"In the World of Prayer" St. John Kronstadt

This book "In the World of Prayer" was published by the Committee of Russian Orthodox Youth Abroad as a regular contribution to the 1000th anniversary of the Holy Baptism of the Russian People. Content I. On the essence, meaning and power of prayer II. Prayer is the breath of the Holy Spirit III. Prayer is the foretaste of the Holy Trinity and the host of the Celestials IV. The Word in Prayer V. Prayer of the Church VI. On the Sobornost of Prayer VII. About the Lord's Prayer VIII. About the Prayer to the Theotokos IX. About Saints' Prayer X. About prayer for others XI. On the prayer for the dead XII. Repentance in Prayer XIII. On overcoming the flesh in prayer XIV. On the darkness and wiles of the enemy in prayer XV. About prayer before the icons XVI. On the activities that accompany prayer XVII. On Moderation in Prayer XVIII. About the Jesus Prayer XIX. Prayer requests about. John I. On the essence, meaning and power of prayer Prayer is proof of my reasonable personality, my God-like identity, a pledge of my future deification and bliss. I have been created from nothing; I am nothing before God, as I have none of my own; but by his grace I have a mind, a heart, a free will, and with my mind and freedom I can, through a heartfelt address to Him, gradually increase in Him His infinite kingdom, gradually, more and more, multiply in His gifts, draw from Him, as from the ever-flowing inexhaustible Source, every spiritual and bodily good, especially spiritual. Prayer inspires me that I am the image of God, that with the humble and grateful disposition of my soul before God, with my free will, I, infinitely multiplying the spiritual gifts of God, can thus, in infinity, perfect and infinitely increase my God-likeness, my heavenly bliss , to which I am predetermined. ABOUT! Prayer is the sign of my great dignity, which the Creator honored me with. But she, at the same time, reminds me of my insignificance (from nothing I have nothing of my own, therefore I ask God for everything), as well as my highest dignity (I am God's image, I am adored, I can God's friend is called, like Abraham, the father of believers, if only I would believe in the being, goodness and omnipotence of my God and become like Him in this life the works of love and mercy). In prayer, a petition against our proud flesh, all attributing to itself; Thanksgiving - against the insensitivity of our flesh to the countless blessings of God, the glorification - against the carnal man, seeking glory only for himself. God is Truth: and my prayer should be true as life. God is light: and my prayer must be brought in the light of mind and heart; God is fire: and my prayer, like life, must be fiery; God is free: and my prayer should be a free outpouring of the heart. What a wealth of the spirit of man: only he thought heartily of God, only wish for a heartfelt connection with God, and He is with you now: and neither the walls of the house, nor the rivets of dungeons, nor the mountains, nor the abyss will prevent this bold conversation between the creature and the Creator, soul before Him, as before the King and the Self-Belly, giving all the belly; forgetfulness for him of everything around us, the food of the soul, air and light, the life-giving warmth of her, the purification of sins, the good yoke of Christ, his light burden. Prayer is the constant feeling of your infirmity or spiritual poverty, the consecration of the soul, the anticipation of the future bliss, the bliss of the angel, the heavenly rain, the refreshing, reassuring and fertilizing land of the soul, the strength and strength of the soul and body, the refreshing and purification of the mental air, the joy of spirit, the golden connection connecting the creature with the Creator, vivacity and courage in all afflictions and temptations of life, success in business, equanimity of the people, affirmation of faith, hope and love. Prayer is the correction of life, the mother of heartbreak and tears; strong motivation for charity; safety of life: the destruction of fear of the mortal; the neglect of earthly treasures, the desire for heavenly goods, the expectation of a universal Judge, a common resurrection and the life of the future century; increased effort to get rid of eternal torment; the unceasing search for the mercy of mercy from the Lord; walking in the sight of God; blissful disappearance before the newly created and all-fulfilling Creator; the living water of the soul; Prayer in the heart of all people in love; the lowering of the sky into the soul; the sanctification in the heart of the Holy Trinity, according to what was said to him, we will come and make a monastery with him. (John 14, 23). Prayer is the constant feeling of your spiritual poverty and infirmity, contemplation in yourself, in people and in the nature of the works of wisdom, goodness and omnipotence of the power of God, prayer is a constant thankful mood. Praying, try in every possible way to feel the truth and the power of prayer in your heart, feed on them, as an incorruptible food, give them, like dew, your heart, warm yourself as a blessed fire. In prayer and in every work of your life, avoid the suspicion and doubt and the diabolical dreaminess. Let the eye of your soul be simple, so that the whole body of your prayer, your deeds and your life is light. As long as we stand on the assiduous prayer, it is still calm and warm and light and light in the soul; because then we are with God and in God; but as with a prayer down, so went temptations, different embarrassments. Oh, the preempted time of prayer! Praying, we must certainly take into our hearts the heart and turn it to the Lord. It is necessary that it should not be cold, sly, incorrect, double-minded. Otherwise, what is the use of our prayer, our harassment? Is it good to hear from the Lord an angry voice: " These people draw near to me with their lips, and with their mouths they honor Me: their heart is far removed from Mene." (Matthew 15: 8). So, let's not stand in church with spiritual relaxation, but let each one burn with his spirit working for the Lord. And people do not appreciate much the services that we do with coldness, out of habit. And God wants our heart. Give Me, your son, your heart (Proverbs 23, 26); because the heart is the main thing in a person, his life; more - our heart is the very man. Therefore, whoever does not pray or serve God with his heart is the same as not praying at all, because then his body is prayed, which in itself, without a soul, is the same as the earth. Remember that you are going to be in prayer, you are standing before God, who has the mind of all. Therefore, your prayer must be, so to speak, the whole spirit, the whole mind. In prayer, be as a child babbling, merging into one spirit with the spirit of the spoken prayer. Consider yourself a nothing, accept prayers as a great gift from God. From your carnal mind completely refuse and do not hearken to it, for the carnal mind is ticking (I Corinthians 8: 1) doubts, dreams, blasphemes. If, during or outside prayer, the enemy stabs your soul with any blasphemy or abomination, do not faint with them, but say with firmness in your heart: for purification from these and similar sins, our Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, in these and similar weaknesses of the spirit and came to the merciful to help us; and when you say these words with faith, your heart will calm down at once, for the Lord will purify your heart. In general, not from any sin, as from a dream, do not despond, but rely on the Savior. Oh, the immeasurable charity of God! Oh, the greatest service of the God-man is sinful! And until now He is helping people, cleaning and saving us. So let the enemies of the enemy be put to shame. Man's thoughts have an extremely strong influence on the state and location of his heart and actions; because the heart was clean, good, calm, and the good and pious will is good, you must clear your thoughts with prayer, reading the Holy. Scriptures and creations of St. Fathers, thinking about the perishability and speed and disappearance of earthly pleasures. How close to you is your idea of ​​how close your faith to your heart is, God is so close to you, and the more alert and hard is the thought of God, the more vivid the faith and knowledge of your infirmity and insignificance, and the sense of need for God, the closer He is. Or how close the air is to the body, so is God close to the soul. For God, so to speak, the mental air that all Angels breathe, the souls of saints, and the souls of people who live especially godly. You can not live without God for a minute, and indeed, every minute you live by Him: we live on Him, and we move and exist. The unconsciousness of the heart of the truth of words in prayer comes from heart unbelief and lack of sympathy for one's sinfulness, and this in turn results from a secret feeling of pride. In proportion to his feelings in prayer, a person will know whether he is proud or humble: the more sensitive, the more ardent the prayer, the more humble he is; the more insensitive, the more proud. Try to reach the infantile simplicity in dealing with people and in prayer to God. Simplicity is the greatest good and dignity of a person. God is completely simple, because he is completely spiritual, absolutely good. And your soul should not be divided into good and evil. Learn to pray, force yourself to pray: at first it will be difficult, and then, the more you coerce yourself, the easier it will be, but you must first force yourself. When you pray, then imagine that as if there was only one God before you, the Trinity in the Persons, and apart from Him there was nothing. Imagine that God in the world, as a soul in the body, although infinitely higher than he and not limited to it; your body is small, and everything is penetrated by your small soul. But the world is great. God is infinitely great, and in all creation God fills everything - everywhere is syay and all fulfilling. The Savior favored incarnation, not only to save us, but as sins, passions overwhelmed us when we were already entangled by them, but also in order to save us, by our prayer when the sin and passion still intensifies to enter us , when they fight us. You do not need to sleep and give up your hands when you are struggling with passion, but at this very time and be alert, stay awake and pray to Christ, so that He will not allow us to sin. It is not then that the house should be saved from a fire when the fire has spread everywhere in it, and best of all when the flame has just begun. So with the soul. The soul is the house, the passions are the fire. Do not give place to the devil. (Eph 4: 27). Prayer tries to scatter the evil one like a sandy mound, wants to do words like dry sand, without communication, without moisture, i.e. without the warmth of the heart. Prayer, then there is a temple on the sand, then - a temple on a rock. On the sand build those who pray without faith, absent-mindedly, with coldness - such a prayer of itself dissipates and does not benefit the praying; on the stone build those who throughout the continuation of prayer have eyes forged to the Lord, and pray to Him, as a living person, face to face conversing with them. We will measure the merit of our prayer by the faith of man, the quality of our relations to people. What are we like with people? Sometimes we coldly, without the participation of the heart, on the job or from propriety express our requests, praise, gratitude, or do something for them; and sometimes with warmth, with the participation of the heart, with love or sometimes feigned, sometimes sincerely. Also we are different with God! It is always necessary to express with all my heart to God and thanksgiving and thanksgiving and petition; we must always do with all our heart every work before Him ; with all my heart, always to love Him and hope for Him. Is it possible to pray with haste without harming one's prayer. It is possible for those who have learned inner prayer with a pure heart. In prayer it is necessary that the heart sincerely desire what it asks for; felt the truth of what he was talking about, and a pure heart has it as it were in its nature. Therefore, it can pray with haste and at the same time it is pious, since haste does not harm the truth (sincerity) of prayer. But those who did not receive heartfelt prayers, we must pray slowly, waiting for a corresponding echo in the heart of every word of prayer. And this is not always given to a person who is not accustomed to prayerful contemplation. Therefore, the rare pronunciation of words of prayer for such people should be put for an indispensable rule. Wait until each word is given in the heart of the echoes characteristic of it. As an unkind man, coming to the good, meek and humble person with a request for a better success of his request, he himself tries to become like him, so a Christian, starting with prayer to the Lord or His Most Pure Mother or Angels or Saints - for the success of his prayer should be likened to the Lord Himself or His Most Pure Mother or Angels or the Holy One. And this is the secret of approaching, and the speedy hearing of our prayers. Give, the worshipers, God your heart, that loving, sincere heart that you love your children, parents, benefactors, friends, in whom you feel the sweetness of unrequited, pure love. Sometimes in prolonged prayer only a few minutes are truly pleasing to God and constitute a true prayer and true service to God. The main thing in prayer is the closeness of the heart to God, witnessed by the sweetness of God's presence in the soul. Prayer forced develops hypocrisy, makes it incapable of any occupation requiring reflection, and makes a person sluggish to everything, even to the fulfillment of their posts. This should convince all, thus praying, to correct their prayer. Praying should be willing, with energy from the heart. Not from sorrow, not from need (forcedly), pray to God, God loves God willingly (2 Corinthians 9, 7). The greatest gift of God, in which we most need and which we receive very often from God as a result of our prayer, is the heart world, as the Savior says: "Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will repose you" (Mt 11:28 ). And rejoice and consider yourself rich, having everything when you have peace. Asking the Lord or the Most Blessed Mother of God, or Angels or saints, one must have such faith as the capernaum sotnik had. He believed that as his warriors listened to him and fulfilled his words, much less, according to the almighty word of the All-Good Lord, his request would be fulfilled. If the creatures with their limited power fulfilled what he asked them, then will not the Lord Himself fulfill the omnipotent power of asking His servants, with faith and hope to Him who turn. Do not fulfill our petitions, with faith, hope and love brought, and faithful, strong by grace and intercession to God, His servants - the Most Pure Mother of God, the Angels and holy men. Verily, I also believe with a centurist that if I ask, as should and about what should, any saint: give this - and give it, come to me for help - and come, create this - and create. That's what a simple and strong faith you need to have. Outer prayer is often performed about the inner, and the inner prayer is about the outside, that is, if I pray with my mouth or read, then many words do not fall on my heart; I double, hypocrisy: with my mouth I pronounce one thing and my heart another; the mouth speaks the truth, and the heart arrangement does not agree with the words of prayer. And if I pray inwardly, with my heart, then, not paying attention to the pronunciation of words, I concentrate it on the content, on their strength, accustoming the heart gradually to the truth, and I enter the very arrangement of the spirit in which the prayer words are written, and thus , I gradually learn to pray in spirit and in truth, in the words of the eternal Truth: the one who is laying down to God, he desires to bow in spirit and truth. When a person prays outside, out loud, then he can not always follow all movements of the heart that are too fast, so that he needs to deal with the reprimand, the outward form of the word. Thus, many readers who read fluently receive a completely false prayer: with their lips they seem to pray, in all they see them as pious, but the heart sleeps and does not know what the mouth is saying. This is because they are in a hurry and do not think with their heart about what they are saying. We must pray for them, as they pray for us; It is necessary to pray that their words reach their heart and breathe it with warmth. They pray for us with the words of holy people, and we are talking about them. All who come to work in the Lord in prayer, learn to be like unto Him meek, humble and true in heart; Do not have wickedness in the soul, double-mindedness, do not be cold; try to have his Spirit, for he who does not want to be the Spirit of Christ, this is his Necessity, and the Lord looks for himself and a relative in us, to which his grace can be brought. Remember that not a single word will be wasted in prayer, if from the heart it is said: every word the Lord hears and every word of Him on the scales. Sometimes it seems to us, as if our words only blow the air in vain, they are heard as the voice of one crying in the desert: no. It must be remembered that the Lord understands us in prayer, if we can say so, that is, our words - just as the perfect prayer books themselves understand, for man is the image of God. The Lord responds to every desire of the heart, expressed in words or unexpressed. In order for a Christian to live a Christian life, and the life of the spirit has not completely died out, he needs a home and social prayer, it is necessary to visit with faith, understanding, diligence. Divine service in the temple, how to pour oil into the lamp, so that it burns and does not fade; and since prayer is sincere, hot happens with abstinence, then in order to maintain a Christian life or the fervor of faith, hope and love, abstinence and fasting are needed. Nothing so soon does not extinguish the spirit of faith in us, like intemperance, delicacy and satiety and a scattered, unruly life. - I die, I die spiritually, when I do not serve for a whole week in the temple and burn out, revive with my soul and heart, when I serve, compelling myself to pray not as a formal prayer, but as a real spiritual, sincere, fiery one. Behold God with a firm heart, and at the time of His contemplation ask what you want, in the name of Jesus Christ, and it will be for you. God will be everything to you all in a moment, for He is simply a Being, above all time and space, and in moments of your faith, your heartfelt union with Him, will do for you all that you need to save you and your neighbor, and you will be on This time he himself is involved in the Deity in his pristine communication with Him: Az reh: Bozi is more. As there is no gap between God and you this time, there will be no gap between your word and between your fulfillment; you will say - and immediately it will be accomplished, as God spoke, and the former, commanded, and created. This - as for the sacraments, so in general spiritual prayer. However, in the sacraments everything is done for the sake of the priesthood's grace, with which the priest is clothed, for the sake of the Most High Priest-Christ. The image of the priest bears upon himself - therefore, although he is unworthy to wear a dignity, although he is mild, unlikely, or distrustful, nevertheless the mystery of God is completed soon, in the twinkling of an eye. They say: we soon get tired of praying. From what? Because you can not imagine the Lord alive, you are at your right hand. Look at Him incessantly with your heart's eyes, and then the whole night stand in prayer and you will not get tired. What I say is night! Three days and three nights, you will not get tired and tired. Think about the Stupites. For many years they stood in a prayerful spirit on the pillar, and overcame their flesh, which, like you and they, was also inclined to laziness. And you are burdened with several hours of public prayer, even one II. Prayer is the breath of the Holy Spirit Prayer is spiritual breathing; praying, we breathe in the Holy Spirit: by the Holy Spirit we pray (Jude 1:20 ). So, all the church prayers are the breath of the Holy Spirit, like spiritual air and together the light is a spiritual fire, spiritual food and spiritual attire. In the prayers and church chants, throughout all their space, the Spirit of truth moves. Everything that comes from the Inaud comes to mind contradictory and blaspheming - from the devil, the father of lies, the slanderer; prayers and chanting - the breath of the Holy Spirit. We felt in our hearts during prayer or while reading the word of God and other books of sacred content (and sometimes secular well-meaning, where, for example, we describe an event that represents the operation of the Providence of God over people), or in pious conversations - The voice of the cool is thin, so that in your body, as if running through electricity. This is the Lord who visits you. The voice of the cool is thin - and there the Lord (1 Kings 19, 12). You did not know, as I was in the Father, and the Father in me (John 14: 9-10). Do you know, except that during prayer, the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit in you and you in They? Prayer is the breath of the soul, like air, the breath of a natural body. Breathe in the Holy Spirit. No word of prayer can be said with all the heart, without the Holy Spirit. Praying, you talk to the mouth with the Lord, and if you have opened your heart and open with faith and love, at the same time you inhale from Him the spiritual blessings requested by the Holy Spirit. When you become a prayer, burdened with sins by many and possessed by despair, begin to pray with hope, in a burning spirit, then remember that the Spirit of God Himself contributes to our weaknesses, interceding for us sighs inordinate. When you remember with faith in this the action of the Spirit of God in us, then the tears of affection will flow from your eyes and your heart will feel peace, sweetness, justification and joy of the Holy Spirit, you will cry out with a verb heart: Abba Father! III. Prayer is the foretaste of the Holy Trinity and the host of the Celestials Calling on the prayer of the Lord God in three Persons, remember that you invoke the unoriginal Father of all creation, angels and men, that to you who invoke, all the powers of heaven are astonished and look at you with love because you are with faith and love and proper reverence You call on their common and our Creator Almighty and God, whom they love immensely, to whom they are deeply reverenced. Oh, what a high happiness and bliss, what greatness, what dignity to invoke the eternal Father! Treasure continually and unchanging this highest happiness, this bliss that has given you the infinite goodness of your God, and do not forget yourself during your prayer. God hears you, you are heeded by the angels and saints of God's people. - February 26 th 1864 year. I shed tears when I wrote these lines. When you are alone praying, and your spirit is discouraged, and become bored and burdened by loneliness, then remember, as always, that you are the brightest, more sun than the sun, with eyes staring at the triune God, all the holy angels, your angel the guardian and saints of God's people. Verily, for they are all one in God, and where God is, there they are. Where the sun, there and all its rays are turned. Know what's said. Pray always with a burning heart, and for this never be overeaten and do not get drunk. Remember who you talk with! People forget often, with whom they talk in prayer, who witness their prayers. They forget that they are conversing with the Bold and All-seeing, that all the Powers of heaven and St. God's people. When praying to the Lady or Saint, imagine firmly that you are a member of the Church in which the Lady is the main stone of the building. The head of the mental edification (akath., Borgor iq. 10) and know that you are closely connected inwardly with all the celestials, like the stone of the building, although soft and not firm. So understanding, you will understand why prayers so easily reach the saints: for we are all under one Head, the Christ (cf. Eph. 1, 22), and all are animated by one Spirit of God. At the end of the house, morning and evening prayers, call the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs, confessors, saints, abstinence or ascetics, berebrands - to see in them the exercise of all virtue and become imitators of all virtues. The patriarchs learn the children's faith and obedience of the Lord; the prophets and apostles have jealousy about the glory of God and the salvation of the souls of men; the saints have the zeal to preach the word of God and, in general, to contribute to the possible glorification of the name of God, to the affirmation of faith, hope and love in Christians; martyrs and confessors - hardness for faith and piety before people not believers and wicked; among the ascetics - the crucifying of the flesh with passion and lust, prayer and meditation; in bessrebrennikov - nestyazhatelnosti and bezmezdnoy help to those in need. IV. The Word in Prayer The word in our mouths is already creative, forming articulate sounds; with the word comes the living spirit of man, not separated from thought and word. You see, the word by its nature even in us is instrumental. What are we so little confident about and distrustful of the creative power of the word, for example, in prayer, that it is a verbal ministry - will the Lord's mercy necessarily bring us down? - So the word constantly creates flesh: articulate sounds, and letters, or our books, is not it the flesh into which the word has been clothed? And we listened to this and looked closely, that it seems to us that it is absolutely not worthy of special attention. Not only the nature of the Divine, but, according to His gift, and the nature of the created creatures of the animate - is instrumental under God's guidance: grow and multiply (Genesis 1:28 ). The souls of living creatures grow their bodies under the guidance of God (spider, bee, worm). Thus, the people given to them by God are still growing by force and are multiplying on the earth; so, people and animals do their very best for life, especially a man is an inventive creature that astounds with its endless creativity in all kinds of art. Since the Word is the Creator is omnipresent, everywhere, though not in infinity, and His creations are spread out, and everywhere He creates and, if necessary, transforms. The word of God is the same as God Himself. Therefore, surely believe every word of the Lord; the word of God is a matter; and your word must be a thing; therefore, having given the word, it is imperative to fulfill it; Therefore, in prayer, our words must be a matter of truth and not lie, not pretense, not flattery. And in all life. In prayer, always believe firmly and remember that every thought of you and every word of yours can, undoubtedly, be a thing. God will not lose all verb (Luke 1, 37). And when the Lords are clinging, the spirit is one with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6, 17). So your word will not fail. All things are possible for the believer (Mark 9, 23). Take care of the word: the word is precious. For every word, idle people will answer on the day of judgment (Matthew 12, 36). Praying, give ear to the words of prayer, feel them with your heart. Do not distract your mind from them in any thoughts. Praying during the Divine service, performing sacraments and prayers for different occasions, firmly rely on the very words of the church prayers, believing that not one word is in vain, each has its own power, that in every word the Lord Himself is a triune person, everywhere syay and all fulfilling; Think: I am nothing, everything is done by the Lord. Think again: I say God the Word in me speaks. I do not have anything to worry about. All your sorrow, it is said, bring to Him, as He cares for you (1 Peter 5: 7). As in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are inseparable, so in prayer and in our life, thought, word and deed must also be inseparable. Whether you ask for anything from God, believe what will happen, will be made according to your request, as God wills; you read the word of God - believe that everything that is said in it was, is and will be, and it is done, it is done and will be done. So say so, so read, then pray. Great word thing! Great thing, the soul is thinking, speaking and acting, the image and likeness of the Trinity omnipotent! Human! Know yourself, who you are, and behave according to your dignity. When you doubt the fulfillment or fulfillment of the word of prayer, remember that the nature of the word is reconciliation, efficacy, and that the Holy Spirit, who teaches us to pray for something, as befits (cf. Romans 8:26 ) is and is called the Perfecter himself. He then does our prayer (done by the Spirit). Remember that the word is power, it does not fail, it is said, God has every verb (Luke 1, 37). The verb of the Lord does not return to him in fact (Isaiah 55, 11), but like rain or light, he sings the earth of our hearts and gives the seed of fulfillment to the sower. And they say about people: he has an extraordinary power of speech. See, the word is power, spirit, life. God is a Spirit, a simple Being. And the spirit than shows itself? Thought, word and deed. Therefore God, as a simple Being, does not consist of a series or a multitude of thoughts, or from a multitude of words or creations, but He is all in one simple thought-God the Trinity, or in one simple word-Trinity, or in three Persons, . But He is all in all things, everything passes, everything fills with Himself. For example, you read a prayer, and He pierces every word in every word, like the Holy Fire, every word: - Everyone can experience it himself if he sincerely, earnestly, with faith and love pray. But, especially, He is all in names belonging to Him: Father, Son and Holy Spirit or - Trinity, or Lord, Lord God; The Lord of Hosts; Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God; Soul Holy; The King of Heaven, the Comforter, the Soul of Truth ... and His other names. Angels and saints are also close in their names to us, how close their names are and our faith in them - to our heart; for they are nothing but the breath of God and are one spirit with the Lord. Every word of the Holy Scripture, every word of the Divine Liturgy, Matins and Vespers, every word of sacred mysterious prayers and prayers has in itself the corresponding and contained power, like the sign of an honest and life-giving cross. Such grace is inherent in every church word, for the hypostatic, incarnate God's Word that is the Head of the Church dwelling in the Church. And every true kind word has its corresponding strength, for the sake of the universal simple Word of God. With what attention and reverence one has to say every word, with what faith! For the Word is the Sizhestvitel - God, and by the Word from nonexistence to being everything is brought. Verbal being! Remember that you have a beginning from the word of the God-Bearer and in the union (through faith) with the sustaining Word, by faith, you can be a material and spiritual anchor. Believe that, under your faith, the Word of God, and your word will never return to you in vain, impotent (when, for example, you pray to the Benefactor-God according to the guidance of the Holy Church or on the instructions of the Lord), but he will bring you a benevolent gift; Believe that when you believe in the Word of creation, you will not without success lecture people in the church during the service, in the performance of the sacraments in the houses; your word will not be unsuccessful in the school, but will create the minds and hearts of those who heed you. Believe firmly in the feasibility of every word, especially uttered during prayer, bearing in mind that the culprit of the word is God the Word, that our God himself, worshiped in the Trinity, is expressed by three words or names: Father, Word and Holy Spirit; Being corresponds to every word, or every word can be being and doing. Reverently address the word and cherish it. Remember that as the hypostatic Word of God is the Son of God, it is always connected with the Father and the Holy Spirit, so in the word of Holy Scripture, either in prayer or in the Scriptures of the wise fathers, the Father participates in His omnipresence as the supreme Reason, his creative Word and the Perfector The Holy Spirit. Therefore, no word is idle, but it has or must have its strength in it, and the grief is idle, for they will answer for the idle talk. Yako will not wither away from God any verb (Luke 1, 37), this is generally the property of the word - the power and perfection of it. So it must be in the mouth of a person. V. Prayer of the Church I like to pray in the temple of God, especially in the Holy. altar, at the throne or at the altar of God, for I am miraculously changing in the temple by the grace of God; in the prayer of repentance and emotion, the bonds of passion fall from the soul of my thorns, and it becomes so easy for me; all charm, all the charm of passions disappear, and how I die for the world, and peace for me with all its blessings; I come to life in God and for God, for one God, and I am all imbued with it and I have one spirit with Him; I am made like a child consoled on my mother's lap; my heart is then full of a heavenly, sweet world; the soul is enlightened by the light of heaven; all the light you see, you look at everything correctly, you feel friendship and love towards everyone, towards the enemies themselves, and you excuse and forgive them willingly. Oh, how blessed is the soul with God! The Church is truly earthly paradise. O Holy Temple! How fortunate, it is sweet in you to pray! For where is the fiery prayer, as it is not in your walls before the throne of God and in the presence of him that is sitting on it! Truly, the soul melts from the affection of the prayerful one, and the tears stream along the cheeks like water. It is sweet to pray for everyone. During the service, during the performance of all the sacraments and prayers, be trustful, as a child to his parents. Remember what great fathers, what luminous universes, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, guide you. As a child, be simple and trusting, not sludgy in the work of God. All your sorrow be upon the Lord, and be completely careless. Do not bother, like what or what will be shouted: you will not be speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is in you (Matthew 10, 19-20). For a long time God has removed from us this concern, this sorrow, having taught the God-bearing fathers of our Holy Spirit that to say to the Lord at the Divine service, the performance of the sacraments and under different circumstances of human life, requiring prayer, which brings down the blessing. "We should be easy to pray." Only now the enemy is snapping. What is his sting, if our heart is established in the Lord! It's a misfortune if we are not in God, if we do not have a firm faith, if we bind ourselves with attachments of life, if our minds are proud and arrogant, then in the most holy, undefiled matter of worship, committing and communion of the Holy Mysteries, the devil will greatly stammer us. In the service of the church are indicated to us objects or needs, of which we must pray for the mercy of God with undoubted hope for receiving them, because we ask for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said: "If anything you ask of the Father in My name, I will, yes the Father will be glorified in the Son " (John 14, 13). Standing in the temple, be as whole as in heaven with God; for in the temple everything is heavenly ... Here the common prayer is not about anything else, everyday, but about the salvation of the soul, the forgiveness of sins, the progress in virtue and the giving of immortality to our souls is a prayer for everyone. Every worldly care should be put aside at the entrance to the temple and standing in it. Liturgy is a graphic representation in faces, various things, words and actions, birth, life, teaching, commandments, miracles and prophecies, the sufferings of crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven. The chief of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God the only-begotten. During the Liturgy, He Himself is invisibly present, Himself acts and does everything through the priest and deacon, who are only His instruments. You hear in the church most of all the voices of clergymen, reciters and singers singing about pardoning us. What does it mean? This means that we, as many as we are in the temple of God, are worthy of the plagues of God according to our sins, and that first of all, upon our coming to the temple, we must remember that we are sinners who came to the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator and to the Benefactor, daily and hourly provoked by our foes, to implore Him every man for himself and even - for Christian love - for others, for pardon. Prayer for pardon is then great, then small, then addictive. Since there is not a single superfluous word in the church, when singing a litany we need to pray very strongly to God, from the very depths of the soul, from the heart of the most contrite, as it is said about it in the initial litany: the whole of the soul, our rtsom. At this time, it is necessary to postpone even the slightest coldness, the slightest inattention of the heart, and burning with the spirit of the humble, having become all attention, offer the Creator a warm prayer for mercy to us sinners. But what do we see at the proclamation of a priest and the singing of singers by a special litany and great? For the most part - the usual inattention and indifference of the prayers. If your brother does something wrong during his service or is somewhat careless, do not get irritated either internally or outwardly against him, but magnanimously condescend to his error, remembering that you yourself do many, many mistakes in life, that you are a person yourself with all the infirmities, that God is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, and without number forgives much of you and all our iniquities. Remember the words from the Lord's prayer: and leave us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. These words should always remind us that we ourselves at all times are great debtors, great sinners before God, and that, remembering that, we are subdued in the depths of our hearts and not very strict towards the sins of the brethren, like us, the infirm - that, like we ourselves do not judge ourselves strictly, so we would not judge severely others either, for the brethren are our members, as if we ourselves. Irritability of character comes from ignorance of oneself, from pride and from the fact that we do not reason about the severe damage to our nature and little know the meek and humble Jesus. Those who go to the Divine Service after eating, voluntarily impose unnecessary and harmful weight on themselves, and in advance they muffle their heart for prayer, barring access to it of holy thoughts and holy sensations. We must be careful not to eat before the service. It must be remembered that the Kingdom of God is not brave and drinking (Romans 14, 17), that is, God can not reign in that heart that is burdened with eating and drinking. To the glory of the holy name of the Lord of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lady of the Theotokos. - I felt a thousand times in my heart that after the sacrament of St. Secrets or after a heartfelt prayer home, usual or on the occasion of any sin, passion and affliction, and crowding the Lord, according to the prayers of the Lady, or the Sovereign herself, in the goodness of the Lord, they gave me, as it were, a new nature of the spirit, pure, kind, majestic , bright, wise, gracious, instead of unclean, dull and languid, cowardly, gloomy, dull, evil. I have changed many times, wonderful, great changes, surprisingly to myself, and often to others. Glory to Thy power, O Lord! Glory to your goodness, O Lord! Glory to Thy bounties, Lord, who is my sinful one! The students who have studied and are not trained, rarely go to church, do not lead the work of educating their spiritual, considering it as not necessary and giving themselves up to worldly vanity. It is necessary to pay attention to this. This is the fruit of pride, spiritual undevelopment. It is considered a visit to the church and worship by the public affair of the common people and women, forgetting that in the temple Angels are serving with fear together with men and imputing it to themselves in the greatest bliss. VI. On the Sobornost of Prayer Survive with the heart the words of the prayer of the Savior to the Father: "You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You, and they will be one in us (John 17, 21) - and strengthen in every way to connect with God and others to unite with Him; support by all means a mutual pious unity, sparing neither yourself nor your own - to maintain the unity of love: for God is our almighty almighty and all-pervading giver of everything; He and our life will support us in the labors for the benefit of our neighbors, if necessary, and all the necessary will be given, if for the sake of mutual love we will spend our estate. In prayer we must remember that we are members for each other, and we should pray for all, like prayer Our Father shows. The apostles are an example and all the saints. If you remember this and pray for others, then the Angels will also pray for us, as members of the one kingdom of Christ of one Church, one body. In nyuzhe measure, measure, you will be measured (Matthew 7, 2). During public prayer, all your heart be in God and by no means earthly for a moment does not stick; have also a fiery love for the souls of men, for the love of God and for the jealousy of their salvation; Pray for them as being in great trouble. All are said to be in trouble, subject to the delights of the evil one. That St.. Does the church inspire us when, on home prayer and in the church, it puts prayers on our lips on behalf of all, and not from one person? It inspires us with unceasing mutual love, that we always and in everything in prayer and in everyday life, love each other as ourselves, so that we, imitating God in the three persons making up the highest Unity and themselves one, many composed. Yes, they will all be one, for you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, and they will be one in us (John 17, 21). Prayer is common for all and in life teaches us to share our everyday needs with others, so that in life we ​​all have a common and one as one, so that love can be seen in everything, so that everyone can use their abilities for the benefit of others who as he can, but did not hide his talent in the earth, would not be selfish and lazy. You are wise - give advice to the unwise; educated, - teach ignoramus; strong - help the powerless; rich - help the poor. Praying with people, we must sometimes pierce our prayer, as if a solid wall - human souls, petrified by everyday preferences - to pass the darkness of Egypt, the darkness of passions and passions. That's why sometimes it's hard to pray. Than with the more ordinary people pray, the easier. When praying, try to pray more for all than for yourself alone, and during prayer, imagine all people together with yourself as one body, and individually as a member of the body of Christ and your own member: if you are comfortable with one another (Eph 4, 25); Pray for all as you pray for yourself, with the same sincerity and warmth; Their infirmities, illnesses consider as their infirmities and diseases; Their ignorance is spiritual, their sins and passions - by their ignorance, their sins and passions; their temptations, misfortunes and tribulations are manifold - their temptations, misfortunes and sorrows. Such a prayer is received with great favor by the heavenly Father - this common all the all-blessed Father does not have personalitieship (Romans 2:11 ), nor the shadow of change (James 1:17) - this love, which has no limits, encompasses all creatures preserving. Do not be lazy to pray diligently about others, on their petition, or by yourself and with them-you yourself will receive mercy from God-the grace of God in your heart, that will delight and strengthen you in faith and love for God and neighbor. These are words of truth, they are taken from experience. We are usually not very willing, more in need or habit we pray for others, without the full participation of the heart; we must force ourselves to pray with all our heart, with great faith, with great boldness, and we will receive a great and rich mercy from a generous and generous God. May he ask, it is said, by faithlessness without hesitation: be confused and resemble the excitement of the sea, the winds swept and scattered (James 1, 6). To the Lord, to this common to all the Father, it is pleasant, when we willingly, with faith and love pray for one another, for He is Love, ready to pardon everyone for mutual love. The Holy Spirit said: pray for one another, for they will heal (James 3:16 ). You see how pleasing God is and how effective prayer is for each other! A Christian should pray for all Christians, as for himself, so that God will grant them the prosperity of the belly and faith and the spiritual mind, and freedom from sins and passions. Why? According to Christian love, which sees in all Christians its members and members of Christ the God, common to all the Savior, wishes them the same things that they themselves, as well as by all measures, strengthens to do to them the same as to themselves. When an alien, proud, evil spirit confuses you before reading and while praying to the Lord God or the Mother of God, imagine then that all the upcoming are the children of the Father of heaven, the almighty beginner, the infinite, the all-good, and that the Lord is their Father, and boldly, peacefully, joyfully, freely pray to Him, on behalf of all, without fear of ridicule, nor contempt, nor malice of the people of this world. Do not be evil, ashamed of the faces of men; do not hesitate to pray sincerely to the Heavenly Father, especially, read the Lord's prayer with reverence peacefully, without haste; in general, read all prayers calmly, evenly, with reverence, knowing before whom you speak them. Ideal two or three gather in my name, that is their midpoint (Matthew 18, 20). I reverence even before two or three praying together: for by the promise of the Lord He is among them; the more reverent I am before a large congregation. Successful, multifaceted cathedral prayer, if it is friendly, unanimous (gather in my name). The diligent prayer of the Church about the Apostle Peter immediately penetrated to the throne of God and the Lord sent His Angel - it is wonderful to free Peter from the dungeon, which Herod wanted to kill. The friendly prayer of the apostles Paul and the Force lowered to them heavenly miraculous help from the Holy Spirit. (Acts 12, 5-11, 16, 24-26). Oh my God! How love and sincere sympathy for our neighbor delight our heart! Who will describe this bliss of the heart, imbued with a feeling of love for me others and my love for others? It's indescribable! If here, on earth, mutual love so refreshes us, what kind of sweetness of love will we be filled with in heaven, in cohabitation with God, with the Mother of God, with the heavenly Powers, with the holy people of God? Who can imagine and describe this bliss, and what is temporary, earthly, we should not sacrifice to receive such ineffable bliss of heavenly love? God, the name of Thee - Love, Teach me You are true love, like death is strong. Here I have abundantly tasted its sweetness from communion in the spirit of faith, even to thee, with faithful slaves and maidens of Yours, and is abundantly pacified and quickened by it. Affirm, O God, this, that thou hast made me in me. ABOUT! If it was so all the days! Grant me more often to have fellowship of faith and love with your faithful servants, with your temples, with your church, with your members! Sweetest is my Savior! You went to the service of the human race, not only in the temple, but preached the word of heavenly truth, but flowed around cities and villages, did not shy away from anyone, went to all houses, especially those whom you foresaw with warmth of Divine gaze with warm repentance. So, You did not sit at home, but had a fellowship of love with everyone. Grant also that we have this fellowship of love with your people, let not we, the shepherds of your sheep in our houses, like in castles or dungeons, go out only for service in the church or for treasures in houses by one duty, by one learned prayer. Let our lips open for a speech free in the spirit of faith and love with our parishioners. May our Christian love be revealed and strengthened to the spiritual children through a lively, free, fatherly interview with them. Oh, what sweetness you concealed, Vladyka, our unlimited love, in spiritual, warmed-up love conversation between the spiritual father and his children, what bliss! And how can I not fight on earth, with all my strength, for such bliss? And it is still only weak beginnings, only a certain faint semblance of the heavenly bliss of love! Love especially the communication of charity, both social and spiritual. Do not forget the benefits of fellowship and fellowship (Hebrews 13, 16). The church, praying together, is the great power of God, defeating the demon regiments and able to ask God for every gift of perfect, every help, every entry, deliverance, salvation. The Lord loves and listens to more prayers when we are not alone and do not pray only for ourselves but for ourselves, and for everyone, for everyone and for everyone. VII. About the Lord's Prayer Christian, remember and bear always in thoughts and in the heart the great words of the Lord's prayer: Our Father, Who art in heaven, (remember who our Father is? -God is our Father, our love, who we are, we are His children, and between (John, 8, 39), what kind of work should we do?) Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, Thy will be done. Give us this day our daily bread (our bread (everything in common), not your own, self-love should be expelled from the hearts of the children of God: we are one) and leave us our debts (you want and love that God forgives you for your sins, forgive sins and people who sin against you, knowing that love is patient and compassionate). Do not lead into temptation (and do not go into temptation yourself, do not let your foot down in turmoil, the Lord will protect you below, keep your goblet on the hand of your gum (Psalms 120, 3-5) .But deliver us from the evil one (he does not surrendered to him, and the Lord will not give you to him.) For yours is the kingdom (recognize the one King of God and work for Him alone) and the power (trust in His almighty power) and glory ( in his strength and zeal for all time) in eyelids (He is the eternal King, and the kingdom of Satan will soon pass as a predatory, false) Amen. Truly all this.Remember most of this prayer and more often read it in your mind, and reflect on it, what does each word, expression and petition mean in it. Saying: Our Father, we must believe and remember that the heavenly Father never forgets and forgets us, for what earthly the good father forgets and does not care for his children? I will not forget you, the Lord says (Isaiah 49:15 ) The message is your heavenly Father, as you demand these of all (Matthew 6:32) .Save these words to your heart! Remember that The heavenly Father constantly surrounds you with love and care and is not in vain called your Father. A father is not a name without meaning and strength, but a name in full meaning and power. To accurately understand the words of the Lord's prayer: do not lead us into temptation, we must remember that this prayer was given to the apostles who asked them to teach them to pray, given before the Holy Spirit came upon them, when Satan asked them from the Lord to sow them as wheat (Lk 22, 31). Then the apostles were still weak and could conveniently fall under temptation (like Peter), so the Savior puts them in the mouth of the word: do not lead us into temptation. "And without the temptations of our faith, hope and love, one can not live; tests of the intimate heart are necessary for the man himself, so that he himself can see what he is and correct himself. Yes, temptations are needed, let them open themselves from the many hearts of their thoughts (Luke 2:35 ), let our strength or weakness in faith, knowledge or ignorance, the viciousness or purity of our heart, the reliance on God or on earth, love of ourselves be revealed and to perishable or - most of all to God. Never is it so hard to say from the heart: let your Father's Father be like in severe affliction or in a serious illness, especially when people are untruthful, with obsessions or intrigues of the enemy. It's hard to say from the heart: let your will be done, even when we ourselves became the perpetrators of some misfortune, for we think it's not God's, and our will has put us in such a position, although nothing happens without the will of God. In general, it is difficult to believe heartily that the will of God is our suffering, when the heart knows, both by faith and experience, that God is our bliss, and therefore it is difficult to say in misfortune: Thy will be done. We think, is it really the will of God? Why does God torment us? Why are others calm and happy? What have we done? Will there be an end to our torment? and so on. But when the corrupt nature of ours is difficult to recognize the will of God without Him, without which there is nothing, and submit to it with humility, then let it submit to it, then let it bring to the Lord its precious sacrifice - His devotion to the heart is not only in peace and happiness, but also in tribulation and misfortune; his erroneous wisdom, let him conquer the wisdom of God perfect, for as far as the sky from the earth lies, so our minds are kept from the thought of God (Isaiah 55, 8, 9). - Let every man of his Isaac, his only-begotten, his promised (to whom peace and bliss are promised, and not sorrow) as a sacrifice to God, and show him his faith and obedience, be worthy of the gifts of God that he used or will use. Thy will be done. For example: when you want to be healthy and do your best to be painless and healthy, and yet you are still sick, say: " Your will be done; when you undertake something, but the enterprise does not succeed, say: Thy will be done; When you do good to others, and you are paid with evil, say: Thy will be done; or when, for example, you want to sleep, and you have insomnia, say: Thy will be done; do not get irritated when something is done not according to your will, and learn to obey the will of the Father in heaven in everything. You would like that there should not be temptations with you, but meanwhile your enemy daily wears them up, kindles you, oppresses them in every possible way - do not get irritated, but say: Thy will be done. Our Father! Thy kingdom come. The Lord reigns everywhere in the whole visible world (there is in every place) and in all the angelic cathedrals; He reigns with His infinite power and righteousness and over evil spirits and over evil or unjust people; He bound some of them with the eternal bonds of darkness to the judgment of the great day, while others punish differently in this life, and punish in the future with unquenchable fire. But He, the Truth, does not reign in demons and wicked people with his truth, because in them lies, does not reign with love, for in them there is malice; in ungodly people does not reign by faith, does not reign in hope and love, does not reign in them in the exact fulfillment of His laws. What do you call Me: Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say (Luke 6, 9). Keep my commandments (John 14, 15). Reigns in every slightest natural action of my body and soul (for example, in a word) because my laws obey my laws in food, rest, sleep, growth, walking; thought and word are built and moved according to His laws, but do not always reign in my heart, in my heartfelt dispositions and in my free will: I often incline towards evil and create evil instead of the good that is set before me. I often resist Him, His laws. I am often a little faithful, unfaithful, arrogant, proud, contemptuous, envious, miserly, covetous, covetous, dishonest, pleasing in every way my sinful flesh, ambitious, impatient, irritable, lazy, do not do or do very few good deeds and then more by coincidence of circumstances, than by the free location and inclination of the heart, not by compassion for the suffering as members of the one body of the Church: in a word, the Lord does not always reign in me by the thoughts, feelings and works of faith, hope and love. Prayer requires deliberate, deliberate, extreme humility. It is necessary to remember who speaks and speaks, especially when reading the Lord's prayer: Our Father. Humility destroys all the machinations of the enemy. Oh, how much secret pride in us. This, - we say - I know; I do not need it; This is not for me; it's too much; in that I am not a sinner. "How much of your wisdom!" When we read the Lord's Prayer , we must read it with a special, clear understanding and animation; namely: 1) to express deeply every word and expression; 2) to desire with all my heart and with all my heart that which we ask; 3) to have jealousy, zeal, to do what God wants from us in this prayer, and 4) to do what is required by the very thing. In the Spirit and in truth, worship God. Truly - for example, you say: Hallowed be Thy name . Is there really a desire in you for the name of God to be associated with the good works of people and yours? Thou sayest, Thy Kingdom come: Thou wilt indeed desire the coming of the kingdom of God, wilt thou be the village of the Spirit of God, and not the village of sin; Do not you prefer to live in sins? You say: Thy will be done, as in heaven and earth ; are you looking for your will rather than the will of God? To her you say this: Give us this day our daily bread; - Do not you say in your heart is different: I do not need to ask you for this; I have no petition, let the poor do so; or with greed we are looking for a lot and we are not satisfied with small things or with what God has given us, we do not thank for what we have, but - we must thank; ask in the prayer of God: and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtor; but you yourself do not think: I - not God knows what a sinner; I seem to live no worse than others and there is no need for me to ask for the abandonment of my debts or my sins; or praying, do not you have any displeasure, anger, and thus you lie arrogantly in prayer to God; You say: Do not lead us into temptation, but you do not come across it, do not you strive without temptation for all sorts of sins? You say: save us from evil; but you yourself do not live in a fellowship with the evil one, or with evil of every kind, whom the chief is the devil. - See, that your tongue is not in disagreement with the heart; Do not lie, look, to the Lord in your prayer.This is always in mind, as when you read the Lord's prayer, even when you read other prayers; observe whether your heart is according to what the tongue utters. VIII. About the Prayer to the Theotokos When you start praying to the Queen of the Theotokos before prayer, be sure that you will not leave Ney without receiving mercy. So to think and so be confident about Her is worthy and righteous. She is the all-merciful Mother of the all-merciful God-Word and Her favors, uncountably great and innumerable, proclaim all ages and all the Christian churches; It is precisely the abyss of charity and bounty , as they say about Her in the canon of the Hodegetria (Can. p. 5 pp. 1). Therefore, it would be unreasonable and bold to approach her in prayer without such confidence, but her goodness would be insulted by doubt, as the goodness of God is insulted when they come in prayer to God and do not hope to receive a request from Him. How do they rush after mercy to any high and rich man, whose mercy everyone knows, who proved his mercy with numerous experiments? Usually with the very calm confidence and hope to receive from him what they want. So it is necessary and in prayer not to be unkind. Do not be unkind. The Virgin Mary is the Most Gracious of all sons and daughters of men, like the Daughter of God the Father, Who is love, Mother of God the Word-our love, the chosen Bride of the Spirit of the All-Holy Is there a love unanimous to the Father and To the Word. How not to resort to such a Lady and do not cherish all the spiritual blessings from Her! Pray, my brethren, the Mother of God, when a storm of enmity and malice arise in your house. She, all-powerful and all-merciful, conveniently and comfortably can pacify the hearts of men. Peace and love from one God occur as from their Source, and the Lady is in God, one with God, and, like the Mother of Christ, the World, is jealous and prays for the peace of the whole world, and, in general, for all Christians. She has everyone who is merciful with her mania to drive away from us the spiritual wickedness of the heavenly places, these vigilant and zealous sowers between the people of malice and enmity, and all, with faith and love flowing into her veil, give fast, fast, peace and love. Also, be zealous for the preservation of faith and love in your hearts; If you do not take care of yourself, you will not be worthy of the representation of you before the God of the Mother of God; moreover, be yourself always zealous and reverent in the eyes of the Mother of the Lord of the Most High; for it is worthy of Her, the Mother of God, who is affectionate and blessed, worthy of all, the highest of all creation, the Intercessor of the human race. Try to cultivate in yourself the spirit of humility, for She herself is humble, like none of mortals, and loves only the humble ones. Prizre on the humility of His servant , She tells Elizabeth about the God of His Savior (Luke 1: 48,47). Of all the saving works of God in the world, the Holy Church most glorifies the greatest miracle of the incarnation of God and its saving consequences for the human race - the Most Blessed, Blessed Virgin Mother of God: the praises of the Mother of God are equal to the sand of the sea, especially in the canons of stichera, dogmatists, and akathists. And she is worthy of it, even few of all these praises, for she was honored to be the Mother of God, and through her God united with men and adored them. And we must breathe this sacrament of incarnation, be affirmed by it. For what we continually praise, in the voice and excitement of the Church. Immaculate Lady of the Mother of God in darkness of songs and prayers? In order, in part, to give glory to Her greatness, holiness, truth, amazing purity, the humility of love for God and to us, unworthy, Her unceasing petition for us; in order to know and remember those infinitely great benefits that the Lord has poured out upon her for the human race. For through Her we were honored to eternally glorify the Holy Life-giving Trinity, through It are quickened and saved by the Trinitarian Deity. The Mother of God is magnified above the cherubim and the seraphim and every creature for Thy, Christian, of salvation and exaltation, but saves and covers you. Where in what foreign churches, so it is understood, is extolled, the name of the Mother of God is glorified and called, as in our Orthodox Church from day to day !? Give up this name unceasingly and assiduously ... For we have for centuries recognized and made sure how strong is Her prayer for us and her salvation. How many times she saved our homeland and our cities, our people, our villages, and many individually, from all ills and evils! Where on earth is so exalted and exalted in the domain of worthy of truth , the name of the Most Holy Theotokos, except for the Orthodox Church! As long as Russia is Orthodox and will zealously honor God and the Mother of God, until then it will be powerful and unshakable, for from the beginning and hitherto it has come out of all troubles, strengthened and expanded by the intercession and help of the Mother of God in all wars and distressed circumstances. And the Russian princes, kings, emperors and the Christ-loving army always zealously venerated the Ever-Virgin and Mary, the Blessed Virgin, as the Most Honorable Cherub and the Glorious Seraphim, without comparison. Thank the indwelling Intercessor, our Lady of the Mother of God, the Most Blessed, Blessed Virgin Mary, according to our heartfelt prayer, saving us from the wiles and oppression of the devil. Look at Her with the eyes of the heart in the Holy Spirit, look at what is in your very heart and call upon Her: Fervent Protector, Lady of Mary, save me from the enemy-knaver! And immediately in a moment she saves you according to the faith of your heart, according to the hope of her. So the retreat will depart from the "side", the fire and despondency are heavy. Divine salvation of the Lady! So it is poured into your soul. Just look at Her with a heart, with trust in Her goodness and the gracious. Your faith will save you (Matthew 22:22). Oh, if we had heard and seen a prayer about us and the world of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels and saints, we would have been horrified and ashamed of our indolence and negligence in prayer, not only during the day, but also in the middle of the night, we would have risen to the prayer and glorification of the Lord God's patience, God's greatness, God's wisdom and power of the Almighty. IX. About Saints' Prayer The saints have fulfilled the word of the Lord; The Lord fulfills their word: they did for Him - He is for them. In measure, measure, says the Lord Himself, will be measured to you (Matthew 7, 2). That's why the Lord performs prayers for us soon for us saints. Abraham my servant will pray ... Job my servant will pray for you ... Moses ... Samuel ... Elijah (Job 42. 8, Gen. 20. 7, 17, Jer 15, 1, 3 Kings 18, 36, Ps 98, 6 ). The prayers of the saints are pleasing to us about the Lord, as faithful servants of God. The saints of God are great merchants, enriched by all spiritual treasures, all virtues: - meekness, humility, abstinence, patience, rich faith, hope and love. That is why we ask for their holy prayers, like the poor of the rich, that they help us in our spiritual poverty so that they teach us to pray and prosper in Christian virtues, that they, as having boldness before God, pray for the remission of our sins and protect us from new. We go to the merchants of the earth to buy their goods in their shops: - How can we not turn to the heavenly merchants with prayer, assiduous, as if silver and gold - how not to buy from them their intercessions before God for the forgiveness of sins and for the gift of various Christian virtues! It seems very natural. Call upon the saints with unbelievable faith and unholy love, if you want them to hear you and fulfill your prayer. Remember: like this looking for. The saints have pleased God with faith and love, and they want the same from you. With faith and love, there is a reverence that is fitting for them. The Lutherans say: "What are we asking for the prayers of the saints for ourselves? We ask God Himself "and deny themselves: for why do they ask to pray for themselves? They would pray without the pastor, if everyone has the same access to God and there is no need for sanctified prayer books for us. "What blindness!" - They say: praying to the saints, we are idol worshiping. Not true! We do not honor a saint for God, we do not pray to any saint as God, but only ask him to pray for him; is there even a shadow of idolatry? - As we ask living clergymen and prayer-seekers for us before the Lord, that they pray for us, so we ask the heavenly prayer-books, for their love of God, having great boldness before Him; moreover, quite a few of them here on earth were prayer books and intercessors before God for peace; there - in heaven, this activity only continues, has large dimensions and is especially strong, for it does not cling to the heavy and fleshy flesh. - All the saints, although they have finished the earthly career, but they are alive: there is no God of the dead, but the God of the living: let Life live for Him (Luke 20, 38). How do the saints hear us? They hear us as one with us in the Holy Spirit - and they will be one in us (John 17, 21), as members of the one Church of God, led by one Christ and animated by the one Spirit of God. The saints see and hear us in the Holy Spirit as we see and hear with physical eyes and ears through light and air; but our bodily sight and hearing are far from perfect in comparison with vision and spiritual hearing: at a great distance we do not see very many objects, we do not hear very many sounds. Spiritual vision and spiritual hearing are perfect: no movement of the heart, not one thought, not one word, intention, desire, because of the Spirit of God, in whom the saints stay, see and hear us, are saints, all-encompassing, omniscient, sees everything and hears, because it is omnipresent. The saints of God are close to the believing hearts and, as the most sincere and kind friends, in a moment ready to help the faithful and pious, invoking them with faith and love. After earthly helpers, it is necessary to send and wait for the most part, sometimes for a long time, when they come, and these spiritual assistants need not be sent and waited long: the faith of the praying in a moment can place them at your heart, as well as accept faithfully, I mean, spiritual. What I say, I say from experience. I mean the frequent deliverance from the afflictions of the heart by the representation and the intercession of the saints, especially the representation of the Lady of our Mother of God. Perhaps some will say this, that there is a simple faith or a firm, determined confidence in getting rid of grief, and not the saints' entry before God. No. From what it is visible? From the fact that if I do not call the saints known to me (not discriminating anyone) in a heartfelt prayer, if I do not see them with the eyes of the heart, then I will not get any help, no matter how confident I might be saved without their help. I am conscious, I feel clearly that I receive help in the name of those saints whom I call for the sake of a living faith in them. This is the case, as in the ordinary order of things on earth. I will first see my helpers with a heartfelt faith. Then, seeing, asking them also with my heart, is invisible, but distinctly to myself; then, receiving invisible help in a completely inconspicuous way, but sensible to the soul; I, at the same time, get a strong conviction that this help is from them, like a sick man, healed by a doctor, is convinced that he was healed by the doctor, not by another, and not by himself, but by a doctor. All this is done so simply that you only need eyes to see. If you call any saint with doubt about his closeness to you and in hearing them, and your heart will be amazed by the crampedness, turn yourself, or, better to say, immediately overcome with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ nesting in the heart of a calumniator (devil) , call the saint with a heartfelt confidence that he is near you in the Holy Spirit and hears your prayer: and now it will become easy for you. The heaviness and longing of the heart in prayer come from insincerity, from the deceit and wickedness of our heart, just as in ordinary speech with people we feel internally uncomfortable when we speak to them not from the heart, untrue, or insincere. It is cruel to oppose the praty prati (Acts 26. 14). Be always and everywhere true in heart and always have peace in your heart, but especially be true in a conversation with God and with the saints: for the Spirit is the truth (John 5, 6). It should be rejoiced that I have to carry in the mind and heart very often and pronounce the name of God, the name of the Lady of the Theotokos, Angels and Sts. saints of God, both by name for the whole year, as well as the special ones, mentioned daily in the prayers of the church or at the water-moleben prayers. For the one that is remembered sincerely, from the heart, the name of God sanctifies, enlivens and comforts, also the name of the Mother of God, the all-powerful Hodatait; and the saints, our intercessors before God, pray for us when we call them in prayer, and shine with our virtues in many ways. It is good to have an alliance with God and the gods. If we, sinners, pray and pray to the Lord for ourselves and others; If, on earth, the saints pray for others and ask God for what they need, much less when the saints move into eternity and face to face with God. Because of the great intercessory sacrifice of the Son of God, they have the power of intercession by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the prayers of the saints, especially His Most Pure Mother. "This is a reward from the Lord for the merits of the saints." It's wonderful - today I doubted-of course, because the wicked one was inciting me - about one turn in one prayer, namely: one imash power to leave sin by the prayers of Your Mother's Pure Mother and all the saints (3 mol wife in 1 day), and was disgraced in his wisdom: the enemy has struck me, has stopped, having revolted me on public prayer. What was wrong with my thought? "I thought: how!" God has the power to forsake sins through the prayers of His Most-Pure Mother and saints, and not Himself independently? - And without the prayers of others has power, of course, one has power; but to honor the high virtues of the saints, especially His Most Pure Mother, who are His friends, who until the last days pleased Him in earthly life. "He accepts their prayers for us who are unworthy of us, who often have to block their mouths because of their great and frequent sins." Remember Moses, who was representing the Jewish people for the people and who gave his life to the angry Lord. Whoever does not say that even without Moses God could have spared His people - by giving him the continuation of his being - but then the Lord would be, so to speak, unjust, giving them life unworthy of life, whereas He himself determined to kill them; and when Moses became a righteous man, meek and humble, then the eyes of the just God rest on the righteous, on his love for God and his people, and for his merits, the Lord pardoned the unworthy, for the sake of the righteous - the unrighteous. - And now, through the prayer of His Most Pure Mother, He pours us, who in themselves, for great and frequent sins and iniquities, and would not be worthy of His mercy. " If Moses and Samuel do not stand before me, my soul shall be with these people (Jeremiah 15: 1)," says the Lord of Jeremiah about the Jews. From this it is evident that the Lord accepts the intercession of the saints for unkind people, when the sins of these latter do not exceed the measures of God's long-suffering. From our own experience of living heartfelt prayer, we can know that the saints are accepted into the nearest communion with God. And from our own experience we know that in communicating with God through prayer, faith, our mind is unusually enlightened and accepts the most extensive dimensions of action: at this time he sees something that he does not see in his ordinary state. From this it follows that the saints, being in communion with God, who are pure, detached from the body, have the brightest mind, the far-sighted, and hear our heartfelt prayers, and if they are pleasing to God and useful to us, they certainly do it! Holy Father Nicolae, pray to God for us! On what basis do we ask prayers for ourselves of the saints, and do they really pray for us, and is their prayer effective for us? God Himself directly expressed His will to some people who did not have intimacy with Him, for example: Abimelech, who took Abraham's wife, was asked to ask Abraham to pray for him; Job prayed, by the sheer revelation of the will of God, about his friends; prayed Moses, Samuel, Elijah, all the prophets; The Lord Himself, in His human nature, prayed to the Heavenly Father about Peter and all the disciples. The saints deserve to be intercessors about us to God for their virtues, for their merits, as His servants. If on earth justice requires that a famous person close to God pray for others (for example, a priest about people), why not in heaven? All the saints are alive with God and for us: seeing in God our needs, sympathize with us and are ready, by our prayers, to help us. What for, through our prayers, and not otherwise? In order to confirm us in faith and the deed of prayer. Moreover, why do the living want others who need their help to ask for them? When we call the saints to pray, then to pronounce their name from the heart means to bring them closer to their very heart. Ask then, of course, prayers and intercession for oneself; and they will hear you, and your prayer will be presented to the Lord - soon, in a moment, as everywhere to Jehovah and all leading. The name of the saints, from the articulate sounds, means, as it were, the flesh of the saint or the saint ... In a small form, in our lips the beings of the upper and lower world are reflected: - and all this through faith, by the Holy Spirit, which is one and everything performing. Calling on or glorifying the holy saints of God, we must call or glorify them with all our heart, with the fervor of the soul; so as to draw them closer to themselves, approach them and, if possible, become like them: for then they come with us and for us, when we call or glorify them with a pure heart, and raise our prayers to God. Lord! In prayer to You for us we bring the saints, these incense spiritual, this is the scent of Thy fragrances. Receive their perfumed love and purity of prayer for us and deliver us from the stench of sin, for our hearts are unclean and the mouth of filth, and unworthy of us is the sweetest conversation with You. Everything in us is earthly and perishable, nasty, crafty, and they, your saints, are the purest world, especially your Most Blessed Mother. Your animate light-bearing chamber, the purest luminosity of the sun, the most fragrant of all fragrances, for the fragrance of Her holiness, her virtues of the divine are full of heaven and earth. You wonder how saints hear from heaven when we pray to them. And how are the sun rays from heaven worshiping us and everywhere - all over the earth, shine? Saints are the same in the spiritual world, that the rays are solar in the material world. God is the eternal, life-giving Sun, and the saints are the rays of the intelligent Sun. As the eyes of the Lord constantly look to the earth and to the earthly, so the eyes of the saints can not but turn to where the providence of the Lord of the creature is turned and where their treasure (their bodies, their deeds, sacred places, their faces). Ideal is your treasure, that will be your heart (Matthew 6:21 ). You know how the heart sees quickly, far and clearly (especially objects of the spiritual world); notice this in all knowledge, especially in the spiritual, where much is learned only by faith (the vision of the heart). The heart is the eye of the human being; the cleaner it is, the faster, farther and more clearly it sees. But in the saints of God this eye of the soul was brought to the purity possible for man even in life, and after their death, when they joined with God, it became even brighter and more extensive within the limits of one's own vision. That is why the saints see very clearly and far and wide, they see our spiritual needs; see and hear all those who call upon them with all their hearts, that is, those who have clever eyes directly directed towards them and are not clouded, are not eclipsed during aspiration by doubt and lack of confidence, when the eyes of the prayers' hearts coincide, so to speak, with the eyes of the called. Here is the mysterious sight. An experienced person understands what is being said. Therefore, how easy it is to have a message with the saints. It is only necessary to clear the eyesight of the heart, to direct it firmly to the famous saint, to ask for the necessary - and will. And what about the Lord in regard to sight! He is all - sight, all light, all knowledge. He always fills the sky and the earth and sees everything at every place. In every place the eyes of the Lord are reproduced with evil and good (Proverbs 15, 3). X. About prayer for others For the remission of the transgressions of others, pray as you pray for the abandonment of your sins, when they strike you with sorrow and the distress of your soul, induce you with sickness, broken heart and with tears to implore God for pardon; equally, and for the salvation of others, pray as your own. If you achieve this and turn it into a skill, you will receive from the Lord an abundance of spiritual gifts, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Who loves a soul that sympathizes with the salvation of others, because He Himself, the All-Holy Spirit, in every way wants to save us all, if only we do not resist Him, do not harden our hearts. The Spirit himself intercedes for us, groaning inordinately ignorant (Romans 8:26 ). If you want to correct someone from inadequacies, do not think to correct it by your own means: we ourselves are more spoiled by our own passions, for example, with pride and irritability: but , sorrow for the Lord (Psalms 54, 23), and pray to Him who tests our hearts and wombs (cf. Psalm 7, 10), with all his heart, that He himself will enlighten the mind and heart of man; If He sees that your prayer is breathing with love and comes from the bottom of your heart, you will certainly fulfill the desire of your heart and you will soon say, seeing the change in the one for whom you pray: this is the betrayal of the right hand of the Vishnyago. (Psalm 76, 11). When you see that someone who by the violence of the devil is engaged in cardio by some empty, earthly object (idee fixe) is very much mourning him, constantly talking about him and arousing the annoyance in you, - do not get irritated by it, but, knowing firmly, that this sickness of the spirit is from the enemy, be patient with the patient, be gentle and quiet, now, with a calm, unruffled faith, turn to God in prayer and read the troparion to the image not made by hand: We adore your most pure image, the Blessed One, asking forgiveness of our transgressions, Christ God: Thou shalt bring the flesh upon the cross, that ye deliver ishi, yazhe created, from the work of the enemy. By that, we cry out gratefully to Ti: you have fulfilled all your joys, Our Savior, come to save the world. When you see weaknesses and passions in your neighbor, pray for him; Pray for everyone, even about your enemy. If you see the brother of the proud and obstinate, proud with you or with others turning, pray for him that God will enlighten his mind and warm his heart with the fire of his grace, say: "Lord, teach your servant, a devilish pride in desolation, meekness and humility, and The darkness from his heart and the burden of satanic pride! - If you see the evil one, pray: Lord, bless Thy servant with Thy grace! - If you are ambitious and greedy, say: Our treasure is imperishable and the wealth is inexhaustible! Grant your servant, who was created in the image and likeness of Yours to know the flattery of wealth, and as all earthly things are vanity, canopy and sodomy. For the grass is the days of every man, or the spider. and for You are one wealth, peace and joy! - When you see an envious person, pray: Lord, enlighten the mind and heart of your servant to the knowledge of the great, countless and unseen gifts of yours, from the innumerable gifts of yours, forgetting you and your rich gifts, , is rich in your good things, and for this reason he looks charmingly at your good servants, like an unprincipled Blessed One, strangling everyone, who is against his strength and at the will of your will. Othy, all-blessed Vladyka, cover the devil from the sight of the heart of Your servant and grant him a heartbreak and tears of repentance and thanksgiving so that the enemy will not rejoice over him, taken alive from him to his will and do not tear him away from your hand! - When you see a drunk, say with your heart: Lord, mercifully consider Your servant, enticed by the flattery of the belly and carnal joy, grant him to know the sweetness of abstinence and fasting and the resultant fruits of the spirit. When you see passionate for the brashnas, and blessedness in them believing, say: "Lord, the sweetest is our brave, never the one that stammers, but abides in the eternal belly!" Cleanse thy servant from the filthiness of the belly-eating, all flesh created and alien to your Spirit, and grant him to know the sweetness of Thy creative spiritual princess, which is your flesh and blood and your holy, living and active Word! "So, or in like manner, pray for all sinners and do not dare to despise or revenge anybody for his sin, for this would only increase the sores of those who commit sins-correct them with councils, threats and punishments that would serve as a means to stop or deter evil within the limits of moderation . Glory to the Blessed, consubstantial and life-giving Trinity. When the devil strikes his side with displeasure, hatred for the neighbor because of something worldly, carnal and hard, it will be painful for me to get up so I can raise my eyes to the Trinity and say: Father, Son, All Soul, have mercy on me, and I look at the name Father and Son and Holy Spirit, as the very essence of the Holy Trinity, everywhere essentially present, even in the single word - you see: immediately and easily the enemy will escape from the all-powerful priskokoplonyaemogo Name as the smoke disappears. Glory to Thee, Saints and consubstantial, and life-giving, and indivisible Trinity (At the beginning of Matins). The Holy Trinity! Teach me to despise everything earthly, teach me to believe the world, contentment, bliss in you one. And not to be proud of me, because of the blessed attention to me of the Holy Trinity and the salvation given to me by her, and remembering that she cared well every worm, every chick. I will also remember that some Christians, many of the forces who created in the name of God, will hear from the Lord at one time: " Get away from me, do not bury you" (Matthew 7:23 , 25, 12), for your non-gospel life. The Holy Trinity! Save me from pride and teach me humility! You are blessed and soon you will hear me and save me; I can be proud with mercy, Your infinite goodness and mercy can be turned into a pretext for self-praise, ostensibly I myself was worthy of such attention, as the good that some one created. Cover me, the priceless Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Sacred Soul, by the shelter of your Kril from all sin. XI. On the prayer for the dead When you pray for the repose of the soul of the deceased, force yourself to pray about it from the bottom of your heart, remembering that this is an important duty of yours, and not just one priest and cleric. Imagine how necessary the deceased rest is and how he needs to pray for him alive, being a member of the one body of the Church, how demons dispute the angels' hearts and how she trembles, not knowing what fate will befall her for ever. Much means to the Lord the prayer of faith and love for the deceased. Imagine how much peace is necessary for you, when the captives of the Fall will bind you, and how you then earnestly pray with what sincerity, fervor, strength you pray to the Lord and the Most-Pure Theotokos, and how you rejoice and triumph when, after earnest prayer, you will be delivered from sins and peace of mind. Attach this to the soul of the deceased: and his soul also needs prayer - now yours, because she herself can not pray fruitfully; and his soul needs rest, which you can ask for of him with warm prayer, with the benefit in favor of his soul, and especially by offering him a bloodless sacrifice. O pray the dead, as if your soul were in hell, in the flame , and you yourself suffered; feel their torment with your heart and pray with a fiery flame for their repose in a place brighter and lighter, in a place of cooling. Pray to the Lord for the repose of the departed forefathers, father and brethren daily in the morning and in the evening, so that the memory of death dwells in you, and let there be no hope in you for a future life after death, and let your spirit of daily transcendental life be reconciled daily. XII. Repentance in Prayer If you sin in what is before God, and we sin a great deal every day, immediately, say in your heart, with faith in the Lord, heeding the cry of your heart, with a humble mind and feeling of your sins, a psalm - Have mercy on me, Thine, and read the whole psalm heartily; if he did not act once, make another reception, only read more cordially, even more sensitively, and then you will immediately be saved from the Lord by salvation and peace in your soul. So always lament: this is a sure, tested means against sins. If you do not get relief, blame yourself; then you prayed without contrition, without the humility of your heart, without a firm desire to receive from God the remission of sins; it means that sin has slightly wounded you. Sometimes a person prays, apparently, assiduously, but his prayer does not bring him the fruits of rest and the joy of the heart about Dusia the Holy. From what? Because praying for ready-made prayers, he did not repent sincerely of the sins that he committed that day with which his temple was defiled, this temple of Christ, and with which the Lord was angry. But remember him and repent, with all sincerity condemning yourself impartially - and immediately the heart surpasses all minds in the heart (Phil 4: 7). In the prayers of the church there is an enumeration of sins, but not all, and often of these, there is no mention that we have bound ourselves: we must certainly list them by prayer with a clear consciousness of their importance, with a sense of humility and with heartbreak. That is why in evening prayers it is said in the enumeration of sins: either this or that, or it did evil, that is, it is given to our will to mention certain sins. Repentance should be sincere and completely free, and not forced by time and practice or by a person who professes to be. Otherwise, it will not be repentance. Repent, it says, approach the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 4:17), draw near, that is, it's come, do not need to look for it for long, it's looking for you, your free disposition, that is: repent yourself with heartbreak. Kreschatusha (it is said about the baptized by John) confesses his sins (Matthew 3: 6), that is: they confessed their sins. And since our prayer is primarily a repentance and a petition for the forgiveness of sins, it must also always be sincere and completely free, and not involuntary, forced by custom and custom. Such a prayer should be also when it is thanksgiving and thanksgiving. Gratitude assumes in the soul of the benevolent the fullness of a free, living feeling freely flowing through the mouth; from the excess of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12, 34). Dedication presupposes the delight of astonishment in a man contemplating the affairs of infinite goodness, wisdom, the omnipotence of God in the moral and material world, and therefore also naturally should be a matter completely free and reasonable. In general, prayer should be a free and fully conscious outpouring of a person's soul before God. Before the Lord I pour out my soul ( Molina Anna, Mat. Samuel). Prayer requires sincere regret for your sins and sincere repentance - enumerating sins, in the prayers indicated, speaking them, feeling with your heart as if your own. - Another need ardent desire not to sin the same sins in the future. XIII. On overcoming the flesh in prayer Why do I need a long prayer? In order that the duration of the zealous prayer to warm up our cold in a long bust hardened hearts. For it is strange to think, all the more so, to require that the turbid heart of everyday life may soon be imbued with the warmth of faith and love for God during prayer. No, this requires labor and work, time and time. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and those who use force delight in it (Matthew 11, 12). Not soon the kingdom of God comes to the heart, when people are running so hard from it. The Lord Himself expresses His will, that we pray not briefly, when presenting as an example a widow who went to the judge for a long time and bothered him with his requests (Luke 18, 2-6). The Lord then, our heavenly Father knows before our petition, what we require (Matthew 6, 8), what we need, but we do not know Him, as it should, worldly vanities we are very devoted, not Father heavenly; Here He is by His wisdom and mercy and turns our needs into an excuse for turning us to him. Turn ye, my erring children, though now unto me. To your father, with all your heart, if you were far from Me before, though now, warm up your faith to Me, by faith and love of your heart, who were formerly cold. Do not pray in the land of lazy flesh: do not rush: flesh, bored and burdened with holy work, to the end, to calm down or to do things carnal, everyday. When you pray, the rule, especially according to the book, do not rush from words to words without realizing its truths, without putting it on your heart, but do and constantly make yourself feel the truth of what you say in your heart; your heart will resist this - sometimes with laziness and petrified insensibility towards what you read, sometimes with doubt and disbelief, with some kind of inner fire and cramping, sometimes with dispersal and evasion of some earthly things and care, sometimes with a grudging of resentment from your neighbor and feelings vengeance and hatred of him, sometimes the representation of the pleasures of light or the presentation of pleasure from reading novels and generally secular books. Do not be proud, overcome your heart, give it to God as a sacrifice of the favorable: give Me, your son, your heart (Proverbs 23:26), and your prayer will be akin to you, and will connect you with God and with the whole sky, and you will be filled with the Spirit and fruits He: by righteousness, peace and joy, love, meekness, long-suffering, heartfelt affection. Do you want to end the prayer rule soon enough to give rest to a tired body? Cordially pray and fall asleep in a calm, healthy sleep, quiet. Do not hurry to pray somehow: you will win for half an hour prayer for three hours of the most healthy sleep. Are you in a hurry to work or work? Get up early, do not wake up - and pray earnestly - you gain peace, energy and success in business for the whole day. Does the heart break into the affairs of everyday life? Break it; Let his treasure be not the futility of the earth, but God: teach your heart to cling more by prayer to God, and not to the vanity of the world, but do not shame in the days of your illness and at the hour of your death, like a rich world vanity and a beggar with faith, hope and love, if you do not pray like that. Do not believe your flesh, which threatens you with failure during prayer: it lies. If you pray, you will see that the flesh becomes your obedient slave. Prayer will also revive her. Remember always that the flesh is deceitful. In people who pray little, the heart is weak; and now, when they want to pray, their heart relaxes and relaxes their hands, body and thoughts, and it is difficult for them to pray. You have to overcome yourself: try to pray with all your heart, because it's good, it's easy to pray with all your heart. Do not let yourselves be overcome by prayer in the flesh and in the enemy who acts through it; - Do not slip your tongue, but speak the truth in your heart (Psalm 14, 8); so think and feel yourself, as you say in prayer, and not so that the tongue has honey, and the heart - ice; once the enemy wins, afterwards you will have to defend yourself, your freedom from it, like the enemy's scrap of land, but from the Lord your heart will recede. Do not despise anything in spiritual life, do not consider anything small, not worthy of great attention: through small sins the devil leads to great sins. The main thing: try to be true always in your heart. When it is difficult to struggle with the flesh, then show your firmness, then, not weak in the struggle, as a good warrior of Christ. The carnal negation, the fossil insensibility to everything spiritual, sacred, is the narrowness of the enemy, although the carnal man does not consider it cramped, because he is charitable about it; but those who want to live spiritually consider it to be cramped, because it does not allow God to reach our hearts, does not allow us to pour out into the heart of the grace of God that enlivens and enlightens our soul, makes our soul barren with the works of faith, hope and love. You are doing some kind of flesh, not possessing the spirit. Oh, how many kinds of persecution! How you will rejoice from your heart about this petrified impotence, how you will cry before the Lord: it will pass away; and the heart warms and softens, and becomes capable of spiritual contemplation and holy feelings. Do not grudge yourself for a heartfelt prayer, even when you spent the whole day in labor. Do not neglect the Holy. prayer, tell the Lord everything from the heart, see - it is the work of God. I took hold of the ridge, do not say that I'm not stout; laying his hand on the rally, not looking back (cf. Luke 9, 62). If you allow prayer negligent, not with all your heart, you can not fall asleep (if you pray for the night), until you pay your sin before God. Not with all this happens, but with those who have perfected. Look, above God do not set your flesh, but despise for Him and rest in body. What prayer rule did (if a long prayer rule, then follow the rule well, if it is short, too), fulfill it with all good faith, and do not perform the work of God with your heart bifurcated so that one half belongs to God and the other half belongs to God and the other to your flesh. The zeal of the Lord God will not tolerate your slyness, your self-pity. He will give you over to the devil, and the devil will not give rest to your heart for neglecting Him who is the true rest of your heart and Who will always do this for your own good, in order to keep your heart in closeness to God, because every insincere prayer removes the heart from God and equips it with the man himself, and on the contrary, every sincere prayer brings the human heart closer to God and makes him a part of God. So, believe the word: hurry on prayer for peace of body, to rest more quickly, but you will lose both bodily rest and soulfulness. Oh! With what works, then with tears is the approach of our heart to God achieved; and are we really going to make our own (negligent) prayer again a means of separation from God, and does God not become jealous of this? After all, He is sorry for us and for our previous labors, and He wants us to turn to Him with all our hearts. He wants us to always belong to Him. As after an unworthy communion, and after an unworthy, cold prayer, it is equally bad for the soul. This means that the Lord does not enter our hearts, insulted by our heart unbelief and coldness, and lets in our heart exalt the evil spirits, so that we can feel the difference between our and their yoke. XIV. On the darkness and wiles of the enemy in prayer During prayer, there are sometimes minutes of murderous gloom and hampering of the heart; (unbelief-darkness), do not be uncomfortable during these moments, but remember that if the divine light in you is interrupted, it always shines in all the glory and majesty in God in the Church of God, heavenly and earthly, and in the real world , in which His everlasting power and the Divine are visible (Romans 1, 20). Do not think that the truth has subsided: it never fails, because the truth is God Himself, and everything that exists in Him has its foundation and cause, only your weak, sinful, dark heart that does not always tolerate the tension of light it is not always able to contain the purity of it - only when it is cleansed or cleansed of sin, as the first cause of spiritual darkness. Proof of the closest thing to take from yourself. When the light of faith or the truth of God lives in your heart, then it is calm, firm, strong, alive; and when he is suppressed, then it is restless, weak, like a cane, shaken by the wind, lifeless. Do not pay attention to this satanic gloom. Drive him from the heart with the banner of the life-giving cross. In the lives of Christians, the pious watch is left of God - a clock of darkness by the devil, and then a person from the depths of the heart calls out to God: why have You cast me off from Your presence Light unaddressed? For here she covered me, my whole soul, the alien darkness of the accursed, wicked Satan; it is hard for the soul to be in the agonizing darkness of it, which gives a premonition of the torments of the gloomy hell; Turn me, Savior, to the light of Your commandments and correct my spiritual path, I pray earnestly to You. When, during prayer, your heart is seized by despondency and sadness, know that this is from the devil, who is trying to keep you in prayer. Be brave, be brave and remember the God of murderous feelings. Note: if not in thoughts, then in the heart the enemy often intensifies, blasphemes the name of the all-powerful God. What is the heart of blasphemy against God? Doubt, unbelief, discouragement, impatience of God's punishments and murmur - all passions. By disbelieving in the truth and the goodness of God, the enemy spews blasphemy against the truth, the goodness and omnipotence of God; discouragement - also to His goodness, in general, the outburst of human passions is blasphemed by the all-good Providence and the Truth of God. Here you pray, your prayer is accomplished successfully, you have an inner witness, that the Lord hears it and favors it; you have a world of thoughts, easy and sweet in your heart; but at the end of your prayer, because of the smallest relaxation of your heart and thoughts, a heavy burden is falling into your heart, a heart that is relaxing the heart, and you feel the extreme weight of prayer and disgust from it, instead of the former ease and disposition towards it. Do not despair, a friend is the intrigues of an enemy who likes to chuckle at us, especially at the end of our pious activities, so that we become discouraged and find all our previous works to be lost in the holy cause. Learn from this forward not to quench your Spirit for a minute, in the continuation of prayer, to pray with spirit and truth unflaggingly and not flatter the Lord in prayer with a single word, that is, not a single word utter hypocritically, hypocritically, let all your prayer be one expression of truth , the trumpet of the Holy Spirit, and not a single word serves as a lie to the enemy, nor will it be the authority of the devil. And for the removal of the burden of the enemy from your soul and about the extinguishment of his fire, pray heartily to the Lord, having confessed to Him from the heart your guilt - hypocrisy during the pronunciation of the prayer - and you will receive relief and peace. Do not hurry, talk peacefully and do it peacefully. Have time! The enemy hastens and embarrasses, for in vague haste there is no use. For the purification and inflammation of our prayer, the Lord allows the devil to painfully inflame our insides, so that we, feeling in ourselves an alien fire and suffering from it, try to bring to the heart of our humble prayer the fire of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit, which makes our hearts livelier. During the prayers of the domestic and the public against the deceitfulness of the devil and the scattering of thoughts, remind yourself of the simplicity of truth and say to yourself: simply , that is, I believe in everything requested in the simplicity of the heart, and I ask just plainly, and yours, my enemy, wickedness, yours blasphemy, an abomination, a dream, - I reject. - The beginning and foundation and source of all your thinking, your word and your activity, let it be humility, the consciousness of your insignificance and the fullness of the Divine, who created and fills everything and acts all in all (1 Corinthians 12, 6). Who is infected with pride, he is inclined to disdain everything, even to things holy and divine: pride mentally destroys or defile any good thought, word, deed, every creature of God. This is the dead breathing of Satan. When, during the reading of the canons and akathists to the Savior and the Mother of God and the canon to the guardian Angel and when reading the prayers, the devil will whisper in his heart: untruth is untrue, stretch-stretch, and will steal from the heart the power (truth) of the words of prayer, then (see Psalm 37, 14, 1 Corinthians 3:18 ) for a moment, not heart-heartedly agreeing to the lie of the enemy and not philosophizing it with false wisdom, and believe firmly in the truth of the fullness of the church prayers and hymns ; knowing that this is the broadcast of the Holy Spirit through the mouths of holy men who proclaimed praises, befitting the Savior, the Mother of God, the saints, and our infirmities and culpability. Remember that the Church is a pillar and a statement of truth (1 Timothy 3, 15). During prayer sometimes you feel some kind of estrangement from God and despair, you do not have to get carried away by this feeling, it is from the devil, but you must speak in your heart: I do not despair of my salvation, I am cursed, in Your immeasurable sorrow I dare to come and cry: My hope is the salvation of my salvation, if your multitude of my iniquities conquers my humanity, wake me the Savior (1 and 4 Mol. to the Holy Communion). When, during oral prayer, the devil will drench words with the rain of the subtlest thoughts, say: the Savior's sovereignty in every word and sound. Still it happens during prayer that our heart is ungraciously ashamed before the people of the words of prayer or the Lord God Himself, languidly, not from the heart uttering prayers. We must trespass this God-forgiving, humane-pleasing, devilish shame and fear, and utter prayers from the heart and in great simplicity, in the simplicity of the heart, representing before us a single God and all as if not existing. He will be ashamed of Mene and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, and the Son of man will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the angels of the Holy (Mark 8:38 ). The devil usually settles in us through one false idea or a deceitful and lustful thought and then acts in us and disturbs us: so it is simple. Is not the Lord of the Gods of Spirits moving in us through a single thought and true and holy love and with us happens and in us acts and is for us all? So, pray without a doubt: how to think easily, so it should be easy to pray. Do not pay attention to defilements, fire and tightness of the enemy during the performance of prayer, and firmly lay your heart on the very words of prayer with the certainty that the treasures of the Holy Spirit are hidden in them. And the saints of God were overcome by the devil's despair and despondency. What with us, sinners? O, the enemy often stings us with heartfelt humiliation and fierce despondency. We must constantly turn to the Lord, and be with Him every minute, so that we will not be seized by hostility and despondency. There is also a means to get rid of the enemy of despondency - the lengthy path of peace ... the pleasure of light ... but keep the God of every Christian from being able to get rid of the devilish despondency. It is better to go the narrow way, be discouraged, and seek frequent help and redemption from the Lord Jesus Christ, who rejoices the working people for his salvation, rather than get off on the long journey, the smooth path of peace and there with the pleasures of the flesh to buy freedom from the spirit of despondency. The enemy was driven by the spirit of despondency from a close and saving way to a wide and smooth, but fatal path. During prayer, with strong temptations from the devil, cast all your sorrow onto the Lord, as He cares for you. In prayer, only believe in the Lord, as you are at your right hand, and everything will be possible for you. The more accurately and more strongly the means connecting us to God (prayer and repentance), the more the enemy of God directs against it the destructive actions; and ours, who uses for this purpose everything: our body, which is lazy, and the weakness of the soul, its attachment to earthly goods and cares, a doubt so close to all unbelief, disbelief, bad, evil and evil thoughts, a heart's heartache, everything is directed at inattentive, by the action of the enemy, to stop in prayer, on this ladder, to God who builds us. That's why there are very few sincere prayer-seekers; because it is very rare and scandalous - the Christians repent and take communion, maybe half would not, if the civil law did not command everyone to be at the confession every year and St. participles. The testers know all this. XV. About prayer before the icons To the extent that you begin to pray in spirit and in truth, before St. the icon of the Savior, for example, the spirit of the person pictured on the icon is drawn to the icon, so that if your faith in the presence of the person written on the icon has reached the point that you see that person alive, then it really is a blessing its happens here. Example miracle-working icons, talking, exuding tears, blood, etc .; because they all look unusually lively and expressive. What is impossible for God, who can revitalize a stone and form a man out of it? "It's just as wonderful that He can do it in a picturesque way." - Everything is possible for the believer (Mark 9, 23), and the Visitor descends miraculously to the believer. - He connects with the sign of the cross of the life-giving and miracles. The icons of the Savior in every Orthodox house depict His everywhere Presence, His dominion in every place, and the image of the saints is the presence or closeness of saints to us by the grace of God, as members of the single body of the Church, united under one Head, Christ. If I pray to my God with a hearty, living, complete faith, then I am not only close to Him, like a son to the Father living in the same house with him, but to all the primeval powers of heaven, to all the saints who reign in heaven: they are not further from me than my icons, before which I pray. Therefore, it is a wonderful habit for us to have in our houses an icon of the Lord, the Most Pure Mother of God, the Archangels, the Guardian Angel, and the saints, and pray before them: their closeness to our bodily gaze signifies an even greater affinity for their soul's gaze, armed with unquestioning faith. Proximity: joy is in heaven and about a single sinner repenting (Luke 15, 7, 10), as in the home the parental brothers rejoice when the brother guilty before their father repents of an insult inflicted on the parent by unkind behavior. Worshiping the icons, firstly, I esteem in them the God who gave birth to the Son-image of His living from the beginning, who, through the infinite thought of God the Father, gave the material being, creating the worlds and all creatures that were in the thought of God, and the man created in the image and the image of God; secondly, I honor the image of God incarnate; in the third, I respect myself, my image of the immortal god-like person, called to be a partaker of the divine nature, one with the Lord, the temple of the Holy Spirit. I also involuntarily urge to honor the icons because I see the saving power of God manifested through them for the faithful and punishing the infidels, as I see and feel this same power in the image of the cross of the Lord, which is called miraculous by its miraculous power. For all these reasons, icons are replaced for me by the very faces whose names they wear. - The faces of the saints on our icons represent us in the spirit of the saints of God, who are all alive with God and in the Holy Spirit are always close to us in our heartfelt faith and in prayer for them. For what can be remote to the Spirit of God, the omnipresent and all that fulfills and through the spirits that are passing through all spirits (gifted with reason), pure, subtle (Continued 7: 23). Joy happens before the angels of God about a single repenting sinner (Luke 15, 10). Hence, not only God, but also Angels are open the location of our soul. Coming up before you and before the terrible and holy, your angels, I bring my evil and lawless deeds, manifesting this and exposing (Mol., 4th, for communion). If someone asks you, why do you pray to soulless icons, what benefit do you have for them? Tell us that from our icons we receive incomparably more benefits than from the most kind and charitable person; say that from the icons comes always grace-filled strength and help to your souls, delivering you from sins, sorrows and diseases, especially from the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God; that one cardinal belief in them, both on the living and near us, saves us from the cruel sorrows, passions and darkness of the souls, that if the touch of the Savior's relics and the handkerchiefs of the apostles made the sick healthy, the more the faces of the Savior and of the Mother of God are strong to heal the believers from all tribulation, by faith in the Lord and the Mother of God. You look at the icon of the Savior and see that He looks at you with the most gracious eyes, this gaze is the image of the fact that He really looks to you with the clearest of the sun with His eyes, he hears all your heart desires and sighs. The image is an image, and in features and signs it represents something that is impenetrable and unknowable, but is comprehensible only by faith. Believe that the Savior always looks at you and sees you all with all your thoughts, sorrows, sighs, with all your circumstances, as in the palm of your hand. Behold, I have written your walls on my hands, and have been with me before the end, says the Lord. (Isaiah 49:16). How much consolation, life in these words of the all-powerful Providence! So, pray before the icon of the Savior, as if in front of Himself. The philanthropist, inherent in her grace through her, and her eyes written on her, looks at you as if you are looking at every place (Proverbs 15, 3), hence, she listens to you both on the icon and on the rumor depicted on it. But remember that His eyes are God's eyes, and His ears are the ears of God who is omnipresent. As you see the face of the Mother of God on the icon, so She the Most Pure Mother of the Slow-Moving Eye (the Lord) sees all your soul, all thoughts, feelings, intentions, enterprises, all passions, weaknesses, shortcomings, of course, and virtues, all sighs, tears, all reverence , hears thanksgiving, thanksgiving, all secrets and explicit prayers. Her knowledge is miraculous: for she is the mother of the Omniscient and Omnipresent, who created our hearts. XVI. On the activities that accompany prayer I offer to the Lord, the Lady or the Angel and the Saint, the material light, and the light, the gracious, the spiritual, the Lord will give me by their prayers and from the darkness of sin to the light of the knowledge of God and virtue will lead me; I bring fire material, yes the fire of the grace of the Holy Spirit will cry in my heart and let the heat of passion exhaust in my heart accursed; I bring a lamp with a desire, and I myself will be a lamp burning and shining to all, in the temple of the Church are the essence. That's why I put candles in front of the icons, that's what I'm thinking about when I put the lamp in the candle holder. I confess, I put candles in front of icons with the hope of perceiving spiritual blessings from those holy and all-holy faces, which are written on icons, I confess my spiritual self-interest. However, such is the law of reciprocity, to expect a gift for a gift: in the same measure you measure, it is said, it will also be measured to you (Matthew 7: 2). I am a weak man, carnal, sinful, than rich, so glad; not always being able to bring to my Lord or His Most Pure Mother, or the Angel of God or the Holy One, burning with faith and love, the heart, I will bring at least as a man carnal, material, a gift to the heavens and a material gift - a burning candle. May the Lord from heaven shine on the small gift of my zeal, and may he give me more: He is one rich, I am poor and poor; He is in the light of the impregnable, I am in darkness; I am of little faith: let him give me the gift of faith; I am poor with love: let it enrich my heart with this precious treasure of heaven; I am powerless for all good: yes, he will give me strength. "For my part, there is a desire for heavenly blessings, and there is a material pledge: may the handsome lord of God give me the prayers of the Most Pure Matter of His, Angels and Saints, all to the salvation of petition. Praying, do everything wisely. When you pour oil on the lamp, then imagine that the Life-Giver every day and hour, every minute of your life, supports your life with the Holy Spirit, and as though daily through sleep in the body, and through prayer and the word of God spiritually, pours in you the oil of life , which burns your soul and body. When you put a candle in front of an icon, remember that your life is like a burning candle: it will burn and go out; or that some make her burn faster than it should, passions, polyphagia, wine and other pleasures. To burn before the Lord during prayer, do not spare the wax candles: remember that you burn it before the Living one in the light of the unapproachable and from your light enlightening you. Your candle is like a burnt offering to the Lord; Let it be a gift from God to a perfect heart. Yes, she reminds you that you yourself must be a lamp burning and shining. He is not, it is said of John the Baptist, the lamp of sorrow and shining (John 5, 35). If you represent the sign of the cross, believe and always remember that your sins are nailed to the cross. When you fall into sin, immediately condemn yourself sincerely and make the sign of the cross on yourself, saying: Lord! Our sins on the cross are nailed, nail to the cross and my true sin and have mercy on me according to the mercy of your mercy (Psalm 50, 3) - and your sin will be cleansed. Amen. In depicting the sign of the cross, we place the upper end of the cross - on the forehead - in the image of the Father, which is the uncreated Mind, by three fingers; the lower - on the belly - in the image of the Son, born before all ages from the womb of the Father: and the transverse part on the ramings or muscles - in the image of the Holy Spirit. Which is the arm or the power of the Lord, or the hand of the Lord, as it is written, "The arm of the Lord has been revealed to anyone" (John 12, 38, Isaiah 53, 1), or: the Lord's hand was on me (Ezekiel 3:22), ie The Holy Spirit. Another image in the person of the Holy Trinity: the thinking mind is the image of God the Father; the heart in which the mind dwells and depicts itself - the image of the Son of God, and the infinite Wisdom of God; the mouth through which comes what is in the mind and heart is the image of the Holy Spirit. Duna, and the verb to them: receive the Holy Spirit ... (John 20, 22). When evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, blasphemies emanate from the heart ... (Matthew 15, 19), then this is the evil spirit nesting in a man ... And when a good man exudes good from the good treasure of his heart. (Luke 6, 45), then this is the image of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son. Great man! It is not in vain said: " Az bore: the Bozi is eaten, and the son of Vishnyago vsi" (Psalm 81, 6). If these are the speeches of the gods, the word of God is to them, and the scripture can not be ruined (that is, what is said, it is said rightly, immutably), His Father is holy and ambassador to the world, you say, as if blaspheme, : I am the Son of God (John 10, 35-36). Oh, dignity! Oh, the greatness of man! Do not otherwise look at a person, especially a Christian, as a son of God, talk with him as with the son of God by grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. XVII. On Moderation in Prayer If you do not have a firm, shameless faith in God, as the All-Mighty and Almighty, do not start hurriedly to ask Him for the bestowal of some good: otherwise the devil will slay and sting you with disbelief or disbelief in the possibility of fulfilling your prayer, and depart from the face of God to the shamed, and gloomy. "Do not be frivolous, but before you sit down, read, according to the word of the Lord, your spiritual possessions, or weigh your faith - if Imashe Elik is the essence of the commission. Even if not, the demons who see your incongruity will start laughing at you, saying: This man has been started up and can not be performed (Luke 14, 28-30). - So, before prayer, understand the degree of your faith and, finding it sufficient, lively, firm, shameless - go boldly to the throne of grace, and take mercy and grace to find a help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Be moderate in all religious deeds, for virtue too, in moderation, according to the forces, the circumstances of time, place, works preceding it, is prudence. It is good, for example, to pray with a pure heart, but since there is no correspondence of prayer with forces (energy), various circumstances, place and time, with previous labor, it will no longer be a virtue. Therefore, the apostle Peter says: show the virtues of reason (that is, do not get carried away with one heart) in the mind of abstinence, in abstinence - patience (2 Peter 1, 5, 6). XVIII. About the Jesus Prayer Two forces, completely opposite to each other, affect me: the power is good and the power is evil, the power of life and the power are deadly. As spiritual forces, they are both invisible. A good power, by free and sincere prayer of mine, always casts off evil power and the evil power is strong only by the evil that is hiding in me. In order not to endure the continuous stirrings of the evil spirit, one must constantly have Jesus' prayer in his heart: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! Against the invisible devil - the invisible God, against the strong - the strongest. Having Christ in your heart, be afraid not to lose Him, but with Him and the peace of the heart, it is bitter to start again, the efforts to cling to Him again on falling away will be painful and for many to cost bitter tears . Hold fast with all your strength for Christ, acquire Him, and do not lose the holy boldness before Him. Christ, introduced into the heart by faith, sits in it with peace and joy. It is not without reason that God is spoken of: you are holy and in the saints repose. All my troubles occur in my invisible thought and in my invisible heart, because the invisible is necessary to me, too, the Savior leading our hearts. Oh, my strength, Jesus, the Son of God! Oh, the light of my mind! Peace, joy, breadth of my heart - glory to Thee. Glory to Thee, the Redeemer from my invisible enemies, who are stirring up my mind and heart and killing me in the very source of my life, in my most sensitive place. With the mental eyes of the heart I see how I mentally inhale my Christ in the heart, as He enters into it, and suddenly rest and delight him. Oh, may I not be alone, without You, my lover! I'm humbled without You. When praying, hold on to the rule that it is better to say five words from the heart, rather than the darkness of the words with the tongue. When you notice that your heart is cold and praying reluctantly, stop, warm your heart with some live idea, for example, your wretchedness, your spiritual poverty, poverty and blindness, or the presentation of the great every-minute benefits of God to you and to the human race, especially to the Christians, and then pray slowly, with a warm feeling, if you do not have time to read all the prayers by the time, there is no harm, and you will receive incomparably more benefit from slow and warm prayer than if you read all the prayers, but hurriedly, without an owl effects. I want five words with the mind of the verb, rather than the darkness of the words with the tongue. But it would be very good, of course, if one could speak with due sympathy in the prayer and darkness of the words. The Lord does not forsake the working people for Him and for a long time coming to Him, in the same measure they measure, He also measures, and accordingly the abundance of the true words of their prayer, sends to the soul their abundance of light, the warmth of the spiritual, peace and joy. It is good to pray continually and unceasingly, but not all the words are contained, but it is also given: there is room in the room, yes it can. Unable to accommodate a long prayer, it is better to make short prayers, but with a hot soul. You can not overcome without a blessed help a single passion, not one sin, ask always help from Christ our Savior. He therefore came to the world, for that he suffered, died and rose again, in order to help us in everything, to save us from sin and from the violence of passions, to purify our sins, to give us in the Holy Spirit the power to do good deeds, so that enlighten us, strengthen us, pacify us. You say: how can you be saved, when sin at every step is and sin for every minute? The answer is simple: at every step, at every minute, call on the Savior, remember the Savior and you will be saved, and you will save others. It is light and warm and calm to me, when I turn my soul to the mental Sun, the Sun of Truth, Christ my God. And the ice of my heart melts, cleanness cleanses and its decay, darkness disappears, spiritual death runs away, heavenly life reigns, nothing earthly takes me. When you pray to God, then do not imagine your closeness to Him in any other way, as if you are breathing in Him at every moment, moving, enlightening, calming down, consoling and strengthening yourself - in short, you live by Him, according to the Scriptures: we live and move and live. Give everyone a belly, and breath and all. Near this, there is God (Verb) in your mouth, and in your heart ... For even if your mouth is confined to your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in Him in your heart, be saved. When you are very young, or you live the life of the sinful world, then you know Christ the Savior, and the enemy of God and man - Satan all-envious, only one name, and think that Christ is far away from you - in heaven, and the devil somewhere is, only not close and not near you, and although you hear that he is angry, but you think that his anger does not concern you, but when you are mature in age and enter the life of the ascetic, when you serve the pure conscience of God, then you will feel on the heart and the good yoke of the Savior and the heavy, unbearable yoke of Satan, the cat Ours mercilessly insults us. When you pray to the Lord, look with your eyes into your heart, into your soul; The Lord is there, in your thoughts and in the movements of your right heart, as well as outside of you and in every place. He is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, and not in heaven only or in the abyss. Our heart dies daily in spiritual death. Warm tearful prayer is the revival of it, the beginning of its breath. If you do not pray daily with spiritual warmth, then it's easy to die spiritually soon. When the darkness of the accursed person covers you - doubt, despondency, despair, embarrassment, then call only with all your heart the sweetest name of Jesus Christ, in Him you will find everything: and light, and affirmation, and hope, and consolation, and peace, you will find in Him the most goodness , mercy, bounty, you will find all this in one name, enclosed as if in a rich treasury. XIX. Prayer requests about. John The human soul is a free force, for it can become either good or evil by the power, according to what direction you give it. Lord!The power is almighty! Affirm my feeble soul in all virtue. On the immovable rock of your commandments, confirm my heart, weak for every good. Lord!And I know every day that without you I am nothing; that without you I can not do any good; without you there is only one evil in me in its different forms; without you I am a perishable son. Oh, the neglected Blessing, fulfill my goodness with your kindness. More than anything, I pray: grant me to love You with my whole heart and my neighbor, as yourself. May I not be spiteful, proud, disingenuous, rebellious, but I will be gentle, humble, respectful and obedient. Amen. Gospodi! Let not your gifts, spiritual and material, be idle in us and with us: give them a salutary and useful movement. Create this in all. May your talents, Lord, be multiplied by the activity of each one of us. Do not let it go, Lord, not for a moment, that I will do the will of your enemy and my devil, but that I will do your one, unceasingly, God and my King: You are one, my true King. Kings reign over them, grant me to obey you, to fear thee always sincerely and firmly. Come, let us bow to the Tsarevi for our God, work to Him with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling (Compare Psalm 94, 6, 2, 11). Lord!Let me see my transgressions so that I do not despise sinners like me, and do not harbor any evil in their hearts for their sins, and I myself would despise myself as a sinner of the first, I always cherished myself to my carnal man irreconcilable malice. If anyone does not hate ... his soul, my being can not be a disciple (Luke 14:26), says the Lord. Oh, infinitely great Benefactor, my Savior! When I imagine an endless corrupting of sins and passions in many ways in my nature, and my spirit will fall and become discouraged, then, only I will remember You, that You have come to renew the sinful nature that has been corrupted by me and to my shame, my shame, to grant the nobility of the angelic, even above the angelic, the nobility of the Son of God, for the sake of faith in You, for the sake of reflection by water and Spirit and for the communion of Your Holy Mysteries, my spirit will immediately rise from despondency, shake off the dishonor of passions and all is thankful to You. Glory to Thee, infinite Goodness and Power, Son of God! Glory to Thee, All-holy, life-giving to the Soul, proceed from the Father and in the Son perpetually rest ( Sticheron for the day of the Holy Trinity) inseparable from the Father and the Son! Glory to Thee, Son of God concerning the Holy Spirit of God casting out demons (compare Matthew 12:28 , Luke 11, 20) and His salvation is our order, sanctify, contrive, strengthen us! Glory to Thee, Father, bless us in the Son in the Holy Spirit! An undivided Trinity to the Unit, - have mercy on us! Holy Soul, living, personal, masterly, living connection of the Father and the Son have mercy on me! Soul Holy, life-giving and uniting all creation, even more intelligent creatures, the power of the whole creation - have mercy on me! Capture me, Vladyka, in the sweet captivity of your Holy Spirit, and let the streams in the south (Psalm 125, 4) flow my words to your glory and to the salvation of your people! Grant me this sweet and powerful inner motivation to expound freely on the charter the fullness of spiritual visions and feelings! Let my tongue be with the cane of the scribe of the scribe (Psalm 44, 2) - the Spirit of the All-holy! Lord! Grant my heart a simple, gentle, open, believing, loving, generous, worthy receptacle for You the All-Good! I look only at You, Vladyka, with my heart, I believe in You without a doubt. You yourself know what and how to bestow on me. You are the treasure of every good, You are the benefactor, wisdom, omnipotence, exerted on all. So I also look to Thee, O, Lady, Take care of yourself and have mercy on me. Save us, your kind, the Lady! Save us, your half-siblings! Save us, Mother of Belly and Mother of all of us, although we are unworthy to call You Matter! Purify, sanctify, establish and save us through your prayers! The Blessed Lady! Take notice and show your sovereignty over me and your people, God-fearing and good-willed - deliverance from us, through our prayer, from bad, evil and evil thoughts, from all sins and passions and from all the demons' machinations, as the good Mother of God. The Virgin Mary is the Most Blessed Lady of all sons and daughters of men, like the Daughter of God the Father, who is love, the Mother of God the Word-of our love, the chosen Bride of the Spirit of the All-Holy, There is love unanimous to the Father and the Word. How not to resort to such a Lady and do not cherish all the spiritual blessings from her! I thank You, Lord, Lord and Judge, as you teach me to just pray to You, and hear me crying to You, and from my sin and my sorrows I save you, and in the expansive supply to my nose. I called to Thee in the sin of my crooked words of prayer in the church: " Our Lord our God, repentance is a gift to man ... and only when I finished it, peace and ease settled in my soul." June 29, 1864 The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I thank you from all my heart, for you have heard my prayer for loving your neighbor and for the contempt of the earth, and you have poured out a peaceful, intelligent, sweet love in my heart. Affirm, O God, this is in me the prayers of the Most Pure Lady of our Mother of God, and may I be Your child, Lord, and her most true child. July 26th day 1864 11 pm. Lord! You have come to save us by faith in thee in thee, - I believe, as Thou art Thine Savior, save me. You have come to renew the sinful nature that has been corrupted by my sin. Renew me, that corrupted yourself with passions and lusts, renew both spiritually and bodily, that I may be pure in heart and strong in body for the glory of Your name. You came to save us from the work of the enemy, - spare me from the enemy's work to the all-evil, unclean, filthy and abominable, warring in my members and inciting, violence that draws me to sin. You have come to enlighten us, enlighten my heart, clouded by passion. You came to collect the basted, - gather my thoughts, scattered by the enemy. Thou art come to strengthen us in our infirmity, and said: My strength is made perfect in weakness, and your Apostle says: "I will boast sweetly the sweetness of my infirmities, let the power of Christ dwell in me" (2 Corinthians 12, 9); Behold, I am extremely weak, and I can do nothing good without Thee; I can not neither think nor feel good, nor wish for good, nor speak, nor do; I am utterly weak for every good without You; Give me grace, give me light and strength to think and feel kindness and it is convenient to do it, speak and do what pleases you. I have surrendered the whole belly to You, Christ the God to my Savior, my Renewer; purify, sanctify, and save me. Create a clean heart in me, God, and renew the spirit of the rights in my womb (Psalm 50, 12). Help me: my destruction is near and fast without you for every hour. Morning prayer. My God! Creator and Lord of the World! Have mercy on Thy creation, adorned in Your divine image in this morning's hours, so that Thy eye may enlighten, by the darkness that short the brightest rays of the sun, my dark soul and mortified by sin. Despair of me and laziness, grant me the joy and cheerfulness of the soul, and in the joy of my heart I praise Your goodness, holiness, Your unlimited greatness, Your infinite perfection for every hour and every place. Thou art my Creator and Lord of my belly, Lord, and to You be glory from your intelligent creatures for every hour, now and ever and forever and ever. Amen. When you receive healing from any disease, give thanks to the Lord with the following brief glorification: glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Only Begotten of the unoriginal Father, one who heals all illness and every evil in people (cf. Matthew 4:23 ), as You have mercy on me a sinner and have saved me from my illness, not letting it develop and killing me for my sins. Grant me from now on, Vladyka, the strength to firmly do your will to save my soul wretched and to your glory with the beginningless Father and Your Essential Spirit, now and ever and forever and ever. Amen. Glory to The Savior, Almighty Power! Glory to Thee Savior, the Force is omnipresent! Glory to Thee, Precious Heart! Glory to Thee, A rumor prisnotverzayuschiesya to hear the prayer of the penitent, in e, miovati me and save from my sin! Glory to Thee, fairest eyes, take out on me those who see me kindly and despise all my intimacy! Glory to Thee, glory to Thee, glory to Thee, the sweetest Jesus, my Savior! Lady of the Theotokos! You, whose love for Christians surpasses the love of every earthly mother, every wife, listen to us in our prayers and save us! May we remember You constantly! Yes, we pray to You always diligently! Yes, we resort always under the shelter of your saint is non-lethal and without a doubt. You alone know the cares, labor and sweat of your saints to purify them, to please You. To the Father of all, You are the weights of your saints. Teach us to imitate them in our lives, so let us be in union with all the love. The Lord is so holy, so simple in His holiness that one thought, evil or unclean, deprives us of His sweet and sweet, pure and pure world and the light of our souls. Hence the saints are all - the light, the whole one fragrance, like the light of the sun, as the purest air. Lord, give me this simple shrine! Lord! I am the miracle of Your goodness, wisdom, omnipotence, I have been brought to you from a non-being into being, I have been preserved by thee to this day, I have, by virtue, the bounty and philanthropy of your only begotten Son, to inherit eternal life, if I am faithful to You, offering of Thyself as a sacrifice by Your Son, I am raised from a terrible fall, redeemed from eternal perdition. I praise Your goodness, Your infinite power, Your wisdom. But accomplish the miracles of Your kindness, omnipotence and wisdom over me contrite, and by their own weight destinies, save me your unworthy servant and bring me into your eternal kingdom, granting me the life of an ageless, day of the ignorant. Lord! I confess before You that not in the dacha, not in the forest, is the life and health and strength of spiritual and physical strength, but in You in the temple, especially in the liturgy and in the life-giving Your Mysteries. Oh, the greatest bliss of St. Secrets. Oh, the belly giving the St. Secrets. Oh, love is the indefinite Divine Mysteries. Oh, the prodigious and incessant Lord of God's salvation and deification are our divine Mysteries. Oh, the pre-empting of eternal life is the Divine Mysteries. My Lady, the Most Holy Theotokos. I prayed to you before the Liturgy, and ask me to grant grace to do it with great power, for the glory of God, for the salvation of the world and for my own. You arranged everything for the good. Thank You, all-embracing Helper, Fast-obedient, a shameless hope. Lord, I thank you with all my heart for the graceful tenderness of your Holy Spirit during the service of the public and home, for the purification of sins for affection, peace and tears, for paternal consolation, for boldness, for strength. Lord! Give me always a gentle heart, a clear, straight, gentle gaze. Wake up! - Glory, O Lord, to the change made in me by your right hand, I thank you, for you have taken away from me the thorns of burning my passions and my distress, and my shame, and my infirmity, you have given me peace, silence, freedom, strength, boldness . Assert, then, that thou hast made in me. Glory to the power of faith, to the power of prayer: all bo, I ask thee faithfully in prayer, I receive according to thy word (Mark 11, 24). Thank You, Lord, as from the dead, I have been repeatedly raised (2 Corinthians 1, 9), and the mortal, sinful kingdom within me is destroyed. Lord! in the love of mutual life teach and strengthen with your Holy Spirit; gusts of passion, stumbling love of heaven, evangelical, tame, and our hearts are dead for earthly sweet things. Give me, Lord, all earthly blessings to always prefer your grace, your peace, righteousness and your holy things, and always remain in it, all the days of the belly, until the last gasp. I thank You, Lord, for granting me a new life every time I do the divine Liturgy with tears of repentance and thanksgiving and I partake of the pure and life-giving Mysteries of Yours. Your sacred mysteries I owe to the continuation of my being, the integrity of my ways and the good glory in your people. Let thy name be glorified greater and greater in me and in all thy people, and thy holy name is called upon them, and in all thy world; Let your kingdom come, the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, to all our hearts, as You said: I will dwell in them and walk in them, and will be their Father, and they will be to Me as sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6, 16, 18, Leviticus 26, 12, Jeremiah 3:19), and your holy will, wise, all-good, all-perfect, will be done, as in heaven and earth in all your people, and in me a sinner, for Our own will is mistaken, shortsighted, sinful, disastrous, dislike, evil, envious, proud, lazy, open-minded, covetous, mean. Lord! Give me to pray to you for the whole world, and for all the performance of the church, always with all-embracing love, without hypocrisy, for I, according to your grace, have a prayer book about everyone and about my sins. Give me, O Lord, Father God, contemplate your love unspeakable to the world, who gave us the Son of his beloved, the only-begotten. Give me, O God, the Son of God, contemplate your exhaustion in the world and on our cross for salvation, give me God, Holy Spirit, contemplate your grace, abundantly poured out and poured out onto the world for the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling so often my cursed heart ; Holy Trinity, give me glory Thy ceaseless heart and lips, and more business. Oh, my invisible Benefactor, To whom I live unceasingly! Thou art the one who heals me, the one who does good deeds for my heart, who saves me from my sins, from the wickedness of invisible enemies. You, my master, my education, my help, my glory, my strength, my approval, when will I see You? When will I see my Benefactor and my Creator face to face? But you, my enemy, the devil, incessantly flooding my soul with sin, insidious, flattering, spiteful, incessantly killing me, obscuring, weakening, covering my face with shame and dishonor, when I completely dispose of you by the grace, bounties and philanthropy of my Lord Jesus Christ? When will you have any opportunity to pour out the poison of your malice into my heart? Oh, how much bitter were my sins for You, Christ the Savior, my God, when You were slammed, beaten, spit, thorned Thy chapter perforated and stuck to the cross - when You were hanging on the cross for the sake of me in the agony of the unspeakable, saving me from the bitterest , unspeakable torment of hell! But about this self-sacrifice of Thine, about these torments I should remember more often, not to do sins and diligently fulfill all virtue, to love You with all my heart, to fulfill Your saving instructions! Meanwhile, I often forget this terrible sacrifice brought for me by the Son of the Heavenly Father, the only-begotten, co-ordinate, co-existent. Give me, O Lord, a clean heart and constant repentance for salvation, give me the rest of my belly's time to benefit you! Lord! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, since without a number you saved me from dishonor, violence, cruelty of passion and extinguished the arrows of the evil one, which were kindled in me, and protected my soul with the dew and with the dew of Thy grace cooled You. Glory to Thee, Mighty Mercy and God Almighty, as though by Thy grace I remain whole and unharmed, in spite of the innumerable insidiousness of the invisible and all-encompassing enemies who are seeking to devour me. Vem. Lord, as with all their wiles and slanders, save me and save me, by their own weight destinies, into the kingdom of heaven, and not only me, but all godly living and spirits who are spared from the spirits: and not even wanting salvation. Or I wish , it is said, or I do not want to, save me (Mol., St. John., Dame). I thank you, my joy, the Lord of glory, because you have received my image through incarnation from the Virgin and have honored and exalted and adored humanity; I thank thee, as from the corruption of the fleece to the incorruptibility of building me, cleanse my defilements, weaknesses and diseases of the physician, grieve in joy, transform the sinful ones into the space of your justification, from the faith and repentance of the heart, cast the darkness of passions and your spiritual light, confusion is complete, and the world is higher from above, cowardice is complete and courageous with the boldness of Daraesh. Glory to your mercy! Give me, Lady, purity of heart, simplicity of heart, filial trustfulness, devotion and love for You always, now and ever and forever and ever. Amen. Lord! Teach me to give alms willingly, with affection, with joy and believe that when I serve it, I do not lose it, but I gain infinitely more than what I give. Turn my eyes away from people with a cruel heart who do not sympathize with the poor, indifferently meet with poverty, condemn, reproach, brand it with shameful names and relax my heart so as not to do good to harden me against poverty. Oh, my Lord! How many such people are found! Lord, correct the work of alms! Lord, let all my alms go in favor, and not to harm! Lord, have received alms in the person of your poor people! Lord, it is a pleasure to build a house for the poor in this city, as if many times you have prayed to the All-Wing, All-Wise, Wise, Wonderful (and erected). Lord! Grant that your temple to all who come into it with the faith, blessing and fear of God, informed the enlightenment of souls, the purification of sins, sanctification, peace, health, peace of mind - strengthened faith, hope, and love, helped to improve life in successes in all good endeavors and deeds, mutual love, pure Christian living, softening hearts and stopping self-esteem, hard-heartedness, covetousness, greed, envy, malice, gluttony, drunkenness, debauchery - these vices, so harmful in public life and undermining its foundations. Grant it, grant, Lord, to all those who love to visit your temple, and those who do not love it, love to love and correct their hearts and their actions: for time is at hand and judgment at the door for all people of every title and condition, every gender and age, and all there is a matter of infinitely great importance - to answer the terrible judgment of Christ. My Lord, Lord Jesus Christ! My fast, dying, not defending Intercessor! I thank you with all my heart, that you have kindly listened to me, - when I cried to You in a dejection, cramped and flame, I delivered you from the enemies mine and gave my heart space, lightness, light! Oh, Vladyka, how I suffered from the wiles of the enemy, how mercifully You showed me help, and how Your omnipotent help was manifest! I praise Thy goodness, the Most Gracious Lord, the hope of the desperate; I praise that you did not disgrace my face, but mercifully from the darkness and dishonor of hell has delivered me. How then can I ever despair in Your hearing and pardon me, the accursed one? I will, I will always call upon your sweetest name, Savior; you, oh unreasonable Blessing, as always, and in the forefront save me through your immense well-being, as your name is the Man-loving and Savior! As much as You are good, my Lord, and how close you are to us, it is so close that with You you can always talk and You can be comforted, You can breathe, You can be enlightened, You can have peace in You, You can acquire the space of the heart. Lord, teach me the simplicity of love for You and for my neighbor, may I always be with You, peace always has in You, Lord! not letting me for a moment fuck with a pre-mature and all-encompassing enemy - the devil, neither malice, nor pride, nor envy, nor stinginess, nor covetousness, nor gluttony, nor prodigal thoughts, nor blasphemy, nor discouragement, nor lies, nor sin. May I always be Yours. My endless sweetness, Lord Jesus Christ, what sweets you did not give You to taste in my being temporary. Thank you, my dear, my sweetness. But if the earthly sweetness is so numerous, diverse, pleasant, then what are heavenly sweets, spiritual: they are truly endless, innumerable, unimaginably pleasing. Do not deprive me, the merciful God, the merciful Lord, and the heavenly Thy sweetness, which thou hast prepared for the lovers of thee. Do not deprive them and your other people, give them all knowledge, O Lord, our sweetness. After all, You, this sweetness, everywhere and on earth, that is, Your business is all sweetness. However, give me, Lord, to bear with affliction the grief of life; they are needed for my multi-flesh, for my old man. Humane! teach them to bear them with complacency and other Thy men, and give them to know their need. Tribulation is enduring (Romans 12, 12). In the world of sorrow will be (John 16, 33). Lord! Behold, I am your vessel: fill me with the gifts of your Holy Spirit, without you I am empty of all good, or more - full of all sin. Lord! Behold, your ship is my cargo of good works. Lord! Thine ark: Thou shalt not fulfill it with the love of money and sweetness, but with love for Thee and for the animated image of Thy person. Oh, name, sweetest, holy name, almighty name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My victory, O Lord, glory to Thee! Lord, we are your members, we are one body. You are our Head. Lord, let all passions flee from us, and demons flee from us. Lord! Give us the grace of love. Lord! May we show respect and love to each other, as You yourself, as a deified One. Glory, Lord, never exhausting the strength of your cross. When the enemy presses me with a sinful thought and feeling, and I, having no freedom in my heart, depict several times with the faith the cross, then suddenly my sin falls away from me, and the narrowness disappears, and I go free. Glory to Thee, O Lord! Lord: let no carnal, material thing be removed from You from You, so I will always be with You. How good it is to be with You! Oh, the Trinity. Our God! simple Being, who created our soul in your image, and in you the life and the world in your name! About the Trinity, Feeder and Hope is ours! Give us in You one always to put your hope in your mind, You have one life and peace in You. About the Trinity! You are like a mother, you carry everyone in your arms, and you feed all of us from your hands like the most tender mother! You never forget and you will not forget us, for you yourself said: If your wife also forgets her child, I will not forget you, that is, I will not give up, guard, protect and save you. Still, You yourself said: do not leave the imam, below the imam from you to retreat. Why are we worried about food, why are we greedy, satiated, we lament? For what do we regret giving to our neighbor? Oh, okoyanstvo! Oh, blindness! Oh, vanity is dirty! Oh, dislike of God and neighbor! After all, in the person of a neighbor, God, - and we want His gifts to God Himself! Remember how the prophetic spirit of Elisha rewarded the woman, the Somitan woman, who received him from the bottom of her heart into her house and treated him simply! He asked her God-son, and then, when the son died, he raised him. How long has St. The secrets that we take will remind us that one body is many , and until there is no mutual heart-to-heart unity among us as members of the one body of Christ? How long will we be self-righteous in life, antagonize each other, envying each other, muttering, saddening and sobbing each other, condemning each other, scolding? How long will the Spirit of Christ be in us, the spirit of meekness, humility, mildness, unfeigned love, self-sacrifice, patience, chastity, abstinence, simplicity and sincerity, contempt for a long, total aspiration for heavenly things? Lord, Lord Jesus Christ, enlighten our eyes and bless your Spirit and guide us all to the earth right. Give us your Spirit! On August 15, the day of the Assumption of the Mother of God of 1898, I had the good fortune to see in my sleep the Queen of Heaven in a dream face to face and hear Her sweetest, blissful, encouraging chapters: - "You are the dearest of the children of the Heavenly Father" - then, his wickedness, looked upon the Most Pure Face with trembling and wondering: Will the Queen of Heaven cast me from her own wrath with anger? "O, face of the Holy and Pre-Blessed!" Oh, blue and pigeon eyes, kind, humble, calm, majestic, heavenly, divine. I will not forget you, wonderful eyes! - This phenomenon lasted for a minute. Then She left me unhurriedly and disappeared. I saw the departure of the heavenly Visitor from behind ... Excerpts from the diary for biography about. John of Kronstadt I glorify the immeasurable mercy and longsuffering of God to me and to all men. In the course of seventy years I sinned every day and repented, and the Lord mercy on me, did not punish me in all His truth, waiting for my correction every day. - The days of my youth passed, and in a higher educational institution, in the Academy, I began to take a closer look at my inner world. Having acted as a priest, I lived not without sin, but more and more deepened in the sense of my vocation, and the Lord daily pardoned me, granting me tears of repentance, favoring me frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries; my service is St. churches, the performance of prayers and sacraments was not without a stumbling block, invisible enemies heavily fought and captivated me, embarrassed me, especially in the performance of the Sacraments, the struggle was for life and death, spiritual death. I repented, cried, defeated and received forgiveness. I did not often attend the first years of the priesthood, I did not perform liturgy every day, and therefore often spiritually relaxed; Then he saw the benefits of the daily commemoration of the liturgy and the communion of St. Secrets, I began to serve daily and receive communion. And in all the years of priesthood and service to God, how much I have received mercy from Him! - there is no number. I thank the Lord for the wonderful prayers of the evening and morning and the rule of the Holy. Communion. How much the Lord gave me tears of affection of the cleansing, what streams of mercy poured out upon me, and this every day - even hitherto! What will I give to the Lord for all these mercies? My iniquities have multiplied more than the number of the sand of the sea, and I am still alive, and yet repent, without ceasing to sin by deed, word, thought, sloth, negligence, intemperance and every sin inherent in man. O God, be merciful to me a sinner again and again! Suffer me, which is old in wickedness, and cleanse me from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. Amen. Lord, I experience daily the repulsion from You of the spirit of earthly charm, mortifying me, obscuring, tormenting vanity. Constantly I must fight with myself, with my lusts and charm of the enemy and kill all passions, considering them as absurd, senseless and harmful, but prefer to everything and love You one. Oh, how cunning, vigilant, the enemy is active in our perishing. And not suddenly we will know his intrigues, and later, when he is extremely bored and disgusted. We are often in the charm of it. Lord, deliver us from the evil one. The belly is blissfully blessed by the Divine desire to be incarnated (antiphon). Lord, fill my whole being, and let all ill-will run away from me, not for an instant does this absurdity touch me. All in all I will be in Thee and with Thee, the All-Sufficient Good. You are my stomach. You are my peace, You are my bliss, You are my light, and strength, and glory. Amen. Lord, do not let me dream about myself, as if about the best of any of the people, but think like the worst of everyone and do not blame anyone, and judge yourself severely. The Holy Guardian angel guides me every day and every hour on the path of salvation. I see it with my heart, I feel and I thank God and the preacher of God. Every day the Lord re-creates and re-creates me through the service of the Liturgy and the communion of St. life-giving Secrets; I see, feel, feel this Divine miracle and I thank the Creator and the Creator of mine, a new creature of me, a comprehending healing, pacifying. What will I bring, or what will I repay to you, Lord? I have nothing good, everything is Yours. Teach me fervently to love You, O Lord my God. Trinity - My life, my light, Peace, deliverance, my salvation, my lepota, my health, my contentment, the industry about me and all creation, my power and glory, my renewal is extensive. She is everything to me, I do not envy anyone; all goodwill and I pray to God to give everything to everyone, and the rich have a generous womb and a compassionate heart. I would like to see the original Goodness, Serene Highness, Beauty, Wisdom endless, Power, everything that created and carries and controls, but I'm not ready, unclean in heart. Having such promises, we will cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, performing holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7, 1). According to my old age (79 years), every day there is a special grace of God, every hour and every minute: my physical strength is exhausted, but my spirit is cheerful and burns to my beloved Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. So many pledges of mercy I received and receive from God in this life, I hope that in the next life after death; and death is a birth into eternal life, God's mercy and philanthropy. Thank God! Fifty-two years, my priesthood has been filled with God's grace and mercy, I'm still alive, although I'm ill. For so many years of a blessed priesthood I will not be able to thank the Lord, the One in the Trinity. How I could, how I could, how I tried, I served, but I made a lot of mistakes, I did not understand, I strongly bit the enemy. O Lord, cover all my sins with your mercy. What I will repay to You, Lord, as you have granted me the grace to be born and educated in the Orthodox faith and the church and in an dear precious home, Russia, in which the Orthodox Church has been planted since time immemorial. "I thank and praise You as I can, according to Your grace!" Lord! not in the language of human words, it is worthy to thank You for all the innumerable benefits shown by Thy goodness to me, a sinner, throughout all my life proceeding before Your Face, Father generous! Even now, this is the seventy-ninth summer, you save and save me for all day, and now especially, in the sight of my enemies, seeking to devour me because I am Your servant, though unworthy. But grant me, Lord, the grace to completely thank You and to acquire a pure life, by repentance to me created, grant me to avoid the delights of the sin of the manifold, struggling and steal me from You who want to. Grant me to glorify You loudly, loudly in this ungodly world. Amen. Word of July 28, 1907 In one of the morning prayers to God, the Savior, we read: and save us and bring us into your everlasting Kingdom, for You are my Creator and every good Provident and Giver. Today I paid special attention to these words during the morning prayer. They contain important and instructive thoughts. We are all sinners, we do not have freedom from sin, we all, like all things and beings in the world, and our bodies are perishable and transitory, disappearing; Meanwhile, our soul is eternal and wants an eternal existence and tries to perpetuate something by itself: believing and pious souls have a longing for eternal life and consider the life here for a dream and a transient dream. We Christians, from the book of the Gospel, which is the Word of truth eternal and eternal, are taught to believe in eternal life and every day we say in ourselves: the tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead and the life of the future century . Christ our God is the resurrection and life. He has given us eternal life. Christ is risen from the dead, death is corrected by death, and by all who exist in the graves, giving life . "So, dear brothers and sisters, is the kingdom of eternal light, eternal life, eternal love, eternal truth, eternal peace, eternal beauty, eternal unending and unimaginable bliss for those who have prepared themselves for the future. This is the truth immutable. But also an unquestionable truth is that we must prepare for this kingdom of peace, truth and love. This teaching teaches us the gospel, the Church teaches. We must educate ourselves here with the right faith and with all Christian virtues: love, simpleheartedness, gentleness, humility, goodness and mercy, immortality, abstinence and the beginning and end of all virtue - the prayer of the eternal. Without prayer, a Christian, like a fish without water, can not live. Let us, dear brothers and sisters, prepare for the eternal kingdom by faith, prayer and virtue. Amen.