‘Words about Repentance, Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and the correction of life.’ - St. Theophan the Recluse

 

#VladimirDjambov; #Orthodox; #Talmach; #PraBlah

T A L M A C H

so much and simple

 

 

Translation from Russian
Vladimir Djambov ©

  

St. Theophan the Recluse

Collection of sermons
Words about Repentance,
Communion of the
Holy Mysteries of Christ and
the Correction of Life

 

 

Collection of sermons ‘Words about repentance, communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and the correction of life.’
Words for the Holy Forty Days and
weeks of preparation for it

 

Part 1. In the week of the publican and the PhariseeIn the week of the publican and the Pharisee (do not rely on your righteousness)In the week of the publican and the Pharisee (complacency and self-justification is the most pernicious charm)In the week of the publican and the Pharisee (persuasion to persuade the soul to be ashamed and disgusted with sin and its sinful state)Part 2. In the week of the prodigal sonIn the week of the prodigal son (the Church wants to elevate us to an inspired determination, leaving sin, to walk the right path to the Heavenly Father)In the week of the prodigal son (which means to wake up from the sleep of sin)In the week of the prodigal son (about the attempts and tricks of the enemy, seeking to devour every zealot of goodness and purity)Part 3. Meat-fare weekIn the week of meat-fare (let us draw in our mind a picture of the Terrible Judgment and we will wear it incessantly)In the meat-fare week (the secret of preparing an acquittal at the Last Judgment)In the week of meat-fare (about the Second and terrible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - abbreviated from the words of our holy father Ephraim the Syrian on the Second Coming)Part 4. Cheesefare weekOn a cheese week (on the matter of remembering where we fell from)In the week of cheese-fare (in Lent for the last time we were given time for repentance)In the cheese-fare week (fasting seems gloomy until they enter its field)Part 5. On Wednesday of the week of the first Great LentOn Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (the main thing for us is the cleansing of conscience)On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (on the knowledge of sins and self-knowledge)On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (the spiritual father is the face of all mankind; do not be ashamed to expose yourself at confession)On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (sorrow for sins and a decisive change for the better is the heart of fasting)Part 6. On the heels of the week of Great LentOn the heel of the week of Great Lent (contrition for sins is not a simple feeling: the limit of heartfelt contrition for sins is a firm intention not to offend God with your sins anymore)On the heels of the week of Great Lent (wait for the Lord in reverent silence: get ready to meet him, receive him and rest in yourself in a worthy way)On the heels of the week of Great Lent (how should we settle down and act in order to worthily proceed to the Holy Mysteries)Part 7. On Saturday of the week of the first Great LentOn Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (in the honoring of Holy Communion is not the end, but the beginning of labors and deeds)On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (about the spiritual pleasure of prayerful stay with the Lord)On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (the real change and correction of life is the goal of the whole dispensation of our salvation)On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (no matter how many of you there are, everyone has the whole Lord)On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (the more often one takes communion, the closer one is to the Lord)Part 8. On the first week of Great LentOn the first week of Great Lent (which should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, who has received the Lord in them; and in whom there is no Lord)On the first week of Great Lent (how to behave in order to avoid new falls into sins)On the first week of Great Lent (if you fall again, who knows if you will get up?)Part 9. On the second week of Great LentOn the second week of Great Lent (what parts of nature we have, what attacks on them and what weapons of our spiritual warfare against them)On the second week of Great Lent (the most important tricks to ensure your success in the struggle)On the second week of Great Lent (how does it happen that when we destroy ourselves, we do not destroy, but save)On the second week of Great Lent (fighters of passions, do not weaken and do not heed their flattering speeches)On the second week of Great Lent (what is the crucifixion of the world to us and us to the world)Part 10In the week of the cross (or die, or be on the cross of self-crucifixion)In the week of the cross (about three types of crosses: about external crosses)In the week of the cross (about three types of crosses: about internal crosses)In the Week of the Cross (about three types of crosses: about the cross of devotion to the will of God)In the week of the cross (you went up to the cross, letting you resist sin)Part 11. On the Fourth Week of Great LentOn the fourth week of Great Lent (depiction of the life of St. John of the Ladder; how to become a complete imitator of St. John)On the fourth week of Great Lent (the main content of the "Ladder" and a brief outline of our entire path to the Lord, under the guise of climbing the ladder)On the Fourth Week of Great LentOn the fourth week of Great Lent (an excellent alphabet for everyone, or about three rows of feats)Part 12. On the fifth week of Great LentOn the fifth week of Great Lent (here is the lesson for us: do not appropriate the Kingdom of Heaven for ourselves)On the fifth week of Great Lent (how can we learn from the conversion of St. Mary of Egypt, or about the veils of sin)On the fifth week of Great Lent (about the three classes of sinners, or what is the key to the door of repentance?)On the fifth week of Great Lent (two powerful ways through which Saint Mary of Egypt withstood the struggle and overcame sin)Part 13. In the Passion Week of Great LentOn Tuesday of Passion WeekOn Wednesday of Passion Week (how to avoid the fate of Judas bitter)On the Great Thursday (The Lord is in us! Let us take care to keep him in ourselves forever)On Great Thursday (The Body and Blood of the Lord is a great gift)Great Thursday (as you wish, but make sure that you are always as if you just received communion)

Part 1. In the week of the publican and the Pharisee

In the week of the publican and the Pharisee
(do not rely on your righteousness)

Here comes the preparatory week for Lent again! Thanks be to the Lord, who has made it possible for us to live up to this soul-saving time! Let us pray that He will help us and use it, according to His good intentions for us. In this respect, however, I do not find it necessary to tell you much. This is not the first time you meet this time; more than once heard an explanation of the meaning of these days and an indication of what should be taken from them as a lesson; more than once, it’s true, and by the very fact they experienced how they are spent on building themselves up and how they are spent on ruin. And yet, what is the need for lengthy instructions? It is enough to say: “Brothers and fathers, do as you already know, as your conscience inspires you and your experience teaches, only so that everything turns into your creation and the salvation of your souls.”

With all that, I do not want, however, to leave you without some, although general, reminders as a guide to the salutary passing of the time that has come.

There are patients who go to the waters for treatment. How from a distance they begin to think about the upcoming journey and how carefully they prepare everything so that they can quickly and conveniently reach the healing waters and how fruitfully they can use the appointed time of treatment! Here we are approaching our own course of salvific healing of our souls - holy fasting. And here we will bathe in the tearful waters of repentance, and take inside the multi-healing medicine - the Body and Blood of our Lord. It is necessary for us to prepare for it, and moreover, as much as the soul is higher than the body, our concern for this should be stronger and more effective than those of those.

For the first time, there is no need to burden yourself with many things. Let us only take care to enter into the intentions of our mother, the Church, and reproduce in ourselves the preparatory dispositions indicated by her. In fasting, we will work on cleansing our conscience and correcting our lives. And just as the success of these labors depends on the softening of the heart through contrition, so the Holy Church predisposes us to this feeling and in various ways wants to arouse and strengthen it in us. Now, by the parable of the publican and the Pharisee ( Lk. 18:10–14 ), she inspires us that the surest way to contrition is to destroy the Pharisaic conceit in oneself and root the repentant cry of the publican in the heart: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” ( Lk. 18, 13 ). Next Sunday the parable of the prodigal son (OK. 15:11-32 ) she teaches that no matter how deep someone's fall, but if he turns to the Lord with a contrite and humble heart, crying: “I am not worthy to be called Your son; accept me among Your hired servants ” ( Lk.15, 19 ), will be accepted into the arms of the Heavenly Father, the most merciful. If whose soul turned out to be too petrified and insensible, the Holy Church , further, wants to crush it, painting the Last Judgment. If someone has become so accustomed to his humiliating condition in sin that he would consider it his natural position, and not imagining a better one, - Holy Churchfor such a man he remembers the fall of his forefathers, in order to irritate in his heart sorrow for the lost and arouse jealousy for its return, leading to the thought of how great it was and how it is therefore worth pitying for it and working in every possible way to again become its owner.

Vladimir Djambov books + Welcomer

These are the intentions of the Holy Church of God! Enter them and walk according to the instructions of your guardian mother!

For this day and for the whole of the next week, let us take a lesson from the publican and the Pharisee and study it. It is short: do not rely on your righteousness, but with all the wealth of good deeds, put all the hope of salvation in the grace of God, crying out from the depths of your soul: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

Looking at the rooted Pharisee, do not think that the deeds of truth, piety, charity and strict temperance mean nothing in the eyes of God. Not! The Lord reproached the Pharisee not for his deeds, but for the fact that he began to boast about them, that he based all his hope on them alone, forgetting about sins, from which, of course, he was not free. Equally, looking at the publican, do not think that sins are unimportant before God. Not! The Lord praises the publican not because he put himself in such a state with his sins that he was not worthy to look at heaven, but because, having brought himself to this by his evil will, he regretted and lamented that, in one mercy God's tea to find deliverance for himself, - he praises for this turn from sin to the Lord, for the spirit of humility and heartache, in which he cried out: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"

Taking now the truth from both persons, we will receive the following lesson: “Work hard and work for the Lord diligently, in all the breadth of His commandments, but put the hope of salvation – all – in the one mercy of God. You will never reach the point of always and in everything being serviceable in the eyes of God, therefore, with all your seeming serviceability, do not stop crying out from your heart: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

Here is the lesson - print it in your heart! As a guide, do this: run in your thoughts briefly over your life and see if there are sins in it; sins in word, deed and thought? Oh, of course, there are a lot of them! But if so, then how can everyone not cry out: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

Then collect all your good deeds or those that your boasting considers good, and see if there are many of them? How much we could and how much we had to do in three hundred and sixty-five days of the year; what did they do? And is it possible to expose this smallness, trumpeting: “I am not like the others” ( Lk. 18:11 ), especially when iniquities stand against it, but there are no number of them! For out of the twenty-four hours of each of the three hundred and sixty-five days, how many are there who would not be marked by something sinful?! And having realized this, how not to cry: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

Moreover, is even this little thing pure? Does each of these few works reflect the glory of God? Working on them, have we not pleased ourselves and people more than God? And if so, how can one give them any price and, looking at them, rise in self-delusion, saying in oneself: “Not like the others” ? Not! Point only at your deeds the undeceptive mirror of justice, inscribed in the word of God - it is hard to believe that conscience does not make each of you cry out: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"

It may turn out that among you there are no such who in arrogance would boldly say aloud: “Not like the others” ; but I think there is a rare one who would not fall into self-conceit and self-feeling, when thoughts pass through the heart without words, giving considerable significance to our labors and our activity in the midst of others. Wrong and this feeling of complacency! We must feel, and feel deeply, that we are absolutely worthless and cannot rely on anything of our own. We have only one support - the grace of God; and these internal self-praise must be driven away. One holy ascetic, whenever his thought said to him: “This and that is good with you,” suspecting the flattery of the enemy in this, answered: “Damn you with this your “good.” So did the holy father; all the more so should we, sinners, do so.

In moral affairs, there is no more evil thought than the thought of self-conceit. It directly attacks the feeling of crushing and cools it down. Just as fire cannot coexist with water, so contrition does not coexist with a sense of righteousness. Just as paralysis affects the organs of movement, so well-being cuts off any exertion of forces for good. As evil dew destroys beautiful flowers, so deceitful self-satisfaction destroys everything good in us. Choose, brethren, what is good and reject what is evil!

In church songs, a self-satisfied Pharisee is compared to one sailing on the sea on a ship, and a self-abased tax collector is compared to one sailing on a thin boat. “But that one,” he says, “was drowned by a storm of self-exaltation with a blow against a stone of pride, and this deep silence of self-abasement and the quiet breath of the sighs of the repentant brought safely to the haven of Divine justification.” In the same songs, the Pharisee is also compared to one riding in a chariot, and the publican to one walking on foot. “But the latter,” he says, “harnessing humility to contrition, forestalled the former, who barred his way with stones of self-praise.”

Hearing such suggestions, brethren, contrive “so mother-in-law, that you may comprehend” ( 1 Corinthians 9:24 ). May you have a sea - tears, a boat - self-abasement, winds - sighs, and a publican's voice - all orders for navigation. And you will undoubtedly reach the haven of God's mercy and soon step onto the shore of justification, where you will taste the sweet peace of conscience in God's all-forgiveness.

May the generous goodness of God grant this great blessing to all of us! Amen.

February 12, 1861

In the week of the publican and the Pharisee (complacency and self-justification is the most pernicious charm)

From this day, the Lenten Triodion begins. See, fasting begins to winnow! It is necessary to prepare for meeting him, and not only for him, but even more so for what fasting is established for - to repentance and correcting a faulty life. And now you hear a touching song: “Open the doors of repentance to me, Giver of Life!”

Open the doors of repentance! Who shut them up?! They are open with the cross: they stand and will remain open for all people as long as the world stands, and for each of us as long as there is the breath of life in our nostrils.

So, the doors of God's mercy are open - and who will close them? But the entrance to these doors is through other doors - the doors of heart disease and contrition. One must first go through these, in order to enter those later. Be ill and lament, and the Lord will accept you!

Lament - but the heart does not lament; get sick - but it does not want to get sick. And now, a man locked in himself with a petrified heart and, not having the strength to control himself, cries out to the merciful God: “Open the doors of repentance, Giver of Life!” Your door is always open, Lord, but mine is locked, and there is no way out for me! Open the door of my hardened heart to me with contrition, so that I can go out to You and enter the doors of Your mercy!

The Lord hears the cry of a man in need and makes him know how to act on himself so that the door of his heart is opened. Yesterday we sang: “Open the doors of repentance for me,” now, in response to this, we hear from the Lord the parable of the publican and the Pharisee ( Luke 18:10-14 ). Next Sunday, in response to the same song, we will hear the parable of the prodigal son ( Luke 15:11-32). Further, for the same purpose, we will be reminded of the picture of the Last Judgment and the fall of our primordial forefathers. The Lord says, as it were, to us: “Act according to the indication of the truths proclaimed to you by these gospel tales, and, perhaps, you will reach the point that the doors of your heart will finally open with contrition.” He expects that just as a heavy hammer, striking a stone, breaks it and reduces it, so these truths, one more amazing than the other, will finally crush the petrification of our heart, extract from it cries of repentance and squeeze out tears of compunction.

Let us enter, brothers, into the intentions of God and follow the saving instructions of the Lord the Merciful.

The Lord changes the heart, but we ourselves need to move and force ourselves and, at least, not hinder the omnipotence of the saving grace of God in us.

The current parable of the publican and the Pharisee points out the main obstacle in us to the contrition of the heart in the feeling of our righteousness and teaches us, having driven away this feeling, to establish ourselves in the disposition of the spirit of the publican, so that with his word we cry out: “God, be merciful to us sinners!” ( Luke 18:13 ). The Lord exposes two people and says, as it were, to us: “Look, two came to Me: one boldly approached, confident in his righteousness, in his merits before Me, and received no justification, and the other could not look at Me, but only beat himself in the chest and asked for mercy, and I had mercy on him. Go and do the same. Throw off this pernicious garment of self-justification, put on the sackcloth of self-reproach, and you will receive mercy.”

Self-satisfaction and self-justification is the most pernicious charm in which the enemy manages to detain very many and not entirely thin people. The charm of this leg undermines and stops the procession. Whoever feels he is righteous, what need does he have to worry much and seek mercy? The goal has been achieved - a righteous person, why work? It remains only to look around, exalt yourself, and humiliate others. In reality, however, this means destroying by thought what has been achieved by labor and destroying oneself. That is why the lessons of humility and self-abasement are incessantly repeated in the fatherly instructions, and reproaches to conceit and self-exaltation are put forward with particular tension!

Who wants to disperse this fog of delusion, let's go learn this from the Pharisee. The Pharisee, it seems, did not consider it necessary to hide: he frankly expressed what was in his soul, and thereby exposed the network of the enemy, with which he entangled his poor soul and kept it in self-delusion. “Not like the others” ( Luke 18:11 ). First charm! The Pharisee was not of bad conduct. He looked at the obvious sinners and, naturally, considered himself better than them. But why did he have to look at the malfunctioning living? Would look at the living well. Of course, I would have seen a lot of those who are much higher than him in life, and I would not have said these pernicious words: “Need, like others” ( Lk. 18:11 ).

Here is science for us, brethren. The enemy always has the same trick - now as then. And now, as then, he inspires: “Look - look, and that one is such and such, and that one is such and such, but you are a completely different matter!” A poor person listens to this flattering speech and really begins to think that he is good, and there he becomes misled by self-conceit and loses the grace of God. But why should you look at the living negligently? Look at the strict zealots of virtue and piety - and you will be enlightened by the knowledge of your shortcomings. Or, rather, do not look at anyone who lives here, for who is pure? Bypass everyone and keep in your thoughts only those models that the word of God obliges you to imitate. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” ( 1 Corinthians 11:1 ), says the Apostle.“For I have given you an example, so that you also do what I did to you” ( John 13:15 ), or “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” ( Matthew 5:48 ), says the Lord. That's who you look at and with whom you compare your life! With the virtues of the holy Apostles, with the deeds of the Lord Savior, with the perfections of the Heavenly Father. Inserting oneself into this rank, who dares to think: “Not like the others” ? Wouldn’t it be sooner, covered with shame and downcast eyes, to let out a cry from the heart: “God, be merciful!”? Here the same thing will happen that happens when someone enters a society of a higher tone, not knowing its methods, or appears in a brilliant assembly not in the accepted clothes. Thus, comparing oneself with the highest and most perfect is the strongest and most effective remedy against conceit.

Further, the Pharisee says: “I fast twice a week , I distribute a tenth of my income to the poor and to the Church ” ( Lk. 18, 12). Here is the second charm! Look only at right deeds, hiding your sins from yourself, and in right deeds, look only at their external side, not paying attention to the inner feelings and dispositions with which they are committed. This is what the Pharisee did and was darkened by self-conceit. He did not make a correct inspection of his affairs and did not follow the right path in this matter. “I,” he says, “have done this and that good.” But how many cases were there in which he did not do the good that he could and should have done, and how many were those in which he did evil instead of good - he is silent about this, trying to hide it both from himself and from God. “Stop, Pharisee,” I would say to him, “remember all your evil, and then, putting your goodness on one side, and on the other all the mass of your evil deeds, see what happens? And you can guess in advance that; if you did so“I am not like other people” ( Luke 18:11 ). If you then conscientiously discussed what motives you did that small good about which you speak, that is, whether it was out of vanity, not out of human pleasing, whether not in order to gain weight and not lose the benefits of your position, is it because that the circumstances were so, but the heart did not lie to them - in general, did you have pleasing God and His glory in your thoughts or yourself and your interests? If you discussed your little good from this side, you would have nothing left but a fearful cry: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” The Pharisee did not do this and fell into the net of boasting and for self-justification is covered with God's condemnation.

So, if you want, brethren, to avoid dangerous self-deception, learn this from the Pharisee by the opposite: not doing what he did, and doing what he did not do. When the enemy approaches and begins to trumpet in your heart in front of you, that you are not what others are doing, and this is good, you take yourself and begin to lead in all your bad deeds, explaining to yourself: “Who did this? And who is this? And who is this?" Then the accusatory voice of conscience will awaken and drown out this vague whisper of self-praise: “Not like the others!”If, in spite of this, the heart is still puffed up with self-exaltation, rebuke it with the most severe reproach, saying: third party benefits; if, when performing any deeds, there were no such feelings, you now defile them and take away all their dignity by puffing up on them! Having thus exposed ourselves, we will deprive ourselves of all support for self-justification, and we will have nowhere to turn, as to the intercession of the only mercy of God, to which we will begin to cry out without hypocrisy: “God, be merciful to us sinners!”

Oh, that the Lord would help us to enter into these justifying feelings of the publican and establish ourselves in them! It seems that they are so natural to us, but meanwhile it is not always easy for us to meet them in ourselves. It is necessary to educate yourself in this, as well as in every good thing. Teach! And here is the method to use for such training: go inside yourself with attention. We have there an undeceptive mirror of our deeds - conscience, but the mirror is abandoned, often dirty. Let us take it to the middle, clean it up and clarify it with the word of God, definitively restoring in it the writing of all words, deeds, feelings and thoughts that are obligatory for us. Let us then set it up against our face or consciousness, so that this face has nowhere to hide and nothing can cover itself. As it is impossible to see anything without light, let us illuminate our inner temple with the fear of God, under the action of which all the features of our face or consciousness, down to the smallest detail, will be clearly visible in the mirror of conscience. When we are thus established within, we will undoubtedly enter into the feeling of a publican. Not only deeds, but also all evil thoughts, proceeding and proceeding from the heart, will be imprinted on the face of the consciousness, reflected in the conscience and attract judgment by the action of the fear of God. And just as a publican, standing afar off, did not dare to approach for the sake of fear, did not dare to look at heaven for the sake of shame from the accusations of conscience and beat himself in Persian, being dissatisfied with himself and grieving for his ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame - by reproof and chastisement is sickness about oneself. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart and will be clearly seen in the mirror of conscience. When we are thus established within, we will undoubtedly enter into the feeling of a publican. Not only deeds, but also all evil thoughts, proceeding and proceeding from the heart, will be imprinted on the face of the consciousness, reflected in the conscience and attract judgment by the action of the fear of God. And just as a publican, standing afar off, did not dare to approach for the sake of fear, did not dare to look at heaven for the sake of shame from the accusations of conscience and beat himself in Persian, being dissatisfied with himself and grieving for his ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame - by reproof and chastisement is sickness about oneself. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart and will be clearly seen in the mirror of conscience. When we are thus established within, we will undoubtedly enter into the feeling of a publican. Not only deeds, but also all evil thoughts, proceeding and proceeding from the heart, will be imprinted on the face of the consciousness, reflected in the conscience and attract judgment by the action of the fear of God. And just as a publican, standing afar off, did not dare to approach for the sake of fear, did not dare to look at heaven for the sake of shame from the accusations of conscience and beat himself in Persian, being dissatisfied with himself and grieving for his ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame - by reproof and chastisement is sickness about oneself. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart emanating and proceeding from the heart will be imprinted on the face of the consciousness, reflected in the conscience and attract judgment by the action of the fear of God. And just as a publican, standing afar off, did not dare to approach for the sake of fear, did not dare to look at heaven for the sake of shame from the accusations of conscience and beat himself in Persian, being dissatisfied with himself and grieving for his ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame - by reproof and chastisement is sickness about oneself. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart emanating and proceeding from the heart will be imprinted on the face of the consciousness, reflected in the conscience and attract judgment by the action of the fear of God. And just as a publican, standing afar off, did not dare to approach for the sake of fear, did not dare to look at heaven for the sake of shame from the accusations of conscience and beat himself in Persian, being dissatisfied with himself and grieving for his ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame - by reproof and chastisement is sickness about oneself. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart being dissatisfied with ourselves and grieving for our ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame by denunciation and denunciation by sickness about ourselves. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart being dissatisfied with ourselves and grieving for our ugliness, so with us fear will be replaced by shame, shame by denunciation and denunciation by sickness about ourselves. And there will be no time for self-conceit to be born and to revive self-exaltation and self-justification. For just as the activity within us does not stop, the heart“forges evil” ( Prov. 6, 14 ), then there will not be a minute when there would not be an impulse in us to beat ourselves in Persian and cry out: “God, be merciful!” A blissful state that really attracts the mercy and justification of God!

We usually say: "I am a sinner, I am a sinner" - a pleasing word to God! But let us take care that it is not only spoken by the tongue, but also felt by the heart. Let us convince ourselves that the feeling of righteousness is a deviation onto the path of destruction, and then, little by little, it will begin to show itself, we will persecute it as the most dangerous enemy that creeps up to steal from us our most precious blessing - justification before God. In order not to indulge this temptation in any way, let us make arrangements so that every one of our deeds and undertakings is preceded by a feeling of our sinfulness and that it would be at the head of everything. If you give alms, give them with the thought: “I am not worthy to receive God’s mercy for it.” If you fast or impose any other severity on yourself, have such thoughts in mind: “Others increase the amount of their worthy deeds by this, but for me this is penance, I have to work myself for my sins.” ATIf you go to church or pray at home, say to yourself: “I will work hard on myself, perhaps the Lord will take pity and forgive me my sins.” And especially in the matter of prayer, turning to God with your mind and heart, do not see yourself otherwise than as the most defective and, more than all, demanding God's mercy, like St. in mud and only has a mouth to cry out: “God, have mercy on me!”

Having settled in this way, by the grace of God we shall avoid the delusions of conceit and remove the main obstacle to opening the door of contrition of the heart, through which, having gone out, of course, we will also meet the doors of God's mercy! Amen.

February 9, 1864

In the week of the publican and the Pharisee (persuasion to persuade the soul to be ashamed and disgusted with sin and its sinful state)

The publican and the Pharisee are now presented to our eyes by the Holy Church ( Luke 18:10-14 ). And who would not desire to be blessed with the blessed fate of the first and avoid the bitter condemnation of the second? We are sinful, and perhaps we are sinful: but is there anyone who would like to perish in his sins? Come, let us learn from the publican how, in spite of sins, to avoid the fate of the condemned and to attract the gracious justifying word of the Lord.

The publican does not dare to "lift his eyes to heaven" : he is ashamed, shame covers the face of his soul. The publican strikes at "his own" : he recognizes himself worthy of any punishment for the evil will of his heart. But he does not run away from God and does not despair of his salvation, but to Him Whom he offended and Who is ready to righteously punish him, turning to Himself faithfully, he cries out: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” ( Luke 18:13 ).

Let us shame ourselves, taking into our senses the shame and humiliation of sin; let us condemn ourselves, giving all power to the voice of conscience, or the unfeigned truth of God, which speaks through it; but moreover, following the publican, let us hasten to form in our souls the same cry: “God, be merciful to us sinners!”

All this depends on you, sinful soul. You yourself, and not someone else, must reproduce all this in yourself and feel it. The publican beat his chest, but even before that, with the thoughts of his mind, he beat his soul and wounded his heart. Enter into yourself, gather saving thoughts and use them to break your hardened heart. Rise up woe; descend into hell; look around yourself and around you and everywhere look for arrows to defeat, whips - to wound, hammers - to soften your petrified heart.

Remember the mercies of God to you - and shame yourself. Remember His justice - and frighten yourself. Remember the nearness of the end - and hasten to propitiate the impenitent Decider of your fate. Draw yourself to yourself with the rope of your autocracy and, at least out of a sense of self-preservation, draw these saving suggestions from yourself and permeate yourself with them.

Say to yourself: “The Lord has had mercy on you in creation, Providence, and even more so - in Atonement, renewed you with a bath of resurrection (Baptism), fed you with His Flesh and Blood, and promised you to be one with Him through all eternity; how many times, the fallen one he raised, the impure one he cleansed, the sick in spirit he healed; how many times did he let you feel His nearness and the embrace of His love; how many times did he let me taste the sweetness of being in His will and in the fulfillment of His holy commandments! All this is despised by you; in nothing all cares about you; back abandoned all the favors to you.

God holds you in His right hand, He is "near" ( Ps. 118, 151 ) and sees all the movements of your heart. It was before Him that you allowed yourself to be combined with evil thoughts that were contrary to Him. It was before His face that you were inflamed with passions, which are an abomination to Him. It was before His face that you committed the sin conceived within , offending Him.

You knew it was evil, and you didn't turn away. Could not want, and wanted. She could, lustfully, not do it, and did it. Nobody captivated you. Your evil creation reigned in you and dragged you along evil paths.

Sin beckons sweetness to itself, and then torments with pernicious bitterness. And now the light of the mind has dimmed in you, the snakes of passions gnaw at you, and the tension of extreme discontent torments you. You are like a withered branch, like a broken vessel, like a bird with plucked feathers. And it's not over yet. Remember that the end of dry brushwood is burning, in which they burn and do not burn out.

Instill these and similar thoughts into your soul, sinner, and make it feel shame and disgust for sin and its sinful state, feel annoyance at your evil arbitrariness and fear for your eternal fate. Do this, and then go on, and do not stumble into the abyss of hopelessness and despair. Do not run from God, for where can you run from Him?! He keeps you in the bonds of being, and nothingness will swallow you up, even if you wanted to. Run to Him, and rush into the bosom of His mercy. You are still living on earth, the Life-Giver prolongs your life here, in order to draw you to Himself by the duration of mercy. He gives you more to live, waiting for you to finally give up sin and turn to Him. You are a fig tree, left for another year in the garden of those living on earth ( Luke 13:6-9 ). Manage to take advantage of the gift of the sim.

The Jews had cities of refuge ( Numbers 35:6 ). Those hiding in them avoided the blows of vengeance ( Deut. 4:42 ). For the sinner, the city of refuge is repentance. Run here and hide yourself from the sword of God's righteousness. God Himselfready to punish, shows you this refuge and calls to it. From the flood, there was one open door of salvation - the door of the ark. One door of salvation and from the flood of sin is the door of repentance. Hear - they sing: “Open the doors of repentance, Giver of Life!” Go! Opened, and the hand from within is stretched out to receive you. Look, everyone's in! The confessed thief approaches and receives paradise as an inheritance; a harlot burdened with sins comes and destroys the manuscript with tears; Zacchaeus repents before the Lord - and is justified; Peter cries - and is accepted; and David has been there. And the whole house is filled with sinners - the justified. The House Master Himself amiably brings in all the penitents, and through repentance makes them His relatives who have estranged from Him.

Get inspired! Come and you and, standing near the publican, cry out with his voice: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

And you will undoubtedly be pardoned and saved if you bring yourself to such a point that such a penitent cry is sincerely torn from your heart. He who justified the publican will also justify you when you ascend into a similar mood to him. He who said, “When you cry out with a sigh, then you will be saved,” will save you too, if you breathe in the same way and cry out. He who calls to Himself all those who labor and are burdened in order to give them rest ( Matt. 11:28), will also give rest to you when, having felt the burden of sins, you resort to Him, seeking rest from remorse.

Such a publican's well-being and such, for his sake, beyond the bestowed mercy of excuses, may the Lord vouchsafe all of us sinners! Amen.

January 24, 1865

Part 2. In the week of the prodigal son

(the Church wants to elevate us to an inspired determination,
leaving sin, to walk the right path to the Heavenly Father)

Last Sunday the Holy Church taught us the humble feelings of repentance, by which the mercy of God is attracted; now she wants to lead us to an inspired determination, leaving sin , to walk the right path to the Heavenly Father. For this, in the parable of the prodigal son ( Luke 15:11-32 ), on the one hand, it depicts the sad state of a sinner in falling away from God, on the other hand, the joy and peace into which the penitent is received by the Heavenly Father. Let us follow this sinner in his fall and rise. Few of us, who are inherent here, will not find their own history in it, in whatever features - bright or gloomy.

Return your thoughts to the time when last year we spoke, confessed and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. In what a blissful state was our soul then! How brightly she saw everything: in herself, and around herself, and above herself, and in the distance of the past, and in the depths of the future! What silence reigned in the region of the heart! What order has gone in life, what degree in intentions and strength in the fulfillment of good intentions! What readiness to seek the One God and to walk steadfastly in the path of God's commandments! It seemed to us that there was no one more blessed than us, and we said to ourselves: “We will never change the regular life that we have now begun, so that we never lose this joy and always belong to the Heavenly Father, the touch of whose guardian right hand our heart felt so strongly then.”

How truly blessed are those who, by their very deeds, have stood, although not to the full extent, in these good dispositions of theirs and promises of conscience! But are they all? Haven't most of us repeated the story of the prodigal? Remember! .. Now the intelligible and calming fast has passed and the bright holidays have come; behind them came the blossoming and smiling season. We allowed ourselves a small privilege, as if some kind of rest, for enduring the feat of a strict life, which we had hitherto led. To completely indulge in pleasures, it never occurred to us. For the first time, we only wanted to take a walk once, without thinking about the future. But this first entertainment left a noticeable mark on the soul and rather shook the pious order that had been established. Jealousy for a strict life weakened and thought often ran back to the tasted innocent pleasure. Another of the prescribed pious occupations is omitted, although not without note, but without due contrition. Here an opportunity presented itself, and we again had entertainment and joy. Here we consoled ourselves more boldly; and if good thoughts came to settle us down, we rejected them with insolence as timeless. The fruit of this was darkness and confusion. We felt how hard and embarrassingly the rule of a pious life we ​​had accepted; and we often fell into the thought of quitting; a favorable time will come, we will again begin to work for God, and now we can relax. And relief after relief has gone! Meanwhile, habitual passion raised its head and began its conversations with the heart. As acquaintances, they soon got it right again! Passionate thoughts were no longer crossed. Indulge in pleasure and objects, and deeds of passion. The co-pleasures shook the will. Frequent repetitions of this within gave birth to a decline to the former; there was a union with sin - and the internal fall was completed! An opportunity presented itself - and the fall was already done. Further, fall after fall, and everything, inside and out, returned to its former sinful mood. The moral breakdown was complete; and we became like the prodigal son, when he, having squandered everything at a distance from his father, herded pigs and ate their food. Compare, subjected to this misfortune, what is now in you, with what was, grieve and cry! How everything was bright, and now there is darkness all around: all the pure concepts and saving truths of God seem to have been stolen and do not come to mind, but when they come, they seem very indistinct. How gratifying it was for us to be present in the church, and now it blows cold from everything church; then we did not want to go from the sacred rites, but now we are running away from them. Our external state has not changed, perhaps; but inside melancholy and tightness sharpen the heart. And no joys and pleasures can satisfy this joyless languor inside! The fallen one knows all this and experiences it by deed, and perhaps knows and experiences more than what the descriptive word of an outside observer can say. But, poor soul! Will you then irrevocably betray yourself into the hands of your fall? And, being jealous of the fall of the prodigal, will you not be jealous of imitating him in revolt? Will you then irrevocably betray yourself into the hands of your fall? And, being jealous of the fall of the prodigal, will you not be jealous of imitating him in revolt? Will you then irrevocably betray yourself into the hands of your fall? And, being jealous of the fall of the prodigal, will you not be jealous of imitating him in revolt?

Come to yourself! Look, what desolation is there, what impoverishment in everything and disorder! Is this the beauty with which you are adorned in creation, and with which the Lord your Redeemer has already adorned you? Are you, who bears the image of God, to grovel down and wallow in filth? Resurrect your dignity in thought and be jealous to restore it!

Do not look at the fact that your external relationships are correct. This is not expensive, but your eternal relationship with God and His saints is dear. And what are they?! The thought of God strikes with fear, but not the fear of a son, but the fear of a criminal. Is this how it should be with us, the children of God?! Put yourself in the host of angels and saints. Will you stand among them? Of course not. But is this how it befits us to be with you, called to be cohabitants of the saints and close to God? What? So you will stay and will not be jealous to streamline these frustrated relationships?! Hurry up or you'll die!

Tomorrow is death. When we close our eyes, the doors of God's mercy will be closed for us if we do not take care to enter them first. And then what? O! That misfortune and the word is not strong to express! Don't delay! Here comes the auspicious time of holy fasting. From now on, set the intention to use it for salvation and prepare for it. Move yourself in every possible way and irritate the dormant zeal for salvation by all means that are left to your freedom by the all-arranging grace of God.

And the Lord is "near" ( Ps. 118, 151 )! He is only waiting for you to say: “Arise, I go!” ( Luke 15:18 ). And before you approach Him, He will meet you and enclose you in the Father's arms of His love. See how many of His servants already live in the house, serving Him! And among them how many of those who fell in a fall like yours! Look: here is Magdalene, here is Zacchaeus, here is Mary of Egypt, here is Pelageya and others, of whom there is no number. Do not despair, and you, but do not hesitate. The Lord will not remember your iniquities, and for the joy of your return, which will rejoice all Heaven, return to you everything you have lost.

All this you know. I have already experienced the sweetness of rebellion, its comforts and comforting fruits. You have had the misfortune to fall again; hasten to make yourself happy with a new uprising. No matter how much someone falls, the Lord will lovingly receive him when he rises. But if he abandons himself and with pleasure dooms himself to wallow in the mire of sin, the Lord will abandon him too; and who knows, will he remember when ?! Excite this remembrance of God about you by your concern for rebellion, and He will come and Himself will raise you up; He will give you His almighty hand and draw you out of the depths in which you are mired. Do not put off taking advantage of the measure of God's long-suffering that is still left for you, and use everything to inspire yourself to the labor of rebellion. Gather around your heart all the exciting truths, both from heaven and from earth, both from the present and from the future, so that at last you rise up to the determination to say:"Arise, I'm coming!" And then get up and go! Go to the Heavenly Father, Who is waiting for you, and not only waiting, but also seeking, and takes care of your conversion by all means, expressing his readiness to be your helper in this difficult and decisive matter for you.

Now we will wish this mutually to each other, whether someone is in a big or a small fall, we will wish and compel each other, so that not one by one, but all together, return to the Father and become one with Him, and with all His House, and with the whole Kingdom of the saved blessed and those who will be blessed forever. Amen.

February 19, 1861

In the week of the prodigal son (which means to wake up from the sleep of sin)

The Parable of the Prodigal Son ( Luke 15:11-32), which you have now heard in the Gospel, is, perhaps, a living history of more than one of us present here. Remember the last post! How we settled down, how we began to fast, how we repented, received permission and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. For the sake of our repentance and the promise to live properly, the Heavenly Father has given us the part of our blessed heritage awarded by His goodness. It was good for us in the quiet and bright house of the Father! But then spring came, and entertainment and entertainment began. Attention dissipated, and the jealousy of the spirit faded and faded. Then followed a fall, at first perhaps sudden; followed by a second, a third, and so on. Soul hardened; concepts were darkened; feelings and desires are hardened. And by the present time, are there few who are quite like the prodigal son, impoverished and dying of hunger?

But, if we imitated the prodigal son in the fall, let us be jealous of imitating him in the uprising. We squandered, like him, our blessed property; let us hasten now, like him, to return again to the arms of the Heavenly Father, always stretched out to receive us. A suitable post has been assigned to that. The parable of the prodigal is now read in order to remind us in advance of the work of fasting and to predispose us to building in our minds the entire path of ascent to the Lord, from Whom we have departed.

Let us learn this from the prodigal son. How did the return procession of the prodigal to his father begin? The fact that he came to himself. This is the first step for everyone in moving from sin to God; one might say, not yet a step, but only the beginning of the procession, the point of departure. Sin plunges the soul into a sleep of self-forgetfulness, insensitivity and carelessness. And the sinner sleeps deeply! But just as a sleeping person needs to be awakened so that he gets up and goes, so a sinner needs to be aroused from the lulling of sinful things, so that, having woken up, he sees the danger of his position and ascends to the determination to get up and go to the Lord. For this purpose, exciting voices are heard from everywhere around us. And conscience, and the word of God, and the word of the father, and the order of the Holy Church, and the order of the creation of God, and happy circumstances, and unfortunate circumstances - everything wakes up, everything says to the sinner who has been put to sleep: “Rise up, sleep!Arise ...and Christ will sanctify you" ( Eph. 5:14 ). What will fasting tell us, what Lenten singing and reading, what is the gospel of that time, if not the same word: "Arise, sleep, and rise from the dead" ( Eph. 5, 14 ).

Excites the actual Spirit of God, penetrating to the human spirit. But we also need to disturb and compel ourselves, for without us even the Spirit of God will not work anything in us. Pray and ask the Lord for arousal, but do not sit with your head down and arms folded; irritate within yourself the spirit of concern for your own salvation and for the glory of God. Do the opposite of what sin has done to you . As a thick fog, settling down, hides all objects from our eyes, so sin puts a shelter behind a cover on the eyes of our mind and hides from it all the objects that it must constantly see and walk in the vision of them.

Our spirit was created for God and the Divine order of things, in the contemplation of which it must abide and in it, as in some kind of atmosphere, walk and act.

God, worshiped in the Trinity, who created the world and provides for it, saves us in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in His Holy Church, for the sake of faith and life by faith, purifying us in this life, so that for the little labor here in another life calm us down with eternal rest.

Here is the divine order! In this Divine order, our spirit must always be attentive in order to live and act in accordance with it. But sin, having come, pulls all that out of attention and drags it into the completely opposite order of things, in which God is forgotten, the grace-filled Dispensation is forgotten, death, the Future Life and righteous retribution are forgotten. One sees only the blessings that lie ahead, and sensual life, which does not expect an end to itself. It is into this fog that a ray of God's grace descends to arouse the sinner, to shake off the blindness from his eyes and, as if taking by the hand, to draw into the light the consciousness of God's order. But you, leading this order, take it and act immediately yourself. Gather your attention and go through this order - all, from beginning to end. Remember how God, having created everything with a word, distinguished you from all creatures and honored you with His image; how you fell and angered God and how you were punished by expulsion from paradise; how God, taking pity on you, promised to send a Savior; how the Lord and Savior came and saved you by His death on the cross; how the grace of the Holy Spirit bestowed and so on; how you trampled all this with your carelessly lawless life; how from day to day awaits youdeath and after death judgment and retribution according to your evil deeds. Go through all this order with your mind, or go through not once, but only do what you go through, how much time and effort you get. When you do this with zeal, perhaps fear for yourself will be seeded in your heart, and there will be concern for your salvation. The same feeling, having been born, will bring into tension your spiritual forces, weakened by negligence, and will give birth not only to thoughts, but also to the desire to finally stop wallowing in sin and turn to the Lord.

This is what it means to come to oneself, or wake up from the sleep of sin: to enter with attention, consciousness and feeling into the Divine order and through that to feel the danger of one's stay in sin, to take care to get out of it.

What did the depraved young man say when he came to his senses? “How many hirelings of my father depend on bread, but I’m dying in starvation!” ( Luke 15:17 ). This is the same as: “How good it is for my father and how bad it is for me, who ran away from my father! How bright, comforting and blessed is the Divine order and the life in it, determined for me; and how bad it is for me, who lives in sin, who arbitrarily departed from that order and estranged from it! What is the need for me to slander myself and destroy myself? Rise, go? I will throw away sin and begin to live according to God!”

“Having risen, I go” ( Luke 15:18 ) is the second step in the procession from sin to God! In the first, the sinner comes only to the thought and desire to leave sin, and here the very deed decides to leave it. There he just woke up from a sinful sleep, but here he gets up and wants to go. Whoever is awakened can fall asleep again without getting up. Someone will be awakened, and he will immediately fall asleep again; wake up again, and he falls asleep again. Another wakes up and knows that he needs to get up, but he lies like that - he does not sleep and does not get up. All this is repeated in different forms in the spiritual life. The sinner wakes up and again indulges in the sleep of heedlessness, wakes up again and falls asleep again. Another feels compelled to leave sin, but still remains in sin, as if not having the courage to tear himself away from it. That is why, even after seeing and feeling the need to improve and change life, one should not think that everything has already been done. Not! One must also arouse in oneself a tense determination to immediately part with sin and the whole order of a sinful life and begin to live according to all the conscious conditions of a God-pleasing life. And this is the main thing in turning to God, or this is the turning itself. Here a change of will takes place, after which she no longer wants sin, abhors it, turns away from it and, on the contrary, strains to love and do the only good that is pleasing to God.

How this change is made is difficult to determine. It takes place in the sanctuary of our spirit, secretly and secretly, as all the germs of life are hidden. And here, as in the first step, grace does everything, but again not without us. How and what does grace do? Who will examine her wise dispensations? And what we need to do, we will define in short words.

The thought of salvation came, you felt the danger of being in sin, you had the intention to correct yourself - look, do not miss these movements of your soul without attention! This is a gift of grace - do not despise or reject it. Whatever you are told to do, do not postpone it until tomorrow. Now enter into yourself and begin to carefully calculate and think about everything that you must therefore do with yourself and for yourself. Then begin to walk in the order in which victorious grace takes root and kindles: keep the fast, go to church, do alms, stop everyday affairs and worries for a while, retire, read if you can, and meditate, and most importantly, pray - pray with your mind and heart and bow down to the Lord, painfully crying out for help to overcome yourself. If you do this with all sincerity, conscientiousness and patience, the Lord will finally look upon your search, overshadow you with His grace, soften your heart and give you the strength to break the stubbornness of your will. There are many bonds that do not allow the soul to rise up and go to the Lord. In addition to vicious passions and inclinations, the order of the external life formed under the influence of sin, habits, mutual relations, fear for life and well-being constitute a strong-walled dungeon in which the sinful soul languishes! But all this is melted away by the fire of the grace of God. At this moment, a person sacrifices everything to God and is ready for anything - up to the position of the stomach, if onlyGod forgave and accepted him to Himself, at least the last of all those working in His House. What the prodigal said, everyone who resolutely turns to God says: “Awakening, I go ... and the river to my Father: Father! I have sinned against Heaven and before You, and already I am not worthy to be called Your son, make me as one of Your hired servants! ( Luke 15:18–19 ).

The moment of determination is the main moment of conversion. What follows after that is already the fulfillment of what a person intends to do during it. If the young man had not reached this determination, he would not have gone to his father, and not having gone, he would have grieved only for his poverty and starvation, and, perhaps, having come to terms with his bitter position, he would have remained in him forever. But then the Lord helped him: he got up and went to his father, told him what he planned to say, and was graciously received, forgiven, dressed, shod, fed, accepted again as a son. And there was great joy throughout the whole house!

Such is the end of the determination of the prodigal to return to his father. In the conversion of a sinner, everything signified by this is fulfilled when he, having decided to correct himself, confesses his sins and, having received permission from his spiritual father and forgiveness from the Lord, partakes of the Holy, Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ, for the remission of sins and for Life .Eternal. And this is a consequence of the sinner's determination to go to the Lord, but it is not an appendage to the work of conversion, but is its necessary completion, it is an imprint of what was formed in the heart in moments of determination. I remind you of this for the sake of it, no one would think of limiting themselves to one inner appeal to God, avoiding the Divine Mysteries. Such an appeal will be unreliable and will lead to nothing good. If the blacksmith, having made a knife, does not temper it properly, this knife remains soft and good for nothing. Similarly, a person who has decided to leave sin and begin to work for the Lord, if he does not receive Confession and Holy Communion, does not have the strength and courage for any good: he is lethargic, misses chances for good, and always almost succumbs to obstacles. And this means almost the same as staying in the same position as before, or stopping halfway. Who decided he got up. But just as, having risen, they dress and prepare themselves for their deeds, so he who has decided must put on and arm himself with the grace of Confession and Holy Communion, so that with strength, in due armor, go out to the deeds of pleasing God and salvation. When the night passes and the day comes,“a man to his work and to his work until evening” ( Ps. 103, 23 ), so when the night of sin passes and the day of grace in Christ Jesus shines in the soul, the blessed one goes to his work and works until the evening of his life to the Lord, hurrying and his good undertakings affirming with His favor and blessing.

Such, brethren, is the way of turning from sin to God and pleasing God! “Rise up” , whoever is “sleep” , and “rise from the dead, and Christ will sanctify you” ( Eph. 5:14 )! If you are at a loss now, prepare at least for fasting, when the Apostle will turn to you the word: “Behold, now is an acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ). Amen.

February 16, 1864

In the week of the prodigal son (about the attempts and tricks of the enemy, seeking to devour every zealot of goodness and purity)

Paying attention to the beginning of the story of the prodigal ( Lk. 15:11-32 ), you see with amazement how little the descent of the young, inexperienced son began and into what a pit of destruction it brought down. The first desire is furnished with such plausibility that nothing bad and pernicious, it seems, could not be expected from it. And the father did not seem to see the trouble; true, and the son did not expect to end the way it ended. It is good that at last the grace of God sought out the lost. And then, having prospered here in a bitter lot, he would have passed to the next world not for joy, but for bearing a righteous retribution for a life badly spent and not corrected by repentance.

This is how every fall into sin and every person's fall from a good state into a bad, confused, passionate state takes place. It always begins with smallness, and smallness plausible: the enemy knows that sin in its present form is disgusting, therefore it does not directly attract into it, but begins from afar, always almost covering up its first attacks (attacks) with the appearance of good. Then, little by little, it instills impurity of thoughts and the heat of desires, shaking the strength of the will that opposes it and weakening its supports, until it forms a secret inclination to sin in the heart, after which there is only a chance - and the sin is ready by deed. And there sin after sin and a repetition of the bitter fate of the prodigal in the fall!

Keeping this in mind, of course, each of us will impose on ourselves the obligation to strictly fulfill the commandment of the Apostle: "be sober and watch" ( 1 Pet.5, 8)! Look into yourself and around you and notice the detours and assassination attempts of the enemy, who seeks to devour every zealot of goodness and purity. The first trick of the enemy is the indignation of thoughts. Usually, at first, he instills only one thought, so, however, that it touches the heart and settles in it. As soon as he succeeds in this, immediately around this insignificant, as if not always bad thought, he collects a whole cloud of side thoughts and thus clouds the hitherto pure and bright atmosphere of the soul. By this, the enemy prepares for himself a place and space for action, and soon begins to act in this fog, wounding the soul with passionate attacks that leave wound after wound in the soul. These wounds then surround the soul from all sides and finally merge into one painful scab of a passionate sinful mood. The same happens here as if someone in the darkness with a thin needle point received wounds on the body, one, another, a third, and so on all over the body. Each wound hurts and leaves an ulcer, from which a suppuration and a scab form, and there, scab after scab, and the whole body will become like one ulcer and one scab. So notice: in a good state, thoughts do not hesitate, and here the enemy cannot act, then his first business is to stir up thoughts. He revolts them by means of one whom he elects as a horse-breeder, judging by the character and occupation of a person. As soon as he manages to plant such a thought in his heart, a storm of thoughts immediately rises, inner peace and silence disappear. Here the enemy sits close to the heart and gradually begins to arouse passionate movements in him. This is the second step! Here and look! If you notice this - stop, do not go further, because what is further is already very bad. Confusion of thoughts maybe you won’t have time to notice, because we are involuntarily busy with many things; but the movement of passion - how not to notice, especially when the intention is still intact not to succumb to it. If this is difficult for anyone, I will indicate a more tangible sign. Notice: as soon as, as a result of being carried away by one thought, and then confusion by many, a cooling of the heart occurs, know that wounds and scabs have already begun in the heart, although they are not yet completely noticeable. The cooling of the heart to pleasing God is more than half the way to a fall, while others say that it is a sure fall. and then there will be confusion by many, there will be a cooling of the heart, know that wounds and scabs have already gone into the heart, although they are not yet quite noticeable. The cooling of the heart to pleasing God is more than half the way to a fall, while others say that it is a sure fall. and then there will be confusion by many, there will be a cooling of the heart, know that wounds and scabs have already gone into the heart, although they are not yet quite noticeable. The cooling of the heart to pleasing God is more than half the way to a fall, while others say that it is a sure fall.

After this, you yourself see what the matter is on our part: do not allow the first fascinating thought to reach the heart and do not combine with it. If you reject the first thought, you will ruin all the intrigues of the enemy and cut off any opportunity for him to act on you and tempt you. Hence this is the law of salvation: a tempting thought has come - drive it away; came again - drive away again; another and a third came - and drive these. So drive away every tempting thought and reject it with anger and annoyance at it. And you will be completely free from falling. The enemy will continue to tempt you, will be angry with you, but if you do not stop acting like this, he will not do anything to you. On the contrary, if you succumb to his first impulse, he will be able to turn your head off. Our foremother, if she had immediately driven away the serpent-tempter, would not have fallen. And then - she started a speech with him ... further and further ... she got entangled in the network of the enemy and fell.

They tell about one great ascetic from the ancients. He lived in the desert, alone, and reached such perfection that an angel brought him one white bread every evening for food. The enemy instilled in him the thought that he was already so perfect that he had nothing to be afraid of falling and therefore to watch himself too strictly. The elder was not careful and allowed his heart to be combined with this thought. But as soon as it was combined, his thoughts began to agitate, various memories of people, things and human affairs began to creep into his head; on the first day, not so much, because he was still driving them away, but enough, however, to darken his soul. That is why, standing in the evening for prayer, he performed it no longer with such peace and not with such aspiration of the heart to God as before. Although for this he found bread at his meal no longer white, but black and stale, and was amazed at what he tasted, however, without looking for a reason, and went to bed at the usual time. It was then that the enemy leaned on him with all the weight of his darkness. The noise from the thoughts in his head was like the noise from the wheels of a mill, and there were movements in the body, which he does not remember when they happened. And he got up, and walked, and sat - nothing helped. It was like that all night long. The next day the soul is broken; the rule of prayer was done reluctantly and without diligence; there was no disposition towards the thought of God; Heaven and the Heavenly closed in consciousness; worldly thoughts crowded in the head and evoked various movements and sympathy of the heart. The elder himself did not understand what was happening to him, and remained in the same position until the evening. But in the evening he found on the table no longer bread, but withered pieces of black bread. He was horrified, sighed, but got into bed just as embarrassed. That night was even darker than the first, and the day after that was even more confused and distraught. The rule of prayer was performed somehow, without any attention; thoughts were not at all occupied with reading language. At the meal, he found only crumbs, mixed with rubbish and dust. Then the night is even more terrible and disconcerting than the first. It ended with the elder leaving the desert and rushing into the world.

See how little it started and what it came to! The Lord did not allow this elder to the final fall and arranged for him admonition, repentance and return to his former place, as well as the return of the prodigal son to his father. But do not reassure yourself by this among those who fall, but look at one thing, how their falls began, and care began to prevent this. They, like many others, the Lord returned again to a good path, and you, perhaps, will betray you into the hands of your fall, not out of anger, but because of the impossibility of helping you, because you will be severely broken. But this, alas, is grief, which God forbid anyone to experience.

All this I am leading to inspire you that with sinful thoughts that can lead to sin, no matter how insignificant they may be at first, it is better not to have any agreement, but to immediately reflect them and drive them away; and if they have already managed to entangle a little, they hasten to break the alliance with them without pity. Where should we go into this sea. The foremother was pure, and the enemy immediately led her astray; and what an old man he was perfect, and in three days the enemy completely defeated him. Why is this? Because they didn't take the first step. Had they driven off the enemy in his first attack, none of what they experienced would have happened. So it has always been and always will be. So it is between us. Do not be carried away by plausibility and do not listen to the enemy. Do you know the commands? Hold on to them and measure your steps with them, but drive everything else away, and you will be safe from falling. Who "looks"on the commandment, “not be ashamed” ( Ps. 118:6 ). And the “youngest” corrects “his way” when he keeps them ( Ps. 118:9 ). Whoever "in his heart" hides the "words" of the commandments, he will not sin ( Ps. 118:11 ). Let the "princes" of darkness plot his destruction, he is not afraid, for he has plunged into the "testaments" (commandments) and "justifications" of God ( Ps. 118, 23-24 ). Whoever seeks the commandments walks "in the breadth" ( Ps. 118:45 ): you will not confuse him. Let the temptations resist, but he will remember the "testimony"and return his feet to the "path" of the right ( Ps.118, 59 ). He is ready to meet them and is not embarrassed, for the skill of keeping the commandments ( Ps. 118:60 ). He easily breaks the “bonds” of sinful thoughts, because he never forgets the Law of God ( Ps. 118:61 ). The attacks of "proud" enemies are multiplied, but he "with all his heart" lies only in the commandments of God ( Ps.118, 69 ). Sometimes his heart also “dries out” like “milk” , but he sobers him up with teaching in the Law of the Lord ( Ps. 118:70 ). Enemies are waiting to destroy him, and he "commandment" manages to outwit them (Ps. 118, 95, 98 ). Let there be many “those who are afflicted” by him, but as he “hated unrighteousness ... the law ... loved it ,” then the “many world” overshadows him and there is no “temptation” to him ( Ps. 118, 157, 163, 165 ).

So, at the beginning, I offered you the word of the Apostle: "Be sober and watch" ( 1 Pet. 5:8 ). Now, at the end, if someone asks: “What should be done when the enemy confuses?”, I will add: “a lamp for your feet ... and light for your paths” ( Ps. 118, 105 ) let the Law of God be, and no embarrassment will hurt you. Amen.

January 31, 1865

Part 3. Meat-fare week

(let us draw in our mind a picture of the Judgment
and we will wear it incessantly)

Now the Holy Church reminds us of the Last Judgment. She has already sent us to learn from the publican how to cry out humblely: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” ( Luke 18:13 ). She already inspired us not to indulge in a fall, but, after the prodigal son, having risen, go to the merciful Father and beg Him - us, unworthy to be called His sons, to accept at least as hirelings ( Lk. 15, 18-19 ). But she is still afraid that someone, due to inattention, would not miss those lessons and, due to hardening of the heart, would not remain stagnant in sins. Therefore, now, painting a picture of the Last Judgment, she says even louder: "Repent." If you don't repent, you will all perish. Behold, God has established a day that is to come, like a "thief in the night" ( 2 Pet. 3:10), when He brings “into the light ... secret darkness” , opens “counsels of the heart” ( 1 Corinthians 4:5 ) and rewards everyone according to his deeds. Sinners will then have no mercy. Only the righteous will enter into the joy of the Lord, and those who, having suffered the misfortune of falling into sins, then brought sincere repentance and corrected their lives. So, thinking about that terrible Day, stop sinning, repent and accept the firm intention to walk unswervingly in the commandments of God.

And indeed, no truth is so powerful to soften an unrepentant heart as the truth about the Last Judgment of God. The enemy knows this and in every possible way contrives to put us in such a state that we either do not think about this Judgment at all, or, if we think when, we think superficially, not carrying this thinking to the heart and not allowing it to produce its full effect there. If the memory of the Judgment did not depart from us and its power was accepted with all our heart, there would be no sinners, or there would be sinners only accidental, inadvertent, momentary, immediately rising up after an inadvertent fall. But behold, we do not enter into the intentions of God, and therefore we sin and stagnate in sins through impenitence.

Come, brethren, let us outwit the enemy that darkens us, and from now on let us put: and to remember unceasingly about the Judgment, and to perceive with our hearts all its power and all its fear.

Let us draw in our minds a picture of the Terrible Judgment and let us wear it unceasingly. Just as in our ordinary life we ​​see the sky above us with the Sun and other luminaries, and various creatures around us, similarly let us arrange ourselves in the spirit. In Heaven let us contemplate the Lord the Judge with a multitude of Angels, and around us all the sons of men, from the beginning of the world to the end, standing before Him in fear and trembling. There is also a river of fire and open books ( Dan. 7:10 ). Judgment is ready! Let us fill our mind with such thoughts and let us not deviate from it with attention. Having risen from the bed, we will inspire our souls: “It is a terrible day for thinking, wake up the soul!” and, going to sleep, we will say to ourselves: “Behold, my coffin lies before me, behold, my deathto come! I am afraid of Your judgment, O Lord, and endless torment!” And at all hours of the day we will often repeat: “Lord, deliver me eternal torment, the evil worm and tartar!” After all, whether we remember or do not remember the Court, this Court cannot be avoided. But, if we remember, we can bypass its formidable definitions. This thought will teach us to withdraw from that which makes the Judgment terrible, and the fear of the Judgment will deliver us from the fearful condemnation.

Only let this thought not be idle in us;

Is there anyone today who can rightly judge himself and be rightly judged by others? Self-love hides us from ourselves and our conscientious judgment; the body and decent appearance shelter us from the insight of the persons around us. Out of God-forgetfulness, and without speaking, as if we are saying in ourselves: “God does not see!” It will not be there: we will all be open to ourselves, and others will see us, what we are in words, deeds and thoughts. Everyone, seeing himself, will be aware that he is visible to everyone and is taken in by the “lighter than the sun” eyes of God ( Sir. 23, 27 ). This consciousness of the universality of seeing sins will crush the sinner with its gravity and do what would be easier for him, if only the mountains fell and covered him, rather than stand like this, making an open goal for the eyes of both heavenly and earthly.

Today we are inventive in condescension and in various ways excuse ourselves before ourselves, before others, and before God. Then there will be no room for any excuses. And our conscience will tell us: “Why did you do this?” And in the eyes of others we will read: “What have you done?” And from the Lord a reproach will be imprinted in the heart: “Should you have done that?” These condemnations and reproaches from all sides will crowd into the soul, penetrate and amaze it, but there is nothing to justify and nowhere to hide. This new burden - the burden of universal condemnation of the unjustified - will weigh on the desolate sinner even more unbearably.

Nowadays, often the delay in investigative cases alleviates the fate of the criminal and beckons with the hope of being justified. It won't be there. Everything will happen in the twinkling of an eye: the Judgment without consequences, and the condemnation without references to the laws, and there will be no objections. At the beckoning of God, the righteous will separate from the sinners, like “sheep from goats” ( Matt. 25:32 ), and everyone will be silent, having nothing to say against this Judgment and condemnation. The last defeat of the sinner is awaited - the decision - and behold, one hears: “Come, bless! .. Get back, curse, into the fire!” ( Mt. 25, 34, 41). The decision is irrevocable and unchangeable, imprinting the fate of everyone for all eternity. Eternal eyelids will sound in the ears of the condemned sinner: “Go away, damned!” How the sweet word will please the righteous forever: "Come, blessed one!" This burden of rejection is the most unbearable burden that weighs heavily on unrepentant sinners.

That's what will happen! And this is what the Holy Church now wants to impress in our hearts ! Let us perceive with feeling this joylessness of the state of the sinner on the last day - the joylessness into which the then Judgment, condemnation and judgment will put him; let us perceive and take care to avoid it. No one can escape the Judgment. Everything will be as written. “Heaven and earth will pass away” , but the word of God that they will pass away and then there will be a Judgment “will not pass away” ( Matt. 24:35 ). Are we our own enemies? Not enemies. So let us hasten to avoid the trouble, hardship and despair that the Last Day threatens us with. How to avoid? Either righteousness or gracious justification. If you have no righteousness for which you could stand with those who are on the rightJudges, then be jealous in advance to justify yourself before God, having washed yourself in tears of repentance and cleansed yourself with feats of self-sacrifice - and you will be accepted among them by justifying mercy, if not by truth.

Behold, the favorable time for that is already beginning ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 )! The eve of Lent is already approaching. The contraction of the satisfaction of the needs of the flesh is then instituted to give more scope to the activities of the spirit. Get ready now! And run away from what the coming week is spoiled by, the evil customs of the world, as far as possible due to your conditional relationships and the weaknesses of your characters, so that we are sufficiently prepared to enter the field of fasting and fasting, to be cleansed, to be established in purity and to assert the opportunity for us to appear purified and the terrible Throne of the Judge of all - God. Amen.

February 26, 1861

In the meat-fare week (the secret of preparing an acquittal at the Last Judgment)

So the Judge will come. We will all appear before His Judgment Seat, so that everyone will perceive, “even with the body he did, either good or evil” ( 2 Cor. 5, 10 ). What will happen then, brethren, with us? What exactly will happen to each of us then?! Now let us mentally transport ourselves there and invite our conscience to determine that in advance.

See! Behold, before us, face to face, the Judge is righteous and impartial. Around the whole creature is reasonable - both heavenly and earthly. In ourselves are all our deeds, clearly visible: on our forehead, on our eyes and lips, on every member and feeling that served as an instrument for them; and we ourselves will see everything in ourselves, and others will see everything in us, and the eye of God will pierce us. There is nowhere to hide. The common court will justify or condemn us. This judgment will be echoed by our own judgment; and both will be sealed by the Judgment of God, which will remain eternally unchanged and will decide our fate forever.

So what do you think? What will our ear hear in that Hour - is it comforting: "Come, blessed" ( Matt. 25:34 ) or cheerless: "Depart, damned" ( Matt. 25:41 )?

Ah, brethren! Let us perceive this decisive moment in our feelings and think in advance about how we should be. That minute cannot be passed and the decision cannot be canceled! Let us enter into our conscience and ask it what exactly it wants to hear: "depart" or "come"? Conscience will not flatter if we sincerely want to hear its direct voice and do not confuse it with empty self-justification. So the eye of God definitely sees what we are in this Hour and what we stand for, condemnation or justification, and puts its testimony in the ear of the inner witness of our deeds, in their relation to God and His eternal Law! What prejudice does this inner witness of our deeds give us about us?

Everyone will say: “Who is clean?” But after all, that's the point, so that we recognize ourselves as unclean and jealous to be cleansed. For if at this moment, when our conscience recognizes us as unclean, we stood at the Judgment both from ourselves and from others, and from the Lord we heard such a sentence about ourselves, what would happen to us? Here come the executors of judgments, bind and plunge into "outer darkness" , where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" ( Matt. 8, 12 )! This is exactly what will happen if from now on we do not bother to change the formidable definition that is being prepared for us to a benevolent definition.

Don't ask how to do it. For who does not know? “Repent, and do not sin henceforth” - that is the whole secret of preparing an acquittal at the Last Judgment!

"Repent!" Is it big and difficult? The whole matter of repentance in a nutshell: "I have sinned, I will not!" How hard is it to say this? And meanwhile, what great power is hidden in this short word! At least in silence, someone, in his heart only, with his inner feeling, said: “I have sinned, I will not!” This inner word will sweep through all Heaven and there will produce universal joy. “ All the Angels rejoice in the one sinner who repents ” ( Luke 15:7 ), says the Lord. They rejoice, but for what? the misfortune that awaits the sinner at the Judgment is completely removed by this small repentant word: “I have sinned, I will not!”

Sin is imprinted in our nature, is imprinted in everything around us, and is written in the Book of Life. In all these places it will be visible on the Day of Judgment and, reflecting on us, will attract condemnation to us. But a repentant and contrite sigh: “I have sinned, I will not!” blots it out everywhere, so that not a single trace of it will remain anywhere to rebuke us. Just as a black dress is washed, beaten, rinsed, and thus whitened so that no trace of the former blackness remains in it, so the tears of penitent contrition and Confession whiten our nature, everywhere erase the traces of sin, blot out from the very book of the Judgment, so that at the Judgment the most a great sinner, for the sake of repentance, will appear sinless, and no grounds for condemning him will be found anywhere, because repentance destroys them all.

Sins, remaining in us not cleansed through repentance, from now on are still preparing a punitive determination for us at the Judgment. Repentance, while blotting out sins, henceforth cancels this definition. Such is the power of repentance. God sent a Prophet to the Ninevites with a threat that three more days - and Nineveh would turn, but the Ninevites repented, and God's determination was canceled ( Jon. 3, 4-5, 10 ). Another Prophet brought God's decision about the hour of death to King Hezekiah, but the king, sighing, prayed with tears, and more time was given to him to repent ( 2 Kings 20:1-6). You see how repentance and a tearful appeal to God changed the already established definition of God. Similarly, the definition that our sins prepare for us at the Last Judgment, and which is already predetermined by the state in which we now find ourselves, will completely cancel tearful repentance and confession of our sins. Precisely, it will cancel the definition, but if we do not change ourselves, it will remain unchanged, although the time has not come for it to be so. Our inertia in sin solidifies God's determination, while repentance evaporates it and destroys it. Let us hasten to this saving repentance while there is still time!

While there is time: this time will end with the end of our life. Who's to say when this will end? This is why we need to start repenting right now. Then the Lord revealed to us the mystery of the Judgment, so that, hearing about those condemned at it, everyone would look at himself, take pity on himself and, by repentance, hasten to save himself from eternal death. Would it be desirable for the Lord to condemn us? If it had been desirable, He would not have come to earth and would not have endured suffering and death for the sake of our salvation. But how it is impossible not to have a Judgment, then He announced it in advance, saying as if to us: “Look, this is what will happen! And that's what you need to do to avoid the impending disaster there! The Lord speaks of the Judgment, so that no one falls under judgment on it. As a good judge informs the inhabitants in advance that he is coming to them to sort out cases, so that they prepare for answers and not get confused, so the Lord informed us about the Judgment, so that we know in advance what will be there, and so we prepare ourselves to stand in the answers. How to resist? Then there will be no questions, if here, in Confession, to all questions that relate to our real sins, we express sincere confession and repentance, saying from the bottom of our hearts: “I have sinned, I will not!”

Let us enter, brethren, into these good intentions of God concerning us. Let us paint a picture of the Judgment in our memory and we will walk under it, as if under some kind of canopy. She will teach us how to avoid condemnation at this Judgment. The holy fathers, zealous for Christian perfection, planted their memory of the Judgment so deeply into their minds that they were inseparably with it, no matter what they did. And they did not pray otherwise than by mentally placing themselves at the Last Judgment, before the face of the Lord Judge, ready to pronounce the final verdict on them, and, realizing themselves in this position, they silently cried out: “Lord, have mercy! Lord have mercy!" Awakening from their sleep, they sang: “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming!” ( Matt. 25:6). Going to sleep, they cried out: “Your judgment, Lord, I fear and endless torment!” And at every hour of the day, even in every case, every minute meeting with the picture of the Judgment, carried in the mind, they aggravated their cry to the Lord: “Lord, have mercy! Lord have mercy!" Through this they acquired a “contrite and humble heart ,” which will not be humbled ( Ps. 50:19 ). Unceasing tears of compunction washed their souls from all impurity and revealed them pure and perfect before the merciful, willing God.

Let us also follow the same path of remembrance of the Last Judgment! It will give rise to contrition, tenderness and tears that will extinguish the fire prepared for us by our sins, if they remain unmourned. Amen.

February 23, 1864

In the week of meat-fare (about the Second and terrible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - abbreviated from the words of our holy father Ephraim the Syrian on the Second Coming)

My Christ-loving brethren! Hear about the Second and terrible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I remembered this hour and trembled with great fear, thinking about what would then be revealed. Who will describe it? What language will express? What kind of hearing will contain what is heard? Then the King of kings, having risen from the Throne of His glory, will come down to visit all the inhabitants of the Universe, make a settlement with them, and, as the Judge should, give a good reward to those who deserve punishment, and subject those who deserve punishment to executions. When I think about this, my limbs are seized with fear and I am completely exhausted, my eyes shed tears, my voice disappears, my mouth closes, my tongue becomes numb and my thoughts learn to be silent.

Such great and terrible miracles have not been from the beginning of creation and will not be in all generations! Time will be fulfilled, the last hour of the existence of the world will strike: a fiery river will flow with fury, like a fierce sea, will belt mountains and wilds and burn all the earth and works that are on it. Then, from this fire, the rivers will become scarce and the springs will dry up, while there, woe, “the stars will fall” , the sun will fade, the moon will pass by and the sky “will roll, like a scroll” ( Is.34, 4 ). Who can find such strength in himself to bear without a crushing shock the thought of this terrible change in the face of all creation?

Then the voice of the trumpet will be heard, surpassing all thunder, a voice that calls and wakes up all those who have fallen asleep from time immemorial, both the righteous and the unrighteous. And in the twinkling of an eye, every human breath will rise from its place, and all people from the four corners of the earth will be gathered for Judgment. For the great King, who has the power of all flesh, will command, and immediately with trembling and diligence they will give: the earth - its dead, and the sea - its own. What the beasts tore apart, what the fish crushed, what the birds plundered - all this will appear in the twinkling of an eye, and not a single hair will be lacking.

Here, everyone has gathered - and in trembling silence they are waiting for the “appearance of the Glory of the great God” of the Judge ( Tit.2, 13 ), whose descent will be opened by the appearance of the “sign of the Son of Man” ( Matt.24, 30 ), the appearance of the Cross, this scepter of the great King, seeing which everyone will understand that the King Himself will appear after him. And for sure, soon after that will be heard from the heights of heaven: “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming” ( Matt. 25, 6), behold, the Judge is approaching, behold, the King appears, behold, the God of all is coming to judge the living and the dead! Then, my brethren, from this voice the foundations of the earth will tremble - from limits to limits, then every person will feel oppression and fear and frenzy from the expectation of what is coming to the universe. Then the Angels will flow, the faces of the Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim will gather, and all the many-eyed will exclaim with strength and power: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! Who is ... who is ... and who is to come ... the Almighty! ( Rev. 4:8 ). Then every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth will cry out with trembling: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” ( Matthew 21:9). Then the heavens will open, and the King of kings, our marvelous and glorious God, will be revealed, like a terrible lightning, with great power and incomparable glory, as John the Theologian also preached, saying: “Behold, he is coming from the clouds of heaven, and every eye and his like shall see Him. probodosha, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn for Him” ( Rev. 1:7 ).

What fear and trembling and frenzy will be in that Hour! Who will endure this vision? And whoever endures the sight of Him, from whose face “heaven and earth” will flee ( Rev. 20:11 ). Heaven and earth will flee! Who, after this, is able to stand? And where will we, sinners, run when we see the thrones set and the Lord of all ages seated, when we see countless hosts standing in fear around the Throne? For then the prophecy of Daniel will be fulfilled: “In vain, until the thrones are set up; and the Old Denmi is here ... Thousands of thousands I serve Him, and we are standing by Him: the court is sitting, and the books are opened ” ( Dan.7, 9-10 ).

Oh, tightness, oh, tightness and vexation of the spirit! The impartial Judgment Seat opens and these terrible Books are opened, where our words and deeds are written, and everything that we have said and done in this life and that we thought to hide from God, testing "hearts and wombs" ( Rev. 2, 23 ). Oh, how many tears do we need for that Hour! Then with our eyes we will see, on the one hand, the ineffable Kingdom of Heaven, and on the other, the terrible torments that open up, in the middle, every knee and every human breath, from the progenitor Adam to the one born after all. There All mankind will be placed in the middle of the Kingdom and condemnation, in the middle of Life and death, in the middle of Paradise and hell. Everyone will be in anticipation of the terrible Judgment Hour, and no one will be able to help anyone.

Then everyone will be required to confess the faith, the commitment to Baptism, a faith that is pure from all heresy. Whether someone is great or small, we all the same confessed the faith and accepted the holy seal, all equally denied the devil, blowing on him, and all equally made a promise to Christ, bowing to Him. The renunciation that we give at Holy Baptism is expressed in few words, but according to the thought contained in it, it is vast. For in a few words we renounce everything, we renounce not one, not two, not ten bad deeds, but everything that is called bad, everything that is hated by God, we renounce Satan and all his deeds. What business? Hear: fornication, adultery, impurity, lies, wickedness, envy, poisoning, anger, blasphemy, enmity, quarrels, jealousy, drunkenness, idle talk, pride, idleness, mockery, slander, demonic songs, child corruption, divination, evocation of spirits. We renounce all this and the like, everything that everyone knows is the works and teachings of the devil, through renunciation at Holy Baptism. This renunciation and good confession will be demanded of each of us in that Hour and Day, for it is written:“From your words you will be justified” ( Mt.12 :37 ), and the Lord also says: “From your mouth I judge thee, evil servant” ( Lk.19:22 ).

These words of ours will either condemn or justify us at that Hour. According to them, everyone will be interrogated, and everyone - in his rank. Bishops will be questioned both about their own life and about their flock: they will demand from each the verbal sheep, which he received from the Chief Shepherd Christ. Similarly, the presbyters will also give an answer for their Church , and together the deacons. And every believer will give an answer for himself and for his house, for his wife, for children, for slaves and slaves, did he bring them up “in the punishment and teaching of the Lord” ( Eph.6, 4 ), as the Apostle commanded? Then kings and princes, rich and poor, great and small, will be asked about all the deeds that they have done, for it is written that “all ... we will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ” ( Rom.14, 10 ),“Let everyone receive, even with the body he has done, either good or evil” ( 2 Cor. 5:10 ).

What will happen after the deeds of all are investigated and announced before the angels and people, it is impossible to tell without tears and groans, because this will be the last. Then the Judge will separate us "from each other , as a shepherd separates sheep from goats" ( Matt. 25:32 ). the commandments of the Lord, were merciful, poor-loving, orphans, clothed the naked, visited prisoners in prison, interceded for the oppressed, looked after the sick, who wept, as the Lord said ( Matt. 5, 4), impoverished for the sake of the wealth kept in Heaven, forgave the sins of the brethren, kept the seal of faith indestructible and pure from all heresy. The Lord will set these “at the right hand ... and the goats at the left” ( Matt. 25:33 ), namely, those who are barren, angered the Good Shepherd, did not heed the words of the Chief Shepherd, were arrogant, self-serving, voluptuous, who are currently repenting , like goats, they play and bask, and all the time of their lives depend on gluttony, drunkenness and all sorts of joys and amusements, but they are not merciful to the needy, like a rich man who did not show pity to poor Lazarus ( Luke 16, 19-21 ).

Thus, dividing everyone, the Lord will say to those standing at the right hand : “Come, bless my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!” ( Mt.25, 34 ). Those who stand on their own will hear this bitter and stern sentence: “Depart from Me , damnation, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his aggel ... And these go into eternal torment, but the righteous into the Eternal Belly” ( Matt. 25, 41, 46 ).

I remembered some disastrous separation and I cannot bear it. Whoever has tears and contrition, weep, because in that terrible Hour, by a disastrous separation, everyone will be separated from each other and everyone will go to a resettlement from which there is no return. Then parents will be separated from their children, friends from friends, spouses from spouses, and even those who swore not to be separated from each other forever. Then the sinners will finally be expelled from the Judgment Seat and will be led to the place of torment by merciless angels, receiving shocks from them, beatings, gnashing their teeth, turning more and more often to see the righteous and that joy from which they themselves are excommunicated. And they will see that unexpressed light, they will see the beauties of paradise, they will see the great gifts that those who labor in goodness accept from the King of Glory. Then, gradually moving away from all the righteous, both friends and acquaintances, they will finally hide and from God Himself, having already lost the opportunity to see joy and that true light. Finally, they will approach the places of indescribable torment, and there they will be scattered and scattered.

Then they will see that they are completely abandoned, that all hope for them has perished and no one can help them or intercede for them. Then, finally, in bitter tears, weeping, they will say: “Oh, how much time we have wasted in negligence and how our blindness has deceived us! There God spoke through the Scriptures, and we did not heed; here we cry, and He turns His face away from us! What good have the ends of the world done for us? Where is the father who gave birth to us? Where is the mother who brought us into the world? Where are the brothers? Where are the friends? Where is the wealth? Where is the human voice? Where are the peers? Where are the crowded amusement places? There is no help from anywhere, they are abandoned by everyone: both by God and the saints. And there is no time for repentance, and tears are of no use. Would cry: “Save us, the righteous! Save, Apostles, Prophets, martyrs! Save, face of the Patriarchs! Save, rank of those who labored! Save, Honest and Life-Giving Cross! Save You, O Lady Mother of God, Mother of the Lover of God!" They would cry out like that, but they will no longer hear! And if they hear, what's the use? For there is an end to all intercession. In such torments of desolate despair, each one, finally and reluctantly, will be taken to the place of torment, which he has prepared for himself by his evil deeds,“Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” ( Mark 9:48 ).

So, did you find out what we will prepare for ourselves? So, have you heard what the negligent, lazy, unrepentant gain? Have you heard how those who laugh at the commandments of the Lord will be mocked? Have you heard how this soul-corrupting life deceives and seduces many? Let us see to it that we stand without condemnation before the Terrible Judgment in that tremulous and terrible Hour. About this terrible Day and Hour the holy Prophets and Apostles foretold, about this terrible Day and Hour the Divine Scripture from ends to ends of the Universe, in churches and in every place, cries and testifies. What for? For the sake of pleading with everyone: look, watch, listen, be sober, pray, have mercy, repent and be ready, “as if the day does not know an hour, the Son of Man will come” ( Matt. 25, 13 ). "Take care of yourselfbut not when your hearts are heavy with gluttony and drunkenness and the sorrows of life, and suddenly that day will come upon you ” ( Lk.21, 34 ). Leave the "way... wide" leading to destruction, and enter the "way... narrow" leading to the Belly ( Matt. 7:13-14 ). Mournful is the procession along this path, but blessed is repose; the procession is cruel, but the reward is joy; the procession is shy, but the place of rest is spacious. Walking on it: repentance, fasting, prayer, vigil, humility of mind, neglect of the flesh, concern for the soul, almsgiving, weeping, sighing, kneeling, labors and all kinds of malice. Walking along this path: to be reproached and endure, to be hated and not to harbor hatred, to suffer and repay good for this, to forgive, to lay down one’s soul for friends, and finally, to shed one’s blood for Christ, if circumstances so require. If anyone follows this narrow path, he will receive a blessed reward that will never end. But the wide way and wide gates lead to destruction. The procession along it is joyful in the present, but mournful there. Here it is easy, but there it is hard and painful. It's sweet here, but bitter there. This walk along the broad path is: fornication, adultery, impurity, zeal, envy, rage, strife, as well as laughter, cries, fun, pipes, dances, magnificent clothes, valuable suppers, lawless singing, soft beds, overeating, fraternal hatred, and, worst of all, impenitence and forgetfulness of the departure from this life. Many follow this path, and all will find a worthy refuge: instead of pleasure, hunger, instead of peace, illness, instead of laughter, weeping, instead of merry feasts, being with demons, instead of bright and luxurious dwellings, pitch darkness and fiery hell. Thinking about this end of the broad path, brethren, let us deviate from it and listen to the Lord, Who says: instead of bright and luxurious dwellings - pitch darkness and fiery hell. Thinking about this end of the broad path, brethren, let us deviate from it and listen to the Lord, Who says: instead of bright and luxurious dwellings - pitch darkness and fiery hell. Thinking about this end of the broad path, brethren, let us deviate from it and listen to the Lord, Who says: “Strive to get in through the narrow gate” ( Lk.13:24 ).

May the memory of the Last Judgment teach us this. Keeping this Day in mind, the holy martyrs did not spare their bodies, while others labored in the deserts and mountains and are now laboring in fasting and virginity. Having this Day in mind, blessed David wet his bed every night with tears and implored God, saying: “Lord ... do not enter into judgment with Your servant! For if you want to do it, then no living thing will be justified before you ” ( Ps. 142, 1-2). Let us approach, brethren, and we will begin this feat, before that Day has yet come. Let us precede the face of our God with confession, repentance, prayers, fasting, tears, hospitality. Let's wait until He apparently comes and finds us unprepared. Let us not stop repenting, imploring and preparing to meet the Lord - all together: husbands and wives, rich and poor, slaves and free, old and young.

Look, no one says: “I have sinned a lot, there is no forgiveness for me!” Whoever says this does not know that God is the God of the repentant and has come to earth to call "not ... the righteous, but sinners to repentance" ( Luke 5:32 ). But look, let no one dare to say: “I have not sinned!” Whoever says this is blind. No one is sinless, no one is clean from filth, no one is free from guilt, except for the One Who for our sake “has become poor , He is rich” ( 2 Corinthians 8, 9). Thus, let us not be ill with self-righteousness, but let us not despair of salvation, recognizing our sins. Have we sinned? Let's repent. Have you sinned a thousand times? Let us repent a thousand times. God rejoices in every good deed, but mainly in the soul of a penitent, for he bows down to her, accepts her with his own hands and calls, saying: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest!” ( Mt.11, 28 ).

Hearing these good promises and this sweetest voice of the Savior of our souls, come, let us worship and fall down before Him, confessing our sins. Let us not be lazy and let us not cease crying out day and night with tears, for He is merciful and undeceitful, and will undoubtedly bring about vengeance for those who cry to Him day and night. He is the God of penitents, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

February 7, 1865

Part 4. Cheesefare week

(on the matter of remembering where we fell from)

“Remember... from where thou hast fallen!” ( Rev. 2:5 ). So says the Lord to the Angel of the Ephesian Church in the Revelation of John the Theologian. But “ remember” not lightly and indifferently, but in such a way as to find in this an incentive to repentance and return to the former good deeds . ). This is the commandment that should be instilled unceasingly into every man and all fallen mankind. Remember the primeval bliss of the primeval, great and indescribable, lost through a fall, and thereby irritate your jealousy and concern for the uprising and the return of what you have lost. Thus, a sick person, remembering a pleasant state of health, more zealously desires recovery; the captive, remembering the joy of freedom, seeks liberation; the impoverished, remembering the peace of contentment, uses all sorts of ways to get rich again. I think that there would not have been a single careless and negligent in his salvation, if memory had not been impoverished, how good it was before the fall and how bad it became after the fall!

Of course, this memory could plunge into despair if we did not have at hand the means to improve our condition. But now, the patronizing goodness of God established on earth the image of rebellion and brought it closer to us - a trustworthy image of rebellion, already experienced by many and showing its wondrous power over them. In such a state, the matter of remembering from where we have fallen is the same as arousing thirst when a clean source of water is in front of our eyes, or arousing hunger when a plentiful meal is before our eyes. And this is the intention with which every year the history of the fall of the forefathers before the beginning of holy fast is presented to us. We are told through this: “Remember what you were before, what you have become now, and be jealous to rise up!” “Behold, now is an acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation!” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2).

But now, as if in defiance of God's cares for us, of all saving truths, little remembered, our fall, in the face of our forefathers, is least of all remembered. As if everything should be the way it is. Pity worthy oblivion! As if the royal daughter, being carried away by low deeds and for that having lost the mercy of the king-father and falling into a low state, became so disheartened that she would forget that she was not in her place and not in her form, this would be pitiful: and especially since the royal house is in sight, and there is a way to propitiate the king, and the king’s readiness to again accept his daughter and return everything to her is known and declared; in such an exact position is our soul, created in the image and likeness of God, when it does not contain in its thought what it was originally and what it has become now, and does not want to use the means given to her to return to the first dignity. It was placed in the light of knowledge, and now it is surrounded by the darkness of ignorance, doubt and delusion. She was filled with the world of thoughts, desires and conscience, and now in her is a struggle of thoughts with desires, thoughts and desires with conscience, a struggle from which wound after wound. There was sweet peace and complete contentment in her, and now one passion after another strikes the heart, at the very time when, by the satisfaction of passion, she longs to get herself self-gratification. From this internal disorganization and external sorrows, needs, illnesses, failures, disorganization. Is this a paradise of sweetness, in which you, soul, should be, according to your kind and purpose? Remember where you fell from and repent! The unnaturalness of our present situation should, it seems, be felt by everyone, living in misery all his life and experiencing all sorts of inconveniences and deprivations, meanwhile, something goes wrong. Others are so close to their position in the fall that they have no thoughts that this should not have been, they even prove that it should not be otherwise. What a pity!

Pitiful are all who do not feel the fall and do not seek revolt. All the more pitiful are Christians and those who live in the face of Christianity. Before us is the house of salvation, and in it we already partook of the healing forces operating in it; it is a pity if we came out of it, having tasted the food that ruined us. But it is even more pitiful if, standing outside, we look indifferently at the loss and in carelessness do not try to go inside again and enjoy the good things there. Wake up, brethren, your souls if they have fallen asleep. Wake up, saying: “Rise, soul sleeping and besotted with sins, rise, and Christ will sanctify you! You have already been sanctified, and you know how great is the bliss of the sanctified! Cry again about the same and - rise! “Behold, now is an acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation!” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ).

We have fallen by eating, we will force ourselves to rise with fasting; fallen by self-conceit, we will rise by self-abasement; fallen with impenitence, let us rise with tears of contrition; we have fallen in carelessness and forgetfulness of God; let us rise in concern for salvation and the fear of God; we fell by betraying ourselves to pleasures, we will rise with the cruelty of life and voluntary hardships; we have fallen estranged from the Church, let us rise by rushing to the house of God; fell, listening to shameful songs and allowing ourselves to dance, let us rise by listening to church songs and frequent bows; fallen in verbosity, rise in silence; fallen by absent-mindedness, let us rise by solitude and keeping attention; we have fallen by listening to empty speeches and reading empty books; let us rise by listening to the word of God and reading books that save our souls.

Here are a few more hours, and the saving time of fasting will come, inviting to the uprising. Let us use it at the direction of our wise and caring mother, the Holy Church. Let us take advantage, for we do not know whether such time will be given to us yet, and who wants to remain in the fall and fall into another life? Perhaps this is already our last year that we have been left alive to experience whether we will bear the fruit of repentance, whether we will be corrected. And, therefore, if we do not correct ourselves even now, we will be flogged and cast into the fire. With this in mind, from now on, let us set the intention, entering into fasting, to join together in the feats of resurrection from falls. This is what the Lord requires of us, this is what the Holy Church expects, this is what all the saints of God desire, who carefully think of us and sympathetically look down on the deviations of our paths! Amen!

March 5, 1861

In the week of cheese-fare (in Lent for the last time we were given time for repentance)

Holy Churchreminds us now of the fall of our forefathers. Her goal at the same time is that, remembering that we are in a place of exile, we expand and rise less, and more humble and lament, but especially so that, from the fall of our forefathers, passing in thought to our personal fall, we flare up with the spirit of jealousy to rise and regain what was lost by the fall. Then remember this and set before the beginning of the holy fast, which is primarily a time of repentance and self-correction. In this we must hear the tender voice of the compassionate Mother Church for us, with which she seems to say to each of us: “Have you fallen? Get up! Here the door of fasting and repentance is opened for you: take heart, enter with boldness and flow in this field without self-pity. Children of the Church and it would not be necessary to convince much, so that they would heed this invocation, but what shall we do with our negligent and careless soul? She does not listen, or, hearing, does not heed, or, having listened, by various twists and turns dissuades from the work to which she is invited for her own good. Let us go in to your soul and we will persuade it not to miss the present fast for nothing, but to use it for repentance and correction.

Somehow it has become so arranged with us that only by fasting we settle down a little, only by fasting do we find thoughtful thoughts about salvation. At other times, we allow ourselves liberties, sometimes on a very large scale, not without sin, considering them sinless, and fasting somehow sobers itself up thought, desires recognize the lawful measure that curbs them and obey it, although not always without grumbling. And many worries fall silent, and the concern for “one thing ... for need” appears on Wednesday ( Lk. 10, 42), although, like a frightened child, timidly making his demands. Such a good mood usually evokes a holy fast and it would be hard to believe that anyone missed it fruitlessly. However, it happens that, despite the saving effect of fasting, despite even the compulsion to self-correction felt during it, for others it is not counted among the days of salvation. Who does not need and who does not feel the need to correct what is wrong in themselves? But self-pity comes - the friend of carelessness and negligence - and drowns out these good movements. And so we begin to postpone the fulfillment of these requirements: first from the first day to the second, from the second to the third, then from the first week to the second or third, from the third to the fourth or last, and on the last something will interfere or some pretext and deferment will come up with crafty laziness. So the whole fast passes without fasting, Confession and Holy Communion. But just skip the fast - at another time there is nothing to expect, so that we would be engaged in the work of salvation. If during fasting, when everything is adjusted to this, and not only the church, but also the order of life is directed towards this, we will not do this, where are we going to get together to take up this work after fasting? So you will have to live again in carelessness and negligence, in the same sinful habits and passions, and in the same wrath of God until the next post. Who knows if we'll live to see it? What will happen if we die in a sinful and unrepentant state?! where shall we gather to take up this matter after Lent? So you will have to live again in carelessness and negligence, in the same sinful habits and passions, and in the same wrath of God until the next post. Who knows if we'll live to see it? What will happen if we die in a sinful and unrepentant state?! where shall we gather to take up this matter after Lent? So you will have to live again in carelessness and negligence, in the same sinful habits and passions, and in the same wrath of God until the next post. Who knows if we'll live to see it? What will happen if we die in a sinful and unrepentant state?!

We have almost lived up to this post - let us thank the Lord for this mercy, but we will hasten to take advantage of it with all readiness. Of course, for the sake of our salvation, the Lord was so pleased, despite our negligent and careless life. The length of our life is not in our power, but at the disposal of God. The Lord lengthens or shortens our days, judging by whether any good can be expected from us or not. The ungodly and sinners "do not half their days " ( Ps. 54, 24), that is, even half will not live as long as they would have lived if they had pleased God. Each of us in the Church of God is like a tree in a garden: those who live pleasing to God are good-bearing trees, but negligent and careless are the same as barren trees. The gardener looks at a barren tree for a year, looks at another, looks at a third, and then cuts it down and throws it into the fire. So it happens with us: the Lord waits from us for the fruit of repentance for a year, waits for another and a third, and then, seeing that there is nothing good from us, he delivers us into the hands of death and through it leads us to the righteous reward that awaits the careless. Remember the parable of the Savior about the barren fig tree ( Lk.13, 6-9 ). The householder says to the gardener: “Behold, the third summer I come and see no fruit on this fig tree , cut why does it take up space?" ( Luke 13:7). The gardener begged him to leave the barren one for another year, perhaps it would bear fruit, and if after that it did not bear fruit, then cut it. This is an image of how the mercy of God begs the truth for us, careless, year after year in expectation - will we not finally bring the fruits of repentance? Ah, brethren, who knows, perhaps this is the last time we are given this fast! Perhaps even now justice walks around us and with its ax, touching the root of our life, demands the cutting of us barren ones, and the mercy of God begs him to give us at least this post: shall we not repent, shall we not correct our lives, and shall we not do it later? what good. Let us help mercy to transcend truth, from now on putting in our hearts without fail in this post to take care of ourselves properly and straighten out everything that is faulty in our life, in our deeds, in our feelings and intentions. Entering the post, so let us form our thoughts, that this is the last time we have been given time for repentance: let's miss it - do not expect more such mercy. Let us enclose ourselves in this tightness, that either the labors of repentance, or death, and after death - Judgment and eternal torment! Perhaps the dream of carelessness will run away, and at least the feeling of self-preservation will arouse the spirit to its characteristic tension and liveliness of action! And so that this might have a stronger effect on us, let the following words of the Apostle resound constantly in our ears:“Or are you negligent about the riches of God ’s goodness and meekness and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? According to your cruelty ... and your unrepentant heart, you accumulate wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and the revelation of God’s righteous judgment” ( Rom. 2 , 4–5 ).

Of course, many, very many of you are disposed to act in this way, but are there not those who waver in spirit and relax in heart? Have pity on yourself, brethren! Put aside for a moment your pernicious inattention to the cause of salvation, and let's reason! There are those and those - and how many of them! - they are going to raise the labors of fasting and fasting from the very first days, and you and I do not think to disturb and disturb ourselves, but we build up as usual to spend time, “doing the will of the flesh and thoughts” ( Eph. 2, 3). In appearance - as if they are losing, and we are gaining, in fact - we are losing, and they are gaining! They will receive the forgiveness of sins, be at peace in their conscience, enter into peace with God, unite with the Lord in the Holy Mysteries and begin to enjoy the joy of life in pleasing God, while we will remain the same confusion and disorder inside, the same tightness and discontent, the same burden of sins. and passions, the same hopelessness and languor, which, however, will increase the severity of our situation in view of those who have corrected and rejoiced for the correction of life. Just as the shadow appears thicker when the lightness of the adjacent parts increases, so those more and more will ascend, and we will descend more and more. Why would we allow ourselves this? Is it not the same nature with us? Isn't that what our calling is? Isn't everything promised to us, what will they get? Why would we allow ourselves to experience such hardships? Do we pity ourselves? Oh, pity worthy of pity, with which we destroy ourselves forever! Are we afraid of work? But what is this work? This work seems difficult until we enter into it. And as soon as we begin to work, all its difficulty will disappear, because we will not work alone, but also the grace of God, helping diligent workers in every good deed. And even if it really is difficult for someone, is it possible to put this on the face, thinking about what is given for this small work?! And how to do it without difficulty? Yesterday Saint helping diligent workers in every good deed. And even if it really is difficult for someone, is it possible to put this on the face, thinking about what is given for this small work?! And how to do it without difficulty? Yesterday Saint helping diligent workers in every good deed. And even if it really is difficult for someone, is it possible to put this on the face, thinking about what is given for this small work?! And how to do it without difficulty? Yesterday SaintChurchglorified all those who labored in salvation. Look! Everyone worked: young men, and virgins, and wives, secular and spiritual, hermits and those living in the world, and no one has yet entered the Kingdom of God without labor! What is there to say about labor, when without it one can only improve ruin? And do not the pernicious ones bear labor and hardships? Oh, how many yes and what else! So, doesn’t it mean that we are ready to be in pernicious labor, but we don’t want to listen to salvific labor? Another will say: "Cases and circumstances interfere." And do not speak, it is worth wanting - and everything will be redone, and the circumstances will be settled favorably, and the work of fasting and fasting will be done soul-saving. God has given man the freedom by which he can make everything move around him. The hindrance is not in deeds, but in our self-love, self-pity and God-forgetfulness, in our blindness, insensitivity and negligence. Here they are

Let us arise (let us free ourselves) from these snares with which Satan traps us, the living, into his will. Let us rather listen to the voice of the apostles, waking us up from the sleep of carelessness: “The hour has already arisen for us from sleep... The night is past, and the day is drawing near. Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” ( Rom. 13:11-12 ). “Behold, now is an auspicious time! Behold, now is the day of salvation” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ). "Get up, sleep and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!" ( Eph.5, 14 ). Amen.

March 1, 1864

In the cheese-fare week (fasting seems gloomy until they enter its field)

Glory to Thee, Lord! We have still been honored to live to see holy fast, we are still given time to come to our senses, and readiness is still being expressed to accept us into the Father's arms of mercy. For three weeks we prayerfully cried out: “Open the doors of repentance for us, Giver of Life!” Behold, this saving time of repentance has drawn near! We stand at the entrance to the holy fast - a field of repentance and God's mercy to us. Let us approach with boldness and enter with desire. Nobody refuse. No one deviate indus (anywhere, to another place).

Fasting seems gloomy until one enters its field, but start - and you will see that it is light after night, freedom after bonds, relief after a hard life. Have you heard that the current Apostle said: “The night is gone, but the day is drawing near” ( Rom.13:12 )? Night is the time before fasting, and day is fasting. The apostle wants us to welcome fasting as desirable as we welcome the day after a long night. Take only to heart what it requires, what it gives, and what fasting promises, and you will see that it cannot be otherwise. For what does fasting require? Repentance and correction of life. What gives? Forgiveness and the return of all the mercies of God. What promises? Joy in the Holy Spirit here and eternal bliss there. Accept all this with your heart and you will not be able not to desire fasting.

Only flesh rises to fasting, and those who do not like fasting are carnal, although they do not want to put themselves in this category and they explain their alienation from fasting somewhat more plausibly: they do not want to leave a life free for the flesh, so they raise complaints about fasting. Our spiritual side loves fasting, longs for fasting, it is at ease in it. It would be necessary to say: “Arouse and develop the spiritual side in yourself, and you will be in harmony with fasting, as with your friend,” but in order to reveal this side, the Lord legitimized fasting. So self-compulsion is necessary in advance, unsweetened labor is necessary in advance, in order to later taste the sweet fruits. Let carnal reasoning eschew fasting, submit under the yoke of faith and heed the apostolic teaching: “Wisdom .... carnal deaththere is, but wisdom is the spiritual life and the world: for carnal wisdom there is enmity against God, for the law of God does not obey, it can be lower. Why those who follow this wisdom “cannot please God” ( Rom.8, 6-8 ).

This is what alienation from fasting for the sake of the flesh and subjecting oneself to carnal “wisdom” borders on: with the loss of the opportunity to please God, and even with enmity against God! Why, whoever has even a small spark of the fear of God, will not shy away from fasting and himself, in the light of this fear, will reflect all false pretexts for breaking it. One could say: “Revive the fear of God in yourself, and you will willingly enter the field of fasting, and without difficulty you will go through it all, from beginning to end,” but again, how to revive fear without fasting? Fuss, worries, empty entertainments, joys, passionate hobbies, or even just one crush of established relationships, do not allow you to enter into yourself, come to your senses and vividly realize your obligatory relationship with God! Therefore, one must force oneself to enter the field of fasting and fulfill all its requirements. Then vain desires, thoughts and passions will subside, the voice of conscience will be clearly heard and the consciousness of God and responsibility before Him will vividly arise. And after that, maybe

When you enter this state, then by themselves all the rights of the flesh to the benefits that we provide it in ordinary life will seem strange and ridiculous, but until you enter, there is nothing to expose the falsity of pretexts to please the flesh, distracting from fasting. These accusations have nothing to be grafted onto to produce their effect. One thing can be advised: bypass your whole life, no matter how long you promised yourself, stand by your deathbed and consider whether your conscience can promise you a good outcome if it immediately finds you the way you are now? If he cannot, then know in advance that at that moment you will be ready to lift the burden of ten, hundreds, thousands of fasts at once, just to gain pardon, and this will not be given to you. So instead of experiencing such a bitter rejection then, here is a fast given to you, which alone is enough to receive pardon: enter into it cheerfully and lead it according to the intention of God. Who knows, maybe this is the last post for you and your last mercy? If you miss it, don't wait any longer.

And why miss? They have lived enough, doing the will of the flesh and thoughts: it is time, “from sin, to righteousness” to live ( 1 Pet. 2, 24 ). “The past time is enough for you... ,” says the Apostle, “ who walked in uncleanness, in lusts, in drunkenness, in goat-voicing, in covetousness, and spilling out full of fornication” ( 1 Pet. 4, 3-4 ). It is time to put aside "deeds of darkness" and put on "weapons of light" . It's time to start walking "seemly" , as "in the days" , and stop "dealing with the flesh ... to create in lust" ( Rom.13, 12-14 ). For if we live according to the flesh, then“we have to die” , and if we begin to kill “deeds of the flesh” with the “spirit” , then “we will live” ( Rom.8, 13 ). Now the fall of the forefathers is remembered, and in them is the fall common to all of us. What did it mediate? Indulgence of the flesh and violation of fasting and abstinence. Fall is death, rise is Life. If you want to penetrate into the Belly, enter into the feat of fasting, and all the more so because you cannot help but realize that your own falls came from the same source.

It seems that there would be enough incentives to decide on the bitterness of the flesh in the exploits of self-mortification during the upcoming fast. But a strange thing is happening with us: those who could be given privileges, those who embitter themselves most during fasting, and those who should be most embittered by fasting, those very wide give themselves privileges. The righteous work hard for themselves, but sinners allow themselves benefits after benefits. Is it not because the righteous feels himself a sinner, and sinners place themselves in the ranks of the righteous? And if so, what better indication of self-blindness, in which carnal love keeps us, and what more reasonable reason for not listening to him and acting contrary to him?

Let us enter courageously into the field of fasting. May there be no timid carpenters among us who tremble for their lives if they are deprived of any food or any pleasure! May there not be between us also superstitious carnivores, who have turned the cherishing of the flesh into a law, by virtue of some special teachings of their own. Such people were put to shame at the beginning by the Apostle, calling them enemies of the “Cross of Christ, who is the end of perdition, who is the belly of God, and glory in their study, who are wise on earth” ( Phil. 3, 18-19 ). Today, many teachings are heard that expand the paths of life, and many customs have already entered, in which our flesh is at ease. But let us remember the true word of the Lord:“Enter through the narrow gate: as a spacious gate and a wide path, lead into destruction, and multiply the essence of those who enter it. That a narrow gate and a strait path lead into the stomach, and there are few of them who find it ” ( Mt. 7, 13-14 ).

Let us also cleave to those few and enter the gates of oppressive fasting that open before us with courage, not allowing ourselves to be wisely interpreted and self-willed deviations from that which has been legitimized so wisely and which has been so salutarily fulfilled and is being fulfilled by all who understand and understand the purpose and price of life in flesh not for the sake of the flesh ( Rom.8, 12 ). Amen.

February 6, 1866

Part 5. On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent

(the main thing for us is the cleansing of conscience)

Thanks be to the Lord, who has made it possible for us to still live up to the holy fast and still begin the field of salvific fasting! But, brethren, let us take care and use this mercy properly, so that it may serve us for salvation, and not for condemnation.

The purpose of our fasting is preparation for the uncondemned acceptance of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, for the acceptance of the Lord Himself, Who says: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6:56 ). As the Lord is pure, and we are impure, then the communion of the Holy Immaculate Mysteries of Christ is preceded by the purification of our conscience and the receipt of all forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. Whoever is pure, Christ the Savior will undoubtedly communicate with him. He is inquisitive, He seeks communication with us, and if he does not communicate, the reason for this is our impurity. It has become, the main thing for us is the cleansing of conscience and receiving forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. This is what we turn now all the care and care.

The one who repents properly will be cleansed in conscience and will receive forgiveness. Now the question is: who should repent properly? The one who recognizes his sins and confesses them sincerely, having confessed, laments over them and mourns them, having repented and mourned, he sets a firm intention not to offend God with his sins anymore, and, finally, in these dispositions humbly confesses all his sins before the confessor in order to receive permission in them and appear before the Cup of the Lord justified and pure before the eyes of God.

All this is known to you and has already been done by you more than once, so that you need to talk about it only to remind you that, despite the frequent passage of this path, it will still remain the same, there is no other, and if someone began to invent a new one, would have done useless work.

So, take care again to know your sins and confess them. To know one's sins means to say that such and such a sin was committed by us, and to confess to them means to condemn oneself in them, to say: "Guilty", not allowing any excuses and apologies. “I have sinned, I am guilty” - these two words must be pronounced first of all, pronounced sincerely.

Look, in what and how have you sinned? I don't think it was difficult. The commandments are known and there is a conscience: the commandment will indicate what we should have done, and the conscience will testify whether we did it or not. Passion, which must be overcome, and sins, with which we most insult the Lord, cannot hide from our attention: they stand in the foreground and are irresistibly crowded in the mind. This, according to the word of the Lord, is not a knitting needle, but “a log ... in the eye” ( Mt. 7, 3)! Here, impose on them all the severity of self-examination and self-condemnation: for there is deceit in our sinful heart, that it is ready to judge itself strictly in everything except its main weakness - moral, while everything else, except for the main sins, is morally small. And it turns out that with a non-strict attention to the matter, we are only able to “peel a mosquito” and “devour a camel” ( Matt. 23, 24) at our inner court. First of all, correct this wrong in yourself, that is, recognize your main passion and your main sins and condemn yourself for them, not allowing any excuses. And then turn to the knowledge of other sins, side ones, which, compared with the first, can be called small, few, unintentional, accidental. For this look through the commandments of the Decalogue ( Ex. 20, 3-17 , Deut. 5, 7-21 ) and the commandments about the Beatitudes ( Matt. 5, 3-12) and see what commandment is violated and what virtues are lacking in the heart? Just as in a clean mirror, when one looks into it with unclosed and unpowdered eyes, small specks are visible on the face, so all our transgressions and sins will be revealed in words, deeds and thoughts, when we force our conscience to look into the mirror of the commandments of God, indicated in the word of God. . It remains only to apply to this the condemnation of ourselves, the consciousness of our guilt, and this will come when we reject any justification of ourselves by anything whatsoever, we do not begin to excuse ourselves either by temperament, or by the circumstances of life, or by the type of service and conditions of relationships, or by hobbies, or ignorance. - in a word, nothing, but we will make it so that, as soon as a sin is noticed, sincerely say: “Guilty! Irresponsibly guilty!"

Having acknowledged the sins, one must mourn them, lament that they have been done. He who sincerely said: “Guilty” is not far from saying: “Why did I do all this?”, to regret it, to shame himself and be sick before the Lord, to be afraid of His Judgment and the misfortune that awaits him who remains unjustified in their sins! Not far from this, however, and this also requires labor on oneself, self-government and self-compulsion, for there is a petrification of the heart, according to which, both conscious of sin and having nothing to justify in it, they say: “What is it?” So it is necessary for the handle of reasoning to take the hammer of the crushing truths of God and to strike the hardened heart with them until it softens, breaks down and sighs. Remember the inexpressible mercies of God shown to you in creation, Providence, and even more so in Redemption, and how you turn out to be ungrateful, remember the perfections of your nature, humiliated by you, remember the bitter fate that you deserved and may not be far from you, remember the former peace and the present burden of the spirit, remember how many times you said: “I won’t! I won't!" - and you kept sinning, and even more and more stubbornly than before, remember that no one forced you, you yourself, out of your evil disposition, sinned and offended in the face of God, Who sees everything, and His hand, with which He stopped you, you repelled. Remember death, Judgment, hell, remember everything else that you hope to break your stubborn heart. Disturb him in every possible way, excite him and set him in motion. To these reflections, add a prayer to the Lord, so that, as the Lord of all, He will give you control over your heart and, like a fire that has entered, boil the stubbornness of your heart and deliver you from petrified insensitivity. Use everything to reach the sighs of the heart, for this is the root of repentance. This is preceded by the knowledge of sins, followed by the determination not to sin. But the previous one is useless and do not expect the next one, if there is not this link connecting them - heartfelt sorrow for sins.“Sorrow” only, “even according to God, repentance unrepentantly (a firm determination not to sin) works for salvation” ( 2 Corinthians 7:10 ). What kind of repentance, in which there is no such sadness, oppression and contrition?!

Following the sickness of the heart about sins, the intention will come to lag behind them, not to offend the Lord with them anymore and not to destroy oneself. And this will be followed by the confession of sins, the most sincere, and their resolution, the most effective. And repentance will be accomplished, truly saving.

Grant, Lord, to all of us in these days to be worthy of this gift of God! And what’s the use if without feeling, with boredom or distraction, we stand at the services, annoyed that they drag on for a long time, we spend the time free from services half asleep and inactive, then we coldly say in spirit: “Sinful” - about sins, about whom they will ask, and having no thought that our main goal should be the perfect correction of life? What's the use? This will mean - to fulfill the custom of fasting, and not to fast for salvation. “Be careful how dangerously you walk” ( Eph. 5:15 ), especially in these days, when the enemy, not tempting sins, contrives to make useless the means given to us by the grace of God to cleanse from sins and thus continue his dominion over us. Amen.

March 8, 1861

On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (on the knowledge of sins and self-knowledge)

For more than one day we have been going through the feat of fasting and fasting: the flesh is already quite humble, thoughts have calmed down, attention has been established. It is time now to take up the final preparations for Repentance and Confession. Repentance with Confession is the heart of fasting. The previous exploits serve as a preparation for them, and Holy Communion crowns and completes everything. Without real Repentance and Confession, ascetics will remain fruitless, and Holy Communion will not be for the healing of soul and body. Let us enter into ourselves and deal with this properly. Confession of sins does not present great difficulties when a person has time to control himself and set the intention to leave sin, but he does not control himself until he repents, does not repent until he condemns himself, and does not condemn until he knows his sins. Thus, the initial work in Repentance is the knowledge of one's sins.

Now, everyone, enter into yourself and, first of all, take up the consideration of your life and everything that was faulty in it. Of course, everyone is ready to say and say about himself that he is a sinner, and not only says, but often feels himself to be such, but this sinfulness appears to us in us in a vague and indefinite form. This is not enough. In approaching Confession, we must definitively explain to ourselves what exactly is unclean and sinful in us, and to what extent? One must know one's sins clearly and separately, as if numerically. To do this, do this: put the Law of God on one side, and your own life on the other, and see in what they are similar and in what they are not similar? Either take your deeds and bring them under the Law to see if they are lawful, or take the Law and see if it was carried out properly in your life or not? For example, you were offended and took revenge: Is this what the Christian law says? He saw the errors of others and condemned: does he follow the commandments of Christ? He did something good and stood up or trumpeted before himself: is it permissible for a Christian to do this? Or the law sayschurchGod's to walk without laziness and stand in it reverently, in attention and prayer: was this fulfilled? The law commands not to lust, not to be angry, not to envy, not to appropriate someone else's, and so on: was our behavior consistent with these rules? .. So go through the whole Law, and your whole life. But in order not to omit anything in this important matter of self-examination, it is good to keep some kind of order in it. Imagine more clearly all our obligations in relation to God, neighbor and ourselves, and then look more precisely and in more detail at your life in all these respects. Or go over the commandments of the Decalogue, one by one, with all the particular prescriptions contained in them, and see if you have fulfilled everything required by them? Read also, who can, the Savior's Discourse on the Mount, where He explains the ancient Law, filling it with the Christian spirit, or read the Apostolic Epistles in the last chapters, which set out the deeds and orders binding on Christians in general reviews: for example, from the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans or from the 4th Epistle to the Ephesians, the Epistle of the Apostle James and St. John the Theologian First and so on. Look into all this, as in a mirror, and you will see where there is a stain or disgrace in you.

As a result of such a review of life, among our deeds, words, feelings, thoughts and desires, a multitude of either directly illegal or semi-lawful will be revealed, such, that is, in which intentions were not entirely pure, although they are outwardly and in accordance with the law, there will be a lot of and, perhaps, all life will turn out to be made up of nothing but bad deeds, like an unbroken chain or a continuous series of ugly and disgusting products.

But this is only the beginning of self-knowledge and should not stop there. One must go further in the knowledge of one's sinfulness, or enter deeper into one's sinful heart. Under deeds and words, under private thoughts, desires and feelings, there are constant dispositions of the heart that serve as their source, the totality of these dispositions constitutes the personality of a person and determines his character: for this reason, they especially need to be known. There is not much work here: our conscientiousness before us will not allow us to hide what our heart possesses and what kind of rulers dwell in it? And even a tangible one can be pointed out as a witness, namely: which actions are unkind more often break out, and moreover with such force that we cannot control ourselves, for those it is necessary to believe in the heart a corresponding inclination, or passion, which serves as their constant producer . If a,

Such a consideration will lead us to the knowledge of the passions ruling in us, or one that prevails over all. You know that self-love is the root of all evil in us. Pride, selfishness and passion for pleasures come out of self-love, and all other passions already come from them. Everyone who sins has them all, but not everyone has them to the same extent: one has pride, another has selfishness, and a third has a passion for pleasure. And the proud one is not a stranger to selfish views and pleasures, but easily overcomes them when satisfaction with them can humiliate him, and the self-serving one is ready to console himself if it costs him nothing, and so on. So, for everyone, one passion dominates, while others stand, as it were, in the shadow and in submission to it. This dominating one must be seen and determined, so that later it would be possible to act more decisively on it. One holy father says:

But even further one must go in knowing oneself. After all, it is necessary to determine the general spirit of our life, or its distinguishing feature, namely: whom do we serve? To the Lord, or to yourself and sin? What do we mean? Yourself or the Lord - His glory and pleasing Him? Who do we always stand for? For the name of God or for your own? This feature determines what we are in ourselves and what should we expect for ourselves? The knowledge of this is headed by self-knowledge. This is a general conclusion from the foregoing, which will express itself in the conscience, be clearly defined in the consciousness, and be confessed before the face of the Omniscient Lord.

Thus, finally, the whole picture of our sinfulness and the whole history of our sinful life will be imagined: deeds, feelings and dispositions, and the main spirit of life! Following this, one must mourn for oneself and mourn for one's sins.

Knowing your sinfulness, do not be a cold spectator of it. Don't go through it mentally with the same indifference as one walks through a foreign field, neglected and overgrown with bad grass. Bring this knowledge closer to conscience and together with it begin to arouse in your heart salutary repentant feelings. These feelings should naturally occur in us by themselves, but this is not always the case. The heart is hardened by sin. Just as a laborer becomes rude from the nature of his work, so does the heart of a person who betrays himself to sin and passions for menial work, digs horns (pomace of olive fruits that went to feed pigs) and feeds on them. Therefore, it is not easy to soften it when it is necessary to raise it to repentance. Here is another work, and a more significant work, for in the work of repentance everything comes from the feelings of the heart!

Coming to this, first of all, force yourself to come to self-accusation, strain to arouse in yourself a feeling of guilt, so that in the depths of your heart it says: “Guilty!” There will be a struggle with self-justification, or an apology for one's falls and sins. In order to drive them away, remove everything from your attention, leave yourself alone and God the Judge, and reproach yourself without concealment: you knew that it was not necessary to sin - and you sinned, you could refrain and avoid passion - and did not use your autocracy for the good, and your conscience abhorred you, and you with contempt (with disdain) drowned out this voice of God in you. Then consider the places, times and circumstances of your sinful deeds and extract information from everything that would make your heart and your conscience imbued with a sense of guilt and cry out: “Guilty! I have nothing to justify!

By conscientiously performing this action of reproof, you will heartily affirm all your sins behind you, confess that you are guilty of this, and of the other, and of the third - you are to blame for everything, you will put on, as it were, your sins and feel that they lie on you with all your sins. with your weight, you recognize yourself as unanswerable in them and you will cry out: “Cursed am I!” ( Rom. 7:24). After this happens in your heart, hasten to arouse or torment from the heart, already predisposed to it, the painful feelings that make up the content of true repentance, namely: sadness that you have offended God, shame that you have brought yourself to such a malfunction, pity, that he could refrain and did not refrain, and annoyance at his sinful arbitrariness, not heeding any suggestions of reason and conscience. These feelings will of themselves be ready to be reborn from the heart after the recognition of sins and your guilt, but you yourself help them develop and irritate them more and more. Let the soul burn in them as in fire: the more it burns and the stronger the burning, the more saving. The limit to which this pain for sins must be brought is disgust for sins and aversion from them. In this aversion is the support of the determination not to sin and the hope of self-correction. Whoever has an aversion to sin has become outside of it, or cast it out of himself, and now has complete freedom to act without feeling its inclinations. This is the moment when you can boldly begin the vow not to sin, which will be pronounced in your heart before the face of the Lord. Then fall down before Him and say: “I won’t! I will never sin, even if I had to die, just save me and have mercy! This heartfelt vow should crown feelings of repentance and testify to their sincerity. He is not in a word, but in a feeling, and makes an inner covenant of the heart with God, restores the religion of the heart. “I won't! I will never sin, even if I had to die, just save me and have mercy! This heartfelt vow should crown feelings of repentance and testify to their sincerity. He is not in a word, but in a feeling, and makes an inner covenant of the heart with God, restores the religion of the heart. “I won't! I will never sin, even if I had to die, just save me and have mercy! This heartfelt vow should crown feelings of repentance and testify to their sincerity. He is not in a word, but in a feeling, and makes an inner covenant of the heart with God, restores the religion of the heart.

Until now, I only had the intention to bring your attention. Begin by recognizing your sinfulness, go through self-condemnation and painful feelings of repentance, and end with the determination not to sin, securing it with a vow before the Lord - to be otherwise serviceable in life. Whoever passes through the whole series of these actions, it will not be difficult for him to openly reveal all his impurity in Confession, he will bring a complete, sincere, merciless Confession to himself and for that he will receive an omnipotent permission from the Lord, through the mouth of his spiritual father, which he will fill with deep peace and joy his whole being. The grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which could not dwell in a sin-loving heart, will again inhabit it, and it will appear renewed, as it first came out of the font of Baptism.

May the Lord and our Savior vouchsafe this great and inexpressible mercy to all of us! Amen.

March 4, 1864

On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (a spiritual father is the face of all mankind, do not be ashamed to expose yourself at confession)

Our Lord and Savior calls everyone to Himself, saying: “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand!” ( Mt.4, 17 ). Let us listen to this comforting voice and hasten to the Lord. The Kingdom of God - what a great blessing! And Repentance - what an easy, handy and quick remedy! Especially in these days, when the order of life, and the common voice, and the example, and this touching, penetrating divine service, crushed by compunction, against the will, attract tears and repentance! Correctly, the holy Apostle, before the beginning of Lent, on Cheesefare Sunday, announced to everyone: “Behold, now is an auspicious time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ). It is auspicious because the lulled sinner never hears so many excitatory appeals:“Get up, sleep... and Christ will sanctify you” ( Eph. 5:14 ), as now. And you do well that, having heeded this invitation, you flow with such zeal to the doors of repentance. Proceed more boldly, push (knock) more relentlessly! The Many-Merciful One will open, stretch out His hands to you, and accept You in His arms.

The matter of Repentance is simple - one sigh and the word: “I have sinned, I will not!” But this sigh must pass through Heaven in order to become an intercessor at the Throne of Truth, and this word must blot out from the Book of the Life all the writings that signify our sins there. Where will they get such power? In ruthless self-condemnation and in hot contrition. This is where all our repentant zeal will be directed: soften and contrite your heart, and then, at the hour of Confession, do not be ashamed to reveal everything that shames you before God and people.

In the matter of fasting, the most difficult thing seems to us to go to the spirit and open ourselves to our spiritual father, but in reality this should be the most gratifying action. Doesn't it please the one who is covered with wounds to receive healing? Who is stained with all uncleanness, to be washed? Bound by bonds to get freedom? But this is the power of priestly permission to confess. We come in wounds - we leave healed, we come unclean - we leave whitened, we come in bonds - we leave free. This is the promise of God: “Speak your iniquities first, that you be justified!” ( Is.43, 26 ).

“You will be justified” undoubtedly, but first you “spoke ... your iniquities” without concealment. Know that only an open wound is healed, only exposed impurity is washed away, only the indicated bondage is allowed. Look out for the wretched, but not unhealed, unblemished and unreleased go away!

The Lord is at work here. The spiritual father represents His face and speaks His word. The Lord knows your sin, and you mentally cannot but acknowledge it before the Lord, but the Lord wants to know whether you would convict yourself of sins before Him, if He Himself stood before you, or would begin to lock yourself up like the ancestors. That is why he made it possible for you to show His face to you in the spiritual father, who confesses you, commanding him to speak from His face the word of permission, which, therefore, being uttered on earth by a weak creature, is imprinted in Heaven by the power of God.

And another face is represented by the spiritual father - the face of all mankind. Whoever is ashamed to rebuke himself in Confession, let this shame drive away with the thought that here is shame for shame: a lesser shame for a greater shame, a saving shame for a joyless and useless shame! Before the face of all mankind, all our evil deeds will once be exposed and will cover us with such shame that we would rather agree to be heaped under the mountains than to be subjected to it. So the Lord instituted shame before one, so that through this he could deliver from shame before the whole of mankind. There is one pernicious deceit in our hearts: sometimes all sins are revealed willingly, except for their main one - the one that most shames and covers our face with shame. Most often this is a carnal sin, but any other can fall into this category. Who has such sickness he is ready sometimes to lift all the feats and perform all sorts of virtues, if only the beloved disease remains inviolable. And the Lord has such a law: “Give me no alms when you suffer from unchastity; Open your wound to be healed and adorned with the opposite virtue. Be inspired, every soul, to overcome yourself especially in that which resists overcoming.

This unworthy fruit of Repentance is the result of inadequate preparation for Confession. Confession is preceded by fasting in the labors of fasting, solitude, vigils and prayers. This part of a strict life, embittering and crushing the flesh, was established so that under this external achievement, contritely repentant movements of the heart would be conceived and completed. It is necessary as a benefit, but without repentant feelings, it has no purpose and loses its meaning. Whoever crushes himself only outwardly, one cannot yet say that he already has the strength for a complete, shameless Confession, but whoever crushes himself inwardly as well, his Confession is pure, full, unconcealing. Whoever recognized his sin, recognized himself as guilty of it, mourned it and began to abhor it, he already inwardly, with the mood of his heart, said before God: “Guilty! I won't!" Such is ready to confess before the whole world, and not only to the spiritual father. And that's where the root of the healing of repentance is in heartfelt contrition for sins with disgust towards them!“A contrite and humble heart God will not despise” ( Ps. 50:19 ). Soften your heart, melt it with contrition, and it itself will cast out everything impure from itself, and Confession will burn it all with the fire of shame and God's permission.

A tearful and aching heart attracts wisdom, which teaches the penitent to act in such a way in Repentance, both internally and externally, to reap its fruits with full hands, which include not only pardon and forgiveness, but also a better complete change of heart, from which is the correction of life. . The deeply contrite one is fully confessed and, according to Confession, is completely new. Remember the examples of Mary of Egypt, Taisia, Evdokia, Moses Murin, David, the robber and others. About such a change, and let everyone now fasting and preparing for Confession be jealous!

Contrition and Confession, through permission, produce a combination of the Divine and human elements in Repentance, from which a new creature emerges, as at the beginning, from the font of Baptism. May the most merciful Lord grant you all this, and leave the clinic of Repentance, all healed in everything and completely renewed, in all the feelings and dispositions of your heart, so that from now on you will love what you were cold before, and hate what you were addicted to before. to love instead of anger, meekness, instead of pride, humility, instead of drunkenness, sobriety, instead of fornication, chastity, instead of envy, benevolence, instead of hatred, friendliness, instead of stinginess, generosity, instead of voluptuousness, abstinence, instead of laziness, diligence, instead of absent-mindedness, sedateness, instead of warring, peacefulness, instead of gossip and slandering good speech and observing the honor of one’s neighbor, in a word,

One good penitent, when, after confession, the comrades of his former unkind life invited him to the usual pleasures, answered with firmness: “I am no longer the same!” This is the mood in which we must also appear at the end of the race of fasting, so that when ordinary passions arise with a demand for satisfaction, all our bones say to them in response: “We are no longer the same!”

And it will be so if we recognize our sins, we recognize their guilt and weep for them, and we have disgust for them, and without concealment we confess them to our spiritual father, setting a firm intention not to repeat them again, for then the power of God will descend into us and we will appear created “in Christ Jesus to do good works... that we may walk in them” ( Eph. 2:10 ), turning away from all evil. Amen.

February 17, 1865

On Wednesday of the week of the first Great Lent (sorrow for sins and a decisive change for the better is the heart of fasting)

Having entered the feat of fasting, we humble ourselves by fasting, vigil, going to church , standing for long services, prostrations, prayers at home, reading soul-saving books. Blessed are these labors, usually lifted up by all those who fast! They are so necessary that without them fasting is not fasting, but one should not let go of the thought that all of them are only means, the goal is outside them, and if they are not directed towards this goal, then one can work in them in vain. We will bear the burden, but we will not taste the fruit. “Be careful, brethren, how dangerously you walk!” ( Eph.5, 15 ).

We fast in order to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries, but Holy Confession and Holy Communion complete the work of fasting, graciously imprinting those heart changes that must arise, mature and be affirmed during fasting. When we confess, we usually say: "I have sinned, I will not." This external word must be an expression of internal dispositions and feelings, which must be formed in the heart before this. In order to sincerely say: "I have sinned, I will not," one must vividly recognize one's sins and set a firm intention not to succumb to their enthusiasm anymore. Only with this contrition for sins and with this firm intention not to sin is Confession red, only with this it reveals its grace-filled power, only under this condition is it a healing cure for mental illnesses and a bath that washes away the filth of the heart. And this is a decisive change for the better, produced by deep pain for sins, and is the goal of all the feats of fasting, which we now raise. Then fasting, then standing in prayer, then withdrawal from ordinary affairs, prostrations, and so on, in order to soften their soul with them and help it ascend into“sorrow ... even according to God” and to “unrepentant repentance for salvation” ( 2 Corinthians 7:10 ). Since it is only with this that Confession is proper, and only with proper Confession and Holy Communion reveals all its saving effect, it means that this sorrow for sins and this decisive change for the better constitute the heart of repentance. All our attention and all diligent diligence and self-effort should be directed here.

Sickness about sins, vexation at them and disgust for them, it seems, should be so natural in the soul that it would not even be necessary to remember about it. Sin is a wound of the soul. If there is a wound on the body - we feel pain and hasten to heal the wound: it should be so in the soul, in relation to sin! It happens, however, not at all: sin, wounding the soul, also brings with it some kind of stupefaction, in which the one who is enslaved to sin does not see his misfortune, does not feel it and has no care to get rid of it. Blindness, insensitivity and carelessness are the legacy of love of sin, which then keeps the sin-lover in the realm of sin in a hopeless situation. The sinner is justly likened to one who is plunged into a deep sleep, and he must strongly shout: “Get up, sleep” ( Eph. 5:14 ) so ​​that he gets up.

And this is what we now have to do with our souls: awaken it from the sleep of sin, bring it to the point where it sees the danger of sin, feels this danger and takes care to get rid of it. Ask how to do it? I will answer: no one can do this for you except yourself. You yourself need to go inside yourself and, standing before the soul lulled by sin, wake it up from this sleep, as anyone can and as he can. No third-party person can penetrate into this sanctuary of yours, and what is to happen there cannot be accomplished by any outward deed and feat: everything there is accomplished by your secret ranting with your soul, before the face of the One Lord, from Whom nothing is hidden. Talking with oneself, persuading the soul is the main method for awakening it from a sinful sleep.

Get inside yourself and start acting in good faith! After all, you know everything about you: your passions and your falls into sin are known. All this is known to the Lord, Whom you cannot but see from your heart. There is nothing to hide. We can hide from people who are outside of us, but where can we hide from ourselves and from the Lord? Take this clear-sightedness of yourself before the Lord as the starting point when debating with your soul. Say to her: “There is nothing to distort, soul, and that passion is bad, and this fall into sin is terrible, and such and such a habit is bad! Commandments clear and definite are broken, and the judgment for breaking them is clear and definite. Behold, before our consciousness and the Lord, who gave the commandments and determined the judgment! There is nowhere to dodge: it remains either to die with the condemned, or it is necessary to hasten to get out of this pernicious state. Having conscientiously listened to this discourse before the Lord, you will put yourself in a hopeless position for salvation, in contrast to the hopeless situation in which love of sin keeps you for your destruction. Fear for yourself, for your eternal fate, will be in your hands the lever by which you will turn over all your inner being and make a saving change there.

I repeat again that you yourself must produce this in yourself: no one outside can do this for you. The soul of each is dark for the other. Only for the man himself it becomes clear when he enters into himself and begins to deliberate with himself about how to be and what to do. Enter now into yourself and there, with your soul, in your secret council, put: “What, soul, is everyone wallowing in sin? Let's get up and walk with a firm foot to the Lord, who is ready to receive us!” In order to more successfully act on yourself, surround yourself with exciting thoughts about how vile sin is, how much it offends the Lord, is so merciful to us, how much it humiliates ourselves, destined for the likeness of God, and into what misfortune it plunges, here depriving us of peace. and there preparing eternal torment. Attach an idea to this that you are dying, or have already died, and appear before an impartial Judgment, where not a single unmourned sin will be forgotten. Having imagined all this, as much as you can, talk more lively with your soul: “Well, what are we going to do, soul, and how will we decide? You know that all this is true. Indeed, sin is vile before God and all the saints, as well as before our conscience, and such a bitter fate in eternity awaits for it, if we do not leave it behind. Why are we going to destroy ourselves? The sweetness of sin is small and momentary, but its bitterness is immeasurable and eternal: let us leave it! Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quit as much as you can, talk more lively with your soul: “Well, what are we going to do, my soul, and how will we decide? You know that all this is true. Indeed, sin is vile before God and all the saints, as well as before our conscience, and such a bitter fate in eternity awaits for it, if we do not leave it behind. Why are we going to destroy ourselves? The sweetness of sin is small and momentary, but its bitterness is immeasurable and eternal: let us leave it! Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quit as much as you can, talk more lively with your soul: “Well, what are we going to do, my soul, and how will we decide? You know that all this is true. Indeed, sin is vile before God and all the saints, as well as before our conscience, and such a bitter fate in eternity awaits for it, if we do not leave it behind. Why are we going to destroy ourselves? The sweetness of sin is small and momentary, but its bitterness is immeasurable and eternal: let us leave it! Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quit and just such a bitter fate in eternity awaits him, if we do not leave him behind. Why are we going to destroy ourselves? The sweetness of sin is small and momentary, but its bitterness is immeasurable and eternal: let us leave it! Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quit and just such a bitter fate in eternity awaits him, if we do not leave him behind. Why are we going to destroy ourselves? The sweetness of sin is small and momentary, but its bitterness is immeasurable and eternal: let us leave it! Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quit Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quit Are we worse than others or deprived of something? Or is the Lord of all not also our Lord? Or are His saving institutions in the Holy Church closed to us? Why should we throw ourselves to shame in front of everyone and to the delight of our and God's evil enemies? Let's quitsin ! Here at Confession we will receive permission, in Holy Communion of the Lord we will receive and then with Him we will begin to live according to His commandments, enjoying peace of mind here and preparing eternal bliss for ourselves there.

So rant and persuade your soul, perhaps it will come to its senses, come to its senses and be inspired to finally change your bad life and your dislike of God. Take heart! The Lord is near! He oversees the movements of your innermost work and is ready to help you. As soon as He sees that you are inclined towards goodness, He will immediately fix it in you with His grace. We cannot do anything without the Lord, but He always expects our own effort for good, and only then, as He notices it, is He immediately ready for us with His help. Why, conferring with your soul and straining to make good movements in it, turn to the Lord every minute in prayer - all there, in the innermost cell of your heart. Speak to the soul and fall down before the Lord with a painful cry to soften the soul and act to change it. Then again begin to speak to the soul and again turn to the Lord. Call on the help of the Lady Mother of God, your Guardian Angel, the saint of the same name and all the saints. Do this every minute, whether you are standing in church or at home, praying and reasoning, all the same in your mind, how to finally break your soul and direct it to the best. Work hard! Help will come! Arise from the devil's net and say with boldness, like the prodigal son:"Get up, I'm going!" ( Luke 15:18 ).

And already go, not looking around and not listening to any suggestions that the evil one will then instill in you. He will begin to kindle self-pity or instill in you either fear for life, or fear for the disorder of life, or insurmountable obstacles to the introduction of new orders of a new life, in order to turn you away from your good intentions. Do not heed and resolutely utter a definition in yourself: “I offer everything as a sacrifice to the Lord: both the state, and all the labors, and life itself. I will not deviate from my decision, even if I could live like walking on needles. Such a ruthless decision will immediately disperse the whole cloud of confusing thoughts and put an end to all the attempts of the enemy. He is powerless to fight those who determine themselves to death in order to follow the Lord who is crucified for us. In this decision, the shadow of death on the cross is visible, which destroyed his region, and he flees from him, as from fire.

This is what must take place within you, brethren, in the midst of these visible labors and deeds of your fasting! And only then, when this is done, will your fasting be real fasting. Then, having received full permission at Confession, unite clean with the Lord in Holy Communion and then begin to live in the renewal of life. What and may the Lord grant you, “to all” who wants to “be saved and come to true understanding” ( 1 Tim. 2:4 )! Amen.

February 9, 1866

Part 6. On the heels of the week of Great Lent

(contrition for sins is not a simple feeling:
the limit of heartfelt contrition for sins is a firm intention
not to offend God with your sins anymore)

Last time I told you that the essence of fasting is contrition for sins with the firm intention not to offend the Lord with them anymore, and that when this happens, our Confession will be effective and Holy Communion is saving. Now I will tell you more definitively about these two dispositions, in order to see whether they are exactly what they should be in us, and through this to receive trustworthy confirmation that our fasting, Confession and Holy Communion will finally bear their saving fruit.

Contrition for sins is not a simple feeling, but is made up of several feelings. It is based on the unpleasant sensation of knowing that, having indulged in sin, we have fallen into a very bad state. This feeling changes later, judging by which side of sin the penitent sinner pays attention to. When, proceeding from the feeling, he turns to himself, he becomes annoyed with himself and with his evil arbitrariness: why did he succumb to infatuation and why did he bend over to the suggestion of temptation, when he could resist and avert misfortune? When he turns to sin itself, he no longer sees in it the charm that it is covered when he falls into it, but sees it as ugly and disgusting and begins to abhor it and turn away from it. When he addresses other people - members of the body of the Church, he is ashamed that, not being touched by anything in comparison with them, he has so shamed himself with indecent deeds. When he turns to God, he either reproaches himself, pities and mourns that he offended the Lord so merciful to himself with his sins, or he is filled with fear for his temporary and eternal fate at the thought of justice, sometimes so apparently punishing sinners. A sinner who sincerely acknowledges his sins and condemns himself in them, having entered into himself, passes from one of these feelings to another and arranges in his heart weeping and mourning for sins, like the weeping of Jeremiah in the ruins of Jerusalem or the Jews on the rivers of Babylon (Ps. 136 ).

Annoyance at oneself, disgust with sin, shame, fear, “sorrow ... according to God” ( 2 Corinthians 7:10) and penitence of oneself before Him in the matter of repentance and washing oneself with tears of contrition are similar to different methods used in our everyday life, when they wash unclean linen, and with a conscientious worker they soon reach their measure and work their effect in his heart. However, it is necessary to know that not all these feelings have the same price: pain for sins because of the fear of eternal torment, because of shame before others, because of the disgust of sin with annoyance at one’s own will is a disease of the lowest dignity - imperfect, the pain of sins for the sake of the fact that they have offended our All-Good Lord is a pain of the highest dignity - perfect. The Holy Apostle calls it "sorrow ... for Bose"and he is credited with making in us "unrepentant repentance" ( 2 Corinthians 7:10 ), or a determined intention not to sin. It is to this sadness that one must build one's penitential lamentation, or to complete penitential feelings with it. It cannot be said that even those imperfect feelings did not mean anything: they do their work in repentance, only they should not be stopped. You can use them as a preliminary preparation, as a means to somehow soften the hardened heart, and by fasting from them and through them, the heart already accustomed to lamenting about sins must be translated to "sorrow ... according to God . " Here is the end. Only "sadness ... according to Bose"makes our pain for sins pleasing to God and attracts from Him the grace of mercy. Only it lays a firm foundation for the determination not to sin. External views here move away and the heart begins to revive with love for God, which gives him the boldness to set an intention and vow not to offend the merciful God with his sins, since it constitutes a force that cannot be overcome by any sinful desires. Achieve this and take care, deplorable sick people, about your sins! Do not think that this is work that you cannot do. Make only such a turn to your innermost work: reproduce more powerfully the consciousness of God's great blessings to us and set against it the thought of what ingratitude we show when we sin. As much as a feeling of gratitude is natural to us, sadness is just as natural, if we do not please the benefactors. Here you will have“sadness ... according to God” , sadness that they offended God, from whom we constantly receive only mercy and who is ready not only to prolong them, but also to increase them for all eternity and strengthen them for us.

Hurry to do so, because those feelings - shame, fear, annoyance - if left alone, develop one desolate morbidity, which, perhaps, can completely fool us and push us to the edge of despair. “Sadness” “according to Bose” , with all the pain, pours joy and fills the heart with the piety of mercy. For it is aroused by the consciousness of God's love for us and accepted by our love for God, which, with all our guilt, teaches us to see in God the Father who loves children, pitying His faulty children and always ready to have mercy on them when they return to Him with repentance. "Sorrow... according to Bose", supported by faith and revived by love, makes us feel the boundlessness of God's mercy towards us, according to which - may our sins multiply more than the hair of the head or even more than the sand of the sea - God is ready to forgive them to everyone who sincerely repents of them. Cain and Judas lacked this feeling, and they perished in despair. From what may the merciful Lord save us all, may he save both from petrified insensitivity and from his fatal despair! May he grant us both deep contrition and heartfelt pain before Him for the sins that offend Him, and at the same time the comforting hope of mercy!

If someone asked: “How do we know that we have grieved enough for our sins, or that contrition of the heart over them has had its effect in us?”, We will answer: “The limit of heartfelt repentance about the sins of contrition is a firm intention not to offend God with our sins anymore. Such an intention is a direct cry of contrition and means that our contrition was sincere, complete, and pleasing to God. In turn, this intention also has a reverse effect on contrition: it quenches its burning and softens it, and the good faith of pardon enlivens and elevates. Everything in repentance is connected with one another in an uninterrupted chain, therefore, do not be content with feelings of sorrow, but at the same time, as you grieve, force yourself to forsake sins, disposed not to fall into them anymore and not put yourself in such a sorrowful and languishing state. Which patient, having learned the cause of the disease, will not immediately decide to continue in every possible way to remove this cause? Who, having stumbled on a stone and broken, will not give a vow not to walk the same way again? So, whoever feels pain from sins and realizes how they broke him, will not begin to unravel for a long time, but will immediately put an end to his love of sin. Immediately, when he becomes ill about sins, he will bring to memory all the sinful cases and, seeing what, where the mistake consisted, he will decide to avoid them in every possible way, determining the very method for this. “I was, for example, in such and such a house and fell into such a sin: I will no longer go there. I became friends with such and such people, and they taught me this: now I will break off all ties with them. I embarked on such and such a fun, and this is what happened: now I will not allow myself that for anything. Thus, revisiting his entire sinful life, the one who sincerely repents and mourns for his sins sets good intentions, how, where, what to correct throughout the space of my life, so as not to fall into sins, and immediately makes orders and orders in accordance with such intentions, saying in myself: bad state." Just as one who, feeling oppressed breathing in a stuffy room, quickly runs out to get a breath of fresh air, or as one who has become unbearably tight dress throws it off at the first opportunity, so a sinner who is sick of sins throws off their burden and swiftly flees from the unclean and corrupting house of sin into the pure and spacious realm of God-pleasing life. who brought me into such a pernicious state. Just as one who, feeling oppressed breathing in a stuffy room, quickly runs out to get a breath of fresh air, or as one who has become unbearably tight dress throws it off at the first opportunity, so a sinner who is sick of sins throws off their burden and swiftly flees from the unclean and corrupting house of sin into the pure and spacious realm of God-pleasing life. who brought me into such a pernicious state. Just as one who, feeling oppressed breathing in a stuffy room, quickly runs out to get a breath of fresh air, or as one who has become unbearably tight dress throws it off at the first opportunity, so a sinner who is sick of sins throws off their burden and swiftly flees from the unclean and corrupting house of sin into the pure and spacious realm of God-pleasing life.

Those who finally form such orders and impulses in their hearts will turn out to be a perfect speaker. Such a person will not stumble later on confession and will not hide his sins, but with desire he will vomit all of them out of himself like some kind of poison. Whoever confesses this way will come clean to the Cup of the Lord and will be worthy to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. And whoever is worthy of this, he will receive the Lord in himself and with Him all the strength, “even to life and godliness” ( 2 Pet. 1, 3 ), and the rest will begin to live godly, chaste and righteous in the present age.

May our Lord and Savior arrange all of you so that you are worthy to receive this inexpressible treasure! Amen.

February 11, 1866

On the heels of the week of the first Great Lent (wait for the Lord in reverent silence: get ready to meet him, accept and rest in yourself in a worthy way)

"Repent, draw near for the Kingdom of God" ( Matthew 4:17 ). This is how the Lord spoke about His appearance on earth, about the fact that He, the King of the saving Kingdom, had already come and abides among people. About this admonishing the inquisitive, on another occasion He said: “Behold ... the Kingdom of God is within you” ( Lk.17, 21 ). But then He was outwardly among the people, paving only and arranging the ways for the inward dwelling in them. Now, in those who by living faith through the Holy Mysteries enter into communion with Him, He enters inwards - into their hearts - and there reigns as a desirable and saving King. For he says: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6:56 ). And those who have been honored with this blessing confess:“But I live not to anyone, but Christ lives in me” ( Gal.2, 20 ).

This longed-for enthronement of Christ the Savior within us has come near to you, brethren! Now, only half a day is left until the moment when you will receive the Lord into yourself: get ready to meet Him, accept and rest in yourself in a worthy way.

The Lord will invisibly enter into you. Go inside yourself and put everything in order there: sweep away all the dust of empty and idle thoughts with sighs and guard yourself with divine thinking, wash away all impurity of sinful feelings and dispositions with tears, keep holy sobriety, correct and restore everything spoiled and broken by falls with sincere repentance and protect yourself with holy zeal for fulfillment of the commandments. Let in more Light through the windows of sincere and unshakable faith in the contemplation of the mysteries of the Dispensation of our salvation. Fragrant the temple of the heart with the aromas of prayers and warm aspirations of feelings towards God, moreover, prepare a dear and beloved resting place for Him in unhypocritical, fully and completely devoted love to Him.

Having settled in this way, gather even deeper within yourself - and wait for the Lord in reverent silence, with desire and fear, with ardent zeal and invigorating attention. Do not fuss and do not entertain yourself with anything external. Preserve in every possible way this warm inward-stay, which you acquired by fasting and prayers and which especially dawned on you or will dawn on you after a full and sincere Confession. Take care of only one thing: prepare gifts for the Lord and arrange them all in decent places.

He does not accept third-party gifts: look for them in yourselves and, as He Himself gives Himself to you, then you yourself, with all the powers of your nature, prepare to sacrifice to Him. Settle down to offer Him, first of all, your face - consciousness and freedom, so that you can disappear in Him and submit to His single will in everything. And this gift - the highest - put in the first place under the saints. Then, on the right side, put the readiness to the Lord to devote all the forces of the soul: the mind with the promise to have it as a faithful guardian of the truths brought by the Lord to earth, the will with all desires, dispositions, promising not to give it the freedom to go beyond the limits outlined by the commandments of the Lord, the heart with all the feelings and sympathy, promising to stifle in him every taste for the carnal, impure, passionate, and to cultivate one taste for that which is pure, holy, and heavenly.

Having prepared all this within yourself and placed it in a godly manner, hold yourself in intense attention, kindling in your heart a warm and desirable striving towards the Lord, making only one more consideration how to receive the Lord for the first time when he draws near and enters. Know that this is accomplished by Divine worship to Him, which must speak and fulfill the whole being of man, and, knowing, prepare for this by making preliminary experiments and exercises in this.

That's all the preparation for the meeting of the Lord! Believe yourself now according to this instruction, which is not an enumeration of arbitrarily invented positions: and if it turns out that something is missing, make up for it - there is still time. Show all diligence and all care for this matter, especially trying to avoid negligence, coldness and one mechanical execution of the external order of actions. When there is zeal and concern for the most worthy acceptance of the Lord, then He will not seek, if He does not find something prepared, accepting this zeal in return for what is missing, and when there is no zeal, everything will be for nothing, as it happens between us, that a magnificent reception with one formality cold does not satisfy the visitor and does not give him pleasure.

If for some reason the soul becomes stubborn in something, you put it in the tightness in which, in relation to Holy Communion, the good Providence of God has placed us, in driving away sleep, laziness and slumber of carelessness. Tell her: “Do you want to die? Go take communion, for the Lord said with confirmation: “Amen, amen I say to you: unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, or drink His Blood, you do not have Life in yourself” ( John 6, 53 ). But take communion with due preparation, for if you do not do this, your Communion will not be for salvation, but for destruction, as the Apostle teaches, saying: “Eat ... and drink unworthy, eat and drink judgment for yourself, not arguing the Body of the Lord” ( 1 Corinthians 11:29 ). So, we are cramped from both: you will not take communion -You will not have a “belly”, if you take communion “unworthy” - you will commune to condemn yourself. What remains to be done? Prepare as you should. Is it hard like this? After all, it is not necessary to rearrange mountains, but to make a change in thoughts, feelings, dispositions, words and deeds, which are all in our hands. It depended on us that something evil crept into them: how will it depend not on us to reject this evil? If you did something bad, decide to stop and start doing something good. Thinking badly - decide to stop and start thinking well. The dispositions were bad - make up your mind to cancel them and strain towards good dispositions. What is the work here? One wish - and everything will be done! Gooda multitude of deeds already accomplished would be required, and a multitude of all good things, heart and mind, already acquired, one could still make excuses, otherwise not: the Lord is content with one good intention to continue to move away from evil and do good. Even if you were all in sins, but as soon as you repented of everything and set a firm intention to please the Lord in everything, you are ready. Come, bringing to the Lord this one determination of all yourself, all your strength and all your life for the future time to devote to Him alone.

Having done this, let us boldly approach the throne of grace, not disturbing ourselves with false fears and not ruining ourselves with unreasonable audacity. The Lord comes with mercy: let us desire Him. He goes not to judge, but to forgive, not to punish, but to pardon, not to amaze, but to heal and restore. Uniting with the soul, He will fulfill its good things.

May the merciful Lord make you wise and seek Him, and accept Him in such a way that when He enters, He celebrates with you and you with Him ( Rev. 3:20 )! Amen.

February 19, 1865

On the heels of the week of the first Great Lent (how should we settle down and act in order to worthily proceed to the Holy Mysteries)

So there is no longer a day until that great moment when you receive the Lord into yourself. Rejoice and have fun! But at the same time, do not forget that as this moment is the most precious in your life, it requires all your attention and all diligence. The Lord Himself wants to be given to you and bring His gifts with Himself. How much it is unreasonable not to take advantage of this tuna (gift) of the offered mercy, so much it is criminal to start accepting it in a way that is not worthy. “He who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment for himself, not judging the Body of the Lord” ( 1 Corinthians 11:29 ).

You know this and, of course, every one, according to your strength, is zealous to show yourself worthy for salvation to receive the Lord coming to you, in His Holy Mysteries. I believe that now you are busy with the same thing, and I want to approach your thought with my word and, together with you, explain in detail how we should position ourselves and act in order to worthily approach the Holy Immaculate Mysteries of Christ.

Let's start from this very moment and we will go step by step until we get closer to the very Chalice of the Lord, determining throughout the saving image of mood and action.

At the very first movement, the holy Apostle Paul meets us with his brief but strict instruction: “Let a man tempt himself, and let him eat from bread and drink from the cup” ( 1 Corinthians 11:28 ). “Let him tempt ... himself” : let him test whether he is worthy, and in this confidence he must proceed to the Holy Mysteries, for if he approaches “unworthy” , there will be “judgment to himself” to eat and drink ( 1 Cor. 11, 29). Ah, brethren! Fear brings this word to the sinful soul. For who can say that he is definitely worthy to come to the Lord's Supper? How many sins! How many impurities! How many obvious insults to the Lord! It is terrible to approach, but it is not safe not to approach either, for unless we taste the Flesh of the Lord and drink His Blood, we do not have Life in ourselves ( John 6:53 ). Closely us from both. What shall we do? Let us throw ourselves into the arms of the most merciful Lord, crying out to Him: “Merciful Savior! Spare us, the unworthy, and by Your mercy cover our unworthiness!”

Not too much, however, be troubled, brethren, so as not to trouble yourselves with empty fears. The Lord is offended not only if someone unprepared with boldness approaches the Chalice, but also if someone indiscriminately torments himself with disorderly timidity. The merciful Lord does not bind us with impossible conditions and requires little from us, which anyone can easily fulfill if he wants. “Who,” says St. Demetrius of Rostov , “confessed his sins completely, concealing nothing, who regrets them, weeps and repents, who has the will and indispensable intention not to return to sin again, but to watch out dangerously from any fall into sin, who by fasting and by prayer and other feats of piety, he has worked himself out, propitiating the Lord, whoever has reconciled with everyone and has not left enmity with anyone, he is worthy ready“And so let him eat of the bread, and let him drink of the cup” ( 1 Corinthians 11:28)!” If all this has been done by you or will be done, approach the Lord faithfully with childish humble boldness. We are sinners, we are sinful all around, but the Lord came to save sinners. Not sins are a barrier, but perseverance in sins and impenitence. If it is, don't proceed! Sins mourned, confessed and resolved are no longer in you, or not on you. They are the same as branches cut off from a tree: when we loved sins, they were living branches on the tree of our life and fed from it, but when we turned away from them, began to abhor them, repented and confessed - by this action we cut them off from myself. At the moment of permission, they fell away from us. Now these are dry branches and the Lord is coming to burn these thorns of sins into us. So, let it be your primary concern - to recognize your sins, mourn, confess and put a firm intention to lag behind them. Whether this has already been done by you or will be done today, give thanks to the Lord. Through the forgiveness of sins, He prepares for Himself in us an abode worthy of Himself, cleansed and marked.

To this main action, it remains to apply one more thing later - to keep the attention undistracted and the heart serene ... Beware of distraction and troubled worries. If ordinary affairs were abandoned for the whole week, then it is all the more necessary not to touch them now and, stepping aside from everything, enter into yourself and stay there with the single thought of the Lord who has to come to you. Stop any movement of third-party thoughts and, contemplating the One Lord, pray to Him with a clever, laconic prayer, saying each in yourself: “Do not reject me , Lord, from Your presence ( Ps. 50, 13 )! Do not disdain me, who offended You a lot! Do not cast me out of Your Meal as unclean! "Live me according to your word" ( Ps. 118, 25)! Visit me by Your mercy, even if I am unworthy! Come to me, the perishing one, and save me!” Or just say one word: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” Or, without words in your heart, fall at His feet, the mercy of tea!

This alone could limit the entire present preparatory work. But, if the thought is not strong enough to abide in this one thing, give it an occupation to meditate on Communion itself and, so that it does not wander much, bind it with the words of the Lord and the holy Apostles about this Sacrament. Let him listen to what the Lord has said. Let him learn from what the Apostles have spoken, and build up his soul by it.

“I am the living bread ,” says the Lord, “who came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; but the bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world... Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” ( John 6:51:53-56 ). Think about it and learn! Or take what the Lord said at the Last Supper: “Take, eat: this is My Body ... drink from it all, for this is My Blood” ( Matt. 26, 26-28). Or what the Apostle taught: “Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” ( 1 Cor. 11:27 ), and other things that I already cited at the beginning of the conversation.

Give any of these sayings to your mind, and let it reason, draw edification from it for yourself and dispose yourself to contrite prayer. When prayer comes, fall before the Lord mentally or with your body, and do not depart from prayer as long as there is prayer . When prayer fades or weakens, warm it up with meditation and pray again.

So, by all means, in contemplation and prayer, take care to spend the rest of this day, and especially the evening, until you calm down with sleep. Here comes the morning. As soon as you open your eyes, quickly take hold of your thought and hasten to resurrect in it the consciousness of the greatness of the day that has come for you - the day blessed in the days of your life, saying in yourself: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and rejoice in it! Easter has come for my soul!” But don’t fuss and don’t have a lot of fun, hurry up again to gather your thoughts and set your attention on “one thing ... for need” ( Lk. 10, 41-42 ) - on what has to be with you and for you. And in this spirit prepare for the holy churchto the Divine Liturgy, hastening to which, say to yourself: “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming , let us go out to meet!” ( Matt. 25:6 ). And go so that the lamp that is kindled in your heart does not go out.

Watch out! The enemy will try in every possible way to extinguish this lamp by imposing on the soul some unkind state, or scattering of thoughts, or concern for something, or dissatisfaction with something, or displeasure with someone, and the like. Each of these movements brings confusion to the soul and upsets it. Keep the attention and turning to the Lord of mind and heart and avoid this stumbling block.

Thus, observing a good mood, you will enter the temple of the Lord. While staying here, feel yourself as if you were in the Zion room, among the Apostles, whom the Lord Himself communed! For here, as well as there, He “is active” ( Philippians 2:13 ), He is the one who distributes, He is also the one who distributes. He is what you have to partake of, He is the one who communes. The clergyman is only His organ. The sacrament will be the preparation of the Meal just for you. What is being prepared is the Most Pure Body and the Most Pure Blood of the Lord, while the Preparer is the Lord. Listen, and stand with fear and reverence.

Listen more than ever to everything you read and sing, and direct everything to the thought that the Lord is preparing a saving Supper for you, and kindle feelings and dispositions corresponding to this, offering them as a sacrifice in the heart to the Lord All-Seeing. Kindle faith in the real presence in the Holy Mysteries of the Lord and Savior Himself, Who, sitting in Heaven in Glory at the right hand of God and the Father, abides here invisibly and favors secretly, under the guise of bread and wine, to be given to the faithful to prepare them for heavenly life. Proceeding from this faith and mentally contemplating the Lord coming from Heaven to visit you, self-humiliatingly cry out, following the example of the righteous Elizabeth, visited by the Mother of the Lord: “Where do we get this , that the Lord Himself wants to come to us?” (Lk.1, 43 ). Or in the words of the prophet David: "What is a man ... how do you visit him?" ( Ps.8, 5 ). Or a centurion: “We are not worthy, but you will enter under our roof” ( Mt. 8, 8 ). From self-humiliation, then move on to filial fear, which does not tear away, but reverent sobriety, bringing and putting our spirit into a state of incorporeal, covering your face in fear, but not those fleeing from the Throne of God, but only loudly crying out: "Holy! Holy! Holy!" ( Isaiah 6, 2-3 ) For truly the Lord is here. And the Lord will enter into you. What soul would not be ready to cry with the Apostle Peter: "Go away ... I am a sinner" ( Luke 5, 8), if, according to the commandment of the Lord, this very sinfulness did not oblige both to seek and to look forward to this visitation of the Lord? Sow by the will of the Lord and be inspired by a bold desire, a thirst for the Lord, and with some swiftness, impatience and irresistibility try to accept Him, as swiftly a "deer" runs "to the springs of water" ( Ps. 41, 2 ), remembering the word of wisdom, which says: "Go , taste the bread that I have prepared for you, and drink the wine that I have diluted for you" ( Prov. 9, 5 ), and the word of the Lord Himself, calling: "Thirst, let him come to Me!" ( Jn.7, 37). “Behold, we thirst, Lord,” say in your heart, “and we flow faithfully towards Your generosity! Have mercy on us, O Many-merciful One, and give our souls health, as if sick, purification, as if lepers, light, as if darkened, strength, as if relaxed, comfort to the mournful, peace to the troubled! Tea, Lord, that all this will be for us together with the acceptance of You, the Source of all blessings! From this aspiration, which will not shame, again passing to yourself and your readiness to meet and receive the Lord, testifying, again warm up heartfelt contrition and a promise not to indulge sin, even if you had to die for this, and, mourning the past, pray to wash the Lord Himself, purify, whiten you into a bright dwelling for Himself, crying out to Him:“Most of all, wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin! .. Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb!” ( Ps.50, 4, 12 ).

Thus, passing from one feeling to another: from faith to self-humiliation, from self-abasement to fear, from fear to desire, from desire to hope, from hope to contrition, you will compose within yourself a shabby song that will please the Lord and attract the attention of the celestials!

In this grace-filled mood and heavenly overshadowing, finally proceed to the Cup of the Lord, which is in vain, pay homage to the Lord approaching you, crying out with the Apostle Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” ( John 20, 28 ). And, opening your mouth and heart, accept the Lord humbly and reverently, with sober thought praying to Him with the words of Saint Demetrius: “Come in, my Light, and enlighten my darkness! Come down, my life, and resurrect my deadness! Come in, my Physician, and heal my sores! Come down, Divine Fire, and the thorns of my sins fell, and kindle my heart with the flame of Your love! Come in, my King, sit on the throne of my heart and reign in me - You alone are my King and Lord!

Get ready to meet the Lord, and He will surely enter into you and celebrate with you in your heart ( Rev. 3:20 ). Then you will not demand, “Who teaches you” ( 1 John 2:27 ), for the one Teacher of all will be in you. And listen to Him with the ear of the heart and imprint His words on the charter of the mind. He will teach you everything, just take care to keep Him in you with all care and all attention, offering Him the one thing that He wants to see in you. Amen.

March 6, 1864

Part 7. On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent

(in the honoring of Holy Communion is not the end,
but the beginning of labors and deeds)

Again tears and forgiveness! Again the return and embrace of Father! Again the Supper and the wedding feast! Glory to Your patience, Lord! Glory to Your condescension, Lord! Glory to Your generosity, Holy One! Behold, brethren, it has truly happened with us that which the Lord only foretold in the parable. The philanthropic Heavenly Father came out of His innermost and most secret chamber, from afar saw us, contritely returning to Him, and, flowing in, mercifully fell on our necks and kissed us, and, as a sign of perfect reconciliation, clothed us in the first garment of justification, gave us a betrothal ring sincere, nourished with incorruptible food and commanded all the angels and saints to rejoice over us ( Luke 15:20, 22-23 ).

This is what we have been honored with, but how much have we worked hard? And what worked, was it ours? The Lord has called us to fasting: this is the work of His goodness. We have accepted this calling: and this is not without His assistance. Then they labored in fasting: and this with the help of His grace. Was it also our own that we conscientiously followed our life, discussed it in the light of the commandments of God, condemned and mourned all those who disagreed with them, and, throwing all the burden of sins at the feet of Christ the Savior, who invisibly accepted our Confession, put a firm intention not to defile ourselves anymore? sins and the Lord not to anger them? Only in this last decision did our will and power work together. And for this smallness - all the favors. For in fact, by this decision, an entrance was opened into the heart of Him, who pushed into it. And behold, he has entered and is supping with us ( Rev. 3:20), came and made a home in us ( John 14:23), according to His unfalse word: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6:56 ).

So little work and what great talent! But this is all the more obliging us to take care to show ourselves worthy of the gift. The prodigal son, for the sake of heartfelt repentance, was again accepted into the mercy of his father and into the rights of sonship, no longer rashly rushed to unwind the property, into the possession of which he was again introduced. The memory of the past foolishness taught prudence and attention. Let us imitate him and be jealous to keep ourselves in the Father's house, in His will, in the labors of obedience and pleasing Him. Let us listen to ourselves and sacredly observe the word that we so often repeated before Him: “I have sinned, I will not! I've sinned, I won't!" We will not allow ourselves any indulgence and we will not allow indulgence to again slip into something that has already been condemned by conscience and mourned by a contrite heart.

Stretching your thoughts forward, do not promise yourself indulgence and indulgence, but the application of labor to labor and achievement to achievement. Do not be like those who, ending fasting, seem to throw off some bondage bonds and indulge again in all the carelessness and all the freedom of a life inattentive to themselves. See not the end in the honoring of Holy Communion, but the beginning of labors and deeds. So consider yourself that you are the same as a deranged machine, now only completely corrected. The time has come for the work, not the end of it. You set the intention to be correct in everything before the face of the Lord - and work on it, remembering everything that someone promised Him in the hour of repentance, and forcing yourself to urgently fulfill it. Whoever promised a prayer - pray, whoever fasts - fast, who does good deeds - do good, and everyone who offered something good in his heart, do it without pitying yourself,"he who tests hearts and wombs" ( Rev. 2:23 ).

We have accepted the Lord, let us take care to keep Him within us with all the strength of our being. Let us embrace Him with unceasing remembrance of Him, dedication to His glory of all our deeds and labors, sweet sojourn in all the sacred ranks, with which He pleased to clothe our lives. By doing this, we will enable Him to absorb in us part by part, strength by strength, so that, having finally become completely merged with us, make us one with Himself. Just as a medicine taken by the body first animates the center of life, and from it then the whole body, healing member by member in it, so the Lord, now accepted, gradually acts in us, until He fulfills everything in us, under one, however , that condition, if any tension of forces in us will be carried out only according to His will, to please Him.

And it will come true over us that the Lord will be “everything in all” of us ( Eph. 1, 23 ), according to the promise given by Himself: “to dwell” and “walk” in us ( 2 Corinthians 6:16 ). He will walk in us, carried by us, and holding us, and moving us. As a pillar of the cloud, which was among the Israelites, controlled all their movements ( Num. 9, 17 ), or as in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, animals and wheels moved in the direction of the one who sat on them ( Ezek. 1, 12, 20 ), so everything will be in us The Lord "and the hedgehog wills, and the hedgehog works of good will" ( Phil.2 , 13 ). Oh, grant, Lord!

But this is a blessed country of promise, and until then - labors and sweats for the glory of the Lord, to which we will doom ourselves from now on, praying to Him, who gave us the flesh of His food, to go into our hearts (members of the body), into all the structures (joints), into the womb, in the heart, burn the thorns of sins everywhere in us and cleanse, sanctify and fertilize everything in us, let us be “the village of His One, and not to anyone the village of sin.”

Be this to all of us by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever! Amen.

February 16, 1863

On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (about the spiritual pleasure of prayerful stay with the Lord)

Now you have been vouchsafed the Lord's Meal, and through Holy Communion you have received the Lord within you. What a great mercy of God! And now there would be no place for a word, but I cannot resist inviting you to confess this great mercy and use it properly.

Our soul is a thirsty creature, and the Lord is all-satiety. Having come into you, He brought you all-satisfaction. Behold, the water from which the drinker "does not thirst forever" ( John 4:14 ), according to His promise. The Lord in you is the light of knowledge, the Lord in you is the breadth of love, the Lord is in you joy and peace, the Lord is in you the hope of glory. What else to look for? And where else to direct your heart? Restrain the Lord who has given you Himself, and He is pleased with you.

Keep the Lord and enjoy Him. Do not quickly turn to other subjects. Give neither thoughts of distraction, nor desires of indulgence, nor feelings of indulgence. Continue the spiritual pleasure of praying with the Lord. Your soul has sought the Lord, and the Lord has desired your soul: now you are together now, do not depart from the Lord.

When a dear guest comes, what are you not ready to do for him, so that he would be pleased with you and not soon leave you? Behold, the Lord has visited you: and who is more precious than Him? Exhaust yourself in the means to delight His presence in you and do not drive him away from you. You know what is pleasing to Him: all that and offer Him, all the same, put aside everything that is objectionable to Him. The Lord loves humility, meekness, uprightness, peacefulness, purity, patience, obedience, diligence, all abstinence: take care to take all this and offer Him. The Lord does not like envy, enmity, pride, gossip, vanity, distraction, laziness, anger, intemperance: refrain from all this. And He will always be with you, and with Him all contentment.

We are looking for the all-content of the heart - that's the way it is arranged, but we can't find it anywhere except the Lord. The Lord is everything for us: He is our life, He is our light, He is our rest, He is our joy, He is our strength, He is our fence, He is our everything. Now He has come to fulfill us with all blessings. You have tasted the Lord, see how good the Lord is. See and do not turn the hindrances of your heart. Imitate the soul as the bride depicted in the Song of Songs. That soul, having found the Lord, this is how it describes its all-bliss. “I felt,” he says, “His approach, and my whole inwardness trembled, I heard His voice, and my heart went out into His word . ” His name is for me the world poured out, and He is all “desire” and “sweetness” ( Song 5, 4, 6, 16)!” This is what you are called to now - to rest your heart in the Lord.

And let not the one who tempts you tempt you to seek contentment for your heart in something else! The same soul of the Song of Songs, vainly seeking outside the Lord what the heart desired, this is how it confesses its mistake as a lesson to us. “I was looking for Him,” she says, “in myself, in my inner and outer perfections, and I did not find him: “ on my bed ... seeking Him, but searching for Him, and did not find Him ” ( Song of Songs 3, 1 ) . Then I said in myself: “I will get up ... I will go around ... the city” , I will go into public pleasures and enjoy all the blessings of the world, but even there I looked for - and did not find That, “My soul love Him : I search for Him, and did not find His!" I’ll go “in the markets and on the stacks I’ll look ... for him love my soul , I will look for contentment in the deals of a hostel and in the amenities of family life, but even there I did not find Him, “He whom my soul loves : I seek Him, and I did not find Him!” ( Song 3, 2 )". How did she finally find Him? " It is not enough , - he says, - when he passed away from them , and gained . " How I moved away from everything and rushed to the One Lord, I found, "He whom my soul love . " "I have gained ... and hold Him ," he says, " and I will not leave Him" ​​( Song 3, 4 ).

You see how, having found, after vain searches, she firmly clings to the One in Whom she has found her comfort and contentment. And to us, and without much difficulty, and without test deviations, the Lord gives Himself. Let us, by the lessons of others, protect ourselves from encroachments - to make experiments in seeking contentment somewhere in the country, when, by the grace of God, we already have the source of all contentment. The Lord says: “I stand at the door and make sense... Whoever hears... I will come in to him and dine with him, and she with Me” ( Rev. 3:20 ). This Supper is the all-delightful all-contentment. Enjoy this Supper and do not look for other sweets. Gird up “the loins of your thoughts” ( 1 Pet. 1:13) and acquire the skill to concentrate everything in the One Lord. Then He came to you today and so sincerely joined you to Himself, so that by letting you taste Himself, He would take away all other desires from you. Listen to this calling and say in the depths of your heart: “From now on, we are yours, Lord, and we want nothing more than to be always in You and with You!” Amen.

On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (the real change and correction of life is the goal of the whole dispensation of our salvation)

Glory to Thee, most merciful Lord! How much they worked hard, and what mercy they received! The Lord Himself is with us and in us. He himself gave us what he promised: “I will dwell in them and walk around” ( 2 Corinthians 6:16 ). Did he also ask you: “Don’t you know that from now on you are the temple of God?” ( 1 Corinthians 3:16 ) If the believer has a testimony in himself, how much more so if he who has received the Lord? Holding the Infant Jesus in his arms, the righteous Simeon confessed: “Today my eyes have seen Your salvation” ( Luke 2:30). Can't you see and feel this salvation when, not with your hands, but with your soul and heart, you accepted not the humbled, but the glorified Lord Jesus? When the king is expected in the city, everyone knows that he is not yet there, and their desired eyes are turned to where they are waiting for him, and when he arrives, everyone says in one voice: “He has arrived! Here already!” So we, with fear and trembling, waited for the Lord and with much care prepared ourselves for the worthy Acceptance of Him. Behold, He has come and is received by us. May all the forces of our nature utter this joyful and solemn confession: “Here already!”

Here already, in the inner temple of your soul. Let us not disturb His rest! And we will not depart from Him, and we will not disturb Him with discordant movements! Concentrating serene attention on Him, let us turn our loving care to putting aside everything that is unpleasant for Him and surrounding Him with one pleasing one, and through this to keep Him forever in ourselves.

Here already, and with Him are all His saving bounties, which He brings with Himself to every soul that has received Him. With Him is forgiveness, sonship and an undoubted guarantee of eternal bliss. Evidence of this is in the tactile sensation of spiritual blessings that make up the everlasting trace of His presence in souls and hearts, which are: the world is a deep world that attracts the soul inside itself and keeps it there so that it does not want to look at anything either in itself or outside of itself, except for the One Who now fills all of her with Himself; spiritual joy - spiritual sweetness from tasting Himself, by which all other sweetnesses are cut off and not only indifference is produced, but also disgust for all earthly pleasures; spiritual enlightenment- every soul needs the necessary admonition, in which the definition of truth, forgotten or covered with doubt, is clearly imprinted in the mind, the rule of life, which needs to be given more space in our affairs, the enterprise that needs to be started or finished with more energy; moral strength is a feeling of courage, readiness for all charitable deeds, sparing no effort and not fearing obstacles, through which the soul feels within itself the silently spoken word of the Apostle: “Who ... will separate me from the love of God?” ( Rom.8, 35 ). No one and nothing, no torment, no death itself.

All this the Lord grants to every soul-participant to a greater or lesser extent. Not one of them is hurt, everyone gets her own according to the measure of labor, contrition and intention to please the Lord. And this is only a seed, only a still feeble foreshadowing of what is promised to us. Do not amuse yourself, do not indulge in fuss, do not go back. Be patient with the Lord and He will fill you with His good things even more generously. It is impossible to give us everything suddenly, because more than once we have already turned out to be unfaithful. Let's show more decisive experiments of fidelity and to the given now in small "will be given and will be over" ( Mt. 25, 29 ). The Lord does not want to come to us in passing, but, having settled in, He always wants to walk in us and with us, as He promised ( 2 Corinthians 6:16). Let us keep Him, and His gifts will increase in us in measure, to the measure of their fullness in Himself ( Eph. 4:13 ). Let us hold back, putting aside everything that could compel Him to leave the house of our soul empty, and surrounding Him with everything that could dispose Him to say such a merciful decision about us: “Here is My rest! .. Here I will dwell!” ( Ps. 131, 14 ). And for this we will do this: let us give thanks to Him for a real inexpressible gift, the crown of all His gifts to us, unworthy, in the order of nature and grace, we will surrender ourselves to Him, as He gave Himself to us, we will sacrifice to Him all the abilities of the soul, all the forces of the body, all the external property, so that His worshiped name shines on us, on all of ours, and there is nothing left that does not belong to Him, and so that each of us can say unflatteringly: “I live not to anyone, but lives in Christ to me” ( Gal. 2:20 ).

From now on, we will begin to strive for the fulfillment of what we promised Him in the spirit of contrition: for the correction of all our moral shortcomings - both in deeds, and in feelings, and in dispositions. As evidence of this, and for the sake of success, let us now renounce vain customs, give up bad habits, stop ties that do not lead to good, change all the rules in our life, so that we can already behave differently both at home and in society. And this is not for a short time, but for a lifetime, and not in the form of a test, but in the power of an unchanging law for our everlasting behavior. And in our determination in this regard, we will not allow to waver even by a single hair, so that even a light thought will not ever change what has been laid down, according to some kind of human respect.

Most of all, we will not deviate from Him with attention and, incessantly in vain of Him in our hearts, we will unceasingly turn to Him in prayer, sanctifying every deed and dedicating it to the Lord, betraying Him alone all the action in us and asking for strength from Him for every work that pleases Him.

Thus disposed, we, with His help, will finally reveal the most pleasing and most desirable to Him real change and correction of life - the goal of all God's blessings, the goal of the whole arrangement of our salvation and all our labors and deeds. Let us not, brethren, let this desire of the Lord be violated, and let us not make this expectation of Him from us in vain. Let us not allow these feet, speeding up to the temple, to again wander along the stubborn (crooked) paths, so that these hands, raised up in prayer for mercy, again stretch out to the forbidden, so that these eyes, which saw the Terrible Sacrament, again begin to see wrong, so that these the lips that received the Body and Blood of the Lord again began to talk empty talk, slander and slander, so that this heart, visited by the Lord, would again indulge in obscene desires and aspirations. That is why the Lord is with us and at every hour His help is ready for us.

If evil sin begins to approach us with temptations, let us not succumb to it, and if it aggravates the attacks, let us turn ourselves away from it with the formidable word of the Apostle, who says: “If we, having received the knowledge of the truth, sin willfully, then there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but some fearful anticipation of judgment and the fury of a fire ready to devour opponents. If he who rejects the law of Moses, in front of two or three witnesses, without mercy, is punished by death , then how much gravest punishment do you think he is guilty of ... he who tramples on the Son of God and shames the Blood of the covenant with which he is sanctified, and offends the Spirit of grace? We know the One Who said: Vengeance is mine , I will repay, says the Lord... It is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Heb.10:26-31 ).

So, having approached the Holy Mysteries with fear and trembling, with fear and trembling we will live all the rest of our lives, so that the Lord always abides with us and we are with Him. Stretch out each, at every hour, fervent prayer to the Sweetest Lord, saying to Him with ardent faith and a devoted heart:

“Greatness of my soul! Joy of my spirit! Sweetness of my heart! Sweetest Jesus! Be with me and in me always, and keep me with Your almighty right hand with You and in You! May I cling to Thee, my Lord, in one spirit with Thee, and in Thee and about Thee, and Thee shall be all my thoughts, words and deeds, without Thee I can do nothing! Yes, I do not live for myself, but for You, my Lord and Benefactor, but all my spiritual and bodily feelings are not for me, but for You, my Creator, work and all my spiritual and bodily forces serve You, my Redeemer, and all my life until my last breath, it will be to the glory of your glorious name, my God! (St. Demetrius of Rostov ). Amen.

March 7, 1864

On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (no matter how many of you there are, everyone has the whole Lord)

You have now been vouchsafed the great mercy of God by partaking of the Holy Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ. Because in this Communion the Lord Himself entered into you and began to dwell in your hearts. What a great and inexpressible blessing this is! And we would not have dared to think about it if the Lord Himself had not said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6, 56). That is, whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood is in Me and I in him. This is what happens, according to the word of the Lord, with everyone who, having spoken and confessed, partakes of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. So it is with you! What you have received is the Body and Blood of the Lord, and where the Body and Blood of the Lord is, there He Himself is. In appearance you accepted bread and wine, but in fact it is the Body and Blood of the Lord. When the Lord for the first time communed the holy Apostles, He also served them bread and wine, but, serving bread and wine, said to the bread: “This is my body” ( Matt. 26:26 ), and to the wine: “This. .. is My blood” ( Matt. 26:28 ). And as He is God, as He said, so it was done: the bread became the Body, and the wine became the Blood, in appearance they only seemed to be bread and wine. But LordJesus Christ , as then was, so is now the same Lord ( Heb. 13:8 ). Just as He then communed the holy Apostles, so later He communed and communes all believers. It is He who comes to the liturgy and performs the Sacrament: the bishops or priests here are only hands and tongue, and the Performer is the Lord Himself. He Himself here speaks to the bread to become the Body, and it becomes the Body, speaks to the wine, to become Blood, and it becomes Blood. Then He Himself communes: ours are only hands and a spoon, and the Lord Himself communes through them. And He Himself communed you with His True Body and His True Blood. And together with this, He Himself dwelt in you and began to dwell in you.

See what great mercy of God is to us in Holy Communion! Talk about this great mercy now with a heart full of gratitude and reverence.

Perhaps you are timid to think that the Lord is in you, or do you find it difficult to think, how is it that He is in you? But it is so: for it was He Himself who said it, and not people invented it, which is why it is called the marvelous and marvelous Sacrament.

And this is not only marvelous, but also this: the Lord is in each of you, not in some part, but in the whole, so, however, that although He is in each of you, nevertheless He Himself is not divided and multiplies, but is whole and whole. abides undivided. It's all the same, as now I say a word: each of you hears this word and accepts it all. My word is one, and once I speak it, but it enters into each of you, and everything enters, not a part of what it is, but the whole word. And even if a thousand people were standing here, everyone would hear and accept my whole word, and not some part. So it is in Holy Communion: no matter how many people commune, everyone partakes from the one Body and everyone has it all, and not some part. And they have the Lord in themselves in everything, and not in what part. The Lord Himself is not divided through this, but remains whole and undivided. Take, for example, several mirrors, put them against the sun. In each mirror, the whole sun will be visible, and not part of it, and no matter how many mirrors you put, no matter how many they are, the whole sun will be in each. The sun itself will not be spent through this, will not be lost, but will remain whole and indivisible, and one and the same. So it is in Holy Communion: no matter how many of you there are, everyone has the whole Lord. And He Himself is whole and indivisible: He is everywhere and fulfills everything.

So you see what you have become worthy of: the Lord is in you! Thank the Lord for this mercy, saying in your heart: “Glory to Thee, O God! Glory to Thee, God! Glory to Thee, God!” And think about how not to disturb the Lord. When a big guest comes, you keep yourself modest, say sedately: behold, the Lord will visit you, and who is greater than the Lord? Look, do not fuss and do not amuse yourself, but keep yourself reverently and with fear, especially now. And do not only think about this, but also about bringing something pleasant to the Lord. When a guest comes, you try to calm him down and offer him only what you know is pleasing to him: so now offer the Lord what He loves. And what does He love? He loves everything that is good and blesses it, but turns away from everything that is bad and strikes him with anger. Bring to Him what each of you thinks of something good. One come and say: "Behold, Lord, I will cease to be angry and scold, but I will be quiet and meek." Say the other: “I, Lord, will stop lying and being lazy, and will begin to work hard and toil.” Third, say: "I, Lord, will not become proud and despise others, but I will humble myself and consider myself worse than everyone else." Say the fourth: “I will give up, Lord, drinking and revelry, and I will begin to live temperately and sedately, what excess will be, I will begin to give to alms or tochurch ." So each one of his good bring to the Lord and offer Him as a gift. When you offer what is to the Lord in your heart, the Lord will rejoice in it and take comfort in it. It will be pleasant for Him to be with you, and He will abide in you, and bless you, and give you every good thing: both spiritual and bodily. See what goodness you have in your hands! Look, do not lose him by some foolishness and indecent deed! And remember this day more often: that you were at the Lord's Meal, and He Himself nourished you with His Most Pure Body and gave you drink with His Most Pure Blood. Remembering this, think how great it is, how joyful, and rejoice in the very deed until you live to another Communion. Amen.

February 20, 1865

On Saturday of the week of the first Great Lent (the more often one takes communion, the closer one is to the Lord)

You have also been vouchsafed to partake of the Holy Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ. Speak with all your soul and with all your heart: “Glory to Thee, O God! Glory to Thee, God! Glory to Thee, God!” Whoever partakes, he partakes in Christ the Lord. Whoever partakes in Christ the Lord, he tastes His strength and life. And whoever tastes His strength and life, all spiritual forces come to life in him, or he himself begins to live a real life. About this, the Lord Himself says that whoever eats His Flesh and Blood will be alive for His sake, or will have Life in himself, and whoever does not eat His Flesh and Blood, he will not have Life in himself ( John 6, 53–57 ).

I believe that it is not so difficult for you to understand this, but even if it were difficult, you will so accept this truth on faith that whoever takes communion lives the true life, and whoever does not take communion does not live the true life. Accept it and study it. And I will try to explain this to you with the following similarity.

Look at the trees. Every tree has many branches, big and small; every branch that hangs on a tree is alive, green, has leaves, gives in due time color and fruit; Whatever branch breaks off from a tree, it will first wither, then it will completely dry up and die: you can no longer expect color or fruit from it. Why is this branch green, alive, gives color and fruit when it is attached to a tree? Because, holding on to a large tree, in which there is a lot of juice, she drinks this juice for herself, feeds on it and lives. Why does a branch wither and die when it breaks from the tree? Because, having broken off from a tree, it can no longer receive juice from it, and the one that was in it either flows out or dries up, without juice, there is nothing for it to eat and live, so it dies.

Let's apply this to ourselves. Like branches on a tree, then we are all Orthodox Christians, and like a tree itself, then our Lord and Savior. Just as branches then only live and bear fruit when they are united with a tree, so we then only truly live and bear true fruit when we are united with our Lord Jesus Christ. So He Himself said. "I ... - he says - the vine, and you are the branches: whoever abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit ... Whoever does not abide in Me, will erupt out like a branch and wither" ( In .15, 5–6). Just as a branch connected to a tree draws its sap and lives by it, so we, when we are connected with the Lord, receive strength and life from Him and live, and when we are not connected with the Lord, we do not live, although we appear to be living.

When and how do they unite with the Lord? One unites with the Lord through Communion of His Most Pure Body and His Most Pure Blood. Whoever partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ receives the Lord Himself into himself and becomes in the Lord himself. “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” ( John 6:56), says the Lord. Holy Communion is like being grafted by gardeners. Have you seen how trees are grafted? They take a twig, put it under the skin of another tree and tie it up, it begins to take sap from that tree and grows together with it: so we also take strength from the Lord through Holy Communion, as if sap from a tree, and grow together with Him, or unite, and we begin to live His life, the true life that comes from Him. See now how fair it is that whoever takes communion lives like a branch that hangs on a tree, and whoever does not take communion does not live, but is like a branch broken off from a tree and withering or already withered.

Give thanks to the Lord by partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, knowing what a great blessing you have received through this. Give thanks for the present Communion and wish for the future Communion and, thinking about it, say: “Someday the fast will come, so that we can still say and take communion?” For the more often one takes communion, the closer one is to the Lord, the better it is for him and he himself becomes better. The worker works better, the owner manages better, the boss is better in charge: everyone gets better and everyone becomes better from Holy Communion, becomes livelier, kinder, smarter!

So it will be with you, just look, do not harm yourself with anything unkind: do not offend anyone, do not quarrel, be meek, temperate, industrious, obedient to your superiors, have the fear of God, pray often and diligently do every good thing. There is much help from Holy Communion to those who, after Communion, do not allow themselves to do anything bad, but only think of one good thing and wish one good thing. And whoever does evil after Holy Communion, spoils and destroys its power, he is again separated from Christ the Savior, just as a branch breaks off from a tree. Through Communion, he was grafted into Christ, and through some evil deed again falls away from Him, such Communion is not in Communion.

Now take care of this - that, that is, that, having communed, not to lose the fruit of Holy Communion. It will undoubtedly help you, only you do not spoil it with something ungodly. About this now pray to the Lord and Mother of God and all the saints. And we will pray for you: may the Lord confirm in you all His Gifts, given for the sake of Holy Communion, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, your Guardian Angels and all the saints. Amen.

Part 8. On the first week of Great Lent

(which should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries,
who has received the Lord in them; and in whom there is no Lord)

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6:56 ). Rejoice, reverent communicants! How much the word of the Lord is not false, it is just as certain that the Lord is in you, after Communion of the Holy, Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries. But, brethren, the Lord, having come and settled in us, cannot remain unwitnessed in this inner activity in us, just as He does not leave Himself unwitnessed in the external Providence about us, “giving us rain from heaven and times of many fruits ” ( Acts 14, 17 ). He Himself says: “He who opens the doors of the heart, I will come in to him and dine with him , and he with Me.” ( Rev. 3:20 ). So, do you dine with the Lord and the Lord with you? I offer you this question for the sake of the fact that among you who are present here, perhaps there is not a single one who has not already partaken of the Mysteries of Christ. Well, has that begun in you that should be the obvious fruit of this glorious Sacrament?

The Lord, having come, brings the Supper with Himself: He brings all spiritual blessings for salvation, of which He is the only Source, and gives them to the soul to taste. Come inside and take a look.

The Lord is light. He brings light with Himself and into the soul that has received Him. Just as when a lamp that shines abundantly is brought into a dark room, that room and all the objects in it, from large to small, become visible with the lamp itself and with the one who brought it, in the same way spiritual light illuminates the soul that has received the Lord. This is the light of knowledge and understanding of the entire dispensation of our salvation. It clearly recognizes in it our insignificance and helplessness and God's great condescension towards us, saving us with all the truths that come into contact with it: about the Consubstantial Trinity, about creation and Providence, our fall, the Incarnation of God the Word, His death on the cross and Resurrection, about the dispensation of the Holy Church, the communion of the heavenly with the earthly, and the inheritance prepared in Heaven for those who believe and work in life by faith—in a word, with the totality of saving truths. These truths are known to us and always, as Christians, but until we enter into life according to Christ, this knowledge remains external. The Lord, having come, dissolves them not only with the mind, but with the whole being of our spirit, so that after this there is not a shadow of doubt, not a moment of forgetfulness. But just as it is true that the light now surrounds us and illuminates everything around us, and we are irresistibly aware of it, so he who has received the Lord with his mind consciously stands in those truths and constantly abides in them, acting in his own circle. So it should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, who has received the Lord in them. But is it the same with you and me, brethren? that after this there remains no shadow of doubt, no moment of forgetfulness. But just as it is true that the light now surrounds us and illuminates everything around us, and we are irresistibly aware of it, so he who has received the Lord with his mind consciously stands in those truths and constantly abides in them, acting in his own circle. So it should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, who has received the Lord in them. But is it the same with you and me, brethren? that after this there remains no shadow of doubt, no moment of forgetfulness. But just as it is true that the light now surrounds us and illuminates everything around us, and we are irresistibly aware of it, so he who has received the Lord with his mind consciously stands in those truths and constantly abides in them, acting in his own circle. So it should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, who has received the Lord in them. But is it the same with you and me, brethren?

The Lord is the all-vivifying power. He brings spiritual strength with Himself and into the soul that has received Him. The patient, relaxed, lying in bed, barely raises his hands, barely speaks, barely waves his eyes, but, having received healing, in a sense of strength and strength, he begins to walk and act not only without pain, but also with pleasure, like a paralyzed, healed by the Savior, who , taking a bed, walked, jumping and praising God ( John 5, 9, 15). So the sinful soul is morally relaxed, but when it receives the Lord into itself, it feels spiritual strength and strength in itself, that is, it feels an inspired zeal for every good thing and for the fulfillment of every commandment of God, which is not overcome by any obstacles, either external or internal, erected from passions and bad habits, and not suppressed either by negligence or delay. And we always do a little good, but we do it when it, so to speak, falls under the hands and does not require donations and special efforts in execution. But here a strong energy is reborn with the direction of all thoughts, desires and intentions towards one charitable one, which is expressed not only by liveliness, but by some irresistibility in the works of good deeds and piety, which does not feel fatigue and satiety. So it should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, who has received the Lord in them.

The Lord is the world. He brings peace with Himself and into the soul that has received Him. As on the Sea of ​​Tiberias a strong storm arose, agitated the sea and led the Apostles into confusion, the Lord, having tamed His almighty word, established a great silence, which calmed and cheered everyone ( Mk. 4, 39), so in the soul, usually agitated by many thoughts, desires, enterprises and movements of the heart, after the coming of the Lord, a deep spiritual silence is established in it, not perturbed by anything either from outside or from within - silence, which makes it possible to hear clearly and a light voice, with whether from the sky or from the earth. This is not immobility, but the harmony and regularity of all the actions of our spirit, in all its forms, which, having quality inside, are also expressed outside by the degree of all movements and the arrangement of their affairs without any disturbance of the orders encountered. So it should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, who has received the Lord in them. But is it the same with you and me, brethren?

The Lord is a warming fire. Spiritual warmth He brings with Himself and into the soul that received Him. Just as one who enters a warm room from the cold of the outside feels warmth pleasantly embracing him throughout his body, so spiritual warmth, like a garment, puts on the soul after receiving the Lord in the Most Pure Mysteries. From above - the favor of God reconciled, behind - the atonement of sins, in the future - confidence in the ineffable heritage, from everywhere - peaceful communication with the invisible and visible: these are the rays of this spiritual warmth, which, converging in the heart, produce in it the burning of the spirit, attracting all forces there. of our nature, by which a strong dwelling place is built in it to contain the uncontainable. This warmth gives sweetness, a paradise of sweetness, a spiritual treasure, for which a person is ready to give everything in order not to lose it, but always possess it. So it should be in every partaker of Christ's Mysteries, receiving the Lord in them. But is it so with you and me, brethren?

Thus, the light of knowledge, the power of inspiration for good, peace of mind, sweet warmth are the main witnesses of the Lord's presence in the hearts of true communicants, the Supper with which He nourishes the soul that has received Him. Hearing this, perhaps more than one of you will be troubled in spirit and ask: “What then, if one does not see such evidence in himself, the Lord is not in him?” I will not falsely reassure you: yes, the Lord is not in that. And I will continue this word even further: that if the Lord is not in him, then there is no salvation for him.

However, be careful not to disturb yourself with false insurances. Perhaps these blessings are not perfect, but they are in the firstfruits. Then you still need to say that they are. The day does not suddenly shine, but as soon as it begins to dawn, everyone knows that the night has passed and the day will come. A flower or a tree does not suddenly grow, but as soon as a seed sprouts, we know that the life of a new plant has already begun. The patient does not suddenly rise to his feet, however, as soon as the medicine is found and the power is perceived, we know that the recovery is already in action. Thus, understand also about the fruits of the Acceptance of the Most Pure Mysteries, testifying to the indwelling of the Lord in us. They are not in power, but perhaps they are in the firstfruits. Be patient and stay in the order in which you can expect their appearance in perfection, and you will receive what you want. Ask: “How can we know if we even have these first principles?” I answer: if there is concern for salvation with labors to fulfill everything by which salvation is conditional, know that the Lord has already begun His work in us. Continue the work begun with patience, and see what the one who began will accomplish. But if this is not the case, then there are no firstfruits. Carelessness and carelessness about salvation is a clear sign that the life of the spirit has not yet begun. And everything needs to be redone. Do not despair, however, in this case. Then life is still given to us so that we come to our senses and repent. This is what needs to be done. There is still an auspicious time for holy fasting. Let us take advantage of it and take care to complete the course of our healing in fasting already in the proper way! Then, having reconciled with the Lord in the Mystery of Repentance and having received Him in the Most Pure Mysteries, we will begin the work of life, which will finally bring into light and perfection spiritual blessings, testifying that the Lord is in us and we are in Him.

March 12, 1861

On the first week of Great Lent (how to behave in order to avoid new falls into sins)

So, we finally passed the field of our fasting. The Lord blessed us to labor in the ascetic labors preparing for the Holy Mysteries, and for this small labor He forgave us all the sins that we confessed, and into the pure and thus marked cell of our heart, He deigned to come and dwell through the Most Pure Body and His Most Pure Blood that we received. “What shall we repay the Lord for all that he repays us?” ( Ps.115, 3 ).

Let us repay what He now expects of us. And He expects nothing more than what they themselves promised Him when they asked for forgiveness of sins. We promised not to indulge our sinfulness any more and to make every effort to steadily stay in the fulfillment of His holy commandments. And we will do so. And if we fulfill this promise exactly, then the Lord will fulfill in relation to us what He promised to all true partakers of the Most Pure Mysteries: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6, 56 ).

The Lord is not false in His word. As he said, so be it. But our word is not always true. No matter how sincere we are when we give it, there is always room for doubt whether we will fulfill it. At first our resolve is firm, but then our thoughts are shaken, and our fortress falls. After all, how many times have they promised, and everything fell again! That is why we need to persuade ourselves to use care and labor to persevere, at least this time. Perhaps, with the help of God, this time we will stand. There are people who get tired and do not give in to their former inclinations. Why can't we finally achieve this good? The Lord is near. His help is ready. It remains only for us to do everything necessary for this.

It seems to me that we can succeed in this very easily if we keep inextinguishable the fervor of zeal for pleasing God, which is now filled with our grateful heart to the Lord. If this jealousy always existed in us, no evil thought would confuse us, no temptation would shake us, no obstacle would put up barriers to our good undertakings and labors. And the enemies would run far from us, and the passions would be in no hurry to come with their demands.

That this is exactly the power of jealousy, St. Isaac the Syrian writes about this at length in the 60th word "On the various ways of warfare ...".

“Who,” he says, “are courageous, strong, impute death to nothing, go to work with great zeal, give themselves up to every temptation and death, neglect worldly and bodily life and all temptations, the devil does not suddenly come out to meet them and does not show himself to them for a long time, restrains himself, gives them a place and does not meet with them at their first aspiration, and does not enter into battle with them. For he knows that every beginning of the battle is hot, and he knows that the ascetic has great zeal and zealous warriors are not easily defeated. The devil does this, not being afraid of them, but he is afraid of the Divine power around them, terrible for him. Therefore, while he sees them as such, he does not even dare to touch them until he sees that they have cooled in their jealousy.

Do you see the power of zeal for a holy and God-pleasing life? Divine power surrounds her and reflects any enemy action far away. Whose heart is filled with such zeal, the Lord is with him, and with whom the Lord is, there is strength for all good and courage against all evil. So faithfully keep jealousy and fulfill your promise not to indulge sin and walk in pleasing God. On the contrary, as soon as you allow jealousy to cool, you will not avoid falling. For this is what Saint Isaac says further: “At the time of their laziness (when, that is, the zealots who have grown cold become lazy), the enemy pays attention to them, when a few deviate from their first ardent thoughts and begin to invent from themselves what serves to overcome them in them with the caresses of their wisdom exuding, and from themselves they dig for their souls a ditch of death from laziness with the ongoing soaring of thoughts,

That's the whole secret! If we keep our zeal in strength, then we will avoid new falls, and in goodness we will succeed and strengthen ourselves. On the contrary, as soon as our jealousy weakens and cools down, attention to ourselves weakens, thoughts begin to soar, movements of passions begin to arise, internal consents to them appear, and then action is not far off. Here they fell again. And again darkness and confusion, and falling away from the Lord, and again destruction in slavery to sin and Satan. Why is this what Saint Isaac then advises each of us:

“And you, a person who follows God, at all times of your feat, always remember the first zeal and those flaming thoughts with which you went and entered the military ranks. Test yourself every day, so that the ardor of your soul does not cool in the jealousy that kindled in you at the beginning, and so that you do not lose the tools in which you are clothed at the beginning of the feat.

I believe that with these words, a desire is born in your soul to know how we can really preserve our jealousy, and with a short answer I want to satisfy your appearance. Here's what to do.

Every morning, as soon as you open your eyes, always consider the first thing - to restore this jealousy in all its strength. This can be done by one gathering oneself inward and mentally turning to the Lord. If it is weak, make obeisances, big and small, and in proportion. If this does not produce a full effect, become and go through the memory of everything, how in the current fasting you have reached the determination to change your life, trying to reproduce all those thoughts and feelings that were then and acted on you, and especially the thought that struck you the most. you. At the same time, put yourself at the hour of death or at the Judgment of God, when a decisive determination about you is ready to come out of the mouth of God. If you sincerely carry out this mental work, your search and prayerthey will bring fruit to the Lord, your zeal will arise, with which then faithfully proceed “on your deeds and on your deeds until evening” ( Ps. 103, 23 ).

If for some reason, or rather, on the basis of an enemy’s slander, there appears in your soul an urge to do yourself some indulgence in this respect, not to bother yourself with the work offered, then sober it up with the fear of falling. For if you leave zeal unrecovered in the morning, you will completely grow cold in the affairs of the day! No wonder you fall. Will you fall? Lose grace and God knows if it will return to you and if you will rise again. “For the earth, which drank the rain falling on it in abundance ... and wears out thorns and thistle, is indecent to eat and oaths are near, even as death is a burning” ( Heb.6, 7-8 ). This terrible word: "oaths are near", that is, that the Lord will abandon you completely and leave you in the hands of your fall, if you still allow yourself to cool and fall, let it sound more often in your ears. Each time it will resurrect the feeling of apprehension for oneself and bring the weakening forces into tension.

Having resurrected the heat of your jealousy in the morning, maintain it afterwards and throughout the whole day. And for this, keep your attention undistracted. Stand with your mind in your heart before the face of the Lord and do not let your thoughts wander in vain in dreamy ideas. Wandering thoughts alienate a person from himself and thereby cool him down, and moreover, they can easily direct you to the objects of your passion and, before you come to your senses, awaken the dormant passion and, perhaps, lure out consent to it. And after this, is it far from the fall?

To help this inner mood, take care to rebuild your whole life according to the requirements of the new life, and give your own place, your time and your measure to all your deeds and occupations. Let everything be determined for you: how to be one with you, as with home, as with outsiders, how to arrange the affairs of your craft, rank and position - and everything is directed towards one thing, so that everyone can please the Lord and fulfill His one holy will in everything. . Everything that can irritate your passion and your former bad habits, resolutely put aside. By establishing such an order, you will protect your life from all cases of falling and make it all your mother-in-law harmoniously, not violating, but more and more strengthening your inner structure.

Thus, having settled down internally and externally, you will be constantly zealous for pleasing God, or you will pass from one charitable deed to another. All that remains is the struggle with suddenly arising thoughts, desires, passionate movements and external obstacles to your good undertakings. With attention and unremitting zeal, this will not put you in great difficulty, and not only will not weaken your jealousy, on the contrary, it will constantly irritate it and thereby elevate and strengthen it, just as a warrior does not cool down, but inflames the struggle against enemies attacking him.

I do not remember that one should not in any way go into empty entertainments and in every possible way avoid temptations or near and far reasons and occasions for sin. This will be removed by itself when you rebuild all the orders of your life in the spirit of the new life. As for private circumstances and matters that may jeopardize the goodness of your life, seek their enlightenment in the holy books and in paternal or fraternal advice. Make it your law to turn more often to the spiritual father whom your soul chooses, and with him review everything that happens in your soul and what happens in your life outside. “Salvation… ” says the Wise One, “ in much counsel” ( Prov. 11:14). Whoever knows how to read, have soul-saving books at hand and in them look for admonition and enlightenment of your thoughts in the right (difficult) troubled time. They can in many cases replace the lack of experienced external leadership.

This is the general outline of how one must behave in order to preserve one's zeal and avoid new falls into sins. Acting in this way, you will faithfully fulfill what you promised the Lord when you said: "I have sinned, I will not." Seeing your work, the Lord will fulfill His promise to be with you and act in you for your salvation, in all the breadth, length and height of your devotion to Him and readiness to turn everything to His glory. Amen.

February 13, 1866

On the first week of Great Lent (if you fall again, who knows if you will rise?)

“Behold, you are healthy, do not sin to anyone, but what will be worse for you” ( John 5, 14), the Lord said to the paralytic after healing him. We all heard this comforting and intelligible voice when we received permission for our sins at confession. Now all those who have repented and resolved have been restored to their spiritual health, and all have returned to their order and rank. What else is required? It is necessary to watch out so as not to fall into the same trouble again. Threw sin - do not return to it. Received pardon - do not again be subjected to anger and condemnation. You have entered the right path - do not deviate from it. Again the enemy will drag you into his area of ​​darkness - do not give in. He will contrive to fool you with flattering promises - do not go into deception. You know how evil sin is, you know how difficult it is to overcome it, do not enter into fellowship with it again. The Lord helped you, you got up - stand still and be of good courage, and let your Heart be strong.

The enemy will whisper to you: "If you fall, you will rise again." And you oppose him with your speech: “I have risen now, thanks be to the Lord! But if I fall again, I can't say if I'll get up. I don’t want to remain in the hands of the fall forever, I don’t want to be a slave of sin and a victim of the flames of hell.” So repel the flattery of the enemy. And with this fear of a new fall into sins, sober your soul and inspire it to the procession through the self-correction that has begun.

Affirm in yourself that very probable thought that if you fall again, who knows whether you will get up? And if you remain in the fall, you will perish. The enemy will shoot down with the assurance that the Lord is merciful. Pardoned and will pardon again. Exactly, the Lord is merciful, but there is a measure of His mercy to us. There is a measure of God's patience. He forgives, forgives, and finally, seeing that the sinner is again given over to sin, he completely leaves him in the hands of his fall. Open the book of the prophet Amos and start reading. In the 1st and 2nd chapters, he depicts the judgments of God on Damascus, Gaza, Idumea, on the Jews, Israelites and other peoples. The word of the Lord is the same for all of them. “Damascus sinned once, twice and three: I forgave him. When now and for the fourth time he showed his wickedness, shall I not turn away from him? ( Am. 1, 3–4). Turned away and sent punishment. “One, two, and three I forgave Gaza; on the fourth , shall I turn away from her?” ( Am.1, 6-7 ). He turned away and sent the execution. “Once, twice, and three times I have spared the Jews and the Israelites; on the fourth day shall I not turn away from them?” ( Am.2, 4-5 ). He turned back and punished. It happens with us as well. Whoever sins and repents, the Lord forgives. Still sin and repent, still forgive. And still forgive. And still forgive. Finally, seeing that everything is the same with us, he makes such a decision: “I have forgiven so much and so much, if he starts doing the same again, I will turn away from him.” Let this judgment be written in his heart by everyone who is again drawn to sin. The Lord has forgiven hitherto, but now, if you fall, be afraid that He would not completely turn away from you. How many times did God forgive Pharaoh for his stubbornness? Finally, he abandoned him and ordered the Israelis to leave without waiting for his consent. And even though later Pharaoh came to his senses and hastily ordered: “Go tell them to come out quickly” ( Ex. 12, 31, 33), it did not help him and God's judgment on him did not avert. So, finally, God's mercy can be exhausted to anyone. And what is most terrible is that we cannot say exactly when the hour of this exhaustion will strike. That rejection of God for the fourth crime, which is mentioned by the prophet Amos, and this execution to Pharaoh after resisting God ten times, do not mean that one can calmly indulge in the bonds of sin, breaking the vow up to two or three times, but only show that there is a limit to God's mercy : when he overtakes whom, it is not known. Better affirm in your thought that for you it will follow immediately after the fall to which you are ready to indulge, and thereby sober your thought and give courage to your heart to resist the impulses that arise. Remember Sampson's misfortune. Once and twice entered into him the power to break the bonds, with which the Philistines entangled him at the betrayal of Delilah, but even the last time when his hair was cut, he did not expect that the same power would not come to him, but it turned out differently. The Lord departed from him and delivered him into the hands of his enemies. Sampson himself did not even think that God's apostasy had already befallen him, on the contrary, waking up, he said:“I will go out, as before, and shake myself off ,” that is, I will shake off these bonds, “and do not understand, as if the Lord depart from him” ( Jud.16, 20 ). So the Jewish people had mercy, the Lord had mercy, and finally what did he say? “Behold, your house is left to you empty” ( Matt. 23:38 ). But neither the chief priests, nor the elders, nor the scribes, and no one else thought that this formidable determination had already befallen them.

Be afraid of this formidable judgment when sin begins to attract you again . Be afraid that the Lord will not finally say about you: "Behold, your house is left ... your house is empty." The Lord is merciful to all sinners and assures with an oath that he does not want "the death of a sinner, but to turn ... and I live to be him " ( Ezek.33, 11). But you yourself, with your frequent falls, will bring yourself to the point that nothing can be done with you. Resurrection from falls is the same as mending a dress, or a house, or some other thing. It happens, however, that another thing is repaired, repaired, and finally abandoned because it’s impossible to repair it, there’s nothing to put one’s hands on. The same can happen with the soul. The Lord corrects her, corrects her, and finally abandons her completely because with her frequent falls she finally upsets herself so much that it is impossible to correct her. For on what is the possibility of our revolt based? On the good that remains in us, despite the fact that we work for sin. Grace descends upon this good, revives it, and gives it a preponderance over evil. And a man gets up. But each new fall consumes our good more and more, after each fall less and less of it remains in us, and, consequently, there is less and less room where grace can descend to raise us up. What a wonder if we finally spend all our goodness in slavery to sin and thus lose the possibility of rebellion. There will be no means left for us to do so.

Remember how you came to your senses the last time and got up. Saving thoughts came and sobered me up. Either the fear of death and Judgment, or the perniciousness of sin, or shame before the Lord Savior, or something else that strongly affected the soul, struck it. The soul came to its senses and, with the help of God, gave up sin, repented, and now stands in the intention not to offend God with sins anymore. If you fall into sin again, then with what thoughts will you shock yourself later, when everything that can shock you has already been tried and your tremendous strength has been spent on your present uprising? For the next excitation of you, there is no strength left in them. The same thing happens with saving thoughts as with medicines. Just as the sensitivity to them is dulled by the frequent use of medicines in the body, so, in relation to amazing and exciting truths, the soul finally loses all feeling. Neither threats, nor promises, nor death, nor hell, nor heaven, nor the poison and bitterness of sin - nothing strikes and sets the soul in motion. She will become like a stone. And what will happen to her then? The same that the Apostle awards to the land that drank"multiplier" the rain that descended on her and wore out only "thorns and thistles" : "it is indecent to eat ... oaths are near, even death is a burning" ( Heb. 6, 7-8 ).

Add to this that a frequent fall into sin forms a habit of sinning, which binds a poor soul and tyrannically keeps it in bondage to itself. Even if one sin turns into a habit, it captivates the whole soul and tormentingly dominates the whole. See what the spider does with its prey? Part after part envelops her in a thin cobweb until she entangles her all, after which she at least makes some more movements, but they are powerless to free her. So is sin, to which a person becomes accustomed by frequent falling, penetrates force after force in him, until he fills both soul and body and imposes the bonds of slavery on all their functions. Although later it sometimes occurs to a person to throw away his sin, but the soul, seeing how much it has become entangled in it, does not dare to raise its hands in order to unravel, and is given over to complete hopelessness to overcome sin, as the Apostle writes about the Gentiles, that they“I have invested in hopelessness (insensitivity) , giving myself over to studeniya (debauchery), in doing all sorts of uncleanness in covetousness” ( Eph. 4, 19 ), and like the Jews, starved to death by Egyptian slavery, even when Moses brought them the promise of freedom from the presence of God did not believe that this could happen.

So, those who have repented and embarked on a good path, be afraid to fall into sin again. See through the charm of sin, which is trying to captivate you again, its decisive destruction. Do not look at it lightly, but as a yawning abyss, an open hell and ready to swallow you irrevocably. And with the fear of such a bitter fate, sober your thoughts and turn away the feelings of your heart from sin. The fight is, of course, inevitable. But it is easier for a standing man to fight than for a fallen one. Got up? Stand up and fight. The Lord will be your Helper. Day by day the struggle will become easier. Finally, she completely subsides. Goodwill prevail - and your life will flow peacefully, along the path of charitable good deeds, and will lead you to a blissful outcome from here to the eternal heavenly abode. And if you fall again, again there will be confusion of thoughts and feelings, again darkness and languor, again fears and torments of conscience, again tightness and all kinds of disorder. You will again begin to toil in slavery to sin, and, perhaps, without end, and, having suffered here, you will be cast into endless torment after death in unmourned and uncorrected sins.

The Lord, who gave you to emerge from the devil's network, “Let him make you, let him establish, let him strengthen, let him establish” ( 1 Pet.5, 10 ). And it will be so if you yourself will be sober and vigilant, knowing that " our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks, looking for someone to devour" ( 1 Pet.5, 8 ). Amen.

Part 9. On the second week of Great Lent

(what parts of nature we have, what attacks on them
and what weapons of our spiritual warfare against them)

For many of you, a week has already passed, as, having reconciled with the Lord, you are walking the path of a new, God-pleasing life. It has become clear, I believe, for you, that most of the time in your work of salvation is spent in the struggle. That's the way it should be. The enemy from whose realm you have left, without losing hope of seizing you again in his hands, plots intrigues and passions, which were supposed to be denied and denied, which, however, have not died down and are not even too weak, rise again in greater or lesser strength and demand satisfaction. These attacks from both sides are repelled and are felt. Why should they be repelled and give place to strife. Such is the law of life in Christ Jesus! Every Christian who seeks salvation must necessarily go through three stages, namely: to begin by repentance and turning to God, and then, through a struggle with the passions, enter the realm of purity. Repentance is the starting point, purity is the final end, the struggle with the passions fills the entire space between these two limits. Even now, according to an inevitable law, you are in the struggle.

Be of good cheer and let your heart be strong! You are warriors. As warriors, you need weapons. I want to point them out to you so that, knowing what to fight with, you will not be at a loss to think about it in the hour of battle.

The Holy Apostle Paul, arming Christians for battle, commanded them: “Put on all the armor of God, that you may be able to stand” ( Eph. 6:11 ). "Put on" not one weapon, but all, so that not a single part is open and unarmed. As warriors going to war take a sword, spear or gun in their hands, cover their heads with a helmet, face with a net, chest with armor, other parts with a shield, in a word, they have a corresponding defensive weapon against any part, so in spiritual warfare we, as soldiers, every part of his nature must be armed with the corresponding weapon. Every part of our nature is attacked by the enemy; each of them is attacked by its own passion and its own sin. He who defends must, in contrast to the attack, defend every part of his own with his weapon.

Here, look at what units we have, what kind of attacks on them and what weapons against them. Let us go over the composition of our nature part by part and decently arm.

We have a body. The life of the body is maintained by the harmonious action of its various parts and functions. Satisfying the needs of the body is the law of nature, but passion approaches them, it loses its measure and proper form and becomes sin.

Our body must be fed. The organs of nutrition are taste with the larynx and stomach. The passions that attack this part are: polyphagy, sweet eating - a luxury in the table and its seasonings, gluttony and drunkenness. The instrument with which to ward off this part is temperance and fasting.

Our body feels. The sense organs are the nerves with the senses. There are many passions attacking this part. Each sense has its own temptation: the eye has its own, the ear has its own, the taste has its own. What is common to all is a passion for pleasant stimulation of the senses, or for sensual pleasures. The instrument with which this part must be armed is called by the holy fathers the preservation of the senses, and more so of sight and hearing, from all seductive impressions, most of all through solitude and avoidance of encounters with seductive things, faces and places.

Our body has movement. The organs of this administration are muscles with arms and legs. The passions that attack this part are, on the one hand, laziness and drowsiness, on the other hand, frivolity, restlessness, a passion for games and amusements, dancing, acting, fighting, and so on. The instrument with which this part must be defended is the essence: work, vigil, bows, a power-law regularity of movements.

There is a language in the body - the organ of the word. The passions that attack him are: idle talk, idle talk, gossip, quarrels, blasphemers. The instrument with which to protect him is the prudent silence of the mouth.

Such is our body, such are its passions, and such are the weapons against them. The totality of these tools among the holy fathers is called bodily exploits. This is how the body must be taken in hand and taught to lead a pious life. "Those who are Christ's are, crucifying the flesh with passions and lusts" ( Gal. 5:24 ).

Let's move on to the soul. Here in the first place is imagination with memory - a store of the soul with an indicator of its treasures. The passions that confuse this ability are: daydreaming, absent-mindedness, or plundering the mind, fantasizing, kindled by reading novels and empty conversations. The weapon against them is attention, or sobriety, and cheerfulness of the spirit.

The imagination is followed by reason with reason, which is all to recognize. The enemies that act unfavorably on them are: inquisitiveness, doubt, pride, only trust in oneself, stubbornness of opinions, lack of conviction. The weapons with which they must be armed are: reading the word of God and the writings of the fathers, conversation with people experienced in spiritual life, and one's own reflection in submission to the voice of the Church.

Next to the intellect stands the will, the active faculty of desires and undertakings. The passions that torment her are: carelessness, self-interest, self-will, disobedience, insolence and liberty. The weapon against them is all-round obedience, or humility, subject to lawful orders and statutes: worldly, civil, ecclesiastical, and that which is given by the spiritual father.

Next in the same row is taste - the ability of aesthetic pleasures. The passions that overcome him are: fashion, panache, passion for amusements, balls, theaters. Spiritual tools for protecting it are: spiritual singing, icons, and even more so going to temples, which represent the most complete satisfaction of the needs of an uncorrupted taste.

Such is the soul, such are its passions, such are the weapons against them. The totality of these tools makes up the circle of spiritual exploits, through which we glorify God “and in our souls” ( 1 Cor. 6:20) and “provide” our souls ( Heb. 10: 39 ) and “purify” ( 1 Pet. 1: 22 ) .

Finally, above the soul is the spirit, the power directed towards God and Divine things. The enemies here are: unbelief, forgetfulness of God, fearlessness, burning of conscience, dislike for the sacred, despair. The weapons against them are faith and love devoted to God, enlivened by hope and active in walking before God, in the unceasing turning of the mind and heart to God, or in unceasing prayer.

I am shortening the instructions in order to give freedom to your weary attention, brought into an unusual area of ​​\u200b\u200bobjects. I will only enumerate in succession all the instruments of our spiritual warfare. They are precisely: faith, prayer , going to church and being in all the ranks of the church, all-round obedience, reading the word of God and the holy fathers, lively conversation with experienced people and contemplation of God, sober attention to oneself, bodily labor, vigil, prostrations, solitude, storage of feelings, silence, abstinence, fasting.

The same weapons, not by letter, but by spirit, are also indicated by the holy Apostle Paul, when, having commanded Christians to put on all the weapons of God ( Eph. 6:11 ), he then lists them. “Stand... ,” he says, “ your loins are girded with truth, and having put on the breastplate of truth, and having shod your feet in the preparation of the gospel of peace; over all, you have received the shield of faith, in which you will be able to quench all the arrows of the evil kindled; and accept the helmet of salvation and the sword spiritual, which is the Word of God, praying with all prayer and supplication at all times in the Spirit" ( Eph. 6:14-18 ).

Thus, both the apostolic instruction and the consideration of the parts of our nature point out to us as a necessary condition for success in spiritual warfare all the listed weapons. Otherwise, they are called feats and are bodily, mental and spiritual. And so you see that all charitable men and women who sought salvation went through these feats steadily, and because they passed, overcame passions, appeared pure and were saved. Do you want to stand in the battle you wage? Begin to strive for good deeds. Each feat is a constraint on the passion opposite to it, and everything taken together is a constraint on all passions, by which the latter hold on, as if under siege, and are partly soiled by the exclusion of food from them, and are most directly affected by opposition. Be constant, firm and uncompromising - and soon you will see success. Do not look at those who run feats, considering them a matter of arbitrariness. There are no winners between them. For by running them, what do they do? They open themselves from all sides to the blows of enemies. They are like warriors who, without any weapons, undressed, barefooted, walk among enemies. Enemies beat them anywhere and with anything, and everywhere inflict wounds on them and kill them. No. He who desires to stand in the battle without delay must put on the enumerated weapons and put on all, leaving not one. For, omit at least one, you will open some part of yourself to the blows of enemies, you will receive a wound, perhaps not a light one, a wound to death. Let the warrior be covered all over, and his head open - the enemy will inflict a wound on his head and kill him. Let the legs be open - the enemy will beat his legs and take him prisoner, although he is armed in all other parts. So it is in spiritual warfare: drop only one weapon, one feat - the enemies will rush there, as if through a gap in the wall of the city, and they will make desolation according to the oversight of the warrior. Don't go tochurch , break the fast, give free rein to your eyes and hearing: how much harm will happen from here? You can get such a defeat that you will not recover later, but at first it seems like a small thing.

“Put on all the weapons, raise all the feats - what a burden it is!” who will think. Exactly, a burden, but what to do when we cannot be without this burden? If you do not want to be captured by the enemy or be killed by him - carry the weapons necessary to repel and defeat him and to protect yourself. But this is our consolation: the more patiently and indulgently one wears these weapons, the lighter they become and the more effortless their operation, not like in sensual weapons. Here, the more someone uses weapons, the more tired, and in spiritual warfare, the more persistent and tireless someone uses what weapon, the less tired and the weapon becomes more and more light, and, finally, it is almost imperceptible in severity, although at the same time time, in the strength and liveliness of the action, increases to an unforeseen degree. Take going to church. At first, perhaps, it is hard and not entirely pleasant, then the more one walks, the more pleasant the walking becomes and the easier, and, finally, the stay in the temple becomes so sweet that one does not even want to leave it, and when one enters into him, he feels such strength in himself that he is not afraid of any enemy. Likewise, any other spiritual weapon, through long use, becomes so close to us that it is not a burden, but a great lightness, that can be felt in spiritual work and waging war with passions and lusts. The burden remains when, for some reason, someone is forced not to fulfill the deeds of a feat, to which he is accustomed and in which he has always found reinforcement.

So, do not refuse, but force yourself to go through everything prescribed by strength. God will be your Helper, just start and continue irresistibly. Now fasting is the most favorable time for such skills. Those who have been fasting, of course, have already used all spiritual weapons, and those who will continue to fast will use them. It remains only to apply a little violence to yourself, starting to keep up with them. And there, God willing, you will like them so much that you will not want to part with them forever. One has only to cling a little to achievements, they will more and more turn into a need for us, nourish and delight us. They are not contrary to our nature, but are akin to it in its purest form - which guarantees their success to prevail over us.

May the Lord give you all an experimental experience of their salvation! Then there will be no power to distract you from them. Amen.

February 24, 1863

On the second week of Great Lent (the most important tricks to ensure your success in the struggle)

In Holy Baptism we are reborn for a new life, we become a “new creature” ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 ), created about “Christ Jesus for good works ... that we may walk in them” ( Eph. 2:10 ), so that the one born in an image from God “does not sin” ( 1 John 3:9 ), while he remains in his rank and acts according to the principles of the new birth. Stepping out of this rank, we fall and again commit sin. But now we bring Repentance, we confess, we partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ - and again we are accepted into the first rank and into the first benefits granted to those who receive a new birth in Holy Baptism. We should now expect that the apostolic word should again be applicable to us: “one who is born of God commits no sin”( 1 John 3:9 ).

And yet, in ourselves and in others, we see sin reigning, even in these sanctifying days, even after holy fasting and our strict vows. What is this? Has the promise of God become false? Or is the grace of God weakened? No. And “the Christmas tree ... the promises of God, in that to her and in that amen” ( 2 Cor. 1, 20 ), and in whom grace, that “all” can “in the Lord strengthening him ” ( Phil. 4 , 13). The reason for this sad phenomenon is not outside of us, but in ourselves: in the fact that we, on our part, do not use the efforts that are obligatory for us and do not use, as we should, the means indicated to us. Is the doctor to blame for the failure of treatment when the patient does not listen to his instructions and does not use the medicines prescribed for him? The Lord promised to give strength and gives. But on our part there must be resistance to sin and struggle with it. Whoever does not struggle with sin does not overcome it; whoever does not overcome it falls and remains in sin. On the contrary, whoever opposes sin is always ready for grace-filled help, by which he who is strengthened, although not without difficulty, can always evade evil and do good.

So, the main thing on our part is the fight against sin. Fight, don't give in and you will overcome. And there will be no sin in you. If others act in the same way, then it will not be in them. And there will be a bright kingdom of holiness and truth everywhere.

The fighter must have weapons and know how to use them, or know how to fight. On another occasion, I showed you the full armor of the Christians and explained the necessity of putting on them. Remember these weapons. These are the essence: fasting, solitude, vigil, keeping feelings, bowing, going to church , reading the word of God and fatherly writings, all-round obedience, sober attention to oneself, prayer , faith. You have seen how they flow from our nature and from the nature of warfare itself. And it became, you can be sure, that all of them are essential in our warfare against sin.

But suppose that someone armed himself with all of them: did he do everything? No. We still need to act on them, and act not haphazardly, but expediently. I do not undertake to describe to you everything, how spiritual warfare is being waged. This is a very broad subject. I will only indicate the most important methods, which, however, are sufficient to ensure the success of your struggle.

First. Do not think about starting a war against the entire horde of passions, but arm yourself every time against the passion that is at war with you. Pride fights, fight pride, anger fights, fight anger, fight jealousy, fight jealousy. Whatever enemy is in front of you, fight it, direct all your military forces and all your attention to it. This is an enemy ploy, that he diverts our forces in the other direction, and not where the danger is.

Second. Hasten to separate yourself from the enemy and oppose yourself to him, and him to yourself. In spiritual warfare it is not the same as in sensual warfare. In the sensual, the enemy goes straight to the face and is visible. But in spiritual warfare both the enemy and we are in the same soul and in the same heart, and most of our misfortune is due to the fact that we do not know how to distinguish the enemy from ourselves and separate from him. We think that the passionate movement that disturbs us is we, our nature, a natural demand that must be satisfied, while it is not we, not a need of nature, but our enemy, who has come from everywhere. This delusion is the source of all our sins and wrong deeds. If at first we had time to separate passion from ourselves, as something alien, hostile, then we would not be inclined to satisfy it, but would be inspired by hatred and opposition.

Third. Having separated the passion that disturbs us from ourselves and recognizing it as an enemy, begin to fight against it, fight it, sorting out one weapon after another, until it runs away and hides from us, or until the soul calms down. Fast, pray, read, meditate, talk to your spiritual father, go to church , bow down at home. In a word, use everything that you think fit to defeat the enemy. Sometimes passion quickly disappears, sometimes it struggles for a long time. Our task is not to weaken, but to endure courageously in the upsurge of military exploits, until even a trace of the enemy remains on the earth of our soul.

Fourth. The enemy is driven away, the passion is extinguished, the soul is calm. Never think that you have struck this passion to death. No. She only retired for a while, unable to resist the pressure of your forces. But, as soon as the case, he will immediately rise again and begin to fight. You overcame passion only in one case, but it will find thousands of such cases and will again begin to fight and call to abuse. Moreover, one passion will be eliminated - another will emerge, and our arena is never empty and idle. This means that a Christian should never lay off his whole armor, but be in it both day and night. He is an unreplaceable warrior who must always be ready to fight. In this "patience" ( Rev. 13:10 ). “Get your souls in your patience” ( Luke 21:19), for only “the one who endures ... to the end, that one will be saved” ( Mark 13:13 ).

That's the whole program of scolding! Recognizing the enemy as your passion, which is now fighting you, strike it with your weapons, using one after another until you drive it away. Banished? Stand and watch, waiting for the attack of the same or another passion. And when she attacks, do with her the same as you did with the first. So every day, every hour and every minute.

Ask: "When will the end?" In fact, everyone will see for himself when the end of the battle comes just for him. When the scolding ends, then it will end, but no one can determine this in advance. In advance, we can only say that the more cheerfully someone fights, not succumbing to a single passionate attraction, the sooner passions begin to weaken, and as this uncompromising battle lasts, peace and silence will begin to settle in the soul. There is hope that the soul will finally come to such a peaceful dispensation, in which, as in midnight silence, deep silence will reign - a sign that the enemies have been driven far away or everything has been put in place. Then the soul will inwardly celebrate the unceasing Sabbath, crying out: “We have gone through fire and water, and brought us to rest!” ( Ps. 65:12 ).

Merciful Lord, our Leader, may help all of you, workers in battle, to achieve this great good! Amen.

On the second week of Great Lent (how does it happen that when we destroy ourselves, we do not destroy, but save)

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “Whose ... if he wants to save his soul, he will destroy it; but whoever destroys his soul for the sake of Me and the Gospel, he will save her” ( Mark 8:35 ). These words must be deeply imprinted in their hearts by those who, having spoken, repented and communed the Holy Mysteries, have now entered into a struggle with themselves, with their passions, with the sin living in them. Know, fighters of Christ, that when you strike yourselves, you cause labor, illness and sorrow to yourself, you do not show any slander against yourself, but arrange your salvation, do not lose, but gain, do not depend, but grow fat.

In order to make this clearer to you and your courage in the struggle with yourself not weakened, I will explain to you how it happens that when we destroy ourselves, we do not destroy, but save.

This will become clear to you when you imagine well what happened to us in the fall. There was laid the foundation for such a mysterious way of our action in relation to ourselves. Saint Macarius of Egyptin his conversations he often turns to this subject and by various comparisons tries to bring it closer to our concept. He says that in the primitive state a person was pure, perfect and adorned with all the virtues: the fear of God, faith, meekness, humility, mercy, temperance, purity, non-possessiveness, brotherly love - in a word, all the perfections in which the image and likeness of God shone in him. . But when he heeded the suggestion of the evil one and transgressed the commandment, then another man entered him, in everything opposite to the first, who, having merged with him, closed him, constrained and drowned him out, as if a member was superimposed on a member, head against head, chest against chest , hands against hands, and so on: each member against the corresponding member, so that that first person was not visible, but one could almost see this newcomer, in everything, as it was said,

So the man doubled. In fact, man is human nature, as it came out of the hands of the Creator, and this alien, impure and passionate is not a man, but only a ghost reveals a person, and does not live, but only manifests a ghost of life, but in reality it is dead or, better, deadly. towards the real person. It seems that we ourselves, our face, should stand on the side of the right, primitive man. But it is not known what happened to us that we recoiled from him and took the side of a newcomer, passionate to the point that we only consider him to be ourselves. That is why it happens that, no matter what passion a person is overcome with, he stands up for it as for himself. He does not even think that he is acting here not for himself, but for someone else against himself. When, for example, someone is angry and, when inspired by anger, goes against someone, he feels that he stands up for himself, wants to protect himself. Whereas neither anger nor any other passion is not us and does not belong to human nature. This is all alien, alien, hostile to us, destroying us.

Here is this passionate person, alien to us and alien, whom, however, by deceit we began to consider ourselves, our soul, and the Lord commands to destroy and kill, if anyone wants to save his soul, that soul that is constrained, closed and muffled this stranger, or a passionate soul who has come. And indeed it happens. So it will be with us. For if we begin to act in this way, we begin, that is, to destroy our souls, then the consequence of this will be that the true person in us will be freed from the oppression of the newcomer man and will begin to live a god-like life characteristic of him, and the newcomer, who lives illusoryly, will be consumed in us and in our whole being, thus, true life will reign, proceeding, as you see, from self-mortification and self-destruction.

It has become clear to you, I believe, what it means to destroy your soul in order to save it, and why this salvation cannot be arranged otherwise than by destroying yourself. But at the same time, let it be obvious to you that in the matter of spiritual warfare, our main and initial method should be to separate ourselves from the passionate person who has come into us, to push him away from us, to recognize him not only not by himself, but also our enemy who destroys us. Just as in our ordinary affairs we will in no way begin to act against anyone until we become friends with him and are not aware of his hostility towards us, so in our spiritual life, until we become friends with the passions and are not aware of their hostility to us, we will not act against them. Let us not act against them, and let us not kill them. If we do not kill them, they will kill us. So, we need to split up. Put yourself on one side, and push a passionate person to the other. Set him against you and start a fight and war with him, so that, member by member, cutting off in him, finally and completely kill him and throw him out of himself, remaining pure and perfect, as the Lord wants and as He created us.

Let me remind you that the split should have already been accomplished in you precisely by the power and action of repentance. For what is repentance? A person begins to abhor everything impure, passionate and sinful, and, wanting to get rid of and cleanse himself from it, he sets a firm intention to devote his life to the Lord and the fulfillment of His holy commandments, in no way pleasing the passions and no longer succumbing to their inclinations. That's what repentance is! It is that inner turn by which a person is divided within himself by consciousness and freedom, passing from passions to the side of holiness - truth.

So, the split in you has already happened. Look, don't get along again. For as soon as you make friends, the fight will stop. And scolding is now your main business, in it is your life. So you need to constantly renew and revive your initial bifurcation with passions, to stir up enmity with them in you. A passionate person, although already repelled, is still alive and will pull you towards him with both flattery and threat. Your business is to stand at your post, not entering into any deals and agreements with him, and always positioning yourself opposite to how he inspires. He will, for example, draw you to lust, and you strain yourself for purity; he will kindle wrath, and you dispose yourselves to meekness; he will inspire pride and vanity, and you teach yourself humility. So it is in everything. Resist evil and force yourself to do good. And this is your main business in battle, so is the main condition for your success in it and your inner peace. With this kind of work on yourself, you will make the passionate person grow weaker and weaker, not only not getting food and satisfaction for himself, but constantly being struck down, and the spiritual person will grow stronger and stronger, until finally he completely freezes. and this last one will not be left alone. This is all I wanted to explain to you now, so that when the enemy begins to speak sweetly to you: “Why torture yourself and, denying yourself everything, destroy yourself,” you, inspired by courage, would answer him: “We don’t torture ourselves, but you, we are not destroying ourselves, but we are hitting you in the head, our flattering enemy and our destroyer, ”and they would continue the ruthless struggle of their passions towards themselves, not congratulating them in anything and not giving them rest from their continuous opposition and their defeats. that the passionate man will grow weaker and weaker, not only without food and satisfaction, but also constantly being struck down, while the spiritual man will grow stronger and stronger, until at last he does not die at all and this last one is left alone. This is all I wanted to explain to you now, so that when the enemy begins to speak sweetly to you: “Why torture yourself and, denying yourself everything, destroy yourself,” you, inspired by courage, would answer him: “We don’t torture ourselves, but you, we are not destroying ourselves, but we are hitting you in the head, our flattering enemy and our destroyer, ”and they would continue the ruthless struggle of their passions towards themselves, not congratulating them in anything and not giving them rest from their continuous opposition and their defeats. that the passionate man will grow weaker and weaker, not only without food and satisfaction, but also constantly being struck down, while the spiritual man will grow stronger and stronger, until at last he does not die at all and this last one is left alone. This is all I wanted to explain to you now, so that when the enemy begins to speak sweetly to you: “Why torture yourself and, denying yourself everything, destroy yourself,” you, inspired by courage, would answer him: “We don’t torture ourselves, but you, we are not destroying ourselves, but we are hitting you in the head, our flattering enemy and our destroyer, ”and they would continue the ruthless struggle of their passions towards themselves, not congratulating them in anything and not giving them rest from their continuous opposition and their defeats. but the spiritual man will grow stronger and stronger, until at last he dies completely and this last one is left alone. This is all I wanted to explain to you now, so that when the enemy begins to speak sweetly to you: “Why torture yourself and, denying yourself everything, destroy yourself,” you, inspired by courage, would answer him: “We don’t torture ourselves, but you, we are not destroying ourselves, but we are hitting you in the head, our flattering enemy and our destroyer, ”and they would continue the ruthless struggle of their passions towards themselves, not congratulating them in anything and not giving them rest from their continuous opposition and their defeats. but the spiritual man will grow stronger and stronger, until at last he dies completely and this last one is left alone. This is all I wanted to explain to you now, so that when the enemy begins to speak sweetly to you: “Why torture yourself and, denying yourself everything, destroy yourself,” you, inspired by courage, would answer him: “We don’t torture ourselves, but you, we are not destroying ourselves, but we are hitting you in the head, our flattering enemy and our destroyer, ”and they would continue the ruthless struggle of their passions towards themselves, not congratulating them in anything and not giving them rest from their continuous opposition and their defeats.

In conclusion, I will add my sincere goodwill to you, may “your evils, even on the earth, die: fornication, impurity, passion, evil lust and covetousness” , may you also put off “anger, rage, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech from your lips” ( Col. 3, 5, 8 ). So you will put off "the old man with his deeds" and put on "new" ( Col.3, 9-10 ). And it will be possible to say about you with the word of the Apostle: “you died” ( Col. 3, 3 ), but in such a way that through this death you passed “into the stomach” ( 1 John 3: 14 ), “and this life is hidden with Christ in Bose" (Col. 3, 3 ).

May this be for you the grace and love of mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, who revived us with His death and in our self-mortification revives and affirms His life in us! Amen.

On the second week of Great Lent (fighters of passions, do not weaken and do not heed their flattering speeches)

Those who work for passions cherish passions like dear children, but even to those who have already entered into a struggle with them, the enemy often comes up with a flattering speech to pity himself and not fight them with such ruthlessness and mercilessness. If the passionate knew what tormentors the passions are, they would immediately reject them from themselves, like the fiends of hell. But you, fighters of passions, do not weaken and do not heed their flattering speeches, knowing that they want to open hell under your feet and cast you down there. For listen to what the holy Apostle Paul says about them. “Christ ,” he says, “ will appear, our belly ... Mortify your souls, even on the earth, fornication, impurity, passion, evil lust and covetousness, if there is idolatry, for their sake the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience ... Set aside alsoanger, rage, malice, blasphemy, shameful words from your mouth ” ( Col. 3, 4-6, 8 ). This short instruction can be expressed thus: the Lord will come to judge the living and the dead, and condemn to eternal torment all whose hearts are filled with passions. Accept from now on the zeal and labor to purify yourself from these passions.

Listen to this suggestion and do not weaken in your struggle with passions. Hell awaits the passionate, for indulgence to passions they will be betrayed to eternal torment. But I want to add to this that the passions themselves are hell, and the passionate already anticipates the torments of hell.

There are people who do not believe that there will be fire, a worm, gnashing of teeth and other bodily torments awaiting sinners in hell. It is impious to think so, and these people are in a dangerous and pernicious error. But let's just say it to them. Let it be your way! For all that, however, you cannot deny that, after separation from the body, the soul will remain alive, feeling and conscious of itself, and that the passions with which it worked here will abide in it and pass with it into that life. If so, then this alone will be enough to constitute the most agonizing hell. The passions with which the soul lived here, finding no satisfaction for itself, will burn and sharpen it there like fire and a worm: they will torment it with continuous, most painful torments.

The passions are not some slight thought or desire that appears and disappears without leaving a trace. No, these are the inner and strong urges of a vicious heart. They enter deeply into the nature of the soul and by a long dominion over it are co-dissolved with it and articulated, so that they cannot be thrown away and shaken off as easily as rubbish is easily thrown out or dust is swept away. But since they are not natural to the soul, but enter into it as a result of our love of sin, then because of this unnaturalness, they will torment and torment the soul. This is all the same as someone who takes poison: this one burns and torments the body, because it is contrary to its structure. Or the same as if someone planted a snake in himself and she, remaining alive, would gnaw at his insides. Likewise, the passions taken inside the soul, like snakes and poison, will gnaw and torment her, and then she would like to throw them out of herself, but she cannot,The Church is offered in Repentance and Confession, then it will not have. And thus, it will be forever tormented by them continuously and unbearably, carrying the hellish fire inside itself, eternally scorching and not quenching.

Let's use another comparison. Have you heard about torture? They will feed, for example, another with salt and lock up, not allowing him to drink. They say that he experiences such an excruciating burning sensation that life is not happy. But who burns him and torments him? Absolutely nobody. He bears within himself a painful burning sensation. There is nothing to satisfy his thirst, thirst torments him. So the passions are inner burning desires, the essence of the inflamed desires of a sin-loving soul. Here on earth, if you satisfy them, they are silent for a while. But then again they forcefully demand satisfaction and disturb them until they are satisfied again. In the next world there will be nothing to satisfy them, for all their objects are earthly objects. These objects remain here, but the passions in the soul and with the soul will move there and will thirst for satisfaction, thirst and torment the soul with this thirst, because it will have nothing to satisfy them. And the longer the soul lives, all the more will he languish and be tormented by unsatisfied passions. This degree of torment, without ceasing, everything will grow and grow, and there will be no end to this increase and strengthening. That's hell! Envy is a worm, anger and rage are fire, hatred is gnashing of teeth, lust is pitch darkness!

This hell from passions still begins here, for which of the passionate enjoys peace? Only here they do not reveal all their torment over the soul. Here the body and the hostel retract and moderate their blows. This will not happen there, and with all their poisonousness they will attack the soul. I will give you on this subject the words of the Monk Abba Dorotheus: “Being in this body, the soul receives relief from its passions and some consolation: a person eats, drinks, sleeps, talks, walks with his kind friends. When it leaves the body, however, his soul remains with its passions and therefore is always tormented by them: filled with them, it is scorched by their rebellion and tormented by them. Just as one suffering from a fever suffers from inner fire, so the passionate soul will always be tormented, unhappy, by its evil habit, always having a bitter memory and a weary effect from the passions that constantly burn and scorch it. When this is so, then truly we will face the most difficult end, if we are not attentive to ourselves. Therefore, I always say to you: try to cultivate good dispositions in yourself in order to find them there, for what a person has here, it comes with him from here and will have the same there.

I will apply the same to my conversation. Let us take care, while we are alive, to cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of passions and plant all sorts of virtues in their place. Of course, this requires work, and no small amount of work. How could it be otherwise? You can't do anything without hard work. Whoever leaves his field and let it grow with all kinds of bad grass, and then decides to clear it, he, of course, tearing out thorns and thorny, unusable grass, wounds and cuts his hands. But does he think it's anything? Nothing. He almost does not notice this labor in anticipation that he will finally have a fruitful field or garden with flowers and fruit trees, which will give him every pleasure. Similarly, the soul, overgrown with the thorns of passions, cannot be cleansed without painful labors and struggles. But when, having cleansed it of them, we plant good seeds, it blooms with all sorts of virtues and all kinds of spiritual beauties, which will attract the eyes of both heavenly and earthly ones. Then there will be a spiritual paradise in the soul, and the Lord Himself, as once in an earthly paradise, will walk in it, filling it with ineffable consolations, as He Himself promised through the Prophet, saying: “Be cleansed ... and II will dwell in you and walk around, and I will be with you in God" ( 2 Corinthians 6:16 ).

Keeping this promise in mind, do not weaken in courage, having entered the struggle with passions and lusts. Kindle your jealousy with the expectation of that bright state that will be yours after overcoming passions, just as fighters in the arena flare up in efforts to overcome rivals with gifts that are promised to them for overcoming. Help you Lord in this saving work! Amen.

On the second week of Great Lent (what is the crucifixion of the world to us and us to the world)

“Let me not boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I have crucified the world, and I to the world” ( Gal. 6:14 ), says the holy Apostle Paul. I want to explain to you what the Apostle means when he says: “Thus the world was crucified to me, and I to the world . ” For you, who, after Confession and Holy Communion, have embarked on the path on which “the flesh with its passions and lusts” is crucified ( Gal. 5:24 ), it is necessary to have guidance in this complicated matter in order to act in a direct and correct manner. And one of the first indications is contained in the quoted words of the Apostle, and you will have it when you understand what such is the crucifixion of the world to us and us to the world.

As a guide to interpreting this, let us take the thoughts of our holy father, Abba Dorotheus , from his first teaching on renunciation of the world. He interpreted this place for monks, but in such a way that his interpretation can be applied to non-monks. He says that when a person renounces the world, leaves his home, parents, relatives, his estate, his village or city, goes to a monastery and becomes a monk, then he can say: “The world has been crucified for me” ( Gal. 6, 14 ) . There is no peace for me, it has remained far beyond the walls of the monastery. I left him, and he does not see me in the streets, nor in the markets, nor in his conversations, nor in any of his affairs. "The world has crucified me", died, as if he were not there. But, speaking like this, a monk who has taken refuge in the walls of the monastery from the world and its visible charms can, in himself, in his heart, live for the world, preserve worldly passions and, sitting in his cell, think about the world and its beauty and mentally enjoy the joys his. In this case, he cannot say that he was crucified to the world. For although he has left the world in body, yet in his heart he lives in the world and in all its pleasures. When, with the help of God, knowing the power of monastic vows, he not only outwardly leaves the world, being separated from it by the desert or the fence of the monastery, but also inwardly, in his heart, extinguishes all attachment to him, all co-delight with them and even thinking about him, then he can he will say that not only the world has crucified him, but he has also crucified the world, that is, that he no longer lives in the world: in his heart there are other thoughts, other feelings and dispositions, to another world,

I think that this interpretation is understandable for you, but at the same time I assume that you are immediately ready to reject from yourselves any obligation imposed on you by the interpreted words of the Apostle, saying: not to us, the laity. No, not like that, brethren! The apostle, in his person, gave the law to all Christians and obliged everyone to arrange themselves in such a way that everyone could say: “The world has been crucified for me, and I for the world . ” See how this can and must be accomplished in you.

Take into account that the word "peace" does not actually mean human cohabitation, not the affairs of life, but everything that is sinful, passionate, and ungodly. The world is that in which “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life” ( 1 John 2:16 ), or where every sin reigns. In this sense, the words: “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” will mean the same as: “I have been crucified for every sin, and I have been crucified for every sin.” How does it happen and when?

Note in advance that there are two sides to every sin: one is sinful deeds, and the other is sinful passion. Passion is the source and cause of sinful deeds, and deeds are the product and expression of passion. So, for example, anger or anger is a sinful passion that lives in the heart, and the deeds in which it is expressed are: outbursts of anger, scolding, quarrels, disputes, fights, murders. Passion is one, but how many things does she have to do? And they all come from her alone. In the same way, voluptuousness, or sensuality, is a sinful passion for sensual pleasures, and its deeds are: poly-eating, sweet-eating, drinking a lot, sweet-drinking, walking in taverns, on promenades, in obscene houses, in theaters, at balls, parties. The same must be understood about any passion. Every passion, one in the heart, is expressed by many deeds outside the body.

After this, it is not difficult for you to understand how it happens that sin, or the world, is crucified to us, and how it happens that we are crucified to sin, or the world.

When someone leaves sinful or passionate deeds, then sin, or the world, is crucified to him, and when someone extinguishes and eradicates the sinful passion in himself, then he is also crucified to sin, or the world. So, for example, when someone leaves the amusement parks, theaters, taverns, parties, etc., so that no one ever sees him in any obscene deeds and places, but everyone always sees him in good and sedate behavior, then, therefore, it is a sin, or the world, with this part of itself, died to him, or was crucified to him. But at the same time, it is still impossible to say for certain that he himself was crucified to sin, or to the world. For although he is not in those places and deeds in the body, but he can be there in the heart and mind. He is not in the theater with his body, but he can think about him and say with pleasure: "It would be nice to be there." He is not in the tavern and on festivities with his body, but he can be there with his mind and heart, he can think and desire, how to get there, regretting that he is not there. In all these and similar cases, although sin, or the world, has been crucified to him, yet he himself has not yet been crucified to sin, or the world, he still loves it, still desires it, and delights in it. He overcame himself to such an extent that he would move away from sinful deeds, but he had not yet broken his heart, had not yet taught him not to love sinful deeds, to turn away from them and to hate them. Before God, he is still a sinner, or a peace lover. For God looks not only at deeds, but rather at the heart ( Before God, he is still a sinner, or a peace lover. For God looks not only at deeds, but rather at the heart ( Before God, he is still a sinner, or a peace lover. For God looks not only at deeds, but rather at the heart (1 Kings 16:7 ). Why should we not only lag behind passionate and sinful deeds, but overcome and extinguish the passions themselves so as not to enjoy any passionate objects and deeds, but to have disgust for them and abhor them. Now, when someone reaches this state, when someone not only will not do sinful deeds, but even extinguishes the very addiction to them in himself, then he can say about himself that he, too, has been crucified to the world.

So, put all sinful and passionate deeds on one side, and sinful passions on the other, and think like this: when you leave all passionate deeds, then it will mean that the world has been crucified for you, and when you extinguish the passions themselves, then it will mean that you were crucified to the world. This is the mind in which we will apply the law to you, the laity, in order to have the world crucified for ourselves and crucify ourselves to the world. The first is expressed by the fact that a vicious person leaves a dissolute, bad, shameful life and begins to live sedately, correcting his behavior. And the second is expressed by the fact that not only does one keep a good behavior, but also keeps the feelings of his heart in good order, pure and pleasing to God. The first is easier and the second is harder. Why does not everyone who is good in outward behavior also have a good heart.

This was the reason why the Apostle did not stop at the crucifixion of the world, or sin, to us, but added the crucifixion of us to the world. “It is not enough,” as if he says so, “it is not enough that your behavior is correct. You enter into your heart, review your feelings and dispositions there, and make them all holy and pleasing to God. This apostolic commandment is fulfilled by the one who, having entered into himself, ascends to God with his mind and, contemplating Him in himself, straining unceasingly, by thinking of Him, tests the rightness of all his thoughts and feelings and drives away everything that is wrong as ungodly, who, having planted in himself the fear of God , strictly heeds himself and without pity cuts down any unclean disposition, whether accompanying deeds or preceding and following them, and, thus, every deed cleanses and presents to God clean, as a blameless sacrifice and a fat burnt offering. What will you choose? You have to choose one or the other. Whoever is entangled in passionate deeds, drop them and correct your behavior. Whoever has corrected behavior, do not stop at this alone, but go inside yourself and correct your very heart, extinguishing the passions in it, which make behavior that is good for people wrong before God, Who sees the heart and justifies or condemns a person according to it. Then every one of you with the Apostle can say:“The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” ( Gal. 6:14 ). Amen.

March 15, 1864

Part 10 In the week of the Cross 

(either die, or be on the cross of self-crucifixion)

In the midst of Holy Fortecost, the Holy Church offers to honor and worship our Holy Cross of the Lord. In this, Her maternal care for us is visible ... She wants to strengthen those who are weakening in the exploits of fasting and self-correction, inspire the zealous to great deeds and inspire everyone with the thought and intention until the end of their lives to relentlessly and unwaveringly walk after the Lord under the cross, which everyone has taken upon themselves in an hour of determination to please the Lord.

Remember what was in your soul when you brought repentance for your sins and, turning away from passions and passionate deeds, said to the Lord through your spiritual father: “I will not”? If this was said sincerely, then, it is true, then you felt completely ready to become bloody in a feat against the enemies of the Lord and yours, to enter into a struggle with passions and lusts without any self-pity and indulgence towards yourself, with the sacrifice of everything dear, but sinful , with total dedication. There is no doubt that following Confession, having been honored with Holy Communion, you, departing from the Cup of the Lord, immediately entered into this battle, or this work of mental and heartfelt fidelity to the Lord, which temptations began to present to you at every step, in the usual order of our affairs. . This scolding, you know now, is not easy, and most importantly, as if it were alive, it is too sensitive. You had to deny yourself what was deeply rooted in your heart, and in order to succeed in it, keep both soul and body in tension. You can spend one day, another like this almost without difficulty, and in a week you will get tired, in two - even more. When we think that we must live like this until the end of Lent and all our lives, our hands will involuntarily begin to sink and our legs will break, that is, the feeling of the burden of a feat will begin to suppress and shake the first determination, or, at least, call for benefits and indulgence. As both are detrimental, for it means flight from the battlefield, turning back, then, foreseeing our situation, our holy mother, that it is necessary to live like this until the end of Lent and all life, hands will involuntarily begin to drop and legs to break, that is, a feeling of the burden of a feat will begin to suppress and shake the first determination, or, at least, call for benefits and indulgence. As both are detrimental, for it means flight from the battlefield, turning back, then, foreseeing our situation, our holy mother, that it is necessary to live like this until the end of Lent and all life, hands will involuntarily begin to drop and legs to break, that is, a feeling of the burden of a feat will begin to suppress and shake the first determination, or, at least, call for benefits and indulgence. As both are detrimental, for it means flight from the battlefield, turning back, then, foreseeing our situation, our holy mother,The Church , to help us, hastens to revive our zeal with the most vivid impression in our attention of the face of the crucified Lord. Offering worship to our Lord's Cross, she says to each of us: “Look at the Lord hanging on the Cross. You see that, having ascended the Cross, He no longer descended from it until He surrendered His spirit to God and the Father. So you, having entered the feat of struggle with passions in the form of pleasing the Lord, begin to feel that you are as if crucified on a cross. So it is. Look, stay calm on this cross, do not tear and do not rush about, and especially cut off any thought of leaving it until the moment comes and you say: “Father, in Your hands I commit my spirit!” ( Luke 23:46)". The meaning of the word is this: do not weaken your resolve, do not allow yourself any indulgence, do not change the exploits you have begun, go on the firmly painful path of self-denial. He will lead you to blessed reverence in the bosom of the Heavenly Father.

This lesson is simple and clear. And as for many, it may be the most timely lesson! Let us pray that the Lord will grant us all to remain forever in such a mood. Having decided to please the Lord, let us not deviate from this determination; Having embarked on a feat, let us not change it. And when weakness begins to take its toll and shake our spirit, let us hasten every time to furnish it with exciting thoughts. Let us say to him thus: "Otherwise it is impossible - either to perish, or to be on the cross of self-crucifixion, as long as the breath of life is in us." And the Lord was on the Cross, and all the saints walked the way of the cross. “There is a cloud of witnesses surrounding us with much possessions ... and looking at the author of the faith and the doer Jesus ... let us flow with patience for the struggle that is set before us” ( Heb.12, 1-2). Exactly, hard and painful! But is this work without promise? O! “We are not worthy of the passions of the present time for wanting glory to appear in us!” ( Rom. 8:18 ). Far it! But let us endure a little in the constancy of self-mortification, and even here let us begin to anticipate the bliss that awaits us in the future. Have we worked hard? And there is nothing to look at, but we already want to reap pleasant fruits. Let's be inspired! We get hit and we hit. But by the very fact that we strike, we ourselves become stronger, and we exhaust the enemy, and the more we give these counterblows, the stronger we will become, and the enemy weaker. Then, one by one, those fighting us will begin to drop out of the enemy hordes, and, finally, the most evil and persistent will fall behind, and perhaps from a distance, indirectly, they will attack us. Here is the world, and after the world "and joy in the Holy Spirit" ( Rom.14, 17). And it may come soon. Let's just make it a law not to succumb and not to make indulgences. But here, brethren, all our misfortune lies! Enemy something us the first who there is? Self-pity is the most flattering and most dangerous enemy. “Relax,” he says, “a little, I’m tired!” See, it's for us. And listen to him and relax yourself in what? One indulgence will lead to another, another to a third, and so on, and then everything will relax, and all strictness will depart, and all orders of a pious life will fall into oblivion. In modern times, with this, thoughts will be scattered and lusts will be irritated, and the zeal of the spirit will grow cold. In this disorder, a beloved passion will come - to lure first attention, then sympathy, and then consent. After this, only chance, and sin is ready. Here again is the fall, again the clouding of the mind, again the languor of conscience, again disorder, both internal and external. Further, fall after fall:

And what do I say: the old way? It will be worse. For just as after lightning the same darkness of the night is darker, so after risings from sin, new falls, repeated, lead the poor soul into more and more confusion. Our Lord Himself presented this as a warning, saying: “When ... an unclean spirit leaves a person, passes through a waterless place, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then he says: I will return to my house, I have died from nowhere. And when he comes, he will be idle, marked and decorated. Then he goes and understands with him seven other spirits most fierce to himself, and having entered, they live that one; and the last of that man will be bitterer than the first” ( Mt. 12:43-45 ).

"Bitter first!" And according to the law of the truth of God, it should be so. How long have you repented and cried? The Lord accepted repentance and forgave everything, again restored His former favor and gave Himself into Communion in Holy Communion. Man, what is all this? He held himself a little sedately and gave up and again indulged in sin. How can you indulge this? So listen to the strict verdict of the court: “Whoever rejected the law of Moses, dies without mercy with two or three witnesses. How many do you think the bitterness will be worthy of torment, even the Son of God right, and having thought of the blood of the covenant filth, sanctified by it, and reproaching the Spirit of grace? Vemy bo Rekshago: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord ... It is terrible to fall into the hands of the Living God ” ( Heb.10, 28-31). In another place, the holy Apostle strengthens and justifies this intimidation by the fact that he puts those who fall again, after receiving grace, on a par with the crucifiers of the Lord, calling them “the second crucifiers” ( Heb. 6, 6 ) of Him, and pronounces an even more terrible judgment , saying that those who fall after tasting the gift of Heaven, it is impossible "to renew in repentance" ( Heb. 6, 6 ), of course, not expressing the impoverishment of God's mercy, but the final relaxation of the falling themselves. For from repeated falls, the soul becomes coarse, the feeling of conscience - repentance - becomes dull, and the betrayal of oneself into the hands of one's fall, into "unexpected" investment ( Eph.4, 19 ) approaches. Why does the holy Apostle continue to say:“The earth ... drinking the rain that descends on her in abundance ... and wearing out thorns and thistle, it is indecent to eat and oaths near, even death in burning” ( Heb.6, 7-8 ).

It happens that a watch, for example, is repaired, and then it comes to the point where it is impossible to repair it. So it is in the fall: some will come to such a point that nothing can be done to correct him.

Such fears are presented to us by the Lord in His word, not in order to plunge someone into a desperate state, but so that, knowing this, we have cautious care, so as not to bring ourselves to it in fact; then, if someone fell, he would not wallow in a fall, but hurried to get up, and whoever got up would irritate jealousy in himself to always stand, would not allow himself to become lazy and fall again into former sins and indulgence of passions. After all, you can not stay in the fall. Gotta get up. The Lord helped, get up - and stand. What is the point of dragging yourself into falling again, knowing that you have to get up again and that this uprising will be more difficult? Business started? Don't quit. Difficult? Get over it, day by day everything will be easier and easier. And there it is quite easy. The Lord does not send all labor and illness and consolation, and there death is soon, and everything is over. Grant, Lord so that it finds us on the good path of repentance and in the labors of self-correction! Bringing all this to mind, brethren, now, before the Cross of the Lord, let us put in our hearts not to change the intended intention to please the Lord and remain faithful to Him to the point of the stomach in the labors of self-denial and self-correction. Amen.

March 22, 1864

In the week of the cross (about three types of crosses: about external crosses)

“Let me not boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” ( Gal. 6:14 ), says the holy Apostle Paul. How is it that the holy Apostle reached such a disposition that he did not want to boast of anything else, except for the cross of Christ? The cross is in every way sorrow, narrowness, humiliation: how can one boast of it? And now, however, the Apostle Paul boasts of him, along with him, of course, all the Apostles boasted, and after them all the other crusaders. Why is this so? God-wise men saw the great significance of the cross, highly valued it and boasted that they were worthy to wear it. They saw in him, instead of tightness - breadth, instead of sorrow - sweetness, instead of humiliation - greatness, instead of dishonor - glory, and they boasted of him, as another boasts of some magnificent adornment and difference.

Oh, when the Lord would give us such a meaning and disposition to understand and feel the power of the cross and begin to boast of it!

Here is a brief general explanation of the meaning of the cross: the Lord accomplished our salvation by His death on the Cross, on the Cross He tore apart the handwriting of our sins, through the Cross He reconciled us to God and the Father, through the Cross He sent down on us gifts of grace and all the blessings of heaven. But such is the cross of the Lord in himself. Each of us becomes a partaker of his saving power only through our own cross. Each one’s own cross, when it unites with the cross of Christ, transfers the power and action of this latter to us, becomes, as it were, a channel through which from the cross of Christ “every gift is good and every gift is perfect” ( James 1, 17). From this it can be seen that each one's own crosses are as necessary in the work of salvation as the cross of Christ is necessary. And you will not find a single saved who was not a crusader. For this reason, everyone is fully lined with crosses, so as not to be hindered by the search for the bearing of the cross and not far from the saving power of the cross of Christ. One can say this: look around and within yourself, see your cross, carry it properly, united with the cross of Christ, and you will be saved.

Although not everyone bears his cross, and the cross for the most part is not simple, but complex, but not everyone looks at it through the cross of Christ, not everyone turns it into the building of his salvation, and therefore not everyone’s cross is a saving cross. Let's review all the possible crosses and analyze how each of them should be carried so that it is a force for salvation.

There are many crosses, but there are three types of them: the first type is external crosses, made up of sorrows and troubles, and in general from the bitter fate of earthly sojourn; the second - internal crosses, born from the struggle with passions and lusts for the sake of virtue; the third is crosses of spiritual grace, placed by perfect devotion to the will of God.

Now I will tell you a few words about external crosses. These are the most complex and varied crosses. They are scattered on all our paths and meet at almost every step. These include: sorrows, misfortunes, misfortunes, illnesses, loss of loved ones, failures in the service, all kinds of hardships and damages, family troubles, unfavorable external relations, insults, insults, slander and, in general, the lot of the earth, more or less difficult for everyone. Who does not have any of these crosses? And you can't not be. Neither nobility, nor wealth, nor glory, nor any earthly greatness saves them. They have grown together with our earthly sojourn from the moment the earthly paradise was concluded, and they will not depart from it until the moment when the heavenly paradise opens.

If you want these crosses to be your salvation, use them according to the intention of God when appointing them in relation to a person in general and in relation to you in particular. Why did the Lord arrange it so that there is no one on earth without sorrows and hardships? Then, so that a person would not forget that he is an exile, and would live on earth not as a relative on his native side, but as a wanderer and a stranger in a foreign country, and would seek a return to his true fatherland. As soon as a person has sinned, he is immediately expelled from paradise and out of paradise he is overlaid with sorrows and hardships and all kinds of inconveniences, so that he remembers that he is not in his place, but is under punishment and takes care to seek pardon and return to his rank.

So, seeing sorrows, misfortunes and tears, do not be surprised and, enduring them, do not be annoyed. So it should. A criminal and a disobedient does not suit complete prosperity and happiness. Take this to heart and benevolently bear your share.

“But why,” you say, “I have more, and the other has less? Why do troubles burden me, and another is almost happy in everything? I am torn with grief, and the other is comforted? Well, if this is the common lot, everyone would have to distribute it without exception. ” Yes, that's how it spreads. Take a look and see. It’s hard for you now, but it was hard for another yesterday or tomorrow it will be hard, but now the Lord allows him to rest. Why are you looking at hours and days? Look at your whole life, from beginning to end, and you will see that it is hard for everyone, and very hard. Find who rejoices all his life? The kings themselves often do not sleep at night because of a heavy heart. It’s hard for you now, but didn’t you see happy days before? God willing, and you'll see. Be patient! The sky will clear up above you. In life, as in nature, there are sometimes bright, sometimes gloomy days. Has it ever happened that a menacing cloud did not pass? And was there anyone in the world who would think so? Do not think like this about your grief, and you will gladden yourself with hope.

Hard for you. But is this an unreasonable coincidence? Lift up your head a little and remember that there is a Lord who cares about you fatherly and does not take his eyes off you. If grief befell you, then only with His consent and will. No one like He sent it to you. And He knows very precisely what, to whom, when and how to send, and when He sends, for the benefit of the very one who is subject to grief. So look around and you will see the good intentions of God for you in the sorrow that has befallen you. Or what sin the Lord wants to cleanse, or take away from a sinful deed, or cover with a lesser grief from a greater one, or give you an opportunity to show patience and fidelity to the Lord, so that later on you will show the glory of His mercy. Some of this will surely come to you. Find out what it is, and apply it to your wound like a plaster, and its stinging will be quenched. If, however, you do not see clearly, What exactly does God want to give you through the grief that has befallen you, raise up a common unthinking belief in your heart that everything is from the Lord, and that everything that comes from the Lord is for our good, and interpret to the restless soul: “It is pleasing to God.” Be patient! Whom He punishes is like a son to Him!

Above all, pay attention to your moral state and corresponding eternal fate. If you are a sinner - as, of course, you are a sinner - then rejoice that the fire of sorrow has come and burnt your sins. You are all looking at the mountain from the ground. And you are transported to another life. Get on the court. Look at the eternal fire prepared for sins. And from there, look at your grief. If there should be a condemned person, what sorrows would you not wish to endure here, so as not to fall under this condemnation? I would wish that every day now they would cut and burn, rather than suffer an indescribable and unceasing torment there. Wouldn't it be better not to experience this there, and now not so much to bear grief so that through that we get rid of the eternal fire? Say to yourself: “Such blows have been sent to me for my sins,” and thank the Lord that His goodness leads you to repentance. Then, instead of fruitless mourning, recognize what sin is behind you, repent and stop sinning. When you settle down like that, you will certainly say: “It’s not enough for me. According to my sins, I’m not worth it!”

So, whether you bear a bitter share in common, or if you experience private sorrows and sorrows, endure complacently, gratefully accepting them from the hand of the Lord, as a cure for sins, as a key that opens the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. But do not grumble, do not envy another, and do not indulge in senseless grief. For in grief it so happens that one begins to be annoyed and grumble, another is completely lost and falls into despair, while another plunges into his grief and only mourns, not moving his thoughts around and not raising his heart to grief - to God. All such do not use the crosses sent to them as they should, and miss the favorable time and the day of salvation. The Lord puts the work of salvation into their hands, but they reject it. Misfortune and sorrow befell. You are already carrying the cross. Make sure that this bearing is for salvation, and not for destruction. For this, it is not required to repose the mountains, but it is small to make a change in the thoughts of the mind and dispositions of the heart. Arouse gratitude, humble yourself under a strong hand, repent, correct your life. If faith in the government of all has departed, return it to your bowels, and kiss the right hand of God. If the connection of grief with your sins is hidden, sharpen the eye of conscience and you will see, you will mourn the sin and moisten the dryness of grief with tears of repentance. If you have forgotten that the bitterness of the local fate redeems from the bitterest eternal fate, resurrect the memory of that, and give to complacency the desire for sorrows, so that for small local sorrows we may receive eternal mercy from the Lord. Is all this much and difficult? And meanwhile, such thoughts and feelings are the threads by which our cross is connected with the cross of Christ, and from it flows saving forces for us. Without them, the cross remains on us and burdens us, but has no salvation, being separated from the cross of Christ. Then we are unsaved crusaders and can no longer“boast ... in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” ( Gal. 6:14 ).

Having said little of many things to you about external crosses, I invite you, brethren, to walk in wisdom, redeeming the time of sorrow and sorrow with complacent, grateful and repentant patience. Then we will feel the saving effect of the mournful crosses and we will rejoice, being exposed to them, seeing through them the light of glory, and learn to boast of them not only for the sake of the future, but also for the real fruit from them. Amen.

In the week of the cross (about three types of crosses: about internal crosses)

Of the three types of cross, I told you a few words about one, namely, about external crosses: sorrows, troubles and hardships. Now I will say something about the second type of crosses - internal crosses.

We encounter internal crosses during the struggle with passions and lusts. The Holy Apostle says: “Who is the essence of Christ, having crucified the flesh with passions and lusts” ( Gal. 5:24 ). Crucified? So, there was a cross on which they crucified these passions and lusts. What is this cross? Fight them. To crucify passions means to weaken them, to suppress, to eradicate. A person will overcome some passion several times, weaken it; will overcome a few more, suppress; still overcome, and completely eradicate, with the help of God. As this struggle is difficult, regrettable and painful, it is truly a cross erected within us. In those who struggle with passions, sometimes it is as if their hands are nailed, a crown of thorns is put on the head, a living heart is pierced. So it gets hard and painful for him.

It is impossible not to have labor and sickness, for even though the passions are alien to us, having come from outside, they have grown so attached to the body and soul that they have penetrated with their roots into all their compositions and forces. Start pulling, and it hurts. It hurts, but it is salutary, and this salvific power is obtained only through pain. There is a polyp disease: some body alien to us is born in our body, grows and takes root. If you don’t cut it out, you won’t heal, but if you cut it out, it hurts. Let it hurt, but this pain returns health. But leave it, do not cut it out - it will also hurt, only this pain is not for health, but for an increase in the disease, maybe even for death. How is anthrax treated? They will cut out a pimple and cauterize that place and smear and rub it with something poisonous. It hurts, but it's healing. And leave it like that, the pain will be pain, and even death cannot be avoided. So the struggle with passions, or their eradication is painful, but salvific. But leave the passions, do not eradicate them - they will also cause hardship, pain, suffering, but not for salvation, but for spiritual destruction and death, for"Forbearers ... sin is death" ( Rom. 6:23 ).

What passion is not painful? Anger burns, envy dries, lust relaxes, stinginess does not allow to eat and sleep, offended pride mortally consumes the heart and every other passion - hatred, suspicion, quarrelsomeness, philanthropy, addiction to things and persons - causes us torment, so live in passions the same as walking on knives or coals with bare feet, or being in the position of a man whose heart is sucked by snakes. And again, who does not have passions? Everyone has. As soon as self-love exists, all passions exist, for it is the mother of passions and does not exist without its daughters. But not everyone has them all to the same extent: for one, one, for another, the other prevails and rules over others. And when everyone has passions, there is also torment from them. Everyone is tormented and crucified by passions - only not for salvation, but for destruction.

So, wearing passions, you are tormented by them and perish. Wouldn’t it be better to take up oneself and arrange suffering in oneself, also because of the passions, but not for harm, but for salvation. One has only to turn the knife and, instead of satisfying the passions, strike oneself with it, strike the passions with it, starting a struggle with them and across them in everything. And here there will be pain and suffering of the heart, but healing pain, which will immediately be followed by a comforting calm, as happens when a healing plaster falls on a wound. For example, someone gets angry: it is difficult to overcome anger and unpleasant, but when you overcome it, you calm down, and when you satisfy it, you will worry for a long time. Who is offended: it is difficult to overcome oneself and forgive, but when you forgive, you will have peace, and when you take revenge, you will not see peace. An addiction caught fire: it is difficult to extinguish, but when you extinguish it, you will see the light of God, and if you don’t extinguish it, you will walk like a dead man. So it is with respect to any passion. And passion torments, and the struggle with it causes grief. But the first destroys, and the second saves and heals. Every passionate person must be told: “You are perishing on the cross of passions. Destroy this cross and build another - the cross of struggle against them. And you will be crucified on him for salvation! All this is clear as day, and the choice, it seems, should be very easy. And yet, it is not always justified by the deed.

And we should be surprised at our blindness. Someone suffers from passion - and still satisfies it. He sees that by satisfaction he causes more and more harm to himself - and he satisfies everything. Inexplicable enmity against ourselves! Another is going to rebel against passion, but as soon as passion awakens with its demands, it immediately follows it. Again he gathers and again yields. Several times so, and all the success is the same. An incomprehensible relaxation of moral strength! Flattery and deceit in what? In the fact that passion promises mountains of pleasure for satisfaction, but the struggle with it promises nothing. But after all, how many times has it been experienced that the satisfaction of passion brings not happiness and peace, but torment and languor. It promises a lot, but gives nothing, and wrestling promises nothing, but gives everything. If you haven't experienced it, try it and you'll see. But that grief is ours that we will not gather strength to test. The reason for this is self-pity. Self-pity is our most flattering traitor and enemy. The first fiend of self-love. We pity ourselves and destroy ourselves. We think that we are doing good to ourselves, but we are doing evil, and the more evil we do, the more desirable it is for us to do evil. That is why evil grows and brings our final destruction closer to us.

Let us be inspired, brethren, and courageously go to the cross of self-crucifixion, through the crucifixion and the eradication of passions and lusts. Let us reject self-pity and kindle the jealousy of self-torment. Let us take the heart of a doctor who, in need, makes cruel cuttings and cauterizations to beloved and honored persons. I will not tell you the method and the whole course of the struggle. Get down to business, and it will explain everything and teach you everything. Bring to mind that peace, that joy, and that light that will settle in the heart after the passions have been overcome, and thereby inflame your zeal for rebellion against them. Light, peace and joy are born from the very beginning of entering into this struggle, and all grow and exalt, until in the end they end with a peaceful dispensation of the heart in which God rests.. And the God of peace truly abides with those who reach this degree. Then it turns out that the cross is definitely the tree of life. The paradise tree of life remained in paradise; on the ground instead of it, the tree of the cross was erected. The purpose of this is the same: a man will taste and live. Come, cling to it with your mouth and drink life from it. You will cling to the cross when, having rejected self-pity, you will zeal for self-crucifixion, and you will begin to drink life from it when you enter into a struggle with passions. Each overcoming of passion will be the same as receiving life-giving juices from the life-giving cross. Increase your frequency, get drunk soon and be filled with life. What a marvelous property of self-crucifixion! It seems to take away, but, taking away, gives; it seems to cut off, but, cutting off, instills; it seems to kill, but by killing, it lives. Exactly the Cross of Christ, to whom death is trampled and life is granted. What a blessing, and how great is the work !!! The first step is difficult - the first overcoming of oneself, the first determination to fight, and then, no matter how the fight in the battle, it gets easier and easier. And jealousy will flare up more strongly, and the ability to overcome will increase, and the enemy will weaken. Just as in ordinary warfare it can be scary for warriors just to start, and then they no longer look at anything, everything becomes both handy and easy for them, so it is in spiritual warfare: just start, then the fight will inflame and relieve itself. And then, the more zealous and lively the fights, the sooner the end of the battle and the closer peace. Not strong enough to start? Pray. The Lord will send. Surround yourself with thoughts about the danger of being in passions, and you will drive yourself out of their darkness to the light of freedom from them. Revive the feeling of torment and kindle with annoyance at them and a desire to get rid of them. But most of all, having confessed your weakness before the Lord, stand and knock at the door of His mercy, cry for help. Help will come! The Lord will look at you, and the light from His eyes will burn self-pity in you and kindle zeal to arm yourself vigorously against the passions. And there,If the Lord is with us, who is on us?

Ascetic Lord! Inspiring us with zeal to enter into the feat of struggle with passions, give yourself strength to stand in it, and under the sign of Your Cross we fight good warfare, looking at You, the Head and Finisher of our faith, who arranged salvation for us with the cross and gave us life in it. Amen.

In the Week of the Cross (about three types of crosses: about the cross of devotion to the will of God)

It remains to explain to you the third type of the cross that saves us, the cross of devotion to the will of God. I will say something else about him.

The word to you is another word, because the complete teaching about it exceeds my strength. The most perfect Christians ascend to this cross. They know him and could speak about him clearly, fully and with force. How can others say so? And it is impossible not to remember that one of you, having overcome one or another passion and somewhat calmed down from anxieties from within, does not think that he has already done everything that is necessary and what is expected of Christians.

No, nor is it all done yet. Whoever has even completely cleansed himself of passions has not yet performed the main Christian act, but only prepared himself for it. You have cleansed yourself of passions - now offer yourself pure to God as a pure and blameless sacrifice, which alone befits Him the Most Pure. Look at Calvary. There, the cross of the prudent thief is the cross of cleansing oneself from the passions, and the Cross of the Lord is the cross of a pure and blameless sacrifice. And he is the fruit of devotion to the will of God - unquestioning, complete, irrevocable. Who raised our Savior to the cross? This devotion. In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus Christ prayed, “Let the cup pass by ,” but he uttered a decisive definition about this: “Not like I want to, but like You” ( Matt. 26, 39). From His word: “I am” ( John 18:6 ), those who came to bind Him fall down. But then they knit Him. Why? Because He had previously bound Himself by devotion to the will of God. Under the cross, the whole creation trembles and the dead accept life, but He remained motionless on the cross, for he gave up his spirit to God. Such are all who have grown “into a perfect man” , who have reached “to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ” ( Eph. 4, 13). They are all crucified, so to speak, at the will of God. Every individual movement, thought, and desire is nailed to it. Or these last, in the usual sense and form, they do not have at all: everything of their own has died, having been sacrificed by the will of God. What moves them is God's beckoning, God's suggestion, which, impressing themselves in their hearts only in one known way, determines all their activity. The Holy Apostle Paul in relation to himself describes this state as follows: “Christ was crucified. I live not to anyone else, but Christ lives in me” ( Gal. 2, 19-20 ). As soon as he was crucified with Christ, he, an Apostle, a most perfect man, ceased to live on his own, but Christ began to live in him. Or did he become in such a position, about which he writes in another place: “God ... is working in usand the hedgehog to will, and the hedgehog of good will” ( Phil. 2:13 ). This is the height of Christian perfection, to which man is only capable of reaching. He is the foreshadowing of the future state after the resurrection, when God will be "all in all" ( 1 Corinthians 15:28). Why is it that all those who are honored to achieve it are often in conflict with all the orders of earthly sojourn and either endure persecution and torment, or become and are revered as fools, or retire to the desert. But in all these types of external fate, their inner one is one: they are one, with the one God abiding in the heart, they live and act alone, hiding in the inner, deepest silence, in the complete absence of any of their movements. It is said that high in the last limits of our atmosphere all movement of the earthly elements ceases. One universal element calmly abides there. This is an image of those who were crucified with Christ, who ceased to live their lives and began to live only Christ, or otherwise, ascended to the cross of devotion to the will of God, which alone quality and acts in them with the denial of all personal considerations and actions.

I have nothing more to say to you about this. And this is said only to hint to you that this is where the end is, this is where we need to be and what to achieve, and so that, knowing this, you will settle down everything that you have and do good, count for nothing if you have not reached this height of spiritual life determined for us and expected from us. Many people think that Christianity is the same as other kinds of life, but it is not the same. It begins with repentance, sings with a struggle with passions, and ends through the crucifixion of the pure inner man with Christ, immersion in God. "Die... - says the Apostle, - and your life is hidden with Christ in God" ( Col. 3, 3). Here everything takes place within, invisible to people and known only to conscience and God. The outside is nothing. It is, of course, a decent shell, but not a decisive witness, much less a producer of the inner. Outwardly correct behavior, as often happens, is the beautiful appearance of a coffin full of bones!

Knowing this, let us, brethren, stand on Golgotha ​​at the crosses and begin to apply ourselves to them and them to ourselves, whichever one we have. Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross of the Lord, is the image of those crusaders who are subjected to external sorrows and hardships. Whom the prudent thief crucified and whom the Lord on the cross, I have just said before this: the first depicts those struggling with passions, and the Lord depicts perfect men, crucified in devotion to God. And who does the cross of the evil robber represent? Depicts those who work for passions. Their passions torment them, torment them, crucify them to death, giving no consolation and no good hope. According to these signs, try on each cross for yourself and determine yourself by them, who are you - is it Simon of Cyrene, or a prudent robber, or an imitator of Christ the Lord, or an evil robber, according to the passions that devour you?

How you find yourself, expect such an end for yourself. I will only add: put it out of your mind that it is possible to become, through a comforting life, what it behooves us to be in Christ. If true Christians have joys, then it is completely accidental, but the most distinctive character of their life is suffering and illness, internal and external, arbitrary and involuntary. “Through many tribulations it is fitting ... to enter into the kingdom” ( Acts 14:22 ) and into that which is “inside” ( Lk. 17:21) is an. The first step here - the turning of the will from bad to good, which constitutes the heart of repentance - is reflected by the mortal pain from the wound of contrition, from which blood then oozes during the entire struggle with the passions and which closes already after the acquisition of purity, which elevates the Christian to the cross of co-crucifixion with Christ in the will of God. Everything is sorrow and sickness and hardship. We can say this: consolation is evidence of an indirect path, and sorrow is evidence of a right path.

Thinking about this, rejoice, crusaders! And what about you, comforters? The word of Abraham to the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus ( Luke 16:25). Here you are comforted, while others suffer for the sake of Christ and His holy law, but in the next world it will be the other way around: those who walk the path of the Cross will be comforted, and those who are comforted will suffer. You usually say: “So it’s as if you can’t have fun or allow yourself some pleasure.” Yes, you do the main thing first, and then allow that too. And then the only thing someone has to do is that - now a ball, tomorrow a theater, there is a walk there, and cheerful reading and conversation, and various entertainments - the transition from one pleasantness to another. And about the main thing, about how to achieve what every Christian should be, and there is no thought. What fruit can be expected from such a life? That inner relationship of ours to God in Christ will, as it were, mature on its own, despite these outward discords?! How can he mature? Does the candle burn in the wind? Does life sing from taking poison? No. If you want good for yourself - give up pleasure, enter the way of the cross of repentance, burn out in the fire of self-crucifixion, temper yourself in tears of contrition of the heart, and you will become gold or silver, or precious stone, and in due time you will be taken by the heavenly Household to adorn His most bright and most peaceful palaces. Amen.

In the week of the cross (you went up to the cross, letting you resist sin)

You know why it is proposed to honor and worship our Holy Cross of the Lord during Great Lent. To those who have not yet repented, it is said: “If the Just-God did not spare His Only Begotten Son, then what kind of mercy can you expect if you remain unrepentant of your sins? Throw away the sin and turn to the right path. And to those who have already repented and begun to work on correcting their lives, it is said to them: “See what sin is worth. Look, do not succumb to sin any more and do not change the vow you made in repentance to continue to be serviceable before the Lord.

To these latter I now want to turn my word and repeat to them the apostolic inspiration: “Stand ... brethren, be of good cheer, be strong” ( 1 Corinthians 16, 13 ). from it, until you have given up your spirit to God the Father. So you also ascended the cross, having made a vow to resist sin and entered into a struggle with passions and lusts. Do not leave this cross, no matter how temptations and infatuation you may be exposed to. Enemies of the Lord, surrounding His Cross, they shouted: “Let it now come down from the Cross , let us see and believe Him” ( Matt. 27, 42). The Lord did not listen to them. Do not listen when the enemies of your salvation begin to lure you from your cross and tempt you to give up this struggle with passions and lusts. Stand still, brethren, and do not give in.

Having vowed not to sin, and having received forgiveness of sins for that and having been vouchsafed the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, to again fall into ordinary sins means committing a terrible and terrible crime. See what the Apostle says about this. He says that those who are "enlightened" , tasted the "gift of heaven" , became "partakers of the Holy Spirit" and "good" tasted "the word of God and the power of the coming age" ( Heb. 6, 4-5 ), crucify for the second time " the Son of God to themselves " , if they again fall away from God and indulge in uncleanness and lewdness ( Heb. 6, 6). Let none of those who have repented pass by the ears of this terrible word, but rather sit down and consider whether this sentence is coming directly to you if you fall again. Are you not enlightened now only in Repentance? Yes, enlightened. You were blind. Grace came, enlightened your mental eyes, you saw the abyss of destruction, came to your senses and came to your senses. Have you not tasted "the good ... word of God"? Yes, I tasted it when I heard a consoling resolution in all my sins. Have you become a partaker of the Holy Spirit and the Gift of Heaven? Yes, I did, when I partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and with this Communion received the Lord Himself. But if all this goes straight to you, then when you fall again, that which is sentenced to those who fall away again after such favors will go straight to you. That is, if you, having been honored with such graces, again fall into sin, then you will be “second” to crucify the Son of God ( Heb. 6:6 ). Enter into this by feeling, and fear sin.

Who will think that the holy Apostle did not write this only for intimidation? For how can one now again crucify the Lord, glorified and sitting at the right handGod and Father? Precisely, no one can do this anymore, but this is not what the Apostle wants to say, but wants to prove how great is the weight of sin when one falls into it after renewal in Baptism or in Repentance, which is the second Baptism. And he says that the weight of this sin is as great as the weight of the sin of those who by their very deeds crucified the Lord. Falling into sin again, you become in the row of the Lord’s crucifiers, in the row of those who stung him, spat on him, beat him on the cheeks, scourged him, put a crown of thorns on his head, nailed him to the Cross, cursed him, a copy of his rib pierced. After all, when the Lord suffered, He took away our sins. Some feature of suffering cleanses the sin of each of us. Let us suppose that some, for example, blow of the scourge was for your past sins. When you repented and turned to the Lord, for the sake of that blow all your sins are forgiven. And when you fall into sin again and renew all your sins, how can you cover them again and why should you forgive them again? Not otherwise than for the sake of some other feature of suffering, for the sake of the next, for example, a blow with a whip. So, this blow will be for you, for your sin. It is needed for your sin, your sin will provide it. If it were not for your new sin, there would be no need for a new blow for you. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster. how to cover them up again and why forgive them again? Not otherwise than for the sake of some other feature of suffering, for the sake of the next, for example, a blow with a whip. So, this blow will be for you, for your sin. It is needed for your sin, your sin will provide it. If it were not for your new sin, there would be no need for a new blow for you. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster. how to cover them up again and why forgive them again? Not otherwise than for the sake of some other feature of suffering, for the sake of the next, for example, a blow with a whip. So, this blow will be for you, for your sin. It is needed for your sin, your sin will provide it. If it were not for your new sin, there would be no need for a new blow for you. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster. for the next, for example, a blow with a whip. So, this blow will be for you, for your sin. It is needed for your sin, your sin will provide it. If it were not for your new sin, there would be no need for a new blow for you. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster. for the next, for example, a blow with a whip. So, this blow will be for you, for your sin. It is needed for your sin, your sin will provide it. If it were not for your new sin, there would be no need for a new blow for you. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster. Let the next blow have already been given, but it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you print more vividly in your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract, imagine that if you agree to it, then, committing a sin, you will be choking, or scourging, or spitting on the Savior, and you will rebound from sin as from a monster.

It is told in the Fathers that in Egypt there was one sinner who, after Confession and Holy Communion, did not take care of himself in the least, but, as soon as an opportunity presented itself, again fell into his former sins after each fast. But as he was not evil, but weakness overcame him, the Lord took pity on him and gave him the following vision to admonish him: he was walking somewhere alone and sees that some kind of monster, similar to a man, of exorbitant height is approaching him. , shaggy, ugly, unclean, with sparkling eyes. It came up, patted him on the shoulder, said: “What are you afraid of, we are friends, we will be in the same place.” Even though the sinner was very frightened, he asked him: “Who are you?” “I,” he says, “is the one who struck Jesus Christ in the cheek, and all those who, after Confession and Holy Communion, sin again, on the same line stand with Judas and other tormentors and crucifiers of the Lord. He said so and went the other way. This vision so struck the sinner that at the same time, leaving everything, he retired to the desert and there, until the end of his life, in strict deeds, wept over his sins.

From this case, take for yourself a certificate that those who sin again after Repentance and Holy Communion put themselves exactly in the ranks of the crucifiers of the Lord, and with this conviction frighten your soul and beat off from it any encroachment on sin that arises in the lusts of the heart and disturbs your good intention to observe yourself henceforth pure and imperishable.

It is said so not to plunge someone into despair, but to turn them away from the fall. One should not despair, no matter how much one sins. But what a joy it is to place oneself arbitrarily on the line on which Judas and the crucifiers stand, even knowing that a return from such a community is impossible. Perhaps many of the crucifiers have come to their senses, like the centurion ( Mk. 15:39 ). And Judas would certainly have been forgiven if he had repented. But everyone will say that it would be much better not to be in the crowd of crucifiers than, having been, to go back home, beating your chest. Moreover, these repentant ones did not know whom they were crucifying. Can we say that we don't know? A conscious fall, how much makes sin heavier? Of course, in a moment of sinful infatuation, blindness attacks and frivolity seizes the soul, for which everything is for nothing, but this is not an excuse. For the first time, whoever is misled by sin can still be apologized for, but whoever has been subjected to this misfortune several times and knows well what it consists of, how it fits, what produces this foggy, how can he apologize? Hardening of the heart produces a feeling of inexcusability, and hardening of the heart leads to impenitence. They say about Judas that, betraying the Lord, he did not think that He would suffer, but expected that He would dispel all misfortunes with His miraculous power. But then, when he saw how things had gone, he lost heart, hardened his heart and despaired. If he had known such an outcome of his betrayal, he would hardly have decided on it. For us, even without testing, all such outcomes are visible. Isn't it better for us not to go this way by Judas, although we cannot say that the Lord would not again show us the miracles of His mercy. The Lord is always ready to reveal them, but here's what we can't foresee: wouldn't our hearts accept a turn to hardness and from hardness to resolute impenitence after sin, to which passion now leads us? If we fall again, we are dead. Wouldn't it be better not to take a step at all, which can expose us to such extreme danger, and not to tempt the mercy of God?

With such thoughts, protect yourself and sober up your soul when the whim of sin comes and begins to tempt you. For now you are on a good path. Take the trouble to stand. And what is worth using, you see this from the trouble into which you fall if you do not stand.

May the Lord make you all wise for salvation, and grant you the strength and courage of your heart to resist passions and lusts, so that you may receive a part of those who are being saved, and not those about whom it is written: “They will look at Him, who is the same!” ( John 19:37 ). Amen.

February 27, 1866

Part 11. On the Fourth Week of Great Lent

(depiction of the life of St. John of the Ladder;
how to become a complete imitator of St. John)

This Sunday is dedicated to the memory of our holy father John, the writer of The Ladder. And there is nothing to say about what for the sake of it is so necessary in the Holy Church. The holy fast was instituted not only for our purification, but also for strengthening us in goodness, not only to establish a good beginning, but also to move forward on the path to perfection. So, so that someone, having labored a little in doing good, having accomplished several feats or having spent some time a sedate life, does not think that he has already accomplished everything or has gone far on the path to perfection, Saint John of the Ladder is now brought to memory for each of us.so that, remembering him, we would paint in our minds his holy “Ladder” and, having measured our labors with it, we could more accurately determine what we have passed through and what remains for us to pass. To help you in this matter, it would be best to briefly describe to you the holy “Ladder” of ascent to god-like perfection. But I think that the same can be achieved by depicting the life of St. John of the Ladder , for not only by writing, but by his life, he shows us the ladder, along which everyone who wants to improve in spiritual life must climb. So listen.

The biography of St. John of the Ladder is short, but in a small way it combines a lot, or, better, everything. This is how his life went.

From a young age he loved the Lord and, despite the flattering hopes that his natural talents and extensive learning gave, leaving the world, he retired far from his homeland - to Sinai, so that by wandering he could be freed from many obstacles to spiritual life and in the area to have an intelligible indication what and where to look for.

Having thus laid a good beginning, from the very moment he enters the monastery, he betrays himself whole-heartedly to an experienced mentor and puts himself in such a state as if his soul had neither its own mind nor its own will. Having suppressed self-confidence and self-will through that, he soon gets rid of the arrogance characteristic of gifted people, acquires heavenly simplicity and is perfect in the labors and virtues of obedience.

When then his mentor departed to the Lord, Saint John, burning with love for greater perfection, as already strengthened in the virtues of monasticism, both external and internal, proceeds to the field of silence. Having chosen a convenient place for this feat in five fields (about one kilometer) from the temple of the Lord, he spends forty years on it a solitary life in strict abstinence and asceticism, in unceasing prayer and contemplation of God, and even more so in tears that made up bread for him day and night .

On the other hand, he soon rises to the highest degree of purity and becomes a vessel for the special gifts of God: clairvoyance, boldness in prayer, and miracles. Then, when it was necessary to elect an abbot, the brethren all unanimously appointed him as a leader over them, like some newly-appeared Moses, and he, having descended from the mountain of contemplation of God, offered, like divinely written tablets, his holy "Ladder", where he depicted the image of a perfect Christian life, by himself traversed and by the grace of God inscribed in his heart. Guiding these chosen monks in this way, he reaches the limit of visible life and departs to the Mountainous Jerusalem.

This is the whole course of the saint's life. I did not touch upon the details, having in mind to indicate only those steps by which he ascended to perfection in teaching us. And it is easy for anyone to notice that there were three of the most important: leaving the world with all its hopes, the labors of obedience at the will of the leader, then the silence that made him worthy of God's special gifts and God-wise guidance. These degrees are common to all the saints who shone with Christian perfections on earth, as you can assure yourself by reading with attention the life of any one of them. All of us must go through the same stages if we wish not only to appear, but to be true Christians.

No one would have thought: “That is the life of a hermit monk, and we, the laity, live in human cohabitation: how can we apply his life to us? Even if someone wants to imitate, they will not be able to, because we are in completely different circumstances. But, brethren, strength is not in form. The three degrees shown, in the form in which they were passed by St. John and are passed by all non-laity, we cannot pass, but we can pass them in the way that they can be passed in peace and cohabitation with the laity, in a different form, but in the same strength. First of all, let's give them a real name. The renunciation of everything, or the abandonment of the world, is clear to you. Obedience is a life of good works, not of one's own will, but at the direction of another. Finally, silence is the desire to be incessantly in the heart with the One God, which, when one achieves, begins to manifest the powers of God, or special gifts. Look now

The fact that St. John has the abandonment of the world and removal to the monastery of Sinai, we have the abandonment of a sinful and passionate life and the conversion of mind and heart to pleasing God, for the world is an image of a passionate sinful life, and a monastic monastery is a symbol of a virtuous life. Whoever leaves sin and sets the intention to live holy, he does the same as another who leaves the world and enters the monastery. If you sincerely repented during this fast and decided not to offend God with your sins, then you became imitators of St. John when he left the world and retired to the monastery of Sinai. It remains for you to abide in this intention and in the fulfillment of its requirements, in order to become imitators of it and in the second degree of its ascent to perfection.

In the second degree, in the monastery, Saint John carried out the labor of obedience under the guidance of his elder leader. In our everyday life, what should this obedience consist of? In the fulfillment of the commandments, which determine the way of life of each of you as a family man, as a member of civil society and as a son of the Church. Do what the commandments command, and you will be a faithful novice. You are a servant - fulfill the commandments of a servant, a father or mother - fulfill the commandments of parents, you are a son - fulfill the commandments of sonship, a judge - fulfill the commandments of justice, a merchant - trade as commanded. Requires what a civil device - execute. And everything that the Holy Church commands, perform from small to large. All this is salvific obedience, when they act not according to their own will, but according to what is prescribed. Saint John had a leader. Who are your leaders? Pastors of the Church. Go, ask and understand every time, and act according to their instructions. They will not pronounce their own will to you, but the commandments of the Gospel and the decrees of God's Holy Church. Those who, thus leaving sin, begin to live in the labors of doing good and fulfilling the all-round commandments of God, under the guidance of legitimate shepherds, will be an imitator of St. John in his second degree of perfection.

How, finally, to imitate him in silence? Here's how. See what is silence? Outwardly, this means moving away from everyone and being alone, and internally, this means eliminating all mental entertainment and gathering oneself inside the heart, so that there is no way out, before the face of the One All-Seeing God. External silence is not in your hands and can only happen in everyday life by chance, but inner solitude is in your hands. Arrange it for yourself, taking care in every possible way to go inside yourself, into your inner cell, as often as possible, and there alone stand before the One God. Whether you are at home, on your way, at a job or in a temple, strain not to proceed with attention from your heart and do not tear your mind's eye from the contemplation of God. And you will be solitary, or silent. The need for silent inward-staying is born in the soul as a result of conscientious labor in fulfilling the commandments of God. As long as passions and sinful habits quality in the heart, one cannot have inner silence: this is so by their nature. The labor of doing good and fulfilling the commandments of God casts passions and sinful habits out of our nature. Then the call to be one with the Lord is born. And behold, look: those who have grown stronger in good deeds and dispositions, often - or duringprayers at home and in church, or during pious contemplation and reading - so they go deep inside and sink into such silence that they don’t notice how time goes by, and, despite external labor, for example, while praying or standing in church, they didn’t want to to stop it, to always be in this blissful state. These are the beginnings of inner silence, which is also possible in family life. It remains to continue life in the same labor of doing good, caring in every possible way and praying to be in these states more often and seeking that what happens at times becomes continuous. And will be. The Lord will not leave the labor of love. It is only necessary to remove from life everything that can upset this well-being and extinguish the blissful warmth of inner silence.

This is how each of you can become a complete imitator of St. John. Only, brethren, “so say so, that you may comprehend” ( 1 Corinthians 9:24 ). Ascend "to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ" ( Eph. 4:13 ). See what a pattern! Before him, all of us is nothing. What to stare at our smallness. “Forgetting the back, to the front,” stretch out, “to the honor of the high calling ... in Christ Jesus” ( Phil. 3, 13-14 ). Amen.

April 2, 1861

On the fourth week of Great Lent (the main content of the "Ladder" and a brief outline of our entire path to the Lord, under the guise of climbing the ladder)

Following the worship of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, which took place on the past Sunday and week, now the Holy Church brings us to the memory of our reverend and God-bearing father John of the Ladder , all with the same goal of encouraging us to exploits of self-correction and progress in virtues. You know that St. John compiled a soul-saving book called "The Spiritual Ladder, Leading to Heaven." Here an uninterrupted chain of virtues, or their degrees, is depicted, from which, passing from one to another and ascending from one degree to another, the Christian finally enters the spiritual Heaven, in which he becomes "one spirit with the Lord" ( 1 Cor. 6, 17). Leading our thoughts to this final limit of Christian life, the Holy Church wants to say to us: “Do not be afraid of the cross of self-crucifixion and do not run away from the cross-bearing of asceticism. See where it leads and be inspired. There is something to work hard for!”

And this ladder is definitely strong in every soul to pour this spirit of courageous jealousy. So, she explains everything: the beginning of every virtue, and its growth, and obstacles, and ways to overcome them, and through this makes it so easy to exercise in them that the reader immediately wants to embark on a feat in order to succeed in them. Why can’t I but desire that those who are able should know this book and use it to their own salvation. And I myself would retell it to you all, but where can I do it? Whole book! I will indicate, at least, its main content and make a brief outline of our entire path to the Lord, under the guise of climbing the ladder.

The ladder at the holy Ladder has thirty steps, according to the number of years of the hidden life of the Lord and Savior, after which He began to “do and teach” ( Acts 1, 1 ). Like a ladder seen by the patriarch Jacob ( Gen. 28:12 ), it is established on earth with one end to be accessible to us, earthly, and rests on the other in Heaven, indicating the final limit of our destiny. Angels ascended and descended on the ladder of Jacob, meaning that Christian virtues are the work of angels and are accomplished with the help of holy angels. At the top of the ladder, Saint James sees the Lord ( Gen. 28:13 ): the ladder of Christian virtues also leads to the Lord, through which everyone, ascending from strength to strength, reaches“I am perfect in a man, to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ” ( Eph. 4, 13 ), reaches that perfection to which the Lord obliges: “Be ye ye... perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” ( Mt. 5, 48 ) , that unity with God, for which the Lord prayed: “May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, that they also will be one in Us” ( John 17, 21 ).

This indescribable good, brethren, foreseeing, courageously, let us approach this ladder and cheerfully force ourselves to an unsluggish ascent along it.

Let us boldly approach and cheerfully force ourselves to make a good start to this ascent. If everywhere a good beginning is half the battle, all the more so in the spiritual life, of which it is a complete destiny. For see what the first step requires here? Needs to leave the land. Just as in the order of life it is impossible to step onto the ladder without separating from the earth, above which one inevitably rises at the same time as one enters the first step, so in the spiritual order the first degree of ascent to Christian perfection is the abandonment of the earth - sin, that is, the removal from sinners. deeds and passionate feelings and dispositions, which is accomplished in Repentance, when, having rejected all that is unkind and mourned, they assume a good determination to please the One God. Whoever has reached this determination has taken the first step, entered the first step. As one who, as it were, has grown to the ground, one cannot climb the ladder, so it is impossible for one who is still burdened with sins to even think about ascending to perfection. Turn away first from evil - and you will begin to do good. “Evasion from evil,” says the holy Ladder, “is the beginning of repentance, the beginning of repentance is the beginning of salvation, and the beginning of salvation is a good determination to please God.”

Having entered the stairs, how then do they ascend? Acting with arms and legs, stepping now with the right, then with the left foot and straining with all members of the body. So, the one who repents and has a good resolution to please God immediately enters into labor that requires tension of both spiritual and bodily strength and their merciless fatigue. For he must oppose himself in evil and force himself to do good, heed himself and everything he meets, choose the best from many things, do not preempt and do not lag behind, not let even the smallest attacks of sin go unheeded, remove obstacles, guess methods in the attacks of enemies and fight with them without laying down their arms. All this and the like is the labor of struggle with passions and the progress of good deeds, which determine the very ascent to perfection. For what is perfection but the eradication of passion and the rooting of a good disposition in its place. This is our main work. And you have to step over more than one step before it ends. You will not suddenly eradicate all passions and you will not plant all virtues. Both are done gradually. And each passion has its own degrees of belittling, as well as the affirmation of every good disposition. Why does St. Ladder's depiction of this work end with the twenty-sixth degree already.

What does he not teach here, against what passion does he not arm himself! Arms against pride and vanity, cunning and slyness, love of money and covetousness, gluttony and unchastity, verbosity and slander, anger and remembrance of malice, lies and slander, laziness and drowsiness, cowardice and timidity and other things. It teaches humility, gentleness, courage, vigilance and zeal for prayer, non-acquisitiveness, chastity, abstinence, meekness, prudent silence, obedience, remembrance of death, weeping, kindness of heart, and so on. The eradication of every passion and the inculcation of the opposite virtue is a special degree that must be passed in order to proceed to the next. In all this there is a rank and order, for everyone, however, his own, which he learns about, however, already in reality. “Those who attempted to ascend to Heaven with the body,” says Ladder, - truly have a need for self-compulsion and incessant self-embitterment. A good determination to please God gives birth to labors. These labors are the doing of virtues, or constant self-education in them. The fruit of this learning is to become accustomed to them. From accustoming comes rooting in good.

This is the limit of labor in climbing the ladder of virtues. They say that the higher from the earth, the less is the attraction to the earth and, consequently, the easier it is for the one who ascends grief to struggle with his gravity. And there is such a line beyond which bodies completely cease to gravitate to the earth, that is, they become completely without gravity. So it is in the degrees of spiritual perfection: the higher one rises in it, the less earthly things burden him. Otherwise, the firmer one becomes in the virtues, through constant learning in them, the less he struggles with his sins and passions. And there is also such a height of perfection, where passions almost completely die down and the soul enjoys the peace of being in goodness, in which it acts freely, freely, unconstrainedly, naturally, as it were, just as naturally, for example, breathing and circulation of blood. This degree is reached when when every virtue is completely rooted in the soul and dispassion and purity shine. This is the spiritual Heaven - the upper end of the ladder. Those who have reached this limit belong to the Beatitudes prescribed by the Lord (Matt. 5, 3-12 ) and the top of the Beatitudes - the indwelling of God, seen by Jacob at the top of the ladder. “Completely passionless,” says the holy Ladder, “is called and is the one who exalted the mind above all creatures, but presented his soul to the face of the Lord. Dispassion is the heaven of the heart of the mind, it is the heavenly chamber of the Heavenly King. The fruit of dispassion is the fullness of love and the perfect indwelling of God in those who have become pure in heart through this dispassion, about whom it is said: “those who shall see God” ( Matthew 5:8 ).

This is where the sacred ladder leads and ends! And this is the picture that the Holy Church now wants to paint in our minds.and, of course, not for the sake of curiosity or idle talk, but for the sake of giving us an incentive and an opportunity to conscientiously examine ourselves and determine unmistakably - where do we stand and what degree do we occupy? Have they stepped on the ladder and, having stepped, have they climbed far, have they risen high from the earth, and is the last end of the ascent in any way visible? Of course, it can be difficult and even impossible to determine one's degree numerically, but it is not difficult to determine degrees that differ in sharp features. How hard is it to determine, for example, your first degree? Who is not able to give a definitive answer, has he repented and made a firm intention to please the Lord? Who, likewise, is unable to say whether, out of repentance for sins, he entered into a struggle with the passions, whether he struggles with them or succumbs to them? So what are we going to say brethren? Did you get on the stairs? Have you taken this step?

Let the conscience of everyone answer this. I will add that at least someone has taken a step - everything is fine. He is already on the stairs, already on the good path. Even though much work still needs to be done until clear traces of perfection appear in it, but a start has been made. Do not weaken only and do not be lazy to move forward as much as you can. Blessed will be your march, and if it is constant and steady, it will undoubtedly be crowned with success. It's so good though. But it is bad if the first step has not yet been taken, if someone is devoted to passions and does not think to lag behind them, or does think, but puts everything off day by day, or, pitying his beloved passion, wants to replace it with some kind of good, without refusing to from it, or, having no sharp passions and vicious deeds, lives, however, as one lives, not caring about the purity of the heart. All such and those like them are not on a good path, they have not yet entered the ladder that leads to God, and they are to take that first step. That is why the “Ladder” is remembered to us during Lent, so that if someone, having comprehended its lessons, finds that he is still wandering outside of it, he will have time to come to his senses and repent. Hurry up to do this, all those who still have to do this. And then intensify your zeal to work on correcting yourself and establishing good habits in yourself. After all, others do not stand, but everyone goes. Why should we fall behind?

Yes, and that’s all, brethren, “so” we will be mother-in-law, but we will comprehend ( 1 Cor. 9, 24 ), “the back ... forgetting, stretching out to the front” ( Philp. 3, 13 ). Who stopped, he no longer goes. He who does not go further inevitably lags behind or even moves further back. We do not have even a minute without work, and there is no work that would not be pleasing to God or displeasing. This is because we are persons and everywhere we put our intention, according to which deeds are turned either to the glory of God, or to please our self-interest and therefore serve either to prosper in our procession, or to hinder it. Attentive to himself and everything around him, he cannot stop, but every step, everything forward in his perfection, gathers with the Lord from everything and grows richer from everything.“Watch how dangerously you walk, not as if you were foolish, but as if you were wise, redeeming time, as if the days were cunning” ( Eph.5, 15-16 ).

March 29, 1864

On the Fourth Week of Great Lent

What means does not the Holy Church of God use to keep our thoughts constantly excited and invigorated in our labors of pleasing God and zeal for the salvation of the soul, especially in these days of fasting! Last Sunday, she offered our honoring and veneration the Cross of the Lord, in order to tell us: “Do not be afraid of the cross of self-denial and self-crucifixion, the Lord Himself bore the entire weight of the Cross, but you are left with only its comforting fruits.” Now she offers to our recollection and attention the ladder that raises to Heaven, she points out an example of climbing it in her copyist, St.). She now says to each of us: "Do not spare labors, see what a blessed end awaits the workers, and be inspired: hurry, drive, flow, so you will comprehend." She does the same thing that the managers and founders of the stadiums do. Just as these latter put out rewards for someone who outruns others on the run, so that everyone can see if there is something to work with, so she does too - she points out all-round bliss and sentences everyone: “Do you want such bliss? Work hard. Without labor, and labor intensified, we will not get anything.

This is the lesson I pass on to you today. As obedient sons of the Church, of course you will receive it. I will add, however: accept it willingly, take it not into consideration, but into execution. I consider it necessary to make this addition, because everyone is ready to receive bliss, and for the sake of this, very many stubbornly bear labors, very many allow themselves all sorts of benefits, but meanwhile they still hope to improve the good part together with others. Indeed, the Lord is many-merciful and is ready to delight everyone. But we ourselves cannot in any way change the paths indicated by the Lord, and, according to our taste, prescribe for ourselves the conditions for obtaining bliss, which, however, are not in our hands.

Look how the apostle Paul inspires himself and others to work and warns against privileges. “Don’t you know ,” he says, “that those who are flowing into disgrace are all flowing?” ( 1 Corinthians 9:24 ). With what effort on the lists does everyone strain their strength in order to overtake others? And what is this for? For the corruptible to receive a crown. Is it not for those with great zeal that we should mother-in-law, in order to receive an incorruptible crown? “Look,” he adds, “titz, and tack like that, so that you comprehend” ( 1 Corinthians 9:24 ).

How does the mother-in-law need to achieve this? You have to refrain from everything. “Strive (that is, flowing, as in the lists) and refrain from everyone” ( 1 Cor. 9, 25 ), the holy Apostle immediately says. To abstain from everyone, or to have all-round abstinence - I think it is clear what it means. It means fasting, vigil, solitude, toil of the body and mortification of all flesh, or, as our ascetic fathers said, to have a harsh and cruel life. If you want a mother-in-law so as to receive an imperishable crown, go through a harsh and cruel life. So that no one would think of somehow dismissing himself from this, the Apostle also depicts himself as flowing. “And I,” he says, “also flow , and I strive in the same way . ” How exactly is that?“I mortify my body and bring it into subjection” ( 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 ). The apostle, a vessel of grace, mortifies his body and enslaves it. Who after this will not need it? And do not think that he has it is the fruit of an excess of jealousy. No. “Without this,” he says, “I can’t be, it’s dangerous.” “Let me not, having preached to others, I myself will not be a key” ( 1 Corinthians 9:27 ). The apostle, the organizer of the Kingdom of God, the leader of all to salvation, is afraid of being unkeyable if he does not enslave and mortify his body. Who, after this, will hope to be the key without mortifying and enslaving the body?

I deliberately dwelled on this apostolic place a little longer in order to suggest that the common ailment almost among us - pity and indulgence of the flesh - is not at all suitable for those who seek and yearn for the Kingdom of God. If you want the Kingdom, do not spare the flesh. If you pity the flesh, you will not receive the Kingdom. Oh! How we do not like this strict and harsh life, mortifying the flesh! And what subterfuges do we use to rid ourselves of it! Now fasting, and who fasts properly? Some put fasting in vain, others lead it in such a way that the flesh does not feel cruelty at all. And why won't such people say in their own justification? There is nothing to say about those who do not care about salvation: they live only in the flesh. And even the zealots of piety in every way tend to feed and warm their flesh. “I,” he says, “I’ll take up contemplation, I’ll go to churchI will walk, I will read saving books, I will give alms and other things that I am ready to do, and let my body be given all peace and contentment - in food, sleep, ease and elimination of any inconvenience. And what else do they say? They say that this mortification of the flesh is a bodily deed, but we are spiritual, by spiritual deeds we will reach the Kingdom of Heaven - immaterial.

To all these and similar arguments, I will say one thing: the apostle Paul was spiritual to what extent? And who can compare with him in clear knowledge of how we need to act?! Do you see what he wrote? Pointed out the imperishable crown. And to everyone who wants to delight him, he ordered to kill and enslave the body. He inserted nothing else and placed no other medium. Here is the mortification of the body, and there is the incorruptible crown. If you want the latter, take the former. Reasoning is all aside. If someone began to bother me: “Explain both this and that bewilderment in this matter,” I would say: “What to argue? Do you understand what the imperishable crown means? Of course, it's understandable. Is it clear what mortification and enslavement of the flesh means? And this is, of course, understandable. Come, mortify and enslave the flesh, and you will receive an incorruptible crown. And if you act otherwise, you will not only not receive a crown, but you will turn out to be unkeyable, as the holy Apostle fears both for himself and for us. Do you know what is said about the unkeyable? It is said:“Throw the unrequited slave into outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” ( Mt. 25:30 ). This is what a disappointing end to the rest of the flesh!

And then I will add that after all, we are not appointed to reason and “contend for no matter what is needed” ( 2 Tim. 2, 14 ), but why are we appointed? Ordained to preach the word. “Preach the word” ( 2 Tim. 4:2 ), commanded the holy Apostle Paul to Timothy, and in his face to all of us. What word? Here I will collect this word regarding what we are talking about.

"Those who are Christ's are, crucifying the flesh with passions and lusts" ( Gal.5, 24 ). Hear! It has become that whoever does not crucify the flesh is not Christ's, not a Christian. For this reason, walk "not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" ( Rom. 8:4 ). “And do not create pleasure for the flesh in lust” ( Rom. 13:14 ). “We ought not to be the flesh, but to live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, then die: if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live” ( Rom. 8, 12-13 ) . .. and they cannot please God ... for wisdom ... carnal death is ... there is enmity against God ”( Rom. 8, 5, 8, 6-7 ). "Let the sinful body be abolished ... let not ... sin reign in your dead body" ( Rom. 6, 6, 12 ). “Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God” ( Rom.12, 1 ) and “mortify ... your souls, even on the earth” ( Col.3, 5 ). For there is "another law in our lives, warring against the law of our minds and capturing us with the law of sin which is in our lives" ( Rom. 7:23 ).

I'll limit myself to this. Do you see how? And this kind of mercilessness of the flesh is preached and commanded throughout the space of Divine Scripture! It became, there is nothing to argue, there is nothing to invent various twists and turns to spare the flesh. Whoever wants to feed and warm his flesh is not a pet of Scripture and a stranger to its spirit. Alien spirit, alien and promises.

From this side, see all the motherly care of the Holy Church for us in the establishment of holy fasts. And our whole life must pass in the mortification and enslavement of the flesh. Otherwise, you will immediately fall into the unkeyable, and for that later you will be subjected to their bitter fate. So that one of us does not fall into this fate through oblivion or some kind of passion for deeds, Holy Churchreminds us of the mortification of the flesh every week - on Wednesday and on the heel, and at every season - with long fasts, especially with this Great Lent of the Holy Forty Days, so that when fasting comes, and against our will, we take up the work of mortification and enslavement of the flesh and enter the field leading to an incorruptible crown. So, if at another time we give ourselves all sorts of privileges, at least we will work our flesh a little during fasting. If at another time you have all the feasts for the flesh and all kinds of benefits during fasting, then will not the following reproachful word of the Apostle apply to us? “Many… ” he says, “ they walk many timesto you, now ... I say weeping, enemies of the cross of Christ: who is the end of destruction, who is God's womb, and glory in their study, who are wise on earth ” ( Phil. 3, 18-19 ).

It's already halfway through the post. Blessed are the labors of those who hitherto mortified their flesh, and may they be inspired to continue by the certainty of the inevitability of this path. But even those who have deprived themselves of this good have still time to become participants in it. The field is open, and a bright crown is visible at its end. Enter cheerfully into the feat. Having become jealous with jealousy, you will still have time to overtake those who have gone so far from you. What is lost in the length of time, you can reward with the exertion of strength in inspiration and, thus, not with dreamy expectation, but undoubtedly and really enter into the host of those who, according to the Apostle, “ flow so” that they will surely “comprehend” ( 1 Cor. 9 , 24 ). Amen.

March 14, 1865

On the fourth week of Great Lent (an excellent alphabet for everyone, or about three rows of feats)

I have already told you two or three times about how dangerous it is to fall into the same sins after repenting for them, and how, therefore, one must take every effort to take care not to fall into this foolishness and not plunge oneself into extreme misfortune through this. I think that those who have heeded this and made a good intention not to deviate from this vow have a desire to know how it is more convenient to achieve this good goal, how we need to arrange ourselves both outside and inside in order to avoid new falls, and what rules to keep, to overcome every temptation and to stand in goodness. I want to satisfy this desire of yours, and not on my own behalf, but on behalf of St. John of the Ladder , to whose memory this Sunday is dedicated.

You know, of course, that Saint John wrote the book The Spiritual Ladder, from which he has his nickname. In this book, he explained in detail how a repentant person must act in order to stand in goodness and not fall back into the former uncleanness. I will extract from it the main thing that relates to this subject.

“It is difficult,” he says, “to easily overcome the old bad habits. However, I know that everything is possible for God, “it is impossible” for Him “nothing” ( Job.42, 2 ). So, God can do everything and is ready to do everything for us in us. But we also need to not only resort to Him with prayer, but also use efforts and labors ourselves, in accordance with our intention. And this intention and labor must precede God's help and attract it. All success depends on our own desire and our own efforts, at least not otherwise than with the assistance of God, however, if you do not precede the first, that is, desire and effort, the second, that is, God's assistance, will not follow.

God's assistance is undoubted, but what should we turn our efforts and labors to? In response to this, the holy Ladder indicates as many labors and deeds as there are letters in the Greek alphabet, and calls it the alphabet, in the thought that just as students of reading need to learn the basics in advance, so those who want to lag behind sins and succeed in virtues should get used to the feats he calculates in advance.

“Here,” he says, “is an excellent alphabet for everyone: fasting, sackcloth, ashes, tears, silence, vigil, cold, labor, suffering, contrition, laying aside worldly cares, voluntary humiliation of oneself, silence, fear of Judgment, keeping the heart, not plundering thoughts , the desire for death, flight from the body, and so on. I do not list all the feats indicated because it is difficult for you to remember them. And it’s better to put both the listed and non-listed ones into rows, so that it would be more convenient for you to remember them and apply them to the case.

The first series of labors relates to the body. Take the body in your hands, be its master, not a slave. On each member of it impose your feat and bind it all. Refine your stomach with abstinence and fasting, train your hands to work, bind your tongue with silence, do not let your eyes see everything and hear everything with your ears, run free movement, sleep and all rest of the flesh. In general, strain to torment the flesh and accustom it to a cruel life, without any self-pity, remembering the commandment of the Apostle “ not to create” the flesh “pleasant ... in lust” ( Rom. “Duty, thick, wide and forgetful of God who created him” ( Deut. 32:15 ).

The second series of feats relates to the soul. The first thing here is to go inside yourself and keep your attention to yourself and your inside-stay non-original, in every possible way avoiding the plundering of thoughts for various deeds and objects. In order to succeed in this, choose for yourself any position from the following two and fasten your attention and feelings to it, namely: confirm in your thought that you are either in a state of death, or stand at the Judgment, when the last is ready to be spoken to you. decision: “Come, blessed one” ( Matt. 25:34 ), or: “Go away, accursed one” ( Matt. 25:41). But strain to perceive this and to feel it. As soon as you perceive this in your feelings, all thoughts will immediately fall away and you will stand alone before the face of God, in fear begging Him to be merciful to you. This is your law. No good feeling is so sobering as the feeling of fear of death and the Judgment of God. Why, as soon as you wake up, immediately hasten to restore this feeling of fear and stand with it in the God of God, and then do not depart from it all day long, no matter what you do and whatever you are busy with. This will be your most faithful bulwark against sinful inclinations and temptations.

The third series of feats relates to the establishment of a new order of affairs and occupations. Just as before, when we worked for sin, everything was adapted to the satisfaction of our passions, so now, when we have lagged behind sin, everything must be adapted to resist the passions. Everywhere a new order must be introduced: in one's studies, in family affairs, in relations with strangers. Sit down and calculate and establish everything: how, what, when it should be, so that your good intention is not upset and you do not slip back into the old. And when you arrange your affairs, keep two thoughts: eliminate all occasions and occasions that can arouse your passion from which you suffer, and do not be at all afraid of what your friends will say or say about you because of the change in life, which cannot now be hidden. . Rather fear the Lord, Who said: “Who ... ifbe ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, and the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” ( Mark 8:38 ).

That's all! Keep your flesh in constant restlessness and embitterment, but focus your soul with attention in yourself, put it at the Judgment of God and change all the orders of your life, not being afraid or ashamed of anyone. Do this and you will be safe from falls. I will mean this in certain words: acquire ruthlessness towards the flesh, disregard for people's opinions about you and the fear of God, through the fear of death and Judgment, while paying attention to yourself. When you arrange yourself in this way, the enemy will not attack you. You will be like in a city of protection. And if the enemy approaches, he will immediately be repulsed and struck down. With attention you will notice his attack and, seizing him with unpity for yourself and fear of human judgments, you will amaze him with the fear of the Judgment. Self-pity, neglect of what they say, and fear of the Judgment are three double-edged swords against which no enemy temptation can withstand. As long as all these weapons are intact in you and in power, the enemy will not come to you. Why, if you stock up on them and keep them, the enemy will not tempt you with anything, but will turn all his cunning to snatch these tools from you, that is, either to dispel attention, or to force you to give indulgence to the flesh and human pleasing, or to extinguish fear Court and settle cooling in the heart. If he succeeds in this, he will begin to incline him to sin, and if he does not have time, he will retreat from you. Knowing this, above all, keep your tools, stand unfailingly at the Judgment of God, flee from all rest of the flesh and keep the new order of life unchanged, even if you are constantly scolded and even beaten. And you will undoubtedly stand with the help of God's grace. or force you to give indulgence to the flesh and to human pleasing, or extinguish the fear of the Judgment and settle chill in the heart. If he succeeds in this, he will begin to incline him to sin, and if he does not have time, he will retreat from you. Knowing this, above all, keep your tools, stand unfailingly at the Judgment of God, flee from all rest of the flesh and keep the new order of life unchanged, even if you are constantly scolded and even beaten. And you will undoubtedly stand with the help of God's grace. or force you to give indulgence to the flesh and to human pleasing, or extinguish the fear of the Judgment and settle chill in the heart. If he succeeds in this, he will begin to incline him to sin, and if he does not have time, he will retreat from you. Knowing this, above all, keep your tools, stand unfailingly at the Judgment of God, flee from all rest of the flesh and keep the new order of life unchanged, even if you are constantly scolded and even beaten. And you will undoubtedly stand with the help of God's grace.

“For all that, however,” says the holy Ladder, “one must vigilantly watch where and how the wind blows, in order to direct the sails accordingly.” The enemy does not sleep and all sorts of tricks will be used to deceive you. At first, he will completely retreat and stop bothering you with temptations, so that you think that you have already completely freed yourself from your passion, and, indulging in carelessness, weaken your attention. If you overlook this cunning and weaken your attention, the enemy will draw you into many thoughts and, before you come to your senses, will combine your heart with passionate deeds, after which you will become your own counselor.

If he does not succeed in this, he will begin to approach with subtle and instantaneous thoughts in order to lure you out of your fortress and disarm and capture you in the open. See how it goes. In the midst of any business, the thought will fly like an arrow that you, tea, have already done enough. Such a thought will fly by, and as if it does not exist. But his trace, like a scratch, remains on the soul, and just let it pass without attention, forces will immediately begin to relax and urges arise in the soul: either to indulge yourself, then to entertain, then to put aside the usual severity in orders. Give in to the latter, and you won't be far from falling.

If the enemy does not succeed in this, then he will begin to inflame you for unnecessary deeds: either for a long fast, or for long prayers, or for solitude, or for something else, beyond the measure that we ourselves put in the outline of the order of our new life. These excesses always weaken the forces, upset order and induce confusion, in which it will be easy for the enemy to overcome you.

If he fails to succeed here, he will begin to weave his evil into every good thing of yours, like ivy curls around good trees. You will engage in instructive thinking, and it will lead you into questioning and inquisitiveness about the mysteries of Scripture, which cool and develop pernicious conceit. You will take care not to offend anyone, and he will lead you into pernicious human pleasing. You will be afraid not to condemn, and he will hasten to inspire indifference to both good and evil. “In the same way, in many other ways, the enemy drags his enemy,” says St. John, “gluttony to hospitableness, severity to prudence, double-mindedness to meekness, self-conceit to joy, laziness to hope, and so on.”

You see how many hoaxes, as these assassination attempts by the enemy are called by people experienced in fighting with him. You see how many deceptions, and aggravate attention and vigilance. To help this, do the following: find yourself a good spiritual father and, having trusted him with all yours, pray to the Lord that He will inspire him to tell you always good things in creation. Or, if you can, find yourself a brother of one mind and with him lead mutual frankness and mutual admonition and strengthening to each other. If you know how to read, stock up on soul-saving books and, studying them, look for in them admonishment to yourself and explanations of perplexing cases in your thoughts, feelings and movements of the heart. In these ways, with a sincere desire to avoid evil and prayerful conversion to God, you will always be strong to unravel the intricacies of the enemy, see the evil prepared for you and then repel it with your spiritual tools.

Save all this, and you will be saved from falling. “But remember that this work is the crown,” says St. John, “when the fire of God enters into our sanctuary.” For then we will no longer be disturbed by the previously rooted bad inclinations. “Our God is a fire that devours” ( Heb. 12:29 ) every kindling and movement of passion, every inclination rooted in us and every blindness, inside and outside noticed and cognized. Then carelessness, insensibility, thoughtlessness and blindness will not approach you - these are the producers of every fall into sins and a sinful state. Amen.

March 6, 1866

Part 12. On the fifth week of Great Lent

(here is the lesson for us:
do not appropriate the Kingdom of Heaven for ourselves)

Why did the Lord refuse the holy apostles James and John with their material in their petition? They asked not bad - namely, a place in the Kingdom of Christ the Savior: "Create, yes ... one at the right hand , and the other at the left ... sit ... in Your Kingdom" ( Matt.20, 21 ). Isn't it possible to pray for this? But after all, it is commanded: “Seek ... first the Kingdom of God” ( Matt. 6:33 ), and the Holy Church teaches us allpray: "Do not deprive us, Lord, of Your Heavenly Kingdom." What is the reason they were denied? After all, they received the Kingdom and were glorified? The reason is that they arrogated to themselves the right to the Kingdom, and not only to the Kingdom, but also to a certain, most honorable place in the Kingdom. And it is impossible to appropriate for oneself not only a certain degree of glory in the Kingdom, but also the Kingdom itself, for this gift consists in the will of the Heavenly Father, which, even with the strict fulfillment of all conditions, we cannot know. “There is no giving for me ,” says the Lord, “ but it will be given to him from my Father in heaven” ( Matt. 20:23 ).

So here is the lesson for us from the current Gospel: not to appropriate the Kingdom for ourselves and, working to receive it with all diligence, to betray the very receipt to the will of God, to expect it as mercy from our Heavenly Father, to work in expectation without pretensions, saying to ourselves : Esma , even if they did “all that was commanded” ( Lk. 17:10 ).

It is necessary to remind us of this, because we will work a little, and we begin to "trumpet before ourselves" ( Matt. 6, 2 ), exalt ourselves and put ourselves in the ranks of saints and great ones, and even though we speak humbly about ourselves with our tongues, in our hearts we feel otherwise, we destroy ourselves through foolishness and imprudence. "With fear and trembling" it is necessary for us to "work out" " our own salvation" ( Philippians 2, 12 ), and not boldly prescribe laws to God to grant it to us. , but on what such a rule and such confidence can be based, interpret it quite differently - in terms of humility, and not self-exaltation.

What disposed the sons of Zebedee and their mother to turn to the Lord with such a petition? That, First, That they belonged to the number of believers who were given great promises; then, secondly, that they rendered the Lord a special service during His stay on earth, for the mother served Him from her estates together with others; thirdly, that they have already received signs of special favor and closeness from the Lord. All of this applies to us as well. But in all this - not a reason for claims, but only an incentive to humility and greater zeal for receiving the Kingdom.

And in our country someone else appropriates the Kingdom for the sake of being a Christian, and Christians are told: “Believe in the Son, imat the Life Eternal” ( John 3, 36 ). Indeed it is. The Kingdom of God belongs to Christians. It is for Christians only. But one must be a true Christian in order to appropriate for oneself what is promised to Christians. But whether each of us is a true Christian, we ourselves cannot determine in any way. And the Lord Himself will determine that in the future, saying to one: “Good servant” , and to another: “Lazy and crafty servant” ( Matt. 25, 23, 26 ). Thus, the fact that we are Christians is not a basis for claims, but an inducement to humility, fear and greater zeal in order to reveal ourselves as true Christians.

And among us, someone else appropriates the Kingdom for the sake of doing some service to the Lord. Someone else fasts, goes to church , prays at home, gives alms, organizes an almshouse and works hard for the Lord - and begins to think that he has already become a saint, and appropriate the bright abodes of heaven. All these labors are laudable and necessary in the work of salvation. But the Lord is not satisfied with them alone, but what does he say? “Son, give Mi ... heart” ( Prov. 23, 26). In addition to deeds of piety and works of good deeds, it is also necessary to consecrate all the feelings of the heart to the Lord. And whether these feelings are consecrated, only the All-seeing eye of God can definitely know this, but this is hidden from us by our self-love. Thus, from what we have labored, we must not arrive at the point where we boldly appropriate the dignity of those who are close to God, but have in it an inducement to fear, or cautious thinking: “Are we flowing like that, would we not labor in vain?” In order to ascend from here to zeal, carefully observe the movements of the heart and try to correct them and direct them to the Lord, so as not to love anything but Him, and if we are disposed towards something, to be disposed towards it only for the sake of the Lord.

And among us it appropriates a different Kingdom for the sake of sometimes receiving signs of God’s special favor, or His approach, which are: a special deepening in prayer, a special enlightenment of thoughts, warmth of the heart, a sense of moral strength and God’s external protection in everyday and civil affairs. All this happens and is really a sign of God’s special favor and mercy, but this should not be conducive to thinking: “Behold, you have already reached it,” but in order to be more inflamed with zeal for achievement, like the Apostle, who even after he received the gift , said: “I drive ... if ... I comprehend” ( Phil. 3, 12), that is, I strive more and more - will I not achieve? When a father pats his child on the head or gives him sweets for the fact that he begins to sort out the letters and add up, does this mean that the father considers the child perfect? And would a child do well if, dreaming that he had already become equal to a good reader, he would abandon the alphabet? That's the same with us. Signs of God's special favor are given not in order to declare the final perfection of the one who receives them, but then in order to arouse him to be more and more jealous about what he has begun - in the certainty that it does not “flow in vain” ( Gal. 2, 2 ); but whether he reaches the end, whether he receives and what he receives, it is in the will of the common household of all.

So, there are no grounds on which it would be possible for us to appropriate the Kingdom for ourselves. "How to be? another will say. “Because it can relax any hunt. What to work from? Work in hope to receive without appropriating rights and claims. The path we are following is right and leads directly to the Kingdom of Heaven. And turn all your zeal to ensure that your mother-in-law follows this path faithfully, without deviations - and you will undoubtedly come to the gates of the Kingdom, but do not appropriate this for yourself in advance. Give this right to the Lord in order to receive this from Him as mercy. Behold, see how the saints of God acted in this respect. One saint shone with great virtues, but when he died, he wept. The brethren asked: “Are you really afraid, father?” He answered: “All my life I have been zealous to follow the true path, but I don’t know what the merciful Master will determine about me.” Satan tried in every possible way to tempt another saint by self-appropriation of salvation. When he was dying, Satan told him: “You defeated me” (and this is the same as being saved and entering the Kingdom of God). The saint answered: “You are a lie and lie that I defeated you. It's not time to say it yet." When passing through ordeals, Satan again says to the saint: "You defeated me." “Go away, sly charm,” the saint answered, “the time has not yet come to speak like that.” When the saint entered the very gates of the Kingdom, Satan shouted from afar: "You have defeated me." The saint answered: “Now I believe that you are defeated, but it was not I who defeated you, but my Lord Jesus Christ in me, unworthy, defeated you.” It's not time to say it yet." When passing through ordeals, Satan again says to the saint: "You defeated me." “Go away, sly charm,” the saint answered, “the time has not yet come to speak like that.” When the saint entered the very gates of the Kingdom, Satan shouted from afar: "You have defeated me." The saint answered: “Now I believe that you are defeated, but it was not I who defeated you, but my Lord Jesus Christ in me, unworthy, defeated you.” It's not time to say it yet." When passing through ordeals, Satan again says to the saint: "You defeated me." “Go away, sly charm,” the saint answered, “the time has not yet come to speak like that.” When the saint entered the very gates of the Kingdom, Satan shouted from afar: "You have defeated me." The saint answered: “Now I believe that you are defeated, but it was not I who defeated you, but my Lord Jesus Christ in me, unworthy, defeated you.”

This is how one must avoid appropriating the Kingdom for oneself in the face of all the labors for obtaining it. But not at all in order to relax in jealousy or incline to the hopelessness of receiving the Kingdom, and then, in order to work out “our own salvation” “with fear and trembling” ( Philippians 2:12 ), to become more and more inflamed with zeal for receiving it. Work without sparing your strength and stomach, but do not stare at what has been done, and do not dream about what you should get for what you have done, but pay all your attention to what you still have to do, and be afraid to miss what is due. you do. Work in undoubted aspiration without appropriation.

And you shouldn't despair. Look at Mary of Egypt. This Sunday is dedicated to her. After turning from a sinful life to the Lord, what labors did she not lift? But until her death, she kept saying: “I am an indecent sinner, unworthy of any mercies of God.” And then even, as if by clairvoyance, I guessed the name of Zosima. Otherwise, it's impossible. He who truly works, he sees clearly that, if not the help of God, nothing will be done. As this lesson is repeated throughout life, then one conviction is formed in the heart that ours is only bad, everything good is from the Lord. And what's left of here? Only one thing remains - to cry out: "God, be merciful to us sinners!" ( Luke 18:13 ). But without any movement of despair or even hopelessness. Here is the Lord, when he offered the sons of Zebedee the condition: “Can you drink the cup?”, - and they promised: “We can” ( Mt. 20, 22 ), that is, they accepted the condition, did not say to them: “You will not receive,” but only said that “ I cannot give, but My Father is pleased to give him” ( Matt .20, 23 ). That is: “Drink the cup, bear all the difficulties associated with following Me, but commit the Kingdom and the degree of glory in the Kingdom to the will of My Father in Heaven.” And this is the same as: work in aspiration without appropriation. Behold , “so tezi” and you, brethren, “may you comprehend” ( 1 Corinthians 9:24 )! Amen.

April 9, 1861

On the fifth week of Great Lent (how can we learn from the conversion of St. Mary of Egypt, or about the veils of sin)

The example of the repentance of St. Mary of Egypt is so vast and so much instructive that the Holy Church wants especially to imprint it on our hearts. Why, besides the day of her memory, this Sunday is dedicated to her, that is, the fifth week of Great Lent, and, besides this, her name signifies the standing, on which her canon is united with the Great Canon of Penitence. There seems to be enough motivation to pay attention to her conversion and learn from it. Let's listen to this lesson.

I will not analyze the whole life of the reverend. I will dwell on the first action of the grace of God over her, which awakened her from the lull of sin. And I will stop not to invite you to imitate, for how to imitate what is not from us, but then to indicate how everyone can and should dispose themselves to be worthy of the same grace.

The conversion of St. Mary of Egypt belongs to the emergency conversions. You see that she is completely immersed in sin and does not think of leaving it behind. But grace comes and by its amazing action awakens her from the lulling of the sinful. Awakened, she sees the fatality of her condition and decides to change for the better. It was the same with her, as if someone were immersed in the mire and a third-party who, approaching, with a strong hand pulled him out of her depths and set him free on solid ground. Such was the conversion of the holy Apostle Paul and many others.

But that which belongs to the special extraordinary actions of God, for that very reason, cannot be common to all. And if someone, based on these examples, renounced all care on his part about his conversion and any compulsion to do so, saying as if of grace: “Come, take it, and I will go,” he would be unjust and would destroy himself. surrendering to the hands of one's fall. The path common to all is this: “Seek, and you will find; push, and it will be opened to you” ( Matthew 7, 7). Although in this case the action of converting grace is also marked by defeat and shock, but it is prepared by personal labor, lured out, forced, as it were, from the Lord. The Lord sees painful labor and gives according to labor. And in the first, He does not expect this work, but acts directly, and the work will follow only then. This is how the Lord works over His special chosen ones. But we need to follow the common path and force ourselves to be converted when we have “an acceptable time” and pass through the “days of salvation” ( 2 Corinthians 6:2 ).

What is it that we need to do with ourselves in order to deserve this grace of conversion, how to trouble ourselves, what to force, in order to show the All-seeing Lord that we desire, and seek, and thirst for His saving omnipotence in us?

I will tell you this briefly. Let us take a person in such a position that only a simple thought came to him: is it really not possible to take care of himself and think about improving his life. A simple thought, but no sympathy for her, no desire to follow her suggestions. Reason only requires. But after all, no matter how much the mind demands this, there will be no work until jealousy, the energy of a lulled conscience, is aroused. To the arousal of this jealousy, let us now lead the soul, which in any way, as a heavenly guest, has been visited by the thought of salvation.

So, the thought came about correcting yourself: whether your conscience inspired it or the Guardian Angel brought it, do not throw it away, but immediately take hold of it and begin to perform on yourself, so to speak, operations that would give this thought the opportunity to master all the forces of your being. Act in this experience opposite to how sin acts in us, opposite in general to the order of dispositions by which a person is detained in sin. Sin entangles the soul in many nets or hides itself from it under many veils, because in itself it is ugly and from the first time could repel anyone from itself. These veils are: the deepest and closest to the heart veil, composed of self-delusion, insensitivity and carelessness; higher above it and closer to the surface of the soul lies absent-mindedness with much concern; then follows the upper veil - the predominance of the flesh and the external order of the external life, saturated with sins and passions. Sin lives in the heart, from there it takes possession of the whole soul, penetrates into the body and into all our deeds and relationships, or into all behavior.

And so, begin to remove these veils one by one in order to expose the spirit entangled by them, just as layer after layer is removed from the earth in order to reveal the treasure laid there.

Start with the outermost layer.

First. Cease for a time ordinary affairs and intercourse, especially those on which domineering passion feeds. Eye, ear, tongue are the widest channels of sinful food. Cut them off with solitude.

Second. Then take hold of the body: deny it not only pleasures, but reduce the satisfaction of the necessary needs of sleep and food. If you refine the flesh, the soul will be freed from the bondage of matter, it will become more mobile, lighter and more receptive to good impressions. This produces a prudent fast.

Third. Solitude and fasting make it easier for the soul to turn to itself. But, entering into itself, it encounters there a terrible confusion, produced by so much concern and distraction of thoughts. Worries, now about one thing, now about another, now about a third, crowd in the heart and do not allow the soul to take care of itself, do not allow it to stop, and everyone drives it forward and forward. So it is necessary to suppress them, drive them out of the soul and heart, even though there is only time for this. Until this is done, no further actions on oneself are possible or they will remain completely fruitless. Care hurts or sharpens the heart. But even when this is not the case, empty thoughts roam in the head one after another, or one in defiance of another, and produce there the same confusion that occurs in a snowstorm or a storm. In such a state, nothing lasting and solid can be sown in the soul. Why is it necessary to gather your scattered children - thoughts - into one, like a shepherd gathers the sheep, or like convex glass gathers the scattered rays of the sun, and turn them all upon himself. This is done by attention, or sobriety.

Fourth. Let, finally, worries subside, thoughts calm down, the mind gathered into itself and settled on one thing. Three or four covers have already been removed. You are now at your heart. Before you is your inner man, immersed in a dream of carelessness, insensibility and blindness. Approach now cheerfully and labor without laziness. The main thing will begin - awakening from sleep.

First of all, hasten to remove from the eyes of the mind the veils that keep it in blindness. Why does a person not fear for himself and take care of himself? Because he does not see the danger of his position. If he saw this, he could not remain calm, just as one who sees that he is engulfed in flame cannot sit quietly in the house. But a sinner does not see the danger of his position because, through some kind of delusion, he sees himself in a state of satisfactory good. False flattering ideas creep into him, which, like some kind of net, entangle the mind and close the person from himself. There are a lot of these ideas, or subtle thoughts. Another, for example, says: "I am a Christian" - and remains dead, like the Jews who said: "I am the seed of Abraham" ( Jn. 8, 33), transfers to itself the advantages and promises of Christianity - without Christianity, or acquires a name, a place and clothes that which can lie and be held only by strength and inner dignity. A prominent external state comes to mind to another, or bodily perfections climb into the eyes: strength and beauty and spiritual gifts - mental and aesthetic, and dazzle him the more, the sharper he differs from all those around him. Another is blinded by some prominent deeds or even active perfections, such as: prudence and prudence, especially when this has managed to surround him with respect, not even from one simple people. And another, finally, rests on the fact that he is not alone: ​​and that one is the same, and that one, even this one, deceives himself with the overflow of sinful customs, as if from the multitude of sinners sin becomes less sinful. Such and similar thoughts keep one blind. Why, having entered into yourself and concentrated your attention, begin to take away these pillars of blindness, destroy these empty hopes, or these“not partaking of guilt about sins” (inventing excuses for sins) ( Ps. 140:4 ), against which the prophet David prayed. Bring every one of these thoughts to the environment and strike it with Christian sanity. Convince yourself that your Christianitynothing, if you are thin, that your perfections condemn you more than justify you, if they are not converted to the glory of God, that neither respect for you from others, nor their thinness will help you. Arguing in this way, you will gradually unite in thoughts and become one before the gaze of the mind and conscience, which the strong will cast a voice against you, especially when, comparing you as you are with what you should be, they find that you are good for nothing. If, as a result of this, you begin to feel a sense of fear or timidity for yourself, then this is a good sign. This is a harbinger of the flight of sin, just as the wavering of the ranks of the military portends the imminent flight of the entire army.

Thus, along with self-vision, well-being awakens. Why, keeping up with reasoning that exposes blindness, following the first movement of spiritual feeling, strike yourself still more and shake your heart with some ideas that can turn away from sin and arouse disgust for it.

Just imagine what sin is in yourself. This is an ulcer, the most disastrous of all ulcers: it separates from God, upsets the soul and body, betrays the torments of conscience, exposes to disasters in life, in death and after death, concludes paradise, plunges into hell. Perhaps such thoughts will develop in the heart an aversion to this monster.

Put sin in relation to the devil and see what an ugly friend and despot you gain by sin. The devil has a dispute with God. He, as it were, says to Him, the All-Generous: “You give them everything, but they depart from Your will, but I don’t give anything, but I do what they work for me alone with such tirelessness.” He is a flatterer. Now, plunging into sins, he promises some sweetness for them, and there he will expose them with malicious mockery to our denunciation, if we do not repent. He trembles with evil joy if anyone falls into his hands. Remember all this, perhaps you yourself will feel hostility towards this hater of ours and his work in us - sin.

Finally, turn to God and judge what sin is before His face - the Omniscient and Omnipresent, the All-Good and the All-Generous, Our Providence and Redeemer. Having convicted yourself of criminal inattention to Him, fearlessness and ingratitude, perhaps you will arouse in yourself saving pity and “sorrow ... according to God” ( 2 Corinthians 7:10 ).

When in this way we force into our heart crushing feelings one after another, now disgust and hatred for sin, now fear and horror towards the ruler of sin, now pity and sorrow for the Lord, it will gradually warm up and begin to move. As jets of electricity impart a certain tension and excitement to the body, or as cool, clean air imparts a certain freshness and mobility, so these feelings will set in motion the slumbering energy of active forces, finally disposing a person to rise and act for his salvation in his dangerous position. These are the first movements of caring for the salvation of the soul. When this happens, do not hesitate to act on yourself and from this side, drive away the dream of carelessness. Force yourself to strain your strength in every possible way and immediately get down to business without delay. Put it off, it will be worse: the more you become accustomed to sin, the more sin will take shape in you, and the circumstances and sinful connections will become more confusing. So you will finally be weighed down with sin that you will not get up: you will go beyond the line, because of which, perhaps, there is no return. Hurry up! Remember at this"Your last" ( Sir.7, 39 ). Say to yourself: “Here is death,” one, the other is dying near you, and a succession is about to come after you. Like a sword above the head, the blow of death is ready and will strike suddenly. Then Judgment, your "secret" ( Ps.18, 13 ) will appear before the Angels and all the saints. There you will be alone with your works. From them you will either be condemned or justified - either to heaven or to hell. Look, they don't enter heaven with sins, but hell is sealed with the seal of God's rejection. There is torment without consolation and end. Isn't it time to throw off this burden that is preparing such a disaster.

To make the action of all these thoughts more accurate, enclose them all in one image of some kind and carry it in your mind as a constant stimulus. “Imagine,” says St. Tikhon, “above you is the sword of God’s truth, below you is hell, ready to devour you, in front of you is death, behind you is the abyss of sins, on the right and left side are many evil enemies. Having arranged yourself in this way mentally, you will constantly hear an exciting voice inside yourself: “Should you be in carelessness?”

With these and similar reasonings and actions, the last veil of sin, made up of carelessness, insensitivity and blindness, will finally be removed. Now the man-sinner is open to himself, he is not insensible to his dangerous situation and often tries to get up and go, but this is not all done yet. Here, obviously, the main thing is missing - fertile excitement. Labor has been used, search has been discovered, but all this is only experiments, efforts to attract grace on our part, and by no means the very work that we are looking for. We seek and push, - the gift is in the will of the Distributor, Who "divides power to everyone , as he wants" ( 1 Cor. 12, 11). So, with the diligent use of the means calculated, walk, expecting the visitation of God, which, although always ready, never comes with discretion. To this end, put yourself in those circumstances in which grace used to act, go towards it, as it were. Visit the temples of God and participate in all sacred rites, read or listen to the word of God, have conversations with God-fearing people, start some kind of good deed or work, or rather pray. Pray both in the church and at home, forcing the perseverance of the Generous Giver to give you, as your daily bread, grace-filled help for salvation. So work, strain, "seek, and you will find . " So “the crowd, and it will be opened” to you ( Matt. 7, 7). The Lord Savior will see this work for salvation and will send His saving goodness, which, having come, will break all the threads of sin and give the soul the freedom of mother-in-law in the way of the Lord, whether in desert solitude or in the circle of community life! It will come, that is, what was given to St. Mary of Egypt to the tuna!

What should be done afterward, the visitor of souls herself will teach, as she taught Mary of Egypt, as she teaches everyone who is worthy of her and submits to her.

Judging by everything that we need to do with ourselves in order to win this grace that arouses conversion, you can see that the most favorable time for this is holy fasts, especially the holy Forty Day. This is an abbreviated program of expedient fasting. Why is the example of St. Mary of Egypt being offered to us now, within the limits of fasting, in order to bring this to our memory, to turn us to a careful analysis - did we talk, and did we talk properly. The one who has spoken properly should feel excited, animated, tense for efforts in the matter of salvation. His goal is either to acquire grace, or to return the lost, or to strengthen its fire, which began to fade, and not only to go to churchand fast. And this external order is needed, but the main thing is to change the internal mood. Has anyone been vouchsafed this, thank the Lord, has not been vouchsafed, there is still time. Get down to the saving field of labor on yourself - and you will receive it. The Lord is near. Draw close to Him, and there will undoubtedly be a union with the loving Lord with your soul, created in His image and likeness, sought by Him and His property. Amen.

April 5, 1864

On the fifth week of Great Lent (about the three classes of sinners, or what is the key to the door of repentance?)

How many weeks have we been singing: “Open the doors of repentance, Giver of Life!” And every time we receive from the Lord a comforting and inspiring answer to repentance - either in the readings of the Gospels, or in memoirs connected with the weekly days. The work of repentance is like if the House Lord sits in the inner chambers and some persons, looking for an entrance to Him, cry out from the outside: “Open for us, open for us the doors!” The householder from within alone answers: “Go, the door is open”; to another: “Go, the door is not closed, it is only closed, open it and come in”; to the third: “The key is there, outside; when you find it, put it in the lock, turn it as the key requires, open it, and enter! Different faces, different answers to them and different labors at the entrance to the door. But everyone, having entered the door, boldly enters inside, approaches the Household Master, throws himself at His feet, they are honored with His merciful embraces and are brought near - to be comforted by this nearness of His all-pleasuring. Do you understand this parable?

The householder is the Lord, accepting repentant sinners and again bringing them closer to Himself. Of those who come to Him, who are the first to find the door open? These are those who, according to the previous Confession and Holy Communion, kept themselves clean from all sin, and did not defile their thoughts and feelings with any impurity, and saved the fire of jealousy unquenchable. Who are the second ones to find the door closed? These are those who sometimes weakened in the zeal of pleasing God, succumbed at times to carelessness and negligence, and although they kept themselves from mortal sins, they did not always keep their thoughts and feelings pure before the Lord. Who are the third, for whom the door is closed and the key is thrown, so that he still needs to be found? These are those who have fallen into mortal sins, who have enslaved themselves to passions and sinful habits, and through this have fallen into petrified insensibility, carelessness and blindness.

We belong to one of these classes. Which one do we consider ourselves to be? To the first? Is there anyone like that? To the second? And these are rare. It remains to classify yourself as a third. Blessed are the first. Not entirely bad and the second. But we, burdened with sins and entangled with passions, will not despair either. And the Lord is ready to receive us, and He is calling us, and He will accept us and admit us to Himself. Let the door be closed and the key not to know where: let us look and find, let us open the door and enter to the Lord. A guarantee of success - behold, St. Mary of Egypt, now remembered. The door was impregnable and unapproachable for her. The Lord granted her to manage and enter. Let's follow her and we'll achieve everything.

What happened to her that the door, which was previously uninviting for her, suddenly became the entrance? After all, she didn't do anything special. Immediately she stood to the side and stood, and no one heard a sound from her lips. A minute later, she went and found a door that had previously been non-entrance - the entrance. So, at that moment she found the key, and opened the door, and removed all obstacles. It is at this moment that we need to take a closer look and understand its power. What was going on here?

You yourself see that outwardly nothing happened here, but everything was accomplished by an internal change in thoughts and feelings. “I saw,” he says, “the whole abyss of sin, and horror seized me from the feeling of God’s wrath, ready to strike me for my sins. My passion, which was destroying me, was frozen to me, I turned away from it in my heart and hated it. And I made a vow to the Lord - not to return to the old abominations and work for Him alone all the days of my life, offering Him the Most Pure Lady who gave birth to Him as a handicap. That's what happened! Look closely, and you will find here both the key, and the unlocking of the door, and the opening of it.

What is the key to the door of repentance? These are the painful feelings of repentance: the feeling of one’s sinfulness and guilt in it, the feeling of God’s wrath for sins and the horror of it, the feeling of contrition and repentance for all sins.

What is the turning of the key to unlock the closed door? In disgust for sin, in hatred of it, in turning the heart away from it and turning it towards God and deeds that are pleasing to God.

What is the opening of the door of repentance? In a strong and unshakable intention not to return to the former obscene deeds and in a sincere vow from now on to the One Lord to work all the days of the rest of his life. Thus, to acknowledge sins, to be distressed and to grieve over them, to turn away from them and turn to the Lord, promising not to indulge passions and sins—then the door is open.

Well, if everything is done, we will immediately enter? Not yet, you need to get permission to enter. This permission is bought through our confession of our sins, and is given to us through the permission of sins from our spiritual father. After this, it remains only to enter, approach the Household Lord and be honored with His embrace and standing close to Him. This is accomplished through Holy Communion.

Here, Saint Mary of Egypt showed us what the key to the closed door of repentance is, how to find it, how to turn it to unlock it, how to open the door and, finally, enter. Follow this trail, all who need it. And who doesn't need it? Let's all go. Nobody give up, nobody fall behind others, nobody despair. The House Lord calls everyone and waits for everyone. Let's go, urging each other and encouraging each other. Let us say to the standing one: “What are you standing about, do you want to remain outside the shelter of His blessed one, that you are resting on your feet and not moving? Do you not cry out together with the Church, or do you only cry out with your tongue, and not with your heart: “Open the doors of repentance, Giver of Life!”? What are you standing? Get down to business. Everything is at your fingertips. A little work, and you will find everything, and you will be in time for everything. Here is the key, see how they turn, and how to open the door, and how to get a passing one. Here, look through the door that opens to others into the arms of the Father, stretched out to you and ready to receive you. Will you still tarry, carelessly looking back and forth, wasting short and precious time uselessly?

Yes, brethren, the precious time is short! A precious time is a time of fasting and repentance. And he had a little over a week left. I missed it, can you wait for it again? I say this to those who have not yet reconciled themselves with the Lord and see themselves burdened with many sins. And I say it as a warning, as if someone, postponing fasting week after week, did not put it off at all in this post. And he will languish for a whole year under the weight of sins and the wrath of God for them. And it’s good if we live to see the next favorable time. And then we’ll go to the next world unmerciful, and there, without us, of course, they will open the door for us, but no longer repentance, they will push us into it and lock it forever, behind it we will be met not by the arms of the Father, but by unquenchable fire, the unsleeping worm and spirits malice, our haters.

Bringing this to mind, let us hasten, brethren, to open for ourselves the door of repentance, at the direction of the Monk Mary of Egypt, even with prayers, may the Lord make us wise in this matter so necessary for us. Amen.

March 21, 1865

On the fifth week of Great Lent (two powerful ways through which Saint Mary of Egypt withstood the struggle and overcame sin)

Now Saint Mary of Egypt is glorified, of the great sinners - the great righteous one. So, rejoice, sinners! Not only has the door of repentance been opened to you, but the hall of glory has also been opened. See what Mary was and what she has become, and be inspired to courageously follow her path. The Lord called her, she got up and went and, having gone, did not return back. The Lord calls us all now: and who has not responded to this merciful calling of His? Almost everyone has already spoken, confessed, and communed the Holy Mysteries, that is, they heeded the call and rose up. Let us now go steadily and in the same way that Mary went, having risen from her fall, in order to achieve what she finally achieved.

Saint Mary, having repented, left everything and, having crossed the Jordan, there, in the desert, leading a cruel life, she was cleansed of passions and was saved. Here is a sample! Get ready to imitate.

Perhaps none of us literally took a vow to act in this way, but all should act in this way, if we look not at the outward manner of actions, but at their spirit and strength.

Retiring into the desert, Saint Mary estranged herself from the charms of the world and thereby removed all temptations on their part. Sin after this could draw her only through the flesh. But even the flesh had no rest in the wilderness. Fasting, lodging, heat and cold exhausted her. And here are two powerful ways through which she stood in the struggle and overcame sin: withdrawal from the world and exhaustion of the flesh.

The depletion of the flesh is a method that is understandable and accessible to all of us. Decrease the amount of food, assign yourself more work and less rest and sleep, instead of softness, choose hardness, instead of warmth - cold, instead of licentiousness - tension, instead of any carnal pleasures - self-embitterment, and you will exhaust and exhaust your flesh and thereby pollute the passions that have in her seat. But how can we, who live in the world, withdraw from the world?

There is a removal from the world by the body - this is a removal to the desert. But there is a withdrawal from the world without leaving the world, a withdrawal from it by the way of life. The first is not appropriate for everyone and not everyone can do it, but the second is obligatory for everyone and must be fulfilled by everyone. And this is what St. Andrew invited us to in his canon, when he advised us to retire to the desert with good law. So, give up the customs of the world and your every action and take every step in such a way as the good law of the Gospel commands, and in the midst of the world you will live as in a wilderness. Between you and the world, this goodness will become like a wall, because of which the world will not be visible. He will be before your eyes, but not for you. The world will have its alternations of changes, and you will have your own rank and order. He will go to the theater and you will go to church; he will dance, and you will bow; he will be on a walk, and you are at home in solitude; he is in idle talk and laughter, and you are in silence and blasphemy; he is in pleasures, and you are in labors; he is in reading empty novels, and you are in reading God's word and fatherly writings; he is at balls, and you are in conversation with a like-minded person or with a spiritual father; he is in selfish calculations, and you are in self-sacrifice; he is in passionate dreams, and you are in contemplation. And so draw rules for yourself in everything and establish rules of life that are contrary to the customs of the world, and you will be in the world outside the world, as in a desert. Neither you will be seen in the world, nor the world in you. You will be a desert dweller in the world. And you will become an imitator of St. Mary without going into the desert.

If, as I mentioned, you add to this that you keep your body in fasting, labor, vigil, and in general in deprivation of any peace, then you will have both ways in which Saint Mary overcame her passions and was saved.

I will shorten it into two words: run away from the peace of the flesh and establish a life order contrary to the customs of the world, or protect yourself with goodness. Do this - you will overcome passions, and you will be saved.

For this is what will happen to you, as Saint Isaac teaches, if you prevail in these two ways: humility of feelings, sobriety of mind, meekness of thoughts, bright movements of thought, diligence in deeds, lofty and subtle mental representations, tears that know no measure, memory of death, pure chastity, far from any dream that tempts thought, mysterious concepts that the mind comprehends with the help of God's words, fear that cuts off laziness and negligence and extinguishes all desire, and at the end of everything - the freedom of a true person, spiritual joy and resurrection with Christ in the Kingdom . Here is the salvation.

But if anyone neglects these two methods, let him know that he will not only harm himself in everything, but also shake the very foundation of the virtues. And just as they, if someone keeps them in himself and abides in them, are the beginning and head of Divine work in the soul, the door and the way to Christ, so if someone retreats and moves away from them, he will come to vices opposite to them: carnal pleasure and bodily wandering, that is, walking according to the customs of the world, which open the entrance to the soul to all sins and all passions.

For indulge only the customs of the world, which are all nothing but bodily wandering, indulge only this wandering, look what will happen from this! Inappropriate and unexpected gatherings (I continue the words of St. Isaac), bringing us closer to falls; a mutiny of strong sensations excited by vision; rapid inflammation taking over the body; uncontrollable thoughts tending to fall; the cooling of love for the works of God and the complete abandonment of the rules of your new life; the resumption of forgotten bad deeds and teaching others that I did not know before. And the passions, which, by the grace of God, have already been mortified in the soul and exterminated by the oblivion of the remembrances stored in the mind, will again begin to move and force the soul to do them. This is what will be revealed in you as a result of one first indulgence, that is, the wandering of the body according to the customs of the world and impatience in enduring the mournful stay in the new order of life. And what will happen from carnivory and, especially, gluttony, that cannot be enumerated. Hence the heaviness in the head, great burden in the body and relaxation in the muscles, abandonment of prayer rules, laziness to bow down, gloom and coldness of the heart, coarseness of the mind and thoughts, gloom, a thick and impenetrable fog that spreads over the whole soul, strong despondency and boredom at every the work of God, as well as when reading, the inability to taste the sweetness of the words of God, wandering thoughts all over the earth, nasty ghosts that fill the soul and kindle lust, incessant and unbearable kindling in the whole body, and hence new seductive thoughts, with which, combined, the soul falls into the passions of dishonor, first in oneself - by construction,

Here are the bitter fruits of wandering according to the customs of the world and any repose of the flesh! The enemy knows that whoever succumbs to them will be his faithful prey. Why does he try in every way to either upset the established new order of a good life, or to persuade the flesh to some kind of indulgence. Give up in one, you will fall into the other, and with both you will not avoid falling into sin and the return of the old passions. Indulge the flesh, it will lead you to the indulgence and customs of the world. Or indulge the customs of the world, they will lead you to indulgence and flesh. One enemy will hand you over to another, not lagging behind himself, and then the two of you will each time drag you into a fall. Knowing this misfortune, stand firm in what you have begun. Love for the flesh will stand for the flesh, pleasing for the world will stand for the world. Contrast them with the feeling of the true stomach in the embitterment of the flesh and fellowship with true people in the rejection of the customs of the world. The flesh will begin to ache and the soul will grieve, arm yourself with patience. Inspire yourself with the thought that everything is one thing - death is ahead. From the indulgence of the flesh and the world, death through a fall into sin is true and eternal death. The flesh and the world also frighten with death those who go against their demands, but this death is illusory, not real, but invented by the enemy to intimidate us. Let us rather doom ourselves to this death for salvation, in order to avoid a destructive death.

It is difficult, of course, this, and therefore this path is called “straight” and lamentable, only a consoling promise is attached to it by an unfalse God that it “brings into the Life” ( Matt. 7, 14 ). But after all, only fools, as Saint Isaac says, prefer a small, near peace to a distant Kingdom, not knowing that it is better to endure torment in a feat than to rest on the bed of an earthly kingdom and be condemned for laziness. The wise desire death, if only not to fall under the accusation that they performed any of their deeds without sobriety. Do not lose heart when it comes to what life will bring you, and do not be too lazy to die for it.

With such thoughts and such fatherly instructions, strengthen your determination to stand in the new good order of life, as opposed to the customs of the world, and “do not create the flesh to please the flesh in lust” ( Rom. 13, 14 ). By this, you will escape the painful work - servility to sin - and soon you will enter “into the freedom ... of the children of God” ( Rom. 8, 21 ), when, strengthened by the power of God, already without hindrance, without effort, without special sacrifices, you will begin to walk in the commandments and the commandments of God, as sons walk in their father's house. Amen.

March 13, 1866

Part 13. In the Passion Week of Great Lent

On Tuesday of Passion Week

“The coming Lord on a free passion, the Apostle said on the way: “Behold, we ascend to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed ... to be crucified” ( Matt. 20, 18, 26: 2 ). Come, then, and we will descend to Him and crucify Him for the sake of worldly sweets. Thus, the Holy Church invites us to descend, to suffer and be crucified with the Lord in these days, dedicated to the remembrance of His Divine suffering and death. As obedient children, you heeded this motherly calling and entered the path of descent to the Lord indicated by her. And now it is not for me to convince you to obey, but, consoling yourself with your obedience, I wish only that you bring to an end what you have already begun. Indeed, if any of you asked: “Behold, the Churchinvites us to descend to the Lord, who goes to free passion, how can we do this? ”then they would have nothing to answer, except perhaps:“ Do what you do, just do it right - and you will descend to the Lord. So you fast, go to church and pray at home, you have left the affairs of life for a while and are more with yourself, you have imposed pious activities on yourself and take away part of the time from sleep for that - large or small. So do it. Fasting until the body feels deprivation of contentment in food and drink, prayerful labor until the flesh is tired, elimination of the usual mutual relationships with forcing oneself to soul-saving activities, wakefulness, despite the fact that it tends to sleep, and much more, associated with fasting , constitutes the first step in following the Lord to be crucified. It is necessary only willingly, without self-pity, lift this burden. The man is lively. A slight shortage of food and sleep deprivation, or an unusual strain and fatigue, irritates the cry of the flesh, and it seems to him that an attempt is being made to take away his life. Who now, despite this cry, in spite of this, as it were, parting with life, not only does not succumb to self-pity, but, on the contrary, with a desire for self-embitterment, forces himself to the labors shown, every time he does this, he takes a step after the Lord. And it must be said that only such a person succeeds Him in this respect. Is it so for you? If so, then you are on target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane. A slight shortage of food and sleep deprivation, or an unusual strain and fatigue, irritates the cry of the flesh, and it seems to him that an attempt is being made to take away his life. Who now, despite this cry, in spite of this, as it were, parting with life, not only does not succumb to self-pity, but, on the contrary, with a desire for self-embitterment, forces himself to the labors shown, every time he does this, he takes a step after the Lord. And it must be said that only such a person succeeds Him in this respect. Is it so for you? If so, then you are on target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane. A slight shortage of food and sleep deprivation, or an unusual strain and fatigue, irritates the cry of the flesh, and it seems to him that an attempt is being made to take away his life. Who now, despite this cry, in spite of this, as it were, parting with life, not only does not succumb to self-pity, but, on the contrary, with a desire for self-embitterment, forces himself to the labors shown, every time he does this, he takes a step after the Lord. And it must be said that only such a person succeeds Him in this respect. Is it so for you? If so, then you are on target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane. to this, as it were, parting with life, not only does not give in to self-pity, but, on the contrary, with a desire for self-embitterment forces himself to the labors shown, every time he does this, he takes a step after the Lord. And it must be said that only such a person succeeds Him in this respect. Is it so for you? If so, then you are on target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane. to this, as it were, parting with life, not only does not give in to self-pity, but, on the contrary, with a desire for self-embitterment forces himself to the labors shown, every time he does this, he takes a step after the Lord. And it must be said that only such a person succeeds Him in this respect. Is it so for you? If so, then you are on target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane. then you are at the target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane. then you are at the target. If not, take care to add to the work that you still bear, this ruthless desire to embitter your flesh for the sake of the Lord. By doing this, you will sacrifice love of life to the Lord, or you will bear your flesh for co-crucifixion with Him, imitating, although little, His feat in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Having begun in this way, force yourself to move even closer to the Lord in following Him. I want to say: while wearying the flesh, labor also the soul. Although the body and soul are one person, but, as you know, often the body does one thing, and the soul another. Bring your soul and body into harmony in the labors you are now raising. By fasting with the body, make the soul also fast: cut off desires, suppress the emergence of passionate movements: anger, condemnation, exaltation, self-interest, intransigence, and so on. When you tire your body by standing in prayer here, in church, or at home, take the trouble to stand with your soul reverently before the face of the Lord in your heart, paying attention to what you sing and read. Eliminate the rumors of life and isolate yourself with the body - add to this non-absent-mindedness of the mind and concentration in yourself. If you force the body to stay awake, arouse the vigor of the spirit or the living striving of zeal for the Lord. Force yourself to spiritual studies - force your soul to have a desire for them, which it cannot always boast of. When you do this, you will bind your soul. And she, accustomed to free movements and free actions, feeling the bonds on herself, will begin to languish, as if in captivity, and will raise a cry of discontent. But do not weaken in self-compulsion. By this you will become like the Lord, when He, bound, was led to judgment, and, therefore, you will become even closer to Him in descending to His free passion. The work of the body and soul together is the same as stepping on one or the other foot, and represents the most successful procession after the Lord. When you do this, you will bind your soul. And she, accustomed to free movements and free actions, feeling the bonds on herself, will begin to languish, as if in captivity, and will raise a cry of discontent. But do not weaken in self-compulsion. By this you will become like the Lord, when He, bound, was led to judgment, and, therefore, you will become even closer to Him in descending to His free passion. The work of the body and soul together is the same as stepping on one or the other foot, and represents the most successful procession after the Lord. When you do this, you will bind your soul. And she, accustomed to free movements and free actions, feeling the bonds on herself, will begin to languish, as if in captivity, and will raise a cry of discontent. But do not weaken in self-compulsion. By this you will become like the Lord, when He, bound, was led to judgment, and, therefore, you will become even closer to Him in descending to His free passion. The work of the body and soul together is the same as stepping on one or the other foot, and represents the most successful procession after the Lord.

Come even closer. Let us stand in judgment like the Lord. You have already thought about doing it. I understand your fasting with the goal of partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. They prepare for the most worthy Communion by cleansing their souls from all sins in Repentance. And this is what it requires: reconsider your life and compare it with the commandments of the Gospel, mark everything that is inconsistent with them, recognize your guilt in this and condemn yourself without self-justification, contrite heart and mourn everything that offended the Lord, and confess everything without concealment with firm intention not to succumb to more sinful passions. Whoever does this in a proper way will become like the Lord, as He was led for judgment and condemnation to Annas and Caiaphas, from them to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from this again to Pilate. The difference is that the Lord was unjustly condemned and embittered, but we will condemn ourselves and crush ourselves righteously.

Do you finally want to approach the Lord Himself and go with Him to His free suffering, as it were, step by step? Here's what to do: go through the entire path of the Lord's cross with deep reflection, perceive with a sense of His sickness, how much this is possible for our nature, and pity Him with your heart. Begin by praying to the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, in tightness and languishing to a bloody sweat; walk with Him, bound, along the slopes and gorges to the court of the bishops; stay with Him at the unrighteous reproaches against Him, at the mockery of mocking servants, at the denial of Peter; follow Him to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod and back; listen to the cry of the people and the fury of the condemners and the unjust sentence; carry with Him the Cross to Golgotha ​​- heavy until it falls under it at the noise of the blinded people and the caustic speeches of the triumphant elders; bear the nailing to the Cross,“I thirst” ( John 19:28 ) and the bowing of the head with the surrender of the spirit to the Lord. Go through all this mentally and reproduce it more vividly in yourself, arouse sympathy for those illnesses and so sincerely enter into compassion that it would be as if you yourself were suffering and accepting wounds. And you will be like women who, following the Lord who carried the Cross, shed tears.

Thus, step by step, you will come closer and closer to the Lord, who is coming in free passion, and descend to Him. Starting with bodily labors, go from them to spiritual exploits, and with both of them, make a self-test: mourn and correct what is faulty in Repentance, in order to worthily partake of Christ's Mysteries; Finally, by deep reflection on the sufferings of the Lord, enter into sympathy and compassion for Him. But is it only? Don't you notice that the path cannot end with this? Thus they descend only to the Lord, who is coming to death. But it is only necessary not to descend, but to be crucified with Him. How is it? When you embark on the path of true Christian life and by your very deeds begin to fulfill the commandments of Christ, then you will crucify yourself every minute for the sake of the Lord, or you will be crucified in salvation with Christ the Savior. All of the above is only a preparation for this. In the sufferings of the Lord and compassion for Him, we are motivated to a Christian virtuous life, in the exploits of the soul and body we accept help for it, in Repentance and Communion we lay the foundation for it and receive strength. It remains now, having accomplished everything, to begin by the very deed to live a truly Christian life. And how and why this life is co-crucifixion with the Lord, you will understand at first. Feel for yourselves how in the performance of Christian virtues hands and feet are sometimes nailed, then the heart is struck, then the head is crowned with thorns, then the whole body of our nature is covered with wounds. I won't explain how. You know or you will know. And I will conclude my word with sincere goodwill to you. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen. in spiritual and bodily deeds, an allowance for it is acceptable; in Repentance and Communion, we will lay the foundation for it and receive strength. It remains now, having accomplished everything, to begin by the very deed to live a truly Christian life. And how and why this life is co-crucifixion with the Lord, you will understand at first. Feel for yourselves how in the performance of Christian virtues hands and feet are sometimes nailed, then the heart is struck, then the head is crowned with thorns, then the whole body of our nature is covered with wounds. I won't explain how. You know or you will know. And I will conclude my word with sincere goodwill to you. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen. in spiritual and bodily deeds, an allowance for it is acceptable; in Repentance and Communion, we will lay the foundation for it and receive strength. It remains now, having accomplished everything, to begin by the very deed to live a truly Christian life. And how and why this life is co-crucifixion with the Lord, you will understand at first. Feel for yourselves how in the performance of Christian virtues hands and feet are sometimes nailed, then the heart is struck, then the head is crowned with thorns, then the whole body of our nature is covered with wounds. I won't explain how. You know or you will know. And I will conclude my word with sincere goodwill to you. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen. And how and why this life is co-crucifixion with the Lord, you will understand at first. Feel for yourselves how in the performance of Christian virtues hands and feet are sometimes nailed, then the heart is struck, then the head is crowned with thorns, then the whole body of our nature is covered with wounds. I won't explain how. You know or you will know. And I will conclude my word with sincere goodwill to you. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen. And how and why this life is co-crucifixion with the Lord, you will understand at first. Feel for yourselves how in the performance of Christian virtues hands and feet are sometimes nailed, then the heart is struck, then the head is crowned with thorns, then the whole body of our nature is covered with wounds. I won't explain how. You know or you will know. And I will conclude my word with sincere goodwill to you. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen. God bless you not to descend only to Him, but also to be crucified with Him, for there is no other way to salvation! Amen.

March 30, 1865

On Wednesday of Passion Week (how to avoid the fate of Judas bitter)

Today, by the way, we have such a bitter memory: the elders of the Jews gathered in the house of Caiaphas and discussed how they could seize the Lord Jesus by cunning and put Him to death. At this time, not asked by anyone, one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, comes to them and says: “What do you want to give me, and I will deliver Him to you?” ( Matthew 26:15). They gave him thirty pieces of silver. When I read this passage of Scripture, my soul was filled with indignation both at the elders and at Judas. Where did these elders look, that they brought the guilt and punishment of deicide on themselves and on the people? And how could Judas decide on such an act, who was always so close to the Lord and so clearly saw the fullness of the Divinity imprinted on Him? Then my thought turned to the character of Judas' betrayal, and while I was thinking about this, from my conscience, one after another, my own deeds began to arise, very similar to the case of Judas. The further, the more. Then, instead of being indignant at Judas, fear for oneself began to revive, and an inner voice said to me: “Leave Judas, turn quickly to yourself and take care to avoid his bitter fate.”

With this, brethren, I come out to you. I intended to depict before you the blackness of Judas' betrayal. And now I say: let's leave Judas. Let us better reconsider our deeds in order to purge from our life everything that bears any trait of Judas's character, and thereby avoid the punishment of Heaven that has fallen on him.

What is especially striking about Judas is that during his stay with the Lord, he was in life exactly the same as all the Apostles. He ate, drank, walked with them, spent the nights, heard teachings with them and saw the miracles of the Lord, endured all needs with them, even went to preach the Gospel and, perhaps, worked miracles in the name of the Lord: neither the Apostles nor others, no special not seen in it. In the meantime, at the end, do you see what happened? Where does this fruit come from? Of course, from the inside, from the soul. And so, you see, something matured inside the soul, to which at the time there were no signs outside.

Did even Judas himself know that in his heart he cherished such a snake that would finally destroy him? According to the custom of our enemy to hide the bonds with which he entangles the sinner, he always closes the main passion with various third-party plausibility from consciousness and even conscience, and only when he counts on the certain death of a person does he release it - attack - on him with all uncontrollable fury. It is possible, judging by this, to think that Judas did not see all the ugliness of his passion and that he himself was conscious of being no worse than the other Apostles. And fell, as if not foreseeing it.

With this in mind, brethren, let us turn to ourselves and rigorously study the innermost movements of our heart, not dwelling on our shameless outward appearance. In appearance, look how thin we are? And meanwhile, who knows, maybe such a serpent coils around the heart, which is ready to destroy us - and it will destroy us, just the opportunity presents itself. Let me remind you the thought of St. Macarius of Egyptwho says: “Do not boast of any deeds and no exploits. But if you descended into the very depths of your heart and killed the snake nesting there, poisoning with its poison all the manifestations of your life, then give thanks to the Lord. He understood this either as the sin that lives in us, or as the main passion of everyone, into which that sin is transformed. And this is what you pay attention to most of all during the self-examination and Confession that is set before you. Find your main passion. Rebuke her, throw her out. “The Lord does not require you,” says another elder, “fasting when you suffer from self-interest. Give him the simplicity of merciful non-giving. The Lord does not require noble and glorious deeds from you when you are infected with vanity. Give him humility and self-abasement.” So it is with everything else. The Lord wants us to denounce that particular passion in ourselves and promise to conquer, which overcomes us more, and in that particular virtue we distinguished ourselves, which is the opposite of the passion that overcomes us. When you do this, then all the other virtues will come into order and strength, and the passions will weaken, for they usually keep close to our dominant passion.

But let us turn again to Judas. Thus he bore a thorn in his heart. An opportunity presented itself - passion boiled. The enemy took him, the poor one, for this passion, clouded his mind and conscience, and led him, like a blind or bound slave, first to evil deeds, and then to the ruin of despair. But this would not have happened if he had revealed his passion to the Lord. The physician of souls would immediately heal the sickness of his soul. And Judas would have been saved. The same will happen to us if we do not reveal our passion to the spiritual father. Now she will subside, but after, only a case, now a fall. If, however, we open ourselves, repent, set the intention not to give in and ask the Lord for help for this, then we will faithfully stand, for “there is more pain, who is in us, than who is in the world” ( 1 Jn. 4, 4). The Lord, by His grace, at the hour of permission, will kill passion and plant the seed of virtue opposite to it. And then, put in only a little work, and, with the help of God, you will no longer wallow in the passions of dishonor, and with an open face you will begin to look to the Lord, and to the saints, and to all Christians.

A little more time and the Lord will come to you and make His Supper with you. Get ready! Throw away from your heart everything that is contrary to the Lord, sweep away every dust with hearty sighs, wash off every stain with tears of contrition, so that, having come to you, the Lord will find the temple of your heart cleaned, spread, cleaned. Let no one like Judas be among you. And Judas, like the other Apostles, equally heard: " Pascha will be in two days" ( Matt. 26:2 ). But the Apostles approached the Lord and said: “Where do you want us to prepare you to eat Easter?” ( Matthew 26:17). What about Judas? Went and sold the Lord. And yet he came to the Supper along with the others. Will there really be such people among you tomorrow? Oh, it won't! There is still time. Go and, every one to the best of your ability, be zealous worthy to appear to receive the Lord in His Holy Mysteries. Confess what you are guilty of, cry and say: “We will not, Lord! Help us to stand in the future! This is the main thing the Lord wants. Let there be no careless among you. Let there not be those who approach the Mysteries as they have to, without thought and feeling, and without any concern for preparation. Especially let there not be those who, having not renounced their passion, not only have no intention of refraining from its deeds, but are immediately not alien to enjoying them and inclining to them. Such is exactly Judas: the body is at the Supper, but the heart is in treacherous plans. And such"Do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" ( Lk.22:48 ).

Our Lord and Savior, the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints, may you partake of the remission of sins and Eternal Life ! Amen.

March 31, 1865

On the Great Thursday (The Lord is in us! Let us take care to keep him in ourselves forever)

Glory to Thee, Lord! What a bright day we have today! How many partakers of the Holy Mysteries of Christ! Rejoice, blessed souls! The Lord is in you! The Lord is in you! For He Himself said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” ( John 6:56 ). Let us all rejoice in common joy. No, I think, families, where there were no communicants. There is, therefore, no house that would be deprived of God's special visitation (supervision). So our whole city has now become a dwelling place for God, and not only our city, but every other city and the whole (village), all of Russia, the whole Orthodox world. Now the Lord has a great Supper. He rejoices with souls and is everywhere “everything in all” ( 1 Corinthians 15:28), and as the Source of blessings, and as the Lord of hearts. And this is the essence of the kingdom that He founded on earth: fulfilling everyone with Himself, prospering everyone, inspiring what is due, giving strength, encouraging in labors. Oh, if only the Lord Himself would help us never to lose His presence in us! Then, guided by Him, we would all faithfully follow the path of salvation, according to His eternal intentions for us.

And this, brethren, is what we should be concerned about now. The Lord is in us! Let us take care to keep Him within us forever. He Himself is inquisitive. That's why he came into the world, to be in everyone. And He would not have gone away from us, but what should we do if we begin to behave in His presence in such a way that He can no longer remain in us?

In the past days, we have cleansed and cleaned the temple of the heart to receive the Lord. Now this Most Heavenly Guest and Visitor of souls has descended in us. Let us take care to give Him rest, to bring consolation, to reveal the activity that pleases Him in us.

Let's take care to give you peace. We have eliminated the hustle and bustle of life and entertainment for this time, and we will not allow them. A modest measure has already been appointed to satisfy the needs of the body, and may this stamp of modesty and need forever remain on this part of the inevitable work of decay for us. We have introduced pious activities into the order of domestic affairs, and let this remain the everlasting unchanging law of our life. Let us add this to this: let us refrain from plundering thoughts, let us not allow the excitement of desires, let us not deign to be moved by passions. Let us stand with all our attention and all our desire at the entrance to the heart, where the Lord is, and let us do everything possible to cut off everything that can disturb His rest in us, and He will rest in us.

Let us take care to bring comfort to the Lord. The Lord is comforted by everything pure, holy, truly good. For He Himself is purity, holiness, goodness. Surround Him in your habitation with sincere convictions in His truths, with holy intentions, with pure motives, with readiness for every good thing indicated by His commandments.

Let us take care to discover the activity pleasing to Him in us. The Lord is omnipotent. He is omnipotent in us, not without us. He does not violate our freedom, but waits for us to surrender ourselves to Him or give Him power over ourselves. Come with all the strength of your spirit and, falling before Him, worship Him and pray that He will take your strength as instruments and act in them, planting everything that is good and saving, all the same, cutting off and destroying everything evil and pernicious. Prayer will bring the power of God into all the parts of your being and give Him scope to work in you.

When all these things are in you, the Lord will not depart from you, rested, comforted and not constrained in His actions in you. At present, of course, all of you are in such a mood that there is no reason for the Lord to be displeased with you. Everything is quiet and peaceful with you, both in your inner actions and in your outer behavior. You think only of the good, you wish only the good, and prayer, it is true, does not depart from your lips. Oh, if only it were so forever! And what will follow? The Bright Holiday will come, and right there, almost - an attractive time of the year. And we'll forget everything. First, let us allow ourselves light amusements and light soarings of thoughts and desires, as if resting after a difficult Lent; then imperceptibly we will give freedom to passionate movements; and then let us allow inside consent to the suggestions of the passions or the union of the heart with them, after which the life according to the passions will soon return. And then what? And then what? And there – the head becomes empty, the heart is in turmoil, disorder in deeds and undertakings, everything that was acquired by the labor of saving fasting disappears. The Lord is forgotten, and departs. Here's something to watch out for! Beware of future entertainment and hobbies. Become watchful guards over yourself and your deeds and at all times, from one Communion to another, do not allow anything that can offend the Lord and deprive you of His grace-filled presence, so that every new Communion is not the beginning of the Lord’s indwelling in you, but more and more and the more sincere fellowship of Him with you, and of you with Him.

Do you want me to offer you the simplest and most effective means to succeed in this? Never forget that the Lord is in you. Just as the owner of the house, when he sees a distinguished guest, will in no way allow anything unpleasant to him, so as long as we remember that we carry the Lord in us, who deigned to dwell in us, our conscience will in no way allow anything that can offend Him. Just as none of us would have dared to take such actions as the tormentors of the Lord allowed themselves during His sufferings, so, as long as the memory of the Lord’s presence in us remains clear and strong in us, it cannot be that we have weakened our vigilance over ourselves and allowed that anything that can disturb his rest. So, if unkind thoughts come, remember that the Lord is in you, and leave behind these thoughts, for allowing them would be like the mockery of the servants who mocked the Lord. Will the desire come "Hail, King of the Jews!" ( Mt.27, 29 ). If passion flares up, remember that the Lord is in you, and you will find the strength to extinguish this passion, for otherwise you will be like those who shouted: “Crucify, crucify Him!” ( Luke 23:21). So it is in everything. And it will turn out that the memory that the Lord is in us will force us to carefully put aside everything that can offend Him, and strengthen His presence in us. In order that this memory may not depart from us, be as often as possible in the temples of God, especially at the liturgies, and here with all your strength reproduce in yourself those saving dispositions with which your souls were filled in these days, and, especially, that great mercy, which you have now been granted. Remembering at the Liturgy about Holy Communion, involuntarily remember the good state in which you were and are now, and perceive the desire to keep yourself in it always, so that you always have the Lord in you.

I no longer point out to you that when the Lord is in us, then everything is in us: both the light of knowledge is pure and imperturbable by neither doubt nor lies, and the strength of good deeds is invincible by neither internal nor external obstacles, and the peace of God is pleasing, in which they do not cease to be blessed even in the midst of torment. At the present moment, which of you does not feel these blessings to a greater or lesser extent? Let your very good condition implore you to take care of its preservation. Compare what you are now with what you are when you indulge in vanity and passions, and choose the best. Who is taller than you now? Don't humiliate yourself. Who is more blessed than you? Do not plunge yourself into the burdensome bitterness of a life not in the spirit of Christ.

But “all this news, you will be blessed , if you also create me” ( John 13, 17 ). How close our good is to us and how rarely we know how to possess it! so arrange everything for us, so that He who visited us now abides in us and, staying, weeds away every sin, every passion and every soulful word, deed and thought, and thus makes us worthy to be His eternal home, to the glory of His most holy name. Amen.

April 5, 1862

On Great Thursday (The Body and Blood of the Lord is a great gift)

Rejoice, Orthodox Christians, that you have been vouchsafed to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and all the more rejoice that you have been vouchsafed this now, when the Sacrament itself has been established. Now the Lord has communed the holy Apostles and commanded them to establish the same Communion in the Holy Church. The Holy Apostles established. Here we partake of the Most Pure Body and the Most Pure Blood of the Lord for the healing of soul and body.

Rejoice, having been vouchsafed this great Gift of God to you. But rejoice with fear. Say within yourself: “Glory to Thee, God! Glory to Thee, God! Glory to Thee, God!” But do not let go of thoughts and feelings, and with all caution guard both your soul and body. We prepared for the Holy Mysteries with reverence, but do not think that everything is already over and you have nothing more to work for yourself. No. And now we must continue to work. You have labored to receive the Gift, and now you must labor to preserve it and use it salutarily.

Why, you think, is it established to take communion on Holy Week? Then, by the way, so that the communicants should remember the suffering of the Lord and be afraid in every possible way to inflict new suffering on Him after receiving Him into themselves in the Holy Mysteries. After all, the Lord still continues to suffer. Only then did He suffer from unfaithful Jews, and now He suffers from Christians who, after Holy Communion, do not try to live like a Christian. When we partake, we receive the Lord into ourselves. Our heart becomes a temple for the Lord. Through repentance and repentance, this temple became clean and tidy, and the Lord rests in it. But if someone then begins to think about the evil, to wish for the evil and to do the evil, then the Lord is troubled by those. He will be sad to dwell in such a heart, or He will suffer in it.

Let me explain this to you with this example: imagine that someone would call one of you to his place and place in a room where there is nothing to sit on, the wind blows through the windows, it flows through the ceiling, it is damp on the floor, and here mosquitoes bite . To be in such a room would be real suffering for you. So the Lord suffers in the communicants when, after Communion, they do not properly keep the temple of their souls, when their thoughts, desires and feelings, deeds and words are not in order. For when someone is scattered and gives free rein to his thoughts, then it is the same as the Lord in the temple of the soul is disturbed by the wind. When someone only thinks about it, to eat, drink and be merry, then this is the same as the Lord in the temple of the soul is damp. When someone envies another, condemns him, mocks him, then this is the same as if he stings and stings the Lord Himself. When someone is disobedient, lazy and does not observe the proper order, then it is the same as the Lord in the temple of his soul has nothing to sit on. When someone holds evil thoughts and desires, is proud, wants to appropriate someone else's, then the Lord in his soul, like another in a room from a leak, does not find a place for Himself.

Here you see how and with what it is possible to disturb the Lord, after receiving Him into oneself through Holy Communion, to inflict pain and suffering on Him, and beware of this. Be humble, meek, peace-loving, do not offend each other, help anyone in need, do not rise above others and in general be zealous for every virtue - and the Lord will be at peace in you and joyfully. For this, He will reward you with joy and give you every consolation.

The Body and Blood of the Lord is a great Gift. It is necessary to honor this Gift, as great, with love, reverence and every kind of self-protection. I will tell you one very instructive case. One schismatic, or Molokan (a member of a pseudo-Christian sect), due to some need, approached the Holy Mysteries together with Orthodox Christians. He accepted part of the Holy Gifts, but did not use it, but hid it in a handkerchief and, having come home, for some reason put it in a hive with bees - he was a beekeeper. Look what the bees have done. Although they are unreasonable creatures, in this case they turned out to be smarter than a person. As soon as they saw a particle of the Holy Gifts, they immediately abandoned their usual work, stopped building honeycombs, and with all care and speed began to build a decent building for the Holy Body of the Lord: they arranged a small throne, then a diskos, and on this diskos they placed a holy particle and surrounded everything with a vault , as if a temple were arranged or an altar. Then they sat down in a circle in order and hummed quietly, as if they were praising God and praying. The owner, noticing that the bees had stopped flying, went to see what that meant. He opened the hive and was horrified to see how the bees pay reverent reverence to the Body of the Lord, which he despised. He sent for the priest as soon as possible, repented of his sin, took communion and became forever a reverent reader of Christ's Mysteries, but gave up schism, or Molokanism. So you have now received the Most Pure Body and the Most Pure Blood of the Lord. Be like those bees and show all reverence for the Gift you have accepted. Become like honey and like bees. Honey has a fragrance, but you receive a prayer; honey has sweetness, but you have love among yourselves; honey has a pleasant color, but you will have a good behavior in all parts. Bees are industrious and you will love work; the bees are clean and you will love cleanliness; the bees are obedient, and you be obedient to whom you should. And just as those bees sedately sat down around the particle and buzzed, so you set your thoughts around the Lord and pray to Him this day more with the prayer that you can. And the Lord will accept your heartfelt appeal to Him and bless you.

Behold, I have told you how you can make the Lord whom you have received disturb and suffer, and how you can comfort and delight Him. Avoid the former and take care of the latter. If you calm the Lord in this way, He will calm you down and give you every gift and success in your deeds. Amen.

March 24, 1866

Great Thursday (as you wish, but make sure that you are always as if you just received communion)

Having now established the Sacrament of the Body and Blood, the Lord committed its celebration into law to the holy Apostles, and the holy Apostles to the Holy Church, in which He both dwells and acts urgently.

The Holy Church always calls everyone to Holy Communion, especially during holy fasts, and even more especially on Holy Fortecost, during which all services and rites are adapted to prepare the faithful for the worthy Acceptance of the Body and Blood of Christ.

The obedient children of the Church humbly heed this call of hers, and during this time they fulfill their Christian duty unfailingly. And this is the glory of God! Praise God that at least once a year they cleanse their conscience and take communion! And grant, Lord, that among them there are no such who would arbitrarily deprive themselves of this great Gift of God! Those who deprive themselves of it are deprived of the Lord, and without the Lord what are we?

"Without Me ," says the Lord, " you can do nothing ... As a rod cannot bear fruit for itself, unless it be on the vine: so are you, unless you abide in Me ... Whoever will be in Me, and Az in him, he will bear much fruit " ( John 15, 4-5 ). And who abides in the Lord? "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I am in him " ( John 6, 56 ), - says the Lord Himself. Therefore, the work of Holy Communion is a matter of life. To take communion or not to take communion means to be or not to be a Christian, to live or not to live in Christ. That is why the Lord adds: You don’t have a life in yourself” ( John 6:53).

Bringing to mind these resolute words of the Lord, one wonders - why is it that we do not often take communion? Recently reviewing a book, I come across in it an instruction to those who often receive communion. Now, I thought, it was a blessed time when such teachings were appropriate! And with us, if you say: “Communion also in any other fast except the Great,” and then it will seem strange, strict and, perhaps, inappropriate.

Now, however, my intention is not to persuade you to frequent Communion, but this is what it is. Without the Lord, as you have heard, we cannot "do nothing" ( John 15:5 ) and we do not even have a "belly" "in ourselves" ( John 6:53). The Lord comes to us through Holy Communion. For the most part, we come to Holy Communion once a year. So is it not possible, at least, if we no longer want to take communion often, then extend the power of this single Communion as long as possible, to remain in the state of Communion from one Communion to another? Or what am I saying is it not possible? It is necessary to do so. As you wish, but arrange yourself in such a way that you are always as if you had just taken communion. For this will only mean that you are in the Lord and the Lord is in you, or that you are living the Christian life. And as soon as you lose the power of Communion, you lose the Lord, and you stop having a stomach in yourself.

This is what is required. The power of Communion is the tasting of the Lord. To be in the state of Communion means to constantly partake of the Lord, or to feel His presence and strength in us with spiritual feelings. The question is: how to achieve this?

First of all, it is necessary not to compel the Lord to depart from us, and then to refine the spiritual senses to the tangible sensation of His fellowship. The Lord's promise is not false. What He said is what it is. “For the promise of God, in her volume and in volume amen” ( 2 Corinthians 1:20 ), says the Apostle. He said that He Himself abides in the one who partakes of His Body and Blood ( John 6:56), so it is. The Lord abides with all worthy communicants. Rejoice, partakers of God! And do not deny in yourself this great Gift out of false humility or out of a vague idea of ​​the fruits of Holy Communion. Let you not definitely feel and touch this, but the Lord is in you until you lose His presence due to some mortal sins. Just as in nature and on an ordinary day the sun shines and shows its power, although it is invisible because of the clouds that obscure it; or how the thermometer does not rise during the melting of ice, even though there is a lot of heat around; or just as during treatment sometimes the medicine already acts towards recovery, and the patient still feels relaxed and exhausted, so here: the Lord is in you, but His light is not yet seen for the fog of diverse thoughts, although this fog is already thinned by the Lord; The Lord is in you, but His warmth is not yet fully felt for the sake of the coldness of the earthly and worldly desires surrounding the heart, although they are already melting from the fire of the Lord; The Lord is in you and is already healing you, but He hides His healing power for your own good from you under our visible infirmities. In other words, communion with the Lord has already taken place and is working in you, but due to a defect in the taste of the spiritual, it is not yet felt and clearly discerned.

So be sure in this thought that the Lord is in you. Honor the Giver, and the Gift, and yourself. By virtue of this, you yourself see what is proper to do. It is fitting to turn every possible care to ensure that you do not somehow be deprived of the Lord, who is hidden and active in you. Ask: "How to do this?" I will answer: “Do not think that for this you have to take up such labor as to move mountains. No. The means to this is very little complicated and simple. That's what's needed.

First. Keep your conscience clean in relation to God, neighbors, every thing and every deed; for this, whatever you do, have the testimony of the word of God and do it with humility and zeal, without any movement of self-will and negligence.

Second. Neither in words, nor in deeds, in anything, whether small or great, do not allow anything that could not relate to the glory of God and in any way harm the cause of your salvation.

Third. Even if you possessed the whole world, so have yourself in your heart, as strangers have - aliens on earth, who do not have “here abiding city, but the city to come” seeking ( Heb.13, 14 ). That's all!

So, mind you, you need three things: to be wanderers, to turn everything to the glory of God and your own salvation, and to keep your conscience clean.

I won't expand on explaining them. I will only say that in these three - everything, as you yourself will see when you begin to act on them. Tune in like this and be jealous to always act in this mood. And the Lord will not only inseparably abide in you, but will often give and feel Himself. This feeling will especially fill your heart every time you have to make some kind of self-compulsion and self-sacrifice in order to comply with the prescribed order, and you will do it without regret, with complete and zealous submission to the will of God. With this, the Lord consoles and strengthens His own, giving them a tangible knowledge that their work is not in vain and the path is not lost. And the more zeal and labor one has, the more consolations he has, or tangible tastes of the Lord - these spiritual Communions of Him. Here the same thing happens, as in the world, when the sun appears and hides in the clouds,

If anyone wants to hastily ascend into a state of constant sensation or tasting of the Lord, use labor that is deliberately directed towards the training of our spiritual senses. Let the eye of the mind strain to see the mysteries of Divine Revelation, starting from the Most Holy Trinity, through creation and Redemption, to the future reorganization of all. Let the spiritual ear teach in hearing and accepting the suggestions of God, which are imprinted directly in the heart or communicated indirectly through the word of God and other external indications. Let the spiritual taste train in tasting the truly holy and Divine. May he learn to smell the fragrance of Christ in joy, spiritual joy, and to feel the touch of His fire in the warmth that warms his whole being - both spiritual, and spiritual, and bodily.

The training of the spiritual senses completes the work of ascent to the unceasing sensation of the fellowship of the Lord. Through their teaching, the mediastinum that separates us from Him falls. Just as when the eyes are open and there is light, we naturally see this light, when there is a fragrance and the sense of smell is undisturbed, we smell the fragrance, so when our spiritual senses are trained and purified, we will be able to receive through their Lord in His corresponding actions on us, or we will be in a state of partaking of Him, otherwise, in a state of constant Communion.

In this way , brethren, "sanctify" the Lord "in your hearts" ( 1 Pet. 3:15 ). And He, merciful, will dwell in you and keep you in Himself and with Himself. May His goodness grant this to you! Amen.

April 16, 1864