In this section we publish aphorisms of famous people who have made a unique contribution to world culture - about Christianity, history, love, freedom, work, faith, culture and much more. The project “Thoughts of the Great” continues the sayings of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), one of the most famous and beloved saints in Russia.
The rescue:
…salvation lies in returning to fellowship with God.
Unhappy is the one who is satisfied with his own human righteousness: he does not need Christ, who announced about Himself: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).
God's providence, hope and hope, simplicity and deceit:
There is no blind chance! God rules the world, and everything that happens in heaven and under heaven is done according to the judgment of the all-wise and omnipotent God, incomprehensible in His wisdom and omnipotence, incomprehensible in His governance.
If there is not a single incident that is hidden from God, then we must praise God for everything that happens.
It is necessary to assure yourself that God controls the participation of the world and the participation of each person. The experiences of life will not be slow to confirm and approve this teaching of the Gospel.
Everything passes by - both good and bad - but neither humans nor demons can do what God will not allow.
Why is our spirit indignant against the destinies and permission of God? Because we did not honor God as God...
From living faith in God comes complete submission to God, and from submission to God comes peace of mind and tranquility of the heart.
From the sight of God’s providence, deep meekness and unchanging love for one’s neighbor are formed in the soul, which no winds can agitate or disturb.
... God is seen above the times, public events and private destinies.
The vision of God's providence preserves and grows faith in God.
A Christian, looking steadily at the providence of God, maintains constant courage and unshakable firmness in the midst of the most severe misadventures.
Not only temporary sorrows, but also those that await a person upon his entry into eternity, beyond the grave, cannot stand before the vision of Divine providence.
A Christian should never be embarrassed by anything, for God’s Providence carries him in its arms. Our care should be that we remain faithful to the Lord.
The defeat of one warrior is not the defeat of the entire army.
...The Lord in a direct manner of behavior is a Helper; and the crafty politician is his own helper; the Lord does not come to his aid, as if he were the wisest one.
Living the Gospel:
Do not be content with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with life.
According to the Gospel commandments, we will be judged at the court established by God for us, Orthodox Christians... we will be judged according to the Gospel, that neglect of the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments is an active rejection of the Lord Himself.
The Gospel is a depiction of the properties of the new man, who is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:48). This new man is God by nature. He makes His holy race of people, who believe in Him and are transformed by Him, into gods by grace.
The throne and rest, so to speak, for the Holy Spirit are humility, love, meekness and, consistently, all the holy commandments of Christ.
Both about your thoughts and about the thoughts of your neighbor, about his advice, consult the Gospel.
...the gospel beatitudes are spiritual states that are revealed in a Christian from the fulfillment of the gospel commandments; that beatitudes are revealed one after another, born one from the other...
Purification is accomplished by the Holy Spirit in a person who expresses through his life the will to purify.
...confessing God with the lips without confessing the activity and hidden life of the heart while merely performing some external rites and church decrees is recognized as empty, soul-destroying hypocrisy.
...the commandments should be the soul of both every Christian and Christian society.
Spiritual reasoning is acquired by reading the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament, and reading the Holy Fathers, whose writings correspond to the type of life led by a Christian.
It is necessary that reading be facilitated by living: Be makers of the word, and not just hearers, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22).
Remaining in adoption to God, delivered through holy baptism, is supported by life according to the Gospel commandments. Staying in adoption is lost by deviating from living according to the Gospel commandments.
For salvation it is necessary that those baptized into Christ live according to the legislation of Christ.
...human damage consists in mixing good with evil: healing consists in the gradual removal of evil, when more good begins to act in us.
Intention:
As the soul is in the body, so is the purpose and intention in every human activity.
Man... is driven by his way of thinking...
A thought is like a ship's rudder...
The mind is... the king... in man.
The confidant of the Law of God in all exercises, in all his deeds has the goal of pleasing God. The world turns for him into the book of the Lord's commandments. He reads this book through deeds, behavior, life.
Distinguishing good from evil belongs to the heart - this is its business. But again time is needed, it is necessary to practice the commandments of the Gospel, so that the heart acquires the subtlety of taste for the difference between whole wine and counterfeit wine.
...everything accompanied by confusion has its origin in sin, even if outwardly it seemed to be the highest good.
Divine good should not be rejected if some or many have used it for evil.
Spiritual warfare:
The reason grief is called temptation is that it reveals the hidden state of the heart.
Being possessed is much less important than accepting any enemy thought that can destroy a soul forever.
Sin and repentance, pride and humility:
Repentance is the whole secret of salvation.
...repentance is the consciousness of the fall, the consciousness of the need for a Redeemer...
...repentance cannot be combined with an arbitrary sinful life.
The feeling of repentance is not akin to someone who is completely satisfied with himself, but around him sees only temptation and shortcomings of all kinds.
The main signs of pride are cooling off towards others and abandoning confession.
The humble surrenders himself entirely to the will of God... Humility trusts in God - not in itself and not in people: and therefore in its behavior it is simple, direct, firm, majestic.
Humility does not see oneself as humble.
False humility always has a manufactured appearance: it publishes itself with it.
False humility loves scenes: with them it deceives and is deceived.
The greatest charm is to recognize oneself as free from delusion.
All types of demonic delusion to which the ascetic of prayer is subjected arises from the fact that repentance is not placed at the basis of prayer, that repentance has not become the source, the soul, the goal of prayer.
The Pharisee, abandoning the fulfillment of the commandments of God, which constitute the essence of the Law, strives for the refined fulfillment of external trifles...
Recognizing oneself as a sinner is necessary for salvation, but condemning oneself and rushing in all directions because of sinfulness is very harmful. “Everything immoderate is from demons,” said the Monk Pimen the Great.
Non-fallibility is unusual for a person on earth - inferior to an inhabitant of the deepest desert and solitude.
Do not desire the impossible from yourself, do not demand from your soul what it cannot give. Cure your hobbies with repentance, and make up for the lack of your work with contrition of spirit.
We harm ourselves a lot and often by demanding from ourselves things that are unusual for us.
It is foolish to seek the impossible.
One should not demand more from one’s soul, from one’s heart, than what they can give.
Be lenient towards your soul in its weaknesses; excessive severity distracts from repentance, leads to despondency and despair.
The study of virtues that do not correspond to the way of life produces daydreaming and leads a person into a false state. Practicing virtues that do not correspond to the way of life makes life fruitless.
Love for one's neighbor, concern for the salvation of others, condemnation, resentment, forgiveness:
Love for a brother consists in fulfilling the commandments of the Lord regarding him (2 John 1: 6).
Correct love for one's neighbor lies in fulfilling his Gospel commandments...
Your mind, instructed by the Gospel, will then humble itself before every neighbor when it sees Christ in every neighbor.
And the holy fathers do not order to seek from one’s neighbor the fulfillment of the commandment, because this only violates the peace.
Love for one's neighbor is preceded and accompanied by humility before him. Hatred of one's neighbor is preceded by condemnation of him, humiliation, slander, contempt for him, otherwise - pride.
Do what you can that is useful and that the law allows, to your loved ones; but always entrust them to God, and your blind, carnal, unconscious love will little by little turn into spiritual, rational, holy.
We must give all people to God. The Church teaches us this; she says: “Let us commit ourselves, and each other, and our whole life to Christ our God.”
Not placing a burden on your neighbor is not a problem; shift it - and your neighbor may conveniently be damaged beyond repair, and become incapable of anything for the rest of his life.
There is no need to be very sad about those who disobey and do not heed the word of salvation; but having told them what is appropriate, surrender them to the will of God, which can turn them to the right path through other weapons and means, of which there are countless in His right hand.
Prayer for them has a stronger effect on neighbors than a word to them: because prayer brings the omnipotent God Himself into action, and God does with His creation everything that is pleasing to Him.
Remember that the Savior ordered Peter to follow Him, and when Peter asked and took care of another, he heard: what do you care about another, follow Me. By caring prematurely and incorrectly for others, we often forget or weaken caring for ourselves.
In order not to judge your neighbor, you must give up judgment about your neighbor...
One must forcefully distract oneself from condemning one’s neighbors, protecting oneself from it with the fear of God and humility.
A servant of Christ cannot be anyone's enemy.
Obedience:
True obedience is obedience to God, the One God.
Faith in a person leads to frenzied fanaticism.
... soul-destroying acting and the saddest comedy - elders who take on the role of ancient holy elders, without having their spiritual gifts...
Freedom:
Be free! Do not bind yourself to any scrupulousness. The rules are for the man, not the man for the rules.
... in your life, maintain prudent proportionality, without binding yourself by quantity.
What the Lord said about the Sabbath, that it is for man, and not man for it (Mark 2:27), can and should be applied to all pious deeds, and between them to the prayer rule.
Pay all your attention to the Gospel commandments, and with them offer yourself as a living sacrifice, pleasing to God. In external actions that have no influence on the soul, such as changing clothes and the like, be absolutely free.
Prayer:
The path to God is prayer.
The soul of prayer is attention.
Continuous chanting of prayers distracts the mind.
...the fathers command that the rule for a Christian be as simple and uncomplicated as possible.
The essence of fulfilling the prayer rule is that it be fulfilled with attention. From attention our spirit comes into humility; from humility comes repentance. In order to make a rule slowly, the rule must be moderate.
Fast:
Just as intemperance is harmful, so is immoderate fasting, or even more harmful.
... the sick and elderly should beware of excessive physical exertion...
Church:
Without obedience to the Church there is no humility; Without humility there is no salvation: humble yourself and save me, said the Prophet (Ps. 115:5).
...as a person consists of soul and body, external rituals and regulations turned out to be necessary.
...the weakness of the priest as a person does not at all prevent the performance of the Sacraments, which are performed because of the grace of the priesthood with which a person is endowed, and not because of his own merits, although it is pleasant to see in one person the combination of one’s own merits with the gifts of grace.
Heresy:
Heresy is a false teaching about Christianity... Heresy is a sin of the mind. The essence of this sin is blasphemy.
... all ancient heresies, under various changing guises, strived for one goal: they rejected the Divinity of the Word and distorted the dogma of the incarnation. The newest ones are most eager to reject the actions of the Holy Spirit...
Attitude towards Gentiles:
Those deprived of the glory of Christianity are not deprived of another glory received at creation: they are the image of God.
Wealth and poverty:
Temporary wealth is called unrighteous because it is the result of the fall.
Knowledge:
It is better to admit ignorance than to show knowledge that is harmful to your soul.
Miracles:
The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs were given to unbelief in order to convert it to faith.
Everyday affairs:
Doing housework and housework is very useful: it removes you from idleness and eases the mind’s invisible struggle.
Biography of Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) (1807-1867) - Russian spiritual writer of the 19th century, bishop, theologian and preacher.
Born into an old noble family on February 5 (17), 1807, in the village of Pokrovskoye, Vologda region.
In the world the future saint's name was Dmitry Alexandrovich Brianchaninov.
Even as a child, he felt a penchant for prayer and solitude. In 1822, at the insistence of his father, Dimitri entered the Military Engineering School, which he graduated in 1826. A brilliant secular career opened up before the young man, but even before the final exam he submitted his resignation, wanting to become a monk.
This request was not granted, and Dimitri Alexandrovich went to serve in the Dinaburg fortress, where he became seriously ill. On November 6, 1827, he received his coveted resignation and immediately entered the monastery as a novice.
On June 28, 1831, Bishop Stefan D. A. Brianchaninov of Vologda was tonsured a monk with the name Ignatius in honor of the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer; On July 5 he was ordained a hierodeacon, and on July 20 a hieromonk. Then in 1833 he was elevated to the rank of abbot, and in 1834 to the rank of archimandrite.
On October 27, 1857, the episcopal consecration took place in the St. Petersburg Kazan Cathedral. Father Ignatius becomes Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea.
In 1861, Bishop Ignatius retired and settled in the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery of the Kostroma Diocese, where he led a solitary prayer life until his death on April 30 (May 12), 1867.
Saint Ignatius was canonized on June 6, 1988. Before canonization, on May 26, 1988, his relics were solemnly transferred to the Holy Vvedensky Tolgsky Monastery (Yaroslavl), where they are still located.
Conversation and the company of neighbors has a great effect on a person. A conversation and acquaintance with a scientist reveals a lot of information, with a poet - a lot of sublime thoughts and feelings, with a traveler - a lot of knowledge about countries, about the morals and customs of people.
It is obvious: conversation and acquaintance with saints communicate holiness. With the venerable you will be, and with the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the chosen you will be chosen (Ps. 17:26-27).
From now on, during your short earthly life, which Scripture did not even call life, but a journey, get acquainted with the saints. Do you want to belong to their society in heaven, do you want to be a participant in their bliss? from now on, enter into fellowship with them. When you leave the temple of the body, they will accept you as their acquaintance, as their friend (Luke 16:9).
There is no closer acquaintance, no closer connection than the connection by unity of thoughts, unity of feelings, unity of purpose (1 Cor. 1:10).
Where there is unanimity, there is certainly unanimity, there is certainly one goal, equal success in achieving the goal.
Assimilate the thoughts and spirit of the holy fathers by reading their writings. The Holy Fathers achieved their goal: salvation. And you will achieve this goal in the natural course of things. As one of one mind and one with the holy fathers, you will be saved.
Heaven received the holy fathers into its blessed bosom. By this he testified that the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of the holy fathers were pleasing to him.
The Holy Fathers expressed their thoughts, their hearts, their way of acting in their writings. This means: what a true guide to heaven, attested by heaven itself - the writings of the fathers.
The writings of the holy fathers were all compiled under the inspiration or influence of the Holy Spirit. Wonderful harmony in them, wonderful anointing! Anyone who is guided by them is, without any doubt, guided by the Holy Spirit.
All the waters of the earth flow into the ocean, and perhaps the ocean serves as the beginning for all the waters of the earth. The writings of the fathers are all united in the Gospel; everyone is inclined to teach us the exact fulfillment of the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ; all of them, both the source and the end, are the Holy Gospel.
The Holy Fathers teach how to approach the Gospel, how to read it, how to understand it correctly, what helps and what hinders understanding it. And therefore, first, spend more time reading the holy fathers. When they teach you to read the Gospel, then read the Gospel primarily.
Do not consider reading the Gospel alone sufficient for yourself, without reading the Holy Fathers! This is a proud, dangerous thought. It is better to let the holy fathers lead you to the Gospel, like their beloved child, who has received preliminary upbringing and education through their writings.
Many, all of them, who madly and arrogantly rejected the holy fathers, who approached the Gospel directly, with blind audacity, with an unclean mind and heart, fell into a disastrous error. The Gospel rejected them: it admits only the humble.
Reading the scriptures of the fathers is the parent and king of all virtues.
From reading the scriptures of the Fathers we learn the true understanding of the Holy Scriptures, right faith, living according to the commandments of the Gospel, the deep respect that one should have for the commandments of the Gospel, in a word, salvation and Christian perfection.
Reading the fatherly writings, in derogation of spiritual mentors, became the main guide for those wishing to be saved and even achieve Christian perfection (Venerable Nilus of Sorsky, Rules).
The books of the holy fathers, as one of them put it, are like a mirror: by looking at them carefully and often, the soul can see all its shortcomings.
Again, these books are like a rich collection of medical remedies: in it the soul can find saving medicine for each of its ailments.
Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus said: “One glance at the sacred books excites one to a pious life” (Alphabetical Patericon).
The reading of the Holy Fathers must be thorough, attentive and constant: our invisible enemy, who hates the voice of affirmation, hates especially when this voice comes from the Holy Fathers.
This voice exposes the machinations of our enemy, his cunning, reveals his networks, his way of action: and therefore the enemy arms himself against the reading of the fathers with various proud and blasphemous thoughts, tries to plunge the ascetic into vain worries in order to distract him from saving reading, fights him with despondency and boredom , forgetfulness.
From this battle against the reading of the Holy Fathers, we must conclude how saving the weapon, so hated by the enemy, is for us. The enemy is very concerned about tearing him out of our hands.
Everyone choose for yourself a reading of the fathers that suits your lifestyle. Let the hermit read the fathers who wrote about silence; a monk living in a dormitory - the fathers who wrote instructions for monastic dormitories; a Christian living in the middle of the world - the holy fathers who delivered their teachings for all of Christianity in general.
Everyone, no matter what your rank, draw abundant instruction from the writings of the fathers.
You definitely need reading that corresponds to your lifestyle, otherwise you will be filled with thoughts, although holy, but unfulfilled by the deed itself, arousing fruitless activity only in the imagination and desire; works of piety, befitting your way of life, will slip out of your hands.
Not only will you become a fruitless dreamer, but your thoughts, being in constant contradiction with the circle of actions, will certainly give rise to confusion in your heart, and uncertainty in your behavior, painful, harmful for you and your neighbors.
If you incorrectly read the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, you can easily deviate from the path of salvation into impassable jungles and deep abysses, which is what happened to many. Amen.
About my own writings
My writings do not belong to me; their source is the fathers, they belong to the fathers of the Orthodox Church. The election of me by God's Providence as an instrument for teaching this vital spiritual food to the modern remnant of believers is a blessing from God to both them and me. “The world loves its own,” said the Savior.
When the world hears the Word of God proclaimed in the elements and in the spirit of the world, i.e. when he hears his teaching, covered with the guise of the teaching of God, then he extols it with praise. When he senses in the word the presence of another spirit, acting destructively on the dominion of the world, then he becomes infected with hatred of the word and initiates persecution against the one who uttered the word.
It is very dangerous to acquire knowledge not in Christ, but by developing your own fallen nature, to remain in spirit in communion with the world.
Acting in the area of the latter method, people will certainly become infected with enmity towards the Holy Spirit, just as the Jewish clergy was infected with this deadly enmity, for which they were convicted by the first martyr Stephen (Acts 7:51).
These literal scholars did not find words to contrast with the words of the Spirit that Stephen spoke, and therefore they were kindled with envy and hatred towards the vessel of the Spirit.
They responded to words with stones; They responded to the teaching of truth with murder. The Word of God has always been persecuted by the world; persecution from the world has always been evidence of the teaching coming from God.
On the truth and agreement of the teachings of the fathers of the Eastern Church with the Holy Scriptures
Now I am reading a book that I have in Slavic, Russian and other languages, which contains the “Collected Sayings of the Holy Desert Dwellers of Egypt.”
These sayings are priceless pearls! A diver descends into the deep sea to get an expensive pearl: and the holy fathers retired into the deep deserts, delved deeply into themselves, and found various priceless spiritual pearls: Christ-like humility, infantile simplicity and gentleness, angel-like dispassion, spiritual reasoning and wisdom, - in a word, , found the Gospel.
Today I read that saying of the Great Sisoy, which I have always especially liked, which has always been especially close to my heart. A certain monk told him: “I am in constant remembrance of God.” The Monk Sisoes answered him: “This is not great; it will be great when you consider yourself worse than all creation.”
A high occupation is the constant remembrance of God! But this height is very dangerous when the ladder to it is not based on the solid stone of humility.
Look how Scripture agrees with the fathers! Scripture says: “You do not favor burnt offerings... a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A contrite and humble heart God will not despise.”
Human sacrifices and burnt offerings themselves must be based on a feeling of spiritual poverty, on a feeling of repentance. Without this they are rejected by God. I also really like the saying of the Great Pimen: “If we always blame ourselves for everything,” he said, “then we will find peace everywhere.”
Another father said, “We have left the easy burden of blaming ourselves and taken up the heavy burden of blaming others.” Such sayings are worth entire books! No one, it seems, has delved into the Gospel as much as the holy desert dwellers delved into it; they tried to implement the Gospel with their very lives, with their very thoughts and feelings.
Their distinguishing feature was their deepest humility; the fall of man was a constant subject of their meditation; a constant occupation was crying about their sins... The Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church do not lead their reader into the embrace of love, not to the heights of visions - they lead him to consider his sin, his fall, to confess the Redeemer, to cry for himself before the mercy of the Creator.
They first teach us to curb the impure aspirations of our body, to make it light and capable of spiritual activity; then they turn to the mind, straighten its way of thinking, its mind, clearing it of the thoughts that we acquired after our fall, replacing them with thoughts of the renewed human nature, vividly depicted in the Gospel.
With the correction of the mind, the holy fathers take care of correcting the heart, changing its skills and sensations.
It is more difficult to cleanse the heart than to cleanse the mind: the mind, having become convinced of the validity of a new thought, easily discards the old one and easily assimilates a new one; but to replace a skill with a skill, a property with a property, a feeling with another feeling, an opposite feeling, is work, this is hard, long work, this is an incredible struggle.
The fathers express the ferocity of this struggle this way: “Give blood and receive spirit.” This means that we must put to death all sinful desires of flesh and blood, all movements of the mind and heart that depend on flesh and blood.
It is necessary to bring the body, the mind, and the heart into the control of the spirit. Blood and nerves are set in motion by many passions: anger, love of money, lust, and vanity. The last two extremely warm the blood of ascetics who labor illegally and turn them into frenzied fanatics.
Vanity strives prematurely for spiritual states for which a person is still incapable due to his impurity, due to failure to achieve the truth - he invents dreams for himself. And voluptuousness, adding its action to the action of vanity, produces in the heart seductive, false consolations, pleasures and raptures.
This state is a state of self-delusion. Everyone who works illegally is in this state. It develops in them more or less, depending on how much they enhance their exploits...
The heated state of blood is by no means visible in the holy fathers of the Eastern Church. They never become enthusiastic... From their writings one breathes true self-sacrifice, breathes the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, which deadens passions. The sons of the world flee from this fragrance, just as wasps fly away from smoking incense. “The world loves its own,” said the Lord...
And “the wise stumble in their deceit” (1 Cor. 3:19), they stumbled, and fell into a terrible fall.
They wanted to explain the “spiritual” with a dark spiritual mind - and this “spiritual” in the writings of the holy fathers seemed strange to them, contradicting the Holy Scriptures.
“The spiritual determines the spiritual,” said the holy Apostle Paul.
“But a spiritual man does not accept the Spirit of God: for he has foolishness and cannot understand, he strives for spiritual things” (1 Cor. 2:14).
The last words in the Russian translation of the New Testament read like this: “because this (spiritual) must be judged spiritually.”
About the vanity of earthly life. About reading the holy fathers
Exactly - the path of earthly life is sorrowful; When a person has accomplished a significant part of it and looks back, then how vain all the pleasant things on earth seem to be, for which he strove with such greed in his youth!
Let us not, at least, lose the rest of our life by sacrificing it to vanity; Let us get acquainted with eternity not through romantic foreign books that lead their readers into inevitable self-delusion, but through the guidance of the holy writers of our Church, in whom there is nothing romantic, dreamy, flattering or deceiving of the mind and heart.
Reading the writers of our Church conveys a positive knowledge of man’s relationship to God, the Creator and Redeemer and teaches us to approach Him through repentance, and not to flatter ourselves with sweet feelings of imaginary spiritual love...
Spiritual love is the property of the perfect, and the property of the pious and those who are being saved is the fear of God, the sight of their sins and shortcomings; the result of both is a contrite and humble heart, expressed by repentance. This is the true moral teaching of the Orthodox Church, alien to deception and self-delusion.
About reading spiritual books according to your position
Try to read the books of the holy fathers that suit your lifestyle, so that you can not only admire and enjoy reading the patristic writings, but so that you can apply them to the work itself.
A Christian living in the middle of the world must read the works of the great saints who wrote for the people, teaching Christian virtues for those who spend their lives among material pursuits.
Another reading is for cenobitic monks: they should read the holy fathers who wrote instructions for this kind of life. And another reading for the silent and hermit!
The study of virtues that do not correspond to the way of life produces daydreaming and leads a person into a false state.
Practicing virtues that do not correspond to the way of life makes life fruitless. And life is exhausted in vain, and virtues disappear: the soul cannot keep them with itself for a long time, it must soon leave them, because they are beyond its power.
Such exercise in lofty virtues, which exceeds one’s strength and ability, often damages the soul beyond healing, upsets it for a long time, sometimes for the rest of one’s life, and makes it incapable of deeds of piety.
The Lord commanded “new wine,” i.e. sublime virtues and exploits, “pouring new wineskins,” i.e. to provide to ascetics, already matured in pious deeds, renewed and enlightened by grace.
He forbade pouring new wine into old wineskins, and mending an old robe with a new patch.
Do not think that a sublime feat for which your soul is not yet ripe will help you! No!
He will upset you more: you will have to leave him, and despondency, hopelessness, gloom, and bitterness will appear in your soul.
In such a disposition, you will allow yourself to make greater mistakes, greater violations of the law of God than you fell into before.
“They don’t put a new patch on an old robe, because this will only make the hole bigger.” And for monks in general, and for Christians living in the middle of the world, the most useful reading is the New Testament, especially the Gospel.
A Christian living in the middle of the world should not read the holy fathers who wrote for monastics. What is the use of reading those virtues that cannot be fulfilled by deeds themselves? There can be no benefit, but there may be harm, consisting in the fact that a dreaminess of a spiritual state will be aroused in a person, which does not suit him in any way.
This dreaminess will at times flatteringly delight the imagination of high virtues, at times bring despondency and despair to the soul when we see that we cannot fulfill these virtues, always and constantly distract us from good deeds that are right for us, thus making our life empty, fruitless .
A Christian, whose lot is to live and end his life among the world, should read the holy fathers who wrote for all Christians in general.
These are the writers whose works were written in Russian or translated into it: St. John Chrysostom, St. Demetrius of Rostov, Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, Nicephorus of Astrakhan, George the Recluse. Abundant reading space! Abundant spiritual pasture, on which the verbal sheep of Christ can feed until they are full and fat!
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
When you have entered your room and shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly... (Matthew 6:6).
The Lord, who commanded solitary prayer, very often Himself, during His earthly wanderings, as the Gospel narrates, remained in it. He had no place to lay his head, and therefore the silent mountain peaks and shady vineyards often replaced his silent, calm cell.
The darkness of the night covers objects from prying eyes, the silence of silence does not entertain the ear. In silence and at night you can pray more attentively. The Lord chose primarily solitude and night for His prayer; He chose them so that we would not only obey His commandment about prayer, but also follow His example. Was prayer necessary for the Lord Himself? Being as a man with us on Earth, He, as God, was inseparable from the Father and the Spirit, and had with Them one Divine will and Divine power.
“When you have entered into your room and shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.” Let no one know about your prayer: neither your friend, nor your relative, nor the vanity itself that cohabits your heart and incites you to tell someone about your prayer feat, to hint about it.
Shut the doors of your cell from people who come to talk idle talk and steal your prayers; close the doors of your mind from extraneous thoughts that appear to distract you from prayer; close the doors of your heart from sinful sensations that will try to confuse and defile you, and pray.
Do not dare to bring to God multi-verbal and eloquent prayers composed by you, no matter how strong and touching they may seem to you: they are the product of a fallen mind and, being a desecrated victim, cannot be accepted on the spiritual altar of God. And you, admiring the elegant expressions of the prayers you have composed and recognizing the refined effect of vanity and voluptuousness as a consolation of conscience, and even grace, will be carried away far from prayer; You will be carried away far from prayer at the very time when it seems to you that you are praying abundantly and have already achieved a certain degree of pleasing God.
The soul that begins the path of God is immersed in deep ignorance of everything Divine and spiritual, even if it is rich in the wisdom of this world. Due to ignorance, she does not know how and how much she should pray. To help the infant soul, the Holy Church established prayer rules.
A prayer rule is a collection of several prayers composed by the Divinely inspired holy fathers, adapted to a certain circumstance and time.
The purpose of the rule is to provide the soul with the amount of prayerful thoughts and feelings it lacks, moreover, thoughts and feelings that are correct, holy, truly pleasing to God. The grace-filled prayers of the holy fathers are filled with such thoughts and feelings.
For the prayer exercise in the morning there is a special collection of prayers called morning prayers, or morning rule; for night prayer before going to bed - another collection of prayers, called prayers for bedtime, or the evening rule. A special collection of prayers is read by those preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ and is called the rule for Holy Communion. Those who devote most of their time to pious exercises (monks) read at about the third hour in the afternoon a special collection of prayers, called the daily, or monastic rule. Others read several kathismas every day, several chapters from the New Testament, make several bows - all this is called the rule.
Rule! What a precise name, borrowed from the very effect produced on a person by prayers, called the rule! The rule of prayer guides the soul correctly and holy, teaches it to worship God in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23), while the soul, left to itself, could not follow the correct path of prayer. Due to her damage and darkening by sin, she would constantly turn to the sides, often into the abyss, now into absent-mindedness, now into daydreaming, now into various empty and deceptive ghosts of high prayerful states, created by her vanity and voluptuousness.
Prayer rules keep the person praying in a saving disposition of humility and repentance, teaching him constant self-condemnation, feeding him with tenderness, strengthening him with hope in the All-Good and All-Merciful God, delighting him with the peace of Christ, love for God and his neighbors.
How sublime and deep are the prayers for Holy Communion! What excellent preparation they provide to those approaching the Holy Mysteries of Christ! They clean and decorate the house of the soul with wonderful thoughts and sensations that are so pleasing to the Lord. The greatest of the Christian Sacraments is majestically depicted and explained in these prayers; In contrast to this height, man’s shortcomings are vividly and accurately calculated, his weakness and unworthiness are shown. From them shines, like the sun from the sky, the incomprehensible goodness of God, because of which He deigns to unite closely with man, despite the insignificance of man.
Morning prayers breathe vigor and freshness of the morning: he who has seen the light of the sensual sun and the light of the earthly day learns to desire the vision of the highest, spiritual Light and the endless Day produced by the Sun of Truth - Christ.
The brief calm of sleep during the night is an image of positive sleep in the darkness of the grave. And our bedtime prayers remind us of our transition to eternity, they review all our activities during the day, and teach us to bring God confession of our sins and repentance for them.
The prayerful reading of the akathist to Sweetest Jesus, in addition to its own dignity, serves as an excellent preparation for the exercise of the Jesus Prayer, which reads like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This prayer is almost the only exercise of successful ascetics who have achieved (Christian) simplicity and purity, for whom all much thinking and verbosity serve as a burdensome entertainment. The Akathist shows what thoughts can be accompanied by the Jesus Prayer, which seems extremely dry for beginners. He (akathist) depicts only the sinner’s petition for mercy by the Lord Jesus Christ, but this petition is given various forms, in accordance with the infancy of the minds of the novices. This is how babies are given food that has been previously softened.
The akathist to the Mother of God glorifies the incarnation of God the Word and the greatness of the Mother of God, Who, for the birth of the God incarnate by Her, “is blessed by all generations” (Luke 1:48). As if in a large painting, the great Mystery of the incarnation of God the Word is depicted in the akathist with countless wondrous features, colors, and shades. Successful lighting enlivens every picture - and the akathist to the Mother of God is illuminated with the extraordinary light of grace. This light acts purely: it enlightens the mind, it fills the heart with joy and information. The incomprehensible is accepted as completely comprehended, according to the wonderful effect produced (in the words of the akathist) on the mind and heart.
Many reverent Christians, especially monks, perform a very long evening rule, taking advantage of the silence and darkness of the night. To their bedtime prayers they add reading kathismas, reading the Gospel, the Apostle, reading akathists and bowing with the Jesus Prayer... Christ's servants cry in the silence of their cells, pouring out fervent prayers before the Lord... In joy and good spirits, in the consciousness and feeling of an extraordinary ability to The servants of God greet the day with the thought of God and all good deeds, the day for which they spent the previous night in prayer.
The Lord knelt down during His prayer - and you should not neglect kneeling if you have enough strength to perform it. By worship to the face of the earth, according to the explanation of the fathers, our fall is depicted, and by uprising from the earth our redemption (Words of St. Theoliptus. Philokalia, part 2). Before starting the evening rule, it is especially useful to make as many bows as possible in order to prepare for a diligent and attentive reading of the rule.
When performing the rule and bows, one should not rush; It is necessary to perform both the rules and bows with as much leisure and attention as possible. It is better to say fewer prayers and bow down less, but with attention, than a lot and without attention.
Choose for yourself a rule that corresponds to your strengths. What the Lord said about the Sabbath, that it is for man, and not man for it (Mark 2:27), can and should be applied to all pious deeds, as well as to the prayer rule. A prayer rule is for a person, and not a person for a rule: it should contribute to a person’s achievement of spiritual success, and not serve as an inconvenient burden (onerous duty), crushing bodily strength and confusing the soul. Moreover, it should not serve as a reason for proud and harmful conceit, for harmful condemnation and humiliation of others.
A prudently chosen prayer rule, according to one’s strengths and type of life, is a great help to one who strives for his salvation. Performing it at the prescribed hours turns into a skill (from constancy), into a necessary natural need. Having acquired this blessed skill, as soon as he approaches the usual place of performing the rule, his soul is already filled with a prayerful mood: he has not yet had time to utter a single word of the prayers he reads, and already his heart is filled with tenderness, and his whole mind goes deep into the inner cell (heart ).
“I prefer,” said the great Father Matoi, “a short rule, but constantly followed, to a long one, but soon abandoned.” And this is always the fate of prayer rules that are disproportionate to his strength: at the first impulse of ardor, the ascetic fulfills them, for a while, of course, paying more attention to quantity than to quality, then the exhaustion produced by a feat that exceeds his strength gradually forces him to shorten and shorten the rule .
Often ascetics, who have foolishly established a burdensome rule for themselves, move from the difficult rule to abandoning all rules. After leaving the rule, and even with one shortening of it, confusion will certainly attack the ascetic. From embarrassment, he begins to feel mental distress. From frustration comes despondency. Having intensified, it produces relaxation and frenzy, and from their action the reckless ascetic indulges in an idle, absent-minded life, and with indifference falls into the most serious sins.
Having chosen for yourself a prayer rule commensurate with your strengths and spiritual needs, try to carefully and constantly fulfill it: this is necessary to maintain the moral strength of your soul, just as it is necessary to maintain your bodily strength by daily, at certain times, sufficient consumption of healthy food.
“God will not condemn us on the day of His Judgment for abandoning the psalms,” says Saint Isaac the Syrian, “not for abandoning prayer, but for the subsequent abandonment of them, the entry of demons into us. Demons, when they find a place, enter and close the doors of our eyes, then they fulfill with us, their tools, violently and uncleanly, with the cruelest vengeance, everything forbidden by God. And because of the abandonment of small (rules), for which (we) are honored with the intercession of Christ, we become subject (to demons), as it is written by some wise father: “He who does not submit his will to God will submit to his opponent. These (rules), which seem small to you, will become walls for you against those who try to captivate us. The implementation of these (rules) inside the cell was wisely established by the founders of the Church Charter, by revelation from above, for the preservation of our life” (Isaac the Syrian, Homily 71).
The great fathers, who remained in unceasing prayer from the abundant action of God's grace, did not abandon their rules, which they learned to perform at certain hours of the night (night and day prayers). We see many proofs of this in their lives: St. Anthony the Great, following the rule of the ninth hour - the church ninth hour corresponds to the third hour in the afternoon - was honored with Divine revelation; When St. Sergius of Radonezh was engaged in prayerful reading of the akathist to the Mother of God, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to him, accompanied by the apostles Peter and John.
Beloved! Let us submit our freedom to the rule: it, having deprived us of our destructive freedom, will bind us only in order to give us spiritual freedom, freedom in Christ. The chains will at first seem burdensome, then they will become precious to those bound by them. All the saints of God took upon themselves and bore the good yoke of the prayer rule; By imitation of them, we will follow in this case our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, having become man and showing us the way of behavior, acted as His Father acted (John 5:19), said what the Father commanded Him (John 12:49 ), had the goal of fulfilling the will of the Father in everything (John 5:30). The will of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one. In relation to people, it consists in saving people.
All-Holy Trinity, our God! Glory to You! Amen.
(Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. Works. Ascetic experiences.
St. Petersburg, 1865 t.2, p. 181-191. Published in abbreviation.)
Teachings and conversations
CKingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God is within there are 1 of us. The Kingdom of Heaven is the peace of Christ.
The world of Christ is holy! The world of Christ is all in Christ! The peace of Christ is sown in the soul by the Word of God, it arises from cultivating the field of the heart with the commandments of Christ.
Peace of God, surpass all understanding, according to the living and precise understanding of the apostle, may he keep for Christ our hearts and minds 2 ; May He preserve our earthly activity and our eternal destiny, which depends on this activity. Amen.<…>
This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased; listen to Him. 3 .
Such was the voice of the eternal God the Father to people about the eternal God the Son when the Son, by the will of the Father, by the action of the Spirit, became man from the Virgin and accomplished the salvation of lost humanity.
Those who wish to approach the Lord in order to hear His Divine teaching, to be enlivened and saved by Him, come, present yourself to the Lord with the greatest reverence and the most holy fear, as His bright Angels, His Cherubim and Seraphim stand before Him. And the Lord will speak to you from His holy Gospel, as to His beloved disciples! And may the Holy Fathers, who interpreted the Holy Gospel through the gift of the Holy Spirit, be your guides to an accurate and infallible understanding of the Holy Gospel.
The God-inspired elder Simeon announced the incarnation of God the Word. This one lies for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, and is a sign that can be contradicted 4 . The Word of God is a stone, a stone of immeasurable size and weight, - and he who falls on this stone will be broken unhealed contrition 5.
* * *P Wake up, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near 6 .
With these deep and sacred words, the preaching of the Word made human began to fallen humanity.
Holy Scripture teaches us that God sent His Son into the world, that through Him the world may be saved, What He who believes in Him will not be condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned. Light– Christ – I came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than Light: for their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds be exposed, for they are evil. 7 .
You can’t work for God and mammon! 8 You cannot serve two masters together, God and sin! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near! Repent and believe the Gospel 9 .
The opening of the doors of the heart for the Heavenly King is accomplished through repentance. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near. Amen.
* * *AND The Forerunner of the Savior and the Savior Himself began the sermon to fallen humanity with a call to repentance and with the promise of the Heavenly Kingdom for satisfactory repentance. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near 10 .
The following words of St. John the Theologian apply to arbitrary sinners: Everyone sins without seeing Him(Lord Jesus Christ) , nor the knowledge of Him. Children, let no one flatter you. Create sin from the devil is. Anyone born of God does not commit sin, for His seed abides in him, and cannot sin, for he is born of God. For this reason the essence of the child of God and the child of the devil is revealed eleven . The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed; the sign of their difference is clear; deception is impossible. Those who lead an arbitrary sinful life, drowning in carnal pleasures, even if they are called Christians, are the children of the devil; on the contrary, the sign of the children of God is that they lead their lives according to the will of the Gospel and the Holy Church, and the sins into which they fall due to weakness are hastily healed by repentance.
* * *P On what occasion did the Lord speak this parable [about the publican and the Pharisee]? He said it to people who are seduced and deceived by self-conceit, who rely and trust in their own righteousness, in their good deeds, look out of their conceit and self-delusion at other people, humiliate them, that is, think lowly of them, despise, condemn, slander both secretly, in your soul, and openly, before people.
Having set the fulfillment of the will of God as the goal of life, he tries to learn in detail and with accuracy this all-holy will through the most careful study of the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament, through reading the Scriptures of the Fathers, through conversation and consultation with successful Christians, through the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments both in outward behavior and in mind. , and heart. “The law of freedom,” said the Monk Mark the Ascetic, “is read with true understanding, by doing the commandments, of course, and is fulfilled by the bounties of Christ.”
* * *IN During the entire Holy Pentecost, during all services, the prayer is often repeated in the hearing of all those present in the church: God! cleanse me, a sinner.
The Savior of the world, who approved the prayer of the publican, subsequently allowed and granted us to pray in His all-holy name. Prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus, both by His name and as established by Him, is called the Jesus Prayer.
Old Testament prayer God, be merciful to me, a sinner similar New Testament prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Prayer is also used for constant prayer Lord have mercy. It is an abbreviated Jesus Prayer and replaces it in cases where pronouncing the entire Jesus Prayer becomes difficult.
What is the meaning of the verb have mercy or be merciful in all these prayers? This is a person’s consciousness of his destruction; this is a request for God’s mercy, without which there is no hope of salvation for the lost. The mercy of God is nothing other than the grace of the All-Holy Spirit; we sinners must constantly, relentlessly ask God for it. Plant love for You in my heart, so that I will no longer be separated from You, so that I will not be carried away by an irresistible attraction to vile sin. Grant me Thy peace, so that it may keep my soul in unshakable peace, and not allow my thoughts to wander around the universe unnecessarily. Grant me the Spirit of meekness, so that I may refrain from anger and malice, and be constantly filled with kindness towards my brethren. Grant me the Spirit of humility, so that I do not become arrogant, do not dream about myself, do not seek human praise and glory, but remember that I am earth and ashes, a fallen being. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Lord have mercy!
Let us give our prayer two properties: attention and repentance.
* * *P open the curse us doors, Life Giver! There is joy before the angels of God for one sinner who repents 12, - the Lord announced to the people, calling them to repentance.
The time of our earthly life is priceless: during this time we decide our eternal fate. May the joy of Angels and men be fulfilled and fulfilled in doing the will of the Heavenly Father! like there is no will before the Heavenly Father, that one may perish from these little ones 13 people humbled and humiliated by sin. Amen.
* * *ABOUT A terrible sight awaits us, the most formidable event: the second coming to earth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Son of Man will come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, and all the nations will be gathered before Him.(see Matt. 25, 31, 32) in order to present your deeds to Him for judgment and receive rewards or punishments from Him, in accordance with your deeds.
Sinners will tremble with despair. The righteous will tremble at the immeasurable glory of the appeared Judge. The very Angels of God will come into confusion and fear from God, revealed in His greatness 14.
At the judgment of Christ, mercy will be required for justification, as an active expression of love. Mercy will bring those who fed the hungry brethren, welcomed strangers into homes, clothed the naked, visited the sick and those imprisoned. Mercy will bring before Christ the church shepherds who taught their brethren incorruptible food - the Word of God, who clothed those naked by sin in the vestments of virtues, who delivered spiritual healing to the sick with souls and patiently visited with their edification those imprisoned in the prisons of unbelief or dark error. Mercy will bring humble monks before Christ, who have acquired the mysterious and essential knowledge of Christ living within themselves, have become hungry with the blessed hunger of the truth of the Gospel, and have striven to clothe themselves in venerability and holiness. Mercy will bring all its workers before Christ and will intercede with Christ for mercy and eternal bliss. Come, He will tell them, With the blessing of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Be hungry, and give Me food; You became thirsty and drank Me; beh is strange, and you know Mena. Naked and clothed Me; I am sick and visiting Me; I ran away in prison and came to Me. Amen I say to you, since you have made one of the least of my brothers, you have made me 15 .
The day and hour are unknown when the Son of God will end the life of the world by coming to judgment; the day and hour are unknown when, at the command of the Son of God, the earthly life of each of us will end, and we will be called to separation from the body, to give an account of earthly life, to that private judgment, before the general judgment, that awaits a person after his death.
Let us prepare ourselves, stocking up on all the virtues, especially mercy, which contains and crowns all the virtues, since love, the motivating cause of mercy, is the union of Christian perfection 16 . Mercy makes people filled with it godlike! 17 Blessed are the mercy, for there will be mercy; judgment without mercy for those who have not shown mercy 18 . Amen.
* * *A You still forgive people their sins, - proclaims the gospel teaching, - Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you do not forgive men their trespasses, your Father will not forgive you your trespasses. 19 .
Hear the Word of God, hear the covenant of God - and let go, forgive your neighbors for their sins against you.
* * * WITH Wake up, for I am holy 20 .We are assigned paradise, heaven, eternal bliss, if we live here piously, fulfilling the vows we made at baptism, repeated when taking monastic vows, supplemented by vows of non-covetousness and virginity.
Now, having heard the voice of God’s goodness, a voice calling you to repentance, do not harden your hearts 21 ; having ears to hear 22, do not remain deaf. Arise, sleep 23 in the deep sleep of negligence and complete disregard for salvation!
* * *P repentance is omnipotent, as an institution of omnipotent God.
Believe in Me, said the Lord, even if he dies, he will come to life 24. He declared himself openly and clearly: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance 25 .
The Lord Jesus Christ said about Himself to those who believe in Him: I am with you all the days until the end of the age 26. When you appear before your spiritual father, he will confirm to you the truth we have proclaimed: “Behold, child,” he will say, Christ stands invisibly, accepting your confession” 27 .
The holy Apostle Paul says: The first man is from the earth with a ring: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As we have put on the image of earth, let us also be clothed in the image of heaven 28 .
I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother gave birth to me in sins. 29 .
Unless anyone is born of water and the Spirit, - the New Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, tells us, - cannot enter the Kingdom of God thirty . We will be born into a new life of grace holy baptism, by whom we pass into the offspring of the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive adoption as sons to the Father of the new age, as the apostle said: As many as you have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Receive the Spirit of sonhood, for whom we cry: Abba Father 31 .
* * *P repentance is necessary for everyone!
The martyrs brought their blood to the foot of the cross of Christ; The holy desert dwellers performed laborious feats, if not equal, then similar to martyrdom. I, too, will bring him - even if it’s a little distress to my body! Through the dejection of my flesh, I will at least become somewhat like the Lord who was crucified for me!
* * *WITH The Holy Church, following confession, puts into the mouth of the confessor, for the precaution of the repentant, the following significant words: “Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, receiving your confession: do not be ashamed, fear not, and do not hide anything from Me; but without hesitation, you have done everything, so that you may receive forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. If you hide anything from me, it’s a complete sin for you.”
Bow your head in contrition of spirit, in tears and weeping, tell your sins to God in detail before your spiritual father - and, through the ministers of the mystery of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, bringing remission of sins into the house of your soul.
* * *L hypocrisy is born from vanity 32. Vanity is a vain desire and the search for temporary human praise.
Vanity and hypocrisy are terrible in their development and maturity when they prevail over a person.
True humility comes from the knowledge of God.
* * *H the man fell. Sin struck with death both his soul and his body. We can contemplate the primordial blissful and immortal state only in Divine Revelation.
The righteous on the last day of this transitory world, at the beginning of the non-evening day of eternity, will be caught up with their bodies into the air, to meet the Lord, and so always, there in heaven, they will abide with the Lord 33. The body sown into the grave in corruption will rise in incorruption, will rise in glory, will rise in force; earthly body it will be done the heavenly body, the spiritual body - the spiritual body 34 .
We completely belong to God, and not to ourselves. Bring yours, the apostle tells us, bought at natural price, at the price of the priceless blood of the Son of God. Glorify God in all your bodies, and in your souls, which are the essence of God, just as your body is, not only souls, the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you is 35 .
* * *I eat my flesh and drink my blood abides in me and I in him 36. You were purchased by God with the price of the blood of His Son 37 .
Remain the temple of God, serve the Lord who has dwelt in you by carefully fulfilling His holy commandments - and He will abide in you 38: He will save you on the path of earthly life from any stumbling, and will lead you with a serene and fearless death into the haven of blessed eternity.
* * *P Orthodoxy is true knowledge of God and worship of God; Orthodoxy is the worship of God in Spirit and Truth; Orthodoxy is the glorification of God by true knowledge of Him and worship of Him; Orthodoxy is God’s glorification of man, a true servant of God, by bestowing upon Him the grace of the All-Holy Spirit!
A precious treasure is the teaching of the Holy Spirit! It is taught in the Holy Scriptures and in the sacred Tradition of the Orthodox Church. A precious treasure is the teaching of the Holy Spirit! In it is the guarantee of our salvation.
In order to preserve this guarantee for us, the Holy Church today enumerates publicly those teachings that were generated and published by Satan, which are an expression of enmity towards God, which slander our salvation and steal it from us. Like ravenous wolves, like deadly snakes, like thieves and murderers, the Church denounces these teachings; protecting us from them and calling out from destruction those deceived by them, she anathematizes these teachings and those who stubbornly adhere to them.
The word anathema means excommunication, rejection. When the Church anathematizes any teaching, this means that the teaching contains blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and for salvation it must be rejected and eliminated, just as poison is eliminated from food. When a person is anathematized, it means that that person has internalized the blasphemous teaching irrevocably, depriving himself and those of his neighbors to whom he communicates his way of thinking from salvation. When a person intends to leave a blasphemous teaching and accept the teaching contained in the Orthodox Church, then he is obliged, according to the rules of the Orthodox Church, to anathematize the false teaching that he previously supported and which destroyed him, alienating him from God, keeping him in enmity towards God, in blasphemy against the Holy Spirit , in communication with Satan.
All human teachings cause eternal death, introducing their own thinking, drawn from false reason, from carnal wisdom.
Human reasoning introduced into the teachings of the Christian faith is called heresy, and the inheritance of this teaching is called evil.
The Apostle also includes heresies among the works of the flesh 39 . They belong to the works of the flesh according to their origin, carnal wisdom which is death, which is enmity against God, which does not obey the law of God, he can do anything less 40 . Darken their foolish heart, - says the apostle about the wise men who have deviated from the true knowledge of God, - saying to be wise, a fool, changing the truth of God into a lie: for this reason God betrayed them in the passion of dishonor 41. Various prodigal passions are called the passions of dishonor.
The behavior of the heresiarchs was depraved: Apollinaris had an adulterous relationship, Eutyches was especially enslaved by the passions of love of money, Arius was depraved beyond belief. When his hymn, Thalia, began to be read at the first Council of Nicaea, the Fathers of the Council stopped their ears and refused to hear blasphemy, which could never come to the mind of a pious person. The waist was burned. Fortunately for Christianity, all copies of it were destroyed: we are left with historical information that this work breathed with violent debauchery. Many of the works of the newest heresiarchs are similar to Thalia; in them terrible blasphemy is combined and mixed with expressions of terrible, inhuman depravity and blasphemy. Blessed are those who have never heard or read these eruptions of hell. When reading them, the connection of the spirit of the heresiarchs with the spirit of Satan becomes obvious.
Heresies, being a carnal matter, the fruit of carnal wisdom, are invented by fallen spirits. “Falled from heaven,” says the Prophet about the fallen cherub, “ the morning star rising in the morning, crushed upon the earth. You said in your mind: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, I will be like the Most High. Now you will descend to hell and to the foundations of the earth, you will be cast down in the mountains like a dead man 42 .
Fallen spirits try to draw into pride, from which enmity towards God and blasphemy vegetate, like the seeds of a plant. The sin of blasphemy, which constitutes the essence of all heresy, is the most serious sin, as a sin that actually belongs to the rejected spirits and constitutes their most distinctive property.
The Church proclaims: “Those who captivate their minds into obedience to Divine revelation and those who strive for it, we please and praise: those who resist the truth, if they did not repent before the Lord, who awaited their conversion and repentance, if they did not want to follow the Holy Scriptures and the Tradition of the primal Church, we excommunicate and anathematize "
“Those who deny the existence of God and claim that this world is original, that everything happens in it without the Providence of God, on occasion: anathema.”
“To those who say that God is not a spirit, but a substance, who also do not recognize Him as righteous, merciful, wise, omniscient, and who utter similar blasphemies: anathema.”
“To those who dare to assert that the Son of God is not consubstantial and not equal in honor with the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit, - to those who do not confess that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God: anathema.”
“Those who allow themselves to say that our salvation and cleansing from sins do not require the coming into the world of the Son of God according to the flesh, His free suffering, death and resurrection: anathema.”
“To those who do not accept the grace of redemption, preached by the Gospel as the only means of our justification before God: anathema.”
“To those who dare to say that the Most Pure Virgin Mary was not a Virgin before the Nativity, at the Nativity, or after the Nativity: anathema.”
“To those who do not believe that the Holy Spirit made the prophets and apostles wise, through them he proclaimed to us the true path to salvation: anathema.”
“To those who reject the immortality of the soul, the end of the age, future judgment and eternal reward for virtues in heaven, and condemnation for sins: anathema.”
“To those who reject the Sacraments of the Holy Church of Christ: anathema.”
“To those who reject the Councils of the Holy Fathers and their traditions, consistent with Divine revelation, piously preserved by the Orthodox-Catholic Church: anathema” 43.
Only those who decisively reject and will constantly reject all teachings invented and invented by rejected spirits and people, hostile to the teaching of Christ, the teaching of God, and slandering its integrity and inviolability, can remain faithful to the teachings of Christ. The revealed teaching of God is preserved in inviolable integrity solely and exclusively within the bosom of the Orthodox Eastern Church. Amen.
* * *IN keep yourself quiet, said the Lord, Let not your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness 44 .
The establishment of fasting is God's institution. The first commandment given by God to man is the commandment to fast. The commandment to fast was given in paradise and is repeated in the Gospel.
What does a carnal man mean? – In the name of the carnal, the Holy Scripture marks that unfortunate person who is nailed to the earth, who is incapable of spiritual thoughts and sensations. My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh. 45, God testified. A carnal man is incapable of worshiping God.
Let us strive both in spirit and body towards God! Let us fear the carnal state produced by breaking the fast.
* * *AND but he wants to come after Me, so that he may deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me 46, - the Lord said to His disciples.
What means - deny yourself? Deny yourself- means leaving a sinful life.
The Lord says: What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? We lay down our very body in the cherished Prague for eternity.
To take up your cross means to generously endure sorrow and persecution. The Lord informed His beloved: In a world of sorrow you will be: but dare, for I have overcome the world 47 .
Our swearing is not, - said the holy Apostle Paul, - to blood and flesh, but to the principalities and powers, and to the rulers of the darkness of this world, to the spiritual wickedness in high places 48 .
To take up your cross means to submit with submission and humility to those temporary sorrows and disasters that Divine Providence is pleased to allow us to cleanse our sins.
What does it mean to take up a cross, and take up your own cross? This means that every Christian must patiently endure precisely those insults and those persecutions from the world that befall him, and not any others.
What does it mean to follow Christ? This means: to study the Gospel, to have the Gospel as the only guide for the activity of the mind, the activity of the heart, and the activity of the body. This means: borrow your way of thinking from the Gospel, adjust your heartfelt feelings to the Gospel and serve as an expression of the Gospel in all your actions.
Let us open heaven for ourselves with the cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ by the will of the flesh to ascend to the cross and endure death 49, in order to reconcile humanity with God through the cross, and through death to save humanity from eternal death.
* * *WITH“her generation,” said the Lord to His apostles about the spirits of evil, “ nothing can come of it of those possessed by them, just prayer and fasting 50 .
[Curse] to Satan: You are cursed from all the livestock and from all the beasts of the earth: you will walk on your breasts and belly, and you will carry away the earth all the days of your life. 51 .
Cattle and beasts act according to the laws of their nature, and the fallen spirit, rotating in the nature of cattle and beasts, rotates in a nature that is alien to it, humiliating.
Be sober, stay awake, - the holy Apostle Peter warns us, - Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour. Resist him in the firmament by faith 52 .
The fallen angel offers us earthly glory, he offers us wealth, he offers us satiety, he offers us the pleasures of carnal impurities.
Be sober, brothers, and stay awake, your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around, looking for someone to devour, but resist him, strengthen yourself with faith, taking up the shield of faith, active faith, living faith, grace-filled faith, for which only that ascetic of Christ is capable, who prepared for battle with the spirits of malice by forgiving his neighbors of their sins, that is, with mercy and humility, and entered into this battle, clothed in the weapons of fasting and prayer.
* * *B Lago, - said Archangel Raphael Tovitam, - prayer with fasting, almsgiving and truth 53. A great blessing - such a post!
Our flesh, says St. Mark, is taken from the earth and in its properties is similar to earth: it requires cultivation.
Having learned the meaning and power of spiritual weapons - almsgiving, fasting and prayer, let us hasten to gird ourselves with these weapons.
* * *IN the march on an unbroken stallion to Jerusalem is a repetition of the prophecy of Moses, a repetition not in words, but in symbols. Moses foretold that the Gentiles would rejoice in the Lord, and the Jews would be rejected: here is the untamed lot, on him no one else no one else from people everywhere, depicts pagans.
The Lord places vestments on the donkey, sits on it and enters Jerusalem on it. This means: after leaving a sinful life, a person is brought to the Gospel, and is clothed, as it were, in apostolic vestments, in the most detailed and subtle knowledge of Christ and His commandments. Then the Lord sits on him by spiritually appearing to him and spiritually dwelling in him.
[Tsar - ] He is meek and lowly in heart 54 , and he will guide the meek in judgment, he will teach the meek in his way 55. Our God sits and walks on Cherubim. The King walks, entering the holy city of God and leading holy souls into it. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who is come, the King of Israel.
* * *"P repentance for sin,” said some great Father, “lies in recognizing your sin, repenting of it and not repeating it.”
If anyone loves Me, said Christ, He will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and we will come to Him, and make our abode with Him 56 . Lift up the gates, your princes, and lift up the everlasting gates: and the King of glory will come in.
* * *WITH strengthens the human heart the bread that came down from heaven, the bread of life 57. This bread is our Lord Jesus Christ. He said: I am the living bread that came down from heaven: whoever eats of this bread will live forever. And the bread which I will give, which I eat, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him 58 .
Amen, amen I say to you, said the Lord, Unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of man or drunk His blood, you have no life within you 59 .
Evil came from the free will of rational creatures.
What is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is spirit 60. Christians, having been born from Adam into death, are born through baptism into life, are born from God, and are already born as children of God 61 .
Cling to the Lord, there is one spirit with the Lord 62. The Lord is Spirit, and the person who cleaves to the Lord is united by the Lord with Himself. Living according to the Gospel commandments, prayer in contrition of the spirit brings one into union with the Lord; This union is completed by Divine grace and the communion of the All-Holy Divine Body and Blood of Christ.
* * *WITH The strong, the glorious, the wise showered God with curses and ridicule—the thief turned to Him with a timely and successful prayer: Remember me, Lord, when you come to this Kingdom 63 .
The Ever-Virgin Mother of God stood at the cross and the Lord crucified on it. Her heart was pierced with sadness like a sword: the prediction of the holy elder Simeon was fulfilled 64. But She knew that the redemption of the human race was accomplished on the cross, She knew that Her Son, the Son of God, deigned to ascend to the cross and offer Himself as a sacrifice of peace for rejected humanity; She knew that the Lord, having completed the redemption of people by death, would resurrect and co-resurrect humanity with Himself; She knew this - and was silent.
The beloved disciple of the Lord stood at the cross. He looked at the height of the cross - in the incomprehensible love of a voluntary Sacrifice he contemplated Divine Love. Divine Love is the source of Theology. She is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Theology is the gift of the Holy Spirit 65 . She revealed to the apostles the mysterious meaning of atonement.
Suddenly the voice of the crucified Lord came from the cross to the Ever-Virgin: Woman, behold Your son; then a voice to the beloved disciple: Behold your Mati 66. Destroying on the tree of the cross the sin of the forefathers, committed by them at the tree of paradise, giving birth to humanity into a new life through life-giving death, the Lord enters into the rights of the Forefather of man and declares His Mother according to humanity the mother of the disciple and all His disciples, the Christian tribe.
* * * Blessed are those who have not seen and believed 67. With these words, the Lord united with the apostles all the believers of all the earth and of all times. He makes all the children of the Church participants in the blessedness of the apostles.The bloody struggle between wolves and lambs continued for three centuries. Some acted with sword, fire, beasts, stuffy prison, hunger and thirst, all means of torture and murder; others fought with the strength of spirit, the power of faith, the power of God, enduring the most terrible tortures, generously dying for the faith. Victory crowned a three-century struggle, and at the beginning of the fourth century the Christian faith became dominant in the world. Both the strong and the wise of the earth bowed before the teachings of the unlearned fishermen; all nations bowed before him. The cross, hitherto a sign of blasphemous execution, has become a sign of the highest honor: kings and bishops wear it on their heads and chests; he crowns the temples of the true God; it serves as a sign of every Orthodox Christian, a sign of his faith, his hope, his love.
* * *[AND Osif, ] a member of the Sanhedrin, in the face of the Sanhedrin, who committed the deicide, in the face of Jerusalem, who took part in the deicide, removes from the cross the body of the God-man, killed by men, and takes it to the garden located near the city gates and walls. There, in solitude and silence, under the shade of trees, in a new coffin, carved out of a solid stone rock, with an abundant shedding of aroma and ointments, he lays down the body with which both the bodies and souls of all people were redeemed, entwining this body with the purest shrouds, as it is entwined and a precious treasure is hidden. Another member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, took part in the burial of the Lord, who came to the Lord at night and recognized the Lord as the messenger of God.
The holy women are not inferior to Joseph’s courageous self-sacrifice.
* * *G rekh is the cause of all human sorrows both in time and in eternity.
Three plagues are determined by God's justice for all mankind for the sins of all mankind. The first execution was eternal death, which all humanity suffered at its roots, in its forefathers, for disobedience to God in paradise. The second execution was the worldwide later for the predominance of the flesh over the spirit allowed by humanity, for the reduction of humanity to the life and dignity of the dumb. The last execution should be the destruction and death of this visible world for the retreat from the Redeemer, for the final deviation of people into communion with the rejected angels.
Often a special kind of sin embraces entire human societies and brings upon them the execution of God. So the Sodomites were burned by fire that fell from heaven for the criminal gratification of the flesh; Thus, the Israelites were more than once betrayed to foreigners for deviating into idolatry; so stone upon stone did not remain in magnificent Jerusalem, built of wonderful stones, and its inhabitants died from the sword of the Romans for rejecting the Savior and committing deicide.
The path of earthly life for all the saints was a difficult, thorny path, full of hardships, surrounded by countless misfortunes.
The initial cause of human suffering is sin. By allowing sinners to grieve, God awakens them to come to their senses, to stop in the midst of their uncontrollable passion, and to remember eternity.
* * *AND true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: for the Father seeks such as those who worship Him 68 .
The truth is our Lord Jesus Christ, as He testified about Himself: I am the way and the truth and the life 69. Truth is the Word of God: Your word is truth 70. This word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, filled with grace and truth 71 . No one has seen God anywhere, but the Word of God, the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, who confessed 72. He confessed before men, fully revealed God to men, the Son of God, the Word of God; The Son of God revealed to men a truth inaccessible to them, testifying and sealing the undeniable truth with the most abundant teaching of Divine grace.
Truth has its own Spirit. This Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth 73 . He is the Spirit proceeding from the Father 74. He is the Holy Spirit of God 75. He is the Spirit of the Son 76, as constantly co-present with the Son, as constituting with the Father and the Son one indivisible and unfused Divine Being.
No one will come to the Father except Me 77, said the Lord.
If you continue in My word, said the Lord, Truly you will be my disciples. And you will understand the Truth, and the Truth will set you free 78 .
Let us follow the Truth and inherit the Truth. Truth frees the human mind from the invisible bonds of error in which sin has bound it.
Faith in Christ alone brings knowledge of the Truth. One true Christian, a Christian by faith and works, can be a true worshiper of God, worshiping and serving God as Father, Spirit and Truth.
* * *D The virtue opposite to pride and its special expression in the human spirit itself—conceit—is humility.
What is humility? Humility is man's correct concept of humanity: therefore, it is man's correct concept of himself.
Virtue - humility - received its name from the inner world of the heart that it gives birth to.
This definition of humility and humbleness of mind was indicated by the Lord Himself. He said: If you understand the truth, then the truth will set you free 79. Divine Truth - Our Lord Jesus Christ 80. He announced: Learn from Me, from Divine Truth, For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls 81. Humility is the way a person thinks about himself and about humanity, instilled and inspired by Divine Truth.
Let us imitate the holy Apostle Paul and other holy saints of God; Let us approach God, completely rejecting destructive self-conceit, through humility. Through humility, let us cleave to God; through humility, let us attract to ourselves the attention and mercy of our God, Who said: To whom will I look, namely the meek and humble and trembling at My words? 82. God said: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance 83. Let our heart be characterized by humility.
* * *IN whoever confessed Me before men, let us also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. And whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. 84 . Anyone else would be ashamed of me, said the Lord, and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, and the Son of man will be ashamed of it when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels 85. We must not only confess the Lord, we must not only acknowledge His Divinity and sovereignty, we must confess His teaching, we must confess His commandments. The commandments are confessed by fulfilling them.
All earthly blessings and advantages leave a person, remain on earth when a person, according to the inevitable and inexorable law of death, leaves the earth and moves irrevocably into eternity.
May it be granted to us, for the exact confession of the Lord, to inherit eternal life, prepared for all of us by the incomprehensible, boundless mercy of the Lord who redeemed us with Himself. Amen.
* * *IN The Savior of the world proclaims Himself to the full hearing of mankind: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Let us approach by faith and love, so that we may be partakers of eternal life.
* * *ABOUT our feelings are influenced by thoughts that arise in ourselves and are brought to us by the spirits of evil, the enemies of the human race. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by sadness, sometimes we are outraged by anger; sometimes carried away by voluptuousness, sometimes delighted by vanity and pride.
Saint Peter did not drown [when he walked on the sea] until that time, until which he firmly believed that he was acting at the command of God. The Apostle Peter, beginning to drown, cried out to the Lord.
Like the Apostle Peter, we must cry out to the Lord with all our soul. He will call to Me, says the Lord, and I will hear him: I am with him in sorrow, I will destroy him, and I will glorify him, I will fill him with long days, and I will show him My salvation. 86 .
To those who love God, said the apostle, everyone will hasten for good 87, not only external sorrows and misfortunes, but also sorrows caused by rebellion and a storm of passions.
* * *M I will sing to You, Lord, of wickedness and judgment: I sing and understand the ways of the blameless 88 .
Mercy and judgment, communicated to man by the Gospel teaching, are based on faith in God, on living faith, expressed by deeds and all behavior.
Living a life pleasing to God must be entirely based on faith. The righteous will live by faith 89, says the Scripture: the word of the Lord is right, all His works are in faith 90 . Without faith it is impossible to please God 91. Faith teaches us to direct all actions according to the Gospel commandments.
The ruler is obliged to restore, firstly, legal, God-ordained governance in himself.
* * * G The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were located on a most fertile valley under the happy sky of Palestine. Lawlessness of Sodom consisted in pride, in the abundance of bread and in abundance of wine 92. From satiety, a carnal state is usually formed, inseparable from carnal wisdom, or the way of thinking of a person, attached to senseless cattle and likened to them 93. The proud is alien to the reverence of God, alien to the fear of God, respect for the law of God and civil law, alien to respect for one's neighbor.Men who were in Sodom, says Scripture, evil and sinful before God 94 .
The cry of Sodom and Gomora is multiplied to Me, - God says to His beloved Prophet, - and their great sins.
* * *WITH This is the eternal life, that they may know the one true God, and whom Jesus Christ sent. 95. Living faith - seeing and knowing God 96. Living faith is a life devoted entirely to piety and mortification for the world. Living faith is a gift of God.
* * * Believe in the Son (of God) to have eternal life: but whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him 97. This is how God’s unfaithful Word defines it.An inspired lawgiver made a dire prediction to Israel about the fate that would finally befall them in the Promised Land: The Lord will guide you, says Moses, a language from afar, from the ends of the earth, like the aspiration of an eagle: a language, you cannot understand the verb, a language without a cold in the lyceum, which will not be surprised by the face of an old man, and will not have mercy on a young woman 98. Moses correctly depicts the Romans, who did not yet exist at that time, but already existed in the predestination of God; Their military character is correctly depicted, likened to the swiftness, rapacity and strength of an eagle, recognized by the Romans themselves, who crowned their banners with eagles.
Tongue cold face, this unborn people, - Moses continues, foretells to Israel, - He will glean the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land, for he will not leave you wheat, wine, or oil, your herds of oxen or pastures of your sheep, until he destroys you. And he will crush you in all your cities, until your high and strong walls, in which you trusted, are destroyed, throughout all your land: and he will embitter you in all your cities, which the Lord your God has given you. 99. The prophecy was fulfilled exactly: the Romans took and destroyed the Jewish fortresses, one after another, devastated the country, then approached Jerusalem. Jerusalem was surrounded over a large area by centuries-old olive gardens. The Romans cut down the gardens for the construction of battering machines and for other needs of the camp - thus turning the magnificent area into a bare desert. After a long siege, they took the city, burned the famous temple, destroyed buildings and walls, and left no stone unturned.
Moses depicts the terrible misfortune of the besieged during the siege: Carry away the children of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, which the Lord your God has given you, in your distress and in your sorrow, with which your enemy will insult you 100 . All this happened to Israel, fulfilling the measure of its iniquities with deicide.
More than a million Jews died violently during the siege; about one hundred thousand were captured. The prisoners were put on ships, transported to Egypt, and there, in the markets of crowded Alexandria, they were sold into slavery at the lowest price. And with this action the Romans fulfilled the prophecy of Moses. Israel, having just completed a difficult forty-year journey through the Arabian desert from Egypt to the land of Canaan, is foreshadowed by the lawgiver: And the Lord God will bring you back to Egypt in ships; 101. Two thousand five hundred captive Jews died in Caesarea from fire, from animals, from the sword of gladiators at a popular festival given by Titus, the leader of the victors, after the capture of Jerusalem.
Other Jews, scattered throughout the then known world, were subjected to strict supervision, suspicion, oppression, and persecution. The Lord your God will scatter you, - Moses continues the wonderful prophecy, - in all languages, from the ends of the earth even to the ends of it 102 .
It was the Promised Land, a land so abundant that the Holy Scriptures call it flowing with honey and milk. Subsequently, the soil of the Promised Land changed and lost its blessed fertility. Where millions once lived, tens of thousands now live, living on very little.
Alien - that is, a foreigner, says Moses - whoever comes from the earth a long time ago will see the plagues of that land– once the Promised Land – its ailments, even as the Lord sent the messenger to the ground and the burnt salt: all its land will not be sown, nor will it vegetate, and every kind of grain will grow on it... And all the nations will say: what has the Lord done to the soil of this land? And they say: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God, which their father commanded 103. By rejecting the Messiah and committing deicide, the Israelites finally destroyed the covenant with God.
The apostasy of the new Israel from the Savior will take on an extensive development towards the end of times, as the apostle foretold: Retreat will come first, and then, as a consequence and fruit of retreat, the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction 104 .
Faith in Christ will barely exist, as the Lord Himself declared: When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? 105 Material temporary activities and pleasures will attract the full attention of mankind. As it was in the days of Noah, says the Gospel, So it will be in the days of the Son of Man: I ate, I ate, I married, I encroached, and before that day Noah went into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed everything. As it was in the days of Lot: yadyahu, piyahu, kupovahu, sellahu, soot, zdahu 106. Abundant earthly prosperity and enormous earthly enterprises are displayed as obvious to everyone.
Who else loves peace, that is, earthly life with its prosperity and pleasure, - there is no love Fathers, i.e. God's, in it 107. You can't work for God and mammon, i.e., God and earthly prosperity 108.
The old Israel was deceived by the dream of higher earthly success, and the new Israel is deceived by a similar dream and a similar aspiration. Temporal and eternal disasters befell the old Israel for rejecting the Redeemer: these disasters are a weak image of the terrible disasters that should be the punishment of the new Israel for its crime.
We must lead our lives with special attention to the New Testament, which God was pleased to enter into with us, uniting us with Himself with the holy sacraments, declaring to us His all-holy and perfect will in the Gospel, crowning the faithful sons of the New Testament with the clear and tangible gift of the Holy Spirit.
The majority of people, intoxicated by the false and seductive teaching of the rejected spirits 109, overwhelmed by the action of this teaching in them, despised the Word of God, do not know and do not want to know it. It is necessary, urgently necessary, to pay attention to the Word of God, justified by the very events of a time and mood hostile to it, not when we fall away! We need, we need this attention so as not to lose our salvation irrevocably.
* * *N The primary reason for spiritual, eternal bliss for a person is a careful study of the law of God and living according to the law of God.
Those who are given the disposal of earthly goods must be especially protected from their abuse. Glorious and strong lands! Your purpose is to be benefactors of people and, through doing good to your neighbors, to be benefactors to yourself.
Temporary wealth is called unrighteous because it is a consequence of the fall. Temporary wealth is called someone else's, it itself is destroyed and constantly passes from hand to hand; it is not characteristic of man, it serves as a denunciation of his need to help himself, a denunciation of his fall.
By using your property for luxury and entertainment, you are trampling on the law of God, robbing your neighbors of what God has instructed you to distribute to them. By indulging in feasts and amusements, you are destroying yourself. You enslave the spirit to the body; you muffle, kill the soul; you forget about God, about eternity, you lose your very faith.
“Woe to you,” declared the Savior, “to the rich who abuse your wealth: for you will defend your consolation. Woe to you who are now full: for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will weep and weep 110 . – Give alms, create for yourself a vagina that does not decay, an infinite treasure in heaven 111 .
Make for yourself friends from the mammon of untruth, yes, when you become poor, will accept you into eternal shelters! It is as if you will become impoverished, impoverished in the full sense, when, under the mysterious action of death, you leave on earth everything that belongs to the earth and borrowed from the earth, when you leave your very bodies on it! May the celestials accept you then into eternal shelters 112, to heavenly abodes!
* * *AND of true prayer, the true teacher is God alone.
The Lord's Prayer begins with the invocation: Our Father! Only God could allow such an appeal to God. He allowed; if He allowed, then He granted. The Son of God, having become man, made men sons of God and His brothers. He refers to God the Father by right of nature: Our Father! - and he grants us the gracious right to approach God as the Father.
Hallowed be your name in my spiritual temple!
Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. The celestials are called heaven; by them the will of God is accomplished immaculately, unfailingly. They no longer mix their own will with the will of God! They no longer have a separate will! Their will merged with the will of God.
The complete union of the human will with the will of God is a state of perfection that only a rational creation of God can achieve. Angels have this perfection.
The bread given by the Son of God is His all-holy flesh, which He gave for the life of the world 113. The wonderful food is accompanied by equally wonderful drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him 114 .
The ordinary food of the sons of the old Adam, common to them with dumb animals, destroyed by digestion and unable to eliminate death, is brutally perishing 115. [But then] He appeared daily bread, heavenly bread, bread that destroys death, teaching eternal life 116.
The beginning of the Lord's Prayer, which allows a person to relate to God as a Father, explains the reason for the most sublime petitions that make up the prayer. The son can ask the father for everything the father has.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, that Divine righteousness that introduces it, and all this, all the needs of earthly life, will be added to you 117.
* * *IN love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind 118 .
The Holy Apostle Paul says that God's love is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit 119.
Studying and doing the will of God is recognized as a sure sign of love for God by God Himself. Have My Commandments, said the Savior, and if you keep them, you will love Me. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. If you do not love Me, you will not keep My words. 120 .
The apostle says: Imagine the body of your sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God 121 . Befitting this perishable thing body put on incorruption, and put on this dead thing immortality 122 . The spiritual body is sown, the spiritual body is raised 123 .
I have seen the Lord before me, as He is at my right hand, so that I will not be moved 124, says the Prophet. A living and constant remembrance of God is a vision of God.
“There is nothing faster than the mind,” said the Monk Barsanuphius the Great, “bring it to God” for every need encountered.
The first spiritual manifestation of love for God is revealed in the feeling of the fear of God, which, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, is the beginning of wisdom 125. What is the wisdom of God if not Divine love? It is natural for the fear of God to be the beginning of love and the first fruit of attentive prayer.
* * *P Correct self-love lies in fulfilling Christ’s life-giving commandments: This is love, that we may walk according to His commandments, said Saint John the Theologian 126.
Let us courageously enter into the struggle with self-love under the guidance of the Gospel, in which the will of God is depicted, pleasing and perfect, in which the New Adam, Christ, mysteriously lives, and conveys affinity with Himself to all His children.
* * * G the Lord said: Take heed and be guarded from covetousness: for it is not out of abundance that anyone should eat his belly from his substance., i.e. the duration of earthly life does not depend on property.[In the Gospel parable of the rich man] God speaks to the rich man: Crazy! This night they will take your soul from you: and what you have prepared, to whom will it be?
Death is sent by God or some kind of vicissitude is allowed, and the most lasting earthly well-being collapses. This is the fruit of the love of money, covetousness and, in general, an intense desire to acquire property, a desire carried out under the exclusive direction of self-love.
To grow rich in God means to lead a life pleasing to God. By transferring his perishable property to heaven through alms, a Christian will inconspicuously transfer his heart to heaven, as the Lord himself testified: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be 127. The Apostle, even during his stay on earth, announced about himself: Our life in heaven is 128 .
* * * He who has acquired the Kingdom of God within himself is guided by the Holy Spirit, Who instructs in all truth 129 .
A certain blessed monk said very correctly when talking about the Antichrist: “Many will believe in the Antichrist, and will begin to glorify him as a mighty God. Those who have God always within themselves and those who are enlightened in their hearts will see the truth through pure faith and know Him.”
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man, I ate, I ate, I married, I encroached, and before that day Noah went into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed everything. Just as it was in the days of Lot: yadyahu, piyahu, kupovahu, sellahu, sazhdahu, zdahu 130, - Holy Scripture tells that Noah's contemporaries and Lot's fellow citizens indulged in immeasurable debauchery. Depravity is born from deviation from God, from complete striving for earthly pursuits and material development.
My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh., - said the Lord about Noah’s contemporaries 131. General depravity, together with the abundant material development that gave rise to it, will be a sign of the end of the age and the approaching Last Judgment of Christ. Corruption, in the broad sense of this word, will become the property of humanity in the last times of humanity’s stay on earth. There will be more people, - says the holy Apostle Paul, - self-lovers, lovers of money, dignified, proud, blasphemers, opposed to parents, ungrateful, unrighteous, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, incontinence, necrotic, unkind, traitorous, impudent, pompous, sensualists more than lovers of God, having an image of piety, but its power has been revealed 132 .
Humanity will not see its plight in moral and spiritual terms; it, on the contrary, will trumpet its success, being blinded by success in material development for time and earth, rejecting Christian development for the spirit, for eternity, for God. When the world will proclaim and extol its prosperity, the establishment of supreme prosperity, indestructible peace and statements: then all destruction will suddenly attack them(1 Sol. 5, 3); then suddenly the end of the world will come.
The Monk [Zosima Solovetsky] said: “When you hear that Christ came to earth or appeared on earth, then know that this is the Antichrist.” The world, or humanity, will not recognize the Antichrist: it will recognize him as Christ, will proclaim him as Christ.
The Savior of the world, introducing His disciples to the signs heralding His imminent second coming, said: Just as lightning comes from the east and appears to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be 133. The Son of God will appear suddenly; He will appear by His omnipotence to all people and the whole earth at one time. The objection of scientists that it is not possible for the Son of God to appear at one time before all mankind due to the natural spherical structure of the earth has no place.
For people who lead a carnal, sinful life, intoxicated and foggy by it, the coming of the Lord will come like a snare. This network will embrace all of humanity. There is no way for anyone to escape, to escape the net. Knowing this, we will remain in constant sobriety.
* * * B The bodily eyes are insensitive and blind when the mind is blind. Our Lord Jesus Christ, during His stay on earth, performed the most amazing miracles to confirm His Divinity; These signs were so obvious and tangible that the Divinity of God incarnate had to become obvious and clear to the most limited, to the most sensual people. But people looked with all their eyes and saw nothing.Having come to know the Redeemer in our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess Him; Having known and confessed, we will see Him and worship Him with that worship that is fitting and fitting for God, our Creator and Savior.
* * *G The Lord, seeing with the all-seeing eye the present and future inattention of people to Him, said: Many are the ranks, few are the chosen ones 134. The merciful God calls everyone to salvation, but very few obey Him. We all belong to the number of those called due to the ineffable love of God for us, but very few of us are included in the number of the elect, because inclusion in the number of the elect is left to our own free will.
* * *B Gratitude is a rare virtue among people.
Give thanks for everything, says the apostle; he announces: This is the will of God for Christ Jesus in you 135 .
Only one who spends his earthly life as a wanderer, by the way of thoughts, by the feeling of his heart, by the activity flowing from them, can constantly glorify and bless God.
The greatness of God's works, contemplated in visible nature, leads to the glorification of God. O earthly wanderer! Look at nature, at this inn, and the hostel in which you are placed for the shortest possible time, for the duration of your earthly life - look at it from the purity of mind formed by a virtuous life and the removal of yourself from a bestial life - look at the abundance of blessings that you furnished! From such a view, the soul is naturally filled with thanksgiving to God.
To see God clearly visible in visible nature, to give Him worship, praise, and thanksgiving is left to all people.
Evil thoughts defile and destroy a person 136; holy thoughts sanctify and give life to him. Holy thoughts lead to Him. From them are born words and deeds pleasing to God. The prudent leper was brought by the holy thought before the face of the Savior, gave Him praise and thanksgiving, and heard from Him the announcement of his salvation: your faith will save you.
* * *A rhieree swearing, - the Gospel will tell, - with the scribes and elders and Pharisees, the verb: He saved others, Can he not save himself? If there is a king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we believe in him 137. They recognize the miracles performed by the Lord as miracles, and together they mock him; mockingly, they reject them.
Among those who wanted to see a miracle from the Lord, which frivolity, curiosity, and recklessness intended to amuse themselves, is Herod 138. This one needed a sign for a pleasant pastime; not having received what he wanted, he showered the Lord with ridicule, thereby giving himself a moment of entertainment.
It was a grave sin to demand a miracle from the God-Man, a demand made on the basis and from the principles of carnal wisdom. The God-man, having heard this impudent, blasphemous demand, breathing with His Spirit, saying, “What is this generation seeking for a sign?” Amen I say to you, if a sign is given to this generation. And leave them, go away 139 .
Exactly: carnal wisdom death is 140 .
Before the second coming of Christ, when Christianity, spiritual knowledge and reasoning become impoverished to the extreme among people, - False Christs and false prophets will rise up and show great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect 141. In particular, the Antichrist himself will abundantly lavish miracles, amaze and satisfy with them carnal wisdom and ignorance: he will give them sign from heaven, which they seek and crave. His coming, says the holy Apostle Paul, will be accomplished according to the work of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders, and in all deceitfulness of unrighteousness among those who are perishing: not having received the truth for love, how can they be saved? 142. Ignorance and carnal wisdom, having seen these miracles, will not stop at all for reflection: they will immediately accept them according to the affinity of their spirit with their spirit, out of their blindness they will recognize and confess the action of Satan as the greatest manifestation of the power of God. The Antichrist will be accepted very hastily, thoughtlessly. People will not realize that his miracles have no good, reasonable purpose, no definite meaning, that they are alien to the truth, filled with lies, that they are a monstrous, all-evil, meaningless act, trying to surprise, lead to bewilderment and self-forgetfulness, seduce, deceive , to captivate with the charm of a luxurious, empty, stupid effect.
It is not strange that the miracles of the Antichrist will be accepted unquestioningly and with delight by apostates from Christianity, enemies of truth, enemies of God: they prepared themselves for the open, active acceptance of the messenger and instrument of Satan, his teachings, all his actions, having timely entered into communication with Satan in the spirit .
The reason for the strong influence of the Antichrist on people will lie in his hellish cunning and hypocrisy, with which he skillfully covers up the most terrible evil, in his unbridled and shameless audacity, in the abundant assistance of fallen spirits to him, and finally, in the ability to create miracles, although false, but amazing. The human imagination is powerless to imagine the villain that the Antichrist will be. He will trumpet himself, as his forerunners and icons trumpeted themselves, and will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God; those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion and will join him. He will sound the trumpet and call himself the promised Messiah; the children of carnal wisdom exclaimed at the meeting; seeing his glory, power, genius abilities, extensive development in the elements of the world, they will proclaim him a god and become his associates. The Antichrist will show himself meek, merciful, full of love, full of every virtue: those who recognize the fallen human truth as true and have not renounced it for the truth of the Gospel will recognize him as such and submit to him because of his most sublime virtue. The Antichrist will offer humanity the creation of the highest earthly well-being and prosperity, he will offer honors, wealth and splendor, carnal comforts and pleasures; seekers of earthly things will accept the Antichrist and call him their ruler. The Antichrist will reveal before humanity a disgrace of astonishing miracles, similar to sophisticated theater performances, inexplicable by modern science; he will bring fear with thunder and the wonder of his miracles.
The signs of the Antichrist will primarily appear in the airy layer: in this layer Satan predominantly dominates 143. Saint John the Theologian, contemplating in revelation the events of the world that must precede his death, says that the Antichrist will do great things, and fire will make it come down from heaven to earth before men 144. This sign is indicated by Scripture as the highest of the signs of the Antichrist, and the place of this sign is the air: it will be a magnificent and terrible sight. The signs of the Antichrist will complement the actions of his cunning behavior and will attract the majority of people to follow him. Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered troublemakers, enemies of the public good and order, will be subject to both covert and open persecution, torture and execution. Evil spirits, scattered throughout the universe, will arouse in people a general, lofty opinion of the Antichrist, a general delight, an irresistible attraction to him. The name that Scripture gives to this terrible man is that he is called a beast 145, just as the fallen angel is called a serpent 146.
A terrible test will come for the saints of God: the wickedness, hypocrisy, and miracles of the persecutor will intensify to deceive and seduce them. A small number of them will seem insignificant before all humanity and their opinion will be given special weakness; general contempt, hatred, slander, oppression, violent death will be their lot. Only with the special assistance of Divine grace, under its guidance, will God’s chosen ones be able to resist the enemy of God, to confess the Lord Jesus Christ before him and before men.
The sign of the prophet Jonah, as explained by the Savior Himself, 147 signified the signs that accompanied His death and resurrection. Then God gave sign from heaven! Then the sun, seeing the Lord crucified, darkened at noon; there was widespread deep darkness, lasting three hours; the curtain of the Temple of Jerusalem was torn in two by itself, from the top to the bottom; there was an earthquake; the stones were dissolved, the coffins were opened; many saints were resurrected and appeared to many in the holy city 148. At the very resurrection of the Lord, an earthquake again followed; a luminous Angel descended from heaven to the tomb of the Lord, as a witness of the resurrection, struck with horror the guards assigned to the tomb by the seekers signs from heaven. The guards announced the completed resurrection of the Lord to the Jewish Sanhedrin. He, having received sign from heaven, expressed disdain and hatred for him, which he had expressed for all the previous miracles of the God-Man, bribed the guards, and together with them took care to cover the miracle of God with the darkness of lies 149.
The miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ are God's gift to humanity. The miracles of Christ were completely certain. We can say about all of them what the Lord said to the Apostle Thomas: Bring your finger to this, and see my hand: and bring your hand, and put my side, and be not unfaithful, but faithful 150. The miracles of Christ were tangible; they were clear to the simplest people. The dead were resurrected, illnesses that could not be healed by human means were healed, lepers were cleansed, those born blind received their sight, the dumb began to speak; food was instantly multiplied for those who needed it; the waves of the sea and the winds subsided with one commanding word, and those whom the storm threatened with death were delivered from death; The depths of the fishermen, who had labored in vain in fishing for a long time, were suddenly filled with fish, obedient to the silent voice of their Lord. The miracles of the God-man had many witnesses, most of whom were either hostile to Him, or inattentive, or sought only bodily help from Him. The miracles were irrefutable. The worst enemies of the Lord did not reject them, they only tried to humiliate them with blasphemous interpretation and all the means that were instilled in them by deceit and malice 151.
One day, many people gathered in the house where the Lord was. At this time they brought in a paralytic who did not leave his bed. Those who brought it, seeing the crowd and cramped conditions, carried the sick man onto the roof; Having made a hole in the ceiling, they lowered him onto a bed before the Lord. Seeing the act of faith, the merciful Lord said to the paralytic: Child, your sins are forgiven. The relaxed one was instantly healed and strengthened; took the bed and went out in front of everyone 152. The miracle is filled with Divine wisdom and goodness. Firstly, the Lord gives the suffering person an essential spiritual gift, not visible with sensory eyes: remission of sins. The giving of the gift aroused an involuntary confession among Jewish scholars that such a gift could be given by God alone. The Lord, in response to their heartfelt thoughts, gives them new proof of Himself that He is God. Finally, the spiritual gift and spiritual proof are sealed by the gift and material proof: the instant and complete healing of the sick person.
The signs of God were given to assist the Word of God. Signs testified to the power and meaning of the word 153.
Neither the word nor the signs of the God-man had any beneficial effect on the Jewish high priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, although, with the exception of the latter, they clearly knew the Law of God to the letter. They were not only alien to God, hostile to God because of the sinful infection common to all humanity, but they became so, established and imprinted themselves in such a disposition because of their own will.
The reason for the rejection of the God-man by people lies in people, just as the reason for the acceptance of the Antichrist lies in them. I came in the name of My Father, - the Lord testified to the Jews, - and you do not accept Me: if anyone comes in his name, you will accept him 154 .
Those who are led by the spirit of the Antichrist, those who reject Christ, accepted the Antichrist in their spirit, entered into communication with him, submitted and worshiped him in spirit, recognizing him as their god.
The coming of him [the Antichrist] will be preceded by a general apostasy among the majority of people from the Christian faith. By retreating from Christ, humanity will prepare to accept the Antichrist and will accept him in its spirit.
The unbeliever needs proof; but the believer does not need any proof or sign. Signs were given not to believers, but to unbelievers, so that they would become believers; This is what Paul says: Signs are not for those who believe, but for those who disbelieve 155 .
The Gospel commandments, being fulfilled, immediately begin to transform, transform, revive a person, transform his way of thinking, his heartfelt feelings, his body itself: For the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating even to the dividing of soul and spirit, members and brains, and judging by the thoughts and thoughts of the heart 156. The Word of God contains within itself a testimony about itself. It, like celibate signs, acts in the person himself and by this action testifies to itself. It is the highest sign. It is a spiritual sign, which, being given to a person, satisfies all the needs of his salvation, making the benefit of material signs unnecessary.
True righteous people not only do not want to be miracle workers, but even when they are given the gift of miracles, they refuse it.
Invisible gifts of grace, incomparably higher than visible ones, such as, for example, the gift of leading souls to salvation and healing them from passions, are not understood and not noticed by the world: it not only does not glorify the servants of God who have these gifts, but also persecutes them as acting against beginnings of the world, as slandering the dominion of the world ruler.
The Great Fathers, Sisoi, Pimen and others, having an abundant gift of healing, tried to hide it. The holy apostles, who were given the gift of miracles to facilitate preaching, were allowed by God's Providence to suffer severe sorrows and persecutions precisely for the purpose of protecting them from exaltation.
Spiritual reason teaches that illnesses and other sorrows that God sends to people are sent out of God’s special mercy: like bitter healing treatments for the sick, they contribute to our salvation, our eternal well-being much more surely than miraculous healings.
The poor, sick Lazarus, mentioned in the Gospel, was not healed of his serious illness, was not delivered from poverty, died in the position in which he languished for a long time, but for his patience he was lifted up by the Angels into the bosom of Abraham 157. The Holy Scripture throughout its entire space testifies that God sends various sorrows, and among them bodily ailments, to those people whom He loved 158. Holy Scripture asserts that all the saints of God, without exception, made an earthly pilgrimage along a narrow and thorny path, filled with various sorrows and hardships 159.
The first thing they did when grief came was to realize that they were worthy of it. The holy monks, when they were exposed to illnesses, accepted them as the greatest blessing of God, tried to remain in praise and thanksgiving to God, and did not seek healing. They wanted to patiently and humbly endure God’s permission, believing and confessing that it was more beneficial to the soul than any voluntary feat.
In the Egyptian Skete, where the greatest holy monks stayed, lived the Monk Benjamin. For his virtuous life, God gave him the abundant gift of healing ailments. Having this gift, he himself suffered from a severe and prolonged water illness. He swelled unusually. They were forced to take him out of his own cell to another, more spacious one. In the new room they arranged a special seat for him because he could not lie on the bed. Being in this position, the monk continued to heal others, and those who, seeing his suffering, sympathized with him, exhorted them to pray for his soul, without worrying about his body.
[Another example. ] Some of the older brethren asked the Great Barsanuphius to heal the abbot. Saint Barsanuphius answered: “Some of the saints who are here could have prayed to God for the health of my son, which I informed him about, and he would not have been sick for a single day; but then he would not have received the fruits of patience. This illness is very useful for him for patience and thanksgiving.”
Saint Isaac of Syria says: “Temptation is useful to every person. If it is useful to Pavel: then Let every mouth be stopped, and the whole world will be guilty of God. 160. Ascetics are subjected to temptation so that they increase their wealth... God first tempts and torments, and then gives the gift... How can a clay vessel endure the fineness of water if it is not first strengthened by Divine fire?
Knowledge of the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures, spoken by the Holy Spirit and explained by the Holy Spirit, combined with knowledge gleaned from activity directed according to the Word of God, finally overshadowed by knowledge taught by Divine grace, gives the Christian purity of mind and heart. In this purity the spiritual mind shines like the sun in a clear sky free of clouds.
The view of the soul's eye on signs and wonders must be illuminated with the light of spiritual reason in order to avoid those disasters into which the view of carnal wisdom may involve them. The signs, having completed their ministry, left the field of service, leaving the essential worker to act - the Word, Who abides and will remain a worker until the end of the world, as He himself announced about Himself: I am with you until the end of time 161 .
Living faith seems to see Christ 162. Living faith is spiritual intelligence. She no longer needs signs, being completely satisfied with the signs of Christ and the greatest of His signs, the crown of signs, His word. – Let us cleave to the Word of God with all our souls, let us unite with it into one spirit, and the signs of the Antichrist will not even attract our attention. With disdain and disgust towards them, we will turn our gaze away from them, as from a demonic disgrace, as from the deeds of frantic enemies of God, as from a reproach to God, as from poison and deadly infection.
Humility is inseparable from spiritual intelligence. Saint Isaac of Syria says: “Only he who has humility can be recognized as reasonable; He who does not have humility will never acquire intelligence.” Living faith opens the eyes of the soul to God: the Word of God unites the soul with God. He who has seen God in this way, who has felt God in this way, sees his own insignificance and is filled with inexpressible reverence for God and for all His works.
All the hope of such a soul is concentrated in God, and therefore there is no reason for it to have fun during prayer; she prays, pooling her strength together and rushing to God with all her being; She resorts to prayer as often as possible, she prays unceasingly.
Prayer is always necessary and useful for a person: it keeps him in communion with God and under the protection of God. In times of sorrow and danger, visible and invisible, prayer is especially needed.
* * *A whatever you want to put into your belly, keep the commandments 163,” said our Lord Jesus Christ to a certain young man. The Lord said: If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor: and have treasure in heaven: and come after Me, take up the cross 164 .
From the Lord’s answers to the young man we learn that two blessed states are prepared by the Lord for those who believe in Him: state of salvation And state of Christian perfection. It is necessary for those who want to be saved to believe in God, the Creator and the Redeemer. This is the eternal belly, - said our Savior, - let them know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ sent Him 165. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to belong to the Orthodox Church, the one true Church, and to obey its regulations. Each of us, pronouncing the Creed, confesses that he believes in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, confesses, therefore, that, besides this One Church, there is no other Church, much less there are no other Churches, even different human societies and took upon themselves the name of the Church. – It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to be baptized in the bosom of the Orthodox Church in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It should be noted that in the Greek language, in which the entire New Testament was written by the apostles, the word baptism in the exact sense means immersion. Wherever the words are used in the New Testament baptism, baptize, baptized, baptized, one must understand immersion, immersion, immersion, immersion. Throughout the entire universe, the Holy Sacrament of Baptism was performed by immersion during the twelve centuries after the birth of Christ; from the twelfth century in the West they began to use dousing instead of immersion; subsequently, in some Western societies, dousing was replaced by sprinkling. – It is necessary for those who want to be saved to repent of their sins and cleanse them through confession. By the Sacrament of Repentance, the purity acquired at Baptism is maintained and renewed, and our unity with Christ, given to us by Holy Baptism, is maintained and renewed. You are baptized with the second baptism according to the Christian sacrament, - says, by command of the Holy Church, the priest performing the Sacrament of Repentance to the Christian repenting before him. The Sacrament of Repentance has been changed in the West, and rejected by Protestants. – It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, the all-holy Body of Christ and the all-holy Blood of Christ. Amen, amen, said the Lord, Unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man and drunk His blood, you have not life within you. Eat My flesh and drink My blood to have an eternal life 166. The great mystery of the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is accomplished through the invocation and influx of the Holy Spirit during preceding and subsequent prayers, which together constitute the Divine Liturgy. Without the Divine Liturgy performed by an Orthodox bishop or priest, the bread offered cannot be transubstantiated into the Body of Christ, and the wine offered into the Blood of Christ cannot follow. All the ancient Liturgies of the Universe are completely similar to each other in essential parts. In later times, the invocation of the Holy Spirit was excluded from the Roman Liturgy, and Protestants rejected the Liturgy altogether. – So, for those who want to be saved, firstly, it is necessary that he correctly believed in God, belonged to the Orthodox Church, was baptized in its bosom, anointed, cleansed of sins by repentance, and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ; secondly, it is necessary for him, as the Lord told the young man, to keep the Commandments of God. The Lord first pointed out the commandments that prohibit gross, mortal sins. He repeated what Moses had already said to ancient Israel: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness; then he ordered us to honor our father and mother; finally, he commanded to love your neighbor as yourself 167.
What does it mean to inherit salvation, to be saved? This means: to assimilate oneself to the Redeemer, to remain in this assimilation throughout one’s earthly life, and after death, due to such assimilation to the Redeemer, to be transferred with one’s soul to the villages of blessed spirits, to enjoy holy pleasure with them in anticipation of the general resurrection of the dead; then, at the resurrection of the dead, to unite with the body, which the Lord will revive and make incorruptible, and with the body to inherit deep, eternal bliss. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Life and the Source of life; we are made partakers of this life by faith in the teachings of Christ, baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, baptism sealed through the anointing of the baptized with holy myrrh.
What does Christian perfection mean?
About the spiritual, that is, about the perfect Christian, only one spiritual can reason, only one spiritual can understand and evaluate it 168.
The Lord commands the one who wishes to strive towards attaining perfection not to give alms gradually, as is required of those who are being saved, but commands him to sell all his property at once, and to distribute the entire price received for it at once, with great haste, to the poor, thus breaking off all ties with the world, all relationships to the world and follow Christ by taking up the cross. What does it mean to take up the cross and follow Christ? – To take up the cross means to embrace with faith and love all hardships, all persecutions, sorrows and reproaches from the world, as Christ lifted them up; to take the cross means to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, to live in the flesh not for the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, to live by the Spirit, to be controlled by the Spirit 169 . What does Christian perfection mean? – This is a tangible and obvious renewal of a Christian by the Holy Spirit, which can only be accomplished over one who died to sin and to the world on the cross of Christ. A person renewed by the Spirit becomes a God-bearer, becomes a temple of God and a Priest, officiating in this Temple, worshiping God in Spirit and Truth. The apostles and all other saints of God were granted such perfection in varying degrees.
Blessed are God's chosen ones, called by God to perfection! But truly happy are those to whom the merciful Lord grants salvation. We are all called to this happiness, without exception.
* * *IN spiritually, all sinners must be recognized as blind: they are definitely blind. The blind sinner does not see either God, or eternity, or himself, or the purpose for which man was created, or the death that awaits him and all people, which is inevitable neither for him nor for any of the people. And death, forgotten by him, comes, tears him away from the field of his activity, presents him to the judgment of God, about which he never thought, for which he was not at all prepared.
It takes faith: your faith will save you, - the Lord said to the blind man after healing him. Faith is needed for constancy in the feat of prayer; We need oral and public prayer, prayer combined with crying and screaming. They forbade the blind man to cry, and he cried the more; They commanded the blind man to be silent, and he cried out the louder. This is what we must do: we must overcome and trample upon all obstacles to prayer.
The main condition for success in prayer is that prayer is always performed with the greatest reverence and attention.
The Holy Church often recalls devotion to God, saying: “Let us give ourselves, each other and our whole life to Christ our God.” Attentive prayer will be aided by remembering the omnipresence and omniscience of God. If He sees everything, then He also sees the disposition of our heart, the mood of our mind. When the mind pays attention to prayer, the heart also listens to it, expressing and proving its attention with a feeling of repentance. The Holy Fathers advise praying slowly, as if enclosing the mind in the words of prayer, so that not a single word escapes attention.
When your mind, - the great John continues to instruct the ascetic of prayer, - is drawn away from attention due to its infancy, you again introduce it into the words of prayer. Master this invisible feat and remain constantly in it.
Constant work in acquiring attention is active evidence before God of our sincere desire to have attention. The attention of the mind during prayer is its complete aspiration towards the Truth, it is its correct state and action. The granting of grace-filled attention to the one praying is an initial spiritual gift from God.
Then the spiritual progress of the ascetic of prayer begins; then, with the power and purity of prayer, he rushes with his whole being towards God; then all extraneous thoughts and dreams recede and disappear, as Saint David said: Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my crying, the Lord has heard my prayer, the Lord has accepted my prayer. May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed- rejected spirits - let them return and be ashamed 171 .
“There are many types of virtue,” said the Monk Nilus of Sora, “but they are private; Heartfelt prayer is the source of all blessings: the soul is watered with it, like a garden with abundant waters.” Pure prayer is coming before the face of God. He who comes before God asks for insight and receives the grace-filled enlightenment of his mind and heart. He enters into true knowledge of God and worship. “Whoever prays with his lips,” says Saint Simeon the New Theologian, “but has not yet acquired spiritual intelligence and cannot pray with his mind, is like a blind man who cried out: Son of David! Have mercy on me. But the one who has acquired spiritual intelligence and prays with the mind, whose spiritual eyes have been opened, is like the same blind man when the Lord healed him, when his sight was restored, and he, seeing the Lord, no longer called Him the Son of David, but confessed Him as the Son God and gave Him the worship due to God.”
Faith is the basis of prayer.
Faith is the mother of silence, both in private and in the heart. He who believes that God constantly provides for him, places all his trust in Him, calms his heart with hope, with the help of hope removes all worries from himself and devotes himself with all his soul to the study of the will of God, revealed to humanity in the Holy Scriptures, revealed even more abundantly by the feat of prayer.
* * * B a line of gold and silver enchants the eyes of Adam’s descendant, infected with sinfulness.Take heed, says the Word of God, narrow gates: like a wide gate and a broad way you lead into destruction, and many are those who enter through it. That you bring a narrow gate and a narrow path into the stomach, and there are few of them who find it 172. The narrow gate is a careful, thorough study of the Law of God both in Scripture and in life; the narrow path is activity entirely directed according to the Gospel commandments.
While Zacchaeus lived his life according to the customs of a world hostile to God and arranged for himself, according to the wisdom and expression of the world, a secure position, not devoid of significance and splendor, but in spiritual terms he was a lost sinner, already doomed to eternal languor in the dungeons of hell, At this time, the Savior of the world made his wanderings across the earth, in the inheritance of the twelve tribes of Israel. Zacchaeus was inflamed with a desire to see the Lord and proved the sincerity of his desire with his actions. His will was accepted by the Lord, who knew the heart, and the Lord was pleased to visit Zacchaeus in his home. The sinner was overcome with joy when he saw the Lord come to him, and the sinner was disgusted by his sins, his heart was rejected from love for the fruit of a sinful life, for corruptible wealth. Having become a heart-reader before the Lord, Zacchaeus said: Behold, the half of my property, Lord, will I give to the poor: and whoever I have offended, I will return in fourfold 173. Zacchaeus confesses to greed and decides to cleanse and sanctify his property and his heart by abundantly giving alms. Zacchaeus' repentance is immediately accepted by the Lord.
In the Gospel word we see a sinner, carried away by the passion of covetousness, who worked for this passion with improper exactions and various insults to his neighbors; We see this sinner, condemned by men, justified by God for his faith and true repentance. A comforting, encouraging sight! And to this day the Savior, according to His false promise, remains among us; and to this day He heals souls ulcerated by sins; and hitherto His Divine definition has not passed by: The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Amen.
* * * Z The Lord told us in the Gospel: It is appropriate to always pray and not be cold 174, that is, do not lose heart.“Prayer,” said Saint John Climacus, “contains within itself a teacher, God, Who teaches man to understand (prayer), Who gives a prayer to the one praying and blesses the years of the righteous 175".
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; press and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives it, and seeks it, and it will be opened to him who asks... The Father who is in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. 176, - this is how the Lord confirms to us. But in order to receive a gift, it is commanded to ask, seek, and knock relentlessly on the spiritual doors of God’s mercy.
The Lord said: Be vigilant at all times, praying, that you may be deemed worthy to flee all these who wish to be, and to stand before the Son of man 177 .
He who ascends to God through pure and frequent prayer acquires living faith in God, sees Him with it and flies like a winged one through all the vicissitudes and disasters of earthly life. He will rejoice not only at the forgiveness of his sins, but also at his cleansing from sinful passions. The Holy Fathers call this state holiness, blissful dispassion, Christian perfection. In this state he will be honored to escape all disasters, who will be, and stand before the Son of man, when he will be demanded before him both by death and by that trumpet, which will gather the living and the dead for judgment before the Son of God. Amen.
* * *T The spiritual feat consists of fulfilling the Gospel commandments bodily. These include: giving material alms, accepting strangers, participating in the various needs and sufferings of needy and suffering humanity. This includes chastity of the body, abstinence from anger, from luxury, from amusements and distractions, from ridicule and gossip, from all words that express anger and impurity of the heart. This includes fasting, vigil, psalmody, kneeling, standing in prayer in the temple and in the cell. This includes monastic obediences and other external feats. A bodily feat requires continuous activity of the body: it moves from one bodily good deed to another, and sometimes combines several good deeds, performing them at the same time. Physical feat gradually cleanses the soul of passions and introduces it to the spirit of the Gospel. The Gospel commandments, being fulfilled in practice, little by little convey to the performer the deep thought and deep feeling living in them, they communicate to the performer Truth, Spirit and Life. Physical feat has its limit and end: these limit and end lie in the ascetic’s decisive transition to spiritual feat.
He who has achieved service to God in spirit abandons external activities and gives up concern for other ways of pleasing God.
Serving and worshiping God in Spirit and Truth is that good part, that blissful state which, having begun during earthly life, does not cease, just as bodily exploits cease, with the end of earthly life.
The merciful Lord calls all people to serve Him. The yoke of Christ is easy, and His burden is light 178.
A physical feat very soon initiates a spiritual feat, capable of delivering salvation.
When the grace of God abundantly overshadows the ascetic, then abundant spiritual feat is revealed in him, guiding him to Christian perfection. The remaining field of life merges into one dying hour! Then, from the depths of the soul, groanings hitherto unknown to her arise! There is a cry that she has never felt before! A prayer arises, such as she has never uttered before! Prayer and weeping arise in the very depths of the soul, are pronounced by the mind and heart with the silence of the lips, ascend to heaven, cast the praying person at the feet of the Savior, are kept at the feet of the Savior: the soul, in confessing its sinfulness and the infinite greatness of God, enters into perfection, is brought into perfection by the right hand the all-good God, who created man and restores him. Bless, my soul, the Lord, who cleanses all your iniquities, heals all your ailments, delivers your belly from corruption, crowns you with mercy and bounty. Your eternal youth will be renewed like an eagle 179 by the omnipotence of the Savior who renewed our nature in Himself and renews us with Himself.
* * *ABOUT earthly life is painful! Our fall is terrible! Everyone, without exception, after a more or less long wandering on earth, equally short before boundless eternity, dies; They leave here both wealth and all temporary advantages, their very body. We see this; We know that we must certainly die, but we spend our earthly life as if we were eternal on earth.
From the very beginning of Christianity, the leading Christians immediately began to leave the noisy middle of cities, settling in their extremities, in the suburbs and surrounding areas. The Christians of the populous city of Alexandria especially did this; there their solitary dwellings received the name monasteries, and they themselves received the name monks, i.e. solitary (from the Greek word “monos”, one). The outskirts of Alexandria and its surroundings were filled with cells of Christians who lived a solitary life.
All types of monastic life, varied only in appearance, have one goal; it consists in eliminating our weakness from the seductions and impressions of the world, giving the proper value to both temporary and eternal life, using the first to obtain the second.
Blessed are the inhabitants of these tabernacles, blessed are the inhabitants of this camp! For they do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and do not stand in the path of sinners, and do not sit on the seat of the destroyers: but all their will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law they learn day and night. 180 . Bless the Lord my soul 181 . Praise the Lord, my soul! 182 Blessed be the Lord, for you have surprised your mercy in the city of enclosure! Astonish your mercy: this means that the Lord performed the greatest mercy by granting the Abode, protected from the temptations of the world by place, walls, customs, and clothing itself, an abode for His daughters who wished to retire and alienate themselves from the world for constant worship.
* * *IN We are all short-term wanderers on earth. Each of us will stay there for as long as God has assigned him, and then he will die, he will certainly die. And our houses, and gardens, and fields, and property, and our very bodies will be taken from us by death. The soul, one soul with its deeds, good or evil, will go into eternity, in eternity it will either be constantly blissful and rejoice, or constantly suffer, cry and groan.
Whoever wants to be saved must belong to the one holy Orthodox Church, be her faithful son, and submit to her institutions in everything. The Lord compared someone who disobeys the Church to an idolater: If anyone disobeys the Church, - he said, - make you like a pagan and a tax collector 183 .
Heresy and schism contain blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is a mortal sin.
Whoever wants to be saved must pray to God. The Holy Fathers call prayer the mother of all virtues, because with it you can ask the merciful Lord for all other virtues, all temporal and eternal blessings, as the Lord testified: Ask, He said, and it will be given to you; seek and ye shall find; push and it will be opened to you.
Everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and it is opened to the one who asks. Your Heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him. 184 .
Whoever wants to be saved must bring to God thorough repentance for his sins.
Whoever wants to be saved must generously endure all the sorrows that will be allowed to him during this short earthly wandering.
Anyone who wants to be saved must read divine books. We must study the Word of God very reverently and very often, so that it can be our guide in the matter of salvation.
The root of all sins, said the holy Apostle Paul, is the love of money, and after the love of money, according to St. Fathers, gluttony, the strongest and most abundant expression of which is drunkenness.
Let us try through a pious life to avoid the cruel torments of hell and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
* * *P Recover yourself,” the holy Forerunner proclaimed to humanity, “realize that you are sinners, that you are fallen and lost beings, that you are in the jaws of eternal death and are in need of salvation. Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near.
“Have mercy on me, O God,” cries David, “ according to Your great mercy! 185 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are crumpled and my soul is greatly troubled. Turn, Lord, deliver my soul, save me for the sake of Thy mercy 186 .
I was conceived in iniquities, and my mother gave birth to me in sins 187, - David confesses.
The founder of the Babylonian kingdom was the leader of a gang of robbers, Nevrod; the founder of the Roman state was another robber chieftain, Romulus; the ancestors of other peoples, the founders of other states were persons whose virtues were most similar to Nevrod and Romulus. On the contrary, the ancestor of the Israelites was a holy man, called the friend of God, Abraham; their legislator was another holy man, a wondrous miracle worker - Moses; many other holy men arose from among them; The Messiah himself, the God-man himself, had to be born into the family of the Israeli people.
Abraham pleased God by faith, 188 Abraham served God in spirit and in truth, and therefore the descendants of Abraham are spiritual, made up of all people who have acquired true faith in God, without any carnal participation of the civil nation.
The Jews at different times were slaves of the Egyptians, and of many Canaanite peoples, and the Babylonians, and the Syrians. At the time in which they so shamelessly proclaimed their freedom (John 9:33), they were completely enslaved by the Romans. The indignation of the Jews against these powerful rulers of the universe, resulting from blindness by conceit and arrogance, was the cause of the final civil death of the Jewish people.
The Sadducees and Pharisees rejected the preaching of repentance, then they rejected the Savior 189. Very few of them, such as: Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Gamaliel, followed to some extent the selflessness of the great Paul and became followers of Christ, first secret, and then open.
Let us accept with good will the sermon on repentance. We must give up drunkenness, gluttony, fornication, carnal pleasures, so-called innocent games and amusements - in a word, everything that constitutes a carnal and sinful life, which reduces a person to the dignity of senseless cattle and beasts. Every mountain and hill must be humbled or leveled, that is, self-conceit and pride must be erased from the soul. Finally, we must reject all incorrect and willful concepts of faith, these obstinate and sharp paths, completely submitting to the teachings of God, preserved in integrity by the one Orthodox Eastern Church. Then all the crookedness will be straightened, all the unevenness will be smoothed out: the path for the Lord will become completely free; every person will conveniently receive salvation. Salvation enters the soul together with the Lord who has entered it. Amen.
With God's help I am answering your letter. The Lord said: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him” (John 6:44). So, although the instrument of vocation is man, the vocation is God’s; calling God. Having sensed this calling, which has become audible to you after you have already traveled a long way on your earthly journey, do not harden your heart. But it is hardened by sinful flattery, as the holy Apostle Paul said. “Take heed, brethren,” he says, “let there not be any deceitful heart of you, full of unbelief, to depart from God” (Heb. 3:12).
I would not advise you to enter into a detailed and subtle examination of your sins and sinful qualities. Gather them all into one vessel of repentance and cast them into the abyss of God’s mercy. A subtle examination of one’s sins does not suit a person leading a secular life: it will only plunge him into despondency, bewilderment, and embarrassment. God knows our sins, and if we constantly resort to Him in repentance, He will gradually heal our very sinfulness, that is, sinful habits, qualities of the heart. Sins committed in word, deed, or composition of thoughts must be told in confession to the spiritual father; and, I repeat, a secular person should not indulge in the subtle examination of spiritual qualities: this is a trap set by the catcher of our souls. It is recognized by the confusion and despondency it produces in us, although outwardly it is clothed in the appearance of goodness. This black veil is needed for monks to cover with them the rays of grace shining from their minds and hearts; This black veil is needed for the already successful monks, whom the sight of their sinfulness cannot lead to hopelessness, but only leads to humility. This is how Moses, the Seer of God, once wore a veil over his radiant face.
It must be admitted, and this recognition will be quite fair; - we must admit that all of us, humans, are more or less in self-delusion, we are all deceived, we all carry deception within ourselves. This is a consequence of our fall, which took place through accepting lies as truth; This is how we always fall even now. That is why we are so changeable! In the morning I am like this, by noon I am different, in the afternoon I am still different, and so on. Both worlds act on me, I am subordinate to both of them, in captivity of both of them. The world of spirits acts through thoughts into heart sensations; the material world - through bodily feelings. Both beckon to eat the forbidden fruit. To the bodily senses, sight, hearing, and touch, this fruit appears beautiful; a thought, the word of an invisible being, inspires, repeats: “Taste, find out!” Allures with curiosity, incites with vanity. The voice of the seducer is heard in our soul, the voice that was heard, firstly, by our first parents in paradise; a voice is heard: “You will be like a god.” It rings out and seduces; seduces and kills. That is why a new virtue was given to people: “humility”, a new inner activity was given: “repentance”. Both action and virtue are truly strange! They are radically opposed to what we have fallen through. Repentance kills the harmful influence of bodily feelings; and humility destroys arrogance, vanity, worldly pride, in a word, everything that, simply put, drives a person crazy.
How to be! - One should not be embarrassed by changes that occur as if they were something unusual; one should not indulge in the subtle examination of sins, but spend life in constant repentance, recognizing oneself as a sinner in all respects and believing that the merciful Lord accepts everyone who only admits their sinfulness into the arms of His mercy, into the bosom of salvation. This, of course, is not about mortal sins, repentance for which is accepted by God only when a person leaves mortal sin. Doing housework and housework is very useful: it removes you from idleness and eases the mind’s invisible struggle. Struggle during idleness elevates it to a strong feat, permissible only to those who are forced to it by circumstances or brought by God. Prudence requires not to go into a fight that exceeds one’s strength; on the contrary, to make it as easy as possible for oneself. Believe in Almighty God, trust in Him, live patiently and constantly, live in simplicity, in repentance and humility, surrender to the will of God, when you happen to stray from the right path, direct yourself to it again, and you will be saved.
