Преподобного й богоносного отця нашого Петра Дамаскина книга перша

The beginning of this book with the God of our venerable and God-bearing father, the hieromartyr Peter of Damascus, feet and great gifts by grace I, wretched, have received from God, and who did nothing good, I was afraid, lest through laziness and boredom I should forget about these gifts and such good deeds of God, and wash away my sins and not even stand before God, as a prudent and grateful, before Dobrochynets. That is why I wrote these instructions as a rebuke to my wretched soul, and named all those scriptures, Lives and Words of the holy fathers that I read, so that I could remember at least a little of what they taught. And since I never had my own books and did not try to buy them, I borrowed from the Love of Christ what I needed for my body, for the love of God. And, having diligently read the borrowed book, he gave it to the person from whom he borrowed it. And these were the books of the Old and New Testaments. And from the Old Testament are the following: the books of Exodus, Kings, Chronicles, Psalms and the books of the prophets. And the New Testament: the holy Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and in addition, explanations for all these books. All the books of the fathers: Dionysia, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory the Theologian, Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Antonius, Arsenius, Macarius, Nilus, Ephrem, Isaac, Mark, John of Damascus, John the Episcopalian, Maximus, Dorotheus, Philemon and other saints, Lives of the Word. And it pleased me, unworthy, to test everything with hope and effort, looking for the beginning of the salvation and destruction of man. And checked whether every act and deed will save a person or not? And what are all people looking for? And how was God fed in ancient times and how now? How did they live in wealth and poverty, in the midst of many sinners and in the desert, in marriage and in virginity? In a word, as in any place and undertaking we find life and death, salvation and destruction. And not only that, because we, monks, have different statutes. That is, obedience to the father with body and soul; silence that cleanses the soul; spiritual advice instead of obedience; hegumenship and hierarchy. And among them all we find those who are saved and those who perish. And I was not only amazed at them, but also at the ancient angel in heaven, who was spiritual by nature, had wisdom and all virtue, and suddenly became the devil, darkness and ignorance, the beginning and end of all sin and wickedness. He also marveled at Adam, who was in such honor and enjoyed good things, and lived with God, adorned with both wisdom and virtue in paradise, one with Eve – and at once he was expelled, became passionate and mortal, and labored in efforts and burdens, in sweat and great sorrow. And Cain and Abel were born to him – the only brothers on earth. He was surprised that one of them was overcome by envy and cunning and committed murder, curses and riots. I was also amazed at the people who descended from them – they died in the flood because of their many sins. But God, in his love for men, saved those who were in the ark, and among them was Canaan, the son of Ham, who sinned, and Canaan fell under the curse. Righteous Noah, in order not to turn away God’s blessing, cursed the son, not the father.Then he marveled at those who built the Tower of Babel, then at the Sodomites, the Israelites, Solomon, the Ninevites, Gehazi, Judah and all those who were good and became evil. I was also surprised that God, who is all-benevolent and very merciful, who is good himself, allowed great and numerous sorrows and temptations to exist in the world. Some He allows himself – these are the labors of repentance, thirst, hunger, weeping, deprivation of everything necessary, abstinence from pleasures, weakness of the body in exploits, vigils, labors, pains, many and bitter tears, sighing, fear of death, trials, staying with demons in hell, the terrible day of judgment, the shame that will be ours before all creatures, trepidation, the bitter exposure of deeds, words and thoughts, threats and anger, very different and eternal torments, useless weeping, incessant tears, endless darkness, fear, suffering, distraction, sadness, anguish and torment of the soul in the present age and in the future, troubles that happen in the world, shipwrecks, very numerous diseases, lightning, thunder, hail, earthquakes, famine, flood, premature deaths – in a word, all the evil that happens to us by God’s permission. And others God does not allow, but we want them, and demons are war, passions, numerous sins that will be named in the next Word, from madness to despair and complete destruction, invasion of demons, battles, torment from passions, abandonment, worries and changes in life, anger, slander and every insult that we voluntarily inflict on ourselves and each other – and God does not want all of this. And he was also surprised that among so many evils, many were saved and nothing harmed them, while others died against God’s will. Learning all this and much more from the Divine Scriptures, he was crushed in soul and “like water I spilled out” (Ps. 21, 15), and often became weak, because he could not feel even a little what he was talking about. For if I had felt it, I would not have been able to live in a life full of sin and disobedience to God, through which all evil, past and future, came about. However, having received from grace the desire to seek, I found the following reflections of the holy fathers: the beginning of all good is the natural knowledge that God gave to man, or man learned from the Divine Scriptures, or from the guardian angel given to us in holy baptism, so that guarded the soul of every faithful – we call it conscience – and reminded about the divine commandments of Christ, that by them the grace of the Holy Spirit is preserved in the baptized, when he wants to preserve it. And after knowledge comes consent. It is the beginning of salvation; this means that a person leaves his will and understanding, and acts according to God’s will and understanding. And when she manages to do so, there will not be found among all created things not a thing, not an act, not a place that would not allow her to become as God intended from the very beginning – according to His image and likeness, and according to the condition as God, through grace – dispassionate, righteous, good and wise in wealth and poverty, in virginity and in marriage, in leadership and freedom, in submission and in slavery, – in a word, at all times, and in all places, and in all things.And therefore there were many righteous before the law, and in the law, and by grace, because they put the knowledge of God and His will before their will and understanding. And we also see many who died in the same times and in the same deeds, because they put their knowledge and desires before God’s. And so it was. There are different kinds of knowledge and deeds. And let each one acquire prudence, or humbly with the wisdom given by God, or by asking those who have the gift of prudence. After all, without it, what we do will not be good, even though we think it is good through ignorance. Thanks to prudence, a person learns his strength and the work he wants to do, and thus begins to serve God with his deeds. However, in everything she likes to renounce her desires, as we have already said, in order to understand God’s intentions, that is, what works God wants from us. And if he does not do so, he will not be able to save himself. After Adam’s transgression, we all grow up in passions and, having become accustomed to passions, we do not want what is good with joy, we do not seek God’s knowledge and we do not do it with love, as dispassionate ones. But we love passions and cunning more, and we do not want good at all, except out of necessity, fearing torment – this is what those who accept God’s word with firm faith do, and others are not afraid of torment. Although we know about the sorrows of this life and future torment, we serve our passions with all our souls, and some, not feeling their bitterness, work on virtues because of force and unwillingly. Because of our folly, we desire that which is worthy of hatred. As the sick need their wounds to be cut and cauterized in order to heal them, so we need temptations and the labor of repentance, and the fear of death and torment, in order to restore the original health of the soul and get rid of the disease that our madness has brought us. And no matter how much voluntary or involuntary labor the Doctor of our souls gives us, we should be grateful for His manly love and accept it with joy. Contributing to us, He increased voluntary sorrows through repentance and involuntary sorrows through temptations and torments, so that those who want to suffer voluntarily, may be cured of their illness and get rid of past, and maybe even present, torments. And let the foolish be healed by the grace of the Physician, fearing torment and all kinds of temptations. Therefore, those who love illness and are in it, rightfully serve for eternal torment, because they resemble demons and will suffer with them the eternal torment prepared by demons, because they wanted to be with them and were not grateful to their Benefactor. We do not all receive charity in the same way: some receive the fire of the Lord, that is, His word, and thanks to the action, their hearts become soft as wax; others, because of idleness, become hard as dry earth, and their hearts become stony. But the Lord does not force any of us to accept. The sun sends out its rays and illuminates the whole world, and whoever wants to see it sees it, and whoever does not want to see it, it does not force, and no one is to blame for a person when he is deprived of light, unless he himself did not want it. God created the sun and the eye, and man has the power to see or not. So here too.God enlightens everyone with knowledge, like rays, and in addition to knowledge, He also gives faith, like an eye. And whoever wants to receive true knowledge through faith, he preserves his memory by deeds, and God grants him greater vigilance, knowledge and strength. Whoever has natural knowledge, because he wanted to have it, vigilance is born from knowledge, from vigilance – the power to act, and from action memory is preserved, and from memory comes more careful action, through which higher knowledge is given, and from this knowledge, which is called wisdom, is born restraint from passions and bearing sorrows, and from them – work for God and knowledge of God’s gifts and one’s sins, from which is born a good understanding that the fear of God is through him; from the fear of God comes observance of the commandments, that is, weeping, meekness, humility, which give rise to prudence, and from it comes insight, that is, foreseeing future sins and cutting them off in time with the help of experience and memory, because thanks to the purity of the mind, we remember both what we did once, and what we do now, and what was done in secret. Foreseeing sins and cutting them off gives rise to hope, and from it comes dispassion and perfect love. Such a person no longer wants anything except the will of God, and he leaves this temporary life for the sake of love for God and neighbor with joy, so that with wisdom, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and sonship, he will be crucified, buried and resurrected, and ascend spiritually with Christ, imitating Him, that is, His life on earth. And he simply accepts the pledge of future bliss, as the theologian says in the Word of the Eight Thoughts: “[a person] has God in himself and becomes dispassionate, righteous, good and wise, because – as Christ himself says – he keeps the commandments (John 14:21), starting with the first one, and all the others.” After that, I will tell you how to keep the order. And as for the knowledge of virtues, let’s also say about passions. Knowledge illuminates us like the sun, and the madman himself covers his eyes, that is, consent is not faith and laziness, and immediately oblivion, born of idleness and boredom, overcomes knowledge. So from madness there is boredom, and from boredom – idleness, and from idleness – forgetfulness, and from it – self-love, when a person loves his will and his desires, which is called hedonism and glory. And from them comes love of money – the root of all evils, and from it – preoccupation with worldly things, and from it – complete ignorance of God’s gifts and one’s sins, because of which the other eight main passions are instilled in a person – I mean gluttony, and because of it fornication, because of them love of money, and from it anger, if a person does not get what he wants, that is, of his will. This causes sadness, and because of it, boredom. Then vanity, and from it pride. And from these eight comes all evil, passion and sin. Because of them, a person falls into despair and complete destruction and falls away from God, and, as we have already said, becomes like demons. A person stands between these two roads, that is, between the road of truth and the road of sin, and he steps on whichever he wants and walks along it.The road that has been set on it, and those who lead along it, whether angels and God’s people, or demons and evil people, bring people to the end of the road, even if they don’t want to1. The righteous go to God and the Kingdom of Heaven, and the sinners go to the devil and eternal torment. But the cause of destruction is none other than one’s own will, and the cause of salvation is God, who, after ordinary existence, bestows a good existence, knowledge and strength. Man cannot have this without God’s grace. And the devil cannot do anything for our destruction: neither will he tear out of us consent to the contrary, nor will he lead to exhaustion or involuntary ignorance, nor will he do anything else to force a person – he only puts a memory of evil in a person. Therefore, whoever does good, let him thank God, who has given us everything with existence. And whoever chose and does the opposite, let him blame only himself. After all, no one can compel him by force: for God created him free, so that he might be praised, because he chose good from his own desire, as befits a verbal being, as God created him, and not by compulsion, like the wordless and soulless. And we do evil out of our own will and our own thoughts, having learned this from the inventor of evil. And the all-good God does not force us, so that we do not suffer a greater condemnation when, being forced, we do not obey, and does not take away from us our will, which he himself gave us. And whoever wants to do good, let him ask God in prayer, and now knowledge and strength will be given to him, so that the righteous grace sent by God will appear. Although He would give without prayer what He gives through prayer, but if the one to whom air is given for life and he knows that he cannot live without it lacks words of praise, how much more should he thank the One who created him and gave him breath and health to breathe and live. So we should be very grateful to God, who by his grace created prayer, and knowledge, and strength, and virtues, and us, and everything that is for us. And he not only created, but also does not cease to take care of us in order to defeat our malice and our enemies – demons. Because even the devil himself, having lost the knowledge given by God, through ignorance and pride involuntarily became dark, and therefore cannot know by himself what he likes to do, but looks closely at what God does for our salvation, and learns from this, acting cunningly and treacherously

1 Here it is said that demons lead a person to the end of the road, even though he does not want to. This means that her good intention is tied up in her, and she herself is weak and inactive, because the tendency to evil prevails in a person. similar to our destruction. That is why he hates God, and since he cannot fight against Him, he fights against us, who are created in the image of God, because he thinks that by this he is confessing to God. And he sees that we listen to him, as Golden Mouth says. He saw how God created Eve to be Adam’s helper, and made her his helper in transgression and disobedience. God gave the commandment so that Adam, keeping it, would keep the memory of the great gifts and thank God. And the devil made that commandment the cause of disobedience and death, and instead of prophets he called false prophets, instead of apostles – false apostles, instead of the law he made iniquities, instead of virtues – sins, instead of commandments – transgressions, instead of all truth – every sin, and instead of true dogmas – vile heresies. And again, seeing Christ, who with the greatest kindness goes to the holy martyrs and holy fathers either by himself, or through angels, or by some other indescribable providence, the devil also began to show some many delusions for destruction. That is why the discerning fathers wrote that these delusions should not be accepted, whether it be a figure, or light, or fire, or some other delusion. The devil tries to tempt us at least through dreams or senses. And if we do not accept all this, then it suggests to the mind, due to arrogance and extreme ignorance, to dream of some images or appearance, so that we think that this is a vision from God or from an angel. He often shows demons in dreams and through senses, as if they are defeated, and when someone submits to him, he makes all sorts of tricks for the destruction of such a person. And it happens that he does this, and his hope is not fulfilled. That is what the holy fathers say, so that during prayer the mind should be kept free of any form, without images and ideas, so that it does not accept anything: neither light, nor fire, nor anything else, but only keeps the thought in the words that utter them. Because he who prays only with his mouth, he prays to the air, and not to God: God listens to the mind, and not to words, like people. “Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), says Christ. And “I would rather speak five words with my mind than ten thousand words with tongues” (1 Cor. 14, 19). Then the devil, not understanding what is happening, puts in us the thought of despair, that in other times there were other people and through them God worked miracles for the sake of faith. And now is not the time to create them. We are all Christians and we are all baptized, and the Scripture says: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mr. 16, 16). What else is needed? But if we listen to this and stop at this, then we will lose everything and will only be called Christians, because we will not know that the one who believed and was baptized must keep all the commandments of Christ, and when he fulfills them all, let him say: “I am an unnecessary servant” (cf. Lk. 17, 11). As the Lord says to the apostles: “Teaching them to keep everything I commanded” (Mt. 28, 20).Because everyone who receives baptism says: “I renounce Satan and all his works; I unite with Christ and all His commandments.” Where is our renunciation, if we do not reject every temptation and every sin that the devil brings us? Let us hate sin with our whole soul and love Christ, keeping His commandments. And how can we keep His commandments, when we do not renounce all our will and all understanding? That is, that desire and understanding that contradicts God’s commandment. There are many who, by nature or by habit, in some matters love what is good, and hate what is evil. There are also good understandings that are confirmed by the Divine Scriptures, but they need to be considered by experienced people. Because what we consider to be good will not be good until experienced people consider it, because it is either untimely, or completely unnecessary, that is, inappropriate, or we misunderstand what was said. And not only the Scriptures, but also any question – when both the one who asks and the one who is asked are inattentive to it – it deviates very far from the content of what was said and inevitably causes harm. And I suffered more than once when I was asked and when I asked. When he correctly understood what was said, he later wondered how similar words were and how they could be understood differently. Likewise, in everything else, we need to consider how we should act, so that we act according to the will of God. God knows our nature best as the Creator of everything, and He arranged and legalized what is useful for us, what is not foreign to our nature, but inherent in it and serves only for the improvement of those who want to rise above nature to Him of their own free will, namely, virginity, unacquired and humble wisdom, but not prudence, because prudence is natural. Humility is supernatural, because every virtue is performed humbly by the wise, and although he is not guilty of anything, he feels himself a debtor and inferior to everyone. A prudent person has a debt and acknowledges it. For when he does good, he does it with what he has, and therefore he does not rise above nature as one who does not acquire. And the one who is married cannot be like a virgin, because this gift is also supernatural. Thus, one is saved when he abandons his desires and fulfills God’s will, and the other receives from God the crown of patience and glory, because he not only abandoned what the commandments forbid, but also with God’s help conquered his nature, and supernaturally loved God with all his soul, and by his strength imitated God’s dispassion. And because we do not understand ourselves and everything that happens for us, and why it happens, and what we are all looking for, that is why the Divine Scriptures and the words of the holy men of old, that is, the prophets, and the righteous, and the holy fathers of the New Testament, seem to us to be inconsistent, and those who now want to be saved are also inconsistent among themselves, which should not be. From a few words and from the nature of things, we know that when a person wants to be saved, nothing will stand in his way: neither time, nor place, nor deeds. To only do everything necessary for salvation, as it pleases, she reasoned, not forgetting God’s intention. Because what we do is not necessary, but what we do it for. We will not sin involuntarily if we do not first agree with the thought and it does not capture us.And then the thought leads to the fall of the one whom it unwittingly captured. Similarly, unconscious transgressions become conscious through transgressions. For he who does not get drunk from wine or from lust, does not have his consciousness darkened. And the mind darkens from intoxication, and when it darkens, it sins, and when it sins, it dies. Therefore, death does not come unconsciously; it is more correct to say that conscious drunkenness entails unconscious death. And it often happens that we move from voluntary thoughts to involuntary ones, and from conscious thoughts to unconscious ones. And since the first ones seem easy and easy to us, we involuntarily and unconsciously move on to the others. Because if we had wanted to keep the commandments from the very beginning and remain as we were after baptism, we would not have come to such evil and would not have needed the labor and pain of repentance. However, if we want, the second grace of God, that is, repentance, can return us to our original beauty. If we do not seek this, then, like unrepentant demons, we will go to eternal torment, whether we want it or not. God did not create us to be angry with us, but to give us salvation, so that, having enjoyed His benefits, we would be grateful and benevolent towards the Benefactor. But our carelessness in understanding his gifts has led us to despair. And she threw us into oblivion, because of which ignorance reigned in us. When we want to make a start, to return to where we fell from, a lot of work is needed, because we do not want to leave our desires, but think that with God’s desires we can also do our own, but this is impossible. Because the Lord himself says: “I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me”, that is, the Father’s (John 6:38), although the will of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, because they have one inseparable nature. But it is said for us also about the desires of the flesh. When the flesh is not mortified and man is not guided only by the Spirit of God, he will not be able to do the will of God without compulsion. When the grace of the Holy Spirit reigns in us, then there will be no more our will, and everything that happens will be according to God’s will. Then we will have peace within ourselves and those who love God’s will, as the Son of God and God, will be called God’s sons. And no one will be able to understand this, if he does not keep the commandments, with which he cuts off all kinds of pleasures, that is, his desires, and endures all the pains that come with it. Madness gives rise to pleasure and pain, as we have already said, and these two give birth to all sin, because a madman becomes self-loving and cannot be either brotherly or God-loving, and does not refrain from passions, that is, his desires, and does not bear sorrows. Sometimes he succeeds in acting according to his will – and passions and pride multiply in him, then he does not succeed – and he is sorry for this, and he falls into despondency and mental depression – the beginning of Gehenna. And knowledge, that is, wisdom, gives rise to restraint and patience.After all, a wise man restrains his desires and experiences pain at the same time, and, considering himself unworthy of pleasure, is reasonable and grateful to the Benefactor, fearing that because of the benefits that God gave him in this age, he may not lose them in the future. He practices temperance and other virtues, considering himself a debtor in everything. And he does not find anything, not even the smallest, that he could repay his Benefactor, and he considers the virtues themselves a great debt, because he receives and does not give. Even the fact that he deigned to thank God and God accepts his thanks, he considers it a great debt and always gives thanks, doing good deeds and always being humble, and considers himself the greatest debtor and the least of all. Rejoicing in God, who benefits him, and rejoicing with awe, and humbly approaching God’s unchanging love, he accepts sorrows as his due. But when even greater sorrows befall him, he believes that he is worth it, and rejoices that it will be convenient for him to suffer in the present age, and the torments prepared for him in the future age will be eased. And in this he recognizes his weakness, and is not proud. And he who has the grace to know this and endure it by God’s grace begins to love God. Humility comes from knowledge, and knowledge comes from temptation. He who knows himself is given knowledge of everything. And whoever obeys God, all carnal wisdom will obey him, and after that – when humility reigns in all his members – everything will obey him. “Whoever knows himself,” say Saints Gregory and Vasilis, “resides in greatness and in humility, because he has an intelligent soul and a mortal earth, not a body, and therefore he is never proud and does not despair, but, being ashamed of an intelligent soul, turns away from everything shameful and, knowing his weakness, flees from all pride.” Whoever, through numerous physical temptations and spiritual passions, has understood his weakness, knows the infinite power of God, how God saves the humble who call to Him with painful prayer of the heart. And then the prayer becomes even sweeter for Him. Knowing that he can do nothing without God, and fearing to fall, he ventures to cling to God and marvels, reflecting on the fact that God has delivered him from so many temptations and passions, and thanks the one who can deliver him, and gratefully accepts humility and love, and does not dare to judge anyone at all, knowing that as God helped him, so he can help everyone else, when he wills, as Saint Maximus says. Maybe he sees someone who struggles with numerous passions and overcomes them, and considers himself weak. And therefore God will soon help him so that his soul does not perish. And knowing even greater things, and thinking about his weaknesses, he does not give into sin. But it is impossible to achieve this for someone who does not endure many mental and physical temptations. And when the power of God strengthens him in patience, he will learn from experience. Such a person does not dare to follow his desires without asking the experienced, nor express his understanding. And why is it for someone who wants to think or do something not for bodily life or spiritual salvation?When someone does not know which desire or which understanding should be rejected, let him test every thing and every understanding, distancing himself from them and abstaining. And when, not having something, he worries, and when he gets it, he feels pleasure, and when it is forbidden, he feels discontent, then this thing leads to evil. And we should despise it, until it lingers in us, and strive to overcome it, when we feel harm from it. I say this about every thing and understanding, without which we can live in the flesh and serve God well. Because when a habit lingers, it will strengthen and become characteristic of a person, but when you don’t let it go, it weakens and slowly dies. Both good custom and bad times feed like firewood feeds a fire. That is why we like to learn good and do good with all our strength, so that it becomes a habit and is done without effort, just as fathers were able to do great things to small ones. He who does not want to have what is necessary for the body, and renounces it in order to walk on a narrow and painful path, will not reach lust. Because covetousness is not only the acquisition of many things, but also a passion for some thing or keeping it in oneself without need or beyond need. Many of the ancient fathers, although they had great property, such as Abraham, Job and David and many others, had no passion for it, they looked at all things as God’s and that is why they pleased God. And the Lord – the highest perfection and the only Self-wisdom – also cut off the root of this passion, because he commanded those who follow Him – the highest virtue – not to possess not only property and wealth, but also their soul, that is, their will and their understanding. Knowing this, the fathers fled from the world, because it hinders perfection, and not only from the world, but also from the will, because none of them ever acted according to their own will. Some of them were in carnal obedience and instead of Christ they had a spiritual father to whom they gave their understanding. And others, in the desert and completely separated from people, had God himself as their teacher, and for Him, of their own free will, they wanted to suffer death. Still others followed the middle path, that is, maintaining silence and living in pairs or threes, they became good advisers to each other, how to please God. Some, having learned obedience, were placed as elders over the brothers by the order of the father, and they continued to live, as if under obedience, keeping the traditions of the fathers themselves, and every act of theirs was good. And now, since we do not want to leave our desires, whether we live under obedience or are put under the authority of our elders, that is why no one succeeds. And there was still a distance from people and everyday affairs, to walk the middle path and keep silence with one or two brothers and to study Christ’s commandments and the Holy Scriptures day and night, so that the Scriptures and conscience would rebuke the ascetic and he, through careful reading and prayer, understood the first commandment, that is, the fear of God, which comes from faith and from the teachings of the Divine Scriptures. And through fear he came to weeping, and through it also to other commandments, which the apostle called them, that is, to faith, hope and love.Whoever believes in the Lord, he fears torment, and fearing torment, he keeps the commandments; keeping the commandments, endures sorrows, enduring sorrows, cherishes hope in God; and hope detaches the mind from all passion, and a mind detached from passion will have love for God. When someone, wherever he is, wants to do so, he will be saved. And silence is the beginning of the purification of the soul – without difficulty one learns to fulfill all the commandments. “Run away,” one great father was told, “be silent and maintain silence, for these are the roots of sinlessness”2. And again: “Flee from people and you will be saved, because conversations do not allow one to see one’s own sins, nor demonic tricks, so that a person can protect himself, nor good deeds and providence of God, so that through them he acquires the knowledge of God and humility.”

2 In Chetia-Minea for the 8th of May, in the life of Arsenius the Great. Therefore, when someone wants to go to Christ by a short road, that is, through dispassion and knowledge, and with joy reach perfection, let him not go anywhere, that is, to the right or to the left, but carefully go to the middle path, fleeing from excesses or weakening of exploits, because the one and the other contradict gluttony It is not necessary, therefore, to cloud the mind with excessive conversation and blind it with requests, nor to confuse the mind with prolonged fasting and vigil. But the seven bodily actions must be done patiently in order to climb up, as if on a ladder, endlessly fulfilling these seven actions, going to a moral action, through which the one who believes, by the grace of God, is given discernment, as the Lord says. “All Scripture is inspired by God and useful” (2 Tim. 3, 16). Nothing will hinder the one who wants to be saved, and nothing has power over us, except the only God, who is ready to help us and protect from every temptation those who cry to Him and want to do His holy will. Without Him, no one can do good or suffer evil involuntarily, when He does not allow such a thing for the punishment of the sinner and for the salvation of his soul. Evil deeds come from us and are done because of our laziness and the cooperation of demons. And all knowledge, virtue and fortitude are the grace of God, like everything else. By grace, we are given “the right to become God’s children” (John 1:12) by keeping His commandments. These commandments protect us more, and they are God’s grace. After all, we cannot keep them without His grace. And we cannot return anything to Him, except faith and consent. In a word, keeping all the true dogmas of faith that we have heard, it is good to start in order, like studying at school, to do the mentioned seven actions and get used to them by the actions themselves. And these seven actions are like this. A detailed description of the seven bodily actions is necessary. The first action is silence, that is, carefree living, distant from all the worries of life, so that a person, having distanced himself from people and worries, can avoid bustle and the enemy, who, like a roaring lion, walks and looks for someone to devour with conversations and worldly worries. And so that she had one concern – how to please God and prepare an uncondemned soul for the time of death, and with all vigilance she could learn how demons rob us and their sins, which are more numerous than the sand in the sea – they are as thin as dust, therefore unknown to many. And, always weeping, she grieved over human nature, and God will comfort her as a prudent one, and she rejoiced because she was able to see what she never expected to see, because she never leaves her cell. And, knowing her weakness and God’s power, she was afraid and had hope that she would not become defiant and fall from ignorance, and would not forget about God’s love for men, and would not fall into despair when something happened to her. The second act is a moderate fast, that is, to eat once a day, and not until full.To eat some simple dish, which is easy to prepare and which the soul does not want – unless there is nothing else – in order to overcome gluttony, gluttony, lust and remain dispassionate, and at the same time let it not be far from anything at all, it is foolish to reject what God has created very good. Let him not eat everything at the same time unrestrainedly and gluttonously, but consume everything sparingly once a day for the glory of God, not turning away from anything, as damned heretics do. Wine is useful in its time – in old age and infirmity, and when it is cold, it is very useful, but even then it is not much to drink. And in youth and when it is warm and healthy, it is best to drink water. However, drink it very little, because thirst is better than all bodily actions. The third is moderate vigilance, that is, half the night to sleep and half to sing psalms, pray, sigh and cry. So that through moderate fasting and vigilance, the body obeys the soul, is healthy and ready for every good deed. Let the soul have courage and enlightenment, so that it sees what needs to be done and does it. The fourth is the singing of psalms, that is, bodily prayer, which is performed by singing psalms and bending the knees, so that the body is tired, and the soul is humbled, and our demons are fleeing, and our guardian angels come – and then a person will know where help comes to him. So that, not knowing this, she does not become proud, thinking that she herself performs her actions – and then God will withdraw from her – so that she knows her own weakness. The fifth is a spiritual prayer that occurs in the mind, free from all thoughts, when the mind dwells in the words of the prayer and, falling to God with indescribable sorrow, asks Him for one thing: that the will of God be in all his undertakings and understandings, that he does not accept thoughts, or images, or views, or fire, or light – nothing at all. But so that he remains invisible, does not see images and does not imagine – because that is how God sees him and talks with him. This is pure prayer, which pleases the active, but the one who contemplates with the mind, something else, higher than this, awaits him. The sixth is the reading of the Words and Lives of the holy fathers, without paying attention to other people’s or any other, and even more so, heretical dogmas, in order to understand from the Divine Scriptures and from the reflections of the fathers, how to overcome passions and acquire virtues, the abium was filled with the words of the Holy Spirit and forgot the previous dissimilar words and understanding that he heard outside the cell, and so that by prolonged recitation of prayer and meditation he came to good thoughts. Prayer is helped by reading in silence, and reading is pure prayer, when one is not lazy to read or sing, even though it is impossible to understand the full force of what is read due to being clouded by passions. Arrogance leads to ruin, especially those who think of themselves as having the wisdom of this world, not knowing that we need active knowledge to understand it, and not just hearing will help us to know God. Because listening is one thing, and doing is quite another. He who only listens cannot become a master, he must see, and work, and make mistakes, and be corrected by experienced ones, and endure, and cut off his desires – and when he works hard, he will become a good master.Likewise, spiritual knowledge does not come through just learning, it is given by God to the humble and wise by grace. There is nothing surprising in the fact that one who reads the Scriptures thinks that he knows at least something, especially if he is active. But he has not yet known God, but only listens to the words of those who have known God. Many of those who wrote had knowledge of God, but this one does not yet. So, what I wrote, I gathered from the Divine Scriptures, and did not deign to hear from the Holy Spirit; I heard from those who heard from the Holy Spirit, as sometimes people hear about a city or a person from those who know this city or person. The seventh is to ask experienced people about every word and undertaking, so that through lack of skill or self-indulgence he does not think and do what is not necessary, as the apostle says: “When someone thinks to himself that he knows something, he does not yet know how to know” (1 Cor. 2, 8). Apart from these seven corporal actions like to have patience for everything that happens, which God allows for our knowledge and experience, so that we see our weakness and are neither presumptuous nor despair, no matter what happens there, whether good or bad. He likes to turn away from every dream and every empty word and deed, and to repeat the name of God more often than we breathe, at any time, in any place and with any deed, to fall to Him with all our soul, detaching the mind from all worldly thoughts and seeking only the will of God. And then the mind begins to see all its sins like the sand of the sea. And this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health. In a word, the soul becomes crushed, and the heart is humbled by it, and truly considers itself inferior to everyone, and begins to know the benefits of God, both special and general, which are spoken about in the Divine Scriptures, and knows our sins. And he keeps the commandments intelligently from the first to the last. Because the Lord has set them up like a ladder, no one can, stepping over one step, go to the next. And going as if by degrees, he goes from the first to the second, from the second to the third, until they make a person a god, because he who gave them by grace so willed. Whoever wants to keep the commandments, let him start with the fear of God, so that he does not slip and fall into the abyss. Whoever wants to achieve success, let him work on these commandments, and not on anything else. If not, it will slip and fall into the abyss. Because as with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: no one will reach the others if he does not start from the first – so it is with the Lord’s beatitudes. “The beginning of wisdom,” says David, “is the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 110, 10). Another prophet, speaking words from on high, says: “The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Is. 11, 2-3). Yes, the Lord first began to teach about fear when he said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Mt. 5:3), that is, let everyone be filled with the fear of God and indescribable sorrow of the soul. The Lord laid this commandment as a foundation, because he knew that without it, even if a person lived in heaven, he would not benefit from it because of pride, through which the devil and Adam and many others fell.Therefore, whoever wants to preserve the first commandment, that is, fear, let him carefully think about those events in life, about which we have written, and about the immeasurable and inscrutable benefits of God, and about everything that God created and creates for us through the visible and invisible world, commandments and dogmas, prohibitions and promises, protecting, nourishing, providing, giving life, liberating from visible and invisible enemies, by the prayers and intercession of His saints, healing ailments that occur due to our lawlessness, always long-suffering our lawlessness, wickedness and sins and everything that we have done and are doing, and what we have to do – may His grace protect us from this – and when we anger Him by word, deed and thought. And not only tolerates us, but also does more good for us himself, through angels, the Scriptures, through the righteous, prophets, apostles, martyrs, teachers and reverend fathers. And, looking at the sufferings of some, the feats of others, marveling at the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, His life in this world, the pure passions, the cross, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, indescribable miracles, which are always and every day, Paradise, crowns, filial piety, which has pleased us, and everything that the Divine Scripture speaks about, and thinking about it, we are amazed, looking at God’s manly love, we tremble and marvel at His long-suffering and descent to us, and we lament the loss that our nature has suffered – angelic dispassion, paradise and all the benefits that we have fallen from them, – and for all the evil into which we have fallen, that is, demons, passions and sins, and we grieve with our souls, thinking about how much evil has come out because of our sin and the cunning of demons. About the second commandment and the fact that fear gives rise to weeping. Then God will give the ascetic the second commandment – blessed weeping. “Blessed are not,” says the Savior, “those who weep, for they will be comforted” (Mt. 5:4)3, that is, those who weep for themselves and for their neighbors out of love and compassion. And the one who weeps over himself, as over the dead, because he understands with fear what happens after death and before death; cries, sighing from the depths of his heart, with many bitter and painful tears and indescribable sobs. And he does not care about honor or dishonor, but even despises life itself, and often forgets about food because of heartache and incessant crying. Then the grace of God – the common mother of all – gives him meekness and the beginning of imitating Jesus Christ, that is, the third commandment, as the Lord says: “Blessed are the meek”4. And he becomes established, like a stone, and neither the wind nor the waves of life shake him, he always remains unmoved in excess and in lack, in prosperity and in adversity, in honor

3 Цитовано за перекладом Р. Турконяка.

4 Цитовано там само. й безчесті – словом, у всякий час; і про всяку річ, розсудивши, знає, що все минає – і приємне, і скорботне – і що все це життя – це дорога в будучий вік,і, хоч ми й не хочемо, з нами станеться те, що має статися, і ми даремно три вожимося й губимо вінець терпіння й опираємося Богові. Бо все, що творить Бог, вельми добре, а ми й не знаємо. “Навчить покірливих у суді” (Пс. 24, 9), – каже Писання, а ще більше навчить розсудливости. Навіть у час якоїсьприкрости такий не бентежиться, а радіє, бо знайде в прикрості користь і лю бомудрість, роздумуючи, що не без причини прийшла спокуса, що покривдив або Бога, або брата свого, або когось іншого в незнанні чи в знанні, і щоб так знайшлася причина, за що прощати його, аби заради терпіння прийнявпрощення багатьох своїх зол, і що коли він не простить своєму братові про вин його, то й Отець Небесний не простить йому його провин, і що нема коротшої чесноти за цю, себто заповіді про відпущення гріхів. “Простіть, – каже Писання, – і вам проститься” (Лк. 6, 37). А що сподобився це пізнати й наслідувати Христа, то став лагідним через благодать заповіді. Сумує, що брата його через гріхи спокушає спільний ворог, аби цим вилікувалася його неміч. Бо Бог допускає всяку спокусу – як ліки для немічної душі. Бо даруєвідпущення і попередніх, і теперішніх гріхів, і стримує прийдешні. Але не за слуговує похвали ні диявол, ні той, хто спокушає, ні той, хто зазнає спокуси. Бо диявол, як творитель зла, достойний ненависти, він не клопочеться нічим, коли творить зло. Той, хто спокушає, достойний помилування від того, когоспокушає, не тому, що робить це з любови, а як той, кого змушують і пригні чують. А той, кого спокушають, переносить скорботи за свої прогрішення,а не за когось, і теж не вартий похвали. Він же ж не безгрішний, а коли й без грішний, – що неможливо, – то терпить, уповаючи на нагороду і страхаючись мук. Отак воно з ними буває. А Бог, що все має і всім чинить усе на користь, достойний благодарення, бо терпляче переносить диявола і людську злобу, нагороджуючи всяке добро і до гріха, і коли каються після гріха. Хто ж осягнув розсудливість, той сподобився сповняти третю заповідь. Щоб не посміялися з нього демони в знанні чи в незнанні, він, прийнявшидар смирення, вважає себе за ніщо. Початком смирення є лагідність, а сми рення – це двері до безпристрасности, а через безпристрасність неухильної і досконалої любови набуває той, хто пізнав свою природу, – чим він був до народження і чим стане після смерти. Адже людина – це не що інше, як малий сморід, що швидко зникає, гірша вона від усякого сотворіння. Бо ніяке інше сотворіння, живе чи неживе, ніколи не ламало Божої ради, а тільки людина, що зазнала багато благодіянь від Бога, завжди багато гнівила Бога. Сподобляється подвижник і четвертої заповіді, себто бажання набувати чеснот. “Блаженні голодні та спрагнені правди” (Мт. 5, 6)5, – каже Писання,

5 Quoted from the translation of I. Ohienko. and there are those who desire and strive for all truth, i.e. physical and moral virtues, i.e. spiritual. “When a person does not recognize something, he does not know what he is losing,” says Vasiliy the Great. And having learned, he is very eager. Likewise, he who has learned the sweetness of some commandments and knows that the commandments slowly lead him to follow Christ, is very eager to acquire other commandments and for their sake despises even death. Having felt something of God’s mysteries hidden in the Divine Scriptures, he is very eager to understand them, and the more he gains knowledge, the more he longs for it and is inflamed, as if a flame drinks, and because divine things are not clear to everyone, he always remains thirsty. What health and disease are to the body, virtue and sin are to the soul and knowledge and ignorance to the mind. And as much as one seeks piety, that is, action, so much the mind is enlightened by knowledge and so is graced with mercy through the fifth commandment, as the Lord says: “Blessed are the merciful” (Mt. 5, 7). And the merciful is the one who shows mercy to his neighbor with what he himself has received from God – whether it is property, or food, or strength, or a beneficial word, or a prayer. And when he can show mercy to the one who asks, he considers himself a debtor, because he accepted more than what was asked of him. And it was as if it pleased Christ to call him merciful – like God – in the present and future ages in front of all creatures. And through his brother, it is as if God asks him and becomes his debtor. A poor man can live without what he asks for, and he who is asked cannot live or be saved without showing mercy. Because if he does not want to have mercy on someone who has a common nature with him, then how can he ask God to have mercy on himself? Thinking about this and many other things, the one who is pleased with the commandments gives not only what he has, but also gives his soul for his neighbor. This is perfect charity, because Christ also suffered death for us, showing everyone a way and an example of how to die for one another, and when necessary, for enemies. You don’t need to have something special in order to show mercy. We cannot justify our Germanness here. Even he who has nothing to show us the heart, let him be merciful to everyone and help those in need, becoming dispassionate about worldly things and having compassion for people. But it is not good to teach out of vanity, without first showing in action, so that the one who heals souls does not appear to be weaker than those who need healing. Because time and prudence are needed for every business, so that nothing happens untimely or unnecessarily. It is better for a poor person to distance himself from everything, and poverty is much better than alms. Because of dispassion, the ascetic of the sixth commandment becomes like the ascetic of the sixth commandment, according to the Lord’s words: “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Mt. 5, 8), that is, those who have performed every virtue with holy thoughts and achieved the point of seeing the nature of things, and thus gain peace in thoughts. “Blessed,” says Scripture, “are the peacemakers” (Mt.5, 9), that is, those who pacify the soul and the body, so that the flesh may be subjugated to the spirit, so that the flesh does not rebel against the spirit, and the grace of the Holy Spirit reigns in the soul and guides it as it wills, giving divine knowledge, thanks to which such a person endures persecution, insults and insults for the sake of truth, and rejoices, because his reward is great in heaven. All beatitudes are made by God by grace to that person who has become meek, thirsty for all truth, merciful, dispassionate, a peacemaker who endures all pain with joy for the love of God and neighbor. Therefore, these are the gifts of God, and we should thank Him very much for them and for the prepared reward, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven in the future age and joy here, and the fullness of all goodness and bounties from God, and for the revelation of divine secrets hidden in the divine Scriptures and in all His creations, and for the great reward in heaven, the imitation of Christ on earth, and the bliss of every commandment, that is, the highest good and completeness of desires. After all, according to the words of the apostle, only God is blessed “who lives in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), and it remains for us to keep the commandments. It is better to say: they protect us – and the man-loving God gives a reward to the one who believes in Him, both here and there, according to the commandment. Thanks to all this, which happens through blessed weeping, the mind gets relief from passions, making peace with God for its sins with bitter and many tears and mentally crucifying with Christ by moral action, self-fulfillment of the commandments, as we have already said, and guarding the five senses, so as not to do anything unnecessarily. The mind, restraining verbal urges, begins to nestle the passions that are in it, that is, rage and desire. He sometimes calms fierce rage with the gentleness of desire, then with the hardness of rage he calms desire. The mind, coming to its senses, knows its own dignity, because it is independent, and begins to see things according to their nature. The left eye, which the devil blinded with the power of passions, opens in him, and a person deigns to mentally bury himself with Christ from the things of this world, and his external beauty no longer robs him. When she looks at gold and silver and precious stones, she sees that they come from the earth, like all other soulless creatures, stones and trees. In the same way, he looks at a person, like an embalming and a handful of dust after death in the grave. Having all the worldly things for nothing, always sees how they change, with great advice that comes from knowledge.And she becomes dead to the world, and the world is dead to her, and no longer motivates herself, but has calmness and dispassion. Thus, through the purity of the soul, the mind is qualified to mentally rise with Christ and has the power to look dispassionately at the external beauty of things and, recognizing it, glorifies the one who created everything; seeing in sensual creations God’s power and providence, goodness and wisdom, as the apostle says, and contemplating the secrets hidden in the Divine Scriptures, the mind, ascending with Christ, resembles the vision of mental creations, that is, the knowledge of spiritual powers, and, knowing knowledge and joys with many tears, through the visible guesses about the invisible, through the temporary – about the eternal. And if this temporary world, called the exile and condemnation of those who transgressed the commandment of God, is so beautiful, then how beautiful are the eternal and incomprehensible benefits that God has prepared for those who love Him. And if those benefits are immeasurable in their greatness, how immeasurable is God, who created all things out of nothing. When a person frees himself from everything and takes care of bodily and spiritual actions, which the fathers call piety, he will not trust in any sense or his understanding, which is not confirmed by the Scriptures, and will avoid all empty talk, so as not to hear or read anything empty, much less heresy; tears of knowledge and joy will multiply in her, so that she will drink them from their multitude and will reach another prayer, pure, which pleases the imaginor. Because then it was necessary to have a different reading and different tears, so now. Since the mind has attained spiritual visions, from then on it should read all the Divine Scriptures, not being afraid of the words of the Scriptures that are difficult to understand, as the active and the weak are afraid because of ignorance. Continuing in exploits, in bodily and spiritual deeds, he was crucified with Christ and was buried with Him, knowing the nature and change of things, and resurrected together with Him through dispassion and knowledge of Divine mysteries, which are revealed in the sensual creations of God, and because of this, he descends with Christ into the otherworldly knowledge of mental mysteries hidden in the Divine Scriptures. From fear comes piety to the ascetic, from piety comes knowledge, from it comes joy, that is, prudence, and from it comes strength, from the latter – reason, and through reason – wisdom. By all the mentioned actions and contemplations, the ascetic of pure and perfect prayer, which happens through the peace and love of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is honored. And this is what is called “get God in yourself” and “appearance and indwelling of God”, as Zolotousty said. Let the body and soul be, as far as possible, like Christ’s, sinless, so that our mind thinks as Christ thought, according to the grace of the Spirit and wisdom, which is the understanding of Divine and human things. About the four virtues of the soul There are four types of wisdom: wisdom, that is, knowledge of what can be done and what is not, and quickness of mind; wholeheartedly, that is, so that the thoughts are whole and refrain from deeds, words and thoughts that are displeasing to God; courage, that is, fortitude and patience in labors for God, and in temptations; truth, that is, the distribution that gives equally to each of these three virtues.These same four main virtues are generated from three mental powers: from verbal power, i.e. mind, two virtues – wisdom and truth, i.e. prudence, from desirable – the whole becomes wise, from bright – courage. Each of them stands between two unnatural passions. Wisdom is higher than scorn, but lower than folly, wisdom is higher than petrification, but lower than fornication, courage is higher than insolence, but lower than fear, truth is higher than want, lower than usury. And these four are the image of the heavenly, and those eight are the image of the earthly. And only God knows all this for sure. He knows the past, the present, and the future. The one who, by the grace of God, has learned from Him and strives to become in His image and likeness, also knows in part. And the one who says that he knows this only after hearing, is deceiving himself. The human mind cannot go to heaven without a mentor, and if it does not go there and see, then it cannot talk about what it has not seen. When he heard something from the Scriptures, he liked to speak about it in a charitable way, as if he had heard it, and to say where this word came from, as Basil the Great says. “He who thinks he has knowledge is worse than an ignorant person, because such an opinion does not allow one to doubt his knowledge,” says St. Maximus. “Ignorance can be praised when someone intelligently knows that he has no knowledge,” says Golden Mouth. There is no ignorance worse than all ignorance, when someone does not know that he has no knowledge. There is also false knowledge: when “someone thinks to himself that he knows something, he does not yet know how to know” (1 Cor. 8, 2), says the apostle. About active knowledge There is true knowledge and there is complete ignorance, and the best of all is active knowledge, because what is the use of a person when he has all knowledge and even received it from God by grace, like Solomon, who will never be another like him, but will go to eternal torment, because he did not receive confirmation through works and firm faith, the testimony of conscience, which is freed from future torment, because not reproaches herself for having neglected some of the necessary things, although she could not have neglected it, as St. John the Theologian says: “If the heart does not blame, then we have trust in God” (1 John 3, 21). However, as St. Nile says, sometimes the conscience itself is deceived when it is despised by the darkening of passions, as Listvychnik says. “When even one sin darkens the mind,” says Basil the Great, “blinds the thought and prevents it from doing what it intends, then what can we say about those who constantly serve passions?” Do they think they have a clear conscience? After all, they know how the holy apostle Paul, who in words and deeds had Christ in him and said: “I do not feel guilty in anything, but I am not justified” (1 Cor. 4, 4). Many, out of their great insensitivity, think that he is something, although in reality he is nothing. That is why the apostle says: “Just as they will say: peace and security – then destruction will suddenly fly over them” (1 Samuel 5, 3). Because they didn’t have peace, but because of their great insensitivity they thought they had peace, says Zolotousty. And Jacob, the Lord’s brother, says about such people that they are “forgetful” (Jacob.1, 25) regarding their sins. “Many proud people don’t know themselves,” says Listvychnyk, “that’s why they think of themselves that they are dispassionate.” And I, trembling before the three diabolical giants that St. Mark the Messenger wrote about, i.e. boredom, forgetfulness and ignorance, always possessed by them and fearing lest I forget my measure and stray from the right path, as St. Isaac says, wrote this collection. “He who does not like reprimands discovers that he has been overcome by the passion of pride,” says Listvych nik, “and he who accepts them frees himself from the bonds of passion.” Solomon says: he who, not knowing, asks about wisdom, “seems wise” (Prov. 17, 28). Therefore, I first gave the names of the books and the names of the saints, so that, speaking about each saying, whose it is, I would not stretch this Word. Yes, the holy fathers often quote the words of the Divine Scriptures as they are: this is what Gregory the Theologian did, presenting the words to Solomon, and others. So the author of the Words, Simeon Metaphrastus, says about Chrysostom: “It would be wrong to omit his words and speak mine, even if I could.” Because they all received the Holy Spirit from one. But some say whose Word it is, as if they adorn themselves with it for the sake of humility, giving preference to the words of Scripture, and others leave many words without the name of the author, so that the Word does not drag on for a long time. About the fact that the bodily virtues are instruments of the soul. But these are not my words, but those of the Holy Scriptures, and the thoughts are not mine, but those of divine men. Damascene says that bodily virtues, as tools of the soul, are needed when someone passes them with humility and spiritual knowledge, because without them there are no spiritual virtues. If one passes them without humility, then they do not bring any benefit, like plants without fruits. Because without practice and will, no one will become a good and skillful craftsman. Therefore, before action we also need knowledge and for everything – distance from everything in God and study of the Divine Scriptures, without which no one will ever acquire virtue. And whoever is able to perfectly and always distance himself, he will receive the highest good. And whoever does not like it, at least he will not neglect it. But blessed are those who are perfectly trained either in obedience to someone who is active and intelligently silent, or in silence and carelessness about everything, obeying the will of God, exactly and with the advice of those experienced in every undertaking regarding words and thoughts, who want to easily grasp dispassion and spiritual knowledge, perfectly distance yourself from everything for the sake of God, as He himself says through the prophet: “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 45, 11). Ordinary people, that is, those in the world, but rather monks, let us distance ourselves at least partially, like ancient righteous people, in order to test the wretched soul even before death and find for it correction or humility, and not final destruction through complete ignorance and sins, conscious and unconscious. King David watered his bed every night with tears (see Ps. 6, 7), feeling the Divine fear, about which Job said: “My hair became like an oak tree” (Job 4, 15).And we will withdraw at least for some part of the day and night, like everyday people, and see how we will answer the righteous Judge on the terrible day of judgment. Let us worry about what is needed, fearing eternal torment, rather than how the poor will live and the silver-loving will get rich. “Let’s not worry, oh fools, only with everyday affairs,” says the divine Golden Mouth. It is necessary to work, but not to fight and worry about many things, as the Lord said to Martha (see Lk. 10, 41). And everyday worries do not allow you to worry about the soul and know its condition, as the one who practices and watches over himself knows, as it is said in the law: “Watch that such a sin does not arise in your heart” (Deuteronomy 15, 9). Basil the Great wrote a wonderful Word about this, full of all wisdom. About the fact that it is impossible to be saved except by sobriety and guarding the mind. Without attentiveness and cheerfulness of the mind, it is impossible for us to be saved and get rid of the devil, who walks like a roaring lion and seeks someone to devour, as Damascene says. Therefore, the Lord often said to his disciples: “Listen, pray” (Mr. 14, 38), announcing with these words that we must remember death so that we are ready to give a good response, which comes from deeds and attentiveness. “For demons,” says Saint Hilarion, “are insensible, sleepless, and only care to attack us and destroy our souls by word, deed, and thought.” But we are not like that, we are concerned about pleasures and fleeting glory, then about everyday affairs, and about many other things, and we do not want to check our life, we do not want to train the mind to watch over itself, although Solomon warns: “You walk in the midst of many nets.” Zolotousty wrote about them, very accurately, with perfect precision, explaining what kind of networks they were. And the Lord, wanting to remove all troubles, commanded us to despise both food and clothing, and to have only one concern, how to be saved – a yaksarna escapes from a hunter, and like a bird from traps – and so that with carefreeness we reach the vigilance of vision, like a roe deer, and the height of a bird’s flight. And it is strange that Solomon said this when he was king, and his father said and did so. And with such attentiveness and many exploits, being in all wisdom and virtue, with such gifts and manifestations of God, sin overcame both of them. Because one lamented both adultery and murder (2 Sam. 11, 4.15), and the second fell into very terrible deeds (1 Sam. 11, 30). Will not those who have reason be filled with fear and trembling from this, as Listvychnik and Philemon the Postnik say? How can we not be terrified and run away from everyday troubles, because we are nothing because of our weakness, we are insensitive, like speechless creatures. Oh, if only I had preserved my nature, like the speechless! The dog is better than me.Those who want to see themselves, what their state is, will achieve this only by distancing themselves from their desires by obedience and silence, especially those who are enslaved by passions. When we want to see ourselves, in which deadly state we are, flee from our desires and worldly things, let us be distant from everything and be with labors in a blissful remoteness for God, each one seeking for his soul instruction in the Divine Scriptures, or in complete obedience of soul and body, or in the glorious angelic state of speechlessness. This is especially said about passionate people who cannot restrain their small and big desires. “Sit in your cell, and it will teach you everything.” And also: “Speechlessness is the beginning of the purification of the soul,” says Basil the Great. And Solomon says: “This is not a grateful occupation that God has given to people to be busy” (Ecclesiastes 1, 13), that is, to be busy with vain things, so that from vain and passionate idleness they do not fall into something worse. Whoever, by the grace of God, has escaped these two abysses and deigned to be a monk, wearing an angel-like monastic image, let him imitate the one God as much as he can, in deed and word, as Saint Dionysius says. “Shouldn’t he always exercise and watch his mind in all things and have constant instruction about the things of God, about the state he has reached?” – the holy fathers, Ephrem and others say to the newly initiated. Let one keep a psalm in his mouth, another a verse, and still others keep a watchful mind in psalms and troparies, because they have not yet come to some understanding, that is, knowledge, so let there be no one who, working, traveling or resting, would remain without some kind of instruction. When he fulfills the rule entrusted to him, let him immediately close his mind in some teaching, so that he does not know his enemy when he ceases to remember God, and does not add his evil to him. This is said to everyone in general. When someone can, through numerous exploits, physical and mental virtues, intelligently descend with the grace of Christ into spiritual, that is, mental activity – weeping for his soul, then he likes to guard, like the apple of the eye, that thought that brings painful tears, as the Leaflet says, until the fire and water go away after the harvest, that is, for the ascension. Fire is heartache and warm faith, and water is tears. “They are not given to everyone,” says the great Athanasius, “but to those who have had the pleasure of seeing the disaster that happens before and after death, and keep it in their memory forever, keeping silent.” As Isaiah says: “The ear of the mute hears strange things.” And it is also said: “Be calm and know” (Ps. 45, 11). Only this alone gives rise to the knowledge of God in us, as something that can most help the passionate and infirm through a carefree life and distance from people and from conversations that darken the mind, and troubles not only of life, but also minor ones that seem to be sinless, because the Leaflet says: “A small eyelash irritates the eye…” and further, and Saint Isaac says: “Do not think that love of silver is only when you have gold and silver, it is also when the thought is attached to something.”And the Lord says: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be” (Mt. 6, 21), whether in Divine or earthly things and thoughts. Therefore, everyone likes to acquire carefreeness and peace of mind in God. Worldly people little by little, so that they slowly come to spiritual wisdom and knowledge. And those who can completely distance themselves from everything, let them be concerned only with pleasing God, so that God sees their good will and grants them peace through spiritual knowledge and teaches them through the first revelation, so that they acquire indescribable crushing of the soul and be poor in spirit. And so slowly, raising them to other beliefs, he will make them to observe the beatitudes until they reach the peace of thoughts, which is the place of God, as St. Nile teaches, taking the following words from the Psalter: “And it was, – he says, – in peace was his place” (Ps. 75, 3). About the eight spiritual gifts I think that there are eight spiritual gifts. Seven of them are of the present age, and the eighth is the work of the future, as St. Isaac says. So, the first is the knowledge of the sorrows and temptations of this life, as St. Dorotheus says, and is annoyed by everything that human nature has suffered from sin. The second is the knowledge of one’s sins and God’s favors, as Listychnik, St. Isaac and many other fathers say. The third is the knowledge of the calamity that happens before death and after death, as written in the Divine Scriptures. The fourth is knowledge about the life of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world, the life of His disciples and other saints, the deeds and words of martyrs and reverend fathers. The fifth is knowledge of the nature and changes of things, as the holy fathers, Gregory and Damascene say. The seventh is the understanding of God’s spiritual creations. The eighth is knowledge about God, which is called theology. Of these eight teachings, three are suitable for an active ascetic, so that with many bitter tears he may cleanse his soul of all passions and accept other teachings from God by grace. And five appeals to the contemplative, i.e., to the one who has knowledge, because he took good care and always performed bodily and moral, i.e. spiritual, actions, therefore he is apt to feel them clearly and mentally. Active knowledge begins with the first knowledge, and as much as he works hard and learns from the understandings given to him and succeeds in them, they become so familiar to him that the next knowledge comes to mind, and all the others follow it. But in order for what I am talking about to be clear, I will say a little bit – although I cannot speak – about each of the beliefs, how to understand them and how to describe them. So that we can know ourselves, what should we do when grace begins to open the eyes of the soul, and we will understand and be amazed by what we have understood, and from words that can instill fear in us, that is, the crushing of the soul. An explanation is needed about the first knowledge and what it begins with. The first knowledge is that for which the one who has a good will is given all the others.Whoever is worthy to reach him, let him sit facing the east, as Adam once did, and think like this: “Adam then sat down against the sweetness of paradise and wept, and struck his face with his hands, saying: Merciful, have mercy on me, the fallen!” And let him repeat in his mind another icos: “Adam saw the angel who drove him out and closed the door of the divine garden, he sighed deeply and said: Merciful, have mercy on me, the fallen!” Then, considering what is happening now, let him begin his weeping, sighing with all his soul and shaking his head, let him say with pain in his heart: “Woe to me, sinner! What I have lost! Woe to me! What I was and what I have become! Woe to me! What I lost and what I found! Instead of paradise – this corruptible world, instead of God and being with angels – the devil and unclean demons, instead of rest – labor, instead of pleasures and joys – worldly sorrow and sadness, instead of peace and constant joy – fear and bitter tears, instead of virtue and truth – deceit and passion, instead of wisdom and approach to God – ignorance and exile, instead of carelessness and freedom – troublesome life and bitter slavery. Woe, woe! I was created як цар, а через безумство став рабом своїх пристра стей. Горе мені, окаянному! Як я непослухом замість життя притягнув смерть? Горе мені! Горе мені! Чого зазнав я, окаянний, через моє безумство? Що мені діяти? Звідси битва, а звідти сум’яття. Звідси болі, а звідти спокуси. Звідсибіди, а звідти кораблетроща. Звідси страхи, а From here are the sins, from here you are distressed! Where should I run? “It’s hard for me everywhere” (Dan. 13, 22), said Susanna. I don’t know what to look for. When I ask for life, I am afraid of the temptations of life and its changes and events. I see an angel, Satan, who first shone like the day, and became a devil, and speaks. I see the original banished, Cain – a fratricide, Canaan – cursed, Sodomites – burned by fire, Esau – apostate, Israelites – who fell under anger, Gezia and Judas – apostles who apostatized, sick with love of money, a great prophet and king who wept because of two sins, Solomon who apostatized, having such wisdom, those who were from the seven deacons and fell away from the forty martyrs. Basil the Great says about them: “Rejoicing, the evil leader stole the wretched Judas from the twelve, a man from Eden and the one who fell from the forty martyrs.” Lamenting him, the same saint says: “He is wise and worthy of mourning, who lost one and the other life: he melted from the fire [of conscience] and went into the fire unquenchable.” And many fell, and there are countless of them, and not only the unfaithful, but also many of the fathers after many labors fell. Who am I, the worst, and the most hard-hearted, and the most weak? What can I say about myself? After all, Abraham called himself “earth and dust” (Gen. 18, 27), David – “a dead dog and a flea in Israel” (1 Sam. 24, 15), Solomon – “a child who does not know the way out and the way in” (1 Sam. 3, 7 – quoted according to the translation of I. Ohienko), the three youths say that they were covered with “shame and shame” (Dan.3, 33), the prophet Isaiah says “I am wretched” (Is. 6, 5). The prophet Jeremiah assures that he is a child. The chief apostle calls himself a sinner, and all the others say of themselves that they are nothing. What should I do? Where can I hide from my many sins? What will happen to me, I myself am nothing and worse than all nothing. For nothing has sinned and received such grace as I have. Oh woe! How should I live the rest of my life? How can I escape from the devil’s nets? The devils are sleepless and insensible, and death is near, and I am weak. Lord, help me. Do not let Your creation perish, because You care about me, the wretched one. “Show me, Lord, the way I should walk, because to you I lift up my soul” (Ps. 142, 8). “Do not leave me, O Lord, my God, do not depart from me! Look to help me, Lord of my salvation!” (Ps. 37, 22-23). And with such words the soul will be crushed, if there is even a little sense in it. And the mind, repeating these words and getting used to the fear of God, begins to know and understand the words of the second revelation, and they are like this. About the second revelation Woe to me, wretched! What should I do? What will happen to me? I have sinned a lot, I have experienced great grace, my weakness is great. There were many temptations and boredom overtook me. Forgetfulness darkens me and prevents me from seeing myself and the multitude of my evils. Ignorance is evil, and transgression when there is knowledge is even worse. It is not easy to accomplish honesty. There are many passions, evil demons, sin is easy, death is near, the testing of words is bitter. Woe is me! What to do? How can I escape from myself? This is because I am the cause of my own destruction, I am honored by autocracies, and no one can force me. I have sinned and always sin, and I do not care about every good deed, and there is no one to compel me. Who should I blame? God is good and man-loving, always wants me to turn to Him and repent. Angels love me and protect me. People also wish me success. Demons cannot force anyone who does not want to die, either through carelessness or despair. Who is to blame for me, if not myself, the wretched one? Here I know a little how my soul perishes, and I do not want to start piety. Why, my soul, do you not take care of yourself? Why, when you sin, are you not ashamed of God and His angels as you are ashamed of people? Woe to me, wretched! Woe is me! Woe is me! Because I am not ashamed in front of my Creator and Lord as I am in front of man. Only in front of man I cannot sin, but I am cunning in every way to show that I am doing the truth. And standing before God, I think wickedly and am ashamed to speak much. Oh my madness! I am not afraid to do evil in front of God, so that he will see him. And I can’t say anything about myself to any person, so that you rule me. Woe is me! Woe is me! Because I know that there is torment, but I don’t want to repent. I love the Kingdom of Heaven, but I do not respect virtues. I believe that there is a God, and I always break His commandments. I hate the devil, but I do not stop doing what he pleases. When I pray, I am inattentive and remain as if insensible. When I fast, I am proud and become even more reprehensible. When I hear, I think that I am doing something, but it is not good for me either.When I read, I commit one of two evils, insensibly: either I read in order to know a lot out of vanity, and I become more darkened, or I know, but I no longer commit, and for that I accept condemnation. Although by the grace of God I cease to sin in deeds, I do not cease to sin in words at all times; when grace will save me from this, I, the wretched one, always anger God with my thoughts. Grief! Grief! What to do? Wherever I go, I find sins. Demons are everywhere. Despair is the worst of all. I angered God and saddened the angels, I did a lot of harm to people and led them astray. I would like to wash the handwriting of my sins with tears, Lord, and the rest of my life to please You with repentance, but the enemy tempts me and conquers my soul. Lord, before I perish to the end, save me. I have sinned before You, Savior, like a prodigal son, accept me, Father, I repent, and have mercy on me, God. I call to You, Christ the Savior, as the publican called; cleanse me as you did him, and have mercy on me, O God. What will happen in the last time, and what will happen in the future? Oh woe to me, wretched, woe! Who will give my head water and my eyes a source of tears? Who will be able to mourn me properly? Because I can’t do it myself. Come, mountains, cover me, the wretched one. Woe, woe, what can I say? Oh, how many blessings God has created for me! Only He himself knows this, and how much evil my ignorance has revealed! By word, thought and deed I always anger my Benefactor. And as much as He is long-suffering, so much I do not care, wretch, harder than soulless stones. But I will not despair, but I will know Your manly love. I did not gather any repentance or tears, therefore I beg You, Savior, to convert me before my end came, and save me from torment. Lord, my God, do not leave me; I, as nothing before You, am all sinful; how can I know the multitude of my sins? Even the fact that I do not do good is a great condemnation for me. Heaven and earth were created for me, for me the four elements and everything that comes from them, according to the theologian. And I am silent about everything else, because I am not worthy to say anything because of the multitude of my evils. Who can understand the immeasurable benefits given to me, even if he has an angelic mind? But because of my unrepentance I will fall away from them all. Thinking about it like this, after some time he comes to the third revelation and, crying all the time, says the following. About the third revelation Woe is me! What a feat the soul performs when it separates from the body. Oh, how she cries, and no one has mercy on her. She raises her eyes to the angels and seeks in vain, she stretches out her hands to people, and no one will help her. I cry and sob when I think about death, and I see how our beauty, created in God’s image, lies in the graves; she is already without an image, and without glory, and without appearance. Oh wonder! What kind of mystery happened to us? How did we fall under the power of corruption? How did you connect with death? Truly by God’s command, as it is written. Grief! Grief! What should I do, the all-wretched one, at the hour of death, when demons surround my wretched soul, keeping a record of all my sins, conscious and unconscious, in word, deed and thought, demanding retribution for them. But woe to me!Because even without sins I am condemned, because I did not keep the commandments worthily. O my wretched soul! Tell me now: where are the promises of baptism; where union with Christ and renunciation of Satan; where the observance of God’s commandments; imitating Christ with mental and physical virtues, through which I am called a Christian? When you justify yourself with bodily weakness, then where is the faith that lays all your sorrow on God, with which you could move mountains, if you had it like a mustard seed; where is complete repentance, which removes from every evil word and deed; where is the crushing of the soul and the most perfect cry, meekness, mercy, purity of the heart from evil thoughts; total abstinence, restraining every member of the body and all understanding and desire undisturbed by it, except what is necessary for the salvation of the soul and the life of the body; where is patience, which endures numerous sorrows for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and gives thanks for everything; unceasing prayer, sorrow for death, tears of sorrow, when I have not yet reached tears of love; where is the Divine wisdom that protects the soul from enemy nets and opponents; where the whole is free, which distances from everything that is not God, or comes with thoughts; where is the courage that endures evil and stands up to the enemy; where is justice that gives everyone their due; where is the courage of the humble, who knows his weakness and his ignorance, and God’s manly love, that his soul could avoid all enemy tricks; where is dispassion and purest love? Where is the peace that surpasses all understanding, for which I am called the son of God? All this can be had by the one who wants it, even when he has no physical strength. What can I say to that? What should I do, wretch? I am afraid because of my uncertainty, because I have completely neglected what I could have done in my own strength; I will end up in hell, as Athanasius the Great says. Woe to my misfortune! What I did to myself – not only by what I sinned, but even more by what I did not want to repent for. If I had repented like a prodigal son, the child-loving Father would have accepted my conversion; and if I were prudent, like a publican, judging only myself and no one else, then I would accept from God the forgiveness of sins. And also, if he prayed with all his heart, as he did. And now I see that I am not like that, so I am afraid of being in hell with demons and the future judgment. Because there is a river of fire flowing, thrones are standing and books are open, angels are walking in front and every human being is coming, all naked and not hidden before the terrible and righteous Judge. Woe to me! How can I endure the revelation and wrath of the terrible and unforgiving Judge, the gathering of countless angels and trials with a terrible ban, unchanging judgment, incessant weeping, unnecessary tears, lightless darkness, an endless worm, unquenchable fire and endless torments, falling away from the Kingdom and separation from the saints, estrangement from angels and estrangement from God, faintheartedness and eternal death, fear, pain, sadness, and shame, and pangs of conscience? Woe to me, sinner! What have I lost? Why am I dying furiously? There is still time for repentance. The Lord is calling me, or should I turn away?How long, my soul, will you remain in sins, how long will you postpone repentance? Remember the coming judgment. Cry out to Christ God: “O witness of the heart, I have sinned, before you condemn me, have mercy on me. Let us not hear, O Christ, at your terrible coming: “I do not know you.” Because we put our trust in you, Savior, even though we did not fulfill your commandments due to our carelessness. But we beg you to have mercy on our souls. Woe is me, Lord! For I have grieved you and not even I felt Your grace, so I don’t understand. Will I be able to cry bitterly in my life? Or, after crying for a while, I will not feel anything? смирення не буде з цього ніякої користи. Чи мені тільки співати устами й читати? Та пристрасті потьмарили мій ум, і не можу збагнути сили вимовлених слів. Чи припадати мені до Тебе, Подателю благ? Не маю дерзновення. Безпросвітне моє життя, погубив я душу мою. Господи! Поможи мені! Прийми мене, як митаря! Як блудний син, согрішив я проти неба й проти Тебе, і як блудниця, що and what is said about her: she lived unenlightened and was known for her customs, she came to You, calling out: “Do not reject me, who was born of a Virgin, do not despise my tears, but accept me, for I repent. Therefore, I, wretched, am in despair because of the multitude of my sins.” – Your unspeakable manly love has recognized me and you have plunged the despair of my soul into the immeasurable depth of Your bounties – I dare to gather my mind in Your holy memory and, standing up, I make a prayer with great fear and trepidation, so that I too, unworthy, may be worthy to be Your slave, and have by grace an invisible mind, without ideas, without insults insensitive, and to fall down before You, God and the Creator of everything, as Dan once “prostrated” before Your angel (Dan. 8, 17), to give You thanks first, and then confession. Thus, I, wretched, begin to ask Your all-holy will, giving thanks to You for all the benefits that You have given me, even though I am dust, dust and ashes I fear you with a single mind, even though I am all earthly, and I think that you see me, I cry out with all my soul and say: Lord, many-merciful! I thank you, I praise you, I sing to you and worship you, because you have pleased me, unworthy, at this time to thank you and to hear about some of your miracles and deeds that you have created and by grace you do for us – spiritual and corporeal, infinite and unsearchable, visible and invisible, which we know and do not know. I confess grace, I do not hide good deeds, I confess to You, my God, with all my heart, and I glorify Your name forever, because Your mercy is great over me, and indescribable descent and long-suffering through the multitude of my iniquities and sins. tricks that he has committed and always commits, and could commit.Your grace saved me from them, from conscious and unconscious sins, in word, deed and thought, that you know them, Lord of the Heart, from my birth to the end of my life, that I dare to confess them before you, wretched one. I have sinned, I have committed iniquity and wickedness, I have committed evil deeds before You and I am not worthy to look and see the height of heaven, but, trusting in Your unspeakable love for man, and Your goodness and mercy, which is beyond all understanding, falling down, I pray to You: have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak, and forgive me the multitude of my sins, and do not let me sin again or go from of Your right path, neither to cover nor to grieve anyone; but curb all my malice, and evil custom, and wordless passions of soul and body, and rage and lust, and teach me to do Your will. Have mercy on my brothers and fathers, and all monks and Jews, my parents, brothers and relatives, those who serve us and have served, who pray for us and asked us to pray for them, those who hate and love us, whom I have wronged or grieved, all those who wronged me or should have wronged me, and all who believe in You. And forgive us every voluntary and involuntary sin, and save our life and our exit from this world from unclean spirits and from every temptation, and every sin and cunning, imagination and despair, unbelief and madness, pride and fear, delusion and torture, theft and the devil’s net. And grant to our useful souls both in the present age and in the future, as your eternal love pleases. And the repose of our fathers and brothers, who have already departed, and with the prayers of all, grant my misfortune, have mercy on me, so that I do not perish. You see my weakness in everything, correct my life and my death, and make me what You want and how You want, whether I want it or not, just so that I am not separated from standing at Your right hand on the day of judgment, Lord, Jesus Christ, my God, even though I am the last of all Your slaves who are saved. And pacify Your world and have mercy on everyone, as You know. And let me partake of Your most pure Body and Your Precious Blood for the remission of sins, for the Communion of Your Holy Spirit, for the betrothal of eternal life that is in You, with Your chosen ones, I pray to Your most pure Mother, Your saints and heavenly forces and all Your saints, for You are blessed forever and ever. Amen. Holy Mistress, Theotokos, all heavenly powers of holy angels and archangels, and all saints, pray for me, a sinner. Lord, God, Father Almighty, Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit (and further). And immediately he says to his thoughts: “Come, let’s worship and fall before the King of our God.” And so he repeats three times. And he begins the psalms, creating a three-holy antiphon each time, and keeps his mind in the words he utters, and at the end – “Lord, have mercy” 40 times. Creating a prayer on each antiphon, one speaks to himself, worshiping: “I have sinned, Lord, forgive me.” Standing up and raising his hands, he says once: “God, cleanse me, a sinner.” And when he prays, let him say the second prayer: “Come, let’s worship” – three times, and the second antiphon the same.However, as far as grace moves his sire, he likes to keep his mind in the thoughts of being moved. When the mouth will be free from singing, and the mind will be captured by a good captivity, as Saint Isaac says, then it is time to gather, not time to plant. And that is why it is good to be in such thoughts, so that the heart will be moved even more and bear fruit, that is, tears for God. “When,” says the Leaflet, “some word of prayer moves you, then stay in it.” Because every bodily work – whether it is fasting and vigil, whether it is singing and reading, or silence and others – is for the purpose of purifying the mind. And the mind cannot be cleansed without crying, in order to connect with God through pure prayer, which captures it from all thoughts and makes it invisible and imageless. Because all these things are good in themselves, when they are well done – and vice versa. For every work requires prudence in order to do it well, and without prudence we do not know the nature of things. Although, perhaps, we are often confused by the differences in what the holy fathers said and did. That is to say: the Church accepted to sing the troparia with many songs and choruses. And Listvychnik praises those who cry for God, saying that they will not call to themselves in songs. And Saint Isaac says about those who pray purely: “It often happens that when an ascetic gathers his mind in prayer, he immediately, without prompting, falls to the ground, on his knees, as the prophet Daniel once did, and his hands are outstretched, and his eyes contemplate the cross of Christ, his thoughts change and his limbs relax from new thoughts that come to his mind.” And many of the holy fathers write similar things about the ascetics, that some in the rapture of the mind exceeded not only songs and psalms, but also forgot about the mind itself, as St. Nile says. The Church accepted songs and troparia in a good and God-pleasing way because of the weakness of our mind, so that we, foolish ones, would praise God with a sweet song, even if we did not want to. And those who, after considering what has been said, acquire knowledge, are moved, and, as on a ladder, climb to good thoughts, as Damascene says. And the more we get used to divine thoughts, the more the divine desire draws us to understand, know and worship the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24), as the Lord says. And the apostle adds: “I would rather speak five words with my mind than ten thousand words with tongues” (1 Cor. 14, 19). And also: “I want, therefore, that husbands pray in every place, raising clean hands to heaven, without anger and contention” (1 Tim. 2, 8). The first serves for the treatment of infirmity, and the second – for the improvement of the mind. This is how we explain these differences. Everything that happens in its time is good; and what does not happen in its time seems inappropriate to those who do not know the time of each thing, as Solomon says: “For everything there is a time” (Eccl. 3, 1). However, when someone has achieved good thoughts, let him be careful not to lose these beliefs through carelessness or pride, as Saint Isaac says.Because when thoughts about God multiply in the human soul and lead it to be moved and humbled, it is always pleasing to thank and confess God’s grace, which has graced the soul of such beliefs, considering itself unworthy. When they stop and the thought darkens again and loses fear and crying, one must complain for a long time and humble oneself in word and deed, because grace has already left the soul. Let her know her weakness and gain humility, and hasten to correct herself, as Basil the Great says. Because if someone did not neglect to cry for God, then he would not lose tears when he wanted to have them. Therefore, it is good for us to always see our weakness and God’s grace and not despair when something happens to us, and not to be defiant, as if we are some kind of special people, but to always humbly trust in God. And these tears are very appropriate for the one who seeks in word and deed, because he deserved such a grace, but did not keep God’s premonitions due to present or future negligence or pride. And who, of his own free will, has left such gifts, that is, crying, tears and bright thoughts, what else belongs to him, if not sorrow? For there is no one in the whole world more insane than him, who has taken delight in things higher than natural, that is, the tears of knowledge and love, but because of some unimportant things or incomprehensible thoughts and his desires, he returns again to his animal stupidity, as a dog returns to his vomit. But when he wants to go away again for the sake of God in reading the Divine Scriptures, with attentiveness and memory of death, and, as far as he can, preserves the mind of prayer from vain thoughts, then he will find what he lost. And also: when no one is angry with anyone, even though he suffers many great evils from someone, and does not turn away from anyone who would grieve for him, but tries his best to heal him with word and deed, then the mind rejoices even more, freed from the cares of anger. And he gets used to never pleading for his soul, fearing that he would be abandoned again, and because of fear he does not allow himself to fall, always having tears of repentance and weeping, until he is raised to tears of joy and love, and from them the blessing of Christ will pass to the peace of thoughts. And so it happens. And we are still passionate and heavy-hearted, so we always like to learn the words of mourning and test ourselves every day before the established rule, and in the middle of it, and at the end of it. He likes to test himself even when we work, because we are still powerless to distance ourselves from everything for the sake of God, as Saint Isaac says; and when we sit idly just for the sake of it, when our eyes do not sleep, and our thoughts are sober, as the Leaf-bearer says: “Look, what will be your success, so that your soul is crushed”; and “shed tears”, as St. Dorotheus says. We have said all this about the already mentioned three traditions, so that we can now move on to the fourth. About the fourth revelation “When we understand the descent of our sweet Savior Jesus Christ, His stay in the world, then we will slowly forget about food,” says Basil the Great. This is what we heard about the blessed David, that he forgot to eat “his bread” (Ps.101, 5), “when his thoughts were enraptured,” says Listvychnyk, “to God’s miracles” with great horror and surprise regarding the reward, as the unrevealed Basil says: “What shall I repay the Lord for all that He has rewarded us?” For our sake God dwelt among men, for the sake of perishable nature the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The benefactor came to the ungrateful and the Redeemer to the captives; to those who sat in darkness – the sun of truth, on the cross – passionless, in hell – light, in death – life, resurrection – for the sake of the fallen, to Him let us call: “Our God, glory to You!” And John of Damascus says this: “The heavens were amazed, and the ends of the earth were amazed, because God appeared to people in the flesh, and Your womb became about a hundred times higher than the heavens, therefore, the Theotokos, angels and people together glorify You.” And again: “Every hearing of the indescribable coming of God was frightened, because the Most High descended to the flesh by will, from the virgin’s womb he became a man, therefore we, the faithful, glorify the Immaculate Mother of God.” Come and submit, we, people, having climbed the holy, heavenly mountain; let’s mentally stand in the city of the living God and see with our mind the ineffable Godhead of the Father and the Spirit, which will shine in the only-begotten Son. You sweetened me with love, O Christ, and you changed me with your divine providence, but my sins fell into supernatural fire and my desire to be satisfied with your pleasures, so that, rejoicing, I, Good One, magnified your two comings. You are all sweetness, O Savior, you are all desire and love, truly insatiable, you are beauty indescribable. Whoever has come to know this through mental and physical virtues and has learned about the secrets hidden in the words of holy men and the Divine Scriptures, and most of all in the holy Gospels, does not stop the desire and great tears that happen to him without compulsion. And we, who hear about it only from the Scriptures, must always practice and study so that over a long time the desire of God is imprinted in our hearts, as St. Maximus says, and as the fathers did until they accepted self-acting knowledge. All the desire of the martyrs reached out to the only Lord, uniting with Him in love and singing. This is what Damascene says about the three young men: “For the father’s laws, blessed ones, in Babylon, the young men, enduring the trouble, disdained the king’s insane order and together, not burned by fire, sang a song worthy of the Lady.” And rightly so. When someone learns the miracles of God, he becomes as if in a state of restlessness and forgets about temporary life, because he knows the Divine Scriptures, says Saint Isaac. And not like us, who are little moved by the Scriptures and darkened by boredom, forgetfulness and ignorance and become insensitive to passions. He who has cleansed himself of passions by crying, knows the mysteries hidden in all the Scriptures, and is impressed by everything, and most of all by the holy Gospel, by the deeds described in it, and by the words. Also, as the wisdom of God made the immeasurable immeasurable, as God slowly makes a good man and teaches him to love his enemies (Mt. 5, 44) and to be merciful, because the heavenly Father is also merciful (Mt. 5, 48), dispassionate, because God is dispassionate and has every virtue, and perfect, because the Father is perfect. In a word, this sacred book teaches man what pleases God so that he may become a god by sonship.And who would not be surprised by the action of the holy Gospel, which for just a desire gives peace both in the present and the future age with all honor, as the Lord says: “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 18, 14). And here Peter testifies that while he was still alive and received the keys of heaven, so did the other apostles. Each of them left something small that he had and conquered the whole world in the present age, and in the future he received what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the thought of man has not entered. And so it was not only with the apostles, but even to this day it happens with everyone who wants it, as one of the fathers said, that although they toiled in the desert, they had great peace, that is, a life undisturbed and carefree. And how does it seem to us, who has more peace: the one who exercises in divine affairs and does his own thing, or the one who is in worries, and in the courts, and in the troubles of life? Who always converses with God, studying the Divine Scriptures, or he who labors and watches for robberies and lawless deeds and, having gained nothing from them, will have from them only labor and sheer death? And we bear death with great labor and dishonor, when there is no possession. And some suffered great damage and perished. Robbers and drowners, fornicators and quarrelsome, who did not want to be saved with honor, peace and property. Oh woe! O blindness! We accept death for the sake of death and love neither salvation nor life. When death awaits us for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, will we do anything more than what the robber, robber or warrior did, who for the sake of bread alone will suffer death both in the present and in the future age? What is more in us is that we intend to accept death for the sake of Christ, thanks to which the Kingdom of Heaven is given to those who in the present age wish to despise everything with their minds and submit to themselves, to rule not only over things, but over the body, which despises, and over death – with the boldness of faith, and in the future age to reign forever with Christ by the grace of joint resurrection. Both the sinner dies and the righteous, and they die in different ways. Both die, because they are mortal, and there is nothing strange about it. But one of them remains unrewarded and may be condemned, and the other is blessed both in the present age and in the future age. What is the great thing in only leaving one’s possessions, when one has to leave them, as it were, to one who thinks he has them, not only at the hour of death, but even earlier, with great shame, toil, and pain? Or, because of the estates, some have experienced death after numerous temptations of wealth with fear, troubles, constant sadness and embarrassment willingly and unwillingly. And God’s commandment frees a person from all this and gives him all carelessness and fearlessness, as well as indescribable cheerfulness, especially to those who love non-accumulation the most. What is sweeter than that, than to be dispassionate, not at all possessed by the rage or desire of worldly things, having for nothing what is desired by many, and, having become above all, to live as in paradise, or rather, in heaven, becoming above all need by carelessness and detachment for God?When someone experiences with joy everything that happens, then everything calms him down. And when someone loves everyone, everyone loves him. And when he despises everything, he becomes above everything, also when he does not want to have something, for which the other quarrels and grieves, when he does not get, and when he gets what he wants, then he is condemned. Whoever does not desire anything, thanks to the commandment, he himself is freed from all things in the present age, and in the future – from fierce torments. After all, not wanting to have something that you don’t have is higher than all peace and wealth, and wanting what you don’t have is a huge torment even before the future torment. And such a person is a slave, although he thinks that he is a king and a rich man. What is the severity of the Lord’s commandments, which we do not diligently fulfill? Whoever, therefore, has understood the grace of the Holy Gospel and at least a little understood what it is about, that is, the Lord’s work and teaching, His commandments, prohibitions and promises, he knows what an inexhaustible treasure he will find, although he cannot confess it as he likes, because heavenly things are indescribable. Christ is hidden in the Gospel, and whoever wants to find Him must first sell all his possessions and buy the Gospel, so that he can not only find Him through reading, but also accept Him in himself, imitating His presence in the world. “For the one who seeks Christ,” says Saint Maximus, “likes to seek Him not externally, but within himself, that is, to be body and soul like Christ – sinless as much as possible, and to guard the testimony of conscience with all his might, in order to reign over all his will and defeat it with contempt, even though in the world he is poor and without a family.” For what is the use of him who considers himself a king, and rage and desire torment him in this age, and in the future he finds eternal torment, when he does not keep the commandments of God? But what madness! Why do we not want to accept great and eternal benefits through small and temporary things? We reject what is good and desire the opposite. What is easier than to serve a cup of cold water or a piece of bread or to hold back your will and little knowledge, and for this the Kingdom of Heaven awaits us for the grace of the one who said: “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Lk. 17, 21 – quoted in the translation of I. Ohienko). “It is not somewhere far away,” says Damascene, “and not outside, but inside.” Only wish to conquer the passions – and you will have it in yourself with a God-pleasing life. And if you don’t want it, you won’t have anything, because the Kingdom of God, say the fathers, is called a life pleasing to God, and the first coming of the Lord, and the second. The second has already been written in the Words about lamentation. And whoever, thanks to grace, has understood the first thing, let him say with all his soul, being greatly terrified: “You are great, Lord, and Your works are wonderful, and no words will be enough to properly sing of Your miracles. Behold, my sweetest Lord, Your servant is voiceless and immovable, standing before You, I await enlightenment from You. Because You said, Lord: “Without me, you can do nothing you cannot” (Jn. 15, 5). So teach me about yourself.That is why I dared to sit at Your pure feet, like the sister of Lazarus, Your friend, so that I too could hear something with my mind: if not about Your immeasurable Divinity, then about my bodily presence in the world. So that I could feel Your grace, which the Holy Gospel speaks about, at least a little. And how You were with us, meek and lowly in heart, how Your most holy mouth spoke, so that we too could learn this from You. And in such poverty You were rich in mercy, in labor and in voluntary thirst, that You gave living water to the Samaritan, as You said, Lord: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” (John 7:37), – You are the source of healing. And who will be able to sing about Your stay in the world? And because You made me – earth, dust and ashes, a criminal, a suicide, who sinned a lot before You and always sinning – to perfectly understand something of Your deeds and words, then I dared to ask You about them, because by faith I think that I see You, invisible to all creation. Forgive me for my boldness, for You know, Lord-Heartbearer, that I am not asking out of curiosity, but I want to learn, believing that I will benefit from You, the Being, the knowledge that You will give me, as You give to those who love You, Lover of Man, and as much as I will have the strength to do this, so that I may imitate Your stay in the body, through which I am called a Christian by grace. Although no one can, like Your disciples, accept death for enemies and become rich with Your and their poverty and virtue, but each of us can do it a little at a time, according to our desire. Even if someone always dies for You, he will not be able to free himself from his sins. After all, You, Lord, perfect God and perfect Man, lived sinlessly in this world and endured everything for everyone. If we suffer something for ourselves, we suffer it for our sins. And who will not be surprised when they consider Your indescribable descent? For You are the immeasurable, all-powerful God, who controls everything, who breathes on the cherubim, called abundant wisdom, humbled Himself for us – who have greatly angered You from the beginning and from time immemorial – and accepted birth and upbringing. They chased You away and threw stones at You, mocked You, mocked You, pushed You, beat You, shamed You and spat on You. You accepted the cross, nails, sponge, reed, vinegar and gall – I am not even worthy to hear so much. And even Your incorruptible rib was pierced, and from it You poured out eternal life for us – Your honest blood and water. I sing Your Christmas and the one who gave birth to You, who You kept as a Virgin and after Christmas, as she was before Christmas. I worship You, who lay in the manger and manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. I praise You, who went to Egypt with the Virgin, Your Most Pure Mother, lived in Nazareth and was obedient to my parents in the flesh – the named father and the real mother. I praise You, Lord, who was baptized in Jordan by Your Forerunner and received testimony from the Father, and the Holy Spirit revealed You and Your baptism, and John the Baptist – Your prophet and servant.I glorify You, who fasted for our sake and voluntarily submitted to temptations, and defeated the enemy in the body that You took from us, and gave us victory over him with Your unspeakable wisdom, who was with Your disciples, cleansed the lepers, straightened the crooked, and gave light to the blind, gave speech and hearing to the deaf and dumb, blessed the bread, and walked on sea, as on land, and taught people about actions and visions that announce about the Father and the Holy Spirit and prophesy about future prohibitions and promises and about everything that serves our salvation, that anticipates the enemy and completely eradicates passions with all-wise teaching and makes the unwise wise, makes the wicked unwise with his infinite wisdom; resurrected the dead with Your indescribable power and with authority cast out demons, as God of all, and not only He did this, but He also gave power to His servants to do greater things, so that we would be more amazed, as You said, Lord. Great is Your name, because Your saints work miracles through You. Lord, Lord, Jesus Christ, Son and Word of God! The sweetest name of our salvation! Your glory is great, Your works are great, Your words are wonderful and sweeter than honey and honeycombs. Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee, and who can praise and glorify Thy descent, goodness, power, wisdom, presence in the world and teaching? And how natural are Your holy commandments and easily teach a virtuous life, as You said, Lord: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Lk. 6:37); seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Therefore, whatever you would have people do to you, do to them” (Mt. 7, 7-8, 12). And who, having felt Your commandments and other words, will not be surprised, considering Your infinite wisdom? Dear God, Life of all, joy of angels, unspeakable Light, resurrection of the dead, Good Shepherd who laid down his soul for his sheep! I sing of Your transfiguration, crucifixion, death and resurrection, ascension and sitting at the right hand of the Father, the descent of the Holy Spirit and Your second coming with power and glory many and incomprehensible. I am tired, my Lord, of looking at Your miracles, and I want to be silent in amazement. But I don’t know what to do. Because when I am silent, I am impressed, when I dare to say something, I am amazed and fascinated. I think that I am not worthy of heaven and earth, but worthy of all torment. Not only for what I have sinned, but even more for what I have received grace, I am ungrateful and wretched; You have filled my soul with all goodness, most kind Lord, I have understood a little of Your works and my mind has been captivated. It does not become me at all, I only see You, Lord, but this is not because of my knowledge or actions, but because of Your grace. Therefore, I put my finger to my mouth, as Job once did, and I resort to the saints, because I wonder, wretched one. Blessed Mistress of the world! You know that we, sinners, do not have the courage to face God, whom you gave birth to, but, trusting in You, Your servants, through You we fall to the Lord, because You have the courage to face Him as your Son and our God. Hoping for this, and I, unworthy, beg You, Mistress, may I be granted the sense of Your gifts and those of other saints. How did you display such virtues?And only the fact that You gave birth to the Son of God made You higher than all living beings, because He saw You as worthy to dwell in You; He who knew everything before the world came, as the Creator of everything. And no one will dare to ask anything about You, because You surpass nature, mind and understanding. In the truth of the Mother of God, we confess You, saved by You, Pure Virgin, glorifying You with the faces of incorporeal powers. After all, it is impossible for people to see God, even the ranks of angels do not dare to look at Him, but through You, All-Pure, the Incarnate Word appeared to people, who, glorifying Him with the heavenly host, we glorify You. What shall we call You, O Gracious One? By heaven, because… and so on. Mother of God! You are the true vine that has given us the fruit of life, we pray to you: pray, Mistress, with all the saints, that we may have mercy, who orthodoxly confess You as the Mother of God and glorify You, most blessed, as you foretold, Mistress. For all the families please You, the only Theotokos, fairer than the cherubim and incomparably more glorious… and so on. However, I cannot understand everything that I know about You, therefore, wondering, I will tell about other saints. How were you in the desert, Baptist and Forerunner of Him? And what should we call you? Is it a prophet, or an angel, or an apostle, a martyr? An angel, because you lived like a bodiless one. An apostle, because you caught it at birth. Martyr, because your head was crushed for the sake of Christ – pray to Him, so that our souls may be saved. Solomon says: we praise the memory of the righteous, but you like the Lord’s testimony, Forerunner, because you have truly shown yourself… and so on. Holy apostles and disciples of the Savior, who were eyewitnesses of mysteries, you preached the Invisible, which has no beginning, saying: “In the beginning was the Word.” You were not created before by angels, you learned not from men, but from heavenly wisdom, therefore, having courage, pray for our souls – we pray. I am amazed at your love of God, as it is said in the ancient troparies. Lord, the apostles loved You pure on earth, they neglected everything in order to acquire You alone, and for You they gave their bodies to wounds, for this they were glorified and pray for our souls. How is it that you, though you were human, like us, and wore a corruptible body, showed such virtues that you suffered death for those who killed you? And how, even though they were so small, did they conquer the whole world? And this you did, unarmed and naked, and thereby defeated the invisible demons, poor and burdened with the weakness of the flesh. And what is this power, if not faith, through which you received the power of the Holy Spirit? You, holy martyrs, who suffered well and were crowned, pray to the Lord to have mercy on our souls. Apostles, martyrs and prophets, saints, the like and so on. And who would not be surprised, holy martyrs, seeing the good deed that you did? How did you, being corporeal, defeat the incorporeal enemy, confessing Christ and arming yourself with the cross? That is why you are worthy exorcists of demons and opponents of enemies, pray without ceasing for the salvation of our souls.Because even in front of you, the three holy youths did not endure hardships with the hope of retribution, but for the love of God, as they themselves said: “Even if God does not save us, we will not turn away from Him, as from someone who does not save.” I am amazed at your highest humility, holy three youths, as you, standing in the fire, hesitated how to thank the Lord, and said: “Look, now we have neither a prince, nor a leader, nor a prophet… if only You could accept us for the sake of a broken heart and a humble spirit” (Dan. 3, 39). I am also amazed at the power of God that was in you and in Elijah the prophet, as the Damascene says: “You made dew from the flame of the saints, and burned the righteous sacrifice with water, because you do everything, Christ, as you will.” But what should I consider first? Is it the Holy Gospel or the Acts of the Holy Apostles? The sufferings of the holy martyrs or the exploits of the holy fathers? Old or new holy husbands and wives? Everyone’s life and words or their interpretation? I wonder and am delighted. But I pray to You, Man-loving Lord, do not allow the knowledge of Your secrets, which You revealed to Your saints, and through them to me, Your sinful and unworthy servant, to be condemned for my unworthiness and my ungrateful disposition. This is because, Lord, Your servant, free from everything before You and voiceless like a dead man, does not dare to say anything else or look shamelessly, but, as usual, calls out from the depths of his soul, saying: “Lord, most merciful”… and other words of prayer. He likes to labor in other prayers and psalms, preserving the customs of soul and body, in order to get used to understanding Divine things, to understand with a great feeling all the mysteries and strange things contained in the Divine Scriptures, and, marveling at the Divine gifts, to learn to love only God himself and to suffer for Him with joy, like all the saints. Because Solomon says: “The Divine Scriptures are full of all kinds of wonders.” I am also amazed at other miracles and the power of God’s manna, that it did not last until the morning, but became stinky, and worms began to grow in it (Exod. 16, 20), so that the unbelievers would not worry about tomorrow, but in the ark that stood in the temple, the manna never spoiled. And when they baked it on the fire, it did not burn, but melted from the sun’s rays, so that the gluttons did not gain more than they needed (Ex. 16, 21). Oh wonder! How God accomplishes human salvation everywhere! As the Lord says about God’s providence: “My Father works until now, so I also work” (John 5, 17). Whoever practices this for God’s sake learns sensibly from the Divine Scriptures, and mentally – from God’s providence. He begins to see the nature of things, as Gregory of Nyssa and John of Damascus say, and he is no longer robbed by the external beauty of the things of this world, that is, beauty, wealth, glory and similar things, and he is not tempted by their corruption, as it tempts the passionate. About the fifth commandment From this fifth commandment, which the prophet calls “counsel”, the ascetic learns, as it is said at the end of the beatitudes, the nature and change of sensual creations, that they are taken from the earth and return to the earth, according to the words of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity is vanity, everything is vanity” (Prov. 1, 2).So did Damascene: “Everything is human vanity that does not remain after death. Wealth does not remain, glory does not accompany it. When death comes, all this perishes.” And again: “Truly everything is vanity, and life is a shadow and a dream, because every person strives in vain, because the Scripture says: “When we gain the world, then we will dwell in the grave, where kings and paupers are together.” About the sixth gift When an ascetic gets used to dispassion, he is given the sixth gift, called “fortitude” (Ps. 28, 11), and he begins to look dispassionately at the beauty of sensual creatures. Because all thoughts are of three types: one is human, one is demonic, and one is angelic. Human is when some thought about created things comes to the heart, for example, a man, gold or something else from sensual creations. A demonic thought consists of thought and passion, that is, it prompts a person either to wordless friendship, that is, to love one another not for the sake of God, or to fornication, or to reckless hatred, that is, malice or condemnation. Gold, on the other hand, leads to greed, or to theft and robbery, or to something else like that, or to hatred and blasphemy against God, in order to lead to destruction through something. “And if we love things not as we should, and give them priority over the love of God, then we are no different from idolaters,” says St. Maximus. And also: “When we hate them, fools are not very good, then we anger God.” Angelic thought is a dispassionate look at things, that is, true knowledge, which is the middle between two abysses, which protects the mind and separates its right intention from the six devilish nets that surround it. That is, from the upper and lower, from the right and the left, from the one that is directed inward to the right intention, and the one that is directed outward from it. True knowledge is like a pillar standing in the middle of the mentioned six nets; those who have mortified themselves to the world learn true knowledge from the angels, so that the mind may become dispassionate and see things as it pleases, and may not become proud above the right intention, thinking that it has grasped something with its wisdom, and that it may not descend in ignorance, as if it cannot grasp perfection; and that it may not turn to the right with contempt and hatred of things, nor to the left with wordless love, i.e. passion. And so that he does not remain in the middle of the right intention with complete ignorance and laziness, nor outside – with frequent trials and wordless efforts due to negligence or cunning. But let him patiently and humbly accept knowledge from a firm faith, so that he who has understood something a little, descends to the Divine care, and he who, although he has knowledge, but because of confusion does not know about it, acquire humility and with long-lasting hope and faith receive what he longed for in his intention. Such a person will not feel hatred for anything, because it is evil, no, on the contrary, wordless love; will look at a person, wondering that his mind is a limitless image of the invisible God, although limited by the body, as Basil the Great says, how he reaches to the end of what the image contains, like God who rules the world.Because the mind takes the image of every thing and is drawn according to the appearance of the thing it perceives. When it pleases to be in the faceless and faceless God, then he himself becomes faceless and faceless. Then he wonders how the mind can keep every thought, and the last thoughts cannot change the first ones, and the first thoughts – prevent the last ones, just as thought, like a treasury, holds everything, forgetting nothing. And when the mind wants, then the tongue expresses what it thinks – not only new, but what has long been hidden in the treasury of thought. And how words, again, always come out, and the mind remains inexhaustible. And he is also surprised, looking at the body, how the eyes, ears and tongue receive benefits from the outside at the desire of the soul: one through light, the other through air, and no sense interferes with the other and does not do anything contrary to the soul. And how the suffocating body was united by God’s command with the spiritual and verbal soul, which the Holy Spirit cooperates with and inspires, – as Damascene says – although some do not know this, thinking that the soul comes from the eternal Godhead, which is impossible. Golden Mouth says: “Let not the human mind imagine that he is God; God has placed in him forgetfulness and ignorance so that through them he may acquire humility.” And again: “And because the Creator wanted to separate this natural connection, the verbal soul,” says Listvychnik, “goes either up, that is, to heaven, or – oh, woe! – to the bottom, to hell, and leaves, and the earthly body returns to the earth from which it was taken.” And also: “By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, at His second coming, the separated will be united, so that each of us may receive according to his works.” Oh wonder! Who wouldn’t be horrified when they understand even a little of this secret? The Lord raises man again from the earth after all the evil that he did and despised His commandments, and grants him the immortality that he had at first, and did not keep the commandments that would have buried him from death and decay, but became proud and brought death upon himself. Marveling at all this about man and about many other things, the man who is mentally taught by the deeds of angels is terrified. And again she looks at the beauty of gold and its uses, and wonders how such a thing was created from the earth for the sake of us, so that the weak, giving alms, would get rid of accumulation, acquisition, enrichment, and those who did not want to give it away, involuntarily received help through temptations, so that they too would be saved, when they would suffer sorrows with gratitude; therefore both the first and the second will be saved. Those who value acquisition more are crowned as those who do something supernatural, and as those who in virginity perform a feat, and those who do not value perishable and earthly things more than God’s commandments, but look at them as God’s creation, necessary for life in the body and for salvation, worthy not of hatred, but of restraint and love.In a word, enlightened with dispassion, he looks at the beauty of every thing and its use, loves the Creator and, considering all nature, heavenly and heavenly creations – the sky, sun, moon, clouds, rain, snow, hail, and at what cold water freezes, and after that thunder, lightning, winds, air and its change, seasons, years, days, nights, hours, moments, earth, sea, innumerable creatures, four-legged animals, beasts and reptiles, numerous genera of birds, springs and rivers, innumerable genera of plants and herbs, garden and wild, – in everything he sees order, order, majesty, goodness, number, unity, harmony, use, similarity, variety, beauty, state, movement, colors, images, appearance, returning to the same, being in decay and, simply remembering everything that creates not in nature, wonders To the Creator, how He brought forth the four elements with a single command, that is, earth, water, fire and air, and how they, opposed to each other, do not harm each other by God’s wisdom, and how He created everything from them for our sake, and all this is very little contrary to Christ’s descent and being good, as the Theologian says. Considers God’s goodness and wisdom, power and providence hidden in creation, about which the Lord himself told Job (Job 38) and about which the Words and scriptures tell; it is surprising that so many secrets have been revealed to us through the Divine Scriptures by the drops of soulless ink. It is surprising that the holy prophets and apostles received so much good with great labor and love; and we learn only by reading. Because the Scriptures, endowed with the word, tell us about the most glorious things, and whoever knows this believes that there is nothing unnecessary in creation, even that which is evil and happens against one’s will is necessary, because God miraculously transforms it into good. It was not God’s will for the devil to fall, but it worked out for the benefit of those who are being saved. God allows the devil to tempt those who want to be saved, according to the strength of each one, as Saint Isaac says, so that he is put to shame by equal angelic people and overcome with God’s help not only husbands, but also numerous wives, with patience and faith in the Sustainer, who receive from Him also crowns of incorruption through His grace and manly love – because He is the one who defeated and defeats the shameless serpent and I love the murderer. And the one who has accepted the gift of spiritual knowledge knows that everything created is “very good”; he who has accepted only the beginning of understanding of God, let him know in his conscience that he does not yet know everything, and let him say that he “does not know”, as Golden Mouth says. He says: “When someone says something about the heavenly height, what it is, and I would say “I don’t know”, I would be telling the truth.” “When someone thinks to himself that he knows something, he does not yet know how to know,” said the apostle (1 Cor. 8, 2). That is why we, firmly believing and asking the experienced, must accept the dogmas of the Church and the reflections of the teachers about the Divine Scriptures and about sensual and mental creatures, so that we do not fall soon, being established only by our reason, as Saint Dorotheus says.But in everything we need to find our ignorance, so that the one who searches and does not trust his understanding, wants to learn and, marveling at the great knowledge, sees his ignorance next to God’s great wisdom. “The spiritual mind perceives every sensation spiritually, when it cleanses itself before God,” says the Theologian. “However, we need to have knowledge for greater fear, so that some evil dogma is not hidden in the soul, which could kill the soul without any other sin,” says Basil the Great. Therefore, we do not like to prematurely rush to this revelation due to laziness or vanity, we must fulfill the commandments of Christ and perform the mentioned revelations in turn, without rushing. And when we wash our soul with patience and many tears of fear and weeping and begin to see for nature, and get used to it, then the mind itself has entered this knowledge – the angels will teach it spiritually. If there is someone who is presumptuous and wants to enter the second before the first, then let him know that not only cannot he have a God-pleasing intention, but he will also raise numerous attacks on himself, especially regarding the knowledge of man, as we heard about Adam. There is no benefit when the passionate begin to do the deeds of the dispassionate or think like them. For babies are not benefited by solid food, although it is so beneficial to the perfect. They should sensibly want and avoid, as unworthy. And in despair and despair turn away from grace when it comes, nor out of presumptuousness do you seek anything prematurely. “So that, looking prematurely for what comes in its time,” says Listvychnyk, “they don’t lose it when the time comes.” It may be that, being led astray, we do not receive correction either through man or through the Scriptures. When someone directs his intention to God and, humbly enduring the temptations that he finds, begins to look for the reasons for the temptations and is led astray, then God will help him. And so with great shame and joy he turns back, looking for the ways of his fathers. “For what happens for the sake of God, and not for the sake of something else,” says Listvychnyk, “grace will count as good for us, even if it is not very good.” If it is not for the sake of God, without endurance and humility, then many will suffer, as many have already suffered and died because of their folly, because they trusted their own understanding and thought that they would do well even without a mentor or lack of experience, which comes through patience and humility. Because in experience there is no sorrow, no temptation, and maybe even no attacks. When a small attack is allowed, this temptation will be a cause of great joy and benefit for the experienced person, because God allows it so that the ascetic can gain experience and bravely stand against the enemies. An example of this is the tears and brokenness of the soul before God and the silent running to Him with patience, the careful study of the Scriptures and with faith the will of God in measure. And the sign of the first is: to doubt God’s help, to be ashamed to ask humbly, to avoid silence and reading, to love troublemaking and conversations, hoping to get peace from them, which is impossible.On the contrary, at such a time, passions take root and stronger temptations come, a little suffocation, ingratitude and boredom multiply due to great ignorance. Because some are temptations for sons to punish and teach them, and others are for enemies, for their destruction. Especially when someone is ridiculed by pride, because “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3, 34). All sorrow, when borne with patience, is good and useful; grief without patience is God’s turning away, and it is not useful until it is treated with humility and wisdom, and there is no other medicine. For a humble person blames himself and reproaches himself, and not someone else, when sorrow comes. And because of this, he endures, seeking in God relief from sorrow, and when he finds it, he rejoices and endures with gratitude – thus, gaining experience in patience, he gains knowledge. And, realizing his weakness and ignorance, he searches for a doctor with all his might, and while searching, he finds healing (Mt. 7, 8), as Christ himself says, and having received it, he loves, and the more he loves, the more he himself is loved, therefore, purifying himself as much as possible, he strives to make a place for the one he loves. And he, having found a place, settles, as the elders said, and when settling, I protect my own, and he begins to be enlightened. “And when he is enlightened, he gains knowledge, and when he has knowledge, he is also known better,” says Damascene. And this, and what was said before, everyone likes to keep and do as much as he can. “What he cannot comprehend, he should thank in silence,” says Saint Isaac, “and let him not think of entering shamelessly.” St. Isa ak speaks again, repeating the words of Jesus Sirach: “You have found honey, eat as much as you need, but see that you do not have to throw it back because you are full” (Prov. 25, 16). And as the theologian says: “Unbridled knowledge can sometimes drag you into the abyss”, that is, when you seek knowledge beyond your measure and do not want to say: “God knows about this, but who am I?” You have to believe that “He who created mountains and great whales also refined the bee sting,” says Basil the Great. He who has passed from bondage to knowledge, knows the mental from the sensible, and the invisible and eternal from the temporary and visible. And by grace he knows about mountain powers and that the whole world is not worthy of one righteous person. “Look closely,” says Golden Mouth, “than how many peoples and tribes the righteous man is greater.” An angel is always greater than a mortal. It is enough to see one angel to be very terrified. And how the angelic Daniel cried when he saw the angel (Dan. 8, 17). About the Seventh Revelation Whoever is worthy of the seventh revelation is amazed at the multitude of incorporeal powers, authorities, thrones, dominions, seraphim, cherubim, nine orders, which are written about in all the Divine Scriptures. He marvels at their nature, strength, and other good things that he can see, and that they see God the Creator and stand before Him. The heavenly armies have other merits, which Golden Mouth says about them: “The Lord of hosts means the Lord of hosts, forces, and forces enlighten each other.Angels, he says, enlighten people, and they themselves receive enlightenment from the archangels, and they receive enlightenment from the beginnings, and so each rank receives enlightenment and knowledge from another.” And also: “What is said about the human race? That this is one sheep, which God did not destroy, but it destroyed itself, and the angels are ninety-nine sheep”. Considering the Creator’s wisdom and power, one wants to ask how he created such a multitude of everything with a single command? “First of all, – says the theologian, – one must understand angelic powers and other things”; “and having entered the temple with the mind, that is, behind the curtain, it becomes insensible”, – as the saint says Isaac. “The outer temple is a prototype of this world, the curtain – the door of the temple – is a prototype of the solid heaven, and the holy of holies – a prototype of the higher worlds, where the incorporeal and supernatural forces endlessly praise God and pray to Him for us,” says the great Athanasius. Scriptures,” says the Damascene. The divine curtain of the temple was torn when the Creator was crucified on the cross, revealing the truth hidden in the Scriptures, believe them who cry: “Blessed are you, God of our fathers!” And as St. Cosmas the songwriter says: “The first of the people ate from the tree and became a slave to decay, as the most dishonorable, was condemned to be rejected from life; as a perishable body, he passed on some kind of harm from illness to the whole human race, but we, people, having found salvation through the cross tree, cry: “Glory to our fathers and our God, blessed are You.” About the eighth revelation From the seventh revelation to the revelation in God, the ascetic ascends with a second and pure prayer, as it pleases the dreamer, because even in the same direction of prayer, Divine love captures the mind and he no longer knows anything of this world, – say Maximus and Damascene. “The mind forgets not only about everything, but about itself,” says St. Nile. Because when the mind still knows itself, it is not only in God, but also in itself. “Then he accepts,” says Saint Maximus, “the Gospel from God and becomes a theologian, having received the descent of the Holy Spirit.” “When hearing about God, let no one, out of ignorance, think that God himself is what we see in him, that is, goodness, grace, truth, sanctification, light, fire, essence, being, power, wisdom, and the like,” says the great Dionysius. But not what the mind can define, because the Deity is limitless and indescribable, and because the words speak not about what is in Him, but about Him – as the great Dionysius explained to Saint Timothy, quoting the testimony of Saint Herotheus. And it would be most appropriate to say that God is immeasurable, unfathomable, immeasurable, such that He cannot be defined, because He is beyond mind and thought, and only He knows Himself, the only God, three-hypostatic, beginningless, infinite, excellent, praised. And what is said about Him in the Divine Scriptures is said out of surprise, so that we know what God is like, and not who He is, because He is immeasurable for all verbal and spiritual nature.One likes to marvel at the incarnation of the Son of God, and the union by hypostasis, as St. Cyril says, and how the flesh that He took from us is held in His Godhead, says Basil the Great. For as iron is joined with fire, so is this union, so that we know what Christ is like in two natures, as the Damascene says to the Mother of God: “One hypostasis in two natures, you gave birth to God incarnate, to whom we all sing: God, blessed are you.” And again: “The limitless remained immeasurable, joined the body by hypostasis, as the beneficent one in You, Holy One, the only blessed one.” About the fact that there are no disagreements in the Divine Scriptures. When someone who is at least a little enlightened examines every reading or psalm of the Mosps, he finds revelations and theology and notices that the content of one scripture confirms the content of another. And whose mind is not yet enlightened, he thinks that there are disagreements in the Divine Scriptures; in fact, disagreements are not in the Divine Scriptures, let there be no such thing. But for some Divine Scriptures, there are testimonies in other scriptures, and the reason for the appearance of some was a time or a person – and therefore everything that is said in the Scriptures is infallible. Another thing is our lack of understanding. And let no one neglect the Scriptures, but with all his might observe them as they are, and not as he pleases. This is what the Greeks and Jews did, because they did not want to say: “I do not know what this means”, but because of their arrogance and self-indulgence, they neglected the Scriptures and their content and understood them as they thought, and not according to God’s will – therefore they were led astray and indulged in all malice. Anyone who searches for what the Scriptures say will never form his own understanding, good or bad, but – as Basil the Great and Chrysostom said – has the Divine Scriptures as his guide, and not the teachings of this world. “And when God puts something into a pure heart without consideration, it will accept it if there is a testimony from the Divine Scriptures with it,” – taught Anthony the Great. “When Divine thoughts enter a mute person by themselves, without consideration, they can be accepted,” says Saint Isaac. And to test and consider them is one’s own will and that flattery. “Especially,” says Golden Mouth, “when someone, like a robber, forces the Scriptures to be interpreted differently, he does not enter through the door of humility, but breaks in from the outside.” Because when someone distorts the content of Scripture or condemns it in order to confirm his knowledge, that is, ignorance, then he is the most insane person in the world. What kind of knowledge is this, when someone explains the Scriptures and changes their words as they wish. In fact, it is understood by the one who sees the words as inviolable and with the wisdom of the Spirit penetrates into the deep mysteries, which the Divine Scripture testifies to. Such were the three great luminaries Basil, Chrysostom and Gregory, who found evidence either in the same or in other sayings of the Scriptures. And the one who wants to say something against will not be silent, because they did not take testimony from other books, so that it could be said: “This is their understanding”, but from those words themselves or from other words of the Scriptures. And truly from the Holy Spirit they learned to understand and speak as worthy.Any thing about which there is no evidence that it is good, but there are doubts, one does not like to do or think about it. What is the need to leave a thing evident, about which there is evidence that it is good and pleasing to God, and to do something else, not knowing whether it is good or not? Unless only out of passion. That’s how it is. How to pray in the rites We like to know about the eight rites, that in four of them we must repeat what is prescribed in each of them, and in the others – repeat only “Lord, wash,” as it is said about Saint Philemon, and so that the mind is endlessly delighted with understanding; this is how the vigilant likes to live. Sometimes to keep the mind in the contemplation of sensible things, sometimes in the knowledge of mental and invisible things; and also in the thought of some Scripture or in pure prayer. And the body – sometimes in reading, sometimes in prayer, sometimes in tears for oneself or for someone else out of compassion for the sake of God, and also – to help someone who is mentally or physically weak, to constantly do the works of the holy angels, without worrying about anything from this world. And God, who chose the wanderer and separated him, may he be his interlocutor, and who gave him such a state and carelessness, will himself take care of him and feed him spiritually and physically. “Cast your care on the Lord,” says the Scriptures, “and He will give you life” (Ps. 54, 23). And to the extent that he puts his hope in God in everything regarding the soul and body, to the extent that God cares about him, that is why the ascetic sees himself worse than all creation, because he has accepted many gifts of God, manifest and implicit, spiritual and bodily; feeling a debtor, he is ashamed and cannot be proud, because he sees God’s good deeds. And as much as he thanks God and strives to encourage himself for his love, so God approaches him with his gifts and wants to calm him down and make him love silence and non-acquisition above all earthly goods, not even mentioning retribution in the next age. For the holy martyrs suffered, receiving wounds from the enemies, but the desire for the Kingdom and God’s love overcame the pain, and the very fact that they had the power to defeat the enemies, they perceived as a great comfort and duty, in order to be worthy to suffer death for Christ, so they often became insensitive. In the same way, the holy fathers often burdened themselves at first with various exploits and struggles, which they found due to the cunning of spirits. However, the desire and hope for dispassion prevailed. Because after labor, the carefree becomes dispassionate, one who has conquered passions. And the passionate one thinks that everything is fine with him, but he thinks so because of his blindness. Only the one who is called an ascetic strives and fights because he wants to conquer passions and weaknesses. Sometimes God allows the ascetic to be defeated by those who fight against him, so that he acquires humility. That is why it is pleasing to see one’s weakness to firmly distance oneself from what is harmful, to forget one’s original habits. For if someone does not first distance himself from his troubles and acquire complete silence, he cannot reach the point of having something dispassionate or speaking only well and briefly.In everything, the first thing should be a complete escape from troubles – so as not to attract the original habits. However, let no one through misunderstanding, hearing about humility, dispassion and similar things, think that he already has them. Let him seek what are the signs of each of these virtues, and whether they are in him. About humble wisdom The signs of humble wisdom are as follows: the one who has every mental and physical virtue considers himself a greater debtor before God, because he has received much through grace, even though he is unworthy of it. And when he finds some temptation for him through demons or through people, he thinks that he deserves such a temptation and even greater ones, in order to free himself little by little from his debt, and he will find relief from the torment that awaits him at the trial. When he can’t stand it, he grieves a lot and looks for something to burden himself with. When he receives it again, as a gift from God, then he humbles himself and cannot repay Dobrochyntsev with anything. So he works on and always considers himself a debtor. About dispassion The signs of dispassion are as follows: not to be embarrassed and without fear to be in everything, like those who have received from God the grace “to be able to do everything”, according to the words of the apostle (Phil. 4, 13); not to worry about the body in any way, but, as far as possible, burden yourself and achieve the skill of peace and, giving thanks, again burden yourself with something else, in order to be incessantly in the struggle and win with humility. That is the success of a person. “What happens without encumbrance is not a deed, but a gift,” says Saint Isaac. If peace came after the first labor, then this is the reward of the victory, and there is still nothing to brag about. Because they do not praise those who accept the reward, but those who force themselves to do and do not accept anything. And what can I say here: as much as we do, as much as we thank Dobrochyntsev, we owe him as much and much more. Because He is inexhaustible and demands nothing, and we cannot do anything good without Him. He who deigns to praise God gains more, because he receives a great and wonderful gift. And the more he sings, the more he becomes a debtor, and finds no end or limit to the knowledge of God, or gratitude, or humility, or love. They are not from this age, so that there would be an end to them, but from another infinite age, which has no end, but on the contrary – in it, knowledge and giving grow. So whoever pleases this in word and deed, he is freed from all passions. Whoever wants to receive it, must be in God and not worry at all about this age, and not be afraid of any temptation, because because of this he will be led to greater success and to a higher degree. And not to be troubled by bad or supposedly good dreams, or by some evil or good thought, or by sadness, or by supposed joy, or by imagination, or by despair, or by height, or by depth, or by abandonment, or by some help and strength, or by carelessness, or by gains, or by despair, or by jealousy, or by apparent dispassion, or by great passion. But to keep a silent and carefree life with humility, believing that no one can do us any harm when we don’t want to.Evil is allowed to happen to us only because of pride and when we do not always turn to God, that is, we do not bow down to Him, asking for His will to be in everything, saying to every thought that comes to us: “I do not know who you are; God knows whether you are good or not. I have given myself into His hands and I give myself, and He takes care of me. As He created me from nothing, so He must save me by grace, as it pleases Him. Only May his holy will be done in the present age and in the future, as he wills and when he wills. I only know that I have sinned much and received many graces. Despite all this, He wants and can save me as He wills. How do I, a man, know whether He wants it to be this way or not? I have sinned because of fear here, and because of my many sins and many infirmities, I sit idly in a cell like a prisoner, waiting for the Lord’s year.” And when the ascetic sees himself inactive and dead, let him not be afraid, because his soul will be moved and painful tears will [flow], if only he does not leave the cell. And when he has a great zeal for all spiritual work and tears, let him not be happy about it, but wait for a robbery and prepare for a fight. In a word, let him despise every thing, whether good or bad, so that he remains untroubled in everything and speechless, striving to the best of his ability and fulfilling what he has accepted, if he has any adviser. If not, then let him have Christ as his counselor, so that in every undertaking and thought he humbly asks Him with a pure prayer from the heart, not even daring to think that he is an experienced monk until he sees Christ in the future age, as Listivchynik and Abba Agathon say. And if he has the intention to please God, then God himself teaches him his will or spiritually informs him about it through a person or through the Scriptures. And when he cuts off his desires for the sake of God, God himself will create with indescribable joy that he will achieve perfection, but he will not know how. And seeing this, he will be very surprised how joy and understanding will begin to flow from everywhere, and he will benefit from everything, and God will reign in him, as in one who does not have his own will, because he obeys the holy will of God. And he becomes like a king: whenever he sets his mind to something, he receives it without difficulty from God, who takes care of him. And this is the faith about which the Lord says: “When you have faith…” (Mt. 17:20 et seq.), and other virtues are built on this faith, according to the words of the apostle (Jude 1:20). Therefore, the enemy makes all sorts of tricks so that a person leaves speechlessness and falls into passion and at least becomes unfaithful in something, relying on his fortitude and wisdom – either completely or partially. And here the enemy will always have an opportunity to defeat her and take her prisoner, the wretch.He who has come to know this leaves all the sweetness of the world and peace as worthless and takes care of carelessness: either in obedience, having, instead of Christ, a mentor and trusting him with all understanding in word and deed so as to have nothing at all, or in silence, in firm faith, he distances himself from everything and, instead of everyone, has Christ, and he becomes everything to him, as the Golden-mouthed Damascene says, in the present age and in the future. feeding, clothing, delighting, consoling, cheering, soothing, teaching, enlightening – in short, he cares for his students as well as for him. Although he did not work as hard as those, he has a firm faith, and having it, he does not worry about himself like other people. But, fearing the spirits, as the apostles once feared the Jews, he sits in a cell, waiting for his Master, so that with true revelation, that is, knowledge of His creations, he co-resurrected his mind from passions and granted peace, as to the apostles, entering through a locked door, – says Saint Maximus. About the exact recognition of the seven bodily actions What was written at first about the seven bodily and moral actions, I like to keep at all times and not to belittle, and not to exaggerate; except for the time of physical struggle in youth or for an excess of strength, when the greatest possible feat is required; or, again, in infirmity, because of which a little rest is needed. However, one cannot completely abandon them, because it can harm even those who are not passionate, as St. Isaac says, but if necessary, let there be rest, as a medicine for an illness. And let the soul, having found a reason for it, not want to loosen its hold. Relaxation will come when someone wants peace with all his soul. And peace, say the saints, harms the young and healthy. After all, the holy fathers Basil and Maxim say that to satisfy hunger and thirst, only bread and water are needed, and everything else for the health and strength of the body was given to us by God. And so that one and the same food does not tire a sick person, it is useful to eat one thing, then another. Because the refusal of food and immoderation bring ailments, and abstinence and daily change of dishes helps to recover, so that the body is preserved without overeating and ailments and has the strength to acquire virtue. This is said to those who do the feat; and the dispassionate, like babies in Christ, often do not eat for several days, forgetting about the body, like Saint Sisoy, who, having eaten, wanted to partake of the Holy Mysteries, because he was in Divine rapture. As the apostle says for the benefit of many: “For when we are not with ourselves, it is for God; and when we are prudent, then for you” (2 Cor. 5, 13); and as Basil the Great, and others with him, say about some: “Even when some ate a lot of food, they did not feel it, but felt as if they had not eaten anything. Because the mind of such people was not in the body to feel the peace of the body or pain.” And this was testified by numerous holy fathers and holy martyrs, it was also revealed by one saint, who wrote about him Saint Nile: “There was,” he says, “an old man who was praying in the desert.By God’s permission, for his benefit and the benefit of many others, the demons grabbed him by the hands and feet and threw him up, and so that his body would not break when he fell from a great height, they caught him on a mat. And having done so for so long, they tempted him to see if his mind would descend from heaven, and they could not achieve it.” Will such a person feel the need for food or drink rather than some bodily need? And also: Saint Ephraim, having overcome all the spiritual and lustful passions, by the grace of Christ, so as not to be freed from enemy attacks and not to suffer condemnation, – this is what he thought because of his indescribable humility – he asked, that the grace of dispassion may be taken away from him. John the Episcopalian wrote to him that there are more dispassionate than the dispassionate, and so on. So in every business we need prudence, so that we consider every action in time. Prudence is the light that shows the one who has it, the state of man, fortitude, age, strength, the sword, the desire, the jealousy, the contrition, the skill, the ignorance, the strength of the body, the habit, the place, the way of life, the education, the faith, the disposition, the intention, the rejoicing, the knowledge, the natural wisdom, the zeal, the cheerfulness, and the like The Gospel of John: when the Greeks came to see the Lord, He said to them: “The hour has come…” (Jn. 12, 23), saying that the time has come to call the Gentiles – this is a sign. Therefore, prudence explains all this, and not only this, but also the intentions of the fathers. “For we seek not what we do, but what we do it for.” does something without knowing what is said, although he will work hard, but he will not be able to do anything”, – say Anthony the Great and Saint Isaac about those who work in bodily virtues, but do not care about the condition of doing, although this is what should be sought. Says Saint Maximus: “Give the body action to the best of its ability and turn all your efforts to the mind”. He who works physically is overcome by gluttony and sleepiness, then passion and talkativeness darken his mind; he who diligently labors with his mind, meditates, prays, and is able to accomplish all things. For a wise man endeavors, as far as possible, to have less trouble, and to keep the commandments. “Do not worry about your life…” (Mt. 6, 25.34 et seq.). “When there are many troubles, the ascetic does not even see himself – how can he see the enemy’s tricks prepared ahead of time,” says Golden Mouth. If this were so, then we would not fall so easily into his net, but, according to the word of God, “there will be few who will be saved” (Lk. 13, 23).Because the enemy, when he wants to involve us in something big, first encourages us not to be vigilant in small and imperceptible things, that is why before adultery there are frequent lustful looks, before murder – a little rage, before the darkening of the mind – a little passion, and before that – the little needs of the body. Therefore, the Lord, who knows everything in advance, because He is the Father’s wisdom, anticipates or devilish cunning, commands people in advance to cut off the reasons for sin, so that, thinking that small sins are easily forgiven, we do not fall into big and grave sins. And he says: “You have heard what was said to those of old, that is, to those who were under the Law, but I say to you…” (Mt. 5, 21.27 et seq.). Whoever has learned from the holy Gospel, let him be vigilant and do as the Savior teaches, in order to free himself from the enemy’s nets, and let the commandments be for him like generosity and great good deeds, because with great wisdom they can save the soul; knowledge is a gift from God. And truly, “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above” (James 1:17), says the brother of God. This is what Damascene also says: “You, Christ, have given us as an unashamed Intercessor the one who gave birth to You, through her intercession give us the Spirit who serves to bestow the goodness that proceeds through You from the Father.” Those who have received the gift of attentiveness to the Divine Scriptures, as the fathers say, find in these Scriptures all hidden good, therefore the Lord says: “This is why every scribe, taught about the Kingdom of Heaven…” (Mt. 13, 52 et seq.), is trained to distance himself for God and read the Divine Scriptures. For the Scriptures reveal themselves in one way to the laity, even though they think they know the Scriptures, and in another way to those who have gone away in order to pray without ceasing, that is, to have God’s thought instead of breathing in everything, even though he is in the world and ignorant, and not trained in human learning, as Basil the Great says. “God most often appears to simplicity and humility,” says Listvychnyk, “and not to labor and empty wisdom.” God turns away from her because she has no humility. The apostle says that he is better “ignorant in word, but not in knowledge” (2 Cor. 11, 6). Because spiritual knowledge is a gift, and the art of speech is a human science, like all other sciences of this world, and does not help anyone in the salvation of the soul. And this is known from the Greeks. Reading is to remind those who know from experience, and to teach the inexperienced. “When,” says Basil the Great, “the Lord finds a heart clean of all worldly things and sciences, then, as in a clean book, he writes down his dogmas in it.” I say this so that no one reads what does not serve God’s pleasure, and when he even reads something involuntarily, let him hasten to make up for it in his memory by spiritually reading the Divine Scriptures and those books that serve for the salvation of his soul, according to the state he has reached. When he is active – let him read the Lives and Words of the Fathers, when grace has raised him to Divine knowledge – let him read all the Divine Scriptures, which can, according to the apostle, destroy “every pride that stands against the knowledge of God” (2 Cr.10, 5), and remove all disobedience and transgression by actions and true knowledge of the Divine commandments and dogmas of Christ, and, apart from them, let him not read anything. Do we have to accept an unclean spirit instead of the Holy Spirit? After all, whoever practices what word wants to have such a property of the word, even though this thing does not seem to him to be unkind, as the experienced see. About reading in God Let reading in God be so that the mind does not wander, and this is the beginning of salvation. Whoever hates an affirming word (Prov. 11:15), says Solomon, is an enemy; and soaring thoughts are the beginning of sins, says Saint Isaac. Whoever wants to avoid this completely, let him practice a lot in the cells. When he is weighed down by boredom, let him work a little – whether he is dispassionate or thoughtful – for the benefit of many and for the help of the weak, as the great fathers did, descending and becoming like the passionate for the sake of humility and wisdom, as those who can everywhere have God in themselves, practicing the knowledge of God and in handicrafts and at the market, – as Basil the Great says about the perfect – even among the multitude people always seem to be in themselves and in God. And whoever does not yet have this, but wants to drive away boredom, let him put aside all conversation with people and excessive sleep and let boredom exhaust his body and soul until it goes away, seeing his patience in constant meditation on God, in reading and in pure prayer. Because every enemy, when he sees that he can do something, leads his army, but when not, he withdraws either permanently or for some time. Therefore, he who wants to defeat the enemy, let him be patient. “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt. 10, 22). “Such is God’s justice,” says the apostle, “to repay with oppression those who oppress you, and to you who are oppressed, rest” (2 Thess. 1, 6-7). No deed done in God with humility will be bad, but there is a difference between deeds and undertakings. Everything that is done unnecessarily becomes an obstacle for the one who wants to be saved, that is, everything that does not serve the salvation of the soul or is for bodily life.After all, it is not food that is evil, but gluttony, not possessions – but passion for them, not words – but idle talk, not the pleasures of the world – but intemperance, not love for one’s own – but carelessness because of it to please God, not clothes that only cover the body and protect from frost and heat – and the extra is very expensive, not houses that protect from attackers, animals and people – but two stories and three-storied, large and densely populated, and it is not harmful to have a thing, but to have it for the wrong need; and there is no evil in the fact that a penniless person has books with him – it will be evil when he does not have books that are useful for the soul; and there is no evil in having a wife, evil in committing adultery; and the evil is not in wine – but in drunkenness, not in natural rage, given to fight against sin – but when we use it against people like us; not in authority – but in love for authority; not in glory – but in glory and in vanity worse than it; not in the acquisition of virtue – but in the thought that you have it; not in knowledge – but in the thought that it is, and, what is worse, not noticing that there is no knowledge; the world is not evil, but with passion; not nature – but unnatural things; not unanimity – but its application to doing evil and not to the salvation of the soul; not the members of the body – but the abuse of them, so that we do not lustfully do what we do not like; to look at creation with eyes and glorify the Creator in them and to walk well for the benefit of soul and body; and the ears are for listening to slander and empty words, and for listening to the word of God and every voice that we hear from people, birds and other creatures and for their sake glorify the Creator; and the nose was not given to us to relax the soul and weaken its strength with perfumes, as the Theologian says, but so that we could breathe and take in the air that God gave us, and praise God for it; no one can live without it – neither man nor animal. And I am amazed at the wisdom of the Benefactor, that everyone can have what they need, that is, air, fire, water and earth. But God created not only this, but also that which can save the soul – and it is easier than everything else; and that which can destroy the soul is not easy at all. Because poverty usually saves the soul, and wealth is an obstacle for many. And everyone finds poverty, and wealth is not in our will.Likewise, dishonor, humility, patience, obedience, humility, abstinence, fasting, vigilance, cutting off one’s will, those lazy infirmities, thanks for all this, temptations, vanity, deprivation of the most necessary, avoidance of pleasures, nakedness, long-suffering – in a word, all undertakings that are for the sake of God are easily accomplished, and they are permitted, and no one is angry for them, but on the contrary, allows those who wish to have them, whether they find them freely or not freely. And what leads to destruction is not easy to acquire, that is, wealth, fame, pride, deceit, contempt for authority, lust for power, intemperance, overeating, verbosity, self-will, health and strength of the body, a comfortable life, possessions, accumulation of everything that we desire, satisfaction with pleasures, accumulation clothes and blankets, numerous and expensive, and the like, for which there is a great feat, and small possessions and temporary benefit and great sorrow, but short on malt. For all this becomes a sorrow not only to those who have it, but also to those who wish to have it, although there is no evil in the use of all this, as we have already said. For we have hands and feet, not to steal and rob or to raise a hand against one another, but to do all work for God, to give kindness to the poor, to improve the weak in soul, to help those who are in need, and to those who are stronger in soul and body, to gain patience and imitate Christ and His holy disciples and to glorify God and marvel at His secret wisdom, which is revealed in the parts of our body. As [for example] in these hands and small fingers, which are ready for every skill and work, writing and every undertaking according to God’s providence, from which comes the knowledge of innumerable crafts and writing, wisdom and healing medicines, languages and various writings. In a word, everything that was before, that is and that will be, was given to us through the greatest kindness and is always given for the life of the body and the salvation of the soul, when we will use all this according to God’s intention. If not, then we fall away and perish, and everything that exists becomes a sorrow for us in the present age, and not only in the present, but also in the future becomes an eternal torment for us, as has already been said. About true prudence. Whoever has received the gift of prudence by the grace of God, he must protect it with all his might, doing absolutely nothing imprudently, so that, knowing, he does not sin by negligence and does not become the cause of greater condemnation for himself. Whoever has not yet accepted this gift cannot have his opinion, say or do anything, without asking and without having firm faith and pure prayer, without which he cannot reason about the truth. This is born from humble wisdom, and whoever has it, insight is born in him, so that, as Moses and the Book of Leaves say, they can foresee the enemy’s secret schemes and cut off their causes in advance, according to the words of David: “And my eye looked upon my enemies” (Ps. 91, 12).And the signs of prudence are as follows: the true recognition of good and the opposite, seeing God’s will in all affairs, insight, knowing one’s sins before they have yet become a deed, and those that occur after demonic robbery, and after this knowledge of the secrets hidden in the Divine Scriptures and in sensual creations. The mother of all this – humility – has its own signs, which have already been said about them. It can be recognized by the fact that when someone is humble and wise, he must have every virtue, and even more, he must consider himself the worst of all creation and truly believe in it. If he is not like that, then this means that he is worse than all creation, even if it seems that he lives like an angel. Because even a real angel, even though he has so many virtues and wisdom, cannot please God without humility. What will he say who considers himself an angel, but does not have humility – the cause of all that is and that which is good? From it [from humility] prudence is born, which enlightens the ends of the world, and without it everything is dark. Prudence is light, and it is called light, and therefore we need this light more than any word or undertaking, so that we may wonder at everything else. We wonder at God, that on the first and Lord’s day He first created light, so that what was created afterwards would not be invisible, as if it did not exist, says Damascene. Therefore, light, as we have already said, is prudence, and the insight born from it is the most necessary of all gifts. What is more necessary than to see the wiles of the devil and protect one’s soul in the cooperation of grace? And purity of conscience is the most necessary of all actions, as St. Isaac says, and “holiness [of the body], without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12, 14), as the apostle says. About not liking to despair, even when someone sins a lot We don’t need to despair when we are not what we should be. It is not good when you have sinned, man. Why do you anger God and because of your anger consider Him weak? Can not the one who created the world that you see in front of you save your soul? When you say that this will be your condemnation, as well as His condescension, then repent and He will accept your repentance, as He accepted the repentance of the publican and the harlot. If you cannot repent, but you sin habitually, even though you don’t want to, be humble like a publican (Lk. 18:12), and this will be enough for your salvation. Because whoever sins unrepentantly and does not despair, he, by necessity, considers himself the worst of all creatures and does not dare to condemn or reprimand anyone, but only marvels at God’s manly love, thanks Dobrochyntsev and can still acquire many blessings. Although he obeyed the devil in his sins, he will not submit to the enemy for fear of God, which drives him to despair. And therefore he becomes part of God, because he has understanding, gratitude, patience, fear of God, so as not to judge and not to be condemned, which is very necessary.Goldilocks says about Gehenna that it clearly benefits us, even more than the Kingdom of Heaven, because many enter the Kingdom of Heaven through it, and few enter the Kingdom, but more – God’s manly love. It prompts with fear, and the Kingdom accepts, and both of us are saved by the grace of Christ. If those who are overcome by numerous passions of the soul and body endure this, and do not abandon their self-control through negligence and do not fall into despair, then they receive crowns; and he who has acquired dispassion with calmness and ease, immediately falls away, when he does not profess grace all the time, without condemning anyone; when he dares to condemn, he shows that he acquired this wealth by his own power, says Saint Maximus. And as great trouble is the one who is still passionate and does not participate in the enlightenment of knowledge, when he has authority over someone, – says Saint Damascene, – so does the one who has accepted dispassion from God and spiritual knowledge, when he does not benefit other souls. Nothing else is so beneficial to the weak as to withdraw into silence, and to the passionate and ignorant as obedience in silence. There is nothing better than seeing your own weakness and ignorance, and there is nothing worse than not seeing it. There is no passion more hateful than pride and more worthy of mockery than the love of money – it is the root of all evil. Bolyds, who with great difficulty make silver coins from earthly metal, again lay them idle in the ground. That is why the Lord says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…” and so on. And also: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt. 6, 19.21). For when the human mind is rooted in something, the habit draws its desire either to earthly things, or to passions, or to heavenly and eternal goods; and a habit, when it takes root, becomes as strong as nature, says Basil the Great. When someone is sick, then he likes to listen to the testimony of his conscience in order to free his soul from all condemnation, so that the end of life does not come and he does not have to repent in vain and cry forever. He who cannot endure sensual death for Christ, as Christ endured, must of his own free will endure mentally and become a martyr of conscience, when he will not submit to the demons or desires that conquer him, but will defeat them, like the holy martyrs and reverend fathers – and some of them were sensual martyrs, others – mental. He who forced himself a little defeated the enemy, and he who neglected himself a little and became darkened, died. A short lesson on acquiring virtues and moving away from passions “Nothing darkens thoughts like cunning, and nothing enlightens the mind like reading in silence,” says Basil the Great.Nothing leads the soul to pain so quickly as the thought of death, and to invisible success – self-reproach and cutting off one’s desires; nothing leads to invisible destruction like imagination and self-indulgence, nothing becomes the cause of God’s turning away and human punishment like complaining; nothing more easily leads to sin than begging and numerous conversations; nothing so helps to accumulate virtues as seclusion and sighing; nothing leads to a good understanding and thanksgiving like meditation on God’s gifts and our sins; nothing – to the return of blessings, like praising them; and nothing produces involuntary salvation like temptations. There is no closer path to Christ, that is, to the dispassion and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, than the middle path, which avoids exaggeration and understatement in everything. No other virtue will comprehend God’s will as the humility and abandonment of one’s understanding and one’s will. Nothing is so conducive to every good work as pure prayer, and nothing so harmful to the acquisition of virtue as passion and haughty thought, however slight it may be. To the extent that one has purity, to the extent that he sees that he sins, and to the extent that he sins, he is darkened to that extent, even though it seems to him that he has purity. And also: the more he thinks he has knowledge, the more he knows nothing, and the more an ascetic endures sorrows, the more he will defeat the enemy. And as much as someone strives to do something good in a day, so he should strive every day of his life, – says St. Mark, – as if it is done by his strength and vigilance. When it is by the grace of God, and when grace comes, then he can do so, then what is his praise? Because he thinks that he can do something good and wrongly condemns those who cannot. Whoever demands something from his neighbor must demand even more from himself. Just as those who sin feel like debtors, because they anger God, so those who are covered by His grace, because of their weakness and proximity to despair, should tremble even more, because they are even greater debtors. Ignorance of the Scriptures is a great disaster, says Saint Epiphany, but a greater evil is transgression when there is knowledge. There is more benefit to the soul by word than by prayer. And when someone tolerates his neighbor, let not the one whom he insults take offense at him, and when he calms his will, as he is embarrassed, – says Saint Dorotheus, – he shows mercy to his soul, bearing his burden and prays for him, wishing him salvation and all the good of the body and soul. This is pure innocence that purifies the soul and leads it to God. Because treating a person is better than all deeds and virtues. There are few greater and more perfect virtues than love for one’s neighbor. Its sign is not only not to keep in oneself the things that another person needs, but also to accept death for him with joy, according to the Lord’s commandment, and to have this as one’s duty and as a great dignity, because one must love one’s neighbor not only according to nature, but also because of the pure blood shed for us by the one who commanded us – Christ (Jn. 15, 3).”Don’t be selfish, – says Saint Maximus, – and you will be God-loving, don’t be self-indulgent, and you will be brotherly-loving.” Brotherly love is born through hope, hope is an unquestionable faith with all the soul that we will receive what we hope for. And hope comes through firm faith, so as not to worry about one’s life or death, but to give all the trouble to God, as it is said about one who wants to receive the signs of dispassion, the basis of which is faith. He who has faith, let him consider that God, who created everything and us with everything out of nothingness because of his greatest goodness, will also arrange everything with all flesh, as he himself knows. About how you can acquire true faith. Whoever wants to acquire it – and it is the basis of all blessings and the door to God’s secrets, and without a difficult victory over enemies, and more necessary than any virtue, and the wing of prayer, and the indwelling of God in the soul – must endure every test with which his enemies tempt him and numerous and various thoughts that no one can know anything about them, nor say anything about them, nor their to invent, in addition to wine, the agent of malice – the devil. But let such a person not be afraid, because when with great efforts he overcomes the temptations that come upon him, and keeps his mind so as not to weaken it with the thought that is born in his heart, then he will overcome all passions with one stroke – because it is not he who will overcome them, but Christ who will enter him with faith. The Lord says about such people: “When you have faith like a grain of wheat…” (Mt. 17, 20 et seq.). But when the thought fails and gives in a little, then let the ascetic not be afraid and not despair, and do not attribute to his soul what the evil leader says, but patiently, let him diligently protect virtue and fulfill the commandments in silence and distance for God from everything about which he willfully thinks. So that the enemy, throwing all kinds of trickery and daydreaming at him day and night, would see that he was not bothered at all by the enemy’s delirious tricks and all the thoughts with which the enemy scared him, that is, he presented false delusions as truth, and then the enemy would be upset and leave. And the ascetic, having gained experience in the commandments of Christ, is not afraid of the enemy’s weakness and is not horrified by the enemy’s cunning, but with joy does in God everything that he wants and desires, held captive and strengthened by faith in the God in whom he believed. And the Lord himself says: “All things are possible to the one who believes” (Mr. 9, 23). Because it is not he himself who conducts the battle with the enemy, but God, who takes care of him for the sake of faith, as the prophet says: “I have chosen the Most High as my refuge” (Ps. 90, 9), and such a person does not worry about anything, knowing that “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory is from the Lord” (Prov. 21, 31), as Solomon says. And that’s why he dares to do everything, as Saint Isaac says: “Gain faith in yourself to trample your enemies.” Because such a person lives not as an arbitrary person, but as an animal that is led by God’s will, according to the words of the prophet: “I have become like cattle before You. But I am always with You” (Ps. 72, 22-23). If you want to calm me down with your knowledge, I will not object. Do you want to allow me to be tempted for the sake of my humility – and then I will be with You, because I will not be able to do anything on my own.Without You I would not have come out of nothingness, therefore I cannot live and be saved without You; do whatever you want with your creation. I believe that You are good, and will arrange good for me, even though, for my benefit, I will not know this, and I do not ask for an understanding of this in order to have peace for me, if it is not for my benefit, and I do not dare to ask for an easing of the struggle, although I am weak and oppressed by everything, because I do not know what is useful for me. You know everything, and do as you know, so that I do not sin, no matter what happens there; but whether I want it or not, save me, if it pleases You. I don’t care about that. I am as soulless before You; I give my soul into the purity of Your hands in the present age and in the future. Because you can do everything and know everything, and you want all good for everyone, and you always want my salvation. This is evident from all Your good deeds, which You have done and are always doing for us by grace, clearly and implicitly, what we know and what we do not know, and from Your, beyond all understanding, coming down to us, the Son and Word of God. Who am I that I dare to turn to You, Heart-witness, but I say it so that it may be known to me and my enemies that I am running to You, my refuge and salvation. Because I have come to know from Your grace that You are my God, therefore I do not dare to speak much, but I only want to place before You my mind that is inactive, deaf and dumb. Not I, but Your grace does everything, I don’t remember myself when I did something good, I only show You a lot of evil, falling before You, because You have pleased me to repent, and I am Your slave and the son of Your slave. But do not leave me, my Lord, my Lord, Jesus Christ, my God, so that I do not do, say or think what You do not want. It is enough for me to have so many previous sins of mine, but if you want, have mercy on me. I have sinned, have mercy on me, as you know. I believe, Lord, that You will listen to my moved voice; help my unbelief, You who gave me being, and to be a Christian to me. “It’s a big deal for me,” says John of Carpathia, “that I am called a monk and a Christian.” How did You, Lord, say to one of Your servants that this is a great thing that You are called by my name. For me, this is more than all the kingdoms of earth and heaven, so that I do not stop being called by Your sweetest name. Lord, gracious in many ways, I thank You… and so on, as it is written. Just as different readings suit the active, and different words, and tears, and prayers, so this faith is different from the first one, which gives rise to speechlessness. It is the faith of hearing, and this is the faith of revelation, as Saint Isaac says, and revelation is certain from hearing. From natural knowledge is born the first and common true and glorious faith, from which comes distancing for God, that is, fasting, vigil, reading, psalm singing, prayer, questioning of the experienced. And from all this spiritual virtues are born, that is, keeping the commandments and keeping and arranging customs, and from them – great faith, hope and complete love, which captures the mind to God, as it is said, in prayer, when someone mentally unites with God – as Saint Nile says.The words of the prayer are written once, so that the one who wants to place his mind undisturbed before the holy life-giving Trinity as if he sees her, although in reality he cannot see anything, should always pray the same prayer, but let the mind be invisible, without ideas, without images, untroubled, dispassionate, immovable, insensible, so that it does not think about anything and does not consider anything of what is in creation, but in the deep in peace and complete silence, he conversed with God and remembered only Him, until he reached a rapture of the mind, after which it would be convenient to say, as he pleased, the last prayer, that is, “Our Father”, as St. Philemon spoke with the holy apostles, martyrs and monks. What happens beyond this is a delusion that comes from the imagination. The Godhead is limitless and indescribable, and the mind that has become in itself must be so in order to be worthy of the grace of the descent of the Holy Spirit. “For we walk by faith, not by sight,” says the apostle. That is why we need to spend a long time in asceticism, so that the mind over a long period of time gets used to diligently reach for the divine. For even though the mind will not find anything greater than sensual things, it will still no longer reach for them and leave what it has become accustomed to for a long time. People who are philanthropic and dispassionate are not greatly harmed by worldly things, because they are well suited to them, as well as by those who have great gifts, because they see perfection in God. About the fact that silence is most useful for the passionate. Silence and distance from things and people are useful for everyone, but most of all for the passionate and weak. Because the mind cannot become dispassionate only from external actions, if it does not accept numerous spiritual gifts. Both caring for someone and bossing someone around are not without harm to someone who did not first acquire dispassion through distance. Life’s troubles and bustle harm both the perfect and the dispassionate. “There is no benefit from human action,” says Golden Mouth, “without heavenly favor.” And heavenly favor does not come to those who do not want it. But we need both the first and the second, and God, and human, and action, and knowledge, and fear, and hope, and weeping, and joy, and fear, and humility, and prudence, and love, because it is said that everything in life is twofold: day and night, light and darkness, health and disease, virtue and sin, prosperity and misfortune, life and death, so that through the first of them, we, the weak, they beat God in the field, and in the second they fled from sin, fearing temptations. And, being strong in everything, they loved God as a Father, seeing that He arranges all good things very well and usefully, and abstained from pleasures, and desired hardships, knowing that thanks to them our bodies will be alive to the glory of the Creator and will help souls to be saved by God’s unspeakable mercy. There are people of three types: slaves, hirelings and sons. Slaves do not love good, but, fearing torment, flee from evil. “This is good,” says Saint Dorotheus, “but not favorable.” Hirelings love the good and hate the wicked, because they hope for a reward.And the sons, being perfect, stay away from the evil one, not because they are afraid of torment, but because they strongly hate him, and they do good not because they hope for a reward, but because they have this duty. And dispassion is loved as an imitation of God and the reason that He dwells in them, because of which they distance themselves from all sin, although there is no prohibition. Because when the ascetic does not become dispassionate, the most kind God will not send the All-Holy Spirit to him, so that the habit does not drag him to passions and he is not guilty of the Holy Spirit descending on him and does not accept a greater condemnation. But when, accustomed to virtue, he will not have any company with enemies and will not be drawn by his passionate habit, then he will receive grace and will not be condemned when he receives the gift. “That’s why,” says Listvychnik, “God does not reveal his will to us, because if we do not understand it, we will not obey Him and receive a greater condemnation, even though we, like babies, do not know His immeasurable mercy towards us, ungrateful ones. Whoever wants to understand God’s will,” he says, “must die in everything for the whole world and for his will in everything.” Therefore, when there is doubt about a thing, do not do it or think about it as good, unless you cannot live or be saved without it. The ascetic must ask them experientially, and then, through firm faith and prayer, certainty about this matter comes to the point of complete dispassion, which makes the mind intractable and insurmountable in every good deed; though the struggle is great, yet man is not harmed. “…my strength is revealed in weakness” (2 Cr. 12, 9), the Lord says to the apostle, and he answers: – “… when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cr. 12, 10). It is not good to be dispassionate, because demons often depart for many reasons, either for the sake of trickery or imagination, to arouse in us a high opinion of selfishness, or pride, or some other evil, so that it fills the place of others in the passions. Therefore, some fathers from among the great elders kept the commandments, others after them wrote it down, and we put what was written on the windowsill – and even if we want to read it, we do not practice understanding what was said and doing it. We do not read what we should, or we think that we are doing something great, and we are exalted, not seeing that we will be condemned even more when we do not do it, – says Zolotousty. “He who, knowing the will of his master…” (Lk. 12, 47 et seq.). Therefore, reading and knowledge are good for us when they lead to greater humility. The same is the advice when we listen to it without testing the life of the teacher, as the Theologian says: “Do not look for the credibility of the one who teaches you or preaches to you.” And the Lord says: “Do and observe everything they say…” (Mt. 23, 3 et seq.). When one asks one’s teacher, there is no harm in it, but there is no benefit when one does not do it himself. “Each of us will give an answer for himself” (Rom. 12, 14): the teacher – for his words, and the student – for the deeds of his obedience. And what is beyond this is unnatural and deserves condemnation.”For God is good and righteous,” says Saint Eustratius, “and out of His goodness He gives us good things, when we accept them with gratitude, as from a righteous inheritance.” And when we become ungrateful, God’s justice deprives us of good, therefore God’s goodness and His truth give us all good by nature, and for abuse – eternal torment. About the fact that true repentance is a great good. However, when someone wants to, he begins to repent again. If you fell, get up; and fell again – stand up again, and do not despair of your salvation, no matter what happens, do not surrender yourself to the enemy of your own free will, and this patience with self-reproach is enough for you for salvation. “We too were once foolish, disobedient, confused, serving passions…” (Tit. 3, 3 ff.). Don’t despair at all, if you don’t see God’s help, He can provide help whenever He wants, you just have to trust Him, and He will do something; or by some temptations, or in some other way that He knows, will arrange for your correction, or will accept your patience and humility instead of doing, or in some other way that you do not know, will manfully act upon your trust, to save your timid soul. Only that you do not leave the Doctor, because you will fiercely suffer a double death due to ignorance of God’s secret intention. As we said about knowledge, so we will say now about doing. All mental and bodily activity is contained in the middle of the six nets. Cities on the right and on the left are an excess and underestimation of labor. Cities above and below are arrogance and despair. Cities inside and outside are fear and audacity, which the Theologian says is far from courage, although it is similar in name. And in the middle of these six nets is moderate action with humility and patience. The human mind can only wonder how it transforms at will everything that is in it, even though it is unchanged and remains so in others. And that is why we do not all have the same intention about things, but everyone uses things as he wants: whether good or bad, sensuous – by deed, and mental – by word or thought. All people, according to the theologian, belong to four visions and systems: one is good here and in the future – this was the case with all the saints and dispassionate; others were fine only here, because they, not having gratitude to Dobrochynets, proved unworthy of mental and physical good deeds, such as that rich man and others; still others suffer here for a long time, as if possessed by a long illness, – such as are paralyzed – their thought tempts them, but they are gracious; some are tormented both here and there, because they are tempted by their desires – like Judas and the like. Also, people have four standards for sensual things. Some hate God’s works, like demons, and do evil out of an evil will; others seem to love good, but passionately, like speechless animals, not caring at all about natural devotion and gratitude; still others are like natural people with spiritual knowledge and gratitude, who use everything to the fullest; and still others – supernatural, like angels, look at everything to the glory of the Creator, consuming nothing, except what is necessary for life, according to the apostle (1 Tim. 6, 8).About the general and individual gifts of God That is why we, all people, should always thank God for general and individual good deeds, mental and physical. There are four general elements and all that comes from them, and all that is spoken of in the Divine Scriptures about the strange and wonderful works of God. And the separate gifts of God are those that God has given to each person: whether it is wealth to give alms, or poverty, to bear it graciously, or the power of justice, to establish virtue with it, or submission and servitude for the sake of a certain salvation of the soul, or health, to help the needy, chastity and fortitude, to encourage virtue, or weakness and ignorance, so that speechless humbly moving away from things, or the involuntary loss of things for the sake of voluntary salvation and help for those who cannot come to complete deprivation or at least alms; or peace and well-being, so that the will may increase and labor in virtues, in order to become dispassionate and save other souls; or temptations and calamities, so that those who cannot resist their desires may be saved involuntarily, or for the sake of the perfect, who can endure them with joy. Everything said, even if it contradicts each other, is very good if necessary. If there is no need, then it is harmful to the soul and body. And the best of all that has been said is the transfer of sorrows. And let him who has received this great gift thank God, because he has experienced the greatest graces. This is the imitation of Christ, His apostles, martyrs and monks. For he receives great strength and knowledge from God who, by his own will, turns away from pleasures and, cutting off his desire, seeks even greater sorrows: rejecting his understanding, which is contrary to God’s will, let him always think and do what is pleasing to God. He who has deigned to use things only when he needs them, let him thank God a lot with great humility, because by God’s grace he has freed himself from what is contrary to nature and from transgressing the commandments. And we, who are still passionate and do not use things well, which is contrary to nature, should tremble and give many thanks to Dobrochyntsev with all prudence, marveling at His indescribable long-suffering: although we transgress His commandments and use things badly, and turn away from His gifts, He tolerates our folly and does not stop doing us good, and waits until our last breath for us to turn and repent. So all of us, people, should thank Him, as it is said: “Give thanks for everything – and from this come other words of the apostle who says: – pray without ceasing!” (1 Ch. 5, 17-18), that is, to remember God at all times, in all places and with all things. When someone does something, let him remember the Creator, that is, when you see the light, do not forget the one who gave it to you; when you see the sky, the earth, the sea and all created things, marvel and glorify the Creator; when you put on clothes, know that it is a gift, and praise the one who guides you in life. In short, let everything you do be an opportunity to glorify God, so pray without ceasing. And let the soul always rejoice in this, as the apostle says (1 Thess.5, 6), because the memory of God makes her happy, – says Saint Dorotheus, – calling David as a witness: “I remembered God, – he says, – and I was happy” (Ps. 76, 4). About the fact that God created everything for our benefit Since God created everything that exists for our benefit, and angels protect and teach us, while demons tempt us, then let us humble ourselves and turn to God, and by this we will be saved and freed from pride and carelessness, beingware of temptations. And also: the pleasures of the world, health, prosperity, fortress, peace, joy, light, knowledge, wealth, success in everything, peace, pleasure, honor, power, wealth and all the supposed benefits of this life lead us to gratitude and a good understanding of the Benefactor and to love Him and to do good according to our strength, having this as a natural duty and wanting to repay the gifts to the brim by deeds; although it is impossible, it is a great duty. And supposedly troubles, that is, ailments, misfortunes, labors, infirmities, involuntary sorrows, darkness, ignorance, poverty, failures in everything, fear, losses, dishonor, oppression, exhaustion and all the already mentioned burdens lead us to patience, humility and good hope and become a great comfort for us not only in the future, but also in the present age. So God arranged everything well for us with indescribable kindness. And whoever wants to understand this properly, let him strive to accumulate virtues, let him accept everything mentioned with gratitude – both the good and the opposite – and in everything let him not be troubled. And not only in this, but also when the demons throw a thought of pride to him, so that he exalts himself, then let him remember all that was said about them in the most disgusting way, and trample this thought and move to humility. And when the demons give him some ugly thought, then let him, having remembered the proud thought, trample this new one, and through this memory let the thoughts trample each other under the cooperation of grace, so that because of ugly thoughts he does not fall into despair, and because of proud ones – into high-mindedness. But when his enemies exalt his mind, let the mover resort to humility, and when his mind is humbled, let him be exalted with hope in God, so that, being bold, he does not fall, and, being frightened, does not remain in despair for the rest of his life. And this is a great deed of a monk, the elders say: when the enemy suggests one thing, the monk takes up another, and when the enemy suggests another, the monk turns his gaze to the first, knowing that nothing in this life is permanent. “But he who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Mt. 10, 22), and he who wants everything to work out the way he thinks, he himself does not know what he wants. He is like a blind man to whom the wind is: whatever comes to him, he inclines to it, and, like a slave, he is afraid of sorrows, and, like a slave, he succumbs to the imagination, imagining with unreasonable joy that he knows something that he has never seen and does not know what it is and where it comes from. And when he says that he sees, then he is even more blinded.This is what happens when he does not rebuke himself, and from this comes self-gratification and imperceptible destruction, as Saint Maximus says in the chapters about the monk who died after seeing the mountain Jerusalem, when he was praying with the brothers and his mind was in rapture, because he imagined that he had achieved something, and did not think about a greater duty. Thus the passionate, because of the darkness of their passions, do not see what is obvious to many, and the dispassionate, because of the purity of the mind, see what others do not see. About the fact that the word of God is not verbose “The word of God,” says Saint Maximus, “is not verbose.” All of us, people, talk a lot, but we have not fulfilled even one of God’s words, but God said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul…” (Mt. 22, 37 et seq.). How much the fathers have already spoken and written, and are still speaking and writing, and we have not fulfilled any of these words. “With the whole soul,” says St. Basil, “means to love absolutely nothing but God, and when someone loves his soul, he loves God not with his whole soul, but with half of it.” If we love ourselves and many others, how can we love God or dare to say so? So it is with love for our neighbor: if we do not neglect the present life, and maybe the future, for the sake of love for our neighbor, like Moses and the apostle Paul, then how can we say that we love our neighbor? Because Moses says to God about the people: “Oh, that You would forgive their sin! And no, then blot me out of Your book that You wrote” (Ex. 32, 32). And the apostle: “I would like to be separated from Christ for my brothers, especially for those who wanted to kill Him, because they are Israelites” (Rom. 9, 3-4). Such are the souls of saints – they love their enemies more than themselves. Therefore, in the present age and in the future, they give preference to their neighbor in everything, even if he is their enemy out of their own evil will. They do not look for a reward from those they love, but, giving others everything they have, rejoice as if they were receiving it in order to please Dobrochyntsev and to imitate His manly love as much as possible – and He is kind to the ungrateful and sinful. And when someone is pleased to have such gifts, then he must consider himself a debtor to God, who raised him from the earth and made it so that the dust imitates the Creator and God even a little. And bearing wrongs with joy and without malice, doing good to enemies and laying down one’s soul for one’s neighbor are gifts of God, given to those who want to receive them with zeal, in order to “counsel [them] and take care of them” (Gen. 2, 15), as it was said to Adam, so that the gifts would be thanks to the Benefactor. For there is no good that came from us, but all good is given to us by God by grace, just as things that exist come from nothingness. “What do you have that you did not receive? – says the apostle, that is, you received it as a gift from God. – But when you received it, why do you boast, as if you did not receive it?” (1 Kr. 4, 7) – and as if he himself did the impossible, because the Lord said: “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15, 5).About the fact that it is impossible to be saved without humble wisdom. I don’t know whether a person from being greatly darkened by passions reaches such madness that he sometimes considers himself equal to the angels, or even greater, because he thinks that he will be saved without humble wisdom. Dennitsa, having lost it, even without any other sin, became darkness. What does he who has no humility, a mortal man and dust, not to say “sinner” suffer? Unless she is blind and does not believe that she is sinful? “Of course,” says Golden Mouth, “a perfect person will be equal to an angel in the future age, as the Lord said, that is, in the resurrection of the dead, and not in the present age.” But even then people will not be angels, but equal angels; for they cannot change their nature, but that they will be unchangeable by grace and free from all need, they will have power over themselves, and unceasing joy, and love for God, which no eye has seen… and so on. At the same time, no one can be perfect, he can only accept the guarantee of the promised benefits. Those who have no gifts, let them humble themselves like the poor; so also those who have gifts, because they received them from God, let them not be condemned as foolish. And just as the rich should thank God for His gifts, so those who are enriched by virtues, the poor should also thank God and love the rich who do them good; and the rich should love the poor all the more, because both in the present and in the future age they are saved by the providence of God through almsgiving. After all, without the poor, souls will not have salvation and will not escape the temptations of wealth. And the Yakuts should love their teachers, so the teachers should love their students, and for each of them thank God for giving us knowledge and all good things, for which it is fitting to thank Him all the time, and all the more so that we have received the power to renew the holy baptism by repentance, without which no one can be saved. For the Lord says: “Why do you call me: Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” (Lk. 6, 46). Let no one be so foolish that, hearing this, he thinks that if he kneels and calls upon the Lord, he will have no guilt; on the contrary, he will be even more condemned, as the Lord says: “For if they treat a green tree like this, what will happen to a dry tree?” (Lk. 23, 31). “When the righteous is barely saved,” says Solomon, “what will happen to the wicked and sinful?” (Note 11, 31). And seeing how the Divine commandments oppress him from all sides, let him not despair, lest he be condemned worse than a suicide, but let him be more amazed at the Divine commandments and Scriptures, which here and there urge a person to perfection, so that he does not seek how he can escape from the good and find an excuse for the worse. But whenever he wants to do something like that, seeing all the evil in front of him, let him turn to the good God, who works strange miracles out of his love for men, so that every person becomes perfect in some way and unwillingly, even if he has power in himself. The wise, being even more ashamed of the benefits they have received, perform a feat like those who crossed the river in a dream, as St. Ephraim says6.”Therefore,” says Saint Isaac, “God multiplied temptations, so that, fearing them, they ran to Him.” Whoever does not understand this, but condemns such a gift because of evil greed, has killed and destroyed himself; having taken up arms against his enemies, he turned them against himself. Basil the Great says: “God himself is good and wants to make everyone good; so the devil, himself evil, wants, although he cannot, to draw everyone into his malice.” And just as parents who love their children, forbidding them to do foolish things, convert them, motivated by love, so God allows temptations, as a sharp one, that converts the worthy from the devil’s evil counsels. “He who spares harshness hates his son, but he who loves him punishes in advance” (Prov. 13, 24). Therefore, we, who are voluptuous and self-loving, should expect trouble from everywhere, even though it may be for God-loving people for salvation, that is, temptations that God will allow us, and falling into perdition because of pride and because we are not with God. Therefore, it is better for us, sons, who suffer punishment and not mortification, to choose what is easier. It is better, when one finds patience, to run to God, than, fearing trouble, to fall away from Him and fall into the hands of the devil, even to fall away forever and bring torment upon oneself. Because one of two things awaits: either we will endure the first and temporary, or the second and eternal. The righteous are not affected by either of these two troubles, because they accept with joy everything that seems to us to be a calamity, and when temptations come, they accept them as a time of gain, and they are not affected by them. Because, of course, it is not the one who was shot and missed who dies, but the one who was fatally wounded by it. Did the wound hurt Job? On the contrary, she crowned him! Has the apo of tables and martyrs ever been horrified? It is said that they were “glad that they were worthy to suffer insults for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5, 41). And to the extent that the winner has experienced the battle, to that extent he is crowned and has great joy from it. Such a person, when he hears the sound of the trumpet, is not afraid of it, as if it announces a stabbing, but rejoices, because it announces a crown of reward. Nothing wins without effort but good courage with firm faith, and nothing brings defeat so quickly as self-love and fear, which comes from unbelief. There is no better guide to courage than vigilance and experience, nor to subtlety of thought, like reading in silence. Nothing else becomes the cause of forgetfulness like idleness, and nothing helps to get rid of sins faster than indolence, and nothing helps to achieve reconciliation after sins like repentance and cutting off evil. There is no faster way to achieve spiritual success than by cutting off your desires and understanding. And there is nothing greater than when an ascetic prostrates himself day and night before

6 His Word about this is given in the Prologue on November 1. God and prays to Him that His will be done in everything; and there is nothing worse than to love freedom and freedom of soul or body. For we who love the good, the fear of torment and temptation, freedom does not benefit us at all, it is useful for us to protect ourselves and distance ourselves from things, so that by distancing ourselves from what harms our weakness, we can fight against thoughts. For the ruling spirits are overcome by dispassionate superiors, as those who have already overcome shameful passions, and those who are still under the obedience of the father, overcome subordinate demons. Saint Macarius and Abba Kronius say that there are superior and subordinate demons. The master demons are vanity, pride, and the like, and the subordinate demons are gluttony, fornication, and the like. Those who have attained perfect love rule over them, because they do good without compulsion and rejoice when they do it, and do not want to leave it. And when some obstacle happens to them to do good, it becomes like a torment for them. And, prompted by the Divine forehead, they immediately escape into silence and action – and this is like a pleasure and a routine for them. Such fathers are advised: pray a little, read a little, study a little, work a little, take care of your mind a little and spend your time like that. They say so because they themselves are dispassionate and are not enslaved by any desire except what pleases them; and they keep their mind where they want, and command their body like a slave. And we need to be under the law and rule in order to do good as if out of duty, even involuntarily and unwillingly. Because we love passions and pleasures more, that is, the peace of the body and our desires. And it leads our mind as it wants. So the body has disordered urges: whatever it wants, it does without words. And, truly, where the mind does not rule, everything is wordless and happens unnaturally, unlike with true Israelites, as the Lord says about the Zealot Simon the Canaanite: “Here is a true Israelite, there is no guile in him” (Jn. 1, 47), preaching his virtue. The name “Nathaniel” means “Jealousy of God”, his real name was Simon, he was called a Canaanite, because he came from Cana of Galilee, and Nathanael was called because of his virtues, as well as an Israelite, that is, a mind that sees God without any flattery. “The Divine Scriptures,” says Basil the Great, “have the custom of naming a person by virtue, not by birth.” Take the supreme apostles Peter and Paul: one of them was called Simon, and the Lord, because of his firmness, called him Peter, and the other Saul, which means “anxiety”, and God later changed his name to Paul, that is, “reassurance” or “peace”. And indeed, as much as he disturbed the faithful at first, so much later he calmed all souls by deed and word, as Zolotoustius says about him: “Look at the reverence of the apostle: he remembered God and did not begin to teach until he had given due thanks and prayer to God, indicating that he has knowledge and strength from Him. And, indeed, he teaches with prayer. And the divine Luke did not finish the Apostolic Acts The action was not due to negligence or for any other reason, but because he was going to the Lord.And when we leave something unfinished, we do so because of carelessness or inattention. Because we do not diligently build the works of God and do not really love them, but despise them as unnecessary and difficult, and therefore we either do not succeed, or we often turn back, like those who “left Him [Jesus] and no longer walked with Him” ​​(John 6, 66). “Although,” says Zolo the fat man, “His word was not firm, as they thought, but they were told about dogmas then.” But where there is no desire and vigilance, the easy becomes difficult, and vice versa. About how the soul is built by virtues, Basil the Great says that “every person needs, first of all, patience.” And the apostle says that a person needs patience “like rain on the earth” (Heb. 6, 7) in order to lay a foundation on it, that is, faith, and slowly build discernment. This is how a master builder builds the house of the soul. First, I will lay clay from the earth of humility, to connect stone with stone, that is, virtue with virtue, until it lays a roof, that is, perfect love. And then the master of the house comes and settles in the soul, if there are good gatekeepers who always keep their weapons, that is, bright thoughts and God-pleasing deeds, which may not disturb the King, and not a female gatekeeper even with needlework in her hands, as St. Nile says, explaining ancient stories. “Therefore,” he says, “the patriarch Abraham did not appoint a woman-gatekeeper, but some powerful and firm idea”, which carries a weapon, as the apostle and others say, “and a spiritual sword, that is, the word of God” (Eph. 6, 17), to either kill or drive away those who come to him. And that he stands and does not slumber, killing other people’s thoughts with actions that resist and negative words, he repels everything that tries to enter the heart outside of God’s intention, disdaining it and rejecting it, so that the enlightened mind does not leave the contemplation of God and Divine thoughts. “What I’m talking about,” he says, “is nonsense.” And in another place we read that St. Nile, quoting the Divine Scriptures, explains that passion is the cause of the darkening of the mind. Tai indeed. If the mind were not held from all sides, like water in a pipe, then the thought would not gather itself in order to descend to God. And he who has not lost his mind and has not tasted anything from the bad, then how can he easily despise the future? Therefore, we must run with faith, according to the words of the apostle, and with patience, thinking only about how to please God. And over time, those who run well see it and can partially grasp it. And then they will see everything in the future age, when the perishable mirror of this life will shatter, where the soul no longer stands against the body, and the body against the spirit (Ch. 5, 17), neither boredom can bring oblivion, and oblivion is ignorance, and now many of us suffer because of it, so we must write in memory. Because often a thought will come by itself and you write it down so you don’t forget it. And during an attack, it can become a help, or a relief, or a thank you, when it was confirmed by the Divine Scriptures. If he had neglected such thoughts, he would have had nothing to turn to in case of need, and he would have lost the benefit of them due to all-purpose forgetfulness.Therefore, we need to learn virtues not by words, but by deeds, so that, having become accustomed to them, we will keep the memory of the good. “For the Kingdom of God,” says the apostle, “is not in words, but in power” (1 Cor. 4, 20). He who seeks by deed knows in secret the loss and gain that occur in the search, and such a person can give advice to others, because he has suffered a lot and learned by experience, says Saint Isaac. For there are things which appear to be good, but in reality bring with them loss, and there are other things which outwardly appear to be evil, but in reality bring with them great gain. That is why Saint Isaac says: “Not every person can give good advice to someone who is looking for it.” “And only she who received the gift of prudence from God and acquired an enlightened mind through a long struggle,” says St. Maximus. And it is necessary to give advice with great humility, not to everyone, but to those who seek of their own free will and what is asked out of compulsion, and to answer as if he himself were still a student, so that the answer is imprinted in his soul by the humility and free request of the one who asks. And he will be warmed by faith, seeing a good counselor, as that “wonderful counselor”, about whom the prophet Isaiah says: “Mighty God, Prince of Peace” (Is. 9, 6). It is about our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to the slanderous Jew: “Who made me a judge or a judge over you?” Although He says that “the Father… has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), but in this, as in everything else, showing us the way of salvation with His holy humility, He does not force, but says: “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself,… and follow me” (Mt. 16, 24). That is, let him not worry about his life in any way, but just as I do and endure sensual and voluntary death for everyone, so let him imitate me in deed and word, like the apostles and martyrs. If he cannot imitate in this way, then let him at least suffer actual death by consent. And he also says to that rich young man: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have…” (Mt. 19, 21 et seq.). Basil the Great says about this young man that he lied, that he kept the commandments. Because if he saved, he would not have accumulated a lot of property, because the very first commandment in the Law says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 6, 5). The words “with all my soul” do not allow the one who loves God to love something else, and the one who cares about something already contradicts these words. And also: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19, 18), meaning every person. How can he say that he has kept the commandments, when other people have nothing to eat, and he has accumulated large estates, and he also has a passion for them. If he managed these estates, like Abraham, Job and other righteous people, and they managed them as God’s property, then he would not have left sad. Zolotousty also says the same thing: “He believed that the Lord’s words spoken to him were true, that’s why he left sad, because he was too weak to do such a thing.” There are many who believe the words of the Scriptures, but are weak to fulfill what is written. About the fact that love and advice with humility is a great good, the Lord advises us this and even more from this. The apostles also wrote in the same way: Beloved, do this and that.We do not undertake to comfort those who are looking for help, so that, seeing how we humble ourselves and honor them, they listen with joy and receive certainty, because we speak the word of the Holy Scripture with great love and humility. And for the sake of respect and love, which they will see from us, they will hurry to accept the burdens, like the holy apostle Peter. He heard many times about the cross and death and rejoiced, as if he had never heard anything like that from love for the Master. And he did not bother with miracles at all, like the unbelievers, but said to the Lord: “These are the words of eternal life in You!” (John 6, 68). This was not the case with Judas, who died twice: he hanged himself and did not die, but lived unrepentantly and fell seriously ill, and “torn in two” (Acts 1:18), as the Apostle Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles. And the holy apostle Paul, writing to the brothers, sometimes says: “We, out of ardent feeling for you, were glad to convey to you not only God’s Gospel, but also our own souls” (1 Thess. 2, 8), – and sometimes: “we ourselves are your servants for the sake of Jesus” (2 Kr. 4, 5). And also, writing to Timothy, he taught: “Do not treat the elder harshly, but rather persuade him as a father, the younger – as brothers” (1 Tim. 5, 1). And who will be able to understand the humility of the saints and their ardent love for the Lord and for their neighbors? However, we need to be careful not only in this, but also in what we say and what we write. Because whoever wants to teach another or give him advice or instruction must, as the Book of Letters says, first cleanse himself of passions, so that he can truly understand God’s intention and the condition of the one who asks him for words. Because the same medicine is not suitable for everyone, even for the same disease. Then to make sure about the one who asks for advice, whether he obeys him only in soul and body, or from his own desire he asks with warm faith and seeks the word, without testing the teacher, or some other need forces him to be hypocritical, as if he wants to hear the word, so that both do not fall into deception and verbiage, cunning and everything else. And the one who learns is forced to speak against his will, because he is encouraged by the teacher, and, being ashamed, tells a lie and hypocrites, because he wants to do good, and the one who teaches, deceives and speaks gently with the student in order to know the secret, that is, his thoughts – in a word, he resorts to all kinds of tricks and verbiage, as Solomon says: “In many languages there will be no lack of sin.” (Note 10, 19). Basil the Great also wrote what sins come from this. But we have said this not in order to refuse to teach those who come under our obedience with firm faith, especially when we are dispassionate, but in order not to teach presumptuously, with vanity, when we ourselves are still passionate, those who do not want to listen either to works or to warm faith, and so that we do not do this as those who have authority. And to do, as the fathers say: “It is not pleasing to speak to anyone without asking the brothers, that is, to use the council, so that all good comes from desire”, and, teaching, behave as the apostles say: “not as ruling over the elect, but being an example to the flock” (1 Pt. 5, 3). And the apostle says to St. Timothy: “The husbandman who works must be the first to reap the fruits” (2 Tim.2, 6), and a farmer is one who likes to teach. And also: “Let no one be proud of your young age” (1 Tim. 4, 12), that is, that you should not do anything characteristic of youth, but be perfect in Christ. Similarly, it is said about the elders that the fathers, without asking the brothers, did not talk about the salvation of the soul, but considered it nonsense. But it really is: when we think we know more than another, we start talking for ourselves. Because the more we are enslaved, the more we see ourselves as free. Just like the saints: the closer they get to God, the more they see themselves as sinners, as Saint Dorotheus says. And those who have received knowledge from God are amazed and remain amazed. And the angels, out of infinite joy and amazement, will not be satisfied with the words of praise. And those who were pleased to praise the Lord so much, they praise him endlessly, “astonished at what He does”, – as Golden Mouth says, and “they get to know him more and more”, – as the Theologian says. So are all the saints in the present age and in the future. And just as spiritual forces provide enlightenment to each other, so words are not learned from each other. Some, having experience from the Divine Scriptures, teach the lower ones, and others, spiritually taught by the Holy Spirit, convey their knowledge to others in writing. That is why it is necessary for everyone to humble themselves before God and before Him before each other, as those who have received existence and everything else from God, and thereby – knowledge from each other. He who has humility becomes more enlightened, and he who does not want to humble himself remains in darkness, like first the Day, and then the devil. Because at first he was from the highest order of spiritual powers, that is, from the tenth of the evil orders, who stood before the terrible throne, and the first from the earth. And because of his pride, he became not only lower than the nine ranks, but lower than us, earthlings, with those who listened to him, and was also cast down into Tartarus, for ignorance. That is why it has been said many times that only pride, without any other sin, can destroy the soul. “Whoever thinks that his sins are small,” says Isaac of Syria, “is allowed to fall into bigger ones.” And “whoever received a gift from God and was ungrateful, loses it,” says Basil the Great. Thanksgiving prays for us. However, let there not be thanksgiving like that of the Pharisee, who condemned others and justified himself, but like that of the greatest debtor, who gives thanks in vain and marvels at God’s indescribable long-suffering. And not only that, but it also pleases us to wonder that the all-sung God is inexhaustible, accepts thanks from us, even when we annoy and offend Him all the time with so many of His benefits, general and individual, that Gregory the Theologian and other fathers wrote about, not only physical, but also spiritual, diverse and innumerable. One of the benefits is that some passages of the Divine Scriptures are clear and easy to understand, and others are hidden and not easy to understand, so that by them we can attract the careless to the faith and find those who lose faith, and so that we do not fall into despair and unbelief due to the inability to understand.These protect us so that we do not fall into greater condemnation, despite clear words, but to work voluntarily and, “desiring to understand the unknown in action, have praise for it”, as Golden Mouth says. On the fact that frequent repetition in the Divine Scriptures is not verbosityThe Divine Scriptures often repeat the same word, but it is not verbosity. This is in order to remind even very lazy people with frequent reminders and bring them to understand what has been said in a strange and humane way. Although the words are short and read quickly, they will not fly past the ear, especially when we practice in everyday things without knowing anything at least a little. That is why Golden Mouth says: “A little is not a whole part, it is a part of a part.” It will disappear, but it will not be destroyed or become nothing. Because if we did not have knowledge, then we would not be human, but the partial will disappear, because we will see completely, “face to face”, how the “child” disappears, when the child becomes a man, as the apostle himself explains, taking the child as an example (1 Cor. 13, 10-11). That is, as Goldilocks says again: “Now we know that there is a sky, but we do not know what it is like; and then less will disappear because of more, that is, our knowledge, and we will know what it is like, and this is how our knowledge grows.” Because there are many secrets hidden in the Divine Scriptures, and we do not know the intention of God from what is said. “But do not be proud of ignorance,” says the Theologian, condemning what we said and preaching prudence. “It is speechless and insane to pay attention not to the strength of the intention, but to what is said,” says the great Dionysius. When someone seeks with blessed weeping, then he will acquire, because this is an act of fear, through which the revelation of mysteries comes. The prophet Isaiah says about this: “The dead will not live anymore” (Is. 26, 14), and then he says “the dead will rise.” But this is not a disagreement, as those who do not know the intention think, as it is said about the contemplation of the Divine Scriptures. It is said about pagan idols that they will not come to life because they are soulless. And about the general resurrection and joy of the righteous, it is said: “the dead will rise”, and not only about this, but also about the resurrection of the dead with our Savior Jesus Christ. In the same way, in the holy Gospel, the evangelists talk about the transfiguration of the Lord: one says: “Six days after that” (Mr. 9, 2), and the other says: “Eight days after this conversation” (Lk. 9, 28), counting the days when the Lord worked wonders and taught. But one counts, omitting the first and last day, and therefore speaks of six days, and the other adds the first and last day, and therefore speaks of eight days. And John the Theologian in his holy Gospel speaks differently in two places; in the first passage he says: “And many other miracles that are not written in this book, Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples” (Jn. 20, 30), and in the second: “There are many other things that Jesus performed”, and he no longer says that this was performed in front of the disciples.St. Prochorus mentions this, and he wrote about one and the other: that the evangelist mentioned the miracles that the Lord performed, but did not describe them in detail, because other evangelists had already done this, so he only adds the words “in the eyes of his disciples”, and his second statement refers to the creation of the world, when the Word of God was incorporeal and the Father with Him created everything from nothingness, saying: “Let it be.” And “it happened like this” (Genesis 1). “But if I were to write everything down alone…” (Jn. 21, 25 et seq.), says the Theologian. This means that every Scripture and every Word of God or the Word of some saint has in itself a hidden intention regarding sensual or thinking creatures, the same with human speech. And no one knows the meaning of a certain statement, except by revelation, as the Lord says about the wind: “The Spirit breathes where it wants…” (John 3, 8 et seq.). About him, Golden Mouth says: “Christ does not mean that the air has the power to breathe wherever he wants, but in view of Nicodemus’ weakness, the Lord took the wind as an example so that Nicodemus would understand what he was talking about. And he spoke about the Holy Spirit in a parable about the air, saying: “The Spirit is the words that I spoke to you, that is, the words spoken to Nicodemus and to some others, are words about spiritual things, and not about what you think, I am not talking about bodily things, because you understand bodily things.” “Therefore,” says the Damascene, “when you do not hear from the one whose word it is, what is the intention of the word, you cannot say that you know his intention.” And how dare anyone say that he knows the intention of God, hidden in the Holy Scriptures, without the revelation of the Son of God; and Christ himself says: “To whom the Son wills to reveal” (Mt. 11, 27) That is, he who has a desire to accept from Him the divine teachings, and he who says that he knows without them, he thinks that he has received knowledge from God, – says Listvychnik, – although the theologian addresses him like this: “O you, scribe”, and sometimes like this: – condemning the exaltation because of which he thinks he has something. But what he thinks he has will be taken away from him, because he did not want to say, like all the saints, “I do not know”, so that it would be given to him through humility, as well as those who, although they knew, said that they did not know. Because the apostle did not say “he does not know”, but said that he did not know “how to know” (1 Cor. 8, 2). Therefore, even if he knows, it is not the way it should be. False knowledge is when someone thinks that he knows something, even though he never knew it. And this is worse than complete ignorance, – says Zolotousty, because he thinks that his worst ignorance is good. Therefore, the fathers say that we should study what is said in the scriptures with humility and advice and learned more by deed than by word. And what the Scriptures do not keep silent about, says Antony the Great about those who try to foretell the future, as an unworthy deed. Although the future may become known through God’s providence (Dan. 4) and ancient Balaam (Num.22), for the common good, even though they were unworthy, and not because of demons, in particular, when such predictions occur in dreams or visions. But this is not said in order for us to study the Scriptures with physical and moral actions and find “eternal life” according to the Lord’s commandment (John 5:39). And so that we not only search by word and think that we understand something, especially what is hidden from us; that it may be for our greater humility, and that we may not be condemned as those who have knowledge. Because when the mind, which has been worthy to acquire knowledge, does not endeavor to exercise much and attentively, with humility and fear of God in the teaching of the Divine Scriptures and the knowledge given to it, then it is deprived of knowledge as unworthy of the gift, “as Saul lost his kingdom”, says St. Maximus. Those who exercise and strive must, like David, always pray (1 Sam. 13) and say: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a righteous spirit within me” (Ps. 50, 12), in order to be worthy of the descent of the Holy Spirit, like the apostles who once received grace at the third hour of the day (Acts 2, 15), as it is said in the Acts: “for only the third hour of the day”, and the day was Sunday – as the divine Luke says. Pentecost is the seventh Sunday from the Sunday when there is a holiday, which in Jewish is called “Faska”, and in Greek is translated as “transition” or “freedom”. And that Sunday, which comes after fifty days, is called Pentecost – as the completion of those days in the middle, and the Passover of fifty days, which is according to the law. As John the Theologian says in his Gospel: “On the last great day of the holiday”, because then was the dedication of the Easter holiday. Threefold grace inherited from the hours, as Damascene says, and so on. That is, at three o’clock, on the Lord’s only day, to teach us to read the three Hypostases in the simplicity of power, that is, the one Godhead, because Sunday is the only day of the week, and not the first day of the week, says Zolotousty. And the Divine Scripture separates this day from the others, and according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, it is not called second in order, like other days. Because if the Scriptures did not separate this day, it would call it the first, and because it separates, it calls it “the first after the Sabbath”, that is, the first of the week. And in the new grace, this day is called holy Sunday, because on this day special and greatest acts of authority were accomplished, such as the Annunciation and the Lord’s Christmas and the Lord’s Resurrection, and on Sunday there will be a general resurrection of the dead. “On Sunday,” says the Damascene, “God created natural light, and on Sunday the coming of the Lord will take place, so that that day, the only one and mine, will last for endless ages, beyond these seven ages that have days and nights. And what we have been pleased to learn from the saints about the intention of such works, we will also learn from on high about the intention and every undertaking that this Word tells about. It mentions once the names of books and the names of the saints, and this is so that we always remember their words and the zeal of their lives, as Basil the Great says. And so that those who do not know, let them remember, and those who do not know, let them look for the right book.In addition, the name of the saint or his writings are placed in order to be remembered more often, so that according to their short words we more often remember their deeds and words and better understand the words of the Divine Scriptures, which are in the sayings of the saints, or teachers of prudence and good advice. And so that they remember that these are not my words, but the Divine Scriptures, and that they marvel and consider God’s unspeakable love for men, how through paper and ink God took care of the salvation of our souls and gave us such Scriptures and teachers of the Orthodox faith. And how I, ignorant and careless, deigned to read so many scriptures, not having my book or anything else, but I was always a stranger and poor and was always in all peace and carelessness, with great bodily pleasure. Some of the Words remain untitled: this is due to my carelessness and so that the Word does not last very long. Questions and answers about general things are given for the sake of knowledge and thanks to him who gave our holy fathers knowledge and prudence, and through them also to us, who are unworthy, and to rebuke us, who are weak and foolish. It was also said about the righteous who were saved in ancient times, having great wealth and living among sinners and infidels. Although they had the same nature as we, which do not want to reach the measure of perfection, although they received great experience and knowledge of good and evil, they learned what they knew, and even this knowledge of the scriptures was worthy of greater grace. It was also mentioned about our monastic work, so that we know that we can be saved everywhere when we abandon our desires. If we do not do so, we will not have peace and will not be able to know and fulfill the Divine will. Because our will is a barrier that separates us from God. And until the barrier is destroyed, we cannot know and do what God says, but we will be outside it, and the enemies will do violence to us, even though we do not want it. And since speechlessness is higher than all else, without it we cannot be purified and understand our weakness and the wiles of demons, and we cannot comprehend God’s power and providence from the Divine words that we sing and read. All people should practice silence, whether partial or complete, and without it no one can reach spiritual knowledge and humble wisdom, thanks to which one can understand all the secrets hidden in the Divine Scriptures and in all works. And one should not use things, or words, or undertakings, or understanding without need for the soul, and salvation, and the life of the body. And without prudence, what appears to be good is actually displeasing to God, and doing good without a true intention does not benefit anyone. The troparia were written earlier, in order to understand them and the Scriptures and to be moved by those who still have a weak mind, as the Leaflet says. “Because a song,” says Basil the Great, “draws a person’s mind to whatever it wants: whether to cry, or to love, or to sadness, or to joy.” And we need to study the Scriptures, according to the Lord’s commandment, in order to find eternal life in them (John 5:39), and to be attentive to the content of the psalms and tropars in order to learn about things that we do not know from their deep meaning.”After all,” says Basil the Great, “until a person acquires knowledge, he will not know what he is losing.” About how virtues and passions are born, it was written for the sake of knowledge and knowledge, so that, knowing where they come from, everyone should do a feat to gain the former and get rid of the latter and overcome passions by the opposite action. And bodily works must always be protected, like plants, by perfect actions; we must always be attentive to the virtues of the soul and learn how to acquire each virtue. To learn this from the Divine Scriptures and from holy men and diligently guard it with the pain of the soul, as a treasure, until we acquire skills in that virtue. And then diligently begin to acquire another virtue, as Basil the Great says, so that we do not become exhausted by taking on all the virtues at once. Let us begin by enduring the sorrows that befall us, and so with good strength we will move on to others with all zeal, intending to please God. We all must keep the commandments as Christians, because we do not need physical labor to acquire spiritual virtues, but only the desire and zeal to receive the gift, as Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and others say. However, it is easier to acquire them through bodily actions, especially for the silent ones who live dispassionately and carelessly, because a person cannot correct his habit if he is not free from troubles and does not take care of it. Therefore, the mover must first of all acquire dispassion, distancing himself from the things of people, and when the time comes, he will have authority over others, and arrange everything non-judgmentally without harming himself, passing from skill to complete dispassion. And especially if he accepted God’s call, – says Da Maskin, – like Moses, Samuel, prophets and holy apostles for the salvation of many. And not only to accept, but also to refuse, like Moses, Habakkuk, Grigoriy Bogoslov and others. And as St. Prokhorus says about St. John the Theologian, that although he did not want to leave his beloved silence, he had the duty not to remain silent, but to preach as an apostle. And he did not go into silence because he was passionate – let no one say that about the most impassioned person – but because he did not want to distance himself from the contemplation of God and lose the sweetness of speechlessness. Others, who were dispassionate, fled into the interior deserts out of humility, fearing vanity, like Sisoi the Great. When the student called him to rest, he did not listen, but said: “Let’s go where there are no people.” He achieved such dispassion that he was captivated by God’s love, and, apart from it, he did not feel anything else, he did not even know whether they ate or not. In a word, everyone gave their wishes in all silence, and some accepted ordination as disciples from the teacher, to teach others and to accept thoughts, and to insist on others, either as a bishopric or as an abbot, having received the seal of the descent of the Holy Spirit with the mental sense, like the holy apostles and those who were before them – Aaron, Melchizedek and others. And Damascene says: “He who defiantly dares to descend to such a degree is condemned.”Because those who shamelessly enter some rank without a royal order will be severely condemned. How much more condemnation will be experienced by those who dare to take God’s gifts without God’s command. And it is even worse when, through ignorance and pride, they think that they will not be condemned for this terrible undertaking, or think that by doing this, they will know honor and peace, and not infinite humility and an opportunity to go to death for friends and for enemies, when the time comes, as the holy apostles did when they taught others, themselves dispassionate and wise. When we do not know that we are feeble and weak, which must be said, pride and ignorance make blind those who do not want to see their weakness and their ignorance in the distance. The elders say that the monk’s cell is a Babylonian furnace, where the three youths found the Son of God. And also: “Sit, they say, in her cell, she will teach you everything.” And the Lord says: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst” (Mt. 18, 20). And the Leaflet reminds that Solomon advises: “Do not turn to the right or to the left” (Prov. 4, 27), but walk in the middle path, that is, keep silent with one or two. And do not be alone in the desert, nor in a large community, the middle of these two is useful to many. And also: fasting humbles the body, vigil enlightens the mind, silence brings weeping, and purifies a person, and washes the soul, and makes it sinless. Therefore, at the end, the names of all virtues and passions are given, so that we know how many virtues we need to acquire and how many sins to mourn. Because there is no purification without weeping, and there is no weeping in unceasing petition. And without purification of the soul there is no certainty, and without certainty it is difficult for the soul to leave the body, because “what is unknown,” says Listvychnyk, “may also be wrong.” The already mentioned eight visions are not our deeds, but rewards for our virtues, and we need to acquire them not only through reading, even if because of our proud zeal, – says Listvychnyk, – we rush to the most perfect ones, that is, to the last four, because they are heavenly, and the impure mind cannot accommodate those. Let all our zeal be directed to bodily and mental virtues, and thus the first commandment, that is, the fear of God, will be born in us. And when we are in it, weeping will be born, and as much as we get used to being in one vision, – says Saint Isaac, – so much God’s grace – the mother of all visions – will give us more than this, while we acquire seven visions in ourselves, and will befit the eighth vision (and it is the action of the future age) of those who diligently do virtues with the true intention of pleasing God. When a thought comes spontaneously from God, whether it is the first, or some unexpected one, even though we do not know, we must immediately put aside all the worries of life, even the prayer rule, and guard the spiritual knowledge and emotion that has come as the apple of our eye, until it departs by providence.And then, from the writing of these words, always learn fear and crying both before the rule and after it, and when we are free day and night, or when we work, because we are still weak and prone to sleep and boredom, or idle and we can cry endlessly, and the spoken words can capture us, and this causes tears. That is why these words were written, so that inexperienced people like me, learning what was said and being attentive to it, would take the mind out of boredom. He who has zeal and experience, who is used to doing good deeds, knows much more than what is said, and most of all in the time of self-movement. Because this time gives us much more power than the excitement of our actions. However, let no one think that he himself is the creator of such gifts. Since he accepted above his dignity, let him give thanks and be afraid, so that he does not suffer a greater condemnation because of them, as he who did nothing, but was worthy of the work of angels. Knowledge and fortitude are given to encourage the mind to keep the commandments and do virtues, and so that we know how and why we do it, and what we should do and what to avoid, so that we will not be judged, and, winged by knowledge, we do with joy and acquire more knowledge and fortitude to do and joy. And when it happens, we will be pleased to thank the one who gave, knowing where we received such benefits. And the one to whom we thank will give us greater benefits, and we, having accepted the gifts, will love Him even more and with love we will grasp God’s wisdom, and its beginning is the “fear of the Lord” (Ps. 110, 10; Prov. 1, 7). “And the act of fear is repentance, through which the sacraments are redeemed,” says Saint Isaac. In order to correctly understand fear, one likes to do it this way: after the evening rule, one must recite “I believe”, “Our Father”, and often – “Lord, have mercy”. And to sit like this, turning to the east, as if weeping over the dead, shaking his head with pain in his soul and sighing of the heart, and about saying the words written in advance, which must be known, starting from the first, and so on until prayer, and then fall down before God with indescribable awe and pray. First with thanksgiving, then with confession and other words of prayer, as has already been said. Because Saint Athanasius says: “We need to confess unconscious sins and those from which God’s grace has saved us, so that at the time of death we are not tormented for them. And we also need to pray for each other, according to the commandment of the Lord and the apostles.” And the intentions of the prayer should be as follows: thanksgiving for the thanksgiving of this time, recognizing that it is insufficient and that at other times it is careless, and for the fact that this time is the grace of God. And by confessing, we acknowledge that all gifts are infinite and that it is impossible to grasp and see everything, but we can only hear, and not all, but only some. And that we always receive beneficence, clearly and implicitly, and that His patience for the multitude of our sins is indescribable.And that I am not worthy even to lift my eyes up, as the publican did, and that, hoping for nothing else but God’s unspeakable love for humanity, I fall down like Daniel before the angel of God and with all my soul, like the apostles and other fathers; and even that is brave, because I am not worthy to do so. And I also briefly confess all kinds of my sins, so that, remembering them, I can weep over them. “I would rather gladly boast of my infirmities, so that the power of Christ may rest in me” (2 Cor. 12, 9), – says the apostle, – and so that the multitude of my sins may be forgiven, because I dare not ask for all, but only for the multitude. And in order to curb all my malice and every evil custom, and since I cannot resist them, I ask the Almighty to stop the flow of passions and not let me sin before Him or before man, so that even through this I may receive salvation by grace. And so that through the confession of sins I will not have pain in my soul and learn to pray for others, as the apostle teaches (James 5, 16), and gain love for everyone and list the types of passions that do violence to us, run to the Lord with emotion. And to pray for those who hurt them, and to be sad about the future, because I do not want to have even a trace of malice and I am afraid at that time of my weakness that I will not be able to patiently endure and pray for them, according to the Lord’s commandment (Mt. 5, 44; Lk. 6, 28). And for this, getting ahead of the time, as Saint Isaac says, before I get sick yes, call a doctor before the temptation comes – pray, pray also for those who have already departed, so that they may receive salvation and remember death themselves. And praying for everyone is a sign of love, because I myself need everyone’s prayers. And that God may guide me, that I may be as He wills, and join with others, that I may be graced by their prayers, seeing them superior to Himself in all things. I dare not now ask for the forgiveness of any sin, so that, by diminishing myself, I do not make others unworthy of pardon. And as one who does not know and cannot do anything, I run and ask for it to happen to me as His manly love wills, I am afraid of His justice, as a sinner, and I only say: “So that I do not lose my standing at Your right hand, even as the last of all those who are saved, so that I may see that I am not worthy of them.” And to pray for me for the whole world, as the Church teaches us, and to receive the Divine Communion as it pleases me. And that I, praying, find a helper for myself when I want to receive communion, and that I may remember the purest passion of the Savior and come to love His memory, and let Communion be for me to unite with the Holy Spirit. For the Comforter himself consoles those who cry for God in the present age and in the future, and from the whole soul with great tears they pray to Him and say: “Heavenly King…” And let the Communion of the Holy Mysteries be a pledge of eternal life, which is in Christ, through the prayers of His all-pure mother and all the saints. And I bow down to all the saints and beg them to make a prayer for me, because they can bring prayers to the Lady.And so, as usual, I begin the prayer of Basil the Great, who has a strange theology, and I want to ask only for the will of God and to bless Him. And after that, immediately say to your thoughts with great strength and attentiveness: “Come, let’s worship…” three times, and everything else as written, so that through heartfelt prayer and the teaching of the Divine Scriptures, the mind is purified and begins to see the secrets hidden in the Divine Scriptures. However, let the soul be without all malice, and especially without malice during prayer, as the Lord says (Mark 11, 25; Eph. 4, 31; 1 Tim. 2, 8). That is why Basil the Great, punishing contradiction as the father of malice, advises the abbot to give many bows, about a thousand, to the one who contradicts. And calling the number bowers, he says: “Either a thousand, or one.” That is, the contradictory person should make a series of bows before God or one before the abbot, saying: “Forgive me, father.” And he will accept release from bonds with just one bow, cutting off the passion of arguing. “Controversy does not belong to the Christian life,” says Saint Isaac, having learned from the apostle; the apostle says: “When someone wants to argue, we do not have such a custom, nor do the Churches of God” (1 Cor. 11, 16), so that everyone knows that when he argues, he finds himself outside of all churches and outside of God. And he needs only one miracle-working bow, and if he does not create it, then even a thousand will not help him, because he did not repent. “Repentance is the removal of evil,” says Goldilocks, and the mentioned prostrations are only bowing of the knees, which mean that a person assumes the image of a slave when, without rising, he falls before God and people, having sinned in something. So that she finds something to justify herself, although she does not at all contradict or try to justify herself, like a Pharisee, but rather let her imitate the publican, considering herself the worst of all and unworthy to raise her eyes. If she thinks that she has repented and dares to contradict the one who judges her to the brim with words or without words, then she is not worthy of forgiveness, which is by grace, like the one who seeks judgments and excuses, and thinks that she is doing the right thing. Such an undertaking is alien to God’s commandments. And truly: where the justification of words is sought, there is also justice, and not the love of men, and grace does not work, which justifies the wicked, without works of righteousness, with single prudence and patience of reproaches with thanksgiving from those who rebuke with all impudence, so that his prayer is pure and his repentance is valid. As much as a person prays for those who slander and slander him, so God reveals those who are hostile against him, and gives him peace with pure and unceasing prayer. And how those who most want to be with Him, vigilantly multiply their words, thanking Him or confessing to Him for such His great good deeds, by force, as Goldilocks says about the blessed David, that it is not verbiage and verbiage, when repeating the same or similar saying many times. The prophet encouraged love and that the word of prayer be imprinted in the mind of the supplicant or the reader. God knows everything before it is done, and He has no need to listen to long conversations.And we need to know what we are asking for and what we are praying for, so that we gain understanding and approach God with our requests. So that, overcome by thoughts, we will not be defeated by our enemies, because we will stop remembering God. But with the help of prayer and the Divine Scriptures, we will acquire the virtues that the Holy Fathers, each in his place, wrote about with the grace of the Holy Spirit. And I, having read and understood them, will name the order of virtues, as far as I can, although not all of them will be – due to the inability to remember.List of virtues Wisdom, fortitude, courage, truth, faith, hope, love, fear, piety, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, understanding, wisdom, contrition, weeping, meekness, study of the Divine Scriptures, almsgiving, purity of heart, peace, patience, self-control, endurance, good agreement, intention, sense, diligence, Divine approval, ardor, cheerfulness, warmth of spirit, instruction, diligence, sobriety, memory, concentration of thoughts, reverence, shame, shyness, repentance, turning away from sins, repentance, turning to God, union with Christ, renunciation of the devil, fulfillment of the commandments, protection of the soul, or a clear conscience, remembrance of death, pain of the soul, good works, labor, feat, life of austerity, fasting, vigilance, hunger, thirst, small needs, satisfaction of one’s needs, charity, decency, honesty, piety, disdain for property, non-love of money, turning away from worldly cares, submission, submission, good obedience, poverty, non-acquisition, distance from the world, separation of will, renunciation of self, advice, generosity, distance for God, silence, instructions, lying down prostration, unwashedness, presence, attention, dry food, nakedness, exhaustion of the body, seclusion, hermitage, silence, complacency, boldness, boldness, Divine zeal, burning, success, foolishness for the sake of Christ, protection of the mind, arrangement of customs, holiness, virginity, sanctification, purity of the body, reading for the sake of Christ, Divine petition, knowledge, learning, truth, disinterestedness, nonjudgment, forgiveness of debts, stewardship, hospitality, prudence, moderation, right use of things, knowledge, guesswork, experience, psalmsing, prayer, thanksgiving, confession, kneeling, supplication, prayer, supplication, intercession, singing, doxology, confession, sorrow, mourning, sobbing, sighing, crying, painful tears, emotion, silence, seeking God, plaintive cry, carelessness about everything, selflessness, non-vanity, unselfishness, simplicity of soul, compassion, not wanting to show off, benevolence, works according to nature, works above nature, brotherly love, unanimity, talking about God, sweetness, spiritual disposition, quietness, honesty, integrity, simplicity, good praise, kind words, comfort, giving preference to one’s neighbor, love of God, skill in virtue, frequentity, unceasing diligence, prudence, humility, dispassion, magnanimity, long-suffering, kindness, benevolence, prudence approachability, welcome, unconcern, vision, instruction, establishment, insight, dispassion, spiritual joy, fear, tears of the mind, tears of the soul, desire of God, generosity, mercy, love of humanity, purity of soul, purity of mind, discernment, pure prayer, unconquered thought, firmness, strengthening of soul and body, enlightenment, renewal of soul, hating life, proper teaching, good desire to die, childhood in Christ, affirmation, easy and moderate admonition, praiseworthy change, wonder at God, perfectionin Christ, true enlightenment, rapture of the mind, the universe of God, love of God, inner wisdom, theology, confession, contempt of death, holiness, correction, complete health of the soul, praise from God, grace, kingdom, sonship – and all of them together 228 (Ps.81, 6; Yo. 10, 30). Through sonship, man becomes a god. By His grace, the Lord gave us victory over passions, which are called so.The list of passions Fury, cunning, cunning, wicked thinking, speechlessness, debauchery, debauchery, rudeness, ignorance, idleness, coldness, petrification, flattery, stupidity, idle voice, darkening of the mind, hatred, ill-manneredness, insolence, fear, embitterment, laziness to good, sinning, usury, poverty [due to laziness], ignorance, folly, false knowledge, forgetfulness, imprudence, insensibility, untruth, ill will, unconscionability, procrastination, talkativeness, diversion, transgression, sin, iniquity, transgression, passion, captivity, cunning connection, wordless connection, diabolical adverb, torpor, untimely body rest, malice, fall, sickness of soul, impotence, feebleness of mind, indolence, laziness, wicked sorrow, contempt of God, destruction, transgression, infidelity, mistrust, superstition, little faith, heresy, connection with heresy, polytheism, idolatry, ignorance of God, impiety, charms, spying, bewitchment, conspiracy, rejection, idolatry, intemperance, gluttony, glory, carelessness, selfishness, inattention, failure, delusion, error, futility, poisoning, defilement, eating what is defiled, pleasure, unchastity, gluttony, i.e. eating the belly, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness, boredom, vanity, pride, imagination, exaltation, pride, insanity, shamelessness, satiety, mildness, drunkenness, gluttony, gluttony, gluttony, insatiation, secretive eating, overeating, eating alone, carelessness, convenience, self-help, helplessness, self-pleasing, people-pleasing, inability to do good, uneducated, ignorant, frivolous, simple-minded, ostracism, denial, contentiousness, backbiting, shouting, confusion, quarrelsomeness, rage, lustless lust, anger, irritation, temptation, enmity, curiosity, slander, bitterness, slander, reproach, slander, condemnation, accusation, hatred, slander, annoyance, dishonor, fury, frenzy, cruelty, mischief plots, oath-breaking, curses, unmercifulness, brotherly hatred, inequality, parricide, matricide, permits, relaxation, acceptance of gifts, robbery, theft, snatching, disorder, envy, disputing, shaming, mockery, contempt, annoyance, ridicule, bribery, violence, contempt of neighbor, beating with a stick, abuse, suffocation, unlove, irreconcilability, discord, imprudence, harshness, shamelessness, shamelessness, captivity of thoughts, obscuration, blindness, blindness, passion for temporary things, vanity, disobedience, heaviness of the head, slumber of the soul, long sleep, dreaminess, heavy drinking, drunkenness, obscenity, weakening, wordless pleasure, voluptuousness, fornication, slander, effeminacy, incitement, fornication, seduction of women for fornication, adultery, lewdness, animal cruelty, depravity, fornication, impurity of soul, incest, impurity, defilement, private friendship, laughter, games, dancing, clapping, obscene songs, rejoicing, playing the pipe, impudence, multiplicity, disobedience, inconstancy, evil consent, treachery, murder, robbery, sacrilege, dishonest gain, usury, flattery, digging graves, hard heart, evil intentions, complaining, blasphemy, ingratitude, evil counsel, indisposition, faint-heartedness, merger, lies, chatter, foolish words, foolish joy, flattery, unwise friendship, nonsense, riotous talk, verbiage, condemnation of good, avarice, anger, dislike, indignation, acquisition of many things, malice, abuse, bad habits, love of life, insolence, pride, adultery, hypocrisy, mockery, gossip, laughing stock, winning, satanic jealousy, curiosity, attachment, lack of fear of God, disobedience, ignorance, high-mindedness, boasting, arrogance, humiliation of one’s neighbor, uncharity, insensitivity, carelessness, hopelessness, hatred of God, despair, suicide, complete falling away from God and complete destruction – all together 298 These passions I found, mentioned in the Divine Scriptures, and together collected, like the books at the beginning of the Word.I could not and did not dare to arrange them in order, because it is beyond my power. Says Listvychnik: “You look for knowledge in evil and you will not find it, because everything demonic is inactive and has one and the same intention, that in it even the equal becomes unequal and not venerable – to destroy the souls who accept their evil advice. Even if they become the cause of crowns for some people, they are always defeated by those who trust in the Lord with faith and patience, and do good deeds, and resist to thoughts that are fighting against them”. About the difference between thoughts and adverbs Thoughts differ from each other in everything, because some of them are sinless, and others are not. The thought that is called an adverb, that is, the thought of a good chisel, deserves neither reward nor condemnation. Then what is called connection, that is, a conversation with a thought and either agreement with it, or driving it away; for it serves for praise when it is God-pleasing, and for a small reproach – when it is evil. Thus [occurs] what is called a struggle, either victorious or defeated, when the mind wins, and becomes the cause of the crown or the cause of torment when it turns into action. So is consent, that is, the voluptuous inclination of the soul to the manifested, and from it there is captivity, which, out of necessity and involuntarily, inclines the heart to action. When a passionate thought lingers in the heart for a long time, it becomes what is called passion, because it draws the soul to itself as a habit and forces it to act. “Such a passion, undoubtedly, in everything falls either under moderate repentance or under future torment,” says Listvychnyk, “because of impenitence, and not because of struggle; because if it were through struggle, then many would not be able to receive absolution without having complete dispassion.” The same Leaflet says that “not everyone can be dispassionate, but it is possible for everyone to be saved and reconciled with God.” A wise man rejects the deceitful adverb – the mother of all evils, in order to cut off all evil at once; and a good friend always readily returns to work, so that the body and soul are accustomed to virtue and freed from passions by the grace of Christ. Because there is nothing in us that we would not accept from Him and that we could bring to Him, except for a bad will, and if we do not have it, then we will not find either strength or knowledge to do good. And this is the work of God’s manly love, so that we do not accept condemnation for idleness, because “Many evils are learned from idleness” (Syr. 33, 28). And not only that, but also the good deeds themselves require prudence – say the elders. Because the virgin who fasted for six weeks and always studied from the Old and New Testaments and had neither sorrowful nor pleasant deeds, although she should have gathered fruits from so many fruits of dispassion, but she did not, because good is not good when it is not done according to God’s will. Many times it can be found in the Divine Scriptures that God is angry with someone who does a deed that seems good to everyone, and, on the contrary, accepts another who has done an alleged evil. The witness of this is the prophetic student who told his friend to hit him, and when he did not listen, he said that an animal would eat him for not doing good (1 Sam. 20, 35-36).And Peter, thinking that he was doing something good, refused to let the Lord wash his feet, and for that he was reprimanded (John 13:8). Therefore, we must seek and do God’s will with all our strength, even if it does not seem good to us. And this is because there is no good deed without effort, so that we do not fall away from praise due to compulsion. In a word, everything that God builds is wonderful beyond the mind and thought, because the mind not only likes to marvel at what is being done in the Orthodox Church, but also at its symbols. As by holy baptism, we become sons by grace (Jn. 1, 12; Ch. 3, 26), having done nothing before and nothing after that, except keeping the commandments. And how terrible those things are, that is, holy baptism and Holy Communion, they do not happen without the priesthood, – says Zolo the toasty. This is because the authority given to the supreme apostle Peter is revealed. Because when the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven are not opened by the sacrament, – says the Lord, – no one can enter: “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit…” (Jn. 3, 5 et seq.). And also: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you” (John 6:53). And as the ancient temple from the outside was a symbol of this world, priests performed sacrifices in it, and inside was the Holy of Holies, where incense of four types was sacrificed: frankincense, myrrh, stactus and cassia. These four species are symbols of the four main virtues. What happened outside is a symbol of God’s descent, so that the Jews, having the mind of infants, would not fall away from God through songs and a tendency to idolatry. And the new Church is a symbol of the future age, therefore everything that takes place in it is heavenly and spiritual. And just as there are nine orders in heaven, so there are in the Church, that is, patriarchs, metropolitans, bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, readers, singers and monks. And even from the sign of the honest and life-giving cross, demons and numerous ailments are driven away. It is quite simple and easy to do, and who can list its praises? Everything that has been said since the beginning of the Word will not bring any benefit without true faith, just as faith has no benefit without works. Many holy fathers have written about faith and works, but I, remembering, will briefly say that works must be in us as they are written, each in its own order, and the Orthodox faith is such that we accepted from the mentioned saints, so that with them we may enter into eternal blessings by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He is pleased with all glory, honor and worship with His infinite Father and with by the holy, good and life-giving Spirit now, and always, and forever and ever. Amen.