Holy Fathers about illnesses and sick people. Venerable Neil of Sinai
Sin
Sin became so internalized to us after the fall that all properties, all movements of the soul are saturated with it.
Not a single member of soul or body is free and cannot help but suffer from the sin that lives in us.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa:
Sin is not an essential property of our nature, but a deviation from it. Just as illness and deformity are not inherent in our nature, but are unnatural, so activity directed towards evil must be recognized as a distortion of the good that is innate to us.
Rev. Ephraim the Syrian:
Sin commits violence against nature. Thus, instead of contentment, nature indulges in gluttony; instead of quenching thirst - drunkenness; instead of marriage - fornication; instead of justice - inhumanity; instead of love - debauchery; instead of strangeness - illegibility. Therefore, it is necessary to limit nature so that, under control, it cannot demand more than what is proper. For the Savior said that it is better for the lame to enter the Kingdom (Matthew 18:8). Of course, He did not command to cut off the members that He Himself created; He teaches us not to make nature the author of sin.
Every unrepentant sin is a sin leading to death.
Shed, sinner, streams of tears for the sin that oppresses you and, sobbing like a dead man, give him up for burial.
Turn back from your path, sinner, do not take a single step forward on it, because the path of destruction is wide and vast.
Venerable Macarius of Egypt:
We have not yet begun to worship God in spirit and in truth because sin reigns in our dead body.
Saint Basil the Great:
God is not the cause of evil, but we ourselves, because the beginning and root of sin is what depends on us, our freedom
In its own sense, evil, that is, sin, depends on our will, because it is in our will to either refrain from vice, or to be vicious.
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:
The evil will leads me into sins, and when I sin, I lay the blame on Satan. But woe is me! Because I am the reason. The evil one will not force me to sin. I sin of my own free will, so why do I lay the blame on the evil one?
Saint John Chrysostom:
The body serves as a means to both vice and virtue, like a weapon that is suitable for both evil and good, depending on whose use it is. Thus, both a warrior fighting for the fatherland and a robber armed against citizens use the same weapon. Consequently, no weapon is guilty, but the one who uses it for evil is guilty. The same must be said about the flesh. Not by her own nature, but by the disposition of her soul, she can be both. When you look greedily at someone else's beauty, the eye becomes a weapon of untruth, not by its natural action, but by the cunning of the thought that controls it, because the purpose of the eye is to look, and not to look, cunningly. Curb your thoughts and the eye will become a weapon of truth. The same should be said about the tongue, hands and other members.
We are afraid of death, which is an insignificant mask, and we are not afraid of sin, which is truly terrible and, like fire, devours the conscience.
The source and root and mother of all evil is sin. It relaxes our bodies, it produces diseases.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:
A person, before sinning, stands between two opposing forces - God and Satan - and has the free will to turn to one or the other. God calls him to good and calls him away from evil: Satan seduces and calls him away from good, inclines him to evil and sin - his work. So, when a person listens to God and does good, he turns his face to God. And when he listens to Satan and does evil, he turns his face to Satan, his back to God, and so, turning away from God, he follows Satan. From here you can see, Christian, how gravely a person sins before God when he turns to sin, the work of the devil.
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
The greatest difference is to sin intentionally, out of a disposition to sin, and to sin out of passion and weakness, with a disposition to please God.
There is nothing worse than a sinful skill. Someone infected with a sinful habit needs a lot of time and work to free himself from it. And many labored a lot, but few received time to complete the work, being soon reaped by death. God alone knows what he will do to him on the day of judgment (Fatherland).
Saint Basil the Great:
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, and sin, drawing the soul into passionate desires, distorted the beauty of the image.
Sins, being... bad, disfigure the appearance of the soul and damage its natural beauty.
Continuity in sin produces an incorrigible habit in souls. An old spiritual passion or a time-established thought of sin is difficult to cure or becomes completely incurable when skills, as most often happen, turn into nature. Therefore, we must wish that we do not even touch evil.
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:
Sin limits the mind and closes the door of knowledge.
Venerable Isaac the Syrian:
Sin upsets a person’s entire being and gives a perverted direction to all his forces.
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
When any one mortal sin strikes a person’s soul, then the entire accumulation of sins approaches him and declares their right to it.
For the death of a person, one vicious skill is enough: it will constantly open the entrance to the soul to all sins and all passions.
To the extent that the soul is higher than the body, so much higher is the virtue performed by the spirit than the virtue performed by the body. To the extent that the spirit is higher than the body, the sin received and committed by the spirit is more painful and harmful than the sin committed by the body.
An obvious sinner who has fallen into mortal sin... is more capable of repentance than that imaginary righteous person who, in outward behavior, is impeccable, but in the secret of his soul is satisfied with himself.
Sins that are apparently insignificant, but neglected and not healed by repentance, lead to more serious sins, and from an inattentive life pride arises in the heart.
Saint Gregory Dvoeslov:
“He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. There was a woman there who had had the spirit of infirmity for eighteen years” (Luke 13:10-11). “She was twisted and could not straighten up” (Luke 13:11). Every sinner who thinks about earthly things and does not seek heavenly things cannot look up, because, indulging in lower desires, he deviates from the directness of his mind and always sees only what he thinks about. Turn to your hearts, always watch what you contain in your thoughts. One thinks about honors, another about money, the third about booty. It's all down there; and when the mind becomes entangled in this, it deviates from the rectitude of its position. And since he does not rise to the heavenly shadow, he cannot in any way look up, like a crouched woman.
“When Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her: Woman, you are freed from your illness. And he laid his hands on her, and she immediately straightened up” (Luke 13:12-13). He called me over and straightened me out because he enlightened me and helped me. He calls, but does not straighten us, when, although we are enlightened by His grace, we cannot receive help... For we most often see what needs to be done, but do not do it, we try, but turn out to be weak. The mind sees what is right, but lacks the strength to carry it out. This is what the punishment for sin consists of: although good may be visible through the gift of grace, this visible thing is not given to the sinner. For habitual guilt fetters the soul so that it cannot straighten itself. She tries and falls, being forced to return to where she voluntarily stayed for a long time, even if she no longer wanted to. The Psalmist speaks well about this crouching of the human race: “he is bent and completely drooping” (Ps. 37:7). For man was created to contemplate the heavenly light, but was expelled for sins, carries darkness in his soul, does not desire the highest, strives for the lower, does not want the heavenly, carries only earthly things in his soul. Saint David grieved over this state of the human race and exclaimed from himself: “I am bent and completely drooping.” For man, who has lost the contemplation of heavenly things, thinking only about what is necessary for the flesh, has suffered and drooped, but he has not yet sunk “completely.” And those who are distracted from their highest thoughts not only by necessity, but also by the most impermissible pleasures, have sunk “to the end.” Therefore, another prophet says about unclean spirits: they said to you: “Fall on your face so that we can walk over you” (Is. 51:23). Because the soul stands upright when it desires the highest and does not bend towards the lower. But evil spirits when they see her standing in her uprightness, they cannot “walk on her.” For this would mean instilling in her low wishes. That's why they say: "Fall down so that we can walk over you." But if the soul does not humiliate itself to unworthy desires, their malice has no power over it. They themselves cannot walk along one that does not incline towards them from attention to the highest.
Saint Callistus repeats the words of Saint Chrysostom: “Every sin is madness, and every sinner is a madman.” This saint shows even more clearly who is mad. A sinner, moreover, an unrepentant sinner, who does not want to turn to God, but falls into ever greater and greater grave sins. So it is written in Solomon; the wicked plunges into the depths of evil and neglects them. (Prov. 19, 16; 21, 10). Such a sinner is truly insane. Why is he mad? Because (it is impossible) to know about death, to know about the Last Judgment and hellish punishment and not be afraid of all this... (Just as) to hear about the Kingdom of Heaven, about the eternal reward prepared for those who love God, and not desire all this. ..
If someone, seeing a mother holding her son in her arms, stole her son from her hands, threw him to the ground and began to trample underfoot; If, in front of the mother’s eyes, he pierced the child’s heart, and then approached the mother and, bowing to her, said: “Rejoice and be merciful to me!”, would the mother be pleased with such worship of the killer? Judge for yourself. Of course it won't.
We, unrepentant sinners, commit such grave sins and so often, having stolen the Son of the Virgin, Christ, our Lord, from the hands of the most immaculate Mother, we cast down and trample underfoot! How often do we pierce Him, again crucifying the Son of God within ourselves (Heb. 6:6). The Mother of God sees all this! We, having crucified her Son for the second time, fall down to her and say: “Rejoice, be merciful to us!” Do we not anger her further by this and renew the heart wound that was once inflicted on her at the Cross? Let us remember this and, first of all, let us be reconciled with God and then we will propitiate the Mother of God. Only then will our singing, thanksgiving, worship and praise be pleasant to her! Then our greeting “Rejoice!” will please her! Now we cry out to her: “Free us from all troubles. Let us call You: Rejoice, Unbrided Bride.”
Forgive me, sinful people, to which I, an unworthy one, belong, forgive me that I will call every sinner who lives out his days without repentance demon-possessed. The demon lives in an unrepentant sinner, as in his true home, for just as God lives in a virtuous, righteous man and he lives in God, so a demon lives in a damned sinner and he lives in a demon, since, according to the Apostle: “Whoever commits sin, the devil" (1 John 3:8). So, every bitter sinner is possessed.
Since a sinner is subject to many passions and lusts, the demon in him is also diverse. Evangelists describe the demon-possessed youth in different ways. Matthew says: “often he throws himself into fire and often into water” (Matthew 17:15). Luke: “the spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out, and torments him, so that he emits foam” (Luke 9:39); Mark: “ emits foam, and grinds his teeth, and becomes numb (Mark 9: 18). So, in one possessed youth, all the images of the seven-headed serpent, all seven deadly sins were outlined. “Suddenly cries out” is an image of pride, arrogance and self-praise , for pride and arrogance do not know how to remain silent, they lift up their mouth to heaven, and their tongue passes through the earth. "Throws into the fire" - this is an image of bodily uncleanness, inflamed by foul lust. Throws "into the water" - this is an image of the love of money and covetousness, greedily making sure that all abundance and wealth always flows to him, like a flooded river. “Torments him” is an image of envy, which, seeing the well-being of others, gnaws at itself. “Lets out foam” is an image of gluttony and drunkenness, and also the foul language that occurs during drunkenness. “Grinds teeth” is an image of anger. “Becomes numb” is an image of laziness.
Anyone who wants to cast out such a seven-headed and many-faced demon from himself must have many feats of virtue, but not without Peter, James and John, that is, not without firm faith, not without a persistent struggle with passions, not without the special grace of God that is given those who diligently seek God and truly love Him. Without them, and especially without the presence of God, it is impossible to get rid of sinful, diverse demonic possession.
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:
If your heart has hardened, weep before the Lord, so that He may shower upon you the illumination of knowledge.
Venerable John Cassian the Roman (Abba Theona):
Those who close the eyes of their hearts with a thick veil of passions and, according to the Savior’s saying, “do not see with their eyes, and do not understand with their hearts” (John 12:40), barely discern even the largest and main vices in the recesses of their hearts. And they cannot see at all the excuses of elusive thoughts, hidden passions that wound the spirit with a thin sharp sting, and the captivity of their souls, but, always wandering with shameful thoughts, they do not even know sorrow about it. When they are distracted from the contemplation of God, which is the only good, they do not grieve over this deprivation. They entertain their spirits with blessings that come at their request, and do not at all understand what they should mainly strive for or what they should desire in every possible way. Truly, this leads us to such a delusion that we, not knowing at all what true sinlessness is, think that we do not incur any guilt on ourselves by idle, fickle distractions of thoughts. As if driven into a frenzy or struck by blindness, we see nothing in ourselves except the main vices. We consider it necessary to avoid only that which is condemned by the strictness of worldly laws. And if we realize even a little that we are not guilty of this, then we think that there is no sin in us at all. Due to myopia, not seeing small but many impurities in ourselves, we do not have a saving contrition of heart at all, even if the bitterness of sadness touches us. We do not grieve, instigated by the subtle excuse of vanity, we do not cry because we lazily or coldly send up prayer, we do not blame the fact that during psalmody and prayer we allow thoughts about something other than the prayer and psalm itself. Much that we are ashamed to talk about or do in front of people, we are not ashamed to accept with our hearts and are not afraid that it is open to the gaze of God and is contrary to it... We do not cry about the fact that in the most pious deed - almsgiving, when we serve the needs of the brethren or helping those in need, stinginess mars the dignity of a good deed. We do not think that we suffer harm when, having left the memory of God, we think about the temporal and physical, so the following saying of Solomon applies to us: “They struck me, but I was not hurt; they pushed me, but I did not feel” (Proverbs 23 , 35).
Saint Demetrius of Rostov:
Extreme petrification, numbness and insensibility is when someone has a large mortal wound, but does not feel the disease. The last madness is to fall into a hole, into an abyss - and not know this fall, not look at it and not be afraid. It’s like a drunkard, getting immeasurably drunk, who doesn’t understand what’s happening to him, whether they’re beating him, or he himself fell and hurt himself, and he doesn’t remember how they laugh at him; he won’t remember any of this in the morning, as the author of Proverbs said about a drunken man: “They beat me, it didn’t hurt me; they pushed me, I didn’t feel it” (Proverbs 23, 35).... A long-suffering God who does not destroy a sinner with his iniquities, sometimes mercifully fatherly punishes him... But he remains in complete insensibility and negligence: “They beat me,” he says, “it didn’t hurt me.” People and neighbors scold him, seeing his lawless life, full of temptations, they condemn him, they laugh - but he doesn’t worry about that either: “They pushed me,” he says, “I didn’t feel it.” Death follows in his footsteps, wanting to accidentally strike him; after him “the devil walks like a roaring lion,” looking for an opportunity to suddenly devour him (1 Pet. 5:8); Hell also opens its mouth of fire to devour him; the hardened sinner, having come to the depths of evil, neglects all this, his soul does not feel it and is not afraid. Knowing this, beloved, let us not harden our hearts with laziness, carelessness and fearlessness, so as not to fall into petrified insensibility! Saint David exhorts us: “Oh, if only you would now listen to His voice: “Do not harden your hearts” (Ps. 94:7-8), do not harden, but soften, crush with tenderness, the fear of God, and repentance.
Lord God! You Yourself know our weakness, our insensibility and petrification, our mental illness. You yourself heal this illness of ours. Who can heal the soul and heart except You, who created our hearts? Take away from us the heart of stone and place in us a heart of flesh, so that Your words may be written not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the heart.
Every mortal sin that is partially forgiven blinds the eyes of the soul; I say “in part” because as evil as sin is, it hinders the action of God’s grace, which is the light of the soul. Since every person is a sinner, therefore, everyone suffers from spiritual blindness - complete or partial. Partial blindness can be easily healed, but complete blindness is very difficult to heal.
If anyone asks how this darkness is driven away, I will answer: let this spiritual blind man sit along the path of the Orthodox, catholic faith and earnestly, diligently calls out to Christ God: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:38). If carnal lusts begin to hinder him, let him cry even more strongly: “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Then the Heavenly Doctor will stop and command to bring him to Himself through true repentance and will open his eyes with one word of permission given by his spiritual father.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:
Is it a small disease, blindness, which lies on the eyes of the soul and does not allow a person to see God, His destinies and miracles and not to recognize his misfortune and sinfulness? Is it a small disease - the deafness of a soul that does not hear the voice of God? No matter how much the voice of the word hits the soul. God, she doesn't hear him. Is it a small weakness - anger that crushes the soul like a fever in the body? Look at someone who is angry: how he trembles all over. When this is noticeable on the body, what happens in the soul? Envy, hatred and malice, like consumption of the body, eat up the soul so that the body turns pale and fades away from these evil diseases. In a word, there are so many infirmities and illnesses in the soul, so many sinful and harmful passions. As the body has joints or members, so does the soul have thoughts. The body is weak and sick when its members are weak and sick. The soul is sick if it has bad thoughts. Thus Satan wounded the soul, blinded its eyes, and it does not see the light of God! Therefore, Saint David prays: “Open my eyes, and I will see the wonders of Your law” (Ps. 119:18). He stopped her ears, and she did not hear the word of God, and caused her various other illnesses, and left the poor man barely alive, lying in the path of this world.
Remember the blind man who does not see the path, does not know where he is going, does not see anything in front of him, does not see the hole into which he will fall. Think also about spiritual blindness, the sinner stricken by it also does not see good and evil, does not know where he is going, does not see the impending death. Physical blindness is terrible, but mental blindness is even more terrible. It is better not to have bodily than mental vision. This reasoning exhorts us to pray to Christ, who gives sight to the blind: “Look, hear me. Lord my God! Enlighten the eyes of my soul, so that I may not sleep the sleep of death” (Ps. 12:4).
Saint Theophan the Recluse:
“I came into this world for judgment,” says the Lord, “so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:39). Those who do not see are simple people who believed in the Lord in simplicity of heart; and those who see are the scribes of that time, who, due to the pride of their minds, did not believe themselves and forbade the people. They considered themselves sighted and therefore shunned faith in the Lord, which the simple in heart and mind hold tightly to. And, therefore, according to the truth of the Lord, they are blind, but the people are seeing. They are exactly like those birds that see at night but cannot see during the day. The truth of Christ is dark to them, but the opposite of this truth - a lie - seems clear to them: here they are in their element. No matter how obvious it may be, they are still ready to ask: “Are we really blind too?” (John 9:40). Nothing to hide: blind. And since they are blind through their own fault, the sin of blindness and failure to see the light lies with them.
The Gadarenes saw the wondrous miracle of the Lord, revealed in the expulsion of a legion of demons, and, however, the whole city went out and prayed to the Lord to move away from their borders (Matthew 8:28-34). It is not visible that they are hostile to Him, but there is no visible faith either. They were seized by some vague fear, and they only wanted Him to pass by, anywhere, just not touch them. This is a real image of people who have a fairly favorable order of things; they are accustomed to it, there are no thoughts or needs to change or abolish it, and they are afraid to take any new step. Feeling, however, that if a command comes from above, then the fear of God and conscience will force them to abandon the old and accept the new, they in every possible way avoid cases that could lead them to such convictions so that, hiding behind ignorance, they can calmly live in old habits. Such are those who are afraid to read the Gospel and patristic books and start a conversation about spiritual things for fear of disturbing their conscience, which, having awakened, will begin to force them to give up one thing and accept another.
“What especially makes the sacrament of repentance necessary is, on the one hand, the property of sin, and on the other, the property of our conscience. When we sin, we think that not only outside of us, but also in ourselves there are no traces of sin. Between Thus, he leaves deep traces both in us and outside of us - on everything that surrounds us, and especially in heaven, in the definitions of Divine justice. At the hour of sin, it is decided there what the sinner has become: in the book of life he is included in the list of condemned - and became bound in heaven. Divine grace will not descend into him until he is blotted out from the list of the condemned in heaven, until he receives permission there. But God was pleased with heavenly permission - to make heavenly blotting out from the list of condemned people dependent on the permission of those bound by sins to earth. So, accept the Sacrament of repentance in order to receive comprehensive permission and open the entrance to the spirit of grace. ... Go and confess - and you will receive an announcement of forgiveness from God ...
... This is where the Savior truly reveals Himself as the Comforter of the weary and burdened! He who has sincerely repented and confessed through experience knows this truth with his heart, and does not accept it by faith alone.”
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
Ignorance does not know its ignorance, ignorance is satisfied with its knowledge, it is capable of doing a lot of evil, without even suspecting that it is doing it.
Any absent-mindedness and immersion in many worries is certainly connected with deep ignorance of oneself, and such ignorance is always very content and proud of oneself.
Sin and the devil, who wields sin, subtly creep into the mind and heart. Man must be constantly on guard against his invisible enemies. How will he be on this watch when he is given over to absent-mindedness?
It's scary not to admit that you are a sinner! Jesus renounces those who do not recognize themselves as sinners: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).
The consequence of a sinful life is blindness of mind, bitterness, and insensibility of the heart.
God alone can give man the sight of his sins. And the sight of his sin is the sight of his fall, in which is the root, the seed, the germ, the totality of all human sins.
Carried away and blinded by his own sin, he cannot help but be carried away by the social sinful mood: he will not see it with clarity, will not understand it as he should, will not renounce it with selflessness, belonging to it in his heart.
Sin keeps a person enslaved only through incorrect and false concepts... The pernicious incorrectness of these concepts consists... in recognizing as good what is essentially not good, and in not recognizing as evil what, in essence, is murderous evil.
Terrible are the rejoicings of the sons of the world and their incessant absent-mindedness and immersion in worries about perishable things, their intoxication in the deception of the vain world. In this state there is a condition of death.
Attachment to matter and to material success can easily completely embrace a person, embrace his mind, his heart, steal all his time and all his strength: because of my fall, my soul clung to the earth.
The son of this world and this age, living in so-called unchanging prosperity, drowning in unceasing pleasure, amused by unceasing amusements - alas! forgotten, rejected by God.
A friend of the world certainly becomes, perhaps unnoticed by himself, the worst enemy of God and his salvation.
Love for earthly things creeps into the soul like a thief taking advantage of the darkness of the night - negligence, inattention to oneself.
The love of voluptuousness leads a person to the same moral calamity to which the love of money leads a person; love for this world is made up of these three main passions.
Saint Basil the Great:
Sin is a weight that drags the soul to the bottom of hell!
Adam, just as he sinned because of evil will, died because of sin: “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). To the extent that he moved away from life, to the extent he approached death, because God is life, and the deprivation of life is death. Therefore, Adam prepared death for himself through removal from God, according to what is written: “those who remove themselves from You perish” (Ps. 72:27).
Saint Gregory of Nyssa:
The lofty is humiliated, created in the image of the heavenly is grounded, set to reign is enslaved, created for immortality is corrupted by death. Living in heavenly pleasure, he was resettled in this painful and difficult country. Brought up in dispassion - exchanged it for a passionate and short-lived life. Unruly and free - now under the domination of such great and many evils that it is impossible to count our tormentors.
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:
Move away, beloved, from the fire so that your body does not get burned; Avoid sin, so that your body and soul do not burn in unquenchable fire.
Venerable Abba Dorotheos:
As the soul commits sin, it becomes exhausted from it, for sin weakens and exhausts the one who indulges in it; therefore, everything that happens becomes a burden to him.
Saint John Chrysostom:
Sin itself is the greatest punishment, even if we were not punished.
For sins, sorrows are sent, for sins - worries, for sins - illnesses and all the severe suffering that happens to us.
Tremble, sinner, of the coming judgment; with sorrow and tears, resort to repentance. While prayer is still being accepted, pray here so that you may be accepted there. Pray until death comes and carries away your soul, then all prayer and supplication are in vain, then tears are useless.
From sin we get not so much pleasure as sorrow: our conscience cries out, strangers condemn, God becomes angry, Gehenna threatens to engulf us, our thoughts cannot calm down.
Many sin like the Sodomites, but the rain of fire does not fall on them, because the river of fire is prepared for them.
Sin is a cruel ruler, giving wicked orders and dishonoring those who obey him. Therefore, I exhort you, we will run away from his power with great zeal, we will fight with him, we will never put up with him and, freed from him, we will abide in this freedom.
Do not consider yourself safe if you do not grieve for your sins; but especially moan about this, that you do not feel remorse for your iniquities. Your peace of mind does not come from not being bitten by sin, but from the insensibility of a soul given over to sin.
Having insulted a person, you beg friends, neighbors, and the gatekeepers themselves, spend money, waste many days, going to him and begging for forgiveness. And, even if the insulted one drives you away once, and another time, and a thousand times, you do not lag behind, but the more jealously you intensify your prayers. And, having irritated the God of all, we neglect about it, remain cold, luxury, get drunk and do everything we are used to: when will we appease Him?.. On the contrary, by continuing to live like this, aren’t we irritating Him even more? And indeed, unrepentance for sins arouses His anger and indignation much more than the sin itself. We should hide underground, not see the sun and not even use the air because, having such a merciful Master, we irritate Him and, irritating, do not even repent of it. Even in His anger, He not only does not have hatred and disgust towards us, but He also becomes angry in order to at least in this way attract us to Himself; After all, if He, being insulted, repaid you with only good deeds, then you would begin to despise Him even more. To prevent this from happening, He turns His face away from you for a while in order to unite you with Himself forever. So, let us be inspired by the hope of his love for mankind, let us bring zealous repentance before the day comes in which repentance itself will not bring us any benefit.
If a demon suffers when he is expelled from the body, then he suffers much more when he sees a soul freed from sin. Truly, sin is the main demonic force, because of sin Christ died in order to destroy it, death was introduced by sin, and through sin everything is perverted. If you have destroyed sin in yourself, you have cut the veins of the devil, erased his head, destroyed all his power, scattered the army, created a miracle, greater than all miracles.
Sin is an abyss that drags you down into the depths and oppresses you. Just as those who have fallen into a well cannot quickly get out of there and need others to pull them out, so is it the same for those who have fallen into the depths of sins. Let us lower a rope to them and extract them from there; or better to say, it is not only others who are needed here, but also ourselves, so that we ourselves gird ourselves and rise not as much as we fell, but, if we want, much higher. God Himself is a helper, because He does not want the sinner to die, but for him to turn and live (Ezek. 18:23). So, no one despairs, no one is exposed to this disease of the wicked, to whom this sin is characteristic: when he reaches, it is said, the wicked is deeply evil, he is negligent.
Blessed Jerome:
That the paralytic’s sins were forgiven was known only to the Lord, who absolved them. But the effectiveness of the words “get up and walk” (Matthew 9:5) could be testified both by the healed man himself and by those who saw him. Thus, a physical miracle is performed to prove the spiritual, for one power can both forgive the sins of the soul and heal the body. From this we must also understand that we are subject to many bodily illnesses because of our sins.
Saint Theophilus of Antioch:
From sin, as if from a source, illness, sorrow, and suffering poured out onto man.
Venerable Neil of Sinai:
Fear the punishment for sin and be horrified by shame, because the weight of both is immeasurable.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:
“Death, murder, quarrel, sword, disaster, famine, crushing and blows - all this is for the wicked” (Sir. 40, 9). Sins are the cause of all evil, says Saint Chrysostom. Sin is the cause of each and every disaster that happens in the world; if there were no sin, there would be no disasters. Sin appeared in the world, and every calamity followed it. Sin is sweet to people, but its fruits are bitter to them. But a bitter seed also bears bitter fruit.
The prayer of a person who does not want to part with sins will not bring any benefit.
Carnal wisdom produces a multitude of sins.
Every person sins and thereby punishes himself! His greatest sin is execution. He offends another - and is offended himself, offends - and is offended, embitters - and becomes embittered, beats - and is beaten, kills - and is killed, deprives - and is deprived of, slanderes - and is slandered, condemns - and is condemned, blasphemes - and is blasphemed, scolds - and is mocked, deceives - and is seduced, deceives - and is deceived, humiliates - and is humiliated, laughs - and is ridiculed. In a word, no matter what evil he does to his neighbor, he does greater evil to himself: to his neighbor it is physical and temporary, but to himself it is spiritual and eternal. So the sinner fills himself with the measure with which he measures his neighbor in abundance!
Saint Theophan the Recluse:
“Behold, you are healed; sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). Sin affects not only the soul, but also the body. In some cases this is very obvious, in others it is not so clear. But the truth remains the truth that illnesses of the body always and always arise from sins and because of sins. Sin occurs in the Soul and makes it sick. But since the life of the body comes from the soul, then from a sick soul, of course, life is not healthy. The very fact that sin brings darkness and despondency should have an adverse effect on the blood, in which the basis of bodily health. But when you remember that it separates man from God, the source of life, and puts man at odds with all the laws operating both in himself and in nature, then one must still be surprised how the sinner remains alive. This is the mercy of God, awaiting repentance and conversion. Consequently, the sick person, before doing anything else, must hasten to cleanse himself of sins and reconcile himself with God in his conscience. This will pave the way for the beneficial effects of medications. It is known that there was a wonderful doctor who did not begin treatment until the patient confessed and received the Holy Mysteries, and the more severe the illness, the more insistently he demanded this.
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
Deadly sin Orthodox Christian, not cured by proper repentance, subjects the sinner to eternal torment.
Venial sin does not separate a Christian from divine grace and does not kill his soul, as mortal sin does. But venial sins are also harmful when we do not repent of them, but only increase their burden.
Three executions were determined by God's justice for all mankind for the sins of all mankind... The first execution was eternal death, which all humanity suffered at its roots, in its forefathers, for disobedience to God in paradise. The second execution was the global flood for the predominance of the flesh over the spirit allowed by humanity, for the reduction of humanity to the life and dignity of the dumb. The final punishment must be the destruction and death of this visible world for its deviation from the Redeemer.
Sin is the cause of all human sorrows both in time and eternity. Sorrows constitute, as it were, a natural consequence, a natural attribute of sin, just as the suffering produced by bodily ailments constitutes an inevitable attribute of these ailments, an inherent effect.
Returning to sin, which brought upon us the wrath of God, healed and forgiven by God, is the cause of the greatest disasters, mainly eternal, beyond the grave.
The Lord does not recognize intentional and arbitrary sinners, in whom there is no guarantee of correction and repentance, as worthy of sorrow, as those who have not accepted the teachings of Christ.
The poison of sin, cast into every person by the fall and found in every person, acts, according to the Providence of God, in those who are being saved to their essential and greatest benefit.
Remaining in mortal sin, remaining in enslavement to passion is a condition for eternal destruction.
Congratulations to everyone on Great Lent. We can say this: what is sin? Is smoking harmful? - So it’s a sin. Is taking drugs harmful? - Sin. Is it harmful to get drunk on wine? - Also a sin. Is it harmful to overeat? - It’s a sin. That is, we violate the norms of human behavior. In Greek, sin is failure. What does a miss mean? We are going down the stairs, instead of one step we stood on another - we missed, fell and flew down - this is a miss. Or a soldier shot, he wanted to hit the top ten, but the bullet flew past - this is also a miss. We can say: sin is when a person stumbles. When we go to the zone, we often hear that a person stumbled, stole, got into a fight, or killed someone. And there are so many mistakes in life! We suffer and are tormented by our sins, but we always try to blame someone for it. And if we blame, then we make another mistake, because we ourselves are to blame, our sinful life. If the Lord gave us commandments, or rather, a mandate: so that we do not kill, do not rob, do not steal, do not commit adultery, and we do not fulfill this order of the Lord - is the Lord punishing us? - No, ourselves. We begin to grumble: the Lord punished us. No, God is love, and love never punishes anyone. It’s just that when we sin, we punish ourselves. Here is an example, the Venerable Optina Elder Barsanuphius says: look at the blooming sunflowers. Why is a sunflower called a sunflower? Because he is under the sun and the sun follows him all day. But there are cases when the sunflower no longer reaches for the sun, but stands still. It turns out that a worm got into this sunflower, damaged the stem, and it is cut off. So, when our soul reaches out to the Lord, we go to church, read spiritual books, morning and evening prayers, we try to do good to people, observe fasts - and our soul reaches out to the Lord. But it happens that a person is not raised in the Orthodox spirit, does not go to church, does not keep fasts, does not pray to God, does not read spiritual books. Sin has entered into him, and it does not give him life. A person must repent of this sin, and then another life will begin, the Lord will give him grace. If a person has never repented in his life and suddenly turns to God, then all heaven rejoices over the one repentant sinner, because the Lord suffered, was crucified on the cross, and rose again in order to resurrect every person so that his soul could be saved. But sin paralyzes a person, it deprives him of grace. For example, a person has committed a carnal sin, a husband or wife has cheated on each other. What is a mortal sin? This means that the soul lost grace and became dead, became insensitive. Now, if a person sees that a spark of fire has fallen on his clothes, he tries to quickly throw away this spark. If he slowed down, that spark could burn through his dress. If a snake bites a person, he must quickly get rid of the poison, otherwise this poison will pass into the heart and it will stop, the person will die. So Dennitsa sinned in heaven - he became proud, wanted to be above everyone else, on an equal footing with God, and he instilled this in Adam and Eve, and they also committed sin, and this sin entered into all people, and with sin there is death, therefore our sins dragging us to hell. Therefore, we need to pay special attention to this. A person can quickly get rid of sinful thoughts, especially during Lent, when he abstains from food, from sights, from all looks and conversations, and fights against thoughts. As soon as an objectionable thought comes, we must immediately reject it, and we will get rid of thoughts and passions through prayer and fasting. And the person will come to such a state that he will no longer have these sins, although he will consider himself to be completely saturated with sin to the last cell. This normal condition when he feels this way. And when he feels that he has become kind, pure, holy - this is a mistake, a sin, which is in delusion, and therefore will suffer and torment. One day a young woman came to me, she was 23 years old, a healthy athlete.
I say: do you have faith?
Answer: no.
-Do you believe that you have a body?
- Of course, I see my body.
- Does your body hurt?
- No
- What hurts?
-Soul.
- So you have a soul.
-Yes, it turns out that there is.
I began to explain to her what the soul is. It manifests itself through the mind, will, through the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste. Through conscience, love and through a number of other spiritual sensations - this is “I”. And this “I” suffers and suffers. She works as an accountant and says: I am depressed, hysterical, on the verge of suicide. And when we talked with her, I asked her: have you never repented?
-No
-That’s why these sins do not give you spiritual life. We need to repent. So she repented and felt great relief and joy in her soul. Therefore, the Lord left faith and repentance in the church for our salvation. We must believe in the Lord, repent and reform. And the one who repents sincerely, who makes a promise to God to correct himself, God accepts his repentance.
And now the questions.
-Father, before confession in church they read a prayer, and in it there are the words “under the anathema of the fallen.” How to explain this?
-Well, they read, for example, such words as “fell under a curse”, “parental or priestly oath.” This refers to when a person curses himself. The gypsies from Lipetsk especially often do this; they feel free to curse anyone. But as soon as they all come to faith, they no longer deceive anyone and try to keep fasts and go to church. Of course, many of them are illiterate and cannot read prayers, but we allow them to receive communion. They pray and repent sincerely. You should never curse anyone. For example, a mother will say to her daughter or son “damn you,” and at that moment the son or daughter may die.
-Father, how should we treat the holiday of February 23, especially during Lent?
- You can congratulate your friends, but fasting is fasting for everyone. After all, many don’t even know what to cook for Lent. It’s very simple - pasta, porridge, borscht, soup can be prepared, if possible, plant foods. On such a day, you need to congratulate them on the holiday, pray, and order a prayer service for health in the temple. To thank God that He gives us the strength and strength to maintain the faith, to take care of our homeland and to pray for the rulers, so that the Lord will give them wisdom and the Orthodox faith will be strengthened. So that churches and monasteries in Russia and all over the world are opened, so that there is a service to the Lord, the lamps are lit, because common prayer in the church has enormous power.
- What answer does the regent bear before God for the behavior of the singers?
-Well, so that in the choir they don’t talk, don’t laugh, don’t joke. It’s difficult to talk every time, but write it down so that everyone can see it and talk about it often, so that they know that the temple is the house of God, because where the service is performed, it is a piece of heaven on earth. Well, try to have Orthodox people in the choir, believers who had the fear of God.
-Is it possible to administer unction to an unconscious Orthodox person in intensive care?
-If he was an Orthodox church person, he had already confessed, received communion, and if he had already repented and ended up in intensive care. Sometimes such people seem unconscious, they cannot speak, they do not make any movements, but they feel that the priest has come. They can give a sign by moving their eyelids or touching their fingers - if he does this, then unction can be performed. But if a person never repented or did not repent for a very long time, rejected repentance, and when it started, he was already unconscious, then it is useless to confess and receive unction.
- Father, who and how should we pray for the Lord to send a husband?
-This is a very serious question. Pray to the Lord, the Mother of God, your heavenly patron, Saint Nicholas, St. Sergius, Seraphim of Sarov, Peter and Fevronia, many saints. The wife is the other half, the husband is the other half. These are two halves, and they must find themselves in life. Therefore, the ring is put on the finger, but in the ring there is no way out - both joy and sorrow. And they are married forever, and divorce is not allowed. Only as a last resort can you get a divorce when it comes to murder. And the Apostle Paul writes, 1 Corinthians chapter 7: “If divorced, he must remain alone or be reconciled with his wife.”...And at the end it is written: “A wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; if her husband dies, she is free to marry only a believer. "
-Is it allowed to eat seafood such as squid and shrimp during Lent? I have personally encountered two points of view. One is strict, which says: no, this is not plant food, and the other - that it is allowed that in Greece they eat seafood during fasting.
-As many people joke, lard also grows on pigs, but it cannot be considered a plant food. If a person lives a strict fasting life, then, of course, he will not eat. But people like John’s mother are sick, infirm, weak, and can barely carry her body - she will not be forbidden to do this, not a sin.
-This is a painful question for me. The daughter met a young man and went to live with him. Although everyone in the family is against it. Is it possible for her to approach the Chalice? Some say it is possible, others say it is not possible.
-This is called a mortal sin, if she cohabits with him, it is fornication, and you cannot approach the Chalice. Only Orthodox man. Someone who goes to church every Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Observes strictly 4 fasts, as well as on Wednesday and Friday. He reads morning and evening prayers and tries to repent of his sins and live in peace with everyone. These are allowed to receive communion. And if he cohabits with someone without God’s blessing, then he should not be allowed to do so. And then this is a very difficult question, it is at the discretion of the confessor to whom she will approach. Because before, in Tsarist Russia, if a girl met a guy, they could say hello and sit in front of each other and talk. How is it usually done now? They immediately hang themselves on each other, hug, kiss, get excited and commit sins. They no longer live in purity, although they may not have contact - but this is a sin, a person must be pure in soul and body. We need to pay attention to this.
-Father, can a person not see his sins at all?
-Maybe. So, when people come to confession for the first time, they say: “I am kind, good.”
I say, “Don’t you have any sins?”
- “I didn’t kill, I didn’t steal, I’m not like everyone else.” Apparently, the man came with raw, unprocessed material, as I jokingly call it. I joke about some people like this: look, are there a lot of people in the church?
-The temple is so full.
-I cover my eyes with my hand and say, “Do you see people now?”
-No.
-And why?
-And you covered my eyes with your hand.
-So we have an abundance of sins, but our spiritual eyes are closed, and we do not feel or see our sins. There are people who are blind in body and deaf in body, which is why the Lord says: “You see and do not see, you hear and do not hear, because your heart is hardened.” And these people, to whom you remind them what sins are, that they didn’t go to church every Saturday and Sunday, didn’t pray to God, never repented of their sins. And imagine, not living in an apartment for 50 years spring cleaning- what is going to be there? I say, you’ll have to go into this apartment and hold your nose, because there’s tons of dirt there. And when the windows are closed and there is no light, we don’t see this dirt. And when a person throws this dirt out of the apartment, opens the windows, ventilates, then everything turns out to be so good, it’s easy to breathe and the person gets used to living in such a state, when a person does not see or feel what kind of dirt he lives in.
- I have a two-part question. The first one is like this. When you bow to the ground in front of the Chalice, people say, don’t do it, you can’t. And the second is how to learn the Jesus Prayer?
-First, bows. There is a rule that bows are canceled on Saturday and Sunday, and on great holidays. Let’s say that during Lent, bowing in church is allowed, but on Saturday and Sunday it is canceled; you can bow in private. When they come out with the Chalice, then Christ has come out in the Holy Mysteries, and one must bow to him, but many do not know this rule and may be embarrassed, well, go forward so as not to disturb anyone. Bowing is canceled after Easter until Trinity, this is for those who bowed throughout Lent. And especially on weekdays, when it happens Divine Liturgy, during the “Cherubic” - the sacrament has not yet been completed, it will be completed when the Creed is chanted and the priest says “Let us become good, let us become fearful” and the most important moment when the priest says: “Your offering from Yours to You for all and for all” and the choir sings “We sing to you, we bless you.” On weekdays you can kneel, and especially when “It is worthy to eat,” you can bow to the ground, because from the bread and wine the transformation into the Body and Blood of the Lord took place. And when a person approaches the Chalice, he does not accept part of the body of Christ, but the living Christ enters into every person - this is why the church is strong. Now about the Jesus Prayer. When a person reads the prayer of Jesus with attention: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, he must put his whole mind into the words of the prayer so that there is a feeling of repentance. When a beggar and a hungry person asks: give me bread, I haven’t eaten for several days, and a person should ask for forgiveness with tears. While a person is reading this a short prayer, the soul is sanctified, the body, clothes, air and evil spirits are afraid to approach this place. This prayer must be read with a feeling of repentance, without haste, prolonging the words, stretching them out, and so that the last words, “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” enter the soul. And one man, he said this: whoever reads this Jesus Prayer with attention, with a repentant feeling, then the Lord in the secret place of his heart says to him: my child, your sins are forgiven you with each pronunciation of the Jesus Prayer. This is a huge value, this is an abbreviated Gospel in eight words. There are calls from God and a feeling of repentance. If a person reads this prayer continuously from morning to evening, then a miracle occurs. After all, it is said that if a person prays and does not feel the Lord and does not see Him, then when the soul leaves the body, he will not feel or see the Lord in the spiritual world. Here John of Damascus says: how can you see the Lord? But you need to read the Jesus Prayer, and when a person reads this short prayer all day, he will feel the Lord and see Him. Even Macarius the Great says: when you are praying and suddenly you feel that a three-headed serpent is coming out of you, do not be afraid, continue to pray, it will come out of you, and you will receive freedom. Your soul will be joyful, peaceful, quiet, calm - all passions will go away. The Lord, when a person is born, gives him energy so that over several decades of life a person prepares himself for the spiritual world and achieves some great virtues, especially humility. When a person prays, repents, performs deeds, bows, fasts - this is not a goal, these are means, the Lord does not need this - we need this. But the Lord needs pure heart, God needs humility - this is the most important thing, and He Himself says: “Son, give me your heart.” And the Jesus Prayer will help a person. How to accustom yourself to prayer? In the morning, as soon as you got up in the morning, you immediately began to pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” you need to get up, make three bows, Lord, thank you for last night, bless me for today, save me from all visible enemies and invisible and also the Mother of God, Guardian Angel, got dressed, put yourself in order and with prayer you need to wash your face and you need to read the prayer after morning prayers, after the Gospel 500 times with attention. But at first you can do 50, if you have never prayed, then 100, then even more. This prayer will become attached to the heart, and then you cannot tear the person away from this prayer. And wherever he is, and no matter what he does, this prayer will always be with him. And it is said that a humble person completely surrenders into the hands of God by reading this short Jesus Prayer. And no matter what happened to him - he got into a catastrophe, his house burned down, all his wealth was lost, his money was gone, he ended up in prison, or on the operating table - he is completely devoted to God, he has joy, peace and tranquility in his soul, because that he is with God. Because this life is temporary, here we are only preparing for eternity. No matter how long we live, we still have to die. The child was born, and every day he was getting closer and closer to death. After all, look how many people are lying in bed, listening to the radio, but not today - tomorrow Mother Death will come, and of course it is very valuable to thank the Lord for the life you have lived and say, Lord! I had a lot of sins, you, as God, forgive me. When Christ was crucified between two thieves, the robber on the left thought that Christ was a simple man and if He were God, He would come down from the cross and save us. And he even began to say this: come down from the cross and save us. And according to right side the robber showed humility, considered himself unworthy to enter the abode of paradise, but only said, “Lord!” When you come to the Kingdom of God, remember me there - look, what great humility, he did not think that he could get there, but the Lord said: today you will be with me in paradise. This is the value of humility. But the Jesus Prayer will teach us humility; it will help us see our sins. Especially many women, when they come to confession, suffer from the serious sin of idle talk. So much chatter, you have to say some sin, you can’t wait for her to say it. So many words set.
I say: no need to say anything, just say it in one word - you fell into sin, that’s all. And then she went, left and met there - in a word, everything is clear. So the Jesus Prayer, if someone reads it constantly from morning to evening, if a person sincerely repents, prays, considers himself a great sinner, then when the soul leaves the body, the angels will take this soul into their arms, and when it goes through ordeals, evil spirits only from afar they will shout, O man, what honor you have received from God and how you were saved from our tormenting hands because the Jesus Prayer burns them like fire and surrounds a person like fire. We say that evil spirits cannot approach a person because the word of God burns everything, the name of God burns everything. evil spirits and of course there can be no higher prayer than this. Those people who are subjected to mental stress, or those who are in great carnal passion, this prayer cannot be read to them, but best of all is the prayer of repentance - God be merciful to me, a sinner. Read prayers of repentance and ask the Lord and, of course, humble yourself, do not judge anyone, do not say bad things about anyone, but say only good things.
- Father, I wanted to ask, can I read the Jesus Prayer for my son and grandson?
-Well, when your son is hungry, you can eat for him in the refectory and drink tea. Well, of course, you need to pray like this: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners, and pray for your son, Lord! Lead him to faith, to salvation, so that his soul does not perish - in your own words. These words immediately go to heaven, from earth to heaven.
- Is it possible to go to confession without a serious feeling of repentance?
-When a person feels bad in his soul, he goes to repent. For example, a girl in a white dress was walking and a car came and sprayed dirty water her dress from the puddle. It is clear that she should not wear this dress for a week, two, three. She must quickly take it off, wash it, iron it and put it on. In the same way, when sin appears on the soul, it is very difficult to walk with it, because the soul can become insensitive. Let's say a person committed a sin. If he doesn’t repent, what happens?! When a person from Moscow arrives, he can see Moscow. Further he passes - Moscow becomes smaller and smaller, and disappears. Likewise, if he has committed a sin and does not repent, then he remains somewhere in the distance, and he accumulates a lot of these sins and he does not see or feel them.
- How do you feel about the sentencing of the Russian patriot, editor of the newspaper “Rus Pravoslavnaya” Konstantin Dushenov. He was given three years of settlement under Article 282 of the anti-Russian law.
-To be honest, we are not very aware, since the monasteries do not really monitor this kind of events, and therefore it is very difficult for us to comment.
According to St. Fathers, repentance is the essence of Christian life. Accordingly, the chapters on repentance are the most important part of the patristic books.
St. Ignatiy Brianchaninov
“The power of repentance is based on the power of God: the Physician is omnipotent - and the healing given by Him is omnipotent.”
Sinners, let us take heart. For us, precisely for us, the Lord accomplished the great work of becoming man; He looked upon our ailments with incomprehensible mercy. Let us stop hesitating; Let's stop being discouraged and doubting! Filled with faith, zeal and gratitude, let us begin repentance: through it we will be reconciled with God...
You are dying, O house of Israel! Why are you Christians perishing from your sins with eternal death? Why is hell filled with you, no matter how almighty repentance has been established in the Church of Christ? This infinitely good gift was given to the house of Israel - Christians - and at whatever time of life it acts with the same power: it cleanses every sin, saves everyone who runs to God, even if it was in the last dying minutes...
This is why Christians perish with eternal death because during their entire earthly life they engage in one violation of the vows of baptism; only serving sin... because they do not pay the slightest attention to the Word of God, which proclaims to them about repentance. In the very moments before death, they do not know how to use the almighty power of repentance! They don’t know how to use it because they haven’t received any concept of Christianity, or they have received the most insufficient and confusing concept...
God sees your sins: He long-sufferingly looks at... the chain of sins that made up your whole life; He awaits your repentance, and at the same time leaves to your free will the choice of your salvation or destruction. And you abuse the kindness and long-suffering of God!
St. Tikhon Zadonsky
“Great evil is sin. For sin is a crime and destruction of the eternal and unchangeable law of God. Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).
We see in the world that there are many and different illnesses in people, among whom we also see that a person is covered in wounds and ulcers. As wounds and ulcers are to a man, so are sins and iniquities to the soul of a sinner. The body is wounded and covered with wounds: the soul of a sinful person is wounded and wounded by sins. It happens that ulcers and bodily wounds stink and rot; The psalmist speaks about this: my wounds have become stinking and rotten because of my madness (Ps. 37:6)... It is cruel, beloved Christian, for a person to be in wounds all over... but it is far crueler for a soul to be in its sinful and stinking wounds. The body is mortal and perishable, but the soul is immortal and incorruptible; when now she is not healed from her wounds, she will stand in those wounds before the Judge in judgment, and will remain so forever and ever... Her wounds and ulcers are pride, malice, impurity, love of money, and so on... Poor sinner! It’s enough to be wounded: it’s time to be treated, it’s time to apply plasters of repentance to ulcers and wounds. You heal a sick body: your soul is exhausted from wounds and ulcers, and you neglect it! O poor sinners! Let us resort with faith to Jesus Christ, the Physician of souls and bodies... and let us lift up the voice of the ten lepers from the depths of our hearts to Him: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us (Luke 17:12-13)... Heal me, O Lord, for I have sinned against You!
Right John of Kronstadt
Great and incomprehensible... is God’s mercy towards repentant sinners.
In order to see more clearly for us the immensity of this mercy, let us think: what is sin? Sin is rebellion, the rebellion of a creature against the Creator, disobedience to the Creator, betrayal of Him, admiration of Divine honor for oneself... you will be like gods (Genesis 3, 5), - the serpent whispered in the ears of Eve, as he now whispers to the sinner... Sin gave birth to all the disasters in the world and all diseases - famines, destruction... wars, fires, earthquakes... Sin has produced and is producing terrible evil... the tears of the entire human race are not enough to mourn the terrible consequences of sin in the world. If the mercy of the Son of God, with the blessing of God the Father and the intercession of the Holy Spirit, had not sought the lost, what would have happened to all of us, to all people? And it’s terrible to think, not only to experience... the torment that would befall rejected sinners: they would be forever consumed... by the unquenchable flames of hell. But the Son of Man, the Son of God, came to seek and save what was lost (Matthew 12:11). And now you and I have been found and saved: the doors of mercy have been opened to us. Come each one with your soul depressed by sins to the servant of God; repent sincerely, lament your sins from the heart, abhor them, hate them with all your soul, which they deserve, have a firm intention of correction, believe in Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world - and you will hear the longed-for voice of the Lord: “Child, they are forgiven your sins..."
Prepared by Lyudmila Kuznetsova
Venerable Macarius of Egypt:
If someone says: “I am rich (in spirit), I have had enough and what I have acquired is no longer needed,” then he is not a Christian, but a vessel of the devil’s deception.
With all caution one must observe the intrigues, deceptions and evil actions arranged by the enemy (the devil) from all sides. Just as the Holy Spirit, through Paul, serves everyone for everyone (1 Cor. 9:22), so the evil spirit evilly tries to be everything to everyone in order to bring everyone down to destruction. With those who pray, he pretends to be praying, so as to make him arrogant about prayer; He fasts with those who are fasting in order to seduce them with self-conceit and drive them into a frenzy; with those knowledgeable in the Holy Scriptures, and he rushes into the study of Scripture, apparently seeking knowledge, but in essence trying to lead them to a false understanding of Scripture; with those who have been rewarded with the illumination of light, he also appears to have this gift, as Paul says: Satan is transformed into an angel of light, so that he can be deceived by the apparition of a kind of light, and attracted to himself. It’s easy to say: he takes upon himself all sorts of appearances for everyone, so that by an action similar to the action of good, he can enslave the ascetic for himself, and, covering himself with appearances, overthrow him into destruction.
Woe to the soul that does not feel its ulcers and thinks of itself, because of the great, immeasurable damage by malice, that it is completely alien to damage by malice. Such a soul is no longer visited and healed by the good Physician, as if she arbitrarily left her ulcers without caring for them, and imagines herself to be healthy and blameless. They don’t require, He says, the doctor’s health, but those who are sick.
Venerable John Climacus:
No matter how sublime our exploits may be, if we have not acquired a sick heart, then these exploits are both false and futile.
Venerable Gregory of Sinaite:
For after pride comes delusion (from dreams), after delusion - blasphemy, after blasphemy - insurance, after insurance - trembling, after trembling - madness from the mind.
Inflaming the whole nature and darkening the mind by combination with dreamed idols, she drives him into a frenzy of intoxication from her scorching effect and makes him mad.
It should be known that delusion has three main reasons for which it occurs: pride, envy of demons, and punitive tolerance. These are the same reasons: pride - vain frivolity (or vanity), envy - prosperity, punitive indulgence - sinful life. – The delusion of envy and proud conceit is more likely to be healed, especially if someone humbles himself. But punitive delusion—handing over to Satan for sin—is often tolerated by God through abandonment even to death. It happens that innocent people are given over to torment (by demons) in order to be saved. It should be known that the very spirit of proud conceit sometimes makes predictions in those who do not carefully listen to their hearts.
If anyone, with arrogance based on conceit, dreams of achieving high states of prayer, and has acquired not true, but satanic zeal, the devil conveniently entangles him with his nets, as his servant.
The free will of man conveniently bows to communication with our opponents, especially the will of the inexperienced, new to the feat, as if still possessed by demons. Demons are nearby and surround beginners and self-starters, spreading networks of thoughts and harmful dreams, creating abysses of falls. The city of the novices - the entire being of each of them - is still in the possession of the barbarians... Do not quickly give in to what appears to you with frivolity, but remain hard, holding on to the good with much consideration, and rejecting the evil... Know that the actions of grace are clear; the demon cannot teach them; he cannot teach meekness, quietness, humility, or hatred of the world; it does not tame passions and voluptuousness, as grace does.
Do not accept anything if you see anything, with your sensual eyes or mind, outside or inside you, whether it be the image of Christ, or an Angel, or some Saint, or if the light appears to you... Be attentive and careful! do not allow yourself to trust anything, do not express sympathy and consent, do not hastily trust a phenomenon, even if it is true and good; remain cold and alien to it, constantly keeping your mind formless, not forming any image and not imprinted by any image. He who sees something in thought or sensually, even if it were from God, and accepts it hastily and conveniently falls into delusion, at least revealing his inclination and ability for delusion, as one who accepts phenomena quickly and frivolously. The beginner must pay all attention to one action of the heart, recognize this one action as unattractive, and not accept anything else until the time of entering dispassion. God is not angry with someone who, fearing delusion, watches himself with extreme caution, even if he does not accept something sent from God without examining what was sent with all care; on the contrary, God praises such a person for his prudence.
Saint Simeon the New Theologian on the dreamer’s prayer:
He raises his hands, eyes and mind to heaven, imagines in his mind” - like Klopstock and Milton - “Divine conferences, heavenly blessings, orders of holy Angels, villages of saints, in short, he collects in his imagination everything that he heard in the Divine Scripture, considers during prayer, he looks at the sky, with all this arouses his soul to Divine desire and love, sometimes sheds tears and cries. Thus, little by little his heart becomes proud, without understanding it with his mind; he imagines that what he does is the fruit of Divine grace for his consolation, and prays to God to grant him to always remain in this work. This is a sign of charm. Such a person, even if he remains completely silent, cannot help but be subject to insanity and madness. If this does not happen to him, however, it is impossible for him to ever achieve spiritual intelligence and virtue or dispassion. Thus those who saw the light and radiance with these bodily eyes, those who smelled the incense with their sense of smell, and those who heard voices with their ears were deceived. Some of them became enraged and moved from place to place, mentally damaged; others accepted the demon, transformed into a bright angel, were deceived and remained uncorrected, even to the end, not accepting advice from any of the brethren; some of them, taught by the devil, killed themselves: some fell into the abyss, others hanged themselves. And who can count the various deceptions of the devil with which he deceives, and which are inscrutable? However, from what we have said, any reasonable person can learn what harm comes from this way of prayer. If one of those who use it is not subjected to any of the above-mentioned disasters due to cohabitation with the brethren, because most hermits living alone are exposed to such disasters, but such a person spends his entire life unsuccessfully.
Rev. Maxim Kapsokalivit:
He who sees the spirit of delusion - in the phenomena represented by it - is very often exposed to rage and anger; the fragrance of humility or prayer, or true tears has no place in him. On the contrary, he constantly boasts of his virtues, is vain, and always indulges in evil passions fearlessly.
Venerable Nicodemus the Holy Mountain:
True Christian ascetics fast to humble their flesh; They keep vigils to sharpen the eye of the mind... they bind their tongues in silence and seclude themselves in order to avoid the slightest reason for offending the All-Holy God. They say prayers, attend church services and perform other acts of piety so that their attention does not depart from the things of heaven. They read about the life and sufferings of our Lord in order to better understand their own badness and the gracious goodness of God; to learn and decide to follow the Lord Jesus Christ with selflessness and the cross on your shoulders and to more and more kindle in yourself love for God and kindness. But, on the other hand, these same virtues can cause more harm to those who place the entire foundation of their life and their hope in them than their obvious shortcomings. The virtues themselves are pious and holy, but some people do not use them as they should. Heeding only these virtues, externally performed, they leave their hearts to follow their own will and the will of the devil, who, seeing that they have left the right path, not only does not prevent them from struggling in these bodily exploits, but also strengthens them in their vain thoughts. Experiencing certain spiritual states and consolations at the same time, these ascetics believe that they have already risen to the state of the ranks of angels, and feel within themselves, as it were, the presence of God Himself. Sometimes, having delved into the contemplation of some abstract, non-earthly things, they imagine that they have completely left the realm of this world and are caught up to the third heaven... They are in great danger. Having their inner eye, that is, their mind, darkened, they look at themselves with it and look incorrectly. Considering their external deeds of piety to be very worthy, they think that they have already achieved perfection and, becoming proud of this, begin to condemn others. After this, it is no longer possible for any of the people to convert them, except for the special influence of God. It is more convenient for an open sinner to turn to goodness than for one who has hidden himself under the cover of visible virtues.
Venerable Macarius of Optina:
You want to see that you live well and are saved, but you don’t understand that charm is born from this, and infirmities humble us.
The main reason for delusion, in any case, is pride and self-rule.
Venerable Leo of Optina:
Do you deign to know what delusion is: delusions are varied and have an effect; as the mind and heart are elevated, one becomes darkened and captivated by opinion and preoccupation with oneself, and thinking itself believes the opinions and dreams presented to it by the universal enemy - the devil, and thereby becomes frantic and utters those absurdities, as he imagines from his opinions and dreams, and this means charm.
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):
The source of delusion, like all evil, is the devil, and not any virtue.
The beginning of delusion is pride, and its fruit is abundant pride.
St. Gregory of Sinaite says: “In general, there is only one cause of delusion - pride.” In human pride, which is self-deception, the devil finds a convenient refuge for himself, and adds his deception to human self-deception. Every person is more or less prone to prelest: because the purest human nature has something proud in it.
Saint Simeon the New Theologian, speaking about the failure of prayer asceticism and the tares of delusion that arise from it, attributes the cause of both failure and delusion to the failure to maintain correctness and gradualness in the asceticism.
The warnings of the fathers are sound! You must be very careful, you must protect yourself very much from self-delusion and charm. In our time, with the complete impoverishment of God-inspired mentors, we need special caution, special vigilance over oneself.
Just as pride is generally the cause of delusion, so humility - a virtue directly opposite to pride - serves as a sure warning and protection from delusion. Saint John Climacus called humility the destruction of passions.
Prelest is the damage to human nature by lies. Delusion is the state of all people, without exception, produced by the fall of our forefathers. We are all in delight. Knowing this is the greatest protection against delusion. The greatest charm is to recognize oneself as free from delusion. We are all deceived, we are all deceived, we are all in a false state, we need liberation by the truth. The truth is our Lord Jesus Christ.
The beginning of evil is a false thought! The source of self-delusion and demonic delusion is a false thought! The cause of various harm and destruction is a false thought! Through lies, the devil struck humanity with eternal death at its very roots, in its forefathers. Our forefathers were deceived, that is, they recognized a lie as the truth, and, accepting a lie under the guise of truth, they damaged themselves with incurably deadly sin...
Prelest is the assimilation by a person of a lie that he accepts as the truth. Charm acts initially on the way of thinking; Having been accepted and, having distorted the way of thinking, it is immediately communicated to the heart, distorting the heart’s sensations; Having mastered the essence of a person, it spills over all his activities, poisoning the body itself, as inextricably linked by the Creator with the soul. The state of delusion is a state of destruction or eternal death.
Since the fall of man, the devil has had constant free access to him. The devil has the right to this access: to his power, by obedience to him, man arbitrarily subjected himself, rejecting obedience to God. God redeemed man. The redeemed man is given the freedom to obey either God or the devil, and in order for this freedom to manifest itself spontaneously, the devil is given access to man. It is very natural that the devil uses every effort to keep a person in the same attitude towards himself, or even to bring him into greater enslavement. To do this, he uses his former and ever-present weapon - lies. He tries to seduce and deceive us, relying on our state of self-delusion; our passions - these painful attractions - he sets in motion; their destructive demands are clothed in plausibility, and are strengthened to incline us to the satisfaction of passions. He who is faithful to the Word of God does not allow himself this satisfaction, curbs passions, repels the attacks of the enemy; acting under the guidance of the Gospel against his own self-delusion, taming passions, thereby gradually destroying the influence of fallen spirits on himself, he little by little emerges from the state of delusion into the realm of truth and freedom, the fullness of which is delivered by the overshadowing of Divine grace. He who is unfaithful to the teachings of Christ, following his own will and reason, submits to the enemy and moves from a state of self-delusion to a state of demonic delusion, loses the remainder of his freedom, and enters into complete submission to the devil. The state of people in demonic delusion can be very diverse, corresponding to the passion by which a person is seduced and enslaved, corresponding to the degree to which a person is enslaved by passion. But all those who have fallen into demonic delusion, that is, through the development of their own self-delusion, who have entered into communication with the devil and enslavement to him, are in delusion, they are temples and tools of demons, victims of eternal death, life in the prisons of hell.
All types of demonic delusion to which the ascetic of prayer is subjected arises from the fact that repentance is not placed at the basis of prayer, that repentance has not become the source, the soul, the goal of prayer.
Repentance, contrition of spirit, crying are signs... of the correctness of the prayer feat, their absence is a sign of deviation in the wrong direction, a sign of self-delusion, delusion or infertility.
Delusion or infertility are an inevitable consequence of improper exercise in prayer, and improper exercise in prayer is inseparable from self-delusion. The most dangerous incorrect form of prayer is when the person praying uses the power of imagination to create his own dreams or pictures, apparently borrowing them from Holy Scripture, in essence, from his own state, from his fall, from his sinfulness, from his self-delusion - with these pictures he flatters his conceit, his vanity, his arrogance, his pride, he deceives himself.
The dreamer, from the first step on the path of prayer, starts from the realm of truth, enters the realm of lies, the realm of Satan, and arbitrarily submits to the influence of Satan.
All the Holy Fathers, who described the feat of mental prayer, forbid not only making up arbitrary dreams, but also bowing with will and sympathy to dreams and ghosts that may present themselves to us unexpectedly, regardless of our will.
Just as wrong action with the mind leads into self-deception and delusion, so exactly does wrong action with the heart lead into them. Filled with reckless pride, the desire and desire to see spiritual visions with a mind that is not cleansed of passions, not renewed and not recreated by the right hand of the Holy Spirit; filled with the same pride and recklessness, the desire and desire of the heart to enjoy holy, spiritual, Divine sensations, when it is still completely incapable of such pleasures. Just as an unclean mind, wanting to see Divine visions and not being able to see them, composes visions for itself, deceives itself and deceives itself with them, so the heart, intensifying to taste Divine sweetness and other Divine sensations, and not finding them in itself, composes them from himself, flatters himself with them, seduces, deceives, destroys himself, entering the realm of lies, into communication with demons, submitting to their influence, enslaving to their power.
One sensation of all the sensations of the heart, in its state of fall, can be used in invisible Divine services: sadness about sins, about sinfulness, about the fall, about one’s destruction, called crying, repentance, contrition of the spirit. ...Let us take care to cleanse ourselves through repentance! ...The Lord, having mercy on fallen and lost people, granted repentance to everyone as the only means of salvation, because everyone was overwhelmed by fall and destruction.
...the ascetics of prayer are exposed to disaster, those who have poured out repentance from their feat, who are trying to arouse love for God in their hearts, who are trying to feel pleasure and delight; they develop their fall, make themselves alien to God, enter into communication with Satan, and become infected with hatred of the Holy Spirit. This kind of charm is terrible; it is equally destructive to the soul as the first, but is less obvious, it rarely ends in madness and suicide, but it decisively corrupts both the mind and the heart. Based on the state of mind it produces, the fathers called it opinion.
He who is obsessed with this delusion thinks of himself, has created an “opinion” about himself, that he has many virtues and virtues, even that he is abounding in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Opinion is made up of false concepts and false sensations: according to this property, it completely belongs to the realm of the father and representative of lies - the devil. The person praying, striving to reveal the sensations of a new person in his heart, and not having any opportunity to do so, replaces them with sensations of his own creation, counterfeit ones, to which the action of fallen spirits is not slow to join. Having recognized the wrong sensations, his own and the demonic, as true and grace-filled, he receives concepts corresponding to the sensations. These sensations, constantly assimilated by the heart and intensified in it, nourish and multiply false concepts; Naturally, from such an incorrect feat, self-delusion and demonic delusion are formed - “opinion”.
... “opinion” consists of appropriating for oneself the merits given by God, and in inventing for oneself virtues that do not exist.
There is no longer any ability for spiritual success in those infected with “opinion”; they destroyed this ability, bringing to the altar of lies the very beginnings of human activity and his salvation...
Anyone who does not have a contrite spirit, who recognizes any merits and merits in himself, anyone who does not steadfastly adhere to the teachings Orthodox Church, but he who argues about any dogma or tradition arbitrarily, at his own discretion, or according to heterodox teaching, is in this delusion. The degree of evasion and persistence in evasion determines the degree of prelest.
…“opinion” - acts without creating seductive pictures; she is content with inventing counterfeit, grace-filled sensations and states, from which a false, perverse concept of all spiritual achievement is born. He who is in the delusion of “opinion” acquires a false view of everything around him. He is deceived both within himself and without. Daydreaming... constantly creates pseudo-spiritual states, close friendship with Jesus, internal conversation with Him, mysterious revelations, voices, pleasures, builds on them a false concept of oneself and of the Christian feat, builds a generally false way of thinking and a false mood of the heart, leading to ecstasy himself, then into excitement and enthusiasm. These various sensations arise from the action of refined vanity and voluptuousness... Vanity and voluptuousness are aroused by arrogance, this inseparable companion of “opinion.” Terrible pride, similar to the pride of demons, is the dominant quality of those who have acquired both charms. Pride leads those seduced by the first type of charm into a state of obvious insanity; in those deceived by the second type, it, also producing mental damage, called corruption of the mind in Scripture, is less noticeable, clothed in the guise of humility, piety, wisdom, and is known by its bitter fruits. Those infected with an “opinion” about their own merits, especially about their holiness, are capable and ready for all intrigues, all hypocrisy, deceit and deception, all atrocities.
Those obsessed with “opinion” are for the most part given over to voluptuousness, despite the fact that they attribute to themselves the most sublime spiritual states, unparalleled in correct Orthodox asceticism...
All particular types of self-delusion and seduction by demons... occur either from the wrong action of the mind, or from the wrong action of the heart.
Rejection of the system in the study of science is a source of false concepts... such is also the consequence of disordered exercise in prayer. The inevitable, natural consequence of such an exercise is delight.
In the false thought of the mind, the entire building of delight already exists, just as the plant that should come from it exists in a grain.
Prelest... this is what self-delusion, combined with demonic seduction, is called in monastic language, is an indispensable consequence of premature withdrawal into deep solitude or a special feat in cell solitude.
A type of delusion based on arrogance, called “opinion” by the Holy Fathers, lies in the fact that the ascetic accepts false concepts about spiritual objects and about himself, considering them true.
“If there is an expectation of grace in you, beware: you are in a dangerous position! Such an expectation indicates secret self-esteem, and honor indicates hidden conceit, in which there is pride. Pride conveniently follows, charm conveniently clings to it.”
“Love God as He commanded to love Him, and not as self-deluded dreamers think to love Him.
Do not invent delights for yourself, do not set your nerves in motion, do not inflame yourself with material flame, with the flame of your blood. A sacrifice acceptable to God is humility of heart, contrition of spirit.
Love for God is based on love for neighbor. When the memory of malice is erased from you, then you are close to love. When your heart is overshadowed by holy, gracious peace for all humanity: then you are at the very doors of love.
But these doors are opened only by the Holy Spirit. Love for God is a gift of God in a person who has prepared himself to accept this gift with purity of heart, mind and body.
Natural love, fallen love, warms a person’s blood, sets his nerves in motion, arouses daydreaming; holy love cools the blood, calms both soul and body, attracts inner man to prayerful silence, immerses him in the rapture of humility and spiritual sweetness.
Many ascetics, mistaking natural love for Divine love, heated their blood and inflamed their dreaminess. The state of excitement very easily turns into a state of frenzy. Those who were in the heat and frenzy were considered by many to be filled with grace and holiness, and they were the unfortunate victims of self-delusion.
Fathers of the true Church, ascend with humility to the spiritual heights of Divine love through keeping the commandments of Christ.
Know firmly that love for God is the highest gift of the Holy Spirit, and a person can only prepare himself with purity and humility to accept this great gift, by which the mind, heart, and body are changed. Labor is in vain, it is fruitless and harmful when we seek to prematurely reveal high spiritual gifts in ourselves: they are given by the merciful God in due time to constant, patient, humble performers of the Gospel commandments.”
Spiritual flower garden
Holy Fathers on smoking
Man has perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For the sense of smell and taste, and partly for the breath itself, he invented and almost constantly burns sharp and odorous smoke, bringing this, as if a constant censer, to the demon living in the flesh, infects the air of his home and the outside air with this smoke, and first of all is saturated with this stench yourself - and here you are, the constant coarsening of your feelings and your heart, constantly absorbed by smoke, cannot but affect the subtlety of heartfelt feelings, it imparts to it fleshiness, coarseness, sensuality.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt
Tobacco weakens the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health with a slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the pain of the soul from smoking.
Venerable Ambrose of Optina
In 1905 Athonite elder Silouan spent several months in Russia, often visiting monasteries. On one of these train journeys, he took a seat opposite a merchant, who, with a friendly gesture, opened his silver cigarette case in front of him and offered him a cigarette.
Father Silouan thanked for the offer, refusing to take a cigarette. Then the merchant began to say: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? But smoking often helps in an active life; It’s good to take a break from the stress of work and rest for a few minutes. It’s convenient to have a business or friendly conversation while smoking and, in general, in the course of life...” And then, trying to convince Father Silouan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.
Then, after all, Father Silouan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one “Our Father.” To this the merchant replied: “Praying before smoking somehow doesn’t work.” Father Silouan remarked in response:
“So, any task that is not preceded by unconcerned prayer is better not to do.”
From the history of the spread of sin
When Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador on October 12, 1492, he and his companions were amazed by an unprecedented sight: the red-skinned inhabitants of the island were releasing clouds of smoke from their mouths and noses!.. The fact was that the Indians were celebrating a sacred holiday at which they smoked a special herb (a rolled up dried leaf of it - a kind of modern cigar - was called "tobacco" among them, hence the current name) - until complete stupor, it must be added, and in this state they entered into communication with demons and then told what he said to them "Great Spirit"
Upon arrival to the homeland of our sailors, those who whispered in the ears of the Indians also whispered to these, so that they would introduce the European public to a new “pleasure”.
And so, with the favorable participation and secret excitement from demons, a literally rampant smoking fever began throughout Europe and even Asia. Whatever the government and clergy did to stop this evil, nothing helped!
Bishop Varnava (Belyaev)
About the dangers of smoking for health
Much has been said and written about the dangers of smoking. As a doctor, I will just remind you that tobacco contains about thirty substances harmful to health. The most dangerous of them is considered to be nicotine alkaloid. Among smokers, there are especially many patients with bronchopulmonary diseases. And perhaps the most dangerous consequence of smoking is lung cancer. The fact is that tobacco smoke contains carcinogens (causing cancerous tumor substances). This is, for example, benzopyrene and its derivatives.
There are many smokers. Among them are all age categories: from children to the elderly. Boys and girls smoke, women smoke, even some pregnant women smoke...
In Moscow, according to the study, the age of initiation of smoking has dropped to 10 years for boys and 12 years for girls. An unfortunate reality.
It must be said that smoking has a particularly harmful effect on children’s bodies. Among other things, the teenager develops a complex of neuropsychic abnormalities. Attention, memory, sleep suffer, and mood “jumps.”
Smokers develop nicotine syndrome. This is the same addiction as alcohol and drugs, only less destructive to health. But how can I say it? After all, lung cancer is not an argument in favor of the harmlessness (according to some) of this addiction.
By the way, it should also be mentioned that according to the new classification of diseases, which came into force in 1999, tobacco addiction is officially recognized as an illness. And we will add - sinful. Since smoking is self-indulgence, it is a form of self-indulgence. It is rightly said that smoking is incense for demons.
Soulful reading
The biography contains a story about the healing of his wife from a serious illness and another miracle associated with this, namely, his deliverance from the long-term vice of smoking.
“...July 7, 1909. Tonight I had a severe attack of suffocating cough. Serves it right! - it’s all from smoking, which I can’t quit, and I’ve been smoking since the third grade of high school and now I’m so thoroughly saturated with nicotine that it’s probably already become integral part my blood. It takes a miracle to snatch me from the clutches of this vice, but I don’t have enough willpower to do it. I tried to quit smoking, didn’t smoke for two days at a time, but the result was that I was overcome with such melancholy and embitterment that this new sin became more bitter than the old one. O. Barsanuphius forbade me to even make such attempts, limiting my daily portion of smoking to fifteen cigarettes. Before I smoked endlessly...”
This was said in part 1, “On the Bank of God’s River,” page 230. Now comes the sent manuscript 32: “Your hour will come,” said Fr. Barsanuphius, “and the smoking will come to an end.” “Hope, don’t despair: in due time, God willing, you’ll quit,” Fr. told me about the same smoking, which I couldn’t get behind. Joseph. And this miracle, according to the word of both elders, happened to me. And it was like that.
We live with my friend, my God-given wife, which is called soul to soul, in the full sense of the Gospel word, so that we are not two, but one flesh. This great mercy of God, given to us from above, according to our deep and convinced faith in the sacrament of marriage, which we both at one time approached with fear and trembling. And so, in June 1910, my wife fell ill with some strange illness, which neither the Optina paramedic nor the invited doctor could identify: in the morning she was almost healthy, but in the evening her temperature reached 40°C. And so it goes for a week, and another, and a third! I see my joy melting before my eyes, melting like a wax candle and is about to flare up for the last time and go out. And then my orphaned heart was filled with great, immeasurably great melancholy and sorrow, and I fell prostrate before the icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk, which stood in the corner of my office, and I cried before Her, and was horrified and grieved, and told Her as if alive: “ My Mother Queen, Blessed Virgin Mary! You, I believe, gave me the wife of my angel, and you preserve her for me, and for this I vow to You never to smoke again. I make a vow, but I know that I cannot fulfill it with my own strength, and not to fulfill it is a great sin, so help me Yourself!” So it was around ten o'clock in the evening. Having prayed and calmed down somewhat, he went to his wife’s bed. He sleeps, his breathing is quiet and even. I touched my forehead: my forehead was wet, but not hot - my tender darling was fast asleep. Glory to God, glory to the Most Pure One! In the morning the temperature was 36.5°C, in the evening 36.4°C and the next day I woke up as if I had not been sick. And I forgot that I smoked, as I had never smoked, and I smoked for exactly thirty years and three years, and my whole body was so saturated with damned tobacco that I could not live without it not only for a day, but even for a minute. Isn't this a miracle of Hodegetria? Amen".