About the patience of sorrows. About humility (instructions of the Optina elders)

Foreword

History of Optina Pustyn

Optina Pustyn 'is one of the most famous Russian Orthodox monasteries, the most important historical center of eldership. This monastery is located 2 km from the city of Kozelsk, Kaluga region, and thousands of believers traveled great distances to receive wise advice from the Optina elders.

According to legend, the monastery was founded in the XIV-XV centuries. a certain Optoy - a former robber who repented of his atrocities. Opta decided to atone for his sins, took monastic vows and took the name Macarius as a monk. Having retired, Opta (Makarii) made a wasteland, which was named after him - Optina (Makarieva). But this is just a legend, and whether Opta actually existed - now we are unlikely to know. There are no written sources confirming the existence of the robber Opta, nevertheless, among the people, the legend of the repentant robber turned out to be very tenacious.

It is known for certain that the Church of the Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos and a monastery with six cells existed in the monastery at the beginning of the 17th century. In 1821, behind the monastery grove, the John the Baptist Skete was founded, which became the center of the monastery's spiritual life. The Optina elders were instructors not only for the monks, but also constantly conducted religious and moral conversations with the laity. That is why Optina Hermitage gained fame among the pilgrims who went to this monastery not only to see miraculous relics and icons, but primarily to receive consolation or wise advice from the reverend fathers.

Optina Pustyn 'was closed after the October Revolution in 1918. In 1987, the monastery was returned to the Church. Nowadays, the monastery has again become a pilgrimage center. Now there are eight functioning churches in Optina Pustyn. The main churches of the monastery - Vvedensky, Kazan, Vladimir and Preobrazhensky - are open throughout the day, and pilgrims can always bow to the icons and holy relics of the reverend fathers.

* * *

Optina Pustyn 'was once visited by thousands of people. Among the pilgrims who sought spiritual enlightenment in the speeches of the elders were public figures, scientists, politicians, philosophers, and artists ... These are the words of just a few famous people who were lucky enough to personally communicate with the Optina elders and through them touch the great spiritual tradition Orthodoxy.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) (1807-1867), teacher of the church, ascetic and spiritual writer: “We are sick in the world, but in your desert we are being treated ... Blessed Optina Hermitage does not leave my memory. I liked it ... and the skete with its inspired silence ".

Pavel Florensky (1882-1937), Russian religious philosopher, scientist, priest: “Optina is ... the embryo of a new culture. It is a knot, not only projected, but living for a hundred years already, which in fact has realized the environment where spiritual discipline is brought up, not moral, not outwardly ascetic, but spiritual ... it is absolutely indisputable that spiritual culture in all its scope should to go not past Optina, but through it, feeding on it, weaving this thread into our tradition, certainly this thread, because this is the only thread that, really without interruption in the historical plan, brings us down from century to century to the deepest strata spiritual succession ... If we begin to trace mentally the most diverse currents of Russian life in the field of the spirit, then directly or indirectly we are always brought to Optina as a spiritual focus, from contact with which the spirit is kindled, even if then it was also revealed in other than the actual Optina, directions ... ".

N. V. Gogol (1809-1852), the great Russian writer and poet: “I have never seen such monks anywhere. With each of them, it seemed to me, everything heavenly was talking. I did not ask who was living with them: their faces told everything themselves. The attendants themselves struck with the light affectionateness of the angels, the radiant simplicity of their handling; the most workers in the monastery, the most peasants and residents of the surrounding area. A few miles away, driving up to the monastery, you can already hear its fragrance; everything is becoming more affable, bows are lower and there is more sympathy for a person ".

In difficult times, everyone hopes to receive spiritual help or wise advice, to find hope for healing or to reduce suffering. Believers are saved by prayer and pilgrimage to the Holy Places. One of these is the miraculous Optina Hermitage. From ancient times to this day, this monastery has been famous for the power possessed by its servants - the Optina elders.

The origin of the monastery

According to legend, in ancient times, in a dense forest on the banks of the Zhizdra River, far from people, hermits settled who possessed incredible abilities - foresight and healing... They led a quiet, godly life. Someone called them prophets, but they called their ministry elders, comforted the suffering and predicted the future according to God's will.

The exact time of foundation and the origin of the name have several versions. Some believe that the founder of the monastery was the robber Optius, who repented and became a monk. Others are sure that Prince Vladimir the Brave founded the monastery. It is known that in the seventeenth century Optina Pustyn was a wooden church with six cells, in which twelve holy elders lived. Then Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich presented the monastery with a mill with land in Kozelsk, and the local boyars Shepelevs erected the Vvedensky Cathedral. Thus, this monastery is one of the oldest.

Typical differences of the monastery

Most of the monasteries are famous for their care for the weak and the poor, schools for orphans and hospitals, lengthy divine services and the reception of pilgrims. But Optina Hermitage is unique for its monks.

The first elders

In the era of Peter the Great, when the material principle was placed above the spiritual, monasticism was persecuted and began to perish. And only thanks to sincere believers, pure-minded monks, the spiritual life of Rus was preserved. Particularly famous in this field was the strong-willed, energetic and possessing the gift of persuasion, the Monk Paisiy Velichkovsky. It was he who understood the need for internal asceticism, he himself was an elder and led the elders from the sketes into the cohabiting life of monasteries. Among the paisian students was Theodore Svirsky, who raised the first Optina elder, Leo.

The holy elders stood at the origins of the monastery:

They not only worked miracles during their lifetime, helping people, but also left an invaluable legacy to the world in the form of wise sayings, works and biographies.

The main provisions of Optina

The elders laid the characteristic foundation of the Optina eldership of three components:

Following these canons, the elders of the Optina Monastery continue the great work of ministry at the present time.

The most famous among them is Schema-Archimandrite Father Eli. The Orthodox tell thousands of amazing stories about his gift of perspicacity, kindness, sharp eyes, inner purity and humility. Currently, the elder serves in Peredelkino and is the personal confessor and mentor of Patriarch Kirill. But, despite this, he chooses the time to come to Optina Pustyn to meet with the pilgrims, to comfort him with a word and help with advice.

Anyone who has ever visited Optina, talked with the monks, venerated the relics of the elders, described his feelings with words full of delight: "... felt grace, tears of happiness came out, his soul was filled with love for the whole world, saw the beauty around, felt relief" ... Indeed, the whole monastery seems to be saturated with the holiness and spirituality that the founding elders passed on from generation to generation through their disciples.

Everything connected with Optina Hermitage and its elders has incredible miraculous power. The icon of the Optina elders is also endowed with this quality; how it helps, say thousands of believers who, in a moment of adversity, prayed in front of the image.

The image of all the founders of the desert - 14 holy elders has such spiritual strength that is able to convey to the praying all the wisdom, will, peace and humility that the monks possessed. They turn to the icon, first of all, in moments of doubt, in order to see the word of God and get answers to their questions. And also in such life situations when it is required:

The face of the Optina elders is capable of endowing a person with patience and understanding that the path of life is never easy; and at the same time instills confidence that the prayer is not alone in this world, with him is God's grace, which must be felt, accepted and made for this by one's own efforts.

The legacy of the reverends

It is not only a visit to Optina or a prayer in front of the icon of the Optina elders that helps a person to find the meaning of life and to know the truth. One should familiarize oneself with the spiritual heritage in the form of invaluable letters, biographies, sermons and teachings of the saints. The statements of the Optina elders from their works are analyzed for quotations.

D Eat good, avoiding evil - first out of the fear of God, and then you will come to the love of God.

Rev. Macarius

D a good deed is not every good deed, but only such a good deed that is done for the sake of God. The appearance of a matter is not its essence; God looks at the heart. How we must humble ourselves, seeing that passion is mingled with every good deed.

Rev. Nikon

TO When the soul teaches the law of God, and the body obeys the prudence of the soul, then these things are seen: love for God and neighbor, peace with everyone, meekness, simplicity, benevolence, mercy to all, modesty, temperance, chastity, gentleness and others. And these deeds are the fruits of the Holy Spirit and are called sowing into the soul.

Rev. Moses

M It is characteristic of courage to have not only wit, but also foresight, and foresight, and together with the art of how to act.

Rev. Ambrose

In Optina Pustyn, each elder conducted spiritual and educational work, passing on his knowledge, faith and experience not only to followers and students, but also to everyone who wants to comprehend the meaning of life and see God in himself. Throughout their lives, the monks teach people to reject anger, envy, greed, cruelty towards each other. The sinless and light-filled life of the holy elders gives them the moral right to give instructions to lost souls.

Every year on October 11, a church celebration of the Council of the Venerable Optina Elders is held in memory of the saints who by their lives proved the existence of prophets in the world. And it doesn't matter how the history of the monastery began - from the repentant and tonsured robber Optius or from the settlement of other mysterious hermits. The history of Optina Pustyn is a clear example of the fact that faith in God, the strength of the human spirit and the desire to sow mercy in people's hearts help to go through any hardships and sorrows.

Today Optina Pustyn is of great importance both for the Orthodox Church and the state, and for each individual person. The doors are always open in the monastery, behind which are waiting for wise mentors, good advice and pacification.

Attention, only TODAY!

"To live is not to grieve, not to condemn anyone, not to annoy anyone and my respect to everyone."

The instructions of Elder Ambrose of Optina

His advice and admonitions, which Elder Ambrose used the souls of those who came to him in faith, he taught either often in solitary conversation, or in general to everyone around him in the most simple, fragmentary and often playful form.

In general, it should be noted that the elder's playful tone of edifying speech was his characteristic feature.

"Do not grieve" - ​​i.e. so that the heart does not get carried away by sorrows and failures inevitable for a person, heading towards the One Source of eternal sweetness - God; through which a person, with countless and varied adversities, can calm himself, making peace with them, or "resigning himself".

"Do not condemn", "do not annoy". - There is nothing more common among people of condemnation and vexation, these fiends of destructive pride.

They alone are enough to bring a person's soul down to the bottom of hell, while they are not considered a greater part of Elder Ambrose and are not considered a sin.

"My respect to all" - indicates the commandment of the apostle: warn one another in reverence (Rom 12: 10). Reducing all these thoughts to one common one, we see that in the above saying the elder preached mainly humility, this foundation of spiritual life, the source of all virtues, without which, according to the teaching of St. John Chrysostom, as mentioned before, it is impossible to be saved.

To the general question offered to the elder: "How to live?" - sometimes he answered in a slightly different way: “You need to live unhypocritically and behave approximately; then our work will be right, otherwise it will turn out badly. "

“We must,” the elder still said, “to live on the earth as a wheel turns: with just one point it touches the ground, and the rest will certainly strive upward; but as we lie down on the ground, we cannot get up. "

"Our salvation must be made between fear and hope"

When asked how the righteous, knowing that they live well according to the commandments of God, do not ascend with their righteousness, the elder replied: "They do not know what awaits their end." “Therefore,” he added, “our salvation must be made between fear and hope. No one should under any circumstances give in to despair, but one should not hope too much. "

Question: is it possible to desire perfection in the spiritual life?

The elder's answer: “Not only can one desire, but one must also try to improve in humility, that is, in considering oneself in the sense of the heart worse and lower than all people and every creature. "

“When you are annoyed, never ask why and why. Nowhere in the Scripture. So, on the contrary, it is said: if someone hits you in the gum, turn another to him. In fact, it is inconvenient to hit the gum cheek, and this should be understood as follows: if someone slanders you or innocently annoys you with something, it will mean stress on the gum cheek. Do not grumble, but endure this blow patiently, substituting your left cheek at the same time, i.e. remembering your wrong deeds. And if, perhaps, you are now innocent, you have sinned a lot before; and thus you will be convinced that you are worthy of punishment. "

If any of the brethren, out of cowardice and impatience, grieved that he was not soon introduced to the mantle, or to hierodeaconism and hieromonkism, the elder used to say this for edification: “This, brother, everything will come in due time, - they will give everything; no one will give good deeds ”.

"In order not to indulge in irritability and anger, one should not rush"

On irritability: “No one should justify his irritability with some kind of illness - this comes from pride. And the anger of man, according to the word of the holy apostle James, does not create the righteousness of God (James 1:20). In order not to indulge in irritability and anger, one should not rush. "

Talking about envy and memory malice, the elder said: “You need to force yourself, although against your will, to do some good to your enemies; and the main thing is not to take revenge on them and be careful so as not to offend them with the look of contempt and humiliation. "

“Love is, of course, above everything. If you find that there is no love in you, but want to have it, then do the deeds of love, although at first without love. The Lord will see your desire and diligence and will put love in your heart. "

“Whoever has a bad heart should not despair, because with the help God's man can fix your heart. You just need to carefully watch yourself and not miss an opportunity to be useful to your neighbor, often open yourself to the elder and do alms that you can. This, of course, cannot be done suddenly, but the Lord is longsuffering. He then only ends the life of a person when he sees him ready for the transition to eternity, or when he sees no hope for his correction. "

Elder Ambrose spoke of charity:“Saint Demetrius of Rostov writes: if a man on horseback comes to you and asks you, give it to him. How he uses your charity, you are not responsible for it. "

Also: “St. John Chrysostom says: start giving to the poor what you don’t need, what is lying around with you; then you will be able to give more and even with the deprivation of yourself, and finally you will be ready to give everything that you have. "

When asked how to understand the words of Scripture: be wise like a serpent (Mt 10:16), the elder explained: “A snake, when it needs to change its old skin to a new one, passes through a very narrow, narrow place, and thus it is comfortable it happens to leave his old skin: so a person, wanting to put off his decrepitude, must follow the narrow path of fulfilling the Gospel commandments. With any attack, the snake tries to protect its head. A person should most of all cherish his faith. As long as the faith is preserved, you can still fix everything. "

"There is no excuse for the atheists"

“I once spoke to my father,” writes his spiritual daughter, “about one family that I feel very sorry for all of them,“ they do not believe in anything, neither in God, nor in the future life; it is a pity precisely because they, perhaps, are not to blame for this themselves, they were brought up in such unbelief or there were some other reasons.

Father shook his head and said so angrily:

“There is no excuse for the atheists. After all, the Gospel is being preached to all, to all resolutely, and to the Gentiles; finally, by nature, all of us from birth are invested with the feeling of knowing God; therefore, they themselves are to blame. You ask, is it possible to pray for such? Of course, you can pray for everyone. ” “Father! - I said after that. “After all, in the future life cannot feel the full bliss of the one whom close relatives will suffer in hell?”

And father said to this:“No, this feeling will no longer be there: then you will forget about everyone. It's like taking an exam. When you go to the exam, it’s still scary and crowded with heterogeneous thoughts, but when you came, I took a ticket (for which to answer), I forgot about everything ”.

A gentleman came to the elder who did not believe in the existence of demons. The master said: "Your will, father, I don't even understand what kind of demons they are." To this the elder replied: "After all, not everyone understands mathematics, but it exists."

About laziness and despondency: “Boredom is the despondency of a grandson, and laziness is a daughter. To drive her away, work hard in business, do not be lazy in prayer; then boredom will pass, and zeal will come. And if you add patience and humility to this, you will save yourself from many evils. "

About insensibility and fearlessness, regarding S.'s sudden death, the father said: "That death is not far off, but behind us, but we have at least a stake on our heads."

"That death is not far off, but behind us, but we have at least a stake on our heads."

He also said: "If they hang at one end of the village, they will not stop sinning at the other end, saying: they will not reach us soon."

He told the following about the power of repentance: “One kept sinning and repented, and so all his life. Finally he repented and died. An evil spirit came for his soul and says: he is mine. But the Lord says: no, - he repented. “Why, even though he repented, he sinned again,” the devil continued. Then the Lord said to him: “If you, being angry, accepted him again after he had repented to Me, then how could I not accept him after he, having sinned, again turned to Me with repentance? You forget that you are evil and I am good. ”

“It happens,” said the priest, “that although our sins are forgiven us through repentance, our conscience does not cease to reproach us. For comparison, the late elder Father Macarius sometimes showed his finger, which had once been cut long ago: the pain had long gone, but the scar remained. So, after the forgiveness of sins, scars remain, i.e. reproaches of conscience ".

“Although the Lord forgives the sins of those who repent, but every sin requires a cleansing punishment. For example, the Lord Himself said to the prudent thief: Today you will be with Me in Paradise (Lk 23:48); and meanwhile, after these words, they broke his shins; But what was it like to hang on the cross for three hours on one more hands, with broken shins? This means that he needed a cleansing suffering. For sinners who die immediately after repentance, the prayers of the Church and those who pray for them serve as cleansing, while those who are still alive must themselves be cleansed by the correction of life and alms, covering up sins. "

“God does not create the cross for man (that is, the cleansing suffering of mental and physical). And no matter how difficult it is for another person to have a cross that he carries in life, yet the tree from which he is made always grows on the soil of his heart. " Pointing to his heart, the priest added: "The tree is at the outflow of waters - the waters (passions) seethe there."

“When a person,” said the elder, “walks the straight path, there is no cross for him. But when he steps back from him and begins to rush in one direction or the other, then different circumstances appear that push him back on a straight path. These shocks constitute a cross for a person. They are, of course, different, who needs what ”.

“Sometimes suffering is sent to a person innocently so that he, following the example of Christ, would suffer for others. The Savior Himself suffered for people before. His apostles also suffered for the Church and for the people. To have perfect love means to suffer for your neighbors. "

The elder also said: “One brother asked the other: who taught you the Jesus Prayer? And he answers: demons. - "How so?" - "Yes, so: they bother me with sinful thoughts, and I did everything and prayed, - and that's how I'm used to it."

One brother complained to the elder that during prayer there are many different thoughts. The elder said to this: “A peasant was driving through the bazaar; around him a crowd of people, talk, noise, and he was all on his horse: but, but! but, but! - so little by little, and drove through the whole bazaar. So you, no matter what your thoughts say, do all your work - pray! "

So that people do not remain careless and do not place all their hope on an outsider prayer help, the elder repeated the usual folk saying: "God help me, and the peasant himself does not lie." And T. said: “Father! Through whom should we ask, if not through you? " The elder answered: “Ask yourself; you remember, - the twelve apostles asked the Savior for the wife of the Canaanite woman, but He did not hear them; and she herself began to ask, begged. "

But since prayer is a powerful weapon against an invisible enemy, he tries in every possible way to distract a person from her.

The elder narrated the following story: “On Athos, a monk had a talker starling, whom the monk loved very much, carried away by his conversations. But here it is strange: as soon as the monk begins to fulfill his prayer rule, the starling here and starts talking and does not allow the monk to pray.

Once on the bright feast of the Resurrection of Christ, the monk approached the cage and said: "Skvorushka, Christ is risen!" And the starling replies: “This is our trouble, that he was resurrected,” and immediately died, and an intolerable stench spread in the monk's cell. Then the monk realized his mistake and repented. "

That God looks most importantly at the inner prayer mood of a person's soul, the elder said about this: “Once I came to the aforementioned Father Abbot Anthony one sick with his feet and said:“ Father, my legs hurt, I cannot bow, and this is me confuses. " Father Anthony answered him: “Yes, the Scripture says: Son, give me a heart, not legs.”

"Why do people sin?" - the elder sometimes asked a question and himself solved it: “Either because they do not know what to do and what to avoid, or if they do, they forget; if they do not forget, then they are lazy, discouraged. On the contrary, since people are very lazy in matters of piety, they very often forget about their main duty - to serve God; from laziness and oblivion, they reach extreme folly or ignorance.

These are the three giants - despondency or laziness, oblivion and ignorance - from which the entire human race is bound by unsolvable bonds.

And then follows neglect with all the host of evil passions. That is why we pray to the Heavenly Queen: My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, by Your holy and all-powerful prayers to take away from me, Your humble and accursed servant, despondency, oblivion, foolishness, negligence and all the nasty, crafty and blasphemous thoughts ...

Try to pay more attention to yourself, and not to analyze the deeds, actions and appeals of others to you, if you do not see love in them, then this is because you do not have love in yourself.

Where there is humility, there is simplicity, and this branch of God does not test the fate of God.

God does not despise prayer, but sometimes he does not fulfill their desires solely in order to arrange everything better according to His Divine intention. What would happen if God - the All-Knowing - perfectly fulfilled our desires? I think, although I do not assert, that all earthlings would perish.

Those who live without attention to themselves will never qualify for the visit of grace.

When you do not have peace, know that you do not have humility in you. The Lord revealed this in the following words, which at the same time show where to look for peace. He said: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29).

If you do any mercy to anyone, you will be merciful for that.

If you suffer with the afflicted (it is not great, it seems, this) - you are numbered among the martyrs.

If you forgive the offender, and for this not only all your sins will be forgiven, but you will be a daughter of the Heavenly Father.

If you pray from your heart for salvation, albeit a little, you will be saved.

If you reproach yourself, accuse and condemn yourself before God for sins felt by your conscience, and for that you will be justified.

If you confess your sins before God, this is your forgiveness and reward.

If you grieve over your sins, or are moved, or weep, or sigh, your sighing will not hide from Him: "It does not hide from Him," says St. Simeon, "a teardrop, not a drop of a certain part." And St. Chrysostom says: "If you only complain about sins, then He will accept it for your salvation."

Believe yourself every day: what have you sown for the future age, wheat or thorns? Having tested yourself, settle down to correcting the best the next day and thus spend your whole life. If the real day was badly spent, so that you did not bring a decent prayer to God, you did not grieve in your heart even once, you didn’t resign yourself in thought, didn’t show mercy, or donated alms to anyone, you didn’t forgive the guilty person, or you endured insults, on the contrary, did not abstain from anger, did not abstain in words, food, drink, or immersed his mind in impure thoughts, having considered all these things in good conscience, condemn yourself and put the next day to be more attentive in good and more careful in evil.

To your question, what is a happy life, whether in splendor, fame and wealth, or in a quiet, peaceful, family life, I will say that I agree with the latter, and I will add: a life passed with a clear conscience and humility delivers peace, tranquility and true happiness. And wealth, honor, fame and high dignity are often the cause of many sins, and do not bring happiness.

People for the most part desire and seek prosperity in this life, and try to avoid sorrows. And it seems that this is very good and pleasant, but the everlasting prosperity and happiness harms a person. He falls into various passions and sins and anger the Lord, and those who pass a sorrowful life draw closer to the Lord and more conveniently receive salvation, therefore the Lord called a joyous life a long path: a wide gate and a long path lead to destruction, and many go to it (Matt. 7:13 ), but called the mournful life: a narrow path and a narrow gate leading to eternal life, and few find them (Matt. 7:14). So, out of his love for us, the Lord, foreseeing a mighty benefit, who is worthy of him, leads many away from the long path, and puts them on a narrow and unfortunate path, so that through the patience of sickness and sorrow, he can arrange their salvation and give eternal life.

You want not only to be good and not have anything bad, but also to see yourself as such. The desire is commendable, but to see your good qualities, this is already food for pride. Even if we did everything right and right, we should still consider ourselves worthless slaves. We, being faulty in everything, should not even consider ourselves good in our thoughts. That is why we are embarrassed instead of resigning ourselves. Therefore, God does not give us strength for fulfillment, so that we do not ascend, but humble ourselves and acquire the pledge of humility. And when we have it, then our virtues will be firm and it will not allow us to ascend.

We, poor-minded, thinking to arrange our fortune, grieve, fuss, deprive ourselves of peace, fulfill the abandonment of the duty of faith behind vanity, in order to leave the children a good property. But do we know if it will benefit them? A foolish son is not helped by wealth - it only served as a pretext for bad morality. We must take care to leave the children a good example of their life and educate them in the fear of God and in His commandments, this is their main wealth. When we seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, both local and necessary things will be added to us (Matt. 6:33). You will say: you cannot do this; today the light requires not this, but something else! Good; but did you give birth to children for this light only, and not for the life to come? Console yourself with the word of God: if the world hates you, know that I hated you before (John 15:18), and fleshly wisdom is enmity to God: it does not obey the law of God, nor can it (Rom. 8: 7). Do not wish to be your children of the glory of the world, but that there be good people, obedient children, and when God arranges - good spouses, gentle parents, caring for those who are subject, loving to everyone and condescending to enemies.

You have a desire to draw yourself closer to God and be saved. This is the whole duty of every Christian, but this is accomplished through the fulfillment of the commandments of God, which all consist of love for God and neighbor and extend to love for enemies. Read the Gospel, there you will find the way, truth and belly, preserve the Orthodox faith and the statutes of the Holy Church, learn from the writings of church pastors and teachers, and figure out your life according to their teachings. But prayer rules alone cannot benefit us ... I advise you to try as much as possible to pay your attention to the deeds of love for your neighbors: in relation to your mother, your wife and children, strive to educate them in Orthodox faith and good morality. The Holy Apostle Paul, counting different types of virtues and deeds of self-denial, says: "If I do both, but I have no love, I have no benefit."

Many painters depict Christ on icons, but rare ones catch the similarity. Thus, Christians are animated images of Christ, and whoever of them is meek, humble in heart and obedient, he is more like Christ than anyone else.

We must beware of murmuring against God and fear it as death, for the Lord God, by His great mercy, endures all our sins long-sufferingly, but His mercy cannot stand our murmuring.

Do not impose any vows and rules on yourself without the approval of your spiritual father, with whose advice one bow will bring you more benefit than a thousand bows of your own kind.

The Pharisee prayed and fasted more than we do, but without humility, all his labor was nothing, and therefore be jealous of the most taxing humility, which is usually born from obedience, and weighs on you.

In any grief: in illness, and in poverty, and in cramped quarters, and in bewilderment, and in all troubles - it is better to think less and talk to yourself, and more often with a prayer, albeit brief, to turn to Christ God and to His Most Pure Mother , through which the spirit of bitter despondency will flee, and the heart will be filled with hope in God and joy.

Meekness and humility of heart are such virtues, without which not only the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be achieved, but it is impossible to feel either happy on earth or peace of mind in oneself.

Let us learn to mentally reproach and condemn ourselves for everything, and not others, because the more humble, the more profitable; God loves the humble and pours out His grace on them.

Whatever grief befell you, whatever trouble you have, you say: "I will endure it for Jesus Christ!" Just say it and it will be easier for you. For the name of Jesus Christ is powerful. With him, all troubles subside, demons disappear. Your annoyance also subsides, your cowardice will also calm down when you repeat His sweetest name. Lord, grant me to see my sins; Lord, grant me patience, generosity and meekness.

Do not be ashamed to bare your scabs to your spiritual mentor and be ready to accept from him for your sins and shame, in order to avoid eternal shame through him.

The Church is for us the earthly heaven, where God Himself is invisibly present and calls forth those who are to come, therefore, the church should stand decorously, with great reverence. Let us love the Church and be diligent towards her; she is our joy and consolation in sorrows and joys.

To encourage the grieving, the elder often used to say: If the Lord is for us, who is against us? (Rom. 8:31).

Each deed must begin with invoking the name of God for help.

The elder often spoke about keeping his conscience, about carefully observing his thoughts, actions and words, and about repentance for them. He taught the weaknesses and shortcomings of subordinates to bear complacently. "Make remarks," the elder instructed, "without giving food to your own vanity, thinking whether you yourself could bear what you demand from another."

If you feel that anger has seized you, remain silent and do not say anything until your heart is quieted down by unceasing prayer and self-reproach.

It is more useful for the soul to acknowledge that one is guilty in everything and the last of all, rather than resorting to self-justification, which comes from pride, and God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

The elder often quoted the apostle's dictum: "True love does not get irritated, does not think evil, it disappears in no time."

If we leave our desires and understandings and try to fulfill the desires and understandings of God, then in every place and in every condition we will be saved. And if we stick to our desires and understandings, then no place, no state will help us. Eve broke the commandment of God in paradise, but for the unfortunate Judas, life under the Savior himself did not bring any benefit. Patience and compulsion to a godly life is needed everywhere, as we read in the Holy Gospel.

It is in vain to accuse that those who live with us and those around us hinder and hinder our salvation or spiritual perfection ... our mental and spiritual unsatisfactoriness comes from ourselves, from our non-art and from an incorrectly formed opinion, which we never want to part with. And it is this that brings us confusion, doubt, and various bewilderment; and all this weighs us down and burdens us, and brings us to a dismal state. It would be nice if we could understand a simple patristic word: if we humble ourselves, then we will find peace in every place, without going around the mind of many other places where the same, if not worse, can be with us.

The main means to salvation is to endure many different sorrows, to whom they are suitable, according to what is said in the "Acts of the Apostles": "With many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Whoever wants to be saved must remember and not forget the apostolic commandment: "Bear one another's burdens - and so fulfill the Law of Christ." There are many other commandments, but with none of such additions there is, that is, "so fulfill the Law of Christ." This commandment is of great importance, and first of all we must take care of the fulfillment of it.

Many desire a good spiritual life in the simplest form, but only not many and rare ones actually fulfill their good wishes - precisely those who firmly adhere to the words of Holy Scripture that "with many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven," and, calling for help God, they try to resignedly endure the sorrows and illnesses and various inconveniences that befall them, always keeping in memory the words of the Lord Himself: "if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

And the main commandments of the Lord: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, so that you will not be condemned; let go and it will be released to you." In addition, those who wish to be saved should always keep in their memory the words of the Monk Peter of Damascus that creation takes place between fear and hope.

The work of our salvation requires at every place, wherever a person lives, the fulfillment of the commandments of God and obedience to the will of God. By this only peace of mind is acquired, and nothing else, as it is said in the psalms: "Peace to those who love Thy law much, and there is no temptation for them." And all of you are looking for inner peace and peace of mind from external circumstances. Everything seems to you that you are living in the wrong place, that you have settled with the wrong people, that you yourself have ordered the wrong thing, and that others seemed to have acted in a wrong way. The Holy Scripture says: "His dominion is in every place," that is, God, and that for God the salvation of one Christian soul is dearer than all the things of the whole world.

The Lord is ready to help a person in acquiring humility, as in all good, but it is necessary that the person himself should take care of himself. Said in St. fathers: "give blood and receive spirit." This means - work hard to shed blood and receive a spiritual gift. And you are looking for spiritual gifts and asking, but you are sorry to shed blood, that is, you want everything so that no one touches you, does not bother you. Yes, with a quiet life, how can you acquire humility? After all, humility consists in when a person sees himself as the worst of all, not only people, but also dumb animals and even the spirits of malice themselves. And now, when people disturb you, you see that you cannot stand this and are angry with people, you will involuntarily consider yourself bad ... and a spiritual father, then you are already on the path of humility ... And if no one touched you, and you would remain in peace, how could you realize your own weakness? How could you see your vices? .. If they are trying to humiliate, then they want to humble you; and you yourself ask God for humility. Why then grieve over people?

To the question: "How to listen to yourself, where to start?" Was followed by the following answer: "You must first write down: how you go to church, how you stand, how you look, how proud you are, how proud you are, how angry you are, and so on."

Whoever has a bad heart should not despair, because with God's help a person can correct his heart. You just need to carefully look after yourself and not miss an opportunity to be useful to your neighbor, often open up to the elder and do alms that you can. This, of course, cannot be done suddenly, but the Lord is longsuffering. He then only ends a person's life when he sees him ready for the transition to eternity, or when he sees no hope for his correction.

Teaching that even unimportant circumstances should not be neglected in spiritual life, the elder sometimes said: "Moscow burned out from a penny candle."

Regarding the condemnation and observation of other people's sins and shortcomings, the priest said: "You need to pay attention to your inner life so as not to notice what is happening around you. Then you will not condemn."

Pointing out that a person has nothing to be proud of, the elder added: "And what is it really for a person to ascend here? The torn off, plucked asks for alms: have mercy, have mercy! And whether mercy will be given, who knows."

When pride attacks, tell yourself: "The freak walks."

Father was asked: "Such and such does not die for a long time, she imagines all cats and so on. Why is that?" Answer: "Anyone, even a small sin, must be written down as you remember, and then repent. That is why some do not die for a long time, because some unrepentant sin delays, and as they repent, they are relieved ... Sins must be written down, as you remember, otherwise we put it off: now the sin is small, now it’s ashamed to say, or later I’ll say it, but we will come to repent and have nothing to say. "

Three rings cling to each other: hatred from anger, anger from pride.

"Why do people sin?" - the elder sometimes asked a question and himself answered it: “Either because they don’t know what to do and what to avoid; or, if they do, they forget; if they don’t forget, they are lazy, discouraged ... These are three giants - despondency or laziness, oblivion and ignorance - from which the whole human race is bound by insoluble bonds. And then negligence follows with the whole host of evil passions. That is why we pray to the Heavenly Queen: "My Most Holy Lady Theotokos, Thy holy and all-powerful prayers of repulsion from me , humble and accursed Thy servant, despondency, oblivion, foolishness, negligence and all the nasty, crafty and blasphemous thoughts. "

Do not be like an annoying fly, which sometimes flies around uselessly, and sometimes bites, both of them get bored; but be like a wise bee, who diligently began her work in the spring and finished her honeycomb by autumn, which are as good as the correctly stated notes. One is sweet and the other is pleasant.

When they wrote to the elder that it was hard in the world, he replied: "Therefore, it (the earth) is called the vale of weeping; but some people cry, while others are jumping, but the last will not be good."

To the question: "What does it mean to live according to one's heart ?," the priest replied: "Do not interfere in other people's affairs and see everything good in others."

Batiushka said: "We must live on the ground as a wheel turns, only with one point touching the ground, and with the rest it constantly strives upward; but we, as we lay down on the ground, cannot get up."

To the question: "How to live?" Father answered: "To live is not to grieve, not to condemn anyone, not to annoy anyone, and my respect to everyone."

You need to live unhypocritically and behave approximately, then our work will be true, otherwise it will turn out badly.

One must force oneself, albeit against one's will, to do some good to one's enemies; and the main thing is not to take revenge on them and be careful so as not to offend them with the look of contempt and humiliation.

So that people do not remain in carelessness and do not pin their hopes on outside prayer help, the elder repeated the usual folk saying: "God help me, and the peasant himself does not lie." And he added: "Remember, the twelve apostles asked the Savior for the Canaanite wife, but He did not hear them; but she began to ask, begged."

Father taught that salvation has three degrees. Said in St. John Chrysostom:

a) do not sin,

b) having sinned, repent,

c) whoever repents badly, endure those who find sorrow.

Once they started talking about sorrow, one of them said: "Better sickness than sorrow." The priest replied: "No, in sorrow you will pray to God and they will leave, but you cannot fight off illness with a stick."

When you find a blues, do not forget to reproach yourself: remember how much you are guilty before the Lord and before yourself, and realize that you are unworthy of anything better, and you will immediately feel relief. It is said: "many sorrows for the righteous," and "many wounds for the sinners." This is our life here - all sorrows and sorrows; and it is through them that the Kingdom of Heaven is achieved. When you are restless, repeat more often: "Seek peace and marry it."

After communion, one must ask the Lord to keep the gift worthily and to give the Lord help not to come back, that is, to repeat the previous sins.

When the priest was asked: "Why, after communion, sometimes you feel consolation, and sometimes coldness?"

Humility consists in giving in to others and considering yourself the worst of all. It will be much calmer.

“It is always better to yield,” said the priest, “if you insist fairly, it’s the same as a ruble of banknotes, and if you give up, a ruble in silver.”

To the question "How to acquire the fear of God?" The priest answered: "You must always have God before you. I see the Lord before me always."

When you are annoyed, never ask "why" and "why." This is not found anywhere in the Scripture. It says on the contrary: "they will hit you on the right cheek, turn your left cheek," and this is what it means: if they beat you for the truth, then do not grumble and turn your left cheek, that is, remember your wrong deeds and you will see that you are worthy of punishment. At the same time, the priest added: "Patiently endured the Lord, and he heard me."

"Father! Teach me patience," said one sister. "Study," the elder replied, "and start with the patience of those who find and meet troubles." The elder's answer: "Be fair yourself and do not offend anyone."

Father used to say: "Moses endured, Elisha endured, Elijah endured, I will endure too."

The elder often quoted a proverb: "You run from a wolf, you will meet a bear." All that remains is to endure and wait, paying attention to yourself - not to condemn others, and prays to the Lord and the Queen of Heaven, and arrange something useful for you, as they please.

It can be seen that you are trying and wanting to be saved - only you don’t know how, you don’t understand spiritual life. The whole secret here is to endure what God sends. And you will not see how you enter paradise.

Consider yourself the worst and you will be the best.

Your patience should not be reckless, that is, joyless, but patience with reason - that the Lord sees all your deeds, your very soul, as we see in the face of a loved one ... He sees and tests: what kind of person will you find yourself in sorrow? If you tolerate, you will be His beloved. And if you don’t endure and push, but repent, nevertheless you will be His beloved.

Any prayer to God is profitable. And which one - we do not know about it. He is One righteous Judge, and we can recognize a lie as truth. Pray and believe.

I tell you a secret, I tell you the best way to find humility. This is what: to endure any pain that stabs a proud heart. And wait day and night for mercy from the All-Merciful Savior. Whoever waits like this will certainly get it.

Learn to be meek and silent, and you will be loved by everyone. And the open feelings are the same as the open gates: both the dog and the cat run there ... and crap.

We are obliged to love everyone, but to be loved, we dare not demand.

Sorrow is our path, we will go until we reach our assigned homeland of eternity, but only that grief that we care little about eternity and do not tolerate even a small reproach with a word. We ourselves increase our grief when we begin to murmur.

He who conquered passions and acquired a spiritual mind, without the formation of an external one, has access to the heart of everyone.

The imposed rule is always difficult, and doing with humility is even more difficult.

What is acquired by labor is useful.

If you see the error of your neighbor that you would like to correct, if it disturbs your peace of mind and annoys you, then you are sinning and, therefore, you will not correct the error with error - it is corrected by meekness.

A person's conscience is like an alarm clock. If the alarm clock rang, and knowing that you have to go to obedience, you get up right away, then you will always hear it afterwards, and if you don’t get up right away for several days in a row, saying: “I’ll lie down a little more,” then in the end you will wake up from its ringing you will not.

What is easy for the body is not good for the soul, and what is good for the soul is difficult for the body.

You ask: "How to do to consider yourself as nothing?" Thoughts of high-mindedness come, and it is impossible that they do not come. But one must oppose them with the thoughts of humility. As you do, remembering your sins and various shortcomings. Do so in the future and always remember that our entire earthly life should also be spent in the struggle with evil. In addition to considering your shortcomings, you can still be so humble: "I have nothing good ... My body is not mine, it was created by God in the womb of a mother. The soul was given to me from the Lord. Therefore, all mental and physical abilities are the gifts of God." And my property is only my innumerable sins, with which I angered and anger the Merciful Lord every day. What then can I be proud and proud of? There is nothing. " And with such reflections, prayerfully ask for mercy from the Lord. In all sinful inclinations there is one cure - sincere repentance and humility.

There are many crying, but not about what is needed; there are many who mourn, but not for sins; there are many, as it were, humble, but not true. The example of the Lord Jesus Christ shows us with what meekness and patience we must endure human errors.

There are different paths to salvation. The Lord saves some in the monastery, others in the world. Saint Nicholas of Mirliki went into the wilderness to ascetic there in fasting and prayer, but the Lord ordered him to go into the world. "This is not the field in which you will bear fruit for Me," said the Savior. Saints Taisia, Mary of Egypt, Evdokia also did not live in monasteries. You can be saved everywhere, just do not leave the Savior. Grasp onto the robe of Christ - and Christ will not leave you.

A sure sign of the mortification of the soul is evasion from church services. A person who grows cold towards God, first of all, begins to avoid going to church, first tries to come to the service later, and then completely stops attending the temple of God.

Those who seek Christ find Him, according to the false gospel word: "Knock and it will be opened to you, seek and you will find," "In the house of My Father there are many abodes."

And notice that here the Lord speaks not only about the heavenly, but also about the earthly abodes, and not only about the internal ones, but also about the external ones.

The Lord puts each soul in such a position, surrounds it with such an environment that is most conducive to its success. This is the outer abode, but the soul is filled with peace and joy - the inner abode, which the Lord prepares for those who love and seek Him.

Don't read ungodly books, stay faithful to Christ. If asked about faith, answer boldly. "You seem to be frequenting church?" - "Yes, because I find satisfaction in it." - "Do you want to be a saint?" - "Everyone wants it, but it does not depend on us, but on the Lord." Thus, you will repel the enemy.

One cannot learn to fulfill the commandments of God without labor, and this three-part labor is prayer, fasting and sobriety.

I have to hear complaints that we are now going through difficult times, that now complete freedom has been given to all heretical and ungodly teachings, that the Church is attacked from all sides by enemies and it becomes fearful for her that these turbid waves of unbelief and heresies will overcome her. I always answer: "Do not worry! Do not be afraid for the Church! She will not perish: the gates of hell will not prevail against her until the Last Judgment. Do not be afraid for her, but you have to be afraid for yourself, and it is true that our time is very difficult. Why?" Yes, because now it is especially easy to fall away from Christ, and then - destruction. "

Something dark, terrible is coming into the world ... A person remains, as it were, defenseless, so this evil force has taken possession of him, and he does not realize what he is doing ... Suicide is even suggested ... Why is this happening? Because they do not take up arms - they do not have the name of Jesus and the sign of the cross with them.

Life is bliss ... Life will become bliss for us when we learn to fulfill the commandments of Christ and love Christ. Then he will live joyfully, joyfully endure those who find sorrows, and in front of us the inexpressible light of the Sun of Truth - the Lord will shine ... fulfilling the commandments brings people the highest happiness.

Our whole life is the great mystery of God. All the circumstances of life, no matter how insignificant they may seem, are of great importance. We will fully understand the meaning of real life in the next century. How cautiously we must treat it, and we leaf through our life like a book - sheet by sheet, not realizing what is written there. There is no accident in life, everything is done according to the will of the Creator.

To become like God, we must fulfill His holy commandments, but if we look at it, it turns out that we have not really fulfilled any of them. Let's go over all of them, and it turns out that we barely touched that commandment, the other, perhaps, we also started to fulfill a little, and, for example, did not even approach the commandment of love for enemies. What is left for us sinners to do? How to be saved? The only thing is through humility. "Lord, in everything I am a sinner, I have nothing good, I hope only for Your infinite mercy." We are utterly bankrupt before the Lord, but for humility He will not reject us. Indeed, it is better, having sins, to consider ourselves great sinners than, having any good deeds, to be proud of them, considering ourselves righteous. The Gospel depicts two such examples in the person of the Pharisee and the publican.

We live in a terrible time. People who confess Jesus Christ and attend the temple of God are ridiculed and condemned. This ridicule will turn into open persecution, and do not think that this will happen in a thousand years, no - it will soon come. I will not live to see this, and some of you will see. And torture and torment will begin again, but good for those who remain faithful to Christ God.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and the grace of God is everything ... There you have the greatest wisdom. So you humble yourself and say to yourself: "Although I am a grain of sand on the earth, the Lord also cares for me, and may the will of God be done over me." Now, if you say this not only with your mind, but also with your heart, and really boldly, as befits a true Christian, rely on the Lord, with the firm intention of submissively obeying the will of God, whatever it may be, then the clouds will disperse before you, and the sun will come out and will illuminate you and warm you, and you will know the true joy from the Lord, and everything will seem clear and transparent to you, and you will stop suffering, and it will become easy on your soul. "

Here you are asking the quickest way to humility. Of course, first of all, one should recognize oneself as a feeble worm, unable to do anything good without the gift of the Holy Spirit from our Lord Jesus Christ, given through our prayer and our neighbors and according to His mercy ...

They say the temple is boring. Boring because they don't understand the service! Services need to be learned! Boring because they don't care about him. So he does not seem to be his own, but a stranger. At least they brought flowers or greenery for decoration, they would take part in the efforts to decorate the temple - it would not be boring.

Live simply, according to your conscience, always remember what the Lord sees, and do not pay attention to the rest!

Prophecy about the fate of Russia

There will be a storm and the Russian ship will be destroyed. Yes, it will be, but after all, people are saved on chips and debris. Not everyone, not everyone will perish ... God will not leave those who trust in Him. We must pray, we must all repent and pray fervently ... And there will be (after the storm) calm ... a great miracle of God will be revealed, yes. And all the chips and debris by the will of God and by His power will be gathered and united, and the ship will be recreated in its glory and will follow its own course, intended by God. So it will be, a miracle revealed to all.

Job's position is the law for everyone. As long as he is rich, noble, in prosperity, God does not respond. When a person is on pus, rejected by everyone, then God appears and talks to the person Himself, and the person only listens and cries out: "Lord, have mercy!" Only the degrees of testing are different.

Most importantly, beware of judging loved ones. Whenever condemnation comes to mind, immediately address with attention: "Lord, grant me to see my transgressions and not to condemn my brother."

He spoke about the high gradualness of the spiritual path, about the fact that “everything needs compulsion. Now, if dinner is served, and you want to eat and smell a delicious smell, after all, the spoon itself will not bring you food. You need to force yourself, get up, come up, take a spoon and then eat. And no business is done right away - everywhere you need to wait and patience. "

A person is given life to serve him, not he to her, that is, a person should not become a slave to his circumstances, should not sacrifice his inner life to the outer. Serving life, a person loses proportionality, works without prudence and comes to a very sad bewilderment; he does not even know why he lives. This is a very harmful bewilderment and often happens: a person, like a horse, is lucky and lucky, and suddenly he finds such ... spontaneous punctuation. "

Asks which way to go to God. Walk the path of humility! Humble bearing of difficult life circumstances, humble patience of the diseases sent by the Lord; the humble hope that you will not be forsaken by the Lord, the First Helper and the loving Heavenly Father; a humble prayer for help from above, for driving away despondency and a sense of hopelessness, with which the enemy of salvation tries to lead to despair, fatal for a person who deprives him of grace and removes the mercy of God from him.

The meaning of Christian life, according to the words of the holy Apostle Paul, who wrote to the Corinthians: "... glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which is the essence of God." So, having inscribed these holy words in souls and hearts, one should take care that disposition and deeds in life serve the glory of God and the edification of others.

Let the prayer rule be a small one, but performed constantly and carefully ...

Let us take as a model a saint suitable for our position, and we will rely on his example. All the saints suffered because they walked the way of the Savior, who suffered: he was persecuted, reviled, slandered and crucified. And all who follow Him inevitably suffer. "You will be mournful in the world." And all who desire to live piously will be persecuted. "When you begin to work for the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation." To endure suffering easier, one must have faith strong, ardent love for the Lord, not be attached to anything earthly, completely surrender to the will of God.

The blasphemers must be viewed as sick, from whom we demand that they do not cough or spit ...

If there is no way to fulfill the vow of obedience, there is no one to obey, one must be ready to do everything according to the will of God. There are two types of obedience: external and internal.

With external obedience, complete obedience is required, the execution of any work without reason. Internal obedience refers to the internal, spiritual life and requires the guidance of a spiritual father. But the advice of the spiritual father should be verified by the Holy Scriptures ... True obedience, which brings great benefit to the soul, is when, for obedience, you fulfill what is not in accordance with your desire, in spite of yourself. Then the Lord Himself takes you in His arms ...

The Lord created doctors and medicine. Treatment cannot be denied.

If you are weak and tired, you can sit in church: "Son, give Me your heart." "It is better to think about God while sitting, than about feet while standing," said St. Philaret of Moscow.

Don't give vent to your feelings. We must force ourselves to be friendly and with those who do not like us.

You shouldn't believe the omens. There are no signs. The Lord controls us by His Providence, and I do not depend on any bird or day or anything else. He who believes in prejudices has a heavy heart, and who considers himself dependent on the Providence of God, on the contrary, his soul is joyful.

The "Jesus Prayer" will replace the sign of the cross, if for some reason it cannot be placed.

You cannot work on holidays unless absolutely necessary. The holiday must be cherished and honored. This day must be dedicated to God: be in church, pray and read at home Holy Bible and the works of St. fathers, do good deeds.

One must love every person, seeing in him the image of God, in spite of his vices. You cannot alienate people from yourself with coldness.

Which is better: rarely or often to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ? - it's hard to say. Zacchaeus gladly received a dear Guest - the Lord - into his home, and he did well. And the centurion, out of humility, realizing his unworthiness, did not dare to accept, and also did well. Their actions, although opposite, are the same by motivation. And they appeared before the Lord equally worthy. The point is to adequately prepare yourself for the great Mystery.

When they asked the Monk Seraphim why at present there are no such ascetics as they were before, he answered: "Because there is no determination to undergo great deeds, but the grace is the same; Christ is the same and forever."

Persecution and oppression are good for us because they strengthen our faith.

We must consider everything bad, as well as the passions that struggle with us, not as our own, but from the enemy - the devil. It is very important. Then only passion can be conquered when you don’t consider it yours ...

If you want to get rid of sadness, do not attach your heart to anything or anyone. Sadness comes from attachment to visible things. There has never been, is not, and will never be a carefree place on earth. A carefree place can only be in the heart when the Lord is in it.

In sorrows and temptations, the Lord helps us. He does not free us from them, but gives the strength to easily endure, not even notice them.

Silence prepares the soul for prayer. Silence, how it has a beneficial effect on the soul!

We, the Orthodox, should not support heresy. If we had to suffer, we will not change Orthodoxy.

Human truth should not be sought. Seek only the truth of God.

The spiritual father, like a pillar, only shows the way, but you have to go yourself. If the spiritual father gives instructions, and his disciple does not move himself, then he will not go anywhere, and will rot around this pillar.

When the priest, blessing, says the prayer: "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit," then a mystery is accomplished: the grace of the Holy Spirit descends on the blessed person. And when any person, at least with his lips, utters renunciation of God, grace departs from him, all his concepts change, he becomes completely different.

Before asking the Lord for forgiveness, you must forgive yourself ... So it is said in "The Lord's Prayer."

Silence is good for the soul. When we speak, then it is difficult to refrain from idle talk and condemnation. But there is a bad silence, this is when someone is angry and therefore is silent.

Always remember the law of spiritual life: if you are embarrassed by some shortcoming of another person and condemn him, later you will suffer the same fate, and you will suffer the same shortcoming.

Do not add your heart to the vanity of the world. Especially during prayer, leave all thoughts of everyday life. After prayer, at home or in church, in order to maintain a prayerful tender mood, silence is necessary. Sometimes even a simple, insignificant word can disturb and frighten away our affection from our souls.

Self-justification closes spiritual eyes, and then a person sees not what it really is.

If you say something bad about a brother or sister, even if it is true, then you will inflict a wound on your soul. It is possible to convey about the faults of another only when in your heart the only intention is to benefit the soul of the sinner.

Patience is unbroken complacency.

Your salvation and your destruction are in your neighbor. Your salvation depends on how you treat your neighbor. Do not forget to see the image of God in your neighbor.

Any business, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you, do it carefully, as in the face of God. Remember the Lord sees everything.

Optina Desert

On the banks of the fast river Zhizdra, surrounded by a virgin forest, Optina Pustyn is located just a few versts from the city of Kozelsk, Kaluga province. It was a majestic white Kremlin with 4 temples, fortress walls and towers. The high spiritual life of Optina was in harmony with her external beauty. Gogol, after visiting Optina, describes her exceptional spirituality and its beneficial influence on everything that comes in contact with her.

The exact time of Optina's appearance is unknown. According to legend, it was founded in ancient times by the repentant robber Optin. The city of Kozelsk is mentioned in the annals under the 1146th year. In 1238, after a heroic defense, he was taken by the Tatars and all the inhabitants were killed. At the beginning of the 15th century, Kozelsk passed into the hands of Lithuania, then for half a century passed from hand to hand until it finally established itself in Moscow.

It is known that in 1625 Sergius was hegumen of Optina. In 1630 there was a wooden church, six cells and 12 brethren, and was run by Hieromonk Theodore. Thus Optina belongs to the most ancient monasteries.

Rise, fall and flourish again

Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and the local boyars bestowed estates on Optina and she grew, but during the reforms of Peter the Great, her estates were taken away from her, the monastery became poorer and finally in 1724 it was completely empty and was closed, but already in 1726 at the request of stolnik Andrey Shepelev was renewed. Completely ruined, he was now slowly recovering.

The full renewal of Optina began only in 1795, when the Moscow Metropolitan Platon drew attention to it. Fr. Abraham and 12 brothers were transferred there. Fr. Abraham, although sickly, did a lot: he put the household in order, fenced off the monastery, completed legal proceedings in favor of the monastery, built a bell tower, the Kazan hospital church, brotherly cells, planted a garden. Fr. Abraham from his confessor, Fr. Macarius, abbot of the Pesnosh monastery.

But Optina Pustyn owes its flourishing and glory to its next abbot, Archimandrite Moses. Under him, great huge construction work was carried out, large vegetable gardens, orchards were planted, land holdings doubled ... An influx of funds flowed from the pilgrims, who were attracted by Optina Pustyn 'with its special spirit reminiscent of the times of ancient asceticism. Two brothers about. Moses were also abbots of monasteries and they were all great ascetics and support for each other. Himself about. Moses from a young age understood the essence and depth of spiritual life. The perspicacious eldress Dositheus converses with him in Moscow and directs him to the Sarov monastery, where he receives instructions from St. Seraphim. Further on. Moses asceticised among the hermits in the Roslavl forests in the likeness of the ancient Egyptian fathers, spending 6 days alone, reading the daily circle of services and in intelligent prayer, and converging on Sunday with other elders for joint prayer. The invasion of the French in 1812 interrupts Fr. Moses and he entered the Beloberezhskaya Hermitage and here he met three outstanding ascetics: Fr. Theodore and Cleopus (students of Paisius Velichkovsky) and their companion, Fr. Leonidas, later an outstanding Optina elder.

In 1921, His Grace Filaret of Kaluga convinces Fr. Moses move to Optina and start building a skete near the monastery. We arrived at Optina from about. Moses, his younger brother, Fr. Anthony and two more monks Ilarion and Savvaty.

So the foundation was laid for the Optina Skete, in which the Optina eldership flourished and carried glory not only to the surrounding places of Optina Hermitage, but throughout Russia.

Elderly in general

The gracious eldership is one of the highest achievements of the spiritual life of the Church, this is her color, this is the crown of spiritual deeds, the fruit of silence and contemplation of God. It is organically linked with the inner monastic deed, which has the goal of achieving dispassion, and therefore arises with monasticism at the dawn of Christianity. It also revived in Russia with the advent of Christianity and was widespread, but over time it faded away and by the end of the 17th century it was forgotten and disappeared. So when it was renewed by Paisiy Velichkovsky at the beginning of the 18th century it seemed like something new and even extraordinary. Likewise, the church hierarchy often found itself at a standstill in front of this phenomenon; hence the frequent persecution to which the elders were subjected, for example, as St. Seraphim of Sarov, some of the Optina elders and others. But of course, not all hierarchs persecuted the elders: on the contrary, many patronized him and even worshiped him.

Optina eldership

But the eldership about which we will talk, namely Optina, has its own special properties that distinguish it from the general concept of eldership. While all experienced monks were considered elders throughout the history of Christianity, who were entrusted with the care not only of the young monks who entered the monastery, but even the care of the spiritual life of the laity - the Optina elders were distinguished by a completely exceptional depth of spiritual life, personal holiness, the gift of perspicacity and although they cared in the first place about the spiritual cleansing and salvation of those who came to them, they nevertheless constantly helped people in their everyday affairs and hardships and found a way out of the most hopeless situations, thanks to their perspicacity; besides, they possessed the gift of healings and miracles.

Himself a strict fasting and ascetic, Fr. Moses was filled with the most tender love for people and was compassionate to their weaknesses and errors. His art of speaking to everyone in his tone was inimitable; with educated in their language, and with simple ones in accordance with their concepts and their way of speech. He understood well the need of everyone. Compassion for the poor had no limit.

He was distinguished by exceptional humility. "I myself am the worst of all," Fr. often repeated. Moses. "Others may only think that they are the worst of all, but I actually found out that I am the worst of all." This is how the elder humbly expressed himself about himself, but to those who knew him closely and understood his life, it was obvious in him not only "deed," but in "the vision of the rising," that is. contemplative prayer and wealth of gifts. In 1825, Fr. Moses was appointed abbot of the Optina Monastery, and his younger brother, Fr. Anatoly became the abbot of the skete. Having passed the same school of asceticism in the Roslavl forests, like his brother, he was distinguished by extreme humility and obedience. He did not make any decision without the blessing of his elder and brother, Fr. Moses. Due to the hard physical work, which he personally had to carry out with his brother during the construction of the skete, at the age of forty, wounds on his legs opened up on his legs, which did not heal until the end of his life and gave him a lot of torment. And he had to do a lot on his own, tk. many of the brethren, especially the clerks, were elderly. But the order and beauty in everything were amazing and left a great impression on the visitors.

However, neither about Anatoly, nor about. Moses did not take upon himself the direct responsibility of the spiritual care of the persons of the monastery brethren. But being spirit-bearing elders themselves, they understood the meaning of eldership and provided those great elders whom they attracted to the Optina Skete with the widest field of activity. Thus, the planting and prosperity of the elders in Optina Pustyn is due to these two elders. Unfortunately, Bishop Nicholas of Kaluga did not have an understanding of eldership, and he caused the elders a lot of grief and would hurt even more if it were not for the intercession of Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow, who deeply understood and appreciated the importance of eldership.

In Russia, in educated circles, the process of "denationalization" took place since Peter's time: "they admired everything Western and neglected their own; finding something positive in oneself was considered a disagreement with the established views and was persecuted. Likewise, the spirit of Western Protestantism pervaded the religious field and the true, primordial Orthodoxy was deaf. National, patriotic as well as religious feelings were preserved only among the people.

1812 slightly raised the spirit of patriotism again, but even such great writers as Pushkin, Lermontov and others paid for these feelings too carelessly expressed. And here, in this era, Optina Pustyn turns out to be some kind of counterbalance to everything that happened; it is a beacon to many writers and philosophers, not to mention the people seeking the meaning of life in true Orthodoxy. For them, the highest spiritual feat of inner work, crowned with the abundance of the grace of the gifts of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and serving the world in its entirety, both in its spiritual and everyday needs, came together in Optina. In addition, the publishing house of books of spiritual content, by virtue of the Spiritual Regulations of Peter the 1st and the decrees of 1787 and 1808. was presented at the discretion of St. Synod, and according to the censorship charter of 1804, they could be printed only in a spiritual printing house. As a result, only one ascetic book "Philosophy" was published in 1793 and the reader was deprived of spiritual literature, while the secular press gave rise to a large number of translated works of the Western pseudo-mystical direction, and many of them were published with the permission of civil censorship. were directly hostile to Orthodoxy. Under such conditions, the business of publishing patristic literature turned out to be of great historical significance. Thanks to the presence of deeply educated elders, the enormous and comprehensive help of several writers, literary men and philosophers, as well as the full understanding, support and blessing of Met. Moscow Philaret were translated from Greek and Slavic into Russian, and the works and lives of prominent church fathers, both ancient and more modern, for example, Paisiy Velichkovsky, were printed. Some books were published in Slavonic. This publishing began in the middle of the 19th century and by the end of the same century more than 125 editions were issued in the amount of 225,000 copies. Library created by Fr. Moses, consisted of 5,000 books.

The printed books were sent to academies, seminaries, libraries, ruling bishops, inspectors, and reading this hitherto inaccessible ascetic literature became available to monastics and all spiritually minded Russian people. The truth of Orthodoxy shone forth, was established and strengthened in opposition to the Western books of a false direction. The appearance of these books to the world is an event that cannot be assessed in simple words.

A special merit in the undertaking of this great cause, along with Elder Macarius, about whom we will speak especially, belonged to the outstanding Russian philosopher Ivan Vasilyevich Kirievsky and his wife (the first editions, in addition to work on them, were published at their own expense).

Elder Lion

The first elder involved in the eldership at Optina s.r.o. Moses and Anatoly, was Fr. A lion. He was born in 1768 in Korachev and served in the world as a clerk in the hemp business and moved in the merchant's life. During long journeys on business, he came across representatives of all classes of society and became well accustomed to the manners and life of each of them. This experience was useful to him during the years of his eldership, when the most diverse people, noble and ordinary, came to him and opened their souls.

The beginning of the monastic life of Fr. Leo put in the Optina Hermitage, but then moved to the Beloberezhskaya Hermitage, where, under the leadership of the abbot, the famous Athos ascetic, Fr. Basil, was trained in monastic virtues: obedience, patience and all external deeds. Here Fr. Leo takes a monastic feat with the name of Leonidas. He spends some time in the Cholnsky monastery, where he met with a student of Paisiy Velichkovsky, Fr. Theodore and becomes his devoted follower. Elder Theodore began to teach Fr. Leonid to the highest monastic activity, this "science from sciences and art from arts," as the feat of unceasing prayer is called and through which the heart is purified from passions. Here Fr. Leonid meets with Abbot Filaret, the future Metropolitan of Kiev. This later mattered to him.

Then Fr. Leonid was appointed abbot of the Beloberezhskaya Pustyn, and Fr. Theodore, under whose leadership Fr. Leonid spends in general about 20 years. Here they were joined by another famous ascetic, a disciple of Fr. Paisia, Fr. Cleopas. 1808 about. Leonidas resigns from the post of abbot and goes to live in the wilderness, in the cell where Fr. Theodore with Fr. Cleopa. Here, in the desolate silence, Fr. Leonid accepted a schema with the name of Leo in his cell.

From here they were driven out by the new abbot because of the large gathering of people to them. Then many years of wanderings and trials in different monasteries followed: on Valaam, in the Alexander-Svirsky monastery, then, after the death of Fr. Theodora, about. The lion stayed for some time in the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage, where Fr. Macarius is his future assistant during his eldership in the Optina Skete and subsequently his deputy.

Finally, in 1829, the founder of the theological school arrived at Optina Pustyn ', from which the entire galaxy of subsequent elders emerged. But the merit of Fr. Leo is not limited only to the foundation of eldership: they were given the impulse that inspired subsequent generations of elders for a whole hundred years until the very end of the life and prosperity of the famous Optina Pustyn.

O. Lev arrived in Optina already in his declining years. He was of great stature, majestic, in his youth possessed fabulous strength, retaining his years until old age, despite his fullness, grace and fluidity in movements. At the same time, his exceptional intelligence, combined with perspicacity, made him see people through and through. The soul of the elder was filled with great love and pity for humanity. But his actions were sometimes harsh and swift. Elder Leo cannot be discussed as an ordinary person, because he has reached that spiritual height when the ascetic acts in obedience to the voice of God. Instead of long persuasion, he sometimes immediately knocked the ground out of a person's feet and made him realize and feel his unconsciousness and wrongness, and thus, with his spiritual scalpel, he opened the abscess that had formed in the hardened heart of a person. As a result, tears of repentance shed. The elder, as a psychologist, knew how to achieve his goal. Here is an example: a gentleman lived not far from Optina, who boasted that he would look at Fr. Leonidas, so he will see right through and through. He comes once to the elder, when there were a lot of people there, and the elder, at his entrance, says: Eka the idiot is coming! came to see through and through the sinful Leo, but himself, the rogue, for 17 years was not at confession and St. Communion. The gentleman shook like a leaf, and afterwards he repented and cried that the sinner was an unbeliever and had not really confessed and received Holy Communion for 17 years. Christ's Mysteries.

Another story of one Athonite monk who visited Fr. Leo. The monk was dressed in mundane clothes, but Fr. Leo named him an Athos monk; 3 women came in tears and brought one who had lost her mind, they asked for the patient to pray. The elder put on the epitrachelion, laid the end of the epitrachil and his hands on the head of the sick woman, and after reading a prayer, he crossed the patient's head three times and ordered her to be taken to the hotel. He did this while sitting, because I could no longer get up: I was ill and was living out his last days. When the monk came to the elder the next day, yesterday's patient arrived completely healthy. The monk was horrified that the elder, not fearing harm to himself, was doing healings. The elder answered: "I did not do this by my own authority, but it was done by the faith of those who came and the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit, given to me at the laying on of hands; and I myself am a sinful man."

The miracles performed by the elder were innumerable. A crowd of destitute people flocked to him, surrounded him. One hieromonk describes that when he happened to drive from Kozelsk to the Smolensk province, on the way, in secluded villages, the villagers, having learned that he was going to Kozelsk, vied with each other to learn something about Fr. Leonida. When asked why you know him, they answered: "Have mercy, breadwinner, how can we not know about. Leonid? Yes, he is for us poor, unreasonable, worse than our own father, we are without him, read, round orphans."

Unfortunately, the attitude to Fr. Leo, some clergymen, including the Kaluga diocesan archieu bishop. Nikolai, who created a lot of trouble at Optina Hermitage. This bishop had a firm intention to exile Elder Leo to the Solovetsky Monastery for confinement. Fortunately, many bishops treated the elder in a completely different way. Metropolitans Philaret of Moscow and Kiev strongly stood up for him, otherwise the elder would not have been good.

Elder Leo died in 1841, was eldest in Optina for only 12 years, but during all this time he was persecuted either because of a misunderstanding of the bishop, then because of envy and denunciations of others, there was also a trial over him (but he was acquitted), they moved him from the skete to the monastery, and even the bishop forbade him to receive visitors, but he still did not drive those who came to him out of mercy to the suffering.

On the other hand, Abbot Moses and the head of the hermitage, Fr. Anatoly treated him with the utmost respect and did not even undertake anything without his blessing.

From the first days of September 1841, Elder Leo began to weaken. Towards the end of his life, he predicted that Russia would have to endure many troubles and grief. After severe suffering, he passed away to the Lord on October 11, 1841. The general grief was indescribable and the crowd of people at the tomb of the deceased great old man was great.

Elder Hieroschemamonk Macarius - in the world Mikhail Nikolaevich Ivanov - was born into a noble family, distinguished by piety, on November 20, 1788. They lived in the vicinity of Kaluga in a very beautiful place near the Lavrentiev Monastery, from which the ringing of bells could be heard every day, calling the monks to prayer. For five years he was left without a mother who loved him ardently, who felt that something extraordinary would come out of him. Due to the mother's illness, the family changed their place of residence. He graduated from school in the city of Karachev, and already in the 14th year he entered the service of an accountant, with which he did an excellent job, attracting attention. But he lived his own world. I read a lot, looking for solutions to the most important issues of the mind and heart. He loved music, played the violin perfectly. At the age of 24, after the death of his father, he retired and settled in the village. He managed the farm badly. One day, the men stole a lot of buckwheat. Michael admonished them for a long time, referring to the Holy Scriptures. As a result, the men fell to their knees in sincere repentance, to the shame of his relatives, who laughed at him. An attempt was made to marry him, but since and his face was ugly and tongue-tied, and he had no desire for this - and so it remained. He buried himself in spiritual books and occasionally went out to the carpentry and worked there until he was tired, conquering the young flesh to the spirit.

In 1810 he went on a pilgrimage to the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage, and stayed there, sending the brothers a renunciation of the estate. Here he, under the guidance of Arseny - a student of Paisiy Velichkovsky, received the correct initial direction, learned the church charter and music singing. Helped in writing. In 1815 he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Macarius. In 1824 he first visited Optina. The following year, his elder dies, and Macarius is appointed the confessor of the Sevsky nunnery. This is how his spiritual activity began. It was difficult for him without his teacher, but soon, in answer to his prayers, Fr. Leonid. Thus, Fr. Marakiy got himself a leader again. Soon Fr. Leonid was sent to Optina. There was a correspondence, which ended with the transfer of Fr. Macarius to Optina, which was worth a lot of trouble.

Fr. Macarius remained with Fr. Leonida (Leo) until the very death of the latter. From about. Leonid studied about. Macarius treats with great love all those who come to the poor and suffering physically and spiritually, heal their ailments, and do not disdain anything but sin. The elder often saw the light of what was wrong, denounced it, but then doused it with such love warmth that the joy of gaining a clear conscience was remembered.

Fr. Macarius had a softer mindset than Fr. Leonidas, extremely modest. Together with Fr. They "nursed" the great elder Ambrose with Leonidas. After the death of Fr. Leonidas, the whole burden of spiritual guidance fell on Fr. Macarius. The quiet joy in the Lord never left him.

The elder was enormous, with an ugly face, with traces of smallpox, but white, light, his gaze was quiet and full of humility. His character was extremely lively and agile. The memory is wonderful: after the first confession he remembered the person for the rest of his life. But tongue-tied and shortness of breath when speaking - embarrassed him all his life. He was always poorly dressed. But he was discerning: the first time he saw a person, he sometimes called him by name before he introduced himself. Sometimes he answered written questions, before receiving them, incl. the writer received a letter in reply, sent an hour ago. The elder's life was full of pastoral and welfare cares. In the church he established the singing of the Kiev chant, introduced the position of canonarch, smooth reading and singing in "like." Himself about. Although Macarius was a hieromonk, he did not serve, mainly because of his humility, but he often sang with zeal and tears. He especially loved "Thy Hall." The elder spent 20 years in his modest cell, which consisted of a reception room and a small bedroom, in which the furniture consisted of a narrow bunk, a writing table neatly covered with stacks of letters for reply, spiritual journals and patristic books, and an armchair with a pillow. In the eastern corner, among the icons, there was a particularly revered icon of the Vladimir Mother of God with an inextinguishable lamp and instead of a lectern a wooden triangle for performing the rule, with the Gospel and other books. The walls were covered with views of monasteries and portraits of ascetics. Everything testified to his secret sighs and to the spirit that renounced the lands of the earth. Here he spent frequent sleepless nights and got up to rule at the sound of the skete bell at 2 o'clock in the morning; often he himself woke up his cell-attendants. Read: morning prayers, 12 psalms, 1st hour, Theotokos Canon with akathist. He himself sang Irmosy. At six o'clock he was read "a clock with fine" and he drank one or two cups of tea. Then he received visitors. The women were received at the gate of the skete in a special cell. Here he listened to human grief. He clearly had the gift of spiritual reasoning, as well as the power of humility and love, which made his word especially powerful. After talking with him, people renewed themselves. Anointing people with oil from his inextinguishable lamp, he was of great benefit to the sick. Healings were numerous. Healings of the possessed were especially frequent.

At 11 o'clock they called for the meal and the elder went there, after which he rested, and then again received visitors. At 2 o'clock the elder, with a crutch in one hand and a rosary in the other, went to the hotel, where hundreds of people were waiting for him, each with his own needs, spiritual and everyday. He listened to everyone with love: he enlightened some, others he raised from the ditch of despair. Exhausted, barely catching his breath, he returned from his daily feat. The time came to listen to the rule, which consisted of the 9th hour, kathisma with prayer and the canon to the Guardian Angel. They called for the evening meal. Sometimes they brought it to him. But even at this time he received the monastic and skete brethren. Often he himself went into the cells and always on time, leaving behind peace and joy. He also gave obedience: reading the patristic books, appointing it according to the spiritual age of each. I could not stand idleness. Therefore, he started handicrafts in the skete: turning, bookbinding, etc. Each of the brothers knew and felt that the burden of his labors and sorrows was shared by a loving and wise father, and this made monastic life easier.

At the end of the day, they listened to the rule: Little Compline, prayers for sleep to those to come, two chapters of the Apostle, one Gospel, then a short confession, the elder blessed and let go. It was getting late. The elder entered his cell. The body ached from exhaustion, and the heart from the impressions of the abundantly revealed human suffering. His eyes were wet with tears ... and on the table lay a pile of letters demanding an answer. He sat down and wrote. When the candle went out, the elder got up to pray. Prayer in him did not stop, whether he was in a crowd, at a meal, in conversation or in the silence of the night. She oozed the oil of his humility.

Besides all this, Fr. Macarius belongs to the invaluable merit and feat in the publication of patristic literature. For this business, he sacrificed his brief rest. This work united around itself spiritually striving intellectual forces, but all these persons, in addition to literary relations, also used the spiritual guidance of the elder, and subsequently his successors.

The elder predicted the time of his death. A week before his death, he was unleashed. Already seriously ill, but he said goodbye, handed out his things, instructed. People flocked even through the window to look at him. At about midnight, the elder demanded a confessor and, after a half-hour conversation with him, asked him to read the letter. - "Glory to Thee, my King and my God!" - the elder exclaimed while reading the waste, - "Mother of God help me!" The night was very hard, but even here, through shaking hands, blessing, and glances, he expressed his gratitude to those who looked after him. At 6 o'clock in the morning, he partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ in full consciousness and tenderness, and an hour later, at the 9th canon of the canon at the separation of the soul from the body, the great Elder Macarius quietly and painlessly departed to the Lord in the Heavenly Hall. It was September 7th, 1860.

Elder Ambrose

Elderly time about. Ambrose was different from the one in which his predecessors worked. First, then there were still no regular postal and telegraph communications and railways, as under Fr. Ambrose, in addition, the position of the Church and monasteries in the state has greatly improved. Secondly, in the monastery itself, a tradition of eldership has already been created and the glory of Optina Hermitage swept across all of Russia.

After his arrival in Optina, then Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov, found there such pillars of monasticism as Abbot Moses and the elders Leo and Macarius. Apart from them, there were many outstanding ascetics among the brethren.

Archim. Melchizedek, an ancient elder, at one time honored with conversations with St. Tikhon Zadonsky.

Fleet hieromonk Gennady, ascetic, confessor Imp. Alexander 1st. Hierodeacon Methodius, the perspicacious, who lay for 20 years on the bed of illness, the former Valaam abbot Barlaam, who had the gift of tears and extreme non-covetousness. He was a sotainik St. Herman of Alaska.

Hierodeacon Palladius, non-possessor, contemplator, connoisseur of church dignity.

Hieroschemamonk John, one of the schismatics, was gentle, with childish simplicity, gave advice with love, beloved by everyone.

Hieromonk Innocent - Elder Macarius's confessor, lover of silence, and others.

In general, all monasticism under the leadership of the elders bore the imprint of spiritual virtues. Simplicity, meekness and humility were the hallmarks of Optina monasticism. The younger brothers tried in every possible way to humble themselves, not only in front of their elders, but also in front of their equals, fearing even to insult the other with a glance, and at the slightest reason they immediately asked each other for forgiveness.

O. Ambrose was born in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov province on November 23, 1812. His father was a sexton, and his grandfather was a priest. The family had 8 children. As a child, Alexander was a very lively, cheerful and intelligent boy. For leprosy and excessive playfulness, the family disliked him. He simply was not able to keep pace with the strict patriarchal family. He learned to read from the Church Slavonic primer, the book of hours and the psalter. On holidays, he and his father read in the kliros. Then he was assigned to a theological school and further to the seminary. The school environment was even stricter than that of a family. His abilities were exceptional. In July 1836, he completed an excellent course of science in good behavior.

First, he got a job as a home teacher, and then at the Lipetsk Theological School. For his wit and cheerful character in society, everyone loved him very much. He soon fell seriously ill. There was almost no hope of recovery, and he made a vow in case of recovery to go to the monastery. He recovered, but for another 4 years he could not end the world. At night he began to pray, but this caused the ridicule of his comrades. In the summer of 1839, on his way on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, he stopped by Fr. Hilarion. The holy ascetic gave Alexander a definite instruction: go to Optina, you are needed there. Alexander hesitated a little longer, but finally, after special remorse, feeling his inconsistency and unsteadiness of intentions, he suddenly decided to flee to Optina, without permission and without saying goodbye.

Subsequently, all his qualities: liveliness, amusement, the ability to grasp everything on the fly, sociability, wit - did not disappear in him, but as he grew spiritually, they were transformed, inspired and imbued with God's grace.

At Optina, he found her monasticism flourishing. At first he lived in a hotel, rewriting for Elder Leo a book about the struggle with passions. In 1840 he moved to live in a monastery, at first without dressing in a cassock, until a decree came to accept him into the monastery.

For some time he was a cell attendant with the elder Leo. He worked at the bread, in November 1840 he was transferred to the skete. But he continued to go to Fr. Leo for edification. On business, he also visited Fr. Macarius, while talking to the elder about his state of mind and receiving advice. The elder Leo loved the young novice, but for educational purposes he experienced his humility in public and pretended to be angry. But behind his back he said: "A great man will be."

At the end of his life, Elder Leo said Fr. Macarius about young Alexander: "It hurts a man to study for us elders, I am now very weak. So I give you the yoke from floor to floor, hold it as you know." After the death of Fr. Leo, brother Alexander became Elder Macarius's cell attendant. In 1842 he was tonsured into a mantle and named Ambrose. In 1843 hierodeaconism followed, and two years later he was ordained a hieromonk.

For the dedication of Fr. Ambrose went to Kaluga. It was very cold. Fr Ambrose, exhausted by fasting, caught a severe cold, which was reflected in the internal organs. Since then, he has never really recovered.

Reverend Nikolai Kaluzhsky said about. Ambrose: "And you help Fr. Macarius in clergy, he is already old. After all, this is also a science, but not a seminary, but a monastic one." Fr. Ambrose was then 34 years old. He dealt with visitors, conveyed their questions to the elder and gave answers from the elder. But in 1846 about. Ambrose was forced by illness to leave the state and began to be listed as dependent on the monastery, as an invalid. He could no longer perform the Liturgy, could barely move, suffered from perspiration, so he changed his clothes and changed his shoes several times a day. I could not stand the cold, I ate liquid food, I ate very little. Despite the illness of Fr. Ambrose remained in complete obedience to the elder, giving an account to him in the slightest thing. He was entrusted with translation work, preparation for the publication of patristic books. He translated the "Ladder" of the Abbot of Sinai John. These book editions had for Fr. Ambrose has a very educational value for the spiritual life. This period was the most favorable for him to pass mental prayer, Fr. Macarius. Therefore, he could engage in mental prayer without troubles and the intrigues of the enemy, leading the ascetic into delusion. External sorrows are considered useful and soul-saving ascetics. Life about. From the very beginning, under the guidance of the wise elders, Ambrose proceeded smoothly, without any special stumbling, directed towards ever greater spiritual perfection. But Fr. Macarius raised Fr. Ambrose and subjected him to blows to pride, bringing up in him a strict devotee of poverty, humility, patience and other monastic virtues. Even during the life of the elder, with his blessing, some brethren came to Fr. Ambrose for the revelation of thoughts. Also about. Macarius brought him closer to his worldly spiritual children, preparing a worthy successor for himself, who he later became. After the death of Archimandrite Fr. Moses, Fr. Isaac, who belonged to Fr. Ambrose, as to his elder. Thus, in Optina there was no friction between the superiors. The elder was secretly tonsured into schema during his illness. He had two cell attendants: Fr. Michael and Fr. Joseph (the future elder).

At 4 o'clock in the morning, he got up to listen to the morning rule. And then his working day was like Fr. Macarius. From all-day reports, the cell attendants often barely kept their feet, and at times the elder himself lay almost unconscious. After the canon, the elder asked forgiveness "fir tree (in everything that he had sinned in word, deed or thought" and when blessing he let the cell attendants go, this often happened at midnight. After 2 years, the elder suffered a new illness, his health still weakened. Since then he has not went to the temple of God and had to receive communion in a cell. In 1868 he became very bad. Such deterioration repeated more than once. It is difficult to imagine how he, being nailed to such a suffering cross, in exhaustion of strength, accept crowds of people and answer for dozens of letters. ”The life-giving divine grace here clearly helped.

Here is an abridged story of a blind monk: having come to his cell from evening rule, I lay down in anguish and dozed off. And I saw in a dream that I had come to our Vvedensky Cathedral and I was heading after the other pilgrims to the corner to venerate the relics of the great Pleasant of God. I see it is standing on the platform of the cancer, the lid is closed and the people are kissing it with great reverence. The turn came to me, I saw - the sepulchral lid was opened and, in all the hierarch's vestments, Saint Tikhon himself rose from the shrine. In awe I prostrate myself and see that it is not Saint Tikhon, but our elder Ambrose, that he no longer stands, but sits and lowers his feet to the ground, as if wishing to meet me ... "What are you?" thundered a menacing old man's voice. “Forgive me, father, for God's sake,” I babbled in terrible fright. - "I'm tired of you with your" forgive me "- the elder exclaimed angrily. Horror gripped my heart and I woke up. I jumped up and crossed myself ... after early mass I went to the skete to the elder. they called me so) come quickly to me here. "The crowd gave way. The elder lay exhausted on the sofa," lock the door, "he said to me," and tell me what you saw in a dream. " feet on the floor (as in a dream) and said: "What are you?" But not menacingly, as in a dream, but with a wondrous affection, of which he alone was capable. "Well, how else could I have reasoned with you, you fool?" Batiushka ended his reprimand with these words. Often over the head of the priest, those around him saw an extraordinary light. At the end of Fr. Ambrose in Shamordino set up a convent with a shelter for homeless children. The monastery grew rapidly and soon there were up to 500 sisters in it. After the death of Abbess Mother Sophia, the elder had to take upon himself all the troubles of the monastery and personally visit it. The last time he left there in the summer of 1890, due to illness he wintered there, his health deteriorated and he could no longer return to Optina. He died on October 10, 1891. The funeral procession was accompanied by more than a thousand people. It was raining, but the candles were not extinguished. On the way from Shamordino to Optina, they stopped in each village and served a litiya. The death of the elder was an all-Russian grief, but for Shamordin, Optina and for all spiritual children it was immeasurable.

Valaam Elder Michael (Elder)
(1871 - 1934)

Let us be jealous, brethren, for the zealous commemoration of those who have passed away, so that we ourselves, after death ... will be remembered. According to the false word of the Savior: "Measure in nauzh, it will be measured to you."

Valaam Elder Michael (Pitkevich)
(1877-1962)

No one was saved without humility. Remember that for the rest of your life you will fall into sins, grievous or light, angry, brag, lie, vanity, offend others, greedy. It is this consciousness that will keep you humble. What is there to be proud of if you sin and offend your neighbor every day. But there is repentance for every sin. I sinned and repent ... and so on to the end. Doing so, you will never despair, but gradually you will come to a peaceful order.

Endure and endure everything - all the suffering, the whole burden of labor, reproach, slander, but most of all fear despair - this is the most serious sin.

Whatever the inclinations, the fall - one must get up, not despair, but start again - labor and work is needed, a struggle. Crowns are given only for a courageous struggle. There must be struggle, contrition with sincere repentance and firm hope.

When the enemy is annoying, wants to annoy, anger, steal the peace of the heart with trifles, annoyances, just say: “Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen". He is afraid of these words most of all, they burn him like fire, and he will run away from you.

It is not only necessary to pray: "Lord, have mercy", not only to ask, you must constantly thank, and be able to praise the Lord - then there will be peace in the soul.

We easily turn to the intercession of the holy saints, to the Angels, to the Mother of God, we learn the ceaseless prayer of Jesus, and we forget the Holy Trinity, that the Holy Trinity is far from us ... We must more often turn to the Holy Trinity.

Elder John of Valaam (Alekseev)
(1873-1953)

When praying, one must keep oneself in greater indecency, and if warmth and tears appear, one must not dream of something lofty about oneself; let them come and go without our compulsion, but do not be embarrassed when they are suppressed, otherwise it does not happen.

Prayer is the most difficult feat ... Yet the Lord, out of His mercy, at times also gives consolation to the prayer book, so that he does not weaken.

The holy fathers called prayer the queen of virtues, for she will attract other virtues as well. But, as high as it is, so much labor is required. The Monk Agathon says: "Prayer to the last gasp is associated with the labor of a hard struggle."

Do not strive for warmth of the heart - it comes without our seeking and expectation; prayer should be our work, and success already depends on grace ... In spiritual life, leaps are not appropriate, but patient gradualism is required ... A sign of prayer in warmth of the heart and in contrition of the heart ... Our work should be in all virtue, and success already depends on God's grace, and God gives grace not for work, but for humility, as far as a person humbles himself, so much will grace ... The elder replied: "It is not surprising that he sees angels, but I would be surprised at the one who sees his sins." Although this senile dictum is short, it is spiritual sense very deeply, for the hardest thing is to know yourself.

If you strictly watch yourself, you will truly see yourself as the worst of all, then the one who praises you will not hurt, because people look only at the person’s appearance, but inwardly they don’t know him, excluding the spiritual life of those who lead.

It is not in our power to resist in virtue, this is a matter of grace, but grace preserves precisely because of humility. The ladder says: "Where the fall happened, there was pride." It is great happiness for us that we have the books of St. Fathers, for they speak in detail about the spiritual life. Certainly. It would be nice to lead a spiritual life under the guidance of a spiritual mentor, but the saints have become impoverished, and without a mentor it is very dangerous to be guided only by books ... spiritual path. And we will repent of weakness, for all the ascetics of piety held on to humility and repentance.

Memory must be filled with the reading of St. The Gospel and the works of St. Fathers, in a word, so that the mind is not idle. Previous events must be replaced with other thoughts, and gradually old memories will be forced out and the sadness will pass. In one heart, two Lords cannot live together.

Sinful passions can never be satisfied; the more you feed them, the more they require food.

There would be no sorrows, there would be no salvation, said St. Fathers; sorrow has two benefits: the first is zeal for God and gratitude from the bottom of my heart. The second - relieves of vain worries and worries. From the patristic writings it is seen; they, like us, were also discouraged and cowardly, even experienced what they did not want to commit to scripture, so that we who are inexperienced in spiritual life would not be confused and desperate. Of course, the Lord allows sorrows to be in proportion to our strengths, who can bear what. They (sorrows) humble us, we have some arrogance that we want to succeed in spiritual life on our own, and in sorrows we learn humility, that our efforts without God's help do not reach the goal. Ours should be labor towards virtue, and success in virtue depends already on grace, and grace is given from God, namely, only to the humble, and without humble cases you will not be humbled.

The Lord knows our weakness, He gave us daily repentance until the grave ... Rev. Abba Dorotheos says: "Not the drunkard who once got drunk, but the one who always drinks, and not the fornicator who once seduced, but the one who always fornicates." In terms of spiritual knowledge, the punishments are different: whoever strives for virtue and falls, such condescension must be done, for he did not strive for sin, he tempted by accident. And who does not strive for virtue, such a severe punishment is required in order to understand and strive for virtue.

St. From the fathers I found three prophecies about the last monks, and Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov believes that we are the last monks. “The last monks will not have monastic affairs; temptations and adversities will overtake them, and those monks will endure them, such will be higher than us and our fathers. " Of course, the world cannot know this, for it knows and loves only external ostentation.

We cannot live without sorrow. The Lord said that you will mourn in the world. There would be no sorrows, there would be no salvation, say St. Fathers. The Lord chose St. Prophets and St. The apostles, however, did not take their sorrow away from them, and our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect God and perfect man (except for sin) lived a sorrowful life on earth. From the man he created, he endured reproach, reproach, contempt, ridicule, beatings, even to the shameful death by crucifixion ...

Peter Damaskin writes: "If a person sees his sins, like the sand of the sea, and this is a sign of the health of the soul." With these feelings, there is no place for despair, but the soul is filled with tenderness and love for everyone living on earth. Blessed are such people who come to such a state, it is given from God for the deepest humility and is called dispassion.

Elder Stefan (Ignatenko)
(1886-1973)

Try to keep your mind from distraction and enclose it in the words of prayer ... May the Lord help you to ascend in prayer and succeed in it, as well as in the patience of sorrows, illnesses, to succeed in humility and meekness ...

We must fight against pride. Pray to God, asking for His help, and God will help you get rid of all passions ... Every time you get angry, irritated, as soon as you come to your senses, repent in your mind before God and ask for forgiveness from your neighbor if anger was revealed in words against the neighbor. Read edifying books of the holy fathers, and they will teach you how to live in a godly way and save your soul.

Do not be discouraged or discouraged. Pray to God with faith and full trust in His mercy. For God, everything is possible, only we, on our part, should not think that we are worthy of special care for us from God. This is pride. And God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Be considerate of yourself. All the trials that afflict us with sickness and sorrow are not without reason. But if you endure everything without complaint, then the Lord will not leave you without rewards. If not here on earth, then in every possible way in heaven.

Elder of Velikovrazh Grigory (Dolbunov)
(1905-1996)

A disease is given to a person in order for him to come to his senses and repent.

Our life is a preparation for eternity. Our life is a drop, and eternity is an ocean. Therefore, you need to be afraid of sin and not think about yourself more than about your neighbor ...

We often murmur:

Why do I need such misfortunes?

And the Mother of God - why are there seven such wounds (sorrows)? If every day, at least one bow to the Mother of God, she would not let go, take it under her cover and lead to the Kingdom of Heaven.

If you offended your mother and she cursed or scolded you, put 40 bows every day for her health so that the Lord will forgive you ...

If someone died in an offense against you, do 40 bows for him. The church prays for repentant sinners, but it is useless to pray for unrepentant.

If you do not fulfill what your mother asks of you, the Lord will not hear your prayers ...

If you do not forgive you who offend you, then the Lord will not forgive you a single sin ...

When you get sick. Before you go to a doctor, go to church, take communion and pray for the health of your doctor:

Lord, instruct your servant (name) to find a cure for my disease.

When we lie to one another, we are lying to Christ.

If you can't sleep at night, you need to cross yourself and pray:

God bless me for a peaceful sleep.

And cross the bed. This should be done every night before bed.

The Lord gives a reward for patience. For innocent suffering He will reward a hundred times ...

Therefore, you need to rejoice when they are offended, for the cause or in vain, and cry when you yourself have offended someone.

Pride is the main cause of sin. It is defined as follows: he is proud who considers everyone to be evil and himself to be good.

We must repent with the petition: “Lord, deliver me from everything that interferes with Your stay in me. Lord, teach me to always be in repentance. "

The greatest treasure on earth is the Communion of Christ's Holy Mysteries.
There is nothing dearer than this for a Christian. This is an invaluable Gift of God.

Elder Theophilus (Rossokha)
(Head of the Kitaevskaya Holy Trinity Hermitage)
(1929-1996)

To live like a Christian, hold on Orthodox Church... Live Christian life... It is necessary to take communion once a month, at home to use baptismal water and part of the holy prosphora in the morning.

The Gospel says: “Your faith has saved you,” that is, the first Christians possessed great faith. The Lord reminded them to have a living faith and high Christian piety. So they tried to live for real. The Lord blessed them for labors and deeds. They strongly confessed Christ, believed Him and often gave their lives - as the holy healer Panteleimon, George the Victorious (first minister of Diocletian), Great Martyr Barbara, Great Martyr Paraskeva, Great Martyr Catherine and others ... These are the lights of the first Christian people! Imitate them, read them, follow them.

May God grant you to succeed in everything, and go from strength to strength, and achieve the highest spiritual perfection.

Venerable Barnabas
(Elder of Radonezh)
(1831-1906)

Anyone who sincerely desires to work the Lord for the salvation of the soul must first of all fast and prayer, and then humility and obedience - this is and from this flows all the fullness of Christian virtues. Fasting and prayer constitute the safest fence against the attacks of the enemy ...

Whenever confusion of thoughts or any other admonitions of the enemy attacks us, we must immediately use this medicine, that is, we need to impose a fast on ourselves, and the slander of the enemies will dissipate. Great power is hidden in fasting, and great deeds are accomplished through it ... It is not the one who regularly fasts who abstains only from food, but that is considered a complete fast, when at the same time he removes himself from every evil deed, and not only deeds, but every word idle and inappropriate thought - in a word, everything contrary to God.

Zosimovsky elder German
(1844-1923)

Be sure to read the Jesus Prayer: the name of Jesus should be constantly in our hearts, minds and on our tongue: whether you are standing, lying down, sitting, walking, eating - and always, always repeat the Jesus prayer. This is very comforting! You can't live without it. After all, you can say the Jesus Prayer and say in short: these are the holy fathers who veto for the beginners. It will be more useful and stronger. Remember the six words: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner" ...

Learn self-reproach: you cannot live without it.

Prayer is the main thing in life. If you feel laziness, neglect, what to do? That is how man is! And you pray to God with full attention, just like children, say the words of the prayer to the Lord Himself: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Ponder every word of the prayer with your mind; if the mind runs away, bring it back again, force it to be here, and repeat the words of the prayer in the language itself. It will be so good! For now, leave your heart and do not think about it, such a prayer is enough for you. The main thing is that the feeling of self-reproach would be relentless, the feeling of one's sinfulness and irresponsibility before God ... And one must reproach oneself not only in bad deeds. Perhaps you have few sinful deeds, but we will also be responsible for sinful thoughts.

Venerable Alexy (Soloviev)
(Elder Alexy was the confessor of the Zosimov Hermitage)
(1846-1928)

If there is no spirit of confession, it will be difficult to die ... Always, under any circumstances, one can talk about God. For example, children will tell you: "We are failing some arithmetic problem." And you answered: “Never mind, with God's help you will overcome her. Pray to God more earnestly, "and so on.

The only reason people suffer is that they do not understand true self-denial in the name of the One Crucified for our sake ... Many tears of a contrite heart are shed by a person in order to become able to comfort others in the Lord. You need to go where the spiritual craving torments a person so that he tends to commit suicide. This is not an easy feat, bordering on the true crucifixion of one's own sinfulness, for only he can heal the desperate, who himself, with the strength of his spirit, can take upon himself his mental suffering.

The soul is purified by suffering; do you know that Christ remembers you if He visits you with sorrows ... When entering into life, you need to pray to the Lord that He will direct your path. He, the Almighty, gives everyone a cross in accordance with the inclinations of the human heart ... the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. We, sinners, do not need to know why the Almighty Christ often permits injustices incomprehensible to the human mind. He knows what He is doing and why. Christ's disciples never thought that Christ would give them happiness, in the sense of earthly well-being. They were happy only in spiritual communion with their Sweetest Teacher. After all, Jesus appeared in the world in order by His life to confirm His followers in the idea that earthly life is an unceasing deed. Christ could have escaped His suffering, but He Himself voluntarily went to the cross. God especially loves those who voluntarily go to suffer for Christ's sake.

Forcing yourself to mercy, to kindness to your neighbors, you need to help those in need, develop pity and love in yourself.

Glinsky elder Andronic (Lukash)
(1889-1973)

Do nothing of your own free will, feel the presence of God in every place, and therefore do everything as before God, and not before people.

Passions: fornication, sinful lust, love of money, despondency, slander, anger, hatred, vanity and pride are the main branches of evil. All passions, if freedom is allowed to them, act, grow, intensify in the soul, finally, embrace it, take possession of it and excommunicate it from God; these are the heavy burdens that fell on Adam after he ate of the tree; Our Lord Jesus Christ killed these passions on the Cross ...

The Lord keeps your soul until you keep your tongue. Do not multiply words, verbosity will remove the Spirit of God from you.

Learning to remain silent is a great thing. Silence is an imitation of our Lord, who answered nothing, as if he were amazed at Pilate (Mark 15.5).

Glinsky Elder Seraphim (Romantsev)
(1885-1975)

All have sorrows. They replace the elders, since the Lord permits them, knowing everyone's heart. No one will help or change if you do not change yourself. One has to start with attention to language and mind. And we must constantly be careful to blame ourselves and not others.

We must endure everything with childish obedience - both pleasant and unpleasant, and glorify the good God for everything. What sorrow or illness has come, we will say: "Glory to Thee, Lord." Have sorrows and illnesses multiplied, again: "Glory to Thee, O Lord" ... With illnesses and sorrows, the Lord heals the sinful wounds of our soul. Bear all difficulties with thanksgiving to the Lord, He never gives a person a cross that he could not bear, and by His grace strengthens us to overcome difficulties. And with grumbling and despair, we push away divine help from ourselves and, being unable to bear the burden of our sins, we move more and more away from God ...

When passions attack and when all the temptations of the enemy, in sickness, in sorrow, in troubles and misfortunes - in all the difficulties of life, say: “The Lord does everything for me, but I myself can not do anything, endure nothing, overcome, overcome. He is my strength! "

Begin every day in the morning to lay down a good beginning, asking in the words of Chrysostom: "Lord, grant me to love You ..."

You will notice that you did not manage to do everything you wanted, say: "Lord, have mercy!" I ought to force myself, but laziness overcame - "Lord, forgive me." If you condemn someone, forgetting yourself, repent sooner, if you violate something, too. After repenting, try not to sin, and do not pay attention to what is allowed, so that you always have a calm spirit, do not be indignant at anything or anyone.

Diseases are allowed when we are not capable of feats. Our grief is that we are very impatient and cowardly.

A great consolation in sickness would be the skill of the ceaseless prayer of Jesus. It is "instilled" only when contrite for sins and humility. The elder said that those who know with experience what joy prayer gives, no longer want changes, because they are afraid of losing prayer in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Who will offend? Give in to him, and a peaceful silence will come, relieving the soul from embarrassment. In the spiritual life, evil is not rewarded for evil, but evil is defeated piously. Do good to those who offend you, pray for those who create to attack you and cast all sorrow on the Lord. He is the intercessor and comforter of the suffering.

Spiritual wealth comes from patience. Patience is required by unceasing prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me," and will have mercy.

Athonite Elder Kirik (Russian Elder)

The most important virtues are as follows: sincere confession, consider yourself the worst and most sinful of all and cut off your will. These are the basic virtues of every person, as well as monastic ones in particular.

Do not start before any deed, apparently the smallest and most insignificant, until you call on God to help you bring it into action. Speech for the Lord: "Without Me you cannot do anything else", i.e. say below, think below. In other words: without Me you have no right to do any good deed! Therefore, one should invoke God's grace-filled help either by words or mentally: "Lord bless, Lord help!" with the assurance that without God's help we cannot do anything useful and saving ...

As soon as you notice in yourself (in the light of conscience and the law of God) - the sin of the mind, word, thought, or some sinful passion or habit that fights you at every time and place, - this very minute, repent to God (at least mentally): “ Lord, forgive and help! (that is, forgive that I have offended You, and help me not to offend Your greatness). These three words - Lord, forgive and help, should be pronounced slowly and several times, or rather, while you sigh; This sigh signifies the coming of the grace of the Holy Spirit, who has forgiven us this sin, for which we are currently repenting to God ...

But in order to have a good habit of repentance before God, one must long for a firm determination for this saving work and ask God to strengthen our will for this work; and start this from the time when the day leaned towards evening and night comes, and then, before going to sleep, one must think: how was the day spent?

Athonite Elder Joseph the Hesychast
(+1959)

The beginning of the path to pure prayer is a struggle with passions. It is impossible to be successful in prayer while the passions are at work. But even they do not hinder the coming of the grace of prayer, there would be only negligence and vanity.

When you want to know the will of God, completely forget yourself, all your intentions and thoughts, and with great humility ask in your prayer to know it.

And whatever your heart is formed or what it will incline to, then do it, and it will be according to God. Those who have great daring to pray about it hear a clearer message within themselves and become more attentive to their lives and do nothing without divine notification.

And in everything have measure and reasoning.

When a person purifies his soul, and the New Adam, our sweetest Jesus, is conceived in him, then the heart cannot contain joy, and that ineffable pleasure that descends into the heart rejoices, and the eyes shed the sweetest tears, and the whole person becomes like a flame fire from the love of Jesus. And the mind becomes all - light, and marvels, and marvels at the glory of God.

True love doesn't exist without submission. How can you show love and serve if you have not submitted to the will of another? Any movement of true love is a service, and, therefore, the obedient make a double effort. On the one hand, there is faith in the one who gave the commission, and on the other, love applied in the ministry that is being performed.

If the grace of God does not enlighten a person, no matter how many words you say, there will be no benefit ... But if grace immediately acts along with words, then at that very second a change occurs in accordance with the person's aspiration. From that moment on, his life changes. But this happens to someone who has not spoiled his hearing or hardened his conscience. On the contrary, those who hear good, but do not obey and remain with their evil will, even if you spoke to them day and night, and showed all the wisdom of the fathers and worked wonders before their eyes, they would not receive any benefit. But out of despondency, they want to come ... And talk for hours to kill time. Why do I close the door in order to benefit at least myself with silence and prayer.

Elder Jerome (Apostolidis)
(island Aegina) (1883-1966)

Pay attention to how each day goes by. Place your future on the Providence of God. God will help.

Don't give up prayer. Be afraid of neglect and indifference, when you pray and feel tenderness, you will fly all day as if on wings.

If among 1000 blind people there is at least one sighted person, then he will be able to lead them all to the right path.

When you give charity, do not look at the face of the person to whom you give it, whether he is a good person or a bad person. You, when you can, come on without research. Alms blot out many sins.

Beautiful and useful things are sorrow and sickness. I consider sickness a gift of God. Many have come to know God through their illness.

Athonite Elder Daniel (Demetriadis)
(1846-1929)

When I remember death, I trample my arrogance and realize that I am nothing. I feel that wealth, honor and dreams of the perishable are vain and useless, and only a humble knowledge of oneself. Love for my neighbor and the like can help me a lot in the hour of my departure.

Athonite Elder Porfiry
(1906-1991)

Read a lot so that God will enlighten your mind.

Here you are in a dark room and wave your hands to drive away the darkness, which, of course, does not go away. But if you open the window and light rushes in, then the darkness will disappear. It's the same with teaching. Holy Scripture, the lives of the saints and the Holy Fathers are the light that drives away the darkness of the soul.

Today people fail because they are looking for self-love. It’s right - not to be interested in whether you are loved, but whether you love Christ and people. Only in this way is the soul filled.

Elder Joel (Yannakopoulos)
(monastery of St. Prophet Elijah in Kalamy)
(1901-1966)

If you read the Holy Fathers, you will see that on many issues they have their own opinions and sometimes disagreements ... But if there is any issue on which the Fathers have no disagreements, it is a matter of achievement. In this there is the conciliar agreement of the Fathers. They all glorify fasting, vigil, voluntary poverty, bitterness of the body and, in general, a good life ... The fathers prayed a lot, stayed awake a lot, fasted a lot, loved poverty and simplicity, hated worldly wisdom, fought with delusions, despised the peace of life, ran away from awards, glory, honors and very much loved martyrdom.

There is no big or small sin. A minor or a major sin is always a sin. Little sins do us more harm than one big sin, because little sins go unnoticed, and we do not try to correct them.

Elder Philotheus (Zervakos)
(the island of Paros) (1884-1980)

The sign of true repentance is deep experience, contrition and sorrow of the heart, sighing, prayers, fasts, vigils and tears. Such repentance is genuine and true. Such repentance is beneficial, for it gives the sinner forgiveness and makes him a friend of God.

Real temporary life is like the sea, and we humans are like boats. And just as ships sailing on the sea meet not only calm, but also strong winds, and formidable storms, and dangers, so we, traveling on the sea of ​​temporary life, often meet strong winds, great storms, intrigues, temptations, infirmities, sorrows , hardships, persecution and various dangers. But we must not be timid. We'll have courage, courage, faith. And if we, as people of cowardice and little faith, become intimidated in danger, then, like Peter, we will cry to Christ, and He will stretch out His hand and help us.

Faith leads a person to fear. What fear? In fear of committing sin. In fear of grieving God. He who fears humbles himself, but he who is humble has the Holy Spirit in him.

Elder Epiphanius (Theodoropoulos)
(Athens) (1930-1989)

Sorrow purifies us. A real person is always in sorrow. In joy, he changes, becomes different. In grief, he becomes what he really is. And then, par excellence, he approaches God. He feels his powerlessness. Often, when he is in glory and in joy, he thinks of himself that he is the "navel of the earth", or, if you like, the center of the universe: "I, and no one else!" In suffering and grief, he feels like a minor chill in the universe, completely addicted, and seeks help and support. All of us who have experienced suffering, mental or physical, know that we have never prayed in this way, both in quality and in quantity, as we prayed on the bed of illness or in the test of severe mental sorrow. But when we have everything, we forget about prayer, and about fasting, and about many, many other things. Therefore, God allows suffering.

Elder Paisius of Athos
(1924-1994)

God permits temptations in order to cleanse our souls from the dirt and make us blameless through sorrows and sobs, and so that we would have to resort to God for our salvation.

The purpose of reading is the fulfillment of what the person has read. We read to memorize not external, but internal. Not for the exercise of the tongue, but in order to be able to receive the fiery tongue and experience the sacraments of God. Studying, acquiring knowledge and obtaining a title for the teaching of others, without doing everything by the person himself, does not bring him any benefit.