Того самого про безмовність і два способи молитви в 15-х главах

The same about speechlessness and two ways of prayer in the 15th chapters. Chapter 1. two ways of communion with God, or two entrances into the condition of prayer, which the Holy Spirit sets in motion in the heart. According to these methods, either the mind precedes it, leaning in the heart to the Lord (Ps. 72, 28), as the Scriptures say, or the anticipatory action [of the Holy Spirit] of fiery pleasures attracts the mind or binds it to the calling of the Lord Jesus and to communion with Him. Although the Holy Spirit acts in everyone “as He wills” (1 Cr. 12, 11), – according to the apostle – sometimes it happens that one action of the Spirit precedes another, which was already discussed in the mentioned ways. Sometimes the action of the Spirit takes place in the heart, that is, when the passions are lessened through the frequent invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus, because divine warmth appears: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12, 29) passions, says the Scriptures. And sometimes the Spirit draws the mind to itself, plunging it into the depths of the heart and restraining its wandering. Then the mind no longer goes as a captive from Jerusalem to Assyria, but resettles from Babylon to Zion and speaks with the prophet: “The song belongs to you, God, in Zion, and to you will be raised a prayer” (Ps. 64, 2) in Jerusalem. And also: “How comforted we were when the Lord returned the captivity of Zion” (Ps. 125, 1). And also: “Let Jacob rejoice and Israel rejoice” (Ps. 13, 8), self-active and contemplative mind, which by action with God’s help overcomes passion and by vision contemplates God as much as it can comprehend. Then the mind, as if called to a sumptuous meal, rejoicing in divine food, sings: “You have prepared a table before me in the eyes of my oppressors” (Ps. 22, 5) – demons and passions. Chapter 2. About how it is appropriate to pray “In the morning,” says Solomon, “sow your seed, that is, prayer, and in the evening do not give your hand rest” (Eccl. 11, 6), so that due to a break in the prayer you may miss the time when it will be heard: “For you do not know,” says Solomon, “whether this or that will be lucky” (Ibid.). In the morning, sitting on your chair, one cubit high, direct your mind from your head to your heart and keep it there, bend forward, as if from pain, and, feeling pain in your shoulders and neck, cry out in your mind or in your soul: “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Also, through oppression and frequent labors, and as if with sorrow, always use these three names, as if you were consuming food. “He who consumes me,” says the Scripture, “will still want to consume me” (Sir. 24, 21). Turning your mind to the second part of the prayer, say: “Son of God, have mercy on me!” And, repeating this part of the prayer many times, do not change it, usually due to laziness, to the first one, because trees do not take root when they are often transplanted. In addition, breathe restrainedly, and not excessively, because loud sighs, coming from the heart, darken the mind and scatter thoughts. They force the mind out of the heart, drive it into oblivion, or induce it to learn something else that it should not know.When you see the impurity of evil spirits, that is, thoughts that arise or transform in your mind, do not be afraid, and even when a good understanding of some things appears in you, do not listen to him, but, holding your breath as much as possible and keeping the mind in your heart, often and persistently calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, you will soon crush and destroy them, striking them with the invisible divine name. Says Listvychnik: “In the name of Jesus, beat the warriors, because there is no stronger weapon either in heaven or on earth.” Chapter 3. About Breathing How to restrain breathing is explained by the hermit Isaiah and many others. Isaiah says that the unrestrained mind must be restrained; he is unstoppable – because he is scattered by the opposing force, which, due to a careless life after baptism, returned with other very evil spirits to a lazy soul, as the Lord says: “And the last of that man will be worse than the first” (Mt. 12, 25). And another says that in some days the memory of God should be instead of breathing. And yet another – that love for God must precede breathing. And Simeon the New Theologian says: “Breathe in slowly so that your breathing is not defiant”12. And the Leaflet says: “Let the memory of Jesus connect with your breath, then you will understand the benefit of

12 Це означає загнуздати гординю духа, а до того ж поєднати його з Духом Божим, а не з чи мось чуттєвим. безмовности”. І апостол говорить: “Живу вже не я, а Христос живе у мені”(Гл. 2, 20), – діючи і вдихаючи божественне життя. І Господь промовляє: “Ві тер віє, куди забажає, і шум його чуєш, а не відаєш, звідки приходить і кудивідходить. Так бо і з кожним, хто народжується від Духа” (Йо. 3, 8), – наводя чи як приклад подих вітру. Оскільки ми очистилися в хрещенні, а Дух навчавнас прийняти Христа і ми прийняли, як каже брат Господній Яків, “посадже не слово” (Як. 1, 21) і з’єдналися в причасті з непричасним і незмінним, то це все якимось способом обожує нас, переповнюючи нас за благістю Божою. Ми ж занедбали заповіді, що зберігають у нас благодать, через свої лінощівпали у пристрасті і замість подиху Святого Духа наповнилися подихом лу кавих духів. Хто набував Святого Духа і Святий Дух очистив його і розігрів, і надихнув божественним життям, той і говорить, і розуміє, і рухається за Господніми словами: “Не ви бо будете говорити, а Дух Отця вашого у вас говоритиме” (Мт. 10, 20)13. І навпаки: “Хто має в собі духа супротивного і той володіє ним, такий робить і говорить супротивне”. Глава 4. Про те, як треба співати “Потрудившись, – каже Ліствичник, – устань, помолися і, знову сівши, берися за свою роботу”. Він сказав це про умове діяння, себто так мають чинити ті,що навчилися берегти серце, але це ж саме можна сказати й про тих, що вико нують псалмоспіви. Розповідають, що якось запитали великого Варсонофія, як треба співати. А старець відповів: “Часи і пісні – це церковне передання, і добре, що вони були дані задля згоди. А ті, що живуть у скиту, не співаютьчасів і не мають пісень, а тільки ремесло і повчання на самоті і короткі мо литви”. Коли стоїш на молитві, подобає тобі промовляти трисвяте й Отче наш. Моли Бога і про те, щоб позбутися старої людини і в ній не застигнути, тому твій ум нехай буде цілий день у молитві. І ще таке пояснив старець, що повчання на самоті – це сердечна молитва, а короткі молитви – це стояння із псалмоспівом. Так говорить і Йоан Ліствичник: “Безмовність, безтурботністьщодо всього і ревна молитва – це стояння і третє неукрадне діяння серця. Сер це – це оселя молитви, себто безмовности”. Глава 5. Про відмінність між тими, що співають псалми Яке має значення те, що одні вчать співати багато, інші – мало, ще інші вчать зовсім не співати, а творити молитву й працювати, себто трудитися над

13 It is about a supernatural gift of God, given to the holy apostles of Christ. some kind of craft, or to create metania, or to do some other simple work. This can be explained as follows: those who have acquired grace through actions and many labors over many years, as they themselves are used to, teach others as well. They do not approve of that and do not trust those who have attained grace by God’s mercy in a short time with warm faith, according to the words of St. Isaac. That is why they persecute such people, robbed by ignorance and pride, and teach others that the other way is delusion and the failure of grace. And they do not know that, according to the Scriptures, “From the sight of the Lord, it is an easy thing: know how to immediately enrich the poor” (Syr. 11, 21). And the book of Proverbs says: “The beginning of wisdom: get wisdom” (Proverbs 4, 7), that is, grace. And the apostle reprimands the disciples of that time, saying: “Do you not know by yourselves that Jesus Christ dwells in you” (2 Kr. 13, 5) – because of your laziness you do not gain anything. Therefore, such people, due to unbelief and high wisdom, do not recognize the special effect of prayer, which is caused by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 6. Objections against those who think so. Tell me you say so. When someone fasts, abstains, watches, stands, eats, makes meditations, cries, does not fast – is this not an action? Why do you say that without action, only by singing psalms, one cannot preserve prayer? Isn’t it all an act? Answer: What is the use of someone praying while his mind wanders. When one builds and the other destroys, there will be nothing but work. Because what a person does with his body, let him do the same with his mind, so that he is not righteous only in his body, but in his heart is full of unbelief and impurity. The apostle announces this, saying: “For when I pray with tongues, that is, with my mouth, my spirit prays, or my voice, but my mind is unfruitful. I will pray with the spirit, but also with the mind. In the Church, I would rather say five words with the mind to teach others than ten thousand words with tongues” (1 Kr. 14, 14-15.19). And the Epistle confirms these words of the apostle, speaking in the Word about prayer: “The great doer of great and perfect prayer says this: I want to say five words with my mind in order to teach others more than ten thousand words with tongues.” There are many types of activity, but they are partial, and heartfelt prayer is a large and capacious activity, as a source of virtues. According to the words of Listvichnik, you can get any good by prayer. “There is no more terrible thought than the thought of death, and no more beautiful memory than the memory of God,” says Saint Maximus, thus showing the supremacy of the act of prayer. At the present time, some do not even want to hear that there is grace, clouded by great insensitivity, and misunderstanding, and little faith. Chapter 7. I think that those who sing little, respecting moderation, do well. Every measure is good, according to the words of the wise, so that not all mental strength is spent on actions and the mind can be zealous in prayer and not weaken in it. Therefore, let those who sing little, devote more time to prayer. It is righteous when, having tired the mind with regular and frequent calling and persistent attentiveness, the speechless person experiences a little consolation and moves from the narrowness of speechlessness to the space of psalm singing.This act is very good, this teaching is the wisdom of men. Chapter 8. And those who do not sing at all do well too, if they are mature in spirit. They do not need to recite psalms, because they have silence, unceasing prayer and contemplation. If you have matured in enlightenment to communion with God, then let them not tear their mind from this and do not bother it with other things. Listivchynyk says that the downfall of a novice is his self-will, and for a speechless woman – the abandonment of prayer (27th Word). The mind of the silent one commits adultery when it departs from the memory of God, as from the memory of the Young One, and willingly takes up less important tasks. Not everyone can be taught this act. This can be taught to simple and unlearned disciples, for through humility their obedience becomes a partaker of all virtue, and it is not given to the disobedient, lest they be tempted by their rudeness and love of reason. “A self-willed person cannot avoid high-mindedness, which is followed by delusion,” says Saint Isaac. Where, without thinking about future harm, they teach the mind to remember God so that he will love it. They teach to save only her, and this cannot be done, especially arbitrarily. Their mind has not yet been cleansed, because it has been cleansed with tears due to carelessness and high-mindedness, so it sees in front of itself dirty thoughts, not prayer. And in the heart, unclean spirits are troubled because they hear God’s name. They grind their teeth a little, trying to kill the one who hurts them. Therefore, when a self-willed person hears about this action or learns about it and wants to preserve it, he will suffer either in one or the other: when he forces himself and is tempted, he will not preserve it; if he is careless, he will not have spiritual growth throughout his life. Chapter 9. I will say it as someone who has experienced something. When, day or night, you are speechless, often praying to God in humility, without thoughts, and your mind becomes numb, calling, and your body aches, and your heart, because of the intensified and frequent calling of Jesus, does not feel either warmth or joy, thanks to which vigilance and endurance are born in an ascetic, then get up and sing psalms alone or with your student, or exercise by learning some word, or the memory of death, or in a craft or in something else, or listen to a reading while standing to work your body. And when you sing by yourself, say the trinity, and then pray – mentally or spiritually, mentally keeping attentiveness in your heart. And when despondency comes upon you, recite two or three psalms and troparia, which will lead to tenderness, without singing, because Listvychnik says that “the mute do not sing.” “Sufficient for them is the heartache that comes from their piety,” says St. Mark, “and the warmth of the Spirit, which is given to them in the joy of joy.” After each psalm, say a prayer in your mind or in your soul, without chanting, and hallelujah. This is the order of the holy fathers Varsonophis and Diadochus and others. The holy Basil advises to change the psalms every day, because this encourages jealousy. And he does not say that when singing the same thing, the mind does not feel pleasure, but likes to give freedom to the condition, so that it is more strengthened in zeal.When you stand, singing, with a faithful disciple, let him recite the psalms, and you secretly keep attentiveness in your heart and, praying, watch over yourself and with the cooperation of prayer review your thoughts that come from the heart, sensual or conditioned. Silence means to put aside for a while thoughts that do not come from the divine Spirit, so that, listening to them as good ones, you do not lose something more. Chapter 10. About Delusion Watch well, laborer of God: when you are doing something and you see light or fire from outside or inside you, or some phenomenon, that is, Christ or an angel, or someone else, do not accept it, so that you do not suffer harm and that you yourself, having paid attention to this, do not allow your condition to portray something like this. Such things come untimely from the outside to tempt the soul. The true beginning of prayer is the warmth of the heart, which burns passions and creates joy in the soul with love and confirms the heart with an unmistakable announcement. Everything that comes to the soul, say the fathers, whether it is sensual or conditional, when the heart doubts it, not accepting it, it did not come from God, but from the enemy. And when you see that your mind is drawn to external or to high things by some invisible force, do not believe it and do not allow your mind to be dragged, but immediately make it return to its work. “What is sent to us from God,” said Saint Isaac, “comes unexpectedly by itself.” When the enemy transforms spiritual things between the natural combs, as he wants, and instead of warmth he instills his unsettled burning, then how difficult it becomes for the soul to be in such a delusion, when instead of spiritual cheerfulness, the enemy causes unreasonable joy and phlegmatic sweetness, from which high-mindedness and arrogance come. The enemy hides his actions from the inexperienced and tries to show his delusion as an act of grace. However, time, experience and feeling still reveal him to those who suspect his tricks. According to the Scriptures, the larynx discerns the taste of food, that is, the spiritual taste, and unmistakably shows everything as it is. Chapter 11. About reading “When you are active,” says the Leaflet, “read those who write about action. When you fulfill their advice, you will not need any other reading. Always read about silence and prayer in the Leaflet, in St. Isaac, in St. Maximus, in Simeon the New Theologian and his disciple Stifatas, in Hesychius, in Philoteus the Sinaite and others such, what they write about it. And all other books are put aside for a certain time, but as those that are not suitable for you and distract your mind from prayer. Do not be proud of your voice, do not fall into vanity because of good pronunciation and fluency of reading. Do not imagine that you are reading in order to please him everything is good in moderation, not too quickly, not carelessly and lazily, but virtuously, gently, constantly, with understanding, benevolently, conditionally and mentally or verbally. The mind, strengthened in this, gains strength in the habit of praying zealously.On the contrary, as we have said before, the mind becomes dizzy, weak and frantic, the head is unable to think and weakens in prayer.” Chapter 12. Always pay attention to your inclination, to what it tends: are you really silent for God’s sake and for the benefit of the soul, or do you sing, or read, or pray, or do some virtue, so that the enemy does not rob you imperceptibly, so as not to be a doer in appearance, but to serve not God, but men. The tricks of the evil one are numerous, and he is cunningly spying on what our intention is inclined to, which many do not know, and he always wants to rob us of our work, so that it is not done according to God. Although he fights unceasingly and advances shamelessly, since you have a firm intention, he will not be able to rob you often, even if he causes your will to rise involuntarily, then he will be forgiven and praised by Him who knows the intentions and the heart. This passion, that is, vanity, does not allow a monk to improve in virtue, and in old age it turns out to be fruitless three: the beginner, the intermediate and the perfect. Having seen this from experience, I say that a monk will never succeed without such virtues: fasting, abstinence, courage, silence, prayer, silence, weeping, and humility. These are the virtues that produce and support each other. Frequent fasting produces abstinence, abstinence produces vigilance, vigilance – patience, silence – prayer, silence – weeping, and humility – weeping. Among the virtues, there is no greater dependence on each other than this. The same applies to the opposite of the virtues. Here it is also appropriate to say about labors and pains to show how each action should be carried out, so that someone, passing, as he himself heard, from our pain, does not receive the fruit, does not accuse us or someone else, that it is not so in reality, as we said. Through the pain of the heart and bodily labor, the work of truth is accomplished, and through them the action of the Holy Spirit is revealed, which is given to every faithful person in baptism, and when the commandments are not fulfilled, then it is buried under passions and waits for our repentance for indescribable mercy. So that at the end we do not hear such words for our barrenness: “They will take away the talent from him… they will take away what he thinks he has” (Mt. 25, 28) and will send us to eternal torment, so that we suffer pain in Gehenna as those who did not accept communion with God or, having accepted it, rejected it. Any physical or spiritual action, when it is without pain and labor, never brings fruit to the one who goes through it, because “the Kingdom of Heaven is obtained by force, – says the Lord, – and those who use force, take it by force” (Mt. 11, 12). Force is the feeling of pain14 in the whole body.Although many have labored or are laboring for many years, but do not feel pain, they do not do their labor from a sincere heart, they do not acquire purity and the Holy Spirit, because they have rejected the transfer of pain. Someone is careless and lethargic, so it only seems that he works hard, but such a person will never reap the fruit of his painlessness, because he does not feel pain at all. A self-witness says: “Even if our life is a great feat, and the heart will not feel pain, then our efforts are not real and useless.” And it also happens that, although we go through pain, but because of despair we resort to useless

14 Турботливий отець, провадячи бесіду про силу або відчуття болю, яке має бути властиве подвижникові, не вчить, аби християнин, що не прийняв духу служіння боязні, а прийняв дух синівства, будучи вільним, силував себе, але духовно виводить Христового воїна наподвиг, аби він, озброєний вірою, терпінням, і смиренням, і всякою здержливістю, і безпристрасністю, а ще – чеснотою і життям у Христі, за святим Золотоустим, воював і здо був, як твердиню, Царство Небесне, хоч би воно й здавалося нам недосяжним. клопотання, і потьмарюється душа наша15, бо думає, що в цьому клопотаннізнайде полегшу, а це неможливо. Стаємо тоді ніби зв’язані невидимими пута ми, незворушні, невдатні ні до якого діла, бо в нас примножилася слабкість,особливо коли ми – початківці; досконалим все корисне в міру. Про це свід чить і великий Єфрем, кажучи: “Коли трудишся, трудися з напруженням, щоб обминути тобі зусилля марних трудів”. Якщо члени наші не висохнуть від слабкости, знемігшись трудами посту, і не почнуться болі від страждань, “як у породіллі” (Іс. 21, 3), за словами пророка, то ми не породимо духа спасенняна землі серця, як ти вже чув. А будемо похвалятися тільки роками і некорис ною пустелею, і слабкою безмовністю, так, ніби це великі подвиги. А коли душа виходитиме з тіла, тоді безсумнівно пізнаємо всі плоди свого життя. Глава 15.Неможливо, щоб людина сама звикла вправлятися в чеснотах, хоч деякі по кладалися на свій досвід, як на вчителя. Хто чинить від себе самого, а не за порадою досконалих, той або високодумний, або високодумство народиться в ньому. Навіть і Син нічого не чинить від себе, а чинить так, як навчив Його Отець, і Дух Святий говорить не від себе. Чи ж є хтось, хто досягнув такої високої чеснотливости, що не треба йому нікого, хто б уводив його в тайни? Він зведений і, видається, має в собі більше гордині, ніж чеснот. Тому подобає слухати тих, що знають труди діяльних чеснот, і так, як вони вчать, зберігатичесноти, себто такий піст, щоб відчувати голод, немилу здержливість, терпля че чування, втому від коліноприклонень, непорушне стояння, що натруджує тіло, неустанну молитву, нелицемірне смирення, безперестанну молитву й зітхання, доброслівне мовчання, ніби приправлене сіллю, терпіння до всіх. Не подобає завжди перебувати в спокої, чи тільки сидіти, хоч не старий ти і не хворий. “Трудом рук твоїх живитися будеш” (Пс. 127, 2), – каже Писання. А ще сказано, що “Царство Небесне здобувається силою” (Мт. 11, 12). Отожнамагайся повсякдень звершувати згадані діяння з болем, себто по-подвиж ницьки, і свого часу збереш із Богом плоди.

15 Ліствичник, із 7 ступеня.