hand on your heart, say, “They didn’t add anything, they weren’t deceived, they weren’t deceived, they weren’t occupied with any passion when they said this and that?” Can you testify to all this before the Lord? No! How can you, a pathetic person, undertake to be a judge of another when you are unable to prove anything against him? But let me ask you, my brother, who gave you the right to be a judge over another? The Lord Jesus directly forbids you to judge your neighbor; judge not, lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1). The Apostle of Christ gave the commandment to leave human affairs to the future judgment of Christ, and therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes (1 Cor. 4:6). Where did you get the right to judge another? Which prophet gave you this right? There is one lawgiver and judge - the Lord God, our creator and provider; Its us all; To them was given a law for all; He also has the right to judge everyone. So, you arrogate to yourself the right of God, you steal the honor of God. How daring! How brazen this is! Your neighbor is not your defendant, he is your brother; as a brother, you are obliged to love him, protect him, spare him. him, and not to sting him with ridicule and abuse. In a fraternal society, one brother learns good things from another. We can, we must study the lives of others for our own edification, but this does not mean condemning others. Look at your brother's soul as if it were a living book; read and study this book. But remember that the author of this book is the Most High, whose every thought, every deed is an object of reverent praise and amazement for a host of angels. Be afraid to despise what God keeps. As for your brother’s deeds and life, repeat in your soul more often, The judge of him, as of me, is the Lord. Who are you to judge a foreign slave? his Lord stands or falls. Who are you to judge your brother? Let us all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Rom. 14:4, 10). Over whom are you given the right of trial? Above yourself. Tempt yourselves, if you are in faith, tempt yourself (2 Cor. 13:5). This is a subject about which you can and must judge with all attention, with all severity. Here you can, if you wish, pour out both caustic ridicule and harsh reproaches. How much food for your wit! Another thing is the judge’s boss, mentor, parents. The title itself obliges them to consider and appreciate the actions of those under their command. But even those need to watch themselves, so as not to allow anything more than their rank allows. Otherwise, let everyone tempt his own work (Gal.4:4). Each of us must give an account for ourselves to God, and what a strict, what a complete account! We need to get ready for the report. Well? Did you trust yourself? Have you looked into the depths of your soul? Have you examined and discussed yourself according to the strict truth? You will have to show all the secret movements of your heart - anger, envy, desire for someone else's, and lust - everything is dark and dirty. Do you know all your secrets? Oh my God! What are we doing? We are strangers to ourselves, and strangers are the subject of our tireless judgment. Your soul is blind, and poor, and covered with wounds. And we are doing other people's business! Oh my God! let me see my sins and not condemn my brother. How can we be judges of our neighbors? Our soul can be known to us, but how can we know what is in the soul of our brother? We judge others by appearance, and we are grossly mistaken. The Pharisee judged and condemned the publican according to his rank, but it turned out that the publican’s heartfelt humility outweighed all the Pharisee’s posts. The foreman of the tax collectors sealed up, and the people murmured against the Lord, as if they had gone to hell against a sinful man; and Zacchaeus turned out to be so great in spirit that he attracted grace not only to himself, but to his whole house. The closest and saddest example of human error is presented to you, Christian, by the judgment of the Jews and Greeks about the cross of your Savior. Wasn’t the Jew tempted by this cross, wasn’t the pagan mocking him, while in the cross is God’s power and God’s wisdom? ( 1 Cor. 1:24 ) Do people judge intentions by appearances? But sin, as soon as it came into being, invented ways to cover itself with the most beautiful clothes. That is why it happens that they think they see a bright angel, but in reality it is a dark Satan. Do they judge the depth of the soul by the surface? What frivolity! Who is the message from man that is in man, even the spirit of man living in him? It happens that a person himself does not know everything that has prepared him for this and not another determination. The grace of God moves the heart, not always being expressed to the heart, much less to people. It is very possible that while you despise what you see in a person, in the depths of his soul invisible to you it has a different meaning. The same thing in one situation may be excusable or commendable, in another it can be criminal or barely excusable; the same thing can have voluntary and involuntary motives, and pure and impure intentions. How can one take upon oneself to judge and condemn another without knowing the other? You condemn your brother for an offense, while the brother’s case, perhaps, is the result of only a misunderstanding, or offends only decency, but not the law, or, if there is an offense, it is already covered with humble repentance, like the offenses of a publican. A robber followed the Savior to the crucifixion. But an hour later this robber was a confessor of Christ, and was sent by the Lord to heaven. What if the sinner I despise repeats in the depths of his repentant soul the prayer of the prudent thief? How grave my sin will be! Where does the passion to slander and condemn another come from? What makes us say bad things about others? When the tongue is covered with bile, it is a sign that the stomach is upset. When the tongue speaks badly, it is true that the soul is upset. What? Pride, pride, brothers! Self-love is pleased to consider oneself superior to others; It’s nice for vanity to think that others are becoming lower than us, it’s nice for vanity to think like that, it’s nice to talk like that about others. That is why they are happy to expose the mistakes of others. By humiliating others they elevate themselves. You see how the disease of the soul is revealed in the tongue. And what a disease! The most dangerous disease, the disease so disgusting for the Lord, is pride. You say, “I don’t consider myself better than others, but I wouldn’t like to be reproached for the same thing.” And you think you were justified? Not at all. Whoever cares about not appearing bad, and not about not being bad, not about allowing injustice to reach the soul either before God or before one’s neighbor, isn’t bad self-love living in him? You don’t consider yourself better than others, but you certainly don’t consider yourself worse than others either; and what is this if not pride? Take a closer look at yourself. You love the skill of finding everything good in yourself and everything bad in others, excusing your misdeeds and not sparing anything in others. In the eye of another you can see even a knot; but you can’t smell even a log in yours. What is this if not pride? Our pride can be deceitful. She does not pay a caustic glance to people who have committed a great crime; on the contrary, I am ready to regret them; oh, how unhappy he is, she says. Why this kindness? Because they do not want to be compared with obviously bad people, because compassion for the plight of people is recognized as a sign of a good soul. For this reason, there is no mercy for ordinary weaknesses. Pride sometimes appears with the blue face of envy. And then a new torment for the happy neighbor. The merits of a neighbor cast a shadow on the honor of another, his good glory is a burden to another, his bright qualities reveal with their light the dark spots of others. And - frustration excites the bile, anger boils in the soul, like in hell, they are ready to tear a happy neighbor to pieces. How, why, why is he so happy? He is not at all what he seems, he is not at all what people see him as. And - they will begin to describe! God forbid you ever get into this damned language. He will attribute to you intentions that you never had, he will cover your actions with such disgusting paint that you will feel sick. This is low, satanically low, but such is the work of evil envy Not many people feel better when vanity forces them to judge and second-guess others. And this happens, and very often. Vanity wants to show off with something, it wants to be pleasant in conversation, to amuse society with witticisms, to entertain others with oneself. But how to do this? Make jokes at yourself, at your own expense? This would not mean adding to one's brilliance. Other subjects somehow lack poignancy, or more precisely, meaning. As soon as he speaks, they see that he is boring and vulgar. And so the neighbor became a victim of passion. And my God, where does the mind come from that is not enough for other things! And if three or four witticisms happen; then farewell your brother's good name. As soon as the first stone is thrown at him, a hail of caustic ridicule and the most caustic and evil reproaches will fall. Forgive me, my listener, if I call this fun demonic. Muddy, black, dirty is the source from which the passion to judge others comes. But search as much as you want, you won’t find anything better. That is why the apostle said: the tongue of slander is full of poison, and there is a crowd of unrighteousness (James 3:6, 8). Brethren! Let us be attentive to ourselves, to our sins. Then let us not judge others; - then there won’t be enough time for that, and there won’t be enough desire. Then it turns out that you need a lot of strength to bear your burden; then we will learn to better appreciate others. And - what is above all, the Lord gives grace to the humble - he will also give to us sinners. Amen. Word for Meat Week The Holy Church devotes this week to the remembrance of God's final judgment. Caring for our salvation, she wants to awaken in us repentance for our sins and strengthen our weak zeal for saving deeds. Let's follow her voice. Let us listen to the words of God about the great judgment, about the terrible judgment. Let us move our hearts to contrition. Oh, how great is this day - the day of sin and God's vengeance! Let them not delude themselves with dreams, let them not harbor sin in their souls with willful thoughts about the unrealizability of the terrible future. Self-will says to its own destruction, “Where is the promise of His coming?” The word of man is not true, but the word of God is true, the day of the terrible appearance of Christ will come, the day of the revelation of God's judgment, the great day, the last day, after which there will be no days (Rom. 2:5; Matt. 13:40, 49). Let them not rush to sin, but hurry to repent. Life is a field where the wheat grows, and the tares also grow. They do not pull out the tares with careful condescension. The time of harvest will come, then the tares will not be spared (Matthew 13:39–40). The Lord does not delay in fulfilling his promise; He just endures and waits to see if people will come to their senses, come to their senses, or decide to mourn their sins with bitter tears of repentance? There will be a trial. God spoke about it. Heaven and earth will pass by. The word of God will not pass away. The prophets of God announced general judgment (Isa.34:1-6, 66:16-21; Joel.3:7-17; Dan.7:9-10; Mal.3:14-18). The Psalms sing about the judgment of the universe: He will judge the universe with righteousness (Ps. 9:9, 93:23). The apostles preached: it is fitting for us all to appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). The Son of God Himself, so full of love and mercy for us, repeated many times: come and receive the Son of man from the angels of his Father from his angels, and then he will reward everyone according to his deeds (Matthew 16:27, 10:15). This day will be terrible for everyone, especially terrible for those who have rejected Christ or who have not fulfilled their loyalty to Him. Who will be the judge at that trial? Our Lord Jesus Christ is He who shed His blood for us, endured so much torment for our sins so that we would no longer live for sin, He whom we pledged to serve from the font to the grave. Oh, how scary it will be for us to appear before Him, so ungrateful to Him! Whatever His appearance may be, it in itself will threateningly expose the insensitivity of Christians. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn (Matthew 24:30). They will look upon the nan, whose blood has broken (John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10). The coming of the Lord Jesus to judgment will no longer be the same as His coming to earth for our salvation. It will be majestic and formidable, so that the universe, disturbed by horror, will take on a new form. The Son of God will appear, surrounded by a host of angels, in the full majesty of the glory of the Son of God. They will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and much glory (Matthew 24:30), in the glory of his Father with his angels (Matthew 16:27). And I saw, says the seer, the throne was great, and Him who sat on it; Heaven and earth fled from His presence, and no place was found for them (Rev. 20:11). The kings of the earth and the nobles, along with the last slaves, will turn to the mountains and stones with horror and a cry, and cry: fall on us and cover us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the day of the great wrath of His has come, and who can (Rev. 6:16-17). My friends! Can thought embrace the glory of God, who appears in his terrible truth? Can a tight heart contain all the horror with which the entire universe will tremble at the appearance of this glory of the Infinite? Repent, wash yourself with tears, my poor soul; Turn to the Lord your God, so that the truth of your contrite faith will support you, poor, on the day of wrath and revelation of God’s judgment. What a trial! What a comprehensive judgment! From earth to hell is its domain; from people to fallen spirits, everyone will come to listen to the last saying about eternal, unchanging eternity (Jude 1:6; 1 Cor. 6:3). Living and dead, pagan and Jew, believer and unbeliever - people of all times and all countries will appear to give an account of their deeds (Matt. 25:22; Rom. 2:6-12; Acts 10:42, 17:31). How many are there among us who would agree to die rather than endure conviction of sin before their own kind! What kind of horror will strike this hypocritical shame, or more precisely, this wicked pride, when dark deeds are revealed to the whole universe? Humble yourself, my poor soul, sincerely reveal your sins to the mediator between you and God, so as not to subject you to worldwide shame. The heart trembles, the inside trembles, when we imagine that all our secret and open deeds will be discovered there. And this will undoubtedly happen. The subject of judgment will be all our deeds, good and bad, so that everyone may receive what he has done with his body, either good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10), and everyone will be rewarded according to his deeds (Rom. 2:6). Malice, deceit, hatred, anger, theft, drunkenness, carnal impurities, pride, vanity - everything will be consigned to shame. How many words of idleness flow from our lips! They are even taken for cute jokes. They won't look at it that way. There, for every idle word, you will have to give an answer (Matthew 12:36). All secret thoughts, all secret intentions. all movements of the heart, all desires, carefully kept from the eyes of another, will all be open, no matter how black they are, no matter how dirty, all will be exposed to reproof and judgment. The Lord will come, who will bring the secrets of darkness into light and reveal the counsels of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). How can we not cry, how can we not sob about such a terrible future that threatens us? How much hypocrisy is hidden here in our affairs! How much pretense, how much deceit in the plans! Vile deeds are covered up with the most beautiful appearance, and the approval of people is bought at the price of the wickedness of the heart. ABOUT! there they will remove this mask of wickedness from our deeds and intentions, and their vileness will be revealed in their exact, ugly form. There it will be revealed that these fashions of the time, these exquisite outfits are not only vanity, but also dirty traces of the dirty lusts of the heart. Father is unreasonable! frivolous mother! son of a forgetful age! absent-minded comrade! How many temptations you sow to the destruction of hearts! How many lessons of wickedness do you teach to immature and imprudent souls? ABOUT! stop. Vain wife! Do you understand, do you see that your attire, your luxurious clothes, your invented beauty are the network of the murderer of the devil, if not by your intention, then by your frivolity. How will you be responsible there for the destruction of the souls of those who were tempted, whether from your intentions, or from your frivolity? If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he drowned in the sea (Matthew 18:6). The time will come when the angels of God will gather up all temptations and those who do lawlessness, and throw them into the furnace of fire (Matthew 13:41-42). Contrite, my soul, while there is a time of unfruitful contrition, lament over all the gifts that you received from the grace of God and lost! You will give a terrible answer for the talents entrusted to you. ABOUT! woe to me, a sinner, who has received so much both from the providential hand of God and from the grace of my Christ Jesus. What will I bring, what will I return to You, my generous Lord! My laziness and negligence keep me on the quiet bed of sin, in idleness and vanity. Woe to me, who desecrated the pure robe of baptism! How many times, my Lord, have You awakened me to repentance both through bodily illnesses and sorrowful encounters in life! As soon as I woke up from my sleep, I fell asleep again to my Savior! Before Your terrible judgment, turn my heart to You - my God, do not reject Me, who deviates from You, do not forsake Me, who forsakes You, my God the Savior! Don’t you think, my friends, that it will be difficult there to test all the affairs and all the peoples of the earth? The seer tells us: And I saw the dead, small and great, of different states, standing before God, and the books were despised, and another book was opened, even a living one, and the dead received judgment from those written in the books according to their deeds (Rev. 20:12). What kind of folded books are these, by which the dead are judged? What is this other book called the book of life? These are signs of the omniscience of God, who has no need for books, for whom all our deeds are known. Always righteous and omniscient - He strictly distinguishes the deeds of the righteous from the deeds of sinners. Always good - He does not ignore a single feat of obedience to His will, not a single tear of repentance is hidden from Him, the cup of icy water given in His name is known to Him; He has already appointed the reward of life for those who love Him. But, alas! Just as there are not many righteous people, how many unrighteous people are listed in His righteous omniscience. The first is one part, one book; there are many parts of the latter, many books. According to this omniscience, righteous and good, He will pronounce the final decision on the eternal fate of people and tribes. And everyone's conscience will show everyone his deeds there. If it is dark here, if here it forgets a lot, leaves out a lot, darkened by passions and vanities, it will be enlightened there. The light of God's truth will dispel its darkness. The Lord will come, who will bring into light the secrets of darkness, and will reveal the counsels of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). Conscience, illuminated by this light, will show us all the rows of the past, the rows of thoughts, movements, desires and deeds. Do not forget also, when the great harvest comes for the field of affairs of the world, the angels will be the harvesters, who will separate the tares from the wheat, the wicked from the godly. Let us awaken - those sleeping in sins, let us rise from the sleep of self-indulgence, so that Christ will illuminate us before that terrible illumination of righteousness (Eph. 5:14). How strict, how precisely fair the final judgment will be! If the Lord knows everything, if He is as just as He is powerful, then how terrible His judgment will be! In flaming fire He will take vengeance on those who do not know Him and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:8). They will not look at the faces there; the Judge will be holy and righteous (Rom. 2:11). No one and nothing will protect us at this trial - neither friends, nor relatives, nor those whom we flattered in the hope of their strength, each of them will answer for himself (Eph. 4:9). The Lord of Nations will stand there, like the last subject, anxiously awaiting the verdict. There everyone will matter as much as his virtues mean. We are accustomed to resting our carelessness with hope in the goodness of God. There we will meet one truth - it will distinguish in us the holy hope from the careless and blasphemous hope. He will reveal to us both the measure of our strength and the measure of our weaknesses; will take into account the measure of our methods and our poverty. Woe and misfortune to every soul that does evil, first to the Jew, then to Elihu (Rom. 2:9), first to the Christian, then to those who do not know Christ. Much will be exacted from me, the unfortunate one, to whom more has been given than to another (Luke 12:47–48). My friends! Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life; Watch at all times and pray, that you may be worthy to escape all these things to come, and to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:34–36). It is not given to us to know when the terrible day will come, but it is open that it will undoubtedly come - and we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Let us stock up on the oil of good works, so that our lamps do not go out when there is nowhere to get the oil (Matthew 25:7). I fall before You, my Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God! Reward us not according to our deeds, and let not our deeds anger You. Have mercy on us according to Your mercy; grant to see You in peace and joy, at least among the very last of Your servants, to the glory of Your and the Father and the Holy Spirit who are consubstantial with You. Amen. Word in the week of raw food On the rivers of Babylon there are gray horses and mourners (Ps. 137:1). This is what the unfortunate captives say - Jews who have lost their dear, sacred fatherland. Like the leaves of a weeping willow, bending over the rivers of Babylon, they sighed and cried for their native Jerusalem. The proud enemies, laughing at the unfortunate ones, said to them, sing to us from the songs of Zion. How can we sing, they answered, the song of the Lord in a foreign land? Songs of the homeland, songs of the Lord, is it proper to sing on a land that is not native? Full of bitter sadness, irresistible sorrow, each made a vow to the unchanging memory of dear Jerusalem, if I forget you, Jerusalem, be funny to my right hand, stick my tongue to my larynx, lest I remember you, lest I offer Jerusalem, as at the beginning of my joy. What does it mean, brethren, that the church these weeks repeats to us the lamentable song of the Babylonian captives? Is this really just to remind us of the past of the Jews? True, this past was bitter, almost bitter. But what need do we have for someone else’s past if it has passed and did not concern us? No, it is not the Jews that our mother, St., cares about. the church, and about us - their children. She calls us to cry, for ourselves we cry for the captives of Babylon. Who are we on this earth? What does peace mean to us? All creation sighs and groans, awaiting the freedom of the children of God. Destructive storms, earthquakes tearing apart mountains and cities, famine, plagues - these are the groans of nature. The earth is a cemetery; death and death at every step! Everywhere you look, there is grief, everywhere there is sorrow. How many troubles, how many diseases, how many deaths! But that's not all. Who likes sorrow? Who can love sorrow? We cry, we groan under the weight of the troubles with which the world oppresses us. But, there are troubles in the world that they not only do not fear, but which they consider happiness, which they love, for which they give their whole life and ruin themselves for eternity. What does peace mean in the eyes of millions? They can't get enough of them. They are delighted with him. But this is not God’s judgment on the world. According to the judgment of God, the world is Babylon the great, the mother of fornicators and abominations (Rev. 17:5). Everything in the world is of this world, the lust of the soul, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The son of the world does not hear, does not feel, does not want to know the voice of the saint about the world. The whirlwind of light, the glitter of gold, the seduction of honor, the sweets of lust captivated him and enchanted his mind. Without thinking about anything, he rushed to drink the waters of Babylon until he was full. Oh! let him stop while there is time. The judgment on Babylon - on the sinful world - has been pronounced and will not change. The blessings with which the world is consoled are funeral flowers that adorn the path to destruction. His joys are poisoned by the poison of sin. Is the light seductive? But this is precisely his ruin. How many iniquities have been justified by the court of the world! How much wickedness there is in his view of people's lives! The most criminal, base, vile deeds are colored with the names of innocent weakness, venial sin. To make a joyful life even more joyful, to make a lawless life even more lawless, the world has drawn up its own laws, under which not only Christ’s law of self-sacrifice on the cross, the crucifixion of the lusts of the flesh and spirit are forgotten, but sometimes the suggestions of the natural conscience are also forgotten. Woe to you, Babylon the Great - mother of abominations! How can we not cry on the rivers of Babylon - the destructive world? He so persistently, and so unnoticed by us, traps our souls into destruction. How many centuries have they been preaching to us, do not love the world, nor those in the world, and if anyone loves the world, the Father’s love is not in him? (1 John 2:5). And people, as before, love the world that destroys them. Turn away my eyes, O Lord, from seeing vanity. Make Thy servant Thy word to fear (Ps. 119:37-38). Weep, sinner, while there is time. Time flies and takes with it salvation from Babylon. Mourn both your joys and your sorrows. Mourn the joys, they contain a lot of madness, terrifying destruction; mourn grief, there is a lot of unforgivable cowardice in it. Cry, sinner, wandering far from your homeland, from your heavenly homeland. Where is our fatherland? Where is our Jerusalem? People fell in love with the world so much that they forgot about their homeland. How terrible this is, especially for the Christian soul! She was redeemed by the blood of the Son of God not for the world, but for eternity. Where is our homeland? There is in heaven, not the imams of the city that abides, we do not seek the city that is to come (Heb. 13:14). And, oh, that we would look for him, as all the righteous did! How great is our loss - those who lost our homeland! If a rich man suddenly lost all his treasures, his loss would mean nothing compared to the loss of heaven. Collect all earthly losses, collect all the misfortunes of time, they mean nothing with the loss of your heavenly homeland. They cry about the loss of honor; they cry about the loss of some gold, they cry about the loss of relatives according to the flesh. What does this crying mean? Baby crying! Is it really the case that we are wandering away from the heavenly Father, expelled from His bright face? We have lost something without which the rich people of the world, the famous, and the smart of the world are so poor, so insignificant, in the most extreme way. What the ear has not heard of, what the eye has not seen, what has not entered the human heart, what the mind is not able to imagine—we have lost such blessings, such treasures, such joys, expelled from our eternal homeland. Children removed from their parents shed tears. How can we not shed bitter tears, we who are removed from our true Father? What did our soul become when it tasted the first sin? She was beautiful, like the image of God himself. And now? Vile and ugly. Innocence, righteousness, high and pure thoughts are lost. Sin covered her with strings of passions. The appearance of a dead man is ugly; a sinful soul is much worse. Beauty, fabrics, stones, ruinous decorations - do you think - they color the soul? They gild the coffin - even worse, they increase the ugliness, multiplying the scabs of the soul. Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear me, for I am poor and needy. I am your lord and a stranger, like all my fathers. Hide not Thy commandments from Me (Ps. 39:13, 86:1, 119:19). Cry, sinner, having lost your heavenly Jerusalem. Repeat the holy vow of the captive Jew, if I forget you, Jerusalem, my right hand will be forgotten. Who are we on this earth? Captives of the flesh, slaves of sin. Do we notice that when we want to do something good, it is extremely difficult for us? Why this difficulty? Why this reluctance, this laziness to do good? Is this really natural? It can't be. Woe to us sinners! We have served sin since our youth; We were born in sins. Doubly woe to us from ourselves. We have cultivated passions in ourselves, and they have complete control over us. One, from a young age until the grave, nurtures a passion for money in his soul, another – anger, one – worldly vanity, another – pride. From time to time, eternity comes to our minds, the fear of God’s judgment visits our soul like a guest. But then they will say, oh, now is not the time - we need to do this and that; then, having somehow performed a prayer, having disturbed the soul with some memories of our untruths, we begin to sin again. Oh, woe to us sinners! Sins have taken such hold of us that we have become, like weak and senseless children, afraid to deny our habits something. We were given grace-filled forces for good, but we squandered them or are squandering them. By repeating yesterday and now sinful thoughts, sinful feelings, sinful desires, we have strengthened the habit of sin in our souls and weakened and weakened the gracious determination to create God’s law. By postponing repentance day after day, we have lost our sincere desire to repent. There remains in us a feeling of goodness, a sigh for goodness, and even that is weak, and even that is fruitless, and even then, from time to time, it is less often revealed. What is our life? A series of vanities, a series of sins. Concerns about food, worries about the house, worries about trade or rank, replace one another. Thus, our immortal soul is in constant service to decay. Where is the dignity by which a person is considered less than an angel? (Ps.8:6) We live with foolish cattle (Ps.49:13), we live with the same desires, the same pleasures as they do. Oh, cry, sinner - a prisoner of passions and sin! Wash your unfortunate captivity of sin with your tears, pray to the Most High for the return to you of the freedom of the children of God. He won't refuse; will accept you repentant with love and invest you with new strength for the feat against sin. Whether sooner or later, we need to return to our homeland. Sooner or later, our wandering life on earth will end. How can we return to our Father's house? With what shall we appear before Him? And, firstly, what will be our way out of this life? The death of sinners is cruel (Ps. 33:22). And how can she not be fierce? Conscience, hitherto lulled by vanity, now, when vanity disappears, begins to torment the sinful soul. Gehenna opens before her, which she had not wanted to think about until then. Eternity opens before her with its torment for the sinner, something she thoughtlessly forgot about. Before her is the need to appear before the formidable and impartial Judge, whose laws have been desecrated. Oh, weep, sinner, before the time of useless weeping is past! Beg the Lord with tears for a peaceful death, such as the death of a faithful Christian! Otherwise, your entry into eternity will be bitter, and eternal life will be even more miserable. Temporary life was given to you only so that, tempted, purified by the sufferings of life, you would return to your Father’s house - like a smart son, with steadfast love for the Lord, with wisdom experienced in goodness. Well? How are you ready to appear before your Lord? Where are your deeds for good? Where are the virtues? Where is chastity? Where is the abstinence? Where is the meekness? Where are the tears for sins? Where is the fight against passions? What weakness have you overcome in yourself? What sin did you fight until you bled? Don’t you think that they will judge your deeds there just as lightly as you judge here, or as the evil age judges? There the judgment is not according to your passions, but according to the law of justice; not according to human opinions, but according to the eternal truth of God. There all the secret movements of your heart will be exposed, all the vile thoughts hidden here under various covers of day and night will be revealed. And - whole eternity will be an eternity of torment for the sinner. Oh, eternity, eternity! How immense is your continuation! How immeasurable is your longitude! I add up the series of centuries, add thousands of years to thousands of years and - all this is not eternity. And all this is not the end of the sinner’s torment. Heavenly Father, to whom I must return from a distant land! Strengthen the weak stranger in the paths of Your commandments! Enlighten me, strengthen me in Your fear! Give me sources of tears, so that I may wash away my sins with them, and, sowing with tears, I will joyfully reap my fruits in eternity! Let the fear of Your judgments penetrate me to the very marrow of my bones, dispelling before my eyes the temptations of Babylon - the sinful world! Thine is the strength, Glory to Thee forever. Amen. Sermon on Thursday of the 1st week of Lent He knew my iniquity, and did not cover my sin (Ps. 31:5). Here is an example of repentance - repentant David! Brethren! we are all sinners before the Lord; our sins multiply every day; Every day we transgress the will of God, we fulfill the whims of our hearts, we follow the thoughts of our passions. Where will our sins lead us? What awaits us with our iniquities? What does our careless wickedness prepare for us? Or is the fire of hell not terrible for us? Isn’t the eternity of unspeakably fierce torment terrible? To fall into the hands of the menacingly just Judge - is it really a small thing for us? Oh, how disastrous that would be! Well? Or is the way out of the abyss of sin closed to us? Is the path to heaven blocked? Are the doors of God's mercy closed to us? No! What is it that we lack to be saved from our sins? Repentance is lacking, the very thing that was in David’s soul when he cried out to recognize my iniquity, and not to cover my sin. What is needed first of all to turn to the path of life from the path of destruction? First of all, we need to see that we are not where we should be. If a traveler is not following his own path, he needs to come to his senses, realize that this is not his path, that the path he must follow is completely different, and only then can he feel the need to return to his own path. How can we follow the paths of salvation when we still do not realize where we are walking, when we do not see that we are on the path of destruction? How can we sincerely, ardently wish for eternal life, life according to the will of God, when we have not yet realized that we live in the darkness of sins, in the lusts of the heart? If the captive sons of Israel had clung their thoughts and hearts to Babylon in the same way as the children of Babylon, would they have started to cry for Zion, shed bitter tears for it, and strive with their hearts for their hometown? Woe to us when we remain in the bitter captivity of Babylon, work without rest for passions and a pernicious world, do not think about returning to heavenly Zion and forget about the eternal city of God, as if it does not exist for us. What could be stranger - to have eyes and not see dirt on your clothes, uncleanliness on your hands, disorder all over your body? Oh my God! Where has the brightness of my eyes gone? Who took away the sight from my thought! I am completely covered with uncleanness, and I do not see my uncleanness. Everything is upset, everything is disfigured in my soul, and I do not see my disorder. Who will depict the depth of my fall? It is given to the dumb to see earthly things, and he sees the earth; and my soul, which has been given the gift of seeing the beauty of heaven, sees neither heavenly blessings nor the ugliness of its earthly life. Oh my God! You enlightened the eyes of the blind, dispersed the sinful darkness in the souls of the lost; Enlighten the eyes of my heart, that I may see the light of Your commandments, and my disastrous distance from them! Brethren! We see our sins poorly. But let us look at them, and we will see more than we see now; let us turn our gaze away from the vain world, let us not look at the objects of our rebellious passions; Let's gather our scattered thoughts, stop them, keep them on one thing - on the memory of ourselves and our sins. If we decide to recognize ourselves, our sins, then it is necessary that we focus all our attention on ourselves. Otherwise, we will never recognize ourselves. How do we know how to look at ourselves when the world with its crowd of delights is before our eyes, when our thoughts are busy, filled with vanities, worries, and earthly impressions? You, who say that you are preparing to make a confession of your sins before the Lord, and at the same time are worried about the worries of everyday life, trade calculations, chores around the house, or thoughts of passions, what are you doing? Do you want to deceive yourself or God? The former is reckless, the latter is scary. Come to your senses! Here in the whole year the church assigns you several days so that you gather with yourself, devote hours of prayer to reviewing your affairs; and you don’t have much to do with that either. God knows what. The world with its vanities and seductions has upset you, scattered you, desecrated your soul, is it not enough to abandon it, even for a few hours? O fatal blindness! I know my iniquity, and I will take away my sin before me (Ps. 50:5). This is how the repentant David knew himself. Take out - constantly, without deviating to anything else, he looked at his sin. - and then I recognized him, as I should have. And is cursory attention necessary when it comes to the salvation or destruction of the soul? ABOUT! no, do not rush to turn your gaze away from your sin, look at it diligently. Have you recognized the sin of condemnation in yourself? Consider what you did? Weigh the weight of your sin. You will see that you have seized upon yourself the right of God to be the Judge of all; being a sinner, he took upon himself the face of a sinless one, madly wandered in thought about the deeds of another and left himself in the power of sins; pride, or vanity, forced you to judge another, and your judgment offended him, your judgment led him to the sin of dissatisfaction with you, and, perhaps, anger. That's how many sins there are in one sin of condemning a brother! Is a cursory glance sufficient to consider and discuss the miserable fruitfulness of one sin? You said with a thought or a word, I am a sinner, and with that you are satisfied, and with that you ended your confession. No, confession is not over yet, it has not even begun. Think about it. You would not be pleased with the judge if he did not enter into the criminal’s case with full attention; You would say that the court of strict truth requires that the judge, by the force of the laws, induce the criminal to state all the circumstances of the crime, to reveal the place, time, motives, and accomplices of the crime; you would say it is necessary - circumstances give more or less weight to the crime - and you were right in relation to the other. How can you not want to be fair to yourself? No, don't be frivolous; you stand before the judgment of God. Will you repent? - You will live. Repent. You said I'm a sinner. But what? How many times? In what location? What made you commit sin and sins? Examine your deeds, count your crimes one by one, give an account before the court of the Lord, live according to all the commandments. There is no place for negligence here. You were not lazy to sin. Don’t be lazy to repent; force yourself to recognize your sins, remember what you were like at prayer, what you were like at home? What is your attitude towards those who insulted you, what is your attitude towards those who love you? What is the responsibilities of the title, what is the desire? What was he like in happiness, what was he like in misfortune? How did you look at your own grief as if it were someone else’s? What was the attraction of the old weakness, what was the new habits? Did you restrain your body? Did you restrain your tongue? Did you restrain your soul from anger, from passions? Go through in your memory all the indirect paths along which you wandered, review the various places that witnessed your falls, think about all the duties of conscience that you neglected. Remember how many times did you make promises to correct and change your life and how many times did you break them? How many grace-filled calls to repentance in the circumstances of your life have you ignored? Is it difficult and impossible to give an account of all your deeds? So. But this does not mean that you should be content with a general, dull, careless review of yourself. What kind of self-knowledge is this? Let us test and recognize all the sins in ourselves that we can recognize, that is what is required of us! I have known my iniquity, and have not covered my sin. According to this example of David’s repentance, the testing of our sins must be sincere. Don't hide yourself from yourself and God. Will you hide here? They will open it there, and to bleak sorrow. Will you hide it from yourself? You cannot hide it from God, and you will face a more severe condemnation. We all firmly recognize the holiness of Christian duties, but as soon as we apply them to ourselves, we immediately begin to weaken their severity; As soon as we begin to judge ourselves for not fulfilling them, we immediately reduce our guilt with various pretexts and various apologies. We willingly acknowledge the universality of the rules, but we place ourselves as an exception. Self-love acts in this case both diligently and skillfully; it manages to cover up the most serious betrayals of duty so well that they seem like minor shortcomings. But what a terrible, ungodly work this is! What does pride do in this case? By acquitting you of criminals, it rebels against the judgment of God, which declares us criminals. By reducing the limits of the power of God's commandments over us, it brazenly insults the power of the legislator - God. Our desire to reduce our guilt is criminal, reckless, and destructive. Sin seeks protection for itself in your soul. This is what your insincerity in the consciousness of your sins means! Sin seeks your destruction. If now, when you are about to drive him out of your soul by repentance, you yourself cover him in your soul, then he will have more power over you, he will corrupt your soul more and more. Pray to the Lord, do not turn my heart into words of wickedness, and do not bear the guilt of sins (Ps. 141:4). Be afraid to invent excuses for sins. Do not turn away, for example, many who walk the broad path, there will be a place in hell for many. And many who perish will not protect you from destruction. They will give an answer for themselves, just as you will be required to give a special account. Why look to the example of many sinners? You are commanded to follow the example of saints, not sinners. Why turn to many now? It's not about many people, but about you, about your sins; judgment over your affairs, they require an account. Don't plead weakness either. Saints also had weaknesses. Like all believers, you were given grace that was strong in weakness, what did you do? You had enough strength to spend days and nights doing everyday things, or even worse, doing harmful things, but you didn’t have enough strength to fast. You had the patience to be tormented by malice and anger, but did not have the courage to endure an unpleasant word from another, or an easy loss of property. Do not cover up the guilt of your bad life with the goodness of God. Is God merciful? But doesn't His goodness indicate your ingratitude towards her? He is merciful, will he not punish? On the contrary, pray to Him that He will seek here and forgive there, punish here the wickedness of your heart, so that you do not perish there. He will not punish you, he is long-suffering! But woe to us if we remain unrepentant sinners and do not take advantage of His long-suffering; then only the judgment of terrible truth will remain for us. No matter how hard it is to pay for sin, pay for the debt of sincere repentance. The punishment for an unrepentant sinner will be more severe. Depending on the degree and nature of mental illness, use medicine, no matter how bitter it may be. If you feel coldness in your soul, strike it with blows of strict reproof; show her the river of fire, the worm that never sleeps, the eternal stench, to awaken her from carelessness, to force her to break the connection with the sins that are dear to her. So I repeat, for our eternal salvation, consciousness of sins is necessary; complete and sincere repentance is necessary. May the good and merciful God grant us the grace to perform repentance pleasing to Him. Amen. Homily on Friday of the 1st week of Great Lent, at Matins The Holy Church now calls us to confession. She wants, she demands that we not only repent of our sins before our own face and conscience, but also bring repentance before the servant of God. Are they asking us to do something useful for us? Is a necessary task entrusted to us? Why confess to a person like us? Of course, not for the Lord. He knows our sins even when we hide them not only from others, but also from ourselves. He knows our heart secrets. But does everyone know what lies in his heart? Is everyone able to give a detailed and accurate account of their affairs? And repentance necessarily requires a complete and faithful examination not only of our deeds, but also of our motives. Really, who better to know yourself than yourself? But is it necessary to say that there are thousands of us among us who are too little able to enter into themselves, know little of the law of God, and are even less able to trust themselves to the law of God? Who will show them themselves if not a servant of God? Shouldn’t everyone admit that we are too much deceived by our pride; We see a lot of things in ourselves that are not in their proper form, and we don’t see a lot of bad things at all. So, thanks be to the Lord that He gives us a helper when our conscience is tested. Why don’t you want to tell someone else about your sins? Ashamed? Oh, if only it were so! Then it would remain to be said that this is why you must reveal everything to the priest, not excluding any deeds, so that saving shame can awaken in your soul, which you may not have felt before, or felt, but not as much as vile deeds deserve. That is why you must confess everything to the servant of God, so that the shame that awakens in you during confession can serve as a guard for your soul against lowly deeds. But is it shame, or is it shame alone that keeps you from revealing your sins to the priest? Be true to yourself, pride lives in all of us; This is our common property. And, by her grace, we do not like to think lowly of ourselves, we do not like to appear even to ourselves, not only to others, in a black form. Do you agree, can confession be pleasant for our pride? If so, then confession is an expensive, invaluable medicine when it softens the most dangerous disease of our soul - pride. Humility is the basis of virtues; Without it, spiritual perfection in a person is a dream, and a destructive dream. Confession, forcing us to descend into the depths of the soul and bring to light one after another the vices and impurities of the heart, crushes our pride and sows humility in the soul. Earthly authorities may place shackles on hands and feet; They have a prison, imprisonment, but does all this bind the soul? No. Pride does not put anything human above itself. Another thing is that the power is not earthly, but heavenly. The villains, whom no executions could correct, came into deep contrition before the humble servant of God, and once and for all renounced their former life. The predator returned what belonged to others, the irreconcilable enemy made peace with the enemy, the litigants stopped their litigation, the quarreling spouses forgot the quarrel, according to the inspirations of the servant of God - because he is not a servant of men, but a servant and messenger of God. Oh, earthly wisdom! how blind she is, rejecting the help of heaven, which is so useful even for the earth! Reh: Let me confess my iniquity to the Lord (Ps. 31:5), so says the repentant David. What does it mean? Does it mean only the heart's consciousness in its iniquity? But he already said this when he said before that he knew my iniquity and did not cover my sin. If David says, let us confess my iniquity, then, according to the meaning of the words, he is not talking about the consciousness of sin in his conscience, but about the knowledge, the revelation of iniquity before others. Let's believe the words of the song in David's story of David, and we will find it too. The prophet Nathan denounced David for his sin with Bathsheba, and David did not limit himself to recognizing the sin in his soul; he confessed the iniquity before Nathan, and said in his hearing: those who have sinned against the Lord (2 Samuel 12:13). We see God’s commandment about confession in the Law of Moses; there God commanded to tell Israel whether a man or a wife, whoever commits all human sins, despises the Lord, and her soul transgresses, so that she may confess the sin that she has committed, and may she repay the true crime (Numbers 5:6–7). Various sacrifices for sins are known; bringing them, they confessed their sins over them in the presence of the priest, who prayed, so that, for faith in the future universal sacrifice, they would not be charged for sins (Lev. 4: 1–26). The Baptist John baptized in the Jordan only those who, coming to him, confessed their sins. He gave special instructions to tax collectors, special instructions to soldiers, and special instructions to ordinary people (Luke 3:10–15; Matt. 3:6); and this particularity of instructions, of course, was consistent with the fact that unequal sins were revealed, or the unequal state of souls was revealed by confession. That confession before John was not a matter of human arbitrariness is clearly stated. The Pharisees did not want to confess their sins to John and be baptized by him - and the word of God speaks of the Pharisees, rejecting God’s advice about themselves, not being baptized by him (Luke 7:29-30). It is not clear how they can doubt the holiness of confession when they do not doubt that repentance of sins must be sincere? If you sincerely repent, if your soul is full of sorrow for sins, in such a state what is natural to expect from your soul? Screams and groans, bitter complaints about losses, this is what flows naturally from a sorrowful soul! At least, while the feeling of the soul is sacred, the expression of feeling cannot be sinful; when sorrow for sins is holy, confession of sorrow for sins is also holy. On the contrary, reluctance to reveal sin is a sign that the soul still likes sin, that it does not feel disgust for it, that grief for it is still insincere, incomplete and shallow. Who can forgive sins except God alone? In His right hand are our life and death, before Him we are sinners. He can only forgive us or not forgive us. Have you sinned against man? It is in his will either to hand you over to the power of the court, or to reconcile with you. Exactly the same before God. Repent as much as you want, but until they tell you that you are forgiven, you remain responsible; If you tell yourself that you are forgiven, this will be a new insolence that will not go unpunished. True, even in the Old Testament it was said that God is ready to forgive a repentant sinner. But a decisive answer to confession then depended on the future time, on the time of the appearance of the Conciliator. Then, as the Son of God Himself appeared on earth to reconcile the truth of God with guilty humanity, then the Son of God announced to people that He, as God and the reconciliator, has the right to forgive sins, and in His own person He transferred Divine power to His servants. Receive the Holy Spirit, He said to the apostles, whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven, and whose sins you hold, they will hold (John 20:22-23). Understand how the establishment of a special power to forgive or not forgive the sins of people all over the world corresponded to the time of the fullest revelation of God's love for people, the fullest closeness of God to humanity. What was transmitted to the apostles in relation to the sins of people was transmitted to all their successors, since Christ the Lord did not establish his church for one apostolic time, and since it was not for the apostles alone that the Holy Spirit was given, the action of which should bring about the resolution or non-resolution of the sinner. And in the apostolic writings we see that the apostles of Christ command their successors to continue the work of reconciling sinners with God, entrusting them with the power to bind and loose consciences, with instructions on the use of this power. Remember, for example, how dissatisfied Saint Paul was with the Corinthian shepherds for their weakness in relation to an open sinner (1 Cor. 5:2). So, this is who among the people has the power to forgive, or not to forgive, a sinner. These are those to whom this power was transferred by God himself, the Redeemer - the Son of God. What can we say about you, an uncalled shepherd of the schism, who takes upon yourself the Divine power, invests yourself with a right that was not given to you? Woe to your blind audacity! Will you save those who expect from you what you cannot give them? So - it is criminal, terrible to neglect the divinely established authority, not to turn to it to hear the verdict on one’s sins! No, go to the one who has received power over your conscience; go not as to human judgment, but as to God’s judgment. It is not man who will pronounce judgment on you; he is only a servant of God, who is entrusted in the name of God to forgive or not forgive a sinner. The servant of God, having accepted the power to forgive or not forgive sins, cannot exercise this power either according to his own arbitrariness, or according to the arbitrariness of people; he will have to give a strict answer in the use of this terrible power. Therefore, he must, firstly, carefully examine whether the sinner is worthy or unworthy of forgiveness of sins? To give grace-filled forgiveness to an unworthy person would mean exposing oneself to condemnation; and it would not mean salvation for one who accepts grace unworthily. If the priest must see whether a sinner is worthy or unworthy of forgiveness, and as a person, he can know this only when the internal state of the sinner’s soul, its deeds, its thoughts, its dispositions is revealed to him by the sinner himself, through testing, then confession before the priest is as much in accordance with the will of God as the Divine establishment of the power to forgive sins is undoubtedly. So, confession before a priest is an establishment of God’s will. Fear, sinful soul, to hide your deeds before the servant of God, he accepted the power from God to be the judge of all your deeds. Even if you manage to deceive him as a person in the position of your soul, then you will not deceive God, who, knowing everything secret, will not leave your deed without terrible punishment, will not leave it because you insult, in fact, not a person, but God and the Holy Spirit, acting through God’s servant. The servant of God assumed power over the conscience to save the sinner from sin; he is the physician and teacher of the sinner. Depending on the state of mental illness, he should also seek medicine; depending on the mistakes and shortcomings, he must also teach instructions. If so, then the sinner’s sincere desire to be healed of mental illness, a sincere desire to follow the straight path to salvation should prompt him to sincerely confess his sins before a spiritual doctor and teacher; just as a person who is sick in body, sincerely wanting healing from an illness, himself tells the doctor about the conditions of the illness. So, hiding your sins from the priest would mean, in addition to insolence against the will of God, blind enmity against your salvation. Is it necessary to say after this that in the first times of Christianity, confession was a holy thing for everyone? Oh! Is it really in order to expose our coldness towards sacred duty? Since then everyone’s hearts burned with love for the Lord, those who had the misfortune of falling into sins then confessed their sins not only out loud to the servant of God, but also out loud to the whole church, and they confessed them for more than one hour, but for several weeks exposed themselves to everyone, among the repentant. Oh my God! how far we are from your best servants. I conclude with the word of the Apostle that it is time for us to rise from sleep. Let us therefore put aside dark works and put on the armor of light (Rom. 13:11–12). Amen. Word for Monday of the 1st week and Lent Thank the Lord! Now we have entered into the feat of holy fasting. I say, thank the Lord! For how can one not thank God for starting a holy work - fasting? I know that outside the walls of this church many people think differently about fasting. Well? Free will! But it does not depend on this will that this or that be holy. We would not even touch the self-will of those who do not belong to us if their will did not confuse the weak of our brethren. So, to confirm the feat of fasting, let us consider the holiness of fasting. What is spiritual perfection? What does it require of us? It is the fruit of the most complete self-denial; it is a feat performed for the One who humbled himself for us. If so, then tell me, what kind of sacrifice does spiritual perfection, or true Christianity, not require from us? If there is complete self-sacrifice, then its demands extend to our flesh; it instructs us not to flatter the desires of the flesh; to humble the body with deprivation, just as it requires curbing the pride of the spirit and other spiritual sins. If we begin to renounce sinful spiritual pleasures, but give full rein to sensual passions, this will not be complete self-denial, this will be insincere and hypocritical service to the Lord. Christians! What has not the Lord and our God done for us sinners? He humbled Himself in the days of the flesh by simplicity of life and physical hardships. What kind of His servants are we when we live in complete freedom of sensual desires and a whimsical body? No! One of two things, either we are true Christians, and then we will not think that the commandment to fast was not given for us, or it is completely in vain to consider ourselves Evangelical Christians if we reject fasting. If in paradise there was a need for a commandment to fast; if even there physical deprivation was required for spiritual perfection; if even one in whom the body was so submissive to the spirit could not do without fasting, then it is easy to understand that spiritual perfection without physical exploits is not accessible to man, as an impossibility itself. What is a person in the present situation? The whole is a vessel of sin. Sin lives not only in our soul, it also lives in our body. He fights in our members, stirs our blood, shakes our nerves. Caressed by the flesh, she indulges in idle laziness, which destroys the fruits of the spirit, then she is restless with senseless movements, ready to plunge the soul into hell. And with such flesh do they think of going to heaven without fasting? No, why caress the flesh, which is already at war against the spirit? If our salvation is dear to us, then we cannot value the flesh because it is full of sin. It requires strict, precise rules of abstinence, rules that are trusted and justified by experience. It requires fasting as a holy deed and as a means to holiness. Fasting is a holy thing because it curbs the power of sin living in the body. Fasting is a means to holiness, because intemperance opens the door to depravity of thoughts and deeds, because abstinence imparts light to thoughts, purity to feelings, freedom and strength to the spirit. “If any king, says one experienced man, wants to take an enemy city, then first of all he withholds water and food supplies, and the enemies, dying of hunger and thirst, submit to him. The same thing happens with carnal passions. If a person lives in fasting and hunger, then his enemies, weakened, will abandon his soul.” 14 St. Chrysostom teaches, “whoever fasts extinguishes evil passions. He who fasts prays with a cheerful spirit. 15 Fasting makes the soul cheerful, lightens its wings, lifts it above earthly things, leads to thoughts of heavenly things.” 16 This is what people experienced in spiritual life say about fasting! The Savior Himself appointed a fast for His disciples. Some asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” He said in response, “Can wedding guests fast while the groom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days” (Mark 2:18-20). So, according to the Lord, whoever sincerely loves Him, who cherishes his spiritual participation in His great work, like wedding guests share the feelings of the groom, will be sorrowful, will fast when their Lord is taken to suffering and death; he will sanctify the time of separation from the Lord with a touching fast. This is how it should be according to the nature of the love of students for the teacher, of slaves for the Lord. This is what the Orthodox Church has done to this day, sanctifying the time of Christ’s suffering with special fasting. The Gospel tells us that the Lord Himself fasted for forty days. Doesn’t His life serve as an example for us? In the works of Him Whom the Father sent us, is not every step holy for us? His life, like His teaching, is a law for us, a law of faith and piety, a law prescribed both by love for Him who loved us and by reverence for the Messenger, the Son of God. Likewise, His forty-day fast cannot but be an indispensable rule for us, unless we bear the name of followers of Christ in vain. My brothers! Which saint preached satiety and praised intemperance? Nobody. The saints loved fasting. “In everything, says the apostle, we show ourselves to be servants of God in exiles, in labors, in vigils, in fasting” (2 Cor. 6:4-5). “I enslave my body,” he writes, so that while preaching to others, I myself may not be careless.” The prophets loved fasting, the martyrs loved fasting, the saints exhausted their bodies with fasting. St. Basil the Great writes, “all the saints observed fasting as a paternal inheritance, passed on from father to son, so that this acquisition, according to the order of succession, has been preserved to us.” 17 After this, who, my hearers, speaks against fasting? Who are these preachers who dislike temperance so much? Since when and where did they appear in the Christian world? If these are not saints, then, of course, people of a different category, who are these people? Look around and you will see. These are people for whom God is the belly, but for this reason their end is destruction (Phil. 3:12). Let me ask you, my brother, who are you? Son of the Orthodox Church! Wonderful! But where are the things that would make you belong to the Orthodox Church? Look around. If you consider yourself to have the right to neglect the statutes of the church, agree - St. the church has even more of a right to deny you its communion; no one gave you the right to change the statutes of St. churches according to your taste; and she was given the right by the Lord to expel from her society those who disobey her. Do you know what the Ecumenical Council of those who do not observe the Pentecostal fast says? He says, “if they do not comply, the clergy will be cast out (from the clergy), and the laity will be excommunicated (from the church).” 18 The Apostle says, “If food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat” (1 Cor. 8:13). This is the work of a truly Christian soul! love for one's neighbor values ​​the salvation of one's neighbor as one's own. She does not allow herself a single act that is seductive for others; she renounces anything that can harm the weak and does everything to help save him. Where is your love for your neighbor, you who infect the very air with intemperance on Holy Days? abstinence? Where are your deeds that edify your neighbor? “Woe to the world because of temptation,” but doubly “woe to him by whom temptation comes.” The strong should bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not please themselves. They are more guilty than the weak when by their example they lead the weak into temptation. Didn’t the Lord himself say about the one who seduces his brother, it would be better for him if they threw him into the water with a stone around his neck (Matthew 18:7-9). They say, “the kingdom of God is within us.” Holy truth! But do they understand how the kingdom of God dwells within us? Do they understand how His effective presence in us is revealed? They want to relocate the kingdom of God into an interior full of carnal stench. It will never work. They want to see the fragrant fruits of angelic, pure life on the soil saturated with unclean moisture. A dream come true! No, do not be deceived, brethren, whoever sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (Gal.4:8). They say, “the rules of fasting are restrictive and insult Christian freedom.” But is Christian freedom compatible with a life of sensual arbitrariness? Why did they decide to pass off the slavish service of the flesh as spiritual freedom? What kind of fortitude is this that cannot withstand the steam of meat and the cauldrons of Egypt? “You, brothers, have been called into freedom; Only your freedom should not serve to please the flesh” (Gal. 5:13), St. tells us. apostle. Christian freedom does not mean living without rules, without obeying the law; on the contrary, it is strict service to God, humble obedience to the dictates of law and authority.” Act as free people, not using freedom to cover up vice, but as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16), teaches St. Apostle Peter “During Lent, they say, we listen to the service with boredom and pray reluctantly, and in annoyance at fatigue we do not feel inclination for anything good. Why is this? Is it because of fasting? No, the best people did not see such fruits of fasting in themselves. If you feel it, look within yourself for the reason. Think and you will find. After every day you indulged the whims of the flesh, after every day you ate sweetly until you were satiated, and slept when and as much as you wanted, isn’t it natural that the pampered flesh will be annoyed with you for being denied your favorite things and habits? After you haven’t forced yourself to pray even once for a whole year, how you should pray, isn’t it natural that you get bored and tired of prayer during fasting? Agree that you, your bad habits, are to blame for that thinness, that reluctance towards goodness that you notice in yourself during fasting. Add also that if during fasting you notice something bad in yourself that you have not seen before, you should thank fasting for that. What then remains for you to do? Fight bad habits, patiently teach yourself goodness, but no longer condemn fasting. “Even though fasting is a holy thing,” says another, “but I fear for my health, my constitution is weak and upset, and therefore I cannot observe fasting.” What tender self-care, but not legal. From what sacred rule do they not waive themselves under the pretext of weakness? If you can’t fast as much as you would like, fast as much as you can and then you will see that you can do much more than you think. Stop laziness, she is a dangerous friend. The salvation of your soul is worth the effort. Even if it were so that your health would suffer somewhat from fasting, but when you receive the health of your soul for this sacrifice, you must agree that this means a lot to you. Is your soul really so small in your eyes that it is not worth even a few drops of extra blood, a few particles of sinful flesh? How they contradict themselves, poor people! Today they are afraid for their health if they take away a few tasty dishes and a few minutes of time from the table; and at other times they do not mercifully burden their body, tormenting it with extreme intemperance, thoughtless immoderation. What does it mean? Is it not a deception, is it not a mockery of ourselves? Is this caring about your health? No, if an intemperate life and passions do not upset your health, holy abstinence will not harm it. Abstinence is a necessary remedy for poor health. No matter how strong our physical body is, from incessant work the nutritional organs become tired and weakened, become upset and cause disorder; blood and juices, poorly processed, spoil; From now on there are hundreds of painful seizures. This post corrects everything. The digestive organs, not receiving new material, consume the old one, which burdened them with its excess; excess juices, left unused and rotting, are processed and turned into benefits; the blood, hitherto thick and uneven in circulation, becomes clean, subtle and calm. Modern medicine has finally become convinced that plant foods are more nutritious for the body than meat foods and that the latter adds a lot of blood, but by heating up the body, it exposes the nerves to rapid damage. So, if you feel sorry for your frailty, your weak constitution, call upon holy fasting for help. He is a reliable doctor and a faithful assistant. May the God of love and grace give us strength to accomplish the feats of fasting, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and all saints, Amen. Conversation I. On the parable of the Prodigal Son, on Tuesday of the 1st week of Lent The Holy Church, wanting to awaken repentance in our hearts, presents to us the Savior's parable about the prodigal son. What a wonderful parable this is! Every feature of her breathes life and strength. Each feature, although simple and natural, is full of deep thoughts. How vividly and fully the sinner is represented in it on the paths of his error! How touchingly the repentance of a sinner is depicted! In what amazing images is shown the love of the Heavenly Father for his criminal deeds! This parable was proposed by the Savior when the Pharisees and scribes blamed Him for eating and drinking with sinners (Luke 15:1-2). It is to them that He shows how an obvious sinner, when he sincerely turns to God, is accepted by the Heavenly Father, and how one who dreams of his own righteousness turns out to be unjust before God. Intending to consistently explain this wonderful parable of the Savior, for the first time we will present a picture of a sinner. A certain man had two sons. And the most important thing they said to their father was, father, give me a worthy part of the estate. And divide the property among them. And the youngest one spoke. Why not the eldest? The Savior, in this case, wants to keep the advantage, the advantage of primacy, for the imaginary righteous man, beloved by the Pharisees. In such thoughts He portrays a young man who wants to appear mature before his time and is impatiently awaiting the death of his father. Father, rain on me a worthy part of the estate. A young man wants to separate from his father, who oversees his life; he wants to be of his own free will, he wants to manage his life at his own discretion. A kind, gentle father gives him everything he needs; but he dreams of freedom. Just as a father has a right, so a son points out his right. Why shouldn’t a son live only by love for his father instead of living by his rights? Doesn't he weaken the feelings of filial love when he replaces them with other impulses? Or the good father could not give a share to his son himself, whenever he considered it necessary? The son is looking for freedom. This is the beginning, this is the first step of the soul’s retreat from the Heavenly Father! Apparently, there is nothing criminal when they want to use freedom as a gift from God. But this thirst for freedom, this insistent demand for it is already a matter of self-will, pride, appropriating for yourself what does not belong to you. What does your true freedom mean? True freedom, such as the freedom of the saints, is silent, voluntary submission to the will of the Heavenly Father. When they seek freedom for themselves, it means they are burdened to be under the power of God, they want to live not according to the will of God, they allow themselves to use their freedom willfully. Pride is insulted by someone else's power, and at its secret suggestion, they make up rules for themselves that are inconsistent with the love of God, they breed thoughts that rebel against the faith God has given to us, they multiply desires that are defiled by the breath of either pride or carnal impurity. Thus, with our own will, our first step is not only a criminal step, but a step that draws us from crime to crime. This is why Christianity so decisively demands that we renounce our will! And divide their estate. The father could deny his son his whimsical desire and force him to live under the legal authority of his father, but what kind of father would want to keep his son in the position of a slave? Likewise, the Heavenly Father, what blessings has not been given to us at our disposal! God's possessions are everything that we receive when we are born, the mind, the heart, and freedom, and external blessings. And everything that we have in spiritual life is a gift of God’s grace. Our property is only nothingness, in the words of St. Augustine, and, what is worse than nothingness, is sin. The Heavenly Father does not prevent us from disposing of ourselves according to our will. He is the Father of truth and love. According to the demands of truth, He does not force us to do good against our will and rewards free service to Him. At the request of love, He provides the freedom given by Him to act according to its will, but in the very deviations from the law, He gives it various admonitions. These are the works of God! They are holy. But we are sinners when we stop looking at what we receive from the Lord as gifts of God, and look at our own property; when we think with self-pleasure, these are our abilities, these are our knowledge, these are our virtues, these are our wealth, these are our merits. Pathetic, dangerous self-delusion! And not many days later, my son gathered everything, departed for a far country, and there he squandered his property, living fornication. For a few days, conscience could still keep the headstrong son in the house of the father who loves him so much. But then the passions that secretly prompted him to ask for an inheritance drew him to a distant country. How many of us, having noticed movements of criminal self-will in ourselves, stop at not going further along the path of sin? Unfortunately, as soon as a weak soul slips once, it quickly moves on and leaves for a distant land. Having stepped out from under the control of the Spirit of God and given in to the attraction of a corrupt heart, she goes from crime to crime, from vice to vice, further and further from God. God is everywhere; but the sinner removes the thought of God from himself, loses sight of him, plunging into the darkness of vices. God is everywhere; but His gracious light does not penetrate into the sinner’s heart, encountering an obstacle in the soul’s addiction to sin. Having given himself over to the striving of the passions, the sinner becomes far from the Divine life, and the grace of God moves away from him, abhorring his impurities. And waste your property, you living prodigal. Sinner! Look at yourself, have you not lost the gifts of God through a criminal life? Look at yourself, what were you and what are you now? You have been given a mind capable of elevating you to the contemplation of the mysteries of God. But how you humiliated, how you spoiled the gift of God, using it to serve the passions! Where does he look for food? He does not like the book of eternal life - the holy gospel; he finds joy in books that are either godless or unclean, or those where they talk only about earthly benefits. You were given a good, God-fearing heart, capable of opening up to heavenly impressions, but now it is callous and evil, and is all permeated with the impurities of lust. Is your conscience, which was so attentive, now still picky in relation to good and bad, or has it no longer bothered you about bad? Where have the invaluable gifts of grace gone that should be multiplied? Where are the clothes of purity and innocence that you were clothed with in the baptismal font? What good remains in your soul? There is nothing there except the passions of sinners; there breathes either a passion for earthly fame, or a passion for dissipation, or a passion for smoldering wealth. I have outlived everything for him, and the famine is strong in that country, and they begin to lose it. The reckless son thought that he, living on his own free will, would always live cheerfully, would live as his soul desired. And so his dreams dissipated. He suffers from poverty. Was there ever a land of error and vice, that region where the scattered soul lives, was there ever a land of abundance and contentment? Oh! there is always poverty and poverty, always severe hunger. The only thing is that the sinful soul, in the child of passions, does not notice its situation for a long time; For a long time she does not feel that poverty is pressing on her, that severe hunger is exhausting her. If she begins to see her poverty, then this is always due to the secret action of God’s grace, calling the lost one to return to her native home. They have begun to lose, how much has been said about the internal state of the sinner! For some time he lived in the rapture of feelings and did not understand himself. But then he begins to feel that his soul is not good; begins to feel boredom, languor, emptiness. And he went to cleave to the only inhabitant of that country. And that ambassador sat down with his own pig to graze. The son of a rich father, a son who was burdened by such tender power as the power of his father, out of the needs of poverty gives himself into slavery to a stranger, and he sends him to graze pigs. What a humiliation! Why does the unfortunate man, oppressed by poverty and need, not return to his father, who loves him tenderly? Why, instead of dooming himself to a low lot, does he not rush to his parents’ house, rich and deceased? Doesn't the same thing happen to a sinful soul? Why then, since by the grace of God she feels the emptiness of her life, does she not hurry to return to the Heavenly Father? No, self-will draws her further into the path of sin. The sinner tries to fill the emptiness of the soul with gross materiality and gives himself into slavery to sin. Cling to the one inhabitant of that country. Residents of a country far from the house of the Heavenly Father are souls who live in oblivion of God and are given over to a corrupt mind to do lewd things (Rom. 1:22). A lost soul, but still feeling itself and its position, is not yet among the dead. But unhappy, in order to drown out her longing for her homeland, she begins to lead the lowest life. And her mind, her heart, and her will are enslaved to sin. At times the mind wants to free itself from the power of sensuality and the poor heart sighs for holy freedom, but yields to the power of skills and the charms of sin; and the unfortunate one grazes and feeds sensual bestial lusts, the vileness of which is so disgusting. Pathetic condition! And he desired to satisfy his belly with the flesh of a swine, and no one gave it to him. The dissolute son, covered in shame, deprived of his daily bread, was finally abandoned by everyone; Tormented by hunger, he wants to be satisfied with what unclean animals eat. But even that is denied to him with contempt. What a sad picture! The world is a cruel master. He is not generous to those who enter his service; At the very beginning, he promises the new servant nothing more than the position of a pig shepherd, but then he begins to clearly neglect those who have humiliated themselves morally. The world is especially cruel to them when their happiness leaves them. But the world does its own thing, and good Providence has its own thing in mind. The Heavenly Father, who invisibly controls the course of human affairs, puts the depraved sinner in a hopeless situation in order to allow him to feel himself. Dissolving judgment with mercy. He exposes the sinner to adversity, loss of livelihood, illness, dishonor, in order to soften his hardened heart through painful experiences and bring him to himself. Listeners! The picture of the sinner's error is gloomy. Why is she depicted? Is it not in order to strengthen pious souls in piety through the fear of troubles brought upon us by sin? Is it not so that those who had the misfortune of falling into the position of a lost son would come to their senses with the terrible picture of a lost life? Lord, Lord! Bring down Your light into the depths of our hearts, so that, illuminated by it, we will tremble before sin as before the most terrible disaster! Amen. Conversation II. About the Prodigal Son, Wednesday of the 1st week of Lent In our previous conversation about the prodigal son, we looked at the history of the self-will of the prodigal son. In the Savior's parable, the story of self-will is followed by the story of the conversion of the prodigal son (Luke 15:17–20). Now that St. The church also expects our sincere appeal to God; it is fitting for us to take into account how the unfortunate son returned to his father. Having come to myself, I said, because my father’s hired servant runs out of bread, but I perish with famine. When debauchery brought the dissolute son to extreme poverty, he came to his senses and came to his senses. ABOUT! If only every sinner would learn through the sorrows of life the truth closest to him, that he who is destined for heaven cannot have joys on earth! This is what the Heavenly Father expects and wants from us. I came within myself. The first action that must take place in every converted sinner is self-consciousness. A sinner, while he remains a sinner, lives outside himself and does not know himself. He knows much that surrounds him, but he himself is not known. The sinner's desires and thoughts are scattered over the objects of his passions; his life is a dream; dreams wander in his heart. Does he not know where he is going? Doesn't he know what's going on in him? What is the state of his soul? Is everything in it intact? Is everything in place? Is there any damage, is there any disorder in her body? He doesn't think about it because he's not looking at himself. There is nothing closer to you than yourself, man! And you don't know yourself. What a strange thing! Not thinking about yourself, not taking care of yourself - what a pitiful situation! Look at you, sinner! Look at your present, think about your past, take a look at the future that awaits you. Remember that you are human. Having come to myself, I said, because my father’s hired servant has run out of bread, but I am perishing with famine. ABOUT! How terrible is the situation in which the sinner finds himself, as soon as he comes to his senses. “I'm starving,” he says. Yes, what did he eat before? Food for the dumb. How can one live on such food? But heavenly food, which alone is able to satiate the immortal soul, cannot be purchased with anything or anything. The forces are upset by sin, the skills for good have long been lost, the gifts of grace have been squandered. I am relaxed, I am exhausted from sin, Lord! There is not a single solid thought from which good desires develop; there is not a single good resolution from which any good mood would be formed. It is bitter, very bitter for a sinner to look at his situation when he remembers the goodness of the Heavenly Father, when he remembers how much bread is running out in his house as a hireling. In the house of the Heavenly Father there is abundant food for all mankind. He endows even the most humble slaves, the most ordinary people, with his goodness. He adds contentment to the days of human life, which the carelessness of people could have shortened long ago. He did not leave himself unknown to the pagans, giving rain from heaven and fruitful times, filling their hearts with food and joy (Acts 14:17); He revealed himself to them in the unwritten law, in the law of their hearts. And His son, so dear to His heart, and His son, to whom He showed so much of His love through the fathers and prophets, to whom He sent His only begotten Son for salvation, remains in rags and struggles with starvation? ABOUT! Christian is a sinner! how bitter is your poverty! How reckless is your self-will, on which all your poverty depends! Rising, I go to my father and the river, father of those who have sinned in heaven and before you, this is how the prodigal son thought within himself. He now sees, which he had not seen before, that he deeply insulted his father when he ungratefully neglected his caring love and wanted to live according to his own will. “I have sinned,” he says, and does not excuse himself either by his youth or the ardor of his passions; “I have sinned,” he says, and does not think of justifying himself in any way. Is it necessary to say, listeners, that every sin of ours is an insult to our heavenly Father, as a disregard for the rights of His greatness, as a senseless contempt for His goodness? What can we say about life, which is a chain of sins? Your sins ascend to heaven, says the Holy Scriptures. Sin, violating the holy will of God, also offends the inhabitants of heaven, to whom the will of God is so dear; the sinner disturbs the peace of the celestials, violating the order established for the universe. We must repent and repent the way the prodigal son repents, sincerely, with all his heart. Our pride inspires us to excuse our sins with various pretexts, and even if we repent, we repent only half. But my God! You will judge me not because of what my pride tells me, but because of what Your truth says. Why should I listen to my vanity? And how unfair are his comments about me! Self-love excuses our sins in us, either by the weaknesses of nature, or by the example of others, or by the goodness of God. But do our weaknesses prevent us from being strong in sin? Did the infirmities of nature prevent the saints of God from becoming saints? “We shouldn’t live in defiance of many? And why not live like many people live?” That's what others say. But many who perish will not save either us or themselves from destruction. We are commanded to look not to the example of many, but to the example of the saints. Even if you had to live in defiance of many, live so as not to perish. Is God merciful? But how strict is His truth towards the unrepentant sinner! ABOUT! God! do not turn my heart into the words of wickedness and not bear the guilt of sins. Do not allow me, through the wickedness of my heart, to come up with crafty excuses for my sins. Otherwise, what use will it serve me? Only to more condemnation. Forgivable sin will grow more freely in my heart; and yet it is terrible to allow sin to reach the soul and even more terrible to call sin truth; the latter is the work of Satan. And your son is no longer worthy to be called; make me as one of your hired servants. Thus spoke the repentant prodigal son. Repentance, if it is what it should be, must certainly be humble. A sinner who sincerely repents confesses and feels that through his sins he has lost the right to the mercy of a father towards his son, because he did not live like a son. Therefore, he considers it a mercy if he is allowed to be among the servants in his father’s house. Having experienced the bitterness of sin, having learned the baseness of a lawless life, he is ready to take the very last place, as long as it is a place in the house of God; recognizes it as the greatest happiness to be at the gates of this house, so long as not to live in the palaces of wickedness, no matter how brilliant they may be. Oh! Brethren! When you begin to repent, do not be afraid that you will humiliate yourself too much in opinion. This fear would again be a matter of our pride, which is afraid to see ourselves in our present form, in our dirty form. What is sin? Worse than nothing! Where is the place for a sinner? He has no place in the kingdom of God; his place is in hell. Understand that no matter how low a sinner thinks of himself, no matter how unenviable a lot he assigns to himself, he will not be lower than that, no matter how humiliated he is by his sins. Having risen, I go to my father. The emotional prodigal son is not content with sincerely recognizing the baseness of his position and his guilt, but decides to return to his offended father. The change that must take place in a repentant sinner should not be limited to just a review of his plight; it must be accomplished in his will. He must decide, firmly decide on this. to part with the paths he had hitherto walked. He must decide to avoid all cases that could awaken in him one or another of his passions. He must determine himself to use all measures to extinguish bad habits in himself. These measures are difficult and painful, but he must choose them. Otherwise, the sin remaining in the wavering will will again prevail over it; habits of favorite weaknesses will again prevail over temporary good desires. Oh! How many people are found whose path is strewn with good intentions, but their good intentions remained unfulfilled and their path leaned toward hell. True repentance is not a change in one way of thinking, it is a change in the whole soul. The whole soul lived for sin. The whole soul must turn from sin to the Heavenly Father. Shame at one’s poverty, disgust at the vileness of one’s deeds, awe at God’s justice should fill the repentant soul and direct its will to a new life, to new deeds, to deeds for the Lord. A repentant sinner must testify to a change in thoughts and desires by a change in deeds themselves. Therefore, his determination to do good must be firm, unyielding to any suggestions of false friendship, or to any advice from the evil age or corrupt nature. Where can I get a firm determination to do good? There is also a lot of firmness in a person who, for the sake of worldly gain, decides to undertake all the labors and dangers. The Lord has even more of it, who refuses nothing to anyone when they humbly ask Him. Brethren! the path along which the sinful soul must return to the Heavenly Father is opened by heaven itself. With grateful hearts let us enter this path, to the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy. Spirit. Amen. Conversation III. About the Prodigal Son, Saturday of the 1st week of Lent Many of us have confessed our sins these days. Many are worthy to partake of the holy mysteries. Do you know how much this means? Do you know how you should rejoice, how you should thank the goodness of God! Have we only seen what happened in heaven? ABOUT! what a wondrous, what a majestic mystery - the reconciliation of a sinner with heaven! Only the Son of God who descended from heaven could speak about what is happening in heaven during the reconciliation of a sinner with heaven. Let us listen to how the Savior describes the acceptance of a returning sinner by the Heavenly Father. While I am still far away from him, his father saw him and was kind to him. When the prodigal son was still far away, his father saw him and took pity on him; the guilty son has not yet appeared to his father, has not yet asked for forgiveness, but the father has already seen him with the gaze of love and took pity on him. This is how the Heavenly Father accepts a repentant sinner. Omniscience sees Him and His love pities Him even before the sinner comes to Him. The watchful eye of His love sees the sinner even in his distress, even at his first awareness of his misfortune, even at his first thought about returning from the miserable path of sin. His omniscient love, even before a sinner calls on Him for help, already rushes to the sinner with help. Almost always, only needs, only disasters make a sinner remember the Heavenly Father, and not the love that he should have for Him, but heavenly love does not withhold its mercy towards the sinner. “He is quite punished, he punished himself,” she says and feels sorry for the unfortunate sinner. And the flow fell on his neck and forehead. Alarmed by shame and fear, the guilty son timidly walked to his father. The gentle father ran to him, threw himself on his neck and kissed him. O heavenly love, incomprehensible love! Not only is there not a single reproach heard against her ungrateful sinner. What a welcome she gives to a sinner! She hugs him. The vile clothes of a sinner do not repulse her from the sinner. The smell of bestial food, which pervades the sinner who eats it, does not deter it. In front of a host of pure spirits, she kisses the stinking sinner. ABOUT! sinner! And can you still remember anything other than heavenly love? And can you still value anything other than heavenly love? The son said to him, father, “I have sinned in heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” There are also children who, like their father, despite all their guilt, accepts them with all love, saying to themselves, “things are going as well as possible, what should we think about? Let’s live as we lived before.” May God grant every parent to have such children. Sinner, merciful of the Heavenly Father! No matter how great the love of the Heavenly Father is in you, do not forget that you are a sinner. Don't forget to call on Him, Father! who have sinned in heaven and before You, I am not worthy to be called Your son. Think about it: given your unworthiness, the more love shown to you by the Heavenly Father, isn’t it clearer, isn’t your unworthiness becoming more severe? That is why they tell us to rejoice only with fear and trembling. Otherwise, forgetting about sins is already a sin in itself, and it entails new sins, and thereby blocks the access of grace to us. In exactly the same way, remembrance of sins, humbling and softening our heart, opens the entrance to new and greater gifts of heavenly love. The father said to the slave, wear out the first garment, and clothe him, and put a ring on his hand and boots on his nose. At the first meeting with his son, the father did not say a word to his son, but by the very reception he told him too much. Now he not only blesses him, but showers him with gifts. The three gifts that the Father honors the repentant son, according to the general and, therefore, fair explanation, mean a complete response to the repentant sinner, that response that the Heavenly Father accepts him as a dear son, with the generous love of a tender father. What does clothing mean to a half-naked poor man? The fact that his shame is covered, his nakedness is not visible, he is no longer ashamed of people. A half-naked, poor sinner, but a repentant sinner, receives clothing in the same way, i.e. justification; the shame of his sins is covered by the mercy of God (Ps. 84:3), the wickedness of his heart is forgotten (Ps. 31:5), and he can appear without shame in the host of angels. To the self-admiring angel of the Laodicean church, the Lord says in revelation, I advise you to buy from Me a white robe, so that you may be clothed, and let the shame of your nakedness not appear (Rev. 3:18). This is the explanation for the inhuman clothing that a repentant sinner receives! The repentant son is given a ring on his hand. The ring of the ancients was worn only by nobles and slaves did not dare to wear it. (James 2:2). So Joseph received a ring from Pharaoh as the highest distinction (Gen.41:42, 38:18). So, if a repentant sinner is given a ring as a reward for repentance, this means that he receives freedom, the spirit of sonship, that he is no longer a slave of sin, not a son of a sinful earth, but a son of heaven, a son of the kingdom of heaven, that he is no longer tormented by the fears of executions, like a slave and a criminal slave. And boots on his feet. To be shod with boots means in the language of scripture to have the readiness and power to serve the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). The sinner himself is weak, upset by sin, he does not know how to walk freely along the paths of the commandments. The repentant sinner is given strength to walk according to the commandments of God. The Heavenly Father tells him, “I am also concerned that you should not walk in your parents’ house like slaves, without boots, but be at peace, everything is ready for you, you will walk like a son of heaven, with firm, free feet.” And having brought the well-fed calf, slaughter it and rejoice with joy, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again, and was found again, and began to rejoice. The son came to his father hungry. The father not only hurried to satisfy his hunger, but organized a magnificent celebration. To whom is the Heavenly Father addressing, calling to share His joy over the repentant sinner? Revelation tells us that there is joy in heaven, before the angels of God, over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10). The same, without a doubt, should be understood about the saints of God who moved from earth to heaven. And so you see what a triumph for the repentant sinner! The sinner rejoices, the angels and saints rejoice, God rejoices. Angels and saints rejoice. For they see the incomprehensible goodness of God, they see that their brother, who stood on the brink of destruction, has been shown mercy and will glorify the Lord with them. God rejoices. For He does not want the sinner to die, and so the sinner is saved. Our hearts are easily pleased when we manage to do a good deed for others, help the poor, save the perishing. But what does our goodwill towards others mean in comparison with the love of the Heavenly Father? If the saints and angels rejoice, God rejoices over the repentant sinner, how can the sinner himself not rejoice? He is happy. Because it was accepted in a way that could not have been expected. The shame is removed, freedom is given, strength is strengthened. Moreover, the sky is in triumph about him. How great is the joy for the repentant sinner! It is so big that it cannot be described. This is a joy that can only be spoken of comparatively, guessed approximately, but which cannot be depicted, since there are no words for heavenly things in the earthly language. The Savior Himself explains the triumph of heaven over the repentant sinner only by comparisons. Just as he who has a hundred sheep, He says, and has lost one of them, leaves the ninety-nine and goes to look for the lost one, and having found it, takes it on his shoulders and calls his friends and neighbors, rejoice, he says, with me, I have found the lost sheep, so they rejoice in heaven over a repentant sinner (Luke 15:4-7). Like a poor woman who had ten drachmas and lost one, lights a candle, sweeps the rooms and carefully looks for the lost drachma, and when she finds it, calls her friends and neighbors, go, she says, have fun with me friends, I have found my lost drachma, so there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:8-10). From the parable of the son who died and was found, we see that the father calls his whole house to rejoice, we rejoice, he says. And then it was said, and they began to rejoice, and began to sing and rejoice. The sky resounded with songs of joy, praise, and gratitude for the repentant sinner. Wonderful celebration! Wonderful joy! The repentant soul, clothed with flesh, can partly feel this joy, since its object is itself, but only heaven knows it. Ap. John in his revelation saw the triumph of the marriage of the Lamb with the church. The celebration began, as he shows, with a voice coming from the throne, sing to our God, art His servants and those who fear Him, both little and witch. Then the voice of many people was heard, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God Almighty reigns. We rejoice and are glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared food for herself (Rev. 19:5-17). Such is the triumph of the Lamb's marriage with the church! A similar celebration occurs about the union of a sinner with God! For the goodness of God is such that the mercies poured out on the whole church are repeated for every soul that turns to God. ABOUT! How can one not exclaim with the seer of God, blessedness, whose iniquity has been abandoned, whose sins have been covered up. Blessed is the man; the Lord will not impute sin to him. Reh, let me confess my iniquity to the Lord, and You have forsaken the wickedness of my heart. For this reason every saint will pray to You (Ps. 31:2-4). If one of the repentant sinners says, I repented, but did not feel such joy, such a one should be told, it’s your fault, my friend! Your confession lacked many things, which is why you had no joy. Listen to what the unfaithful word of God tells us. Draw closer to God and he will come closer to you. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you (James 4:8, 10). They rejoice in heaven as they repent on earth. Glory and thanksgiving to Thy immeasurable love, our heavenly Father! Amen. A word on the week of Orthodoxy, at the beginning of the rite of Orthodoxy What do we want to do, brothers? Isn't there something that might offend some? Isn't there something for which perhaps some will condemn us? True, human judgment is not very important; human judgment may be far from the truth. Nevertheless, we must take care that the conscience of our brothers is not offended by our actions; we must show that it is not we who are making mistakes, but others. So, a few minutes to think, what do we want to do? What is this trial that we want to repeat? Our Savior Lord Jesus, giving healing to the sick, before he healed him, said, “Your sins are forgiven.” When the Pharisee and the scribes heard His words, they said, “This one is a blasphemer; who can forgive sins?” The scribes were learned people; they understood, and rightly understood, that Christ Jesus, by assimilating to himself the power to forgive sins, assimilates to himself that which belongs to the one God. This one blasphemes, he blasphemes, they said, he takes upon himself what does not belong to him and belongs to the only God, otherwise he steals power from God. What was the mistake of the scribes? What did scientists not understand? They did not understand or did not want to understand that Christ Jesus is the Son of God, also omnipotent, as omnipotent as God the Father. His deeds showed that He was more than the son of man, that He was omniscient and omnipotent, like God. But people were blind from the action of passions and did not see it. The father does not judge anyone, but all judgment is given to the sons, as the Son of God taught. The power to judge, the power to bind and loose belongs to God, but it also belongs to the Son of God. This is who initially owns the judgment of people's conscience. Does it belong to anyone else? Without a doubt, it may belong to the one to whom the Son of God gives. Has power been given by the Son of God to anyone on earth? Dana. The Son of God himself speaks about this. If the church disobeys, He taught, you will be like a pagan and a publican (Matthew 18:27). What is it? The Savior said that if you see a brother sinning, then tell him about his sin in private. If he doesn't listen, take another brother. If even after that it does not improve, tell the church. If he does not listen to the church, let him be to you like a pagan and a tax collector, let him be for you the same as a pagan and a publican, let him be for you a person with whom you should no longer have any communication, he rejected the church, is rejected by the church, and you, who are in connection with the church, therefore should not be in connection with someone who no longer belongs to the church. This is the exact teaching of the Son of God! If you bind the tree on earth, the Son of God says at the same time, they will be bound in heaven, and if you loose the tree on earth, they will be loosed in heaven. This is even clearer and stronger. What you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Who are you? First he gave the power to bind and loose the church; now he says, you will tie, you will allow. Who are you? You can see that power is not transferred to the entire church, but to certain individuals. Who are these people? Aren't there only apostles? But the Savior said that he was transferring the power of the church, therefore, not only to the apostles, but, therefore, to some persons who were to be in the church after the apostles, who were to be the successors of the apostles. And why does He transfer His great power? If your brother sins against you, He says. What does it mean? The fact that power is transferred for the reason that sinners are possible. Imagine, if during the time of the apostles there were possible sinners who demanded the power to bind and loose, what can we say about the times that followed? Brethren! Are disobedient people tolerated in human society? No. And it punishes them. Which one? Does he even exclude others from his society and order them to die a political death? By what right? There is no power except from God. Tell me, why do they want a spiritual society to tolerate disobedient people? How to think that such a high society, whose members, while living on earth, live in heaven, was not authorized by the power to cut off those who were disobedient from themselves, or what, too, to anathematize. In the Corinthian church, one man committed a grave sin, such as, as the apostle wrote, was not heard even among the pagans, but the Corinthians did not pay judicial attention to this. And the apostle wrote, in the name of our Lord, to those gathered to us and to your spirits, deliver such one to Satan. Marry the evil of you samekh (1 Cor. 5:1-5). Here is an example of the fact that under the apostles there was a judicial authority that excluded a serious and unrepentant sinner from a pure Christian society! Here is the experience that it was not only the apostle who acquired the power to strike a sinner with punishment, but he said that in the Corinthian church they would hand over the sinner to Satan. And so the church pronounces judgment on some because this judgment was given to it by the Son of God. After what has been said about the origin of church judgment over stubborn sinners, who would dare to take away the right of anathema from the church? Only people who are driven and tossed about by every wind of doctrine in the lies of men, in the deceit of the wiles of flattery can dare to do this (Eph. 6:14). Church tolerance of heresies and schisms was and can only be tolerated by people for whom truth and lies, ungodliness and piety are one and the same, people who waver at every step, having neither in their minds nor in their hearts a firm faith; They are called Christians, but in their hearts they bow to either Mohammed or the Dalai Lama. Otherwise, those who know and love the truth cannot stand between truth and error. They do not hesitate to say that this is the truth and cannot be a lie; this is the truth and I am ready to defend it with my blood; or, it is a lie and cannot be the truth; this is a lie, and I will never agree to bow to it. To whom should the church pronounce anathema? She anathematizes those who do not recognize the existence and providence of God. But such people were also condemned by the pagans. She strikes with wrathful judgment those who claim that God is not Spirit, but flesh, or a person similar to us. And such people were condemned by the best of the pagans; and among the Christians dark superstitions approached them, believing the image of God in a man’s beard and mustache. She anathematizes those who do not recognize the consubstantiality of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit with God the Father and reject the Holy Spirit. Trinity. But the matter is settled, these dogmas are the distinctive dogmas of the Christian revelation. She anathematizes those who claim that the coming of the Son of God into the world, His suffering and death are unnecessary; condemns those who say that the atonement of the Son of God is not the only means of our justification before God. But people who do not feel the need for God to save people do not even have the initial feelings of Christian life and are worse than the pagans who were aware of their guilt. She anathematizes those who do not recognize the unmarried conception of the Son of God and honor Christ Jesus as a simple man. “But these are blind Jewish scribes.” She condemns those who claim that the prophets and apostles did not write their scriptures by inspiration of the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit does not work in the hearts of believers; condemns those who do not accept St. sacraments But these are again people who do not understand themselves or the history of mankind and are satisfied with pagan truth. Finally, she condemns those who do not consider it a sin to rebel against sovereigns. But these are the enemies of man and God. Thus, the church anathematizes such people who are condemned by the revelation of God. Listen to what the beloved disciple of Christ John writes? Every spirit, he says, who does not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh, is not from God and is Antichrist (1 John 4:3). Listen to what the apostle preaches. Paul? He teaches that if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed (1 Cor. 16:2). If we, or an angel from heaven, bring you good news, even more than we bring good news to you; Let him be accursed (Gal.1:3). What else will they say against the church court? It’s scary, they say, to think what a terrible judgment the church pronounces - a church whose voice, it seemed, should be the voice of one love? Yes, brothers, it’s scary; It’s scary because the judgment of the church is the judgment of God, the judgment of the Son of God. ABOUT! will this give us the trembling of Jeremiah, who trembled for Jerusalem, struck by the wrath of God? Who will give the streams of tears that the prophet of God shed, mourning the fate of wicked Israel? But what do I say about Jeremiah's trembling and tears? Do we need such trembling, such tears, such sorrow when we hear the judgment of God condemning a sinner to eternal torment? ABOUT! brethren! It’s scary to fall into the hands of the living God. And the court of the church, we repeat, is the court of God. But why is it not a court of love? Then, brethren, the unrepentant sinner does not understand and does not accept the judgment of love, while the church desires one thing for everyone - eternal salvation. They are self-loving, majestic, proud, blasphemers, impudent, pompous, sensualists, having an image of godliness, but rejecting its power (2 Tim. 3:2-5) do not heed any suggestions of love and, out of their pride, put themselves above the church, separating themselves from it. Let it be so, they say, let Arius, let Macedonius be struck by anathema, why is it repeated now? Yes, if we were so attentive to ourselves that there were no Aryans and Macedonians between us, the church would not repeat its terrible judgment. We are not unhappy! How many Arievs and Macedonians are among us, even more daring in blasphemy than they were and brazenly preaching lies! How many people have separated themselves, as the proud Novat did, from communion with the church and are taking measures to entice many others along with them! Not understanding what they say, not understanding what they want, what they are talking about, what they see in the dilapidated letter, they stubbornly evade those who would like and could say something useful to the soul, they evade themselves and reject others. What remains of St. Are churches in this situation? Is it not love itself that obliges it to strike superstition with fear and ignominious anathema? The pride of superstition finds its food in the fact that it thinks to live unpunished in its own way. Let her hear that there is a judgment against proud superstition, a judgment pronounced on earth and repeated in heaven. The doctor, not out of cruelty, but out of wise love, takes away an infected member of the body, thereby wanting to save other members of the body from infection. St. does the same. church. With the fear of judgment on the disobedient, she warns the unwary from communicating with disobedient people; By putting error to shame, she saves simple minds from communicating with error. This is what the Apostle of God, a human heretic, commanded to do: if he does not correct himself after the first and second punishment, admonition, deny it, leave (Tit. III. 10). I pray you, brethren, beware of those who create strife and strife, and turn aside, move away from them (Rom. 16:17). No, it is not the judgment, alien to the mother’s heart, that expresses the judgment of the church. You will see, you will hear how she and all her children will kneel before the Lord for the salvation of the erring. You will see, you will hear how she will beg the Lord Jesus through His merits, so that He would give a spirit of repentance to those who subject themselves to anathema. ABOUT! If only the lost themselves would be touched by the tears of their mother, which she sheds for them before the Lord and before all His saints! Glorifying the champions of Orthodoxy, what does the church want if not triumph for the truth, if not glory for that name, which alone is worthy of glory? Glory to the Father and the Son and St. Spirit, now and forever. Amen. Word for the Week of Orthodoxy The terrible judgment that you will soon hear, listeners, refers, by the way, to “those who have taken away all the holy sacraments contained by the Church of Christ.” By the grace of God, all of us who belong to the Orthodox Church firmly maintain the holy sacraments; We don’t dare even think that we can sweep them away. But there are quite a few around us who are not afraid to renounce such a mystery as the mystery of the Holy Eucharist; they are not even afraid to sometimes utter terrible blasphemies against this terrible secret. There is no reason to hide the illnesses of some of us, brothers. There are enough among us who, although they will not sweep away the holy secret with their tongues, and yet do not participate in it for various pretexts. Let us come closer to the meaning of the church's judgment on those who remove secrets by reflecting on how we all need to partake of the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, and how unfounded are the excuses for which many do not partake of this sacrament. Who established the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist? The Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus. Take, eat, He said to the disciples, this is My body, broken for you. Drink of it, all of you, this is My blood of the new testament. Do you hear, the Lord Himself commands: drink from it, all of you. A decisive command, a command that applies to everyone without exception, a command from the Lord himself. What more? Let's listen to another witness about the same thing. For I received from the Lord, says the apostle, and gave it to you, as the Lord Jesus in the night, when you were betrayed, received bread, and having given thanks, broke it, and said, take, eat, this is My body, which was broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way I also took the cup at supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” As often as the apostle adds, if you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until it comes (1 Cor. 11:23-25). What could be clearer than these words? The apostle accurately repeats the will of the Lord, take, eat. The apostle conveys the will of the Lord in words that are completely clear and definite; For all who belong to the new covenant, he says, this supper is established, this cup is the new covenant in my blood; everyone who wants to remember the Lord must participate in this supper; do this in remembrance of Me. The Apostle also added his own words about the meaning of the words of the Lord; until then, he says, this supper must be celebrated, until the Lord comes to judgment, i.e. until the end of the age, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until it comes. Now asking, is it necessary to do the will of the Lord? Without a doubt it is necessary; for woe to those who do not submit to the will of the Lord. Is it necessary to fulfill the will of the Lord, which extends to all times? Even more necessary; for in this case, woe to everyone, no matter who he is and no matter when he lives, if he despises this will. So, think about whether it is necessary to partake of the Lord’s Supper when it was established by the Lord himself, established for all times, established for everyone? And what is offered at the Lord's Supper? The cup of blessing, the apostle teaches, is there not fellowship in the blood of Christ? Bread, we break it, isn’t there fellowship of the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16) So, at the Lord’s table, the very body of the Lord is offered in the form of bread, and in the form of wine, the life-giving blood of the Lord. Tell me, from what do they move away when they move away from the Lord’s Supper? What is neglected by neglecting the Lord's Supper. It's scary to think! What actions does the Eucharist perform in those who partake of it? What do those who retreat from it lose? He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood, says the Lord, abides in Me, and I in him (John 6:56). Here is the first act of the great mystery! Oh, wonderful and glorious mystery! He who partakes of the mystery of the Eucharist is united with the Lord himself. O wondrous, incomprehensible goodness of God! Brethren! Tell me what good—a higher one—could a person desire after this immeasurable good? The clay unites with the Creator! The sinner unites with the All-Holy! The poor, weak, half-dead - unites with the Life-Giving and Almighty! What more could a person wish for? And what can he not hope for from such mercy? And truly, listen to the words of the Lord, this is My blood, He said, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28), i.e. in this cup is My blood, that blood that is poured out for the remission of sins; drink it, it forgives the sins of sinners, it sanctifies sinners. If you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you will have eternal life (John 6:54), says the Lord. So here comes more mystery action! She gives eternal life. Do you suffer in soul and body? she is a reviving medicine. Are you exhausted in the fight against passion? Come to the Holy Eucharist - it gives new strength. Who can count all the actions of a wonderful mystery, when it is the mystery of life? The tangible fruit of eating it is for the believer either light in the mind, or joy in the heart, or sweet peace in the soul, or a lively feeling of love for the Lord, or zeal for spiritual achievements. If the Holy Eucharist is the bread of life, bestowing both forgiveness of sins and spiritual strength, then what is a person left with when he deprives himself of this life-giving bread? With sins and passions. What a dangerous situation! But isn't this human fortune-telling? No, brethren; the work of our salvation is not based on fortune-telling, but on the faithful word of the Lord. Unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of man or drunk His blood, you have not life within you (John 6:53). Who speaks these words? The Son of God Himself, our Lord Himself, whose every word to her and amen is true, immutable, like nothing else in the world. What do these words mean? They are very clear: whoever does not want to partake of the body and blood of the Lord, like a Jew, cannot be alive. The Christian was born in the water of baptism; the water of baptism, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, formed a new man in him, this is a spiritual baby. Imagine, if you didn’t give the baby food and drink, would he still be alive? No! The power of grace acceptable in baptism is, of course, stronger than the power of life imparted to the child at birth; it is once given and is not destroyed. But do you know what earthly life means for a Christian? Do you know how many temptations, how many illnesses, how many dangers the soul experiences; and upon birth in the water of baptism. To what exhaustion her sins and passions can bring her! Where is the reinforcement for her weak, where is the food for her hungry, where is the consolation for her who is stricken with sorrows? And how far can she go, exhausted by sins and passions? Have you ever seen a poor baby struggling with death, tormented by the agony of separation of body from life? You see - he is not dead yet; but what a terrible life this is! You close your eyes so as not to see the terrible struggle between life and death. Make sure that this is an exact image of that soul that has been left without heavenly food for many years, or always. She is called alive, she has not yet died, but her situation is terrible! Spiritual death torments her. Spiritual life in her is undeveloped and remains in infancy; and passions and sins dried her up, tormented her, and brought her to complete disorder. The word of the Lord is true, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man, you do not drink His blood, you do not have life in you. How do people justify their avoidance of the sacrament of the Eucharist? “We believe, some say, that the Holy Eucharist is a great thing, but where is it now?” This means that now, as these people say, we have no church, no secret. Unhappy - they are at enmity both against the Church of Christ and against the terrible secret. The blinded ones do not see what a terrible fate awaits them - the rebels. The same fate awaits them as befell the rebellious angels who were cast out of heaven for rebellion into Gehenna - the same fate that awaits all the enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:18-19). No church? Who is speaking? Isn't he a rebel against the Lord himself? In any other form, although I would like to, I cannot imagine it. For the Lord told us, His churches will not prevail even against the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18); she stands firm, since her head, the Lord, is invincible; she is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). They say we believe in mystery. But where is the mystery in which they believe? The mystery of Christ must be on earth; it must be accomplished here until it comes, i.e. until the end of the age, these are the words, this is the will of the Lord. Who can cancel the will of the Lord? Who can destroy the definition of the Most High? Isn’t it just self-will, isn’t it just apostate enmity? It will be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon on the day of judgment (Matthew 11:22) than for people who know the will of the Lord and brazenly trample on it. To whom will they call for help on the day of judgment? To Christ? But they rejected Him, denied His body and blood; I don’t know you, He will tell them, just as you did not know Me. To the Church of Saints? But they cursed at her, drove her out of the world, ran from her as if from sin. Is it the blood of the Intercessor, which cleanses our sins and gives us life to the dead? They are not imprinted on it, they have never fed on it. Unhappy ones! No one and nothing will protect them, but everything will rise up against them - the Lord and His church, and His blood and His word! The blind men say, “The elders say that you can be saved without communion.” The elders say? If we or an angel preach the gospel to you more than we preach the gospel to you, let him be anathema. Do you hear? Even if an angel preached the gospel contrary to the teaching of the Apostle, and you heard his teaching about the Eucharist, anathema! They say that we are following in the footsteps of ascetics who were in the deserts without communion. In what way do they imitate the ascetics? They lived like angels, but what about them? They lived in the deserts according to a vow, but what about them? They considered it bliss when they could partake, but what about them? Does rejecting the Holy Eucharist out of persistence in error, as they do, and not accepting the Holy Eucharist out of deep humility and as a result of a vow mean the same thing? After that, will they not begin to assert that blasphemy against a shrine is the same as praise for a shrine? Brethren! The feeling of humility is sacred, it is necessary for everyone; it is the seal of a true Christian. Always have humility, especially when you approach a terrible secret. You approach the Lord, terrible in majesty, terrible in truth. Let it also be that the feeling of humility, the feeling of your unworthiness, for some time, will keep you, together with the tax collector, away from the sanctuary of God; will not allow you to boldly approach the holy mystery. But remember that true humility will not allow itself to replace the mystery of the Lord with its own invention; it refrains from the mystery for a while only in order to better fulfill the will of God regarding the mystery. It happens that Satan is transformed into a holy angel (2 Cor. 11:14). It happens that under the cover of humility only the cunning of sin is hidden. You need to trust yourself; you need to check your deeds, are they acts of true humility? Humility shows itself to be submissive to power, recognizes itself as lower than everyone else, weeps over sins, strives in fasting and prayer, and fears God’s judgment. May God deliver everyone from the humility of hypocrites! But the secret meal was not established for angels, but for people, for weak people, weak people prone to sin until the very grave. Be firmly convinced that even if you were as pure as the holy angels are pure, then you should not consider yourself a worthy participant in the mystery. You have been washed with the water of baptism, you have purified yourself through tearful confession, this is your preparation for the mystery! Do you still feel like a sinner? Proceed to the meal established for the remission of sins; she will burn up the thorns of your sins. Are you cold and gloomy, does dryness weigh on your spirit? But, if you are like this even when you touch the source of life, what will happen to you when you deprive yourself of communication with eternal life? No, for the very reason that you feel the poverty of your soul, hasten to be enriched by the riches of Christ. Another says, my conscience convicts me of grave sins and keeps me from the Lord’s table with a terrible judgment. If so, there is no word, refrain from eating for a while; wash away your sins with repentance, cleanse yourself with tears of contrition. He who eats and drinks is unworthy to judge himself by eating and drinking (1 Cor. 11:29). But, refrain from a terrible secret only in order to prepare your soul for the secret by repentance, and not to cover up carelessness about your soul with the thought of unworthiness; not to create the will of passions in oblivion of eternity. Examples of salvation are shown for you. Hurry after the weeping harlot to the most pure feet of the Lord; hurry to collect as many tears as you can, as much fear as you can find in your soul, and kiss the feet of the Lord; touch the purifying fire of His flesh and blood. Are your sins serious? But tell me, Lord! healthy people do not require doctors, but sick people do; I am sick, the strings of my sins are festering, from head to toe there is no whole place in me; heal me, cleanse me. Doctor of soul and body! May the coal of Your body cleanse my filth, and may your life-giving blood revive me, deadened by sin. But here are some more excuses from the sacred secret: “I am busy with housework and duty,” says another; When should I take communion?” No one will condemn zeal for the duties of the service. But isn’t it our duty for every servant to approach the Holy Eucharist? Do you have a lot of work to do? God's God, and Caesar's God (Matthew 12:21). A lot of work at work? But, if your work is more for honor than for service, moderate your diligence, and the heavenly food to which the church calls you will strengthen your strength for faithful service to your earthly fatherland. Remember also how much time was wasted, how much energy wasted on passions and emptiness, and stop for at least a week to rest your soul. Are you busy with everyday worries? what are you saying? The Lord is waiting for you, and you cite concerns about the earth. Come to your senses. Isn't eternal life worth your concern? Are eternal needs less for you than earthly needs? Isn’t hunger, from which your soul may perish, terrible for you? Otherwise, what will you come there with? Brethren! Let us glorify the ineffable mercy of the Son of God towards us sinners; Let us be afraid to be despisers of His ineffable gift. Amen. Conversation IV. About the Prodigal Son, in the first week of Lent The third part of the parable of the prodigal son is the story of the eldest son (Luke 15:25–37). Here is depicted an arrogant sinner, a sinner seduced by dreams of his own decent, honest life. The attitude of the Heavenly Father towards him complements his sad picture, sad even more so since the sinner himself does not understand its meaning. The Gospel depiction of such a sinner, a secretive sinner, should be studied with special attention, since without this is it easy for us to recognize him? His son was an elder in the village, and as if he was coming, he approached the house, hearing singing and faces, and calling one of the youth, asking, what is this? If the father's eldest son worked in the field, this serves to his honor. But what doesn’t give a good thought about him is why the good father didn’t send for him when receiving his younger brother? Why, then, when all the servants were called to share the joy of their found son, was the eldest son of the house not also invited? It is true that the son did not like to do as his father wanted, but - as he himself wanted - he was left at his will. This thought about him is justified by his subsequent actions. So he, as soon as he returned from the field, as soon as he approached the house, revealed to himself what kind of disposition he was in towards the house. Hearing that they are having fun in the house, instead of going with heartfelt simplicity to the house of his rejoicing father, he stops and asks what is this? He is amazed that they are having fun without him. As if nothing should happen in my father’s house, apart from his will, apart from his decision! As if his father had no right to have fun without him! And from whom does he learn about what is happening in the house? From your father? No, he calls one of the servants to him. How indecent this is! It’s not decent, especially since being in a row with pride is baseness. He said to him, “Your brother came and your father slaughtered a fat calf, because he received him in health.” The servant speaks about the matter as it is. It is clear that he was a kind and simple-hearted servant. And how many servants of a different category there are! A servant of a good master not only speaks the truth, but speaks with good intentions. Your brother has come, your father has received him well, says the servant. These words not only show the truth, but also a good intention to calm the young master’s troubled soul. He became angry and didn’t want to hear it. Why were you angry? Why are you so offended? They told him the gratifying truth, but he became angry. Insensitive son! Insensitive brother! His wild soul is agitated by wild passions - envy, pride! He is tormented by the fact that they are having fun in honor of another; in anger for showing love to another. He considers himself humiliated because attention is paid to another. His father left to pray. “What a meek, what a kind father,” exclaims Blessed Jerome; he begs his son to take part in the joy of home.” Yes, it is rare to find such a father among Christian fathers, people blessed with grace, but never among ordinary people. This meek love is heavenly love. She goes out to meet the sinner, trying to attract him to her; she knows his obstinate spirit and, despite this, breathes meekness, affection, compassionate and condescending tenderness towards him. He answered, speaking to his father, “I have been working for you for so many years and have violated none of your commandments, and you have given me no more kids of goats, so that I may rejoice with my friends.” The obstinate son did not soften with the words of heavenly love, but only became irritated and begins an account with his father, an account with which he thought to accuse his father, while every word of his is evidence to himself. I’ve been working for you for so many years! What's special if a son worked in his father's house? Does a good son really only have the right to walk and waste time in idleness? Is the one for whom work is a burden really a decent person? No, more than a servant, the idleness of the children of a good father humiliates him. I have violated your commandments. And it’s as if he is a good son who violates the will of a good father. I have violated your commandments. But is this true? How could it happen that this respectful son is so deaf even to the pleas of his tender father? How could it happen that a son, respectful to his father, is so cold and cruel to his brother? If anyone says that he loves God but hates his brother, it is a lie (1 John 4:20). Speak to yourself to be in the light, but hate your brother, who is still in darkness (1 John 2:9). This is the teaching of heavenly truth! And you gave nothing to the kids. How? Does a good son consider his father? A good son demands payment from his father for loving his father? Is this the son? No, this is a mercenary, not a son. Oh! the son lost his filial love, even while living in his father's house. Is he not worse than his brother, who lost the same love away from his father? Yes, I would have fun with my friends. This is another distinction of a good son! He does not find joy in the fact that he lives with his good father, nor does he find joy in fulfilling his father’s commandments, while they are sweeter to a good son than honey and more expensive than precious stones (Ps. 18:11). He is looking for other joys, other friends. What kind of friends are these? Of course, if they were like his good father, they would not replace the father in his soul. The thirst for fun that he languishes in his father’s house shows that he is looking for friends of sin, the fun of debauchery. How is he different from the younger prodigal brother? Is it only because he presents himself as a man of decent life and immaculate behavior? When this son of yours, who had devoured your property with your lovers, came, you slaughtered the pet’s calf for him. Trying to expose his father's injustice as sharply as possible, the obstinate son points out his attitude towards his brother. When did this son come. He doesn’t even call his brother brother; he despises him so much that he considers it an insult to himself to be called his brother. Such is pride! Your son has come - an arrow of anger into his father’s heart. You, he says to his father, want to recognize this dissolute son as your son, let him be your son, admire him, but I don’t know such a brother. Then, as he lived, he is your estate with harlots, you accept him in a way that I was never accepted by you, this is your business! What anger in a proud heart! Respect for the father is forgotten, condescending love for the brother is forgotten. Moreover, pride is not only merciless towards the known weaknesses of a brother; she invents weaknesses. Why is this dear brother talking about his brother, who squandered his property with harlots? How did he know this? The good servant who met him does not say anything like that to him. Oh! how often it happens that, being bad themselves, they think bad things about others! Being themselves disposed to do this or that dirty deed, they transfer the same dirt to others. Who does not recognize in this proud brother the Jewish Pharisees and scribes, representatives of arrogant righteousness, often brilliant in outward life, but disgusting in heart disposition! The job of proud people is to dream about themselves that they are not like other people, not robbers, not offenders, not adulterers, but people of strict life (Luke 18:11). They will not forgive their brother for a single offense, they will immediately notice the speck in his eye, but they do not see even a log in themselves. They look like painted tombs, which seem beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness (Matthew 23:27). He said to him, child, you are always with much, and all of mine is your essence. Pharisaic pride condemned itself when it first revealed itself in words. Heavenly love does not judge her, but continues to admonish and shame her in a friendly manner. Child, there is so much tenderness in this word. And what kind of father says this word? A father showered with rudeness from his son. How patient is the love of a father! The son never called his father father, but the father says: Child! how strong this word is, despite all that is soft! It is as strong as any harsh word! It goes straight to my son's heart! It tells him, my son! do you speak to me like a son? Oh! come to your senses. Child, you are always with me, and my whole essence is yours. You have no reason to complain about my relationship with you. Despite your unfilial dispositions towards me, which you yourself have now discovered and which were known to me, your father’s love has always been open to you. How can you wish for the little goats? How can you look for friends other than your friend - your father? Are any of my benefits more valuable to you than I myself? However, my whole essence is yours. Everything that belongs to me belongs to you, just remain my son; and all this, of course, costs more than your labors could cost. Rejoice and rejoice befittingly, for this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, and has been found. Advising the obstinate son about his relationship to his brother! If a brother is dear to a brother's heart, then the return of his lost, of course, should be a matter of joy for the brother. And if a brother does not rejoice over his brother’s health, if the happiness of his dying brother offends and torments his brother, then such a brother does not have a brotherly soul, he has killed his brother’s feelings in himself, he has insulted, humiliated, and cruelly offended not his brother, but himself. The good father argued with the obstinacy of his son. A wonderful struggle between love and proud pride! Parents! This is how you should treat skinny kids! Mentors and shepherds! This is the patience with which you need to carry out your work. First, the guilt of those you teach should not stop you from fulfilling your duty to them. No matter how much bad you see in them, you must teach them good, you must instruct them with the word of the Gospel. Your job is to sow the seeds. Sow without wasting time in idleness. What will come of it? Will anything you sow grow? Don't worry, the future is not in your hands; the present is at your disposal. You can only wish that what you sow will grow. Pray to the One who sends beneficial moisture and fruitful warmth. Then look at the father, did the son’s obstinacy cause even one harsh word from his heart? No, the evangelical father shows the more tender meekness to his son, the more rudeness the son expresses. Do as patient love does. Rudeness and cursing in response to rudeness only irritates the rude person. If the tenderness of a father cannot always soften the evil heart of a son, then anger and noise can calm it just as much as oil does a flame. Be prudent at least for success in your business. Be meek, if only so as not to humiliate yourself in front of evil children. If they notice your anger, if they notice the immoderation or injustice of your anger, you will remain evil and unjust in their eyes, to their evil amusement, but your instructions will pass without benefit for them and even unnoticed. “The servant of the Lord should not quarrel, says the apostle about a Christian teacher, he should be friendly to everyone, teach ice, without malice, with meekness he should instruct his opponents, whether God will give them conversion to the truth” (2 Tim. 2:24-25). Finally, the image of a proud son is an instructive picture for one and all. How dangerous is proud pride for our salvation! How dangerous it is especially then, how it behaves decently among people so as not to hear self-reproach - it commits grave sins, but secretly from people and therefore sees respect for its outward honesty, for its visible righteousness. How much attention you need to pay to yourself, how strictly you need to watch yourself in order to humble your proud dreaminess about your righteousness! The dreaminess of pride is so subtle, so cunning, so elusive, despite its pleasant charm. How to discover it in yourself? By her actions. If, upon hearing about your neighbor’s successes in the affairs of God, you feel coldness towards him, you see in yourself a readiness to humiliate him, if not in words, then in your thoughts about him; Instead of grateful praise to God for your brother, you feel caustic hostility, secret enmity, anger and envy towards your brother, be sure that you have a lot of terrible Pharisaic pride. Fear her and humble yourself with self-reproach, pray no other than the prayer of a publican, O God, merciful, be unto me a sinner. Lord - Lord! let me see my sins. Amen. Conversation I. On Psalm 50, in the second week of Lent Have mercy on me, God, according to Your great mercy. Who is this who is so touchingly begging God for mercy? Who is constrained by such a need for heavenly help? Whose soul pours out such sorrow for itself before the Lord? This is the king and prophet David praying! The prophet and - confesses his grave sin before God? The king is glorious not only in his kingdom, but also among his neighbors and composes a song about his fall so that everyone can hear it. To the chief of the singers the song of David, when Nathan the prophet brought the prophet to him, when he went to Bathsheba's wife Uriah, so says the inscription of the psalm. And it also shows the content of the psalm. Isn’t it true that this is already enough to draw all attention to this song of repentance? Isn’t it true that sinners (and who are we all if not sinners?) need to study David’s psalm in order to be able to pray his prayer? And when is it most appropriate to study this prayer, if not on the days appointed for repentance, which are these days? Let us turn our full attention to David's prayer. There are two prayers in David’s penitential psalm, one is a prayer of petitions for oneself (Ps. 50:8–14), the other is a prayer of thanksgiving for the fulfillment of petitions (Ps. 50:15–21). In the prayer of petitions for himself, the repentant David briefly expresses a request for mercy (Ps. 50:3-4), sets out the reasons for the petition (Ps. 50:5-8), then pours out prayers, first for the forgiveness of sins (Ps. 50:9-11), then for the return of the gifts of grace (Ps. 50:12-14). Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy and according to the multitude of Your mercies, cleanse my iniquity. Most of all, wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. In what state, at what time does David pour out this prayer? Sin is a terrible thing. The repentant David, from the height of his royal-prophetic dignity, falls into carnal uncleanness, and does not stop there, shedding the blood of Uriah and his innocent comrades, defenders of the fatherland. Days pass, months pass, a year passes; David does not feel his sins. He does not leave others with his former rules. He prays, performs the rituals of worship, is concerned with the fate of his subjects, and still does not realize his position, still does not see where his unfortunate heart has led him, what sins he has fallen into. The fruit of sin has already been born. David is dead. A prophet appears, tells the king about a rich man who stole his only sheep from a poor man, and asks for a verdict on the rich man. David boldly says - death to him, and does not feel that he is pronouncing a sentence on himself. Then the prophet of God reveals to him one side of his situation; you are the man who did this, he says. Then David sees everything. And thanks be to the Lord for seeing! Others, no matter what you say, whenever you tell them, remain deaf and insensitive. David is aware of his situation and is so amazed by it that he can barely utter the words that he has sinned against the Lord. The prophet sees that David felt his condition with all his soul, trembled with all his soul before his sins, and therefore declares to him that the disasters that were about to fall on his head, on his whole house, on all his descendants will no longer touch him, the repentant one, only the fruit of the crime will die. David then leaves everything. At that time, his war with the Ammonites was not over (2 Samuel 12:29), but he puts aside all the royal affairs, all the greatness of the king and turns to repentance. He puts down his crown, forgets his meal and his bed, and separates himself from the whole world, like a leper through sin. He prays for a day, he prays for two, he prays for seven whole days. And David sought the Lord for the child (2 Samuel 12:16). In a living sense of hope in God’s mercy, he combines with deep repentance for his sins a prayer for mercy for the innocent fruit of sin. Prayer is high in the sense that it expresses a living hope in God, but is not alien to attachment to earthly things, which is always short-sighted in spiritual matters. The child died. David, free in his soul from all earthly things, entered the house of God to worship the Lord (2 Samuel 12:20). And now, appearing in the face of God, who had done so much good to him and was so offended by him, David could not help but prostrate himself again before God, he could not help but again feel the depth of his fall, and tears flowed like a river from his eyes, and he cried out from the depths of his heart, have mercy on me, God, according to Your great mercy. Have mercy! Have pity on the poor sinner, whom sin has deprived of Your gifts, so that he does not recognize himself. David no longer dares to call God his God, as he called Him innocent and pure in soul. He barely allows himself to touch His name and only exposes his position. David with the happy abilities of nature, David rich and in royal honors, David happy in all the wars with his neighbors and with Saul, but what is all this for when he is a sinner? Only those who fear the Lord are truly blessed (Ps. 3:1). David deeply offended God. Have mercy on me, he cries, according to Your great mercy. I am such a sinner before You that it is not enough to ask for mercy from You. My sin is too grave, my iniquity is too great. Therefore, Your great mercy is needed, Your great bounties are needed to forgive me. This is how the sincerely penitent repents! A living sense of his sins opens his gaze to the greatness of God’s mercy. And the more vividly, the more sincerely a sinner feels the greatness of his sins, the clearer, the more vividly he imagines that the goodness of God is great, like God Himself. And therefore, Cain repented not purely, not sincerely, when he said, my sins are greater than You can forgive them. God cannot lack mercy to show mercy to a sinner; If a sinner does not receive God’s mercy, then this is because he lacks desire, lacks the acceptability to accept mercy. Wash me greatly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. People consider sins to be small, they call them either an innocent hobby, or an excusable weakness, or other soft names. But this is not how the word of God looks at sins. Sin is defilement, it says; and pathetic, unreasonable, unhappy is the one who is in no hurry to get rid of this filth; he is an object of disgust for a holy and righteous God. In your uncleanness, dill, since you have become defiled and have not been cleansed from your uncleanness, and what will happen if you are not cleansed by this until I fulfill my wrath in You? (Ezek.24:13). Wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. How? Grace that sheds waters of tears on the sinner. Tears are a work of God's mercy; they do not flow from a callous soul, hardened by sins; they do not purify souls on their own, but they purify them by the grace that exudes from them; they purify them when they do not constitute only the fruit of natural kindness, but are dissolved by deep contrition for the poverty of the soul, and are united with the experience of sorrows. Feeling the severity of his sins, David asks for abundant washing, repeated cleansing, is ready to endure many sorrows, make many sacrifices, if only the mercy of God would fully return to him. For I know my iniquity, and I will take away my sin before me. You alone will sin and do evil before You, so that you may be justified in all of Your words and overcome, and never judge us. After the prayer, David gives reasons for his prayer. First, he indicates that he deeply feels his guilt and is therefore able to accept God’s mercy. Have mercy on me, for I know my iniquity. Do not be afraid to approach me with your mercy, it will no longer be accompanied in me by self-forgetfulness and not feeling, nor a return to the past; no, I'm not the same as before. It was an unhappy time that I saw many things besides myself; blinded by passion, I did not understand, did not feel that I was doing lawlessness. But the prophet Nathan revealed me to me, and my conscience convicts me even more than Nathan; Nathan forgave me, but Nathan’s conscience is more inexorable to me, it does not forgive, my sin is always before me, stands like a formidable ghost and does not give me peace. ABOUT! have pity on me, O Lord, merciful to those who suffer. The Word of God tells us, he who covers his wickedness will not prosper into good, but he who tells reproof will be loved (Proverbs 28:13). The one who hides his iniquities will not receive any benefit from it, but the one who opens and denounces them will receive pardon. Sin does not cease to be sin even when you confess it, but consciousness of sins is an indispensable condition for God to forgive us sin - why? Because the sinner, recognizing his sin and feeling all the baseness of it, faces the good path, opens his heart to truth and goodness and closes it to sin, opens his soul to receive the gifts of God. Without recognizing himself as a sinner, how can he want to be righteous? How can he wish to leave the path of destruction along which he has walked until now? God knows us without us. But don't we need to know ourselves? Is meaning given to us so that we know everything except ourselves? Or is it not first of all so that we know who we are? Where do we need to go and what paths do we take? How deep, how thorough David’s understanding of his sin was, David’s words show. You alone will sin, he says, and I will do evil in Your sight. My sin is all the more painful for me because, by insulting my neighbors, in their person I insulted You, the Lord of the worlds and the only legislator for all, You, the Father as my benefactor, from whom from the days of my youth I saw so much love and protection for me. Does not the law of Moses say, does not the law of our hearts say, honor and love God in Himself and in all those who bear His image? Shed blood for a man, in his place, it will be shed, for he created man in the image of God, says God Himself (Gen. 9:6). Yes, everything that is holy is holy only because it is the will of God, and that is only holy because it is the will of God. There is one Lawgiver and Judge. Human rights are holy, but because they are sanctified by God. That is why every sin is terrible, as an insult to God. He is terrible, even if human laws did not pursue him, or, while pursuing him, were not able to catch him. The happiness of the sinner will not be hidden from the all-seeing eye of the terrible Judge if he is punished on earth for sin. Otherwise, even without that, what do human executions mean in comparison with the revenge of the heavenly avenger on his enemy? For if you were justified in all your words and won, you will never judge. David imagines the judgment of God that Nathan pronounced over him and deeply realizes that no matter how menacing that sentence was, David, who sinned, fully deserved it, so he had to say, he sinned against the Lord (2 Samuel 12:9-13). If you are justified, the consequence of sinning is shown. The connection of thoughts is that a person can sin a lot and for a long time without understanding himself; blinded by passion, he can consider himself right in his deeds in defiance of the judgment of God's law, he can sin and not see his sin, as was the case with David, but all this will end only in the glory of God's judgment, which sooner or later will be revealed over man, as it was revealed over David. Otherwise, God's glory never loses its rights over us; if we live righteously, it is love and grace in us; if we live wickedly, it is a formidable justice in us. God does not force a sinner to sin, but when a sinner sins of his own free will, the truth of God comes into its own and appears in the majesty of impartial and exact judgment over the sinner. Glory to you, Lord, shame on us. Amen. Word for the 2nd week of Lent Offering in these days the history of the first times of the world and people, the holy church recently read to us the sad story of Cannas and Abel. Truly a dark story! Oh, if we could only recall such sad examples of the past! Unfortunately, they are not far from our time, from our life. What is this wild passion that for the first time shed human blood on the earth and, what is more terrible, the blood of his brother? Envy, envy of your brother's advantages! Since we cannot say that this passion does not appear between us, let us dwell on it and reflect on it. What is envy? This is the sorrow that is felt when looking at the happiness of one's neighbor; it is the mental anguish experienced when looking at the well-being of another. They praise their neighbor and rejoice in his well-being; and the other neighbor is annoyed at this. One's neighbor is dishonored, one's neighbor is humiliated; and the other neighbor rejoices in it. This is the position of envy. The works, talents, successes, wealth, honors, virtues of another are a subject of torment for the envious. Whether the elevation of one's neighbor is real or only imaginary, whether it is real or even future, it weighs down and torments the envious soul. They mourn when they look at their superiors, not seeing themselves equal to them; they languish at the sight of their equals, wanting advantages over them; they feel sad when they look at their inferiors, fearing that they will become equal to them, or even surpass them. Why is your face gone? God says to Cain. And how can one avoid asking this question to someone who is envious? Intemperate, voluptuous, vindictive - they are carried away by the lure of pleasure. The miser, the murderer, the thief are seduced by self-interest. Every other passion promises some kind of pleasure, albeit unreliable, although criminal; Envy is only torment for the soul. Moth is the bone of an envious heart, says the wise (Proverbs 14:30). Envy is often compared to hell. And indeed, for an envious person it is a preliminary hell. On earth, for envious people, it is that feeling that torments demons in flames. Seeing and envying is their torment. Envy does not allow you to enjoy what you have, because it is tormented by the desire for what you lack. Sorrow and annoyance torment an envious soul like a kite's prey. Have pity on yourself, take mine; envy is your fierce enemy; depriving you of peace, it makes you unable to arrange your happiness, your affairs, your feelings are alarmed, your thoughts are darkened; you are not able to think about your affairs, nor to carry them out as you should. Why are you so cruel to yourself? Turning someone else's happiness into a disaster for yourself is insane barbarism! Why is your face gone? Ambition, pride, self-love - these are the main reasons for envy! An ambitious man, striving for exaltation, considers as an enemy everyone who is distinguished by the attention of others; he mourns seeing another succeed. The proud man considers himself capable of everything; everyone should stand below him, so according to his judgment of himself! Is it strange that he hates the one whom others exalt? The self-loving person loves only himself, is occupied only with himself; He doesn’t want anything for his neighbor, and if his neighbor gets what he wanted, it’s a blow to his pride. How low is that! I don't have what someone else has. The other is rich and honored, I have neither one nor the other; “My labors are not rewarded, the labors of others are distinguished by attention,” says the envious person in his soul. Stop, you wretch! Do you understand, do you feel who you are rebelling against! You are rebelling against the Lord God. Wealth, honors, beauty, good fame, virtues, talents - aren't they gifts of God? Is it not He who will butcher them according to his will? Is it not He who gives one this, another another? He cares about the good, about the salvation of your neighbor; and you want to destroy the happiness and salvation of your neighbor. Not an enemy of God's lita? Are you a rebel against the cause of God? Be horrified at the position you are putting yourself in. Is it hard to see that not everyone is given equal credit? Hear the answer of the gospel to your murmurings. Those who worked in the vineyard were jealous of the pay one of them received. What did the owner of the vineyard tell them? The Lord answers, what offense do I give to your brother? You have received yours, you have received what follows labor; be calm. Or do you have the right to dispose of my will, my property? Or is it impossible for me to create what I want in my own? If yours is deceitful and does not want what is good for another, I want to be good (Matthew 20:13–15). Earthly gifts and spiritual gifts are not divided equally. But marvel at the good wisdom of the dispenser. The body is beautiful because the smallest part of it fulfills its purpose. Oh! if you thought more often about yourself, you would find another object of sorrow for yourself. Are you fulfilling your purpose, are you multiplying the talent given to you, are you working to the best of your ability and ability in the vineyard of God? What if you are the worst servant - no matter what they tell you, you do it wrong, and you are not yet satisfied with the orders of the Lord? What if you don’t know how to manage even the small things given to you, but you are tormented by the fact that someone else has been given a great purpose? Isn't your envy crazy? Isn't your secret murmuring against the Lord madness? Why is your face gone? The commandment of God says, do not steal. And the envious eye wants to steal someone else’s peace, someone else’s honor, someone else’s property. Tell me, please, on what do you base your rights to your neighbor’s property? How is the one towards whom you burn with anger guilty before you? Does he have more differences, more advantages than you? But he doesn't take yours from you. Is he richer, is he happier than you in trading? But he does not deprive you of your property. Are your efforts not successful? If so, it is your business, and not your brother’s business. Is he endowed with wonderful talents? But he doesn’t take yours from you. Is he not worth the space he takes up? Let’s assume that it’s true, feel sorry for him, that they placed a burden on him that he couldn’t bear; Why is there bitterness in your heart against your brother? But is it true that this is not the place for him? Remember the disposition you had towards this brother before envy crept into your heart. You respected him, you loved him, you found wonderful qualities in him; and now? You can’t count how many vices you find in him. His love for the common good became ambition; prudence is pretense, piety is hypocrisy, frugality is stinginess. Why is this? He is still the same, he has not changed in anything. Why the change in your reviews, in your view of him? Envy has put green glasses on your eyes, and your brother seems to you not to be the same. Who is to blame? Just envy, which has nothing to excuse its delusions. The Savior says, if you love those who love, what grace do you have? And envy not only has no love for the enemy, it also has no love for those who love. She is ready to torment and torments, if she can, the one who showered her with benefits. It breaks the strongest ties - the ties of kinship, arms brothers against brothers, relatives against relatives. What baseness of soul! What a confusion of meaning! You, who call yourself a Christian and envy your neighbor, do you understand that you are lower than a pagan? If you had shed the blood of your enemy, the Lord would not have left it without the vengeance characteristic of a murderer. And you suck, drop by drop, the blood of someone who has done you no harm? What are you waiting for? Where there is envy and zeal, there is disorder of every evil thing, says the Apostle James (James 3:16). How many troubles, how many tears, how much destruction envy brings into the world! This is a terrible plague for the happiness of families, for the happiness of societies. From it arise these poisonous plants that infect the world, complaints, enmities, slander, treachery, which, degenerating into hatred, devastate the honor, peace, and life of people. What did she bring the sons of Jacob to? Innocent, young brother Joseph is thrown into prey by wild beasts, his father is torn to pieces by grief! Where there should be a union of sincere, simple hearts, you will see people who are almost exclusively occupied with observing each other, looking for flaws in each other, watching every step, every word of the other, and as soon as they notice one stain on the other’s dress, they dilute the stain with bile, dilute it with slander, and throw mud at the other. How can we treat this terrible disease? The first remedy is to look at all earthly goods, as St. the gospel, as they are told to look at the very best. What does earthly wealth mean? Rot and dust. What is the glory of earth? Sound in the air. What is earthly beauty? Field color. Why so much sorrow about earthly things? We will die, and everything earthly will remain on earth; We will not take anything with us to the grave; only our deeds will go with us. Do not value tinsel glitter more than what it is worth, and it will not disturb your peace. Where are our blessings? In the sky. Where is our honor? At the throne of the Judge of the universe. Forget the earth and remember the sky! God distributes gifts according to the plans of His wisdom. Your job is to look after what is given to you. Don’t look around at other people’s things, don’t interfere in other people’s business. You need a lot of work, you need a lot of strength to be worthy of gifts that you do not deserve. Peace and inner happiness can be brought to you by love. Try to buy it. He doesn’t envy Lyuba. Love unites everything that envy divides. Ask for love from the Lord of love. Destroy the temptations of envy with thoughts of love. The brother is consoled with happiness. Thank the Lord for him and wish him greater happiness. Do you want to talk about its shortcomings? Look at his good qualities and your sins. Do you have a chance to harm him? Take this opportunity to benefit him. If you had the misfortune to succumb to the movements of passion, do not forgive yourself, ask for forgiveness from the Lord and hasten to make amends to your neighbor through deeds of love. As love strengthens in your heart, envy will weaken and disappear. May the God of peace and love guard our hearts. Amen. Conversation in the 3rd week of Lent Whoever wants to save his soul, will destroy you, and those like him will destroy his soul For the sake of the gospel, he will save you (Mark 8:35). The Lord Jesus offers us a strange teaching, apparently, in the Gospel we are reading today. Whoever wants, He says, to save his soul will destroy it, and whoever destroys it for My sake will save it. Why is this so? Why is it impossible, without destroying the soul, to save it and, while saving it, not to destroy it? And how is this so? By saving a soul you destroy it, but by destroying you save it? Isn't it the other way around? It seems that the one who decided to save the soul, who decided to use all his abilities to preserve it and overcome all the obstacles that may be encountered, will sooner or later achieve the goal - to save the soul. In order not to be in bewilderment, which can sometimes end in false convictions harmful to spiritual salvation, let us consider carefully what the words of the Savior, pronounced for us now at His cross, mean, Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it, and whoever destroys his soul for My sake will save it. What soul is the Savior talking about here? Does He not have only temporary life in mind, demanding its sacrifice for His name before the persecutors of His name? This meaning is simple and the Savior’s words in this case would have little relevance to us, who do not live in times of open persecution for the faith. But truly, does the Savior mean sacrifice of life? If this were so, then it was to be expected that all the beloved of Christ would die no other way than the death of martyrdom; and at the same time, the reward for the feat of martyrdom would not be very significant, the return of physical life outside the grave. As much as the first disagrees, by the way, with the command of the Savior to leave the place where the faithful disciple of Christ is not accepted, so much the second is incompatible with the goodness of the heavenly Father. What kind of soul is the Savior talking about? Let us take a closer look at His words. Whatever he wants, the words show that these words have a connection with the previous one. What was said before? And having called the nations with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me. Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it. So, the Savior first offers the commandment about self-sacrifice, about bearing one’s cross, and following Him; and then he presents the motivation for this - that whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it. Will you now say that the commandment about self-sacrifice and bearing the cross must be observed because otherwise, while preserving bodily life, you can destroy it? But isn’t it clear that the impulse, taken in this sense, only applies in its strength to cases when it is necessary to sacrifice life; what will motivate us to self-sacrifice, to bear the cross, to follow Jesus at all other times, i.e. throughout all earthly life, excluding the dangers of death? Moreover, in this case the incentive would be too weak in comparison with the commandment of self-sacrifice alone. What does preserving bodily life, even the longest, mean in comparison with the feat of self-denial? What does an acquisition mean in comparison with such a feat, what is the feat of enduring all your life, enduring sorrows, suffering, deprivations of various kinds? On the contrary, both the power of motivation and the naturalness of the meaning of words are fully revealed to us when we say that the words, whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it, mean that whoever wants to save himself for himself will probably destroy himself. The triple commandment about self-denial, about bearing the cross, about following Jesus, in its content, is one commandment about complete self-denial. You must fulfill this commandment, you must completely deny yourself - why? The natural meaning of the Savior’s answer is this: if you act otherwise, you will perish, but if you act according to the commandment, you will be saved; or whoever wants to take care of himself will destroy himself, and whoever will destroy himself for the Lord will save himself. So, not to renounce yourself and to take care of your soul is the same thing. Every time the Savior speaks about the salvation or destruction of the soul, he adds to the word about the soul his own word. Who wants to save his soul; like to destroy your soul. What does this mean? The fact that in man, as he is now, there are two lives; he lives one life for himself, for his desires, for his passions, for his inclinations; and the other life is that which he lives and breathes for the Lord. Living one first life, he can cleave to his body to such an extent that only flesh will come out of his entire composition, as such a person is called in scripture (1 Cor. 15:50); or - he can be so deluded by pride and conceit that he approaches the position of the rejected spirit, and the devil, having become proud, will fall into judgment. Another life - of a completely different kind; she does not live for the flesh, she only humbles herself, sighs over sins, cries over infirmities, prays for help and is all in the Lord. There is nothing in the world, there is nothing in the desires and dispositions of the heart that she would not be ready to offer to her Lord, since the Lord Himself did everything for her, renounced the glory of the Son of God and, in the form of a servant, gave Himself up to death on the cross. In one and the same person these two kinds of life remain until the grave, but in another person life for the Lord predominates, and only from time to time life for oneself is revealed; in another, life for oneself predominates, and life for the Lord is barely noticeable. There is another law in my heart, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive by the law of sin (Rom. 7:23), the celestial Paul confesses about himself. Now it’s clear why, by saving our soul, we can destroy it, but by destroying it we can save it? Let life for yourself be life for the flesh, what will come of it? Death of the soul, eternal destruction. Do not be flattered, God cannot be mocked; For if a man sows, he will also also reap, just as if he sows in his flesh, from the flesh he will reap corruption (Gal. 4:7-8). Carelessness can live for the flesh in complete forgetfulness of the consequences of such a life; brazen wickedness can even say: where is the promise of His coming? (2 Peter 3:4). Both of them say, as if in a sleepy drowsiness, everything will pass, and we will live in peace. But let carelessness and wickedness not delude themselves with empty dreams. The laws of the eternal are immutable and His truth has assigned to everyone their due. Whoever sowed the seeds of deeds in the soil of the flesh will also receive the harvest of the flesh—corruption, destruction. For the enemies of the cross of Christ, death is destruction (Phil. 3:19). Let life for yourself be a life of blinded pride, vanity, curiosity, what will be the end of such a life? It is impossible to be anything other than what the spirit of pride has comprehended. God opposes the proud. Anyone who is proud is an abomination to the Lord. Pride lives outside of God; Why should there be outside of God, except hell and Gehenna? Secret pride protects others from base actions and forces them to decide even on acts of generosity, visible selflessness, and honesty. But He is faithful who said, except your righteousness come to pass no more than the scribe and the Pharisee, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20). Your whole essence, you are Christ’s, but Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:23), teaches St. apostle. This is the connection of everything that exists! Everything is ready for us, both the means for earthly life and the means for eternal life. Who can measure the boundless love of God for us sinners? Your whole essence, but so that you are Christ’s, while Christ is God’s, the Savior sent from God, saving all sinners. If we are Christ’s, if all of ours is sacrificed to Christ the Lord, then His life becomes our life, He dwells in our hearts; and with Christ, what can we need? The self-sacrifice that the Lord requires of us is, first of all, the mortification of sin within oneself and all sinful lusts; and sin and death are inseparable, just like truth and life. Hence, as much as our outer man decays, only our inner man is renewed all the days (2 Cor. 4:16). By cutting off our own will, we give place in the soul to the will of the Lord; dying to ourselves, we live to the Lord; by destroying the life of self-love, an insignificant, low life, you acquire eternal life by the grace of the life-giving Spirit of the Comforter; This feat is not without illness, but the power of Christ is made perfect in weakness, the Spirit obeys our spirit, as we are children of God. For the deeds of godly, but temporary, self-sacrifice, eternal joy and peace in heaven are prepared. To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on the throne, says the faithful and true one. Therefore, brothers, we must not live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you are about to die; if you put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you will live (Rom. 7:12-13). Brethren! Let us not take care of the earthly, carnal soul, thirsting for sensual pleasures. Otherwise, we will be cruelly deceived; she, fed and irritated by us, will bring us to destruction. Let us curb her with fasting, let us cool her lusts with strict abstinence. Let us be vigilant, she is crafty, she covers her demands either with our weakness or with the thought of the unimportance of bodily abstinence; do not believe it, but believe the true word - the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17-18). Let us firmly remember the fate of the rich man, who was having a great time here and there in vain asked for one drop of water to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24-25). The earthly soul hungers for riches; she has little of what she needs for life, she demands silver, gold, more and more from day to day, and commits thousands of injustices, insults, lawlessness, insults. Oh, how destructive this insatiable greed is for us! Brethren! hurry to curb this thirst in yourself, so that it does not turn into Gehenna. Hurry to repay it with deeds of mercy, with thoughts about the terrible fate of the insatiable rich people of the world. Repeat, repeat to yourself more often the words of the Apostle of Christ, come now rich, weep and weep for your fierce sorrows that are coming upon you. Throw away your wealth, and destroy your garments. Your gold and silver will corrode, and their rust will be a testimony against you, and your flesh will be consumed like fire, which you will receive in the last days (James 5:1-3). Beloved brother! If a thought of worldly or spiritual pride comes to you; if your soul begins to dream about itself, to take comfort in this or that property, to exalt itself before this or that brother; If she begins to feel bored that you lack this or that honor, that you are humiliated among others, hasten to remember that this is the whispering of a serpent seeking your destruction. You will be like gods, he told the innocent ancestors, and what have they become? And with your soul, already wounded by sin, and with your soul, whose poverty you need to mourn so much, what will happen from the breath of the ancient dragon? ABOUT! Do not spare your pride! reprove it, humiliate it, put it to shame, strike it with the thought of your countless sins, so that otherwise it does not bring you down into eternal fire, assigned to rejected spirits. If it is too painful for us to bear the unpleasant word of a brother, a sharp mockery, a well-aimed reproach, let us be sure, brethren, that this is also an instillation of the same destructive spirit of pride. Who can insult me ​​as I insulted and wounded myself with sins? From head to feet everything is covered in sores; Is it time to think about what it says about me to take mine? Is there a time for anger at others when there is so much need for indignation against oneself? And what can my brother’s word do to me if it is unjust? And if it is fair, shouldn’t I be grateful for the exposure of my injustice, which, perhaps, I did not see in myself due to pride? The glory of the world, which our self-love so covets, will bring us nothing; it will bring us nothing except repentance for the loss of glory before the Lord. Why are we so blind in our vanity? Why this desire to shine with something that neither our strength nor our means give us? Why are we merciless to our own soul, disturbing it with such insignificant desires? And yet we think of taking care of it when we are destroying it! Brethren! Living for ourselves, we only destroy ourselves, no matter how we look at such a life. So, doesn’t the very need force us to devote as many works as possible, as many days as possible, as much as possible, as much of our property as possible, for our Lord? It hurts us to part with the passions of our hearts, but what do the sorrows of time mean in comparison with eternal joy, or with endless torment? ABOUT! rather, rather, to our Lord. My soul thirsts for the mighty, living God. When will I come and appear before the face of God? In what way are you sorrowful to my soul, and in what way have you troubled me? Trust in God, for we will confess to Him, the salvation of my face and my God. Brethren! It is not easy for us to fight our sins. But – a little courage, a little patience! It’s still a little, a little, and the feat will end, and the crowns of glory will be given to us. Isn’t it sweet, isn’t it joyful to sacrifice everything to the Lord when He is ready to give us everything that we can accept? To Him, to Him alone, will we offer our labors, our sighs, our illnesses and deprivations. We will rejoice and mourn over Him, and in His name we will sanctify our evening and morning, midnight and noon. We will give him what we can. Nothing of ours will be lost from Him, not even a cup of cold water, not even the mite of a poor widow. He will return everything that is ours to us. For us, He demands ours from us. For us, He demands from us - us, in order to give Himself to us. Oh, how limitless is His mercy towards us! Do we not belong to Him also because of the dependence of our existence on Him? But He wants, He convinces us that we belong to Him according to our will - and for what? Only in order to enrich us with the benefits of both time and eternity; only in order to endow us with bounties, incomprehensibly great and endless, for a short-term feat of self-sacrifice. Crucified for us, Lord Jesus! By the grace-filled power of Your cross, strengthen our weak hands and weakened knees (Isaiah 35:3). Lead us after You and let us flow (Song. 1:3), so that here and there we can glorify Your name with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Conversation II. On Psalm 50 per week 3rd week In the past conversation, David’s repentance stopped at the confession of deep sorrow for sin, with which he inclines God to compassion for himself. Then David exposes another guilt of his prayer. Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and my mother gave birth to me in sins. Behold, you have loved the truth; you have revealed your unknown and secret wisdom to me (Ps. 50:7). How to understand David? Does he blame the mother for giving birth while she was a sinner? Or say about himself that even when he came into the world, he was already a sinner? Even if we accepted the first explanation, we should not have forgotten that David was born from a legal marriage, and therefore he could not blame his mother for the illegitimate birth of a son. Thus, even with this explanation, the thought would be that David is talking about the hereditary corruption of our nature. With this explanation, he would say the same thing that Job said, “Who can come out clean from an unclean thing? No one” (Job 14:4). Nevertheless, it would be scary to connect with the words “I am conceived in iniquities”, the thought that I was born of matter defiled by sin, when David does not speak here about the mother; It would be strange to blame one mother for impurity and not blame the father. So, it remains to understand David this way: already at my conception, already at my birth, I was defiled by sin; I was conceived with iniquities and my mother bore me with sins. David says here the same thing that Moses said: the evil mind of a man is set on him from his youth, the heart of a man is evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21). Before a person begins to distinguish good from evil, before his will begins to act in the light of consciousness, sin already lives in him, an inclination towards evil is revealed by dissatisfaction with himself and others, disorder is revealed in his soul and in his body. What does his cry express when he appears in the world? The suffering of nature, suffering from internal, innate disorder, from impurity and guilt. So, David, begging God for mercy; exposes, after the poverty of the deeds of his will, the poverty of human nature itself. Even if I remained the way I was born, he says, what would I have left but to ask for Your mercy and grace? Why are we all before You, Lord? I, like everyone else, was conceived in sin and born in uncleanness. For Thou hast loved the truth, Thou hast revealed to me Thy unknown and secret wisdom. The truth that God loves in himself and in his rational creatures is not one cold theoretical truth; this is the truth that enlivens the spirit, penetrates the heart and reveals itself in good fruits; This is the opposite truth, and lies, and dreams, and vanity. Fear the Lord, work for Him in truth and with all your heart (1 Samuel 12:24), which is also commanded to people. A person cannot say that since he is spoiled by nature, responsibility for the lies of his life does not lie with him. No, the evil inclination is not stronger than the good in the world. God never ceases to shed his light on the world and people. He loves the truth and reveals knowledge of the truth to people. And the pagan will not deny that he knows the truth and goodness. Dare David say that he is left in hopeless darkness? No! God revealed to him the secrets of His wisdom, which were unknown to others. He revealed to him the most saving secrets for man about the coming Savior of the world, about His redemptive suffering for the world, about His grace extending to the nations, and revealed in such a light that, for example, Psalm 21 is, as it were, the gospel story of the suffering of Christ. So David, aware of the weakness of his nature, is also aware of the greatness of God’s mercy towards him in order to glorify It and, glorifying the wondrous goodness of God, remembers his poverty in order to pray for mercy. Glory to Your love, Heavenly Father, that You illuminate poor me with Your light! But then, while You are praised, I am only ashamed. My mind is rich in knowledge, but my soul is poor in goodness; I know a lot, but what am I doing? My will is lazy for good deeds; She is either crafty and evasive from good work, or she is ready to work, but for unclean reasons, for money, for honor, for the talk of the crowd. ABOUT! My God! If you don’t have mercy, if you don’t give me help, I’m lost. My misery is a prayer for me before You, Your goodness is my only right to Your mercies. Sprinkle me with hyssop and I will be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Give joy and gladness to my hearing, humble bones will rejoice. Turn away Your face from my sins, and cleanse all my iniquities (Ps. 50:9-11). What David expresses with the words: Sprinkle me, give me joy - his heart desires, this is shown by his words: Turn away Your face from my sin. After he has shown the reasons for his prayer, he begins to pray even more strongly for the forgiveness of sins and shows his various needs as the consequences of sin. “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” According to the Law of Moses, anyone who touched a dead person was considered unclean and, for cleansing, had to be sprinkled with cedar and hyssop, dipped in water mixed with ashes (Num. 19:18). Likewise, the leper was cleansed by sprinkling hyssop and cedar dipped in blood (Lev. 14:51). Hyssop was a symbol of the condescending love of God, cedar was a symbol of the greatness of God. David recognizes himself as unclean and a leper and deeply feels the need for spiritual sprinkling. He vividly imagines God's terrible judgment on the uncleanness of sin: if a person becomes defiled and does not cleanse himself, that soul will be removed from the midst of the living (Num. 19:20). Thus, David’s prayer for sprinkling and washing contains the spiritual thought of the overshadowing of the soul with the omnipotent love of God, before which human impurities recede. David further prays, “let me hear joy and gladness, and the bones that have been so broken by You may be lifted up.” Let us ask ourselves why David still has no joy? God's prophet Nathan told him that he was forgiven. How could one not be happy about that? Or does he not believe the prophet? This can't be true. Would you say your conscience was bothering you? But why did the conscience not have peace when it had already been told that the sin was forgiven? You see, the grace of God does not suddenly give everything. First, it notifies the soul of forgiveness, but does not yet give lasting peace; then it gives peace, but does not yet give joy to the heart; and finally gives joy to the soul. And she balances all this with the degrees of the soul’s achievements, or more precisely with how, from time to time, the acceptability of the soul expands through sincere asceticism of repentance. Until impure attachments burn out in the fire of spiritual sorrows, it would be useless, and sometimes even harmful, for the repentant soul to reward it with heavenly peace. That's why St. The apostle, having aroused fear, confusion, and sorrow in the Corinthians over the sin that had appeared among them, rejoiced at their state. Now I rejoice, not because we were sorrowful, but because we were offended in repentance. For, according to God, sorrow brings unrepentant repentance to salvation, but the sorrow of this world brings death (2 Cor. 7:9-10). So, David asks himself for now only the end of the suffering of the spirit and the return of peace. And how great were the sufferings of the repentant David! The humble bones will rejoice, the bones that are so broken by You, says David. The suffering of his repentant soul was so great that the very structure of his body was completely weakened, his very bones were as if crushed; So thoughts about the wrath of God, so feelings of guilt before God struck and tormented the soul and body of David! This is the same state that David expresses when he says, There is no healing in my flesh from the face of Your wrath, There is no peace in my bones from the presence of my sins (Ps. 37:4). This was the situation of the repentant David! This is how his repentance was accomplished! Should we ask whether this is the repentance of present-day sinners? Or are there few sinners today? ABOUT! There are enough sinners today! It is impossible to say that everyone does not say, I am a sinner. But don't they speak the same language? or if they speak with their thoughts, but do they speak with their hearts? But if they speak with their hearts, do they speak with their composition, as David says? Oh, how much we lack to repent as David repented! Turn Your face away from my sins, and cleanse all my iniquities. David prays that God will not only consign his sins to oblivion, leave his sins unpunished, but that he will blot them out, as if written on parchment or on a board, so that no one can see them anymore. Was David's prayer fulfilled? It was fulfilled with all precision. The same prophet Nathan, who announced a threatening rebuke to David, who had not yet repented, was sent to David, who had repented, to announce the birth of a son of legal love. And what mercy was awarded to this son of David! Follow with that thought everything that St. says. writing about David after his repentance, will you find even a hint of his fall? No. On the contrary, David is spoken of there only as a righteous man, a man dear to God, a chosen one worthy of His high honor. In the books of the kings, in the books of Chronicles, in the books of the prophets, David is an angel of God, a man after God’s own heart, the father of the people, an example of kings. A striking example of how our iniquities are not remembered by God after sincere repentance of them. Glory to You, the all-good and merciful! Amen. Conversation III. On Psalm 50, in the 4th week of Lent We saw that the repentant David asked the Lord to cleanse his impurities, to return peace to his heart, to completely forget his guilt. But the longer the repentant David prays, the more his soul rises, the more it touches the highest in prayer. Now he's praying Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from Me. Reward me with the joy of Thy salvation and strengthen me with the sovereign spirit (Ps. 50:12-14). David does not pray that his weak heart be strengthened by some help. No, he knows, he feels, he confessed that sin has penetrated deeply into our nature. Therefore, he sees and feels that in order to heal a sick soul, the great help of God is needed, such an action of God is necessary, by which our soul would be reborn, heavenly purity would be recreated in it. As long as the heart is old, all efforts to correct life will remain in vain; until then they can only produce some corrections in our soul, and even those are far from complete. David prays for the same thing that the Lord himself says in the prophet, and I will give them a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek. 11:18). And yet, David does not pray for the creation of a heart, but for the creation of purity of heart. This means that he does not extend our spiritual corruption to the destruction of our spiritual powers, or that also to the destruction of everything good in our soul, every capacity for good. No, the praying David, neither in himself nor in others, harbors either proud arrogance or crafty laziness. Renew the right spirit - a faithful, constant, firm spirit in the midst of all temptations, opposite to the spirit that David himself spoke about; their heart was not right with Him, and they were not faithful in His covenant (Ps. 77:37). With the words, do not cast me away from Thy presence, David reminds himself of the sad fate of Saul and realizes that he himself was worthy of the same fate; he realizes and confesses that by his sins he deserved that God, in his righteousness, would reject him from himself, just as he rejected Saul. Trembling before this fate, he prays to the Lord, do not deprive me of the closeness to You that I have enjoyed for so long, do not reject me from Your presence, in the light of which I saw the light of truth and enjoyed such happiness; I am not worthy, but by Your mercy do not deprive me of mercy. And do not take Your holy spirit away from Me. There is no doubt that in saying this, David also has in mind the fate (of Saul, about whom it is said, and the Spirit of God shall depart from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14). How the Spirit of God came upon David, the book of the king speaks about this. And Samuel received the horn of oil and anointed him among his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day onwards (1 Samuel 16:13). Like a loss The grace of the Holy Spirit by Saul was not limited to the loss of royal power, but it is said, and the Spirit of God departed from Saul and the evil spirit attacked her, so David, when he prays that he would not be deprived of the Holy Spirit, means more than one loss of royal dignity, the repentant David could not value; on the contrary, in his deep sorrow for his sins, he was ready to renounce all earthly greatness, and refuses. No, he fears a more important loss, closer to his soul; he fears the loss of the grace-filled gifts of understanding the will of God and the creation of God’s law, he is afraid of being abandoned by God’s power and left with only evil. David, by his fall, offended the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and, as a result, lost some of the gifts of the Spirit of God, which is why he prayed for the renewal of the spirit of fidelity and firmness in him. His condition could finally have reached the point of complete loss of the spirit of grace if he had remained unrepentant. But in this case, the Spirit of grace would not have returned to him, according to the word of the apostle, it is impossible for those who have tasted the heavenly gift and fallen away to be renewed into repentance (Heb. 6:4-6). May God deliver everyone from this terrible condition! David’s prayer not to be deprived of the Holy Spirit is in accordance with the prayer not to be rejected from the presence of God. How there he prays that his former closeness to God, God’s former love for him, be returned to him; So here he prays not only not to lose the Holy Spirit to him through a new betrayal, but also to return to him all the former abundance of love for him of the Spirit of grace. Give me the joy of Your salvation. Here is a prayer for joy. But this is not the joy for which he prayed before, when he said, humble bones will rejoice. There was joy about the forgiveness of sins, so there was a return to peace of conscience, peace to the soul, agitated and tormented by the consciousness of guilt before the Heavenly Father. Here is a prayer for a higher, more important joy. Here is a prayer for the joy of God's salvation, i.e. about the joy of complete healing of the soul, possible only for God, the healing that is performed by the Holy Spirit. It seemed that after David asked and, of course, begged for himself the return of the Spirit of grace, by itself, without David’s prayer, the joy of restoring spiritual well-being should follow. But you see, you need to pray for everything, you need to ask the Lord for everything, so that through prayer you can cleanse your soul into a clean vessel for grace, so that without prayer, the impurity of the heart that arises in the place of prayer does not prevent grace from continuing its work. And strengthen me with the sovereign spirit. The gracious fruit of the healing of the soul is the joy of the spirit and spiritual power, when only the appearance of this fruit is caused by the spirit of prayer. Confirm me, David prays, with a royal, powerful spirit, which would govern all my thoughts, all my feelings, all my desires, directing them to Your will. David ask himself for that spirit of love, which, according to the word of the Apostle, is powerful and strong in spite of all the storms of earthly life, which does not seek its own, is not irritated, rejoices in the truth, covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything (1 Cor. 13: 4-7), which in joy and in grief is true to itself, and in joy is not carried away by distraction and dreams about itself, and in grief does not give place in the soul to hopeless sorrow - but sings Praise be to God, who builds everything for our salvation. So David, in his fiery prayer, went through all the degrees at which the gifts of God’s mercy are offered to people, and ascended to the highest, touched the very throne of grace, where the full love of God is given to the chosen ones of the Lord. Oh, how good the Lord is to those who seek Him with sincere hearts! Sinners! pray the prayer of the penitent David. Prayer for him to deliver everything to you. Amen. Sermon for the 4th week of Lent The end is approaching, soul, is approaching, and negligent and unprepared (Troparion of the Great Canon). Will preaching about death still be considered untimely today? Will people still shy away from this message today? Will people today still consider the thought of death, which will not pass anyone, too heavy, too gloomy? If even now, in the days of repentance and crying, they only want easy thoughts, easy activities, how dangerous, how terrible is such a state! ABOUT! Will people, at least for a while, stop being frivolous? The end of the soul is approaching, it is approaching, and you are neither looking for it nor preparing for it. This is the song that St. tells us to repeat these days. Andrey. The sentence of death is the sentence of God's judgment over fallen man. But, O God, incomprehensible in His goodness! The very sentence of Thy justice is Thy mercy towards us; The very word of Your condemnation over us is together the voice that saves the sinner. Let us, brothers, devote a few minutes to reflect on the need to remember death. When there was no sin in the world, there was no death; there seemed to be no need to think about death. However, God Himself commanded the innocent firstborn to think about death; God Himself, even when He brought man into the paradise of sweets, said, “Do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for on the day that you eat of them you will surely die.” What would that mean? Why did the most innocent, immortal, need to not forget about death? Why should someone who did not yet have a single sinful thought in his soul have to keep in mind the threat of corruption? Of course, because a person, as a creature, can always have a need for fear, of course, because the threat of death can have a good effect where love or the promise of life fails. It would be a wonderful thing if a person could obey his Lord out of the impulse of love, if he could always freely and easily follow the path of the commandments to his God, but freedom contains within itself the possibility of hesitation and fall; Freedom therefore needs strong reinforcement that could stop vacillation and prevent inclination to evil, and such is the fear of death. While he stood guard over the thoughts of the first man, man remained in innocence, in a paradise of sweets. When the spirit of malice inclined him to remove from himself the thought of death, unless you die (Gen. 3:4), the man fell. So even then, when there was no sin and death, it was already necessary not to forget about death. Is it not more necessary to remember death when the sin that has entered the soul has made it prone to incessant falls? One must see too little not to see that a person who is constantly bowing to sin cannot, without salvational reinforcement, be stronger against temptation than the one who stood and could resist sin. Sin is revealed in us in two forms: sometimes it appears as the spirit of pride, sometimes as the spirit of carnality. In both cases, the thought of death serves as a cure against the poison of sin. Pride makes us dream a lot about ourselves; in others it reaches the point that their actions speak as if there were no rules for them that they must obey; as if there is no one to whom we must all give an account in our lives; they reach the point of inattention to the law of God, to the destinies and orders of Providence; They give their own judgment on everything, they decide everything in their own way, they give everything their own order. How this arrogance of a proud mind needs to be reminded that we are earth and we will go to earth! How necessary is this greatness to point out the narrow grave in which it can be accommodated even reluctantly! How necessary it is to tell this arrogance that his majestic plans will be crushed on the grave and his independence will be limited to the space of three steps of the earth! What does the strength of our spirit mean, what does all our knowledge mean, when we can neither see nor push back the limit with which everything earthly must end - when behind this grave board there is a whole eternity, immeasurable, in which there is not a single point clear for the mind, left to itself? Pride is puffed up by honors, race, wealth, it distinguishes people not by their virtues, but because one is rich, the other is poor; one in honor, the other in low fortune; one in hard rags, the other in soft and fluffy clothes. But is this how death looks at us? ABOUT! she accompanies everyone along the same road to the judgment of the terrible truth. She equalizes everyone in a cold grave and, without millions, with one soul, presents them to justice. Look at the dwelling of the dead, everyone there is equal; vanity plows on stone or metal, but words are without meaning, praise without meaning; puts names and titles on the earth and in loud words expresses only one thing: that all this is emptiness, that all this was and is not now, all this has passed, like a dream, like a dream. One land accepted both the rich and the poor, and everything became earth. Under the piles of stone, if you want to look, you will find only a stinking corpse, a pile of rotten bones, light dust, how frivolous is human pride! Pride is glory-loving. The tornado destroys the dreams of greatness that are so tirelessly pursued. While we are still alive, we manage from time to time to force praise and respect into something. After death, praise falls silent, or even turns into blasphemy. After death, they will soon forget us, and perhaps even be glad that we will not bother us with our claims to fame. Some - out of indifference, others - out of ingratitude, but friends and acquaintances, both close and distant, will lose sight of us. Everything that we have done not with the intention of pleasing the Lord will be scattered like dust. Your glory will pass away like ashes, says Job (Job 13:12). Pride is reckless in its undertakings. How many vast plans we have, how many strange assumptions, how much frivolity we have when we don’t think about death! We put off taking care of our souls from day to day. Tomorrow, we think, we will repent; tomorrow we will start a better life. But, who gave us this tomorrow? This morning, who can vouch for the evening? Did yesterday evening guarantee this day? How many have fallen asleep in eternal sleep this night! How many this morning have said goodbye to time forever! How many people are leaving the earth at this hour in which we are talking? Which Isaiah will come and say to us: build up your house, for you are dying and will not live? (Ps.39:1) Listen to those who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and stay there for a year; do you know what will happen tomorrow? What is our life? A vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears (James 4:13–14). ABOUT! Why don’t we often repeat to ourselves, we will die, we will die, and perhaps in one of those minutes in which we least of all think of dying? The thought of the suddenness of death, like a spark running through the soul, would awaken our negligence. Then we would not waste valuable time on vain dreams, or on blind carelessness. How we will regret, at the last hour, about the days and hours spent without benefit, killed in dreams and absent-mindedness! How we will regret that we did not use the time given to us for important, soul-saving activities! Is it any wonder that then, when we call at the doors of salvation to have them opened to us, they will tell us, oh! Blessed are the servants, for whom the Lord will come and find them watchful (Luke 12:37). Watch, for you do not know one day, when the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:13). Another cruel passion that torments the soul is the passion for pleasure and wealth. But if we remembered death more often, this passion would also be weaker and less likely to disturb our soul. Youth is especially frisky and playful; for pleasure she neglects the education of the mind and heart. And, with education itself, he seeks means to develop only a passion for pleasure, reads books, listens to conversations - just light and playful, which leave only emptiness in the soul. And in adulthood, do they stop pursuing pleasure? They are looking for distraction, looking for fun and are bored because they do not find heaven on earth. Why are they so immoderate in their passion for pleasure? Because they don’t measure life by the thought of death. Oh! why not look at the grave? Why not remember that there is a coffin, and beyond the coffin there is another life, for which we must prepare in this life? Why not think that there is death, and this death turns the earth into a land of weeping and decay. Why not think that even if we are allowed pleasures in this life, then they are those that we would not be able to repent of after death, before the judgment of God. Oh, carefree youth! Oh, old age with a youthful mind! Why are you running with your thoughts away from the coffin? Why do you forcefully remove the thought of death from yourself? The coffin can teach you wisdom that you do not have; death can enlighten you to the value of temporary life, which you do not understand. What should I do? - cries another annoying voice in our soul; - what should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits? This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build a larger one, and I will gather all my good things there; but I will tell my soul, soul! You have a lot of good things lying around; rest, eat, drink and be merry. This, brothers, is the voice of selfishness. What does the one who controls life and death say? God said, crazy! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared (Luke 12:28–20)? This is the verdict God himself pronounces on the self-seeking man! The self-seeking man is mad. Why? because he does not remember death; because, not thinking about the proximity of death, he thinks not about the soul, but about wealth, which will not follow him to the next world. Deceptive treasures, fickle blessings, smoldering wealth! How can I love you while looking at the coffin? How to value you, how to search for you with effort and anxiety, when before I take possession of you, you can disappear for me, or even if I reach you, I will part with you against my wishes and hopes? Why worry? Let me use what is given to me, without leaving gratifying hopes behind the grave. My life is a journey, as death shows, and death tells me to look at earthly treasures as travel supplies and, moreover, burdensome when there is more of it than is needed for the journey, dangerous when I do not use it for what it is intended for. Thus, the memory of death is saving for our soul; but it can also be sweet for us in times of sorrow. Who among us has not suffered grief in life? And how often do they endure such grief that they did not expect, which comes without asking and seems to want to press us to the grave? Not only that. The path of virtue itself is strewn with thorns. The path of Christ is the path of the sorrows of the cross. Meanwhile, the path of the wicked is often sung. So, is it not in vain that I cleanse my heart, the righteous man cries, looking at the prosperity of the wicked? Is it not in vain that I wash my hands with innocence, that I endure wounds every day and suffering every morning (Ps. 72:13)? And how long to suffer and languish? How long can we endure sin and sinners? Not long, not long, answers faith and points to death, and after it to judgment. Thus, death will end earthly suffering; death will carry the Christian into blissful eternity. Be comforted, traveler of the earth driven by fate! Soon you will lay down the heavy burden and calm down. Be comforted, exhausted crusader of Christ! Soon your suffering will end, and you will be united with your Christ, Whom your soul seeks. Is it possible that God is not telling the truth? No! there, beyond the grave, He will judge each of us; He will give his own to everyone, depending on our deeds. To the one who had fun every day here, they will say there, you have received good things in your life; that's enough for you; your heart is full of fun; now another share for you. And the one who ate tears here instead of bread, who was fed only bitterness by life, who from his youth until his grave did not see a bright day, will wipe away his tears there. “Do not be jealous of the evil one; do not envy the worker of iniquity. In a little while, there will be no sinner, and the righteous will inherit the earth” (Ps. 36:21-22). Those who sow with tears will reap with joy. Death removes from the righteous the heavy bonds that weigh upon him throughout his earthly life; she will free him from the body of sin, which does not give him rest until the grave, raising battles and storms in him. Death will dispel doubts about earthly wanderings. It will reveal to us both the purpose of earthly labors and the meaning of the incomprehensible circumstances of our life. Standing on the edge of the grave, a Christian, as it were, stands on an elevated hill, from which he clearly distinguishes the path traveled, and sees that temporary suffering means nothing in comparison with the glory that awaits him there - beyond the grave; the coffin shows how insignificant the children of people who work for the world are, and how joyful and how high the fate of those who serve the Lord. Thus, it is sweet for a Christian to remember death; she is joyful for him, like an angel of peace; he wishes to quickly part with his annoying body, with the treacherous and evil world, with people who are forgetful and frivolous in their absent-mindedness. Here sin and sorrow pursue him on all paths. There with the Lord there is peace and salvation. Do not think that the Christian fear of death will prevent you from doing any good deed or will keep you from any good intention. No, the fear of death that a Christian harbors in himself is dissolved by a living and sweet hope; and therefore it does not constrain, but opens the soul for great deeds; does not lead it into confusion, does not create disorder in it, but introduces order and drives away the confusion that passions introduce into the soul. The Christian meets death not as a menacing monster, but as a messenger of peace. Death comes to him not in order to separate him from Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the righteousness of the law for us, but in order to unite him with Him. If they do not imagine death this way, it means that they do not know another life other than earthly life, no other blessings other than temporary blessings, no other God other than the gods of this age. In this case, the soul is unhappy, which they do not want to awaken from sleep with its fear of death; Unhappy are the people who care that the news of death does not reach their ears. This means the same thing as the last plank on which he could escape is taken away from a man drowning in the waves. However, for the thought of death to be edifying, it must be alive and firm in our soul. One must be deeply imbued with the thought of our mortality, vividly feel that the mortal composition will be dust, and the spirit will return to God; and then this living feeling of decay and death will revive our soul for zealous activity, strengthen our strength for the most difficult feats. The more death frightens us, the sooner the charms of sin will disappear; let us treasure all the more the talents given to us by God. True, no one among us says about himself that he will not see death. However, aren’t there many who live as if they don’t think of dying at all? We all know the sentence of eternal truth; our acquaintances, our friends, in our eyes, fulfill it on themselves. However, don’t we behave in such a way that this verdict doesn’t seem to concern us? We accompany others to the next world; Are we preparing ourselves for the same path? On the contrary, isn’t the thought of death as close to our soul as a hateful guest, whom we coldly receive and get rid of as quickly as possible? Doesn’t she sink into our souls as rarely as a coldly received acquaintance visits a gloomy acquaintance? If so, then there is nothing to be surprised that we live so little for good. In order for the thought of death to have its saving effect, one must live and act with the thought of death. We die while living; therefore, there is nothing more natural than, while living, to remember that we are dying. Is it in accordance with prudence to wait, in preparation for death, for the time when death has already entered your home, approaches your bed and begins to destroy your mortal frame? Besides the fact that death does not let anyone know in advance about the time of its visit, what preparation for death can there be in your soul, when your soul will be completely occupied with the horror of death itself? What kind of appeal to the Lord, what kind of repentance for the past, what kind of love for the Savior can there be when the suffering of the body, tormented by death, either leaves you completely unconscious or, with a weak consciousness, without any courage and strength? No! prepare in advance for death. Then you will be better advised by the thought of death, and you will reap more fruits for eternity. Then we will arrange our lives in such a way that we will never be afraid to move into eternity. At every meeting with a strong temptation, before the menacing gaze of death, the fire of passion will go out and the pure flame of love for the Lord will burn without going out. Remember your last in all your words, and then you will never sin, said the experienced sage (Sir.7:39). Then let sudden death visit us, it will not lead to confusion of our spirit; we will greet her with gratitude, as our beneficent friend. Both in life and in our death, may Your name be glorious, our God! Amen. Conversation on the 5th week of Lent No news, she’s asking for something. What a cruel answer to a request! What a harsh indictment of the dignity of prayer! And this answer, as we heard in the gospel read today, was spoken to the apostles James and John. The less right we have to think of ourselves that we understand the subject of our requests better than the apostles; all the more should we delve into the position of the apostles and the judgment of the Savior in order to be careful in our desires. And Jacob and John, the son of Zebedee, came before Him, saying, “To the Teacher, if you ask, let us do it.” He said, “Whatever you want, I will do to you?” Give him rest, so that we may be one on Your right hand and one on Your left in Your glory. James and John were chosen among the chosen disciples of Christ. Entire thousands were either open or secret listeners of the heavenly teaching of Christ. Between them, twelve were accepted among the beloved disciples of Christ and were called apostles. And among these chosen ones, James and John were the most beloved, closest apostles. For they and Peter were given the high advantage that they were witnesses of the glorious transfiguration of Christ. They and Peter witnessed the difficult feat of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. With such closeness of beloved students to their Teacher, was it not natural for them to want something special for themselves, when their Teacher is so kind to everyone? And notice with what modesty they offer their desire? They do not directly begin to demand what they want. Teacher, they say, we would like You to fulfill what we desire. What is this object of their desire? Grant us, they said, to sit with you, one on your right side, and the other on your left, in Your glory. To sit on the right and left side of the king means to participate in the royal honors, to be the first of those on whom the royal love and mercies are poured out. To sit on the right and left side of Christ means to participate in his glory, as the disciples expressed it when they mentioned glory. Does not the desire of James and John express faith in the greatness of Christ? Is it not an expression of their love for Him, which does not think of places of honor in the court of Herod, does not achieve any significance in the service of the mighty Caesar? And yet, what does the Lord say to them? Jesus said, I don’t know, I ask for something. How is this possible? The disciples, who spent about three years inseparably with their only Teacher and listened attentively to the words of eternal life, do not know what they are asking? Is it because not everything has been told to them? No, the moment is near when the Lord will say to them: All that I have heard from my Father I have told you (John 15:15). What does this mean? The fact is that until the Comforter Spirit descended on them, they did not understand everything that was said to them, and until the power from above strengthened them, they were mistaken in their desires. What was wrong with the desire of James and John? They, as we said, wanted to be with their Lord, and not with the glorious ones of the sinful world. There is no mistake here. What is the mistake? The fact that they wanted to be the first in the earthly glory of Christ, while the kingdom of Christ, as the Lord tells them, does not belong to the world, whereas just before that He announced to them about His earthly fate, behold, we ascend to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be betrayed by the bishop and scribe, and they will condemn Him to death and betray Him with their tongues and mock Him (Mark 10:33). So, did they understand what they were asking for? They ask for first places in His glory, while He goes to reproach and death! If James and John are condemned for the desire for honor, then, as they wanted to participate, although in earthly glory, but still in the glory of Christ, what can we say about those desires of honor, where in everything they do not have Christ in mind, but only one world, one earth? Do these people understand what they are asking for? If not death, then contempt, they say, for anyone who touches our honor before people. And they think they understand what they want. They value honor before people, when it is not people at all, but the Lord - the Judge of our affairs. They value honor before people, but do not value the peace or life of another, inviolable already because they are someone else’s, and not our property. What is earthly glory? Air vibrations. There is something to think about carefully. And yet, for this glory, why do they not commit untruth? In order to achieve honor, they allow themselves everything dishonest: bribery and deception, flattery and lies. And they think they understand what they are after? Can you drink the cup with which I drink, and with baptism, with which I am baptized, am baptized? asked the Savior of those seeking primacy. The cup to which Christ points is the same one for which He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by from Me (Matthew 26:39). The Baptism of Christ is a baptism of blood accomplished on the cross. So, asking those who sought primacy whether they can drink His cup and be baptized with His baptism, the Savior encourages them to test themselves, are they able to participate in His sufferings and cross? Why is this a test of one's strength? Because if the object of desire were beyond one’s strength, then even with all its holiness, to desire it would mean not to understand what one desires. Why covet something that I cannot use? James and John answered the proposed question: we can drink the cup, we can be baptized. But even if they understood the words of the question well, their answer was also hasty, also not based on accurate self-examination, like Peter’s promise to follow Jesus to death. You will drink from the cup that I have drunk, said the Lord. This means that there will be a time when James and John will drink the cup of suffering for Christ, but not now they are capable of this; He is already ready for His cup, I drink the cup, but they will still prepare for it. Here He stands in prayer before His cup, and what are they doing? They sleep, powerless and in order to spend one hour in vigil. The Jews take Him and lead Him to suffer, but they all abandon Him and flee (Mark 14:50). You, who are so dissatisfied with your lot and are so impatiently looking for another, are anxiously striving to take the highest place, the highest importance in the circle of people! Have you tested yourself? Did you know that this place was for you? What if you're too small for the space? They will laugh at you. No, you say, I know myself, I know my strengths; but, while others are worse than me and have long occupied prominent places, I still remain the same. My friend! Do you agree that you are at least no better than James and John, no stronger than Peter? If they could have made a mistake in themselves, due to human pride, and turned out to be not at all what they imagined themselves to be when they met temptations before, how can you not impose silence on your talkative pride? How can you not tell yourself whether I really know myself well? Surely I would not have fallen if I had taken the path to which I so strive? Now I live in peace, although I am not surrounded by glitter, but what if the glitter will only irritate my nerves and will not give me peace until the grave? What if passions, having found food for themselves, drag me from one vice to another and lead me to hell itself? No, Thy will be done with Thy servant, my God! Each position, each occupation requires special knowledge and special abilities. Let everyone, before deciding to take up this or that activity, test himself to see if he is capable of it? Only frivolity strives uncontrollably for honors and titles, seduced by their external splendor. But the wise man says: do not seek higher things for yourself (Sir.3:21). And people are more aware of the weaknesses of those who stand above others. If a prominent place is a place of power: what answer, O my God, must be given at Thy judgment! No matter how many sins they have committed, they will demand an account for the affairs of their subordinates. The more persistently someone seeks a higher position, the more boldly he sits in first place, the more likely is your conclusion that he either has not tested himself and does not know himself at all, or has tested himself, but was deceived during the test, and therefore it will be bitter for him when he is unexpectedly pushed aside. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant about James and John. Here is another fruit of the pursuit of first places! As long as there were no desires for primacy between the apostles, no hostility was visible between them. The desire for primacy appeared, and indignant people also appeared. The others were angry with James and John because, while all twelve equally left everything for Jesus and therefore thrones were promised to all, two sought special honors. Look, brethren, even among the apostles the spirit of exaltation disrupts the peace of their society, what can we expect for our mutual relations, for our love? Among us the spirit of exaltation is, of course, not as quiet as among the apostles. ABOUT! How wild he can be here! Not only does he vigorously strive for his goal, he, in his impulses, deliberately insults his neighbors, pushes those he meets out of the way, hurls abuse and slander at others, and takes revenge as an insult for the fact that another has become superior to others. Is there a place for love here? If it is difficult to be insulted and not feel insulted, then imagine how much annoyance a wild passion for superiority awakens? How many quarrels, how much enmity, how many waves of hatred! Thus the spirits of pride and covetousness are dried up by love. But Jesus, having called them, said unto them, that he that thinketh to master tongues shall overcome them, and their great ones shall master them, but it shall not be the same in you. New encouragement not to seek first place! To seek dominance over others is characteristic only of pagans; to be exalted and to rule is the work of the sinful world. This is their sad difference. Why is this so? Those who do not know the glory of God, nor the virtues of the immortal spirit, can only seek human glory; those who do not have firm hopes that they will ascend to heaven are left to amuse themselves with earthly greatness. But among Christians who know the glory of heaven, this should not happen. How is it typical for a Christian to act? Whatever He wills to be in you, let him be your servant. Whoever wants to be great among you, be your servant. The Savior does not say that there should be no authorities and leaders among Christians. On the contrary, He directly teaches that among Christians there should be great, great ones, but not with the properties of the leading pagans. Among Christians, if anyone wants to be great, he will achieve greatness only through voluntary humility; if someone is higher than others in power, in rank, the love of rank tells him to be a servant of others, to live not for himself, not for his own peace, but for the benefit of those entrusted to him; That is why someone remains a slave, slavery does not humiliate him, because he serves God, regardless of people (1 Cor. 9:19); according to Christian teaching, the ruler is God's servant for good, just as He is His servant and servant (Rom. 13:4), For the Son of man did not come and let them serve Him, but let Him serve and give His life redemption for many. If it were not easy for a Christian to humble himself before his own kind, and especially for the first in power not to be carried away by the dream of primacy, then here is the most instructive example for humility, the most indisputable conviction. If the Son of God, appearing on earth in the form of a son of man, did not demand services for himself, and therefore appeared to serve people and lay down His life for their salvation, then which of the people has the right to refuse to serve people? What Christian can be a Christian without following the footsteps of Christ his Lord, refusing to imitate His humility? ABOUT! Lord Jesus! Give us the strength to humble our annoying pride, so that You alone will be glorious in our deeds! Amen. Conversation IV. On Psalm 50, in the 5th week of Lent The praying David, after pouring out prayers for the forgiveness of his sins, also offers sacrifices of thanksgiving to the Lord! This is the prayer of living trust in God! She is sure that God hears her desires and thanks Him. Such is the repentance of a repentant righteous man! It is not fruitless repentance; it hastens to prove by deeds that his intentions to change his life are firm. In the last part of his penitential psalm, David pours out his gratitude to the merciful Lord, first on his own behalf (Ps. 50:15-19), then depicts the gratitude of the whole church. Speaking about his gratitude, he shows what kind of gratitude he recognizes as worthy of his benefactor (Ps. 50:15-17) and what kind of gratitude he does not consider pleasing to him and therefore does not bring (Ps. 50:18-19). I will teach the wicked your way and they will turn to you in wickedness. The ways of God, which the repentant David promises to teach the wicked, according to his dispositions, are those ways that are known to him from his own experience, those ways on which God appears to sinners, showing them his goodness and causing them with goodness to repent of their wickedness before her. These are the ways of mercy and truth, which is what David sang about, all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps. 24:10). These are the ways of God’s faithful protection for those who trust in God, as David preached, “the way of God is faithful, the word of the Lord is pure; He is a shield to all those who trust in Him” (Ps. 17:31). David vows to teach the wicked the ways of God, the will of God. This was a matter of gratitude to the pardoned sinner, who cannot help but glorify the pardoning hand and, out of gratitude to the heavenly Benefactor, cannot remain cold to the insolence of those who, through impenitence, offend the heavenly Father. For David, caring for sinners was natural because, according to the prophet Nathan, David, by encouraging the enemies of God with his crime, gave them a reason to slander the truth of God, as if by partiality it left David’s crimes unpunished, or as if it were powerless to repay everyone according to his deeds (2 Samuel 12:9-12). David promises to remove the dangerous temptation by exploiting the efforts of turning sinners to repentance, promises to show sinners that God remains righteous by rewarding the repentant sinner with forgiveness for his repentance - and is powerful to take revenge on the stubborn wicked for their stubbornness. How brilliantly David fulfilled his promise! We are not talking about his oral instructions. Is not his penitential psalm the most excellent sermon to sinners about repentance? He gave it away, as we said. The leader of the singers for singing in the congregations of Israel. The Christian Church, the Orthodox Church, following the example of the Old Testament, repeats to us David’s song of repentance every day, teaching him the lawless ways of God, the ways of mercy and truth. And how many thousands of sinners shed tears of repentance while repeating David’s song of repentance! How many forgetful slaves of sin have been converted to the path of salvation! It is necessary that those listening to David’s repentant psalm be too distracted, too callous in soul, not to be touched by its touching sounds. So it was not in vain that David vouched for the beneficial effect of his instructions; it was not in vain that he said, and the wicked will turn to You. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, God of my salvation. My tongue will rejoice in Your righteousness. Lord, open my mouth, and my mouth will declare Your praise. David, continuing to pour out his vows of gratitude, says, if You deliver me from the punishment for the blood that I have shed, then my tongue will rejoice in Your righteousness; if You open the mouth of a sinner with the forgiveness of his sins, then these lips will only sing Your praises. Deliver me from bloodshed. In a living sense of God's justice, David represents the blood he shed in the form of an enemy who persecutes him. He remembered the words of the Lord to Cain: the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth (Gen. 4:10); vividly imagined the terrible sentence of God's truth to every murderer: shed the blood of a man in his place it will be shed (Gen. 9:6); When he thought about his past, Nathan’s words echoed in his ears again: You killed Uriah the Hethian with the sword. And now the sword shall not depart from your house until forever (2 Samuel 12:9. 10). And in the consciousness of the inalienable rights of God's justice, he is involuntarily aroused to prayer for the forgiveness of sin; in a feeling of guilt unchangeable by anything, he again expects salvation only from the One who is his salvation, who alone can grant him salvation (Ps. 24:5). Despite all the fact that David is vividly aware of the severity of his sin, he firmly hopes in the goodness of God and, as if he had already heard, makes a vow to God, my tongue will rejoice in Your righteousness. When You forgive me, my tongue will joyfully proclaim Your truth. What truth does David promise to proclaim? That truth of God, which gives to each his own - to the unrepentant sinner the execution he deserves, and to the one who turns to God with pure, sincere repentance, forgiveness of sins. The beloved disciple of Christ also speaks about this truth: if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, may he forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). This truth, according to David’s insight, must be preached as a result of His suffering. Whose hands and feet will be pierced (Ps. 21:17, 32). Lord open my mouth. David firmly remembers the terrible will of God about the sinner, but God said to the sinner, Having told my justification, will you accept my covenant with your lips? (Ps.49:16). And recognizing himself as a sinner, he feels that his lips are sealed for the glorification of God and should not touch the great name of God. There was a time, he thinks, when I freely sang the praises of the Lord! And now? Now shall my hands, stained with blood, rattle psalms of praise? Should my lips, defiled by unclean kisses, proclaim the justifications of God? But good and merciful! You listen to the prayer of a repentant sinner, remove the seal of silence from his lips. And the grateful sinner vows to open his mouth only to glorify Your goodness. As if you had wanted sacrifices, you would have given them. Do not favor creation alms. A sacrifice to God, the spirit is broken, the heart is contrite and humble, God will not despise David justifies his vow to glorify the goodness of God by the fact that, in his consciousness, there is nothing more to thank the Lord. As if you would have wanted a sacrifice, in fact, a sacrifice of slaughter, which was offered to the Lord in gratitude for His benefits, just as the burnt offering was offered in commemoration of one’s dedication to God the benefactor. How is it that God does not want slaughter and burnt offerings from David, when He Himself established them in the law? Are His own institutions already displeasing to Him? God is not pleased with everything that is not done in accordance with His intentions; He did not like sacrifices when they were made without thoughts of faith, without heartfelt love, since He did not institute them in this soulless form. He does not like sacrifices without faith and love, since such sacrifices are no longer His institutions, but the work of human arbitrariness. Even through Moses God said to the wicked, I do not smell the stench of your sacrifices (Lev.16:31). since sacrifices were important only in connection with faith and love, it means that faith and love, in fact, are pleasing to the Lord. This is what David expresses when he says, a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a contrite and humble heart, God will not despise. A contrite spirit, a contrite and oppressed heart means deep but quiet sadness. In David, a contrite spirit is combined with sorrow of heart in other cases (Ps. 147:3, 33:19). In the present case, the subject of grief, pleasing to God, is David’s sins. Why does David consider sadness about sins appropriate after his sins are forgiven, after he himself rejoiced about salvation? You see, the joy of grace-filled salvation does not exclude sadness about our own work - about sin. On the contrary, the very praise of God, who is merciful and generous to the sinner, necessarily contains the thought of the sin and guilt of the sinner. For, glorifying God for the fact that He, in His goodness, forgave my sins, how can I renounce the remembrance of what has been forgiven? No, a contrite heart is truly a grateful sacrifice to God. Conscious of ourselves as sinners, we will not attribute anything to ourselves, but will attribute everything to God, and will thank only God’s mercy for everything. Therefore, the measure of our remembrance of sins, the measure of our sadness for the errors of our hearts will be the measure of our gratitude to the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. So, excluding sacrifices and burnt offerings from the work of our reconciliation with God and putting in their place a contrite and humble heart, the repentant David rises to the apostolic teaching about the conditions of our reconciliation with God. Thus, repentant self-consciousness, apparently, humiliates a person to the extreme, depriving him of all hopes for his personality, but in fact, while humiliating, it elevates a person, since it places him under the all-powerful protection of the power of God. The Lord is close to those who are broken in heart and saves those who are humble in spirit (Ps. 33:19). Elevated by humility, David not only sings gratitude to God himself, but also sings praise on behalf of the entire church. Bless Zion with Your favor, O Lord, and may the walls of Jerusalem be built. Then favor the sacrifice of righteousness, the offering and the burnt offering. Then they will place the calf on Your altar If David’s sin had not been forgiven, if Nathan’s threat to put the entire house of David to the sword for David’s sin had been fulfilled (2 Samuel 12:10), then what would have followed? A shock to the entire kingdom of Israel, confusion and excitement, war and destruction for the entire people of Israel, especially for the royal capital of Jerusalem. One would be a consequence of the other. Sin is prolific, it produces death and destruction in everything around us. People consider sins to be small, but the whole creation groans because of our sins; from our sins - troubles for our neighbors, for the society in which we live, for the state to which we belong, for the church with which we are united by spiritual ties. That is why David combines concern for Zion and Jerusalem with repentant concern for his fate and does not limit his vows of gratitude for his pardon to his own personality. Bless Zion, O Lord, with Your favor. If, O Lord, my sin leaves me without vengeance, then all the more do not turn Your face away from the kingdom of Israel for my sins; continue your favors towards it. Let my intentions regarding Jerusalem be fulfilled; may not only its walls remain solid, almost undestroyed by my sin, but may they grow into an invincible stronghold. Then, when You hear my prayer, the prayer for the complete oblivion of my sins both in relation to me and in relation to my kingdom, then You will be pleased, the sacrifice of truth. Then You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, the heaping offerings and the burnt offerings; then the people, grateful for Your mercies, will joyfully bring You everything they can. Sacrifices of righteousness are those sacrifices that are made with righteous dispositions and thoughts, in accordance with the intentions of God. Such sacrifices are pleasing to God; they differ from the sacrifice of a contrite spirit only in appearance, and not in meaning. Thus, hearts flaming with love for You, souls offering themselves entirely to Your service—this is what Your church, Lord of mercies and bounties, will bring to You. Thus, the fruits of David’s repentance were: a) his firm vow to teach the lawless ways of God; b) a vow to proclaim the truth of God, giving to each his own; c) a vow to glorify the greatness of God’s goodness; d) constant memory of sins - as praise to the greatness of grace, and finally e) praise and gratitude of the whole church. Brethren! according to the commandment of the church, we also bring repentance. I will not say that the church did not thank the Lord for that. But look around, what will your conscience say about your confession? Is your confession the same as David’s? Is your repentance as great as David's? Did David not stop at bringing sincere, fiery, bitter repentance for his sins? He accompanied his repentance with new exploits, as natural consequences of his sincere repentance. Where are your fruits of repentance? Or is it enough for you to look in the mirror of God’s law at the ugliness of your soul and walk away calmly? Be ashamed. What to do, you say? Do as David did. Let everyone atone for his sins in whatever way his sins can be atoned for. If you are lazy, go to the church of God to pray; the stingy give alms; if you love to eat and drink sweet things, keep a fast; a pitiful servant of the passion of carnal trembling before the judgment beyond the grave; You, who love to judge and condemn others, take care of yourself, throw ridicule and reproaches at yourself. ABOUT! How grateful David was for the forgiveness of his sins! Not only did he decide once and for all to lead a pure, holy life, but how many lofty vows were brought by his grateful heart! Why don’t each of you take one vow or another, at least a light one? How many sacrifices are made to the world and sin! And for what? Because both of them destroy what is sacred in the soul. But for the Heavenly Father, who is so beneficent, there are no sacrifices? Have nothing to give for eternal salvation? For God we are poor, straitened by poor harvests and bad trade. What simple-minded sincerity! What a clever calculation! They expect everything from God, mercy for the soul, money, bread and honor. And what do they give Him? What do they come to Him with? Oh, brothers, if we do not want to live here for the Lord according to our will, then we will do His will there against our will, but what will? He will say, depart from Me, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire. And let's go, reluctantly. ABOUT! God, God of our salvation! give us a contrite and humble heart, not for us, who are worthless, but for Your mercy. Amen. Conversation during the 5th week of Lent, during the liturgy, about the life of Mary of Egypt The Holy Church offers in these days of repentance the example and prayers of the ascetic Mary of Egypt. Have you, listeners, read the story of this woman, marvelous in repentance? Repeat if you have read it, especially listen if you have never read or listened to it. They read the history of lawlessness, often the most shameless lawlessness. How can one not listen to the story of repentance, the story of wondrous feats for eternal salvation? Does anyone really like the stench of sin more than the aroma of virtue? If so, it’s very bad. Let's hurry up and correct the deteriorated sense of smell so as not to lose it completely. This time I will offer you one part of the life of the wonderful Mary. Mary lived for seventeen years for one sin, in the rich trading city of Alexandria; for seventeen years she led the most unclean life, drowning in fornication; for seventeen years she was a vessel of the devil, disgusting to the Lord. I call life by the names that Mary herself called it, being holy. Perhaps people will find other names for this life. What doesn't happen to people! They have both innocent weaknesses and sins that are almost equal to virtues. But do not be flattered, brethren, the apostle tells us; do not be flattered, brethren, neither harlots nor harlots can inherit the kingdom. Mary, prompted by sin, went to Jerusalem for the feast of worship of the cross of the Lord. Following the example of others, she went to the Jerusalem temple. But uncontrollable on the paths of a criminal life, she could not cross the threshold of the sanctuary. Three, four times she attempted to enter the church. But each time a secret, invisible force did not allow her into the church of God. The indomitable sinner began to think for the first time, her feelings were agitated, and a gloomy picture of her past life was revealed in her conscience. She finally saw that there is a Almighty, to whom her deeds are vile; I saw that there was no communication between him, the vessel of abominations, and the church of the All-Holy, there was no communication between her, who had destroyed so many souls, and the One who laid down His soul for the salvation of souls, there was no communication between him, the container of uncleanness, and that cross on which the blood of the most pure Lamb and the Son of God was shed. Bitter tears flowed from her eyes; she hit her chest with blows, in hopelessness. Tormented by grief, she looked and saw an icon of the Mother of God on the wall of the narthex! and a ray of hope flashed in her gloomy soul. She turned to the Most Holy Virgin with a prayer - to show her mercy to the poor sinner, to offer her prayer to the Son of the Lord and open access to His life-giving cross; she made a firm vow not to live any longer for sin, but to devote herself to the Lord, to repentance and tears. The prayer was answered. The new effort to enter the church was not stopped. She entered and, struck by the mercy of one who accepted such a sinner as she, threw herself down before the life-giving tree, watering the earth with streams of tears. Once again, entrusting herself to the protection of the Mother of God before Her image, Mary set off across the Jordan for the difficult feat of repentance. Thus a gracious change took place in the former sinner! The contrite Mary stirs up many thoughts. She was in the depths of sin. But is she rejected by heaven? No! The Mother of God bowed to her tears and bowed Her Son to her. Sinner! no matter how deep you fall into the abyss of sin, look at the sinner Mary, not rejected by heaven. Don't let your soul despair. Turn in contrition of heart to the Lord. Have you spent most of your life in oblivion of God, in a distracted, unclean life? Remember, Mary did not soon come to her senses; who came to her senses was accepted by heaven. Whether you are given a sign of readiness to accept you or not, there is no need to worry about that. The word of the Lord is true, as is the deed. As I live, says the Lord, I do not want the sinner to die, but to turn and live to be him. For people it is most true when the word is sealed with an oath; and the Lord condescends to this human weakness; with an oath he assures that He does not want the sinner to die. Be sure, sinner, that the Lord is only waiting for your conversion. Humble yourself in your soul before the Lord, stand with the publican at the back of the church, consider yourself unworthy to look at heaven and the holy mysteries; but be with hope in the goodness of heaven. Following the example of Mary, pray to the most blessed Virgin, pray to the prayer books of heaven, so that they will appear for you, unworthy, before the throne of the great God and ask for His mercy. And this humility - rest assured - will be accepted as the best sacrifice. Publicans and fornicators enter the kingdom of God before you (Matthew 21:31), the Savior said to the Pharisees and scribes. Mary fulfilled this word on herself. The grace of God touched her heart not in vain; the spark of God, which appeared in her gloomy soul, went out; the awakened voice of conscience has not been silenced. It is impossible, my listener, that you and I, at one time or another, were not touched by the grace of God. The Redeemer, who called Mary to Himself, is now the same good shepherd, looking for the lost sheep; Even now He strikes at the door of our hearts with various incidents, sometimes through our failures in business or illness, sometimes through the blessing of our paths. But what? We are careless, or we ignore the touches of grace, or, although we are touched by them, we soon forget them. How much we need to cry so that the Lord does not strike with righteous judgment our inattention to His care for our salvation! In the days of the Savior, great sinners flocked to the Savior - tax collectors, harlots, robbers, but the Pharisees, people who outwardly observed law and order, rarely, very rarely, turned to Him with a sincere soul. So now people, renowned for their righteousness, do not think that they should repent. They say, “What should we repent of? Glory to God, we are not robbers, not fornicators, not thieves; but God will not punish small sins.” Unhappy ones! they do not see, they do not feel that the chain of daily, hourly, so-called small sins has already become so long that its end has long been hanging in hell; They do not see that this chain, fastened by them every day, every hour, by repetition of sins, has become so strong that they cannot break it with cold, soulless prayers. My friends! The most terrible state of the soul is a state of proud insensibility and careless arrogance. The publican’s prayer justified him because it was a prayer of a contrite heart, a prayer of a soul full of a sense of guilt before the Lord. And even donations to the church did not help the arrogant Pharisee. Pray, my friends, pray fervently, with contrition of soul, like sinners. For we are all sinners before the Lord. We must all belong to Him, as His creatures; everything in us should serve Him and not sin. He is so good that the whole heart must serve Him, and all our bones must confess to Him. That is why, to him who is neither warm nor cold, He says, Imam, vomit you out of My mouth. Let us fear coldness towards eternal salvation. Let's take a closer look at ourselves; Let us test ourselves with a strict conscience. Let us reconsider our life according to all the commandments, let us believe in the law all our actions, all our relationships. Let us count the crimes, leaving not a single one without a fair trial. Let us not excuse ourselves either by the general weakness that did not prevent the saints from being saints, or by the example of many; There will be a place in hell for many if we do not all repent. Let us not refer to the goodness of God, which is good not so that we will be sinners, ungrateful before it. Let us judge ourselves as if we stood before the judgment of the Lord, terrible in righteousness. And then our repentance can be as life-giving as the repentance of St. Maria. Inviting your love to listen to the continuation of the story of St. Mary, in the next liturgy, I pray to the Lord Jesus that He may send His light into our hearts, so that we, following the example of Mary, may see the multitude of our sins and glorify His goodness, which has long-suffered us. Amen. Spoken in the house church. Conversation in the 5th week of Lent, at Matins, about the life of Mary of Egypt We left in the last conversation St. Mary on her way to the desert, where she retired for the exploits of a new life. Let's now look at her life in the desert. When the venerable elder Zosima saw Mary for the first time in the deep wild desert, he was so amazed by her appearance that he thought that before his eyes was not a person, but a spirit. Her flesh was so exhausted! She turned all black from the heat of the sun; the hair was white as a wave. Mistaking her for a long-term hermit, Zosima asked her, who was running away from him, to stop for the good of his soul, and upon hearing the answer, “Abba Zosima! I am a wife, throw me your robe so that I can cover my nakedness.” Amazed that they were calling him by name where no one could know him, he no longer doubted that God was revealing to him his extraordinary servant. When he asked about her desert life, she answered: “If I’m not mistaken, it’s been forty-seven years since I left St. city ​​of Jerusalem, and have not seen anyone since that time. At first I ate the bread that I brought with me until it came out, then the plants of the desert. When my clothes were worn out, I suffered a lot from the heat of the sun and from the cold. I often became so weak that I could not stand on my feet and fell.” The elder asked about her inner exploits. She answered, “This question makes me tremble, just when I think about the terrible dangers to which I was exposed, about the attacks that I suffered from my corrupted heart. For seventeen years I experienced cruel and constant temptations. When I started eating, I felt that I wanted to eat Egyptian meat or fish. I really wanted to drink wine. In the world I loved this drink very much, so I often got drunk to excess, and in the desert I did not always have a drop of water to quench the thirst that tormented me. My disordered passions drew me to many other things. Then I began to sob and torment my chest. I devoted myself to the Mother of God and remembered the vows that I made before Her image. When I cried for a long time in this way, hitting my body with blows, suddenly light illuminated me and peace returned to my heart. Often the torment of my old passions seemed to drive me out of the desert. Then I threw myself on the ground, watered it with tears, lifted my heart to the Most Holy Virgin, and She never refused me protection.” That's what Mary said. Isn’t it true, my friends, that Mary’s temptations were terrible? Are her exploits cruel? How wonderful was the help sent to her from heaven? Mary’s temptations were terrible because her passions were too irritated by her long life in sin. How we should be afraid, my friends, so as not to irritate our passions by long-term indulgence in their greed! Happy are young souls if from the days of their youth they begin to punish themselves with the yoke of Christ’s commandments. Otherwise, the longer they live according to the will of passions, the harder it is to return to the path of salvation. Passions satisfied over the course of years, the further they go, the more wild, indomitable, and destructive they become. Cut off bad wishes in yourself, tame bad inclinations at their very beginning, before they have yet become stronger in your soul. They often console themselves with the thought that this or that weakness is unimportant, that they will still have time to correct themselves in this or that sin. Years pass, they begin to feel that they have lived poorly, and they decide to abandon their long-standing weakness. But weakness has so dominated the soul that they do not feel able to overcome it, and what was so easy to overcome in oneself in the beginning now requires cruel feats. The struggle that Mary endured with her passions was inexpressibly cruel. But the path to the kingdom of God is thorny for everyone. Bad habits increase the severity of deeds for the ascetic of salvation. But no matter who you are, my friend, you cannot ascend to heaven without difficulty. A spacious road, a smooth path, a cheerful life lead to hell. The Kingdom of God, says the Savior, is taken with force (Matthew 11:12). So, choose one of two - eternal bliss and labor here, or peace on earth and eternal torment beyond the grave. So, bless the Lord when He sends you sorrows and disasters, taking away food from the passions and putting a bridle on them against your will. However, if the path to the kingdom of God is difficult, this does not mean that the life of ascetics of piety is helpless and joyless. Oh no! The Lord is close to all who sincerely call upon Him. His help is ready for everyone who asks for help. Look at St. Maria. The Lord does not hesitate to strengthen and comfort His servants when needed. No matter how strong the passions are, no matter how cruel the struggle they raise; ask for help from above, and help will be given. The stronger the storm of sin arises in the soul, the more persistently you ask and receive; - you will receive what you want when, having abandoned all hope in yourself, you cast both your sins and your weaknesses before the Lord; when you cry from the depths of your soul, Lord! I am poor, I am a sinner. I perish, my Savior saved me! And he will give salvation, comfort, strengthen, delight, so that you will forget all bitterness and all obstacles will disappear. To what triumph over the weaknesses of our nature, to what triumph over external nature itself did the grace of God exalt the ascetics of piety! Look at St. Mary, this sinner who was once drowned in sin. St. Mary, her story says, asked Elder Zosima to bring her the body and blood of the Savior on the Great Thursday of the future Lent. At the beginning of Lent, she told him: “You will not be able to leave the monastery.” And exactly in the next Lent, Zosima lay ill when the brethren went beyond the Jordan for solitary exploits. When Great Thursday approached, Zosima had already recovered and went to the bank of the Jordan with the body and blood of the Lord, which he carried in a bowl, taking a basket of fruits. In the evening he saw the saint on the opposite bank. She marked the water with a cross and walked on it as if on solid ground. Approaching the elder, she, after listening to the symbol of faith and prayer - Our Father, took communion of the Holy Eucharist and, raising her hands to heaven, said in tears, “Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word in peace; for mine eyes have seen the salvation of my soul.” Turning to Zosima, she said, “forgive me for the trouble that I caused you, but do not refuse me mercy - next Lent, come to the place where I spoke to you for the first time.” The next Lent, Zosima and the other brothers went into the desert. His first concern was to find the saint and ask about her name, which he had previously forgotten to do. When he arrived at the place, he found her already dead. On her body there was an inscription that said that the deceased was called Mary, and together the day was indicated when she rested. Zosima buried her in a grave dug by a lion sent by God. So St. labored and rested in the desert. Maria. Will they allow me to please the desert that raised St. Maria? Yes, blessed is the desert, which raised such a sinner to such purity. What was Mary like living in a noisy world! A vile sinner. What did Mary become while laboring in the desert? An angel on earth. But they will say, why this praise of the desert? Is it not possible to find salvation in the world? I have no doubt, my friends, that God’s servants find salvation both in cities and villages. I have no doubt that you can and should bless the Lord in every place. But let’s also think about why Mary, who began her repentance in the city of Jerusalem, left to finish her repentance in the desert? Was she really mistaken? Has she really allowed herself to do something unnecessary, useless for her soul? Of course, you won’t say that St. could have made a mistake any easier. Mary, we are sinners than we are. Mary was tested in the wilderness, and tested the wilderness for forty-eight years. But you must admit that experience is a great teacher, this is not like the dreams of people who speak about spiritual subjects only by hearsay, and therefore know as much about them as blind people about flowers. Let us listen to another teacher, indisputable for anyone - the word of God. When he went into the wilderness and prayed, he spoke the gospel about the Savior (Luke 5:16). Sit there, until I go and pray there - on a deserted mountain, the Savior said before his death on the cross (Matthew 26:36). What do these actions of the Savior mean? The fact that pure prayer requires every possible separation of the soul from everything created in order to be entirely with the Lord is that in order to perform the most perfect prayer, the purest spirit, which is the spirit of the God-man, needed a deserted distance from the world. Here is the approval of the desert in the indisputable life of the God-man! If the Lord Jesus Himself finds the desert necessary even for Himself, then what should we tell the weak about ourselves? Oh my God! How frivolous we are in everything that relates to our salvation! We imagine ourselves to be so strong that we consider the temptations of the world to be nothing to us. But in fact, even slight grief so disturbs our spirit that we are completely lost; in fact, the empty amusements of the world occupy us so much that we run after them just like children. No, let's not deceive ourselves. In addition to the fact that the world entertains our attention with a variety of objects, needs, concerns, there are whole crowds of images in it that irritate your weaknesses, passions, and lusts. Count the thousands of whims, entertainments, decency, necessities of home, family, society, invented by vanity, luxury, passion for money. And measure your heart with your gaze—does it not respond more or less, more often or less often, to every touch of the objects and accessories of the sinful age? Do not forget that it is possible to measure all the weaknesses of the heart, to see all the ulcers inflicted on it by the sinful world, to feel the full value of spiritual purity, only by illuminating the heart with the light of grace. ABOUT! how not to say after that, blessed is the desert that raised St. Mary for heaven! Those to whom the Lord revealed all their weaknesses and aroused a thirst to serve Him without entertainment, not finding the strength to resist the world, fled from the world, like Lot from Sodom, to repeat with the apostle, not the imams of the city that abides here, but we seek the one to come (Heb. 13:14). It is another matter, due to the awareness of one’s weaknesses, due to the lack of strength needed for the desert, but to dare to do the exploits of the desert; this is befitting the Christian spirit of humility; this means that Christian life has its own degrees of perfection, just as there are many mansions in the house of the Heavenly Father. Therefore, do not be afraid, I will not call everyone into the desert. I only wish that everyone would be aware of their weaknesses; I wish that they would be afraid, everyone would be afraid of the seductions of the sinful world. Sovereign Lord! Through the prayers of our holy mother Mary, save our minds and hearts from the destructive arrows of the world and passions. Amen. Section VII. The Voice of God to the Sinner Conversation on the words Son of man, you are a guardian for the house of Israel Son of a man, I am your guardian house of Israel. Whenever I give a river to a sinner, sinner, you will die and not If you are Lagolati, you will survive the wicked from his way, that the wicked will die in his iniquity, and I will require his blood at your hand (Ezek.33:7-8). Thus says the Lord to his prophet! Doesn't He say the same thing to all His shepherds? Isn’t every shepherd obliged to faithfully alternate the word of God to his flock? Shouldn’t every shepherd, in timely and untimely ways, denounce, convince and persuade sinners, force them to leave the destructive paths of wickedness and embark on the path of salvation? Will not every shepherd answer at God's court for every infidelity to his duty? ABOUT! what a shepherd! Brethren! Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant for you to hear the words, the minister of the word of God is obliged to repeat it out loud. This is his duty. God’s word about a sinner is hard and harsh. But it is the word of God, and you must listen to it; it is the word of God and, without a doubt, necessary for you, more necessary than any human word. The sinner must convert or he will perish; whoever he is, he will perish if he does not leave his sinful ways. This is what God says to the prophet about the sinner! This is God's will for the sinner! This is the position of the sinner! What God said through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, he also spoke through his other preachers, and the only begotten Son of God Himself proclaimed. Through the mouth of Jeremiah the Lord spoke to the sinner: Your apostasy will punish you, and your malice will expose you; In Isaiah, He says to the criminal children of Israel: turn to me and you will be saved (Is. 45:22). Sinners will return to hell, if you are pagans who forget God (Ps. 9:18), says St. King David in the name of God. Isn’t it spoken more softly about the sinner in the new covenant, where there is so much of God’s goodness? The Holy Apostle teaches: because of your cruelty and unrepentant heart, you have stored up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will reward everyone according to his deeds (Rom. 2:5-6). While you live in the flesh, you are about to die (Rom.8:13). Apart from what is holy, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). The Savior teaches: those who do not have faith will be condemned (Luke 24:47). If your hand tempts you, fathers, it is kinder for you to lead into your belly without a hand, than to lead both hands into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched (Mark 9:43-44). Is this enough? Isn’t it clear that it is not the will of man, not the interpretation of people, but the will of God that says to the sinner, choose one of two, either return from the paths of sin to the path of salvation, or await eternal destruction? If this is what the Son of God, Who came down from heaven and knows the whole truth, says about a sinner, if God says this, how could the situation of a sinner be different? After that, even if an angel from heaven told you anything else about a sinner, he would not be an angel of light, but a spirit of lies. And indeed, only the father of lies can tell sinners that you will be saved while remaining sinners. God announced to the forefathers in paradise that you will die if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the devil assured you that you will not die - on the contrary, your eyes will be opened, you will be like gods. So now he assures poor sinners, do not worry, the fear of hell is an invention of superstitious people; stand above the crowd. And the poor people believed him in heaven. They still believe him, they believe him, although the experience of their forefathers should have warned them. Pathetic people! What a humiliation, what blindness to believe in the devil and not believe in God. After the position of the sinner has been clearly defined by God, what would be the effort of man to present his position in a different form? unholy struggle with God! they want the court of the infinite to correspond to their earthly, narrow concepts. They think to be more truthful than eternal wisdom and truth, what insolence! what wickedness! Isn’t it true that their work is obviously useless, that uninvited judges came into the world too late to change the laws given to the world so long ago? God is merciful, they say, and will not condemn us. Yes, He is merciful. By His mercy He declares to the sinner, repent, or you will perish. Isn’t His mercy a saving warning to the sinner? Is not His goodness this preaching to the wicked? If a sinner does not listen to the goodness of God, who is to blame? Isn't he the sinner himself? The fruits of his disobedience are bitter, the consequences are disastrous, but they are the fruits of his will. If anyone is cruel to a sinner, then only he is cruel to himself; he did not accept the goodness of God, in his own way. God is good and will not judge us. But do they understand what they expect from a good God? They expect the goodness of God to favor sin, to love sin! What a crazy wait! The good God spares the sinner, but cannot love sin. Sin, the object of His disgust and indignation. If people consider their sins worthless, if they are so indifferent to the deeds of their wickedness, is it not blasphemy against God to think that He, the All-All, can favor sin? ABOUT! as long as the sinner remains a sinner, his sins will be the subject of God's wrath. It cannot be otherwise. They want the wicked to be in heaven. What should they do there? For them, heaven will be hell. Will their crimes give them peace, where their vileness and ugliness would be illuminated by the light of the righteous? And how can one be wicked in heaven? In heaven they love God, they love all that is holy, but the wicked do not love either God or all that is holy. How can they be there when their desires, their skills, their thoughts drag them to hell and not to heaven? Is it really, they say, not contrary to the truth of God to punish temporary sins with eternal torment? If eternal rewards for temporary good deeds agree with the truth, why do they want to consider eternal torment inconsistent with the truth of God? Let them better understand what they didn’t think about. Let them understand that just as in a good deed its price does not depend on its duration, but, in fact, on its conformity with the will of God, so exactly the baseness and sinfulness of human crime lies in its contradiction with the will of God, in its relation to the God-created soul. Sinners! Instead of arguing with God’s word about the sinner, humble yourself before him, submit to him, hasten to fulfill what it expects from the sinner for his happiness. Repent so as not to perish, convert so that you may be whole. Understand, feel the terrible danger of your situation. You will perish for eternity unless you repent. Such is your fate! You can remove this fate from your sight, but not for long. It will be fulfilled over you in all its terrible completeness and against your will. Sinners do not want to believe that this is so. They want to live cheerfully, without thinking, while the voice of God awakens the soul from sinful sleep. What then? Will the voice of God change its meaning, will it not change itself because sinners want it? ABOUT! sinners! Don't be so frivolous with yourself! Come to your senses. Why expect to uselessly repent of the insane forgetfulness here! Why not repent here, where repentance is so saving! Loving bliss and peace! You are afraid of the smallest trouble; you are not happy that they point out to you the terrible future of a careless sinner; and meanwhile you are preparing for yourself eternal suffering, immeasurable torment. Look - you are standing over an abyss of fire. The invisible hand that has hitherto held you will release you, and you will fall into this abyss. ABOUT! shudder. You are still safe and thank God. No feats, no labors should be difficult for you, just so as not to end up in Gehenna with your carelessness. No matter how difficult the feats that you have to subject yourself to according to the prescriptions of spiritual healing, they are temporary feats that mean nothing in comparison with the eternity of torment that is ready for an unhealed sinner! Sinners! do not remove thoughts of hell from your sight. The less able you are to serve the all-holy out of a pure impulse of love, the more tightly you hold on to fear, which is beneficial for you. The fear of a terrible eternity is a faithful guard against sins. What are all the charms of sin, what are all the lures of enchanting passions before the eternity of torment ready for the sinner? You who make a joke of sin, shudder; – the responsibility for sin is heavy and terrible. You are the darlings of happiness! do not lose sight of the end to which the abuse of earthly goods will lead you and - you will begin to use them for what they were given to you. Heavenly Father! Hallowed be Thy name by us! Conversation on the words: O sinner, thou shalt die O sinner, thou shalt surely die (Ezek.33:8). Sinner! your fate is being discussed; you are threatened with eternal death. Isn't it true that the matter is worth all your attention? And yet, the sinner is cold, the sinner is indifferent to his eternal fate. We all worry about how to preserve, how to maintain our bodily life; We think, we worry, we take measures on how to protect her peace, how to save her from inconvenience, deprivation, illness, and sorrow. Isn’t it all the more necessary to worry about how we can be saved from eternal torment? What is time before eternity? Instant! And yet, if the Lord has already deemed it necessary to inform the sinner that the sinner will die, it is true that he himself, having sinned, remembers it poorly and cares little about his eternal fate. Why is there such inattention among sinners to their fate? How does it begin and what is accompanied by it in sinners? Future life in itself is an invisible object, an object far from us. To bring him closer to the soul, faith is needed. Faith is the evidence of things unseen, it is the substance of things hoped for (Heb. 11:1). In whom there is living faith, it is close to him, it is inherent in him, and the future life with its secrets is clear to him. There is no living faith in the soul, then the soul sees and knows only what strikes its senses; lives in a circle of things that alternately appear to her; earthly life with its worries and changes brings her joy and sorrow, sorrow and joy. This present, this tangible obscures for her everything that is above the earthly and visible. The innate thought of eternity is too dark, too weak in a soul damaged by sin. If faith begins from hearing, and hearing from the word of God (Rom. 10:17), then how can faith be, how can there be a living thought about the future, when they do not read or listen to the word of God? What do sin-loving people do? Only the lungs read and listen, i.e. empty books; They look only at the amusements of human passions. Both, they say, are very pleasant, very fun. And they walk with such joy all their lives. My friends! Even the pagans knew how to live cheerfully. But I’m afraid of your pagan frivolity! They want to appear at the judgment of God with pagan ignorance, with pagan ignorance of spiritual life, heaven, hell, with pagan passions! Others, perhaps, know a lot, they know what is on the sea and beyond the sea, what is in the sky and in the deep bowels of the earth. But since neither in the depths of the sea, nor in the depths of the earth, it is possible to find out what they will have to see beyond the grave, then they are strangers to the next world. Thus, the sinner’s indifference to his fate beyond the grave is, first of all, a consequence of his lack of living faith, that faith that begins from hearing the word of God. Imagine a sinner, busy with the vanities of the world. Will the thought of eternity soon reach his soul through the thick and noisy crowd of his worries? Both the mind and heart of the poor vanity workers are full of everyday worries. How to improve your economy? How to put the fishery in better condition? How and where to give movement to trade? How to increase income from your estate. How to speed up work? Questions after questions are swarming in the soul and waiting for answers. They are busy solving these issues day and night, in dreams and in reality. All the ingenuity of the mind, all the willpower are directed to these objects. Exactly the same for seekers of honor and glory. In order to rise from the ground two or three steps higher than others, in order to win a favorable opinion of people about oneself, to obtain a prominent place among the highest, how much trouble, how much work for this! Where can we think about eternity? No time. And what comes of it? The worries of life, not giving time to deal with eternity, turn the poor worker into a miserable day laborer of vanity. To the extent that these worries blot out the care and thought of eternity in the soul, they themselves become more and more meaningless and finally a person turns out to be something of a working animal. For what else can you call a person who is at work day and night, but without any thought about heaven and God? His life merged with that which disappears like smoke, crumbles like sand, runs through like a wave. What state will this poor soul be in after it passes into eternity? The material world, with which she had lived until then, disappeared. What is she? Her habits are with her, her desires are with her, her thirst for work with her; and nothing that she lived on, that she ate, that she worked on, is no longer with her. The unfortunate woman can only live with thoughts and desires, the emptiness of which is obvious, but which, because they are empty and unfulfillable, will torment and torment her, not giving her rest. Terrible life! Imagine another sick soul, a soul infected with passion or passions. The passion for self-interest is wild, but how strong it can be in the soul! Passion for sensual pleasures is dirty, but the soul insatiably amuses itself with its objects. Pride is blind and it makes the soul worse. The thought of eternity, like a bright ray of sunshine, reveals its condition to a sick soul; in its light one can see the abyss into which the unfortunate soul is ready to fall, one can see the wrath of God, terribly punishing her wicked passions. Will the passion that has dominated the soul allow one to freely approach such a thought? Is it pleasant for her to become acquainted with such a thought? Oh! no and no. She will hasten to occupy the soul with pleasant sights of some of its good deeds and will tell the soul, those troubles do not concern us, let’s do something else. If somehow an alarmed conscience begins to say, it’s not true, this is about us, then the saddest picture will be revealed. The thought of eternity will drive unclean spirits out of the soul, and they, not wanting to part with a pleasant home, will rebel against the thought of eternity and will inspire the soul that everything is a dream! Sinner! how pathetic you are! you tremble for eternity, you want to hide from it! and how can you not be afraid of eternity? There you meet that soul whom you persecuted with the slander of your anger, you meet the poor brother whom you trampled like a worm in your pride, you meet that soul from whom you took the innocence, you meet all those who shed bitter tears from you, calling upon you the judgment of God. It is scary for a sinner to look at eternity! But why then, when this or that passion arose in him, did he not turn to the saving thought of eternity as often as possible? Then for his soul, which was not yet completely upset, the thought of eternity was not so painful and it was not difficult for him to weaken and weaken the destructive passion within himself under its influence. Now it’s not the same in his best moments, in moments of spiritual sobering. The thought of hell makes you correct many things in life, makes you rebel especially against the dominant passion; but - this passion has become so close to the soul, so fused with it; it is difficult, very difficult to fight with yourself. And so the exhausted sinner speaks with thoughts of eternity, “Now go, when I have time, I will call you” (Acts 24:25). Sinner! The less often you encounter the thought of hell, the worse and worse your situation will be. In the absence of saving fear, unclean passions will dispose of you according to the rules of madness; you will reach the point where a compassionate soul will speak about you with sorrow, a man who is in honor, without understanding, likened to senseless cattle and likened to them (Ps. 49:13). Just as a blind man, walking along the edge of an abyss, does not see his terrible danger and a deaf man does not hear when they warn him of the misfortune that awaits him, so those consumed by passion go to hell carefree, without seeing hell, without thinking about it. The eyes of the proud are closed, and he does not see how often, according to the judgments of God, the execution of the wickedly exalted is repeated here, he died, and behold, he sought, and his place was not found (Ps. 36:36). This is the nature of passions! This is how eternity is hidden from the sinful soul! With such consequences she moves away from her sight! Brethren! In order not to touch me and you in sins, we must remember hell; one must read and listen to the word of God, his true teaching about the eternity of the righteous and sinners. Among the vanities of the world, we must often turn to the fact that the world will leave us if we do not leave it; It is necessary to dispel the darkness of earthly vanities with the thought of eternity. If, unfortunately, any passion has arisen in the soul, the more persistently we need to turn to the thought of hell, ready for sinners, the more often we need to illuminate its future for us. Eternity - eternity! how much we need to think about you, how firmly we need to keep you in mind. Blessed is he who is watchful and wears his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame (Rev. 16:15). The will of God for the sinner is clear; he must repent, otherwise a terrible eternity awaits him. But at other times the sinner is worried about eternity, but more often he sleeps with the thought that this eternity is not near. Wake up, sinner, - your eternity is not as far from you as it seems to you. Look around, and you will see that sin, even here on earth, is beginning to destroy you, which will reveal itself in its terrible form beyond the grave. Just as love unites us with God, so every grave sin removes God and His grace from us. The sinner, committing iniquities, leaves his God, and God leaves him to himself. The more carefree he is about himself in his sinful slumber, the more he alienates the gracious love of God from himself. You are not My people, and I am not your God, said the Lord to the criminal children of Israel (Hos. 1:9). It cannot be that God favors sin. God, if You are not the iniquity of You, the wicked will not dwell in You; The wicked will abide below before Your eyes; You have hated all the workers of iniquity,” sings David (Ps. 5:5). The Prophet of God, responding to the complaints of Israel, who attracted grave troubles to themselves through sins, says: food cannot save the hand of the Lord? Or have your ears become too heavy to hear? But your sins separate you and God, and sin for your sakes, turn away your face, lest you have mercy (Is. 59:1-2). Sinner! Both in happiness and in misfortune, you consider your sins to be small, you are ready to joke and sometimes joke with them. No, sins are not small, they are a solid wall between God and a sinner, a barrier that prevents the gracious power of God from descending on you. What is a sinner who has alienated himself from God? In God is our life, and without God is death. The sinner, the unrepentant sinner who drinks sins like water, on earth represents himself as condemned beyond the grave; he is the living dead. After this, do not be surprised if they tell you that sin produces terrible devastation in the soul of a sinner. What is sin for our mind? What does the sinner's mind look at? He is turned to the earth, and not to heaven, to objects of passion, and not to God. Is it marvelous that when the mind of a sinner completely turns its gaze away from heaven, and the heavenly light, the boundless light, ceases to illuminate the sinner’s soul? Thus, sin brings darkness to the sinner’s mind, spiritual darkness, before which the darkness noticed by the bodily gaze means nothing. In place of pure, heavenly light, in the mind of a sinner there appear only the will-o'-the-wisps of a rotting life; in the place of heavenly wisdom is carnal wisdom, that wisdom that knows how to invent something pleasant for a spoiled nature, but does not think about the spiritual and does not understand anything from a life of grace. Those who are according to the flesh are carnal and wise (Rom. 8:5). A spiritual person does not accept the Spirit of God, for he has foolishness and cannot understand it; he strives beyond the spirit (1 Cor. 2:14). If he knows the law of God, he knows it as a historical event, but not as the law of his soul; he does not know what state his soul is in in relation to the will of God. That is why a sinner educated by science, as soon as he comes to his senses, says with a sigh that his soul is dark - dark, and yet he knows so much. This means that even then, as he knows a lot, there is no light of God in his soul, sin brought darkness to the soul, removing from it the gracious light, which alone shows the right path to heaven. That is why people without any education, but struggling on the path of piety, know and see what others cannot know. In their soul, cleansed from sin, a gracious light rests, revealing the south and the secrets of the kingdom of God. What is the mind of a person enslaved to passions? And the experience of ordinary people says that, due to the action of passion, objects appear to the mind in a way that is not in their proper form; they acquire a color that is either green, sometimes red, or completely dark, depending on the properties of feeling and passion. A sinner, prompted by passions, is ready to denigrate everything that is pure, to question every truth, to condemn even what is sacred, and there is no lie that he would not defend as long as this or that passion needs it; at times you see in him not only indifference, but also a clear disposition towards the truth. Don't you think he acts so strangely with complete self-awareness? Oh! No. How can there be complete self-awareness there, where there is tangible darkness? A sinner overwhelmed by passion is the same as an ardent sick person. The soul, under the influence of passions, does not see itself, does not understand that it is not its voice that tells it to consider the truth a lie, but the voice of passion; Conscience is not heard in the noise of vanity and passions. Imagine that whole years of a sinner pass in the service of passions, that his whole life is only a life of passions, how will his mind appear before you? As a result of the long struggle of the mind with the truth, as a result of a long exercise in turning truth into a lie, as a result of long occupation only with dreams and emptiness, a complete weakening of self-consciousness, a complete disorder of cognitive powers, a complete dullness of the mind for everything holy and spiritual should finally be revealed. Wisdom, which has not been tempted to have God in the mind, is given over to the unskilled mind to do things that are not like it (Rom. 1:28). This is a state close to the afterlife state of a sinner in terms of intelligence! If sin brings blindness to the mind, then it is natural that at the same time it spoils the will. Sin separates our will from the will of God; this is the essence of sin and herein lies the corruption of the will. By rejecting the will of God, he diverts human freedom from the source of its strength and power and leaves a weak, corrupted life to reveal itself from itself, according to its wrong impulses. He gives the will a completely wrong direction. Instead of striving with all her desires to reach her God, she strives to please her self-love. Whether this self-love appears as the lust of the flesh, or as the lust of the hair, or in the form of worldly pride, in the soul the place of God is taken by an idol. What a person should do for God, he does for the idol of the soul. What a humiliation for a soul created to love and honor its God! Sin, apparently, gives the sinner complete freedom and independence. What is sin? It is not to listen to the will of God and to be for oneself the beginning and goal of one’s actions. You will be like a god, the seducer said to the first people, and the first people believed. The same dream of independence, the same hope of rising above the obstacles to the will captivate every sinner. Moving from one illicit pleasure to another, from one self-will to the third and tenth, the sinner is finally ready to say about God together with Pharaoh: who is, I will listen to his voice (Ex. 5:2)? What a terrible deception of sin this is - the dream of independence! Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8:34). This is a necessity. True freedom of a person consists in drawing closer with love to the prototype of your freedom - God, and thereby revealing in yourself a better life, similar to the life of God. Since sin is a deviation from the will of God; then it is already an insult to freedom, especially since the service it introduces to the idol of the soul soon becomes slavery. The sinner at first sees and feels the illegality of serving his idol and at times is ready to break his idol, but then, the longer he remains in the service of the idol, the more severe the slavery becomes, so that both energy and time are occupied only with pleasing the idol. The mind, darkened by passion, for its part is at the service of sin in order to strengthen its power over the will. He presents the idol of the soul in a tempting way, hiding its insignificance. For the lust of the flesh, sensual pleasures turn out to be innocent; for worldly pride, arrogance means noble importance, and humility means an insult to dignity; For lust, stinginess is often intelligent prudence, while luxury is charitable generosity. Thus the will becomes more and more corrupted. With involuntary service to a beloved sin, not a single purely good deed, not a single feat for the one Lord, finally becomes impossible; one way or another, service to an idol interferes with it. The will is finally so corrupted that in no case does it stop its desire to sin. The sinner remains in such a sinful state beyond the grave! Should we say that sin, while still on earth, prepares hellish torment in the soul? He closes in her the acceptability for spiritual pleasures and unbridledness in criminal pleasures upsets the feelings to joyless languor (1 Pet. 2:3); There is no joy in the wicked, says the Lord. (Isa.48:22). My friends! Sin is our most cruel enemy. The evil he inflicts on us is immeasurable. How many tears we need to shed for the frivolity with which we look at sin. Suffer, and weep, and weep; Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into mourning (James 4:9). Heavenly wisdom is true in its word, it tells us: blessed is the man who eats Me. If you find Me, you will find your belly. But he who sins against Me dishonors his own souls, he does injustice to his own souls, and he who hates Me loves death (Proverbs 8:34-36). God! Enlighten our souls with Your grace, so that we can see and feel how sweet it is to serve You and how bitter it is to move away from You. Conversation on words: I do not want the death of a sinner Rtsy to them, I live Az, says Adonai Lord, I don’t want the sinner to die, but turn the wicked from his way and I live to be, by turning from the path Are you dying of your evil and yours, O house of Israel? (Ezek.33:11). How persistent sin is in man! When they say to a sinner: convert, or you will perish, and the sinner begins to feel the destruction of sin. But sin, defending its place in the sinner’s soul, says to the sinner, your greatest guilt will be left behind (Gen. 9:13), you have sinned too much to be forgiven, all you have to do is live as you live. Another time, a sinner, aggravated by the bitter consequences of his sins, complains about his fate, secretly blaming God for it, while he himself continues to follow the path of sin; “It’s all over for me,” he says, God has left me, misfortune, the payment for my sins, is beyond my strength.” Look around, sinner! Who wants your death? Look around and you will see that God wants one thing for you, that you be alive, wants one thing for you to be saved. What does it mean that you are still living on earth? Haven’t your sins condemned you to destruction long ago? Doesn’t your conscience tell you that because of the many wickednesses of your heart, because of the many secret and obvious sins of yours, you are a burden to the earth? And yet, you enjoy the gifts of earthly life. When you were carried away by pride to the point of madness, by vanity to the point of losing your senses, by anger and rage to the point of frenzy, when you were defiled by the impurities of the flesh to the point of losing consciousness, how many times could the Lord God strike you among your wickedness? And you're still alive. When you, blinded by passions, not only did not see your own ugliness, but were not satisfied with the reproaches of friendship, with anger defended the works of darkness in yourself and blasphemed holy truths, what did it cost for the just to instantly present you to his judgment with blasphemies on your lips, with a fight against the truth in your heart? But you're still alive. Could not His righteous anger long ago have given this sinful flesh, which you so pamper, insulting your God, this composition of rottenness, before which you so humiliate your immortal soul, to His righteous wrath, as food for worms or beasts of prey? Is it not less meaningful for the omnipotent to cast you from earth into hell than for you to move a speck of dust? How easily He can bind the tongue of a wicked blasphemer, and subdue the most daring of His enemies! One sent by Him destroyed thousands of sinners. So, if you are still alive, sinner, if the rays of life pour on you, like the righteous, and along with them you use so many earthly and heavenly, spiritual and material gifts, how dare you think that God has abandoned you? How dare you not recognize His goodness over you? How do you allow yourself to be ungrateful before your heavenly Father? Tell them, I live, says Adonai the Lord, I do not want the death of a sinner, but to turn the wicked from his way and live. The people of Israel, who had long offended their God, either by temporary service to idols or by various other crimes, were finally given over to cruel executions for their wickedness. Under the weight of disasters, he finally feels guilty, realizes that he is under the wrath of God for his sins, but, without parting with his sins, he is annoyed at his difficult fate; he grumbles that he cannot remain as before with his sins without enduring troubles. Our charms, say the apostates, and our iniquities are within us, lie on us like a burden, and we melt in them, and how can we be alive? (Ezek.33:10). The Lord answers these words. ABOUT! Incomprehensible goodness! She allows sinners to be annoyed at their fate, for which they themselves are guilty, and to murmur against their Lord, as if he is unmerciful to them. Not enough. She argues with stubborn sinners; tries to defeat their stubbornness with an oath. With an oath he assures sinners that he does not want their destruction and wishes them only good. Away with gloomy despondency, rebellious against God, submissive to sin alone! An oath puts an end to any dispute between people. The oath of God must put an end to all the sinner’s doubts about himself, unless he wants to be with the doubts of Satan. God is true to his word. If He said that He only desires salvation for the sinner, He is ready not only to forgive the sinner, but also to give him everything he needs for a better life, His word is holy. He strictly forbade people to swear in unimportant matters. And therefore, if He Himself swears that He does not want the death of a sinner, obviously the matter of saving sinners is an important matter in His eyes. And how often did He reveal such His will about the sinner! Our God, the God of our salvations, the God who saves (Ps. 67:20–21). Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the wicked man his counsels, and turn to the Lord, and be shown mercy, for he will forgive your sins many times over (Is. 55:7). The wicked man, if he turns from all his iniquities that he has committed, and keeps all my commandments, he will live and not die; all his sins that he has committed will not be remembered to him, and in his righteousness, what he has done will live (Ezek. 18:21-22). This is His will, declared through the prophets! And is it not justified by experiments? Before us are examples of pardoned sinners - David, Ahab, Manasseh. Ahab, who did so much evil before God, like none of his contemporaries. Manasseh, who filled all Jerusalem with lawlessness. Why did the Son of God descend to earth? Why did He hide the eternal glory of the Son of God in the humiliated form of a servant? Why did he accept humble human nature into the divine hypostasis? The Son of man came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, so He himself said, the eternal and always true truth. And with what love for sinners all His actions and words breathed! In what clear, in what striking images He presents to us the goodness of God, ready to accept the repentant sinner. Here is a criminal son squandering his parents’ estate in a distant land; but as soon as he decides to return to his father, the father himself meets him, hugs him and says, quickly - new clothes, quickly slaughter the well-fed calf, my son, who was considered lost, has been found, let's have fun. So the shepherd leaves the flock and goes to look for one lost sheep, finding it, puts it on his shoulder and carries it to the flock. The Heavenly Teacher preached about the love of the Heavenly Father for sinners and he himself lived and died in love for them. He, who, being the Son of God, bears all things by the word of his strength, had no place to lay his head, endured hunger and heat, thirst and fatigue. The judge of the living and the dead stood like a lamb before the most unjust judges, listened to their ridicule and insults, endured strangulations and wounds, spitting and beatings. The leader of life, tormented by suffering, died a shameful death on the cross. What is all this for? Is it not in order to reconcile the justice of the Heavenly Father with guilty humanity? Who can then block people’s entry into the kingdom of God? God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). Son of God, says St. the apostle, in the title of high priest, with his own blood entered once into the heavenly sanctuary and acquired eternal redemption, He is the high priest, the redeemer for all times (Heb. 9:12). Let the troubled conscience of a sinner not say that the justification of the Son of God does not apply to such a sinner as he is, it belongs to the elect, worthy of it in life. Is it true. The Son of God did not suffer for us so that we could live carelessly in sins; but God’s messengers teach us that no matter who sins and no matter what sins aggravate his conscience, the price of the merits of the Son of God is limitless, not limited by person or time. My children, writes the Apostle John, I write this to you, so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, the imams may intercede with the Father of Jesus Christ the righteous. And that cleansing is for our sins, not for ours specifically, but for the whole world (John 2:1. 2). The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (John 1:7). Ap. Paul teaches: the gospel of Christ is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). And didn’t the Son of God himself establish forever in his church the power to forgive and not forgive sins? Is it not by His will that everyone who repents at the altar of the Lord is forgiven of their sins? Is it not by His will that teachers of the faith publicly and privately show sinners what is needed in order to receive spiritual permission? “Those who dwell on earth, teaches St. Chrysostom, allowed to rule what is in heaven, received such power that was not given to either angels or archangels. For it is not said that if you bind a tree on earth, it will be bound in heaven, and if you loose a tree on earth, it will be loosed in heaven. What the priests do below, God determines the sorrow, and the Lord confirms the opinion of his servants” (On the priesthood, word III). So, no matter who and what kind of sinner he is, the doors of heavenly mercy are open to him. No matter how deeply a person has fallen, no matter how grave his sins are, no matter how great their number, God desires his salvation, because he is good, and can save him, because he is omnipotent. This is undoubtedly, especially for you, Christian, before whose eyes the Son of God crucified for the sins of people is depicted. Think about it, sinners, who likes to see you as sinners? Who wants your destruction? God doesn't want that. This is as true as holy truth. All who love God, following His example, also wish the best for you. Who wants your destruction? The Father of lies and wickedness is undoubtedly glad of your destruction, he is the primordial enemy of ours and God; loving only evil, he uses all measures to lure people into sin and deceived people from crime to crime to the point of fatal impenitence. Why should we please the devil? There is more, my poor soul. Your dangerous enemy, who is plotting your destruction, is your nature, corrupted by sin, called flesh in scripture. The flesh is constantly at war with the spirit, and it fights very cunningly. She loves to bask, live spaciously and cheerfully; loves praise and honors. And he really doesn’t like either work or exploits; does not like fasting, repentance, prayer, or humility. Is it surprising that, not wanting to work or repent, she instills in you slander against your God, as if he is too strict with himself, as if he is not ready to forgive you or give you help? Why listen to our enemies who seek our destruction? ABOUT! Let us rather fall to the good and merciful God. Let us shed before Him our sorrow for the wounds of our soul. He will give grace that revives everything that is dead in us. He is life for everything. Conversation on the words: turn from your evil ways Tell them, send an appeal from your paths are evil, and you are dying at home Amazing tenacity in a sinner. They care about his happiness, about his eternal fate; They tell him, stop, you are going to destruction. And he, without listening, goes the same way. Who does he not listen to, whom does he leave without his attention? Lords of heaven and earth. The Lord commanded the sun to make its way, and it exactly fulfills His will. Thousands of heavenly lights, without deviating, carry out the course appointed by the will of their Lord. And the stormy seas do not dare to move beyond the limits set by creative will. Bodiless spirits, strong in mind and will, humbly serve their Lord, and in fulfillment of His will they serve even us sinners (Heb. 1:14). The Lord says to sinners: turn from your evil ways. And sinners don't listen. ABOUT! sinners! come to your senses, think about who you are opposing? Your situation will appear even more terrible, your disobedience will seem even more criminal, when you consider with what love the Heavenly Father is calling you to your salvation. In what forms does His calling voice appear to you! If the sinner were not entertained so often and so much by the vanities of the world, if the excitement of passions did not occupy so often and so much of the activity of his soul, how often would he hear in his soul the voice of God, calling him to a better life. But even with all the noise of vanities and passions, is not his voice heard from time to time, denouncing the wickedness of his ways? What does this emptiness mean, which he feels in himself, satiated with the blessings of the world? What does this yearning of the soul mean, this dissatisfaction with either itself or everyone, which an hour before had so comforted it? Oh! The soul, destined for eternal life, cannot be filled with dust and rot; after hours of criminal forgetfulness, she herself cries out to the sinner, “This is not my peace, this is not my life - the more they expand for me the area of ​​wills that seem both easy and cheerful, the more my dear homeland moves away from me, I am afraid in the enchanting noise of sins.” Sinner! If you rush to drown out this restless voice of the soul within yourself with the noise of passions and the excitement of vanity, you are grievously sinning. Beware. The voice of your soul, as imprinted with the likeness of your God, expresses to you the voice of heaven, which you must respect all the more because, having drowned it out, you will be left with the name of man, without true human dignity. What is your mind if it does not see the greatest? What is reasonable in your life if it is all serving passions and vanity? Isn't your soul the same as a dumb soul if it feeds only on the earth? So, while there is still life in your soul, it cannot help but cry out to you, turn to your Lord - and it is not what it says to you, it speaks on behalf of its God, who created it for His own sake. The heavens will tell the glory of God, and the firmament will tell of the work of His hands; distant worlds glorify His power; myriads of stars proclaim His glory and wondrous wisdom. The procession of the luminaries along certain paths speaks of the power and wisdom of their Creator, and this voice is repeated in the most distant lands. The songs of the worlds rush with noise like waves. Day pours out the word into days, and night into the night conveys knowledge. There is no language or dialect in which their voice cannot be heard, in which their preaching cannot be understood (Ps. 18:2-4). How can you not unite, man, with praises to glorify the works of the great Creator? “Lord God! When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, at the moon and the stars that You have set, what does it mean for a man that You remember Him?” ( Ps. 8:4–5 ). Oh my God! how criminal is my pride! Why does beautiful nature, the wondrous creation of Your hands, suffer? Why are her sighs heard in earthquakes, thunder and devastating storms? Oh! This is a formidable denunciation of human error. His unfaithfulness to his Creator caused disturbances in nature; man, its ruler, having submitted to vanity, also subdued the creature subordinate to him. In sorrowful suffering, the creature awaits its freedom and complains to the Creator about man, complaining all the more so since man continues to tirelessly work in vanity, multiplying its suffering (Rom. 8:21-22). ABOUT! a century of great care! you boast about your inventions. But forcing so many creatures, as never before, to serve the changing whims of human passions, shouldn’t you weep bitterly over your inventions? Does he exercise the crops of Yu, Vskaya and the earth? (Luke 12:7). This is what the owner says to the gardener about the barren fig tree. Brethren! our life is so full of God’s blessings. Everything we live by, everything we enjoy - food, drink, clothing, home, light of day, peace of night, wealth, fame - everything is His. In Him we live, we move, and we are (Acts 17:28). Do not the gifts of heavenly goodness cause us to be grateful to it? How can we not remember this title, when the ox knows the one who acquired it and the donkey knows its master’s manger? Whoever uses the comforts of life, without any thought about his benefactor, who uses His gifts not at all according to His intentions, isn’t he like the fig tree, about which it was said, who exercises the crops and the earth? Every good deed of God is God’s sermon to you about the closeness of God to us, a good God to his good children, but wrathful to his daring, disobedient children. And don’t we hear the angry voice of God in the unpleasant changes in our lives? Illnesses, losses, death of those close to us, grief at work and at home are evidence of our sins, a call to repentance and humility. The rich man suddenly loses his existing wealth. the idol of his heart; another is exposed to dishonor, while, in order to exalt himself above others, he forgot many sacred things; inexorable death deprives the third of his wife and children, for whom he did not promise his heavenly homeland. What is all this if not the recognition of forgetful sinners to self-examination? When the pleasures of people cover entire regions of the earth with their darkness, when wickedness and lawlessness become the dominant rules for entire countries, entire cities and kingdoms suddenly experience the terrible shocks of a destructive war, famine and pestilence. What is this if not the judgments of an angry God over the nations who have forgotten Him? What is this if not the thunder of God, which wakes up the foolish who have fallen asleep under the spell of sins? And if it is heard even at a distance, how can we remain carefree, how can we not lament our sins? In many ways and in many ways, God spoke of the Father as a prophet in ancient times; in these last days he spoke to us concerning the Son (Heb. 1:1). So, each of the prophets is a living word of God, each of the righteous people of ancient times is an organ of the Lord. Imagine how many voices of God you hear, from Adam to Christ! ABOUT! the inexhaustible goodness of God! when did sinners stop insulting her with their inattention, when did they not disdain their heavenly Master? And heavenly goodness, never silent, tells them, sinners! turn from the paths of destruction to the path of salvation. Applying to the properties and spirit of the times, she changes her voice, speaks in a variety of ways, but her thoughts and demands are the same, she expects one thing from sinners - their conversion. The Son of God Himself, who descended from heaven, told them, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near! If the words of God, heard in the human soul and in visible nature, are not always intelligible to the sinner, even though it is through the fault of the sinner himself, then in St. In Scripture the will of God for the sinner is revealed with all clarity and completeness. After such a clear calling of God, which is the calling of the revelation of God, the sinner who is not submissive is irresponsible. Especially the title of New Testament revelation, where there is so much love and heavenly light for a sinner, with what conscience can it be ignored? And this is the leading time, teaches St. Apostle, it is already time for us to rise from sleep, for salvation is closer to us now than when we believed. The night will surely pass, and the day will draw near. Let us put aside the dark deeds and put on the weapons of light. For let us walk in good times, not in goat-speaking and drunkenness, not in fornication and sexual immorality, not in zeal and envy, but be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ, and do not please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:11, 14). Brethren! do you hear? They are looking for us, they are calling us, the voice of the Heavenly Father’s mercy pours to us from different sides: turn to me and I will turn to you (Mal.3:7). How long will it take for us not to listen? How long does it take to test God's patience? They won't always call us. It is impossible for our disobedience to go unpunished. Eternal wisdom says: although I called and did not listen, and extended my words and did not heed, but you swept aside my advice and did not pay attention to my reproof, for I will laugh at your destruction, and I will rejoice when destruction comes to you (Prov. 1:24:26). May this not happen to us, brothers! Conversation on the words: Where are you dying, the house of Israel? God does not want you to die, sinner! He wants your salvation! Do you have reasons not to desire your salvation? Oh! What should you desire more than your own salvation? What do you need to care about more than anything else, if not your eternal salvation? What do we need most, if not the salvation of the soul? Why do we live on earth? God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him (Eph.1:4) God is the purpose of our existence! This goal is ordained from above. Therefore we must fulfill it. We have no right to assign ourselves another goal; because we are not dependent on ourselves. We were created in order to present the soul to its Master in a form worthy of His holy love. This is what we should be concerned about first and foremost. Every creature in the world must first of all be what it was created to be. And every person is first of all obliged to be a man, a reasonable and faithful servant of his God. Sin spoiled his soul; his godlike spirit must, with the help of the higher one, correct his damaged life and lead it to perfection. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). This is how important the establishment of the kingdom of God is in the soul! Everything else that we need only temporarily, for our earthly journey, is given to us by the Lord before our requests, if only we care about the salvation of the soul. Both the body and the objects around us are appointed to serve the salvation of the immortal soul. And so our first concern is not about them, but about the soul; one can only look at them as means for the soul. The salvation of the soul is an essential need for everyone; not satisfying this need means not living and even worse than not living. It would have been good if that person had not been born, the Savior said about Judas the traitor, who killed himself (Matthew 26:24). This is the connection between the existence of the soul and its salvation. If her salvation is lost, then her existence is a being without a goal, a blatant insult to the wise and good, a condemnation to herself. Understand after this that we were not created for random conditions of life - not in order to be rich and noble, we were not created for trade, not for industry, not for working the land, not for the arts, not for the sciences. Let all this be necessary for earthly life; but first of all and most of all, the salvation of the soul is needed. Of those activities, one is needed for one, another for another, a third for a third. Salvation of the soul is necessary for everyone. Whether you are a master or a servant, a warrior or a farmer, rich or poor, an artist or a scientist, you all use life so that in the first half of your life, which ends in the grave, you try to be pious and holy, and thereby prepare for yourself happiness in the afterlife. This is how all the best people lived! They all sought the honor of the high calling (Phil. 3:14). Our soul is so high in its properties that everything earthly in comparison with it is very poor. Christ Jesus, the eternal truth, contrasting the human soul with the world we see, with its beauty and diversity, said that the whole world cannot compensate a person for the loss of his soul; what good is it for a person if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? (Matthew 16:26) Indeed, how can our soul not be high when it bears the image of God, the image of an all-perfect mind and will with the highest freedom and power? She is strong and strong in comparison with everything visible already because she is immortal. And her mind, how much it can embrace! What can't her free will achieve? The soul can with its mind embrace not only the created world, but also cognize its God, the God of the worlds and eternity. With her heart she can converse in prayer with the Lord and bring into the world the miraculous power of prayer. With her love she can draw closer to her Lord and bring down the blessing of God on visible creation. By the power of her Redeemer, she can be powerful, like Him. Believe in me, said the Lord, the works which I do, he will do also, and greater works than these he will do (John 14:12). Sin spoiled a lot in the soul, but for how the grace of the Holy Spirit elevated it! Do you not know that you are the church of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). How can we not care most about our soul when it is so high in heavenly gifts? How not to take care, how not to protect the church of God within oneself? How to put concern for the body and earthly things on a par with concern for the salvation of the soul? Possessing the whole world cannot compensate for the loss of the soul. And people exchange their souls / for sparkles of gold, for the smile of the mighty of the earth, for the pleasure of rotten flesh! What blinding! What an unreasonable crime! Your heart aches with sadness when you look at the unfortunate couple, who, in the source of their happiness, in the marital union, found for themselves a source of innumerable sorrows. A languid grief lies in the hearts of these people, called to love and joy, they are connected for mutual help and consolation, but instead they poison their lives with their union. Isn't this your image, my poor soul? You made a vow of love to the Lord at your very creation, and repeated it with vows at baptism. What a high union this is! From the Lord’s side, everything has been given and given to you. What is going on in you? What painful days these are when inner emptiness and dissatisfaction with oneself, the companions of criminal amusements, torment the soul with melancholy, worse than any grief, when conscience, freed from the violence of passion, begins to undermine one after another the foundations of the inclination to sin and torment the soul with burning repentance. Entertainment, distraction, gaiety, sensual pleasures do not satisfy, do not nourish, do not give peace to the immortal spirit. Is this not from the earth on which you live, heir of heaven? No, not at all. Is this what happens to the soul when it uses everything to remain faithful to its Lord, or what also happens when it cares about its salvation? With peace of conscience, she freely raises her gaze to heaven, to the Father of bounties and mercies, praises and glorifies His goodness towards her. What harmony, what living activity in her entire inner life, with concern for salvation! Her thoughts are clear, her feelings are peaceful, her desires are moderate, her passions, the enemies of her peace and health, remain silent. Every work of the day, every activity, even unimportant ones, is invested with important meaning. Deeds of rank, which otherwise seem like a burden, are performed easily and freely. Obstacles, temptations, sorrows, despite the fact that they challenge the soul to struggle and exploits, are overcome without fatigue. The soul knows, it is convinced that temporary troubles mean nothing in comparison with the glory that should be revealed in it after the work of its salvation is completed (Rom. 8:18). Let, she says, decay, let my corrupted nature, which so resists my salvation, weaken and lose strength under the weight of labors and exploits, the best in me, that which came from the hands of my Creator, is renewed from day to day (1 Cor. 5:16). Caring for one's salvation gives the soul independence from everything temporary. The anxieties of time do not bother the one who is busy saving his soul. Changes of time, he says, do not concern me, the salvation of an immortal soul. What should I be sad about? Isn't it about wealth? Isn't it about money? Isn't it about honor? Isn't it about fame? Everything temporary passes, everything earthly decays. Is it worth crashing over something that passes by like a wave, disappears like smoke, gets lost like sound? O my friends! Even for time, we are only enemies to ourselves, enemies to our peace, enemies to our life, when we lose sight of the salvation of our soul. Eternity, - eternity! And the forgetful pagan did not always forget about you; and at times you bothered him. How can we, Christians, forget about you, we, to whom you are described so clearly, so vividly, so convincingly? How can we enter your circle, carefree about the salvation of our souls? What will it be like for us to live in your endless flow? Nothing can be said against the justice of the sentence; whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Gal.4:8). God is holy, and His words are holy, “everyone will receive wages according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:8). No court of partiality will refute the fact that “if anyone strives, he will not be crowned if he struggles unlawfully” (2 Tim. 2:5). The harvest time will come, when what you sow will grow, and you will see how and what you sowed. If on the soil of your soul you sowed only sins and iniquities, oh what bitter fruits you will have to eat there! The time for rewards will come. What should you expect if your life is a carefree dream? God is eternal truth, for every deed for good he will pay with joy, but he will not leave without reward a single criminal thought, not a single idle word, especially pride, vanity, bliss, luxury. Be careful here. And good deeds performed with unclean intentions or at the wrong time will not give you a crown. Be on guard over your heart. Do not let him be deceived by sin, for which the responsibility beyond the grave is heavy. To revive thoughts about your eternity, imagine the state of the dead. Do they need honours, wealth, pomp and luxury now? Oh! For others they are more than useless, because they did not know how to use them here, because they brought up passions in themselves and spoiled the soul, their sin-loving owners suffer in flames (Luke 16:24). And either a blissful eternity or an eternity of torment awaits you, depending on what you are preparing your soul for here. There are no works, no deeds that would not be worth saving the soul from eternal torment. If your right hand or right eye endangered the purity and health of your soul, it would be better to lose them than to destroy your soul for eternity. “My soul, my soul! Get up, write what? the end is approaching, imashi is embarrassed. Rise up, so that Christ God, who is everywhere and fulfills everything, will have mercy on you.” Conversation on the words: Are you dying in this world, the house of Israel? And why do you want to die? - this is how the Lord asks sinners. So, do sinners wish to die? Is such a desire possible? How to wish yourself death? Everyone desires life, everyone cherishes life. And sinners want to die! Is this true? Oh! The Lord's judgment cannot be wrong. Sinners want to die! Scary but true. If sinners follow paths leading to hell, what do they want for themselves if not destruction? They are told where the paths they follow lead; but they follow them. They have fallen in love with sin and will never part with it. They are wicked and want to be wicked. They are partial to the world and want to be partial. In vain they say to them, the love of this world is enmity to God, for whoever wishes to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God (James 4:1). Come, children, the Holy Spirit tells us, listen to Me. Who is a person who, even if he or she loves to see good days? Turn away from evil and do good (Ps. 33:12-15). How long ago this call began to be repeated out loud among people! What about sinners? They have done and continue to do evil. Isn’t it clear that they do not like to see good days? True, not a single sinner will say about himself that he wants to perish. For that reason, his deeds show something else. If he had been afraid of burning in hell, then he would not have lit the fire of hell with his sins. If I had wished not to be in Gehenna, I would not have done the deeds for which Gehenna was assigned. The sinner says that he does not want to perish, but remains a sinner. This is the same thing as saying, I drink poison, but I don’t want to die; I want to throw myself from a mountain into a rocky abyss, but I don’t want to break; I want to set the house on fire, but I don’t want to burn it down. Sinners! Why should you deceive yourself? Whoever does not avoid the means to destruction does not choose destruction itself? If you do not renounce the fact that you love sin, if at times you even boast about your sins, then do not renounce the fact that you love your destruction and wish for your own death. Is the last one scary? Stay away from the first one. Otherwise, your desires will not change the properties of sin. Whoever does not want to support life with food, no matter what he says, he does not want to live. He who has fallen into the water and does not want to get out of there, and does not allow someone else to pull him out of the depths, he, of course, wants to drown. What do sinners do? Do they not reject the means of their salvation? Do they not reject everything that could support and revive their spiritual life? No matter how much grace fights with them in order to extract them from the depths of sin, they are stubborn against grace and reject all its benefits. A friend of God and a friend of people shows them the danger of their situation, with sorrow in their soul explains to them their grave mistakes, with love offers the right means against the terrible danger, they either tell him, let everyone know himself, or they will coldly thank him and let him go with nothing. The minister of the gospel of Christ would like to show them in private their debt, and how much they offend themselves and the Lord with their sins. But they consider themselves too smart to need his instructions, and too high to descend to the state of humble disciples of the word of God. Knowing little about the matter of spiritual salvation, completely unfamiliar with the secrets of spiritual life, people corrupted in indignation mock at piety itself, at the holy faith itself. So, they act not only when they begin to explain to them the deep truth of Christianity, which is inaccessible to those inexperienced in the faith, but also when they are offered simple rules of Christian life. For example, here is the commandment: remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Unfortunately, others not only do and force people to do on Sunday what they are supposed to do on simple days, but they also defile the holy day with their uncleanness. Who would tell them, this is sinful, this is disgusting; they will answer him with impudent ridicule, or even his name will be carried among people as the name of an impudent person. Isn't it obvious that sinners want their own destruction? Sinners want to die! Scary but true! Man is given the choice of loving good or bad; he was given freedom; and he can go wherever he wants, either closer to God or away from Him. Perfection of a person is possible only through communion with God, all the best awaits him when he loves God, his freedom is then revealed more and more, the life of God is revealed more and more fully in him. But if a person, in his own way, does not love the will of God, this also means that he wants to die, since life is impossible without God. He uses his freedom for evil; but that's his business. This unfortunate desire for death began to open up in him especially easily after his pure nature was corrupted by sin. From that time on, the mind darkened by sin contributes to the fact that man desires not salvation, but his destruction. This foggy mind sees the deceptive side of sin, seductive and pleasant, and does not see the side of sin by which it destroys us. He sees the various movements of the snake, the beautiful play of its colors in the sun, and like a child, he assures that the snake is a beautiful animal, worth holding in your hands, near your heart. But he doesn’t remember or mean that the snake’s sting is filled with poison. These are his thoughts about sin. Imagine what effect such thoughts of the mind about sin can have on the will, which is itself prone to sin? What should come out of the combination of seductive thoughts about sin with the inclination of the will towards sin? It turns out that the sinner loves sin, while it destroys him. It is not surprising that poison can taste sweet when mixed with sugar. But if they say that it is a destructive poison, although sweet; you have to be out of your mind to accept it. The unfortunate sinner acts as if out of his mind. How many people tell him that sin is a sweetened poison, but he accepts it. How many people say that the pleasures of sin are deceptive, that they flatter only our corrupted nature, sensual and proud, and destroy all the best in us, that the last sins look to the bottom of hell, the sinner darkened by passion acts as passion desires, and not as common sense says, not as the word of God commands. Such is the arbitrariness of a sinner! Sinners! Understand what you are doing to yourself? You insult your mind, conscience, and desire for life. The charms of sin have blinded your eyes and dulled your senses, and you do not see, you do not feel how terrible it is to be guilty of your destruction. But outside the tomb, where your vision will be illuminated by the light of God’s truth, it will not be the same. There, the thought of your guilt in your death will be a scorching fire in your soul. Here heavenly love offers your solution to the question, Are you dying? The one who knows everything, of course, has no need to ask you anything - he knows you without you. He lets you know that you should ask yourself this question as often as possible; he exposes your terrible situation to you, so that you will be horrified by it and, shocked by horror, hasten to get out of it. The sinner destroys himself. What a terrible crime! Good and merciful God! Save us from our blindness. Father of lights! Enlighten our eyes so that we can see the dangers of sin and do Your holy will. Conversation on words: by appeal turn from the path of your evil By appeal, turn away from the path your evil. And in this way are you dying in the house of Israel? If the Lord asks sinners why they would rather die than convert to their God, this means that there are no solid reasons for this and there cannot be, but what are the reasons that sinners are carried away by, leaving it to human common sense to judge. What are these reasons that sinners offer as justification for not turning to the Lord? “We are weak people,” say sinners, “our conversion depends not on us, but on the power of God.” No, if God says to sinners, convert, then this means that their conversion depends on themselves. He does not demand the impossible. True, sin has spoiled human nature, so that by itself it is not able to function. beat and do pure good; she needs the help of grace. But the damage to nature by hereditary sin does not extend so far that there is no acceptability left in it for good, so that it is completely incapable of anything good. The Apostle Paul says about the pagans that they, not having a revealed law, by nature do things in accordance with the law, and that the rational things of God are manifest in them; God showed them to eat (Rom. 1:18, 2:22). Let sinners use the strength remaining in them for good, and not wait in criminal idleness for the influx of the power of God. Let them enter into the feat of repentance. With the help of grace, the matter will not work. The good and merciful Lord, as we have seen, assures with an oath that He is ready to give everything necessary to revive a sinner! My brothers! It’s scary to think how much evil the false teaching of uncalled reformers of the faith about man’s decisive incapacity for good brought into the Christian world. People already do not like the exploits of Christian life, but they wanted to elevate their laziness to the level of truth. “Sleep and rest, they say, in the shadow of grace, live as you live.” No, sinners, do not slander grace. She is ready to give you everything you need for spiritual salvation; but she cannot save you without yourself. Draw close to God and He will draw close to you. Are you doing anything to bring your soul closer to God? It is said, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, press and it will be opened to you. Whoever asks receives, whoever seeks finds, and the one who asks will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8). You see, one is not allowed to sleep and carelessly wait for the influx of higher power, but is commanded to ask, seek, push into the door of mercy. If you were sincerely aware of your weakness, if you sincerely and deeply felt the need for heavenly help, then you would tearfully ask for help, and it would be given to you. But when you have neither a sincere consciousness of weakness, nor sincere prayer; when your hearts, in the words of St. apostle, “waterless clouds” (Jude 1:12), who is to blame for your decaying in sins? No, your inability to convert is nothing more than an unwillingness to leave the ways of sin, which does not excuse, but increases your guilt before God. “We are weak people, but the feat of salvation is difficult,” say sinners. True, we are weak, but the grace of God is omnipotent, always ready for us. With the assistance of grace, the weakness of nature does not prevent not only the beginning of the work of salvation, but also the achievement of the highest degrees of perfection. The saints of God were people like us. The very first of the apostles had weaknesses, like the others, Peter denied Christ, Paul persecuted the church of God. If we say that we are not sinners, says John, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). And yet, what high degrees of spiritual perfection they achieved! What did not the saints of God endure for Christ Jesus, for the holy will of God! They sacrificed peace and health, endured dishonor and loss of property, mental and physical suffering. Sinners! Look around you, and you will find people among you who, like you, are clothed with the infirmities of the flesh, but with the help of grace, strive for good, do not lie or deceive, are not greedy for money and are indifferent to worldly fame, those who are offended patiently endure insult and firmly maintain the purity of their souls. Why aren't you like that? Are you weak? No, you are not weak. How much labor do you endure to fulfill your sinful desires! For some it is difficult to spend two or three hours in church in prayer; and not hard to spend the night in noisy fun. What worries, what torments are those who seek honor and glory subjected to! They have neither the mind nor the will to hold back the outbursts of anger, the excitement of impurity, and in deeds of sin they are cunning, decisive and stubborn. If they ask for donations to a church, or to a poor person, they turn out to be disappointingly sufficient; and there is no shortage of luxury in clothing, food, and home. Whoever wants to get richer and richer exposes himself to what exhausting labor! Oh! If, in order to please the Lord, they were subjected to the same labors that they subject themselves to in order to please the passions; then what heights of spiritual perfection would they reach! “The demands of the gospel are too high, repetitive, and disproportionate to strength.” But does God not know the measure of our strength, nor the weight of His demands? Does He, the infinite mind, need to verify His deeds according to the observations of wandering minds? Sinners! Your disobedience to God is not enough for you - you still do not trust Him, who is so generous in his gifts. “Are the demands disproportionate to the strength?” Where is the purest light for our mind, if not in the gospel? Where do all the best, all the highest needs of the immortal spirit find food and peace, if not in the law of Christ? Does not the gospel of Christ enliven and elevate our entire nature? In Christianity, there is a spiritual law that embraces all occasions in life, and the incentives to fulfill it are varied and strong. All divine powers, including life and piety, have been given to us, says St. apostle. (2 Peter 1:3). To find out whether it is difficult to serve the master, you need to experience the service or ask about it from those who know it from experience. And of those who have renounced the world and their passions, devoted themselves to piety and lead a Christian life, each of them will say with the apostle that the commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). Everyone will say, The yoke of the Lord is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). All the best in Christianity have demonstrated this by their deeds. They rejoiced in their suffering ( Col. 1:21 ); “they took pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in needs, in persecutions, in oppressions for Christ’s sake” (2 Cor. 12:10). Who will separate us from the love of God, says St. ap. Paul, is it tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword? We overcome in all things for the sake of him who loved us (Rom. 8:35–37). I can do everything through him who strengthens me – Jesus Christ (Phil.4:13). Let sinners not slander human nature, as if it is incapable of understanding and fulfilling the high demands of Christianity. Paul and John justified by their example, before the whole world, both human nature and the law of the Gospel. Unless sinners fulfill the gospel; let them talk about themselves, let them look within themselves for the reasons for this, let them blame themselves. ABOUT! if sinners would come into themselves, with what reverence they would fall before the gospel of Christ! “We live decently,” others say; We don’t take what belongs to others, we fulfill the demands of the authorities, we observe decency in everything. What else? Why are we being condemned? But, my friends, the outward decency of life is not yet Christianity; it is not yet a complete moral life. Good morality must embrace the activities and actions of spiritual forces. And the good pagans realized that civil honesty is another matter, and fidelity to the internal law is another. And they were not content with being good citizens, but wanted to be in peace and with their conscience. The Christian must stand above the pagan. His concepts are higher, purer and broader than the thoughts of a pagan, his convictions in the spirituality of the moral law are firm and protected from all doubts. He is told that his every thought, every movement of his heart, every inclination of his will must be a service to the God of spirits and minds. How can he remove himself from such service, when the Spirit of God is pleased to overshadow his spirit and promote his spiritual service? How can one limit oneself to the external decency of life, when the strong Spirit of grace is ready to lead one’s spirit from perfection to perfection, to the full image of the heavenly beauty of Christ? ABOUT! If you are a sinner and are satisfied with yourself when you live no better than a decent pagan, it is because you behave just as badly as a weak pagan. Otherwise, you would be horrified by your spiritual poverty, you would tremble at your guilt, and from the depths of your soul you would cry out, Lord! And I am blind and poor and poor and naked (Rev. 3:17); give me the help of Your mercy! My friends! You cannot enter heaven with Pharisaic righteousness. Malice, envy, hatred, pride, fornication do not cease to be great sins because they are not committed in front of people; It would be better for us sinners if people saw them and subjected you to well-deserved troubles. Neither pride, covered by a bold appearance of frankness, nor condemnation of one's neighbor, covered by zeal for the glory of God, nor ambition, under the guise of spiritual nobility, nor stinginess, under the protection of frugality, nor wastefulness, under the guise of generosity, hide their vileness before God, as they hide from people. You calm down by noticing only minor sins. But first of all, we must remember that even when a clear conscience does not see us in sin, there is God, who sees more than our conscience. Then, what are your little sins? For every idle word you will have to give an answer at the court of God. Is this a small thing for us? Every sin against God is great, as an insult to the great holiness of God. Every sin is great when no attention is paid to it; Even the more inconspicuous a sin is, the more dangerous it is. A small spark, but missed by carelessness, turns the whole city into ashes. Millions of grains of sand - a mountain. Will you count the number of your small sins! The truly repentant said of himself, “My iniquities have multiplied more than the sand of the sea.” Think and agree that your light sins, unmourned by repentance, can easily drag you into hell. There are also those who say, “there are so many paths in the world, so many faiths, that we don’t know what to hold on to; The calmest thing to do is to follow the path that someone ends up on.” These are indifferent people who, if they do not always speak directly, then think that it makes no difference to them no matter how they believe in God. ABOUT! May the Lord deliver each of us from this terrible moral disease! There is as much wickedness in it as there is mental darkness; as much an insult to everything sacred as an insult to the mind. Traveler of life! If common sense shows you that the path you have followed so far is not a good one; Are you really going to continue to follow the same path just because you ended up on it by accident? If you, returning from a foreign country to your native country, noticed and became convinced that the road you were walking on would not lead you to your dear homeland, and you ended up there by a pathetic mistake, or led by others, what would you do? You have encountered several crossroads on the road, what should you do? can we just go anywhere? “How is it possible,” you say, you need to stop and think, and if, for all reasons, it turns out that only one road leads to the goal, and the others lead to foreign lands; then you must choose the one that leads to the goal.” If you respect common sense in cases of earthly life, how can you not want to be reasonable in matters of extreme importance, on which eternal fate depends, when meeting with different faiths? You don't know what to hold on to? Why is there such darkness in your thoughts? From distrust of human meaning? This is offensive to your mind, especially since you respect your mind very much, and, therefore, offend it by contradicting yourself. Think about what situation you are in? What are you doing to yourself, illuminating the idea of ​​the indifference of faiths? You insult human nature within yourself. You demand from her that it is all the same to her - truth and lies, the arbitrariness of passions and the holy will of God, the path of life and the path of destruction. Beware of offending the soul created by God, it was created to seek truth and love goodness. For God - the infinite mind, for Him - eternal goodness, it does not matter whether you follow the path of salvation, or the path of lies and delusion. Didn't He send His Son to earth to tell people His will and show the way to heaven? Did not the Son of God send chosen disciples to preach His gospel to the whole universe? Did He not establish His church on earth as a pillar and foundation of the truth? Are you pointing to multiple faiths? But what are many faiths after the faith that God himself revealed? Human opinions, formed by the arbitrariness of people, opinions are more or less false, more or less harmful to the soul, as the fruits of human arbitrariness. There can be only one true and saving faith, because truth is always true to itself. True and saving faith cannot disagree with that which God himself revealed, since God is always true to himself. Even under the apostles, there were people whose pride forced them to introduce their opinions, or what is also their faith, into the church. But what did the apostle say? He said once and for all: if we or an angel from heaven brings you more good news than we bring you, let him be accursed (Gal. 1:8). You see how terrible the judgment is on those who apostate from the one faith revealed from above! Lord - Lord! Open our eyes, that we may understand the wonders of Your law. We need to improve in many ways, we need to live differently than how we lived. But how to live not according to the rules of the world? An example is attractive, and you can’t go against everyone. This is what sinners say and remain stuck in their sins. What can we say about this? Christians are afraid to live as Christians to please the world! Youth is ashamed not to be like famous people; mature age is careful not to attract the unfavorable attention of the people of the world. And old age, even old age, meaning the coffin, catches people’s opinions like a child. They complain about temptation, and they themselves, out of a desire to shine before the world, rush to present themselves as the most immodest example of temptation. Christian sinners! Do you understand, do you feel how disgusting your weakness is to God? Are they afraid to start a better, Christian life, so as not to arouse people’s opinions against themselves? They feel and admit that they need to live differently, but they still live because others live like them. Whose opinions are valued so highly? Are they people who are distinguished by maturity of thoughts, purity of soul, and high rules of life? Worshipers of light do not know such people. Are their gazes turned to other people, as if there are no other people in the world except those who are as frivolous as they are? What a lie! My friends! Look around you, and you will see quite a few whose opinions you should value, whose example you should follow both according to the voice of your conscience and the voice of common sense. There are also bosses for whom Christian piety is highest. There are also rich people who are rich not in perishable goods, but in high virtues. There are also wives who set an example of good spouses, good mothers of the family, good Christians. There are also virgins who are modest and pure, kind and strict with themselves, smart and reasonable, like the brides of Christ. Isn’t it true that such people are worth all your attention, all your respect? And don't look at them! And because you don’t look, don’t value their judgments. And their reviews, like reviews of a bright, clear, distinct mind, should arouse in you fear for yourself, a fear that is as just as it is salutary. Meanwhile, who are you afraid of? Whom do you distinguish with attention and respect? Frivolous people. You respect those whose disapproval should comfort you. Agree that a review of frivolity is only worth a smile; and the scolding of the depraved is the praise of honesty. Understand your position. The very ones you look at so vigilantly, you recognize as vicious people and want to be like them; you place them in nothing and seek their approval, despise them and seek their approval, despise them and, however, subordinate your conscience and life to their influence. Who decides to live viciously and thinks to earn praise from people; he's funny. The world does not do good deeds; but he does not put virtue on an equal basis with vice - he does dark things, but does not want to seem vicious, but despises vice. And you, who are so cowardly for good, you who so easily betray your conscience out of fear of people, you constitute an inexhaustible object of ridicule for him. He despises you for the very reason that you want to please him; he looks at you as weak people. It would not be the same with you if you were determined to do good. The world fears those who boldly oppose it. He is respectful of virtue, which denies him what he has no right to demand, and despises those who creep before him. He who seeks to please the world cannot please God. Can He look without indignation at the double-mindedness of such people? They either feel respect for the holiness of His law, then they do deeds of wickedness, then they confess that vices are disgusting, then they are defiled by the vices of the world; sometimes they reverence the holy faith, sometimes they show cowardly shame for it before the world; either they love God, or by their deeds they distance themselves from Him. No, do not flatter yourself with the hope of peace with the Lord. He said, “Whoever denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father” (Matthew 10:33). Are you seeking the world's favor? But love for the world entails enmity with God, and becoming a friend of the present age also means becoming an enemy of God (1 John 4:4). The world has rejected Christ Jesus; the world persecuted the apostles, martyrs, saints, saints, but you respect the world. Fighting the world is the difference between Christianity; it is waging an open war with him, which will continue until the end of the world. Where are the humble servants of the world, if not in the camp of the enemy of the holy faith? By subserviently to the world, are they not giving advantage to the enemy of God? Perhaps this unholy comparison of the highest being with the unholy world is not clearly presented to their minds; another may be sure that God always takes first place in his heart. But this is a lie. God prescribes his laws, the world offers others, and you, servants of the world, follow the rules of the world. God calls with His grace, the world lures with its pleasures, and you go to the world. God threatens with his executions, the world fears with his condemnation, and you revere the world. God promises you eternal glory, the world flatters you with its affection, and you run after the affection of the world. No, do not be deceived - the world is the idol of your soul, you bow to it, dedicate your feelings, thoughts, and deeds to it. “Is it difficult, they say, not to respect the courts of many? Is it difficult not to get carried away by the example of many?” But if there were more bad people in the world than there are, then virtue is higher than the whole world, and then it is worth all our love. Even if gold lies in the dirt, it never ceases to be gold. God's law has not changed. If many people don't respect him, does that make him less powerful? No, in due time he will exact his due from them. Just as God is holy and unchangeable, so are the laws of the holy faith holy and unchangeable. The path to the kingdom of heaven is narrow and thorny, but for that it is the path to the kingdom of eternal joy and peace (Matthew 7:13–14). The fact that many will go to hell will not make anyone better; on the contrary, there will be more noise, more shouting, more reproaches, more abuse and hatred, and, consequently, more torment for everyone. Let you be strange here in the opinion of many for your piety, but how easy, how fun it will be for you with your piety there at the world court! Blessed are you when you are reviled, our Lord told us (Matthew 5:11). In real life, where we all make mistakes, and some try to correct mistakes, while others remain stuck in sins, temptations are inevitable. Need is a temptation (Matthew 18:19), the Savior said. It is the duty of a clear conscience to beware of temptations, and not to get carried away. them, try to have fewer of them, and not multiply their number by example. It is difficult, they say, to resist temptation, it is difficult to resist gossip. But don’t you know God’s help? God promised you, and His word is holy, He promised that He would not allow you to be subjected to such a temptation that is beyond your strength; He will give you his help, with which you will withstand temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). If God is for us, who is for us? (Rom.8:31). Or do you think that God’s goodness does not extend to you? Give up this doubt, it is wicked. My friends! Don’t be weak, don’t be cowardly, don’t be afraid to start a better, Christian life. Your weakness condemns everything. Firmness for good – God embraces him with love; the fear of men is a dream, but the salvation that awaits the steadfast is certain. The Lord speaks to you. Do not be afraid of man’s reproaches, and do not submit to their blasphemy. As the robe will be consumed by time, and as the cloth will be eaten away by moths, so are the opinions of wickedness, but My righteousness will endure forever, and My salvation will endure throughout generations (Is. 51:7-8). Glory to the great and wondrous God in the saints. Do not complain, my friends, that I am still repeating the question proposed by the Lord to sinners. I wouldn’t want to, but sinners want it. They still think of continuing their debate with the Lord. They still want to justify themselves before Him. They still have answers to apologize for their disobedience before Him. What kind of new excuses are these? Are they better than others? “How, they say, can we combine concern for the salvation of the soul with the affairs of the rank? When should we engage in prayer or piety? The troubles of work, housework, and trade occupy all the time. And how many sins do these troubles entail? My friends! By the will of the Lord, the duties of a Christian are not separate from the duties of a citizen and a member of a family. They are separated by the person himself, doing things out of order, out of proportion, not entirely important, or empty, and forgetting the most important thing - serving God. Any title in itself only forces us to work, and does not force us to lie, steal, or deceive. Every title in itself is honorable, and contains within itself incentives to be pious and holy. Without Your blessing, my God, those who build work in vain, lest someone arrange his own happiness; and Your blessing rests only on those who fear You. Weak souls are afraid of both poverty and hunger, which do not yet exist; They lose their spirit in the face of invisible troubles and allow crowds of sins to reach them. But even against visible troubles, we are told, “if you first seek the kingdom of heaven, everything else will be arranged for you by itself” (Matthew 6:33). Is sin a friend of our happiness? Money acquired through lies, deceit, and theft has never brought lasting prosperity to any home. They complain about the needs of life - what are these needs? Be sincere, my friends. Your needs are made up of the desires of greedy passions, the thirst for gain or honor, or empty pleasures. Look around, why do you allow your soul to be burdened with the sins of so-called need? They sinned and continue to sin, wanting to catch the wind. Will you be justified at the judgment of God if you say, Lord! Have we not turned to You because we have been chasing vanity all our lives? Yes, people who have no civil or family affairs also find needs for themselves. What do they do with their time? What is their life full of? They get up, drink, dress up, visit friends, go for walks, and so on. Isn't it true that these activities are petty and empty? But they are attributed importance; not one of them, they say, can be canceled, delayed, or corrupted. ABOUT! My God! We need everything that is empty, and everything that is superfluous and even harmful to our soul. It is as if we have no time to engage in Thy works, matters of praise and thanksgiving for Thy good deeds, matters of prayer and repentance, but have enough time to fulfill the desires of the heart. Things await us when we want to satisfy the needs of the body, often and whimsically; But it’s impossible for them to wait for us when we need to go to the church of God and feed the soul, exhausted by hunger and thirst, exhausted by vanity! After the labors of social life, they spend the night reading an empty book, but not reading an edifying book; they spend another night in the most tiresome amusements, but this is also impossible to do for prayer! Unhappy blindness! Or is eternity not precious? Or is the spirit not higher than the body? For money, for honor, for pleasure, they spend nights without sleep, they even forget about food. And when it comes to the duty that God Himself imposed on me, about the main purpose for which life itself was given to me, I do not have enough time to deal with this duty! ABOUT! Lord forgive my evil heart - its wickedness! My friends! As long as our heart is not carried away by attachments to earthly and temporary things, the deeds imposed on us by rank and condition are not an obstacle to our salvation. Our passions and addictions are the creators of our sins! The Lord said; no one can work as two masters (Matthew 6:24). This means that if you respect everyday concerns equally as the will of your Lord, then you are not a servant of God, not a slave of the One whom your heart should honor above all else. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21). If your treasure, what you value, what you passionately care about, is on earth, then your heart is already on earth, and not in heaven, not with God. And so keep your heart among the affairs of life, beware that it does not become attached to earthly objects. Let those who demand peace be as if they do not demand, this is the commandment of the Apostle (1 Cor. 7:31). Sinners have another excuse in their souls, if not on their lips. “We’ll improve again,” they think. Why do we correct ourselves, and not correct ourselves? Or do we need the salvation of our souls later, and don’t need them now? Or is it at one time the property of God, and at another time a legal sacrifice to the passions? Or can we spend any part of our strength with impunity according to the whims of our hearts? Neither one, nor the other, nor the third. And the salvation of our soul is worth taking care of every hour, and we must devote all our time to God with all our strength. Every step of self-will is an insult to the Lord, every minute of sin is condemnation for us, every movement of ours, if it is not in accordance with the will of God, is harm to the soul. The house began to burn; and the owner says, I’ll go to sleep and then put it out. What is sin if not fire? God calls the sinner to Himself, He is ready to help him with His grace; and the sinner says, I’ll have time to go. Isn't this wicked insolence? Or are you careless about the riches of His goodness and meekness and long-suffering, not knowing how the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Rom.2:4). My God! My God! Do Your servants live like I do? They are day and night in exploits for You; virgins and night in the fight against various movements of sin. Even if it happens that the charm of sin draws the soul away from spiritual guard, how they rush to return to their former place! How much grief, how much sorrow their soul will endure for the sin they committed! Nathan convicted David of sin, and David immediately began to shed tears of repentance. - Jonah appeared in Nineveh with the news of the wrath of God, and the Ninevites that same day put on sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on their heads. Zacchaeus, as soon as the Lord visited him, gives half of his property to the poor and pays for insults fourfold (Luke 19:1-11). One glance of reproachful love at Peter and Peter went out weeping bitterly (Luke 12:61–62). This is what it means to sincerely desire your correction! My poor soul! Is eternal bliss dear to you? If it is expensive, why do you waste time without benefit, at the price of which you could buy a greater measure of bliss? Why don't you prepare for it as best you can? What's waiting for you? We'll fix it later! But who assured us that they would give us this - later? Which prophet revealed that the journey of your life will continue for a long time? Do we know what will happen to us tomorrow? Do we know that this evening they will not put us in a coffin? Are youthful years and blooming health promised for many more days? And as if it didn’t happen to us to see or hear that strong young men parted with life and fresh youth was mowed down by death like grass? Our dreams will not slow down our life. On the bed on which plans for several years of activity were drawn up, the dreamer fell into an uninterrupted sleep. And the desire for life will not give us life. I closed my eyes forever and in the midst of such happiness, where everything made me want to live. Can we consider something that does not belong to us as property? Times and years are in the power of the eternal Lord. He gave us the past, He gives us the present - this is His gift; He gives the present so that we may correct ourselves for the sins of the past. Use what is given. Walk until you have light, so that the darkness does not have you (John 12:35). We'll fix it later. When? In old age? Doesn't this mean that we will correct ourselves when the powers of the soul and body are even more corrupted by sin, and we do not correct ourselves now, when there is still a lot of life in the soul and body? Progress in sin occurs within us and without our efforts. Evil thoughts, criminal desires, harmful lusts multiply by themselves on the bad soil of our soul. Inaction for good opens them up to freedom and allows them to grow stronger from day to day. Do not destroy a bad thought, a bad desire is born; left a sinful desire unattended, it is a black matter; and there, look, there is an inclination towards sin, and there is a habit of it - a habit that so easily becomes second nature. Any sin without counteracting it increases with age and weakens the strength of the soul. What does it mean to correct ourselves in old age? The patient tells the doctor, “Leave me alone, I’ll have time to take the medicine when it’s very difficult for me.” Will we improve in old age? Oh? If we do not correct ourselves now, old habits of sin will be as difficult to correct as it is difficult to straighten the crooked tree. It is good for the husband when he takes him like a yoke in his youth (Pl. 3:27). He is already happy because instead of the sinful yoke he will put on himself a holy yoke and has rejected a number of sins that are preparing for him; he is happy that from an early age he began the fight against sin, without strengthening evil by indulging in it, without suppressing the seeds of good sown by grace. Old age is constant in rules, mature in thoughts, does not like absent-mindedness, does not occupy itself with empty things, is caring about prayer and eternity; but all this was then, as the years of youth and courage passed with the fear of God in the heart, with reverence for the holy faith in the soul. Otherwise, she rots in her sins. “Let’s get better in old age!” This is also that we will dedicate our life, skinny, rotten, sick from sins, to God. ABOUT! Good God! You were indignant at those who sacrificed to You the blind, the lame, and the sick (Mal. 1:6, 9). But people have not yet made, but only promised to make, the same sacrifice - blind, lame, sickly old age! How long, Lord, will the sinner irritate You? (Ps.9:25). “Let’s get it right – and there’s time ahead!” But who says this? Who promises themselves the life ahead? A sinner whose life is consumed by sins; What pathetic frivolity! No, if for anyone, then for the wicked there is no time ahead. The fear of the Lord lengthens the days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened (Proverbs 10:27). From the fruit of righteousness the tree of life vegetates, and the souls of the wicked are cut off untimely (Proverbs 11:30). Let the wicked hear what is said about him. The tree of your life will collapse, it is all spoiled by the decay of sins, eaten away by the poisons of passions. I am not a prophet, but I am not speaking my own; I say what God said long ago. A blow and everything will end for you. Hurry to get ready for a long journey, hasten to arrange as much as you can the affairs of your soul, for you are dying and will not live (Is. 38:1). God's judgment is against you. Already the ax lies at the root of the tree. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10). Sinners! All you have to do is cry before the Lord, more often imagine death and the terrible judgment of God, frivolity has already ruined you a lot; I need to break up with him. Passions have spoiled your mind, your heart, and your desires; you need to break ties with them. – Time to stop being your own enemies. Beware how dangerously you walk, redeeming time, for the days are evil (Eph. 5:15-16). Conversation on the words: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near (Matthew 4:17) This is how the Son of God preached on earth! This is how He began his sermons to the sinful children of the earth! And how effective His preaching was then! What a change, what a strong movement she made in the listeners! He Himself, the faithful witness, the Son of God, says, “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and strong seekers obtain it” (Matthew 11:12). Sinners of our times! The preaching of the Son of God sounds in your ears. How many times do you hear it in the church! How many times do your spiritual shepherds repeat it to you! Is it possible that even this powerful sermon has no effect on your soul? Has its strength been lost over time? It cannot be, the word of the eternal God will remain an eternally powerful word. If it is not strong for you, it can only depend on yourself, on your inattention to yourself and the word of God. When will your inattention end? When will the coldness towards your dangerous situation and the word of your Creator end? Sinners! The Son of God says to you: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near. It is scary not to listen to the Son of God. What does He expect from you? If a traveler is not following his own path and they tell him about it, he needs to come to his senses, figure out which road leads to his goal and which one he is going on? Repent, it is suggested to sinners, change your path. So, the sinner must come to his senses, must look around, who he is, which way he is going and where he should go? It would seem that it is not a difficult thing to see and know whether we are going where we should go, in what ways our life does not agree with these rules, in what respects the soul has deviated from the will of God - the eternal and immutable law for everything. Who is closer to us than ourselves? How can we not know ourselves? But that is why we have deviated so far from the will of God that we do not understand ourselves. What would it be like “if we judged ourselves?” (1 Cor. 11:31). Now it’s not easy, it’s difficult to recognize yourself. How many years have you spent forgetting about yourself, in vanity and entertainment, in continuous worries about everything except your soul? How to know yourself? How not to encounter difficulties during your first self-test? So the children of the world come to their confessor for confession - and don’t know what to tell them about themselves? They know a lot about what is around them, but little of what happened in themselves; they know the affairs of others, even the affairs of those whom they have never seen, but they do not know their own affairs, their sins; they know how to count money and weigh personal grievances, but they do not know how to count or weigh their iniquities. Sad state! Sinners! You see yourself poorly, but you need to see. What can you do? First of all, look carefully at yourself. Turn your gaze away from the vain world, gather your thoughts scattered by vanity, stop them, keep them on one thing - on yourself, on your sins, mistakes, crimes. While your thoughts and heart are busy with affairs, things, impressions of earthly life, you cannot consider yourself. Now you see yourself poorly; but the longer, the more attentively you look at yourself in the true mirror of God’s law, the more, the more clearly you will see yourself. Entering into ourselves, first of all we must review our grave sins, but not in order to ignore small sins. The more dangerous, the more important the sin; the more we should fear it, the sooner we should free ourselves from it. Sins against God and Christ the Lord are without a doubt more important than against our neighbors. Sins against our personal rank and condition will be punished more severely from us at God’s judgment than those that offend the duties we share with others. Those sins that we often repeat without remorse, without anxiety in the soul, are more dangerous for the soul than others, since they show a weakening of spiritual vitality, spiritual mortification. The predominant passion is the most dangerous passion, the most serious sin, from it, as from the root, a whole series of sins arise. Reconsider carefully what important duties you have violated, find what sin dominates in your soul, causing many other sins in its wake; consider the effects of habitual sins on your soul. The court of God determines the reward for small good deeds, for example, for a glass of cold water served in the name of the Lord. But he will also demand an answer for minor sins, for example, for an idle word. I tell you, the Savior teaches, that every idle word that men speak will be given back on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). Therefore, testing our conscience, we must examine all those offenses that seemed small, especially since perhaps in reality some of them will turn out to be not as small as we thought, perhaps, in total, their number will turn out to be so large that we will become afraid for them. Faithful to the law and conscience, the judge enters with full attention into the affairs of the criminal. He is not content with a general confession of a crime, but by the force of the law forces the criminal to state all the details, all the circumstances of the crime, asks about the place, time, participants, means, crime, about all the circumstances that give more or less weight to the crime. Let us also place our souls before the mirror of conscience and the law of God, and with the same attention we will analyze all the circumstances of our criminal deeds. Let us demand an answer from ourselves: where, when, and in what form did we commit this or that sin? An idle word in the house and an idle word in the church are not the same thing. A mockery of human affairs and a mockery of faith or the word of God are two different things. Intemperance on a simple day and intemperance during a fast established by the church are not equally important. You admit that you envy your neighbor. Figure out what type of envy you have? Are you sad only because you do not have his brilliant qualities and successes? Or do you wish for an unpleasant change in his fate? Or maybe you did experiments to undermine your happiness through his machinations? Envy of the first kind is not as serious as envy of the latter. A sin has been committed, grave in itself; but, if it is committed in the mind of another, the other is infected with it. Consider again, have you not boasted of the same vice before many? Did you not paint a tempting picture of sin before others, while they were busy with pious thoughts and exercises? If so, you have poisoned their thoughts, feelings, imagination, soul. The more extensive the influence of our example on others, the worse it is for us from our sins. We must be completely sincere in the awareness of our sins. Woe to those who say evil is good and good is evil (Is. 5:2). What hope is there for the healing of the soul when it sees bad deeds, but wants to make them look tolerable, if not entirely pleasant? What hope is there for the healing of the soul when it does not recognize all the beauty of the heavenly virtues and puts on a par with them its own deeds, denigrated by criminal intentions? Lords, do not turn my heart into words of wickedness, and do not bear the guilt of sins (Ps. 141:4). Why are we insincere in admitting our sins from pride, from that pride that constitutes man’s constant enmity with God and, therefore, is the most terrible evil in us. It’s hard for pride to see our ugliness. That is why it invents various excuses for our sins. This indicates our weakness, as if the saints were not the same people as you and me, my brother. This relieves us of responsibility for omissions and misdeeds, for a multitude of matters and worries, while a time has been appointed for everything, while the largest part of our worries is taken upon ourselves only to please passions. Sometimes our excuse refers to everyday connections, as if we ourselves did not enter into these connections, as if we were kept in these connections, as if in chains. Penitent! You stand before God; he sees all the movements of your soul. Why cry out your sins with apologies? You will not hide them with anything from the All-Seeing One and will only add to them a new sin - the deceit of self-love, hostile to God. Beware of pride and its deeds. Self-love loves peace and laziness, and it does not want to allow us to expose our sins without any cover, to worry about their vileness and quarrel with ourselves. ABOUT! We need to pay a lot of attention to ourselves so that pride does not weaken our determination to sincerely judge ourselves. If you slander another, do not allow your pride to conceal from yourself the fact that you were prompted to do so by offended pride or envy of the other’s advantages. Do not allow pride to hide sins from you, but strictly look for the causes of sins in your soul, expose them to yourself, no matter how disgusting they may be. You must have the courage to defeat your pride by mercilessly revealing your sins. Do not think that you will increase the gloom of your affairs too much with dark colors. Believe me, pride will have time to hide from you a lot of black things in your affairs, it will have time to throw its colors into your image of affairs and change their appearance. Is it hard for you to see yourself in diarrhea? Do not remove this heaviness from your soul. Believe me, self-love greatly eases your burden. Why should you act in unison with the enemy of your soul? Our sincere repentance will be rejoiced in heaven, and the Heavenly Father will greet his son returning to Him with a bright face. God! Send Your help to you to complete complete and sincere self-examination, to the glory of Your Holy name. Conversation on the words: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near For a worthy confession, it is necessary, as you have seen, a complete and sincere recognition of one’s sins. But does the whole point of confession consist in the awareness of one’s sinfulness? No, not all, far from all. With the consciousness of sins, heartfelt contrition for sins, combined with faith in the Redeemer, and a firm determination to live holyly are also necessary. Contrition for sins is necessary. It is impossible for anyone who sincerely and fully realizes his sinfulness not to feel sorrow for his sins. Coldness and indifference to his condition in a sinner means that he does not recognize himself as a sinner and does not see his position. Otherwise, is it possible to be indifferent while clearly looking at your dangerous situation? What is sin? A crime of the law of God, an insult to the greatness of God. But, insulting the all-good God, our Creator and Provider, our Savior and Comforter, who has done so much for our eternal salvation, how can we remain calm; not repentant? What is sin? This is the poison of the soul, this is the destruction of God’s lofty creation, there is no evil, no misfortune, no disaster; which would be more destructive than sin. What is sin? The appearance of a dead man is ugly; a sinful soul is much worse. Sin robs us, deprives us of the gifts of God, covers the soul with purulent strings, exhausts it with passions, fills it with the stench of sewage. ABOUT! Blessed is he who is watchful and guards his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame (Rev. 16:15). What do we expect from sins in the future? There, beyond the grave, an eternity of torment awaits the sinner. And the sinner does not tremble, and the sinner does not groan, and the sinner is at peace. ABOUT! This is not in the order of nature, this cannot be while the soul is alive. Wake up your soul, if it sleeps, wake up before it falls asleep dead in sleep. As long as the body is alive, it feels every outside touch, especially blows, especially wounds. In the same way, as long as the soul is alive, it must feel sorrow when it is shocked by sins, when it is violated by sins, when its order is violated by iniquities. If she doesn’t feel it, her situation is terrible. That is why God listens to the tears of the soul about its sins. The soul crying for sins has not yet left the order of God-created nature. That is why the position of the one who rejoices over sin, you understand, whom I mean, is completely hopeless. What does Holy Scripture testify to us about those who brought true repentance? The repentant David, struck by the punishments for his sins, cries out: hear my prayer, O Lord, and inspire my supplication; do not remain silent in my tears, for I am a prisoner with you and a stranger, just as you were for my fathers. Ease me, let me rest (Ps. 39:13–14). What did God call the Jews to do when returning them from the ways of sin? He told them: turn to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning, and rend your hearts, and not your garments (Joel 2:12-13). Remember the sinner, how she wet the Savior’s feet with tears and wiped her head with her hair (Luke 7:33). Remember how Peter, having wavered in the firmness of his love for the Savior, went out, weeping bitterly (Matthew 26:75). Remember how the publican offered his prayer of repentance. The publican, standing from afar, did not want to raise his eyes to heaven, but with his heart beating, saying, “Merciful God, be with me a sinner” (Luke 13:13). This, my brothers, is how sincere repentance is accomplished. It is not enough to say in words, I am a sinner; This heart must speak, speak with groans and sighs, speak with its complete self-abasement. Therefore, everything similar to exalting oneself over another, everything similar to enmity with a brother has no place in a repentant soul; she is full of sorrow for her sins and does not know who could offend her, for whom life itself is an undeserved mercy. Such repentance is true medicine for the soul. Ap. assures us of this with his words. Paul. Sorrow, even according to God, he says, brings unrepentant repentance to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10). those. Godly sorrow produces an unmourned change into salvation. And the Lord himself says: because of sin, they grieved him for little and saw that they were sad and went decrepit and healed his ways (Is. 57:17). A Christian's grief over his sin must be combined with faith. Repent and believe in the gospel, thus says our Lord. Without the faith of the Gospel, without the Christian faith, will sorrow lead to salvation? No. It can even turn into despair, into hardening of the soul, the most destructive state. Without faith, it is not our justification. What does the most severe sorrow mean compared to the severity of the insult that we inflict through our sins on the greatness of God? All its best is limited only by the fact that it is the fruit of the consciousness of our sins. And where is the sacrifice that a sinner is obliged to offer to the offended truth and holiness of God? So, my friends, it is not the feats of our repentance that bring us forgiveness of sins, but the sacrifice that was made on the cross by the Savior Lord Jesus. The priceless blood of the Lamb of God cleanses us from all sin. Without firm hope in the merits of the Redeemer, do not expect forgiveness for yourself or healing of your spiritual infirmities. Those who do not have faith will be condemned (Mark 16:16). So look, steadily look, repentant Christian, at your crucified Savior. Before Him, shed tears of repentance for your inattention to the blessings of your Heavenly Father, for the wickedness of your heart, wandering along the paths of sin, for the disorder of your soul that your sins have caused. When you look at the crucified Savior, your sorrow for sins will penetrate deeper into your heart, and at the same time it will be life-giving sorrow for the soul. A soul grieving over sins sees whom it neglected, fulfilling the desires of unclean passions. She neglected the Son of God, who bought her with his blood for holy works; she did not fulfill the will of the crucified Lord, she did not listen to the promptings of the spirit of grace. ABOUT! great is your guilt, O sinner, before your Savior. But even after that He is your Savior. The price of His blood shed on the cross extends to all times; for all ages, for all people. My children, St. tells us. His apostle, may you not sin, and if anyone sins, may the imams intercede with the Father of Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the cleansing of our sins and not only ours, but the whole world (1 John 2:1-2). And another apostle teaches: This one abides forever, holding the priesthood unceasingly. In the same way, he who is always alive can save to the end those who come to God through Him, by interceding for them (Heb. 7:24.25). So, here is your defender before the righteousness of the Heavenly Father, a repentant soul. Your sins are serious, but there is an Intercessor for you before the righteousness of God, there is an Intercessor not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. Pray and weep before His cross. With such an Intercessor as we have, it is impossible for our tearful prayers to remain fruitless. Faith in the Redeemer, awakened by grief over the guilt of your soul, will bring down upon you the blessing of heaven, opened by the merits of the Redeemer. The Lord Jesus, the heavenly physician of soul and body, when meeting with a sick Jerusalemite who had suffered for 38 years, before overshadowing him with healing power, asked, “Do you want to be healthy?” The sick man answered, “I will, Lord” (John 5:6–7). And he became healthy. So, my brothers, when healing a sick soul, it is necessary on our part to have a strong desire to be healthy in our souls. We need an impartial consideration of our affairs, we need sorrow for sins, animated by faith. But we also need, we need, a firm determination not to sin anymore. If there were no such determination in the repentant, it would mean that he had neither sincere conviction of the destruction of sin, nor sincere grief about his guilt. One connection with the other is necessary. Our sins are our terrible ulcers, from which the repentant sinner wants to be healed. If he is not lying, then he must be ready to take the most bitter medicines, even agree to have his penis cut off; he must decide to break off all ties with sin, no matter what the cost. The Savior says, “No one, lay your hand on your forehead and in vain turn back, you are led into the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). In relation to the penitent, this does not mean that he, despite all the weakness of nature, cannot subsequently be subject to mistakes; but that during repentance there must be a firm desire not to repeat previous sins. If at the same time as we turn to God, we look with our souls at the idols of our heart; If during repentance we feel no desire, no sincere determination to part with the criminal attachments of the soul, with the seductive lures of sin, our situation is bad, we are not on the path to the kingdom of God, there is no sincere repentance in us. If our sins are the subject of God’s proper wrath, then, wanting to be reconciled with God, we must renounce them with all firmness, no matter how pleasant they may be to us. What would you say about a guilty son when he, in the form of a repentant one, said to his father, “I cruelly insulted you, parent, but grief; What was done to you has occupied me so pleasantly that I don’t refuse to continue causing you trouble?” Isn't it true that this would be impudence, and not consciousness in wine? How can you, a sinner, appearing with repentance before God, say, “I can’t, I don’t think about parting with my sins?” Doesn’t this mean the same thing, as you would say, “I am guilty before You. Heavenly Father, I have offended You a lot with my deeds, but I am not averse to insulting You in the future, since this will give me pleasant entertainment; and I’m sorry to part with something pleasant.” Fear, my soul, the judgment of God! Lotov's wife, for looking at the cities doomed to destruction, was turned into a pillar of salt. “Look, my friends, how Zacchaeus, who acquired wealth not without sin, repented. Lord, he said: Behold, half of my property will I give to the poor, and whoever has offended anyone, I will return you in quadruples (Luke 19:18). Here is a firm determination to live for God, and not for sin! It is so necessary that a voice be heard in the depths of the repentant soul, I want, Lord, to be healthy, I want to throw off the sinful slavery in which I was hitherto; I turn away from the works of darkness and depravity; I want to be at least among the last of Your servants, but to serve You; I am ready to endure hardships and sorrows, just so as not to be far from You, my hope and Lord! Give me, my God, the strength to overcome the temptations of sin and keep Your holy commandments. With such firm determination lies the work of turning from sin to God and a new grace-filled life must begin. Heavenly Father! Thy kingdom come. Amen. Section VIII. Words during cholera about the afterlife and the burial of the dead Sermon I. About the afterlife on the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Dormition of the Mother of God presents a wondrous sight to the spiritual gaze. The Council of the Apostles gathers from different countries to Her deathbed. The faces of angels greet Her ascent into heaven with heavenly songs. The Son of God Himself accepts Her most pure soul into His arms. What wondrous glory for She who throughout her earthly life considered herself nothing more than the humble servant of the Lord! How the light of divine glory, regardless of human desires, by itself, illuminated the One who prepared Herself into the most pure vessel of the Divine! The spectacle is wonderful and instructive! Brethren! What if the angel said to the apostles, who were watching the rise of the Lord Jesus into heaven, that you stand looking up to heaven? and turned their gaze to the future, which is important for them and for everyone, especially since we, when contemplating the rise of the Mother of God into heaven, must carefully think about how our migration from this life will take place. The path of death is the inevitable path for all children of Adam. Whoever you are, wanderer of earthly life, soon both your soul and mine will have to part with the earth. This thought is so natural, especially at a time when a destructive disease so unexpectedly escorts you from earth to another world. But did we really think that we would be met on the other side of the coffin? What spirits will appear to us in the invisible realm of spiritual existence? If you haven’t thought before, or thought dissatisfiedly, let’s think about it now. Of course, for people like the Sadducees there is neither spirit nor immortality of souls. That is why the question about the spirits who will meet us beyond the grave is strange to them. But is it an honor not only for a Christian, but also for a person, to be a Sadducee? Is it honorable for anyone to place his existence on the level of the existence of the dumb? It’s another thing to listen to the teaching of Christ, which so elevates our spirit, which so broadens our vision of everything, including our afterlife destiny. What does St. tell us? a scripture about the transition of the soul to the invisible realm of the afterlife? It came to pass that the beggar died and the angels carried him into the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22), this is what the Savior says about Lazarus, who saved his soul through patience. Let these be the words of a parable. But the additional faces are also depicted as features of real existence. The death and burial of the rich man are features of reality. Why is the carrying of the dead Lazarus by the angels not a feature of reality? This is reality, only invisible with bodily eyes, but contemplated spiritually; this is reality, because in the revelation of God there is no place for fiction and empty dreams. This is the reality that divine scripture shows in its other instructions. Angels, according to the apostle, are service souls, sent to serve for those who want to inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). You see, the will of the Almighty appointed angels to serve the salvation of people. If the transition from this life to the afterlife cannot but arouse fears in the God-fearing soul, already by the very peculiarity and unknown of the boundless world of the afterlife, then the good spirits appointed to serve the salvation of souls, without a doubt, do not leave the souls of the pious without their protection during their transition to eternity. According to the psalmist, God is so good to those who love Him that He commands good angels to guard them in all their ways, visible and invisible (Ps. 90:10-11). On the other hand, angels, according to scripture, rejoice at the conversion of a sinner to the path of salvation. How can one not rejoice at them, how can one not accompany them with triumph during the transition into eternity of those souls who have already completed the feat of salvation? After this, it is clear that the true word of God serves as justification for the visions of the chosen people who saw the ascension of one or another righteous person from earth to heaven, accompanied by St. angels. And these same visions, as acts of spiritual experience, explain for their part the brief teaching of St. scriptures about the invisible life beyond the grave. So quiet, calm, joyful is the transition of the souls of saints to the afterlife, because it is protected by the protection of good angels. The trust of the righteous in the Lord is true when he says: Even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Ps. 23:4). Is this the transition of sinful souls to the afterlife? ABOUT! sinners! you live carefree until the grave, not thinking about what awaits you beyond the grave. Think about it, your very carelessness about the afterlife would not bring you troubles. On this side of the tomb, the material world stands before us as a wall, closing the bright kingdom of heaven from us and separating from us the dark kingdom of hell. But even in this spiritual-material life, we more or less feel the influences of the underworld of darkness, the violence of the spirits of wickedness in high places reaches us (Eph. 6:12), and therefore we need, we really need, the assistance of the spirits of light and grace. What will happen when the sinful soul, having renounced the body, crosses the barrier of the material world and comes into direct contact with the spiritual world? Is she in danger of an open attack from dark forces? The Holy Apostle tells us that our adversary the devil with his servants walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:9). If he is like this in relation to people here on earth, where there is so much protection for us against him, where there are so many counteracting measures on the part of the Church of Christ, abundant in grace-filled gifts, what will he be like for sinful souls when, separated from the earth, they are separated from the spiritual and material benefits of grace! Not only are they defenseless there against his malice, but with their dispositions, their inclinations, their skills, even on earth they introduced themselves into the region of darkness, where the devil is the complete ruler. Poor! here they willingly, with pleasure, lived in the lusts of the flesh, thinking to find happiness in darkness, while they subjected themselves to the power of the most terrible enemy, the one who was and is the prince of wickedness, a desperate opponent of the Lord and His holy church (Eph. 2:23). Naturally, these unfortunate pets of darkness will be joyfully greeted there by the spirits of evil, as expected victims. Sins and iniquities leave their mark on the soul, which is partly understandable to people; and the spirits of evil, according to the testimony of Scripture, are our constant tempters and participants in our iniquities (1 Thess. 3:5; 1 John 3:8). Their crafty eye follows with vigilant attention the path of man on earth, they know his weaknesses, remember his hesitations and falls along the way. Therefore, they know the deeds of the sinful soul. If their anger against people is terribly great, then isn’t it joy, isn’t it triumph for them to outrage the poor soul, upon entering a new world, with gloomy pictures of its unclean deeds, to present it to the gaze of a crowd of its forgotten sins, to calculate the cases and circumstances of resistance to its good? Worthy servants of the slanderer of our brethren (Rev. 12:10), they not only will not fail to expose even a single real guilt, but are ready to impose unprecedented guilt on the soul. After this, you, listeners, will understand that when St. Cyril of Alexandria and others depict to us the torture of the soul during ordeals, then they say something in agreement with St. Scripture, which shows us both the terrible anger of the spirits of malice against people, and the private judgment of the terrible justice of God over every soul. You just need to remember the instruction that the angel gave to Macarius of Alexandria, starting to talk about ordeals, “take earthly things here as the weakest image of spiritual ones.” This means that the story of the ordeal represents to us the transition of the sinful soul to eternity in a form in which only it can be understood by our sensory-spiritual understanding. It is also clear in itself that the torture of a sinful soul by the spirits of evil differs according to the differences in the souls of sinners. This is why we encounter some differences in the depiction of ordeals in private visions. “My Lord, Lord, grant me tears of tenderness... for with them I beg You to be cleansed before the end from all sin. It is a terrible and menacing place for the imam to pass, the bodies being separated and a multitude of gloomy and inhuman demons falling upon me” (Prayer for the 4th department) Brethren! Which saint has not prayed this or a similar prayer? St. prayed with such thoughts. Chrysostom, 19 Athanasius, 20 Ephraim of Syria, 21 Maxim the Confessor 22 and others. How can we not pray in fear and trembling for the future after the grave? St. Macarius teaches, “if the soul is guilty of sins, then hordes of demons, evil angels and dark forces come, take it and drag it to their side. No one should be surprised by this. For if a person, while still alive, while still in this world, submitted, surrendered and became enslaved to it, will they not more possess him and enslave him when he leaves this world? As for the other, better, part of people, something different happens to them. With the holy servants of God there are also angels in this life; Holy spirits surround them and protect them. And when their souls are separated from their body, the faces of angels accept them into their society, into a bright life, and thus lead them to the Lord.” 23 “Pray,” exhorts St. Ephraim the Syrian, pray that the soul of the dying person departs in peace; pray that she receives a place of peace; pray to meet compassionate angels; pray that you find a merciful Judge; burn incense - she sees the angels present; pray, she is in grave languor.” 24 My mother and my brothers - these are the ones who hear the word of God and do it (Luke 8:21), the Savior told us. What a great mercy this is to us from our sweetest Savior! He places in kinship with Himself and, therefore, in mutual kinship all those who hear and do His word. Let us take advantage of this grace, listen carefully and carefully carry out the will of God. Then we will enter into kinship with heaven. Then the inhabitants of heaven, and not the spirits of evil, will accept us as their own when we leave this life. Then they will mercifully cover our soul with peace and security. May your kingdom come, good heavenly Father, even for us who are weak. - Amen. Word II. About the afterlife Behold, I tell you a secret, everything is not We'll fall asleep, we'll all change, soon, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:51). Death is often an instantaneous event. What comes after death? An eternity boundless to the mind—an eternity in which we all will have to live. How not to think, how not to think a lot about what will happen to us after death? We talked about the soul's entry into eternity, about what will meet it in the world of spirits. What then? What kind of state will this be in which the soul must be, separated from the body? During earthly life, our soul is awakened to activity by the body and through the body it reveals its activity. During sleep, when the sensory organs remain inactive, the activity of the soul is also invisible. Isn't this an indication that, after separation from the body, the soul will be in an indefinite, unconscious, inactive state, until a new connection with the body - the instrument of its activity? We will not all fall asleep, says the apostle, saying that not everyone will be found dead by the last general judgment. Doesn't the apostle show that the state of the soul, separated from the body, is a state similar to sleep? This is exactly how some imagined the state of the soul behind the grave before the general judgment, recognizing private judgment as inappropriate. But is this fair? Let our soul have a need for sensory organs to receive impressions from the material world. In relation to the afterlife, this only means that the soul, having renounced the body, will no longer accept impressions from the material world. But will she lose there the impressions and thoughts that she collected during her earthly life, even if they related to the earthly world? Will she lose the ability to deal with the impressions of earthly life, remaining with herself? Given the inalienability of the soul's self-consciousness, there can be neither one nor the other loss. Even less can separation from the body prevent the soul from living in the world of spiritual thoughts. Thoughts about divinity, thoughts about the spiritual life of the soul, thoughts about moral existence are formed and act in the soul independently of the sensory organs; they live in the soul, act on the feelings and desires of the soul, are revealed and perfected in the soul without the participation of the activity of the bodily organism or only with weak participation, receiving reasons for change from the outside. Therefore, the soul remains with the body or without the body, it is for the activity of the soul in the world of its spiritual thoughts - it makes no difference, or almost all the same, and, therefore, the separation of the soul from the body cannot for any reason stop the life of the soul in the world of spiritual thoughts. In general, nothing can take away self-awareness from the soul. This is an integral part of her spiritual existence; without this, she would not be a spirit and would fall into the ranks of irrational being. Let her painful break with the body, for a short time, bring darkness to her consciousness, as happens in severe illnesses; but this short time will pass and self-consciousness will come into its own and will again continue its activity without hindrance, as the inalienable property of the soul by nothing and no one. Let us not forget those very many experiences when the soul, in the very last minutes of earthly life, exhibits such vivacity of activity, such clarity of thoughts, such freshness of feelings and desires, which do not at all correspond to the fading life of the bodily organism. In such experiments, isn’t the independence of the soul and its self-consciousness from the bodily organism, or even more, the dominant power of the soul over the collapsing organism itself, shown in full light? If so, if self-consciousness is an integral part of the spiritual existence of the soul, then the soul, upon separation from the body, cannot remain in an uncertain state for long; it needs to reach a known position, one that will be determined by the state of its moral existence, i.e. to a state of either blissful peace or torment, as the consequences of her moral life. All the best dispositions, all the holy desires, all the lofty thoughts, everything that a person achieved through strong aspirations and self-compulsion for the glory of God is the inalienable property of the spirit and from a certain moment, depending on the state of the soul, must be resurrected in the self-conscious soul, to its eternal peace. In the same way, the consciousness of spiritual and sensory sins will begin in the sinful soul a series of torments and languor. This is how it should be, according to the inalienability of self-consciousness, in an immortal soul. On the other hand, it cannot be that the wise ruler of the spirits would allow the soul to remain in an indefinite state for entire millennia, until the universal judgment. Why would there be such a state of mind? It is impossible to indicate goals to him either in the soul itself or in anything else. The Wise One assigns states in accordance with the properties of the creature and never acts contrary to his advice about creatures. Having given the soul a moral law, He will not want to stop its actions in it after the transition to eternity; The actions of the law in the soul must be revealed in the soul, as the indispensable will of God, with complete freedom, especially since there will be no more obstacles to this, presented here by a crowd of various everyday entertainments. - Let them not delude themselves with the dream that death will not soon be followed by reckoning with the sinner. If at the universal judgment the truth of God must be justified before the universe, in relation to the destinies of mankind, then it will also justify itself in advance and before each soul in its earthly fate; she will say there to the wicked, “you enjoyed the happiness of earthly life, not caring about the rights of eternal truth - now you have a different share”; she will also say to the sufferer of earthly life, “you did not know peace on earth, fulfilling the will of your God - now calm down.” We won’t all fall asleep, but we’ll still change. What dormition does St. speak about? apostle? Is it about the dormition of the soul after its release from the body? No. He calls bodily death a sleep. Death is a dream. What a great name! And it could only be given by Christianity, which so clearly shows in the future the awakening of the bodily composition to a new life. While death is the universal inheritance of the children of Adam, just as resurrection is the gift of the new Adam - Christ the Lord, the apostle, in relation to people of the last time, does not allow the effect of death. We will not all fall asleep, but we will all change, or as he says, we who are left behind will be raptured (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Why? It's a secret he says. I tell you a secret. The mystery is the action that will be performed on people alive in the last days, by the power of the resurrection. The action of the resurrector will be revealed in them by a special phenomenon, a change in the living bodily organism, which will extend to the point that the changed body will be caught up in the clouds. So, the apostle reveals to us the mystery, but not the mystery of the existence of the soul, detached from the body. Let us turn to other instructions of St. scriptures for the solution to our mystery. What is life before the grave and life after the grave according to the teachings of Scripture? Life before the grave is sowing, and life beyond the grave is harvest. In earthly life we ​​are commanded to work for good; and in that life they show us the reward for our labors. The present and the future are placed between each other, like a seed and a fruit. For as a man sows, he will also reap, says the apostle. He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, and he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal.4:6-7). He who sows with poverty will also reap, but he who sows with blessing (generously) will receive blessing (2 Cor.9:6). Each one will receive his reward according to his own labor (1 Cor. 3:8). You see, it’s not long to wait for a reward for your work; It is not long to wait for reward for earthly life. The harvest or reward will appear after the sowing or labor ends in death. This means that after death there will follow a certain state of the soul, consistent with its life before the grave, a state of either sorrowful spiritual languor, or a joyful life, a state either abundant in consolations, or sad and bitter. Revelation depicts death to us as the coming of a bribe-giver; so close does it place the reward for life to the moments of bodily death. We always boldly and knowingly, as if we live in the body, we depart from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight, but we dare and are more willing to leave the body and come to the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-8). For me to live, Christ, and to die is gain... I am obsessed with both, my desire to be resolved, and to be with Christ is much better (Phil. 1:21-23). You see, the saints of God await relocation to the Lord after their death; This is why they prefer death to continuing their earthly wanderings, because after death a blissful stay with the Lord awaits them. In exactly the same way, the luxurious rich man, after his death, fell into hell and uselessly asked Abraham from there to ease his fate; His brothers were still alive, but he was already tormented by torment (Luke 16:22, 25). A man lies alone to die, then comes the judgment, teaches St. apostle (Heb.9:27). He does not put an interval between death and judgment, and points to a private judgment, inevitable for everyone, just as death is inevitable. This is exactly what St. taught. church fathers. “After leaving this life,” teaches St. Chrysostom, we will appear in court, we will give an account of our deeds... Let us take the path of virtue, and with the hope befitting a Christian, we will appear at that court and receive the promised benefits. 25 If you have reviled anyone, if you have become an enemy of anyone, reconcile yourself before the judgment seat, resolve everything here, so that you can see that judgment seat without sorrow.” 26 “It is a completely just and very saving belief, says Blessed Augustine, that souls are judged as soon as they leave their bodies, before they appear at the court, where they will be judged already in their resurrected bodies. 27 So, my friends, after death there will be judgment for each of you, bliss or torment will be our fate. By the same token, it’s time for the imams; Let us do good to everyone (Gal.4:10). While the time of exploits and merit lasts, we will strive according to the will of God. While the time of labor passes, let us not be careless about our souls. Sinners! We have sinned a lot. Let us hasten to repent, let us hasten to correct what is possible. Don't we have enough good deeds? Let us hasten to pray for the grace of God to give us the strength to add something necessary for eternity, for example, the spirit of humility, the spirit of mercy. ABOUT! my friends! Let the Gospel image of the rich man, uselessly praying in hell for relief from his torments, appear to our gaze as often as possible. Let our soul repeat as often as possible the answer of the righteous man to the rich man; a great abyss has established itself between us and you (Luke 16:26). Let the fear of God's judgment, terrible for sinners, awaken our carelessness, drive away the charms of gold and honor from us, protect the soul from outbursts of anger and pride. If it is our lot to endure human slander and reproach, let us endure it so that we have something to come there with; we will endure it, not endure it for long, but live there for a long time. Amen. Word III. About the afterlife, in the church of the Burluka settlement He who does not believe in the Son will not see the life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36). Either salvation for living faith, or hell for unbelief - this is what appears to be our choice, listeners! It is our will to choose one or the other, but avoiding one of the two does not depend on us. The path of unrepentance, the path of unbelief, if we follow it, will certainly lead us to hell. Sinners! This truth is unpleasant for us; We don’t want to hear about it, because it, accepted by the heart, greatly awakens our sinful bliss and greatly disturbs the peace of our beloved passions. As Isaiah's contemporaries, we would like to be told only pleasant things, even if they are false (Is. 30:10). But where does this lead us? What does this mean about us? Is the one who hides the truth from us, even if it is unpleasant, a friend to us? Is he our friend who sees the danger ready for us and does not warn against it? He is a hypocritical friend, if not a treacherous enemy. So, no matter how unpleasant the thought of the terrible fate awaiting the sinner beyond the grave may be to you, let us not remove it from our sight. Let us think about the torment that a sinful soul will experience beyond the grave until the general judgment. The fear of the sinner's threatening future will revive us for a better life, and will not bring harm. He who does not believe in the Son will not see the life, but the wrath of God remains on him. The wrath of God is the same as the disgust of the all-holy from that which is worthy of His disgust; this is also the removal of the sinner from the presence of God. So, the first source of torment for a sinner beyond the grave is the feeling of his distance from God. During earthly life, God called a sinful soul to Him, but it ran away from Him. She will look for Him behind the grave, but will not find Him. An abyss dug by unbelief and sins will separate the sinful soul from God, and it, created for His contemplation, will be tormented by the consciousness of its distance from God. Sinners! you don’t understand now, you don’t feel how severe this torment is. Without feeling within yourself either the desire or the love for God, you do not experience the misfortune of being separated from God. You know only earthly joys, sensual pleasures, the pleasures of vain life. That is why everything heavenly is far from your thoughts, far from your heart, far from your desires. For you, the happiness of which you are proud is the unfaithful blessings of time; just the thought of losing them makes you tremble. The gift of the Creator of spirits - the desire for God - is muffled, suppressed in you by earthly passions. The most pious souls cannot here fully understand how great the misfortune is to be removed from God. The soul of an earthly wanderer, clothed with sinful flesh, is sometimes burdened by its burden and amused by its needs, sometimes scattered by impressions coming from the sensory world. That is why she is unable to rise to a clear, complete, living understanding of the happiness that lies in communion with God, as well as the misfortune of being at a distance from God. Imagine a soul separated from the body and left to its own devices. Neither the flesh nor the objects of the world, which during earthly life so distracted her attention from the main subject of her life, now no longer occupy her. Fun, honors, wealth, all earthly goods, disappeared. She sees only herself, sees and feels her irresistible desire for God in her heart, and He is so far from her. She sees that everything that she considered great has decayed, perished for her, and that only God is great, whom her heart seeks - her, and His greatness, His all-goodness, is not with her. She sees that God is her life, and without God there is no light for the mind, no joy for the heart, no goodness for the will. ABOUT! How scared she is without God! He sees that those who sought God found Him - boundless goodness, found their bliss, sees Lazarus, completely happy and cheerful in the bosom of Abraham, sees and strongly desires that at least one porridge of heavenly joy would cool her languid thirst, but even that does not fall, because he who does not believe in the Son will not see the belly, but the wrath of God abides on him. God for a condemned sinful soul is not a God of goodness and mercy, but a God of truth and holiness, a God of wrath and vengeance. She trembles at Him because her sins have placed her in alienation from the God of holiness. She runs away from Him because acquired passions draw her away from Him. My brothers! Do you think that the criminal attachments of the soul to earthly objects, to persons, money, honors, will fall silent in us there, when everything earthly will no longer act on the soul? No, they will not fall silent there, but like hungry dogs they will begin to rush to their objects and, not finding them, they will only torment their souls with insatiability; they will not weaken and will not disappear there, because what is sown here - in the immortal soul - will grow there and will not die. It is they, vile and wicked, who will present the soul as an object of anger and disgust for God; they will make her tremble at the mere thought of a God of holiness and purity. How heavy the ego is, how painful it is! This torment is further doubled by the fact that, trembling at the God of righteousness because of its sinfulness, the sinful soul is at the same time irresistibly drawn to Him as to the work of its existence. A terrible struggle is tearing her apart. God for her is an object of unbearable horror and He is also an object of fiery aspirations. She is drawn to Him as to the God of the heart, as to the highest good, and hastens to move away from Him as from a destroying fire. Attraction to God is the action of her God-created nature, the desire to hide from Him is the action of her sinful life. What a terrible opposition of instincts and feelings in the unfortunate soul! The suffering of a sinful soul becomes even more terrible, the terrible torment even more unbearable - from the consciousness, indelible in anything, that she herself has called upon herself the wrath of God. Conscience is the judge of our affairs on earth; she is an avenger of untruths in this life. This is what the Creator of our soul appointed her to be. And since it is the work of God in us, no wickedness of the soul destroys it in us, no effort of evil destroys it; she goes with us into eternity. She goes there, but with what a terrible difference for a sinful soul! On earth, her suggestions, no matter how strict and threatening, remain a matter of God’s goodness to a sinful soul. Beyond the grave they will only be the vengeance of God's truth. On earth they urge you to avoid deeds of wickedness; beyond the grave they are only a reproach for wickedness. On earth, they, like the secret voice of heaven, let the soul know that there is hell beyond the grave, where they themselves are part of the torments of hell. Sinners, you who here close your ears to this strict but beneficent judge, consider his reproaches torment, while they are medicine for a sick soul, judge for yourself how terrible the punishment of this accuser must be when he remains only an avenger for you. Oh! ask here from the giver of blessings, ask as a great mercy, so that the voice of conscience resounds as loudly as possible in the depths of your soul, and pursues the paths of sin in your evil heart as strictly as possible. This will save you from many torments beyond the grave. Beyond the grave, conscience will show the sinful soul the sins and crimes that it has ever committed; will expose to her all the baseness of every offense that appeared on earth, in seductive images. Now, she will say to the soul, the delights of sin, earthly pleasures, earthly benefits, earthly glory have disappeared - where now? And without them what a sin! Terrible, fierce as death. And for him, the gifts of God’s grace are neglected - for him, precious time is lost, for him, the means to eternal salvation are left unattended. What does a life lived in sin turn out to be now? Nonsense. How can you excuse yourself in such a life? Nothing. Irresistible, listeners, reproaches of conscience. And how long do you think she will be there repeating them? Reproaches of conscience, like an undying worm (Mark 9:44), will constantly gnaw at the sinful soul, not giving it rest. Acquired sinful habits, tearing the soul towards objects of criminal passions, will provide it with an inexhaustible supply for its reproaches, denunciations and executions. No matter how difficult the feeling of distance from God is, no matter how caustic the remorse, the disastrous state of a sinful soul before the universal judgment is not yet a decisive state; complete and unlimited torment of sinful souls, as well as the spirits of evil, will come according to the determination of the world Judge (Matthew 25:46). This means that to the plight of sinful souls beyond the grave is added the agonizing expectation of a menacing future, or, as the apostle says, a certain terrible expectation of judgment and a fierce fire ready to devour opponents (Heb. 10:27). The waiting is painful, both because, given the horror of the menacing future, one cannot reject its reality, and because too much patience is needed for limitless waiting. Gehenna will be in view for the souls imprisoned in hell; the seer long ago discovered that after the world judgment, both death and hell were cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). So, to keep in mind the sea of ​​fire and wait until this sea swallows up its very spectators - what a terrible torment. ABOUT! God! plant in me the root of good things, Thy fear, in my heart. Amen. Word IV. About the afterlife, spoken in the cathedral of the city of Volchansk And death and hell dasha dead your own, and accepted judgment according to your deeds. And death and hell were cast into the lake fiery, this is the second death (Rev. 20:13–14). If a terrible disease (cholera), again visiting this region, strikes one or another of us, listeners, will it be a surprise? What is the land we inhabit if not a cemetery field? How many acquaintances and strangers have disappeared from our heads in the darkness of the grave! Let those of whom the memory has not reached us occupy us little. But a father, orphaned after the death of his beloved children, can he not ask where they are? What's wrong with them? A mother who has lost her only son, a spouse who has lost her beloved husband, sadly ask where they are? What is it like for them there? Good God! We revere Your righteousness; We confess Your unapproachable holiness. The fate of those who have accepted a good fate in this life, without gratitude to the giver of blat, cannot be peaceful there. This is difficult for a weak heart, but it is immutable. But You are eternal goodness! Will You refuse drops of gracious consolation to those who mourn before You over the sad afterlife fate of forgetful brothers and sisters? Or is the terrible fate of the sinner inevitable there for all sinners? Is it really possible that there can never be any deliverance or relief from the torments of hell? Sinners! More than anyone else, we need to know the correct answer to questions about you! And where will we hear it? It is dangerous to rely on reason; it can lead to mistakes. Shall we turn to a false teacher? what God says about me in his revelation. Both death and hell are their own dead, and they have accepted judgment according to their deeds. Both death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. This is how the seer John saw it. What is this vision? What does it show us? According to this vision, hell must send its inhabitants to universal judgment, like death and sacrifice, and then hell and death will fall into Gehenna. Consequently, death and hell are presented here in the same position. This means, just as death is not a necessary accessory of human nature, but is a random phenomenon, it is a rent of sin (Rom. 8:10; 1 Cor. 15:36); just as for death there is a conqueror of death, by whose power the dead return to life, so hell is not yet a decisive state of sinners, in which change would be impossible. According to the vision of the seer, the decisive, invariably disastrous state of sinners is Gehenna, which will receive the inhabitants of hell after the world judgment. Thus, this vision shows the state of sinners in hell as an indecisive state, suggesting the possibility of a change in the fate of the sinner before the world judgment. The teacher of languages ​​in one epistle says (Eph. 4:9-10) that Christ Jesus descended into the lowest parts of the earth and took captivity there, and in another (Phil. 2:10. 11) he teaches that before the name of the glorified Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth. Comparing both instructions, we see that the further countries of the earth and the inhabitants of the underworld are not like the inhabitants of heaven, where the Savior ascended from earth, and not like the inhabitants of the earth, among whom He stayed temporarily. By the very meaning of the underworld in other places of scripture (Ps. 62:10; Sir. 51:9), its inhabitants are those who have not achieved bliss. And about them St. The apostle says that the tribes of the underworld, like free worshipers in heaven and earth, bow before the name of Jesus Christ, accept His gifts and are led out of captivity. The Apostle does not tell us that all the inhabitants of the underworld bow before Jesus and are brought out of their prison; on the contrary, it is known that while in this prison it is preached with another spirit for their benefit (1 Pet. 3:19), for others, such as a rich man, it is impossible to leave it (Luke 16:23). The Apostle clearly shows that in the underworld there are souls not only unrepentant, rooted in evil and therefore incapable of accepting the gifts of Christ’s grace, but souls capable of another better life, souls for whom a transition to a state of peace and joy is possible. Otherwise, the apostle makes it clear that just as in heaven, according to the moral state of righteous souls, there are many abodes (John 14:2), so in hell, according to the unequal moral state of sinners, there are unequal abodes; and between them there are those for which a transition to a state of complete rest is possible. Another thought about the underworld by the apostle is that the possibility of delivering souls from hell is the work of one who descends into hell; it does not depend on the activities of the prisoners, but relates their salvation solely to the power and will of Christ the Lord. For this reason, Christ died and rose again and is alive, and possesses both the dead and the living (Rom. 14:9), the apostle teaches. With this, Christ Jesus rose from the dead to be the Lord of both the living and the dead; His gracious dominion is not limited to the realm of the living; His life-giving power extends to the kingdom of the dead, and here it can revive and save, forgive and restore freedom. The Imam is the key of hell and death, the first and last himself says to the seer John (Rev. 1:18). After such a review, there is no doubt that until hell is cast down into Gehenna, the Lord Jesus can open the doors of hell, can lead prisoners out of there, just as he can raise the dead. After such a response, it is also clear that Abraham’s words to the rich man, “between us and you there is a great chasm, so that those who want to cross over do not cross over to us” (Luke 16:26), only mean that the transition from hell to heaven does not depend on the will of the prisoners of hell. So the possibility of delivering sinners from hell is beyond doubt. There is also no doubt that the transition of sinners from hell is not in their power, but is possible only by the power of the Lord Jesus. It remains to be found out how, through what medium, the life-giving power of the Lord Jesus is transferred to the unfortunate inhabitants of hell? What is the militant Church of Christ? She is the body of Christ, in which Christ lives by his power and grace. To her, who has the keys of the kingdom of heaven, He gave her many different means of salvation. In it a bloodless sacrifice is made for the sins of the world (Heb. 7:23–25); the body of the Redeemer is broken for the life of the world (John 6:5), the blood of the Lord is shed for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:26–28). In it, prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus can receive everything in accordance with the will of the Father (John 14:19). So, this is where the conductor of God’s life is for people! The Holy Apostle John teaches, if anyone sees his brother sinning not leading to death, let him ask and give him life; for those who sin not leading to death, it is a sin leading to death; I say not that, but pray (1 John 5:16). The Apostle's commandment commands us to pray for those who sin a non-mortal sin, and this prayer, according to St. Apostle, may be so valid that it will impart life to a sinner. The Apostle extends neither the commandment about prayer, nor the promise about the power of prayer only to the one who has sinned a mortal sin; but does not exclude from the circle of commanded prayer and its power those who have died without sins. The Apostle’s thought becomes clearer to us when we compare his words with the words of the Savior. The Savior says: whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be released to him, either in this age or in the next (Matthew 12:32). In connection with this instruction of the Savior, the Apostle tells us that there are sins for which it is useless to pray - whether the sinner himself prays for them, or others pray, they will not be forgiven either in this or in that life, while prayer for the one who has committed a non-mortal sin, no matter who he is, living or dead, can give him healing. So, you see, my friends, according to the teaching of the true word of God, the prayers of the earthly Church of Christ can provide assistance to dead sinners, as long as they are not unrepentant sinners. This is how the true Church of Christ has always believed! This is how all the great teachers of the church reasoned! St. Chrysostom wrote, “it is not in vain that the apostles legitimized the commemoration of the dead in terrible mysteries. They knew that this would be of great benefit to the deceased, a great deed.” 28 You see to whom St. ascribes. Chrysostom thought about the possibility of change in the afterlife fate of sinners through church prayer? Holy Apostles. With it he also learns the establishment of prayer for the dead in the Christian Church. In the same way, the work of the apostles was called the commemoration of the dead St. Athanasius, 29 Gregory of Nyssa, 30 Damascene, 31 St. Augustine. 32 St. Damascus teaches, “the mysteries and seers of the word, the disciples of the Savior, the divine apostles, established the remembrance of those who died in faith before the holy, terrible, life-giving mysteries. The holy, apostolic and universal Church of Christ from that time until now has firmly and undoubtedly maintained this establishment and will continue to maintain it until the end of the world. This name is established and accepted by the church, not without reason and reason; Christian faith, alien to error, has never accepted anything empty and useless; she constantly preserved only what was useful, pleasing to God, fruitful and saving.” 33 The great teachers of the church of all times preached out loud to everyone that it was possible to change the fate of the departed before the general judgment. “There is a possibility,” argues St. Chrysostom, ease the punishment of a dead sinner. If we make frequent prayers for him and give alms, then even if he is unworthy in himself, God will hear us. If He, for the sake of the Apostle Paul, spared many others, and for the sake of some, how could He not do the same for us?” 34 St. Cyril of Jerusalem argues, “if the king sent those who insulted him into exile, and their neighbors brought him a wreath for those who were punished, wouldn’t he lighten the punishment? Sending up prayers to God for the departed, although they are guilty, we offer not a wreath, but Christ, slain for our sins, propitiating the humane God for them and for ourselves." 35 St. Augustine taught, "We must not deny that the souls of the dead receive relief from the piety of the living, when the sacrifice of an Intercessor is made for them, or alms are given for their benefit, but such deeds of piety bring benefit only when the dead deserved to be useful... Truly, there is a way of life that is not so pure that it does not require help after death and not so bad that it does not serve him in favor after death... To whom prayers are useful, then they are useful either so much that there is complete remission of sins, or so much that condemnation is more bearable... 36 It would not have been said about some that they will not be forgiven either in this age or in the next, if there were not those for whom if If not in this age, then in that age there will be forgiveness.” 37 St. Ephraim the Syrian explains the power of the prayer of the living for the dead: “Look, here are ripening bunches of grapes in the field and squeezed wine in vessels. When the berries on the vine ripen, then the wine standing in the house begins to worry, as if it wants to run away. There is also a plant that, being in the house, produces offspring when another branch of it, planted in the field, begins to grow. If plants also have a secret communication with each other, then aren’t the prayer offerings (of the living) more understandable to the dead?” 38 We could imagine many experiences that fervent prayer for the departed saved the departed from painful conditions. For brevity, we will limit ourselves to one, but convincing in all respects. This is an experience performed and described by St. the 3rd century martyr Perpetua, therefore, the experience of ancient, better times, an experience faithful to the holiness of her face, high to the point of inspiration. “Once,” writes the martyr, in prison, during general prayer, I accidentally pronounced the name of my deceased brother Dinocrates. Struck by the unexpectedness, I began to pray and sigh for him before God. The next night I had a vision. I see Dinocrates emerging from a dark place, in great heat and exhausted by thirst, unclean in appearance and pale, on his face there is a wound with which he died. There was a great gulf between him and me, so that we could not get closer to each other. Near the place where Dinocrates stood, there was a full reservoir, the edge of which was much higher than the height of my brother, and Dinocrates stretched out, trying to get water. I regretted that the height of the edge prevented my brother from getting drunk. Immediately after this I woke up and realized that my brother was in agony. Believing that my prayer could help him in his suffering, I prayed days and nights in prison, crying out with tears that he would be given to me. On that day, on which we remained tied in chains, there was a new phenomenon for me, a place that I had previously seen as dark became bright, and Dinocrates, with a clean face and in beautiful clothes, was enjoying the coolness. Where he had a wound, I see only a trace of it, and the edge of the reservoir was now no more than the height of the youth’s waist, and he could easily get water from there. On the edge stood a golden bowl full of water. Dinocrates approached and began to drink from it, and the water did not decrease. That was the end of the vision. Then I understood that he was freed from punishment.” 39 Blessed Augustine, in explanation of this story, says that Dinocrates was enlightened by St. baptism, but carried away by the example of his pagan father, he was not firm in the faith and died after some sins that were common at his age; for such infidelity to the holy faith he suffered, but through the prayers of the holy sister he got rid of them; and his torment and peace were presented to St. Perpetua in images. 40 So, my hearers, let us glorify the goodness and power of the Lord Jesus. While His militant church remains on earth, the fate of dead sinners can still be changed for the better by the benefits of St. churches. How much consolation for a sorrowful heart, how much light for a perplexed mind in pure Christianity! Rays of light pour from it into the dark kingdom of the dead. My listeners! The goodness of the Savior has provided us with the means to alleviate the lot of our dead brothers; let us not be inattentive to the will of heavenly goodness, and let us not be cruel to our neighbors. If in our eyes our brother was drowning in the waves or dying from fire, and we did not take a single step to save him, our cruelty would be monstrous. Think, isn’t our cruelty far more guilty before the Lord, and before our neighbors, and before our conscience, when we do nothing for our dead brothers and sisters? ABOUT! Let us do for them what is possible for us - let us pray for them with the prayers of St. churches, we will give alms for them. If not for them, then for ourselves, let us be merciful to them. Will our Lord be merciful to us there when we are unmerciful to those redeemed by His blood? Will we be Christians if we do not do works of love? No! Amen. Sermon V. About the afterlife, on the day of the Intercession of the Mother of God In the Constantinople Blachernae Church of St. Andrey, a holy fool for Christ's sake, sees a wonderful vision. The wondrous Queen Mother of God, surrounded by hosts of prophets and apostles, saints and martyrs, saints and righteous; with an omophorion in his hands, he prays for Christians to his Son and God. “Do you see, brother, the Intercessor of the world?” asked St. Andrey Epifania. “I see, holy father, and I am horrified,” answered the student. Wonderful vision! The Holy Church revives this vision in our souls with a special celebration. How sweet it is for a heart insulted by the earth! There is so much light in it for the mind contemplating the afterlife. After this, does the righteous suffer tribulation and persecution here in vain? Is it in vain that an ascetic of piety struggles day and night with the passions of a corrupt heart? ABOUT! no, the judgment of the Judge of the universe has not yet been pronounced, but the saints of God are already enjoying life with the God of life, those whose spiritual eye is open to the world of spirits have seen heavenly life from earth and are filled with delight from contemplating the bliss that the saints enjoy. What kind of life is this, what kind of bliss is this, which was given to the saints even before the world judgment? The seer John saw under the altar the souls of those beaten for the word of God, and he also saw that white robes were given to each of them, and it was said that they might rest for a little while, and their minions and their brethren, who had suffered beatings, might be like these (Rev. 6:9, 11). What is this vision? What does it show about those who were beaten for the word of God? It shows, firstly, that the sufferers of the faith, even before their co-workers and brethren could suffer for the truth of Christ, already receive peace, i.e. crowned with the gifts of God's love following their innocent death. What then do the white vestments with which they are clothed mean? The angel of the Sardinian church is told that he has several such who have not desecrated their garments, and who the rest of the time, following the example of their Lord, will live purely, to the evil of the wicked world, they will walk with Me in white; then it is said about their reward that the one who conquers will be clothed in white vestments (Rev. 3:4–5). So, white clothes are a symbol of spiritual purity and a symbol of glory. This means that the dressing of the sufferers of faith in white robes meant that they were recognized as innocent and pure before the face of God, that in their hearts even the pure eye of God does not see anything unclean, and this innocence shines with heavenly glory. What kind of combination is this of innocence with glory, of deeds with reward? Oh! We who drink wickedness like water, we do not understand and do not feel what sin means for our soul; but he is not like that for high souls, for souls who are zealous for heavenly life. I am a cursed man, who will deliver me from this body of death? called St. Paul. Pious souls! Souls who are zealous for heavenly purity are burdened, languished, and suffer from those sins that from time to time appear in the soul, due to the action of corrupt nature, and not according to their will. They know that sin is not only a criminal matter, offending the conscience, but also an unclean matter, depriving the soul of heavenly glory. They know that as long as they remain on earth, as long as they remain in corrupt flesh, they will not be able to get rid of the fear of God’s truth, which is threatening against all uncleanness. And therefore they yearn and sigh for the time when death will break their connection with their corrupted flesh. Understand, then, what their joy will be when they no longer see and feel dangers and troubles from corrupt flesh. How gratifying it will be for them to see and realize that the God of truth and holiness no longer sees anything unclean in them, that He recognizes them as acceptable to Him, looks at them with the eye of goodness and love, and they see themselves in the light of heaven. This is the state of the souls of the saints - the sufferers of the faith - the seer shows when he speaks of putting them in white robes. Thus, the bliss of the souls of saints beyond the grave will consist in the consciousness and feeling of the perfection of the spiritual powers of the soul, the restoration of the image of God with which the soul was created by its Creator. The mind in the souls of the saints there will open, illuminated with the light of pristine purity and clarity. Now, says St. Apostle, we understand in part, we know not entirely; When the perfect comes, when a new way of being of the most perfect begins, then it will be partially abolished. When a child ran, like a child, he spoke, like a child, he thought, like a child, he thought, and when there was a husband, he rejected the child. There is the same difference between the present and future state of mind of the saints as between a baby and a man. We see now as with a mirror in fortune-telling, but then face to face (1 Cor. 13:9-12). How much light has been shed on the human mind by Christianity! How highly our knowledge is raised by the instructions of the heavenly Teacher! And yet, the earthly knowledge of the best Christian still remains incomplete, unclear and mysterious. It will be completely different there. There, behind the grave, the saints of God, in place of images, will see reality and receive close, clear, complete knowledge of everything. One separation of the soul from the body, which, like a dark curtain, closes the spiritual world from the soul, from the body, which, instead of being an instrument for expanding the knowledge of higher things, burdens it with low and empty images, and with the fumes of passions darkens and often perverts all the principles of the mind, one separation from the body will open to the holy soul a whole world of hitherto invisible objects and will facilitate its aspirations for eternal truth, for its mental elevation. The grave perplexities that at times torment pious souls here when looking at the world of sinners and the temptations encountered on the path of spiritual improvement, there all such doubts will be resolved for her. Dear to the godlike soul is heavenly Truth. She finds happiness when her inner being is adjusted according to the laws of truth itself. Wasn't the soul created for truth? Beyond the grave, in the saints of God, the life of the mind will be revealed, which was on earth only in embryo and, being a correct life, will constitute a source of bliss. If the life of the mind is exalted there in the saints of God for their bliss, then, without a doubt, the activity of the will will also be exalted and thereby exalt their bliss. The activity of the mind in the precise sense is not separate from the activity of the will, just as truth and goodness are, in essence, the same thing. The more sublime, the brighter, the more extensive the thoughts of the mind about God; the deeper, the stronger the love for everything holy should be in the soul. At least that’s how it should be according to God’s plans. And so it happens in the saints of God, whose life is life according to God’s plans. Beyond the grave, as their minds open, their love for the holy will rise, expand, and strengthen. Love will no longer disappear, if prophecies are abolished, if the pagans become silent, if reason is destroyed, so says St. the apostle who ascended from earth to heaven (1 Cor. 13:8). In Zagreb, love for the holy will be purer, more sublime, stronger, and because there will be no obstacles for it, put here by the corrupted flesh and the evil world. Neither the charms of earthly things, nor... examples of depraved people, nor the hatred of the proud world will disturb and entertain souls there; the sinful nature of the flesh, remaining together with the flesh in the earth, will also not suppress the soul’s desire for heaven. A soul that loves the Lord will strive with its whole being to everything sublime, good and beautiful, or, more precisely, to the very source of everything high, good and beautiful. And what bliss this holy love will fill her with! What does sin bring to the soul if not languor and torment? Moral perfection or holiness is a condition of bliss, as necessary as the well-being and integrity of bodily members is a condition of health. Consequently, without moral perfection the bliss of the soul is impossible, just as with it it is an inalienable property of the soul. And the higher, the stronger the soul’s love for the holy, the higher, the purer, the more extensive its bliss. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, the Spirit says to her, that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow with them (Rev. 14:13). This is what the Spirit of truth says! Blessed are those who spare neither their labors nor their very lives for the Lord. Earthly life is hard for them; but beyond the grave awaits them bliss, the bliss of peace undisturbed by anything and the bliss of reward for their deeds; In short, beyond the grave awaits the righteous the heavenly consolation that their very activity will bring them. It cannot be otherwise. A warrior who has honorably completed his service in war, returning to his homeland, with pleasure, with delight, remembers the dangers that have passed, the labors and wounds that he endured, the courage that was shown to him many times in battle. A worker of a poor life, who has managed to overcome poverty through honest labors, joyfully turns his gaze to past labors and sorrows. So a warrior of spiritual life, a worker of God’s work, remaining faithful to his Lord to the end, beyond the grave becomes free from all heavy thoughts and looks at his past and present with a calm, joyful heart. How gratifying peace was for him after the exploits of a lifetime, after a struggle that did not stop until the grave! He is joyful, he is delightful, and because every feat of will for good sheds peace and joy in his heart, every holy deed responds to the soul with happiness and bliss. Their affairs go with them. After this, the attitude of the pure soul beyond the grave to the world of angels and saints of God and to God himself is understandable; It is also clear what this attitude should reflect in her. “Many, says the Savior, will come and lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11), showing that the bliss of the saint’s soul beyond the grave will also depend on its communion with all the saints. And the seer John saw two more features regarding the state of the souls of the saints beyond the grave. He saw many people standing before the throne and before the Lamb, calling for salvation to our God and the Lamb who sits on the throne. And you are angels, he continues, standing around the throne, saying, Amen (Rev. 7:10–12). You see, the saints of God stand before the throne and the throne of God is surrounded by angels; The saints of God offer praise to the Lamb, and the angels approve with their agreement the praises of the saints. Consequently, holy men of God and angels of God are in communion with each other. You see, the saints of God stand before the throne of God and, while serving, glorify God and the Lamb. Consequently, their occupation is an activity for God, and this activity is so pleasant for them that it is accompanied by feelings of delight. Let us also note that since the vision of the seer refers to the circumstances of the destruction of Jerusalem with its Judaism (Rev. 6:13, 12:3) and it is said about the saints: these are those who came from great tribulation (Rev. 7:14), then it is clear that the seer shows us the state of the saints that follows the end of sorrowful earthly deeds, even before the universal judgment. It is so pleasant on earth to be in a union of friendship, when hearts are united by bonds of pure love for holy motives. Beyond the grave, the saints, not only those known in this life, not only those who were united here by love, but also all the unknown ones, separated from each other by time and other conditions of earthly life, form one society both among themselves and with the angels of God. And how this friendship, how this mutual communication, is higher, purer, more joyful than anything earthly! There, not a single passion, not a single sinful movement, so inevitable on earth, touches anyone’s peace. The highest, the purest bliss of this union flows from the fact that all members of the heavenly society glorify the Lord, staying close to the source of light and joy. This was the kind of bliss Paul expected when he wanted to give up his life as soon as possible. We dare and deign rather to depart from the body and come to the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). He showed that righteous souls, souls such as the soul of Paul, after being separated from the body, pass to the Lord. Let the bliss of the saints before the universal judgment not yet be complete bliss; Let only after the judgment of the world the righteous, they will be enlightened like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). But the expectation of complete bliss not only does not constitute sorrow for them, but serves as a new source of bliss. It gives them a foretaste of what they expect with firm and peaceful hope, they expect in grateful reverence before the wise goodness of the Most High. Blessed is the fate of the righteous beyond the grave. The earthly mind is not able to fully comprehend their bliss. What he can comprehend is enough. What do all the earthly joys that people chase so much mean in comparison to the glory of heaven? What do all the sorrows of earth mean, which people are so afraid of, not fearing the will of God? Blessing and glory to our God forever and ever Amen (Rev. 7:12) Word VI. About the afterlife, on St. Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, in the seminary church And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God; and the court accepted the dead from those written in the books according to their deeds (Rev. 20:12). What is this revealing to us? Judgment for everyone's death? But the court accepted the dead, not the dead; I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God; whole hosts of dead people of different states before God, and not one or the other of the dying. If it is true that after the death of everyone there is judgment, why else is there judgment for all the dead? God is the most perfect mind, for Him mistakes and confusion are impossible and verification of His judgment is not necessary. If a sinner is once condemned by him, at a private court, then doesn’t it mean that he is condemned truly and immutably, condemned for eternity, and, therefore, there is no need for another court, a universal court? Bold arbitrariness, without thinking about it, goes further and says, isn’t the universal court only the opinion of people of a certain time and a certain category? Celebrating the memory of St. Theologian! The difference between St. John is distinguished from the other apostles by the fact that he is primarily a prophet of the new testament. He saw and showed us the secrets of an invisible future; saw the secrets of deciding the final destinies of the world. In order to honor the memory of the seer of secrets, let us approach the understanding of the secrets he reveals by resolving the question of the need for a universal court after a private one. We need a general court after a private one, firstly, for the final distribution of rewards for the good and punishment for the evil. After a private trial, the soul is rewarded or punished, but not the whole person. Meanwhile, did not the body participate in the good deeds of the righteous and in the criminal bliss of the wicked? Isn’t it what the ascetic languished from fasting and labor? Wasn’t it the sinner’s lusts that overwhelmed him? Didn’t it suffer in torture and prison with a confessor of the faith, or with a victim of an unjust human judgment? Wasn’t it the carefree rich man who had fun every day? Let the body be the instrument of the soul; but the weapon also has its own tiredness, the violation of which should not go without retribution. Let the advantage of activity remain in a person behind the soul; but there is activity in the body, and in it sin can either rule without limit, or humble itself to the point of powerlessness, and a weak body can carry within itself the death of the Lord Jesus and participate in the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. 4:10), or be an open enemy of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:18). How can the truth of God ignore the activities of the body, leave such an important part of the human body without judgment? No, let them not deceive themselves with their dreams; in the Lord the unrighteous are tormented for the day of judgment, especially those who follow the fleshly lusts of defilement (2 Pet. 2:9-10). No, it is necessary for the body to appear in judgment together with the soul, so that the full reward of human activity for the deeds of the soul and body can take place. It is fitting for us all to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive what he has done with his body, either good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). God's truth is accurate. She cannot help but give hers to everyone. Do you think, listeners, that the soul, due to separation from the body, remains inactive? We all believe that the soul lives even in separation from the body. If she lives, then she acts. It is impossible to live and not act. Holy Scripture tells us that the souls of the saints, being at the throne of God, serve God and the Lamb, glorifying the greatness and goodness of the Divine (Rev. 7:9-10). Divine Scripture tells us that the saints pray for the poor wanderers of the earth out of love for them, and prayers, ascending to God like fragrant incense, bring down the gifts of God to the earth (Rev. 8: 3–5). Are these not new works of the saints of God? Are these not new exploits of their holy love? Wicked souls, separated from the body, also continue their deeds and multiply their crimes. They loved sin here, and they love it there; acquired passions - hatred, anger, pride, vanity do not sleep in souls even beyond the grave; here they were unappreciative of God; there, furious at their bitter fate, they blaspheme God, blaming Him for injustice and severity. Are these not new wickednesses of the wicked, calling for the judgment of strict truth? Are there not new acts of lawlessness that require retribution? Do not forget also that the sowers of wickedness continue to operate on earth after their death. Depraved people, enemies of pure faith and truth, by example of life, teaching, and writings, form societies of followers and act to the destruction of people, through separation from the earth. The apostles and prophets are still building the church of Christ; The saints of God, teachers of piety, remain to this day the fathers and educators of spiritual life. In exactly the same way, Aryans and Mohammeds, Luthers and Voltaires still act to the detriment of the Church of Christ, rushing like a plague over the earth and destroying human hearts. For all these cases, the private court did not pay tribute to the workers of truth and lawlessness. They are waiting for their verdict and the verdict of God’s truth will be announced at the world court. ABOUT! there will be a global court after a private court; It will also be for the justification of God’s destinies before the universe. Sad is the lot of those who love the Lord on earth. Everyone who wants to live well in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, said St. apostle (2 Tim. 3:12). And this is still being done today, one way or another, but it is being done. Shame on the world by both angel and man, as if the world were to be trampled upon by all, says the apostle on behalf of all those like him (1 Cor. 4:9, 13). Such a fate of the pious is all the more sad, all the more a matter of bewilderment for the pious themselves and a subject of malicious joy for evil souls, that bad people, people who do not respect anything sacred, are happy in earthly life, rich and cheerful, in honor and fame. Even David, a man after God’s heart, was at times embarrassed by the earthly lot of sinners and righteous people; and he said, “These wicked lucky ones are multiplying wealth; Is it not in vain that I cleanse my heart and wash my hands with innocence?” (Ps. 72:13). Let everyone receive reward for their deeds at a private court, and let the truth of God be justified before a pious soul in its earthly destiny. But the temptation aroused by the earthly lot of sinners and righteous people extends far; it concerns the whole world, both disembodied spirits and weak people. Isn’t there an urgent need for God’s destinies to be justified before the whole universe? The righteous were a spectacle to angels and men on earth, and were objects of scorn and ridicule to the wicked world. Is it not possible that before the same angels and people they did not appear in glory worthy of their exploits? The wicked world will finally have to admit, against its will, that the Supreme Master is as wise and kind to the pious as he is strict and truthful to the wicked. Not only in relation to people, but also in relation to the whole world, the solution to the mysteries of God lies in the salvation of the world by the Son of God. Here, in the Son of God - the Savior of the universe, the glory of God was revealed in wondrous greatness. But will the world recognize this wonderful glory of God? Does he recognize Jesus Christ as what He should be recognized as? The wicked world does not want to acknowledge Jesus as Lord; his tenacity has not yet been defeated. Although the power of the spirits of evil is constrained by the name of Jesus on earth; but their influence on people has not yet completely ceased. The Savior gave grace-filled powers to humanity against sin, and He took upon Himself the guilt of sin; but death, the fruit of sin, still reigns in the world. Does not all creation sigh for the freedom that man has deprived it of? Is it all supposed to stay like this forever? ABOUT! no, physical evil and moral evil, when thinking about the Creator of the world, show that the glory of God will ever be justified before the universe in their earthly existence. For the pious, this glory of God is visible on earth in the Son of God. It remains for the whole universe to recognize the glory of God in the Son of God, even against its will; It remains for all the enemies of Jesus to recognize in Jesus the incarnate love of God. And it will be. They will see the Son of Man coming among the clouds with power and much glory (Matthew 24:30). The entire universe, in turmoil, will feel His power. From earth to hell His judgment will stretch; from people to rejected spirits, everyone will listen to His sentence and carry it out with precision. Then the last enemy will also be abolished, death (1 Cor. 15:25–26). How can the faithful of Christ not expect the revelation of the glory of their Lord? As long as you partake of Christ's passion, rejoice, just as when His glory is revealed you will rejoice and be glad (1 Peter 4:13). So who can consider a future world court to be a dream of people? The scolders, walking according to their lusts, answers St. apostle (2 Peter 3:3). Insolent people, for whom nothing is sacred, who live according to the inclinations of a corrupted heart and respect only what flatters their unclean passions; These are the kind of people who can reject the world court. This means that no decent person, whose sense is not corrupted and whose heart is in place, cannot go against the judgment of God. This means that all those for whom truth is dear and piety is sacred have always been and will always be against the opinions of people - scolders. This is the apostolic judgment regarding the universal judgment. It was said aloud by the sages of paganism that only madness can disbelieve universal justice (1 Cor. 15:36, 52). It was announced to the members of the famous Areopagus that “God will appoint a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed” (Acts 17:31). True, others refused to listen to this sermon (Acts 17:32); but as much as the work of these people does not serve to their honor, so much the work of the apostle speaks of the universal importance of his preaching. And before the pagans, and before the Jews, and before the believers, and the unbelievers, and before the children, and before the mature in spiritual life, the sermon about the world judgment was repeated; The idea of ​​this judgment was placed by the apostles among even the initial truths of Christianity (Heb. 6:2). This means that this is a holy thought for everyone, just as the truth should be holy for everyone. In the humility of our hearts, we pray to Your long-suffering goodness, Lord, through the prayers of Your seer, grant us a spirit of contrition for our sins, so that we may appear at the judgment of Your righteousness without shame for our lives. Amen. Word at the funeral of General-in-Chief M.D. Dunina Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, to her, says the Spirit, may they rest from their labors Here is the coffin before us! And yet it’s so easy for the soul; because what comes to mind is not corruption, but life, not cold dust, but heavenly grace. With him I want not to cry, but to thank the Lord with a peaceful soul. Isn’t it true, listeners, that when there is another grave, the soul is afraid, it is dark, like in a grave? And at this grave, the life-giving light of heaven pours into the hearts. First of all, praise and thanksgiving to You, O Lord, by whom Your servants live, shedding Your joyful light on earth. We see Your light in the life of Your servant. Mothers of families! Here's a mother who has a lot to learn from. Here is a mother who was a mother not by name and not only by earthly ties. How many children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren she has! Do you think it’s easy to raise and place so many children? Is it easy to provide the education needed not only for the earth, but also for heaven? Six daughters and one son were left in her arms when her husband died. And all the daughters were raised and happily married off. 41 Twenty-four grandchildren and seventy-six great-grandchildren were born and raised in her home. ABOUT! how many worries, how many sorrows she had to experience! Not only that, but she was also a mother to both her sisters and her nieces; and the worries about them lay on her own soul, and she gave them away in marriage. Who gave her strength for so many works, for so many worries and sorrows? Believe me, only Christian piety. Without it, even maternal love turns out to be weak in the face of the power of earthly troubles and foolish in earthly happiness. Oh! what to expect from sin? It brings one disorder into homes, families, minds, and hearts. Boyarina Maria was the daughter of a pious father, that father whose honesty, love of truth, and deep piety are very well known for governing this region. Therefore, from her youth she was taught piety. Other mothers of families, or other fathers, receive from their parents rich estates, arranged in the best way, so that one would live to the grave without a sigh. Five, many ten years pass, and already the wealth has flowed away like water, scattered by the wind of vanity, disappeared in the fire of passions. Let them see in the example of this servant of God how piety is useful for everything, both for temporary and eternal life. Let them approach with respect the tomb of the one who, having been left a widow with her estate destroyed, knew how not through stinginess, over which she smiled good-naturedly, but through Christian moderation to preserve a rich inheritance for her children. Others complain that it is difficult to maintain a house befitting their rank. Didn’t the deceased servant of God bear a very prominent, very honorable title in the world? She is the wife of a full general, and the generals called her their mother. Why did she know how to live decently for her high rank and not be burdened by her position? Because she did not adhere to the rules of the frivolous world, but to the lessons of the Christian mind, because she did not allow the dreams of windy vanity to disturb her heart and commanded her will to adhere to the paths of God’s law. Out of maternal love, out of sociable love with her own people and strangers, she was ready to give everything so that they would be happy in her home, but first of all she was occupied with how, through vain vanity, she would not offend the duty assigned to her by Providence, so as not to pay for empty pleasures with annoying worries, late repentance, as happens with the careless. How much care, how much trouble others have to make their name honorable among people! But their name still remains unnoticed among people, and even if they notice it, it would be far better if no one knew it. Why is this? Let them learn from this servant of Christ. She effortlessly knew how to inspire self-respect, almost awe. And how could you not respect her? Even if we didn’t know that she shared with her husband the labors of the Ochakov War, the Polish War, and the Battle of Prague; Even if we knew that she was respected by such people as Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Potemkin, deep respect was aroused in everyone by her high personality, at the first acquaintance with her. Her nobility was Christian nobility; her rules of life were pure, lofty, unearthly rules; her mind was bright, clear, enlightened by the light of Christ. She had only one son left - a handsome, educated, kind young man, the most joyful hope of her widowhood, and she gave him to her homeland. On the Borodino field, he received an appointment to serve as the commander-in-chief of the armies. A flattering appointment! He was only 19 years old. What did he answer? “My regiment is going into battle, and I, the son of a wounded general, must be with the regiment; I am an adjutant - after the battle.” So he answered, and fell in battle. Isn't it true that not every mother could have such a son? And isn’t it true that it was hard, very hard for a mother to lose such an only son? The noblewoman Maria endured the loss of such a son with Christian complacency. Attentive to the meaning of her immortal soul, she was attentive to herself, attentive to others, both to the honorable people of the earth and to the poverty of the earth. With general respect for her name, with her high rank, did she insult the poor man approaching her with a look of contempt or even coldness? No, she hurried to console bitter poverty with affection and greetings, not forgetting that earthly greatness without spiritual kindness is an abundant emptiness. With means that were not always rich, when did she refuse those in need of help? Never. She always remembered the words of the Lord: when you give help to the poor, you give it to Me. The servants were not burdened by her, never encountering in her either demanding pride or heavy power. Always calm, always moderate in the movements of her soul, in her behavior with her subordinates she combined affection with feelings of dignity that belonged to her, and was an intelligent mother for them. People seem lofty while earthly greatness surrounds them, while fame and wealth are with them, while health and beauty shine on their faces, while intelligence and earthly connections open the door of every home to them. But how small is a person, how weak, how insignificant, when death deprives him of everything earthly, and he has acquired nothing heavenly! Christian soul! you firmly remembered that everything earthly is vanity, and eternal life requires only fruitful faith in the Lord Jesus. The lamp of your life glowed with pure love for God. And this is where your most lasting greatness lies! That is why we especially thank the Lord for you! Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, may they rest from their labors. Nowadays others allow themselves to neglect the statutes of St. churches. ABOUT! They will bitterly repent when the Lord, offended in the face of his church, turns away His merciful gaze from them at His judgment. Blessed is the noblewoman Maria in her ways! She lived like a sincere daughter of the mother of the church. As long as her legs walked, she did not refuse to visit the church of God, without fear of either cold or wet weather. She celebrated every Sunday and every holiday in the house of prayer and followed the church service with reverent attention. Through her generosity the church of God was built. Oh, how important is this monument erected by you, servant of Christ! This is a monument to your love for the Lord. Do worldly monuments benefit those in whose name they are erected? No, these are useless monuments to human vanity. And in the church you erected, a bloodless sacrifice will always, always be made for the peace of your soul, for the forgiveness of sins that are inevitable for anyone on earth. Sooner or later people will forget you, that's true. And the church? ABOUT! the holy church will never forget you for the creation of the church and for the love with which you reposed the servants of the church of God. Tribulation is inevitable on earth. And happy are those fortunate people of the world to whom the Lord sends special sorrows, so that they are not forgotten, so that they are cleansed from the dust of worldly vanity. The Lord showed His love in you, servant of Christ, by redeeming you with various sorrows. You have lived more than 80 years on earth, and of these you lived 16 years as an orphan after your mother and 48 as a widow. In your last years you had such sorrows as you did not expect. Blessed is your lot, especially because you were not inattentive to the lessons of the sorrows that visited you; Moreover, you hungered and thirsted for the truth of God, you gave thanks when they told you the meaning of heavenly lessons. The only holy and sinless one! There is no man who can live and not sin. Forgive the sins of Your servant, the noblewoman Mary, who wanted to do Your holy will. Rest her soul where You rest those who love You. Amen. Address at the memorial of Lieutenant General Voin Dmitrievich Zadonsky Good servant and faithful! come in Hero of faith and fatherland! Is it time for you to rest here? Is it time for you to sleep when your whole homeland is on guard and in alarm? Who, if not you, tested in battles and a man of advice, is needed now for the homeland? God! May Your wrath not last over our sins! His death, so little expected, is a loss for his homeland. What can I say to relieve the grief of so many who love him - his wife and children? You are omnipotent, You are eternal love! pour consolation into the hearts orphaned and stricken by his loss. Whose voice, if not Yours, is able to dispel the darkness of their heavy sorrow? Good servant and faithful! enter into the joy of your Lord! Here is the voice of inexplicable love. And was it not He who called our friend from us? ABOUT! Who else, if not our Lord, disposes of the days of our life? He sets a limit to the wandering of the earthly traveler, at the discretion of his boundless love; chooses the best time and type of death for our highest children. Good servant and faithful! enter into the joy of your Lord! This is what He says to His faithful servant. And how much labor he endured, how many deeds the servant of God the Warrior showed in the battle service! He studied military craft in the labor service. From the age of 7 in the ranks of soldiers, for 17 years as an ensign, he spent more than 10 years in battles with the wild mountaineers of the Caucasus. And what hard work! With a biscuit in his knapsack and not always a ruble in his pocket, he felt neither tired nor needy while trekking through the mountains. He appeared with ascetics there and on such paths where only eagles fly; in one year, five bloody battles with the savages of the mountains were included among his brilliant deeds. During Napoleon’s terrible war near the village of Borodino, he stood and acted in the center of a bloody battle and did not notice that he was severely shell-shocked in the chest; He ignored the fact that two horses were killed under him - until the end of the battle he fought with the enemies with courage and fearless bravery. He was the same under Tarutin and Maly Yaroslavets, under Vyazma and Krasnoye. From the borders of Russia to the walls of Paris, how many deaths are details above its head! Near Lutzen, Bauden, Dresden, Kulm, Leipzig, he flew on a war horse among enemy fires and broadswords. In the enemy's country, his courage and bravery grew. Near Troyes, with one squadron, he rushed into three squadrons, chopped, drowned, and drove the enemy until his remnants disappeared behind the walls of the city. The royal gaze distinguished our Warrior. Now he is the commander of more than one regiment. Under his supervision were divisions of warriors and a corps of military villagers. Our whole region knows well what he was like in this service. The brilliant awards of monarchs are before our eyes. At the grave of a Christian warrior, one cannot help but remember that without ranks and distinctions we will appear at the judgment of God. The nobleman and the farmer, the one crowned in battle and the unnoticed warrior will equally appear before the throne of the Eternal. Earthly differences will remain on earth. But what? Does this mean that earthly exploits and merits are useless for eternity? Does this mean that they waste time in vain, endure labor and hardship in vain, needlessly endanger their health and life in earthly service? ABOUT! No! exploits useful for the earthly homeland will not be forgotten there, in the heavenly homeland. Isn’t it God’s will that assigns a special title to everyone on earth? The title of a warrior, like the title of a farmer, is God’s charter. The warrior and the farmer will both stand before the judgment of God, but just as the farmer will not be required to account for the warrior’s deeds, so the warrior will receive everything that he has earned by being faithful to his rank. The Forerunner of Christ told the soldiers about their path of salvation, do not offend or slander anyone, and be satisfied with your dues (Luke 3:14). And our warrior not only thanked the Lord for himself, not only did he not offend himself during his 40-year military service, but he knew how to convince others not to offend anyone. Thanks be to Your goodness, O Lord! According to your gifts, our Voln was a warrior from a young age. By your power, he performed the service of a warrior honestly and sacredly for so many years. And happy share! With your help, he had the courage to bring his last strength to his natural calling, according to the voice of his homeland. What did he not do? He was an example of a Christian warrior. And he was also a model of a Christian citizen when circumstances inclined him to take the position of a citizen. Who, like him, was the most precise executor of all the requirements of civil order? Should we say that not a single neighbor, not the most powerless and poor, endured cramped conditions from his great wealth? ABOUT! he was noble in the best, Christian, meaning of this word. Children of a rare father! You haven’t lived long in the world yet. You will live 40 and 50 years, but even then you will hardly find many children who would have such a gentle and intelligent father as your father! He lived for a long time, but not for himself, but for you! How he loved you! Children! Love does not die, love beyond the grave becomes stronger and purer, its vision is more far-sighted than the gaze of the earth. Be sure that your good life is the first guarantee of peace after death for your gentle father. How caring was he about his assistants? Samuel, parting with the title of ruler of the people, said to the people, behold, answer me before the Lord for the food of whom I forced from you, or who oppressed them? As Samuel, thousands of henchmen will say before the Lord from the fullness of their souls, and to this master, you have not offended us, you have oppressed us below (1 Sam. 12:4). Yes, the welfare of his peasants is before the eyes of everyone. He cared about their good life, their peace and contentment, like a smart father. My friends! and the poor and the wealthy among you knows from experience the intelligent love of the deceased for you. Be grateful and pray for your smart father, sir, who took care of your peace for so many years. Your gratitude towards him will bring blessings to your future as well. The Holy Church especially prays to the Lord for the salvation of the creators and benefactors of churches. My Father has many mansions, said the Savior (John 14:2). And there is no doubt that one of these battles is assigned to the creators of the churches, for whom the church prays so earnestly. How can one not assign rest to one who created and decorated more than one village for the glory of the Lord? God is faithful in his word. He said: I will glorify those who glorify me, and he will fulfill his word; will also fulfill because the church is the best school of piety and, therefore, the best benefit for our neighbors. This is not done arbitrarily, but according to the instructions of St. Church, according to the word of the Lord Himself, we believe with the fullness of our souls that the Lord will say to this servant of Christ, the zealous creator of churches: good faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. You did not squander the wealth given to you on a forgetfully cheerful life, you used it for the glory of God. Enter into the joy of your Lord. God! Your goodness is limitless. And which of the people is not sinful before You? Your faithful warrior and servant is not without sins. We pray to Your boundless mercy, forgive his sins; do not remember them at Your judgment. May his soul rest in the villages of Your righteous. Amen. Homily at the funeral of Countess Lydia Sievers Who expected what we see? Fresh youth, youth fragrant with good deeds - in the grave. Who will live after that? Lord of life and holiness! You want us to live on earth for Your holiness. How is it that this flower, which delighted everyone with pleasant hopes, withered so unexpectedly? How is it that the marriage, which reflected the heavenly mystery with its holy properties and actions, was broken so quickly, and the fledgling chicks were left without a tender mother? The husband is young and tender! let us fall in reverent submission before the will of the Eternal Lord. We do not see, we do not know how death, so unexpected, can be useful and necessary for the eternal salvation of those who remain; but we cannot doubt that the Heavenly Father directs everything for the good of his children. He is the Father and loves us in a way that our earthly parents do not love us. He loves your orphaned chicks and will protect them. He is a wise and far-sighted Father, where for us there is only darkness and grief, He pours light and life. Where can light and life be if not with Him? For us, at times it is dark here; earthly life, even when it is not a life of sin, is full of doubts and sorrow. From one point, rays of heavenly light, from a Christian church, pour onto the dark earth, and even then the light is not complete. To illuminate the full light, and the life of people, and the life of nations, and the life of worlds - there, before the throne of the Eternal. Let the aching heart be silent, let the mind ready for rebellion be silent before the will of the Lord. It’s hard for the soul under the weight of unexpected sorrows; but for the Christian soul, sorrow is healing, suffering is the seal of the Lord’s love. Let all the unclean things in our souls burn out in the fire of suffering! The soul will become closer to the Lord. Brothers and sisters! The coffin, without my words, tells me what to fear. A long life is not a sign of God’s special love for everyone. For others, it is the last alms to a beggar. And how terrible it is if the unfortunate person madly squanders the last mite given to him. Thanks be to Thy goodness, Heavenly Father, if the few years of life, with the help of Thy grace, are spent in purity and attention to oneself, in deeds of mercy and meek love. ABOUT! How precious one day will be for us there, spent in accordance with the life-giving commandments of the Lord. Smart virgins are even happier. They are always ready to meet their groom. Their lamps burn with a contented supply of oil. It is not unexpected for them whether their Lord will come at midnight or in the evening, in the middle of a working day, or in the early morning. So I wanted to complain that the Lord is taking you from us so quickly, beloved child of the Lord! But for you, early death is not a loss. The time has come for you to accept reward for your tender love for your neighbors, for your cares and labors for poverty, for your love for the Lord. Blessed be God in you and in you. We don’t see you anymore, beloved child! Something else lies before our eyes; but it is no longer you, but only your hut, sadly collapsing. May God, the source of all life, give this church received in due time a new, full, completely blooming, never-ending and blissful life. This is how we should pray, brothers and sisters, and not grieve following the example of those who have no hope. The time will come when both youth and old age “will hear in their graves the voice of the Son of God, and having heard them they will live.” This is as true as it is true that a seed thrown into the ground does not disappear, but is resurrected to new life. Yes, the dead will come to life, but why don’t they come to life now! Why don't the living stay alive forever? There are many people here who know nature. They know better from experience than I do that in most serious illnesses sleep is one of the first conditions for the return of strength. Even not doctors, but fishermen, said about Lazarus, if he succeeds, he will be saved (John 11:12). The healing power of sleep has been known for so long. Such healing is needed for our bodily organism, in a different form. Sin has caused a great disorder in our nature. With all grace-filled means, a deep and prolonged sleep is necessary, so that during the continuation of this sleep the forces upset by sin can return to their original order, can calm down and begin the original life. Flesh and blood are not heirs of the kingdom of God - and corruption does not inherit incorruption. All creation sighs, awaiting the freedom of the children of God, since it must return to its freedom when the one who subjugated it to vanity regains his freedom. The sad thought is still restless and still says, “if the life of a bodily organism is so precious, why are some kidnapped so early, like the deceased one was kidnapped? There are so many joys in sight that she did not taste!” But what kind of regret is this about earthly joys that we have tasted dissatisfiedly? ABOUT! thanksgiving to Your goodness, Lord, that You did not allow the deceased to become related to earthly happiness, from which they cry so involuntarily and for which they should cry even more. How long will it take for us weaklings to be seduced and carried away by flattery? Where is our joy? In God. Where are our hopes? In the right and mercy of God, combined in our Savior. Rather, rather, to the Heavenly Father. Here we wander far from Him. Here sin feeds us with sorrows and prepares us for even more sorrows beyond the grave. Why do they value earthly joys so much? Because hearts are partial to many things instead of loving one thing; because the vision of the mind is spoiled by the false shine of earthly goods. Dreams of worldly vanity, dreams of foolish desires close the Lord of our hearts from us; Crowds of seductive ghosts of life, crowding into the mind, prevent us from clearly seeing the purpose of our life. A heart carried away by addictions also sins in times of sorrow, just as it sinned in joys. Who are we like, not thinking about why we live on earth? Like swimmers carried away by the rush of stormy waves, like a foolish wanderer who goes, not knowing where he is going, and not following the road, every minute he is close to the misfortune of falling into an impenetrable abyss. Let's stop and look around. Let us hasten to take the book, which so truly, so clearly, so completely shows the purpose of our life and the dangers of the errors of our hearts. We are sick; the book of life heals us. God! even if she did not rest without the wounds of sin, You are the only sinless one. Forgive her sins. Through the blood of the Lamb, slain for the sins of the whole world, we pray that her spirit may rest. Loving husband! pray for your beloved deceased, but do not burden yourself with grief. Prayer will mean a lot to the deceased; she will also help you in your sorrow. Glory to our God. Amen. Word at the burial of Count Nikolai Vasilyevich Orlov-Denisov So the man of strength and strength was struck down by death! How long has this life, fresh and strong, like a rarity, promised for many years? The son of a great father promised his fatherland the exploits of a hero - his father, the military order that early adorned his chest, said that this son could remind the enemies of the great father. Providence placed him in a special circle of life, and this circle shone with pleasant rays, also familiar in the example of his father. Who doesn’t know how kind the deceased was to everyone? His hospitality amazed hospitable Moscow. Given the celebrity of his name, he was affectionate and accessible to everyone; he only wanted to console others, but not to insult anyone. Not everyone repaid him in kind, but he did not remember any evil. Simplicity, echoing the simplicity of the best times of mankind, was the soul of his feelings and deeds. God! You love simple hearts and his heart is known to You. Cover his simple heart with love, forgive his sins, which are inevitable for any of us. Brethren! what is our life on earth? The journey, the journey is short, although it lasted for many years. Here, at this tomb, this thought appears to us with all its vividness. And how little they remember about her! How little do they use beneficial thoughts! “I am a stranger to you and a stranger, just as you are my fathers,” says David (Ps. 39:13). And he prays, I am a stranger with you, do not hide your commandments from me (Ps. 119:19). The king of a glorious kingdom, a king confirmed in the kingdom by a special blessing from heaven, considers himself nothing more than a traveler of the earth, the same traveler as his father Jesse, a man of a simple, modest rank. How can there not be, after that, the literal truth that both I and you, my listener, are nothing more than strangers and travelers of the earth? If we are forgetful regarding the meaning of earthly life; if others live on earth as if they should never part with it; The meaning of temporary life does not change. Doesn’t a person who goes overseas to make a fortune and then return to his homeland consider himself a wanderer and traveler? What is the difference between him and us? “We do not have a permanent city here, but we are looking for a future,” one of the best people tells us, by whose mind we should live (Heb. 13:14). The ages of our life are also like the countries along which the wanderer’s path lies. Each country has its own characteristics; also at our ages; and the general character is transitivity. The age of childhood is a pleasant country. There the air is clean and the sky is clear; there are innocent morals, simple methods, a language of good-natured frankness, days and nights without worries; they do not know about passions that would darken or defile the heart. But how quickly the happy age passes! it is known only from memory, or, more precisely, from the observation of others. Youth appears, this is a hot zone of life, a fiery country. The earth is strewn with flowers, but what kind of flowers are they? They are infected with poison, and there are thorns and snakes hidden underneath them. How many young men rush to carelessly pluck the flowers of their lives; and they pierce them with thorns so much that the wounds do not heal until the grave! Didn't David weep over the follies of his youth to the grave? (Ps.24:7). Did Job attribute his misfortunes to the mistakes of his youth? ( Job 13:26 ). Youth is playful; she rushes along the path without looking back. But what happens? The years have flown by and we are met with poverty in everything. Courage is the age of mature strength, but also of the most dangerous passions. Here vices are covered up by the appearance of virtues, greed is given the name of frugality; ambition and vanity are considered to be an understanding of one’s dignity; here the instructions of self-love imperceptibly deceive the mind, and the mind deceives the person. Our traveler assures himself and others that he is busy day and night with important work, but he is chasing moths. Meanwhile, the sun, in its rapid flow, has carried away the months and years, and the traveler suddenly, without noticing it, enters the last age of life, the age of old age. Old age is sad. The mind is dulled, the memory fails, the imagination is cold, all strength has weakened. There is only one thing left to think about that we haven’t thought about: the grave. That's the longest life! What is it if not a journey and a very short one? Why is this reflection needed? Is it not that they will be tied up in order to leave everything and think only about the coffin - the subject of the pilgrimage? No, brothers, no. Intelligent teaching, the teaching of the Gospel enlivens everything and drives away only death - our foolishness and passions. St. ap. Paul condemns those who disdain any earthly goods, because, he says, every creation of God is good and nothing taken aside is acceptable with thanksgiving (1 Tim. 4:4). He teaches to use goods, but as if they were not used: yes, he who rejoices, as if he will not rejoice, and those who buy, as if he does not contain, why? – for the image of this world passes away (1 Cor. 7:29–31). You see what a consequence he draws from the thought of our pilgrim life on earth! On a foreign side, it doesn’t take long for a traveler to lose his way and mistakenly mistake the path to his own country for his own path. It is just as easy for a traveler of earthly life to make a mistake. David prayed, “I am a stranger and an exile, do not hide Your commandments from me.” Who knows, as the Lord knows, the purpose of our life and the path leading to the destination? The will of God for us, depicted in St. Scripture, shows us the way to our goal, warns us against various dangers, talks about the benefits of the path. We need to cherish St. scripture. Just we must not forget that our evil, corrupt heart can explain Scripture to us according to its sinful appearances, and therefore we must pray that the heavenly light will drive away the deceptions of sin from the soul and show the will of God in its exact form. The wanderer has nothing with him except what is necessary for the journey. This is how a Christian should live. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these (1 Tim. 4:8). Why worry? God will provide everything you need. Do not anticipate time, do not speed up its flow with restless desires, it already flows quickly and carries us along with it. Why bother about unnecessary things? Is it not in order to entangle the soul in troubles and sorrows, to feed in it reckless and harmful desires? The word of the apostle is true: those who want to get rich fall into misfortunes and snares, and many senseless and harmful lusts, which plunge a person into destruction and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9). What will the rich man's passion for wealth, the ambitious man's passion for honor, and the luxurious man's passion for luxury serve for what purpose? To a terrible condemnation. How much anxiety! and for what? Blind people are blind! We don’t see, we forget that when we move to our native country, we leave behind everything we possessed here. Our houses, our fields, our income are the travel belongings of a traveler who does not need them at home. But we have brought nothing into this world, for we have brought forth what we can (1 Timothy 6:7). One must be amazed that people can be upset not because of something that can make them unhappy in another way. You were offended, your name was denigrated, your property or health was deprived. Does this mean anything? All this will end soon. What are human words? A weak wind that momentarily touches a traveler, or the cry of an animal that frightens the wanderer with an accident. Let's assume that people are clearly angry against you. Well? What should you expect in a country that is foreign to you? If we were quicker from the world, the world would love its own, said the Lord (John 15:19). The traveler constantly thinks about the goal of his journey, constantly moves forward to reach his dear homeland. If troubles occur that serve to increase his future well-being, does he consider them troubles? But doesn’t St. also inspire? scripture for all believers? What does it mean, it says, temporary sorrows in comparison with the eternal joy that awaits the sufferers? And believers are concerned only with how to be worthy sons of their eternal homeland, how to prepare for the life of the deceased beyond the grave. We sigh for this; we desire to be clothed in our heavenly dwelling, they say with St. the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 5:2). If they are given earthly surpluses, they, seeing that they will soon lose everything, rush to exchange earthly goods for others that are durable and invaluable on earth, generously distribute what they have to those in need and turn perishable property into incorruptible property, into the glory of God. The deceased take ours! your wandering is over. We were waiting for it to last. But the main thing is not how long or short they wander, but how they wander. Thank the Lord, there was much good in your soul; the sufferings of recent years have cleansed your soul. God! repeating the confession that each of us is not without sin, we repeat the prayer, rest the soul of your departed servant in the land of eternal peace, forgive his sins, the only sinless one! Grant to all of us to unforgettably go to the end of our lives. Amen. Memorable tales about the asceticism of the holy fathers, p. 121. M. 1846. Chrysostom, Discourse 57 on the Gospel of Matthew. Works of Basil the Great 4, 5. Rule 56, VI Ecumenical Council. Discourse 2 about Lazarus, 3 conversation to the people of Antioch. Discourse 53 on the Gospel of Matthew. Life of St. Anthony Or. Vol. I. R. P. r. 845. Chetyi Menae, January, day 17. About untrue. in eastern creativity holy from. XV, pp. 115–116. About those who died there pp. 269–270. Message to the Bed Blanket Bibl. Pat. t. 26 rub. 581. Conversations about the dual state of those who have departed from this life. Christian Reading, 1828, part 31, page 113. A word about those who have fallen asleep in Christ. Works of the Fathers, XV, pp. 269–270. Conversation XIII, paragraph 6. vol. I, 252. Discourses to the People of Antioch, p. 63. De Anima at eius origine II, 4 n. 8. Hom. 3.in. ep. Philip, n. 4. In Damascus's homily about the departed, Or. T.I.r. 592. In Damascene Or. T.I.r. 584. There r. 582. Christian reading, 1827, part 26, page 309. Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles, conversation 22. p. 3. Teachings of the Seers, 5, p. 463. Enchirid. ad Laurent c. 100, 109–110. De Civit. Dei XXI, 24. n. 2. Will T.II, p. 239. Acta Martyr sincera ed. Ruin. 1802 p. 210–211. Augustin de Orig. au. lib. 3. c. 9. Children of Marya Dmitrievna, 1) Elena Ivanovna - the wife of the actual Privy Councilor Count Sivers; 2) Sofya Ivanovna, widow of Colonel Bakhmetyev; 3) Ekaterina Ivanovna, who was married to the actual Privy Councilor Kuris, who served under Suvorov; 4) Vasily Ivanovich, who fell at Borodino; 5) Evdokia Ivanovna - the widow of the actual Privy Councilor Cherepanov; 6) Varvara Ivanovna - wife of Lieutenant General Baron Pillar-von Pilhau; 7) Marya Ivanovna - the widow of Lieutenant General Grevs.