Ascetical Experiences. Vol. 1

Содержание Preface On Following Our Lord Jesus Christ On Repentance The Vision of Christ On the Reading of the Gospel On the Reading of the Holy Fathers On Abstaining from Reading Books Containing False Doctrine Truth and the Spirit On Love for Onés Neighbor On Love for God On Fasting On Prayer. Article I On Prayer. Article II The Eight Principal Passions with Their Subdivisions and Branches 1. Gluttony 2. Fornication 3. Avarice (Love of Money) 4. Anger 5. Sadness 6. Acedia (Sloth/Despondency) 7. Vainglory 8. Pride On the Virtues Opposed to the Eight Principal Sinful Passions 1. Temperance 2. Chastity 3. Non-Acquisitiveness 4. Meekness 5. Blessed Mourning 6. Sobriety (Spiritual Watchfulness) 7. Humility 8. Love The Daily Apostolic Reading for February 1st, 1840 A Reflection on Faith The Garden in Winter The Tree in Winter Outside My Cell Window A Thought on the Seashore The Prayer of One Persecuted by Men The Cemetery A Voice from Eternity (A Meditation at a Grave) The Teaching on Weeping by St. Pimen the Great On Tears On the Jesus Prayer Section II. On Spiritual Delusion [Prelest'] On the Jesus Prayer Section III. On the Practice of the Jesus Prayer The Order of Attention for One Living in the World The Praying Mind Seeks Union with the Heart «Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,... and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour;... saith the Lord of hosts» (Zechariah 8:16–17). Proof of the Resurrection of Human Bodies, Drawn from the Action of Noetic Prayer On Humility (A conversation between a Starets and his disciple) On Patience On Purity A Word of Consolation to Sorrowing Monks Onés Own Cross and the Cross of Christ The Dew The Sea of Life Conscience On the Scattered and the Attentive Life On Habits A Meditation on Death Glory to God! The Snares of the Prince of this World A Song Under the Shelter of the Cross Reflection at Sunset The Pharisee A Visit to the Valaam Monastery On Monasticism Faith and Works Of the Gospel Commandments On the Gospel Beatitudes The Christian's Attitude Towards His Passions On True and False Humility My Lament Preface The reader who is familiar with the tradition of the Orthodox Eastern Church will easily recognize that the teachings presented in these Experiences reflect the doctrine of the Holy Fathers on the science of sciences 1 –monasticism–interpreted in accordance with the needs of our time. The main difference between ancient monasticism and that of the present lies in this: that the monks of the early centuries of Christianity were guided by divinely inspired elders, whereas now–as Venerable Nil Sorsky notes, in agreement with other later Fathers–monastics must be guided primarily by the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers, due to the extreme scarcity of living vessels of Divine grace. The explanation of this orientation, and of the necessity for it, forms the central idea of these Experiences throughout their entirety. The articles comprising this book were written at different times and for various reasons–mostly in response to ascetical questions that arose within the community of monks and pious laypeople who were in spiritual correspondence with me. As I near the end of my earthly journey, I have considered it my duty to review, correct, expand, compile, and publish all the articles I wrote while I bore the rank of archimandrite 2 . I found it necessary to do this for two reasons: First, because many of these articles had circulated in manuscript form, often with greater or lesser errors; Second, because I believe I am obliged to give an account to the Christian community of my exploration of the Promised Land , which overflows with spiritual gifts and blessings–that is, of my exploration of monastic life as it is revealed in the holy tradition of the Orthodox Eastern Church, and as Divine Providence allowed me to behold it in some of its living representatives. Finally, I ask the readers for indulgence toward my lack of understanding, and for their prayers for my poor soul. On Following Our Lord Jesus Christ «If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me» ( John 12:26 ), said the Lord. Every Christian, by the vows pronounced at holy Baptism, has taken upon himself the obligation to be a servant and slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. To follow the Lord Jesus Christ is something every Christian must certainly do. Calling Himself the Shepherd of the sheep, the Lord said: «The sheep hear the voice of the Shepherd... and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice» ( John 10:3–4 ). The voice of Christ is His teaching; the voice of Christ is the Gospel. To walk after Christ along the path of earthly pilgrimage means to live a life entirely directed by His commandments. To follow Christ, one must know His voice. Study the Gospel, and you will be able to follow Christ with your life. He who, being born of the flesh, enters into “renewal” ( palingenesia , Titus 3:5) through holy Baptism, and preserves the state granted by Baptism through a life according to the Gospel– he will be saved . He “enters” into the God-pleasing arena of earthly life through spiritual birth, and he will “go out” from this arena through a blessed end, and in eternity he will find eternal, richer, sweeter, spiritual pasture ( John 10:9 ). «If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him» ( John 12:26 ). Where was the Lord when He spoke these words? By His humanity, united with the Divinity, He was among men, on the earth, in their valley of exile and suffering–while by His Divinity, He remained in the place where He had been from the beginningless beginning. «The Word was with God» ( John 1:1 ), and was God. This Word declared of Himself: “The Father is in Me, and I in Him” ( John 10:38 ). There, too, reaches the follower of Christ: “Whoever confesses” with mouth, heart, and deeds “that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” ( 1John 4:15 ). «If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him. To him who overcomes» –the world and sin, who follows Me in earthly life– "I will grant" in eternal life “to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21). Renunciation of the world precedes following Christ. The second has no place in the soul unless the first has taken place. "Whoever desires," said the Lord, «to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it» ( Mark 8:34–35 ). «If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple» (Luke 14:26–27). Many draw near to the Lord–few resolve to follow Him. Many read the Gospel, delight in it, are amazed by the height and holiness of its teaching–yet few resolve to shape their conduct according to the rules the Gospel establishes. To all who come to Him and desire to belong to Him, the Lord declares: “If anyone comes to Me,” and does not renounce the world and himself, “he cannot be My disciple.” «This is a hard saying,» said of the Savior’s teaching even those people who outwardly were His followers and were counted among His disciples: “Who can listen to it?” ( John 6:60 ). Thus judges the word of God, as viewed through the carnal mind, in its pitiful condition. But the word of God is “life” ( John 6:63 )–eternal life, essential life. By this word, the carnal mind (Romans 8:6)–born of eternal death and sustaining eternal death in man–is put to death. The word of God, to those perishing by carnal-mindedness and choosing to perish by it, is foolishness . But to those being saved , it is the power of God (1Corinthians 1:18). Sin has become so ingrained in us through the Fall that all the faculties and movements of the soul are saturated with it. The rejection of sin–so deeply bound to the soul–becomes, in a sense, a rejection of the soul itself. Such a rejection is necessary for the salvation of the soul. The rejection of a nature defiled by sin is necessary for the reception of a nature renewed by Christ. When food in a vessel is poisoned, all of it is thrown out. The vessel is thoroughly washed, and only then is it filled with food fit for consumption. Food tainted with poison is rightly and justly called poison itself. To follow Christ, we must “take up our cross.” The taking up of one’s cross refers to a voluntary and reverent submission to the judgment of God in the midst of all sorrows, whether sent or permitted by His divine providence. Grumbling and resentment during afflictions and trials are a rejection of the cross . Only the one who has taken up his cross –who is obedient to the will of God , and humbly acknowledges himself as worthy of judgment, condemnation, and punishment –can truly follow Christ. The Lord, who has commanded us to practice self-denial, renunciation of the world, and to carry our cross, also grants us the power to fulfill His commandments . Whoever resolves to carry out this commandment, and diligently strives to do so, immediately begins to recognize its necessity . The teaching that once seemed harsh–when viewed superficially and incorrectly through the lens of the carnal mind –is revealed to be the most reasonable and filled with mercy : it calls the perishing to salvation, the dead to life, and those buried in hell to heaven. Those who do not willingly renounce themselves and the world will, in the end, be forced to do so . When unrelenting and irresistible death comes, they will be separated from all to which they were so attached. They will be compelled to renounce themselves to the point of casting off even their very body–abandoning it, leaving it behind on the earth to be consumed by worms and decay. Self-love and attachment to the temporary and vain are fruits of self-deception , spiritual blindness , and the death of the soul . Self-love is a distorted form of love for oneself . This love is irrational and destructive. The self-loving person, attached to vanity, to the fleeting things of this world, and to sinful pleasures, is an enemy to himself . He is a self-murderer : thinking that he is loving and pleasing himself, he actually hates and destroys himself–killing himself with eternal death . Let us examine ourselves– distracted , deluded , and deceived by vanity ! Let us come to our senses–we who are intoxicated by the world and deprived by it of a right understanding of ourselves! Let us consider the examples that are constantly unfolding before our very eyes. What happens to others will surely happen to us as well . The one who has spent his entire life pursuing honors– has he taken them with him into eternity? Did he not leave behind all his lofty titles, medals of distinction, and the glitter with which he surrounded himself? Did he not go into eternity simply as a man , with his deeds and the qualities he had acquired during his earthly life ? He who has spent his life acquiring wealth, who has gathered great sums of money, obtained vast tracts of land for his possession, established enterprises yielding abundant profit, lived in palaces gleaming with gold and marble, and rode in splendid carriages drawn by noble horses– did he take any of this into eternity? No! He left everything on earth, content for his body’s last need with only the smallest plot of ground–the same portion that all the dead require and with which all alike are satisfied. He who spent his earthly life in bodily pleasures and entertainments , passing his time with friends in games and amusements, feasting at lavish tables– is at last separated by necessity from his accustomed way of life. The time comes for old age, for sickness, and after them, the hour when soul and body part. Then it becomes clear–though too late–that to serve passions and desires is self-deception , and that life lived for the flesh and for sin is a life without meaning . The striving for earthly success –how strange, how monstrous it is! It seeks with frenzy; and hardly has it attained its goal before what was found loses all value, and the pursuit begins again with renewed strength. It is never content with what it possesses: it lives only in the future, thirsting only for what it does not have. The objects of desire lure the heart of the seeker by the dream and hope of satisfaction. Deceived and continually deceiving himself, he chases after them throughout the whole course of his earthly life–until unexpected death overtakes him. How and why does this craving act so treacherously toward all, mastering and ensnaring everyone? In our souls has been planted a yearning for infinite good . But we have fallen, and the heart, darkened by the Fall, now seeks in time and on earth that which exists only in eternity and in heaven . The lot that befell my fathers and brothers will befall me also. They have died; I, too, shall die. I shall leave my cell; I shall leave in it my books, my clothing, my writing desk, at which I have spent so many hours. I shall leave everything I have needed or thought I needed during my earthly life. They will carry my body out of these cells in which I now live, as if in the vestibule of another life and another land; they will carry out my body and commit it to the earth, from which man’s body took its beginning. Exactly the same fate awaits you also, my brethren who read these lines. You too shall die; you shall leave all that is earthly upon the earth; and with your souls alone shall you enter eternity. The soul of man acquires qualities corresponding to its activity . As objects are reflected in a mirror placed before them, so the soul is imprinted with impressions corresponding to its occupations, deeds, and surroundings. In a lifeless mirror, the images vanish when the objects are removed; but in the rational soul , the impressions remain. They may be effaced and replaced by others–but this requires labor and time. The impressions that form the possession of the soul at the hour of its death remain its possession forever ; they become the pledge of either its eternal blessedness or its eternal misery . «You cannot serve God and mammon» (Matthew 6:24), said the Savior to fallen mankind, revealing to men the condition into which they had been brought by the Fall–just as a physician describes to the sick man the state into which he has been brought by disease, and which he himself cannot understand. Because of the disorder of our soul, timely self-denial and renunciation of the world are necessary for our salvation. «No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other» (Matthew 6:24). Experience constantly confirms the truth of the view of man’s moral sickness expressed by the All-Holy Physician in the words we have cited, spoken with resolute definiteness: after the satisfaction of vain and sinful desires always follows enslavement to them; enslavement brings captivity and death to all that is spiritual . Those who permit themselves to follow their desires and carnal reasoning are carried away by them, enslaved by them, forget God and eternity, squander their earthly life in vain, and perish with an eternal perdition. It is impossible to fulfill both our own will and the will of God : the fulfillment of the former defiles and renders the fulfillment of the latter unacceptable. Just as a fragrant and precious ointment loses its value by even a trace of stench, so too does God's will lose its sanctity when mixed with our own. Only then, declares God through the great Prophet, “shall you eat the good things of the land,” if you willingly obey Me . “But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 1:19–20). It is impossible to acquire the mind of God while remaining in carnal-mindedness . “The carnal mind,” says the Apostle, “is death… the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:6–7). What is carnal-mindedness? It is a way of thinking that arises from the fallen state of man, that compels him to act on earth as if he were eternal here , that exalts all that is perishable and temporary, that despises God and all that pertains to pleasing Him, and deprives man of salvation . Let us renounce our souls, according to the command of the Savior, that we may gain our souls ! Let us voluntarily renounce the sinful condition into which our souls have been brought by their voluntary renunciation of God, in order to receive from God the holy condition of the renewed human nature, renewed by the incarnate God! Let us replace our own will and the will of demons–to which our will has submitted and become one–with the will of God , revealed to us in the Gospel. Let us replace carnal-mindedness, which is common to both fallen spirits and men, with the mind of God , shining forth from the Gospel. Let us renounce our possessions, that we may acquire the capacity to follow our Lord Jesus Christ ! Renunciation of possessions is accomplished on the basis of a correct understanding of them. This proper understanding is granted by the Gospel (Luke 16:1–31). Once this understanding is received, the human mind is compelled to acknowledge its truth. Earthly property is not our own , as those who have never reflected on the matter wrongly suppose. If it were truly ours, it would always be ours and remain ours forever. But it passes from hand to hand and testifies of itself that it is given only on temporary loan . The property belongs to God; man is only a temporary steward . The faithful steward precisely fulfills the will of the One who entrusted the stewardship to him. So let us also, managing the earthly possessions entrusted to us for a time, endeavor to manage them according to the will of God . Let us not use them as a means to satisfy our whims and passions, thereby securing our eternal ruin; but rather, let us use them for the benefit of suffering humanity, which is in great need. Let us use them as a means for our own salvation . Those who desire Christian perfection renounce earthly possessions entirely (Matthew 19:16–30); those who simply desire to be saved must give alms according to their ability (Luke 11:41), and refrain from abusing their possessions. Let us renounce vainglory and ambition ! Let us not chase after honors and ranks, nor use unlawful and degrading means to obtain them–means which involve trampling on the law of God, on conscience, and on the good of our neighbor. Such methods are most often employed by those who seek earthly greatness. The one infected and carried away by vanity, insatiable in his quest for human glory, is incapable of faith in Christ . “How can you believe,” said Christ to the ambitious men of His time, “you who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” ( John 5:44 ). If the providence of God grants us earthly power and authority, then let us become benefactors of mankind through them. Let us reject the cruel poison–so dangerous to the human spirit–of that foolish and despicable egoism , which transforms those infected by it into beasts and demons, making such people scourges of humanity, criminals against their own selves . Let us love the will of God above all , preferring it to everything; let us hate all that opposes it with a holy and God-pleasing hatred . When our nature, corrupted by sin, rises up against the teaching of the Gospel, let us express hatred toward our nature by rejecting its desires and demands. The more decisively this hatred is expressed, the more decisive will be our victory over sin and over the nature that is possessed by sin; and the more rapid and secure will be our spiritual progress. When those close to us by blood attempt to turn us away from following the will of God, let us show toward them a holy hatred , like that shown by lambs toward wolves–they do not transform into wolves nor defend themselves with teeth. Holy hatred toward our neighbors consists in remaining faithful to God , in not consenting to the sinful will of men , even if those men are our closest relatives; in patiently enduring the offenses they inflict; in praying for their salvation –not in slander or in any similar acts by which the hatred of fallen nature, the God-opposing hatred , is expressed. “Do not think,” said the Savior, “that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” ( Matt. 10:34–35 ). “ I have come ,” explains Saint John of the Ladder, interpreting these words of the Lord, “ to separate those who love God from those who love the world; the carnal from the spiritual; the vainglorious from the humble.” God is pleased by division and separation when it is accomplished out of love for Him. The Prophet called the earth the place of his sojourning : “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” ( Ps. 118:54 ); and he called himself a stranger and a sojourner on it: “I am a stranger before You, and a sojourner, as were all my fathers” ( Ps. 39:13 ). An obvious, tangible truth–yet one forgotten by men despite its clarity! I am a stranger on the earth: I entered by birth; I will depart by death. I am a sojourner on the earth: I was exiled here from Paradise, where I defiled and disfigured myself by sin. I will depart from the earth also–from this temporary exile into which I have been placed by my God so that I might come to my senses, cleanse myself of sinfulness, and again become fit to dwell in Paradise. If I remain stubborn and unrepentant, I must be cast down forever into the prisons of hell . I am a wanderer on the earth: I begin my wandering in the cradle, I end it at the grave; I journey through the stages of life from childhood to old age; I journey through various circumstances and stations of earthly life. “I am a stranger and a sojourner, as were all my fathers.” My forefathers were strangers and sojourners on the earth: they entered by birth and departed by death. There were no exceptions: not one person remained on the earth forever. I, too, shall depart. My departure has already begun–I am weakening in strength, succumbing to old age. I will go. I will go, according to the immutable law and mighty decree of my Creator and God. Let us become convinced that we are wanderers on the earth . Only with this conviction can we make a right and flawless account and arrangement of our earthly life. Only with this conviction can we direct our life in the right path, using it to acquire blessed eternity , and not squander it on the vain and meaningless, not to our ruin. Our fall has blinded us and continues to blind us! And so, we are forced–violently and over long years–to persuade ourselves of the clearest truths , which by their clarity alone should need no persuasion. When a traveler pauses along his journey in an inn, he pays little attention to the inn itself. Why would he? He is only staying briefly. He is content with the bare essentials ; he tries not to waste the money he needs to continue his journey and to support himself in the great city to which he is headed. He endures discomforts and inconveniences patiently, knowing that they are mere chance occurrences, common to all travelers, and that unshakable peace awaits him at his destination. He does not allow his heart to become attached to any object in the inn, no matter how attractive it may seem. He does not waste time on distractions: he needs that time for the arduous journey ahead . His thoughts are constantly occupied with the glorious royal city toward which he is headed, the great obstacles he must overcome, the means that might ease the journey, the bands of robbers lying in ambush, the tragic fate of those who failed to complete the journey, and the joyful condition of those who succeeded in reaching it. Having spent the necessary time in the inn, he thanks the host for his hospitality and, departing, forgets the inn–or remembers it only in passing , for his heart was never attached to it. Let us acquire such an attitude toward the earth . Let us not foolishly squander the powers of our soul and body , nor offer them as a sacrifice to vanity and corruption. Let us guard against attachment to the temporary and material , lest it hinder us from acquiring the eternal and heavenly . Let us guard against gratifying our insatiable and unquenchable desires– from this gratification, our fall only grows , becoming terrifying in its extent. Let us guard against excess , being content with only what is truly necessary. Let us direct all our attention to the life after death, which has no end . Let us come to know God , who has commanded us to know Him and who grants this knowledge through His Word and His grace . Let us become united with God during this earthly life. He has offered us the closest union with Himself , and has granted for the fulfillment of this greatest task a specific time– our earthly life . There is no other time besides that allotted in this life during which this wondrous union can occur. If it is not accomplished here, it will never be accomplished . Let us acquire friendship with the heavenly dwellers –the holy Angels and the saints who have reposed–so that they might receive us into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). Let us gain knowledge of the fallen spirits , those cruel and cunning enemies of mankind, so that we may avoid their snares and not be condemned to dwell with them in the fires of hell . Let the Word of God be a lamp to our feet on life’s path ( Ps. 119:105 ). Let us glorify and thank God for the abundant blessings with which this temporary inn–earth–has been richly supplied for the sake of our needs. Let us, by purity of mind , understand the meaning of these blessings: they are weak images of the eternal blessings . The eternal blessings are portrayed by them as dimly and inadequately as a shadow portrays the object from which it falls. In granting us earthly blessings, God mystically proclaims : “O men! Your temporary lodging is equipped with varied and countless blessings–captivating and delighting both eye and heart, satisfying your needs to overflowing. From this, draw the conclusion about the blessings that fill your eternal abode . Understand the infinite and unfathomable goodness of God toward you. Honor earthly blessings with reverent understanding and contemplation; but do not act foolishly: do not enslave yourselves to them , do not destroy yourselves through them. Use them rightly and as needed , and with all your strength, strive to acquire the heavenly blessings .” Let us remove from ourselves all false teachings and the actions that stem from them. The sheep of Christ “do not follow the voice of strangers, but flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” ( John 10:5 ). Let us become well acquainted with the voice of Christ , so that when we hear it, we may immediately recognize it and immediately follow His command . Having acquired a deep sympathy toward this voice in our spirit, we will likewise acquire a deep aversion to the voice of strangers, which is emitted by carnal-mindedness in its many forms. As soon as we hear the strange voice , let us flee– flee from it , as is the nature of Christ’s sheep, who are saved from it by fleeing–by resolute inattention to it. To pay attention to it is already dangerous : attention brings in deception; deception brings perdition. The fall of our ancestors began with Eve’s attention to a strange voice. Our Shepherd not only calls us with His voice but also guides us by His way of life: He «goes before His sheep» ( John 10:4 ). He commanded us to renounce the world, to deny ourselves, to take up and bear our cross: and He accomplished all of this before our very eyes. «Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps» (1 Peter 2:21). He deigned to take upon Himself humanity, albeit from a royal lineage, yet one that had descended in its standing to the level of the common people. His birth occurred during a journey of His most holy Mother, for whom there was no place in human dwellings. The birth took place in a cave, which housed domestic animals; the manger served as a cradle for the Newborn. No sooner had the news of the birth spread than a plot to murder Him was formed. The Infant is already persecuted! The Infant is sought to be slain! The Infant flees through the deserts to Egypt from the enraged murderer! The God-man spent His childhood in obedience to His parents, His named father and His natural Mother, setting an example of humility for mankind, who had perished through pride and the disobedience it produces. The Lord dedicated His adult years to preaching the Gospel, journeying from city to city, from village to village, having no home of His own. His clothing consisted of a tunic and a robe. While He proclaimed salvation to mankind and poured forth divine blessings upon them, people hated Him, devised plans, and repeatedly attempted to kill Him. Finally, they executed Him as a common criminal. He allowed them to commit the most terrible crime which their hearts desired, because He willed that by the execution of the All-Holy One, He would redeem the sinful human race from the curse and eternal punishment. The earthly life of the God-man was one of suffering: it ended with a suffering death. Following the Lord, all the saints have passed into blessed eternity, having traversed a narrow and sorrowful path, renouncing the glory and pleasures of the world, restraining fleshly desires through ascetic labors, crucifying their spirit on the cross of Christ–which for the fallen human spirit is constituted by the commandments of the Gospel–enduring various deprivations, persecuted by malicious spirits, persecuted by their own brethren–mankind. Let us follow Christ and the host of saints who followed Him! The God-man, «having by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high» (Hebrews 1:3). There He calls His followers: «Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you» (Matthew 25:34). Amen. On Repentance «Repent, and believe in the Gospel! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand» ( Mk. 1:15 , Mt. 4:17 ). These were the first words of the God-man's sermon. These same words He still speaks to us today through the medium of the Gospel. When sin had increased most in the world, the all-powerful Physician descended into the world. He descended into the land of exile, into the land of our tribulations and sufferings which precede eternal torment in hell, proclaiming deliverance, solace, and healing to all people, without any exception. «Repent!» The power of repentance is founded on the power of God: the Physician is almighty–and the remedy He provides is all-powerful. Then–during His preaching on earth–the Lord called to healing all who were diseased by sin; He did not recognize any sin as incurable. And now He continues to call all, promising and granting forgiveness for every sin, healing for every sinful malady. O earthly wayfarers! O all you who strive or are dragged along the broad way, amidst the unceasing noise of earthly cares, diversions, and amusements, over flowers mixed with thorny briars, hurrying along this path to the end, known to all and forgotten by all–to the gloomy grave, to an even more gloomy and terrible eternity–stop! Shake off the enchantment of the world, which constantly holds you captive! Listen to what the Savior proclaims to you, turn your proper attention to His words! «Repent, and believe in the Gospel,» He says to you, «repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.» It is extremely necessary for you, earthly wayfarers, to turn your full attention to this essentially beneficial, salvific exhortation: otherwise, you will reach the grave, you will reach the threshold and the gates of eternity, without having acquired any correct concept either of eternity or of the duties of one entering it, having prepared for yourselves in it only the righteous punishments for your sins. The gravest of sins is inattention to the words of the Savior, contempt for the Savior. «Repent!» The path of earthly life is flattering and deceptive: for those beginning it, it appears as an endless field, full of reality; for those who have completed it–it is the briefest of paths, surrounded by empty dreams. «Repent!» And glory, and riches, and all other perishable acquisitions and advantages, for the attainment of which the blinded sinner uses his entire earthly life, all the powers of his soul and body–he must leave them all in those minutes when the clothing of his soul–the body–is forcibly removed, when the soul is led by unyielding angels to the judgment of the righteous God, unknown to it, neglected by it. «Repent!» People labor, hurry to enrich themselves with knowledge, but only with insignificant knowledge, suitable merely for time, contributing to the satisfaction of the needs, comforts, and whims of earthly life. The knowledge and deed essentially needed, for which alone earthly life was granted to us–the knowledge of God and reconciliation with Him through the Mediator, the Redeemer–we utterly despise. «Repent!» Brethren! Let us look impartially, in the light of the Gospel, at our earthly life. It is insignificant! All its goods are taken away by death, and often much earlier than death by various unexpected circumstances. These perishable, so quickly vanishing goods are unworthy of being called goods! Rather, they are deceptions, snares. Those who get entangled in these snares, and become ensnared by them, are deprived of the true, eternal, heavenly, spiritual blessings bestowed by faith in Christ and following Him along the mysterious path of evangelical living. «Repent!» In what terrible blindness we are! How evidently our fall is proven by this blindness! We see the death of our brethren; we know that it certainly and, perhaps very soon, awaits us too, because no human has remained on earth forever; we see that for many, even before death, earthly prosperity fails, that it often turns into adversity, resembling a daily tasting of death. Despite this, such a clear testimony of experience itself, we chase after only temporal goods, as if they were permanent, eternal. Our entire attention is fixed on them alone! God is forgotten! The majestic and at the same time awe-inspiring eternity is forgotten! «Repent!» Brethren, all perishable blessings will undoubtedly betray us: the rich will be betrayed by their wealth, the glorious by their glory, the young by their youth, the wise by their wisdom. Only one eternal, substantial good can a person acquire during their earthly journey: true knowledge of God, reconciliation and union with God, granted by Christ. But to obtain these supreme blessings, one must abandon a sinful life, one must hate it. «Repent!» «Repent!» What does it mean to repent? It means: to confess, to feel remorse for onés sins, to abandon onés sins–answered a certain great Holy Father to such a question–and to never return to them again. Thus, many sinners were transformed into saints, many lawless ones into righteous ones. «Repent!» Cast away from yourselves not only obvious sins–murder, robbery, fornication, slander, falsehood–but also pernicious amusements, and carnal pleasures, and criminal fantasies, and lawless thoughts–everything, everything forbidden by the Gospel. Wash your former sinful life with the tears of sincere repentance. Do not say to yourself in despondency and spiritual weakness: «I have fallen into grave sins; I have acquired sinful habits through a long life of sin: over time they have become, as it were, natural properties, making repentance impossible for me.» These gloomy thoughts are suggested to you by your enemy, still unnoticed and uncomprehended by you: he knows the power of repentance, he fears that repentance might tear you from his power–and he tries to divert you from repentance, attributing weakness to the almighty divine remedy. The Establisher of repentance is your Creator, who made you from nothing. All the more easily can He recreate you, transform your heart: make a God-loving heart from a sin-loving heart, make a pure, spiritual, holy heart from a sensual, carnal, ill-intentioned, lustful heart. Brethren! Let us recognize the ineffable love of God for the fallen human race. The Lord became incarnate so that through the Incarnation He might make it possible for Himself to accept the punishments deserved by humans, and by the punishment of the All-Holy One, redeem the guilty from punishment. What drew Him to us here, to earth, to the land of our exile? Our righteousness? No! He was drawn to us by that calamitous state into which our sinfulness has plunged us. Sinners! Let us take heart. For us, precisely for us, the Lord accomplished the great work of His Incarnation; He looked upon our maladies with incomprehensible mercy. Let us cease to waver! Let us cease to despond and doubt! Filled with faith, zeal, and gratitude, let us approach repentance: through it, let us be reconciled with God. «But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live» (Ezekiel 18:21–22). Such a promise God gives to the sinner through the lips of His great prophet. Let us correspond, according to our weak strength, to the great love of the Lord for us, as creatures of the Creator, and fallen creatures at that, can correspond to His love: let us repent! Let us repent not with our lips alone; let us testify to our repentance not only with a few, short-lived tears, not only by an external participation in church worship, in the fulfillment of church rites, with which the Pharisees were content. Let us bring, together with tears and external piety, fruit worthy of repentance: let us change our sinful life for an evangelical life. «Why will ye die, O house of Israel?» (Ezekiel 18:31). Why do you perish, Christians, by an eternal death from your sins? Why is hell filled by you, as if the almighty power of repentance had not been established in the Church of Christ? This infinitely good gift was given to the house of Israel–to Christians–and at whatever time of life, whatever the sins, it acts with equal power: it cleanses every sin, saves everyone who flees to God, even if it is in the last, dying minutes. «Why will ye die, O house of Israel?» Christians ultimately perish by eternal death because throughout their entire earthly life they are occupied solely with violating their baptismal vows, solely with serving sin; they perish because they do not deem the Word of God, which proclaims repentance to them, worthy of the slightest attention. In their very dying minutes, they do not know how to use the almighty power of repentance! They do not know how to use it because they have acquired no concept of Christianity, or have acquired a most insufficient and confused concept, which should be called complete ignorance rather than any kind of knowledge. «As I live, saith the Lord God"–as if compelled to strengthen the assurance before the unbelieving, and to arouse attention in the inattentive–"As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live... Why will ye die, O house of Israel?» (Ezekiel 33:11). God knew the weakness of men, He knew that even after baptism they would fall into sins: for this reason He established in His Church the sacrament of repentance, by which sins committed after baptism are cleansed. Repentance must accompany faith in Christ, precede baptism into Christ; and after baptism, it corrects the violation of the duties of one who has believed in Christ and been baptized into Christ. When many from Jerusalem and all Judea came to John, the preacher of repentance, to the Jordan for baptism, they confessed their sins to him–they confessed, notes a certain holy Writer, not because the holy Baptist needed to know the sins of those who came to him, but because for the firmness of their repentance, it was necessary to join the confession of sins to the feelings of regret for having fallen into sin. The soul that knows it is obliged to confess its sins–says the same Holy Father–by this very thought, as if by a bridle, is restrained from repeating former transgressions; on the contrary, unconfessed sins, as if committed in darkness, are easily repeated. By the confession of sins, friendship with sins is broken. Hatred for sins is the sign of true repentance–the resolve to lead a virtuous life. If you have acquired a habit of sins, then confess them frequently–and soon you will be freed from sinful captivity, you will easily and joyfully follow the Lord Jesus Christ. He who constantly betrays his friends, to him friends become enemies, they withdraw from him as from a traitor seeking their certain destruction: he who confesses his sins, from him they retreat, because sins are founded and strengthened on the pride of fallen nature, they cannot bear exposure and shame. He who, in the hope of repentance, allows himself to sin willfully and intentionally, acts treacherously towards God. Death strikes unexpectedly the one who sins willfully and intentionally, in the hope of repentance, and he is not given the time which he intended to devote to virtue. By the sacrament of confession, all sins committed by word, deed, or thought are decisively cleansed. To erase from the heart the sinful habits, ingrained in it over a long time, requires time, requires constant abiding in repentance. Constant repentance consists in constant contrition of spirit, in struggle with the thoughts and sensations by which the hidden sinful passion in the heart reveals itself, in the restraint of the bodily senses and the belly, in humble prayer, in frequent confession. Brethren! We have lost through voluntary sin the holy innocence, untouched not only by sinful deed, but even by the knowledge of evil–the innocence in whose spiritual radiance we came into being from the hands of the Creator. We have also lost that innocence which we received at our re-creation in baptism; we have stained on the path of life with various sins our robes, which were whitened by the Redeemer. One water for washing remains for us–the water of repentance. What will become of us if we neglect this washing too? We will have to appear before God with souls disfigured by sin–and He will look sternly upon the defiled soul and condemn it to the fire of Gehenna. «Wash yourselves,» God says to sinners, «make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil. And come, and let us reason together.» How does this judgment of God, this judgment of repentance, to which God unceasingly calls the sinner during his earthly life, end? When a person acknowledges his sins, resolves upon sincere repentance and correction, then God concludes His judgment with man with the following resolution: «Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool» (Isaiah 1:16, 18). But if a Christian shows neglect towards this last, most merciful calling of God, then final perdition is proclaimed to him from God. «God's kindness,» says the Apostle, «is meant to lead you to repentance» (Romans 2:4). God sees your transgressions: He looks with long-suffering upon the transgressions you commit under His gaze, upon the chain of transgressions of which your entire life is composed; He awaits your repentance, and at the same time leaves to your free will the choice of your salvation or perdition. And you abuse the goodness and forbearance of God! There is no correction in you! Your negligence increases! Your contempt for both God and your own eternal fate intensifies! You care only about multiplying your sins, you add new and redoubled sins to your former transgressions! «But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed,» on which will be rendered «to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil» (Romans 2:5–9). Amen. The Vision of Christ Do you wish to see the Lord Jesus Christ? – «Come and see» ( John 1:46 ), says His Apostle. The Lord Jesus Christ promised to remain with His disciples «even unto the end of the world» (Matthew 28:20). He is with them: in the holy Gospel and the Church's sacraments (The Holy Martyr Peter of Damascus says: «Christ is hidden in the Gospel. Those who wish to find Him must sell all their possessions and buy the Gospel, so as not only to find Christ by reading, but to receive Him into themselves by imitating His sojourn in the world. He who seeks Christ, says Saint Maximus, must seek Him not outside, but within himself, that is, to be, in body and soul, as Christ was, sinless according to human possibility 3 »). He is not present for those who do not believe in the Gospel: they do not see Him, being blinded by unbelief. Do you wish to hear Christ? – He speaks to you through the Gospel. Do not neglect His saving voice: turn away from a sinful life, and listen attentively to the teaching of Christ, which is eternal life. Do you wish for Christ to appear to you? He teaches you how to obtain this. «He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him» ( John 14:21 ). You were adopted by God through the sacrament of holy baptism; you entered into the closest union with God through the sacrament of holy communion: maintain this adoption, maintain this union. Restore the purity and renewal granted by holy baptism through repentance, and nourish the union with God by a way of life according to the Gospel and, as far as possible, by frequent communion of the holy mysteries of Christ. «Abide in Me, and I in you» ( John 15:4 ), said the Lord. «If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love» ( John 15:10 ). «He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him» ( John 6:56 ). Guard yourself against fantasy, which may present to you that you see the Lord Jesus Christ, that you touch Him, embrace Him. This is an empty play of inflated, proud self-conceit! This is a pernicious self-deception! (Holy ascetical writers call this kind of self-deception «prelest» or «spiritual delusion». St. John of Karpathos defines prelest thus: «Prelest is the nourishing of the soul by vanity and the vain puffing up of the mind»). Concerning this kind of self-deception, the holy Apostle Paul says: «Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind 4 » (Colossians 2:18). St. Gregory of Sinai said: «Those who speak from their own thoughts, before attaining purity, were deluded by the spirit of 'prelest'. To such apply the words of Proverbs: 'I have seen a man who thought himself wise, but a fool has more hope than he 5 '» ( Proverbs 26:12 ). Fulfill the commandments of the Lord – and in a wondrous way you will see the Lord in yourself, in your own attributes. Thus, the holy Apostle Paul saw the Lord in himself: he demanded this vision from Christians; those who did not have it, he called not having attained the state proper to Christians. If you lead a sinful life, satisfy your passions, and at the same time think that you love the Lord Jesus Christ, then His beloved disciple, who leaned on His breast at the Last Supper, exposes you of self-deception. He says: «He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him» ( 1John 2:4–5 ). If you fulfill your sinful will, and thereby violate the evangelical commandments, then the Lord Jesus Christ counts you among those who do not love Him. «He who does not love Me,» He says, «does not keep My words» ( John 14:24 ). Do not rush foolishly, without carefully examining your garments, in the old, stinking rags, to the marriage feast of the Son of God, to union with Him, even though you are called to this feast, to which every Christian is called. There are servants of this Master who will bind you hand and foot and cast you into the outer darkness, alien to God (Matthew 22:11–13). The servants, into whose power the audacious seeker of love and other exalted spiritual states–unpurified by repentance, inflated with self-conceit and pride–is delivered, are the demons, the rejected angels. The outer darkness is the blindness of the human spirit, a passionate, carnal state. Sin and fallen spirits hold sway in a person who is in this state. He is deprived of moral freedom: his hands and feet are bound. The binding of hands and feet signifies the loss of the ability for a God-pleasing life and for spiritual progress. All who are self-deluded are in this state. A person emerges from this calamitous state by becoming conscious of his delusion, rejecting it, and entering upon the saving path of repentance. The exit from self-deception is difficult. Guards stand at the doors; the doors are locked with heavy, strong locks and bolts; the seal of the infernal abyss is placed upon them. The locks and bolts are the pride of the self-deluded, deeply hidden in the heart, their vanity, which constitutes the initial cause of their activity, their hypocrisy and cunning, with which they cover their pride and vanity, with which they clothe themselves in the mask of good intention, humility, and holiness. The unbreakable seal is the recognition of the actions of self-deception as grace-filled actions. Can one who is in self-deception, in the realm of falsehood and deceit, be a fulfiller of Christ's commandments, which are truth from the Truth–Christ? Can one who sympathizes with falsehood, delights in falsehood, has appropriated falsehood to himself, has united with falsehood in spirit, sympathize with truth? No! He will hate it, become a frantic enemy and persecutor of it. What will be your state, unhappy dreamers, who imagined of yourselves that you spent your earthly life in the embrace of God, when the pronouncement of the Savior strikes you: «I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!» (Matthew 7:23). My true friend in the Lord! Go to the Lord Jesus Christ, draw near to Him by the path of the evangelical commandments; by them, come to know Him; by fulfilling them, show and prove your love for the Lord Jesus. He Himself will reveal Himself to you, will reveal Himself on the day and hour known to Him alone. Together with this manifestation, He will pour into your heart an ineffable love for Himself. Divine love is not something that properly belongs to fallen man: it is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), sent by God alone into vessels cleansed by repentance, into vessels of humility and chastity. Entrust yourself to the Lord, and not to yourself: this is far more reliable. He is your Creator. When you suffered a grievous fall, He for your sake took on humanity, gave Himself for you to execution, for you shed His blood, bestowed His Divinity upon you: what more will He not do for you? Prepare yourself for His gifts by cleansing yourself: this is your task. Amen. On the Reading of the Gospel When reading the Gospel, do not seek enjoyment, do not seek ecstasies, do not seek brilliant thoughts: seek to see the infallibly holy Truth. Do not content yourself with a mere fruitless reading of the Gospel; strive to fulfill its commandments, read it through your deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with onés life. Do not think it is without reason that the most sacred of books, the Fourfold Gospel, begins with the Gospel of Matthew and ends with the Gospel of John. Matthew teaches more about how to fulfill the will of God, and his instructions are especially fitting for those beginning the path of God; John expounds the manner of union between God and man, renewed by the commandments, which is accessible only to those who have advanced on the path of God. When opening the book–the Holy Gospel–for reading, remember that it will decide your eternal fate. By it we will be judged, and, according to how we related to it here on earth, we will receive either eternal bliss or eternal punishment as our lot ( John 12:48 ). God has revealed His will to a insignificant speck of dust–man! The book in which this great and all-holy will is set forth is in your hands. You can either accept or reject the will of your Creator and Savior, as it pleases you. Your eternal life and eternal death are in your hands: consider, then, how cautious and prudent you must be. Do not gamble with your eternal destiny! Pray to the Lord in contrition of spirit, that He may open your eyes to see the wonders hidden in His law ( Psalm 118:18 ), which is the Gospel. When the eyes are opened, the wondrous healing of the soul from sin, accomplished by the Word of God, is perceived. The healing of bodily ailments was merely proof of the healing of the soul, proof for carnal people, for minds blinded by sensuality (Luke 5:24). Read the Gospel with the utmost reverence and attention. Do not consider anything in it unimportant, unworthy of consideration. Every iota of it emits a ray of life. Neglect of life is death. When reading about the lepers, the paralyzed, the blind, the lame, and the demon-possessed whom the Lord healed, consider that your soul, bearing the manifold wounds of sin and held captive by demons, is like these sick people. Learn from the Gospel to have faith that the Lord who healed them will also heal you, if you diligently entreat Him for your healing. Acquire such a disposition of soul that you become capable of receiving healing. Those who are capable of receiving it are those who acknowledge their sinfulness and have resolved to abandon it ( John 9:39, 41 ). A proud righteous man, that is, a sinner who does not see his own sinfulness, has no need for a Savior; a Savior is useless to him (Matthew 9:13). The vision of sins, the vision of the fallen state in which the entire human race finds itself, is a special gift from God. Ask for this gift for yourself, and the book of the Heavenly Physician–the Gospel–will become more understandable to you. Strive to make the Gospel your own, to have your mind and heart so immersed in it that your mind, so to speak, swims in it, lives in it: then your activity will easily become evangelical. This can be achieved through unceasing, reverent reading and study of the Gospel. Saint Pachomius the Great, one of the most renowned ancient Fathers, knew the Holy Gospel by heart and, by God's revelation, made it an indispensable duty for his disciples to learn it. Thus, the Gospel accompanied them everywhere, constantly guiding them 6 . And why should Christian educators not now adorn the memory of an innocent child with the Gospel, rather than cluttering it with the study of Aesop's fables and other trivialities? What happiness, what wealth–is the acquisition of the Gospel in onés memory! One cannot foresee the upheavals and calamities that may befall us in the course of earthly life. The Gospel, belonging to the memory, is read by the blind, accompanies the prisoner into his dungeon, speaks with the farmer in the field watered by his sweat, instructs the judge during his very session, guides the merchant in the marketplace, comforts the sick during tedious insomnia and heavy solitude. Do not dare to interpret the Gospel and the other books of Holy Scripture by yourself. Scripture was spoken by the holy Prophets and Apostles, spoken not arbitrarily, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). How is it not madness, then, to interpret it arbitrarily? The Holy Spirit, who spoke the Word of God through the Prophets and Apostles, interpreted it through the holy Fathers. Both the Word of God and its interpretation are the gift of the Holy Spirit. This interpretation alone is accepted by the holy Orthodox Church! This interpretation alone is accepted by her true children! He who explains the Gospel and all of Scripture arbitrarily, by this very act rejects its interpretation by the holy Fathers, by the Holy Spirit. He who rejects the interpretation of Scripture by the Holy Spirit, without any doubt, also rejects Sacred Scripture itself. And the Word of God, the word of salvation, becomes for its presumptuous interpreters a smell of death, a double-edged sword with which they slaughter themselves into eternal perdition (2 Peter 3:16, 2Corinthians 2:15–16). With it, Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and other heretics, who fell into blasphemy through arbitrary and presumptuous interpretation of Scripture, killed themselves forever. «On whom will I look,» says the Lord, «but on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word?» (Isaiah 66:2). Be such in relation to the Gospel and the Lord present within it. Abandon the sinful life, abandon earthly attachments and pleasures, deny your soul, then the Gospel will become accessible and understandable to you. «He who hates his life in this world,» said the Lord–the life for which, since the fall, love of sin has become as if natural, as if its very life–"will keep it for eternal life» ( John 12:25 ). For the one who loves his soul, for him who does not resolve upon self-denial, the Gospel is closed: he reads the letter; but the word of life, as Spirit, remains for him under an impenetrable veil. When the Lord was on earth in His most holy flesh–many saw Him and, at the same time, did not see Him. What profit is it when a man looks with bodily eyes, common to him with animals, but sees nothing with the eyes of his soul–his mind and heart? And now many read the Gospel daily, and at the same time have never read it, do not know it at all. The Gospel, said a certain venerable desert-dweller, is read with a pure mind; it is understood to the extent that its commandments are fulfilled in practice. But an exact and perfect unfolding of the Gospel cannot be acquired by onés own efforts: this is the gift of Christ 7 . The Holy Spirit, dwelling in His true and faithful servant, makes him both a perfect reader and a true fulfiller of the Gospel. The Gospel is the depiction of the properties of the new man, who is «the Lord from heaven» (1Corinthians 15:47). This new man is God by nature. His holy race of men, who believe in Him and are transformed according to Him, He makes gods by grace. You, who wallow in the foul and filthy swamp of sins, finding pleasure in it! Lift up your heads, gaze upon the pure heaven: there is your place! God gives you the dignity of gods; you, rejecting this dignity, choose for yourselves another: the dignity of animals–and the most unclean ones at that. Come to your senses! Leave the stinking swamp; cleanse yourselves by the confession of sins; wash yourselves with tears of repentance; adorn yourselves with tears of compunction; rise up from the earth; ascend to heaven: the Gospel will lead you there. «While you have the light"–the Gospel, in which Christ is hidden–"believe in the light, that you may become sons of light"–of Christ ( John 12:36 ). On the Reading of the Holy Fathers Conversation and association with others greatly influences a person. Conversation and acquaintance with a scholar imparts much knowledge; with a poet, many lofty thoughts and feelings; with a traveler, much information about countries, customs, and peoples. It is evident: conversation and acquaintance with the saints imparts holiness. «With the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself shrewd. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down» ( Psalm 18:25–26 , Septuagint numbering). From now on, during the brief earthly life–which Scripture does not even call life, but a sojourning–become acquainted with the saints. Do you wish to belong to their society in heaven, to be a partaker of their bliss? From now on, enter into communion with them. When you depart from the dwelling of the body, they will receive you to themselves, as their acquaintance, as their friend (Luke 16:9). There is no closer acquaintance, no tighter bond, than the bond of unity in thoughts, unity in feelings, unity in purpose (1Corinthians 1:10). Where there is unity of mind, there is inevitably unity of soul; there is inevitably one goal, and identical success in achieving that goal. Appropriate for yourself the thoughts and spirit of the Holy Fathers by reading their writings. The Holy Fathers reached the goal: salvation. And you will reach this goal by the natural course of things. As one who is of one mind and one soul with the Holy Fathers, you will be saved. Heaven has received the Holy Fathers into its blessed bosom. By this, it has testified that the thoughts, feelings, and deeds of the Holy Fathers are pleasing to it. The Holy Fathers set forth their thoughts, their heart, and the pattern of their actions in their writings. This means: what a sure guide to heaven, attested by heaven itself–the writings of the Fathers! The writings of the Holy Fathers were all composed by the inspiration or under the influence of the Holy Spirit. A wondrous agreement is in them, a wondrous anointing! He who is guided by them has, without any doubt, the Holy Spirit as his guide. All the waters of the earth flow into the ocean, and perhaps the ocean is the source for all earthly waters. The writings of the Fathers all converge in the Gospel; they all aim to teach us the exact fulfillment of the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ; their source and their end is the Holy Gospel. The Holy Fathers teach how to approach the Gospel, how to read it, how to understand it correctly, what aids and what hinders its comprehension. And therefore, occupy yourself first more with reading the Holy Fathers. When they have taught you how to read the Gospel, then read the Gospel predominantly. Do not consider it sufficient for yourself to read only the Gospel without reading the Holy Fathers! This is a proud and dangerous thought. It is better to let the Holy Fathers lead you to the Gospel as their beloved child, who has received preliminary upbringing and education through their writings. Many, indeed all, who have foolishly and arrogantly rejected the Holy Fathers, and approached the Gospel directly with blind audacity, with an impure mind and heart, have fallen into pernicious delusion. The Gospel rejected them: it admits only the humble. The reading of the patristic writings is the parent and king of all virtues. From reading the patristic writings, we learn the true understanding of Sacred Scripture, right faith, a way of life according to the evangelical commandments, the deep reverence one must have for the evangelical commandments–in a word, salvation and Christian perfection. The reading of the patristic writings, after the diminution of Spirit-bearing instructors, has become the chief guide for those wishing to be saved and even to attain Christian perfection 8 . The books of the Holy Fathers, according to the expression of one of them, are like a mirror: by looking into them attentively 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 a saving medicine for each of its ailments. Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus said: «A single glance at the sacred books incites one to a pious life.» The reading of the Holy Fathers must be careful, attentive, and constant. Our invisible enemy, who hates the voice of affirmation ( Proverbs 11:15 ), hates it especially when this voice comes from the Holy Fathers. This voice exposes the schemes of our enemy, his cunning, reveals his snares, his mode 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 cares to divert him from the saving reading, assaults him with despondency, boredom, and forgetfulness. From this battle against the reading of the Holy Fathers, we must conclude how salvific for us is the weapon so hated by the enemy. The enemy strenuously strives to wrest it from our hands. Let each choose for himself the reading of the Fathers that corresponds to his way of life. Let the hermit read the Fathers who wrote about silence; the monk living in a community–the Fathers who wrote instructions for monastic communities; the Christian living in the world–the Holy Fathers who delivered their teachings for all of Christianity in general. Everyone, in whatever station they may be, draw abundant instruction from the writings of the Fathers. Reading corresponding to onés way of life is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you will be filled with thoughts, though holy, yet impossible to actually fulfill, exciting fruitless activity only in the imagination and desire; the works of piety proper to your way of life will slip from your hands. Not only will you become a barren dreamer–your thoughts, being in constant contradiction with the sphere of your actions, will inevitably give birth to confusion in your heart, and indecisiveness in your conduct, which are burdensome and harmful both for you and for your neighbors. With incorrect reading of Sacred Scripture and the Holy Fathers, one can easily stray from the path of salvation into impassable thickets and deep chasms, which has happened to many. Amen. On Abstaining from Reading Books Containing False Doctrine Again, I bring you, faithful son of the Eastern Church, a word of sincere and good counsel. This word does not belong to me: it is from the Holy Fathers. All my counsels come from there. Guard your mind and heart from the teaching of falsehood. Do not converse about Christianity with people infected with false ideas; do not read books about Christianity written by false teachers. The Holy Spirit is present with the Truth: He is the Spirit of Truth. The spirit of the devil, who is falsehood and the father of lies, is present and cooperates with falsehood. He who reads the books of false teachers inevitably partakes of the wicked, dark spirit of falsehood. Let this not seem strange or incredible to you: thus affirm the luminaries of the Church–the Holy Fathers. («Let no one read,» said the holy martyr Peter of Damascus, «what does not serve to please God. But if one should read something of that sort in ignorance, let him strive to quickly erase it from his memory by reading the Divine Scriptures, and precisely those which most serve the salvation of his soul, according to the state he has attained... But by no means let him read books contrary to this. What need is there to receive an unclean spirit instead of the Holy Spirit? Whoever occupies himself with a particular word receives the property of that word, although the inexperienced do not see this, as those who have spiritual experience do.») 9 If your mind and heart are not inscribed with anything, let the Truth and the Spirit inscribe upon them the commandments of God and His spiritual teaching. But if you have allowed the tablets of your soul to be inscribed and scribbled upon with diverse concepts and impressions, without prudently and cautiously discerning who the writer is and what he writes, then cleanse away what has been written by foreign writers; cleanse it with repentance and the rejection of all that is opposed to God. Let the only writer on your tablets be the finger of God. Prepare for this writer purity of mind and heart through a pious, chaste life: then, during your prayers and while reading sacred books, the law of the Spirit will be inscribed on the tablets of the soul imperceptibly, mysteriously. You are only permitted to read those books on religion which are written by the Holy Fathers of the universal Eastern Church. The Eastern Church requires this from her children 10 . If you reason otherwise, and find the command of the Church less well-founded than your own reasoning or that of others who agree with you, then you are no longer a son of the Church, but her judge. Will you call me one-sided, not sufficiently enlightened, a rigorist?–Leave me my one-sidedness and all my other shortcomings: I prefer, with these shortcomings, to be obedient to the Eastern Church, than with all imaginary perfections to be wiser than her, and therefore to permit myself disobedience to her, and separation from her. The true children of the Eastern Church will find my voice pleasing. They know that he who wishes to receive heavenly wisdom must leave behind his own, earthly wisdom, however great it may be, renounce it, and recognize it for what it is–"foolishness» (1Corinthians 3:19). Earthly wisdom is enmity against God: it does not submit to the Law of God, and indeed cannot (Romans 8:7). Such has been its property from the beginning; such it will remain until its end–when «the earth and the works that are upon it,» and with them earthly wisdom, «will be burned up» (2 Peter 3:10). The Holy Church permits the reading of books by false teachers only to those of her members whose thought and heart's feelings have been healed and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who can always distinguish evil–which pretends to be good and is covered with the mask of good–from true good. The great saints of God, knowing the weakness common to all men, feared the poison of heresy and falsehood, and therefore with all possible diligence fled from conversations with people infected with false doctrine and from reading heretical books 11 . Having before their eyes the fall of the most learned Origen, the skilled disputant Arius, the eloquent Nestorius, and others rich in the wisdom of the world, who perished from self-reliance and self-conceit, they sought salvation and found it in fleeing from false doctrine and in the most precise obedience to the Church. The Spirit-bearing, holy pastors and teachers of the Church read the writings of blasphemous heretics, compelled to such reading by the necessary need of the entire Christian society. With a powerful word, a spiritual word, they exposed the errors, proclaimed to all the children of the Church the hidden danger in heretical writings, concealed under magnificent names of holiness and piety. But it is necessary for me and for you to guard ourselves from reading books composed by false teachers. To everyone not belonging to the Eastern Church, the one holy Church, who has written about Christ, about the Christian faith and morality, belongs the name of a false teacher. Tell me: how is it possible to permit you to read any and every book, when every book you read leads you where it wants–persuades you to agree to everything it needs your agreement for, to reject everything it needs you to reject? Experience proves how ruinous the consequences of indiscriminate reading are. How many among the children of the Eastern Church can one encounter with the most confused, incorrect notions about Christianity, notions that contradict the teaching of the Church, that censure this holy teaching–notions acquired by reading heretical books! Do not be offended, my friend, by my warnings, inspired by a desire for your true good. Would not a father, a mother, a good guardian fear for an innocent, inexperienced infant if he wanted to enter without restriction a room where, among the foodstuffs, there is a multitude of poisons? The death of the soul is more calamitous than the death of the body: a dead body will rise again, and often the death of the body is the cause of life for the soul; on the contrary, a soul killed by evil is a victim of eternal death. A single thought containing some form of blasphemy–subtle, completely unnoticeable to the unknowing–can kill the soul. There will be a time, foretold by the holy Apostle, «when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables» (2 Timothy 4:3–4). Do not be deceived by the loud title of a book, promising to impart Christian perfection to one who still needs the food of infants; do not be deceived by the magnificent publication, nor by the painting, the power, the beauty of the style, nor by the fact that the writer is supposedly a saint, supposedly having proven his holiness by numerous miracles. False doctrine does not stop at any invention, any deception, to give its fables the appearance of truth, and thereby more easily poison the soul with them. False doctrine in itself is already a deception. By it, the writer is deceived first (2 Timothy 3:13). The mark of a book that is truly, substantially beneficial to the soul is a holy Writer, a member of the Eastern Church, approved and recognized by the holy Church. Amen. Truth and the Spirit Do not be deceived by the self-conceit and the teaching of those who, being deceived by self-conceit, neglect the truth of the Church and Divine Revelation, and assert that truth can speak within you without the sound of words, and instruct you by itself, through some indefinite and unclear action. This is the teaching of falsehood and its confidants 12 . The marks of false teaching are: obscurity, indefiniteness, delusion, and the dreamy, blood-born and nervous pleasure that follows and is born from it. This pleasure is provided by the subtle action of vanity and sensuality. Fallen humanity approaches holy truth by faith; there is no other path to it. «Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God» (Romans 10:17), the Apostle teaches us. The Word of God is truth ( John 17:17 ); the evangelical commandments are truth ( Psalm 119:86 ); every man is a liar ( Psalm 116:2 ). All this is attested by Divine Scripture. How then do you think you will hear the voice of holy truth from one who is a liar? Do you wish to hear it–to hear the spiritual voice of holy truth?–Learn to read the Gospel: from it you will hear the truth, in it you will see the truth. The truth will reveal to you your fall and the bonds of falsehood, the bonds of self-delusion, with which the soul of every man not renewed by the Holy Spirit is invisibly bound. You are ashamed to admit, fallen proud one, proud even in your very fall, that you must seek the truth outside yourself, that its entrance into your soul is through hearing and the other bodily senses! But this is an indisputable truth, exposing how deep our fall is. So deep, so terrible is our fall, that to extract us from the pernicious abyss, God the Word took upon Himself humanity, so that men, from being disciples of the devil and falsehood, might become disciples of God and Truth, and through the mediation of the Word and the Spirit of Truth be freed from sinful slavery and learn all truth. We are so coarse, so sensual, that it was necessary for the Holy Truth to subject itself to our bodily senses; not only the sounds of words were needed, but also the healing of the sick, tangible signs upon the waters, trees, and breads, so that we, convinced by our bodily eyes, could somehow discern the Truth. So darkened are our soul's eyes! «Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe» ( John 4:48 ), the Lord reproached sensual people who asked Him for healing for the body, and did not even suspect that their souls were in an incomparably more terrible sickness, and therefore needed incomparably more healing and the heavenly Physician than their bodies. And a man confessed before the Lord that signs, seen with bodily eyes, led him to faith, led him to sight with the mind. «We know,» he said to the Lord, «that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do,... unless God is with him» ( John 3:2 ). And this man had earthly learning. Many saw the Savior with their eyes, saw His Divine power over all creation in the miracles He performed; many heard with their own ears His holy teaching, heard the demons themselves testifying of Him; but they did not recognize Him, they hated Him, they attempted the most terrible crime–deicide. So deep, so terrible is our fall, our darkening. It seems: it is enough to read one chapter of the Gospel to know the God speaking in it. «You have the words of eternal life,» our Lord and God, who appeared to us in the humble form of a man, «and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God» ( John 6:68–69 ). Truth itself proclaims: «If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free» ( John 8:31–32 ). Study the Gospel, and from it the genuine, holy truth will speak to you. Truth can also speak within a person. But when? Then, when, according to the Savior's word, a person is clothed «with power from on high» (Luke 24:49): «When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth» ( John 16:13 ). But if, before the manifest coming of the Holy Spirit–the portion of God's saints–anyone presumes to hear truth speaking within himself, he only flatters his own pride, he deceives himself; he rather hears the voice of him who spoke in paradise: «you will be like God» ( Genesis 3:5 ). And this very voice seems to him the voice of truth! To know the truth from the Gospel and the Holy Fathers, to commune through reading with the Holy Spirit who lives in the Gospel and the Holy Fathers–this is a great happiness. A higher happiness–the happiness of hearing the truth from the Most Holy Spirit Himself–I am not worthy of! I am not capable of it! I am not capable of enduring it, of preserving it: my vessel is not ready, not finished, and not strengthened. The wine of the Spirit, if it were poured into it, would shatter it, and itself would be spilled (Matthew 9:17), and therefore my all-good Lord, sparing my weakness, is longsuffering with me (Luke 18:7), and does not present me with strong spiritual food for my meal (1Corinthians 3:2). The centurion acknowledged himself unworthy to receive the Lord into his house, but asked that the almighty word of the Lord would come into that house and heal the servant. It came; the sign was accomplished, the healing of the servant was accomplished. The Lord praised the faith and humility of the centurion (Matthew 8:8–13). The sons of Israel said to their holy leader and lawgiver, they spoke from a correct understanding of the majesty of the Godhead, from an understanding which gives birth in man to the consciousness and knowledge of human nothingness: «You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, lest we die» (Exodus 20:19). These humble and saving words are proper to every true Christian: the Christian is preserved by such a heartfelt pledge from the soul's death, which strikes the self-deluded through their pride and audacity. In opposition to the true Christian, this spiritual Israelite, the self-deluded cries out in frenzy: «The sons of Israel once said to Moses: 'Speak you to us, and we will listen; but let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.' Not so, O Lord, not so do I pray! Let not Moses, or another of the prophets, speak to me: speak You, O Lord God, who grant inspiration to all prophets. You alone, without them, can teach me perfectly.» He who is wholly in filth and impurities is unworthy of the Lord, unworthy of imitation, yet with foolish, proud, dreamy delusion thinks he is in the embrace of the Most Pure, Most Holy Lord, thinks he has Him within himself and converses with Him as with a friend. «God is greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and awesome to all who are around him» ( Psalm 89:7 ), Scripture says; He is awesome even to the highest heavenly Powers. The six-winged Seraphim hover around His throne, in ecstasy and terror from the majesty of God they pronounce the unceasing doxology, with fiery wings they cover their fiery faces: the seer of mysteries Isaiah saw this (Isaiah 6). O man! Reverently cover yourself with humility. It is enough, enough, if the Word of God, the truth, enters the house of the soul through the mediation of hearing, or reading, and heals the servant, that is, you, who are still in an infant state in relation to Christ, although in your fleshly age you may perhaps already be adorned with gray hairs. There is no other access to the Truth! «How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?... So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God» (Romans 10:14, 17). The living organs of the Holy Spirit have fallen silent: Scripture–that which was spoken by the Holy Spirit–proclaims the truth. Faithful son of the Eastern Church! Listen to a friendly counsel, a saving counsel. Do you wish to know the path of God thoroughly, to come by this path to eternal salvation?–Study the holy truth in Sacred Scripture, but especially in the New Testament, and in the writings of the Holy Fathers. Purity of life is absolutely necessary in this exercise: because only the pure in heart can see God. Then you will become, in due time, in a measure known and pleasing to God, a disciple and confidant of the holy Truth, a partaker of the Holy Spirit, inseparable from Her, bestowed by Her. Amen. On Love for Onés Neighbor What could be more beautiful, more delightful than love for onés neighbor? To love is bliss; to hate is torment. The entire law and the prophets are summed up in love for God and for onés neighbor (Matthew 22:40). Love for onés neighbor is the path leading to love for God: because Christ has deigned to mystically clothe Himself in each of our neighbors, and in Christ is God ( 1John 4:14, 15 ). Do not think, most beloved brother, that the commandment of love for onés neighbor is so natural to our fallen heart: the commandment is spiritual, but our heart has been seized by flesh and blood; the commandment is new, but our heart is old. Our natural love has been damaged by the fall; it must be put to death–Christ commands this–and we must draw from the Gospel the holy love for onés neighbor, love in Christ. The properties of the new man must all be new; no old property is fitting for him. Love stemming from the movement of blood and carnal feelings has no value before the Gospel. And what value can it have, when, in the heat of blood, it swears to lay down its life for the Lord, and a few hours later, when the blood has cooled, it swears that it does not know Him? (Matthew 26:33, 35, 74). The Gospel rejects love dependent on the movement of blood, on the feelings of the carnal heart. It says: «Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household» (Matthew 10:34–36). The fall subjected the heart to the dominion of blood, and, through the blood, to the dominion of the prince of this world. The Gospel liberates the heart from this captivity, from this violence, and places it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches one to love onés neighbor in a holy manner. Love, kindled and nourished by the Holy Spirit, is fire. By this fire, the fire of natural, carnal love, damaged by the fall, is extinguished. «He who says that one can have both that love and this one deceives himself,» said St. John Climacus. In what a fallen state is our nature! He who is naturally capable of loving his neighbor with fervor must exert extraordinary force upon himself to love him as the Gospel commands. The most ardent natural love easily turns into aversion, into irreconcilable hatred (2 Samuel 13:15). Natural love has also expressed itself with a dagger. In what wounds is our natural love! What a heavy wound it bears–partiality! A heart possessed by partiality is capable of every injustice, every lawlessness, just to satisfy its sick love. «False scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight» ( Proverbs 11:1 ). Natural love provides its beloved only with earthly things; it does not think of heavenly things. It is hostile to Heaven and the Holy Spirit: because the Spirit demands the crucifixion of the flesh. It is hostile to Heaven and the Holy Spirit: because it is under the governance of the cunning spirit, the unclean and lost spirit. Let us approach the Gospel, most beloved brother, let us look into this mirror! Looking into it, let us cast off the old garments in which the fall has clothed us, and adorn ourselves with the new garment which God has prepared for us. The new garment is Christ. «For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ» (Galatians 3:27). The new garment is the Holy Spirit. «But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high» (Luke 24:49), said the Lord about this garment. Christians are clothed in the properties of Christ, through the action of the all-good Spirit. This clothing is possible for a Christian. «But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires» (Romans 13:14), says the Apostle. First, guided by the Gospel, cast away enmity, resentment, anger, condemnation, and all that directly opposes love. The Gospel commands us to pray for our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to do good to those who hate us, to forgive our neighbor for whatever he has done against us. Try, you who wish to follow Christ, to fulfill all these commandments in deed. It is very insufficient to merely read the precepts of the Gospel with pleasure and marvel at the high morality they contain. Unfortunately, many are satisfied with this. When you begin to fulfill the precepts of the Gospel, the rulers of your heart will stubbornly resist this fulfillment. These rulers are: your own carnal state, in which you are subjected to flesh and blood, and the fallen spirits, whose domain is the carnal state of man. Carnal reasoning, its righteousness, and the righteousness of the fallen spirits will demand that you not sacrifice your honor and other perishable advantages, but defend them. But you, with courage, endure the invisible struggle, led by the Gospel, led by the Lord Himself. Sacrifice everything for the fulfillment of the evangelical commandments. Without such sacrifice, you cannot be a fulfiller of them. The Lord said to His disciples: «If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself» (Matthew 16:24). When the Lord is with you, hope for victory: the Lord cannot but be the victor. Ask the Lord for victory for yourself; ask for it through constant prayer and weeping. And the action of grace will come unexpectedly into your heart: you will suddenly feel the sweetest intoxication of spiritual love for your enemies. More struggle lies ahead for you! You still need to be courageous! Look at the objects of your love: do you like them very much? Is your heart very attached to them? – Renounce them. The Lord, the lawgiver of love, demands this renunciation from you, not to deprive you of love and your loved ones, but so that you, having rejected carnal love, defiled by an admixture of sin, may become capable of receiving spiritual, pure, holy love, which is supreme bliss. He who has felt spiritual love will look with disgust upon carnal love as a monstrous distortion of love. How to renounce the objects of love, which seem to have grown onto the very heart? – Say of them to God: «They, O Lord, are Yours; and I–who am I? A weak creature, having no significance whatsoever.» «Today I am still a sojourner on earth, I can be useful to my loved ones in some way; tomorrow, perhaps, I will vanish from its face, and I will be nothing to them!» «Whether I want to or not–death comes, other circumstances come, forcibly tearing me away from those I considered mine, and they are no longer mine. They were not, in reality, mine; there was some relation between me and them; deceived by this relation, I called them, recognized them as mine. If they were truly mine, they would remain mine forever.» «Creatures belong to the Creator alone: He is their God and Master. What is Yours, O Lord my God, I give back to You: I appropriated them to myself incorrectly and in vain.» It is more certain for them to be God's. God is eternal, omnipresent, almighty, immeasurably good. To the one who is His, He is the most faithful, the most reliable Helper and Protector. God gives what is His to man: and people become onés own to man, for a time according to the flesh, for eternity according to the spirit, when God deigns to give this gift to man. True love for onés neighbor is founded on faith in God: it is in God. «That they may all be one,» proclaimed the Savior of the world to His Father, «just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us» ( John 17:21 ). Humility and surrender to God kill carnal love. This means: it lives on self-conceit and unbelief. Do what you can that is useful and what the law allows for your loved ones; but always commend them to God, and your blind, carnal, unreasoning love will little by little turn into spiritual, rational, holy love. If your love is an unlawful partiality, then reject it as an abomination. When your heart is not free–this is a sign of partiality. When your heart is in captivity–this is a sign of a foolish, sinful passion. Holy love is pure, free, entirely in God. It is the action of the Holy Spirit, acting in the heart, according to the measure of its purification. Having rejected enmity, having rejected partialities, having renounced carnal love, acquire spiritual love; «Turn away from evil and do good» ( Psalm 34:14 ). Render honor to your neighbor as to the image of God–honor in your soul, invisible to others, evident only to your conscience. Let your activity be mystically in accordance with your inner disposition. Render honor to your neighbor, without distinction of age, sex, or estate–and holy love will gradually begin to appear in your heart. The cause of this holy love is not flesh and blood, not the attraction of the senses–it is God. Those deprived of the glory of Christianity are not deprived of another glory received at creation: they are the image of God. If the image of God were cast into the terrible flames of hell, even there I must honor it. What is it to me about the flames, about hell! The image of God is cast there by God's judgment: my task is to preserve respect for the image of God, and thereby preserve myself from hell. I will show honor to the blind, the leper, the mentally impaired, the infant, the criminal, and the pagan, as to the image of God. What is it to you about their weaknesses and shortcomings! Watch yourself, lest you have a lack of love. In a Christian, render honor to Christ, who said for our instruction and will say again at the judgment of our eternal fate: «Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me» (Matthew 25:40). Keep this saying of the Gospel in mind in your dealings with your neighbors, and you will become a confidant of love for your neighbor. The confidant of love for onés neighbor enters through it into love for God. But if you think that you love God, and in your heart there lives an unpleasant disposition towards even one person, then you are in grievous self-deception. «If anyone says,» says St. John the Theologian, «'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar... And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother» ( 1John 4:20–21 ). The manifestation of spiritual love for onés neighbor is a sign of the renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit: «We know,» says the Theologian again, «that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death» ( 1John 3:14 ). The perfection of Christianity is in perfect love for onés neighbor. Perfect love for onés neighbor is in love for God, for which there is no perfection, for which there is no end in progression. Progression in love for God is infinite: because «God is love» ( 1John 4:16 ). Love for onés neighbor is the foundation in the edifice of love. Beloved brother! Seek to unfold within yourself spiritual love for your neighbors: entering into it, you will enter into love for God, into the gates of resurrection, into the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen. On Love for God Love God as He has commanded us to love Him, and not as self-deluded dreamers think they love Him. Do not invent ecstasies for yourself, do not set your nerves in motion, do not inflame yourself with a material flame, the flame of your blood. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a humble heart, a contrite spirit. God turns away with anger from a sacrifice offered with self-reliance, with a proud opinion of oneself, even if that sacrifice were a whole burnt offering. Pride sets the nerves in motion, heats the blood, excites fantasy, revives the life of the fall; humility calms the nerves, subdues the movement of the blood, destroys fantasy, mortifies the life of the fall, and revives the life in Christ Jesus. «Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams» (1 Samuel 15:22), said the Prophet to the king of Israel, who dared to offer God an improper sacrifice: wishing to offer God a sacrifice of love, do not offer it self-willedly, according to an unconsidered impulse; offer it with humility, at the time and in the place where and when the Lord has commanded. The spiritual place, and the only one where it is commanded to offer spiritual sacrifices, is humility. The Lord has marked the one who loves and the one who does not love with sure and precise signs. He said: «If anyone loves me, he will keep my word... Whoever does not love me does not keep my words» ( John 14:23–24 ). Do you wish to learn divine love? Withdraw from every deed, word, thought, and sensation forbidden by the Gospel. By your enmity towards sin, so hateful to the all-holy God, show and prove your love for God. Heal the sins into which you happen to fall through weakness with immediate repentance, but better yet, strive not to admit even these sins through strict vigilance over yourself. Do you wish to learn divine love? Diligently study the Lord's commandments in the Gospel and strive to fulfill them in deed, strive to turn the evangelical virtues into habits, into your qualities. It is characteristic of the one who loves to accurately fulfill the will of the beloved. «Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I direct my steps by all your precepts; I hate every false way» ( Psalm 119:127–128 ), says the Prophet. Such conduct is necessary for maintaining faithfulness to God. Faithfulness is an indispensable condition of love. Without this condition, love is broken. By constant turning away from evil and the fulfillment of the evangelical virtues–in which the entire evangelical moral teaching is contained–we attain the love of God. By this same means we abide in love for God: «If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love» ( John 15:10 ), said the Savior. The perfection of love consists in union with God; progress in love is accompanied by inexpressible spiritual consolation, delight, and enlightenment. But at the beginning of the endeavor, the disciple of love must endure a fierce struggle with himself, with his deeply damaged nature: the evil that has become natural to our nature through the fall has become for him a law waging war and rebelling against the Law of God, against the law of holy love. Love for God is based on love for onés neighbor. When resentment is erased in you, then you are close to love. When your heart is overshadowed by a holy, grace-filled peace towards all humanity, then you are at the very doors of love. But these doors are opened by the Holy Spirit alone. Love for God is a gift of God in a person who has prepared himself to receive this gift through purity of heart, mind, and body. According to the degree of preparation is the degree of the gift: for God, even in His mercy, is righteous. Love for God is entirely spiritual: «That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh» ( John 3:6 ): carnal love, as born of flesh and blood, has material, perishable properties. It is inconstant, changeable: its fire is entirely dependent on its substance. Hearing from Scripture that our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), that love is a fire, and feeling within yourself the fire of natural love, do not think that this fire is one and the same. No! These fires are hostile to one another and extinguish each other. «Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire» (Hebrews 12:28–29). Natural love, fallen love, heats a person's blood, sets his nerves in motion, excites fantasy; holy love cools the blood, calms both soul and body, draws the inner man to prayerful silence, and immerses him in the rapture of humility and spiritual sweetness. Many ascetics, mistaking natural love for Divine love, heated their blood and heated their fantasy. A state of overheating very easily passes into a state of frenzy. Many have considered those in a state of overheating and frenzy to be filled with grace and holiness, but they are unfortunate victims of self-delusion. There have been many such ascetics in the Western Church, since the time it fell into papism, in which divine attributes are blasphemously ascribed to man, and worship due and proper to God alone is rendered to man; these ascetics have written many books from their overheated state, in which frenzied self-delusion appeared to them as divine love, in which a disordered imagination painted for them a multitude of visions that flattered their self-love and pride. Son of the Eastern Church! Refrain from reading such books, refrain from following the instructions of the self-deluded. Guided by the Gospel and the Holy Fathers of the true Church, ascend with humility to the spiritual height of Divine love through the practice of Christ's commandments. Know firmly that love for God is the highest gift of the Holy Spirit, and a person can only prepare himself through purity and humility to receive this great gift, by which both the mind, and the heart, and the body are transformed. Vain is the labor, fruitless and harmful it is, when we seek prematurely to unfold in ourselves the high spiritual gifts: the merciful God gives them in His own time to the constant, patient, humble fulfillers of the evangelical commandments. Amen. On Fasting The chief of virtues is prayer; their foundation is fasting. Fasting is constant moderation in food with prudent discernment in it. Proud man! You dream so much and so highly of your mind, yet it is in complete and continuous dependence on the stomach. The law of fasting, while outwardly a law for the belly, is essentially a law for the mind. The mind, that king in man, if it wishes to enter into the rights of its autocracy and preserve them, must first and foremost submit to the law of fasting. Only then will it be constantly vigilant and clear; only then can it rule over the desires of the heart and body; only with constant sobriety can it study the evangelical commandments and follow them. The foundation of virtues is fasting. To the newly created man, introduced into paradise, a single commandment was given, the commandment concerning fasting. It was given as a single commandment, of course, because it was sufficient to preserve the first-created man in his integrity. The commandment did not speak of the quantity of food, but only forbade a specific quality. Let those who recognize fasting only in the quantity of food, and not in the quality, be silent. By delving into the experiential study of fasting, they will see the significance of the quality of food. So important is the commandment of fasting, declared by God to man in paradise, that, together with the commandment, a threat of punishment for violating the commandment was pronounced. The punishment consisted in striking mankind with eternal death. And even now, sinful death continues to strike the violators of the holy commandment of fasting. He who does not observe moderation and proper discernment in food cannot preserve either virginity or chastity, cannot restrain anger, gives himself over to laziness, despondency, and sorrow, becomes a slave of vanity, a dwelling of pride–which is introduced into man by his carnal state, manifested most of all from luxurious and satiating meals. The commandment of fasting was renewed or confirmed by the Gospel. «But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness» (Luke 21:34), the Lord bequeathed. Gluttony and drunkenness impart heaviness not only to the body but to the mind and heart, i.e., they lead a person, in soul and body, into a carnal state. On the contrary, fasting leads a Christian into a spiritual state. One purified by fasting is humble in spirit, chaste, modest, silent, refined in heart feelings and thoughts, light in body, capable of spiritual endeavors and contemplations, capable of receiving Divine grace. The carnal man is wholly immersed in sinful pleasures. He is sensual in body, heart, and mind; he is incapable not only of spiritual enjoyment and receiving Divine grace but even of repentance. He is generally incapable of spiritual activities: he is nailed to the earth, drowned in materiality, dead in soul while alive. «Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry!» (Luke 6:25). Such is the pronouncement of the Word of God to the violators of the commandment of holy fasting. What will you feed on in eternity, when you have learned here only to be satiated with material foods and material pleasures, which do not exist in heaven? What will you feed on in eternity, when you have not tasted a single heavenly good? How can you feed on and enjoy heavenly goods when you have acquired no sympathy for them, but have acquired an aversion? The daily bread of Christians is Christ. Insatiable satiation with this bread–this is the salvific satiation and enjoyment to which all Christians are invited. Be insatiably filled with the Word of God; be insatiably filled with the fulfillment of Christ's commandments; be insatiably filled with the table «prepared before you in the presence of your enemies,» and be inebriated with the «cup that overflows» ( Psalm 23:5 ). Where shall we begin, says St. Macarius the Great, we who have never engaged in the examination of our hearts? Standing outside, let us knock with prayer and fasting, as the Lord commanded: «Knock, and it will be opened to you» (Matthew 7:7). This endeavor, which one of the greatest instructors of monasticism offers us, was the endeavor of the holy apostles. From its midst, they were deemed worthy to hear the utterances of the Spirit. «While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off» ( Acts 13:2–3 ). From the midst of the endeavor, in which fasting and prayer were combined, the command of the Spirit concerning the calling of the Gentiles to Christianity was heard. A wondrous combination of fasting with prayer! Prayer is powerless if it is not founded on fasting, and fasting is fruitless if prayer is not built upon it. Fasting detaches a person from carnal passions, while prayer battles with the passions of the soul and, having conquered them, penetrates the entire composition of a person, purifies him; into the purified rational temple, it introduces God. He who sows the land without tilling it destroys the seeds and, instead of wheat, reaps thorns. So also we, if we sow the seeds of prayer without thinning the flesh, will bear sin instead of righteousness. The prayer will be destroyed and plundered by various vain and vicious thoughts and fantasies, defiled by sensual sensations. Our flesh came from the earth, and if it is not cultivated like the earth, it can never bear the fruit of righteousness. On the contrary, if someone tills the land with great care and expense but leaves it unsown, it becomes thickly covered with weeds. So, when the body is thinned by fasting, but the soul is not cultivated by prayer, reading, and humble-mindedness, then fasting becomes the parent of numerous weeds–the passions of the soul: pride, vanity, contempt. What is the passion of gluttony and drunkenness? It is the natural desire for food and drink, having lost its correctness, demanding a much greater quantity and diverse quality than is necessary for maintaining life and bodily strength, upon which excessive nutrition acts contrary to its natural purpose, acting harmfully, weakening and destroying them. The desire for food is corrected by a simple meal and abstinence from satiety and the enjoyment of food. First, one must abandon satiety and enjoyment: by this, the desire for food is sharpened and becomes correct. When the desire becomes correct, then it is satisfied with simple food. On the contrary, the desire for food, satisfied by satiety and enjoyment, becomes dulled. To excite it, we resort to diverse tasty dishes and drinks. The desire at first appears satisfied; then it becomes more capricious, and finally turns into a morbid passion, seeking constant enjoyment and satiety, constantly remaining unsatisfied. Intending to dedicate ourselves to the service of God, let us lay fasting as the foundation of our endeavor. The essential quality of any foundation must be unshakable firmness: otherwise, the building cannot stand on it, no matter how solid the building itself may be. And we must never, under any pretext, allow ourselves to break the fast with satiety, especially with drunkenness. The Holy Fathers recognize the best fast as eating once a day, not to fullness. Such a fast does not weaken the body with prolonged not eating, nor does it burden it with an excess of food; moreover, it keeps it capable of soul-saving activity. Such a fast does not present any striking peculiarity, and therefore the faster has no reason for exaltation, to which man is so inclined on account of virtue itself, especially when it is prominently displayed. He who is engaged in bodily labors or is so weak in body that he cannot be content with eating once a day should eat twice. Fasting is for man, not man for fasting. But with every consumption of food, whether infrequent or frequent, satiety is strictly forbidden: it makes a person incapable of spiritual endeavors and opens the door to other carnal passions. Immoderate fasting, i.e., prolonged excessive abstinence from food, is not approved by the Holy Fathers: from immoderate abstinence and the resulting exhaustion, a person becomes incapable of spiritual endeavors, often turns to gluttony, and often falls into the passion of self-exaltation and pride. The quality of food is very important. The forbidden fruit of paradise, although it was beautiful in appearance and tasty, acted destructively on the soul: it imparted to it the knowledge of good and evil, and thereby destroyed the integrity in which our forefathers were created. And even now, food continues to strongly affect the soul, which is especially noticeable when consuming wine. Such an effect of food is based on its diverse action on the flesh and blood, and on the fact that its vapors and gases rise from the stomach to the brain and influence the mind. For this reason, all intoxicating drinks, especially grain-based ones, are forbidden to the ascetic, as they deprive the mind of sobriety and, thereby, of victory in the mental warfare. The mind, defeated, especially by lustful thoughts, having delighted in them, is deprived of spiritual grace; what was acquired through many and long labors is lost in a few hours, in a few minutes. A monk should by no means consume wine, said St. Poemen the Great. Every pious Christian wishing to preserve his virginity and chastity should follow this rule. The Holy Fathers followed this rule, and if they did consume wine, it was very rarely and with the greatest moderation. Heating foods should be banished from the table of the abstinent, as they excite bodily passions. Such are pepper, ginger, and other spices. The most natural food is that which was appointed to man by the Creator immediately after creation–food from the plant kingdom: God said to our forefathers: «Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food» ( Genesis 1:29 ). Only after the flood was the consumption of meat permitted ( Genesis 9:3 ). Plant-based food is the best for the ascetic. It heats the blood the least, fattens the flesh the least; the vapors and gases separating from it and rising to the brain affect it the least; finally, it is the healthiest, as it produces the least phlegm in the stomach. For these reasons, when consuming it, the purity and vigor of the mind, and with them its power over the whole person, are preserved with particular ease; when consuming it, the passions act more weakly, and a person is more capable of engaging in pious endeavors. Fish dishes, especially those prepared from large sea fish, are of a completely different nature: they more perceptibly affect the brain, fatten the body, heat the blood, fill the stomach with harmful phlegm, especially with frequent and constant consumption. These effects are incomparably stronger from the consumption of meat: it extremely fattens the flesh, giving it a particular heaviness, heats the blood; its vapors and gases greatly burden the brain. For this reason, it is not used at all by monks; it is the property of people living in the world, always engaged in intense bodily labors. But even for them, constant consumption is harmful. What! the so-called wiseacres will exclaim here: meat food is permitted to man by God, and do you forbid its consumption?–To this we answer with the words of the Apostle: «'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things build up» (1Corinthians 10:23). We abstain from consuming meat not because we consider it unclean, but because it produces a particular heaviness in our entire composition and hinders spiritual progress. The Holy Church, by its wise institutions and regulations, having permitted Christians living in the world to consume meat, did not allow its constant consumption but divided the times of meat-eating with times of abstinence from meat, times in which the Christian sobers up from his meat-eating. Every observer of the fasts can learn this fruit of the fasts by experience. For monastics, the consumption of meat is forbidden; the consumption of dairy food and eggs is permitted during non-fasting periods. At certain times and days, they are allowed to consume fish. But for the greatest amount of time, they can consume only plant-based food. Plant-based food is used almost exclusively by the most zealous ascetics of piety, especially those who have felt the indwelling of the Spirit of God (2Corinthians 6:17), due to the aforementioned convenience of this food and its cheapness. For drink, they use only water, avoiding not only heating and intoxicating drinks but also nutritious ones, such as all grain-based drinks. The rules of fasting are established by the Church with the aim of assisting her children, as a guide for the entire Christian society. At the same time, each is instructed to examine himself with the help of an experienced and discerning spiritual father and not to impose upon himself a fast exceeding his strength: because, we repeat, fasting is for man, not man for fasting; the food given to support the body should not be used to destroy it. «If you restrain your belly, you will enter paradise; but if you do not restrain it, you will become a victim of death,» said St. Basil the Great. By the name of paradise here, we should understand a grace-filled prayerful state, and by the name of death, a passionate state. The grace-filled state of a person, during his stay on earth, serves as a pledge of his eternal bliss in the heavenly Eden; falling under the power of sin and into a state of spiritual deadness serves as a pledge of falling into the abyss of hell for eternal torment. Amen. On Prayer. Article I It is natural for the poor to ask, and for man, impoverished by the fall, it is natural to pray. Prayer is the turning of a fallen and repentant man to God. Prayer is the lament of a fallen and repentant man before God. Prayer is the outpouring of the heart's desires, petitions, and sighs of a fallen man, slain by sin, before God. The first manifestation, the first movement of repentance, is the weeping of the heart. This is the prayerful voice of the heart, preceding the prayer of the mind. And soon the mind, drawn by the prayer of the heart, begins to generate prayerful thoughts. God is the sole source of all true goods. Prayer is the mother and chief of all virtues, as the means and state of man's communion with God. It draws virtues from the source of goods–God–and appropriates them to the man who, through prayer, strives to remain in communion with God. The path to God is prayer. The measure of the path traveled is the various states of prayer into which one who prays correctly and constantly gradually enters. Learn to pray to God correctly. Having learned to pray correctly, pray constantly–and you will easily inherit salvation. Salvation comes from God in its own time, with an undeniable inner assurance, to the one who prays correctly and constantly. For prayer to be correct, it must be offered from a heart filled with poverty of spirit, from a heart that is contrite and humble. All other states of the heart, until it is renewed by the Holy Spirit, recognize for what they are–and indeed they are–unsuitable for a repentant sinner, beseeching God for the forgiveness of his sins and for liberation–as from a prison and chains–from enslavement to the passions. By the Mosaic Law, the Israelites were commanded to offer all their sacrifices only in one place, appointed by God. And by the spiritual law, a single spiritual place is appointed for Christians to offer all their sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of sacrifices–prayer. This place is humility. God does not need our prayers! He knows, even before our petition, what we need; He, the Most Merciful, pours out abundant bounties even upon those who do not ask Him. Prayer is necessary for us : it appropriates man to God. Without it, man is a stranger to God, and the more he practices prayer, the more he draws near to God. Prayer is the communion of life. Its abandonment brings invisible death to the soul. As air is to the life of the body, so the Holy Spirit is to the life of the soul. The soul, through prayer, breathes this holy, mysterious air. When you rise from sleep, let your first thought be of God; offer the very beginning of your thoughts, still unmarked by any vain impression, to God. When you go to sleep, when you prepare to plunge into this image of death, let your last thoughts be of eternity and of God who reigns in it. An angel revealed to a certain holy monk the following order of thoughts in prayer, pleasing to God: «The beginning of prayer should consist of glorifying God, of thanking God for His countless benefactions; then we should bring to God a sincere confession of our sins in contrition of spirit; in conclusion, we can offer, albeit with great humility, our petitions to the Lord concerning our spiritual and bodily needs, reverently leaving the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of these petitions to His will.» The initial cause of prayer is faith: «I believed, therefore I spoke» ( Psalm 116:10 ) with my prayer to the merciful God, who deigned to command me to pray and gave the promise to heed it. «Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours» ( Mark 11:24 ), declared the Lord. And therefore, rejecting all doubt and double-mindedness, remain steadfastly in prayer before the Lord, who commanded to «always pray and not lose heart» (Luke 18:1), i.e., not to become discouraged by the narrowness of prayer, which, especially at first, is burdensome, unbearable for a mind accustomed to wandering everywhere. Blessed is the soul which, through unceasing prayer, knocks at the doors of God's mercy, and with complaints against its «adversary» (Luke 18:3)–against the sin that assaults it–unceasingly wearies the Unwearying One: it will rejoice in its time over its purity and its passionlessness. Sometimes our petition is heard immediately; at other times, according to the Savior's words, «God is patient over us» (Luke 18:7), i.e., He does not quickly fulfill what we ask: He sees that it is necessary to delay this fulfillment for a time for our humility, that we need to grow weary, to see our weakness, which always manifests itself very sharply when we are left to ourselves. Prayer, as conversation with God, is itself a high good, often much greater than that which a person asks for–and the merciful God, not fulfilling the petition, leaves the petitioner at his prayer, so that he does not lose it, does not abandon this higher good when he receives the requested good, which is much lesser. Petitions whose fulfillment is associated with harmful consequences, God does not satisfy; nor does He satisfy those petitions which are contrary to His holy will, contrary to His wise, inscrutable decrees. Contrary to God's decree, the great God-seer Moses asked to be allowed to enter the promised land, and was not heard (Deuteronomy 3:26); the holy David prayed, intensifying his prayer with fasting, ashes, and tears, for the life of his sick son to be spared; but he was not heard (2 Samuel 12:16–17). And you, when your petition is not fulfilled by God, submit reverently to the will of the all-holy God, who, for reasons unknowable, has left your petition unfulfilled. To the sons of the world, who ask God for earthly goods to satisfy fleshly lusts, the holy Apostle James declares: «You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions» ( James 4:3 ). When we wish to appear before an earthly king, we prepare for this with special care: we study what the disposition of our heart's feelings should be during conversation with him, so as not to be carried away by some impulse of feeling into a word or movement displeasing to the king; we think beforehand what to say to him, to speak only what is pleasing, and thereby win his favor; we care that our very outward appearance attracts his attention to us. How much more must we make a fitting preparation when we wish to appear before the King of kings and enter into conversation with Him through prayer. «Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart» (1 Samuel 16:7); but in man, the disposition of the heart is most in conformity with the position of his face, his outward appearance. And therefore, during prayer, give the most reverent posture to your body. Stand as one condemned, with head bowed down, not daring to look up to heaven, with hands lowered down or folded behind your back, as if bound with ropes, as criminals caught in the act usually are bound. Let the sound of your voice be the pitiful sound of weeping, the groan of one wounded by a deadly weapon or tormented by a fierce disease. «God looks on the heart.» He sees the most hidden, the most subtle of our thoughts and sensations; He sees all our past and all our future. God is omnipresent. And therefore, stand in your prayer as if you were standing before God Himself. Truly: you are standing before Him! You are standing before your Judge and absolute Master, on whom your fate in time and in eternity depends. Use your standing before Him to arrange your well-being; do not allow this standing, due to its unworthiness, to become a cause of temporal and eternal punishments for you. Intending to offer prayer to God, reject all earthly thoughts and cares. Do not occupy yourself with thoughts that come to you then, no matter how important, brilliant, or necessary they may seem. Render to God what is God's, and what is needed for temporal life you will manage to render in its own time. It is impossible to serve God with prayer and occupy the mind with extraneous thoughts and cares at the same time. Before prayer, incense your heart with the fragrance of the fear of God and holy reverence: think that you have angered God with countless sins, which are more evident to Him than to your own conscience: strive to appease the Judge with humility. Beware! Do not arouse His indignation with negligence and audacity: He is pleased that even the closest to Him, the purest angelic Powers, stand before Him with all reverence and the most holy fear ( Psalm 89:7 ). The garment of your soul must shine with the whiteness of simplicity. Nothing complex should be here! There should be no admixture of cunning thoughts and sensations of vanity, hypocrisy, pretense, people-pleasing, pride, sensuality–those dark and foul stains with which the soul's garment of praying Pharisees is often speckled. Instead of pearls and diamonds, instead of gold and silver, adorn yourself with chastity, humble-mindedness, tears of meekness and spiritual understanding, and before you receive these tears, with tears of repentance; adorn yourself with infantlike, angelic guilelessness: behold the precious adornment! When the King of kings sees this adornment on the soul–His merciful gaze turns towards the soul. The forgiveness of all, all without exception, offenses, even the gravest–is an indispensable condition for success in prayer. «And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses» ( Mark 11:25–26 ). «The prayers of the resentful are sowings on stone,» said St. Isaac the Syrian. Moderate, prudent, constant abstinence from food and drink makes the body light, purifies the mind, gives it vigor, and therefore also serves as a preparation for prayer. Intemperance of the belly makes the body heavy, coarse, hardens the heart, darkens the mind with a multitude of vapors and gases rising from the stomach to the brain. As soon as one who is satiated or full rises for prayer–drowsiness and laziness attack him, a multitude of coarse fantasies appear in his imagination, his heart is incapable of coming to compunction. As much as intemperance is harmful, so too, or even more so, is immoderate fasting. The weakness of the body, resulting from eating too little, does not allow prayers to be performed in the proper quantity and with due strength. The quantity of prayer is determined for each by his way of life and the measure of his strength, both soul and body. The two mites of the widow, which she brought into the temple and which constituted all her living, proved on the scales of the righteous God to be greater than the significant offerings of the rich from their abundance. So judge also concerning prayer: appoint for yourself its quantity according to your strength, remembering the wise instruction of the great instructor of ascetics: «If you force a weak body to deeds exceeding its strength, you thereby introduce darkness into your soul and bring it confusion, not benefit.» From a healthy and strong constitution, a corresponding prayer is required. «Any prayer,» said the same great Father, «in which the body is not wearied and the heart does not come to contrition, is considered an unripe fruit: because such prayer is without a soul.» Being occupied with public duties, or if you are a monk, with obediences, and not having the opportunity to devote as much time to prayer as you would like, do not be troubled by this: service passed lawfully and in good conscience prepares a person for fervent prayer and replaces quantity with quality. Nothing so contributes to progress in prayer as a conscience satisfied with God-pleasing activity. The fulfillment of the Gospel commandments attunes the mind and heart to pure, heartfelt prayer filled with compunction, and true prayer directs one to think, feel, and act according to the commandments of the Gospel. Mercy towards neighbors and humility before them, expressed in outward deeds and nourished in the soul, together with purity of heart, especially from lustful thoughts and sensations, constitute the foundation and strength of prayer. They are, as it were, its «wings» ( Psalm 55:6 ) with which it soars to heaven. Without them, prayer cannot rise from the earth, that is, arise from carnal reasoning: it is held back by it, as by a net or snare; it is disturbed, defiled, destroyed by it. The soul of prayer is attention. As a body without a soul is dead, so prayer without attention is dead. Prayer pronounced without attention turns into idle talk, and one who prays thus is numbered among those who take «the name of God in vain.» Pronounce the words of prayer unhurriedly; do not allow the mind to wander everywhere, but shut it up in the words of prayer. This path is narrow and grievous for a mind accustomed to wander freely throughout the universe; but this path leads to attention. Whoever tastes the great good of attention will love to constrain the mind on the path leading to blessed attention. Attention is the initial gift of Divine grace, sent down to one who labors and patiently endures in the prayerful endeavor. To grace-given attention, onés own effort towards attention must precede: the latter must be an active testimony of a sincere desire to receive the former. Onés own attention is storm-tossed by thoughts and fantasies, fluctuates because of them; grace-given attention is filled with firmness. Forbid yourself distraction of thoughts during prayer, hate fantasy, reject cares by the power of faith, strike the heart with the fear of God, and you will easily become accustomed to attention. The praying mind must be in a state that is fully true. Fantasy, no matter how alluring and plausible it may be, being the mind's own, voluntary composition, leads the mind out of the state of Divine truth, into a state of self-delusion and deception, and therefore it is rejected in prayer. The mind, during prayer, must be, and with all diligence must be kept, formless, rejecting all images that appear in the faculty of imagination: because the mind in prayer stands before the invisible God, whom it is impossible to represent by any material image. Images, if the mind admits them in prayer, will become an impenetrable veil, a wall between the mind and God. «Those who in their prayers see nothing, see God,» said St. Meletius the Confessor. If during your prayer, an image of Christ, or an angel, or some saint–in short, any image whatsoever–should appear to you sensually or depict itself mentally within you, do not by any means accept this apparition as genuine, pay no attention to it, and do not enter into conversation with it. Otherwise, you will inevitably be subjected to deception and severe spiritual damage, which has happened to many. A person, until renewed by the Holy Spirit, is incapable of communion with holy spirits. As one still in the realm of fallen spirits, in their captivity and slavery, he is capable of seeing only them, and they, noticing in him a high opinion of himself and self-delusion, often appear to him in the form of bright angels, in the form of Christ Himself, for the destruction of his soul. Holy icons are accepted by the Holy Church to arouse pious memories and feelings, but by no means to arouse fantasy. Standing before the icon of the Savior, stand as if before the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, omnipresent in His Divinity, and present through His icon in the place where it is located. Standing before the icon of the Mother of God, stand as if before the Most Holy Virgin Herself; but keep your mind formless: there is the greatest difference between being in the presence of the Lord and standing before the Lord, and imagining the Lord. The feeling of the Lord's presence instills a salutary fear in the soul and introduces a salutary feeling of reverence, while the imagination of the Lord and His saints imparts a kind of materiality to the mind, leads it to a false, proud opinion of itself, and brings the soul into a false state, a state of self-delusion. A lofty state is the feeling of God's presence! By it, the mind is restrained from conversing with alien thoughts that assail the prayer; because of it, the nothingness of man is abundantly felt; because of it, a special vigilance over oneself appears, preserving a person from sins, even the very smallest. The feeling of God's presence is provided by attentive prayer. Reverent standing before holy icons also greatly contributes to its acquisition. The words of prayer, animated by attention, penetrate deeply into the soul, pierce, so to speak, the heart, and produce compunction in it. The words of prayer performed with distraction only touch, as it were, the surface of the soul, producing no impression on it. Attention and compunction are recognized as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can stop the waves of the mind running everywhere, said St. John Climacus. Another most blessed Father said: «When compunction is with us, then God is with us.» He who has attained constant attention and compunction in his prayers has attained the state of blessedness called in the Gospel «poverty of spirit» and «mourning.» He has already broken many chains of passions, has already smelled the fragrance of spiritual freedom, already carries within his bosom the pledge of salvation. Do not leave the narrow paths of the true prayerful way–and you will reach the sacred rest, the mysterious Sabbath: on the Sabbath, no earthly work is performed, struggle and endeavor are removed; in blessed passionlessness, outside of distraction, the soul stands before God with pure prayer and rests in Him by faith in His infinite goodness, by surrender to His all-holy will. In the ascetic of prayer, progress in prayer first begins to manifest itself by a special action of attention: from time to time it unexpectedly seizes the mind, enclosing it in the words of prayer. Then it becomes much more constant and prolonged: the mind seems to cleave to the words of prayer, is drawn by them to union with the heart. Finally, compunction suddenly combines with attention and makes a person a temple of prayer, a temple of God. Offer to God prayers that are quiet and humble, not fervent and fiery. When you become a mysterious priest of prayer, then you will enter God's tabernacle, and from there fill the prayerful censer with sacred fire. Unclean fire–the blind, material heating of the blood–is forbidden to be brought before the all-holy God. The sacred fire of prayer, borrowed from God's tabernacle, is holy love, poured into true Christians by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). He who strives to combine prayer with the fire of blood, in his self-delusion, deceived by a high opinion of himself, thinks he is performing service to God, but in reality provokes His anger. Do not seek pleasures in prayer: they are by no means proper to a sinner. The desire of a sinner to feel pleasure is already self-delusion. Seek that your dead, petrified heart may come to life, that it may open to the feeling of its sinfulness, its fall, its nothingness, that it may see them, and acknowledge them with self-renunciation. Then the true fruit of prayer will appear in you: true repentance. You will groan before God and cry out to Him in prayer from the calamitous state of the soul suddenly revealed to you; you will cry out as from a prison, as from a tomb, as from hell. Repentance gives birth to prayer, and is itself born in double measure from its daughter. Enjoyment in prayer is the exclusive portion of God's holy elect, renewed by the Holy Spirit. He who, carried away by impulses of blood, carried away by vanity and sensuality, composes pleasures for himself, is in grievous self-delusion. The soul, darkened by a fleshly way of life, the soul deceived and deceiving itself by its pride, is very capable of such composition. The sensations generated by prayer and repentance consist in the easing of conscience, in peace of soul, in reconciliation with neighbors and with lifés circumstances, in mercy and compassion for humanity, in abstinence from passions, in coldness towards the world, in submission to God, in strength during the struggle with sinful thoughts and inclinations. Be content with these sensations–in which, however, is the tasting of the hope of salvation. Do not seek prematurely high spiritual states and prayerful raptures. They are not at all in reality what they appear to our imagination: the action of the Holy Spirit, from which high prayerful states arise, is incomprehensible to the carnal mind. Learn to pray with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. You will ask: what does this mean?–This cannot be known otherwise than by experience. Strive constantly to engage in attentive prayer: attentive prayer will give you the resolution of the question by blessed experience. The prayerful endeavor seems burdensome, tedious, and dry to a mind accustomed to occupying itself only with perishable objects. The habit of prayer is acquired with difficulty; but when this habit is acquired, it becomes a source of unceasing spiritual consolation. Prayer, as already stated above, is the mother of all virtues: acquire the mother! With her, her children will come into the house of your soul and make it a sanctuary of God. Before beginning any task, offer prayer to God; by it, attract God's blessing upon your deeds, and by it, judge your deeds: the thought of prayer stops one from deeds contrary to God's commandments. He who before every deed and word turns to God in prayer for understanding, help, and blessing, conducts his life as if under the gaze of God, under His guidance. The habit of such behavior is easily acquired; nothing is faster than the mind, said the Great Barsanuphius, nothing is easier than to lift the mind to God with every encountered need. In difficult life circumstances, increase your prayers to God. It is more reliable to resort to prayers than to the empty considerations of weak human reason, considerations which for the most part turn out to be impracticable. It is more reliable to lean by faith and prayer on the almighty God than–by shaky considerations and assumptions–on your own weak reason. Do not be foolish in your petitions, lest you anger God by your lack of wisdom: he who asks the King of kings for something insignificant dishonors Him. The Israelites, leaving without attention the miracles of God performed for them in the wilderness, asked for the fulfillment of the desires of the belly–"but before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them» ( Psalm 78:30–31 ). Bring to God petitions befitting His majesty. Solomon asked Him for wisdom; he received it, and with it a multitude of other goods: because he asked prudently. Elisha asked Him for the grace of the Holy Spirit, double that of his great teacher, and his petition was accepted. He who in his prayer seeks perishable earthly goods provokes the indignation of the Heavenly King. Angels and Archangels–these His nobles–look upon you during your prayer, they see what you are asking of God. They marvel and rejoice when they see an earthly one, having left his earth, offering a petition to receive something heavenly; they grieve, on the contrary, for one who leaves the heavenly without attention and asks for his earth and corruption. We are commanded to be infants in evil, but not in understanding (1Corinthians 14:20). In prayer, the reason of this world, talkative and arrogant, is rejected: it does not follow that foolishness is accepted or required in it. It requires perfect reason, spiritual reason, filled with humble-mindedness and simplicity, often expressed in prayer not by words but by a prayerful silence that is higher than words. Prayerful silence then envelops the mind when new, spiritual concepts, inexpressible by the words of this world and age, suddenly present themselves to it, when a particularly vivid sensation of the present God appears. Before the immeasurable majesty of the Godhead, His weak creature–man–falls silent. Multitude of words, condemned by the Lord in the prayers of the pagans, consists in the numerous petitions for temporal goods with which the prayers of the pagans are filled, and in the oratorical style in which they are presented–as if rhetorical embellishments, material sonority, and force of style can act upon God in the same way they act upon the hearing and nerves of carnal people. Condemning this multitude of words, the Lord by no means condemned prolonged prayers, as it seemed to some heretics: He Himself sanctified prolonged prayer by remaining in prayer for long periods. «And he spent the night in prayer to God» (Luke 6:12), the Gospel narrates about the Lord. The duration of the prayers of God's saints is not from multitude of words, but from the abundant spiritual sensations that arise in them during prayer. By the abundance and power of these sensations, time is, so to speak, annihilated, henceforth transforming for God's saints into eternity. When the practitioner of prayer attains progress in his blessed endeavor, the variety of thoughts in the psalms and other prayers becomes unsuited to his disposition. The Prayer of the Publican and other very short prayers more satisfactorily express the inexpressible, vast desire of the heart, and often God's saints spent many hours, days, and years in such prayer, feeling no need for a variety of thoughts for their strong, concentrated prayer. (Hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov, a monk who particularly excelled in prayer, spent a thousand days and a thousand nights, standing on a stone and crying out to the Lord: «God, be merciful to me, a sinner!») Prayers composed by heretics greatly resemble the prayers of pagans: in them is much speaking; in them is earthly beauty of words; in them is a heating of the blood; in them is a lack of repentance; in them is a striving to go directly from the brothel of passions to the marriage feast of the Son of God; in them is self-delusion. They are alien to the Holy Spirit: from them blows the deadly infection of the dark spirit, the cunning spirit, the spirit of falsehood and perdition. Great is the occupation of prayer! The Holy Apostles, for the sake of prayer and the ministry of the Word, refused to serve the bodily needs of their neighbors. «It is not right,» they said, «that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables... But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word» ( Acts 6:2, 4 ), that is, to converse with God through prayer and to converse about God with neighbors, proclaiming to them the Triune God and the incarnate God the Word. The occupation of prayer is the highest occupation for the human mind; the state of purity, free from distraction, granted to the mind by prayer, is its highest natural state; its rapture to God, for which the initial cause is pure prayer, is a supernatural state. Into the supernatural state ascend only the holy saints of God, renewed by the Holy Spirit, having put off the old Adam, having put on the New, capable of «beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face of the soul, being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another» by the action of the Lord's Spirit (2Corinthians 3:18). The greater part of Divine revelations they receive during the exercise of prayer, as at a time when the soul is especially prepared, especially purified, attuned for communion with God. Thus, the Holy Apostle Peter, during prayer, saw the significant sheet descending from heaven ( Acts 10:11 ). Thus, to the centurion Cornelius, during prayer, an Angel appeared ( Acts 10:3 ). Thus, when the Apostle Paul was praying in the temple of Jerusalem, the Lord appeared to him and commanded him to leave Jerusalem immediately: «Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles» ( Acts 22:21 ), He said to him. Prayer is commanded by the Lord, as is repentance. The end of prayer, as of repentance, is indicated as one: entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, which is within us. «Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand» (Matthew 4:17). «The kingdom of God is within you» (Luke 17:21). «Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened... Your Father who is in heaven [will] give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!» (Luke 11:9–10, 13). «And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night, and complain of the violence caused to them by the sinful infection and the demons? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily» (Luke 18:7–8). The entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, which is planted in the heart of every Christian by holy baptism, is the development of this Kingdom by the action of the Holy Spirit. Hasten with prayer, O soul thirsting for salvation, hasten after the Savior, accompanied by His countless disciples. Call after Him with prayer like the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22–28); do not be grieved by His prolonged inattention; endure magnanimously and humbly the sorrows and humiliations which He allows you on the prayerful path. For success in prayer, help from temptations is absolutely necessary. According to your faith, for your humility, for the persistence of your prayer, He will comfort you by healing your daughter, who is tormented by the action of the passions–by healing your thoughts and sensations, transforming them from passionate to passionless, from sinful to holy, from carnal to spiritual. Amen. On Prayer. Article II Holy, great, and soul-saving is the endeavor of prayer. It is the chief and primary endeavor among monastic struggles. All other endeavors are subordinate to this one; they are undertaken so that the endeavor of prayer may be accomplished more successfully, and the fruits of prayer may be more abundant. «The head of all pious living,» said St. Macarius the Great, «and the summit of all good deeds is constant perseverance in prayer.» What human position can be higher, can compare with the position of a person admitted to converse through prayer with the King of kings, the God of gods, the Creator and absolute Master of all visible and invisible, material and spiritual creatures? Due to the importance of the exercise of prayer, this exercise requires significant preliminary preparation. From those wishing to approach the King of kings, He requires a manner of thought and a disposition of heart pleasing to Him–that manner of thought and that disposition of heart through which all the righteous of the Old and New Testaments drew near to Him and pleased Him (Luke 1:17). Without this manner of thought and disposition of heart, access is impossible; attempts and efforts to gain access are futile. You who wish to approach God and be united with Him through constant perseverance in prayer, examine yourself! Scrutinize carefully your manner of thought: are you infected with any false teaching? Do you follow precisely and without exception the teaching of the Eastern Church, the one true, holy, apostolic Church? «If anyone refuses to listen to the Church,» said the Lord to His disciple, «let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector» (Matthew 18:17), strangers to God, enemies of God. What significance, then, can the prayer of one who is in a state of enmity towards God, in a state of alienation from God, possibly have? A consciousness of onés sinfulness, a consciousness of onés weakness, onés nothingness–this is a necessary condition for prayer to be mercifully accepted and heard by God. All the saints laid as the foundation of prayer the consciousness and confession of their own sinfulness and the sinfulness of all humanity. The holiness of a person depends on the consciousness and confession of this sinfulness. He who grants holiness to people for their repentance said: «I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance» (Matthew 9:13). You who wish to engage in the endeavor of prayer! Before you approach this endeavor, strive to forgive everyone who has grieved, slandered, humiliated you, everyone who has caused you any kind of evil whatsoever. He before whom you intend to stand in prayer commands you: «So if you are offering your gift of prayer at the altar of the King of kings, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift» (Matthew 5:23–24). Prepare yourself for prayer with detachment and freedom from cares. From attachments come cares. Restrained by attachments, distracted by cares, your thought will not be able to strive unwaveringly towards God in prayer. «You cannot serve God and mammon. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'... But seek first, with diligent, constant, heartfelt prayers... the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you» (Matthew 6:24, 21, 31, 33). Tear your mind and heart away from the earth and from everything earthly, and it will not be difficult for you to begin the invisible journey by prayer to heaven. If you endure poverty, or are oppressed by sorrowful circumstances, or an enemy plots against you and persecutes you–disregard, so that your attention during prayer is not assailed by any distraction, any disturbance–disregard the memories and thoughts brought to you about your poverty, your circumstances, your enemy. He, in whose full power are you, your circumstances, and your enemy, says to His beloved: «Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me» ( John 14:1 ). «But when you pray,» the Lord instructs, «go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret» (Matthew 6:6). Whether you are in the company of people or alone, strive constantly to withdraw into the inner chamber of your soul, to close the doors of the senses and the tongue, to pray secretly with your mind and heart. Having come to love the endeavor of prayer, love the solitude of a physical cell as well. Close its doors to yourself and to others. Patiently endure the boredom of seclusion: it will not delay in being replaced by a most pleasant feeling. «Remain in your cell,» said the Holy Fathers, «it will teach you everything,» i.e., the monastic way of life, which is entirely centered on prayer. Having come to love the endeavor of prayer, love silence: it preserves the powers of the soul undivided, capable of constant prayer in the inner chamber. The habit of silence gives the ability for silent prayer of the heart even amidst noisy crowds. As a sacrifice to the love of prayer, offer up the pleasures of the senses and intellectual pleasures, the love of knowledge, curiosity; guard your soul from all external impressions, so that God may be imprinted upon it through prayer. His all-holy, invisible, spiritual Image cannot abide in a soul cluttered with images of the vain, material, transient world. Do not admire visible nature, do not occupy yourself with contemplating its beauties; do not waste precious time and the powers of your soul on acquiring knowledge provided by human sciences. Use both strength and time to acquire prayer, which celebrates its sacred service in the inner chamber. There, within yourself, prayer will open a spectacle that will attract all your attention; it will provide you with knowledge which the world cannot contain, of whose existence it has no conception. There, in the depths of the heart, you will see the fall of mankind, you will see your soul, slain by sin, you will see the tomb, you will see hell, you will see demons, you will see chains and fetters, you will see the flaming sword of the Cherubim guarding the way to the tree of life, forbidding man entrance into the abodes of paradise–you will see many other mysteries, hidden from the world and from the sons of the world. When this spectacle is revealed–your gaze will be fixed upon it; you will grow cold towards everything temporal and perishable, for which you had sympathy until now. «Today or tomorrow we die,» said St. Andrew to a monk, diverting him from attachment to material things and explaining the foolishness of such attachment. Very true words! A very accurate depiction of the uncertain span of our earthly life! We will die today or tomorrow. Nothing is easier than to die. The longest life, when we come to its end, turns out to be the briefest instant. Why then occupy ourselves with that which we must necessarily leave behind forever, leave very soon? It is better through prayer to study ourselves, to study the life and world that await us, in which we will remain for eternity. The solitude of the cell and the desert are the abode of prayer. «He who has tasted prayer,» said St. John Climacus, «will flee the multitude: who, if not prayer, makes its lover, like a desert-loving wild ass, free from the need for society?» If you wish to initiate your soul into the work of prayer: withdraw yourself from the sight of the world, renounce human society, from conversations and from the customary receiving of friends into your cell, even under the pretext of love. Remove from yourself everything that interrupts and disturbs your mysterious conversation with God. Dwell on earth and in human society as a stranger. You are a stranger. The earth is an inn. The hour in which you will be called is unknown. The call is inevitable and inescapable; to refuse or resist is impossible. Prepare yourself with holy prayer for a joyful departure from the inn. Prayer appropriates a person to God. The fallen angels look upon its action with indescribable envy and hatred, having passed through their fall from being appropriated to God to a terrible, insane enmity towards Him. With various temptations they strive to shake the one praying, to turn him away from the most salvific endeavor, to wrest from him that progress and bliss which will undoubtedly be attained by the endeavor. Therefore, he who wishes to dedicate himself to the exercise of prayer must prepare in good time for sorrows, so as not to fall into perplexity and confusion when they befall him, so as to courageously resist them with the power of faith and patience. The demons strike the monk engaged in prayer with bodily illnesses, oppress him with poverty, with a lack of human attention and help, just as they struck and oppressed the much-afflicted Job, by God's permission. But we, like this righteous man, will bless and thank God for what He has permitted, fulfilled by the demons; with glorification and thanksgiving to God we will accomplish the all-holy will of God, declared to us by the Holy Spirit of God: «Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you» (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The demons incite people to take up arms against the practitioner of prayer, to condemn him for the strangeness of his behavior, for the scarcity of his useful activity–to accuse him of idleness, hypocrisy, and sanctimoniousness–to ascribe to him evil and cunning intentions, depraved actions–to violate and disturb his silence–to compel him to occupations contrary to his way of life, associated with distraction, dissipation, and the violation of the heart's peace. Knowing the initial cause of these temptations, let us pray according to the commandment of the Gospel and the testament of the Holy Fathers for our neighbors, who sin in ignorance and by being carried away; God will destroy the schemes of the demons. Tempting us from without, the demons also wreak havoc within us. When we withdraw into solitude and begin to occupy ourselves with prayer: they arouse in us various sinful desires, which we had not felt before–they agitate our heart with countless sinful thoughts and fantasies, which had never before appeared to our mind: they do this with the aim that we, brought into perplexity and despondency, as seeing no benefit from the prayerful endeavor and solitude, might abandon them. This action of the demons appears to ascetics, new to the endeavor, as the soul's own action: our invisible, cunningly evil enemies, committing their villainies, at the same time wish to remain hidden, so that escape from the snares set for a person would be impossible for him, and disorder and ruin inevitable. Just as the demons consider it very important to hide themselves from man, so it is very important for man to understand that they are the primary agents of sin, the source of our temptations, and not our neighbors, not ourselves when we lead a life in service to God, nor some chance occurrence. Having discerned the enemies, we will gradually learn, under the guidance of God's Word, to watch over them and over ourselves vigilantly, and to resist them with firmness. «Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith» (1 Peter 5:6–9). This struggle, these attacks of the demons upon those being saved and praying, are permitted by God Himself–they are consequences of our voluntary fall, through which we subjected ourselves to the power of the demons. Let us submit to God's righteous decree concerning us and bow our heads under all the blows of sorrows and illnesses with which it pleases God to chastise our sinfulness and our transgressions in this temporal life, in order to deliver us from the eternal sorrows and illnesses we have deserved. God, while permitting us temptations and delivering us to the devil, does not cease to provide for us; while punishing, He does not cease to benefit us. «God is faithful,» says the Apostle, «and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it» (1Corinthians 10:13). And the devil, being a slave and a creature of God, tempts not as much as he wants, but as much as God's will permits; he tempts not when he wants, but when permission is given for it. Let us cast, according to the Apostlés counsel, all our care for ourselves, all our sorrows, all our hope upon God, and for this, let us increase and intensify our prayer to Him. The permission for demons to tempt us is necessary for our progress: by opposing our prayer, they force us to learn the particularly skillful use of this sword. With the sword of prayer, the flaming sword of the Cherubim guarding the way to the tree of life is shattered, and the victor becomes a partaker of eternal life. By God's ineffable wisdom, «evil works together for good by a non-good intention.» When in our solitude and during the exercise of prayer, passionate sensations and movements suddenly boil up within us, fierce thoughts attack us, sinful fantasies present themselves to us in deceptive vividness: this is a sign of the enemies' arrival. Then is not the time for despondency, not the time for slackening: it is the time for striving. Let us oppose the enemies with intensified prayer to God, and He will scatter and drive away our enemies. In the invisible warfare, we do not always and not soon become victors: victory is a gift from God, granted to the ascetic by God in His own time, known to God alone and determined by God alone. Even our defeats are necessary for us. Here we mean defeats arising from our weakness and sinfulness, not from a changed will. Defeats are permitted to us for our humility, so that we may discern and study the fallenness of our nature, recognize the necessity of a Redeemer, believe in Him, and confess Him. During such defeats, our invisible enemies instill in us shame on account of the defeat, and on account of the shame, a slackening in the prayerful endeavor, a distrust of it, a thought of abandoning it and transitioning to a good activity amidst human society. Let us not fall into deception! With self-denial and shamelessness, let us reveal our wound before our all-good and almighty Physician, who commanded this salvific shamelessness for us and promised to crown it with vengeance upon our adversaries (Luke 18). Let us establish a covenant in our soul: not to abandon the prayerful endeavor until the end of life, to pass from its midst into eternity. Our shame during defeats is devoid of sense: it is an evil mockery of us by our enemies. Is this fig leaf–shame with its means–capable of hiding a person's sin from the all-seeing God? God sees the sin even without the confession of sin. He seeks confession solely in order to heal. If He commanded His Apostle to forgive a sinning and repenting brother «seven times» a day, how much more will He Himself fulfill this towards us, who unceasingly bring Him prayer and repentance (Luke 17:4). Let us turn careful attention to the following: is it not our double-mindedness that strengthens our enemies in their struggle with us? Is it not the cause of our frequent defeats? Do we not ourselves secure the power and influence of our enemies over us by fulfilling their will through the fulfillment of our carnal desires, inclinations, and attachments? Do we not thereby provoke God's anger, do we not remove Him from ourselves? Does not a love for the world operate within us, leaving us with the appearance of servants of God, while taking away the essential dignity of God's slaves, making us in essence enemies of God ( James 4:4–5 )? «A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways» ( James 1:8 ), all the more will he be shaken on the path of the highest, preeminent virtue–prayer. He is rejected by God as neither hot nor cold (Revelation 3:16). He cannot be a disciple of true prayer, which brings its disciples before the face of God for supernatural edification, leading them in the footsteps of Jesus, «if he does not renounce all that he has» (Luke 14:33): the sickly deviations of the fallen human will towards the world. «Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires» (Galatians 5:24): only those who belong wholly to Christ can acquire true prayer. A seemingly insignificant attachment, a seemingly innocent love for some object, animate or inanimate, brings the mind and heart down from heaven, casts them upon the earth among the innumerable reptiles and creeping things of the vast sea of life ( Psalm 104:25 ). The Holy Fathers compare an ascetic who has progressed in prayer to an eagle, and a petty attachment to the noose of a snare; if one claw of the eaglés mighty foot becomes entangled in this noose, the eagle becomes incapable of soaring aloft, becomes an easy and certain prey for the fowler: vain then are the strength and boldness of the royal bird. «Go,» the Holy Fathers instruct us, borrowing the instruction from the holy Gospel, «sell your material possessions, and give to the poor, and take up your cross, deny yourself by opposing your attachments and your fallen will» (Matthew 19:21, 16:24; Mark 10:21 ), so that you may be able to pray undisturbed and without distraction. As long as attachments are alive in you, so long will disturbance and distraction assail your prayer. It is necessary first to detach oneself from material possessions, to part with the world, to renounce it: only after completing this renunciation can a Christian discern his inner captivity, prison, bonds, wounds, and the mortification of his soul. The struggle with the death dwelling in the heart, accomplished through prayer under the guidance of God's Word, is a crucifixion, it is the loss of the soul for the soul's salvation ( Mark 8:35 ). Unite prayer with prudent fasting: the combination of these two spiritual weapons is commanded to us by the Lord Himself for casting out demons from ourselves ( Mark 9:29 ). «But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face» (Matthew 6:17), commanded the Savior. According to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, the oil with which, according to the custom of that time, the head was anointed, signifies mercy, which should abide upon our spiritual judgment, as the Apostle said: «Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive» (Colossians 3:12–13). The face of the body and soul must be washed with tears: they will then appear in the eyes of the one praying and fasting when his heart is filled with mercy towards his neighbors, with compassion for all humanity without exception. Do you wish to be united with God through prayer? Instill mercy in your heart, by which we are commanded to become like the heavenly Father (Luke 6:36) and to attain grace-filled perfection (Matthew 5:48). Compel your heart to mercy and goodness, immerse, clothe your entire spirit in these qualities, until you feel within yourself a love for mankind similar to that which shines like the sun equally «on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust» (Matthew 5:45). When you forgive from the heart all the trespasses of your neighbors, then your own trespasses will be revealed to you. You will see how much you need God's mercy, how much all humanity needs it: you will weep before God for yourself and for humanity. The Holy Fathers encompass all the labors of a monk, his entire life, in «mourning.» What is the «mourning» of a monk? It is his «prayer.» The Holy «Spirit, when He dwells in a person, intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words» (Romans 8:26). The Divine and supercelestial Spirit, having become as it were the soul of a person, prays and weeps for him; He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:27), because He alone fully knows the will of God. «No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God» (1Corinthians 2:11). The Lord, promising His disciples the greatest gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, said: «But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things» ( John 14:26 ); if all things, then both mourning and prayer. He will weep for us, He will pray for us, for «we do not know what to pray for as we ought» (Romans 8:26). So weak, limited, darkened, and damaged by sin are we! If the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, weeps for us, how much more should we, before receiving this all-holy Sojourner into ourselves, weep for ourselves. If our state, after our renewal by the Holy Spirit, is worthy of mourning–worthy of mourning according to the testimony of the Spirit Himself–how much more is it worthy of mourning in its oldness, in its fallen state, left to itself. Mourning must be an inseparable quality of our prayer, its constant, inseparable companion and helper, its soul. He who unites mourning with prayer strives according to the direction of God Himself, strives correctly, lawfully. In due time he will reap an abundant fruit: the joy of assured salvation. He who has removed mourning from prayer labors contrary to God's ordinance; he will reap no fruits. Worse than that, he will reap the thorns of self-conceit, self-delusion, and perdition. Brethren! Let us not allow ourselves to be deceived by a false, ridiculous, senseless, and ruinous thought: let us not rush to seek pleasures during our prayer! Graceful enjoyment is not proper for sinners; mourning is proper for them: let us seek it with all diligence, let us seek this treasure–the key to all spiritual treasures. He who has no mourning is in a false position: he is deceived by his pride. The Holy Fathers call mourning the guide in the spiritual endeavor. It must lead all our pious thoughts, directing them to the true goal. A thought not permeated by mourning and not guided by it is a stray thought. St. Poemen the Great said: «The entire life of a monk ought to be mourning. This is the path of repentance, given to us by Scripture and the Fathers, who said: mourn! There is no other path except mourning.» Another great Father said: «If you wish to please God, come out from the world, separate yourself from the earth, leave the creature, approach the Creator, and unite with God through 'prayer and mourning.'» Monks living in populous monasteries and wishing to acquire prayerful mourning must pay particular attention to the mortification of their own will. If they cut it off and pay no attention to the sins, generally to the behavior, of their neighbors, they will acquire both prayer and mourning. Thoughts, gathering in the heart, arouse in it prayer and sorrow for God, and this sorrow produces tears. Given the terrible scarcity in our time of instructors in true prayer, let us choose mourning as our guide and instructor. It will both teach prayer and guard against self-delusion. All who rejected mourning, who separated it from their prayer, fell into self-delusion. This is affirmed by the Holy Fathers. He who has attained pure prayer through mourning remembers during prayer only God and his own sinfulness. Death and the judgment, which must immediately follow death, appear to him as having already arrived. He stands in his heart's feeling before the impartial and unyielding Judge on the final day of judgment, before the Judge who can still be entreated and may show favor to the weeping one at the judgment seat established and initiated by prayer. He is terrified in due time, perplexed, trembles, laments, groans, so as to avoid the useless terror, trembling, perplexity, lamentation, and despair which the final sentence of the forever angered God will produce in the rejected sinners. He condemns himself, so as not to be condemned; acknowledges himself a criminal, worthy of all punishments, to avert punishments from himself; confesses himself a sinner, to receive righteousness from the right hand of God, who gives this righteousness freely to all sinners who acknowledge and repent of their sinfulness. The Lord commands: «Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.» Here is indicated not a single action, but a constant one; the command extends to the entire earthly life of a person. «For everyone who asks in this way receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks unceasingly it will be opened... Your Father who is in heaven [will] give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!» (Luke 11:9–10, 13). By the very promise, the most careful, uninterrupted practice is necessary: «for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning–lest he come suddenly and find you asleep» ( Mark 13:35–36 ). It is impossible, notes St. John Climacus, to teach prayer to one who wishes to learn it by words alone. Its teachers are experience and mourning. In contrition and humility of spirit, let us begin the endeavor of prayer, let us enter under the guidance of mourning: God Himself, «who gives prayer to the one who prays» (1 Samuel 2:9), will become our teacher of prayer. «Come to me,» invites us the sacred mother of all virtues–prayer–"all who labor under the yoke of passions, in captivity to fallen spirits, burdened with various sins, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you... and you will find rest for your souls,» healing for your wounds. «For my yoke is easy» (Matthew 11:28–30), capable of healing from sins, even the greatest ones. «Come, O children,» invites us the sacred mother of all virtues–prayer–"listen to me: 'I will teach you the fear of the Lord'» ( Psalm 34:11 ). I will teach you «the fear of the Lord» by experience itself, I will implant the feeling of it in your hearts. I will teach you both the «fear» of beginners, by which «everyone turns away from evil» ( Proverbs 16:6 ), and the pure «fear of the Lord,» «enduring forever» ( Psalm 19:9 ), the fear by which the Lord is «awesome to all who are around him» ( Psalm 89:7 ), awesome to the very flaming Cherubim and the most glorious, six-winged Seraphim. Abandon the fruitless and vain attachment to everything transient, with which you must, even unwillingly, part! Abandon the deceptive amusements and pleasures! Abandon idle talk, jesting, and much speaking, which empty the soul! Remember, consider, be assured that you are here on earth but short-term sojourners, that your homeland, your eternal abode, is heaven. You need a faithful and strong guide there: this guide is I, and no other. All the saints who ascended from earth to heaven completed their journey in no other way than by me. I reveal to the one who has entered into a covenant with me the fall and sinfulness of man and extract him from them as from a deep abyss. I reveal to him the princes of the air, their snares and chains, I tear these snares and chains, I strike and drive away these princes. I explain the Creator to the created and the Redeemer to the redeemed, I reconcile man with God. I unfold before my disciple and beloved the immeasurable greatness of God and introduce him into that state of reverence and submission to Him in which creatures must be before the Creator. I sow humility in the heart, I make the heart a source of abundant tears; I make my partakers partakers of Divine grace. I do not leave those guided by me until I bring them before the face of God, until I unite them with God. God is the unfulfillable fulfillment of all desires in this age and the age to come. Amen. The Eight Principal Passions with Their Subdivisions and Branches Borrowed from the holy patristic writings 1. Gluttony Overeating, drunkenness, non-observance and breaking of fasts, secret eating, gourmandizing, generally any violation of abstinence. Improper and excessive love of the flesh, its belly and comfort, from which is formed self-love, leading to unfaithfulness to God, the Church, virtue, and people. 2. Fornication Lustful arousal, lustful sensations and desires of the body, lustful sensations and desires of the soul and heart (inner turbulence), acceptance of impure thoughts, conversing with them, delighting in them, consenting to them, dwelling on them. Lustful fantasies and captivation. Defilement through nocturnal emissions. Failure to guard the senses, especially touch, which involves a boldness that destroys all virtues. Foul language and reading lustful books. Natural sexual sins: fornication and adultery. Unnatural sexual sins: masturbation, homosexuality, bestiality, and the like. 3. Avarice (Love of Money) Love of money, generally love of movable and immovable property. Desire to become rich. Contemplation of means to enrichment. Daydreaming of wealth. Fear of old age, unexpected poverty, sickness, exile. Stinginess. Greed. Lack of faith in God, lack of trust in His providence. Attachments or a morbid, excessive love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Preoccupation with vain cares. Love of gifts. Appropriation of what belongs to others. Usury. Hard-heartedness towards the poor brethren and all those in need. Theft. Robbery. 4. Anger Irascibility, acceptance of angry thoughts; fantasizing about anger and revenge, agitation of the heart with rage, darkening of the mind by it: inappropriate shouting, arguments, abusive, harsh, and cutting words, striking, pushing, murder. Holding grudges, hatred, enmity, vengeance, slander, judgment, agitation and offense of onés neighbor. 5. Sadness Grief, melancholy, abandonment of hope in God, doubt in God's promises, ingratitude to God for all that occurs, faintheartedness, impatience, failure to blame oneself, sorrow against onés neighbor, grumbling, rejection of the cross, attempt to come down from it. 6. Acedia (Sloth/Despondency) Laziness towards every good work, especially towards prayer. Abandonment of church and cell rule. Abandonment of unceasing prayer and soul-profitable reading. Inattention and haste in prayer. Negligence. Irreverence. Idleness. Excessive rest through sleep, lying down, and all kinds of comfort. Moving from place to place. Frequent exits from the cell, walks, and visits to friends. Idle talk. Jesting. Mockery. Abandonment of prostrations and other bodily labors. Forgetting onés sins. Forgetting Christ's commandments. Carelessness. Captivity. Loss of the fear of God. Hardness of heart. Insensibility. Despair. 7. Vainglory Seeking human glory. Boastfulness. Desire and seeking of earthly honors. Love of fine clothes, carriages, servants, and cell possessions. Attention to the beauty of onés face, pleasantness of voice, and other bodily qualities. Inclination towards the perishing sciences and arts of this age, seeking to succeed in them to acquire temporary, earthly glory. Shame to confess onés sins. Hiding them from people and onés spiritual father. Cunning. Justifying oneself. Contradiction. Relying on onés own reason. Hypocrisy. Lying. Flattery. People-pleasing. Envy. Belittling onés neighbor. Changeable character. Pretense. Shamelessness. Demonic disposition and life. 8. Pride Despising onés neighbor. Preferring oneself to all. Boldness. Darkening, coarseness of mind and heart. Nailing them to the earthly. Blasphemy. Unbelief. Delusion. False-named knowledge. Disobedience to the Law of God and the Church. Following onés own carnal will. Reading heretical, depraved, and vain books. Disobedience to authorities. Biting mockery. Abandonment of Christ-imitating humility and silence. Loss of simplicity. Loss of love for God and neighbor. False philosophy. Heresy. Godlessness. Ignorance. Death of the soul. * * * Such are the ailments, such are the wounds that constitute the great wound, the oldness of the old Adam, which was formed from his fall. Of this great wound, the holy prophet Isaiah speaks: «From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil» (Isaiah 1:6). This means, according to the explanation of the Fathers, that the wound–sin–is not partial, not on just one member, but on the entire being: it has encompassed the body, encompassed the soul, taken possession of all the properties, all the powers of man. This great wound God called death when, forbidding Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He said: «For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die» ( Genesis 2:17 ). Immediately upon tasting the forbidden fruit, our first parents felt eternal death: in their gaze appeared a carnal sensation; they saw that they were naked. In the knowledge of the nakedness of the body was reflected the stripping of the soul, which had lost the beauty of integrity, upon which the Holy Spirit had rested. A carnal sensation acts in the eyes, and in the soul–shame, in which is combined all sinful sensations: both pride, and impurity, and sadness, and despondency, and despair! A great wound–the death of the soul; the oldness that occurred after the loss of the Divine likeness is irreparable! The great wound the Apostle calls the «law of sin,» the «body of death» (Romans 7:23–24), because the deadened mind and heart have fully turned to the earth, slavishly serve the corrupt desires of the flesh, have become darkened, burdened, and have themselves become flesh. This flesh is no longer capable of communion with God! ( Genesis 6:3 ). This flesh is not capable of inheriting eternal, heavenly bliss! (1Corinthians 15:50). The great wound has spread over the entire human race, has become the woeful possession of every person. Examining my great wound, looking upon my mortification, I am filled with bitter sorrow! I am perplexed, what am I to do? Shall I follow the example of the old Adam, who, seeing his nakedness, hurried to hide from God? Shall I, like him, justify myself, laying the blame on the causes of sin? In vain–to hide from the All-Seeing! In vain–to justify oneself before Him «that you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged» ( Psalm 51:4 ). Let me then clothe myself, instead of fig leaves, in the tears of repentance; instead of justification, let me bring sincere acknowledgment. Clothed in repentance and tears, I will stand before my God. But where will I find my God? In paradise? I am exiled from there–and the Cherubim standing at the entrance will not let me in! By the very heaviness of my flesh I am nailed to the earth, my prison! Sinful descendant of Adam, take courage! A light has shone in your prison: God has descended into the lower region of your exile, to lead you back to your lost heavenly homeland. You wanted to know good and evil: He leaves you this knowledge. You wanted to become «like God,» and from this you became like the devil in soul, like cattle and beasts in body: God, uniting you with Himself, makes you a god by grace. He forgives you your sins. This is not enough! He removes the root of evil from your soul, the very sinful infection, the poison cast into the soul by the devil, and gives you a remedy for your entire earthly journey, for healing from sin, no matter how many times you become infected by it, due to your weakness. This remedy is the confession of sins. Do you wish to put off the old Adam, you who by holy baptism have already been clothed in the New Adam, but by your own iniquities have managed to revive in yourself the oldness and death, to stifle life, to make it half-dead? Do you wish, you who have been enslaved to sin, dragged to it by the violence of habit, to regain freedom and righteousness?–Immerse yourself in humility! Conquer vainglorious shame, which teaches you to hypocritically and cunningly pretend to be righteous and thereby preserve and strengthen the death of the soul within you. Cast out sin, enter into enmity with sin through sincere confession of sin. This healing must precede all others; without it, healing through prayer, tears, fasting, and all other means will be insufficient, unsatisfactory, and unstable. Go, proud one, to your spiritual father–at his feet you will find the mercy of the Heavenly Father! Only one, one sincere and frequent confession can free one from sinful habits, make repentance fruitful, and correction firm and true. In a brief moment of compunction, in which the eyes of the mind are opened for self-knowledge, which comes so rarely, I wrote this for my own reproof, for exhortation, reminder, and instruction. And you, whoever reads these lines with faith and love in Christ and perhaps finds something useful in them for yourself, offer a heartfelt sigh and a prayer for a soul that has suffered much from the waves of sin, has often seen drowning and destruction before it, and has found rest in only one harbor: in the confession of its transgressions. On the Virtues Opposed to the Eight Principal Sinful Passions 1. Temperance Restraint from excessive consumption of food and drink, especially from the excessive use of wine. Strict observance of the fasts established by the Church. The curbing of the flesh through moderate and consistently equal consumption of food, from which all passions generally begin to weaken, and especially self-love, which consists in a mindless love for the flesh, its belly, and its comfort. 2. Chastity Avoidance of every kind of fornication. Avoidance of lustful conversations and reading, from uttering foul, lustful, and ambiguous words. Guarding the senses, especially sight and hearing, and even more so touch. Modesty. Rejection of lustful thoughts and fantasies. Silence. Stillness. Service to the sick and disabled. Remembrance of death and hell. The beginning of chastity is a mind unshaken by lustful thoughts and fantasies; the perfection of chastity is purity that sees God. 3. Non-Acquisitiveness Contentment with only the necessary. Hatred of luxury and softness. Mercy towards the poor. Love for evangelical poverty. Trust in God's providence. Following Christ's commandments. Calm and freedom of spirit. Freedom from anxiety. Softness of heart. 4. Meekness Avoidance of angry thoughts and from the agitation of the heart with rage. Patience. Following Christ, who calls His disciple to the cross. Peace of heart. Silence of the mind. Christian firmness and courage. Not feeling insults. Guilelessness. 5. Blessed Mourning The feeling of the fall common to all mankind and of onés own spiritual poverty. Sorrowing over them. Mourning of the mind. Painful contrition of heart. The ease of conscience, gracious consolation, and rejoicing that spring from them. Hope in God's mercy. Thanksgiving to God in sorrows, bearing them obediently from the sight of the multitude of onés sins. Readiness to endure. Purification of the mind. Relief from passions. Death to the world. Desire for prayer, solitude, obedience, humility, confession of onés sins. 6. Sobriety (Spiritual Watchfulness) Zeal for every good work. Diligent fulfillment of the church and cell rule. Attention in prayer. Careful observation of all onés deeds, words, and thoughts. Extreme distrust of oneself. Unceasing abiding in prayer and the Word of God. Reverence. Constant vigilance over oneself. Guarding oneself from much sleep, pampering, idle talk, jokes, and sharp words. Love for nightly vigils, prostrations, and other labors that impart vigor to the soul. Rarely, if possible, leaving onés cell. Remembrance of eternal blessings, desire and expectation of them. 7. Humility Fear of God. The feeling of it during prayer. A fear born during especially pure prayer, when the presence and majesty of God are felt particularly strongly, lest one vanish and turn into nothing. Deep knowledge of onés own nothingness. A change in the view of neighbors, whereby they, without any compulsion, seem to one who has so humbled himself to be superior to him in all respects. The manifestation of simplicity from living faith. Hatred of human praise. Constant self-accusation and self-reproach. Uprightness and directness. Impartiality. Deadness to everything. Compunction. Knowledge of the mystery hidden in the cross of Christ. Desire to crucify oneself to the world and the passions, striving for this crucifixion. Rejection and forgetting of flattering customs and words, of modesty by compulsion, design, or habit of pretending. Embracing the «foolishness» of the Gospel. Rejection of earthly wisdom as useless for heaven. Contempt for everything that is exalted among men and is an abomination before God ( Lk. 16:15 ). Abandonment of self-justification. Silence before those who offend, learned from the Gospel. Laying aside all onés own reasonings and accepting the reason of the Gospel. Casting down every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. Humble-mindedness, or spiritual discernment. Conscious obedience in all things to the Church. 8. Love The change during prayer from the fear of God into the love of God. Faithfulness to the Lord, proven by the constant rejection of every sinful thought and feeling. An indescribable, sweet attraction of the whole person by love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the worshiped Holy Trinity. Seeing in neighbors the image of God and of Christ; the preference for all neighbors over oneself and reverent honoring of them in the Lord that springs from this spiritual vision. Brotherly love for neighbors, pure, equal to all, impartial, joyful, burning equally for friends and enemies. The rapture of the mind, heart, and entire body into prayer and love. Indescribable enjoyment of the body by spiritual joy. Spiritual inebriation. Weakness of the bodily members during spiritual consolation. Inactivity of the bodily senses during prayer. Loosing of the tongue of the heart from its muteness. Cessation of prayer from spiritual sweetness. Silence of the mind. Enlightenment of the mind and heart. Prayerful power that conquers sin. The peace of Christ. The retreat of all passions. The swallowing up of all understandings by the surpassing mind of Christ. Theology. Knowledge of incorporeal beings. The weakness of sinful thoughts, unable to be depicted in the mind. Sweetness and abundant consolation in sorrows. Insight into human arrangements. The depth of humility and the most humble opinion of oneself… The end is endless! The Daily Apostolic Reading for February 1st, 1840 A certain monk, by the inscrutable judgments of God, entered upon a field of temptations. On the day of his entry into this field, at the Liturgy, the 62nd reading from the First Catholic Epistle of Peter was read: «Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial which comes upon you to test you,» and so on (1 Peter 4:12). The words proclaimed by the Apostle struck the monk especially: «For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God» (1 Peter 4:17). It seemed to the monk that these words were proclaimed precisely for him. Through the external action of men and demons, who are but blind instruments of Divine Providence, a mysterious, higher judgment is being accomplished–the judgment of God. If the consequence of this judgment is punishment, then it is a consequence of righteousness. And if the consequence of righteousness is punishment, then it is an exposure of guilt, an exposure–from God. In vain, then, do I consider myself righteous, unjustly punished; I strive with cunning justifications, which I myself recognize in my conscience as lies, to excuse myself, to accuse people. Self-styled righteous one! Turn the gaze of your mind upon your sins, unknown to men, known to God: and you will confess that the judgments of God are righteous, and your justification is shameless cunning. With reverent submission, render glory to the judgment of God, and justify the instruments chosen by God for your punishment. The peace of Christ will descend into your heart. With this peace, you will be reconciled with your sorrows–with self-denial you will surrender yourself and all things to the will of God. One, one care will remain in you: the care for the most exact, effective repentance, which destroys the enmity between man and God, and appropriates man to God. The foundation of repentance is the awareness, the full awareness, of onés sinfulness. A Reflection on Faith I pour forth the words of my heart, quietly stirred by an incorruptible and ineffable joy. Brethren! Incline your pure thoughts to my words, and partake of the spiritual feast! Faith in Christ is life. He who is nourished by faith already tastes, during his earthly sojourn, the eternal life appointed for the righteous after this sojourn is ended. The Lord said: «He who believes in Me has everlasting life» ( John 6:47 ). By faith, the saints of God endured harsh temptations: having in their hearts the wealth and delight of eternal life, they counted as nothing this earthly life with its allurements. By faith they accepted sorrows and sufferings as gifts from God, with which God deemed them worthy to imitate and partake of His sojourn on earth, when He deigned that one of His Persons should assume our nature and accomplish our redemption. The immeasurable delight born of faith swallows up the fierceness of sorrow, so that during suffering, only delight is felt. The Great Martyr Eustratius testified to this in his final prayer, as he bowed his head beneath the sword. «Bodily torments,» he said to God, «are joys to Your servants!» By faith, the saints plunged into the depths of humility: with the pure eye of faith, they saw that human sacrifices to God are God's gifts within man, man's debts, unnecessary to God, but necessary and salvific for man when man strives to offer, to increase, to repay them. «Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify to you: I am God, your God. I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices... For the world is Mine, and all its fullness» ( Psalm 50:7–8, 12 ). «For what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?» (1Corinthians 4:7). «For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more» (Luke 12:48). God's saints worked miracles, raised the dead, foretold the future, were inebriated with spiritual sweetness, and at the same time humbled themselves, trembled, seeing with perplexity, wonder, and fear that God had deigned to bestow grace upon dust–had entrusted His Holy Spirit to dust, to clay. O horror! At the sight of these mysteries, silence falls upon the beholding mind; an ineffable joy envelops the heart; the tongue falters in the telling. By faith, the saints entered into love for their enemies: the eye of the mind, enlightened by faith, looks steadfastly upon God in His providence, and ascribes all external circumstances to this Divine providence. Thus David, who saw «the Lord always» before him, so as to remain unshaken in courage amidst all sorrows and permissions that sought to shake and trouble his heart ( Psalm 16:8 ), said concerning Shimei, when Shimei cursed him and threw stones at him: «The Lord has said to him, 'Curse David.' What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah,» you thoughts of anger and vengeance! «Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the Lord has ordered him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction» (2 Samuel 16:10–12). The soul receives temptations as healings for its ailments, thanks the Physician–God, and sings: «Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind» ( Psalm 26:2 ). When temptation is regarded in this way, people and other instruments of temptation remain to the side, as mere instruments. There is no malice towards them, no enmity! The soul, glorifying the Creator, thanking the Heavenly Physician, in the rapture of ineffable feelings, begins to bless the instruments of its healing. And behold! Suddenly, love for enemies is kindled within it; a man becomes ready to lay down his life for his enemy–he sees in this not a sacrifice, but a duty, the indispensable duty of an unprofitable servant. Henceforth, heaven is open to us–we enter through love for our neighbors into love for God, we are in God, and God is in us. Behold what treasures faith contains–the mediator and bestower of hope and love. Amen. 1840, Sergiev Hermitage. The Garden in Winter In 1829, I spent the winter in the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage. To this day, there stands in the garden a secluded, wooden cell where I lived with my companion. In calm weather, on sunny, clear days, I would go out onto the porch, sit on the bench, and look at the vast garden. Its nakedness was covered with a snowy veil; all around was quiet, a kind of dead and majestic stillness. This spectacle began to appeal to me: pensive gazes involuntarily turned and became fixed upon it, as if searching for a secret within it. One day I sat and gazed intently at the garden. Suddenly, a veil fell from the eyes of my soul: before them opened the book of nature. This is the book given for the reading of the first-created Adam, a book containing the words of the Spirit, like the Divine Scripture. What teaching did I read in the garden?–The teaching on the resurrection of the dead, a powerful teaching, a teaching depicted by an action resembling resurrection. If we were not accustomed to seeing the revival of nature in spring, it would seem to us entirely miraculous, unbelievable. We do not marvel out of habit; seeing a miracle, we almost do not see it! I look at the bare branches of the trees, and they speak to me convincingly in their mysterious language: «We shall come to life, we shall be covered with leaves, we shall become fragrant, we shall be adorned with flowers and fruits: can it be that the dry bones of men will not come to life in their springtime?» They will come to life, they will be clothed with flesh; in a new form they will enter into a new life and a new world. Just as trees that could not withstand the severity of the frost, having lost their life-giving sap, are cut down at the onset of spring and carried out of the garden for fuel, so too will sinners, who have lost their life–God–be gathered on the last day of this age, at the dawn of the future eternal day, and cast into the unquenchable fire. If one could find a person who did not know the transformations brought about by the changing seasons; if one could bring this stranger into the garden, majestically resting in its deathly slumber during winter, show him the bare trees, and tell him of the luxury with which they will be clothed in spring, he, instead of answering, would look at you and smile–so utterly fanciful a fable would your words seem to him! So too does the resurrection of the dead seem improbable to the wise men who wander in the darkness of earthly wisdom, who have not known that God is almighty, that His manifold wisdom can be contemplated but not comprehended by the mind of creatures. All things are possible for God: there are no miracles for Him. The thought of man is weak: what we are not accustomed to seeing appears to us an impossible feat, an unbelievable miracle. The works of God, which we constantly and almost indifferently observe, are wondrous deeds, great miracles, incomprehensible. And annually, nature repeats before the eyes of all mankind the teaching on the resurrection of the dead, depicting it by a prefigurative, mysterious action! 1843, Sergiev Hermitage. The Tree in Winter Outside My Cell Window In the winter of 1828, I stayed at the monastery of St. Alexander of Svir. Outside my cell window stood a tree, stripped bare by the frosts, like a skeleton stripped by death. Solitude sharpens the senses, it sharpens thought; the sphere of their action expands. Meanwhile, the sea, of which St. John Climacus says it must inevitably become troubled, was troubled. The bare tree served as a comfort to me: it comforted me with the hope of my soul's renewal. «With my voice,» with the voice of my mind, the voice of my heart, the voice of my ailing body, the voice of my weaknesses, the voice of my falls, «I cried out» ( Psalm 142:2 ): «Lord, hear my prayer» ( Psalm 143:1 ), «give ear to my supplication» ( Psalm 142:7 ), which I send up to You from amidst the battles shaking my mind and heart, from amidst the illnesses tormenting and weakening my body, from amidst the multitude of infirmities encompassing my whole being, from amidst the countless falls with which my life is filled. You who heard Jonah praying in the whalés belly, hear me, crying out from the belly of my iniquities, from the belly of hell. Out of the depths, out of the abyss of sins, out of the abyss of my stumblings and temptations, «I have cried to You, O Lord!» O Lord, hear my voice! «Bring my soul out of the prison» of passions, pour into it Your gracious light! ( Psalm 142:7 ). When You pour into it this light–a light both luminous, and joyful, and life-giving–then it will «confess Your name» ( Psalm 142:7 ). Confession, stirred by grace, works in the soul, surpassing the mind and drowning it in its ineffable sweetness; the mind, having descended into the heart's chamber, shutting itself in there by inattention to all things sensory, utters Your name, worships Your name, is nourished by Your name, embraces Your name and is embraced by it. Your name, O Word of God and God, makes all other words superfluous for it! «Deliver me from my persecutors"–demonic thoughts and assaults–"for they are stronger than I» ( Psalm 142:6 ), stronger than my soul's will, stronger than my mind's comprehension! «My spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate» ( Psalm 143:4 ). «The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me» ( Psalm 116:3 ). O Lord! I do not trust in my own strength: my falls teach me to know my weakness. You, O Lord, are my hope! I can only be «in the land of the living» ( Psalm 116:9 ), in the land of Your holy righteousness, when You, O Lord, send down Your grace into my heart, when, dwelling in my heart, You will be «the portion of mine inheritance» ( Psalm 16:5 ), my only possession and treasure! Your holy Angels will rejoice, the choirs of men who have pleased You will rejoice, seeing my salvation. «The righteous will wait for me, until You reward me» ( Psalm 142:7 ) with Your mercy, not according to the multitude of my sins, but according to the multitude of Your loving-kindness. Amen. A Thought on the Seashore To whom can a Christian be compared, one who endures the sorrows of earthly life with true spiritual understanding?–He can be likened to a wanderer standing on the shore of a turbulent sea. Fierce, grey waves rush up to the wanderer's feet and, dashing against the sand, shatter into fine spray at his feet. The sea, contending with the whirlwind, roars, raises waves like mountains, boils, and churns. The waves give birth to and devour one another; their heads are crowned with snow-white foam; the sea, covered by them, presents the appearance of one immense maw of a terrible monster, studded with teeth. Upon this fearsome spectacle, the mysterious wanderer gazes with tranquil thought. His eyes alone are on the sea, but where is his thought, where is his heart? His thought is at the gates of death; his heart is at the judgment seat of Christ. There he already stands with his mind, there he stands with his feeling, there are his cares, there is his fear: and from this fear, the fear of earthly temptations flees. The winds will calm, the sea will grow still. Where the angry waves once swelled: there will stretch the motionless surface of the waters, wearied by the storm. After the intense tumult, they will find rest in a deathly silence; in their transparent mirror will be reflected the evening sun, when it rises over Kronstadt and sends its rays along the Gulf of Finland, to meet the currents of the Neva, towards Petersburg. A picturesque sight, familiar to the inhabitants of the Sergiev Hermitage! This sky, this shore, these buildings–how many foam-crowned, proud, fierce waves have they seen? And they have all passed, all have settled into the silence of the coffin and the grave. And those who pass by are passing, they too will find rest! What is so unstable, so fleeting, as crowns made of damp foam! Gazing from the quiet monastic harbor upon the sea of life, stirred up by the storm of passions, I thank You, my King and my God! You have brought me within the enclosure of this holy monastery! You have hidden me «in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man;» You have sheltered me «in a pavilion from the strife of tongues!» ( Psalm 31:20 ). My soul is sorrowful only about this, I am troubled by the uncertainty of this: whether I shall pass from here, from the shore of the fickle, treacherous sea of life, «to the place of Your wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God, in the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that keeps a holy day» ( Psalm 42:4 ), whether I shall dwell there forever and ever? As for earthly sorrows–"In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?» ( Psalm 56:11 ). The Prayer of One Persecuted by Men I thank You, O Lord and my God, for all that has happened to me! I thank You for all the sorrows and temptations which You have sent me for the cleansing of my soul and body, defiled and wounded by sin! Have mercy and save those instruments which You used for my healing: those people who inflicted insults upon me. Bless them in this age and the age to come! Account to them as virtue what they have done for me! Appoint for them from Your eternal treasures abundant rewards! But what have I offered You? What sacrifices pleasing to You? I have offered only sins, only transgressions of Your most Divine commandments. Forgive me, O Lord, forgive me who am guilty before You and before men! Forgive this irresponsible one! Grant me to be convinced and to sincerely confess that I am a sinner! Grant me to reject deceitful justifications! Grant me repentance! Grant me a contrite heart! Grant me meekness and humility! Grant me love for my neighbors, a blameless love, the same for all, both for those who comfort me and those who offend me! Grant me patience in all my sorrows! Put me to death unto the world! Take from me my sinful will, and plant in my heart Your holy will, that I may do it alone, in my deeds, and words, and thoughts, and feelings. To You belongs all glory! To You alone belongs glory! My only possession is the shame of my face and the silence of my lips. Standing before Your fearsome judgment in my wretched prayer, I find in myself not a single good deed, not a single merit, and I stand, only encompassed on all sides by the countless multitude of my sins, as if by a thick cloud and mist, with a single consolation in my soul: with hope in Your boundless mercy and goodness. Amen. The Cemetery After many years of absence, I visited that picturesque village where I was born. For a long, long time, it has belonged to our family. There lies a majestic cemetery, shaded by ancient trees. Beneath the broad, sweeping branches of these trees rest the remains of those who planted them. I came to the cemetery. Over the graves, the mournful, comforting hymns of the sacred memorial service began to sound. The wind wandered through the treetops; their leaves rustled; this rustling merged with the voices of the chanting clergy. I heard the names of the departed–names alive in my heart. The names were recited: my mother, my brothers and sisters, my departed grandfathers and great-grandfathers. What solitude there is in a cemetery! What a wonderful, sacred silence! How many memories! What a strange, long-spanning life! I listened to the inspired, divine chants of the memorial service. At first, I was overcome by a feeling of sorrow; but then it began to ease gradually. By the end of the service, a quiet consolation had replaced the deep sadness: the church prayers had dissolved the vivid memory of the dead with spiritual solace. They proclaimed the resurrection that awaits the departed! They proclaimed their life, and depicted the bliss of that life. The graves of my forefathers are enclosed by a circle of ancient trees. Their widely spreading branches have formed a canopy over the graves: beneath this canopy rests a numerous family. Here lie the remains of many generations. Earth, O earth! Upon your surface, human generations replace one another, like leaves on the trees. These little leaves green sweetly, they rustle comfortingly, innocently, stirred by the gentle breath of the spring wind. Autumn will come for them: they will yellow, fall from the trees onto the graves, and decay upon them. With the arrival of spring, other little leaves will adorn the branches, and they too–only for their brief turn–will also wither and disappear. What is our life? Almost the same as the life of a leaf on a tree! «May 20, 1848. The village of Pokrovskoye, Vologda Province.» A Voice from Eternity (A Meditation at a Grave) In the twilight of a quiet summer evening, I stood, pensive and alone, at the grave of my friend. That day, a memorial service had been held for him; that day, his family had lingered long at the graveside. Scarcely a word was heard among those present; only sobs could be heard. The sobs were interrupted by a profound silence; the silence was broken by sobs. And for a long time, sobs and silence alternated. I stood, pensive and alone, at the grave; I stood there overshadowed by the impressions of the day. Suddenly, an unexpected, wondrous inspiration seized me. It was as if I heard the voice of the departed! I hasten to transcribe with a trembling hand his posthumous speech, his mysterious discourse, the wondrous sermon as it took shape in my soul. «My father! My mother! My wife! My sisters! Clad in black garments, clothed in profound sorrow both in body and soul, you have gathered at my lonely grave–with bowed heads, you have surrounded it. Silently, through thoughts and feelings alone, you converse with the silent inhabitant of the tomb. Your hearts are vials of incurable grief. Streams of tears flow from your eyes; following the streams that have been shed, new streams of tears are born: the sorrow has no bottom, the tears have no end.» «Infants–my children! You too are here by the gravestone, by the tombstone! Tears have welled up in your little eyes, yet your hearts do not know why your eyes weep, imitating the eyes of my father, the eyes of my mother. You admire the tombstone, the gleaming stone, the mirror-like granite; you admire the inscription of golden letters; and they–this granite and this inscription–are the heralds of your early orphanhood.» «My father! My mother! My wife! My kin and my friends! Why do you stand so long over my grave, over the cold stone, coldly standing guard over the tomb? My breathless body has long grown cold; by the decree of the almighty Creator, it is returning to its earth, crumbling into dust. What heavy thoughts envelop you, holding you at my grave?... The servants of the altar have offered a prayer there for my repose, they have proclaimed for me eternal memory in God, who saves and grants me rest. They have departed from the silent grave: you too must depart. You need rest after the labors of soul and body, exhausted and tormented by grief.» «You do not leave!... You are here!... You have chained yourselves to the place of my burial! In a silence that speaks more than the most pompous eloquence can say–with a soul for which there is no explanation–with a heart in which the abundance of feelings swallows their distinctness, you do not retreat from the grave, sealed for many ages, from the stone–an unfeeling monument. What do you need?... Do you await my voice from beneath the stone, from the depths of the gloomy grave?» «That voice is no more! I speak only with silence. Silence, an unbreakable stillness–is the lot of the cemetery until the very trumpet of the resurrection. The dust of the dead speaks without sounds, which earthly words require: through their realized decay, they proclaim a loud sermon, a most convincing exhortation to the agitated, noisy seekers of decay on the earth's surface.» «And yet I still have a voice! And I speak with you, and I answer your ineffable thoughts, your unspoken and inexpressible questions. Listen to me! Distinguish my voice in the general voice with which Eternity speaks to Time!–The voice of Eternity is one–unchanging, immutable. In it there is no inconstancy, no variability: in it, the day is one, the heart is one, the thought is one. He who unites all into one is Christ. From there, the voice is one.» «In this voice with which Eternity speaks, in this voice that is silent and yet like thunder, distinguish my voice! Can it be, my loved ones, that you do not recognize my voice? My voice, in the general, single voice of Eternity, has its own distinct sound, like the voice of a string in the general chord of a multi-stringed piano.» «The voice of Eternity has spoken to us all, it has spoken since the time of our appearance into being. It spoke to us when we were still incapable of heeding it; it spoke to us in our mature age as well, when we could and should have heeded it, understood it. Voice of Eternity!... Alas!... How few there are who listen to you in the noisy earthly inn! First, our infancy prevents us from heeding you; then, the cares and distractions of life prevent us from heeding you. But you do not fall silent. You speak, and speak–and finally, through the fearsome messenger–death, you demand both the attentive and the inattentive listener to give an account of their attention and obedience to the great words of Eternity.» «So that the voice of Eternity might have a particular echo for you, one especially able to penetrate your heart, to attract your mind to the word of salvation–God has numbered me among those who speak from Eternity. My voice has merged into a harmonious accord with the general voice of the vast invisible world. For all the wayfarers of the earth, I am dead, voiceless, like all the dead, but for you I am alive, and, dead, I speak the word of salvation more openly, more powerfully, than I would have spoken it, remaining among you and chasing together with you after the phantoms of blessings with which decay deceives and destroys the exiles from paradise, placed for a short time in the earthly inn for reconciliation with the God whom they have angered.» «God is merciful, infinitely merciful. If it were necessary and beneficial–I would suddenly answer you from the darkness of the grave, from beneath the heavy stone!... Heaven has deemed a private voice from Eternity superfluous... And what voice from Eternity is not superfluous, when God has willed that not only angel-like men, but His own Only-Begotten Son, has proclaimed to the universe His will, proclaimed the holy and strict statutes–blessed for the obedient, terrible for the disobedient–of Eternity? 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them' (Luke 16:29), was the response from Heaven to one who asked for the voice of the dead to preach to those living a fleshly life on earth, deadened by spiritual, eternal death. 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead' (Luke 16:31).» «My companion–a dead man, but one with a living word on his lips! Accept a commission from me and fulfill it. Here is my father! Here is my mother! Here is my wife! Here are my kin! I cannot speak with them except through the general voice of Eternity. In this voice they hear the sound of my voice too… yes, they hear it!... but I have no separate, private, my own word... My companion! Be my word; from our common treasury, from sacred Eternity, say to them for me the briefest, most necessary word for them: 'Earthly life is a fleeting, deceptive dream. Eternity is inevitable. And there is a woeful eternity!... Therefore, acquire a blessed eternity by heeding and obeying the all-holy law of the all-holy God–and come to me for sure, unending delight, each in your own time, appointed by yourselves and by God alone!'» 1848, Sergieva Pustyn. This meditation was written upon the death of K. F. O-n, who from his youth was in close relations with Archimandrite Ignatius Brianchaninov. The Teaching on Weeping by St. Pimen the Great A brother asked Abba Pimen what work a monk should have. The Abba replied: «When Abraham entered the promised land, he bought a tomb for himself, and from the tomb he began to take possession of the Promised Land.» The brother asked: what is the meaning of the «tomb»? The Abba answered: «It is the place of weeping and lamentation.» The following saying also belongs to Abba Pimen: «Weeping has a double effect: it both accomplishes and preserves.» A brother asked Abba Pimen: «What should I do about the passions that disturb me?» The Elder said to him: «Let us weep with all our strength before the goodness of God, until it shows mercy to us.» A brother asked Abba Pimen: «What should I do about my sins?» The Elder said: «He who wishes to be freed from the sins living in him is freed from them by weeping, and he who wishes not to fall into sins again avoids falling into them by weeping. This is the path of repentance, handed down to us by the Scriptures and the Fathers, who said: weep! There is no other path except weeping.» Once, Abba Pimen, while passing through Egypt, saw a woman sitting on a tomb and weeping bitterly. Regarding this, he said: «If comforters from all over the world gathered to her, they could not distract her soul from weeping. So too must a monk constantly have weeping within himself.» Once, St. Pimen was walking with Abba Anoub in the vicinity of the city of Diolkos. Seeing a woman there, tormented and weeping bitterly over a grave, they stopped to listen to her. Then, having gone a little further, they met a passerby, and St. Pimen asked him: «What has happened to this woman? She is weeping so bitterly.» The passerby replied: «Her husband, son, and brother have died.» Then Abba Pimen, turning to Abba Anoub, said: «I tell you: if a person does not put to death all his carnal desires and does not acquire such weeping, he cannot be a monk. The entire life of a monk is weeping.» An elder said: «Weeping is the practice (the spiritual work, the spiritual endeavor) of a monk. If there is no weeping, it is impossible to be preserved from disorder and disturbance.» I answered: «When I am in my cell, then weeping remains with me; but if someone comes to me, or I leave the cell, I no longer find it.» To this the elder said: «That is because weeping has not become your own, but is as if lent to you.» I asked him to explain these words to me. The elder said: «If a person labors with all his strength to acquire weeping, he finds it at his service whenever he wants it.» A brother asked Abba Pimen: «What should the attention of one who is silent in his cell be directed to?» The Elder replied: «I am like a man sunk in a swamp up to his neck, with a burden on his neck, and crying out to God: 'Have mercy on me!'» «Have mercy on me!"–this is the expression of weeping that has taken root in the soul. Weeping, when it reaches maturity, cannot be clothed in many thoughts and many words: it is content to express the boundless spiritual sensation with the very briefest prayer. A brother asked Abba Pimen about monastic practice. The Elder said: «When God visits us with the call into eternity: what will concern us then?» The brother answered: «Our sins.» The Elder said: «So then! Let us enter our cells; having secluded ourselves in them, let us remember our sins, and the Lord will hear us.» Here one must understand not a superficial, cold remembrance of sins and onés sinfulness, but a remembrance combined with repentance, with weeping. When Abba Arsenius the Great reposed, St. Pimen, upon hearing the news of the Great onés death, wept and said: «Blessed are you, Abba Arsenius! Because you wept for yourself in this life. He who does not weep here, will weep eternally. It is impossible not to weep, either voluntarily here, or involuntarily there, in torments.» On Tears Tears are natural to fallen human nature. Before the Fall, it did not know tears–it knew only the purest enjoyment of paradisiacal bliss. It lost this bliss: tears were left to it as an expression of sympathy for that bliss, as a testimony to the Fall, as a testimony to a state under the wrath of the angered Deity, as a hope to someday regain that bliss. This hope is sure: because the sympathy for bliss has not been erased from nature. This hope is sure: because the lament for the loss of heavenly bliss cannot be satisfied by any temporal satisfaction; remaining unsatisfied, it awaits satisfaction, it proclaims the existence of satisfaction. In tears, consolation mysteriously lives, and in weeping–joy. A person, in whatever earthly prosperity he may be, at whatever height he may stand, in whatever abundance he may swim, encounters and experiences such minutes, hours, and days in which he needs the consolation provided by tears–he finds no consolation in any other comfort. Each of us, upon merely entering the land of our exile and languishing, the land of sufferings and weeping, marks this entry, the beginning of his existence, with a mournful cry. «Blessed is the man whose support is from You,» marked by the tears during his prayer! Such are the invisible, spiritual «ascents in his heart, passing through the valley of weeping"–earthly life, which You have appointed for repentance: «for the lawgiver will give a blessing» to us, ordaining weeping and tears. Those cleansing themselves with weeping and tears, «will go from strength to strength, and the God of gods will appear in Zion"–in the human spirit, prepared for the reception of God by true repentance ( Ps. 83:6–8 ). «Those who sow in tears shall reap with joy.» Those «who go» on the path of earthly life, who «walked» on the narrow and sorrowful path, «and wept, sowing their seeds, shall come again with joy, bringing their sheaves» ( Ps. 125:5–6 ). Tears, as a property of fallen nature, are infected with the malady of the Fall, like all other properties. One person may be particularly inclined to tears by nature and at every convenient opportunity sheds tears: such tears are called natural. There are also sinful tears. Sinful tears are those shed for sinful motives. Such tears are shed in multitude and with particular ease by people given over to sensuality; tears similar to those of the sensual are shed by those in self-delusion and spiritual deception [prelest']; tears flow abundantly from vanity, hypocrisy, pretense, and people-pleasing. Finally, malice sheds them: when it is deprived of the opportunity to commit an evil deed, to shed human blood, then it sheds tears. These were the tears of Nero, in whom contemporary Christians, due to his cruelty and hatred for Christianity, thought to see the antichrist. To natural tears belong tears from grief; but when the grief has a sinful character, then the tears of grief become sinful tears. Both natural and sinful tears, immediately upon their appearance, we are commanded by the Holy Fathers to transform into God-pleasing ones, that is, to change the motive for the tears: to bring to our remembrance our sins, our inevitable and unknown death, God's judgment–and to weep for these reasons. A wondrous thing! Those who, by natural inclination, shed streams of effortless, mindless, and fruitless tears, as well as those who shed them for sinful motives, when they wish to weep in a God-pleasing manner, suddenly see in themselves an extraordinary dryness, and cannot extract a single teardrop from their eyes. From this we learn that tears of the fear of God and repentance are a gift of God, and that to obtain them, one must first strive to acquire their cause. The cause of tears is the vision and consciousness of onés sinfulness. «My eyes have poured out streams of water,» says the holy prophet David, «because I did not keep Your law» ( Ps. 118:136 ). The cause of tears is poverty of spirit: being itself a blessedness, it gives birth to another blessedness–weeping ( Mt. 5:3–4 ), nourishes, sustains, and strengthens it. «Weeping does not come from tears, but tears from weeping,» said St. John the Prophet. «If anyone, while living among the brethren, cuts off his own will and pays no attention to the sins of others, he acquires weeping. Through this, his thoughts are gathered, and, being gathered in this way, they give birth in the heart to sorrow (weeping) according to God, and sorrow gives birth to tears.» Tears, as a gift of God, serve as a sign of God's mercy: «Tears in prayer,» says St. Isaac the Syrian, «are a sign of God's mercy, which the soul has been deemed worthy of through its repentance, and that it has been accepted and has begun to enter the field of purity through tears. If the thoughts are not torn away from transient objects, do not reject from themselves hope in this world; if contempt for it is not aroused in them, and they do not begin to prepare provisions for their departure; if thoughts about matters belonging to the future age do not begin to act in the soul, then the eyes will not be able to produce tears.» He who has acquired the vision of his sinfulness, who has acquired the fear of God, who has acquired the feeling of repentance and weeping, needs to ask God for the gift of tears with diligent prayer. Thus, Achsah, the daughter of Caleb, when given in marriage and receiving a portion of land as a dowry, when she sat on a donkey to go to her husband's house, began with groaning and crying to ask her father to add to the given portion another one, abounding in water. «You have given me a dry land; give me also springs of water» ( Judg. 1:15 ). Caleb fulfilled his daughter's wish. The Holy Fathers understand by the figure of Achsah the soul sitting, as if on a donkey, on the irrational inclinations of the flesh. The dry land depicts the practice under the guidance of the fear of God, and that Achsah began with groaning and crying to ask for water sources–this signifies the extreme need for tears for every ascetic, who must ask with sighs and heartfelt pain for the gift of tears from God. When praying for the granting of tears, onés own effort to produce them is also necessary. Onés own effort or labor both precedes the outpouring of tears and accompanies this outpouring. The labor preceding tears consists in prudent abstinence from food and drink, in prudent vigil, in non-acquisition, in diverting attention from everything surrounding us, in concentrating it within ourselves. St. John Climacus said in his Discourse on Weeping: «Repentance is the voluntary deprivation of every bodily comfort.» St. David describes the state of one who weeps thus: «I am stricken like grass, and my heart is withered, for I forgot to eat my bread. Because of the voice of my groaning, my bone has cleaved to my flesh. I have become like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl in a ruin. I have watched, and have become like a sparrow alone on the housetop... I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping» ( Ps. 101:5–8, 10 ). Without mortification to the world, it is impossible to acquire weeping and tears: we acquire them in proportion to our mortification to the world. – The labor during the very weeping and outpouring of tears consists in forcing oneself to them, in the magnanimous endurance of dryness and drought, with which the blessed endeavor is sometimes assailed, after which the patient laborer is always rewarded with an abundant outpouring of tears. Just as the earth, having long awaited irrigation and finally receiving it in abundance, is suddenly covered with tender, bright green grass: so the heart, exhausted by dryness and then revived by tears, emits from itself a multitude of spiritual thoughts and sensations, adorned with the general color of humility. The work of weeping, being inseparable from the work of prayer, requires the same conditions for progress as prayer needs. It needs patient, constant persistence in it: weeping also needs this. It needs the tiring of the body, produces exhaustion of the body: weeping also produces this exhaustion, needing, in order to be born, the laboring and tiring of the body. «I am weary with my groaning; I will wash my bed every night; I will water my couch with my tears» ( Ps. 6:7 ). The forcing of oneself and the labor must be proportionate to bodily strength. St. Nil Sorsky advises and blesses weeping and tears. «This is the path of repentance and its fruit,» he says. «He who for every affliction that befalls him, and against every enemy thought, weeps before the goodness of God, that it may help him, will soon find rest, if he prays with spiritual understanding.» However, this Saint, having advised being guided in the practice by those instructions found in the books of St. John Climacus and St. Symeon the New Theologian, gives a warning, borrowed from St. Isaac the Syrian, not to bring the weak body into disorder by immoderate forcing. «Then,» he says, «it is not profitable to war against nature. When a weak body is forced to deeds exceeding its strength: then darkness upon darkness is inflicted on the soul–it is brought into confusion.» Nevertheless, even with a weak constitution and health, some forcing, proportionate to strength, is necessary. This proportionality can easily be observed from a few experiences. The weak should bring themselves to weeping and tears chiefly through attentive prayer and strive to acquire weeping in the spirit, whereby quiet tears are shed, and the heartfelt pain is not so strong. Every spiritual practice, being properly a gift of God in us, certainly needs our forcing towards it, because forcing is the active manifestation and testimony of our good will. Forcing is especially needed when from our fallen nature or through the malice of demons some sinful striving or disturbance arises in us: then it is necessary to pronounce the mournful words of prayer somewhat aloud. The material, mechanical, vocal, especially forced and violent weeping is not suitable for the weak, as it shakes the body and produces in it tormenting exhaustion and sickness. This exhaustion and sickness are likened by the Fathers to the pains of childbirth; their consequence is significant exhaustion even in strong ascetics. For monks of strong bodily constitution, more intensified forcing towards weeping and tears is possible and beneficial; for them it is necessary, especially at the beginning of their endeavor, before they acquire the weeping of the spirit, to pronounce the words of prayer in a mournful voice, so that the soul, asleep in mortal sleep from the intoxication of sin, may be aroused by the voice of weeping and itself feel the sensation of weeping. Thus wept the mighty David. «I have roared from the groaning of my heart» ( Ps. 37:9 ), he says of himself, «roared» like a lion, filling the wilderness with a cry in which both the expression of strength and the expression of sorrow are terrible. For vocal prayer and weeping, solitude is necessary, at least within onés cell: this practice has no place amidst the brethren. From the lives of the Holy Fathers, it is evident that those of them who had the opportunity engaged in vocal weeping, which sometimes involuntarily resounded beyond the walls of the cell, although they took care with all diligence that every practice of theirs remained a secret, known to God alone. Just as the accumulation of gases in the air breaks out in thunder during abundant rain, so the accumulation of sensations of weeping in the soul breaks out in sobs with cries and abundant tears. This happened with the monk whose endeavor is described by St. Isaac in his 10th Discourse. After thunder and rain, there is a particular mildness of the air: and the soul, having lightened its sorrow with sobbing, refreshed by tears, tastes a special quiet and peace, from which, like a fragrance from aromatic substances, the purest prayer arises and acts. – In general, it is useful to learn from Holy Scripture and the writings of the Fathers the various methods of monastic practice, to test them, and to choose for oneself that practice which proves to be most suitable. Humans are constituted so diversely, their abilities and qualities are so varied, that the same practice or method, being used by several ascetics, acts in each of them with significant difference. For this reason, experience is necessary, as the Apostle also advises: «Test all things; hold fast what is good» ( 1Thes. 5:21 ). The gift of «weeping» and «tears» is one of the greatest gifts of God. It is a gift essentially necessary for our salvation. The gifts of prophecy, foresight, and miracle-working are signs of having particularly pleased God and of God's special favor, whereas the gift of compunction and tears is a sign of repentance that has been accepted or is being accepted. «Sorrow of mind is an honorable gift from God; he who has it and preserves it as he ought is like a man who has a holy thing within him. Bodily ascetic labors without sorrow of mind are like a body without a soul.» Tears shed over sins are at first bitter, poured forth amidst the sickness and anguish of the spirit, which the spirit communicates to the body. Little by little, consolation begins to be united with the tears, consisting of a particular calmness, a sensation of meekness and humility; along with this, the tears, in proportion and conformity to the consolation they provide, themselves change, losing a significant degree of bitterness, and flow forth painlessly or with less pain. At first, they are scarce and come infrequently; then, little by little, they begin to come more often and become more abundant. When the gift of tears is strengthened in us by God's mercy, then the inner struggle is subdued, thoughts quiet down, and mental prayer or the prayer of the spirit begins to operate in a special development, satiating and gladdening the inner man. Then the veil of passions is removed from the mind, and the mystical teaching of Christ is revealed to it. Then tears are transformed from bitter to sweet. Then spiritual consolation sprouts in the heart, to which nothing among earthly joys is comparable, and which is known only to those who practice prayerful weeping and possess the gift of tears. Then the promise of the Lord is fulfilled: «Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted» (Matthew 5:4). Then the ascetic, by the inspiration and assurance of the Holy Spirit, greets himself: «The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling» ( Psalm 114:6–8 ). Then the ascetic, seeing the powerlessness over him of sinful thoughts and sensations, which vainly strive to subject him to their influence, boldly says to them: «Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord has received my prayer» ( Psalm 6:9–10 ). The spiritual state of a monk who has seen the fall of human nature, who is not deceived by the delusions of the transient world, but has wholly directed the gaze of his soul upon this fall and given himself over to deep weeping in profound solitude, is vividly depicted in the Lamentations of the holy prophet Jeremiah. «And it came to pass,» says Scripture, «after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem had been laid waste, that Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem» (Lamentations 1). All aids for Jerusalem are exhausted, and all are now in vain: only weeping for it remains. The Prophet once proclaimed to it, proclaimed unceasingly the prophetic word; now there is no one to hear this word; not only are there no people–there are no buildings either; only ruins remain: upon them, only lamentations can resound. No one understands these lamentations, and there is no need to care for them to be understood by anyone. With them, the Prophet expresses his inexpressibly heavy sorrow; they resound through the wilderness from the ruins; God in heaven heeds them. What a position the Prophet is in! He is alone on the vast ruins of the city; he alone is alive amidst countless, dead signs and testimonies of a past life; he alone is alive amidst the domain of death. As a living being, he gives voice to sorrow for the loss of life; he calls this life to return to the dwelling it has left, to once again replace the terrible, unfeeling death. «How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!» (Lamentations 1:1). The Prophet signifies the mind of a monk, enlightened by the Revealed teaching of God; the great city is the whole man, created by God; the inhabitants of the city are the properties of soul and body; the Gentiles are the demons, who were humbled before man until his fall, but became his masters after his fall. The monk himself is in a state of fall, and all men are: the object of his weeping is himself and all men. But the monk weeps alone, because he alone, by the light of God's Word, sees the fall of mankind; the other men do not see it, do not partake in the weeping, do not understand the weeping, and consider the one who weeps to have lost his mind. The monk weeps alone, from his own person and from the person of all mankind, being unable to separate himself from mankind due to his love for it and kinship with it; the monk weeps for himself and for all mankind; he mourns the fallen nature, common to all. He weeps alone on the unfeeling ruins, amidst the scattered and heaped stones: the ruins and stones are an image of mankind, struck by insensibility, mankind that neither feels nor understands its fall and eternal death, and does not concern itself with them in the least. The monk weeps alone, and his weeping is understood by God alone. «She weeps bitterly in the night"–throughout all the time of earthly life–"and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies» (Lamentations 1:2). To weep with weeping according to God, one must withdraw from the world and men, die to the world and men, and become solitary in heart and mind. «The abandonment of all cares will help you approach the city of silence; if you do not account yourself as anything, you will dwell in it; but if you die to every man, you will become an heir of the city and its treasures,» said the Great Barsanuphius to a monk whom he was preparing for silence and seclusion in a tomb-cell, that beloved dwelling of prayerful weeping. The Jews, who were in captivity and servitude to the Babylonians, represent voluntary sorrows, that is, bodily deprivations and labors to which the monk subjects himself for the purpose of repentance, as well as sorrows permitted to him by God's Providence for the cleansing of sins. The spiritual guide of these endeavors–weeping–sends a message to them from the ruins of Jerusalem, where he keeps silence in solitude. In the message, he announces to the captives their liberation after a set time. For bitter weeping, there is its own term, and for the cup of voluntary and involuntary sorrows, there is its own measure. This weight and measure are determined by God, as Saint David also said: «You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in great measure» ( Psalm 79:6 ), «For You have put my tears in Your sight,» as a means of cleansing, «in Your promise» ( Psalm 55:9 ) of mercy and salvation. There were days when «My tears have been my food day and night» ( Psalm 41:4 ); they were followed by days in which, corresponding to the preceding «multitude of sorrows in my heart, Your comforts have delighted my soul» ( Psalm 93:19 ). «When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing» ( Psalm 125:1–2 ). «But you, do not fear, O My servant Jacob,» proclaims the inspired Jeremiah from the person of God to the chosen people, who for their sins were allowed to be captives in Babylon, «nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity; Then Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid» (Jeremiah 46:27). Sorrows and sicknesses of repentance contain within themselves the seed of consolation and healing. This mystery is revealed to the disciple of weeping through weeping itself. All monks who have been cleansed from sins were cleansed by weeping, and all who have attained Christian perfection attained it by weeping. This practice was especially developed among the numerous hermits of Lower Egypt, in the Scetis desert, on Mount Nitria, in the Cells, and in other secluded places. It transformed the ranks and regiments of monks into ranks and regiments of Angels. When the founder of the monastic life in the Scetis desert, St. Macarius the Great, whom the other desert-dwellers also recognized as the Father of Fathers, reached a deep old age, the monks of Mount Nitria, very close to Scetis, asked him to visit them before his departure to the Lord. Macarius came to the mountain; a multitude of monks who lived in silence there met him. They asked him for instruction. Macarius, weeping, said: «Brethren! Let us weep. Let our eyes pour forth tears until our departure to the place where our tears will burn our bodies.» All wept, fell on their faces, and said: «Father, pray for us.» From his gift of tears, the Holy instructor of the holy ancient monks pronounced a brief teaching on tears, encompassing in it all the teaching on the monastic life. The hearers, by the manifestation of their own gift of tears, expressed that they understood the meaning and vastness of the teaching. Many words were not needed here. The gift of tears–this overshadowing of God's grace–most often visits ascetics during attentive prayer, being its usual fruit; to some it comes during reading; to others during some labor. Thus, St. Cyril of Beloozero would receive tears while working in the monastery kitchen. Looking at the material fire, he would remember the unquenchable fire of eternal torment and shed tears. Cyril, thinking that in silence his compunction would increase and his tears would multiply, desired to seclude himself in his cell. By God's providence, circumstances granted him his desire, and what then? With the removal of the cause that aroused compunction and tears, the tears diminished, and Cyril asked the superior to return him to the fire of the monastery kitchen. The Holy Fathers command one to remain in that practice in which tears come: because tears are the fruit, and the goal of monastic life is to attain the fruit by the means through which it pleases God to grant the fruit. St. Theodore of Enaton related that «he knew a monk who lived in silence in his cell and whose handiwork was the plaiting of ropes. When this monk sat and plaited rope, occupying himself with mental prayer, tears would come to him. Then he would stand up for prayer; but at this, the tears would cease. The brother would sit down and take up the rope, concentrating his thoughts within, and the tears would come again. Likewise, when he sat and read, tears would come. He would stand up for prayer, and the tears would immediately cease. As soon as he again took up the book–the tears would return.» Regarding this, the Saint said: «The saying of the Holy Fathers is true, that weeping is a teacher. It teaches every man what is beneficial for him.» St. Theodore of Enaton used to say: «Every sin that a man commits is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body» (1Corinthians 6:18), because from the body filth is emitted, defiling it: so also every virtue is 'outside the body,' but he who weeps daily cleanses even the body: because the tear, flowing from above, washes the body from its impurities.» «A truly repentant person considers,» according to the words of St. John Climacus, «every day in which he did not weep as lost for himself, even if during it he did something good.» «Whatever exalted way of life we may have passed through, if we have not acquired a broken heart, then this way of life is hypocritical and fruitless. It is fitting, truly fitting for those who have defiled themselves after the bath of rebirth (after holy baptism) to cleanse their hands with the constant fire of the heart and the mercy of God.» «We will not be accused, O friends, at the departure of our soul from the body, that we were not miracle-workers, that we were not theologians, that we did not have spiritual visions; but we will certainly give an account to God for this, that we did not weep unceasingly,» i.e., did not abide in constant, salvific sorrow for our transgressions and our sinfulness. Although weeping is almost always crowned with more or less abundant tears; yet some ascetics–as is evident from the consolation pronounced for them by the Holy Fathers–languish, either throughout their entire endeavor or for a significant time, under the burden of weeping, without receiving tears for refreshment and cooling. Let them know that the essence of repentance lies in the humility and contrition of our spirit ( Psalm 50:19 ), when the spirit weeps on account of humility. The weeping of the spirit, when there is a lack of bodily strength to express the repentance acting in the soul through bodily labors and actions, replaces all bodily labors and actions, and among them, tears. Amen. On the Jesus Prayer. Section I. On the Jesus Prayer in General A Conversation of an Elder with a Disciple **Disciple:** Can all the brethren in a monastery engage in the Jesus Prayer? **Elder:** Not only can they, but they must. During the monastic tonsure, when the newly-tonsured is given a prayer rope, called at that moment a «spiritual sword,» he is entrusted with unceasing, day-and-night prayer using the Jesus Prayer. Consequently, the practice of the Jesus Prayer is a monk's vow. The fulfillment of a vow is an obligation from which one cannot renounce. I have been told by old monks that even at the beginning of this century, in the Sarov Hermitage, and probably in other well-ordered Russian monasteries, the Jesus Prayer was taught immediately to everyone entering the monastery. The blessed Elder Seraphim, who labored in this hermitage and attained great proficiency in prayer, constantly advised all monks to lead an attentive life and to engage in the Jesus Prayer. A certain youth, who had completed his studies at a theological seminary, visited him and revealed to the elder his intention to enter monasticism. The elder gave the youth the most soul-saving instructions. Among them was the injunction to learn the Jesus Prayer. Speaking of it, the elder added: «Outward prayer alone is insufficient. God listens to the mind, and therefore those monks who do not unite outward prayer with inward prayer are not monks.» A very accurate definition! A monk means a solitary one: he who has not become solitary within himself is not yet solitary, he is not yet a monk, even if he lives in the most secluded monastery. The mind of an ascetic who has not become solitary and enclosed within himself is necessarily amidst the noise and tumult produced by countless thoughts, which always have free access to him, and it itself wanders painfully, without any need or benefit, harmfully for itself, throughout the universe. A person's solitude within himself cannot be accomplished otherwise than through attentive prayer, and primarily through the attentive Jesus Prayer. Disciple: Elder Seraphim's judgment seems too strict to me. Elder: It seems so only from a superficial glance; it seems so to an insufficient understanding of the great spiritual treasures hidden in Christianity. Blessed Seraphim did not express his own opinion: he expressed an opinion belonging to the Holy Fathers in general, belonging to the Orthodox Church. Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem says: «He who has renounced all worldly things–wife, possessions, and the like–has made only the outer man a monk, not the inner man, which is the mind. He is a true monk who has renounced obsessive thoughts: he can easily make the outer man a monk when he wishes. It is no small feat to make the inner man a monk. Is there in the present generation a monk who has completely freed himself from obsessive thoughts and been deemed worthy of pure, immaterial, unceasing prayer, which is the mark of an inner monk?» The Venerable Agathon, a monk of the Egyptian Skete, when asked what is more important, bodily asceticism or inner asceticism, answered: «Man is like a tree; bodily asceticism is like the leaves of the tree, and the inner is like the fruit. But as it is said in Scripture, 'every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the firé (Luke 3:9), from this it is evident that all our diligence must be about the fruit, that is, about the guarding of the mind. It is also necessary for the tree to be covered and adorned with leaves, which depicts bodily asceticism.» «O wonder!» exclaims Blessed Nikephoros the Athonite, quoting the words of Venerable Agathon in his work on spiritual struggle, «What a saying this Saint uttered against all those who do not guard their mind but rely on bodily practice alone! 'Every tree that does not bear good fruit,' that is, guarding of the mind, but has only leaves, that is, bodily asceticism, 'is cut down and thrown into the fire.' Terrible, Father, is your saying!» Guarding the mind, watching over the mind, sobriety, attention, mental activity, mental prayer–these are different names for the same spiritual endeavor, in its various modifications. The spiritual endeavor transitions, in its time, into a spiritual one. The spiritual endeavor is the same as the spiritual one, but already overshadowed by Divine grace. The Holy Fathers define this spiritual or spiritual endeavor as follows: «Attention is a heartfelt, unceasing silence, always and continuously calling upon Christ Jesus, the Son of God and God, breathing Him, courageously warring with Him against the enemies, confessing to Him, the Only One who has the power to forgive sins.» More simply put–inner practice, mental, spiritual practice, mental prayer, sobriety, guarding and watching over the mind, attention–all refer to the same thing: reverent, diligent practice of the Jesus Prayer. Blessed Nikephoros the Athonite compared these names to a cut piece of bread, which, according to its appearance, can be called a piece, a slice, or a morsel. The Divine Scripture of the Old Testament legislates: «Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life» ( Proverbs 4:23 ). «Take heed to thyself: lest there be a secret word in thine heart iniquity» (Deuteronomy 15:9). Watchfulness over the heart and its purification is commanded especially by the New Testament. All the commandments of the Lord are directed towards this. «Cleanse first,» says the Lord, «that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also» (Matthew 23:26). Here the Lord called vessels of fragile glass and worthless clay humans. «That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man» ( Mark 7:20–23 ). Saint Barsanuphius the Great says: «If the inner work with God, that is, that which is overshadowed by Divine grace, does not help a person, then he labors in vain in the outer, that is, bodily asceticism.» Saint Isaac the Syrian: «He who does not have inner practice is deprived of spiritual gifts.» In another discourse, this great instructor of Christian asceticism compares bodily asceticism without the endeavor to purify the mind to barren wombs and dry breasts: «They,» said the Saint, «cannot approach the knowledge of God» (Discourse 58). Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem: «He who does not have prayer pure from thoughts has no weapon for battle: I speak of the prayer that ever operates in the inner chamber of the soul, of the prayer in which, by the invocation of Christ, the enemy warring secretly is struck and scorched.» «It is impossible to purify the heart and drive away the hostile spirits from it without frequent invocation of Jesus Christ.» «As it is impossible to lead an earthly life without food and drink, so it is impossible without guarding the mind and purity of heart, in which sobriety consists and which is called sobriety, for the soul to achieve anything spiritual, or to be freed from mental sin, even if one forces oneself not to sin for fear of eternal torments.» «If you truly wish to put to shame the thoughts that trouble you, to be silent in spiritual peace, to freely keep watch with the heart, then let the Jesus Prayer be united with your breath–and you will see this accomplished after a few days.» «It is impossible for a ship to sail without water: and the guarding of the mind cannot take place without sobriety, combined with humility and with unceasing Jesus Prayer.» «If you desire in the Lord not only to appear as a monk, and good, and meek, and constantly united with God, if you desire to be truly such a monk: pass through the virtue of attention with all your strength, which consists in guarding and watching over the mind, in achieving heartfelt silence, in the blessed state of the soul, free from fantasy, which is found in few.» «A true and essential monk is he who practices sobriety: and he truly practices sobriety, who is a monk (solitary) in heart.» Such teaching of the Holy Fathers has as its foundation, as a cornerstone for a building, the teaching of the Lord Himself. «The true worshippers,» proclaimed the Lord, «shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth» ( John 4:23–24 ). I remember: in my youth, some pious laypeople, even from the nobility, who led a very simple life, engaged in the Jesus Prayer. This precious custom, now, with the general weakening of Christianity and monasticism, has been almost lost. Prayer using the name of the Lord Jesus Christ requires a sober, strictly moral life, a life of a pilgrim, requires the abandonment of attachments, but we have made necessary for ourselves distraction, extensive acquaintance, the satisfaction of our numerous whims, benefactors and benefactresses. «And Jesus withdrew, a crowd being in that place» ( John 5:13 ). Disciple: Following from what has been said, wouldn't the conclusion be that without practicing the Jesus Prayer, one does not obtain salvation? Elder: The Fathers do not say this. On the contrary, St. Nil Sorsky, citing the Hieromartyr Peter of Damascus, affirms that many, without having attained passionlessness, were deemed worthy to receive forgiveness of sins and salvation. St. Hesychius, having said that without sobriety there is no possibility to avoid sin «in thought,» also called blessed those who abstain from sin «in deed.» He called them those who «take the Kingdom of Heaven by force.» However, the attainment of passionlessness, sanctification, or, what is the same, Christian perfection, is impossible without acquiring mental prayer: all the Fathers agree on this. The goal of the monastic life consists not only in attaining salvation, but, primarily, in attaining Christian perfection. This goal is outlined by the Lord: «If thou wilt be perfect,» said the Lord, «go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,... and come and follow me, taking up the cross» (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21 ). The Fathers, comparing the endeavor of prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus with other monastic endeavors, say the following: «Although there are other paths and kinds of life or, if you wish to call them so, good works that lead to salvation and grant it to those who engage in them; although there are struggles and exercises that lead to the state of a slave and a hireling (as the Savior said: 'In my Father's house are many mansions' ( John 14:2 )), the path of mental prayer is the royal, chosen path. It is as much higher and more excellent than all other endeavors, as the soul is more excellent than the body: it elevates from earth and ashes to adoption by God.» Disciple: Could the direction of modern monasticism, where the practice of the Jesus Prayer is very rare, serve as an excuse and justification for me if I do not engage in it? Elder: A duty remains a duty, and an obligation remains an obligation, even if the number of those who fail to fulfill them increases even more. The vow is pronounced by all. Neither the multitude of violators of the vow, nor the custom of violation, gives legitimacy to the violation. Small is the flock to which the Heavenly Father has been pleased to give the Kingdom (Luke 12:32). The narrow way always has few travelers, and the broad way has many (Matthew 7:13–14). In the last times, the narrow way will be abandoned by almost all, almost all will go by the broad way. It does not follow from this that the broad way will lose its property of leading to perdition, or that the narrow way will become superfluous, unnecessary for salvation. He who wishes to be saved must necessarily hold to the narrow way, positively bequeathed by the Savior. Disciple: Why do you call the practice of the Jesus Prayer the narrow way? Elder: How is it not the narrow way? The narrow way, in the exact sense of the word! He who wishes to engage successfully in the Jesus Prayer must guard himself, both externally and internally, with the most prudent, most cautious conduct: our fallen nature is ready to betray us every hour, to deliver us up; the fallen spirits assail the practice of the Jesus Prayer with particular fury and cunning. Often, from a seemingly insignificant carelessness, from unnoticed negligence and self-reliance, an important consequence arises, having an influence on the life, on the eternal fate of the ascetic–"Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in hell. ...When my foot slipped, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up» ( Psalm 93:17–18 ). The foundation for practicing the Jesus Prayer is prudent and cautious conduct. First, one must remove from oneself effeminacy and carnal pleasures in all their forms. One must be content with constantly moderate food and sleep, proportionate to onés strength and health, so that food and sleep provide the body with due refreshment, without producing indecent movements which come from excess, and without producing exhaustion which comes from deficiency. Clothing, dwelling, and all material belongings in general should be modest, in imitation of Christ, in imitation of His Apostles, in following their spirit, in communion with their spirit. The Holy Apostles and their true disciples offered no sacrifices to vanity and futility, according to the customs of the world, and did not enter into communion with the spirit of the world in anything. The correct, grace-filled action of the Jesus Prayer can only sprout from the Spirit of Christ; it sprouts and grows exclusively only in this soil. Sight, hearing, and the other senses must be strictly guarded, so that through them, as through gates, the enemies do not burst into the soul. The lips and tongue must be restrained, as if bound by silence; idle talk, verbosity, especially mockery, gossip, and slander are the worst enemies of prayer. One must refuse to receive brethren into onés cell, and from visiting their cells: one must abide patiently in onés cell, as in a tomb, with onés own corpse–with onés soul, lacerated, killed by sin–and beg the Lord Jesus for mercy. From the tomb–the cell–prayer ascends to heaven: in that tomb where the body is hidden after death, and in the hellish tomb where the sinner's soul is cast down, there is no longer any place for prayer. In the monastery, one must abide as a stranger, not involving oneself in the monastery's affairs on onés own initiative, not forming close acquaintances with anyone, guarding oneself with silence during monastic labors, attending the church of God unfailingly, visiting the cell of the spiritual father in cases of need, considering carefully every exit from onés cell, leaving it only when essential necessity dictates. One must resolutely renounce vain curiosity and inquisitiveness, turning all curiosity and all inquiry towards the investigation and study of the path of prayer. This path requires the most thorough investigation and study: it is not only the «narrow way,» but also the way «which leadeth unto life» (Matthew 7:14); it is the science of sciences and the art of arts. Thus the Fathers name it. Disciple: The path of true prayer becomes incomparably narrower when the ascetic enters upon it through the activity of the inner man. And when he enters into these straits and feels the correctness, the salvific nature, the necessity of such a position; when the labor in the inner chamber becomes desirable to him: then the external narrowness of lifestyle will also become desirable, as it serves as the dwelling and repository for the inner activity. He who has entered with his mind into the endeavor of prayer must renounce and constantly renounce both all thoughts and sensations of his fallen nature and all thoughts and sensations brought by the fallen spirits, no matter how plausible these thoughts and sensations may be: he must constantly walk the narrow path of the most attentive prayer, not deviating to the left or to the right. I call deviation to the left the abandonment of prayer with the mind for conversation with vain and sinful thoughts; deviation to the right I call the abandonment of prayer with the mind for conversation with thoughts that seem good. Thoughts and sensations of four kinds act upon the one praying: some sprout from the grace of God, planted in every Orthodox Christian through Holy Baptism; others are offered by the Guardian Angel; others arise from fallen nature; and finally, others are inflicted by the fallen spirits. The thoughts, or more correctly, the recollections and sensations of the first two kinds, aid prayer, enliven it, intensify attention and the feeling of repentance, produce compunction, weeping of the heart, tears, lay bare before the gaze of the one praying the extent of his sinfulness and the depth of the human fall, proclaim the death that no one can avoid, the uncertainty of its hour, the impartial and terrible judgment of God, and the eternal torment, which in its fierceness surpasses human comprehension. In the thoughts and sensations of fallen nature, good is mixed with evil, while in demonic ones, evil is often concealed by good, though sometimes acting through open evil. Thoughts and sensations of the last two kinds act together due to the connection and communion of the fallen spirits with fallen human nature, and the first fruit of their action is pride, and in prayer–distraction. The demons, bringing seemingly spiritual and lofty understandings, distract from prayer with them, produce vainglorious joy, delight, self-satisfaction, as if from the discovery of the most mystical Christian teaching. Following the demonic theology and philosophy, vain and passionate thoughts and fantasies invade the soul, plunder, destroy prayer, and ruin the good order of the soul. By their fruits, truly good thoughts and sensations are distinguished from seemingly good thoughts and sensations. Oh, how rightly the Fathers call the practice of the Jesus Prayer both the narrow way, and self-denial, and renunciation of the world! These qualities belong to all attentive and reverent prayer, but especially to the Jesus Prayer, which is free from that variety in form and that multiplicity of thoughts which are characteristic of psalmody and other prayers. Disciple: From what words does the Jesus Prayer consist? Elder: It consists of the following words: «Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.» Some Fathers divide the prayer, for beginners, into two halves, and command that from morning, for example until noon, one should say: «Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,» and after noon: «Son of God, have mercy on me.» This is an ancient tradition. But it is better to accustom oneself, if possible, to the pronunciation of the full prayer. The division is allowed as a concession to the weakness of the weak and beginners. Disciple: Is the Jesus Prayer mentioned in Holy Scripture? Elder: It is spoken of in the Holy Gospel. Do not think that it is a human institution: it is a Divine institution. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself established and commanded the most holy Jesus Prayer. After the Last Supper, at which the greatest of Christian mysteries–the Holy Eucharist–was performed, the Lord, in His farewell discourse with His disciples, before going out to His terrible sufferings and death on the cross for the redemption of lost humanity, imparted the most sublime teaching and the most important, final commandments. Among these commandments, He granted the permission and injunction to pray in His name. «Verily, verily, I say unto you,» He said to the Apostles, «Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you» ( John 16:23 ). «And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it» ( John 14:13–14 ). «Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full» ( John 16:24 ). The greatness of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was foretold by the Prophets. Pointing to the redemption of men to be accomplished by the God-man, Isaiah cries out: «Behold, God is my salvation!... Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name... for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee» (Isaiah 12:2–6). «The way of the Lord is judgment: we have waited for thee, O Lord; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee» (Isaiah 26:8). In agreement with Isaiah, David prophesies: «We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners... we will remember the name of the Lord our God» ( Psalm 20:5, 7 ). «Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound–who have made mental prayer their own–O Lord, they shall walk in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted» ( Psalm 89:15–16 ). Disciple: In what does the power of the Jesus Prayer lie? Elder: In the Divine name of the God-man, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. The Apostles, as we see from the book of Acts and from the Gospel, performed great miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: they healed illnesses, incurable by human means, raised the dead, commanded demons, and cast them out of the people possessed by them. Once, shortly after the Lord's Ascension into heaven, when all twelve Apostles were still in Jerusalem, two of them, Peter and John, went to the Jerusalem temple to pray. A man lame from birth was carried daily to the temple gates called Beautiful, and laid on the pavement: the lame man could neither walk nor stand. Lying at the gates, the sufferer asked for alms from those entering the temple, by which, it seems, he sustained himself. When the Apostles approached the Beautiful Gate, the lame man fixed his gaze on them, expecting to receive alms. Then Saint Peter said to him: «Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk» ( Acts 3:6 ). The cripple was healed instantly, entered the temple with the Apostles, and loudly glorified God. The people, struck with amazement, gathered around the Apostles. «Ye men of Israel,» said Saint Peter to the assembled people, «why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus... And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know» ( Acts 3:12–13, 16 ). The news of the miracle soon reached the Sanhedrin, hostile to the Lord Jesus. The Sanhedrin was alarmed by the news, seized the Apostles, put them in custody, and the next day summoned them to trial before its full assembly. The healed lame man was also called. When the Apostles stood in the midst of the assembly of God-killers, who had recently branded themselves by the execution of the God-man, in whose name and by whose name the most striking miracle had now been performed before a multitude of eyewitnesses, the Apostles were asked: «By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?» – Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered with the words of the Holy Spirit, which concluded as follows: «Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole... Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved» ( Acts 4:7, 10, 12 ). The mouths of the enemies of God were sealed in silence before the invincible power of the words of heavenly truth; the numerous assembly of the wise and powerful found nothing to say and no rebuttal to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, proclaimed by two unlearned fishermen, sealed by the heavenly seal–a miracle of God. The Sanhedrin resorts to its authority, to violence. Despite the obvious miracle, despite the testimony given to the truth by God Himself, the Sanhedrin strictly forbids the Apostles to teach about the name of Jesus, even to utter this name. But the Apostles answered boldly: «Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard» ( Acts 4:19–20 ). The Sanhedrin again finds no rebuttal, again resorts exclusively to its authority, repeats the strict prohibition. They released the Apostles, having done nothing to them, although they wished to pour out their frenzied malice upon them: the public miracle bound both their disposition and their action. Peter and John, returning to their own, conveyed to them the threats and prohibition of the supreme tribunal. Then the twelve Apostles and all the members of the newborn Jerusalem Church poured out a unanimous, fervent prayer to God: they opposed prayer to the power and hatred of the rulers of the world–both men and demons. This prayer contained the following petition: «Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus» ( Acts 4:29–30 ). Disciple: Some assert that practicing the Jesus Prayer always, or almost always, leads to spiritual delusion [*prelest*], and they strongly forbid engaging in this prayer. Elder: In adopting such a thought and in such a prohibition lies a terrible blasphemy, a pitiable delusion. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the sole source of our salvation, the only means of our salvation; His human name has borrowed from His Divinity the unlimited, all-holy power to save us: how then can this power, which works for salvation, this unique power that grants salvation, become perverted and work for perdition? This is devoid of sense! This is a sorrowful, blasphemous, soul-destroying absurdity! Those who have adopted such a way of thinking are precisely in demonic delusion, deceived by a false reasoning that has come from Satan. Satan has cunningly risen up against the all-holy and magnificent name of our Lord Jesus Christ, uses human blindness and ignorance as his instrument, and has slandered the name «which is above every name... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth» (Philippians 2:9–10). To those who forbid praying the Jesus Prayer, one can respond with the words of the Apostles Peter and John to a similar prohibition made by the Jewish Sanhedrin: «Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.» The Lord Jesus commanded us to pray in His all-holy name; He gave us a priceless gift; what significance can human teaching have that contradicts God's teaching, a human prohibition that strives to remove and destroy God's command, to take away the priceless gift? It is dangerous, very dangerous, to preach a doctrine contrary to that which is preached by the Gospel. Such an undertaking is a voluntary separation of oneself from the grace of God, according to the Apostlés testimony (Galatians 1:8). Disciple: But the elders whose opinion I cited enjoy particular renown and are recognized by many as the most experienced guides in the spiritual life. Elder: The Apostle commanded–or rather, the Holy Spirit commanded through the Apostle–to reject any teaching that does not agree with the teaching which the Apostles «have preached"–to reject it even if «an angel from heaven» should preach this discordant teaching. «But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.» (Galatians 1:8–9). Holy Scripture speaks thus not because any of the holy Angels would attempt to contradict Christ's teaching, but because Christ's teaching, God's teaching, preached by the Apostles, is entirely reliable, entirely holy, and not subject to any changes, no matter how well-founded these changes might seem to insufficient, perverted knowledge and carnal reasoning. Christ's teaching, being above the judgment of both men and Angels, is accepted only by humble faith, and itself serves as the stone by which all other teachings are tested. The opinion of human society about a monastic guide has no significance if the teaching of this guide contradicts Holy Scripture and the writings of the Holy Fathers, if it contains blasphemy. Monasticism is a science among sciences: one must know it to accurately evaluate one who teaches it. St. Macarius the Great said: «Many, who appear righteous outwardly, are reputed to be true Christians; but only to the artists [i.e., the spiritually discerning], and among them those who thoroughly know the art, is it given to recognize whether these righteous ones truly possess the knowledge and image of the King, or whether perhaps a counterfeit sign has been stamped and imprinted on them by ill-intentioned people? Will skilled artists approve or reject them? If no skilled artists are found, then there is no one to investigate the cunning workers, because they too are clothed in the appearance of monastics and Christians.» Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, explaining the words of the Archangel Gabriel about John, the Forerunner of the Lord, that «he shall be great in the sight of the Lord» (Luke 1:15), says: «The Angel promises that John will be great, but *in the sight of the Lord*: because many are called great in the sight of men, not in the sight of God, and they are hypocrites.» If a corrupt life and ill intent, concealed by hypocrisy, are not recognized by the world and are accepted by it as virtue, then how much more incomprehensible to it is insufficient knowledge, superficial knowledge, perverted knowledge. The world highly values bodily ascetic labors and deprivations, without discerning whether they are used correctly and beneficially, or erroneously and to the great detriment of the soul; the world especially respects what effectively acts upon the bodily senses, what corresponds to the world's concepts of virtue and monasticism; the world loves what flatters and pleases it; the world loves its own–said the Savior ( John 15:18–25 ). More likely, the world's hatred, the world's slander, its persecution can be marks of a true servant of God: and this is testified by the Savior. The Holy Fathers bequeathed to choose a guide who is free from delusion, whose freedom from delusion must be recognized by the agreement of his teaching and life with Holy Scripture and with the teaching of the Spirit-bearing Fathers. They warn against unskilled teachers, lest one become infected by their false teaching. They command to compare the teaching of teachers with the teaching of Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers, to accept what agrees and to reject what disagrees. They affirm that those who do not have purified spiritual vision and cannot recognize a tree by its fruit consider the vainglorious, empty, and hypocritical to be teachers and spiritual, while paying no attention to true saints, considering them ignorant when they are silent–and proud and harsh when they speak. Examine all of Holy Scripture: you will see that everywhere in it the Lord's name is magnified and glorified, its power, salvific for men, is exalted. Examine the writings of the Fathers: you will see that all of them, without exception, advise and enjoin the practice of the Jesus Prayer, call it a weapon than which there is none stronger either in heaven or on earth, call it a God-given, inalienable inheritance, one of the final and highest bequests of the God-man, a loving and sweetest consolation, a reliable pledge. Finally, turn to the legislation of the Orthodox Eastern Church: you will see that for all its illiterate children, both monks and laypeople, it has established the replacement of psalmody and other prayers in the cell rule with the Jesus Prayer. What significance, then, does the contradictory teaching of some blind men, renowned and glorified by similar blind men, have before the unanimous testimony of Holy Scripture and all the Holy Fathers, before the legislation of the Universal Church concerning the Jesus Prayer? The Moldavian elder, Schema-monk Basil, who lived at the end of the last century, expounded the teaching on the Jesus Prayer with particular satisfactoriness in his remarks on the works of St. Gregory of Sinai, Hesychius of Jerusalem, and Philotheus of Sinai. The schema-monk called his remarks prefaces or preludes. A very accurate name! Reading the remarks prepares one for reading the mentioned Fathers, whose works pertain mostly to monks who have already made significant progress. The remarks were published by the Optina Hermitage together with the writings of Paisius Velichkovsky, whose teacher, fellow ascetic, and friend Basil was. In the preface to the book of St. Gregory of Sinai, Elder Basil says: «Some, not experientially acquainted with mental prayer and thinking of themselves that they have the gift of discernment, justify themselves, or rather, divert from learning this sacred practice with three pretexts or slanders: firstly, by relegating this practice to holy and passionless men, thinking that it belongs to them, and not to those who still have passions; secondly, by presenting the complete lack of guides and teachers for such a life and path; thirdly–the delusion that follows this practice. Of these pretexts, or slanders, the first is useless and unjust: because the first degree of progress for novice monks consists in the diminution of passions through sobriety of mind and guarding of the heart, that is, through mental prayer, which is fitting for those in the active life. The second is unreasonable and unfounded: because for lack of a guide and teacher, Scripture is our teacher. The third contains self-deception: those who bring it, reading writings about delusion, trip over this very writing, explaining it crookedly. Instead of learning from the writing about delusion and being warned against it, they distort this writing and present it as a basis for avoiding mental prayer. If you fear this practice and learning it out of reverence and simplicity of heart, then I too, on that basis, fear, but not on the basis of empty fables, according to which 'if you fear the wolf, don't go into the forest.' One must also fear God, but not flee or distance oneself from Him because of this fear.» Further, the schema-monk explains the difference between prayer performed by the mind with the sympathy of the heart, which is fitting for all pious monks and Christians, and grace-filled prayer performed by the mind in the heart or from the heart, which constitutes the possession of advanced monks. For those who have acquired and adopted the unfortunate prejudice against the Jesus Prayer, who are completely unfamiliar with it from correct and long practice, it would be much more prudent, much safer, to refrain from judging it, to acknowledge their decisive ignorance of this most sacred endeavor, than to take upon themselves the duty of preaching against the practice of the Jesus Prayer: to proclaim that this all-holy prayer is the cause of demonic delusion and soul-destruction. As a warning to them, I find it necessary to say that blaspheming the prayer in the name of Jesus, attributing a harmful effect to this name, is equivalent to that blasphemy which the Pharisees uttered against the miracles performed by the Lord (Matthew 12:31, 34, 36). Ignorance can be excused at God's judgment much more easily than stubborn prejudice and the proclamations and actions based on it. Let us remember that at God's judgment we must give an account for every idle word; how much more terrible is the account for a word and words blasphemous against the fundamental dogma of the Christian faith. The teaching about the divine power of the name of Jesus has the full dignity of a fundamental dogma and belongs to the all-holy number and composition of these dogmas. Ignorant, blasphemous reasoning against the Jesus Prayer has the entire character of heretical reasoning. Disciple: However, the Holy Fathers strongly warn those engaged in the Jesus Prayer against delusion. Elder: Yes, they warn. They warn against delusion the one in obedience, the hesychast, the faster–in a word, anyone practicing any virtue whatsoever. The source of delusion, as of all evil, is the devil, and not some virtue. «With all carefulness one must observe,» says St. Macarius the Great, «the snares, deceptions, and malicious actions set up by the enemy (the devil) on all sides. Just as the Holy Spirit through Paul becomes all things to all men (1Corinthians 9:22), so also the wicked spirit strives maliciously to be all things to all men, in order to bring all to perdition. With those who pray, he also pretends to pray, to lead them into pride on account of prayer; with those who fast, he fasts, to deceive them with self-conceit and bring them to madness; with those knowledgeable in Holy Scripture, he also engages in the study of Scripture, seemingly seeking knowledge, but in essence striving to lead them to a perverted understanding of Scripture; with those deemed worthy of illumination by light, he also presents himself as having this gift, as Paul says: 'Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light' (2Corinthians 11:14), in order, by deceiving with an apparition as if of light, to attract to himself. Simply put: he assumes for all people all kinds of forms, in order, by an action similar to the action of good, to enslave the ascetic to himself, and, concealing himself under a fair appearance, to cast him into perdition.» I have happened to see elders who were engaged exclusively in intensified bodily asceticism and who, through it, came into the greatest self-conceit, the greatest self-delusion. Their passions of the soul–anger, pride, cunning, disobedience–received extraordinary development. Self-will and self-reliance completely predominated in them. They decisively and fiercely rejected all the most soul-saving advice and warnings from spiritual fathers, superiors, even hierarchs: they, trampling not only the rules of humility but also of modesty, of propriety itself, did not hesitate to express contempt for these persons in the most insolent manner. A certain Egyptian monk, at the beginning of the 4th century, became a victim of the most horrible demonic delusion. Initially, he fell into pride, then, because of pride, came under the special influence of a wicked spirit. The devil, building upon the monk's voluntary pride, took care to develop this malady in him, so that by means of matured and strengthened pride he might finally subjugate the monk to himself, drawing him into soul-destruction. Aided by the demon, the monk achieved such disastrous progress that he would stand barefoot on burning coals and, standing on them, recite the entire Lord's Prayer, the «Our Father.» Of course, people lacking spiritual discernment saw in this action a miracle of God, the monk's extraordinary holiness, the power of the Lord's Prayer, and glorified the monk with praises, developing pride in him and helping him to destroy himself. There was no miracle of God here, nor the monk's holiness; the power of the Lord's Prayer did not act here–Satan acted here, building upon man's self-delusion, upon his wrongly directed will; demonic delusion acted here. You will ask: what significance then did the Lord's Prayer have in the demonic action? After all, the deluded one recited it and attributed the miracle that occurred to its action. Obviously: the Lord's Prayer took no part here: the deluded one, by his own will, by his own self-delusion and demonic deception, used against himself the spiritual sword given to men for salvation. The error and self-delusion of heretics have always been concealed by the abuse of God's Word, concealed with refined cunning; and in the narrated event, human error and demonic delusion, with the same aim, were cunningly concealed by the Lord's Prayer. The unfortunate monk thought that he was standing on the burning coals barefoot by the action of the Lord's Prayer, due to the purity and height of his ascetic life, whereas he stood on them by demonic action. In precisely the same way, self-delusion and demonic delusion are sometimes concealed as if by the action of the Jesus Prayer, and ignorance attributes to the action of this most holy prayer what should be attributed to the combined action of Satan and man–man who has surrendered himself to Satan's guidance. The mentioned Egyptian monk passed from imaginary holiness to unbridled sensuality, then to complete insanity, and, throwing himself into a heated public bath furnace, burned to death. Probably: either despair seized him, or some deceptive vision appeared to him in the furnace. Disciple: What in a person, what condition in him himself, makes him capable of delusion? Elder: St. Gregory of Sinai says: «Generally, there is one cause of delusion–pride.» In human pride, which is self-delusion, the devil finds a convenient abode and adds his own deception to human self-delusion. Every person is more or less inclined to delusion: because «the purest human nature has something proud in itself.» The warnings of the Fathers are well-founded! One must be very circumspect, one must very much guard oneself from self-delusion and delusion. In our time, with the complete scarcity of God-inspired guides, special caution, special vigilance over oneself is needed. They are needed in all monastic endeavors: most needed in the prayerful endeavor, which of all endeavors is the most exalted, the most soul-saving, and the most assailed by enemies. «Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear» (1 Peter 1:17), the Apostle enjoins. In the practice of the Jesus Prayer, there is its own beginning, its own progression, its endless end. It is necessary to begin the practice from the beginning, and not from the middle or the end. The most holy Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, depicting the spiritual fruits of this prayer, says: «Let no one, untaught in the mysteries or still requiring milk, upon hearing the lofty teaching about the grace-filled action of prayer, dare to touch it. Such an untimely attempt is forbidden. Those who attempt it, and seek prematurely what comes in its own time, striving to enter the harbor of passionlessness in a disposition unsuitable for it, the Fathers recognize as being in a state of insanity. It is impossible for one who has not learned letters to read books.» Disciple: What does it mean to begin the practice of the Jesus Prayer from the middle and the end, and what does it mean to begin this practice from the beginning? Elder: Those novices begin from the middle who, having read in the Patristic writings instruction for the practice of the Jesus Prayer given by the Fathers to hesychasts, that is, to monks already very advanced in the monastic endeavor, thoughtlessly take this instruction as a guide for their activity. Those begin from the middle who, without any preliminary preparation, strive to ascend with their mind into the heart's temple and from there send up prayer. Those begin from the end who seek immediately to uncover in themselves the grace-given sweetness of prayer and its other grace-filled actions. One must begin from the beginning, that is, perform prayer with «attention» and «reverence,» with the aim of «repentance,» caring solely that these three qualities are constantly present with the prayer. Thus, St. John Climacus, that great practitioner of heartfelt, grace-filled prayer, prescribes for those in obedience attentive prayer, and for those matured for silence, heartfelt prayer. For the former, he recognizes prayer free from distraction as impossible, while from the latter he requires such prayer. In human company, one should pray with the mind alone, but in private–with both mind and lips, somewhat audibly to oneself alone. Special care, the most meticulous care, must be taken to arrange morality in accordance with the teaching of the Gospel. Experience will not delay in revealing to the mind of the one praying the closest connection between the commandments of the Gospel and the Jesus Prayer. These commandments serve for this prayer as oil serves for a burning lamp; without oil the lamp cannot be lit; when the oil is depleted, it cannot burn: it goes out, spreading a foul smoke around itself. Morality is formed according to the teaching of the Gospel very easily when passing through monastic obediences, provided the obediences are passed through in the understanding in which they are commanded by the Holy Fathers. True obedience serves as the foundation, the lawful door to true silence. True silence consists in the Jesus Prayer that has become ingrained in the heart–and some of the Holy Fathers accomplished the great feat of heartfelt silence and seclusion while surrounded by human noise. Solely on morality brought into good order by the Gospel commandments, solely on this firm Gospel stone, can the majestic, sacred, immaterial temple of God-pleasing prayer be erected. Vain is the labor of him who builds on sand: on light, wavering morality (Matthew 7:26). Morality brought into harmonious, beautiful order, strengthened by the habit of fulfilling the Gospel commandments, can be likened to an unbreakable silver or golden vessel, which alone is capable of worthily receiving and reliably preserving within itself the priceless, spiritual myrrh: prayer. St. Symeon the New Theologian, discussing the lack of success that sometimes occurs in the prayerful endeavor and the tares of delusion that arise from it, attributes the cause of both the lack of success and the delusion to the failure to preserve correctness and gradualness in the endeavor. «Those wishing to ascend,» says the Theologian, «to the heights of prayerful progress, let them not begin to go from top to bottom, but let them ascend from bottom to top, first to the first step of the ladder, then to the second, further to the third, and finally to the fourth. Thus, everyone can rise from the earth and ascend to heaven. 'Firstly,' he must strive to subdue and diminish the passions. 'Secondly,' he must practice psalmody, that is, oral prayer: when the passions are diminished, then prayer, naturally providing joy and sweetness to the tongue, is accounted as pleasing to God. 'Thirdly,' he must engage in mental prayer.» Here is meant prayer performed by the mind in the heart: the attentive prayer of novices, with the sympathy of the heart, the Fathers rarely deem worthy of the name 'mental prayer,' classing it more with oral prayer. «'Fourthly,' he must ascend to vision. The first belongs to novices; the second to those growing in progress; the third to those who have reached extreme progress; the fourth to the perfect.» Further, the Theologian says that even those striving for the diminution of passions must accustom themselves to guarding the heart and to the attentive Jesus Prayer corresponding to their disposition. In the communities of Pachomius the Great, which produced the most exalted practitioners of mental prayer, each newly entered monk was, first of all, occupied with bodily labors under the guidance of an elder for three years. Through bodily labors, frequent instructions from the elder, daily confession of external and internal activity, and the cutting off of the will, the passions were subdued powerfully and quickly, and significant purity was granted to the mind and heart. While practicing labors, a prayer practice corresponding to his disposition was given to the novice. After three years, the novices were required to memorize the entire Gospel and Psalter, and those capable, the entire Holy Scripture, which extraordinarily develops oral attentive prayer. Only after this did the secret instruction in mental prayer begin: it was explained abundantly by both the New and Old Testaments. Thus, monks were introduced to a correct understanding of mental prayer and to its correct practice. From the solidity of the foundation and the correctness in practice came wondrous progress. Disciple: Is there any reliable means to preserve oneself from delusion in general, in all monastic endeavors, and in particular when practicing the Jesus Prayer? Elder: Just as pride is generally the cause of delusion, so humility–the virtue directly opposite to pride–serves as a reliable warning and preservation from delusion. St. John Climacus called humility «the destruction of the passions.» Obviously, in one in whom the passions do not act, in whom the passions are restrained, delusion cannot act either, because «delusion is a passionate or biased inclination of the soul toward falsehood based on pride.» However, when practicing the Jesus Prayer, and prayer in general, a form of humility called «weeping» fully and most reliably preserves. Weeping is a heartfelt feeling of repentance, a salvific sorrow over the sinfulness and diverse, numerous weakness of man. Weeping is «a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, which God will not despise» ( Psalm 51:17 ), that is, He will not give it over to the power and mockery of demons, as a proud heart, full of self-conceit, self-reliance, and vainglory, is given over to them. Weeping is that unique sacrifice which God accepts from the fallen human spirit, until the renewal of the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God. Let our prayer be permeated with a feeling of repentance, let it be united with weeping–and delusion will never affect us. St. Gregory of Sinai, in the final article of his work, in which he set forth for practitioners of prayer warnings against soul-destroying delusion, says: «It is no small labor to attain the truth precisely and to become pure from everything opposed to grace: because it is customary for the devil to show, especially to beginners, his delusion in the form of truth, giving a wicked appearance of the spiritual. For this reason, the one striving in silence to achieve pure prayer must proceed along the mental path of prayer with much trembling and weeping, asking for instruction from the skilled, always weeping over his sins, grieving and fearing lest he undergo torment, or fall away from God, be separated from Him in this or the future age. If the devil sees that the ascetic lives mournfully, he does not remain with him, not enduring the humility that comes from weeping... A great weapon is to have weeping together with prayer. Undeluded prayer consists in warmth with the Jesus Prayer, which (the Jesus Prayer) instills fire into the soil of our heart, in warmth that burns up the passions like thorns, producing joy and tranquility in the soul. This warmth does not come from the right or the left side, nor from above, but sprouts in the very heart, like a spring of water from the Life-giving Spirit. Love to find and acquire it alone in the heart, keeping your mind always free from images, alien to reasonings and thoughts, and do not fear. He who said: 'Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid' (Matthew 14:27), He is with us. He is the One we seek. He will always protect us–and we must not fear or sigh when calling upon God. If some have gone astray and suffered mental disturbance, know that they fell into this through self-will and pride.» On the Jesus Prayer Section II. On Spiritual Delusion [Prelest'] Disciple: Give me a precise and detailed concept of prelest (spiritual delusion). What is prelest ? Elder: Prelest is the corruption of human nature by falsehood. Prelest is the state of all human beings, without exception, produced by the fall of our forefathers. We are all in prelest . The knowledge of this is the greatest protection from prelest . The greatest prelest is to recognize oneself as free from prelest . We are all deceived, all seduced, all are in a false state, we need to be liberated by the truth. The Truth is our Lord Jesus Christ ( John 8:32; 14:6 ). Let us appropriate this Truth by faith in It; let us cry out in prayer to this Truth–and It will draw us out of the abyss of self-deception and deception by demons. Our state is sorrowful! It is a prison, from which we pray for our soul to be brought out, «to give thanks unto Thy name» ( Psalm 142:7 ). It is that dark land into which our life has been cast down by the enemy who envied us and pursued us (cf. Psalm 143:3 ). It is the carnal mind (Romans 8:6) and the falsely called knowledge (1 Timothy 6:20), with which the whole world is infected, not recognizing its sickness, proclaiming it to be flourishing health. It is «flesh and blood, [which] cannot inherit the kingdom of God» (1Corinthians 15:50). It is eternal death, healed and destroyed by the Lord Jesus, who is «the resurrection and the life» ( John 11:25 ). Such is our state. The sight of it is a new reason for weeping. With weeping let us cry out to the Lord Jesus, that He may lead us out of prison, draw us out of earthly depths, and snatch us from the jaws of death. «Our Lord Jesus Christ,» says St. Symeon the New Theologian, «descended to us for this reason, because He willed to deliver us from captivity and from the 'worst prelest '." Disciple: This explanation is not sufficiently accessible to my understanding; I need a simpler explanation, closer to my comprehension. Elder: «Falsehood» was used by the fallen angel as a means for the destruction of the human race (cf. Genesis 3:13 ). For this reason, the Lord called the devil «a liar, and the father of it» and «a murderer from the beginning» ( John 8:44 ). The Lord closely connected the concept of falsehood with the concept of murder: because the latter is the inevitable consequence of the former. The word «from the beginning» indicates that falsehood served the devil from the very start as a tool for murder, and constantly serves him as a tool for murder, for the destruction of human beings. The beginning of evils is a false thought! The source of self-deception and demonic prelest is a false thought! The cause of diverse harm and perdition is a false thought! By means of falsehood, the devil struck humanity with eternal death at its very root, in our first parents. Our first parents were deluded ( prel'stilis' ), that is, they recognized falsehood as truth, and, having accepted falsehood under the guise of truth, they incurably damaged themselves with the death-bearing sin, as our first mother also testified. «The serpent beguiled me ( prel'stil' mya ),» she said, «and I did eat» ( Genesis 3:13 ). From that time, our nature, infected with the poison of evil, strives «voluntarily» and «involuntarily» towards evil, which appears as good and pleasure to the corrupted will, the perverted reason, the perverted heart's feeling. Voluntarily: because in us there still remains a remnant of freedom in choosing good and evil. Involuntarily: because this remnant of freedom does not act as full freedom; it acts under the inalienable influence of the corruption by sin. We are born like this; we cannot be otherwise: and therefore all of us, without any exception, are in a state of self-deception and demonic prelest . From this view of the state of human beings in relation to good and evil, a state which necessarily belongs to every person, flows the following definition of prelest , explaining it with all satisfactoriness: « Prelest is the appropriation by a person of a falsehood which he has accepted as truth. " Prelest acts initially on the mode of thought; having been accepted and having perverted the mode of thought, it immediately communicates itself to the heart, perverting the heart's sensations; having seized the essence of the person, it spreads to all his activity, poisons the very body, as being inseparably connected by the Creator with the soul. The state of prelest is a state of perdition or eternal death. Since the fall of man, the devil has received constantly free access to him. The devil has a right to this access: by his obedience to him, man voluntarily subjected himself to his authority, having rejected obedience to God. God redeemed man. The redeemed man is given the freedom to obey either God or the devil, and so that this freedom might manifest itself unconstrainedly, access to man is left to the devil. It is very natural that the devil uses every effort to keep man in his former relation to himself, or even to bring him into greater enslavement. For this, he uses his former and perpetual weapon–falsehood. He tries to seduce and deceive us, relying on our state of self-deception; our passions–these diseased inclinations–he sets in motion; the pernicious demands of them he clothes in plausibility, striving to incline us to satisfy the passions. He who is faithful to the Word of God does not permit himself this satisfaction, restrains the passions, repels the attacks of the enemy ( James 4:7 ): acting under the guidance of the Gospel against his own self-deception, subduing the passions, thereby gradually destroying the influence of the fallen spirits upon himself, he gradually emerges from the state of prelest into the realm of truth and freedom ( John 8:32 ), the fullness of which is granted by the overshadowing of Divine grace. He who is unfaithful to the teaching of Christ, who follows his own will and reason, submits to the enemy and passes from the state of self-deception to the state of demonic prelest , loses the remnant of his freedom, enters into complete submission to the devil. The state of people in demonic prelest is very diverse, corresponding to the passion by which a person is seduced and enslaved, corresponding to the degree to which a person is enslaved by the passion. But all who have fallen into demonic prelest , that is, who through the development of their own self-deception have entered into communion with the devil and into enslavement to him–are in prelest , are temples and instruments of demons, victims of eternal death, of life in the prisons of hell. Disciple: Enumerate the types of demonic prelest that arise from incorrect practice of prayer. Elder: All types of demonic prelest to which the practitioner of prayer is subjected arise from the fact that repentance is not laid as the foundation of prayer, that repentance has not become the source, the soul, the goal of prayer. «If anyone,» says St. Gregory of Sinai in the article cited above, «with self-reliance, based on self-conceit, dreams of attaining high states of prayer, and has acquired a zeal not true but satanic, him the devil easily entangles in his nets, as his servant.» Anyone who strives to enter the marriage of the Son of God not in the pure and bright garments prepared by repentance, but directly in his own rags, in a state of oldness, sinfulness, and self-deception, is cast out into the outer darkness: into demonic prelest . «I counsel thee,» says the Savior to one called to the mystical priesthood, «to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent» (Revelation 3:18–19). Repentance and all that constitutes it, such as: contrition or sorrow of spirit, weeping of the heart, tears, self-condemnation, remembrance and foretaste of death, God's judgment and eternal torments, the sensation of God's presence, the fear of God–are gifts of God, gifts of great price, initial and fundamental gifts, pledges of higher and eternal gifts. Without the preliminary reception of them, the bestowal of subsequent gifts is impossible. «However exalted our ascetic labors may be,» said St. John Climacus, «if we have not acquired a sorrowing heart, then these labors are false and vain.» Repentance, contrition of spirit, weeping are signs, are testimony to the correctness of the prayerful endeavor; their absence is a sign of deviation into a false direction, a sign of self-deception, prelest , or barrenness. One or the other, that is, prelest or barrenness, constitute the inevitable consequence of incorrect practice of prayer, and incorrect practice of prayer is inseparable from self-deception. The most dangerous incorrect mode of prayer is when the one praying composes, by the force of his imagination, dreams or pictures, borrowing them seemingly from Holy Scripture, but in essence from his own state, from his fall, from his sinfulness, from his self-deception–with these pictures he flatters his self-conceit, his vanity, his pride, his arrogance, deceives himself. Obviously, everything composed by the dreaminess of our fallen nature, perverted by the fall of nature, does not exist in reality–is an invention and a falsehood, so characteristic, so beloved by the fallen angel. The dreamer, from the first step on the prayerful path, departs from the realm of truth, enters the realm of falsehood, the realm of Satan, voluntarily submits to the influence of Satan. St. Symeon the New Theologian describes the prayer of a dreamer and its fruits thus: «He lifts to heaven his hands, eyes, and mind, imagines in his mind–like Klopstock and Milton–Divine councils, heavenly blessings, ranks of holy Angels, dwellings of saints, in short, gathers in his imagination all that he has heard in Divine Scripture, examines this during prayer, gazes at heaven, by all this excites his soul to Divine desire and love, sometimes sheds tears and weeps. Thus, little by little, his heart becomes puffed up, without his mind understanding it; he thinks that what he is doing is the fruit of Divine grace for his consolation, and prays to God that He may grant him always to remain in this practice. This is a sign of prelest . Such a person, even if he observes perfect silence, cannot avoid becoming deranged and insane. If this does not happen to him, however, it is impossible for him ever to attain spiritual understanding and virtue or passionlessness. Thus were deluded those who saw light and radiance with these bodily eyes, who smelled fragrances with their sense of smell, who heard voices with their ears. Some of them went mad, and wandered about mentally disturbed from place to place; others received a demon transformed into an angel of light, were deluded and remained uncorrected even to the end, not accepting advice from any of the brethren; others of them, instigated by the devil, killed themselves: others threw themselves into chasms, others hanged themselves. And who can enumerate the various delusions of the devil, by which he deludes, and which are unsearchable? However, from what we have said, every reasonable person can learn what harm comes from this mode of prayer. Even if someone using it does not suffer any of the aforementioned calamities due to living with brethren, because such calamities befall mostly hermits living in solitude, yet such a one spends his whole life fruitlessly.» All the Holy Fathers who have described the labor of mental prayer forbid not only composing arbitrary fantasies but also inclining onés will and sympathy towards dreams and visions that may appear to us unexpectedly, independently of our will. And this happens during the prayerful labor, especially in silence. «Do not accept in any way,» says St. Gregory of Sinai, «if you see something, with your sensory eyes or with your mind, outside or inside you, whether it be an image of Christ, or an Angel, or some Saint, or if a light appears to you... Be attentive and cautious! Do not allow yourself to trust anything, do not express sympathy and agreement, do not hastily commit yourself to the apparition, even if it is true and good; remain cold towards it and alien, constantly keeping your mind without form, not forming any image from itself and not imprinted with any image. He who sees something in thought or sensually, even if it is from God, and accepts it hastily, easily falls into prelest , at the very least reveals his inclination and capacity for prelest , as one who accepts apparitions quickly and lightly. The beginner must direct all his attention solely to the heartfelt action, recognize this action alone as undeluded–and not accept anything else until the time of entering into passionlessness. God is not angered by one who, fearing prelest , observes himself with extreme caution, even if he does not accept something sent from God, not having examined what was sent with all thoroughness; on the contrary, God praises such a one for his prudence.» St. Amphilochius, who entered monasticism from his youth, was deemed worthy in his mature years and old age to lead an eremitic life in the desert. Enclosed in a cave, he practiced silence and attained great progress. When forty years of his eremitic life had been completed, an Angel appeared to him at night and said: «Amphilochius! Go to the city and shepherd the spiritual sheep.» Amphilochius remained attentive to himself and paid no heed to the Angel's command. On the second night, the Angel appeared again and repeated the command, adding that it was from God. And again Amphilochius did not obey the Angel, fearing to be deceived and recalling the Apostlés words that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light (2Corinthians 11:14). On the third night, the Angel appeared again and, assuring Amphilochius of his authenticity by glorifying God–something intolerable to the rejected spirits–took the elder by the hand, led him out of his cell, and brought him to a church nearby. The church doors opened by themselves. The church was illuminated by a heavenly light; in it were present many holy men in white robes with faces like the sun. They ordained Amphilochius as bishop of the city of Iconium. – In contrast, the Venerables Isaac and Nikita of the Caves, new and inexperienced in the eremitic life, suffered a most terrible misfortune by hastily trusting an apparition that presented itself to them. To the first, a multitude of demons appeared in radiance: one of the demons took the form of Christ, the others–the form of holy Angels. The second was deceived by a demon first with a fragrance and a voice, as if from God, and then it appeared to him visibly in the form of an Angel. Monks experienced in the monastic life, truly holy monks, are much more cautious of prelest , much more distrustful of themselves, than beginners, especially those beginners who are seized with fervor for the ascetic endeavor. With heartfelt love, St. Gregory of Sinai warns the hesychast, for whom his book was written, against prelest : «I want you to have a definite concept of prelest : I want this with the aim that you may protect yourself from prelest , so that in your striving, not illuminated by proper knowledge, you might not cause great harm to yourself, not destroy your soul. The free will of man easily inclines to communion with our adversaries, especially the will of the inexperienced, new to the endeavor, as they are still possessed by demons.» How true this is! Our free will inclines, is drawn towards prelest : because every prelest flatters our self-conceit, our vanity, our pride. «The demons are near and surround the beginners and the self-willed, spreading nets of thoughts and pernicious fantasies, setting traps of falls. The city of the beginners–the entire being of each of them–is still in the possession of barbarians... Do not, out of levity, quickly give in to what appears to you, but remain 'weighty,' retaining what is good with much examination, and rejecting what is wicked... Know that the actions of grace are clear; a demon cannot impart them: he cannot impart neither meekness, nor tranquility, nor humility, nor hatred for the world; he does not subdue the passions and love of pleasure, as grace does.» His actions are: «puffing up"–haughtiness, pomposity–"pride, terror, in a word, all kinds of malice. By the action you will be able to recognize the light that has shone in your soul, whether it is from God or from Satan.» One must know that such discernment is the property of advanced monks, by no means beginners. St. Gregory of Sinai is conversing, albeit with a beginner in the silent life, but one who, in terms of his time in monasticism and his physical age, was an elder, as is evident from the book. Disciple: Have you happened to see anyone who fell into demonic prelest from the development of fantasy during the practice of prayer? Elder: I have. A certain official, living in St. Petersburg, engaged in an intensified prayerful labor and came from it into an unusual state. He revealed his endeavor and its consequences to the then protopriest of the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Kolomna. The protopriest, while visiting a certain monastery in the St. Petersburg diocese, asked one of the monastics of that monastery to converse with the official. «The strange condition into which the official has come from his endeavor,» the protopriest said rightly, «can more easily be explained by the inhabitants of the monastery, as they are more familiar with the details and contingencies of the ascetic endeavor.» The monk agreed. After some time, the official arrived at the monastery. I was also present during his conversation with the monk. The official immediately began to tell about his visions–that he constantly sees light from the icons during prayer, hears fragrances, feels an extraordinary sweetness in his mouth, and so on. The monk, having listened to this account, asked the official: «Has the thought of killing yourself ever come to you?» – «Of course!» replied the official, «I had already thrown myself into the Fontanka River, but they pulled me out.» It turned out that the official used the method of prayer described by St. Symeon, heated up his imagination and his blood, whereby a person becomes very capable of intensified fasting and vigil. To the state of self-deception, chosen voluntarily, the devil added his own action, akin to this state–and the human self-deception turned into manifest demonic prelest . The official saw light with his bodily eyes; the fragrance and sweetness he felt were likewise sensory. In contrast to this, the visions of the Saints and their supernatural states are entirely spiritual: the ascetic becomes capable of them only after the eyes of the soul are opened by Divine grace, whereby the other senses of the soul, hitherto inactive, also come to life; the bodily senses of the Saints also partake in the grace-filled vision, but only when the body transitions from a passionate state to a passionless one. The monk began to persuade the official to abandon the method of prayer he was using, explaining both the incorrectness of the method and the incorrectness of the state produced by the method. The official resisted the advice with vehemence. «How can I renounce such manifest grace!» he objected. Listening to the official's accounts about himself, I felt an inexpressible pity for him, and at the same time he appeared to me as somewhat ridiculous. For example, he asked the monk the following question: «When, due to the abundant sweetness, saliva multiplies in my mouth, it starts dripping on the floor: is this a sin?» Indeed, those in demonic prelest evoke pity, as they do not belong to themselves and are, in mind and heart, captives of the wicked, rejected spirit. They also present a ridiculous spectacle: they are made a laughingstock by the wicked spirit that has taken possession of them, which has brought them into a state of humiliation, having seduced them with vanity and pride. Those who are deluded do not understand their captivity or the strangeness of their behavior, no matter how obvious this captivity and strangeness of behavior may be. I spent the winter of 1828–1829 in the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage. At that time, an elder lived there who was in a state of prelest . He had cut off his own hand, believing he was fulfilling the Gospel commandment by this act, and told anyone who would listen that the severed hand had become holy relics, that it was kept and venerated with great honor in the Moscow Simonov Monastery, and that he, the elder, being in Ploshchanskaya Hermitage, five hundred versts from Simonov, could feel when the Simonov archimandrite and the brethren venerated the hand. The elder would experience a shuddering, during which he would begin to hiss very loudly: he considered this phenomenon a fruit of prayer; but to onlookers, it appeared as a self-debasement, worthy only of pity and laughter. The children living in the monastery due to orphanhood amused themselves with this phenomenon and mimicked it in front of the elder. The elder would become angry, lashing out at one boy or another, pulling their hair. None of the respected monks of the monastery could convince the deluded man that he was in a false state, in mental disorder. When the official left, I asked the monk: «What made you think to ask the official about the attempt at suicide?» The monk replied: «Just as during godly weeping there come moments of extraordinary peace of conscience, which constitutes the comfort of those who weep, so also during the false enjoyment provided by demonic prelest , there come moments in which the prelest , as it were, unveils itself and allows one to taste it for what it is. These moments are terrible! Their bitterness and the despair produced by this bitterness are unbearable. By this state, into which prelest leads, it would be easiest for the deluded person to recognize it and take measures to heal himself. Alas! The beginning of prelest is pride, and its fruit is superabundant pride. The deluded person, who considers himself a vessel of Divine grace, despises the salutary warnings of his neighbors, as St. Symeon noted. Meanwhile, the fits of despair become stronger and stronger: finally, despair turns into insanity and is crowned with suicide. At the beginning of this century, the schemamonk Theodosius labored in the Sofroniev Hermitage, attracting the respect of both the brethren and laypeople by his strict, exalted way of life. Once, it appeared to him that he was raptured into paradise. After the vision ended, he went to the superior, recounted the miracle in detail, and added an expression of regret that he had seen only himself in paradise, and none of the brethren. This detail escaped the superior's attention: he gathered the brethren, recounted the schemamonk's vision to them with a contrite spirit, and exhorted them to a more zealous and God-pleasing life. After some time, peculiarities began to appear in the schemamonk's actions. The matter ended with him being found hanged in his cell. The following noteworthy case happened to me. Once, an Athonite hieroschemamonk, who was in Russia collecting alms, visited me. We sat down in my reception cell, and he began to say to me: «Pray for me, father: I sleep a lot, I eat a lot.» As he was saying this to me, I felt a heat emanating from him, and so I answered him: «You do not eat a lot, and you do not sleep a lot; but is there not something special about you?» and I asked him to enter my inner cell. Walking ahead of him and opening the door to the inner cell, I prayed mentally to God that He would grant my hungry soul to benefit from the Athonite hieroschemamonk, if he was a true servant of God. Indeed, I had noticed something special about him. In the inner cell, we sat down again for conversation–and I began to ask him: «Do me a favor, teach me prayer. You live in the foremost monastic place on earth, among thousands of monks: in such a place and in such a numerous assembly of monks, there must necessarily be great pray-ers, knowing the mystical work of prayer and imparting it to their neighbors, following the example of Gregory of Sinai and Palamas, following the example of many other Athonite luminaries.» The hieroschemamonk immediately agreed to be my instructor–and, oh horror! With the greatest fervor, he began to impart to me the aforementioned method of ecstatic, fanciful prayer. I saw: he was in a terrible state of excitation! His blood and imagination were heated! He was self-satisfied, enraptured with himself, self-deceived, deluded! After letting him speak his mind, I began little by little, in the role of one being instructed, to present to him the teaching of the Holy Fathers on prayer, pointing it out in the Philokalia , and asking him to explain this teaching to me. The Athonite was completely perplexed. I saw: he was entirely unfamiliar with the teaching of the Fathers on prayer! As the conversation continued, I said to him: «Look, elder! If you live in St. Petersburg–do not, under any circumstances, rent a room on an upper floor; rent necessarily on a lower floor.» «Why so?» objected the Athonite. «Because,» I replied, «if the angels take it into their heads, suddenly rapturing you, to carry you from St. Petersburg to Athos, and they carry you from an upper floor and drop you, you will be killed to death; whereas if they carry you from a lower floor and drop you, you will only be bruised.» «Imagine,» replied the Athonite, «how many times already, when I stood in prayer, the lively thought came to me that the angels would snatch me up and place me on Athos!» It turned out that the hieroschemamonk wore chains, hardly slept, ate very little food, and felt such heat in his body that in winter he did not need warm clothing. Towards the end of the conversation, it occurred to me to act in the following manner: I began to ask the Athonite, since he was a faster and an ascetic, to test upon himself the method taught by the Holy Fathers, which consists in the mind during prayer being completely devoid of any fantasy, wholly immersed in attention to the words of the prayer, enclosed and contained, in the expression of St. John Climacus, within the words of the prayer. At the same time, the heart usually cooperates with the mind through the soul-saving feeling of sorrow for sins, as St. Mark the Ascetic said: «The mind praying undistractedly oppresses the heart: 'a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despisé» ( Psalm 51:17 ). «When you test this upon yourself,» I said to the Athonite, «then inform me also of the fruit of the experiment; for me personally, such an experiment is inconvenient due to the distracted life I lead.» The Athonite readily agreed to my proposal. A few days later, he came to me and said: «What have you done to me?» – «What do you mean?» – «Well, when I tried to pray with attention, enclosing my mind in the words of the prayer, all my visions disappeared, and I can no longer return to them.» Further, in conversation with the Athonite, I did not see that self-reliance and that boldness which were very noticeable in him at our first meeting and which are usually observed in people who are in self-deception, thinking themselves holy or in spiritual progress. The Athonite even expressed a desire to hear my poor advice for himself. When I advised him not to distinguish himself externally in his way of life from the other monks, because such self-distinction leads to pride, he took off his chains and gave them to me. A month later, he visited me again and said that the heat in his body had ceased, that he needed warm clothing, and that he slept much more. At the same time, he said that on Mount Athos, many, including those enjoying a reputation for holiness, use that method of prayer which he had been using–and teach it to others. No wonder! St. Symeon the New Theologian, who lived eight centuries before our time, says that very few engage in attentive prayer. St. Gregory of Sinai, who lived in the fourteenth century after Christ, when he arrived on Mount Athos, found that its numerous monastic population had no concept of mental prayer but engaged only in bodily ascetic labors, performing prayers only orally and aloud. St. Nil Sorsky, who lived at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century and also visited Mount Athos, says that in his time the number of attentive pray-ers had diminished to an extreme. The elder, Archimandrite Paisius Velichkovsky, moved to Mount Athos from Moldavia in 1747. He became closely acquainted with all the monasteries and sketes, conversed with many elders whom the general opinion of the Holy Mountain considered the most experienced and holy monks. But when he began to question these monks about the books of the Holy Fathers who wrote about mental prayer–it turned out that they not only did not know about the existence of such writings but did not even know the names of the holy writers; at that time, the Philokalia had not yet been printed in Greek. Attentive prayer requires self-denial, and few resolve upon self-denial. One who is enclosed within himself by attention, in a state of perplexity from the sight of his own sinfulness, incapable of verbosity and generally of effect and theatricality, appears to those ignorant of his mystical endeavor as somewhat strange, enigmatic, deficient in all respects. How difficult it is to part with the world's opinion! And how can the world recognize the practitioner of true prayer when the very endeavor is completely unknown to the world? How different is the one in self-deception! He does not eat, does not drink, does not sleep, walks in a single cassock in winter, wears chains, sees visions, teaches and accuses everyone with bold impudence, without any correctness, without rhyme or reason, with a sanguine, material, passionate fervor, and because of this sorrowful, pernicious fervor. A saint, and that's all! A taste and attraction for such people in human society have long been noted: «For ye suffer,» writes the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, «if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face» (2Corinthians 11:20). Further, the holy Apostle says that he, being in Corinth, could not behave boldly and impudently: his conduct was marked by modesty, «by the meekness and gentleness of Christ» (2Corinthians 10:1). The majority of ascetics of the Western Church, proclaimed by it as the greatest saints–after its falling away from the Eastern Church and the departure of the Holy Spirit from it–prayed and attained visions, false ones of course, by the method I mentioned. These so-called saints were in the most horrible demonic prelest . Prelest naturally arises on the foundation of blasphemy, by which heretics have perverted the dogmatic faith. The conduct of the ascetics of Latinism, engulfed in prelest , was always frenzied, due to an extraordinary material, passionate fervor. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, was in such a state. His imagination was so heated and sharpened that, as he himself asserted, he only needed to want and exert some effort, and hell or paradise would appear before his eyes, according to his desire. The manifestation of paradise and hell was accomplished not solely by the action of human imagination; the action of human imagination alone is insufficient for this: the manifestation was accomplished by the action of demons, who added their abundant action to the insufficient human action, combining action with action, supplementing action with action, based on the free human will that had chosen and appropriated for itself a false direction. It is known that true saints of God are granted visions solely by God's good pleasure and by God's action, and not by man's will or his own effort–they are granted unexpectedly, very rarely, in cases of special need, by God's wondrous providence, and not just as it happens. The intensified asceticism of those in prelest usually stands side by side with deep depravity. Depravity serves as the measure of that flame by which the deluded are inflamed. This is confirmed both by historical accounts and by the testimony of the Fathers. «He who sees the spirit of prelest in the manifestations presented by it,» said St. Maximus Kapsokalivitis, «very often is subject to fury and anger; the fragrance of humility, or prayer, or true tears has no place in him. On the contrary, he constantly boasts of his virtues, is vainglorious, and always fearlessly gives himself over to wicked passions.» Disciple: The incorrectness of this method of prayer and its connection with self-delusion and prelest are clear; now warn me about other types of incorrect prayer and the false states associated with them. Elder: Just as incorrect action of the mind leads into self-delusion and prelest , so too does incorrect action of the heart. Filled with irrational pride are the desire and striving to see spiritual visions with a mind not purified from passions, not renewed and recreated by the right hand of the Holy Spirit; filled with the same pride and irrationality are the desire and striving of the heart to enjoy holy, spiritual, Divine sensations when it is still completely incapable of such enjoyments. Just as an impure mind, wishing to see Divine visions and being unable to see them, composes visions for itself out of itself, thereby deceiving and deluding itself, so too the heart, striving to taste Divine sweetness and other Divine sensations, and not finding them within itself, composes them out of itself, flatters itself with them, deludes, deceives, and destroys itself, entering the realm of falsehood, into communion with demons, submitting to their influence, and enslaving itself to their power. Only one sensation among all the sensations of the heart, in its fallen state, can be used in invisible Divine service: sorrow over sins, over sinfulness, over the fall, over onés perdition, called weeping, repentance, contrition of spirit. This is testified by Holy Scripture. «For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering» ( Psalm 51:16 ): each heartfelt sensation individually, and all of them together, are not pleasing to You, as they are defiled by sin, as they are perverted by the fall. «The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise» ( Psalm 51:17 ). This sacrifice is a negative sacrifice; with the offering of this sacrifice, the offering of other sacrifices is naturally eliminated: with the sensation of repentance, all other sensations fall silent. For the sacrifices of other sensations to become pleasing to God, the favor of God must first be poured out on our Zion, the walls of our destroyed Jerusalem must first be restored. The Lord is righteous, all-holy; only righteous, pure sacrifices, for which human nature is capable after its renewal, are acceptable to the righteous, all-holy Lord. He does not delight in defiled sacrifices and burnt offerings. Let us strive to cleanse ourselves through repentance! «Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar» ( Psalm 51:19 ): the newborn sensations of a person renewed by the Holy Spirit. The first commandment given by the Savior of the world to all humanity without exception is the commandment of repentance: «From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand» (Matthew 4:17). This commandment encompasses, contains, and includes within itself all other commandments. To those people who did not understand the meaning and power of repentance, the Savior said more than once: «But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice» (Matthew 9:13). This means: The Lord, having mercy on fallen and perished human beings, granted repentance to all as the sole means of salvation, because all are encompassed by the fall and perdition. He does not demand, nor even desire from them sacrifices for which they are incapable, but desires that they have mercy on themselves, recognize their calamity, and free themselves from it through repentance. To the mentioned words, the Lord added terrible words: «I am not come,» He said, «to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.» Who are called the righteous? Those unfortunate, blind sinners who, being deceived by self-conceit, do not find repentance essentially necessary for themselves, and therefore either reject it or are negligent of it. Oh, the misfortune! For this, the Savior renounces them, they lose the treasure of salvation. «Woe to the soul,» says St. Macarius the Great, «that does not feel its wounds and thinks of itself, due to the great, immeasurable damage by evil, that it is completely free from damage by evil. The good Physician no longer visits or heals such a soul, as it has voluntarily left its wounds without care for them, and thinks of itself that it is healthy and blameless. 'They that be whole,' He says, 'need not a physician, but they that are sick'» (Matthew 9:12). Terrible cruelty towards oneself–the rejection of repentance! Terrible coldness, lack of love for oneself–negligence concerning repentance. One who is cruel to himself cannot but be cruel to his neighbors as well. One who has had mercy on himself by accepting repentance simultaneously becomes merciful to his neighbors. From this, the full importance of the error is evident: to take away from the heart the feeling of repentance, commanded to it by God Himself, essentially and logically necessary for the heart, and to strive to unlock in the heart, contrary to order, contrary to God's establishment, those feelings which should appear in it by themselves after purification through repentance, but in a completely different character. The carnal man cannot form any conception of this spiritual character: because the conception of a sensation is always based on sensations already known to the heart, while spiritual sensations are completely foreign to a heart acquainted only with carnal and soulful sensations. Such a heart does not even know about the existence of spiritual sensations. It is known to all what soulful calamity arose for the Jewish scribes and Pharisees from their incorrect soulful disposition: they became not only alien to God but also frenzied enemies of Him, deicides. A similar calamity befalls practitioners of prayer who have cast out repentance from their endeavor, who strive to arouse in the heart love for God, who strive to feel enjoyment, rapture: they develop their own fall, make themselves alien to God, enter into communion with Satan, and become infected with hatred for the Holy Spirit. This type of deception is terrible; it is equally soul-destroying as the first, but less obvious: it rarely ends in insanity and suicide, but it decisively corrupts both the mind and the heart. Based on the state of mind it produces, the Fathers called it «prelest of opinion» or «conceit» [ mnenie ]. St. Apostle Paul points to this type of deception when he says: «Let no man beguile you in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind» (Colossians 2:18). One possessed by this deception «thinks» [ mnit ] about himself, has composed a «conceit» [ mnenie ] about himself, that he has many virtues and merits–even that he abounds in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This «conceit» is composed of false concepts and false sensations: by this property, it fully belongs to the realm of the father and representative of falsehood–the devil. The one praying, striving to unlock in the heart the sensations of the new man, and having no possibility for this, replaces them with sensations of his own composition, counterfeit ones, to which the action of fallen spirits is not slow to join. Having recognized the incorrect sensations, both his own and demonic, as true and grace-filled, he acquires concepts corresponding to these sensations. These sensations, constantly being appropriated by the heart and intensifying within it, nourish and multiply the false concepts; naturally, from such incorrect endeavor, self-delusion and demonic deception–"conceit"–are formed. «Conceit does not allow the one who imagines [ mnimyi ] to be...» said St. Symeon the New Theologian. He who «thinks» [ mnyashchiy ] that he is passionless will never be cleansed of passions; he who «thinks» that he is full of grace will never receive grace; he who «thinks» that he is holy will never attain holiness. Simply put: he who ascribes to himself spiritual endeavors, virtues, merits, grace-filled gifts, flattering himself and amusing himself with «conceit,» blocks with this «conceit» the entrance into himself for both spiritual endeavors and Christian virtues and Divine grace–while opening wide the entrance for sinful contagion and demons. Those infected with «conceit» no longer have any capacity for spiritual progress: they have destroyed this capacity by offering on the altar of falsehood the very principles of human activity and his salvation–the concepts of truth. An extraordinary pomposity appears in those afflicted with this deception: they are as if intoxicated with themselves, with their state of self-delusion, seeing in it a state of grace. They are saturated, filled with pride and arrogance, yet appearing humble to many who judge by appearance, who cannot evaluate by fruits, as the Savior commanded (Matthew 7:16, 12:33), let alone by spiritual sense, which the Apostle mentions (Hebrews 5:14). The Prophet Isaiah vividly depicted the action of the deception of «conceit» in the fallen archangel, an action that deceived and destroyed this archangel. «For thou hast said in thine heart,» the prophet says to Satan, «I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit» (Isaiah 14:13–15). The Lord rebukes one infected with «conceit» thus: «Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked» (Revelation 3:17). The Lord exhorts the deceived one to repentance; He offers to buy, from none other than the Lord Himself, the necessary provisions from which repentance is composed (Revelation 3:18). The purchase is urgently needed: without it, there is no salvation. There is no salvation without repentance, and repentance is accepted from God only by those who, to receive it, sell all their possessions, that is, renounce everything that was falsely appropriated to them by «conceit.» Disciple: Have you happened to meet people infected with this type of deception? Elder: Those infected with the deception of «conceit» are encountered very often. Anyone who does not have a contrite spirit, who recognizes any merits and deserts in himself, anyone who does not hold unswervingly to the teaching of the Orthodox Church but reasons about any dogma or tradition arbitrarily, according to his own discretion, or according to a heterodox teaching, is in this deception. The degree of deviation and stubbornness in the deviation determines the degree of deception. Man is weak! «Conceit» inevitably creeps into us in some form of its own, and, realizing our «I,» removes God's grace from us. As there is, according to the remark of St. Macarius the Great, not a single person completely free from pride, so there is not a single person who is completely free from the action upon him of the refined deception called «conceit.» It assailed the Apostle Paul, and was healed by heavy permissions from God. «For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia,» writes the Apostle to the Corinthians, «that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead» (2Corinthians 1:8–9). For this reason, one must vigilantly watch over oneself, so as not to ascribe to oneself any good deed, any praiseworthy quality, or special natural ability, even a grace-filled state if a person is elevated to it–in short, so as not to recognize any merit as properly onés own. «For what hast thou,» says the Apostle, «that thou didst not receive?» from God? (1Corinthians 4:7). From God we have both our being and our rebirth, and all natural properties, all abilities, both spiritual and bodily. We are debtors to God! Our debt is unpayable! From such a view of oneself, a state opposite to «conceit» is formed by itself for our spirit, a state which the Lord called poverty of spirit, which He commanded us to have, which He blessed (Matthew 5:3). It is a great calamity to deviate from the dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church, from the teaching of the Holy Spirit, by any kind of reasoning! This is a «high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.» One must cast down and bring such reasoning «into captivity to the obedience of Christ» (2Corinthians 10:5). Disciple: Is there any connection between the deception of the first kind and the deception of the second kind? Elder: A connection between these two types of deception necessarily exists. The deception of the first kind is always connected with the deception of the second kind, with «conceit.» He who composes deceptive images through the natural faculty of imagination, who combines these images through fantasy into an enchanting picture, who subjects his entire being to the deceptive, powerful influence of this painting, necessarily, by an unfortunate necessity, «thinks» [ mnit ] that this painting is produced by the action of Divine grace, that the heartfelt sensations aroused by the painting are grace-filled sensations. The deception of the second kind–specifically «conceit"–operates without composing deceptive pictures: it is content with composing counterfeit grace-filled sensations and states, from which a false, perverted concept of the entire spiritual endeavor is born. One who is in the deception of «conceit» acquires a false view of everything surrounding him. He is deceived both within himself and from without. Dreaminess [ mechtatel'nost' ] acts strongly in those deluded by «conceit,» but it acts exclusively in the realm of the abstract. It either does not engage at all, or rarely engages, in painting in the imagination paradise, heavenly abodes and mansions, heavenly light and fragrance, Christ, Angels, and Saints; it constantly composes imaginary-spiritual states, intimate friendship with Jesus, internal conversation with Him, mysterious revelations, voices, enjoyments, builds upon them a false concept of oneself and of the Christian endeavor, builds generally a false mode of thought and a false disposition of the heart, leading now to intoxication with oneself, now to fervor and ecstasy. These diverse sensations arise from the action of refined vanity and sensuality: from this action, the blood receives a sinful, deceptive movement, appearing as grace-filled enjoyment. Vanity and sensuality, in turn, are aroused by pride, that inseparable companion of «conceit.» Terrible pride, akin to the pride of demons, constitutes the dominant quality of those who have appropriated to themselves either form of deception. In those deluded by the first type of deception, pride leads to a state of manifest insanity; in those deluded by the second type, while also producing a mental impairment called in Scripture a «reprobate mind» (2 Timothy 3:8), it is less noticeable, cloaked in the guise of humility, piety, wisdom–and is recognized by its bitter fruits. Those infected with «conceit» about their own merits, especially about their own holiness, are capable and ready for all intrigues, all hypocrisy, cunning and deceit, all villainies. They breathe implacable enmity against the servants of truth, and with frenzied hatred they assail them when they do not recognize in the deluded the state ascribed to them and paraded before the blind world by their «conceit.» Disciple: But do there not exist spiritual states produced by Divine grace, such as the state in which spiritual sweetness and joy are tasted, the state in which the mysteries of Christianity are revealed, the state in which the presence of the Holy Spirit is felt in the heart, the state in which the ascetic of Christ is deemed worthy of spiritual visions? Elder: They undoubtedly exist, but they exist only in Christians who have attained Christian perfection, having been preliminarily cleansed and prepared by repentance. The gradual action of repentance in general, expressed by all forms of humility, especially prayer offered from poverty of spirit, from weeping, gradually weakens the action of sin in a person. For this, a significant amount of time is needed. And it is given to true, well-intentioned ascetics by God's providence, which watches over us unceasingly. The struggle with passions is extraordinarily beneficial: it most of all leads to poverty of spirit. For our essential benefit, our Judge and God is «longsuffering» over us and does not quickly «avenge» (Luke 18:7) our adversary–sin. When the passions have weakened considerably–this occurs mostly towards the end of life–then spiritual states will begin to appear little by little, differing infinitely from the states composed by «conceit.» Firstly, grace-filled weeping enters the soul's chamber, washes it, and makes it white for the reception of the gifts that follow weeping according to the establishment of the spiritual law. The carnal man cannot, by any means, in any way, even imagine spiritual states, cannot have any concept even of grace-filled weeping: the knowledge of these states is acquired only by experience. Spiritual gifts are distributed with Divine wisdom, which observes that the rational vessel, destined to receive a gift, can bear the power of the gift without harm to itself. New wine bursts old wineskins! (Matthew 9:17). It is observed that, in the present time, spiritual gifts are distributed with the greatest moderation, in accordance with the weakness that has generally seized Christianity. These gifts satisfy almost solely the needs of salvation. In contrast, «conceit» squanders its gifts in immeasurable abundance and with the greatest haste. The general sign of spiritual states is deep humility and humble-mindedness, combined with preferring all onés neighbors to oneself, with a disposition of evangelical love towards all neighbors, with a striving for obscurity, for withdrawal from the world. There is little room here for «conceit»: because humility consists in renouncing all onés own merits, in the essential confession of the Redeemer, in uniting in Him all hope and support, while «conceit» consists in appropriating to oneself merits given by God and in composing for oneself non-existent merits. It is connected with reliance on oneself, with a cold, superficial confession of the Redeemer. God is glorified for the glorification of oneself, as He was glorified by the Pharisee (Luke 18:11). Those possessed by «conceit» are for the most part given over to sensuality, despite attributing to themselves the most exalted spiritual states, unparalleled in correct Orthodox asceticism; few of them abstain from gross enslavement to sensuality–they abstain solely due to the predominance in them of the sin of sins–pride. Disciple: Can any tangible, visible unfortunate consequences arise from the deception called «conceit»? Elder: From this kind of deception have arisen pernicious heresies, schisms, atheism, and blasphemy. Its most unfortunate visible consequence is incorrect activity, harmful to oneself and to onés neighbors–an evil which, despite its clarity and extent, is little noticed and little understood. Misfortunes, obvious to all, do happen to those infected with «conceit» who practice prayer, but rarely: because «conceit,» while leading the mind into the most terrible error, does not lead it to insanity, as a disturbed imagination does. – On the Valaam island, in a remote desert hut, lived the schemamonk Porphyry, whom I also saw. He was engaged in the endeavor of prayer. What kind of endeavor it was–I do not know for certain. One can guess its incorrectness by the schemamonk's favorite reading: he highly valued the book of the Western writer Thomas à Kempis, On the Imitation of Christ , and was guided by it. This book is written from «conceit.» Once, in the autumn, Porphyry visited the elders of the skete, not far from which his hermitage was located. When he was saying goodbye to the elders, they warned him, saying: «Don't think of walking on the ice: the ice has just formed and is very thin.» Porphyry's hermitage was separated from the skete by a deep bay of Lake Ladoga, which had to be walked around. The schemamonk answered in a quiet voice, with external modesty: «I have become very light.» He left. A short time later, a desperate cry was heard. The skete elders became alarmed and ran out. It was dark; they did not quickly find the place where the misfortune had occurred; they did not quickly find means to retrieve the drowned man: they pulled out the body, already abandoned by the soul. Disciple: You say that the book Imitation is written from a state of self-delusion; but it has many admirers even among the children of the Orthodox Church! Elder: It is precisely these admirers, in their rapture over its merit, who speak out about this merit without understanding it. In the preface of the Russian translator to the book Imitation –the 1834 edition, printed in Moscow–it is said: «One highly enlightened man–a Russian, Orthodox–used to say: if my opinion were needed, I would boldly place Kempis's On the Imitation of Christ after Holy Scripture.» In this, so decisive judgment, a heterodox writer is given full preference over all the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, and onés own view is given preference over the determination of the entire Church, which in its holy Councils recognized the writings of the Holy Fathers as God-inspired and bequeathed their reading not only for the soul's edification to all its children but also as a guide in deciding Church questions. In the writings of the Fathers is preserved a great spiritual, Christian, and ecclesiastical treasure: the dogmatic and moral tradition of the Holy Church. Obviously, the book Imitation led the mentioned man into that disposition from which he expressed himself so rashly, so erroneously, so sadly. This is self-delusion! This is deception! It was composed of false concepts; the false concepts were born from incorrect sensations communicated by the book. In the book dwells and from the book breathes the anointing of the wicked spirit, flattering the readers, intoxicating them with the poison of falsehood, sweetened with refined seasonings of pride, vanity, and sensuality. The book leads its readers directly to communion with God, without preliminary purification by repentance: which is why it arouses a special sympathy for itself in passionate people, unfamiliar with the path of repentance, unprotected from self-delusion and deception, not instructed in the correct way of life by the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church. The book produces a strong effect on the blood and nerves, excites them–and therefore it especially pleases people enslaved by sensuality; one can enjoy the book without renouncing gross sensual pleasures. Pride, refined sensuality, and vanity are presented by the book as the action of God's grace. Having smelled their own fornication in its refined action, carnal people come into ecstasy from the enjoyment, from the intoxication, provided effortlessly, without self-denial, without repentance, without «crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts» (Galatians 5:24), while flattering the state of the fall. Joyfully, led by their blindness and pride, they pass from the bed of bestial love to the bed of a more criminal love, reigning in the brothel of the rejected spirits. A certain person, belonging by earthly position to the highest and most educated society, and by outward appearance to the Orthodox Church, expressed herself as follows about a deceased Lutheran woman, recognized by this person as a saint: «She loved God passionately; she thought only of God; she saw only God; she read only the Gospel and Imitation , which is the second Gospel.» These words express precisely the state into which the readers and admirers of Imitation are led. – Essentially identical with this phrase is the saying of the famous French writer, Madame de Sévigné, about the famous French poet, the elder Racine. «He loves God,» Madame de Sévigné allowed herself to say, «as he formerly loved his mistresses.» The well-known critic La Harpe, who was first an atheist, then transitioned to a misunderstood and perverted Christianity, approving Madame de Sévigné's expression, said: «The heart with which one loves the Creator and the creature is one, although the consequences differ as much as the objects differ.» Racine passed from debauchery to the deception called «conceit.» This deception is expressed with all clarity in the poet's last two tragedies: Esther and Athalie . The lofty Christian thoughts and sensations of Racine found an extensive place in the temple of the Muses and Apollo, in the theater they aroused ecstasy and applause. Athalie , recognized as Racinés highest work, was performed forty times in succession. The spirit of this tragedy is one with the spirit of Imitation . – We believe that in the human heart there exists a bestial desire, introduced into it by the fall, correlating with the desire of the fallen spirits; we believe that there also exists in the heart a spiritual desire, with which we were created, by which God and neighbor are loved naturally and correctly, which is in harmony with the desire of the holy Angels. To love God and in God onés neighbor, it is necessary to be cleansed of the bestial desire. The Holy Spirit performs the cleansing in a person who expresses by his life the will for cleansing. Properly, in the moral sense, the heart is the desire and the other soulful powers, not the bodily organ–the heart. The powers are concentrated in this organ–and the name has been transferred by common usage from the organ to the assembly of powers. In contrast to the sensation of carnal people, spiritual men, having smelled the stench of evil pretending to be good, immediately feel an aversion to the book emitting this stench. To the elder Isaiah–a monk who practiced silence in the Nikiforovskaya Hermitage, advanced in mental prayer and deemed worthy of grace-filled overshadowing–a passage from Imitation was read. The elder immediately penetrated the meaning of the book. He laughed and exclaimed: «Oh! This is written from conceit. There is nothing true here! It's all contrived! However spiritual states appeared to Thomas and however he imagined them, not knowing them by experience, so he described them.» Deception, as a misfortune, presents a sorrowful spectacle; as an absurdity, it is a ridiculous spectacle. The well-known Archimandrite Theophan of the Kirillo-Novoezersky Monastery, known for his strict life, who engaged in simplicity of heart almost exclusively in bodily asceticism and had a very moderate understanding of the soulful endeavor, initially suggested the reading of the book Imitation to persons who consulted with him and were under his guidance; a few years before his death, he began to forbid its reading, saying with holy simplicity: «Previously I recognized this book as soul-profiting, but God revealed to me that it is soul-harming.» Of the same opinion about Imitation was the well-known hieroschemamonk Leonid, renowned for his active monastic experience, who laid the foundation for moral well-being in the Optina Hermitage. All the mentioned ascetics were personally known to me. – A certain landowner, raised in the spirit of Orthodoxy, intimately acquainted with the so-called high society, that is, the world in its upper layers, once saw the book Imitation in his daughter's hands. He forbade her to read the book, saying: «I do not want you to follow fashion and coquette before God.» The most accurate assessment of the book. Disciple: Are there still other types of deception? Elder: All particular types of self-delusion and delusion by demons belong to the two main types mentioned above and originate either from incorrect action of the mind or from incorrect action of the heart. The action of «conceit» is especially extensive. Not without reason, the soulful disposition of those monks who, having rejected the practice of the Jesus Prayer and mental activity in general, content themselves with only external prayer–that is, unfailing participation in church services and unfailing fulfillment of the cell rule, consisting exclusively of oral and vocal psalmody and prayer–is attributed to a state of self-delusion and deception. They cannot avoid «conceit,» as the mentioned elder Basil explains in the preface to the book of St. Gregory of Sinai, referring primarily to the writings of the Venerable Gregory and St. Symeon the New Theologian. The sign of crept-in «conceit» is revealed in ascetics when they think of themselves that they lead an attentive life, often out of pride despise others, speak ill of them, consider themselves worthy, in their opinion, to be shepherds of sheep and their guides, resembling a blind man undertaking to show the way to other blind men. Oral and vocal prayer is fruitful only when it is combined with attention, which is encountered very rarely, because we learn attention primarily through the practice of the Jesus Prayer. On the Jesus Prayer Section III. On the Practice of the Jesus Prayer Disciple: Explain the correct method of practicing the Jesus Prayer. Elder: The correct practice of the Jesus Prayer flows naturally from correct concepts about God, about the all-holy name of the Lord Jesus, and about man's relationship to God. God is an infinitely great, all-perfect Being, the Creator and Re-creator of mankind, the absolute Sovereign over humans, over Angels, over demons, over all creation visible and invisible. This concept of God teaches us that we must stand before God in prayer with the deepest reverence, in the greatest fear and trembling, directing all our attention towards Him, concentrating in this attention all the powers of the mind, heart, and soul, rejecting distraction and fantasy as a violation of attention and reverence, as a violation of the correctness in standing before God–a correctness urgently required by the majesty of God ( John 4:23–24 ; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:29–30 ; Luke 10:27). St. Isaac the Syrian said excellently: «When you fall down before God in prayer, be, in your thought, like an ant, like earthly reptiles, like a little worm, like a lisping infant. Do not say anything knowledgeable before Him; approach God with an infantile way of thinking.» Those who have acquired true prayer feel an inexpressible poverty of spirit when they stand before God, glorifying Him, confessing to Him, casting their supplications before Him. They feel themselves as if annihilated, as if non-existent. This is natural! When the one praying feels abundantly the presence of God, the presence of Self-Life, Life immeasurable and incomprehensible, then his own life appears to him as the tiniest drop compared to the boundless ocean. Into such a state came the righteous and much-suffering Job, having reached the highest spiritual progress. He felt himself «melted away» ( Job 42:6 ), as snow melts and disappears when the rays of the scorching sun fall upon it. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ is Divine; the power and action of this name are Divine; they are almighty and salvific; they are above our understanding, inaccessible to it. With faith, hope, and zeal, combined with great reverence and fear, let us perform the great work of God, given by God: let us practice prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. «The unceasing invocation of the name of God,» says St. Barsanuphius the Great, «is a medicine that kills not only the passions but their very action. Just as a doctor applies medicinal substances or plasters to the wound of a sufferer, and they act, while the patient does not know how this happens: so exactly the name of God, when invoked, kills all the passions, although we do not know how this is accomplished.» Our usual state, the state of all humanity, is a state of fall, delusion [ prelest ], and perdition. Acknowledging and, to the extent of our awareness, feeling this state, let us prayerfully cry out from it, cry out in contrition of spirit, cry out with weeping and lamentation, cry out for mercy. Let us renounce all spiritual enjoyment, all lofty states of prayer, as unworthy of them and incapable of them. It is impossible to sing «the Lord's song in a foreign land"–in a heart possessed by passions. If we hear an invitation to sing it, then let us know for certain that this invitation is made by «those who have taken us captive.» «By the rivers of Babylon» one can and should only weep. ( Psalm 137:1, 3–4 ) Such is the general instruction for practicing the Jesus Prayer, drawn from Holy Scripture and the writings of the Holy Fathers, and from very few conversations with true pray-ers. Among the particular instructions, primarily for beginners, I find it useful to mention the following: St. John Climacus advises enclosing the mind in the words of the prayer, and however many times it wanders from the words, to bring it back again. This mechanism is especially useful and convenient. When the mind is thus attentive, then the heart will also enter into sympathy with the mind through compunction–the prayer will be performed jointly by the mind and heart. The words of the prayer should be pronounced very unhurriedly, even drawn out, so that the mind has the opportunity to be enclosed in the words. Comforting and instructing cenobitic monks engaged in monastic obediences, encouraging them to zeal and diligence in the prayerful endeavor, Climacus says: «God does not require prayer completely free from distraction from monks occupied with obediences. Do not be discouraged when you are robbed by distraction! Be of good cheer, and constantly compel your mind to return to itself. Perfect freedom from distraction is the property of Angels.» «You who are enslaved by passions! Let us pray to the Lord constantly, unceasingly, because all the passionless passed» by such prayer «from a passionate state to a state of passionlessness. If you untiringly accustom your mind not to wander away» from the words of the prayer: «then it will be with you even during your meal. But if you have allowed it to wander everywhere unhindered, then it will never be able to remain with you. The great doer of great and perfect prayer said: 'I would rather speak five words with my understanding... than ten thousand words in an unknown tongué (1Corinthians 14:19). 'Such prayer'"–the grace-filled prayer of the mind in the heart, devoid of soaring–"is not characteristic of infants, and therefore we, as infants, caring about the quality of prayer"–about attention through enclosing the mind in the words–"will pray very much. Quantity serves as the cause of quality. The Lord gives pure prayer to the one who prays without laziness, much and constantly with his prayer, which is defiled by distraction.» Novice monks need a long time for learning prayer. It is impossible, soon after entering the monastery or beginning the endeavor, to attain this supreme virtue. Both time and gradualness in the endeavor are needed, so that the ascetic matures for prayer in all respects. Just as a flower and fruit grow on a stem or tree, which themselves must first be sown and grow: so prayer grows on other virtues, and cannot appear otherwise than on them. A monk will not quickly manage his mind; he will not quickly accustom his mind to abide in the words of prayer, as if in confinement and prison. Distracted by the attachments, impressions, memories, and cares that have become habitual to him, the mind of the beginner incessantly breaks the salvific bonds for him, leaves the narrow path, and is carried away to the broad one: it loves to wander freely under heaven, in the land of delusions, with the spirits cast down from heaven–to wander without purpose, unreasonably, harmfully for itself. The passions–these moral ailments of man–serve as the fundamental cause of distraction during prayer. Corresponding to the weakening of the passions, distraction decreases. The passions are restrained and mortified little by little by true obedience and the self-denial and humility that flow from true obedience. Obedience, self-denial, and humility are the virtues upon which progress in prayer is built. Non-soaring [ neparnost' ], accessible to man, is granted by God in due time to such a practitioner of prayer who, by constancy and zeal in the endeavor, proves the sincerity of his desire to acquire prayer. The Hieromonk Dorotheus, our compatriot, a great instructor in the spiritual endeavor, approaching in this merit to St. Isaac the Syrian, advises one learning the Jesus Prayer to first pronounce it aloud. He says that vocal prayer of itself passes into mental prayer. «From much vocal prayer,» says the hieromonk, «flows mental prayer, and from mental prayer appears heartfelt prayer. The Jesus Prayer should be pronounced not in a loud voice, but quietly, audibly to oneself alone.» During a particular attack of distraction, sorrow, despondency, or laziness, it is very useful to perform the Jesus Prayer aloud: by the vocal Jesus Prayer the soul is little by little aroused from the heavy moral sleep into which sorrow and despondency usually plunge it. It is very useful to perform the Jesus Prayer aloud during an intensified assault of thoughts and fantasies of carnal desire and anger, when from their action the blood becomes heated and boils, peace and tranquility are taken from the heart, when the mind is shaken, weakened, as if overthrown and bound by a multitude of base thoughts and fantasies: the aerial princes of wickedness, whose presence is not revealed to the bodily eyes but is known to the soul by the action they produce on it, hearing the fearsome name of the Lord Jesus, will become perplexed and confused, will be terrified, and will not delay in retreating from the soul. The method proposed by the hieromonk is very simple and convenient. It must be combined with the mechanism of St. John Climacus, that is, to pronounce the Jesus Prayer aloud, audibly to oneself alone, without haste, and enclosing the mind in the words of the prayer; the enclosing of the mind in the words of the prayer is enjoined by the hieromonk himself. The mechanism of St. John Climacus must necessarily be observed also with the method set forth by St. Nil Sorsky in the 2nd Word of his Tradition or Skete Rule . St. Nil borrowed his method from the Greek Fathers, Symeon the New Theologian and Gregory of Sinai, and somewhat simplified it. St. Nil says: «What these saints said about restraining the breath, that is, not to breathe frequently, experience will soon teach that this is very useful for collecting the mind.» Some, not understanding this mechanism, attach excessive importance to it, restrain their breath immoderately, and thereby damage their lungs, simultaneously causing harm to the soul by imparting to it an incorrect concept. All heated and overly strained actions serve as an obstacle to progress in prayer, which develops solely on the basis of a peaceful, quiet, reverent disposition of both soul and body. «All that is immoderate is from demons,» said Pimen the Great. For one beginning to learn the Jesus Prayer, a daily cell rule consisting of a certain number of full prostrations and waist bows, according to onés strength, greatly assists in learning it. The bows are made unhurriedly, with a feeling of repentance, and with each bow the Jesus Prayer is pronounced. An example of this prayer can be seen in the «Sermon on Faith» by St. Symeon the New Theologian. Describing the daily evening prayerful endeavor of the blessed youth George, St. Symeon says: «He thought that he was standing before the Lord Himself, and falls down at His most pure feet; he entreated the Lord with tears that the Lord would have mercy on him. Praying, he stood motionless, like a pillar, not allowing himself any movement either with his feet or with any other part of his body, not allowing his eyes to curiously turn to the sides: he stood with great fear and trembling, not permitting himself to drowse, despondency, or laziness.» The number of bows, at first, can be limited to twelve. In accordance with onés strength and the convenience afforded by circumstances, this number can constantly increase. When multiplying the number of bows, one must strictly observe that the quality of the prayerful endeavor is preserved, so that we are not carried away into a fruitless, harmful quantity, due to carnal excitement. From the bows, the body warms up and becomes somewhat fatigued: such a state of the body aids attention and compunction. Let us beware, let us beware, lest this state turn into carnal excitement, devoid of spiritual sensations, developing the sensation of fallen nature. Quantity, so useful when the disposition and goal are correct, can be very harmful when it leads to carnal excitement. Carnal excitement is recognized by its fruits; by them it differs from spiritual warmth. The fruits of carnal excitement are self-conceit, self-reliance, pride, exaltation–in other words, pride in its various forms, to which delusion easily attaches itself. The fruits of spiritual warmth are repentance, humility, weeping, tears. The rule with bows is most conveniently performed when retiring to sleep: at this time, after the day's cares are finished, the rule can be performed more prolonged and concentrated. But also in the morning, and during the day, it is useful, especially for the young, to make a moderate number of bows–from 12 to 20 bows. These bows support the prayerful disposition and the crucifixion of the flesh, support and increase zeal for the prayerful endeavor. The advice I have proposed, I believe, is sufficient for a beginner wishing to learn the Jesus Prayer: «Prayer,» said St. Meletius the Confessor, «does not require a teacher, but diligence, but earnestness and special zeal–and God becomes its teacher.» The Holy Fathers, having written many works on prayer to provide the practitioner with a correct concept of it and a reliable guide to its practice, encourage and urge one to enter into the endeavor itself to obtain substantial knowledge, without which teaching by word, even if drawn from experiences, is dead, obscure, incomprehensible, as needing explanation and vivification by experiences. Conversely, one who diligently occupies himself with prayer and has already made progress in it must often turn to the writings of the Holy Fathers on prayer, use them to verify and direct himself, remembering that even the great Paul, although he had the testimony of the Spirit, higher than all testimonies, for his gospel, went to Jerusalem and presented the gospel preached by him among the Gentiles to the Apostles there for examination–"lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain» (Galatians 2:2), he says. Disciple: Which books of the Holy Fathers should one wishing to practice the Jesus Prayer under the guidance of God-inspired teaching read? Elder: This depends on the kind of life which the practitioner of prayer leads. Examine the works of Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos on silence and prayer–and you will see that they were written for monks dwelling in seclusion or leading an eremitic life, similar to the life of monks in the Egyptian Skete, where each elder lived in a separate cell, having one, two, and no more than three disciples. Those leading such a life the Holy Fathers call hesychasts [ bezmolvniki ]. A hesychast disposes of himself and his time according to his own discretion or according to a custom borrowed from his instructors, whereas monks in cenobitic monasteries are obliged to participate in communal worship and engage in monastic obediences, having neither the right nor the ability to dispose of themselves and their time arbitrarily; moreover, only those who have progressed in the monastic life, having preliminarily learned it in the cenobium, and deemed worthy of grace-filled overshadowing, are admitted to silence: and therefore the books of the Holy Fathers written for hesychasts are in no way suitable for beginners and generally for monks struggling in cenobitic monasteries. What has been said about the book of the Xanthopouloi must also be said about the books of Gregory of Sinai, Isaac the Syrian, Nil Sorsky, and the Hieromonk Dorotheus. One engaged in prayer while occupied with monastic obediences can familiarize himself with these books as well, but not for guidance by them, but solely for knowledge, observing caution so that they do not lead him untimely into solitude and seclusion or to an endeavor unsuitable for him. Often both happen, to the greatest harm of the one deceived by unreasonable zeal. Children and adolescents, when, due to their lack of understanding and frivolity, attempt to lift a weight exceeding their strength, they strain themselves, often ruining themselves completely: so also those not matured in spiritual age undergo great disasters from a spiritual endeavor not corresponding to their disposition, often falling into an irreparable disorder. The writings of Saints Hesychius, Philotheus, and Theoliptus, placed in the second part of the Philokalia , are very useful for both cenobitic and secluded monks. Especially useful are the prefaces of the Schema-monk Basil: in them is set forth the teaching on the prayer of repentance, a teaching so beneficial, so necessary for our time. Many edifying instructions on prayer are found in the book of Barsanuphius the Great; it should be noted that in the first half of it are contained answers to hesychasts, and in the second, from the 220th answer, to monks struggling in the cenobium. I implore you, I earnestly beseech you to pay all due attention to the formidable prohibition of the Holy Fathers. I know that some well-intentioned people, who in reality are fallen and, due to an unfortunate habit, cannot refrain from sin, attempt to practice the prayer of the heart. Can there be anything more reckless, more ignorant, more audacious than this undertaking? The prayer of repentance is given to all without exception; it is given both to those possessed by passions and to those who fall into sin against their will. They have every right to cry out to the Lord for salvation; but the entrance into the heart for sacred prayer is forbidden to them: it is granted exclusively to the mysterious high priest, lawfully ordained by Divine grace. Understand, understand, that this entrance is opened solely by the finger of God; it is opened when a person not only ceases from active sin but also receives from God's right hand the power to resist passionate thoughts, not to be carried away or delighted by them. Heartfelt purity is built little by little: to this purity, God reveals Himself «gradually» and «spiritually.» Gradually! Because both the diminishing of passions and the growth of virtues do not happen suddenly; both require significant time. Here is my testament to you: do not seek the place of the heart. Do not strain in vain to explain to yourself what the place of the heart means: it is satisfactorily explained only by experience. If God wills to give you this knowledge, He will give it in His own time–and in a way that a carnal man cannot even imagine. Occupy yourself exclusively and with all diligence with the prayer of repentance; strive through prayer to bring forth repentance: you will be assured of the success of your podvig when you feel in yourself poverty of spirit, tenderness, and weeping. Such progress in prayer I desire for both myself and you. The attainment of supernatural, grace-filled states has always been a rarity. Pimen the Great, a monk of the Egyptian Skete, renowned for the high spiritual progress of its monks, who lived in the 5th century, in which monasticism especially flourished, used to say: «Many among us speak about perfection, but only one or two have actually attained it.» Saint John Climacus, an ascetic writer of the 6th century, testifies that in his time the vessels of Divine grace had greatly diminished compared to previous times; the saint sees the reason for this in a change in the spirit of human society, which has lost its simplicity and become infected with cunning. Saint Gregory of Sinai, a writer of the 14th century, ventured to say that in his time there were no grace-filled men at all, so rare had they become; Sinai attributes this to the extraordinary development of vices, resulting from multiplied temptations. All the more so in our time must the practitioner of prayer observe the greatest caution. We have no God-inspired instructors! Chastity, simplicity, and evangelical love have departed from the face of the earth. Temptations and vices have multiplied infinitely! The world is engulfed in depravity! Over human society, as an all-powerful tyrant, reigns criminal love in its diverse forms! It is enough, more than enough, if we are deemed worthy to offer to God the one, essential podvig needed for our salvation–repentance. Disciple: Is life in a monastery, amidst a more or less numerous brotherhood and the noise inevitable in a crowd, conducive to learning the Jesus Prayer? Is not a life of silence more suitable for this? Elder: Life in a monastery, especially a cenobitic one, aids the novice in the successful and firm learning of prayer, provided he lives correctly. For one living correctly in a community, occasions for obedience and humility are presented unceasingly, and these virtues, more than all others, prepare and attune the soul for true prayer. «From obedience comes humility,» said the Fathers. Humility is born of obedience and is sustained by obedience, just as the burning of a lamp is sustained by the oil added to it. Through humility, the «peace of God» enters the soul. The peace of God is the spiritual place of God, the spiritual heaven; humans who have entered this heaven become like the angels and, like the angels, sing ceaselessly in their hearts a spiritual song to God–that is, they offer pure, holy prayer, which in those who have progressed is truly a song and a song of songs. For this reason, obedience, which provides the priceless treasure of humility, has been unanimously recognized by the Fathers as the fundamental monastic virtue, as the door that lawfully and correctly leads into noetic and heartfelt prayer, or, what is the same, into true sacred silence. In the days of my own novicehood, a certain elder, in a heartfelt conversation, told me: «In worldly life, due to the simplicity of past times and the pious disposition that then prevailed, I learned about the Jesus Prayer, practiced it, and at times felt an extraordinary change in myself and consolation. Upon entering a monastery, I continued to practice it, guided by the reading of the Patristic books and the instructions of some monks who seemed to have an understanding of it... Once, I was placing a dish of food on the last table, where the novices sat, and in my thought I said: 'Accept from me, servants of God, this humble service.' Suddenly, such consolation poured into my breast that I even staggered; the consolation lasted for many days, about a month. Another time, I happened to go into the prosphora bakery; I don't know why, by some inclination, I bowed very low to the brothers laboring there–and suddenly, prayer acted within me so powerfully that I hurried to my cell and lay down on my bed due to the weakness produced in my whole body by the action of prayer.» Monastic community life, as I have already said, serves as a great aid for learning the Jesus Prayer in its first stages, providing the novice with constant occasions for humility... Let your prayer be founded on obedience and humility! These virtues are the only solid foundation for the podvig of prayer. Silence is useful for those who have progressed, who have understood the inner warfare, who have been strengthened in evangelical morality by a fundamental habit of it, who have rejected attachments: all this must be acquired beforehand in the community. For those who enter into silence without preliminary, satisfactory training in a monastery, silence brings the greatest harm: it deprives them of progress, intensifies their passions, becomes a cause of pride, self-deception, and demonic delusion. «Silence destroys the inexperienced,» said St. John Climacus. «To true silence,» remarks the same saint, «few are capable: those who have acquired Divine consolation as an encouragement for their labors and Divine assistance as a help in their warfare.» Disciple: You said before that one not purified from the passions is incapable of tasting Divine grace, but now you mentioned grace-filled prayerful consolation in a layman and a novice. Here I see a contradiction. Elder: Taught by Holy Scripture and the writings of the Holy Fathers, we believe and confess that Divine grace operates now, as before, in the Orthodox Church, even though it finds few vessels worthy of it... At the same time, again based on Divine Scripture and the Patristic writings, we affirm that the mind and heart, not purified from the passions by repentance, are incapable of becoming partakers of Divine grace–we affirm that those who invent for themselves grace-filled visions and grace-filled sensations, flattering and deceiving themselves with them, fall into self-delusion and demonic prelest. Undoubtingly believing in the existence of grace-filled action, we must just as undoubtingly believe in the unworthiness and incapacity of man, in his passionate state, to receive God's grace. As for the mentioned novice, it is clear from the very incidents described with him that he did not at all expect such prayerful action, which suddenly opened within him; he did not even understand that it existed. This is a structure of God's providence, the comprehension of which is inaccessible to us. Disciple: I have learned that some elders, very advanced in the Jesus Prayer, taught novices directly the noetic, even the heartfelt prayer. Elder: I know this. Such particular cases should not be taken as a general rule, nor should one, based on them, neglect the tradition of the Church, that is, the teaching of the Holy Fathers which the Church has accepted as a universal guide... From experience, I have become convinced that those who have received grace-filled prayer quickly and not by the common path, by God's special dispensation, are often quick to impart to novices knowledge about prayer which the novices cannot possibly understand correctly, which they understand perversely, and which damages them. On the contrary, those who have received the gift of prayer after a prolonged struggle with the passions, while cleansing themselves through repentance and forming their morality according to the evangelical commandments, impart prayer with great caution, gradualness, and correctness. I have seen such a child-elder, abundantly overshadowed by Divine grace... An acquaintance of his once told this elder: «Father! Your spiritual structure is like a two-story house, whose upper floor is excellently finished, but the lower one is only a rough frame, making access to the upper floor very difficult.» In monasteries, they say of such advanced elders, «He is holy, but unskilled,» and caution is observed in consultations with them... «Know,» exclaims St. Symeon the New Theologian, «that in our times many false teachers and deceivers have appeared!» Such was the state of Christianity and monasticism eight centuries before us. What can be said about the present state? Almost what St. Ephraim the Syrian said about the plight of those who would seek the living word of God in the last times. «They will,» prophesies the Saint, «traverse the land from east to west and from north to south, seeking such a word–and will not find it.» St. John Cassian the Roman relates that in the Egyptian monasteries of his time, where monasticism flourished especially and the traditions of the spirit-bearing Fathers were observed with particular care and precision, they would never allow a monk who had not been correctly trained in monasticism through obedience to assume the duty of an instructor and superior, even if this monk was of a very exalted life, even adorned with gifts of grace. The Egyptian Fathers recognized the gift of guiding brethren to salvation as the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit. One not properly instructed in the science of monasticism, they asserted, cannot correctly impart it. Some are raptured by Divine grace from the land of passions and transported to the land of passionlessness–thus spared the heavy labor and tribulations experienced by all who sail across the stormy, vast, deep sea that separates one country from another. They can recount in detail and faithfully about the land of passionlessness, but they cannot give a proper account of the voyage across the sea, a voyage they have not experienced firsthand. The great instructor of monastics, St. Isaac the Syrian , after explaining that some, by God's special dispensation, quickly receive Divine grace and sanctification, ventured to add that, in his opinion, he who has not formed himself by the fulfillment of the commandments and has not walked the path trod by the Apostles, «is not worthy to be called a saint.» «But he who has conquered the passions through the fulfillment of commandments and a life of many labors in good podvig, let him know that he has acquired the health of his soul lawfully.» «The order of tradition is this: patience with self-compulsion struggles against the passions to acquire purity. If the passions are conquered, then the soul acquires purity. True purity grants the mind boldness during prayer.» In a letter to St. Symeon the Wonderworker , St. Isaac says: «You write that purity of heart has begun in you and that the memory of God» – the noetic Jesus Prayer – «is very enkindled in your heart, warming and inflaming it. If this is true, then it is a great thing; but I would not have wanted you to write this to me: because there is no order in it.» «If you want your heart to be a receptacle of the mysteries of the new age, first enrich yourself with bodily podvig, fasting, vigil, service to the brethren, obedience, patience, the overthrowing of thoughts, and everything else of that kind. Bind your mind to the reading and study of the Scriptures; depict the commandments before your eyes, and pay the debt to the passions, being defeated and defeating; accustom yourself to unceasing prayer and supplication, and by constant exercise in them, tear out from the heart every image and likeness with which sin has imprinted you in your former life.» «You know that evil entered us through the transgression of the commandments: from this it is evident that health is restored by the fulfillment of the commandments. Without the doing of the commandments, we should not even desire the purification of the soul or hope to obtain it when we do not walk the path that leads to the soul's purification. Do not say that God can, without the doing of commandments, by grace grant the purification of the soul: these are the judgments of God, and the Church forbids asking for such a miracle to be performed upon us. The Jews, returning from Babylon to Jerusalem, walked the ordinary way and for the time determined for such a journey; having completed the journey, they reached their holy city and saw the miracles of the Lord. But the prophet Ezekiel was supernaturally raptured by a spiritual action, set in Jerusalem, and by Divine revelation became a beholder of the future renewal. In the image of this, it is accomplished also concerning the purity of the soul. Some enter into the purity of the soul by the path laid out for all, the lawful path: by the keeping of the commandments in a life of many labors, shedding their blood. Others, however, are made worthy of purity by the gift of grace. It is wondrous that it is not permitted to ask in prayer for what is given to us by grace, leaving aside the active life according to the commandments.» «For the weak, who need to be nourished with the milk of the commandments, life with many is beneficial, so that he may both be instructed and be restrained, so that he may be buffeted by many temptations, fall and rise again, and acquire the health of his soul. There is no infant who has not been nourished with milk–and he cannot be a true monk who has not been brought up with the milk of the commandments, fulfilling them with effort, conquering passions, and thus being made worthy of purity.» It is possible to impart noetic and heartfelt prayer even to a novice and a youth, if he is capable and prepared for it. Such individuals were very rare even in former times, preceding the era of general moral corruption. I was a witness that an elder, who had acquired grace-filled prayer and spiritual discernment, gave advice about noetic and heartfelt prayer to a certain novice who had preserved his virginity, who had been prepared from childhood to receive the mystical teaching on prayer through the study of Christianity and monasticism, and who had already felt the action of prayer within himself. The elder explained the arousal of prayerful action in the youth by his virginity. An entirely different rule applies to both young people and people of mature years, who led a dissipated life before entering the monastery, with meager, superficial concepts of Christianity, and who had acquired various attachments, especially those who have defiled their chastity through fornication. The sin of fornication has this property, that it joins two bodies, albeit unlawfully, into one body ( 1Cor. 6:16 ): for this reason, although it is forgiven immediately after repentance and its confession, on the indispensable condition that the repentant forsakes it; nevertheless, the purification and sobering of the body and soul from the sin of fornication requires a prolonged time, so that the connection and union established between the bodies, implanted in the heart, infecting the soul, may grow old and be destroyed. For the destruction of this unfortunate assimilation, the Church appoints very significant periods of penance for those who have fallen into fornication and adultery, after which it admits them to communion of the all-holy Body and Blood of Christ. In exactly the same way, for all who have led a dissipated life, for those stamped with various attachments, especially for those who have been cast into the abyss of fornication, for those who have acquired a habit of it, time and more time is needed to pre-purify themselves through repentance, to erase from themselves the impressions of the world and its temptations, to sober up from sin, to form their morality according to the commandments of the Gospel, and thus make themselves capable of grace-filled, noetic, and heartfelt prayer. «Let everyone judge his own soul,» says St. Macarius the Great , «examining and investigating carefully what it feels attached to, and if he sees that the heart is at variance with the laws of God, let him strive with all his might to guard both body and soul from corruption, rejecting communion with impure thoughts, if he wishes to bring the soul into the dwelling and the ranks of the pure virgins, according to the vow given» – at baptism and upon entering monasticism – «because the indwelling and walking of God is promised by God only in souls that are completely pure and established in correct love.» «The diligent farmer first renews the soil and pulls out the weeds from it, and only then sows it with seeds: so too, he who expects God to sow his soul with the seeds of grace must first cleanse the field of the soul, so that the seed which the Holy Spirit will later cast upon this field may bear perfect and abundant fruit. If this is not done first of all, and if a person does not cleanse himself from all defilement of flesh and spirit, he will remain flesh and blood, and far removed from life in God.» «He who forces himself exclusively and with all his strength to prayer, but does not labor to acquire humility, love, meekness, and the whole host of other virtues, does not forcibly implant them in himself, can only reach the point where 'sometimes,' at his request, Divine grace touches him, because God, in His natural goodness, lovingly grants petitioners what they want. But if the recipient does not train himself in the other virtues we mentioned, and does not acquire a habit in them, then he either loses the grace received, or, being exalted, falls into pride, or, remaining at the lower stage he has ascended, does not progress further and does not grow. The throne and rest, so to speak, for the Holy Spirit are humility, love, meekness and, consequently, all the holy commandments of Christ. Therefore, he who would wish, gathering and collecting in himself all the virtues equally and without exception, through careful increase of them to reach perfection, let him first force himself, as we have already said, and constantly struggling against the stubborn heart, let him strive to present it as submissive and pleasing to God. He who has first used such force upon himself, and has returned everything in the soul that opposes God, like a tamed wild beast, into submission to God's commands, into obedience to the direction of true, holy teaching, having thus well-ordered his soul, if he then prays to God and asks God that God would grant success to his beginnings, will receive all that he asks for together; the most loving God will provide him with everything in abundance, so that the gift of prayer in him may grow and flourish, being sweetened by the Holy Spirit.» «However, know that with much labor and in the sweat of your face you will receive your lost treasure: because the effortless acquisition of good is not in accordance with your benefit. What you obtained without labor, you lost, and surrendered your inheritance to the enemy.» Disciple: When I pray, many fantasies and thoughts appear to my mind, not allowing me to pray purely: can delusion or some other harm arise from this for me? Elder: A multitude of thoughts and fantasies naturally arise from our fallen nature. It is even characteristic of prayer to reveal in the fallen nature the hidden marks of its fall and the impressions produced by voluntary sins. Also, the devil, knowing what a great good prayer is, tries during it to disturb the ascetic with sinful, vain thoughts and fantasies, to turn him away from prayer or to make the prayer fruitless. From amidst the thoughts, fantasies, and sinful sensations, from amidst this enslavement and brick-making of ours, let us all the more fervently cry out and call with prayer to the Lord, like the Israelites, «who groaned... from the labor and cried out. And their cry,» says Scripture, «went up to God because of the labor. And God heard their groaning» ( Ex. 2:23–24 ). The general rule of struggle against sinful beginnings is to reject sin at its very appearance, to kill the mystical Babylonians while they are still infants ( Ps. 137:9 ). «He who struggles rationally,» said St. Nil Sorsky , «repels the mother of the evil mental host, that is, the first touch of wicked thoughts to his mind. He who has repelled this first touch has at once repelled all the subsequent host of wicked thoughts that follow it.» If, however, sin, due to previous enslavement to it and a habit of it, forces itself upon us, then we must not become despondent and fall into laxity and despair; we must heal the invisible defeats through repentance, and remain in the struggle with firmness, courage, and constancy. Sinful and vain thoughts, fantasies, and sensations can undoubtedly harm us when we do not struggle with them, when we delight in them and implant them in ourselves. From voluntary association with sin and from voluntary communion with the rejected spirits, passions are born and strengthened, and delusion can creep into the soul in an unnoticeable manner. But when we resist sinful thoughts, fantasies, and sensations, then the very struggle with them will bring us progress and enrich us with active understanding. A certain elder, advanced in noetic prayer, asked another monk, who also practiced it: «Who taught you prayer?» The monk answered: «The demons.» The elder smiled and said: «What a scandal you have uttered for those who do not know the work! However, tell me, how did the demons teach you prayer?» The monk answered: «I was allowed a severe and prolonged warfare from fierce thoughts, fantasies, and sensations, which gave me no peace day or night. I became exhausted and grew incredibly thin from the heaviness of this unnatural state. Oppressed by the onslaught of the spirits, I resorted to the Jesus Prayer. The warfare reached such a degree that visions began to flicker sensibly in the air before my eyes. I constantly felt as if my throat were tied with a rope. Then, during the very action of the warfare, I began to feel that the prayer was strengthening and hope was being renewed in my heart. When the warfare, becoming easier and easier, finally subsided completely–suddenly prayer appeared in my heart by itself.» Let us pray constantly, patiently, persistently. God, in His time, will give grace-filled, pure prayer to him who prays without laziness and constantly with his impure prayer, who does not abandon the prayerful podvig faint-heartedly when prayer does not yield to him for a long time. We see an example of success in persistent Jesus Prayer in the Gospel. When the Lord was leaving Jericho accompanied by His disciples and a multitude of people, the blind Bartimaeus, sitting by the way and begging for alms, learning that the Lord was passing by, began to cry out: «Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!» They tried to silence him, but he cried out all the more. The consequence of the unceasing cry was the healing of the blind man by the Lord ( Mk. 10:46–52 ). So let us also cry out, despite the thoughts, fantasies, and sinful sensations arising from our fallen nature and brought by the devil to hinder our prayerful cry–and we will undoubtedly receive mercy. Disciple: What are the true fruits of the Jesus Prayer, by which a novice could know that he is praying correctly? Elder: The initial fruits of prayer are attention and tenderness. These fruits appear before all others from any correctly performed prayer, but especially from the Jesus Prayer, the exercise of which is higher than psalmody and other prayer rules. From attention, tenderness is born, and from tenderness, attention is increased. They intensify, giving birth to one another; they give depth to prayer, gradually enlivening the heart; they give it purity, eliminating distraction and fantasy. Like true prayer itself, both attention and tenderness are gifts of God. As we prove our desire to acquire prayer by forcing ourselves to it, so we prove our desire to acquire attention and tenderness by forcing ourselves to them. Further, a fruit of prayer is the gradually expanding vision of onés sins and onés sinfulness, whereby tenderness is intensified and turns into weeping. Weeping is called abundant tenderness, combined with the sorrow of a contrite and humble heart, acting from the depths of the heart and enveloping the soul. Then come sensations of the presence of God, a lively remembrance of death, the fear of judgment and condemnation. All these fruits of prayer are accompanied by weeping and, in their time, are overshadowed by a subtle, holy spiritual sensation of the fear of God. The fear of God cannot be likened to any sensation of a carnal, even a soulful man. The fear of God is a completely new sensation. The fear of God is an action of the Holy Spirit. From tasting this wondrous action, the passions begin to melt away–the mind and heart begin to be drawn to the unceasing exercise of prayer. After some progress, comes a sensation of peace, humility, love for God and neighbors without distinction of good from evil, patience of sorrows, as God's permissions and healings, which our sinfulness necessarily needs. The love for God and neighbors, appearing gradually from the fear of God, is fully spiritual, ineffably holy, subtle, humble, distinguished by an infinite distinction from human love in its ordinary state; it cannot be compared with any love moving in the fallen nature, no matter how correct and sacred this natural love might be. The natural law, acting in time, is approved; but the eternal law, the spiritual law, is as much higher than it as the Holy Spirit of God is higher than the human spirit. I refrain from speaking about the further fruits and consequences of praying with the most holy name of the Lord Jesus: let blessed experience teach them both me and others. These consequences and fruits are described in detail in the Philokalia , that excellent, God-inspired guide to learning noetic prayer for advanced monks capable of entering the harbor of sacred silence and passionlessness. Acknowledging both myself and you as novices in the spiritual podvig, I have primarily in mind, while expounding correct concepts about the exercise of the Jesus Prayer, the needs of novices, the needs of the majority. «Acquire weeping,» said the Fathers, «and it will teach you everything.» Let us weep and constantly weep before God: what is of God cannot come otherwise than by God's good pleasure–and it comes in a spiritual character, in a new character, in such a character of which we cannot form any concept in our carnal, soulful, old, and passionate state. Worthy of special note is the opinion of oneself which is instilled in the practitioner by the correct practice of the Jesus Prayer. Hieromonk Seraphim of Sarov attained the highest proficiency in it. Once, the superior sent a monk to him, whom he had blessed to begin the hermit's life, so that Father Seraphim might instruct this monk in hermitage to the extent that he himself knew this most arduous form of monastic life. Father Seraphim, receiving the monk very kindly, replied: «I myself know nothing.» At this, he repeated to the monk the words of the Savior about humility ( Matt. 11:29 ) and their explanation by St. John Climacus through the action of the heartfelt Jesus Prayer. I was told the following about a certain practitioner of prayer. He was invited by benefactors of the monastery to the provincial capital. While visiting them, the monk was constantly at a loss, not knowing what to talk to them about. One day he was at the home of a very pious lover of Christ. This man asked the monk: «Why are there no demoniacs nowadays?» – «What do you mean, there are none?» replied the monk, «There are many.» – «Well, where are they then?» retorted the lover of Christ. The monk answered: «First of all, here–I am one.» «Come now! What are you saying!» exclaimed the host, looking at the monk with a wild smile, in which both bewilderment and horror were expressed. «Be assured...» – the monk started to continue. – «Enough, enough!» – interrupted the host, and began a conversation with others about something else, and the monk fell silent. «The word of the cross and self-denial is foolishness» ( 1Cor. 1:18 ) to those who do not understand their action and power. Who, not knowing the prayerful weeping and the mysteries it reveals, can understand words coming from the depths of such weeping? He who has attained self-knowledge through spiritual podvig sees himself bound by passions, sees the rejected spirits acting within him and through him. A brother asked Pimen the Great : «How should a hesychast live?» The Great one answered: «I see myself as a man sunk in a swamp up to his neck, with a burden on his neck, and I cry to God: Have mercy on me.» This saint, taught by the deepest, most inconceivable humble-minded weeping, used to say to the brethren living with him: «Believe me: wherever the devil is cast, there I will be cast also.» Let us conclude our conversation about the Jesus Prayer with the remembrance of a perfect monk, of Pimen the Great. Disciple: My heart thirsts to hear more: say something else. Elder: It is very useful for one exercising in prayer to have icons of the Savior and the Mother of God in his cell, of a fairly significant size. From time to time, one can address the icons during prayer, as if to the Lord and the Mother of God themselves present there. The sensation of God's presence in the cell can become habitual. With such a constant sensation, we will remain in the cell with the fear of God, as if constantly under God's gaze. Indeed: we are always in the presence of God, because He is omnipresent–we are always under God's gaze, because He sees all and everything. Glory to the all-merciful Lord, who sees our sinfulness and transgressions, patiently awaits our repentance, and has granted us not only the permission but the commandment to implore Him for mercy. Let us take advantage of God's ineffable mercy to us! Let us accept it with the greatest reverence, with the greatest gratitude! Let us cultivate it for our salvation with the greatest zeal, with the greatest care! Mercy is granted by God in all abundance; but to accept or reject it, to accept it with all onés soul or with duplicity, is left to the free will of each person. «My son! From your youth choose instruction, and until you are old you will find wisdom. Come to her like one who plows and sows, and wait for her good fruits; for in her service you will toil a little, and soon you will eat of her produce» ( Sirach 6:18–19 ). «In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle» ( Eccl. 11:6 ). «Give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name... Seek the Lord and be strengthened; seek His face evermore» ( Ps. 105:1, 4 ). With these words, Holy Scripture teaches us that the podvig of serving God, the podvig of prayer, must be performed with all onés soul, constantly and unceasingly. The external and internal sorrows that must inevitably be encountered on the path of this podvig should be overcome with faith, courage, humility, patience, and long-suffering, healing deviations and lapses with repentance. Both the abandonment of the prayerful podvig and interruptions in it are extremely dangerous. It is better not to begin this podvig than, having begun, to abandon it. The soul of an ascetic who has abandoned his undertaken exercise in the Jesus Prayer can be likened to land that has been tilled and fertilized but subsequently neglected: on such land, weeds grow with extraordinary force, send down deep roots, and acquire particular density. Into a soul that has renounced the blessed union with prayer, has left prayer and been left by prayer, the passions invade like a torrent, flooding it. The passions acquire particular power over such a soul, particular firmness and stability, becoming sealed by the hardness and deadness of the heart, by unbelief. The demons, expelled by prayer, return into the soul; enraged by the preceding expulsion, they return with greater fury and in greater number. «The last state of that person becomes worse than the first» ( Matt. 12:45 ), according to the determination of the Gospel: the state of one subjected to the dominion of passions and demons after being delivered from them through true prayer is incomparably more wretched than the state of one who did not attempt to throw off the sinful yoke, who did not draw the sword of prayer from its scabbard. The harm from interruptions or the periodic abandonment of the prayerful podvig is similar to the harm resulting from complete abandonment; this harm is more significant the longer the interruption. During the «sleep» of the ascetics, that is, during their negligence concerning prayer, «the enemy» comes, invisible to physical eyes, unnoticed by the ascetics who have allowed themselves to be carried away and distracted, and «sows weeds among the wheat» ( Matt. 13:25 ). The sower of the weeds is very experienced, cunning, and full of malice: it is easy for him to sow a most malignant weed, insignificant in appearance and in its beginning, but later enveloping and entangling the entire soul with its numerous offshoots. «He who is not with Me,» said the Savior, «is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters» (Luke 11:23). Prayer does not entrust itself to double-minded, inconstant workers; «She is very harsh to the untaught, and the fickle will not remain with her. She will be to him like a heavy stone of trial, and he will not hesitate to cast her away. Hear, my son, and accept my judgment, and do not reject my counsel: put your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her collar. Offer your shoulder to carry her and do not fret under her bonds. Come to her with all your soul, and keep her ways with all your might. Search out and seek, and she will become known to you; and when you get hold of her, do not let her go. For at last you will find the rest she gives, and she will be changed into a joy for you. Her fetters will become for you a strong protection, and her collars a glorious robe» ( Sirach 6:20–21, 23–29 ). Amen. The Order of Attention for One Living in the World The soul of all exercises in the Lord is "attention." Without "attention," all these exercises are fruitless, dead. He who wishes to be saved must so arrange himself that he can maintain «attention to himself» not only in solitude but also amidst the very distractions into which he is sometimes involuntarily drawn by circumstances. Let the fear of God outweigh all other sensations on the scales of the heart: then it will be easy to preserve «attention to oneself,» both in the silence of onés cell and amid the noise surrounding one on all sides. Prudent moderation in food, by reducing the heat in the blood, greatly contributes to «attention to oneself» ; while the heating of the blood–whether from excessive consumption of food, from strenuous bodily movement, from the inflammation of anger, from the intoxication of vanity, or from other causes–gives rise to a multitude of thoughts and fantasies, in other words, distraction. The Holy Fathers prescribe for one wishing «to attend to himself» first of all moderate, even, and constant abstinence in food. Upon waking–in the image of the awaited awakening of all people from the dead–direct your thoughts to God, offer to God the first fruits of the thoughts of your mind, which has not yet taken upon itself any vain impressions. With stillness, very carefully, having attended to all the necessary bodily needs of one risen from sleep, read your customary prayer rule, caring not so much about the quantity of the prayers as about their quality, that is, that they be performed with "attention," and, because of this "attention," that the heart be sanctified and enlivened by prayerful tenderness and consolation. After the prayer rule, again striving with all your might "for attention," read the New Testament, and especially the Gospels. During this reading, carefully note all the testaments and commandments of Christ, so that by them you may direct your activity, both visible and invisible. The quantity of reading is determined by onés strength and circumstances. One must not overburden the mind with excessive reading of prayers and Scripture, nor should one neglect onés duties for immoderate exercise in prayer and reading. Just as excessive eating disorders and weakens the stomach, so also the immoderate consumption of spiritual food weakens the mind, produces in it an aversion to pious exercises, and brings upon it despondency. For the novice, the Holy Fathers propose frequent but short prayers. When the mind has grown in spiritual age, strengthened and matured, then it will be capable of praying unceasingly. The words of the Holy Apostle Paul apply to Christians who have reached perfect age in the Lord: «I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling» (1 Timothy 2:8), that is, without passion and without any distraction or soaring. What is proper for a man is not yet proper for an infant. Having been illumined through prayer and reading by the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ, let a man go out to the tasks of the day's field, taking heed that in all his deeds and words, in his entire being, the all-holy will of God, revealed and explained to men in the Gospel commandments, may reign and act. If free minutes present themselves during the day, use them for reading "with attention" some selected prayers, or some selected passages from Scripture, and with them once more strengthen the soul's powers, which are depleted by activity amid the vain world. If these golden minutes do not appear, one must lament them as the loss of a treasure. What was lost today, one must not lose the next day: for our heart readily gives itself over to negligence and forgetfulness, from which is born gloomy ignorance, so ruinous in the work of God, in the work of human salvation. If you happen to say or do anything contrary to God's commandments, then immediately heal the transgression with repentance, and through sincere repentance return to the path of God, from which you strayed by violating God's will. Do not linger off the path of God! – To incoming sinful thoughts, fantasies, and sensations, oppose with faith and humility the Gospel commandments, saying with the holy patriarch Joseph: «How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?» ( Genesis 39:9 ). He who attends to himself must renounce all fantasizing in general, however alluring and plausible it may seem: all fantasizing is a wandering of the mind outside the truth, in the land of non-existent and unrealizable phantoms, which flatter the mind and deceive it. The consequences of fantasizing are: the loss of "attention" to oneself, distraction of the mind, and hardness of heart during prayer; from this follows spiritual disorder. In the evening, as you prepare for sleep–which, in relation to the life of that day, is death–examine your actions throughout the past day. For one who leads an "attentive life," such an examination is not difficult: because, due to «attention to oneself,» forgetfulness, so characteristic of a distracted person, is destroyed. So, having recalled all your sins in deed, word, thought, and sensation, offer repentance for them to God with the intention and heartfelt pledge of correction. Then, having read your prayer rule, conclude with God-mindedness the day that began with God-mindedness. Where do all the thoughts and feelings of a sleeping person go? What is this mysterious state–sleep, in which the soul and body are alive, and yet do not live, devoid of consciousness of their life, as if dead? Sleep is as incomprehensible as death. During it, the soul rests, forgetting the most fierce sorrows and calamities of earth, in the image of its eternal rest; and the body!... if it rises from sleep, it will most certainly also rise from the dead. The great Agathon said: «It is impossible to succeed in virtue without intense 'attention to oneself.' " Amen. Written in response to the desire to lead an attentive life in the world, for a certain pious layperson. The Praying Mind Seeks Union with the Heart The doors of the senses are shut: the tongue is silent, the eyes are closed, the hearing attends to nothing outside of me. The mind, clothed in prayer, having laid down the burden of earthly thoughts, descends to the chamber of the heart. The doors of the chamber are locked; everywhere there is darkness, an impenetrable gloom. And the mind, in perplexity, begins to knock with prayer at the doors of the heart; it stands patiently at the doors, knocks, waits, knocks again, waits again, prays again. There is no answer, no voice is heard! Dead silence and darkness respond with a sepulchral silence. The mind departs from the doors of the heart, sorrowful, and in bitter weeping seeks solace. It was not permitted to appear before the King of Kings in the sanctuary of the inner chamber. For what, for what are you rejected? Upon me is the seal of sin. The habit of thinking about earthly things distracts me. I have no strength: because the Spirit does not come to my aid, the All-Holy and All-Good Spirit, who restores the union of mind, heart, and body, which were separated by humanity's terrible fall. Without the almighty, creative help of the Spirit, my own efforts alone are in vain! He is most merciful, infinitely loving: but my impurity does not admit Him to me. I will wash myself with tears, I will cleanse myself with the confession of my sins, I will deny my body food and sleep, from the abundance of which heaviness is imparted to the soul; entirely clothed in the weeping of repentance, I will descend to the doors of my heart. There I will stand, or sit, like the blind man in the Gospel, I will endure the burden and tedium of the gloom, I will cry out to Him who is able to have mercy: «Have mercy on me!» ( Mk. 10:48 ). And he descended, and stood, and began to call out with weeping. He likened himself to a blind man, not seeing the true, unfading Light–to a deaf and mute man, unable to speak or hear spiritually; he felt in the very reality of things that he was truly blind, deaf, mute, standing at the gates of Jericho–the heart, inhabited by sins–awaiting healing from the Savior, whom he does not see, whom he does not hear, to whom he cries out–if only by his own wretched state. He does not know His name, he calls the Son of God the son of David: for flesh and blood cannot honor God as God. Show me the path by which the Savior will come? This path is prayer, as the Prophet said to man from the person of God and by the Spirit of God: «A sacrifice of praise will glorify Me, and there is the way in which I will show him My salvation» ( Ps. 50:23 ). Tell me, at which hour will the Savior come? In the morning, or at noon, or towards evening? «Watch and pray, for you do not know when the Lord your God is coming» (cf. Mt. 24:42 ; Mk. 13:33 ). The path is known, the hour is not appointed! – I will go outside the city, I will stand or sit by the gates of Jericho, as Saint Paul advises: «Let us therefore go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach» ( Heb. 13:13 ). The world is passing away; all in it is inconstant: it is not even called a city, but a camp. I will abandon attachment to possessions, which are involuntarily left behind at death, and often before death; I will abandon honors and perishing glory; I will abandon sensual pleasures, which take away the capacity for spiritual labors and occupations. «For we have no lasting city here, but we seek the city which is to come» ( Heb. 13:14 ), which must be revealed to me beforehand in my heart by the mercy and grace of God–my Savior. He who does not ascend to the mystical Jerusalem in spirit during this earthly life: even after the soul's departure from the body, he cannot have the assurance that entry into the heavenly Jerusalem will be permitted to him. The first serves as a pledge of the second. Amen. «Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,... and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour;... saith the Lord of hosts» (Zechariah 8:16–17). · "Gates" : These are the gates of the soul, through which various thoughts and impressions enter it. · "Your" : These gates alone truly belong to a person. · «Execute the judgment» : The judge, sitting at the gates and conducting the judgment, is our mind . It performs the sorting or examination of thoughts and impressions when they come to the gates of the soul, in order to admit into the temple of the soul those which should be there, and to not admit those which should not be. · «Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates» : The mind, the judge, sitting and judging at the gates of the soul, must, when examining thoughts and impressions, accept only the true ones. A true thought, a true impression–that is, one flowing from the Lord, who alone is "the Truth" –brings with it into the soul an ineffable peace and stillness; by this, they are recognized as being from the Truth, from Christ, who gives His disciples peace, or (which is the same thing) humility, so that their heart is not troubled by any earthly calamity. · On the contrary, «thoughts originating from demons,» says Great Barsanuphius, «are first of all filled with confusion and sorrow, and they drag [the soul] after them in a hidden and subtle way: the enemies clothe themselves in sheep's clothing, that is, they suggest thoughts that seem righteous, but inwardly they are 'ravenous wolves' ( Matt. 7:15 ), that is, they seize and 'deceive the hearts of the simplé ( Rom. 16:18 ) by what appears good, but is in fact pernicious. Scripture says of the serpent that he is the most cunning: therefore, constantly watch his head ( Gen. 3:1, 15 ), so that he does not find a hole in you, and, having settled in it, cause devastation.» The head of the snake is the beginning of its thought or fantasy. · «And let none of you imagine evil» . A demonic thought, coming to the gates of the soul, tries to take on an appearance of righteousness, bringing to the mind–this judge, sitting and judging at the gates–countless justifications, in order to gain entry into the soul. But these false assurances, this "imagining evil," the Prophet commands us not to love. One must not only not accept such thoughts and agree with them, but one must not even converse with them; instead, immediately, at the very initial appearance of a sinful thought, one must resort through prayer to the Lord God, so that He may drive the enemy away from the soul's gates. Amen. Proof of the Resurrection of Human Bodies, Drawn from the Action of Noetic Prayer In a secluded, little-known, insignificant monastery, situated among forests and swamps, lived a certain monk. With fear, with distrust of himself, and with careful study of the Patristic writings, he delved into the prayer performed by the mind in the depth and secrecy of the soul's inner chamber. Once, the monk was standing in church, immersing his mind in his heart–and suddenly, his heart moved prayerfully towards his mind, and in doing so, drew his entire body into a sacred, spiritual state, inexpressible in words, surpassing all passions, comprehensible only through experience. When the monk beheld this so extraordinary, new state of his body, his mind was illumined with a mystical knowledge. The words of St. John Climacus , which had until then seemed enigmatic and strange to him, were now explained. He says: «‘I have cried with my whole heart’ ( Ps. 119:145 ), that is, with my body, soul, and mind.» Here is the proof of the resurrection of human bodies, which I possess within myself! If the body is capable of spiritual sensations, if it can participate together with the soul in grace-filled consolation; if it can even now become a partaker of grace, then how can it not rise again for eternal life, according to the teaching of Scripture? The bodies of God's saints were salted with grace–and corruption could not touch them! By their victory over corruption, they have already begun their resurrection; by pouring forth healings, they demonstrate the grace present within them and the eternal life dwelling in them, which in its time is destined to unfold in the most glorious resurrection, intended and granted to humanity by our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. On Humility (A conversation between a Starets and his disciple) Disciple: What is humility? Starets: It is an evangelical virtue that gathers the forces of a person into one by the peace of Christ, surpassing human comprehension. Disciple: If it surpasses comprehension, how do we know of its existence? Moreover, how can we acquire a virtue that we cannot even grasp? Starets: We learn of its existence, through faith, from the Gospel, and we come to know the virtue itself experientially, in proportion to our acquisition of it. But even after its acquisition, it remains incomprehensible. Disciple: Why is that? Starets: Because it is Divine. Humility is the teaching of Christ, it is the property of Christ, it is the action of Christ. The words of the Savior: «Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart» ( Matt. 11:29 ), are explained by St. John Climacus in this way: «Learn not from an angel, not from a man, not from a book, but from Me , that is, from My being appropriated to you, from My shining upon you and acting within you, 'for I am meek and lowly in heart,' and in thought and disposition.» How then can one comprehend the property and actions of Christ? They, even when felt, are incomprehensible, as the Apostle also said: «And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus» ( Phil. 4:7 ). The peace of God is both the beginning and the direct consequence of humility; it is the action of humility and the cause of this action. It acts upon the mind and heart with the almighty Divine power. Both the power and its action are naturally incomprehensible. Disciple: By what means can one attain humility? Starets: By the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, and especially through prayer. The grace-filled action of humility closely resembles the grace-filled action of prayer; more correctly: it is one and the same action. Disciple: Do not refuse to explain in detail both methods for acquiring humility. Starets: They are both set forth in the teaching of the Holy Fathers. St. John Climacus says that only those led by the Spirit of God can discourse satisfactorily on humility, and St. Isaac the Syrian says that the Holy Spirit mystically teaches humility to a person who has prepared himself for such instruction. We, gathering the crumbs that fall from the spiritual table of our lords–the Holy Fathers–have received a most meager concept of humility; this we ourselves strive to hold fast to, and to transmit to those who inquire, as a precious tradition of the Fathers. With all justice, the concepts we have received about humility can be called crumbs: the very treasure, in its unattainable fullness, is possessed by he who has acquired Christ within himself. Venerable Abba Dorotheos says that «Humility is naturally formed in the soul from activity according to the Gospel commandments... What happens here is the same as in learning sciences or the medical art. When someone learns them well and practices them, then little by little, from the exercise, the scholar or the physician acquire a habit, but they cannot say or explain how they came into the habit, because little by little the soul received it from exercise. The same occurs in the acquisition of humility: from the doing of the commandments, a certain humble habit is formed, which cannot be explained in words.» From this teaching of Venerable Abba Dorotheos, it is evident that he who wishes to acquire humility must carefully study the Gospel, and with the same carefulness fulfill all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. The doer of the Gospel commandments can come to the knowledge of his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of all mankind, and finally to the consciousness and conviction that he is the most sinful and worst of all people. Disciple: It seems inconsistent to me–how can one who fulfills the Gospel commandments with all carefulness come to the consciousness that he is the greatest sinner? It seems the consequence should be the opposite. He who constantly performs virtues, and performs them with particular zeal, cannot but see himself as virtuous. Starets: The latter refers to those who do an imaginary good «from themselves,» from their own fallen nature. He who does such good according to his own understanding, according to inclination, and the directions of his own heart, cannot but see this good, cannot but be satisfied, cannot but be enraptured by it; he himself boasts of it and delights in human praises; he seeks, demands them; becomes angry and hostile towards those who refuse praise. He enumerates his good deeds, from their multitude forms an opinion of himself, and, according to his opinion of himself, an opinion of his neighbors, like the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel. This kind of activity leads to an opinion of onés own righteousness, forming righteous ones who are rejected by the Lord and who reject the Lord, or only superficially and coldly confess Him with a dead confession ( Matt. 9:13 ). Opposite consequences come from the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. As soon as the ascetic begins to fulfill them, he sees that he fulfills them very insufficiently, impurely, that he is hourly carried away by his passions, that is, by his damaged will, towards activity forbidden by the commandments. Then he will clearly perceive that the fallen nature is hostile to the Gospel. Intensified activity according to the Gospel reveals to him more and more clearly the inadequacy of his good deeds, the multitude of his deviations and defeats, the wretched state of the fallen nature, alienated from God, having acquired a disposition hostile towards God. Looking back on his past life, he sees that it is a continuous chain of sins, falls, actions that anger God, and from the sincerity of his heart acknowledges himself the greatest sinner, worthy of temporal and eternal punishments, wholly in need of a Redeemer, having in Him his only hope of salvation. Such an opinion of himself is formed in him imperceptibly from the doing of the commandments. It can be stated with certainty that he who is guided by the Gospel in his life will not hesitate to give full assurance that he knows not a single good deed in himself. He considers his fulfillment of the commandments to be a distortion and defilement of them, as St. Peter of Damascus says. «Teach me to do Your will» ( Ps. 143:10 ), he cries out with weeping to God, that will which You have commanded me to do, which I strive to do, but cannot, because my fallen nature does not understand it and does not submit to it. All my efforts were and will be in vain if You do not stretch out Your hand to help me. «Your good Spirit,» only He alone, «will lead me on level ground.» «Good cannot be believed or acted upon except in Christ Jesus and in the Holy Spirit,» said Venerable Mark the Ascetic. Disciple: Will not such a view of oneself lead to despondency or despair? Starets: It will lead to Christianity. For precisely such sinners did the Lord descend to earth, as He Himself declared: «I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance» ( Matt. 9:13 ). Precisely such sinners can accept and confess the Redeemer with their whole heart. Disciple: Suppose that activity according to the Gospel commandments leads to the knowledge and consciousness of onés sinfulness; but how does one attain to recognizing oneself as more sinful than all people, among whom there are terrible criminals, villains? Starets: This is again a natural consequence of the podvig. If before our gaze there are two objects, and we examine one with all possible attention and incessantly, while paying no attention to the other, then concerning the first we obtain a clear, detailed, definite concept, while concerning the second we remain with the most superficial concept. The gaze of the mind of the doer of the Gospel commandments is constantly directed at his own sinfulness; with confession of it to God and weeping, he concerns himself with the uncovering of new wounds and stains in himself. Uncovering them with God's help, he strives for yet new discoveries, drawn by the desire for God-pleasing purity. He does not look upon the sins of his neighbors. If by some chance he happens to glance at the sin of a neighbor, his glance is most superficial and passing, as is usual with people occupied by something particular. From his very way of life flows naturally and logically the acknowledgment of himself as a sinner of sinners. The Holy Fathers demand this disposition from us. Without such self-knowledge, the Holy Fathers consider even the prayerful podvig to be incorrect. A brother said to Venerable Sisoes the Great: «I see that in me abides an unceasing memory of God.» The Venerable one replied: «It is not great that your thought is with God: it is great to see oneself lower than all creation.» The foundation of prayer is the deepest humility. Prayer is the cry and weeping of humility. With a lack of humility, the prayerful podvig becomes prone to self-delusion and demonic deception [prelest]. Disciple: By questioning how one can progress in humility while progressing in virtues, I have diverted you from the order of the narrative. Starets: I return to it. In the mentioned instruction of Venerable Abba Dorotheos, a saying of a certain holy elder is quoted, that «the way of humility is bodily labors done with understanding.» This instruction is very important for brethren engaged in various monastic obediences, some of which are heavy for the body, while others are connected with a spiritual podvig. What does it mean «to labor with understanding»? It means to bear the monastic labor as a punishment for onés sinfulness, in the hope of receiving forgiveness from God. What does it mean «to labor unreasonably»? To labor with carnal excitement, with vanity, with boastfulness, with contempt for other brethren who cannot bear such labor due to weakness or incapability, or even laziness. In the latter case, the labor, however intense, prolonged, and materially beneficial for the monastery it may be, is not only useless for the soul but harmful, as filling it with self-conceit, in which there is no place in the soul for any virtue. An example of «labor with understanding,» which elevated the doer to the height of Christian perfection by lowering him into the depth of humility, is seen in the podvig of the blessed Isidore of Alexandria. He was one of the dignitaries of Alexandria. Called by the mercy of God to the monastic life, Isidore entered a coenobitic monastery not far from Alexandria and gave himself into unconditional obedience to the abbot of the monastery, a man filled with the Holy Spirit. The abbot, perceiving that from the height of his rank a haughty and harsh character had been formed in Isidore, intended to act against the soul's illness by imposing an obedience difficult not so much for the body as for the sick heart. Isidore, upon entering the community, declared to the abbot that he gave himself to him as iron is given into the hands of a blacksmith. The abbot ordered him to stand and constantly remain at the gates of the monastery, so that he would bow to the feet of everyone entering and exiting, and say: «Pray for me, for I am possessed by a demon.» Isidore showed obedience to the abbot as an Angel would to God. Having spent seven years in this obedience and foreseeing his end from a Divine revelation, Isidore died joyfully. Concerning the state of his soul during the podvig, he confessed to St. John Climacus thus: «In the beginning, I thought that I had sold myself for the redemption of my sins, and therefore with the greatest sorrow, forcing myself, as if shedding blood, I made the prostrations. After a year passed, my heart ceased to feel sorrow, expecting a reward for patience from God Himself. After another year passed, I, from the consciousness of my heart, considered myself unworthy even of staying in the monastery, and of seeing the Fathers, and of conversing with them, and of meeting them, and of partaking of the Holy Mysteries, but, lowering my eyes downward, and my thoughts even lower, I already sincerely begged for prayer from those entering and exiting.» Behold, bodily labor and obedience, performed with understanding! Behold their fruit! One humble thought handed over the blessed doer to another, deeper one, as if educating him, until he entered into the most abundant, mystical sensation of humility. By this holy sensation, heaven was opened to Saint Isidore, as to an animate temple of God. «Humility makes a man a dwelling of God,» said Great Barsanuphius. Venerable Abba Dorotheos, at the beginning of his instruction on humility, lays down, as a cornerstone in the foundation of the building, the following saying of one of the holy elders: «Above all, we need humble-mindedness, and we must be ready to say 'forgivé to every word we hear: because by humble-mindedness all the arrows of the enemy and adversary are shattered.» In the rejection of self-justification, in the accusation of oneself, and in asking forgiveness in all those instances where in ordinary worldly life one resorts to justifications and multiplies them, lies the great mystical purchase of holy humility. All the Holy Fathers held to this and bequeath it. This doing seems strange at a superficial glance; but experience itself will not delay in proving that it is full of benefit for the soul and flows from the Very Truth, Christ. Our Lord rejected justifications, not using them before men, although He could have revealed before them His Divine righteousness in all its majesty, and said to the Pharisees: «You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God» (Luke 16:15). «Behold, My Servant,» proclaims the prophet of the Old Testament about the Lord, «whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets» ( Matt. 12:18–19 ; Isa. 42:1–2). «Christ also suffered for us,» testifies the Apostle of the New Testament about the exact fulfillment of the prophecy, «leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 'Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously'» (1 Peter 2:21, 23). Therefore, if we, guilty of innumerable sins, have come to the monastery to undergo crucifixion for our sins at the right hand of our Savior, let us recognize every sorrow that befalls us as a rightful recompense for our sins and a just punishment for them. With such a disposition, asking for forgiveness on every presented occasion will be a correct, logical action. «Self-justification does not belong to the Christian way of life,» said St. Isaac the Syrian. Venerable Pimen the Great used to say: «We fall into many temptations because we do not preserve the order befitting our name. Do we not see that the Canaanite woman accepted the name given to her and the Savior comforted her ( Matt. 15:27 ff.). Similarly, Abigail said to David: 'On me, my lord, be the iniquity' ( 1Sam. 25:24 ), and David, hearing this, loved her. Abigail is an image of the soul, and David of God: if the soul accuses itself before the Lord, the Lord will love it.» The Great one was asked: what is «high» (Luke 16:15). He answered: «Justifications. Do not justify yourself, and you will find rest.» He who does not justify himself is guided by humble-mindedness, while he who justifies himself is guided by high-mindedness. Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria once visited Mount Nitria. That mountain was the dwelling place of a numerous monastic community leading the life of hesychasts. The Abba of the mountain was a man of great holiness. The Archbishop asked him: «What, father, in your opinion, is most important on the monastic path?» The Abba answered: «Constant self-accusation and self-condemnation.» The Archbishop said to this: «Yes! There is no other path but this.» I will conclude my poor teaching on humility with the beautiful teaching of Venerable John the Prophet about this virtue. «Humility consists in this: in no case to consider oneself as something, to cut off onés own will in everything, to obey all, to bear without disturbance whatever befalls us from without. Such is true humility, in which there is no place for vanity. The humble-minded should not display his humility by 'humble words,' but it is enough for him to say 'forgive me,' or 'pray for me.' One should not also volunteer for lowly tasks: this, like the first (i.e., humble speech), leads to vanity, hinders progress, and does more harm than good; but when something is commanded, one should not contradict, but fulfill it with obedience–this leads to progress.» Disciple: Is the use of humble words, called smirenoslovie (humble-speak), really so harmful to the soul? It seems very fitting for a monk and very edifying for worldly people, who are moved to tenderness upon hearing a monk's humble words. Starets: The Lord said: «For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?» (Matthew 16:26). Evil can in no way be the cause of good. Hypocrisy and people-pleasing cannot be the cause of edification: they may please the world, because they have always pleased it; they may elicit the world's praise, because they have always elicited it; they may attract the love and trust of the world, because they have always attracted them. The world loves its own; those in whom it hears its own spirit are praised by it ( John 15:18–20 ). The world's approval of smirenoslovie is itself a condemnation of it. The Lord commanded that all virtues be done in secret (Matthew 6), but smirenoslovie is the display of humility for show before people. It is pretense, deception–first of oneself, then of others–because the concealment of onés virtues is one of the properties of humility, and it is precisely this concealment that is destroyed by smirenoslovie and a humble appearance. «When you are among your brethren,» says St. John Climacus , «watch yourself, so as not to show yourself in any way more righteous than they. Otherwise, you will do a double evil: you will wound the brethren with your hypocrisy and pretense, and in yourself you will inevitably produce high-mindedness. Be diligent in your soul, but do not show this in any way bodily, neither by appearance, nor by word, nor by hint.» As much as it is useful to reproach and accuse oneself of sinfulness before God, in the secret of the soul's chamber, so much is it harmful to do this before people. Otherwise, we will arouse in ourselves the delusive opinion that we are humble, and we will impart such a notion about ourselves to blinded worldly people. A certain monk told me that in his novicehood, he tried to practice smirenoslovie , thinking, in his ignorance, that it was something particularly important. Once he spoke humbly, and so successfully that those who heard him, instead of recognizing his words as a lie and him as a pretender–which is always the goal of smirenoslovie –agreed that he was speaking the truth: then he became grieved and indignant. Before people, one must conduct oneself cautiously and reverently, but simply, answering praises with silence, and reproaches likewise, except in those cases when asking for forgiveness and, if necessary, a moderate explanation can calm and reconcile the one who reproaches us. Those who have progressed in the monastic life acquire a particular freedom and simplicity of heart, which cannot but be manifested in their dealings with their neighbors. They do not please the world! It considers them proud, as St. Symeon the New Theologian quite rightly notes. The world seeks flattery, but in them it sees sincerity, which it does not need, and encounters reproof, which it hates. During my stay in a large city, an elder, very advanced in the spiritual life, came there on monastery business with his novice disciple. Some pious laypeople wished to see the elder. They did not like him. They very much liked the disciple, who, entering rich and noble houses, was struck by earthly grandeur and bowed low to everyone. «How humble he is!» said the laypeople with particular pleasure, born in them by the bows. The elder had spent his life weeping over his sinfulness; he considered the discovery of onés own sinfulness to be the greatest happiness for a person, and with sincere love, with compassion for poor humanity–equally poor both in palaces and in huts–with simplicity of heart, with an extraordinary insight provided by an equally pure mind, he desired to share spiritual treasures with neighbors who questioned him about salvation: by this, he aroused displeasure against himself. Disciple: What is the difference between smirennomudrie (humble-mindedness) and smyrenie (humility itself)? Starets: "Humble-mindedness" is a way of thinking, borrowed wholly from the Gospel, from Christ. "Humility" is a feeling of the heart, a heartfelt pledge, corresponding to humble-mindedness. First, one must become accustomed to humble-mindedness; to the extent one exercises humble-mindedness, the soul acquires humility, because the state of the heart always depends on the thoughts that the mind has made its own. And when a person's doing is overshadowed by Divine grace, then humble-mindedness and humility will begin to abundantly give birth to and intensify one another, with the assistance of the helper of prayer–weeping. Disciple: Explain with examples how humility is born from humble-mindedness and vice versa? Starets: I had a monk who was a close acquaintance, subjected incessantly to various sorrows, which, as he said, God was pleased to provide for him in place of a spiritual elder. Despite constant sorrows, I saw the monk almost always calm, often joyful. He occupied himself with the Word of God and noetic prayer. I asked him to reveal to me, for the benefit of my soul, from where he drew his consolation? He answered: I owe my consolation to the mercy of God and the writings of the Holy Fathers, for which I have been given a love since my childhood. When sorrows assail me, sometimes I repeat the words of the thief who confessed from his cross the righteousness of God's judgment in human judgment, and by this confession entered into the knowledge of the Savior. I say: «I receive the due reward of my deeds... remember me, O Lord, in Your kingdom» (Luke 23:41–42). With these words, peace and calm are poured into the heart. At another time, I opposed thoughts of sadness and confusion with the words of the Savior: «He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me» (Matthew 10:38); then confusion and sadness were replaced by peace and joy. Other similar sayings from Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers produce the same effect. The repeated words «Glory to God for all things» or «May God's will be done» act with complete satisfaction against very complex sorrow. A strange thing! Sometimes, from the strong action of sorrow, all the strength of the soul is lost; the soul becomes as if deaf, loses the ability to feel anything: at this time, I begin aloud, forcibly and mechanically, with the tongue alone, to pronounce «Glory to God,» and the soul, hearing this glorification of God, begins, as it were, to little by little come to life upon this glorification, then takes courage, calms down, and is comforted. Those to whom sorrows are allowed would be unable to stand in them if they were not secretly supported by the help and grace of God. Again: without sorrow, a person is incapable of that mysterious, yet substantial consolation which is given to him in proportion to his sorrow, as the Psalmist said: «In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul» ( Psalm 94:19 ). Once, a dangerous plot was devised against me. Learning of it, and having no means to avert it, I felt sorrow to the point of exhaustion. I come to my cell, and, having barely uttered the words of the Savior that came to my mind: «Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me» ( John 14:1 ), the sorrow disappeared; instead, an inexpressible joy seized me; I had to lie down on my bed, and all day I was as if intoxicated, while in my mind the words were repeated, pouring consolation into the soul: «believe in God and believe in Me.» The cause of heartfelt confusion is unbelief; the cause of heartfelt calm, of heartfelt grace-filled peace, is faith. When faith acts abundantly, the entire being of a person is immersed in a spiritual, most comforting enjoyment of the sacred peace of Christ, as if being saturated and filled with this sensation. Intoxicated by it, it becomes insensitive to the arrows of confusion. Rightly did the Fathers say that «faith is humility,» that «to believe means to abide in humility and goodness.» Such a concept of faith and humility is provided by the holy experiences of a correct monastic life. At other times, sorrow is allowed to torment the soul for a prolonged time. Once, from a sudden sorrow, I felt as if a nervous blow to the heart, and for three months I remained without leaving my cell, shaken by a nervous fever. «God always does with us great and unsearchable things, glorious and awesome things.» We must understand that we are His creations, in His full power, and therefore, in complete submission, «let us commit ourselves, and one another, and our whole life, to Christ our God.» I will not hesitate to tell you another remarkable incident, which somewhat explains the action of humility directly from the heart, without a preliminary thought of humble-mindedness. Once I was subjected to punishment and dishonor. When I was subjected to it, I suddenly felt a heat throughout my whole body and with it a kind of deadness inexplicable in words, after which suddenly from my heart flared up a desire to receive public disgrace and a beating from an executioner in the square for my sins. At this, a blush came to my face; an inexpressible joy and sweetness seized my whole being; from them I remained for two weeks in ecstasy, as if outside myself. Then I understood with clarity and precision that the holy humility in the martyrs, united with Divine love, could not be satiated by any torments. The martyrs accepted fierce tortures as gifts, as a cool drink quenching the thirst for humility that burned within them. Humility is an inexpressible grace of God, incomprehensibly comprehended only by the spiritual sensation of the soul. Disciple: You promised to explain to me how humility is developed through prayer? Starets: The union of humility with prayer is very clearly expounded by Venerable Abba Dorotheos . «Unceasing exercise in prayer,» says the Saint, «counteracts pride. It is obvious: the humble and reverent one, knowing that it is impossible to perform any virtue without the help and protection of God, does not cease to pray insistently to God, that He may have mercy on him. He who constantly prays to God, if he is deemed worthy to do anything proper, knows through Whom it was done by him, and cannot become proud or ascribe it to his own strength, but ascribes all his corrections to God, thanks Him unceasingly, and prays to Him unceasingly, trembling lest he be deprived of help from Above, lest his own weakness be thus revealed. He prays from humility.» If someone, during his prayer, is deemed worthy of tenderness, which is born from attentive prayer, he knows from experience that it is precisely in the precious minutes of tenderness that thoughts of humble-mindedness appear in him, imparting a sensation of humility. This occurs especially when tenderness is accompanied by tears. The more frequently times of tenderness come, the more frequently the practitioner of prayer becomes a hearer of the mystical teaching about humility, the deeper this teaching penetrates his heart. Constant tenderness keeps the soul in constant humility, in a disposition of unceasing prayer and God-mindedness. The Holy Fathers note that, in contrast to vanity, which scatters a person's thoughts throughout the universe, humility concentrates them in the soul; it transfers from the fruitless and frivolous contemplation of the whole world to a fruitful and profound self-examination, to mental silence, to the state required for true prayer, and which is produced by attentive prayer. Finally, the grace-filled action of humility and the grace-filled action of prayer are one and the same action, as was said at the beginning of our conversation. This action appears in two persons: in Christ-imitating humility and in Divine love, which is the highest action of prayer. This action belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ, who dwells and acts through the Holy Spirit, ineffably and incomprehensibly, in His chosen vessels. Amen. On Patience «The house of the soul is patience: for the soul lives in it; the food of the soul is humility: for it is nourished by it,» said Saint Elias Eudicus . Precisely so: by nourishing oneself with the holy food of humility, one can abide in the holy house of patience. But when this food is lacking, the soul leaves the house of patience. Like a whirlwind, confusion seizes it, carries it away, and spins it around. Like waves, various passionate thoughts and sensations rise within it, drowning it in the depths of irrational and sinful reflections, fantasies, words, and actions. The soul falls into a state of weakness, gloomy despondency, and often approaches the abysses of murderous despair and complete disorder. Do you wish to abide unceasingly in the holy house of patience? – Store up the food necessary for such an abode: acquire and multiply within yourself humble thoughts and feelings. The aspect of humility that prepares one for the endurance of sorrows before their coming and aids in the courageous endurance of sorrows after their arrival is called "self-accusation" by the Holy Fathers. Self-accusation is the blaming of oneself for sinfulness, both common to all people and onés own private sins. In this, it is useful to recall and enumerate onés violations of God's Law, except for falls and stumbles of a fornication-like nature, the detailed recollection of which is forbidden by the Fathers, as it renews in a person the sensation of sin and the delight in it. Self-accusation is a monastic doing, a noetic doing, set against and counteracting the painful property of the fallen nature, by which all people, even the most obvious sinners, strive to present themselves as righteous and prove their righteousness with the help of all possible contrivances. Self-accusation is a violence to the fallen nature, just as prayer and other monastic podvigs are a violence to it, by which «the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force» (Matthew 11:12). Self-accusation, at the beginning of its practice, has the character of an unconscious mechanism, that is, it is pronounced by the tongue without particular heartfelt sympathy, even contrary to the heart's feeling; then, little by little, the heart begins to be drawn into sympathy with the words of self-accusation; finally, self-accusation will be pronounced from the whole soul, with an abundant sensation of weeping, it will diminish before us and hide from us the shortcomings and sins of our neighbors, reconcile us to all people and circumstances, gather thoughts scattered throughout the world into the doing of repentance, grant attentive prayer filled with tenderness, and inspire and arm with the invincible strength of patience. The prayer services of the Orthodox Church are filled with humble thoughts of self-condemnation. But monks set aside part of their time daily specifically for exercise in self-accusation. They strive through it to assure and convince themselves that they are sinners: the fallen nature does not want to believe this, does not want to appropriate this knowledge. In general, self-accusation is beneficial for all monks: both for novices and for the advanced, for those living in community and for hesychasts. For the latter, the most dangerous passion, consuming all their doing, is high-mindedness; whereas the fundamental virtue for them, upon which all other virtues are built and held, is self-accusation. That is why the Abba of the hesychasts of Nitria said that their chief doing, in his observation, is constant self-accusation. Self-accusation, having reached its fullness, finally uproots malice from the heart, utterly eradicating from it cunning and hypocrisy, which do not cease to live in the heart as long as self-justification finds a place in it. Venerable Pimen the Great said that hatred of cunning consists in this: when a person justifies his neighbor and accuses himself in every case. This saying is based on the words of the Savior: The Savior called everyone who condemns his neighbors a hypocrite (Matthew 7:5). Through self-accusation, the hesychast will see all people as saints and angels, and himself as a sinner of sinners, and will plunge, as into an abyss, into constant tenderness. We have excellent models of self-accusation in the Lamentations of Venerable Isaiah the Hermit and in the 20th Word of Saint Isaac the Syrian . Saint Isaac, whose book generally contains instructions for hesychasts, gave his Word the following title: «A Word containing the most necessary and useful daily reminder for one who is silent in his cell and wills to attend to himself alone.» «A certain brother,» says Saint Isaac, «wrote the following and placed it continually before him as a reminder to himself: 'You have lived your life in folly, O shamed one, worthy of every evil! At least guard yourself on this day remaining from your days, which were sacrificed to vanity, outside of good activity, having been enriched by evil activity. Do not inquire about this world, nor about its state, nor about monks, nor about their activity, what it is like, nor about the quantity of their podvig–do not give yourself to care about anything of the sort. You have mystically come out of the world, you have been accounted dead for the sake of Christ: live no longer for the world, nor for what belongs to the world, so that rest may precede you, and you may be alive in Christ. Be ready and prepared to bear every disgrace, every vexation, and mockery and reproach from all. Accept all this with joy, as truly worthy of it. Endure with thanksgiving to God every illness, every sorrow and misfortune from demons, whose will you have fulfilled. Courageously endure every need and grief that befalls you from nature. With hope in God, bear the deprivation of the body's needs, which will soon turn to pus. Accept all this with good will in hope in God, not expecting deliverance or consolation from anyone else. «Cast your burden on the Lord» ( Psalm 55:22 ), and in all your temptations, condemn yourself as the cause of them. Do not be scandalized by anything, and do not reproach any of those who offend you: because you have tasted of the forbidden tree and have acquired various passions. Accept these sorrows with joy; let them shake you somewhat, so that you may be comforted afterwards. Woe to you and your foul-smelling glory! You have left your soul, filled with every sin, without attention, as if uncondemned, while you have condemned others both in word and thought. Leave this food of swine, with which you have been nourished until now. What business is it of yours concerning people, O defiled one! Are you not ashamed of communion with them, having lived your life foolishly! If you pay attention to this and remember all this, then perhaps you will be saved with God's help. But if not, then you will go to the dark country, to the dwellings of demons, whose will you have shamelessly fulfilled. Behold! I have testified all this to you. If God rightfully raises up people against you to repay you for the vexations and reproaches which you have thought and uttered against them, then the whole world must rise against you forever. And so from now on, cease (to act as you have acted until now), and endure the retributions allowed to you.' – The brother reminded himself of all this daily, so as to be in a state to endure, with thanksgiving to God and for his soul's benefit, the temptations or sorrows when they come. Let us also endure with thanksgiving what is allowed to us and receive benefit by the grace of the loving God.» Self-accusation has that particular, most useful, mystical property that it brings to memory even those transgressions which were completely forgotten or to which no attention was paid. Exercise in self-accusation introduces the habit of accusing oneself. When some sorrow befalls one who has acquired this habit, immediately the action of the habit appears in him, and the sorrow is accepted as deserved. «The main cause of every disturbance,» says Venerable Abba Dorotheos , «if we carefully examine, is that we do not accuse ourselves. From this stems all disorder; for this reason we never find peace. And so it is not surprising that we hear from all the saints: 'There is no other way but this.' We do not see that any of the saints, walking by any other way, found peace! And we want to have it and to keep to the right path, never wishing to accuse ourselves. Truly, if a person performs thousands of virtues but does not hold to this path, he will never cease to be offended and to offend, thereby destroying all his labors. On the contrary: he who accuses himself is always in joy, always in peace. He who accuses himself, wherever he goes, as Abba Pimen also said, whatever happens to him, whether harm, or dishonor, or some sorrow, already considers himself beforehand worthy of all unpleasantness and is never disturbed. Can there be anything more peaceful than this state? But someone will say: If a brother offends me, and I, examining myself, find that I gave him no cause for this, how can I accuse myself? Truly, if anyone examines himself with the fear of God, he will find that he gave cause in some way, either by deed, or by word, or in some manner. But if he sees, as he says, that at the present time he gave no cause, then at some time before he offended him or another brother in this matter or in some other, and ought to suffer for this, or for some other sin, which often happens. Yes! if anyone examines himself, as I said, with the fear of God and searches his conscience, he will in every way find himself guilty.» A wondrous thing! Beginning to accuse ourselves mechanically, forcibly, we finally achieve self-accusation that is so convincing and effective for us that with its help we endure not only ordinary sorrows but also the greatest calamities. Temptations no longer have such power over one who is progressing, but, in proportion to the progress, they become lighter, even if they are in themselves heavier. In proportion to the progress, the soul is strengthened and acquires the power to patiently endure what occurs. Strength is given, as if by particularly nourishing food, by humility that has deepened in the heart. This very strength is patience. Unwavering faith in God's Providence establishes one in patience and aids self-accusation. «Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?» said the Lord to His disciples, «And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore» (Matthew 10:29–30). With these words, the Savior of the world depicted that unsleeping care which God has, and which only the almighty and omnipresent God can have, for His servants and slaves. By such care of God for us, we are delivered from all faint-hearted care and fear about ourselves, inspired in us by unbelief. «Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you» (1 Peter 5:6–7). When we are subjected to sorrow, God sees it. This happens not only by His permission but also by His all-holy providence for us. He allows us to be tormented for our sins in time, to deliver us from torment in eternity. It often happens that our secret and grave sin remains unknown to people, remains unpunished, being covered by God's mercy; at the same time, or after some time, we are forced to suffer somewhat, due to slander or fault-finding, as if in vain and innocently. Our conscience tells us that we are suffering for our secret sin! God's mercy, which covered this sin, gives us the means to be crowned with the crown of innocent sufferers for enduring slander, and at the same time to be cleansed by punishment from the secret sin. Reflecting on this, let us glorify the all-holy Providence of God and humble ourselves before it. An instructive example of self-condemnation and self-accusation, combined with the glorification of the righteous and all-merciful Judgments of God, was given by the three holy Jewish youths in the Babylonian captivity and furnace. «Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers,» they said, «and praised and glorified is Your name forever. For You are righteous in all that You have done to us, and all Your works are true, and Your ways right, and all Your judgments true. You have executed true judgments in all that You have brought upon us and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our fathers; for in truth and judgment You have brought all these things upon us because of our sins. For we have sinned and committed lawlessness by departing from You, and have sinned in all things» ( Daniel 3:26–29, LXX ). The Holy Youths, cast into the fiery furnace for their faithfulness to the true God, and not burning but remaining in it as if in a cool chamber, acknowledged and confessed that they had sinned together with their countrymen, who had indeed departed from God. Out of love for their neighbors, they extended their neighbors' sins onto themselves. In humility, being saints and righteous, they did not wish to separate themselves from their brethren enslaved by sin. From this state–the state of self-condemnation, humility, and love for humanity, from the justification of God's permissions–they then offered their prayer to God for their salvation. So too, let us glorify God's Providence and confess our sinfulness in all misfortunes that befall us, both our private and public ones–and on the basis of this glorification and confession, let us implore God for mercy. Holy Scripture testifies that special sorrows are sent to God's servants, who walk the path of God's commandments, as an aid to their activity, as the Savior of the world said that the Heavenly Father «every branch... that bears fruit in Christ, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit» ( John 15:2 ). These purifying sorrows are called the permissions or judgments of God; of them, Saint David sang: «The judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether» ( Psalm 19:9 ). «Teach me Your judgments!» ( Psalm 119:108 ). Let me know and be assured that everything bitter that happens to me happens by God's providence, by the will of my God! Then I will also know that «Your judgments will help me» in my weak and insufficient pleasing of God ( Psalm 119:175 ). As an example of how the judgments of God assist His servants who desire to please God, how they elevate them to that holy activity which they could never attain without the help of God's judgments, let us cite the events concerning the Constantinopolitan nobleman Xenophon, his wife, and their two sons. The rich and famous Xenophon led a most pious life, such as the general piety of Christians of that time made possible amidst the world, and such as today can perhaps only be led in withdrawal from the world. He desired that his two sons be heirs both of his property and his position at the imperial court, and of his piety. At that time, the school in Syrian Berytus (modern Beirut) was renowned. Xenophon sent his children there to study the wisdom of this age. The journey from Constantinople to Berytus was by sea. Once, the sons, having visited their father due to his dangerous illness, were returning to school. Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the Mediterranean Sea, the ship was wrecked, and both youths were cast by the waves onto the shores of Palestine in different places. In such a calamitous situation, nourished from childhood with pious thoughts and inclinations, Xenophon's sons recognized in the sorrow that had befallen them a divine calling to the monastic life, and, as if by mutual agreement, entered Palestinian monasteries. After a considerable time, they met each other; after a considerable time, Xenophon learned that the ship on which his children were traveling had been wrecked by a storm, and that all on board were lost without a trace. The deeply grieved father resorted to prayer; after an all-night vigil in his cell, he received a divine revelation that his sons were overshadowed by a special mercy and grace of God. Understanding from this that they had taken monastic vows, and knowing that in Palestine, off the shores of which the ship had been wrecked, there was a great multitude of monasteries, Xenophon and his wife set off for Jerusalem: there he saw his sons and never returned to Constantinople. From Jerusalem, he disposed of his property, which was sold: the money from it was distributed to monasteries, churches, and the poor. Xenophon and Maria (for such was his wifés name) followed the example of their sons, John and Arcadius, entered monasticism, in which both parents and children attained great spiritual progress. They would never have been worthy of it if they had remained in worldly life, however pious it was. God, foreseeing their progress, brought them to it by His inscrutable judgments. The path of God's judgments is bitter, as the Holy Apostle testified: «For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives» (Hebrews 12:6). The consequences of God's judgments are desirable, priceless. From the lives of many other chosen ones of God, we are convinced that God sends sorrows to assist the good doing of His servants, by them He purifies and perfects this doing. A person's own doing alone is insufficient, as Venerable Symeon the New Theologian remarks. «Gold,» he says, «that has become rusty, cannot be cleansed and restored to its natural brightness except by being cast into the fire and carefully forged with hammers: so too, a soul, defiled by the rust of sin and made entirely useless, cannot be cleansed and restored to its former beauty unless it remains in many temptations and enters the furnace of sorrows. This is also signified by the words of our Lord: 'Sell what you have, take up your cross, and follow Mé (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21 ). Here, the cross signifies temptations and sorrows. To give away all onés possessions and yet not strive courageously against occurring temptations and sorrows is, in my opinion, a sign of a negligent soul, ignorant of its own benefit: because those who renounce them will gain nothing from the mere renunciation of possessions and things if they do not endure to the end in temptations and sorrows for God's sake. Christ did not say: 'in the renunciation of your things,' but 'by your patience possess your souls' (Luke 21:19). It is evident that the distribution of possessions and flight from the world is praiseworthy and beneficial; but it alone, by itself, without the endurance of temptations, cannot make a person perfect according to God... He who has distributed his wealth to the needy and withdrawn from the world and its substance boasts with great delight in his conscience about the hope of reward, and sometimes the reward itself is stolen by vanity. But he who, after distributing everything to the poor, endures sorrows with thanksgiving of soul and lives amidst afflictions, tastes every bitterness and painful labor, and his reward remains un-stolen; a great recompense awaits him in this and the future age, as an imitator of Christ's sufferings, as one who suffered with Him in the days of the onset of temptations and sorrows. And therefore I implore you, brethren in Christ, let us strive, according to the word of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, as we have renounced the world and all that belongs to the world, so also to pass through the 'narrow gaté (Luke 13:24), which consists in the cutting off of our carnal mind and will, in fleeing from them: because without mortification for the flesh, for its lusts and will, it is impossible to obtain relief, deliverance from the passions, and the freedom that appears in us from the consolation produced by the Holy Spirit.» Why do we not wish to undergo sorrows, which are permitted to us by God's Providence for the salvation of our souls, to which God Himself calls us? – Because we are dominated by love of pleasure and vanity: at the prompting of the first, we do not wish to constrain our body; at the prompting of the second, we value human opinion. Both these passions are trampled by living faith, whereas, on the contrary, they act due to unbelief. To the question of Venerable Abba Dorotheos : «What shall I do? I am afraid of the shame of dishonor,» Saint John the Prophet answered: «Not to endure dishonor is a matter of unbelief. Brother! Jesus became man and endured dishonor: are you greater than Jesus? This is unbelief and demonic delusion. He who desires humility, as he says, and does not endure dishonor, cannot acquire humility. Behold, you have heard the true teaching: do not neglect it. Otherwise, the work will neglect you too. Concerning shame: By bringing to your memory the public shame before the Lord that will befall sinners, you will count temporal shame as nothing.» In general, the remembrance of God's omnipresence and omnipotence keeps the heart from that agitation which thoughts of unbelief strive to induce in it, relying on vanity and improper love for the body. The Holy Prophet David said: «I foresaw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope!» ( Psalm 16:8–9 ). «My heart was glad» from the action of faith and humility! Words glorifying God and self-accusation bring joy to the lips and tongue! My very flesh feels the power of incorruption entering and pouring into it from the sensations of a heart contrite and humbled, comforted and being comforted by God! If no temptation can touch a person without God's will, then complaints, murmuring, grief, self-justification, the accusation of neighbors and circumstances are movements of the soul against God's will, are attempts to resist and oppose God. Let us fear this calamity! Reflecting on any sorrow of ours, let us not delay in reflection, lest it imperceptibly draw us away from humble-mindedness into overt or covert self-justification, into a state contrary to God's dispensation for us. Not trusting our weakness, let us hasten to the sure weapon of self-accusation! On two crosses near the Savior, two thieves were crucified. One of them blasphemed and reviled the Lord; the other acknowledged himself worthy of punishment for his crimes, and the Lord as an innocent sufferer. Suddenly, self-accusation opened the eyes of his heart, and in the innocent human sufferer he saw the all-holy God suffering for humanity. This was not seen by the learned, nor the priests, nor the Jewish high priests, despite resting on the Law of God and having studied it meticulously according to the letter. The thief becomes a Theologian, and before the face of all who considered themselves wise and powerful, who mocked the Lord, he confesses Him, trampling with his holy opinion the erroneous opinion of the wise and the powerful about themselves. The blaspheming thief was cast into hell by the sin of blasphemy, the gravest of all other sins, intensifying his eternal torment there. The thief who, through sincere self-condemnation, came to true knowledge of God, was led into paradise by his confession of the Redeemer, characteristic of and possible only for the humble. The same cross–for both thieves! Opposite thoughts, feelings, and words were the cause of opposite consequences. With all justice, these two thieves serve as an image of all humanity: every person who has spent his life incorrectly, contrary to God's design, to the detriment of his salvation and bliss in eternity, is, in relation to himself, both a thief, and a robber, and a murderer. A cross is sent to this evildoer as a final means of salvation, so that the evildoer, having confessed his crimes and acknowledged himself worthy of punishment, might retain the salvation granted by God. To ease the sufferings and provide spiritual comforts during crucifixion and remaining on the cross, the incarnate God is crucified and hung on the wood of the cross near the crucified man. He who murmurs, complains, and is indignant at his sorrows finally rejects his salvation: not having known and confessed the Savior, he is cast down into hell, into eternal and fruitless torments, as one fully alienated, having renounced God. On the contrary, he who reveals his sinfulness through self-accusation, who acknowledges himself worthy of temporal and eternal punishments, enters little by little through self-accusation into an active and living knowledge of the Redeemer, which is «eternal life» ( John 17:3 ). To him who is crucified on the cross by God's will, who glorifies God from his cross, the «mystery of the cross» is revealed, and together with this mystery, the mystery of the redemption of humanity by the God-man. Such is the fruit of self-accusation. In relation to the almighty and all-holy will of God, there can be no other corresponding feelings in a person except unlimited reverence and equally unlimited submission. From these feelings, when they become the possession of a person, «patience» is formed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth, coming for the salvation of the human race with indisputable proofs of His Divinity, with boundless power over all visible and invisible creation, was not only not received by men with the glory and honor due to Him, but was met with hatred, suspicion, and murderous plots; throughout His earthly sojourn, He was pursued by slander, reviling, fault-finding, and cunning; finally, He was seized like a criminal during His nighttime prayer, bound, dragged with violence, presented to a court that had decided on murder before the trial, subjected to mockery, blows, spitting, various torments and tortures, death on the cross–a dishonorable death, that of criminals. He stands silently and motionless, a meek lamb before its shearer: so stood the Lord before His godless judges and inhuman murderers, answering bold questions, slanders, and insults with Divine silence. Self-condemnation and self-accusation were not proper to Him, who was without sin: by silence He covered His Divine righteousness, so that we, by self-condemnation and self-accusation denying our false, imaginary righteousness, might become partakers of His all-holy and all-perfect righteousness. Neither the righteousness of fallen nature nor the righteousness of the Mosaic Law could lead us into the lost eternal bliss: the righteousness of the Gospel and the Cross leads into it. There is no one perfect among men according to human virtues: the Cross of Christ leads to Christian perfection, and the Holy Spirit seals this perfection. Humility elevated the Lord to the cross, and the humility of Christ's disciples elevates them to the cross, which is holy «patience,» incomprehensible to carnal minds, just as the silence of Jesus was incomprehensible to Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Jewish high priests. Let us pray to the Lord that He may open to us the mystery and grant us the love of His cross, that He may deem us worthy to endure properly all the sorrows that will be permitted to us by the all-good Providence of God in time for our salvation and bliss in eternity. The Lord promised us: «He who endures to the end will be saved» (Matthew 24:13). Amen. On Purity Fornication was a sin when the Old Testament held sway; it was a sin as a dishonor to nature, as an abuse of an important property of nature, as a violation of the laws of nature. The crime was considered so significant that the guilty were punished by death. In the New Testament, this sin acquired a new gravity because human bodies received a new dignity. They became members of the body of Christ, and the violator of purity now dishonors Christ, severs union with Him, transforms the «members of Christ» into «members of a harlot» (1Corinthians 6:15). The fornicator is punished by spiritual death. The Holy Spirit departs from one who has fallen into the sin of fornication; the sinner is acknowledged to have fallen into a mortal sin, a sin that takes away salvation, a sin that is a pledge of inevitable perdition and eternal torment in hell if this sin is not healed in time by repentance. What is purity? It is the virtue opposite to the passion of fornication; it is the estrangement of the body from actual falling into sin and from all actions leading to sin, the estrangement of the mind from fornication-related thoughts and fantasies, and of the heart from fornication-related sensations and inclinations, followed then by the estrangement of the body from carnal lust. Some assert that falling into the sin of fornication with the body and falling into it with the mind and heart are transgressions of identical gravity and significance. They base this opinion of theirs on the words of the Savior: «Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart» (Matthew 5:28). An incorrect opinion! This was said as a supplement to the Old Testament commandment; it was said to those who recognized only physical fornication as a sin, not understanding that «evil thoughts,» among which are fornication-related thoughts, «proceed from the heart and defile a man» (Matthew 15:19–20), «separate from God» (Wisdom of Solomon 1:3), and take away purity–the means of seeing God. Delighting in fornication-related thoughts and sensations is fornication of the heart and the defilement of a person, rendering him incapable of communion with God, whereas physical fornication is a change of the entire human being through mixture with another body (1Corinthians 6:16), is a complete alienation from God, is death, is perdition. To emerge from the first state, one must sober up; to emerge from the second, one must be resurrected, must be born again through repentance. Some assert that it is impossible for a person to be free from enslavement to the flesh, let alone from fornication-related thoughts and sensations, that such a state is unnatural. The One who legislates is God, who knows what is possible and impossible for us better than we do: and therefore the attainment of purity, both bodily and heartfelt, is possible for a person. The One who legislates is God, the Creator of nature: and therefore heartfelt purity is not contrary to human nature. It is unnatural to fallen nature; it was natural to nature as it was created, and can become natural again upon its renewal. It can be cultivated and acquired: bread, vegetables, fruit trees do not grow on the earth by themselves; but when the earth is prepared properly, and beneficial plants are planted and sown, then they grow in special abundance for the nourishment and enjoyment of humans. Untilled land yields only weeds, or yields only grass, food for cattle, not for humans. A podvig is needed: the object of the podvig is worthy of an intense and difficult podvig being undertaken for it by those chosen for the podvig. Purity is called holiness in Scripture: «For this is the will of God, your sanctification,» says the Apostle, «that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust» (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5). The purity of those living in matrimony consists in the spouses' faithfulness to one another. The purity of virgins and widows who have betrothed themselves to Christ consists in faithfulness to Christ. And it is to them that my poor, comforting, encouraging, truthful word is directed–a word borrowed from the teaching of truth: from the All-Holy Word of God, explained by the Holy Fathers, by their holy word and experience. When the Lord forbade voluntary divorce, permitted by the Mosaic Law, and declared that what God has joined together cannot be separated by man except due to a separation already accomplished by one party's falling into fornication, the Lord's disciples raised a question about the unmarried life. To this the Lord said: «Not all can accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given... He who is able to accept it, let him accept it» (Matthew 19:11–12). Who is this «he who is able to accept it»? By what sign should each of us judge and conclude about his own capability or incapability for the unmarried life? The answer is borrowed from the writings of the Holy Fathers: «by our own free will.» «The capability is given to those who ask for it from God with sincerity of heart,» says Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria: «Ask,» said the Lord, «and it will be given to you... everyone who asks receives» (Matthew 7:7–8). The sincerity of the request is proven by a way of life corresponding to the request, and by constancy in the request, even if the fulfillment of the request is delayed for a shorter or longer time, even if our desire is assailed by various temptations. Onés own podvigs, by which a monk strives to conquer and change the property of fallen nature, are only witnesses of true resolve. Victory and the change of nature belong to God alone. «Where nature is conquered,» says Saint John Climacus, «there the coming of Him who is above nature is recognized.» God changes the natural inclination in him who, by all means dependent on him, proves his sincere desire for this inclination to be changed: then the Spirit of God touches the human spirit, which, having felt the touch of the Spirit of God, rushes entirely, with all its thoughts and sensations, towards God, having lost sympathy for the objects of carnal lust. Then the words of the Apostle are fulfilled: «But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him» (1Corinthians 6:17). Then the very body is drawn to where the spirit strives. By reason of their resolve, proven and attested by experience, many who have not known women remained in this blessed state until the end of their lives, or preserved their virginity; others, after married life, preserved immaculate widowhood; some transitioned from a depraved life to a chaste and holy one; finally, some, having wavered in their resolve, returned to it again and restored lost chastity through repentance. All of them not only refrained from falling into fornication with the body but also entered into struggle with passionate thoughts and sensations, resisted them, conquered them, and received from God the freedom of purity, which is entirely alien to communion with sin, even if it does not cease its attacks. Thus, the effect of bad weather on a traveler ceases when he enters a well-built house, even if the bad weather continues or rages even more. – Beloved brethren, monks! Let us not be fainthearted and despondent. Let us pay no attention to the demons, who instill in us distrust of the path we have chosen; let us pay no attention to human judgments and advice, uttered out of ignorance or depravity and ill intent: let us believe our Lord God, who promised to hear us and help us if we remain faithful to Him. Let us testify to this faithfulness by constant striving towards Him and constant repentance for our deviations from this striving. It is impossible not to be subject to greater or lesser deviations, both due to our weakness, and our limitations, and the corruption of nature by sin, and the malicious cunning of our invisible enemies, and the temptations that have multiplied infinitely. We do not have to labor for long! We do not have to suffer long in the struggle with ourselves! Soon the mortal hour will come, which will snatch us from the torment of struggle and from the danger of falling into transgressions. Oh! If only in that hour, at the gates of eternity, we would see the outstretched arms of the Heavenly Father and hear His comforting voice: «Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord» (Matthew 25:23). Until that hour, let us struggle courageously, in no way trusting our flesh, not trusting our impassivity, whether imaginary or true. Those who relied on themselves, on the mortification of their flesh, on their impassivity and grace-filled state, were subjected to terrible temptations. Saint Isaac the Syrian said: «He who does not remove himself voluntarily from the causes of sin is involuntarily carried away by sin.» This rule, relating generally to the monastic way of life, is especially important for those who have entered into struggle with the property of nature that appeared in it after the fall. It is beneficial for us not to see at all that fruit from which we have renounced partaking. For this reason, the rules of the Holy Fathers forbid the entry of the female sex into male monasteries, a rule still observed on the Holy Mount Athos. In the life of Saint John Climacus, it is said that by his hermit life and by removing himself from looking upon faces, he completely extinguished the flame of desire within himself. All the Holy Fathers strove to distance themselves as much as possible from acquaintance and interaction with women, and they have handed down such conduct to us in their soul-saving, God-inspired writings. The Fathers, knowing the human propensity for stumbling, trusted neither their own holiness, nor old age and its incapacity for sin. They, until the end of their lives, did not cease to distance themselves from the causes of sin: such removal is the strongest means for victory over sin. When Venerable Sisoes the Great grew very old, his disciple, Abba Abraham, suggested that he settle to live closer to populated areas. To this the ninety-year-old elder replied: «Let us settle where there are no women.» The disciple objected: «Where is there a place without women, except the desert?» The elder said: «Then settle me in the desert, my child.» A person's good resolve is strengthened far from temptations, acquires extraordinary firmness and strength; on the contrary, when brought near to temptations, it begins to weaken little by little and is finally completely perverted. Thus, ice in the frost becomes harder and harder; but, subjected to the influence of warmth, it melts and disappears. Brethren! It behooves us to distance ourselves from acquaintance with women, especially close acquaintance, from frequent meetings and conversations with them. You who have resolved to conquer nature! Understand that this victory is impossible if we continually subject ourselves to the influence of nature and excite its action within us. Venerable Pimen the Great said to one struggling with the passion of fornication: «If a monk curbs his belly and his tongue, and preserves his strangerhood, he will not die» a spiritual death, which befalls everyone who plunges into fornication. By the name «strangerhood» is understood here removal from a scattered life, free interaction, much and intimate acquaintance, from which carnal lust is inflamed. – Venerable Isaiah the Hermit said that the fornication-related warfare is intensified by the following five causes: from idle talk, vanity, much sleep, from adorning oneself with clothes, and from satiety. Among the causes arousing the passion of fornication, two act with particular force and harm: the violation of strangerhood and satiety. It is difficult to decide which is more ruinous! Both are ruinous. He who has submitted and become enslaved to one of them will not be able to stand firm in the struggle against his own nature. To achieve purity, it is necessary to reject both causes [of lust]. While paying special attention to guarding ourselves from the main causes that arouse desire, let us not leave the secondary ones without due attention: let us guard ourselves from them as well. Even a cause of lesser force acquires particular strength from habit and from negligence towards it. For example: some fast, live in solitude and non-acquisitiveness, and implore God to curb the lusts of their nature; but at the same time, they allow themselves to speak evil, reproach, condemn their neighbors, mock them–and God's help withdraws from them; they are left to themselves and find no strength to resist the sinful impulses of their fallen nature. In a certain coenobitic monastery lived a recluse named Timothy. One of the brethren of the monastery was subjected to a temptation. The superior, learning of this, asked Timothy how he should deal with the fallen brother. The recluse advised expelling the one who had been scandalized. When he was expelled, the temptation of the fallen brother passed to Timothy and brought him into danger. Timothy began to cry out with tears to God for help and mercy. And a voice came to him: «Timothy! Know that I have sent you this temptation precisely because you despised your brother during his time of temptation.» With the members of Christ–Christians–one must deal very cautiously and prudently: one must have compassion for them in their infirmities and cut off only those who, giving no hope of recovery, only infect others with their ailment. The preservation of the body from falling into fornication is very important: but this alone is insufficient for the God-pleasing purity by which God is seen. We have an immutable obligation to cleanse the very soul from lewd thoughts, fantasies, and sensations, as our Savior commanded us. «Just as the body, uniting with another body, is defiled by impurity,» says Venerable Macarius the Great , «so also the soul, uniting with evil and foul thoughts and agreeing with them, is corrupted. If anyone corrupts the soul and mind by agreeing with evil, he is subject to punishment. One must guard both the body from visible sin and the soul from shameful thoughts: for it is the bride of Christ.» Having removed from ourselves the causes of sin, such as: frequent interaction and close acquaintance with the female sex, free association and a scattered life, satiety and enjoyment of food and drink, luxury and excess in clothing and other cell belongings, condemnation of neighbors, evil speech, jesting, idle talk and much talking, let us resolve to renounce the delight in lewd thoughts, fantasies, and sensations. Let us not arouse them in ourselves, and let us courageously reject them when they arise from our fallen nature or are suggested by the enemies of our salvation–the demons. Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem says: «Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' said the Lord, 'shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father' (Matthew 7:21). And the will of His Father is this: 'You who love the Lord, hate evil!' ( Psalm 97:10 ). And so: let us practice the Jesus Prayer and hate wicked thoughts. Thus we shall do the will of God.» «Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit» (2Corinthians 7:1), the Apostle enjoins us. The Holy Fathers command to «watch the head of the serpent» (cf. Genesis 3:14–15 ), that is, to discern the very beginning of a sinful thought and reject it. This applies to all sinful thoughts, but especially to the lustful one, which is aided by fallen nature and, for this reason, has a particular influence on us. Venerable John Cassian enjoins a novice monk to immediately confess a sinful thought that comes to him to his elder. This method is excellent; for a novice, it is the best; but for one who has progressed, it is sometimes extremely necessary and always useful, as it decisively severs friendship with sin, to which the ailing nature is drawn. Blessed is he who can use this method! Blessed is the novice who has found an elder to whom he can reveal his thoughts! To those monks who do not have the opportunity to constantly report to an elder, the Fathers command to immediately reject a manifested sinful thought, in no way entering into conversation or dispute with it, from which entanglement in sin will inevitably follow, and to rush to prayer. This method was used with the greatest success and fruit by Saint Mary of Egypt , as is evident from her life. «If anyone,» said Venerable Nil Sorsky , «at every encountered misfortune and at every thought brought by the enemy, cries out with weeping for help to the goodness of God, he will soon feel peace, if he prays with understanding.» «As it is natural for fire to consume brushwood, so it is natural for pure tears to consume all defilements, of flesh and spirit,» said Saint John Climacus . When we are alone, and during the attack of lustful thoughts and fantasies, with an unusual inflammation of the body, we should fall on our knees and on our face before the holy icons, imitating the practice of the great Mary of Egypt, and with tears or weeping implore God for mercy. Experiences will not delay in proving God's nearness to us and His power over our nature: this will give us living faith, and living faith will inspire us with extraordinary strength and will grant us constant victories. Let us not be surprised if, even after a prolonged struggle, followed by an equally prolonged calm that led to the thought of the mortification of the poison and death of lustful inclinations in nature, a fierce warfare again arises, and indecent inclinations and movements revive in the body. Our enemy is shameless; he does not stop directing his arrows against the greatest Saints of God: experiences have proven to him that the attempt is sometimes successful, it overthrows and shatters even vessels of the Spirit, as happened to the Spirit-bearer who was walking on the roof of his royal house in the evening (2 Samuel 11:2). Our flesh is an unfaithful friend: it lusts after another flesh not only by its own impulse but also by an alien impulse, by the impulse of a fallen spirit, who finds enjoyment for himself in the defilements of a flesh that does not belong to him. Unexpectedly, its indecent, brazen, intensified demand appears! For this reason, Venerable Pimen the Great said: «As the king's armor-bearer stands before him always ready, so the soul must always be ready against the demon of fornication.» We can only marvel at the way of life and practice of the ancient monks in many respects, but in no way imitate them; we can only contemplate them as a miracle of God and glorify God concerning them, who granted weak man incomprehensible strength and holiness. To such practices belongs the method of struggle which advanced monks of the first centuries of monasticism used against lustful thoughts and fantasies. They initially did not resist the thought but allowed it to act somewhat, in their expression, to «enter,» and then struggled with it. – Venerable Pimen the Great , before he attained perfection, sought to be edified by the counsel and instructions of the holy elders contemporary to him. He also turned for advice to Abba Joseph, who was in silence in Paneophos. Once Pimen asked Abba: «What should I do when lustful desires assail me? Should I resist them or allow them to enter?» – The el