Spiritual warfare of a Christian. Invisible abuse

“...First of all, “know yourself,” that is, learn about yourself as you are. What you truly are, not what you think you are. With such awareness, you become wiser than all people, and you come into humility, and you receive grace from the Lord. If you do not acquire self-knowledge, but rely only on your own work, know that you will always be far from the path...

Who defeated the devil? The one who has known his own weaknesses, passions and shortcomings that he has …»

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Differences in the nature of people: soft and hard souls; the arrogant needs a lot of patience and work - Differences in talents: five talents, two and one - Work for the body, humility for the soul - Fighting with yourself, your weaknesses and passions - Purification through pure and frequent confession - “Never are temptations stronger grace"

Elder Joseph the Hesychast (1899-1959): “... Man is very different from man and monk from monk. There are souls of a gentle disposition who are listened to with great ease. There are also souls of a tough character who do not obey easily. They differ like cotton wool from iron. Vata requires only lubrication with words. And iron requires fire and a furnace of temptations for processing. And such a one must have patience in temptations in order for cleansing to occur. When there is no patience, it - a lantern without oil - soon fades and disappears.

“Through good thoughts, a person purifies himself and receives Grace from God. And through “left” (bad) thoughts, he condemns and unfairly accuses others. By doing this, he prevents the arrival of Divine Grace. And then the devil comes and torments this person...

The biggest egoist is the one who lives according to his own thoughts and does not ask anyone. Such a person destroys himself. If a person has self-will, self-confidence and self-indulgence, then, even if he is smart - even seven spans in his forehead - he will suffer constantly.”

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets

The power of a good thought - Thoughts from the “left” are the greatest disease - Good thoughts bring spiritual health to a person - He who has good thoughts sees everything as good - Trust in a thought is the beginning of delusion - Everything can be overcome by obedience - About the fight against thoughts - Cultivation of good thoughts - Purification mind and heart

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets (1924-1994):

The power of a good thought

- Geronda, in the Old Testament, in the Fourth Book of Maccabees, the following is said: “A pious thought is not an eradicator of passions, but their opponent.” What does it mean?

- Look: passions are deeply rooted within us, but a pious, good thought helps us not to fall into slavery to them. When a person, constantly including good thoughts in his work, makes his good state solid and stable, (his) passions cease to act and it is as if they do not exist. That is, a pious thought does not eradicate passions, but fights them and can overcome them...

“When the fingers are folded correctly, fire comes out of them! And when we apply the sign of the cross to ourselves, the blessed fire scorches, sanctifies and cleanses our body. The blood supplied by the heart passes through the fiery cross and is therefore cleansed of everything bad and terrible - everything burns up! Therefore, the more we are baptized, the purer the blood, the higher the mind, the closer to God, the faster our prayer reaches the Lord.”

Blessed Pelagia of Ryazan

“The correct application of the cross (clearly, not waving) seems to cut a person, sanctifying and purifying his blood, and is a sufficient confession of the Lord."

Hieromonk Anatoly of Kyiv

Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina (1845-1913):“We have great things, believers, weapons! This is the power of the Life-Giving Cross. Just think, it becomes scary for non-believers; they are completely defenseless. This is the same as if a man, completely unarmed, went into a dense forest at night; Yes, the first beast that comes along will tear him to pieces there, and he has nothing to defend himself with. We will not be afraid of demons. The power of the sign of the cross and the name of Jesus, terrible for the enemies of Christ, will save us from the evil snares of the devil.

The whole world is, as it were, under the influence of some force that takes possession of the mind, will, and all the spiritual forces of a person. One lady told me that she had a son. He was religious, chaste, and generally a good boy. He became friends with bad friends and became an unbeliever and depraved, as if someone had taken possession of him and was forcing him to do all this. It is obvious that this extraneous force is an evil force. Its source is the devil, and people are only tools, a means. This is the Antichrist coming into the world, these are his forerunners. The apostle says about this: The spirit of delusion, the spirit of flattery will be sent to them... For the sake of love, they will not accept the truth... The person remains, as it were, defenseless. He is so possessed by this evil force that he does not realize what he is doing. Even suicide is suggested and committed. Why is this happening? Because they do not take up arms: they do not have the name of Jesus and the sign of the cross with them. No one will agree to say the Jesus Prayer and the sign of the cross: these are such antiquities that have completely outlived their time...”

« If you were to ask why there are so many people who are unbelievers, who do not pray, who do not live as Christians, and who are given over to all sorts of vices, the answer is ready: from serving the womb».

“The whole man is a wonderful work of God’s hands; everything in it is arranged well. Pride is a demon; anger is the same demon; envy is the same demon; the abomination of the prodigal is the same demon; violent blasphemy is the same demon; forced conceit in truth is a demon; despondency is a demon; different passions, but one Satan acts in all of them, and together Satan barks in different ways, and man becomes one, one spirit, with Satan.”

« Theater and church are opposites: one is the temple of the world, and this is the temple of God; this is the temple of the devil, and this is the temple of the Lord».

“The human soul is a free force, for it can become either a good or an evil force, depending on the direction you yourself give it.”
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908):
God. The Holy Trinity. Holy Spirit
« Do not for one moment fulfill your own will, but the will of God, which is love for everyone, and for enemies. Have I sinned, the Lord is my cleansing; Whether I am despondent, gloomy after sin, from the insults of the enemy, the Lord is the destruction of my despondency and the revival of my boldness. Everything for me is the Lord. The Holy Spirit, like air, fills everything and penetrates everything: He is everywhere and fills everything.. He who prays earnestly attracts the Holy Spirit into himself and prays with the Holy Spirit».

« The Holy Spirit performs all powers and miracles. The same Spirit gives strength to another, and the effects of strength to another. Just speak with faith; the perfection of the word is not your concern, but the Holy Spirit’s. If Christ is in you, then be all like Christ: meek, humble, long-suffering, loving, impartial to earthly things, wise on heaven, obedient, reasonable, certainly have His Spirit within you: do not be proud, impatient, neither stingy nor money-loving, be impartial to earthly things».

Today you rarely see a balanced person. People have become batteries, most seem to be electrified. And those who do not confess, accept in additionand demonic influences, have a certain demonicmagnetism, since the devil has control over thempower. Few have a peaceful outlook, be it boys, girls or old people. Possession!

Do you know what madness is? This is when it is impossible to come to a mutual understanding with people...

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets

How the devil works

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets of blessed memory (1924-1994): While a person struggles, he will have temptations and difficulties. And the more he tries to avoid temptations, the more the devil rises up against him. Sometimes our life is contrary to the life of the Gospel, and therefore through temptations, if we use them wisely, we are given the opportunity to bring our lives into harmony with the Gospel.

“And I, Geronda, get stuck on little things, and after that I have no disposition to strive for something higher.”

“It’s like mines that the enemy sets in order to disable the army.” Tangalashka tries to incapacitate the ascetic with the help of little things, when he sees that he cannot harm him otherwise...

The greatest temptations come from trifles... There are no serious reasons for temptations among spiritual people, and then the devil uses little things as reasons. He mentally breaks a person through stupidity, through childishness, the devil makes the human heart the way he wants, and after that the person becomes insensitive and stands still - like a stump...

Nothing. Saint John Chrysostom says:“It’s all in ‘wanting’ and ‘not wanting’.”

God is good by nature and always wants the best for us. However, we also need to want it. Because a person flies spiritually with the help of two wings: the will of God and his own will.”

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets of blessed memory (1924-1994):

“People easily fall under both good and bad influences.”. It is easier to fall under bad influence, because the devil rules there. Tell someone, for example, to stop smoking because it is harmful. As soon as he decides to quit, the devil immediately comes to him and says: “These cigarettes have less nicotine, and these have a purifying filter, so smoke these, there will be no harm.” That is, the devil will find an excuse for this person not to quit smoking, he will find a “way out” for him! After all, the devil can find us a whole bunch of excuses. And the cigarettes he offers can cause even more harm. . You can judge how pleased our enemy should be and how to rejoice, finding among people such disbelief in their very existence!.. He himself could not have wished for a better situation. For, imagining him as non-existent, they themselves are not at all afraid of him and do not take measures against his wiles, and thus give him the opportunity to act on himself as he pleases. These are warriors who surrender without fighting! …P Look at those people for whom the spirit of malice does not exist. For them there is no Redeemer. For why look for a leader when there is no war?...

Elder Schema-Hegumen Savva

Do not cling to the empty - Why do I languish and suffer? —Freedom is a gift from God, but is it not the cause of my troubles? —Let's stop wasting the treasure of freedom recklessly -Our sins, like ourselves, do not die -Neither our Redeemer nor our tempter can act on us without us -Many of us know almost nothing about the great war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, ... between all of us and our common enemy! —For people for whom the spirit of malice does not exist, the Redeemer does not exist either -The enemy's power is bound, he does not do what he would like, but only what God allows him to do, for our own good -If a person is subject to temptation, it is because he could overcome it -Allowing feelings to overshadow reason, and the smartest people become stupider than small children

Elder Schema-Hegumen Savva (1898-1980): « …Ndon’t give your heart to something that cannot last forever: Above the external world, notice another world - true, real. Then you will not have that low servility towards people above you, nor even lower contempt for those who are below you, because in everyone you will see a soul, that is, a Sanctuary, which you can approach only with deep respect...

Where and how did all the evil that surrounds me and the whole world come from?

Preface to the 1904 edition of the Athos Russian Panteleimon Monastery

In the original of this book, in its title it is stated that the book was compiled by another person, a certain wise man, but Elder Nicodemus only revised it, corrected it, supplemented it and enriched it with notes and extracts from the holy fathers and ascetics. Therefore, it belongs to Elder Nicodemus more in spirit than in letter. When translating this book, it was considered more suitable to include notes and paternal testimonies into the text, and because of this, it was sometimes necessary to change the words of the book to improve its style, which was sometimes allowed without this. Therefore, the proposed book should be considered not so much a translation as a free transcription.

Preface (Compiled by Elder Nicodemus for the manuscript he used)

This truly soul-helping little book rightly bears the name given to it, “Invisible Warfare.” How many of the sacred and inspired books of the Old and New Testaments received their name from the very objects about which they teach (the Book of Genesis, for example, is so named because it announces the creation and ordering of all things that exist from non-existence; Exodus - because it describes the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt; Leviticus - because it contains the charter of sacred rites for the tribe of Levi; The Books of Kings - because they tell about the life and deeds of the kings; the Gospels - because they preach the gospel Great joy, for Christ the Lord, Savior of the world, was born(cf. Luke 2:10-11), and show all the faithful the path to salvation and the inheritance of an ever-blessed life); So who will not agree that this book, judging by its content and the subjects with which it deals, is appropriately called “Invisible Warfare”?

For it teaches not about any sensual and visible warfare and not about obvious and physical enemies, but about mental and invisible warfare, which every Christian accepts from the hour he is baptized and vows before God to fight for Him for the glory of His divine name even unto death (why is it written in the book of Numbers: For this reason the war of the Lord is spoken in the book, - it is written allegorically about this invisible warfare (Num. 21:14) and about incorporeal and invisible enemies, which are the various passions and lusts of the flesh and evil and man-hating demons, who do not cease to fight against us day and night, as blessed Paul said: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, and against the powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places.(Eph. 6:12).

The warriors who fight in this invisible battle, she teaches, are all Christians; their military leader is depicted as our Lord Jesus Christ, surrounded and accompanied by commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that is, all the ranks of angels and saints; the battlefield, the battlefield, the place where the struggle itself takes place, is our own heart and our entire inner man; the time of war is our whole life.

What are the essence of the weapons with which this invisible warfare equips its warriors? Listen. The helmet for them is complete self-disbelief and complete lack of hope; shield and chain mail - daring faith in God and firm trust in Him; armor and breastplate - teaching in the suffering of the Lord; belt - cutting off carnal passions; shoes - humility and weakness of one’s constant recognition and feeling; spurs - patience in temptations and driving away negligence; with a sword, which they constantly hold in one hand, - prayer, both verbal and mental, heartfelt; with a three-edged spear, which they hold in the other hand, - a firm determination not to agree at all to the fighting passion, to tear it away from themselves with anger and hate it with all their hearts; the cost and food with which they are strengthened to resist enemies - frequent communion with God, both mysterious, from a mysterious sacrifice, and mental; a bright and cloudless atmosphere, giving them the opportunity to see enemies from afar, - the constant exercise of the mind in the knowledge of what is right before the Lord, the constant exercise of the will in the desire of one thing that is pleasing to God, peace and tranquility of the heart.

Here - here, in this “Invisible Warfare” (that is, in the book) or, better said, in this War of the Lord- the soldiers of Christ learn to know various charms, various intrigues, unimaginable cunning and military cunning, which mental adversaries use against them through feelings, through fantasy, through deprivation of the fear of God, especially through the four excuses that they bring into the heart at the time of death, - I mean the excuses of unbelief, despair, vanity and the transformation of themselves into angels of light. By learning to recognize all this, they themselves learn how to destroy such machinations of enemies and resist them, and they learn what tactics and what law of warfare they should adhere to in what cases and with what courage to enter the fight. And, briefly, with this book, every person who desires salvation learns how to defeat his invisible enemies in order to acquire the treasures of true and divine virtues and for this receive an incorruptible crown and an eternal pledge, which is unity with God both in the present age and in the future. future.

Accept, Christ-loving readers, this book joyfully and graciously and, learning from it the art of invisible warfare, try not only to fight, but also to fight lawfully, to fight as one should, so that you may be crowned; because, according to the Apostle, it happens that someone, although he struggles, is not married if he labored illegally (see: 2 Tim. 2:5). Put on the weapons that she shows you in order to defeat with them your mental and invisible enemies, which are soul-destroying passions and their organizers and causative agents - demons. Put on the full armor of God, for if you are able, I will live by the wiles of the devil(Eph. 6:11). Remember how, at Holy Baptism, you promised to remain in renunciation of Satan, and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride, that is, lust, love of fame, love of money and other passions. Strive as much as you can to reverse it, disgrace it and defeat it in all perfection.

And what rewards and rewards can you receive for such a victory?! Very many and great. And listen about them from the lips of the Lord Himself, Who promises them to you in the Holy Revelation word for word like this: ... to the one who overcomes I will give food from the tree of the animal, which is in the midst of God... He who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death. To the one who overcomes I will give food from the hidden manna. And to the one who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, I will give him authority over the nations... and I will give him the morning star. He who conquers will be clothed in white robes... and we will confess his name before My Father and before His Angels. He who overcomes will I make a pillar in the church of My God. To the one who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne... He who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son (Rev. 2, 7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3, 5, 12, 21; 21, 7 ).

See what awards! See what rewards! See this eight-part and multi-colored imperishable crown, or, better yet, these crowns that are woven for you, brothers, if you defeat the devil! This is what you are now concerned about, strive for this and abstain from everything, no one will send a crown yours (Rev. 3:11). For, truly, it is a great shame that those who compete in the lists in physical and external exploits abstain five times more from everything in order to receive some perishable crown from a wild olive, or from a palm branch, or from a date, or from laurel, or myrtle, or some other plant; and you, who are destined to receive such an imperishable crown, spend your lives in negligence and carelessness. Will not the word of St. Paul awaken you from this sleep, who says: Don’t you know that all those who flow into disgrace flow, but only one receives honor; So be sure that you will comprehend, but everyone who strives will abstain from everyone: and they may receive a crown that is corrupted, but we are uncorrupted (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

If, inspired by zeal, you are worthy of such a victory and such bright crowns, then do not forget, my brothers, to pray to the Lord for the forgiveness of sins and the one who assisted you in obtaining such a benefit through this book. First of all, do not forget to lift up your eyes to heaven and give thanks and glory to the first Source and Accomplisher of such your victory, your God and Principle, Jesus Christ, each one speaking to Him this word of Zerubbabel: From You, O Lord, is the victory... and Yours is the glory; I am your servant(cf. 2 Ezra 4:59), and another thing said by the prophet David: ...To you, Lord, is majesty, and strength, and glory, and victory, and confession, and strength...(1 Chron. 29:11) now and forever. Amen.

PART 1

Chapter first
WHAT IS CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. TO ACHIEVE IT, WARRANTY IS NECESSARY. FOUR THINGS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS IN THIS WAR

We all naturally desire and have a commandment to be perfect. The Lord commands: ...be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect(Matthew 5:48), Saint Paul convinces:... be infancy with malice, but have perfect minds(1 Cor. 14:20), in another place we read: ...may you be committed and fulfilled...(Col. 4:12), and again: ...let's commit...(Heb. 6:1). This commandment was also prescribed in the Old Testament. Thus, God says to Israel in Deuteronomy: May you be perfect before the Lord your God(Deut. 18:13). And Saint David commands the same to his son Solomon: ... and Now, Solomon, my son, may you know the God of your father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and spiritual will...(1 Chron. 28:9). After this, we cannot help but see that God demands from Christians complete perfection, that is, he demands that we be perfect in all virtues.

But if you, my beloved reader in Christ, want to reach such a height, you need to know in advance what Christian perfection consists of. For, without recognizing this, you can deviate from the real path and, thinking that you are flowing towards perfection, head in a completely different direction.

I will say frankly: the most perfect and greatest thing that a person can desire and achieve is drawing closer to God and remaining in unity with Him.

But there are quite a few who say that the perfection of Christian life consists of fasting, vigils, kneeling, sleeping on bare ground and other similar bodily austerities. Others say that it consists of performing many prayers at home and standing through long church services. And there are those who believe that our perfection consists entirely of mental prayer, solitude, hermitage and silence. The greatest part limits this perfection to the exact fulfillment of all the ascetic works prescribed by the rules, not deviating either to excess or to lack in anything, but adhering to the golden mean. However, all these virtues alone do not constitute the sought-after Christian perfection, but are only means and methods for achieving it.

That they are means and means effective for achieving perfection in the Christian life, there is no doubt about it. For we see very many virtuous men who practice these virtues as they should with the goal of obtaining through this strength and power against their sinfulness and badness, in order to draw from them the courage to resist the temptations and deceptions of our three main enemies: the flesh, the world and the devil, in order to stock up in them and through them with spiritual aids, so necessary for all servants of God, especially for beginners. They fast to subdue their violent flesh; They perform vigils to sharpen their intelligent eye; they sleep on the bare ground so as not to be weakened by sleep; they bind their tongues in silence and seclude themselves in order to avoid even the slightest reason for doing anything that offends the All-Holy God; they say prayers, stand for church services and perform other acts of piety so that their attention does not depart from heavenly things; they read about the life and suffering of our Lord for no other reason than to better know their own badness and the merciful goodness of God, in order to learn and be disposed to follow the Lord Jesus Christ with self-sacrifice and the cross on their shoulders, and in order to warm up in themselves more and more love for God and dislike for oneself.

But, on the other hand, these same virtues can cause greater harm to those who place the entire foundation of their life and their hope in them than their obvious omissions, not on their own, because they are pious and holy, but through the fault of those who do not use them as they should - precisely when they, heeding only these virtues, externally performed, leave their hearts to their mother-in-law in their own dictates and in the wills of the devil, who, seeing that they have strayed from the right path, does not interfere with them not only with joy to strive in these bodily exploits, but also to expand and multiply them according to their vain thoughts. Experiencing some spiritual movements and consolations, these workers begin to think about themselves that they have already risen to the state of the ranks of angels and feel in themselves the presence of God Himself; sometimes, delving into the contemplation of some abstract, unearthly things, they dream of themselves as if they had completely stepped out of the realm of this world and were caught up in the third heaven.

But how sinfully they act and how far they are from true perfection, anyone can understand this, judging by their life and their character. They usually want to be preferred to others in any case; they love to live according to their own will and are always persistent in their decisions; they are blind in everything that concerns themselves, but are very vigilant and diligent in examining the deeds and words of others; if someone begins to enjoy the honor of others, which they think they have, they cannot tolerate it and clearly become unpeaceful towards him; if anyone interferes with them in their pious pursuits and ascetic deeds, especially in the presence of others, God forbid! - they immediately become indignant, immediately seethe with anger and become completely different, unlike themselves.

If God, wanting to lead them to knowledge of themselves and direct them to the true path to perfection, sends them sorrows and illnesses or allows them to undergo persecution, with which He usually tests who are His true and true servants, then it will be revealed what was hidden in their hearts and how deeply they are corrupted by pride. For, no matter what misfortune befalls them, they do not want to bend their neck under the yoke of the will of God, resting in His righteous and hidden judgments, and do not want, following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who humbled Himself for us and suffered themselves above all creatures, considering their persecutors as dear friends as instruments of divine kindness towards them and promoters of their salvation.

Why is it obvious that they are in great danger. Having their inner eye, that is, their mind, darkened, they look at themselves with it, and look incorrectly. Thinking about their external deeds of piety, that they are good, they think that they have already achieved perfection, and, becoming proud of this, they 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 a secretive one hiding under the cover of visible virtues.

Now, having learned so clearly and definitely that spiritual life and perfection do not consist only in those visible virtues that we have spoken about, learn also that it does not consist in anything else other than rapprochement with God and unity with Him , as said at the beginning, - in connection with which consist of a heartfelt confession of the goodness and greatness of God and the consciousness of our own insignificance and inclination to all evil; love for God and dislike for ourselves; submission of oneself not only to God, but also to all creatures out of love for God; rejection of all our own will and complete submission to the will of God; and, moreover, the desire and accomplishment of all this from a pure heart, for the glory of God (see: 1 Cor. 10:31), only for the sake of pleasing God, only because He Himself wants it this way and that this is how we should love Him and work for Him .

This is the law of love, inscribed by the finger of God Himself in the hearts of His faithful servants! This is the self-denial that God requires of us! Behold the good yoke of Jesus Christ and His light burden! This is submission to the will of God, which our Redeemer and Teacher demands from us both by His own example and by His word! For did not our Author and Finisher of our salvation command the Lord Jesus to say in his prayer to the Heavenly Father: ...Our Father...Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth(Matthew 6:10)? And He Himself, entering into the feat of suffering, did not proclaim: not Mine, Father, but your will be done(cf. Luke 22:42)? And did he not say about all His work: ...descended from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me(John 6:38)?

You see now, brother, what’s the matter. I assume that you are ready and striving to reach the heights of such perfection. Blessed be your zeal! But prepare yourself for toil, sweat and struggle from the very first steps of your journey. You must offer everything as a sacrifice to God and do His will alone. But you will encounter within yourself as many wills as you have strengths and needs, which all require satisfaction, regardless of whether it is in accordance with the will of God. Therefore, in order to achieve the goal you desire, you must first suppress your own wills, and finally completely extinguish and kill them; and in order to succeed in this, you must constantly resist yourself in the bad and force yourself to do the good, otherwise you must constantly fight with yourself and with everything that favors your wills, excites and supports them. Get ready for such a struggle and such a war and know that the crown - the achievement of your desired goal - is not given to anyone except valiant warriors and fighters.

But just as much as this battle is more difficult than any other - since, entering into battle with ourselves, we also encounter opponents within ourselves - just as much the victory in it is more glorious than any other and, most importantly, most pleasing to God. For if, inspired by zeal, you conquer and mortify your disordered passions, your lusts and desires, then you will please God more and work for Him more magnificently than by beating yourself to the point of bleeding and exhausting yourself with fasting more than all the ancient desert dwellers. Even if you, having redeemed hundreds of Christian slaves from slavery from the wicked, give them freedom, will not save you if you yourself remain in slavery to the passions. And whatever work you undertake, be it the greatest, and with whatever labor and sacrifices you complete it, it will not lead to the goal that you wish to achieve, if, moreover, you ignore your passions, giving them freedom live and act in you.

Finally, after you have learned what Christian perfection consists of and that in order to achieve it you need to wage a constant and cruel battle with yourself, you must, if you truly want to become a winner in this invisible battle and be worthy of the crown worthy of it, install it in in your heart the following four dispositions and spiritual activities, as if clothed in invisible weapons, the most reliable and all-conquering, namely:

a) never rely on yourself for anything;

b) always carry in your heart complete and all-absolute hope in the one God; c) strive unceasingly and d) always remain in prayer.

Chapter two
YOU SHOULD NEVER TRUST OR RELY ON YOURSELF FOR ANYTHING

Not relying on ourselves, my beloved brother, is so necessary in our battle that without this, rest assured, not only will you not be able to achieve the desired victory, you will not be able to withstand even the slightest attack on you by the enemy. Imprint this deeply in your mind and heart.

Since the time of the crime of our ancestor, we, despite the weakening of our spiritual and moral powers, usually think very highly of ourselves. Although everyday experience very impressively confirms to us the falsity of such an opinion about ourselves, we, in an incomprehensible self-delusion, do not cease to believe that we are something, and something important. This, however, our spiritual weakness, which is very difficult to notice and recognize, is most of all disgusting to God in us as the first offspring of our selfishness and pride and the source, root and cause of all passions and all our falls and indecencies. It closes that door in the mind or spirit through which alone the grace of God usually enters us, preventing this grace from entering inside and dwelling in man. She retreats from him. For how can grace for enlightenment and help enter into that person who thinks of himself that he is something great, that he himself knows everything and does not need any outside help? May the Lord deliver us from such Luciferian pain and passion! God strictly reproaches those who have this passion of self-conceit and self-worth through the prophet, saying:

Woe to those who are wise within themselves and understand themselves (Isa. 5:21). This is why the Apostle instills in us: ... do not be wise about yourself (Rom. 12:16).

Hating this evil conceit in us, God, on the contrary, loves nothing so much and does not want to see in us so much as the sincere consciousness of our insignificance and the complete conviction and feeling that every good thing in us, in our nature and our life, comes from Him alone as the source of all good and that nothing truly good can come from us: neither a good thought, nor a good deed. Why does He Himself providentially seek to plant this heavenly sprout in the hearts of His beloved friends, arousing in them a lack of self-esteem and affirming a lack of hope in themselves, sometimes through grace-filled influence and inner illumination, sometimes with external blows and sorrows, sometimes with unexpected and almost irresistible temptations, and sometimes in other ways that are not always clear to us.

With all this, however, that is, although this not expecting anything good from ourselves and not relying on ourselves is God’s work in us, we, on our part, must make every effort to acquire such a disposition, do everything that we can and that is in our power. authorities. And I, my brother, outline for you here four actions, by virtue of which you, with God’s help, can finally overcome self-disbelief or never rely on yourself for anything:

a) Recognize your insignificance and constantly keep in mind that you yourself cannot do any good for which you would be worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Listen to what the wise fathers say. Peter of Damascus assures that “there is nothing better than to recognize one’s weakness and ignorance, and nothing is worse than not to realize this” (Greek Philokalia. p. 611). Saint Maximus the Confessor teaches that “the basis of all virtue is the knowledge of human weakness” (Ibid. p. 403). Saint Chrysostom states that “he only knows himself best who thinks of himself that he is nothing.”

b) Seek help in this from God in warm and humble prayers, for this is His gift. And if you want to receive it, then you must first establish within yourself the conviction that you not only do not have such a consciousness about yourself, but that you cannot acquire it at all on your own; then, boldly standing before the greatness of God and firmly believing that, out of His immeasurable compassion, He will certainly grant you such knowledge of Himself, when and how He knows, do not allow the slightest doubt that you will really receive it.

c) Get used to always fearing for yourself and being afraid of your countless enemies, whom you cannot resist even for a short time; Be afraid of their long skill in warfare with us, their wickedness and ambushes, their transformation into angels of light, their countless intrigues and snares that they secretly place on the path of your virtuous life.

d) If you fall into any sin, turn as quickly as possible to the vision of your weakness and awareness of it. God allowed you to fall to that end, so that you would better understand your weakness and thus not only learn to despise yourself, but also desire to be despised by others because of your great weakness. Know that without such a desire it is impossible to be reborn in you and for beneficial self-disbelief to take root, in which is the basis and beginning of true humility and which itself has its basis in the said experimental knowledge of one’s powerlessness and one’s unreliability.

From this, everyone sees how necessary it is for those who want to become partakers of the heavenly light to know themselves, and how the goodness of God usually leads the proud and arrogant to such knowledge through their falls, righteously allowing them to fall into the very sin from which they consider themselves sufficiently protected. strong, let them recognize their weakness and let them no longer dare to rely on themselves, both in this and in everything else.

However, this means, although very real, but also not safe, God does not always use, but when all other means, easier and freer, which we mentioned, do not lead a person to self-knowledge. Then He finally allows a person to fall into sins, large or small, judging by the greatness or smallness of his pride, conceit and arrogance, so that where there is no such conceit and arrogance, there are no intelligible falls. Why, when you happen to fall, hastily run your thoughts towards humble self-knowledge and a demeaning opinion and feeling about yourself, and with tiresome prayer, seek from God to grant you true light to recognize your insignificance and strengthen your heart in not relying on yourself, so as not to fall into the same thing again or into an even more serious and ruinous sin.

I will add to this that not only when someone falls into any sin, but also when he falls into some kind of misfortune, calamity and sorrow, especially a bodily illness, difficult and long-term, he must understand that this is what he is suffering in order to come to self-knowledge, namely into the consciousness of his weakness, and resigned himself. For this end and for this purpose, God allows all kinds of temptations to come upon us from the devil, from people and from our damaged nature. And Saint Paul, seeing this goal in the temptations to which he was exposed in Asia, said: ... we have within ourselves the condemnation of death, so that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead...(2 Cor. 1:9).

And I’ll also add: whoever wants to know his weakness from the very reality of his life, let him, I don’t say for many days, but at least one day, observe his thoughts, words and deeds: what he thought, what he said and did. Undoubtedly, he will find that most of his thoughts, words and deeds were sinful, wrong, unreasonable and bad. Such an experience will make him understand how unstructured and weak he is in himself, and from such a concept, if he sincerely wishes good for himself, it will bring him to the feeling of how absurd it is to expect any good from himself alone and to rely on himself.

The brochure offered to the reader is compiled from conversations between the confessor and the novices - his children who have chosen the path of monasticism, but is intended not only for monastics. It will be of interest to everyone who strives to carefully and deeply lead a spiritual life and purify their heart. She answers difficult questions of those who want to follow the narrow path of salvation and overcome the temptations of the modern world. How to manage your behavior, how to recognize the tactics of demons that trap the soul, how to protect yourself from pseudo-blessed experiences, how to build the correct hierarchy of values, how to maintain a joyful mood - this publication is devoted to these and many other problems.

Who among the Orthodox has not read from the holy fathers about spiritual warfare, about temptations from demons, about the need to fight these temptations! “Temptation!” - we often say appropriately and inappropriately - regarding troubles and discord that have happened. But is everyone ready to correctly reflect these temptations and turn them to the benefit of the soul? We sometimes do not even suspect how sophisticated the tactics of the enemy of the human race are; we do not know his methods and techniques for capturing souls. We want to follow the path of salvation with little or no effort; we are afraid of the need for CONSTANT INDEPENDENT STRUGGLE. Is this why some novices are now not satisfied with the spiritual leadership of an “ordinary” priest, they certainly need an “elder” - but not, however, in order to learn to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, but only in order to relieve themselves of responsibility, shifting it to confessor?

Eldership is a prophetic gift. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh writes that “one can be an elder only by the grace of God... and one cannot learn to be an elder, just as one cannot choose genius as one’s own path,” that true spiritual leaders raise their spiritual children, but do not “manage” them in any way, do not break them , making them like themselves. Undoubtedly, a Christian must be in obedience to his spiritual father. But for a beginner, inexperienced in spiritual warfare, there is a danger of falling under the influence of the so-called “young elders” (who do not have spiritual maturity), if they do not strive for spiritual reasoning and sober thinking.

This happens not only from spiritual inexperience, but in many ways from spiritual laziness, negligence, inability and unwillingness to be attentive to the sinful movements of one’s soul.

But let us remember the words of the Apostle Paul: “Stand in the freedom that Christ has given us, and do not be subjected again to the yoke of slavery” ( Gal. 5, 1). To cultivate in oneself the qualities of a warrior of Christ, spiritual vigor, reasoning, the ability not to hide from difficulties, but to maintain a joyful disposition of spirit in the struggle - how each of us lacks this!

The conversations of Abbot N., offered to the reader, were intended for his spiritual children living in monasteries. But the methods of spiritual warfare arising from the patristic teachings and considered in application to the modern world will undoubtedly be very useful for lay people who want to carry out serious work on their souls. To all of us, in pre-end times, experiencing the onslaught of sophisticated and evil temptations, seductions, ecumenism, apostasy, let the words of the Lord Jesus Christ be our consolation: “Do not be afraid, little flock! For it has been your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” ( OK. 12, 32).

Conversation 1. The main thing in life

The main reason for our sorrows is the rejection of God’s Providence. About the correct attitude to life circumstances. What does the Lord expect from us in a difficult situation? Principles of situation analysis. Experience in analyzing modern monastic life. The main goal of God's lesson is to fight and correct vice. Trust in God is the key to success in the struggle. How to learn to understand people.

Dear sisters!

First of all, I want to ask you: despite any great and small sorrows that are absolutely necessary for everyone who is about to walk the path of salvation, regardless of either external or internal temptations, to maintain joy in the Lord in their hearts, remembering that everything these sorrows, like our life, are fleeting.

Most often, discouragement, bad mood, and despondency come from the fact that we cannot “reject ourselves.” Either the conditions in which we are placed do not suit us, then we don’t like the people around us, then we are dissatisfied with WHAT and HOW they do, they say. We will always be dissatisfied because we want everything to be just our way. Thus, we do not accept the conditions in which, as the laity would say, fate has placed us. But my dears, let's remember that it is not fortune that rules the world, but the Lord Almighty.

We need to learn to accept the people who happen to be nearby, and all the events of life as a given, received from God, as the circumstances in which the Lord deigned to place us. Accept, but don't judge. Are we really going to judge God’s Providence?! No, we will not judge, we have no right to do so, but we will be wise and try to reason. In these cases, prudence is simply necessary for us.

First, let's evaluate the situation proposed by God for our path of salvation. Any of you, no matter what the circumstances, should be able to analyze them, i.e. try to soberly comprehend: what conditions it is placed in, what contributes to success in fulfilling the main goal of our life, and what hinders it. Then, based on this analysis, we must learn to set ourselves tasks, the correct solution of which the Lord expects from us. Statement of the problem will be the second stage of our reasoning. You see, it’s like we’re back at our desks and deciding:

1. Given: two trains left points A and B towards each other...

2. Required: determine the distances from the indicated points to the meeting point of the trains.

3. Solution...

4. Answer: ...

The correct analysis of the conditions given to us (“given”) and, of course, the correct formulation of the problem (“required”) is 50% of success in solving it. If we do not want to solve the tasks set before us, then we will not be able to move to the next step of the spiritual ladder. But the path of salvation is always the path upward, and the Lord leads us along it, forcing us to solve more and more new tasks that are absolutely necessary for us. They are exercises through which we can develop qualities necessary for salvation, such as patience, self-sacrifice, attentiveness (sobriety) and, of course, humility.

What is given to us now?..

There is a monastery where, from a world completely immersed in lust, vanity, selfishness and cruelty, people came who were able to understand that life, it turns out, is not a meaningless and aimless vanity ending in inevitable death... These people, unlike many other people , were able to see meaning and purpose in it. That goal that only Christ revealed to us in full: through deification - to sonship with God in the Kingdom of Eternal Life. But although this goal is infinitely great and, in fact, is the only meaning of our existence in this world, it is, of course, more difficult to achieve it today than ever before. The fact is that despite the desire to follow Christ, i.e. to move along the path of salvation, we bring to the monastery all our sinful baggage of habits, ideas accumulated in the world, as well as a distorted, godless upbringing, incorrect, non-Christian view of ourselves, people and our relationships.

There is no need to be afraid to make a diagnosis: everyone who comes to the monastery is sick. And the main disease is selfishness in all its manifestations. The only difference is that some are more sick, while others are less. Everyone needs treatment, but it is important to want to get better. There is a means for this: the grace of God that heals souls is poured out on us in the Sacraments of the Church, in prayer, in living according to the commandments. But there is one universal misfortune that is characteristic of our pre-end time - the almost complete absence of spiritual leadership. This is a sign of the last times, which was foreseen by the great fathers of antiquity. This is why it is so difficult to escape! As a result, it turns out that now everyone is saving themselves, one might say on their own. And there’s no escape! We have to accept conditions that objectively exist today and do not in the least depend on us. But still we need to save ourselves! In the world today it is certainly (for the vast majority) destruction. Thank God, we still have wonderful spiritual books: “The Ladder”, and “The Invisible Warfare”, and the works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, and sometimes you still manage to talk with someone who is spiritually experienced - here is the instruction, here is the support.

Regarding the second point of our task, we point out that the main thing is to always and everywhere set a goal for yourself: the fight against any of your vices, passions, habits. Find out from the holy fathers what ways to defeat them are, and then, of course, consciously fight to eradicate these soul-harming weeds, fight, asking for help from the Lord.

This is what I will say from experience. I observed people who lived for 10 and 20 years in monasteries. They seemed to live well, there were no special complaints against them, they were even considered pious. But as soon as they found themselves face to face with any strong temptation, they immediately fell, and their fall was noisy. From what? All because they simply LIVED in the monastery. We lived – and that’s it. It seemed like everyone else, they prayed and took communion, but they never seriously struggled with anything within themselves. There wasn’t even a thought about the possibility of a fight.

This is how you can spend your whole life walking around the monastery grounds in monastic garb and, as a result, end up as an extinguished black brand.

If we do not learn to conquer ourselves in small things, we will certainly perish in the face of great temptation, and no one can escape it. You know how demons do not like monastics... They will not stop the war until our death. Let's prepare in advance and learn the art of war. Do not forget that you are soldiers of Christ, and in the matter of salvation, before the face of God you are no longer representatives of the “weaker sex”, but warriors, for in Christ, as the apostle said, “there is neither male nor female” ( Gal. 3.28).

So, accept all changes in life circumstances as if you were receiving them directly from the hand of God. Try to always remember that God, through spiritual laws, and sometimes through direct influence, really controls the life of every person and all of humanity as a whole. If we learn to trust Him, i.e. If we ask Him Himself to rule our lives, then all the trials - these lessons and tasks of ours - will benefit us, enriching us with the experience of struggle for the main cause of our whole life: spiritual and moral self-improvement.

Never be discouraged; learn from everything, even from mistakes. Be very careful with those with whom life confronts you, because nowadays people are not at all the same as they were even 20 years ago. Hypocrisy, I would even say - sincere insincerity, deeply rooted in the soul, becoming, as it were, its nature, grew and spread to such an extent that it became impossible to understand a person without a long test. In this case, any external isolation or manifestation of suspicion should be avoided. On the contrary, it is good to be friendly to everyone, but still, you can trust only when you understand what a person breathes. Do not believe even the best words, look only at deeds, at life, at the general direction of actions, thoughts and feelings, at moral qualities. All this will help you determine the main thing in a person. It is very important to learn to understand people, separating the important from the secondary.

Try to be at peace with everyone, beware of any gossip and gossip, avoid them. Grow in love, gentleness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Help each other.

May our humane-loving Lord visit you with His mercy and strengthen you in monastic deeds, and I, a sinner, always pray to Him for your souls.

Conversation 2. How to arrange your “inner home”?

The task of beginners is to switch attention from external to their internal problems. Why do we misunderstand people and circumstances? About the distortion of mental and sensory perception. From chastity to correct perception. The blessed peace of the soul is protection from external troubles. Two periods of the spiritual life of monastics. About the impact of demons on the emotional sphere. A vigorous spiritual tone should be maintained through an effort of will. About the fight against slave psychology. What do “simplicity” and “complexity” mean in a person.

I notice that most of the questions and perplexities arise in connection with external contacts, and not with the problems of internal spiritual work. For people who have embarked on the path of self-sacrifice for Christ, on the path of monastic feat, this is a fundamentally wrong attitude. Our attention and our interests should not only not be projected outward, but on the contrary, it is necessary to accustom ourselves to an inner, deep spiritual life and work with ourselves. We must do this because our main task is a qualitative change in personal characteristics, i.e. the entire inner man.

If this qualitative change in the soul occurs thanks to our efforts with the accompanying grace of God, believe me, you will see with completely different eyes the people around you and their actions. The whole point is that adequate perception of the external world, correct understanding and correct vision of people and life circumstances is possible only when the dirty film of sin is cleared from the eyes of the mind, when our mental (reasonable) and sensory-perceptual (i.e. sensual) the perceiving) spheres will be freed from the incessant and inevitable demonic influence. While sinful attractions are still active in the soul, we will not be able to correctly perceive the environment, nor correctly understand people and events, nor build correct relationships with the outside world, since our consciousness will be distorted by the complex influence of demons on the mind, emotions and feelings. Sinful desires, in this case, are nothing more than symptoms of our lack of freedom from the influence of demons. The distortion of both mental and sensory perception, as I have already said, will continue until, in intense spiritual struggle, we are cleansed of our main vices, and this is possible only with the help of God’s grace.

“Chastity” means integral, correct wisdom, i.e. a whole, and not a fragmented, understanding of everything that is happening in all its most complex interrelations. At the same time, chastity is spiritual and bodily purity, which means freedom from the violence of sinful inclinations (passions). So, from the spiritual experience of many generations, it becomes clear that only the chaste, i.e., can understand correctly (i.e., philosophize). clean.

I hope that from all that has been said above, you understand: you should not now, in the early stages of your just beginning spiritual life, try to evaluate, much less judge, the actions of others. All the same, you will not be able to evaluate them correctly, and therefore choose the right course of action.

On the contrary, it is very beneficial for demons to switch the attention of beginners from very complex and painstaking internal work to the external circumstances of their lives, to focus their attention on the inevitable negative facts of the surrounding reality, to strengthen and even exaggerate the feeling of dissonance between how it should be, how we would like to see - and what they actually see. In this simple way, the demons ensure that the spiritual growth of the beginner is not only inhibited, but even changes its direction to the exact opposite. Do not allow demons to control your attention, so that it, like an obedient nag, sadly trudges in its hateful reins to where the drunken driver drives. Take control and return your attention inward to yourself. Remember what Rev. said. Ambrose of Optina? - “Know yourself and it will be with you!”

How can we arrange our inner home? Firstly, according to the word of Rev. Seraphim, it is necessary to acquire a “peaceful spirit.” Great happiness when the spirit of the blessed world dwells in us! Then a person, like an unshakable rock, stands in the midst of a raging sea, and no external troubles can make him angry to such an extent that he ceases to control himself, his feelings, emotions, words and actions. Such a peaceful, strong, clear state of soul is given only by the grace of God, the acquisition of which we should care about more than anything else.

There are different ways to acquire grace, the strongest of which, as you know, is prayer. However, it rarely happens that the Lord immediately puts a person in such conditions when prayer is the main instrument for acquiring grace. Most often, this period is preceded by another, perhaps quite long, when the accumulation of grace occurs through good deeds and labor for the sake of others. This period is necessary to acquire the most important quality of a Christian: SELF-DENIAL, which none of us have. That’s why we don’t, can’t, follow Christ—it’s because we haven’t denied ourselves, which means we haven’t taken up our cross. The place of selflessness in us is occupied by our own “I”. Egocentrism is the main sinful quality of our souls. It is a consequence of the ancestral sin, and the general fall of all humanity, and, of course, our own sinfulness.

True prayer is born in a humble heart, and humility is acquired through self-sacrifice. So the Lord first puts us in those conditions where it is necessary to learn self-sacrifice, to learn to forget ourselves for the sake of others. To forget about your physical and mental comfort, preferring not yourself to your neighbor, but your neighbor, his problems and needs, preferring your own, i.e. putting first place in his calculations not himself, but his neighbor. The matter largely depends on how you treat your obedience (your work). You need to learn to kindle in yourself a joyful attitude towards every task assigned, remembering that it is done in the eyes of God for the sake of your own salvation, for the sake of acquiring grace. It is necessary to accustom the soul to do the assigned work willingly, even to look for how it can help its neighbor. Remember (and for those of you who haven’t read it, read it) an incident from the life of the last elder of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Zosima-Zechariah, about his first years of obedience to the prosphora. He slept for 3-4 hours (he simply had no time to sleep more), and attended services 1-2 times a year, but at the same time he prayed incessantly the Jesus Prayer. What humility, meekness and selflessness he acquired! God did not disparage the contrite and humble heart, according to the word of the prophet David, but gave his saint the gift of prayer. Arriving at the monastery, the novice correctly understood what the Lord required of him, who, not without providence, placed him in such difficult conditions that he was even deprived of the opportunity to fulfill the usual prayer rule and attend church services.

Zechariah understood, on the one hand, the need to learn self-sacrifice for the sake of others, and on the other, the need to teach himself the Jesus Prayer. While working, he constantly forced himself to create it, unnoticed by others, so that over time it became his constant companion.

Once again I want to note that real, deep, attentive prayer can take root only on the prepared soil of a well-cultivated heart. The soil of our hearts, compacted and petrified (by the sin of selfishness), must be crushed with the iron plow of selflessness and crushed with the harrow of self-forgetfulness. Then our hearts, contrite and humble, “God will not despise” ( Ps. 50, 19).

So, fulfilling your obedience conscientiously and accustoming yourself, unnoticed by others, to the constant Jesus Prayer, without embarrassment, with gratitude to God and joyfully “plop down” on your bed, even if you do not have the strength to read the evening prayers. God most of all now looks at your hearts, which you should learn to keep clean from any penetration of dirty thoughts into them. To monitor the purity of your heart with all your attention throughout the day is the most important task for you in the present period of your monastic life.

But you will never be able to achieve purity of heart and gracious peace of soul if you allow demons to divert your attention to the people around you. Then your thoughts will be busy “sucking in” the actions of others, especially those in command. In the interpretation that the demons will put into your consciousness, these actions will always have a negative nature and a corresponding emotional connotation, and the further, the more so. It is on this basis that the shoots of condemnation and irritation appear. They grow into a tree of gloomy, despondent anger and give birth to the fruits of the worst deeds. At this stage the person becomes obsessed, i.e. his consciousness falls under complete control of demonic suggestions. This is joy for the demons!

Time and time again, dear sisters, I remind you that every melancholy state of mind, a feeling of loneliness and despondency is nothing more than the special impact of fallen angels on our emotional sphere. They are, I would say, amazing virtuosos at this. Remember, for example, to what extent music in a film can give a special emotional coloring to the events taking place on the screen, or even to the landscape. Moreover, directors and composers know very well that a different musical accompaniment can completely change the viewer’s emotional attitude to what is happening, even making it exactly the opposite. So, for example, an elegiacally joyful perception of some corner of nature with the help of music can be replaced with an anxious feeling of expectation of something terrible. Even better than people, directors and composers who are not yet visible to us know this, who, unbeknownst to us, teach us to evaluate people and events through the prism of the emotional moods that they inspire in us.

Demons can, for example, when a “patient” looks out of a car window at a receding familiar landscape (I’ll take a real case), first instill in him a nostalgic feeling of sadness, then after a while strengthen it with a feeling of loneliness, abandonment and, finally, bring the poor fellow to the blackest despondency , which pushes many people to stupid and reckless actions. This is an ordinary, but very effective tactic of demons.

And most importantly, the “patient” is running! He runs headlong like a hare, only his heels sparkle. He runs away from the monastery, runs away from difficulties, runs away from salvation. He will no longer find peace and good conditions anywhere. Having defeated a person, the demon gains even greater power over him and no longer allows him to free himself from the yoke of his pressure. He will drive the unfortunate person from one place to another, not allowing him to stop anywhere, everywhere instilling in him dissatisfaction, resentment and irritation with everything possible. The “initial states” (as psychiatrists say) into which this constant discontent will result are different, but always sad, up to the fall into mortal sin, heresy or complete loss of faith.

By revealing to you the tactics of our opponents working with us, I want you to learn how to resist them. To do this, you need to constantly monitor your spiritual tone and willpower to maintain a joyful attitude towards everything - both work fatigue and even troubles from your neighbor. Take control of your emotions - this, by the way, is the most vulnerable place for all women. But, nevertheless, you must already be able to control yourself, otherwise it will be impossible to avoid the snares of the devil. Remember: the only thing you can be upset about is your own sins and unresolved sinful inclinations. And such grief should not be excessive, so as not to weaken efforts in a long struggle, which, as happens in some cases, lasts for years.

I told you earlier, and now I repeat again: do not take any troubles or sorrows to heart (except your sins). Everything in this life passes quickly. Lo and behold, there is nothing: no sorrows, no people! Everything that can still happen to you has already happened before you, and it’s all gone. Your troubles will also pass. And you come to Christ without stumbling over someone’s envious and hostile glance, or over someone’s strange, offensive phrase. Maintain good spirits, firmness, inner freedom combined with obedience and complete fearlessness.

Fear, ingratiation, double-mindedness, hypocrisy, people-pleasing - all these are elements of slave psychology, brought up by the Soviet school and the Soviet system in the “man of the new communist formation.” We all came from there, but we need to burn this slavish Soviet legacy out of our souls with a hot iron. “Stand in the freedom that Christ has given us,” the Apostle teaches us ( Gal. 5, 1). Stop being “scoops”, become Christians and children of God, finally! Remember and maintain a cheerful spiritual tone, a desire to fight difficulties, acquire a good fighting spirit, remembering that we are all soldiers of Christ.

Among other things, dear children, we all really need simplicity, and precisely in the sense in which this word was understood in ancient times. Simplicity is monolithicity, integrity, excluding any fragmentation or duality of character. The term “simple” is the opposite of the term “complex,” which comes from the verb “to fold” (to fold, to combine various parts into one). A complex person is a divided, frustrated, calculating person, an individual possessed by one, two, three, and sometimes a legion of demons, each of which has its own character. These characters manifest themselves alternately in the words, thoughts and actions of a person possessed by demons (the so-called alternating consciousness - psychiatrist), so he often cannot understand himself in this chaos of desires and moods, and even more so, others cannot understand him. Nowadays, we constantly have to deal with cases where two directly opposite natures coexist in one person. This is a common version of a demon that has taken up residence and a clear example of its impact on the human soul. So, simplicity, in the gospel understanding, is uniqueness, integrity of character, and therefore, the absence of demonic influence on the individual. This is what Christ calls us to, saying: “Be wise as serpents and simple as doves” ( Matt. 10, 16). The wisdom that is so necessary for you and me is given only by God, and we must constantly ask Him for it. In any matter, you should always ask the Lord: enlighten, teach, enlighten, and if necessary, correct.

If we move along this path, then soon all external problems that arise during inevitable contacts with others (who, like us, are far from perfect) will disappear by themselves, like a dry blood crust from a healed wound.

Conversation 3 Never stop fighting

Purposes of God's visit. Two states of mind. How to survive an attack from the enemy. The struggle for prayer. Be joyful, cheerful and kind.

It’s very good that you didn’t hesitate to talk about those two unusual conditions that followed each other. I can say the following about them: for every person at least once in their life (and sometimes more than once) the Lord seems to reveal Himself, to really show His help and power. It helps to understand and feel what a person should become, i.e. as if he shows him the purpose of working on himself, and then again allows him to remain himself in that deplorable quality in which a person remains due to his sins due to lack of correction. Then everyone chooses for themselves which path to take. If a person did not yet know God, then such visits from God make him think: to accept Him and His commandments or not. The Creator leaves the choice between one decision or another entirely to man. Many, by the way, consciously refuse God: “So what, if He exists, what do I care about Him? I don’t want to live according to His commandments; they restrict my freedom. I want to live according to my own will, the way I want!” But in your case, the purpose of God's visit was different. Since you are a person who has embarked on the path and is taking the first steps in the matter of salvation, the Lord, seeing the vices overwhelming you (as you said): “insolence, murmuring, condemnation, discontent, gluttony, etc.,” showed you from your personal experience: what you could be and how you would feel about yourself if, with the help of working on yourself, through the acquisition of God’s grace, you would change qualitatively. Do you remember how, tamed by the hand of God, the waves of irritation and dissatisfaction in the soul subsided, and silence set in, as if in clear sunny weather? Do you remember how, from somewhere, the strength appeared to restrain yourself from secret eating or get out of bed on time? Remember the new, living understanding, the new sensation and perception of the old prayers and the service itself. It was as if a curtain had been lifted from the eyes, and what the person had previously only heard, now saw and felt in its entirety. Here, my mother, is how the grace of God revives our feelings, which have become stale under the crust of sin. This is the peace of Christ that a soul feels in which the grace of the Holy Spirit has settled! Now you know this yourself and you know the purpose that the Lord Himself indicated to you in this phenomenon.

Then the Lord was pleased to show you, through your own experience, the state of the soul darkened by the influence of a demon who has power over the soul of a sinner. And the more sins, the greater his power, the darker, lazier, heavier the soul. She becomes insensitive to everything holy, the mind does not perceive anything spiritual, the feelings seem to be dead.

So, before you are two paths, two goals, two final states of the soul. The Lord gives you a choice. The only difference is that the first, grace-filled state of the soul is achieved through great work, tears and self-sacrifice, and the second will come on its own, you just have to fold your hands and stop fighting with yourself, with your sins, with your “old man”. But in order to achieve a big goal, you must first learn to set small, intermediate goals at different stages of your spiritual path and not be satisfied with what has been achieved, moving further and further.

It happens at times that a person feels such an attack from the enemy that he cannot even pray. But still, you can’t despair. Somehow, even if it’s weak, but still food, like a mouse: “Lord, don’t leave me; Lord, have mercy on Your creation; Lord, have pity on me; help, Queen of Heaven!” So, squeaking with all your might, wait for help and endure the attack, as if falling to the bottom of a trench. There's no time for fighting here. If only I could wait it out and stay alive, that would be okay! After some time, God’s help certainly comes and the enemy’s onslaught subsides. You should immediately resume prayer and slowly return to your previous circles. This is how you constantly get up after falling and crawl forward. All this also applies to sleep and food. The main thing is to never stop fighting, and if you have to go on a temporary retreat, then immediately, as soon as help arrives, go on the offensive again. But here, too, caution is needed. It is harmful to overdo it in spiritual matters - this is from the enemy. For example, beginners should not force themselves to sleep less than 6 hours. You need to eat as much as necessary so as not to feel weak during physical work. If there is a lot of work, you need to eat to your fill, but not overeat.

Now about prayer. You probably remember that even before, when you came to our monastery, I often said that prayer is the most effective way to receive God’s grace. With the accumulation of grace, a change occurs in the entire spiritual structure of a person: his will, mind, feelings, memory. They are purified and enlightened under the influence of grace. In order to prevent this, demons try in every possible way to wean a person from praying, or at least constantly prevent him from doing so. All your life you have to fight for prayer, making efforts on yourself as much as God gives you strength. You just need to teach yourself not just to pray, but to pray carefully. This study, like any study, is a lot of work. But in ours, i.e. in spiritual study, it is more difficult: the enemy interferes. But you still need to pray carefully. Only such prayer creates an invisible connection between the rational soul and God. Thanks to her, we receive a trickle of grace in response from Him, as from the Source of living water. You don’t need to enter your heart with prayer just yet, otherwise you will fall into demonic seduction, like many inexperienced novices. Learn to pray carefully, with your mind, and then we’ll see.

Do not give in to fears - this is the enemy, be joyful, cheerful and kind, constantly asking for help from God and the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Conversation 4. How to manage your behavior?

About “beauty”. Who can sober up the “charming”? How the demon “curator” shapes our self-esteem and behavior style. About the correction of the soul using the method of “spiritual programming”. Practical recommendations for using the method to develop humility. How is modesty developed?

Thank God, child, for the fact that you still have a critical attitude towards your spiritual state. There is no other way to call it the grace of God. The fact is that usually, with a similar course of “illness” with symptoms similar to yours, people completely lose the opportunity to see themselves from the outside, they lose the ability to be critical of themselves. It is this deplorable state that is called “delusion” and denotes demonic seduction by one’s imaginary virtues or one’s righteousness, or infallibility, and in general reveals selfless pride, which no one and nothing can shake. This state can also be called one of the types of spiritual death. It is almost impossible to help a person who is entangled in the networks of pride and does not see this; he does not and cannot have authorities other than himself. The only hope remains only in God, Who alone can sober up the unfortunate, but this is possible, as a rule, only through great sorrows. If they do not fall on a person, he becomes a source of continuous torment for those around him, and he himself does not see or feel it. His very presence can have a depressing effect on those who are simply nearby. God forbid we should come to this, child!

The disease begins from afar, from a small point: with ordinary childish egoism, which, finding no resistance either inside the child or from parents and others, is so firmly rooted in a person’s character, so fused with him that the demon “curator” who nurtured and watered the tree of pride at first, you can give yourself a break. Now the already strengthened tree grows and develops on its own, and finally the fruits appear: an extremely high opinion of oneself, the inability to endure anyone’s comments, irritability, quarrelsomeness, ridicule of other people’s shortcomings, constant criticism of elders and an imperative (sometimes patronizing) tone in relation to with the younger ones. As experience has shown, it is more difficult for such people (especially if they also have talents) to come to God than for anyone else.

But, by the inscrutable mercy of God, such a person has the opportunity to know the Truth, and he, for example, does not reject it, directing his heart to the Source of all truth, goodness and love - to God. Then the truth of God opens his eyes to the meaning of existence and the events taking place in it (in existence), gives him the only true knowledge of good and evil, not from the point of view of earthly scientific wisdom, but directly from God. Only then does he begin to see and evaluate himself correctly. This is where the abyss of fall opens up to him - and not only his own, for in his own person he is able to understand and feel the fall of humanity as a whole. Here it is, a task that you need to sweat over, but solve: to climb out of the abyss. The Creator expects this from us. But this task cannot be solved either in an hour or in a year, because sin has become a property of character, i.e. a habitual, patterned reaction to the environment, or an action performed almost automatically, unconsciously. These are the fruits of that work, thanks to which the demon “curator”, quietly training us for many years, like Pavlov’s dog, developed in us (no worse than that notorious dog) a conditioned reflex to the appropriate style of behavior, as well as to a certain assessment themselves.

God bless! Your spiritual eyes are gradually opening to yourself. However, although it is very good to see your bad qualities with your mind, it is not enough. After all, in order to be saved, you also need to fight to correct your soul, its character, its habits. This is where you need to show a creative approach, apply all your pedagogical talent, and not in relation to strangers, but to yourself, in order to develop a flexible methodology for eradicating sinful character traits.

I advise you to adopt the following proven method of dealing with your shortcomings. Let’s call it conventionally the method of “spiritual programming”. But keep in mind that it must not only be read, but persistently put into practice. So, start your morning with the memory: “how should I behave in such and such an event during today?” At the same time, you need to think in advance about the correct course of action in case of temptations known to you and remind yourself of those life situations in which this course of action should be applied during the day. In other words, you need to introduce into your memory in advance a program of action that is directly opposite to your usual, automatically executed sinful reaction. This will be your conscious struggle against sin and against deeply rooted sinful “conditioned reflexes” of behavior, which the demon “curator” quietly teaches us all from the most tender childhood. Let us now consider some useful example for you of using the “spiritual programming” method.

I hope you are well aware that in order to heal such a serious and widespread “disease” as pride, St. The fathers offered their novices a way to cut off their will as a medicine. Let's try to combine this centuries-tested method of eradicating sin with the above programming method.

Since you always try to insist on your own, considering your opinion and your course of action to be the most correct, in order to combat this manifestation of pride you need to remember and affirm in your mind the following thought: “In all cases when I have to choose between my own and someone else’s opinion, unconditionally give preference to someone else’s and do as the sister wants in all cases, with the exception of those that clearly go against the commandments of God.” You will, of course, need to strain all your will, squeeze yourself into a ball, step on your own throat (so as not to contradict), but still force yourself to do something that is not your own way, even if your option is clearly better from a business point of view.

Remember, for God, everything you do for your household needs is a small thing, no matter how important it may seem to you. In all our affairs and relationships, He looks (remember that the Spirit of God always permeates us), first of all, at the soul: what motives guide it, will the soul benefit from the work? It often happens, and you know this, that a person does something useful for others, but does it out of pride, with vanity. Such a thing is not pleasing to God, because it leads the soul to destruction. And in the entire Universe there is nothing more valuable than the soul, nothing is more important than its salvation. But it seems to that sister that if she doesn’t do the job, then no one will do it as well as she could, and, therefore, this will lead the monastery to collapse... The usual demonic deception! Believe me, if this person had not been in the monastery, if she had not even existed in the world, nothing would have changed and would have gone on as usual. And if God wants the work to be done, can one really think that He will not find someone who would carry it out?

The programming method described above, as I already said, is necessary for learning to cut off one’s will, which, in turn, helps in the fight against those sinful qualities of character that are expressed through self-will, selfishness, pride, and vanity. Perhaps at first it will seem that although it is better for the soul, it is worse for the common cause. However, this is a hasty conclusion. Do as I say and wait. After a while you will see for yourself what the true benefit was.

There is, however, a case when obedience can be harmful to you. But I know that you can evaluate yourself correctly enough to unmistakably single out this particular case from all others. I mean an assignment that will feed and fuel your pride. This is where wisdom and will are needed! No matter how tempting and flattering it (the assignment) may seem, you need to find and come up with any plausible excuse to refuse without offending the assignee.

Some time after you start practicing the first exercise (to cut off your will), you will get used to remembering how to behave in the situation described above, you can begin to introduce the second exercise in the “programming method” into practice.

An exercise in humility. A modest person tries not to stand out and not attract the attention of others. A proud person does not tolerate this: he speaks loudly, likes to talk about himself, makes fun of others, in a general conversation he will always express his opinion, even if they are not asked, likes to point out, make comments, and command.

A proud person cannot stand ridicule directed at him, he is touchy, carries a grudge in his heart for a long time, and when the opportunity presents itself, he will certainly take revenge with a caustic word or light slander that somewhat humiliates the offender. Pride is almost always associated with suspiciousness in such a way that the person possessed by it sees offense where there was no trace of it. Due to demonic obsession, tone, gaze, and gestures may seem offensive. A selfish person does not pay attention to others, since his attention is completely focused only on himself. He will sit down without thinking whether it will be comfortable for another person to sit; he will take the best for himself, leaving the worst for others; will reach for something without looking to see if someone else was going to take it, etc., etc.

So, let's start the exercise by training your memory to remember the main points of behavior:

– The first thought to remember (programming): “If I am among people or at least in the company of one person, I must take care not to be a burden to them; not to interfere with anything, not to upset through inattention, accidentally, i.e. I need to learn to think first of all about the convenience of others and only then about myself.”

– Second thought to remember: “In order to get used to not expressing yourself, not to pay attention to others, I need to learn not to express my opinions and my ideas, even if I am very, very tempted to speak out (with the exception of if they ask for the common good ). In general, I need to learn to be silent.”

– Third thought to remember: “I need to constantly observe myself, as if from the outside, in order to maintain modesty in behavior. I can't:

a) look with a bold look,

b) decorate your speech with active facial expressions and gestures,

c) speak in a tough, self-confident tone,

d) take self-confident poses (sitting cross-legged, propping up your side with your fist, etc.).

In general, I need to monitor the smoothness and softness of the tone of speech and the restraint and modest softness of movements.”

In order to remember and recall these behavior-controlling thoughts in time, you need to write them down on a separate piece of paper and in the morning, getting up from sleep, read them carefully, forcing yourself to remember them with some effort of will. Then put the piece of paper in your clothing pocket and read it from time to time throughout the day, trying again, with an effort of will, to introduce them into your memory. By training your mind and memory in this way, you will soon learn to control your behavior, and this is one of the most important stages of spiritual growth.

One should not lose sight of such useful ascetic advice as the need for self-abasement. Always blame yourself for selfishness and lack of self-sacrifice, for this is a failure to fulfill God’s commandment: “deny yourself,” forget yourself for the sake of others, “take up your cross”... ( Matt. 16, 24). You also need to ask the Lord every hour for healing from pride, vanity, self-love, and also always ask Him to grant you the ability to see your sins. These petitions can be said to oneself at any time and in any place, either separately, or by adding one of the petitions at the end of the Jesus Prayer. In addition, try to repeat repeatedly throughout the day the following prayer from Psalm 140: “O Lord, set a guard over my mouth and a door of protection over my lips.”

You see, child, what important and difficult work is needed to correct it. Just don’t be afraid, start, and the Lord will help you.

Conversation 5. Other people's shortcomings will not prevent us from being saved

Monasticism does not automatically save. Manic-depressive psychosis is one of the forms of demonic influence. Without sobriety, you won’t notice the enemy’s snares. How to protect yourself from demon attacks. About pseudo-blessed states. The concept of “norm” in relation to the state of mind.

Regarding you and all our sisters, I, a sinner, still hold the opinion that one year is not enough for monastic experience. It’s better to be a mediocre or even a bad novice than a bad nun. I think you already have your own personal observation experience to be convinced from living examples that neither monastic robes nor tonsure in themselves improve a person and do not automatically save him, as some people think: “tonsured, dressed in monastic robes - and immediately corrected.” " For many, they (the vestments) are even a reason for vanity. If we do not first learn deep humility (not external, but internal), if we do not learn to endure bodily sorrows, slander, and hatred without panic, despondency and grumbling, then nothing external: neither black monastic robes, nor theoretical knowledge of patristic literature will save us from falling into the abyss of sins even in a monastery. But one year is clearly not enough to teach this science (I’m talking about humility).

I’ll give just one example: when the clay is cleared of pebbles and other particles, and then thoroughly kneaded (12 times, as an old potter from the village of Fomino told me), then only it is placed on the potter’s wheel and given any shape. Every potter knows: nothing good can come from unprepared clay.

I believe you remember the words of many ancient and modern ascetics that seeing one’s sins and, in general, one’s spiritual state is one of the most important and necessary gifts of God for salvation. It seems to me that the fact that you yourself finally noticed repeated sharp changes in your mood (when you were working in the refectory) was a clear grace of God. You didn't notice this before, did you? Of course, many people paid attention to these strange swings in your mood even at the time when you worked in your first monastery, but, probably, no one talked to you about them. Similar phenomena were noticed in you at the N-monastery, where the sisters, loving you, tried not to pay attention to this difficult (for a hostel) feature. I thank God for giving you the opportunity to see her. This, my friend, is what you yourself called “connection.” The very fact of seeing this phenomenon suggests that little by little things are going well for you. This makes me very happy.

Sharp mood swings are, of course, a pathological phenomenon caused by demonic influence. When a person lives outside the Church, without the grace-filled protection given in St. Sacraments and prayers, then such light touches of the demon, progressing, turn into serious disorders of the emotional sphere, called in psychiatry MDP, that is, manic-depressive psychosis, with intermissions of varying duration between phases of elevated (manic phase) or depressed mood (depressive phase) .

This is the subtle and almost imperceptible “psychic” war the enemy is waging against us. Do you now understand how vigilant we need?! In the language of ascetics it is called “sobriety,” i.e. attention to yourself, your inner state. Such constant, vigilant attention is necessary in order to notice the enemy’s networks in time. You need to fight such demonic influences with humility: firstly, before God (accept everything that happens as if from the hand of God), and, secondly, with humility before your neighbors, as well as prayer and reading (when possible) the psalms - the demons of this are very do not like. You should not be afraid and panic, because for healing, in fact, nothing special is required: you just need to live according to the commandments, live the liturgical life of the Church, live with God. Gradually, accumulating year by year, the grace of God will protect us more and more from “all the slander of the enemy” and these conditions will go away, by the grace of God, as if by themselves.

The state of recovery that you are talking about causes some mistrust in me. It's very good that you treat him so carefully. I want to confirm the correctness of your attitude with extracts from the 2nd volume of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov): “The feeling of crying and repentance is the only thing needed by a soul that has come to the Lord with the intention of receiving forgiveness of its sins from Him. This is the good part! If you have chosen her, then she will not be taken away from you! Do not exchange this treasure for empty, false, imaginary feelings, do not destroy yourself with flattery” (p. 125). “All the saints recognized themselves as unworthy of God: by this they demonstrated their dignity, which consisted in humility” (p. 126) “The sight of one’s sin and the repentance generated by it are days of action that have no end on earth: the sight) of sin arouses repentance; repentance brings purification; The gradually purified eye of the mind begins to see such shortcomings and damage in the entire human being that it previously, in its darkness, did not notice at all, Lord! Grant us to see our sins, so that our mind, drawn entirely to the attention of our own sins, ceases to see the faults of our neighbors” (p. 127).

Let us now try to analyze the reasons for the unusual condition. Sometimes it happens that the enemy deliberately “gives up ground”, retreats, ceasing to influence, putting pressure on the soul with darkness and insensibility. Then she, as it were, returns to that state that should be considered the norm for a person and which we, graceless ones, consider something supernatural. But this is exactly how a person who has worked well should feel, fighting the “good fight” in acquiring grace. Why, in this case, does the enemy leave the battlefield without a fight?.. So that the soul, having become delighted, relaxes, becomes weak and loses its vigilance. Then it will be easy to “slam it down” with an unexpected dashing cavalry attack. This is so, my friend, because without copious tears and many spiritual labors the state we are talking about does not come.

But even when the enemy uses the cunning tactic of “one step back, then take two steps forward,” we can, if we see through him, benefit from this cunning. By remaining on guard (and not allowing ourselves to be deceived by an unexpected attack from the right flank), it will be possible for us to enrich our experience with real knowledge through a sense of the state to which we should strive. The memory of him will later be a beacon for us, showing us the way across the stormy sea.

Thus, as you see, the Lord arranges everything for our benefit, just do not lose vigilance regarding your inner state and do not pay attention to the shortcomings of the sisters, which you need to be able to cover with love and endure with patience. Other people's shortcomings cannot prevent us from saving ourselves.

Conversation 6. Snatching the soul from the power of demons

Hell of a shelling. An alarmist will drown in a shallow puddle. How to behave during a demonic attack. If the demons are worried, this is a good sign. How to stop being a “communal apartment” for demons. Some methods of protection.

Regarding your worries, dear friend, I will say: but you, simply put, panicked and became like those unfortunates about whom the prophet David said: “There you were afraid of fear, where there was no fear” ( Ps. 13.5), i.e. I was afraid where there was nothing to be afraid of. An ordinary war for your soul has simply begun, only not hidden, as before in the world, but open. You came under ordinary shelling, which demons are firing at you from the bottom of hell, and immediately became despondent. What a warrior! Well done!

What is the point of your stay in the monastery if you did not come to fight and in this difficult struggle to snatch your soul from the power of demons? After all, until we have acquired grace, they have every opportunity to influence not only our mind, thoughts and memory, but also feelings and sensations, both physiological and mental! Remember, you have heard from me more than once about the colossal capabilities of demons (due to our lack of grace) and their ruthless struggle for our souls, even when you were a parishioner of our monastery.

As a rule, for the first time after entering the monastery, the Lord holds newcomers as if in His right hand, not allowing the enemy to tempt them greatly. When they get comfortable and get used to the new environment for them, people, daily routine and everything else, then He, as if retreating somewhat, gives them the opportunity to begin an independent struggle with the enemy for their salvation. If there had not been God’s initial help to the newcomers, then probably no one would have stayed in the monastery: the demons would have driven everyone out - so strong is their hatred of the monastics.

Well, now you have entered a new phase - the phase of independent struggle and... guard! – I was confused. Drowsiness, gluttony, irritability, lustful thoughts and sensations - all these are the arrows of the enemy that need to be repelled, and not feared; fight, not lose heart. I want to reassure you a little and please you: even with ordinary patience, combined with a humble awareness of your weakness, you can extinguish these “fiery arrows of the evil” enemy. The main reason why people drown, even those who know how to swim well, is that they begin to panic when their leg slips into an underwater hole or falls into a whirlpool; fear paralyzes the will and mind, causing involuntary convulsive movements that only worsen the situation. Finally, exhausted from them and having swallowed water, the unfortunate swimmer safely goes to the bottom. But all that was needed was to calmly take a breath and dive to the bottom of the funnel, and at the depth it was easy to move away from it and emerge again. So you, my dear, if you panic, you will drown even in a shallow puddle where sparrows bathe after the rain. I repeat once again: calm down, be patient and dive to the bottom, i.e. just wait until the enemy gets tired of firing their guns. Here you don’t need anything special to win – just calmness, patience and prayer. And the fact that they are firing – that’s their job...

As for your feelings of clouding of mind and, at the same time, a flurry of thoughts during prayer, a feeling of alienation and external violence, as if the pressure of evil from within in the form of rudeness, insolence, gluttony and such physiological sensations as fever, headaches - I will say that I know all this well, because... I have studied it thoroughly. The factors you described indicate that the demons (just please don’t be scared) living in you became more agitated, frightened and began to panic themselves: as if they wouldn’t be thrown out. This, in fact, is a gratifying phenomenon and indicates that with God’s help you will be able to drive out uninvited tenants from your house if you strive correctly and reveal in your letters all the tricks and blows of the enemy openly and without embarrassment.

By the way, similar phenomena that appear during extrasensory perception, i.e. the witchcraft influence on people by psychic sorcerers (such as Tarasov, Kashpirovsky, Longo Chumak, Juna, etc.) speaks of the exact opposite effect of demons. These symptoms clearly indicate the moment of evil spirits entering people’s bodies. At the same time, the demons cannot restrain themselves from exuberant rejoicing at the “housewarming”, causing the unfortunate ones to shake and sway.

It should be noted that many people who were born and raised in godless families, and even burdened with sinful heredity, are like lordly mansions, turned after the revolution by the Bolsheviks into filthy “communal apartments”. In our case, instead of one soul, for which this mansion (the human body) was originally intended by God, it is now inhabited by vile settlers - demons. But the demonic trick lies in the fact that they try not to betray their presence in any way, especially when a person leads the life of an atheist. Secretly and imperceptibly, they influence the consciousness of the “patient” with the help of mental suggestions and physiological arousal. But if a person, having serious intentions, embarks on the path of salvation (i.e., decides to begin correcting his life and cleansing his soul, forces himself to pray, works in obedience, teaches himself to humble himself and be obedient, i.e., tries to get rid of the main thing sin - pride and selfishness), then demons, wounded and burned by Divine grace attracted to a person by prayer, labor and self-abasement, rush into panic from burning pain and thereby betray their presence. This is where a new important stage of the struggle begins - the expulsion of uninvited residents from the house (one’s own body). This is the most important and absolutely necessary stage of spiritual life for all those who are being saved, which, in the case of its positive completion, provides a person with the opportunity to further advance along the path of purification, improvement, and therefore the accumulation of Divine grace, likened in the Gospel to the oil that the wise virgins had already prepared before the arrival of the Bridegroom and the beginning of the wedding feast. If the expulsion process is not completed and the residents do not leave, then for the rest of their lives they will have to worry about at least somehow maintaining what they have achieved and not falling into such a deep hole from which they can no longer get out. It is possible to be saved here (and you need to be saved), but this is a difficult path of constant falls and uprisings. Many people carry such a cross and do not lose heart, trusting in the mercy of God. The main thing would be repentance. To whom not much has been given, much will not be asked from him, but if someone has received much, from him there will be a corresponding demand.

The symptoms we talked about above, i.e. headaches, fever, carnal liquefaction, as I have already said, are a good indicator that the disease is approaching a crisis. After a crisis, recovery usually follows. You need to try to help him approach. Consult with Sister S. about how to arrange a trip for you to the Lavra, or rather, to the Chernigov monastery not far from it, where they hold unction daily. It would be good for you to receive unction through this fast, and when they perform the sacrament, you must constantly ask the Lord with all your heart for deliverance and expulsion of enemies. This request can be added to the Jesus Prayer at the end, and the prayer itself can be continuously performed with the mind before and during the sacrament. There is no need to be afraid or embarrassed if demons suddenly cry out from you; on the contrary, intensify your prayer. In some similar cases, it happened that they came out. In the monastery, don’t say that you are a novice, wear a regular dress.

When you approach Communion, always earnestly pray to the Lord to deliver you from demons, ask for their expulsion. If you can find such an opportunity, try to use those places and times when you are alone, at least for a short time, to carefully pray to “Jesus” with a very repentant, plaintive and pleading mood of the soul. Pray in public so as not to draw attention to yourself.

Under no circumstances should you lower your mind in your heart; you could be seriously damaged, because... You're not ready for this yet. When you are alone, pray out loud, but quietly, almost in a whisper. If possible, read the Psalter as often as possible. It’s not scary that not everything is clear, but the demons don’t like the horror of it (the Psalter), and besides, the Psalter enlightens the mind - this has been experienced in practice. It would be nice to have a pocket-sized Psalter so that you can carry it with you and read it wherever you have the opportunity, at least a little. Just try to do this unnoticed by others, so as not to tempt anyone.

When the flesh is inflamed, you can interrupt prayer for a while and turn to God in your own words with a request to extinguish “by unfeminizing the rebellion of the body.” Also ask the Lord to drive away the prodigal demon from you, cleanse your mind from unclean demonic thoughts, protect you with holy Angels, cleanse, protect, preserve, etc. At these moments you need to pray and ask with tension, until the fire goes out. The same request should be addressed to the Mother of God and the Guardian Angel. After the storm subsides, you can continue the interrupted prayer. In the fight against the prodigal demon, it is very important not to overeat and not sleep more than the necessary minimum. A well-nourished and well-rested body, like a stallion in mating season, is almost uncontrollable.

On the contrary, it is good to work until you get tired in this struggle, and eat and rest in moderation. It is also very important that you do not have any unconfessed sins in this regard. If you are embarrassed to say something like this in confession, write it down, and then try not to remember these sins. Don’t despair if success doesn’t come right away, know that this is a rather protracted struggle. Just repent if you fall, and humble yourself in front of everyone, don’t judge or complain. Only by your own humility can you pacify the fury of the demonic attack. So, my friend, take heart and remember that we are at war.

Treat your sisters' help not with irritation, but with humility and gratitude. Do not grieve over the absence of sorrows, for your sins, weaknesses and painfulness of the soul should be a greater sorrow for you than external circumstances.

Conversation 7. Betrayal begins with self-indulgence

Without self-compulsion there will be no salvation for us. How they turn into idols for themselves. He who does not crucify his passions inevitably becomes a Judas. What you need to do to avoid selling Christ. Don't try to “steal” joy.

I really liked the calm, prayerful singing in your new monastery. I also liked the fact that during the everyday service they sing in Znamenny chant; it sounds very touching and prayerful, even when only one singer sings. And overall, I had a very pleasant impression of the monastery and the brethren. Only some of “ours” upset me after the second pilgrimage to your monastery. And this grief is connected with you.

They told me how you shirked obedience and went to your cell to sleep. The fact that you are lazy is, of course, not news to me, but what can I say - we all notice this sin in ourselves. But still, a Christian who has chosen the path of salvation must not indulge the lusts of his flesh, which, if not curbed, strives only to eat, sleep and do nothing, or do only what it likes.

In order to be saved from sins and demonic violence over our will, it is absolutely necessary to force ourselves to fight the flesh and the devil, who weakens the flesh. You probably remember the words of the Savior that only those who force themselves to fight sin will enter the Kingdom of Heaven ( Matt. 11, 12)? And in the Slavic original, the word “forcing” was written as “needers” - these are those who force, compel themselves. How are you, brother, going to save yourself without forcing yourself to fulfill the obedience given to you by your elders? What kind of novice are you after this? Where is self-sacrifice, where is the bearing of the cross, where is the crucifixion of one’s flesh “with its passions and lusts” ( Gal. 5, 24)?! How will you show the Lord that you are His disciple if you do not fulfill all these conditions that the Lord pointed out as the main signs of love and obedience to Him?

Your behavior sometimes makes me think that you came to the monastery not to save your soul, but in order to have shelter and food without bothering yourself too much. If I’m right, then (My God!) where will you end up with such a life and such thoughts?! This way, for a piece of bread, perhaps you will serve the Antichrist, and you will accept his seal. And even now, if they promise something or intimidate you, then maybe you will become an “informer” among the brethren? But betrayal begins small, and people gradually become Judases.

This happens in cases where a person does not want to fulfill the commandment “deny yourself.” Then he becomes an idol for himself, then he serves himself as an idol, pleases his flesh and his vanity, then any thought about the loss of comfort, food or position in society horrifies him. And then he is able to sell Christ, and the brethren, and his mother. He who has not denied himself, who is attached to everything carnal and spiritual, cannot be saved, because he will certainly sell Christ for lentil stew. Only those who, according to the Savior’s word, have denied themselves, who are not attached to fame, money, food, people, or comforts, who have loved the Lord with all their being, are able to resist temptations and enticements. He will not become a traitor even when he is threatened with death, especially when he is deprived of a high position or promised a meager life.

If we want to be with Christ, then we must always remember His words spoken to the Apostle Paul when he was exhausted: “My power is made perfect in weakness” ( 2 Cor. 12.9). Whoever wants to follow Christ, who has denied himself, knows this because he constantly feels God’s help and can repeat with the Apostle: “I am content in weaknesses, in insults, in needs, in persecutions, in oppressions for Christ, for when I weak, then strong” ( 2 Cor. 12, 10).

I ask you, pull yourself together, pull yourself together, try to carry out any task entrusted to you, any obedience, not as given by man, but as appointed by God for your own salvation. Remember the words: “In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world" ( In. 16, 33). Yes, we did not come into this world for joy, but to fight and defeat sin and the devil, armed with patience, selflessness and prayer, with which we can call on the Creator for help.

The joy that all people dream of and that they try to find here in this life to no avail (because all earthly joys soon end in sorrow and then death), we Christians hope to receive (and this depends on ourselves) in “ life of the next century,” as we believe and speak about this in the Symbol of our faith. Don't try to steal these joys now - such attempts end badly. Work a little, be patient, and you will have a reward that you cannot even dream of.

Conversation 8. The easy path leads to the abyss

Salvation without prayer is a naive utopia. Why is it so difficult for us to pray? Ascetic struggle is a forced necessity, without which there is no salvation. How is soul transformation achieved? On the causes of paralysis of the will. Cure for paralysis. Why do people change? About the fight against the two-headed hydra of egoism.

I always pray that you “will not fall away from your affirmation,” that you will not stray from the narrow path of struggle onto the broad path of pleasing the flesh, onto the easy path of following your lusts, which leads straight into the abyss, to the wide gates of hell. Yes, indeed, in our time there are few who are being saved, but how I want you to be among this small flock, even if not in the first rows, even if on the side, but still among those who, having rejected “passions and lusts,” carry your cross, following the great Crusader Christ.

Who can attract the grace of God to himself without prayer?! If even every creature, every little bird in the sky, every frog in the swamp, “every breath” praises the Lord, then how can we, intelligent creatures, not turn to our Creator God in prayer? “But if anyone knew,” said Elder Alexander from the Gethsemane skete, “what efforts the enemy makes to deviate a person from prayer, abstinence and virtue in general, that he is ready to give a person all the treasures of the world for this!” (see his Life, p. 43, M., 1994). In other words, the enemy is ready to help a person fulfill all his lusts, as if telling him: “Do what you want, just do not force yourself to prayer and abstinence: eat, drink, for now is not the time for exploits, and the monastery walls themselves will save you without your efforts!"

But the father of lies, as always, lies, asserting the opposite of what Christ taught, saying: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who use violence take it away” ( Matthew 11, 12). Another Athonite elder, Schema-Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, a student of Rev. Elder Silouan said: “As long as we are in this “body of sin,” and therefore in this world, the ascetic struggle against the “law of sin” operating in our flesh will not cease” (Arch. Sophrony. On prayer. P. 17, Paris, 1991). Didn’t the elder who lived in our time (he died in 1993) know the state of the modern world and humanity?.. Of course he knew, and better than many psychologists, sociologists and psychiatrists, but he not only did not cancel the struggle, but spoke about the struggle with our “old man” all the days of our earthly life, until death.

Of course, it happens that we sometimes become discouraged, feeling, as it were, the coldness and winglessness of our prayer. Let us remember here the words of the same blessed elder: “If the acquisition of scientific erudition requires long years of hard work, then the acquisition of prayer also requires incomparably more” (ibid., p. 9). But due to our impatience, we do not want to live in this painful state of self-compulsion for us, when prayers are still hard, exhausting work for us. We long for grace-filled, consoling prayer, which only experienced ascetics have. “The path of our fathers,” writes Fr. Sophrony, “requires strong faith and long-suffering, while our contemporaries are trying to seize all spiritual gifts, including even the direct contemplation of the Absolute God, by pressure and in a short time” (ibid., p. 196).

Can you imagine what an enormous task God has set before us: using effort, compulsion, force to enter the Kingdom of God! This task is higher than all earthly tasks and goals, and it is possible to fulfill it only through a violent change in the qualities of one’s soul, distorted by sin, with the assistance of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Our will to correction and our effort in the ascetic struggle against sin makes the soul capable of receiving and retaining the grace of the all-sanctifying Holy Spirit, which, at the end of the earthly struggle, will pour out upon us in abundance in the Kingdom of Glory. The inability and unpreparedness of the soul to perceive Him here on earth excludes the possibility of enjoying His grace in the future, i.e. in Life Eternal.

Correction and transformation of the soul is a long process, the most important role in it is played by many years of prayer and sober attention to one’s spiritual state. “Prayer for many years,” continues Fr. Sophrony, - transforms our fallen nature so much that it becomes capable of receiving sanctification through the Truth revealed to us; and this is before we leave the world (cf.: In. 17, 17)” (ibid., p. 189). Elsewhere, the elder writes: “To persist in undistracted prayer means victory at all levels of natural existence. This path is long and thorny, but the moment comes when a ray of Divine light will cut through the thick darkness and create a breakthrough in front of us, through which we will see the Source of this Light. Then the Jesus Prayer takes on cosmic and metacosmic dimensions” (ibid., p. 167).

All of you have now experienced from your own experience what sinful relaxation of the soul means. Only one who has begun to force himself, who has begun to fight sin, can understand this. It was then that everyone felt how strong the opposition of the demons was, inclining our will to sin, and how relaxed and paralyzed our will was. And mind you, while you lived as you wanted, an inattentive, careless worldly life, you did not notice your lack of will, but as soon as you started the struggle, all this immediately became apparent. The defeat of the volitional center, the paralysis of the will, is the result of the retreat of God’s grace from the ancestors for the first sin of disobedience. And all of us, their distant descendants, bear the stamp of the gracelessness of Adam and Eve, who conceived children already in this graceless state.

But God did not abandon His people to the end, He gave us the opportunity to accumulate (acquire) grace and thereby strengthen the will to good, but at the same time left another possibility: by our own will (a voluntary choice between good and evil) to lose even those crumbs of grace that still remain in us, and finally become slaves of sin.

It is not only we who feel the lack of grace and relaxation of the soul; All the great saints cried and lamented about her, starting with the ap. Paul, who described this deplorable state in this way: “The desire for good is in me, but I do not find it to do it. I don’t do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I don’t want” ( Rome. 7, 18-19). Here comes the reverend. Ephraim of Syria exclaims with contrition: “Sin, having turned into a habit, has drawn me into complete destruction, although I convict myself and do not cease to make confession, yet I still remain in sins... Drawn by some secret force, I seem to want to run away, but, like a dog on an iron chain, I return to the same place again. Sometimes I come to the point of hatred of sin and abhorrence of iniquity, but still I remain enslaved to passion.” So, it should be noted that all people, including those who have earned God’s mercy and salvation, have experienced the effect of the law of sin, i.e. a discrepancy between our desire for salvation and our capabilities, or rather, the inability to make an effort on ourselves. And if it weren’t for God’s help, no one would have emerged victorious from this struggle. But pay attention to the words I underlined by Rev. Ephraim the Syrian: “I never cease to bring confession,” and also “I reach the point of hatred of sin and abhorrence of iniquity.” If we add here many years of prayer, then it will become clear how people like us, people who had the same weakness of will as ours, overcame. Hate sin, condemn yourself, fall, get up to begin repentance again and again every day, praying to God (as much as you can) for forgiveness and healing of the soul from paralysis of the will. And with all this, do not allow despondency, remembering the example of the endless patience of that poor widow about whom the Lord spoke in the famous parable ( OK. 18, 1-7). I will cite here another statement by Archimandrite Sophrony: “It is saving for us if disgust from sin grows in us, turning into self-hatred. Otherwise, we are in danger of getting used to sin, which is so multifaceted and subtle that we usually do not notice its presence in all our actions, even seemingly good ones” (ibid., p. 190). For all of you, without fail (I ask you to do it as a blessing), I assign for reading the chapter “Seeing Your Sin” from the 2nd volume of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov (p. 118).

Now I will try to answer some specific questions.

1. The sister asks: “It becomes scary when you see how, one after another, people who were once close in spirit change for the worse before your eyes... How to protect yourself, because no one is insured?”

“This is truly a terrible phenomenon, but you need to prepare yourself for the fact that in all the remaining years of your life you will repeatedly witness such amazing metamorphoses. There are always two reasons for this, not just one. Firstly, the obligatory action of demons, and secondly, one’s own will, for demons at first only offer and seduce, but a person himself chooses whether to agree with their proposal or reject it. This is what Rev. wrote about this. Ephraim of Syria: “Woe is me! The evil will leads me into sin, but when I sin, I lay the blame on Satan. But woe is me! - because I myself am the cause of my sins. The evil one will not force me to sin: I sin of my own free will.”

But now I’ll tell you the most amazing thing... We, in fact, have 100% insurance against seduction and death! This is humility and spiritual poverty, which lies in “our awareness of the spiritual death present in us” (Father Sophrony). To purchase this insurance, i.e. humility, you need to fight the two-headed hydra of your own egoism.

The first head of the hydra of selfishness is love for your soul. This head devours those who are full of conceit, who perceive themselves as an extraordinary person and worthy of something more in the future or, in any case, of course, respect. Such a person quickly loses an adequate perception of the world, loses guidelines in assessing himself, the people and events around him, trusts exclusively himself or flattering liars, hates sound teaching, trusts his own opinion, looks down on his neighbors and condemns them, loses respect for the authorities of the Church, becoming himself as the most important authority, almost the Pope (“indisputable authority”). He listens to the opinions of others only when they sing along with him, gets irritated and cannot stand the opposite opinion. Remember the words: “He who loves his life will destroy it; But he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life" ( In. 12, 25). This head of the hydra also devours those who love their spiritual passions: excessive parental, marital or “brotherly” love for any person, or passionate attachment to some kind of activity, more often to art (they say: “he is obsessed with poetry” ); their “grace-filled” (actually pseudo-graceful) experiences of communication with God.

The second head of the hydra of selfishness is love for one’s flesh. This head devours those who, although they want to be saved from eternal condemnation, do not want to deny themselves anything in this temporary life. The Lord said about these: “No one can serve two masters: for... he will be zealous for one, and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” ( Matt. 6, 24). It is impossible to be saved without oppressing your flesh, because through the lusts of the flesh, demons tie the soul to the comforts, pleasures and delicacies of this life, making you almost forget its short duration and deceitfulness, make the soul even more relaxed, voluptuous, and after some time bring it to fullness. the impossibility of fighting sin, and then they even teach (like a parrot, by repeated repetition) the idea that struggle is not necessary at all, otherwise, they say, now is the time.

2. The sister is worried that she is being visited by the thought of cruelty towards her parents, whom she left behind when she went to a monastery.

“And I, a sinner, see that for them, the poor, desperately mired in the darkness and dirt of the world, the daughter’s prayer is the only ray of salvation in the darkness, the only hope for God’s mercy, for only He can give them| a chance to someday see the light and exclaim:! “God, how do we live?! After all, we are worse than animals!! Help us, Lord!” They have no other hope for salvation, because there is no one to pray for them, and no one else will sacrifice tears and prayers for them. Of course, you can be close to your parents, but then (I mean this case), the whole family will drown together. And although] together, of course, it’s more fun, but who benefits from this?

3. The sister asks about communion without preparation, “with a blessing.”

– Since the communion of the Most Pure Body and Precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is such a terrible Sacrament that “the ranks of angels cannot look upon Him,” one should approach Him with great fear, for the same Cup can be a blessing for some, but for others others to condemnation. As a last resort, you should strictly fast for at least a day. If there was no opportunity to prepare at all and there is no peace in your soul about this, it is better to firmly and fearlessly refuse.

4. Question: “How to confess if the priest did not read prayers before confession?”

– You should ask Mother Superior or Mother Dean to convey to the priest the request of the sisters: to read out the appropriate prayers in the future so as not to embarrass them. The priest, of course, must fulfill the rites of the Holy Church and it is not a sin to remind him of this. However, the Lord will accept your confession, even if only a prayer of permission is read; the priest takes care of everything else.

In conclusion, I want to ask all of you to bear each other’s weaknesses, mutually forgive and ask for forgiveness; be each other's support; to clarify all bewilderments among ourselves honestly and openly (for this disgraces the demons and destroys their machinations), to love each other and all the sisters of the monastery.

Conversation 9. Self is the main carrier of sin

Congratulations to everyone on the beginning of Lent. God grant that it becomes for us not only a time of cleansing and unloading the body from all sorts of toxins, as doctors say, but, first of all, a time of unloading our soul from the main sin: selfishness, selfishness.

If we try to analyze each of our actions, we will find that in each of them there is a self, which is the main bearer of sin in us, and itself is nothing more than sin. How often, for example, in a conversation we say something slightly flattering. By doing this we earn the favor of our sister or superiors. Their location pleases our vanity. Often, when talking about ourselves, we lie more beautifully, showing ourselves in the most favorable light, and sometimes we cannot resist demonstrating our small success or good deed. We trumpet our affairs ahead of ourselves. And this is also a tribute to pride. Flattery and lies here serve to satisfy our sinful self-love.

Self-absorption and selfishness appear where there is no true love as a gift from God, i.e. there is no grace of the Holy Spirit. Those in whom there is grace, and therefore there is love, are focused not on themselves, but on their neighbor, whom they love and are ready to sacrifice a lot for him, even their own lives. And if Rev. Seraphim of Sarov spoke about the main task of a Christian as acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit; he meant precisely the introduction of a person to Divine love, which is, as it were, a force of attraction directed from a person to those around him, and not at all to himself.

With us, it’s the other way around: self-deification of one’s soul occurs, love for which is manifested in the opinion that “I” (my soul) is something very significant, worthy of all respect, and such an opinion is often accompanied by the feeling that the whole world exists only for me and moreover, without me nothing would have happened here. In its extreme expression, love for one’s soul reaches the point that a person obsessed with this passion (pride) considers all others to be almost dead objects, something like dolls, which either serve him to satisfy his goals and lusts, or, on the contrary, they interfere with this. In the latter case, they can be dealt with without ceremony; they must be removed from the road by any means, mercilessly.

If our love for our soul, Thank God, does not reach such a degree, it nevertheless manifests itself in various forms very often, although not so noticeably. For example, all the sisters received gifts for Christmas. Some people thought her gift was worse than others. There is resentment in the heart, and even envy, and maybe even anger at those who are lucky. “Why, because I deserve better! And my sister is worse than me, but she got a better gift than mine!”

Another example: “Someone talked to my sister, and not to me” - resentment - “they are ignoring me again!” Or: “They gave me harder obedience than hers,” again insult! What can we say if such a “soul lover” is really offended? Then it's just a nightmare! Mortal hatred will creep into the heart, which will only wait for the moment when it can finally sting, take revenge in word (for example, “throw mud”) or in deed (not help in need).

So, as we see, love for one’s soul manifests itself in many ways and is the root of pride - the most vile and murderous sin. To save the soul from this abomination, you need to humble and humiliate yourself all your life - otherwise you will not be saved. “I am worthy of a worse piece, a worse gift, a more difficult obedience, as well as all the insults and insults, for I am much worse than those who offend me think” - this is the right way of thinking that allows you to fight and defeat pride.

As for the method for determining the presence of passion, it is very simple. The fathers teach: if you are deprived or you deprive yourself of something, but you regret it, you often think about what (or whom) you lost, and remembering this, you become agitated, unpeaceful in spirit, despondent, irritated, etc. - this means: there was and is an addiction.

To the question about foreknowledge, I can say the following: only God has real foreknowledge. Demons are very limited in this, they can predict, firstly, what they themselves are going to do (i.e. not yet perfect, but planned by them), and secondly, what is currently happening at a great distance from us , because they move in space at enormous speed and exchange information, and thirdly, they can, having extraordinary logical abilities, draw conclusions about possible events from all the information available to them, in which, however, they often fail.

Intuition is most often a demonic suggestion from the outside, but still not an obsession. In some cases, however, it happens that the Guardian Angel suggests something useful, especially in extreme situations.

Clairvoyance (as, for example, in Vanga) is only a consequence of one of the forms of obsession. In such cases, a person, having become a vessel of an unclean spirit, turns into an instrument of demons’ influence on people. All information transmitted through such a person, according to the plan of the demons, is intended to distort the true faith and replace it with a false one; it should also lead people to direct non-communication, so that as a result, by destroying the spiritual protection of a person, it will facilitate the introduction of demons into his body.

In cases where your “gut instinct” tells you that a person is bad, you just need to be on your guard, carefully check all available information, observe the person, but do not immediately take this hint on faith. Real “feeling” comes with experience, as well as with spiritual growth, but you also need to be careful with it, because... and here the enemy can interfere with his action in order to deceive. We need (I say again!) great caution and a comprehensive check!

Conversation 10. Christ does not come down from the cross

Let's start the post with “unloading” from the self. Where there is no love, selfishness rules. Where does self-deification begin, and how to fight it? A way to determine the presence of passion. What is the difference between prescience, intuition and clairvoyance?

One of our sisters very correctly noted that the soul of a modern person can be likened to a lustful wife, carried away by an adulterer (demon). Very often the soul knows that its desire is sinful, but, nevertheless, like a harlot wife, it voluptuously thirsts and looks for a way to deceive its husband, waiting for the right moment to satisfy its lust. Naturally, she has to dodge and lie to her husband (her conscience) when she justifies herself in response to his reproaches. But so that even the memory of her betrayal does not prevent the voluptuous soul from indulging in sinful passion, this harlot forces herself to temporarily even forget about the existence of her husband.

Of course, to calm the conscience, the easiest way, as many people of little faith do, is to shift all the blame onto the demon who tempts the unfortunate, weak soul to sin. By the way, Eve did the same thing, pointing to the serpent, whose image Satan took upon himself ( Life 3, 13). The soul, in this case, tries to convince itself and its conscience that it did not have the strength to resist the temptation offered by the demon. However, we should always remember that if we really did not have the strength to refuse a tempting offer, then the Lord God would not have any right to punish us, starting with our first parents (Adam and Eve), and ending with all their descendants, including us. So, we, of course, have the strength to renounce the sin proposed by the sinful demon, but if we do not use this strength quite consciously, trying to remain in goodness, if we do not correlate our actions with the main goal of our short stay on earth, then this our strength will be unclaimed, and we will be overcome by sin. Now let's see what happens to the soul next, after it has succumbed to sinful attraction, having played a game of “giveaway” with the demon.

If a wife (or soul) yields to her lust and agrees to sin, the sinner (or demon) gains more and more power over the adulterous wife, as if sucking out the volitional energy from her, suppressing her ability to resist, making her a toy for his passions . Over time, it happens that the harlot soul itself begins to be burdened by its prodigal life and would be glad to break with its lover (the demon), but, like a bird entangled in a net, it no longer has the strength to escape from them. Likewise, people, accumulating sinfulness from generation to generation, are increasingly deprived of the will to resist, gradually becoming puppets in the hands of fallen angels. Let us now consider this process in more detail.

Every time the soul makes a choice between the suggestion of a demon and the voice of conscience, it commits the most important volitional act, which is its own free will. It depends on this choice whether the soul will lose or gain Divine grace, which alone gives the soul the strength to resist sin. So, for example, with each choice that separates the soul from God, it is more and more deprived of grace, which means it increasingly loses willpower and can no longer resist sin, even if it sees how sin destroys it itself. This is one of the most fundamental spiritual laws that determines the life of intelligent beings (humans and angels). Let's call it the LAW OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF SIN AND GRACE. He says that in inverse proportion to the removal of grace-filled energy, which strengthens the soul in goodness, the strength and power of demons grows over the person who rejects the commandments of God and all of humanity. This power can only be destroyed by returning God’s grace to humanity, but this is hampered by sins that have become a wall between God and people.

In order to destroy the wall of sins that prevents the grace of God from returning to man, it is necessary to pay for sin: this is the LAW OF DIVINE JUSTICE. What is the payment prescribed by the Creator of the world for the sin of man? We learn about this from God’s revelation to His prophet Moses: sin is atoned for only by the death of the one who sinned. This law was already known to Adam, who received from God a commandment that was not at all difficult to fulfill. Violating it, as the Creator said, threatened him with death ( Life 2.16). Whether we like it or not, this is the law! Therefore, the atoning sacrifice for the sins of mankind (if we adhere to the logic of the law) should be the blood of each and everyone for their own sins. This is, in fact, what happened with the first, antediluvian civilization, which was completely, with the exception of the family of righteous Noah, destroyed for sins by the Flood. But, sad as it may be, people do not learn anything from the experience of others, therefore, after the Flood, among the descendants of righteous Noah, the same process of apostasy from God began, which was bound to end with the destruction of those who sinned.

But this time the Creator took a different path, which was dictated solely by love for his creatures. By the love of God, people were given the opportunity, without paying with their blood, without dying for their sins, to get rid of them and regain Divine grace. The payment for the sins of mankind, satisfying the LAW OF JUSTICE, was the death and blood of the Consubstantial and Only Begotten Son of God, Who died in our place to give everyone life and the possibility of salvation. The terrible and, in fact, unlimited power of the fallen angels over the harlots of human souls was destroyed only by His Calvary sacrifice. The blood of the God-man is the immeasurable and invaluable Price that He paid for our sins.

Now the sin has been paid for. The sin of all generations and every person has been redeemed by the Divine Blood of Christ the Savior. But are everyone redeemed by this Divine Blood? Potentially yes! You may ask: why potentially? The whole point is that salvation from sins, salvation from the power of the devil cannot be imposed by God on man, because God, who gave him freedom, never deprives him of this freedom of choice, and therefore each of us must choose with our free will: to accept this the gift of God (Redemption) or not to accept. So, if (hypothetically) all mankind voluntarily accepted Christ, His commandments, and therefore the gift of the Atonement, then all would be redeemed, and therefore all could be saved. But the trouble is that not all people like to live according to the commandments of Christ. They prefer to follow their own whims and desires, and therefore they reject Christ. Having rejected Christ, how can they hope for salvation? Who else will atone for their sins in the eyes of Divine justice? But then - can the grace of the Holy Spirit return to them without atonement, without payment for sin and protect them from the influence of demons?.. Of course not! That is why these power-hungry God-haters - demons - will certainly captivate their will, mind and feelings more and more, and this process will continue until the demons make people like themselves, thereby finally destroying for them the possibility of eternal life in the Kingdom of the Glory of God.

If, as I said above, retribution for sin is precisely what destroys the obstacle to the return of God’s grace, then every person, uniting with Christ in the great sacrament of Baptism, assimilates for himself an atoning sacrifice that has the power to destroy the mystical power of demons over by the will of man. Thus, thanks to the Sacrifice of the Cross, souls who have accepted Christ are, as it were, cleansed of sins by His blood, and therefore can again resist, repel the adulterous seducer with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit returned in the sacrament of Baptism.

But woe to us! Having received such a great blessing from God, who did not spare His Son for the sake of our salvation, we again voluntarily submit to sin, and our soul again, with each new sin of ours, loses the will to resist, weakens and again becomes a weak-willed harlot, fulfilling all the wishes and whims of the libertine who has by her. Unfortunately, there are too few people who are able to resist temptation and preserve the grace of Baptism, having mustered the determination to fight from beginning to end and, thereby, break out of the vicious circle. But…

Oh, the abyss of God's mercy! Knowing our stupidity, weakness and love of sin, the Lord gave us a new opportunity to escape from the devil's captivity through REPENTANCE. He gave great and terrible power to His Church: with the forgiveness of sins from the priest and the communion of His Holy Mysteries - Body and Blood - the grace of the Holy Spirit returns again, our sin is washed and atoned for by the blood of the God-Man, satanic power over the soul is again destroyed, the nets of the devil are broken . So, let us not be discouraged by getting entangled in his snares. With a cry of repentance and confession of our sins, we will again break the enemy’s network, we will not stop fighting for the salvation of our souls. And then, seeing our perseverance, the Lord will certainly help us, although He sometimes hesitates, wanting to make sure of the sincerity of our aspirations.

The Bloodless Sacrifice offered daily by Orthodox priests in splendid churches, and in squalid rooms, and in caves (as happened during periods of persecution); on brilliantly decorated thrones or in the open air on a flat stone, or on the stump of a large tree in the middle of a forest clearing, all this is, mystically, the same Sacrifice, the same Blood and the same Body that was crucified for our sins for almost two thousand years ago. And while the Orthodox priest performs the terrible sacrament of transubstantiating bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the God-Man Jesus Christ, the Calvary Sacrifice does not cease to be performed and offered, Christ does not descend from the Cross. He will continue to be a Sacrifice for our sins outside our space-time continuum, as if in another time dimension, until the last of those who want to be saved enters the “sheep fold” - and then the end of the world. And as long as the Sacrifice of the Cross is offered through the celebration of the daily Eucharist, every day for each of us who approaches It, the power of the devil is destroyed, and through repentance and communion of His Body and Blood, which redeems and washes away our sins, we are able to rise again and again . Now do you understand why Satan and all his army mortally hate the performers of the Divine Liturgy, directing the tip of their blow at them?! So, I ask you again: never despair and never give up in the fight. Remember - you will have to fight until you die!

Conversation 11. Humility is the true sword, or How to maintain piety

Who is more interesting for demons to seduce? Fallen Angels are fanatics of the game. Against talented people - the heavy artillery of hell. On the knees of humility - to the Heavenly Jerusalem. A bitter medicine to heal the proud. The monastery is a school of patience. Why is it stupid to offend those who offend us? What is used to deal a crushing blow to a demon? How not to be tempted by the example of the weak and not relax. A little about sobriety.

If in the last conversation we likened the influence of a demon on a person’s soul to the seductive speeches and actions of some regular Don Juan, then we will try to apply this comparison in order to find out: firstly, who will be seduced by the adulterer more willingly and persistently, and secondly, which Will it be more difficult for women to fight temptation? So, will the Don Juan be carried away by the ugly girl?.. Apparently, the hunter’s passion will tell him that the more beautiful the woman, the more difficult and exciting the game will be, the more significant the victory will be.

I must tell you, by the way, that the struggle of fallen angels for power over human souls is much more interesting for them (demons) than chess, football and all other games known to you. They are real players: furious, passionate, ready to fight for victory “to the last drop of blood.” It is in this victory and in the sweet feeling of complete power over a person that true pleasure and satisfaction lie for their incredible pride and lust for power. In this deadly game for humans, demons find the whole meaning of their existence. More than about anyone else, it can be said about them, paraphrasing the NEP song of the Odessa bandits: “their whole life is an eternal game.”

Now that we understand who will attract more attention from Don Juans, the answer to the second question will become clear: who will find it more difficult to fight numerous temptations. Of course, that woman who, standing out for her appearance, has the misfortune of attracting stronger and more experienced seducers. They, like flies attracted by the smell of honey, hover around the beauties. Likewise, souls endowed with great abilities are subject to the onslaught of demons of a higher rank. How difficult it is for a rich man to escape! ( Matt. 19, 23-24). But this is not only about money, but also about rich opportunities and abilities. It is here that the demons of arrogance and pride enter the battle - the heavy artillery of the army of hell, the highest ranks of the hellish hierarchy. How difficult it is for a highly intelligent person to escape! And yet it is possible.

It is said that Jerusalem once had a gate within the city walls called the “Eyes of the Needle.” They were so low that camels could not enter them. But those camels that were able to kneel and crawl under their arches still ended up in the city. Here's our instructions. This is the method of salvation. Only humility, only daily self-abasement can save a proud soul from the snares of the devil. Why is it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone rich in money, abilities and self-esteem to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? It turns out that it is more difficult for a person with wealth and talents to overcome his pride, vanity, conceit and self-praise than for a royal pupil of the desert to kneel and crawl into the “Eyes of a Needle” of the Holy City of Jerusalem, which prefigures the Heavenly City - the Heavenly Jerusalem.

But God’s mercy does not abandon sinners here either: the Lord allows the proud, for the sake of their salvation, to experience insults, slander, anger and hatred from others - all this is necessary for us, the proud, like air, to develop humility. For the same purpose, the Lord allows sickness and falls (due to our sins), which is also a necessary medicine for proud souls. If only we could learn to gratefully accept all punishments from the hand of God in full confidence that all this is sent for our benefit, for the healing of our souls, like a bitter but necessary medicine. Moreover, we should accustom ourselves to the idea that all kinds of insults, slander and other temptations should be met with joy, thanking God for giving us the opportunity to atone for our previous sins with patience, and also creating conditions for training in humility, meekness and complacency .

In this sense, modern monasteries provide an excellent opportunity to develop the most important quality necessary for our salvation, i.e. humility. Our life is a school where we solve problems, do exercises to learn what we don’t yet know. Humility and patience, self-sacrifice and meekness do not come on their own; they need to be cultivated within oneself, with the help of God. What good is it for us if we live and work among people who love us, or at least observe the rules of community and decency? In such hothouse conditions, only pride and conceit flourish.

Monasteries are another matter... Today, a considerable part of the inhabitants in them are mentally ill people who, however, want to be saved. They are people like everyone else; and just like everyone else, they are subject to the influence of demons, only to a stronger degree, which is allowed by God for various reasons, which are not for us to delve into and not for us to judge. With their help, better than anywhere else, you can train your feelings and will, teaching yourself to endure rudeness and even slander with patience, cultivating in yourself complacency and, I would say, gentle humor, with the help of which By the grace of God, all insults will be endured without much difficulty. Whoever has not gone through this school, who has not experienced all the malice of the demons acting through people on himself, cannot move forward, because he has no experience in spiritual warfare. This inexperienced Monk may fight all his life, but, unfortunately, with the wrong enemy, and therefore will not achieve success and, moreover, may die, mistaking for his enemies not fallen angels, but monastic brothers or sisters, with the help of whom they act these invisible prompters are on him, hidden from the public eye.

Only having gained extensive life experience through the correct transfer of troubles from others, we can understand how stupid it is to be angry and offend people who offend us, for we clearly see that it is not they who are acting, but “spirits of wickedness in high places” ( Eph. 6, 12). Thus, everyone must understand: if you respond to an insult, you thereby offend your brother, and this is a violation of God’s commandment ( Matt. 7, 12; OK. 6, 31), whereas you need to respond to the true enemy - the demon who struck, hiding behind his brother, like a shield. If our retaliatory blow hits our brother, the demon laughs in delight - he was waiting for this, and if we hit the demon himself with humility, he will cry, having suffered defeat, for humility is a true sword, and it hurts the ethereal enemy. By the way, “turn your cheek” ( Matt. 5.39) - this is to deal a crushing blow to the demon with humility. But, it should be noted that this method is acceptable only in relation to a brother in Christ who is tempted by a demon, and in general to a personal enemy, but not to an enemy of the Church, society, or state.

To be precise, a true Christian cannot have “personal” enemies at all because, firstly, he loves people, seeing in them the image of God, even if contaminated, and secondly, he clearly realizes that In the hostile actions of surrounding people, demons play an initiative and leading role. Thus, it turns out that by the word “enemies” the Gospel means those who consider us enemies and are hostile towards us, while we do not consider anyone other than fallen angels to be enemies.

It seems to me that many of those who, living in a monastery, amaze us with their rudeness, tactlessness, intolerance and other asocial qualities, if they remained in the world, would seem nice in communication, kind and pleasant people. But since the monasteries are the vanguard of Christianity in a fierce battle with the army of Lucifer, it is they who take the most powerful blows of the enemy, and not all the soldiers of Christ can withstand this heavy enemy fire. Many need the help and endurance of more steadfast brothers, their example and prayer, and sometimes simply condescension and the ability to endure the “weaknesses of the weak.” It is only important not to be tempted by the example of the weaker, not to relax, but to remain steadfast in piety, and this is a rather serious and difficult task, given the general relaxation of modern monastic life.

Brothers and sisters who wished and could lead a more ascetic life than usual are, of course, upset by the existing order of things. But they need to understand that, firstly, in the absence of constant guidance from experienced ascetics (and they are still almost invisible in monasteries), they would not be able to maintain their feat even if they lived in their own separate community, and secondly, having lost the healthiest and most zealous part of monasticism, the monasteries would have lost the opportunity to educate the weaker by the example of the best - and would have finally degenerated into communes of believing bachelors and bachelorettes. That is why you have to accept existing circumstances as they are.

Realizing that some monastics cannot endure the feats of abstinence and prayer, stronger monks should firmly and unflaggingly adhere to at least the accepted prayer rhythm, but the main thing to pay attention to is developing patience, kindness, meekness, learning to calmly and graciously perceive any troubles, radiating around yourself in a joyful and cheerful mood. All these qualities are acquired (developed) by constant and unremitting sobriety.

Sobriety is a constant battle with the lusts of the flesh and suggestions from the internal enemy (self, egoism) and external - demons, it is forcing oneself to renounce one’s “ego”, i.e. reminding yourself of the need to acquire selflessness. Sobriety is the constant monitoring and repulsion by the mind of all sinful proposals from the inside and outside, this is the constant forcing of oneself to good and the rejection of all evil. Temperance is one of the main sciences of monasticism; it can be taught under any circumstances and in any monastery. I advise you to pay special attention to the science of sobriety, having first studied everything that you find in the books of St. ascetics, and then trying to apply their knowledge in practice.

One should also remember about the most important work of a monk - the need to awaken in oneself a prayerful mood, a taste for prayer, for nothing else is asked from God for the grace of the Holy Spirit than through attentive prayer.

I ask you to distribute the books among yourself in such a way that each of the sisters finds in her book everything that relates to sobriety and guarding the heart. For example, one works with “The Ladder” and makes appropriate extracts from there, another with “Invisible Warfare,” the rest look through various volumes of “The Philokalia” and look for everything related to sobriety. Recently the Lavra published “Spiritual Conversations” by Macarius of Egypt. There is a “Word on guarding the heart” (p. 345), some of which can be found in Abba Dorotheus. It is advisable to then write all these extracts about guarding the mind and heart, about the fight against thoughts and carnal lusts (one after another) in one notebook, so that everyone in turn can read the teachings collected from different fathers regarding the topic that interests us.

Now we should say a few words to those of our sisters who teach Sunday school, since their temptations and temptations have increased significantly due to the fact that adults began to come to them. Of course, we all know from patristic experience that if a novice begins to teach someone, we can immediately say that he is under the deception of demons. But here's the problem! In modern newly opened monasteries there is almost no one to teach. Almost everyone there is new.

Although you do your job out of obedience, the sword of Damocles of vanity still hangs over your heads. No one will be able to help you if you yourself do not help yourself to avoid the most subtle and sophisticated network of the devil. Repeatedly I had to observe how quite sincerely believing people, having read good spiritual literature, were able to advise quite competently, based on the experience of the holy fathers, and their advice was appropriate and achieved the goal, providing real help to those who questioned. Almost all of them, before My eyes, one after another, were scolded by demons who cruelly mocked them, catching them, who had absolutely no experience in the struggle of the soul, in a net of vanity. What terrible falls I saw! God's servants turned into God's enemies within just 2-3 years. The devil so deceived the minds of these unfortunates that they became blind and deaf to everything that contradicted their opinion. The sad example of our mutual N-city acquaintance who took this slippery path is yet another proof of this. But what to do if this is obedience? I say again: none of the people will help you; and the Lord often tests us with fiery trials. The only hope is your prudence, attention to your thoughts and the subtlest movements of the soul, and most importantly, self-condemnation, which destroys any vain thought. Know: you are on the verge of death and walking on the edge of a knife. Remember this! And constantly shout in your heart: Lord, save us from vanity, do not let us perish!

Conversation 12. “It seems like you want to be saved, but you’re too lazy to pray”

Weakness of will is a spiritual disease of all humanity. And in captivity of sin do not be a slave! Why don't we have the right to compare ourselves with others? It’s a sin to do less than you can. How to protect yourself from complacency after doing a good deed.

It would be very sad if you had a desire to “be like everyone else.” In our relaxed age, this means approximately the following position: “It seems like you want to be saved, but you are too lazy to pray.” You see for yourself that almost no one (even among novices) can abstain from verbosity, food, or any other indulgence of the flesh and their “ego.” This relaxation is a spiritual illness. By the way, you see it in yourself too, don’t you? Weakness of the will is a universal disease that has struck all of humanity since the first fall as a result of the retreat of God’s grace from those who sinned, which I already wrote to you about earlier. But here’s the problem: we increase this lack of grace, inherited from our forefathers, with our own sins, which deprive us of grace more and more. How can one not mourn such a deplorable, sinful, painful condition?! This is where “I will find the beginning of my evil,” as you read in the canon of repentance.

So, weakened by the absence of grace (to the proper extent), our will is crushed under the pressure of the devil’s will, which pushes us to sin and is itself sin. At the same time, the access of demons to people was ensured by the same lack of grace-filled protection that protects a person from the unwanted influence of demonic will. It is possible to avoid this violence only through the gradual acquisition or, in other words, “acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit,” as the Rev. said, if you remember. Seraphim of Sarov.

But “do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves in obedience, to him you are slaves?” - asks the app. Paul ( Rome. 6, 16). This means that if we, being forced by force by a demon, still, by our will and our desire, do not want what he is pushing us to, do not voluntarily surrender ourselves to his obedience, then we are not slaves to him, voluntarily bowing under the yoke of the master. Rather, they are captive warriors, slaves, because our own will desires something else. It follows from this that if we, succumbing to demonic pressure, did not resist in virtue, but still did not stop resisting again and again, repenting and condemning ourselves, then we have not yet fallen away from God, have not become complete slaves of sin and the devil. In this case, being, as it were, in captivity of the enemy, we remained subjects of our King, did not renounce Him and are waging an underground struggle. So, we should constantly resist and, in spite of everything, NOT WANT to submit to the devil, taking care, in the meantime, to acquire grace, which is given, firstly, through prayer, and secondly, through good deeds and obedience.

But in order to avoid falling into the grave sin of pride through prayer, obedience and abstinence (as far as you can), you must remember that under no circumstances do you have the right to compare yourself with others, because through this you can either fall into condemnation (if you will seem better than others) or despondency (when you see someone’s virtues that you do not possess). Never try to put yourself on the same level with anyone, because “everyone has his own gift (measure of strength) from God, one this way, another another” ( 1 Cor. 7, 7). If God has given you more strength to resist relaxation or abstain from something, do not be proud, because more will be asked of you. And to whom little is given, little will be asked - I hope you remember this. But except the Creator, no one knows the measure: who is given what and how much. Do it to the best of your ability, which a person feels within himself. And if you do less than you can, then it’s a sin.

In order not to fall into pride after performing any good deed, you need to program your consciousness for this by entering the following two formulas into memory:

- “I don’t do even a hundredth part of what I should do,” and

- “I did this and that only because the Lord gave me strength, health and the right thought, and I myself could not have accomplished anything without His help.”

Concluding, I want to address you and the sisters with the words of the apostle: “We wish that each of you... would show the same zeal (for salvation) to the end; lest you become lazy..." ( Heb. 6, 11).

Conversation 13. What should you do if you don’t have an experienced confessor?

What will sustain us in the absence of spiritual guidance? Beware of the “caressing elders.” Fasting is not a pious tradition, but a weapon in the fight against demons. Is it possible to “rest” from the struggle for salvation? Ask your neighbors about your shortcomings. Dangerous consequences of incorrect prayer.

Congratulations to all sisters on the beginning of Lent! I hope it will contribute to the feat of prayer and serve to strengthen your spiritual strength. I will answer the questions like this:

1. More than once we have said that in our time we have to save ourselves almost alone, because there are few good examples before our eyes, little spiritual support from experienced monks, of whom, sadly, there are almost none. However, we still have guidance - the Gospel, our own conscience, and the books of the Holy Fathers, according to which it (our conscience) must be corrected so that the enemy does not confuse it. In our business, one thing is important: not to relax, not to give up, to constantly, until death, fight against your “old man.” Stopping, that is, stopping the struggle, inevitably leads to the death of the soul.

2. “The Caressing Elders,” about whom St. wrote. Ignatius Brianchaninov, you should be wary. These “elders” always attract young “ascetics” and “ascetics” to themselves by allowing them not to fight when the experience of the holy fathers and their own conscience force them to fight. Of course, it’s hard to fight. And the “elder” affectionately consoles the novice who has committed an act denounced by his own conscience: “Well, nothing! – says such an old man, “it’s not scary, it’s possible... And this is also possible.” The soul becomes light and cheerful. There is no need to fight, you can now completely indulge in your favorite passion, since your conscience no longer torments you, calmed by the “blessing” of the elder. Well, isn't it nice?!

3. If there is an opportunity and the blessing of your superiors, you can receive communion during Great Lent once a week.

4. Since you have a common meal, then, as I understand, even with all your desire, you will not be able to comply with the Rules (regarding nutrition during Lent). This is now, sadly enough, more accessible to pious laity than to monastics. The reason is that in our modern monasteries, as I said above, there are few experienced confessors who could adjust the rules of the Rule in relation to each of the monks they lead, in accordance with the capabilities and health of each. But still, feat is necessary for monks, otherwise - what kind of monks are we?

An example is sometimes set by the laity: almost all of our parishioners ate nothing on the first day of Great Lent, and on the remaining days of the first week, when according to the Typikon “dry eating” is prescribed, many of them sat on bread and tea, and without any pressure from the clergy. Most of them work hard every day. The old women are not far behind them: others go without food for two days at a time, as it should be according to the Rule: “On the first day of the first week of the Holy and Great Pentecost, i.e. on Monday, it is by no means appropriate to eat, and the same is true on Tuesday. On Wednesday, after the Presanctified Liturgy, a meal is served: bread with warm vegetable dishes, and a drink with honey is also given. Those who cannot save the first two days eat bread and kvass on Tuesday after Vespers. The old ones do the same thing” (Typikon. Sheet 32, reprint, M., 1997).

Thank God, we, the clergy, were able to fast according to the Rules and sat down to eat for the first time only on Wednesday after the liturgy. And imagine: none of us died, although the oldest of the priests is already over 60.

Unfortunately, due to the loss of continuity (former monks were exterminated in Soviet times, and others died even before the revival of monastic life began in the 90s), in modern monasteries the understanding of the purpose and meaning of fasting is sometimes lost. Now, fasting, for example, is perceived simply as a pious tradition, and nothing more. But it carries a deep mystical, spiritual meaning. First of all, this is one of the means of acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, and in addition, it is the most important means of strengthening prayer, purifying thoughts and, finally, one of the main ways to fight demons, who, unlike us, do not stop their struggle for a minute . We allow ourselves to rest from time to time, putting down our weapons. But how necessary this struggle is, especially in our time! How can we manage here without fasting?

I recommend that you eat two meals a day during fasting. Try not to overeat even lean food, but do everything in such a way that you don’t draw attention to yourself in the refectory, and most importantly, I remind you, protect your soul from vanity, although I know that you remember this.

5. Much better than the abbess, your shortcomings can be noticed by the sisters with whom you communicate more. Therefore, it is better to pay attention to what they are unhappy with about you. Analyze the reasons for their discontent (only without the slightest self-justification), and you will see what you need to fight with. You can ask those closest to you directly: “What shortcomings do you see in me?” But if they say something you didn’t expect, have the courage to accept it, don’t pout, but accept it with gratitude, because every such remark, although painful (due to our pride), is incredibly precious for working on yourself.

6. The method of prayer with tension of the whole body is no good! This can only end in one thing: demonic seduction (may the Lord protect you from such a misfortune!). Such methods are based on our same inescapable pride, the desire to quickly “reach out to God.” My dear child, God always hears us! His Spirit permeates every cell, every molecule. Of course, you need to pray with some tension, but not the body (under no circumstances!), but only the mind, as far as possible. Mental tension is necessary to concentrate consciousness, to increase attention to the words and meaning of prayer, to constantly reject extraneous thoughts that come from outside, introduced, for the most part, by demons. But the main thing is that before starting prayer, your soul, like a violin, must always be tuned, and tuned exclusively in a repentant manner, but without strain, as the prophet-king David says about this: “The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: a contrite and humble heart, God does not will humiliate" ( Ps. 50, 19).

Prayer is the great work of gradually acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, accumulating, in turn, strengthens prayer. Everything, as you see, is interconnected. You cannot force this process, you need to work modestly and unceasingly, and the Lord Himself sends everything that is needed in due time. I thank God that you thought of writing to me about this! I have repeatedly seen with my own eyes the terrible consequences that result from incorrect prayer, and therefore I was frightened when I read your letter. Lord, save me!

Conversation 14. “My burden is easy to eat...”

Is it possible to be saved without denying yourself anything? Detachment from the world is not a rejection of culture! Why is passionate attachment our enemy? How to build the correct hierarchy of values ​​so as not to be caught in the net of passions. Definition of the concept of “passion”. Methods of instilling passions. A person caught up in passion is a potential seller of Christ. Why is the operation to cut off passions so painful? From Egyptian slavery to the world - to true freedom in Christ!

The last 1.5 months, although they have been fulfilling; many different events and big ones: holidays, but the most important of them was for; you, of course, received monastic tonsure.

Almost three years have flown by unnoticed since you arrived at the monastery. This is a long enough time to think about everything, take a closer look and test yourself. Blessed is he who has chosen the path? following the commandments of God, the path of improvement in them, who has deviated from the world, where it is now more difficult than ever for a Christian to be saved because of the immeasurably multiplied temptations that relax the soul so subtly and imperceptibly that the path of the cross and self-sacrifice for him (the Christian) becomes increasingly difficult. But it is precisely this difficult, narrow and thorny path of bearing the cross that is commanded by God to all who want to be saved. No matter how much we love ourselves, no matter how much we pity our flesh, no matter how much we lament the impossibility (for monks) to improve our soul according to the elements of this world (in art, science, social activities, etc.), however, if we want to be disciples The Lord Jesus Christ (that is, those who are being saved) must always remember that without the crucifixion of their passions (physical and mental) this is absolutely impossible.

Many modern Christians, and even Orthodox Christians (that is, those who know the undistorted teaching of Christ) will be very surprised when they realize that the words applied specifically to them: “I tell you that none of those who are called will taste My supper, for many are called, but few chosen" ( OK. 14, 24). And when these called (Christians) realize that they are left behind the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, they will begin to “knock on doors and say: “Lord! God! Open to us.” But He will answer you: “I don’t know you, where you come from” ( OK. 13, 25).

But what can prevent these believing people from becoming one of God’s chosen ones? It turns out - their “passions”, their attachment to bodily, mental and pseudo-spiritual pleasures, their naive hope that they can be saved without denying themselves anything, without a painful struggle with their passions and lusts. But it is these latter who do not allow people into the Kingdom of Heaven, for the Creator Himself said: “Anyone of you who does not renounce everything that he has cannot be My disciple” ( OK. 14, 33). If a person is not a disciple of Christ, then he is far from His teaching, and therefore, far from salvation.

Unfortunately, the enemies of Christ manage, thanks to almost universal spiritual illiteracy, to confuse many with the above words of the Savior, which are always interpreted by both former and modern demon ministers in such a way that they can only cause hostility to the teachings of Christ. Among the spiritually ignorant intellectual, not to mention other social groups, these enemies of the Church tried to strengthen the opinion that only dirty, lice-covered, uneducated, and perhaps even illiterate people who they shy away from the car, deny the plane in horror, turn pale at the mere mention of the TV, and if suddenly, out of ignorance, someone in their presence even casually mentions the computer, they certainly noisily faint.

This false opinion has never been the opinion of the Church. The renunciation that the Lord spoke about in the above Gospel quote does not at all mean the need to renounce everything that material culture and civilization has created; it only means the need to destroy any passionate attachment to anything: to art, science, nature, fame, things, wealth, to man or animal. It means establishing the correct hierarchy of values. Spiritual values ​​should be placed in first place, as well as those spiritual tasks that must be completed in this temporary life according to the instructions of the Creator, and everything else should be correctly placed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and other places.

If in the first place in a person’s heart are the commandments of God, and the main task of life is salvation, then everything else not only cannot interfere with him, but even vice versa: he can use the achievements of science and culture to help himself in the main task - for his spiritual transformation and moreover, to support our neighbors in this difficult matter. If material goods and cultural achievements become idols for a person, occupying an inappropriate place in his heart, then the inevitable attachment to them turns into a chain for him, which chains him to lower, sensual and spiritual pleasures, making him forget God and the main goal of human life. . In this case, all this dust and ashes, so attractive to humans, serves as bait in the hands of “superintellectuals” (demons), who are capable of very cleverly fooling anyone, the most brilliant of people, since demons of the highest ranks are incomparably smarter and more powerful than any of them. us, and only those on whose side the help of Christ the Savior can count on victory in this terrible struggle for our souls.

Who has passion and how does it arise? It will inevitably appear in any person whose life attitude (his credo) is formulated something like this: “Have time to enjoy, because you only live once!” This means you have to take everything you can from life. But even if you can’t take it, you still need to get what you want by any means and even force.” Such an attitude exists, and not always clearly and explicitly, in the depths of the consciousness of everyone who unsteadily stands in the Truth proclaimed by the Creator first through the biblical prophets, and then by God Himself incarnate - Jesus Christ, and, even more so, in the consciousness of those who reject God. This false attitude, by the way, is extremely clearly expressed in a song that was very often heard on the radio in the 70s: “Life is a moment, hold on to it!”

Passion is almost always based on some natural need of the human body or soul. But this need becomes a passion only when, with the help of demons, it crosses the boundaries specified by God (hypertrophies), when it becomes uncontrollable and forces a person to violate the Divine commandments in order to satisfy it.

Understanding this pattern well, demons try to force a person to sin not through actions that are unpleasant for him, but, on the contrary, through pleasure, through arousing in him abnormally strong physiological or mental needs, the satisfaction of which brings him pleasure.

The study of the capabilities of fallen spirits has shown that they can hypertrophy, i.e. extremely increase both the natural, physiological needs of the body (instincts of hunger, sleep, reproduction, etc.) and mental needs.

By instilling selfish and proud thoughts, for example, they can arouse in a person’s soul an irresistibly passionate desire for power or kindle in him a passion for spiritual pleasures of a different order. Such a passion can be directed, say, to various types of art, to science, as well as to shows and entertainment, and then these seemingly innocent activities can, with the help of demons, lead a person far from the main goal of his life - from salvation souls. It should also be remembered that the satisfaction of those and other needs exaggerated by demons always leads people to the need to commit evil, obtaining the desired physical and mental benefits with the help of lies, deceit, and cunning! betrayal, treason, slander, theft, murder (including of one’s unborn children), sexual violence, illegal use of power, etc. In addition, the desire for pleasure and the unwillingness to limit one’s needs always brings grief and tears to the people around him, about whom the “enjoyer” does not think, but at the expense of whom he enjoys.

Using passionate attachments to bodily and mental pleasures as fishing hooks, demons capture our souls with them and subsequently keep us on a tight line, either pulling it in or letting it go. The more such hooks and lines they manage to hook into a person’s heart, the more power they have over him, forcing a person to violate the Divine commandments and sin in order to satisfy one or another passionate attachment.

Pride in all its forms (complacency, vanity, bragging and boasting, contempt for neighbors, etc.), lust for power, sexual intemperance, gluttony, drunkenness, drug addiction, violence, idleness at the expense of others, passion for entertainment and luxury - these are just a few from the passions with the help of which demons captured almost all of humanity, who had fallen away from God and did not want to live according to His holy commandments.

Of course, it is very difficult, and often almost impossible, for a worldly person, due to temptations, to resist any kind of passionate attachment, and especially because the numerous bad examples of others have a very strong effect in the world, and they, as we know, are contagious. Look at a worldly person: how much dirt does his soul accumulate in just one day of life in the world?! How many stupid, unspiritual and vulgar conversations will he hear everywhere (in the store, on the street, on the subway, at work and at home), how many abominations will he see on TV and how many dirty lies will he read in the newspapers!? And so every day. From such daily psychological treatment the soul becomes defiled, becomes stupid, relaxes, loses faith and, finally, is caught up in some passion. In turn, passion, sooner or later, forces a person to violate moral laws, trample on his conscience, transgress Divine commandments, and even betray and sell Christ for the sake of its satisfaction. Unfortunately, this is how it was and how it will be... A person caught up in some kind of passion will one day necessarily become a seller of Christ - this is the law, for it is said: “You cannot serve God and mammon” ( Matt. 6, 24). Translated from Aramaic, “mammon” means wealth, and in addition, all the carnal and mental pleasures that are acquired with its help.

This is why non-attachment, that is, freedom from passionate attachments, is indicated by God as one of the most necessary means of salvation. This instruction was given to us by Christ in the commandment “DENY YOURSELF” ( Matthew 16, 24). However, this commandment does not at all say, as some believe, about the need to reject one’s intelligence, creative abilities and physiological needs given by God to man. No, here we are talking exclusively about the rejection and destruction of passionate attachments, which can grow so firmly into a person’s soul that they become like “second nature” in him, a part of his personality, his “I”. Refusal from one or more of them is felt by a person as a rejection of himself, and this is always very painful. For our sin-loving souls, it (refusal) is so painful that in the Gospel it is likened to crucifixion, which is what the Lord says: “If anyone wants to come after Me, deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” ( Matt. 16, 24).

But let's remember: where was He going?.. To Golgotha! Consequently, Christ calls us to deny ourselves and go with Him to crucifixion, to death! So, liberation from passions is similar in its painfulness and difficulty to the crucifixion, and therefore St. The Fathers called this feat of the soul co-crucifixion with Christ. About him and ap. Paul writes to the Galatians: “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts” ( Gal. 5, 24), and in the letter to the Romans he seems to continue: “Our old man (must) be crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin (and therefore to the devil)” ( Rome. 6.6). The apostle here calls “the body of sin” passionate attachments, our passions, which become an integral part of man, i.e. as if by the man himself, or otherwise the “old man,” who must die a painful death on the cross in order, having been crucified with Christ, to reign with Him in His eternal Kingdom of Love and Truth.

Sometimes one of the laity will say:

- Oh, how difficult it is for monks to live - this is not possible, and this is not possible; There are only restrictions everywhere, and their life itself is very monotonous. No, no, I can’t bear that!

And I, a sinner, look at this and think:

“Poor thing, it’s much more difficult for you to save yourself than for us monks.” It is much more difficult to go to Christ while being in Egyptian slavery to the world, from which the monks, with God’s help, managed to emerge, as once “as Israel walked on dry land, with footsteps across the abyss, seeing the persecutor Pharaoh drowned.” Yes, we live and wander in the “desert”, where there is no diversity of nature, food, and impressions, but God has promised us the Promised Land! For this reason, you can be patient!

Probably others think differently, but to me, stupid, it seems that it is easier for monastics to be saved, because the very way of monastic life takes away from demons a lot of opportunities to tie, tie, sew, moor and chain us to the earth and to all temporary earthly pleasures with a multitude of spiritual chains , ropes, ropes, twines, fishing lines, wires and threads.

No..., of course, a pig, as they say, will always find dirt - that's for sure! But we will not talk about such “monks” and will try not to be tempted by their lives. In the end, everyone will be responsible for himself, as the apostle said: “So, each of us will give an account to God for himself”, ( Rome. 14, 12). If you always remember the main goal of your life, that is, salvation through spiritual and moral growth as you acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, then in a monastery it is certainly much easier to be saved than anywhere else.

That is why I rejoice for you that you were not tempted by the wide gate and broad path of life; I rejoice for you that you have found the courage to lay the yoke of Christ on your fragile female shoulders; I rejoice that you responded to the call of the Lord, for He will certainly help you, because these are His words: “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (

Spiritual warfare

Truly great is the warfare of the devil: he has strong bows, flaming arrows, various nets, countless tricks and weapons, through which he seeks in every possible way to harm the human soul. But if you want to completely and quickly join the army of the Heavenly King, do not be afraid of the enemy who opposes all that is good, but listen to how much the examples of Holy Scripture encourage us. Consider the warriors, the kings of the earth, and draw a useful conclusion from this. Earthly warriors, having with them assistants who are stronger and more skillful than the enemy, are not in the least afraid of their enemies. If they are confident that their assistants are invincible, then, forgetting all the horrors, they go bravely to the battlefield, fight courageously and do not leave the battlefield until they defeat their enemy and are crowned with laurels. But when we follow the path of virtue, God Himself accompanies us, and promised to confirm us in deeds of virtue until the end of the age: “And lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age...” (Matthew 28, 20). So, without being at all afraid of the attacks of the enemy, “take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:16-17) (Venerable Leo).

I ask you and pray, stay awake with humility, be sober and take courage, and<вин удерживайся>, deviating to flesh and blood and to all sorts of voluptuous movements, and from the clouds and noisy storm of excitement that torment your mind and feelings and want to plunge your good will into the mud of voluptuousness! But even if we think something and crawl, and we see a wound in ourselves from the evil speculator, but even then we rise and run again with repentance and tenderness to the One who revives the dead, and who raises the fallen and who crowns those who suffer from such tormentors and<дарующему>freedom and gifts of reasoning against... abuse (Venerable Leo).

That brother A. has come to you again and is causing concern to all of you, I sympathize with you. But everything comes to us according to Providence, so we must turn everything to our advantage. What benefit will a warrior have without fighting? Such a person is unskilled and unfeminine. And a monk cannot, without struggle, gain souls in patience and be crowned by the hero of the hero. Do not faint in spirit and do not become discouraged in opposition, but turn to the Lord with humble prayer and believe that help will come to you. I hope that God will not leave you to be tempted beyond strength, but will create with temptation an abundance that you are able to bear (St. Moses).

Do not delve into dreams, but correct yourself by trusting in the all-powerful grace of Christ. With the proposal to preserve your external and internal feelings, everything is possible. And as soon as you notice the creep, immediately direct it back to your beginning, and overcome the custom of postponing correction until the morning with an evening examination of your conscience and cleansing it with sincere gratitude before God: those who have sinned in this and that way. In cases that occur without me, act with reason, turn to the Savior and consult with whomever you have to (St. Moses).

Don’t be angry that I haven’t decided to come to you now. It is very sensitive to me that you are under siege by wolves, but I am afraid to come close to driving them away and freeing you, because your wolves look like rabid ones. They, as you know, tormented me many times, sinking their teeth to the depths of my heart. I don't know how there is still life left in me. The spirit of hope towards God was killed many times, and now whether there is any life in me, I don’t know, because I don’t feel a certain life in myself, but I hope only with a common hope, not living, but dead. Your wolves have no skins, are very toothy and cold-free. The people here, although they are predatory, are not so impudent, they are afraid of the word of man and of the species, and the more yours are driven away, the more they attack, and especially they are so angry at the one driving them away that they cannot even show themselves to him. Is it possible to shoot arrows and bullets at them from the bushes, which I do not renounce and, perhaps, sometimes I will lose something in?<попаду>with the help of Christ. If you have faith, then let me know when in what part of the soul a wolf will appear, with a description of its species, and whether it is old or young, one or two, or a whole herd, write! I truly wish God’s salvation for you and pray to Him with all my heart to deliver you from the mouth of lions and from the horns of unicorns. It is impossible to get rid of mental wolves except for the help of Christ - driving them away requires His almighty grace, and not weak human help. To do this, you need to surrender to the feet of Jesus with extreme humility, ask Him for everything and cast all your sorrow on Him and, moreover, pray to the Mother of God and other saints with true recognition of your sins and weaknesses to correct yourself. Thus, without a doubt, the Lord will help you and rest your spirit. “Learn,” he said, “from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). This is where the Savior indicated to find peace of mind. Look, according to His direction you will surely find, because the Lord is faithful in all His words. Walk in Him and do not have to walk in darkness. Do not labor in vain in seeking for yourself consolation and peace and salvation other than humility. Everything will only cause you grief, anxiety and destruction if you do not take up the humility of Christ. Without it, the wolves will tear you to pieces. Equally, I cannot escape from them unless I consider myself the most sinful and the last of all (Venerable Moses).

Saint John of the Climacus says that thoughts that are not revealed to the spiritual father come into action (v. 26, section 21) and that, on the contrary, opened ulcers do not extend to the worst, but rather are healed. From our own experience we see that man is extremely weak and powerless in spiritual struggle without the help of God. In this fight,<как>says the Monk Mark the Ascetic, we have one helper, mysterious, hidden in us from the time of baptism - Christ, Who is invincible. He will assist us in this struggle if we not only call on Him for help, but fulfill, according to our strength, His life-giving commandments. Throw yourself into the arms of His great mercy. Also, constantly resort to our Intercessor, the Lady Ever-Virgin Mary, often singing the church song: there are no other imams of help, no other imams of hope, do You, Lady, help us, we hope in You and we boast in You, for we are Your servants, let us not be ashamed ( Rev. Ambrose).

Despise the intimidation of the enemy, as if he is able to bring you into such a misfortune that you seem to reject the Crucified Lord. All these weavings of hostility, even if allowed to him, could end in some absurd opinions and unfair rumors from a person. But remember the psalm word in advance: “be prepared and not be troubled...” (Ps. 119:60) (Venerable Ambrose).

You write that at times you become very weak, to the point of cowardice, and sometimes even to despair. Know that there are two main machinations of the enemy: to fight a Christian either with arrogance and conceit, or with cowardice and despair. Saint Ladder writes that one skilled ascetic repelled the goats of the enemy with their own weapons. When they brought him to despair, he said to himself and to his enemies: “how not so long ago you praised me and brought me into arrogance,” and through this he reflected the evil intent of the enemy. If the enemies again switched to the other side and began to praise and give reasons for arrogance and conceit, then the elder would answer: “Why, not so long ago you brought me to despair; after all, one thing contradicts the other.” And thus this ascetic, with the help of God, repelled the machinations of the enemy with their own weapons, using one against the other at the right time. Also, sometimes you have the thought of retaliating courageously against your enemies, and you ask, is this fair? The opposite of this, cowardice, shows that it is unfair. It is not our measure to rebel against evil enemies, but rather, most likely, with humility, always resort to the help and intercession of the divine, calling on the Lord Himself and His Most Pure Mother for help, as the holy Climacus advises: in the name of Jesus, repel the warriors (St. Ambrose).

Do not do it...<в>to do anything to fulfill the will of your spiritual enemies, who confuse you with all sorts of suggestions and assumptions, which you trust on the basis that it seems to you. All the mental warfare or confusion that plagues you comes from this trust in enemy suggestions, to which you attribute some meaning or credibility, or which you want to catch, instead of despising them, calling on God’s help against them. The main reason for your mental warfare is your great arrogance, which is visible in everything (Venerable Ambrose).

Those who accept evil suggestions, mixing their will with them, are robbed by mental robbers; the suggestions of these mental thieves are always disordered and inconsistent with the case, according to the word of the Gospel: “Whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in elsewhere, is a thief and a robber... A thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy” (John 10: 1, 10). Saint Abba Dorotheos, explaining the machinations of the devil, writes: he is not so much unskilled in doing evil and knows that a person does not want to sin, and therefore does not instill in him any obvious sins and does not tell him: go commit fornication or go steal, but he finds In us there is only one imaginary wish or one self-justification, and thus, under the guise of good, it does harm. So, with plausible suggestions, he removed N. from the monastery and confuses you in the same way, and generally confuses you with the wishes of his will (Venerable 4 Ambrose).

You write that sometimes you are occupied with the thought of how Dennitsa turned from a luminous angel into Satan. You yourself know that from pride. But remember that you must now hold on to prayer more tightly and not get carried away by any thoughts or reasoning, even if they happen on the other side, even if apparently on the gums. Prayer with humility is an invincible weapon against the enemy, but you cannot defeat him with reasoning (Venerable Ambrose).

You write that your spiritual enemies have raised such a battle against you that they are preventing you from usually performing your inner prayer, making noise and hum around you, as if a whole round dance is dancing, which is why you ask me, poor-minded, what you should do and how to act in in that case? We must imitate the saints of God, as they acted in similar cases. We read in the life of Arseny the Great that he sometimes, rising from inner prayer, publicly prayed with raised hands: “Lord my God! Do not forsake me, for I have done nothing better before You, but help me and make me worthy to make a beginning!” This short prayer of the saint of God expresses, firstly, great humility, self-reproach, and self-abasement. Secondly, it is shown that the saint of God did not pray like that without a reason, but apparently he was fighting for a strict life with thoughts of exaltation from mental enemies who do not leave anyone alone, but fight everyone with whatever they can. Especially for us who are weak, we need to keep an eye on the thoughts of exaltation, which are the most harmful for us in spiritual warfare, as St. Mark the Ascetic explains: “If we had been diligent about humility, we would not have demanded punishment: for everything is evil and cruel, what happens to us, for our exaltation, happens. If the apostle did not become arrogant, the angel Satan was quickly allowed to play dirty tricks on him; if we are exalted, Satan himself will be allowed to trample on us, until we humble ourselves.”... According to these testimonies of the saints of God, recognizing our humility, or the lack of it, or noticing theft by exaltation, sincerely and with humility, let us repeat before the Lord the aforementioned prayer of Blessed Arseny , rebelling against it when we are disturbed by our mental enemies annoying us. If, however, this prayer does not calm us down at all, then let us imitate Blessed Arseny in another action. He sometimes seated his disciples near him, complaining about the abuse of the enemy. You can sometimes place Sister P. near you, if necessary. Let him sit next to you in prayer or standing and read some of the Gospel (Venerable Ambrose).

Are there, or are there not, any hidden infirmities in your soul, for the sake of which your enemies are still strengthening themselves and boring you to the point of exhaustion? If you cannot find anything like that, then still pray with humility to God with the psalm words: “Who understands the Fall? Cleanse me from my secrets, and spare me from strangers” to Thy servant (Ps. 18:13). All the holy fathers have a unanimous answer and advice in such cases: in every temptation, victory is humility, self-reproach and patience, of course, while asking for help from above. Pray for this to the Queen of Heaven and to all the saints of God in whom you have special faith, so that they will help you get rid of demonic delusion. First of all, consider your spiritual disposition, whether you are peaceful with everyone, whether you condemn anyone (Venerable Ambrose).

It is not commendable that you are overcome by thoughts and fall, but it is even worse that you despair. We are in a struggle, we fall and rise, and we are more courageous in battle, but there is no need to despair, but to humble ourselves and repent, although it is shameful, we must. Know why battle and victory are stronger: from opinions about oneself, from condemnation of others, from excess food and bodily rest, and also from concealment<сокрытия помыслов>from mother<духовной>... (Venerable Macarius).

Isn’t it arrogance that, having received some temporary calm from the battle, you believed that this was keeping your mind. Saint John of the Climacus says: “How far are the east from the west, so far is keeping the mind higher than keeping thoughts, and incomparably more difficult.” But you and I don’t even know how to preserve our thoughts as we should; then where will our mental preservation come from? Your calmness was not the preservation of your mind, but an obvious planting of the enemy (Venerable Ambrose).

Spiritual life

You want to make a start towards improving your life, but you don’t know how. And it seems that you and I have talked a lot about this, how one should wage spiritual warfare with the passions, and this should not be done in words, but in reality. Our passions do not give us rest, but some case will reveal them to us, then the disorder lying inside us confuses us, and when in any case you resist, do not do it out of passion, then they will become exhausted. When you are defeated, then look at yourself, reproach and humble yourself, consider yourself worse than everyone else, as if overcome by passions, do not blame any of the people, but blame yourself, and you will receive God’s help (St. Macarius).

It seems to you that you do not rely on yourself and that you recognize yourself as insignificant and so on, but, however, we advise you not to believe this, since we do not believe you until you learn this from experience, having entered the field of spiritual life; Perhaps you will meet people whose life seems to you inconsistent with your intentions, then you should not be tempted by this; Although you are running like a greyhound, you have not yet known your weaknesses, have not yet met the various kindled arrows of the evil one and have not had the opportunity to resist them and tempt your strength, have not yet endured the reproaches, annoyances, insults and reproaches that must certainly meet you, to the test and your test, about this you, it seems, should learn from the books of the holy fathers theoretically... We write this to you, not frightening you, but preparing you and warning you against arrogance (St. Macarius).

Do not think that you can quickly learn the spiritual life; she is the art of art; Not only theory, but also practice is needed, and with this there is a lot of stumbling and rebellion. You write that you were heartbroken by my reproof, “so much so that it went to your head.” This should show you your weak dispensation, which will be corrected by self-reproach and humility. If I only pat you on the head, then what good will it do you? (Venerable Macarius).

You and I are assigned a different type of service, but not civil, but military-spiritual. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). The Holy Apostle Paul advises Timothy: “Suffer evil, for Jesus Christ is a good soldier” (2 Tim. 2:3). Here suffering is also necessary: ​​this war is fierce - it is not the body that fights, but the soul, not with a visible person, but with invisible spirits... And with all this there must be great humility, for we fight with proud spirits, then to defeat the proud They are worth nothing, but they cannot resist the humble for an hour. Humility crushes all the snares and machinations of the enemy (St. Macarius).

In the interim there were times that were bitter, difficult and languid... you cannot do without it. In a sensual war, many are wounded and suffer illnesses, since even more so in this spiritual warfare many wounds are acceptable from the spirits of malice, and even more so when we rely on our strength and reason, then we are overcome, until we humble ourselves, having recognized our weakness... (Venerable Macarius ).

Those who want to be saved inevitably face spiritual warfare with the enemies of our souls, who fight and defeat us through our own passions, which I see in your dispensation, which you described. The envy and hatred that torment you are not newly born passions, but secretly hidden passions in your heart, and occasionally irritated and exposed (Venerable Macarius).

In battles, resist with humility, as it is written and shown to us from our father, and if you happen to fall, rise again and know that you will be tempted by them for your pride. Run to self-reproach and humility, and not from your cell. Dondezhe the monk will not be erased by various temptations and sorrows, he cannot recognize his weakness and humble himself (St. Macarius).

You write that you see your passions and mental weaknesses, which you have never seen before, and you cannot free yourself from them and leave them behind. Those who begin to go through spiritual life, then usually spiritual warfare rises up against them more strongly, and if we cannot suddenly become winners, then we should not be despondent and grieve about this, but, seeing our weaknesses, humble ourselves and bring repentance to the Lord. It is dangerous if you see your corrections or virtues, then it is a clear sign of delusion and a falling away from God. A sinner with repentance is more acceptable before Him than a righteous man with pride (St. Macarius).

As I see in you rapid changes from spiritual to carnal life, I will write something against this. You had a desire for spiritual life, but it was imaginary and vain, and therefore you took away the bitter fruits of delusion, deceived by an imaginary holy life and false, under the guise of spiritual, consolations. When the cover of delusion was removed from you and I realized what a disastrous position you were in, then a battle arose against you, with which the enemy had not bothered you in the least before, and you relied on it for your imaginary holiness, strove for both the mantle and to the shutter, and everything was vain, in order to see our imaginary holiness, but there was not even a trace of humility, without which all our good deeds are displeasing to God. In the battle that has now risen against you and is driving you into the world, do not be discouraged, but having realized that this was allowed to you for exaltation - and your current thoughts are completely opposite to the first - humble yourself, repent of your previous unreasonable and untimely jealousy, consider yourself the last of all, ask for help from God and the Most Pure Mother of God, then you will receive relief from the battle and you will know that with our own strength we cannot do anything good (Venerable Macarius).

A Christian who leads his life according to God’s commandments must be tested by various temptations: 1) because the enemy, envying our salvation, tries with all sorts of intrigues to hinder us from fulfilling the will of God, and 2) because it cannot be firm and truthful - to virtue, when it is not tested by an obstacle contrary to it and remains unshakable. Why is there always spiritual warfare in our lives? We have many passions hidden within us and cannot recognize them until one of them opens up to action. When we see ourselves defeated in something, unable to resist the scorching arrows of the enemy, then we recognize our weakness, humble ourselves and do not rely on our strength ahead, but resort to the help of the Almighty God, and our very humility protects us and attracts Him help. When we go through life in a visible and pious manner, without any vices, neither visible nor mental, and although we say and think that we are sinners, we are mistaken, and, comforted by our imaginary virtue, we are deceived and blinded by our minds, and, forgetting ourselves, we dare to judge others who are overcome by passions. For this reason, the Lord allows us to experience the ferocity of passions and to be overcome, so that we humble ourselves and truly consider ourselves sinners, having a contrite and humble heart. Someone who performs virtues and even feels some spiritual consolations, but if he does not have temptations, then the door to pride is opened for him, which alone, besides all vices, leads to spiritual destruction (St. Macarius).

Spiritual life consists not only in enjoying peace and consolation, but also in bearing the spiritual cross, that is, the withdrawal of consolation, complacently... (Venerable Macarius).

When receiving spiritual consolations, thank God and do not grieve when, when they are taken away, darkness covers your soul; The grace of God preserves the measure, so that they are not exalted in acquiring consolation, and sends tenderness and change, and not that they are abandoned completely. Be complacent, accept this for consolation, and this for humility (Venerable Macarius).

You write that good wishes are not always fulfilled. Know that the Lord does not fulfill all our good desires, but only those that serve our spiritual benefit. If we, when raising children, consider what teaching is appropriate for what age; Moreover, the Lord, the Knower of the Heart, knows what and at what time is useful to us. There is a spiritual age, which is not calculated by age, and not by beards, and not by wrinkles, and just as sometimes 15-year-olds study science together with 8-year-old children, so during spiritual training this happens even more often (Venerable Ambrose).

It is impossible to always be in the same dispensation, but one must expect warfare, either external or internal; just do not give guilt through arrogance and vanity, but humbly acquire wisdom, then the arrows of the enemy will be crushed (Venerable Macarius).

Spiritual... life consists not only in tasting its inner sweets and consolations, but moreover in complacently enduring their deprivation and other sorrows. From all of these our love for God is known when we carry them complacently; recognizing our weakness and poverty, we humble ourselves from it. Remember your first dispensation, when you enjoyed spiritual consolations; What did you gain from this? After being deprived of them, there was only emptiness, and you almost fell into despair when after them waves of passions rose up against you. You see how fragile this consolation is, which does not bring humility, but only deceives, and without experiencing the sorrowful, it puts those who have it in danger. On the contrary, the cross makes us partakers of Christ’s passion and glory, but only when it pleases Him to bestow it, and it will be useful to us (St. Macarius).

In spiritual life this always happens: either consolation precedes sorrow, or sorrow precedes it. These changes give rise to hope and humility. Only there are different sorrows, both worldly and spiritual, but it’s too early for you to know about this, but accept what God sends with gratitude and indifference, do not be exalted in consoling feelings, and do not lose heart in sorrowful ones... ( Rev. Macarius).

It is dangerous for you to enter into spirituality ahead of time, that is, to talk about high things of spiritual speculation and so on, but you need to see your sins and try to overcome and eradicate passions, this is the goal of our intention, for after cleansing from passions it will reveal itself spiritual feeling, and the love of God is expressed in the fulfillment of God’s commandments: “he who loves Me will keep My commandments” (Cf.: John 14:21) - about this you must have an interview and, as it were, humble yourself, but without it everything is gloomy and dark. For God’s sake, I pray you, humble yourself in everything and have peace among yourself, then the grace of God will cover you from everything that opposes you (St. Macarius).

You say that now you don’t have the ardor that you used to have. You had ardor, but it was vain, and that’s why it cooled down. What you did then without compulsion and with ease, and now with compulsion and with difficulty, and in this you see your weakness and involuntarily humble yourself, then this is much more pleasing to God, although you do not see it. This is how our salvation is accomplished; We cannot even understand, not by the exploits and high virtues on which we think to place our hope, but by a contrite and humble heart and the consciousness of our poverty. When we arrange ourselves this way, then our virtues will be firm, strengthened by humility. Did you have zeal for exploits, for prayers, for fasting, and so on, but you didn’t think about it, that the darkness of passions was closing your heart from the Sun of Truth? It is necessary to have a struggle with passions: pride, love of glory, for from them many passions rise up against us (St. Macarius).

Spiritual life does not consist in seeing one’s corrections, but in seeing one’s sins; the former leads to pride, and the latter to humility, from which even the virtues become firm, and we do not elevate our minds about them. The enemy fights us in different ways: if he cannot draw us into vices, then he instills the idea of ​​his corrections and thereby darkens our mind and leads us away from God. Our first path is the rejection of our will and reason and disbelief in ourselves... (Venerable Macarius).

As you went through the feat of your life, you had more in mind and in action external work: fasting, rules of prayer, etc., but perhaps you paid little attention to internal work. And therefore, I believe, you do not have peace within yourself... From your external exploits you had hope and were deluded into being more trustworthy, but you were deprived of peace of mind, lacking humility (St. Macarius).

Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem can one worship the Father. “The true worshiper will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). This is how our worship should be! Let us strive towards this with our minds and hearts, and believe - we will find mercy and eternal life, we are spiritual people, therefore we must endure in spirit - and this is true Christian unity, which will not be separated forever in Christ Jesus our Lord... (Rev. Anatoly ).

N.! Don’t be like a bothersome fly, which sometimes flies around uselessly, and sometimes bites and annoys both of them, but be like a wise bee, which diligently began its work in the spring and by autumn has finished the honeycomb, which is as good as it should be. stated notes. One is sweet, and the other is pleasant... (Rev. Ambrose).

Likened<твоя жизнь>a rather deep ditch, which in rainy times fills up so much that there is no crossing, but at other times it dries up so much that no water flows through it. The Holy Fathers boast of a life that flows like a small stream, constantly flowing and never drying up. This stream is convenient: firstly, for crossing, and secondly, it is pleasant and useful to everyone passing, because its water is suitable for drinking, since it flows quietly, and therefore is never muddy. You have always had a noticeable desire only to fulfill the prayer rule, and to fulfill the commandments of God, called small by the Lord, you lacked the desire, zeal, compulsion, and attention, and the first without the second is never strong (Rev. Ambrose).

You write off how unpleasant the train ride was for you and how you managed to get rid of annoying conversations. And the word of the Apostle came true: “If anyone among you thinks to be wise in this age, let him be foolish in order to be wise” (Cf. 1 Cor. 3:18). It bothers you that you had to turn to this remedy in the Church of St. Sergius. But the Lord does not look at our external actions, but at our intentions, why we act one way or another, and if the intention is good, according to God, then we can be at peace. Therefore, others should not be judged in any case: we see only external actions, and the innermost motives and intentions by which these actions will be judged are known to the One Knower of the Heart, God (St. Ambrose).

In every sojourn, try to remain pleasingly, that is, in a peaceful and humble spirit, do not judge anyone and do not annoy anyone, trying so that our word, according to the apostolic commandment, is dissolved with spiritual salt (St. Ambrose).

You are now in the middle, between the world and monasticism. But the average measure is approved everywhere and in everything, and for you, due to your upbringing and poor health, it is in many ways decent; just try to live according to the Gospel commandments of the Lord and, first of all, not judge anyone about anything, so that you yourself may be unjudged (Venerable Ambrose).

And that you are not what you should be is not a wonder: you came to learn spiritual life. After all, I probably didn’t understand the simple alphabet right away, but this science is high. You won't learn it right away. And the great saints of God - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Tikhon of Zadonsk and many, many fathers - they all did not immediately shine. Learn. Be patient and wait for God’s mercy (Venerable Anatoly).

Swearing- confrontation, argument, verbal war, competition, advocacy, opposition between two opponents, each of whom is trying to throw his opponent. The winner was the one who could keep his opponent pinned to the floor, keeping his hand on his neck. The word abuse comes from the word BALLO, which literally means: “Give up something without regret if it breaks.” Ps.17:35 You need to learn spiritual warfare! Spiritual warfare is an intense confrontation face to face with one's opponent. Spiritual warfare is a spiritual conflict that has reached its climax. (Boiling point). Spiritual warfare is the final part of the confrontation in battle.

Spiritual warfare can last in different ways, a few minutes or several days. Spiritual warfare is a time of extreme attention and sobriety. When you enter into battle, then every mistake you make, every relaxation will end in your fall. During spiritual warfare you will need every piece of the armor of God - be strong in it.
You need to be strong in every piece of God's armor.

Being strong in this means:

• Have knowledge regarding this

• Practice this constantly

• Love it

  Each element of the weapon is a degree of confidence and conviction!

  Spiritual warfare is only as effective as it is conducted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You have as much power in this as you are led by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual warfare begins with preparation, and the camp will interfere and attack you in every possible way to keep you from preparation.

  The winner is determined outside the ring.

  In the ring, opponents show how they have prepared outside the ring physically and mentally. The better prepared you are for battle, the easier it will be for you in battle. Preparing for a fight takes much longer than the fight itself.

  Eph.6:18 Prayer is the means by which we wage spiritual warfare.

  Confirm your status! (position).

• Go through the consecration. Repentance is part of spiritual warfare.

• Stock up on promises.

• Be in the right position in relation to power.

• Identify the enemy and get to know him as best you can. Sometimes knowledge itself brings liberation and victory.

• Pray in tongues. Develop your spirit and focus.

• When you need to fight, fight! But don't get involved in battles that aren't yours.

• Use praise.

• Use the promises.

• Fight with vision. (1 Tim. 1:18).

• Claim the victory of Christ.

• Fight until a breakthrough and develop a breakthrough.

• Don't be afraid of your enemy. The Bible nowhere teaches us to fear the devil, instead, over 300 times God tells us in the Bible: Do not be afraid

• Be especially careful in your weak points - most likely Satan will strike there again.

  The incentive for spiritual warfare is placed in us by God. because He is a Warrior, and we are His image and likeness.

  In any case, if you don’t fight the devil in your problem, you will fight with people.

Warrior Spirit

In the bloody ring of Calvary, Jesus knocked out the devil. And the knockout was so severe that the devil still cannot recover from it. The devil fell at the feet of Jesus. Today the devil is reeling from this knockout and when we attack him in the Name of Jesus, he falls!

• Exodus 15:3 Our Lord is a man of war!

• Ps.23:8 Our Lord is strong in battle!

• Isa.42:13 There will definitely be spiritual warfare before awakening! Before the glory of God comes, the children of God become active. Our Lord is mighty in battle, i.e. He knows what close combat is. He defeated Satan in the ring of Calvary - face to face, in front of the entire spiritual world.

  Eph.6:10-13 We just need to realize that there is a fierce war going on around us, and we better be strong warriors if we want to survive this battle.

  The spirit of a warrior is the spirit of unbending faith! Which goes against all circumstances and boldly faces its enemy, danger or problems. The spirit of a warrior is the spirit of extreme courage and daring. The spirit of a warrior is the spirit of persistence! The warrior spirit is the spirit of overcoming hardships, discomfort and difficulties. A warrior is, first of all, a dedicated person who does not have his own personal life, who has subordinated his life to the Military Leader. 2 Timothy 2:3-4 David had a strong kingdom - but one of its main components was a strong team of WARRIORS 1 Chronicles 10:9-24. A warrior is a person for whom war is a profession, a way of life. An amateur warrior sounds funny. The spirit of a warrior will lift you up even after the most brutal knockouts and defeats. 2 Cor.6:3-10 Warrior spirit! The warrior spirit is the courage to stand even when the pain is severe. The warrior spirit is the willingness to sacrifice.

  If you don't have something you're willing to die for “You don’t have anything worth living for.”

  The Bible envisions us all as warriors, giving us the full armor of God. Without war there is no victory, but warriors fight.

  Christians without military spirit: They cry, complain, murmur, criticize, run away, and are captured by problems.Without a warrior's spirit, Gideon was a coward, but God's warrior's Spirit made him the greatest deliverer in the history of Israel.To the same extent, a warrior is a man of the team, but also an individual capable of initiative and feat. Despite all the talent of the commander, the battle is won by ordinary soldiers, so each soldier must be of high quality. JESUS ​​NEEDS US. A warrior is a man of principle - he would rather die than retreat from it. This is his strength, but sometimes his great danger. Often strong warriors become overwhelmed by rationality, and this leads to many losses that could have been avoided. Sometimes it is necessary to retreat strategically and there will be wisdom in this, but without a warrior’s spirit it is generally impossible to win.

  Goliath killed the spirit of the warrior in the army of Israel and achieved victory without “a single shot.” David had a strong fighting spirit 1 Samuel 16:18 + 17:32.

  IN Number 13-14 ch. Satan defeated the military spirit of Israel, and they retreated for 40 years.

  Often when you experience a spiritual uplift, Satan immediately becomes active in your life. But know that if the devil is aggressive, it means he is nervous.

  Warrior Motto: I will win - or I will die in battle, I will achieve my goal or die trying!

  Maybe you say: “I just want to live a peaceful Christian life,” but remember the saying of one commander: “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

Battle with giants

Numbers 13:32-34 Our war is with giants, giants. 1 Samuel 6:17 Five cities, five giants, five stones of David! 2 Samuel 5:17-20 These giants attack as soon as you enter ministry or take a position of power. That’s why it’s so important to deal with them right away!

1. NITROGEN- the word Azoth means “city on a hill” (to be large, impregnable, oppression), it represents pride Proverbs 16:18. Azoth was intended for the tribe of Judah, but it could not take possession of it. — Submission and humility

2. GAZA– meaning of the word: fortified place, strong, frantic, greedy, rude. Gaza was the capital of the Philistines. Gaza also could not be conquered. Samson was held here, and here he destroyed the temple of Dagon.
Gaza is mentioned as the border to which the victories of the Israelite kings reached. This giant represents the government, power. What is your attitude towards authority, is it easy for you to submit to the authority that God has placed over you. In a negative sense, this giant represents the spirit of independence, disobedience to authority, and independence. We as people do not like to submit to other people, but this is exactly what the Lord asks of us! — Obedience and obedience– this is a breakthrough in the battle with this giant!
3. ASKALON- this city remained politically and economically independent from Israel. This giant represents comfort and liberalism, as well as greed. This is the fear of getting into trouble by engaging in spiritual warfare. This is indifference and concentration only on comfort in one’s life, family and church.
— Dedication and Faith– this is a breakthrough in the battle with this giant! 4. GEF— the word Geth means “wine press.” This is the homeland of Goliath (the strong). This giant represents the pressure of life’s circumstances that puts pressure on us - and here we either grumble and fall into the power of this giant (as in Numbers 13.), or by faith we break through the opposition, despite all the threats and fear! Many Christians live under the rule of this giant. All they have learned to do when difficulties come is to grumble, but they must learn to use difficulties to win! Every failure is a discovery of what you can do differently. Each difficulty is an opportunity to rise higher.
— Patience and hope
5. EKRON- meaning of the word: to clip the wings, to destroy; The root of the word is emigration. Beelzebub (Lord of the Flies) was worshiped here. This giant represents distraction, carelessness, fickleness, infidelity.
Ps.27:5 - this leads to the destruction of the lives of Christians. — Diligence and loyalty- this is a breakthrough in the battle with this giant!

Wounded soldier He is weak and prone to weaknesses

• 2. He is limited in movement

• 3. His reaction time drops.

• 4. He stops being awake

• 5. He is irritated and angry (hard to communicate with)

• 6. He's sad

• 7. He has no peace because of pain

• 8. He's especially vulnerable and an easy target.

• 9. He is not able to bear the burden of Christ, i.e. responsibility, authority and the anointing of the power of the Holy Spirit.

• 10. He becomes inattentive because... focused more on my pain. (inattentive to others as well).

  Satan's strategy is to weaken us by wounding us. If we have a wound, the devil will hit it again and again, not allowing this wound to heal.How we get injured:

• . SIN– the cause of almost 90% of injuries.

• Witchcraft. Accult attacks.

• Self-injury — Self-curses— Stupidity - Take on what you can’t take on.

• From people(words, behavior, attitude, etc.)

• From God (Life 32:25, 2 Cor. 12:7). This is for our humility and dependence on Him, but it is less than 1% of the wounds that we can receive.Wounds:

• They attract demons, they feed from these wounds, causing pain, and provoke infections - delusions, lies, slander.

• . The wound is like a hole through which force flows out.

• . The wound is an open door for demons, a place where the strongholds of the devil take root.

• . Wounds give demons strength; the larger the wound, the more they have the opportunity to act in this area. In general, the stronger you are, the weaker they are, and the weaker you are, the stronger they are.

• Wounds lead to slavery and make you a hostage.

• Wounds can be inherited, in which case they become a curse.

• . Wounds are meant to distract us from God's purpose.

• Wounds make you selfish with heightened self-esteem and resentment and moodiness.

• . Wounds deprive you of joy, enjoyment of life, they poison life, steal the world.

• . Wounds distort reality, and ordinary difficulties begin to seem larger than they really are, and cause many more negative emotions than usual. This is the act of lying. A wounded soldier easily gives in to the circumstances.

• Wounds tell you about the defeat of your faith and give rise to doubts, and this leads to hesitation and double-mindedness.

• A wounded person is a person who is constantly on the verge of a breakdown or fall. The wounded willy-nilly delays the progress of the healthy. That's why there are three ways to deal with the wounded:

• . Finish him off (75%)

• Tolerate him (help him to endure)

• 3. Cure him (help him win)

  On the night before the Exodus, God healed all the Israelites, Ps.104:37, this shows that in order to fulfill God's purpose you need to be healthy.Path to Healing:

  Healing Process:

• 1. Humility (admit)

• . God heals through His Word - Ps.106:20

• God heals through the consolation of the Holy Spirit.

• . God heals through your obedience (Neumann)Anyway, you need to believe God and trust Him!!! This is VICTORY!

Shaming the enemy

Col.2:15

Disgrace is a useless state, resignation, shame, disgrace, deprivation of dignity. 1 Samuel 17:45-51 David not only killed Goliath, he also put him to shame.

Many believers do not fight spiritual battles at all. Many of those who do fight do so solely for the sake of their survival. Therefore, while everything is in order in their lives - they sit calmly in their shell, but when Satan attacks them, they wake up and try to fight back.

The truth is that we do not fight for ourselves. We do not fight for personal survival. This is not what God called us to do. Yes, we need to resist - but for WHAT?

WE STAND AND FIGHT – AND WE MUST FIGHT, TO CONTINUE STANDING (STANDING)

The reason you stand is to fight and you fight to keep standing. Our goal is to free the captives of Satan.
God gave us all the armor, and then he tells us to pray for others (for the saints and for all people). The church suffers for lack of prayer. The church is not FOLLOWING as it should.
Mickey Mouse's prayers do not frighten Satan or ruin his plans. The Church is not fighting as it should. Many strongholds will not fall until the Church FIGHTS them effectively.

The Kingdom of God is taken by force, and those who use force take it. Satan will always oppose the spread of God's Kingdom across the earth. That's why God gave us weapons so that we MAKE him get away from our land - be it: family, city, your body.

Faith is not just a desire for good. It is not enough to just want something badly, you need to pray for it.

How the enemy is put to shame when you not only win yourself, but also help others win. When you demonstrate the holiness of God. God rebuked Moses and Aaron for not demonstrating His holiness to rebellious Israel.
Today God expects us to demonstrate His holiness not only before people, but especially before demonic principalities and powers. Eph.3:10. When the holiness of God is demonstrated before them, they lose their power, are weakened and come out exhausted, the spiritual atmosphere changes.

Therefore, do not start battles that God does not lead you into!

Place guards at the gates

The battle begins and ends in the mind It is in the mind that the outcome and process of physical events is determined!

We must watch at the gates of our lives. Who enters and who exits through them.

THESE GATES ARE THREE: 1. Eyes 2. Ears 3. Mouth

This gate leads to and from the heart.

EYES. The way you look at everything is determined by the state of your heart. The eyes are two-way gates. It seems that the eyes are only the entrance, BUT they are also the exit! The way you look at something can destroy the works of the devil and build up the works of God, for in this case the Light of God pours out of your eyes, destroying the darkness. When you look at something with knowledge from God.

EARS. What matters is what you listen to or who you listen to about a given situation. For example: when you listen to God about your city, you... You sanctify your city through the knowledge (light) of the truth about the city. God gets a place in the city. The same with the devil. (About health, about finances, about family, about the future, etc.).

Whoever you listen to is the one who has power over you, a place in you.

This is why Satan uses FEAR to afflict believers. Fear binds, robs, humiliates, oppresses, kills. God gave us the command: “DO NOT FEAR!” This is a COMMAND, not a wish, so when you are afraid, you sin by disobeying God's command, and Satan gains a place in your life.

MOUTH. The mouth is also an entrance and an exit. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. The entire spiritual world is waiting for our words because... spiritual warfare is verbal warfare. Words play a primary role in spiritual warfare because... we are the image and likeness of God. It is necessary to watch your words even in prayer - do not say too much. Satan always pushes us to say too much, so that he can then kill us with our own words.